Break These IN

Well I'm most grateful for new shoes, as I'm going to pick up two new pairs this afternoon so I'm excited about that and I'll be able to endure this winter :) I'm most blessed to have people and parents that support me :)

As for this past week, things have been going pretty well. We have another baptism, well two that is, scheduled for this coming Sunday so this will be really exciting, and I'll get to share more photos with you guys :). This transfer has gone by quite quickly, I'm surprised that we only have two weeks left before the end of the transfer. So we've been hinted on what will be happening for Christmas. Going with the regular transfer routine, the transfer day would have fallen on Christmas, but to prevent a lot of unhappy missionaries and the fact that transportation and trains are shut down during Christmas, President Jordan has moved the transfer day to the 27th of December. So where ever I am next transfer, is where I will be spending Christmas. So It's quite likely that I'll be here in Wembley, but there is not always guarantees. So I might be sniffing out a place that we can skype for Christmas here in the next few weeks. I'm just surprised how fast the time has gone. By Christmas time Mark will have left on his mission, and Kyle Magelby will be home. Thats just craziness.

As for how I'm doing at the moment, everything is just fine. With my order being filled I really don't have any complaints... except for our rock hard mattresses on our beds. My companion will testify to how bad these beds are, and they are brand new is what is really funny. Its like sleeping on a stone altar, they are just so dang firm. But, I guess I'll trade that for a dryer for my clothes :)

So I'm going to enjoy the week here, hopefully the weather won't get to bad. oh, I forgot to mention the mini hurricane we had this morning. Nearly blew down our fence in the back yard plus all the trees. We had gale force winds this morning just tearing up the place. I felt like I was in Hurricane Katrina or something. Just nice that we were inside and not outside :) Besides that I haven't had any natural disasters here.

Well I'm glad to see that everyone is doing ok back home. Dad, just don't crash all these planes you have. I swear you have a new one every week that you write me :) I hope everyone is enjoying the school season, well I believe mom probably is. Don't worry, I'm getting my studies done as well, I got a new Qu'ran from the friendly Muslims that are always out on Saturdays and we talk with them and learn about what they believe. Quite interesting, but false. Anyway, I hope you guys have a great week.

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

Rainy Wet Shoes

Well this week has been one of the more blustery weeks here in England. For say it is not warm anymore. I kinda want the sun back that was out in July and August here... I think I appreciate it alot more now than then because I was getting sunburned back in July.

Well we are planning on having 2 more baptisms by November 3rd. I'm quite stoked about that because of the lack of baptisms I've had in my mission is general so this is a good thing for me. The problem my companion and I have been running into is that we don't have anyone to teach... funny enough that the only people we are teaching are getting baptized... so then we don't have anyone to teach again. Catch 22 there I guess. I don't think I used that reference quite right... but whatever. I'm just happy we have something going on. We done over 30 hours of pure knocking on doors this week... so I can imagine how much money I could have made getting paid minimum wage...

I'm still doing well with running every morning. I think my double chin is getting smaller finally, but think the better changes are going to come this winter if we keep it up. I'm just running into a slight problem here down the road which I'll talk to you more about... when it gets cold in the morning and I don't have appropriate clothing. Anyway I'll complain about that somewhere and sometime else. As for now I might be able to keep up with my lacrosse team back when I was in high school... well I should have ran more then :P Silly me.

I wish I had more to inform you on as of this coming week. I think we have zone conference this Friday, so it'll be good to talk to President again. I hope Mark is feeling preped for his mission. I just spoke with a kid here that is leaving on his mission in about a month and we gave him so handy ideas to help him prepare. I think I'll repeat a few things we told him so that mark can use them.

First, Mark this is for you brosideon

take a look at Preach my Gospel Chapter 3 Lessons 1-3. You'll pretty much need to memorize those because that is literally everything that we teach.

Then just have a breeze through Chapter 10 which is about teaching skills that you will need. Ask Darin Hillyard if he will help you because that is what he did for me. great guy.

If Mom has Jesus the Christ laying around the house, I challenge you to read it before you go on your mission. It is like the best book I have ever read. So thick, but just of pure awesomeness. I promise you'll learn some good things from it. If you finish before your mission, I might get you something cool here in London :) Just a little positive kick to make you want to do it. The thing about Talmage, the author, is that he has some big vocabulary so you'll learn a few things from him and about your saviour.

Well I hope you guys have a great week, looks like things are starting to cool off over there. Just remember when it starts to get warm again is when you get to come and get me from that airport :)

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

Fitness First

Well as the subject of the email suggests, I have been getting very fit as of lately. I'm proud to say that I have managed to go running in the morning for almost 2 weeks straight. I think that is the longest I have every pulled this off, and with any luck I should be able to keep going. I might actually be able to keep up with my younger sisters now... probably not... but I'm trying none the less. The only thing I'm afraid of is the fact that its starting to get alot colder around here... the fall has moved in and the temperature is dropping rapidly. So I'm not to excited about that. I'll just have to suit up in the morning and face the cold weather, probably will help me lose more weight as well. That is what I'm excited for :)

Well our week has been quite good. As I think I said last week, this area is pretty much brand new so we don't have a lot of new investigators but we did have a BAPTISM! Yes! My first one since January! So I'm sending you all the photos of that. I'll give a little background detail.

Shana is from England, but her mother is from Jamica. She's 18 years old and has a good christian upbringing as her mother has always taken her family to the Church of England. How the Elder's managed to find her, its considered a miracle. She been easily the most golden investigator I've ever met, plus her sister and mother should be getting baptized in the next few weeks here,so I'll have even more photos for you :)

That has defintely been my favorite thing about this area. I just show up and get a fresh baptism handed to me. It was an Act of God. Write that one in the scriptures. So I'm feeling pretty good about this area so far. We do spend a lot of time knocking doors and trying to find new investigators because we are going to be baptizing all the ones that we do have :) That's pretty funny compared to my last few areas... cough cough. Well I'm just happy to be here for the moment.

I'm glad that you guys had a good time at the cabin. Looks like nothing has changed since I've left. Fun stuff. Just everyone in our family is just getting older and older... man... I wonder how I look now? I'm growing a beard way to fast... I almost have to shave everyday like a regular man but none the less it still bring loads of acne... such a pain. I think when I get home I'm just gonna be the guy that has the beard in the ward... except mom will kill me so I probably won't. Just the sideburns then ;)

I'm getting along just fine with my good companion here. I do enjoy having someone who understands what it is like to be from the most Mormon populated state on the planet. So at least we understand each other and work well together. Other than that I don't have anything to complain about. I am excited for Christmas and talking to you guys again... but that is still in like 3 months so I really shouldn't focus on something like that but it is a nice thought none the less. Yeah, I think that pretty much covers my week. If I left anything out I'm sorry... Oh wait.. we got yelled at by some excommunicated member here that we met in town center. I won't lie the stuff he was saying was total BS but we had a good laugh about it afterwards. Trying to remember if anything else happened.... nothing is coming to mind at the moment. If I remember I might include it next week.

Anyway have a great week guys,

Elder Bradley Smith

What is Wembly?

Harrow, Greater London

As the subject suggests, I'm still trying to figure out my new area mostly because I don't know anyone or anywhere. Makes it kind of difficult to give your companion suggestions on what to do during the day or who to visit when you are completely clueless about who is in the ward :P Well I guess that is just my new life here. Well all be honest mother, I haven't taken a single photo yet because we have been so darn busy. I really should just snap a few shots here and there... so I promise to do better for next week because of my laziness... or working to hard... not sure which one is the cause of the problem here... 

That should get any letter that you have right to my doorstep :) So we share the area of Wembley with 2 other sets of missionaries, so it is the most shared area that I have ever worked in... yet there is still a huge section of area to cover. No surprise that President put multiple sets of missionaries here. So technically I'm not even in Wembley. I'm in the northern part of our area, if you look on Google Maps, which is called Harrow on the Hill. I'm not positive, but I do believe this is the more "posh" side of our area. Actually what I figured out the other day, the complete northern side of my area which is called Edgware and Stanton are completely populated by Jews. Like Jewish people everywhere. I have never seen so many yamica's in my entire life, well if you don't know what I'm referring to it's there little hat that they wear on there head. So it has been an interesting experience because the Jewish are not very friendly to Christian faiths in general, let alone ours. So half of our area is nullified because of the natural inhabitants... but what can you do.

I do enjoy our town center, its about the same as Romfords probably just a little less sketchy and there are less women with clothes off, well thats a shame... just kidding. We are actually having a Baptism this week! YES! My first one since January! About flipping time! I'm grateful to just come into an area and just get handed a baptism... which has pretty much been how all my baptisms in my mission have been, just walk in to an area and steal one! Well, that's fine by me :) I'm not arguing. She's a really cool half english, Jamaican girl named Shana. She is pretty much english because she has lived here her whole life so she's really not Jamaican, but I guess that is her heritage. She's 18, young, hip and ready to get in the font. So we are excited for her and probably the rest of her family will be coming along here in the next couple of weeks. So we are excited for that as well.

So its nice to just be handed miracles. All in good time :) Apparently how the orginal missionaries that met Shana and her family was a complete miracle... well that's what everyone here says about finding anyone to teach *symbol slap* (joke explained: its hard to find people to teach here lol). Apparently Shana's mother say the missionaries coming and didn't want to speak to them so when they knocked on the door, she didn't answer the first time. So the missionaries left, but Shana's mother (Anne which I will now refer to) got the impression that she had met them before. So Anne opened the door and yelled at them to come back. So we've been meeting with them ever since. Anne wants to get baptized but she works for her church, so she is ready to change her job to join the church she just wants to get a few things in order to be prepared to join the church, so we are not to worries about her not joining the church. So all things going really well here :) But now, as always, we need to find new people to teach so we'll keep our eyes open here.

Our flat is a bit bigger than Romford's, and alot nicer, but he size is not that much bigger. I guess its the way that the flat is arranged that makes the difference on how "Spacious" the flat looks. I'll have to send you pictures for you to really understand... but my Favorite thing about our flat is the fact that we have a DRYER! YES! I'm just so happy to have a regular machine to dry my clothes instead of a towel rack. We are one of the few flats in the mission that have a dryer, so we are so blessed :) Well there is always a downside to every flat as well. I'm not to concerned about the size of the flat now, really not a problem to me, just the fact that my mattress feels like a slap of concrete! Flipping just kills my back when I wake up in the morning! Easily the worst mattress I've had in my mission yet it is Brand NEW! That doesn't make any sense! Well... I guess that is the trade off for the dryer...

Well I didn't whitewash the area, but the area is only 1 transfer old. So I'm the third missionary to be in our area, so it is pretty darn close to being a brand new area so it kinda feels like whitewashing still but that's really not a problem for me. We'll get working hard so that time will pass by quickly. Oh by the way, at interviews with President we talked about a few things that are going to happen next year. Many missionaries, including me, are in need of coming back in time for school so I from what I know is that President is going to have a us all go home in the July Transfer. So that is going to be like the 28th of July. Just so you guys are aware so I don't show up at the airport and no one is there to pick me up kind of thing... Well of course I'm going to talk to you guys at Christmas so that's not going to be to much of a problem :) Well I think that is about everything. I'm getting along well with Elder Butterfield. Smart Kid. Sterling Scholar in Math... so he makes me feel stupid.. just kidding :) He's a great kid, loves to work hard and has a great sense of humor. This will be fun. You'll get to meet all of my Utah companions because the only live an hour away :) Not to bad. Well he won't be home at least until a year after me... so he's got a while. Well anyway I'll catch you guys next week, and i'll get you better pictures I promise... even though my promises have like no value... just kidding :)

Love you guys,

elder Bradley Smith

To the Center of London!!!!AWAY!!!!

Well, I got the call last night and I'm leaving the valley of sin! Just kidding, I am leaving, but I am going to miss Romford. There are a lot of good people here that have helped me quite a bit, so its going to be sad to go.

I have been called to Wembley, an area in North London that is from what I've heard "all  black" so if I don't baptize there then I must be a terrible missionary :P (That's a joke just so you know).

I'm not exactly sure what is in Wembley or how big the area is, but I do know that it has a massive ward, so that is going to be nice from the 35 people I'm used to here at Romford, so that's going to be quite a change for me. Plus I get to use the Tube all the time now! That's going to be fun, plus all probably get to spend the next few months there so I'll probably even be there for Christmas, unless President only keeps me there for one transfer... which would really suck. So I'm excited to see how this next week is going to go.

My new companion is a 6 week missionary from Utah. I don't know if you guys know where Morgan is... because I didn't... but apparently he's from there, which I think is just beyond South Ogden. His name is Elder Butterfield. I don't know anything about him, so its going to be a complete surprise to me. He's probably 18 years old as well. I've met a few of the young missionaries that are only 18... it makes me feel really old for some reason even though I'm not that old :P

Well, I already packed last night. I'm getting pretty good at this stuff, so I  can just party all today :) Not worry about anything till tomorrow morning and just enjoy visiting my favorite members this even and playing football "soccer" this afternoon. So, it's going to be a good week. It's going to be refreshing. I'm follow up training again... which I'm not really mad with, but I'm annoyed that I haven't trained yet. I don't have a mission "son" yet. My mission "father" is already home and I still haven't had any of his Grandchildren :P Well that will have to wait till later I'm guessing.

This next week will probably fly by, so I'll do my best, keep my head up and I'll catch up to you guys and show you some cool pictures and all :) Ohhh... plus I'll be in central London, which means I get to see all the nice cars ALL the TIME!  YES! This is going to be epic! Well I'll catch you guys soon, I've got some sports to go enjoy :)

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

PS

You should Photoshop me into those family photos... that would be really funny :) Its really weird, Mark actually looks really good. Tell him to keep those button up shirts because they look really good. Actually while your at it, buy me a few good button up shirts, I've really come to like the style here in England so I'm gonna make sure I have some good Calvin Klein ones or Ralph Lauren ones because they are flippin good looking :)