Safe and Sound

Well its good to hear that everyone is alright and moving along as it should. Mom will be thrilled to hear that I will be calling home on Mother's day which happens to be right around the corner isn't it? What day is it exactly? Because English mother's day was at the end of March and ours is like the second week in May something like that. So I'll have to find a place to Skype and set everything up for that. Notice that this is the Final Phone call before you pick me up at the airport. So we'll have to talk about quite a few things I can imagine. If there is anything you want me to buy and bring home such as fancy hats or anything of the sort let me know now so I can arrange time to find such things and get them for you :)

Cool, as for me I doing pretty well. My mid mission depression seems to have gone away, probably because my new companion is working my butt off but I think that is a good thing in all honesty. I think with Elder Berenguer it was to easy to get away with pretty much anything because he didn't have much sense of discipline... so I'm glad to be working hard again :) Not that I wasn't working hard before though... So yeah, Elder Maynard and I are getting along great. I do enjoy Utahns because they understand the jokes I make. Seems more normal for me because I don't have to explain every joke I make to a Brazilian.

So I hope you enjoy the pictures. I'll work harder to take more photos. Random thing. I saw four Audi R8's and a lambo while waiting at one Bus stop. They just kept coming. I couldn't get my camera out fast enough for them... wasn't sure if it was a one and done kind of thing... but they just kept coming :P So I had to take pictures of the cars that were parked...

So it turns to May this week. What a blessing. To know that it isn't to long before I see the land of desert and temples again. I haven't been to the temple since the beginning of my mission and they don't let missionaries in my mission go to the temple. I think they want to spiritually starve us here or something. I've been doing quite a bit of traveling into London for all these conferences and stuff. I have to go in again this Wednesday for my companion to have a leadership conference. Great. Another day sitting on the train :P Well if I can go site seeing or something I wouldn't mind but I just end up sitting in a seat the entire day. Not much fun there.

Well I hope Mark is doing alright. Looks like having fun isn't hard when you have friends around. I heard people from my old Priest quorum are getting home. Mckay and Cameron apparently just got back is what Dixee Wilkerson told me in her email... soon its gonna be Jeff and Ryan and the next surprise you get is Me! Lol. Well you'll have to wait just a few more months for that. Anyway I hope you have a great week guys.

Love, 

Elder Bradley Smith

Elder Berenguer before Elder Maynard came.

Transfers

So I've made it back alive again from London today, sorry I had to use the mastercard for that because I'm literally broke because we went into London for zone conference last week and it consumed all of my cash and I haven't gotten it back yet :P But all of my travel is reimbursable at least. So yeah... my legs hurt from carrying my companions bags all morning... but at least I'll have some nice calves to look at when I get home :)

So I'll improve on my email from yesterday, as I sent that in haste from a member's phone but I just wanted to make sure that you guys knew that I'm ok. I just had some good food and now I feel like I could sleep for a while... but unfortunately I have the whole afternoon to work with my new companion.

Actually I love this kid. Elder Maynard is from my last district and he's a pretty good guy, so everything is going well. Just need to get his bags unpacked and hopefully he'll be feeling homely here soon. Elder Maynard is from Bountiful, Utah... so he's just around the corner just like a few of the other companions I have had. He's been out for about 11 months, so a fairly newer guy... but he's the new district leader here. Supposedly I'm to help him out with his duties since I've been a previous district leader but I don't think president is going to make me a zone leader, well I'm not extremely disappointed about that because it just means additional responsibilities on top of everything else I already have to do. So I'm happy with where I'm at.

Yeah, only two transfers and a little more to go. August will be around the corner in a heart beat. My birthday on the other hand, is just in front of me. Not exactly sure what is going on for my birthday but I'll find something fun to do on that day. Members will probably take good care of me, so don't worry to much about me :) I'll probably just buy a new suit or something and a pair of good posh shoes to come home in, so I can dazzle all the Utah girls back home... that is if I ever where a suit besides Sunday. I'm gonna need a wardrobe change when I get back. Some serious Ross shopping or something :P I miss that store a lot.

Well its a bit weird to here that Mark is going to make it home before I do. I can sympathize with his position though, I've never found missionary work easy. I was pondering it on the train ride home and was thinking about how much more difficult it would be for me if I went to Thailand or someplace that puts me out of water. I'm not sure how much better I'd fare than him. Sure I've been depressed before, but not so much that I completely wanted to quit, besides I'm most of the way there anyway :P No reasons to stop now. I want Mark to know that I want him to be happy with what he's done. The last thing I really want him to feel like is that he's wasted the last four or five months, because that is what I've been afraid of feeling like when I was young in the mission field. I still don't find it easy, and I'm not the best missionary either, but I'm happy that I came and I learned something. I've grown up a bit. I'm manned up a bit more. And I'm definitely a lot more grateful for everything that I have. Makes me really appreciate the wonderful family that I have.

Well I hope the week is going well for you guys. Hopefully I'll catch up on some sleep tonight, because my companion was packing till two in the morning yesterday and kept me up most of the night because he "couldn't sleep". Mostly just nervous for his move today I'm guessing. Well I'm mentally alright, just a little haggard at the moment... so I'm not on the verge of a mental breakdown. I'm just gonna let my companion do all the teaching today and let my mind shut off just a little bit :P Nah, I'm just kidding. Duty calls and I've got stuff to do.

Love you guys,

Elder Bradley Smith

During the Week We ...

Well I'm thinking back into my mind to find the most interesting thing that happened this week...

Well while we were at a bus stop about three, four days ago my companion was approached by a very drunk English gentlemen. I'm thinking these two guys had met before because my companion began to chat with him like they have been best friends forever. The drunk man asked him "Did you know that before this country was called the United Kingdom... it was called Great Britain?" Now my companion was trying to be clever said "No I didn't". Replied the Drunk man "Well it still is..." Very clever drunk man, and I forgot that alcohol intoxicates people. Well the next question posed was just as good as the first, actually its more of a statement by him "I'm Atheist, Drunk, and English and probably going to hell... my missionary friend what do you have to say about that? Can you save my soul?" My companion replies "Well its your own choice for almost all of those things except that fact that you are English." Makes sense to me. At that, the Drunk man walked away. I seriously think that some people come just to waste time.

So that was my interesting story. I hope you enjoyed it. Everything is literally about the same here. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to bore you. Just all of our investigators decided to take a pre Easter Holiday trip, so a lot of the people we are teaching just disappeared for the week. We managed to get like three new investigators... but they are all Bipolar... I'm seriously thinking that we could start a mental psychiatric ward here because about 8 of the members here are Bipolar and three of our investigators are Bipolar. I'm beginning to think that it might have something to do with the weather patterns here... We do our best to help everyone though.

Well my friends, it has been a pleasure typing to you. I hope your weeks have been as productive as mine. I love you all, and hope you are doing great. Take care, 

Elder Bradley Smith

Well p day isn't on Tuesday, just the activity we did took most of the day and I never had a chance to email. but since we get to hit facebook for an hour a day now, I just dropped you guys the email then instead of on Monday. we had an awesome beach party by the way... not that we were in the water or anything, we just ended up throwing the American football for a while and playing a few games.

Getting By

Rain Spectators in Southend

Well it has been a downpour in Southend this morning, got a little bit went on the way here to the library but that's not all to bad. We are doing our best this week to have a baptism coming for the end of the month. Unfortunately we've had a lot of difficult with our recent investigators so we are going to have to find more people to teach.

Good thing we have a lot of recent converts to teach though :) Keeps us happy to see the people we baptize to continue to be active in church. It has been a real pleasure to see them progress in the gospel. Even Matthew, my good friend, is in New York at the moment on a holliday trip and he is going past a few of the church history sites.

Well Everything is going well... I ran out of time here so I'll catch you next week :)