Elder Brad Smith Across the Pond: Castle Ruins and M3's

I'm interested to hear Ryan's accent when I get back, because there is a big difference in accents from the North compared to the South here. Apparently I've got one of the worst in England, because I've spent most of my mission in Essex, being quite a indignant place and non for their troublemaker chavs. I don't practise the chav accent to much, we just use it for fun and making fun. Tons of words like "Innit" and "Bruv" and some other funny ones like "Safe". "That's safe bruv innit". That's a sentence they would say. Makes me chuckle.

Well the week has been about normal. We've run into a few difficulties with our baptismal family, mostly because one of their cats tracked in Fleas into their house and due to the state of the house, the fleas multiplied and replenished the house quite quickly. So they weren't able to have us over without us getting the fleas... so we thought we'll just have to wait it out. That puts us back a bit in our teaching schedule. Plus we discovered that the two parents are not lawfully wedded yet... they just have a common law marriage because they have been living together for so long. They have 8 children so far and still want more. What a true Mormon family. We'll be working out the marriage details for them in July, so hopefully we'll see them baptized by the end of the transfer.

I had the pleasure of seeing my good friend Elder Vogel again one last time before he goes back to Germany. He's the kid that kicked off the work here in Southend before I got here and we've been baptizing really well ever since he's been here. Crazy, now there are only two missionaries that go home before me. I'm an Ancient being around here. Well I actually enjoy it because then I get to teach others how to do the work and I get good respect from it :P Until they actually have to work with me, then they might change there opinion (just kidding).

Well its a sunny day and we are going to be playing football. We've been going crazy over here for the World Cup. To bad England already got kicked from the group phase, so they won't be winning this year... but USA have a good chance after drawing against Portugal yesterday night. GO USA! We've been much into Football due to me learning all about the players and teams, so I quite like it now :) Having a good time talking about it with investigators and members who love to talk about it. Good way to go into gospel conversations as well. I'll be wearing my England Jersey when I get back, and I'm proud of it :) So yes, you discovered the English flag is only the cross. The Union Jack represents all the other kingdoms that were united. Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England are in the flag, but unfortunately Wales didn't get there share in the flag :P Yep, good history lesson here. England's history is crazy long compared to our own little United States history. London is as old as the Romans. Flipping 2000 years. No wonder they have difficulty building modern roads and buildings in a city that was constructed during the time of Christ. Yep I'll enjoy the last few weeks that I'm here. Hopefully the sun will keep shining here this week.

I love you guys and I'll see you all very soon.

Elder Bradley Smith

The pictures are of a Castle in our area... It's pretty beat though... not much left.