Two Transfer Blockbuster

Well I've managed to avoid getting moved away from my favourite area, so I've managed to secure myself six more weeks here.

Well, things are moving quickly for us. Matthew was baptized this Sunday and guess what, the font boiler was broken... what a surprise. This always happens at all of my baptisms, something always decides to brake about 24 hours before the baptism. Well Mathew and Dorothy didn't mind the cold water... to much. We boiled about 30 gallons of water in a massive pot on the church stove, which took about 2 hours and didn't make a blinking bit of difference. But at least we tried.

So I'm really happy with what has been going on here. Last week I met another cool guy, his name is Chris. He's the same age as Mathew, 25, and he's been around the block in his life. He's been into drugs and alcohol since he was young and nearly died a year or so back. Since then he decided to clean up his act, and I accidently bumped into him in the town center as we were passing through. Through his past experiences, he now believes there is something more in life which he believe God saved him from dying. So he's been more than happy to listen to our message and he attended Church this sunday and saw our baptisms there.

As for me, I'm just glad I didn't have to pack my bag this week. I'd be really disappointed if I had to leave. It'll be good to see people progressing still here. My companion and I get along pretty well. Obviously we are not perfect, and we get our times when we clash a bit, but who doesn't? I think one of the best things we've been able to do is plan. We have the next three days here booked, so I'm glad that there is always something to do here. Never bored. I guess that probably why the last six weeks felt like one week. Well I hope all you people out there are doing well. Have a great week :)

Love, 

Elder Bradley Smith

Possible Last Week in Paradise (Hope Not)

Well, it is still possible. We've managed to beat our old record of two weeks ago. We managed to pull of 38 lessons this week. Man I've almost caught up to my old man Elder Hansen when he was in Watford. Yes John, I know you had some epic weeks there, but this week will be 40 or nothing!

Well we have two baptisms this coming Sunday. Matthew, my good friend here, is ready to pass his interview this coming Thursday so everything is looking pretty good for his baptism this Sunday. We also have my recent convert's daughter Dorothy being baptized the same day as well. So we are way happy for them :)

Funny thing happening in Southend. Out of most people coming to our member present appointments, we've had mostly recent converts and a few less actives. Man, our recent converts here are so fired up! Its awesome to see them so engaged in the gospel and just helping others to come to the same happiness :) Great stuff happening here.

Well I'm going to enjoy the sunshine today. We are going to pop down to the riverside and enjoy some fresh air, get revitalized and go hit our 40 lesson mark this week. Gonna be awesome. I really appreciate all the support I get from you my friends. It means a lot to me and I hope that I'll be able to see you all soon. I pray for all of you and your success.

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

As for the title of the email, only one week left in this transfer... I hope president doesn't decide to make me a zone leader or something, things are going to well here for me to leave :)

Breezy Newz

Well fancy this, it rained on us again last night. Problem was I was only wearing a suit because the weather was gorgeous for the most part yesterday. After our last appointment in the evening we got out to a flipping hurricane and we had to walk about two miles home. Probably my least favourite experience in this area... but we've had loads of success this week though :)

So we've managed to pull of 36 lessons this week! My Mission record so far! We've managed to have over 11 member present lessons. We are pretty much best area in the mission as of right now. We have 3 people ready for baptism this next two weeks. We are working with a few others as well, we are definitely doing well :)

Well my good friend Matthew is going to be getting baptized on the 16th of March. So Awesome :) I can't believe this is already the fifth week of the transfer, this transfer is over in two weeks. Crazy how time is starting to pass really quickly over here. Plus it's already March! All the trees are in bloom over here, its seems we've had a early spring which could be kind of deceiving because it could get really cold here again in a few weeks... I guess that happens all the time in Utah though. 

Well I'm gonna try to catch up on some sleep here because we have been workin our butts off here. You never want to be caught on your mission with a poor area because you didn't work hard enough, work your butt off. Actually I thought I heard Arnold Schwarzenegger say something similar to that. Good man. But yeah, it feels really good to be old in my mission. All the other missionaries are younger than me, and always seem to ask my opinion on something. Super funny. I pretty much think to myself, you aren't any better than me as long as you have the spirit because then there is no difference between the ways that we teach. In essence it doesn't even matter what we say as long as the spirit it present because it will testify to what you are teaching. Silver Bullet there. The Key is to build up your understanding of how the spirit works, then you will become Master Teacher. That is my key tip of the week.

Well I've managed to find my pace here in South End, I'm sorry for the lack of pictures this week because I left my card reader at the flat :P Genius I know, I'll get those to you next time. Dun worry I still look the same, no magical hair cuts or anything.

Well Love you all take care and may God bless you.

Elder Bradley Smith

PS Yeah I got your post just right before I came to email. I remember you said you amazon me a box of stuff. I can imagine though that you have been really worried about Mark. I sent him a massive email last week on my thoughts to overcome the first few months of missionary work. I can't really imagine what it is like for him. He's in such a different place compared to me. I do pray for him though. He's a good kid. He's gonna come back way different though.

I love you guys, thanks for taking care of me. Its been really good here in South End and it is easily my favourite area so far. I think every area you change to can become the new best area. You get to start over ever few months and see if you can do better.

Well I'll catch you guys in a bit.

Declaration from Southend

Well its not unusual for me to rushing around like crazy down here. We just had a wedding and a baptism that took nearly the whole weekend to pull off. Man, these sisters here are just baptizing people like crazy. But remember, if you have read Helaman anytime recently there was a good statement in there that I would like to compare to the missionaries here.  It says "Now, Lehi was not one WIT behind his brother Nephi". Now, just remember that. The Elders namely Smith and Berenguer are not one wit behind the sisters here. We have three more people on date, so we are preparing for an end of the transfer baptism bash! Going to be epic.

Well I was asked to give a description of my area, mostly for my mother's sake, but I'll proceed to give an account of my endeavours here and the details of the land round about. South End is located in a prime real estate location on of the first east coasts in Britain, accept maybe up in Gorleston... or Dover... but that's not the point. We've got the sea surrounding most of the area so we often can make trips down to the riverside of the River Thames. This is for Elder Hansen, if he can remember the first time I pronounced the river "THAMES" it is closer pronounced "Temms". Very British I know. We still all wonder why the use words like "Rubbish" and "Posh" and "Mate". For instance I would say, "How are you Mate". I replace the word "DUDE" which is an American term for "MATE". English grammar lessons are the best aren't they.

Wel,l just for information sake, I get to email in the brand new Southend Library which was finished about six months ago. Really nice place, and the computers don't suck to bad... well all public computers suck to some degree... but for a public place its not to bad. Our flat is literally about a 6 minute walk to the coast so its nice and close. For my previous companions Elder Hansen or Affleck and the rest of you reading this... Southend has a different flat now. It's a lot newer and closer to the town center. So I'm not living in that beat up old flat in Westcliff anymore. I still remember my first workover with Elder Purdy when he had me walk like three hours with him back to the flat because we missed the last bus that day... my days... Yeah, all those months ago.

Well, I'm doing pretty good spiritually for anybody who'd like to know. I'm surviving the storms of missionary work and we've had really good success in this area. Just need to keep it up. Don't want things getting boring here now do we. Well, I love you all. There is a good reason that I put all of you on the list to receive this email. ITs because I love you :) There I said it. Take that as you will :) Just remember me in your prayers so that England can have a new ward when I'm done with this place :)

Love, 

Elder Bradley Smith

Sunny Day in the Neighbourhood

I had an interesting experience a few days ago. Member of Southend ward came out teaching with us during a immense storm, well at least I thought it was a big storm. He said to me "its funny how the mission presidents I have met call Southend, Windy Southend, but I don't really think that its windy here. Usually its really nice." Biggest lie of his life. The wind has been non stop here for the entire week. I do love Southend's landscape and all, but wow, I've been blown day in and day out.

Actually he was right about one thing, when its not stormy, its really lovely here :) Absolutely gorgeous. I wish it was more like yesterday when it was just blue skies the entire day. THat needs to happen more often.

Well as for me, everything is going pretty well. I've pretty much gotten settled in here. I'm learning the ward, the people, the culture, who to avoid... and where I can get great cheap food. If Elder Hansen is reading this, I went around to the place where I was "Kebabtized" back when we came here for a p day about 18 months ago. For those of you who do not know what a "kebab" is, its pretty much the greasiest piece of food you will ever eat. I think its an Arab thing but there are kebab joints around here more than McDonalds. I'd say about twice or three times as many. Funny enough, I hate McDonalds in the states, but here McDonald's is really Posh, or expensive. So we avoid eating anywhere that is inherently American. It just costs a fortune for a tiny hamburger that is not even the size that it should be. Same with Burger King. Big Rip OFFS >_<

Well enough ranting. I enjoy the amount of people we teaching, and drop in one week. We managed to pick up around 10 people to teach this week and we lost about 8 of them after the first or second lesson. It led to us racking up around 30 lessons again this week, but most of the people we will probably not see again :P That's just life ain't it. SO... back to building a teaching pool again. We still have two people set for Baptisms in about a two weeks, so that's good. Pretty much the Elder here previous, one of my good friends Elder Vogel from Germany... love those Germans :), has done a great job rounding up about 7 baptisms last transfer and I'm just baptizing the leftovers! So now the ward is putting a lot of pressure on us to do about the same. Southend is estimating for about 60 new members this year... about sixty times for than any other ward's goals I've seen. So yeah, time to put out. Good and do work. Dun worry, I got this.

Well its been a fun week, I've got some awesome windswept hair photo's I'll upload eventually. Its been a lot of fun so far in this area. Crazy its almost been two weeks I've been here now. I feel like I got here yesterday. Well love you all. Have a great week and stay alive people.

Love, 

Elder Bradley Smith

South End on Sea, Baby!

The picture above is my success face 

when I got called to South End :)

So I just received my moves call last night at half past eleven at night... flippin took them forever to call us. I really just hate waiting around for our zone leaders to put us all on a stupid conference call so everyone can hear where you are going, so they can just make tons of noise through the phone... It's like hanging out with a bunch of kindergartners :P Anyway, I've been transferred to the garden spot of our mission, beloved "South End on Sea!"

I'm so stoked. What was so funny is what I've been saying for the past few days. As missionaries we obviously like to ask each other where we would like to go in the mission on the next transfer, and you can guess what I said. I told Elder Evans, my current companion, that I would like to go die in South End on Sea, but I don't think that is very likely to happen due to the fact that I've already served twice in that Zone and I have six months left... but low and behold, Elder Smith is moving to South End :) So DOPE!!!

So yeah, I'm uber excited to go to one of the best areas in the mission. My new companion is going to be my third Brazilian... but to be honest I have no idea how to pronounce his name :P It's K. I have already been with 2 Brazilians... how hard can a third one be? Well, if this next transfer is difficult I'll eat my words... but, I don't think it will be because my attitude is Awesome :) I'm kinda just happy I made it to the last quater of my mission and I get to go to the best area... I kinda can't get over this... :) :) :)

Take a deep breathe, ok Mother, I do not know my current address for my flat, but once I know I'll get that to you. I also took a ton of pictures the past few transfers so I'll put like three on this email and the rest you'll have to go to my blog to see :) My Mission Blog. Checks it out, manz.

Well it has been fun. I love you all and I hope you have a great week... because I need to go pack now :P Best part right?

Love, 

Elder Bradley Smith