Wkly Lttr

January 15, 2013 Tuesday

I like the subject title, lol. I took all the vowels out of it :)

Anyway, I've been enjoying the frigid weather over here. About 5 days ago a cold front came through and everything dropped much below freezing point. Before that everything was actually pretty warm considering that it is January, and now real January has set in... not my favorite thing. But I'm doing alright.

We just had a baptism this last Saturday of my good friend Wang Ti. He's from China and he is literally the most solid investigator ever. It almost seems fake. He just accepts everything and does everything that we tell him to do,  plus some. Elder Affleck and I made Mormon bets that he is going to be an area 70 sometime in the future.

I sorry I didn't email you yesterday.  I was out hanging around in London again, but this time in the more shabby part or the ghetto. We went to an area called Camden town which has the biggest flea market I've ever seen... It’s pretty dodgy. So’ I didn't keep any money on me because I was afraid of getting robbed.... I'm a bit over precautious. I had a killer time there though seeing all the culture and the funny stuff that people sell.

 I had an amazing weekend with all of our district and our baptism so that pretty much is what made this week totally worthwhile. I'm actually trying to learn Chinese off of our new investigators and some of our recent converts. They have been willing to take the time to teach me a few of the basics but I'm going to pick up a English to Chinese dictionary and have Ti, our recent baptism, help teach me the basics, so I can talk to the china men on the street. It really impresses them and helps them feel more comfortable. My zone leader Elder Helske, the most crazy man you will ever meet, can speak a little Chinese and he totally impresses random Chinese people on the street and they want to meet with him to learn more about the gospel.

 Their baptism rate in the zone leader area has gone up because of him. I was impressed so I kind of want to do the same thing.... just a little bit :) Besides that,  nothing completely new is happening. The end of the transfer is coming up already which is not next week but the one after. I believe I will be staying in this area for probably the next transfer, but my guess is that I will spend 6 months here.

We are having an influx of investigators due to Wang Ti. He is inviting all his friends to meet with us, which is pretty unreal. The average person doesn't due that so I've really been impressed with Ti. This guy will serious be the most successful businessman ever. I know I'm talking about him alot, but this guy is amazing. He's super posh, his Dad is a business leader of a herbal medicine company and a business partner of Warren Buffet, and he is extremely disciplined with his studies and his diet. There is nothing that is going to stop this guy. He is like the ideal person.... I don't know how he does it. I wish I could be like him. Anyway, enough about Ti, I'll get back to the Elder Smith I guess.

I'm doing just fine.... I have everything I need, so don't worry about me. I'm a little bit low on money this transfer since we've spent it all on travel and food and repairing the flat... I need to do reimbursements. Besides that everything is good. I just fixed our vacuum which has been broken forever... mostly because the other elders that have lived here have been too lazy to fix it so I finally just sat down and did it. That’s my accomplishment of the week. Yup... I'll just keep trekking now. Still just trying to get into the routine... I really struggle with conforming exactly to the schedule. Things like getting out of the flat at 10, it’s usually 10:30... stuff like that. One thing I will not miss out my mission... living with another man in the same room... That one is hard. Mark get ready for it. Your mission is just around the corner, so don't do anything too stupid. There are a lot of things that I wish I would have done better, but I guess I wouldn't have learned why they weren’t great until I got out here on my mission. So, we live and we learn. That’s a good philosophy. Anyway I love you guys and I hope you are doing OK mom, you seem to be getting beaten up a lot by Dad at racquetball :) Take care of yourselves and I'll send a few photos and try to get the rest from my comp.

Love your son and brother,

Elder Bradley J. Smith

PS Ok I just realized how stupid this computer is... they have taken off the right click menu so I can't get the photos off of the memory card... I'll need to bring my flash drive next week and transfer them to that and then send them... they have also removed my computer from these machines.... I hate public computers because they have to simplify them so much just because people misuse them.

Till next week...

Elder Smith

XCountry

It has actually been an awesome week. The time actually seems to have flown by... I hope the rest of my mission goes like this. I feel like the groove of things is coming along. I'm not to worried by anything at the moment so I feel pretty good. Plus I just started my new diet and workout several days ago. My goal is to 185 pounds by my birthday but I'm trying to get under 200 by Valentines day so I've got some work to do. We've been working on running every morning and I'm being trained by Elder Affleck who has run cross country. Now I know how you feel Shannon... the goal is that we don't stop running the entire time we are out. No walking period. And its so dang hard. But I've noticed as I've worked on sprinting drills how I get energy back after doing a short sprint by just keep jogging instead of walking. It makes a huge difference. 

So that's how things are going their. I'm really cutting back on my eating as well. That part is harder. I went to the YSA activity in Dunstable last night and I didn't eat one thing. I felt so good having the self control not to gorge out on deep fried candy bars, which they really were deep frying. They were deep frying everything for the YSA activity and some of the stuff their did not look to appetizing... 

I know I can't spell. I just did a huge cleaning this morning on our flat so it looks so much cleaner and more comfortable to live in. I also wasn't quite careful the first time I wore my new suit last week to church and I busted the crotch lining... so I'm getting that fixed... The slim suits here are awesome!! I love the style here in London/England. Everything is slim and fit, and it looks so good! So that's why I'm getting slim and fit now... or at least trying. I'm cutting back on the carbs mother, yes I remember what you have said. I'm feeling much better than I did before and I appreciate the cards you guys sent me. 

I just got all the post from the office and now I just receive like 8 letters at once and I made some of the other missionaries jealous :) but then they learned that it was all just from our family... so I didn't have much to say to that... Sorry I didn't have a girlfriend wait for me. Nah, I really don't care what other missionaries say, I love receiving post from you guys. I'm impressed with your origami Shannon. That frog is now sitting on my desk so I can see it every day. I also hang up all the cards you give me, so I'll show you a picture of my wall one of these weeks so you can see where all your hard work has gone. As of right now, I'm doing just fine, I love getting post so if you guys have free time feel free to send me something :) 

I'm glad to see mom is being somewhat financially frugal... with all of her projects :) I'm excited to see what the ping pong room looks like after its done. I'm gonna stick to my fitness project here, and you guys fix the house up there :) I love you guys so much and I hope that everything is going well. Take care and I'll talk to you guys soon.

Love your son and Brother,

Elder Bradley J. Smith

PS Sorry I didn't take to many photos this week... they are all on my companions camera at the moment and I didn't get to copy them yet. I will get those to you asap next week. sorry >_<

Elder Smith

English Slim Suit

Ok it has been a hectic week and we haven't slept properly in days... oh my goodness. We've been having parties and random sleep overs for the last little bit and my head is just a little out of whack. I'm just trying to organize everything right now so I can send all these pictures within a reasonable amount of time. Since we last talked on Christmas we've pretty much just been having a good time out here. I'm actually loving this area a lot. The zone leaders in my area are just amazing. They have so many good stories, plus the love the stories I have to share so I feel like I'm much more involved with the missionaries in my zone. I've also learned the value of working hard every day. I hate the fact that I haven't worked in the last few days very much and I just feel like a complete and totally waster. I don't know I'd actually ever say this, but I really want to work hard now because if I don't I feel like crap. On New Year’s we had to retire early to our flat, but we had a surprise visit from some of the missionaries here in our area and we turned a boring night into an absolute party! I had the most amazing New Year’s to date!

I really appreciate your gifts mom and dad. Those were amazing. The Boxing Day sales were awesome and we were first in line at four in the morning. So I bought a very nice suit for £75 which was normally £200 and I got some English style shoes for 25£ which were normally £75. So now I look so slick in my new suit. We took pictures but they are on our ward mission leader’s camera and he hasn't gotten those to me yet so I'll have to send those to you later, but for now I'll fill you in with the past 3 weeks of pictures.

I believe things will finally begin to settle down here and the work will begin to continue as normal, just missionary holidays are the only times we have to just relax a little bit. Most of the missionaries in my zone are out by about 18 months, so they are all on their last Christmas and last holidays before they go home and they are so trunky. It’s kinda unfair to see that they get to go home so much earlier than me, but I've only been out 4 months now... so I have nothing with which to back up my trunkiness. Anyways we watched quite a few movies. I got to see Brave, Tangled, Prince of Egypt, How to Train your Dragon, Toy Story 3, and Home Alone 2. I actually don't like watching movies all that much because it makes me trunky :) Nah, I'm kidding I love watching movies when I get the chance.

I was wondering if you could somehow send me a few CD's. Since the mission rules changed about music, we can have a much wider variety of music which is awesome so I'm wondering if I could put in a request to you Mom or anyone else in the family if I would get a few CD's. The first should be in the Regal... it should be a German band called Glasperlienspel, or something close to that, and that band can also be found on Shannon's phone if she hasn't wiped it or my iPad. Next I'd like the Disney Hercules soundtrack cuz that music is amazing and inspirational so it helps us keep pumped. Feel free to include any other music you want if you send me a CD or if you'd like to try to email them to me i'll see what I can do about downloading them to my flashdrive or iPod.

Anyways I'm doing quite well now, I love the post you send me. Every card you guys have made I blu tack up to my wall around my study area. So I love see all the creative cards you give me, those are quite amazing. Besides that I hope that's everything. You made my Christmas amazing, and thanks for the Boxing Day presents I really appreciate that so much. I need to save the last few minutes here for sending the photos so I'll talk to you next week.

Love your Son and Brother,

Elder Bradley J. Smith

I sent you the photos of us in front of the church... that is my new suit the bluish one. Its actually very nice and the trouser are slim fit... which is kind of a joke on me :) 

Uggggg.....

Uggg....

      I absolutely hate transfers. It has been the longest week of my life. I just got ripped out of Grays and now i'm in a decently sized town of Luton. I don't even know where to start... I feel good about being here but its just been so hard to leave the only area I know and rebuild this area here. I was about to have a wonderful Christmas there, all my skype plans were set up with the members but now we don't have any plans here in Luton :(. ... so were are trying to work out were we want to be on Christmas and what we want to do with the zone. The move last Wednesday was a killer... I hate carrying all my stuff literally across the country from train to train... and the stuff weighs so much... but I guess that's just part of missionary work I guess... It makes me appreciate the stuff I used to have so much! I miss just being able to use a car or to even have a bike. I never knew I could miss our home so much. I've just been having a really difficult week and I'm trying to get to know my new companion better. Elder Affleck is really a good guy, he just is very, very relaxed. Literally he is the opposite of Elder Hansen. I went from strict to completely loose. In a way it's nice, but in another its kinda hard to work with. We don't fight or anything so don't worry about that, I just feel that I'm not really included in all the plans that he has for the day and I feel like I'm just tailing him around like Pickachu the whole day. 

       Luton is a much more Posh place than Grays, alot nicer of an area yet everything still feels foreign to me. I'm just really disappointed about Christmas since I don't know any of the members... that is what I'm really feeling the most frustrated about. I kinda just feel left out to dry. This is an interesting area. Luton is really quite a large place but it is split in half by the Dunstible ward and they literally take 90% of the members so the Luton ward has like 30 people that actually attend sacrament meeting and nobody ever wants us over for dinner except the same 3 people. In Grays we always had dinner appointments almost every other night and now we have none so its been a big change. 

      I also hate that our flat was literally empty of food and I had to make an enormous shopping list and spend a lot of money getting the flat and the food up to par. I enjoy the other members of our zone quite a bit. The other missionaries are highly entertaining and have tons of stories to share. Its quite fun to be in a batch of six missionaries and just listen to the stories that go around. I just wish I could have come here one transfer later... I really just don't want to be in this area at the moment because its so difficult to rebuild the area and get everything to a level that I'm comfortable with. I guess things just don't go as planned... ever. 

     So it's been a very long week and I'm just a little down-hearted at the moment. I'm trying my best to have a good attitude but I'm just very frustrated with the way everything is working out at the moment. I don't know any of the members except Bishop and his counselors and a couple of other people and we don't have like any investigators here... so we've spent a lot of time in town center the past few days. 

     At the moment I'm in an internet cafe because I can't get a library card still I get some post from the mail that gives proof that I live here so please send me some snail mail so I can get a library card and email you guys for free.  So, back in Grays it was Essex, but I think its something like Hartford or something close to that, you can just look it up on Google. 

     I'm working on finding a place for Skyping. So just a heads up we might need to do it on Christmas Eve, and the call might last several hours so be prepared for that. If you want to invite the few friends I have in our ward still that would be cool to talk to them. So how we can find out when we are skyping is that I will have to do a series of emails to let you know next Monday the time, and then I will make a Skype account and send you the contact details for that so you can add me on the ipad or on the computer. Also about Christmas... I'm not sure what you guys sent me through amazon, but I'm excited for it! 

      I was wondering if you guys might put a little cash in on my debit card so I could by a cool english slim suit on Boxing Day, or the 26 of December, when all the Posh stores are having a 75% off sale at 5 in the morning that we are planning on going to. So the suits would be between 30-60 quid or pounds and that would be 60-120$ I believe. So I don't know if you guys would support that or not, but it would be cool christmas present that would be appropriate, but if the stuff you sent me in amazon was a lot then don't worry about it. I'm at an internet cafe right now... so I don't have the ability to send you photos at the moment because the computers here are absolute crap... so I promise to send lots of photos next week and I do have a ton. I think I've vented everything I want to talk about... I just miss Christmas back home... it's what seems normal to me, so now its the first time away from home and its kinda hard not knowing anybody that I can put my full faith in at the moment. I love you guys so much and I look forward to talking to you guys either next monday or tuesday. Have everybody there and it will be a lot of fun. I'll survive until then.

Love your Son and Brother,

Elder Bradley J. Smith

Guess Where?

Hello Family,

It’s time for the guess where Elder Smith is going game!!! Is it Number One: Deal Number Two: Luton or Number Three: Lea Valley ? You have 5 seconds to guess or just look at the line that comes after this one! I'm just messing with you guys. I just received my call yesterday and unfortunately I will not be able to stay here in Grays. The time has come for me to move out and begin my journey elsewhere. Tomorrow is when I part with my good buddy and friend, Elder Hansen. We have come a long way in this rough little town. I'm kinda glad to be getting out of here... but at the same time we had a killer Christmas set up and I had Costco :'( (I'm going to miss it so much :'( ).

My new area is going to be Luton. I don't even know where that area is besides that is north of London in the St. Albans Zone. All I've heard is that Luton has an airport... and that’s about all that is there from what I know. So... I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to be doing for Christmas, but once I find out what the address of our flat is in Luton I will let you know, so you guys can ship me those Amazon things. I'm excited for that.

This past week has been crazy... We've bottomed out on food because we each didn't want to buy food for the flat because that would have been wasted money for that person if they left the next week... so we've kinda been going on empty for the last few days. We're not too bad off,  just we haven't had milk for like 5 days or any fresh fruit. I'll have to say good bye to the Thames River, that’s one of the best things that is here in Grays. I'm a little nervous to leave this area... since my whole mission is condensed into this area at the moment. But, I'm sure many good things await in Luton. Also, my new companion will be Elder Affleck... yeah, just like Ben Affleck... That’s the first thing I'm going to ask him is if he is related to Ben Affleck... (lol). I'm excited to meet him. Elder Hansen says he's a solid missionary and a bit older than Elder Hansen (missionary wise). Everybody I'm serving with and around is on the downhill side of their mission, while I'm on the uphill side... it makes everything seem like I'm going to be here forever! But, I’ll just stick with it and everything will be ok.

I'm just glad everything still fits in my bags when I was packing earlier this morning. That was just crazy. It was the first time I was completely organized in the past 12 weeks. I'm going to miss my companion here, when he gets home in August, Elder Hansen wants to come down and see you guys so don't freak out if a random return missionary comes over or something... but yeah. All is well so far, just a hair disappointed I wouldn't be spending Christmas here.

I'll be spending the afternoon making my "Emergency Appointments" to all the families I want to see before I go. They make it so difficult for us to see the families we love before we leave the area... but All is well. I love the photos by the way. Everybody looks like their keeping up good. Also, I could use more envelopes or I'll buy some so I can send my snail mail. Sorry my letters haven't been coming much, I've just been so busy with everything that I haven't had a lot of time to write letters or do anything that doesn't pertain to missionary work... I know I'd get too busy... but I hope to get around to those things after things settle down after these transfers. I'm glad you guys are taking care of my car... and Shannon... please don't wreck it... I already messed up one too many cars. Anyways, I hope you guys are having a good week and I love to get your letters.

Love your Loving Son and Brother,

Elder Bradley J. Smith

Packing for Transfer

First Real Transfer Coming Tonight

Hazel Waiting for Brad 4,800 Miles Away

Dear Family

So today isn't P-day, tomorrow is. So we recieve our calls tonight and I can let you know where I'm going next or if I'm staying here. I know all get a new companion probably so I'm a bit nervous about that. Besides that everything is fine. I'll let you know tomorrow how everything is going to work out. 

Love, 

Elder Bradley J. Smith

Mom and Dad asked if Brad needed anything specific for Christmas. His reply:

I'm not sure, I have pretty much everything I need which is awesome. I'm trying to keep the weight and the amount of stuff I have down because I have to haul everything I collect so I need to keep that in mind. I would love some love for Christmas, that makes the most different for me. I'm not sure how to load the song onto my old ipod because I didn't bring my cord... next package maybe you could send a 30 pin connector cord? That is about it. Sorry G2g, I'll talk tomorrow.

G2g means "Got to go." for anyone like me who didn't know that and had to ask:)

Off to London to Visit the...

Brad's Chair made in Shop Class

Hey Family and Friends,

It’s been another long and frozen week in the little town of Grays. Things have been going pretty well, not a whole lot is new. The best things that happened this week were my work over with the Elder's from Southend and our Zone Meeting this past Saturday. I spent an awesome day with Elder Purdy last Wednesday for our work over here in Grays. (A work over is just a day exchange). I had a killer time with him as we met our newest and most progressing investigator, Saundra. We took along our good friend and member Brother Senior. Brother Senior is Jamaican..., and he's a convert of about 11 years. He has a powerful testimony and he pretty much dominated our lesson. We didn't even teach what we thought we would. We were going to cover the restoration with Saundra but Brother Senior just took over and started addressing her concerns about the Word of Wisdom and other gospel principles. He's a champ, and I could tell he was being guided by the Spirit. I believe we'll be seeing another baptism around here soon :)

Besides that we had a killer Zone meeting this past Saturday. Guess what, our music rules have finally changed!!! We can listen to music that’s not retarded!!!! The rules before were that we could only listen to MoTab or EFY or Classical Music from composers that are dead for over a hundred years... yeah very limited. There is a lot of music under the category of classical music...  I just don't have any on my iPod... so, President Jordan just changed the rules to the White Bible addition rules, that opens up a lot of things. Most of it’s our decision on what music we can listen to as long as it invites the Spirit... so we've had a lot of Christmas music playing throughout the flat this past week as it has finally moved into Christmas time.

We have transfers next week... and I am nervous. We have a killer Christmas set up here with our four best families all right in a row!! I sure hope I stay here for this transfer... but for some reason I can see President trolling me and moving me to Norwich, the furthest area from London in our mission, and letting me rot out there for a bit... I'm just kidding Norwich is probably great... but yeah I hope to stay here.

On Christmas Eve we have the Terra's, our Bishop's family, then on Christmas we have the Figuerido's, another Portuguese family with return missionaries and girls our age... lol, and on Boxing day we have the Jones, my other most favorite family. So we pretty much have like 3 days of no work... that’s gonna be a mission killer. (lol). Besides that I'm excited for this package mother... I'm going into London today for our London P-day trip so I'm gonna be brief today... sorry. We have a good time planned there and I hope that we get to see all the good sights again. So that was pretty much our week. I'm glad to see our Christmas tree is up and looking good. I love the pictures of the house.

Oh, to answer your question, Dad. There are like no Christmas lights here.... pretty much it’s like saying "Hey, come rob me, I have stuff in my house"... or that’s what a lot of people think it’s like. I've seen a few... but it’s nothing like back home where you have big displays and such. I'm gonna miss that stuff this next two years... but yeah. We'll be doing just fine this Christmas, just let me know what you guys are up to and I'll talk to you guys next week. Oh by the way... I get to Call you guys on Christmas!! So get Skype set up Mother because I'll be calling on Christmas... and Don't forget it! Besides that... umm... that’s all I can think of at the moment. I'll send you guys some more snail mail once I have the chance. And I got your letter Dad don't worry. KK... I love you guys and I'll talk to you next week. :)

Love your Son and Brother, 

Elder Bradley J. Smith

Bradleymom here.

"I couldn't open the two photo files Brad sent because they had .dat extensions. Oh, well. He's been a prolific photographer most other weeks."