I Think I Hate My Bed

For some reason... this week has been the worst week of sleeping in my entire life... I've gone to bed at 10:30 every day for almost a year now... but I don't know why I haven't been able to sleep. Well I can venture a few guess that is. Its been hot. No Wind. and I have no fan in my flat. Plus the upstairs seems to act like an oven in our tiny flat. So this week has been No, BUENO! So Its been a more rough week. We've been really busy doing our missionary stuff... all that exciting Jazz... but I'm just like a walking zombie because I haven't been able to get a good nights rest in like 6 days... and I felt a little bit like Whitney yesterday because I had a massive headache that lasted like the whole day :P So I'm going to be done complaining now... just thought I'd let you guys know of my trials :P 

So it sounds like things have really cooled down overt there... in terms of activities and stuff. Besides Mom being drafted for almost every wedding occasion that is happening in the radius of ten miles :P Well at least it keeps her busy and probably gives here a good excuse to go to Costco. I have come to love Costco... especially on my mission :) I like how you put it mom... Like Mother Like Son. I just don't know where I got that tendency from. :) 

So this is like my last P-day this transfer that we get to do whatever we want. We need to go to London next week or else we won't get to go this transfer. Plus we have a big mission conference on the 12 of August probably working out how the Electronics and Computers part of the mission is going to work. So that will be really cool... it just kills our P-day which happens to be on the same day... so I get really ticked when they schedule things together like that because then we can't get anything done that week and we don't get another p day.... poor plan on there part I guess.

Well things are ok here. I'm surviving. The Mission life is pretty good. I just got an email from my buddy Michael Affleck... previously Elder Affleck... and he's doing pretty good back in Utah. Fun to hear from the "dead friends" or people who have gone home. I hope you guys are doing good. Don't kill each other till I get back :) Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

Yeah, Lot's of Emails

Well its been another really busy week. Just like every week I guess. We've had a lot of work to do with our less active members because we really don't have a lot of people to teach here. Just working on increasing our teaching pool... I won't bore you with details. 

So its been hard working being a district leader. I have to spend hours on the phone talking with the other leaders... and sometimes its a bit tedious. I hate how often people just repeat the same information to me at the same things over and over.... and I just want to tell the zone leaders that I get it already! But I don't really say that. I swear that they just think I stupid or something... but that's just life. So I'm getting used to the leadership aspect of missionary service. now I know what my companions where talking about when they want to become Jr. Companions again :P Lol. Its just a lot of work. As is the whole mission :P

Other than that I'm feeling ok. Just plodding along and doing my course. The normal stuff. Its just nice to hear from you guys because I can think about other stuff for a few minutes. Its a nice change in the regular pattern of the week. My emails peeked this week! :) I was really happy. I've had to spend the whole time actually typing this week because I've received so many emails. I finally heard back from Michelle and how she is doing and a lot of my friends.

We have some fun activities planned for the day. Its going to be another busy P-day. I swear that P-days just don't exist. They just come and go.... so its not like its even there. But whatever thats just life. I can't believe that it is almost the End of July. Pioneer day is like in two days... but I don't think anyone is going to be celebrating it over here :P Well we can just through a little party for fun :) I'm glad to hear that you are all enjoying the summer, sounds like things have settled down for the most part. I hope you guys continue having for over there, because the school season is coming just around the corner! :) LOL. It must be weird having Mark out of the house. Maybe a little bit refreshing... Shannon is probably really glad :) Well, I hope he is getting along well in College. Makes me reflect on the first few months of my college years.... not even close to over yet :P There is so much to do when I get back... but I don't really need to worry about that kind of stuff... yet. So I hope everything is going ok. I saw the blog post you put up of Spongebob. I laughed really hard when you did that :) It was so funny. My companion loved it as well :) I love Mom's humor sometimes :) Well all is pretty well over here. Just enjoying the heat wave that has been attending us the past few days. Goodness... its been like 3 weeks straight of just Sun! That is not Normal for this place! I've been roasting and actually kind of getting a tan :P not that the Smith family tans much :P Well best of luck this week guys. I love you guys and hope to hear from you next week.

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

Ripped Pants

Well I'll give you a breakdown of the week. So I have another Brazilian named Elder Behrends. Awesome kid. I picked him up from the train station on Wednesday and we began an awesome week from that point on. For some reason I feel alot less stressed than when I was with Elder Oliveira. May have something to do with his personality. But I'm really enjoying serving with my new companion because I don't feel like I'm being judged quite so much. Makes my life a lot easier.

So things are going really well there. Being district leader isn't quite as much fun as I imagined it was going to be. Basically means I spend ten hours calling everybody every other day... and losing all the free time that I have in the evening :P I laughed when my favorite zone leader Elder Carder told me "Welcome to leadership, where you now lose all the extra free time you thought you had". I now know what all my DL companion's previous where talking about. So its cool to be in a leadership position, but I guess that is what the word "responsibility" means.

So I have to keep extra tabs on everyone and make sure everybody is working hard. Plus this is even harder for me because my whole district is under 6 months in the mission field. So I'm the oldest missionary in my district. Which is absolutely nuts, I'm really not that old or experienced... so I have to keep things together here I guess. I get some freedom from my companion, and then president loads another backpack on my shoulders. Well, I guess God knows what he's doing to me.

Today we are planning to go back to Costco and have more fun. This time we are bring our favorite sisters with us. The Romford sisters always hang out with us on p-day, so we still have contact with the opposite sex. Its not really real "contact" because you can't flirt with them... but we still have fun. So I'm grateful to have family that still love me. None of my friends emailed me this week :P I don't know what happened to them, but I feel just a little bit forgotten... so thank goodness for mom and dad. or else I wouldn't have had any emails. I'll just have to stick this out till the end of my mission, then I'll get some repentance post. I have some good pictures from the end of the transfer, I'll send those to you, they are quite funny.

So yeah... I keep ripping my trousers out here. It’s because I keep trying to do gymnastics in them and they really don't stretch all that well :P So I've messed up 2 pairs of trousers so far, but one of the members is fixing them for me :) So hopefully they'll be ok. just need to avoid jumping on trampolines and stuff. Besides that, things are pretty much the same here. Tiny flat, big city, always busy. Life is not too bad.

So I'm surviving out here. Sounds like Mark is having a fun time at University. The good old days. Mark is really opposite to me. I slept over at our house like every night as much as I could. To be frank, I don't know why I moved out. Well it was good experience for me. Helped me get used to living on my own, especially for a mission. Makes the transition a little bit easier. I'm glad you guys had fun at Star Valley. Makes me just a little bit Jealous. I miss having mountains and stuff like that. I also really miss swimming.

That is like the first thing I'm going to do when I get off my mission: Dive into a pool. That is going to be great. I do like Cabella's. Kinda weird to see you take photos there, because I remember taking Autumn there last year when we started dating. It was a lot of fun. Cabela's is huge, and a great place to entertain you for hours. You should tell Michelle that she needs to email me :) I love having people email me because I have an hour and a half to write to people and the only people that are emailing me are my parents. I guess it must have been a busy week for everyone else. So just let people know that I am out here. I still exist. Or at least I pretend to. Anyway, I hope you guys are having a great week. I'm doing just fine, just tend to my "garments needs" and that will be good. I love you guys. Catch you next week.

Love, 

Elder Bradley Smith

PS Here is the lyrics to the SpongeBob song about ripped pants. Here's a link to a recording. Double click.

SpongeBob Ripped Pants Song on YouTube

When I ripped my pants
I thought that I had everybody on my side,
'till I went and blew it,
all sky high
and now she won't even spare a passing glance
all just because I [rip] ripped my pants.
(Whole band singing)
When big Lary came 'round just to put him down
Spongebob turned into a clown
and no girl ever wants to dance
with a fool who went and ripped his pants
(Spongebob singing)
I know I shouldn't mope around,
I shouldn't curse
but the pain feels so much worse
Cause windin up with no one is a lot less fun
then a burn from the sun
or sand in your buns....
Now I learned a lesson I won't soon forget
so listen and you won't regret
be true to yourself
don't miss your chance
and you won't end up like the fool...who...ripped...his..PAAANTS

PPS Bradley is not a fool, only energetic.

Transfer Week!

So this transfer is finally over. It kinda came and went... but also took a million years in the process :P Maybe this is what living in a mouse cage does to you. So we've enjoyed a lot of different things this week. We've had ants infest our house... and they are everywhere. Crawling all over everything and stuff like that. I'm doing my best to keep the flat clean but these insects are just all over the flat. So we are trying to get the landlord to get this place sprayed so we can  not have to worry about bed bugs :P So that was a fun thing of the week.

So this moves call I have been asked to stay for six more weeks in Romford. So I'm not moving anywhere for the next month and a half so feel free to send me letters and stuff :) My companion is getting moved to Ipswich. And I will be getting another Brazilian for this transfer. So go me, two in a row! I think I can handle it. I was also made District leader, so now I have extra responsibilities and I need to look out for the welfare of the other missionaries in my areas. I'm trying to work everything out... and it’s been a lot of work.

So I don't know how everything is going to go down, but at least President trusts me enough to give me more responsibility :P Good and bad. I like the leadership aspect, but I feel my hands are full as they are... so this is going to be a juggling act for me to handle here. Other than that, things are going pretty well.

I've been really sunburned this week because we are having a massive heat wave. Everything here is just flippin hot! Its like Utah weather but worse because of the humidity! My face was like a bright cherry yesterday... looks like I'm breakin out the sunscreen again :P Besides that. Things are going pretty well. Just trying to hold everything together.

I really like the pictures you guys sent. Bear lake looks as beautiful as ever. and I noticed something funny. I think Hazel was permanently wet during those few days you were up there :) Just every picture is Hazel in the water or getting dirty or something :) Made me laugh. I really enjoyed those pictures. Oh, plus, you may have a guest in the next week. Elder Michael Affleck is going home tomorrow, my second companion, and he might drop by and say hi to you guys in the next week or so. I got to say good bye to him, and I'll get to catch up with him next year :) Good kid. So its going to be crazy these next few weeks as I figure things out. I don't think it will be to hard. Just got to get the juggling act down :) I love you guys and I love your support. 

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

The Apple Store

Split my pants on this thing.

I am part Cherokee--a very small part.

Rain and Sun Together

So, I've had an interesting week. Some good and some bad. I now know why Romford has been referred to as a land of iniquity as of recently. There are a lot of tragedies that occur in this town. One of our less active members was recently beaten up by her boyfriend who had both too much to drink and was on "sniff" or drugs... so she was really shaken up this past week. He had abused her for a long time. I had met the guy once before he beat up this poor girl and I wasn't too fond of him. Just drinking and smoking in the house. It makes me glad that we have commandments that keep us from becoming like him. I know you guys probably won't ever met her, but I've seen how some people's poor choices cause a lot of suffering in their lives.

Maybe, on a happier note I had a really good work over or companion exchange with my good Welsh friend Elder Carder. Good Man. It was a bit of a relief to be able to speak to someone that speaks fluent English at least for the day. I'm working with my companion a lot to improve his English, but sometimes you just need a break. So, I've learned the value of a good companion exchange.

On the not-so-sunny side we were tracting yesterday and knocked on some guy's door. He didn't answer at first so we moved to the next door. Just after knocking on the next door, this half-dressed, bald guy comes out of the door we just knocked, cussing and swearing, and telling us how worthless we are and that we just share filth. Obviously, he said a lot of other unmentionable things, and if Mom was here this guy would probably be dead. (When I am afraid and confronted I try to act toughJ --MOMOMOOM) I was actually fearful that this guy was going to hit us or something. I'm not sure if he was drunk of not... but it would not surprise me one bit if this guy was slammed. We didn't stick around long enough to find out. So that was actually my first hellfire experience. I thought it would have happened sooner than now, but I guess it comes eventually.

Some blessed land is Romford, right? :P I actually really love this place. It just has a lot of good and bad. So I'm doing all right at the moment. Nothing too bad... just trying to avoid spending all my money in this place:P Lots of expenses here. Plus, I'm going to have to spend like three hours cleaning today, but at least we are planning on going to Costco this afternoon!! :) (Son like Mother.) I'm really excited to go back to the land of America for a few hours (lol).

I hope you enjoy the pictures from this past week. Some were from the Elder Ballard thing in London, and the rest are throughout the week. The girls are the sisters from our Area. We tend to hang out with them a lot. So cool. Regular people from Utah... It’s nice to have some normal people around to keep us sane :P

Anyway I hope your week long camps were fun. I haven't gotten to go exploring or hiking, or nature walking for quite a while... so you'll have to take me on some camp outs when we get home. Give Mark my regards. He's going to love BYU. I can't wait till I get to go back there... it’s gonna be marriage central :P I'll try to postpone the marriage thing for as long as possible... but as Mom and Dad probably both know BYU is kinda a hard place to avoid marriage :P Anyway have a good week.

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

Romford Days

Hey,

I've been having a lot of fun in this place. We actually get Travel Money :)! So pretty much every day we just take the buses everywhere we need to go in Romford. Apparently Romford has the best bus system in all of England. All the buses are on time and quite frequent, I've really been impressed with the public transportation in this country. Really, really,  good. So I was a bit stressed at first when I had to shove everything in my bags... and move my whole life to Romford. That wasn't too easy. I used vacuum pack bags to fit most of my stuff, and I'll show you some fun photos of what that was like :P My new companion is from Brazil. I really thought sometime on my mission I was going to get a Brazilian. Just my luck :P Just kidding, He's a great kid. Only been out for 6 weeks, so taking over the area and not knowing anything hasn't really helped me out to much :P So its been a huge learning curve for the past few days. I'm enjoying the nicer weather for the past few days. Sunshine has been out, and I'm getting sunburned again, what a relief. It’s better than getting wet :P So I feel I'm finally getting the hang of the area, so I'm not quite so stressed anymore. My companion has been feeling quite ill this week though because he caught some cold or something and it’s just making him feel tired and headaches all the time, but I'm 100% healthy. The only thing that Elder Oliveira doesn't like is that he thinks he isn't working hard enough. So he's in this cycle of feeling sick, yet he wants to work harder so he's stressing himself out. So I've been trying to help him calm down, and just relax a little. Apparently his trainer was just a machine, and just was WORK, WORK,WORK. The kid never had a break, so now that I'm trying to learn everything and catch up, my companion is stressing out that we are not doing as much work as we could. And I promise you we are not lazy. I've literally hit my pillow and I'm out every single night this week. So it’s been a long week. It’s interesting to see that Mark has graduated. He got my same GPA LOL. 3.94, Yep, I think I was something close to that, I may be wrong. At least Mark gets to live in a super posh place. New Heritage is really nice. I think I'll just live from home when I get back, you know... save money and stuff... but you guys probably will want me to move out anyway :P but you don't have to worry about that for 14 months or so. I can't really believe that is June already. I remember just a while back when it was freezing January and wondering when summer was going to come. Interesting how time flies, yet some days feel so slow...Yet the time passes by very quickly. I'm betting this transfer is going to go by very quickly. Romford is a huge place, one of the biggest areas in the mission. And we have to cover it all by bus :P So it’s going to be fun. Plus I like being the senior companion. Let’s you have a little flexibility if you know what I mean. I think everything is going to be just fine here. We have an enormous mall that has literally every kind of shop that you can think of... so we are going to go exploring today and have a bit of fun. I didn't get to many photos this week, so I'll get some more and share them with you next week. I always seem to be making this promise :P I hope you guys have had a good week. Hey, 151A North Street, Romford Essex RM1 1ED. That is our flat Address in Romford, just so you can send me post and stuff. If you could send me a letter so I could have something to show the library so I can get a card that would be great. 

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

T.J.Eckleburge to the Rescue and $450...

Well its rainy again, no surprises there...

but this week has disappeared again, just like all the others. I'm really nervous now. I got my call yesterday... and you can guess where I'm going. I'm going back to ESSEX! Sweet land of the Chav's (kinda like English gangsters). So I'm going to the city called Romford... but I don't know the flat address yet, so I'll get that to you as soon as possible. I'll be follow up training a younger Elder named Elder Ollivera... or something like that. He's been out for about 6 weeks... so he's really young. I'm just a bit nervous about being the senior companion since this is obviously my first time. I'm not really sure how to handle it... but I guess I just have to take it as it comes. So I'm leaving my good German friend Elder Wolf, and he's probably going to die here in Luton (he'll finish his mission here). So many of my good friends go home tomorrow. One lives really close to us. Elder Fisher is from Lehi, and he gets his plane flight home tomorrow. He's been my zone leader for 6 months and we've gotten to know each other quite well. I'll be sending emails to him, so you guys can help him find a new girlfriend or something :P He's a really cool guy. Elder Affleck my previous compadre, goes home this next transfer, so middle of July. Everyone I know is just getting so Old! There all going to be gone here :P Besides all my friends disappearing, I'll get the chance to make more. Plus I took some awesome photos this week for you guys, you can enjoy my new nerd face... but I actually really like my glasses :) I guess that is what we were going for :P Not to bad, except when it rains than the get all fogged up and stuff... but thats just life. Its good to hear that everyone is still alive in our family, Mark hasn't killed anyone yet (lol). I'm jealous you guys get to go on Holidays. The closest thing I get is P-day for 12 hours and thats about it. Then its back to work. I'm curious as to why Shannon is going to Timpanogos. I'm guessing all of her friends are over there. Well all know that Vikings Rule still :) So tomorrow is a big day, I have to spend my time packing here today, and visiting all my friends here before I leave. I think its good that I'm going. I've spent way too long here in this area. To many people know my face. So Romford will be exciting. I'll send you guys pictures of my new companion and the area, and we'll see if it rivals Luton in Dodginess.

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith