You alright gents!

     Hello family and friends across the pond. This week I was caught zip lining at the park by a ward member, the rock Church of England has been jamming out at night, and a crazy less active lady told us that we can communicate with dead ancestors during Halloween.

     It's been a good one this week and it's crazy how I only have 3 more weeks of being trained. Transfers are on November 8th and I'll most likely be getting a new companion. According to the trends, Elder Barney says that missionaries leave their trainers after 12 weeks. 

     This past week, when I was on exchanges with Elder Davies from Sandwich England, we walked past a mini zip line at a playground. A ward member saw me going on it and thought that I was skiving around (avoiding work). Elder Davies took a video of me but the Harrogate Elders aren't at the York chapel this P-day.

     There's a Church near us called The Rock of York. I haven't personally heard any music coming from it, but Elder Barney says that at night loud rock music does. (I thought of dads mission when he said that.) Throughout the week, we've been going through the ward list and knocking on addresses of people who were baptized in the church, but are no longer active. We talked to a lot of people who had joined the church over 20 years ago, but weren't interested in coming anymore. There was a lady we met that was baptized 13 years ago and she said that she now has her own beliefs. She advised us to speak with our dead relatives this Halloween. She also said all sorts of other confusing things that she was pretending to reference from the Bible.

     The highlight of my week was definitely doing service for Sister Hickton. (Mom probably saw the pictures on Facebook.) We cleaned up her front garden by trimming her bushes down and trimming grass and weeds. She's such an awesome lady and as an Elders Quorum in York 1 we're planning on cleaning her back garden as well. 

     Our Mission Conference is this Saturday and we're going to Huddersfield. Everyone is really excited to hear from President Russell M. Nelson. He is speaking at the same building that I go to church in every Sunday.  He will be speaking the day after our York Stake Mission Conference. Yesterday, this past Sunday, was a very good day. I felt like my talk went really well and we brought the sacrament to the Turvers at their home. It reminded me of how we would do this in Priests Quorum back home all of the time.

     We haven't been able to have another lesson with our new investigator Donna, but we've been keeping in touch with her. The man D, that we've been teaching, was able to do a church tour. He still has a lot of anxiety about going to church, but he said that he wanted to come and see President Nelson on Sunday! We put James' baptism on hold, but he's still coming to church. It's been rough having so many appointments not go through, but we're still pushing through and not giving up. Thanks again everyone for all of your support! Cheers!

 -Elder Holyoak

Pruning Sister Hickton's bushes 

(From Facebook-Thanks Sister Hickton for posting pictures.)

The Rock Church (or Rock and Roll Church)

The Trinity Church - Notice it leaning a bit to the left into the ground

We found this 12th century wall while walking down the street.

 The Double Decker and the Carmel Wafer Biscuits are my favorite.

I've been doing a bit of family history on Family Search. This is George Eli Holyoak. Born near Birmingham, England. Some people in the ward are 3 generations back from the first convert in their family. I'm a 7th generation! So my great great great grandpa was baptized on December 3, 1841. (Almost 175 years ago!) I've really had an interest in this lately, because a lot of ward members are into it.

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