Update update update!

Heyo my people! It's been quite the eventful week. Transfer calls happened, I finished making a shed, had some BBQ and turned two whole decades old!

     

The transfer call-a-roonies came in and..... I'M STAYING in Brid! That's right, and Elder Mills is leaving to Sunderland. We said good riddance, I mean goodbye, to Elder Black, I'll miss them both... haha. Elder Lewis and I will get some new comps up in The Beach Boys district. My new companion, tomorrow, is going to be Elder Livingston. He's from Rigby, Idaho. That's right, my third Idaho comp in a row! Elder Lewis' new companion is going to be Elder Withers and it will be another trunky transfer for Elder Lewis haha. Another change that will be happening here, is that I have been assigned to be the new District Leader in the Bridlington and Scarborough areas. So that's exciting!

     

This P Day we spent the day with Brother Steven, our branch mission leader. He took us to Whitby Abbey. It was top notch, because the writers of Dracula and Frankenstein were inspired by it, along with other cool historical things. Whitby is a nice little coast resort town, north of Bridlington and all and all it was two thumbs up. Check out these sweet pics!

     
Yes, this week we finished working on Brother Needham's shed. It looks real nice. I forgot to take a picture of it. It was cool seeing it from start to finish and having the other Elders in the area come over and help on days that we weren't able to.

     

The Warners (The family that we helped get their son and daughter baptized) invited us over for tea his week and they made us a BBQ. It was nice spending some time with them and catching up and also hearing about the holiday that they'll be having in Spain in a couple of weeks. They've only missed one Sunday since the baptism and they told us that they will be continuing to stay active after their Holliday.

     

The work is picking up here in Brid, as of lately. I'll describe it more in depth next week, but we have some nice lessons set up for the week to help others experience the many joys of this brilliant gospel! Hope you guys have a gr8 week talk to you L8tr!

-Elder Holyoak 

My main man Joe

I vant to suck your blood!

Whitby Abbey overlook

BridTASTIC!

Hey lads and lasses how art thine doing! It was another super decent week here in Brid. I saw a funky fresh blues band outside, spent the day in Harrogate, Scarborough and York, did some service for a fellow Beatles lover, and Rory came to church.

     

The start of this week was very go go go and I was shattered once we got back to Brid on Wednesday. Last P-Day, we spent the day at Fort Manwith Hill in Harrogate. It was ace being with the entire zone doing normal people stuff like bowling and playing basketball. On Tuesday, we had an exchange in Scarborough again, but this time I was in a trio. I was with Elder Black and Barff. I can see why, as missionaries, we do this work in twos, because it felt pretty awkward switching off with all three of us.. haha. Then on Wednesday we had interviews in York. It was already a pretty busy week right off the bat.

     

As you can see by the video of the guy rocking out on the saxophone, the weather is getting pretty nice here. As it's getting closer to summer, more and more tourists are making their way to Brid. I've stopped and talked to a lot of people that are from London and are on Holiday here and their accents are so much more posh than the people here in Yorkshire...haha!

     

On Friday, we were going by to teach a less active member and we saw a man struggling to take things out of his home for spring cleaning. We offered him some help and he let us into his flat. After he helped him he asked us, "So are you going to give me a sermon now?" We laughed and sat down in his room that was filled with Beatles and Liverpool football club posters. He's had a pretty rough life and we were doing our best to explain to him how much the church can help him in his life. We'll be seeing him again on Tuesday.

     

On Sunday, Rory came to church!! It's been a while since we've had an investigator come to church and it was so rewarding to see him enjoying sacrament meeting. We've got some other people that we're trying to get come to church in the future. But what if there is no future for me here in Brid? Transfer calls are this Sunday, my birthday, and we will see if I'm staying or going. I'm wondering if I'll go to a new zone, because I've been in the kingdom of York for about 10 months now. We'll see what happens. 

Next P-Day our branch mission leader is taking us to the Whitby Abbey. It's another resort town just north of Scarborough. I've heard British people going bonkers over it and telling me to go there since I entered the mission, so it should be pretty good! 

I hope that all y'all have a good one again. Cheers! P.S. Enjoy this video of Jamie Akroyd (the legend of the branch) jam out!

-Elder Holyoak 

Enjoying an American dinner in our flat

Opening some of my birthday packages from home.

Music on the street

Jamie Akroyd (legend of our branch)

Mummy's Day

Happy Mother's Day peeps! I already FaceTimed my family yesterday, but I'll give a little update still on what's going on this week. A lot of fun P-Day activities have been taking place, a massive less active reach out, Costco pizza, people at church and cows!

     

Hiyuh everyone, sorry for the rushed letter. I'm on my way to Harrogate today to see a big American Army base with the missionaries in the zone, so I don't have a whole lot of time. It should be fun, although I don't know a lot of what to expect other than we are getting a personal tour ourselves of the base. It's been another good week over here in Brid. It's crazy that I've been living here for almost 4 months! 

     

Like I was saying before, we had a big less active member reach out on Tuesday. During Priesthood on Sunday, we organized 4 of the members to meet with us to visit with 12 less active members. It was a huge success! We found most of them in and taught a lot of them. I went with Brother Horwell, who is a successful business man and is a super get it done go go go kind of guy. That was a really good start for the week.

     

One evening, us 4 beach bum missionaries, were just sitting in our flat and we got knock on the door. We were thinking that it was just going to be an annoying drunk person, but it was Brother McLean the Young Mens President. He told us that when he was in Leeds during the day, and Leeds has one of the only Costco's in the mission, he decided to buy us a pizza! We took a hilarious video of it too.(watch below)

     

The work is defiantly picking up lately. We'll be getting our Branch President's permission to schedule a baptism for the excommunication member that we've been teaching. It will most likely the next couple of weeks. There's been other less actives making there way back to church on Sundays. Also, we were knocking doors this week and we saw loads of cows haha! Anyways I gotta go hope y'all have a good one. Cheers!

-Elder Holyoak

My screenshot of FaceTiming with my Family

My family's selfie of us all FaceTiming.

Cows for Grandpa Sandberg

Bowling on P-Day

Pizza delivery

                                                               

Fun on the beach

May in Brid

Hello, hello again! Here's another update from the heart of the Yorkshire coast. Zone Conference happened again and of course and I got to see a lot of familiar faces, I saw some colorful suits, the Meat Man, a car boot sale and Dave from York again!

     

How's it going family and friends. On Tuesday, we made a trek over to Billingham to have some proper mint Zone training. As a mission, we're really focused on working with members better and more effectively. As President Turvey says in his British accent, "Missionaries and members work together in Harmony." We learned a lot of good stuff to apply to our area. I saw Elder Peña again too! It's always good to bump into him and catch up. Our neighbor in Brid was selling an acoustic guitar in his garden for £10, so I bought it and then brought it over to Peña, because he wants to learn guitar. He's serving by the coast too, but more north by Durham. 

     

Saturday night is, of course, the big party night here. Elder Mills saw two guys in colorful suits and he said, "Alright we need to talk to these guys." They weren't interested in the gospel, but we got a picture with them haha. Also, throughout the week we went by something called a "Car boot sale." Basically, all it is, is a big get together where people sell stuff out of the trunks of their cars. Or as the Brits call them, the boots of their cars. There was also a man bidding off meat called the Meat Man. We were hoping to be able to talk to some people over there, but it was a bit too crowded. 

     

My highlight of this week was definitely seeing Dave, the man that I baptized back in January. After Zone P-day last week, I decided to pop by Dave to visit him. He originally though that we were the Jehovah's Witnesses knocking on his door haha. He was really excited to see how I was doing and what Bridlington was like. He told me, "I've only missed one Sunday since you've been gone, because I was feeling poorly." The other missionaries serving in York right now, are helping him do his family history work, so he can go to the Preston Temple to do baptisms for some of his ancestors. Seeing him was a good reminder of why I'm out here on my mission and it increased my love and desire to serve the people over here in the England Leeds mission.

     

Not much else to update on. I'll be seeing the best mum in the world next week, I'm buzzing for that! Hope you kids have a good week, luv yuh cheers!

-Elder Holyoak 

Colorful fellas 

Elder Peña at Zone conference

My main man Dave

                                                           

The Meat Man - take a listen to him selling his wares 

April 2017 Update

Hey again people! Here's an update of what's been going on over here. We started teaching a new man, we saw a castle in Scarborough, and I went to another Stake a Conference in York.

     

This week was the Tour De Yorkshire. It was a pretty popular race going on in Bridlington, because that's where the race started. It was televised nationally too, so it really was a pretty big deal. I didn't get any pictures because one of the AP's and Zone leaders called us up and wanted to do a blitz. I went with Elder Buckoff one of the Zone leaders in the mission from Atlanta, Georgia and Elder Mills went with Elder Klingler one of the AP's. He's Mills' granddad in the mission (his trainer's trainer). It was a good good day.

     

We started teaching an older man that our Branch President told us to go by and see. His wife recently passed away a couple of months ago and she was a less active member. He isn't a member, but used to come down to the good old Mormon church over on Quay road here a while back. We met with him and he is really interested in coming back and taking the lessons again! We'll be seeing him again this Wednesday.

     

We spent the last weeks P-day in Scarborough. I didn't have time to send pictures of it, but I saw a castle!! Yes, my first castle to see in England! We went as a big group of missionaries to see the Scarborough castle. Also, I went on another exchange with Elder Barber, the park city bloke, and we went to a mint burger place called Mojos Munchies and they have hilariously named burgers. This P-Day, today,  we are going back to York for another Zone P-Day. We're going to a buffet while we are there. We also have another Zone Conference in Billingham again this Tuesday.  It feels like I was just barely taking a coach over there, but it'll be good. I'll make sure to sit behind Elder Peña to bug him during the meeting.

     

Stake Conference was this Sunday. We got a car ride from one of the YSA's in the branch and he drove us there Sunday morning. It was awesome to see some of the York 1 members again for a little and to hear from the Stake President and President Turvey. Remember that teenage girl that I was teaching with Elder Peña? She got baptized last Wednesday!! Freya was baptized by her boyfriend and it was so cool to see them again!

     

So yeah that was my week. Another one that's flown by. I'm excited to see what's in store for May! 

Peace out I'll talk to you next week, cheers!

-Elder Holyoak

Scarborough Castle with my Bro's

Scarborough Castle