Delectable Week

Wazzup my American peeps! This week I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders in York, James over in Scarborough got baptized, I hosted my second district meeting and we got the coolest new poster for our flat.

     

It started off a pretty delectable week going on exchange in York with Elder Glenn. The cool things about being around Elder Glenn is that he speaks Chinese. I never realized how many Chinese people live in York until I went on this exchange. We would walk around the streets and he would stop a Chinese person and they would just stare at him and probably think, "This white guy is speaking fluent Chinese to me!" A couple of them said, "Wow! So clear!" We had a lesson with a recent convert named WanTing. We actually met her in one of the public building in the University of York. It was weird walking around the University grounds on my mission for a little haha. 

     

On Saturday, the super star of the district, James, got baptized! I wasn't able to go over to Scarborough to see it, but the other lads said that it went really well. On Sunday he revived the Holy Ghost and was interviewed to receive the Priesthood. Also, he is going to go to Preston to do baptisms for his father soon.

     

I had my second district meeting this week. I'll only be holding 4 more, until we have our next transfers.  It's been a lot of fun planning them and helping missionaries to have fun and be uplifting at the time.

     

One last funny story before I wrap up this email. In England there are bus adverts (advertisements) everywhere. Elder Livingston and I saw a man taking out the old posters and putting in the new ones. So naturally we asked him, "Hey mate can we have one of those posters?" He wrapped it up all nice and gave it to us. So our newest feature to our flat is a massive Transformers poster that we all signed haha. 

     

Overall it was a pretty good week. The work is going güd and the church is true. Hope y'all have a good week, pip pip cheerio!

-Elder HolySmokes

A little Harry Potter reference

Elder Glenn, the Chines speaking Elder

Flat Mates

Transformers, more than meets the eye

Happy Favuhs Dee!

Hello my American peeps. Here is another update from sunny Brid. This week was the hottest week of my mission so far, I interviewed someone for baptism for the first time, Rory came to church and I got to eat out with President and Sister Turvey!

     

Hey up, summer is definitely here in Brid! I bought some aloe vera for the boys in the flat, because we keep getting burnt.... haha. Most days it's been around 27 degrees, which is in the 80s in Fahrenheit. I took some quick slick pics in the sun for all of y'all.

     

On Sunday, I took a train over to Scarborough to interview someone named James for baptism. Elder Kull and Barff have been teaching him for a while and he's the most prepared person that I've ever met. He's been going to institute and has visited the temple grounds with his girlfriend. That was defiantly the spiritual highlight of my week! His baptism will be this Saturday and I'm really hoping that I'll be able to bring someone over from Brid to see it.

     

So, the funny story for this week is about Elder Livingston. During morning exercise we ran to the beach like we normally do and he saw a wooden post to break up the waves poking up out of the water. And he told me, "Dude I gotta take a quick karate kid picture on that!" He goes to jump up onto it and he missed and destroyed his leg. His leg had scrapped up against it and it cut his leg up. He was just laughing at himself and said, "I guess that's what I get for being disobedient and getting close to the water!" Obviously, us 18-20 year old blokes are tempted to get in the water on these hot days, but we are resisting and I learned my lesson without getting hurt.....haha.

     

On Friday, we had interviews. But this time, my mission President came to Bridlington. He and Sister Turvey interview my district and I. After they were finished, they asked us if we could show them around Bridlington because they had never been here before. So we showed them our flat. We rushed in and cleaned a couple things before they came in and then toured a bit around the town. Then they wanted to take us out for a meal. We ate at this restaurant called "Aloha." It had some proper Mexican food, which is really hard to find here in England. It was great getting to know them in a relaxed environment and just hanging out with your mission President and his wife for a little! I talked to President Turvey about music and his band growing up. He was in 4 different bands and mostly played the electric guitar. He told me that his favourite live band that he saw was Led Zeppelin. That's right, he saw them live! That was a really fun night.

     

On Sunday, it was Father's Day of course and I need to say at least something about my dad in this letter. I wouldn't be the person I am today without him. He always makes me feel good about myself and has been a smashing example to me. Love you Money Maker Mike!  During Sacrament the primary sang "I'm so glad when dad and grandad comes home" in their cute British accents and Rory came! Rory has been making a lot of progress getting off cigarettes and coffee. Things are going really well as of late and I'm just gonna keep trucking along. Hope you chaps have a superb week. Cheers!

-Elder Holysmokes

Dinner with Brother and Sister Turvey

Dodgy me in the water

James

UK pride- Yorkshire flag on the left, Union Jack on the right

More from the land of Brid

Hey up blokes over in the promised land, you alright! It's been another smashing week in the land of Brid. I tried my 4th different Chippy, went on another exchange with the Traveling Assistants, Elder Livingston did a 100 meter dash in the train station and had I another funky fresh Zone Conference.

     

This week, I was asking a lot of people where the best fish-n-chips to eat at in Bridlington was. There were all sorts of different opinions, but from the responses that I got, the most popular was "Jack's Fish-N-Chips." So, Livingston and I tried it out. This was his first proper fish-n-chips. His verdict was that it was a little too greasy. My verdict, uber delectable. 

     

Zone Conference was good as usual. It was in Billingham again. I saw Elder at Peña for definitely the last time in the mission. He gave his departing testimony at Zone Conference, because he goes home in July. I know that I mention him a lot, but I hope that I can have an affect on another missionary like Peña has had on me. That chap is gonna have a good time back home en España playing basketball.

     

So after Zone Conference something funny happened. When we arrived in York, the zone leaders drove us and the Scarborough lads to the train station. I took the first trip and was waiting for my companion. I looked down at my watch, 7:49 and the train left at 7:50. Nope the others weren't gonna make it. So the other beach boys took the train and I waited for the next car load to tell them the bad news. As the car pulls up, I see a blur in my peripherals. Was it a bird, a plane, John the Beloved? No, it was Elder Livingston sprinting to catch the train. Before I could even register what was happening, the train was leaving and I was laughing with the Scarborough missionaries. Luckily the travel assistants were going on exchange with us the next day, so we nipped a ride with them over to Brid.

     

The exchange was mint, as always with the Travel Assistants. I learned a lot of new things and got a bunch of motivation from them. It's a lot of fun being responsible for all of these blokes on the beach.  A few of the less active members came to church on Sunday and like always we've got some other peeps that we're sharing this message of happiness with. Have a good week over there take care and cheers!

-Elder Holyoak 

Elder Livingston, my companion

Zone Conference

MTC lads

Sunny England

How's it going peeps! Well it's the start of a new transfer again over here in the ELM in the sunny month of June. I've got a new companion, the member that lives above our flat, Ruby, left and moved back to Australia, the legend of the branch Brother Ackroyd bought us pizza after coming teaching with us, I had a leadership meeting over in Leeds and we've got 3 new members of The Beach Boys district!

     

Well, the new blokes in my district are Elder Kull from Germany who is serving over in Scarborough, Elder Withers from Twin Falls, Idaho and my new comp Elder Livingston from Rigby, Idaho. POTATERS! Livingston is an American football player. Everything is good about him except for one thing, he chose the wrong team to play college football for when he gets back. He's committed to play for BYU. He red shirted a season with them before he left.  I'll make sure to learn as much about American football while I'm with him, don't worry dad haha.

     

This week the member that lives above our flat, Ruby, moved home to Australia. She was one of the sweetest lady's that I've ever met and I'm glad to have met her. We took  Brother Ackroyd out teaching this week and the lesson went pretty well. Afterwards, he took us to Papa Johns for some pizza. This man is always pampering us with food and inviting us over for tea. He truly is the legend of the branch.

     

On Thursday of this week, I went all the way over to Leeds for my leadership training meeting. It was a really small group of missionaries that were called into leadership positions this transfer, so we actually had it in the mission office. This was my first time going to the mission office, so it was really cool seeing the behind the scenes of the mission. After that, I met back up with Elder Livingston to go back to Brid.

     

We have been teaching a lot of lessons lately, but it's just the matter of helping people to keep commitments and come to church. Zone Conference is soon and it'll be fun to see my fellow friends. Hope y'all have a good week! Cheers!!

-Elder Holyoak 

Ruby, our neighbor whose moving back to Australia

The Beach Boys