Hi Aunt Rosemary!

Houston and i had such fun afternoon with Colton. We were actually able to hang out with him and his companion for about 4 hours. We got to Tamworth around 3:00 and met them at the train station. They gave us a little tour of the city. They showed us the castle and the church (catholic, like a mini cathedral), both were small, but beautiful. We weren't able to go in because pretty much everything is closed on Mondays. We walked through the center of town where all the shops and restaurants are and through one of the parks. They took us to a big building called the snow dome (the picture of us by the lake is right outside of this building). It's an indoor ski slope. It's laughable, really. Not even as big as a bunny hill on one of our mountains in Utah. We watched the skiers and snow boarders for a while. They thought they were pretty hot stuff going off the little jump and catching a few inches of air. I'm sure it's so funny for Colton to see, he being the great snowboarder that he is. He and his companion seem to get a kick out of visiting and watching people, even though it's a tiny little hill, they wish they could try it out.

After that we walked over to a restaurant that Colton's companion, Elder Lewis, had been wanting to try. I actually think it was our only option. Everything is closed from about 3:00-6:00, but this place is open all day. We let the boys order whatever they wanted. This food may have been the closest thing to American food that they have had in a while. It was like an American/Italian place, with it's quality level being comparable to a place like T.G.I. Friday's, in my opinion pretty gross, but they seemed to like it. I'm sure it was a welcome change from all the potatoes and bangers they get to eat.

After Dinner we drove them back to their place so they could change and get ready to go out for the night. We gave Colton a couple of bags of Jalepeno Cheetos, which he was super excited about. We told him if he sends us a list that we can pick up some things for him from the American grocery store on base. 

His companion seems really great. He is enormous, Colton will be safe with him. They get along really well and were both saying that they feel like they have known each other for a long time and plan on hanging out in the future. They were talking about getting into fishing together. Fishing is one of the few recreational activities that they are allowed to do, so they might get some gear, so they can start doing that on P-days. 

It sounds like a tough area. From what they were saying they don't find many people to teach, it's a small city and everyone knows them, so there aren't many who want to hear from them. they have started trying to go out to smaller towns in their area where people don't know them. They are hopeful that that will help get the ball rolling. 

I'm sure you have already heard a lot of this stuff from Colton. Sorry if it's all old news.

We are about an hour and a half from him, so if you ever think of anything we could do, we'd love to help. Like picking something up and sending it to him, or things like that. It would be a lot cheaper for us I'm sure. Especially cause we have access to American shopping here.

Anyway, that's about it, I guess. Hope you are doing well and we can't wait to see you in July!

Love you,

Megan