Dear Mother,

 

Transfers.  They happened.  I stayed in Wolverhampton and Elder Shepherd went out to Merthy Tydfil.  I told him that it was Grandma's favorite place.  Elder Allred and Palmer both stayed and I was happy about that.  Elder Dutton stayed here and Elder Taylor didn't want to be a Zone Leader anymore, so he went to Worcester. My new Zone Leader is Elder Turney and he is everything you could ever want in life. He told me to write that.  I like him a lot though.  He's from Reading, and pretty cool. The sisters were split up, and Sister Cook is training a new missionary from England called Sister Summersell.  She's nice. She's from Grimsby which is north east of here.

 

I think my President has sent me, to me.  Elder Baker is awesome, but we're pretty dang similar.  I really like him.  He's a good missionary, relaxed, nice, intelligent and a bit arrogant.  He's from Castlerock, Colorado which is a little bit south of Denver apparently.  He's been out for twenty months, and he'll probably stay here the rest of his mission.. we'll see.  He's got this transfer and two other ones left, so it would make sense for him to stay.  I'm hoping we get to stay together for two transfers, because I realised that I've only stayed with a companion for longer than one transfer when I got trained and when I trained.  I think Elder Baker and I will break that trend.  But if that's true, I'll probably be here this transfer and next, and then he'll introduce the area to another missionary before he goes home.  Elder Baker is the district leader, so I'm still junior companion which is funny to me after training a new missionary.  But everything is good.  We're going to get a lot done, and for the first time since I left Tamworth, I think I'm going to like my companion a lot.  That's mean.  I liked my companions. Except maybe one.  But Elder Baker and I get along really well.  He plays Ice Hockey back home, he's the youngest of two boys, like Eli, and he's just a cool guy.  He looks like he's sixteen, but so do I, so that's okay.  I'm happy.

 

Wales isn't quite the ideal spot.  It's just different than England.  So I hear a lot of missionaries that have only been in Wales kind of want to come to England, and vice versa. 

 

Our investigators.  What a joke.  Basically nothing happened this week.  Except for Janet and Ray.  We went and let Shepdawg say good bye on Tuesday, and then me and Elder Baker (and a male member) went over and taught Janet on Friday.  She told us that she believes that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that the priesthood has been restored to the Earth.. but.. she's just been an Anglican so long, and she's a strong Anglican.  We don't get it.  At all.  We challenged her to ask God, and she texted us the next day and told us that she got her answer from God that she needs to stay Anglican.  I wanted to slap her.  She still wants to have "Bible Study" with us (that's what she calls our appointments) but.. she's set on staying Anglican.

 

Basically we don't have anything going on right now.  We're going to just go past this middle man for Matt and Hailey, cause it's taking too long.  So hopefully I'll have an update on them next week.

 

Other than that. Nothing.  We will be finding all this week. Funnnnnn..

 

Mom, you're not allowed to move.  You've already paid for the house.  Unless we all move to New Zealand, like we planned on Christmas.  That's okay, but I get to help pick out the new house. New house, New Zealand.  But yeah, Kasandra emails me as well, I'm pretty bad at emailing back.. but.. we email sometimes.  She's very girly with her fonts and colors and sizes and stuff.  Sorry.. you get regular writing.  I'm not a girl. Thank goodness, too, I'd be an ugly girl.

 

I would love to go to Lincoln.  One of my good friends just got transferred out there.  His name is Elder McFarland, and he's in my MTC group.  Tell Mark to call up President Rasmussen and refer me to Lincoln.  Do you think that would work?

 

I never told you about Elder Dyches, cause he was pretty boring.  Sorry.  I went in with really high hopes.. and.. basically he didn't say anything better than what my President says.  So.. nothing really special.  He basically talked to us like we had the same mission as Mexico or Ghana or somewhere.  We don't. Stick to how much you love him already, and don't listen to me.  I liked his wife a lot more.  Maybe she writes his General Conference talks.

 

I'll probably go to the seventeen-year-old Sunday School class if Art's teaching it.

 

I haven't been to Whitwick Manor, in fact, I've never even heard of it.  But we're looking for stuff to do, so maybe we'll go check it out sometime.  I have seen the statue though.  Generally there's a bunch of Born Agains and Muslims right by it.  Speaking of which, we had one Born Again guy follow us around the other day when we were walking through town.  He was fun.  He was telling us about how having many wives was a sin and that we were part of a cult and how we needed to repent.  I'm still wondering what I need to repent of, and as for the wives.. I only have a few. I think God will understand.

 

I feel better.. but I still have a super runny nose and a bit of a cough still.  It's never going away, and I've just accepted it.  I've caught a case of England.

 

Remy has a Kitty, I had an Easter Bunny.  We're going to be best friends.

 

I feel bad about Lori's dad.  Death sucks.  I do remember him. He was a cool dude.

 

We eat at members' houses almost every night.  Generally like five times a week. We play basketball on Saturday mornings, and invite investigators and less-actives, so that there's a reason. Sometimes we play on P days but it's just out of the way, so we usually don't.  Members don't give referrals.  I understand though.  Think about all your nonmember friends.  There isn't millions are there?  All your friends are members. Same with people here.  But yeah.. it's a bit rough going.

 

I'm planning on buying some clothes, but Elder Baker told me that he tried to get his trousers he bought from Men's Warehouse tailored and he said that when they looked at the trousers, it would cost like £35 per pair.  That's not worth it.  I still wear them, don't worry, but I don't think I'll get them tailored.  The suit thing is a work in progress.  I've been studying the stores around here, and figuring out what I like.  I'll get one soon enough.  Don't worry.  I'm just in the middle of my mission.. I just don't really need super nice clothes.  I'll get a bunch right before I come home.

 

People from Wolverhampton go to Preston.  People from Leamington had the choice of either, and people from Tamworth go to Preston.

 

I miss Dad a lot too.  I think about all the funny things he'd tell me every week.  It's a good thing I don't have to write him as well, cause I think you two would be the only ones that got letters.  It takes me forever to answer all your questions.  I love it though.  I don't feel like we've skipped a beat since I left.  You don't feel like you're living this with me as much as you want to, but I think you are.  I read my patriarchal blessing every Monday, and it says that if I live close to the Spirit I'll hear Dad prompting me to do things as well, but I haven't felt him.  That makes me sad, cause it makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong.. but.. I guess I just haven't needed him yet.  Hopefully soon.  I'll keep you up to date.

 

I love you Momma.  I'll send some pictures next week.  Sorry, I've been kind of lazy about that for a while.  I miss you, and I love you a lot.  Thanks for being a good Mom.

 

Love,

Elder Smart