Newport!!

It's sooo much better in Wales than in England.  Don't tell anyone from England that I said that though.  Wales is really where I got called on my mission.  It's amazing here.  We live on the top of a flippin mountain though.  There's so many hills here, it's insane.  I forgot that land could be anything but flat. Non-flat land is so much better. I realized how much I miss my real mountains.  A lot.  Wales is close though.  They call their big hills mountains.  And a lot of the time, when I'm walking up one, I'd have to agree with them.

Granddad is very right.  People actually say hello back here!  How crazy is that?  I'm pretty sure that they even consider us to be humans over here.  That's pretty much heaven.

I'm in a small ward called the Newport-Gwent ward.  There's probably about sixty or seventy active members here, and there's two sets of missionaries. Me and Elder Velarde and then Elder Wiser and Elder Smith.  So in the same ward, there's an Elder Smart and an Elder Wiser.  Pretty good, right?

Do you remember Limhi?  He was my Branch Mission Leader in Leamington?  Well he comes from a family of thirteen kids, and quite a few of them reside in this humble little ward.  In fact, basically everyone has some kind of tie to the Sommerville family.  His wife's parents live here as well.  Small world.  His brother is the Bishop here and is a really great guy.  

So, my new companion is Elder Velarde, from Spain.  He's been out on his mission for about 21 months now, so I think I'll probably be killing him here.  (He'll be finishing his mission here.) (Have you caught on to mission lingo yet? Or do I need to keep interpreting myself?)

Get this.  There is this family of El Salvadorians in our ward here that were baptized not too long ago, and all they speak is Spanish.  They have fourteen in their family and they're all in the same house (multi-generational), and about eight of them are members.  So we're working really hard with them.  They had to flee from El Salvador because of some political uprising apparently.  I haven't really asked about it, mostly because I can't.  Which brings me to my next point.  I'm learning Spanish.  It's going to be so dang cool.  Technically all non-English speaking missionaries are supposed to do language study for an hour a day, but generally when they get to the point of fluency, they stop doing it. (or if you're Elder Wrenger, you just refuse to do it, because your English is "perfect.")  Anyways, Elder Velarde has had a Spanish elder as a companion for the last transfer, and apparently really only spoke Spanish for the majority of the time, and so his English is a bit rusty again.  But he's more than needed to interpret for the Chavarria family, and to teach them all Gospel Principles. So.. for the time being, I'll be helping him fine-tune his English, and we'll be teaching the Chavarrias English, and I'll be learning Español from both of the parties.

The Chavarrias have a bunch of young children, the youngest of which is three years old and her name is Vicki (Beekie), and she looks exactly like Dora the Explorer.  She is suuuuuper cute.  She's a lot like a I think Remy is.  Absolutely insane.  I love it.  Than there are two little seven and eight year old girls that are in love with me. When I shake their hand and say Buenos Noches they hurry and kiss my hand. Haha oh well.  They are the best family though.  I'm super excited to get to know them.  We're going to baptize the rest of them, and all their refugee friends too.  And I'm going to have to know Spanish.  And fast.

It's getting warm here, and all the flowers and stuff are coming out.  I should probably start taking a bunch of pictures for you.  I've been pretty bad at that lately. They'll get to you eventually.  But Wales is the beautiful castle-spotted land that you imagine when you think of England.  When we come back, we might be spending a little bit more time over here than in Englaterra.  

I forgot to mention the bike situation.  I found out that I was coming over here to Wales.  So instead of having a lot of time to shop around for a new wheel, I just went and got one so that transporting the bike wouldn't be hell.  Because transfers already are pretty bad, so a bike with one wheel would probably be the worst thing on Earth.  So I just bought one.  It cost me like £60, so I'm sorry.  I'm still trying to figure out how to fix my bike, and I have to get to know the members around here before I start asking them about welding I think.. but Elder Velarde's bike is out of commission to, so we're just walking lately.  And honestly I might die if I try and ride my bike around here.  When you come here you'll understand.

So as for logistics.  If you send me post to the mission home, I probably wont get it for ages, because the mission home is now like a two or three hour drive away, and the Zone Leaders only go like twice or three times a transfer.  So when you write me all your beautiful hand written letters, send them to my flat.

The address is:

242A Stow Hill

Newport

South Wales

NP20 4HA

You can look it up on google earth if you want.  But it wont look like much from the ground level.  It's technically three stories though.  Although the first floor is just a landing.  But the flat is massive.  And super run-down.  Haha, it's one of the flats that have been in the mission for ages, and missionaries have absolutely destroyed it.  Which is exactly what I like.  We can see Bristol and Cwmbran from the top, and the curtains wave when the windows are closed.  Haha, oh well.  It's really a good one. At least, in my opinion.  You'd think it was a total dump. And it is. But that's nice. And I can put my arms all the way out or even over my head and I wont touch both walls.  It's great.

Life is really really good.  I'm super happy to be here, and I think I'm only going to get happier and happier.  

I love you.

Love,

Elder Smart

(or ¡Elder Intelligente!)