Elder Skyler Blumenthal: July 2012

Okay, I know 2 weeks into the mission isn't too crazy. In fact it hasn't totally been 2 weeks yet. But anyways, yeah, the week has flown by so fast.

I need to start writing down in a seperate journal all the stuff that I want to write about. I write too much in my journal and I wouldn't have time to type everything.

So anyways, the biggest thing was that last Friday we went into Manchester near the park and were proselyting. Actually to be fair we were just out finding others and getting their info for the local missionaries to teach them. But it was so great. Let's start there...

We prepared like crazy that day on what to do to start talking to people and and just trike up a conversation. They told us to do it as fast as possible, even on the way TO manchester. There is never a specific place you want to "be at" to find people. So me and Elder Ormsby get on the train (First time I've ever been on a train like it by the way... It was pretty crazy! Those things go like 80 MPH.) Anyways me and elder Ormsby just sit there in awkward silence for like 10 minutes. HAHA! There were so many people to talk to but we were to afraid! lol. So anyways I get the courage to start talking to some guy, he was really nice, I forget his name and everything but he was a buddhist guy so I didn't really know where to go from there... Then I talk to this couple standing near me, and as soon as I say "Hi! How are you?" he just says "Uhh I don't want anything to do with religion." But I wasn't going to give up so I just kept asking questions to him and he was just answering them awkwardly. Haha! But I didn't do as good as I could have, I never really got onto the subject of the church at all. But it was nice talking to them when we weren't sitting in awkward silence.

Then we get to the park. So far Elder Ormsby has said maybe 3 words. I'm like "Dude! Come on man!" By the way, when we get here I'm just about as afraid as the train. I go up to a woman, say hello, she seems really nice and even introduced her grandson, then said "I'm catholic, somethin somethin" and walked away. So i was like "Crap." But anyways Elder Ormsby told me he had a good feeling about a black guy sitting on the steps of this really nice statue that I couldn't get a picture of. We go over and talk to him, says he already has met with the missionaries! So he's interested! He told us that he never really read the BoM but was still interested. So we basically just chatted it up, Elder Ormsby even started to talk haha and went into teaching mode, sharing scriptures and such with the guy. Anyways he seemed really committed to go home and find out for himself, so it was so great to talk to that guy.

Well I have almost no time so I'll just finish up with a bit of a summary. After Akin (That's the guys name) we met with a girl whose name was so weird I forget it. (It sounded like she said Ritalin or something lol) Anyways we gave her a Book of Mormon and she seemed pretty interested too, but who knows. We also sat with what seemed like a homeless guy, gave him a book of mormon and he gave us a phone number. Kind of weird he has a phone but begs on the streets?! Oh well haha he was a great guy, really nice.

Near the end of the day we saw another black guy but this one pretty much hated mormons. He was just sitting there saying he didn't want to read the Book of Mormon for this reason and that reason, saying "Momo is your savior, not Jesus Christ. Whose this momo?" Haha anyways I actually wasn't even offended by these outrages claims, I just wanted to set the truth straight and let him know what we truly believed in. But he just wouldn't listen! Sheesh! Well anyways what we learned was that after that 20-minute conversation we could have found other people who would have seemed much more interested and not waste our time. So if someone won't commit to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, or something else to find out the truth, don't bother with them. No use in arguing with someone who won't listen to your side of the argument at all.

In other MTC news, we went around Manchester and got to see some of the roots of Church History here in England. Alot of your e-mails shows that you guys already got the jist of it, but yeah, it was such an awesome experience!! We saw where the very first English person got baptized at. And only here did we learn the true significance of that. The church would probably not have survived without the members from England. They all came from overseas and traveled with the saints and pioneers. I never knew that! I thought that was so cool.

Anyways a short story about the church History. I don't know if you guys heard it yet. Heber C Kimball, one of the 4 misisonaries in england at the time, has committed 9 people to baptism on one of his first days proselyting. That night he was awoken by his companion who said there was someone there who wasn't welcome and he didn't feel comfortable. Next thing he knows, he was knocked out cold and evil spirits were literally attacking the 4 elders in that apartment for over an hour and a half!!! Can you just imagine? Anyways, the next day when they are bringing the people to be baptized, THOUSANDS of English people showed up to the baptism of these 9 people. Why do you think those spirits were harassing Heber C. Kimball and the others? What they were going to do was going to have a HUGE impact on the church in more ways than I think they knew.

I have 4 minutes then I have to go to the store. I might send single e-mails but only if I have enough time. I love all of you guys.

I love all of you! Thank you everyone for the e-mails. Someone tell Zac that he's a fool, his SISTER e-mailed me before he did. That turd. Anyways tell him I love him and tell Steven I love him too.

I also have taken LOADS of pictures but I don't have a way of uploading them yet. I'm going to buy a card reader when I get to the store so I can upload them. Also it'd probably take forever and a half to get them uploaded and elders are already getting anxious to get on the computers.

3 Nephi 11. Just the whole chapter. Read that stuff! So powerful!

Love,

Elder Blumenthal