Very Hectic And Quick E-Mail!

Hey everyone! I think its week 6! Which is really crazy, it feels like week 2 or something..

Okay, I have to be quick because we are going to the London Temple today! With the awesome Zone leaders Elder Peltier and Oscarson! And I think with the rest of our zone, not too sure yet. But yeah, very pressed on time, but I will forsure bug my companion to let me send out some e-mails later today. I also need to get some pictures, I haven't been very good with taking pictures at all.

Well let me describe the week and how its been.

Callum and Hannah, those 2 golden investigators, have planned to be married in October!!! I'm so excited, and I'm invited to the wedding. Boo-yah! Then we basically gave them a baptismal date and they just loved it. So yeah, I'm really excited for those 2. 

We also met with this lady Tina who has like 120 kids or something. Its so ridiculous! They're all just running around the house. We met with her but her husband started yelling at us so we were all "Woops...." and just left. But!!! we came back to help her paint her house and she said her husband will be more understanding if we brought a girl or soemthing? What the? Oh well. So we plan on bringing a member with us next time to properly teach them.

We also met a guy at a train station, Alex, who is from Kenya, and we taught him a lesson and he was just so intrigued... It was so legit!!! But he only has like 2 weeks in his house, because his landlord/roommate is a turd, so yeah. We were just teaching and the landlord comes in and is all "Who are these people? you let them in MY house without telling me?" and me and elder W are all "I'm sorry sir, its our fault really." And he's just like "No, its Alex's fault!" and started yelling at alex. What the heck? haha.

We met with this guy Andrew who was kind of... interesting. He lives in a motor home even though he owns a flat... what the heck? Haha!!! But he's so kind and awesome. Its just funny because we asked him "Who is God to you?" and he said something like "We're all spirits. He is the trillions of spirits that make up our bodies..." or something. We were just like... "Uhmm yeah..." But he's really a cool guy. he said he saw Christ in the dust particles on TV 3 times in a row, and that he saw 3 lights in the night sky (UFO???) and eh said that was a sign to find the right church. I don't know the deal with that at all.... Haha... But he is very accepting so I'm excited to see him too.

Things are kind of slowing down for us. We have over 10 investigators who were progressing quite a bit, but many of them are slowing down... We think its because of the holidays here in England, august everyone is on vacation and such. But yeah, me and Elder W are worrying about them. But no worries, we'll get something done soon.

Okay I have to go because I should have e-mailed my Mission President first...

One more hilarious thing. We saw a slightly Less-Active member the other day, Brother Abott. He's just a goober, haha. But anyways, that's not the funny part. We were at the Field's house and they told us he was on X-factor. Yeah... What the heck?!?!?! I can't explain it, just look up "Lasly X-factor audition" Or soemthing like that. Its the one with an old guy. Oh my gosh. He was on TV and everything! How legit is that!!! Hahahaha and me and Elder W would just sit there in our flat laughing out loud at just thinking of the video.

I love you all. Stay strong in the Gospel. God knows your problems more than you do. 
DC 10:5 (Seminary scripture! Hahha!)
-Elder Blumenthal

Sighting of Elder Blumenthal!

A picture of Elder Blumenthal was sent to his family by a member from Elder Blumenthal's ward! What a blessing it is to see his face! :)

Week of Aug 13-20: I'm Starting To Warm Up!

This week has been so hectic, but then again I'm thinking every week will be on my mission!

 

Okay, where to begin. Well, I guess I can begin with the people that I've been working with.

 

Elder Wainwright and I have really warmed up to each other and we realize each others' strengths and weaknesses, and we are finally starting to plan effectively with each other. Usually I let him do all the planning because I didn't know what to do, but whatever I felt prompted to say to him, he'd say "yeah I was thinking the same thing." So its awesome to let the spirit guide my planning and working.

 

The other day we went to Uckfield, which is like a billion miles away. Since its so far there's almost no work done there at all... Anyways, we had to walk in the heat (yeah, it was hot that day!) for like 3 or 4 hours because our appointments kept falling through and we couldn't bring our bikes on the bus. But we did see some weird South African family, who basically only lets us in because Elder Wainwright is also from South Africa, and they just talked about it all day. THey're inactive, mostly because of the husband. I've met with 3 or 4 families where the only thing keeping the whole family strong in the church is the dad. What the heck? I firmly believe that men are way more easily thrown off track from the gospel than women, at least from what I've seen. Its so sad seeing a father not apart of the church, and just thinking "What if their kid needs a blessing, he can't even give his own son/daughter one... He has to call someone else up..." its just so sad! I'm glad dad is strong in the church with you guys back home, and that he gives blessings all the time. The Priesthood is a huge blessing from God, we should never forget that.

 

Anyways, on the bus to uckfield, which was like an hour long, there was this weirdo getting on the bus! Like literally, cookoo crazy. he jsut kept saying "Friday, the first of january! Friday, its new years day! Its 1993!!" And I was about to bust out laughing. It was so random! And he kept yelling it. Poor guy, haha. A lot of the people here in our area work at care homes for old or disabled people. like at least 80% of our investigators work in that field. Its kind of odd.

 

Okay so anyways, here's something that has been getting on my nerves. Elder Wainwright eats his ham sandwiches with Margarine and Cream Cheese. I told him thats gross and he just calls me picky... What the heck?! Please, anyone, and everyone from home, try convincing him that in America we eat sandwiches with either Mayonnaise or Miracle whip, not with Butter (or margarine) and Cream Cheese... He thinks that since I'm from Nevada I don't know what everyone else likes in the rest of the states. But I'm sure that I've never been to a subway where they spread Margarine on your sandwich with cream cheese. That is just disgusting.

 

The food here is really nice, I haven't yet had something that's been entirely disgusting. Apparently curry is a huge thing here and that everyone eats it, but I haven't had any curry yet... I'm thinking their idea of curry is different than ours.

 

A weird thing was, at this ward picnic the other day, we were all playing frisbee and football (soccer) and forgot about dinner. Sister Lambert (Ward Mission Leader's wife) yelled "Elders, your tea is getting cold!" so I ran over and I said "my tea is getting cold? What tea?" Apparently they call dinner here Tea. What the heck?! So when you're having a quick meal or something for dinner, you call it tea. Haha what the heck?

 

I have 3 minutes on the computer and I forgot to write Catelyn... Sorry cates!!! But here's a shoutout to you in my bulk letter! Love you! And hope work is going well for you, and that the dogs aren't driving you entirely insane. How are they anyways?

 

Well i have to go. Love you all!

 

-Elder Skyler Blumenthal

 

(Next week I'm going to upload some pictures and videos I'm sure you'll all love.)

First Week Out On The Mission Field!

Woah, its already been about a week on the mission field.

Well, I am definitely now starting to feel homesick. Well not really homesick, but just uncomfortable. The MTC was such a great training experience, but you can only be taught so much before you just have to experience it for yourself.

Anyways, I'll recount what's happened over the last 2 weeks.

We had our MTC farewell, I and everyone else were crying like babies. I miss everyone that I met there!!! It feels like I knew every one of those elders for life, and it was only 3 weeks that I was there. I was really depressed when I had to say goodbye to Brother Rojas, one of my teachers. He was just so awesome, I can't really describe it. I didn't get any pictures of him I don't think, DANGIT, but he looks and reminds me of Jenelle's friend Daniel kind of. At least thats how I remember him. Anyways he was just so funny, a great teacher and was really patient with our district, because we were mischevious. (just kidding, haha)

I also am really going to miss Elder Jensen and Elder Watt. Elder Jensen is from Orem utah, and is J.E. Jensen's (President of the seventy) grandson! How legit is that! Anyways yeah we were roommates and he was just so cool of a guy, I am truly going to miss him.

Elder Watt was from Scotland, I forget what exact part of it though. Anyways just the things he said was so hilarious, I can't even count how many times I was brought to tears from laughing at the stuff he said. His accent was awesome too! It really is hard to explain but when someone has a strong accent from another country it sounds like they're faking it almost haha. Anyways, yeah Elder Watt and Jensen went to Birmingham and London mission, so I won't see them for 2 years :-/ (or forever.) Elder Dominguez and Elder Mather were in my district as well and they're going to different missions, so I'm going to miss those guys too. Everyone else that was in my district are in London South, so I'll see them at least by Christmas (apparently the whole mission gets together on Christmas.)

Anyways enough talk about the MTC, It makes me sad.Haha. We get to the mission office or whatever after a long bus drive with Steve. by the way, Steve was the chef for the MTC, but also drove a bus and other big rigs (Like how dad can) AND he's an operah singer. And a really good one at that. Its so funny.

Anyways we get there and our mission home is AT the london temple. They have a visitor's centre in there which is just so awesome, but I didn't get time to look around it was too busy. Maybe on holiday or something I could look around there more.

I saw Walter Coe just as he was leaving home. I got a picture with him and his parents who were there picking him up. Pretty nice to see a familiar face!

So anyways, transfers. I got paired up with a guy named Elder Wainwright, he's from South Africa but he's white. What the heck?! Anyways he's pretty cool, he always says "That's the BUSINESS!" But he says it funny because of his accent. He's only been out for 4 1/2 months so he's almost as new as I am, but I have confidence he will train me well.

My area is in Haywards Heath. Don't ask me where that is, I have no idea. Every day we've gotten on the bikes I've forgotten where the heck I am. Haha! Anyways, our area is doing REALLY well and I came in at a great time. We have 7 people committed for baptism, one of which already has a date set. I didn't have much to do with any of those but its nice to see the area grow.

My first day wasn't so bad, we met with this guy Josh, a member who is my age. He was having doubts about going on a mission but now he's preparing to go. He's such a great guy, just so likeable. Anyways after that we met with the Pelhams who I've already told mom a bit about, their son just left on a mission to Virginia (I think) in the US, and sister Pelham is JUST like mom. She's constantly talking about her son and him on his mission, how she missed him so much, yada yada yada. Haha

The rest of the week wasn't actually too hard. The hardest part for me so far is the cycling. We have to bike... A LOT. And its killer on my legs. I just can't keep up. I ate waaaay too much before I left. So yeah I'm getting used to that. My bike still had the stupid bike seat without an Allen wrench to adjust it, but we got my companion's bike fixed and then we swapped, so I'm good with that now.

Another hard part of my mission is just... KNOWING the doctrine. I left the MTC confident, but got here and realized that I didn't use Personal and companion study wisely enough. I still am not sure if I study enough. I hardly know any teaching skills,  scripture references, what have you... So I'm just going to pray and hope for the best, and try my best, cause that's all I can do.

I want to talk about a few investigators we've seen, but I only have a few minutes left to write. Callum is this cool guy who used to be in like... a gang, or something, and Hannah is his girlfriend. They live together and Callum is just a FANATIC about the book of Mormon. He is just solid on the idea of it all and has a strong testimony, and we saw him at church too. Its so awesome to see firsthand someone who is converting into the gospel. Hannah isn't necessarily against the church at all, but she just isn't sure yet. But I know that through the influence Callum has on her, and the changes that Callum has made in his life, she's going to see how true the gospel really is. He is already quitting smoking and drinking, and planning on marrying Hannah this coming month so they can get baptized.

Another interesting guy is some dude named Shem. We were just riding our bikes to help a member move a TV, and we said "Hey! how are ya!" to a guy (like we always do.) He just comes up and starts shaking our hands and stuff and was like... really excited. He's like "My name is shem, I'm from Poland!" and he's HUGE! Like he must work out 24/7, he's ripped. Anyways he says he has a friend whose catholic and he's catholic, and he invited us to come to his house for food! We haven't even seen this guy before! Haha. Anyways yeah, we haven't met with him yet but I have some pretty high hopes for him.

Well I am off to write the mission president. I love you guys! I wish I could spend more time writing you all, but this library is pretty strict on time and stuff. What the heck. Tell Jordyn Happy Birthday!!! And Colton happy birthday when his comes up. Or has it already? I forget both of their birthdays. Jordyn is August 9th right? And Colton's is August 19th? I think? Crap, How can I forget their birthdays!!!!

Your son/brother/friend,

Elder Blumenthal

The Last Batch of Photos From MTC!

The last batch of photos of Elder Blumenthal before he left the MTC! Enjoy. :)

I'm Departing The MTC!!!

Hey everyone. I'm leaving the MTC to the field tomorrow morning. By the way, I just noticed by the time you guys get this it'll be like 1 in the morning haha! Time zones.

Anways yeah I have only 5 minutes to e-mail and I've wasted most of it printing your guys' e-mails so I can read them for next week. I won't be able to actually reply or anything until next week, sorry everyone.

Thank you everyone for your e-mails. I love you all.