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
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