11/10/2014 Transfers - Elder Orr moves on

Hi Mom,

I hope your foot starts feeling better. I can not believe that the I Family showcase is on Friday!  Have I really been out here for an entire semester of I Family? Holy crap, that went by fast.

Last week was absolutely crazy! Elder Orr was transferred to Cur Filly, which is Wales, so we had to go to Gloucester for transfers. He got on the coach (bus) and went to the mission home along with half of of our district. I ended up spending most of the day with the other elders while we waited for the coach to come back bringing our new companions. But it was good, we had lunch at McDonald's. It was my first time eating there in the UK. They are way nicer over here.

Then we went and toured Gloucester Cathedral. It was amazing! The great east window is larger then a tennis court and for a long time it was the biggest window in the world. It is also where they filmed some of the first Harry Potter movie. We also had the opportunity to tour the crypt which was really cool. They actually hid the throne of England down there in the second world war to protect it from German bombing.

After that we went back to the station and our new companions arrived. I am now with Elder Hall. He is from Layton Utah. He is pretty cool. He is currently recovering from a back injury he got when he crashed his bike. He was also kind enough to grab my post (mail) for me while he was at the mission office, which was nice because I had not had any post for five and half weeks.

 Jaleesa? (I have been out here too long, I can't remember if my sister has one or two E's in her name) she sent me some snacks and a dish scrubber thing that has actually been quite useful.

This week we had bonfire night which is the English version of the forth of July. The story goes that there was this guy named Guy Fox and he tried to blow up parliament but he got caught before he could do it and to celebrate the English build  huge bonfires and shoot of fireworks and eat tons of food. The Branch here in the forest is famous for hosting one of the best Bonfire parties around, so we got to help build the bonfire and set everything up.

The fireworks show they put on was probably the best private fireworks show I have ever seen. It lasted about twenty minutes. I asked Brother Lawson how much it cost him and he said it cost three hundred pounds!!!! That is enough money to buy two and a half months worth of groceries!

This week we also had Jonah turn eight and get baptized and we had the opportunity to fill the font and help set it up. then this last Sunday was remembrance Sunday, the English version of memorial day, which also happened to be 9/11 which was quite appropriate. Well I need to go do my shopping I love very much!

Until next week Best of Britain

Elder Purser

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Hi Dad

(This is in reference to my encrypting his ss number that he requested)

I was a bit confused when I got your Email, but after I read it a second time I saw what you did. That was pretty clever.

Last week was really nuts we went to Gloucester for transfers and Elder Orr got on the coach and left and I stood there with Elder Chantry. And I was like, "What am I supposed to do with the car? I still have not been authorized by president to drive, but I can not leave the car in the station parking lot any longer  because our time is up." 

Then elder Chantry was like, "We can't stay here any longer or we will be breaking the law so lets go find some where to eat lunch." So we got in the car and I got my first taste of big city driving. 

Then when we came back to the station and our new companions arrived, I found out that Elder Hall has been out over a year so his American drivers license is no good.  He said that president told him that I would be driving until he could get an English drivers license, then he would be the driver. 

So I have been driving everywhere for the past five or so days. We had a really funny Dinner Appointment with the Mason family on Sunday. Brother Mason jokingly tried setting us up with his two daughters, which gave us all a good laugh. And to make it even funnier, we played along and had a bit of a Johnny Lingo bride bargaining. The final agreement we came to was that he would let me have his older daughter if I would arrange it so that they could all come live in Idaho Falls. It is a shame we were only joking around, because his older daughter is pretty hot. 

Anyway, on a more missionary note, I will get to go to my second zone conference this transfer and we may have a member of the seventy come. That happens occasionally. And we may be having another baptism coming up in a couple of weeks, so lots of exciting things are happening here. Talk to you next week!

Cheers!

Elder Purser

11/2/2014 Landon Driving?

 Hi Mom,

It has been a very crazy week. We had the last exchanges of the transfer. I officially finished my twelve weeks of training yesterday, so now I am no longer a "greenie." Although I have never been called that, because president banned that word from the mission two years ago, because he thought it was very disrespectful.

Yesterday was stake conference, so we had to go to Cheltenham for that. Tobias came with us. I was a little worried that he would not like it, he speaks so little English, but thankfully there was a recent convert there that spoke fluent polish. So she was able to translate for him and he really enjoyed it. President Rasmussen spoke at conference as well as Elder Dryden of the area 70. When I went up and said hello to Elder Dryden to my surprise he remembered me from when I met him in the MTC. Which really amazed me, because our meeting in the MTC was just a handshake and a ten second conversation and it was almost three months ago. 

Funny story from conference: so we had the evening session on Saturday night that all the missionaries were asked to attend and we had service right before hand, so there was no time to go back to the flat and change, so we we brought our suits to the service in the car and went straight from service to conference. And when we got there I realized that I forgot to bring my dress shoes, so I went to the evening session of stake conference with just my black socks on my feet. 

I love you very much and I hope everything continues to go well. and by the way, to answer your question I do have a warm enough coat. I found one on exchange in the Stroud missionary flat that some one left behind. It is the coolest coat I have very seen and it is very nice and warm. So they let me take it because I needed a better coat. It needs a couple buttons resown but I can do that no problem.

Until next week do wezennia (that's polish for good bye I learned that from Tobias)

Elder Purser

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Hi Dad,

Sounds like things are the same old, same old, back in the states. Except for Bethany about to have her baby of course. That is very exciting. Speaking of babies how much longer does Abi have until she has her baby? And is anyone else looking like they may be expecting ?  I realize that sounded worse then I meant, but I can not think of any other way to ask.

In other news I finished my training yesterday and today is dodge day which basically  means that today is the day President calls people to be district leaders, zone leaders and assistants. So every missionary goes through their P day wondering if the phone will ring. And tonight is dodge night, which is when the assistants announce transfers. Every one in our district is betting that elder Orr is leaving because he has been in the forest for six months, he has spent a quarter of his mission here, half of that training me.

Oh and do not tell mom this but the president gave me a surprise call last week and asked me to start driving so I have been out on a couple of test drives... Can you say...

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not only do they drive on the wrong side of the road, but they also make the roads only a third of the size of the roads back home. To be fair, the cars are also smaller but not that much smaller. Luckily I did manage to do all the drives with out any problems. Although it got a little hard to breath a couple of times when I passed buses on the two way lanes. Of course, the test drives don't mean anything unless I get a call from president saying that he authorizes me to be a driver. But it still does not look good for Elder Orr's chances of staying. 

Also the church needs my social security number because of the affordable health care act. The church has to get it for missionary health care purposes, but I cannot remember mine. How can we get it to them?

Also please let me know when you get the next quarterly report for the book.  I do not think about it very often, but occasionally during a quiet moment on p day or at night I remember all the time and energy and money I put into it, and it both amuses and annoys me that I don't know if all that hard work is paying off.

Naraje (that is polish for see ya and I have no idea if that is how you spell it)

Elder Purser

email 10/28/2014 missionary work via google translate

Hi Mom,

Sorry I was unable to email yesterday. We spent all our computer time at the library teaching Tobias, so president gave us permission to Email today. I don't think I have told you about Tobias yet he is a Polish guy we met and started teaching a couple of weeks ago. He knows about 20 words of English and we know even less Polish, so every lesson with him is an adventure. We have to teach him at the library and translate every thing we want to say to him on the computer, and it takes way longer then a normal lesson. He came to church on Sunday and stayed for the baptism.

The number one question people asked us during church was "how in the world are you teaching this guy?" The answer of course being that we have not taught him anything it is 100% the spirit. We showed up to that first lesson in the park armed with nothing but a polish copy of the Book of Mormon we found in the flat and the holy ghost, and now he is preparing to be baptized and I am convinced it has nothing to do with our teaching. If anything we are slowing him down.

Naz was baptized and confirmed after church. It was an amazing experience! I had the privilege of saying the opening prayer and being a witness for the baptism. Several people said that they really enjoyed the baptismal service, which is good, because we put a lot of time into it.

I was going to send you some pictures and then I left the camera in the flat, so I will just have to send them next P day. Speaking of next P day, that will be the first dodge day that applies to me. Dodge day is the day that President calls people to leadership positions. Every missionary goes through P day wondering if they are going to get a calling or be released from the calling they have. Then of course that night, dodge night, is when we find out who is getting transferred.

It is so weird to think that next week I may be asked to pick up and move to who knows where. It is very strange how time works, it does not feel like I have been here very long, but I just realized while I was sitting here that tomorrow is going to be the ninetieth day of my mission and in eleven days will be my one hundredth day or about one seventh of my mission done! Which is crazy! And of course my first Christmas in the UK is less then two months away and the following January will mark my six month mark or a quarter of my mission! Well I should probably wrap this up so I can get back to work.

I love you very much and I hope you continue to be well.

Elder Purser

------------------ Hi Dad,

Things have been going well here, Naz got baptized on Sunday which was very good. I have been working with her since week one of my mission and the missionaries had been working with her for months before that! But she did make it. She read the book of Mormon cover to cover gave up Tea, Coffee and Cigarettes and now she is a member of the church!

I wish all our investigators were that easy. I am currently on exchange in Yate. We were supposed to Email on P day but then we had to teach Tobias (see moms email for more on Tobias) so we got permission from president to do our Emailing today.

I am quite excited because Elder Novotny Emailed me back! I have not heard anything about him since we left the MTC. He is currently serving in Ireland.

Those were good times in the MTC! It is crazy how slow the MTC went by, even though it was only two weeks long, it felt like we were in there for a month.

Well I should probably keep this short so that we can get on with our exchange. Talk to you next week!

Elder Purser

emails 10/20/2014

Hi Mom,

I am glad to hear that everything is going well back home and that everyone is doing all-right. I am quite excited this week because Naz is getting baptised on Sunday!!!!! I it is crazy to think that I invited her to be baptised on my second day in the mission field and now she finally is!!

Yesterday was a little disappointing, because we had the children's primary program and we knocked the whole neighbourhood around the church during the week before, inviting people to come see it. We invited about 70 or so people to come and a large number of them said they would... and not a single one of them showed up.

Last week was crazy, we had back to back exchanges with the Stroud elders and the Zone Leaders. And Elder Orr went to Cheltenham and he left me in charge of the Forest of Dean. Elder Steflik and I got so lost and then we got a flat tyre in the Zone Leaders car, way out in the middle of nowhere. Luckily we had all the tools to fix it, or we would have been stuck there most of the night waiting for one of the members to come rescue us.

This week we have back to back exchanges with the Stroud elders and the Yate elders. These exchanges are starting to get really annoying because every time I go to the other areas I have to eat their food. And they do not have anything good to eat. Like they will have pasta, but no sauce to go with it, or they have some good stuff, but their companion tells me not to eat it because the other elder is going to use it for something, and then I come back and they have eaten all my good stuff!! It feels so unfair.

While I am on the subject of food, could you please send me some recipes? I have run out of ideas of things to cook. I am particularly having trouble finding good things to make for breakfast and lunch, because we often do not have much time to cook and so we usually go with things that are quick and easy, but not very healthy. But I need to get into better shape because I get tired out far to quickly. I am exercising every morning, but I need more good food to eat. Please let me know if anyone has suggestions of meals that are quick, easy to make, and are pretty healthy.

I love you very much and I look forward to when I get to see you at Christmas (on the computer)

Elder Purser
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olah Padre, como estas?

So I did get in to Southern Virginia then. That is good to know, since I did all that work to apply before I left. you told them to put me down for the fall semester when I get back right? anyway it is nice to know that I have the option of going there when I finish my mission. 

 

This week was a real adventure because I got to change my first tyre in England. At least I think it was England, we might have been in Wales (we were lost at the time). Today we get to go shopping!!!! 

 

It is really funny how back home shopping was not a very exciting experience, but here it is like the ultimate weekly Walmart run, just because it is basically the only time we get to go out in public and do something that normal people do; plus we are in England, so everything is different in the shops here. So we are always experimenting with the food, and eating is the only vice we are allowed, so we spoil ourselves rotten every week and eat like kings. At least I do. I have found that a lot of the other elders just eat sandwiches and the English version of Ramen noodles, which is even more disgusting then the real thing. 

 

For your information a Lorry is a truck and trouble and strife is wife hahaha! 

 

Your fun fact for today is that in medieval times commoners would live their entire lives without going more then ten miles away from where they were born. Nowadays we have cars, trains, buses, and air planes that make world travel possible... but the attitude of your average Englishmen towards travel has not changed. They still hate going places, even though they can now do it in no time, which makes it really hard to get members present at our lessons. Well I've got to dash, off best of luck!

Elder Purser

Emails 10/13/2014 (Thanks Mom)

Hello Mom, It is good to hear that things are going well back home. The winter rain storms have finally hit with a vengeance. Last Saturday it rained like I have never seen it rain before, thousands of gallons of water hitting the earth every second. All the roads and foot paths became rivers that we were wading through, it was crazy. Then Sunday it was incredibly foggy and today it is raining really hard again. The locals say that during the winter time it just rains and rains and rains all day long for five or six months. Up until now we have been having lovely sunny weather but that all came to an end last week. By the way, the zone leaders finally went to the mission home last week and picked up the mail so I finally got the package the primary sent. Tell them I said thank you. I forgot to mention in my last letter home that I happened to bump into a friend of Sleight's (Landon's Cousin) from high school his name is Elder Samuel Shumway and he said to tell Seight hi for him. And mom, I would just like to say thank you. Thank you for all those meals you cooked for me over the last 18 years. Thank you for all the loads of laundry you did and all the times you dragged me out of bed to go to school and seminary. Thank you for encouraging me to go on a mission and take part in other activities back in school. Thank you for all the diaper changes and all the times you didn't yell at me growing up. Thank you for being a good example and always trying to do the right thing. Thank you for being my mom! I love you very much Elder Purser ------------------------- Hi Dad, Last week was pretty crazy, we had interviews with the president on Tuesday and we had district meeting in Cheltenham for a change. We did not have very many appointments this week, so we did a lot of finding in the rain. I am very excited for next week because we are going to have our first baptism!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately it will be after Monday so you will have to wait another two P days to hear about it. Congratulations on knowing what a WC is (Water Closet = Bathroom) and for your information Vauxhall is the car company that all of our mission cars come from, in america they are known as "Chevrolet" or "Chevy". Your words for today, should you choose to accept them, are "Lorry" and "trouble and strife" as a hint about the second one remember the cockney word substitution I showed you in one of my first emails to you. Now your fun fact for today is that there are more sheep in Wales than there are people, and I can testify of the truth of this because every time we drive through the forest, we see thousands of them. And because there is no law that says they have to be fenced in, their owners just let them roam free. We encounter them all the time as they are crossing the road or are just laying in the middle of the road, and we have to drive around them. Which is really annoying! I have been tempted so many times to tell elder Orr just to run them over, so we can clear the roads and have mutton for dinner! To answer your question yes I am wearing my night guard, and you totally miss quoted Shakespeare its "gather your courage and upon this charge cry God for Harry, England, and St. George!!!" By the way did Southern Virginia University ever say if I got in? I was just thinking about that today and I thought I would ask. Any way I hope things are still going good, and hopefully you got the second report for how the book is doing. Please let me know if you got it. Do not say how much it is, because that would distract me but tell me if it is more than last time. Love you Elder Purser

email 10/6/2014

Hello!

How are things back in the US of A? Last week was absolutely crazy we finally moved into our new flat which is SSOOOO much nicer then our old place. It actually  has a modern bathroom with a bathtub and a shower that is not duct taped together! The only problem is that we cannot figure out how to make this new shower work  because these English showers are really strange electric showers that are very hard to work until you learn each individual shower's little character quirks. 

Last P day we got to go to Monmouth castle and the war museum right beside it.  The castle was just a ruin, but it was pretty cool it is crazy how thick they made those walls! The museum was really cool too, they had a tank and an old canon  there, and lots of weapons and uniforms. 

We got to go to Cheltenham for conference; it was really weird going around  Saturday like it was a normal day and then going into the stake centre at five  o'clock in the evening and sitting down to watch conference live. Then watching  priesthood and the second session Sunday morning and then watching the first Sunday session at five o'clock once again live. We still have not watched the last session. But we will watch it some time this week.

I love you a lot and I hope things are still okay!

Elder Purser
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Dear Dad,

 I never drink wooden Indians! in fact they do not even have wooden Indians here!

Congratulations on knowing what bonnet and boot mean.   Your words for this week are WC and Vauxhall, and your fun fact for today is that all wall sockets in England have a switch to turn them on and off, so if you want to use any appliance, you have to turn the wall socket on (which is really embarrassing when you spend five minutes wondering why the toaster won't work and then your companion asks is the wall socket switched on?). I forgot to mention in my Email to mom that our new address is 

8 Lancaster House

Monk Street

Monmouth 

NP25 3LW

Wales

Thank you for the advise about my how to get my card to work I will give it a try. Things have been going pretty well here last week was kind of stressful but I am feeling better this week. hope that things are going good!

Elder Purser

Emails, 9/29

Hello! How is everyone back in Idaho? To answer the burning question, I am still in the Forest of Dean, which is not really a surprise since I have only been here one transfer, so it would be pretty crazy for them to move me after only six weeks. 

It is hard to believe that I have been in the UK for two months now with two 

weeks in the MTC and six weeks out here in the forest and my first transfer 

is already over! well one down sixteen more to go. 

It is interesting to hear that you guys have been having so much rain, because 

we have had hardly any since I came out here. It rained almost every day in the 

MTC but it has only rained maybe seven or eight times since I came to the forest. 

Apparently God is sending it all your way for a change, but that will all change 

when winter sets in then it will rain 24/7 for two or three months with occasional sleet. Last week was pretty ruff we had to drop a few investigators and the excitement

of living in England has finally wore off and I had trouble sleeping, but I am 

feeling much better now. One really awesome thing that happened last week was that we fish and chips three times! Once we bought some at the seven seas chip shop on P day and the members fed it to us two more times later in the week. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. As I told you in my last Email I got my 

haircut last P day. It was a very novel experience going to a barber shop and having an old man cut my hair and actually having to pay for it. Today we are going to check out Monmouth castle and the military museum where they have all these tanks and stuff. One cool thing I have found out is that all of the 

smaller museums here are free admission. Which is really cool since we are just a 

couple of poor missionaries. And we really are poor missionaries, because today was 

the last p day of the month and we spent the last of our money, (which was not very 

much) stocking up on groceries because we will not have any more money until next 

p day. So for the first five days of this upcoming month we will be living off of 

last month's left overs until they send us more money next p day. We got a call from the mission office today and they said that we have an appointment

to meet with the guy who owns our new flat that we are going to move into, to prepare 

to move in, which is good, because we only have nine more days until we get evicted. 

So we really need to move this week. Well, this Email is getting pretty long so I will wrap this up. I hope that every thing 

continues to go OK back home. Elder Purser

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Hi Dad

Nice try with the English words, but unfortunately a Faggot is not a cigarette, it is a meat ball that is not in the shape of a ball and it is a very proper English dish (lots of missionaries have been tricked in the past by that, they go over to a members house for dinner are told that they are having faggots for dinner and then the family gets a laugh about the American missionaries reaction) and a fritter is also an English dish and it is basically just a fried egg.

Your fun fact for this week is that King Henry V was born about two hundred meters from our flat here in Monmouth, at Monmouth Castle which elder Orr and I are going to visit today! 

And your English words for the day are bonnet and boot and no they are not articles of clothing.  I will give you a hint car. Speaking of cars, tell Trevor I saw a Ford Focus today and the European version is even uglier than the American style one. Also do not tell Mom this, but we had lunch as a district last week and we ate at the Hungry Horse Pub and Restaurant.

It is quite funny because in America we think of pubs like bars but most pubs are more like red robin or olive garden where they serve food and alcohol, but it is not a big deal. There are pubs that are strictly for drinking and you have to make sure you avoid those, especially at night when they are full of drunk people. But most of them are for eating and drinking and they are really cool inside. We do not go to any very often though, simply because of the bad reputation they have, and we like fish and chip shops better.

Any way, well, I got to go. Let me know if the world ends or anything important like that happens while I am gone. I will let you know what watching conference here is like. It is really weird, because we watch it in the evening over here, because of the time difference.

Cheers

Elder Purser

P.S. cheers means hello, good bye, thank you, and anything else you decide to have it mean