Tearing Down Walls for Jesus

 

[mom's note: this email continued MANY photos of a wall being torn down and only two that kiiiind of show Brennan and his companion.  What I'm saying is that I now have lots of pictures of a wall in various stages of destruction.  Bless this child.]

So, it's pretty flipping cold right now! We've caught the tale end of a hurricane (I think it's called Bertha, which makes me think of a big black lady who don't take no nothin' from no one, but at the same time will make you sweet tea and biscuits) so it's pretty windy (VERY WINDY) and quite wet. I (Praise da Lord) luckily found my rain jacket again after having lost it in the move, so I only got a little (A lot) wet this week. I don't really want my winter coat sent over yet because it's not really cold enough to justify a massive coat like that... but soon.

So yeah, this week's been very productive. I guess I haven't told you guys all that much about what I actually DO each day, so here we go. 

6:30am- Get up, pray, fall asleep while praying 

6:40am- wake up from prayer and justify that God got the gist of what you were trying to say 

6:41am- Exercise (60 pushups, 60 squats, stretching, 60 jumping jacks)

7:01am- Groan from aching muscles

7:10am- Shower (Use Sister missionaries good smelling soap they accidentally left) 

7:40am- Stare at fridge and debate if you can afford to eat breakfast that morning

8:00am- Personal study (Preach my Gospel, Scriptures, Study journal)

9:00am- Companionship Study (Read White handbook, Prepare lessons for the day)

10:00am- Go out and street contact for an hour

11:00am- Lunch (Once again, stare at fridge and ask yourself if you can afford to each lunch today)

12:00-4:30pm- Teach investigators and LA's, Groan loudly when everyone flogs you, get a few doors slammed in your face, stare at a Scottish woman as you try to figure out what the heck she is saying, Finally understand that she's telling you she hates religion, wish her a good day, avoid crazy Austrian lady on the way to Woodhouse, get caught by Austrian lady and learn about how the cars driving on the road are ruining her house's foundation (11th time told story, house still looks fine)

4:31pm-Travel to tea

5:00pm- Take tea

6:00-8:50pm- Teach (See 12:00-4:30pm, repeat steps shown) 

8:59pm- Run home (Literally RUN) because you're companion believes that if you're not in by 9pm, God stops protecting you and you can get killed more easily (It's sorta rubbed off and now I believe it too...) 

9:00pm- Plan for tomorrow

9:30pm-Call district leader

9:31pm- Groan because the Sister's got to the district leader first and they take FOREVER to follow up

10:00pm- Finally get a hold of district leader 

10:05pm- Hang up on district leader by accident

10:06pm- Call him back and say "Love ya bye" and then hang up

10:10pm- Stare at fridge and ask yourself if you can afford a midnight snack

10:15pm- Stare at your companions food in the fridge and ask yourself if you can get away with eating his

10:20pm- close fridge and drink 3 glasses of water to satisfy hunger

10:25pm-Pray

10:27pm- Companionship prayer (More then likely one of you will sneeze on the others bed while kneeling)

10:30pm- Sleep

10:40pm- Yell at chav downstairs who thinks it's ok to build a wardrobe with power tools this late at night

10:50pm- Really fall asleep

So yeah, that's my day! 

 

Good news though! Our investigator H. is doing AMAZING! She's scheduled for the 6th of September and is so determined to make it she's deciding to go cold turkey on her smoking a week earlier then planned! She's quite coffee too, and alcohol! She went to church this week and loved it! AND GUESS WHAT! She's had the BOM for 2 weeks and she's already halfway through Mosiah! So good! She know's the chapters better then we do! She can recount almost every story perfectly all the way up to Mosiah! It's a flipping miracle too because she's certifiably blind!!! Like seriously, terrible eyesight, but feels the spirit so strong when she reads that she just powers through it! So great! She's 100% Prepared and we're aren't even teaching her really, she's teaching herself! It's great! 

  

It's been a busy few weeks. We've taught 23 lessons this week and 21 last week so 44 lessons in total so far this month. We're aiming to teach close to 90 lessons this month. 

 

 

 

 

Well, love you lot's! Bye!

The Tale of Pinkeye, Old Blind Dog, and Mini Hurricanes.

Soooooooo, I have unfortunately contracted Conjunctivitis which pretty much means my eyes are puffy, blood shot, red, itchy, and all around awful. It feels like there's a nail stuck underneath and behind my eye, so every time I look up or down my eyes water because it hurts somethin' awful! So that's been a wonderful addition to my week ;) Lol, honestly I'm alright. Its hard to proselyte like this because I'm pretty much useless when it comes to actually SEEING people to talk to, but Elder Schwarzkopf just kinda leads me around like a blind old dog so it works out in the end ;) Lol, I went and saw the emergency GP the other day to get it looked at, and he prescribed me some thing that I later learned when I went to the pharmacists, you could buy over the counter, and it was 3 pounds cheaper that way! I will add that I first went to that same Pharmacist and learned that because of new laws, THEY WEREN'T ALLOWED TO SELL ME ANYTHING OVER THE COUNTER!  So yeah. A miracle definitely happened though! I was told that going to the EGP would cost me nothing, I then got there and learned that because I'm a foreign national it costs 25 pounds to be seen. I luckily had JUST that because it was the beginning of the month and I'd only spent 80 pounds on my Bus pass for the month, and 10 pounds on food for the week, so I just barely had enough for it! So yeah. One small problem, it hasn't exactly gotten any better... apparently after 3 days if it isn't healed, I need to go back in sooooo my eye's have 16 hours to get 100% healed. So that sorta sucks. (Parentals: If I do have to go to the Doctors, I will have to pull out personal funds to pay for it (Shouldn't be more then 25 pounds again) but it is reimbursable, so I'll put it back into the account when I get paid back by the mission. I would just have to do that If I need to go back and I haven't already been reimbursed for the 114 pounds I'm sending in today (Takes about 3 days to get reimbursed) ) So yeah, that's been interesting. Besides that everything is going well!

Mum: 1. So, I'm not sure about the suit thing. I think I'm just going to wear the suits till their dead and keep trying to repair them as I go along. Hopefully I can make them stretch another 3 or so months, and then maybe I could get a new suit and we can just count it as my Christmas Present. 

 

2. We had to move flats because that's what Jesus wanted (Seriously I have no idea why.) On a side note, the flat is 100% haunted (We rededicated it though). 

Dad: I got your pictures, look's like you're all having fun!

Love you guys lots! I've got to go! Talk to you next week! 

 

(PS: To add the legitimacy of my haunted flat statement, about 4 sisters have gone home early while staying in that flat, and 3 have been injured while staying there to the point they had to go home. Also, I've now learned it's been rededicated twice by the ward, because other sisters have also said it's haunted before I came here)

 

[mom's note: after worrying about him having pink eye and living in a haunted flat all week, I was relieved to get this weeks email full of good news]

 

 So yeah, my eye's are 100% better. I ended up getting about 20 home recipes from different families (One Jordy women rubbed a gold ring on my face) so I guess one of them worked! 

 

This week's been amazing. God's answered Elder Schwarzkopf and I's prayers in so many ways. We met 3 Less actives this week, all of them Less active for decades, and one of them who we gave a blessing to yesterday felt that God was telling her she should go back to church (SCORE ONE FOR THE BIG GUY), so yay for that! Our investigator H. is progressing super well. She read all of 1st Nephi this week and is on 2nd Nephi already! She says that she feels as though God is answering her prayers and he's preparing her to join the church (HUZZZA!) And another of our Investigators R. is scheduled for the 6th of September and has committed to stop smoking (which is a BIG deal because the Dude's Scottish). So yay, lot's of prayer answering! 

 

 The flat's no longer haunted! Yay! 

So yeah, I got SOAKED yesterday! Like seriously, I got so wet you could see through my shirt! There's a mini Hurricane type thingy over England right now, so there are winds reaching up to 60-100 MPH winds in parts of England! I think we got a taste of it last night because when we were walking our investigator H. back to her flat, I got picked up a bit by the wind and had to put my feet down really quick before I got pushed back any further and toppled over! My hair was just ruined which was the only part I was mad about because my hair had been on POINT that day. 

So I felt a bit sad yesterday though. We were with the LA we gave a blessing too, and she had no money. Here meter for electricity had 50p in it and it was going to run out any second, and there was nothing we could do because the bishop couldn't help her that night with the Welfare Program. I felt so helpless and I felt really sad thinking about the 3 pound I spent on food the day before, and how that's what this women has for the WEEK! *sigh*.

Wow! Melanie Hale is going to Czech/Slovak! That's amazing! We teach quite a few Slovaks here in England (There's actually an Ensign talk a year or two back about a Slovak branch they opened in Sheffield). They're a good people. The biggest thing to get into a Slovak home is just to say "Jesus Christ?". and they rush you inside with open arms. They LOVE JESUS! Lol, whenever you see a Slovak or a Chinese person, you just immediately rush to them because they're so willing to embrace the gospel, be baptized, and stay solid members!  So yeah, got to go! Love you all lots (I'm buying an umbrella today, in preparation for more mini hurricane) ttyl!

Elder Hays Finds Some Flogged Pants

Okay, so I'm pretty short on time. One hour is really not at all long enough to write to everyone AND write home a big letter. The reason I didn't email yesterday is because every six weeks is transfer week. And, at least here in England, when it's transfer week we take our Pday on Tuesday instead.   SO Yeah I actually have a lot to write about, but not much time. 

So first, the results of transfer week! Elder Schwarzkopf and I are staying together in Keighley for one more transfer! We're both ok with that, because we've started to have a lot of success, and we would like to progress the new people we've found before we leave. We've found 4 new investigators and about 5 potential investigators. So we always have someone we can visit on top of the Less actives and Recent Converts we can see every now and again. 

Something weird did happen though. WE HAD TO MOVE AGAIN! The weird bit though was that we were asked to switch flats with the sisters, so the sisters new home is really masculine (Blues and browns), and ours is really feminine (Pinks and yellows), but I mean it's not like that is much to complain about!

 The weather has been HOT. I know, I know, I'm spoiled over here. But seriously, walking up and down hills in 25 Celsius with a stupidly high humidity point is TIRING. I don't think I've sweat this much in ages!

 I hope you're birthday went well mum, and I hope you're birthday Wednesday (mom's note: we celebrated twice) goes well as well! Jordan, I'm glad you're done with work! I hope you get a bit of a relaxing break before school starts! Senior year is great, and I'm sure you'll love it. It's a bit weird at first because you realize that a lot of the people you knew when you were younger have graduated and moved on, but that's why I loved things like Speech, you got to be with Kids from all years, and you didn't have to feel weird about being friends with say a sophomore, because you knew them from speech. Be kind to everyone, just remember how you felt your first year, and that'll help you to reach out to others. 

Holden & Noelle - I hope the pregnancy is going well! Whats the due date? 

Dad, I'm still not getting any letters from you soooooo?

Mom, I love you so much, stay happy, I know that everything happens for a reason. You're such and amazing person! 

Alright guys, gotta go! Love you bye! 

Here are some photos: 

So these are some pants we found that were flogged at the Bradford flat. (Flogged means left behind) they're a skinny fit size 38 waist. I had to struggle to get them on, but they're on! Lol, I'm using them as a pair of goal pants for now! 

It was the hottest day of the week and our train was delayed by 25 minutes with no air conditioning and I was on FIRE!!!!  

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