A Really Good, Weird Week

A hipster photo for this week...I'm sorry, I saw "Mainstream Court" and couldn't resist.
The ironic bit is that it's a dead end. Ha ha ha!

I can't believe that Tahoe got called to Rome! That's super legit. As I think about it, I think that Tahoe will do well in a place like that. If England's any kind of example of European thought, many seem to fall to one end or the other -- either devotedness to a certain faith (here in England it's pretty much uniformly Church of England), or un-budging secular humanism and atheism. I feel like Tahoe could relate to both groups of people, what with him being a fairly analytical and an intellectual person.

That's cool about running into Claudia. She actually went to Hamlin too, as I remember it. She was a grade younger, but we had AP Spanish together. It's kind of cool to hear that she's following what's been going on via Facebook. I don't really realize how many people might actually read this every week (especially since I haven't been following the pageviews in a little while).

I honestly can't think of much to send in the Easter package. I'm fine on deodorant, and I've found places to get a lot of the other stuff I need here (just found out that the Chinese Shop off the high street sells root beer. You don't know how excited we were, honestly. It's about £2.60 for a 1.5L bottle, but oh my days it's so worth it.) None of the kids in the ward I shared it with really appreciated it though. A lot of people here think it tastes like medicine. Oh well, their loss.

So, what happened this week? It was kind of a weird week, actually. A really good one, but a weird one. We picked up three people who committed to baptism, which is super cool. It was interesting, because all three of them were products of other people cancelling appointments. The first guy is from Brussels, and we actually met him right after that lady threatened to call the police on us last week. Between us talking to her at the door and putting a card through the door, we saw him walking up the way, and ran up to go talk to him. Apparently he has friends back in Brussels who are members of the church, and was invited to go along about 10 years ago. It was super exciting to hear that he's from Kinshasa down in the Congo originally. I'm definitely emailing Julius about that this week.

We also met another couple. We were just splitting up for an exchange with the Romsey guys down in Eastleigh, and our plans were to head up to Colden Common to see Leigh and her husband, but they had to cancel right around noon, as she was called in to work. But, seeing as the rest of our day was planned around that appointment... We were utterly lost. So, Elder Law and I sat down and said a prayer, and then resolved that we would talk to everyone on the way to visit one Less-Active member in Eastleigh, and following that, we would catch the train to Micheldever to visit someone we'd been asked to go by. We actually met a few really cool people on the way there, and were able to pick up a few return appointments. When we got to the Less-Active's street, they were standing there on the street with her little brother, so we approached them and asked if they believed in God, and if they knew anything about the Book of Mormon. They invited us into their place, and we were able to teach a full lesson, and at the end of it they both agreed to be baptised. It was pretty fantastic, really.

We've also had a ton of people giving us referrals this last week, which is really unusual. The one we were able to contact wasn't very solid, but we'll keep going by the others.

Also, Elder Mercer, Elder Law and I got to sing in sacrament on Sunday. I totally through that it was supposed to be for next Sunday, so I had to throw together an arrangement while I was in the shower on Tuesday morning, and then teach it to the other two guys over the next few days (which was tough, since I didn't have much opportunity to go through it with Elder Law. It went well enough, people from the ward were fairly impressed. I think it's been really cool to me to see just how much music can do in establishing trust with people. I'm still writing more, and actually just started a song about Horace Martin Alexander and his family this morning, which I hope will come out alright. I keep meaning to send you recordings of a few of the others I've done, but I only just figured out the reason why I can't play any of the songs on my voice recorder... And now it's out of battery. So, maybe I'll bring my guitar to the Pinney's on Sunday when I Skype.

Speaking of Skyping, I'll be Skyping you from their place on Sunday. (It's English Mother's Day.) We'll have choir after church, And so I'll probably just Skype after dinner's done at their place on Sunday, probably between 3:00 and 4:00 our time, so 7:00 and 8:00 yours. Otherwise I suppose I could try to do it really early that morning, around 8:00ish, or earlier, which would be the night before for you guys. I might actually vie for that one. I'll message you again at the end of the day and let you know.

Well, that's about it. Elder Mercer's getting tired of me using Thai Fish sauce in the flat, because it smells like dead rat, but I make a pretty mean stir fry now. Also tried my hand at chili this week, with some really odd ingredients (we were out of chili powder, so I tried spicing it with horseradish, mustard, and some balsamic vinegar), but it turned out quite nicely in the end. We're making more Mexican food for people this week, which is always a joy. But oh, Mission Burrito sounds so nice right now.

So, I look forward to seeing you Sunday!

Love you,

- Elder Green

Oh, P.S. You can tell all the girls that one of the members here said that I speak more like a British person, and have more British mannerisms than any other American missionary he's ever met. It kind of made a little piece of me die inside. No, that doesn't mean I've got a British Accent, as Americans understand a British Accent. I just say weird things like, "I don't want to, but I should do." and ask questions like British people do -- that is inflecting down at the end of a question instead of up.