"God bless America!"

God Bless America: 4th of July Barbecue at the Stamps

It's so funny, because it feels like it's been really hot here. We got rain probably twice this week, which seems a lot, since we haven't gotten any in such a long time, but it was actually nice. I've been missing rain, honestly.

The Stamps did show us a really good time, which was fun. Neither of them are actually British, so that's probably where the jokes came from -- Sister Stamp is Italian, and Brother Stamp is Canadian, but they actually might be looking to move to California, as Brother Stamp is a composer for movie scores, and finds that his work is very Hollywood, and most of the composing here is for television, (as the British love their soaps...), so it doesn't match as much. And plus, it might be good, since their daughter Kim's hoping to go off to BYU, so that all falls in nicely.

Anyway, I hope you know that I was in all red, white and blue for the fourth, and running around town singing patriotic songs. It was actually strange how many people I saw here doing different Fourth of July things. I mean, heck, the YSA in our stake put on a whole Independence day dance, and the majority of people from previous areas had "Happy 4th to all our American friends!" It was pretty funny, seeing as we're celebrating our leaving them.

Anyhow, the week did go pretty well. We didn't have quite so many appointments as the week before, as we had spent most of that week running between appointments that cancelled on us... But we were able to spend a lot of time trying to find new people and strengthen relationships with our current investigators, which was fantastic.

President called in the middle of the week last week after I asked about you coming to visit, and when I mentioned that all our appointments were falling through, he said, "Well, maybe you just need to give them a reason to meet with you!" That's kind of been our focus this last week, and I think that it's improving things. I do feel much better about when I talk to people on the street now, because it's not so much, "HEY CAN I TALK TO YOU ABOUT THE BOOK OF MORMON OKAY BYE." It's more casual and friendly, and focused on them. We were able to have some amazing street lessons because of that.

We've seen a lot of better online work going on, too! I just picked up a new investigator in Taiwan, who's been meeting with the missionaries there. He's been learning English, and came onto chat and was asking about how to pray in English. So, I'm going to try to get in contact with the missionaries that he's learning from. I'm also finally beginning to become organized with how to do things on Facebook, on Connect, on the Mormon.org chat... Thank goodness for split screens... It's still weird for me a bit, though, since we use our first

Moves come up next week. We think that Elder Hebert will be taking off, as we're both getting our license and the mission needs drivers. But, I could just as likely leave. So, we'll see what happens.

I'm excited this week, because we're going over to the Bishop's place and are going to spend some time playing music with their sons. They're super cool kids, and I should be having Michael (who's super crazy good at the guitar) playing for Youtube.

Got to go on exchange with Elder Blair on Saturday! Man, that guy is a workhorse. It was super funny catching up on the stuff from BYU. He was one of the guys that lived two floors up from me in Budge hall, and so we knew all the same people.

Anyway, that's probably about it.

Love you guys!!

- Elder Braiden Green

Our very patriotic crew of two Americans, four Italians, two Canadians and two Britain-born children.