January 27, 2014

Dear family,

 

Ohhh, my goodness!  Your letters this week were awesome!  Thanks, Chase.  Keep up the good work.  Don't get in trouble, though.  And listen to mom and dad.  I have a rep there at Mesa High, right?  Keep up the tradition of awesomeness at MHS!   

 

I'm glad to hear everyone is doing okay.  That's a bummer for Rod and Connie, though.  House fires, man!  Tell them they got some Missionary Prayers going to heaven for them.  And the Carvalho girls are getting baptized?!! That's soooo cool!!!  I bet Will and Tiffany are so excited!  Will will probably baptize them, too!  I love missionary work so much!

 

Thanks for the picture, dad.  I'm gonna have to ask Elder Bailey about it, haha.  I've got some pretty sweet ones for you guys this week.   And just so you know, dad, I know allll about the races on the Isle of Man.  I watched them all on Youtube (before my mission).  It is pure insanity.  Yes, we're going there to see it some day!!  Also, I most definitely want to come back to England soon after my mission and visit all the friends I've made here.  I've made loads of friends, even some in Italy and Germany... so i may have to go there as well. Yup!

 

I wanna see the Gilbert Temple!  I'm so glad you guys went to see it.  That's something I wish I could do a bit more of on my mission, go to the Temple.  I'm on this super spiritual high but wish I could spend just a few more hours in the Lords House each year.  Well, at least I get to go once a year.  It sounds like something out of a Fairy Tale - just once a year.  There will be plenty of visits to the Temple when I come home, but let's not talk about that just yet!

 

My new coat is awesome, by the way.  It's rated to about 8° Celcius, so like 45° Farenheit, or something like that.  But at least I'm not freezing like Dallin in Ohio!  He says he just went through -6°, and -40° with the Wind Chill.  Doors were frozen shut!  And there's the rain.... I don't like the rain. It's just so.... wet.

 

This week was alright. not stupendous.  We have been trying out a few new techniques for finding people to teach, but they didn't work out too swell, so were just going back to basics this week.  But Stephen was confirmed on Sunday and we have two new families coming to church, and we're also trying to put together a wedding.

 

Oh! and Transfers is next week, so I'll find out if I'm getting sent off next Monday.  I think it may be time, but who knows?

 

Anyway, I love you guys.  I think about and pray for you guys allll the time.  Keep up the good work back in Mesa.  Stay strong.  Read your scriptures every day.

 

Love,

 

Elder Glasgow

 

ps, Pics are from The Needles last p-day with Matthew and the Sisters, and Epic Taylor Bailey in Scotland.  Hope he takes the stairs down off that roof.  No Parcour, Elder!  

  

January 20, 2014

Dear Fam,

 

Well, we had another baptism!  Stephen Csaba Szenasi was baptized by the one and only Bishop Cornish of the Isle of Wight Ward.  And then I got to confirm Nastassia, and then I ordained Matthew!  It was awesome!  I thought it would be ages before I did stuff like that!  The Priesthood is wonderful.

 

Well, to answer some questions.... we've taught an average of about 44 lessons this transfer!  And we have another baptismal date.  One of the members here owns a cello which she keeps at the church, so Elder Rogers can use it whenever we are around.   We play together for all sorts of stuff.  Missionaries don't "jam", we just practice a bit for our performances.  Also, I got a new jacket - it's nice.  I got it for half price, too.  I only spent 40£.  Stephen is enjoying his new jacket, haha.  He's sooo funny, and a great guy.  Even though he's kinda homeless he still is so humble and wants to start his own Soup Kitchen!!  Yeah, he's great.

 

This week has been full of just great stuff. We had a young family come to church with their dad!  5 investigators at church, that's a new record!  We've started doing chapel tours a half hour before church as well so that people aren't too confused in church.

 

There are people prepared on the island. It's amazing.  We seem to run into them every single day!

 

Elder Rogers and I got some of those Institute manuals for the New Testament, D&C, and the Book of Mormon. We use them during our personal study, and I've got to say, they are sooooo coool!  Especially the D&C.  I think everyone underestimates the D&C.  The Bible and Book of Mormon are amazing.  A testimony of the Book of Mormon helps convert people.  But, the D&C was written for our day and has revelation from God for US.  It's so great!!!!

 

What do you mean there's another new Temple film out?!  The first new one just came out like 8 months ago! Have you guys seen it?  I only get to go to the temple twice my whole mission which means I probably won't get to see it until i come home!  Ahhh........ that's unfortunate.  Oh well.

 

Today, our District is going over to this place called The Needles.  It's all the way across the island, so we have to travel loads and we gotta hurry, cuz we have to be out proselyting by 6, so i will tell you all bye and I love you all so much and remember to read your scriptures every day and the church is true!

 

Love,

 

Elder Glasgow, the Cannon

January 13, 2014

Dear Family,

Haha, you're probably wondering why I am emailing so late in the day.  Supposedly, all the island libraries today are going through a staff training, so all of them are shut down and it just so happens to be on a Monday that they do it, of course.  So we went to the chapel and it turns out the internet it down there, too, so we spent a good hour trying to fix it but it didn't work at all.  So eventually after going shopping and having lunch we found a little internet cafe hiding behind the McDonalds on Scarretts Lane.  Yup.  England.  Missons.

But this week was great!  We had another baptism!  Her name is Nastassia.  She's about 45 and has two kids. She met missionaries 19 years ago and then ran into us and we got her baptized!  She's super great and just loves the atmosphere of the church and everyone around it.  Elder Rogers baptized her and I gave a talk and Elder Rogers and I did a musical number together.  He played the cello and I played piano.  It was pretty moving, if I say so myself.  Steven is still on track for getting baptized next week, too!  It is so great.

Other than that, guess how many lessons we taught this week?  Forty-nine!!  Yeah, an all-mission high for me! Now I just have to get fifty!  We're teaching some great people.  There's Nick and Carol, a young couple with 2 kids.  They are both just great and really interested about it all.  And there's still our neighbors, James, Leah, and Allan.  We keep on running into people every single day that are just so prepared!  It's so cool!

But, enough about me.  It's so great to hear about you guys.  I'll be buying a good jacket today for sure.  Sorry my original one didn't turn out so well. Chase has brother Spencer for Seminary?  Is he the short one or the big one?  I can't remember.  Love Seminary!

Is Crew still doing gymnastics, or is he just going to school right now?  I miss him so much!  Whenever I see all the little kids at church I think of him.  Kids here are pretty cool, but they're not Crew.

So, I found out something rather interesting about the island the other day while I was at a members house.  It turns out that the island is full of jargon that isn't anywhere else in England.  Here, they use this word, Gert.  It means big.  If you're a tourist you're a Grotel.  And during Cowe's Week all the big-shot Yachters come here and they're called Grotty Yachties.  Haha.  And someone from the island is called a Caulkhead.  Anyway...

I'm doing great.  It's sooo good to hear all you guys are doing great, too.  I miss you guys a lot.  I pray for you every day.  Keep up all the missionary work you guys are doing!  Love you.

Elder Glasgow

January 6, 2014)

Dear family,

 

Welp, I'm still here on the Isle of Wight for another 6 weeks.  But, I'll be here and gone before I know it.  The last transfer just flew by.  It's scary.

 

This week was rather amazing.  We have two more people getting baptized over the next 2 weeks!  It's awesome! Nastassia is getting baptized on the 12th.  She met missionaries 19 years ago and then we ran into her a couple of weeks ago and now she totally wants to join the church!  She's so solid.  She even wants to have our District over for a dinner after her baptism.  Some of her views are a little Born-Again.  She's always talking about being saved and stuff, but she knows the church is true.

 

The other one is Steven, the Hungarian.  He's living with a friend right now in Newport but we're not sure how long that will last.  He's gone from smoking 20 cigarettes a day down to 1, though!  It's amazing.  We just need to get him off that one and he'll be set!

 

Other than that, there's Louis.  Yup, the same Louis I've been talking about my whole mission.  We've started running with him every P-day morning.  Proud of me, dad?  Haha.  Louis used to be a little bit of a fitness freak and body builder and he wants to get back into it, so we're gonna help him along with that.  He really wants an answer if the Book of Mormon is true, so we made a calendar for him with 4 weeks worth of what we think are the most important chapters of the Book of Mormon and we're going to remind him every day and give him questions to think about it all.  Let's all pray for Louis.

 

And Matthew Guy, our recent convert, is amazing.  He went street contacting with us!  It was awesome!  We would be testifying and teaching some one on the street and then he would bear his testimony about it and it was so powerful!  I'm not saying you guys have to go out and do that with the missionaries, but..... you could if you want to... you could. :)

 

And to answer moms question, I was seriously terrified to stop people on the street.  But now I love it.  You run into the most interesting people on the streets.  Our favorite place is the Bus Station.  We probably teach up to 20 lessons a week there.  It's awesome.

 

The most wonderful thing happened at church, yesterday!  We had a visitor come from WA state and he totally invited 3 of his non-member friends to come to church with him and they did!  While they were there he bore an amazing, powerful testimony about the Book of Mormon.  We had 7 non-members at church that day, 3 being our own investigators. It was just so cool!

 

So, I'm doing just wonderful.  Don't you guys worry about me too much.

 

Haha, funny thing about Englishmen...  The shops around here sell all sorts of mainstream American sports team stuff, but no one actually knows a thing about the teams.  Everyone here walks around with Michigan State stuff and Yankee's hats and Raiders stuff.  But, when we ask them about it they just say that they wear it for fashion.  Haha, gotta love the Brits, man!

 

I miss you guys a lot.  Family life here sure isn't what I grew up with.  Some families are champs, and they are doing their best, but most are just mere shadows compared to ours.  But, we're gonna help them with that.  You guys are the best!

 

I love you guys, have fun.

 

Elder Glasgow, London South Missionary