Dundalk, Part 16

Thank you all for the videos! I won't be replying to some of you individually, but I enjoyed seeing your beautiful faces and hearing your voices! Laura, where's your video? Justin, what did you name your pet snake? Here are some ideas:

(Male): Reginald, Auschwitz, Wesker, Imbicolen, Otis, Elder Christiansen, or Mr. Bond

(Female): Excella, Vanderwitz, Mikayla, Clever-Girl, or Bluebell McFarghelstine

I drive still. It's a bit funny how many times I've almost gotten us killed on the road. I hate driving in Ireland. In Canada, it's pretty good; traffic is mild, roads are wide, people are courteous. Not here. People are vicious savages on wheels, roads are more narrow than a common bike-path, and traffic is like eating a bad batch of sour crout--it's going nowhere, fast. 

Anyways, about my english companion...he's english. What else can I say? There: character profile done. I'm kidding. He's really cool. He's funny. And he's a really good cook. He's been out on his mission for 16 months, so he's experienced. He has eight siblings, and he is the 2nd youngest. 

Alicia is always great to talk to. Things are not getting any easier with her family, so she's thinking she might just go ahead and be baptized anyway. She's a piece of fried gold. Jude, on the other hand, didn't show up to his own baptism. For the second time in a row. LAME! and disappointing. and also, kinda funny. We totally miscalculated his readiness, so we're taking a step back and reteaching him a few things. 

Dad, that was an awesome song! I wish I had a guitar. We're not allowed guitars though. 

Well, the last few attempts at pumpkin pie were so depressing (they tasted as bad as they looked) that I had decided to give up. But then Aunt Suzanne sent me a new recipe, so I said ''screw it'' and made another one. It was much better, and actually tasted pretty good! I wish it was denser, but whatever. 

Tell me about my cousin in the Marshall islands! How is she? How much longer until her homecoming? How do you spell her name? I've been meaning to ask about her for a while, but never remember to. 

By the way, I'm totally the favorite missionary in the ward! Scotland/Ireland, son! I be international up in here! I guess technically he is too, but come on! It's me we're talking about. You know that froking Bishop Pierson hasn't emailed me once, even though I've sent to him a bunch? His daughter is also no good at emailing. What is with the world? No matter. Dad's beard makes him look like a forester. 

SeeY'ALLlaterloveyoubye! 

Dundalk, Part 15

The hurricane was nothing. It was less than nothing. Actually, I hear in Belfast and Limerick it was a little bit wetter and some teams stayed in, but in Dublin zone it was just a little windy. We were all out proselyting just as usual. Honestly, the Irish are just a little overdramatic about these kinds of things. In Scotland, nothing happened at all; it was sunny. There was more than one fatalities because of falling trees, but I believe that was in Cork. We gathered some leaves around the stake centre, but other than that, there's been no clean up effort. At least not in Dublin zone. I didn't hear anything about vandalism, but I wouldn't be surprised. It wouldn't be the first time. Apparently it's been set on fire a few times. I've also heard nothing regarding mission changes. I suppose that might all happen at once when President and Sister Donaldson are done, but that's not gonna be until June. 

Dundalk, Part 14

Oh me goodness! I was so very happy to get letters from Jtown and Lawrence-Oliviay! I love y'all right back. Let me give my younger siblings some advice based on what I feel I've learned so far: I know that it's difficult to love or even like people, but it is possible and it is also far more worth it to put in the effort and be someone's friend than to be a lone lonely loner. I've come to love many people on my mission so far (Jude, Alicia, Elders Scholz and Anderson, every member of the Dundalk branch, etc.) even though it is sometimes pretty difficult. 

I apologize, but you won't get any pictures this week of the awful pumpkin pie we made. I'm in Dublin, and I left my camera in Dundalk. And once again, I am without an official companion. Elder Anderson had to go home. I'm not at liberty to know why. He will be missed though, he was a really good companion, and he was a boon to Dundalk for his short time here. I might be a few days without an official companion until President Donaldson decides what to do. 

Don't speak to me about cupcakes or cookies OR ECLAIRS (Jenna). We made 3 pumpkin pies, and each was somehow worse than the last, and made a huge mess. All I wanted was a good pumpkin pie, but they don't friggen make them! I just want some nice home cooking. Don't cry for me though, because for my birthday we got an XL pizza from Apache's called "The Big Buffalo!"

I'm very glad for Rebecca and Eric! I hope they choose a name that will be insanely, unbelievably great, like Balthazar, or Tim. But on the other hand, I was very sad to hear about Darol; that story made Elder Wright (zone leader) very sad. And the fact that I forgot about thanksgiving made me...mad. 

Oh yeah, and there have still been no baptisms. Still just impending. Tell Justin I love his dragon, and his Halloween costume looks hot! but it ain't Halloween yet! We ain't supposed to go out proselyting on Halloween, so I'm not sure what we'll do. Stupid Halloween. It's not even a holiday! Where do we get off celebrating it? 

And thank you everyone so much for the birthday wishes!

Anyways, love y'all! 

Dundalk, Part 13

Dad asked:

Alright! Today is another details day for you to fill us in!

1. Did the baptisms go? If so, give us details.

2. Did you do the driving around then in Dublin? How was that? 

3. How is Elder Anderson? 

4. How long has he been out? 

5. Does he come from a large family?

6. How did he serve in the military? 

7. When is the next transfer? Because it might be odd for you two to be companions for just four or five weeks if it's coming that soon. 

8. Are you getting along well with him?

9. Any new people we should pray for? We're still praying that Alicia's mother will have her heart softened. 

10. How's your back? I wish I could fix it for you. Hopefully if it's still bothersome the video I sent will help. 

11. Are you getting enough sleep? Enough to eat? Some exercise?

12. Did a goodly number of your members watch conference?

Cody's letter:

1. Nope. Still working on it. 

2. Yup. We got lost as butt. 

3. He's great. 

4. Little over a year.

5. No, pretty medium.

6. He didn't serve yet. His family is military though. 

7. Should be mid November. 

8. We're getting along swimmingly. 

9. No, unfortunately not. We're trying though. 

10. My back is doing much better. No pain. 

11. Yes yes and yes. 

12. I hope so. We watched some with Jude. I texted Alicia about it, but she never said anything. She probably did, because she's good friends with a strong member family. 

I forgot about thanksgiving. Me and Elder Anderson are gonna try to make a pumpkin pie! You can't just buy a pumpkin pie around here, which is quite lame. You can't hardly find any kind of pie at all actually! They sell pumpkins though, so we'll figure it out. 

How's Mackie doing? Still chewing the crap out of stuff? I miss him, strangely enough. I miss my actual family more of course. Whenever I come to the email screen, I guess I'm a little disappointed because I feel like not a lot of people really care that I'm gone. But I actually don't care, because the people that actually care about me (my fam-damly) still remember me and email me. Love yous. 

I feel a little bit sad. Not too sad, but a little bit. I feel like we did good work this week, but also like we have nothing to show for it now. No new investigators, no baptisms, nothing. *heavy sigh*

Did anyone end up watching the new Transformers movie? Was it any good? 

I wish I had more to say, but that's pretty much it. It sounds like there's a lot of cool things happening at home. Tell my lovely Aunt that I still get and read all of the letters she sends, and they give me a lot of comfort. And I've kept them all too! 

Bye bye

Dundalk, Part 12

We had decided with Alicia that in order to hopefully preserve her relationship with her mother (her mother has been a real pill) she should wait just a little bit to be baptized. She doesn't want to wait too long, and she still has a strong desire, but that's what's happening with her. Jude was all set to be baptized this last Friday by yours truly, but his kids got sick and he had to stay home to take care of them. So we're gonna try again this weekend. Poor Elder Scholz didn't get to see either of them baptized. 

Elder Scholz left to go to Scotland early Saturday morning, and this morning he left for home. All day Saturday and Sunday I've been hanging out in Dublin with different pairs of Elders, driving people around because I have a car and a licence. Sunday was really nice though, because we hung out at the church all day, with members, investigators, and other missionaries, watching conference sessions in the chapel and getting snacks in the kitchen in between. We watched both morning sessions live (5:00PM-7:00PM, our time), we caught the priesthood session at 10AM Sunday morning, the Saturday afternoon session at 1PM, and I have yet to watch the concluding session. I thought it was awesome how boldly and plainly everyone was speaking this conference. They are not pulling their punches any, and I respect the heck out of it. One of the talks I picked out to review was John C. Pingree, among many others. I've never taken so many notes before at anything. Conference, I found out, is way too short nowadays, despite being the same amount of time. Did you notice that Zwick told the same stories in Conference as he did in the Fort Macleod Stake Conference? 

Anyways, so I'm still just waiting here. My new companion, Elder Anderson, should be here by this evening. I know he's from Missouri, he's been out for a little over a year, and he used to be in the navy. Sounds like a fun fellow. And yes, we will be staying in good ol' Dundalk. We will see Jude and Alicia baptized yet. 

I'd love to hear from my younger siblings as well by the way. 

Love y'all!