Elder Coleman Thompson: This week's Email

Hi everyone.

So this week on Tuesday was p-day and Elder Jaeger, Wright, Shreve and I went with Sarah (our investigator) into Newcastle and Gateshead to do some sightseeing, I'll attach some pictures of it it was pretty big and cool, and while we were in Newcastle it snowed a bit which is cool because I haven't seen any snow in a long time!

On wednesday was transfer day and I went on exchange with our zone leader Elder McGinnis, who is a surfer guy from southern california (he's friends with Elder Jaeger) and that was great, and then I met my new companion Elder Faingata'a who is HUGE! He is a big Rugby player from Sydney, Australia, but he was born in Tonga, so he is a big big tongan dude. He is really really nice though and lots of fun. i'll send some pictures with him soon. He has been on his mission for six months now, he came out at the same time as Elder Wright.

It's a bit of a change up though because I am in charge of the area now and am in charge of planning what we're doing all the time and waht we are going to teach etc. because he is new to the area. Also he talks way less than Elder Jaeger, which is different, but it's good and this week I've had the oportunity to talk a lot more to everyone and I really like it.

So Vida (I found out it's spelled that way) is doing pretty well. She believes everything she's been taught, but she has a big problem with drinking we found out because of the physical abuse she underwent for a long time. She drinks a lot every day. But we challenged her to stop and we gave her a blessing. She didn't make it to church yesterday because she had a bit of a nervous breakdown and didn't want to leave the house, but later that night on the phone I talked to her and she said that she hadn't drank all day and she wasn't shaky or anything. Which is really really cool.

Also really cool story. So we were in Whitley Bay knocking on doors. And after an hour or so with not much success we got to the end of a street and I saw that there was a guitar store there. So we took a brief break and went into the store. We talked to the guy, his name is Tony Bowler and I played one of the guitars (a canadian made one - a seagull - the same brand as mine back home) and I sang a little as well. We are going to visit him soon. But he told me I was really good and it was a shame I didn't have a guitar to play. So he said ''Ahve you ever heard of random acts of kindness?'' and I thought he was gonna try to sell me a bit cheaper on the guitar, but he said ''you can have that guitar''. So he gave it to me for free! It was a £200 guitar! So anyways we're not allowed to keep guitars at our flat, so I've left it in the chappel. But I'm not going to be able to take it with me, but I'm gonna go play it at least every p-day until I get transferred. But I'm trying to figure out how much it would cost to send it home. i'm talking to the members and stuff too to see if they know a good way to send it back home.

So yeah good week!

Love you guys!

Elder Thompson

Angel of the North in Gateshead