Elder Coleman Thompson: 6th Month Email (18 more to go)

Hi guys! I've had a lot better week this week!

We got to teach more lessons this week which was great, and it was conference this weekend which was fantastic! For conference we went to the Leeds Stake Center which is in a part of Leeds called Cross Gates. On Saturday night we watched the American Saturday morning session, and then on Sunday morning we watched Priesthood session from 10-12, then the American Saturday Evening session from 1-3, and then the American Sunday morning session from 5-7. In between sessions we ate and then went around door to door (with 4 Elder's) and sang 'He is Risen' to people. Easter was sure different this year but it was great.

On Friday we got to teach a really good lesson. There is a guy in our ward who's name is Misiona, and he is from Samoa. He is a returned missionary, he served a mission in America, and then afterwards went to school in Beijing, China where he met his girlfriend, who is not a member, who is English. Now this guy is living with her and her parents in our ward boundaries, and has been coming out to church occasionally since he moved here. Anyways we wanted to meet with him but he wasn't comfortable having us come to his girlfriends parent's house - so we met him at the chapel and had Chinese food - and he brought his girlfriend, who wants to know all about the church! So we had a great lesson with them.

Then on Saturday we went to another inactive members house named Margaret, and met with her and her husband Keith who also is not a member. They just got back from a 6 week vacation in Portugal, and Keith loves musical instruments. He has this super nice guitar which I got to play, and we made a really good relationship with them so we are going to go back and teach them again. (Keith really likes Amos Lee and so I sang that song 'Colors' for him with his guitar and he was amazed. He clapped and everything). So that was really good.

Then Sunday was conference, and Saturday night. And there were a lot of talks that inspired me a lot. I was amazed at how quickly the sessions went by - I remember them being so long! But I couldn't get enough. We didn't get to watch the Sunday evening session because it happened too late for us here - so hopefully we'll get to watch it sometime - or just read the talks later. My favourite talks were both of Elder Uchtdorf's and especially Elder Holland's talk about the savior reaching his hands down to save us from our fall. Also there were a lot of talks about getting married and starting families which I loved but is especially funny because Elder McBride is going home this week and his girlfriend has been waiting for him his whole mission.

And yesterday - a bunch of missionaries from around the mission came to our chapel (The Wharfe Valley chapel in Menston) for some meetings - and we had to be there to go on splits and open and close the chapel - so we got to talk to a ton of missionaries yesterday and that was really fun.

So this week was a lot better! And Elder McBride is leaving on Wednesday back to Arizona :( but my new companion on Wednesday is going to be Elder Dickson, who is from South Africa, who I know a little bit because he used to be in my district in North Shields. So I'm excited for that!

And Sammy, there are a few youth in our ward. A couple of 18 year old boys and one 17 and a few deacons. The 18 year old boys neither of them are getting ready for missions - but we have taken one out teaching with us once, and we are building good relationships with them all. We've taught young mens a few times and we sometimes go to their activities, depending on what they're doing. And we found out that you can actually balance eggs any day of the year - you just have to be patient. You should try it! And what color is your new suit?

And Alex that choir stuff is awesome. I watched the BYU men's chorus sing in conference and I was like 'when I go home I'm going to sing in that choir'. I miss choirs. North Shields had a choir but they were pretty bad. This ward doesn't even have one :( And also about the Vatican. I met an atheist once in North Shields a while ago who when we knocked on his door let us right in and tried to explain how wrong we were. This guy though, was Italian and had actually worked as a caretaker inside the vaults of the Vatican, but when he worked and when he left, he was sworn to secrecy to never tell anyone about what was down there. All he would say about it was ''I know the Catholic church is not correct, because of what I have seen inside of those vaults''.

Anyways I'll send some pics in a sec. Love you guys!

Elder Thompson