Elder Coleman Thompson: More from England

Hey guys!

This week has been so awesome, there are so many cool things that have
happened! I seriously doubt that I'll be able to remember everything
or be able to write it all in this one letter, but I'm going to try
really hard! But honestly, to summarise, I've been super busy and
Bradford is so awesome!

So on Sunday night I got a call from President Turvey telling me that
I was going to be moving to Bradford on Tuesday to be the District
Leader of the Bradford District. So not even back out for a month yet
and he's asked me to be a district leader, which is ok. But on Tuesday
that meant that I had to go to a meeting in Leeds for new District
Leaders, which was really really good actually. We talked all about
qualities of example and leadership and how we can be good leaders not
just as missionaries but for the rest of our lives. One thing that
really struck me about the meeting is that one missionary was saying
that it is statistically known that a certain percentage of returned
missionaries end up becoming less active or leaving the church, and we
as district leaders can help them grow enough from their missions
right now to possibly prevent that from happening. Anyways I was just
struck again by how important a mission is for the rest of my life,
and the lives of the people around me. Also, I learned a lot of ways
to be a better example/leader in the meeting, so it was great.

Tuesday morning I got up and left to go catch a train to Bradford! So
I went with all my bags and everything down to the train station and
took a train to Leeds. The Leeds train station was crazy busy when I
got there though, and I had to get to a whole other platform to catch
my train to Bradford which left less than 10 minutes after I got there!
And I had 2 big suitcases and a guitar on my back! So I was worried I
was going to miss my train - when all the sudden this guy (a member
from Wakefield it turned out) was like "do you need help with your
cases Elder?" And I was like thank goodness! So he helped me catch the
train!

I made it to Bradford alright and met my new companion! His name is
Elder Kearl and he is 18 years old! He graduated from High School in
Ogden, Utah earlier this year. He's been out on his mission for 3
months, so he just finished being trained, and he's super ready to go
and work really hard! Which is so awesome! He has so much energy all
the time which is so great, and we are getting along really well.

Anyways on Tuesday we went and taught this investigator named Adrian.
The lesson was really great and Adrian has just overcome some of his
concerns about being baptised and committed to be baptised! Here's the
catch with Adrian though, he is deaf! But Elder Kearl knows sign
language! And as it turns out, Bradford Ward is where all of the deaf
members church from all of Yorkshire come to go to church! In
sacrament meeting there's a sign language interpreter that sits up
front! It's really cool! So Elder Kearl and Adrian are teaching me
sign language, so hopefully I'll get it eventually.

The biggest thing I've been feeling this week is just that the Lord
has been leading us exactly where we need to go. Like we will make
plans on where to go, and then sometimes it changes, but things have
just seemed to work out exactly how they were supposed to anyways!
Like on Thursday we went and volunteered for the Poppy Appeal, so
basically we sat in a supermarket (Morrison's) for 3 hours selling
poppies to people, which was super great! And after that we had
planned to go see an investigator. But while we were in Morrison's he
texted and we moved the lesson to Saturday, so we had no plans after
the volunteering anymore. But then this member came into Morrison's
and came up to us, and asked us if we were busy and if we could come
visit his family after! So we did, and while we were there, he
expressed how much he wants to help with missionary work and so we
invited him to come teach our investigator on Saturday who we had
rearranged with just a bit earlier!

Anyways there's another lady who we've seen a few times this week who
runs a discount store in a market in Bradford City Centre. She works
there 6 days a week and it's not super busy so we just go and visit
her there. Not too long ago one of her nephews passed away, and it hit
her really hard. She now has started being involved with a charity
organisation for suicide prevention, and her view on God has changed
dramatically, and she is super interested in the Plan of Salvation. We
are working with her as well, and we've seen her a few times this
week.

We also met this older fellow named Allan. He ran into the
missionaries in Bradford City Centre a few weeks ago, and remembered
that he used to meet with them in the 80's. So this week we gave him a
ring and he invited us over. His story is interesting and he is so
funny! Elder Kearl and I had such a good laugh with him, and we
invited him to be baptised next month! He accepted on condition that
he come back to the church to see what it's like, but I'm so excited
to meet with him again!

The Bradford ward is also amazing! There's just so many things that I
could write about but this is getting a little long already so I'll
cut to some of the funnier things that happened.

Well first off it snowed here on Wednesday! It was still pretty warm
and it was all gone by the next day, but after district meeting we had
a bit of a snowball fight! It was really awesome!

Also, everybody that we talk to when they find out Elder Kearl is
American they're like "so how about Donald Trump?" I'm so annoyed
about people talking about him. This girl at the bus stop the other
day was getting so riled up and being like f*** Donald Trump over and
over again. It was pretty funny.

Also we were talking to this guy on the street and some random other
guy came up to us and like interrupted our conversation to be like:
"Hey do you need any toilet rolls?" And we were like "uh.. No..." And
he was like: "cause I'm selling some in my car really cheap if you
want" so that was pretty funny.

Also this one mailman we were talking to was telling us not to slip on
the stone, and he was like: "wouldn't want you falling and hitting
your head, then you'd go back to Canada and be like 'I had a smashing
time'" hahaha.

Another quote from this drunk guy. I was like "are you happy with your
life man?" And he was like "yeah I'm happy, I'm drunk, I'm stoned, I'm
making money and I'm going home" and then walked away... Funny stuff.

Also in our flat it's just me and elder Kearl, and during morning
exercise We have a big exercise ball and it flew up and smashed one of
the light bulbs and it exploded haha. I've been telling people all
week that Elder Kearl broke the light, and they all believe me because
he's 18, but it was actually me... We got a new light bulb today
though so it's all good.

There are so many more things that happened and funny things that
happened! Elder Kearl and I have been working really hard and laughing
all the time! We get along really well. It's going to be such a good
transfer!

Love you all!