Thanksgiving in Preston.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, mermaids and mermen...hello! In the words of Joe Dirt, "Life's a garden....dig it". And I am diggin it right now. We got our transfer calls, and the Preston squad is all staying together! You all might have heard our battle cry across the world when we received the news. Needless to say, we are stoked to spend Christmas together. 

On other news...I got my trunky call and death letter. The "3 months to go" and "what are your flight plans?" hit me hard. Not gonna lie, it felt super weird...kinda surreal. But it's here and it's happening! Ok, instead of ranting about how I am coping with the trunkiness, I'll just give you this week's deets instead:

Thanksgiving was actually really really good. Way better than last year. Even the hosts are a bit wack, they made some incredible food! A full American Thanksgiving spread, with over a dozen platters of different types of european/american dishes, good ol' turkey, and then some of the best ice cream and truest pumpkin pie I have had my entire mission. 

We had another day over at Bro. Wellington's up in Ribchester. I am not sure if I told you about him last time, but he spent over 6 years in Saudi Arabia, mapping out all the possible routes that Lehi and Nephi and the family took over their 8 years in the wilderness, and finding all the landmarks that perfectly correlated with the record in the Book of Mormon. He gave us the rest of the presentation...and it absolutely amazed me. Basically...the Book of Mormon only gives us a rough outline of what happened, but 8 years of traveling leaves a lot of room to read in between the lines. I won't go into detail in this email, but one thing I learned....Lehi and the company were not alone, especially at Nephi's Harbor. The study of the culture and the land and the hints in the text testify to that, and it now makes it so much more interesting to read. 

We also got to have tea with our Saudi friend Saroosh. Once again, he fed us an incredible home cooked meal, with more traditional Mediterranean and Arabian dishes. He gave us a history lesson and cooked us some samples of the "blessed foods" (the foods that most of the biblical prophets ate). Between Saroosh and Bro Wellington, I have so much more appreciation for the "old world" cultures, and it fascinates me. Hopefully the tension over there eases up sometime soon, cause I want to explore it for myself now.

Other than that, the work has been going pretty well. A little slow, but we are still teaching some good people. With Christmas coming up and the death letter and all of us sticking together, it's been a bit hard to focus, but we are doing our best and working on. 

I love you all, and I can't wait to see your faces in a couple weeks. 

Till then, stay fresh, 

(And I challenge all the boys in the family to grow the most bodacious facial hair that you can for the skype sesh)

and peace out!

Elder BA