Christmas season.

Hey everyone, what's happenin. This week was a very interesting week, but Christmas is in the air and the times are good. Here are the deets:
 

The work is getting extremely dead, other than our two solid friends John Raven and Mr. Portuguese Seraphim. They are really our only investigators right now, and everyone else on the streets, and most of the members are all shutting down into holiday mode= don't talk to me. So...we have resorted to having adventures and hanging out with the

remaining YSA here. They are all awesome and super chill. Tonight for FHE, we are having a mega white elephant shindig, so that should be pretty cool. 

As a squad, we have also been making the best out of life by starting a tradition of having a fire every night. Behind our flat is a sketchy little alley way, and it's perfect for a concealed fire. I am glad that I have been saving all my missionary planners, because they are the best fire starters we got. Having a fire has helped bring out that adventure spirit again, and is pumping me up to have some majestic adventures in just a couple short months.

We also got to have another lecture presentation at Bro. Wellingtons house...this time the topic was Temple Symbolism. Dad....you would have loved it. It was incredible. Obviously I cannot share most of it, but my testimony about the eternal nature of temple ordinances (from Adam...to Christ in the middle ages....to the restoration and modern day ceremonies) has strengthened tremendously. With sources from common canon, obscure records and historical artifacts....the true temple ceremony and symbols and clothing has always been the same. The Church is true, enough said, amen.

Other than that, not too much is going on other than our mission temple trip on Wednesday, which I am stoked to go and apply the new focuses and insights I have learned. And I am beyond excited to finally go to the Gilbert temple soon. Not too long left!

I love you all, and I hope you are having a rad Christmas season. Stay fresh, make sure Brien keeps his mustache free of debris. 

Peace

Elder Goodman

p.s. oh yeah, we have a new flat pet....we named him Sanj. He is majestic

Oh Christmas tree.

Hey everyone! Greetings from the land of hail. This has been a crazy week of weather, and let's just say this bones weather is making me miss Arizona even more. This week seemed to blow right by in a blur,
and I don't have too much to write about (even though all the inside jokes and stories would fill up too many pages).

Ok, here are the basic need-to-know deets:

With Christmas around the corner...it was proper that our flat needed a christmas tree. So, Schofield and I went to Avenham Park right across from our flat and got one (to be more specific, I kicked it
down and we dragged it to our flat). Hopefully the picture shows the true character of our Christmas branch. With Sanj as the star, our flat has never been more majestic.

We have a new investigator named John Raven. He has 15 guitars. We had a jam session. He has been to Utah. He loves mormons. He has a yacht.
He is going to be baptized soon. He is awesome. Enough said. Amen.

Other than that, this week was been full of walking in the dark (it's now getting dark at flippin 4:30), enduring the hail, and in the middle of all that, trying to convince people on the streets that Jesus Christ, the family or even Christmas is important. Not gonna
lie, the work has been extremely rough. Everyone either bashes, is Muslim, or simply doesn't care. However, Mormon's powerful words in
Moroni 9:6 is contantly ringing in our ears, and we are continuing to do our part.

I love you all, and I hope everyone is as happy and well as I am. I have heard it time and time again, but I have finally received a strong testimony for myself= we are happiest most when we are serving
others. That is our Preston Sqaudron's focus this Christmas season, and we have never been happier. Try it out for yourself.

I am stoked to see all your faces in a couple weeks, but until then...peace out!

Elder BA

So Cold!

Power stance.

Make sure you zoom in on all the details. You can't get more majestic.

The mighty Sanj.

The Preston Squadron. Party of 6. 

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

A temple trip and spiritual nourishment.

Konnichiwa! And I love you all. This was an incredible week here in Preston. Here are the deets:

On Tuesday, we joined our dear friend Elder Maljanen at the temple with President Ulrich for his farewell. We had a sunny, warm, peaceful, morning endowment session, just the four of us.  Afterwards, while still dressed in our robes, President Ulrich took us into one of the private rooms of the temple...and we had an amazing question and answer session. Powerful revelation. President Ulrich unfolded so many things that I had questions about, and we all received some incredible insights about the temple ordinances that I will remember for the rest of my life. It was a sacred experience to say the least. 

This week, we also had a conference with a General Authority, President Dyches. Once again...another experience I will never forget. 

More on the fun side, we got to hang with all the YSA and we had a chill movie night. Popcorn and homemade sushi, skadoosh. Yuki came with us too, and now she is super tight with most of the other people our age here in the Preston ward. I love it. We are all from all over the world, but it's amazing how we can all just chill together as if we were friends for a long time. 

Saturday, we had the baptism for miss Yuki! It totally topped off my week of spiritual experiences. Elder Candland baptized her, and she came out of the water happy as ever. After they both changed into dry clothes, we performed a song for her. With all the missionaries in my district, we sang the "I like to look for rainbows..." song (yuki's favorite)...and we did it in Japanese!!! With different parts and much needed practice...it turned out beautifully...and Yuki couldn't hold back her bucket of tears. Once again..I will never forget it. 

With all that being said, and finding some new and incredible prepared people and having Hamblin and Lauener spend the night again and getting revenge on them from past pranks (we slipped some laxatives into their breakfast burritos...mwahaha), this week has been awesome. Life is good, and I can't believe it's almost December. 

I miss you all, and I can't wait to see your faces soon. Thanks for all the lovin, and thank you for all being tight! You are a bodacious family.

I love you all, and peace out

Elder BA

The Majestic Sanj.

 Yuki's Baptism

  Our Spirit Animals.

Diversity.

Heyo family! Life is good here in Preston. Just a warning, my brain is so tired right now, so I apologize if this letter is short and sweet. Well, here's what's been goin on in life:

This week was an incredible, multi-cultural week. For a flavor of it...we befriended and ate with a lovely scottish family, I helped teach and interviewed a japanese girl named for baptism for here in Preston (Yuki is the bomb), we taught bulgarians, romanians, polish, and then my favorite...we visited Saroosh. He is a less active man from Saudi Arabia, married a polish woman and now have 4 beautiful. We went over just to get to know them, but were unexpectedly surprised with a whole table filled with a huge variety of home cooked Arabian food. It was...bodacious. I think I tackled and savored 5 full plates of different types of lamb, fish, chicken, rice, squid and shrimp, and all the homemade sauces that mix with them all. Not only was the food awesome, but Saroosh is awesome and he easily worked his way to become one of our favorite people here in Preston. Good times ahead. 

With all 10 missionaries here in Preston, we went to the small and posh village of Ribchester, and had a lunch/fireside with one of the members, Bro. Wellington. At first I thought he was just a posh old man. Wrong. Turns out...he spent over 10 years of his life exploring Saudi Arabia and the middle east in search of possible trails that Lehi and his family took on their exodus out of Jerusalem. He gave us a full presentation, and only later did we realize...he was the author to Lehi in the Wilderness...a book I totally read and loved! It was such a good experience to talk with him, and now i am even more eager to go out and explore something. I just want to grab my backpack and go.

This week, because of their flat being worked on...Elder Hamblin (fellow arizonan) and Launer (swiss) have joined our flat crew...making it a crazy 7 man party every night. Without more detail...we have had some good times. Today, we are continuing on those good times and playing football at the park right by the River Ribble with the 4 Lancaster Elders. 

Other than that, in a couple days, we are saying farewell to our dear Finnish friend Elder Maljanen. We are stoked to go to the temple with him tomorrow, but we are all sad to see him go. He extended his mission time, but now it's time to head back home to the north pole. 

I love you all, and I wish you all well. Keep up the adventures, and peace out!

Elder BA

Preston.

Hello hello hello! Greetings from Preston, the most diverse, character packed place I have yet to serve in. I am beyond happy and well. But because of time, here are this weeks quick deets:

I was kissed by a man.......a chubby, Indian gay man named....Sanj. As of now, he has marked 4 of us with his juicy man kiss....and he has officially became our Preston squad mascot. Haha his name has become a substitute in most of our conversations, and he always randomly appears around town. I don't think I have laughed harder in my entire mission, and if you are lucky enough...I might be able to send you a picture of the Majestic Sanj. 

On a more serious note, we met an incredible lady from Bermuda! Tamara has lived in England for over a year, and told us that we were the first people to really stop and talk with her. Now, she is a solid, new investigator and is living proof that the Lord is directing prepared people to England to hear the gospel, even if they might not know they are looking for it. This is exactly what Elder Nelson was prophesying about last year when he and Elder Holland spoke to us. 

Other than that, we have just been meeting more crazy characters that keep the entertainment alive in our days. Also, the five of us are still really tight, and the laughs and pranks and spontaneous exchanges never cease. Today we are going to check out President Hinkley's and Heber C. Kimbals old missionary flats, then go try out a local buffalo wings shop, then probably play some football at the park, right next to the historic River Ribble. Sounds like a good day to me.

I love you all, I love my mission, I love daily adventures, I love Sanj, I love life.

May the Sanj be with you...

and peace out!

Elder BA

Lee's Baptism and Adventures In Preston.

Heyo everyone, greetings from Preston! Life is so good right now. The 5 of us are super tight, and we are conquering and having radventures in this historic place. It's been one of the continuously happy times in my whole mission, and I am trying to savor every moment of it.

So here are some of this week's deets:

 

Many times this week we have discussed..."if we were not on missions....we would never experience things like this". For example, we knocked on a door and 2 sketchy, shirtless men came to the door and started harassing us. Then their lady friend came to the door, cussed them out, calmed them down, invited us in...and soon we found ourselves in a random home with 3 catholic, alcoholic heroin addicts, their ex-mormon mother, and their Church of England friend, who kinda reminded me of an old, wise hermit and his dog Bonzo. At first, it was a bit dodgy. Then, everyone got to know us, and we got to know them, then Elder Moljanen, Schofield and I were basically teaching 3 separate, simultaneous lessons to the crazy crowd. After a while...everyone meshed together, we had a final spiritual thought, and they agreed to come to church with us. It was all just so...random. But it was incredible. Would I ever go inside a home with those people in it if i wasn't a missionary? Answer=heck no. 

We have had so many things like this happen, from an insane dog-loving Irish lady, to a whole Ecuadorian family who barely spoke English, to a Sikh man who attempted to foretell our future while sitting at the bus stop. Out of all of it though, it just proves that the gospel is for everyone, and it connects us all.

On a different subject, Halloween was pretty fun. All of us played some intense chair football at the chapel, then we put on the "haunted hallway" for the church halloween party. Us three were zombies who chased after the kids...until one of the kids got brave and punched Elder Schofield right in the gonads. He dropped...haha and it was flippin hilarious. The ward is really good though, and I am already growing to love them. 

The best part of the week though was Lee's baptism! He finally made it! Seeing him come out of the water, and do a double fist pump of pure happiness made all the stress and persistence worth it. Lee will be a friend forever. 

Other than that, the week has just been full of work, and pulling pranks on Elder Candland till he almost poops himself. This is such a good adventure right now, and I am surrounded with such good friends, and I am so happy and at peace. 

I love you all, stay fresh, and peace out!

Elder BA

Lee, Elder Plumb and the Patton Family