Emotional goodbyes.

This is a bit surreal right now, and I'm feeling a perfect balance of excitement, anxiety, happiness and peace. Crazy to think I will be home in just about 3 more weeks...

This week kinda shook me in a way I wasn't expecting. When I first got into this area, I was so stoked to go home. My thoughts were back in sunny AZ, definitely not snowy England. Last night though, I went to my final missionary fireside in Manchester, and pure emotion gut-punched me. At the fireside, I saw so many of my true friends that I met over my entire mission. James "Donkey Kong" Williams from Wrexham, the Hills from Stafford, Gary and Ronny from Southport, the crew from Crosby, and the Bluncks, Siti, Yuki, the rest of the YSA gang from Preston, the Rossendale punks and all of my dear missionary friends and families that I met along the way. It was like...I could see my two years of work in front of me, and it was incredibly humbling to see how many lives I was able to be a part of. My eyes were on the verge of being sweaty as I realized how much I truly love and will miss these people and this land. 

Ok, enough being sentimental. Here are the rest of the week's deets:

Celebrated hard on my birthday. Treated myself and bought a new suit, and had a lovely mini party at Irish Palmer's house. Then, we had a combined YM/YW nerf war at the chapel. Forts were made. Rivalries were made. Fun was made. Injuries were made. I was shot dead in the eye, and lost my vision for the rest of the night. Freaked me out, but then God healed me in the morning. Cool. We then had an adventure in Bolton, stayed at Elder Candland's flat, we reminisced about Preston, made our way to Chorley in the morning for a zone conference and interviews, good times. Then on the way home, I was stuck on a bus for 3 hours, slowly plowing our way through the snow. I now hate buses and never want to be on one ever again. When I got home, I re-pinched the nerve in my neck. My body needs some serious recovery, aka swimming in the ocean. We were also able to see a little miracles, through testifying and destroying the anti-mormon material that was corrupting our solid investigator Doreen, and also giving a much needed blessing to one of the members. I will miss having sacred events happen so frequently. 

But with all that said, I miss you all more and I can't wait to see you so soon. 

I love you all, and I am craving jam sessions, mexican food, chilling with the family, and many good times to come. 

3 more weeks.

Till then...

PEACE OUT!!!

Elder BA

One month to go......

Alright...I think my heart is about to explode from all the birthday lovin' and awesomeness!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, I love you all. I want to reply to all of you individually, nice n' juicy, so here are some quick pics to describe my week:

Queen Elsa Farted and blew snow all over the town.

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My week pretty much consisted of walking in the snow all day (quite epically), getting to know members, having an adventure up in Burnley and having tea with a non-member family from Kiribati, hiking up a mountain, getting lost, teaching an old, spunky lady named Doreen who is close to baptism, learning more knife fighting from Elder Moote, helping a member move house all Saturday, and soaking in the fact that I only have one more month on this adventure.

Words can't describe how grateful I am for this experience and all of you.

Hopefully I will be able to show you instead.

But until then, keep up the steeze, 

and peace out!

Elder BA

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Rossendale and Snow.

Heyo everyone! Greetings from the land of Rossendale Valley. I will just go straight to the deets!

Rossendale Valley=

Rural farm town, nestled in a beautiful valley.

Very poor and deprived, but well kept.

People speak a very "common" (equivalent of our "hick") accent. 

The ward is surprisingly very strong, and they love missionaries,

80-90 strong, with a lot of young families.

Covered in snow.

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Companion=

Elder Moote

From the Pacific island of Kiribati (pronounced "keird-a-biss")

Very chill, very islander

recent convert of 1 year

gangster past, scars to prove it

loves teaching me knife fighting and nunchackus

loves Bob Marley

has a rough time speaking and understanding English, but we have learned to communicate through facial impressions and bird signals

never seen snow before, until now

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Our week has been pretty chill, just exploring and getting to know the area and members and getting lost several times and relaxing to Marley at night. The ward warmly welcomed us, and it feels so good to be back in a ward that befriends missionaries again. We have 6 tea appointments this week! This sets the record for my entire mission. 

They have a well established Book of Mormon class and games night, and the YSA are awesome. Not too many, but good characters. Oh yeah, Bishop Masser is my favorite so far. Young, beautiful family of 5 young kids, friendly, athletic, amazing dad, and is already becoming one of the examples that I want to follow. 

This is a really good area, and with the added bonus of snowing for the past few days straight, it's an awesome adventure to end off on. My companion and the vibe of the ward is making it a perfect transition for me.

I am happy and well, and I am so stoked to see you all in about 5 weeks!

I love you all, and may your adventures continue

Peace!

Elder BA

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p.s. my investigator Matt from Preston is getting baptized this week! happy flappy

LE suit Burning.

Chillin with Elder Moote

These were used for real.

Snowy view from the flat.

The chapel.

The last Transfer!!!!

Ladies and gentlemen....the last transfer has come. The Majestic Preston Squadron has been dissolved, and I have been called to die in the land of Rossendale Valley. I shall be whitewashing it with Elder Moote from the Pacific island of Kiribati, and I am stoked for this last adventure!!! The energy is high, and I am loving life. 6 more weeks of English awesomeness.

This week has been a mixture of happy adventures and sad goodbyes, as I have really grown to love the people here. The saddest one, was to say goodbye to my dear friend Saroosh, who gave us a departing arabic feast. (schofield, Mo "stay fresh", Saroosh, BA)

For the adventure side, Schofield and I found the three major, mormon historical sites in this area. Here is me, assassin creeding over the River Ribble. We also found President Hinckley's first flat, and also Heber C. Kimbals first flat where he was attacked by legions fo demons.

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I love you all, and I am beyond excited to see you in 6 short weeks. This has been the greatest adventure of my life so far, and I have grown and learned and loved more than I ever thought I could. I will keep you updated on the deets when I get into my new area, but until then, peace out, stay fresh, and...k bye and stuff.

Elder BA

Schofield, BA, Mongie and Frenchie

 Andrei 3000

 Ottenhoffs

 Yuki and Mona

 Sanj Cat, newest addition to the flat.

 Hinkleys Flat

 Midieval battle happening right over there.

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New Years in Preston.

Heyo family. I just realized...I am so tired of writing missionary emails. I love you all, but I can't wait till I can just say it to your face. Not too much longer now!

Ok, because of my lack of energy today, here are the quick deets:

At my district meeting, we were playing a game, and as I majestically lunged for the ball....it happened. My suit trousers ripped and bursted open...from zipper to belt. Everyone just stopped, had a moment of silence, then all 14 of us were crying laughing, some of us literally crying. I had to tie my jacket around my waist for the rest of the meeting, all the way on the bus and journey home. I had that English suit for nearly my whole mission. It was sad to say goodbye, but now...it shall be burned.

New years eve= massive volleyball tournament and food with most of the missionaries in the zone. Good times.

New years= the 6 of us in Preston chilled at our Bishop's house with his young family and watched movies and had a nerf war. Good times.

Spiritual experience= We knocked on a woman's door named Ellen Smith. She was in tears and immediately showed us her journal. That morning she wrote "Please God, send someone or something to help me". We showed up, taught her, gave her a blessing of physical and spiritual healing...and it was powerful. After the blessing that I pronounced on her, she just sat there, completely dazed, and eventually asked "is it normal to feel this really warm feeling?". It was one of the most reverent experiences I have ever had on my mission, and I was so thankful to be where God wanted me to be.

Other than that, it has been pretty standard missionary life. All our YSA friends are back from their holidays, and now we have actual members and friends who want to work with us. This Saturday we will get our transfer calls, and I will learn of my fate for my last transfer. Anything can happen, so I am excited to see what adventure awaits me.

I love you all, and I will see you shortly!

Peace out

Elder BA

Post Christmas Hangover and New Investigators

Heyo everyone, long time no talk. It was so good to see everyone's bodacious face once again! Even though Tate's teeth are finally growing in and Tallin has metal on his mouth bones and Randi looks like a sunbleached mexican and Tanner has hair on his...face.....everyone pretty much looks the same and I feel I haven't missed too much, and I am stoked to get back into the family flow again. I miss you all.

This week ended off brilliantly. Here are the quick post-christmas deets:

We are making major progress with our two friends John Raven and Serafim. John even picked up Serafim for church on Sunday! It was a double dip as far as investigators go. They are such good friends with us now, and I hope that I can see them baptized before I go. They are so close.

Ok, for more of the food-venture= One night, our friends Saroosh and Mo spontaneously called us and told us to meet them. So we did...and they took us to the newly opened Greek/Mediterranean restaurant in town. It was...incredible. Mum, this is for you. Gourmet lemonade, tomato based chicken liver and greek salad and pita starters, followed by platters of lamb shoulder, greek potatoes, diced herb beef, swordfish skewers, and bowls of char-grilled vegetables, ending off with the always delicious sticky toffee pudding and lemon glaze sponge cake and fresh icecream. By far, one of the best meals I have ever had on my mission, and the price tag was almost as impressive as our friends' generosity.

On a more spiritual note, we had a little miracle happen. We got a referral from mormon.org, named Matthew, so we went over and delivered a Book of Mormon. That was about the extent of the visit, but the next day at church...he totally showed up on his own! He is 19, and is genuinely and independently looking for the truth. His long bus ride to the chapel was proof of that. He said that this was his favorite church he has ever been too, and even invited himself next Sunday! Heavenly Father is definitely looking over the people in this area, and I can see Matthew going far.

Other than that...life has just been good. Even though it's been freezing and covered in ice, we are continuing to work and to have adventures. I want to leave England with no regrets.

I love you all, stay classy, and I will see you at the airport soon. Till then,

peace

Elder BA

Missionary Style Christmas

Hello Hello Hello! Merry Christmas from across the sea. 

Life is sweet, and I love all you hooligans.

This week has been pretty majestic, and the Christmas vibes in the flat are getting pumped! We had a deep Jesus the Christ group study this morning, next to our fireplace and our beautiful Christmas branch, then cleaned the flat, while listening to our traditional and epic "Spirit of the Glen" bagpipes cd.....quite majestically. It may sound lame, but...we are having good times here. I will definitely miss the missionary style Christmas though. Instead of hanging out at a large member

family's home this year, we have decided to spend it with some of the single members of the ward. So on Christmas, I will be at our big ol' Romanian friend, Andrei's flat for when we Skype. His flat is pretty meager, and we are not too sure about the internet connection, but we are praying that it will work out. I will Skype around 3 (my time), but if the connection is rubbish, then we will go to another family's house later that night for backup. So we will see what happens, and I will email you the deets when the time comes. I am so excited to see your faces though. I miss you all.

Other things that happened this week:

*We went to the Temple as a mission again. Again, a very unique experience.

*We had a baptism for Elder Candland and Mongie's Chinese investigator, Guowei! (it sounds exactly like Nacho " Go away...read some books!") It was a very intimate but powerful baptism, and we all know he is going to be a powerful leader in China. He returned to China yesterday, but before he left, he fed the four of us a traditional Chinese meal. It instantly brought back flashbacks of Wrexham, and made me remember how much I love the humble, Chinese people.

*For a ward activity, we had "A Night in Bethlehem". It was actually...super legit. They transformed the chapel into the old Jerusalem setting, and we all wore "traditional" Jewish style clothing, and sat on the floor instead of chairs, and had an amazing Nativity program. It was..a pretty sacred night. Even though people were obviously in costumes, and the props weren't professional...it had a very special feel to it all, and the true spirit of Christmas was very strong. It will definitely be a time I will never forget.

Other than that, Elder Schofield and I have been having some good adventures (we got lost on a different route to the chapel, and ended up walking around in a circle in a forest at night for an hour), and we have been teaching our friends John and Serafim, and they are incredibly progressing.

Thank you mum for the food, and thank you everyone for your love and support and humor. You are the best family I could ask for. Too true. I love you all, and until I see your faces on Thursday, peace out and

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Elder BA

Guowei the man!!!!

 Night in Bethlehem. You have to trust me...everyone else's costume was actually legit. We had to improvise... and cut up a duvet cover. More Nephite than Jewish if you ask me