February 16

Sounds like the normal stuff is happening at home. We have zone conference tomorrow and our train is at 5:59 so that mean waking up at 5 to get there in time and that is a killer on sleep.  As for Megan and closing the doors I think that she would like English doors most of the doors in peoples houses have a chain spring on them that close the doors automatically but all the ones at our flat we have disabled because we don't like them. 

Well this week has been pretty awesome!!! Tuesday we had a dinner with Anthony and sign language lesson. I learned how to do the sacrament prayers in sign. It is really cool. I can also pray now in sign as long as I keep it short. We also had coordination on Tuesday and that was good we were able to update our ward mission leader and he also gave us some insight into the ward and what we can do to help things go better. 

We had zone meeting on Wednesday. We also had a lesson with Rory then we had games night. After zone meeting we went on exchange and I stayed in Worcester and Elder Devitt went to Gloucester and so I was with Elder Woodland one of our zone leaders for the rest of the night and Thursday morning. 

Thursday morning was good we did a lot of finding  When we exchanged back the other elders brought me a new bed frame that they had at there flat for me that they had picked up from the mission home so we still need to get that put together then I will have a new bed frame that will be nice. Right after we exchanged back we went to our lesson with Tony, Anthony's friend and that lesson went really well I felt like I could finally get my point across with the amount of sign that I know and bear him my testimony. We had a DA with the Maclaverties and that was really cool there son is about the same age as Katie and Megan and also has some mental disabilities so we were able to get on really well, and there son Luke is really cool. 

Friday we went to Cheltenham and then Elder D left for his meeting and I stayed there with Elder S, he is from Idaho and we taught a few of there investigators and did some finding there. then we got the last train back to Worcester and went straight to our lessons in Malvern with P and then back to Worcester with R so it was a crazy and cool day. P is finally making some really good progress which we are really excited for. 

Saturday we had weekly planning and then went to our lesson with this guy who stopped us on the street and said "can you and God help me quit being an alcoholic" When we got there he was drunk and had friends over and had gone into the hospital the day before and some of his friends weren't to nice to us and he could see that. He was really humble and asked us if we could come back another time so we are going over there tonight. After we went there we went to go and find the new referral that we got and he wasn't home and we also went and visited some less active members and finish our AUF's which stands for "address unknown file". Somehow the church has found people they think are members that moved and didn't transfer their records so they send us out to confirm and most are right and some are not. Most are super less active and want nothing to do with the church so we get yelled at a lot of the time but we finished those and then went back for dinner. 

Sunday was awesome we had most of our investigators at church and so we were so excited. T was there with A because A's home teachers invited him to there sons baptism that was after church. T was able to be there with A because he had work off and he also has next Sunday off and so he should be at church next Sunday as well. We also walked there with Rory from his house in town and then our referral was there waiting for us on the couch and it was a miracle!!! He is super cool. He found Mormon.org some how and got on Facebook with some missionaries and it was awesome. They invited him to church and they even sent him a video of what to wear so that was cool we have a lesson with him on Wednesday so that should be awesome. And we had a baptism after church which they all stayed for and they all really liked it so that was great. Then we went home changed and did some finding until it was time to come in for call ins so ya that was the week. 

It's crazy we already have 10 lessons set up this week and we haven't even set return appointments with some that we teach twice a week so we are looking at a epic week. I am super excited. Also we have zone conference tomorrow and I get to see lots of the missionaries that I was in the MTC with and I am super pumped for that. So a great week in the making.

I love you all and pray for you with all my heart

Elder Blake Poll

February 9

 

This week was pretty good we had some fun stuff. Tuesday we had dinner with a less active member and it was so good and then we went to a elders quourm activity and we brought our investigator Rory. Dad you will like this he speaks Japanese, though he is Chinese. Anyway the activity was great and we laughed so hard and we really bonded with Rory on the way back talking about just about anything. Now I think that he see's us as more that just religious teachers and more like his friends so that was good. Wednesday we had a lesson with a family of investigators that we haven't been able to get into contact with in a while, but it was right before our games night so we took the bikes. They live on a massive hill so we walked the bike up because we weren't in a hurry to get there but needed to get from there house to the church in under 20 minuets which the walking distance is about 1and 1/2 hour walk so we got going scary fast down that hill and we made it there in record time we were only late by about 5 minuets. But man did we go fast. games night was pretty good, the sisters here have and investigator named Andrei on date for baptism as well and he is awesome. It feels like he is a member already and he hangs out with one of the members here all the time and so things were great. We got to know him better as well. then on Thursday we had district meeting and that was fun it's always fun when you get a group of missionary's together. Speaking of that we have zone meeting this week which I am excited for. any way after district meeting I went on exchange to Evesham with Elder Clarke, he is from new Zealand and he is awesome we had a great time we ate at a members house. The house was massive for England and it was really old. Still the same building from like 2 or 3 hundred years ago. So that was cool. Then it was a bit weird the Evesham elders volunteer at a charity shop on Friday mornings so I got to go do that and we worked the till. The till was the same make and design as the one that was at Steph's so it was weird for me. We came and switched back and then we went to a lesson. We missed our train because we were running late and didn't get back to our apartment till just before we were supposed to come in for the night so we had to reschedule our other lesson for Saturday. It was probably better that way. because we were able to meet up with the sisters and get a Chinese book of Mormon from them to give to Rory. We also had dinner with a couple of members and it was really good she is from Portugal and so the food was different and really good but they changed the time on us and so it was like having a second lunch so we weren't able to eat as much as we would have normally because we were just so stuffed. Later we had our lesson with Rory and taught him the plan of salvation and he really liked it and drank in the information so that was cool. Sunday we had church and were finally able to meet with Liam and invite him to church and he said that he couldn't come this next week but the week after. Later we went and visited with some less actives. That was the week.

Love you and Have a great week and know that you are always in my prayers
Elder Poll

We've Been Out 6 Months!!!

So this week we have been loads better no more sickness and I have been our 6 months now officially, we went over to a members on Friday and me and elder D both burned stuff. I burned a tie (and before you worry it was a really crappy one with the threads frayed on it every time I wear it) and it was elder Ds 18 month mark so he burned trousers. I have a video but I can't load it on because I am out of room so I will send it to you as soon as you can get that stuff taken off for me. But this week has been pretty great we did not get transferred so it is still me and Elder D but Sister S got moved which was kind of sad and weird it was kind of like seeing Dani leave again because I just kind of associated them together in my mind for some reason and combined with Sister M they have a lot of the talents that Dani has like the fun loving ness and Sister M can play the piano really good. Interesting but cool thing, sister Mo that just came to take her place is from Germany and her sister lives in Dani's mission but I'm not sure which city. Tuesday we had a really good lesson with our investigator Rory and on Wednesday we had game night and Rory came and it was really good he had fun and then on Thursday all of our lessons kind of fell through from people being sick so we did some Less Active stop bys and we actually got to go in and talk with quite a few. We are hoping to establish a good friendship then work in getting them back to church. Then we had planed to have dinner with the Ns but they had to reschedule for Friday which worked out better for us so we cooked our own dinner then did some street contacting. Friday we did more LA stop bys and had less success but that's okay then we had dinner with the Ns and we burned our stuff and it was great. Time is a mystery that I will never understand I think it feels so fast at times and so slow at others but such is time and we can't control it.

Saturday we had a lesson with R who really likes meeting with us and we put him on a baptismal date for the 14th of March so that was exciting and he came to church with us yesterday and it was awesome he is Chinese and his English isn't amazing but it is good for him only having been here for 7 months and no previous English classes. So his understanding at church probably wasn't great but he felt the spirit that is for sure and he shared with us during our ysa lesson that he really likes praying so that was cool. He is coming to our elders quorum activity tomorrow and we are going to teach him a lesson after so it should be good.

Love you and pray for you always have a great week.

Love Elder Poll

Januany 26

So family this week has really was bad to be honest we spent most of it stuck in our flat because we were sick with the flu so it was really boring. Monday when we were emailing I started to feel a bit weird but not to bad then we went up to a members to have dinner I started to get the shivers really bad then we went to a appointment with a investigator and his friend and they were both high and one was drunk and they had just finished smoking when we get there and so the room was full of smoke and that sucked and didn't help me feel any better and neither of them was really paying attention so we finished up quickly and left and I just proceeded to not feel very good. Tuesday neither of us was feeling all that great so we took things easy Tuesday but we had two appointments that we couldn't really miss and both turned out really well so we were glad that we made it to them. Tuesday night it just hit us we were both just so tiried and had massive head aches and lots of trips to the bathroom. and so that night we called sister Rasmussen and she told us that the best thing that we could do for us and for the sake of those around us was to stay inside get lots of rest and eat bland food so for the next three days the only contact we had from the outside world was the sister coming to drop us off roman noodles and us making a very painful and tiring trip to a boots pharmacy to get some pepto bismal the only communication with the outside world came through our phone. We had to cancel all of our appointments and stuff and stay inside. Luckily for us we started to feel better a bit on Friday night and then by Saturday we felt a lot better so that afternoon we were able to go out and do some missionary work. Sunday was really disappointing we were hoping to have an investigator there but we had to cancel our appointment with him and we weren't able to get into contact with him at all to remind him of church we called and texted and got no replies and so he didn't come. but that's okay. then in sacrament meeting I gave a talk on acting on promptings it went really well and I was able to get the whole thing out without really getting that nervous. the worst part was that I was the first speaker so I had just blessed the sacrament and moved over to my seat on the stand and then got right back up and gave my talk but I had whole week stuck in the flat to prepare the talk so it was really good. then we were able to have dinner with a elderly couple in our ward and it was really good then we went up to see an investigator that we haven't been able to get into contact with since before I got to the area and we had a good chat with them and we are hoping to be able to meet with them soon and start teaching them again. Then we talked to some people in the street and then came back to our flat for call ins then went to bed. Then today was really good we had district pday and we went to this bowling alley and it was really fun I hadn't done bowling in a long time and it was fun to get together with the whole district and have fun since tonight we get our call on whether we move or not and what is happening with transfers so some of us may not be here next transfer.

Speaking of transfers I don't think that we will be moving but I really don't know but both of us haven't been here for long so I think we will both stay one more transfer then he will go then me but only the Lord really knows.

Love Blake

Things are good!!

Well this week has been pretty good we have been able to teach quite a few of our investigators and we have made some really great progress with some of them They are finally turning a corner keeping commitments and working on adjusting there work schedules so they can come to church with us so its been really good. I mention Justin in my email before about him deciding to stop smoking and it had been a week when we met with him again and he had still not smoked and it was really exciting to hear. That was the highlight of our week. and I got my bed sort of fixed its good as long as I don't jump on it or move around heavily on it. We also had zone meeting this week it was good but weird because it is the smallest zone in the mission and Lichfield where I was before was the largest so it was quite a bit of a change, but I got to see Elder Smart one of the missionaries that was in burton with me so it was good and I learned a lot. Then we did exchanges with the Evesham Elders so I spent Tuesday and Wednesday with Elder Velasco he is from the Philippines and goes home pretty soon so he was already a bit trunky but I made him work so it was good. Thursday we had inspection by our land lord so we spent most of Wednesday night cleaning. Dang the flat looked good. we passed with flying colors except for the sealant on the shower but we couldn't really control that. The rest of the week was really good. We taught Tony and Justin and committed Justin to church but something came up with his family Sunday morning so we just met up with him last night and taught another lesson.  That's cool to hear about Sadie and her trip to India tell her to try all the curry she can. Some are great some are not so great. There are loads of Indian people here so curry has become a pretty normal dish that everyone has so I have had quite a bit of it. My favorite is tikk masala it's goooooooood we make it about once a week.

Tell Ben best luck with the studies it sounds rough.  We see university students everyday and it makes me wonder what it will be like when I am back and going to school.

Well we have some good lessons set up for this week with all of our investigatos except Liam so far and we are goin to call him tomorrow and set that up so yea, love you, talk to you next week.

Love and loads of prayers

Elder Poll

It was a pretty good week.

Our week was pretty good we had quite a few lessons with investigators and we and interviews with president on Wednesday and that was good. we have hit a bit of a wall with Liam at the moment since he is only 17 we have to get permission from his parents to go much farther and when Liam told them they said that they were okay with us talking but they weren't to sure about church. so we are hoping to be able to meet with them some time this week and see what we can do. Justin on thew other hand is doing really well we still haven't been able to get him a Romanian book of Mormon print copy because the mission is out but we showed him how to get on to lds.org ones and switch them to Romanian so he is really excited to be able to read that better and the coolest thing happened when we were talking with him. he is a smoker so we knew the word of wisdom would be a problem in the future but when we were talking with him he said that he was going to the gym and stuff and that he had decided that Satan was in smoking and that it made Satan happy when he smoked and so he decided to stop and he showed us his last two cigarettes and said after these I am done and so that made us really excited because now we know that he has the desire to stop, and that even if he can't do it alone we can help him and encourage him now that we know that he wants to stop.

Kind of funny this week we were going to bed and I sat on my bed and it broke... ha ha ha. don't worry its not because I got fat my bed has been held to together by tape and rope and a small board screwed in on that side the whole time I have been here and elder Devitt said that it has been like that since he got here as well so it was not really my fault. So I have been on my mattress on the floor for the last 4 days but luckily for me my mattress is really good. so today we went and bought a 2x4 and we are going to borrow a drill from a member and screw it back together. Also funny this week elder D got his pride hurt by a "child's play thing" when we were out finding in Malvern in-between two of our appointments. We came across a play ground and us being us we had to try it out and they had some of those things that you sit on and they rock back and forth on a spring and so we got on them and elder Devitt was riding the horse and it bucked him off. I wish I had gotten a video of that but I didn't but it was funny. (quote thank you toy story)

On a more serious note we were able to teach tony this week and everything went really well we were able to have John Nolan a member from the ward that just got back form a mission in St. George at the lesson with us and he speaks well I don't know if speaks is the right word but he does BSL British Sign Language. and he helped us teach so things went really well. Elder Devitt has picked up BSL really fast but I am a slow learner so I am not much help in the lessons. We have lessons every week with a deaf member of the ward and I try to learn as much as I can but I don't think its the learning that I have an issue with its the retaining the info that I am not so good at.

The interview with president was good but it felt really short and still a bit impersonal but I can kind of understand with 300 missionaries being personal is hard but our interview was supper short it felt like but I think that everything that needed to be said was said so it was good.

I think that's about it for me this week it has rained here a bit this week but we will see how it goes the weather here can change so fast that you just go out prepared for the worst but hoping for the best. also there are a couple of videos that I am going to upload if you want to take a look.

Have a good week and I will talk to you next.

Love and Prayers Elder Poll

 

The New Year:

So this week was really good, we were able to teach all of our current investigators so it was really good. We are also pretty set up for a solid week this week as well. We were able to teach probably the most lessons that I have taught in a week my entire mission and probably Elder Devitts as well, so it was good. Our new investigators names are Liam and Justin and also a family that I don't know yet because we had  exchanges with the zone leaders last week so I was in Glaucester on Friday when they taught the lesson to them. I was with Elder Winters. He is an interesting fellow, nice but interesting.Interesting cool fact about the Gloucester cathedral is that parts of it were used to film Harry Potter.
The finding referral that we got was a bust she didn't want a BofM. I think someone is messing with us because Elder Devitt and Elder Kennedy had a couple of those last transfer and we got three more. Man I wish they were all real. We have four investigators and a family we are teaching now but I would love more. It makes the time go by

So our district includes us the sisters and the Evesham elders. With the sisters we just split Worcester right down the middle and the same with Malvern the small next town over. But we have city centre and they have the university but there is a standing invitation for either of us to gq in the others area because we are so close and just because we split Worcester doesn't mean that the people obey that rule so we pretty much have the whole thing. Malvern we split at the train tracks and we have one side and they have the other. then we both have a bunch of open space and other little towns around Worcester but none of them have town centres to gq at so its just more tracking area and right now Worcester has plenty of finding to be done. We haven't gone to much in any area beside Malvern because Malvern is where a lot of members live so we are there for Dinner about 3 times a week depending on the week.

Today we went to the Worcester cathedral it is just down the street from us. It was the inspriation for the Salt Lake Temple design. I took some pictures and will send them to you.

 

Last Weeks News:

Son boxing day we spent the day with members so I didn't get the chance to shop much, and there wasn't that great of sales any way so we are going to go today and look to see if there are any that will fit me. We got gift cards from the Nolan's for Christmas we are going to go to the store named Burton here its really nice, and we will see if we can find any trousers that fit and then I won't be spending that much because of the gift card. it was kind of funny I expected to get a lot more ties and socks from the members but I only got one tie and a couple of pairs of socks mostly we got a lot of chocolate and other food which is nice but I don't think that I will be able to eat it all or I will be sick ( Elder Devitt is trying to be healthy so he doesn't want any of the chocolate) so depending on how all that goes down I may not need new trousers. but along with that we have both made resolutions to work out better in the mornings so maybe not we will see.

 PS: we played a really fun board game with them it was called talisman I don't know if you would like it it is a long game of stragegy and roling dice to see who wins but it was fun for me.

The new year we wont be partying to much because we have to be back in our flat by 6 so it will be a pretty chill night. I was kind of wondering why when I was back in Burton why we had to be back in but since I have got to Worcester I understand. It is a mission wide rule for a reason because we live right at the end of the street of a bunch of pubs and just Friday nights are pretty interesting around here so I can't imagine new years.

Prety cool Christmas gifts for this week were some new investigators and so we were really happy we have a lesson tonight and on Thursday with two new investigators and I think because of Christmas time all of the family's in the ward that have missionaries out are thinking about there sons and so we are getting a lot of dinner appointments. I have only had to cook dinner once this week and probably wont again till Friday sweeeeet. and to be fair we have saved a lot of money not having to cook our own food so we bought a chippy instead of cooking on Saturday man I love kebabs.

Love Elder Poll