fun old times

i need to be stopped!  too fun.  i should send the first one to Ben.  his name popped up as Elder.  haha

friday nite fun

advent

tomorrow i'm sending Ben a little advent notepad.  we all wrote thoughts and sayings on 24 post it notes.  along with it, i wrote this letter...with the help of the internet, i kind of did it spur of the moment this evening...
here it is:

BONUS

 we got this bonus email from Ben on wednesday.  it was a transfer day, so also a pday for him.  i LOVED it mainly because he didn't spend half the time answering questions...it was just -what's going on-.  i laughed all day about the road show.  and i'm (we all are) super proud of Ben.  i couldn't be happier with his attitude, or how much he is loving life there.  Ben doesn't worry about the rejection...and he has such a strong testimony.  he is an example to all of us.  so proud of him!

Well guys, the news is in.  I am gonna be in Wandsworth with Elder D. for another transfer!  Woo!  It'll actually probably be until February because I heard they don't want to move too many people for Christmas and they want us to be settled.  So since I'm not moving, it's P-Day for me.  So I get another short email time.  So yeah, lemme tell y'all what's up.  Here's something weird: Our stake is doing a roadshow and every ward MUST contribute an act.  No choice.  So our ward has split our performance time into two cringeworthy acts.  Guess who are the main characters of the first act?  Me and my companion... We have to sit on the stage and read some "funny" missionary tips and say "funny" things about the tips... Yeesh!  My companion first of all has a crazy fear of acting, so that's bad enough, but I'm not even afraid of acting and I want to refuse doing it.  Honestly.  Just to show how bad it is, I'll give you two of my favorite "lines".  One is where I say, "When being chased by a dog, you only have to outrun your companion, not the dog" and then my companion gets to go "Woof, Woof" in my ear. Cringe city.  Another one says "Have a pillow fight with your companion" and then yes, you guessed it.  We are supposed to have a pillow fight. Alone.  On stage. In front of the stake.  Please, someone convince me this isn't going to be a horrible experience.  Pray for me hard on the 23rd of this month haha.  Oh!  And then our ward's main production needs a little work...  It condemns people who "Party" as evil and the main character makes the choice to go party with some friends and then the skit ends with him simply "feeling sad".  Basically, we can't bring investigators to the roadshow anymore...  Oh well.  Anyways, let me share some positive things.  First off, I get to stay in Wandsworth! I may have just said some negative things about those skits, but the members really do mean well, and I do thing they are the absolute best.  I should say though, our numbers are dwindling.  Two families and a YSA are moving out soon. :( Looks like I'm going to be giving lots of talks in this ward haha.  Ah well, they are the best so that's okay.  So today for P-Day, I think we are going to go to Catford and play some Risk.  Since people are gone to Staines for transfers picking up their new companions, we don't have the numbers to play rugby or anything.  So that's today.  We lost contact with our amazing golden investigator, but we're gonna keep trying.  We have a new good investigator who is taking us to Nando's on our first teach with him.  We met him because he came to church on his own, so we have high hopes.  That homeless spirit guru is still hanging around the chapel.  Apparently he interrupts lots of the classes that go on, so idk what's going to happen with him.  By the way, i don't know if there are any good pics of me showing off London as well, but I think Janisko wants one, Tessa, if you don't mind helping him out.  I was supposed to get him a video for a fireside, but because our chapel's internet has stopped working, I haven't sent it to him, so apologize for me.  Just so you know, next time you hear from me will be Monday, so it'll be back to normal.  So, yeah.  What else?  I eat lots of bagels here.  And we did fried tomatoes recently, that was okay.  We made brownies and cookies for the ward members recently, so yeah, we're basically sister missionaries ;)  Um... I'm reading Jesus the Christ, and that book is a monster!  So so so long.  But so good.  ANyways, this is it for now.  Hope you have a good week.  Until Monday. Love y'all to the pieces
Elder Wright

time to understand me

THIS describes me perfectly.  if you have ever misunderstood me, read please!!  i have been mistaken for snobby, mad, upset, or shy.  i am usually none of those things...especially the first one.  so please read.  it says it better than i ever could!!!  i also don't like being a loner, so introverted really takes on a whole new meaning. 

my commentary

 i hate to put my opinion too much on Ben's blog- since i'm going to probably make it into a book for him...
i like this bowling p-day picture.  Ben looks happy.  and he's not the biggest fan of bowling!

 i assume this would be a splits - day. 

 his GREENIE package.  i would have LOVED to send a much bigger package.  this one cost 45 bucks to send!  hahahah

 um, as a health-conscious person, this meal disturbs me in many ways.  i can only pray that the church members are feeding him some veggies!!!! 

 i am assuming this injury resulted from rugby.

 the flat.  i think i could have assumed it would look exactly like this!!!  the couches look a bit sketchy.  this would be last p-day when they played risk.  good thing Ben likes board games!

 i assume this is Ben's area- because i see the temple picture i sent with him.  it makes me happy to see it sitting there!

a bit from his last letter
Concerning the Mexican Fiesta, we want to get the Wandsworth ward and Clapham ward together, because there could be a merge in the future, and right now they kind of hate each other.  So basically we want to have a good activity to build unity, as well as get a free meal or two out of it ;)  Oh man, Joseph is the worst, he always comes and talks to me now.  But now that I've got a hold on the rail of his lifeboat, life's tempestuous seas aren't doing much to buck me off.  All the buildings here are brick and super old other than the skyscrapers, so it's weird looking out over London from on high.  We are at the chapel a lot because we do some things there like Mutual, Email, sports on Saturday with some less active youth, we get an hour in the week to go on mormon.org, and we don't do any tours.  We could, but we haven't yet.  No talk yet of more online.  There is actually a digital zone in our mission, so people get called to be online missionaries and chat with investigators all over the world.  I pray really hard that I don't get called there, I'd go crazy.  Apparentally they play board games a lot on P-day, which is what we did last pday.  We played risk at our flat haha.
.  Good to hear you guys are still Doctor Who nerds, I'd be disappointed otherwise ;)  Now for my good old written down notes

We have new senior missionaries from Seattle!  They say the weather here is exactly like Seattle, so there ya go

The queen went to Brixton the other day, and the day after there was a camera crew there, so of course I walked into it's view, so hopefully I'm on the brixton local news ;)

Brixton is full of nice people, and mean people, there is no middle ground, but they are all crazy.

I saw the biggest spider of my life the other day :'(

Now that I've seen more of London, I know how nice my area is.  Wimbledon is so nice, I love it.

The phrase "Quite Nice"  can mean like 100 different things ranging from not good to amazing.

Thanks for the sweet tie letters!  They got here Saturday and they made me laugh haha

Dad had a question about if I can cross the bridge or something in his letter and the answer is a big no.  I can never ever ever go there.  Halfway is it.  I almost went over on a bus, but there was a stop on the bridge luckily.  It's too bad, but hopefully I can get a good picture of Big Ben today on the bridge.

Bonfire Week is this week, which means people are constantly setting off fireworks.  It has something to do with Guy Fawkes.

The Look.  As a missionary, everyone gives you "The Look"  wearing the badge can be hard sometimes, but it's worth it.

We had a wicked sleepover Saturday night.  Two elders from Catford came over because the trains were gonna be down that would take them to the chapel, and they needed to be there early for choir.  We had lots of fun.

Anyways, glad to hear everyone's doing good!  Keep the questions coming, because I don't have anything to say otherwise :(  Love you guys!
Ben

burn baby burn!

 love these...Ben knows exactly what to do with the anti-mormon lit!

down time

 Ayden and his friends.  we really do have a lot of costumes.

 our Halloween was pretty low key this year.  in other words, we were boring.

have some down time today, so i thought i'd update again...who knows when the next time will be.

had some shots yesterday.  this will be the last of 2 sets- and then i will follow up and go from there.  i have a feeling i will need a couple sets every 5-6 months.  so IF the doctor is willing, and it works out that way- i am more than happy to have that done.  they were pretty bad yesterday!  not sure why they weren't horrible last month, and WERE yesterday.  YOUCH.  i tried to do some Christmas shopping in the morning.  got a few ideas for when we head to Kalispell.

work is weird.  there are all these extra staff hours that they need to use up before the end of the year.  my manager told me to come in ANY TIME and do extra work.  i am already working most days, so that will be tricky.  we have one lady out because of surgery, a new girl out because of some health issues...and the other new girl is cutting back her hours.  it just never seems to quite work out there.  anyhow, i anticipate being very busy until Christmas...and maybe a little after.  it's good.  with Christmas coming, and a missionary out- i am happy to have the extra hours. 

i am not patient.  it is tough to wait for an email every monday.  however, we are loving the emails and that Ben is sounding so positive and happy with things.  i don't think they are having any great successes...YET...but he is doing well!!  i wasn't sure what to expect- being the first time Ben has been away from home.  i thought we'd have some homesickness on our hands, but nothing!  not that i'm aware of anyhow.  time to put some of his mission pictures on this blog.

the week in review.

well, the week has been rather lame i must say.  or rather, HALLOWEEN.  sheesh...we didn't even carve pumpkins this year.  so bad!!!  i have some pics of Ayden and his friends dressing up in our costumes, so i will put those up at least...

it was a strange weekend of trying to get to two movies, and not getting to either.  one hadn't arrived (cardston) and on the way to the other (leth) ayden wasn't feeling well, so we came home.  which was fine, then we just got to relax all evening.  and he's feeling much better now.  strike 2 for our movie weekend. 

it's been snowing a lot.  we were supposed to get a few centimeters...HAH! 

in seven weeks we have Christmas- it always seems to come so fast!  we sent Ben's Christmas tree last week...i might send him some Canadian mittens in lieu of a stocking...but other than that, it will be amazon UK all the way!  anyone sending him anything- please send to mission home address.  and PLEASE...send him a card or something, he was so grateful for the letters while in the MTC.  he really appreciated those!! 

there is not a lot going on i must say.  just the usual right now.  this week i am having one more set of shots.  the last ones took the edge off the pain a little- so we will see how these ones go.  not worried about them, but it does mean a good 2 or so days off work. 

speaking of work, it's been a bit busier for me.  anytime someone is off, or sick, i am asked to take extra hours.  i feel like i SHOULD because it would be nice for Christmas, or mission- and i feel like i HAVE to as well, because i dont' want my boss to think i don't want hours.  work is good though.  everyone is in a good mood, and the new people are great. 

i was so happy today at church.  one person asked me how Ben was doing!!  that is all it takes for me to think- oh, maybe people DO care!!!  just one person.  one older person who barley knows me, but was very interested.  i think that's fantastic.  honestly, i thought people would be more interested in my ward.  i DO get lots of people asking while i'm at work...so that is good.

i have a frustrated rant or two i'd like to get out of my system- but i suppose this isn't the place to do it...sigh...
anyhow.