October 25, 2010

Dear Family,
Well I had a great first week in Burton. Lots of things are different from Kidderminster, though the first and most obvious one is that I don't know the area very well. It's also organized very differently from Kidderminster. Kidderminster is almost like a big circle with the town center in the middle and everything else leading away from that, but Burton is almost like a couple small town centers with attaching residential areas and just more spread out. Kidderminster was very compact while Burton feels sort of stretched out.
The next big difference is that it feels like we don't really work that hard, which is kinda nice because it means it's a little more relaxed, but at the same time makes me wonder if I can work harder. Along with this though, Burton is a lot easier to have success in it seems. With Elder Mower we had like 3-4/12 weeks with our 10/10/10 goal reached, and even though Elder Duke and I walk like half the day (normally in Kidderminster we cycle and stop people as we bike) we still got it, although we did get the last 3 Books in like an hour tracting a street he and the previous Elder prayed about. I don't know, it's just a little unsettling for me to move from hard area where you work and sometimes get only 4 Books on the week to walking around and talking to like 30 people a day and still getting your 10s and having more investigators at church than I've ever had. To be fair in Kidderminster I think the highest we ever had was 1 at church at a time, but we still beat that here in Burton with 2.
Another massive change is that instead of having 2 Dinner Appointments a week with pretty much the same 2 families, we have a dinner appointment almost every night of the week, and we have to tell people no sometimes because we can't do a night. At least now I'm practicing eating all sorts of different foods not made by me, and I do feel like I'm getting a lot better about not being a picky eater. It is just a big change though, and it's weird because I'm used to having a dinner break to relax and think, not talk to families and stuff.
We have an American family here named the Manors and they're pretty cool, although the kids are a bit crazy. We had Mexican with them last night and that was just kind of crazy because, well, it's England where Mexican food is not the most common thing.
Elder Duke is pretty cool, he actually reminds me a lot of Alex which is fun but creepy at the same time sometimes. He's from Arkansas so he has the whole Southern attitude and upbringing which is different because he actually knows what it's like to grow up in the Bible belt. Last night though we went tracting for the first time (another big difference, I think Elder Mower and I tracted at least every other day for an hour or more) and he kinda had a salesmen vibe which is very plausible because he worked as a door-to-door salesmen before his mission and it really annoyed me. He also will sometimes talk over me, but that might be because his last companion was a greenie and he's used to having to do most of the talking. Hopefully I can work those out, I guess that's why we have companionship inventory, although it seems a little useless as the last step of weekly planning because usually I'm either tired enough of planning I just want it over with or weekly planning was so annoying for one reason or another and I don't want to express how I feel because I'll just want to lash out. This weeks weekly planning was good, but previous ones were not so easy.
Well I still feel sort of pessimistic and I don't want to be, maybe it's just a side-effect of working in an area with almost no success, or maybe I just have some Spiritual growth to do. Or maybe there's lots of good things and I just focus on the negative. I don't know.
I do hope everything's going great back home. Lauren looked really creepy with the black hair, don't let her dye it that way ever. It's getting very cold here as well, especially when it rains it just gets cold all the way into you. So, hurray for 5 months of cold on their way, and a Sun that goes down(eventually) at 4-5. Daylight Savings Time, whenever that starts, is really going to kill. It gets dark at around 6:30 now, so it'll be dusk at like 5 pretty soon.
I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!
Ryan

October 19, 2010

Dear Family,
I have been transferred to Burton-on-Trent in the Lichfield Stake/Zone. We found out Saturday night and transfers was yesterday so that was different. It was especially different because normally we don't know we're leaving on Sunday and this Sunday meeting I was able to tell everyone. We had no heating in our building so we abbreviated church to Priesthood and Relief Society and Sacrament Meeting, although in Sacrament Meeting I bore my testimony after the Sacrament and then we closed.
It was hard to say goodbye to everyone in Kidderminster, I realized that everything I associated with missions and missionary work was tied into that city. I know almost every street and all the paths from place to place. Yesterday coming to Burton I felt like a greenie again, just didn't feel like I was continuing my mission or something, like all my knowledge had been sucked away. I was also able to visit Ann one last time (she went to church near London returning from visiting one of her daughters) Sunday night, and that was really good. Very glad she's in Kidderminster and that she wants to help the missionary work along. We talked about politics and she told me I should get into it, and who knows? I certainly haven't figured out what I want to do.
My new companion is Elder Duke and so far it's been a blast. Just so refreshing to be with a new Elder and hard worker. He's the district leader here and my dad Elder Shrubb is one of my zone leaders so it's pretty fun (dad is trainer in mission language). So far since 6:00 last night (it's now 11:16) we've given out 2 books and have 1 new investigator, which is almost half a week's finding efforts in Kidderminster. Burton or maybe just Elder Duke is just awwww relaxing and enjoyable. So hopefully this'll be the great happy and peaceful section of my mission (well I hope all the rest of it is) and that I'll have great fun and good success here.
President Ogden said during transfers if you've had hard times or struggled with something on your mission, don't think about it, don't dwell on it, Your Mission Begins Today. So I'm going to try and apply that here in Burton. I do have to say I kind of missed Elder Mower when I was leaving transfers but now... I'm grateful to be where I am.
Well I don't know the area and I don't know any of our investigators yet but hopefully soon I'll have some good stories and events to tell. It's definitely weird moving into a new area and setting everything up, Kidderminster was just a small apartment in a complex with 12 apartments, but Burton accommodations are a small house. Which is pretty nice for missionaries. Everything in England is pretty compact though, I can only imagine a couple living in this sort of house.

Can't really think of anything else but I love all of you and I'm grateful for all your prayers and advice and everything else.
Love,
Ryan