Letter - August 27, 2008

Hey everyone how are you doing? I am doing great in England. I love it! I didn't get transferred and neither did Elder Wear. I am glad we have another transfer to work with each other. It will be fun. Rugby will have a lot of success.

Well something pretty cool is happening on sunday in Birmingham. L. Tom Perry is coming to speak to i think the Birmingham Stake but im not 100% sure. President Moffat said that we could go if we have an investigator to go with us. I really hope we can go. I am anxious to see if i can talk to him and talk to him about Grandpa Rudd. I am asuming he knows him because Grandpa knows everyone. So that should be neat.

Well this week was a little different. Not as successful as last week. We started out the week with 4 people committed for baptism. Everything went great on Monday and then on Tuesday morning we got a text from Doreen who is one of the people getting baptized and she said that her and her daughter couldn't see us anymore because they have their own church and they just came to our church to see what it was like. So that was pretty disappointing. We went by that night anyway to see if we could talk to her but she wasn't home. We were on the street visiting another person and this lady came and yelled at us and said that she better not see us up there at Doreen's house anymore and if she did then she was going to call the police. So that was the end of her which was really disappointing. So now we only have 2 committed for baptism. After we went and saw her on Tuesday we went by Eileen, the other person getting baptized, and tried to see if we could meet with her. We hadn't made contact with her for a few days and we were a little worried. When we got there we saw that she was just walking in from work. We went and talked to her and she freaked out at us. She said that we called too much and we came by her house too much and just told us that she pretty much didn't want to see us again. We were trying to explain to her why we were trying to make daily contact with her but she wouldn't listen. It was a little bit shocking because she was very excited about the church and really liked it. So it was quite an eventful tuesday. Not a whole lot happened after that until Sunday. We didn't have anyone show up for church. Not even Tricia who is getting baptized on the 6th of September. I was a bit frustrated and wondered what we did wrong. Then we were sitting in sacrament meeting and right after the sacrament ended in walks this lady. We didn't think anything of it at the time but after the meeting was over we went and introduced ourselves. Then a member told us that she had just walked in off the street and wanted to know more. Her name is Rosemary and so i went and talked to her and asked her if she enjoyed church. She said yes and she said she really enjoyed the feeling that was there. It was amazing. I was so happy for her. She seemed very nice and then after church we went and saw her. We taught her a little bit about the Restoration and then asked her to be baptized. She accepted and was very willing to do so. It was so great. I was so excited. We just talked for a minute after and she is a little wierd. She smokes big time and pretty much has no front teeth. It's pretty sick but when we were leaving Elder Wear went to go shake her hand and she gave him a big hug. I was laughing so hard. I immediately turned around and started laughing. I had to walk away because i was laughing so hard. It was a very interesting night. We taught her last night and she has no furniture in her house and so we sat on the floor and she was wrapped up in a blanket the whole time. She had it around her head and was biting it. It was pretty wierd. I can just tell there will be some more interesting stories with her so i will keep you posted. Also we have another lady who is getting baptized on the 13th as well. Her name is Thresa and she is from Zimbabwe. She doesn't read english very well and so it is a little difficult but her and Rosemary will be baptized on the same day. I am so excited.

Thanks for all your updates on the Olympics. They were great. I am glad that we got the gold back in basketball. It shouldn't have ever left the U.S. I wish i could have seen it. I am glad Deron did well.

Well thats it for this week. Thank you for all the emails. I love it. Me and Elder Wear are not getting very much mail. We have gotten two things in the last 2 weeks and they have both been from Grandma Lancaster. It is pretty sad. We have told members to feel free to write us a letter and put it through the post box. Hopefully we get some mail soon.

Well the mission is still going great. It's been almost 5 months! It's going by way way way too fast. I don't want it to end. I absolutely love it. Seeing how the gospel changes peoples lives is the greatest thing i have ever experienced in my life. Nothing else matters except the gospel. If we have the gospel we are everything but if we don't have the gospel we are nothing. I love it with all my heart. You are the best family in the world. Thanks for all the love and support. I love you guys so much.

Love Elder Sam Rudd