Pictures from the MTC

Letter - May 6, 2008

Hello everyone!!! It was great to hear from everyone this week. Thank you again for your emails. It makes my week so much better when i hear from you guys. I love every single one of you so much. I got one of the packages this week and i loved it. The reese's are almost gone but they have been delicious as well as the starburst. Thank you mom. Also i hope you had a good birthday. I thought about you all day on Saturday. I love you mom.

So i was glad to hear you got my letter. I am suprised it got there so fast. I hope you liked the pictures. They were mostly all from the MTC.

As for the work this week. It went pretty well. ALOT of tracting and finding. We found this Black guy from Kenya and he seems like he wants to know more and he has a lot of questions. We also found this one lady named Janice. We just tracted into her and we stopped by yesterday to follow up on her reading of the plan of salvation pamphlet and she really enjoyed it. She invited us in and we taught her about the Restoration and left her with the Book of Mormon to read. It was a great lesson and when we asked if we could leave the Book of Mormon with her she said o please yes. She is very excited and me and Elder Brower are very optomistic about her getting baptized. So i am hoping those go through as well as this other lady who has been taught everything but just doesnt want to be baptized. We are helping her and we have set the date for May 24th. I am really hoping it happens because if that happens it will be a very good thing for her in her life. She doesnt feel like she can give certain things up but we told her that she can and it will be so much easier once she is baptized. That is about what we have done this week. I almost got attacked by a couple of pit bulls this week. That was kinda scary. The work in Swindon is tough. People are not very receptive to the Gospel but we continue to have a positive attitude and we know that only the Lord can help us and direct us. He knows his children and he knows who is prepared for the gospel. We continue to have faith and we know that we can have success in Swindon. I love this work. This work truly is amazing. There really is no greater work than missionary work. I still miss you guys alot and i want you guys to know that i am totally focused on the work. I know what i have to do and i am working as hard as i can. This church is so true and i love it so much. True happiness only comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so happy right now and i have come to a greater knowledge of how important this gospel is to people. Thank you for all of your support.

As for the sports world. Why in the world do the Jazz have such a hard time against the Lakers!!!! It is so frustrating. Tell harpring to break Kobes fingers more so that he wont be able to play. I cant believe we didnt shoot that well. O well we will win both games in Salt Lake and we will win the series. I have confidence in the Jazz. Also thanks for the Eastern Conference update. Im still putting my money on the Celtics. (Even though i want Lebron.) I cant believe Avery Johnson got fired and i cant believe that the Suns are going to fire their coach. He is an awesome coach. That is crazy. But also update me on the Yankees. I want to know how they are doing as well. All these updates dont distract me so dont worry. So please keep me updated.

I shop at a store named Tesco. It is just a little grocery store and there isnt very many good things there. I have been eating so many peanut butter sandwiches it is crazy. I still dont think i have gained any weight though. haha. We also have a washer in our flat so we can do our wash whenever we want. We dont have a dryer so we have to hang dry everything. Its kind of annoying but o well. Thanks again for all the letters and emails. I love them. They really do help me so much. Continue to send them and i will write you back.

I love and miss all you guys. Missionary work is truly amazing. I love it. The gospel of Jesus Christ is so true. There is no question about it. I love everything about it. Thank you for all your
support. I love all of you guys.

Love Elder Sam Rudd

Letter - April 29, 2008

Hello Family!!! Thank you for all the emails. It was great to hear from you.

Thank you mom for keeping me updated on the Jazz. If they dont beat the Lakers i will be so upset. I hate the Lakers!!! Derek Fisher is a trader and Kobe is a punk. Also keep me updated on the Yankees. I have a feeling that while i am gone they will win the world series and the Jazz will win the finals. So please keep me updated on all the sports. It makes me happy and tell Debbie that yes i do miss sports center. I feel like i am lost without it.

I am so excited about Braden. That is awesome. I wish he was coming to England though. But i guess the Lord has to spread the wealth. England cant get all the good ones.

So this week has been hard but it has been good. Elder Brower is a great example to me and i love him. He played football and he seems like he is pretty good at it. We get along great. He is an awesome trainer and i have already learned so much from him. Swindon is not too big. It has about 125,000 people in it. It is cold and it rained like crazy yesterday. I got soaked. We went to go do service for this lady and i got mud all over my back from the bike and so i was pretty upset about that. The little green area you are looking at that is by our flat is a little tiny park. (My family was able to look up where he is on Google Earth and see the street he lives on, so that's what he's talking about.) It has a basketball hoop and the pavement and the walls around it are covered in grafity. I just laugh cause everytime i look there are people who try to act cool just standing there.

The food is alright. Not the greatest. I NEED MORE PEANUT BUTTER M&M'S. They dont have them here. I can get peanut ones but not peanut butter so i want some more.

So since thursday i bought a bike. We have been riding that thing all over town. My legs are hurting so bad. When we are done at night i can barely walk. It is horrible. I hope i get used to it though. haha. But we have been going tracting everyday for about 5 hours and its really hard. Noone wants to hear us. We have had a few people tell us to come back but then when we go back they arent home. It is really hard. There is this lady though that is crazy. The missionaries have committed her to baptism 3 times and on Friday we committed her again. Actually the Ward Mission Leader did. It was so frustrating. He just like took over the lesson and committed her for the summer. We were like are you crazy that is 3 months away. Finally yesterday we talked her into the 24th of May. So hopefully it goes through. Church on Sunday was weird. There are about 120 members in the ward and Sacrament meeting was major chaos. I couldnt believe it. It made me sad. But other than that not a whole lot has gone on this week. We have just been knocking doors all day long and riding bikes. Happy birthday on Saturday though mom. I love you so much. All of you guys i love and i will talk to you next week.

Love Elder Rudd

Letter - April 24, 2008

Hey Everyone!!! So i am out of the MTC now. We left yesterday. We had to get up at 5 in the morning and get on a bus and travel for about 2 hours to the mission office. It was a long ride. We got there and we all had an interview with President Moffat. It was really good and he seems like a really great guy. After all the interviews were done we went over to the mission home and had pizza. It was dominos and it was really good. Then after that we went back and found out who our companions were going to be. Mine is Elder Brower. He is from North Salt Lake and he lives in the Winegars stake. He said his dad is the Stake President now so it was cool to know that we knew someone. He has been out about 6 months. We were assinged to a city called Swindon. It is down in the southernmost part of the mission. Hopefully it is on the map of the mission. But before this transfer there were only 2 missionaries in the area and now there are 4. So its pretty much like we are opening a new area. Our apartment is pretty small but its not bad.
I love all you guys so much and i hope everything is going well. I want to hear from everyone. I miss all you guys so much. I cant wait to talk to you on mothers day. I love you!

Love Elder Sam Rudd

(Sam gave us his current address, and I posted it on the sidebar. I will keep his current address there throughout his mission.)

Letter - April 19, 2008

Hey everyone! It was good to hear from all of you this week. You guys are the best. Wow this week has flown by!!! It seems like i was just emailing you guys yesterday. It is amazing. Today we just went to all the church history sites in Preston. It was the best!!! They are amazing sites. We went to the house that President Hinckley lived in while he was here as a missionary and if you have seen the picture with him standing right next to the door on the front porch then just imagine me standing in his place and that was the picture i took. I was the only one who got that close. After i did it President Sorensen said we probably shouldnt get that close anymore. So i kinda felt special. haha. But then we went to the river ribble where the first british saints were baptized and that was amazing. I took picutres of everything but i am just waiting to send the memory card home until it gets full. Then we went to the place where Heber C. Kimball lived and where all the evil spirits were trying to kill him and get him to not baptize the members. It was really one of the coolest things i have ever been a part of. The spirit was so strong there and i could just see everything happening in my head. I loved it. Dad has pictures of everything i'm sure so if you want to look at those then you will know where i was. But this week was a good week. We taught two milestones which are the different lessons. We teach them to the teachers and we are video taped and then we look over it and see what we did wrong. The one on wednesday which was the plan of salvation went pretty well. But the one last night i thought went pretty well but then afterwards the teacher just ripped us apart because we didnt resolve the concern of the investigator. It was tough. I learned from it though and i will show him next time that i can do it. So the Leeds mission came this week to the temple and then watched the Joseph Smith movie in the MTC. It was really cool. I saw Brock Stuart and he says to tell Tiff hi. He is my friend Melissa's brother. (The one that got married). We were talking about how crazy it is that we saw each other and that both we are friends with each others sisters. It was just really cool to see him. I have loved my time in the MTC. It has been tough but i really do love it here. I am ready to get out into the field next week and actually do the real missionary work. I love it. There is nothing better than missionary work. Mom keep sending me candy. You know the candy i like so just send whatever. Pretty much all my candy is gone. I NEED MORE!!! But the town here is so crazy. Everything is so different here. It is hard to get used to. We were walking on the street the other day and i looked the wrong way when i was crossing the street and i almost got hit by a bus. It was pretty crazy. I took some video on my camera and you can literally walk on the sidewalk and put your arm out and you would hit the cars. Its ridiculous. I dont think i will ever get used to that. But answering everyones question no i wont be able to go back and talk to that lady. I wish i could because i really think something was going to happen. All that happens now is dependant on the local missionaries so i hope they take my referral and talk to her. It is hard to think about it and think thats how its going to be when your in the middle of teaching someone and then you get transferred. It will be tough. I really do love that lady and i really hope something happens.

Well my time is almost up but thank you everyone for all the emails. Thank you Grandma for the letter you wrote me. I loved it and thank you for the picture of me and chris. I am glad he is doing well. You will have to keep me updated on how he is doing. I love it here and i cant wait to meet President Moffat this week and get started on the real missionary work. I am so anxious and so excited. I love you guys and thank you for all the support. You are the best.

Love Elder Sam Rudd

P.S. Cameron you are the best. I love you so much and i miss you. the picture of me and you are in my scriptures and i look at it everyday. Keep getting smarter. I love you bud.

Letter - April 12, 2008

Hello Family!!!! Its great to hear that everyone is doing great. I'm suprised that Kansas won! WOW!!! I picked them at first and then changed it. Im an idiot. O well. But let me know how the jazz are doing please. I miss it at home but i love it so much out here. The first few days were hard and i was really discouraged but then we watched a fireside with Elder Holland and it totally changed me. He is so powerful when he speaks its amazing. I love him. But the MTC is great. All we do is study Preach My Gospel. That literally is all we do im not even kidding. Its amazing. You guys need to read it and study it because it will bless everyones lives i promise you that. England is amazing. It is so beautiful. It snowed here this week and it was only about a half inch and it didnt even cover the grass and President Sorensen said that it was the most they have seen in almost 2 years. I just laughed and said it snowed about a foot before i left. It rains almost every day though. But tuesday is our P day but we dont email that day. We only email on saturday and we only have 45 minutes. Its so hard so write alot and still read everyones emails but i love hearing about everyone so keep sending them. We go to the temple every tuesday and the Preston temple is amazing. It is a beautiful temple. The grounds are so green and filled with flowers and bushes. But yesterday they gave us a couple hours to go tracting out in the city. It was unbelievable. Holy Cow!! We got alot of doors slammed in our faces but then there was this one house that we went to. This old lady answered the door and i asked if we could share a message with her. She said yes and so i started to talk. I dont really remember everything i said because the Spirit was talking but she was a methodist and she said she had trouble with knowing she was forrgiven of her sins. I started to explain repentence to her and i could feel the spirit so so so strong it was amazing. I told her to read the Book of Mormon and we left one with her and she said she would read it and pray about it and ask for forgiveness of her sins. We talked with her for about 45 minutes and after we got back onto the street i screamed and said YES!! It was the best feeling in the world. I cant even explain it. That is the reason i love missionary work. I cant wait and be able to do that all day every day. It truly is an amazing and inspired work.

But thanks everyone for the emails. I got the package you sent. I got it on thursday. THANK YOU!!!!!!! I was craving a peanut butter egg the whole time and the box is almost gone. I love them. Thank you mom!!! The candy and desserts here have absolutely no flavor at all. No flavor. I am dying. So keep sending candy. haha. Sorry if this makes no sense at all. Im trying to email all of this so fast and so many thoughts are going through my head. So dad there is a teacher here at the MTC and he served in the Salt Lake City South Mission and he knows Kearns and Parente and Stanix and all those guys. His name is Goble. He said he met you but he never served in our stake so i dont know if you would remember him but we talked for a long time about it and it made me happy to talk about back home. Well i have to go now, sorry i couldnt answer everyones questions but know that i love all of you. You are the best family ever. The church is true and dont be afraid to share it with anyone. I love you.

Love Elder Rudd

p.s. mom i have kept my room clean the whole time and made my bed every day. So be happy for me. haha. I love you so much mom. Your the best.

cameron i hope you dont forget me and dont forget that we are still best friends and best buds. I love you so much.

First Letter - April 5, 2008

Hello Family!!! WOW!!!!! It has been a long few days. I am so tired. I'm still trying to get over the jet lag that i have. The plane ride from New York to England was pretty good. I slept most of the way but i was still extremely tired after. They picked us up from the airport and brought us straight to the MTC. They took our bags up to our rooms while we went and ate lunch. We got to the MTC at about 12:30 or 1 becuase our flight had a long layover in New York. One of planes like crashed or something and so it took us a while to leave. As soon as lunch was over though they took us into a little orientation meeting and gave us some more name tags and some letters for us to write. Then we had an interview with President Sorensen so he could get to know us a little better. It was a great interview. We just sat and talked for a little and just got to know eachother a little better. He is a great man and i love him. After that we went and met our companions and saw our rooms and unpacked a little bit. My companion is Elder Hartwig. He is from Germany and has a little problem with english but it is a lot better than i thought it would be. He is a great guy and i love him as well. I'm rooming with him as well as Elder Nimer from St. George and Elder Brandenburg from the Netherlands. I have enjoyed getting to know them a little better. The food here is better than i thought it would be. My first meal was horrible but it's gotten better since then. I think we have had chicken almost every meal and so i'm getting a little sick of it and want something else. My room is not very big. It is just like a dorm room at the college and my closet is probably about the size of the scrapbook closet upstairs and there were only about 5 hangers in the whole thing so i had to put about 2 shirts on one hanger. I love it here though. The spirit is SO SO strong. I wish all of you could be here to feel it.

Today we woke up at 6 30 and showered and then had breakfast and then had personal study until about 8 30. We then went into a class taught by President Sorensen on our purpose as missionaries. He gave us 5 minutes to memorize our purpose on the first page of Preach My Gospel. I memorized it but my companion had a little trouble understanding some of the words in it and so i had to help him a little. After that we had another class taught by Bro. Pendenton. I think that's his name. He is from England and he served his mission in Scotland and knows Zach Hewlett. He taught us a little more about Preach My Gospel and how to use it. He showed us some of the Preach My Gospel DVD'S which show missionaries planning and carrying out their plans during the day. It is a great DVD and it helped a lot. After that we had a class taught by Bro. McMorn who is also from England and served his mission in London and served with Darren O'Brien. He taught us about Lesson 1 in Preach My Gospel and taught us a little more of how we can teach it as missionaries. He asked us some questions and i knew the answers because they were things that i was taught in mission prep.

After that we watched conference and it was a totally different experience watching it here then at home. The spirit was so strong and when we all sustained President Monson it was just one of the best feelings i have ever had in my life. We watched it live and it started at 5 o'clock England time. So figure that and the time difference is about 7 hours. We are watching the priesthood session in the morning at about 10 and then the Saturday Afternoon session at about 1 and then the Sunday Morning session live again at 5.

I cant tell you how much i love it here. I miss you guys but i know that i am supposed to be here on this mission. The MTC is an awesome experience so far and maybe that's because we haven't had any real hard classes yet but i love it. There are about 16 elders here and 4 sisters. President and Sister Sorensen are great people and they love what they do. This is their 4th mission.

I hope all of you are doing well. Mom don't worry i'm safe. Dad i took a picture next to Art and Ruby's (Carol) picture just like you told me to. You guys are the best family in the world and i love all of you very much. I do miss you guys but i love being here and i wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now. Thank you for all your letters for the plane. They helped me a lot. Thanks for all the prayers and support that you guys give me. I couldn't ask for a better family. I love each and everyone of you very much and i hope to hear from you soon. My P-Day is on tuesday so hopefully i can email again then. So email me before tuesday. The church is true and i love this gospel. I love and miss all you guys. Stay strong!! You guys are the best. I LOVE YOU!!!!!

Love Elder Rudd

He's Gone

Yep, Sam left this morning for England! His setting apart last night was wonderful and it was so awesome to have dad do it! It was very hard to see him go this morning, but he'll be a great missionary and will do great things in the next two years! GOOD LUCK SAM!!! WE LOVE YOU!!! (The pictures will come later!)

ONE WEEK

One week from today, Sam will be gone on his mission! I can't believe it's already here! He's speaking on Sunday. Then he is getting set apart on Wednesday night (by my dad) and then Thursday morning at like 10:05, he will be on a plane to England!

Sam, I just want you to know how proud I am of you. You have been a great little brother and have always been such fun. Sure you have had your moments, just like everyone, but I've had fun watching you grow up. I could always count on you to update me on the score of a game, the stats on the Utes, or any sports fact from the past. I hope you will survive the next two years without a ball attached to you! Good luck and don't forget to focus and follow the counsel of your mission president. I know Cameron is going to miss you and so am I! I LOVE YOU SAM!!!

3 weeks and counting...

...until Sam will be in the MTC in ENGLAND!!! Wow! Here's Sam breaking in his new coat he got. Why is he so weird all the time? We're sure going to miss him!