Hey everyone this week was pretty good. Nothing else has really happened since Christmas. But it was great to talk with everyone. I hope that you all are having a good New Years. Thank you for everything that you do for me. Your the best. Transfers are next week so i don't know when we will email but it will be either Wednesday or Thursday. Sorry i don't have a lot to say but i am doing well and i will write more next week. I love you all. The church is true.
Elder Sam Rudd
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Letter - December 15, 2009
Hey everyone! I hope that you had a good week. I hope that you are all ready for Christmas. I hope that everyone gets what they asked Santa for.
This week was a good week. We had Zone Conference in Cardiff this past Friday. It was a great one. We had Elder Teixera from the Area Presidency come. He was great. He loves missionary work. He says that everytime he goes and visits a mission he goes and works with a set of missionaries afterwards. I don't think he did with ours just because he didn't have a lot of time but he told us all these stories about when he went out with the missionaries. He said that he went to someones house in Spain and he went to the door and the kid they were teaching looked at him and said "Hey i recognize you from somewhere." He went and got the Liahona and in the Area Presidency message was his picture. He said that the father of this kid looked at him very seriously and said," Sir, what are you doing in my house? Howcome you have come here?" Elder Teixera said that they were here to ask for permission to baptize his son. The guy said of course you can. But it was just funny the way that Elder Teixera told the story. It was a great Zone conference though. Elder Teixera is amazing. The General Authorites are called of God. He is a convert to the church and has a powerful conversion story. But as i was sitting there the spirit bore witness to me that the Lord knows who he wants as his leaders. It was incredible.
I hope that we all have remembered why we celebrate CHRISTmas. Christmas is the best time of the year. Our thoughts need to be on our Savior Jesus Christ. His birth marked the beginning of the best life that has ever been lived. Because he was born we can return to our Father in Heaven. I love our Savior Jesus Christ. He lives. He is my older brother. He is my hero. He has been there for me when no one else has been. Just remember that the world changed that night when a baby was born in a manger. My Christmas wish is that everyone will look to give more than they receive. I promise you that as you do that you will know the true meaning of CHRISTmas. If you do that it will be the best Christmas you have ever had. I love all of you. Thanks for everything. I look forward to speaking with you all on Christmas day.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
This week was a good week. We had Zone Conference in Cardiff this past Friday. It was a great one. We had Elder Teixera from the Area Presidency come. He was great. He loves missionary work. He says that everytime he goes and visits a mission he goes and works with a set of missionaries afterwards. I don't think he did with ours just because he didn't have a lot of time but he told us all these stories about when he went out with the missionaries. He said that he went to someones house in Spain and he went to the door and the kid they were teaching looked at him and said "Hey i recognize you from somewhere." He went and got the Liahona and in the Area Presidency message was his picture. He said that the father of this kid looked at him very seriously and said," Sir, what are you doing in my house? Howcome you have come here?" Elder Teixera said that they were here to ask for permission to baptize his son. The guy said of course you can. But it was just funny the way that Elder Teixera told the story. It was a great Zone conference though. Elder Teixera is amazing. The General Authorites are called of God. He is a convert to the church and has a powerful conversion story. But as i was sitting there the spirit bore witness to me that the Lord knows who he wants as his leaders. It was incredible.
I hope that we all have remembered why we celebrate CHRISTmas. Christmas is the best time of the year. Our thoughts need to be on our Savior Jesus Christ. His birth marked the beginning of the best life that has ever been lived. Because he was born we can return to our Father in Heaven. I love our Savior Jesus Christ. He lives. He is my older brother. He is my hero. He has been there for me when no one else has been. Just remember that the world changed that night when a baby was born in a manger. My Christmas wish is that everyone will look to give more than they receive. I promise you that as you do that you will know the true meaning of CHRISTmas. If you do that it will be the best Christmas you have ever had. I love all of you. Thanks for everything. I look forward to speaking with you all on Christmas day.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
Letter - December 8, 2009
Hello everyone! Hope everyone is well. I hope everyone gets all thier alone time with Emily because when i get there i will have to take over and play with her.
This week has been a good week. We did a lot of good things. We have something called 10/10/10/20 which is to speak with someone within 10 minutes of leaving the flat, 10 street contacts every day, 10 copies of the Book of Mormon placed and 20 proper sit down lessons a week. It is pretty tough to get it. But we got it this week. We wanted it way bad and we worked pretty hard to get it. On sunday night at 8:30 we were at 19 sit down lessons. We go in at 9 and so we stopped by about 5 people but we couldn't teach any of them. We decided to just go by a recent convert to get number 20 and he was in and we got it. It was just a good feeling to know that we had accomplished one of our goals.
Well Graham, David, and a guy named Simon all came to church. They really enjoyed it. All of them are preparing for baptism within the next month so we plan on having a very busy month.
Nothing else special really happened this week. We just worked hard. Very tiring week. We have Zone Conference on Friday. Elder Teixera from the area presidency is coming to it. It should be pretty good. I am excited.
That is about it for this week. My testimony continues to grow each and every day. I love the gospel. I know its true. There is just no doubt about it. I love Jesus Christ. He lives. Thank you for everything. All the support and all of the prayers are very helpful. I hope all of you have a great week and i hope to hear from all of you next week. I love you all.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
This week has been a good week. We did a lot of good things. We have something called 10/10/10/20 which is to speak with someone within 10 minutes of leaving the flat, 10 street contacts every day, 10 copies of the Book of Mormon placed and 20 proper sit down lessons a week. It is pretty tough to get it. But we got it this week. We wanted it way bad and we worked pretty hard to get it. On sunday night at 8:30 we were at 19 sit down lessons. We go in at 9 and so we stopped by about 5 people but we couldn't teach any of them. We decided to just go by a recent convert to get number 20 and he was in and we got it. It was just a good feeling to know that we had accomplished one of our goals.
Well Graham, David, and a guy named Simon all came to church. They really enjoyed it. All of them are preparing for baptism within the next month so we plan on having a very busy month.
Nothing else special really happened this week. We just worked hard. Very tiring week. We have Zone Conference on Friday. Elder Teixera from the area presidency is coming to it. It should be pretty good. I am excited.
That is about it for this week. My testimony continues to grow each and every day. I love the gospel. I know its true. There is just no doubt about it. I love Jesus Christ. He lives. Thank you for everything. All the support and all of the prayers are very helpful. I hope all of you have a great week and i hope to hear from all of you next week. I love you all.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Letter - December 1, 2009
Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. Yeah i heard about the stupid game. It makes me upset even when i am 6000 miles away. Our bishop told us the score on sunday. (He is from America and lived in Provo for a while). But then yesterday morning during study i get a call from President Ogden who is singing the stupid fight song. I still get frustrated. And i can't believe Max Hall. Good way to represent the "Lord's" University. O well i better stop saying stuff or else i will get really upset.
But this week in Cheltenham was really good actually. I love it. They have been struggling for a long time. They had been getting close to 30 hours of finding with no success. They did a lot of tracting and it wasn't working so i said to Elder Schmidt that we should go and do more street contacting near city center and see how we do. Well on Wednesday night we found a guy named David. He is doing really well. We taught him on Friday and then he came to church on Sunday. He will be getting baptized on January 3rd. He is really good. Haha. Yesterday as we were teaching him he told me that i sounded like Jimmy Stuart. That's not the first time i have heard that. But yeah he is doing wonderful. Please keep him in your prayers.
We are also baptizing a guy named Graham on the 19th of December. He is doing well. He struggles a bit to learn everything but he is getting there. We just need to teach him very simply and he will be good.
We had a very good day yesterday. We came to city center in the morning and we talked to people for 2 hours and we handed out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon and got 2 new investigators. It was awesome. I told Elder Schmidt that we are going to put Cheltenham on fire!
So that is about all that has happened so far in Cheltenham. I guess i will just tell you a little about Elder Schmidt. He is kind of short. He is 20 years old. He is from Dresden Germany. He served in the military for a year before he came out. He is a pretty funny kid. Very stubborn. Good young missionary.
Well i hope that everything goes well this week for everyone. I can't believe that christmas is coming up again. It's only 3 weeks away. It's crazy. I hope that everyone is ready. Thank you for all that you do and all the support that you give to me. It helps me out a lot. I am loving it over here. I am absolutely sick of the rain and it is very frustrating working in the rain. But i guess that is how life goes. I am grateful for the gospel and all that it helps me with. Jesus Christ lives. He is our Savior. I know that. The gospel is true and this is the Lords work. I love you all and i hope that you have a great week.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
But this week in Cheltenham was really good actually. I love it. They have been struggling for a long time. They had been getting close to 30 hours of finding with no success. They did a lot of tracting and it wasn't working so i said to Elder Schmidt that we should go and do more street contacting near city center and see how we do. Well on Wednesday night we found a guy named David. He is doing really well. We taught him on Friday and then he came to church on Sunday. He will be getting baptized on January 3rd. He is really good. Haha. Yesterday as we were teaching him he told me that i sounded like Jimmy Stuart. That's not the first time i have heard that. But yeah he is doing wonderful. Please keep him in your prayers.
We are also baptizing a guy named Graham on the 19th of December. He is doing well. He struggles a bit to learn everything but he is getting there. We just need to teach him very simply and he will be good.
We had a very good day yesterday. We came to city center in the morning and we talked to people for 2 hours and we handed out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon and got 2 new investigators. It was awesome. I told Elder Schmidt that we are going to put Cheltenham on fire!
So that is about all that has happened so far in Cheltenham. I guess i will just tell you a little about Elder Schmidt. He is kind of short. He is 20 years old. He is from Dresden Germany. He served in the military for a year before he came out. He is a pretty funny kid. Very stubborn. Good young missionary.
Well i hope that everything goes well this week for everyone. I can't believe that christmas is coming up again. It's only 3 weeks away. It's crazy. I hope that everyone is ready. Thank you for all that you do and all the support that you give to me. It helps me out a lot. I am loving it over here. I am absolutely sick of the rain and it is very frustrating working in the rain. But i guess that is how life goes. I am grateful for the gospel and all that it helps me with. Jesus Christ lives. He is our Savior. I know that. The gospel is true and this is the Lords work. I love you all and i hope that you have a great week.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
Letter - November 26, 2009
Hey there how is everyone doing? I hope that everyone is well. I am so excited about Emily. I couldn't wait to read the email this week because i wanted to know how everything went. I am thankful that everything is well with her and Julie.
Well i got transfered this week. It very well could be my last time being transfered. But i am now in an area called Cheltenham. It is not too far from Swindon. Yeah i know what you are thinking. I can't get anywhere else in the mission. Haha. But i am glad to be here. It will be great. My companion is Elder Schmidt. He has been out for 2 transfers and he is from Germany. That makes him my first companion outside of Utah and Idaho. I am excited to be with him. He seems really good and i will be able to brush up on my german from middle school. Fritz is back!!! I was sad to leave Nuneaton but it is always sad to leave an area. I know that this is where i am supposed to be though. I am excited for it. My new address though is:
Flat 8 Centurion Court
Roman Road
Cheltenham
GL51 8GA
England
So i hope you are not mad at me for this next story but i thought that you might enjoy it. So President Ogden is a huge BYU fan. So i got that tree that you sent me and since i was being transfered i thought that instead of leaving the tree in Nuneaton, i would give it to someone who needed it more than i did. So the assistants came to pick a few things up from our old flat on tuesday and i told them to give this tree to President Ogden. So they did it. It has everything on it. All of the Utah decorations. So they take it and when President Ogden is out of the office they go and put it in his office. So he comes back and opens up the door and sees this wonderful tree sitting there in his office. He looked at it and said "Who on earth would put this in my office?" The assistants said that they looked at him and then pointed at each other. So President Ogden went all around the office asking who did this. He wasn't too happy about it apparently. So then he goes and he just drills the assistants to see who did it. They said that it was me and President said that i better watch it at transfers. Haha. So yesterday at transfers i was in the office for a little bit and i went and looked in President Ogdens office and there was the tree. Still set up and everything. I looked at him and said "President that is a beautiful tree. I see that you have repented. Where did you get that?" Haha he then looked at me and said, "Elder Rudd i can't believe you did that. I came in here and saw this tree and i was asking who on earth would do that." Then i said that i just wanted to make sure he had the right decorations up for the big game on Saturday. Then he told me that he can find out a lot faster than i can and he will be happy to let me know who won. I said to him that i will be happy to find out because Utah will run all over them. Haha. He then went on to say that he is sick and tired of hearing the Utah fight song because they keep winning. Then i said that he better get used to it. Haha so that is my big story for this week. President Ogden was laughing the whole time we were having this conversation though so don't think that we were just fighting back and forth. We have a good time with each other. I just put Go Utes at the end of my Presidents letters. But i hope that they can pull out the victory this weekend. That will be great if they can.
Well the mission is going great. Time is going fast. It is crazy. But i am so happy out here. I am so grateful to be here. I love serving. I love our Savior. I know he lives. I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. I know it. I know that we are led by a prophet of God. I know that Thomas S. Monson is that man. He is inspired. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it is true. It has changed my life. The gospel of Jesus Christ means everything to me. Your right mom. Nothing else really matters. All that matters is that we do our best. That we try our hardest to keep the commandments and to serve our Heavenly Father the best that we can. I love this gospel and i am so thankful for my testimony of it. I love you all and i hope that all of you know that. Thank you for everything. I hope you have a great week.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
Well i got transfered this week. It very well could be my last time being transfered. But i am now in an area called Cheltenham. It is not too far from Swindon. Yeah i know what you are thinking. I can't get anywhere else in the mission. Haha. But i am glad to be here. It will be great. My companion is Elder Schmidt. He has been out for 2 transfers and he is from Germany. That makes him my first companion outside of Utah and Idaho. I am excited to be with him. He seems really good and i will be able to brush up on my german from middle school. Fritz is back!!! I was sad to leave Nuneaton but it is always sad to leave an area. I know that this is where i am supposed to be though. I am excited for it. My new address though is:
Flat 8 Centurion Court
Roman Road
Cheltenham
GL51 8GA
England
So i hope you are not mad at me for this next story but i thought that you might enjoy it. So President Ogden is a huge BYU fan. So i got that tree that you sent me and since i was being transfered i thought that instead of leaving the tree in Nuneaton, i would give it to someone who needed it more than i did. So the assistants came to pick a few things up from our old flat on tuesday and i told them to give this tree to President Ogden. So they did it. It has everything on it. All of the Utah decorations. So they take it and when President Ogden is out of the office they go and put it in his office. So he comes back and opens up the door and sees this wonderful tree sitting there in his office. He looked at it and said "Who on earth would put this in my office?" The assistants said that they looked at him and then pointed at each other. So President Ogden went all around the office asking who did this. He wasn't too happy about it apparently. So then he goes and he just drills the assistants to see who did it. They said that it was me and President said that i better watch it at transfers. Haha. So yesterday at transfers i was in the office for a little bit and i went and looked in President Ogdens office and there was the tree. Still set up and everything. I looked at him and said "President that is a beautiful tree. I see that you have repented. Where did you get that?" Haha he then looked at me and said, "Elder Rudd i can't believe you did that. I came in here and saw this tree and i was asking who on earth would do that." Then i said that i just wanted to make sure he had the right decorations up for the big game on Saturday. Then he told me that he can find out a lot faster than i can and he will be happy to let me know who won. I said to him that i will be happy to find out because Utah will run all over them. Haha. He then went on to say that he is sick and tired of hearing the Utah fight song because they keep winning. Then i said that he better get used to it. Haha so that is my big story for this week. President Ogden was laughing the whole time we were having this conversation though so don't think that we were just fighting back and forth. We have a good time with each other. I just put Go Utes at the end of my Presidents letters. But i hope that they can pull out the victory this weekend. That will be great if they can.
Well the mission is going great. Time is going fast. It is crazy. But i am so happy out here. I am so grateful to be here. I love serving. I love our Savior. I know he lives. I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. I know it. I know that we are led by a prophet of God. I know that Thomas S. Monson is that man. He is inspired. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it is true. It has changed my life. The gospel of Jesus Christ means everything to me. Your right mom. Nothing else really matters. All that matters is that we do our best. That we try our hardest to keep the commandments and to serve our Heavenly Father the best that we can. I love this gospel and i am so thankful for my testimony of it. I love you all and i hope that all of you know that. Thank you for everything. I hope you have a great week.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
Letter - November 18, 2009
Hey i am sorry that this email will be short but we are really busy today and we have to catch a train to Coventry in about a half hour. But it was good to hear from you all. This week has been an alright week. We found a couple new people who are really good. We have a kid from Poland that is so solid and he is really excited. So i am learning a little bit of polish. It's really fun. We also moved flats this week. So i hope that i get the packages. Yesterday we had mission football and we did alright. I hate losing and so i was pretty frustrated when we lost and we also tied one of the games. There is no point in playing the game if your just going to tie. But o well. Transfers are next week. I feel like i will leave but i'm not sure. So we won't email until wednesday or thursday. But i love you all and i hope that you are doing well. The church is true and Jesus Christ lives.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
Love Elder Sam Rudd
Letter - November 10, 2009
Greetings from good ol' England. It hasn't changed much. Still the same old England. It is raining again this morning. I wish i would have kept track of how many days it has rained and how many days it has been clear. I think you would be surprised at the result. Haha. But i hope that everyone is doing well. I am excited to hear the news about the baby. I better get pictures. Well i think i forgot to tell you something that happened a couple weeks ago with a member. Ha, so we are at this members house for dinner and then after dinner we had to go to Ward Council at the church so we are on our way there and the member is driving us. We almost get to the church and we are just about to turn onto the street that the church is on but we have to stop for traffic. So we are waiting there and there is a car on the other side of us. Traffic clears and we start to go and so does the other car. We only went about a foot and then the car next to us totally turns his wheel and turns right into the side of us. It was crazy. The car was hit pretty hard and it almost hit me. I was in the passengers seat (left side of the car, where the driver sits in America) and the car hit the members car right above the tire. It was crazy and of course as soon as it happened i had to start laughing. I thought it was hillarious but the member got out of the car immediately and started to yell at this other driver. So that was the first accident i think i have ever been in. There have been a lot of first's on my mission. Haha. But every day brings a new adventure.
This week missionary wise was very disappointing. We had a few people who wanted to come to church but then Sunday morning they backed out. That is the most frustrating thing in the world. But we keep goin and we will find new people this week and get them to church.
We have interviews this week with President Ogden. I am excited about it and i can't wait to see what will happen. We have mission football next week. It will be very very cold but i can't wait. It is the funnest thing we do outside of missionary work. So our zone better win. I have been praying for it.
Well that is about all for this week. I am doing well. I love it out here. The gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I know it is. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. Thank you for all of your love and support. I love you all.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
This week missionary wise was very disappointing. We had a few people who wanted to come to church but then Sunday morning they backed out. That is the most frustrating thing in the world. But we keep goin and we will find new people this week and get them to church.
We have interviews this week with President Ogden. I am excited about it and i can't wait to see what will happen. We have mission football next week. It will be very very cold but i can't wait. It is the funnest thing we do outside of missionary work. So our zone better win. I have been praying for it.
Well that is about all for this week. I am doing well. I love it out here. The gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I know it is. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. Thank you for all of your love and support. I love you all.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
Letter - November 3, 2009
Hello everyone! It was good to hear from a few of you. I hope that the rest of you are doing good. Things are going great here. This week has been a good week. We continue to teach Nora and Martin but they won't be getting baptized this weekend. They weren't ready and so we had to push the date for a couple more weeks. It was disappointing but at least we are still teaching them. Nora's son just got out of prison and we went over last night and he was there and he told us that he wanted to be baptized and he wanted to come to church. So hopefully he will come. We still see John almost every day. He is doing really well. He was able to come to church this last sunday and he really enjoyed it. He is probably one of the best investigators i have ever had even though he is a little crazy. I love him though and we are just focusing on trying to get him to come to church every week with the doctors permission.
But other than that we were just out finding new people this week. We found a few new people who seem to be pretty good. Hopefully they will just be able to hold their appointments. I forgot to tell you a story that happened the other day with Sister Cooper. I don't know if you remember her but her husband is the one who has been reincarnated 3 times and he fell off an elephant the 2nd time and was trampled to death. So anyways, we were at Sister Cooper's house for dinner and we were waiting for dinner to be cooked and Sister Cooper came into the room and asked if we give blessings to animals. We said we weren't sure but we would do it. So Sister Cooper asks me to give her cat a blessing. I told her i would. So i gave Sister Cooper's cat a blessing. Elder Jameson held the cat and i had to put my hands on this cats head and try and stop it from jumping out of Elder Jameson's hands and also from licking my hand. It was quite the experience. Everytime we go to the Cooper's, something crazy happens.
Well that's about all for this week. We are now going to Birmingham for P day so that should be fun. I was happy to hear about the sports updates. Thank you for those. I hope that the Yankees pull it off and i hope that the Utes can get their heads goin and start playin University of Utah football. And i hope that the Jazz can sort things out and that everyone else will show up to play. Williams is the only one who comes to play every night. GO JAZZ, UTES, AND YANKEES!!!!!! The church is true. I love it so much. Jesus Christ lives and he does love us. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. It is amazing. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and i know that Thomas S. Monson leads us and guides us today. I love all of you and i am grateful for you. Thank you for everything.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
But other than that we were just out finding new people this week. We found a few new people who seem to be pretty good. Hopefully they will just be able to hold their appointments. I forgot to tell you a story that happened the other day with Sister Cooper. I don't know if you remember her but her husband is the one who has been reincarnated 3 times and he fell off an elephant the 2nd time and was trampled to death. So anyways, we were at Sister Cooper's house for dinner and we were waiting for dinner to be cooked and Sister Cooper came into the room and asked if we give blessings to animals. We said we weren't sure but we would do it. So Sister Cooper asks me to give her cat a blessing. I told her i would. So i gave Sister Cooper's cat a blessing. Elder Jameson held the cat and i had to put my hands on this cats head and try and stop it from jumping out of Elder Jameson's hands and also from licking my hand. It was quite the experience. Everytime we go to the Cooper's, something crazy happens.
Well that's about all for this week. We are now going to Birmingham for P day so that should be fun. I was happy to hear about the sports updates. Thank you for those. I hope that the Yankees pull it off and i hope that the Utes can get their heads goin and start playin University of Utah football. And i hope that the Jazz can sort things out and that everyone else will show up to play. Williams is the only one who comes to play every night. GO JAZZ, UTES, AND YANKEES!!!!!! The church is true. I love it so much. Jesus Christ lives and he does love us. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. It is amazing. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and i know that Thomas S. Monson leads us and guides us today. I love all of you and i am grateful for you. Thank you for everything.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
Letter - October 27, 2009
Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well and i hope that you are having as much fun as i am. I bet you aren't but thats ok. Haha. The mission is going great and i love it so much.
I can't believe Utah. Come on. We need to step it up. What the heck is with all these turnovers? I hope they shape up and that Kyle gets them under control. I am so happy that TCU killed that team down south. Elder Jameson is a fan of them and so we have a few arguments here and there and i told him that TCU was going to win. It's always good to hear about how sports are going.
The ward sounds like it is pretty interesting now. I didn't know that the Darrow's are in our ward now. Thats crazy. Who else did we get? Anyone interesting. It will be interesting to see the ward when i get home.
Well this week was a really tough week. It really was. We did a lot of finding and we didn't really find anyone new. It was very frustrating. On Saturday night we had 5 people that we were expecting at church and none of them came. It was really disappointing but it made me that much more motivated to go and find people this week and get them to church.
We are still teaching Nora and Martin who are supposed to be getting baptized on the 7th of November. They are doing pretty well. Nora just can't read so it is tough for her to read from the Book of Mormon. We will get her testimony though.
We still see John a lot and he is still crazy. He called me the other night and all he said was God bless america and God save the Queen. I was laughing so hard. And then a couple nights ago he called and said that he was in an argument with a few other patients there on who was bigger in America. The argument was between Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones or Billy Idol. I have no idea who Billy Idol is but John loves him and always talks about him so i obviously went on Johns side and said Billy Idol. He said thank you and then he told everyone and they all got on the phone and started arguing with me for a second. It was pretty crazy. John eventually wants all of us to be driving nice cars. He wants me and Elder Bedke to be driving a mustang and he wants to be driving a ferrari as well as Elder Jameson. It is crazy and every day is a new experience. I just act like i am really serious about all these things and then he just keeps getting crazier and crazier ideas. I will keep you updated on John.
Yesterday we had Zone Conference. It was great. I learned a lot from it. President Ogden sopke about recognizing the spirit and how that is probably the hardest thing that missionaries struggle with. He explained a few things with the scriptures and it really helped me out a lot because i feel that that is something that i struggle with. It was definately a Zone Conference that was for me.
But that is about all for this week. I love my mission. I absolutely love it. We also watched Elder Hollands talk from conference yesterday and it was incredible. The Book of Mormon is true. I know it is. I know that this gospel is true. There is no way that it isn't. This is the Lord's work. There is no doubt in my mind about that. I am so thankful for all of the challenges that i go through and for all of the experiences i go through that make me a better person. I love them. I love all of you and i am thankful for what you teach me. This week will hopefully be a good week and we will hopefully have quite a few people at church. The gospel is true!!
Love Elder Sam Rudd
I can't believe Utah. Come on. We need to step it up. What the heck is with all these turnovers? I hope they shape up and that Kyle gets them under control. I am so happy that TCU killed that team down south. Elder Jameson is a fan of them and so we have a few arguments here and there and i told him that TCU was going to win. It's always good to hear about how sports are going.
The ward sounds like it is pretty interesting now. I didn't know that the Darrow's are in our ward now. Thats crazy. Who else did we get? Anyone interesting. It will be interesting to see the ward when i get home.
Well this week was a really tough week. It really was. We did a lot of finding and we didn't really find anyone new. It was very frustrating. On Saturday night we had 5 people that we were expecting at church and none of them came. It was really disappointing but it made me that much more motivated to go and find people this week and get them to church.
We are still teaching Nora and Martin who are supposed to be getting baptized on the 7th of November. They are doing pretty well. Nora just can't read so it is tough for her to read from the Book of Mormon. We will get her testimony though.
We still see John a lot and he is still crazy. He called me the other night and all he said was God bless america and God save the Queen. I was laughing so hard. And then a couple nights ago he called and said that he was in an argument with a few other patients there on who was bigger in America. The argument was between Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones or Billy Idol. I have no idea who Billy Idol is but John loves him and always talks about him so i obviously went on Johns side and said Billy Idol. He said thank you and then he told everyone and they all got on the phone and started arguing with me for a second. It was pretty crazy. John eventually wants all of us to be driving nice cars. He wants me and Elder Bedke to be driving a mustang and he wants to be driving a ferrari as well as Elder Jameson. It is crazy and every day is a new experience. I just act like i am really serious about all these things and then he just keeps getting crazier and crazier ideas. I will keep you updated on John.
Yesterday we had Zone Conference. It was great. I learned a lot from it. President Ogden sopke about recognizing the spirit and how that is probably the hardest thing that missionaries struggle with. He explained a few things with the scriptures and it really helped me out a lot because i feel that that is something that i struggle with. It was definately a Zone Conference that was for me.
But that is about all for this week. I love my mission. I absolutely love it. We also watched Elder Hollands talk from conference yesterday and it was incredible. The Book of Mormon is true. I know it is. I know that this gospel is true. There is no way that it isn't. This is the Lord's work. There is no doubt in my mind about that. I am so thankful for all of the challenges that i go through and for all of the experiences i go through that make me a better person. I love them. I love all of you and i am thankful for what you teach me. This week will hopefully be a good week and we will hopefully have quite a few people at church. The gospel is true!!
Love Elder Sam Rudd
Letter - October 20, 2009
Hey there everyone how is everyone? It sounds like your doing well and it sounds like stake conference was pretty good. Things have been going pretty well here and hopefully they will continue to do so.
We had transfers which i told you about. We were the only companionship in the district to have people at church this week. That was a good thing. We had a lady named Sarah who is from Uganda. She is really religious but she has a few doubts about our church. She said that she did enjoy it though and that she was going to pray and see if baptism was what she needed to do. I am excited for her answer. We also had a lady named Nora at church and she brought her grandson Martin. They are really excited to be baptized and so they will be baptized on the 7th of November. It will be exciting. I can't wait. So please keep them in your prayers this week. We have a guy named John that we are teaching at the moment. He is a great guy and he always makes me laugh. He suffers from the disease M.E. which is also known as Chronic fatigue syndrome. He came to General Conference and loved it. He would get baptized this minute if he could. Unfortunately he is in a psychiatric hospital and they won't let him out to come to church. This place has driven him completely insane although he still remembers everything that we teach him. But me and Elder Bedke went and visited him one day and they walk us down this hallway. As we are walking down the hall they begin to unlock door after door. I think they unlocked about 4 doors and then we finally got back to where we could see John. But sure enough they unlock another door and open it up and the room is about half the size of the bathroom upstairs and it has 3 chairs in it. So me, Elder Bedke and John are sitting in this room that is hotter than Africa and they lock us in there while we are talking to him. So John goes on to tell us that he has discovered that his disease is organic not psychiatric. He wants to hit the media with it and he wants me and Elder Bedke to be his super secret spies. So me and Elder Bedke are now referred to as Starsky and Hutch. I am Hutch. It is hilarious. I just sit there and go along with it. It is really hard to explain but just imagine me sitting in this locked room talking to a guy that has gone completely nuts. I tell ya i have never had and probably never will have more crazy experiences than i have had while being in Nuneaton.
Other than that the work is going great. I love it. It is the best. I read Elder Hollands talk this morning from conference and I loved it. My testimony was definately strengthened on the Book of Mormon. I love the Book of Mormon. It is the best. There is no doubt in my mind that it is true. I am trying as hard as i can to flood England with the Book of Mormon. It truly does change lives. This church is true. Jesus Christ lives. He truly does. I love him and i love this work. Every day my desire to do missionary work is strengthened. I love it. Thank you for all of your prayers and support in my behalf. I love you all and know that you are in my prayers as well.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
We had transfers which i told you about. We were the only companionship in the district to have people at church this week. That was a good thing. We had a lady named Sarah who is from Uganda. She is really religious but she has a few doubts about our church. She said that she did enjoy it though and that she was going to pray and see if baptism was what she needed to do. I am excited for her answer. We also had a lady named Nora at church and she brought her grandson Martin. They are really excited to be baptized and so they will be baptized on the 7th of November. It will be exciting. I can't wait. So please keep them in your prayers this week. We have a guy named John that we are teaching at the moment. He is a great guy and he always makes me laugh. He suffers from the disease M.E. which is also known as Chronic fatigue syndrome. He came to General Conference and loved it. He would get baptized this minute if he could. Unfortunately he is in a psychiatric hospital and they won't let him out to come to church. This place has driven him completely insane although he still remembers everything that we teach him. But me and Elder Bedke went and visited him one day and they walk us down this hallway. As we are walking down the hall they begin to unlock door after door. I think they unlocked about 4 doors and then we finally got back to where we could see John. But sure enough they unlock another door and open it up and the room is about half the size of the bathroom upstairs and it has 3 chairs in it. So me, Elder Bedke and John are sitting in this room that is hotter than Africa and they lock us in there while we are talking to him. So John goes on to tell us that he has discovered that his disease is organic not psychiatric. He wants to hit the media with it and he wants me and Elder Bedke to be his super secret spies. So me and Elder Bedke are now referred to as Starsky and Hutch. I am Hutch. It is hilarious. I just sit there and go along with it. It is really hard to explain but just imagine me sitting in this locked room talking to a guy that has gone completely nuts. I tell ya i have never had and probably never will have more crazy experiences than i have had while being in Nuneaton.
Other than that the work is going great. I love it. It is the best. I read Elder Hollands talk this morning from conference and I loved it. My testimony was definately strengthened on the Book of Mormon. I love the Book of Mormon. It is the best. There is no doubt in my mind that it is true. I am trying as hard as i can to flood England with the Book of Mormon. It truly does change lives. This church is true. Jesus Christ lives. He truly does. I love him and i love this work. Every day my desire to do missionary work is strengthened. I love it. Thank you for all of your prayers and support in my behalf. I love you all and know that you are in my prayers as well.
Love Elder Sam Rudd
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