Wait, Are These Dog Treats?

Family,

Sorry this is going to be a short email cause not much happened this week. 

I'm glad that Emma's first concert went well! But what is this, talking pictures with boys! Stay clear of those boys Ems! I'm super jealous you guys got to go to Jekyll and Hyde! I'm sure that it was amazing. I really miss music a ton. Mum will be happy to know that I have been playing piano when I get the chance to and am really finding a lot of joy in it. I think that I've finally realized that I shouldn't have quit. Sorry MUM!!! But you were right. I miss piano a lot and think I'll play more when I get home. 

This week we have seen some amazing progress with a less-active we are working with. His name is Allen actually. Allen is Diabetic and had run out of food. He had some money stolen and couldn't afford to buy any more food. When we saw him he was really worried so we said a prayer that he would be able to make it until he got paid. Ten minutes after we left his friend came up to him and said that he had some extra pizza's in the fridge that Allen could have. Little did his friend know that Allen had run out of food. It may not seem like a huge miracle to us, but to Allen it completely changed his perception on prayer. He realized that you can pray for specific things for yourself and if you need it Heavenly Father will answer your prayer. It really strengthened his testimony and my testimony of the power of prayer.

The other semi-interesting thing that happen this week happened when we ran into one of the members. We were on our way home from a dinner appointment and ran into one of the members and her son. They had just come from the store and had bought some treats for his classmates. He wanted to share these treats with the missionaries of course. The treats that they had purchased seemed to be an advent calendar with puppies on it. When they gave the "chocolates" too us I looked at it and was very confused as to why it was shaped like a dog-bone. Turns out that it was an advent calendar for dogs. The member was very embarrassed that she tried to feed the Elders dog treats but me and Elder Worlton just laughed. It was pretty dang funny!

We also carved pumpkins today. I tried to freehand Frankenstein's monster and it turned out pretty good! The sisters also roasted some pumpkin seeds for us and they were delicious.  

Carving pumpkins at the church.

I found a cute red cowboy hat!

Other than that my week was fairly boring minus the person literally running away from me when I tried to approach her on the street. I didn't know I was that bad looking....

Love you all and hope that you have a great week!

Elder Kmetzsch  

Like Father, Like Son

Family,

So I showed the other missionaries the pictures of Dad on his mission and they all were like, "Oh my goodness you are like the same person!" I told them that he may be taller, but I am better looking! 

Elder Steven Kmetzsch 

Virginia, Roanoke Mission

Yes, we have the Ensign and we can download all of conference on to a usb and listen to it whenever. I don't know exactly when we are getting iPads but President has told us that we should get them before the end of the year. I am really excited! I dislike keeping hand written records and am looking forward to the Area Book app. Potentially I will be video chatting this Christmas with my new iPad! 

Well my bike has returned to the shop for the 4th time. It is a really good thing that I have a warranty plan on it. It cost me 20£ and I have already used up 100£ worth of repairs! Go Jake! I don't know why my bike keeps giving me problems, but hopefully this will be the last time that I have to go in for awhile! The guy says he is just going to replace the whole back wheel and see if that fixes the problem! Three axels, a new bottom bracket and a new back wheel will hopefully do the trick! 

Not too much happened this week that was all that exciting. But being the District Leader's JC is the life. Sunday nights while my comp is doing all sorts of fun paperwork and calling in reports, I get to relax, write in my journal and take a nice long shower/bath. This week I discovered bubble bath solution in our flat and just had to take myself a nice relaxing bubble bath! It took me back to the days of bubble beards and multiple Kmetzsch children in the bathtub. 

Our Flat

The work is going forward here in Coventry. My finding skills are definitely getting better and I'm really starting to enjoy talking to all the crazy people! People just have such interesting lives and when you really listen you can tell exactly how the Gospel will help them. Everyone needs the Gospel but the hard part for me is listening to hear which part of the Gospel will help them right then. I know personally about the power of the Atonement. It has been such a big part of this difficult beginning to my mission. It's power has really been a strength to me. Everyone needs the power of the atonement and it is our job to share it. Thank you for your prayers. I love you all tons!

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch 

In The Jungle The Mighty Jungle

Family,

Yes my email was focused on food, but hey it's like you said I guess there is a sixth love language. Those apples look huge! I guess all the fruit tree's needed to start producing like crazy was for me to leave the country! Seriously if my next package doesn't contain something made with plums and/or apples I am going to be a little bit disappointed. This time of year just makes me want a nice big bowl of some of the Kmetzsch World Famous Apple Sauce with lots of cream! Especially now that it has started to get pretty chilly here in England. But fall isn't quite as good here because it gets cold so fast the trees don't really have time to change color, all the leaves are just dying. I miss the reds and the yellows that you get back in good old Utah.

Well on to my week. This week has been the slowest yet fastest week of my mission. Not particularly much happened besides just loads of street contacting and getting rejected. But we did have a few events that helped the week go by quicker.  

First was a service project that we did for a less-active members Mom. When I first got there I honestly didn't think there was a back garden. We walked to the side of the house and there was just a wall of stinging nettle and tree branches. There were four of us there and we just went at it, cutting, chopping and hauling. Eventually we found the back garden! I honestly felt like I was in a different country. We spent a good amount of time chopping things up and are going back tomorrow to do more. I sent a video of us there, we started talking about star wars and then the star wars noises started happening and it was a good time! I love the opportunity we have as missionaries to serve not only in preaching the gospel, but in just giving someone a hand with an overgrown garden. Life is about serving each other and just helping everyone along the way. 

The next highlight of my week was my first interview with President Rasmussen since my first day in the field. President Rasmussen is the man! He really is such a great and inspired leader. It's gonna be a sad day when he goes home. Interviews are also great cause you get to see all the missionaries in the Zone and I love seeing all my buddies from the MTC. 

Today I got to go to the Transport Museum. I think this is the best thing about Coventry by far! It is a huge/free museum all about the history of transportation in Coventry. Basically just a bunch of old classic cars. It goes through a lot about WWII as well, which was super interesting. Dad would have loved it! I'm hoping to go back another time so I can go a little slower and read more. There were a lot of cool facts. The fastest car in the world is in the museum. It has a record of 763 mph. The car is super cool. I loved looking at all the classic cars, and just seeing how much history really is in Coventry. 

Overall a pretty good week and looking forward to an even better one this week!

Love you bunches,

Elder Kmetzsch      

Cosmos and Kebabs

Family,

I am super jealous of Mum and Dad and am super glad all is going well in the great city of Peoria Illinois. I wish I could have had some pumpkin cookies after priesthood.... Don't get used to the comforts of Peoria Mum and Dad! You have a teenage daughter to go back too! Love you Ems! My companion would have loved wandering around the hardware store with you. He is very much a fix it yourself kinda guy. Seeing the cornfields would be cool. Everything here is very small. Speaking of corn, the corn on the cob here just doesn't compare to fresh Utah corn.

So the boys came home from BYU and watched conference with Emma. I bet it was super weird for Emma to not watch conference with parents. I'm sure that the pantry will be nice and empty for you guys when you get home. It is like when I go on exchange and all of my candy has been eaten.  I got to watch two live sessions of conference. The Saturday morning and the Sunday Morning. I watched them at 5:00 at the chapel. The other times were 10:00 Sunday morning for priesthood, 1:00 Sunday for the Saturday Afternoon session, and we didn't get to see the Sunday afternoon. I almost started to cry a little bit when I was singing the intermediate hymn of the Saturday Morning session thinking about how you guys were all in your pajamas singing, and eating conference candy for breakfast! I did save my conference candy for conference! I ate it all over the weekend and it was super delicious. I must have misread the thing about rationing the candy... Conference was so good and definitely what I needed to get a nice recharge. I have made a goal to never forget which way I face. I love the first Presidency with all my heart and know that they are truly men called of God to speak for him on this earth!!! 

Conference Candy

This week has been quite the culinary week. Last Sunday we had an amazing roast dinner at a members house and no joke the roast tasted exactly like Mum's roast. Mum, I will never take a home cooked meal for granted again, Ever. Tuesday we had another member feed us lunch and we had some amazing soup and sandwiches. He is a funny guy he is 23 and newly married, when I sat down he asked about my mission so far and then said missions are hard and here in my house you are not a missionary (he proceeded to take my tag) and you get to relax. It was really funny and we get on really well. He also happens to be our ward mission leader and an epic one at that. Later that night we had dinner with yet another amazing member. They made us a steak and gravy pie thing that was wonderful, and I had a lot of fun talking with him. He happens to have the most amazing full beard that I have ever seen. It is LEGEND..... wait for it.... ARY! The next culinary adventure happened with our recent convert Wai Yin. She took us to a restaurant called Cosmos which is an all you can eat Chinese buffet! Yeah baby! It was super nice too not like the bad one that we went to a few years ago. The British call this place posh, ha ha. I ate a lot and it was amazing and super generous of her cause it is pretty pricey, around 30 dollars per person! On to the the last of my adventures for the week, The KEBAB, the ultimate junk food! I honestly don't really even know what it is but it had doner meat and chicken and lamb and other things. I really don't know but it was covered in mayo and chili sauce and tasted really good! I got one on exchange with Elder Rutter. We were hating life after eating those. But it was something that I needed to experience. They call it being Kebabtised here in the EBM.

Cosmos, a Chinese buffet

Elder Rutter

The KEBAB

So someone needs to inform bishop Daines that the OTM may be the Only True Mission, but the EBM is the Earths Best Mission. That is actually a quote from Elder Holland who served his mission here in the Birmingham Mission! I am serving in Elder Holland's mission, super cool stuff!

This week has been a long week of finding new people to teach and just really getting to know the members in the ward. I love the Coventry Ward almost as much as the 20th! But I love my family most of all!

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch