The Old Fashioned Way

Family,

Christmas is coming the Goose is getting fat! And so am I being back in a car.... But don't worry I'm making some good new years goals to get nice and trim before I come home! Well I guess I'll just tell you how my week was.

It all started with an exchange to a place called Boston. This exchange just happened to be with an Elder by the name of Mordue, who just happens to live in Farmington Utah. As it just so happens he

went to the great school of Viewmont. He is a year younger than me and we never really saw each other at school, but we have loads of friends in common! Plus he went to Viewmont which is just awesome. There was only one other missionary from Viewmont in the mission but he went home ages ago. It was a pretty rocking exchange and we had loads of fun. Seeing as Boston is a large area like Aberystwyth, we had quite a bit of driving time which meant that we got to talk about the good old days. It was unbelievably nice to talk to someone who basically lived the same life as me. We both agreed that when you are in Utah you don't realize or appreciate how similar everyone is, ha ha. We ended up having to do a two night exchange cause things came up in Nottingham that prevented Elder Shaw from picking me up after just one day, but I didn't complain.

 Elder Stout, Shaw, me and Elder Mordue

This is all of our district leaders and the sister training leaders.

The next item of business was my first Zone Meeting. Well I guess it wasn't my first one cause I've been to about 18 but it was the first one that I was running. Things went really smoothly and the spirit was really strong. I wasn't too nervous, but a bit jittery as it got closer. I am just glad that it is over. We also have transfers this week. It came a week early because of Christmas, but I don't think that me or Elder Shaw will be leaving. But we will see what happens tonight.

Zone meeting, "Christmas Initiative"  

We had an amazing miracle that happened this week and I want to tell you about it.  Well we were unsure of where to go tracting so we decided to ask the Lord. We both got the same post code which was great and pretty specific, and then we picked five streets out of that post code that impressed us. We then decided to go and pray separately about the streets and pick three that we would go and tract. We went to separate rooms and prayed and came back together, but only had two of the same streets. So we took the other two that were potentials and prayed again. We came up with the same street after that. We then decided to pray about one of those streets that we could stop by that night. Well after receiving our answer we went out and later that night we went to the street. Pretty soon into tracting we found a young couple who gave us there number and invited us back, which was

cool. But even cooler was the last house that we knocked. A girl named Ashley answered and said she lived there with her Mom and her brother. She invited us back and yesterday we got to teach her. It was probably the best first lesson I have ever had and at the end she accepted the invitation to be baptized on a specific date! It was crazy. The spirit was super strong and she even admitted and recognized that she was feeling the spirit. It is a small and simple thing, but we are very grateful to the Lord for guiding us to her. I love this whole miracle thing!

We are with the family whose son will be baptized soon!

So just to put Moms worrying heart at ease I got my Christmas package this week! And don't worry I didn't open it, it is just sitting underneath our Christmas tree. Man that thing is heavy! But thank you

for sending it. In other news this week I had a really nice dinner that is worth mentioning. There is a member here in Nottingham that is from American and she lived a lot of her life in Texas. Well to make a long story short she made us some Tex-Mex for dinner. Enchiladas, guacamole and homemade salsa. She even made that chicken enchilada casserole that mom makes! Anyway is was by far the best Mexican that I have had in England and I am even more excited for Mexican food when I come home. 

Utah is playing BYU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHH I Can't believe I am missing it!! And of course I will be cheering for Utah! I haven't gone to BYU yet! There is still time for me to change my mind.....

Can I just say to the world that my little sister it a Hottie! Dang Girl!! But that boy on the other hand.... Did anyone tell him that he needs a haircut?? Cause I was just thinking he looked like Sunshine from Remember the Titians....  Just a little Fruit Cake, ha ha. I remember my first dance, oh those were some good times.

Me as Ironman

I don't know exactly what time I will be skyping but it should be around 7:00 my time which would be about mid-day for you guys. I will let you know for sure next week..

I love you all and hope that you have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

The Power of Prayer

Family,

Faith Proceeds the Miracle, and let me tell you sometimes it takes a lot of faith and a really hard week to see a miracle. The week was normal enough. On p-day we had a rocking time with the district seeing Wayne Manor and pretending we were Batman, well maybe that was just me. But it was a great day. Tuesday I went on exchange to an area called Lincoln. One of the best and coolest things about being a Zone Leader is that you get to go on exchanges with all of the District Leaders in your zone. Can I just tell you that we have four of the best District Leaders in the mission and I am so glad that I get to go on exchange with them.

The First exchange that I did was with Elder Nogueroles. He is the District Leader in the Lincoln district and  man was it a fun exchange. We were wandering  around Lincoln street contacting and we happened upon a hill called Steep Hill, and let me tell you this hill was crazy, it blew my mind. But anyway halfway up steep hill we found the Strait and Narrow pub hahaha Cracks me up that there is a pub named, "The Strait and Narrow" See attached picture for a good laugh. After we found the Strait and Narrow we happened upon the biggest cathedral that I have ever seen. Pictures aren't very good cause it wasn't p-day so I just snapped a quick photo. But this thing was like bigger than the Salt Lake Temple. It was a crazy fun day and just an all around good time. 

The Second exchange that I went on was with our District leader in Nottingham, Elder Shumway. Man, oh man I Love Elder Shumway. He has a heart of Gold and I just felt like he was teaching me the whole time, which he really was. We had a great learning experience together of just stopping right in the middle of planning and asking the Lord where he wanted to schedule that stop by and both got the same answer. Funny enough the next day worked out nearly perfect and we were able to see most of the people we planned on stopping by. It is a simple thing but I think we both learned a great lesson. I love Elder Shumway. 

Well me and Elder Shaw saw an amazing miracle this last Sunday. We haven't had a lot of success this week and we were just really confused. We are taking Presidents training and really trying to find different ways of finding but just nothing was working. People weren't showing up for appointments and investigators were dropping us left and right. Saturday night we were just down and we needed a miracle. We had nobody committed to come to church and that is just not good. So we prayed and prayed mightily that the Lord would provide an investigator at church for us. So Sunday morning rolls around and we are at church early cause well we are missionaries. And the ward mission leader comes up to us to tell us some exciting news. Apparently one of the recent converts of just 6 months wants her 9 year old son to get baptized and she wants the baptism to be in January! We arranged so that we can start teaching him and hopefully his non member father the lessons. What a miracle! Out of nowhere we get a new investigator, one investigator at church and a new baptismal date. It really was an amazing and faith building experience to have an ernest prayer answered so quickly. 

We also did a District Service project this week. We helped clean out the basement of a less active members home. Man that place was nasty.... Like everything has just deteriorated into nothing and there was just a bunch of bits of furniture mold and dirt with some scattered bits of glass and wood. It was a fun time with the whole district and we banded closer. It was a good time.

I'm glad to hear that all is well. I had my first MLC (mission leadership council) this week. It was really cool to be with all the zone leaders and president and to receive the training that I am going to have to give to My zone. But it was great to see some good friends. 

Hope you all have a great week. Happy Birthday Ems!!! 

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch 

A Week of Thanksgiving

Family,

What a week. It was full of many miracles and a lot of craziness and tiredness. We have been relentlessly trying to find new investigators and pick up where the last Elders left off. My entire mission the main method of finding has been street contacting, really the only method of finding. President Leppard is really trying to expand the missions methods to a more thought out and planned way of finding. We have been having loads of training on how we can find in different ways. The training is really pointless if you don't apply it, so me and Elder Shaw have been really trying to use these different methods. We have even gotten tight with the family history consultants in the ward and went and did some family history with them. Turns out family history is supposedly one of Britons favourite pass times, and the whole area is making a big push with it. Besides family history we have also tried our hand with some tracting. We actually saw a really cool miracle.

Me and Elder Shaw

Wayne Manor is in Nottingham

So my whole mission I have done relatively little in the way of tracting and I have never seen any success doing it. I have never had a return appointment and never been let in. So we were out tracting and we had knocked on ever door down this one street and no one had even let us finish introducing ourselves. I was just thinking to myself, this is a flippin waste of time. We should be out talking to people in the city center thats what I am much better at. Well we came to the last house, as it always does, and a man opened the door. We explained who we were and he told us he recently started being really active in his church and had a renewed faith in Jesus Christ. He let us in for a warm drink cause it was dang cold!! We had a wonderful conversation about his family, he has a wife and two kids by the way. We got to talk about the prophet and apostles and leave a Book of Mormon with him. He invited us back for dinner sometime cause he was just really impressed by what we do. Man I was buzzing! He was a normal English guy in his 50's that has a normal family. It blows my Mind. God is good you guys, God is good.

I AM THE BATMAN!!!!

Along with our other methods we have been really focusing on getting to know the ward, especially the auxiliaries and ward council. I think it is really starting to work because we have a dinner appointment for almost every night this week! Speaking of Dinner, Thanksgiving was a wonderful and very normal day. The day started with a little miracle of God just letting me know that he loved me. So I totally spaced buying a grapefruit on Wednesday night and I was like, "dang it." But I woke up in the morning and I looked in the fridge and since we whitewashed in, the other Elders had left behind quite a bit of food. I hadn't looked through all the fruit and when I did, there just happened to be one grapefruit in a plastic bag that I thought was an orange. So I had grapefruit for breakfast. Then that night we had a very lovely English Thanksgiving dinner, complete with stuffing and cranberry sauce! It was an awesome family as well, so we laughed and played some games. Then yesterday to top it all off we had dinner with a family and for dessert they brought out a pumpkin pie!! Man, oh man was that a delicious pumpkin pie. I am very grateful for the amazing members of the Nottingham 1st ward!

Thanksgiving was good here, but it will just never be as good as home. I can't wait to be there next year and for all you cousins out there you'd better be there too! Ha ha, I was telling everybody about all of our fun family traditions. But it was great to be able to share that with others and to help them feel the true spirit of Thanksgiving. I hope Emma and Brig watched the Parade and the Dog show, ha ha. Who was the overall Winner??

We also got to put up some Christmas Decorations. I will send you guys the video of us putting up the tree! It was a great week full of a lot of work, but a lot of Miracles.

Love you all,

Elder Kmetzsch

Zone Leader Life

Family,

This has probably been the most tiring week of my mission except for maybe the first or second week of my mission. We have been running around everywhere and just never ever stopping. It has been really fun at the same time and I am really excited to be in Nottingham.

Well the week started with us cleaning and rearranging the whole flat. Some Elders are just not very space efficient. So we fixed that. Then we had a drive to the mission home on Tuesday to help move some things from some of the flats in the Zone. On Wednesday President Leppard came to Nottingham to do a personal district meeting with all of the Districts in the Zone and so we had to prepare the Stake center in the morning and make sure that everyone knew when and where they had to be. Plus we don't know too many of the teams in the Zone so we spent all day shuffling people around and trying to get to know as many teams as we could. It was a long day at the church that got longer when after President Leppard left we had another meeting that night with the Stake President, President Gray. I was a little nervous about all the meetings with a lot of Leadership but we survived and I hope gave a great first impression.

Then Thursday hit and we had an exchange with the Assistants. At the moment we have three assistants because one of the last ones extended his mission for two weeks to help train the new assistant and to make sure things went smoothly with the conference with Elder Ballard. So after the conference he became a traveling assistant and has been visiting most of the zones to help out. It was a really fun exchange. Well it wasn't technically an exchange because he just came to stay with us for a day. But we had a surprise baptismal interview that we had to give. So we got to go to a place called Lincoln and Elder Swinimar (the assistant) got to give his last baptismal interview before he goes home this Wednesday. After the exchange it was a fairly normal weekend. We had a Dinner appointment with a Jamaican family and they made a dish the Elder Smith made for me a few weeks back. I'm gonna miss my Jamaican, but he is doing great without me. Church was pretty great. I really like the ward here in Nottingham, they actually have 3 wards in the city and we are in the Nottingham 1st ward. We share the ward with a set of Sister missionaries who are really awesome. One is from Italy and the other is from Romania. So I am the only American in the Ward cause Elder Shaw is from South Africa. Elder Shaw is pretty awesome, we have served around each other a few times before and I always thought that it would be way cool to serve with him. He has been out for 20 months and has been a zone leader for a long, long time. It is really nice to have a companion that is older than me and knows what he is doing. I took that for granted until the last 6 months or so, ha ha. But Zone Leader Life is crazy....

My new companion Elder Shaw
and our new toilet seat.

Elder Hellyer, me, Elder Swinimar, 

Elder Tukuafu, Elder Shaw, Elder Clayton, Elder Greyling

Exchanging with the AP's and man is was cold!

It is like zero degrees.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Email me if anything exciting happens in all of your

lives!

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

Oh Robin Hood!

Family,

Well is sounds like we have all had a very exciting week. I have been transferred and I am now in Nottingham. I was called as a Zone Leader and my companion is Elder Shaw who was actually in my last district and my Zone Leader. We are whitewashing into the area which is fun, ha ha. Elder Shaw is Robin Hood and I am definitely Little John and the rest of the Zone are our Merry Men!! I'm kinda still freaking out and it will be an adjustment, but I'll make it through. This also means that I am back into a car and will be getting my license soon. I am pretty excited about that!

Can I just say how proud I am of my amazing little Sister. Emma you are awesome! Keep being amazing! People have been emailing me and telling me how good you are doing, so keep it up!! It'll be over soon and you will be soooo sad so just enjoy this last week. Leave it all out there, don't hold back little Darling!

Man, oh man, it was a tiring weekend, but it was super worth it. We had the Conference with Elder Ballard on Saturday and we got a ride from some members who were helping out with food and stuff. But we ended up having to wake up at 4:00 in the morning to be ready to leave our flat by 5:30, it was nuts! I was super tired and almost fell asleep during Elder Christensen of the Presidency of the Seventies talk, but I managed to stay awake.  When Elder Ballard got up I was wide awake. Can I just say that Elder Ballard is a really funny guy. My favourite line from the whole thing was, "You've gotta wake up and say, It's going to be a great day. Look its raining and I get to go out and get persecuted like Paul the Apostle." He also taught us about how we need to WAKE UP and make the most of our opportunities. How we need to be in more of a Hurry in the things that we are doing. He also taught about how we need to show our character and radiate our calling long before we stop people. They need to recognize us before we say anything. But by far my favourite topic that he covered was Faith. He so simply taught about faith and how faith can make a bad day into a good one. What an opportunity is was to learn from and get to shake hands with another one of Gods chosen Servants.

I'm glad Nate and Torie are going to be closer together! That is going to make me and Emma's road trip easier. But something I didn't appreciate before my mission was being around the people I love, especially during the Holidays. So don't take this time for granted guys! Also congratulations to Craig for the Promotion!!! If you guys do get snow send me pictures!!! I'll be sure to send some pictures of Nottingham Next week cause I don't have any yet.

I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

Apostle Again?!?!

Family,

Life does move forward doesn't it. Today is Transfer calls and I can't believe that it has already been 6 weeks since I left Harborne!! It is crazy, I feel like I just got to Wolverhampton and there is a chance that I could be leaving. Getting the call is always a little nerve racking, but it should go smoothly.

So I just realized that Mom and Dads Anniversary is on an English Holiday called Bonfire night. Where everyone just lights off loads of Fireworks! So on your anniversary the whole of England lights fireworks for you! Happy Anniversary my wonderful and amazing parents.

Well this last week has been a fun one. We have been seeing a lot of our new investigators and it has been really fun to get to know new people and there concerns. Now the trick is to see if we can help resolve those concerns. We have started teaching the Husband of one of our recent converts. They are both Jamaican and have adopted Elder Smith as there grandson. They are both in there 70's and are such a sweet and funny old couple. There names are Joe and Sarah. Joe is a champ and has been coming to church with Sarah for months. He even pays tithing! He is what we like to call a, "just add water Mormon." So we will see if me and Elder Smith can add some water to the equation in the coming weeks.

This week we also have a very exciting mission conference! Elder Ballard is coming to visit the mission!!!! I am absolutely buzzing. Two Apostles within 6 months of each other have come to visit our mission. I feel really blessed to get to have seen and learned from these great men. We actually got our pictures taken with Elder Holland when he came so I will attached those for you guys.

Elder Holland's visit in June 2015

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

Happy Halloween!

Family,

Well first off this week Elder Smith finally cooked some authentic Jamaican cuisine for me and let me tell you that boy can cook!! He made some Jamaican style curry chicken with Rice and Peas, which is rice and red kidney beans cooked in coconut milk with some other stuff in it. Man it was nice.

Well this being the week of Halloween and since Elder Smith is very easily frightened. I spent the week hiding behind corners and making interesting/creepy noises. Needless to say Elder Smith was getting a little tired of being scared. One of my favourites was hiding in-between the mattresses on my bed and when he came in I popped out and pinned him to his bed under my mattress! But after having gone through this all week, he came out of the bathroom Saturday morning only to find that I had put up some Halloween decorations, ha ha. 

Well, all of you guys are just the Cutest!! I really loved all of the Halloween costumes. I didn't really get to do all that much this halloween but it was still fun. We had to be inside of our flats by 6:00 because they don't want anything strange happening to us, ha ha! So it was a pretty quiet Halloween for us.

Not too much happened for us this week. We did manage to find some pretty awesome new investigators and hopefully next week they will be at church. All in all it was a pretty quiet week, besides the screams of Elder Smith! Also the biggest holiday for England this time of year is Remembrance Day. Everyone has a red poppy that they wear around for weeks and there is a big charity that everyone donates too.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

The Lost Sheep

Family,

Well to clarify quickly so Mom isn't worried what I meant when I said I was thinking a lot is simply that when someone you are with is going home in a few days you tend to think about home a little bit more. The thought of not being a missionary and being home is a strange thought. Quit your worrying Mom, I'm doing just fine!

Cleaning the flat was definitely necessary, ha ha. The last Elders had been there a long time. When you are in an area for too long you get too comfortable and then things start to get messy. Plus our flat is tiny like insanely small. So all the space that we can get, we need. I'm glad my father taught me how to actually clean something and how to do it right.

Well we had a pretty funny experience this week. We were biking to a Dinner appointment about a 15 minute cycle away from our flat and seeing as I have a nice racer and iron thighs I was biking pretty fast. Well my companion was biking at Jamaican speed and was pretty far behind me so I would stop and wait occasionally to let him catch up. Well at one point we went through two roundabouts back to back and well he saw me go through the first one but lost me at the second. He ended up taking the wrong exit and thinking that I was just biking fast ahead of him. He just kept on going, in the wrong direction. Well I got to the point where I was going to wait for him and I looked back and he was nowhere in sight. Dang it. So I biked back down to see if I could find him on the route just biking at his Jamaican pace, but I couldn't find him anywhere. We were already late for dinner so I decided to just bike back to the members house and have them help me find him. I went back out on my bike and the members went out in their car to see if we could find him, nothing. I finally biked to the church which we passed on our way to the dinner to see if he made it back there. But instead I found the Zone Leaders there preparing for a baptism which was to be later that night. So one of the Zone Leaders stayed with the Ward Mission Leader and the other went out with me to try and find Elder Smith. We drove and we drove and we just couldn't find him. He also didn't have the phone or know any of the phone numbers. So about an hour and a half later we rolled back up to the church and guess who we saw just pulling his bike into the church. Yep, Elder Smith. I don't know how but he had gotten himself lost and only found his way back to the church by using a fuzzy google maps map. Seeing as he didn't have any wifi. But we made it back together and the members just packed up the dinner and brought it to the church so we could still eat. After we found him I sat down with him and we had a, "what to do if you get lost," chat. I also made him write our phone number, the Zone Leaders phone number and Presidents phone number in his planner. I hope this will help if he tries to get lost again.

The work has been good but is has been a bit slow. We are both still really new to the area and we are trying to rebuild a lot. So not too much to report. But good things are to come. Elder Smith is way cool. He is a convert of just 3 years and is from Montego Bay, Jamaican. Before he came on his mission he was actually a chef specializing in Jamaican Classics. To be fair he hasn't cooked for me yet, but he promises that he is gonna make me something really nice.

Things are great. The Lord is good. The work is pressing forward. Hope you are all doing amazing.

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

A Quiet Week

Family,

Well Elder Hsu (shoe) is officially back in Taiwan and I have imported my next companion all the way from Jamaica! His name is Elder Smith. He has been on is mission just about a year now, and he is just absolutely a riot! Probably one of the funnier human beings that I have ever met. He just has that Caribbean spice to him.

This week was a little weird as in just strange and not normal. It started with the last two days of Elder Hsu's mission which was strange and got me thinking quite a bit. But then he left and Elder Smith came in. The day after Smith got here, so this is Wednesday morning, I woke up and I could not speak. My voice was completely gone....  For the next 4 days I would not be able to utter a word. For anyone who knows me well, they would know that I like to talk, a lot. I was quite poorly and unable to do much, but we did clean our flat really well. It was a quiet week for sure. But it ended with a sacrament talk on Sunday. I was getting pretty nervous Saturday night that my voice wasn't going to come back in time. Funny enough I woke up Sunday morning and nope there was no voice, but it was a little better, enough that I was able to squeak some words out. So I decided that I would just give the talk anyway, and it ended up being probably the best talk that I have given! The topic was what does the song, "A Child's Prayer," teach me about my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Words came to me that I hadn't planned and I really felt like I was listening to the spirit more, because I was having a hard time talking. It was a great learning experience for me on how sometimes you have to stop listening to yourself talk for a minute and you might just hear the spirit.

Besides that not too much happened because I was quite poorly and we stayed in to rest. But don't worry Mom, I am feeling great now and I can almost speak with my full voice.

I am sooo jealous that you all got to go to the Hewlett's cabin this week! I sure do miss those trips but mostly those people!

Glad all is well in Sunny Centerville.

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

Faith in Every Footstep

Family,

What a week! Settling into a new area with a new flat and a new companion is always a tricky one, but it is getting easier and easier as time goes on. Elder Hsu and I have worked pretty hard this week to teach me all I need to know about the area and the investigators before he goes home this Wednesday. It is kinda strange that I am only going to have him as a companion for two weeks in total but it sure does make time go fast! We had some amazing miracles happen this week with finding new people to teach and having people come to church and it all ended with seven investigators coming to church!

Man that meme is probably one of the funnier things that I have ever heard!! Poor BYU, ha ha!

Well you can tell Bishop Daines that I am doing just great! And that I love his guts and all that he has done for me.

Emma you need to just go for it!! Don't hold back when it comes to putting yourself out there. I really regret that I was so embarrassed about acting and things. But if my mission has taught me one thing it is that it doesn't matter, not one bit! Seriously though so what if you are a little embarrassed for a moment or even a day. After that no one is going to remember. When you do remember it will be a very sweet and funny memory that you can look back at and laugh. Don't hold back, you'll regret it!

This week has been full of fun and craziness just running around everywhere and seeing everyone that we can. It'll be even funner when I get to learn the area on a bike after Elder Hsu leaves. I am really exited to get back on a bike! I'm going to use it as a opportunity to burn off a little of that extra weight that came on in Aberystwyth with the car. I'm not 100% sure who my new companion will be after tomorrow but I will for sure to let you know next week.

It is funny that you mentioned that talk by Elder Anderson because that was my favourite talk of the conference. I think me and Mom just have similar thinking. But it was a truly inspired message that was followed perfectly by Elder Bennet and President Utchdorf. Faith is something soooo real and tangible it is something that I feed off of daily to keep me moving forward in the right direction. No you can't always see it, but you can feel it, and if you can't feel it then do three simple things. Read the Book of Mormon for 30 minutes every day, say your morning and evening prayers and go to church each Sunday. As you do these things your faith will be strengthened and you will be able to do more are more as time goes on. I love the phrase, "Faith in Every Footstep," and it has taken on a new meaning to me recently. To me it is now saying that sometimes to take even just one footstep takes faith and not just hope, it takes faith with real tangible things that you can do. Like Elder Anderson said, there are things we can do and not to just wait for it to fall on us!

Well I hope you are all safe, healthy and happy! The work moves forward and the Lord is at the head!!

Love you all,

Elder Kmetzsch

Transferred

Family,

Well I would love to give you all an update on Luna and everything that is happening in Harborne, but unfortunately I was transferred this week! Hopefully Luna will be getting baptized next Sunday so continue to pray for her! I was a little gutted that I got moved but I am adjusting well to the new area. My new area is Wolverhampton. It is really close to Birmingham only about a 30 minute train ride from my old area. My companion for the next week is named Elder Hsu. He is from Taiwan as well and is actually going home in a week. So I am just serving with him until he goes home. Then I will be getting a new companion who is TBD, ha ha, gotta love mission life.

New birthday suit

It has been a crazy weekend trying to get to know the area really quickly before Elder Hsu goes home, so I can just take over the area with my next companion. Plus having General Conference is always fun. But man what a conference! I can't even describe how much I needed all of those talks. I felt like the conference was just for me! It was also amazing to see 3 new apostles called. The Lord is truly at the head of this church. I was praying so hard for President Monson during his talk. He seemed to be struggling really bad. But you could tell the spirit was strengthening him.

Okay so there was an Elder in my last district whose parents went to Highland High and are about the same age as you are, 55. Do you remember a Tom Miner and Julie Sandquist? Apparently his Dad played tight end and his football name was Minus? I bet Dad and him know each other. I think it will be cool for you to meet Elder Tsai's parents this week, I hope it works out!

There isn't too much to report on this week and I don't have loads of time. Hope you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

Do you guys like my new suit?? It was my birthday present to myself!

Blood Loss

Familia!

Mom you need to work on your football reporting skills. I need who they played and the actual score. If you could the national ranking that would be just great, please and thank you, ha ha. All you do for the ginger and garlic remedy is put some raw garlic and raw ginger in some water and blend it up. You drink that and then you'll regret you were ever born.... but it may have helped. 

I did get to meet Elder Dehaan a few times, but we never served around each other. He seems like a good guy and he is a great singer, just like his father. Now Emma you have to remember that Mr. Wright has a lot of very immature kids to deal with. If you are just repectful and don't do anything too dumb you will get on his good side. Looking back I thought that Mr. Wright was too mean and inconsiderate, but now I realize that he just expects you to be your best. In his heart he really just wants to see you guys succeed and learn some good old discipline. Don't take it too personally when he gets a little mad. 

So this week I had one of the scarier experiences of my mission. It was just a regular day and we were out on the streets talking to people. The sun was shining and everything just seemed to be going as per usual. We took a small break to sit down and have a soda. Elder Tsai was messing around with his can and it broke and he cut his finger on it. It didn't seem like it was too bad of a cut and he just put a napkin on it cause we didn't have a band aid. Well he sat back down for just a second to say a quick prayer cause he was a little hurt and frustrated by the little cut. I turned around for just a second and when I looked back he had been carried away by the spirit until he face-planted it on the ground!! He wasn't actually carried away in the spirit, but he did pass out. Turns out when he sees blood he passes out? That would have been good to know. But anyway I turn around just in time to see him fall forward off the bench and smack his head into the ground. It was in this stressful situation that I realized that I am just like my father. I got really quiet and intense and called some people over to help. He woke back up and we laid him down on the bench. One of the students that was with us called 999 (911) and I called my mission presidents wife Sister Leppard. The medic came and checked out Elder Tsai, good thing medical stuff is all free in this country. But he is absolutely fine, he just has some pretty cool scrapes on his face, which he is a little embarrassed about. But we convinced him it makes him look rugged and cool, ha ha! But I'm not gonna lie I was really scared, but we made it through and everyone is A okay. I'm just gonna be ready next time he sees blood. 

My companion and I with the zone leaders in the car

Me in front of the Aston Villa football stadium

That's really fun that Jessie put the picture on facebook so you could see. His name is Paul Cartwright and he did play Joseph Smith in the pagent this year. I heard he was the ward mission leader here, but the first time I met him was yesterday at church, seeing as he has been in America for the last few months. They share an almost equal love for Jessie and the Wadleys that I do and it was fun to see someone that was just recently so close to home. Speaking of someone coming close to home Elder Tsai's Parents are coming to Utah for general conference and to travel a bit and we thought it would be really cool if you guys could meet up! How often do your sons companion's parents come to Utah to visit from Taiwan. I'll hit you up with more details in a different email. 

This week I have just been marveling and so grateful for the simplicity of the Gospel. Especially in teaching so many Chinese students. This gospel is for everyone. It is for the scholar and it is for the humble working man. It is for the best of students and for those that barely speak any English. It all brings about the same feelings of peace and confindence no matter who you are or what your level or schooling or language is. It is for Every single person. So many people on the street tell me that, "It's just not my thing," or "It's not for me." But I would say that they are completely and dead wrong. It is for them, and I promise that there is something about the restored gospel that will ring true to anyone and everyone. It's almost like its God's church or something. 

I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week. 

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

Sore Throats and Sour Candy

Family,

What I week it has been for you guys. If you think that you miss Torie's crazy kids you can only imagine how much I do. I know that someday I will have to wear BYU blue, but I don't think you will ever get me to cheer for them over Utah! If I have to I will take a summer class at Utah just so that I can say that I went there. Funny enough I already knew about the sad loss by BYU in the last minutes of the game. It is just too bad that they had to settle for a field goal on that second to last drive. And that they really lead the game by 10 for pretty much the whole time, ha ha! There is a member in the ward here that is from the States and he is a very big BYU fan so he has been updating me on the scores and how the games have been going. He doesn't like Utah very much, but he still kindly looks up the scores for me. 

Funny enough this last Saturday we were getting on the bus again and you'll never guess who we bumped into. Yes you got it the Gold Tooth lady!!! And I can tell you I have never felt so much fear in all of my life when she gave me one of the Iciest and Coldest glares that I have ever received! But she held her tongue and wasn't brave enough to say anything to me. But that was an extremely long bus ride.... 

Well this week I got one of my infamous sore throats complete with a head cold. Nothing serious enough to keep me from going out and working, but just enough to make me nice and uncomfortable while I was doing it. I thought back on all those years of me being just the absolute worst sick person in the whole world, and how much patience and charity my dear sweet and absolutely wonderful mother had for me as her horrible and miserable child. Thank you Mom for loving me. I also thought back to all those times that this same cold decided to hit me right before the musical started, and those nights of loading up on Airborn and drinking a lovely mug of Lemon and Honey tea. I was loading up on all that good stuff and more this week. I even tried a remedy that an investigator back in Aberystwyth told us to do. Which is to blend RAW garlic and ginger into some water and drink it strait.... Oh my goodness it was Vile! But I'm feeling pretty good now so maybe it worked?? There was also some menthol chest rub in the flat so I put that on before bed, man it took me back. All I needed to complete my sickly childhood was a humidifier by my bed. 

I am really loving the candy you guys sent and so is basically the whole Harborne Ward. I find great happiness and joy in sharing good stuff that I have with others, especially sharing extremely sour War Heads with unsuspecting English people:) I even tried to get President Leppard to eat one at Zone Meeting but he wasn't having any of it! He said that he has seen all the tricks from his kids and has had all the sour candies, ha ha! He is a very wise man. One of the Elders from Jamaica was not as wise and his reaction was priceless. I'll try and get the video for you guys. 

Yes I did get your video and yes it does play on the iPad. Thank you and everyone for the Birthday wishes. I still feel like it wasn't actually my Birthday but I'll try and get over it. 

Luna didn't end up being baptized this week, but shortly she will. Please keep her in your prayers. 

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch    

Smoking is Bad For You Kids

Family,

What an exciting week you guys have had! I'm jealous of all the time you are having to get James to love you more than me. When I get back I'm going to move straight into the favourite Uncle status. So watch out. 

I would like to express my disappointment in my father. He has stooped to a low level in wearing BYU apparel... But because someday I will probably have to go there myself I will forgive him just this one time. If it happens again Dad I won't be pleased! 

Well yesterday was a pretty exciting day. I opened my package, yes Mom I waited, and in it were soo many sour candies that I just couldn't control myself. I may have eaten a few too many and spent last night with a bit of a tummy ache.....  But it was really fun to give out warheads to some of the other missionaries and members! They just couldn't handle them, Priceless.!!! Other than opening the package it was a pretty typical Sunday. Church was really good and focused on personal pray, you know how some days church just seems to have a theme the whole time. Well yesterdays was prayer and in one of the talks I realized something that I hadn't before. We always talk about how prayer is such a strength and so relaxing but she talked about how the Lord tells us that prayer is work. How he commands us to think before we pray and not offer up thoughtless prayers. I've never thought of prayer as work but I know that when you put more effort in before your prayer then you get a lot more out, so cool!

So we have a really amazing investigator named Luna from China. She chose Luna because her name in Chinese means moon, I think its pretty cool. Anyway Luna is extremely smart and is here at Birmingham University and she is only 16! Crazy I know. She is so prepared for the gospel though, and it has been super fun to teach her, with her parents permission of course. During the first lesson she started taking notes, and asking us to define gospel words and she would write them down. After we taught her the Plan of Salvation we asked her if she thought this was Gods plan for her and her exact words were, "No, I think this is Gods plan for everyone!" And just this last Sunday I counted at least three pages of notes during the Gospel Principles class. These are just a few of the many examples of Luna being amazing. Hopefully if all goes according to plan she will be baptised this Sunday. 

Well I had an interesting experience on the bus. So we were just minding our own business sitting on the top half of the bus and this women came up at one of the stops and this women, I'm not gonna lie, was scary! She was large in stature and to top it off had a gold tooth right in front. She came up to the top and starting just going off. She was yelling profanities and then started to smoke, yes on the bus! There was a 12 or so year old kid near the front of the bus that started looking back and she went off at him again with her profanities and she began to threaten him. That was it for me. I couldn't just sit there anymore so I didn't. I stood up and turn around and was a bit loud, but I told her to be quiet and that she was gonna have to go through me before she got to the kid. Then I just turned around and walked away and took the kid downstairs to the bottom of the bus. It was flipping scary, but I'm really glad that I stood up and did that because I felt really good after! Don't be afraid to stand up for what you believe in guys. Even if they have a gold tooth!

Hope you all have a great week and stay safe.

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

The Daily Life

Family,

Sounds like the week was good for y'all. This week was pretty normal for me. Just your regular Tuesday with a few lessons and our ward coordination meeting. Wednesday was pretty chill with quite a few more lessons and an exchange. It was actually pretty cool I got to go on exchange with a new missionary named Elder Miner. He just got out a few weeks ago and it really got me thinking about the good old days back in Coventry when I was on one of my first exchanges with an older missionary. I was think about how old I thought the other missionary was and how much I was just trying to take everything I could from him and his experience. Then it got me thinking about how now I was that missionary for him. I am his Elder Rutter, his Elder Summer like they were for me. It gave me a totally new perspective on the example that I need to be in order to help him. I know when I was where he is I needed all the help I could get!

Thursday was a pretty cool day. One of our investigators Stephen is moving from Birmingham and he took us out for dinner for some hot pot! It was sad to see him go but I was very grateful for the free hot pot. 

Me and Stephen our investigator

Hot Pot!

Friday was just your regular Friday with some good old weekly planning and just a few more lessons. Nothing too out of the ordinary happening there.

Saturday was a fun one as always cause we have a sports day at the church. We get to play some awesome ping pong and chair football.

Sunday was pretty sick with quite a few people coming to church. The ward here just turned the meeting schedule around and so sacrament meeting was first for the first time in like 20 years so it was a weird one.

But that was my week, ha ha! The daily life of Elder Kmetzsch in Harborne.

Love you all,

Elder Kmetzsch

Planting and Harvesting

Family,

What a week is has been here is Birmingham. The Tri-companionship has ended and Elder Lam is now happily training his boy. Elder Tsai and I are settling into the area and really starting to get things going. The next few weeks are looking really promising!

But before I talk about me and I must congratulate my amazing little sister! Congrats EMS!!!!! That is sooooooo awesome that you got a part in the musical and I am so proud of you. I always told you that you were going to be the most talented Kmetzsch to go to Viewmont. Is Susan the choreographer? Is anyone I know a main character? How did you guys do for getting the boys to try out? Also Emma don't worry about the Juniors and the Seniors. Some of my best friends came when I was Nicely Nicely in Guys and Dolls. I was a little nervous that the Juniors weren't going to be too happy with me, but just be yourself and they will love you!

Well I had a pretty cool experience this week. So we got a media referral from mormon.org and we went to stop by. The night before when we were planning I kept noticing this extra large Book of Mormon in our flat. The next morning before we went out I noticed it again and was like okay I'll take it with us even though its flippin heavy. So we traveled out to the referral and when she answered the door I realized why I brought the extra large book. Turns out she is super old and having trouble reading right now. Good thing I just happened to have an extra large book of mormon. I'm very grateful I followed a seemly small prompting. 

This week I also had the opportunity to baptize someone. His name is Jesse and he is from China. Around a month ago Elder Torres and I found Jesse on the street. We taught him a few times, but then found out that he lived in the Sisters area so we passed him on for the sisters to teach. I'm very glad we did cause the sisters are much better at teaching then I am. After a few weeks he decided to get baptized, and asked if I would be the one to baptize him. It was a great experience I always love getting into the water for baptisms. From this experience I gained a better understanding that yes we are called as missionaries to harvest and not to plant seeds, but you should always be planting seeds along the way. Also that we are put into specific areas for a reason. The sisters have a great connection with Jesse, a connection that I probably wouldn't have been able to make and that is why he lived in there area. I'm really grateful that I got to see the progress he made and not only plant the seed but also help in the harvesting.

Jesse and me at his baptism

This is a member here who is from Oregon 

but has some cousins in Centerville and guess who

they are. The Craig's down the street from us! What a small world.

Well I don't have loads of time, but I'm glad all is well and hope everyone has a great week.

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch 

Welcome to the Mainland

Family,

Well this week was transfers but don't worry I didn't go anywhere. I can't say the same for Elder Torres though, sadly my time in Brazil is over and I've moved a little more East. My new companions name is Elder Tsai, he is from Taiwan. I also have another companion his name is Elder Lam, he is from Hong Kong. So I'm in a triple companionship until this Wednesday when Elder Lam leaves us to pick up his new missionary. He's training here in Birmingham but his boy is coming late.

My new companions, Elder Tasi and Elder Lam

This week was a little crazy with transfers and everything. Lin's baptism went great. It was pretty simple just a few people and us. Nothing too exciting to report but he said that when he hit the water his feelings were indescribable. And after his confirmation this last Sunday he said he just felt super confident. I'm way excited for him but he will be going home in a few weeks.... I'm gonna miss that guy! But Burma needs him more than we do.

The ward here is pretty good. There are a load of YSA because there are a few universities in Birmingham. Also the recently returned missionaries really like going out teaching with us so it's great! It's a big city ward so there are loads of members and not as many active as we would like, but we are doing the best we can. The area that I am in is pretty much just all university housing so we only teach students and mainly foreign students. I sometimes feel like I'm serving my a mission on the mainland of China! By the end of this transfer my plan is to be fluent in Mandarin.

That's pretty much it for this week, hope all is well.

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

Burmese Baptism

Family,

Well this week has been a bit stressful, but we made it through. And it all ended with a baptism! Wahoo! So exciting, but a little bit about the week first.

Well this week was pretty normal. But we did get a random phone call from one of our potentials friends who said they had gotten our number from a friend and that they were interested in meeting up. It was pretty crazy cause if you know anything about England this kinda stuff never happens ha ha, but we set a time and met up with her. Turns out she is a film student and for a big project she is making a documentary about how to choose a Christian church. We of course we're happy to help her know how to make that decision. With the mission presidents permission, we are going to be a part of her movie! It's not a feature film or anything but hey it was pretty fun getting interviewed. We even had the cool microphones that you hook to your tie like they always do on TV. We were talking after the filming and she chose this topic for her project because she also is looking for a Christian church to join. We are going to be meeting with her to teach her more this week. I'm really excited about teaching her she is way cool.

Next on the list was Lin's baptism! It was a bit stressful trying to get Lin taught everything he needed to know before Sunday.  We have only been meeting with him for two weeks, so teaching him all the lessons was a bit tight with his busy schedule. But we made it through and on Sunday after church Lin was baptized! It was such a great experience but I was a little stressed with trying to make sure it ran smoothly. There were bumps but we got him dunked and now I can breath again. Elder Torres was the one that performed the baptism and it was his first time baptizing someone. When I asked Lin afterwords how he felt he said that as soon as he hit the water his feelings became indescribable. He said awesome was just not a good enough word for how he felt. I love that guy and I'm so happy that he got baptized. He is just the greatest.

Other than that the week was fairly normal. We had an exchange with the zone leaders which is always fun. Elder Kerr is a crazy nutcase but it was loads of fun.

I'm sorry to hear that Ems failed her test. Don't worry little punk you'll pass next time! Brigham is homeless, homeless like the Christ child was, ha ha! Don't worry about Tyler Beckstrand, Alan Buys is in Ghana and he will take good care of him.

Hope all is well is sunny Centerville, cause it rains all the time here.

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

My Best Buddy from Burma

Family,

What an incredibly fast week. It seems like yesterday was P-day. Loads has happened this week I'll try to get it all in.

To start I'll fill your request by requesting things for my birthday:) crazy to think that I'm almost twenty..... But lately I've really been craving sour candy. England fails at making things sour. So I would like some sour punch straws and war heads and anything else sour you wish to put in. That and money are my only requests, ha ha.

You went fishing again! Dad must be in happy heaven with all the trout he is getting to eat. I just keep getting more and more jealous with all the pictures from those beatiful lakes. I cannot wait to be in the quiet peace of the mountians again. 

Emma you have the absolute worst luck with phone screens. You really need to invest in the phones that we have as missionaries, the Nokia Brick ha ha, that thing is indestructible. Seriously we drop it all the time and it does nothing to the phone. The ipads are a little more fragile and we try to take better care of them;)

Well this week started with a Zone Conference with Elder Dyches from the Europe Area Presidency. It was an awesome meeting and I even got to go up and role play with a General Authority! It was a little scary, but hey I survived. We talked so much about keeping the Sabbath day Holy and I really feel as though the whole church is making a push to improve our worship. I'm starting to think I may not watch the superbowl anymore, but we'll see what happens! Something Elder Dyches said that was so true was that Sunday is game time for missionaries. I would add that there is no other day more important than Sunday for investigators. If an investigators comes to church there receptiveness and desire increase tenfold. As missionaries we are focusing all of our efforts on committing and getting people to church. Just this week our district saw a double in the number of investigators at church. We are truly lead by inspired men. I wish I had my notes with me cause there were so many impressions that I would love to share with you. Maybe next week, ha ha.

Next up for the week is Lin. Lin is progressing at lightning speeds, like I have never seen anyone progress so fast. He is already in contact with the missionaries and branch in Burma as well as doing extensive amounts of personal study. He truly is one of God's elect. He just gets it and is so prepared. We were about to go over the baptismal requirements with him and he told us that he had already read it all on lds.org and all he was going to have a problem with was coffee. Will you all pray this week that Lin will be able to just drop coffee in preparation for his baptism next week! That would be much appreciated. We also found out that they have just recently started to translate the Book of Mormon into Burmese and the branch sent Lin the first three chapters in Burmese. He was freaking out it was amazing. He also told us about an oral history of his tribe in Burma that apparently coincides and matches perfectly with the Book of Mormon. It talks about Gold plates and people sailing from a continent into the west and crossing a great body of water. For those of you who know the BOM particularly well I'll let you figure out where that is, ha ha. But I'll tell you more about it when I know about it. It has just been such a blessing to teach such a humble and happy person. It has made a fairly slow last few transfers worth it and brought a lot of joy to my missionary work. I just feel like I can take on anyone after our lessons with Lin.

Well besides those few big things the week has just been filled with a lot of teaching a finding. I just love teaching it's defininly one of my favourite aspects of missionary work. Finding is just okay, but I'm gaining a love for it slowing but surely. 

Before I close my email I must attend to a matter of great importance. 

HAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPYYY BIIIIRTHDAY TOOOO YOU HAAAAAAPPPPYYY BIIIRRTHDAY TOOOO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MAMA

HAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPYYYY BIRTHDAY TOOOOOOOOOOO YOU!

This week, just a few years ago, my wonderful mother was born. I just want to tell everyone how much that I love my Mom. Mama your the best, and I love you.

I love you all but not as much as I love my Mama and I hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch