The Long and Winding Road

Family,

Well I'm finally back in Aberystwyth and I couldn't be happier. I have missed this place so much. Swansea just doesn't compare! But I did have an awesome week down there with Elder Holman. To explain  the picture of the pile of broken glass I'm going to start by saying that it wan't my fault. We were in for lunch one of the days last week and had decided to make some oven pizza's that Elder Holman had. The oven in their flat is weird and has not only a regular door but a second door made out of glass to help keep the heat in. We were standing in the kitchen simply waiting for our pizza to cook and not doing anything wrong, when Elder Holman decided to check to see if the pizza was done. He opened up the first door and the the second and while he was checking the pizza we heard this squeak and BAM the glass door just exploded! For those of you at home who are worried I want to let you know that neither Elder was harmed, though I think I hit my head on the roof I jumped so high. But It was pretty awesome and glass just went everywhere! It was insane. Mostly I am just glad that it didn't go into my pizza;)

 The week went on and finally Friday came. We drove an hour to pick up some other trainers, and then braved the 2 and a half hour drive to Birmingham. For those of you who don't know how to add we have now driven 3 and a half hours. The meeting was great and the moment finally arrived that I got to meet my boy. His name is Elder Richardson and he is from St. George Utah! He is just a young-in at a whole 18 years of age. I am nearly a year older than him! It blows my mind cause I still feel like I am 17. But it doesn't help that my maturity level is still down with the primary kids. But after we met and got his stuff we walked over to the car only to discover that we had a flat tire, Greeeeeaaat. Not only are we pushing for time as it is but now I have to deal with changing a flat in front of my mission president and all the other elders. It was slightly embarrassing but we got the spare on and took it to a garage not to far down the road. After an hour delay we were finally on the road. But the good just can't last for long. I accidentally took a wrong exit in Birmingham and we ended up getting stuck in traffic for an extra half an hour. We finally got out of Birmingham after about an hour or so of driving. Just to pause and add up the hours driving, we are now at 4 and a half with an hour delay for a flat. We got on the highway and drove the other team that we had with us home which was a nice two hour drive. We got to their flat and I wasn't sure how far it was to Aberystwyth so I had been hoping it would only be about an hour, wrong again. It was another 2 hours to get home. So in total I drove 8 and a half hours on the long and winding road and I am not really looking to do it again anytime soon. Oh yeah, if you happen to go on any long drives remember to check your gas tank every once and a while. If not your car is going to be running on the prayers of you and your companion for the last hour or so of your journey. But we are safe and sound in Aberystwyth with a full tank of gas:)

Elder Richardson

I feel pretty accomplished with how good I am getting at parallel parking! 

It is impossible to find parking in Swansea or here in Aberystwyth, so you just have to squeeze in where you can!

Not too much has happened in our three days together other than me realizing that I don't actually know how to do missionary work. It has been a stressfully humbling experience and things are starting to smooth out. Brigham was right when he said that I am going to learn a lot in this calling. Those words are already starting to prove true. I just hope my learning curve is going to be a little higher than it was at the start of my mission.

Well we are having a mission wide conference this Wednesday and I'm super excited. Obviously the training will be on how to use ipads and what we will be doing with them, and I am super duper excited! Mostly because the whole mission will be there so I will get to see Elder Costigan and other missionaries that I've served around again. I honestly thought I wouldn't get to see them until I got home, so I am super excited for that. But what that also means is another drive to Swansea and then a 3-4 hour bus ride to Birmingham. One of these days I'm gonna figure our just how much of my mission has been spent in a car cause it is at least a couple of days! Ha Ha, but we will know more about when and how we are getting our ipads later this week and also when we will be skyping in two weeks! I honestly can't wait to talk to you guys!:)

But I hope you all have a great week, I love and miss you loads!

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch