Keep Calm and Keep Working

Family,

Wowee it sounds like you guys are having an eventful week. I'm jealous I'm not there, but all in time. First off I need to express my disappointment in you guys.... A trout farm?!?!?! Really???? Since when do Kmetzsch's give in for a "easy" or "successful" day of fishing? What about the challenge? What about finding the right spot on the lake and finding the right bait? I mean let's be honest for some reason the pink sparkly bait always worked. But that's besides the point, lets get back to my expression of disapproval. When I get home don't even think about taking me there! We will proceed to go straight to Strawberry Reservoir with some cans of soda and some sandwiches throw in our lines and then wait. Maybe we will even catch some crawdads while we wait but none of this trout farm nonsense. Anyway, I'll try to get over it this week but no promises.

Ahh man that is sooo exciting that Ems got Brain and Kristen as her ma and pa! I hope they were the loudest and happiest family on the trek cause we certainly were! Did Brian call himself Buffalo Bri again? And I'm a little disappointed in the beard this go around. But I'm sure trek was amazing. Trek was a major landmark in my spiritual progress. It was the place where I found out the Book of Mormon is true. It was there where I first remember asking to know if it was true. I will never forget the answer that came in the middle of Deseret Land and Livestock, that overwhelming feeling that I had, and the conviction that came because I knew that that book was true. That testimony that I gained has carried me through a lot of hard days on my mission and will continue to carry me through my life. I know it's true and I cannot and will not ever deny that.

Well to answer your questions. I actually did mess up a little bit whilst leading the music... They chose, "More Holiness Give Me," for the closing hymn and those triplets were not agreeing with my conducting! In the end I just waved my hand back and forth to the beat and I don't think anyone noticed... I was slightly embarrassed but not too much. Second I think President Rasmussen chose the hymns and the meeting was held in a chapel near the mission home in Solihull. Elder Holland lived in Solihull when he was the Area President here so it was an emotional home coming for him. As far as I know Tom is doing well. He has moved back to the Isle of Man for the summer and unfortunately was not baptized before he left. Hopefully he will be continuing to go to church and meeting with the missionaries at home.

This is a picture of the little village that my Branch President and

his family live in. I think it's pretty nice!

Well this week has been really up and really down. It started up. We had a good start to our week with some successful finding and a few lessons. We then went even higher when Elder Holland came and gave us some amazing instruction. To be honest I was expecting to get an obedience lecture but he said that he didn't feel the need to do that in his words he said, "just be obedient okay." He said he felt that he could speak on a higher level with us. He then proceeded to talk about the Fall and the Atonement. What a wonderful experience it was to be taught by an Apostle of the Lord about such a meaningful topic. My favourite quote was when Elder Holland was talking about the garden of Eden he said, "you could just hop on a zebra and go and pick some raspberries!" Ha ha it was really funny. There was so much that I learned I couldn't possibly get it all in an email. But all in all the meeting was great. After Elder Holland left we got to stay a while and hear from President Rasmussen. It was fairly emotional as he was giving the mission his departing words. I will greatly miss President. He has not only become one of my heroes but also a close friend. The day was full of travel and me and Elder Richardson didn't get home until around 10:00. But it was worth it.

The rest of the weekend is when the down started. After the meeting I was pumped, I was excited to do missionary work and we had a lot of plans for the weekend. All in all we planned on getting 6 new investigators and teaching about 8 lessons on Friday and Saturday. All of these plans were in vain. Everything and I mean everything that we planned fell through. People didn't show up for appointments even when we called and talked to them the night before. The people on the streets didn't want anything to do with us and to top it off it rained all day Saturday, all day! I didn't know what to do. All of my efforts and all of my knowledge wasn't working. I even tried tracting, I was at such a loss for what I could do more. I was discouraged and disheartened and mainly confused. We were out waiting for one of our appointments to not show up and I began to plead with my Heavenly Father. I said, "Heavenly Father I'm doing everything that I know how to do, why isn't it working?" Right as I looked up from my prayer He answered my prayer. He answered it in a way that sounds kinda silly. But right as I looked up from that prayer I saw a tee shirt. On the tee shirt was written the words, "Keep Calm and Keep Working," peace came to my heart and I new things were going to be okay as long as I just keep working. Things are looking up and this week should be a much better week for us. I'm just glad that Heavenly Father answers prayers cause I needed a bit of reassurance.

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

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch