Wooooaaah We're Halfway There!

Family,

Wooooaaah we're halfway there, wooooaaah livin on a prayer! It feels weird to have reached halfway. But those words have never been more true for me. I am truly living on a prayer. I pray in the morning, before studies, before comp study, as we go out the door, during the day, at lunch, at dinner, for all my appointments, to begin planning, to end planning, and before I go to bed. Truly my day is full of prayers and that isn't even mentioning all of the constant prayers I am saying in my heart. Prayer is such a power tool that we have as missionaries to align ourselves with Heavenly Father and to go where he wants us to go. I've definitely been learning the difference between a good prayer and a bad prayer. Genuine prayer is something that can be hard to do especially at 6:30 in the morning.... But we are getting there, I'm glad I have another year to learn more.

Wooooaaah we're halfway there! Woooooaaah Livin on a Prayer!

To answer the question about the random picture of food. Elder Torres got a package from his family in Brazil and it had loads of snacks and food in it! I thought Nate would like to see some of them, sorry I forgot to define it. I'll send another picture of a very delicious Brazilian style meal we made with rice black beans and steak with Farofa, it was way good.

Brazilian style meal

This week was pretty good. Pretty normal but pretty good! I'm back in the land of Chinese students accept there are even more than there were in Coventry! It's been really weird talking to them again cause I was getting way good at talking to the English students in Aberystwyth. Good thing there are English students at the university of Birmingham as well cause I am much better at talking to and teaching them. But I'm getting back into the swing of things and brushing-up my Chinese skills, ha ha! But I'm loving getting back to the simple truths of the gospel.

Birmingham

It seems like Nate and Brigs had an awesome trip. I'm super jealous and want to go to Nauvoo so bad, maybe next year! I could have guessed that they would run into Jess but I don't know who the other people are? Am I supposed to? But what is really amazing to me is how many of the people who lived in Nauvoo were people that lived where I am walking now. The early British saints were so important to the growth of the church and really the church wouldn't have survived without them.

We had a pretty cool experience this week. We were out talking to people and we stopped a guy from Bruma or something. But he was just like I really want to get baptized. We are definitely going to baptize him! Pray that when we see him this Saturday things will go well!

Well I hope ya'll have a great week! Happy 24th

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

City Life

Family,

The week has been a blur!! Like crazy.... I don't even know what's happening but I'm starting to figure things out. A little bit more about the transfers hmm. Well my district here is compiled of myself and Elder Torres, the zone leaders, and the sister training leaders. So if you can't count that's three teams. I'm still district leader somehow, but we'll see how long that lasts. But it's exciting to be back in a big city ward and to see other missionaries at church. I'm not sure how I feel about sharing the ward after Aberystwyth, but I should be fine.

Honestly my mind is so fried right now I don't even know what happened this week. So I'm going to just apologize for the lame email. But there is a picture of my district below.

I did have my first interview with my mission president this week! He is such a great guy and I really had a great interview. I really love President Leppard any fears that I had that I wouldn't like him as much as president Rasmussen are gone!

That looks like an awesome fishing trip! You guys are going fishing way too often! I wish there was a body of water near me that I could fish in. There is a really dirty canal? I don't think there are fish in that though, ha ha! Well I promise next week will be a much better and more detailed email. I love you all and hope you have a great week though!

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

From A to B

Family!

Now that's a fishing trip! I'm glad to see that you have repented of your evil ways! I would like to put in a request for one of those fishing trips the week after I get home. I will also be having some nice quality cousin time with Samwise!

Well I have officially been transferred. I have left my second home to continue on with my journey through the UK. I'm learning many things on this journey and I hope to share some of them with you. Well I guess I should tell you where I have been transferred. I have been transferred to Birmingham! I'm in the Harborne Ward which includes the city centre of Birmingham. It is like a night and day difference from Aberystwyth. I'm a little overwhelmed but we are working with it. It was hard to leave Aberystwyth but there really isn't anything I can do about it except to just work hard in my new area. I'm excited for the chance to be in a big ward again and to get to work with more missionaries! My new comp is from Brazil! His name is Elder Torres. But I have truly gone from A to B, (Aberystwyth to Birmingham).

Elder Kmetzsch and Elder Torres

I've already had some good times here in Birmingham though. There was a stake BBQ on Saturday that had some classic bouncy toys. My favourite one is the one where you strap yourself to a bungee cord and try and run as far as you can and then it whips you back. There was one of those and of course I had to try it but someone pretty funny happened. But first a little back story. A few weeks back my trousers started to develop a little hole and I didn't really think anything of it cause you couldn't see anything. So I just moved on with my life and then a few weeks later I noticed that the hole had grown a bit bigger so I half heartily sewed it a bit. Okay now back to the bungee run. Well as I ran down this bouncy runway a few times I noticed that things we starting to get really breezy.... Long story short I ripped my trousers. I can liken this story to sin. Sometimes we notice little bits of sin in our lives and we just brush it off because it is small and no one will really notice. But as time goes on that little sin becomes more noticeable so we halfheartedly try to repair it. Little do we realise that in a quick moment that little tear becomes a very big problem. Then you have to use some back up trousers that the bishop keeps in his office. Good thing we have priesthood leaders right? Ha ha

Well, loads has happened this week and I don't have to much time to write. But I love you all and will write more next week!

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

End of an Era

Family,

Well I survived another week of driving in Wales, woot, woot. It was weird experiencing the 4th over here. I probably said God bless America more than I ever have before. It was strange not seeing crowds of people wearing tee shirts and American flag flip flops. It was actually a bit chilly on the 4th I had to where a jacket! But I had, "I'm Proud to be an American," stuck in my head all day and I missed blowing things up more than I ever thought I would. Next year on the 24th we are gonna go hard, ha ha! But it was a good day. Some American members made us some red white and blue potato salad and some cupcakes with red sprinkles. I guess it'll just have to do for this year.

My favourite outlook in Aberystwyth

Bigger than the 4th for us was the 3rd. We drove to Cardiff, a lovely two and a half hour drive and then got to meet our new mission president, President Leppard. Just say it with a slight French accent and you'll be pretty close to pronouncing it right. The only way to describe my first impression of President Leppard is that he is just a lad. Simply he was just down to earth and funny and I'm really excited to get to have him as my mission President. He was asked what his plan for the mission was and he just said, "We are going to do the simple things well." I think that is soo important. There are a lot of missionaries who get caught up in trying to be too unique and think too far out of the box. They forget to think about doing the little things and if you do the little things well, then success will come and you will be a great missionary. It is sad to see President Rasmussen go, but it is time to usher in a new era in the England Birmingham Mission and I'm glad that I've get the chance to be apart of both.

This week is transfer week, and my time in Aberystwyth may be coming to a close. It has been an awesome five months and I wouldn't mind staying another 6 weeks. But that's not up to me, that's up to the Lord. We will find out tonight whether or not I'm leaving, so I'll let you know next week!

Summer in Wales is just too beautiful!!!

The whole of Aberystwyth, it is pretty crazy

So I totally forgot to tell you the crazy thing that happened a few weeks back. Okay so we were just walking around talking to people and we walked past this hotel on our way back in to get a drink or something and this lady knocked on the window and started waving at us and gave us a big thumbs up. So we gave her a big thumbs up and just kept walking. We went to our flat for a minute got a drink and then went back out to do some more finding and we walked past the hotel again seeing as it is on our street. Well this lady ran outside and was like "Elders!" so we went over and talked to her. Turns out she was a member from Orem, the BYU shirt gave her away, but we got talking and she asked us where we were from and I said Centerville. I asked if she knew anyone from Centerville. She was like yeah do you know the Redds? I was like Merica Redd? She was like yeah Merica is my Niece. So I met Merica's Aunt on the streets of Aberystwyth, small world huh? Not only is she Merica's aunt but apparently her daughter is dating Kyle Lemperie. I thought it was pretty cool to see someone who knew people I knew on the streets.

Well I love you loads and hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

The Music of Missionary Work

Family,

It's good to hear that Emma is working so very hard that means she can take me out to dinner when I get home with all this money she is making?? But it is a bummer she didn't get to ride the new roller coaster. What is it called? It looks pretty epic! I'm sure it is really odd going from noisy kids to nothing just like that. But I'm sure Nate and Emma make plenty of noise. Also I will keep Alan in my prayers and I'm glad everything went well with the operation.

To be honestly I definitely thought that we would be using the iPads way more than we are. They are a great resource for studies and to show the occasional clip to an investigator, but other than that we don't use them much. We will be using them more once we get approved to use Facebook and FaceTime and things, but for right now I honestly just use mine to study. I prefer doing most of the talking in lessons so I tend not to use it there much at all. But it will come when I'm more familiar with using them in teaching and finding situations. To answer your next question our next transfer date will be the 8th of July, next Wednesday. We are getting our new mission president on the 30th actually. So tomorrow he comes in and has about an hour with President Rasmussen and then President Rasmussen goes home. I'm super conflicted in my emotions because on one hand I don't want President Rasmussen to go home. But on the other I'm excited for the change and for the chance to learn from a new mission president, so we'll see how this week goes. We get to meet President Leppard this Friday at a zone conference in Cardiff so that'll be fun. The drive to Cardiff is beautiful but also like two and a half hours, so worth it though. Just pray that I don't crash, ha ha....

You guys remember the conference talk the music of the gospel right? Well this week was a bit rough and it was because I stopped hearing the music of missionary work. We can all agree that missionary work is hard right? Well it's even harder when you stop hearing the music because then you are just doing super tiring dance steps for no reason at all other than that you have to. I found out this week that if you just try to go through the motions and do the dance of missionary work then all your gonna get is frustration and exhaustion. Without that reward of feeling good because you want to do good it's not even worth it. If your just gonna go out to endure the two years because it's a responsibility then it's almost not worth going. But if you really listen and feel for the music of missionary work suddenly in almost an instant, it becomes the best thing in the world. A scripture that comes to mind is Alma 32:27-28. It reads,

"But behold, if ye will awake and [do your morning exercise], even to an experiment upon my words (personal study), and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to [go finding], let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves--It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word (music) is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me."

This week I was trying to do missionary work on my own with no help from anyone let alone taking the time to listen. It was harder than its ever been. I realized at the end of the week that if I wasn't going to do it for the right reasons and listen to the music it wasn't worth doing. I'm really grateful for some awesome wards members and a few mini miracles to really help me start to hear the music again, cause I must have looked ridiculous doing those dance steps in a very awkward and forced way.                            

Hopefully this week will be a week full of music and many miracles for you all!

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch