New Beginnings

Family,

Okay just to clarify Elder Tukuafu went home exactly right on time, not sooner than expected. When he came to Nottingham he was on his last transfer so we knew that we were only going to spend one transfer together. Now he is probably flying to America as we speak for a vacation and to go to general conference. It is weird that a lot of my companions are home now.... I only have one more companion that is older than me and he goes home at the end of this transfer, after he goes home I will only have younger companions. But my new companion is....... Drumroll! Elder Wagner from Washington State, near Seattle. It has been one of the funnest weeks of my mission and we have become fast friends. So this six weeks is going to fly by....

Man I am super jealous of Nate and his bro fest, I can't wait to go party it up with the brethren! There are going to be some good times. But those pictures are awesome. Who in there right mind has already asked Emma to Prom??!?!?!?!?!? I am going to need the email of this boy so that I can interview him. Now you all think that I am joking but there is no joking when you are a missionary! So I expect him to make first contact and to give me a brief summary of why he thinks that he should be the one to get to take my little sister to her first Prom.

The district at Nottingham Castle 

 I am so happy to hear that everything went smoothly with the funeral. I have definitely been praying very hard that it would go well. My love and my thoughts are with all the Blodgett family right now.

Well we have had some miracles and things are continuing to look up for me and Elder Wagner. A few weeks back we had a family just walk into church and we didn't really get to talk to them at all but we found out they weren't members. The next week they came again and we got talking to them and they really wanted help with the woman's English cause they are from Hungary. So we started teaching them that week and helping her learn English as well and teaching them about the gospel at the same time. They came to church again this week so something must be going right! Please pray for them that they will continue to progress well in the gospel and in her English. There names are Lui, Sylvia, and Jay.

Not too much exciting stuff has happened this week. It was transfer week so we have had some shuffling in the zone and I am excited to get to work with a few new missionaries. But I am really excited to be serving with Elder Wagner.

Love you all!

Elder Kmetzsch

Another One Bites the Dust

Family,

What a week. So much has happened this week it has been a bit crazy. But it sounds like you guys have had a pretty fun week as well. Did Nate drive to Utah with a boy friend or with a girl friend? Ha ha, but Emma sent me a picture of his man bun, Oh Brother my Brother.... I am an awful human being and was totally planning on saying happy birthday to my dearest older brother but then I forgot... But I know that he will forgive me. But here I am now saying Happy Birthday Nate! You old fart... Man you have no idea how much I would love to go to the Broadway Bingo concert! That seriously is one of my new favourite events. I hope Mom continues to do Utah Voices so that we can go every year! I hope Emma repents and is able to do enough practicing on the piano to at least make federation worth it. I miss piano insane amounts and can't wait to get back into playing it a bit more.

Well first off for my week was our Zone meeting. It was on Wednesday so we had a few days to prepare and I think that it went really well. The spirit was really strong. Me and Elder Tukuafu's main training was on Faith and Obedience. Mostly we talked about how obedience is an act of faith and how disobedience has an effect on everyone. We shared a pretty extreme example from Joshua 7 about how disobedience effects the people around us, you can read it in your spare time if you want to. The rest of zone meeting went really well as well. We are starting a new Easter initiative which is called #hallelujah and the Sister training leaders gave a great training on that and how we can share Christ with people during this season. We also had the departing testimony from our beloved friend and brother Elder Tukuafu, as they say, "Another one bites the dust," He happens to be going home this week and today is our last day together and his last real day on this mission. He has a wonderfully relaxing 26 hour flight back to Tonga not including the lay overs and the time difference. Anyway he leaves to the mission home tomorrow flies out on Thursday and gets home on Saturday. Ha ha, I am not jealous. But he gave his final testimony and it was all emotional and such. All in all zone meeting was a success and hopefully someone learned something.

Secondly we had an exchange this week. We are definitely trying to make the new exchange policies more effective and less of just a sleepover but it is a work in progress. We will get there eventually, maybe after I get home.... But it was a fun exchange though. Next on the list I must mention the Pila and his family came to church yesterday!! They dressed in Traditional Tongan attire for church as did my companion. I will make sure to sent some pictures of him and them in there outfits. The ward really loved seeing them there and especially seeing Elder Tukuafu wear flip flops to church! But it was pretty amazing that they came and seemingly had a great time. Later that night we had a"missionary fireside" really we just watched meet the Mormons and invited ward members to bring there friends. Well it didn't get the greatest turn out in the world..... No nonmembers came and it was just us and the other missionaries and a few ward members. But it wasn't all bad because I have never seen meet the Mormons before and I have been really wanting to watch it! What a wonderful movie, my favourite part was definitely the Navy Head coach. I am soooooooooo excited for the season this fall!! But the spirit was really strong there and at the end we all sang, "God be with you till we meet again," to Elder Tukuafu and Sister Banchini cause they are leaving Nottingham.

Well that's about it for our exciting week, I hope you enjoy the pictures of the Tongans and of me and Elder Tukuafu in the new mission car.

Love you,

Elder Kmetzsch

Is Your Refrigerator Running?

Family,

First off I'd l like to say that my prayers and thoughts are going to the Blodgetts right now. I have a strong testimony of the Plan of Salvation and how much comfort it brings into our life's. Just yesterday we were teaching a man from Ireland. He is Presbyterian and he asked us a question that he asked his preacher. He asked what happens to those people who have never heard of Jesus Christ? Do you know what his preachers answer was strait up, that they are going to hell..... We were then able to testify of the Spirit World and of the Plan of Salvation. I just felt such a strong sense of peace and assurance that it was truly Gods plan and that it is a fair and just plan for all of Gods children. What a blessing it is to have the Priesthood so close to our family all the time.

I am so jealous that you guys got to see the Grandkids again! I cannot wait to see those little stinks. Family truly brings us pure joy in this life. Speaking of family, it was Mothers Day yesterday and man I miss my Momma.... I ever bore my testimony on the powerful influence that Mothers have in our lives. I told the youth that if they would just follow their mothers they would turn out just fine and I truly believe that. Thank you Mommy for being the absolute best Mom in the whole world! I love you so much!!

Hello um... Is your refrigerator running????? No?!!?!?!!?! Well neither was mine.... All week! Basically our refrigerator gave up the ghost on Monday morning and we didn't get a new one until this last Saturday. I don't think I realized just how important a fridge is until it was gone. We basically just decided to eat out everyday that we didn't have a dinner appointment... Not a smart idea... Taco Bell just isn't that good.

Well we had a mini/big miracle in our area this week and her name is Beth! She is sooo cool! Basically what happened was that it had been another long hard week of finding with not much success. It was Saturday and we were about to wrap up our finding for the day and we saw someone walking towards us so we decided to talk to her. Turns out she knew pretty much everything about the church and had previously met with missionaries in Manchester and was still interested in the church. So we invited her to church the next day and she came!!!! AHHHH Basically she is the best, so would you pray that she continues to progress well.

Well that about wraps it up, I hope all is well, I love and pray for you often,

Elder Kmetzsch

P.S. Do you like my new Skirt?

Trunky Meeting

Family,

I don't know why I always mention food but it's probably because food is very memorable to me. So when I am typing these emails I always seem to remember what I ate during the week..... Guess it's just in my blood.

I hope that Emma got better for her performance. I remember the stress of being sick when you have a performance coming up that you have worked really hard for. You definitely feel robbed of a lot of time, but I know Ems will do her best!! And that Mom will cure her if it is the last thing that she does!!

That is cool that you got an email about the funeral, ha ha, which one?? I have actually helped out with two funerals here in Nottingham. The first was for a less active member and they needed a pianist and so of course I offered to help. I played two hymns that I have never played before and one of them was an old Church of England hymn that I have never even heard of before. I was a nervous wreck because there were going to be loads of nonmembers there. I didn't want to ruin there first impression of the church with awful piano playing but I did my best and practiced at every chance that I got. The other funeral was for the parent of one of the families that I am very close with, it was a great aunt. We didn't do much but show up for moral support and help clean up after so that they didn't have to stress about it.

The Taco Bell was way heavy but it was worth it, ha ha! We were actually the first people to order that much food from Taco Bell in Nottingham. They were like you want what????? Ha ha!

We had a pretty crazy meeting this week. It was the self reliance meeting for returning missionaries. So about 5-6 months before you go home we have this big meeting with everyone in your MTC group and you talk about college and finances and jobs and my favourite, ha ha dating!!!! We as a mission have nicknamed it the, "Trunky meeting." It was a pretty awesome meeting and I really enjoyed it.

Well the rest of this week was boring so I won't waste your time with the details. We did missionary work and we did a lot of it. It was a decent week of normal missionary work.

Much Love,

Elder Kmetzsch