Happy Mothers Day

Family!

Oh my goodness it was so nice to see you all yesterday and to talk. I'm glad to hear that all of you are doing so well.

To be fair this is going to be a very very short email because I don't really know what else to say. It was a great week very, very, very hot, but not really that hot. But still hot for England. We had a part member family that we are working with come to church which was really great. The Bishop gave the gospel principles lesson and it was fantastic. It was focused on the needs of the mother who is a returning less active.

Well I said it before, but I'll say it again. Happy Mothers Day Momma!!!!!! I love you so much and hope that your day was wonderful and that Dad and Emma did all the cooking and cleaning! I couldn't get you real flowers but we found some really nice Spring flowers and so pictures will have to do! But I love you and want you to know how much I really appreciate you.

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

A Tiring Week

Family,

Well this week has been physically exhausting! We have walked more this week than I have for a large part of my mission! Absolutely miles and miles of walking. I'm not quite back on the bike because well I just got my bike back yesterday and it is not quite in fighting condition. I'm gonna have to put a little bit of work into in but it should be okay. Note to self though, don't leave your bike with other missionaries when you move to a car area if you want to see you bike in working order anytime soon!! But it's okay cause walking hasn't been that bad, just slow.

The new area is pretty much like a lot of my other areas. Our flat is really close to the city centre so it is pretty easy to just walk outside and start talking to people. We are also near two universities Leicester University and DeMontfort University. It is always nice to have some young people to talk to in your area. The ward though is completely different to Nottingham 1st ward. I went from one of the largest and youngest wards that I have ever been a part of to one of the smallest and oldest wards that I have ever been a part of. There are only two families in Evington ward that have young children and I'd say the average age is about 60, haha. It is nice though on Sunday to not have the roar of children during sacrament meeting. I'm excited to start working with and getting to know all these new members. I felt like just another member of the ward in Nottingham, like it was home, but now I've gotta start over again and get to know everybody. It should be fun though.

Elder Davis is a good lad. He is from the great state of Texas and has been on his mission for about nine months now. I'm a little sad that I didn't get the opportunity to train again but me and Elder Davis should be able to do a lot of good together. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks.

Congratulations EMMA!!!!! WOOT, WOOT!!!! That's so cool that you got chosen as prom royalty. It just proves that you are the prettiest sophomore in all the land and that all the other girls wish they were you, Haha! Don't let it go to your head though and remember to always be yourself and to always be nice to everyone.

Leicester does have a soccer team that is doing very well right now. They are in line to win the Premier league cup which is pretty much the biggest accomplishment that an English football team could win. It is for sure an exciting time to be in Leicester because the city seems to have almost an electric buzz going through it in anticipation of the win. All the shops have the team's colours and crest up and they say we are backing the blues. It's cool to see how such a seemingly small thing is bringing a city closer together. Cool story, we actually were in town and we saw this big line outside of one of the banks. We asked someone what is was about and it turns out that the trophy for the premier league, which is the Premier League Cup was on display in that bank to raise funds for charity.  All you had to do was donate £2.00 and you could take a picture with it. I couldn't let that opportunity pass me by so we got a picture with it! Man it is huge and way cool looking.

Brigham sure is a lucky guy! I wish I could go to Hawaii! It seems like since I've been gone everyone is just getting to go all over the place without me! Don't stress the whole St. George thing too much cause I can always just ditch school and go down in September for my Birthday!!

Okay so for skyping I am thinking that 6:00 my time would work best for us. That would be 11:00 for you guys. Does that work? You will have to let me know by tonight if not then that will be the time that I will be calling.

It is sad to hear of another death in the family, but I am glad that everything worked out so nicely and that it was a positive experience for the family.

I hope that everyone is doing great! I love you all and I am soooo excited to get to talk to you this Sunday!

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

Back to the Bike

Family!

What a week. It was the last week of the transfer and it has been a pretty sad one.... We got the transfer calls last night and I will be leaving Nottingham. I am taking possibly my last step of this mission journey to my last area and I am going to Leicester. A place called Evington and my new companion is going to be Elder Davis. I am a little bit gutted to be leaving Nottingham, but it has been a good 6 months and it's definitely my time to leave. I'm gonna miss Elder Wagner loads, but it's okay cause there are good things to come. But I'm also no longer going to be in a car. I will be back on my bike, with no more responsibilities as well! I am going to be a regular old missionary and finally be able to just get it done. I'm gonna miss having a big influence on other missionaries, but I am also looking forward to not having to deal with there problems, haha! Plus I am going to lose tons of this darn car weight, haha. I'm gonna be a slim trim good looking Jim!

The Nottingham City Centre

Well the mission wide challenge week went really well. Loads of people went mad about it but no one in our zone won anything and the zone took 3rd place overall. We were a little bit sad, but it's not the end of the world. But it is amazing what a little bit of competition does to males.... What can we say it is just in our nature!

This week was pretty normal. Our investigators are doing well and not too much went on. We weren't able to see everyone that we planned on, but it worked out in the end. 

Oh yeah and Happy Birthday to James!!!!! I cannot believe that he is already 4...... He is soooooo old.... But it's okay I'll see him soon enough!

I forgot to mention that I got to go back to Birmingham on exchange with the AP's this last week. It was pretty cool to be back in my old area. This is a picture with the Bull from the city centre that happens to be named the Bull Ring. As you can see I am going to be taking these next few months by the horns and going hard, haha!

Birmingham's Bull Ring

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

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

Challenge Week

Family,

Man those pictures are amazing! Evey looks soooo BIG like wow.... And little Clara is so adorable, I cannot way to meet her. I'm glad that everything went well with the trip and that everyone had fun and is safe. Mother you make sure that you slow down and let yourself heal!

The AP's car is a European car but it is really long and you feel really high up in it compared to our little hatchback. It was cool to be on the same level as the bus drivers! Dad you should definitely go all mid life crisis and get a really nice truck, or a Jeep that would be cool. Ooooor you could get some motorcycles and me and you could go cross country father son style! I like the last option the best you should really look into it. But it was really nice to get our nice little small car back after a few days, the roads are much too small here to be driving a car that size.

Have I not always said that I have the cutest little sister in the whole of Centerville. I'm not even surprised that she got nominated to be prom royalty! All the boys love her!!!! Haha, but that's really amazing Ems, good work. You tell those boys to stay away!!

I'm glad someone finally went to church with Emma. I think the ward probably thinks that you guys are going less active or something! But you'll have to let me know who the new stake presidency is if I may know any of them. I love coach Hymas and that would be way cool if it was him.

On to the week. So this week was the first ever Birmingham Mission Challenge Week!!!! It was a zone vs zone competition to the Death! Basically there were three challenges a day with the occasional mission president challenge. Challenges could range anywhere from teaching 6 lessons to touching 10 cats. It was absolutely insane and people were going crazy....... The rewards were a zone P-day for the winning zone, hoodies for the winning district and dinner with President Leppard for the winning team. People were going crazy and some of the challenges were really hard. We did our best and we will find out who won tonight. It should be interesting. But I don't think we are going to win, haha.

Things in the area are still going really good. Callum is doing well and so is Boris, keep praying for them!! I hope you all have a great week!

Love you all!

Elder Kmetzsch

What the Referrals???

Family,

Well I will just jump straight into it! This week has been yet again full of miracles. First off just a quick update Callum, (he is our investigator who's mother passed away), is doing absolutely great. He was offered a new job over the weekend after he quit both of his jobs because he was surrounded with things that were causing him to break the word of wisdom. Which was a miracle!!!! He is doing awesome, keep praying for him. Boris is also doing well your prayers are much appreciated on his behalf. We also had yet another investigator find us this Sunday! A new member named Iby in the ward just happened to bring her friend along to church with her and we will be meeting with him later this week. Plus we are having quite a few media referrals come in from the website which just doesn't happen that often! It is blowing my mind with how much has happened within the last few weeks. Truly the Lord is blessing us beyond comprehension.

Man Mom you better get better quick, I will worry way too much if you don't. But I am glad that you guys had such a great time with all the grand-babies! I can't say how excited I am to see them all! And it's good that you got to watch conference! That is important. It is weird to me that next conference I will be home..... AHHHHHHHH!!!!!! But I loved conference, they say that conference on a mission is like the super bowl, ha ha and that is true.

Picture of the zone at zone meeting this week

I had a pretty sweet experience this week. I got to drive the AP's Car, haha!! We had to transport a couch within the zone and so we switched for the Transporter. It was absolutely huge!!!!! It is almost as big as the sequoia, haha. But is was fun to drive a big car again. English cars are just not big enough!

Well I don't have too much to say. I hope you all have a great week.

Love you Bwtts,

Elder Kmetzsch

Miracles on Miracles

Family,

Man it looks like you guys are having waaaaaaaaay too much fun over on the east coast. There is actually a sister missionary in my district from South Carolina and she was pretty excited to hear that you guys went there. I hope you don't use up all the fun for the year cause I'm gonna need you to leave a little for me for when I get back!! But cool story, we found an American breakfast place here in Nottingham run by an actually American!!! We went this morning for breakfast and I got the southern fried steak and Elder Wagner got biscuits and gravy. It was pretty darn good! I'll probably go back for a return visit. Actually I will definitely be going back to try one of there burgers.

Alright so on to the Miracles! Okay so Saturday morning at about 6:33 I wandered downstairs in a zombie like fashion, as you do when it's 6:30 in the morning.... But I looked at the phone and we had a message. It was a message from a guy whose mother had just passed away who was a member up in Scotland. He said he had been chatting with missionaries all night and that it was his mom's dying wish for him to find faith. Anyway we set up a return appointment for that very morning and we went to see him. We taught one of the most powerful Plan of Salvation lessons that I have ever taught in my entire life. The spirit was so strong and he is soooo prepared for the gospel. He came to general conference yesterday and loved it. Please pray for him. He decided that in order to fully commit to the gospel he needed to quit his job, because he is surrounded by alcohol and coffee and things that he didn't want to be around anymore. But he definitely needs your prayers.

Boris also came to conference! We asked him to bring a question that he wanted answered and afterwards he said that his question was answered,so that's pretty good! Things are really picking up for us over here! Life is good, Truly Miracles on Miracles!

We also had a great Mission leadership council this week. It was full of great training and I can't wait to train the zone on the things that we have learned.

Life is good and I hope life is good for y'all back in the good old US of A! Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch

He Is Risen!

Family,

What a week it has been. A long hard week, but after the trial of our faith comes the miracles. And miracles we did see! But I will start at the start of the long hard week. It actually started really good with a wonderful P-day spent at the Nottingham Castle with one of the districts in the zone. The weather was actually really great and we had a blast!

Second was a long hard week of really not much. We found and we found and we found and just nothing was happening. It was pretty discouraging but we made it through the week with a smile on our faces determined to do it again this week. Okay so now for the miracles. So it had come to the end of the week and nothing had happened. We were just chillin at church without any investigators.... And in walks a man that no one recognized. Turns out his name is Boris and he had found the church on the interweb and decided to come check it out. He couldn't find the exact time so he came near the end of church but we gave him our number and he said he would come again next week. After that we were finding in town and as we finished talking to someone, a girl ran up to us and started telling us about how she had just spent a year in Florida and had been attending a YSA ward there for about 8 months. She was still really interested and just hadn't felt the courage to come to church in Nottingham yet. Then she told us that this week she is flying out to Utah for general conference!! How crazy is that? Anyway it was a miracle that we ran into her and we are going to meet with her before she goes. AH!!!! Good stuff.

Man I am jealous of all of you guys just chillin out it in Kansas with the kids.... I can't wait to see you all and I am glad that you are all having so much fun.

Well to end things off I just want to say the He Lives. He rose from the dead on the Third day and just as importantly he really did appear to the people of ancient America. How incredible it is to know that we worship the living God. He is the living Christ and he really did pave the way back to our Heavenly Father. He is the way and all we need to do it follow him.

I love you all! And Hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Kmetzsch