Week 19 Llama Outfits / 28 Jun

Thomas asked me to send him some fine point pens. The smallest he has been able to find in England is .7. I found a .38 and a bunch of .5, so I sent some of them in an envelope with a package of Skittles, some letters, and the Rudolph clothing accessories. Thomas was very excited to get his package and dress up his llama as you will read below.

Now he's asking for some of our famous family recipes. I will have to oblige now that I'm back home and I can get the recipes from my computer.

Dear Family,

I got the smaller package on Tuesday right after our mission preparation day, which was held at an American military base in Harrogate. They had bowling and everything, so that was fun. We got our mail as everyone was getting into the cars to head back to their areas, so I got to look through the package as we were heading back to Hull. I've been trying out the pens, and I'm not sure if your pen is doing the same thing but sometimes the .38 black pen just dries up and I have to scribble a little before it starts working again. It's a really nice pen though, and as I've been using it more it hasn't been drying up as much. I did put the tie on Rudolph straightaway, much to the amusement of Elder Jacobson who wondered if I was taking things too far. But of course, I wasn't.

A very exciting note- As part of the mail we recieved, we all got our copies of the Leeds Leader, and guess who just got baptised in Gateshead last week- Chipo! And her son is still scheduled for baptism. That was an exciting bit of news for me, that's the first person I've found and taught from the very beginning. Sadly I didn't get to stay in Gateshead to see her progress more, but it really lifted my Spirits knowing I was able to be an effective tool in the Lord's hand.

On a really random note, I was wondering if I could get two recipes sent to me next week? The recipe for our very own 'Celestial Cake', as well as the recipe you use for the cornbread. I was telling a member in our ward about the cornbread I grew up on and she wants the recipe so she can try making it if we ever come over to her house for tea. Just think about it - some of the Alsop family recipes are about to become world-famous! Also the recipe for chocolate chip cookies would be nice. And pancakes.

I might have mentioned this before, but President and Sister Stock are leaving this very week. Our new mission president and his wife are coming in this Friday. It's really hard to believe that President and Sister Stock are leaving. They are absolutely amazing. All the missionaries love them and don't want them to leave, and they don't want to leave either... but they have to. A very sad moment in the mission field right now, especially for the missionaries who have been out a long time.

Lately we've been teaching member familes and encouraging them to be more active missionaries in their lives. It's a very delicate thing, asking members to be more effective missionaries, but it's what President Stock has advised us to do and both Elder Jacobson and I feel that it's what needs to be done. This is a side of missionary work that I didn't see coming, but it's helping to polish my teaching skills, which I'm afraid have become quite rusty in Beverly. What an interesting area this is. An hour of teaching a member is probably more productive than 30 hours of finding time here.

I'm looking forward to next week's emails. There will probably be a lot to talk about, since next week is transfers and we will have a new mission president. Look out Change, here comes Elder Alsop.

Love,

Elder Alsop