Week 4, Assigned to Gateshead & Shipping Advice / 15 Mar

We really enjoyed reading our mail this week. Thomas is assigned to Gateshead up near the Scottish border. We really loved traveling in that area in August of 2004. The green rolling hills can surely bring peace to the soul and a smile to my face! I don't think we ever saw so many sheep in our lives as we did during our drive through the UK! I can really picture him walking those hilly streets in the cold and rain. Good thing he's from Oregon!

Dear Family-

So much to talk about and seemingly so little time. Now that I'm out in the field we head down to a library and use the computers there for an hour, it's the maximum they allow. So twice the time for email, if we feel like using it all.

So, first things first. I haven't recieved the care package yet but I wanted to make a note about it, if it's not something you're doing already. At the mission office, they made a really important point - don't ever list the contents of a package you send to a missionary. Just put "gift", or something like "toys" because if you list what is in the box specifically they will tax you a ridiculous amount. One missionary had to get a camera sent from home, which cost his parents roughly $100 to purchase. They sent the camera over and listed the package to be a "camera" and the missionary receiving it was taxed 90 pounds! Way more than the camera was worth. So they just warn us to tell whoever wants to send a package that they list it as something generic like "gift", if you're not doing that already. I hope you did that for the package you sent me, yikes if you didn't.

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So, time to report. On Wednesday morning, early, all the Leeds missionaries (18 of us) headed up to the Leeds mission office where they briefly told us about mission-specific rules, such as part in the hair, shoulder bag, etc. and they also told us about the whole package thing. Not too much exciting stuff there, just lots of sitting and listening, and an interview with the mission president, President Stock.

After that we went to the mission home where we were served lunch, which was absolutely delicious. We had some sort of barbacue shredded chicken burgers, potato salad, fruit, and for dessert an amazing English pudding that was semi-heavy so I ate all the remnants that other missionaries didn't want. It seems to be a very common dessert idea to have some sort of bread-derivitave like a muffin or crumble cake, crumbled up in a bowl and topped with custard (which is basically hot American "pudding"). It's really good and I think it's something I'll keep with me my whole life, once I learn how to make it.

My first proselyting area is Gateshead, way up near the Scotland border. They have a VERY DIFFICULT accent up here that the missionaries call "Jordey". It's pretty much a thick Scottish accent. The people here are very nice, however, but also very fixed in their religions. Church of England, Roman-Catholics, and Atheism seem to be the only categories of religion here besides Muslim (who we're not supposed to teach) and a large community of Orthodox Jews around our flat (who won't speak to us, even when I yell "Shalom!"). We have quite a few investigators at the moment and the hardest part is definitely getting them to church, but I am really coming to love the people here very quickly, and feeling so sorry for them every time they wave us away. I've hardly noticed the time fly.

My companion's name is Elder Johnson. He's from Utah and he's only been the field for about 7 1/2 months, a very short time to be a trainer. He walks fast, which is sometimes difficult for me because of asthma and they fact that around Gateshead the people love to build EVERYTHING on enormous hills. At least there are buses going to far away places, so it gives me a chance to rest after an exhausting 2 or 3 hours of walking around street contacting on these gigantic hills everywhere.

I forgot my camera at the flat so unfortunately I don't have any pictures for you guys. I have taken a few of the flat and the area around, but I seem to have forgotten to take pictures of myself anyway so they probably wouldn't do too much good.I'll send some pictures next week for sure. One positive thing about the hills everywhere is that we have a great view of the whole valley sometimes. It's quite a sprawling residential area, and when it gets dark you can see lights everywhere in the valley. Sometimes I just want to stop and look at it, but we have to keep moving.

One person who I thought I'd talk about is an elderly lady who she insists the missionaries call "Mama Ives". She's a member of the church but she hasn't gone to church in a long time due to her old, sick dog that she always has to take care of. His name is Andy, he's coming on 18 years old, and I'm pretty sure if Mama Ives left him alone for more than 2 hours he would definitely move on. But she loves having the missionaries over every Sunday night, and always sends them away with a few bags of food, including some quiches that she makes herself, which are delicious. Right now I'm working on getting her the sacrament each Sunday because for some reason no one has even thought of bringing it to her before, even though it's been months since she's been to church. I talked to her about it last night and she said she would love it.

I've heard this comment from quite a few people we're working with, so I think I'll pass it on - people think I look like a native Englishman or Irishman, right up until the point where I start talking. So at least I don't stick out like a sore thumb, like I'm sure I would if I had been called to somewhere like the Tongan mission. I'll have to work on my accent a little more, apparently. Like I said, it's way different up here.

We had a baptism last Thursday, right after I arrived in the area. I can't claim any credit of course, but it was a great experience to know what I can do as a missionary. His name is Chris and he works with disabled children for a living. He is such a great guy and it's no wonder he accepted the gospel, he's practically been living it for the past few years. There aren't many people here in England who live close to the standards of the gospel, but every once in a while you come across someone who you know has been prepared by our Heavenly Father to accept the gospel and what we have to say, and every time that happens my testimony grows just a little more. It's hard work, but it's wonderful work.

So, in summary, I'm doing just great over here. I'm loving the work and I'm catching on really quick to the customs and everything, so nothing to worry about just yet. No sickness, though plenty of sniffling colds. My hair is still deciding if it truly wants to part somewhere in there. My llama is still alive, though no scarf yet, and he watches over me when I sleep so I know that I'm safe. Apparently we're going to golf with a couple other companionships as well today, so that will be fun I hope.

I have run out of time. Good luck, stay safe, and encourage everyone to send plenty of letters. It's a measure of how cool you are over here. :)

Love,

Elder Alsop

Week 3, No News is Good News? / 10 Mar

We had not much news from our missionary this week. He was leaving the MTC and they gave them just a few moments to e-mail....I guess we are learning patience this week!

We can't wait to see where he gets assigned and to start hearing stories of those he serves.

What an amazing testimony he has! I can't believe all that he is teaching us in such a short time. He sent this photo of him in front of the Preston, England temple. We used a portion of it for his missionary plaque in the case at church.

God speed son, until next week!

Week 2, MTC Hijinks and Spiritual Moments / 3 Mar

Dear Family,

The street contacting was probably the most frightening part of my entire week last week. To be honest, I could hardly speak to anyone, they all just looked so Scary and English. Eventually me and my companion only placed one Book of Mormon, though we did hand out a few pamphlets and pass-along cards. We'll be going tracting tomorrow, door to door, which I feel just a little more comfortable with because I've done it a few times before in America .

I hope that in the field I'll have more time to email you guys because this half hour just isn't long enough. I've taught a lot of practice lessons that have gotten increasingly harder (with some very difficult investigators, mostly just other Elders acting difficult on purpose) but Elder Turney and I have gotten through them very well. We've managed to do everything we planned in all the lessons except some end-commitments because we're only assigned a 20 minute block to teach in each Milestone lesson. I'm finding that memorizing scriptures comes a lot easier to me than to other missionaries so I've been trying to help and teach them memorization tricks and such.

I've been able to attend the temple again today. It means more every time I go there, and it makes me sad that there are no temples in my mission area so the most I'll get to go to the temple is one or two times more over the course of my whole mission. Right after we finish writing here, though, I'm going in to get my first true missionary haircut, which I'm a little apprehesive about. Something tells me that something is going to go horribly wrong. I guess you'll know when you get a picture of me next week, hm?

I should share a funny story that happened just a couple days ago - One of the missionaries in the MTC is from Italy and his name is Elder Papagallo. He has a habit of stealing people's food at mealtimes when they aren't looking, and so Elder Turney and I, with the help of another companionship, decided to get back at him. During the night-time snack we toasted 2 pieces of toast. On one of the pieces we spread Nutella (which Elder Papagallo loves), on the other we coated it with Tabasco sauce, then spread Nutella over that so it was completely hidden.

I think you see where this is going.

So while one of the missionaries in the other companionship was sitting a table with the pieces of toast, he was kinda turned around and talking to the person behind him and eating the Tabasco-free toast. And of course, here comes Elder Papagallo very sneaky-like and he steals the Tabasco toast and takes it into the corner and takes a big huge bite out of it. The expression on his face was something that makes me laugh every time I think about it. It was hard to get to sleep at night, we were still laughing at that.

Also, when my companion wouldn't get up one morning, I taught him Dad's mission wake-up song.

Well tell Logan good luck on his mission from me, and remind him not to talk to strangers. I'll be leaving the MTC on the 10th so that'll be my last opportunity to tell him anything. Make sure you send his first address to me when he gets out in the field. Also, tell James and Alisa something that they probably already know but tell them anyway -- that serving a mission is definitely something that shapes your life for the better, so prepare as much as you can before going. I don't think I quite prepared enough. If there's anything they should read from Preach my Gospel that matters the most, it's the section on Teaching by the Spirit. if you can teach by the Spirit, everything else falls into place. And tell all 3 of them to write to me, even if its just about the weather.

Oh and yes, it is cold over here... it rains a lot, it snows quite a bit, and it's always bitterly cold. And I am now officially out of time. More to come next week.

Much Love,

-Elder Alsop

Week 1, News from the MTC / 24 Feb

It surely was a bittersweet moment when we said goodbye at the airport and sent our first son on his way to serve the Lord. Thomas was called to serve in the Leeds, England mission beginning on February 18, 2010. It is a day we have long awaited as parents, and eagerly looked forward to. Thomas worked very hard, saved a great deal, and spent very little to prepare to pay for his mission. I personally (as Mom) was not prepared for the emotions of this time in my life, of sending off one of my children. I am a very matter-of-fact person, not prone to panic in emergencies, usually able to keep my wits about me. I did not really expect to be the Mom standing at the airport waving each time my son wound his way towards us in the security "switchback" line. Yet, there I was, watching the curly red hair of my son, going back and forth in his honest to goodness mission suit, complete with nametag heading off on his two years of service. As I stood fighting back tears, standing on tiptoes to catch just one more glimpse of that head of hair, which I had recently shorn, I turned into the biggest pile of mush. We watched as he cleared security and then moved out of sight towards his gate with a sheepish grin and a roll of his eyes at his crazy parents, and we stood until he was out of sight. I went home and just bawled in his empty room. All of the random things he had not packed up sitting everywhere. Some made me laugh, and some shake my head in wonder (a wooden box full of brass keys on paperclips??), but all made me a little sad for the cute little red-headed baby he had once been, and yet proud of the amazing man he had grown into.

We were so excited to get our first e-mail from our missionary. His words will be highlighted in gold throughout my blog. Here are excerpts from his first e-mail to us:

Hey Family-

The flight over was very fun, to my surprise. I flew out from Portland about an hour after you last saw me, so from there to Georgia was a piece of cake. But once I got to Atlanta , there was the 6 hour layover that certainly didn't help the jetlag. I was the second Elder to arrive at the airport, so we were able to talk about our flights and what we wanted to do in England until a lot of other missionaries started showing up. All in all, we had about 15 missionaries going to England from Georgia (and about half of them were from Utah . I found that funny, but not suprising). More surprisingly though, all but 3 of them were going to the Leeds England mission like I was. 2 of them were going to theManchester mission and 1 Sister missionary was headed to Ireland .

On the flight over, I mostly tried to sleep, and mostly failed at it. Luckily I wasn't too tired when we got there even though it was 8:00 in the morning, and even managed to make it till 10:30 that night until I went to sleep. Most of the time between 2:00 and 10:30 was convincing other missionaries not to fall asleep before night, regaling them with old tales of Jetlag in Ages Past, on a Trip to the Holy Land with a certain Red-Headed Genius.

Over the past few days in the MTC I've been making sure to write in my journal, even though I don't get much time every night. Every since day here is busy, busy, and even more busy as we teach, plan, and teach some more to fake investigators. Last night me and my companion (Elder Turney, from Devin , England ) taught a former temple president named President Jones in a mock lesson but with some serious evaluations. He really tried hard to trip us up but somehow we always managed to return to our lesson plan and teach him of Joseph Smith and the Restoration. Afterwards he shook our hands with tears in his eyes and told us he really felt the Spirit, which I am so happy I am able to do. Teaching by the Spirit is more important than anything else you can do as a missionary, and knowing that I'm able to do that is a big strength to me. Especially since....

Tomorrow we're going out street contacting. That's right, actual street contacting. The Preston MTC is the only MTC in the world that sends out MTC Missionaries into the field during their stay here, so tomorrow we are finding people on the street down in Manchester and then next week we're going door to door. But more on that later, looks like I'm running out of time.

That's the problem with email is that you can only do it for half an hour here, so physical letters would probably be a better, if slower medium for telling the full story of what really goes on here.

You can share this letter with anyone who you think would like to hear from me. To all those in my ward, I don't really know how to thank you guys enough. All those lessons, all the counsel, it's all added up into the Elder Alsop that's trying his best to be a succesful missionary and it really does mean a lot to me.

Oh and by the way, I've nearly perfected the British accent. It's not as hard as you think, when you've got a British companion and a bunch of British teachers.

I hope you guys don't worry about me too much out here, just know that the Lord will always protect me, and that the more time you spend worrying about me the more time I'll have to spend telling you not to worry so much, that I'm fine and happy and learning more every day.

-Elder Alsop (pronounced All-sohp by everyone here, I guess it's the proper way or something)