Hey,

 

It is good to hear from all of you this morning. It sounds like summer is winding down and the push to winter is almost here. Life is getting back into full swing with school starting up again and the last trips of summer coming to a close. I hope you enjoyed yours. Mine has been short, but my mind set is similar. Preparing for the the long push through fall and the lasts harvests of the winter before the inevitable end of my life begins haha. Alright nuff drama.

 

How goes it this week? Can't say much here. We have had some amazing and dramatic events take place but not all I can type because of the private information it contains. Just know that it has been a blessing this week to see some of the steps our investigators are making to repent and to come unto Christ.

 

Something I can talk about though is a wonderful family from the Czech Republic. We have been teaching them as best we can in our broken english. This past Sunday we went down to their home in the morning. Every single one of them was ready for church. We walked with them to the bus station and caught the bus up to the chapel right as the meeting started. As I sat next to them I could see the father feeling the Spirit with every hymn, every prayer, and every talk. Though not every word was understood, the feelings were there and (as he later described) felt peace and comfort and joy. He described how his heart went out to the sister who spoke in the meeting. As her voice choked, explaining how she felt about the gospel and how she had been blessed, he could feel it to and wanted to cry with her. His children got a bit bored but loved the singing in the sacrament meeting. NExt week they will come to all the meetings and I can't wait for them to enjoy primary.

 

This week has been tough with Elder Jestice. It's really quite frustrating. Just continue to pray for me.

 

I got to go but thanks everyone again for help and support.

 

Love ELder Dudgeon

 

PS I HAVE GOTTEN POST IN A LONG TIME. except for dads package (YAY!). BUT I AM STARVING FOR SOME POST. TELL PEOPLE TO WRITE ME. FAMILY, RELATIVES, FRIENDS, ANYBODY.

 

Much love

Dear family,

 

Hey thanks for the emails this week. It was a rough one until yesterday. We had a mission tour with Elder Donaldson of the area presidency here. He used to be in the mtc presidency when I was there so I know him quite a bit. It was really good and I will tell you about it a little later. But that's the reason why I am emailing today.

 

 It was a rough week with Elder Jestice. (yes myranda you are right). Anyways it was a rough week because we didn't find any new investigators as a district till Sunday. We found one here in keighly. I was trying to work with Elder Jestice and the other teams with how we can improve and they all just get back to me and say that they can't think of anything. They all just kind of threw on me. Great. I came up with some ideas and a plan for Elder Jestice and I and gave it to the Zone leaders. They weren't sure about but I held firm and confident with it. I think it's just from how I explain things them. I am not the best or they don't understand me. Well all the things I mentioned were talked about at the meeting yesterday. Elder Donaldson spoke about all of them and how we can use them. It was pretty neat. During the meeting I also got to go up there and help him with his instruction. I don't normally volunteer but I wanted to be a good example for the district.

 

Afterwards President Lindley talked to Elder Jestice and I separately. He told me everything he had said to Elder Jestice and what he wanted me to do to help him. It made me feel a lot better after him talking to me and the trust he said he has in me. It was just a good time to talk to him. That he sees that I'm working hard and trying my best.

 

Well I don't remember any stories to talk about this week. not too much happened. A missionary came back to Keighley with his parents. It was really neat to see him again because I have served around him before and with him on exchanges. He's from Holland and has been home for a few months. It was neat to see the effect that a mission has on someone, but its hard to see sometimes until they get home.

 

Oh here's a story. So I street contacted this guy a couple weeks ago who said we could come by. He gave us a false mobile number and when we went by no one was in. This week though I was thinking about it and just felt that we really had to go by and see if he was in. Well turns out that he doesn't even live there but a nice lady did. We started talking to her and she let us share the message with here and we are going to see her this week. It's funny how that works.

 

I wish I was home for all the memorials and things like that for 9/11. No one was even talking about it over here. One guy on saturday even made a joke about it when we knocked into him. (He then found out that we were Americans and apologized). It's kind of sad. The only thing that really appeared was mention of the Brits that died in the attacks. People make more fuss about the London bombings here still. Which is sad as well but this is something that effected a lot more people. It was a bit frustrating but it's how it is.

 

WEll I am doing really good this week. I hope everyone is enjoying the end of Summer. Mine is very cold and wet and windy. YA English SUMMER!

 

Cheerio

Elder Dudgeon

Dear Family,

 

So sorry about that ast week. I am still really tired and stressed. I have a lot to deal in my little district. I can't believe how difficult it gets sometimes. I got a bit depressed this last week, but I just kept plugging along and it's gotten better. I think it's because Elder Jestice is not the most obedient missionary so it's difficult. Like when a day is rough and nothing goes right and you haven't done all you can to be obedient you start to question yourself. When you are obedient though, even if they day goes wrong, you still have that to fall back upon to feel good about. So I have really strived for that this last half of the week and it's gotten way better.

 

We are teaching a few more people now. We have a Czech family we are teaching. It's a bit difficult with the language barrier but we get by it by comparing material and using google translator. I haven't used that in a long time on my mission but they've updated it a lot now and it's been a real help. Plus with the church constantly trying to update their website helps a lot. They were met to come to church yesterday but the father was sick. We have a few more people we hope to progress to baptism by Conference weekend or the week after. It should be good. Keighley is a great place and has some blessed people in it.

 

A funny part from this week. We got some lunch after a meeting on Saturday. We were going to take it back to our flat to eat and so we could drop off our stuff. Well we got on the wrong bus that took us farther away from our house. It would've looped back and brought us close but Elder Jestice had to start eating his lunch on the bus. The driver got mad because he could smell it and told him no eating on the bus and kicked us off. There are no signs that say you can't, but Elder Jestice wasn't the nicest to the guy. So we get kicked off the bus as far away from the flat that it could've left us. We then had to walk back to our flat cutting across some trails though the parks and woods. I had to stop every 20 paces for Elder Jestice because he has ingrown toenails that he hasn't fixed for like 3 months so his feet hurt when he walks. So ya it was a long day. Not much came out of the day either but I was obedient as I could've been all that day so I slept easy. That was nice.

 

Well Thanks family for your support. I hope this fall is good for everyone. It's my last fall of my mission. TIme keeps creeping up and that scares me. I don't need any reminders mom! ;) anyways. Love you all.

 

Elder Dudgeon