Dear Family,

 

So the excitement of the transfer has sort of worn off and now the real hard work begins. We had some disappointments this week with some solid people who we thought were going to investigate the church. I've never had as many people give us their details and say we can come by but then flog us later. The whole district is facing this problem so we are finding ways to work harder and stay excited. We have a really young missionary in our district who's from Norway who's really gotten excited and is doing some good hard work and it's wearing off a bit on the district which is great. I have a few ideas to band the elders together to really push hard. Grimsby is a blessed area but it is a difficult one.

 

So on Sunday we went and bore our testimonies (the missionaries). I kind of rebuked the ward. The first Sunday was a stake conference and so there was multiple missionaries and multiple wards there but nobody really in any of the wards came and introduced themselves to us. Some of the excuses were they didn't know which ward we were over but it doesn't really matter. If you are a warm and friendly person and not embarrassed of who you are you would go up to everyone and say who you are. So I told the ward that I was a bit saddened because I know that they are better then that. I mean I can go and introduce myself to people which I was doing but it's sad when you say 'hello I'm Elder Dudgeon' and they just say hello and walk by. But I bore some powerful testimony after wards and I know that it hit several of the members because they did come up to me and introduce themselves. As well as our Bishop reached out to the other Grimsby 1 missionaries and asked if there was anything he could do for them. I really appreciated that. The wards here have what they call friendly rivalries but really those things can get in the way from working and growing together. So Sunday was good. we got some LA there but no investigators yet. We'll keep trying though.

 

It was good to hear that Devon and Whitney had a great weekend. I was really happy for both of them. It's neat to hear about Taylor coming home soon as well. Too bad he'll be going straight out to school. I would've loved to catch up with him again. Oh well though theres always more time and more people. Well I miss you all. Talk to you soon.

 

Cheerio

Elder Dudgeon

Hey family,

 

How goes it this week. Sounds like everyone is doing well. Getting ready for the holiday season I see. It sure is hear they have been putting out the big Christmas trees around the towns. Let me tell you about my first few days in Grimsby. It is so beautiful! We go running on the beach for morning exercise. It has been cold but not too cold. My companion, Elder Brown and I are planning on going even in the cold. It gets us going and awake in the morning. Elder Brown is so great. He's a great missionary. He's from Bountiful Utah. He really knows how to work hard and keeps me organized. I really can help him with getting out there a bit more and being constantly bold. We really Help each others strengths and weaknesses which is great! More about the area. It's quite small and it's split into 2 with the Grimsby 1 Elders. then we have a third team, Grimsby 2.1 who can go into both areas. They are white washing but they live with us. They are so fantastic. Both kind of young missionaries but hard workers and have a lot of faith and we all get along really well. We really excite one another. One is from Las Vegas and the other one is from Sweden.

 

This week we have a had a lot of finding. We found 3 people though since I came in and we scheduled 2 of them for baptism and are set on teaching them more this week. We aer hoping to have a couple baptism in the month of December. So let me tell you about of the people. Elder Brown had contacted this woman a week ago. She was leaving her house and walking away but shouted back her details and said we could come by. Well last  night we felt we needed to knock a certain street. So we go there and Elder Brown remembered that this woman said we could come by. He had scratched off in his planner because they had already tried by with no one in and she seemed not that solid. But since we felt impressed to go to the street we tried by again and got in. Her power was out because she needed a friend to come pay her money so she could get more. So we taught her by candle light the first lesson about the restoration. Then we invited her to be baptized. It was so neat that setting. She is very prepared too and is really nice.

 

We had stake conference this weekend here in the Hull stake. President and Sister Lindley spoke which was great. They talked a lot about missionary work of course. It was a record setting stake conference because we became the first stake in England to broadcast a stake conference to another building since the stake is big and so spread apart. So that was neat to be a part of.

 

Well I got to get going. I miss you all. Please don't worry about the Christmas presents as much I just need a little $$$ well £££ you know what I mean. Love you all.

 

Elder Dudgeon

Dear Folks at home,

 

We all got a number and mine got called down the line. I'm officially out of Keighley and I am heading to Grimsby 2. IT's right on the ocean. I am so excited. I am going to be in a 4 man flat too. It's in the Hull zone so it's a zone I've never been to before. It's going to be so great. Google the address and look at the map of it. It's so pretty. It may be cold but I am going to love it. I am going to be serving with Elder Brown who is from my group. That'll be fun. It's kind of a geeky guy but he is a lot of fun. As soon as he gets going he's great.

 

My new address is

 

Elder Blaine Dudgeon

39 Humber St.

Cleethorpes

DN35 8NN

UK

 

Keighley has been good but I really need something new after Elder Jestice and it will help me stay excited to the end. So besides an exciting transfer call I am doing ok. My mood is going up and down all the time. I think I'm just tired and stressed. I can see the end in sight so I try to sprint but some times I get discouraged. Most lately I am pushing hard as I can. think this move will help me continue. So all post and things need to go there. And by the way for Christmas I am not really bothered about much. You don't need to send me anything really. I am just in the process of sending things home and getting some family souvenirs and stuff (T-Shirts and ya). So if you want to send me anything, money would be the best thing.

 

Want to hear a funny story this week. So we were at a members house for tea and we were having some home made pizza. Well The crust was a little hard and while we're eating the member bit into his pizza and then we here a crack. I thought it was the pizza crust at first but he got a disgruntled look on his face, put his pizza down, and then reached in to his mouth and his front 3 teeth fell out. Well you should've seen my face. It was nasty. His bridge for his teeth broke. It was quite funny afterward but kind of gross.

 

Well My talk this week went well. I was one of 2 speakers. It was remembrance sunday here too (like veterans day) so I was souppose to keep something to that. Well the topic I got was living peaceable with one another so I talked about how wars are not good because they do not bring us peace. That fighting is something of the natural man. We do it as children, but that the higher law is to live peaceably with everyone. I talked how the greatest thing we can do to honour those who have fought and laid down their lives is to strive to live in peace with the opprtunities they provided for us. I tried to push that it is in honour of our covenants that we need to do these things and then how the gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer to how we do it. I also spoke about justice. How even if we are wronged and we seek justice we can still be wicked. It depends on the manner in which we seek that justice. If it is contentious then it is not good. The verse I kind of highlighted was in Romans 12:18 and the last verse in that chapter which talks about overcoming evil with good.

 

So that was a nice highlight for the week. Not much else is new. I am sending one parcel home right now. It just has some things that I don't want to carry around as much. But there are a couple of things in there for mom. (licorice and pontefract cakes) and dad has a couple of football team glasses and coasters. The rest just set aside for me. am going to be sending more things home for everyone don't worry.

 

Well I think that's it this week. I love you all

 

Elder Dudgeon