Dear Family,


How are things. It's weird getting emails from everyone each week. Each time it's different and each one of you is different in your writing as well. It's hard to read them each week sometimes. And even harder to respond. What do I say that I can say for all to hear? Well this one is simple and easy because it's a new area and a new companion.

I'm in Billingham which is a small area. We cover it and a town called Stockton-on-Tees or just Stockton. It's a neat place very different from Bradford and Leeds area. There is no big city anymore. It's nice though. We're right next to a chemical or nuclear plant which is neat to see the huge chimneys just in the background. I'm not too far from the coast though which can go to on P-Days. Which I wouldn't mind. I miss seeing the ocean. But, this is a great area with a great ward and great people. There was a baptism just this past weekend and there should be more this month as well. So it's nice to come into that. We should've had a baptism back in Bradford this last weekend but I won't find out till later this next week. I do miss Bradford a little bit but I feel like I'll love this area.

My companion is Elder Thorup. He is great. He's from Taylorsville, UT near Salt Lake City. He has been out more then a year. He's the district leader. We get a long really well. No problems yet. He's just an all around funa pleasant missionary to be around. He loves the work, but knows how to enjoy it and make it fun. We live with a member which is interesting. Not something I'm used to but it goes well. I also sleep on the top bunk of the beds. That's interesting. Been awhile since I've done that. Not much else to say. I feel like I already know a bit about the area and the district because my second and third companions both served here.

How are things going for Myranda's wedding? Good? I wish I could be there now. What are the plans for Thanksgiving? Where's it going to be this year? I was telling Elder Thorup about the Turkey Bowl. I'm sad we're going to miss that but we may get together with the zone to play some touch football or some proper football against the Sunderland zone. What about Christmas? What's everyone doing for Christmas since the Wedding is so close?

I sent a package home with some stuff in it. Some is mine and some is for all of you. I have some old planners, a hymnbook, a pillowcase, and some coins and pins and things like that that I didn't want to lug around anymore. The coins are all the coins except for the 2 pound. If you line up the backs of them they make a shield like the one on the pound coin. There is a pin from the Piece hall in Halifax for dad. The other one is the White rose for Yorkshire and that's mine. As well there is a big bag there for Myranda with the Union Jack flag. Some chocolate for everyone. Souvenir tea towels for mom and English flag from the world cup for dad. As well as cd's full of my pictures. Oh and some cufflinks for Devin They were just kind of funny was. I was going to give them to dad but I don't think he'll wear them that often. That's all that I could send at the moment. And it's quite expensive to send things as well So ya. I hope you will all enjoy them. And I hope they will get there soon. It will take awhile because I sent it with the cheapest option.
Well that's about it. Elder Thorup and I are going to just go hang out for the rest of the day then head back to the work tonight. I hope things are going well. I miss you all. I'm not sure what to send me for christmas. Some easy mac n cheese. Those back heat pads would be nice. A copy of Jesus the Christ. Just some money would be nice too so I can get some things here. But I love you all.


Elder Dudgeon

Dear Family,


How goes it? Everything here is going good. The week went well. I'll talk about that later. Sounds like everyone is doing well. I got some good emails from everyone today. Thanks for that. It's good to get those some times. Not too much happening though besides the norm back at home?

Well we got our transfer calls last night, and surprisingly I'm getting moved to Billingham. Elder Oviatt is staying in Bradford to train a new missionary. That'll be 7 1/2 months in one area for him. That's tough. But I'm kinda happy because that means I probably won't move right before Christmas or stay in Bradford for 6 months. The next Transfer happens 3 days before Christmas. Imagine going to a new area and spending Christmas with people you haven't gotten a chance to meet! So ya it should be good. They live with a member there so that should be interesting. It's been a pain though having to pack everything up. Bradford has been a good area. Good people, ward, flat, transportation, food, etc... It's been nice.

So we did have a baptism this weekend that went really well. The ward was great and President and Sister Lindley came and spoke at the end. It was powerful. The confirmation the next day was really good as well. It made a rough week nice. We should be having another one this weekend but unfortunately I'm not going to be there.

So some crazy story time. On Saturday morning, Elder Oviatt had a meeting for district leaders in Leeds that he had to go to. So I went with another missionary and did street contacting in town. During the morning a man came up to us and said that we had not accepted Jesus Christ into our hearts because we read the Book of Mormon. It wasn't very nice. He just went off on the bible says this, the bible says that. And I said yes it also says this and it also says that. Anyways he was very rude and wouldn't listen to anything. He left but about 30 minutes later came back and gave me a bible. He told me to read it and said that it was perfect because it was the simplified New King James Version. So I got a free bible Saturday morning. Pretty neat. Pretty annoying though.

We had Bonfire night this last week. It wasn't anything too special. Weak compared to the 4th of July. All the fireworks died around 10. BUt it had been going all week. Kind of weird. We had tea with a member here who's from Latvia. He is an older gentleman but such a good member. He fought in WWII and gave me some interesting perspectives on it now. Things weren't as black and white. It was really neat though. I love learning the history.

We have been working hard and finding a few new investigators but nothing to progressing so far. We'll see how Billingham gets. Don't send any packages either by the way. Not yet till I give you my new address. The office doesn't want to be flooded for the holiday season so they have asked once we move to send the packages straight to where we live. So I will send that to you next week. I did get Devin's though with all the music. Thanks it's so great! I love having more music.

Well I miss everyone. I love you.


Cheerio Elder Dudgeon

Dear peeps,


How goes it in the great northwest? Sounds like things have been going ok. Nothing too crazy. Stake changes and everything. That's neat. Is everyone getting excited for Halloween? You have to be extra excited for me because they don't celebrate it that much. They have bonfire night but thats on the 5th of November for different reasons. I wish I could be there. Myranda and Brad look like they carved a pretty neat pumpkin of President Monson. Devin sounds excited for the ward Harry Potter Halloween party. Haha I'll show you Harry Potter. No we do need to watch them all when I get back and I'll let you in on what they are really saying ;) Mom said that Delvin Tapusoas cousin is coming to the Leeds mission! Thats way neat. Mom you will have to tell me his name and let me know when he is coming. (I still need to train someone haha). I got dad's letter this week and started writing him back. I felt it was important too.
So things have been good here. The weather has gotten really really cold. Not freezing but I walk around with a scarf and gloves on. My jacket I got is too thin for the cold. It's fine for the rain. I'll just need to start wearing my thermals I guess. This week has been a little slow. We have been teaching 2 people though who are looking good for baptism. They're both really great. One we gave him a Book of Mormon on Wednesday and finished it by Saturday morning! Crazy. We are struggling to find people to teach but there is room for us to improve. This week I am hoping will be better.

The Bradford district should be having baptisms these next 3 weekends in a row! That's so good. We just need to find more to keep it going. The ward has been doing great on backing us up and helping fellowship. I hope I get to stay another transfer here. The area and the ward are great. We just need to do better.

I can't say much about this week because it wasn't too good. Not many amazing things happened besides what I've already told you about. Well everything we do is amazing and there are lots just not many that I can think of and say. Well I'm gunna cut this one short this week. I love you all though.


Cheerio

Elder Dudgeon

Hey Everyone!
It's good to finally hear from everyone. I'm glad things are going well with everyone. Sounds like everyone is busy with all sorts of stuff. I'm so jealous. I'm busy doing the usual. What's the usual you might ask? Oh it's missionary work! This week was ok. Different things happened, but it was not the best. So Lets start.
This week we had almost all the investigators we found last week, drop us. Sad day. That's not fun. We still have one we're working with who is doing great and coming to church. This week as well there was leadership training in Leeds. So My companion who became district leader, and Elder Caine (The mighty South African from my group) who is training, both had to go. So Elder Caine's greenie, Elder Porter from Toronto, and I had to work between both areas. So the whole city of Bradford! It was tough. We lost quite a bit of time travelling back and forth, and basically this week didn't go well because of that.
So we limped along after that. got one investigator to church. Then we met another person last night while finding. We walked with him to his house and then taught him. It was so good. He's my age and really nice. It was just a witness to me that God is working. I got really discouraged this week and was really down. Things just kept weighing on me and I let it effect my work. Well I got a letter this week from my friend Leah. We met back at BYUI. Well she wrote a lot about faith and working through hard times while explaining things that have been happening in her life. It was so great to get that letter this week because it was exactly what I needed to pick me up. I started looking at the things I was grateful for and the ways the lord had been blessing me this week. There was plenty I missed because I was down or discouraged. But I Started to notice those things more and it's really started helping last night. I got happy again and we saw blessings. Thanks Leah! This is why missionaries need post and people to write!
Elder Oviatt and I had some weird experiences this week. One of the times we were together we were walking to some investigators home. We had just got off the bus at the super market and started walking when this old lady stopped us and started talking about how they used to not have big supermarkets and stuff. How she used to work on a milk truck and crazy things. she was very upset on how England has changed. Completely random. Hmm. What else. There was that new investigator last night. We talked to him while walking to finding, asked if we could come by right then and share our message, he said sure, but it's more then a mile that way. So we walked and talked with him. That was really good. It went really well.
I think thats it for now. I'm glad Myranda is well getting ready for a wedding. I hope everyone is doing well and surviving that. I miss the Autumn season. It's one of my favorite times of the year. I wish I could be there to carve pumpkins and bake seeds and everything. People here celebrate it but not that much. They have what they call bon fire night, which a basically a night where you can have a bonfire. Whoo hoo. Very original. I think we'll carve pumpkins as a district on pday if we can find some.
Well Cheerio,


Love Elder Dudgeon

Hey Everyone,



How's everyone's day/week been? My has been good. I'm very tired though. I can barely keep my eyes open right now. It's Tuesday by the way. We have to email during our lunch time today because we weren't able to yesterday. For our P-Day we went with the whole zone to Malham. This area out in the country where you can do some hiking and stuff. It was fun to drive out there and see the countryside. It's the part you imagine when you think of England. We did do some hiking though. There were a couple water falls as well that were really pretty. I took plenty of pictures. I would send them right now but I don't have all of my stuff with me. It was great, really pretty. We climbed up the waterfalls which was amazing.


Sounds like things are going good at home. Glad to here that mom is back and that she had fun on her trip. Sorry it was wet but so was here. The past 6 days was rain, sun, rain, sun, rain, sun. One day it would rain all day and the next it would be sunny. Luckily it was sunny for our P-Day. It really pours here though. We were inside for most of it. But even the 5 to 10 minute walk inbetween appointments was enough to get soaked in. Oh well.


So I'm really tired today but it's ok. I'm always tired anyways. This last week has been good though. Went kind of slow. There was general conference this weekend which was great. My second out of 4 on the mission. It is a little different because we watch Saturday morning on saturday night. Then the Saturday afternoon, priesthood, sunday morning and afternoon sessions are all on Sunday. We don't get to watch the Sunday afternoon though because it is shown live here at 9pm. Too late for missionaries. But we got a couple people to watch a session. We had quite a few people confirmed to come but no one showed up or they canceled. Sad day.


Vikki, the recent convert, just got engaged. That's great. It's odd because I just here about Myranda then this one as well. Their dates are close as well. Maybe if I'm still here I can go. Well else is new... Not much really. Things have slowed down with Muna because she got a job and is very very busy all the time. But we'll keep doing our best with her. We've got a couple more people we're working with as well but not too much progress yet. We really need to pick up though. We can definitely do better in our efforts. Jason's sister is getting baptized this weekend. That's exciting. And his mum, Sue, is working on quiting smoking. It's so good.


Lets see time for some funny stories. One is the other day we were trying by a couple people in a village not to far from ours. We were walking back to the train station, and talking to people as we walked. I went to stop a person a few meters ahead of me by saying '' hey mate how you doing t-...'' then I had to correct my self, ''I mean ma'am how are you doing today?'' She looked like a man. But when I got close enough and said something I could tell she was a woman. I hate this I get woman that look like men and men that dress like women. People are weird on my mission.


Well nothing else really to report. I miss everyone though. I can't believe it's already October. Things are going quick. I say that and it hasn't even been a year. It's crazy. Anyways. Love you all.



Cheerio,

Elder Dudgeon

Hello Everyone!


Hello from the wonderfully multicultural Bradistan! It has been an interesting slow week, but good none the less. We have been working hard with the people we are teaching. The bare few. And we were blessed to find a couple more yesterday. The biggest greatest thing though was a baptism on Saturday! The Bradford 2 elders had a couple people getting baptized. I was able to perform one of them as well. You know who it was? It was Jason's younger brother Paul! Ya! Woo! It was so great to see everyone again. Jason and his girlfriend, Bryony, were there. As well as the rest of Paul's family, his mom, sisters, and a couple friends. It was wonderful. Paul and his family live up in Bradford area. While we were teaching Jason back in Halifax, he told his family about the church and not too long after he found the missionaries who serve in Bradford. He ran up to them and told them to come over to his mom's house some time. So the missionaries have been working on teaching the family and look at the wonderful blessings. We're working with our people up here in Bradford 1 area and we should be having another baptism later this month as well.


Some big news now. The wards here in Bradford, 1 and 2, combined on Sunday to make 1 great super ward of amazingness! So ya now we are combined which will be great I feel. It will help everyone in the wards and give people a better chance to grow in the gospel. It will be interesting though because we will have 2 teams for the whole ward. We'll see what the mission decides to do. It would be good to keep both teams it's just figuring out about staying in our areas and working with members and stuff. We'll see, more to come. The ward is great. There's even a few members that I think some of you have talked to through facebook. It's great to hear that members can communicate all the way around the world (plus I get to hear how you're doing through out the week )


Well I'm glad to hear things are going well at home. Glad people are asking about me and all. Glad to hear that Myranda is doing great (stressful but great) and that I'm going to get my wish! (It's ok Myranda you shouldn't mind). It's so good here. Their calling for an Indian Summer. I'm not sure what that means but it's been pretty nice this last week. Not really really hot but it's been pretty good. I love it. Well I hope everyone is doing well. I wouldn't mind some post though from people. Thanks though everyone for the support.

Yours Wonderfully and Truly,

Elder Dudgeon

Dear everyone and anyone,



Hello! How do, how do? Things have been good here. It's getting colder, though today and yesterday were quite nice. It's been freezing while knocking doors. Not too much fun, but we try our best to stay positive. It has been kind of a rough week. Not the best. We're still low on people to teach. There's a quote though that I've read recently, ''Nothing happens in missionary work until you find some one to teach.'' It's true. It feels odd to to go for a time without teaching a lesson. We have been putting forth good efforts but now it's time to do great. It's the only way. It's the doing every little thing we can to find people to teach. We did find a few people to teach this week and some potentials so that's great.


There was a protest in the city on Saturday. It had something to do with Muslims and an English Pride group. People trying to keep England the same. Really they're just a racist group. It happened a couple years ago I guess and there was a huge riot where whole BMW dealer or something got burned down with all the new cars in it. But this year police were out in force and I guess there wasn't too much that happened. But we sticked to the council of members and stayed out of the city for the day. Which was fine and easy because we don't even live in the city or needed to go down there.


Well that's it to report for now. Not much to say this week. It was bank holiday yesterday so we had to email today.


Love you all,

Elder Dudgeon