December 8th, 2011 {hailing from Epson}

no i'm not trying to sound british by announcing my first area using the word hailing. it's actually hailing from epson!  . . .  or in epson . . . either one grammar thing was never my speaking good.  anywho i'm in my first area with my trainer in a little area south of london (i think that’s why they call it london south) called epson with my first field companion. his name is elder peach and he's from tennesse and the district leader of this area. i met my mission president yesterday and that was an amazing experience. he was basically the coolest funniest and most spiritual people i have ever ever met. to sum him up he worked under president Gordon B. Hinckley for a number of years as the head of the audio visual department of the church. he actually was the head honcho for the entire production of the testaments! he told us that President Hinckley would call him quite often to ask how work was going and that President Hinckley  would always start the conversation by saying "so how’s my chief slave doing". it's amazing the stories that president shamo has, and the spirit that surrounds him in quite literally overwhelming. any and everything he says is powerful witness of just how true this church is and if i can even become half as strong as he is i'll be able to convert half of my mission before the oylmpics (which may or may not include daniel radcliff).

so yesterday after we got in and i was assigned my area and my trainer we got back to epson with about five hours left in the day before we had to be back in our flat so we first went and got some food because otherwise i wouldn't actually be able to eat all week. i now understand why they call entering the field "being born", when we got to the store elder peach looked at me and asked me what kind of food i wanted to get and i just sat there. what kind of food did i want to get? i didn't know! getting food for me usually meant writing it on the "to shop" list at home and just waiting till it magically showed up. i had no idea how to get my own food. i have a decent idea of what to do with it once it's in the house but i had no idea on how to get it there or what to get.

anyways past my infantile disposition we eventually got food back to our flat and went and taught a less active member. at least we think he's a member, he apparently got baptized in bolivia when he was nine and hasn't been to church since so were having some trouble finding his records. he did decide to come to church this sunday so that was good. today we've been out and about and i was only able to do e-mail because elder peach didn't get to e-mail due to transfers so president is having him do it today. (my actual p day is on monday) were teaching a blind couple (david and marie) in about an hour and one of them has a baptismal date on the twenty fifth so hopefully i don't mess it up and scare him off from the church.



k i love you all and i'm super proud of you all for withstanding the first hurricane to hit the wasatch mountains.

i'm super happy to be in my mission finally and i hope i can help bring about some good here!

with love

Elder Michael Jarman