August 30, 2011

Well Hello Familia,

The past few days have been good. This mission is definitely becoming
a member work mission. All of our new goals and objectives have to do
with working with members. It's an exciting time in the mission. I'm
looking forward to seeing how this last year of my mission will be
different from the first year.

Yesterday for P-day we decided that we would try this really small
shop, right next to our flat, that sells frozen foods instead of ASDA.
That was one of the best decisions of my mission. It was great food,
cheap, and it saved us about an hour of P-day time. I was able to make
sugar cookies, eat lunch, sew two pants, finish reading the last 50
pages "Our Heritage" (this computer wont allow me to underline), and
write seven letters yesterday. It was great!

Our baptism last Saturday went really well. Shalome was on time,
thankfully, and there was really nothing that went wrong. I wish that
a few more members would have come out and supported her; especially
because the mission president attended, but c'est la vie. Elder
Sapaden played some intense, spirit-filled, music for it. The next day
Shalome decided to show up right before sacrament for her confirmation
(we have it backwards, so we start with Priesthood, then Gospel
Principles, then Sacrament), so I was really stressing for the first
two hours. But it ended up going really well and now she is a member
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. WOO!!

I also, just barely, took another driving lesson. This one didn't go
as good as the first one. The first time, the instructor was praising
me for how well I picked it up. This time he described the first 10
minutes of the lesson as a "disaster" and said that he isn't confident
that I will be able to pass my test on the day that I want to, haha.
There really wasn't much of a difference between the two lessons, but
I bumped the curb once this time, towards the beginning of the lesson,
and I think that irritated him a bit. I'm going to need a lot of
practice and the Lord's help, but I should be a fully licenced driver
by October 3rd.

Overall, things are good. We have a church history tour on Thursday
that I'm jazzed about.

I hope that everyone back home is doing well and I'll speak to you soon!

love,

Elder Misbach

August 24, 2011

Hello Familia,

I'm quite crunched for time today, sorry if my emails a bit lame. This
past week has been good. Elder Kersey leaves the mission today so I no
longer have my trainer in the mission. His last exchange with Elder
Sapaden went really well, and ever since Elder Sapaden has been on a
new high. I also took my first driving lesson in England yesterday
morning. That was fun/crazy. Driving manual for the first time was
something I will remember for a long time. English roads are SO small.
It is so interesting to see the differences between driving in England
and driving in the States. They say that once you learn how to drive
in England you can drive anywhere. We also have a baptism this
Saturday which is good stuff. Shalome is finally getting baptized. I
have been teaching her my entire time here in Rochdale. She has
changed quite a bit. She used to argue that lying was ok and something
that we needed to do, but now she is totally ready for baptism. I'm
staying in Rochdale for another six weeks. That means I will be here
for a total of six months. It is going to be a good transfer. Our Ward
Mission Leader is so proactive and is getting so much done, we are
definitely going to see miracles this transfer. Plus we have a church
history tour next week and General Conference is at the end of the
transfer. It's going to be good. Other than that there really isn't
much to report. The other day I think I met the crankiest old couple
in the whole of the UK. It's amazing how far out of the way people
will go to show their displeasure with the message we share. They
escorted us to their next door neighbor's house just so they could
show us that their neighbor didn't want to hear what we had to say. I
found the whole thing kind of comical and that didn't make them any
happier, haha. C'est la vie. Hopefully they will accept the message
some day.

Well life is good and the gospel is true. I hope everyone is doing
well back home.

love,

Elder Misbach

Hello Familia,

Things are quite nice here in Rochdale. We will be having another
baptism in two weeks, which is great. Her name is Shalome and the
change that she has gone through since I first started teaching her is
amazing. At first I used to wonder why she even listened to us because
she just really didn't seem to care about becoming a better person.
But now she is doing so well, really has that eternal perspective
coming along. Elder Sapaden and I continue to work hard. We are just
so different, haha. We get along just fine, but it's pretty much just
one "no-response" joke after another. He will say a joke that I just
wont get and then I will say a joke that he doesn't get. It's rough,
ha. We both get a good laugh out of some of the experiences we have
though. The weather was ridiculous this week. It just incessantly
rained, but it was good. I feel good about the way that i am serving
right now. I lost my third umbrella this week and my second in three
weeks. That was annoying. My sewing continues to improve. I have
resurrected many items of clothing, which brings me great joy. This is
the fifth week of the transfer, so I wont be emailing until either
Wednesday or Thursday next week. It will probably be Wednesday because
I think I have one more transfer in Rochdale, but you never know. We
have an exchange with the assistants tomorrow. This is Elder Kersey's
last week as a missionary and I think this will be his last exchange.
How great! A family exchange! He will be going with Elder Sapaden (his
grandson).

Well life is good, the gospel is true, and I am hungry.

I hope all of you have a good week

love,

Elder Misbach

Oh and i also passed my driver's theory exam for my license. Now I
just need to practice for and take the practical test, which I will
probably do next transfer. Woo!

August 8, 2011

Hello Family,

I hope that everyone enjoyed the beach. It sounds like it was a very
good week this year. My week was quite good. It started off rough, but
got better at the end. The zone activity last week of having a BBQ and
learning how to play cricket was way fun. The park I picked for it was
perfect and beautiful. Cricket is a pretty fun game. Baseball is
better and makes more sense, but cricket isn't that bad. I had an
exchange with the other brand new missionary in the district Elder
Leimgrub. It was a good exchange and he told me loads of stuff about
Germany that I had no idea about (he is German). President Preston
also came to my district meeting. I really didn't feel good about the
district meeting, I felt like it was one of my worst. But apparently
it went pretty well. President actually singled me out and told all
the zone leaders one of the things that he liked that I did, and asked
if all the other district leaders were doing it. That made me feel
pretty good. I now have my driving theory test scheduled and I'll be
taking that on Friday. Then I need to have lessons and I can take my
practical test. It's a pretty big hassle, but it should be fun. We
should have a baptism in the next couple of weeks which is excellent.
Overall, life is pretty good. The gospel is true, and sharing it is
amazing.

Hope everyone is well back home and I'll talk to you soon!

love,

Elder Misbach

August 1, 2011

Hello Familia,

This week was much better than last week. We had two exchanges that
were quite fun. Elder Sapaden is doing great and really getting into
the mission. He keeps having "journal moments" haha. Life is pretty
good. I gave myself a haircut last night, but I just did it all the
same length because I couldn't be bothered to do layers again. I'm
quite pleased with it. I also made the most labor intensive meal of my
mission this week. It was pasta with cut up pieces of grilled chicken
in it. Wasn't even slightly worth it. The only thing that was good was
the chicken and it was particularly difficult to enjoy because I kept
having to sift through the pasta to find it. I'm going to stick with
the microwave. I'm booking my driving theory test today and I should
hopefully have my first practical driving test sometime in the next
two weeks. Exciting stuff. We have a zone activity today of going to a
park, having a BBQ, and learning how to play cricket. It seemed like a
really good idea until I woke up today. It's pretty nasty weather
outside and I'm curious as to how it's going to work out, but I'm sure
it will end up ok. Our flat is still squeaky clean, fantastic, and
spirit-filled. I also had my first personal interview with President
Preston this last week, he was very thorough with the interviews which
took place at our chapel and I was the last one to be interviewed,
then we had coordination afterwards. So I was at the Rochdale chapel
from 9am to 8pm. I enjoyed it though. He is very different from
President Bullock, but he is great. He is all about the love. I look
forward to serving with him. He is coming to my district meeting this
week and working with us afterward. I'm pretty stoked about that. Oh!
and I conducted my first baptismal interview this last week. It went
really well except that after she already passed the interview she
bailed on the baptism last minute. But I have another one this week
and this one should go all the way through. Missions are great.

Well I hope everyone is enjoying the beach! Talk to you soon

love

Elder Misbach

July 25, 2011

Hello Family,

Things are well in England. I'll admit that this was one of the harder
weeks on my mission. I mean that spiritually, but the fact that the
food I had bought for my staple meal this week was rubbish, didn't
help the situation. I seem to have taken a step backwards in my
progression as a missionary and that hasn't sat well with me. I'm
speaking to the mission president about it tomorrow though, and we
will get it sorted.

As far as the area goes, it was a pretty good week last week. We have
been attacking this council estate call Falinge. It's probably the
dodgiest part of our area, but it is producing. It was one of the best
finding weeks I have had on my mission. The ward is doing well and we
have had loads of tea appointments lately. Good food as well. We also
were able to do some service this week in a retirement home that a
member owns. It's the first time on my mission, and really in my life,
that I have legitimately painted. We had to be super careful though.
Looking back on it, it reminds me very much of the episode of
Spongebob where Patrick and Spongebob have to paint Krabs' home with
permenant paint and then they get it on Krabs' first dollar. Quality
Episode. The painting turned out quite good. Oh! I also sewed for the
first time in my life! It was a marvelous experience and I have been
sewing things left and right ever since. My suit jacket is
fully-fitted with both buttons, and the crotch area of all of my pants
are hole-free. It's quite refreshing.

Well life is good, as always. I hope that everyone enjoys California.
Talk to you soon!

love,

Elder Misbach