General Conference was great!

Dear Everyone,

 

A few things first:

 

1. Here's the layout for watching conference for missionaries in England. General Conference was great and inspiring and wonderful in every way. I'm so grateful that we have living prophets and Apostles on the Earth today!

 

Session      Time watched in England (all at the Cheltenham Stake Centre except for the Sun p.m. session)

 

Sat a.m.      Sat 5-7 p.m. live

Sat p.m.      Sun 1-3 p.m.

Priesthood   Sun 10-12 a.m.

Sun a.m.     Sun 5-7 p.m. live

Sun p.m.     P day if you have time and want to so we are for District P day today-at least an hour of it anyway

 

2. I received horrifying news that you may have been pronouncing Gloucester wrong this whole time. For the record, it's pronounced Gloster with the o making a bit of a relaxed ah sound and the er pronounced like an English person so it's between an American er and another ah. Hopefully that's clear. There are no ow's or au's in Gloucester! If you're unsure, I'm certain someone has made an audio of the correct pronunciation of city names in England that should help you out.

possibly, the culprit of the rash/itching

 

3. I'm on steroids! The itch/rash that I've been having for no clearly explainable reason has persisted (though fading in severity, it has spread to my wrists and then arms, temporarily to my face, and continues on my kness and lower legs as well as spreading up my legs). So, I'm on some prescribed steroids because my doctor is pretty sure it's an allergic reaction. The next step is allergy testing so hopefully this all works!

 

4. I got to go on exchange twice this past week and realised that I almost never mention the exchanges that I do. So, I was first with Elder Orr in Gloucester A and then had Elder Hunter here in C from Gloucester A so it was cool. This week, I will be exchanging with one of the Forest of Dean Elders but I think I will be staying in Gloucester C with the one who can't yet drive.

 

5. Transfers are next week! It's always extra stressful and exciting/hard to focus at this time as there's lots of "dodge" (information about transfers shared or discovered in sometimes less than totally honourable ways) going about and people always want to know their dodge before it comes.

 

So ya, this week has been a bit tough with two two hour treks/visits to the Doctor in Cheltenham and General Conference and stuff. In total, we went to Cheltenham four times (and in various modes of transport) so it will be nice not having to do that and having a totally normal week for a bit. Other than that though, it's been really good. Elder Bergquist is a champion. I really need to take more pictures so you know what he and I look like. I'll try to work on that. General Conference was truly amazing. I don't know if it's just because I am a missionary full-time that it seems much more alive and important and prophetic than it did when I was younger and just thought it was some nice good fluffy thing. In other news, it's raining today but otherwise we've had good weather lately so nothing to complain particularly badly about.

 

I love you loads and loads and hope to hear from you all soon. Please do write and email. Sorry if this one I'm sending is short as I don't have much time and never know what to write. I'll try to have time to do another round of Investigator Alphabet soon but there's no time today...

 

Elder Houghton