Dear Everyone,
Pictures:
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| Transfers in Gloucester-pictures with Elder Williams (my Zone Leader in Cheltenham who was transferred to the same zone as me), |
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| Sister Urbani (who is staying in Gloucester and holding things together as she's been there the longest) |
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| Elders Jones and Ashby (Elder Ashby is in Elder Jones' and Bergquist's group and he's been in the Cheltenham zone with me that whole time) |
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| The bikes under the bus at transfer time! |
For the whole time I've been in Gloucester, there have been minimal changes in the zone (only 4-8 people leaving at a time) but this transfer, two areas were whitewashed and every companionship but one changed so there were way more suitcases and bikes than normal. It was a panicked 1 hour packing session arranging for the Darracqs and the Zone Leader's cars to be loaded full (and I mean full) of suitcases with 2+ bikes on back and then squishing all the bags and most of the bikes under the bus (it was mayhem! but also exhilarating). But, in the end, everyone made it.
So this week, I got transferred to a new area-it's Walsall!
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| Walsall is just north of Birmingham |
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| Walsall city centre |
Everything is different from Gloucester. The ward is small and a lot older (not just all young families like Gloucester)-about 50-60 on a Sunday. Walsall is a town that is sort of part of the Birmingham area. We are just North of the big ward in central Birmingham-Harborne Ward, and the Mission office is in the next ward over to the East of us (and in my district-more on that later). We could bus to anywhere in the Birmingham metro area (not sure what to call it but we'll go with Birmingham metro area for now) pretty easily and it's only about a 20 min. train ride into New Street Station in Birmingham city centre. So, I'm in the heart of the mission! Walsall is great from what I've seen of it so far (not much) and I'm looking forward to serving here though I do miss Gloucester and all the wonderful people there a tonne!
Transfers was really crazy-lots and lots of changes. The zone that I was in while I served in Gloucester was split into two zones (Cheltenham Zone became Cheltenham and Gloucester Zones). My area, Gloucester A was made the new Zone Leader area (they have a car!) so Elder Jones left as well and went to Leicester. So, I frantically wrote about 10 pages of notes on what was going on in Gloucester for the new missionaries there. I think things will work out.
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| Elder Ruka just now while emailing. More pictures to come! |
My new companion, Elder Ruka, is from Kiribati, a small island nation in the pacific. He's been out for now almost six transfers now (almost 9 months) but his English is not the best so if I give any incorrect facts here, know that I'm doing my best. Kiribati is very small-only about 100,000-which I would guess is much less than half the population within the Walsall ward boundaries-not too sure though. He's from an island of about 10,000 as well and he joined the church just three years ago. He is an amazing and loving person and really loves missionary work which is fantastic! We're going to do great together!
It has so far been just me trying to figure out who/where/what/why/how about everything in Walsall. I'd forgotten what it was like to come to a new area and have to start totally fresh. I think it will be good though to get the ball rolling here. One of the cool things about being here is that I'm pretty sure I have ancestors from Wednesbury (you pronounce the Wednes of that like you do Wednesday (Wensbury/Wensday)) which is in our area-there's a member with Houghtons in his line from Wednesbury (though I think my Houghton line isn't the Wednesbury one but I'll figure that our. A quick look on family search has me still unsure about who exactly it was. It's cool anyway though.
The area here sort of North and West of Birmingham is called "Black Country" because of all the coal mining that happened here. Black Country has a distinct accent which is sort of like the Birmingham accent but also different. It's quite a change from the very soft almost American Gloucester accent but I will adjust. A lady at the till in Asda today asked me to come back so she could just listen to my California accent. She's figured out all the Americans who go there regularly so she can speak to them because she loves our accents to much. It's pretty funny.
To illustrate what the ward is like here, on Thursday and Friday mornings, we went and did service for a very old member of the ward. He and his wife were the first members of the church in Walsall-he was the first branch President-served on the leadership of three stakes as Birmingham Stake split from Leicester Stake and then Lichfield Stake split from Birmingham and was also the first Bishop in Walsall when it became a ward. He had us doing some cement work on his garden where he's built a massive pond and rock/cave system which includes a series of tunnels as a home for local foxes. It was pretty cool.
Anyhow, I love you all and will see you soon. I realised today that I'm at or approaching my 2/3 mark on my mission. It's crazy. That reminds me, it is slowly getting darker earlier and earlier each night and colder as well. It's weird that just a few weeks ago it was quite hot but now it seems like it's suddenly autumn. I will survive. Just readjusting to having to carry my actually waterproof jacket now.
Elder Houghton
228 Sandwell St.
Walsall
WS1 3EH
England
I'm looking forward to your letters!
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