E-mail from Neal - Received 3-9-09

Hello Everyone!!!
The baptism was totally amazing as you can see, but I will come back to that in a minute. I want to answer some of those questions first.

-I didn’t pay for the train ride to Shrewsbury on Wednesday. That was covered by transfer travel.

-We rode the train to Manchester on Saturday night, but then we got a ride back with Jonathan Spencer (my MTC teacher) on Sunday morning. There were no trains running that early. It was really fun cause Jonathan is an awesome guy!!!

-Elder Wheat is from the south coast in a place called Bournemouth. He has been out for about 13 months ish. He is technically only 1 transfer older than me because no one came out one transfer before me. He came out in February with E. Kingsley (my last District Leader) and E. Hastings (my brother). He is a good guy, and he really has a huge Heart. The English accent is a bit tough to understand sometimes, but I am getting used to it. He can be stubborn, but so can I, so we all have our faults. I am senior companion again…. I am really getting used to this.

-Our address is actually Bank Farm Mews not News. I screwed up. The Post code should get the letter to me though. But please tell Heather that so that I can get her letters when they come.

-Newtown is crazy! Wales is Crazy! We will probably never go over there cause it is really tiny, like 20 people max, and it takes 40 min by train to get there. Our area is HUGE!!!! We used to have a car, but they took it away. I am dropping hints to president that we need it back though. Wales is Beautiful though! I am getting some good pictures that I will send soon. Nothing totally breathtaking yet, but when I get one I will send it!

Ok the baptism was amazing!!!! Gus is so cool. He was so excited and ready to be baptised. The trip was long. It took about an hour and half on the train, but it was nice. The train was empty and quiet. I got a chance to study Alma 40….. Alma rocks Korihor’s socks off! Anyways the baptism went amazingly well. Jonathan Spencer gave a great talk about Baptism (he is such a good speaker and teacher), and then I gave a talk about the Holy Ghost. I got a lot of compliments about it. The best part was after Gus and Bro. McCallum had changed, Gus came out in a Brand New Suit!!!! Everyone gasped cause he looked so good, and he had a smile from ear to ear! He looked like a missionary! Too bad he is married, or else I could totally see him serving! Apparently he has already been talking to his friends at work! It was a great experience (as you can tell from my smile). It was really good to get back to Stretford. I have fallen in love with that place. I was ready to leave and move on, but going back there showed me how much I miss it! I got to say goodbye to a lot of the people that I knew and worked with, and I got a lot of pictures. No tears though. That night we stayed in my old flat (WHICH IS HUGE, compared to my flat now), and we had a party, well sort of. We talked and laughed about all the crazy things that we did. I miss E. Nielsen. He is definitely up there with E. Garcia and McIntosh for my favourite comps. The next morning we were up at 5 and out the door by 6:15 to head back to Shrewsbury. It was a long ride, but it was nice. We got to see a really nice side of England. We Drove trough Wrexham in wales, and it was a beautiful sunny morning. It was an amazing trip, and totally worth the £15 train tickets. I was so glad that I got to see Gus make one of the most important steps of his life. He was really glad that I was there too. Church was good though. Really good members, but kinda small. This is the smallest ward that I have been in so far, but it will be good. I have met a lot of the people and I am settling in well.

I am going on exchanges with E. Garcia tomorrow for 2 days!!!!! I am so excited. He is not going to know me. I have changed so much, and grown so much in the past 10 months. If he is anything like you Dad then he will be crying HA HA HA!!!! Well I have to run. Have a great week, and stay strong in all that you do.

I love you all,
Elder Neal

EDITOR'S NOTE: There are 4 pictures that Neal sent, but it takes forever for me to upload them on my computer at work. So I'll post them when I get home. Stay tuned!!!