Grimsby 1

Only in Grimsby...

"My first couple of days in the Grimsby area have been quite interesting. Some kids were throwing water balloons at the bus, and then we walked by, and they thought it would be fun to start throwing water balloons at us. They didn't explode on us, they would just hit us, and then bounce off and break. I really wanted to yell out, 'No wonder you live in England and play football, because you throw like a little woosey!'. Elder Gentry got into an argument with a little kid, it was funny, but then they went and got more water balloons to throw at us. I only got hit by one, but Elder Gentry was pretty soaked."

"When we were out walking to an appointment, I stopped this old lady and I asked how she was doing. She said I shouldn't be doing this, and I asked doing what? I am just trying to find out how you are doing. She said sharing your beliefs with me. I responded with the did I say anything about religion, I was just wondering if you were having a good day. She ignored me, and just walked off. So about 5 minutes later, we were walking down the road, and a cop comes by, and pulls over and calls us over to talk to him. He said some lady told us we had been heckling her, and all this other stuff. I told him I asked her how she was doing and he said that is fine if I were to do that to him, but she took it offensively."

"Then, one night we were walking to a flat, and some girl thought it would be fun to spray us with a super soaker. We asked both kids why they were doing that, and they said it was because for what we do. We said that is really lame, and we haven't even done anything to offend you."

"...Other than that, the people in Grimsby are really great. We have meal appointments like almost every day, and they feed us really good food. Somehow though, I have still managed to lose like 10 pounds so far, and I feel like I have been eating so much. Fish and chips in Grimsby are really good, and they are kind of cheap, and they are so good. I am addicted to them."

Elder Gentry:

"Elder Gentry is really funny, and we are having a lot of fun. His personality is kind of like mine, and he is a lot of fun to be with. He is from Richfield, Utah. We have been working our butts off, and it has been really good to work with him. He is so knowledgeable about the gospel, and he understands things so well, and we are finding so many people to teach."

"We went shopping on P-Day and bought companion ties and some sick sunglasses that we are going to wear. I will send pictures when I take some of us in our sunglasses and ties."

Investigators:

"While we were out knocking, it was my turn to knock. I felt like my door approach was awful, but this guy named Matthew Cartwright ended up letting us in, and I was very surprised. We taught him a little bit, and then went and saw him again. He had some really good questions, and we brought him to church on Sunday and he really enjoyed it. He is really humble, and he is very understanding, and loves to hear the messages we share. We took him to a baptism on Saturday night in Scunthorpe, which is like 40 minutes away, and out of our area. He really enjoyed it and said he had good feelings when he was there. He has also had answers to his prayers. He is doing really well and he is so much fun to teach. Right now, on the 31st of July we have him scheduled for baptism."

"Another one of our investigators is named Ben Smith. He is doing well right now, and yesterday at church he enjoyed it so much. He reminds me so much of John Carson, the old man from my last area who just shouts out random questions. Ben, like John, likes to participate in church, and sometimes asks some weird questions, and gives some weird answers, but it is really good though. He is progressing nicely towards his baptismal date of the 31st of July."

Missionary Grandma:

"The missionary grandma in the area is pretty legit, and her name is Jene. She got mad at us because we didn't have a meal appointment on Sunday, and she said we could have called and she would have made us some stuff. So she made us promise whenever we don't have a meal to go over to her house. She also gives us all these sweets, and she takes good care of the missionaries. She is a really sweet old, old lady."

"I think that I am being blessed with missionaries that know how to have so much fun, and also accomplish a lot in missionary work. Thanks to all for the letters. I enjoyed reading them, and it was nice to hear from them."

Cheerio Leeds

Brady went through a lot of changes this last week. He got a new Mission President, new companion, and new area. He is now serving in Grimsby. However, we are going to recap his last week in Leeds.

Baptisms:

"The baptisms ended up going really well. John Carson asked me to baptize him, and I was really nervous on Saturday. I had to do it twice because the first time, one of the witnesses said his foot popped up. All the other people said it was fine, and that he did go all the way under. I guess its better to be safe, and if you are not sure to just do it again. I was so nervous that I couldn't even tell you what the people talked about it because I was just thinking about what in the world I was going to be doing. I was really nervous because he is in his 60's, and they didn't fill the baptismal font very full. I just told him to bend his knees, and that it will make everything go a lot smoother. Elder Remington baptized Giuseppe, and it was really good."

Transfers:

"I have found out that the Leeds 1 University area will be shutting down, since barely any students will be in town. This means that I am getting transferred to the Grimsby 1 area in a place called Hull. My new companion is going to be Elder Gentry. Last Monday-Wednesday we had to change our flats (homes in England terms). We spent 10 hours at our old flat on Wednesday cleaning it out, and it really sucked. I was so certain that I would staying that I decided to unpack all of my stuff, while Elder Davis, Remington, and Valdiva, decided to live out of their packs. I was kind of rubbing it in, and I feel really humbled now. I guess maybe I shouldn't have dished out so much crap."

P-Day:

"On Wednesday we went up to harrogate military base for p-day. We started off by bowling, and I bowled a 150. I am still pretty good at bowling I guess. We then went and played basketball for like 2 hours. I am already starting to play so bad, and I have only been our for a month and a half. I couldn't believe how bad I was, but luckily I was still able to grab the rim, and I still can dunk it."

Brady & Elder Remington with a chav named Kevin. His sister Tracy put the extensions in their hair and made them take a picture.

Brady & Elder Douglass way back in the MTC on their church history tour.

Workin' Hard

Brady is still in the Leeds 1 Area. This week, they are getting a new mission President. And Brady's companion, Elder Remington, is leaving the week after, so lots of changes are coming his way. Brady will be sad to see Elder Remington go. They have had a lot of success and a lot of fun!

Investigators:

"Guiseppe is our golden investigator. Even when we explain things to him awful, he understands it, and is able to tell us what we are teaching him in a lot better way than we do to him. He always gives us something to drink before we start our lessons, which I really enjoy. It's usually orange juice because it has lots of vitamins and we need vitamins because it has been very hot in England this whole last week. His wife is a Buddhist, and he keeps on telling us that he wants to get baptized first so he can help us bring his wife into the church also. It was really sweet when he said that and we were really excited."

"We have officially decided that John Carson is pretty crazy. He was participating in the lesson, which I thought was a good thing, sometimes though they would ask a question and he would give an answer that didn't even have to do with the lesson. It was really funny, and every time in Sunday School his hand was the first one up and would try to answer the question."

"Both John and Guiseppe passed their baptismal interviews. It was really neat to see how excited both of them were, and how happy they looked to know that they are going to be baptized on Saturday, July 3. I am really excited and I hope that they are prepared to face the opposition that they will end up facing this week. I know that they will be fine, and that the baptism will go through, but it is still kind of scary."

"Things with Victor and his family aren't going so smooth anymore since he went out of town."

"We were teaching this chav yesterday. A chav is kind of like a gangster. He usually always tells us how he doesn't want to be taught, and all this stuff. But yesterday we were able to teach him a lesson. He just choose some random scripture from the Book of Mormon and we had to teach him from it. He opened up the book to Moroni's Promise (pretty sweet) and we kind of laughed inside. We then were able to teach him how this promise works, and we even got him to say the closing prayer. He made a request to know the Book of Mormon is true, and said a really good prayer."

Brady with President and Sister Stock and Elder Remington

Brady on his P-day

Brady and his companion and roommates. Elder Remington, Elder Moore, Elder Valdivia, Elder Davis

Bar Burrito, which Brady says is almost as good as Cafe Rio

Brady and Elder Douglass, one of his favorites from the MTC who is now serving in Scotland, loved the drink Vitmo!

Leeds 1

Since leaving the MTC, Brady has been serving in the Leeds 1 Area. Here are some of the highlights:

Elder Remington:

"I am glad to say that I am out of the MTC, and my new companion, Elder Remington, is so funny, and really awesome. Elder Remington is from Alberta, Canada so he thinks this weather isn't really that bad, while I get cold. I am having a lot of fun with Elder Remington, and he has been teaching me a lot. I always imagined with my first companion, that I would get someone who knew the area, and could help me figure out where we needed to go and what kind of buses we needed to take. Instead, I got a companion who is also new to the area. Elder Remington says I am too skinny, so he is trying to make me eat a lot more food than my body can hold. Somehow, I think I have lost a couple of pounds, which is really weird. So, he says he is going to make gain weight, I told him that most likely isn't going to happen because my metablosim is too high, and I just don't gain weight that fast. I found out that I get to kill off Elder Remington, which means that I will get to be his last companion. It kind of sucks because I really like him as a companion, and I don't want to get a new one after just one transfer. And I still kind of struggle on the buses and using the map, so we might be getting lost a lot after Elder Remington leaves."

Tracting:

"At the first door I knocked on, the lady told me to go away or she was going to call the cops on me. I hurried and ran away."

"We had so much fun out tracting when we were in this area called Chapeltown. It's an area with a bunch of old people, and they had these speaker phones from inside their house. So instead of talking to us through the door, we talk to them on the speaker phones. After they tell us they aren't interested, we always say 'ok, love ya bye' and then try to hurry and run off."

"We went to the city center, and started talking to people, and tried to see if they wanted to get the lessons. I have never had so many people tell me to shut up and go away before in my life!"

"We were talking to this guy out on the street, when all of a sudden, this random guy starts singing, and totally blew it for the guy we were talking to. When he was singing, it kind of sounded like he was putting a curse on me, and I didn't know what to think or do."

"I had my first guy yell at me. I stopped him in the street and he said 'do we have to do this right now it's cold outside?' So I asked him if we could go over to his house and teach him a lesson about it. He then freaked out, and told us how our religion is fake, especially the Book of Mormon, and how no one wants to hear about it. Elder Remington then stepped in and told him about John and how he is now getting baptized. He didn't enjoy that too much and told us to shut up, and then just left."

"I knocked on this door, and as soon as I started talking, the guy told me to f off. I was taken by surprise, and didn't know what to do. It was really weird, and I think I most likely ended up laughing."

1st Neat Experience:

"So, I had my first neat experience. We were going to knock towers since it was really bad weather, and we decided to pray about which tower we should knock. I chose this one tower and we had no success, so I was like 'what the heck'. Then, we ran into one of the families we have been teaching in the road and were able to talk to them. We found out that Victor and his family read from the Book of Mormon that we gave them every night. We were so excited, and we have his baptismal date of July 10 because he is going to Italy for a week. So as we were teaching them a lesson, we asked if they wanted to come to church. It was stake conference, and they both really enjoyed church, and said they wanted to keep on coming every week. I even caught a little glimpse of Victor shedding a tear, and on the inside I was jumping for joy because I was excited to see our investigator cry a little."

Frustrating Experiences:

"This week has been really frustrating for the most part. We had a lot of people who we were supposed to meet with and teach them the lessons. Well, they all ended up flogging us, and it kept on making me so frustrated. I don't understand how we can set up an appointment with them the night before, and then the next day they just decide to leave and don't even think about us. We showed up to this area where we had an appointment with this guy at 3. We showed up at 2:30 and started knocking doors. 5 minutes later, we watched him walk out the door, and we couldn't stop him because we were talking to somebody else."

"Victor and his family might be moving to a different part of the city soon, which is sad because then they would end up getting taught from the missionaries in the Leeds 5 instead of us. I really hope they can stay so we can baptize them, but I guess it doesn't matter just as long as they get become members of the church."

"Elder Remington and I call ourselves the 'Referral Missionaries' because we get everything going, and then we have to give the investigator to the missionaries whose District they are in since they aren't in our area."

Awkward Experiences:

"So, I got my first sex offer. Awkward. We thought they were offering us a drink, and then we soon found out that they were offering us something totally different."

"I was talking to this girl, and I thought she seemed interested in the church. Well, come to find out, she is a lesbian. I didn't know what to say so I think I just said 'oh, awkward' and went and talked to the next person I saw."

"One of the weirdest things for me to get used to is all the Elders say I love you to each other when they give us a call. I usually just say thanks, and hang up the phone."

"It seems weird to think I have already been out 6 weeks, the time has just flown by. I guess that is what happens when you are busy getting lost in the Lord's work."

MTC...

Or as Brady called it, the SSPC (Singing, Studying, Praying Center).

The last 2 and a half weeks Brady was in the MTC and since last Wednesday, the 26th, Brady has been in the field. When Brady sends his emails, he tells the story so well that most of this will just be clips from his emails.

"I got my first companion, named Elder Mansfield. He is from the England area and is 22. He use to work at a hair salon so it takes him like 20 minutes to do his hair, while I'm done in like 20 seconds. A good thing about Elder Mansfield is that he knows how to iron. So that was a huge relief as he helped me with that, so thankfully I didn't ruin my shirts already."

"One rule on the mission so far is that we have to shave everyday. Even though I barely grow hair, I still pull out my electrical shaver and do it every morning before class. I think it makes most of the other elders mad when they have to put on shaving cream, and grow hair really bad. Then there is just me that only takes like 2 minutes to shave."

For those of you who know Brady, probably know that when he was little he picked baseball over soccer and hasn't really played since. All they ever played on P-day was soccer, and because of that, he has hilarious stories. Here are some of the highlights:

"We had our first exercise day and we played football (soccer in the U.S.A.). They put me as goalie, I have no idea why. I made this sweet stop, and then I went to go and kick the ball and I kicked off this player for the other team, and just watched the soccer ball as it rolled back into my net. It was embarrassing, and now all the England missionaries that are here refer to me and the real American football player. (ouch). Then I had a chance to redeem myself and sure enough I did. I was the best defender and no body cared to come my way. I also made this sweet pass and we scored a goal. It was pretty awesome."

"I happened to score my first goal in football, It took me like 3 shots but I finally got the ball into the net. On my first kick, I kicked the ball like a little girl. Then on my second one it was just me and the goalie, and I had him totally faked out. Then, I choked and kicked the ball wide left. I was so upset. Finally, on the third one I got the ball past him, and it was really awesome. I also had a couple of sweet assists on goals we scored. It was funny because the day before whenever I would get the ball, all the elders on my team would yell 'get rid of the ball Elder Moore' and now they keep on passing me the ball and I have become pretty good if I do say so myself."

Our biggest shocker though, is that Brady now LOVES singing!

"I have a confession I need to make. While being in the MTC, I have been forced to sing in the choir, and now I'm actually starting to enjoy it. I always sit in the front row next to Elder Douglass because my companion plays the piano. Me and Elder Douglass try to sing our hearts out and I'm sure we sound awful, but Sister Clegg says we sounded really good, and I said I'm sure it wasn't because of me. She then said I had a big part in it and I told her that she is too nice. She always lets me and Elder Douglass, also Elder Hales and Elder Smith sit on the front row. But me and Elder Douglass are usually the suck ups to her. Whenever she says she messed up, we usually will say we think you are doing a wonderful job, we are pretty sure it was our fault."

While in the MTC, Brady had the opportunity to experience a lot of really exciting things! They got to go to the temple, go into the streets of Manchester to try and talk to people about the gospel, go on a church history tour, and had Elder Quentin L. Cook come speak to them.

Below is the picture of Brady's whole MTC group with Elder Quentin L. Cook. He is on the back row, 4th from the right.

As soon as Brady sends us pictures, we'll update with some! He said he has taken a lot so hopefully we'll get some soon!

Goodbye Utah, Hello England!

Brady left for England on May 6, 2010. We made sure we had a little bit of home with him when he left, hence the Yankee pillow! Go Yankees!! With all the stuff they have to take, I don't know how we got it all to fit in the 3 suitcases, or how he is going to carry all of the luggage himself!

Having a hard time closing the luggage. Hopefully the zipper won't pop open!

Ready to go!! On our way to the Stake Center where President Eckman will set him apart as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That was when it really hit us that he is a missionary now and will be gone for the next two years!!!

After the setting apart, we put on his missionary tag. He is officially Elder Moore!!

Elder Moore with his favorite companion, Elder Furlong!!

Wasn't it so nice of Tyler to come see Brady off at the airport?! He even dressed for the occasion! What were the odds that Tyler had to be to the airport for work on the same day, at the exact same time?!

One last family picture, (poor Taylor was unable to get work off), before we gave our final hugs, said our goodbyes, and watched Brady stroll off to the security screening with another Elder! He was very focused, and is very excited to serve! Good Luck Elder Moore!!! We love you!! SEE YOU IN 730 DAYS!

Cheerio Mates

Brady had his farewell talk on April 18, 2010, and he did an AMAZING job! He got lots of compliments saying he sounded more like a returned missionary speaking then one who is just getting ready to go out! His topic was the fourth article of faith. Afterwards, we had a "linger longer" where we had juicy enchiladas and lots of delicious treats.

Brady and Haydn! No, Haydn didn't grow, he's standing on a step!

A bunch of Brady's friends.

Grandma Nowak

Grandpa and Grandma Moore

Brady and his 3 moms! No wonder he never got in trouble! With 3 moms, you can't get away with much!