November 11- 15

Family,

Wow, sounds like some fun things are going on. Let me tell you I love serving here! It is great and the ward is huge. There are lots of people and we are right in the middle of all the action. Currently we have three dated for baptism: Martin, Mike, and Lucy.

Martin is an amazing young man, 26, who is truly seeking to find God is his life. He is currently living with his girlfriend, but accepted the law of chastity and was grateful for us to teach it to him. He is currently looking for a home to move out of.

Mike likewise is wonderful. We taught him the word of wisdom this week and he knows that it is a true law of health given to us from God. He lives in England so of course this is going to be a big challenge for him to overcome, but he knows with the Lords help anything is possible.

Lucy is hilarious. She is a young Asian student from china. PA (pop asian)!!!! She is currently working on her masters! Her parents are scientist and she never knew about God until she came to England. She is currently seeking to find out if God is really there. We had a great time teaching the other night. The library closed so we then were going to teach her in a cafe and then that was closed and so we ended up teaching her the freezing cold and she was really great about it!

There is this wonderful family in the ward and they are going to have us over for thanksgiving! They currently have a son in California serving and so she is looking out for us missionaries. I cannot wait for a proper American Thanksgiving!!!!!

The flat I am living in is huge. It has lots of rooms and has been in the mission for 25 years. As you can imagine after 25 years there are piles and piles of random stuff. However, we have decided to pile up the piles and stick them in a room that we never go in! The flat will be spotless in no time.

I was grateful for the chance to study hope this week because it greatly strengthened my understanding of what we are sharing as missionaries. The greatest part about the gospel is that it brings hope of a better future and happier life. That hope only comes through our Saviour. I know that as we continue to strengthen our testimonies and those we teach then our perspectives will broaden and we will gain a greater hope. Greater hope not only helps us overcome challenging times but also gives us the power to strengthen those in need. There is no greater calling then to be a missionary.

Love,

Richard

Could you please send me the list of my line of authority and find out where or ancestry is from? Did we have any English mormons or did we all convert when we came over?

Tell sister Clason i miss her class wish her the best with her new calling. Their family sent me a letter and I cannot remember if i responded or not. OOOPS. If you could tell her sorry it will come soon. Also, sis skidmore sent me another letter…. I  will send a quick note soon.

Yes i can buy garments here and will do so soon

Mom, do not worry about Christmas we found a man in the ward that wants to take us to Costco! I could not think of a better Christmas present! Also, I think I may purchase an English suit. They are about 100£ and fit a lot better than American ones.

Dad glad to hear things are going well with the company! I would have loved to have done that test drive. I am sure I can sign the papers somehow.

November 3rd- 11

Family!

Well sadly I am no longer on the Isle. However, I am here in Manchester! I am serving at the main stake centre in Manchester and apparently it has great church history ie. Prophets have spoken from the pulpit.

I believe the ward is the largest in the mission as well as President and Sister Bullocks. I am very happy to be here and we are going to have an amazing transfer. My companion is Elder Eliason from Texas! Disappointingly enough, there is no country twang or cowboy hat... He is really great though and I’m happy to serve with him. He is a great missionary. Elder Moss (my good friend from the MTC) was his last companion and this is his second transfer.

It was sad saying goodbye to everyone, but I had a feeling it was coming. Everyone was really kind especially the Sayle family. They wrote these amazing letters and also sent me off with some Manx goodies and a Manx tartan tie. I am so excited for them they were a blessing to teach and we will be friends forever.

I am getting my weeks mixed up, I don’t know if I told you this already but Isabella went on holiday, but before she went she cooked us a delicious meal and gave me some great Manx chocolate. There were lots of gifts from kind people and I am grateful for the time I was able to spend with them.

My companion stayed with the Allens and I travelled on the fairy all by myself. The day before I left, the ocean had tsunami size waves and hurricane winds and it made me sick just looking at it. Thankfully the Lord answers prayers and the next day the sea was like glass!

Once I got to Preston the Zone Leaders picked me up where I then had to take a train to Manchester. After that I had to wait for the Manchester Zone Leaders to pick me up where I then went to the stake centre and pick my companion up and then finally arrived at home. The last time I did that amount of travel I ended up in Australia! It was a long day but everything went well and I was able to get lots of scripture study in. We have a mission scripture chase next week so I got to make the family proud (after all President Uchtdorph said that’s okay!).

I hope you have a wonderful week. I will write you soon.

Love,

Richard

The boat looks beautiful and i am excited. I love navy, silver, white, orange, red, yellow (depending). I think one of these colours would be great ,did i leave any out. It has gotten soooooo COLD! WOW. It is time for thermals now every day!!! For Christmas mom i would love CD from the approved list. If you don’t have it i will send it with my testimony. So sad to hear about Kathy Evans, they will be in my prayers, hope everything works out. How are the Bangarts doing? Is Rowland engaged? Will i get a notice before hand>? How is chareese haven’t heard from her in awhile.        

Mom also i have to give district meetings with more than just the allens. Its is good if i can come up with little games and things if you have any ideas from seminary i would love to hear about them. Also any good quotes and scriptures would be great. LOVE YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

PICTURES!!!!

Dear Family Cunningham,

We are so privileged to work with your Elder on the Isle of Man.  We are the Senior Couple, as you will easily tell by the picture.  We could be the grandparents of these great Elders.

The last transfer, Elder Boswell was moved without  us getting a good picture of him.  But last Tuesday we were able to get a good picture of Elder Ashcroft and your Elder at the end of our District meeting.

We love the missionary work and we love the excitement and great desire of these young missionaries.

We send out love from the Isle of Man,

Elder and Sister Allen

Elder Boswell and Elder Cunningham fishing of the Irish Sea (pday)

Elder Ashcroft and Elder Cunningham last Tuesday at District Meeting.

Elder Boswell, Elder Cunningham, John Hynes (reactivated Elder's Quorum President) Elder and Sister Allen

Elder Boswell and Elder Cunningham taken before Elder Boswell was transfer

October 25th- November 1st

Happy Hop To Naa,

That is the Manx Halloween. It is a Celtic holiday and it is pretty funny they have their own twist on Halloween. For instance, instead of carving pumpkins the tradition is to carve a turnip!

I hope you liked your Manx goodies. No there were no pictures in it...sorry. I am still waiting for you to send me a memory card. If you would like I can just buy another one.

I cannot believe you saw AJ. What a small world, if you could email his address for me that would be great.

What a week it has been! Due to the recent baptisms, as well as work conflicts, our teaching pool has dramatically thinned out. You could say that it went on the HCG diet and is now emaciated.  However, the good news is that means lots and lots of finding. I love finding because you get to meet all sorts of people and come away having some great laughs and some wonderful new people to teach.

Favourite quote of the week, “Can’t chat lad I’m just walking home from prison.” I should really start writing all the quotes down; it would make for quite a funny book. This man literally had just got out of jail. The lord was truly giving him an opportunity to make a 180* turn ha!

We have found some great new people though. We were able to teach a man whose name is Elliot and sadly his wife recently died from cancer. He is a Baptist and even through tragedy he has been able to keep strong faith in God. The lesson went really well. It will be great when we get to teach him the plan of salvation.  

Also, I wrote about Paula last week and we were able to teach her again at her mother’s house. She is doing really well. Unfortunately, she is going through a divorce so we are not able to meet with her as much as we would like but when we teach her it is great.

When I said work conflicts I meant Brian and Jillian have been slammed at work and not able to meet with us. It is hard because they both know the gospel is true but can’t seem to catch a break with their schedule. I think that it is one of Satan’s greatest tools.

Halloween was a great night. The Sayle family cooked us dinner. You would not believe it but I ate salmon! I think my pallet may be maturing because it was delicious. Keith had caught it fresh out the river the other day and Jeanine prepared it. It is amazing to see the change that the gospel has made on their family. It truly has caused there to be so much more peace and happiness in the home. They are wonderful people and I am excited for their future. The rest of the night we stayed in our flat and got caught up on lots of things.

Today we went out with Sister Radcliffe who took us to the Laxy Wheel. It is this ginormous water wheel that was built in the 1700. It was lots of fun. We then went to this old man’s little factory where he makes all these different clocks and music boxes, etc. It was really great you of loved it.  

Well glad to hear everything is going well. Hope you have great week and I will write soon.

Love,

Richard

PS: Sad news- This is most likely my last week here on the Island and you won’t hear from me until the middle of next week. Pray that I stay another transfer the island is amazing!   

October 18th-25th

Family!

What an amazing week it was. Saturday we had the baptism of Jeanine, Hannah, and Henry! It was wonderful. Monday night we went over to the Sales house and talked to Henry. He was struggling with what he was going to do with football and church (games are on Sunday) but he eventually found a solution and knew that he needed to be baptised! It was great. I baptised Jeanine and Hannah and Elder Ashcraft baptised Henry. Three different people from the ward confirmed them. Keith gave a talk at the baptism and it was brilliant. He stood up there like he had been a member his whole life. He is definitely going to be a bishop one day. They are already talking about going through the temple and being sealed. February 2012 is the goal!!!

So before the baptism we had a little freak-out. Jeanine called us up on Friday night and told us she had been having these weird dreams for the past few nights. She wasn’t not sure if she could be baptised while having these crazy thoughts go through her mind. We raced over to the house and then were able to comfort her almost immediately. The spirit prompted us to read the actual account of Joseph Smiths first vision and then we were able to explain more about the adversary. Then we read Alma 37:37 which really touched her. After speaking with her for a little bit she was feeling much better and we were back on track. That night she prayed before bed and was able to get a good night’s rest. Jeanine is truly amazing. She has done so much for us: dinner, haircuts, making sure we get home safe, etc. Not to mention besides that little scare she has really accepted the gospel. She went from 16 cups of coffee to 0 in a weekend! She has also read, studied and prayed about everything we have taught.

The apple does not fall too far from the tree. Henry and Hannah are wonderful people as well. They really took everything seriously and understood the commitment they were making. I love this family and will forever keep in contact with them.

Miracles do not cease. After the baptism we went out and went tracting. That night we got into a home and taught the restoration to a Methodist woman, we set up a few appointments, and we got homemade freshly baked ginger bread from a kind woman who was not interested in the slights of what we had to share! She was great. The night was miraculous. Oh also my companion sang I am a child of God to an old woman! I would have joined in however i was trying too hard to hold back the laughter. It was a wonderful evening.   

Another miracle...last night we had a full evening of tracting and weren’t sure where to go. We prayed about it and both felt like this little town in the middle of the island, where we had never been, was where we should go. So we headed off and the first door we knocked we set up an appointment. Felt pretty good about the town so far. The next door we knock and got to talking and find out that the woman who answered the door is actually the daughter of a member. She had actually been planning on going to church that morning with her mom but her mom got ill and wasn’t able to attend. She has never really been to church but knows that her mom goes alone and felt like joining her. The Lord literally placed us at her doorstep. She has been prepared. Because she didn’t come to us we went to her. It is truly amazing to see how the lord places us in the right place at the right time. The prompting we both got was gentile yet when we acted upon it we were able to see the blessings. 

There is so much more that I wish to tell you but that is all I have for today. I hope you have an equally wonderful week.

Love,

Richard

Ps. Glad you like the movie we actually went this morning to the exact place it was filmed with that white house and the red doors. Wow, it was beautiful. Cannot wait to take you there.

PPS. Sad sad news I am not allowed to have the made easier books that i loved. I actually found out a while ago and haven’t been able to remember. I only got through the first book and a little of the second. What would you like me to do? Should I send them back?

MOM- i think every missionary needs an iphone/ipad. Once the churches paper work goes digital everything will be so much more efficient! Congrats though, how do you like it? Have you been using the lap top?