Motorcycles and Sidecars

This week was crazy! I loved it so much though, as usual!
 Karen is doing great! Lee had a mix up though and was put in the hospital! We are really hoping he gets better. We pray for both of them lots! They are so nice and have great spirits. Hopefully we can help them with their lives.
 Elder Peterson is such a rock star! I am so glad that I have a good trainer. He's helped me get the hang of missionary work. It's great. We had dinner with Lee the other night and it was crazy but super fun! We had hot dog and pineapple pizza (interesting..) and it was a very memorable night to say the least. We went to one area of town to do AUF's again and it was so fun but it was like being in a different world again. There were so many Muslims!  Pres. Preston came with us to teach Karen. He is an amazing man! I hope to keep learning from him!  I don't have much time this week to write my weekly letter. I got called to be the primary pianist!! YAY!!!!!!!!! I am so happy! I can't wait!  I love the mission. I love life. Keep going strong and keep the commandments!  Love, Elder Humpherys

 Hopefully these descriptions match the pictures:
 1. This is one of our modes of transportation! Motorcycle and sidecar!
 Woo! It's so fun. I am getting a motorcycle when I grow up.

 2. This is how I felt about first riding in the sidecar. It's super
 dodgy looking at when we turned corners or past cars I saw my life
 flash before my eyes. hahah

 3. & 4. Some sweet pictures of me on the motorcycle

 5. LOOK MOM!! I can build a pea growing thing. :) I was so proud of my
 little creation! We did service at the Moore's house and it has been
 the most enjoyable time of my mission so far. It was a beautiful sunny
 night and I loved it!

 6. All right everyone. This is amazing. I am holding a woman's sword.
 That's not the amazing part.. This sword was a Scottish sword owned
 by... THE MACDONALDS OF SCOTLAND. We found a man who shares the same
relatives as me!! He has their kilt, family crest, and stories! Tell
 Ellen Campbell I am sorry for this story... but the MacDonalds
apparently invited the Campbells over to dinner one night (I think to
 show peace to end the blood feud) and when they were sleeping the
MacDonald's slit all the Campbell's throats..... ehh.. but don't worry
Ellen, I will never do that :)

 I love you all!!
Elder Humpherys

Burnley, Burnley, Burnley!

Wow. This week has been so hard.
There are so many things I wish I could say but I have no idea how to say them.
England is a very tough place. I am learning how to be bold in every aspect of life. People aren't going to listen to a timid missionary. Bold, but gentle.

Burnley is quite an interesting place. When I first got here the old part of town seemed so drab and dark and there were a lot of Muslims. But as my trainer and I have been around the town we have discovered that all kinds of people live here. We had a really neat miracle happen. We were looking for AUF's... an AUF is a person who used to be a member than they moved somewhere and now we have an idea where that address is sooooo we go and check. If the address is wrong we knock ten doors on either side to 1: teach a lesson and 2: see where the person really lives. When we were knocking ten doors on both sides we happened upon a miracle! A man opened the door and said "Long time no see!" Me and my trainer looked at each other and were both really confused and he said that he used to be a member of the church but he got in a motorcycle accident when he was 18 and now he has no idea what goes on. He was having a hard time even speaking to us. He looked about 40ish. He said he would go to University (college) and then forget everything. He knows he was a member but he can't remember anything long enough to remember why.. so what do you? His name is Kevin. We are going to try and visit him frequently. He was so friendly.

 Right before that though we ran into a Jehovah's Witness. They are so vicious and hostile towards missionaries! We've ran into two now and they attack like crazy. They try to tear down the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and missionaries. I wish Jeffry R. Holland was with us. I'd love to see what he'd say to these people.

 Karen (our investigator) is doing incredibly! She has set a baptismdate for the end of the month and we are trying our hardest to help her reach that date. Before an investigator is baptized they need to attend church twice. So we told Karen that and she was more than happy to come. Lee (her husband) on the other hand was very apprehensive. We invited him as well but he said he couldn't because he needed to go to another church for 6 weeks for a wedding blessing for his family. We were a bit sad but still happy Karen was coming. When we went to gopick Karen up we had a miracle! Karen AND Lee were both dressed up and ready for church! It made me so happy!! They both looked so nice and Ithink they really enjoyed their time. It was quite a nice environment.. and as much Lee says he doesn't want to learn he knows all the answers to the questions, he listens to the discussions, and he reads the pamphlets. I think deep down inside he knows there is something more to this church. I hope he finds it!

 Also here is a birthday picture for Dad, Rose, and Dustin! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!
I love you all. Thanks for all of the prayers. They are definitely needed. Hope you are all doing well.
 Love, Elder Humpherys

Dear family and friends,

 Missions are incredible! I just left the MTC and got assigned to my
 first area. Me and my trainer are whitewashing in city called
 Burnsley. Whitewashing means that they replaced both missionaries that
 were in the area with new missionaries. It's so crazy. My trainer has
 no idea where we are and I have no idea where we are but I love it!
 Every day is an adventure.

My trainers name is Elder Peterson. He is an all-star! I am so
 grateful that I have been given a good trainer. He is such a good
 missionary and we both have the same goal in mind.

 Burnsley is a nice place. It's got a lot of Muslims. It's like the
 only people I first saw were Muslims. It was crazy. I just thought I
 landed in Saudi Arabia or something! But they are all nice people. I
 have only been able to tract for about an hour... haha but I love it!
 It's a bit scary sometimes. I don't know what to say. But the spirit
 always puts something in my mind. Today I was told that I have a
 really cute smile and that my voice sounds like Leonardo DiCaprio's
 hahahah. How flattering. We met a woman named Runley and another woman
named Nickola. They are both great I hope they give us a call. All
though I don't think they will.

 I hope that me and my companion will have success. We were called to
whitewash this area for reason.. I don't know why. But I will soon.
 I love you all.
 Love,
Elder Humpherys

My district and one of my teachers, Brother Carr!

  Elder Mullen, me, Razanadahy.

 Elder Mullen and I are pretty good friends now. 

He is going to Leeds. He's from Idaho actually.

Razanadahy is in my mission. He is from Madagascar! He's fantastic!

Cool pic of my name tag ha ha ha!

  Pictures: My district. They are wonderful. Moroni district!

Elder Peterson and I. He is my trainer!

Dear Family and other poeple who will read this,

Ne-how!

Oh my heavens.

This week has been one of the hardest, most discouraging,  tiring, happiest, funnest, and fastest weeks of my life. I feel like I am drinking out of a fire hose! There is so much to learn. I'm not meaning like about the gospel, there is so much to learn about TEACHING the gospel. I can't believe how much it takes to share this gospel with another human. It takes a lot of focus and determination, that's for sure

I love the MTC! The food here isn't what it was cracked up to be, but it's not bad. The teachers are amazing. We have two teachers for our district. Brother Carr and Sister Willis. They are incredible! I can't even describe how amazing they are. Sister Willis is the best teacher I have ever seen. She is spectacular!

If I were to give any advice to anyone going on a mission after being here for one week it would be to LEARN HOW TO LOVE PEOPLE. There is so much we have here in the gospel but if we don't love who we are teaching, we are not going to teach at all. You can pray for the spirit to be there, you can study your scriptures, you can read preach my gospel all you want. But, if you don't know how to sit down with another person and ask them question and really get to know them by listening to their answers, you will not teach them. You will not be able to meet there needs. You will not be able to resolve their concerns. If you do not love them, you will not teach them. Take opportunities to really think about other people and understand what you can do to help them.

But ya, the MTC is crazy. I love my district. I am in the Moroni District with Elders Razandahy (district leader), Mullen, Li, Butterfield, and Groll. Sisters Wagner and Urian are in our district as well. My companion is Elder Li! He is such a cool guy. Tell the Baker family that my first companion is from TAIWAN! I thought of the Baker boys as soon as we were assigned. He is the nicest and funniest guys i've ever met. He is always sinigng some pop song by like "we are never getting back together" by taylor swift and they keep getting stuck in my head. hahah. But he is a great guy and it's been neat learning how to teach along side him. Because English isn't his native language he teaches the gospel in a very simple and plain way. It's a good example to me because I make things way to complex. All I need to remember is that God loves us. He sent His son Jesus Christ to die for us. He has restored the gospel through the prophet, Joseph Smith and as proof that he has has given us the Book of Mormon which contains the fullness of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ. My purpose here is to invite and help others to come unto to Christ by figuring out what investigaor needs by asking them questions and really listening to what they have to say. I love it. I love that all I get to do here is focus on people and serving them and best of all, helping them return to there Heavenly Father.

The plane trip was pretty crappy. I got really hot and sweaty but I sat by a nice girl named Olivia on my way to England. We had a lovely chat about things.

It's hard to e-mial because I'm very short on time and there is so much I want to say.

There is one Elder in our district named Elder Mullen. He is from Oakley Idaho! He is awesome. He is probably my best friend here along with my companion. But, we've had some great conversations about the gospel. He's going to Leeds though so once we're out of the MTC it'll be hard to keep in touch.

We went shopping today and I discovered I am terrible at talking to other people here. Okay, not terrible but TERRIFIED. It's pretty scary. But give me a week or two and I think i'll adjust just great. The personalities here are very strange. Very loud and talkative. People are hard to understand. haha funny thing is, I thought I would come here and get an English accent but I am always with my companion and I am getting a Chinese accent!! Hhaha.

Well, I hope things are going well with everyone! I think everyone should take lessons from the missionaries at least once. They wil listen and help you anyway they can. That's why we're here. 

Love you all and praying for you always,

Elder Humpherys