my excuse

sorry i didnt email it was a bank holiday and the library was shut done. life is good transfer is almost over. IM STILL WAITING FOR OUR FAMILY PICTURES THAT WE TOOK IN MAY SO I CAN SHOW THE WHOLE WORLD THE BESTEST FAM DAMNLY IN THE WORLD
love
elder solomon

Ok, I have a short time again. We don’t have much of a pday we have a bunch of appointments and will only get three hours to ourselves. I'm emailing right now instead of doing our comp study. So. Thank you to Robin for the work update. I'm so happy everyone there is doing so good! Preston thank you for fillin in for mom you are awesome and I loved that email. Saturday was zone conference, which was awesome, but for some reason they thoroughly covered eternal marriage and then in Sunday school the lesson was also on eternal marriage and I keep thinkin I DONT NEED THUIS RIGHT NOW!!! It’s the last thing I want to think about. But Preston, I want you to know you are living the dream of about 50,000 missionaries right now. You have a fast car, lots of money and a girlfriend that you can actually hold instead of just look at and dream about! Sounds like you had an amazing experience with Elder Andersen! Was it a broadcasted fireside or was he there? I love the first presidency and the quorum of the twelve!

The work is trucking along as usual. For some reason the Bishop here has something against missionaries so we are not having the support we would like from him but we are finding other ways to make it work out. Finding is getting hard again I think people recognize us now and want nothing to do with us again. The beautiful thing that I found out I already knew this week is that the lord gives us commandments then He provides a way for us to keep them. THEN He blesses us for keeping those commandments! It’s a win win situation! Of course He isn’t going to take away our free agency but he will always provide a way to follow Him and support us in those righteous efforts. How is it possible then to fail? During out Elders quorum lesson yesterday our investigator Chris asked how could you lower your Standards? When I was thinking about it I came to the conclusion that the only way someone could possibly lower their standards is when they do not understand the relationship they have with their Father in Heaven. Joseph Smith though and I'll put it in my own words that no one can teach us that relationship. We cannot gain that knowledge by sermon or scripture. The only way we can learn and gain a testimony of our true relationship with our Father is through prayer and personal revelation. As we gain that knowledge or remembrance of that relationship then we will have no more disposition to do evil. That is how we can rise to that next level. That is where we can find the strength to move forward in the right direction. Regain that relationship that was lost with the veil then will you receive a remission of your sins through the reception of the Holy Ghost and then the blessings will be poured from heaven. Quickly the other lesson I learned is Progression can be measured by Opposition. The closer we come the harder it gets but the more strength we receive.

Thanks to Sheldon, Jamie, Taylor and Kassidee, mom and sister Thompson for the letters. You are awe3some.

Love,
Elder Brighton

They are miserable, but I am not

Ok, I will explain how it is here in Dover in a bit but please look at the pictures. My words wont give it justice and the pictures almost do its kind of something you have to see for your self.

So last week we had zone pday and I did another train then we had a bbq on the beach so then we had to drive the sister missionaries (one is Italian and the other was Hawaiian) back to Canterbury so we didn’t have time to do our emailing before the appointments we had scheduled that night. So, the workin here is amazing and I give all the credit to the Lord working through the missionaries that were here before me. It is proof that an absolutely diligent and obedient servant of the Lord can do miracles. They had 4 baptisms the weekend before I got here and now we have 14 investigators and I want to say 10 other less active/recent converts that we teach. We are working so hard every day that we honestly have no time to even take a lunch and when we get back we have to take so much time to prepare for the lessons the next day that dinner is always every small and quick and I still have to write in my journal by torch (flashlight) light because without fail the lights are out at 10:30.

Ok, so my area goes from Folkston to Dover through sandwich deal all the way up to the Isle of Thanet, which is Margate and Ramsgate. It is the most spread out area in the mission so we spend a lot of time driving. Elder Hansen drives (illegally) because he knows the area but before this transfer we both had the same driving experience. So the countryside is amazing!!! I have never seen so much green in my life! Every one is growing wheat right now so all the fields are golden. The sides of the hill are all pasture for the many sheep and cattle and what ever isn’t pasture is forest. When we drove out of the country side and started going down the hill into the harbor I literally lost my breath at the sight. Far off in the distance you can see France!!! Yes FRANCE!! The there is the English channel between us which is the busiest water channel in the world so it has all kinds of ships scattered all over the place. Then there is the harbour which is its self is amazing with the pier /sea wall rising out of nothing. Then there are the cliffs... you basically have to see them for your self. Absolutely stunning huge white cliffs then at the top of the cliffs is the Dover castle the biggest castle in England.

Anyway I'm almost out of time. We have one investigator named Chris who is the English version of Kenny Kelley! He is awesome and was timed as the world’s fasted jockey! But since he got kicked in the head and now has a steel plate there he can’t really remember it all. He is the world’s best investigator. He is studying the gospel principles book and totally believes everything with out a doubt. He receives more personal revelation then most life time member but the only thing holding him back from being baptized today is he doesn’t want to be baptized until he knows that he has the strength to live the wow 100 percent. He is awesome.

The English people are the most miserable people I have ever seen.
O the cunning plan of the evil one of the vainness and frailties of man. For when they are learned they think they are wise and hearken not to the counsels of the Lord... I have totally seen it its amazing how closed minded people are and how they can be guided but such blanket lies and they allow their predetermined prejudice keep them from finding the most happiness they could ever wish to experience.
I love bearing testimony. I learned a really cool thing for myself after and amazing step in appointment. In 2 Nephi 31 18 it says something along the lines of 'then comes a remission of sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost' it is when we receive and feel the Holy Ghost that we are cleansed of our sins. I testify that this is true. I have felt it. I have never been so happy in my life and I have been surrounded here with the most miserable people because I know that my Redeemer lives and I get to testify multiple times a day and every time I do He sees it. Every time I am flipped off cursed and insulted and rejected it’s recorded. I glory in the tribulation.
Second thing I learn is righteousness in Gods eyes is completly subjective. We will be held account...

G2g love
Elder Solomon

The new Deal

So I'm emailing a day late because we have transfers this week and so p-day is on Tuesday so we can get pack. So absolutely nothing happened this week. AT ALL! We didn’t work really hard but had plenty of dinner appointments. I eat Nigerian food, Indian, Pakistani, and actually got a real English roast dinner! It was awesome we had so much fun saying goodbye to everyone. Sister Ola even took us all out to an all you can eat Chinese buffet, which was really nice of her. She is so awesome. She got me a how to speak Polish book with a cd and is going to get me an English to Polish dictionary. She really is going over board. So I told her how my Polish comes from Nana. I guess she is going to Poland in a couple of weeks and want to get Nana something from there and have me send it to her? Can someone find out from Nana what she would like from Poland and let me know? She keeps asking me about it! So transfer calls came and my area is getting shut down... Sister Ola cried when Elder Koppe told her. But its all good cause Elder Koppe and I are going to Kent. He is going to be my zone leader and my new area is Deal, which covers Dover and the white cliffs!! I'm so excited this was the one place that I really wanted to go and I heard that they had 4 baptisms this last weekend! My companion will be Elder Hansen. From what I have heard he is German, which means letter of the law.... I guess that’s what I need. It’s going to be awesome and I can’t wait!

So I had Peter (a premissionary from Slovakia) go and take some music off the ipod and he completely screwed it all up... so I'm going to have fun with that. I'm going to miss LEa Valley and actually being in London, but I cannot wait to get out to the countryside. I guess I’ll have a car and that I will be driving too!!!! Elder Gallagher served there a while ago and he says that it is amazing. I can’t wait to see it for myself! And they have the biggest shower in the mission. Just FYI. We have one last dinner appointment with Asha tonight and I can’t wait for it. It’s going to be sad but so good at the same time.

Ok, so the pictures are of us at Ashas with Elder Boer (Italy), Elder Polutu( Gilbert/Tonga, Asha and her partner TK.
There is also a pic with Elders Koppe, Ho Kum, Gallagher, Solomon with Sisters Temmi, Leanda and some other ym.
A picture of the mission president’s car
My new handwriting
And the Hyde Park zone

I didn’t get any mail this week so thanks to no one in that regard but thank you Taylor for sending me your baptism pics!! I can’t wait to get your other letter

Cheers!
Elder Solomon

bllahalalsdllasdfkasd ???

It was soo good to hear from you all this week. When I sat down at the computer and saw all the emails I thought I wouldn’t have time to read them and each of them were sooo long! I love it! Thanks Jeff for the email, its good to see that my letter got there. I forgot the Phoenix area code so I couldn’t send it to the office but I knew I could rely on Preston. I laughed so hard when I heard the story about pinching Preston I had a flash back to being crouched over in a van in the shop doing freakin inventory (hated that) and out of no where it felt like a bee sing on the back of my leg and I almost jumped through the roof and in all the confusion pain and panic I hear Mike and Jeff's uncontrolled laughter and I couldn’t help but smile. Good times... Jerry thanks for the advice I think that too often some missionaries forget that they are human to and that they are dealing with real people not just robots in a role-play. Stacy thanks for the email ill are sure to send you a letter now that I have your address... and congratulations!!! Kassidee and Sister Thompson! Your awesome I think I spent ten minutes reading your email. They were brilliant, exactly what I need to hear. Encouragement and humor all mixed in together hit the spot. So I did get your letter right after I sent the other one.... I replied already this morning. It was so good to hear about Taylor’s Baptism!!!! I was soooo happy.

Any way nothing really new has happened around here in Lea Valley. The two investigators that we had (Pyi and Francis) dropped us soon after we invited them to be baptized. Francis got to busy and Pyi... I think he just died... we cant get a hold of him so save our life. I continue to meet people every day from random countries all over the world. I meet Jasmine the other day but she insisted that her name was Senait but she was from Armamentaria, which is a Middle East country. We meet more Polish and Romanians then we do English, and the Africans particularly form Nigeria and Ghana, are the basic population... beside the Iranian Muslims. Yesterday I talked with some Muslims for about an hour and it was really interesting to hear all about Islam. People unfortunately profile Muslims as terrorist and the truth is the terrorist are nothing more then angry back woods hill billies that kill people. Their religion says nothing about killing people to get to heaven. Anyway I don’t really know what to say. It seems like I have a whole list of comments that I want to make but as soon as I get to the computer I forget it all...

Oh Nick!! Somebody get me and address to send him a letter! I'm so excited that his farewell went so well! That guy is awesome and he is going to change the whole wide state of Idaho!! Way to go:) Boise won’t even know what hit them! Somebody give him a hug from me if he is still around.

So the weather.... summer is over and fall is here. The day after I emailed last week it started to rain and was raining off and on for three days and now its starting to get colder and the sun is already starting to go down around eight rather then eleven. But it still gets up before I do and causes that problem. Elder Koppe was the Elder on the coach with his Holland jersey on if that is the picture you got. We have started laying pana every day now and it gets quite intense! Pana is this totally awesome game that you take a mini football (soccer ball) and try to kick it between each other’s legs. It get real intense and one of the funniest moments this week was when I won and he chased me up the stairs with the ball in his hands screaming OPEN YOUR LEGS!!! I fell down laughing! We had a good discussion last night all of us about all the dodgy pictures and girls walking around... its good to see that I'm not the only one bothered by it.

So elder Gallagher is literally going crazy! He is losing his mind and acting like a lunatic. Thankfully though since this is his last week we have a ton of dinner and lunch appointments this week:) being with three other missionaries that are in the Saturday of their mission is really messing with my mind. I have to keep reminding myself that all those planes I see are two years away.

The church is true and the work goes one no unhallowed hand can stop it and it will go forth boldly noblely and independently. I love Joseph Smith. All of his teachings are amazing. I read the King Follet discourse the other day and oh my days did it open my eyes. I was thinking about it for the rest to of the day!

I've kinda gotten on this sewing craze lately for some reason. Since the American and English styles are so different I decided to take one of my bed sheet dress shirts and tailor it so that it fits English style and the crazy thing is that it is working!! Look at that dad! I know its not quite the same, but William Henry sewed shoes in England and now I'm sewing shirts! My polish is getting a bit better. The other day we stopped a polish guy and I was able to use my limited polish vocab and he was so excited that he wanted us to come give him a copy of the B.O.M. in polish... of course we got hosed but still it was cool! He lives around us so maybe we will see him again.

Well sounds that you all are doing great! With summer drawing to an end all I have got to say is live it up! Keep clean but have fun! I'm so jealous of Brigg and Sheldon I wish I had cool friends like Jake that would do stuff like that but I am thankful for the friends I have had. (They did a great job of preparing me to get hosed all the time!!!!)

With all the love, appreciation, gratitude, hope, faith, charity, knowledge, godliness, brotherly kindness, virtue temperance and patience that I don’t have,
Elder Solomon

By the way the Muslims see King Solomon differently. They don’t think he became wicked with all his wife’s but rather that he gained power from Allah and was able to command plants and genie (or devils) to do whatever he wanted them too.

I can't get away from it!

The kitchen in my flat...
No backpacks here, so try a man bag on for size!

Sister Ola, my Polish teacher!



It was so good to hear from you all! It sounds like we are experiencing the same weather 7000 miles apart! I know it never gets above 80 degrees but the humidity is a killer! Elder Gallagher put it perfect when he said he feels like he just got out of a pool and put his clothes on! It wouldn’t be so bad if people had some freakin air conditioning here! Every time I get in side of a building I want to shoot myself cause it is so hot and stuffy! There is NO RELIEF! It’s really embarrassing, but church gets so hot that we fall asleep every week!

Anyhow this has been a downer week. We only taught two lessons this whole week and those were at members house after a meal. Francis canceled on us twice, then stood us up at church. I don’t even know what happened to Pyi. Elder Gallagher and I are having a hard time communicating our schedule and he has a tendency to miss appointments that I set and a hard time remembering that he was going to set up other ones.

But anyhow we are getting a lot of finding in! I'm getting better about being a man and testifying. It seems that every day we have at least one bash session on the streets. It’s amazing how people just don’t listen! We were talking with this guy who was Baptist and believed in original sin. I did nothing but ask questions because that was the only way I could make a point. Every time I opened my mouth to say something he would interrupt and repeat himself. So I kept asking different questions and he totally keep contradicting himself. After a half hour of listening to his absurd crooked beliefs, Elder Gallagher finally stepped in and basically said, “You have to read the Book of Mormon to gain eternal salvation. Will you meet with us?” He said no, so we finally got to leave. Its amazing how hardhearted people can be that they cannot feel the spirit. There have been times in the street that I have testified of prophets and the plan of salvation and the BOM [Book of Mormon] and felt the spirit so strong, then they just look at me like I'm crazy and waive me off and walk away! Its quite discouraging but all I have to do is press on and do the best I can. Its so sad to know that one day God will ask them 'did I not send theses men to testify to you and show you the way?' and then they will realize too late what they rejected. I hope I don’t have to stand there and witness it. I will feel so bad but what more can I do!

Anyhow, so Preston you were so right about porn. IT IS EVERYWHERE! I can’t get away from it. It is seriously driving me crazy! Ill be sitting on the tube (underground train) just reading the headlines of someone’s newspaper then they will turn the page and BAM there they are two biggo ta's staring right back at me! So I’ll look away and BAM there’s a naked woman on a poster! Then I’ll open my scriptures and BAM there is Solomon’s Songs! I want to shoot myself some times! Like one time this poor little innocent missionary fresh in the field is walking down the street and kicks a newspaper, looks down and sees the whore of the earth in the Star newspaper (or which ever it is). So what is the moral of this story? Don’t go to England. Naw just kidding! The moral is to stand in holy places at ALL times! And that goes for your mental state. The moment you let your thoughts go somewhere they shouldn’t Satan will put that temptation there. Its like the guy that is scared of heights and gets braver and braver and closer and closer till the devil in all his treachery runs up and pushes him off the cliff. Just don’t go there man!

Anyway, I love life and all though I complain a bit in my emails I really am having a good time. Probably cause I don’t know any better, but I still love it. Sister Ola in the ward is Polish and invited us over last night so Elder Koppe could watch his home country (the Netherlands) get beaten in the World cup finals. I spent the evening learning how to speak polish! She has sworn that she is going to get me in touch with my heritage! I think that it is pretty cool and I'm having fun time learning. I'll include a picture of her little boy and me. So anyhow love you all keep strong! Thank you Maggie and Talon Price for your mail you guys are awesome! Austin Jones good luck and don’t get discouraged it’s easier to be their friend than their teacher. Mom, good luck with the gossip society and Dad, I want to hear ALL of your totally cool heroic S.W.A.T. stories! Give my best to everyone and tell Stacy I want a wedding invitation! (I knew she was going to get married before she did:)

Love Elder Solomon

Things to be thankful for...

So, yesterday we sacrificed part of our p-day [preparation day] so we could meet with some members who were going to have a potential investigator over for lunch. But as it usually goes, the potential ended up bailing on us. So we had another appointment with Asha today, but she also canceled, so my district leader said I should email since I didn’t get to yesterday. So yesterday was my first interview with President Patch and that went well! He told me that they did the same thing a year ago (open an area with a greenie and a 'dieing' elder) and at first it was real hard but now in that same area they had 25 investigators at church between the Elders and the Sisters of the area! So that just gives me a bit more motivation to keep trudging on. After that we went shopping cause they have wonderful deals in the summer time. I love the English style, so I bought a shirt, tie and shoes so I will need some money transferred in:/ Oh, I forgot, when I first got in the house I found an English suit that fit me perfectly, and when no one claimed it or knew who’s it was, the zone leaders gave it to me! So with that new suit, shirt and shoes I have something to wear to Zone Conference. And elder Gallagher is going to give me one of his suits when he leaves, so I bought him a pair of shoes (something is telling me I'm going to get a financial training in my next email from home).

So today was Zone Conference and it was awesome! They had all the greenies and dieing Elders bare testimony. It’s weird to think that Elder Gallagher only has like twenty days left but at the same time its not. He is getting a bit trunky and it’s slowing down the work. President Patch has this wonderful vision that every area can baptize every transfer and I really think that we are going to make it happen!! We invited Francis (the doctor from Nigeria) to be baptized and he really was awesome. He looked at us as if we had insulted him and said, “'why not, of course I will if I know it is true!” So I have been praying that he will keep reading the Book of Mormon and get that confirmation from the spirit that it is true. Also, Asha, we are waiting for her boyfriend to get his Visa so they can be married and she can get baptized. I think I told you about Pyi? The Buddhist we grabbed off the street after we got hosed? Well, we taught him about the restoration and showed him the DVD and he really connected with Joseph Smith. Then this Sunday we taught him about the first half of the plan of salvation and then I invited him to pray. His prayer was so simple but so sincere and powerful. He prayed to his Father in Heaven and so sincerely thanked him for his Son and the plan of happiness that he can repent and return to live with his God. The amazing thing is he didn’t even believe in God two weeks ago. The coolest part about this is that all the time he says how all of this sounds familiar and just makes absolute sense! He owns a Chinese take out shop and works ridiculous hours so it is hard to meet with him but I think Elder Gallagher and I are going to drop by and see him this week.

So President Patch told me that he will be speaking in our ward on the 25th of July and before I knew what I had said, I said that we were going to have 2 conformations that day.... I really hope it works out that way.

So walking everywhere I go is taking a toll on my feet. Some days they are fine other they just kill. I have three blisters on top of each other on one of my toes!! I also think I have planter fascitis or what ever it is. It feels like someone took a knife and made a slit down the middle of my nonexistent arch every time I step. But so that I’m not negative and complain about hosy people, hot days, long hours, black boogers, trunky companions and girls that don’t know how to dress when the sun comes out, I'm going to list what I am thankful for:

That I can cook, sew (a little), walk with out pain, sleep well at night, see the good in almost everyone, stay positive, see others’ side of the story, see through the lies, that I can plan, being ok with the back up plan, being able to make up a second back up plan on the fly, my history knowledge, my heritage (big one), knowledge of the scriptures, gardening skills, pyrotechnic skills (don’t ask), common sense, playing the piano (a little but getting better)...and being a bit oblivious at times is nice too! I'm lucky that I'm in the area I am. Talking with some other greenies today, I guess they see a bit of persecution and all I see are Bible bashing born again's and Jesus hating Muslims. Oh, and I ran across a communist extremist. I almost started laughing listening to her tell me that Christ is anti-human and that America and capitalism are evil. I didn’t really think that people believed that having the government run your life was the right thing to do. I really did start laughing though when I told her that we were representatives of Jesus Christ and she said, “How do I know that your not just CIA? That’s when I just left.

Any how sorry no pictures again. Elder Ho Kum has a card reader that I promise I will use next week I just don’t have it with me today. I'm thankful for grandma’s example. I took the ipod with me to my interview yesterday and showed President Patch what I had and he said I could keep it, which means that I'm probably the first missionary ever to have an ipod in this mission (legally). By the way, mom did you get Tim Holmes address for me? Oh and I'm thankful for President and Sister Holmes we got a referral from temple square the other day! It was a Muslim that loved the idea of families and the importance of families but she didn’t really want to listen to us beyond that. Mom please send snail mail to the mission home. There is talk of shutting this area down again when Elder Gallagher leaves so I wouldn’t want some random new tennant to get my precious chipotle sauce! Oh, I found the best bbq sauce the other day; you should see if you can get it! It’s made by gracefoodsuk and it is called jerk bbq. It’s Jamaican and it’s awesome. I'm trying to remember anything else from this week but as soon as I write something in my journal I forget it. I have gone through three pens in a week I have been doing so much writing! Speaking of writing. Thank you mom for your cards, grandma you long awaited letter has finally arrived and I was so happy to get it! Lindy and the young women of the ward thank you so much for your letters! Lindy and Grandma your replies are in the mail every one else you'll have to wait till next pday... sorry.

It does not even feel like I'm in England yet it just feels like I have gone back in time to the spring! It’s around 75-85 everyday with a slight breeze and sunny skies! It has only rained on my once for about 5 minutes. Can you believe that? And we get beautiful Arizona sunsets every night- its awesome! The only thing that is off is my sleeping habits. Since I have the primitive instinct to rise with the sun and lay down with it I've been getting up at four every morning and going to bed around eleven. Its driving me crazy cause I'm so freakin tired I can hardly make it through my studies in the morning. I spoke in the ward last Sunday about going on a mission and that went well then the bishop asked me to help him teach a class that prepares people to become an Elder. I was surprised but excited for that. Well I don’t really have anything else so I’ll leave you with a little thought:

Yesterday’s armor is not good enough for today’s battles. We need to be constantly improving our armor in anticipation for Satan's new tactics and strategies. The great thing is we don’t have to come up with the ideas by our selves. We have a prophet and 12 apostles for that all we have to do is listen and apply their advice. We need to be like Moroni who as the commander in chef still asked the prophet for advice and win against amazing odds. Then he also prepared his people with tomorrow’s armor and then the Lamanites had no idea what to do (Alma 49)

Love you all!

Elder Solomon

P.S. can someone please give sister Orlando the biggest hug possible for me? And tell her I love her and she is awesome
Thanks:)