Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Just fine in Tywnyrodyn

Well, it’s been a fun week, where to begin? Okay, Thursday, we went e-mailing, then proceeded to climb two of the most vertical hills I have ever seen in my life!!! On my bicycle!!!! That really took it out of me. And then as if the two hills weren’t good enough we went through a path to a council estate called the Gurnos, and then up an even bigger hill to the Gulon Uchaf (pronounced gulenuhhhca). So we live in a pretty big valley and if I wasn't fit from before in my previous area things are definitely going to change! My body is already hurting from multiple fun things we have done this week!

Fun thing # 1: On the way to church we were riding our bikes with one of our projections, Brandon who is 10 years old and my tyre popped half-way there. And then the tyre came off which wouldn’t allow me to roll it any farther. So for the last 3/4 of a mile I carried my bike over my shoulders to the church on Swansea Road! Then when we got there we walked into the gym and fixed the flat. Then we went out and put the tyre back onto the bike, and started to pump it up and then all of a sudden my tyre blew out!!! It was way loud!!!! So we had to have the sister missionaries in the Beacon Heights ward help us to get home after church using their bike carrier! So we walked the rest of the day!

Then we went out yesterday and went to the bike shop to get a new tube and a funny thing happened, the bike shop gave me the wrong size tube. And since it is such a far walk we just hunted around the pile of bike parts the flat had and found a replacement tube that would work and jimmy rigged it together! So that was my bike dilemmas for the week!

By the way it had been raining the whole morning and we had been out it and were soaked through! Our church, the Merthyr Tidfil ward starts at 2pm and goes until 5pm because our chapel is also the meeting place for the Beacon Heights ward and the Heads of the Valley ward.

I also have good news! There is a member in this ward who owns a barbershop and the missionaries get free haircuts! I haven’t had a proper haircut in sooo long! I cannot wait! Unfortunately they aren’t open today so I'll go tomorrow because I desperately need one!


I'm sending you a picture of Elder Forbes in the new mission car! jk


I've also included some pictures of what it looks like from around here.




And a picture of a piece of a painting on my own changing room wall!!

Also, I have met President Ogden and I think he's going to be a good mission president!
I love you all. Have a good week! Enjoy the pictures!
Love and cheers, Elder Brooksby!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

How would YOU say Twynyrodyn?

Well I haven't quite figured that one out yet either, but suffice it to say I'm in Wales! I got transferred out of Wolverhampton to a place called Merthyr Tydfil (another mouthful).

That’s that! That is where you can send the post! Into the rainy valley with the largest hills I have ever seen in my entire life! It’s like hiking a mountain to even get to our flat from the train station! But the best part about where we live is the huge Tesco Extra at the bottom of our cliff/road. It’s way cool! I've never been this close to a Tesco this huge before! You should Google Earth it!

My new companion is Elder Forbes. He has two transfers left and he is the DL. He is from a place called Syracuse, Utah! I think he and I will get on really good!

Well I live in a forest now! It’s quite nice. If I had a picture for you I'd send you one, but I haven’t been here that long yet! It took about 5 hours by coach to make it to Cardiff Central train station, then it was another hour and a half by train into Merthyr Tydfil. And then the hike up the cliff to the flat, the road really is about a 40-degree grade! No joke! I haven't tried it on my bike yet, but I'm sure it will be way fun going down and then it will destroy my legs going back up! (I may have to get off and walk!) Anyway, so I didn’t get to go grocery shopping until last night at 8 o'clock, and now I'm just e-mailing you this morning!

SO Herbert's back! Ohhh man! That’s way cool. Well tell him hello for me and ask him to drop me a line so I can get back in touch with him and his life and his mission and things!

Well I had my first Polish baptism! It was great he loved every minute of it and he was just beaming afterwards! Now I'm in an area with two more scheduled baptisms so I'm excited to work on that!

Well I'm glad to see that Glenville Ward is still baptizing even though they are kids. Those kids will grow up in the gospel and will bring up their families in the church and will help the church to grow in the New York region!

Well I love you and I'm thankful for your sacrifices! Next week I'll send some pictures (I've been trying to carry my camera with me more in my back pack so I'll get more pictures)! I'll tell you how much weight I've dropped already, and I'll have some more to tell you about the area! I love you, have a nice day!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

No letter from Brett this week

We didn't get an e-mail from Brett Tuesday morning, so we waited until this morning hoping one would still come. But it didn't happen. That probably means that either he or his companion were involved in transfers. I guess we'll just have to be patient and wait to hear what is up.