Re: ==> ==>

Uhm... It sent early for some reason. Anyway. Back to writing. 

We met a man named Shamus Maloney who blessed my by the power of the Holy Ghost to have the word of god with me, which was nice of him, but I already had it! ;D  He was nice though, and very religious. 

We got to go to a redeemed church service, so there was a bit of noise, tamberines, yelling and dancing, but we got to see two investigators there, and one had orchestrated it, and is taking the lessons well. 

(view of Cork I took hurredly while we were there for a district meeting)

And then there was Jerry. 
Jer. 

Goodness, he was fun. We met him while we were walking back to the car.
He's really nice, and firmly believes in a god. And in quite a bit more. 
After a few seconds of good religious discussion, he asked us if we believed in dragons. 
'I mean, they certainly could have existed...'
"Well I've seen them. Up there! IN SPACE. I was on LSD at the time, but I know they're there!!"

And he went on to talk about the lizard people under our cities, and how the moon was a spaceship. 

And how he collected mushrooms, and wove a wand over them to make them magic mushrooms. 

But thank goodness he doesn't do black magic, as he said, he only does white magic. 

He tried to get a magic wand by jamming a spoon between two molars, cracking his tooth and levering it out. It didn't work this time, but he's pretty confident it will work later on... 
And Zeus is really god. 

Yeah... It was fun talking to him. It's sad how much drugs have hurt his life, but he was still really nice, and was charitable. 

So that was my week! :D 
Enjoy life! 

– Elder William Kevin Black

On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 12:34 PM, William Black <william.black@myldsmail.net> wrote:

So this week has been fun! 
I've started learning stickshift, which was very rocky at first, but I've been doing much better. We'll be getting a new car soon, but it looks like it'll be automatic, which is a bit of a downer now. :/ 

A russian said english was a 'poor language', which is funny, considering how unintelligent we portray the russian accent - but it is righer in its descriptions. She also said russians and americans were alike in that they're both really nice people. x) 

We got in a mini-accident, just a paint scrape, but the paperwork was dreadful. xp and the Guarda (their police) is soooo slow. =__=

– Elder William Kevin Black

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==> ==>

So this week has been fun! 
I've started learning stickshift, which was very rocky at first, but I've been doing much better. We'll be getting a new car soon, but it looks like it'll be automatic, which is a bit of a downer now. :/ 

A russian said english was a 'poor language', which is funny, considering how unintelligent we portray the russian accent - but it is righer in its descriptions. She also said russians and americans were alike in that they're both really nice people. x) 

We got in a mini-accident, just a paint scrape, but the paperwork was dreadful. xp and the Guarda (their police) is soooo slow. =__=

– Elder William Kevin Black

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Level Two

So this week has been a bit slower, since all our investigators were out of town. And man, did we have some odd experiences. We met this guy in a park, who said a terrorist group was after him, and the 60+yr old woman at the bed and breakfast he was at was a part of it too. Why? Because she was old, but acted young. So she was a bad person. Yeeeeaaahh.... So as the son of a psychiatrist, I diagnosed him with Schizophrenia. Not out loud, that is... But I don't think we'll see him again. He's trying to run to America and become a monk. Good luck to that... 

Speaking of Elder Dixon's wild dance moves, here's him halfway through a flip. >:O Pretty awesome. 

So there was also an elder brown, and an elder white in the area, and we snagged a photo together! ^-^

I also spoke in church yesterday. I had a great talk planned out. 

Studied it, tried to perfect it, and left the outline at the flat. The talk still went great, since I remembered all the points, but man, that was disappointing moment, when I realized I had left it... 

There are heaps of Africans here, which is great, and we've met a few brazilians as well! Man, is brazilan food good... 

I got this great cake recipe: 

Corn Pudding Cake

2T butter

1 can condensed milk

3 eggs

1 cup cheese (mozarella, or cheddar)

1 cup maize meal (Fuza)

2T flour

1T baking powder

3 cups milk

Preheat oven to 200 deg Cel, grease cake tin

Blend butter, condensed milk, eggs; blend cheeze, maize meal, flour, baking powder

Add milk gradually, blending well between cups

Bake for 25 mins

The guy's name from last week is Debeikis, by the way. 

We met a guy named Jaffa, who has a blog named "Jaffa's LDS Blog" which you should check out. It talkes about a few parallels he has seen in the scriptures, and a few of his personal beliefs. 

Love you all! Until next week! :D

– Elder William Kevin Black

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==> ==> ==>

Wow. Well, they tell you the first day in the MTC is the longest. This is incorrect. They wree really alll equally long. 16 hours or so, with an extra hour then added on for the British pagaent (an awesome lds play about the roots of the saints in the british isles.) which we got to be featured in at the end, singing 'called to serve'

Having an Aussie (pronounced 'ah-zee') companion was heaps of fun. He's taught me heaps about Australia. I'd be keen to visit some day. I reckon. 

So P-days will be on Mondays from now on, so since I transferred on a Tuesday, that's why I didn't write last week. I almost had three p days, but ended up with only one. :/ 

I am currently serving in Limerick, Ireland, which is in the SW edge. I'll be here for the next 12 weeks or so, maybe more. So parcel mail is trikier, and it would probably be easier to send money, but the mail address is easier, and you can send anything directly to me at: 

5 Curaheen 

St. Nessans Rd. 

Dooradoyle 

Limerick

Ireland

So on Wed and Thurs and Fri, I spent almost the whole day travelling. Once I got into Limerick, I got to teach a lesson immediately, then we had a baptism, and dinner, all in the first day! ^0^

While we were chapping (knocking on doors) we came across an african woman named Olabasi ('oh-lah-bee-see') who was wonderful to talk to. And we taught an african man who escaped his warring country, named Yakub (ya-koob)

Oh, and my companions are Elder Luna and Elder Dixon. Elder Luna looks like Patrick Colosimo, but with black hair, and elder Dixon is a tall black Jamaican, who loves dancing and wants to be a judge. Elder luna wants to be a journalist. Both are fantastic missionaries, and are the zone leaders, and I've been privledged to learn from them. 

We also taught a man named Zebulon, who was very stubborn, and didn't really listen to anything we taught... And we were teaching really clearly (a member named Jaffa came along)

Elder Luna said "He reminds me of Korihor - but Korihor had better arguments"

So it's been a real party here! :D Lots of work, so it's been really fun! 

So I hope you all have a fantastic week! 

Some of you asked what I'd like to get from you, and I think the nicest thing would just be to see your smiling faces! Preferably with people you love... 

Enjoy life! :D

– Elder William Kevin Black

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To get the full effect, read this in the following accent:

60% light austrailian

20% american

15% british

5% scottish

So currently, I'm at the MTC still, in Preston England, training to become a missionary. Next Wed, I'll get to finally actually go out to the field, to Scotland and Ireland.
So my companion, the other guy my age who's paired up with me, is Elder Costigan, an australian, who is awesome. He's hilarious, and love to joke around, but has a strong testimony of the truth of the gospel, and is a fantastic teacher.
These days here at the MTC feel so long, like five days of information crammed into one day. So I've been here now... 30 days? So about a month. I was initially disappointed I wouldn't get to learn a foreign language, but now I'm sort of glad... I can't imagine staying in here for twelve weeks. I would go insane.

England is awesome, and has great weather. We were lucky enough to already have two cloudless days, so I got some nice pictures I'll attach.
I've learned a lot about teaching people. It's odd that I can't use my normal argumentitive style, since people need to believe it themselves, rather than having me convince them. So it'll be quite a different experience.

I loved all your letters you sent me, but my time right now is severely limited. But thank you all so much! I loved hearing from you!

Also, if you'd rather follow my blog, that's fine by me. Just send a message with <BLOG> in the subject line, and you can instead follow my blog WilliamBlackMission.blogspot.com

 

Until next week!

– Elder William Kevin Black

PS: I was considering calling this post "Holy Timechange Batman", but didn't for obvious reasons.

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Fwd: Chicago Picture

Here are the pictures of all the missionaries which were at the Chicago airport:

 

– Elder William Kevin Black

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Day One. Or maybe two. It's a bit unclear...

As many of you know, I find it hard to pay attention to things.
So at the Chicago airport, I was just sitting happily by myself, at gate k12, waiting for the plane to come. After a long while, I checked my watch. And I was supposed to board a half hour ago. Frantically, I ran for the desk, and begged for mercy. Calmly, they responded that I was at the wrong gate, and my flight had been delayed. In hindsight, I should have noticed the ~35 elders wearing their suits in the terminal across the hall. But everything worked out, and I'm typing mostly happily here in England. I'd be all the way happy, but the keyboards are weird. The keys are in all the wrong places, like where the left shift key was (rectangle), there are two square buttons: "\" and the shift key, so I keep on typing I like \i, and I have to go back and correct it. Also, finding the ", @, and ~ keys were a chore, since they were scattered around the keyboard.
So my mission has officially started, me being badged and all.
My P-days, the days I get off, are on Wednesdays, so you'll all be hearin from me in a week or so. Until then! :D

>If you want to unsuscribe from these emails, just reply with a message, with STOP in the subject line. Otherwise, enjoy getting an email once a week for the next two years! :D

– Elder William Kevin Black

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