Top O' the Mornin!!

Hello from Waterford!! Sorry it's been so long, but these last two weeks have been insanely crazy. The last week of the MTC highlight would be that we actually had the opportunity to go on a church history tour in England! It was crazy to see all the history and sights there, there really is so much history. The best place we went was the home where Pres Hinckley got the famous ''Forget yourself and go to work'' letter. This was just so neat as I was able to remember why I'm truly out here, and how I can find success! Then Tuesday morning we headed out to the the mission home in Edinburgh. The hardest part about leaving was saying goodbye to Elder O'Conner. He got an MRI on his knee, and turns out he had torn three of the ligaments in his leg, so he has to go home to get surgery. He will hopefully be able to return out to the field in about 6 months though, so that's a big upside! But it was still so hard to leave and see him still there, it really broke my heart. From the MTC to the mission home was about a 4 hour bus ride, and I slept through all of it haha. We got to the mission home and were bombarded by about 30 Elders and Sisters! It was crazy but cool to see all of them! Then we went up and visited Pratt's hill. For those that don't know. When Orson Pratt came to Scotland on his mission in about 1840, he wen onto this hill, now called Pratt's hill, and begged the Lord to prepare the people of Scotland to hear the word, and to give him 200 souls. Sure enough, when he left Scotland 2 years later he left behind over 200 members here in Scotland. So we were able to go up there and have a similar experience to Orson Pratt. We all split up and said a prayer, asking our Heavenly Father to help us find those he is preparing to teach. This was an amazing way to start off the mission. Also Pres and Sis Donaldson are the NICEST people I've ever met! Seriously so amazing! We went back to the mission home and had lunch, then went through all the meetings to prepare for the mission. During that time I was able to go in for my first interview with Pres Donaldson. We didn't talk much, but I found out he's actually been to Tempe! It was a really cool interview, and then after that came the exciting news of assigning trainers. I was the first one called, and my trainer is Elder Carlisle! He's an amazing guy, and we're already getting along super well! So this is where the real craziness begins. So July 12th is a crazy holiday in N Ireland where everyone basically riots to celebrate the Protestant's victory over the Catholics. Because of this all missionaries have to stay indoors all day, and we also weren't able tp travel that day either. So we stayed in Edinburgh for Tuesday night, and all day Wednesday and just contacted all day. Btw street contacting is one of the scariest things for me, cause you just stop anyone and everyone, which I'm not very good at haha. But it was good practice to do it for a full day, literally. And it was quite an intro to it as well. We saw just about everything, a guy smoking weed singing in to square. A man peeing behind a tree in the park. A Lamborghini. And many other very interesting answers to the question ''What makes you happy?'' But then Thursday morning at 5:30 we left to head to Ireland. We took tow buses to get to the ferry and then took a 3 hour ferry over to Belfast. From there we took another bus down to Dublin. And this is where the confusion kicked in. So me and my comp were told that we were gonna be getting a car for our area, which we were stoked about. But when we got to Dublin another companionship though they were getting the car. So we tried to figure that all out that night, oh ya btw we got to Dublin at 5:30 in the evening, so that's how long we were traveling. But we eventually just decided to crash at another teams flat in the city. So we slept on a couch that night, and then the next day figured out it was indeed out car, and got that from the other elders. But then we had to figure out how to get another set of Elders to their flat. long story short we got them there eventually, and then finally drove the hour and a half to Waterford. Sorry I know that was a long story but that was just how confusing those days were haha! And now were here! The craziest thing is that we were only really left with one investigator from this area. His name is Dion and he's 16, and the total dream investigator. He reads the BOM every day, has a seminary manual he ordered to help him, like to play the hymns on the piano, and just about anything else you could want in an investiagor! So within 24 hours of being in Waterford, we have a baptismal date! We're hoping for Aug 5th, and can't wait to help him get ready for that! And one more crazy story. We were walking down the street on our way back too our flat last night and passed a man with his wife an kid. We just kinda said hello as we passed and kept walking. Then a little ways down the road I hear someone yelling ''Lads'' I turn around and he is waving at us to come back. We get to him and he asks and I quote, ''Do you have one of those Joseph Smith books in Polish?'' haha we said ya we did and he gave us his address and told us to get it to him. Sure enough we actually have a Polish BOM in our flat! So this week we'll be able to deliver that to him., but just crazy that he waved us down and asked! Well sorry this is such a long one, but I hope you are all doing amazing back home and can't wait for another great week!!  

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Elder Palmer

His MTC Group