An Update..Finally...this is worth the wait!

Trace's New Address:

2 St. Luke Street
Barrow-in-Furness
Cumbria
England
LA13 9RR

Hey Family!

It was good to hear from you all again! It seems like its only been a week since i heard from you. That's cause it has! We had a really good week though! I would like to start off today by telling you about our sunday. I was sitting in sacrament meeting listening to the final speaker when a woman taps me on the back and says "hey, there's a man outside in jeans i think he's an investigator." Apparently that's like the token clothing of an investigator, jeans. We went out and met the man and his name is mike. Mike comes from Long Island and lives in London and is a reporter for newsweek. Apparently he was in the area in Dalton doing a story on Mitt Romneys family. In Dalton, which is just a few miles up the road, back in the 19th century, the romneys met two missionaries, were baptised and emmigrated to America. Romney is a pretty popular name around here with lots of schools and things being named after his family. Mike interviewed us for a few minutes and spoke quite a bit about missionary work in this area. He wanted to know what mission life was like because Mitt Romney had served in France. He then interviewed the Bishop and upon leaving he asked us if he could come knocking on doors with us. So that evening we met up with mike and took him tracting. That's right, we went tracting with a reporter from newsweek doing a story on a presidential candidate. We spent about an hour together in the cold having lots of good conversations. We spent most of the time with him asking us questions about the response we get and the things that we do. I felt like Lorenzo Snow in Mountain of the Lord. It was so typical, this super american man in his late 20's from new york following us around writing short hand in his note pad. He was a way cool guy and loved talking about religion. We then walked him back to the nearest pub where he rang for a taxi. He took our email addresses and said he would email us the article when it was done. I'll be sure to forward it on to you. We said goodbye and walked away and realized after a few steps that I forgot to give him a book of mormon. He was very grateful, "i'm a die hard atheist but i love reading about religion." he said. We parted ways again and then he called after us,"hey trace, what's your favourite part?!" we gave him a chapter to read and said goodbye. He has a four hour train ride back to london today so hopefully he will have a good read, i know that he will. Ha very funny!

Other than that! we have found two new families to teach. Both of them are actually former investigators.

Barrow has gotten really cold. I was complaining about how cloudy and rainy it was and next thing I know the clouds went away and the sun came out and it's absolutely freezing! Gotta miss that cloud cover. The nights are frosty! Luckily, I don't know if you caught onto this but we did get the heating fixed in our flat so we are living in a hot paradise at the moment! so don't worry too much about me!

I got some really good letters this week! I got one from katelin and one from Emily on the same day. Emily ward that is, it took me a second to figure out who the heck emily ward was. They were such uplifting letters. I feel that the words they wrote to me and everything that has happened recently is really motivating me. I don't know what has happened to me but I feel like someone has lit a fire under me. It's the funniest thing, I have been praying and praying for strength and help and one day i wake up and i have this fresh view about everything. I feel an even stronger desire to be the best servant I can and it's not even difficult I feel as though I have found these rough spots that I didn't know were there and have just done away with them. What an incredible thing it has been. I feel so invigorated and urgent. I feel as though the conduit with heaven has been opened wider and is without restraint as it has been before with me. Ha sign me up for school! I'm ready, I decided i'm going to teach. What do you think? You like that idea? I'm ready to just get some things done!

Good emails you sent! Please send me whits address so i can send a letter to her! Tell josh to keep rocking on the piano I am seriously way jealous. I set a goal last year for when I got home that i would learn to play so get good enough so you can teach me! I also found out that I am a bit more Rodgerson than i thought. I hadn't shaved for a few days and I was in the bathroom looking in the mirror and the sun was shining on my face and I looked and there was a few red hairs glistening in the sun. I thought my eyes had deceived me but I plucked it out and sure enough, I got red hair in my beard! I think it must be cause i'm too close to scotland! Ha gotta go love you all!

Trace

TRACE IS IN BIRKENHEAD

Hey Fam Damily,

Well i was kind of mildly sort of upset but they sent me out of crewe. Ha they whitewashed me into birkenhead. Just across the river from liverpool. I am now serving with Elder Lamb from Essex. Elder Lamb is Elder Francis' best friend from home so if i come home feeling a little "essex" you'll know why. Ha we had 19 new missionaries come into the mission this time around and so they opened up four new areas and we got one of them. The trouble is that we don't have a clue what the heck is going on because...well, we've never been here before. There were two missionaries already serving here and so now they have 4 missionaries in the ward. Ha and elder means is in the other companionship. They live kind of far away but they have been a little bit of a crutch for us the past 12 hours or so. The upside is we live on the top floor in a brand new flat and the thing is NICE. Like it is way too posh for missionary flat, holy cow you wouldn't believe it! Get this right, Out my study desk window you can see the Mersey river and all of liverpool and out elder lambs window you can see all of birkenhead and the sea. How dope is that? I will try and send some pictures of the view! Wow! it is so amazing and I have my own queen sized bed ha and our shower has blue lights above it. Freakin nuts. I kind of want to live in this place for the rest of my life. I'm way lucky. Here's the address,

Elder Rodgerson

Flat 10 Queens Court

Shrewsbury Rd. (65-67)

Oxton, England

Wirral

CH43 6TE

It is a new flat but the problem is it's a little barren. We do have to buy a bunch of stuff for it like an iron and what not and it's the end of the month so I don't have any mission funds left. I will have to buy a bunch of stuff with personal funds and then have the mission reimburse me so any financial assistance would be much appreciated, and maybe much necessary as well. Thanks. Love you. Did you ever get that gift card back by chance?

We seriously don't have anything at all. We have like a box of book of mormons and a grill. We don't even have an area book for goodness sake! Well we are starting from scratch. We don't have a ward list, no investigators, no less actives, no recent converts, heck we don't even have a potential investigator yet. Ha we'll get to work though. I'm excited to start with a clean slate. Pray for us would ya? We got to Manchester yesterday and they gave us a phone and keys to the flat and an address so we took a coach to liverpool and then chester and then met up with Elder Means and his new comp and we took a train to birkenhead, hopped on a bus and then walked around for an hour til we found our flat. Ha we had all of our luggage the whole time. We finally got in around seven thirty and then we went out and asked people until we found a corner shop and we were able to buy the essentials like toilet roll and some cereal and a meal for that evening. I bought a pizza stuck it in the oven and ended up burning it so i've only eaten cereal for like the last 24 hours. Crazy. We will get our shopping done today no worrries. We finally got a hold of bishop and he's having us over for food on friday so hopefully we will be able to get into the swing of things soon. The area is awesome, really big city. It's really funny because neither of us know where the heck we are going. It should be interesting. I was sad to leave crewe but it will be alright without me! I will be heading back there on saturday for a baptism hopefully!

To answer some of your questions! I met sister lovell i think once. I don't wanna be like "Oh do you know the wrights?" and she'll be like "yeah I do!" and i'd be like "oh cool! I don't." Ha yeah we watch the district like all the time I know elder murray pretty well. they use it to train us all the time. We are getting hooked up with DVD players for our flats so we can watch it all the time now. I really liked your moronis promise story I have something interesting I want to share about moroni 10 that I learned recently I would today but I got no time! Remind me. Tell conrad I never wrote my name on the bunk I don't think but I'm pretty sure eLDER YOULES wrote his name on every bunk in the MTC so look out for that. Well family. That's all i got time for today! love you all. Keep it real.

Trace

PS did my letter make it to draper city

ADDRESS IN CREWE

Elder Trace Rodgerson

14 Hightown Apts.

Flag Lane

Crewe

CW1 3AL

TRANSFERS AND TRACE IS STAYING IN BOLTON

Heyo!

How's it going?! Don't expect you to answer that. I suppose it's one
of those rhetorical questions Mrs. Snow was always going on about. Ha
anyways, Mom, to answer your question. People in England greet
each other quite funny. It will make you laugh. The saying they say is
"Hi are you alright?" But you add the accent onto it and it comes out
as "yaright?" It's kind of hard to respond to as well. Yes I am
alright? They will sometimes add some kind of name on the end of it as
well like "love" or my favorite "cocker" or just "cock." "yaright
cock?" I can't tell you how many times I have been called that. It's
quite offensive actually. Ha just kidding. They also say goodbye kinda
funny as well. "tala" or "ta" Ta can also mean thank you as well but
the bolton accent saying tala is more like "Tra" Ha british people and
their slang. Ha very good question mother! If you think of anything
else, go ahead and let me know!
Oh shoot. I forgot. I'm staying here in Bolton with Elder Holman. I
mean Hungary. Ha so the transfer call came on monday and we all get on
a giant conference call and the zone leaders read out where everyone
will be going. They got to us and Elder Gallacher goes "and elder
holman, you will be staying and you have been called as the first
branch president of the hungarian branch in bolton!" Ha it was pretty
funny. Well I'm way happy that I get to stay. I hate moving. It is not
fun at all.
This past week and a half has been quite eventful. I went on an
exchange with Elder Sumner from Birmingham. Just spent 24 hours with
him and the whole time we talked about resident evil 5. That's the
zombie game that jake and I play. Elder Sumner is a pretty serious
gamer. He also made me my first curry. Chicken Korma. It was quite
good.
On Monday, Elder Holman got way sick so we spent half the day inside
and he slept for like six hours straight. I took the time to be
productive. I did the dishes and deep cleaned the kitchen, took a
bath, then I cut my hair. Funny story about that. Apparently they use
the metric system in the UK, which I should have been aware of. So on
the clipper when it says 3 it means 3mm. Or something like that, I
dunno. Anyways, I got this pair of clippers from Elder Youles which he
traded for a two weeks stay at our house in Utah so be ready for that.
So I put the clippers on a three and i thought "that looks really
short" So I moved it to a five and just went for it. It turned out to
be really short and I am officially a skinhead. Luckily, I don't have
to see president bulldog for two weeks. Then Elder Holman accidentally
moved the clippers too short and ended up having to buzz his head as
well. So we both look like skin heads. Then I took a shower and we
ordered some dominos because i remembered how much Zatch loves
dominos. Downed a whole medium pizza. I also found a cute little
muslim cap on the ground, so that was exciting.
The Patakis are doing really well. We are into the word of wisdom and
the law of chastity with them so it's been pretty rough for us but
they have been very accepting and have kept every commitment we've
given them. The law of chastity lesson was a little awkward however
because Oliver, the son, is the only one who knows english. So he has
to translate everything that we say. "Do I have to translate that?" Ha
oh man! They are scheduled for next saturday but we might not make it!
We'll see how it goes! Frank Csonka is another investigator we have at
the moment and this week "eating please!" he fed us tiramisu and it
was delicious. Reminded me of being on our cruise! Also found
katelin's mickey mouse that you stuffed into my suitcase! Made me
laugh!
Well that's all I got for you this week! I will be emailing again on
monday so be ready for it!
LOVE

NEWS FROM BOLTON

What's good Rodgersons?

I had no idea Matisyahu played lacrosse. This is news to me. Ha I
could totally see it too! You should send me the article in a letter
or something. I am still mourning the loss of the Pats but hey, maybe
in two seasons so I can watch you know? I got your golden eagle
pictures and they were pretty dope I must say! I'm way jealous of
course. If you want some more things to send....Pictures of our
mexican Scuba diving. I was telling Elder Holman about it and he wants
to see the pictures way bad! That's something I always took for
granted is the opportunities I have had to travel. Thanks for making
that possible. I could also use some old spice and some more spiker!
but don't worry about sending me anything. I'll be alright. I'll send
some pictures as well! one of them is of the bolton town centre at
night and it totally looks like the clock tower in Peter Pan. Make
sure you show katelin, she would love it. And I will send the pictures
of us at the baptism again because it sounds like you didn't get them!
It has been a great week! Lots and lots of teaching trying to stay on
top of our teaching pool! Teaching the Patakis this week went really
well! They have been a little ill so it's been hard to see them but we
will see them tonight after we are done P-daying. We have six
hungarians dated for baptism in february and the other Elders in
Bolton had a baptism of two other hungarians this saturday and all of
our dated investigators were able to attend. Which was really great.
That was really bad grammar.
I got to go on an exchange with Elder Readhead this week. He is from
Poole, England and I went and stayed at there flat for a night. Their
beds are awful! Oh my goodness I barely slept! And I go on another
exchange for 2 nights at the end of this week! Good Golly I don't
think I'll sleep!
I forgot to tell you something crazy that happened this week. Elder
Holman started speaking to this drunk woman with this big thing of
beer in her hand and she told him to f off and then threw the entire
thing all over the back of him. Oh man it was pretty awful. We had to
spend like two hours cleaning everything and trying to find a dry
cleaner. Crazy stuff!
Couple miracles happened last night. We were able to teach a woman
named Holly with our nigerian bishopric member, sunday. "as in friday,
saturday, sunday" He says. She told us that she was interested because
she had met quite a few mormons in her time and every single one of
them seemed so well rounded and incredibly kind! Someone is always
watching us! don't forget it. I feel that sometimes we underestimate
the power of being a good example! I have seen the effects of having
good examples in my life and I'm very grateful for them!
We were out tracting last night at about eight oclock and could not
find anybody home, which was odd, regardless, we kept going. We
knocked on a door and immediately they invited us in and we were able
to teach three new investigators. They were all quite young and didn't
know much about religious matters but had an incredible desire to
learn. "get in and win"-Brenan Volpe. Tell Brenan I got a three for
one and It reminded me of that one time we did the same in Roca,
Nebraska. Have him tell you about it! Ha good times! Make sure he got
my letter as well!
I hope trek is going alright for you. I can imagine that it might be a
little overwhelming at times but let me know if there is anything I
can do for you. You know like tips and tricks or something or if you
need my approval to put zatch in wids family! Ha Whats up with Bro
inkley never writing me back?!You should tell Katelin I sent her a package
today and see if that
makes her day!
Make sure you write a letter to me and send some pictures of the
shootout! I love getting pictures from people! I live for it! Tell
connor dehlin to look out for the welty's down there in san diego! Ha
sorry my emails are so freaking demanding! HA anyways. Love you all
very much! Transfers is on the second so that will be the next time I
email but I have a sneaking suspicion that I am staying here!

Trace

NEWS FROM BOLTON

Hello Family,

Two words homies, Pats is going all.....the......way! I heard the
eagles already got knocked out of the playoffs. Well I can't say i
didn't expect that. JK yall, what's up? Bolton is going real great
except it's freezing outside. We had a couple days of snowfall this
past week but luckily I got my flat cap to keep my head dry. Hope you
got my pictures alright. I love sending pictures, do you love getting
them? cause if you don't, I can stop. Anyway, It was an eventful week
with lots of getting to know the area. This week was Zone Conference
and now that I am in the Ashton Zone I get to travel to Chorley for
zone conference. I love the temple here and it was good to see it
again. We took the train out there and when we were waiting for our
train to arrive, who comes strolling up to us? Elder Youles. Got to
ride the train with him and his temporary comp out to the chapel and
we had a good chat. He also sold a watch to Elder Holman on the
way....HA! "Special EMM price" He says. So funny. Zone Conference was
alright, I didn't get the post I wanted to but it was uplifting I
suppose. We made our own title of liberty, Little arts and crafts for
ya.
Elder Holman hit his year mark this week and we celebrated with some
Kebabs for dinner. It was so good but it destroyed me for the rest of
the evening. I felt so sick and I think it will be a while before I
eat another one of those.
This week sounds really lame but we did have some good come of our
efforts. Last week Elder Holman promised angela if she would stop
drinking coffee she would come to know without a doubt that the chruch
is true. In preach my gospel we are taught to extend a specific
invitation (will you live the word of wisdom) and then to promise
blessings. We have been taught to be specific and to have the faith to
see them fulfilled. Well six days after this promise Angela said she
was praying one night very sincerely for her answer and the next
morning she woke up and she said it felt like she had known her entire
life. There is power in prayer and study but also living the
commandments.
To answer your question about Camp Alma and MTA. First off, don't have
camp alma, Ha just kidding. My advice is to teach strictly out of
Preach My Gospel. Chapter 3 has all of the Lessons and at the end of
each lesson is a 5-10 minute lesson plan that outlines the doctrine in
the lessons. Have the young men memorize each point and this is a good
place to start to know the lessons. Focus on The Restoration as it is
our unique message to the world. Have them roleplay with a companion
teaching equal portions. As well with teaching, study chapter 10. If
you can master chapter 10 then teach it to the young men they will be
set. If you couple the knowledge of the lessons with the teaching
skills taught in chapter 10 they will be unstoppable. There is so many
great things that you can learn from preach my gospel. The lessons and
teaching skills will be what they go over in the MTC most likely.
Also, make sure they know the commitments with each lesson, those are
important! Also tell whit I will
try to write her back today!
I hope all is well in the land of Draper!
Trace

"Dapper Chaps"