First Week in the Beautiful Country of England

Well guys I'm not exactly sure how this whole group email thing goes so I'm basically gonna write up the highlights of each day and hopefully you wont be offended by my super long email. 

Tuesday (Oct 9) : Today as I went to the airport and said my goodbyes to my family, but when I got through security there were 2 Elder's waiting for me and they are both going to England as well. It was very helpful and I was able to feel a little more confident. The first flight to NY was not too bad up until we landed. We were supposed to board our next flight to Manchester in 15 minutes, when the pilot came over the intercom and told us there was somebody on the plain that was in our terminal before us who packed their passport into their checked luggage so we waited 20 mins for that, the we just had to run for what felt like forever through JFK, but we barely made it in time and our plan to England was gigantic! It had 70 rows and each row had 8 seats. Crazy!

Wednesday: We arrived in the MTC and it has been the most exhausting day ever. I got my first companion and his name is Elder Jenkins. He is super cool, from a small town in Idaho called Firth. He loves soccer (just so you guys know its actually called football so whenever I say football I am talking about soccer). And he is a Chelsea fan. We get along so well and already within a day have a strong bond. He is also going to the London Mission. Really cool experience that happened today was when we landed in Manchester: we got on a bus and were driving through England and I just got this overwhelming feeling that was very strong and confirming that this is the place I am supposed to be and that there are people here who God prepared for me to teach. Every missionary is so exhausted and our MTC president knows that so everyone went to bed at 8pm. It was so great. 

My companion, Elder Jenkins

Thursday: First day of classes today and it was alright. Today it felt like classes went so slow but the day went by quick. There's and Elder here from Preston so he lives only about 10 mins from the MTC and he has been helping me learn some of the slang and pronunciation so that's a lot of fun. Me and my companion Elder Jenkins seriously are perfect for each other and are so similar. Today while we were practice teaching he said a really cool quote that I loved. " The difficulty of our trials is a representation of Heavenly Father's trust in us. " I think that is really powerful and I just love Elder Jenkins and the more I get to know he I am certain that our companionship was inspired. We also played a lot of football with a bunch of European Elder's and they are good!! I am gonna have to pick up a pair of boots (or as American's call them, cleats) so I can have a better chance against them. 

Friday: Oh man today was soo slow! We started learning and memorizing the lessons in detail. We are going to be teaching the first lesson to a pretend investigator tomorrow. Also today was pizza for dinner and it was amazing. The food here is not great but that pizza tasted like mom's homemade pizza. Nothing too eventful happened today just a whole lot of classes and rain. Although it is crazy to think about how we  are 7 hours ahead of home. So pretty much when I am eating dinner it is only 10am in Utah and that just blows my mind. 

Saturday: Today was basically the same. Classes, classes, and more classes. Everything is so robotic in the MTC, exercise time is what me and Elder Jenkins look forward to every day because we get to play football. That is what we've don for exercise everyday up until today because it was raining like crazy so we just went on a run through a nearby town with a few other Elders. it was weird because that was the fist time I've been in  public as a missionary and I didn't realize all the weird looks people give. The town is super cool though, It is called Chorely. That run was definitely the highlight of my day. 

Sunday: Sacrament was really cool today. As we were taking the sacrament it was really spiritual. Also we watched a couple devotionals from apostles who went and spoke to the MTC in the past and they were really strong spiritually. We didn't do much else today. Mostly just lots; of discussions and president taught us a lot about the Holy Ghost but it was super boring because he talked for 2 hours without involving us at all. 

Monday: We went into Manchester today which is about 45 minutes away and we spent 2 hours in like a park and our purpose was just to talk to people and go up to random people and start conversations.

Me and Elder Jenkins had a goal to give away a Book of Mormon but sadly we weren't able to. We did meet some really interesting people though. For the first hour we struggled stating conversations but we eventually figured out the best thing to do was say we were from America and asked were the best places to eat are. Then a convo would start and usually they would ask why were in England and it would be fairly easy. Also on our way back we drove past Old Trafford (Manchester United's stadium) and it was incredible. We came back and had a really spiritual testimony meeting too. Overall today was my favorite day in the mission!

Everyone at the MTC

My district

The view from Stockton's room at the MTC

*This is not part of the letter Stockton sent home but I got a message from the mother of Sister Gaillard who flew with Stockton from SLC to New York to England.  I got an email from my daughter today. Let me just say you must have an amazing son. She was very nervous to fly. She said that Elder Orchard kept her occupied with encouragement and jokes during take off and landing. She said he is a great new friend.  I enjoyed getting that message almost as much as I enjoyed Stockton's first email home.

I also got to Google Hangout with Stockton for a bit and asked him a few questions:

Mom:  I want to know more about your plane ride over there.  How did you pass the time?  You clearly didn't have time to eat in the terminal.  I guess you relied on airplane food?

Stockton:  The plane had screens so I played trivia games and chess and stuff the whole first flight, then I slept the whole second flight.  The food on the second flight was a really small portion but soo good.  I had chicken meatballs and mash potatoes and then crackers and cheese.

Mom:  I'm guessing not everyone can sleep anywhere like you!  You are lucky.  So you got off the plane and boarded a bus and jumped right into classes at the MTC, no shower or anything?

Stockton:  Yep, exactly.

Mom:  Please tell me you at least brushed your teeth!

Stockton: Yeah

Mom:  Mom's worry about these kind of things.

Stockton:  One of the sister missionaries had a good point on the flight through.  Because the president gave us a chance to sleep later in the day and take a nap in between classes but the sister said if we slept at all during the day it would be almost impossible to go to sleep that night and adjust to the time zone.  If you think adjusting to a 1 hour time difference is hard for Disney, 7 hours is unbelievable.  So we just had to stay awake.

Stockton:  Also, another thing I forgot to mention was that I have been sick with a cold basically this whole time.  It has sucked but I look at it as a blessing because I can still go to class and stuff here but it would be hard to proselyte while sick like this.

Mom:  Ugh...I'm sorry.  Did you get some medicine?

Stockton:  Yeah.  My comp let me clear out his stash lol.  He has been a blessing.

Mom:  Do they give you an allowance at the MTC?  Free laundry?

Stockton:  Nope.  Yeah, I did it on Thursday so I could beat the p day rush as well.

Mom:  And tell me more about the food.

Stockton:  The food is pretty good.  It is basically always something different.  Much better than I expected but nothing like your cooking.

Stockton:  We are about to go out and play some football (again soccer just in case you don't remember) as Elders before P day is over so I am heading out in about 2 minutes and this should be all you will hear from me today.