Pictures:
Metopolitan horse police
Wembley stadium from the tube station
where I go finding in Willesden Green
Like I always seem to say, this week went by super fast again. I am always surprised at how fast the week goes by. The days feel like weeks, and the weeks feel like days. I hit another milestone yesterday, nine months! It isn't a big deal for me, but it means that the sisters in my group are half done already. Wow. Anyways, I spent Wednesday in South Kensington for a leadership conference, went to different parts of the area again through out the week, played football on Saturday morning, and so on.
Speaking of football, there was a match here at Wembley Stadium yesterday. Playing here was Manchester City and Liverpool, and I can't remember a time when I've seen so many people out on the street, especially on a Sunday. I thought BYU games had a lot of people there, and I was wrong. Every pub around Wembley Park/ Wembley Central had a line (the English term is a "queue") down the street of people waiting to get inside. I don't think I've seen so many police in one place either. The amount of times we got asked to pray that someone's team would win is quite shocking. I'm sure 95% of the time it's just the drunk fans that want to have a laugh at us, but whatever. If only people knew how much entertainment we get when others try to make fun of us.
Though no day is the same as a missionary, the life can get quite repetitive at times. If we don't have a teaching appointment, we are usually out on the streets trying to talk to people (door knocking isn't that effective). The life of a missionary is a unique paradox because no day is the same, but our routines can get very repetitive and tedious if we aren't careful. I am always looking for ways to make the repetitive parts into fun parts, and here is one way I found. The play "The Book of Mormon" is still quite popular over here, and there are still advertisements on the sides of the busses for the play. If I see a bus coming with an advertisement, I'll try to get someone's attention, point to it, point to my Book of Mormon, and attempt to imitate the jumping thing the "missionary" in the advertisement does.
This has worked quite well in at least making some of the "tough old Brits" laugh a little, and eventually leading to a conversation.
Sometimes it just turns out really awkward and people scurry off while trying to avoid eye contact with me, but it's still fun.
I am still learning how to talk with people in London, because it is so different than what I have experienced before. One of the tricks I have learned is to try to start the conversation by asking a question about the person, because people like to talk about themselves. The next part is to try to refer to the Book of Mormon in the first 45 seconds of the conversation, because people don't have time here and want you to be blunt and get straight to the point. Out in the countryside, it is so much easier to get into a good conversation with someone and then the time ends up going by really fast as well.
Until next week!
Elder Spencer Ammermon
England London Mission
64-68 Princes Gate, Exhibition Road
South Kensington
London
England SW7 2PA