Sister Pursglove in the England Manchester LDS Mission: Weekly Letter #1: October 1, 2019

Hello hello, Sister Pursglove is in the MTC and is in England as well! I am almost fully accustomed to the change in time zones and it is so nice. Living the dream baby! Just some quick information before we get into the week: my P-day is Tuesday while I am in the MTC so expect responses and emails then!

I flew out to England this last Tuesday, and not going to lie, the first/second day was so rough. Our flight landed in England at 7:30 AM here, so we all hadn't slept for about 11 hours, and then we wouldn't be going to bed until 10:30. Yikes.

There was a huge group of us that travelled together, and we then landed and got on a bus and drove up to the MTC. Holy cow!! Anyone that doesn't get to go to the England MTC is 100% missing out and I am so sorry for you. Right now, there are 53 missionaries, and 9 leave tomorrow. The only missions that come here are the England missions, the Scotland/ Ireland mission, any mission speaking Greek, and any European German-speaking missions.

So it is a TINY MTC but it so so gorgeous and is absolutely stunning. It is a brick building covered in ivy and leaves right on the temple grounds (so it takes 3 minutes to walk up there and we are constantly going up there to study), next to a giant pond covered with lily pads and beautiful flowers, with views of the town Chorley. Paradise I am telling you, paradise. Hahahahaha when I leave this place is I am absolutely going to cry because I know this is heaven compared to an actual mission. RIP.

However, as I previously mentioned, it was a very hard first day just because we were SO exhausted. We arrived at the MTC, took our bags inside, and we were all immediately whisked aside for MTC orientation, instructions, and other information. We were then assigned companions and assigned rooms.

My companion’s name is Sister Nielson from Highland, UT and I absolutely adore her. We are so alike, and have so much in common it is actually insane. Another thing that is funny, is that she also has dual citizenship, as she lived in Ireland for 12 years. A quick tender mercy, because neither of us had visas (but British passports instead), for some reason, the Church travel department didn't inform our MTC president that we were coming, so they thought neither of us were coming. When we arrived, they were totally shocked and had to hurry and prepare another room. Because they didn't expect us, we now have a room to ourselves (while most rooms have 6 girls per room), and it is the best thing in the world.

Please forgive the horrible spelling and weird things on this, but my Samsung phone sucks. Two thumbs down.

Anyway! After orientation and kind of unpacking, we went and did an Endowment session at the temple and I kid you not, (I feel so bad but whatever what can you do) we ALL fell asleep we were so exhausted. The temple workers were constantly having to come and wake us up because we all were passed out.

However, after the temple, we all felt much more awake and we went to dinner. Another perk of the EMTC: the food here is catered by this super amazing company that's won a bunch of awards and the food is AMAZING. Genuinely I would die for so many of the things we've had (the best being this chocolate orange torte which tasted exactly like the Terry chocolate oranges you can buy). After dinner we were assigned districts. In my district is Elder Abbott (our district leader from Las Vegas) & Elder Louisel (from France), Elder Seidel (from Canada) & Elder Rollins (from UT), Sister Arts (from the Netherlands) & Sister Matevasi (from Australia), Sister Bardot (from France) & Sister Peréz (from Spain), and then my companion and me. I am very lucky to have so many people from different places as it has allowed me to make people laugh with my attempts at French, Spanish, and now German and Dutch. Everyone teaches me and my companion 3 new words a day in their language, so by the time Sister N. and I leave, we will have 5 languages under our belts. Hahaha I am not blessed with the gift of tongues! I love my district so much and we are all genuinely best friends. Pretty sure that's only because we just left our families and friends 3 days ago and we have no one left, but nonetheless we are all very close. I've included a photo of everyone at the MTC and my district. Love them. Love us.

Last but best: the teachers and my MTC President and his wife. We have 3 teachers: Brother Gillstrap (from California, and whose last day is tomorrow), Sister Carrano (from Italy), and BROTHER CASADABARI one of my actual favorite people in the world from Italy! Bro C served in my mission and was just released in November so he has been telling us all about the mission. He is so funny with such a dry wit, but is also so spiritual and teaches very well. He's killer. More on Bro. Casadabari later. Our MTC President is President Warne and then Sister Warne. Both are nice and we see them 24/7 because this MTC is so small. They are great.

Some of the best things from this week:

1) We have taught three lessons already to 2 different investigators: Angelo and Claire. Both are our teachers (Casadabari & Carrano respectively) but you have to treat it like it's a real investigator. Harder than it sounds. Our first lesson with Brother Casadabari was an absolute joke, as Angelo is one of the funniest people I have ever met. A few one-liners from our lesson with him.

2) When we first arrived, I told Brother Casadabari that the last movie I had watched was Nacho Libre and he told me he had never seen it but he would go watch it that night. The next day he came in laughing so hard and told me that he and his wife and watched it 2 times because the first time they thought it was dumb, but then he was convinced it would be funny, so they watched it again and he ended up loving it. Anyway....later that day we had to teach "Angelo", a character Bro. C made up. Brother Casadabari is Italian, and has a thick Italian accent, and he honestly sounds like Nacho Libre the tiniest little bit. However, we go to this lesson and we knock on the door of the TRC (which are rooms that are built to look like doorways and living rooms of houses so we can practice), and we hear him fiddling with the lock. He then yells out "Coming!" but with his accent, Sister N. thought he said "Come in!" so she just opens the door and starts walking in and he just SHRIEKS and slams the door in our faces. I genuinely started crying I was laughing so hard. So when he finally got around to opening the door, I was bent over crying, and my companion was bright red and mortified. It didn't go better from there. The entire lesson to try to get us to break, he would say Nacho Libre quotes or would make us do, or would say weird things. For example, when we walked in and asked where he wanted us to sit, he pointed to a single wooden chair while he went and sat on the huge loveseat. Totally determined to make up for our behavior, Sister N. sat on the arm of the chair, and I sat on the chair itself. He made us sit like that for 1 minute, and then had us switch because the wooden chair was more comfortable for his back. Ah Angelo. When asked if he believed in a God, he responded, “I don't believe in God. I believe in science.” I choked. LOL. He sounds just like Jack Black in that movie—what a gift. Genuinely that lesson was one of the funniest things of my life and I have a huge bite on the inside of my cheek from trying to keep myself from laughing.

In all seriousness though, I have absolutely loved it here so far and the Spirit you feel here every day constantly is so amazing. What a cool experience and how amazing that I get to be here with the coolest group of people. As of right now, I am so excited and I love it.

Love ya lots!

Sister Pursglove

Favorite food of the week: Cumberland sausage - look it up. Yum.

New word of the week: potsfedori (probably spelled so horrendously) - mean's dang it in Dutch

Pics: my district, the new missionaries that all arrived that day, the MTC, all of the sisters in the MTC, and the Preston temple.

Click on any of the photographs to see them in their original size.
Also, you can access more photographs in the 'photographs' section above.