8/29/11

Hi Mom & others (+Dad, Patrick, and Lindsey),

So my first area is Gateshead! It is WAY north in the mission. My trainer is Elder Montgomery, and he is way cool (although cool is slang here and I can't use it anymore). We are whitewashing this area. For those who don't know that means that there were no missionaries here and now there are us. The area book is SO unorganized and just a mess! So until church yesterday our only guidelines were a few sticky notes on walls :P But it has been fun. ALOT of tracking and street contacting, but fun. I still haven't taught my first official lesson, but I will on Tuesday! But I have met so many great people here, especially the ward mission leader. He is determined that we will lead the mission! I think with these people and our work we just might! We have tons of less actives in the ward though and we have been focusing on them last week. But I think I have been inside like 5 houses, and three were ward leaders :P. So knocking doors is less than ideal. But now that we have our foot in the door with the members, I think things are really going to pick up :). Oh and our first baptism is next week! Daisy and Fatima were being taught by the Zone leaders (pretty much because Bro. Bell [ward mission leader] made them stop by often to teach because he is just that into his job!). This week I am going to go over the baptismal interview questions with them so fun fun. They are on holiday for now though so that won't be till Thursday. Anyway that is England; see ya next week (oh P-Days are on Mondays here)
Love,
Elder W. Tombs
P.S. Have Mary text Lindsey Hi! :)

8/23/11

Hey everyone,

First off - thank you for the mail everyone. :) I would take time to list all the people who wrote, but there are alot of them and I only have a few min.

Tomorrow is really p-day but it is also transfers so I won't be able to send anything and so they gave us 5 min today. But I am fine, happy, and no - I haven't picked up the accent (some funny stories on that by the way). So see ya next week sorry.

Love,

Elder William W. Tombs

pics from MTC office

8/16/2011

Hey everyone thanks for the letters this week from:

-Mom

-Dad

-Patrick x2

-and Lindsey :)

That is wonderful! :) (The last bit about Mary Beth texting Lindsey I mean). (I wrote William and informed him that Mary Beth was keeping up with Lindsey and texting her very often.) That really makes me smile on the inside. But things here are going really great. Everyone is getting along really well and the food here is wonderful. I even enjoy the salads that they serve us. Oh and being a district leader here is like the easiest thing ever (and probably the most helpful). My district is amazing! We have so many great people including one who knows Lindsey. Ha! (If you read these letters Lindsey you get to know more about that in my letter to you). But also being a leader makes me watch everything I do. So I have been almost the ideal missionary. (But I pretty much have the ideal district.) So things here are great and I have been staying really active and have been working out daily so I don't come home and need P90X. Haha. But hey, my time is up, so see ya next week from Leeds.

Love,

Elder William W. Tombs

8/10/11

Hey Mom/Family,

So the MTC here is great. And I didn't forget anything that has come up so far, so that is good. And the food here is decent. It is nothing too exiting. I can definetly see what you mean by bland though, nothing here seems to have the same suger content or be as processed. Haha. But seriously, I miss processed foods. Except they have nutela here! It is amazing! Every morning I have a bit of it on a piece of toast with my breakfast. Oh and I have only had cabbage twice and it is decent (at least how they prepare it in the MTC) but it is the potatos that I think I am going to die from. They serve them with literaly every meal. I don't particularly enjoy potatos either so that is getting a bit annoying, but I am learning just to chew and swallow. My comp here is Elder Holland and he is a way cool guy. He enjoys pillaging and always seems to have something to say (especially after lights out :P). But we are working well together and there is no chance to slack here at the MTC so we are just trying to be perfectly obedient. Oh and there are only 50 missionarys here, and almost 1/2 of them will be serving in the Scotland Ireland mission ( including my comp) and the other 1/2 are spred between Manchester and Leeds. But WOW Patrick is already teaching the mission prep! That is fast. Tell him not to let Quinn try and give any crap. Haha. Oh and tell David that I will let this week slide because he is at EFY but that is no excuse. Anyway, we are about to head into town to do some shopping so I gotsta run. See ya round guys.

Love,

Elder William W. Tombs

8/5/2011 Frist email home

Hello Mom,

So I just made it to the MTC and things here are amazing. This place is a whole lot smaller than I imagined, but the people are really nice and everything is very homey. Also, the keyboards here are way odd. All of the letters are in the same spots but the symbols and the shift keys are different. Anyway, this place is great and I am safe and today will be my only really relaxing day it seems. We have practically nothing to do today but unpack and sleep. :P. But the temple here is beautiful and we will be able to go next Wednesday I believe. Also, I met up with 28 other Elders and 4 Sisters in the Atlanta airport so that was nice. We also had 2 Elders from South Africa and 2 from Australia. Oh and 2 from Germany that haven't arrived yet, but none of us Elders know if they speak English, so that may be fun. Anyway it is way early in the morning there but it is lunch time here, so I will see y'all around.

Love Elder William W. Tombs

P.S. P-days are on Tuesdays here so that is probably when I will email.

P.P.S. Tell Lindsey hi.

Starting the mission ......

We started the first week of August with welcoming home Elder Patrick Tombs - Monday, August 1 @ 3:41pm. Patrick was able to meet Lindsey Hanna and Shayla Miller as well as say hello to the Roberts and Joshua Bacon. On Tuesday the boys were able swim and have fun together. Tuesday evening the Betasso group came in to town so that Wednesday we could take pictures and preserve the precious moment that everyone could be together.

On Wednesday, August 3rd, we started the evening taking pictures on the TTU campus. We came back to the house and did a quick change into our formal outfits for William to be set apart. The Tombs family, most Betassos, Hannas (Mom, Lindsey, & Robert), Shayla Miller, and Marti Wallace were all present for William's setting apart. President Shumay, President Kimball, and President McCombs were present and shared their thoughts with William. It was a sacred experience. Afterward we walked to the temple to take more family photos.

On Thursday morning, Lindsey, Mandy, Shayla, and the Roberts met us at the airport to send William off to Manchester. From Manchester, he and a host of other missionaries were to be picked up and brought by bus to the MTC in Preston, England.

What a wonderful and blessed week.

Getting Ready to Leave

William recieved his mission call the same day Tyler Roberts received his! Lee Ann and I (Elizabeth) got the mail and made the phone calls. I texted William to bring the crowd home for lunch. Tyler had to come to the house from working at Chick Fil-A. They were so fun to watch as they opened up their calls. Tyler was called to serve in Calgary, Canada and William was called to serve in Leeds, England.

William started to make his lists for what to buy and what to find for the mission. First up - get the passport and the visa and secondly, shop for the limited wardrobe. Those were fairly laborious but the waiting on the visa was the long part. Two weeks prior to his "report in" date he received his visa.