Dear Family,

It sounds like you have had an eventful week. So the first highlight of the week was the fact that I ate fish and chips! Number two, was that I made my first tie trade, and I got the better end of the deal haha. 

So I have kind of a funny story for this week: when we pray in German and want to say "we thank thee" we say "wir danken dir" and this one elder in my district drew a fat little giraffe thing that he named a "Virdonkin Deer" it was weird. At the end of the day I was saying the prayer and when I said "wir danken dir" I started busting up laughing because all I could think about was the "Virdonkin Deer". Now everyone laughs when we hear "wir Danken dir" so now we say "wir sind Dankbar" instead which means "we are thankful" so we won't laugh. That may be a dumb story but it was really funny in the moment.

 We went on a church history tour of Preston and it was awesome. We went to the Preston market square where Orson Hyde and Heber C Kimball would preach back in 1837. They baptized hundreds from the market square. This was also the place where Gordon B Hinckley preached the first time on his mission. Preston was his first area. It went way differently for President Hinckley. Instead of baptizing thousands, he was really discouraged by his first experience.

 After the market square we went to the place where president Hinckley lived when he got the famous letter from his dad that said ''...forget yourself and go to work.'' Our last stop was a little town called Downham. Heber C Kimball and Joseph Fielding went to this town and baptized 110 people in their first 5 days there. After about a year in Downham, Heber was ready to go back to the States and left the mission in the charge of Joseph Fielding. As he left he took his hat off because he knew that he was on sacred ground. As he walked through the town all of the townspeople came out of their houses with tears in their eyes to bid him farewell. All of the children in the town came out and held his hands and lead him to the church as a sign of respect. When Heber related this experience to Joseph Smith, the prophet said that an ancient prophet blessed that valley and Heber bringing the gospel to the valley was a fulfillment of that prophecy. I love modern revelation. Today was easily the most spiritual day I have had at the MTC. I love you all!

Leibe,

My district- notice the awkward gap between elders and sisters- yep no inappropriate relationships happenin' here

The market square where Heber C Kimball and Joseph Fielding preached

The Downham Valley

The "Virdonkin Deer"

 Elder Carr