Huh?

Ok, so last week we were expecting an e-mail on Monday, and it came on Tuesday. This week, we were looking for it on Tuesday, and it came on Wednesday. Does that mean next week's will be on Thursday? Not sure, but we're just glad to hear from our missionary whenever he is able to communicate with us. I'm guessing his normal p-day will be Wednesday, and they just had it on Tuesday last week because of transfers. Time will tell.

Linda asked Eric lots of questions in her last e-mail to him, so we got lots of answers today. He loves working with Elder Chan, who he says is very diligent and obedient to the mission rules. Elder Chan has been on his mission for 15 months, and has already served as a district leader and zone leader, and has also already trained a new missionary, as he is doing with Eric now. They have already taught several Chinese people and are scheduled to teach 4 more later this week. Three of the people they taught last week came to church on Sunday, so he was happy about that. His Chinese continues to progress, though slower now since he only has 30-60 minutes a day to work on it, compared to 4 hours daily in the MTC.

Eric lives on the second floor of an apartment building in a flat he and Elder Chan share with two other missionaries, the Sheffield zone leaders (Elders Strong and Salgado). Eric describes them as good missionaries, fun and energetic. The apartment has two bathrooms and two showers, which is useful when you have 4 missionaries all trying to get ready at the same time every day. It also has a dishwasher, and a balcony that looks out over part of the city. His accommodations sound nicer than we had anticipated. He did say that the previous missionaries hadn't kept the flat very clean, so they were spending part of their p-day today doing some deep cleaning. That should be good for him.

There are 3 wards in Sheffield, but there are no student wards or foreign-language wards in the entire mission (both are somewhat common in the US). The members of the church are very kind to the missionaries. Eric said they have a tea appointment, which we would call dinner, nearly every night. He is enjoying the food, especially the desserts, and can already feel himself gaining weight.

The weather has apparently been pretty good, because he said he hasn't used his umbrella yet. He said they haven't had much rain or cold weather, but he is planning to buy a jacket and some winter gear today. For some reason, the mission president had recommended that they wait until they arrived in England to buy these things.

Eric has become popular with his flat-mates, because they are allowed to listen to Mormon Tabernacle Choir music, and Linda sent his iPod loaded with MoTab. He has an iHome docking device which allows all of them to listen at the same time. They are also allowed to watch G-rated animated Disney movies on p-day. Last week, Eric watched Toy Story 2. No word on what his choice is for today.

Once again, he closed his e-mail by bearing testimony of the work he is doing: "I just want you all to know that the work is true, that Jesus is the Christ and that the restored gospel can give us more happiness in this life than anything else. I am so excited to share this message each day. I know that it can change lives for the better. It can give us peace and comfort and purpose and a foundation."