Elder Matthew Frederickson: Matthew's First Area!!

Hello everybody! I am now in my first area- Trowbridge with mty first
companion, Elder von Allmen! We usually don't get to email on Fridays
but since we just got to the area I get to email everyone :) also I
lied to everyone, my P-Days are actually on Mondays so yeah I'll be
writing on Monday. I get two hours of email time and can pretty much
email anyone except for other Elders in my mission. So email away,
everyone! I should be able to reply to the majority of them. Also, I
have my new address.

Elder Matthew Frederickson
5 Broadcloth Lane
Trowbridge, Wiltshire
BA14 7HE

England

So yeah, everyone write me, okay? Speaking of which, I got SOOO much
mail at the mission home hahaha best feeling ever. The lady there said
she'd never seen someone have so much mail waiting for them at the
mission home, everyone was jealous. I had letters from Amy, Sarah,
Jenn, a couple from Becky and Grandma, Ariana, Andrew, and Macey.
Thank you guys SO MUCH! I'm gonna write everyone back over the next
few days, okay? So you all should get letters from me next week. Also
99% sure this will be my address for the next 12 weeks, potentially
more. So yeah.

SOOOO much has happened the last few days so I'll just launch right
in. Tuesday was a LONG day, we had workshops all day and no physical
activity so that was kind of a bummer but that's okay. It was all
worth it in the end, because we had an incredible testimony meeting
where almost everyone in our MTC group spoke. It's amazing to me how
close we all came just through three weeks of learning about the
gospel. I miss them so much already. After the testimony, we all sang
"God Be With You Til We Meet Again." It was a great moment. To end the
night, we had some cookies and stuff in President and Sister Walkers
apartment, which is in the MTC. It's way nice.  After that, I packed
and stuff which took til midnight. I'm a terrible packer hahaha I
always wait til the last minute.

The next morning we had to wake up at 5 AM (yikes) and
shower/shave/get ready to leave. I had some toast and bid farewell to
the MTC Presidency and the England London missionaries. Then, at 6:30,
we boarded a bus with all the London South and Birmingham missionaries
and took off. We made a stop at the Birmingham mission home, dropped
them off, then said some goodbyes. A lot of the good friends I made at
the MTC are going to Birmingham so that was a bummer. We then got back
on the bus and rode another 2.5 hours to the London South mission
home, which is at the London Temple. We were greeted by the Mission
Presidency and moved our luggage under the visitors center and then
found out we were staying the night there which was pretty cool.
Afterwards we had some training with the APs (Assistants to the
President) and had interviews with President Shamo. I'm so bummed that
we only had him as our mission president for two days, he is so
awesome. Anyways, we then got our trainers! Mine is Elder von Allmen
from Switzerland. He is so cool! I think we are gonna get along very
well. He has only been out 4.5 months so combined our companionship
has only been out 4.5 months and our district has only been out a
combined 13.5 months. So that should be an adventure. The other
missionaries in our district are serving in Bath, we drove through it
and it's SOOOO NICE. Funny story about getting assigned trainers-
while we were having our Q/A session with the APs, there was this
elder who said he came from Provo. He had a really negative attitude
and at one point had a phone that went off, so we were all thinking
this guy is nuts/apostate/genius for managing to have a cell phone
throughout his entire MTC time. When asked why he wanted to be here he
was like "parents." When they were assigning trainers, it turned out
he was actually someones trainer hahahahaha he'd been out for a year.
It was so funny. He's training my friend, Elder Erickson, and they are
going to one of the channel islands! So jealous haha those are
apparently so awesome.

After that, we took a group picture and heard from President and
Sister Shamo. They gave a great message. It was pretty emotional
because it was their last night in the mission field. It was a great
way to end the night though. I then read all my letters and went to
bed. The next morning, we got to do a temple session, which was
awesome, but something crazy happened... at the VERY end of the
session (a couple of people were already in the Celestial room) the
fire alarm went off... so yeah. We all evacuated the temple in the
middle of the session. It was SO strange and kind of hilarious. No one
really knew what to do. We were all just standing around in our temple
clothes. After like ten minutes we went back inside and finished the
session. It was great. Everyone was like "oh this is going in my
journal tonight."

After that we just hung around for a while, because the van driving
the missionaries in the Bristol Zone (where I am) didn't leave for
like two hours. We then drove out to our area, but we first dropped
off some missionaries in Bristol and Bath. Seriously guys, Bath is the
coolest place ever. It's awesome. We drove by a castle that apparently
is owned/is the primary residency of Nicholas Cage? Pretty sweet.
After that, we FINALLY arrived at our house (that's right, me and
Elder von Allmen have a HOUSE) at 8ish. We went shopping for dinner
and just hung around for a little while. It was nice. The house is so
great. It's two stories. Downstairs is a kitchen and living room (with
our study desks) and upstairs is the bedroom and a room where we keep
our clothes and a bathroom. We even have a little backyard. It's
great.

As for Trowbridge, it's awesome. Our area includes Twobridge and 5 or
6 little towns around it. We don't have a car though, it's all
walking. I'm gonna be walking about 8-10 miles every day! Talk about a
good workout! We live in a sweet little neighborhood. I like it a lot.
I'm so excited to serve here. Apparently the work is slow, but we'll
see if we can change that :) also the ward here has like 100 people
and my companion says its way awesome. So that should be great. Also
Johnny Depp's house is in my area so we're gonna knock on his door so
be jealous everybody.

So yeah, that's about everything! I'll send some pictures of the house
and stuff.

Other things
-You all should email me because I have so much time to email hahaha
-From now on, send me letters and packages to the address on here, NOT
the mission home... simply because I only get those every few weeks.
-Letters might take even less time to arrive now, because I'm way far east.
-Keep sending me pictures! Whether over email or letters, I'm not picky.

I think that's it! Love you guys so much! I'm so happy I am here doing
the work of the Lord, it is such a priveledge to serve Him. Can't wait
to give you an update on Monday!

With love,
Elder Matthew Frederickson