First Week in Trowbridge!

Hello friends and family! How are you all? I loved getting emails from you guys :) made my day. I sure wish I was at the beach with the family! Especially with all of this rain... not cool. It's okay though! I'm SO relieved to hear that everyone made it through that storm safely. I heard about it out here and it was pretty scary. I also wrote a a few people back! I finished my letters to Macey and Ariana, I'll send those out today. I need to finish the one to Andrew, I'll send that out tomorrow. I'll write family people once they are back from the beach! If you haven't written me yet, I would LOOOVE to hear from you! 

Hello friends and family! How are you all? I loved getting emails from you guys :) made my day. I sure wish I was at the beach with the family! Especially with all of this rain... not cool. It's okay though! I'm SO relieved to hear that everyone made it through that storm safely. I heard about it out here and it was pretty scary. I also wrote a a few people back! I finished my letters to Macey and Ariana, I'll send those out today. I need to finish the one to Andrew, I'll send that out tomorrow. I'll write family people once they are back from the beach! If you haven't written me yet, I would LOOOVE to hear from you! Anyways, let me tell you about my first few days out in the mission field! It's been absolutely wonderful. We do a ton of walking every day, but I love it because it is good excersise. We've only had two lessons so far, but I'll tell you about that a bit later! Most of our time is spent walking from place to place. It's gorgeous country. Trowbridge used to be a car area but the sisters wrecked it twice and it has been a walking area ever since. Also, fun fact I just learned: damn and hell aren't swear words here. Like, members of the chuch say them all the time. Funny, huh? We haven't been able to do too much work since we've gotten here, but the work we have done is amazing. Allow me to share a couple miracles that I've seen with you guys. The first miracle is about a man we met finding in Trowbridge. His name is Adam and he is 37 years old. He has severe confidence issue, SEVERE, and has had a really tough life. He told us that God hates him and laughs at him because he isn't from Spain and because he isn't an actor. However, he reluctantly agreed to meet with us. The appointment was a little awkward at first, but we showed him the Finding Faith In Christ DVD and he absolutely loved it. He started crying and stuff and said that God really does love him. We invited him to be baptized on July 21st and he accepted! Only problem is, he's scared of water... but yeah we will work that out. We were surprised he accepted in the first place. We then invited him to attend church. We weren't expecting him to come, but he came halfway through Sunday school! (In ward here, Sacrament meeting is last... it's like backwards) he then came to our dinner appointment after church and you could tell that there was a slight change of heart as the day progressed. What an amazing experience. The Lord really does change hearts. The second miracle is a slightly smaller one, but still great. Before we went shopping for groceries, we said a prayer as we were leaving (we always do) and in the prayer, Elder von Allmen asked that we might find someone to teach on our way. Less than a minute later, a teenage boy started asking about us. He though we were Amish at first but that's okay hahahaha he was in a bit of a rush so we gave him a passalong card but yeah it wasa way cool experience. The Lord truly does hear and answer our prayers. I absolutely love the ward! We had a service activity on Saturday where we helped clean the yard at a home for the mentally disabled. It was great to provide service and get to know several members of the ward. On Sunday, we had a dinner appointment at the Turveys. They are a really cool family, apparently they have the missionaries over on most Sundays. This Friday, we are going over to the Ransbottoms for pizza, so that should be great! I'm kinda glad we only have a couple of dinner appointments every week because I want to lose weight, not gain it! Some of my friends are out having multiple DAs every day. I couldn't handle that haha. This week should be a busy, but awesome week. We have a district meeting in Bristol on Wednesday and a zone conference (with our zone, Poole zone, and Plymouth zone) on Thursday! I think we will meet President Millar and stuff. I know he will be great! Also if any of you sent letters to the mission home and they arrived after I left, I will get them on Thursday. Yay! That is about it as far as news goes... it's only been a few days hahaha. I wanna hear how you guys are doing! Email/write me! Mom, I'm going to send you a list of things I would not mind getting in a package. Love you all so much! -Matthew Frederickson