Notes from Sam -- 2 July 2008

Manchester Town Hall

Elder Pimentel with Cromwell, posing to "fit in"

Manchester cathedral interior

Dear family,

I forgot to mention in the letter I sent last week that I street contacted a guy in French! I stopped him and he said he only spoke French, so I started talking to him – told him we were from the Church, asked him which church he went to, and left him a Finding Faith in Christ card. It was really tough but I was pretty excited that I managed to do it.

President Jacobsen is gone. He flew out on Monday a few hours after President Bullock flew in. The ward had a going-away party for him on Friday night, and Elder Adams and I stopped by to say goodbye. I mentioned to him that Uncle Frank was my great-uncle, and he said “That explains a lot.” I took that as a pretty high compliment. He told me that Uncle Frank was one of the most demanding leaders he ever served under, and he seemed to respect him a lot. He asked me to say hi to Uncle Frank for him.

We haven’t met President Bullock yet, but next week is zone conference. So by next Wednesday I should have a report.

Today for P-day Elders Adams, Phillips, Morin and I went into Manchester Piccadilly (Manchester town center). It was great! We saw the cathedral and the town hall and enjoyed being in the center of things. I think in coming weeks we’ll come back and check out some of the many free museums in the area.

Elder Adams and I are teaching a lot of new people. We’ve collected a ton of new contacts over the past few weeks and slowly they’re becoming investigators! Yesterday Elder Adams and I had an amazing lesson with one of them, a woman named Terry. She is struggling with alcoholism right now – she used to be an alcoholic but quit completely for six years and has just been struggling again for the past three weeks – but she recognized that we have the power to help her. It was great to teach her and watch her feel the Spirit and recognize that we really are sent from God and that we really can help her change her life. She accepted the Book of Mormon readily and committed to read it and pray daily. I’m really excited to help her make some big changes in her life.

Short time today! I’ve got to run. I love you all!

Love,
Elder Pimentel

P.S. I love Ruth and Ed’s letters! And Mom and Dad’s! And Isaac and Eleanor’s! Thank you!

P.P.S. I have some great videos from our happy district meeting but they're too big to send. : (