Monday, June 17, 2013

Thank you for emailing me. It was nice to have something to read today. It also was good to see pictures of the kids.

 

I was thinking about what you said that Tucker says I've been gone forever. If you think about it, I've been gone for 1/4 of his life and I've been gone for a little less than 1/2 of Kimber's. That is forever to them.

It's been a good week since Wednesday. Well, to be honest, I can't really remember what we've done since then...

Yesterday was good. Church was good. It was a good father's day here in Southport. We had a really good miracle happen yesterday. A few weeks ago, we had tea with the Bishop and his family. Sister Turner mentioned her cousin had been coming to church for a while and was interested in learning more. At the time the cousin was on holiday so we didn't get to meet her. We talked to Sister Turner about a week and a half ago again and she mentioned that with the time of church changing to an earlier time, her cousin wasn't sure she could make it. She has some health problems that limit her sometimes. So it wasn't looking very hopeful anymore. But yesterday her cousin did come to church! And we taught her and it was great! I asked her what she would like to see happen and she said that she wants to learn more so that she can become more of a permanent part of our church. So she has said she'll come to church every week now and so hopefully we can help her along the way! So that was great!

A funny story for you about Elders...

We have Elders here in Southport as well. I can't remember if I told you that when I moved her. But recently we've been having joint tea appointments on Sundays. So members have all 4 of us over. Yesterday Sister Finke and I had planned to catch a bus from church back to the flat to drop off the extra books we had at church and then head over to this member's for tea at 2:30. We were talking to people after church and we realized the time was 1:45. We got out to the bus stop and realized the bus wasn't coming for 20 minutes because it was on Sunday service. So we decided obviously we wouldn't have time to stop by the flat and that we needed to walk quickly to the member's to be on time. We ended up being 5 minutes late to the member's and we felt really bad... But we were there and there were no Elders. So we were waiting in the living room while the family finished up their tea preparations (which they wouldn't let us help with). After about 15 minutes the Dad came in and said the Elders were going to be late because they were waiting for a bus. The Grandma, who is proper British, was like, "The Sisters got here. Why can't the Elders get here? They walked, can't the Elders walk?" There's one Elder who is a bit overweight and rather new in the mission... and the dad said, "Elder H. doesn't like walking." The grandma replied, "Are you serious? Well he needs to learn. It would do him some good to do some walking. I'm going to tell him that when they get here." OH and tell him she did. We ended up starting eating without them... they were over 45 minutes late. She told them off good. And Sister Finke and I just sat there and tried not to laugh.... But then it got better.... During dessert, the grandma offered Elder H. some more. He said, "No thanks, I'm okay, I'm full. I ate some KFC before we came." At first we all thought they went to KFC on a Sunday, but he clarified that it was leftovers... I then asked, "Elder, do you just carry food with you all the time? You brought leftover KFC to church?" He then explained that they had gone back to their flat to get leftover KFC after church before going to the tea appointment.... oh my goodness, the grandma was not happy... She said, "You went home to eat before coming to MY house for tea and that's why you were so very late?! Next time there won't be food for you. You can just be left at the door." My only thought was like, "Elders, you are idiots and you so deserve this..." Needless to say, that family said next time it will only be us that are invited. I had to call President to ask him another question but then threw in, "President, what would you do if you were us and you were watching a member tell off the Elders? How would you respond?" He said, "A member was telling off the Elders?"--- "Well, President, they deserved it." ----"Well, then, I guess you just sit there and laugh." I like President's ideas. I told him that's what we did!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

So... It's been a good week and a half. Stressful and with some irritations, but good.

Last Tuesday we had a training for the new missionaries. It's called the first 5 weeks, but for Sister Finke, since she came in 2 weeks into the transfer, it was the first 3 weeks...

 

I'm at a point now that my energy levels, coming up on a year and half, are running really low. I feel like sometimes I barely have enough energy to motivate myself let alone my companion. So I'm trying to budget my energy. One thing I've learned on my mission, but that is always a continual process no matter who you are is patience. I was sitting in the bedroom the other day by myself trying to calm my mind and be more patient, and I grabbed the phone and called Sister Preston. I asked, "How do you become more patient?" I just heard laughter on the other end for a minute. Sister Preston still gets annoyed with people, but I figured she's been married and has dealt with President's little quirks. She gave me some suggestions. The next day I was super annoyed and irritated. I was frustrated with my companion and then an ATM ate my mission debit card. It was not a good day. I called Sister Preston again and said, "What do you DO when you are super super irritated?" She suggested lots of chocolate. Don't worry, I think I just gained 15 pounds from this past weekend...

But. I'm still here in Southport with Sister Finke.

Sister Smith got transferred over to the Newcastle zone. We had a zone meeting yesterday before transfers today and it may have been the last time I got to see Sister Smith before I go home. It was a particularly rough day because Sister Smith found out yesterday that her grandpa passed away Monday. She has a really close relationship with her grandpa. President let me go and sit with her alone and we talked for a while. I really love that girl. President always says we'll be friends forever and it's true. I'm just super sad I might not get to see her again until Christmas. (She lives in Utah.) We'll try to convince President to let us have a mini-party before I go... but we'll see.

We're still working on finding people to teach here. We had a few appointments set up for the last week and all of them fell through. It's rough sometimes. We just get to know members really well. We have had beautiful weather for the last 2 weeks. Not so much today, but for the last 2 weeks. I even got a tan line on my feet from my shoes! I was going to take a picture, but haven't yet. Need to.

I overcame a fear this last Sunday. We had a meeting last Wednesday with the Relief Society and we taught about missionary work. After we did our little thing, one of the sisters did an activity of asking having pieces of paper that had deeper questions on them and we were to bear testimony to others about something in relation to that. I got a piece of paper that said, "Where do you find refuge from the world?" I went and talked with this member and told her that my refuge is in music. If I'm stressed, music is my go-to. She asked me what I usually do. I said I sing, I play the piano, I listen to music. Well, there went 16 months of hiding the fact I play the piano. She is the Sunday school teacher. She texted me later last week and asked me if I would play the opening hymn for her Sunday school class. They usually don't have an opening hymn, but with the lesson she wanted one. Stress! I haven't played in church since young women's when everyone laughed at me and I vowed I'd never do it again. But I did! And it went well!  No major mess-ups.  So, conquered a little fear. Don't really want to continue playing in church though.

Well, I think that's all I really want to share for the week. I'll be back to emailing on Mondays next week. As far as I know anyway. I don't think there's a bank holiday next week.

Keep emailing me please! There's only 5 more emailing days left before I'm home! You can do it!!! I have faith!

 

Monday, June 3

It's been a good week. The weather's been really nice and seems to be staying that way for now. Our 2 weeks of summer may have finally arrived!

We are having a zone activity today so we aren't on the computers today as long as usual. We are having a BBQ today as a zone and then we will be playing some sports so I'm excited for a good day!

We got a referral this last week from the mission office. I didn't have any super high hopes because I haven't really seen a lot of miracles with those types of referrals on my mission, but we went and stopped by nonetheless. It's an 45 minute bus ride and then a 45 minute walk to the town where this referral is. We knocked and asked for her and she said, "Oh! I thought you were going to call first!" I explained we hadn't received a phone number so that's why we stopped by! She said she didn't have time at that moment to meet with us but gave us her number so we can set up an appointment for this week. So that was a really good miracle!

Sister Finke is doing well. I am realizing though that training a missionary who is learning English is a lot more tiring and exhausting that just training a missionary. I am learning patience a lot more than I have the rest of my mission. Yeah, I'm struggling at the moment with that. You know when you just have a day or two where just everything irritates you? That's been me the last 2 or 3 days and I am trying really hard to control it...

Hmm, what else. The ward has asked us to do a Relief Society night to help the sisters get to know us and help them get excited about missionary work. They asked us to do role-plays and some other things. It's a lot of pressure since I can't even get Sister Finke to do role-plays when we are in the flat studying. She kind of just watches me. So I have to figure out how to do that Wednesday with the relief society. I don't know whether I'll just teach and Sister Finke can observe or how I am going to get her involved.

The ward really likes having sisters. They always mention that they "trust us" more than the elders.

I don't think I have a whole lot else to write. Transfers are next week. I'll probably be staying, but who knows. So I would say that most likely you'll hear from me on Wednesday, but it might be later.

Hope this finds everyone all happy and well!

Tuesday, May 28

It's been a good week. This is probably going to be a pretty short letter because my brain is just fried at the moment. Life is stressful, but, as always, an incredible adventure.

I did use my credit card last week. I had a little issue that arose and I panicked. I found head lice in my hair... oh my goodness I had a meltdown. So I ran to the store and bought things to kill them and make them go away. The joys of being a missionary and dealing with the weird things you pick up from being around people. Good news though, No more head lice. Sister Preston said she would be surprised if my hair didn't fall out with all the things I put on my hair. I tried a lot of things.

We had a good multi-zone conference last week.

We went up to the temple yesterday. It was beautifully sunny and bright when we got there. The flowers were blooming. It was beautiful. I love to see the temple.

I think that's all I want to share.

I love you all very much. I hope everything is going well over by you.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Good morning! The sun was shining yesterday but not yet today... there's still hope. It seems to get a little bit better as the day goes on.

It's been a good week. I got a new companion on Wednesday. Her name's Sister Finke from Germany. She's 19 years old. She didn't know English before she entered the MTC and was there for 6 weeks. So I'm helping her the best I can with understanding English. She's really good. She wants to improve her teaching skills and unfortunately we have no one to teach at the moment, so we do a lot of role-playing lessons in the morning.

We had stake conference yesterday. We all went down to Liverpool stake center for that. It was a broadcast from Salt Lake. So it was President Eyring, Elder Scott, Elder Baxter, and Sister Oscarson. It was really good. Elder Baxter talked a lot about finding and strengthening less-actives. Oh! And to my surprise, I learned in the opening prayer that Sister Monson passed away. That was kind of a shock to all of us missionaries. We don't hear anything.

I got so see Sister Smith at conference yesterday. I don't know if I told you this or not, but Sister Preston grounded us from each other. Apparently we are too good of friends and make other missionaries feel left out on the fun... and we cause "too much trouble." So when we have opportunities to see each other where Sister Preston isn't lurking to chastise us, we enjoy it. Sister Preston isn't too harsh on us if she catches us together, but if she thinks we're being too separate and secretive she said, "There will be more consequence than just strong words spoken." She's told me off once already. Meh, it's okay. She says she only does it because she loves us.  She's great.

I was so bummed yesterday! I just remembered! I looked everywhere to see if I could find Ben and his mom Wendy, but they weren't there! I need to write them a letter and actually send it this time. I've written a few but then realize I don't have envelopes or stamps.

Hmm, we're still spending a lot of time finding. We've knocked on like 1000 doors this week. We have had 3 people say we could stop by at a different time so we'll stop by them again this week sometime.

I don't think I've shared this with you, but I took time a while back to read through Preach My Gospel from start to finish and I highlighted in blue every time it mentioned relying on the Spirit or teaching by the Spirit (etc). It really helped me become a better missionary. I love having the ability to rely on the Spirit in all things. That's one thing several of my companions have listed as my biggest strength as a missionary. I just really know that I honestly don't have the comprehension to know exactly what people need to hear, but Heavenly Father does, so I just go with what feels right and what comes into my heart.