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.

 

Thursday, May 2, 2013

So I've been moved. I am now in Southport (close to Liverpool). I am serving with Sister Nkosi who is from South Africa and has been out about 6 months. We white-washed into Southport opening a new area. They already had elders here but now they have sisters too! So we arrived at a new flat last night that only had a table, two chairs, and 2 beds. We had to go buy quite a bit of stuff last night and they are supposed to be bringing us more stuff. So it's an adventure starting in a new area with no one to teach and no idea where you are. Yay fun! Southport is super posh! Huge homes and elaborate architecture.

Anyway, Sister Leslie is training this transfer. So she stayed in Oldham and was asking me so many questions before I left! If there was ever a moment where there was no one to talk to while we were walking she would pick my brain for "words of wisdom." sometimes I feel like a martial arts master when people ask me to share my "profound wisdom"... I just have a large vocabulary... I think they confuse that with actual knowledge.

We had a good week at the beginning of the week. We were able to see a lot of people before I left. They started a new thing where they let us know on Saturday where we are going so we can actually say good bye to people at church. So that was nice. We went and visited with the nonmember friends of President Preston that he referred to us in Oldham. We've seen them a few times but Ken says he doesn't want to come back yet (former member) and his wife Jenny says she's not interested at the moment. We had an incredible visit with them yesterday morning though. We were explaining a bit about the restoration to Jenny. Ken started talking about how all of us wonder which church is true and how we can know it. He then told the whole story of Joseph Smith and started crying. He waved his finger towards the ceiling, looking up, and said, "clever." And then said that he knew that Joseph Smith had a vision and that he knew the church was true. He just doesn't want to return without Jenny, but Jenny's just not ready yet in her mind. I'll stay in touch with them though.

Life's pretty good. Mom, the pharmacy charge was because I got an eye infection in both eyes. My eyes just kept becoming blood-shot most days for 3 weeks. So I went to the doctor and they didn't give me an official diagnosis but gave me a prescription for antibiotics. So that's gotten significantly better.

I'll have to let you know next week about time to skype on Mother's day. I don't know any of the members yet and who has a computer and all that fun stuff. I won't be emailing Monday most likely because from what I hear it's a bank holiday meaning the libraries are closed.

Glad to hear the family's well. As for flying back to Hawaii I was thinking something like the 5th of September, but not sure.

Love you all!

Monday, April 22

It's been a really good week! We've been super busy and have been enjoying missionary life. On Tuesday, we had a district meeting and then had 4 less-active lessons. We've been teaching an investigator named David. He's really prepared. He was the one that came to general conference and then to church. He came again yesterday and we've met with him twice. He's praying about a baptismal date in May. So that's pretty wonderful.

 

Before I forget, transfers are next week so I won't be emailing until later in the week next week.

 

I'm going to go get my haircut today. Just a trim. I haven't cut my hair in a year! crazy!

 

We had 2 lessons this last week that were intense. Spiritually intense. We let the Spirit teach more than anything and we just bore testimony to what the Spirit said. We have a less-active who is trying to come back to church, but just isn't quite finding the motivation so we talked about Jesus Christ and having faith. He started teaching himself by the things he himself said. He was beating himself up pretty bad about not keeping commitments so I just said that it's important to look at what we do do and use those we don't do merely as a reference to make small steps back to right way. Then he said one of the most profound things. He said, "I've come to realize that when we put ourselves down or over think things we are devaluing a gift from God; we are devaluing our worth which is a gift from God." I was like WOW! That is such an intense idea! That really struck home.

Not a whole lot more interesting things are happening. I got an email back from the landlady in Hawaii that I emailed. She said she put my name in one of the spots in the house and that we will complete the rental agreement and logistics in July. SO I have a place to live! Which is good! I just need to email Brother Ferre still and see if I'll have a job!

 

I'll keep Grandma Nannenga in my prayers and hope that they figure out what's happening. Glad Hailey, Dusty, and the kids are doing well. What's happening in Chandra's world now-a-days? I don't often hear about her!

 

I saw in the headlines of the newspapers about the explosion in Texas. I thought it might impact dad in some way even if he may not have worked on that plant. So you were in my thoughts earlier this week as well.

 

Anyway, I've spent most of the time sorting out school, housing, and other things so I have to keep it pretty short. I still need to write President. I love you all so very much!

 

I love you!

 

Monday, April 15

It was a good week. It was busy.

Sister Leslie and I are getting along well and for the first time in the Oldham area we have so many appointments that we are struggling fitting all of them in. Many are less-active members and a few investigators as well! It's crazy!

Our mission had been compiling "A Mission Song," they are going to record it and then we will all learn it. So we got a phone call this morning saying we had been nominated to be 2 of the 8 singing on the recording. So that was a bit of a shock. So we'll be going into the recording studio on Friday!

We had some miracles happen yesterday. Last week Sister Leslie was talking to someone on the bus about general conference and this man interrupted asking if we really have a living prophet on the earth today. So Sister Leslie invited him to the broadcast of conference and he came last week. He said he really enjoyed it, but then was unable to give us his phone number or where he lived. We had set an appointment to meet at the library this last Tuesday, but we couldn't find him. We were a bit discouraged because we didn't know how to contact him. Well he showed up at church yesterday and stayed the whole time. So we set up another appointment for this week.

Also, a week ago we talked to a man on the bus... well he talked to us at first. We got on the bus and he said, "Oye, I'll talk to you." So we went down and talked to him about the gospel. He seemed completely uninterested so we thought all we were doing was planting a seed. Well he showed up at church yesterday completely surprising us! He still doesn't want to meet with us yet, but he said he might come back to church another time in a few weeks. So that was pretty great!

We heard Thursday that they are introducing new Sister leadership in missions. Training Sister Leaders or something like that. They're basically zone leaders without the Priesthood (as Sister Preston put it). So that will be interesting. We'll start having those in our mission starting next transfer. So many changes with all the new missionaries and everything! We have 15 sisters coming in at the next transfer.

Well, I don't have a whole lot else to say for the time being. I haven't figured anything out with fall housing yet, but working on it.

Monday, April 8

It's been a really good week! We were able to teach several lessons!

President Preston referred 2 of his friends, Ken and Jenny, and we were able to meet with them and teach them! I think they have so much wonderful potential, I wish they could just see it themselves! Sister Leslie and I feel very strongly that we can help them in some way or another. I don't know if it will be getting them to church or baptised or just helping them build a testimony. President Preston came out teaching with us on Wednesday and it was so good! Sister Leslie was so worried about teaching with President Preston, but she did really well. We are working on building her confidence.

We have started working with a part member family. A few of the kids haven't been baptised and the mum and dad don't really like coming to church because they've got an issue with a member, but they are so wonderful and we look forward to being able to work with them.

We were getting off the bus the other day and the bus driver stopped us and asked us where we are from. He apparently met with missionaries briefly 3 years ago and went to church with them. He then asked if we had time to meet with him! So we met with him the other day and are making slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

Anyway, as for housing in the fall. I got permission from President to start searching for it when I'm online. I know the Ferre's were renting to students, so I might check with them. I'll email some of my friends and try to get contact information for their landlords. So that's where I'm up to with that.

I'm a bit scatter-brained today trying to get loads of things sorted so sorry if this letter is short and somewhat less than informative. It'll be a good week this week. We have several lessons planned again plus 2 zone conferences plus interviews with President.

 

Anyway, hope the world is treating everyone well. I love you lots! Mother's day is coming up soon, we'll try to get times sorted as to when to call (skype) home. I know it's still a month away, but time flies like crazy.

Tuesday, April 2

Sorry I didn't give any warning about not emailing yesterday. I forget that whenever there's an opportunity to take a holiday they take it over here. So yes, everywhere was closed yesterday for the Easter holiday.

Happy Late Easter!

It's been a good week or so! Sister Leslie is very nice and a really good missionary! We've been able to see a lot of good things happening! We went to go stop by some less-actives last night and one of them let us in and we had a lovely conversation and we'll be going back there on Thursday to make dinner for her and see her again. She has some physical limitations so we offered to come and make dinner for her and do a bit of service for her. So I think it will be a really good experience. We also saw one of our investigators named Samantha last night. We haven't been able to see her in weeks and weren't even sure she even wanted to keep meeting with us. We ended up feeling prompted to extend the baptismal invitation to her and she is now praying about whether or not she should be baptized on the 27th of April. So that was a good experience as well.

I can't believe it's April already! It doesn't seem to be with the weather over here, but apparently in 2 weeks it's supposed to start being really nice.

How was the Easter holidays back home? We spent it finding... and finding... and finding.... but it was good. We spent all day Saturday finding, but we met some really nice people that could become investigators in the near future! We taught a lesson Saturday night and we really are spreading the gospel to all the world. One of the members is from Ghana and she had family from Ghana visiting for the weekend and invited us over to teach her family about the church. We met and talked about the restoration. Before we even asked them to read The Book of Mormon, they asked if they could each have a copy to start studying. They were pretty happy and excited to hear that there is a living prophet on the earth today. They'll be staying down in London for the next month of so before going back to Ghana, but we gave them the information to know how to contact the missionaries wherever they are. They even ended up decided to come to church on Sunday as well! So even though they weren't able to become our investigators, I hope and pray they will get in touch with the missionaries in Ghana! Sunday was really good, we had testimony meeting. I think having so many people bear testimony of the Atonement really brought the Spirit very powerfully. The chapel was absolutely full of people and I hope they were all able to have their hearts touched in some way on a beautiful Easter Sunday morning.

So I wrote a while back about how I've had to deal with some creepy men as of late. I've actually had to deal with creepy men a fair bit on my mission. I wrote to President in one of recent weekly letters that sometimes it's just so hard being a sister and having to deal with things like that. He called me and told me I'm basically the only sister that has had to deal with it to the extent that I have. He has now committed me to staying away from creepy men. I'm trying. A man at the bus station the other day wanted to hold me hand. I called President that night for some reason and just mentioned it, he was less than pleased to hear about it. Meh, it's alright, I'm smart and am not going to allow myself to get into any truly tough situations. I just thought it was funny that I've been committed to avoid creepy men. The thing is, they all seem relatively normal at first...

Oh! I had an experience today, we were on the bus and Sister Leslie started to talk to someone. I kind of was listening a bit from where I was sitting and the girl was from China. She didn't speak a whole lot of English and so Sister Leslie asked me to come over. I was able to talk to her in some Chinese and understood a little bit of what she said to me in Chinese. We got her number and she said she'd be willing to meet with us to help her improve her English and I asked if she could help me with Chinese. So hopefully we can make something happen there! I was just really proud that I spoke Chinese to someone and they understood what I was saying!

Hmmm... I don't think I have a whole lot else to say today. The sun has been shining a bit more, so there's hope, it's still cold, but at least the sun is shining.

I hope you all will have a wonderful week!

 

I love you all so much!