week 34

Hola!! So yes... I moved! Bracknell is nice.. it's actually really posh. ha ha but it isn't as beautiful as Devon, that's for sure. This is the city, that was the country side. ha ha but this week has been so so good because guess what? We went to the temple!! We had our Christmas conference, so we left the flat at 5 am ha ha and traveled to the temple with all the other missionaries around these parts and then we went through a session at the London Temple and then we all did little Christmas skits! Ours. Was. Hilarious! Oh my gosh. Elder Dearing and Elder Cross had a member in the Farnborough ward where they are serving tell them about this youtube clip so we reinacted it. We dressed up as monks and instead of singing Motabs version of Isaiah 9:6 we made cards with the words on it and  when they would sing the words we would hold up a sign... ha ha it was so funny! I had someone record it on my camera so I'll send the memory card home soon so you can see it. 

But I'm so excited for Christmas! Lately I have been thinking about the spirit of Christmas. The spirit of Christmas, the reason we feel so much warmth and peace at Christmastime is because it is truly the spirit of Christ. The warmth comes from the Holy Ghost testifying to us that Jesus is the Christ! I am so grateful to be celebrating Him at this time of year as a missionary! I get to share His message with people everyday. I love it. This is Sister P's 4th Christmas and Shipon's FIRST CHRISTMAS EVER! So we got permission to take him to the temple visitors centre on Wednesday and teach him all about Christ and the true meaning of Christmas there :D hooray! PS on lds.org there are some beautiful videos of Christ's birth. The girl that plays Mary is from a ward here in our mission so I guess in January we are going to have a conference and she is going to come speak to us about playing the role of Christ's mother in the new church clips. I'm excited! 

So this week Sister P was pretty sick so we spent some time in the flat. She slept and I studied. But I'm so grateful for that extra time I got to study! And then I got a phone call from Exeter, it was Sister Gregson, for the past week she has been having weird pains and the last few days the pain has been RIDICULOUS so they took her to the hospital and then when she came up for their Christmas conference (the day before ours) they took her to the hospital again and they started doing tests and such, we think it's kidney stones but the NHS has to do more scans but she has to wait to be admitted into the hospital... so for the past 3 days she has been at the accomadation centre just WAITING... ugh. So anyways she got permission to call me so she did... like 8 times ha ha and I guess she was alone, they put her companion with other sisters so she could go out and work but that meant sister gregson didn't have anyone there with her (obviously) and the way she described these "fits" to me was that they come on all the sudden and the pain is so bad she can't breathe, she can't move, she is throwing up because she is in so much pain... so anyways I called the APs and asked why in the world she was alone Saturday night and of course they can;'t stay with her, they were doing everything they literally could but I told them if they needed they could bring her to Bracknell so she wouldn't be alone! ha ha So yesterday night she called before she went to bed and said that her new companion was going to be with her last night- GOOD! ha ha anyways I thought it was cool that because we were in the flat for Sister P to get better I was able to just be on the phone and talk with Sister Gregson and try to distract her from her pain and such as well whenever she needed. Pray for both of my little sickies! ha ha 

 Also, our ward mission leader is from South Africa he was in the Vereeniging ward? He is really cool, we always have correlation meetings during the week on his lunch break so he will take us to a really nice restaurant and we will have our meeting there ha ha it's very official.

*our exchange with Paignton (me, Sister Gregson, Priestley, Cabrera!) 
*sometimes we share the word of God with storm troopers...
*our cute neighbors Jen and Tim (the ones I got the brownie recipe for! she told us she was pregnant right when I got to Exeter and she was due the week I left)

*the sisters I have served with so far! Christensen, Gregson, and Fekete!

*Ok you see the elder on the left? His name is Elder Jones and he is from Chihuahua, Mexico. Remember how I stayed with Wendi Jones when I went to Mexico? Ya that's his aunt. ha ha and he went with our group when we layed cement floors and such!! I'll have to go through those pictures when I get home and see if he is in any of them ha ha- so crazy!
*Guess who is in my district now? Elder Kory Cross! The district leader bought us all matching bracelets/ties for Christmas!
*Me and Sister P right after we did a session at the London Temple :)
*This family went all out for Christmas! Check out that huge bag, a recent convert called Jon gave us that and it had a few wrapped packages inside for Christmas! :)

*happy christmas from me and sister gregson! yes my mug says i'd rather be in bed, hers says i'd rather be in the pub haha Jo gave us these when she moved!

*me and sister p!
*the haircut
*me and gregs with martyn!!
*sister terry (the sister from temple square :) )
*this post box was literally overflowing! we love post!!

Week 33

 It sounds like the Christmas season has had a beautiful start for you there. Yay for Christmas! We have been seeing so so many Christmas miracles. This morning for example.... Antony accepted a baptismal date for December 31st!!!!! I don't think I've told you about Antony. Last week we were teaching someone in the library and a guy walked past and I looked up and he waved so I waved back and Gregson was like who is this? I told her I didn't know ha ha but I have seen him before quite a bit in town and then the next day (Saturday) we got off the bus to go contact walk Queen street and we turn the corner and ran right into him! He stopped us and started talking to us so we arranged to meet him this morning. Well we met with him, taught him about the restoration of the gospel and he was SO PREPARED to hear this. Oh my goodness. The questions he was asking and the comments he was making, he really understood it all and he was feeling the spirit so strongly, we all were! And then after he said he wanted to be baptised he asked if he could say a prayer. :O ANTONY! Man it was so great. We are well excited to continue teaching him. I hope I get to at least, you asked when transfers are, they are on Wednesday so we will get moves call TOMORROW. Yikes.

 

Anyways this last week has been so fun. We started out by having a zone pday, had a thanksgiving dinner and just played all day and then we drove up to Reading. Remember I told you we were praying for a normal car ride? Ya it certainly wasn't. ha ha the sat nav told us there was a petrol station where there wasn't one so we got lost for a while and were convinced we were going to run out of petrol and have to walk but we FINALLY found a station and then things were fine, we got on the motorway again and 15 minutes later we got pulled over because Elder Parasso was speeding... oops. 20 minutes and £60 later we were on our way again. ha ha but the sisters conference was fantastic! We practised a lot and talked about core conversion. That has been something we have been talking a lot about lately. Not just having a testimony but being converted. I love The Book of Mormon. We have been teaching so many evangelical christians and jehovah's witnesses and... man everytime my testimony of The Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ is strengthened so much. THIS IS TRUE! Oh and Sister Fekete was at the sisters conference of course and she was walking! Without crutches! 2 1/2 weeks after having an ACL reconstructive surgery.. that's why we call her bionic knee. ha ha she says hello!

 

Oh mum I was going to tell you- Annukka Costello met us in town this morning and took us into a store and told us to look around and pick out what we want for Christmas. She took us Christmas shopping! It was so fun. We felt pampered. ha ha Sister Gregson was like my mum is going to be SO happy when I tell her about this :) so just know we are being taken care of here. :)

 

Is cousin Bryson in the MTC yet? Will you make him homemade chocolate chip cookies and send them to him? Because if I was in the MTC in Provo and had cousins close... that's what I would want. ha ha

 

Oh another really cool miracle! We got a referral last week and we tried to call this lady and she never answered but we finally got ahold of her on Saturday and she was SO excited. She took a few discussions with some friends in the states and wants to know more about the gospel, so we are going to meet her in town tomorrow and teach her more, she was seriously so happy when we called, it was so cool. I love this.

 

Well I think that's about all for now, I'll send some pictures though! ... Scratch that, I can't get it to work! Sorry. Rain check. I'm pretty nervous about moves call. I really am fine either way, it will be fun to start a new adventure, but I would love to stay here for Christmas where it feels like home! Well I'll know tomorrow! And you will know next week! ha ha I love you guys!

 

I got a birthday package from cousin Emily and a really nice letter and some money from Uncle Chris this week. Thank you!! I love our family. 

 

PS Corbin sent me this and I thought it was so funny because it is so true. THIS is what a mission is like:

 

A mission is a strange experience
It is a trial and a test.
A mission throws at you the worst
Yet, teaches you the best.
I've never been so happy,
I've never been so depressed.
I've never felt so forsaken,
I've never felt so blessed.
I've never been so confused,
Things have never been so clear.
I've never felt my Heavenly Father so distant,
He's never been so near.
I've never been so discouraged,
I've never been so full of hope.
I feel I could go on for forever,
I think I've come to the end of my rope.
I've never had it quite so easy,
I've never had it quite so tough.
Things have never been so smooth,
Things have never been so rough.
I've never traveled through more valleys,
I've never ascended more peaks.
I've never met so many nice people.
I've never met so many freaks!
I've never had so many ups,
I've never had so many downs.
I've never worn so many smiles,
I've never had so many frowns.
I've never been so lonely,
I've never had so many friends.
BOY, I hope this is over soon,
GOSH, I hope this never ends.