Sunday, July 1, 2012

June 27

Hellooo!!!!! Well this week (today) is moves and we are NOT MOVING! :) So Sister Paulsen and I are here to stay in our sweet little Wandsworth for Wimbledon and for the Olympics. Wimbledon started Monday and goes for 2 weeks and let me tell you what it is a real pain. ha ha it takes us forever to just get out of Wimbledon now! We are going to go to Wimbledon today or Monday- if we go in the afternoon we can get tickets for 5 pounds! That will be fun. And then the olympic torch comes through Wandsworth- right down our road on July 23rd. Fun fun times are coming. This last week has been CRAZY busy. That's just how it works here in London. But I especially wanted to tell you about Saturday. We taught a Jew about The Book of Mormon, a catholic about the plan of salvation, and a Muslim about the divinity of Jesus Christ being the son of God. And all of them were AMAZING. So we were at the chapel opening the family history centre for a lady in the ward and waiting for Aaron our ward mission leader to pick up our investigators and bring them to the chapel for a teach. Well Aaron called us and told us Ade and Dickson said they couldn't meet. So we were about to leave the chapel and we get a call from Aaron "Sisters, can you come open the gate for me- I have a friend that wants a copy of The Book of Mormon." :D of course we can! So as Aaron was waiting for our investigators he met a man called Marcelle that just got to London from Paris and they started talking and Aaron told him about our church and The Book of Mormon and Marcelle wanted to know more. We went into the chapel and taught him and it was just beautiful. :) Sometimes OUR plans don't go through so that God's plans can. Then we were meeting there with a guy called Braulio from Angola. He is catholic- very catholic but is so open and so so sweet. So we taught him about the plan of salvation and my goodness the spirit was SO strong it was incredible. HE brings the spirit as well- he just waits for us to get to his level before we can start teaching! :) So we taught him the plan of salvation and invited him to be baptised and he just said you know when I got baptised I thought it was with the right authority and correctly but now... I know I have a lot to pray and think about because this feels like truth. This feels like something God wants me to know. :) Braulio. He will be a kingdom builder that is for sure. THEN we met with 2 men called Ahmed and Adel. Sister Barker and I met Ahmed on the street a few weeks ago and he was interested in learning more. He was busy with work but we kept running into him and then when Sister Paulsen got here we ran into him again and he said ok ok I'll make time to meet with you- I can take a hint! :) And then he asked if he could bring a friend! They are both from Egypt and they both work at the BBC. Intelligent intelligent men. We met with them and told them a little bit about the church and Adel said "I have met MANY different churches in my life and they all say the same thing- they all claim to be the one true church and to have authority but I have never seen anyone as peaceful and confident as you 2 are and I want that." :) I love being a missionary. I love being able to tell people that they CAN have that! All we have to do is keep the commandments and we will have never ending happiness. That sounds nice. Mosiah 2:41 It really truly is that easy. Just do it. Ok? I love you all! 

June 17

 And the conference is at the
temple and we haven't heard yet but we are PRAYING that we will be
able to do a session! Ohhhhhhhhhh I hope so! This last week was just
amazing. Simply amazing. :) We had a zone training and had my last
presidents interview :( it was so sad. He is going to be a mess on
Wednesday I'm sure. Bless him. Well Karlene- one of the ladies we have
been teaching- we had a ward member go pick her up ... hey mills' mum
its Jo here I'm cool see you in Utah!!! We went on dodgems today which
is bumper cars in England and the ones here are the best and I swear
I've been on a ton round the country. I also won 70 quid today so
we've all had a kinda free day! I think I'm guna die tonight cus I'm
pretty sure the chicken in the indian we're eating is raw. Janna ate
dog the other day.... hotdog haha you see why they love me! Anyway
I've kinda taken all her time so here's a brummy goodbye for ya
(terah) or t'ra.Ok sorry I had to call Aaron, our ward mission leader
and while I was gone Jo conviscated my email so yes! Jo from Exeter
(who is now living in Wolverhampton aka Birmingham) drove down to play
with us for pday in London because yeseterday was her birthday!! So we
went to Dodgems- bumper cars right next to the Thames and it was
SOOOOO fun! Ok back to Karlene :) So Brother Ehirim went and picked
her up for church because we were teaching gospel doctrine so we
couldn't go with him and he said he got there and she was right there
right ready to go and that she got in the car and asked if they could
say a prayer and then as they drove he had the Doctrine and Covenants
soundtrack on and he said that she LOVED it! He came up to us right
before sacrament and told us and he said "She really helped me today-
that really touched me!" :) That is Karlene. She is so spiritual. I
love teaching her. London is just on fire. It is so fun to be a
missionary here right now! The other day a man walked up to us "Hey
Jesus girls, can I come to church with you on Sunday?" ha ha YES you
sure can sir. OH MY GOODNESS!!! Ok I have another story. Wow wow wow
I"m so excited to tell you this right now. Ok so on Tuesday we got on
the tube at South Wimbledon and right as we got to the platform a man
turned to us and said "Mormons. I used to meet with the missionaries
about 20 years ago. The missionaries were always over at my house,
they even had a key! And I wanted to be baptised but my wife wouldn't
let me because she is Muslim. But we are not together anymore so... I
want to be baptised." So we talked with him more and I gave him a Book
of Mormon and he said "oh thank you so much Sister I have missed this
book. I have missed the story of Joseph Smith. And sisters... I want
to go to the temple. I know I need to be baptised first but, I want to
get there." Oh my days. :O It was amazing. Seriously that is London
these days :D You see why I love being a missionary? Because of those
moments right there. I loved that in Kates letter this last week she
said soemtimes she tells people that it seems like I'm on vacation.
HA! Trust me. This is not a vacation. We are working hard BUT I love
it so it really is joyful. And yes people are not very nice a lot of
the time ha ha but we just move on from those quickly and remember the
good stories, and those are the ones I love to share with you of
course. :) But I do, I love it. Well tell Natalie congratulations!!
AHHHHHHHH I'm so excited for them. Their announcement is so so cute.
Kate- the song was beautiful! Sister Paulsen was like- is that her
choir? Wow that's good! :) Thank you again for the packages. I love
you guys so much. Next week is moves :S yikes!

*Wandsworth zone!!!!!! :) That's us today right outside Dodgems in
front of Big Ben and parliament! Happy birthday to JO! and JANA-LEIGH!
and WHITNEY!!
oh and we saw members from California right before we took this
picture just there by the London Eye- we all saw a BYU cap and we just
flocked to them to say hello ha ha love it.