Woohoo! James got baptised!

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Sis Wuthrich is the bomb.

Me, Aston (son of 2nd councilor in bishopric), Kara and Jessica (daughters of the bishop)

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The Bedford Four. We had such a fun day together! We decided we are going to make a music video.

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22 July 2013

Not much to report on this week, sadly.

On Wednesday and Thursday, a member named Maggie, who is 20 and just home from uni for the summer, came out with us all day both days. She is one of my best friends here in England. Love her to death! And when she goes on an actual mission she is going to be SO GOOD. We had a lot of fun with her. We are making it a weekly thing.

Nothing crazy happened this week, but we did do a lot of work! Things are moving right along here in Bedford and I'm loving every minute of it. Our investigator James is getting baptised on Saturday, and I am SO EXCITED! This time next year I hope to be going to the temple with him and his family as they get sealed!

Honestly, I don't have anything else really good to say. It has been a pretty standard week. We have eight new investigators this week that we are excited to start working with.

The gospel is true. Jesus Christ is the Saviour. Following Him is really the only intellegent way to live. I know it because I've seen it bless my life and the lives of so many people here in Bedford just in the short time I've been here. If you know it, you should show it! The Lord needs you to share what you have with His children that don't know yet. So go do it!

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Possibly the craziest week of my mission

So Tuesday after we emailed we just went and got stuff ready for a third person in our flat. Then we played a game called rounders with the youth. It is like baseball except you can run even if you don't hit it, and you get half a point if you make it to 2nd base, so basically it is my kind of game. It was way fun. My team won (led by me of course). Just kidding I did nothing to contribute but we did win.

Wednesday we all congregated at the Hyde Park Chapel for moves. We were there all day because we had to wait for the new missionaries to show up and get trained on debit cards and get interviewed by President. Which left us trainers in a hot, muggy room all day. Lucky I love all the missionaries that were there, or I would have fallen asleep. We did get to go street contacting for an hour out in London which was pretty fun. In the evening we finally got our new companions, and we got Sister Brady from Maryland! She already knew me because I guess she read this blog before she came out. That made me feel kind of cool. She went to BYUI so we had a lot to talk about. We are excited to have her.

Friday was nuts. We set two baptismal dates. One was with this sweet sweet girl named Leoni. She has a troubled past but for some reason that has made her a really awesome person instead of letting it be an excuse to be horrible and make horrible decisions. She accepted baptism on the first lesson, so that will be happening August 10, a week before her 18th birthday. The stepdad of the kids we baptised last month also accepted a date! His name is James and he is waaaaay cool, we are homies. He is getting baptised on July 27th.

Later that night our investigator Richard called to ask a question so I said go for it AND HE ASKED ME TO MARRY HIM. What the heck?! Honestly it came out of nowhere. We have only met with this guy twice. I have done literally nothing to make him think that would even be a thought that would cross my mind. Gosh I'm such a heartbreaker. hahaha But really, I was so confused. Needless to say, we passed his teaching to the elders. 

The rest of the weekend was pretty mild. I'm still having a blast. Seriously, being on a mission is the best. Even when it is burning hot and humid. No worries, I'm wearing sunscreen.  Not much else to report. Love you all!

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Sister Belnap is the bomb. And now she is moving across the mission so I'm not going to see her very much. 

playing rounders with the youth last Tuesday. Team America won.

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Amur'ca! Don't know if you can see, but I brought my flag. And my outfit is patriotic. Except I had to lose the cardigan because it was burning hot all day. Also, we forgot to take a picture on our workover, but Sister Pauna is the one in the red cardigan. She is the bomb!

This is me, our investigator Gabriel who is getting baptised on the 20th, Maggie (a member who is now dating Gabriel after coming to teach him with us like 2 months ago. Let that be a testimony builder to all YSA that you should go teaching with the missionaries), and Sister Jones.

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Three's Company- 9 July 2013

    I'm sure the anticipation has been killing you to know what happened with moves. Well, I'm happy to say everyone's prayers paid off because I'm staying in Bedford! Woohoo! I'm really excited because we have like 3 baptisms coming up and I did not want to miss those. Sister Jones is staying with me. But here is the big twist: We are in a trio! We are going to be training a new sister together. We don't find out who that new sister is until tomorrow when we go to London to pick her up. But yeah, we are in a trio, which should be pretty interesting. We will see how it works. I am excited to train though, that should be really fun.

    So, both being American, Sister Jones and I had big plans for 4th of July last Thursday. We planned outfits and stuff and we were going to the American family's house for a bbq in the evening and it was going to be awesome. Then the zone leaders called last Tuesday and asked us to do a work over with the Northampton sisters (neither of which are American) and the only day that would work was Thursday. Figures. We had zone meeting Thursday morning though and most of our zone is American so we made a big deal about it, singing the national anthem and such. It was pretty funny actually. So for the workover I stayed in Northampton with Sister Pauna and Sister Karyan went to Bedford with Sister Jones. This was my first ever time working outside of Bedford so that was strange. Right after zone meeting, that district had a blitz in Northampton town centre. I had never even heard of a blitz before, but apparently it is a whole district doing street contacting together in an area where the missionaries need help finding people to teach. It was a fun day of finding. I got yelled at by this one guy

 for literally no reason, and Elder Hristov almost got in a fist fight because this guy just came up and started pushing him and yelling at him, then tore his badge off and stomped on it. Crazy times. Sister Pauna and I had a blast, though! She is who I took over for in Bedford when I first got here, so we talked about the people she taught while she was here and stuff.

    So rewinding a little bit, do y'all remember I said we are teaching Rihanna's body guard? Well, he accepted a baptismal date, so you can revise the statement to we are baptising Rihanna's body guard. He is way cool. He's taking us to dinner tonight and it is gonna be super posh. Pictures to come next week.

   One more exciting story: Sunday was the best testimony meeting OF ALL TIME. On top of the fact that we had 5 investigators at church (which is a big deal, the second most I've ever got), like half of the people that got up were like, "Go teaching with the missionaries!" and THEN two of our investigators bore their testimonies! And they were proper awesome! I felt the Spirit big time.

    A lot of missionaries I have made friends with so far are going home tomorrow, and that makes me very sad. I hate when people leave. Especially since I haven't got to serve with them very long. I'm especially sad about Sister Webster leaving. I'm hoping to be half the mother she was to me to this new sister we are training. Man I'm excited to train!

   Did anyone besides my mom check out the soundcloud for President's choir? If you haven't, you should. soundcloud.com/england-london-mission. As far as I know we don't have any upcoming performances which is sad, but I am bound and determined for this group to live on even though Elder Tingey and Elder Baker are leaving, and they were kind of the glue that held it together.

    That's about all I've got for this week. I'm excited to start this new adventure of training! Talk to you all (as in like the 2 people that read this blog) later!

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P.S.

We recorded for choir today. Go to soundcloud.com/england-london-mission and listen!

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Another Week, Another Baptism

Howdy folks. It has been another glorious week here in the MK40 (That's a post code. I was trying to sound cool. Tell me if it worked.) 

Because we did so much finding last week, we had a whole lot of appointments this week. Like, we were booked solid. It was fabulous. We have 7 new investigators this week. Yay! 

So on Thursday we had a work over. Which is our mission lingo for an exchange. Except we didn't like change companions, we just had one extra for the day. Sister Belnap. She is one of the training leader sisters, so she joined us for the day. It was awesome because she is awesome. I learned a lot from her. While she was here we were out street contacting and I stopped this girl standing there with a bunch of bags and we had an awesome conversation with her and when Sis Belnap shared a scripture, she read it and got so happy. She said she had never read something that explains what she thinks so clearly. So basically, I am really excited to start teaching that girl because the Spirit was so strong while we were talking with her. Her name is Leoni, she is adorable. 

So last transfer Sister Webster gave our number to this lady at the post office that said she had a friend that lives here that is from Arizona. And that lady texted us like once or twice last transfer but we never got to meet with her, and then Sister Webster left and I didn't have her number so it died off. But Monday our phone rings, and it was this lady saying she wanted to come to church with us on Sunday. And she did! Her name is Chelsi and she is very sweet and has two adorable daughters. We are going to start teaching her this week. So that was a miracle!

Friday night we were in north London for a fireside. It went really well. It was our last one with the original choir, so that is really sad. Afterwards we were getting on the tube to go home and Sister Jones and I got separated and we lost each other in the London Underground for like an hour. It was stressful. But it all worked out. 

Saturday we had Patrick's baptism! It was really special to me because I have been teaching him this entire time. I was the first missionary he ever made contact with. So it was a great baptism, and he is so excited to be part of the ward. Right afterwards we had a ward party that was Disney themed! There was a Disney quiz which I totally dominated. Just kidding I got third place, but it was still impressive. 

So next week is moves, so I don't email until Tuesday. Which is when I will know my fate for next transfer. I'm really hoping to stay in Bedford, but as I have told the Lord continually, I will do whatever I'm asked. Ya know, 1 Nephi 3:7 is really true.

Have a great week everyone!

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This is Patrick at his baptism! Hooray!

This is the choir. Minus Sister Gibson who you can't see because she's at the piano.

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This is our district. Back row is Elder Allred (from St. George), his comp Elder Leavitt (from Las Vegas), Elder Duncan, Elder Brunstad, Elder Dickey, Sister Jones. Front row is Elder Titus (our district leader), Sister Belnap (not in our district but this is our only pic from our work over haha) and me in an awkward position because I was running to be in the picture.

This is Caroline, and investigator in the White Chapel ward. She has been investigating for 2 years so she is basically a member, but can't get baptized for a whole year because of family stuff. She is amazing! She teaches gospel principles in her ward haha. 

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This is Sister Worrall and her daughter Joanne. We love Sister Worrall! She is so sweet!

It was bound to happen.

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