It's Christmas Time!

Catching up with Sister A in the UK over the last two weeks…

The week before Christmas was super cool. We had a nice family home evening

on Monday and then we had our Christmas conference in London that week. It was so much fun! Our whole District wore reindeer jumpers because we're the coolest District that way.

We also ate American Pizza! It's been so long since I had American pizza. Best thing ever! I ate too much. I was tempted to sneak some in my bag but I decided against it cause my bag would smell like pizza and I'd always be Hungry! Haha!

Got to see Sister Barnes
at the Christmas Conference!

After that night I witnessed how amazing guardian angels are. I know the Lord is protecting me! We had an experience this week that gave me solid proof that there are guardian angels surrounding me, not just one but armies of angels are assigned to me. So flippin awesome!

Big Ben and me!

This week we had some really interesting experiences with some very anti-Mormon people. It's interesting to see some people's opinions when they don’t know the truth of what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints teaches about Christ. One very strange experience for me, though, was when we walked into a Korean fast food place and this guy said hi to us. He looked exactly like Ryan, just a couple years older. My jaw dropped and I even took a step back; I was just in shock. But when he started bible bashing us, that moment was over. But it was really neat because it felt like I got to see Ryan one last time; what a wonderful gift it was for me.

We are teaching an awesome young lady, about Alecia’s age, named Amber. She is the sweetest soul you'll ever meet. When we walked into church, Amber was there!  It felt like Christmas morning –  I almost jumped outta my trousers! I was just super happy! This week has been full of hard work and many miracles. Just too many to share and not enough time!

Pigs! It feels like home!

While driving in the country, I saw pigs and asked the elders to pull over so we could take a picture! Haha! It made me feel like I was back home in the mid-West. Then a tractor drove by as we were taking the picture; I almost cried. We're in the boonies out here and it's just like home.

I'm feeling better this week we've tackled most of the mold in our flat. I enjoyed opening my Christmas gifts and the feelings of love and gratitude I have for all of my many blessings!

We had a busy week! This mission is great and I love the people so much they're just amazing. They all have such great potential!

Happy in Mildenhall

Catching up with Sister A in the UK over the last two weeks ...

My yard

My first week in the field was a great experience. I am in a tiny town called Mildenhall. It’s in the country and reminds me a bit of Monticello, IA, but it's super British looking and very cute. There are two military bases here, so lots of Americans and American food! The whole ward is American with only a few Brits.

A glimpse of the town of Mildenhall

We are opening this area; this is only the second transfer in here! So all tracting!! But it's fun if you make it fun.

Funny street sign outside of town

There are a lot of small towns in a big area here, so there’s lots of walking. Because our area is huge, we used to have a car, but the sister before me totaled it so we have no car right now. Hoping that during the next transfer we might get one and, if we do, I'm the designated driver 😳 – talk about anxiety! I've almost gotten hit by cars a billion times because I forget to look right when crossing the street instead of left and, there's no gap between the road and the sidewalks here so they're super close, but the Lord has my back!

Knocking on doors is so funny. A lot of people apparently don't like to talk about Jesus here; many also seem sad here – maybe they've got a huge vitamin D deficiency! Maybe I’ll start handing out vitamin D tablets with the Book of Mormon! Not really, just kidding; I just want to bring them happiness!

Random family picked us up and
delivered us from the freezing rain

The funniest stories so far from knocking on doors is one lady looked out the door and than hid from us so not to answer the door, but we could still see her. Another family’s home had Christmas lights on and kids playing in the living room so it seemed like the golden door opportunity to knock! When we walked up, the kids ran to the window and we waved and the kids waved back, but when we knocked on the door, the grandparents made the kids turn the lights out and the tree lights off and hide and acted like they weren't home. When we left, the kids ran back to the window and we waved again. It's funny and creative how people get out of talking to us.

Talk about funny stories; my companion told me I had to eat everything on the plate when eating at people’s houses. So, the first night, the dinner we had was a roast lamb dinner and food was piled on my plate, like stacked high enough it could have fed our whole family. I tried my best to eat it all, but it just wasn't happening. The woman was super nice about it though; she's like yeah, don't eat it all that'd be dumb to eat what you can't. Lamb isn't bad but I had it a few times I just feel bad about who I'm eating. Turns out you don't have to eat all the food haha! The bishop told me yesterday that that's not a thing and not to go against your body. Whew, good thing!

Inside a church built in 1336

The work is amazing. Everything is going great! I love the area and the people. The second week in Mildenhall was pretty awesome and we had some miracles happen. One lesson fell through so we knocked on the doors nearby and we got three return appointments in a row!!! And one is a solid investigator who is so ready for the gospel – she felt the spirit so strongly, it was amazing. She's so cool!!!  Another investigator was having a hard time gaining a testimony of the BOM so I bore my testimony of how I came to know it's truth. And the spirit like punched her in the face – in a nice way. But she was crying and was such a wonderful experience to feel the spirit so intensely. That was a major turning point for her.  She's got a baptism date set for Jan. 28.

My Christmas tree!

Another family we are teaching has a baptism date set for Jan. 8! They are Chinese and the mom doesn’t speak English, so we have an interpreter who helps. They have two little boys who are the boss. During the first lesson, one of them asked about our heavenly mother. Deep!

Joy can come in small red cans!
A bit of home thanks to a member!

I love talking to people about the gospel and learning more about them at the same time. I’ve discovered everyone learns differently and for some people, it’s hard to separate the people from the gospel. I let them know that people are imperfect and don't always follow the commandments, but they are still good people. I reassure them that the gospel is Jesus Christ's gospel and it never changes; it is the same today, yesterday and forever.

I am happiest when I'm doing the work – I love the work; it's so worth it and so far we are seeing some success! We have four baptisms on date and a couple more prospects!!! Super stoked and we work our bums off.

I love you so much and can't wait to FaceTime Christmas Day!!! 

Faithfully yours, 

Sister A in the UK