My last few days at the MTC were greatish. We had an ALL day conference about paperwork type stuff and well, our elders decided to ditch, so it was just us four sisters that stayed. There has to be some blessing for obedience, right? Maybe its just that I can hold it against them for the rest of their lives....
We left the MTC around noon on Monday, but the rest of the Hawaii elders and sisters left at 7 am and so it was just me and the three other Leeds Elders. We joined with another district for about an hour or two and then finished our packing and left. Not much else to report as far as the MTC goes.
Our flight was long, but we made it safely. I was surprised that I wasn't so tired when we finally landed. We were told we still had to wait up until 9:30 before we could go to bed. Anyways, we had interviews with President Pilkington and then we went over specific mission rules and guidelines with the other senior missionaries and Sister Pilkington, then President pulled all of us into another room and we went over some finding techniques and the importance of talking to everyone and how to get to those that are rude and don't want to listen. It was really funny. He even had the two biggest elders stand up, gra b another elder by both arms, and gently throw him back (while still holding onto him) to show that our purpose isn't to baptise. If it were, we'd just be assaulting people on the streets and throwing them in the water...but our purpose is to invite others and to find those who are ready, even if they don't think they are ready. Then we met our trainers. Mine wasn't too hard to figure out, since I was the only girl in the group...her name is Sister Sovala and she is from Australia. She is absolutely amazing and I've already learned so much from her! We left Leeds and took the train back to our area which is called Rotherham. Not to scare anyone, but I heard this is one of the roughest areas of the mission and all the people who live here keep telling me how unlucky I am to have this be my first area. But I think it is absolutely beautiful here and while the people definitely aren't American or what I'm used to, they're so nice! We travel contacted our way home which just means we talked to everybody we could on the train, got to know them, and handed them a mormon.org card with our number on it. Not too hard! But Sister Sovala said I'm pretty much the most outgoing greenie she's ever met and she's amazed at how willing I am to just talk to everybody! So that's good! We wound up still staying up until 10:30 which I was a little sad about because it was the only day I was given permission to get extra sleep...but that's ok. It helped me get better adjusted to the schedule!
Wednesday we had to wake up early and go to district meeting. That was pretty great! Our district has 6 elders, and 4 sisters. So it reminded me a lot of the MTC...just with English accents. We discussed 1 Nephi 18 when everyone got on the boat and compared that to us saying we all willingly came out on our missions, but if we ever begin to be disobedient, in even the smallest ways such as sleeping until 6:35, then soon we won't have the spirit with us and we won't want to be on our missions anymore. It was a great lesson and application! Then we went to Branch Coordination. We share the branch area with the Zone Leaders and so it was us four missionaries and the Branch Mission Leader. He fed us. It was a miracle! The zone leaders just replaced the other elders, so out of the four missionaries, three of us were new. So we talked about the investigators and how they can be strengthened and all that jazz. It was a great meeting and I left so excited to meet these people! A recent convert named Pam came over because we were supposed to have a lesson with a potential Sisters Sovala and Kirk had found. He showed up just to tell us he already had a church and wasn't interested. So we were pretty confused. But we taught a lesson to Pam and then did some street and travel contacting to another investigator's house with Pam. His name is John. John is hilarious. He has a baptismal date for the 25th so we're hoping he can keep that! Then we returned home and knocked doors in our area for a bit before coming home for tea (in England, Lunch is dinner and dinner is tea...its weird).
Thursday was great! We met up with another sister in the branch and taught a man named Mohammed. His roommate, Leo, decided to come out and listen as well. So we had a great lesson with them and then went to Pam's house because John was supposed to meet us there, but he was an hour and a half late, so we read from the Book of Mormon with her and then went to another lesson with a lady named Amanda. Amanda has such a strong testimony of God, and we're hoping that we can really reach her and help her. Then we travel contacted home and had tea and did more studies since we had to cut our morning studies short in order to make our first lesson.
Friday Sister Sovala and I had a personal challenge to see who could find "the most romantic love story in England" so we kept asking people how they met and almost nobody wanted to tell us! It was so sad! I think the one that won, out of the three we actually got, was that his girlfriend came over to pet his cat, Elvis, and they started talking and they've been together for 16 months now! So they met through Elvis. Anyways, I got a return appointment with him this week (my first one to get without Sister Sovala!). We tried to contact a referral from the Elders, but she wasn't home. So we went to John's house with Pam. When we left, this little boy came running up to us and asked if we were from the church because his dad wants him to join a church! And his friend was there with his mom and asked her if they could join a church too! So we promised to go back the next day! Then we went to visit this other lady named Janine. She had been taught by elders before and said she already knows the Book of Mormon is true and this is the path she's supposed to be following. So we really enjoyed our lesson with her! Then we went to visit a lady named Jazzmine at her house. Jazzmine lives on the street behind us and has already told missionaries she's not interested in converting, but she'd love to hear all we have to say. She started crying during the lesson and she blamed it on pregnancy hormones, but we know it was the Spirit. Anyways, we were there way too long but had a great conversation with her and her husband!
Our challenge for Saturday was to find the craziest thing someone had done. Only one person answered me. She said she went out drinking once and only once and she wound up falling down and cutting her head open, but didn't realize it until she woke up in the morning, so she swore to never drink again. We went to the chapel and had a lesson with the branch mission leader and his wife on family history and the temple and then went to John's and those two families! They were so nice. The one was from the Czech Republic and even though she spoke English, it was still a little hard to understand her. We want to keep teaching her, but our district leader thinks we should let the Slovak Elders teach her. Then we went to the other family and their little boy forgot to tell them we were coming so we rescheduled for next week and went to a recent convert, Nathan's, home. He is so great! He is 16 and loves the gospel so much!
Sunday was amazing! We went and helped a less active named June walk to church. Obviously it was fast and testimony meeting and the testimonies were so pure! Definitely a good branch to bring investigators too! Our branch is extremely small and mostly elderly men. Sister Sovala and I taught Gospel Principles and excluding us and the elders there were 8 people and then there were only 5 in Relief Society excluding us sisters. But it was a great Sunday and I'm so excited to work with these members and hopefully strengthen the branch! I told Sister Sovala that I really want to work on strengthening the less actives and recent converts because while finding new people is great, everyone needs support and that's something I'm really passionate about. We then went back to teach Nathan after church about temple work because he wants to get his recommend and go sometime soon! I know that will help him a lot in the trials he's going through right now. Then we went to John's again because he didn't show up to church. So we took Pam and knocked some sense into him in the most loving way possible ;) We were there for awhile and when we were getting back on the bus, we ran into the two new families and they seemed pretty excited to see us. In fact the one little boy was upset we weren't coming to see them then and that we had to go!
Overall, I think everything is going well. We're doing a great job of talking to everyone and Pam is so great to come out with us everyday! I think one thing I'm kinda confused about is the District Leader wants us to have more dedicated finding time, but we're always running from appointment to appointment and so I don't really see how we can do that without cancelling appointments...but I guess we'll figure it out. The work is going as well as it can be. We're definitely not slacking and I'm loving my mission. It's weird to think I've already almost been out for a month and yet it feels like it just began this week...I love you all and hope all continues to go well for everyone at home and in their missions!!
Love,
Sister Hope
