But what about the Fish!?!?! July 4, 2016

Hello All! This week has been so great! Miracles are truly happening here in England and I feel so privileged to be laboring in the Lord's work. It is definitely not easy, but it has been so worth it! It is so amazing to me to think how despite all the discouraging words, door slams, and cancelled appointments, one smile from someone, one person accepting a Book of Mormon, or one person showing up to an appointment makes up for all the hard times!

We had a great lesson with a recent convert named Kristy on Monday and it seemed to go really well. We talked to her about the power of prayer and gave her a testimony challenge I found before leaving on my mission (I'm so glad I was inspired to basically print out pinterest before coming out...and Sister Sovala likes it too!) She is really having a hard time because she wants to come to church, but no one else in her family or friends is LDS and so we're hoping to just keep in contact with her and continue to encourage her to stay strong to what she believes in!

Tuesday was weird. We were supposed to go on exchanges, but our STL got emergency transferred like 3 hours away and so we didn't. But that was hard because we had absolutely no plans for the day. So we called a few people and were able to see Ephraim before he went on his vacation to London. We challenged him to continue to read from the Book of Mormon while he was gone and discussed faith and repentance with him. Then our friend Becky needed some help. So we walked with her down to the food bank and helped her get what she needed for the week. Then we went and visited Pam because she's not been feeling too well lately. We just love her so much! We stayed for awhile and had like three different lessons with her because she had so many questions and so did her husband, Richard. So it was a great time and we felt so blessed to have that time with her. Then we went and visited Graham. Oh Graham! He is absolutely hilarious. We were talking to him about Jesus Christ and how we need to draw closer to Christ in our lives because Christ was perfect and that's what we want to strive to be. Well, I can't remember if I told you some of Graham's beliefs before but he believes that ever being (so every ant, leaf, slug etc.) will be a human in heaven and there just wasn't enough space on Earth for us to all be human here....anyways it's interesting. So we were talking about how Jesus is perfect and he's like "no He's not." and we were like "Yes. He is" and then he said "Well He fed the multitude with bread and fish, right? well WHAT ABOUT THE FISH!? Do you think they liked being eaten? I'm pretty sure that was a sin" so then we asked him if he felt he sinned whenever he had fish and chips and he said "only if I don't put salt and vinegar on it" It was absolutely hilarious. And I think what the funniest part was that he was absolutely serious that he believes Christ's sin was eating fish...

Our first appointment on Wednesday cancelled on us, so we had mormon.org time instead and then street contacted back home for lunch. That was fun because it was raining and super windy. But we did run into someone who said he had been baptized a couple years back. So we gave him our number because it was raining and he wasn't too happy we were stopping him from getting home...he promised to call us but he never did :/ so we're hoping to run into him again soon! Then we went to stop by a lady named Louise. We knocked on the door and her three-year old daughter sticks her hand through the mail slot and says "who?" and so we tell her we're there to see her mommy. So she runs off screaming MOMMY! and then comes back, sticks her hand through the slot again and says "She doesn't want to talk to you anymore. Bye-bye" and closed the mail slot. So we went and visited some less-actives in the area. Then we had a dinner appointment that got real awkward real fast. So the wife needed to go take a plate to her mom, but that would leave us alone with her husband. So we offered to go with her or stand outside. and they were like "no, it's ok, we're over 55" but that rule just changed and it doesn't matter the age anymore and so we told them that and then reiterated that we would stand outside for the five minutes she was gone. He kept arguing with us and finally she just said "hun, you stand outside and let these girls start their tea." so he grumblingly waited outside until she came back. We were just thankful we were able to be so obedient! Even though he didn't like it at all and was mad at us, our mission president, and the First Presidency. Afterwards he was telling us that he remembers certain missionaries for certain things and so walking back to the bus we were like "he's gonna remember us as the sisters that made him stand outside his own house while we ate his food."

We had district meeting on Thursday and it was so good! We went over door knocking and it was really inspiring! Then we had an amazing lesson with a 19-year-old named Jane. She's looking for a way to come back to Christ and seemed so sincere and the Spirit was so strong in her lesson. We're pretty optimistic about her! Then we had branch correlation and then went to try and have a lesson with Darren. He was acting out a bit that day, so we didn't get too far with him, but we're gonna keep trying with him! Then we had a lesson with Keith. Keith is 20 and also seemed really sincere. The Spirit was so strong in his lesson too. So Thursday was a great day for us and we feel so good about these two!

Friday was long, but amazing! We left right after studies to catch a bus to go to Sheffield and MEET THE NEW MISSION PRESIDENT! It was such a great meeting! I honestly felt such a connection to both of them and know that they are the mission president and wife that I need on my mission. It sounds like his main theme is going to be teaching authentically (so not as a robot) and being an exemplary missionary every day. It was a great meeting and I am so excited to serve with him for the remainder of my mission. Then we travelled back to Rotherham and had a lesson with Jim. Jim is 76 and seems to really want to learn, but very adamant that he'd never go to church...we'll see ;)

So literally none of our appointments went through on Saturday, so we kinda flew by the seat of our skirts...we did door knocking for the first could of hours we were out and ran into a former investigator. It was such perfect timing too because we knocked on his neighbor's door because we had the address wrong, I got to speak to him in my broken spanish, so that was fun! and then we decided to continue down the street. We knocked on his door and there was no answer. So we were about to go on to the next door when he came riding up on his bike and said "missionaries! I haven't seen missionaries in like three years!" He seemed interested in continuing to learn more and so we'll be giving him a call soon. The problem is his work is on-call, so he never knows when he'll have time to have a lesson....Then we went back home and had weekly planning (we had to move it because of meet the president) and then had a lesson with Nathan. He wanted to hike up to an abandoned church for the lesson. Yes mom, we can hike it later and yes dad, it is all paved. It was actually really cool! It was locked, so we couldn't go in, but we could see inside and it was quite amazing! Then we had a lesson with a member named Jimmy. Jimmy is so awesome and loves the missionaries so much! We had a great time with him!

Sunday was good. We had church and then Becky wanted to join us for our next lesson, who cancelled. So we had "lesson" with Becky instead. She really needed to vent and get some advise on staying close to GOd. Our favorite subject! Then we went back and broke our fast, I made cookies again, and did 12 weeks. Then we tried by one of our friends in the area, but their whole family is sick, so we decided we'll try later. So we went back and grabbed some cookies to take to a lady who was really nice to us (even though she wasn't interested) and then had another lesson with Graham. We went over why we're missionaries and asked him how we could better help him go to church, read the scriptures, and pray. It was a great session and I think it really helped all of us get on the same page! Then we went back in for TRANSFER CALLS! This is a weird week because it was a 5-week transfer. Apparently last transfer was 7 weeks. Anyways, we're staying in Rotherham for at least another transfer and we're so excited about that! We love the people here and are doing so well together! 

So yeah, that was my week! My spiritual thought for this week is from Neil. L. Andersen's talk "Thy Kingdom Come"

"Brothers and Sisters, seeing and believing the Lord's miracles in establishing His kingdom on earth can help us see and believe that the Lord's hand is at work in our own lives as well." I hope that these emails are helping you see the Lord loves each of us and He is hard at work helping us, His children. I love you so much and know that Heavenly Father does as well!

-- 

Sister Hope

I got Whacked with a Book of Mormon! June 27, 2016

This week was sure interesting. 

After our P-day last week, we went to stop by a few potentials and none of them were in. So that was kinda discouraging. But we had a lesson with Pam in the park and so that was good! And then we street contacted back to the bus interchange and went home. So it was kinda a short day, but still good nonetheless. I made cocoa cookies to take to district meeting, but Sister Sovala liked them so much, they were pretty much gone by the end of the day...

Tuesday was another day of cancellations. Sister Sovala found this guy who seemed interested and then kept texting her weird messages like "Do you like bad boys?" So we had a good laugh over those and then told him he could meet with the elders if he was really interested...he didn't reply to that. So we went and visited a lady named Belina instead. She is so passionate about the church it is awesome! She loves missionaries and felt so bad she didn't have any food for us because she was on her way to the store and if we had just stopped by an hour later she would be able to be more like our momma. She is so sweet! Then we went home for a quick lunch and tried to stop by those same people from the day before, but they weren't in again. So we'll try one more time, probably tonight, and then leave them to the area book. Which I'm not too sad about, one of them scares me a lot. We nicknamed him Scary John. He seems really nice, but has tattoos on literally every part of his body. We had another lesson with Pam in the park and then went to teach Graham. One of the members met up with us and we had a great lesson. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation, but he said his mental illness won't allow him to read or pray...so we're not sure what his plan is. But Sister Slater was just like "that's ok, you can just listen to the Sisters" and so we didn't want to enforce the importance of it while she was there because we knew she'd correct us and then we'd correct her and it just wouldn't have been the best spirit in the house after that. So we went back to our flat (apartment) and I made more cookies so we could actually take them to district meeting

We had district meeting on Wednesday. The Zone Leaders came and picked up up because they moved the time to 8:00 and we would've had to wake up at 4:00 to be ready in time to make that in time. So they picked us up at 7:00 instead and we didn't have to wait for a bus! SO blessed! Then we knocked doors in the area and had our branch correlation meeting. Then I wasn't feeling well, so we went home for about an hour and then continued knocking doors. We had a great lesson with Ephraim afterwards about church and what we do there. We had kinda forgot to tell him all about it before he came last week, and so he left after an hour. But he was excited to stay all three hours after we explained what they were for! It was a total miracle though because Sister Slater lost her phone, so we couldn't get in touch with her but another member lives next door to him and she agreed last minute to go teach with us. Then we went home and I think I met the rudest person in England! Haha it was actually really funny. So we were at the bus station and I told a lady I liked her dress and she ignored me, so I said it again. She looked at me and said "Thanks. I don't like yours. Now go away, I'm not interested." Haha I've never met someone so bold and insulting at the same time! We laughed about it a little bit, and then realized she was probably a little drunk. She kept almost falling out of her chair on the bus.

We were supposed to have a lesson with a less-active named Jessica today, but we got there and she said she had forgotten and was helping her friend with some painting and they didn't need any more help. So we rescheduled and then knocked some more doors. It was voting day-they're voting if they should leave the EU or not...so not many people were in. Then we had a lesson that was supposed to be in the chapel, but the guy, Peter, said "I like to do things privately, let's stay outside" and we were like what? You want to stay in public to do something private and not go inside? It was funny. It was a good lesson though and he seemed really interested and loved what we had to say about everything and agreed to a baptism date of July 16! Then we went to have a lesson with a guy in our ward named Darren. He has some special needs and the Branch President has asked that we teach him the lessons. We only got about half way through and then he was done. So we talked to his grandma for a little bit and then went and knocked on some doors of less-actives in the area. The one wasn't happy at all and then the other was on holiday, and the last one was Sister Slater's daughter, but not interested anymore. So that was an interesting exchange!

We had a lesson Friday morning with this really nice lady named Kerrie. She didn't realize we wanted a lesson though, so we had planned on being there an hour, and she had planned on 20 minutes...so it ended a little awkwardly. But we just went and knocked some more doors. It started pouring though and so a really nice lady let us in her house. We started talking to her and she wasn't interested, but we kept talking until the rain stopped. It was really funny because she kept opening the door to see if it had stopped. Then we had a ton of time left, so we took an hour off for what they call "mormon.org time" which basically means we're allowed to get on the computer and look up talks and Mormon messages and such. It was really relaxing! Then we had a lesson with Nathan. We were supposed to role play handing out a Book of Mormon and so I was the investigator and he was the missionary and he just handed it to me and said "here" and I was acting how a normal person would and kept saying I didn't want it if I didn't know what it was. Well, I guess he wasn't really in the missionary mood, because instead of explaining it, he hit me with it. In the face. And it hurt. But then it started raining. So payback! He got soaked and I had an umbrella :)

Saturday we got into town to have a lesson with Peter and he texted us that he decided to stay with his own faith. So that was a bummer. It was Armed Forces Day though so there was a parade in town! Then we went knocking doors at some less-actives and two of them let us in! It was such a miracle! The one said her mom has really missed it and that missionaries had just forgotten about her and she's disabled so she hasn't been able to go back to church due to that. But they want us to keep coming back! Unfortunately, the mom is in Wales for a month...We had another lesson with Ephraim about the Plan of Salvation and he just took it all in! He is so amazing! He takes notes as he reads the Book of Mormon and reads them to us what he's learned. He's already in 2 Nephi! Such a stud! We asked him again about baptism and he said he wants to but he wants to keep studying. So we'll see!

Sunday was amazing! Ephraim came to all three meetings and in Gospel Principles, there were only like 7 of us, so we all introduced ourselves and said if we could have one wish, what would we wish for. Ephraim's answer was that he'd wish to be part of the Mormon community some more. So amazing! Such a great example! We had a lesson with him after lunch and talked about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. He was ok until we mentioned tea and coffee and was so funny! We could tell he didn't want to give up tea, but he said "If you say its bad, then I won't have any starting tomorrow" then he went inside and grabbed his tea and asked if those were ok, because he didn't know what herbal tea was. We were praying that's what he drinks, but he drinks black tea. But he is so willing to give it up, we were in shock! Then we went and visited Pam to make sure she is still ok. Then we had a little bit of time left on the bus, and so we decided to stay on afterwards because we thought it looped around and went back to town, but it didn't. We wound up at the Sheffield Airport and it was actually really funny. We were so lost. But luckily another bus came around about half an hour later we could get back on to go to our house. Biggest "whoops" moment of my mission so far!

So for my spiritual thought:

"There will be days...when your hears are heavy and your heads hang down. Then, please remember, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is the Head of this Churc. It is His gospel. He wants you to succeed. He gave His life for just this purpose" -President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Have We Not Reason to Rejoice?"

I love you all!

-- 

Sister Hope

God works in mysterious ways! And sometimes we don't like it June 20, 2016

This week was honestly pretty tough at the beginning. It did get better, but I'm sorry if the first half of this letter sounds sad, because well...it was a little!

We got a call on Monday from Pam that she was really upset because none of our investigators came to church. She comes out with us everywhere and gives so much to the people that we teach that she is basically our third companion! When she's not with us, she's helping our investigators; cooking them meals, picking them up, buying them nicotine lozenges to cut down their smoking, etc. And she was just upset that this was the second week in a row that they didn't come to church. So we went straight to her house after we got back from Sheffield, and had a message with her about the Atonement and how missionary work can't be easy because then it wouldn't be God's work (Thanks Sister Horne for the "Missionary Work and the Atonement" Video!). It was a great lesson and she cheered up a little, but it was really difficult for her still. So we left with a prayer because the night was over. She promised to come out with us the next day because she knew if she didn't then Satan would've won over her and she didn't want that. She is such an inspiration to us!

So Tuesday, Pam's friend called her and was upset we had called to confirm her appointment and told her that she didn't actually want to learn from the missionaries. So we had a lesson with Janine instead. Janine had also called Pam and told her she was in trouble, so Pam walked all the way over because she didn't have time to wait for the bus, and we rushed over as well. They wound up spending the whole day together and we went to see John. Since Pam was with Janine, we had a lesson in the park with John on Enduring to the End. Then we stopped by another potential we had found in the area who said he was looking for any help he could get. But his mom answered the door and said they weren't interested. We're still planning on stopping by later though.

Wednesday was pretty good! We had district meeting in Sheffield and President and Sister Pilkington came to say goodbye. We had an awesome district meeting and they gave us temple recommend holders with a personal interview on the other side with some of their favorite mantras. There were so many though, they just made us two holders...Then we got a ride with the Zone Leaders to Branch Correlation. Then we met up with Pam and went to John's. Pam was still struggling and so after John's lesson, we went to the park with her and had another lesson with her on the power of missionary work and she asked for a blessing, so we sent the elders over to her house and did street contacting. We had another lesson with Graham and it had to be outside again and it started raining again. We didn't get through the lesson because he has some very deep, interesting thoughts already about the afterlife. 

Thursday, we travelled to Treeton to visit a less-active and invite her back to church. She's not sure she wants to, but she said she'll think about it. So progress!?! Then our other lesson cancelled, so we met up with Pam and did a service activity for a lady in the branch. The hard part about service here, is we're only allowed to do it, if we give up our lunch break, so we were starving. We pulled her weeds for her and then had a meal, so we left a lot happier than we came ;) Service really is such a blessing! I honestly wasn't sure how I felt about her before and now she's one of my favorite lady's in the branch! I finally understand her sense of humor and it was actually funny and not as offensive as I originally thought! So that was a great blessing!

Friday was by far our roughest day. Our morning lessons all cancelled, so we read from the Book of Mormon with Pam instead. Then we went to John's. John has completely stopped smoking, but has become increasingly angry with God and as a by-product, women. He was really upset and kept calling us witches with a B and saying we were all alike-ganging up on men. ANYWAYS. We wound up having to pass him on to the elders. Which was so painfully hard! He's made such great progress! But we're thankful we have elders in our area that we can pass him on to. He's at the point now where I think he needs that male influence to help him and they'll be able to help him more than we can now (which is really painful to admit...). But then the miracle of our next lesson happened! Our lesson was with a man named Ephraim who is from Ethiopia and he was so receptive to what we had to say and his only concern was his English wasn't perfect and the Book of Mormon is kinda in "old language", even in his native language, he thought it would be too hard to understand. We came home and had another lesson with Graham and actually got through the Restoration!

Saturday we street contacted all day. We met some super nice, super scary, and everything in between people. Then we had another lesson with Ephraim on the power of the Book of Mormon. He read four chapters last night! What a stud! So we read chapter 5 with him and it was a great lesson!

Sunday was amazing! First of all, Ephraim showed up! So third week's the charm apparently! ;) Also, President Pilkington came and shared some thoughts on the power of missionary work and the miracles he's seen of God protecting His missionaries. It was so great! After church, we made a sandwhich and promptly fell asleep. Then we woke up and went to visit a less active who is having a hard time wanting to go to church because there's no other kids there and her kids can be pretty noisy and don't like to sit still. That's kinda a hard challenge to help overcome! SO pray we meet some families!!! ;) Then Nathan called and wanted to go follow-up with some of the Elder's investigators because he was bored. So, since our lesson fell through, we did! And it was great! They said they were impressed we had the same answers as the elders did for their questions. So that's good the elders aren't teaching false doctrine ;)

So in our District Meeting, Sister Pilkington gave us 30 quotes from conferences that can help give us a boost, so I figured I'd choose one a week and send them out :)

"Hard as things seem today, they will be better in the next day if you choose to serve the Lord this day with your whole heart."-President Eyring "This Day"

Love you all!

Sister Hope

Give and Never Give Up! June 13, 2016

This week has been insane! We felt like we were hardly in our area which sucked because we didn't get nearly as much done as we wanted to! But we got as much done as Heavenly Father needed us to!!

So Monday was P-day and we did our normal P-day activities and then we taught a lesson to a recent convert at the chapel and had to hurry to the train station because...

Tuesday we had exchanges! So they've changed exchanges where instead of one missionary switching areas with another one, both companionships work the area of the STL. So I worked with Sister Blair, who is our STL and then Sister Sovala went with Sister Huang and we both taught and tracted in Sheffield. We street contacted so much! Sister Blair loves talking to people and basically following them when they walk away, it was really funny and I wish I was that bold with my finding! I guess I'll get there eventually though... Then we taught a lesson with a recent convert and he mainly just talked the whole time and we got about five minutes in with him but it was a great five minutes! Then we caught the train back and did finding in our area until 9.

Wednesday we tried to teach that family, but the mom said her kid wasn't interested which we now know is a lie because we saw them yesterday and he was mad we never stopped by. Oh well...the Zone Leaders want to try now so we'll see how that goes! So we taught John outside his house and then went to the Czech house to teach her. We are going to let the Slovak elders teach her which is so sad because  she is so awesome! but we had a hard time communicating Gospel topics with her due to the language barrier...Then we went back to the Chapel and met up with Pam so we could teach a man named Ali and then a lady named Galina. They're both so super nice and we had a great time talking to them. We went home after that and then caught the train back to Sheffield to spend the night. All the sisters in the zone were there, so there were 8 of us in one flat (apartment) and that was so crowded! but it was good. 

Thursday we woke up at like 4:30 and got on a charter bus to go to Leeds where we spent all day at Zone Conference. Zone Conference was great, but long! To save time, I'll just leave it at that since I already sent an email about Zone Conference. Anyways, we got back to our flat around 10:20 that night so it was LONG!

Friday we had a lot of meetings but a lot of miracles! So we got a new phone on Thursday and unfortunately didn't write all the numbers we needed, but we thought we did! So we lost Ali's number. We'll who would be on the same bus we were catching!? Ali! So we got his number again and set up a return appointment with him! Then we had Branch Correlation and then a lesson with John about baptism and the Holy Ghost. Then we had tea (dinner) with a member and got caught in the rain and were drenched! It was OK though because we were obedient and left exactly an hour after we got there and barely caught the bus so we didn't get too drenched on the way home! We then knocked a few doors and a former investigator decided to let us in and wants us to come back! She was on her way out so we barely caught her!

Saturday was a little disappointing at first because all of our lessons fell through. We found out it was the Queen's Birthday, so Happy Birthday to the Queen of England! and it was also my official one month as a missionary!!! We celebrated by doing a lot of street contacting and found some people who seem really prepared, so we're really excited to see them next week! We had another tea appointment with a member and then went to teach a lesson with Pam and her family about the Priesthood. Oh and then Sister Sovala bought me a chocolate bar since I'm a month old now ;)

Sunday was pretty good. I played the piano for the branch in Sacrament Meeting and that was interesting to say the least. And then we went to see John because he didn't show up to church again and then we met up with Pam and had a lesson with her about missionary work because she's feeling really discouraged that she's coming out with us everyday and nobody is showing up to church after they promise. She's so great, isn't she!? We just love her to pieces and hope she can remember why she's coming out with us in the first place! Because she loves Jesus Christ and wants to help others feel that love as well! Then we had a lesson outside with a man named Graham. It started raining just as we were finishing up, but I had my umbrella this time, so we were mostly OK! then we ran home and dried off.

I love you all and know that if you continue to look for God's many miracles, you'll find them! I've started writing down at least one instance where I saw the Hand of the Lord in my life that day as part of my journaling and it has been so wonderful! He really is all around and I know this is His work we are doing. Continue doing great things and I know the Lord will bless you! Thanks again for all your love, and support. I truly can feel all the prayers!

Sister Hope