Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Stressful Being Thankful -- November 21, 2016

Dear family and friends,

Things seem to be going well here in Louth. We had another crazy week of travelling, and another one ahead of us. So we are getting comfy and cozy on the busses. On Monday, we finished our shopping and then went to Grimsby to spend P-Day with our district. We only got to spend like two hours there before heading off to town to get Sister Tautkus a new winter coat and getting on the bus to Hull. We travelled to Hull, and met up with the Sisters there. We began our exchange and Sister Echgfäller (pronounces eshg-fella. She is from Paraguay, but her dad is German) and I taught a lady named Kate. That was an
interesting lesson to say the least.

Tuesday was the full exchange day. I left Sister Tautkus in the very capable hands of Sister Blair and went with Sister Echgfäller to try by some potentials and do a little knocking. Then we had lunch in the park and continued contacting until going back to the missionary house to teach a recent convert named Josh about the Law of tithing. Then we went to teach some other recent Converts. We retaught the
Restoration...IN SPANISH!!!! It was so cool! My Spanish isn't very good with all the religious terms, but I made it through and it was a good lesson. They were great fun to have two Spanish speakers there.
Because we could just talk and there wasn't a lot, or at least as much, translating that had to be done. Then we went in for tea and language study and went back for their missionary correlation meeting.
Sister Tautkus and I were again reunited and went out for the last few hours to do some street contacting and bus contacting.

Wednesday, we woke up early and went to the Hull chapel for Zone Training. The theme this month was Toy Story...I still don't really understand this one. But it was all about listening to the Holy Ghost and asking inspired questions. We also got to watch the new Christmas video. It is being released to the rest of the church November 25. And oh. My. Goodness. It is SPECTACULAR!!! I am so excited to share it
with EVERYONE!!! Then we travelled, and travelled, and travelled some more home and then had like an hour to street contact before going in for 12 weeks and tea.

Thursday was an adventure. We did Mormon.org time in the morning. I printed off some new pictures to use on my Restoration Cups and put them on during lunch and then we went to teach Jackie. She had read the entire Book of First Nephi after our lesson with her on Sunday. It was so amazing! She was talking about how she'd had a lot of questions and then felt she needed to reread it and she figured it out! She is learning so much and doing so well in her Spiritual Progression! I just love her so much! Then we went to Sister Elliot's house and she took us to see Michael. We hadn't seen him in ages since he's been sick, but we finally got back in touch with him and it was so good! Then we went to visit a former named Alex who had invited us back. He basically just told us this time he wasn't interested and was too busy. Oh well. Then we went to tea at the Fox's and helped her put some things together for the Branch Nativity Program.

Friday was short. After weekly planning and lunch, we went to Josephine's to do some service. We learned how to make cheese cake. It was amazing. Just trying to figure out what the American equivalent of double cream is...but it's all good! Then we went out to do some quick shopping. We are doing a zone P-day on Monday and we all got assignments to cook something. So we had to go get ingredients and hope we have time to make what we're supposed to. Don't laugh mom, but we are in charge of Sweet Potatoes...yeah, I know you're laughing. We're also in charge of cookies because apparently my cocoa cookies are Mission famous now and everyone wants to try some. But the elders are in charge of gravy. Because that seems like a fair trade. Ok so anyways, we went to tea at the Harvey's and then had a lesson with Jane and Andy and their granddaughters. We taught about the armor of God and did an object lesson with oranges and water. It was really funny because afterwards, she said she was afraid when she saw the bowl of water because she thought we were gonna try and baptize her since she'd been to church on Sunday. We had a good laugh about that and it was a great opportunity to explain how and why we actually get baptized.

Saturday we left after personal study and caught the bus to Horncastle to try by some less actives and formers. It was crazy because we were the only ones on the bus and the driver looked so shocked to see us getting on the bus. Horncastle is kinda a retirement community, so I'm sure there's rarely ever any teenagers who get on. Anyways, we tried by everybody, but nobody was in. So we went to a little café and had lunch and then went to catch the bus. Then we sat on the bus again and were supposed to meet up with Sam at the bus stop. But he didn't show up. Again. So we celebrated Sister Tautkus' official one month mark in the field with a donut from Greggs. So we went in after that for an hour and did Area Book Finding. Which again was just putting people into the app. Then we had tea with the Dodds and came in for companionship Study and 12 weeks!

Sunday. I love Sundays. We had church, next week is our Stake Conference and so church will be later and they announced "so that means everyone gets a lay-in, unless you're a full-time missionary, that is" so that was nice of them to remind us we don't get to sleep in... it anyways, church was really great! We came home and had lunch and then I made like 60 cocoa cookies, including shaping some like a 16 since it's Ben's birthday on Tuesday! Then we went over to Ben and Josephine's to watch the Joseph Smith movie. I loved the last line "we don't have to see him to know he's a prophet." Like wow. That was such a great closing! So we had a good discussion on that and he enjoyed his cookies. Then we went to Jackie's and talked to her about doing service. So that was fun! Then we came in, made tea and sweet potatoes, then did 12 Weeks. It was a stressful evening, but we got it all done!

Today we cleaned and did shopping right away and then did our studies on the bus to Hull so we could make it to the zone Thanksgiving Party. I'll fill you in on how it goes next week :) but the elders messed up the gravy.

My Spiritual thought this week comes from President Eyring's talk: Happiness for Those we Love. "We also know that maintaining happiness is not easy unless, as with the Nephites after the Savior's visit, 'The Love of God' dwells in our hearts." When we feel the Love of God, we are never the same again. The love of God is what binds us to Him. And most importantly, as we emulate His love in our lives, we become more like Him and have a greater capacity to do His work and see others as He sees them.

I love you all!

Sister Hope

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