Happy Early Easter Everyone!! I went to the Castles! -- April 10, 2017

Monday was jam-packed! We decided to go castle hopping. The first was Warwick Castle.

Then we went to Alnwick Castle and Gardens. Alnwick Castle is where parts of Harry Potter and Downton Abbey were filmed. So that was pretty cool! Lots of touristy things to do and see. Including a poison garden where every plant is poisonous.

We didn't do too much more because we wanted to see more castles! So we went to Bamburg Castle.

Then we went to Holy Island. This used to be a monastery where the monks would live and is where Christianity started in England...the tides would come up and completely cover the road, so we had to get special permission to take the mission car. But we got it because the tides were good! So there was a Castle, but it was under renovation, so we only got to see it from afar. There were also some ruins, but we didn't want to pay to go in. So we saw the church instead. 

Then we left and after Holy Island, we stopped by one more Castle, the Chillingham Castle.

Then we came back and went out. We first went to see Heather in the hospital again to check up on her and then went to see the Griffith Family and had a lesson with them about the power of prayer and the Brother of Jared's experience praying. It was a great lesson!

Tuesday we had a pretty ok day. We were going to go do service for Becca, but she wasn't in and didn't answer her phone, so we went home and changed and had lunch and then went to help Heather with some things. She needed her bills payed since she's in the Hospital, so we went and found the right stuff. It took us two tries, so it took a while. Then we had a lesson with Kurt and he taught us the Plan of Salvation. He is doing so well! He knows the doctrine so well and is going to be such a great missionary! Then we went and payed the bills for Heather and went to see her to let her know we got it done. She was wanting to sleep again, so we left and did Area Book Finding until going to tea with Brother and Sister Redpath. We went through the Branch List with him, so we found out who has requested no contact and stuff like that. So that was such a blessing. Then we went to the chapel and had our companionship study there and watched the first few talks of the Sunday Afternoon Session.

Wednesday morning we went and did a Zone Service Project at a park in Gateshead. It was pretty fun, Sister Kirk and I were in charge of washing all the signs and making sure all the dirt was off. So we got to walk around and see the entire park. It's absolutely beautiful!

Then we came home for lunch and companionship study. After that, we finished putting the Branch List on our iPad and went to go do some finding. We went to the beach by Newbiggin and walked up and down talking to people for a few hours. It was so beautiful! And there's a weird statue there of a couple. So of course, I offered a Book of Mormon to them!

Then the beach cleared out, and we felt prompted to go to a riverside. There was one guy there and we talked to him for a long time. He said he wasn't interested (at first) but he was glad to talk to Mormons in a more natural setting because at his door is just uncomfortable. Then we found out he's been wanting to do his family history! So we're hoping he'll come to the family history class our Branch does!

Thursday was a pretty good day. I had a doctor’s appointment in the morning and then we drove back for lunch and went to see John and Jackie. Well, they forgot it was a Thursday, but they invited us in anyways. Which was good since we hadn't seen them in ages. Jackie was painting all the doors and frames (while John watched) so we kept shouting "Don't touch the white!" It was pretty funny. We stayed there for about two hours because their kids kept coming and so we were talking to them too. Then we went to see Heather and played Flip with her. Then we came in for tea and companionship study and then went to see Kayleigh. We talked to her about Easter and showed the new Easter Video "The Prince of Peace"

Friday we had Zone Training and Interviews all morning. It was pretty good. We talked about strengthening recent converts and asking inspired questions. Then we saw Eileen on our way home and showed her the Easter Video as well and talked about the Atonement. Then we finally had lunch and went to see Sharon Wylie about Easter as well. Then we had companionship Study at the chapel again to finish Conference! Such a good Session! We really enjoyed it! Then we saw another family. It was my first time meeting them, but we had a good conversation because the little girl is doing gymnastics, so we were talking about gymnastics and piano a lot! We did get to share the Easter Video with them too!

Saturday we had our lessons cancel on us this morning. So we tried by a few less actives and only one was in. So we got to know them and shared the Easter Video with them. Then we came in and combined our tea and lunch break so we could cook a proper meal to begin our fast with. Then we went to see a few more less actives. One cancelled and we had a lesson with another in her garden since it was an absolutely gorgeous day! We shared the...you guessed it! Easter Video with her. Then we went to the chapel and had a lesson with John and Shannon. We read the Conference talk "Stand Up Inside and Be All In" with them and talked about the baptismal covenants they'd just made and how we can be "All In" with those covenants. Then we headed over to see Jennifer Thompson and shared the Easter Video with her. She used to play the violin and she let me try it out! Of course Sister Kirk had to take a video. I'd say it was pretty good, considering I haven't played the violin in about seven years!

Sunday we basically moved into the chapel. So we had church, which was pretty good. Then we had brought a pizza to the chapel and heated it up afterwards to have lunch and then did our weekly planning. Then we practiced the piano a bit more and headed out to missionary Coordination. After that, we came in for tea and companionship study. So a very short day...but we saved our miles! So that's good! We're back on track now from Monday!

My Spiritual Thought for the Week comes from Conference:

"In our Premortal Life, we stood with the Savior. We trusted Him. We voiced our support, enthusiasm, and joy for the Plan of happiness set forth by our Heavenly Father. We leaned Not."

-Bonnie H. Cordon "Trust in the Lord and Lean Not"

I hope we can all regain that same trust, enthusiasm, and support we had then in this life. That is our goal!