Week 17! I'm now a friend to Australia

This week was both stressful and fun! My first time leading an area taught me how easy it is to get lost. It also taught me to trust my companion a lot more too! So transfers happened and sister Poussard has left for runcorn to be an stl. My new companion is sister Gaugau from Sydney Australia. She's raised Australian but comes from a Samoan family of 12!(including her) I'm sorry mom, but your family is no longer the biggest. This week was mostly cleaning out the area book and calling by the people sister Poussard and I had found. We have two reactivated investigators weren't interested before, but are again so that's nice. Other than that, nothing to report really. 

This week's spiritual message will be on one of my favorite people in the old testament......joseph! (And the Technicolor dreamcoat, haha). Joseph is the perfect example of dealing with trials. Despite everything he went through, he was able to turn the situation around. Become a slave in Egypt? Now he's the manager. Go to jail? Now he's the jail manager. Interpret this dream? Now hes pharaohs manager. In all seriousness though, we should take Joseph's example of faith and positivity. Because he was willing to see his trials, not as a punishment, but as an opportunity from God, he was blessed during them. You can see that because of his faith, each trial left him in a better position than before, and finally leaving him the ability to save his family from famine. I promise that if we trust the Lord and exercise faith in him, he will give us those blessings.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, it was a busy week, but here's the funny moments 

So when we were at tea with yi (amazing recent convert) she was teasing her daughter about possibly staying home while she was at work. Celine answer was that she couldn't stay because she didn't know how to feed the fish (truer words never came from another five year old)
Celine was also getting worked up about it and she yelled out, this is Simple!, with the sass of a 13 year old. Sister gaugau, yi, and I were dying.
The neighborhood cat (the black one) tried to follow us to the flat. Sorry buddy, no pets allowed!
There are these shopping trolleys (trolleys are shopping carts) at asda(English walmart) and there are signs posted everywhere that say the trollies won't cross the red line. After the elders and us were dropped off after our tea, we decided to test those signs. It works. This was probably the dumbest thing I've done on my mission so far.
I accidentally led everyone in a circle back to asda on the way home. This is the extent of my sense of direction. I had a map app and everything too 

Pictures..They made nutella donuts on Pday.

Video Sister Gaugau took of them testing the trolley on the red line. haha!

Week 16!! IT FLIPPING SNOWED AGAIN

Hey everyone (I'm trying to quit y'all, too many people think I'm country)!

This week was busy busy. Lots of calling by people we found last week, tea appointments, and stress from transfers and the ice. Since transfers were coming up, a lot of members invited us over for tea, so we had to sidewalk a lot. Also, a missionary usually calls by a new or potential investigator a lot of times before we drop them. You never know what time they'll be in. We also called by our recent converts a bit. The weather the beginning of the week was really nice, but the end it just dropped and there was ice everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I still haven't achieved my goal of having an icicle fight. We got the call for transfers, and I am............staying! Sister Poussard is leaving for runcorn to be an stl (Sister Trainer Leader). I'm pretty sad, but I'll still see her on exchanges and zone conference so that's twice a transfer as long as we stay in the same zone. My new companion will be sister gougou (pronounced now-now), who is from Australia. I haven't met her yet so more on her the next week. 

For our weekly spiritual thought we have obedience! In the church, we have a line which nobody is allowed to cross. No coffee, no alcohol, stay chaste, etc. When Heavenly Father gave us these guidelines, he expects us to never cross the line, but how do we do that? We stay as far away as possible. Even if you're a little bit close to the line, the temptation and risk is still there. Of course we can't avoid temptation completely, but we can put ourselves in a better position to resist it. 

And now the funny stuff 

Everyone in the district has pulled down my beanie at least once. I wear one everywhere because of the wind. They tell me it's irresistible
It was 10 degrees Celsius one day. I didn't even need a cardigan. The next day it was snow and blizzard. Today was ice and -2 degrees. We lost 12 degrees in 2 days.
We were expecting 3 investigators at the relief society birthday, and not a single one came, so we had to tract instead. #missionlife
When sister Poussard got the phone call for stl, she sat down on the floor. Normally I would just let her stress for five minutes, but she did it in the LIBRARY! I had to convince her to get up.
I tried convincing the elders that I was being sent to the isle of man (an island in my mission) but I have no lying skills.
I've left my beanie on the bus twice. I have no idea how I still have them all.

There's this towel in the flat I call the towel of shame. It has the face of all the band members of one direction on it. It's hideous and I use it to clean the floor. The towel of shame doesn't deserve to be a bath towel 

*This last story Haley sent to me in her personal email and I laughed so hard! Haley gave me permission to share it here in this email.....

so I was going to bed and sister Poussard said goodnight little devil, so without thinking I said goodnight big mama. She told the elders, but it was a mistake because they started calling her big mama too. When we were at McDonald's, she asked if I'll call sister gougou big mama too, and I said that she was the only big mama for me and it set the district off again.

*pictures.. Haley sent these in a bunch of different emails so I'm not positive which description goes with which picture.. Haley will have to sort that out later in her blog. 

-Brother Bronlow served in Canada, the truly cold country, and sister Bronlow is an Amazing chef and was on a British baking show once I think. The other picture is Julia and her daughter niesha. Julia is one of the hardest working people I know and has amazing faith 

-The couple is a family of one of our members, the lady is Kim. She's super sweet and has a wild dog. I don't know the man very well. The other lady is one of our investigators, rosemary, and she's super faithful and sassy lol

-This family is yi and her daughter Celine. Yi is super clever and she's has very strong faith. She's a very observant person who easily sees the blessings in her life

-The lady sitting down is sister Lloyd. She has some health problems but she never complains. She's also really funny! The other lady is sister Thompson and she's really nice and loves music!

-Kims crazy dog

Week 15!! Its finally warming up. HALLELUJA

Hey y'all! 

This week was full of miracles! My district made a goal for 30 new friends and so sister Poussard and I became tracting machines this week. We had a lot of people to visit that we found last week so Idk how we did it. We managed to find 14 people though! Now I'm ready to die on pday. (Lots of speed walking/jogging involved, not my strong area).  We found most of the people in Lawley, where our flat is, so it'll be easy to see them. The only problem with that, is the fact that weve tracted all of lawley, so we have to walk 30 minutes to find anywhere to tract. It warmed up a lot this week, but it also rained for half the week too, so I'm taking it all in stride. Transfers are coming up next week, and sister Poussard and I are certain that one of us will leave (probably her, she's been in Lawley for a third of her mission). I'm excited to see the results! 

Now for the spiritual thought: good better and best! Lots of things we do each day are good, but is it the best thing we could be doing? We need to remember what our priorities are. Work, money, entertainment are all great, but we won't take any of it when we die. We need to lay up treasures in heaven (cookie to anyone who caught the scripture reference.) Sorry if this is short, I don't have too much time this week. 

Love y'all!

Sister Hawkins 

The funny moments:

When I was on the bus, it started moving and I fell on my seat. Elder klitgaard was laughing but I was too shocked to be mad.
Every time I burp, sister Poussard smacks me in the back of the head. Doesn't matter where, doesn't matter when, I will get smacked. (Doesn't stop me though)
When it gets really windy out, the birds will do occasional barrel rolls.
We were waiting for the bus in the evening and when it came to the stop, it stayed like 2 seconds, didn't even open it's doors, and left. We just started laughing/crying. It was so weird. Why have you forsaken me bus driver??? (It comes every hour)
Yesterday was really warm and I was too hot for that, so today I dressed lightly and it snowed in the morning. Thanks England
We found a bunch of new people and accidentally put them all for Saturday night.
Sister Poussard tossed our dinosaur phone to me and I missed it but it fell perfectly in my jacket pocket instead. It was a sacred moment
We were tracting, and we were at a door where an old man answered and he couldn't hear, so he called his granddaughter, and she called her cousin/Sister. So basically we ended up going through 4 teenage girls and a man who kept asking what we were saying before they told us that they weren't interested. I was so entertained by the situation that I didn't even notice how awkward it was. 

The picture with the dog, Bonnie, is the dog of one of our investigators, rosemary. This dog is an absolute dream; she's friendly, spoiled, and love to give kisses.

We were with the elders visiting Ann, one of their investigators. She is an Amazing knitter! She'll make stuffed animals for her knitting club

The last picture is with sister Burton, a member of Wiccan ward. She is very strong in the gospel and makes an amazing curry! 

The family is the Bronlow family. Brother Bronlow served his mission in Germany. (I told Haley to ask him where in Germany and when. My brother Aaron served in the Frankfurt Germany mission in the early 90's)

The bracelet is from Yi a member who was visiting China. She brought bracelets back for Haley and her companion. 

Week 14! I like snow now

Hey y'all! 

This week I forced myself to enjoy snow so I didn't go crazy. The snow stayed all week until Sunday evening, it was insane! People were a lot nicer to us because everyone is worried about each other. I don't see what the problem was though. (I've seen worse in Utah). This week we had suprise exchanges. We thought that they were on Thursday and Friday, but it was actually Tuesday and Wednesday. It was really stressful having to speed pack and pray for a train to runcorn. It all worked out though, God blessed his missionaries. The exchanges were really nice and I was with sister pogisho who has a lovely sense of humor. The train ride there and back made me feel like I was in the polar express because of the snow. For the rest of the week we pretty much tracted. Exchanges messed up our schedual and we couldn't go too far because of the snow. It's was fun though since it was so pretty out there. We were worried on Sunday, thaf church would be cancelled, but we had a full house!

So the spiritual message for this week is faith and miracles. Faith is a hope for things which are not seen, but which are true. Alma 32:21. If you have faith, you are willing to trust in something that is not necessarily seen right away, but something that you have felt. Now a miracle is usually considered an event thst can only be described as an act of God. We know that God gives miracles to those who have enough faith to receive it. A miracle is like a gift, it's not necessary for us to have faith though. In the book of Mormon and bible, you see plenty of people who see miracles all the time and still turn away. Laman and lemuel saw an angel, were shocked, and heard the voice of God, but they still refused to believe. How could they doubt despite experiencing all those things? It was because they had no foundation of faith. God and Christ want us to have faith in them and their plan for us, because when we walk by faith and lean not on our own understanding; we not only receive blessings, but we also become stronger ourselves. Miracles are good, but a testimony built on faith will always be stronger. I really encourage everyone to read the general conference talk: has the day of miracles ceased? By elder Donald L Hallstrom in the October 2017 general conference. 

And now the funny stuff 

It was snowing and I had to force myself to like it
My electric toothbrush is running out of batteries and I'm mourning the day that I'll have to brush my teeth without the buzzing noise.
The snow is really dry and I was dumb enough to grab a handful of it. It took like 3 minutes to feel my hand again.
Sister Poussard threw a pen and it Bounced off the Carpet and hit my front two teeth. She was laughing too hard to apologize. I was more shocked than hurt tbh
I tried this aloe Vera drink and the first sip was an act of faith. It was pretty good actually,  I give it an 8/10
I got this pink grapefruit shower gel and sister Poussard had a grapefruit for her tea, and I thought she brought out my shower gel (that gel smells really good)
I know why the pigeons here are so big now. They need the blubber to stay warm. (I've seen them bathing in half frozen puddles, these birds are immortal)
We were at McDonald's and they were playing 21 pilots on the radio. I cried a little on the inside when we had to leave.
Sister Poussard keeps flicking snow in my face
I slipped on the ice like 34568 times this week. I'm almost to the point where I can say I figured out how to fall correctly 

Ice on the sidewalk is an act of Satan. It looks just like the rest of the sidewalk and it strikes when you least expect it. If there is one thing my mission has taught me, it is to never trust the pavement in winter. 

The dogs of England are also immortal. My personal favorite was the beagle that had to stop drop and roll at every pile of snow she saw