Week 26!! Happy Birthday to me

Happy birthday to me, my desk is filthy, I smell like a monkey, and I'm always hungry! (A birthday song made by myself, sung to the tune of the birthday song). So this week was really jam packed! We found three new investigators and three potential ones the first 2 days. Two of the investigators are Jehovah witnesses from Spain (not sure what their stance is yet actually) and a man from China (very interested and promising). There was also the small event of my birthday! We celebrated by going to Fredricks(ice cream) with some YSA and an investigator. Ice cream and lesson. We also had sports night with the YSA and invited another investigator who came. The sad part of the week, was the day after I got super sick. Sores on my throat, weakness, and a temperature. The elders had a baptism so we still went to that, but I crashed afterwards. Sunday rolls around and I'm still sick. We still go to church but I'm dead by the end of it (we cover 2 wards so we're in church from 9 till 5pm.) I'm still sick today but recovering at least. 

The funny stuff: 

We had a gardening service project for the neighbor of sister perreno, and when we were emptying some pots, we found a frog. Of course I had to pick it up, and sister perreno is terrified of slimy animals, so long story short, I chased her with a frog. (She forgave me)
When we were at Fredricks (English cold stone)(but not as good) I dropped my ice cream cone like 3 times. 
I also dropped my fork on sister colinares dress. I was really clumsy that day.
There was this car that came up to sister Wilkinson and I when we called it, and then it ran past us. The little jerk
I got really sick on Saturday so we had to stay in. When I went for a nap, it was one. When I woke up it was 6pm. It was an amazing experience 
Now that my mission has smart phones, the missionaries send emojis in every text. EVERY TEXT. My favorite is the upside down smiley face. 
Literally everyone knows about my pomegranates addiction to the point where the zone leaders gave me one for my birthday. I'm really predictable 

Pictures..

-The Blackburn street display. 

-Lunch with the Coleman's and sister merrick. 

-Pictures from last pday. 

-Tea with the chadwicks 

-Haleys grey (now looking brown) boots that are starting to look pretty warn.. she walks a ton! I think she said -probably around 5-10 miles a day depending on the day. 

-the pictures of Haley with Sister Sidney Sever (Elder Houston photobombing in the background) Back story on Sister Sever. Sister Sever grew up in Hanford.. for those in PW ward, Sidneys mom Pam is Lana Whites sister. Pam and Lanas sister Michelle and I were great friends and hung out all through high school. My sister dated Sidneys dad Parker before his mission (which he served in England!) Anyway, Haley and Sidney received their calls within a week of each other and Haley entered the MTC I think 1or 2 months before Sidney. Since Haley and Sidney had never met, Pam and I got together for a lunch date with them before they both left. They're now in the same zone! I'm so glad Haley got a picture of them together! It would be so awesome if they have the chance to be companions sometime during their missions! 

And the video of Haley "singing" she's getting over being sick I guess and is totally being a dork. ha! It makes my heart happy to see her laughing and getting along so well with her companions! 

-her explanation of the funny pic of her and sister Sever is that she wasn't ready for the pics as they were being taken. 

-The other pic of her in the tie dye (she asked for a tie dye shirt for her bday) you can't see the shirt well, but I found someone in England who made them..it's a UK flag tie dyed on the front. .. in the pic Haley is opening her bday package..sadly its too expensive to send cute personalized packages from home, but thankfully it's cheap to send packages from UK Amazon so I can still send her things!

Week 25!! My coat was stolen but I got it back..

So I'll just start with the coat story: I was on the bus to the chapel for interviews with president McReynolds and I was sitting on the top story of the bus(double decker). I had taken my coat off because it was hot and it was on the seat next to me. When I got off the bus, we saw some elders from another zone (they had their zone conference that day), and we socialized with them for minute. I'm in the chapel by now and I realize that I left my coat. Normally I would be just annoyed but the real problem was that in the pocket of my coat was our flat keys and Address! We call the elders we saw bc they were on the bus, and they said that they interviewed everyone there but no one had seen the coat. So long story short, I had a 20 minute long panic attack while sister colinares had to call elder magolbe to explain and get the spare key. We can't manually lock the flat door either so we put a table and a massive box of book of Mormons in front of the door once we got home. Luckily there is a happy ending to this: the person who took my coat recognized us as missionaries and had Mormon neighbors, so he gave if to them. I will have to pick it up, but at least I know its safe.

So this week was really busy. We had zone conference on Thursday which was really nice. Elder Monsongo (who was in my mtc district) is in my zone again, so basically we've seen each other every zone conference so far. Aside from that though, everyone is new. The mission has been downsizing a lot because we have more missionaries going home, than coming in. Lots of leaving testimonies.

For this week's spiritual thought the theme is meekness! When people normally think about meekness, they think of someone who is quiet and doesn't star up for themselves, but that isn't true. One of the qualities of meekness is self restraint. Someone who has the willpower to push aside temptation and wild appetites  is much stronger than a person who has little control over themselves. I'm sure everyone has seen this video, in  one of elder Uchtdorf talks, he mentions a study that was made on the patience and self restraint of small children. The kids were given a marshmallow and were told that if they aft the marshmallow alone for 15 minutes, they would get another one. The children who waited later grew up to be more successful and happier than the others. Having meekness is so much more than turning the other cheek. When you are meek, you are able to be restrained and patient enough to receive much better blessings in the future! 

The funny stuff: 

England is all about the phrase: suns out guns out. Lots of fat shirtless men walking around
There are no bathrooms in the stores in England, so you have to learn to hold it, or you go a members house. Like 20% of my member visits are for the bathroom.
Since I'm the one with an iron stomach in this companionship, if sister colinares can't finish something, she makes me eat it while the member isn't looking, haha
We are supposed to have a 70 pound emergency fund, but mine was only at 30, so I started putting all my change into this jar and in 3 weeks, I'm almost at 40 pounds. I'll probably start doing this at home, so my change is useful for something
When sister Wilkinson was in the shower, she had a speaker which was connected to sister colinares tablet. We though it would be funny to change her music to the looking through the glass video. We were dying. This is the missionary version of a prank.
There's this painting in the chapel that I swear we have the same one except with different colors. I took a picture so could someone confirm it please? 

Week 24! I don't know where the week went.

So This week was so fast, that there's a lot of gaps in my memory. On Friday and Saturday, we had exchanges with the stl who are over warcc 1 and 2. I was with sister Gramm and sister colinares in a trio and we were in ward 2 boundaries. Ward 2 is really posh! I'm talking Google gates, balconies, fancy gardens, and a cat with a studded collar. I felt like I was on a tour. The only problem with posh areas is that no one is interested. Later on Saturday we had a street display in Blackburn with the Blackburn elders, zone leaders, stl, retired missionaries, and some members. It was intense. Somehow, I ended up talking to all the Muslim men. They were really nice actually. One thing about large cities in England, is that there's a lot of Muslims. Lots of them Immigrated over because of the extremist jerks in the middle East who ruined it for all the nice ones. The highlight of this week though, was skyping my family! Love you, mom dad, mo, liv, and you especially, Jess! I don't have a lot of time this is week bc I'll be in Blackburn (that's it folks!)

Funny stuff:

I never realized how fun it was to have members randomly honk at us or come up to say hi! Chorley is just like British Utah.
It's less fun when we have to say hi to a member when we're late, and the member is really talkative. Especially if we are late for the bus
I found a newly hatched baby bird on the ground. It was dead
I put this investigators dogs as his household, and I didn't know that the household comes up as potential investigators in the area book app. So long story short, we have 3 whippets and 1 jack Russel terrier as investigators. My bad.
I was talking about John Hawkins and I found a pirate card (magic the gathering) on the ground. It was meant to be
I got an email from peachwood ward telling me that choir was cancelled for mothers day. Thanks I didn't know. 
There's this swan who is such a bully. He chases the other swans away from the food and he swims with his wings curled over his back to make himself bigger. He's my favorite 

Week 23! Chorley is too pretty

This week was intense. Chorley is super busy and since we are over ward 3 and 4, we have extra people to work with. A lot of people we work with too are less actives and recent converts too. Also because there's so many members here, we get fed every day. I'm definitely going to gain weight this area. Every member here seems to think that the missionaries are starving. The only thing I'm starving for is proper seafood and Beef jerky (if any of y'all are feeling generous, just send some jack links original, lol). The Chorley area is really beautiful too! It has a lot of old churches and buildings, and it has a lot of forest, flowers and blossom trees. My companions are really great too! We named our messenger group the powerpuff girls, I'm buttercup, sister colinares(Philippines) is bubbles, and sister Wilkinson(utah) is blossom. We're into the same stuff including music so our companionship is singing fall out boy and panic at the disco in the evenings. 

For our spiritual thought the theme is: Jesus Christ's childhood! Unusual right? In the scriptures, Jesus was described as having grown from grace to grace, or in other words, he learned one thing at a time. He spent his very early childhood in Egypt, until herod died, and then moved to Nazareth. He had little siblings and lived in a modest home. He was trained as a carpenter and when he was twelve he showed a large understanding of the gospel by teaching scribes and doctored at the temple. The scriptures (and Jesus the christ), don't tell us much more about Jesus's childhood but there is one thing we can learn from this. Jesus learned things one by one, and had no full recollection of the pre earth life. This makes the atonement an even bigger miracle! I think it's amazing that someone would trust and love so deeply that they could live a completely sinless life. The atonement was a miracle. 

The funny stuff:

When sister gaugau and I got to Manchester, we just stayed at the train station waiting for the other missionaries not realizing they were already there. We waited like 20 minutes too.
Last pday with Wrekin district, we hiked the wrekin mountain. Sister gaugau and I didnt think we were going though (the elders made us come last minute) so we ended up hiking in our dresses.
The first thing I bought in Chorley was two pomegranates. I'm so predictable.
We were with a recent convert, and while we were walking, this Labrador came out of the Lake, and started booking it toward us. Like this dog was making dirt fly (and water bc he was really wet). We just started screaming/laughing bc all of us were in nice clothes. Luckily he didn't jump, I did pet him, it was amazing.
We also gave in to our inner child and went on the slide. Videos will be included.
I got to hold this super polite hamster who gently nibbled my hands bc they smelled like food. It was so cute that I almost cried.
During street display, this man told me to get lost, so my natural defense was to be extra cheery. The best way to get back at angry people is to be extra friendly and smile really hard at them. It frustrates them to no end but they can't do anything about it because they'll look like jerks in front of everyone else, haha.
Sister Wilkinson always says lol out loud, in normal conversations. 

*Gwen here.. Sister Wilkinsons parents are from Fresno before they moved to Utah. Chris and I knew them wayyy back in what was then called the university ward. Small world!!! Another funny note.. Haley kept calling her Sister Wilkerson..you can hear her in the video.. I corrected her when I emailed her today and told her it was Wilkinson. haha! I imagine Haley has been saying her name wrong all week and Sister Wilkinson hasn't corrected her?? Too funny!

*Also Haley loves me so much and sent TONS of pictures this week!!!