Week 30!! Allergies, Allergies everywhere!

My allergies aren't too bad actually. It's only because it hasn't rained properly for a while. I must've brought the desert with me. This week was really fun! We also got two solid new investigators. One Is a lady who used to come to church named Cassandra. She's super nice and has three dogs, a parrot, and fish so I like her by association. Another is a ysa referral from the stls and he came to church with us! It was the perfect time to have someone at church too because it was stake conference so all the ysa were there, and the theme was missionary work and conversion stories. It was lit. He (Josh) seemed to enjoy it a lot and wants to take lessons. We also had zone conference which was pretty great too. It was one elders birthday o think because in the mail room, there was a whole table of packages for him. I have no idea how he got it all home. Other than that, not much else to report. Just tracting

Funny stuff:

On pday, we went on a hike with the zone leaders and bishop. What the bishop didn't tell us was that we would be climbing along the sides of a deep stream. I swear I had like 20+ near death experiences. It was so fun.
During zone conference president said that he wouldn't mention world cup then he spent like 10 minutes talking about it. English people
I'm so deep into the mission language that when I was trying to say confiscate I said convestigate (investigate and confiscate mixed). I forgot how to say confiscate
I forgot my name badge and went through a whole lunch without a name badge. I felt like a failure.
Sister Gilland and I got in a big row over cargo shorts. She says that because they're ugly nobody should wear them. I say that comfort and pockets outweigh any fashion. I plan on getting her cargo shorts for her birthday. She'll hate me, haha
We were expecting an investigator on Sunday and he was running late, then his ride said he couldn't find him, then they got in the chapel before we realized they were here, then he spent like 5 min in the bathroom so we were freaking out trying to find this kid that we never met before basically my stress level was at 132%
President also mentioned world cup during stake conference
World cup is getting pretty crazy. People are hanging England flags all over pubs and their houses, I'm just mad that America didn't make it in.

We go to the library every morning to sync our records and contact people, and at the library there was an art stand. I just doodled a random picture and left it there for fun. Well it ended up on the wall with all the other kids drawings and we just found out. We had a good laugh about it.

I got a bath bomb left over from sister Gilland so I used it Sunday night. But what happened is that I couldn't figure out how to get the drain stop out to drain the bath. I ended us going through two tooth picks, a carrot peeler, ruined my razor, and finally got it out with a bent kitchen knife i found in the back of a drawer. It was so frustrating.

Tons of pictures! Some are from the hike the Bishop took her district on last week.. the email with those pictures was titled.." We did a bunch of climbing because Bishop is evil and didn't tell us that there's a way around thee stream. It was beautiful." lol!! 

The rest of the pictures are from the hike to the Darwin tower today with her zone and from the rest of the week. 

I forgot to add these pictures Sister McReynolds posted on FB from the recent Zone Conference.

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Week 29! Prepare yourself, rain is coming

Those sunny days in Chorley are officially over. It is now rain, fog, and most. I love it! This week went by really fast and I won't have much time to email so this will be a short one. The two highlights of the week was exchanges and a thunder storm. On exchanges with sister Thompson, I got to teach naveen, an investigator from the states who I found but wasn't in my area (I had to refer him to the stls). I had no idea how much he had progressed! He's even going to pick his own baptismal date soon! To all other missionaries who feel bad for not getting a baptism, stop it. I got lucky to see the results of my work but most of the time we don't realize the good that our actions cause. As long as you are giving it all, you can take pride in your work. God doesn't care about how much success you had, but he does care about how much you give. If you really dedicate yourself to him, then you are a successful missionary. On a funnier note, sister Gilland and I faced the wrath of English weather this Saturday. Nothing could protect us from rain that hard. Once it stopped it took 2 hours of walking around to dry off my raincoat, shoes, tights, dress, etc... It was pretty uncomfortable haha

The funny stuff:

I figured out how to put my dog's face into my keyboard.
When we were in ward council, I was trying to say 'that's the torture of having big arms' but I actually said the torture of having arms' and everyone died. I say stupid stuff like that at least once a day
Apparently if you sting yourself with a stinging nettle every day, you don't have allergies because your body spends too much time reacting to the nettle. I have a low pain tolerance so I don't really want to try it.
The British don't really like root beer because it smells like this antibacterial medicine. I got to try some and it smelled exactly like root beer. It was so weird.
There's this drink called vinto which smells like that grape flavored cough syrup you took as a kid for colds. It's not too bad but it gives me doctor office flashbacks
Sister Gilland has a folder of funny quotes from other missionaries. Like 4 of them are from me and we've only known each other like 2 weeks.
Nobody believes me when I say I'm half Latino 

Week 28! Happy 20th birthday Preston Temple!!!

So this week was insane! After picking up my new comp, sister Gilland, from Manchester, we got a ride back to Chorley and the day was pretty much over. The next day was miracles! We had a list of less active members to visit and while we were going to one, I got us lost and we ended up on a street 10 minutes from our destination. The pang of defeat hit me hard so we tracted that street before heading to the members home. We ended up finding three people from one street though so that was nice. I guess heavenly father gave me a bad sense of direction for a reason. The rest of the week was finding and meetings. Not much to report. Sunday was extra special because we had a service for the 20th anniversary of the dedication of the Preston Temple. It was dedicated by President Hinckley who had also served in the Manchester mission. It was a real honor to get to see the testimonies of those who had seen the dedication and been in that Temple. 

The funny stuff:

One member was calling me sister Hodson thinking that was my name (that's the zone leaders name) and she had been telling off her husband for calling me Hawkins. Now my comps are saying I'm married to elder Hodson now. (This was honestly one of the funniest thing a member has ever told me)
Apparently every sister gets proposed to at some point. Sister Gilland got proposed to a bunch in Manchester. Random people would propose because if you marry an American you get citizenship apparently.
A member was bragging to us about how all the Americas Got Talent judges were British. (WAKE UP AMERICA)
The sisters in Morton lived in a house that's older than the United States of America (I'm not kidding)(England is that old)
I got a library card (for free computer usage) and I had to state my race so I just said white. The lady then made me choose between white British and white American. My face was all "???" because I didn't know there was more than one white. We all burn in the sun equally so who cares what kind of white you are. (I'm white mutt, personally)
We had to wait 15 min for our bus and I saw this stand selling 4 pound dresses (like 7 dollars) so I was browsing and I found a cute and modest marks and spencers dress. I basically got a 40 dollar dress for 7 bucks.
Apparently there's a phrase in Texas where you say "a storms a brewing" instead of a storm is coming like a normal person