Week 48! I almost died this week.

So the near death story is in the funny moments. That whole day is in the funny moments basically. So this week was a big blur because of all the stuff that went on. So on Tuesday and Wednesday we had exchanges with the stretford sisters and then on Thursday was zone conference. Exchanges was really nice. I was with sister shepherd who is also from California (the north) and we had a pretty good time despite the craziness. The stls also had a cute cake and ice cereal as sister sawatdees last exchange party. The exchange had to be cut pretty short though because they had business to do. Thursday was zone conference and it was pretty good. We talked a lot about working with the members and rules that we should be following. Mostly staying focused on your missionary purpose in all things including personal study. Don't read outside the missionary library. We also talked about appearances and good better and best. Which activities are the most effective? It was a pretty good general conference.. 

So for this week's spiritual thought, I'm going to base it off of what Zoe, a friend, said to me. So she said how she believes the gospel and teachings of the church morally, but what she wants is to have a Spiritual testimony that these things are true. Sometimes we can get stuck in the trap of seeing church only through our minds and Not feeling it through the spirit. While agreeing with church doctrine is important, your faith and commitment should be built upon the rock or foundation of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. In the book of Mormon it says: 12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall. (Helaman 5:12). Helaman promises his sons, Nephi and Lehi, that if they make Jesus christ the foundation of their faith, nothing will be able to shake them. If we make Jesus Christ our foundation, no philosophy or trial will be able to shake us. (and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen) 

Funny stuff:

So when I was on exchange with sister shepherd, we went to this neighborhood to call by a lady,and we heard a gun shot from the street next to us! We just booked it towards the main road and called the other sisters. The best part was that I wasn't even scared, I was just numb about it. Pigeons flying towards my head have scared me more than the gunshot. I'm more worried about my lack of reaction than the reason behind the gun shot.

When we were in the stls flat, I used the toilet, flushed it, and it just kept flushing?? It was draining fine, it just kept flushing. It was the weirdest thing. We had to call one of the senior elders and we found out that if you take the top off and on again it'll fix itself.

We also had really bad traffic while on exchanges. There was a football match going on at the stadium (which is right next to the flat). When we walked out of the flat, we hit a wall of people. The dedication of football fans is amazing.

When you want to eat cheesecake but your slice of cake is frozen still, just follow sister shepherds example: stab the slice with a fork and eat it like a popsicle. She also used her cake as a spoon for her ice cream. Truly one of the greatest people of our Era.

When I was brushing my teeth, I accidentally shoved the toothbrush too far down my tongue and I threw up. I won't describe all the events in detail, but it sufficeth me to say that the whole experience sucked.

Sister sawatdee can't walk straight and always ends up pushing me into the street. I've gotten into the habit of pushing her back, but then she'll shove me into the street on purpose so it's kind of defeating the purpose.

Week 47!! A whole day spent in the YSA building

So this week was super busy. We had a lot of people to visit. The ysa building was because we had our interviews with president, and they took a lot longer than expected so we were there for a while. I enjoyed it though, the Manchester ysa building is super neat! It has 4 floors and a basement and there's always people there. This week was also really nice since I got to know a few members better. The members in Swinton ward really love us and will drop off food randomly. One lady gave us a big bag of fruit and cheese. (thank you!). I'm just worried I'm going to get fat.

The work in Swinton is a lot different than Chorley. Here we mostly do a lot of street contacting and talking to people randomly. There's so many people everywhere. Everywhere. We also are right next to Manchester city so a lot of people we meet are from there or are here for university. It's very busy and not at all like slow and quiet Chorley. I've had to make a lot of changes in the way I work because if it. I'm sure it'll be just fine though! 

The funny stuff:

Sister Sawatdee was sitting in her chair and the back legs flipped up so she just like slid back and fell! I thought she was hurt at first but she was just laughing. We took pictures of it too. It was terrifying tbh

A friend called us and asked us to bring them toilet rolls because they were going to run out and they wouldn't get paid until a few days later (don't worry we had their backs) best call ever.

During interviews president told sister sawatdee that I was funny. I'm not funny, I just think really randomly. Also I have no filter.

I'M A Wizard, so I was singing a song and it was the same one that sister sawatdee had in her head. I think we knew each other in the pre-existence haha.

We were gifted a tin of caramels (from France, oh la la) and mine was fine, but someone had taken caramels out of sister sawatdees and replaced them with a plastic bag! It was so weird when she opened the tin and pulled out this grocery bag.

In relief society, when the sister was leading the music, a spider started coming down from the ceiling towards her head! Luckily another sister slapped it away before it reached her. Everybody was freaking out, it was so funny!

Sister sawatdee is a real demon sometimes. She keeps singing the first word or note of really popular songs to try and get me to sing. It's driving me crazy bc I have no self control so she wins every time.

Sister sawatdee and I are both really big foodies so when we saw that pizza hut was having a good deal, we decided to get it and split the pizza. We told the district about it too and now they're teasing us

The washer machine in our fat is terrifying. Because our flat was cheaply made, whenever the washer machine is on, it makes the whole room shake.

-Pictures-There's this massive library/town hall in Manchester city. And sister sawatdee loves warm stuff bc she's always cold. 

This absolutely lit church building and heart attacking a members door 

Sister sawatdee posing in the broken chair, the Swinton Ward building, and my dolphin sketch.

-The Chorley district is in Manchester shopping. We saw elder Zander(an elder from her district when she was in Chorley) bc his companion was getting mackeys(McDonalds) and we were eating our lunch there. 

-The picture of Sister Ward and Haley is from Sister Wards weekly email last week. I got her email after I'd already sent Haleys out. Sister Ward is also from Clovis! She and Haley didn't know each other before their missions, but I've known her parents since youth days! They're now in the same zone in Manchester! 

Week 46!! Hello Swinton!!!

So I am now in Swinton Manchester with my lovely companion, sister Sawatdee (saw-wah-dee) (it took me a while to pronounce it right). So she's from Thailand and she's super nice. She also cooks and likes spicy food so there's honestly nothing we can fight about. She does the cooking, I do the washing up.

So Swinton area is a town that's right by Manchester city, a 20 minute bus ride really. It has a lot of older buildings and has this weird system where one street is kinda ghetto then the next street over is super posh then there's high rise flat buildings. There's not a lot of organization to it so it makes the town busy. My new area is really big too and we cover three shopping centers, and two other adjoining towns called Salford and Eccles. There's a lot of African people here too. I know two families in the ward from Ghana. 

Swinton Ward is super friendly too! They're smaller than Chorley but they are very united and love the missionaries. They always stuff us. I'm gonna get fat....

Another special thing that happened was the baptism of John! He is from Nigeria and his wife is a member. He got baptized this Saturday, and it was amazing to see how happy he was coming out of the water, and during his confirmation on Sunday 

So this weeks spiritual thought is about change. So in our life, everything changes, everything. You cannot stop change. We know though, that God will always stay the same and the path to him is always they same. We, though, are carnal in nature and must change ourselves in order to get on the path to our Heavenly Father, so how do we do this? We change ourselves using the atonement of Jesus christ. When we repent (truly repent), we change out thoughts, actions, and habits, but Jesus christ promises that when we repent AND use his atonement, he will change our nature. This means that when we use the atonement, Jesus christ can take away the desire to sin. I've seen this work on people who had addictions, and people who just wanted to feel forgiven. I've also heard of it working on others who were trying to get rid of bad habits. I've seen it in myself in conquering my fear of talking to people. Jesus christ didn't die only for the big stuff like killing and stealing, etc.. God's purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. If we want eternal life, we need to become like God, or as close as we can get right now. When we use the atonement of Jesus christ in our daily repentance, he promises us that he will make us the best possible version of ourself we can possibly be.

I want to bear my testimony that the atonement of Jesus christ is real, and no matter what your struggle is, no matter how hard, or how insignificant it seems:Jesus Christ knows and will help. All we need to do is repent and do our bet to stay on the straight and narrow path. And I say these things in the name of Jesus christ amen. 

Funny stuff:

I don't know why German was so difficult for me. I never remember any German words sister Paschen would teach me either. Every time she told me to say something German I would just say stroganoff. That's not even German apparently

Things my investigators (friends) have given me so far: duck eggs (absolute heaven), sausages, letters, stickers, a kinder surprise egg toy, rock necklace, white tack, lots of pennies, a USA quarter (why? Idk), business cards, biscuits, chocolate, and lots of pictures. Mostly biscuits though. English biscuits rock

I found somebody's abandoned Nair so I tested it on my mustache. It works. Sister Sawatdee tried it too but it hurt all day. She's fine now. 

My new flat is cursed. Apparently everyone there gets sick and I hadn't even been in 24 hours and I'm already sick.

I'm pretty sure sister Sawatdee is psychic. I get a song stuck in my head and she'll start singing it. She did this twice so far

Things members have given me: notebooks, bubble bath, loads of lotion, pens, cards, a tablet pen, an angel pin, stuffed animal, earrings, a Casio watch, bookmarks, an Elder Uchtdorf book, haggis, Disney princess stickers, a pebble painted to look like a pokeball, Duterra for allergies, and enough sweets to feed a small country 

My first Sunday in Swinton, a speaker got sick so guess who was given a 10 minutes talk 30 minutes before sacrament meeting? #MissionaryLife this is why I tag all of my scriptures on my tablet. Surprise lessons/talks

I also did a brief solo for John's baptism, so guess who was dragged into choir (happily) --

*Pictures.. Haley sent a bunch of pictures of her new flat. Her captions are the funniest.. she definitely is adapting the terms and words from England! 

-The dressing room! We have a closet and set of drawers each. The Hoover and dryer machine are in there too. Mine is a mess BC I'm doing laundry rt now

-Makeup mirror and bathroom. The shower has no shower curtain so it gets gross really fast we have to point the spout slightly to the wall so we don't spray everything. The toilet is good at least.

- The kitchen and our room. So the room is nice, I don't need a second duvet bc it's pretty warm in our flat. Chorley flat was cold. Sister Sawatdee is washing her sheets and I just don't make my bed. The kitchen is way better here and we have a stockpile of food from members. Also the washer machine for clothes is in the kitchen. They do that in England for some weird reason .

-Living room and desk. Mine is on the right. I also have some drawers I put my art stuff in. The couches are lit. Our desks double as a kitchen table too since the living room and kitchen are connected.

Week 45! Guess who's been offending Jesus for almost 12 years?

Did you all guess? So the message that struck me the most from general conference was the talk President Nelson gave on the name of the church. We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. When we call ourselves by any nickname, we leave out the most important person in this church, our Savior himself. The name change is more than telling people that we're Christians, it is giving the respect to Jesus. One of the covenants we make in baptism is to take His name upon us, and if we don't refer to ourselves by the proper name, we are not doing that.

Other than that, I really had a nice week. We got to give a Temple tour to AL and Jacob and AL pretty much guessed everything that happens on the temple so not much to teach there, haha. Also transfers have come up, and I will be going to Swinton in Manchester city with sister Sawatee from Thailand. Sister Paschens New companion will be sister Taft. 

Funny moments:

So I just found out that they aren't telling us transfer plans until Monday night WHICH RUINS EVERYTHING

So the clock tower in Chorley is very festive apparently. They put up Halloween colored lights on for each side of the clock. It makes navigating the streets pretty easy.

I was on exchange with sister Poussard this Tuesday and after tea we were helping some members move their bed sets. I almost fell down the stairs twice in the process.

Miracle of the week: leaving my umbrella at McDonald's, having an hour long appointment, and coming back to see the umbrella in the same exact place where I left it. The church is true folks.

According to word web (dictionary app) We are protestants

So our flat building had problems this week and we went without heating o hot water. Heating is fine, I can just get a blanket, but having to take an ice cold shower when it's ice cold in the flat is a struggle. A lot of yelling was involved.

It's ladybug season and ladybugs are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I'm constantly picking ladybugs off of myself and sister Paschen. They always seem to aim for your hair too.

*Pictures..Haley met a couple who are from Fresno. Their last name is Edwards. Haley didn't say if they were just visiting England or if they live there now. 

-At the park with the other missionaries Haley had a leaf in her hair and didn't know it she said. lol! 

Week 44! A Whole Chicken

Once everyone sees the funny moments, you'll all understand the title. So this week was amazing!!! I'm sure you all heard from Gwen (thanks mom) about the baptism of Josh. I feel so privileged to be able to teach and learn with him, and he's a living testimony of how the gospel can and does change people. When I first met Josh he was super curious and bouncy (and he still is ) and now that he let the spirit work on him, I've seen him become more open and focused. It means a lot to see that change first hand.

As for this week, a bit happened. Sister Paschen and I got the opportunity to teach two of Josh's little sisters. Both of them were at his baptism and are super prepared. They both were interested not only because of the change in their brother but also because of the spirit they felt. We also have been teaching two other people called Al and his son Jacob. Both of them are very strong Christians and have been coming to church with us! 

For this spiritual thought I thought about the spirit and having more spiritual experiences in our daily lives. One of the things we promise to do in our baptismal covenant is to always remember him. If we try to always remember him, it means that we have to always invite the spirit into our lives. One way we can do that is to make sure we are doing activities that invite the spirit. Good music, books and media are helpful. Another thing is to look at what you spend your time on. If most of your free time is video games, computer, and social media,;the spirit won't have any room to work. We need to break up our days so that we have time to focus on the things that matter, like scriptures and prayer. Taking 10 minutes out of entertainment time isn't that hard 

The funny stuff:

A high man offered me a big Mac while we were walking home Monday evening. I don't know what it is with drunk/high people here. They're either depressed or really affectionate. And they'll talk to anybody.

A member gave us a 10er for our tea (thank you!), and sister Paschen decided to buy a whole chicken. A whole roast chicken. Don't ask me why.

When we were walking through Astley park, a bunch of chavs were screaming.  As we walked past them, one of them gave me these words of wisdom: don't go through the bushes, there's a wasp nest in there. The poor kids got massacred by the wasps.

I found a dead hedgehog. I'm a true brit now.

An older lady who let us in told us about these missionaries she met when she was 16. Apparently they were very handsome.

We had our tea at the MTC on Sunday, and I walk in and an Elder was playing a song on the piano and it took me like 15 agonizing minutes to remember that it was 21 pilots. This made me realize how I've forgotten like all my music

Sister Paschen held Elder Casidebaris beanie hostage for like 5 days. We kept on taking new watsapp profile pictures with her wearing the hat too. Every time he called us and asked about the hat I would always be all : hat?? What hat? He got it back, don't worry -- 

Pictures- The pictures of Haley putting on lipstick.. I guess she was using her tablet camera as a mirror to apply her makeup and one of the Elders started pushing the camera button to take the pictures. lol!