Week 69! So I'm a master artist now.

I made a drawing for every day of the week and I'm very proud of that. Anyways, this week was jam packed! First thing is transfers: I am..... Staying! (big surprise) and my new companion will be sister bishop. I've met her before too, she's one of the Chinese speaking missionaries in the Emm and I'm pretty sure she's American. Sister Reyser is going to Stafford and she'll be follow up training one of the newer sisters! It's real exciting for her because it's the same zone as her first Area, which shell go on exchanges there now.

So of course since it's the last week of the transfer, all of the miracles happened this week. We found a family to teach, and they're so nice! They both had been to churches before and are open to learn about a new religion. Sister Reyser also gave a great talk on Sunday about charity! 

The funny stuff:

There's this little mini castle on a rock called the tower of refuge. It's in the sea but a few times a year, the tide is low enough to walk to it. Well the tide was Really low and I saw people walking from it so I forced my companion to come with me to see. Once we got up to it though we saw that there was just enough water in-between us and the rock path so that we couldn't go without being dodgy. Biggest disappointment of my life.

When we were leaving a members home, I thought that her porch had an extra step and I almost fell thinking I was stepping down. (the patch of concrete was a different color than the rest). Sister Reyser spent a good five minutes laughing at me after that.

So we got a call one night from bishop asking if we had been in the chapel that day (we hadn't). We shrugged it off and figured that someone had made a mess. The next morning we go to the chapel to sync our area book and report lessons and a member was outside and he told us that the locks had been changed. Apparently someone had tried to break into the chapel the night before and so they had to change the locks. Now we can't use the chapel until we get a new key from bishop. (idk why anyone would try to break in) (like what could you steal? A dinosaur computer and some book of Mormons)

So I had given sister Reyser a bag of beef jerky from my last beef jerky package, and she's been able to stretch it out over the course of a whole week. Meanwhile I killed like 5 bags in one week. (and now I'm out, lol)

Since my nails are finally long enough to paint (4 weeks no biting!) I got some light pink nail polish and sister Reyser and I painted our nails that evening. It was one of the most frustrating evenings of my mission. First of all, I've only done this like twice in my life and my artistic talent doesn't extend to nails apparently. Second, they would take for Flipping ever to dry. Like forever. I went to bed with perfectly fine, seemingly dry nails, and I woke up and my thumb looked like a 2 year old drew all over it with a white crayon.

So the tide was REALLY low this time and sister Reyser suggested going out to the tower again so we did! And it was amazing!! The walk up there was kinda scary though because it was like 95% seaweed and so it was super slippy. Once we got there though, it was so pretty and we could even go inside. They were doing construction on the inside so we couldn't get very far though. 

Pictures: The older couple is Geoff and Ida. They were people that I knew in Swinton and they finally accepted lessons and were baptized..They are 90 and 91.

-So like a few times a year, the tide is low enough to walk to the tower of refuge and we got to! 

Week 68! Happy birthday relief society

No change on finding, I am getting pretty good at bus contacting though. Anyways this week was a lot of knocking doors and chasing people on the street (not literally, that would be illegal). Relief society in Douglas ward sis have their party though. It was really nice to see a lot of people who hadn't been around for a while, and the ladies really loved it! How amazing is it that we are part of one of the largest and oldest women's organizations of the world! One funny thing too was that there were sisters from four different continents at that party (north America, Asia, Africa, and Europe). Douglas Ward is really diverse.

The topic I want to speak on this week is humility and faith. I'm pretty sure I've done this before but here's another take; so one definition of humility is accepting the lords will despite what may be. For example: someone may get a scary calling (like relief society president) or they may be asked to minister to someone they don't particularly like (yet) (never say never). Those feelings may pop up but our response is how we show our humility and willingness to serve the lord. Do we complain or do we be like Nephi and say "I will go and do"? You might feel like you are unqualified, or you don't have room enough, but the lord knows that and he never gives a commandment that we can't keep. Never (in this case you can say never). We've seen in the scriptures and the church history and in the stories from today in the church magazines, stories of God preparing the way for those to accomplish what he asks. The only thing we need to do is make the first steps ourselves. That's what faith is; going forward believing God will provide despite not knowing what lays ahead. In 1st Nephi, the lord commands Nephi to build a ship. Now Nephi is a young man, who grew up in the desert, probably didn't know any carpeting or metal work, and only has a small handful of people on his side. He's probably never even seen a ship before. I'm sure all this was going through his head, but he knew that God would provide, so he asked where to go find the ore to make the tools to build that ship. After he took those first steps, then God taught him how to make a ship. We can receive that help too if we choose to be humble enough to accept God's commands, then if we are willing to have the faith to make those first steps

The funny stuff:

So I had a really intense dream about Ariel (the little mermaid) and prince Eric. I was a mermaid, ursala (octopus witch) had been arrested but nobody could find Ariel and Eric. Ursala eventually fessed up that she had killed them but for some wierd dream logic reason she couldn't tell us (me and various mermaids, humans, and Spock) (idk why Spock was there but he gave me some good life advice) where she hid the bodies. I was the private investigator so the whole dream I was searching for the bodies, got a life lesson from Spock, and interviewed a couple of sea creatures. After I interviewed a really fat naked lady, she told me where the bodies were buried, and I gave her a mermaid cat in exchange (she was very happy.) I carried the dead bodies of Ariel and Eric to King trident and he cried over Eric but he didn't recognize Ariel. Then I woke up. If some body could make a story out of this one that would be great thanks.

I was looking at some of my old notes I made and this one killed me: so In preach my gospel (basically a missionaries book on how to survive) it talked about defining words that most normal people wouldn't know like dispensation or priesthood etc... My note was "I bet most people wouldn't even have heard about a stake house. If I heard that for the first time I would be thinking medium rare (like steak)." I don't think I was paying attention very well during that study session.

So most of the members know that syster Reyser was a chef before the mission, and we went to one tea appointment, AND SHE HAd SISTER REYSER Cook. So I didn't know that this was pre planned actually, but I've never seen a missionary cook for a meal appointment before, so it was a shock. (the curry was A++ btw)

So we have a bunch of apples in the flat so I decided to make apple muffins. All goes well and as I'm putting the muffins in the oven, I drop the tray because I decided to put them in bare handed. The good news is that I didn't get burned. The bad news is that I put a brown sugar crumble on top, and I had to wait like 40 min for the oven to cool off enough to sweep it all out.

So I made a goal a while ago to stop biting my nails, and to celebrate my 3 week mark of not biting, sister Reyser and I git some nail polish at pound land. Well we forgot the nail polish remover and I already (failed) tried to do a finger. I did my best to wash it off but that stuff wasn't coming off. Luckily a sister in the ward had some nail polish on her or else I would've had to go to church with one really ugly finger.

So missionaries can only download certain apps on their devices because of the filtering service we use, and there's this one app called SwiftKey that I use. It's supposed to make typing faster and easier but the real reason I use it is for the pictures. My keyboard has a picture of my dog's faces on it. 

*pictures.. Some more of Haleys artwork. She wants to draw a coloring book or comic when she comes home. I totally think she should!

-An abandoned church

-Ethans baptism. Haley and her companion had been teaching Ethan before she was transferred to the Isle of Man.. She wasn't able to go back for his baptism but her previous companion sent her the pics from it.

Week 67! Happy Pancake Day!

So pancake day was on Tuesday and in two tea appointments we had pancakes. In England, the pancakes are more like crepes and people will put lemon juice and sugar on them. I'm so sold, they were so good.

Anyways this week was almost all finding. Sister Reyser and I have been tracting like no tomorrow. No new friends but an extra helping of the spirit for sure. I've really felt me attitude change as I've started to really put myself in the work. We did meet a lot of nice people though so hopefully someone will come to church, but for now, we find! 

The funny stuff:

So we were doing our daily planning and then this weird (kinda sounded like a pug but angrier and louder) gurgle came from the sink. The sound traveled up the sink and a little bit of water came through the pipe. We checked to see what was up and now we don't have water. I don't know for how long. Luckily I showered before

So the water problem is fixed. The pipes just made angry animal noises again, water came out and water keeps coming out if we turn the taps on.

Things you find in an LDS clerics office: pens, paper shredder, computer box, a second hidden computer box that actually is the working one, like 30 broken pencils, a scrabble game, a staples box full of paper clips, some ancient church family history books that are possibly older than my parents, one of my 372625 lost hair bands, and a miniature metal sword.

There's a bridge on the isle of man called the fairy Bridge. Every time you pass it, the bus will say: hello fairies. It freaked me out the first time we went past it.

Wisdom given to me by our lovely islanders: chocolate doesn't solve anything but neither do apples so eat whatever you want!

On the Isle of man it's bad luck to say the word rat. If you do you either have to make the sign of the cross or touch wood. They say Long tail instead.

I guess the wind was just really cold because my finger where the skin had started peeling just started to bleed randomly, but then as we were walking back from the chapel, sister Rysers face just started bleeding. Like a lot. I freaked out pretty bad. Luckily we got it all cleaned up. We have no idea why her face was bleeding.

So our flat has this back door which is emergency only and people keep using it so they put up a camera and i think I'm the reason why. When there were two handy men fixing the door, their presence confused me and I tried going through the back door. It was super awkward and sister Reyser still teases me about i. Then like three days later they put up a camera.

Week 66! Back in Chorley!

So zone conference was at the start of this week and it was in Chorley.!! Funny thing is the weather in England is waaaayyyy nicer than the weather on the island. I didn't need my winter coat the whole time we were there. After zone conference, sister Reyser and I had a 5 minute exchange (just kidding, it was like one evening) with the Lancaster sisters. That was really fun. Plus the ferry rides were pretty smooth going there and back. The rest of the week was basically finding. Sister Reyser and I are still struggling with getting people to teach but I'm sure we'll see somebody soon.

The funny stuff:

So we got to stay at the Chorley sisters flat and sister Terry is there. Sister Terry was the one I replaced in the isle of man, and she had left two coats on the island so we promised to bring them with us. We'll we DIDN'T. WE HAD ONE JOB. we just remembered about it when we were in the McDonald's at Chorley and we were both freaking out because sister Terry is like a literal Disney princess and anyone who makes her sad goes to outer darkness.

We basically spent our whole pday in Chorley at the McDonald's. Got some Mcflurries and stayed for like 5 hours using the free wifi. We kept the Mcflurries on the table so nobody would kick us out. #lifehacks

Sister mcreynolds told me that she used the sister guide I drew in a training. It was basically the best thing anyone could have ever told me. Made my day

So while we were in Lancaster (exchanges) there were a lot of cobblestone streets and I never pick up my feet properly so I'm always tripping. Well my lazy butt managed to break the front sole of BOTH of my shoes in the SAME spot. Luckily I found this glue in pound land that fixed the problem. (if I don't ruin them again that is)

When we were at a tea appointment with a very adorable young family, we were talking about fishers of men. Then one of the kids was all "fishers of men and women. Dad got mom on his mission" (the parents had met when the father was a missionary) and the parents just about died when he said that.

So next transfer sister Reyser hits her year mark, she has her birthday, I'll have my 16 month mark, general conference will happen, and Easter will happen, and elder bly has his birthday. If sister Reyser stays it will basically be one big party the whole transfer.

Sister Reyser told me that for her 12 month mark, she wants to eat a bowl of cereal. But not just any bowl, she wants to eat it from the fruit bowl. The big massive mixing bowl we put the fruit in. That's like a whole box of cereal. I can't even eat two whole bowls of cereal without getting sick. She's gonna die and I want to be there for every moment of it.

Sister Reyser also has a hole in her shoe, and somehow, every day she gets a huge rock stuck in the hole and she has to take the shoe off to pry it out.

So the mission has forced me to do many things that I would've refused to do myself before. So with me leaving my hair straightener at Lancaster, and considering my bedhead to not be socially acceptable for church, I decided to curl my own hair, by myself, with no help, for the first time. It was an eye opening experience and my head was slightly poofy but it turned out okay so all is well I guess. 

Pics from Zone conference.. Looks like it was a mini MTC reunion. The pics with Haley and the 2 Sisters and an Elder were a few of the missionaries in her MTC district. Haley loved seeing them again!