6/24/12

Hello,

I love all the pictures you sent me! you guys are so cute. Mom I will try and find the coins for you. I haven't seen any yet tho. Also could you get me everyones addresses please so I can send letters? thank you :)

Last week was really good! We had our last conference with Pres. and Sister Shamo so that was really emotional but also really spiritual. We also got to go to the temple. I love the london temple and I can't wait till you guys get to come and go with me. Everytime I am there I just think about how blessed we are to have the knowledge we do and that we are all sealed together. It is such a beautiful thing that we have in our lives and I realized how much I took it for granted when I was home. Living in Utah is a privilege and I am so grateful for that. I appreciate it so much more since I have been here and realize how hard life is.

On Sunday Bella was baptized and then her mom Catherine was baptized today! I haven't taught them a lot because they have been away but I have been getting to know them and they are amazing and I already just love them so much. Bella is amazing. The way she found the church is really cool. She didn't like the things that her friends started to do and the way they acted and so she went online and just looked up groups with good standards. She found the church and when the young women met up with and just showed up and it went from there. It's amazing because she is only 17 and not many people would do that. Both of the baptisms were so great and so spiritual. both of them had a really good spiritual experience and i was so glad that i was able to be apart of it. They are wonderful people and i just love them.

I don't know if i told you this yet but we went to Teignmouth with some members and while we were there we got these most amazing doughnuts. They were better than Krispy Creme and while I was eating them I was thinking of home because we buy them all the time and about how much Dad would love them, so when you guys come we will have to find them becasue they are the best ever. Dad you will love them.

anyway I love you all so much and love hearing from you!

Syd

6/17/12

Hello,

It sounds like you guys are having a good time. I wish i could be there with you as well. You all look so happy so I am happy! Also I love your dress Mom it is so dang cute. I want one haha. Save it so I can wear it when I get home. :) Also you guys are all so tan. i am all pasty and white cause the sun hardly shines haha. also karli's new man looks nice you will all have to keep me updated on him. and dad's new gun looks sweet. i wish i could have come shooting with you. Dad an Elder in my district is going home next week and he is from idaho and hunts and does everything you do. he is starting his own taxidermy business and said that if you want anything done he will give you a way good deal!! :) haha also i love love love all the pictures you all look so good. i cried when i saw them! i am so lucky to have you all as my family! Cheryl too! she is just as much family.

Anyway this week has been good. we had no money for food cause we are waiting on all of our travel money to get reimbursed so we asked the relief society president to help us find dinner appointments so that we wouldn't have to buy food haha and yesterday at church there were so many people that bought us groceries!! it was amazing haha we won't have to buy food for a really long time!!

So a kind of embarrassing story! We went to a less active lady's house and her name is Kathy. we talked to her for a bit and got to know her and all that good stuff and then i said the closing prayer. as i was saying the prayer i was blessing her but i called her heather in my prayer!! hahahahahha it was so bad. because we have someone named heather we are going to start teaching and I just got them mixed up ah man it was horrible. but luckily i don't think she realized i said that ah man bad bad bad ahah.

Also my bangs were getting really long and I tried to cut them myself. That was also a really really bad idea as well. I messed them up bad. haha I have had to pull them up since but they are growing fast luckily so I just need you and Karli here to do my hair. because they look really really cute when I cut my own bangs.

Yesterday on our way home from a members home Sister Binnie and I were at the bus stop and we just gave this man walking down the sidewalk a pass along card and he stopped and looked at us and kissed us. he was drunk and almost fell over. hahaha it was really awkward but really funny ha!

 

Not too much going on this week! A girl named Bella is hopefully getting baptized this sunday! i haven't taught her that much because since i have been here they have been on vacation so i have only taught her once. she is 17 and she is really sweet but the sisters were teaching her before I came. So I don't know her too well but she is lovely.

 

Well I hope you are all doing good!! I miss you and love you so so so so much!

love syd.

6/11/12

Hello,

Oh my goodness!! This weekend has been amazing!! Best weekend yet since I have been here. So as you know it was Vivaldo's baptism!! He is seriously so amazing and has changed so much since we started teaching him! The baptism was so spiritual!! He got there late because he thought it was at two because that's what the bishop told him and then we had to change it but it was still an amazing day! We had a Portegues Elder named Elder Simplicio come to our area to baptize him and give him the Holy Ghost because he has also been teaching Vivaldo over the phone and helped him understand better! So that just made it 100 times better because it was that much more special for Vivaldo.    Sister Binnie and I got there early to fill the font and the ward members told us to fill it to the third stair and that is what we did. So when they got into the font the water was only knee deep! it was terrible but he was still baptized. It was just really hard to do it haha. ah man he was so happy and was just beaming!! After that we went into the chapel and heard a talk and we asked Vivaldo if he would like to bear his testimony, so he went up and bore it in Portegues and a sister that speaks that translated! He just said how much he loves Jesus Christ and he knows now more than ever that this was the right decision and that this is the true and only way back to God!! He thanked the missionaries for teaching him and said how much he appreciated it! Then his friend Olgario said the closing prayer, we are also teaching him, and he said that he felt like he was going to be baptized as well. It was just so amazing and then we all just hung out with Vivaldo and  Olgario and their friends and then the Elders!! It was so much fun. We just went out to eat and just spent the day with them.

Sister Binnie' Elder Simplicio, Vivaldo  and Sydney

Elder Simons, Sister Simons, Vivaldo, Elder Simplicio, Olgario, Sister Binnie, Sister Pitcher

The next day in church is when he got confirmed which was just as amazing as the day before. So usually Vivaldo just wears his regular clothes to church but yesterday he showed up in slacks and a shirt and tie and he was just so excited and so happy you could just feel his spirit!! He looked so nice. He had a beautiful blessing in Portuegues and it was just the most spiritual weekend ever!! It's so great cause he is always talking about becoming a missionary and teaching people and helping them learn more about the gospel so that it can help them in their lives. He has been saying stuff like that for the past few weeks and he always calls himself Elder Pedro! So I really think that he will serve a mission. Man he has completely changed and there is seriously no greater feeling that I have felt before just knowing that I got to be apart of bringing someone into the gospel. I have never felt this way in my life!! It is a beautiful thing. I wish that I could just video everything so that you guys would be able to feel it to because this letter does it no justice whatsoever! He just kept saying how good he felt and saying that he couldn't even describe the feeling he was having!! ah my goodness! I love it.

The pictures are of Olgario who is Vivaldos friend and then the older guy is a recent convert named Alec that we see every week!!

love you so much and i miss you all like crazy!! stay amazing!
love syd

Sydney, Ryan (an investigator) and Sister Binnie

Ryan and Sister Pitcher



Alec, a recent convert and Sister Pitcher



Vivaldo, Olgario and Syd

Seeing the sights!!

6/8/12

hello,

Sorry I was not able to email until now.. we had bank holiday and it was the Queens Jubliee so it has been crazy and then we had a zone conference in Bbristol onTthursday, so we haven't had a chance to email. I have been dying all week to get on the computer. but things are going really good. man like so much has changed in me this week. It's amazing.  I went on an exchange on Wednesday so I had a new companion for the day and I had to lead my area. It was exactly what I needed. I learned so much. I don't really have a lot to write because I put most of it in my letter that I wrote home so hopefully you will be getting that soon.

One exciting thing for this week.. the first one is about Vivaldo. He is seriously amazing. He is so strong and has had a complete change of heart. He is getting baptized tomorrow and I feel so privleged to have been able to be apart of his life and be able to teach him. I told you that we have been calling him to pray each night just because it's spiritual and he really enjoys it as well. He said his prayer in English and it was so lovely. He thanked Heavenly Father for Sister Binnie and I. He said that he feels like we were sent here just for him so that we could teach him and help him change his life. I got so teary eyed when he was praying because both of us just felt so lucky. and afterwards we were just talking and he was like one day I might be like you guys but an Elder!! We almost jumped out of the roof because we were so excited. It's amazing how the Lord just prepares people for the missionaries and all we have to do is give them the invitation to be baptized and the spirit does the rest. Man he is so great. It's fun to because he is not just someone we teach he is our friend.

There are just so many things I am grateful for. I can't even tell you how I feel because I am so happy. Sister Binnie and I were talking and we were like we can't even say how we are feeling cause it is so indescribable. It's amazing. I will let you know how the baptism goes on Monday when I write!! so sorry this letter is so short and Monday's will probably be short as well. but I wrote everything in the letters home so you should already have them :)

 

Also I got some letters and iI loved your testimony letter. Thank you so much. I can learn so much from you and dad! I just love you all so much and miss you still everyday.  Pres and Sister Shamo leave at the end of this transfer which is three weeks away. I am sad because they are so amzing but I am sure I will love the new pres and his wife just as much.

I love you all so very much and i hope that you are all so good. I love all the pictures! :)

 

Love Syd