4/28/13

Hiya,

I am doing so great! i love being a missionary. It is so amazing and the people we get to talk to everyday and share our testimonies with is such a rush and it's so exciting. Training is the best. New missionaries have so much enthusiasm for the work and they are so excited about it and it helps me to rekindle that desire!! Sister Morgan is great and it's been a lot of fun to serve with her so far. We have been lost multiple times trying to figure our way around the city and Waterlooville. Portsmouth ward is so great! we have 5 DA's this week and that is so amazing! I love getting to know the members and their families.

We have had really good weather as well so I hope that it stays for a while. Our flat is fully furnished now so that is good and it is starting to feel like a home! We have been doing sooooo much finding and it's great. we knock all the time and go finding on the high street! we have been given referrals and we have found some really great people. We found a lovely girl named Zoe and she was more than willing to hear what we had to say right on the spot. I love finding people and being able to teach them immediately! this are is so great and i just feel that as long as we work our hardest and be exactly obedient that we are going to see so many miracles here. I can't wait for this week.

This week my study has been so good as well. I can't tell you all cause there is too much but i just love the Book of Mormon so much. It's so amazing and ah i just love everything in it. there is so much in that book and i get so much out every single time i read it. I think you have shared this scripture with my once before but it's Alma 37:37 that say's councel with the Lord in all thy doings.. and as we do that he will help us accopmlish so much more than if we didn't ask Him and tried to do it ourselves. The scriptures are fantastic. Don't go a day without reading them! They can help us so much and we need spiritual nourishment as much as food if not more. :)

I pray for you all all of the time :) and i will continue too. Mom it's about time you got put into RS you are 50 after all :) hahahaha jk but you will be great and there is someone there that needs just you and the Lord will guide you to them or them to you! :) I am excited to talk to all of you in 2 weeks!! can you tell me my name and password again... sorry! i think i know but just in case. :)

well i love you all and hope you have a good week.

love syd

 

4/21/13

HEY!

So that's rubbish that the temple will be closed! :( i was so excited to go with you guys. my new area is a really posh area! it's the nicest area that i have ever served in. my companion is from utah and her name is sister morgan. we get along great and are having a fun time figuring out our new area. we live right on the high street.. and that means we live where all of the shops are so everything is so close which is really nice. our flat is nice but the windows don't open so that is really weird and it's probably going to get really hot and i need my fresh air. but other than that i like it. The ward is really good. i am pretty sure that we will be spoiled here because they haven't had sisters for a really long time and so they are all so excited. Also i am in a ward with other missionaries. there are four of us in the portsmouth ward right now and by the end of the week there will be 6 missionaries all together in my ward. so i am way excited for that. :) we have already had dinner a couple of times at some of the members homes and they are so great. i love it. also the buses aren't the best here so we have to walk basically everywhere but i actually really like it because it's refreshing and also we get to see the area! there are a lot of historical things in portsmouth that we want to go see but the thing i want to see the most is £20 so i don't know if i will be able to do that! we will see. but we have a lot of work to do in waterlooville. cause missionaries haven't ever really spent a lot of time in that area so it should be good. i am so excited to be able to open a new area. it's really exciting! they are opening a lot of new areas and there are a lot of missionaries coming in!

 i loved the pictures of baxton he is so cute! also that is so sad about the horse :( the weather here has actually been really nice for the past week! the sun has shone since i got to the new area it has been great.

oh yeah at the beginning of the week i got to go to the temple grounds and we got to take a lady named tracey! it was so nice! just being on the grounds is amazing! we got to learn a lot of fun little facts about the temple and everything. i love the spirit of the temple grounds!

love you all so much!!

I think this is her new companion????

love syd

4/14/13

Hello my Favorite people ever!!

It's been a fast week and no I still don't know about transfers. I will try and let you know when I find out. Also yes i got to see his talk on friday (holland) and it was amazing. It was exactly what i needed but i would love to have a hard copy as well so that i can refer back to it. :) I saw your pictures and you guys all looked freezing haha. but the past two days have been nice so hopefully spring is finally here. I'm not sure if sister harun got her stuff yet. where did you send it? and i will send the sd card hopefully next week. we have to wait for sis k to get all the pictures off. That is crazy that he is a priest already!! crazy!! ahhh that is good that everyone was able to go :) it makes me really happy! also no i haven't had a chance to write. i haven't forgotten though. Sounds like everyone is doing good.

This week has gone fast!! i only have 4 transfers left which is crazy! but we didn't see michelle and her family all week because they went on holiday. And now we are teaching a guy from persia so that's cool. He is a nice guy. He came to church and really liked it. Tomorrow we get to go to the temple again so that will be fun we are taking a lady named tracey so i am so excited to be able to go there. Also i told her i would get her a name tag for her scriptures as well and her granddaughter.. her name is Tracey Thompsett and put it on a silver plate and i will get you the name for the other little girl next week. sorry these are the last ones that i will get haha i just get excited and want people to have things haha. sorry.

I have been really studying the bible a lot more because i want to be able to use it more and i have never actually read it all the way so i would like to do that. but i love it. at first it was hard cause i hardly understood anything but then once i continued to read i started to get used to the language. still don't understand it all but i am finding so many amazing scriptures. I never knew i would like the bible so much. So i am almost done with the new testament and then i will start the old testament. that one will be more difficult to read but i am excited. The scriptures are amazing and i never knew that i would come to love them so much.

i don't need anythign at the moment except i would love letters in the post :) haha but also i need to get a new suitcase.. just the carry on size.. my handle has gotten all rusty and won't work anymore. is that ok? let me know. love you and miss you a lot.

love syd

4/7/13

Ok thank you for sending sister haruns stuff! i was going to ask you about it today!! thank you! you should also send me some swiss rolls!! thank you :) haha. we went to a castle last week which was really fun!! i really loved it. it was freezing tho. my face got a little wind burnt but it was sunny so that was ok. I have filled up another sd card so i will be sending it home soon once sister karyan gets all of her pics off of it so it probably won't be until next week. can't believe you bought the tickets!! it's crazy yeah that is a lot of driving to be honest i don't care if we just go to exeter for a couple of days and then just do our own thing. :) are we still going to go to preston? i was thinking it would be cool for me to go back to where i first began! plus the temple is beautiful :)

Hello, this week was a really fast week. To start the week off we had a really good FHE with some members and one of their friends that was visiting. He came to church and the members wanted us to teach him. He is agnostic and is really open. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and also the members shared some of the Restoration. It was such a powerful teach and the spirit was there. The members were teaching and testifying as well which made it that much more powerful. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he was so honored that we gave him something so precious. After that teach I felt so good and so happy that I was able to share my happiness with him and I know that he could feel it too. Sadly he lives in Sweden but he wants to be taught by the missionaries so that is wonderful.

This week was pretty good! we had a zone training so we got to go and see a lot of the missionaries and see pres and sister millar!! I always learn a lot there. We had mexican is well which is a plus. The senior couples always cook for us and it was delicious.

General conference was really good! i loved all of the speakers. We got to watch all of the sessions except the last one! i was hoping that i would get to hear elder holland but he didnt talk in the first 3!! But all of them touched on what i needed to hear and how i can improve so that i can help people. We are so blessed to be able to listen to living prophets. It is so amazing to me that we out of so many people have been so blessed to be able to be born into the gospel. In conference i noticed with a lot of the speakers the topic was family and obedience. And i have seen first hand how important it is to be EXACTLY obedient. Obedience brings blessings and i loved how Elder Perry said that we shouldn't pick and choose commandments.. we have to obey ALL of them and that will make us free.

Anyway i love you all!! miss you so much!! have a fantasic week

luv syd

Thought for the week Imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. That must be terribly frustrating to him, but he deals with it! Jeffery R Holland This isn't missionary work!!!! This is missionary fun!!!!! Elder Neil L Anderson

3/31/13

Hey!

last week we saw michelle and her family a lot and we still just love them. we are going to a castle with them today for pday so i am way excited about that. i will take lots of pictures and yes my camera is working great!! We didn't end up going to the old town last week so hopefully soon. All of michelles kids and her are reading the book of mormon so that is way good! I gave them that book of mormon that you sent me from the primary and they loved it. I am glad that i waited to give it away.. i wanted it to be the perfect family and it was them.

We got to go to a wedding on saturday. the weddings her are a bit different than home but not too much. it was so pretty and elegant. i loved it. it kind of made me want to get married in a church so that i could walk down the isle and also in the temple. i was way glad that we got invited to go to it.

We sang in church on sunday for easter so that was really nice. I love the choir that i am in. and then we spent some time teaching some members and having dinner with them. The weather was really nice yesterday so that was really good. :) oh yeah and yesterday we knocked a few doors before dinner and the last door that we knocked on was so funny. we knocked and waited a few seconds and then all of a sudden someone growled at us thru the letter box and said go away and we just looked at eachother because we were so shocked.. that was the first time that has happened haha. that was pretty funny. and i am barely surviving haha.. my fingers are freezing right now hahaha ah i just want it to be warm.. the time changed yesterday so i am glad that we have more daylight!!

the plans you have sound good to me for october. i would like to do all of that so i approve. also i am so glad that you have had such a spiritual week. they are the best and you just feel like you can make it thru anything. your experience in the temple sounds so wonderful! that is one thing i miss soooooo much!! still enjoying the work!!

love and miss you so much!!

love syd

3/24/13

hello!! sounds like you are all doing good this week!! and for the third time the cigerette lighters are the same!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha.. as for laura she has a lot of severe allergies and so i bet it is that! send my love to her please!! this week has been good it has gone really really fast!! but it has been freezing! this week is going to be the coldest week in march for 50 years so i am not excited at all!! this time last year it was really warm and nice! grandma looks really good! she looks like she has lost a lot of weight!! i am glad you all had a good time at her birthday!!

on saturday we got to go to the temple to go to a choir concert because we took some non members and some less actives!! it was really good to be there and just see it and feel the spirit of the temple grounds. An armenian guy came so we got to teach him and he absolutely loved it so that is good. Michelle and her family were all ready to come but then on of her daughters got sick so they couldn't make it. they were sad but she said they still want to go so hopefully i will get to go again sometime with them. Also i did get my camera but it was at the end of the temple trip so i didnt get any pictures which was sad but the armenian guy took some so hopefully i will be able to get those ones!!

we have been really busy this week so that is good! this transfer is only 5 weeks long so it will go really quick!! A lot of the less actives that we have been working with are starting to progress so that is good. DONT PUT THIS ON THE BLOG!! haha but hastings is a hard area and i am ready to go! i have been here long enough!! it's taking a tole on me! hopefully next week i will know what's going on with moves because we have interviews with president and usually he tells us what's going on.. i would say that these past three months have been the hardest on my mission.. even worse than my face trial ha..i have learned a lot and for that i am grateful!! but the only reason i would want to stay is because of michelle and her family!! i love them so much!! they really are so amazing and ah i just love them. they found a video clip on lds.org or something about prom dresses and how a girl asked for donated dresses so that she could alter them to be modest and then rent them out for cheap and michelle and her daughter are totally doing that now! they have made fliers and everything. they are a great family.

today we are going to the old town of hastings with a lot of proper english stuff so i will be able to send you lots of cool pictures!! :) also i just read presidents email and we now have 2 hours of email time on pday!! so good!! haha also i keep forgetting to write to see where we can stay!! but i will! we are going to an armenian resturant today so i hope i like it!!

Sorry i don't have much to write i will prepare better for next week!

love you

love syd