Thursday, March 28, 2013

I loved hearing about all of the birthdays this week. Sounds like they were AWESOME. And I am BEYOND excited that Emery loved her doll. (And that Amelia does too.) I literally could not set it down after I saw it. And thank you for the pictures. She is the cutest thing in the whole world!!!!
But it was a good week!
 
We decided that we need to form better bonds with the members in the ward. So we've started visiting a member a day with just a quick visit. We share with them an Easter Message, and give them the quote on the back of a picture of Christ. We give them two, and challenge them to use Easter as an opportunity to share the gospel and give the card away to a friend. They love it, and I hope they are actually doing it because that would be awesome.
Also, this is my favourite Easter video ever. Go watch it, it's incredible:

Did I tell you about Kirsty last week? I can't remember. She tried to commit suicide a little over a week ago, and her grandma asked that we go visit her in the hospital. She is SO receptive to the Spirit. When we told her that she is a daughter of God, you could SEE a light go on in her eyes. It was beautiful. I love teaching her so much... .you can just see she is literally hungering for the gospel of Christ. It was so sad though....she got moved to a hospital out of our area. We looked at bus maps, and it would take 2 hours to get there. So we won't be teaching her for a few weeks. That was hard to deal with, but someday we'll keep teaching her.

We also found out this woman we've been teaching is out of our area, so we'll have to give her to another set of missionaries. Which is too bad. She's hilarious. She's like a 60 year old African woman, and she's crazy! No matter what we teach, she tells us she knows that, that God appeared to her and told her that already. “Maybe I am de prophet. I know all dis.” hahahaha. When we started talking about how the Atonement of Christ can heal us literally, she suddenly lifted up her foot and shoved it in our faces. Um, hello. And she started waving it around while she was telling us about how God healed her foot. At least I think that's what she was saying. I was very focused on her foot not coming in contact with my face.
 
And can I ask a favor? If someone ever knocks on your door, PLEASE think about how they will feel when you open it. If you were, per se, about to jump in the shower, DON'T answer it!! There was this old man who answered the door this week like that. And so we looked at the ceiling, at the floor, ANYWHERE but him, and handed him a card and RAN away. Some things you cannot unsee and they will forever make you want to burn your eyes out.
 
On a less scarring note, Sister Muller and I try to pick one thing a week to increase our obedience in. This week, we decided it was our morning exercise that needed attention. Everyday, we wake up at 6:30 and then workout till 7:00 when we start getting ready for the day. We usually slowly stretch and then do crunches. Not very invigorating. So, we made a FIRM decision to improve. The next morning, we went out, jogged down the street, and swung on some swings in the park. It was probably the most beautiful morning of all time. The birds were singing, the flowers were in blossom, and we watched the sunrise over the University clocktower (I am slightly obsessed with the clocktower. It makes me SO happy. I'll try to attach a pic of it.). It was so incredible and peaceful. And then we jogged back home. It started out our day so good! We were practically glowing with happiness all day long.
 
So I couldn't wait for the next morning to do it again. And we woke up, jumped out of bed, and saw two inches of snow!!!!! WHAT?!?!? So much for our morning jog. Back to stretching (but more enthusiastically.)
ALL of Birmingham pretty much shut down. (I loved hearing that you guys got a storm this weekend too. But also that you weren't wimps about it.) No buses. No people out. They haven't had a winter storm this late in the year since 1978. Lucky us! So basically the last three days have been the longest of my life. No one is out, no one will talk to us. Nothing. And I found out my boots may be waterproof on the top and bottom, but not on the seam in between! So today we'll go buy me some Wellies at Primark.

And church was cancelled yesterday. Which is the worst thing ever when you are a missionary. At home, you're like Yay! We get to stay in and hang out with family. Here it's like Yay! The one day we could be inside we now go trudge through the snow cause no one else wants to! But it ended up being a really good day.

Fun fact about the English: they are SUPER sensitive about what you refer to their schooling as. Like I would interchangeably say “out at school/college/university”, but they mean totally different things here. School indicates like high school, college is like the advanced last few years of high school, and any postgraduate is university. I made the comment to a member I didn't really care which I said I went to, and she goes “You better be calling it university....you've worked bloody hard to get there!!” haha. I will try to remember that.
And if you say to one of the Young Women “How's school?”, she'll go “Well,college is fine.” My bad.
Whew. So much stuff. I hope you love me anyway. Haha. I love you! Please tell me what you want to hear about. And if these letters are painfully long or what you think about them. Tell me what you want to hear! :)

The photos:
The clocktower at night.
I am in LOVE with this house. How much do you think it would cost to move it home?
I was trying to get a photo of the chruch, but you can also see another doubledecker bus, and the side of the Bull Ring in City Centre.

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