Missionary Letter #12 (December 20, 2010)

guess what?? we're in LONDON AGAIN!!! guess who just went to the V&A and bought her belated birthdya presents because sis j doesn't like shopping and now she's not here! and i went to laduree in harrod's. oh my gosh. i like london. i hope i get to serve here.

we had a freak snowstorm on...friday i think?? sis g was totally freezing and so was sis k, so i was stopping everyone we saw so we weren't wasting time of being out in the freezing cold. haha it was funny. and then we heard church bells ringing a ton so we were like, what's going on?? turns out there was a wedding!! but it's this church that's near our church, it's where sir thomas more's head is, and at the intersection, it was basically at a stand still. so, of course, we decided that this is perfect because people can't get away from us!! so, we went up to a guy who already had his window rolled down and he was just like, "go on then, i've got nothing else to do. can't go anywhere." perfect. bored people who can't get away. we only did that once though. i thought it was pretty funny. but anyway, back to the wedding, they had rented this big old double-decker red bus for the wedding party, but they were taking FOREVER to come out. and of course my comps and i wanted to see her dress! duh. so we waited and talked to people across the street where we could watch. and we saw all of these girls dressed in tiny short skirts and dresses and the most ginormous heels. and it was freezing and snowy! and i hate it when girls just look absolutely helpless walking and they're dressed like that. anyway, the bride's dress wasn't that pretty. funny that we all wanted to see though. well, just kate middleton better have a gorgeous dress.

okay, fastforward to sunday. everything stops here when it snows. i think it's just an excuse for people to stay in, really. it snowed like six inches maybe? church was reduced to sac meeting and there were eleven people there. everyone just took turns bearing their testimony, and i talked about how God knows how to give us good gifts, and that the best gift is that of the atonement, which allows us to change. i got pretty emotional.  but then b bore his testimony for the first time (we had just had a lesson about missionary work and about bearing your testimony to strengthen others and everything and he said he wanted to bear his) and it was so powerful, i was just smiling the whole time and crying a little bit because he really had changed his life and seen how the atonement can change him. he's so good. can't even believe it.

i've been studying a lot about how i can fulfill my purpose here in the best way that i can. i feel my desires changing and my heart turning more toward the lord in a less martyrous way. i feel happy as i do what i know i should and i feel the love of my heavenly father. i'm starting to really like being a missionary i think.

love you all with all my heart! wish i could write more but i had too much fun reading your emails.

love,
sister emma

Missionary Letter #11 (December 13, 2010)

i had woken up that morning with a sore throat so i felt pretty awful the whole walk over to see j. i knew i was feeling so bad so i went into the bathroom and prayed that i'd be able to make it through the lesson, especially because i had kind of taken the lead in planning his lesson. my companions were like totally not there because they were feeling awful as well. i was able to make it through the lesson, and listen to him the whole time, esp because he talks for a long time and takes a while to get out what he wants to say, so if you're not focusing really hard, you get lost. anyway, i was like the only one who could follow him, i answered his questions, we finished the lesson, and as soon as he was gone i was like laying on the ground next to the heater and it hurt so much to talk! it was so crazy. then we went straight home and tried to do weekly planning but we were all so sick. and also the kind of sick where just your whole body hurts. what do you think happened?? then sis k woke up the next day with a fever of 39 degrees c, and i was feeling really awful as well. we went and taught a lesson and then came back home because sis k couldn't do anything. we just like slept all day and hung out in our room. it's so annoying being sick on a mission. so that was thursday night and friday. then i woke up on saturday morning with a fever of 39! and we called our zone leaders and asked if they could give us blessings. then we taught a lesson and came home and slept.

later we heard banging on the door and what a welcome surprise!! mother's package with christmas festivities came!! so that was so good to have when we had to stay in or we'd get more sick, but we had already been sleeping all day! so what did we do?? listened to the really good mix, my comps love it, put together the paper tree, cut out snowflakes, ate oreo balls, read the christmas letter, talked about how the handwarmers you sent me were the same kind that sis k destroyed! so that was so fun! and so timely!

but yeah, mostly these past few days have been my comps and i laughing so hard that we all just start having fits of horrendous coughing. yaaaaaay. hahaha. it's pretty funny.

christmas here is cool. i think it's the victorians who made christmas tacky. typical. haha! but i mean just with like tinsel and just like the type of christmas tackiness you see sometimes...? anyway. so, it's pretty fun. i was going to send you christmas crackers, but they put like the dumbest things in them! like finger nail clippers and hairties. i was hoping i could find some with chocolate. nope!

love,
emma

Missionary Picture #2 (December 6, 2010)

Missionary Letter #10 (December 6, 2010)

a few nights ago, the night after sis k got here, she was showing us these hand warmer things that you put in boiling water to heat them up. and so she put them in the boiling water, forgot about them, and went to bed. with the stuff still on the stove. then i wake up to the morning alarm, get out of bed with my duvet around me and start praying that i can wake up. i hear my companions talking and sis g goes downstairs. i smell something funny. they keep talking and i'm like, why are they talking instead of praying?? then sis g comes and taps me on the head and is like, "what are you doing??" turns out, it's 11:47 at night, the smoke alarm went off! sis g fixed it, sis k woke up for a sec, asked what the smell was, and if the window could be opened. and i'm just saying my morning prayers. hahaha! can you believe that?! we've been cracking up ever since. i just roll on the ground and start praying. my goodness.

so last week we had to come up with a zone challenge. did i tell you we told everyone that they had to sing at one house when they picked a street? so anyway, we were doing that last night, and we just kept singing at a lot of houses (in three-part harmony. yay!) and the first house just said thank you and closed the door when we had barely started. what? we didn't know what to do! they even had christmas lights up! then another house with an old lady told us that it was too early for that. what? it's december! tons of people have christmas lights up! then we went to another one with a young mother who was excited and ran upstairs. we thought she was going to bring some people down to listen but she got some money to give us. and we were like, what the heck? we don't want money. so we talked to her for a bit. then we went to another house and he tried to give us money too! so we asked, okay, why do people think we want money? is that what people do here? apparently 12 and 13 yearolds do that! how dumb is that! they like ruined caroling so we can't even go around singing. so dumb. we might carry around a sign that says, "we don't want money" or something.

today at zone meeting they asked us to do a special musical number "with a twist" so sis g showed us a hula dance. paha! so we're doing that in a few minutes.

i feel like the most i've learned here is the universality of the message of the restored gospel. helps me to not be apologetic because i'm not saying anything that won't help them if they want to find what will truly help them. and of course that it's all about their choice. so that's good to remember when we have things happen like george. boo! hope you all have a wonderful start to the christmas season!

and goodness the ducks goin' to the natty!!! that's SO COOL. i'm jealous i'm not there! that must be so fun!

love you all so much! happy christmas!

The Ducks would be the University of Oregon football team that are going to the National Championship game. We're real excited Duck fans!

Missionary Letter #9 (November 30, 2010)

it's transfers this week. sister g and i are staying in canterbury, but we're getting ANOTHER sister! her name's sister k. she's so cute, and she was trained by sister j as well! she's from japan and is tiiiiiiny. perfect for that japanese family we can't communicate with. i liked having just one comp, i have to say, and was looking forward to it, but i don't know. i guess this is what the Lord thinks is best right now.

k, cool story: we were waiting for a bus one morning and this old lady comes up to us and is just like, i didn't know there was a church here! she went for a while in london, never got baptised, but her daughter did! then she came to church on sunday! a very interesting woman. kinda weird,  but she's cool.

sis g was cracking me up on thanksgiving because she read pres monson's talk about being thankful and it said good always outweighs the bad. so she wrote down everything she WASN'T thankful for and then wrote everything she was thankful for! and of course the good did outweigh the bad. so if you're ever being really real, it'll always be good, you know? dwell on the bad a ton isn't real either. anyway, i thought that was hilarious. it's something that at first you might be nervous to do. but that's dumb, because then that's saying it's a possibility that your life really is awful. haha! well, as long as you do the second part with a thankful heart.

things are good.

love,
sister emma

Missionary Letter #8 (November 22, 2010)

 in london!

well, we just dropped off sister j at the mission office. pretty sad. she's been so good to me and sister g and i miss her already. we're at a little dingy internet cafe and then we're going shopping or going to the national gallery?

also there's like no harry potter mania whatsoever! so disappointing. but we were riding a bus on friday and all of the sudden i thought, i think everyone i know has seen harry potter now. it was funny.

we're teaching a bunch of people from nepal. they all live in this one house, and five of them just gather in to listen to us when we come. they're so nice. there are like four nepalese people that have been baptised already this year. but soon we can have a whole nepalese branch! haha jk. but two of them came to church and the baptism yesterday! so that was cool. they seemed to really like it.

pretty much it. really good week. hard to go back to non-special weeks. hoping that sis g will not get transferred next week.

next monday i'll have been a missionary two months! wow. feel like i haven't done anything. it's been good. hope you all have a good week and a good thanksgiving! pet ellie for me.

love you all so much.

love,
sister emma

Missionary Letter #7 (November 15, 2010)

well, it's been a great week!

we're really excited because this is going to be like the best week ever. and the best week ever for a missionary to leave! sister j is so lucky. slash she so deserves it. but we have dinner appointments FOUR DAYS this week. that never happens! one of them is because i said to this lady in the ward, "this week is the last week you can have sis j over." it was the right type of person to say that to though because she loves us and loves church and everything, but she's like kind of fussy and like gets mad at us but at the same time loves us. anyway, it was perfect. sis g was so proud of me. "that's my daughter!" so anyway, meeting with b three times this week, sis j is playing violin for his baptism (she's a violin performance major at utah state) so i'm really excited for that.

last week we went finding on tuesday with another sister for a workover, and i feel like i learned so much from her. she's swiss, and the whole time she was just like giving compliments to people on their clothes and finding other things like that, and just being so friendly and sweet and then people would listen to her when she would share her own experiences! it was so cool. so i really liked working with her.

yesterday we sang God save the queen!! how long have i been looking at that in our hymnbook and never sang it???? so that was kind of fun.

this is sister j's last week! can you believe it?? i've only had her for less than a month and already leaving! my days of training in the mtc and now are just getting cut like no other. but i'm sure this week will go by so quickly because of it. BUT cool thing is that we take her to the office on monday next week in london, so we get to spend the rest of pday in london!!! woohoo! OH. saddest thing: apparently every missionary gets to see the lion king once while they're here. so obviously i thought, well, lion king is just an adaptation of hamlet. so...i wonder if i could see shakespeare. and THEN i realized that the globe theatre is on the OTHER SIDE OF THE THAMES. aka, it is in the london south mission. hahahaha. not like it would have worked anyway, but. i get to catch glimpses of it when we drive to the office so i guess that will have to do.

   

love you all so much! thank you for your letters i love you!

love,
sister emma