Mormon.org

So our specialized training on Saturday featured a high dose of politics, with Sister Shamo reading an article about the Values Summit in Florida. Send me NEWS PLEASE! The way they were talking, Mormons are the happening buzz in the U.S. with a bazillion hits on mormon.org over the weekend. (I've also sent the weekly email the church sends to investigators and such: The best way to do missionary work for a lot of people).

This week has been SOOO busy. Considering we had zero time to go finding, we still picked up 5 new investigators and taught 25 lessons and got flogged a lot. I didn't get to sleep during lunch at all and my poor little body is so tired...Sister Housley never used to crack her back, but now it does it on its own. I guess you just start to break down on your mission, eh? We got a call Saturday night from a man who wanted to meet with us, and we met him yesterday. He seems so prepared to take on our commitments--we'll see what happens from there.

In other happenings, Steve came with us to Stake Conference, chatted with Elder Himelright about baptism, and spoke to President Shamo, who promptly gave him his email and told him to stay in touch. He's such a rockstar with investigators. Loraine even invited us back to the hotel for lunch, and we got to chat and clear up any concerns he had. He's so prepared, I wish we could move the date up. Ah, well. All he needs is an interview, and we'll be set!

Other funnies:

-The seagulls have poor aim. But not poor enough to make us NOT paranoid about going outside.

-Weymouth is BEAUTIFUL!

-We had to teach right after Loraine's and had to decline dessert (we didn't have anything to eat in the flat, and we really wanted some...). For the teach, we went to a park to sit down. A lady approached us, holding a box from the Iceland. She said, "Can I offer you some ice cream?" Apparently she bought too many and didn't want them to go to waste. That's the third time the Lord has provided chocolate for us when we couldn't have any. He loves us :)

-The makers of South Park are NOT ex'd Mormons. They're not religious, and their families are backgrounded in Judaism and Jehovah's Witnesses, and they had friends growing up who were members. That is all.

It's so cool to be here after 6 months. Guesses are on for who'll move. I think it'll be Housley, and I think she might move to Paignton and train again. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one still in my greenie area with my trainer (sigh) but we've gotten to be really good friends and I feel like I've grown a lot. MISSION STATEMENT: "If you stop growing, you're dead." I'm pretty sure I'll just apply that to this whole mission. Sister Housley says that for every awkward moment you encounter on the mission, your husband/first born/self at forty will look even better than if you hadn't. I don't know if I believe that, but it certainly is encouraging. It's all about the principle of compensation.

My biggest problem is that I don't know what to ask for as far as Christmas. Scarves and a hat maybe? It'll be cold in winter, that's for sure. Maybe I'll think about it some more. There's always Asda.co.uk, and they've got tons of things. Sister Housley wants to get matching onesie pajamas (preferably some monkeys or cows). We'll see if we can find any.

Stay happy and warm! Tell people you're a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and say why!

Lots of love,

Sister Willard