Exchange to Winchester

Hellooo from the seaside! 

As the title stipulates, I have now gone across Poole-Portsmouth Zone to Winchester with Sister Kernek. She's from L.A. and is a BABE and a half. (Fun fact: Boys need to write her. Any prospectives, ie: elders currently or formerly serving, she can be reached atkylie.kernek@myldsmail.net and http://kyliegoesonamission.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/ (she has business cards?) Anways, she was so fun to serve with. 

Winchester is hoity-toity, super posh and have too much money to pay attention to us (or propriety, for that matter). So Weymouth is chavvy, whatever...they are super polite and we can start a conversation with almost anyone in town. Winchester was the opposite. I did get to teach a cool guy named Michael and extended a baptismal date, so if he gets baptized, it could count...? 

Fun fact: Rich English folk don't like it when you laugh at them. Why so serious? Guy, I hope someone HITS me if I get that uptight. Winchester's mission leader picks up roadkill and takes it home so his German wife can cook it, and I'm pretty sure I might have eaten some that evening; the rest of the night was spent avoiding "Dracos" and "Ginnys" (gotta speak in code so you tract the right people). So all in all, I'm hoping for another exchange this moves. Sleepovers are the best!

 

Updates on our investigators:

 

Martha, Makela, and Steve (The Fijiians): Cannot get enough of the Book of Mormon. As soon as I told them they could be descended from those peoples, Steve started reading and as of Monday last has finished 1st Nephi. They're struggling with grace and the trinity (who isn't in this town?) but since they live down the lane, we've been writing down Q&As and sticking them through the letterbox. We answered questions like "Why a premortal existence?" and "Is Jesus a prophet as well?" and "Trinity or three separate beings?" with Bible and Book of Mormon scriptures. Totally rad. They are progressing beautifully: pray they'll come to church this week.

 

Adam and Katrina Poole: She's accepted a soft commitment for baptism, but no time to come to church yet. He's still skeptical, but she says there's a new spirit in their home and she just feels so much more calm and patient  and every time we come over, she gets "goosebumps, like it's a tingle of promise, you know?" So cool. They're definitely less religiously-structured and very open-minded, but have a crazy schedule.

 

Shirley: Goal for her is August 14th to be baptized. She's absorbing amazingly--Church is definitely overwhelming (3 hours, heck), but she LOVES the Plan of Salvation and we're excited that she's coming to church. Bonding with the Relief Society and everything :)

 

Cheri: She's our other golden we knocked into--she has read both pamphlets and we dropped off a Book of Mormon yesterday with our testimonies in it, and we're meeting her this week. She just drinks in everything we say, it seems like. She's been looking for the true church for some time, and does NOT agree with J-Dubs because she researched them and concluded so. This chick is serious!

 

Shekinah: Is NOT dead, and has returned from Ireland. We spoke to her on Saturday and she's looking to be taught again, but still maintains her hectic schedule. We'll see if we can't get her back on track for baptism.

 

So yeah! Very exciting, juggling all this goldens. We're working hard on maintaining daily contact with all our investigators so we don't lose them. Real investigators love daily contact, so says PMG...so it'll only weed out the not-serious ones?

 

Other weird things:

-Keep getting hit on

-Sister Kernek said she learned happiness and enthusiasm on our exchange; I learned not to bash? I wasn't, I swear!

-I love super cheesey 90s seminary videos

-Going to the Withreads yesterday, they gave me a box of hair dye and decided it was time. So yes. My hair is dark now. Housley keeps looking around for her companion.

 

Oh, Weymouth is the Promised Land! I'm so excited for our first baptism, and our fireside on temples, and to stay here til New Years':) That would be acceptable. Hooray! Only 15 months left--Gotta get to work!

 

Love from,

Sister Willard