Week 25

it was a pretty standard week this week. our friend stefan who was totally solid and was going to get baptized just completely dropped us out of nowhere so that was pretty sad.

but we have been teaching this other dude for a while now named john and he just wasnt keeping commitments and then told us that he was never gonna get baptized so then we were very sad. and so we taught him another lesson yesterday and we were either going to drop him or get him back on date, we were gonna give it everything and just throw down before we dropped him and he said that he wants to get baptized and we got him back on date an thn he said he had been keeping commitments without us even asking and so it was so exciting! so we should be having a baptism this transfer so please pray for us haha. 

us on exchanges in dublin

this super cool place that members took us to for a DA it was beautiful 

Week 24

Waddup!

   Earlier this week we had a first lesson with this man named Stefan that we found finding. we taught him in front of the river in the city and it was just beautiful there. there wasn't a ton of people there so it was quiet and a wonderful place to be able to feel the spirit. He told us before we even started teaching him that he came with a clean slate and doesn't even know if there is a God but is willing to do what it takes to know if there is one. the lesson went so well and he accepted a baptism date and we are so excited to see him progress towards the waters of baptism soon! at the end of the lesson he just kept saying, what is next for me? what do i need to do know if this is true? we are meeting with him tomorrow and i am so excited!

   Relief society was amazing this week. dude not gonna lie, usually relief society can be kind of hard to go to because we just talk about ministering the whole time. honestly that's what the lesson has been on every sunday since i have been on my mission. but this new lady taught on sunday and she just threw down and wrecked the sisters. it was so great. sometimes the sisters need a good rebuking because i think the leaders are too easy on them and they need it every once in a while. but then one of the ladies wasnt happy that was listening and then her and the teacher got in a fight in the middle of class and it was awesome. 

   So the sun doesn't set here till like really late and on june 21 it was the longest day of the year so the sun didnt set till 10:30. it is so nice. i love the sun! We have dark curtains though so it is dark in our room. But it has been so hot here lately and we are supposed to have a big heat wave this week. they say its gonna be the hottest its ever been in ireland. I've been getting a good tan though so its chillin. 

   We have this thing called Friday night activities. every friday night our investigators and ward members come out and we all just play sports with each other and it is super fun. we play football every time and i love it. but we all go pretty hard and i go home with a ton of gnarly bruises everytime haha. 

   We taught our investigator Calvin this week and he has been investigating for almost a year now. he doesnt have a belief in God, but last week us and the elders were finally able to get somewhere with him and it was a huge step forward. then we met with him two days ago and he told us he had watched some anti-God videos and that it really made him question everything and that it took him way far back. it was just so freakin sad. so now we are really trying to pray to find out what we can do to help him.

   Also we started riding bikes here and dude it is very hard to ride a bike in a skirt. but it is a good work out haha. 

   I honestly love being a missionary and i never thought i would becasue i didnt even want to come out in the first place. but seeing the way that the Lord has helped me so much is so amazing and truly inspiring to me. i could never do this work without Him. i honestly cant even put into words the many ways Heavenly Father has blessed me and helped in this work. I don't mean to be all missionary and everything, but it helps me to write down these things because it strengthens my testimony even more when i say it and write it. i just love it so much! My love for the scriptures (the bible is insane btw) and my love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are more than i can even put into words. 

   Everything is good here, i love it here and love the work i am doing! 

the 21 of june was the longest day of the year and the sun didnt set till 10:30. this was at 10 at night

me and my comp in our backyard

us being lame lol

Week 23

Dude so we have no hot water again and going into the shower is probably the hardest part of my day becasue it is so cold.. I literally am on the verge of tears when the cold water touches me. Also, it is starting to get cold again so that means bringing out the tights again and it was the most depressing day when me and sister mckay realized we were back to tights. so sad. 

This week we had All Ireland and Elder Bednar skyped into it and we had a Q and A with him. it was super cool. Then at the end of the conference since our mission president is leaving next week we all got to say goodbye to him. we all got to go up to him one by one and give him and sister Donaldson a hug goodbye and it was very sad. actually a ton of people were crying. it was an amazing conference that we had though. the spirit that was felt there was so strong.

We had a dinner appointment with the sweetest lady named Marlene and she is from Brazil and oh my goodness. she doesn't have a lot but she made us so much food because she is so kind! i love her so much! she invited us back to teach us how to make some of the food she made for us. i am so excited to go back and to get to know her better!

Me and Sister Mckay taught the young womens on Sunday in church and they are so fun! i love getting to know the youth in the ward! and they were just asking a ton of questions. we brought them cookies and it was just so fun! Then one of the girls came up to us after and was asking us questions about serving a mission. it was so exciting to answer her questions and to give her some advice on it. 

This morning we taught a man named Gerrard and he is amazing. He had a really hard past but once he turned to God he changed his life around. We taught him the restoration and he has such a desire to know if these things are true. I cant wait to teach him again!

this work that i am doing is so amazing. i cant imagine myself anywhere else and i am so grateful that i have this amazing opportunity to be here and to share this gospel, that has brought me so much happiness, to other people here in Ireland. Even though it freakin sucks sometimes the good parts outweigh those hard times. I LOVE THIS WORK! Heavenly Father is so great and it must have been so scary for him to send us here to earth because he knew that a ton of us wouldn't return to him again. BUT he sent us here because He loves us.

Peace!

Me and sister mckay at all ireland

me and my homegirl sister phillips

me elder wotherspoon and my comp

president and sister donaldson

Week 22- Illegal Immigrants yooooo

Yoo whaddup my homies

Limerick is the best! it is sooo nice to be serving in a city centre! We are getting so many qualified appointments (first lessons) and it so much fun! everyday was like booked this last week with first lessons and this coming week also. We have 5 people on date. We are always on the move and are already seeing so much success! 

So in the Republic of Ireland we need to get garda cards to basically live here and the garda card laws have changed recently and so you have 90 days from the time you get in the republic to get a new garda card. but since the laws are changing it has been hard for missionaries to even get a garda card. So we were out finding two days ago and we received a call saying that our zone leaders got deported.. and we were like what the heck? so apparently the law changed to where you dont have 90 days anymore but you have to have a garda card before you even move to the republic, which basically means all the missionaries in the republic with no garda cards are illegal immigrants. lol so lets hope that me and my comp dont get caught. So basically the mission is telling us to lay low right now and wait for further instruction. its insane dude. but please pray that the mission home figures everything out with the garda cards. they are working with lawyers right now and trying to figure everything out. We have all ireland (all ireland is where all the missionaries travel to the dublin and we have a conference with the mission president. it happens once a transfer) tomorrow so we should receive more information tomorrow. 

We taught this man named Ken a couple days ago and we went in to teach him the restoration, but then he started talking about how is dad had passed away and how he was close to him, so we felt the impression we needed to teach him the plan of salvation. in the middle of the lesson he just says, "the message you guys share is a very powerful one”. the spirit was just there and he was so prepared to recieve our message. It is amazing to see how the Lord will prepare the people you teach. 

We taught a guy named Steve and he just recieved the message we shared with him so well and it was amazing. he has accepted a baptism date so we are way pumped! it is so nice to be able to teach young people lol. 

Me and my companion get along very well, she is a rad chick. It has been so much serving here but i am afraid with what is going on with the garda cards that we might be moved out and moved somewhere else. so please pray for us! 

  

Peace out 

me and my comp and the cotton candy we got for lunch

me solo with cotton candy

pics of the river in limerick

our janky phone

the incense we lit because our strawberries got moldy and made our house smell like crap

me eating cookies...natural habitat lol

Week 21

This week was sooo stinkin long waiting for move calls lol. But we got our moves and i am left Portadown. I moved to the Republic of Ireland to a city called Limerick! i am pumped! it should be great!

it has been so dang hot here lately and i moved south so it is going to be even hotter. i am getting tan so that is cool.

we had two friends at church this week and it was the best! we had Valentina the chick we have been teaching since i first got to my mission. and then Adalin. they are both from Romania but they met each other at our church and now we want them to get married. 

It was very hard saying bye to everyone at church this sunday, a lot harder than i thought it would be, they have become like family. and saying bye to the people we were teaching was hard. 

my email is pretty lame this week. sorry. we had to start traveling at 7 this morning and we just got to limerick at around 5 today so i am so tired. 

adam

Eamon Donnelly we went to his house every friday for dinner

our friend liliana that we are teaching finally had her baby

our friend Aladin that came to church this sunday!

tadeu we go to his home every pday

Our friend lilian that we teach english to that came to church on sunday!

me and sister khoo. she uses an umbrella when is it sunny outside because she doesnt want to get tan

sister marques

pday

Filomena wrapped my hair 

Service project

the keerys in our ward

Week 20

This week flew by! but get this! We had a service project on wednesday morning and we got back to our flat and realized that we left our key inside our flat and we were like oh no! one of our windows was open but it is only like a foot tall so the only option was for me to climb through the dang window! So that is what i did but it was very high off the ground and it took a lot of effort. i finally got through the window but it hurt sooo bad and it ripped my shirt and now i have these gnarly bruises all over my legs hahahah. 

My companion is a convert so she doesn't know any primary songs so when we are chapping i teach her primary songs. yesterday i taught her popcorn popping. hahha it was so fun

The Nashville Tribute band came and played for the mission last week so that was cool.

Week 19

This week was a pretty normal week in Portadown. Me and Sister Khoo are always joking that the mission made a mistake of putting us as companions because we are both so young in the mission and are both scared of everything. So since we are so scared of everything we convinced ourselves that our flat is haunted and had the elders come dedicate it. hahaha

Sister Khoo is literally one of the biggest germaphobes ever and it kills me hahaha. She is always cleaning and like won't touch or sit on anything. She does laundry like almost every day and one time i dropped my shirt on the ground and then she was like, "sister you are gonna wash that now, right?" and i was like what the heck, no i am not gonna go wash it just cause it fell on the ground haha. i love her.

sister khoo calls me dory because i am so forgetful and because she says i am always so positive and that its very unusual for me to get sad or mad so when i do its like oh no she's broke! it made my day haha

We were chapping all day yesterday on Sunday and we were at this persons door and i was making sister khoo laugh so hard that she fell backwards and hit one of there flower pots and it tipped over and broke and we were both like crap! oops!

So something that has been very hard for me out here is that i am always trying to do everything perfectly and i get very stressed out if something i did wasn't perfect and i always beat myself up for it. But i was watching this video the other day and they were talking about how there is no perfect missionary and that God doesn't and isn't expecting us to be perfect in this life. that is something that really hit me hard. and then they said that when you start to beat yourself up that those thoughts would never come from God. soooo i have been trying to be okay with not having everything perfect. its so dang frustrating sometimes but i am trying haha. 

We went to pick up our friend Shiela to come to church with us because she promised she would go with us this Sunday and then she like just dropped us at the door step so that was sad. But she is amazing and she will get baptized eventually. she has such a sweet spirit to her. she is from Africa and raises her three kids while her paterner works in England, she is an amazing woman.

While we were chapping yesterday we had no idea where to go so we were basically just following the spirit and we ended up knocking on this chicks door who has a book of mormon already and has met with missionaries like a year ago. she wants us to come back to teach her and her family this week. it is so amazing to see how when we are in tune with the spirit where we can be led.

But thats about all i can think of. not much else to write. Peace out homies

This is me trying to make a phone call but it was so windy that my skirt kept flying up and it was so funny

This is my friend Evelynn from church

surprise picture

and then another picture when i knew she was taking the picture lol

on the ground here is someone's spilled m&ms and i was so devasted that it happened

Week 18

me with more food haha

waiting for interviews with president

waxing our lips lol

me eating ice cream

there was a viking event going on in portadown so naturally we went and i was telling everyone i was a viking hahha

Week 17

I dont know if any of you guys will remember but two months ago i was teaching this 18 year old boy named Patryk from Poland and then he took a trip to Poland and we never heard from him again. Well last week while me and my comp were waiting for our bus i looked down the street and i saw this boy running towards me and i realized it was Patryk and i was like dude where have you been?! and apparently he had broken his phone or something and had lost our number and has been looking for us ever since! He was so happy to see me and i was so happy to see him! so we meet with him a few days later to teach him a lesson and he said ever since he stopped meeting with us his life had completely gone downhill and during our lesson we invited him to be baptized and he accepted! we are so excited for him! So thats super cool!

It has been so warm this past week and everyone is outside and it makes me so happy. my face is getting sunburned and all my nose freckles are coming out.

Our old man friend Leslie that feeds the pigeons got one of those old man scooter things and he let me ride around on it so that was fun haha.

Sis Neilson

Some cool sunglasses

a giant fish in belfast

this picture might seem funny but because sister khoo is so short and im so tall she is alwasy asking me to reach things for her especially flowers in tree