Adventures of a Missionary: Eastbourne

2 July 2012
Eastbourne is lovely. I love being here so much. I've heard missions go by like a dream. It's true. Even as I'm living it, it feels like a dream. But the dream has gotten so much better since coming to Eastbourne. Everyday I discover something new to love. When I first found out that Sister Sebald was staying and that I was leaving Hastings, I felt terrified. I was getting comfortable with the people and places in Hastings and the idea of leaving felt so scary. Then I felt sad. I didn't want to leave these people. But I remembered that as I had been anticipating moves calls, my only prayer had been that I'd be able to accept the Lord's will no matter what that was. As I started packing I kept thinking, "I'll go where you want me to go" and soon I was feeling excited. It felt good to pack everything up and the idea of a fresh new start was appealing. And I knew that whatever was about to happen was God's will.
So now let me tell you a few reasons why Eastbourne is so wonderful.
We live with a lovely elderly member, Sister Joyce Walker. She is wonderful. She often makes us dinner when we don't have a dinner appointment and there are always fresh strawberries from her garden which are the BEST strawberries I have ever tasted. We live in an adorable little two story house with a wonderful spirit always there. And guess what else? She has a piano!!!!! Can life really get better than Eastbourne?! I have my doubts. We play the piano for companionship study and we've spent some time playing and singing with Sister Walker which I know she really enjoys. Last night I played some duets with her that she hasn't played for a long time. It was so fun and I loved seeing how happy it made her. I just can't believe how much Heavenly Father is blessing me this transfer.
For exercise in the mornings we play tennis or go to this outdoor gym near our home. The outdoor gym is really cool and it's next to a playground with swings. It's so nice to get out of the house shortly after waking up and do something fun and enjoy the beautiful morning instead of just doing something in the flat. It helps me wake up and get excited for the day.
The other night I had a dream that we were running around an airport in a hurry to get somewhere and I ran into Haley G! It was marvelous. I don't remember where she was going though. Somewhere cool, like Africa maybe. Then we couldn't find someone to give us a lift (that's British for ride) so President Monson was going to drive us to wherever we needed to go. It was exciting.

13 August 2012
Guess what I did last night!!! You'll all be so jealous :) I watched fireworks!!!!! We were getting ready for bed when we heard the booming so we turned off the lights and watched a wonderful fireworks show celebrating the end of Airbourne and the Olympics. It was marvelous. And I thought of you all watching the Alpine Day's fireworks this weekend....and then I remembered and thought of you NOT watching the Alpine Day's fireworks this weekend and added that to my list of reasons why God sent me to Eastbourne at this time. He knew this was the weekend I needed to watch fireworks. Tender mercies :)
If you want to imagine my life in England, you can picture lots and lots of knocking. The doors here aren't usually as interesting as the ones in Hastings. But the people behind the doors-and on the streets-aren't usually as crazy as the people in Hasting were. Which is really nice. We meet all sorts of people.
Funny story! I think this was last week. This lady answered the door and after a few snarky comments said, referring to the guy on the couch behind her, "He's an atheist....and I'm Mormon. So we're not interested." Then she shut the door before we could respond. haha! I laughed out loud and Sister Naseem told me not to. Then she said, "It sounded like she said, 'I'm Mormon.'" When I told her that's indeed what she said, she laughed out loud too. We probably should have knocked again and called her out on it. I wish she'd given us more time to respond.

10 September 2012
Sometimes we talk to lovely people who don't want to hear about our message, but we connect in our mutual faith in and love for Jesus Christ. I've had some great experiences with people who will never turn into investigators, but who have brightened our day and our hope as they share with us what Christ means to them. We met one lady from New Zealand on the street and talked for a long time. She told us about her missionary experiences in Zimbabwe or somewhere. She was so lovely and wanted to see us again the next day, but we were busy. It was amazing for me to see how much we all loved each other after talking for maybe half an hour. We may never see her again, but we'll always remember that experience and I'm sure she will too and we'll all remember that love we felt for each other. That is the love of Christ! It's amazing. She actually called us about a week later and we missed her call but she left us a wonderful message and hopefully she will call again.
This kind of experience is interesting compared to an experience we had yesterday with a lady when we were knocking who seemed nice enough but there was no light in her eyes. She expressed a deep belief in God and Jesus Christ, but it wasn't  like that sincere faith of the lady from New Zealand. She wouldn't let us tell her the truth about Mormons because she was certain some BBC documentary she watched had told her all she needed to know (something about mass weddings and our leader being a billionaire and other crazy stuff). She new BBC wouldn't lie and that we were obviously brain-washed, but it's okay because we feel we're doing the right thing so at least it's making us happy. That was not the pure love of Christ coming out. I hope we never give people the impression that we think their beliefs are stupid or that they are ignorant for what they believe. I hope they can see and feel that love of Christ and recognize that we want to add to their faith and not take away from it in any way.

17 September 2012
I don't have very much time today because 1) it's transfers this week so we only have an hour for emailing today and 2) this funny old man next to me has been having some difficulty figuring out printing/emailing so I've been helping him a bit. He's publishing a book and said he'll have to put my name down at the bottom for helping him. But he forgot to get my name....

I'll try to write as fast as my little fingers can go!

You asked about the lady from New Zealand. We actually saw her again last Monday night in town! It was so great to see her again. We don't have time to see her because she talks a LOT and she isn't investigator material--she's an extremely strong Seventh Day Adventist. But she is lovely. We asked if there was anything we could do for her and she said just pray for her--pray that she'll win the lottery :) Then she said if she wins the lottery that she'll fly us both out to New Zealand for a visit! So pray that she'll win the lottery :)

That other lady I was telling you about--the one without the light in her eyes--we found out that she was just completely confused with her facts. I asked some members if they had ever heard of the crazy stuff she was telling us about, because it was things I'd never heard of and it's easier to clear confusions when you at least understand where they are coming from. Come to find out, she was confusing us for the Moonies which are completely different, but I know this isn't the first time people have confused Mormons and moonies. So if we ever see her again we'll be sure to clear that up.

One funny story from this week is from last night. We went to a fireside at the Visitors' Centre with some investigators, less actives, and members. President and Sister Millar were the speakers and it was fantastic. Before it started I was talking to some missionaries when I turned around to find President walking past. He stopped and said "You look a lot taller in your picture!" Haha! Then he told Sister Naseem that she looks shorter in her picture. So he was picturing our companionship with her short and me tall when in actuality we're both short--and of course I'm shorter. It was really funny. The Millars are wonderful. I'm grateful to be serving with them. And it was so nice to visit the temple grounds! I feel so blessed to be so near the temple and for each opportunity I have to visit.

Adventures of a Missionary: Hastings

30 April 2012

On Friday I rode on the top level of a double-decker bus! It was so much fun. I felt like I was on a roller coaster. It was sooo bumpy and crazy. And the view was phenomenal! We could see out above the houses and there was a clear view in front and I just felt on top of the world. I am a fan of double-deckers.

I broke a woman's doorbell yesterday. We rang and as we waited we were talking about how obnoxious her doorbell was. It just kept going and sounded terrible. After a while, this grumpy lady in a bathrobe opened the door, didn't want to hear what we had to say and demanded, "What did you do to my doorbell?" I felt so bad. She probably thought we were out there just pushing it over and over again or something. And we just thought she had an annoying doorbell. It was unfortunate, but kind of funny at the same time--I don't think she saw the humor, though.

One thing I am learning is to rely more fully on my Heavenly Father for everything. That's one of those lessons I've been pushed into as He's torn me away from everything familiar and everyone I love. When I say something negative, there's no Haley around to remind me that life's great and that there's no reason to be down. When I'm lonely, there's no Mallory to give me big hugs and paint my nails and tell me she hates me and loves me in the same sentence. When I'm bored, there's no Bryan to sing with me and go on adventures with me. When my heart hurts, there's no Sarah to talk to and to figure things out with. When I'm discouraged, there's no Katie to cheer me up and make me happy. And this list could go on and on. I've always turned to God when I'm going through something hard, but I've also realized how much I relied on friends and people to help me stay happy. Adjusting to the difficulties of missionary work without one of my best friends here to help me along and encourage me has been hard. I've had to rely on my own strength which is only enough when I rely on the strength of the Lord. I've thought about that footsteps in the sand poem recently, because I feel like there have been many moments in the past month where I've felt alone, where I've felt that even God has left me and that I'm struggling through this on my own. But looking back, I can see that, even in those darkest moments, I wasn't alone. He's been carrying me the whole time. And as I keep trying and keep enduring and just doing what I can, He will lift me higher and make much more of me than I could ever make of myself. He is molding me into the missionary He wants me to be. And He is molding me into the person He knows I can be.

10 May 2012
Yesterday we went finding and it was so fun. People seemed oddly friendly and nice. No one wanted to talk to us long, but they were all very nice about it. It was even raining outside and people were still being nice! It was so beautiful. We knocked this road that had a little section called Lover's Lane (original?) and it was so picturesque. There were tall walls on either side that enclosed lovely gardens (probably enchanted) and it was so rainy and foggy and green and gorgeous and I just felt like I was in England--oh, wait. I am! If I weren't a missionary, I'd describe the world yesterday as absolutely romantic! In an Anne of Green Gables kind of a way. Then we knocked a series of houses with long sidewalks leading from their gates to the doors and each garden had a different array of beautiful flowers. Everything just felt magical. It starting raining really hard and we got soaked and came home looking like mops. But that's missionary work. That's how important this message is. Rain or shine or wind or mud these people need to know! Because the gospel is true and it changes lives. I just wish everyone could understand that!
One thing I'm learning over and over again is that the Lord is always carrying us. When we choose to do things His way, it doesn't mean that it will be easy, but it means that we will be able to succeed and accomplish whatever he requires of us. We aren't meant to see the end from the beginning. We are here to live on faith. And when we exercise faith, God will give us glimpses of the end--just enough to encourage us, comfort us, and keep us moving forward. I'm so grateful for the gospel. I'm grateful for my Savior. I'm grateful that God loves me so much and knows me so perfectly that He allows me to be cut down so that I can become so much more. I love the talk from a couple conferences ago where he told about being the gardener who cut down his currant bush so that the currant bush could then bloom more fully and then compared that to how sometimes God, as our gardener, cuts us down but He knows why and He knows what's best for us and He sees our full potential and He loves us so much that He wants us to get there and if we allow Him to mold us and cut us and lift us, He will make so much more out of our lives than we could ever make on our own. See The Will of God

11 June 2012
One funny story of the week. So there are lots of crazy people in Hastings. It sure keeps life interesting. Recently we've been working on expectation as a district--to expect people to keep commitments, to expect people to be at home, to expect to find new investigators, etc--and it's been amazing how it works. I promise these two thoughts will come together. A couple days ago, we experienced a few crazy people. After talking to another man on the street who looked normal and turned out to be weird, I said to Sister Sebald, "I'm going to stop expecting to meet crazy people. I expect that we won't see any more crazy people today. Only people that want to hear about the gospel!" At that moment, a car drove past and this little girl looked out the window and made a crazy face at us. It was so funny! So much for those expectations! I guess I should just accept that there are crazy people in Hastings and that they aren't going away any time soon.