Serving the Lord in England : Holy Moly 3 Months!

I can't believe another week has come and gone! I have been a missionary for 3 months now!!! Holy Cow, it is flying by! This week was a good one, but it was hard to because I have to start mentally preparing myself to send another companion home...that isn't fun to do if you were wondering...

So Monday flew by, as usual. We went shopping after emailing. I love/hate Brighton because there is such good shopping here. I seriously wanted to buy everything! But I didn't, I just bought some skinny jeans, because I am sick of wearing flair jeans, a nice big warm scarf, and a skirt. We just kind of walked around as a district and had a good time, it was fun.

Tuesday was just an average day. We taught an investigator that day. I don't know if I told you, but she agreed to get baptized! She is so excited and was supposed to get baptized this Saturday, but she isn't coming to church so we had to move it to the end of February which was sad cause I really wanted Sister Stuart to be there...but you have to do what you have to do...Then that night we had correlation, nothing too exciting happened there...and Doc n Choc, the class we do Tuesday nights. Sister Stuart and I had to teach it and we did the "Do you want a donut" analogy where someone does push ups for every donut no matter if you eat it or not, we made Elder Green do the push ups and I think he was dying a little bit. You then relate it back to the atonement and how Christ has already suffered for us so we need to "take the donut", or use the gift he has given us. It was a really good lesson and really spiritual. That night all of us Brighton missionaries were standing at the bus stop waiting for a bus for like 15 minutes, and a bunch of transvestites were walking by winking at the elders and all this stuff...yup that is Brighton for you...see that on a daily basis...

I read a really good talk Tuesday for study called 'Cast not away therefore your confidence" by Elder Holland, READ IT! It is such a good talk and I learned so much from it! He is a powerful speaker.

Wednesday started with district meeting. The Zone Leaders were there this week so I was scared that they were going to rebuke us about not working hard enough or something, but they didn't, it was actually a really spiritual district meeting. Elder Green (The DL) got up and just talked about how proud he is of our district, that was a good reminder that we are doing a good job. It was nice. I then went on exchanges with Sister Sargysen who is serving over in Eastbourne. I learned a lot from her and it was a really good exchange. She is really good at contacting people and talking to people on the bus, so I really enjoyed being able to see her work and I am trying to apply the things I learned from her into my skills now. That night was one of our converts birthdays, so we ran to the store and bought a cake and had a little party at the chapel for him. It was fun and a nice night with him because we weren't sure when or if we would see him again because of his visa expiring.

Thursday was a rough day. We exchanged back that afternoon and then had lunch at the chapel with the Elders. We are starting to just eat all our meals together, we are like one big happy family, it is great. We were then supposed to go out to Newhaven to visit some recent converts , but the bus schedule was weird so it didn't work out. Instead of seeing them we went up to the hospital to visit one of Sister Stuarts grandpas who had a heart attack and is in the hospital here. There is a huge difference from the hospitals here and the ones in America...it was cool to see them...Then we had to go out to Newhaven for a dinner appointment, so we sat at a bus stop for probably 45 minutes waiting for our bus...it was snowing and freezing cold...it was miserable...and the bus never came. We finally walked to another one to look at the time tables for when the bus comes, only to find out the bus we take out there only comes once that hour. We were so mad, and already so late. So we got on a different bus that would at least get us to Newhaven, then we had to walk forever up huge hills in the snow and cold to get there. Sister Stuart and I were both screaming and laughing and so mad at everything. It was bad.

My life=laying on bus stop benches trying to keep warm...this was on Thursday when we had to wait forever for our bus...

Friday was Lewis's birthday so the English Elders and us went out to lunch with him. We went to this little chinese restaurant, which was actually pretty good. I tried some crispy duck for the first time there...I am just trying so many new types of meat! haha. The duck was pretty good, it just tasted like normal meat, but it was really dry. I guess it is a really posh food though...That night we had weekly planning and at the end I decided we were going to make a bucket list for everything Sister Stuart wants to do this last week on her mission, we have some fun plans for this week :) But it hit me that she is actually leaving really soon and that I have to get to know another companion. We both just sat there and cried for a while. I am going to miss her so much. I feel like our relationship is so good now and we are best friends, only to have her leave. Pretty sad. But at least I know that I will see her when I get home :)

Saturday morning we spent a good hour calling former investigators from the area book seeing if there was any potential...and we didn't see any success from it yet, but we aren't going to give up. We had mac n cheese for lunch too that Grandma Smith gave me for christmas. It tasted so good.

The sisters in Eastbourn (the other sisters in our district) had 2 baptisms that day at our chapel because they don't have a baptism font, so we went to that. President and Sister Millar were there for the baptisms. President talked to me about sending Sister Stuart home and I joked with him to just keep sending me the dying missionaries because I am getting really good at sending them home, and he said he won't do that cause he doesn't want me learning how to be trunky (the term they use for ready to go home), in my head I just laughed cause I have learned how to be trunky haha...he said he will give me someone good next transfer though...I thought he was going to tell me what was going to happen, cause he paused before he said that, but he didn't tell me. I will probably find out Friday who my next comp is. Next transfer will definitely be weird, half of my district goes home this transfer, so it will be a big change.

One of the people that got baptized from Eastbourn this week. Sister Stuart is actually the one who first contacted him a year ago when she was in Brighton. Pretty cool!

Saturday afternoon we washed a ward members car. He just passed his driving test and his car was all moldy, so us missionaries did some service and washed it. It was nasty. Mold everywhere on the inside, I didn't think it was possible for mold to be on the inside of the car, but in England it is. That was fun though, it is always nice to get out and help some people.

Yesterday was such a good day. I may have told you, one of our recent converts wasn't sure if he was going to have to go back to Nigeria last week or not. So I was just waiting for him to walk into church so I could know if he was staying because I hadn't heard from him for a few weeks. When I saw him walk in I was so happy, and he had a full suit on, which he has never worn before, I was beaming with joy. Then bishop is conducting and asks him to stand to propose he gets the priesthood! He didn't tell us he decided to get the priesthood, so I was almost crying I was so happy! Then he gets up and bears his testimony about everything he has been going through with his visa and how much God has helped him lately. Long story short, he is staying in England and is the most amazing convert ever. I was so happy!!!!

Some ward members that fed us

Well there is my week. I seriously can't believe this is my last week with Sister Stuart. She is freaking out about going home, so I have to just let her freak out sometimes haha. I can't believe that I am done training too...it is crazy! I don't know everything...but I know that I'm not supposed to know everything. The Lord will help me no matter what next transfer throws at me. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to have 2 moms out here, because I now know how to work with different types of companions and I really think this has just set the stage for the rest of my mission.

Man, being a missionary is great. This life is like a dream and one day I am going to wake up and be home and not know what just happened to the last 18 months of my life. It is so weird, I can't even describe it. But it is great. Focusing on other people so much and not myself has been the biggest blessing in my life. I was a selfish little brat before I left, I am so sorry about that...hopefully I am changing out here...missions are the best :)

Talk to you guys next week!! Love you so much, thanks for all the prayers!

Love,

Sister Robison :)