Monday, September 16, 2013

Bananas and Baptisms (16/9 email)

Hi everyone!!! What a week it's been! Thanks for the emails, seriously they make my day! :)

Ok where to start! So this week one of Sister Martin's friends back home sent us some groceries online so that was exciting! I have no idea why but when they delivered them there was like four bunches of bananas! so we had like 40 or so bananas in our flat!!! We ate as many as we could but now they're getting brown so we are gonna bake a whole bunch of banana bread and give it to our investigators :P 

So I went to my first zone meeting on Tuesday. We caught the train to Crewe which is like an hour or so away. It was great meeting all the other missionaries. We were able to learn from each other and enjoy spending time together. Elder Palmer and Elder Walker are our Zone Leaders and they are great! Elder Walker is the best! He is so enthusiastic about the work and really motivates me :)

Ok so we've been seeing our dated investigators, Estella and Remek a lot... making sure that everything is going well with them. Estella's Baptism is this Saturday! I'm so excited! She is the coolest girl! Remek's baptism had to be pushed back to the 28th cos he wasn't ready. But he is doing well. We saw him yesterday and had a big chat about everything, and we are confident he will be ready by then.

So we have been teaching an African lady named Tanwa and her two children Remi and Bernice. Tanwa is amazing! she has such a strong desire to follow God and as soon as we teach her a commandment she commits to living it! It's the best! Tanwa and Remi are set to be baptised on the same day as Remek! So that makes four baptisms!!! I can't even describe how blessed I feel! I've been out two weeks and we have four baptisms set! I kinda feel like someone has made this amazing cake and I've come in and I'm eating it! lol.

So we have been working with a few less actives too. First there's Dawn who is 40 and she has had some issues and stopped coming to church for a while, but we have been visiting her and she's been coming back! She is such a great lady. She's funny and crazy and we have a great time with her. We went round for tea and she made these amazing cakes for us!

The other less active we've been working with is Gemma. She got baptised about seven years ago I think... we've been going round and reading the scriptures with her. We made some banana bread with her and I tried smores for the first time! So good :)

So I went tracting for the first time this week... I must say I didn't like it much, lol. Out of all the doors we knocked only one listened... she said she had her own beliefs but took a mormon.org card.

This week has been very busy... I don't have time to write everything we did... so you know what sucks!... Jeffrey R Holland and Russell M Nelson were here in Manchester to see the missionaries like two weeks before I got here! maaaaaaan!! When I found out I was devo! I love Jeffrey R Holland; he is the man! Anyways, Sister Martin gave me a printout of the talks they gave to the EMM and if I had been there I think I would have died! It was so powerful just reading it! Let me share what he said: 'DON'T YOU WASTE A SINGLE SOLITARY MINUTE OF YOUR MISSION! DON'T YOU DARE!' wow! wow wow! And you know what he is like when he gets fired up! After reading that It really hit me how important this work is and I need to step up my game!

So the members are great. We get tea dates all the time :P The elders don't lol shepherds pie and then some kind of crumble with custard is the norm. It's all good now but we definitely need to exercise every morning or I'll turn into a puddin!

Well I best be off now! the highlight of my week was the feeling I felt after teaching Tanwaa on Saturday night. I can't put into words the joy I felt. This is why I am here. I am here to help others feel this joy. I know that God and Jesus are real. I feel it every moment of every day as I am out here doing His work. I don't want to be anywhere else. I didn't feel that way at first. In fact there were many times that I was like... what am I doing here?? I miss home... I miss having 'me' time, lol, but seriously this is the best thing ever.

Everyone who has the chance... serve a mission! You will be so blessed.

Love you all.
Sister Riley xoxox

Photographs:
Best drinks ever!


Sharing the gospel to everyone we meet!


One of the cakes Dawn made for us!

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