Hiya! (16/10 email)

Hiya! You alright?
Time is going so quick! can you believe that next week I'll have been out 2 months! 

I just want to start off by saying how wonderful the 5 week training was! I loved every minute of it! Especially the part where we shared our success stories. I felt the spirit so strongly. At that moment I truly felt the Saviour's love for us as missionaries. I felt His power manifest in us as I listened to the miracles that were shared. I have no doubt that this is His work! As we are exactly obedient, the Lord has promised us that we will see miracles, and this is what we are seeing! How blessed I am to be a part of it!

This week we had the opportunity to teach our investigator Richard the first lesson. I now have a testimony of the importance of memorising the first vision. As we began to speak of Joseph Smith, I quoted the first vision (for the first time) and I can't put into words the amazing spirit that I felt as the words came out of my mouth. It was one of the most intense feelings I have felt. At that moment I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was speaking the truth. I know that Richard felt something too. We now need to help him recognise that spirit.

Let me share with you something that the spirit taught me this week. As I was in Zone Meeting, someone used the words "Full-time Missionary". Now this has never meant anything special to me before, but this time it really struck me that I need to be a FULL time missionary not a part-time missionary. I need to give up ALL of my time to the Lord. I know that as I am a full-time missionary that the Lord will bless me."

Church on Sunday was amazing! All the testimonies that were born were crazy spiritual. And for some reason everyone was all like "We love the missionaries! They are the best!" lol I felt very loved. I really love Telford ward. They show so much love to us. I'm not supposed to have favourites, but I really love Dawn Cleary, and the Benson Family. They would do anything for us :)

On Monday we visited the Barratt family. They are incredible! They were unable to have children of their own so they have adopted 4 kids. The love that I felt in their home was so strong. Nick (the father) is so funny. He calls Sister Martin and me Shania and Kylie (Shania Twain- Canadian, Kylie Minogue- Australian).

Monday Nights, there is this church in town centre that goes crazy ringing their bells, lol. It's so funny. Sister Martin and I just start dancing along to it :P

Well that's all I have time to write! Love you all so much! 
PS. emails are great but letters are better! :P

Telford Ward missionaries: Elder Schiona, Elder Greaves, Sister Martin, Sister Riley

I made a new friend! (looks like Tasha!)

Wellington town centre

I love General Conference! (7/10 email)

"Wow! What a week! I don't know where to begin to be honest. The week started off with an exchage with the sister leaders. I am so grateful for the experiences I had with Sister Leslie. She is an amazing missionary and I learnt so much from her. Coming into the exchange I had set some personal goals in areas I feel I need to develop and I was able to fufil them. We had two teaching appointments together and the spirit was very strong. Something that I wanted to improve on was my ability to recognise promptings of the spirit and then follow them. It wasn't until the end of the exchange when Sister Leslie and I were discussing how it went that I realised I have been following promptings when I teach already. Thoughts that come into my mind that I had not previously planned are from the spirit. Sister Leslie told me that the things I shared were inspired and what the investigators needed to hear. So that was a break-through moment for me, a confirmation that I have been teaching by the spirit.

I am just so excited after watching General Conference and for the wonderful messages I have heard and the beautiful spirit I have felt. We were so happy that our investigators Richard and Remek were able to attend with us. Richard said he thought it was very interesting and he has a lot of questions for our next lesson. I was so happy that there was a big focus on missionary work in the talks. It is a evidence to us all that these are the last days! That we all need to work together to bring about the work of salvation!

I have learnt a lot in my personal study this week about faith and obedience. Something that came to me in a moment of clarity was this: Faith leads to obedience and obedience strengthens faith. It is a contiuous cycle. I have set a goal to be exactly obedient and I know that as I am, that miracles will happen. What a joy it is to be a missionary! What a joy it is to help others come unto Christ.

In other news...I tried proper British fish and chips with mushy peas! It was Brill! I also had a Polish feast at Remek's! Also amazing. Yesterday I burnt my face while curling my hair :( It hurt so much and now I have an ugly mark on my face... I'm hiiiiiideous! lol Oh my goodness!

We had our first fellowshipper come out with us! Sister Lisney came with us to teach a lesson to Remek! Ahh she is the best! Seriously! Such a great example of Christlike love. She sewed my skirt for me cos I did such a rubbish job... aaaand she also sewed us these cute hankies with our names on them! Bless her cottons!

Conference was a-ma-zing! I cried my little eyes out! Jeffrey R Holland is the man! Also S Gifford Nielsen gave a brilliant talk! Heed his advice!!!! Ahhhhh! So good! General Conference is like Christmas Day for missionaries. I kid you not!

2 Tim. 4:7-8 love it!

Love you all! The church is true! Love Sister Riley xoxox

 

Exchange with Sister Leslie

My burn :(

Sister Martin... she will kill me if she finds out I sent this, lol!

It's been a long week! (1/10 email)

This week has been rough. Sister Martin has been sick as a dog all week, and by the middle of the week I caught it too. We're both still not 100% but we're pushing on. Even though we've been sick, we've still been blessed as we've carried on doing the work.

Let me share with you our miracle for this week:
We were walking to an appointment, and we were already running late, when we were stopped by a man. He says to us 'You guys do a lot of walking don't you? I see you everywhere!',
and that led to a 30 minute discussion with him. His name is Richard and he is golden! Seriously, I have no doubt that the Lord led him to us. We met with him during the week and had an informal lesson about the plan of salvation. He has so many good questions and is just great to talk to... I am so excited!!

Saturday was the day of Remek, Tanwa and Femi's baptisms, but unfortunately Remek got cold feet at the last minute :(  We were sad about that, but it was still a wonderful night and both Tanwa and Femi were baptised :) They were just glowing with happiness. I am so happy for them :)

We travelled to Manchester to have a special sisters meeting with all the sisters in the mission. It was really nice, and I was so happy to see my fellow Aussie Sister Burridge! :D I also met Sister King from Melbourne.

Last night we went to visit Dawn Cleary. I love her! She is like a mum to us out here. Seriously, she has the biggest heart :) So she pretty much told us her life story and wow! She has had a rough life! I had no idea! I'm not going into details but man she has been through hell and back. And because of it, she has such low self-esteem. She opened up to us and we were all crying. We really want to help her come unto Christ so her burdens can be made light. It will be a long process with someone as stubborn as her, but she is the best :)

Alas I am out of time but I want you all to know how grateful I am for your love and support. I got the tiniest bit homesick for the first time the other day... and every P day I feel weird after reading emails and find it a bit hard to get focused on the mission again... but I love hearing from you! P-days are the best!

Love you all, xoxo Sister Riley

My District on P-day
(minus the two Italian Elders who were taking the photos)

My fellow Aussie (Sister Burridge) and me at the Sisters meeting

Sister Martin and me with Bernice, Tanwa and Femi on their baptism day