Transfers! (12/1 email)

Well! we recieved transfer news this morning, and I was very surprised! I thought for sure I would stay in the YSA for my last transfer with Sister Gjikaj... however... I will be leaving and serving with Sister Sika (from Sydney) and we will be serving in St Helens, which is just outside Liverpool! Crazy! I will be sad to leave Sister Gjikaj and the YSA but I'm actually really excited for this transfer! I'm going to make it the best one!

So this week has flown by and I'm finding it hard to remember everything that happened! It's been super cold, but the good news is all the students are back in town so we have people to talk to again :P

We had the most amazing experience. We went out finding on Oxford road as usual and literally the 2nd person we stopped was so prepared!! His name is Pedro and he is from Portugal. He actually used to go to our church in Portugal for activities but hasn't been taught the lessons. So we gave him a tour of the building and as usual we finish in the baptismal room. We sat down and taught him the restoration. Normally the people we teach are in a rush and we only get to share a quick message, but Pedro had plenty of  time so we taught him the whole lesson. His eyes just lit up and he was hanging on every word. He told us that he had been feeling lost and was searching for answers to his questions. We gave him a Book of Mormon in English and Portugese and he was very grateful. We are seeing him again tomorrow and I am so sad that I won't be here to continue teaching him!

We are spending the day with the Pews so I'm excited. I just love being a missionary. It's hard but it's the best thing ever! I've never had so many challenges, but I've never been happier.

Love you all so much.

Me and my beautiful companion Sister Gjikaj

Every day is a new year (6/1/2015 email)

It's interesting what happens when a new year rolls in...even though the 1st of January is just another day, our thoughts are turned to self-improvement... setting goals and resolutions to make this new year better than the one before. While I'm all for that and am fan of setting goals at the start of the year myself, a YSA made a good point in his testimony yesterday. He said something along the lines of... "Every day is a new year because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ." The truth is we will probably (if we haven't already) fail at the goals we have set for this new year. But that doesn't mean we should give up and wait til next year to try again. Because of Jesus Christ, we can repent, we can pick ourselves up and start again tomorrow! How amazing is that!

I have felt the enabling power of the Atonement many times on my mission and I can testify to you how very real it is. Jesus Christ is our brother. He loves us more than anyone. He knows exactly what it feels like to fail, to be rejected, to be depressed, hopeless and utterly alone. Because he descended below all things He can lift us up. He can heal our broken hearts and fill us with love, peace, hope and happiness. Because I have felt this power for myself, it is my greatest desire to help others feel it. Too many of us are suffering more than we need to. Too many of us are burdened with a heavy load, carrying it all by ourselves. Jesus Christ suffered so we don't have to. He is waiting for us to ask Him to help us carry the load. Repentance is such a wonderful gift from God. We don't have to wait for a new year to have a "fresh start". We can repent today and start over and it is only when we repent that we have access to the power of the atonement.

My cold has pretty much gone, and we finally have appointments set for this week now that everyone is coming back to Manchester so things are looking up! Oxford road was so dead this past week! but we were still out there talking to everyone and we still found some great people to teach :) 

On Saturday we went tracting just to mix things up a bit! Oh tracting! I have to admit its not my favourite but it was fun to do it again! So the first door we knock is a muslim lady who says she is not interested, we ask her if she knows anyone else who might be interested and she tells us that the man who lives next door is christian and might be interested, so we knock his door... and then he knocks back...(thats a first!) so we knock again and he shouts at us asking who we are, we tell him we're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints and he opens the door. He doesn't look happy. I think we were there for about 15 minutes and we hardly got a word in. He just lectured us about how we are deceived and how Joseph Smith was not a prophet, that the Book of Mormon is not scripture and many other things that weren't very nice. One of the few things I got to say was when he told us the Book of Mormon wasn't true, I asked him if he'd read it... He told us that he didn't need to read it to know its not true. That he had read about it and heard from people who have left our church that it isn't true... this is something that really bothers me... why is it when people look into our church they don't go to the true source? If it was anything else, like research for an assignment, you would go straight to the source to find things out... you wouldn't just take what someone tells you and believe that. There's a quote that I think is so fitting: "Studying the church through the eyes of its defectors, is like interviewing Judas to understand Jesus."

The only way to know if the Book of Mormon is true is to read it for yourself and then pray and ask God if it's true. It really doesn't matter what anyone else says! If you get an answer from God, then that's the truth! I know that God answers prayers. Sometimes it takes a while to recognise the answers but if you really want to know something, He will let you know, I can promise you that!

Well, that's all for now! Hope you all have a great week and share what you know to be true with those around you! :)

xoxo Sister Riley

Sister Gjikaj and me

Holding Josh Groban

Me playing guitar

Happy New Year! (29/1 email)

Hope you all had a great Christmas!

Unfortunately I have been sick with a cold all week, but I still enjoyed it :) We spent our Christmas day at the Pew's place. We Skyped our families, ate too much and watched movies. It was nice to have a break. Oh and guess what!? I saw snow for the first time! It snowed on boxing day... it didn't stay on the ground but I was so happy to see it!... I'll send a pic!

I don't have much to write about this week... being sick in the flat pretty much the whole week... so I've had a lot of time to study and ponder. I've been thinking a lot about goals with the new year approaching, and I wanted to share some of my thoughts with you.

Something that is taking me forever to learn, which is so important is that happiness in life is based on our attitude. We can be happy no matter what life throws at us. If we can learn to be grateful in our circumstances rather than for our circumstances (see Uchtdorf talk) that is really the key to happiness in my opinion. Happiness is a choice, and everyday when we wake up, we choose whether or not it will be a good day. My mission has definitely helped me to see that. We can't choose exactly what will happen to us that day, but we can choose to be happy... to laugh instead of cry when things go wrong.

The other thing I've been thinking about is how easy it is to procrastinate, or to think along the lines of "when this day comes, then I will do this, or then I will be the person I've always wanted to be..." It just doesn't work like that. We need to act today! If we don't start being the kind of person we want to be now, that day will come and we won't magically be transformed... it's a process. It makes me think of another quote by President Uchtdorf that I really liked: "You don't need an invitation before you start moving in the direction of your righteous goals. You don't need to wait for permission to become the person you were designed to be!"

I just want you to think about these things as you set goals or resolutions for this new year... don't let it be just a list you make and never look at again... start now to make changes and you will become the person you were designed to be! But remember we can't do it on our own. God created us, He knows everything about us... He knows our dreams and He can help us reach them if we let Him :) I am so grateful for this time I've had to ponder these things and really think about what I want to do and who I want to become this new year. I wish you all the very best! 

All my love. Sister Riley

My first snow experience :D

Merry Christmas everyone! (23/12 email)

What a week! We went to the Temple on Tuesday, Rebecca's baptism on Thursday and yesterday we had our mission Christmas celebration :) Lots to smile about... aaaand we found an amazing new investigator to top it all off! Her name is Maria and she is from Portugal. We found her near the university on monday night and showed her around the YSA building... she liked it and we shared the Book of Mormon with her and prayed together. She is very curious to learn more about our church and we are seeing her again tonight :)

The Temple was amazing (of course!) Oh how I love it there, I didn't want to leave. I feel so close to our Father in Heaven, and my prayers seemed to reach him straight away, He answered my questions and left me feeling peaceful and so, so grateful. I feel like I have a habit of focusing on the things I don't have, but I was reminded of the many, many things He has blessed me with. I encourage all of you to remember all the gifts God has given you, especially at this Christmas time. As our hearts are filled with gratitude, somehow our problems and worries seem to fade and we can see how lucky we are, how God is so mindful of us, and of course he will continue to bless us and help us in times of need.

Thursday night was the baptism of our investigator Rebecca and the Elders' investigator Joe, both from China. They are so amazing! I continue to be amazed by how quickly the Chinese soak up the Gospel and they were both just beaming after their baptisms. What a privilege to be a part of this experience! What a wonderful night it was!

Yesterday we had our Christmas celebrations with half of the mission... the other half are celebrating it today. We had so much fun! We performed skits and sang songs, ate good food and then were spiritually fed by the wise words of President Ulrich. He promised us this Christmas will be the best of our lives as we are focused on Christ.

I know the same promise applies to all of you. Take time this Christmas to study about our Saviour, and you will be filled with gratitude and love. He is the reason for the Season :)
I hope you all have the best Christmas ever!

xoxo Sister Riley

Rebecca's baptism

Me with Sister Madsen

Me with Sister Gjikaj

Christmas in the YSA (15/12 email)

Hi!

It's crazy how quick the days are going, I can hardly remember what we did this week! Our investigator Rebecca has progressed so quickly the past few weeks, and she is getting baptised this week! She actually lives in the same accomodation as Ted our recent convert, so has been a really good example to her.

Our investigator Cloud (Chinese students sometimes have the funniest names!) came to church! We will be setting a baptismal date with him soon. And we finally got to see Chris again! He was really not doing well, and we weren't sure what was wrong or how to help him... we asked if he wanted a blessing and he said yes so the Elders came and gave him one. The Spirit was so so strong in the room and I just couldn't stop crying! My heart just broke for him. He needed help beyond what we could do for him, and he is actually in hospital now getting the help he needs, so that makes me feel so much better.

Sometimes i just get this overwhelming feeling about the people I teach, that we were always meant to meet and that there are things that I specifically need to help them with. I know that God has a perfect plan... He knows the needs of his children so he sends people to help them, and I've seen how God has used me to help others and it is an amazing feeling.

Both Katarina and Ted go out teaching with us and it's so great because I can see how much their testimonies have grown and oh its just the best!

Sister Gjikaj is so wonderful, I love being her companion! She is also an amazing cook and makes the best Albanian food haha!

I can't wait for tomorrow cos we are going to the Temple! Then Rebecca gets baptised on Thursday and next week is Christmas! Even though it's cold and wet, I have so much to be grateful for and I love being here... I hope you all are doing well and hope to hear from you soon!

xoxo Sister Riley

Manchester Christmas markets

We had a munch 'n' mingle after Church, complete with Christmas crackers!

Our growing family (8/12 email)

Hi everyone!

We had transfers this week, and as you know I'm training again... my new companion is Sister Gjikaj from Albania. She is amazing, and I am so excited for this transfer :)

Last P-day the Pews (senior missionary couple) took us out to an American restaurant as a farewell to the missionaries that were leaving. It was fun... I had my first proper American hotdog and it was real good!

Wednesday was transfer meeting, and we took a family tree photo... our last one with Sister Martin cos she's going home! :(

Sister Gjikaj and I have been seeing miracles already, and we have met some amazing people on the streets of Manchester. She has a powerful testimony and I know it will truly bless the lives of the people here.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to train right now... it is really helping me to be focused and to work hard. I know that there are many more miracles on the way, especially with it being the Christmas season. I encourage you all to share the "He is the gift" video with everyone! [ http://www.mormon.org.au/christmas ] It is not very long, but its powerful and I'm sure that those people who are prepared will watch it and will feel something stir within them and want to learn more about Christ. He truly is the most precious gift and we need to share it!

I just wanted to end with a quote I read this week that I thought was powerful:
"We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day." - Elder Scott.

It's never too late to be the person you've always wanted to be; we can start today by making small changes and I know that if we involve God, he can help us reach our potential.

I love you all!
xoxo Sister Riley

Family tree! Sister Martin, me, Sister Gjikaj, Sister Madsen and Sister Black

Tis the season (2/12 email)

Last P-day we went to the Christmas Markets in Piccadilly, and it was magical! Now I have the Christmas spirit haha! I also bought a cute christmas sweater and we put up a tiny little tree in our flat :D

Katarina got baptised this week! So happy for her! It was a great day, the elders also had a baptism, and after we had a thanksgiving dinner... ate way too much!

We got our transfer calls this week and I will be staying in Manchester and training a new missionary; Sister Chu is also training and moving to Lancaster. It will be sad to see her go, and I was kinda hoping for one last area but I'll most likely be here til the end. I'm excited to train again and can't wait to meet my new companion :)

So we taught Chris again this week, and the Spirit in that lesson was so strong! Probably one of the most powerful lessons I've ever taught. I felt the Spirit prompting me exactly what to say, and I was so bold with him, and I'm not normally very bold. I extended the invitation to be baptised, and we sat in silence for like a minute... it was intense! I thought for sure he was going to say yes... but at the moment he's a bit confused and conflicted. He committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray, but I am not sure what to do next... something's not clicking and it's frustrating cos now I feel like I've done everything I can do... there's only so much we can do, the rest is up to him and I just hope that he can do his part because I know that this gospel is the answer... what ever the question or problem, this Gospel has the answers, the peace and the purest form of happiness you will ever find.

There's so much going on in my mind right now but at the same time I'm not sure what else to write. Just want you all to know that I love you and miss you and hope you are all doing great! I love being a missionary, I am so grateful heavenly father guided me here :)

xoxo Sister Riley

The streets in Manchester are getting Christmassy!

Katarina and Andy's baptism

Our tree!