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

First of many baptisms! (23/9 email)

Hiya!

AHHHHHH this week was the best!!!

Estella was baptised on the 21st and I can't put into words how good it felt. Pure Joy :)

And we get to experience it all over again this Saturday when Remek, Tanwa and Femi get baptised on the 28th! Awww yeaaaah!

So this week I went on my first exchange! I went to Stafford. My companion was Sister Hansen from St George, Utah. We are very similar and got along well. We had a wonderful opportunity to speak to a class of college students about our beliefs. We had a Q&A style discussion about our religion. It went for about an hour and it was so good! I must say I was super nervous talking to a group of about twelve 16-17 yr olds but they were great and asked lots of good questions. We gave them all mormon.org cards at the end of it :)

So, Tuesday we travelled to Manchester to have a multi zone skills workshop! It was amazing! I learnt so much! Our mission's goal is 350 baptisms for this year... we are only halfway but President Preston recommitted us to achieve this goal and if we each have a goal of one baptism per companionship per month we will achieve it! And we've got four this month already :P so pumped!

We got to go out to dinner with some members. We went to a carvery. Oh my goodness! Soooo good! Yorkshire puddings! Get on that!

We've been chatting to this man who owns a hotdog stand. Phil, he is such a nice guy. We tried a breakfast sandwich or manwich as he likes to call it... to.die.for! I see a lot of potential in Phil... hopefully he will want to hear the lessons from us :)

I don't have much time... but this week was amazing. Miracles happen. Love you all so much.

xoxox Sister Riley

Estella's baptism!

Exchange with Sister Hansen

With Remek at the baptism

These are for mum... she wanted photos of the flat... enjoy :P

 

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!

HIYA! (9/9 email)

Hi everyone! Life as a missionary is the best! I can't put into words how wonderful it really is. I got your second card mum, thanks :) From now on please send mail to my flat: 

12 Bickerstaff Court
Wellington, Telford Shrops, TF12HL
England
United Kingdom

Cheers! lol everyone says that here. So since my last email a lot has happened! I think I told you that we have two baptisms lined up.. .Estella and Remek. Estella is a girl round about my age, her mum is a recent convert. Estella has already been taught all the lessons by the Elders about a year ago but for some reason never got baptised. So we are re-teaching her and the baptism is set for the 21st. She is such a great girl. She has some great questions... she has some doubts within herself but I know as she continues living the Gospel the Lord will bless her and she will be ready :)

Remek... he's Polish and barely speaks a word of English lol, but he is a funny man! I got to meet him on Saturday night. His baptism was scheduled for the 14th and the Elders came round to give him the baptismal interview... so turns out he's been drinking coffee again and his baptism has to be postponed. Sister Martin was a bit frustrated I think. We explained to him the importance of the Word of Wisdom and he has re-committed to live it. The Elders gave him a blessing to help him resist his addiction. I have faith in him that He will be able to get through and be ready in 2 weeks time.

We are also teaching an African lady called Tanwaa. She is amazing! She used to be Muslim but converted to Christianity  She has two young children and wants to follow God. She came to church on Sunday.  I sat with her kids and kept them entertained which meant unfortunately I didn't get anything out of sacrament meeting, lol. The people in my ward are very friendly, reminds me a bit of Paralowie Ward actually :P They got me to give the opening prayer, and afterwards everyone came up to me and asked me where I was from... no one could pick up my accent :(  They thought I was British.  I guess the Adelaideian accent isn't as strong as the other states...I think I sound pretty Aussie :/ 

Ok so let me tell you about the experience I had train contacting this week. We have to catch a lot of buses and trains everywhere because we live pretty far from everything. So one of our main finding methods is through bus and train contacting. I was so scared to do it for the first time! We got on the train and split up, purposely sitting next to someone. I talked to four people all up that day. The best conversation I had was with this man who was in uniform... at first I felt intimidated and I wasn't even going to talk to him! Finally I started talking and had a wonderful spiritual conversation with him (don't judge a book by its cover!!) He talked about his family and his beliefs, and I shared with him how the Gospel has helped me. I told him about prophets and how we have a living prophet on Earth today and he said that makes sense to him! I wish we could have spoken for longer, but I left a mormon.org card with him and he said he would check it out! Oh yeahhhh! I felt on top of the world!

My feet have been hurting cos the flats I brought with me suck... so today hopefully I can buy a new pair. My shoulders hurt from lugging my scriptures around with me and I am tired and hungry all the time... but you know what!... I am just so happy... The good experiences I've been having far outweigh all of those things and getting in to bed at the end of the day is the best thing in the world. Seriously when I think of bed I start smiling like someone who is in love haha!
So this morning in companionship study Sister Martin and I had a huge d&m and we just cried for like an hour lol it was a good experience for us and we're tight now.

We're going shopping after this and I'm keen to check out the sweet shop! Oh and they have these little cheesecake things that are soooo goooood! We have a tea date like everyday this week pretty much! They feed us well! Like big portions! But we've been going for runs so we don't get fat... I know what you're thinking.... Jade, running?! haha! Taking baby steps! Soon I'll be a professional runner!

Well I have to go! Thanks for your love and support! Til next time!

xoxox Sister Riley

So happy to be a missionary (5/9 email)

Hey everyone! Well I know you're all super anxious to find out where my first area is and who my trainer is! :P I am in a village called Wellington in the area of Telford! It is beautiful here! Very green and little cottages and ahhh! so sweet! My companion is Sister Martin from Canada, eh! II am so happy that the mission president has let us email today! We just came back from grocery shopping... still getting used to the currency :P 

Last day in the MTC was bittersweet... I was so excited to get out of that building lol but so sad to leave my new friends :( We had to get up at 5 am :( :(  then on a bus to Manchester. We were greeted by President Preston and his wife and we all spent time together learning and doing activities til about 2 pm when we had the transfer meeting!!! I was blown away by how many missionaries were there... about 100, and my companion tells me that was less than half of them! They got us new missionaries to sit up the front and they called out our names one by one and assigned us to our companions... I was the first sister called out! I was so nervous! But as soon as sister Martin came up to hug me I felt relieved and happy.

From Manchester we caught a bus and then a 2 hr train ride to Telford. We spoke to some people and gave out mormon.org cards. It was easier than I thought. Everyone here keeps telling me this is the best mission in the world :P and it is an exact obedience mission so no rule breaking! It is very strict... they don't want us to use casual language at all so it's going to be hard for me! e.g. calling people 'guys' and saying 'cool'. At first I was like this is a bit extreme but president Preston explained to us about living the 'higher law' and the blessings that come from exact obedience. So I am going to try my hardest to live up to the standards set. 

Ok so I have seen some weird things today! When we went out for a morning walk we saw a lady walking her.....cat! lol and then later on we saw two girls, which sister Martin told me were 'chavs', I think that's like bogans... and they were wearing their dressing gowns in the middle of town and one of them had a dummy in her mouth! like a baby! what the? I love hearing people talk. I hope I pick up the accent :P The weather has been really nice so far. Warm and sunny. Sister Martin says that will soon change :P Oh and I am so lucky! We have the best flat in the whole mission! Seriously it is so nice! We have a double bed each; it's very modern... the only thing that isn't the best is the shower... its a bit rubbish :P 

Tonight we have two teaching appointments! We are teaching the 2nd discussion to Estella an investigator who has a baptismal date! and then we are teaching a less active member! Oh another reason I am so lucky is sister Martin has 2 baptisms lined up! So I am stoked! one on the 14th and one on the 21st! So blessed!

Well that's all for now. Thanks for your emails. Love you all. I can't wait to get into it!
xoxox Sister Riley

P.S. Mum I got your card when I was in the MTC. Thanks heaps, love you xoxo

Photographs:

Sister Staheli and me with our teacher Brother McClure

Me and my trainer Sister Martin :)