Hi everyone!
Oh my goodness, so this last week was the most
stressful, but also the most AMAZING week that I have had on my mission
so far! So, in the beginning of the week it was all normal and going
well. At accounting last night we had 3 new investigators this week, and
24 lessons. It was a good solid week! We also had zone conference on
Thursday which was so good, and we learned so much! Also, we have an
investigator named Vicky, who has a baptism date for August 3rd, passed
her baptismal interview so we are all set for her baptism on Saturday!
We also got to go on exchanges! My first exchange and it was so good!
With so many more missionaries coming in, Sisters are now able to go on
exchanges like the Elders do. So, I got to go on an exchange with Sister
Grosso to the Woodley area. Sister Grosso is the Sister Training
Leader, so her job is to go on exchanges with all of the Sisters' in the
zone. She is such a good missionary! I learned so much from spending
just 24 hours with her. That is all really good stuff, but the most
amazing part of the week came on Wednesday. We had gone to see one of
our investigators. Her name is Penny and we just love her! She has been
investigating the Church for about a year and half now. She comes to
Church every Sunday
and believes everything about it. She just didn't feel ready for
baptism. She has a fear of water, lots of health problems (mostly with
her legs), and she wanted to know everything about the Church, and she
didn't feel like she knew enough. So we have continued to work with her
and when we went to see her on Wednesday she asked us what she would
have to do to be baptized. She said she was considering getting baptized
(she didn't say when), but she wanted to look into it more. So we told
her that she would need an interview. Later that night she sent us a
text, it said, "If you can make my baptism happen for tomorrow..."
(Thursday the 25th-which happened to be the same day as zone
conference). AMAZING!!! So we got all the kinks worked out about who
would do the baptism, the witnesses, etc. On Thursday right after zone
conference, we rushed off to the chapel to have Penny get baptized and
she did!!! And I got to be in the font with her! She has health problems
in her legs like I mentioned before so Brother Boyle, the patriarch who
baptized her, asked me to get in a jumpsuit and stand in the font with
them in case anything happened. So, I got to be in the font too! Nothing
happened, it all went fine, but it was still fun! So that was our
AMAZING week!!! What miracles we have seen!!! Heavenly Father is
definitely helping us to hasten His work! We know that without Him, none
of this would be possible!
But it sounds like you all had a great week as well. We do get the
monthly Ensigns, so that is really nice, and that talk that I mentioned
is super good! The birth of Prince George, actually wasn't a big deal
here. I was so surprised that we didn't hear about it. We heard about it
from a member about two days after he had been born, so it didn't
affect anything that we did this week. This is actually a very strange
summer for England. They usually have about a week or two of summer and
then it cools off again, but this summer has been really wierd for them.
But I like it. :) You all only have one more month
of summer vacation left, but you are lucky because here in England they
only get about 6 weeks of summer vacation, but they do have some more
days off during the school year than we do. Anyway, I am glad that you
are all doing so well!
I am praying for you every single day! And trust me, Heavenly Father
does answer prayers, you just never know when. We have been praying for
Penny to get baptized for a long time now, and she finally did.
Everything happens in the Lord's time, we just have to trust Him. He
knows best. Have a great week everyone! I love you guys so much and
thank you for all that you have done and continue to do for me! Love
you!
Love,
Sister Connery
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
A Good, Solid Week
Hi everyone!
It sounds like you have all had a great week! The investigators are doing well this week. We're in the process of trying to find more, and we haven't been doing too well with that but we are working on it. We taught 22 lessons this week, so we are doing better than we did last week. Throughout our zone we taught 312 lessons! And throughout the mission we taught 1,890 lessons last week! The work is hastening! And, yes, I'm tired. I get up at 6:20 every morning, go running, then work all day (walking usually about 5-6 miles every day), in the hot weather, and then add the stress of things, and not going to bed until 10:30, etc. It tires you out really well. But, the Lord gives us the strength to go on each day and to continue to work hard, despite things that may deter us. Now, about the weather, yes I mean celsius. They use it here and I am still trying to figure out how it works, but we have a converter on our phone that tells us what it is in fahrenheit. So 28 degrees celsius here is about 82 degrees fahrenheit. Nobody here is used to this weather because they haven't had a summer like this since 2006 they said. This weather has lasted for about 4 weeks now. But it's kinda muggy so we could use a day or two where it rains pretty good. I never thought that I would see burnt/dry grass in England!
So, this past week was a good one. We taught some good lessons, and talked to lots of people. On Tuesday we had a DA (dinner appointment) with a member. Her husband and all of her children were working so they couldn't be there but it was good anyway. She is struggling a little bit with wayward children, and we were able to be there at the right time to say just what she needed to hear. I quoted a talk from the (June?) Ensign entitled "Dear Are the Sheep That Have Wandered" (I think that's what it's called), and it is a really good talk that anyone should read. I know that I enjoyed it and it really helped this particular sister out. We had a proper thunder/lightning storm last week as well. It only lasted for about a half hour so it wasn't enough to clear the muggy air or bring the grass back to life but it was still nice after all this hot weather. The raindrops were just huge! They were probably about the size of a 1 pound coin! (a little smaller-but thicker-than a quarter). We also walked (missionaries shouldn't run in public in skirts-it's not good for our image) about 3 miles in 40 minutes in order to get to an appointment on time and we still were ten minutes late. But it was still a good, solid week!
I really love being here, and I do miss home and all of you a lot, but this is where I am supposed to be and Heavenly Father will bless us all for our obedience, and sacrifice. He was willing to sacrifice His son, Jesus Christ, for us, so we should always be willing to sacrifice whatever we can for Him. I hope that this letter is inspiring to you all, and that your faith will continue to remain strong and immovable! Have a great week everyone! I love you guys so much!
Love,
Sister Connery
It sounds like you have all had a great week! The investigators are doing well this week. We're in the process of trying to find more, and we haven't been doing too well with that but we are working on it. We taught 22 lessons this week, so we are doing better than we did last week. Throughout our zone we taught 312 lessons! And throughout the mission we taught 1,890 lessons last week! The work is hastening! And, yes, I'm tired. I get up at 6:20 every morning, go running, then work all day (walking usually about 5-6 miles every day), in the hot weather, and then add the stress of things, and not going to bed until 10:30, etc. It tires you out really well. But, the Lord gives us the strength to go on each day and to continue to work hard, despite things that may deter us. Now, about the weather, yes I mean celsius. They use it here and I am still trying to figure out how it works, but we have a converter on our phone that tells us what it is in fahrenheit. So 28 degrees celsius here is about 82 degrees fahrenheit. Nobody here is used to this weather because they haven't had a summer like this since 2006 they said. This weather has lasted for about 4 weeks now. But it's kinda muggy so we could use a day or two where it rains pretty good. I never thought that I would see burnt/dry grass in England!
So, this past week was a good one. We taught some good lessons, and talked to lots of people. On Tuesday we had a DA (dinner appointment) with a member. Her husband and all of her children were working so they couldn't be there but it was good anyway. She is struggling a little bit with wayward children, and we were able to be there at the right time to say just what she needed to hear. I quoted a talk from the (June?) Ensign entitled "Dear Are the Sheep That Have Wandered" (I think that's what it's called), and it is a really good talk that anyone should read. I know that I enjoyed it and it really helped this particular sister out. We had a proper thunder/lightning storm last week as well. It only lasted for about a half hour so it wasn't enough to clear the muggy air or bring the grass back to life but it was still nice after all this hot weather. The raindrops were just huge! They were probably about the size of a 1 pound coin! (a little smaller-but thicker-than a quarter). We also walked (missionaries shouldn't run in public in skirts-it's not good for our image) about 3 miles in 40 minutes in order to get to an appointment on time and we still were ten minutes late. But it was still a good, solid week!
I really love being here, and I do miss home and all of you a lot, but this is where I am supposed to be and Heavenly Father will bless us all for our obedience, and sacrifice. He was willing to sacrifice His son, Jesus Christ, for us, so we should always be willing to sacrifice whatever we can for Him. I hope that this letter is inspiring to you all, and that your faith will continue to remain strong and immovable! Have a great week everyone! I love you guys so much!
Love,
Sister Connery
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Sticking Together
Hiya!!!
So, Sister Ball and I are still here in Bracknell together! One more transfer together! Hooray! So, I guess I need to repent more for being prideful. Sister Ball and I didn't have such a great week as we have been having lately. We only got 17 lessons, with no new investigators. :( We are not quite sure what is wrong but it's probably because we have been so excited and bragging a little about how good we have been doing. But Heavenly Father is now humbling us. We cannot do this work without His help. Hopefully this next week will be better! We just have to work harder and better, and keep ourselves humble. The weather here in England has been absolutely crazy! For the past week and half it has been 27+ degrees outside! It got up to 35 degrees one day! It is so hot, but I won't complain about it! This weather is supposed to continue through the rest of the week, so we are hoping that it will stay nice.
This week has been full of fun for us, but it has been really hard on my body. Last Wednesday we had P-Day because it was transfers, and we decided to have a district P-Day. So Sister Ball and I, Elder Grachyov, Elder Treadway, Elder Davies, and Elder Rogers took a trip to Camberley and we went bowling! Yes, bowling! I didn't really want to go because for some reason it didn't sound like it was a good idea for me. But we went and we had lots of fun. However, I found out right away why I knew it wasn't a good idea. As soon as I threw my first ball, my shoulder screamed in pain! (Don't worry, I'm fine now) It just hurt a lot at the time. But I pulled myself together and I played for the three games. I didn't pay £7 to not get to play. So instead I just used my left arm and bowled that way. It wasn't too bad, but I lost big time! Oh well. It was still fun. Oh, and I know that Adam got a phone call on Wednesday night from Brother Jones. Let me explain. Brother Jones played a mean trick on Sister Ball and I and tricked us into writing down our mothers' names and our home phone numbers. Then he went and called you guys! Adam answered the phone and as soon as Brother Jones started talking to him and telling Adam about me (he didn't know I had a brother named Adam so I knew he was actually talking to him) and then he handed me the phone! All I did was say "Adam, hang up the phone." And he did. So, if Adam said anything about that on Wednesday, it was a member here named Brother Jones playing a trick on me and Sister Ball. Anyway, we did some gardening work for a member on Thursday, and we also played football (soccer) on Thursday night. I scored a goal and my team won! Yay us! It was a ward event (even though not many people showed up) and an investigator of ours came so that was why we were there. But we had a lot of fun! We also got to go out to dinner to an actual restaurant with a member and her son on Saturday. We went to a Thai restaurant that was really good. And Lorna (the member) taught me how to use chopsticks! (see attached pictures). So that was our week. Lot's of fun!
We have some really good investigators and a few baptismal dates, so we are really praying that everything will go well! The work is definitely hastening, and I love being here on my mission! It is such a great experience to see people begin with no faith and to get to watch their faith grow! It is an amazing experience to serve a mission! Thank you all for all your prayers and support! I am so glad that I have my family backing me up! I miss you all, and hope you have a great week! Love you guys lots!!!
Love,
Sister Connery
So, Sister Ball and I are still here in Bracknell together! One more transfer together! Hooray! So, I guess I need to repent more for being prideful. Sister Ball and I didn't have such a great week as we have been having lately. We only got 17 lessons, with no new investigators. :( We are not quite sure what is wrong but it's probably because we have been so excited and bragging a little about how good we have been doing. But Heavenly Father is now humbling us. We cannot do this work without His help. Hopefully this next week will be better! We just have to work harder and better, and keep ourselves humble. The weather here in England has been absolutely crazy! For the past week and half it has been 27+ degrees outside! It got up to 35 degrees one day! It is so hot, but I won't complain about it! This weather is supposed to continue through the rest of the week, so we are hoping that it will stay nice.
This week has been full of fun for us, but it has been really hard on my body. Last Wednesday we had P-Day because it was transfers, and we decided to have a district P-Day. So Sister Ball and I, Elder Grachyov, Elder Treadway, Elder Davies, and Elder Rogers took a trip to Camberley and we went bowling! Yes, bowling! I didn't really want to go because for some reason it didn't sound like it was a good idea for me. But we went and we had lots of fun. However, I found out right away why I knew it wasn't a good idea. As soon as I threw my first ball, my shoulder screamed in pain! (Don't worry, I'm fine now) It just hurt a lot at the time. But I pulled myself together and I played for the three games. I didn't pay £7 to not get to play. So instead I just used my left arm and bowled that way. It wasn't too bad, but I lost big time! Oh well. It was still fun. Oh, and I know that Adam got a phone call on Wednesday night from Brother Jones. Let me explain. Brother Jones played a mean trick on Sister Ball and I and tricked us into writing down our mothers' names and our home phone numbers. Then he went and called you guys! Adam answered the phone and as soon as Brother Jones started talking to him and telling Adam about me (he didn't know I had a brother named Adam so I knew he was actually talking to him) and then he handed me the phone! All I did was say "Adam, hang up the phone." And he did. So, if Adam said anything about that on Wednesday, it was a member here named Brother Jones playing a trick on me and Sister Ball. Anyway, we did some gardening work for a member on Thursday, and we also played football (soccer) on Thursday night. I scored a goal and my team won! Yay us! It was a ward event (even though not many people showed up) and an investigator of ours came so that was why we were there. But we had a lot of fun! We also got to go out to dinner to an actual restaurant with a member and her son on Saturday. We went to a Thai restaurant that was really good. And Lorna (the member) taught me how to use chopsticks! (see attached pictures). So that was our week. Lot's of fun!
We have some really good investigators and a few baptismal dates, so we are really praying that everything will go well! The work is definitely hastening, and I love being here on my mission! It is such a great experience to see people begin with no faith and to get to watch their faith grow! It is an amazing experience to serve a mission! Thank you all for all your prayers and support! I am so glad that I have my family backing me up! I miss you all, and hope you have a great week! Love you guys lots!!!
Love,
Sister Connery
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Eyes and Queens
This is it! Transfers are almost upon us! However, I cannot give you any
information about if Sister Ball and I will split up or stay
together...because we don't even know yet! We will find out tomorrow
morning and you will find out next week in my email. I really am so
glad that we both live in Idaho so we can see each other more often.
Sister Ball and I are already planning to do so much together! We're
going to open a sandwich shop, a dating service, take a few trips to
Canada, etc. It will be so much fun! The training conference was so
good! I love that they are going to start phasing out tracting. While
they can't completely get rid of it, it is not the most effective form
of getting investigators. Hopefully that will change soon with the
challenge to the members to help us out. Even a re-activation is kinda like a
baptism. Activation and retention are so important! I did tell Sister
Ball about our squirrel story and we had a good laugh that day about all
the crazy things that we have encountered with squirrels. The weather
has been so weird here! It has been about 28 degrees the past 4 days! We
are loving this warm weather (except when we were fasting-we were both
grateful that we didn't pass out).
Anyway, time to answer your questions. Yes, the African food was very good. I am still getting used to eating curry, but each time I have had it, it has tasted pretty good. Yes, I did get to see the "big merry-go-round" (the London Eye), when we went to London, but I only got to see it from a distance. English money is similar to American money, but it is all in pounds and pence. Pounds are sometimes also called quids. I'll bring some home with me to show. Yes, we are getting plenty of dinner appointments. The members love to feed us. I have yet to ride the underground, but maybe someday I will get to ride it. I am still working on One Direction's baptism, as they are not always in the country, and the Queen is a slow progression because she is always dashing off to other important events. However, she does have a Book of Mormon somewhere in her home that Brigham Young gave to the queen before her. Yes, we do have cell phones and they come in quite handy. We're pretty posh over here.
Not much has happened here this week. Same old, same old. Tracting and teaching. Knocking and street contacting. However, some exciting news is that Sister Ball and I were able to teach 24 lessons this last week! Hooray! Our district (Bracknell-us, Crowthorne-Elder Grachyov and Elder Treadway, and Farnborough-Elder Davies and Elder Rogers) are constistenly teaching 81 lessons per week, just in our district! We found out last week that our district is the highest teaching district in the ENTIRE England London South Mission! Now I need to go repent for bragging. But other than that, not much exciting news. Hopefully I will have more to tell next week. Anyway, I hope you all have a great week! I am always praying for you, and thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to come serve a mission. I love you guys so much!
Love,
Sister Connery
Anyway, time to answer your questions. Yes, the African food was very good. I am still getting used to eating curry, but each time I have had it, it has tasted pretty good. Yes, I did get to see the "big merry-go-round" (the London Eye), when we went to London, but I only got to see it from a distance. English money is similar to American money, but it is all in pounds and pence. Pounds are sometimes also called quids. I'll bring some home with me to show. Yes, we are getting plenty of dinner appointments. The members love to feed us. I have yet to ride the underground, but maybe someday I will get to ride it. I am still working on One Direction's baptism, as they are not always in the country, and the Queen is a slow progression because she is always dashing off to other important events. However, she does have a Book of Mormon somewhere in her home that Brigham Young gave to the queen before her. Yes, we do have cell phones and they come in quite handy. We're pretty posh over here.
Not much has happened here this week. Same old, same old. Tracting and teaching. Knocking and street contacting. However, some exciting news is that Sister Ball and I were able to teach 24 lessons this last week! Hooray! Our district (Bracknell-us, Crowthorne-Elder Grachyov and Elder Treadway, and Farnborough-Elder Davies and Elder Rogers) are constistenly teaching 81 lessons per week, just in our district! We found out last week that our district is the highest teaching district in the ENTIRE England London South Mission! Now I need to go repent for bragging. But other than that, not much exciting news. Hopefully I will have more to tell next week. Anyway, I hope you all have a great week! I am always praying for you, and thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to come serve a mission. I love you guys so much!
Love,
Sister Connery
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
A Present From the Squirrels
Hi everyone!
It sounds like you have had a really busy week! Sister Ball and I have also had a busy week as well. I am still so excited about my mission! While there are ups and downs to it, the ups make it all worth it! Missionary work is hard work, but instead of being called missionary work, it should be called missionary fun! (that sentence is based on a talk given at the April General Conference this year-look it up!) It really is so much fun to be out here! Sister Ball and I are having a blast together! We are still continuing with our streak of 21 lessons this past week, but we are going to do our best to break that and get even more lessons! I'm glad you are feeding the missionaries because we could always use dinner appointments. They are so helpful to us. The Book of Mormon race is going well and I am almost done. I have a goal to finish reading it before transfers (which are next week). Right now I am in Mormon, and I only have one more chapter to go. So far, I am still in the lead! The missionary work really will go forward more if members help us to find people to teach. We got to watch the Leadership Training that you mentioned last week and it was so good! It helps to renew our resolve and commitment as missionaries, and it helps you as the members to commit yourselves as well. Neither Karjalanpiirakka or Banoffee Pie contain any fish at all. You will all love Banoffee Pie, and maybe you'll like the other thing, but we will see when I get to make them for you.
It's crazy how fast the time goes! I can't even believe that I've already been out for three months now. Just like the missionaries that you have, we come to the public library to do our emailing. I don't need anything right now, just keep doing what you are doing. Read, pray, fast, pay tithing, go to church, go to the temple, have FAITH. It is so important that we do not lose our faith. It is a precious gift that we must keep close, so keep it up!
So last Monday night we went to the home of a recent convert and she is from South Africa. Her name is Lynne. She is so amazing! We adore her, and she made us authentic South African food. Here in England they eat a lot of curry, so I am getting used to it. I never thought that I would do so much gardening in a skirt but every week we visit a less active who we help in her garden and we always do it in our skirts. I'll be pro at gardening in a skirt when I come home. Haha! So funny story the other day. We were walking underneath some trees just looking to stop someone on the foot path. Sister Ball felt something hit her on the head and she looked up and she said, "I think squirrels are throwing things at us." We kept walking and stopped this guy and just as I was introducing the Book of Mormon to him, Sister Ball looked down at the Book of Mormon that she was holding and there were two blobs of poop on the front cover! We were mortified but we kept teaching him and then made a stop at the chapel to clean off the Book of Mormon and get it out of Sister Ball's hair. It was so funny! I'm amazed that we were able to keep ourselves from laughing.
We also had a ward BBQ on Saturday which was so much fun! So many people showed up and several non-members came with their member friends. One chap brought some friends with him and afterwards one of his friends commented to him that she wants to join the church. Just after coming to the BBQ! What great missionary tools these small events are! The weather here has been quite nice the past few days as well! It was 27 degrees yesterday! It was so nice and warm! We love this kind of weather!
Well, now you are up to date on all the happenings here in Bracknell for Sister Ball and I. Thank you all so much for everything that you do! I couldn't do any of this without you, and I am so grateful for all of your love and support! I pray for you all each and every day! May the Lord bless in you in all that you do! I miss you all and love you guys tons! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Connery
It sounds like you have had a really busy week! Sister Ball and I have also had a busy week as well. I am still so excited about my mission! While there are ups and downs to it, the ups make it all worth it! Missionary work is hard work, but instead of being called missionary work, it should be called missionary fun! (that sentence is based on a talk given at the April General Conference this year-look it up!) It really is so much fun to be out here! Sister Ball and I are having a blast together! We are still continuing with our streak of 21 lessons this past week, but we are going to do our best to break that and get even more lessons! I'm glad you are feeding the missionaries because we could always use dinner appointments. They are so helpful to us. The Book of Mormon race is going well and I am almost done. I have a goal to finish reading it before transfers (which are next week). Right now I am in Mormon, and I only have one more chapter to go. So far, I am still in the lead! The missionary work really will go forward more if members help us to find people to teach. We got to watch the Leadership Training that you mentioned last week and it was so good! It helps to renew our resolve and commitment as missionaries, and it helps you as the members to commit yourselves as well. Neither Karjalanpiirakka or Banoffee Pie contain any fish at all. You will all love Banoffee Pie, and maybe you'll like the other thing, but we will see when I get to make them for you.
It's crazy how fast the time goes! I can't even believe that I've already been out for three months now. Just like the missionaries that you have, we come to the public library to do our emailing. I don't need anything right now, just keep doing what you are doing. Read, pray, fast, pay tithing, go to church, go to the temple, have FAITH. It is so important that we do not lose our faith. It is a precious gift that we must keep close, so keep it up!
So last Monday night we went to the home of a recent convert and she is from South Africa. Her name is Lynne. She is so amazing! We adore her, and she made us authentic South African food. Here in England they eat a lot of curry, so I am getting used to it. I never thought that I would do so much gardening in a skirt but every week we visit a less active who we help in her garden and we always do it in our skirts. I'll be pro at gardening in a skirt when I come home. Haha! So funny story the other day. We were walking underneath some trees just looking to stop someone on the foot path. Sister Ball felt something hit her on the head and she looked up and she said, "I think squirrels are throwing things at us." We kept walking and stopped this guy and just as I was introducing the Book of Mormon to him, Sister Ball looked down at the Book of Mormon that she was holding and there were two blobs of poop on the front cover! We were mortified but we kept teaching him and then made a stop at the chapel to clean off the Book of Mormon and get it out of Sister Ball's hair. It was so funny! I'm amazed that we were able to keep ourselves from laughing.
We also had a ward BBQ on Saturday which was so much fun! So many people showed up and several non-members came with their member friends. One chap brought some friends with him and afterwards one of his friends commented to him that she wants to join the church. Just after coming to the BBQ! What great missionary tools these small events are! The weather here has been quite nice the past few days as well! It was 27 degrees yesterday! It was so nice and warm! We love this kind of weather!
Well, now you are up to date on all the happenings here in Bracknell for Sister Ball and I. Thank you all so much for everything that you do! I couldn't do any of this without you, and I am so grateful for all of your love and support! I pray for you all each and every day! May the Lord bless in you in all that you do! I miss you all and love you guys tons! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Connery
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