Christ is the Reason

Hey!

Congrats everyone on the track and field stuff! Good job on the talk in sacrament Sam! It's great to hear that you have an increased desire to serve a mission! It really is the best! (Besides, girls like RM's! But do not use that as motivation. Love is the motive (for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ), and Christ is the reason!) Convert retention is a problem everywhere! We as members have a responsibility to reach out to the new converts. It is a totally different world than what they are used to. We go about our daily stuff because it is what we have known, but to them it is new and they need help to integrate into our "society". It's not an easy task, but there is no point in finding new people if we can't keep the ones that we already have. Every convert is a special gift to be handled with great care.  

Well, we have had a fantastic week! The past few weeks we have gotten 4 baptismal dates, with 2 of them at church on Sunday, and both of them are progressing towards their baptisms really nicely! Unfortunately, Sister Polidario and I are almost positive that this will be our last transfer together. But all is well, because as missionaries our lives can be changed completely every 6 weeks, so you get used to the constant changes. It was such a good week! We are truly being blessed by Heavenly Father and are seeing miracles happen every single day! Always look for miracles each day, because there will always be one to find!

So, you guys haven't been saying much about Mother's Day. Next week I will tell you what time I can skype you. I hope that you guys know how to use it. If we can't get it figured out, I am going to call instead, but I would like to skype this time. I may have to do it during your church time though because of the time difference, but we will see.

Hope you guys have a great week, and I pray that the Lord will continue to bless you! Love you and miss you all lots! :)

Love,
Sister Connery

What Matters Most

Hi guys!

So, I don't know if I mentioned this, but neither one of us is getting transferred, so we're staying in Staines for another transfer, but we both feel like one of us will move at the end of this transfer. :/

Anyway, Happy Easter to you guys as well! I love this time of the year because we get to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, and Saviour, Jesus Christ! Definitely a day to celebrate! We did have a great Easter dinner with a really cool family, The Russells. Their oldest son James, just got called on a mission to Colombia! So we got to share some insights with him. 

It's nice to hear how well you guys are! The rain here hasn't let up much. I'll send you a picture that I just took yesterday after we got home. We were outside for a max of ten minutes and...you'll see when you look at the picture. It's great that you have been studying the scriptures more. That same (or similar) phrase is used a lot in the scriptures, and like I always say, if something is repeated, it is definitely important! Keep up the great work!

Our week was really good as well. We have some baptismal dates and we're getting lots of lessons, so that is really good! It's not as important to me as it was in the beginning of my mission. Yes, our key indicators are still really important, but what matters more to us is that we are inviting people to come unto Christ. We can teach lots of lessons, and all of that, but if these people are not truly developing faith in Jesus Christ, then it is all a futile effort. The most important thing is to fulfill our purpose. The purpose of a missionary is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. That is the purpose of all missionaries. Not to force people to do anything, but to invite. :) And we are happy as long as we are doing all that we can to fulfill that purpose.

Well, I hope you guys have another great week! I am excited to Skype with you guys on Mother's Day. Have a great week! Love and miss you all! :)

Love,
Sister Connery

This week was Sister Polidario's birthday, and I made her a cake!

 Us and the Russell family on Easter!

Only 10 minutes outside and my skirt looks like this!

What a Miracle

Hey everyone!

Wow, it sounds like you guys have had a good week! We did as well! It was too bad that I wasn't able to see Chris, but in the Missionary Handbook it states, "Visits from family members, friends, and acquaintances are against Church." (Missionary Handbook, pg 37) Then it lists several reasons for why that rule was made, so I am trying to be obedient and follow all the rules. Obviously some mission presidents may adapt these kinds of rules, but it's okay. I will see you all in 6 months time anyway! :)

So, this week was good for us. We had to go to the hospital...again. Not for me though! Don't panic! We went to visit an investigator who is there for a few weeks, so that was fun. I've got a really cool miracle to tell you though! So, last week we got a referral for someone who really wanted to learn about the gospel but who is only visiting England and will be leaving in a few weeks. So we wanted to contact her ASAP. The phone number we were given didn't work, and there was no house number, only the street name. That was really hard because the street is about one mile long, but we needed to meet this girl. So we decided to spend an afternoon knocking on every single door on that street and ask for the girl, and if she didn't live there then we would try to teach that person and then go to the next door. That was our plan. So we set off, found the road, said a prayer, and knocked on the very first door. A young woman opened the door, and we asked for the person we were looking for, and she said, "That's me." What a miracle! We didn't end up needing to knock the entire street because we found her at the first door. It was amazing!!! :) Heavenly Father truly blessed us! So many miracles happen every single day, and I witnessed so many of them happen! It will be great to be able to share all of them with you guys! Looking for miracles every single day helps us to be grateful, even for the little things. I loved the talk by President Uchtdorf at conference about being grateful in any circumstance! Even if it's pouring rain, we need to be grateful for it because without it, there would be drought, and the Earth wouldn't be as beautiful as it is. I am grateful for the blessings that I have in my life. I will never be able to tell or show Heavenly Father just how grateful I really am, but I am most definitely grateful for all things!

And I am grateful for all of you! For all of my family and friends! I am grateful for all the love and support that I have from all of you! I pray for you all daily, and thank Heavenly Father that I have you all in my life. I love you all so much! I hope and pray that you have another great week! Love you!!!

Love,
Sister Connery

P.S.-I found out some interesting news last week. It turns out that on my mission I have become lactose intolerant. Another missionary explained the symptoms of it to me, and it turns out that I had all of them because the dairy products here are different. All I knew was that I wasn't feeling good after having anything with dairy in it. So there we go! Just gotta have less dairy. Just an interesting tidbit I thought I'd throw in there. 

Sowing

Hi guys!

It seems like you guys are doing pretty good from the sound of the email. Attending a convert baptism really is a great way to end the weekend. That is interesting that you guys did that because I did that as well. A companionship of the Elders in my ward had a baptism yesterday between conference sessions, and we all sang a song for the convert. It was great!

There really is nothing much new to report quite yet. Sister Polidario and I are currently sowing here in Staines, so we have to wait a short time before we can really start reaping what we've sown. But it's all good. We're having a lot of fun, and we already have two baptismal dates since we got here, so things are going pretty good. I actually don't know the ratio of Sisters and where they're all from. I would say that probably more than half are not from the U.S. Cool, huh? An interesting fact, I am the only American in our district (6 missionaries total). That's a first, but it's really cool. To be honest, it feels really weird to have been out for a year now. It's strange and really scary to think that I only have six months left. I love serving a mission and I know that I'm going to miss it a lot when I have to leave, but there are other things that I need to do at home. But, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I absolutely loved General Conference! I really don't know what else to say about it! It was just fantastic and I really enjoyed it all! There were so many good talks! We didn't get to see the last session, but we got to see all the other ones, including the General Women's Meeting and a little bit of the Priesthood session... ;) Honestly, if someone asked me what my favorite talk was, I wouldn't be able to pick one. Two big topics of the conference sessions, in my opinion, seemed to be a lot about keeping our covenants and loving others, especially Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. They are the perfect examples of love for us to follow. We have made covenants with Heavenly Father, and if we do our part then we receive the blessings for that. It is that simple. At times it may seem difficult, but like Elder Bednar said, happiness is not the absence of a load. The Atonement enables us to carry the load. I don't feel the need to say more.

Well, that's it for this week, but I hope you guys have a great one! Keep up the good work with everything! I love you all, and pray for you always!

Love,
Sister Connery