Say Goodbye

Hi everyone!

Don't worry about the finger, it's doing fine. When I went to the doctor on Thursday he pulled off the bandage and in doing so, he made it bleed again. I thought Sister Cranfield was gonna pass out because there was a lot of blood (all for a little finger!). They re-bandaged it and put an actual splint on it. He wants to see me again in 5 weeks, and they want me to get the dressing changed every 3-4 days to avoid infection. Stupid finger. The only problem with all of that is: we had interviews with President Millar last Wednesday and he told me to say goodbye to the ward because I will be moving. He didn't say much more than that, but transfers are this Wednesday so I will be leaving Bracknell. I have really enjoyed my time here and I have absolutely loved the past 6 months, and I am going to love the next 12! I can't write much because it's not technically P-Day, but we have permission to write and tell you that transfers are upon us. I apologize for not being able to write anyone else, but as we are obedient to the rules, we receive blessings for doing so. I'm glad that everything is going so well at home, and I got my birthday package, so thank you very much! :) I hope that you guys have a good week, and I love you and pray for you always!

Love,

Sister Connery

For the Sake of the Church

Hiya everyone!

 

You alright? I'm doing alright. It's been a crazy weekend for us! But I'll explain that later. So, about you guys! That really is too bad about Grandpa Gilman, but he is happily resting with Grandma Gilman in the Spirit World. May I just say that I love the Plan of Salvation! It gives me so much comfort, peace, and happiness to know where I came from, why I'm here, and where I'm going. I love being able to share that particular subject with others. I did hear about the BYU game from an American member of our ward. That truly is sad. And good job about the missionary work! It is so important that the members help as well. It is kind of scary to do, but it's so worth it to see people accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's truly an amazing experience. 

 

So, about our week. Nothing much happened until Saturday. Before I start, you (Mama) are not allowed to freak out! Just know that everything is taken care of. Okay? Now, on Saturday we went to clean the chapel (nothing new there-it's good stuff to do), and I accidently left my hand in the crack of the hinges on a door. The door shut on my finger, and needless to say, it hurt, and I had to go to hospital. We called a member who drove us to the hospital and after waiting 2 hours to see a doctor, she ordered an X-ray. Another hour later I actually got the X-ray done, and another hour later she came to tell me that I have broken the little finger on my left hand. So, we left the hospital after 5 hours of being there with my finger splinted and bandaged up. I will lose the nail; it came completely out of the skin and is only holding on with dried blood. It kept bleeding for about 24 hours after I originally smashed it, but it has stopped now, and I am doing fine. They gave me some antibiotics, and I have another appointment at the fracture clinic on Thursday. It certainly was a long, exhausting day. Later that night though, my district leader (Elder Grachev), and his companion (Elder White-who asked if I wanted a blessing) gave me a blessing, and it was really good. I seriously have the best district and the best zone! There must be something that I need to learn from this experience, and now I just have to trust Heavenly Father and find out what I am supposed to learn. There is a scripture in Mark 8:35 that says "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." I have lost the use of my little finger for the sake of keeping the chapel clean. There is always something that we can and need to learn from every experience that we go through. We just have to trust in the Lord, and He will help us.

 

I hope you all have a fantastic week, and I love you guys, and pray for you all daily! Keep up the good work!

 

Love,

Sister Connery

 

P.S.-It's kinda hard to type without your little finger. So I apologize that this email is a little short. Oh well. C'est la vie!

 

Broken

Ew!

 At Hospital

A Day of Miracles

Hi everyone!

 

Sorry but I will have to be quicker today with my emails. We only have one hour today, so I will make the most of it. Yes, Sister Cranfield's blisters were pretty bad but they are doing so much better now! No new bruises, but we played football in the rain on Saturday and I slipped and fell, so now the right side of my body is pretty sore and beat up. Oh well, moving on. We do get fed very often by the members so that is really good.

 

So, this week there wasn't really a whole lot that happened. Except for on Thursday! Thursday was a day full of miracles. We make it a point to identify at least one miracle each day, and on Thursday we had six miracles! So, for our day of miracles. Our miracle day was on Thursday, and our first miracle was that we didn't die. The grass was wet because it was raining, and I slipped and fell into the road, pulling Sister Cranfield along with me. There was a car coming, but Heavenly Father blessed us by keeping us safe. We had time to get out of the road, and the car was going slow enough that it had time to slow down even more. We are safe thanks to Heavenly Father! Our second miracle was when we stopped by a less active that we had never met. We knocked, he answered and chatted to us, we taught him some principles, said a prayer with him, and he said that we could come back anytime. The strange thing was, he had requested from the church that no one visit, but he was okay with us visiting and invited us back. Our third miracle was when we stopped by an investigator, who wasn't home. So we took just a minute to look at our planners and see what we had planned to do next. As we were walking away, our investigator was coming towards us, and we chatted to her, and got a return appointment with her. Our fourth miracle was when we stopped by another less active who came to church last week with her two daughters, and is progressing really well. We taught her and her two young girls a lesson. Before we left, the less active had a friend show up, and we were able to teach her as well. And, the less active says she is trying to bring one of her other friends to church with her. Our fifth miracle was having a dinner appointment with some members, who the father is less active. Every time a member (any member, us, and the Elders) go over there, he is polite but he never eats with us or is there for the spiritual thought. However, he chatted to us, and then ate dinner with us, and was there for our spiritual thought! He also tried to give us a referral for someone. And finally, our sixth miracle was when we stopped by another less active that we visit and to get in we have to push the button and it rings him and then we tell him who is there and he pushes the button to let us in. When we got there, there was a lady outside smoking who just pushed a button (she lived there) and let us in right away. We went up and the less active had company. His brother was there but they let us teach them both anyway. That was a miracle because if that lady hadn't let us in, then the less active probably would have told us that he was busy and to come back, but we then were able to have another lesson with the brother who is a non member.

 

What a day Thursday was! It was absolutely incredible and Heavenly Father blessed us so much! Thanks to Him, we are able to do this work. Without Him, it couldn't happen. And thank you all so much for everything that you have done and continue to do. I pray for you all each day, and I hope you have a great week! I love you guys lots!

 

Love,

Sister Connery

The Work Goes Forth At A Blistering Pace

Hiya!

 

How is everyone doing? Great, I hope! It sounds like you guys are really enjoying life! I am enjoying my life as well! It's not missionary work, it's missionary fun! :) So, about the bruise, yes I did get it from playing football (soccer). I think Elder Grachev kicked me two weeks ago when we played with them. It was a lot of fun though! So worth the bruise. It doesn't actually hurt, it just looks like it should. Anyway, about the referrals, we don't get very many at all here. Maybe one a week, if we're lucky. So we do have to do a lot of tracting. However, no one in our ward has seen the leadership training so we are working on changing that. Congratulations to Sam for giving out his first Book of Mormon! It's an amazing feeling isn't it? You are helping someone else come unto Christ. That is part of the first line of "Our Purpose", the missionary purpose in Preach My Gospel that we recite each morning. All I can say before your mission is really study it. Don't just read it, but study it. It should become your best friend, along with the Book of Mormon. Read it every day! Familiarize yourself with it, and you will be set! The work of the Lord is hastening, and we are all part of it! 

 

I'm glad that you are all loving school and everything so much, and that it is all going so well. By the way, can you email me the recipe for Taffy Apple Pizza? I wanna make it for our district. :) That's great that Josh is speaking in sacrament. He shouldn't be nervous, because even as a missionary you are scared to give talks. It's not an easy thing to do.

 

This week really hasn't been super exciting for us. But there have been a few exciting bits. First off, Sister Cranfield has giant blisters on her feet! They are bigger than a one pound coin (which is about the size of a quarter, but a little smaller) They are so huge! We finally had to call President Millar about them and email him some pictures. He called us back later and said that I had to pop them. So, I sterilized a needle, we washed her feet, and I popped the blisters and drained all of the stuff inside them out. It was really interesting. I have to admit that I was totally in my element. I really don't like feet, but I just didn't think about it. I just thought about what I had to do and then did it. It was actually kinda fun. Her blisters are doing much better now, and they are looking good so far. So that was pretty interesting. The best part of our week though was when a less active came to church yesterday and brought her two adorable daughters with her! It was such a good Sunday, and they really enjoyed themselves and want to come back next week! Hooray! Exciting things are happening! I still can't believe that I have already been out for five months! It's crazy how fast the time goes! Before I know it, it will be my six-month mark! Scary, but exciting! :) 

 

Thank you all so much for everything that you have done and are doing! I couldn't do this without you, and I am so grateful for each one of you! I hope you have a great week! I love and pray for you always, and I know that Heavenly Father is watching over you all for me! I love you all!

 

Love,

Sister Connery 

 

 

 These are the blisters that I had to pop for Sister Cranfield. This is a two pound coin that is bigger than a quarter! They were giant blisters! But they look so much better now.

Kiwi Anyone?

Hiya!

It's so good to hear from you guys and find out what you are all up to this week. Poor Grace. Tell her I'm sorry that everyone keeps calling her by my names. She'll understand when she goes on her mission someday (no pressure Grace-it really is something that the Spirit has to confirm to you is right for you) but it makes me happy, cuz I know you guys are all thinking about me. :) Thank you for the message from Amanda. It sounds like she is doing great! I knew she would and I knew that she would love it! It really isn't missionary work, but it's missionary fun! I really can't tell you what to get me for my birthday. I honestly don't know. I don't need any shoes, but I could use some of those sock type things that you find at Payless. I hope you guys know what I'm talking about. I'm sure Grace knows. (They are generally used when you wear flats.) I bought some and within three days both pairs I bought had giant holes in them. :/ So that would be helpful. Honestly though, you guys really don't have to send me anything. Just a Happy Birthday will do.

So, Sister Cranfield has been on her mission for six months now. She came out the transfer (six weeks) before I did. I still can't believe that on Wednesday will be my five-month mark! It's crazy how fast the time is going by! The TimTams were delicious! (I hope Jordan is jealous! hahaha!) I have yet to go inside the London Temple unfortunately. We should be able to go at Christmas, but other than that, missionaries don't get to go often unless you are at the temple visitors center or in the office. Also, the temple is closed from now into November anyway. :/ The place we live is really nice. We have a really posh flat compared to a lot of other flats in the mission. So I am also attaching a picture of the bruise that I got on Monday. Sister Cranfield says it looks like a Kiwi bird? (You guys might wanna look that one up) This week wasn't too exciting. We got 30 lessons, so not our best, but still really good! We also are a little scared of the chapel now. Earlier this week we had a dinner appointment at our ward mission leader's house. Afterwards we went to walk home and really had to use the bathroom, so we stopped by the chapel to use it (we have a key). The gate to the car park was open, but there was no cars. The lights were on, the door was locked, but the alarm was off. We went inside and looked around a bit. Then we heard a deep cough-a man's cough. We ran outside and phoned our ward mission leader who got to the chapel in less than two minutes and went inside and did find a man in there. It was a member from another ward (I think he said it was some higher authority because he had a key and the alarm code), and he was doing a conference call or something. So, better safe than sorry, but we still are a little wary about going to chapel now. Anyway, that was our funny story for the week. We laughed about it later.

So that was our week. Like I said, missionary fun. :) It really is amazing how much a mission increases and strengthens your testimony. I can't wait to share mine with all of you when I return home and speak in Sacrament meeting. I hope you guys have a great week, and I will continue to pray for you always. I love you guys so much! Thank you for everything that you do! Love you!

Love,
Sister Connery

Kiwi Bruise

Dare To Be a Mormon

Hi guys!

Another week here in England has come and gone! Transfers were good. Sister Ball left, but I will still see her once a week as she is still in the zone. She is the new Sister Trainer Leader so I will get to go on some exchanges with her! :) So, my new companion. Her name is Sister Cranfield, and she is from Sydney, Australia. My first foreign companion, who (thankfully) speaks English. ;) She is really cool, and we have had a good week so far. Last week, we beat the amount of teaches from the previous week by one. So we had 33 teaches, which is the most either one of us has ever taught. She was in Weymouth before and the highest they had ever taught was 16 lessons, so Bracknell is a good change for her. We played more football (soccer) for P-Day yesterday (long story-short: It was a bank holiday yesterday so the library was closed, so we are emailing today and then going to work). We went to Farnborough and had a district P-Day together at the Farnborough ward picnic. I have this awesome bruise on my leg! It's HUGE! That's what I get for playing rough with fourteen men and only two girls (my companion and I). The highlight of our week though was being able to take one of our investigators, Jim, to the temple to the visitors center there. It was so much fun! I loved just being able to be there on the temple grounds! It was amazing! I can't wait to go inside one day! And Abu, unfortunately we haven't been able to get ahold of him this week. We are still trying; he just works a lot and is having some housing issues. But hopefully we can see him again soon. My testimony of this gospel and this church just gets stronger and stronger every single day! I love being able to see people change their lives for the better and seeing the blessings that come from being a member of this church. A mission is an incredible experience!

So, that's what is going on here. Not too much stuff, but it's great being able to be here to teach the gospel and stand up for what I believe in. There is a Mormon Message for Youth by President Monson, and he recites a poem that he learned in primary. I really enjoyed it and want to share it with you guys. It says,

Dare to be a Mormon,
Dare to stand alone.
Dare to have a purpose firm,
Dare to make it known!

I really like that, and I hope you guys do as well. It's a great reminder to stand up for what we believe in and let people know that we are Mormons! It may be difficult and uncomfortable sometimes, but there's a great quote about the Savior that I heard. "We are uncomfortable for Him, because He was first uncomfortable for us." The Lord needs us to stand up and be witnesses of Him, and Jesus Christ, at all times, and in all things, and in all places that we may be in Him even until death. (See Mosiah 18:9) Dare to be a Mormon, and dare to make it known!

I hope you guys have a great week! I am so proud of the things that you are all doing and I wish you all the best. I am praying for you constantly and I love you guys so much! Have a great week! Love you!

Love,
Sister Connery

 The building where our flat is

The building is called Debden House

Sister Cranfield and I at the London Temple

 Just for Jordan :)

An Exciting Time

Hi everyone!

So, the past transfer has been super exciting for us! Lot's of cool stuff has happened to us. Obviously the baptisms are amazing! It is such an exciting time to be a missionary. So, transfers are this week and Sister Ball is moving! She is moving the next area over, in the same zone, to be a Sister Trainer Leader (they go on exchanges with the other sisters and help them out and stuff)! She's not moving too far, and I will still get to see her a lot so I am happy about that. So I will be getting a new companion on Wednesday. President didn't say who or anything, but he told me that I have to be strong. Not quite sure what that means yet, but I will certainly do my best to do it! Some other exciting stuff that happened this week is that we reached 32 lessons this week! Yay! We are getting more and more, and we hope to keep it up! As a district (Bracknell-us, Crowthorne-Elder Grachyov and Elder Treadway, and Farnborough-Elder Davies and Elder Rogers), we taught a grand total of 107 lessons this last week! Crazy!!! The work is definitely progressing and hastening onward! I got to go on exchanges with Sister Hurst to her area in Earley this week too, and that was fun. We went to KFC for dinner with a member this week too. His name is Joff, and he is single so we couldn't go to his house, so he just took us out. We finally got to see Abu again, after almost two months of no contact and he still wants to meet with us and learn more, so that's good. We play football (soccer) every Thursday night, and I am getting better I think. I made two goals and a few assists last time. But I keep getting headaches from hitting the ball off my head. Maybe not such a good idea but still fun. I have found that I am really competitive, and some of the guys think I'm kinda rough when I play. It's not my fault if they get in the way when I'm going for the ball. Haha! We have been so tired lately as well! It's terrible! We both actually almost fell asleep while teaching a lesson to a less active. She noticed and even said, "Oi, you two must be tired, I can see your eyes going!" That woke us up for sure. There was also this cute Italian market in town for a few days selling some yummy food. It was so good! And Italian guys like to flirt! Oh my gosh, one was so persistent about getting my number. It was hilarious! Yes, my allergies act up, yes my shoulder acts up, but that's normal. It happens at home too, so what can you do? It's not too bad anyway. I will send a picture of our flat building. It's a really nice flat, but we're not really allowed to take pictures of the inside, but I can show you the outside. Yes, I was wearing a pink skirt. Sister Ball and I share clothes all the time, and I just pretend that it's red :)

This week has been so amazing and so full of miracles! Heavenly Father is hastening His work, and we are just the vessels that He uses to do it. Being a missionary is so much fun! A lot of hard work, but it's a blast! My testimony has grown so much since I have been here, and Heavenly Father answers our prayers and shows us miracles every day! He is a God of miracles, and miracles have not ceased! Miracles are wrought by faith, so have faith and believe, and miracles will happen! I hope you guys have a great week, and I can't wait to hear about what you are all up to next week. I love you guys so much! Thank you for everything!

Love,
Sister Connery

Here are some pictures of Windsor Castle and the River Thames