Week 8 A New Year

Happy New Year!

Wow I can't believe how fast time is going but I'm loving mission life! This week was a hopping week. Monday was pretty chill but then Tuesday we were hosts to two other sets of sisters so we had a big sleep over. Then Wednesday we went to Cheltenham and we had a big multi zone conference and we had the General Authority Paul V Johnson and his wife come speak to us and we got to hear from one of the stake presidents in wales and then President and Sister Leppard. 

We learned lots we ate lots and we just had such a great time! Also I gotta see Sister Romero! Then Thursday we had District meeting and then had a few miracles! So after our meeting we had to catch the bus and with all the holidays Gloucester's bus system has been on the sucky side of things! So we were two blocks away from the stop and we saw the bus coming so we started to run but of course the bus passed us so we slowed down and walked again but then the bus pulled over! So we started running and we were able to hop on! And no one was even at the stop or even getting off! The bus driver waited for us! And because of that we made it early to our lesson so we decided to do some finding! 

We have a new finding approach here In the EBM called Powerful Approaches! It's when one companion will teach a principle then the other will testify of that principle and then you ask how they think that principle would help or affect them. I love this because it gets everyone involved and is straight to the point! There's no oh are they selling me something? Or when will they ask for the donation? It's powerful and to the point and often results in a meaningful conversation even if they aren't super interested, it still gets them thinking (seed planted). 

Anyways we tried it out on a door and we had a 5min talk with someone about family's. Even though we don't have a return appointment, we still got them thinking about something they hadn't thought of before (seed planted!). Anyway, we made it to our appointment with this family (3rd lesson), we went over the restoration again in better detail because they had a few more questions. We challenged them to work towards baptism and they excepted!

So we are super excited because we love this family. We found them

while tracting 2 weeks ago and they keep having us back so thats been fantastic! We also have another investigator who is a young adult she's awesome and she's really excited to learn. She wants to take things slow but she has baptism in her future which is so exciting because she is such a hard worker I know she will be able to use the atonement and work her way to baptism!

We also have another family we are working with they have 2 young daughters that are working towards baptism in February so I'm so excited for all these amazing people I've been able to meet in the last 5 weeks and being able to see them progress and feel the Holy Spirit work with them and change them and bring them happiness it is such a privilege to be a missionary and being able to bare witness that We do have a loving Heavenly Father who truly loves all of us and wants to be able to help us return to him. 

On Friday we had our mid trainers meeting but the night before we got a call telling us that the Swansea sisters were coming to spend the night! Guess who's in Swansea! Sister Romero! Haha we had fun that night and then getting up early to get to Birmingham that morning, but we had a good meeting we gotta talk about some of the joys we experience when we first start our missions and then we talked about things we can do to be better and do better. 

I love meetings it's so nice to be with everyone and to just get spiritually pumped up! 

Saturday was obviously New Years and missionary's get to be in by 6pm so we didn't party to much haha. And then Sunday we aren't allowed to go proselytizing because all the English people are drunk haha. So we went to church and then spent the rest of the day with a family from the ward so we had our own New Years Day party. 

Anyway I spent New Year's Eve thinking about resolutions and what I can do to be better and then I realized this whole year I get to be a missionary! I know exactly what I'm doing this year!  which I just think is so cool! So after I got over that I thought about what a good resolution would be and I came up with a bunch but one that I'm most excited about is that I wanna read everything! 

This year I'm going to read the Old and New Testament, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price! I figured when else am I going to have the chance to read it all so I mapped it all out and I know how much I have to read every day over the next 12 months so ya I'm super excited for that! Mostly so I can actually testify and say that I've actually read it all and know it's true! 

So ya that's my one big New Years Resolution! And I'm super pumped for it! So ya I'm super excited for this year of missionary work it's gonna be hard and crazy I'm sure but it's also just gonna be so good!

Love you all and Happy New Year!