April 7, 2014

well hey guys! 

This week was alright! for zone p-day we played basketball which is always so much fun and it's great to run around and exercise for a few hours. I failed to eat breakfast or lunch, and played basketball with basically nothing in my system, resulting in a massive migraine. from 5-9 I couldn't really move, I was in a lot of pain! I learned my lesson for sure though, I will never skip a breakfast again no matter what!

We saw Jill nearly every day this week considering this is the week that she is stopping to smoke! she has now been cigarette free for 6 days! she is sooo exited for her baptism this saturday! she watched all 4 sessions of general conference, and she called us after each session so we could talk about all of the different speakers and how she learned something relevant for her life in every one!  that was so cool and it's amazing to see someone who has truly become converted through the book of mormon.  

On Tuesday we had Mission Leadership Council with all of the zone-leaders and sister training leaders, it was a great meeting! we received really good training and we're pretty stoked to apply it to our work and to help the other missionaries grasp the vision we set for the mission. There was a missionary who was a zone leader for only 3  transfers, and then president felt prompted to drop him to be a senior companion, and he is tearing it up and really helping his whole district a lot, and so president has made a rule that no one will be a zone leader for more than 5 transfers unless he feels prompted to keep them there, so I will be back on a bike eventually! I'm actually quite excited for when that time comes, so I can just focus all of my time on proscelyting again.  

I know it sounds terrible, but I am so tired of talking to English people! they are just normally not that nice, except for the members haha, I just want the Nigerian's and chinese and ghanian's back! speaking of ghanian's, I heard from Elder Unice in an email that my old investigators gifty and rosalyn will be baptized on saturday, which makes my whole mission!  they are the investigators I've wanted to accept the gospel more than anyone else, and I love them like heck!!  I will get to go back to Coventry to attend the baptism. It will be INCREDIBLE.  

I got to go on exchange with a portugese elder named Elder Silva! that guy is awesome. we stayed up talking until like 2 in the morning so I had to drink a red bull the next day cause I was exhausted. 

We did loads of driving missionaries around this week. there is a sister from Northern Ireland who is going to get the surgery that I need (for her nose) because the growth in her nasal path is starting to cause her a lot of pain, she is 37, so I probably won't have to worry about that for a few years! so she went back home for the operation and we drove the 90 minutes to the mission home and 2 1/2 hours back because of traffic, so we basically got nothing done all day which was frustrating.  

General conference was spectacular! it's kind of silly how excited us missionaries get for general conference, it's comparable to little kids on Christmas Morning.  My favorite talk was probably Dallin H Oaks talk in Preisthood, because I learned a lot, and President Uchtdorf's on Sunday morning because I felt the spirit so strong!  Elder Bednar, Elder Scott, and Elder Holland also had exceptional talks as well. 

Now it's P-day! we will be playing football with an investigator and some of the recent converts at the university and it should be fun. it's supposed to pour down really hard so that will always add a bit of interest! 

I'll be honest, I haven't fallen in love with Loughborough like I did so quickly with Eastwood and Coventry.  It's the hardest I've worked on my  mission and not the most success, and I'm frustrated a bit, not discouraged, but frustrated. I wonder what Heavenly father wants me to learn from this rough patch. I shouldn't be complaining, I should be grateful like President Uchtdorf says. it is possible that 4 of my investigators on saturday will be baptized, so that is absolutely crazy!  but for Loughborough, I feel like I'm just expecting everything to happen as quickly and smoothly as it did in Coventry because of the work we’re putting in, and it just hasn't happened like that before. I'm open for any advice!! the next April General conference we will be watching it all together :) that was weird to think about.  Sorry that this last paragraph has been venting haha.

I love you all so much. have an amazing week! 

The pictures are 1: of my bald head and 2: the elders in my district, taken about 3 seconds ago!