Colder than Christmas

Yo yo yooooo everybody! I hope you've had a swell week full of happiness and sunshine ('cause we didn't get a whole lot of that vitamin D over here)! This week has just been jam packed with all sorts of good stuff, so I'm excited to share!

We had the opportunity to go to Watford for exchanges on Tuesday, and guess who I got to be with?! Sister Johannes! She and I were in the same ward at BYU so it was loads of fun getting to work with her that day and reminisce on the good ol' freshman memories! But we are both very very grateful we have that chapter of our lives over with hahaha! It was way fun to get to know her better and teach with her that day. But DANG did it pour that day. AND we got to ride the bikes. What a pleasurrrrre. I was literally drenched head to toe. The water was dripping from the tip of my nose as we rode. I could barely see because the water was pelting me in the eyes. It was quite the experience. I guess I needed this opportunity to teach me to complain less about riding the bikes in Stevenage hahahaha, I've been humbled.

Me and Sister Johannes after our journey through the rain

Post exchange

Wednesday we got to go to London for the 3-week new missionary meeting, and it was wayyyy different being on the trainer side rather than the trainee side. It brought back a whole lot of memories from MY 3-week meeting (which feels like it was just like last week). It was just so fun to be there and receive great training and counsel from President and Sister Stevens and the APs. They gave the same training that they gave when I was new, but I just wanted to highlight what I loved from President's training (I may have talked about this before so just bear with me if I have). He talked about the the Nazarites and the fact that they were told not to cut their hair or to eat grapes. President Stevens pointed out "it's not about the grapes." In other words, the grapes themselves would not hurt them physically, same with cutting their hair. But it was about OBEDIENCE to the promise they made with God. There is a great parallel we can see in missionary work. Some of the rules can sometimes be difficult to understand, but when we are OBEDIENT to what we've been asked to do, we will be blessed with the POWER we need to fulfill our calling. It was just a great meeting altogether!

Pre 3-week meeting for the new missionaries

3-week meeting with President and Sister Stevens

Thursday was officially colder than Christmas Day was in Stevenage. Just let that sink in for a moment... We were FREEZING. I pulled out the winter hat, it was so cold! I was wearing the tights, the boots, the scarf... I had it ALL. It was such a freezing day. And would you believe that yesterday and today have been in the 80's and sunny and beautiful?! Like what the heck, England?!

June the 2nd. We were not happy about it...

...BUT WE ARE STILL HAPPY TO BE TOGETHER!

Saturday we had Zone Meeting and it was another wonderful and uplifting meeting. Afterwards we had another blitz with the zone in Stevenage. And a grand total of one of the people that the missionaries contacted replied to us... anddddd he said he was no longer interested haha! But that's okay, because all of the missionaries were planting some good seeds.

Very low quality Zone Meeting photo! Woohoo!

Tomorrow we get to hear from ELDER DALLIN H. OAKS!! It feels like Christmas Eve, I am just soooooo pumped to hear from an apostle of the Lord. I will let you know about the wisdom and knowledge that I learn next week! OH, and next week is transfers, so I will not be emailing until Tuesday! But I love you all! Have an amazing week!

Love,
Sister Syddall