Aufwiedersehen

Helllllo everyone!

So I am sorry that last week I totally failed to inform you that it is transfers week and that I wouldn't be emailing until Tuesday... even though none of you were probably concerned haha... Ok, well, carrying on. So if you're on the edge of your seat just DYING to know what my fate will be for the next six weeks......................... (Is the suspense building?) well I will be staying in Hayes for my THIRD transfer and I am pumped! Sister Bader will be leaving which is the explanation of the title of this letter :'( but I will be getting a new companion named Sister Mekonnen and she is from Ethiopia! I am way excited to meet her, but I'm also flipping out a little on the inside because I am scared like none other since this area is HUGE and I feel like I'll never know how to get anywhere but that's life haha. This new transfer really creeped up on me. Like how on earth have two transfers already gone???!?! But hey, new things are exciting I guess! The motto I have heard from every. single. missionary. in. the. world. was that the days are long but the weeks are fast. That literally is the most accurate statement I have ever heard.

This is my missionary "family." Sister Bader is my mom, the eyebrows aka Elder Cook is my dad, and Elder Williams is my brotha. I find this whole family thing quite odd, but it's whatever hahaha. And also don't mind that my name tag is practically falling off.

Alright, so I've got a funny little story for y'all. A couple of weeks ago Sister Bader and I were tracting, ya know, just doing our thang, when we met this man named Raymond. He had just woken up when he answered the door so he asked if we could come back later. We tried him again and his family was all there so he asked if we could come back later. We tried him again and his family was all there so again he asked if we could come back. We tried yet AGAIN and he had a huge group of friends over, and so Sister Bader and I were like "Ok, we are going to try ONE MORE TIME" and so we went and he finally could let us in and talk to us! I was thinking every time that we met him that he was 25, maybe 26, but then he started talking and he was like "yeah, I just want to be the best example I can be to my kids and my grandson".... and we were like WUTTTTTT?????? So turns out he's like 10 years older than we had assumed. He's still a very young grandpa but it was seriously just mind boggling.

So this week we had the opportunity to do a service project for a less active member in the ward. We went to help her clean her home, and I am not passing any judgement here, but.... it was the messiest home that I have ever been in. I have never seen so many toys and clothes and shoes and dirty nappies and plates of old food in one place. Thankfully we recruited the help of the senior Sister missionaries in the ward, Sister Reeder and Sister McCann. They are seriously the funniest companionship everrrrrrr. We haven't really done much with them these past two transfers, but man-oh-man how much I regret that! Sister McCann is going home next week after serving in various missions for 4.5 years (she served in Nauvoo before London) and a new companion for Sister Reeder will come out. Luckily we've still got Sister Reeder to bring a whole lot of laughs. We all went to town cleaning that house. I have never seen people as fearless as those two in scraping off mould from the counters and picking up every single crumb off the floor (most of which were actually stuck to the floor). They were such a huge help and we finally made it possible for the member to have a kitchen table to eat on! I would measure that as a success. But it will be interesting to see the home's condition the next time we go to visit...

The prettiest little canal by our flat. Isn't it just the cutest?!?!?!

On Saturday morning we finally had the opportunity to watch the General Women's broadcast! Two weeks late is better than never, right? It seriously was so amazing. Beforehand the stake put together a breakfast with pancakes and eggs and bacon (which is way different than American bacon fyi) and beans that are essentially just in tomato sauce (pretty much their version of baked beans which is a staple breakfast item over here) and hot chocolate. It was so fun to talk to some sisters in the stake and be unified as we watched those inspired messages with others from all around the world (just at a completely different time haha).

Saturday night we had the exciting opportunity to have a lesson with a Jehovahs Witness. That was very interesting if I do say so myself. I don't know how familiar you are with that religious group, but they have some interesting views to say the least and it pretty much turned into her sharing with us about their church. That is not the first time that someone has tried to turn around and teach us, and I am just so glad that I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only church that has the complete fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When I hear other people's beliefs, my testimony becomes more and more deeply rooted because it really just. makes. sense. It's as simple as that.

Sunday was Elder Warburton's birthday, so after church our bishop's wife ran up to us and was like "I didn't know it was his birthday!! Oh no, you all HAVE to come to dinner tonight to celebrate!" So after two appointments that we were very excited about, which BOTH happened to fall through (ah, the disappointment) we were able to end the night off with a delicious meal and fun times at Bishop's house! It's always a party when you're with a bunch of Brazilians and Italians hahaha. I also found out from Elder Sowah that my Ghanian name is "Yaa". I think it has a nice ring to it, so I may just go by that from now on hahaha.

The bishop's daughter made little party bags for Elder Warburton's party and they literally just had string in them hahaha but it was still so sweet.

Well.... that's about all I've got for this week. I'm sure that next Monday I'll lots of great stuff to excite you all with, since I'm sure this week will include a lot of getting lost and adjusting and learning! I love you all!

Sincerely,
Sister Syddall