Thankful for Thanksgiving

Hello! Hola! Bonjour! How are you all?! I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving!

This week kind of just went by in a blur, so I don't really remember all that well WHAT even happened! I will try my best to recall all of the highlights.

Highlight number one was definitely Thanksgiving! We had a district meeting that morning and met the whole new crew. That night we got to go to one of the American couples in our ward for an AMAZING Thanksgiving dinner. They invited both us and the Elders over, and then they had one other American couple and one Mexican/English couple (hey, any reason to celebrate and have food, right?). But oh. my. goodness. they had the entire spread. Turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole. The funny English addition was Yorkshire pudding (and for all my American pals... so I guess that means ALL my pals... "pudding" is not what you're imagining) in place of rolls. They're still way good anyway so I was cool with it! And then you can't end Thanksgiving without 5,263,748 pies haha! I was seriously bursting by the end of the night. I'm not even kidding. I was seriously in pain because I ate so much. It was SO dang worth it, though. Sister Mekonnen thoroughly enjoyed her first Thanksgiving experience.

Friday was an awesome day as well! We were doing some finding and just talking to anyone and everyone that we saw. Unfortunately the weather has been the pits lately and people are just not nearly as open to talk when the wind is blowin' ya over and the rain is slapping your face at 100mph. So we decided that we would try out a little tracting. Generally tracting isn't the most effective way to find people, but we were BLESSED on this little street. Seriously four houses in a row were so open and want to learn more about the gospel! And just the fact that people were in at the time is a miracle in itself because most people here work away their entire life. Since my new district leader knows I'm in the choir, he assumes I have a really good voice and has been trying and trying to get me and Sister Mekonnen to sing for the district while he plays the ukulele. We made a deal that if Sister Mekonnen and I didn't find a new investigator Friday afternoon, we would sing, but Heavenly Father had my back because He knew the whole singing thing would NOT go well hahaha.

Saturday night we had Thanksgiving dinner round two with another couple in the ward, and once again the food was uh-maze-ing. And once again I ate way way wayyyyy too much haha! But what is Thanksgiving if you don't feel like toppling over after you eat? And the whole "turkey makes you tired" thing really took a toll on me. I was BEAT by the time we got back to our flat. But it was awesome.

If you thought my Thanksgiving extravaganza ends there, you thought wrong! The senior Sisters wanted to have us over for Thanksgiving, but we had the other dinner, so we went to their flat on Sunday night, and they once again made the whole spread. And they are the only ones who gave us stuffing, so I was quite happy. Once again I ate way. too. much. Thank goodness Thanksgiving only comes one time a year because I think I would be about 500 pounds heavier after my mission if I ate like this every night. Oh, and they had loads of Christmas decorations at their flat, so that was pretty dang awesome as well!

I woke up today feeling soooooo sick. Sore throat, aching body, fever/chills, ear ache, headache. Ya know, the works. AND I got to sing for three hours:') howwwwwww wonderful. But I am happy to let you all know I survived, even though I could literally feel the life draining out of me the whole time. Actually my health is STILL deteriorating. Just crossing my fingers I'll feel better after a good night's sleep and be able to work 110% tomorrow!

Something pretty cool is that for the first time at the Hyde Park Visitor Centre they are having a live nativity! It's right on Exhibition Road, so LOTS of people see it. President Stevens got to dedicate that with a beautiful prayer and then we got to sing a few of our songs, which may not have been the best for my health in the cold, wet weather, but it was still so fun! For any of you that will just be moseying around London (I'm sure you'll all be here, right?) on December 13th, we will be performing at Hyde Park and the one, the only, President Stevens will be singing a solo woooohooooo! We will also be performing at Wembley and Ilford, so that should be loads of fun! I am actually way pumped about it. If someone manages to get a video, I'll be sure to send it to you all!

Alrightttttt now here's a little spiritual upliftment for you all:

"The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future." ~ Jeffrey R. Holland

Oh, and I hope you have all had a chance to watch the new Christmas video! If not, check it out on christmas.mormon.org

LOVE YA'LL (England brings out my inner redneck)! I hope you're all gearing up for the most wonderful time of the year!

Love,
Sister Syddall

Attitude of Gratitude

HELLO!

It was transfers week, which is somewhat a stressful time, but I must now inform you that I am moving... on to serve another wonderful six weeks in Hayes with Sister Mekonnen! Did I get you there? Probably not, but its fine hahaha. I am seriously SO PUMPED that I get to be here for another six weeks! The first third of my mission will be spent in this wonderful place, and I wouldn't want it anywhere else :) and not to mention, we have not one, but TWO Thanksgiving dinners this week, WOOHOO!

So this week once again started off with a lot of time in the flat, and oh my goodness, I have never been SO antsy to just be outside! Luckily the senior Sisters were able to help out a bit and I was able to get out of the flat with Sister Reeder to go to district meeting on Tuesday. I had been asked to give a training, so I told Sister Reeder that if she got to our flat at 9am, we would be able to make it to the chapel by 10. She and Sister Jackson arrived, and then we were off. Little did we know it was going to be quite the adventure haha. We got on the train and were just makin' our way to Wembly, and after a few stops they announce that there was a passenger accident on the tracks at one of the stations ahead (so sad) and that it would be terminating early. Now I have only come to district meeting ONE WAY every single time, so Sister Reeder and I were just sooooo lost. Also I must mention she had brought a huge box of treats for the  missionaries, and I offered to hold it for her, and my arms were KILLING me. So we were just frantically asking everyone how to get there, and after taking another underground line and two buses, we finally arrived at somewhere I recognised, at Wembly Stadium... on the wrong side (and this place is hugeeeee). We then proceeded to walk about a mile and we FINALLY made it there... and hey, we were only an hour late hahaha. Turns out they waited for us sooooo I was still able to give my training, and all was well.

The wonderful senior Sisters AKA our BFFs

BUT THEN as we were leaving district meeting it was SO dark outside and it was just raining and raining and raining. That morning I didn't think it looked like it was going to rain, so I took my umbrella out of my bag (smart, I know). A couple of the Elders were offering me their umbrellas before we left, but I figured I could make it. So Sister Reeder and I start walking and I realise that it was raining A LOT harder than I had presumed, and I was still carrying this large awkward box and Sister Reeder was trying to share her umbrella with me. A 4'10" person trying to share an umbrella with a 5'10" person doesn't work too smoothly haha. So I just gave up and let the rain pour down. Then we just kept walking and I heard footsteps rapidly approaching us and so I turn around and it was two of the Elders SPRINTING to give me their umbrella. It was just about the sweetest thing ever. Granted, I was already pretty much soaked, but very kind nonetheless haha! There was a lesson learned in all of this: n-e-v-e-r leave anywhere in England without an umbrella!

On Wednesday Sister Mekonnen was feeling a bit better, so we were able to go out with the senior Sisters on exchanges. I went with Sister Reeder to meet with a less active elderly lady, and Sister Mekonnen and Sister Jackson went to do some finding. Sister Reeder and I had a great time and lots of laughs, but her tooth started to hurt her soooooo bad so she couldn't stay out for long. So Sister Mekonnen and I switched back and then went to a lesson to teach "the law of tithing" dun dun DUN. This is always a lesson that's a lil stressful to teach because people's reactions are just unpredictable. But thank goodness the couple we were teaching was SO understanding about it! They told us that they knew they would receive blessings if they lived this commandment!

Saturday night we really wanted to go to a Stake event. They were doing an International Dance thing where each of the wards had prepared a dance number and were performing for everyone else, and everyone was bringing different types of food. Hayes Ward was performing a Brazilian dance (who would've guessed? ;)). So we were trying. and trying. and trying. to find a ride but EVERYONE'S car was full, and it's impossible to get there on public transport. We were feeling a bit discouraged, especially due to the fact that it was FREEZING cold. Just tons of ice cold wind. My hands and feet were completely numb and my nose looked like Rudolph. I'm not even exaggerating when I say this is the coldest I think I have every felt in my entire life. Since we were planning to go to the Stake event, we had to completely set out a new plan. We decided to go see an investigator that we've had a bit of a hard time contacting. We were finally able to catch her, but she was just about to head to work, so we didn't have the opportunity to have a lesson with her. So feeling even a bit more discouraged, we decided that we would stop by a potential investigator that lived nearby and we were just PRAYING that something would work out because it had been a long day. We knock on this guy's door and a super sweet woman answers and tells us to come in while she gets this Samuel guy. We hear her yell up the stairs, "Pastor Sam! Some missionaries are here to see you!" and then we go in and sit in their living room where another man is sitting. We start talking to him and it turns out he is the founder of their church. He was the head pastor, and this Sam guy was a junior pastor. We started to talk to them about the Book of Mormon because they had some questions, and it kind of turned into them just saying how we should be promoting the Bible and not the Book of Mormon, and I was getting a little annoyed honestly. Then Sister Mekonnen read a scripture from the Book of Mormon and their eyes got all big because BOOM the Spirit filled the room. So we left them two copies of The Book of Mormon because they want to read it, and headed out. When we started to leave their little apartment complex, Sam yells out and is like "wait! Pastor's wife made dinner for you!" So we go back in and she had prepared a full-on meal which was way good. Way spicy. But way good. And so the night actually turned out pretty great! The Lord definitely sends miracles in those times when nothing seems to be going right! He knew we needed to be there that night.

Sister Mekonnen loving the fall leaves

 We were trying to take pictures with the swan... it did not really work too well haha.

But you can also see the massive amount of leaves that are everywhere here!!!

The wild swans that we see everywhere! I get so excited every time I see one haha.

I LOVE this time of year. It's truly an amazing time to reflect on how much we have each been blessed in our lives. A wonderful time to thank our Heavenly Father for all that He has blessed us with. I hope that you all strive to have an attitude of gratitude as you celebrate Thanksgiving with your loved ones! Even when times may be hard, there are still so many blessings! I love this quote from President Uchtdorf:

"Perhaps focusing on what we are grateful for is the wrong approach. It is difficult to develop a spirit of gratitude if our thankfulness is only proportional to the number of blessing we can count. True, it is important to frequently 'count our blessings' -- and anyone who has tried this knows there are many -- but I don't believe the Lord expects us to be less thankful in times of trial than in times of abundance and ease. In fact, most of the scriptural references do not speak of gratitude for things but rather suggest an overall spirit or attitude of gratitude."

"It is easy to be grateful for things when life seems to be going our way. But what then of those times when what we wish for seems to be far out of reach?"

"Could I suggest that we see gratitude as a disposition, a way of life that stands independent of our current situation? In other words, I'm suggesting that instead of being thankful for things, we focus on being thankful in our circumstances -- whatever they may be."

Now I must shoot off as we are going to the one, the only COSTCO. Imma go get me a hot dog :) LOVE YOU ALL! Thank you for the prayers and support!

Love,
Sister Syddall

Long Week

Hello! Howdy! Hi! Hola! How are you?! I hope you all had a fantastic week! Mine was a little bit interesting... But I'll just jump right into it!

So Tuesday was a busy busy day, but it started right off with a bang, which was super awesome. Way back in the day (like 7 weeks ago) Sister Bader and I received a referral from church headquarters. We are told that we are supposed to contact these referrals within 24 hours. We tried, and no luck. We were super sad because this woman had requested a Book of Mormon and we were having NO luck getting in contact with her. So we continued to try. And try. And try. FINALLY Tuesday morning Sister Mekonnen and I were like "ok, we are going to try this lady ONE more time" so we arrived and she opened the door and let us in to visit. We started talking with her and she informed us that the reason she had requested a Book of Mormon was because her friend had seen the musical, and she thought it would be a funny joke to give her the actual book. She said she didn't know that missionaries would be coming with it hahaha. But since the time she had requested the Book of Mormon, some things in her life have changed. She is going through some trials and expressed to us that she truly WANTS to have a deeper rooted relationship with God. She WANTS to find a church that that she can come to each week. And she WANTS to read the Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong as we spoke about how the gospel could change her life. It was truly a miracle, and we are SO excited to teach her!

Wednesday night we had a lesson with an investigator, and it felt like the longest lesson of my life. We had met with this guy a couple of times previously, and he had lots of good questions, but this entire lesson he was pretty much just bashing Sister Mekonnen and I on the fact that we don't know a ton about the Muslim faith. He was just going on. and on. and on. about how it was disrepectful of us to go around teaching people about the Book of Mormon when we didn't know about their beliefs. He kept asking questions that were so random, we would answer, and then he would come back and say "well I already knew the answer, I just wanted to see how well you guys knew it." In the end we just bore testimony about why we have chosen to follow and live the gospel, and that was about all we could do. He wasn't having any of it, so we left without setting a return appointment. Sister Mekonnen and I were both a lil' bit annoyed, but it was definitely a learning experience.

Thursday we were heading to see a less active member of the ward, but on our way realised that we would be late for our later appointments if we went. Since it was an unplanned visit, we decided to turn around before we got there so that we could be on time for our other appointments. While we were driving back on the upper deck of the bus, it was only Sister Mekonnen and I, and then a family that was sitting behind us. Sister Mekonnen leaned over to me and whispered, "I think that is an Ethiopian family... but I'm not completely sure..." Since she has been on her mission, she has never met any other Ethiopians. Right as we were about to get off the bus, she asked them and they were like "YES, we are!" It was just so cool! They were the sweetest family ever, and they were giving us hugs and telling us that we could come visit them. It was a testimony strengthener to show that Heavenly Father truly does place people in our path.

Friday we had zoneeeeeee conference, woohoo! I seriously love zone conference. So so so much. President Stevens and Sister Stevens are simply the best. Something that Sister Stevens said that really stood out to me was, "We cannot do it HIS way without HIS help." It was a reminder to me that I need the Lord's help in every single thing that I do. That does not only apply to this time while I am out on my mission, but for my entire life. If we want to do what is pleasing to our Father in Heaven and do His will, we must humble ourselves and ask Him for help and guidance.

Zone Conference pic! Sorry, no camera pictures again this week :(

And then we reached Saturday. That was the day Sister Mekonnen got soooooooo sick. Seriously, I feel so bad for her! We had an appointment with a couple of investigators and then an appointment with a recent convert, and throughout both of them I could just see that she was in SO much pain. We went back to the flat and she just slept the rest of the day while I studied and called some people and made little quotes to hang on my wall. I know, riveting stuff, right? We had to cancel everything for the rest of the day and I assumed she would probably feel better by Sunday morning.

I woke up on Sunday morning and she still was in so much pain, she couldn't even get out of bed. So I called President and Sister Stevens and informed them, and then suggested that maybe I could exchange with the senior Sisters, just so I could be at church for our investigators. President Stevens thought that was a wonderful idea so then I called up the senior Sisters and they were running a bit late, but were happy to help! Then Sister Reeder and I were BOOKING it to church because we really didn't want to miss the sacrament, but of course we get there right when they finished. As I looked around the room, not an investigator in sight. Then I started to feel so frustrated because I missed the sacrament AND no one had come that had said they would. There is seriously nothing as heart-shattering as a missionary when you work so hard to get people to church, and they simply don't make the effort. Or when they don't follow through on any commitment for that matter. But we all have our agency, right? So Sister Reeder and I made our way back to the flat, and then they were off. Luckily Elder Sowah and Elder Warburton offered to bring us the sacrament, so that helped pick me up! It was just a crazy weekend. It doesn't look like Sister Mekonnen is feeling any better yet, so we will see what this week holds!

I think something I've learned this week, and throughout the entirety of my mission really, is to have {patience in the Lord's timing}. I know that there is something I can learn from this little bump in the road, and I know that He has so many blessings in store in the future.

I love you all! Thank you for the support and prayers!

Love,
Sister Syddall

Rain, Rain, Go Away

HELLO! Selam nesh? (Sister Mekonnen taught me a littl Amharic, holllllllllla)

Last week I know I told you about the service project that took all. day. long. but we got a call from President Stevens on Tuesday morning telling us that we could have our pday then since we didn't have time to get anything done on Monday. Unfortunately, on Wednesday Sister Mekonnen got feeling REALLY sick. She has been sick practically her entire mission, but this last week it was getting very bad. I must add, she is the most positive person even though she has been facing this trial for 7+ months. She has definitely been an example to me of fighting through the pain. Since she was progressively beginning to feel worse and worse, we had to set up a doctor's appointment, which so happened to be in the heart of London. It was quite the experience trying to figure out how to get to this place, but we eventually found it (thank goodness) and lemme tell ya, this doctor's office was soooooooo nice. Generally I'm super antsy to get out of those places, but I honestly could have sat in there all day long haha. So posh.

 The Watford Zone wooooohoooooo!

On Friday night we had a lesson with two of our investigators and decided to invite the senior Sister Missionaries to come along with us. I cannot even express in words how fun these ladies are. That whole lesson was just so much fun, and they have a little more (OK... a LOT more) experience and insight than Sister Mekonnen and I, so it was just all around great. The investigators loved having them there, and even on Sunday at church our investigators were like "will those older women be here?!" Sister Mekonnen and I always laugh because when we are with them it just feels like we are all best pals even though they are more than 50 years older than us. At the end of the lesson, Sister Reeder was like, "Wait, I wanna keep hanging out with you guys. Let's go party." Unfortunately we couldn't ACTUALLY go party, but since we had so much fun with them we invited them to help work on THE HOUSE with us the next morning (I know, such a fun invitation, right?).

Saturday was just a crazy day altogether. First thing in the morning we went to work in THE HOUSE, but we didn't have a ton of time and the journey there is quite long, so we had to head out a bit early. We met up with the senior Sisters and made our way there and it was pouring rain and windy. I also must add that it rained every. single. day. this week. AND we had a mission-wide conference call that morning. SO, we get to THE HOUSE and the people with the keys weren't there yet, so we huddled outside in the rain listening to this call. By the time the call was over, the people with THE HOUSE keys finally showed up and we were all soaking wet. It was quite disheartening to walk in and see that everything was a complete and total mess, so we were pretty much just straightening things up and trying to find somewhere - ANYWHERE - to put all this stuff. In the end I don't know how much of a help we were, but hey, we tried haha. Then we had to rush home, get changed back into our regular missionary gear, and head straight back out the door to do consecrated finding. The whole mission was doing finding together so that we could find miracles. Sister Mekonnen and I were trying to talk to anyone and everyone for 1.5 hours and no. luck. It was kind of sad, but we know that we planted a lot of seeds that just need a little time.

Saturday evening the Elders had a baptism! It was kind of sad because literally like no one showed up, but it was still so wonderful. The spirit was so strong, and the man that was baptised just had a light about him and it was so so wonderful to see :)  Then we had to rush as fast as we could back to Uxbridge to make a dinner appointment with one of our less active members. She is very sweet and LOVES the sister missionaries. She has a slight {social/learning/mental} disability, and something that she has a BIG problem with is if you are not on time. It literally makes her so so sooooooo mad , so we made it just in time (thank goodness) and had a great dinner. So Saturday was a busy busy day, but it was also wonderful because just having the opportunity to share the gospel is WONDERFUL!

This picture just makes me laugh because we were at dinner at a 70-year-old single woman's home and she had this face cut out of Harry Styles hahaha

Then we jumped right into Sunday, which was once again a jam-packed day. We went to church in the morning and had some special self-reliance presentation from some Stake Leaders. After church we had ward council, which once again was talking about the self-reliance program, which is way cool, but they didn't really focus on the ways it could help out with missionary work too much, so we didn't have a huge role in the meeting... BUT we got some Brazilian food out of it, which is so so good. Oh, and one of the families in our ward came back from visiting Ghana and brought back all this stuff for Elder Sowah, so he gave us a big container of plantain chips and they were SO GOOD. Essentially they just tasted like potato chips, but I think any food after church on a Sunday is especially great haha. After church we went from appointment, to appointment, to appointment. But is is just so so GREAT to be busy. I love it.

And now we are going to the three-hour-long choir practice... Wooohoooooo... And then afterwards it's MISSION-WIDE FLAT CLEANING DAY WOOOOOHOOOOOO! Did I get your hopes up that it was going to be something super duper exciting?! I cannot even believe that we only have two weeks left of this transfer. I didn't really believe other missionaries that each transfer seems faster, but DANG this one is flying by! We have the sweetest American lady in our ward who invited us over for Thanksgiving, so I am seriously hoping I get to stay here!! And of course I just love this place and I really don't ever want to leave... Only time will tell I suppose.

I just want to end with a sweet little miracle that was very profound to me. We went to visit a family who is somewhat inactive, but the dad is completely inactive. They invited us in and I just felt prompted to share my favourite scripture - the one that is on my missionary plaque at home - 2 Nephi 31:20: "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." As I read this scripture and shared my feelings, I focused on that in the footnotes the term steadfastness says Walking with God. Tears came to the dad's eyes and he said that it reminded him of his favourite story called "Footprints" (maybe? It's the story about the man who only sees one set of footprints and asks Christ why he wasn't there walking with him, and then he comes to discover that He was carrying him) and that he knew, even through this rough time, Christ was always with him and Heavenly Father is always listening. I loved this sweet little experience.

Well, I love you all! Have a fabulous week!

Love,
Sister Syddall

P.S. I have some fun pictures on my camera to share, but unfortunately haven't had the opportunity to use a computer to download them. Sorry for the lack of pictures!! I promise I'll send more in the future.

Hallo-WEAK. Haha. So clever.

Aloha!!

So I've got a little story for you all that I think you'll find quite humorous, because I honestly don't know how I allowed myself to get in this situation. Last week we got an email asking if we would like to be a part of a Christmas missionary choir. Now if you know me, you know that choirs aren't really my thing. I tried it out freshman year in high school, joined in with the church choirs, and I just never really was into the whole sitting-for-an-hour-singing thing. People always seemed to point out how "thrilled" I looked when I was singing. And my voice, although I'm not completely tone deaf, is definitely not anything spectacular. BUT Sister Mekonnen really wanted to join, so I envisioned a big group of missionaries together singing fun little Christmas tunes, so I kindly obliged. We emailed back and said we would love to join. So we show up to our first rehearsal and there are literally like 15 of us. And most of the others are quite skilled. And these are songs I've never heard before and are so challenging. I really think I just looked like a deer in the headlights the whole rehearsal, but I survived. THEN we come to find out that we will be having 3-hour rehearsals every pday. Until Christmas. Like what the heckkkkkk. So now I'm stuck in this choir, and we find out it's a traveling choir. So this isn't just one concert that I have to endure through. Sister Mekonnen and I both were like "uhhhhhh this is not what we were expecting" but it's too late. We are stuck now. I'll be sure to keep you all updated on how this all goes down.

We had Halloween this week, which, let me just let you all know, is SO underwhelming here. Like we saw maybe 15 trick-or-treaters, and as we observed them going door-to-door I did not see ONE door open. How depressing, am I right?! I do miss the grand American Halloween, I must say. Appreciate your holidays, my friends! This weekend it's the 5th of November, which is "bonfire night" so apparently there will be lots of fireworks and fires. I've been told the meaning behind this holiday and apparently it's celebrating a man who failed at overtaking parliament...? So they killed him in a fire. Odd reason to have a holiday, if I do say so myself. But hey, I won't complain. Any reason to have fireworks is good enough for me.

I have also been declared as the official brownie maker for district meetings, which has been quite a test for my intelligence. Our week 1 attempt ended with a burnt finger and uncooked brownies = no brownies at district meeting. Week 2 was a success. Everyone was asking what my secret was to make these brownies, and I had two words for them: Betty. Crocker.

I have heard that I did not do a very sufficient job of updating you all on my new companion. So Sister Mekonnen and I get along GREAT. Like seriously, I love that girl so much already. We are realllllly crossing our fingers that we will get to be together another transfer so that we will be together for Christmas (and Thanksgiving because we have the BEST couple in our ward that celebrates it and said we are invited holllllla)! The funny thing is that she has a complete American accent, so, just like what always happened to Sister Bader, everyone always assumes that we're both from the States, and they are so taken aback when she says she's from Ethiopia hahaha.

This pday has turned into an interesting one... This morning at 7am we got a call from our bishop declaring that we and the Elders had an emergency service project. We came to find out that it was practically demolishing and remodeling the same home that we had "deep cleaned" a few weeks ago. We headed straight over and literally painted/cleaned/put up wallpaper all. day. long. But we DID get KFC out of it. Now we are just headed to a dinner appointment and that will make up our entire day haha. I literally ended up covered from head to toe in paint somehow, and so I'm gonna look real nice at dinner, but service is always good, right ladies and gents?! Even though we ended up missing our 3-hour choir practice... so I'll update you on that next week haha.

And now to end this letter that is being sent super duper late... Sister Mekonnen and I just got raw eggs thrown at us... lovely end to this tiring day.

But for some spiritual upliftment:

"Rise to the great potential within you. I do not ask that you reach beyond your capacity. I hope you will not nag yourselves with thoughts of failure. I hope you will not try to set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. I hope you will simply do what you can do in the best way you know. If you do so, you will witness miracles come to pass." Gordon B. Hinckley

Love ya'll! Keep on rockin'!
Sister Syddall

Post post: A PICTURE!! From Sister Syddall (November 3) ~ I know you are going to be taken aback by receiving an email from me today... but we got special permission from President Stevens to do our pday activities today since our day yesterday was all used up! Here's a selfie for ya haha!