Forget yourself and go to work!

HELLO! Is it me you're looking for?

I hope you liked the Lionel Richie reference. Everyone here has been talking about some new song by Adele called "Hello" and since I'm way out of the loop, I just always think of this song hahaha. But OK, let's get down to business, shall we?

This week began with being sick and hearing some very sad news, so it was a bit of a struggle BUT when you're serving the Lord, it always seems to pick itself up. I seriously feel SO blessed to be out here serving in London. The phrase that constantly gets me through the rough times is "forget yourself and go to work!" I LOVE THIS WORK. I LOVE THE GOSPEL. I love the comfort it gives to me. I am so grateful to have a testimony of the Plan of Salvation and to know that after our time on earth there is SO much more in store. I have also been able to reflect on how precious each and every day is. Tell your friends and family you love them every chance you get! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!

I apologise for how random that paragraph above is, but that's what has been on my mind throughout this week. SO lemme think for one moment while I reflect on what has happened. Last Sunday we got a new Ward Mission Leader and Tuesday night we had a meeting with him, and OH MY GOODNESS he is just going to be the BEST. Too bad I probably only have three weeks with him. He and his wife also fed us dinner, and they're Brazilian, so MORE BRAZILIAN FOOD WOOHOO. That's not even a sarcastic statement. It's seriously so dang good!

Thursday we had such good plans and almost everything seemed to fall through, which is always a bummer, but it still turned out to be a great day! We were stopping by a new investigator, but she can barely speak English so it was a speedy lesson haha. Since we were done with her lesson a bit early, we decided to stop by some potential investigators - one was this guy named Kevin. He said he had wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon. When we got there, he invited us in to explain more about it and we ended up getting to teach his two cousins as well! They're from Sri Lanka (seriously like 90% of the people we meet here are not English. It's so fun to meet people from EVERYWHERE) and are here working. They were all SO excited to get a copy of the Book of Mormon and learn more! Sister Mekonnen and I are super excited to teach them in the future!

Alrighty, so on Friday morning we got to do the fun and exciting weekly planning, WOOHOO! I just loveeeeee sitting there for three hours ;') hahaha but really it's great to set out solid plans for the week! Afterwards I went to take the rubbish outside (I know I've explained their awful garbage system here) and it was super windy so the door slammed shut behind me. Sister Mekonnen was just upstairs sweeping, so I assumed she heard it and would run downstairs to let me in. When she wasn't coming, I started knocking. And knocking. And knocking some more. My knuckles were seriously bright red. FINALLY like 10 minutes later, after standing shoeless and jacketless, she came down and let me in. She couldn't hear me because the washing machine and microwave were going at the same time. Although I must admit I was a tad bit annoyed at first, now I think it's hilarious. I'm sure glad the 100 billion university students that were passing by got to see me frantically knocking haha. Now that I type this out it really doesn't even sound funny. OH WELL.

Oh my goodness I almost forgot to mention! OK, so the senior sister missionaries seriously are our best friends. And they spoil us WAY too much! Like seriously they took us out to lunch THREE TIMES this week! Five Guys (HOLLLLLA), an Italian restaurant, and Nandos, which has a lot of chicken with something called "peri peri" sauce. That stuff is huge here, but hey, it's good so I'm not complaining! And they've bought us Christmas gifts and just been so sweet to go teaching with us all the time! Now if we could think of something AWESOME to give them for Christmas. If any of you have splendid ideas, let me know!

The height difference (Sister Reeder and I) haha

Saturday we had Zone Meetinggggggg! It's always fun to get together as a zone and learn and set goals and feel the Spirit! It's always fun after transfers to meet all the new pals you're going to be around. It was SO good. We talked a lot about the new Christmas videos and how we can use them in our finding (thank you iPads) and teaching. And if you guys have not seen the "Why we need a Savior," look it up! Oh my goodness it's sooooooo good! Sister Reeder came and she insisted that she bring a treat for all of the missionaries, but over by the Wembley Chapel there isn't really any big shop, so we went to this little tiny convenience store and bought them out of all their M&M's. The man was probably very confused why someone would buy £25 worth of them hahaha. She's the best though. I was just laughing up a storm the entire time we were with her!

I am very disappointed in myself that I have not mentioned two of our investigators that I have been teaching since like my second transfer! They will be getting baptised in January (right after I most likely leave, sad day). But they are a hoot! Their names are Jenner and Sandra. Jenner is from the Caribbean (yes he does have dreadlocks and loves Bob Marley), and Sandra is from Lithuania. Odd match? Yes. Funniest couple in the world? Yes. So every single time that we go over to Jenner and Sandra's, he just says the funniest and most ridiculous things. Let me replay one of the conversations we had last night as we were talking about the Word of Wisdom:

Jenner: "You know, ALL pigs have demons in them, so I will never eat pork."

Me: "Hmmmm... I don't think that the muscle has any demons in it, so I still choose to eat it (at this moment everyone lost it and started cracking up). But if you don't want to eat pork, that's fine!"

Jenner: "Go to the butcher's and ask them for a pork chop then put lemon juice on it. It will immediately turn to worms."

Me: "Well, even after seeing how hot dogs are made I still choose to eat them, so I'll try but I'll probably still eat pork."

Sandra: "You know, I've fed you pork before and just told you that it was chicken. And you always say you like it!"

Jenner: "WHAT?!"

I hope you all enjoyed a glimpse into our meetings with Jenner and Sandra. They're seriously the BEST. I love those people so much, I wish so badly you could all meet them! I will take a picture with them so you can all get a visual haha.

And if any of you were curious it gets dark here by 4:00PM. Yes you heard that right, FOUR O'CLOCK. It's madness.

Something we have loved asking people we meet is what will YOU give our Saviour Jesus Christ as a gift this Christmas season? I invite you all to reflect on that and write down what you will give to Him. Remember He is the reason for the season! Love you all!

Love,
Sister Syddall