IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS

Hello everybody!

So right off the bat I must apologise that this email is going to be a quick one because we literally have about zero time to do anything today! We had our first choir performance last night and it was uber tiring but also wayyyy good. Now we are headed to a day of practice, singing at an old folks home, having tea (herbal of course) and cake with them (proper English shin-dig), and then having another performance tonight!

But I just wanted to tell you all a funny little story from the week.

Saturday was a crazy day. In the morning I was on an exchange with one of the Sister Training Leaders, Sister Grant from Finland (p.s. I learned that her grandpa was Mr. Universe back in the day hahaha!). We exchanged back and then Sister Mekonnen and I had to rush to the ward Christmas party (which was PACKED by the way, but so fun). Then we said our goodbyes and headed home. So usually on Saturday night we have a zone call, and so we were just back at our flat waiting for the call, but we never got one, so we just went to bed, not really thinking anything of it. We just figured that for some reason they didn't have one that night. I was just on the brink of being completely asleep when I hear Sister Mekonnen say, "Sister Syddall, I think someone is knocking on the door." So I'm half delirious and I'm just like, "What are you talking about?" And then all of a sudden I hear a SUPER LOUD knock. At this point my stomach literally dropped to the floor and my heart started beating sooooo fast. My mind literally was thinking of all the different awful situations that could commence. Was it a drunk? A creepy person who watched us and knew where we lived? Were they gonna break the door open (because that's literally what these knocks sounded like)? So I was just freaking out and was like, "Oh my gosh, what should we do?! Who should we call?!" So we try to call the zone leaders and the phone says "emergency calls only," and I was like what the heck, am I in some sort of horror movie?? We try a bunch of different numbers and none of them worked, meanwhile there is still someone BANGING on the door. Sister Mekonnen decides to open the bedroom door (and I'm a wimp so I was like, "Wait, no! Don't do it!" But she still did haha) and than all of a sudden she goes, "Wait... I think I hear Elder Tonks voice!" I was still just so confused at this whole situation. So I creep out of the bedroom and as we are listening we then clearly hear, "We've tried to call them 6 times and got no answer!" I went downstairs and was like, "Who is it?" and then we hear "The missionaries!" Then we were like OH OK and opened the door hahaha. There we saw Elder Tonks and Elder Kalablanko (totally spelled that wrong, ooops lol) standing at our door. They went on to tell us that a billion people tried to call us and no one was getting through so they all thought something happened to us. Butttttt turns out our phone is just wacko and broken. It was very sweet for so many people to care, even though we were totally unaware of it! It was all just so random though, so it felt like a dream, and then we could not get back to sleep cuz our adrenaline was PUMPIN'. But it's a good story to tell, I guess!

And here's the awkward district picture for you haha

Like I mentioned, we had our choir concert at Hyde Park and it was sooooo awesome! So many people came, and three of our new investigators came along and loved it! And lemme tell ya, President Stevens OWNED "Three Kings". And I didn't ruin any of the songs so I would consider it a success!

Again, sorry this email is so short, but I hope you all have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! I will not be emailing on Monday because our pday will be moved to Christmas. But I LOVE YOU ALL! Remember the reason for the season!

Love,
Sister Syddall