#triolife

HEY PALS!

This week has just been so good. So, SO good. I have to say, I was a bit nervous to be in a trio and how the dynamics would work, but I have just absolutely loved every second of being with Sister Johnston and Sister Yau! Sleeping on a majorly springy mattress on the floor has been totally worth it. Oh, and not to mention the plus of actually having a shower. Oh, how I'm going to miss that when I go back to Gillingham :')  Oh yes, and even though you've probably already realized (due to the fact that this is a day late) it was transfers this week! I will be heading back to Gillingham 2nd Ward and my new companion will be Sister Garcia!! I believe that she is from Mexico...? At least from what I've heard. It will be fun to get to know yet another culture! As I thought back through my companions, I realised how I have had the opportunity to learn about so many cultures... Switzerland, Ethiopia, Norway, England, Hong Kong, all the wonderful American companions, and now Mexico! Pretty cool! If I'm wrong about where she is from, I'll let ya all know next week haha.

Where to even begin with this week though? Canterbury is simply BREATHTAKING. I'm not kidding you, when you walk around the main street, there are just all of these old beautiful castle-like buildings, and it's just such a charming lil place. We also got to go a few times to a place called Whitstable, which is right by the sea. It had so many cute little boutiques and cafes (even though we couldn't go in... #proselytinglife). Serving for a week here has made me realise how plain most of the places I've served in are... but hey ho, that's alright! I still have a special bond with my small, plain towns. I'm pretty sure as I have explained to a countless number of people why I am here for one week, EVERY SINGLE ONE has said, "oh... I'm so sorry you have to go back to Sittingbourne..." But that's ok, I'm pumped!

We had a district meeting right off the bat, and what do you get when you get together an American, an American, an American, an American, an American, an American, and a Chinese?! The Canterbury District hahaha! A little bit different from the diversity of the Gillingham District, but it was still a party. I've also had the opportunity to be around the Tuttles, a senior couple, a little bit more, and they're just so great! They've fed us, given us lifts to places, and I can't even count the amount of cookies Sister Tuttle has made for different events. She has made more than 600 dozen cookies since they've been here serving (about 9 months). Wowza.

We had quite the experience this week of going to a place called Faversham, which is in Canterbury's area, to teach one of my investigators, R. He lives in the Gillingham 2nd Ward boundaries, but works in Canterbury's, so we decided to meet at what I thought was a restaurant near the train station. When we arrived, the whole place was just wild. There was some parade going on with all of the towns in Kent, and it was just a madhouse. What we thought was just a nice lil restaurant ended up being a pub, and it was soooo hectic and we couldn't spot R there. We began a mad dash around town to try and find him, and when we couldn't get through to him and didn't see him anywhere, we were about to give up. But I felt like we should check the pub one more time, and lo and behold, he was in there, sipping his cup of coke, patiently waiting a good 45 minutes for us. He had forgotten his phone so he had no way of contacting us. Through the noise we tried to see how he has been feeling as he has read and prayed and come to church. We had a whole lesson planned, but the setting definitely was not conducive to the spirit, so we kept it short and sweet... and learned the lesson of never teaching in a pub again!

On Sunday we had a cool opportunity to hear from a Rabbi at a fireside. He has attended a few temple open houses with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, and is associated with a lot of wonderful leaders in the church. He is a good friend of Elder Tuttle's. This Rabbi told us about his journey of finding the Jewish faith and taught us more about ancient temples and the sacrifices they offered. It was very eye-opening, and a cool experience!

Being in the Canterbury Ward has just been fantastic. I made so many great friends so quickly, and I am sad I won't really see many people again :(  I'm crossing my fingers that we will have Stake Conference before I go home so I can see them all! I HAVE LOVED BEING HERE! But the Lord needs me back in Sittingbourne, and that will be wonderful too.

I'll leave you with a sweet expression Sister Yau taught me: "sau sang la" <3 ... you can all take a guess at what it means hahaha. But really "O OI LEI"... that means I LOVE YOU ALL! Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Syddall


OH! I FORGOT TO WRITE ABOUT THIS! We got to go to a Japanese restaurant and eat some authentic food, and after I finished all of my food, I realised I had this picture of my dad! I decided to recreate it with what I had left :)  It made me decide that I love Japanese people and I want to go there someday!! And the food was delicious.

(before our food was gone haha)