Cheers!

11-22-10

hello!! how are ya? how is everything at home? how's the fam? everything here is going great!! Pday was a lot of fun today. we went to portsmouth with the elders and went around the harbor to see all the cool ships and things. it was so fun. the ships reminded me of Pirates of the Carribean:) we also went to a free museum which was the wierdest museum ever. it started out with star trek and terminator type things and everntually went to modern art and the finally football (soccer) it was fun though. the elders in our district are a lot of fun so it was great to just hang out with them for a bit. we wore regular clothes today since we were sight seeing and stuff. I felt wierd in them haha I'm not used to pants anymore!!

 this week has been incredible. I loved it! we had a training conference for all the new missionaries so we went to the mission home and stayed there for a couple days while we were trained. it was amazing. I learned so much and there were times when the spirit was so strong. I love all of our leaders. they are so amazing and inspired. President shamo is so enthusiastic about missionary work and he expects the best from him. he taught us a lot about following the spirit and prayer. Sister Shamo is way cool too. she has an amazing knowledge of the scriptures. we were able to go to the london temple for the first time as well. it is beautiful there!! I love it. I always feel so at home there. I meant to get a picture but it was pouring rain so I didn't get one... next time! we're going again for Christmas so I'll try and get one then cause it is so beautiful. I loved being there. I was brought to tears while I was in the celestial room. I felt dad there with me. his presence was so strong I couldn't believe it. I always think about him whenever I go to the temple but this time I could really feel him there.

 the rest of the week was great as well! sadly there was no baptism :( I was so bummed out about that. Laura slipped up with the word of wisdom on sunday night so we couldn't baptize her. Emma hasn't really been communicating with us lately. she won't come out of her room when we come see her and Laura. We're really worried that we've lost her but we're not giving up just yet. Even though Laura slipped up I think she'll continue to progress. she said she still wants to be baptized. she had a really hard week though. it was shocking for sister Boleska and I. we didn't know how to handle the situation. she canceled an appointment we had with her but we could tell she was lying to us when she gave us her reason why and then the next day we called her to see how she was doing and she said she had just gotten released from the hospital. she had overdosed on anti depressants. Sister Boleska and I instantly canceled our other appointment and called bishop Ferris and asked him to meet us at Laura's and give her a blessing. he came and so did brother Grice. they talked to her before they gave her the blessing and everything they said was so amazing. being in that room I felt the spirit stronger than I have so far on my mission. they spoke so powerfully to her. Bishop Ferris asked Laura what she wanted most from getting a blessing and she said she just wants to be happy and then he started to tell her that she could have the happiness she is looking for if she just listens to the things we have to tell her. he talked about recieving the gift of the holy ghost and how that can give you constant happiness if you live worthy of it. he then commited her to live the word of wisdom. it was such an amazing experience and the blessing was beautiful. it was perfect. he said all of the right things. over and over I see the power of the preisthood and I just look up to these men so much who are living worthily so that they can give blessings like this one. I think it helped Laura a lot and she said she really does want to live the word of wisdom. I think this was the push that she needed to really see how important the gospel is and how bad she needs it in her life. after the blessing bishop Ferris and brother grice left and sister boleska and I talked to her for a bit. It was a great talk. I really felt like the spirit was working through me. I haven't felt that too much yet but I really did feel that as I was opening my mouth I wasn't the one saying the words. I finally felt that power working through me. it was amazing. it was a scary night because Laura had reached such a low point but I think she is going to start improving now. I think she is finally going to take it more seriously.

 another cool experience we had this week was the other day we were out and realized we left something at the flat that we needed so we had to walk 30 minutes back to the flat to get it. we were running late to our next appointment and we were in a rush to catch the train but this random guy we passed said 'hi sisters!' so obviously we stopped cause we never get that outside of church! so we stopped to talk to him and turns out this guy is a former member and he said he really wanted to buy us hot chocolate. we were going to be so late to our appointment if we went but I felt like we should so we said he could buy us hot chocolate if he let us teach him something and he agreed. so we taught him and it went really well but I don't think we'll see him again to be honest. He seemed like he had a pretty tough life and did not want to meet with us again but he said he would pray this week and if he gets answers he will come to church. after that we ran to the train and while we were on the train we were sitting next to this girl and started talking to her and she was really interested in what we were doing and we gave her a book of mormon and she was so excited about it and we are meeting with her this week to teach us and she said she'll come to church next week. she is a great girl and she was so excited about having met us. we were an hour late to our appointment but the people didn't mind and had we not been late we wouldn't have met this girl. I am so excited to teach her more. she has a lot of the same views as our church so she is really open to the things we have to teach her.

 this week was really good. I've had a great time and I love chichester. it's amazing to be part of all of this! I love helping the people here. it's been so much fun.

 thanks for everything!! I love you so much and I everything is great at home!! have a good thanksgiving but don't have too much fun without me :) love ya!!

  love, chels

 

PS. I don't know if i've given it to you correctly but my real address is

 #7 harvester close

 Chichester, West Sussex

 PO19 6XF

 ENGLAND