Jannie Got Baptized!!

Jannie has finally been baptized! it was amazing! one of the best one's I've had so far. He was glowing the whole time, you could see how happy he was. it was amazing. I am so glad that I survived the transfer and got to be here for it :) It was a great night. there was a lot of support from the ward too which was great to see. the Lord has big plans for Jannie. I really want him to serve a mission...we'll see! after he was baptized the first thing he asked me was 'can I go inside the temple now??' he loves the temple and is so excited to go now. One of the ward members was telling me that Jannie was talking about how he wants a calling already. he wants to be a teacher :) he is so great, I've loved teaching him, I've learned so much from him. I didn't think I would see the day when he got baptized. I am so glad that he made the decision to move it forward. he will be a great asset to the ward too, they are pretty excited to have him as a member now. he is a personal trainer so the YM are planning an activity for him to come and have him teach them some things. everyone loves him! It's been fun to see him become part of the ward

 Robert came to the baptism. I had to really bug him about it to get him there but he finally came. I think he liked it and I think it helped him take a step closer to baptism. after the service i told him he was next. he didn't say no! we'll get there. eventually. I just hope I'm here for it. you can tell he knows it's all true I think he's just afraid of the commitment or something. plus quitting smoking is a big one as well. hopefully we'll see a miracle soon enough, I feel very strongly that I shouldn't give up on him yet but I don't know how much longer i can take. it's been a looooong time.
samuel is doing fine. the hardest thing has been getting him to come to church. he works every sunday. he's doing great though. he reads and prays every day. we haven't been able to get a hold of him for a couple days so I'm a little worried about that but I'm sure he'll be fine. 

ok I need some help. the YW have asked us to do a YW activity on missionary work. any good ideas? we are trying to come up with something good that will get them excited to do missionary work. I am having a hard time coming up with anything good though haha

well...not much has happened since I last emailed you. everything is going pretty well. we haven't done contacting in quite a while cause sister keogh has been pretty sick. she hasn't passed out for a week or two but she keeps getting sick. it's hard because I don't know how to help her. i usually just let her rest though haha I'm just too much of a softie I guess. just when i think she's getting better she crashes again. she's doing well today though. I don't know, we'll see how this week turns out :)

 they did a lot of changes in the mission this past transfer. I used to be in the Staines zone but now they've combined us with the Reading zone. Staines/Reading zone. they combined a few others too. our zone is massive now. there's like 30 missionaries in our zone now. it will be fun though. I've served around most of the elders here for quite a while now so it's been a lot of fun.

  I hope you are doing well! It sounds like everyone is doing really great. the weather has finally cleared up a bit out here. it is gorgeous today! who knows how long that will last though... thanks for everything! you are amazing and I love you so much! have a great week :)

love, sister chelsea gregson

philippians 3:13-14



Once Upon a Time...I SAW THE QUEEN!!!

so remember last pday how I said I was going to windsor castle with some elders in our zone? we can get in for free sometimes because one of the members in the slough ward is a guard there. when we got to windsor there were tons of people dressed up all nice and wearing those crazy hats. we had no idea what was going on and then we met up with the guard to get our tickets and he said we would see the royal family!! the queen, will and kate...we had no idea haha apparently it was garter day or something...whatever that is. then we get escorted to our spots to watch the royal family parade. it was funny cause people had been waiting in line and in their spots for hours and then we randomly show up one pday and have no idea whats going on. it was great! there were guards EVERYWHERE and an orchestra. I tried to get some good pics but failed miserably but all of us are going to put our pictures on a cd cause combined we got some great shots so I'll send you some of those eventually. :) way cool right? lived in america my whole life and never seen a president but I've lived in england for 9 months and I saw the queen! haha so random.

well...any moves predictions??! cornwall? bath? penzance? jersey? NOPE!

I'm STILL in High Wycombe haha you know what that means? after this transfer I'll have been here for half of my mission!! I can't believe I've been here that long. I can't believe I've been on my mission that long!! I'm so excited to be here for another transfer though. I love it here. the best part is i get to be here for Jannie's baptism on saturday! I am soo excited for it! he is doing well and he's super excited. the Lord has big plans for him, he is so faithful and dedicated. it's been amazing to watch his growth. I've loved teaching him. I want him to go on a mission! he's 24 so he still could haha we'll see. oh! and I'm still with sister Keogh! maybe we'll be able to do some proper missionary work this transfer?

 we've been teaching these two kids liana and andreas. they are a less active womans kids. they are so cute. I love teaching kids. it is so much fun. they came to church on sunday and they absolutely loved it and they really want to get baptized. it probably won't happen till august or september because they are going away. chance of me being here for it aren't great haha but I'm so glad we've been able to teach them. it is a blast.

robert is still being robert. it's frustrating but something in me refuses to give up on him. the hard part is I don't know what else to do for him. I don't know what else to teach him. he knows its true, you can tell. I think he's just afraid to admit it because that means he would have to commit to something. It's gotten to the point where I bug him about baptism every day pretty much haha yesterday he said 'maybe..' so we're improving. the first time we talked to him about baptism he choked on root beer haha in a teach with him yesterday I asked him if he sees the church in his future and he said yes and then I said are you a member? and he said yes! but something still stops him. he says he still doesn't fully believe God is there and his doubt outweighs everything....any suggestions? I want to see him join the church so bad. I've worked soo hard on him. how can I help him? he's a tough one. he's hopefully going to come to Jannie's baptism on saturday so hopefully that will give him more motivation/encouragement? i don't know... he's an eternal investigator...It's definitely testing my patience.

We're teaching a new guy Samuel. from africa. yes another african :) love them! he is so cool. he's preparing for baptism on the 23. getting him to church is tough though cause of his job so hopefully we can work that out. he is amazing. reads from the book of mormon almost every day.

  this week was almost a normal one. Sister Keogh and I have not had a full week of work yet since we've served together. she was doing so well but then last week got really sick and passed out again. it was pretty bad. it was something different this time though cause I got really sick too. i didn't pass out though no worries :) I'm better now, she's getting there too. except yesterday evening she got pretty sick. It's been so crazy but I have had some amazing time to study and really think about the gospel and build my testimony so even through all this mess I've seen miracles and blessings.

Sunday was hard with fathers day. Just thinking a lot about dad. I miss him. it was fun though, the primary asked me to play piano for them in sacrament meeting so I was playing things I never had before. that was scary but I was able to pull it off though!

 last night I saw a member of our ward and he wants me to teach him guitar so I told him if he would find me someone to teach I would give him a guitar lesson. 2 HOURS LATER he called me laughing hysterically because he had a referral for me haha I've discovered a new way to do missionary work that beats knocking on doors :) I'm supposed to use my talents right?

anyway, thanks for everything!!! love you guys so much, all of you are great examples to me in so many ways. I hope everything is going well. are you still getting tons of rain cause it won't stop over here.

I love you!!

love, sister gregson

2 corinthians 4:6-9

ps. president gave this to us in his email this week, thought you might like it!

'come to the edge' he said

'we can't, we're afraid' they said

'come to the edge' he said

'we can't, we'll fall' they said

'come to the edge' he said

and they came

and he pushed them

and they flew

Love ya!

So This is Why England is Famous for Rain!

hello! how are you? thanks for the email :) sounds like you guys are doing great! st george?? I'm so jealous. I love st george. the weather here has been...wet. lots and lots and lots of rain. since I've been in England I haven't really seen too much rain but now it won't stop! sometimes people feel bad for us and let us in but usually they don't really seem to care haha buying a pair of wellies has been awfully tempting this week.

guess what?!?! Jannie is getting baptized!!! he decided to move up his date :) I am so excited!!! we had taken him to YSA FHE on Monday and after we left our relief society president talked to him and said he needs to move it up so I can be there and also so that he can get a calling and get the priesthood. she's a very convincing woman apparently cause he came up to me at church and said I want to be baptized sooner! I've tried so many times to get him to do that haha his baptism will be on June 25. I really hope I will be here. transfers are next wednesday and I've been in High Wycombe since december so there's a big chance I'll move but I hope president will let me stay at least one more transfer. i love it here! ...did i tell you Jannie paid tithing last week? ha! he's a mormon

we fasted for robert yesterday and he fasted with us. a bunch of the YSA fasted with us as well, I think there was probably a total of about 7 or 8 who did it with us. I really hope it helped robert. after meeting with him this week it is so obvious that he knows it is all true and he knows God is there. Something inside him keeps him doubting though. it has been really challenging. I feel like after doing this fast with him I have done everything in my power to help him. I don't know what else to do for him. I haven't had a chance to talk to him about how fasting was for him. I'm hoping for a miracle. I had been prompted so many times to get him to fast and we've committed him to do it but he never had so the only way to get him to do it was if we did it with him. I felt so strongly that this is what he needed to do so hopefully he got the answers he was looking for.

Samuel is doing great! he's hard to meet with cause he is so busy but he is awesome and he reads the bom almost every day. hopefully we can start teaching him more. did i tell you about Cynthia? I can't remember. she is a less active I've been working on for a while. she finally came to church last week and we taught her last week and she said she wants us to teach her kids now too. we'lll start teaching them on wednesday hopefully but I am so excited! In my setting apart blessing it had talked about how I will prepare children for baptism but I haven't experienced that yet so maybe this will be them?? :)

sister Keogh is doing great. she has been much better this week. there was one or two days where she wasn't feeling very good but for the most part she is working hard and doing much better. still really shy but she's coming out of her shell. we got to go to the temple this week for trainers and the new missionaries. it was amazing as always. I love the temple so much! I could sit in the celestial room all day. it's always so hard to leave cause we never know when we will get to come back. I miss the days where I could just go whenever I wanted.

Oh guess what else? sunday was such a good day! Emanuel Smith got the aaronic priesthood! it is so cool to see recent converts progress in the church. he is an amazing guy. last week in testimony meeting a member had gotten up and told a story of an african friend he had who he helped bring to the church and now he was just called as a mission president in africa. after the meeting one of our members went up to emanuel and said maybe he'll be a mission president one day and he said 'I hope so!' how cool would that be?

everything is great. I love it here! I can't believe how fast time is flying by. it is crazy. missions are just fun. I am having a blast!
thanks for all the support! I love you soo much. thanks for the example that you are to me! sorry this is so short. we're going to windsor castle again today :) love ya!

love, sister chelsea gregson

1 cor. 1:3
2 cor 1:2-4

Back to Work...Mostly!

hello!! how is my dear family today? it's been a weird week. sunday sister keogh passed out again but then it seemed like she was getting better so we went to work. mostly. sometimes she struggled so we wouldn't get in a full day but she did pretty good! just when we thought things were improving thursday comes around. we had worked all day that day, she really struggled but she is a champ and kept going as much as she could. we had ward council that night and by the end of it she looked like she could barely stand so we went home and then at about 10:20 we were kneeling together and she was saying a prayer and then right as she finished she leaned against the couch and her eyes started rolling in the back of her head again so I went to grab her a drink and when I came back she had passed out. she was only out for a couple seconds but its not good cause president is determined to send her home if it doesn't get better. we still think its because of lack of sleep and stress but there's no knowing for sure i guess. I think president shamo is worried that it might be more than that, maybe something to do with her brain. so that next morning we called president and sister shamo and told them she had passed out and instantly sister shamo said she needs to go back home and figure out the situation cause she can't work properly. then sister k talked to the mission psych and the mission doctor and they both had very different views on what to do. the psych said she can stay and he will work with her. the doctor said send her home. she's still here!! after that day things have gotten a lot better. we've done nearly full days of missionary work. she still struggles occasionally but she is doing so much better and she seems happier and more hopeful now. plus she hasn't passed out since thursday! yeah! I think she should be fine now, thank you for all the prayers :) they definitely helped. it really is a miracle that she is still here.

  this week has been nearly a normal one of missionary work! we got a new investigator this week who is so great! he is african, I think he's from nigeria. his name is samuel mbavarira. try and say it, I don't know how haha he is so cool! we met him on the high street and then taught him later this week and he had already read what we asked to read out of the book of mormon and then he read even more from it. he seemed to really enjoy it! we taught him about the restoration and he was very open to it and when we told him he needs to pray about it he said can I say a prayer right now? and said the most beautiful prayer. he is amazing. so humble and spiritual. we probably can't see him this week because he has to work till late in the night and the only days he can meet are usually wednesday but we have training on wednesday at the temple. he has two kids too so hopefully we can teach them as well!

  thank you for all the birthday letters :) my birthday was a pretty typical day of work but a member from the ward, squiggy, yes her name is squiggy :) took us out to lunch at a place called nandos to celebrate.  I originally decided to be very discrete about my birthday and not really tell anyone but that morning pres shamo called to ask how sister keogh was doing and I couldn't let that opportunity pass by so I said president I thought you were calling to wish me happy birthday! and then him and sister shamo sang happy birthday to me haha they are the best! I couldn't have asked for a better mission president, he is amazing. I always tell him that he is my favorite mission president and the other day he called me and said sister gregson this is your favorite mission president calling! haha what a great guy.

we had ward council this week and it is always so funny. the ward members are so much fun. a lot of them have the same sense of humor as our fam so you can imagine it gets pretty wild and loud. its fun though. we were talking about getting people to church and the director of napolean dynamite, Jared Hess and the writer of twilight, stephanie meyer, have been coming to the high wycombe ward cause their filming some movie. a spoof on some jane austen movie I think haha so the ward and I came up with a new approach of getting people to church and I'm just going to start asking if they like twilight and if not then how about napolean dynamite? I think people might be more interested in talking to me that way maybe :)

I don't really have much to update you on since it wasn't quite a full week of missionary work. but we're getting there! it was a lot more than it's been the whole transfer! we had a less active come to church yesterday who I have been working on for a while now so that was a miracle! I was so excited about that. the relief society president is her visiting teacher so we've been working on her together and it seems like we might be getting somewhere. yesterday we talked to her about me and sister k teaching her and her family and she seemed interested in that so let's hope it goes somewhere. she is a great lady, the hard thing with her is work. she works a ton and has horrible hours.

  Jannie is doing great as always. Robert is frustrating still. but he's coming to church again! he still has work on sundays but he goes in early then comes to sacrament and then goes back to work. who knows why since he still doesn't know if God is there. obviously something is pulling him back :) he knows its true he just doubts too much. he even prays everyday. explain that one to me. I asked why he prays if he doesn't think god is there and he couldn't really answer but he keeps doing it anyway. he'll get there. who knows how much longer it will take.... we're having dinner and fhe at a members house with him so hopefully they can help us say something that will inspire him

   anyway my time is about up so I gotta get going. missionary work is the best. it's hard but it's good. thank you for everything!! I love you so much! I know this week was a hard one for you, I could tell in the emails. sunday was a hard day with the anniversary of dad's death. it was for me and it sounds like it was for you too. I got a blessing that day from one of the elders that really helped me. I hope you are doing well. we are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives and know that we will see him again one day soon :) what a special day that will be! I hope you are doing well mom. I pray for you everyday. heavenly father is aware of you and of your needs. he loves you. and so do I!! thank you so much for everything! I love you so much. have a great week!

love, sister gregson
ps romans 8:16-18