Forget Me Not

Hello! :) how are you this week? thank you for the emails!

This week has been just as wild as all the others the past couple weeks. I feel like ever since I got the twins I've been running around constantly trying to figure everything out. A lot of it is probably because of white washing...It's been really crazy but lots of fun. This week has been nuts though. Mainly due to a faulty sat nav sold to me by an Elder. It's a long story but a few times I have ended up about an hour away from the destination it was supposed to take me to. It's been a disaster and at the time it is not funny but the next day Sister Howard and I can't stop laughing about it. We typed in the address of the Temple the other day and I don't even know where we were. We ended up in the middle of nowhere and there was no where to really turn around cause we were on all these tiny roads that didn't have any place to turn around. At least the drive was beautiful! It is so funny now but at the time it wasn't :) after it took us to the middle of no where it died. great! So we saw this guy and asked him for directions. It was a little tender mercy from Heavenly Father because he knew exactly where the Temple was (only because he's an Osmond follower) and he was really nice to us. we ended up talking to him for quite a while and sharing the gospel with him and we will hopefully be meeting with him sometime this week! that was a miracle!

Good news! I passed my theory test! I was so nervous but it ended up being really easy. I'm really nervous about the test though. I am taking it on Nov. 3 which is the earliest I could sign up. This week is my last week of driving here. Oct. 1 is my one year mark in England and after that I can't drive on my American license anymore. So Sister Howard will be taking over now. I'm scared. she's not the best driver. It's pretty scary haha

Haywards Heath is amazing! I love it so much! the ward is incredible. There are some really amazing people here and I already feel like I am at home. We have a lot of work to do here. I'm excited about it though! We had stopped by a few less actives the bishop wanted us to see this last week and 2 of them came to church which was so amazing!

We had the funniest dinner appointment the other night. We went over to this womans house and we were pretty nervous cause the Elders had told us crazy stories about her. It wasn't bad it was just a really funny night. The best part was that she was playing old twangy country music in the background the entire time we were eating dinner! She asked us if people play music for us a lot when we eat dinner with them and I said no and she was completely appalled that no one ever does haha at one point the song 'This Must Be Love' came on and I told her I love that song so she put in on repeat and it was repeating for about half an hour before she decided to change it haha She talked about John Wayne a lot too. ( I thought of Mark! )

Things at the temple are going really well. we are there every Tuesday and Saturday. It is pretty fun! Saturday was crazy busy. we were there until 9:30.... yeah, it was a late night but it was a great day. we had about 10 non members come in! There were so many people there the whole day. At the Temple there were 18 people who took their endowments out for their first time that day! That is the most they have ever had. I got to see Jo Bishop again and a few other members from the Chichester ward and I also saw a few from Crawley. That is one thing I love about serving at the VC. I get to see lots of people from my mish!

We got to go to the womens broadcast last night. It was soo good! I loved President Uchtdorfs talk. He is so amazing.

Anyway, I'm running out of time! this hour always goes by so fast.. Things are great! I am loving Mission life. it is so much fun. The longer I'm out the more a feel the spirit guide me as a teach and testify to people. I've learned so much being out here.

wow... this letter is really short. sorry!

just know I love you! thanks for everything! Have a great week! Forget me not :)

I love you!

love, chels

I Told You Utah Is Better!

wow! I have so many remarks about the Utah game going through my head I can't choose which one to use. I'm surprised you gave me as many details as you did :) ha! GO UTES!!! yess. I'm soo sad I wasn't there for it. There's a few Elders in my zone who are BYU fans, maybe I'll give them a hard time about the game since none of you are around. Sounds like it was a great game!

Anyway, how are you? Apart from your loss how has your week been?

so, any last transfer predictions??
remember when I predicted that President Shamo will be moving me around a lot after being in HW for so long? I think I was right. I got moved again! already :( I'm now serving in Haywards Heath. And guess what...I'm white washing AGAIN. boo.. I'm not too excited about that. I hate white washing. I'm still with Sister Howard as well which I'm happy about. Haywards Heath is quite close to the Temple still. It's about a half hour drive, yes, we still have a car. Sister Burrows was also moved to East Grinstead which is the area that the Temple is in and she is serving with Sister Allred. They are in a tri with another new missionary. Sister Howard and I will be serving at the VC two days a week. Every Tuesday and Saturday. The Sisters in East Grinstead will be there 3 days a week and then there are two other companionships that will be serving there as well. It's a bit crazy right now but in the end it will probably be best because this way we can work in the VC and in our areas and hopefully get more work done. We were really sad when we got the transfer call. I loved working in a tri. It was so much fun! I'm excited to still be working with Sister Howard though. She is a bit shy and struggles with teaching so it will be good to have a chance to train her one on one now. She really beats herself up a lot. she's so hard on herself so I've really been trying to help boost up her confidence. She's amazing though. I love working with her and she is so funny. She makes me laugh so hard. She is ALWAYS falling asleep, when I'm driving, at church, at the Temple...and she is a major head bobber haha
People always think it is so cool that she's from Alaska. The other day we were talking to this lady and she was asking Sister Howard about Alaska and then she's like ' You speak English so well!!! ' hahaha Apparently they speak a different language in Alaska? who knew? It was so funny.

oh no, I'm in an internet cafe and Michael Buble just came on... dang!

anyway. so this week has been another crazy one. The Crawley ward wasn't very happy when they found out we were leaving. They white washed us out and put 4 Elders in. They wanted us to stay there though. (because sisters are better than elders:) I loved working with that ward and they are going to see so many miracles. I wasn't too sad to leave the area though. Not that I didn't like it, I just hadn't been there for very long so I wasn't really attached yet. I really like the Haywards Heath ward. It is a small ward but they are great people. They were so friendly yesterday at church which was so nice. Sister Howard and I are coming up with some new ideas for finding people and we're going to try them out soon so hopefully things will move forward quickly. The chapel is in kind of a wierd location though so that will make things hard. Haywards Heath is beautiful! the drive from our flat to the Temple is so gorgeous. I love it. driving there is fun too, it's on a tiny road that curves all over the countryside. it's so pretty.

I'm taking my theory test on Thursday and if I pass that then I take my driving test in the next couple weeks. yikes! I'm so nervous for that. I still don't really understand why President wants me to get a license because I only have 6 months left and there are sisters here who can still drive on their American license for the next year. But oh well, I'll do as I'm told.

The weather is starting to get colder which I'm not very excited about. I'm looking forward to fall cause it will be beautiful but I'm dreading winter.

well, I have to go. Times up! sorry this is so short.. Thanks for everything! I love ya! you are amazing. Have a great week!!
Love sister gregson

ps. my new address for the fam is
1 arbor court
Heath Road
Haywards Heath
West Sussex
RH16 3BQ

You Mean Buzzing Actually Works?!

Hello! how has your week been?

things are great here! transfers are on Wednesday but for some reason we are supposed to email today... I don't know why. So right now my companions are in the VC doing chat and I'm around the corner at the mission office, finally a computer that works properly :) Any predictions on what will happen this transfer? Who knows, I don't think anything can beat last transfer..

the other night I got a call from our District Leader and he told me I was being e-moved (emergency moved) to Weymouth. I thought he was kidding but he was acting way serious and kept dragging it out so I started getting all sad but in the end he was kidding and was just calling to give us an announcement...which I can't even remember haha After that little prank I realized that I want to stay in Crawley and I want to stay with both of my companions! which means something will most likely change. This transfer has been really crazy and super hard and i've had to really rely on the Lord. It's been so stressful but so much fun at the same time. I think it has easily been one of my favorite transfers.

This week has been a really good one. We did an exchange with the sisters serving in Tunbridge Wells on Wednesday which was a lot of fun. I stayed in Crawley cause I'm the only one driving at the moment, and both my companions went to T.Wells. the T.Wells sisters are in a tri as well so two of them came to Crawley with me. sister priestley and sister keogh!! yes, sister keogh is still hanging in there! she is doing really great! she said it has been about 4 weeks since the last time she passed out. haha that's a huge improvement. I think in the three months we served together her record was a whole week and a half without passing out. She's doing really well, the new anxiety medication is helping her so much and I think working in a tri has been good for her cause there is less pressure on her. It was a really fun exchange. The Visitors Center is closed for cleaning. we still go there to do chat but since sister preistley and keogh aren't chat sisters we went out finding. I feel like it's been so long since i've actually done some proper contacting :) it was a lot of fun and i always learn so much from serving with other missionaries. It was difficult after serving with sister preistley for a day. she is an amazing missionary and I started wondering why she wasn't the one in my position, training two missionaries, cause they could have learned so much more from her but whatev. Heavenly Father gave me this calling for a reason so I'm trying to just do my best and not compare myself to others. It's been such a good experience for me and I have loved it.

During the exchange we went out knocking for a bit and eventually got to some flats so we started buzzing. I hate buzzing flats. very rarely do you actually get somewhere but then we had a massive miracle!! it was only the second flat we buzzed and a man came to the door. His name is Nikolay from Bulgaria. He has been here for about 2 months and he'll being leaving for India in a month or so to go back to his wife. as I talked to him on the doorstep I had a really cool conversation with him. I felt the spirit guiding my words and I was surprised at some of the things I was saying because it was things I had never before said when out talking to people. The spirit was so strong! I knew the spirit was guiding my words to say what Nikolay needed to hear because he stepped back and looked really shocked after hearing what I had to say.

we were able to see him again later in the week and it was an amazing teach. He is so prepared for the gospel. I had given him a Book of Mormon in English when i first met him and when we went back he said it was hard for him to read it and he needs one in bulgarian but he still felt good just having the book with him. We talked to him about church and he was so excited to come. He loved it too! it was soo funny though. I think word of wisdom might be a little tricky for him. he smokes and he seems to love his whiskey :) when they were passing the water for the sacrament he asked sister burrows if it was whiskey haha could you imagine?? everyone taking shots of whiskey for the sacrament... haha sorry pal, not quite.

He is such a funny guy and he is so excited about learning more about the church. I'm excited to teach him! One nice thing about serving at the VC is we are close and we can easily get investigators there and that is always such a great experience for them. we're hoping to get him there some time this week and it will be nice because since it will be closed we will be the only ones in there so there won't be any distractions.

so remember how i do chat? how weird is that? It's going well. Magnet Man has come back on a few different occasions. (I loved the drawing of him by Melissa and Em by the way!! that was so funny!) I think I told you about Mike, the kid who lives in portugal. Last week we talked to him for quite a while and we had set up a return appointment with him. we were all hopeful but slightly skepitcal because we didn't know if he would actually show. the time he was supposed to chat with us came and went and he didn't come so we were kinda bummed but we were still supposed to be doing chat for a couple of hours and eventually Mike showed up!! he was like 2 hours late but he came! we were soo excited! We have mostly been talking about prayer with him. he is struggling with feeling comfortable with it. the things he says and questions he has remind me SO much of Robert. it was such a good conversation though and we have another return appointment with him this week. we have a progressing investigator on chat... see? weird! but it's cool to see how it actually works.

That pretty much sums up my week. lots of driving lessons as well. my theory test is next week which is the written part and then a few weeks after that will be the driving test. I'm soo nervous! just pray i will pass so I can get my license soon cause my year mark is in like 3 weeks and then I can't drive with my american license anymore.

my year mark is in three weeks?? aahh!!

anyway, I gotta get going. thanks for everything!! I love you :) stay happy, have a great week!

I love ya

love, sister gregson

ps..on the church website there are like three pics of when elder bednar came to speak to us and one of them is of my awesome choir haha yesss

Elder Bednar!!

hello! how are you this week??

so right now I am in Crawley (which is rare these days) and I am in a way ghetto Indian internet cafe that smells like cheap curry. This computer is pretty slow and the 'g' key doesn't work very well so if some words don't make any sense just pop a 'g' in there somewhere and it'll help :)

well this week has been pretty good! we have been at the visitors center most of the time. I like it there. It's wierd not being out on the streets contacting very often and it is so different from regular missionary work but it is fun. you meet some great people and the best part is they come to you! the worst part is they are never from crawley.

there were times when it was pretty slow, during the week not many people come in but the weekends are super busy. however, we've managed to stay really busy because we started doing chat. on mormon.org when people are on the website they have the option of talking to missionaries so that is what we do when we have some down time. we found out this week that the VC is our priority and then chat and THEN crawley so not much is happening there sadly. we don't have time.

chat is kinda wierd. A lot of time it's non members just playing pranks on you or asking you really wierd questions which gets a little annoying but you do get some who are pretty interested. the funniest is sometimes we get members on who just want to talk. we have a few people get on and say something like 'I'm teaching a sunday school lesson and wanted your help to prepare for it' I thought that was stupid...

there is this one guy...the magnet man... he is a legend with chat. In the MTC we also did a little bit of chat but not much. Our teachers had warned us about this guy who pranks missionaries and always acts like he is way genuine and you talk to him forever and then eventually he brings up magnet guy and you know it's a prank. Get a life right? In the MTC I talked to him a couple times. Yesterday he was on... 11 months later and he is still doing it. I was so mad haha and don't ask cause I don't know the reasoning behind why magnets are his thing.

we didn't think it would keep us very busy but once you are on you are talking to people almost the entire time and at times you're talking to several people at once which is pretty difficult actually haha. the wierdest/coolest thing about chat is it works just like it would as though we were talking to people on the streets. we can set up return appointments and everything. we taught the first vision over chat yesterday. I prefer to do it in person... we even got a new investigator yesterday through chat. his name is Mike and he lives in portugal haha wierd right? it's pretty cool though, we're 'chatting' with him again later this week.

so yeah, it's kinda fun but I prefer talking to people face to face. wouldn't want to do this my whole mish but I like it.

anyway, enough about chat.

ELDER BEDNAR!!! wow! it was sooo amazing!!! I loved every minute of it. I don't even know where to begin or how to describe it. I don't even have much time left to talk about it.. it was so good. (BTW the musical number went well)

I loved it because he was so different than he in is general conference. so much more laid back and way funny. it was cool because he did it as more of a question/answer type of conference. he didn't even have an agenda. he taught us about the importance of following the spirit and learning by the spirit and then he showed us how by actually doing it the entire meeting. it lasted about 3 hours and I wish it would have gone longer. it was amazing. he talked a lot about asking in faith but it taked action. he told us that when moses parted the red sea he stepped into the water before it started parting which wouldn't have taken so much faith. then he went on to explain how we can apply that in our lives.

he talked about so many great things and I learned so much. But my favorite part was at the end when he bore his testimony. I felt the spirit confirm to me so powerfully that he truly is called by God as an Apostle of the Lord. Just being in his presence you could feel something different. It was a really special experience for me. he is such an amazing man. it came and went so fast! :(

but, guess what?!? I got to shake his hand!! yay! I had to conduct all of the musical numbers and at the end I sat on the stand during the prayer and as he got up to leave he came over to me and shook my hand. I was soo excited haha it's pretty lame how excited I was actually but I thought it was really cool!

anyway, yeah, that was pretty much my week. it's been going really well! and good news, I haven't crashed the car yet! however, parallel parking took me like 20 minutes last night haha I hate Englands roads but driving here is fun.

thanks for everything!! I love you so much! have a great week :)

love ya!

love, sister gregson

ps. this pic is me and one of grandpa's missionaries from the manchester mish! he actually wrote me about her recently so make sure he sees this!!! I met her while I was at the VC