Thanksgiving Dinner, Duck, Duck, Goose and an Exchange

hello!! how are you? I'm glad to hear you are still alive and doing well. I hope you are feeling better! Thank you for all the Thanksgiving letters. I really appreciate all the support that my family and friends have been giving me while I've been out here. It helps me so much :)

I know I say this probably every week but time is going by WAY too fast!! I don't like it. This transfer especially has just been flying by. I wish it would just slow down.

I love being out here. I am having so much fun. When I thought of serving a mission I didn't really think about how much fun it would be but I am having a blast! Missions are so amazing. I think I'll stay out here :)

I think time is going by so fast because we have been so busy and are always just running from one place to another. We are teaching a lot of really great people.

Monday night we had a fiesta with the Bishop and his family. 7 kids! I felt right at home :) they invited another family from the ward and then they also invited some non member friends of theirs. It was so fun. We had mexican food for dinner which was so good. I miss mexican food, they don't really have it here so Sister Mills and I were so excited!! after dinner we shared a message about the Book of Mormon and then we played duck duck goose haha even the bishop got in on it and it was so funny. Bishop Wright and his family have made pans to move to Utah around the same time I get home from my mission and I am so excited to have a little taste of England back home with me :) They are such a fun family.

Thanksgiving dinner was SO GOOD! we even had some pumpkin pie! Not near as good as grandmas but it was soo good. I missed being home with the fam but Sister Mills and I have been talking recently about how we haven't really gotten homesick on our missions because all the members are so good to us and make sure that we are taken care of. I am so grateful for that because I think if they weren't so fun and supportive I would get homesick during the holidays. I don't miss ya! sorry! ha jk, of course I miss you but I know this is where I need to be and I love it out here so much. It just feels right :)

We did an exchange today. Sister Mills stayed here with Sister Priestley and I went to a place called Paignton with Sister Cabrera. Sister Cabrera is a new missionary and she is from Chile. She is so cool, we had a lot of fun. I felt bad for her though because she got really really lost and I was no help to her at all cause I don't know the area. We were literally jumping from one bus to another trying to figure out where to go. Luckily we eventually made it to our appointment which was with Peter Shofield, the man who just got baptised that had me sing Jerusalem at his baptism, and his wife sue who got baptised a month ago.

(I just realised this computer automatically does the english spelling haha)

It was so fun to see them again. You can see that the gospel has brought them so much happiness and they are so eager to continue learning more. We were teaching him priesthood and he already knew all of it.

Sister Cabrera and I got to have language study in the morning so we worked on her english and then she helped me with my spanish! I haven't spoken spanish in so long. I forgot how much I love it! she helped me write down my testimony in spanish which was really cool. maybe one day I will get to use it.

Ok MIRACLE OF THE WEEK.

We knocked into a family! ..no there are not 8 of them sadly haha

We had gone out to go knocking and we were close to Martyn so we thought maybe we should go see him cause we hadn't been able to meet with him for a couple of days. I knew if we did we would be there forever and we would have time to go knocking and Sister Mills and I hadn't even gone knocking together yet cause we are always too busy so I said we should just go knocking instead cause that is what we originally planned. So we went and the very first door we knocked on opened and it was a family. The Goddard family. They are so cool. The mom (kelly) was raised JW but she doesn't really follow it and her kids follow it a little. We talked to them forever and she wouldn't give us her number or anything but kept talking to us so we kept teaching and eventually she let us in!! They were so interested in everything we were teaching them. It was so amazing. We were in shock the whole time. It was Sister Mills first time knocking in so she was super excited. When we left we were just screaming and acting like fools because we were so excited! We will be seeing them this week so keep them and Martyn in your prayers. Kelly (mom) Charlie (daughter, 14) Harry, and Toby (her two sons) the dad left the room when we came in but hopefully we will be able to teach him as well when we go back.

Anyway, I'm low on time. Just want to say thank you for everything. I am so grateful for you and all you do for me! It really means a lot to me.

Things are going so well here and I am so happy. I love being a missionary and seeing the way the saviour changes people. Its amazing.

I love you I love you I love you!!!

Love, chels

Comp Cuts

well just to let you know. I chopped my hair off. yes. yes. I think I cut off about 7 or 8 inches. It is SHORT. sadly no donation to locks of love this time. Sister Mills chopped hers off too so everyone says we look like sisters.

Anyway, how are you?? How has your week been? Is everything ok?
Its been a good week. We've been really busy and it's been so good. We've recovered from the food poisoning :) back to work!
In our mission, December is the lowest baptizing month and a few months ago President Shamo told us to start praying that we could have a baptism in December as a gift to the Savior for his birthday. So I've been praying and praying for that but President hasn't left me anywhere long enough so I kept getting close and then he would just move me. But this weekend in Exeter we found our baptism for the savior!! His name is Martyn. He is married to a member and Sister Mills has been working with him for ages. We taught him at the start of the week and he told us he believes Joseph Smith is a prophet but he doesn't believe the BOM....huh??? one of the Elders were like 'that's like saying Jesus is the Christ but he didn't die for me.' haha We did our best to resolve his problem but it was pretty tough. He said he would keep praying about it though. So then, the Sister in Paignton had called and asked if I would sing Jerusalem at their baptism on Saturday but we could only go if we had an investigator there. Martyn and his wife agreed to come with us. When the baptism started martyn just waited outside. We were pretty sad but right before I sang, his wife grabbed him and told him to come listen so he came in and the rest of the service was so spiritual. It was a great baptism. The sisters had found this couple while knocking recently and the wife was baptized about a month ago and her husband got baptized that night. It was amazing and they looked so happy and I think Martyn noticed that and wants that for him and his wife. Later, when we were having refreshments, Martyn came up to me and showed me his phone and it said 'December 24-Baptize me'
WHAT??! I thought he was joking but he wasn't. I guess he had really felt the spirit at the baptism, plus one of the sisters at the baptism is extremely bold so we just had her use her magic and by the end of the night we chose a baptism date!! Christmas baptism :) I am soo excited!!!! He is such an amazing guy, please pray for him.. he smokes so that will be a bit tough but he has recently given up drinking alcohol and coffee.
That was definitely the highlight of the week.

This week we are going to a familys home for Thanksgiving! I am really excited because she is American so it will actually be a proper Thanksgiving!! :) Pumpkin pie and all.

Things are going great. I love being out here. It is so much fun. Exeter is gorgeous and really cool. We've seen parades in town twice this week. We even saw santa and his real life reindeer. You better believe it :) the other parade was troops who had just gotten back from afghanistan. I think they said there were 600 of them. It was really cool! There is always stuff going on in this town I love it. Street performers are always everywhere too. Sister Mills and I are planning on borrowing a guitar from a member and doing some street performing as a finding tool haha I just need to learn some hymns on the guitar now.
Thanks for everything! I love you. I am so grateful for you and all you do for me! You keep me going! I love you so much! Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, chels

Brighton

eck.se.tuh

 Hello!!! How are you this week? Thank you for the emails :) It sound like all of you are doing great!
Guess what? I finally made it to EXETER! Yay! It is beautiful here! A lot more wet though. In my other areas it didn't ever rain excessively but it doesn't seem to stop here... It is going to be a looong winter. Wet and cold. And what is even better, we don't have heating in our flat. Just space heaters! Really? Yes. Really. That's the first time that has happened on my mish. Just in time for winter. sweet.
It has been a wild ride already in Exeter. Sister Mills is awesome. We get along really well so we are having so much fun all the time. We are pretty similar so of course it is just a party all the time :)

You won't believe the week we have had. My time in Exeter has definitely started off with a bang!
So, Tuesday was Sister Mills birthday. I took her out to lunch at a place called Nandos. yum!! best food ever. but that was the last real food we had till now BECAUSE that night we went to a members home for Dinner. They were doing a b day dinner for Sister Mills. They made us this stew but I am positive the meat was still moving.... or mooing. It was soo bad! We've had food poisoning ever since. Today is the first day that I haven't felt sick to my stomach. All week I've lived on toast and tomato soup. It's been a long week. haha
Happy Birthday Sister Mills, Welcome to Exeter Sister Gregson!

The next day we were soo sick and we had to drive with the elders all the way to Bracknell that night because there was a Zone Conference in Reading and we were staying overnight with the Sisters in Bracknell. The elders picked us up and maybe half an hour later we were pulled over on a tiny dark country road and Sister Mills was throwing up. We were either laughing or crying the whole time. We were sitting out there for about 45 minutes and the elders were just sitting in the car waiting. haha it was a little sad but mostly just funny. Eventually Sister Mills was ok so we got her a priesthood blessing and we were on the road again. Bracknell is about a three hour drive away...it was a long car ride haha
 

That whole night I felt fine and Sister Mills was suffering but the next morning we swapped roles and I felt horrible. It was zone conference so a 70, Elder Wright, was coming. Sadly we didn't really get to enjoy it. I also got a priesthood blessing that day from one of the elders which helped a lot. It was such a long day. Elder Wright heard we were sick so he came over to us during lunch and talked to us. He is such a great guy. What I heard of the conference was AMAZING! but we didn't hear much haha

That's our week in a nutshell. The rest of the week went about the same. I haven't eaten a proper meal in so long. I'm starving but I'm scared to eat anything.. I'm feeling ok today so we'll see how it goes. I might go vegetarian...
It was definitely a beautiful mess.

 That's about it..ha! this morning before coming to email, Sister Mills and I went to this place called 'suckers' it is this place where you dip your feet in a fish tank and these little fish eat away your dead skin! It is so funny! I had a cut on one of my feet so I only got to put one in and so I asked the guy if I could get half price and he said no but he let me do my hands as well and then after they gave us a foot massage and a hand massage! it was so fun :) My left foot was a little lonely, no foot massage due to the...cut.

Good times :) anyway, That about covers the week#1 I miss being so close to the temple but I think I am really going to like it here in Exeter. Once I get a chance to work properly haha
Thanks for everything! I love you so much!!
Have a great day!
Love, chels

UK Driver for Life

Moi! Mita cooloo?
(Hello how are you in Finnish)

I passed my driving test!!!!!! yay!!! It was scary, it's way harder to pass the test here than it is in Utah. But it actually went really well. I was so nervous for it but I said lots of prayers and I got a blessing and I even fasted and it definitely helped! So, great news! I now have a uk drivers license that lasts for the rest of my life so if I ever come back to England and live here for over a year I can legally drive haha I'm sure it will come in handy.... On the test you can 15 minor fautls or 1 major fault. If you get one major fault you fail automatically. I got a few minor faults and I actually got one fault that should have been a major and I should have failed but he said I did great on the rest of the test so he decided to pass me. woo! And I've finally mastered parallel parking but it's on the opposite side haha

So I still haven't made it to Exeter... yesterday at church the Haywards Heath ward was really confused that I was still there! They thought the transfers were changed again and they decided to leave me here. Not quite haha They pushed it back even more because Sister Fekete (Sister Howards new companion) is coming from Exeter and she has to get surgery on her knee in London this week so they just left us both in our areas until her surgery came closer. Sister Mills and Sister Fekete are taking the train out here and then I will catch the train back. I think it's like a 4 hour train ride. I passed my driving test and I don't even get a car in my area... hmm.. I'm assuming he'll either give us a car next transfer or he will move me yet again to an area that gets a car. At this point who knows? I can't seem to predict what President Shamo is going to do ever.

I loved all the pics of everyones Halloween costumes. All the kids are growing up soo much!! I can' t believe it! Halloween was pretty funny this year. Last year Sister Boleska and I went knocking/trick or treating. This year we were told to stay inside if we don't have appointments so that day for pday we went to Brighton again. I love it there! And then that night we went to see a recent convert and taught her and then went back to our flat. We didn't have anything to do and we wanted to carve pumpkins but we couldn't find any. lame. But recently when we were on the train to Brighton we saw this pic in a newspaper of a kid who had carved all these figures out a bananas haha we were laughing so hard at it They were actually way good! On one he had carved posiedon and a whole set of horses around him... so Sister Howard decided she wanted to carve SOMETHING on Halloween so she carved a banana haha and then I joined the fun and carved an apple. What a wild night :)

I'm excited to work with Sister Mills. I've heard she is a great missionary. It was so much fun serving with Sister Howard. She is so funny. Did I tell you she aquires the accent of whoever she is talking to? It is hilarious! She says she doesn't do it on purpose and it just comes out that way. She's actually way embarrassed about it but it still happens. It makes me laugh so hard. Her new companion is Hungarian so I'm dying to see what will happen to her accent now! Sister Howard is amazing. I love her. She has changed so much in the time that we have served together. That is something I love about training. You see them really make changes and it is so cool to watch.
This week has just been as crazy as all the others but when I look back on it I have no idea what was even going on. We were busy a lot but not really with teaching or finding. Mostly just busy with practicing for my test and other meetings and being at the VC as well. We got to go to the temple this week. I had to go one last time before I leave because who knows when I will get to come back. I love it there. The London Temple is gorgeous. I wish I could do sessions more often but I've been so blessed to do as many as I have on my mission.

So how is everything back home? Still getting snow? We haven't gotten any yet but I'm sure it will come soon enough. England has been gorgeous lately with all the leaves changing colors. I love it!
The pics of all the kids in the Halloween costumes were soo cute! I wish I could be there. They are growing up so much!
It sounds like everyone is doing great. Thank you for all the letters and emails. I love them! I miss you and I hope you are doing well. Have a great week!! Thanks for everything, you are amazing. I love you!!

Love, chels

West Side

10/31/11

Welllll...I'm being transfered AGAIN. I guess President just doesn't know what to do with me. ha! At least I'm not white washing again, thank goodness. I'm off to EXETER. It is SO far away! It's like a 4 hour drive from the temple or something. It's not quite Cornwall area but it is the same zone. I was talking to my zl and he said our zone (plymouth zone) takes up almost 1/3 of the mission. It's huge! I've heard Exeter is gorgeous though so I'm really excited! My companion will be Sister Mills, I don't know much about her but I've heard great things.
I haven't made it out to Exeter yet. Transfers were on Wednesday but I have my driving test on Thursday so they are leaving me here until then. Pray for me please!! I'm glad to stay in Haywards Heath for an extra week. I love it here. It's such a cool place and the ward is awesome. I am really going to miss being so close to the temple. I've been spoiled though. Sister Howard and I are doing a session on Wednesday so I can go one last time before I am banished to plymouth zone. I've heard when you serve out there you never really have contact with anyone else haha But it sounds like a cool place. On Saturday I got to see a lot of the High Wycombe crew again! The Bishop was laughing saying I've seen him more at the temple than I did in HW. It was so fun to see everyone. I really miss that ward. I think I'm going to start asking president if I can serve there again before I finish my mission :) Speaking of finishing my mission. I have already been told the date that I'll be returning home. Actually I was told forever ago but I didn't want to tell you haha I leave April 11 so get ready! I'll barely miss conference at home :( so close! Time is flying by, I can't believe how fast it goes...
It's good to hear that everyone is doing so well. I wish I could see the new baby!! She's beautiful in all the pics though, thanks for sending some :)
Things have been great this week. Just really busy as always. Alice is amazing. It sounds like she's been having some family problems lately though and we're having a hard time meeting with her. She is an amazing girl though. She reminds me a lot of Emma and Laura in Chichester and I was so excited to teach her so I'm kinda bummed to be leaving. We also met with Nigel this week, he is doing great. I think I told you but I can't remember. We don't meet with him very often because he is so busy. He is the cousin of one of the Haywards Heath members. He is a great guy and so prepared but he won't get baptized for a while because we can't meet with him often enough. We are also working with this family. Bridget and Mick and Bridget's kids Shannon and Bobby. They are an incredible family. Bobby and Shannon were baptized recently and Bridget wants to be baptized SO bad but she can't until she get divorced to her husband and marry's Mick. It is taking a really long to for everything to go through with the divorce papers and it is really frustrating for her because she wants to be baptized more than anything. They are the best family ever. I've loved working with them. They are just the sweetest people ever. I will really miss Haywards Heath. I can't believe I'm moving again!!! We've been teaching a lot the last couple weeks. It has been so much fun.
Things at the VC are great! I am so glad we got Saturdays because that is the only day that it gets very busy. It's a lot of fun when it's busy. I met this kid this last week who is getting ready to go on his mission in like a week or two. He was supposed to call you.... did he? When I was talking to him he was talking about how he has to go to Provo MTC but he flies out a day early and so he has no where to stay so I may have told him he can stay with you..... haha SURPRIZE! I hope you don't mind! :) He seemed a bit desperate and I thought you might like to hang out with a cool english missionary for a day. sorry, I just felt bad for him. But he is awesome! you will love him. I don't know if he will really call you but I gave him your number just in case. I don't think he can even stay with you cause there's no preisthood at home so then I offered Grandma and Grandpa Richards home hahaha Remember...you love me :) I'm just helping out a fellow missionary!
I'm kinda sad I won't be working at the VC anymore. It's been a good balance to work there twice a week. And you meet so many cool members there! I will miss it. I won't really miss chat. Chat is blah. Sometimes it is pretty cool but I prefer real people as opposed to virtual. The AP's were at the office the other day and one of them decided to get on chat and ask us what Kolob is haha I was talking to people who were in the VC so I wasn't there for it but Sister Howard later said 'what would you tell someone if they asked you what kolob is?' she said she had no idea what to say but the chat disconnected right after he asked so she didn't have to answer anyway. Then a while later we were talking to the AP's and they were like 'does anyone ever ask you weird doctrinal questions like what is Kolob??' haha we were laughing so hard when we found out it was them. It was pretty funny.
Well, we are off to Brighton again today to hang out with the elders. I made sure to charge my camera this time :) I'm excited! I love it in Brighton! It is so fun there.
I hope you are all doing great! It sounds like things are going well. Happy Halloween! We were told this morning that we need to be inside tonight so we are going to see a recent convert tonight and then we are going over to a members home and she does reflexology so she's going to give us a foot massage or something... I don't really know. She just texted us and said 'can I do you feet tonight?' I don't know what she'll be doing but it sounds like fun!
Anyway, I love you!!! Thank you for everything! You are the best!
forget me not.
Love, sister gregson