FAMILY!!!!!

Oh, good gracious!! Do you know how thankful I am for you!!? Really!!!! When you start to live on your own and experience new things, you realize how much your family impacted you!!  You have taught me so much and most of what I use when we approach people on the street is what I've learned from you!  I am constantly thanking God for putting me in such a wonderful family!!! You are constantly in my prayers!!!                                                                                                                                                            
Oh, my days.... what a week!! First of all, I'm almost to my two month mark!? What blasphemy is this!? IT IS GOING BY WAAAAAYYYY TOO FAST!!! We have little moments where the spirit is so strong and then it's all of a sudden time to go to bed!! :((((  Seriously, this transfer is over this week! TOOO FAAAASTTTTTT!!!!! SLOOOOOOOOW DOWN MISSION!!!!!

Well, you will be pleased to know that I am LOVING Haywards Heath more and more each day!!  And it's cool because this is home!! This is my life!!  How cool is it that all my life is right now is talking to people and relying on the Lord!!  What a great combo!!! That is my whole life for the next 16 months!!!  I really never want this to end!!!!!!!!!

Oh wow... What else??  I got to go to BRIGHTON this week for exchange with someone I met in the MTC!!  Sister D! WHAT A ROCK! She is incredible! I learned a lot and I missed home a ton!! (Haywards Heath home... haha) 

Everyone knows us! It's so cool when you are talking to someone and people across the street say "ey Sister S and Sister V!!" No one can pronounce my name!  Hahaha

Saturday, we met a man named P who’s Catholic.... I told him about the First Vision and he said "Here is my Rosary. Take it. I want the Book of Mormon..." So I have his Rosary Cross sitting right next to my mirror... BUT HE WAS WILLLING TO GIVE ANYTHING TO HAVE THE BOOK OF MORMON. Oh, what a blessing it is to see the Spirit convert!!!! I FEEL SO LUCKY TO WITNESS ALL THESE THINGS HAPPENING!!!

Last night, we were scrambling to reach our goal of 40 teaches (we reached 42.. THANK YOU HEAVENLY FATHER!) We taught N. She is from the Philippines.. And SHE IS CRAVING FOR A BABY. We said a prayer with her and I prayed that she would be able to have a baby soon... she started to cry.... :) 

THIS WEEK HAS BEEN A BLESSING!!!! Love you all!!! I am always praying for you!!!!!

"Christ stood by me when I needed Him. I will stand by Him now that He needs me." -Elder P (Assistant to the President)

HE NEEDS US!!! STAND BY HIM!!!!!!

Love, Sister Ally Bear

Holy Mother of Pearllllll!!  Family!!! I love you sooooo much!!!  I feel so blessed that I'm related to you!!!  I am always praying for you!!  I am sending you oodles and oodles of love all the way from good ol Haywards Heath!!!

Good gracious.... Where do I even start!?  THIS IS GOING BY WAAAAAYYYY TOOOOOO FLIPPPING FAST!!  In two days I've been in England a month!! It feels like last weeks P-day was just yesterday!

Sooo, this week was DAZZLING!  The sun was out, the bees were hummin, the flowers bloomin, and it was just too darn pretty!  Spring/Summer here is funky fresh!  There are daisies EVERYWHERE!  And it is sooo radical to be in the sun all the time!  And I'm not getting sunburnt!  MIRACLE NUMBERO UNO!  But, I did get quite the burn, which is information I will disclose later in this technological mail to thee...

Soooo, last last last week, while walking through Wivelsfield to Burgess Hill, we met a homeless man named R.  We invited him to church, he said no. Later in the week, WE SAW HIM AGAIN. We invited him, he said no. A day later, WE SAW HIM AGAIN. We tried to schedule an appointment with him. He said no. Later that DAY, we saw him AGAIN. So, we taught him right there. We had prayed with him a couple times, but this time, we tried our very hardest to apply this gospel to how it could bless him. The spirit was SO STRONG. We invited him to church, he said he would try his very hardest..... AAAAANNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!  He never came.. But, WE HAVE PLANTED A SEED!!

We have been teaching an 87 year old woman named E.  She is as cute as a jellybean!!  She loves learning new things and we invited her to be baptized, but she said it was too late for her to change.... Which is her choice!! We can't force anything upon her! I just love her desire to learn more!!! :)

Oh, my goodness... On tuesday, we met a man named H. who is from Jamaica!  YA MON!  He is the cat's pajamas!  He looked about 23 or 24.... HE'S 40 FREAKING 2 YEARS OLD!  Mind. Blown. HE LOOKS MY AGE!   Bahahha, but anyways we told him about how our message makes us happier! He was sooo excited!  We taught him the Restoration yesterday and he was FILLED TO THE BRIM with questions!  We gave him a Book of Mormon, and he said, "I will read dis and will call you if I have any questions." SO AMAZING.

So, Sister S.  LOVES black people. Every black person we see, she wants to approach hahah so we approached this black man sitting on a bench in Victoria Park... His name is S. from Nigeria. We asked him what makes him most happy.. He said money. And we had a member with us. Her name is S.  OH MY GOODNESS S.  She is from Zimbabwe... She got baptized in February and is planning on a mission!  SHE IS 17!  She is a powerful Daughter of God!  Her testimony is absolutely astounding!  But, S. talked about how money was what made him happy, S. piped up and said, "We have been asked to be in the world. Not of it. Money is of this world and will NEVER make you happy." S. kind of snapped back and talked about, "Have you ever not had any bread on the table!?" And S. said, "Yes. I am from Zimbabwe. We had no money for a very long time. And so I understand how you feel. But even after that happened, I have no desire to have money." SHE IS INCREDIBLE!  We scheduled another teach with S.  As we were teaching him about Christ's earthly ministry, S. says, "You know, I was supposed to be baptized into your church." Uhhmm... SAY WHAT!!? He talked about how he wanted to be baptized, but he needed to learn more before he would. THE SPIRIT WAS SOOO STRONG. We have set a goal for baptism for June 14!

On Friday, we were working in Burgess Hill with less actives and holy canoli!  MIRACLE DAY!  We visited a woman named D. who has been baptized for a very long time. BUT HER TESTIMONY IS SO STRONG. You walk into a room and you FEEL her faith and her testimony. She has been smoking for 40 years and has terminal COPD. We said a prayer the first time we vistited her (we have visited her twice) and we promised her that she will quit!   We know she can!  We plan on taking her to the temple grounds as often as possible, and at some point, she will go through the temple to receive her endowment!  Spirit mental note: ALWAYS KEEP THE TEMPLE IN YOUR SIGHT!!!  Thinking about going through the temple has given her a little 'umph' to stop smoking!  I shared with her my favorite church song "Strength Beyond My Own." It's about the temple.... I know I listened to that song OVER and OVER  right before I went into the MTC, but PLEASE listen to it ONE MORE TIME. Listen to the lyrics.... I can feel the POWER of Heaven as I stand on Holy Ground. And the spirit whispers what I long to learn. Eyes are TOUCHED with understanding, I can see BEYOND this world.  I am reaching towards Heaven, and it REACHES in RETURN. I told her how the temple gives us strength WAYY beyond our own. We are standing on holy ground.... It's like charging our batteries up. I was reading something about Personal Progress for YW... "The purpose of the Young Women's organization is to help young women become worthy enough to make and keep sacred covenants in the Temple of the Lord." Let's change a couple words in there.... "The purpose of missionary work is to help children of God become worthy enough to make and keep sacred covenants in the Temple of the Lord." The Boise, Idaho Temple is 10 minutes away from where we live... Where S and T live, there are temples in every direction, but the closest one is SLC which is 5 minutes away. The London Temple is 20 minutes away from Haywards Heath. BUT, the nearest temple for Sister S. is the temple in Sweden. EIGHTEEN HOURS AWAY. They get to go ONCE A YEAR. How blessed are we to have temples so close? SO BLESSED. Do we treat it as a blessing as often as we should? Probably not... I LOVE THE TEMPLE. I have been so blessed that I have been able to go TWICE in the last month and a half of my mission!!(That's right. I've been out a month and a half.... OH, MOTHER OF TROY IT'S GOING FAST!!)

Saturday was probably our hardest day though.... FOUR TIMES IN A ROW our investigators didn't show up for lessons... AND MEMBERS CAME FOR MOST OF THEM!! :( The fourth time it happened the man (D) gave us the wrong addresss.... Probably on purpose.... But as we waited, I said, "Let's go see R."! R. is from Maldova. He is married and trying to get his wife over here, but it's hard with the visas. We had taught him the restoration and he was soo full of questions!! He would say, "Why do we change ourselves when God created us to be like this?" He is sooo amazing!! Well, right as I said that, he popped his head through a window and said, "I am right here!" D HAD GIVEN US R'S ADDRESS!  R. was about to leave for work so we taught him a quick two minute lesson about the power prayer and encouraged him to keep reading the Book of Mormon and pray about it!  SO INCREDIBLE!  We received a referral from a ward member for the other side of town. A family from Zimbabwe... We didn't know their exact address so we knocked the whole street. TWO PEOPLE LET US IN AND ONE NEW INVESTIGATOR!!!!  MIRACLES IN ABUNDANCE!!!!

Yesterday, Sunday, I forgot to turn the iron off (Silly Sister V...) and I burned my arm... Like really bad. Grody pictures to come!  But, I was in soooo much pain and when we went to church, ALL of the church members stepped up and helped. One woman left church to go get emergency burn cream because they said it could be a third degree burn. I mean, I'm pretty tough and I've been burned before but this was PAINFUL.... It's huge!  BATTLE SCARS!

Spiritual lesson for the week: BE WHO GOD CREATED YOU TO BE. I have so often been adapting to the culture here, but BE YOURSELF. OPEN YOUR MOUTH. BE KIND. PUT OTHERS FIRST. REMEMBER WHAT CHRIST DID FOR YOU.

I LOVE YOU!!!!!! UNTIL NEXT TIME!!

lOVE, SISTER V

Let's Baptize Some Fleas!!!!!‏

Yalright, errbody!? (Yalright is how EVERYONE greets us)... Hahaha

WE GOT TO SKYPE HOME YESTERDAY!!!!!! Oh, how joyous!!!!! I loved seeing my family's beautiful faces!!!!! HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO MY AMAZING MOTHER!!!!! She is Heaven Sent and has been SUCH a support to me my WHOLE life!!!!!

Oh, my goodnesss... This week... Where to start!!? Well, I'm just going to list it out for sake of time...

1. We have three bapstimal dates now!! N, who is 16 years old, started reading the Book of Mormon yesterday and when we taught her the Restoration, she said, "My heart is pounding!" Oh, she is a bundle of joy. Her and I have bonded a lot. She calls me her "chummy." bahahha And then, T, who is from South Africa! He loves Jesus and can't wait to go home and share this message with his family!! And then S..... Who is homeless and we can't get a hold of..... We are sooo worried.... PLEASE PRAY FOR THEM.

2. My companion and I have FLEAS. DIS. FLIPPING. GUSTING. But, absolutely hilarious.... We went to an in active's house on Thursday. She has three cats who all have skin diseases. They were crawling all over us. We sat on the couch and I SWEAR something bit me. We get home and we are itching like crazy. My calf started to swell up and Sis. S. asked me to look at her back. Her back was COVERED in bites. And I put it together like a fetching puzzle. "Sister S., go take a shower. We have fleas." She SQUEALED. I started laughing, cause it is actually REALLY funny, and she said, "Why are you laughing!!?" Well, cause I never thought I'd have FLEAS on my my mission!!! I feel like a dog....... We have stripped our flat CLEAN. hhahahha when we told the elders, they were like "NO. WAY." It is actually VERY hilarious hahahhahha

3. My voice was gone this entire week. I caught something when I first got to England and I slowly started to go down hill. This entire week, I haven't been able to talk!! HAhahahha! Poor Sis. S!!! She is amazing for putting up with my non vocal preaching! hahahhahha it has been very humbling and very testimony building though!!!! I mean, it goes to show you that you don't need a voice to bear your testimony. Most of everyone knows that "There Is Sunshine In My Soul Today" is my favorite hymn. LET ME TELL YOU WHY. My dad tells this story alot better than I can... I can't remember who.... President Kimball...? Well, he went to visit a woman who was paralyzed from the nose down. She could only answer yes or no questions by one blink=yes two blinks=no. He started asking her questions and then he got to "do you have a favorite hymn" she blinked yes. He started going through the hymn book asking if that was her favorite hymn. All she blinked no. Until 'There is Sunshine in My Soul Today'. He asked if she had a favorite line. She blinked yes. He went through line by line and she kept blinking no. Until he got the line, "And Jesus listening can hear the songs I cannot sing!" AMAZING STORY. And sooo true. Although I had no voice this week, Christ knows I have a testimony. And He helped me bear it through everyone we taught feeling the spirit this week. Sooo incredible!!!

4. Miracles do happen!!!!!!!! On Friday, we were having an absolute RUBBISH day. One of our investigators didn't show up to the lesson. FOR THE SECOND TIME. People were swearing in our faces. People were threatening us. We were being made fun of. People stared, pointed, and laughed at us. It was ridiculously humiliating. We went back to our flat to pick something up and we said a prayer ON OUR KNEES. We always say a prayer before we leave the flat, but never on our knees. So we decided to try it out. We prayed we would witness a miracle. Well, lo and behold, did we get one!!!! We have a Phillipino family living right across the hall from us and we have been trying to figure out how to approach them in a natural way without ruining our chance... Right as we open our door, the mom is opening hers!!!! We started talking and asked if we could come over sometime to share a little more about what we do.... She said yes!!! I could list off all of the tender mercies the Lord bestowed upon us that day, but that would take ages.... All I can say is "Ask and ye shall receive" isn't just an uplifting thought of 'Oh, yeah. Heavenly Father answers prayers...' IT'S A PROMISE!!!!! ASK. ASK. ASK. ASK. ASK. ASK. And you will receive A LOT more back in return!!!!!

5. It's fun telling someone that says you're going to hell that you're not scared of them... The look on their faces when you say, "I fear no man," is absolutely priceless!!

6. I feel HONORED to be a missionary. We have been given authority to work in HIS NAME. WHAT A PRIVILEGE!!!! And I feel even more blessed knowing that Jesus Christ was a missionary too!! And He knows what I feel on a day to day basis times 20 billion. He was humiliated. He was mocked. He was doubted. He was threatened. He was sweared at. He was yelled at. He was laughed at. But, He was also courageous. He dared to stand alone. He was faithful. He feared no man. He stood His ground. He never faultered when it would have been easier to give up. HE ENDURED. He wasn't a missionary just because He was teaching and preaching; He was a missionary because Heavenly Father asked Him to do something and He did it. He was called to be our Savior, and He saved us ALL. Not just a few children. But, ALL of us. Jesus Christ isn't clumsy and lazy. He didn't miss a couple children when He suffered. HE SAVED US ALL. That was His mission. When I got my call letter, I was asked to work in His name. We are all missionaries not because we have a black badge and a white envelope in the mail. We are ALL missionaries because we have been asked to be. Doctrine and Covenants 100:7 "But a commandment I give unto you, that ye shall declare whatsoever thing ye adeclare in my name, in solemnity of heart, in the spirit of meekness, in all things." Jesus Christ was asked to be our Savior. He obeyed. We are asked to be missionaries. SO LET'S BE MISSIONARIES!!!! WE CAN DO THIS!!!!!

I love you all!!! Thank you for your uplifting emails, letters, and prayers!!!!!!! God be with you till we meet again!!!! I testify of this work!!!!!!!!!!

Love, Sister V. <3<3<3<3<3

P.S. Be happy!!!!!!!! Smile!!!!!!!! "To be a missionary means to be yourself." I LOVE YOU!!!! HOPE I CAN HEAR FROM YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!

People of Hayward's Heath

"To be a missionary means to be yourself."‏

Hei alla i hopa!! (Hello in Norwegian...)

Holy cow!! Amazing week this week!!!! I have felt and seen God's hand in my life so strongly!!!! I don't even know where to start!!!!  Well, you remember K and D? We had to hand them over to the elders in our district because K was being very inappropriate and flirtatious and D said it would be a lot easier to learn the gospel with men because us being girls was way too distracting.... At least he's honest I guess.. lol. S has gone missing though... he was our other baptismal date... he is homeless and isn't answering his phone and we are so worried.... but we also met a man named T. We were talking to a Bulgarian woman and we were talking about our beliefs in Christ. While we were talking to her, I noticed a man watching and listening to our message. And I had the feeling to go talk to him. She rejected us and as we started walking away, the man started yelling and said, "Ey! You Christians!?" We said yes and we walked over to say hello! His name is T and he's from South Africa!!!! "I bring my whole family to church on Sunday, yes!?" We were floored!!!!!! We scheduled another lesson with him. When we taught him, the spirit was SOOO strong. All he could say was "that makes sense.." and he accepted a baptismal date for may 31st!!!! I LOVE teaching the first vision because it is so powerful!!!! It is just amazing to know how much God really does love us...

We met another woman named E. We knocked on her door and she started to cry when we told we were representatives of Christ who wanted to pray for her. She didn't have time because she was running out the door, but she asked a special blessing on her family. We asked to come by later and she gave us her number. We called and asks  if we could stop by and she said yes. We taught her the plan of salvation. She was bawling. She said "I love Jesus Christ!!!" She told us her family was struggling:  E has become our mama away from mama!!! She is so kind, compassionate, loving, selfless, and patient. Whether she gets baptized or not, I feel so much love from her and I am just dazzled by her willingness to serve. I love letting  people know that you do NOT need religion in your life to be a good person. You do NOT need to be baptized to be a good person. But you can be the happiest when you're baptized by the proper authority in the name of Jesus Christ.

WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pictures will come next week!!! I feel so blessed!!!!!!!!!!!!! And going there thinking about our investigators dressed in white sends shivers down me shins... in a funky fresh way of course!!!

Well I went with our investigators in mind. But on a more personal level, I went with a question for the Lord. Before I went into the MTC, I made a promise to the Lord to be the best missionary I could possibly be. But this week I have felt I wasn't really living  up to what I'd promised. So I went with the question, "how can I, Sister Alexandria, be the best missionary that I can be?" I realized that I had been adjusting to the culture of Haywards Heath, which they are a little  bit cold, but I realized that I was holding myself back because  since they aren't  used to someone absolutely FULL of energy coming up to them and saying hello, (including the ward members) I changed my approach. I felt unhappy and not like myself. One morning last week, I even looked in the mirror and said "I don't remember who I am anymore." So when I went to the temple today, I realized we are ALL children of God. It doesn't matter what culture, what colour skin, what language, what gender, what dreams we all have. We are ALL children of God. And each of us is unique. Each of us has been blessed with gifts and talents. Heavenly Father expects us to use those talents. ESPECIALLY on a mission. And what I feel I have been blessed with is sort of against how the people here in Haywards Heath treat people and believe in. Yes, England, I am an American. Yes I am loud. Yes I dress very brightly. Yes when I say hello to you, I may scare you. Yes I am a Mormon. I LIVE it. I LOVE it. I am me!!!! We can all be the best missionaries for God by BEING OURSELVES!!!!!!! God created you the way you are and expects you to use your personality, talents, gifts, and dreams in missionary work. To be a missionAry means to be yourself!!!!! We all have a bit of Christ in US... BE YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!

I'm praying for all of you!!!! LOVE you oodles and oodles!!!!!!!!!

companion