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