Just another group email

So we had many miracles this week! But first off, on Wednesday we

traveled by train to Birmingham for the training meeting! And I was

reunited with sister Gjevik, and it was so fun! My mission president

is amazing and is so intelligent, and his wife is the sweetest. It was

a great meeting!

A member from our ward called us and asked us to help her garden her

neighbours yard. Her neighbour has two jobs and is going through a

hard time, so she thought it would be helpful! When we started the

neighbour wasn't home yet, so we were about half way done pulling

weeds when she got there. She got out of the car and teared up when

she saw what we were doing, and she opened up to us about the things

she's been going through. Short story short, she wants to quit smoking

and we're going to help her! So amazing.

It's been really foggy here, to the point where you can't see anything

ahead of you! It's insane! And we're back on bikes, so that's fun.

People don't really celebrate Halloween here, so that wasn't too big.

But people have been doing fireworks for the past week, nonstop ALL

NIGHT. And the fireworks here sound like gun shots, so I jump

everytime...

Bonfire night is this week, which I've heard is bigger than the 4th of

July! It's when they celebrate London not getting bombed by Guy Fox,

so part of it is they burn a little doll in the fire, and then do

fireworks. They always say "remember remember the fifth of November"

Weird.

We have been volunteering for church at the bus station selling

poppies for the poppy appeal, which is really big here! And we're

going to start handing out family history cards as well to see if we

can help anyone with theirs!

It's going to be a really busy week, and it's sister Ronspies last

week on her mission :( so we're going to help her go out with a bang!

Love you all, have an amazing week!

-Sister Nielsen

Aleksandra is from Poland, and she's preparing to go to the temple! And that's her adorable daughter phoebe!

Our investigator Carlos made us take like 50 photos before he liked one. So funny.

England is so pretty!

Hello! I've got to make this email quick, because we had a lot of traveling today!

This has been the best week! On Tuesday we went on splits with two members who are actually from Utah, but they're here for 6 months to work. I went and taught Luke, a former investigator, with one of them. I was super nervous because I've never taught without Sister Ronspies there. Trainers on missions are like training wheels though, once they're not there you have to either learn fast to keep riding, or you'll topple over. So I learned fast! It went so well! And he's coming to church with us next Sunday, woo!

On Wednesday we got to help a family in our ward, the Stinsons, landscape their backyard! It got really muddy, but I love English weather :)

On Thursday we traveled soooo much. But we visited two old ladies in our ward who don't come to church anymore, Jean and Bernice. They are SO CUTE! They're best friends who live across the street from each other and are always together! I seriously almost died of cuteness while I was there. Bernice has this teddy bear she calls Paddington Bear, and she talks for him and folded his arms when we said a prayer... haha it was adorable.

On Friday I went on my first exchange! I went up to Nottingham with Sister Alexandroia (from Romania) and we had a car! So we visited lots of people, and we went to a this park with tons of birds in it for lunch. At one point we were in the Family History Centre with an investigator helping him, and I just kept thinking how funny it was that I was doing family history in Nottingham, where my great grandma was born! 

We also got to teach Alun, who is so ready to be baptised but he's nervous of what his family will think. It was so amazing to teach him though, because it showed me there really are people out in the world who are so prepared to hear our message, and they've gone through so much to hear it! 

Basically exchanges are the best, and I learned so much in that one day. Probably one of the best days so far!

On Saturday, Sister Ronspies and I taught Kevin again, who had a lot of concerns about the Book of Mormon. We thought he was just done with us. But we just bore our testimonies, and told him what we know and what we want to help him come to know, and his outlook on it all changed! Ah I love being a missionary!

And today some members of our ward offered to take us to Dovedale, a really pretty walking (english for hiking) area. It was BEAUTIFUL! English countryside is incredible, and its so different from home. And we took the Dowlings dog Blossom with us, and I've never loved any animal as much as Blossom. We also drove past Kedleston Hall, which is an enormous mansion that's been used in several movies, like Pride & Prejudice I think!

We have a crazy busy week planned and it's gonna be so good! I love this work, and I'm sooo excited to learn more.

I have no idea if this email made any sense, so good luck reading it!

Here we are trying a kinder egg!

Pictures!

Here are some pictures that Anna has shared with us these few weeks!

One of the members dogs in Derby!

When she was still at the MTC

Her and her companion went running in the rain! 

Her view everyday! 

Pre Hinckley's old flat! 

She's trying to figure out her mission phone

Sister Ronspies and Sister Nielsen rocking some tats. Those crazy missionaries.

we miss her, and love her, but we know she's in good hands! 

Hiya!

Literally everyone here greets each other by saying "hiya!" Or "alright?" Ok I have to rewind back to two Thursdays ago since that was the last time we got to email. Thursday-I was supposed to take a train to Manchester to try finding people for the first time, but a few of us missionaries had to go to Preston instead for a Visa stuff. I was so sad! And I had to be companions with three elders since I was the only sister that had to go, weird! But to make up for it, the MTC worker took us to see the river where early Mormon missionaries baptised loads of people in Preston, and then to President Hinckleys flat where he received the letter from his dad that said "forget yourself and go to work." I'll attach photos! Friday-we had interviews with the MTC president, President Preston! He's the funniest English guy, he always comes up with these weird sayings. Example: he says to be like a baby bird with no teeth. The baby bird has to suck seeds to eat. We have to suck seed=succeed. Haha i don't know. Saturday-I think this was just a normal day in the MTC. We studied, taught lessons, ate lots of delicious food and desserts. I can't really remember sadly! Sunday-This was a good day! In the MTC everyone has to prepare a talk and they choose who speaks right before. So of course Sister Gjevik and I arrived late, and so of course I got chosen to talk. It went alright though! Sunday's were really chill in the MTC, after church we got to watch Meet the Mormons, and we got lots of free time! It was great. And we watched an old devotional by Elder Holland, which everyone should go and watch RIGHT NOW! It's called missionary work and the atonement. Monday-This was our last normal day in the MTC, and we invited our investigator Mark to be baptised and he said yes! Afterwards, our teacher who played mark called the person he had based him off of. Her names Monica, and she's from Africa! It was so cool to get to talk to her! Tuesday-we had lots of workshops this day for last minute training. And we said lots of goodbyes, it was so sad! Wednesday-we woke up at 5AM and packed up and left the MTC on a coach for the Birmingham mission office! There were 7 sisters going to Birmingham and only one elder. Poor guy. On the coach we filmed a video of a song my companion and I wrote that's basically a missionary version of a song from Frozen. Oh missionary humour! We got to the mission office and had interviews with the President Leppard! Then we got our iPads and we got assigned our companions and areas! It was so weird, the second the sister who would be my companion looked at me I knew she would be my trainer! And then she was! Her name is Sister Ronspies, she's from Idaho, and this is her last transfer! So I'm actually going to be trained by two people, or have two 'moms' as they call it here in the EBM. And we got assigned to serve in Derby! We travelled for HOURS and then finally got to Derby at 830PM. Thursday-we spent a lot of the day situating ourselves because we're whitewashing the area. That basically means neither of us know what we're doing. It's been an adventure. We got to teach one of our investigators. All I can say is teaching is HARD! At about 3 that afternoon we were told that the sisters usually teach an English class at 7 at the chapel! So we went and we taught English to 4 guys from Africa with a recent convert from Aleksandra. Adventure! Friday- we went out GQing (golden question, or finding is what this means) for the first time. It was terrifying. Everything's a work in progress... During the day a ward member took us out for ice cream and told us everything we needed to know. And that night our ward had sports night at the chapel, so we got to meet a lot of the ward! They're very competitive when it comes to volleyball and football! Saturday-we spent all day calling and setting up lessons for this week so we could finally get yup ball rolling! Then we watched general conference at the chapel. So much truth! General conference is the best! Sunday-we had to go up to Nottingham for general conference, so we spent the whole day there. On the way there we saw Batmans house! Today!- we decided to GQ a little bit before we had our P-Day, and we ended up having a lesson with someone from it! He's from Turkey and a very devote Muslim, but nonetheless we gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he'd read it! Hooray! Then we got all our shopping done and got lost a lot. Adventure! Today's actually the first day it's rained here, weirdly enough! Other small tidbits: When British people have the hiccups they say "goffel" which basically means excuse you. Why they don't just say excuse you escapes me.... The chocolate here really IS so much better! Missions really are the best thing ever! I wish I had time to write even more details about the past two weeks, but this is all I've got time for! I love you all, and hope you have a good week! Sister Nielsen