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