The Lord Always Provides

The sunsets over the ocean are gorgeous!

This week was pretty great. It was quite short though which was nice! 

Thursday (December 27): To be honest I don't think it was too difficult to get back into the swing of things. We had district meeting this morning, then as we got back we had some lunch and hit the streets with no success as usual. We decided today that we want to get all of the Living Christ memorized by the end of January so we worked on that while we walked around and stuff. Not much to complain about today! 

Friday: Wow it has been a struggle to find people to teach this week. We were able to do some service and help weed a flower bed as well as put some bark in the yard and then the lady we did it for made us some really good soup and we had some homemade bread that was delicious! When we got back we studied as usually and then went to see Mohammed and it was honestly really great. I've made good progress on the Living Christ. I have all the paragraphs memorized in order except the last 3! 

Saturday: We have seriously struggled to find people to teach all week and so this morning we prayed very sincerely about some very specific things like where to go and what we should talk about specifically. I can honestly say that the Lord always provides! We were able to meet 2 people in only and hour that we will teach next week. Then we had a lunch appointment with a member and they seriously had the most insane Christmas decorations ever! They were so cool.

One member's sweet Christmas decorations!

Also the food was great. Tonight we worked on writing our talks because we both got asked to speak in church. Haha I spoke 2 weeks ago but hey I guess that means I did a good job right?! 

Sunday: Today in sacrament the first speaker only talked for about 5 minutes and I looked at the clock and there was 35 minutes left for me and Elder Stoddard to fill! But I can honestly say that we absolutely killed it, finished the meeting right on time and our talks went really well. Later on in the day we were stopping by some less active members and both of us had a thought to drop in to an active member that was somewhat nearby so we went to do that and it turns out that the husband had fallen and had to be taken to the hospital just 30 minutes earlier. This couple is really old and quite frail so it was really good for us to be there to help comfort his wife and say a little prayer with her. This week was pretty short with not much success number wise but I did have some great spiritual experiences and my testimony was definitely strengthened! 

Today: This morning we just did our usual shopping and cleaning around the flat. Then we went to get another haircut from Mohammed and he hooked us up again. We told him we didn't mind paying but he just told us we are family and he doesn't want us to pay. What a legend! 

Also fyi next Monday we are having a new years party as a whole mission so I probably won't be emailing until later in the evening while I'm on the train coming home. Love you all! 

Elder Orchard

All the garbage from Christmas and also we missed garbage day last week haha!

I found this sweet mug at the chapel and asked if I could take it home haha

Questions from mom:  Have you gotten all of my 12 days letters yet?  Did you get to watch a movie on Christmas night? Did you have too much of a Christmas call hangover?  Are you still enjoying your pretzels? 

To answer your questions I have gotten 10 out of 12 haha. We didn't actually have time to watch a movie on Christmas so we didn't end up doing it but it's all good. No I honestly did not have much of a hangover at all. It was not too much of a struggle to get back in to the groove. And yes I am still really enjoying my pretzels I have 5 left. Those are so good thank you so much for sending those! I also have a question for you, could you maybe send your chocolate chip cookie recipe for me please? I kinda want to make some home made cookies soon and I would really appreciate it! Thanks for your great email update I love you tons and can't wait to hear from you! 

Have you used your nose trimmer yet? 😜 What are your New Years plans? And, you had quite a head start on the living Christ! I hope you told your comp so he didn’t feel discouraged at his progress. Maybe he has a head start too. 

Homemade cookies are a little complicated but I will send the recipe. Maybe prepared dough that all you have to do is bake is a good option?

No I haven't used my nose trimmer yet haha. We have a new years party as a ward but we still need to be home at 9. Then there is no public transport tomorrow so our work is just going to have to be focused in the town where it is within walking distance. Elder Stoddard also worked on memorizing the living Christ at some point during his mission but never finished so we are both actually at about the same place. We wrote it down on a piece of paper and carry it around with us as we walk from house to house at night time so that is great practice. Love you so  much!

Questions from dad:  Is there just one ward in the building that you go to church in?  What time has church been and what time will it be going forward?   

To answer your questions. We are the only ward in this building and church starts at 10am. It will still start at 10am this year as well. Our ward boundary is huge as well haha there is like a 10 mile radius! Things are a whole lot different over here in England.