Lindsey Land (:

Oh boy, it has been a long week and I am kind of glad it is over.  Christmas was good, but we did a lot of just sitting around and tons of eating!  It sure was fun to talk to you guys though (:  You do sound like a bunch of hicks. Ha ha!  I'm sorry that the picture was blurry. I could see you guys all fine though. We got a ton of presents!  I don't think I've ever received so many gifts in my life! Everyone in the ward gave us stuff.  So now I have a whole drawer full of chocolate and I could open a beauty parlor with all of the smellies and beauty things I got. Ha ha!  The CTR ring fits perfectly, thank you so much! Every gift from home was perfect (: After I spoke to you, we spent the evening playing games at the Smiths and we visited another family in the ward for a little bit.  We didn't do too much on Boxing day.  We met up with some other missionaries and went shopping in the town centre.  Sis.Brooks used to be i...

These past few days have been a bit crazy and dramatic, but it's going good.  Nottingham is quite a big city.  Sister Brooks says it's a small one, but to me, it is massive!  I'm not sure where to start because there is so much I want to say and this computer has a timer on it.  But the flat we moved into is on the 5th floor of a complex and has the most spectacular view!  It sits right on the river Trent.  I could throw a stone into it from our balcony.  And you can see all of these big beautiful buildings in the distance.  It's definitely the best part about where we live.  At night it is all lit up and quite magical and there are these party boats that go floating by with loud music and flashing lights inside and you can see people dancing.  Looks kind of fun. Ha ha! But our flat is definitely an elder's flat.  We spent our first 4 hours in it just cleaning and trying to make it a little better.  We found a small Ch...

So much has happened!  Oh man, I don't even know where to start.  But right now I'm sitting in the mission home on Sis.Rasmussen's computer.  I've been transfered to Stroud with Sis.Brooks.  It was so sad to leave Wales.  I got the flu last night and didn't get to say goodbye to anyone because I was throwing up all night. I cried a lot.  But that's life.  I don't have much time to write, but I am not sure what is going on.  My companion has one transfer left and wants to go home now, so we need to talk to President Rasmussen and get everything figured out.  I'm not sure what is going on. I do hope I get to serve in Stroud though.  It's a bike area and that is where Sis.Benson was before Newcastle and she talked about it all the time.  Everyone loves Stroud. Later . . . . . . So it turns out that I am not going to Stroud, but to Nottingham!  Ha ha! Apparently Sis.Brooks had an issue with the Bishop in Stroud, so President i...

Hey hey hey!  Well, good news...I pasted my driving test!  Whoot whoot! It wasn't as scary the second time and he had me do an easier manuver this time (backing into a parking space).  I had a few minor faults, but not enough to fail, which I am just happy about. Rumor has it that the Biritish license is the most difficult to get in the world.  So I am now a pretty top notch driver. Ha ha!  I think it will be a struggle coming home, becuase I've done more driving here than I ever did back home, so it'll be harder going back to driving on the right side of the road.   This week has been alright.  We went on a workover down in Cardiff with a set of sisters.  My driving confidence has boosted a lot now that I have my license and I was able to get us around Cardiff just fine.  I only had one car honk at me, but that was to tell me that my back lights weren't on - I didn't realize that one of the other sisters had turned them off....

Hello there!  I am glad you all had good celebrations.  Yeah, it was pretty quiet here with me being the only American and all.  But I was thankful on Thursday and remembered all the fun days of Thanksgivings past.  The Hutchinsons made a roast dinner for us - a very common British meal.  They had a mini roast turkey, mashed potatoes, roast sweet potatoes, cooked carrots and cauliflower, and then you pour a dark gravy over it all.  They even found a small bottle of cranberry sauce.  Their son Ivan just got home from his mission in Provo, so I always have a good time talking to him because he understands me better than anyone else here.  But we didn't have any pie, which I was alright with.  I can wait another year to have pumpkin pie again.  You can't even buy canned pumpklin here.  It was a good day though. It has been pouring rain all week.  The River Teifi  that flows out to the ocean is way over full. We drive along ...

Hey there!   Thank you so much for the emails! It's crazy that I've been out so long and yet I still miss you all so much!  But this week has been really good.  We got 3 more new investigators so that is 6 within the past two weeks!  Woot woot!  Some have more potential than others, but I am still excited all the same.  I am most excited about a girl named Zoe Hart.  She became an investigator last week, but on Tuesday we went to her house and taught her and her partner about the restoration.  Richard had to go talk to someone at the door part way through so he missed the Joseph Smith story and Book of Mormon, but hopefully Zoe will have talked to him and we can teach him more later.  Zoe still says that she will never convert, but is just open to ideas.  But when we taught her on Tues. I could tell that she was really listening and that the Spirit was touching her.  She didn't set up a specific return appointment, but...

It has been another rainy week in Wales, but we had a few good things happen.  Yesterday there was a beautiful double rainbow just outside the church (see the picture).  You don't see many rainbows here because there isn't enough sun; kind of the opposite problem to back home.  I still have my cold, but we still go and work and the members have been good to give me things to help out.  The members here really are spectacular and they do so much for us.   Saturday was a pretty good day.  We started off the morning by taking a girl in the ward teaching with us.  Her name is Devon Burton and is 18.  She just recently quit college to work and save money to go on a mission next year.  We went to visit a lady in the ward who lives in an old persons home - Sandra Scott.  Sandra is only 59, but had a brain tumor with in the past year or so that has left here nearly a vegetable.  She can barely lift her hands to eat and only speaks ...

This week was a bit of a tough one.  On Monday we took our car in to get fixed and they had it until Friday.  We live in a village smaller than Concho so there weren't that many people we could talk to or visit by just walking.  But we knocked on almost every door in Drefach Felindre.  On Wednesday we decided to walk in to Newcastle Emlyn because it only takes a few minutes to get there in the car, yep, it took us an hour there and an hour back.  We were pretty tired and it poured rain every day and is still raining right now.  It wasn't the most effective week, but we really worked hard.  We weren't able to see any investigators, but we had a few good visits with less-actives and we have a return appointment with a cute young mom named Zoe for this coming week. Halloween was pretty fun.  Our district leader called and told us that he wanted us in by 7pm unless we were having a lesson or something.  So we came home and carved our p...

Yep, it has definitely become much colder this week. The long socks, leggings, and boots are coming out.  Sis.Louis says the phrase 'It's cold' nearly 20 times each day. Ha ha! She is funny and we are having a blast together.  Sometimes I feel like we aren't working as hard and not as strict in obedience as before, but I feel much more relieved and happier.  We are living more by the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law and not nearly as stressful. Wales is absolutely gorgeous right now.  The leaves don't turn yellow, but more of a burnt orange as in the pictures I sent.  It is sometimes a bummer that I have to drive all the time because I have to focus on the road.  But the driving is coming along swell.  It is going to be so boring driving back home.  I feel like I am a go-cart driver here with all the twisting roads and hilly lanes. We had a good lesson with Sally this week and she kept her commitment to read w...

So unfortunately I did not pass the driving test.  But on the good side, I only made 2 really dumb mistakes, which I can easily correct next time.  But I did really well on all of the other aspects of the test.  I'l have to wait until November to sign up for another one when I have more money on my card. I love being companions with Sis. Louis!  She loves everyone and is a lot more relaxed than Sis.Benson and we continue to work hard, but we still have fun at the same time.  I like being a missionary a lot more. (:  The ward also loves her and our relationship with the members has already improved immensly.  Sis.Louis is a hoot and a half so we have good laughs and I already feel like I have a better relationship with her than I ever had with Sis.Benson. We are still struggling to fnd people to teach.  None of our investigators are consistant, but we just have to keep trying.  We did get a new investigator this week. Her name is Sally G...

  Things are going well here in Castell Newydd Emlyn in the beautiful land of Cymru.  Transfers went well on Wednesday and I was able to get Sis.Louis and I safely back from Birmingham to our little cottage.  I was actually quite sad to say goodbye to Sis.Benson.  Spending 6 solid months with someone is A LOT of time.  She really led the work here and it is weird for me to have so much more responsibility now.  Sis.Benson's new companion is like 4'8" and super cute.  I really hope they do alright opening a new area.  But I am way excited to have Sis.Louis.  She is also tiny, but super sweet and really funny.  We have a lot in common already and have had some good laughs.  The past few days have been a little scary because I have had to do most of the planning because she doesn't know the area very well yet.  But things are getting better and it is just really different.  Sis.Benson was a very hard working missionar...

Sorry, I didn't email yesterday.  We got a call Saturday morning saying that we were having a mission football tournament in Cardiff on Monday.  So Sunday night after conference we drove down to Cardiff and stayed with some sisters overnight and then we played football (soccer) for about 4 hours yesterday.  And oh man it was fun!  They split the teams by stakes and even though my stake is the biggest area wise, we have the fewest missionaries so our team suffered and had to wear wimpy pink shirts.  But it was alright because we got 3rd out of the 4 teams and we all had a load of fun.  Sis.Benson and I were the only sisters that played, so it was good because we played the entire time.  It was misting the whole time so we got covered in mud and soaked, but it really was a blast.  And I am quite sore today, but it was worth it.   Conference was AWESOME! I loved it!  It was really funny to hear the American accents.  Ha ha!...

Wow, it's been so good to hear all the fantastic things that are going on back home.  Thank you so much for sharing those experiences with me!  But man, this past week we had an incredible experience.  So I don't remember if I told you guys about a man named Shaish that owns an Indian food restaraunt?  When we first met him he actually asked us for a Book of Mormon and then we were supposed to teach him 2 transfers ago, but he forgot and Sis.Benson and I ate free Indian food anyways.  We haven't seen him again until on Saturday. Saturday started out pretty crummy.  We ran into a Jehovah's Witness man out knocking on doors too and he preached to us for like 45 min. and wouldn't let us say anything.  Anyway, he killed the spirit of the morning and we were just walking around Newcastle Emlyn trying to find people to talk to.  I prayed in my heart that someone would stop and listen and then Shaish came walking out of a shop.  He starte...

Saturday was my 6 month mark and it was a crazy day.  We went up to a big town called Lampeter to visit less-actives and do some street contacting.  I talked to a crazy drunk lady playing a recorder and a couple of guys tried to convince us that getting drunk was much more fun that being a missionary. Ha!  But we also met a really nice man from Nigeria named Vincent.  He said that he was glad to see us because there were loads of different missionaries in Nigeria that were always talking to people.  But in Wales, even though there is a church every 100 yards, you don't see many missionaries or see many religious people.  We gave him a Plan of Salvation leaflet and he gave us his address and phone number and said we are welcome anytime to come by his house and see him.  Vincent was awesome and hopefully we'll be able to see him again soon. On the drive home we stopped by a part-active family, the Taylors, but they weren't home.  We then headed...