Called to Serve : I know Jesus Christ Knows Us Each Individually and Perfectly

What a beautiful sunny week in England.... God has blessed us literally all week with the sun!! It has been fantastic:) I think he is preparing us for the longest, coldest, and darkest winter of my life. It gets dark at like 330 in the winter here...... Wonderful. Seriously though. I don't think I have ever seen as much sun than I have in the past week. It's true..... English people LOVE talking about the weather! Conversations always come back to the weather, not because there is nothing else to talk about, it just happens!

Here are some other interesting things I learned this week.... So EVERYBODY AND THEIR DOG knows about the Osmonds here and immediately connect Mormons to the Osmonds. And no joke, one of the Osmond boys served their mission here in England AND served in this ward..... ha crazy huh. Some people remember meeting him on the streets and will mention that. Anywho... there is a fun fact for the week.

One more crazy thing... Guess how much gas is... or as they would call it... petrol..... Well they do it in liters and it is in pounds, but when you convert it their gas costs around $8 a gallon... ridiculous huh! But to be fair they have smaller cars and don't drive as far as we do! But still crazy.

When I come back to England I am DEFINITLY going to Canterbury... When you are there you just feel like you are in England. It is so beautiful! We have been there like 5 times in the past month for meetings and p day and what not. It is a beautiful place:)

AND OH MY DAYS HOW ABOUT GENERAL CONFERENCE THOUGH??! Talk about a spiritual overload. It was awesome. I truly loved every second of it!! We watched it at the chapel and the first session is live at 5 on Saturday and then we watch the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning on Sunday.. and I haven't watched the Sunday afternoon yet. Probably today sometime!

This week was such a fantastic week! I love serving here in the Gillingham 2 ward. It is just really cool to see how 2 months ago when I got to this area, I didn't know where I was and didn't know anyone here, and the elders didn't leave us like anything... So we had no teaching pool or anything, and now we barely have time to see everyone that we need to see every week!!! Our schedule is crazy! Like literally this week we are completely booked every hour of the day already.... God is so in this work and he loves us so much. Transfers are next week... and I am hoping that Sister Mathews and I stay together one more transfer! I love the people here and don't want to leave yet. I think Sister Mathews and I have the same brain too... Literally all the time we just take the words out of each others mouths and it is kind of scary actually. It's funny because we are just the exact opposite. It's fun to think about if you would be friends with your companion back home.. and honestly I probably wouldn't have been. Haha not because I don't like them, just because we are all so different. But force us to spend 24/7 together for at least 6 weeks.., and you just grow to love these girls! It's great I love it.

But I do miss all my girls at home!!! You know who you are! <3

We saw lots of amazing people this week. We saw my favorite filipino girls.... Elizabeth and Mara.

Goodness I just love them. When we told Mara that transfers was coming up, she got super sad.... :( That is thee hardest part about missionary work in my opinion. You grow to love these people so much and then you just leave! But good thing your heart can never be too small, and it just keeps expanding with every person you meet. These relationships are ones that will truly last forever!

Every Monday night we have family home evening at the Stockers, (Traci, Anais, and Brandon...) And oh my days it is a party every time. This Monday we played the skittle game where you take two skittles out of the bag and if they match colors, you can swallow them, but if they don't, you have to just keep them in your mouth and you can't chew them.. it was hilarious and I think I was sick after that.

We saw George and Suzanne also this week... Okay they are the greatest example of the atonement. I just want to cry every time I see Suzanne because she just physically looks like she is in so much pain all the time.... She isn't even a member, but they have a picture of Christ on their wall and she was saying that she always has long chats with God. She is such an example of faith. It amazes me so much!

Friday we had a lovely service opportunity and rubbed tobacco off of someone's walls..... Haha welcome to England my friends. It was horrible, but it was really nice to be able to serve someone who isn't able to do much on her own, and it wasn't her fault that her grand kids always come and smoke in her home. I truly am the happiest when I completely forget about myself and focus on someone else.

Tobogganing with some of the Elders (Haysman and Davis)

and the ward mission leader

Friday night we had such a great miracle!!!!!! We had an appointment with a part member/less active family... The dad is a member and the mom isn't, and they have 3 lovely little girls under 6. So I saw them once last transfer and it went okay, we were just building the relationship with them, and it was kind of awkward the first time when we were there and we didn't really know how to bring up the gospel with them without being like, "so why don't you come to church??" Hah I would never say it that way anyways... But it was just kind of a weird situation and you just have to know their personalities for it to make sense. But any who... All week long I have been praying for this lesson specifically, that we would be able to casually find our way into a gospel conversation, God sure answered that prayer. And it wasn't even awkward! It went so well!!!! The mom had some really great questions and they even said we can come back and we can discuss more! We testified of the

blessings of the gospel and the Spirit was really powerful!!! So stoked on life right now. WOW I just love missionary work.

Alright, now back to conference. Wow, wasn't it just AMAZING. I feel so much the faith of the

apostles and prophets, just pleading with us to rise up and become valiant and courageous disciples of Christ.

The overall message I personally got from conference was to.....

RISE UP, FORTIFY YOUR FAITH, AND FIGHT THE BATTLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL. THERE IS NO ROOM FOR LUKEWARM CONVERSION IN THIS DISPENSATION.

We need to be better and stronger than we were before. My favorite talk was from the first session by Larry Lawrence..... I am trying to take his council to heart and ask myself every day, "What lack I yet?" "What can I improve today to become more like my Savior?"

I truly love and sustain our beloved Prophet Thomas S. Monson. Please pray for him! The Spirit filled my soul as he spoke. He truly is the Lords consecrated and faithful servant on the earth, literally withering away in the service of our God.

This week I pray that we may all rise a little higher and serve in our own callings with more faith and courage... Whether our calling be a father, mother, brother, sister, friend, teacher, and ultimately a disciple of Christ. God and Satan are in a battle for our hearts... WE choose who is going to win that battle. ACTIVELY CHOOSE JESUS CHRIST EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF YOUR LIFE.

All God wants is for us to be happy.