1st Assignment--Lea Valley

Of all the wards/branches she could've been assigned, she went to Lea Valley, like the "Bronx" of London, where Mitch Freestone is the bishop.  He used to be in our Boston ward when Annie was 3 years old.  I wonder if he'll put that together one of these days.  :)  Lucky Annie

Letter to friends:

February 22, 2016

okay,

CAN I JUST SAY MISSION LIFE IS THE GREATEST?!?!  Miracle upon miracle happen again and again and I can't believe I am so privileged to experience it all.  Oh my goodness it's just so good.  Wow I love it. 

Okay okay okay what has happened these past 10 days?  Better question, what hasn't happened?!  Rewind to MTC.

MTC was so grand.  I loved, loved, loved it!  The people there are absolutely incredible and we had such a blast together.  I grew so close with everyone and the last thing I wanted to do Wednesday morning was to leave the MTC to go to the field!  Ironic, I know.  I learned A TON.  Just for example, my poor companions informed me that I was getting good at giving the Restoration lesson in my sleep...sleep talking...it's a joy.  Hey--at least that shows how much I'm learning.  Also, I really should've appreciated the food more.  In the MTC they actually gave you meals!  Here the meals consist of rice and cereal occasionally.  No worries though, we shall be hitting the store today and will be blessed in being able to pick up crackers, turkey, and cheese!  (Right roommates??)  Now Mom, no need to fret, we'll buy oatmeal too. 

Okay, okay focus.

ANYWAY I want to tell you some of the greatest parts of this 3 week mission experience of mine.  And that is the MIRACLES.  God is truly a God of miracles and I want to give you a taste of what I am experiencing every day...

MIRACLE #1.  My wonderful companions!  Sister Paongo and Sister Brito taught me things I never could have learned on my own--crazy grateful for them.  And my new companion, SISTER CUMMINGS!! She is my beautiful trainer.  She is from Centerville Utah and this is actually her last transfer (cue emoji with clenched teeth).  She absolutely loves this work and wants to work as hard as she can until the very last second!  Or until we baptize the rest of England.  You know, whatever comes first.  So, she is amazing and we are super similar (she loves sign language and played a year of high school soccer also.  And we have only both broke our left wrist.  Random I know--but even more reasons to work in unity!)  Okay but she is a HUGE miracle in my life because she has taught me how to actually talk to everyone we pass on the street or bus.  I hope I can be as great as a missionary as her one day!!

MIRACLE #2.  THIS AREA.   I am living in Lea Valley which is about 30 minutes from downtown London.  It is a true city area and we take the tube or bus everyday.  It's about 4 stops to our chapel  The ward is about 90% African and is about as different from a Utah ward as you can get!  The people here are absolutely hilarious and wonderful in so many ways.  Each has an incredible story and just loves the gospel!  Church yesterday was an absolute whirlwind with trying to meet everyone.  There are about 80 people in the ward and everybody loves to sit in the back during classes--oh boy.  But the people passing the sacrament, and giving talks are almost all converts!  Each are very new to the gospel and it is amazing to see their perspective on God's wonderful plan. 

MIRACLE #3  The people I am meeting here.  The first two days I was in Lea Valley I kept track of from where all of the different people Sister Cummings and I met.  Their places of origin ranged from China, to Ghana, to Poland, to Bulgaria, to Trinidad, to Transylvania, to Romania, to South Africa, to Barcelona, literally all of the countries of the world except for America.  And it is so rare to find someone that has even heard of Utah--let alone knows where it is!  Talk about a change of culture for me.  And I swear I always end up sitting next to the non English speaker where we spend 15 minutes just asking "how are you?"  Sister Cummings wants to teach an English class with me--good thing we've never done it before so we can't say we're bad at it yet!  I'll keep you posted how that adventure goes.

MIRACLE #4  I could talk about the investigators and people on date and potential investigators all day long.  SO I'm just gonna pick a favourite or two.  Peter is first.  Peter is 50 years old and is from Ghana.  Oh man, every time he talks to you he slowly closes his eyes and tilts his chin dramatically forward.  It's hilarious.  And it's impossible to get any personal info from him.  Sister Cummings has been teaching him for a month and we just found out he has 3 kids in Ghana?!  What the.  Why do you not tell us these things Peter??  Anyway, the lesson with him was amazing.  We gave him a chapel tour and the spirit at the baptismal font is crazy strong.  I swear it almost pulled us in to get baptized right then and there!  Then we taught the priesthood in the chapel.  We showed Peter the picture of John, James, and Peter visiting Joseph Smith to give him the Priesthood.  Peter asked again and again, did this really happen?  Angels physically came down and put their hands on top of the head of Joseph Smith?  We testified that it really did happen and that we had the same power and authority as in Christ's time.  All Peter could do was sit back in amazement and say wow.  That is amazing.  His childlike faith is so humbling and his wonder and amazement at the beauty and absolute power of this gospel is simply incredible.  I wish so bad you could all experience this, because the Spirit felt, man, it's just indescribable.  Oh how I love this gospel!!!

MIRACLE #5  I can not believe God trusts us with this responsibility to teach His children.  It is totally scary going up to random people and trying to talk to them and find a way to tie in the gospel and help them the best way possible.  Especially when you're on the tube for literally 3 minutes and your ears pop because it goes so fast.  Or when they don't speak English--ya I wouldn't recommend that too much.  Oh boy do I need the gift of tongues. 

Miracle upon miracle upon miracle.  That is how I would describe my first week in the mission field.  WOW I LOVE IT.  I hope this email was alright and seriously, excuse the messy writing--what can I say, time is precious to the Lord!

LOVE YOU ALL!
Cheers Sister Soulier

My what the what England?  Portion of email...

Question: How many fried chicken shops have I seen while here? 

Answer: 107

Question:  How many barber shops have we passed while trying to avoid fried chicken shops?

Answer: 108

Question: Who needs door handles or dryers anyway?  Wow thanks a lot England.  There's no way a thief could ever get into our apartment, because I can't even do that!! 

Question: What is Utah?

Answer: The world England will never know.

Question: Should we cross the street even though a bus and motorcycle is rapidly approaching?

England answer:  (Cue Brian Regan...)  UHHH YES.  I swear I have seen 7 old ladies dart in front of buses in order to make the tube and somehow make it.  They sure do hustle when the life is on the line.  Now, I just need to figure out how to transfer that hustle into the hustle for baptism....Hmmmm we'll see. 

CHEERS!!

family letter:

JAKE HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I hope your day is simply grand and that you eat good food and don't have to clean your room and have no homework and get good presents.

As soon as I figure out the whole postage scene, I'll definitely mail letters!!

Yes hello I had a ton of extra time in the MTC to email and so I emailed you all separately plus this.  Unfortunately that luxury has been lost in the sight of trying to baptize everyone. 

OKAY DO I HAVE THE GREATEST AREA SO FAR OR WHAT?! 

My trainer is absolutely incredible--she wants to work crazy hard and be obedient and have so much fun and has her whole mission experience to pull off of and teach me how to be fantastic even though it is a very slow process.  Bonus, her grandpa is the owner of the C Kay Cummings store so free chocolate anyone??  Thank goodness for an AMAZING COMPANION. All of the elders here are great too--a lot are from Utah actually but I didn't know any of them before. 

MY AREA  It is total city I have never seen the same person twice except for investigators and members.  It is 90% African the people are so sweet and humble.  All come from broken families or poverty or something missing.  Oh my this family we visited, the mom Joanna with two son Joshua (2) and Micahl (15) from Poland.  She is less active and is trying her absolute hardest to be a good mom but has to run it all by herself.  We visited her house yesterday and it's just dirty with the tv on and she is so worried about her kids.  It's just so hard to watch these things and know what the solution is--cuz I've seen it with all of you at home!!  We are just so so so so blessed to have all of us together in the gospel and a good home with good parents.  Seriously you have nothing to fix--I was so blessed to be raised right. 

Okay I'm getting distracted.  Really tho miracle after miracle has happened.  I'm trying to street contact (with sister Cummings help it is much easier) and talk to people on the bus and tube.  It's way hard but I'm slowly getting better.  The poor people I have to practice on. 

My second day we met with a potential investigator sister Cummings met on the bus, her name is Michelle.  She is 18 and loves Christ.  We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and different gospel things, and she really enjoyed it.  And best part--I invited her to be baptized and she accepted!!!  Her mom wasn't there but also seems interested.  We're meeting her later this week.  Also Michelle came to church on Sunday AND brought her boyfriend!  Gah this is gonna be so good! 

Sister Cummings and I have set a vision for this transfer--We want to get 3 baptisms and have a smooth hand off.  That is because this is Sister Cummings' last transfer and I will have to take over the area when she leaves!  Wow talk about scary--I'll have to run planning and visits and everything here while I finished getting trained with my new follow up trainer after 6 weeks.  There are 4 other elders in the ward and we seem them on Wednesday and Sunday but that's about it because our area is SO HUGE.  Sister Cummings has already been here for 2 transfers and she actually opened this area for sisters.  This is the first time in 10 years this area has sisters so we are still a very new concept to everyone!  The ward is really fantastic--they are willing to help and the investigators meet so many people when they come to church.  It's so wonderful.  Bishop Freestone is fantastic--he asked me to give a talk in two weeks, we'll see how that goes.  Our mission leaders Brother Augustine is from Ghana and is a convert of 2 years?  I think.  He's good, he's just missing that missionary urgency!  We have got to get everyone baptized before Sister Cummings leaves! 

Anyway, I have a million more things to say, but I am out of time.  Just know I absolutely love it here and it's really hard, but I'm learning loads of things.  And I think I already hit the stage of as soon as your head hits the pillow, the morning alarm goes off.  I almost fell asleep during my prayer today uh oh. 

Oh but first, I want to tell of the first day in the field!!  We left Preston at 6 am and traveled down to London via bus.  Elders and sisters all chatted down.  It was fun. I got everybody to play traveling games for better or worse.  We pulled up to the mission home which is literally in the heart of London and were greeted by President and Sister Stevens.  Sister Stevens gave me the biggest hug for the longest time and just expressed how happy she was that we were here.  I can already tell they are going to be incredible mission presidents.  The work here is moving fantastically.

As for prayers, could you pray for Ailine? She is 21 and is on date to be baptized March 13th.  She has a beautiful testimony (which she bore in our last lesson with her about the gospel of Jesus Christ) and knows that baptism will help her a ton. She has already given up a lot for this gospel including trying to live the Law of Chastity.  But she has been trying to give up smoking for a couple of weeks now and is down from 4 cigarettes a day, to only 1!  This week we committed her to be completely finished smoking by Tuesday.  So could you pray for Ailine to have strength to be able to give up smoking on Tuesday?  Being baptized would help her so much and she has potential to be a great missionary and mom one day!  Ah if she can make it through this week, she is set for life. 

Help needed in this category...

youth lesson ideas?  Especially teaching simple doctrine involving a lot of games.  We are teaching Sunday School (about 4 kids) and need ideas.

Also any simple soup recipes??  Rice is great and all but I gotta have some variety.

I really hope I'm not forgetting anything else.

LOVE AND MISS YOU
Sister Soulier :)