Transferred to Colchester

June 13
We need to go teach hope. I'll email later!!
Transfers are crazy. I'm being moved 😭😭😭😭. I'm going to Colchester.
I do not want to go. Packing and saying goodbye is eating up today.
SO HARD TO LEAVE. I didn't expect it to be hard. I just said bye to a
member and she started crying. :(.

I was so so sad to leave Lea Valley. I am fine to Colchester--I don't miss it now, it was just hard to leave everyone. Members were really difficult to leave. I love them so much. Sister Nelly is so sweet she gave me a scarf from Ghana right before I left. (it's the one I am wearing in the picture with the Horrigams and Alvin on iCloud). I loved Lea Valley and I always will. I can't wait to visit again.

Transfers are so strange. I never expected them to be so hard!! It's like leaving home again! Absolutely no fun. However we packed and I somehow got to Colchester.

June 20

Hello and good afternoon!

How was/is Seabrook? I can't remember when you get back. Is the beach and crab fishing just so nice? I love the videos sent--can you send photos? I always try to show pictures of my family but I don't really have any to show! So please send a couple at least...:).

With crab fishing, did you cook the crabs after? Poor mom a couple of years ago having to hold the lid down. So bad.

So yes, TRANSFERS!

Wow I am shocked too!!! SUPER SHOCKED. And really sad. It was a rough couple of days with transfers. I miss everyone so much. I didn't realize how much I loved the members/investigators until I had to leave. And Sister Brown. I know--so many companions!! Sister Brown and I were very sad to leave each other, but I think she will be just fine taking over the area. We just can't believe transfers are over so quick!! The mission is absolutely flying by!!! At the end of this transfer I will hit 6 MONTHS. WHAT IN THE WORLD. The mission is already a third of the way over. So weird. Mission time is so wacky.

I miss Lea Valley a ton. It was the BEST AREA. I loved loved it there. And I really want to visit. My new area is Colchester. Colchester is in the Ipswich zone and is about an hour train ride outside of London. It was very different then Lea Valley. And different is good! Although transfers were a shocker (almost all companionships were moved this past transfer and so there were a lot of surprises) I am excited to be in this new area! It is nice to finally be able to leave our non progressing investigators who are getting a little difficult to deal with. And although I was not able to be there for Hope's baptism, we got him past the interview and that was awesome! (He is another story I can tell later). And I LOVE my new companion. She is a rockstar.

Colchester!! Colchester is a small town. It is a cross between country and city. There are not nearly as many people as there were in Lea Valley. There are only people in the town center. (whereas lea Valley you couldn't go anywhere without running into hundreds of people). However, when you say hello to people, they actually say hello back! Some even reply with "how are you?" Yep. I was and still am shocked. The ward is all English people. There is one African family and 1 African recent convert (soon to be another one with Alvin!) But it is all English and about 50% on the older age. No more tube, we just take the bus occasionally. The zone leaders are in our area and they have a car. They take us places occasionally. The sister training leaders are also in our area. We have 3 sets of missionaries in total in the Colchester ward. So yes, a lot slower, but this is also great because people have more time to talk! Wonderful!! The work does not move as quickly as Lea Valley, but we are in a fantastic district (including district leader and companion, zone leaders and sister training leaders). We also hope to get a ton of member referrals! (Hoping to pull a Susan Fulcher) We did get a ton of dinner appointments this week. We have 5 dinner appointments this week. 5!!! I think that is how many I have had my entire mission. Crazy.

My companion!!! SISTER GUIMARAES!! She is from Rio Brazil and she is such a fantastic missionary! Talk about being exactly obedient and talking to everyone. Wow we have some good stories already. She has been on her mission for almost 9 months and is about two transfers ahead of me. She comes from a part member family and is the second person to serve a mission in her extended family! She was baptized when she was 14 years old. So Sister Guimaraes has been here for one transfer already and she is a stellar missionary. We are exactly obedient. Rules I didn't even know I was breaking she is helping me to teach. So grateful for her. And she talks to EVERYONE. We can't get anywhere because she wants everyone to hear the gospel. And she is incredibly good at making the gospel relate to everyone. Just the other day we were using McDonald's bathroom and while washing our hands we started chatting with a girl and ended up having a step in lesson with her right there. The girl's name was Joy and she was an Atheist. But somehow we talked to her and now she wants to meet with us again to have "one last try" at trying to find out if God is there or not. I'm still not sure what happened either. But we are talking to everyone. The other day we were tracting (pretty much the first time I've tracted in my whole mission) and a family let us in who are actually Muslim. (there are a lot of laws with teaching Muslims but all were taken care of so I won't go into those details). But here we were sitting in the house while they went up to pray because it was there time to pray. I had no idea what to do. I looked at Sister Guimaraes and was very lost. She just smiled and said, well we are both still greenies so let's try something out! We ended up teaching/talking to the dad even though it was Father's day and all the kids were climbing over him. We will see him next Sunday and see if he is willing to follow commitments we leave him to accept Jesus as his Savior. We'll see. Just so many situations I never dreamed we would get caught in. So fun and adventurous and out of the element.

okay update on people----

Hope (from Lea Valley) he was suppose to be baptized June 12th. Long story but he couldn't make it because he was out of town or something. Super lame. But he will be baptized June 26th.

Kyriacos (from Lea Valley) doing really well. The Book of Mormon continues to change his life in incredible ways. Hopefully he will be able to overcome smoking by July 17th!!!

Alvin (from Colchester) new guy!! He is from Ghana. The sisters met him last transfer and have taught him nearly everything. He is a rockstar. He will be baptized June 25th and passed his baptismal interview last Saturday where we may or may not have taught him Law of Chastity on the bus...hey we had a member AND used a scripture. all is good. He is doing well. He is very very excited for his baptism, so all should go well!

This area is a little hard so we are trying to build the area. Sister Guimaraes has already done a ton of work and so there are two people on date to be baptized right now! Alvin and a guy named Mohamed. He is a student at uni (we live next to the uni) He is doing well. He is agnostic (unsure about God) There are a lot of those around here.

So yes transfers happened! Sorry this email is a splurge I don't really know where my train of thought went... Hopefully I didn't miss too much. I'm sure I might've, but it is all good. I hope. :)

LOVE AND MISS YOU

Sister Soulier

Plus there is a gym right outside our flat. Thank goodness!!! Especially because it rains nearly every day. Yep still wearing a coat and tights. Oh my goodness. I should've packed 30 pairs of tights.

Elder Oaks was great!! Super fun especially cuz London South joined us and I got to see MTC buds. Elder Oaks talked all about teaching repentance. He said the way people come to Christ in England (I was shocked at those words cuz one of the questions I had coming into the meeting was how people come unto Christ in England--yes idea from you dad) he said the way was by teaching repentance and by teaching the English to believe in God. He said too many people aren't believing in God anymore and it is our job to change it. He said baptism is a natural effect of teaching repentance, but that the most important thing was to teach repentance. His focus was fully on this. I loved hearing this. Because that means, we had success with Marc! Although he was never baptised, he still follows the Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity and believes in God and Jesus Christ. Considered a success :). (also side note I finally realized why Marc was never baptised, at least one of the reasons, he never had real intent. He never intended on following his answers with baptism) But that's okay! So yes Elder Oaks said, PREACH REPENTANCE!