Nov. 20

Hello all Americans, South Africans and extras!

Sister Soulier and I are doing a joint email today as we have no time. Also, we experience the exact same things so it works!

Tuesday: Exchange with Sister Cobabe (California) and Sister Jung (South Korea) in Cambridge! They are great!

Wednesday: Blitz. We got bored of Ilford and so we decided to go a skip and a hop and jump over to Chelmsford! Chelmsford sisters are Sister Lawler (Arizona) and Sister Calixto (Portugual). We went finding with them. Actually not many crazy people. Chelmsford is super nice! It was really fun to spend time with the sisters. Afterward we all got hot chocolate because it was freezing.

Last week Sister Matthews and I were running full speed for the 128 bus to Ilford from Dagenham because it was nearly reaching 9:00 pm (in the night). Right before we reached the door of the bus, a woman grabbed us from the shady alleyways and asked where we were studying and why we were wearing long modest skirts and if we were Christian...it is a bit of a blur of the rest of what she said. Basically we switched numbers and we saw her this Wednesday. And oh my goodness what a lesson. (Her name is Christina). She asked a million questions and we just tried our best to steer the lesson where we wanted to go and answer the questions with the Spirit. At one point she asked if we were Mormons and we gave an affirmative and she nearly bolted for the door. It's okay we had a great member that convinced her to stay and hear us out. An hour later we all stumbled out of the small room. Christina left in a whirlwind, promising to finish the Book of Mormon that night. The next day I called her to confirm our appointment the next day and she said she hasn't done enough research on the internet yet to meet with us again. She is an adventure for sure! Nevertheless the Spirit always comes as long as we testifies. The Spirit will testify of truth!

Thursday: Exchange with Sister Chiping (Indonesia) and Sister Gade (Fiji) serving in Romford. Those sisters are so much fun to be with! They are both the funniest people alive. I went with Sister Chiping and she is so persistent in stopping people with finding. A lot of people are a little bit taller than her and so sometimes they won't see her when she tries to stop them. But that doesn't stop her! She jumps and chases after her until they will compromise and look down at her. And then she proceeds to tell them why the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest thing in the world.

Friday: Super MLC. We met in Ilford with the district and zone leaders in our zone and had a training. Then there was a skype call for part of the meeting with all the leaders in the mission. Most of it applied to the district leaders but the Spirit still taught us a ton! Afterwards we sped to Toba's house where he fed us the best jollof rice. Sister Soulier and I are going to master making it so that you can all enjoy the Nigerian spice when we get home.

Saturday: Relief Society Party, Brother Beasley. Sister Matthews and I were able to travel outside of our area again (this doesn't usually happen this often in the week). This time we went to the Romford chapel. Actually our stake center so it is fine. We got there and we were going to help sing Joy To the World acapella. Right before that we were given the opportunity to decorate the breakfast food room. We pulled out the long board underneath the stage and made the best use of the few white streamers. We were twisting and pulling as fast we possibly could. Only ripped a few of the decorations. The event was a huge success though, a lot of people came!

We got to see Brother Beasley next. Brother Beasley always makes our week. He is an 80 yr old English man. He has lived the craziest life you have ever heard of. He got baptized about 6 years ago and can't attend church due to health problems. He takes the sisters out every week to cheap chicken. The food isn't always great, but the company is so fun! During his life, he was a mayor, dentist, paratrooper (a captain of 8 men in a jungle war), lived in Dubai for 20 years, engineer. He built the prince's concubines palace. And the big ship building in Dubai (hope you know what I am talking about....Sister Matthews says it is in all of the tourist pictures). He has been around the world. Super interesting. His absolute favorite scripture of all time is John 14. He brings it up every time. And always gives us so much insight on it. He compares it a lot to Psalms 23. It's good stuff. Definitely look it up. Also he calls Sister Matthews Turkey, and me (sister soulier) Shoe. He is fantastic and a favorite of the sisters.

Sunday: Church! Sister Soulier was the ward pianist while I found a new investigator in the crowd. He's sweet! His name is Ndiaye and he is from Senegal. Sister Soulier (Shoe) is practicing her French. You pronounce his name en-j-I. We are confused too. We also ate 7lb/7kg (it is the same) of pasta and then ate 4lb/kg of rice two hours later. We also ate 2 servings of cake and swiss role. We got home and were seeing spots. You can't say no to Africans and Indians. **Side note: Sister Soulier just pointed out that every time I type in this email I mention food. I'm sure you can tell from the photos.

Oh and there was a great speaker during the Ilford sacrament meeting. He said again and again of how the gospel of Jesus Christ was the greatest thing that ever happened to him. It really is. We are both so grateful for all of this. It is the greatest!!!!!!!! Although hard and tiring (we do our best not to fall asleep in lessons), it is the BEST!!! And we can always improve and learn more!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER OLIVIA RANDALL

LOVE AND MISS ALL OF YOU!! (including the ones I have only heard about from my companion)

Sister Soulier and Sister Matthews