Hello!! 

 This week was a fast one as usual, gosh seriously time is freaking me out.  I feel like its sunday, then p-day every day!  Its really quite weird.  So where to start....

-Oh so good news is that we will be getting a car next week.  We won't have it for the whole week, we will share it with our zone leaders.  But we will have it for half of the week.  We will get it next week, and I'll be the driver.  Even though I don't have my official UK driving license yet, I am allowed to drive on my US license for the first year in the UK, so up until August I can drive without taking my test.  I will probably take my test in like 2 or 3 months, when I will have had a little bit more practice driving.  But I'm super stoked!!  haha it will be so great!! 

-L.  is so amazing!!  Seriously she is so great.  We taught her 2 times this past week.  She is just so receptive to the spirit and she is just so sincere.  We promised her that she would have her answer by March 7th.  And I know that she will.  She reads the Book of Mormon, and even better, she UNDERSTANDS the Book of Mormon.  And she asks great questions.  AND SHE DOESN'T LIVE WITH HER FIANCE.  She's like the only person in all of Britain to not live with her partner.  So YAY.  But on Saturday she came to a baptism in Grimsby, which is like an hour away from where she lives. And she drove herself there (Another plus is that she DRIVES, HAS HER OWN CAR, AND SHE WORKS), and she brought her mom.  Her mom's sister is a member and lives in Nephi utah, so she knows some of the church, but not that much.  But they both came to the baptism, and they really enjoyed it.  Our branch president took us, and so it was good to have him talk with them.  L. is so receptive to the spirit.  (She's only in her 20's btw).  When we went over to her house the other day, she was just telling us how she usually LOVES to watch scary movies, like really scarry and horrific type films, and she was going to flip one on, but then a thought just popped into her head that she didn't need to be watching those type of things, so she turned it off.!!!!  hahaha when she told us that we were like freaking out and we told her that it was the spirit!  She is amazing, plus she brought me a souveniour from harry potter world.:) :) :) :) :)

-Its been fantastic weather.  Its still pretty cold, but it has been relatively sunny this past week.  So that is so great. 

-We may have to drop our investigator M.  He is so great, but he is struggling a lot, and we are not sure if we can help him anymore.  We'll see. 

-The members here are great.  There is a family who has like 3 or 4 teenage less active boys, who are kinda punks...but they have us over for tea like every week, and every week they organize a badminton/volleyball night, and they just asked us to start coming to that because their sons will be there.  So that will be fun, I'm really excited for that!

-N.  is doing great, he is still struggling to fully give up smoking.  He has cut down to about 1 or 2 a day, but he is having a hard time giving it up completely. 

-There is an area in Louth that is super super super posh, and it looks like really old fashioned England.  And Sister Scott just loves going over there.  So finally we decided to just knock it.  Hahah so we blitzed a whole village in like 3 or 4 hours, and knocked every SINGLE house.  No one was interested, but haha it was fun.

-S.  is still doing great, he reads a ton, and is so spiritual.  We just need to get our investigators to church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-This week is Zone Conferance, its on Wednesday, so I'm super pumped to see everyone!  Like the Allens, Sister Hedstrom, Sister B, Sister Beesley, and more!  I'm excited!  And because the public transport is awful here, we will be taking a 3 hour bus ride to Hull on tuesday night to spend the night with the Hull sisters so that we can get to Zone Conferance on Wednesday morning.  It will be great!!

-Happy Birthday dad!!  I hope you have a great Birthday!  You are the best dad!  Thank you so much for everything that you do.  You have been the greatest example, and you have shown me the way:)  I love you dad!  Have a great day!

Love you all! 

-Sister Staheli

What up fam!!  Okay so drum roll please...................SISTER SCOTT AND I ARE STAYING TOGETHER IN LOUTH!!  My prayers were answered! haha we were both praying so hard that we would be able to stay here another transfer because we have so much fun together, and because our teaching pool is growing so fast, we have too many things to do this transfer to change things up.  So yeah, we are both pretty excited!  There should be some great things happening in Louth this transfer.  So this past week was pretty good!  Sister Scott and I are still battling a pretty bad cold, and its been hard for us to truly get better.  So I think that this week we will be put on an anti-biotic to help us get better.  So no need to worry:)  But I got the valentines package-both from you family, and my cute sisters, and from the ball's!  So thank you!!  I practically was crying when I saw the cat blanket.  It was the best thing ever!  And thank you so much Kim and Shallan, I LOVE THE WATCH AND NAIL POLISH.  I have the best family!!  And the skirt is so cute mom, thank you.  You are amazing!  So it has been so wet this past week, its unbelievable.  It also started snowing here. haha but snow in england is just like bigger and wetter and colder rain drops, LITERALLY.  It doesn't stick, and it just blows from every angle possible.  Sister Scott and I were wet all week long hahahaha its great.  And it makes people more willing to let us inside when we are knocking, so all is great:) :) :)  I also had my driving lessons this past week, and it went great!  It was definitely interesting.  It was harder than I expected it to be hahahaha and I only started driving on the right side/wrong side/ right side once.  So I'd say that is pretty good. Sister Scott was like crying in the back seat hahahahaha.  But I think that I will be taking my theory/written test pretty soon.  I'm actually not too sure.  But I think so.  But I can't even believe that I have been out for 6 months, its so crazy!!  Time is going by WAYYYYYY too fast.  It needs to slow down, I love my mission:)  Anyways.  L. is progressing so much, its amazing.  Now we just need to get her to church.  Sometimes people's agency makes me so mad.  And N is doing great as well.  he is down to only smoking 1 cigarette a day!  He is just so dang stubborn, and he refuses to pray about baptism haahaha.  He told us to call him 'uncle N' haha we were in stitches (another british phrase) laughing!!  He went with us to a baptism on friday night, and he really enjoyed it.  So hopefully soon the spirit will just overwhelm him!  We have been working with our investigator S-he is in his 20's, and is really succesfful and posh.  He is from Sudan, and he used to be Muslim, but about 7 years ago he just woke up and didn't believe anything that the islam faith teaches.  He is a security guard, and he just agrees with everything we say. haha.  He told us the other day-'Sisters, I have been trained my whole life to be able to read people's body language to tell if they are lying or telling the truth, and I'm going to tell you right now that I know 100% that you guys are telling me the truth'.  He's so great.  He is just also super busy with work.  Then there is M..  M. is our new investigator this past week.  He is about 40 years old, and he is going through tough time.  His wife passed away 1 year ago, and he has kinda let himself go.  He works at a charity shop in louth, and his boss is the one that referred him to us, although his boss isn't a member, just a former investigator.  He is great.  So sincere and so willing.  Things are going so great here in Louth.  If the rain would stop, I would definitely call it the promised land or Zion.  hahah I love you!! and I hope you all had a great valentines day!  you guys are great!!  Keep on keepin on ya'll!:)

Love, Sister Staheli

 

                                                       This is when it was flooding!

Sister Scott and I in our Flat

 

                                                          We have had so much rain!!!!!

Feb. 10, 2014

Yo!  What up family!!  Things are going great here in Louth!  Seriously!  I love it here, and I LOVE my companion.  She is so great!!  And we get along so well its weird.  She will forever be one of my best and closest friends.  Its great, because we get along so well, we don't have to worry about fixing things with each other, we can just focus 100 % on helping the branch and finding people to teach.  And it has been working!  This week, unfortunately Sister Scott still has her cold, but the weather has been a lot better.  Its actually quite weird because it has been pretty warm here.  We have had the windows open, and its been clear sunny days, but its still cold, but warm for a mid february winter day.  Its been nice. :)  So update on my driving license.  I now have my provisional license, which is like the equavilent to a learners permit.  So now this week I have to take 2 hours worth of driving lessons, and then once I hit my 6 month mark in like 2 weeks, I will be able to take my theory test, or the written test.  And then after I pass that, I can take the driving test.  Which is what everyone fails like 5 times.  So yeah, things are moving along.  And our Zone Leaders told us this past week, that we should be getting a car by next transfer, so like within 2  weeks.  So that will be so great, we will be able to get out to the million and 8 little villages that the buses don't get to.  And Sister Scott can drive, so we won't have to wait until I pass my test, so its great.  But yeah, so thats my next step, I already called a guy so I can take driving lessons from.  I'm excited to drive again:)  It will be a bit weird though.  But this week we truly saw miracles.  Seriously.  Louth is like the promised land, we are seeing miracles every day.  Sister Scott and I pray EVERY NIGHT that we will stay together next transfer.  We will see what happens.  But President called us again this morning and just told us how proud he was of what we were doing, and the work that was moving along in Louth.  ITs been a long time since things have been happening, and so he is so happy.  Which hopefully means that we will get to stay.  Next week is transfers, so we will find out.  But miracles of the week:

1.  So we were out in Sutton-on-sea.  A tiny little seaside village that has a population of like 300 people hahhahahahah, and we were visiting a less active family, and we had some spare time, so we decided to street contact.  And there weren't many people out, like usual, but there was this one woman.  She was walking fairly fast, so I was super hesitant to talk to her, but I just felt like I had too anyways.  And the first thing that popped out of my mouth was that I liked her scarf.  Her whole countenace changed.  And you could tell that she was just beaming.  She stopped and talked to us for a good 25 minutes.  I was able to testify of our Savior and give her a book of mormon.  Before she left she took her scarf off her neck and put it around mine.  I insisted that I didn't need it and that it looked better on her, but she wouldn't listen. I am not sure if I will ever see this lady again, but it was an amazing experience.

2. So there is this man named M, that we have been talking to for a few days now, and we were supposed to meet with him on Saturday but he cancelled so we invited him to church instead.  We didn't think he would come but we still hoped, and prayed super hard.  Anyways, in the middle of sacrament, which is our last hour, I turn around and sure enough M is just sitting in the back of the room in the corner listening.  Hahaha he had his combat boots and his leather jacket and his nose ring in, but he came.  And he rode his bike there, and he walked in late-which takes so much courage.  So it was a miracle.

3.  L.  I am not sure if I told you about her, but she is amazing.  She is gettting so close to baptism.  She has family in utah that are members, and she is seriously so great.  I have already seen it change her.  Se is in her 20's, and she is engaged, BUT she doesn't live with her fiance, which is a big deal. 

Anyways, I'm outta time.  But I love my mission so much!!  I'm having a blast!!  You won't hear from me til tuesday cause its transfers, but I love you guys!  Take care!

Feb. 4, 2014

Hey family!  I made sure to send some pictures home first so that I had enough time and that I didn't forget!  Anyways, this week has been a good one!  It has flown by, once again.  This week it hasn't stopped raining!!!!!!!!!!!!  At all!!  Seriously.  Anyways, Sister Scott and I are still sick.  Its super frustrating.  We think that we are over our cold, but then we go back out into the freezing rain and just get sick all over again. hahahaha its actually pretty funny.  Sister Pilkington is gettting mad at us cause we aren't getting enough time to rest, but I just hate staying inside our flat.  But I really think that we are on the rebound to get better this week.  At least I hope so!!!  Okay so to answer some of your questions....Like nobody here gets married!  Practtically only members of the church are married.  People will live together for like 20 years and have 4 kids together, but they just don't get married.  They all just live with their "Partners".  We don't usually ride the bikes, because its too cold, and its too wet.  But its pretty nice today so we rode them to the library.  But yeah, this is only my 3rd time riding the bikes.  WE usually just walk everywhere.  There are only like 3 youth in the whole branch ha, we are trying to start working more with the youth, cause there are a few less actives, but yeah there aren't that many.  We had to give talks yesterday, with no notice, they just called us up to the stand. hahah oh the joys of being a missionary:) :) :) :) And yes, because I'm a missionary, everyone just automatically assumes that I am good with music. haha luckily Sister Scott is like a wizard on the piano, so she can play and I can lead the music.  But yeah we are like the branch's music slaves haha:)  So yeah basically there was a huge miracle this week!!  It was with Brother I ( a less active member for 10 years) and his friend M.  So we went and visited Brother I last week and like the first thing he said to us was that he had a friend that he wanted us to meet.  And he was just explaining to us how he wants to come back and how he knows that he needs to because he know's its true.  But while we were with him, Sister Scott and I both had the same impression that he needs to be our Branch mission leader.  Anyways, we set up to meet Brother I and his friend M at this baptism in Grimsby.  So we meet them there, and it was a miracle.  He has been talking to M since like June and he gave her a gospel principles book and a bom, and she read them all and cried through them. hahah.  So while we were at the baptism, she was like bearing her testimony to us on how she knew that the Joseph Smith was a prophet and that she could never deny him.  AND, get this.  Brother I was talking to the Bishop of the Grimsby ward, and then the bishop came up to us afterwards and told us that he thinks that Brother I will be our branch mission leader soon.  hahah.  it was a miracle.  M is so prepared.  She is great, and she lives in the coolest little village in the oldest house.  It dates back to like the 13th century.  Anyways, it was a miracle.  I love it here, and I love England!!  I'm so grateful for this gospel.  It has given me so  much perspective on life!  This gospel changes people, and its amazing!  I've physically seen it change people, and I'm so grateful for that!  Hey thanks so much for the letters this week family!  You guys are da best:) :)  My driving test is coming up and I'm still freaking out haha.  I love you all, and I hope you are having a great week!!

                                     Sister Scott and I, you can see the Louth cathedral in the back.