A beautiful week in the mission field

I had a great insight this week that I wanted to share. It goes as follows: Missions are like roller coasters. You may wonder why. Well simply enough, they are filled up and downs. However, the excitement and the thrills of the ups outweigh any downs there may be. Just as it is said in 2 Nephi 2:11, there must be opposition in all things. Without sorrow, we do not know joy. As I pondered, I reflected back on my call letter (the letter I received when I found out where I was going to serve my mission). In this letter from President Thomas S. Monson, it states, “Greater blessings and more happiness than you have experienced await you as you humbly and prayerfully serve the Lord in this labor of love among His children.” The simple fact that I am experiencing “more happiness than [I] have experienced” means that I will also feel the opposite. This perspective has blessed me with a greater understanding of the joys and sorrows of missionary work. The contrast of experiences provides me with the ability to feel within my heart the true joy of missionary work. And yes missionary work is JOYFUL!

We are continuing to be joyful and enjoying Whitefield. We are teaching, finding, studying and serving, which is a very balanced missionary life. It is wonderful the success we are having as we go out with love and teach others how to find faith in Jesus Christ. That is all I have now to report, but let me know if you have any questions because at the moment I seem to be at a loss of words. Hope all is well.

Much love! Becca

p.s. The picture is from zone trainings that we had this last week. Do you like the zone unity? Yes, we did all arrange to wear blue :)

Another Week of Missionary Work

To start off, here are some pictures from the Sisters Conference I told you about last week. It may be a little harder to find me in these photos than the usual mission photos I send :) But I hope you enjoy them all!

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the New Year. I know there is so much ahead of us this year, including a lot of diligent and hard work. I am excited for whatever lies ahead for each of us in our lives.

This week started off great! We had a zone activity last preparation day, where we were able to play chair football. So chair football is definitely an English sport, but it is great and we should start playing it in the states. It is a version of soccer, but we each have our own chair and the goal is to not let the soccer ball hit your chair. If it does, then you are out until the person who kicked the ball at your chair gets out. I am not sure if that explanation made any sense, but just trust me that it is fun. Even though I go running every morning, that activity gave me a little extra energy from the variation of physical activity and interaction with fellow missionaries. There is so much joy in the simple things of life.

I have another funny/cute story. We were teaching a family who recently got baptized (mom, three daughters and baby boy). One daughter, Alicia, is 8 years old. We were reading in Enos and talking to them about prayer. We asked if they felt that Heavenly Father answered their prayers. Alicia responded, “Heavenly Father answers my bed time prayers, but He doesn’t answer my morning prayers. I think He is still sleeping.” It was probably one of the funniest comments I have heard so far on my mission. There is something so sweet and great about the innocence of a child. I know that Heavenly Father does answer our prayers. It may not always be in the way we expect or the time frame we desire, but He does. I have seen many answers to my prayers throughout my mission experience as well as my life. Prayer is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on life and communicate with our Father in Heaven.

Here is a story from my letter to the mission president that I thought some of you may enjoy, so feel free to read it if you desire: We had a miracle when we tracted on Saturday evening. Sister Low and I identified an area along with specific streets to tract in our area during weekly planning. When we went to Maple Street, we decided to tract the right side of the street because Sister Low said it looked warmer and I thought it had more lights on (the Spirit works in mysterious ways). At the very first door we knocked, there was a guy named T-bore, who was a former investigator. From what I can tell, the Sisters taught him one lesson about a year ago. He still had The Book of Mormon and restoration pamphlet lying prominently on his bookshelf! T-bore was busy right then, but told us to come back later in the week. When I got home, I briefly looked through previous teaching records and was unable to find his. This experience helped me to realize how we are all instruments in the Lord’s hands. Some may say it is chance that we happened to knock on T-bore’s door, but I know it was the Spirit. I do not know what the future holds in store for T-bore; however, I do know that probably the only way we would have found him was through knocking on his door. What a blessing it is to be a missionary!

The work is going well. I am enjoying myself and loving all that I am doing. Thank you for all your love and support. Keep up the good work.

Love, Becca

p.s. This is a picture from the zone when we played chair football. For the record, I was wearing sports clothes. They just told us after we changed they wanted to take a picture.

These other photos are from our bus ride back on the top of a double decker bus!

An exciting week in Whitefield!

Hello!

It has been quite the week in Whitefield. We had preparation day, multi-zone trainings, an exchange, weekly planning, sisters’ meeting and church. The week has literally flown by because of everything we had to do. I want to start off by telling a story that happened to me on Tuesday.

I enjoyed multi-zone trainings (which is basically zone conference or in other words a time when all the missionaries meet together to discuss the work we are doing), but what happened prior is more memorable for me. We got a fairly early start because Sister Low was in charge of the musical number, but unfortunately, the buses took a lot longer than expected. We were already running a bit late and since we taken the 105 bus, we had another 10 minute walk from the bus stop to the chapel. Once we finally got off of the bus, it was about 9:55 am and the conference started at 10:00 am (not to mention we were supposed to be there at 9:15 am for the musical number and in our seats at 9:45 am). We realized that sometimes the unexpected happens and you just need to do your best with the situation you have. As a result, we decided to run. However, about 20 steps into our run to the chapel, I tripped on the sidewalk and fell (basically doing a face plant). My tights got holes in them and my knees were a bit scraped up. Furthermore, the brand new Book of Mormon I had grabbed that morning got a bit dirty. So what did I do? I got back up and continued to run.

Once arriving at the chapel, I threw away my tights since they had holes and Sister Low let me borrow her socks. The sad thing was my boot zipper broke in that same instance, so Sister Low also let me wear her boots (good thing she brought an extra pair of shoes!). While some may have cried (and I may have shed a tear or two), I learned two important lessons from this experience. First, my natural instinct was to get back up and run. There is no reason to feel sorry and stop, but always press forward. I think I actually felt more pain from the fall once I stopped than I ever did when I was running. It taught me the importance of just keep going and things will get better, no matter how bad they may seem. Second, I felt Sister Low truly showed me charity. She literally gave me the socks and boots she was wearing, so that I would have something. I knew that she loved me and wanted to help me in whatever way she could. I feel blessed to have such a loving companion. Third, the Lord provides us tender mercies. It happened that I received Annie and mom’s package that had some spandex/thermals. Since they were black and I was wearing boots, no one could tell the difference between them and tights. As a result, I was able to use them to keep my legs warm. I couldn’t have asked for more perfect timing! So thank you. There are always lessons to be learned from the experiences we have, we just need to be aware and look for them.

Finally, we had a sisters’ meeting this week. That means that all the sister missionaries got together at the mission home and we were able to have some trainings focused more on us. The assistants to the president (they help keep everything in the mission in order) trained us on speaking up and making our voice heard in the mission. We also heard about how to relax and a few other things. It was great to have the opportunity to be with the other sisters and learn from them. There is something truly special about the bonds of sisterhood.

That is all that I have to report for now. Hope you are all doing well and enjoying life. It sounds like good things are happening at home.

Love, Becca

A busy week in Whitefield

Hello!

A full week has passed by in Whitefield. Whitefield area consists of 3 main towns/cities, mainly Whitefield, Bury and Prestwich. Thanks to dad's genealogy knowledge, I've learned that we have some ancestors from Bury. It is exciting to be serving in an area where our family actually comes from. This area is similar to my first area, Wigan. The ward is a bit smaller than Manchester South, yet the people are so friendly and welcoming. I think it must have to do with the fact that I grew up in Wenham, population 5,000 or something, but I just enjoy the smaller town feeling in the ward. I like to walk into church and at least recognize everyone who is there. One way it differs from Wigan though is that the area is tall and skinny. We go about a half hour or hour north/south, but only a half hour at most east/west. The area actually has a large Jewish community, so there is quite a bit of religious diversity. It is wonderful to be exposed to a variety of people and cultures. Furthermore, we have been lucky and the winter weather hasn't quite hit (we have only had one day when it snowed). The rain and wind got pretty bad this week though. On Wednesday, we spent I think like 7 hours outside and 6 of those hours it was raining. The rain is just part of England that you grow to love is what I am learning. Every day is a great day to be a missionary! It doesn't matter what the weather is like.

As for Sister Low, I think I told you last time that she is from Murray, Utah. I attached another picture of us from today (we went and got haircuts before doing our emails). She has an older sister and a younger brother. Not to generalize, but as far as I can tell, Sister Low had your typical Utah upbringing. She is a dancer and loves to run. I am enjoying the second part of that because it means every morning we go out and run for at least 15 minutes. Your day goes just that much better when you are able to exercise properly. This is her last transfer in the mission. Sister Low came out the same time I did, but a year earlier. It is funny because now I have served with the three sisters who came out that transfer (Sister Davis, Sister Gallozo and Sister Low). Sister Low has now also served with all the sisters who came out my transfer (Sister Hull, Sister Hadley and myself). We both completed the circles. She is a hard worker and fun to be around. Before her mission, she studied at UVU and then at BYU. She is majoring in exercise science, but she is not sure what she wants to do with it after. I definitely feel grateful that I still feel confident about my major. I am still in love with math and want to teach. There are some things that just don't change while you are on your mission. I know that I am numerically inclined because I love looking at the numbers we report and the various dates of events. There are just some talents that never leave us, which is a great blessing.

I am loving the new area and am already starting to work on some New Years resolutions. As part of that, I started reading the New Testament. I am coming to better know our Savior, Jesus Christ, and learn about the wonderful miracles he performed. It truly is a blessing to be serving a mission and have an opportunity to study the scriptures each morning. I hope and pray that each of you are able to find more joy this year. Know that I love and miss you!

Love, Becca

Welcome 2012!

I hope everyone enjoyed their New Years and was able to celebrate the beginning of the new year in whatever way they desired. For us missionaries, we were actually allowed to stay up until midnight! We spent New Years Eve at a member's home eating some food and playing games, kind of like we would at home. Then we came back to the apartment for the evening (we still needed to be home by 10:00 pm). We headed to bed and then ended up chatting for a while. It was funny because after some time of talking, I told Sister Low we should take a quick nap before midnight. We both stopped talking and tried to fall asleep only to be interrupted by our alarm that gave us a 5 minute warning till midnight. We watched the cell phone turn to midnight and then looked out the window at some fireworks and Chinese crackers. It was a pretty good way to start the new year. As Sister Low always says, I have a "solid year of missionary work" ahead of me. I know that 2012 will be a great year of experiences, learning and growth.

As for the new area, it is great and I love it all. Whitefield is a bit smaller than Manchester, but I love it none the less. I think I actually prefer the not as big cities because it is easier to get to know (probably because it is what I am more used to growing up with). We are teaching a man named Reza. He speaks Turkish and is from Azerbajian (I think I butchered the spelling of that country). English is not his first language, so there is sometimes a language barrier. However, he is very diligent and hard working. Reza is continually reading materials from church and is translating materials into Turkish. It is clear that he desires to gain greater understanding and knowledge concerning the gospel. He is recognizing faith he has in his life and his desire to be baptized. It is such a blessing to be teaching him because of his willingness and acceptance of the gospel into his life. I am still learning how to adjust my teaching to someone who does not understand English very well, but that is all part of me becoming a more effective teacher and missionary. This is just one person I have gotten to know fairly well so far and I am sure there will be many more to come!

I hope all is well and you are all enjoying 2012! Know that I love you.

Love always, Becca

p.s. The first picture is Sister Gallozo and myself on Christmas Eve. That is the tree we had at our apartment :)

The second picture is Sister Low and myself on New Years Eve. It is the last picture I took in 2011!