Spring is here!

Hello! Daylight savings is here, and spring has most definitely arrived. It gets a bit chilly in the evenings, but during the day, I have been walking around without a jacket. Who knows I may just stop taking my vitamin D tablets this week. What a great treat!

It is such a blessing to have nice weather. I even got outside and mowed the lawn this morning. You can go ahead to look at the picture I attached to see what the back garden is like. It took me a total of 7 minutes tops to mow it. Also, can you see the lawn mower? They all have electrical cords. How strange is that? Know that I am doing well and enjoying myself.

This week we had another sisters' conference because Elder Hanks' parents came to pick him up from his mission. I actually served with Elder Hanks when I was in Manchester South. He is a great elder and always so cheerful. He's a good singer as well, not that it has a lot to do with missionary work, but it is true. His mom is Julie Hanks. She is an lds singer and also owns a therapy clinic for lds women. It was wonderful to hear her sing as well as have her bestow her knowledge upon us. One thing she talked about is the difference between selfish and selfless. Often times we think we are being selfish, but she pointed out that we don't actually know the definition of selfish. Selfish is making a choice or decision without regard of others. If we make a choice or decision with regard of others, it is not selfish! Julie went on to explain how the root of selfless is self. We need to regard ourselves in order to be selfless. It is important to recognize if you give too much of yourself, you eventually won't be able to give as much and be selfless. When we take care of ourselves, we actually have more to give. These are just a few of the ideas we talked about, but I loved our discussion. I can't explain exactly why I liked these concepts so much, but I did and wanted to share them :)

Here is an excerpt from my weekly letter to president that I thought you may enjoy as well:
David is doing great! He has now lived the Word of Wisdom for a week and is continuing to progress. My favorite part is he texts us usually on a daily basis expressing his love and interest in the scriptures about what he is learning. His developing love for the gospel is contagious, and I love being part of it all. We had a particularly good lesson with him on Saturday. Unfortunately, we were not able to find any fellowshippers; however, I think it was a blessing in disguise. The day was beautiful, so we taught him outside. As a result, David was able to ask a lot of questions he had on his mind. It was fantastic because we turned to the scriptures to answer each of his questions. For example, he mentioned how he took the gospel a lot more seriously than probably a lot of people at church. We went ahead and read Mosiah 3:19 and talked about how each of us are at different stages of putting off the natural man and progressing in the gospel. I cannot remember the specifics of his questions, but I know for a fact that we were able to teach from the scriptures and meet his needs. David even let us know later that day that it was the best lesson so far. This experience testified to me of two things: let the scriptures do the heavy lifting (the scriptures have the answers to our questions, so help investigators to understand that) and I don’t know everything, but I know enough (I do not consider myself a scriptorian, but as a companionship we had enough knowledge to answer all of David’s questions using the scriptures).
"You Know Enough" is a talk given by Elder Andersen that President Preston has used as part of the 2012 mission plan.

Those are the updates I have for you from these last few days. Let me know if you have any questions about things and I would be happy to answer. It is great to hear from you as usual and I am continuing to enjoy all that I am doing.

Love, Becca

Still in Whitefield...

Hello!

I am still here in Whitefield with Sister Howell. We had Sister Doherty in our companionship for the last week. Sister Doherty is serving on the Isle of Mann, but since Sister Davis left a week before the transfer ended we were in a trio. Sister Doherty is from Australia and has been a member for a year and a half. She has a lot of drive and determination, which is great. Being in a trio was a good experience, but it will be good to go back to being a duo as well. I think it will be a little more relaxing.

We have started teaching a man named David. He is a local, and we found him one night when we were tracting some houses. He drove by and asked what we were doing. To be honest, both Sister Howell and I were confused about what he was asking. However, we got into a conversation with him about the gospel, and David said, “Yeah, I need to know about this.” We have been teaching him for a few weeks now, and he is doing great. It is always funny to be around investigators because they do not always know the missionary rules (well to be honest not many people do, members included). David is always offering us rides (or lifts as the English say) and the concept of preparation day is a bit foreign. He is great though because he is very accepting and appreciative of the time we take to meet with him.

Besides that, things are continuing to go well. I had a wonderful birthday. I received a few more cards and things this week. It was a good birthday. We went and had pizza at the senior couple’s apartment and watched some mormon messages. We also made some crepes. It was a good day.

Hope all is well on the home front. Thanks for all your love and greetings.

Love, Becca

p.s. This first picture is from my birthday. These are the girls that were at the celebration.

This next picture is of Sister Doherty, Sister Davis, me, and Sister Howell. As our zone leader called it, it is the “Davis clan.” In the mission, we call trainers the mothers and the trainees the daughters. Hence, we are all related in a training family. (Not sure if that made sense, but Sister Davis is both Sister Doherty’s and my mum, while I am Sister Howell’s mum. Hence, Sister Davis is Sister Howell’s grandmother.)

The BIG 22!

Thank you for all the wonderful birthday wishes!

My email is not going to be very long today. I got a call from the elders in my district this morning where they nicely sang happy birthday. We also decided as a district to have a lunch together and watch Mormon Messages at the senior couple’s house (the Hancocks) that are in our district. It is great to keep spontaneity in our lives and make the most of our time together. Furthermore, it is a great way to celebrate my birthday. Then this evening we will get to go out and proselyte for a few hours as well.

It has been a great week. I even got to spend some time in the back garden cutting the grass and pulling a few weeds. I will have to take a picture to show you what my flat looks like and so you can see the garden; it is not very large, but it is still enough that you need to take care of it. Besides that we are continuing to meet great people and having a fun time as well. My trainer, Sister Davis, leaves the mission field this week, so their companionship will spend the evening with us on Tuesday night. Then I will be in a trio for a week along with her companion, Sister Doherty. Yes that means I get to train two sisters, such a great opportunity. They must trust me or something? I am continuing to learn, grow and have fun. I realize this email does not have a lot of substance, but just know that I am enjoying myself on my birthday and that is the important thing. I will be sure to report back on a few more things next week (which is transfers by the way, so you will more than likely be hearing from me on Wednesday or Thursday). I should be staying in Whitefield with Sister Howell (since you usually stay with your trainer for two transfers), but you can never know for sure. I will let you wait in suspense to know where I am till next week.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes again.

Love, Becca

As for the photos, here is a description:

This one is a zone picture (very similar to the other one we took).

This is a photo of Sister Howell and me after we ran home in order to be in the apartment by 9:30 pm. Life just never gets dull as a missionary.

These two are from me opening my present this morning. I just thought you would want to know I am doing well and enjoying my birthday.

Day to day missionary work analogy

I have been blessed with wonderful spring weather this week. Life is always that much better when the sun is shining. It just brings a smile to everyone's faces. Last week, I sent you a schedule of my day to day life and this email goes along perfectly with it.

As you all know, I love math (or maths as they say in England)! The world usually just makes sense to me in terms of numbers, percents, statistics, etc. As a result, I was very excited about President Preston's presentation about constants during trainings. I do not think I have been so excited to talk about the ratio of the circumference to the diameter, pi, in so long. Ironically enough though, this morning during personal study I thought of this great analogy. However, this one does not involve maths. It involves English, which is not my favorite subject. Here it is (and I hope you enjoy it):

Day to day missionary work is like an essay. The introduction is simple and clear—wake up, exercise, prepare for the day, personal and companion study. The thesis is already laid out—our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.

With a solid introduction, it appears the rest (from 11:00 am onward) would fit nicely into place. In my experience, that has not been the case. The transition been paragraphs (activities) is not always smooth. And over time you realize there is more than your beginner’s five paragraph essay. There is a wide range of paragraphs (finding, teaching, eating, and meetings) that could be written. You may even try starting one and realize it does not work out so you go ahead and move to the back-up plans.

Finally, the conclusion. It starts off easy: restate the thesis (review key indicator goals). The rest of the conclusion is the part I always struggled with; some things just never change. Now is the time to take what you have written and apply it to the future or broaden the overarching theme. (It is time to make plans for the next day.)

Sometimes (some days) it is harder than others to conclude and make plans, but the amazing part is you always have the chance to rewrite or start anew. A new day in the mission field gives you the chance to write the second draft or if it was that bad, you can start with a clean slate. As you do so, you continue to revise and perfect your essay (day of missionary work) until you have achieved the desired result (doing the Lord’s will). Unlike mathematics, there is no final answer. No matter how many different ways you go about the work, the result will be different depending on who you are, where you are serving and what the Lord needs you to accomplish.

For whatever reason, this idea just made sense to me today. It helped me relate missionary work to my life and something that I am very familiar with, even if it is not something I actually enjoy being familiar with. I really love analogies and I know that as we teach with analogies it may help people to understand a concept or idea better. Know that I am doing well and am continuing to work hard. Hope you are all well.

Love, Becca