FIRST WEEK

June 10th Today was a really long day because one of my companions & I decided to wake up at 4:00 am (45 minutes earlier than we had to) so that we could email our families before we left the MTC for London. Lol it seemed like a really good idea at the time, but we were both exhausted for the rest of the day. We left the MTC at 6am & traveled to the mission office in London. When we got to London all of the missionaries moved to the front of the bus because the view was better & we were all dying of excitement. After we got to the mission office, we ate lunch, met with the president & the other leaders, received our iPads, learned about our mission &........ FOUND OUT WHO OUR COMPANION IS!! Mine is Sister Yucra Laura from Peru/Spain. She has only been in the mission field for 11 weeks, so she's a little bit nervous to be training me. She is so great though! I love her already. Oh! And I'm serving in Bedford for the next three months!!

After finding all of that good stuff out, it was time to travel to our areas. We don't have a car for our area so we had to take the tube & then the train.... IT WAS THE HARDEST THING I THINK I'VE EVER HAD TO DO. Sister Yucra Laura & I are both tiny, I had three suitcases, & this pretty much made it impossible. At one point we were riding up an escalator & my big suitcases weren't completely on the step so it started to fall on me. The suitcase weighed so much that I fell back with it & in that moment I thought I was going to fall backwards, hit my head on the edge of the sharp stair, roll down the escalator, & die. But luckily, a man was behind me & caught me before I tumbled to my death. Oh and then we missed our train to Bedford so we had to wait thirty more minutes. 

When we finally got to Bedford, we had to walk 25ish minutes with three suitcases down bumpy roads & under this really creepy bridge next to the river. But we survived! And it was a fun adventure to go on! 

June 11th Today I taught a lesson for the first time to a real person! She is ten years old though, so I wasn't too worried hahahah. We also just ran a bunch of errands today & ate dinner at the flat. There was like no food at our flat though, so we ate a bunch of frozen french fries & chicken nuggets. I'm already well on my way to that #mission30 (30 pounds... I'm probs gonna have to be rolled off the plane after my mission).

June 12th Yayayayayya today was such an exciting day!! We go to go to London to meet Elder Jeffrey R. Holland!!!!! He spoke to the England London & the England London South missions because those were the missions he served in. The talk he gave was so good that we were all speechless at the end. He talked a lot about missionary work & how it will bless our lives. He said a mission will "affect who you marry, where you live, how you raise your children, & your profession." He also talked about the struggles of a mission, and how if we "don't embrace every part of our mission, we will not have a good experience." There will be struggles on my mission. I'm only 3 weeks in & it's already been on of the hardest things I've ever done. BUT IT IS THE LORD'S WORK and I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. 

After listening to elder holland, all of the missionaries from Bedford (my companionship & one set of elders) went to a Chinese food place called Chopstix. It was seriously the best Chinese food I've ever had.... & I hate Chinese food. Then we took the train back to Bedford & tried to find some new investigators for a couple hours. We got some numbers for 5 people! So hopefully we get to set appointments up with them to teach! 

June 13th Today we taught a couple of gospel lessons with one of the members in our ward named Marcia. She is from Zimbabwe & studying law in England! She is the sweetest & it was so fun to have her along for our lessons. On our way to one of the puddles I was walking near the road & a bus drove through a puddle right next to me. So I was puddle-wet on top of rain-wet. It was not fun hahahah. Oh that's another thing!! The weather here is so bipolar. My first day in Bedford was hot, then rainy, then super humid, then rainy again. The weather changes every 5 minutes too. So that makes getting dressed every morning really hard lol. 

While we were out finding people to teach, we stopped a man & I asked him if he had ever heard of our church. He said no, so I said, "what about Mormons?". Then he looked at me so weird & said "I don't believe in Mormons!" & ran away. Hahahahahhaha sister Yucra Laura & I were dying laughing. He said Mormons like we were unicorns or something & that it was impossible that we could exist. Hahahahahahahah good times. 

June 14th Today I got to go to the Bedford ward for the first time! Everyone is so sweet & I absolutely love everyone I met. The first speaker didn't show up to church so the first counselor asked me to introduce myself & give a short talk over the pulpit. I wanted to cry a lil bit. But it went well! 

My address for the next 3 months is: 

Sister Sydney Jean Johannes 

99 wheel Wright house

Pal grave road

Bedford, England

MK42 96Q

United Kingdon

This is me, my trainer, her trainer, then that girls trainer & then
the other ones trainer. So it's my mom, grandma, great grandma, great
great grandma. Everyone has these names for people. And when someone
leaves the mission they say that they died. I was really confused when
they were saying all of that to me hahahah

I love you all!!! Thank you for all the emails! I miss you! 

Sister Sydney Johannes