THREE WEEK CATCH-UP

I am seriously the worst at writing emails, so I'm going to put everything from the last three weeks into one email.

• A couple weeks ago, I had my first exchange & I had the opportunity to go with a sister from Uganda who had only been out on her mission for one week! Sister Nyaketcho & I had lunch at Subway with the other sisters, taught a man from Togo who is now preparing for baptism, taught a woman from Portugal who is also working towards baptism, had dinner & traveled to Hemel Hempstead to see Sue. But she cancelled on our way there & we ended up having a member pick us up & she let us drop a note off at Sue's house. When we were about to pull away, Sue walked up & we were able to teach a quick lesson to her! MIRACLE because she wasn't supposed to be home for another hour but she was able to rush home so she could see us. 

• After the exchange we traveled with the sisters to Hyde Park for the specialised training. Watford & Romford zone were together in the morning. We learned about how we can more powerfully teach the message of the Restoration by focusing our lesson on the First Vision. After the meeting, we hopped in the "party van" to travel to St Albans with President & Sister Stevens & the APs. We then had the exact same meeting, but with Northampton & St Albans zones. We gave a training on using the Book of Mormon more effectively. It went so well! I was so surprised because I had been so nervous for the last week. But prayer works! The Lord answered my prayers & I was able to survive my first training in front of President. After we got home, we got a milkshake to celebrate.

• An old Filipino recent convert named Bing took Sister Fitts & I to lunch at a buffet that has food from all over the world. I ate so much food because Bing kept telling me to get another plate & obviously had to follow his counsel. I wanted to die after, but isok. 

• We also has the opportunity to go on an exchange with the Northampton sisters! I got to be with my old companion/stepdaughter, Sister Carr. We had a good day, but all of our appointments ended up cancelling last minute, so we walked for 3 hours straight & just talked to people along the way. 

• The stake relief society had a conference & all the sister missionaries got to serve fancy lil bite sized food to all the members. Then we heard amazing talks from different women in the stake who shared how they were able to become temporally & spiritually self reliant. 

• We were supposed to go on another exchange this Tuesday, but had to cancel it because Sister Fitts was really ill. I ended up sitting in the flat all day making calls, doing area book, & studying my scriptures. I almost went crazy. 

• Two missionaries in our district are dying (going home) in a couple weeks, so we had a funeral after district meeting. Then we ate McDonalds. 



• Our 14 year old investigator named Patrick received an answer that the Book of Mormon is true!!! But he cannot be baptised right now because his mother doesn't want him to be :( So we are meeting with her in Tuesday to teach her & praying she lets us continue to teach her son. 

• We had another exchange on Friday & I got to be with a new sister from New Zealand! She is the sweetest & most humble missionary I have ever met. I learned so much from her & we were able to see so many miracles together. I love exchanges because I learn way more from these sisters than they could possibly learn from me! 

• We are teaching this one guy from Kurdistan who has been taught for five years. He called us & told us he wants to be baptised, so we've been working with him since I got to Watford. But he was addicted to gambling, alcohol, tobacco, & illegal drugs when the missionaries first met him & now his only issue is that he smokes one cigarette each day. But anyways, he always dresses like a gangster & Sister Sheward & I were waiting for him outside the library & I DIDN'T EVEN RECOGNISE HIM CUZ HE LOOKED LIKE THIS: 



He is working towards being baptised in a couple weeks & has completely changed since when I first met him! He is so much happier & is excited for his baptism. It's so amazing to physically see how the Atonement of Jesus Christ can change lives. 


• SATURDAY WAS MY YEAR MARK!!!!! I only have six months to go. Sister Fitts & one of the elders in our area are in the same MTC group as me, so we all had dinner together to celebrate. 


I love you all & miss you!  
Sister Sydney Johannes

WAT'S UP WAT-FORD

I am so so so sorry that I have not written in a few weeks. Sometimes it is really hard to motivate myself to type out all the experiences I have had. But these last few weeks have been full of miracles, so I'll try to summarise everything:

• We had transfers last week & I moved to Watford to be a Sister Training Leader with my MTC companion, Sister Fitts! Sister Daines & I were so sad after finding out. It hasn't even been a whole week since I left Sister Daines, & I already miss her! I sure love that lil nugget. We saw so many miracles together for the transfer we were together & I'm excited to hear how all the people we were teaching will progress! 

• Sister Daines & I found a sweet old woman at the beginning of last transfer named Maureen. She was near the river walking her dog, Coco. We ended up teaching her, putting her on date, & then decided to stop teaching her a week later. The next day after we made that decision, we both felt so strongly we needed to stop by her house that day. We did, & she told us she prayed about the Book of Mormon & knew everything we taught was true! So we have been working with her since & have seen so many miracles! She went from smoking 20 cigarettes a day to 4 a day when I left! We were able to trim her hedge with the elders last Saturday as well! 

• We met Jade & Maria last month by asking them where we could buy a smoothie in Canterbury. We ended up exchanging numbers! We have been teaching them (but I'm pretty sure they taught us way more than I taught them) & for my birthday, they took us to an American Diner! The man working made us all smoothies (which weren't even on the menu) so we could end our time together (in Canterbury, cuz I'll see them again) the way we started it. Oh man, I love them. They are the coolest people you will ever meet. 

• We went to the Castle in Dover on Tuesday for my birthday! Such a cool experience. Seriously, I'm so #blessed to have serve so near to so many amazing places! 

• Sister Lung (former companion) & Sister Fitts (current companion) made me a makeshift birthday cake out if a muffin & twin bars on Wednesday morning & got all the missionaries at the train station to sing to me on moves day. 

• Sister Fitts & I saw so many miracles this week! We decided that we need to choose a motto for this transfer that has to do with faith & believing in miracles because we both had such strong faith & ended up meeting so many prepared people. 

• We stopped these two guys from Ghana & invited them to church with us next week. One of them, Eric, told us he actually was baptised in the church a few years back, but lost contact! So we got his number & he is coming to church next week! And his friend, Ike, wants to learn, so we will see him on Saturday! 

• We got a referral from some other sisters & taught her on Thursday. She told us she grew up going to the Salvation Army church, but when she moved in with one of her foster family's homes, she started going to our church as well. She recently moved to Watford & requested that missionaries come teach her. So we taught her about the restoration of the gospel & she was so willing to accept a date to be baptised on! She is so amazing & so willing to learn. 

• This past week hasn't been too stressful yet because it has just felt like I loved to a new area is all. But starting tomorrow comes all the new responsibilities. We have two exchanges with some & we will be giving a training at a Specialised Training/Zone Conference. Lolz. I'll probs end up passing out in front of all the missionaries, but it's alright. 

• WE ATE AT A REALLY GOOD RESTAURANT TODAY. It was just like Chipotle! Almost cried real tears cuz it was so good. 

• I went running almost every day this week & I'm the worst runner ever. I am seriously so proud of myself. 

• We made cookies for the ward! Such an inspired idea because all the ward members were forced to introduce themselves to me. 

This week has been a rollercoaster, but I am so excited for the new adventures ahead of me. God is real, He loves each of us, & I know that this is His work. I have seen how God uses us missionaries to bring people to the knowledge of the gospel. I am so grateful I could be serving at this time & to have met so many amazing people. 

Also, I have 10000 pictures to send from the last 4 weeks. Sorry! 

Sister Sydney Johannes

MAX & RUTHIE (RUTHIE & MAX)

Sorry I didn't send an email last week! But this is another one of those weeks where I have zero time to write, so I'll just send bullet points of all the great things that have happened the last two weeks: 

• We had the three week new missionary meeting in Hyde park on Wednesday! It was fun to see all of the other trainers & to see the excitement on all the lil trainees' faces when they got to see their MTC group again. It is so great to train because I am constantly reminded of my first 12 weeks of my mission. I remember the first time I saw my MTC companions & I nearly cried tears of joy because I missed them so much!

• Sister Daines is seriously such a good missionary. She has taught me so much the last five weeks we've been together. I feel like she is training me & I'm definitely learning more from her than she is from me. AHHH, I just love her. 

• We fasted on pday & had to go grocery shopping when we were starving. IT WAS SO HARD NOT TO BUY EVERYTHING. Seriously, had to use so much self control.

• I met someone wearing a Colorado jumper (sweatshirt) & asked where he got it. He said he borrowed it from a friend & I said "it's a great jumper!" Then his friend says, "& he looks great in it!  right?" Lol no thx mister 

• My stake president from home & his wife came to visit last Sunday! Oh my! I love them so much. We ended up going to the Canterbury Cathedral &, as President Jensen puts it, "quoted false doctrine & gave money to an apostate church." It was so lovely having them come to visit though! It was a complete surprise! 

• One of the sweet sisters who always comes teaching with us rolled up to one of our lessons in a super speedy motorised wheelchair scooter. Seriously died laughing at how cool she looked zipping up to the church on it. 

• Sister Daines gave me a super adorable sticky note envelope with a lil note inside telling me how much she loved me. Legitimately the cutest thing anyone has ever done for me. 

• Sister Daines still falls asleep literally everywhere. And literally all the time. 

• One of the families in Sistee Daines' ward sent me a cute tie dye pillow case! And Sister Daines' mom (her name is ruthie) sent me the cutest skirt on the planet for my birthday. I love them . 

• We went finding today & ran into this really nice man named Max! He told us the best part of his day was "meeting two nice Christians" (that would be sister Daines & I). He told us he had met missionaries before & played basketball with them, but never learned from them. He was so excited to meet with us again & "to learn about that Book of Mormon." AHHH, he was just so cool & nice & prepared. 

• The elders' friend named Ryan was baptised this weekend! He is 19 & preparing to serve a mission in one year! He came to our zone interviews with President Stevens & loved it. We are all just so excited for him! 

In less than a week I can Skype home! And it's also my birthday on Tuesday! Also, I hit 11 months last week! Only 7 short months to go! 

I love you all! ️

Sister Sydney Johannes

THE RAIN IS JAMAICAN ME CRAZY

Beautiful beautiful people. Sorry the subject line is so cheesy & not funny at all. 

I am just so grateful for each & every one of you. This has been one of those weeks where I had to humble myself & rely on the Lord completely. It wasn't necessarily a hard week, it was just one of those rough weeks where nothing seems to go as planned. 

But regardless of that, we still saw so many miracles! 

• I bought a blender this week! Best purchase of my entire mission. No joke. 

• We met the cutest little boy named Alfie (so English) on the bus with his friends. He was 11 years old & we gave him our phone number to give to his mom. He called us right after he got off the bus just to say he made it home safely. This seems like such a small thing, but it really is those little flecks of gold that make the whole week worth it. 

• We went to a garden party with the elders & ate food. It's the little things. 

• On Wednesday, Canterbury had the worst rainstorm I had ever seen. I've only been in England for one other thunderstorm, & that was in my first month as a missionary. Wednesday was even more intense, & two of our appointments cancelled, so we were left finding in the rain. The rainstorm was so bad that one of the grocery stores was struck by lighting twice. Lol we didn't find out about that until afterwards though. So sister Daines & I went out street contacting for three hours in the rain, thunder, & lighting. But something I've learned on my mission is that rain brings miracles. If we are willing to sacrifice by going out in the rain, the Lord is that much more willing to bless us. 

• With that being said, a nice man from Jamaica named Ali bought me an umbrella. And we found so many new & potential investigators. 

• We went on exchanges to Illford! I got the sisters new investigators & then accidentally deleted them......

• I have been sick for the last few days & the elders are so kind & gave me a blessing. Every time I receive a priesthood blessing my testimony of god's power grows, but this time it was especially neat. Every single one of my concerns was addressed in the blessing, & there is no doubt in my mind that it was god talking to me through this young elder. It made me so grateful for the knowledge that I have of the restored gospel, & for all of those worthy priesthood holders in my life (shoutout to you, dad). 

• The Tuttles (senior missionary couple) take us grocery shopping every week. I love them. 

• We taught primary & relief society this week. They were such good lessons & half of the relief society women cried cuz the spirit was so strong. #spiritpunch

Thank you for all of your support & love! I love you! 

Sister Sydney Johannes

HIDING FROM GREENIES

I never know how to start my emails home, so I'm just gonna start telling you everything. 

Wednesday was a hectic day. In the morning, Sister Carr finished packing & we waited for Elder Tuttle to come pick us up. I was so sad that she was leaving. 

Elder Tuttle took us to the train station & we had to wait 40 minutes in the cold for the train to come. It's okay though. We took selfies to pass the time. 

When we got to St Pancras station, we said hello to everyone, & then I said goodby to Sister Carr. I wanted to cry! We have gone through so much together & have both grown so much. I sure miss that nugget already. 

Then Sister Wright & I traveled in the tubes to Hyde Park chapel for the trainers meeting. After a long day of trainings & hiding from the greenies, we finally got to find out who our little companions were going to be. 

My little greenie is Sister Daines from California. We actually went to BYU at the same time & she came into Swig a bunch, so I probably frosted her cookie & made her drink for her countless times while I worked there. She is probably the happiest person I have ever met. Seriously, since the first time I've seen her, I don't think she's ever been without a smile. And she always tells me how great I am, so if I had a self esteem issue, it would be solved after this first week together hahaha. 

Our friend Rafa will be getting baptised this Saturday! We are all so excited. Ronaldo is doing so well since his baptism! So is Cara! 

All week, we did a ton of finding, & for the first four days together, Sister Daines & I found no new investigators. We were a little bummed, but knew that the Lord would provide miracles. So on Sunday, we went finding again & met so many amazing people. 

At the end of our finding, we were headed home to get Sister Daines some snacks to eat during conference so she doesn't fall asleep, & on the way we stopped to talk to a girl sitting on a bench. Her name is Amber. She was so nice & told us she had grown up going to the Mormon church when she was younger! She was so excited to meet with us again & willingly gave us her phone number & address. We will be teaching her on Tuesday! 

Conference was so amazing this weekend. I learned so much from each of the speakers. One of my favourite talks was by Dieter F. Uchtdorf in the Sunday Morning Session. He started his talk by sharing with us about the destruction of a church in Germany (or somethings along those lines). He says, "in 1000 years was the beauty built, in one night it was utterly destroyed." He then goes on to share with us that no matter how broken we feel, the Lord can rebuild us. God is fully aware of those that are lost, & will reach out & find them, but we have to first have faith to reach out to Him. It was an amazing  message shared about how obedience is a sign that we are reaching out to be saved. And our Father in Heaven will always rebuild us. We are all worthy to be rescued & He will make us great. 

Pictures:

1) Waiting for Elder Tuttle to come & trying not to cry. 

2) Waiting for the train.

3) Hiding in the stairwell from all the new missionaries. 

4) Sister Daines & I

5) Selfies with President Stevens

6) Canterbury

IT RAINED A LOT

First off, RONALDO WAS BAPTISED!! He was baptised on Saturday by a recent convert named Nathan. It was a neat experience to have a part in his baptism & to also see the happiness that he felt. He never stops smiling in general, but on his baptism day he could seriously not stop (except when we were taking pictures of course).

Second, I'm training this transfer! So I'm having another child. Ahh so exciting but so scary. So this is how we found out:

All day yesterday we were waiting for a call & at 4:45 we still hadn't received one so we assumed we were staying together. We were walking down the road & I was telling Sister Carr how exciting it was we get to stay together. Then we knocked on our investigators door & we get a call from a number we didn't recognise, I answer, & it ends up being the assistants. He tells us that Sister Carr is moving to Northampton & I am training. Our faces were so shocked & so surprised. Then we had to finish our stop by with our investigator before we could even talk about it.

So it was unexpected that either of us were leaving, & we are both nervous for what next transfer has in store for us. I am so grateful I got to serve with Sister Carr though! She taught me so much & made me a better missionary & person. Now I get to share what I learned with my new companion.

Things that happened this week:

- This week was extremely hard.

- We went finding so much this week, & found no new investigators. I asked all of my leaders what we are doing wrong & they have no idea how to help us. So that's good.

- I have learned one very important lesson this transfer: you cannot please everyone. No matter how hard you are working, there will always be people who criticise & tear you down. But on the same token, there will always be people who love & support you.

- One of our investigators (the one we stopped by yesterday when we got the moves call) read 3/4 of the Book of Mormon since the last time we saw him! That's amazing & such a miracle. He said that & I was like, "wait...what? Really?" We were not excepting that, so it was exciting to hear.

- Sister Carr bought me a smoothie so I wouldn't be sad anymore. I love her.

- We did so much tracting in the rain. We were drenched almost every time we went.

- One day we went finding & prayed to find a family. We did the whole two hours with no success in finding a family, so on our way home we were a little sad. Then we dope coded to stop one more person before we went into our house. It was a woman who appeared to be in a rush, but she stopped & talked with us anyways. She told us she was a mother & that she had been wanting to go to our church for a while! She gave us her phone number & we know where she lives as well (accidentally followed her home because she lives right next to us). It was amazing to see how the Lord answers all prayers, but not always in the timing we want.

-Rafa made amazing cupcakes for Ronaldo's baptism.

I love you all! I hope you had a good Easter holiday.

Tune in next week to find out who my companion will be ;)