Finally, An Email :)

Hellooooo everyone!

 

Sorry I've been such a massive failure at writing proper emails. . . it has gotten especially hard since our mission president has told us to write out president letters online now, instead of hand written. Buuuttttt, I am doing great! Brid is as good as ever. Now that Sorensen is home, and Sister Cruz is here, I'm noticing more and more that Brid is just my home. Haha, I love it here. I love the people, I love the town (except for the heaps and heaps of dog poo that is everywhere. . .but that is just a small thing), and I love being a missionary here!

 

But Sister Sorensen is gone. :( I love her so much and we had SOOO much fun together. She was my longest companion (nearly 4 months) and honestly just had a blast. BUt she is home and I'm sure she is having a fantastic time being with her family.  Our last days together were good. BUt they took her a day earlier then we thought, which was sad. :/ But all is well.

 

Sister Cruz is wonderful. She is from Grand Canaria in Spain and, obviously speaks Spanish! Her English is good, and she is very eager to make it even better! She is a wonderful missionary and I am excited to get to serve with her at this time.

 

Well, what else to say? We are continuing to work with the same people and still continuing to search with everything we have to find even more peopel to teach. I love being a missionary and getting to teach God's children here in England. England will be apart of me forever.

 

Well, nothing too exciting is happening. EXCEPT! We are having our mission Christmas party tomorrow! Which I am very excited about! Everyone from the whole mission will be getting together at the American base in Harrogate and going bowling, playing games and then we are going to be fed a delicious meal and we are going to watch a movie. It's gonna be EPICCCC!!!

 

So, yes. My life is wonderful. :D

 

But I am sorry to hear about Grandpa Gardner. :( I'm glad the funeral went well, and I just know that he is happy and well in the Spirit World. He will be helping the work of the Lord to be moved forward beyond the veil. 

 

I love you all!! 

 

<3,

Sister Stout

A Long Overdue Update

Because Ali and I email back and forth most p-day's she doesn't usually have time to write out an email. But for those interested I thought I'd give some details about what she's up to.

Her current companion is Sister Sorenson and they have been in Bridlington since she went back there a few transfers ago. Sorenson is going home on Wednesday (in the middle of the transfer... all the missionaries going home this transfer are going home this week to be back in time for Christmas). Ali will be getting a newer sister named Sister Cruz who's from Spain. This will be Ali's first foreign comp. The sister is struggling with the English language. Ali will be staying in Bridlington for at least the next 3 weeks, until the end of the transfer. Once this transfer is over she will only have one more left and will return home on Valentines Day! I still haven't received her itinerary. Ali served in Bridlington as her second area, then Don Valley (where she spoke Slovakian) and back to Bridlington and if she stays to the end of mission will have served there for 9 months.

They are teaching a few people right now. One is a lady that she met while we were emailing each other. She's Bulgarian and because Ali spoke Slovakian for 6 months they were able to understand each other a little - I guess the languages are similar. She has a baptism date set for Dec. 29. The others they are teaching aren't progressing too much but Ali has a lot of hope for them and they walk the streets everyday looking for new people.

Ali's coming to grips with the fact that her mission is coming to an end. She mentioned today that she'd be lying if she said she wasn't excited about coming home but she also would like to stay in England as a missionary forever. She loves it so much. It's a bittersweet thing, as it is for all missionaries preparing to come home.

After telling her about the passing of her great-grandfather this week she was sad and sends her love to all the family. She loves grandpa very much. We gave her grandma's contact information and she'll be writing her soon. She's sad that she'll miss the funeral and seeing all the family but is grateful for the Plan of Salvation and that we're all going to be together again someday.