It was a blast to see you all yesterday!! I do have to say I love my family!! That is definitely a huge blessing I have seen in the past month!! I already knew it before but it was just reiterated over and over again!
But this past week.......
Tuesday- We got to email since Monday was a bank holiday. We are so excited for when we get ipads so that we won't have to worry if the library is open or not, because they close a lot on Mondays here for random holidays. After we finished emailing, we were waiting for a lesson. He didn't show up, but we got a voice mail from President saying that Elder Holland is coming to speak to the mission on June 11th!!!! We were so excited!! He is only going to be in the country for 2 hours and we are so blessed to get to hear from him and then we will have a mission wide conference that will be so much fun the rest of the day!! SO... You can say that we are all so excited for June!!!! Then we had a lesson with Billi and her husband Phil and it was interesting and good. They said that if they get the answer that this is true that they will get baptized. You could tell the Spirit was there! Then we had a lesson with Andy! Andy is actually in Texas at the moment visiting his fiance. But we felt it was important to teach the Law of Chastity. His finace is a member but just so we can say we have taught it. It was funny. We had to bring a member with us, Sue, and she was great! She teased him here and there and Andy is a sweet guy but sometimes clueless. Some background so you get the story.... His finace told him briefly about garments so he didn't freak out when they got married and so to make her feel better about wearing "unattractive white underwear" he bought some white underpants online and sent her a picture of what he bought. She responded to that text while we were there and right after we taught him about pornography he asked us if we would like to see his pants (thats British for underpants) and we all laughed and said no. We were dying! Hopefully you get the humor haha.
Wednesday was interesting. We actually had a rough day. FACT! (thats for you Rachel, Dwight from Dundermifflen) Weather makes all the difference in missionary work here in England. When it is a sunny or a nice day, you can get so many potentials, but when it is dark and gloomy you have to fight to talk to anyone. That was what Wednesday was. And then we went to Coordination after being stood up by a potential and we got to hear that the elders have 8 people on a date...... We were a bit moody at that point. But I got to play the piano and get some stress out! I love being able to play the piano. Thanks Mom and thank Tori!! The elders came and sang with Sister Melville and we had "District Bonding time" with 1/3 of the district missing haha but it was okay and helped us pick up our mood a bit. This day "came to pass" (mom... that one is for you haha).
Thursday- District meeting was canceled and so we decided to do some work for a lady that can't do house work for herself, but is really picky so she keeps sacking her cleaners and calls to see if we can come hahaha. But it was a nice break while it was raining outside and then when we left it was sunny for the rest of the day! We had 3 lessons and got 2 new investigators and one of them was Andrew that I was telling you about yesterday while skyping. He set a date for the 23rd of this month and we are excited. He is funny. We had a dinner appointment at a member's house and they told us to our face that they do not like sisters and that they prefer having elders over....... They were very blunt and a bit rude in their humor. And we tried hard to make a good impression on them but when we said hi to them at church on Sunday, they were indifferent to us...... That was a fail - a major fail. We don't mind if we don't get invited over to their place again haha.
Friday we did some weekly planning in the morning and then went to teach Andrew. He feels very strong that his life calling now is to be a missionary. He asked if he could come out with us on Saturday.... We said we would be happy to teach him again and that he could come with us to church on Sunday but that he needs to be baptized first before he can be a missionary. It was funny. We had 5 lessons planned and only got to teach 3. One of them was with the lady that loves Elvis (can't remember if I told you about her or not). At first we were going to teach Sabbath day, then it got turned into personal prayer. But, then when we asked her what makes her happy she said if her body could handle smoking more, that would make her happy. Also, having a guy to pass the time with....... that was awkward...... So we taught the Word of Wisdom and next time we are going to teach the law of chastity hahahaha.
Saturday- oh, Saturday was interesting....... So we have a recent convert that we work with. We only meet with him once a week and do scripture study with him. Sister Melville said that he has never been this friendly with sisters before except when he liked another sister, the one that baptized him. We met with him and he said he was going to pay for our lunch. We didn't realize anything at the moment, but, as we walked with him to his work after lunch, he wanted us to come meet his dogs... he just knows that we will love his dogs. And then he wanted us to come to his university to help him with his project. We needed to get out and work! When we said no to all of that he said, he wanted to come out with us. We said pretty bluntly (Sister Melville and I are both blunt) "Go home, Kondwani!" It was a bit irritating. AND, we kept getting texts from him throughout the day about random things. and great ideas he had - like all three of us wearing glasses just like Sister Mackay....... I was getting really fed up with it all. Ferocious Ashley is still inside me... don't worry mom haha.
Sunday- We picked up Andrew and walked to church. Sent him in with the elders to priesthood while I prepared my talk. Rachel Maughn had been having a rough morning so we went out to her car and talked to her while I worked even more on my talk haha.. Sunday school was all my talk again and then Sacrament meeting I gave the talk. We walked Andrew home and then grabbed a snack. Then they had us over for the night and we got to play Phase 10 with them. Sorry about skype and how crazy it was. They are a fun family. Sister Melville had a hard time yesterday. Mothers day is hard for her, so I kept quiet and listened when she was ready.
It was a good week. I have learned a lot and I guess all I can say is that I will never regret coming on a mission. I have never been happier and I know this is helping me become who I really am! I have never felt more like myself then I have on the mission! Thanks for all the prayers and the support everyone!!
Love you all!!
Sister Ashley MacKay
But this past week.......
Tuesday- We got to email since Monday was a bank holiday. We are so excited for when we get ipads so that we won't have to worry if the library is open or not, because they close a lot on Mondays here for random holidays. After we finished emailing, we were waiting for a lesson. He didn't show up, but we got a voice mail from President saying that Elder Holland is coming to speak to the mission on June 11th!!!! We were so excited!! He is only going to be in the country for 2 hours and we are so blessed to get to hear from him and then we will have a mission wide conference that will be so much fun the rest of the day!! SO... You can say that we are all so excited for June!!!! Then we had a lesson with Billi and her husband Phil and it was interesting and good. They said that if they get the answer that this is true that they will get baptized. You could tell the Spirit was there! Then we had a lesson with Andy! Andy is actually in Texas at the moment visiting his fiance. But we felt it was important to teach the Law of Chastity. His finace is a member but just so we can say we have taught it. It was funny. We had to bring a member with us, Sue, and she was great! She teased him here and there and Andy is a sweet guy but sometimes clueless. Some background so you get the story.... His finace told him briefly about garments so he didn't freak out when they got married and so to make her feel better about wearing "unattractive white underwear" he bought some white underpants online and sent her a picture of what he bought. She responded to that text while we were there and right after we taught him about pornography he asked us if we would like to see his pants (thats British for underpants) and we all laughed and said no. We were dying! Hopefully you get the humor haha.
Wednesday was interesting. We actually had a rough day. FACT! (thats for you Rachel, Dwight from Dundermifflen) Weather makes all the difference in missionary work here in England. When it is a sunny or a nice day, you can get so many potentials, but when it is dark and gloomy you have to fight to talk to anyone. That was what Wednesday was. And then we went to Coordination after being stood up by a potential and we got to hear that the elders have 8 people on a date...... We were a bit moody at that point. But I got to play the piano and get some stress out! I love being able to play the piano. Thanks Mom and thank Tori!! The elders came and sang with Sister Melville and we had "District Bonding time" with 1/3 of the district missing haha but it was okay and helped us pick up our mood a bit. This day "came to pass" (mom... that one is for you haha).
Thursday- District meeting was canceled and so we decided to do some work for a lady that can't do house work for herself, but is really picky so she keeps sacking her cleaners and calls to see if we can come hahaha. But it was a nice break while it was raining outside and then when we left it was sunny for the rest of the day! We had 3 lessons and got 2 new investigators and one of them was Andrew that I was telling you about yesterday while skyping. He set a date for the 23rd of this month and we are excited. He is funny. We had a dinner appointment at a member's house and they told us to our face that they do not like sisters and that they prefer having elders over....... They were very blunt and a bit rude in their humor. And we tried hard to make a good impression on them but when we said hi to them at church on Sunday, they were indifferent to us...... That was a fail - a major fail. We don't mind if we don't get invited over to their place again haha.
Friday we did some weekly planning in the morning and then went to teach Andrew. He feels very strong that his life calling now is to be a missionary. He asked if he could come out with us on Saturday.... We said we would be happy to teach him again and that he could come with us to church on Sunday but that he needs to be baptized first before he can be a missionary. It was funny. We had 5 lessons planned and only got to teach 3. One of them was with the lady that loves Elvis (can't remember if I told you about her or not). At first we were going to teach Sabbath day, then it got turned into personal prayer. But, then when we asked her what makes her happy she said if her body could handle smoking more, that would make her happy. Also, having a guy to pass the time with....... that was awkward...... So we taught the Word of Wisdom and next time we are going to teach the law of chastity hahahaha.
Saturday- oh, Saturday was interesting....... So we have a recent convert that we work with. We only meet with him once a week and do scripture study with him. Sister Melville said that he has never been this friendly with sisters before except when he liked another sister, the one that baptized him. We met with him and he said he was going to pay for our lunch. We didn't realize anything at the moment, but, as we walked with him to his work after lunch, he wanted us to come meet his dogs... he just knows that we will love his dogs. And then he wanted us to come to his university to help him with his project. We needed to get out and work! When we said no to all of that he said, he wanted to come out with us. We said pretty bluntly (Sister Melville and I are both blunt) "Go home, Kondwani!" It was a bit irritating. AND, we kept getting texts from him throughout the day about random things. and great ideas he had - like all three of us wearing glasses just like Sister Mackay....... I was getting really fed up with it all. Ferocious Ashley is still inside me... don't worry mom haha.
Sunday- We picked up Andrew and walked to church. Sent him in with the elders to priesthood while I prepared my talk. Rachel Maughn had been having a rough morning so we went out to her car and talked to her while I worked even more on my talk haha.. Sunday school was all my talk again and then Sacrament meeting I gave the talk. We walked Andrew home and then grabbed a snack. Then they had us over for the night and we got to play Phase 10 with them. Sorry about skype and how crazy it was. They are a fun family. Sister Melville had a hard time yesterday. Mothers day is hard for her, so I kept quiet and listened when she was ready.
It was a good week. I have learned a lot and I guess all I can say is that I will never regret coming on a mission. I have never been happier and I know this is helping me become who I really am! I have never felt more like myself then I have on the mission! Thanks for all the prayers and the support everyone!!
Love you all!!
Sister Ashley MacKay