Monday, April 6, 2020

Weekly Letter #27: April 6, 2020

Hello! Hola! Ola! Bonjour!

Another week in the life of your friendly neighborhood sister missionary. Welcome back for another update about life in jolly old England!


QUARANTINE?
Yes we are still in lockdown. This week will make 1 month of "isolation" which has varied in degrees of severity. At first we were allowed to go out only to the store or the Chapel, but now we are only allowed to go out once a day for exercise, and for any necessary shopping (which we are obviously trying to limit). Hahaha talk about a home-centered, Church-supported mission! I am sure that I am the 500th missionary to make that joke but I only have so much material to work with. Give me a break.

ARE YOU STILL THERE?
YES! Europe and Europe East are now the only foreign missions allowing foreign missionaries to remain which is very good news for us. Pray that continues to stay the same and that we won't have to leave. We're starting to get the hang of this isolation thing.

GENERAL CONFERENCE?
HOLY COW. That's all I have to say about that. Here are some of my main points and top takeaways:

1) There is another global day of prayer and fasting (abstaining from food and water for a period of 24 hours or for 2 consecutive meals, or whatever or however long you can safely do it) on Good Friday, April 10th to ask for relief from Covid-19! I invite everyone (even if you aren't a member of the Church) to join in. I promise that if you do so, you'll be able to feel of the power and strength that comes from setting aside time to draw closer to God. Again, if you have questions, comments, concerns, or anything, email me. I have a LOT of time on my hands and emails make my day and week. Please email me.

2) No matter what you've heard about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, or whatnot, our church name is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are Christ's church, not Joseph Smith's, not Mormon's, not anyone else's. We are Christ's church. Loved how they clarified that even further and made sure that we all get that.

3) Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and he did restore Christ's Church back on the earth. He did translate the Book of Mormon from ancient records through the power of God. The Book of Mormon is another set of scriptures, comparable to the Bible (but not replacing), written by prophets who testify and teach of Heavenly Father and Christ and their teachings. All of this is true. I know it is. I've prayed and asked and I've received a confirmation that it is.

If you have questions about how I know this or how I got a confirmation, email me. Read the Book of Mormon (you can find it online if you don’t have one—ask me how). For real. I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but you really don't understand how much time I have to answer questions.

4) Elder Holland's talk and Sister Bingham's talk are my favorites right now, but that's likely to change after I read through all of the talks from Conference and study them out again. I'll keep you updated. Please email me or comment on my blog and let me know what your favorite talks, quotes, etc. are. I'm interested.

5) If you have questions about what your purpose in life is, why you're here, why bad things happen to good people, why suffering happens, what's after death, etc. - guess what I'm going to say? Email me!!!!!

RANDOM STORY?
Sister McReynolds and President McReynolds are the absolute BEST mission leaders ever. To prove that, today we had a cooking class teaching us how to make scones over Zoom (video call app) by Sister McReynolds for the whole mission. She's incredible and is my favorite person in the whole wide world. I love her.

FUNNY STORY?
We found 3 dead ants in our kettle after making hot chocolate. Is that funny?

FAVORITE FOOD?
Clotted cream. It's a mixture between butter and cream and it's amazing. Highly recommended.

That's it??

Love you all and write please :)

Photographs below and links to some great videos that I highly recommend! Just click on the links or the image to launch the videos







Weekly Letter #27: April 6, 2020
4/ 5
Oleh