Sister Pursglove in the England Manchester LDS Mission: Weekly Letter #57: December 14th, 2020

Hello hello!

I know it seems like I've jumped off the edge of the world based on how I've been emailing lately, but I promise I'm alright! We've just been so insanely busy (bet you haven't heard that one before) that I genuinely don't have time to always write. Forgive me.

COMPANIONS?
They're so good! Sister Leblanc is from Denver, Colorado and she's so funny and cute. She's been out for 9 months now and is so on top of it. She's super sweet and I really enjoy her.

Sister Cairns is from west Sussex from down south in England, and she's hilarious. She's been out for 7 months and is an absolute dream to work with. Overall, I really lucked out and have 2 really wonderful companions.

STRETFORD?
Stretford is great! It's booming and life is good. The members here are so kind and wonderful to us it's an absolute dream. This past week, a couple stopped us and gave us £20 because they felt bad for us that we couldn't eat with members for Christmas. Who does that? Stretford members, that's who.

ASSIGNMENT?

Woah! It's going so well. There have been so many things that have happened over this last week that were just really good confirmations that I'm supposed to be here in this assignment, in this mission, under President and Sister Johnson. The work is just moving so quickly and there are so many new things all the time. Also as a side note, don't forget to tune in and watch the December “Why I Believe Devotional” on December 20th, at 6:30pm (UK time—11:30am Utah time).

Here is the link to attend!

SAD STORY?
For this assignment, we each have a laptop as all of our work is online and they are highly necessary. However, sometimes our laptops decide that they hate us, and they choose to wipe themselves clean of every single file, document, photo, video, and project that you've been working on. When this happens, you cry. In case you haven't caught on yet, my laptop this week freaked out and erased itself and everything on it. Probably one of the most depressing things that's happened in a while, but hopefully we'll be safe for a bit!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT?
Something I've really come to realize over the past few months is that this is the new missionary work. I know that quite a few people still believe that this is only temporary and that once this pandemic is over, that we'll go back to “normal” missionary work. After being able to speak with a member of the Europe Area Presidency, I was reminded that this is the new normal missionary work. Technology and social media aren’t going to go away. We aren't going back to tracting and street contacting. We're not throwing our phones away once this is all over. There isn't any of that anymore and THAT IS OKAY. The Lord has given us these tools for a reason, and we need to accept them and hop on the bandwagon with the Lord. This is the work of the Lord and He moves it forward no matter what.

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!

Photographs and Videos Below :)