It's the Final Countdown......

Monday 29th June 2015

Hello Everyone!

We have had an amazing week this week!

Monday: just the usual, but in the afternoon we had a lesson with Alexis who is 9 and wants to be baptized. The lesson went really we
good stuff.

Then in the evening we were doing cookie visits for the people that had birthdays. We 10 people on our list and all of them were home! This has never happened before so that was really good. Because we had
almost half of the people and with everyone wanting to visit this took a little longer than expected so we just went straight home after that.

Tuesday: we had a great lesson with the Goates, we were talking about tithing and it went really well. We just love that family. We then went over to help the Brigg's pack up the house, we just love them and their kids are the cutest, we were packing up one of the games and Urijah was wanting us not to pack it up. Then he asks me if I want to play with it and bring it back. I said sure so he gave it to me and I packed it up without him looking... Sorry Urijah!

Then after that we went contacting because our appointment with an active member fell through. The. We had dinner and because we didn't have a dinner we went to the drive in because we get to eat there for free. So I was just eating my chicken wrap and then I hear Mumford&Sons "I will wait, I will wait for you" I died of happiness, I won't lie I have missed modern music. Thanks Mumford&Sons, I knew there was someone waiting for me at home, I'm waiting for you too.

Then after dinner we had a lesson with the Coles which went well. We spoke about the plan of salvation and we were able to have the young men's president come with us to that lesson so he was able to help us
out ☺

Then we stopped in on a less active who we adore. She has the cutest grandson too who pretends to be riding a bull:

1) He gets on the bull
2) Shouts "okay boys, okay boys, OKAY BOYS!!!
3) Tries to stay on for as long as he can

It is the cutest thing! Especially when he says to his mum "the girl missionaries come to me to talk about God". His final words to us were "if you ever want to stay here, you can sleepover", cutest thing.

Then we went to an active member and it turns out that Sharon (one of our people we are teaching) was there too which was a pleasant surprise! So we had a great lesson where Sharon was able to ask a lot
of her questions. So good. She said "I'm not sure if I can do tomorrow, but I will make it work" I love that woman so much.

Wednesday: We saw Alexis again which was great and we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and she wants to be baptized, woohoo then we had lunch. After lunch we went to an old ladies house and washed her walls for her because she can't do it herself anymore. Then we were contacting until we had a lesson with Rhea. Then we went to the Brook's to read the Book of Mormon with them. Then we had dinner with the Sidwell's and I just love that family and we had a really yummy dinner too 👌. After dinner we had a lesson with Sharon and we taught the restoration. Then we went over to the walkers to share a message with them. Then we went to the McCreary's and had a powerful restoration lesson with them. You could feel the spirit so strong. When President Brisko was baring his testimony I was in tears. Then it was bedtime.

Thursday: weekly planning.... Blah blah blah then at 2:30 we started driving down to the Salt Lake Temple! We got there in plenty of time. I drove in downtown salt lake, I won't lie I felt like such a grown up, downtown stresses me out, on several occasions I said to Sister White "take me back to the boonies!" I prefer our type of traffic which is cows rather than cars. I'm not the problem when it comes to driving, it's everyone else! But that was really good. I was just sat in one of the waiting rooms waiting for the session to start and the organ is playing "Nearer My God To Thee" and I was just reflecting on my whole mission and how I am closer to God and Jesus Christ, and it slightly hit me that I was nearing the end of my mission so I start to shed some tears. This was my final temple trip with my district (group of missionaries) but we had a great session and we got out at 8:30pm and it was super hot! We then went to my first area winder west to sleep over, it was so weird being in my old bed. Again another reflecting moment because I wasn't the same person.

Friday: Zone Conference!
We had to be at the mission office for 8am to practice a song. But it was so good! I didn't bring my notes, but there were lots of great take aways. So I said my first goodbyes too! The Salt Lake Zone (avenues etc) are moving into the Central Mission. So I had to say goodbye to my baby Sister Melanson and some missionaries that I came out with. Then we travelled back and went contacting before our lesson with the Gines.

Saturday: We were at the Brigg's in the morning and then we had a lesson with the Tanner's who have unbaptized grandchildren which went well, the boys are cute 8&11 the 8 year old kept asking us throughout
lunch when we were leaving so he could show us his gorilla run, it was the funniest thing. Then it was basically a day of contacting because the rest of our lessons cancelled.

Sunday: #SundayFunday

So we managed to go to all 5 sacrament meetings 💪. In the 4th Ward I was just listening to the prelude music and I heard a song and I was like "ah, they're playing God Save a The Queen" and then I try to sing it and out of my mouth comes out "my country t'is of these... Sweet land of liberty to thee I sing.." And I was
horrified, I can't sing my own anthem without singing without singing the American words! #Corrupted
Sister White likes to say that I am now an American because I have pledged allegiance to the American flag, sung the star spangled banner (their anthem) and she thinks I am a what I call a "fancy American
girl" (all the girls here are super crafty, just think Pinterest women). Somebody help me! I need to keep my Britishness!

Then we were in meetings and we had a lesson with the Walkers which went really well and then we were contacting for the rest of the night and had a lesson with the Madsen's.

Hope you're all well!

I am having the time of my life out here and cannot believe that I hit 17months on Saturday.

Love you all!

Sister Hughes