Twenty one 5... what

I can't believe that it's already 2015! I'm over the hill! Well, my mission hill.

I'm on the downward slope now. I go home this year. I can't believe it! Well, now that I've said it.. you probably won't hear me say it again until I'm off the plane haha

I've got a lot of work to do!

So I was called to the Manchester England mission to speak English. But I've figured it out... they told me I would be speaking english because it would have been too difficult to assign a mission language for me to learn seeing as there are 100 that are spoken here. I think I teach about half of my lessons in a language other than english! It's so much fun. I've never had a stronger desire to learn a new language! I am absolutely determined to learn many when I get back home.

Starting with spanish. Because I already know how to ask for the bathroom, so it there can't be too much more to learn.

So speaking of learning another language... Sister Zulueta and I went to see a lady from Russia. Or from Latvia.. I'm not really sure which one. Because she keeps using both in the same sentence that is mingled with a foreign language so I just don't have a clue!

Anyway, we saw her on Saturday and she told us to come back on Sunday.

So we did.

She invites us in and they have 3 boys! And one girl who wasn't in!

She tells us to have a seat and then she will go and finish cooking her family's meal? I think?

So we sit on the couch and her husband walks in and just stares at us. Then he points at me and asks if I sing. uhhhh... I guess I hesitated too long because then he uncovered his piano, turned on some background music, and then just went to town on the keyboard. Seriously, he was just hammering away.

We didn't really know what to do at this point because even if we said something he wouldn't be able to hear us over the music. So as he's singing away and playing some kind of crazy rock music on the piano, the boys (who all speak english) are just staring at us.

One of them brings over his copy of the Book of Mormon so that was some progress.

After the 15 minutes of piano jamming he turns around and starts speaking in latvian.. or russian. It was a really intense game of charades actually. ha

Well, finally we feel like we've explained who we are and as we're getting ready to go, the mother walks in and tells us to go and sit at the table. She was feeding us! ha So we all kind fo sat there while they tried to talk to us in their language and we just traded blank stares back and forth.

So, second language I will learn is Russian. Or lativian.

That was a fun lesson!

It's kind of fun out here because we use public transportation.. something I've never really done before. Something else I'm not used to, is pigeons. They're everywhere. And they're huge. They just do what they want. But that doesn't really have anything to do with what I'm talking about.. just thought I'd mention that there were ppigeons. Huge pigeons.

So you'll be pleased to know that I haven't actually lost all of my coordination. Nope, I dropped my earmuffs and they kind of went flying and in a panic to catch them I stuck out my foot and caught them quite gracefully on my shoe.

The best part was that there were a crowd of onlookers to witness my coordination skills.

Which means I'm good to go for the next 8 months! Woo!

Also, we had a missionary fireside on Sunday evening and we had a mini bus that seated 16 people and we filled every seat! So that was pretty exciting! Except when we were leaving it wouldn't start... I volunteered to push but we got it running thankfully haha

AND THE BEST PART OF THE FIRESIDE WAS THAT I GOT TO SEE SARAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sarah was there and it was the best surprise ever! It has been wayyyy too long!

Well, here are some funny quotes, but happy new year! Speak to you all next week!

Love Sister Reed

"I hate missionaries that just stretch, seriously, we are the most flexible mission!"

"Oh, and gabrielle isn't dated anymore... but the good news is that she finished reading nephi!"

"Umm... is that.. 4 nephi?"