The Daily Post

Here's a heads up on life in England.. as a missionary.

I am exhausted.

Spiritually, emotionally, physically, and mentally.

But do you want to know what the best part is?

I thought so.

I have never been happier in all of my life. I have never smiled so wide, nor cheered so loud. Never has my heart pounded so fast as I heard the simple testimonies of those we meet who are coming to know their Savior for the first time...

There truly is no joy greater than this. Life is fulfilling as a missionary. Opposition in all things, right? How could we know such great joy if we knew no such pain to equally amount that happiness that we experience?

Well. I don't think I've ever given detail about the daily life of a missionary in the England Manchester Mission.

I'm sure it differs.. because we don't all eat Lugaw for lunch... but hopefully this can give you a little peek into what we do on a daily basis :)

6:25 am The alarm shuts off and I let it go off for a bit so that I actually wake up. Then I roll over onto the floor, landing on my knees and begin to pray. I'll be honest, my morning prayers probably aren't the most coherent but I'm sure Heavenly Father understands every word.

By 6:30 my companion and I are in the Kitchen/living space doing some sort of exercise. It most depends on how my feet feel... I massage them for a good couple of minutes because their usually sore and cramping. I don't even recognize my own feet any more!

at 7 it's time to shower, eat and get ready for the day! Usually I try to spend the last 15 minutes writing in my journal because by the end of the night my brain is mush.

at 8 we begin our personal study time with prayer and we read from the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and Ensigns and other talks given by the apostles and Prophets in these days.

by 9 we close with a prayer, then we sing a hymn! I can't sing in the morning but I've gotten better at it haha then we share what we learned in our personal studies, we role play different lessons, and then we prepare any lessons that we have for the day.

At 10 we then have language study! I learn a bit of spanish for fun but mostly Sister Cristobal and I study english since she is learning it out here for the first time. I never truly understood how complicated my language was until I had to define "whether" and the meanings of all of the different expressions that we use... seriously, english is hard.

then at 11 we head out! We work mostly on Oxford road which runs right through the heart of Manchester Universities! if we have some appointments then we will head to the building and prepare to teach otherwise, we do lots of finding! Which means walking up and down the busiest road talking to everyone who crosses our path. There are swarms of people walking towards you so it's kind of intimidating to know who to target.. talk about your spiritual radar ha but there are these really old buildings on either side because the University has been here for so long! It's absolutely beautiful.

Then we head in for our lunch hour around 12. Looking for some rice and chicken to cook.. or peanut butter and jelly or jam as they call it here. Jelly to English people is Jell-o to us! So they will look at you strangely if you tell them you had peanutbutter and jelly... haha

then it's out for maybe a couple other lessons with investigators and more finding! We meet all kinds of people. Sometimes they'll be from china and I'll try to say the few phrases I know.. but then they just stare at me and my poor american pronunciation of their language. Oh well. I just smile and point to our building haha

Then you meet people from Africa.. and they're all the sweetest people! You get some mean people.. people who say weird things... the sweetest ones in the world.. others who just want to hear your accent... people who want you to go to their clubs.. and you see random stands or giant red and white slides and it's just different every day on the same road.

we usually go in for tea (dinner) at 8 because it gets pretty dark really early and then at 9 we pray to begin our planning for the next day. At 9:30 we call in to our District leader. and then finish any of our plans. Then we get ready for bed! And we're in bed by 10:30! DONE!

And in the middle of the day are the crazy experiences.. the laughs. the tears. The scary moments and of course, the awkward ones.. which seem to dominate the experiences though I must say.

And that's my life! Well, the outline of it.

Then we have meetings, firesides, events, meals, and just time to enjoy doing the Lord's work and the simple pleasures of living in England :)

Quotes of the Week

"I want a nothing box in my head that I can go to.." ~Sister Cristobal

"Trainer, save me!" ~Elder Ding

"Behi? Well, it's the opposite of below..." ~President Ulrich to Elder Curtis

"Tell me you love me right now or I will kiss you on your cheek!!" ~Elder Johnson

"FINE! I love you!" ~Elder Gordon

"Everything is made in China..." ~Missionaries not from China

"I know, I was made in china too!" ~Elder Ding

I love working in the YSA ward! I love working with the missionaries here... we have so much fun going out and sharing our experiences with each other!

So this one time I was calling the Bishop to ask him a question and he didn't answer. And so I began to leave a voicemail, I hate leaving voicemails. Well, anyone who knows me knows I hate talking on the phone anyway, but at least there is someone on the other end to respond. In voicemails I just ramble on and end up saying nothing. Well, in this case I asked my list of questions and then as I was ending it I began to say "and I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus..." And then I just stopped and hung up after I realized what I was doing.

Well, I guess you can never bear your testimony too much, right?

We had our munch and mingle on Sunday which we usually do the fourth Sunday of every month! It was so much fun to just sit and get to know the ward members and help the Investigators meet the people in the ward. And food is always a positive too..

The girl that we've been teaching is doing so well! There is still a lot of family opposition. But last week she had her baptismal interview and she passed it with flying colors. I can see the change in her every day. And even though she doesn't believe it sometimes, she has a testimony that will be able to get her through most everything in life. I feel so blessed to be a part of her conversion process... and I know that the Lord hasn't been preparing her for the past year and a half just to leave her this week in preparation for her baptism! We're going to the temple this week and I am so excited! I love going to the temple and the spirit that is felt there is unlike any other in the world. Perhaps because the Temple is a place not of this world.

I love you all! I will share some more detailed experiences next week! But I thought you might like to know the basics of what I do out here :)

Loads of love from England!

Sister Reed