Transfer 1 Round Up

Warning: If you're looking for continuity and coherent thought, you've come to the wrong place.  This week marks the official end of my first transfer out here on the mish, and to celebrate I thought I'd do a more casual blog. Just kind of a loose handful of things I've thought about over the last six weeks and not so much moralising. 

First things first, I love the mission. This whole 'living in England' thing is really working for me. It's gorgeous here, even when the locals think it isn't. Maybe it's just that I'm from a desert and there are actual trees here, I don't know. I also really love how simple this life is. It's hard, but it's straightforward. I have one purpose. To invite others to come unto Christ. Everything centres on that. It's great.

English food is actually really good. (I warned you that this would be all over the place) The classic English roast is amazing, of course, but then you get stuff like roasties, which are potatoes, and Yorkshire puddings and roasted parsnips. Oh man, the parsnips were good. The only slightly unfortunate thing is that they put gravy on everything. Every dinner appointment we've had has involved quite a lot of gravy. Now gravy is good, don't get me wrong. But Sister Pickett and I are feeling that gravy on some of these hills we bike up. It's a rough life. ;) Really though. I'm trying to figure out how to politely suggest less gravy, because I feel like I'm drowning in it.

So, for the first few weeks, basically all of October, the weather here was beautiful. Like, amazingly beautiful. No rain, sunshine and blue skies. The leaves were all turning colours, and the world was a happy place. Then, no joke, as soon as November hit, the weather did a 180. November 1st, there was this wicked awesome fog that rolled in. Proper spooky, that was. Especially riding past the cemetery in town. Creepy. Anyway! Wet and cold is the life we live here. Rain is every day. Maybe not pouring, but if you're ever trying to envision what it's like for me out here, start with some kind of rain and you'll be on the right track. It's lovely though. Way nice. Nothing could make England unpleasant. I'm convinced. Short of a nuclear holocaust.

What else? Bike riding has become as natural as breathing. Although, with some of the hills we go up, breathing can feel pretty unnatural. My bike is awesome. Good little road bike. Everything works really well, except when I hit the front brakes, they squeal pretty bad. They work, they just complain about it the whole time. As a result, I've decided to name my bike Myrtle, as in Moaning Myrtle. Ah, Myrtle. What a character.

I guess I should talk about the actual work a little bit. Right now, we're having a hard time holding appointments, but we have a couple of people that we are teaching who are awesome people. Courtney is the first person we started teaching, and she is fantastic. She's 16, and the daughter of a less active who has been wanting her to learn from the missionaries for awhile, but he was waiting for sister to come. Now that we're here, she's making good progress. She's accepted baptism, but we're having a hard time really teaching her because she's so busy. We pray for her all the time. To be honest, if you could spare a minute for her, it would be awesome if you guys could pray for her too.  This is something that I know will be so good for her in her life. Not only that, but as she's learned more, Steve, her dad, has expressed an increasing desire to come back to church. This is so important for both of them. 

Other than those two lovely people, we are teaching Oliver, who is the most British man to ever British. You should hear him talk about his gardening. He is always wearing a tie. Always. He's 68, and he lives in this beautiful house that he's more than a little proud of. Anyway, he has a great faith in God and a desire to do His will, but he won't come to church, and we can't figure out why. He says he wants to come to church, but he never does. It's trying. But he's in the Lord's hands, and all we can do is keep loving and keep praying.

It's hard, but I love it. Everyday out in the field is hard work, loving and caring for people you don't even really know. But they're God's children, and we're here for them. It is so worth it. Even the smallest good thing makes me so happy. There are miracles happening left right and centre and it's a beautiful time to be alive.

Alright, back to the truly unimportant things. So I realised about a year ago that I am lactose intolerant, which makes so much sense. But I didn't really act like it for a long time, because not eating dairy is hard. First of all, it's hard to avoid. But also, I love cheese and butter and chocolate every now and then was really nice. However! I've drawn the line and finally gone dairy free. I drink the fake lactose free milk stuff, I don't eat cheese anymore, and I even found this fake lactose free butter! It's kind of fun, actually. I sometimes have to get creative with what I eat. One time, we were out of pretty much everything at the end of the week, and all we had for breakfast was cereal. I didn't have any fake milk left, but I refused to eat it dry. So I found some juice that we had and put that on it. Juice cereal. Delicious. Honestly though, it wasn't half bad. I probably won't do it again unless I have to, but it's an option.

I talked about rain a little bit before, but Imma talk about it again because rain is a huge part of life. There are many types of rain. I won't repeat Forrest Gump's list, but I would like to add a few. There's heavy rain, light rain, but most dangerous of all is stealth rain. Stealth rain is, as far as I'm aware, unique to England. It looks like... Like a mix between snow and mist. It doesn't really look like anything at all. And then ten minutes later you're completely drenched. It sneaks up behind you and just... I don't even know how it works! It doesn't even look like it's raining, and then you're wet. Crazy.

One last completely random thing. There are cats everywhere here. Everywhere. I'm beginning to think that they're using Cannock as a place to amass an army for the imminent cat invasion. Everybody seems to own cats, but no one seems to care whether those cats are in their house or not. So the cats are running loose in the streets. And staring at us from windows. Good stuff.

We had a special conference two days ago. It was a mission conference, where we met with the entire England Birmingham Mission to hear from Elder M. Russell Ballard. It was a magnificent opportunity. Even more incredible was the fact that Sister Pickett and I were asked to put together a musical item for that conference. We sang with two other sisters from Wales. We sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" to the tune of "Come Thou Fount". It was really special, and an amazing privilege. Listening to Elder Ballard, sitting at the feet of an apostle and learning from him was a powerful experience. 

I love you all so much, and I'm looking forward to another great transfer here in Cannock. 

God is good, life is great! Talk to you soon,

Sister Pike