Americanisms

We were able to go to the temple this week with our hilarious investigator Harry! Mike, our recent convert drove us with Candy (an awesome American who is here for film masters). Harry is obsessed with going to Utah after his baptism to see the Salt Lake temple, and he makes me smile. He is from London and can talk your ear off, but he is sincere and is loving learning. This is the last week of the transfer and I sure hope that Sister Barnes and I get to stay together in Bournemouth. I correct Sister Barnes when she says Americanisms, (ie: car park instead of parking lot, mobile instead of cell phone, rubbish bin, in stead of garbage bag) but I am not sure if she is just preparing me for going back to America. Anyways I do not have an accent, so everyone lower your expectations, but I do love the British terminology and will have to adjust to not adding an "u" to every word like saviour. Anyways I love you all so much! The gospel is true and am so grateful to be able to listen to the words of the prophet and his apostles. It is my favourite time of the year, and I have started writing questions down to prepare myself for the answers that the Spirit can give during conference.I invite you all to do likewise. I am so grateful for the Spirit nudging to be change and be better each day. I love all of you loads!

 

Love,

Sister McLeod  

Testify

Miracle: So Sister Sargsyan has been having crazy intense migraines every day(lasting from like 10 mins to a few hours), and she is being the biggest trooper ever but I love how I really know the Lord loves his missionaries. After church yesterday she had another one and the elders gave her a blessing. We went on our way (she was still in pain) and we stopped a couple people in our path until we met Tim. Tim is someone we taught in the first couple of weeks and said he would meet us again only if our paths ever crossed again. Bournemouth is huge and lo and behold we see him again and he has actually been reading the Book of Mormon. We had a great street teach and he wanted to meet again. Sister Sargsyan said that as soon as she started testifying her pain went away. It is amazing that that cure to physical, emotional, spiritual pain in the mission is juts sharing our testimonies. It is the best fix for anything. I love it and love how the Lord is mindful of all of our situations.

Weather: I have been blessed so much in Bournemouth. It has rained 3 times since I been here the past 6 weeks. It is so warm and I am getting ridiculous tan lines. 

MLC: We went to MLC on Friday and the night before we drove to Winchester to stay with the sisters there. That one picture is with Sister O'Brien who I knew from Plymouth zone. She is the best and Winchester is so beautiful. MLC is the best spiritual feast and I love President Millar so much. There is a pic of all the sister training leaders and then one of Sister Cowley and Sister Barrows. we have the same pic our first day flying from Atlanta to Manchester. I love them both so much. The other pic is me and Sister McLaws. She is just full of boldness and happiness (amazing missionary) and we are just getting a pic that our names are so close. She is training an Armenian in beloved Bath at the moment. The Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey) are in our zone and i asked president if we could do a work over there with the sister and he said yes so that will be the coolest exchange ever. we have to take a 4 hour boat! 

Anyways, love you all so much. The church keep getting truer everyday. Keep doing the small and simple things. 

love,

Sister McLeod 

Training Experiences

Bournemouth: The great. It is sooo sunny and warm and so many people out. It is great being new sisters because families are giving you people that they think sisters would be better for and so we are starting to have a good investigator pool with part member families. 

Training: Sister Sargsyan keeps on coming out with the craziest stories about her life and mini mission in Georgia that is so hilarious. I think I need to write a book for her. Like for example in Armenia I guess it is common for men to try to kidnap the person they want to marry if she refuses and this one man (out of many admirers of Sister S) tried to take her when she was going to her car in the grocery store car park, and I guess he is still parked out near his house today waiting for her! Creepy. He even bought her a car. Anyways stories like this keep coming up and I am just loving it. It is so interesting training a lot because every experience and person is completely different. You have sweetheart Sister Chamberlain who I got along really well with in Bath where I was really nervous to train and all our investigators seemed to drop us right before she came. You have sensitive and thoughtful Sister Andersen from Denmark coming into the new area of Teignmouth and starting from 1 investigator and building the area. You have hilarious, talkative, straightforward Sister Schmidt from Germany coming in at the height of success in Teignmouth. And then we've got confident and glamorous Sister Sargsyan from Armenia coming into Bournemouth, both of us new to the area figuring it out and learning English. Missionaries have come up to me and said oh you must be the best trainer, but honestly I feel like I am learning so much every time, being humble and realising how many things I need to work on. I am so grateful for companions being patient with me. I am learning by trial and error with every companion and I liken that to how it will be as a mother. Every child and circumstance in your life will be different. But I love the gospel and the ability to change everyday and just keep trying amidst imperfect.   

Miracle After Church: We had just left church and were walking down the road when we stopped and talked to this Portuguese lady. She wasn't very interested so we kept on walking and I noticed this guy was staring really creepily at my companion and following us, so I said walk fast and pass these two ladies in front of us. The two ladies were wearing really pretty dresses and we said hey I like your dress and started to walk with them. Turns out Bertille from somewhere in Africa was looking for the church and her friend Tamsyn had decided to go with her. She had been baptised in 2008 in Southhampton, but had lost contact to the church and was just going to any Christian church service she could find. We said well we can just go back to the chapel right now and talk and so we did that and it was so amazing to hear her conversion and her friend is super interested too. It is amazing how the Lord works and put them in our path for a reason. Even that creepy guy so we could walk faster and talk to these lovely ladies.  

Well I love you all so much! It is so exciting to here updates here and there and shoutout to Mrs. Kaitlyn Taylor who is not Kaitlyn Taylor anymore. I saw one picture and you looked beautiful. Have such a lovely and sunny week. Someone said it is going to be a warm summer in England so I will take that!

Love,

Sister McLeod

Oh and we took a pic outside the chapel because they were all matching except me

I am getting the best watch tanline ever! Sister S and I in this giant balloon that goes up and down and we got permission to go on it today! And us at the beach on good old p-day.

Loads of Potential

Bournemouth: It is so diverse and there are so many people everywhere! Kind of a crazy place. We have had some cool experiences when we started talking to someone, and a couple people overheard and came to join us. One time it turned out to be a Christian from Angola, a Muslim family from Pakistan, and us speaking about the plan of salvation. Another time we stopped a man in the street from Portugal and went to a bench, and when we stopped talking to him two English guys from the military were intrigued and wanted to learn more. When we were talking to them, a man heard the word Jesus and wanted to join in. He told us he ran a Christian radio station and wanted us to come on it. And someone else we met wants us to come to an interfaith forum, so ya we are meeting loads of people and just building our teaching pool, weeding out who is really interested, but there are loads and loads of potentials.

World Cup: One of our neighbors are Brasilians and were going nuts when Brazil played, it was good fun listening to them and Sister Sargsyan stealthily took some pics or their dancing and celebrating, I'll send some next week. And when we were someing home there was a massive group of people all celebrating and getting ready for England to play. I don't know if they won or not, but ya world cup is a big deal over here. I completely forgot basketball existed until my Dad told me their was the NBA championship.

Sister Sargsyan: Just some fun facts about my comp. She was Miss Armenia like 5 times and has met Kim Kardashian. Her dad is the stake president in Armenia, there is one stake and they joined the church when she was 2. She is really funny and kind of a diva and we are writing down funny moments of learning enlgish every day. For instance, we were inviting someone to a musical fireside and she said ya come and we will sit by the fire and sing songs. soooo funny, but yes fireside is a weird word.

Love you all soooooo much! and hope you have a lovely week.

Love,

Sister McLeod

Bournemouth

To begin, sorry if my responses might be shorter because we only have 1 and half hours in this library as opposed to 2 hours we got in my last area. 

 

Missionaries: On Wednesday I made the last trek from the Plymouth zone to Staines. There were so many missionaries there and it was so good to see a lot of people I haven't seen for a while. All of my district from the MTC was there and we took a pic together. So fun to see how much we have grown in one year. One just got called to be an AP, 2 are zone leaders, and the other 2 are district leaders and training. Sister Cowley just came off the Channel Island Jersey and is sister training leadering it up in the reading zone. love it!

 

Sister Sargsyan: My new companion is from ARMENIA!!! Ya I had to look on a map too... She began learning English 2 weeks ago in the MTC and it is her 6th language! She speaks Russian, Farsi, Spanish, Armenian, and Georgian. She is super beautiful and very glamous. It has been a really fun last couple of days getting to know each other and this new area.

 

Bournemouth: Bournemouth is so beauitful and so different than quiet, white-filled people of Teignmouth. There is a university here and it is a proper city and SO diverse. It is also very touristy. I seriously have talked to people from like 50 different countries already. There is a nice white sandy beach and we live right near the high street, so it is a good location. The Bournemouth ward feels like a proper American ward and hasn't had sister for years so they are really liking us. There are a million activities going on and they are a very involved ward. It is pretty large, and there are another set of elders in the ward. They had 2 Chinese elders here and one of the elders in Staines handed me the key to the flat and phone and said good luck. The flat was not in the worst condition, but we are definietly going to spend some time cleaning. It is amazing how the Lord is helping me understand all the different buses and areas very quickly. There is so much potential here and right now we are focusing on just getting to know and serve the members, and to build our investigator pool because we started from scratch but are already meeting with 3 people these next couple of days. There are so many people here so we are always talking to everyone. SO blessed to be here and exicted for the progress ahead.

 

Miracles: I feel like there are too many to count, but it just seems like there have been members we have met and people on the street that need us at this time and it is amazing how the Lord directs you even though you may think it is all random or you are going in the wrong direction. I honestly haven't gotten stressed because I know I just have to trust in the Lord where I need to be. One lady took a route she has never been before and has been lately thinking about where her Dad is who passed away recently. Gabby from Venzuela feels like there is somethign missing from her life and wants to learn more. Steven asked for the Book of Mormon and is seeking to find the right church. Amazing things happening and excited to keep on trusting in the Lord to be in the right place and say the right things.

 

I love you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Sister McLeod

Kieron and Jasmine in Teignmouth

My MTC disctrict united

Sister Sargsyan