Happy Birthday to me!

Dear Friends and Family,
Oh my goodness. This week has been complete madness. Mostly the weather actually! Monday it snowed and snowed and snowed some more. It was crazy, and London as a whole pretty much shut down. It was so much fun though! Oh how I love the snow. We spent most of the day indoors writing post and listening to Christmas Music. :) Then in the evening we got to teach Bijoux. She's so cute. Then we had family home evening, and most people made it, despite the snow, so that was good. Then Tuesday it had stopped snowing, but there was ice EVERYWHERE. Walking was quite a task! Haha. I called about my driving test in the morning, and they said it was canceled due to poor weather conditions, which was completely fidelity rubbish. It was kind of funny though, because we got to district meeting, and Elder Stockton was doing the announcements, and he was announcing about how everyone needed to get their driving lisencs, and then he said, "And Sister Ison's test was canceled because of the bloody snow." Then he realized what he had said and turned bright red and was apologizing, especially since our Zone Leader, Elder O'Toole, who is English, was there. It was classic. Then we went home. We had been making plans all week for Christine to go to activity days that evening, and no one could give her a lift so Sister Strunk and I had decided to take her ourselves. The activity was supposed to be a 7:30 pm originally, but then at 4:40 we got a text message saying that it had been moved to 5:00. It was soooo frustrating. It takes an half an hour to get to the chapel by bus anyways, and Christine wasn't even home yet, so we just had to give it up. I was just thinking to myself.... "Why does everything have to go wrong?" And I said a little prayer to Heavenly Father to help me understand why... It was crazy, because then just after I'd ended my prayer this guy on roller skates (in the snow and ice, crazy! haha) stopped us and said that he had met with Elders when he was living in Spain, and he had a Book of Mormon and he really liked it, and he wanted the address of our church locally because he wanted to come! And then we went tracting in the evening and found four new investigators. That sure taught me that the Lord is in control and even though sometimes things can seem discouraging, everything happens for a reason. Haha, then after we got home for the evening my legs and back were so sore, and I didn't know why,and then I got to thinking about it, and I realized that it takes a lot more muscle control to walk on ice, and I'd been keeping my legs so tense all night to avoid slipping! Walking on ice is a good workout! It made me laugh.

Wednesday morning we did a bit of planning, and then we spent the rest of the morning finding. Then we went to Claire Smith's for dinner. Claire is such a sweet lady. She has a strong testimony, and she is a strong woman. She's faced a lot of adversity in her short time in the church, but she keeps on keeping on. :) It was great to spend time with her. Then in the evening we went to see Lillo, and we had a really good lesson with him. it was a good day. It was also good to see the blessings of being obedient and going finding. Because we were tracting all day, and we didn't find a single new investigator, and we met a couple of pretty rude people, but then towards the end of our tracting a woman who we'd been trying to set an appointment with called us and asked us to come visit her and teach her! I love how the Lord blesses us!

Thursday morning we went OYMing and we met two fairly Anti-American people. Well, one guy who said that we were trying to destroy the world, and then another who just thought we and England needed to do more to help the environment. It made Sister Strunk and I laugh. Then in the evening we went tracting in Enfield, in this really posh area. It was kind of fun because all these houses were huge and on the top of these hills. Some of them were so steep that it felt like walking up a wall! It made it an adventure anyway :-D . Then in the evening we had correlation with the Shah family (our new Ward Mission Leader), and then they took us out and got us a pizza. :) I love the Shah's. Especially Sister Shah, because she's from the Philippines and she is sooo funny. They are so excited about missionary work, and I think that they will do great things for the ward.

Friday was another day of finding. It was actually snowing/hailing most of the time we were tracting, but it was fun. Then in the evening we went and saw Jason. Then we got to see Jean Pierre and Brigitte. They really are going through a lot right now, but they are hanging in there. Royally is sooooo big now! She's precious. Saturday in the morning we did enough finding to have our 15 hours for the week. It was soooo exciting. So then we spent our time looking up less actives on our ward list. Then we went to the Parish's to watch the Testaments with Jason and the family. It was really good. They are such funny kids. Daniel, the 3rd oldest, said, "Jesus was a very bad man" (because he likes to argue), and then Jason said, "No! Jesus is a very very good man!" and then Daniel said, "Jesus is a good man." It was cute. Jason watched the movie so intently, and when they were whipping Jesus and putting him on the cross he even covered his eyes! He is sooo cute. Then in the evening we went to see a woman named Denice. She's a friend of the Shah's who came to church last week. She said that she felt soooo good at church, and that she felt that events in her life were leading her to
accept it, and that if you had asked her even just a year ago she would have never accepted it. I'm excited about her. Then, we went out for Fish n' Chips at Dan's Fish Bar and we met Nez again (he was working last time we went). He told us that we did a very good, but very hard job. He's so funny. He loves to talk about Christianity, and he's a very strong Christian from Syria. He makes me laugh.
Sunday was a good day. Milena, Lillo, and Stacey came to church. Then after church we went to see Prince and Stacey, and they actually ate dinner with us! Usually they just serve us and we eat on our own. It was really good. It was a lot of fun to get to know them a little better. Stacey's going to make it, I know she is! Then we went to see Milena in the evening, and taught her a bit more about how the Book of Mormon and the Bible relate. It was a good day.

That brings us to yesterday (Monday). It was a really good day! In the morning we had District meeting. After District Meeting we had a Birthday lunch, because Elder Cusick's birthday was the end of January, Elder Bonsteel's was 3 February, and mine is coming soon. It was fun. Sister Strunk and I were in charge of getting the cake, so we got a High School Musical 3 cake and a cheeky monkey cake. Haha, it was excellent. We ate cake and watched "The District", and made predictions as to where everyone was going. It was a great birthday party. Then in the evening we went to see Icilda Williams, and then we visited Jason and the Parish family. Then we did a bit of shopping. Then we went to Family Home Evening. We were in charge of the lesson, so Sister Strunk and I made a matching game with a scripture reference, and then a line from the scripture. All the scripture's had to do with Spiritual Fitness, because that was our theme. It was fun. Also, it was soo good because Lillo came for the first time, and Bijoux came as well! It was so much fun. Then in the evening we got moves calls and I'm going to........ Ilford!!! :) Now I'll have served in every area that Sister Bahme served in :) . The address of the Ilford Flat is:

4 Salisbury Road
Seven Kings
Ilford Essex=20
IJ3 8BE

Also, I was excited, because all my predictions for where the Elders in my district where going were right except one! I thought that was pretty good :) hehe. Plus, I had predicted that I would go to Ilford. :-P I'm excited, but I'm also soooooo sad to leave Enfield. It's been sooooo great to be here! But the good news is I'm still in London, and still on London buses :-P

So that's the news!

Mom- I'm glad you are recovering well! Tell Quince hello for me!

Dad- Thank-you so much for taking care of the school stuff for me! Could you please tell me the date that the Fall semester starts? Also, I was wondering if you could send me some of my memory sticks so that I can send home pictures again soon :) (Unless they're in my birthday package :-P)

Nathan- I'm 13! Excellent! :) Even though I think I liked 14 better than 13. I love you Nathan!

Elder Ison- I can't believe all the craziness! I have a question for you. What does this mean?
CHAT FORT
MECHANT
ET PEU NOURRI
It was on someone's door when we were tracting, haha.

Sister Arnquist- I got your letter! Thanks!

Everyone Else- I love you!

Love,
Sister Ison