Trio... training... Mother's day...and other surprises!

Hello!!!
Oh my goodness how I love this week!  I have so much to say right now...so I'll just start!
Monday evening we saw Bella and taught her a bit more about the temple and family history because she loves the temple so much.  It was a really good lesson.
Tuesday morning we had district meeting.   In the middle of it we got a phone call and it was from President, so we took it (of course!) and it was for me.  He called and asked me to train.  It was a shock to say the least because moves calls weren't supposed to be until Monday.  He explained that it was the American missionaries who couldn't get their visas before and that they were coming on Thursday.  I was so excited.  So we went and finished district meeting.  Then we did a lot of finding, but in the evening we saw Mfundo and had a GREAT lesson!  It's amazing what a difference the Book of Mormon makes.  He'd done his reading, and he seemed a lot less confused than the last time we saw him.  It was really good.
Wednesday morning I woke up with a terrible cold, sore throat and everything..... pretty rubbish. Sister Kuoppala and I went to the training meeting, and found out that Sister Abellan was also training, so Sister Strunk was there (her companion)!!  I was sooooo excited to see her.  She is so amazing  :-P   Then in the afternoon we saw Bella again and told her the news about the new missionary coming.  It was pretty cool.
Thursday morning we heart-attacked Sister Stevenson.  Haha, I lvoe doing that.  Then we went to the office to hide out and wait for our new missionaries.  It was soooo much fun.  My new missionary is Sister Andersen.  She is soooo cute.  She's from New Mexico and she has 5 brothers.  Her situation is actually an interesting one, because she's not entirely green.  Because of the visa troubles they spent a month in the Provo MTC and then a month serving in the Salt Lake City South mission.  She actually spent a lot of time working at the Draper temple open house.  It's pretty cool.  She's a great missionary, hard working, and she's brought some pretty cool things with her from the Salt Lake City South Mission  :)   Plus, Sister Kuoppala, Sister Andersen and I are a trio for this week! I love it!  It's so much fun.  Poor Sister Andersen was soooooo Jet Lagged though.  Man...that's not a fun feeling.   :)   We spent the evening planning.  So that was fun.
Friday morning we went to Brother Beasley's for lunch.  Oh how I love Brother Beasley.  He takes good care of us.  He fed us and told us stories.  It's cool.  Then in the afternoon we saw Suresh.  He's great.  Then we went to see Justin.  We taught Justin about Faith and committed him to be baptized.  He agreed and he has a date for the 9 May.  It's soooo exciting!   Justin actually went to the temple of Tuesday with Sister Stevenson, Brother Olalade, and Bella.  It was funny because he didn't realize where they were going until they got there, so he thought he'd been kidnapped!  Haha, but he saw the Joseph Smith movie, and it made all the difference.  He understands while we're different now.  It was great.  Haha, also when we went to the chapel there was a dead half-eaten seagull in the car park.  It was pretty gross, but Sister Kuoppala was brave, and with a hockey stick and a carrier bag she was able to dispose of it.  oh man.  Then in the evening we saw Baetsi, Linda, and Mark with the Stevensons.  I'm not sure what we can do to help them, because they don't seem to want to do anything.... but we're working with them to get them to really read the Book of Mormon.
Saturday was a fantastic day.  In the morning we saw Bella to make sure everything was set for her baptism.  She was so excited  :)   Then we went to see Roger and Doreen.  We talked to them a lot about the importance of baptism by correct authority.  I'm not sure if they quite get it, and Doreen's being a bit stubborn, but Roger seems more keen on the idea.  He wants to be baptized in a river, haha.  Then in the evening it was Bela's (that's actually how it's spelled, whoops, haha, I didn't realize it before though :-P) baptism.  It was wonderful.  Three of her friends Den, Lez, and Joelia came, as well as her husband Richard.  Joelia seemed pretty interested, and we gave her a Book of Mormon.  Bella was absolutely glowing, and the ward was great support.  I loved it.
Sunday was another really good day.  It was Mother's day here in England.  Bishop asked all three of us to speak.  Haha, it's not really a good idea to have missionaries speak about mothers.... oh man, needless to say Sister Kuoppala and I ended up in tears... but it was really good all the same.  The primary kids did a musical number, and they were absolutely precious!  Seriously.  It was just a really good Sunday.  Justin was there, and Bella got confirmed.  Jane came with her husband again.  It was really great.  Then after church we went to meet with a referral named Josephine.  She's from Pakistan and she's really sweet.  She has a Catholic background, but she's really open to learn.  It was reallllly good.  We're going to bring Suresh to see her on Wednesday.  Then we went with the Stratford Elders (Elders Gensch and Volpe) to see Joice because *tear* she moved to their area.  I'm going to miss her and Yolanda so much, but they're in good hands.  Then in the evening it was really cool, because we were supposed to see Sarah, but just as we walked up she was leaving the house, and she said we'd have to come later.  So we went to tract near her house, but before we started Sister Kuoppala stopped a young man, he said he wasn't interested but that his family would be and he told us his address.  So we decided to go check it out.  We knocked on the door and immediately we were invited in.  It was a Polish family of about 8 people (brothers, sisters, husbands...etc.).  They all listened and they really liked it as we taught about the Restoration.  We're going back on Saturday.  I'm really excited to be teaching a family  :)   It was a good way to end the week.
That brings us up to yesterday.  Yesterday morning we saw a man named Olu ( a referral from the Stratford Elders).  He's a strong Christian and very intellectual, so I hope that doesn't get in the way of him recognizing the spirit, but he seems really good.  Then we saw Bela.  She's still just glowing from her baptism.  Then we went to see Toyin.  She was also a referral from the Stratford Elders.  It was a good lesson, and she seems willing to learn.  Then we went and saw Rosanna and Claudia.  They are sooo cute.  We talked about the ways that scripture study has helped us in our lives.  They really are such exemplary girls.  I love them.  Then we went to family home evening, and Suresh brought us homemade Indian food.  It was soooooo good.  He's such a good cook!  It was funny though, because he said he made it really mild for us, and it was pretty hot.  I don't think I could handle hot Indian food, but I love mild  :)   Haha.  Then moves calls came, and we already knew Sister Kuoppala was leaving when Sister Andersen came, but we found out that she was going to Stevenage.  I'll miss her, especially since it's been so much fun being in a trio for this week!
So that's been my week.  Right now we're actually in London, because we're going to go and see some sites today.  It's exciting.

Mom-  I love the Spring Weather as well! The weather has been sooo beautiful.  We don't even need coats most days during the day time.  It's great.  I'm glad that Nathan is excited to go play at the park... It's good for him to play outside  :)   I'm excited for my little package and pictures of CJ  :)  I love getting pictures.  Oh and a workover really is just me being someone else's companion for a day, haha.  It's a companion exchange basically.

Nathan-  Oooo, Do you like to swing on the swings?  That's fun.  I love you!

Elder Ison-  You make me laugh.  I still need an address to send post to for you.

Grandma and Grandpa-  I love you soooo much!  :) 

Everyone Else-  I love you!

Love,
Sister Ison