Heat Wave

Dear Friends and family,
I love you all soooooooo much!  I also love the gospel of Jesus Christ!  Oh my goodness.... life is great  :) 
Monday was a fun day.  We ended up going to the science musuem.  The space part was pretty cool, and I saw Wallace and Gromit... haha, but after that I got kind of bored of it.  I think it would be more fun under less time contstraint, but it was still pretty cool.  Then in the evening we went to a ward Family Home Evening.  It was so much fun.  I love Ilford Ward so much.  Plus, the Stratford Elders announced Joice's baptism.  Ah!  I'm so excited that she got baptised, but I'll talk about that later  :)   In the evening we went to see a woman named Glory.  She has a little newborn baby girl named Favourite.  She was really cute and it was a nice lesson  :) 
Tuesday was great.  We had district meeting, and then afterwards we went to Sister Rudloff's for lunch.  It was pretty much super fun.  Sister Rudloff is from Brazil, and Brother Rudloff is from Germany.  They have a little son, and Sister Rudloff always speaks Portuguese to him and Brother Rudloff always speaks German to him, but they speak English with each other.  Haha, Sister Rudloff says that she feels sorry for the confused little boy  :)   He does know how to say Danke, however  :)   It was really nice.  They are moving to Germany in a couple of weeks, and I'm going to miss them.  Then we went to see Brother Evans, and Brother Tavner came with.  We talked about Zeezrom and the power of forgiveness and making restitution.  We also talked about forgiving others, and being patient with other's imperfections.  It was a nice lesson, and Brother Evans seems to be doing very well with baptism preparations  :) 
Wednesday it rained and was windy allllll day.  Also all of our appointments either hosed or cancelled, so we did seven hours of finding.  A good chance to earn some husband points, that's for sure.  It was good though because we found 6 new investigators as well  :) 
Thursday the weather took a turn for the better, and ever since it has been hot and sunny!  Even now as I type the sun is a-shining.  Oh, it makes me smile, but anyways.  So in the afternoon we saw Brother Evans with Sister Robertson.  We went over the baptism interview questions and everything was great, and we talked a bit about Alma (the elder) and admitting our wrongs and trying continually to be better.  Brother Evans seems excited for his baptism, and he seemed ready for his interview, so that was great.  It was also really exciting because Brother Evan's sometimes has a bit of a temper and is a little impatient with people, but he was telling us how he was annoyed with someone, but then he said, "But nobody's perfect."  I LOVE IT!  Haha, even in the little things, the gospel of Jesus Christ slowly perfects us!  Then in the evening we went to the Stevenson's for correlation.  Oh how I love the Stevenson's.  They are pretty much the great Ward Mission Leader and Ward Missionary ever  :)   They say that they didn't have so much of a problem with crazy people until I got here... haha... I seem to attract them, but that's okay  :) 
Friday was another great day.  We saw Gertrude in the morning.  She seems a bit stubborn about coming to church, but she's a sweet lady, and hopefully we can get her to come.  Then in the afternoon Brother Evans had his interview and he passed!  He's going to be baptized 13 June 2009 at 11:00 am.  It's great  :)   He seemed very pleased as well.  Then we went to the Lighten's for dinner.  I love the Lightens.   They make me laugh.  It was a really nice meal, and afterwards Sister Lighten gave us a lift to see Brother Conteh.  We saw him and talked about Patriarchal Blessings using True to the Faith.  He seemed very excited about it, and really wants one.  Haha, I think it's the most excited I've ever seen Brother Conteh, because he's a very mellow guy  :)   We told him to pray about it.  He's so great.  Then on the way to the bus stop we saw this little boy streak out of his house in his underwear, and then this older boy ran out after him to catch him, and the little boy was just laughing.  It just made me laugh, so I thought I'd share  :-D 
Saturday was pretty much the most perfect day ever.   :)   In the morning we did enough finding to finish off our 15 hours for the week (plus an extra half an hour), then we got to go to Joice's Baptism.  It was wonderful, and the best part is that Joice seemed soooooo happy  :)   It made me happy to see her so happy, and I just feel so blessed that even though she moved I was still able to attend her baptism.  Her Brother-in-law Brother Kangetsambo (Ilford Ward Clerk) got up and bore his testimony about how when she had first come to the country she had moved in with them, and they told her that since she was staying with them that she would have a special assignment to help the family.  They assigned her to read the Book of Mormon out loud to the family every night.  For over a year she lived with them, and read to them, but she would never come to church.  He said that we first came to him, and told him we were teaching a woman who claimed to be his relative and after he figured out who it was, at first he was excited, and then he was a little frustrated, and he said to himself, "She lived with me for over a year, what did I do wrong?"  But then he smiled and said that now his investment was paying dividends, and that he was so happy to have her not only as part of his earthly family, but now that she could become part of his eternal family.  It was just wonderful.  :)   After that we went to see Bela, and Sister Stevenson came.  It was a really good lesson.  Then in the evening we stopped in to see Sarah, and by a miracle she was home, but only because she was very sick  :(   We just shared a short message with her so that she could rest.
Sunday was very nice.  They announced Brother Evans baptism.  Also, Bela came to church!!!! It was sooo great.  She seemed very happy to be there  :)   It was great.  Also it was the 1 year anniversary of Brother Conteh's baptism!  He's getting kicked out of Gospel Principles to Gospel Doctrine.  Ah man, I'm going to miss him in class, but it's great to see him progress  :)   Then in the evening we saw a man named Christopher.  He's a Bible Scholar.  He doesn't think it matters what church you go to, and he wouldn't take a Book of Mormon with him, but he said that he'd read it with us anytime...... We didn't have time to properly explain the restoration because he talked a lot, but hopefully next time we can help him see why it's so important  :)   Then we were at the bus stop waiting to go to our next appointment and this man from Romania, named Emmanuel, started to talk to us about how much he loved the church, and how it gave him such a special feeling.  He was talking about the Book of Mormon, The Pearl of Great Price, The Doctrine of Covenants, The Liahona, President Hinckley, and President Monson.  Finally we asked him if he was a member and he said no.  It's really kind of sad, he loves the church so much, and he wants to got there, but he thinks he can't because he was born Christian Orthodox, and he thinks he must stay there.  We managed to get his number before our bus came, and we certainly hope to be able to help him see that religion isn't something you're born into.  It's amazing the stumbling blocks that satan can use to put in people's way.
So that was my marvelous sun-shiny week.   :)   Today we have to go all the way to Colchester so that I can practice driving because my driving test is tomorrow!  Please pray for me!  I'm kind of nervous, because I haven't driven in a long time.  But I'm sure everything will work out.  :) 

Mom- I can't believe Brooke is engaged!  Do you know anything about him?  Oh my goodness.  It sounds like you had a good week  :) 

Nathan-  Wow!  It sounds like a good year coming for you!  I love you!

Elder Ison-  I want a letter  ;) 

Sister Arnquist-  That's so cool that your speaking French now!  Ah!  Keep up the great work!

Everyone Else-  I love you!

Love,
Sister Ison