Dear Friends and Family,
What a week! I'll just get started and tell you what's up :) So Tuesday evening we stopped by Bela to say goodbye. We also chatted with Suresh and saw Claudia and Roseanna. Oh my goodness I'm going to miss Ilford so much. It's amazing, and I have so many great memories there. It was really hard to leave.
Wednesday was a most intense day! There was a strike on the London Underground, so a lot of the lines just weren't running! It was crazy! Getting to the Liverpool Street Station wasn't a problem because we just took an overground train. Brother and Sister Stevenson came along and helped me with my extra large bags. It was great. Oh man, I miss them, they are so great. Once we were at Liverpool street the walking began.... well actually the waiting... haha. We waited for nearly two hours for a bus that's supposed to come every 5 to 10 minutes. Then we got on the bus and it took nearly another hour to get to Victoria Station. Then we began to walk and we made it a little bit... but we had Sister Garcia's bags (some Elders had taken mine earlier) and the wheels actually melted because the screws got too hot! So then finally we just had to get a taxi the rest of the way to the mission office. Then we got there and waited a bit because we found out that the new missionaries were late too. That was around 4:00. Then finally I got to meet my new companion. Her name is Sister Jensen and she is amazing! She's from Idaho. She has two older brothers and an older Sister. She's a Violinist, and all around awesome missionary. I'm pretty sure they give me all the new missionaries that don't need any training! So then I pretty much had no idea what was going on and they didn't have a phone to give us or anything. It was pretty intense. But we just did what we could and we had to walk all the way from the office to Green Park Station. And let me tell you that is a long walk. Especially with Sister Jensen's two suit cases, and one of mine. But we made it, and from there we were able to get a tube line that was open and then arrived at Euston station. Then we went to a pay phone to try and call the Watford Elders and find out which station they wanted us to go to and to tell them what time we were meant to arrive, but they didn't answer so we just took a guess and took a train to Watford Junction. There we used a pay phone to call the Elders again and they answered and said that they were there! It was soooo exciting after a very long day, because by this time it was 8:30pm. They took us to our new house. We're living with Sister Marge Bettridge, the Stake President's mum. She so great! I loved it immediately. We also met Paulo and his two children Bruna and Miguel. They are so helpful. They got us in and settled, and we got to bed around 11:30pm. Oh my goodness I slept so well :) Thursday morning Paulo came to pick us up with his daughter Bruna. She was so helpful! She spent the whole day with us! First we met a member named Ruth. She was super cute! Then, we went to Watford town center and OYM'd all morning. Then we met the Elders and they took us to correlation with Bro. McKenzie. Oh my goodness, he is great! I'm so excited to be here. We discussed our assignments, and we as the Watford Sisters are going to spend our time in Rickmansworth and Croxley Green. So then we went back to our neighbourhood with Bruna, and finished up our studies with her. Then we went and met a less active family that lives near us, the Gurney's. They were very nice :) Then we went finding on their street and we saw a Police Seige on a house. haha, it was really interesting! Then Brother Martins (Paulo) came and picked us and Bruna up and we went to his house for dinner with the Elders. Then in the evening President Bettridge came and gave us a ward list and suggested some good starting places for us, so that was great!
Friday in the morning we did more finding. There are so many people who are prepared. It's kind of fun to start from scratch down here :) Then in the evening we went to a ward activity and played volleyball with a basketball. Haha, a little painful, but also a lot of fun. Also Brother Paulo Martins brought his friend Kwase, so that was great. I can already see that these Friday night activites will be a great missionary tool.
Saturday was an amazing day. We went tracting and street contacting all day and met some more wonderful people. We met one woman, Stephanie, who had almost every question of the soul. The first thing she asked us when she opened the door was why there were so many churches. Then she asked us if God really answered prayers and why there were so many trials and tribulations in life. We were able to give her a Book of Mormon and we'll see her this week. It's amazing how people just open up and tell us their problems! What's even more amazing is how the restored gospel is the solution! So it was an all around great day until we came home and I realized that I'd dropped the key out of my bag while we were in the house and we were locked out. We hoped that Sister Bettridge would be home soon (and there wasn't much to do anyway, because we didn't have a phone), so we just sat on the porch and did our planning. Then time passed and it was past 10pm so we decided we'd better do something. We could see our neighbour's were home so we knocked on their door, but I think we scared them knocking so late at night because they immediately turned out the lights and didn't answer. So then we were stuck again... but just then a man drove up and got out of his car so we went up to him and asked if he had a phone we could borrow because we were locked out. Luckily he did, and he very kindly let us call the Elders, and they got ahold of the Stake President who had a spare key and came and let us in. Haha.... he also took pity on us and invited us to Sunday Dinner, so that was great :-P Sunday was amazing. We got to meet so many amazing people, and especially youth. Watford has some of the strongest youth I've seen. It was fast and testimony meeting, and they almost all got up and bore very mature testimonies. I love it! Plus the ward is so excited to have sisters, and Bruna (who is a ward missionary in charge of dinner appointments) said that she couldn't get any dinner appointments for the Elders because everyone wants to feed us. Also several people have just told us that they have friends who they would like to introduce to us because they think they'll be receptive to Sisters! Isn't it nice to feel wanted? :) Then in the afternoon we went and had dinner with President Bettridge, his wife, his three boys (Isaac, William, and Austin... they are soooo cute!), Sister Marge Bettridge, and his brother Kevin. It was so nice. They are an adorable family. Then we did a bit of finding in the evening, and for the first time since we arrived in Watford we went to bed by 10:30 :) That brings us to today. This morning we've been cleaning and unpacking, and then we went to the library and got a library card, and we're sitting and e-mailing :) So it was a great week :) I'm so excited to be in Watford, and to have Sister Jensen here. Oh, and I almost forgot! Elder Jentsch (how to spell that I actually have no idea) is my District leader (the one who was in Stratford) and his cousin Elder Jentsch is my Zone Leader (here in Watford with Elder Green). I thought it was pretty funny.
Oh and this is my new address:
42 Middleton Road
Rickmansworth
WD3 8JE
Mum- That sounds like a busy but great week! Give everyone in Utah my love as well!
Dad- This ward is definitely one of the largest I've been in (I'm not good with numbers though :-P) and definitely the most missionary work oriented! They have over 20 ward missionaries each with specific assignments. It's great!
Nathan- Congratulations on your gold and bronze Medals! I love you!
Everyone- I love you very much!
Love,
Sister Ison!
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