Sister Ellie Smith England, Manchester Mission

Hello! Ummm I'm in Chester! It's wild. This is the most rich place ever. Butttt wow it's beautiful. Staying in a house with 4 sisters and it's quite a party. I love Sister Good and Sister Ware soooo much, GREAT STLs. Wow This week was probably one of the hardest for me but I really understood what it means to rely on the Lord. Sister Chiong and I came into this area with NO information because there was like a freaking glitch in the system or something. I have never been more stressed ever. We were sitting in this random place in huge Chester trying to figure things out and I went to the bathroom, knelt down on the bathroom floor and just pleaded, crying to the Lord to give me soooomething...anything. We decided to just go out and talk to people and boom. Met 3 of the best people so quickly! God really placed people right in our path and knew we were trying our best. So much joy and relief filled me and I was able to enjoy the rest of the day to the best we could! I was...

Bye bye Crewe!  Leaving my baby area and I'm off to CHESTER! So stoked. Sister Chiong is my new comp and she's the bessssst. We were in the MTC together. She probably is the sweetest person in the world.  Woweee I am done training. Time is going way way way too fast but also I'm so excited for what's to come. I have never seen so much change and growth in myself in such a short amount of time. The best part is it's because of Jesus Christ. My heart has changed! I've also learned a lot about choosing. If we want to change, WE choose. Once we choose we have to LET the Savior change us. What a blessing that is. I know that these will be days never forgotten if I choose. That's it? Awesome.  Another thing I really learned this week was God really does choose the weak to do His work. We were sitting in a cafe planning for a lesson for our friend Rosie and she is going THROUGH it. She is struggling with addiction, health, family problems, you name it. I sat there ...

Another week! Last week of training whaaaat the. Everyone thinks I'm gonna train next transfer so send allllll your prayers my way thanks! Something awesome that I've seen this week so many times is how God truly does put people in our path. Here's a little story for ya.  On Thursday a lot of lessons fell through and basically everything failed. So we had like 3 hours to figure out what to do. We prayed for the Lord to help us and decided to go visit a potential friend we've been messaging. We knocked on his door but he didn't answer so we left him a note and walked away. We kept walking and saw a dad with his cute kid and so we started talking to him. Half way in the conversation Sister Nielson said, "Wait are you Carlito?" BOOM there he was. The man we visited, at the right place at the right time. Afterwards we decided to start knocking the doors on his street and absolutely no one answered. But something inside me told me that something is about to hap...

EVERYONE. THE SUN IS OUT. Dreams come true.  We have had sun for 4 days straight. God is really treating us well, thaaaaaanks God! Hope everyone General Conference weekend went well! We got so lucky with some really amazing talks. And QUEEN CREEK TEMPLE! WHAT! So amazing. Elder Karl D. Hirst was FULL of revelation holy moly. Me and sister nielson had our mouths wide open the whole time hahaha it was so good. He said: “If you are waiting for Him to come, might He already be there and within reach?” Those who feel filled with love right now should share it wherever they go. The joy of the gospel is available to all. “We have every good reason to ‘rejoice and be filled with love towards God and all men’” (Mosiah 2:4). Wowwww!!! This week was pretty good though! We chased after so many people this week hahahah. Don't worry we caught them like fish and now one is our best friend who we're gonna baptize. His name's Dual pray for him!!!! He's from South Sudan and he's so c...

Back at it. I feel like I just wrote an email but hellooooo I'm back. Wowee God loves me and he showed me that these past few days! I got my second transfer sickness and have had 2 snot bubble experiences.BUT OH WELL! The work goes on and somehow I still get blessed with amazing experiences. Ew sorry that was kinda gross I said that. But anyyyway it was a good week!!!  Here's the story for the title. Yesterday at church it was the primary program which was amazing. We had our friend Deo there with us and I saw him wipe a tear. God is good. Don't worry we're baptizing him soon. Anyway we sat next to  new member names CJ. And oh my goodness I'm laughing while I'm writing this. We were singing the hymns and he was singing at the highest note he possibly could hahahah. He was trying to match our voice ohhh bless him. Sister Nielson started dying laughing and I exploded. We are praying he didn't notice. No one follow our example that was so awful of us but it wa...

Howzzzittt. I love being a missionary goodness gracious! Who knew spreading the gospel could bring so much joy??  Today was temple pday Yeeaayy! I love going to the temple and being able to just sit there in peace. I feel so blessed to be able to go!!  This week was incredible but also again full of some ups and downs. Anytime we felt something was going on we would sing "alllll is wellll, allll is wellll" because it is! God definitely tested me this week with my personal patience and knowledge. We had to teach come follow me to the whole mission and do district council training this week...awesome. I guess they really trusted us. Definitely was a stretching experience but booom did it and I learned so much! The spirit truly does put words in your mouth. That's a promised blessing right there. We talked a lot about our power and authority as missionaries and our divine worth. Everyone listen up. I want you to all know and remember that GOD LOVES US SOOO MUCH and everyone ...

Theme word of the week right there!!!! Everyone determination is a GAME CHANGER.  I got a new companion!! Sister Nielson is the absolute best!  I couldn't have asked for a better follow up trainer. I wanna go back and tell myself to CHILL out and not be so scared because she's exactly what I needed! I feel like a different missionary... idk what's happening to me. My fear flew out the window this week. Our favorite word was determination and we worked sooooo hard this week. We're building up Crewe! It's the best feeling and I know for a fact it's because the Savior is walking right next to us. Saw a crazy amount of miracles and found so so much joy in this work! Everyone keeps saying they forget I'm new and I'm a natural teacher which is ridiculous to hear but makes me feel so good. I guess I'm improving! What a blessing it is to not only recognize so much growth, but feel my heart literally expand full of love for this work and the people around me....

HI. My freaking Sister Taala got transfered to Stockport and I'm staying here in Crewe!!! CANNOT believe my first transfer is over. Was such a shock we almost started crying but I know she's going to have such a good time in Stockport. Sister Nielson is coming my way!!! Can't wait to serve with her.  This week was wayyyyy awesome. Spoke to everyone all day which helped us be productive and move the work foward! We opened a new area so its been very slow and hard for people to progress so it really has stretched me to know that my efforts are enough. Some wise words from dad in his talk yesterday helped me so much: “He does not expect us to be perfect right now, he just expects us to keep trying, keep persevering. Even when you feel like you’re not doing enough, your small efforts add up and become something great” Perfectly said dad!!!! I'm learning and growing in every way possible every single day. This has been the toughest time of my life but I would never take it a...

  Being a missionary is so hard!!!!!!!!!!! Kinda wanna leave it at that but no. I can't because it's also so awesome. Very 50/50 feeling right now lol. This week was full of ups and downs once again but guess what? The Lord was with me the whole time so no need to fret.  I went on an exchange on Saturday with Sister Ware and being slow does not exist to her. With her brain and her feet. But oh boy I learned sooooo much it was incredible. We talked to every single person in Crewe. I swear. I learned the importance of talking to everyone and expanding my vision to find. Mosiah 28:3 explains it perfectly "Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble."  If you skipped over that verse go back and read it again (especially if you are a missionary) EVERYONE deserves to hear the go...

Where do I even begin?! A week FULL of miracles. I love serving the Lord.  ELIANA! My girllllll is getting baptised!!! We were able to have the most special experience with her yesterday as we extended an invitation for her to be baptized. It is amazing to see the sweet spirit she contains and how much knowledge she has. She is the cutest person ever. I love her so so so so much. So excited for her so stay tuned!! This past week has been slooooowww. We are in a new area and are constantly trying to find new friends. My companion and I have been SO tired. So many people (even random people on the street) have said we look tired. So that's awesome to hear but as we came into this new week BAM. Miracle after miracle. It is amazing to see the Lord's hand in our work, I know our efforts and hard work pay off because we were able to help Eliana to make this first promise with God and we cannot be more excited for her.  Here's one miracle I want to share. It also happened yester...