Sister Ellie Smith England, Manchester Mission

Hellooo friends and family! Please let me know how you are all doing!! What was the highlight of your week I would love to hear. You win the prize if you tell me.  Just basically wrote an email but I'm still going strong out here! I almost froze into an ice block this week. Not used to this weather but it's kinda awesome. Kinda. Any tips on cold or snow let me know. Saw the Lord's love for me a lot this week! I have the hardest time of being too hard on myself for every little thing but this week I learned a lot about keeping Christ at the center because that's where we get strength. I thought I would have that down by now butttt realized that's a lifelong process and it's hard. But it's so important! It shows God and Christ that you are willing. I've been trying to ask myself in every circumstance, How can I connect with Jesus Christ right now? Although it's hard to find those ways, it's beyond worth it.  This is the last week of the transfer!!!...

  Hello! Long week. But awesome long week.  I saw some really amazing miracles this week aaaand felt LOADS of joy. Also it's almost Christmas! Letsgetit. I just wanted to share a cool story this email. This was one of those moments where I felt that there is nothing greater than this work. Oh man I was full of happiness.  2 lessons learned - If you feel you need to go back. GO BACK. Turn around immediately because it is never ever too late.  Actually no just one lesson. Always follow your spiritual promptings. You will neeeever regret it.  Okay on Sunday Sister Chiong and I were in this small town with an hour to spare before our meal appointment. It was freeeezing and pouring rain. Classic England. We first visited a less active, prayed with him, he's awesome. Then we decided to visit a random member dot. We could not find the house for the life of us. So we ask this random guy on the street to help us. As he was walking away he said, "Are you Latter Day S...

I love the Book of Mormon OKAYYY. Cmon it is so good. I've been studying it a lot this week and why it's so important. And every time I just find how it really was written for OUR day. We are so lucky. It's soooo cool, Nephi legit saw our day!!!! Shocks me every time. The Book of Mormom brings so much power into my day and I know it can do the same for all of us cause we can all relate to it! It's so simple and so goooooood. Elder Bednar gave an amazing talk last conference called, "In the Space of Not Many Years" and WOW. It is amazing. Listen to thus quote, "Each of the major writers of the Book of Mormon testified that he wrote for future generations. … If they saw our day, and chose those things which would be of greatest worth to us, is not that how we should study the Book of Mormon?" AMEN to that.  This week we were able to meet a lot of people placed in our path. We were in Chester and right when we got off of the bus to walk in to this big c...

Myyyy goodness I am confused. Missionary work is the best thing ever but also so so hard. It really just depends on the day. This week I really experienced some of the best moments but also some of the worst. I know my life sometimes looks like unicorns and rainbows but I want you to all know that I am human and although I love this work more than anything it is also very discouraging, tiring, and stressful. I felt that a lot this week.  Something positive first though! ZONE CONFERENCE on Thursday was iiiincredible! President Tunnicliffe dressed up as a giant dog and tackled everyone. Ya. Email me if you have questions hahaha it was hilarious. I felt so much joy seeing everyone too! Love you so much Sister Olson. We learned all about exact obedience and it was really amazing. Something so special that we talked about was exact obedience is when we truly find ourselves and find who Jesus Christ wants and needs us to be. Obedience is far from a burd...

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 ...