Emi's Forty-First Email! November 23, 2015

Freak out, where to begin.

Wow, I really really don't want to go home. I've been loving every minute with Sister Beard and love her to bits. Just serving a mission and being in Oldham, I don't ever want it to end! I love everyone at home, but it is going to be way too sad to go, time is ticking and I can't find the stupid clock to break it and make time stop! 

We went to Dovestones and it was beautiful as ever, actually a bit more brown this time, and met up with Sister Warren! Then we had a lesson with someone and the Porriges. 

Tuesday President showed up to our district meeting, not sure why, and he interviewed us but only spoke about things we were already doing but that's ok with me! 

Wednesday was a day spent with the fab Sister Saylor running around town and seeing our beautiful Sister Rebel, then we saw Bishop's family and his nephew afterwards. 

Thursday we did our planning and I made like 50 pancakes for our culture night, we worked a ton and had tea at one of the 50 Sayall family (note, neither numbers are an exaggeration). They are seriously such an amazing family!

Friday we saw the Relief Society's mum and she is fab. Then we worked, spoke to some crazies, then I made Quefte!(Bulgarian meatballs) for the culture night! 

Saturday we mainly focused on a different approach for our street displays because they are kinda stinky recently, then we went to the Swalshes. They are so great! Then we worked.

Sunday we went to the beloved Seals! And saw someone who hadn't been to the church in a long time

Basically these names probably mean nothing you and I am bad at making them up, but I love them all so so so so so much! Obsessed.

Ok the culture night was like the one of the best things ever! We had food from Bulgaria, France (the pancakes I made turned out more like crepes ha), South Africa, Brazil Brazil Brazil, China, Zimbabwe, and oh yeah America haha. We had quizzes, fun facts, ping pong. We were a bit stressed at first but it was a fantastic night! And that Elder from Tonga who I said ate like 10 bowls of chili, he did the Haka and some other dance! Plus the people my mama met driving in San Diego came and loved it! And brought sourdough bread that they freshly made! So sweet and Sister Saylor chatted it up and invited them to the Christmas concert (pray I stay for Christmas!!!) and they want us over for tea!! AND to top it off, it started snowing and it was amazing! Like ah! Speaking of which, it had been very brisk these past few days, people are mocking my 5 coats, 3 gloves, etc. they don't understand.

When times are bad we tend to reach out more for the Savior in our desperate pride cycle, but just because I've been extra happy recently, I still recognize I need him at every step and that with Him I can be much more than what I can alone. I need to do His work for Him in England every single second.

Top 10

10) Dovestones round lll 

9) The district (our district)

8) Haka

7) Laundry machine broken for two weeks, but guess who gave a 30 day moving notice!

6) Some missionaries have quite literally been preaching repentance, we can't do that haha

5) Every member

4) Presient at District Meeting

3) It snowed!

2) Culture night

1) My Mama's birfday 

Sorry, probably my longest email, but it was just so good! And this week will be amazing! Every single day will be amazing! 

Sister Emi Doncheva 🇬🇧

Emi's Fortieth Email! November 16, 2015

Forget soup, I made some strew yesterday. It was alright (a saying with a more positive connotation here).

We have been doing a lot of working, trying a lot more to work with the members which is kinda tricky, but the best way to do it. 

So the other week, I mentioned how foggy it was, this week it was like a whirlwind haha. And one day, seriously the Tundra. My word. I'm grateful not to be serving where it's even colder and wetter, wherever that may be. 

We had exchanges and sister Baisden and I taught one of the best lessons of my life with Caul and Paroline. It was amazing. 

We had a zone meeting and instead of flap jacks, we had the elders bring like 15pds of brownies haha. (In other news I lost weight!). 

We did lots of finding, which is working a lot of patience. Something will happen soon that won't fall through.

It was sister Schwab's birthday, we will party it up in the future. 

Even though we've been busy with getting nowhere, we have been a bit flustered because there are 3 things which we are planning for in the next two weeks. One, a culture night which we are having Friday, two: presenting a new program to president for this mission and three: decorating for a mission-wide Thanksgiving thing in which we have a minimal budget, but it's ok, because this kind of stuff is actually my forte. It's going to look so good and hopefully each of these endeavours will work out.

Sometimes I try to not get frustrated about certain people. Bishop told me a nice quote that really comforted me "Opinions are like butts, everyone has one and they stink". I've come to realize more and more on my mission that regardless of age and circumstance, people can still be idiots, entropy is a real thing and that humans are very wasteful beings-but that's ok because you still have to love everybody!

I'm grateful for Christ who set that perfect example and whom we really need every hour of our lives.

Top 10

10) Come to terms that there is no such thing as waterproof

9) umbrella #2 dead

8) The position of the sun is super low this time of year. It goes up and kinda is just like "meh" and it's gone.

7) Someone assumed I had a "Cali" accent this week

6) Hymn 224 "I Have Work Enough to Do"

5) Holden Ward got his mission call!

1) Primary Program- "God is our Heavenly Father. Our daddies are the fathers of our bodies. God is the Father of our spirits. Jesus Christ only had one dad. Heavenly Father is the father of his spirit and body, that is why he is the son of God"

That's what it's all about

Happy birthday Katie Curry! Hope it was fab even though it was Friday the 13th (Same to E. Richard Wight)

Sister Emi Doncheva 🇬🇧

Emi's Thirty-Ninth Email! November 9, 2015

Good week, lots of trying to find people to teach but no cigar. We shall see. 

Monday was fun at Tandle Hill Park, it looked like a scene from a movie. Full of fall (haha). The red leaves were covering every inch and the weather was so nice. Seriously unreal, it looked like an enchanted forest and sister Beard fit right in. I even had her sing to me, it really added to the mood. Then we saw the Porriges to teach their kids the Law of Chastity-fun! (oh and they got us these cute Eskimo type headbands!) Haha, then went back to work, had some mini miracles, very grateful for those. Oh and it was super foggy, really odd.

Tuesday we had a street display with district meeting. We are not very good at those but we tried. Plus there was a place that sold clothes for a pound per item-yes please.

Wednesday we worked a lot and taught Caul and Paroline, lots to learn with our association with them. Went on splits with members-good stuff, I'm still really awkward.

Thursday we ran around a lot and had to head in early for a holiday here, Guy Faux Day? Bonfire night? A man tried to bomb parliament and failed so they celebrate it by throwing a massive bonfire and setting off loads of fireworks-for some reason they set them off during the day a tonne as well, I think they've lost the plot on that one. But they set the fireworks off all week so we constantly had a mini show, what a treat.

Friday we worked a ton in the posh part of our area-love it-hopefully we are moving there. We also saw the Blackcasa family-big fan.

Saturday another display in the rain, more work, the usual. 

Sunday-everything in the ward is changing-new callings, things getting moved around leaving us in limbo stage with our ward mission leader but we are still going to try the culture night, thanks ma for sending some of the Bulgarian recipes. It is raining A LOT. I'm not trying to complain, it is a factor that is motivating me to set appointments in the evenings haha, but cold wet and dark, the wicked threesome, not a fan haha.

I love Sister Beard,we are going to kill it this transfer despite our obvious differences.

I'm so grateful for change. I'm grateful we don't have to be perfect in this life as it is truly the time to prepare to meet God. In the end it will work, it'll be ok. I'm grateful that Christ makes this change possible. I'm grateful for the righteous examples in my life.

Book of Mormon reading update: Alma 33. (Keep in mind I have much more time to read and I want to finish it asap so I can delve more into it). What part are you on?

Top 10

10) Tongan elder demolished 10 bowls of chili I brought to District meeting

9) Taught a lesson with the district leader-we learned a lot

8) Eileen finally got my name right recently "I've done it!!"

7) A young man we met on the street offered to say a prayer with us. Called me a rose and sister Beard an angel haha

6) Fireworks (Guy Fox Day)

5) Boy in the ward leaving for his mission to the Philippines (not Naga).

4) Still got tan lines from the beach (very faint)

3) Tandle Hill Park. (Even met some Bulgarians!)

2) Halloween package from Marybeth!! Thank you!!!

1) SPRING CULLEN IS GOING TO TAIPEI TAIWAN FOR HER MISSION!! Will miss my favourite season, leaving February which is a year after I did...but so happy for her!!

 Standard

 Intruding the goodbye

 Time with Bishop's sister, the best

 Tracks

 Transfers. Elder Mwea goes home. More Italians and the two Bulgs.

 Swapped companions, we look like a cult.

 Best thing ever or what?

 Fav

 Ashworths

 Nana

 farewells

 Fesoj leaving

 Jess Castellano

 ZL

 Way fun

 I saw a pillar of light

 Exactly over my head

 Fairytale

Cows

 viewpoint from the park

 Elders playing Rugby

 Tessco has its moments

The poppy appeal

Emi's Thirty-Eighth Email! November 2, 2015

Sister Beard is seriously a little Disney fairytale princess and is super sweet (singing included). We will be able to work hard this transfer and it will be a good time to learn. What's funny is that we are kinda opposites, she's super timid and quiet (which I can be) but I mean more in the sense that she's a morning person, I'm a night person, so we will balance out perfectly haha.Transfers was sad seeing sister Barbaro go, we are friends for life now for sure. 

So funny story, our only progressing and promising investigator/friend has been meeting with other missionaries in Bolton and neither of us knew it! hahah, I want to be discouraged, but trust me this is just too funny. We will let the elders handle him and focus on finding new people before winter comes and we will be dead in the rain. 

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween. It has already started to get dark at 5 here so to be safe that's when we had to head in for the day. We just spent time with Bishop's wife and I made pumpkin bars (thanks Stacy!!) the time flew.

So all my companions so far, if you remember the acronyms, well thus far it's officially SWABBB, which is very close to my beloved MTC companion's Schwab haha, we are meant to be.

So, I really like how British people say "pardon" instead of "sorry", but I just sound silly with my strong American accent, so I'm going to try and do it with a hispanic twist saying pardon *insert accent mark over "o". It's not really working. 

The new elder stole my Asian food on accident, I'm trying not to get mad. He owes me a couple quid though, that's for sure.

Lots in store this transfer.

I really like how although it feels like progress in nilch, there is still so much going on inside of us and in the work that we don't even know about. I'm grateful that because of the Savior and what He did for each of us, I have the opportunity to progress, if not then I would be dismayed. I'm grateful we can always try again because of him.

Top 10

10) Church with a baby blessing

9) The weather hasn't killed me yet

8) Transfer meeting

7) Sister Beard

6) Spider-man should have been a cleaner as his day job, you should have seen me try to scale our bathroom this morning, it was pathetic#

5) Halloween (not highly celebrated here, but I did in my heart)

4) We went to Crew last week again for my retainer and spent some time with Bishop's sister. Last few moments of sanity.

I can't remember anything else

PICTURES-- transfer 6, oldham

 Finally met Bishop's 3rd son!!!! Took 3 months. We were friends right off the start.

 Love this part of town

 Beautiful!

 SWAN. Apparently the Queen's bird. Protected by law and everything

 These are the kind of geese that live by my Tesco canals. Evil Canadian geese, go back to Canada

 Take-off

 blind. needed to activate flipper-mode

 I love the Porridges!

 Wild fruit

 I was really enthused for the sunset. Never get to see this

 Made this for the Porridges, it took forever and looked really janky haha

Conference at the Seals. They made a really really really really good lime cheesecake (please let me stay for my birthday). Oh and if you check out the fridge, you'll see me and sister A haha

 TGIF

 Shorna and Sister Riley

 Blood blister. It's more black now, looks like black pudding.

 Decor for the flat

 Glorious

 Working hard

 Hardly working

 Eileen's bday. We sweet

 Crew

 Sisters...

 twinning round 2

 haha reminiscing 

 Italinas

 That's like 50 pounds of flapjacks. £1.50 thanks Park Cake

 3 stooges, 3 amigos. Big fan

 something about say hear see?

 Blackpool

 People trying to take pictures for us

 Decked out trolley

 One of the Porridge kids. She loves me and my chins

She's a keeper

 Shorna's farewell. Officially Sister Shorna!!! Heidi got me that shirt!

 Blackpool lights

 When you try to beat the system

 You get locked in the bathroom

 haha Brother Porridge

 Bit better

 Made me think of Sister Black

Poor shot of the Blackpool tower in all its infamous glory