Family!!!
How are you all? I am so blessed to know you all is how I feel. This week was slow.. I was reading though today in Preach Gospel about being a successful missionary and it was talking about weeks like this and to not get down, you can't force people to except the Gospel and neither can the Lord. All I can do is my best, but never get down. Our companionship motto for the week (and mine for forever) is Doubt not, fear not and you have the eye of faith. As we search for those who will recieve us we can not doubt that they will recieve. We are all children of God with a divine spirit. We know everything there is to teach, it is just sparking the remembering signals in the brain. That is why using the spirit is so important.
This last week Sharon and Josh had thir baptismal interview. We only got through Josh because he decided he wasn't ready yet. Broke my heart.. he is 14 and not sure if it's for him. He wants to pray more, which is smart and good for him to do. Sharon is agreeing to postpone for him because really they should be baptized together if at all possible. But it is hard to see somenoe so willing, back off. Always encourage people in the gospel. It can take one 'slow down, wait till you know everything.. it is a pretty big committment' to take someone sooo motivated down to the hesitant stage.
We are to invite, help and motivate those we love to come unto Christ and partake of the light only He can bring into our lives. Do we love everyone though? Maybe we should- there is something in everyone to love... even those who make you want to swear. haha We have met a few.. but my heart aches walking away from them because I am learning how Christ loves us all. In 2 Nephi, many of the chapters deal with prophesy of the future destruction, apostasy, and so on. At the end of every chapter, Christ or God (which ever is speaking) will always say something about being frustrated with His people (in laman's terms) but then he comes back with 'but my hands are still out stretched toward those who will repent and come unto me'. How much more need have we then to forgive and repent ourselves? Not that any of you need to, but we all do and it's something to think about.
Yesterday for pday we went to fresh water west where dobby's house (harry potter) and part of robin hood (the latest with russell crow) were filmed. It was gorgeous. Too bad they took down Dobby's house before we got there, but such is life. Then we went to this reptile place and I held a snake, a bearded lizard, a tarantula and a 10 ft. long python (only a part of him... he was a little heavy and there was a bunch of people). I was sooooo scared of them.. why, who knows... horror stories probably. But Sister Hutchinson insisted I do it or I will regret it. She was right. There was nothing to fear. They were absolutely harmless. I faced my fear and now Iam well... experienced ;) haha but I thought about this in Gospel terms. In 2 Timothy 1:7-9 it talks about not being afraid of sharing the Gospel. I thought about how sharing the Gospel with all we know can sound scary and we can think of soooo many ways it can 'harm' us, but there is no need to think that. It won't. In fact, it is harmless as long as we handle it correctly, just like with the different animals. Doubt not, fear not. Go forth with faith and handle His words in a way that brings light into your life and the life of others.
We are so blessed to know what we know and to be who we are with experience to back it up. Take away the experiences we have had and you take away what you have learned. I know this Gospel is true more and more everyday. I am learning that EVERY part of missionary work applies to my future. It truly is the best two years FOR my life. From personal to companionship study: yes marriages are companionships.. apply all you learned).. not that you don't, but I know I will definitely try.
Oh ps the whole ward knows of my love for marriage now... our RS lesson was on eternal marriage. I am pretty sure they were all laughing at me at one point in time or another during it.. my goodness, you would think a person would change. Nope. It's getting worse. haha oh well. it's good... it's exaltation!!.
and yes, happy birthday davin!! I WILL BE SENDING HOME A PACKAGE BEFORE TOO LONG FOR MY FAMILY WHO IS BIRTHDAYING IT SOON, SORRY IT ISN'T ANY EARLIER SO DAVIN CAN'T HAVE IT ON THE DAY OF, BUT IT WILL BE THERE SOON ENOUGH. LOVE YOU ALL!! sorry for caps. running out of time. I love love love you!

Love, Sista Fili


(I kept the caps lock in there and didn't change it cuz I think its hilarious-you can imagine Lauren running out of time-Liz)

HELLO how are you?

It's been an incredible week. We went to Gadfield Elm for Zone Conference and it was incredible. The story there is inspiring. When Wilford Woodruff served here he tracted into a church full of men who were called the United Brethren. There were about 600 of them and he went and told all of them from their pulpit about this incredible Gospel that we have today. All 600 were baptized in the Benbow Pond. The chapel that they own and were preached to in was then donated to our church and became the first real chapel our church has ever had in all it's history. What an incredible story. We too had a testimony meeting in there with the missionaries who will be departing this next transfer. Sister Nadsady is one of them. It was so good to hear her testimony in that setting at that time. I just appreciate her so much. It is not always easy being with people 100% of the time.. but it does teach you a lot about yourself. I have learned how impatient I am and selfish... man I need to step it up if I ever want to get married!! But I am able to work on it now. She loves me though even though I can be a drama queen when I am going through my growing pains... ok not a drama queen quite... just quiet and sometimes irritable... but none the less she is great. I am going to miss her and so nervous and excited to see who the next love of my life will be... that sounds wrong, but you know what I mean.
There was an Elder that spoke at the testimony meeting who is our zone leader, can I please say he reminds me of Timmy and his story is sooooo similar. He had to go home for a while due to medical things. He was in and out of the hospital his entire mission and is now finally going home for real. He is one of the moast humble peopel I have met. He never had medical issues till he became a missionary. His testimony struck my heart. He said these two years (well basically 3 for him) have prepared him for his life. He spoke about how grateful he was to serve here and bring the message to these people and how he is now so excited to go home and give the saints in Utah the same message, but serve for much much longer. I thought about Tim and my eyes welled up.. these missions are our preparation for life. This life is a time for men to prepare to meet God, it is also a time for us to have joy. I don't know about you but I have never learned so much, felt so much more prepred and felt more joy in all my life. When we are serving God and doing His work we feel that joy, we come to know Him better and therefore are more prepared to meet Him face to face. I am so grateful for all the time I get to spend with other missionaries who lift, inspire, and help me feel the motivation I need for life.

We got to spend the night at the flat of the Mertthyr sisters... so fun.. SLEEP OVER!! wo nights in a row it ended up being. Way fun. I love them. We tracted a man dressed in a chicken suit, he rejected us right off so we walked across the street and talked to this woman and it was delightful. She didn't really care about the Gospel but it was great ..then she told us SHE was once a HE. Why do we keep finding these people...I didn't realize sex changes happened so often..now I do. Nice he/she though.
Our friend Sarah Hall: umm loves kisses on the cheek... and sometimes it's fine, other times it's a little much.... welp she jumped in the car through the window to give me a kiss on the cheek (I think she enjoys that I freak out so she tries even harder) and got the cheek but tried again and I didn't realize and got my teeth... yes I did gagg..... so when I told our district leader he said... is she hott?.. WHAT!? haha boys...
OH we met a lady who has alpaca (how to spell I do not know but sound it out) goats, donkey's, a horse, and rabbits (lion rabbits too) soooo cool. I think we'll baptize her.. haha At least I hope. She still needs to become an investigator, but i just really like that I saw alpaca in front of my face.
Oh by the way, Jeff is a Zone leader.. he hasn't even been out a year!! what the. he's amazing. yes. I love the beaches here, so beautiful. mum I love your letters.

Family continue being amazing... seriously.

My 4th of July ended up being fun. I like my hair a lot. By the time I come home it should be long again. I do enjoy it though for now. It looks good too... and now I know I can actually pull it off. Pictures will come soon, it's been a crazy couple of weeks. Today is Sister Nadsady's last p-days so i just kinda go with the flow.

I have been reading in 2 nephi and in chapters 19 and 20 I don't fully understand them... but I do love the line that comes up continually, 'for this is anger is not turned away but His hand is still stretched out'. I may be quoting it a little off, I don't have my scriptures next to me, but I love the justice and mercy of our God. Just like any parent He cares enough to get frustrated when you do something silly, but He loves us enough to still help us even when we know, well, what we did was silly. He loves us.. what more could make us happy in this life. I dunno.

Mum can you PLEASE send me my camera soon.. this one won't turn on and Sister Nadsady is leaving soon so...picture moments come and I might have to pass them up, which is fine... but not really fun for you or me. And a picture of Tim... I am an idiot and forgot one. ah man... I feel lost without it. My wall is currently covered with pictures and I am soooo happy. Chelsea sent me some and our family photo that I am still obsessed with. Liz, Sarah said my profile picture is gorgeous... I am soooo grateful you are good at taking shots of me face and having good judgement to put it up. Thank you. Thank you all for all you do and for your examples. I am soooo greatful for our family. I love this Gospel. I love having fun with it and enjoying what I am doing right now. Love people so you love life, love life so you love yourself. I am learning so much and more. I can't wait to learn more.

Oh we woke up Sharon's whole family for church yesterday... that was fun. I felt like a mom.... hahaha I loved it... it is hard though to do and not feel like you are crossing boundaries. Poor thing was in sooo much pain from her knee. i hope she enjoyed church through the pain, but we did offer to set up a priesthood blessing for her and she accepted and so I hope that that will be a blessing to us all. Miracles do happen and the Lord works in mysterious ways. I am soooo grateful for it all. I will talk to you all soooo soon, when I can write a for real letter soon, but until then tada butt!! pictures will be coming with it too....#

kendra, jen, carrie- addresses prease :D

loves you all more than words can say+1

Sista Fili

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!

yes I am actually celebrating it today!! Annette who is a less active in our ward and loves to serve and get involved is throwing me a bash tonight for it. So we got to invite a family and the Hutchinson's were the pick!! It should be an awesome night and I am soooo excited about it!! We are wearing American pride, without looking too in your face about it!! but it's happening none the less right now. Oh and I may or may not be going crazy and cutting my hair off. Sis Nadsady is getting her hair done and I could use a trim, but I figured it is one time in my life i don't mind experimenting with short hair so I am going to do it. Not to my chin, no worries, but shorter for sure... we shall see. You will get a picture.

This week was ...great... we had an amazing start and slowly but surely the focus became getting ready for our booth at the dragon festival that was on Saturday that Annette and her boyfriend and another crazy lady put together. The whole community comes and enjoys and dresses up and relives the dragon history stuff of the land. It was pretty cool. She let us set up a booth for the church, but mainly about family history and food storage. Funny thing is we were sooooo worried we would have to talk to people about this stuff, but people only asked questions about the church. The Lord knows His children and how to get through to them. It was not invasive but, the points that stuck out to people were the important things. We were so grateful for Annette's support and for Sis. Hutchinson's help. Without her, we would have been lost. But that did take up lots of time this week unfortunately. There were some interesting people there... but you would figure that, we are talking about Dragon's here... haha but it was fun. There was this 13 yr. old girl who sang 'someone like you' by Adele (look it up... sooooo good.... i would if I could, so I will in 15 months.. actually one of our less active members made me a cd for when I get home, it's currently hidden safely in my bag so there is no temptation) back to the point she was AMAZING I couldn't believe she was only 13... so I asked her if she would sing Amazing Grace at our fireside, she was excited and we are excited and hope that what comes out of it is a 13 yr. old girl looking for truth and finding it.
Anyways, after the dragon festival (which gave me the capstone of a tanned face and arms... yes my hair is almost back to blond because of it and my face is more or less brownish...) we went and saw Emma and Lee to invite them to church again. We had Sis. Sarah Whitburn with us because we were seeing Sharon and Josh right after, and they said they couldn't because of their lack of petrol (gas). Sister Nadsady asked if we could share a scripture with them really quick and she shared Moroni 10:3-5. We talked to them about their reading and praying and asked if they had prayed about what we were teaching them thus far. Lee shared his experience with praying while reading the pamphlets (not the scriptures quite, but we're working on it) and he just got the greatest smile on his face and said that when he prayed to know if what he was reading was truth he felt like he was being lifted up a little. The spirit was strong and Emma looked at him and said, ya know if the petrol meter is on red we could make it to New Castle Emlyn and back safe, don't you think? Then Sis. Whitburn piped in and said, or I could just come and get you for church. they immediately said yes yes!! Man we felt good. They truly had been converted to the principle by their own conversion story, and more than that by the spirit. I love when you see people boo yahed by the spirit. I love it even more when they actually follow through.. unfortunately this story ends sadly and they didn't come to church. Even with a ride... they just didn't answer the door... COULD SOMEONE THROW ME A BONE PLEASE!!??? (in the words of Jason Klingler) Made so easy yet.. not. Agency is real even when the Spirit testifies. Be strong and don't let the devil get to you. He will even after the witness of the Spirit. He is cunning and crafty.
With Sharon and Josh he (the Devil) is doing a good job. They are struggling to make it to church. We started a stop smoking program with her and she is doing it well, but getting frustrated more and more... it's only been one day so we'll continue and just pray hard. But the coming to church bit is hard for them there is always some excuse the morning of. So we are going to try the approach of going and getting them. It's going to be a great week. The fireside preparations are coming along and I am just sooooo excited for life, although I am kinda tired today. I have had some medical things keeping me up ALL NIGHT man oh man... not fun, but it's cool.
Today will be great and I hope your 4th celebrations are sooo fun. I am sooo happy I have a family that I love sooo dearly. I'm reminded everyday!! Tell everyone hello and congrats on everything they are jumping into. Those boys will love their intensely cool missions... Singapore and South Africa.. who would have guessed, scary but sooo cool. Yay for Erica!! tell her I will be with her in spirit and I am so proud of her!! Can i get her address? WARD AND AMBER #1#!!!! oh man I cried when i read that. I couldn't be more happy and excited and proud. I was thinknig of you allll week long. You will be blessed for your good works, I know it. Thank you for the package I just about cried with everything. our family picture is INCREDIBLE. thank you thank you thank you.... how did Liz and or Steve work it to be sooo perfect. All the kids are looking aside from Brielle, but seriously and smiling!! what the... it was Steve's dance moves, I know it. Alright typing = bad because time is GONE!! but I love you and will send pictures of mi celebration de cuarto julio... ya that was wrong, but i tried.

Loves you more than you can imagine!!

Sister Lauren Lee Fili