Emergency Transfer To Skipton

SO MUCH has changed since last Monday. Well, the story goes like this…on Monday for P-day, Sister McReynolds, Sister Peck, Sister Wynder and I went to Skipton Castle. It was wonderful! The travel there on bus took 8493024390 years but we got there for just over an hour and then had to leave...so we didn't get long, but we saw everything. We could've stayed easily for the whole afternoon, but seeing as P-day ends at 6pm, we had appointments and things we needed to travel back to Leeds for! As we were on the bus enjoying each others company having a gay old time..I get a call from the mission office, it's President Pilkington...The conversation went like this:

 President - "Sister Kuhn, I have a favour to ask of you...Sister A is going home tomorrow, I need you to go to Skipton to be Sister Hedstrom's companion"

Sister Kuhn - ....................."Wait, what excuse me?"

President - repeated himself

Sister Kuhn - "Ah yeees of course ?"

President - "Good. The assistants will call you later to let you know what time TOMORROW they're coming to your flat. So pack tonight and get everything sorted and they'll call you a bit later"

Sister Kuhn - In my head I wanted to give an army response like 'YES SIR!' but I just agreed and said "Yep no worries. Thanks President" as any dilligent faithful missionary would do (LOL)

Moral of the story: I got emergency transferred on Tuesday to Skipton and that's where I am now. I had no time to say goodbye to ANYONE. I called Bishop Parr of Leeds 1st ward where I had been since I've been out and said goodbye and he thanked me for all I did, and called Tracey and said goodbye to her, and 1 other YSA…and then I got super bummed I couldn't say a proper goodbye to Ben. We'd just taught him such a good lesson about prophets and prayer and faith and I wanted to see him progress and schedule him and everything…and Kaaron…he should be back from his Dad's in London by now...but I couldn't say goodbye to him either, but he'll be alright, he's getting baptized on the 31st, I love that kid!  ...I wrote Ben a 2 page letter to give to Sister McReynolds who gave it to him. The Monday I got the phone call, we had 1 lesson planned at 6:30pm with Francisco (Paco's real name apparently) and Jeorge (his son). I can't remember what I told you about them but they're the miracle Spanish people we met a week ago on Saturday from Spain and have been here for like 3 weeks. We had SUCH a good lesson with them. We had a mother and daughter from Colombia in the ward who speak Spanish come with us and basically translate lol they were AMAZING!!! Francisco just wanted to know more and more. We scheduled them both for baptism on the 21st September I think. It was such a powerful lesson. I love Francisco and Jeorge!!!!!!! They were my last lesson in Leeds :) After the lesson I just went home and packed. We sent out a miracle answer phone to the zone about scheduling for baptism as well. When we were back at the flat,.. we get a call from our District Leader Elder Field congratulating us on scheduling..then I broke the news to him that I was being ET'd (emergency transferred) and he actually sounded like he was going to cry. We'd been in a district ever since I've been out. ... I felt like I was going to cry talking to him about leaving the District haha then the Zone Leaders called us to congratulate us on the scheduling as well (they do that - they're very supportive Elders!) and I broke the news to them about what has happened…and Elder Esteves said "Well, just know…that only the best missionaries get ET'd"..so that was nice of him :) I'm still in the Zone thank goodness. I love Leeds A Zone!!!! Elder Esteves gave me some good words of wisdom which was comforting. So while I was packing…I decided to put on a soothing relaxing BRIGHT GREEN face mask that I bought that day during P-day…Sis McReynolds did one too…about 3 minutes after we had smothered our faces in green stuff we get a call from the Zone Leaders...they were like "Hey we're downstairs!" Sis McReynolds and I have never rushed so fast in our lives...I was like "QUICK! WASH OFF THE MASKS!!!!" she rushed to the sink and I yelled "I'LL USE THE SHOWER!" so we washed off the masks in literally 0.7 seconds and ran downstairs to greet the Zone Leaders calmly and collected…they had mail for us all and a new microwave to take with me to Skipton for the flat. We then had a laugh when we told the Zone Leaders about the facial incident...We then all had a DnM (deep and meaningful) about me leaving and they said some really good things that have helped me a lot. The next morning, I was up at 5am (yuck), got ready, Sis Hedstrom and I drove back to Skipton which is like an hour from Leeds by car (p.s We have a car now - yay for getting fat(ter)!) Haha

The week has been really good though. Skipton is GORGEOUS. Seriously, like living in a painting every day. The town of Skipton is more of a tourist town but the area we 2 sisters have is the biggest in the mission I'm pretty sure. LOTS of farmlands and little villages. They say there're more sheep than people :)

We've already found about 3 new investigators and 5 or 6 potential investigators, scheduled 2 for baptism and doing A LOT of finding. Apparently all this success is unheard of. Sister Hedstrom who has been here for her whole mission so far (6 months at the end of the transfer) keeps saying how Skipton is on fire! There is A LOT of work to be done here. The people are hard hearted and 98% don't want to listen. .. But I know Heavenly Father is preparing people for us to teach. We found the Smith family mid-week. Selena is the Mum, her husband is away for work atm but they have 3 children, an 11 yr old girl, an 8 yr old boy and a 1yr old boy. We had a great lesson with her yesterday on the Restoration and we scheduled her for the 21st of September. We all had a laugh because her son's name is Joseph…Joseph Smith! Hahahahaha. Common names...but I've never actually met anyone named that. So she's great. And we're working on teaching her 2 children that are 8 and 11. We also met this Polish guy called Jiretz (it's pronounced Jatzik), he's in his early 20's, funniest guy ever…and very knowledgable about a lot of things. We had a lesson on the street with him. Talked for an hour! We're seeing him tonight, hopefully will schedule him as well.

I've learnt a lot about missionary work in this whole transfer ordeal. It's not about what I do, it's a collective effort of everyone. It's about unity. We all have the same goal as missionaries...to invite others to come unto Christ. I felt sad for leaving my amazing investigators in Leeds…but I know that they will be in good hands, I know that Heavenly Father is watching over them. The highlight for me this week, other than scheduling…is that BEN GOT SCHEDULED!!!! It was Wednesday I think...we got a miracle answer phone and we listened to it on the street in Skipton while we were finding…I cried haha I was so happy. I hope my letter had something to do with it..

Oh and the flat I'm in is AMAZING.

Another chapter of my mission ahead of me! Transfers are in 2 weeks, I have a feeling I'm staying here…I don't really want to pack again :)

P.S TO EVERYONE'S EMAILS I HAVEN'T REPLIED TO…I'm sorry! I'll do it whenever I have time I promise! I read them all and I LOVE hearing from you all! Keep writing to me even though I may not reply some weeks. Thanks heaps!

LOVE YOU ALL xxxxxxxx