Obedience brings Blessings

Monday 30 September

Helloooooo everyone! It's been a good week. Busy but good. Not as good number-wise as last week but miracles nonetheless! We did more painting for the Waite family (who are amazing and we love them lots). They have 2 kids, Lilly and Billy. Absolutely adorable! 

Rachel is the Simcock's (fave family) eldest daughter (I'm pretty sure) and Ian is her hubby. They're a young family and Sister Edgington and I love going for tea and we loved helping them paint in preparation for a new carpet which we get to see on Wednesday when we go to their house for dinner!

I just wanted to take a minute to talk about Skipton branch. I think I've mentioned it before, but if ANYONE comes to North West Yorkshire…heck, if anyone comes to ENGLAND, GO TO SKIPTON Branch for church on a Sunday. Their singing is to die for! You will be blown away. The organist, Brother Rushworth, is amazingly talented and always puts on a good show with the organ nice and loud. It really makes a difference. We can sing the roof off the building! And Brother David Simcock has one of the most powerful loudest voices I've ever heard! Sister Slater (the Branch President's wife) and Brother Simcock are both trained vocalists. They are so talented. Every Sunday is like a special treat hearing everyone sing...and there're only about 30 of us at a time! We still sing louder than wards with over 200 people! The branch here in Skipton is so supportive and they feed us no joke like 6 times a week. It's rare to get anything less than 4 dinner appointments a week. Hence why Sister Edgington and I will need 2 plane seats each on the way home from our missions because we will be obese :) Haha. Joking. Most of the members know we're trying to eat healthy now, so they're helping us out.

We went on a drive to Grassington, which is about 15 minutes drive and still only half way up our area we cover. Grassington is gorgeous. We drove down Church Street and at the end..lo and behold, there was a church! An old old old one with a cemetery and everything (Mum, you would have loved it!). We took lots of photos that day. It was stunning. We didn't have too much success seeing as it was day time and most of the people were probably in Skipton or Settle or Leeds or somewhere for work. But we'll go back on a Saturday and see how we go :) 
Then we had our last supper (last lesson) with John before he moves to Portugal on Monday (today). We had a great lesson and got him pumped for being baptized in Albufeira where he'll be living. We sent a referral to the mission office so they can give it to the mission in Portugal. Yay! We took some photos with him and said our last goodbyes with a big high FIVE! We're excited for him :) 

We met a magician last week. He was ex-police force. Can't remember if I've already told you about him. His name is John Eduardo. He goes by Eduardo as his magician name. He's like 90-something years old. He doesn't mind us visiting. Except that he just shows us card tricks for like an hour haha. We've seen him twice and we'll probably go once more and then leave him to it. He has a Book of Mormon and Plan of Salvation pamphlet to reflect on when he's not sorting his cards out haha Bless him. 

We had a great lesson with our athiest mate Stuart as well last week. He's funny. We watched the Restoration DVD. He didn't dispute hardly anything, he went from disputing EVERYTHING and not listening the first time we met him, to asking questions and listening to the answers. He's reading the Book of Mormon, he just doesn't pray. But hey, if he can work out logically in his mind without praying that The Book of Mormon is true and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church on the earth today lead by a prophet of God then that will be truly amazing! We're working on his prayers :) He doesn't pray but we do when we're there...we're pretty sure he feels the Spirit. Or being as athiest as he professes to be, he wouldn't continue meeting with us or reading the Book of Mormon. He's so great though, we love him :)

We met Rob on Saturday. New investigator. Our District Leader promised us the night before that if we use our favourite scripture with someone the next day, we will get a new investigator. So we were out finding for like most of the day…and nothing. We couldn't even share our scripture because nobody wanted to listen, and then it got to 8:40pm. We were knocking a street..and we were running out of time. So I said to Sister Edgington "That's it, we're sharing our fave scriptures on THE NEXT DOOR". Aaand we did, aaand it was Rob...aaand he is now a new investigator because we have a return appointment and we're going to baptise him :)

Then we had a GREAT lesson with Magdalena in the park on Sunday afternoon. It was a perfect day. Blue skies and sunshine. Great for this time of year! That was only yesterday…now it's back to white/grey skies :) not too cold though actually! We're seeing Magda again on Wednesday. We're so excited. We love her! :)

We met this guy called Amar about 3 or 4 weeks ago one night. Talked for a bit. Got his address and everything. We FINALLY went to see him last night. We got lost finding his street, so we asked for directions and eventually found it. When we got there, he wasn't even in. So we turned to leave but Sister Edgington wanted to take her coat off so we waited for a bit. Then what do ya know! The next door neighbour's door opened...and Amar walks outside. We were like 'Heyyyyy!!' he remembered us which was handy :) He was going outside for a smoke and he was just visiting his mate next door called James. He came and talked to us outside for a bit as well. Amar is fascinated with stars and the world, he works as an electrician I think at an electrician/gas company. He's got great potential. We're seeing him again tonight. James wasn't very interested but he shot some great questions at us that we answered and we made them laugh (because Sister Edgington and I are basically like a comedy show 24/7) and we had a good old chat about coincidences and about God and about prayer and all sorts. Amar said he's open minded and he was listening intently with everything we said. THEN, as we were leaving walking up a hill to another potential investigators house, this guy with 2 dogs stops us and asks if he's met us before. He then goes on to explain he's met Sister missionaries before and he was interested in knowing more but they never came around to his house. He seemed like he's had a few hard trials here and there. He said 'You two are just so bubbly and happy!' and I said 'Well, we have a lot to  be happy about!' Anyway, we're seeing him this week some time as well. We got his address, phone number, and he asked for ours so he can call us because he lost the one the other sisters gave him so long ago. It was something you hear about as a missionary but never really happens to you. Someone walking up to US and asking US to know more is like djwapdjwafijfewjij;!! So that was good :)

We found a few more potentials this week as well which is good.  Lots of finding and knocking on doors. It's always a humbling experience, knocking doors. 98% of the time they get slammed or shut in our face. Little do they know it makes us STRONGER. Oh, Sister Edgington took THE FUNNIEST photo last week of a sign someone had on the front of their house. SO GOOD. Have a look at it. It's SO funny. Usually, they have a lot of 'No cold callers' signs here because there must be a lot of door-to-door sales..but the sign we saw on Saturday was unreal hahah

So we've had some miracles come from the Area Book this week. The area book is basically a big binder folder with all the people previous missionaries have taught or talked to. It has hundreds of names, addresses and phone numbers of people previously taught or potential investigators. So we've started to sort through it all. We have a list of sooo many names and numbers and addresses to stop by, but we'll give them all another chance to hear our message :) We already have 2 appointments with people we've never met before who we called and spoke to. A lady called Angela on Wednesday, and then a lady called Pat on Thursday. We're helping Pat move house :) She told Sister Edgington she was moving this week, so we were like BOOYYAAAAAA SERVICE OPPORTUNITY! We love service projects haha LOVE THEM. And we have a handful who we're seeing in a week’s time. We still have 34894819032 bagillion names left, but we'll get through them all. Miracles can happen from the area book that's for sure.

One thing I've learnt this week is that there is NO SUCH THING as coincidence. Everything, EVERYTHING, happens for a reason…whether it be good or bad. I've seen it time after time on my mission, but even more in the last week. I'm so blessed and grateful to be a part of a church which recognizes those 'coincidences' as miracles, every time. I love miracles :)
As missionaries, we get to do 1 hour of personal study each day. I'm about half way through Jesus The Christ. I'm learning so much from that book. I'll read it again and again after I've finished it, there's a lot to learn and remember! I'm up to Helaman Chapter 15 in the Book of Mormon and D&C 107 :) I have a few new favourite scriptures. One of them is in Doctrine and Covenants 103:36 ‘All victory and glory is brought to pass unto you through your diligence, faithfulness and prayer of faith’

I love that scripture. The word 'victory' is so strong and powerful. I think victory over something is a true and final accomplishment or overcoming a trial or feat. All we need to do to gain all victory and glory (meaning to live in the presence of God again) will be granted if we are diligent, are faithful, and through our prayers, which are a huge exercise of our faith. Also, D&C 104:82 is another fave of mine recently. I have a thing with 'victory' at the moment it seems. 'Inasmuch as ye are humble and faithful and call upon my name, behold, I will give you the victory'. Powerful. God doesn't ask much. And everything He does ask is only there to help us be happier not only in this life but in the life to come. He gives us a way for us to be happy in the eternities with our family. It's so logical to me. If we do what He says, He is not only bound by laws to bless us when we obey Him, but as a result of what He asks of us, we will gain a greater TRUE happiness. It's so simple! :)

I would invite everyone to just try it out. Try doing what God asks. Do it wholeheartedly and with faith, expecting miracles, and I know if you do that, you will be happier, you will see miracles, and you will be able to understand the greater purpose of our life on earth. The gospel makes me so happy, and seeing people who have never heard about it before and how they feel happier than they ever could be after hearing about it and gaining a witness of it's truth is a testimony to me that it is true and God is real. It's amazing!

And again, I have no time to write anyone else. I'm so sorry! But I've read all your emails. Thank you EVERYONE who emails me. I really appreciate it. I'm not ignoring you I promise! I'll email back when I have time :) I'll try make my blogs shorter too. It's just all so exciting as a missionary!

Big love to you all,

Sister Kuhn xx





Another Amazing Week of Blessings AND A Baptism

Everyone. This week. Was. Amazing.

Well, it started off proper rubbish like. On Monday we learned that John, our STAR of an investigator, is moving to Portugal on the 30th of this month to live with his Mum. His sister also lives there with her 3 kids and he really misses them. He was super sorry and sad to tell us he was moving…five days shy of his baptism which was meant to be on the 5th October because he hasn't been at church yet and you need to come to church at least twice to be baptized. At first, Sister Edgington and I were like 'Let's get him baptized here before he goes!' We called the Zone Leaders to see what they could do seeing as he hadn't been to church twice, we told them what was going on. They said 'Teach him the commandments, see how he goes, and then let us know and we'll talk to President'…but as soon as I got off the phone to them I had an un-easy feeling about it all. So we prayed about it for the next few days. We came to the conclusion that John is meant to be baptized in Portugal. It's for a reason. For his Mum, his sister, someone else, we don't know. All we know is it feels right that he goes and is baptized over there. We're still teaching him and he's coming to church for his last Sunday in Skipton, then he leaves the day after. He is so good though. We now try to teach him commandments to challenge him...Word of Wisdom - he doesn't drink tea, never smoked even though his whole family does,he gets sick at the smell of coffee, and he drunk for about 4 months after his 18th b’day but stopped because he didn't like it…he's 22 and has been living the Word of Wisdom without knowing it for like 4 years! Then we taught him about Law of Chastity thinking "This one will be a tough one!"...turns out he's been living that his whole life anyway as well. He's amazing!!!!! The missionaries in Portugal are going to love us! Haha. Here in Skipton, there's a family who have 2 sons on missions at the moment, one of which are in Portugal! We're going to make sure John is taken care of when he goes there and is baptized ASAP. He knows everything and knows it's all true. He is so so good!

Anyway, back to the rubbish parts of the week...after the news on Monday from John, we had a long day Wednesday with District meeting and correlation with the branch Mission Leader and then dinner at his house (the Simcock's). They remind me of my family :) I LOVE the Simcock's!!!!!! They're the best. Basically though, Monday through Friday was pretty unsuccessful. From the week before which was SO good...the geniuses that Sister Edgington and I are thought 'Hey, let's go crazy, let's find SEVEN new investigators next week' (aka this last week gone). We thought that was a pretty good idea. I've never even set goals to get more than 5 investigators in a week I don't think...and we hardly ever got our goal of that! We got caught up organizing Carole's baptism and we didn't find ANY investigators. It was a silly week…until Saturday came around. Not only was it CAROLE'S BAPTISM!!!!!! WE ARE SO PROUD OF HER!!!!!!! Love Carole. We went finding (knocking on doors, talking to people on the street) as much as we could Saturday and Sunday. We found FOUR investigators on Saturday and TWO the day after on Sunday. SIX in total!  Not only that, we did it in TWO DAYS and we scheduled 5 of them for baptism! It was a miracle. Our list of investigators is now up to about 10...but in my short experience, they might start out solid but some of them drop off at one point, I think we have 5 that are here to stay...and we'll see how the others go! It was an amazing end to the week. We were short 1 investigator, but I think 6 in 2 days is beyond great. I learnt many valuable lessons this week. One of them was to simply TRUST in the Lord. That's all we need to do. Trust in the Lord and be exactly obedient, then He will bless you. Our week wasn't unsuccessful because of anything Sister Edgington and I did - things got in the way, we had meetings and we had to drive into Leeds a few times. A lot of time was wasted at no fault of ours. As the Lord says in the scriptures "I am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say ye have no promise". I believe that. I said to Sister Edgington "Ok, it's already Saturday...I bet you Heavenly Father will bless us in the 11th hour" and he truly did. He tested our faith during the week, and blessed us accordingly x8238120321! It was such a testimony builder. And what a great weekend we had!

So we have what's called Zone Standards, I can't remember if I explained it last week. It's new. It used to be Standards of Excellence for each individual team (companionship) but now they do it as a zone. We have Zone goals. I'll attach a photo and you can read what they are…but each zone in the mission has to reach all the goals if they want to achieve Standards of Excellence. Our zone was the only one last week to do it...and this week, we did it again!!! 2nd week in a row! I love my Zone!!!! Leeds A Zone REPRESENT!  It was SUCH a good week in the end. We just had to endure feeling like failures from Monday to Friday due to circumstances beyond our control...and then we were BLESSED with SIX new investigators and a few potential investigators. It was so good! We're doing things that aren't normally achieved and it feels so good! I love my companion…my STAR, my daughter :) I don't even feel like I'm training. We get along like a house on fire too. Always laughing and being special :)

So we have study every morning…and I'm reading Jesus The Christ at the moment. Half way through. It's SO GOOD. I want to read it as many time as I can. It's so good, I'm learning so much about Jesus and the actual person that he was and all about his disciples and just so many things. I'd recommend it to everyone, even if you're not religious. Anyway, learning a lot in study as well as when I'm out teaching and talking to people :) It's the best!

Carole's Baptism

Next item of business: Carole's BAPTISM!!!!!! It was on Saturday. I did the musical item :) I'm getting good at this! 2nd time now doing a musical item in front of more than just the piano :) Brother Simcock (from my fave family and he's also the branch Mission Leader) has mad crazy musical skills. He sings and plays guitar and drums and who knows what else. He's rad! He played guitar while I sang a song from the Children's Hymnbook about baptism. I think it was 'As I Was Baptised'? It went really well :) One of my besties in the branch, 17yr old girl called Kayleigh asked me to sing at her wedding haha. The baptism was beaut. Carole looked like an angel. After she was baptised she said 'I feel really really good! ...I feel like I have a spring in my step!' She's 79 and used a cane to walk :) We absolutely adore her! The investigators we found Saturday and Sunday are Kayleigh (a different one from the baptism) -she's a referral from a less-active who's part of a member family and we had dinner at their house. She's so sweet and was really interested in learning about what we believe. Then there's Kelly and her son Jake, aand Magdalena who's from Poland, and Christine, and Richard. We've met some of them before but didn't count them as investigators until we could count them as actually wanting to know more aka investigating the church. They all have great stories and are great people! We look forward to getting to know them more and watching them progress :)

Leeds A Zone
So, we had a baptism, we found 6 new investigators, we scheduled 5 for baptism, we got Zone Standards 2nd week in a row…there were countless miracles this week! After the week before last I thought 'It can't get better than this'…and then it did! Other than Carole's baptism. Even if we found 0 investigators last week it still would've been the best because of the baptism. But if there were no baptism last week I struggled to see how it could've gotten better. But it did!

OH OK. I just remembered something. STORY TIME. 

One of our beloved Zone Leaders ELDER ESTEVES played the biggest prank on us ever! Worse than my first transfer when he and Elder Brase (old ZL) told us our District Leader wasn't going to be our District Leader for the rest of the week but that he was ok, he just has some STUFF to work out...that was when I was serving in Leeds 1. They played us hardcore! We proper thought something was wrong. And then Elder Esteves did the same to Sister Edgington and I on Saturday night but WORSE. We missed a call from them and when we called back when we were in the car they were like 'You might want to sit down'. They sounded so serious! He then said 'Sister Edgington, I'm sorry to inform you that you're being transferred to a new area with another greenie, and you'll be whitewashing…a sister went home and we need you to pack as much as you can. We'll come and get you at 9pm. Just pack what you can and Sister Kuhn, you'll go back to Leeds 1 and be in a 3 until we find someone to go back to Skipton with you'. Let's all remember now that we JUST found 2 new investigators, Kelly and her son Jake, and we get this phone call. We were speechless. Sister Edgington was almost going to cry. But this has actually happened to me when I was emergency transferred TO Skipton so I was like sort of thinking it was real, except when it happened to me I got a call from the President, not the ZL's, because they have no power :) Anyway, it was all just A BIG JOKE. They thought it was hilarious. That night I had a dream I headbutted my Zone Leader. Even my subconcious wanted to hurt him. It's funny to think now but at the time we were like UMMMMMMM....WHAT?!?!?! Haha...so yeah. That was our week! It's all fun and games when you're a missionary unless you're a Zone Leader and you play pranks on sisters in your zone. Then somebody will get hurt, and it won't be us sisters. Haha. Kidding. I love my leaders, they're good fun.

Well, I gotta go :) The Church is true! Pray about it!

Love you all!

Sister Kuhn

We got Zone Standards of Excellence AND a hail storm this week :)

Ok everyone…THIS WEEK HAS BEEN AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a bit of a rocky start, but once I put all that behind me, Sister Edgington and I had an incredible week full of miracles and happiness and rainbows and unicorns and flowers!...ok so no unicorns, but the rest, YES! John, the investigator we met a week ago on Friday, the one who came to the branch activity the day after we met him…he's SCHEDULED FOR BAPTISM on 5 October!!!!! AND, he knows it's all true, everything we teach him. We taught a killa Plan of Salvation with him with the Branch President as our member present. AND he came to a baptism in Keighly like 2 days ago on Saturday (our District Leader's investigator's baptism) with Carol who is another of our investigators who is getting baptized this Saturday! We all went with Sister Slater (Branch President's wife). She is the best. They both really enjoyed the baptism and are excited for theirs. John has some commitments with his previous church as he is the sound technician but he's going to train someone else to do his job which will be great! Ok, so…John's amazing, Carol's amazing...we found FOUR NEW INVESTIGATORS THIS WEEK! We seriously had such an amazing week. I can't even. The Lord is blessing us SO much. We were finding on the same street we found John on, and we met these two 14 and 15 year old boys. One wasn't really interested, but one was. His name is Cieran. We've taught him the Restoration and Plan of Salvation so far and he believes the Book of Mormon is true. He's great. He's scheduled for 5 October to be baptized!

Ok so a few weeks ago, we went on a finding blitz with the District Leader Elder Berrio and he was on exchange with Elder Esteves (Zone Leader). We found this lady called Helen. She has 2 kids. She was washing her truck out the front of her house and Sister Hedstrom and I were a bit apprehensive because she did not seem interested at all, but we persisted. We told her how our message can improve the quality of her and her family's lives (that was inspired)...she's had a ROUGH year since Feb. A lot of trials and heartache. She was too busy to talk then so we told her we could come back. We went a few times but she was either not feeling up to it or she was out. Then, this week, we scheduled a meeting with her on Wednesday, we got in, she told us EVERYTHING that had happened, and we told her how what we share can help. She was studying English Lit. at Uni and she told us she'd read the Book of Mormon. So we're seeing her again this week and we'll see how she goes :) We pray for her all the time. She's sweet and so willing to listen. So that's Helen :) and then...SUCH a great miracle: so Jim is a recent convert of about a year, he has a friend called Ann who isn't a member. Sister Hedstrom and I have stopped by numerous times to see if she's in and she never was. Sister Edgington and I continued to go by her house...last week, we met her neighbour Gary. He loved Australia and we talked about it for ages...and then we talked about all sorts of things. We'd never met him before then. We talked for like half an hour, and then we met his partner who had just got home. She was brought up Catholic. At first I thought Gary would be receptive, and then Caren looked a bit off-put by us, but as it happens, she agreed with everything we said and as we answered all of Gary's questions, she nodded and agreed. As we were leaving, Ann's old neighbour next door comes out and has a chat to Gary and Caren. So, the next day or 2, we went to see Ann again...but she wasn't in. As we were walking away to go finding on the streets we had decided to knock, I felt the Spirit say 'go back and knock next door' which was the old man who we didn't really even speak to the first time. And I thought 'nah we have to go knocking and find people' and a voice in my head kept saying 'GO BACK AND KNOCK ON HIS DOOR'. So I said to Sister Edgington 'OK we're going to knock on the old guys door'. As we did that, we were standing there knocking, and we looked to our left, and who should so suddenly appear out of literally no-where? Gary! He wasn't there before and we knocked on Ann's door and waited quite a while. We then went and talked to Gary and he said how he was intrigued by us and he was talking to his partner about us and he had all these questions. He was cleaning his truck. He's a builder! He had a lovely Audi TT Quattro and a huge lovely wonderful Mitsubishi truck :) He was cleaning the wheels and we just talked and talked and talked. We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon. I love when people ask 'Well, if there was a God why would there be all these starving poor dying people in the world?' Oh man do I love those sort of questions! LOVE THEM. Anyway, he asked a few of those sorts of questions, and for every question, we had an answer. He really enjoyed talking to us. They say that on average, a person has about 7 encounters with the church before they either listen or are baptized or make any commitments etc. We then went back and knocked directly on their door the day or 2 after and Caren opens the door and was very nice and chatty but said she was about to go to work. I asked about the Book of Mormon we gave Gary and she said she has it and will have a read. That was 3 inspired encounters in one week. Amazing :) We found another investigator on Saturday. Right after leaving the flat, right after praying for people to be put in our path, we walk down the street, we stop a girl called Natalie who's 18, Jewish background, give her a Book of Mormon, she's open to hearing about our message and we're seeing her this Tuesday. It was literally as easy as it sounds. She was walking straight past us, and again, a voice in my head said 'stop'. So I stopped. I don't usually just stop walking in the middle of busy town, but I did, and then I opened my mouth and said Hi, and then she stopped (which doesn't usually happen either. People usually keep walking and said 'Hi, you alright?' in their English Yorkshire accent and brush us off). Natalie is sweet and amazing :) Then at church we had Carol come which was so good :) The members are amazing in Skipton! New member retention 100%!!!!!

We had a member referral...from a less-active! We went and visited the Meadows family on Friday night who are strong in the church here in Skipton. Only one of their 3 children are active members. While we were there, Brother Meadows asks us if we would like to come for tea on Sunday and he mentioned that his daughter Hannah (23 years old who has a 7 year old boy called Matthew) was coming over for dinner as well. We said we'd love to meet her. At dinner we all got on really well. Her boyfriend was also there. Half way into dinner she mentions her friend who she wants us to meet. She explains how her friend is a bit wild and 'wordly' but she asks Hannah a lot of questions about her religious upbringing and Hannah thought meeting the missionaries would be really good for her. So her friend Kalie is coming over for dinner this weekend and we're going to meet her! Loving the members and less-actives and just everyone in general really does bring referrals and builds relationships so much stronger and better.

We then finished our week off by going finding from about 7-9pm last night. We went by a potential, Stuart, athiest. (bless him). He's reading the Book of Mormon and he said we can come back any day after 4pm as he drives a taxi during the day :) We were like YEAHHHHHHHH  BUUDDDDYYYYYYY STUART'S GOING TO PRAY AND BE BAPTIZED! He hasn't prayed yet. He doesn't believe in praying. So I told him last night if he doesn't pray about the Book of Mormon, then he's just reading an interesting book which he even said he didn't think was true anyway. I love athiests…they don't know what they believe :) Stuart hadn't even tried praying to see if God was there, he just read a book about the illusion of God and that's how he decided. So we are going to help him out and become besties and help him know who God is and how much he LOVES him :) We also found a potential investigator called Colette who we're seeing this week. After that, we were walking home, and I kid you not, it was a calm lovely freezing cold night...and then it started BUCKETING down with HAIL! Seriously. Neither of us had umbrellas for like the first time ever. So we were being abused by ice balls from the sky for like 10 minutes. We were soaked. But we didn't care. We had such an amazing week. The hail was nothing to us in the end. We ended up running home in the hail and rain and embraced every second. This week, we have good goals, and we know that if we are 100% exactly obedient and do ALL that we can and rely on the Lord, we can reach those goals. We also have what's called Zone Standards of Excellence. It used to be standards of excellence for companionships, but they changed it to the whole zone. And we all worked really really hard and GOT ZONE STANDARDS THIS WEEK!!!!!!!! We're all so happy. Heavenly Father is really helping us out and our faith is increasing like 382190382139109%!

I have to go now. But I've had a fantastic week. The numbers for Skipton haven't been this good ever/ in a while I don't think (well, that's what my District Leader told me anyway). Big things are happening in Skipton! Errrbodies gon know about the gospel !!!!!!! LOVE being a missionary! I've grown and changed so much even in the last week. I can't wait to think what it'll be like at the end of my mission. The Church is true, I KNOW it. The Book of Mormon is really the word of God, if you read and pray about it, you can know it's true. I love missionary work. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. He's helped me through many a trial, and I know he will ALWAYS be there for me.

Love you all, stay strong, be  believing, exercise your faith, be obedient, and you WILL see miracles!

I have no time to reply to anyone else’s emails right now, but I will next week hopefully! I've read them all and I'm SO grateful for them! So THANK YOU!

Bless xxxxxx

Sister Kuhn

Stake Conference with Elder Dallin Oaks

Helloooooo everyone! Well, it's a beautiful cold sunny blue-skied day here in Skipton, England! My STAR, Sister Edgington, is AMAZING! She's just turned 19 on the 18 July, barely out of high school, from Kaysville, Utah. I hardly feel like I'm training! She is a blessing! We're going to have lots of fun together :) If everyone I train is like Sister Edgington, training will be a breeze! Haha. She's so good! Looking forward to spend the next 12 weeks training her :) unless she gets asked to train after 6 weeks. I wouldn't be surprised,  she's well good! We met a guy called John while we were door knocking on Friday, invited him to the branch activity the day after on the Saturday, and he came! It was so good :) he texted us afterwards and said he had a fantastic time. Success!

NEWS OF THE WEEK! Stake conference yesterday...ELDER DALLIN H. OAKS of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came and spoke to all of us! !!!! He is so hilarious and down to earth. I loved every second of the conference. We went with the Simcock family in their car to Huddersfield for the conference. When I first got to Skipton, SIster Hedstrom told me we were singing in the choir for Stake Conference…then she left…and I had the pleasure of telling Sister Edgington we're singing in the choir for Stake Conference when neither of us planned on it lol but it was good because we got the best seats! We sang an arrangement of 'Nearer My God To Thee' from the British Pageant that was on a few weeks ago. There were quite a few speakers...a lot talked about Moroni 10:32 and how we need to come unto Christ, and deny ourselves of all ungodliness. I love that scripture. It tells us to DENY ungodliness...don't accept anything short of godliness. That's our aim. To be like God, to live with him again with our families in exaltation. I loved everything Elder Oaks said as well. He talked a lot about priesthood, testimony, missionary work, Jesus Christ, the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel in general and how it's for ALL MANKIND. Everyone. Something remarkable that I thought was amazing…Elder Oaks asked all full-time missionaries to stand (so we all did) and then he said "I have a one sentence sermon on missionary work.....now all of you who have missionary responsibilities please stand" and everybody in the room stood up. It was great! They all know they all have a missionary responsibility. We got to listen to Sister Oaks as well. She's so sweet and genuine and gorgeous! I was 150% focused on the speakers the whole 2hours. I love every second! Our investigator Carol came as well. We got her a ride with some of the members in Skipton. She said she really enjoyed it. We look forward to her baptism on the 21st of September :) She's a star!

2 apostles in a month...I'm doing pretty alright I reckon! Loving training, loving the work, it's not always easy…and on the way home I fell asleep in the back. I'm never sitting in 1 place for long enough...but I was out like a light on the way home. You don't realise how exhausted you are until you sit in 1 spot for a while! I was gone! Haha but it was a nice nap on the way home :) Missionary work is tiring, but I love it and wouldn't trade it for anything!

Something that Elder Oaks said in response to one of the previous speakers, Sister Wilkinson, who talked about her 2 children on missions and how she sometimes worries about them but knows that the Lord is looking after them...Elder Oaks said when he had a calling that had something to do with missionaries I can't remember what it was exactly, but …he conducted a study to see how safe the missionaries in the world actually are…so he complied lots of stats and data and it turns out that people our age, in this world, with our life expectancies etc. are 8 times SAFER on missions than they are at home.  There's some peace of mind for all the parents with kids in 3rd world countries! They're 8 times safer out there than they are at home. I thought that was funny :)

I just loved the conference. Elder Oaks is truly an apostle of God. He spoke with power and authority, yet he reminded us that he was just a normal guy with a calling to be a servant of the Lord. He was so human...weird to say I know. But as he told the story of where he was reading the Old Testament (FOR THE 51st TIME!) he came across something he never noticed before. It was about the Godhead and their function and how they're distinct separate beings. He said "I've never noticed this before, it was like someone just put it there!" It was in 2 Corinthians but I forgot which chapter and verse…I just loved that he told us all that, because he really is just a normal man and that he is still learning things. He was great :)

Well, I have to go, but it's going to be a good week this week! We're going to FIND, TEACH, AND BAPTIZE! That's how we do!

Until next week!

LOVE YOU ALL. The Church is true!

Sister Kuhn x

I love being a missionary, I'm excited to train!

I can't hold it in until the end of this email...transfers are this week. P-days are moved to Tuesday in transfer week  and transfers are on Wednesday. Transfer calls were last night...and...

I'M TRAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll meet my STAR (instead of calling them 'greenies' we call them 'stars' now...President Pilkington's initiative. Because we're all trying to become SUPER STARS)

lol.

Anyway…I meet my star tomorrow! There are only 4 sisters coming...and TWENTY-EIGHT ELDERS! Ridiculous. SISTERS, WE NEED YOU OUT HERE!!!!! But yesssss, I'm trainy trainy training! It's very exciting :) I have my first daughter tomorrow! Time to grow my family! Everyone you train becomes your daughter :) and when they train they're your grand-daughters etc etc. Cute :) My companion Sister Hedstrom is moving to Sheffield to TRAIN, WHITEWASH AND be a sister trainer leader (coordinating sister for the south of the mission). Whitewashing is where you and another missionary move into an area neither of you have served before and start basically from scratch. She gets a triple whamy! She's excited. She's been in Skipton, her first area, for almost 6 months! So she kind of thought something has to change this transfer. So yes, I'm training in Skipton. We have a car. I didn't know this but I could have been driving this whole time!!!! I just let Sister Hedstrom drive coz I didn't think I could. Turns out I can. Yeahhh buddyyy!!! Quite a bit has changed in the zone in terms of who's leaving, who's training etc.  but it's all good, it's exciting and it's a new chance to learn more things!

We had 1 investigator, Simon, at church on Sunday. World Record lol and taught Carol a few more lessons..she's progessing slowly but surely. We're finding lots of potential investigators as well. Skipton WILL progress. What we're trying to do is get the Church's name in the mainstream in Skipton and in the surrounding areas. Once we do that, less and less people will be afraid of us lol they know nothing about the church, yet they still shut doors in your face. That's a bit hard to deal with repeatedly without wanting to kick them all in the kneecap for not even LISTENING to what we have to say..but I'm trying to be more like Christ..and I'm succeeding :) so I don't kick anyone in the kneecaps :) progress!

I've had such a crazy week other than transfers…I don't even know where to start! It was just crazy...and missionary work isn't always how you imagine...at the end of the day, all the missionaries are still human beings with feelings and pasts and experiences. I've had front row seats this week of seeing the effect it's had on missionaries who haven't quite let go of their pasts or been truly honest about who they are…it's been rough, and it's not my place to blurt it all out to everyone, but things can change super fast, and you just have to make sure you're always trusting in the Lord and always putting your faith in Him, and then no matter what happens, you know everything will be ok because you're doing all YOU can to do the right thing or do the best you can.

I love being a missionary, I'm excited to train! The work in the area is going to explode, I know it. The gospel WILL reach every ear of the people in England!

Love you all, until next week!

Sister Kuhn xxxx

p.s yet again, I'm sorry if I don't reply to emails. I read them, I love reading them, and I'll be able to reply to them when I get home after 18 months if I simply don't have time while I'm out on my mission haha but THANK YOU for ALL THOSE who do email me. You're all amazing!