Teaching so Many People

Dear mom, papa, family, and friends,
So today is transfers, and Sister Baker and I are both staying in Harborne. I am very happy to stay here. I’d like to stay here for the rest of the mission. We’ll see. But I LOVE IT here. And I love the people here SOOOOO much. It’s great!
So this week has been good. I went to Banbury, which was great. I went and served with Sister Whitaker, and it was very fun. We taught a less active that I had taught when I was there. Sister Toma. And when she answered the door, and saw me there, she hugged me and cried. Awww. It was really sweet. I didn’t' even know that she loved me that much. Awww.

And I got to see CRAIG! And he is aweesoommemmemem¬!!!!! He is great. Has 3 callings. Just received the Melchizedek priesthood and is doing great. Getting ready to go to the temple. He is thinking at the end of October. We’ll be here. I hope we can figure out how I could go when he goes in. I’ll ask him about the details. That would be so great. I also got to see the Augers and their whole family, and the Byrches. It was very fun. And I learned a ton.

So there is this AWESOME girl here named Charlotte. She is engaged to a less active guy in the ward, and she is seriously amazing. And when Sister Hedemark and I were together, she started coming to church with her fiancé’s mom, and that is it. And we wanted to teach her SO bad. Prayed for it every day. Well, Sister Bartlett, the fiancé’s mom, just invited us to start teaching her. They invited us to do a family home evening at their home every Monday, and teach the whole family and Charlotte as well. In that are a nonmember father, a less active son, and Charlotte! Fantastic! And what makes it better, is Charlotte just moved up the wedding date. But afterwards, she's planning to get baptized. So she just moved the wedding up from next September to this September!!! We are so excited. She is amazing, and we love her. And she wants to get baptized! Miracles!

Hmm, what else. OH! The BBQ went AMAZINGLY well. Peter came! And he loved it. And he is still learning, and trying to figure out what to do. He is amazing. Bishop Desous is coming with us next week to teach him. But I know that he feels the spirit. And he loves everything that we are teaching. So that's good! Everything is going well with him. And many people brought friends. They were expecting about 140 people to come, and apparently 260 came! Wow! They had to go back out and get more hamburgers, and there was a bouncy castle, and games. And it was awesome. Everyone had a splendid time. What a good ward!

Yesterday we had a really cool experience. We went out to Great Barr (pretty far out there - Great Barr is a large and loosely-defined area which straddles the boundaries of Birmingham) to contact a referral from another mission. Her name is Rebecca, and the only information we had is that she was taught the restoration in a floral shop and given a Book of Mormon. So we went to the address, and she was there. And she was so excited! She said "I didn’t' think that they'd actually send someone!" she told us she really liked what she'd heard, and she wants to learn more. And she has loads of questions for us. And it was AWESOME! So we set up another appointment with her, and we will see her next week. We’re SOOO excited. She’s wonderful. Yay!

Also, we had a really great experience with Marcela. While I was in Banbury, the elders gave her a blessing. And afterward Marcela told them that her migraine was gone, and that it was better than any medicine. Awesome! So we went to see Marcela on Monday, and she'd actually read! She is so busy, that usually she doesn't. Which worries us. But she did, and she loves it. And she knows she has to come to church, and it will bless her so much. She’s wonderful. Slow moving, but definitely getting there. We are thrilled.

We taught a great lesson to Edwin the other day. we thought it was our last lesson we'd be teaching him because he's leaving to return home to Malawi, but he then asked us to come a few more times. But we taught a lesson based on Elder Scott's talk on marriage from the last general conference. We actually watched the talk, and it was amazing. He then went on to tell us that he too had a son that died when he was a few months old. We testified of the temple. And found the closest temple to him in South Africa. And he says he'll take his family there. We went online, and found the branch's address, and the branch presidents' name, and his number even! It was awesome! He will do marvelous things. He’s amazing.

All is going well here in Harborne. We are working super hard. I’m always tired. Sister Baker falls asleep in lessons sometimes. I just try to kick her. Ha-ha. It’s funny. Not much though, don't worry. But yeah, things are going great. And I am happy to stay here another 6 weeks at least. Yay!!
Love you SOOO much. Thanks so much for the update. I love you SOOOO soooooo SOOOO much!

lloooove! Annie