Again, Another Week of Crazy Cool (January 18th, 2016)

This week has been great! We seriously have the best ward ever! There

are a lot of families in our ward who have family who are either less
active or are not members at all. So we have so many people to work
with! And they are also really awesome! We are teaching our ward
mission leaders granddaughter and her whole family! They are really
cool! They remind me of home a bit. And there are so many others! This
area has so much potential!

We also had interviews this week with our mission president! Him and
his wife are so amazing! They are definitely inspired! Sister Stevens
is so cool, while her husband was interviewing, she would also take
one missionary at a time and talk to them and see how we were doing.
It was really cool because she knew exactly what to say to help me out
this week!

We have also been working with a 14 year old girl who is awesome! She
is preparing to get baptised and she is awesome. She is so ready. The
only issue is that it can be really hard to get to church on Sunday's
because transportation is not so great out here.

Last night Sister Wright and I tracked an entire street! We prayed
with our bishops family and they chose a street to tract and then we
came back and reported. It was like 60 doors! We met a few people we
are going to go back and visit!

Sorry if this email is random and all over the place, short on time :/

I love you all so much!

I know the church is true and I am so thankful for the peace it brings
in this crazy world!

Love,

-- 

- Sister Lisa Haynie

New Companion, New Feeling, New New New! (January 11th, 2016)

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you have had a wonderful weekend!

This week has been strange. I have no idea who will understand this
but I think I now understand what it is like to meet a celebrity in
real life. Let me explain.

So before coming out on a mission, I did my research. I was looking up
everything and it's mom  about missions to be as prepared as possible
to come out. Part of that research included the blogs of missionaries
serving in England. There were a couple of sisters blogs that I was
following? One sister, I met at the station when I got transferred to
Enfield. Sister Johannes who came out 6 or 12 weeks before I did. The
other one was a sister called Sister Wright. Aka my new companion.
Weird thing, before I even really recognised her, I recognised her
suitcases. I had been looking for suitcases and ideas for which ones
lasted, and saw hers and I thought they were cute... Any ways... It is
just a weird thing to have someone you have only seen pictures of,
come to life in front of you.

Now that that is out the way, I'll tell you all about the famous-ish
Sister Wright. She is 20, from Logan Utah, has two younger sisters and
is super fun! She is so different from me and any of my other
companions which is probably why we are now companions. I need a
little more fun in me. She has a totally different look on missionary
work. Not bad at all just different and it is just taking a bit
getting used to.

Again, anyways. This week has just been a reminder of how the
Gillingham 2nd ward is the best ward in this mission! As I have been
taking Sister Wright to meet the members, it confirms that we have the
coolest members. This area may be one of the hardest but it comes with
the best ward! I love these people

Oh and just have to give a shout out to my awesome mum! She was so
right when she said I would wish that I had kept up with the piano. As
I am finding myself saying more and more often, mum you were right. :)
On some missions, they need piano players like you wouldn't believe.
My last companion, sister Mathews, could play piano very well and the
ward was sad to see her go. They loved her dearly, but they are really
going to miss her talent. So, Carson, Josh, Jay, and Ben, please keep
up the piano. I wish I had.

By the way, fun fact about being a missionary, we, on a pretty regular
basis, get talked to through upstairs windows when we knock on doors.

Another not-so-fun-fact, as a missionary you grow to love complete
strangers and when you get to know them, watch them learn, grow, and
see the gospel change their life, you experience such joy. I have been
able to experience that a few times but this week, I was also able to
experience the other side, when they decide to not continue changing
their life. It is really sad, especially when you know they have felt
the spirit. I never thought that it could affect me the way it has. It
is probably because I am beginning to get tiny, itsie-bitsie glimpse
of how God sees them and feels about.

But even when that happens, I am surprised how positive I still am for
them! I know this is the only church that has Christ's gospel in its
entirety! I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior!


Love you all! Until next week!

Love,

-- 

- Sister Lisa Haynie

Transfers Again. . . And They Just Don't Stick:/ (January 5th, 2016)

Hello everyone! I hope the holidays were good to you all and you have
been able to pull yourself back to the real world. I know it's hard
after a break, but you can do it! I believe in you!

So transfers are here again! Another six weeks have flown by here in
Sittingbourne.

Sad to say that I must have something wrong with me, but none of my
companions want to stick around for more than one transfer. Areas seam
to stick to me better than companions. Guess I just have a lot to
learn! Any who, my beloved companion, Sister Mathews, will be headed
of to Dereham, which is almost as north as you can go in the England
London Mission, and I will joined by sister Wright! Never met her
before but I have heard great things!

We had an amazing miracle! So there is this guy here, Clayton, who has
had a lot of contact with the Church in the past and a little while
back, Sister Mathews called him and he started meeting with the
missionaries. That was back in September. Fast forward to a lot of
growth, some bumps in the road, but fairly steady growth, and I came
back and continued teaching him with Sister Mathews. He was preparing
for baptism in December, but he wasn't quite ready, so we decided to
shoot for the middle of January.

Side note. He works down here, but lives up north on the weekends, so
the sister missionaries up there were teaching him too.

Anyway so, on the 21st of January, we get a call from those sisters
saying that their zone leaders were challenged by President Stevens to
find one more person to be baptised by the end of the year and they
believed it could be Clayton. At first the sisters were unsure if he
was ready. He still had a lot to learn and come to know for himself.
But they had a good feeling so they called and asked him if he would
be baptised on the 31st of December. And... He accepted. It was a
miracle! Satan was definitely fighting it. But with one more meeting
from us and one from the other sisters, and a lot of driving back and
forth, Clayton was baptised on the 31st.

We were not able to go to it because it was so far away (up north is
where his ward is, so that is where he was baptised) but was an
amazing thing to be a part of! To be able to witness someone change,
even over the short amount of time I knew him, and then take that leap
of faith to be baptised! I have never witnessed anything like it!

I love my Heavenly Father! I am so thankful to my Savior Jesus Christ!
And I know that this church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints, is the only church on this earth that has all of the truths
needed to be able to be happy in this life amidst all his confusion.
And the Book of Mormon is the way, the evidence, one needs to know if
that is true for themselves.

If you haven't read it, I invite everyone to and discover for
themselves the joy it brings!

If you have, read it again and watch as miracles happen in your life
as you follow its direction!

I love you all and am so thankful for the impacts you have made in my life!

Make 2016 a year of miracles and happiness for you and those around you!

Love,

-- 

- Sister Lisa Haynie