Sister Lybbert in Leeds: Gnomeo, Gnomeo....

Dear Mom, Dad, and Family,
Did the Zucchini baby sleep well this first week? I hear that Zucchini babies can be quite restless at night, I hope that you all got a decent amount of sleep. There is a reason missionaries don't have Zucchini babies. When I wake up every morning I wonder if I ever actually fell asleep. I wouldn't have the patience or capacity for one.

And, my sisters are crazy.

It sounds like it has been quite the adventuresome week. I believe that this week was one of the very vest weeks of my mission. It was just so so so so good. We did more knocking of doors than I ever had in my whole life, but for some reason, Sister Howard and I just had an incredible attitude toward it. I actually looked forward to it.
I think something that contributed to my positive attitude was that I've been studying a lot about consecration. There's a talk by Neal A. Maxwell (or James E. Faust) about it and it is so powerful. I felt so happy, focused, and diligent this past week.
We had so many miracles. We had Zone Training Meeting and we were asked to prepare a ten minute report on it as a companionship. The topic was how to increase church attendance. We didn't get called on to report, but what we prepared was 100% exactly what President had prepared for the meeting. I felt so happy to know that we were guided by the Spirit.
We also had a good lesson about obedience this week. Lately there has been an enforcement on the rule "no tea appointments at restaurants." Anyway, we had a tea appointment with the Radcliffe's on Wednesday, and when Sister Radcliffe picked us up, she informed us that she was going to treat us by taking us out to dinner. My heart dropped. Her excitement was so much that I felt it would make her upset if we said anything, but I couldn't bear calling President afterward and telling him that we did, in fact, go out to tea at a restaurant. Anyway, we got to the parking lot and Sister Howard and I looked at each other. We both felt so uncomfortable. However, Sister Howard found the courage to tell her the situation, and although disappointing to her (because her house was not organized and she only had things to make ham sandwiches, we ended up having ham sandwiches sitting in her front room. And do you know something? Ham sandwiches tasted as good as anything else. It was the best.
We had a brilliant lesson with the Filipino lady, Myrna, and her daughter, Ava. They are scheduled for a baptismal date and are official investigators! I feel so blessed. Seriously, they are incredible. We are going to see them this evening. I hope that it all goes well.

Sister Howard

And yesterday we had a huge miracle. I had a prompting to pull out my old planner from when I was in Keighley a year ago, and that we should try by some of the potentials listed in it. So yesterday evening, we did. We found James. He is 22 and he is so prepared. We taught him on the doorstep about the Restoration and parts of the Plan of Salvation and his beliefs were almost identical. He believed that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ and the Spirit was powerful. We asked if we could meet with him again, and he said he didn't want to become part of a church or be labeled as anything.
We asked him, "Well, if you believe that Joseph Smith saw God, wouldn't you want to find out how that affects you?"
He pondered the question for a moment, and then said with a solid and resounding, "Yes!"
I couldn't believe my ears. It was a miracle and we are seeing him on Thursday.
That means we found three new investigators this week, and we found so many promising potentials. I could not feel more happy.

The Cursed Gnome Garden

Funny Story:
On Saturday morning, we headed out to knock on some doors. We cam across yet another gnome infested lawn, and so we went across the street to take a picture.
As we were, I stepped back and slipped on something. I thought it was probably just some wet leaves. I looked behind me,
.....and it was a dead mouse, and I squished its guts out.
It was honestly the most disgusting feeling to know that my leg flattened a mouse and I shrieked. Then I leaned up against a stone wall, my face white, and me laughing, and feeling so disgusted that my shoe had mouse guts all over it. Oh my days, I still feel so traumatized. But it was seriously the funniest experience of the week.
Well, this email is quite long and I have not very much time left. I am sorry to those that I cannot reply to today (Josh, T

al, and all others). I still love you though!
Love,
Sister Lybbert

Here are last week's pictures. Thanks to Samara for helping me convert them to Jpeg files!