IF I MOVED TO THE UK... I WOULD LIVE IN CHELTENHAM

So many miracles happened this week! The members in this ward are the real ones! Monday: MISSIONARY CHRISTMAS - This was my first/last Christmas as a missionary! It was hard being away from my family, especially with my new nephew being born (Yes he is the cutest baby EVER). But! Thank goodness for the amazing Cheltenham Ward! We spent all day with the amazing Conway family! It was so much fun watching the kids opening their presents, playing games, and I became a Lego master!!! Also learned some classic English Christmas traditions! Like watching the King's speech and Christmas crackers! Felt like we were apart of their family! So thankful for them! - I loved being a missionary at Christmas because it felt like the usual happiness and spirit I feel... but times 100! I loved growing closer to my Savior this Christmas and trying to love others as He did! Tuesday: DUCK RACING ON BOXING DAY - So over here they have another holiday on the 26th called Boxing Day. Basically Christmas pt. 2! An awesome day to do the work for Jesus! - Some of my favorite members in this ward took us out for a picnic at a place called the Cotswolds! The cutest villages that are older than the US! Usually they aren't busy, but they were packed!!! Turns out it was because it was the 40th annual Boxing Day Duck Race! Seriously hundreds of people were there to bet on and watch rubber ducks float down a river haha! It was really entertaining! Great for street contacting haha! Honestly never felt more British until Boxing Day! Wednesday: WARD FAMILY - When I say I love this ward... I mean I LOVE THIS WARD! The coolest thing happened! So our friends Ify and Excel got really, really sick over Christmas. We reached out to see how they were doing and Ify said that they had ran out of food, but were too sick to go shopping. I felt like we should reach out to our relief society to see if they had extra cans or something like that so we could drop some food off. Immediately members started calling us to say that they were on their way to go grocery shopping for them! They didn't even think twice to help out our friends! That night Ify called us in tears to say thank you and how he could not believe that anyone would do that for him and his family! "This really is the church of Christ!" I LOVE THIS WARD! Saturday: YEAH CAUSE ITS IN THE BIBLE - We had one of the most spiritual lessons ever with our friend Ify! We taught him about baptism! Ify absolutely loved it! We were going through our covenants, authority, and everything! And we would ask him if he understood and Ify would say, "Um yeah... cause this is how they do it in the Bible." - It was also very spiritual because we asked Ify if he had prayed about the Book of Mormon and about prophets. Ify shared the most heart felt testimony about the Book of Mormon and prophets! "I believe that there is one prophet and this is the word of God." He is also convinced that is is the true church because of the love that he felt from the members! Let's go! - At the end, we asked Ify and Excel if they would pray to know if they would like to be baptized! "Of course we will! We want to be baptized!" Even though this was only our fourth lesson with them, they know what they want! Please keep Ify and Excel in your prayers! Also another highlight of my week was getting to have a roadtrip down to Bristol with the legend SISTER OLANDER for MLC! Also got to see my old comp SISTER MASIMA and a bunch of missionaries that I miss and love! God really knows who we need in our lives! Anyways! Happy New Year! Love y'all so much and Jesus loves you too!