Sunburnt in "Rainy and Grey" England?

Okay soooooo we have had so much sun these past few days! I haven't had to wear tights or a sweater in 4 days now. Don't worry, I didn't get too burnt. Just a little pink on my neck. Still, I never expected to get burnt here in England. In fact, I even have few new freckles. It's been about 70 degrees, and is just absolutely lovely. It was perfect for this Easter weekend! Everyone here in England seems to be loving it too. They are the happiest they've all ever been, which is good because then they won't be as mean to us, Haha! Only problem, is now that the sun is out, so is literally everything else. I have seen so much skin in the past few days that it's scary. I guess the sun is an excuse to wear less clothing... don't worry, I'll still be dressed in long sleeve, turtlenecks & skirts that go down to my ankles ;)

This week has been a happy one. We have experienced the sweetest little miracle. Our appointments have been pretty consistent in canceling on us. Sort of frustrating, but there isn't much I can do about it. On Wednesday though, after finding that all appointments for the day had canceled, I felt prompted to go to our friend Penny's home. We've been struggling to get in contact with her, so I was really praying that she'd be home. We showed up, and she was! She was just outside with her cute little bird, Pretty Boy. We got talking with her about life and how she feels the Book of Mormon has really been making her happy. We only asked that she read 3 Nephi 11, but she has read far past it! Penny was telling us how her family has noticed a change in her since she started meeting with us, and she is happy about it. I then realized we never told her in depth how we came to have the Book of Mormon though! I only had ever really given her a brief explanation. I looked at her and said, "Penny, I'm so sorry, I just realized that we never really told you how we got that book. Do you mind if we do?" She said she didn't mind, and then right then and there we taught her the whole Restoration! After we told her all about it, she was saying how much sense it all made and brought up again how she wants to be baptized- we'd talked with her about baptism before. So... Penny has accepted the invitation to be baptized on May 18th!! Isn't that brilliant? This was such a miracle for us. After two canceled appointments, we had faith in following the promoting to see Penny, who has an immense desire to baptized. Faith always proceeds the miracle, that's for sure! I totally could have brushed the thought off since we had planned to see some other people, but I am happy with my choice to go there. Hip hop hooray for Penny!

Here's another story from the week-

We were trying to find some people on this map we have. We plugged it into our phone and just started following the directions. Typically I'm very grateful for the GPS since the roads here are an absolute mess. This time it wasn't the best... we went to this road that was supposed to put us right where we needed to be. At the front of this road was this huge gate, which was open, so I saw nothing wrong with going in. It was the fastest way our map was showing, so why not? As we got a bit further down the road, I looked behind us and noticed the gate had closed. It was in this moment that I wanted to grab the remote and hit rewind, haha! I realized we had entered some gated community, and even though we weren't there yet, I knew that the other end would have a huge gate too. We kept going, got to the other end, and sure enough there was another huge gate that needed a pass code for you to get out. At this point, Sister Robertson and I weren't really sure what to do... we tried knocking some doors in hoping that someone would answer, but no one was! We considered our options: we could climb over the gate in our dresses- which would not be very dignified- we could keep knocking doors, or we could accept our fate, take up residence there, & try to convert the whole posh neighborhood. We kept knocking doors. Eventually someone did answer, and before he could try slamming the door, I squeaked out that we just needed a code to leave the neighborhood. He quickly gave it, and then slammed the door. Bless that man.

Moral of the story, keep out of Gated Communities :)

I thought I would include some entries from this week's dream journal just for fun. Sometimes I can remember my dreams so well, and they're so weird that I just have to write them down. Hopefully you find them as funny as I do, haha!

Dream Journal:

April 19, 2019
Mark, N8, and I went to a youth activity at Bishop Camp's house, and the boys ruined Bishop's most favourite sweater by spilling a bunch of methamphetamine's or something on it. While that was happening, I was trying to pick out pictures to send home in my weekly email, and found this really cute one of me with a friend from China! I'm not sure who she is, but I'm sure she's lovely. Mom was telling the boys they needed to apologize to the Bishop or else we wouldn't be allowed to go back over there anymore.

April 20, 2019
We were at this ward activity back home for Easter, but it was really weird. There were lots and lots of puddings and Brother Westphal was eating ice cream while sitting in a puddle of melted chocolate, which I thought made him some sort of neanderthal. Dad and Tess just ate some chocolate and didn't really talk to anyone. While we were there, Zackary Quinto (Spock in the newer Star Trek's) came and all this weird stuff started happening. Money was raining from the sky, people were running all over the place, it was absolute chaos. At one point, because Zackary Quinto was like, a superhero, everyone wanted to kill him? And I think someone cut his ears off & set them on fire. But then I remember him letting out this yell (like he found his chi or something) and something noticable changed. Maybe he got more powerful?? Mark, N8, and I decided to start collecting all the money that had fallen out of the sky. The only thing was, none of it was real money. Some of it was monopoly money, some just plain out printer paper. And all of them had this weird dot in the center. The boys & I were getting ready to figure out the mystery of the dotted money, and then I woke up. Strange dream.

April 21, 2019
I had to pick up Mark & N8 from the high school, and Daniel needed a ride too. So I got them, and for some reason Riley was there and wanted a ride too. So we were driving, and then we ended up in Australia. It was so scary though because I was being a crazy driver and almost drove us into this huge dirty lake. (Which I would like to blame on Riley because I was driving with my eyes closed & he was supposed to be telling me where to go. I guess it wasn't very effective) We stopped at this huge abandoned house & decided to go in and explore it. It was so nice inside and had all these fun things, but in the back garden there was this huge rope pyramid, like at Neptune park! There were so many of my friends there, and I decided to sit by Taylor. She wanted me to film this video of all of them doing this really weird dance, so I did. It was actually really fun. At the end I was trying to get everyone for the credits & then Sister Songer was there! I was really excited to see her. After that I decided that Mark, N8, Daniel, Riley, & I needed to go home, and we did.

Lastly, I'll leave you with a more spiritual thought :)  Easter was such a good, happy day! I have loved so much that everyone has been talking about the Saviour. I absolutely adore him, and am always just amazed at what he has done for us. I have really been thinking about what it would be like if He were with me right now. What would I do? I think at first I'd just want to hug Him. Hold His hands and feel the prints in them. I've really come to love that His perfect, resurrected body still has the scars. Scars that are a reminder of His perfect and eternal love for us. I also would like to sit at His feet, and listen to any and everything He'd have to say. I'd tell Him thank you probably a million times for everything He has done for me. When it would be time for Him to leave, I think I'd be like the Nephites, in 3 Nephi 17:5 "...they were in tears, and did look upon Him as if they would ask Him to tarry a little longer with them." I wouldn't want Him to leave me at all. I would like to think He'd stay with me a little longer. I'm sure He would since He loves me. Oh how I love Him! He means so much to me, that sometimes I can't even put into words the love I have towards Him. I pray that you all can come to love Him and feel of His love as I have.

I hope you all enjoyed my stories and dreams from the week! I sure have enjoyed reading and hearing about all of yours. Have a great week everyone, and keep smiling!!

Love, Sister Sellick