This Is The Best Work In The World

 Love my new shirt...Thanks Kenna!

Twins with Hermana Stratford...

"Sorry Mister - I'm A Sister"

FAMILIA!!!

Guess what!??? I have the best news ever!!! My investigator Wendell from Longmont got baptized!!! I just found out! I am so happy for him! He deserves the blessings of the gospel so much! These kind of moments are what makes being a missionary worth it. It is amazing to finally see one of my investigators fully accept this gospel. I know a lot of them will with time. :) I am so happy! This is the best work in the world! Wendell was actually an interesting one. He was ex-communicated and was re-investigating. He had alot of hangups that were stopping him from progressing in the gospel again. We helped him work through some of those but when I left Longmont he wasn't really interested in listening to the missionaries anymore. I prayed so hard for him to gain back his testimony and re-join the church. I am so grateful he did. He will be so blessed! We were also teaching his wife who is a strong Southern Baptist so she will also be baptized some day...:) just takes time. This was a huge answer to my prayers. Good reminder that even though we aren't rackin up the baptisms right now we are doing good and people are listening. :) What a blessing.

Anway - it was amazing to talk to you guys on Christmas. I didn't realize how much I missed your voices until I heard them again. There were so many things I wanted to say that I forgot, but it was awesome to just talk to you. I'm glad you had a good time in Hawaii. Mom way to go with the guy from Isreal. Look at you guys doing missionary work:) I love it! Everyone still has to write me a missionary experience. I wanna hear em!

The rest of my Christmas was fantastic! The members were so good to us. We spent most the day with the Terry's and McDonald's. (we have become really close with the McDonald family. I love them so much) Oh and dinner with Donna was great. The beef dish was actually pretty good. Aside from the lettuce with jello thing (is that common? I thought it was strange) Michael (Donna's son) had eaten mexican food the night before and passed gas sooo many times during dinner...sooo loud and long. I had never heard anything like it. haha but we just laughed and it was a good time.

One really awesome thing that happend this last week was our less active Jose opened up to us about how he struggles with smoking. (We obviously knew but he would never talk to us about it) It was beautiful to see him humble himself and ask for help. What an example of faith and hope. His new year resolution is to quit smoking :) The church has a little program so we are going to give him that and help him kick the habit. This is a huge step for Jose and we can tell that he is striving to grow closer to Christ. Ahh I love being a missionary.

Oh my goodness I got Sam's wedding announcement!!! HE'S GETTING MARRIED!?? You are all terrible at keeping me in the loop! Also no one told me that Chels is pregnant! No one told me that Court was pregnant or that she had her baby! Or Chase and Amanda's baby! OR Colin and Jill's baby! Or that any of the millions of people getting married were getting married. Shame. I feel so out of the Utah world. Tell me things!...Also I am kind of depressed that Sam is not marrying Mac...they would have been so great together. But his wifey looks tall too so esta bien. Good job Sam. Their kids will be models.

Well have a fantastic week. I love you all so much...more than you will ever know!

Con amor, Hermana England

Christmas morning with the Terry's - Love them!

Later Christmas morning with the McDonald's

Sister McDonald gave us Banana Republic sweaters

Aubrey and Rachel (Gorgeous McDonald girls)

Hermana Stratford and me and

the cute McDonald boys; Parker and Jordan!

Love this family!

Greatest Christmas!

Christmas Day 2013

3 way skyping with Mace and Davis!

It worked awesome...they were able to see and

talk with us and each other!

Feliz Navidad!

 They have a Wahoo Fish Taco's here!

Finally made it there!

Hola Todos!

FELIZ NAVIDAD! I can't believe it is in two days! I'm so excited to talk to you guys!! :) Can not wait! 1:00 is good. Donna is okay with having dinner a little later...Beef something or other...yummy yummy. haha And I got all the instructions for skype so we should be set. Don't be having too much fun in Hawaii to come into the computer to talk to Davis and me :)

Well this last week has had its ups and downs. Eva has not found a new job and when we were over there to teach her a lesson about the Sabbath day and tithing, she got a call from her boss and had to leave. So she hasn't made too much progress since my last email. I still have faith that she will be able to keep these commandments and enjoy the blessings of baptism. It will just take time....I'm working on my patience haha

Yadira and Jasmine are doing great and we actually started teaching their little sister Becky. Becky is 14. We have taught her a few times now and she has already come such a long way! Becky is painfully shy and hardly ever speaks. She didn't know who God was and had never prayed in her life. We taught her how God loves her and knows her personally and how Jesus Christ has felt everything she has felt. It was such an amazing experience. This new concept that someone loved her and was looking out for her was so new to her. I know she felt the spirit in our lesson. We even got her to open up about some things she was grateful for...AND...SHE PRAYED! I don't think you realize how big of a deal this is. She never says anything...when we ask her questions she just covers her face with her hand and stays silent. So the fact that she prayed was amazing!!! AND after the lesson usually she doesn't say anything but this time she said with a big smile..."Thank you for teaching me how to pray." That was the greatest Christmas present I could have received. To bring someone the knowledge of their Father and redeemer. My purpose as a missionary became very real to me. I am so grateful to be a missionary right now. There is no greater Christmas present I could ever receive than doing this work. People ask me if it is hard being away from home and my family and honestly it is not. I miss you guys alot but I feel such a sense of purpose here that I have never ever felt before in my life and nothing could be better. I have never felt so much joy. Anyway we will hopefully teach their whole family soon. We have talked with the Mom and Dad and they said they would love to have us teach their whole family. We actually had an appointment to teach all of them but the mom forgot so we just taught Becky again...but we have their number...and we know where they live...they can run but they can't hide...(Sorry I'm like 100 percent more creepy as a missionary).

OKAY! I HAVE AN IDEA!...Like I have said, serving others and doing missionary work is amazingly rewarding and makes Christmas time and any time magical!...SOooo...This is what I want as a Christmas present from ALL of you (not just my family but anyone reading this email...that means you cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends, ward members, everyone!) I challenge you to pray and seek out missionary opportunities, make a plan and ACT, then write me and tell me about it! Okay?! It doesn't have to be huge. It can even be as small as mentioning church when someone asks you about your weekend. But then write me and tell me about it...It's not fair you guys get to hear my experiences every week but I don't get to hear yours :) haha so It's your turn. I wanna hear em! (macy.england@myldsmail.net)

Well everyone, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and remember the true meaning. We celebrate not only Christ's birth but his life as well. He has given us everything. And like Davis said I'm gonna give him my all this year.

Feliz Navidad!

I love you all so much!

Hermana England

Elf quotes for Christmas...

"I'm siiiining...I'm in a store and Im singiiiiiiing...I'm in a store AND I'M SINGIIIIIIIING!" 

"We elves try to stick to the four main food groups...candy, candy canes, cany corns, and syrup!"

"Kids down south don't believe in Santa anymore....Well who do they think puts the presents under the trees?....It's rumored that the parents do it.....That's rediculous!"

"SON OF A NUTCRACKER"

"THESE TOILETS ARE GINORMOUS" 

Hermana Stratford helping to build the Nacimiento!

(Traditional nativity scene Latino's make every year)

I was so scared at first that we were making a 

Santa Maria shrine...luckily not a Mary in sight, few!

The finished product...It was made out of lots

of dollar store steels...kind of crazy

and a little ugly but they LOVED it!

My first Nacimiento making experience!

Dani and Honorato with their Nacimiento!

(Dani is a recent convert and Honorato

is a potential investigator!)

Dani's kids...Paula, Christopher and Brandon

#Stateside :)

I'm Staying In Boulder

Yoga activity for Relief Society

Hola Mi Familia!

Soooo....I'm staying in Boulder! Yay! :) I'm so happy! I hate transfers. But the sad news is Hermana Cropper is leaving. She is going to Cheyenne, training a new missionary, and opening a brand new area!!!! Crazy right! She's so nervous but I know she will do great! We will miss her in Boulder. My new companions name is Hermana Stratford (I think that's how you spell it) I have met her once at mission conference. She seems really nice, I'm excited to be her compenera. Ella es muy flaca y MUY alto. So don't judge me when I send home pics looking scary standing next to a model! haha

Anyway Eva is still doing really good! She was not baptized last Saturday because the building was taken but she is still excited for it. The good and bad news is that she got a new job....good because she really needed it and bad because she works this Saturday which is supossed to be her baptism so we might have to wait ANTHER week. Or we may work it out to do it during the week which is unusual but might work. The other hard thing is that she doesn't know her work schedule ever until right before. I hope she doesn't have to work on Sunday's a lot. We'll see how it goes. I'll keep you posted.

Other than her I am kind of like Davis where no one else is really progressing at the moment. BUT...We have these two sisters Yadira and Jasmine who are really promising. We visited Jasmine the other day and she said Yadira has been reading in the Book of Mormon alot :) We were so excited! So we gave Jasmine her own copy and we hope she is reading. Our goal is to eventually teach their whole family. That's what the gospel is all about. I had this cool moment in their house during our last visit...I saw a picture of their family and in that moment I pictured their whole family in white in front of the temple. We're gonna get them there...some day:)

Oh my word the funniest thing happened this week!!! So we are in Boulder so of course the Relief Society activity is yoga night. So sister Felton taught this yoga class and it was all nice and relaxing...mood lighting, candles around the room, super quiet with spa music in the back round. So we are doing a shoulder stand where you are on your shoulder blades and your feet are up in the air and Sister Felton says...if you want to you can let your legs fall behind your head (So that your bum is straight up in the air) So we do it...and While we are in the process Hermana Cropper and I make eye contact....She looked so scared and I was thinking...what is this face she is making? And at that very moment she farts soooo loud and sooo long! Me, her, Heather Benson, and Sister Salguiro could not stop laughing! Everyone was trying to keep their zen and we were loosing it! It was so bad! AND Heather totaly thought it was me! hahaha I cleared that up after the class :) Funniest moment ever! Good thing she is getting transfered, she was so embarrassed!

It's been warmer this week! Thank the good heavens! Instead of negatives i's been usually in the 30's which is like the beach compared to last week; so we'll take it :) I'm staying warm! I got my Christmas package! Can't wait to open the presents! Thank you so much mom..and everyone. The stocking is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Did someone make it?

Oh Donna is having us over for dinner on Christmas day (she said she and Michael are making some sort of beef dish :) But anyway - she said she wants us to come over at 1:00 which is the time you said for skyping so I'm going to ask Donna if we can change that. Hopefully 1:00 will work for skyping. I'm going to ask either the Terry's or Mcdonal's to use their computer and I'm pretty sure they both have phones just in case we need to talk to you to get it going. Send me the info for skype and stuff. I am SO excited to talk to you guys :) AHH!

Anyway I hope you guys are getting ready for Christmas and Hawaii and everything. Remember to make Christ the center of your holiday season this year. I have come to know Him in such a new way on my mission. I feel closer to my Savoir than ever. I am starting to read the New Testiment all the way through and the stories of Christ are just amazing. I have a new and stronger love and appreciation for Him and his infinate Atonement.

I love you guys!

Feliz Navidad!

Love, Hermana England

We went to lunch with Sister and Heather

Benson and Sister Bench...

Love these women!

Last pic being comps with Crops...

Gonna miss her!

Elder Wengreen and Elder Whelch with 

their matching ties

Sister Woesner's Birthday...

Her quiencenera gift from Elder Litster

.... a Lady Gaga toothbrush

Ward Christmas Party

Santa!

Hermana Lastiri

The zone leaders crashed our Christmas

party for the food.  They are in a YSA

ward so they don't get fed a lot!

The party attire was PJ's!

The "No holding babies" rule is the worst

rule ever and I don't agree with it!

How can I resist holding this baby?

I wanted to eat her - she is so cute!

Pinata craziness...So many kids almost

got waked in the head! Gave me a heart attach!

Me and Nissa (member of Spanish group)

She reminds me so much of Kenz with her red hair!

Also, she told us her Santa outfit was part of

a lingerie outfit her husband bought her...

Oh Nissa...TMI!

Elder Mantor's "Elf On The Shelf" impression!

Pretty dang good, eh?

You've Heard Of Damnation Haven't You

Caroling on Pear Street in

in negative 2 degree weather...Fun!

Hola Familia!

Glad you guys all had a fantastic week. So cool that Mags did so good in her competition. Accadian for life! :) hahah I'm cheering for you in spirit this whole comp season Mags! You are amazing!

So it has been SOO cold here. It's been between negative 5 and 5 all week. They say it's supposed to warm up in a week or two. I sure hope so for the sake of my toes. They are going to fall off one of these days.

Living at the Terry's is awesome. We honestly don't see them that much because we have our own little kitchen and everything in the basement. They go down there during the day...pretty sure to check if it's clean. Sister Terry is a HUGE clean freak...like worse than Dad. But we keep it pretty clean so it's all good. We like it there.

We had a mission conference, which is pretty rare, with Elder Christenson. He is in the Presidency of the 70. It was so cool! I recieved a lot of inspiration on how to find people to teach. I'm excited to implement it this next week.

Oh my gosh I had a dream last night that my mission was over and I had to come home...so depressing. I never want my mission to end! It was the worst dream. Then in my dream I missed my plane and Mom was so mad but I was happy because I got to stay in Colorado for a little longer hahaha. It was so weird! I'm glad I still have a year left.

So guess what!?? Eva came to church!!! :) She showed up late and gave me a heart attack that she wasn't going to come...but SHE CAME! And she is so excited about her baptism! It is supposed to be this Saturday but it might have to be the next Saturday because there is too much going on at the building this Saturday with ward Christmas parties and Eagle Scout projects. Also we have to teach her tithing and word of wisdom this week. I think she will except these commandments but we will have to see.

But anyway the scary thing if it has to be the next Saturday is that is after transfers. If I move out of the ward 4 days before her baptism I will be so sad! But that won't happen...Hopefully I'll stay here with Hermana Cropper!!! Keep Eva in your prayers to except and live these commandments! I'm excited to teach them! :) Oh and another sweet thing that just melted my heart...Eva was meeting the Bishop on Sunday and he asked if she had family here in Colorado (which she doesn't) and she said..."No but this is my family now" (pointing at us and the people she just met at church) I love how our church is one big family. So comforting!

Some thing funny was we were giving a member lesson at the Bonnes' house. They have some inactive kids they were telling us about and Brother Bonnes says...."Do you ever just want to say to people...YOU'VE HEARD OF DAMNATION HAVE'T YOU?!" hahah he basically yelled it. So now when ever we get out of a difficult lesson sister Cropper and I just say..."You've heard of damnation haven't you?!" hahaha Love the Bonnes family.

Also this less active who has been a member of the church for years and years asked us to give her a priesthood blessing. I was like...umm Janee we don't have the priesthood. hahaha

Also I got to see Hermana Snow at the mission conference! :) Miss her soooo much!

Love you all! Happy Deciembre!!!  

Love, Hermana England

Playing bongos like true Boulderites!

Hermana Cropper, Me and Heather

(Heather is a girl in our ward,

I love her so much!)

Sister Rosier and I on exchanges

"Baby it's cold out there!"

Harry Potter wand and

unicorn ice princess Hermana Cropper

All the Sisters at the Benson's

I got to visit Bertina at her work in Boulder!

It was SO good to see her!  Larry still hasn't

"put a ring on it" yet but she is doing good.

We might volunteer at the Assited Living

place she works at. Miss her so much!

I'll Pass

Sporting the puffy hat and coat

that the crazy lady gave me!

(I look a little crazy myself :)

Hey yall,

I am so glad to hear that you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving! Even though it was a small one with out moms whole side of the fam. I'm sure you guys had a blast! :)

My thanksgiving was really good. It started out a little strange. We had Thanksgiving dinner at 1:30 with the Bench family. Sister Bench is amazing so we were so excited that she signed up for Thanksgiving. She had her whole family in town for the week so it was a FULL house. Alot of her kids are less active so we were thinking it will be so awesome to just chat with them and have a great dinner and maybe share a spiritual thought. But it didn't go that way. I don't know if they were just uncomfortable with us because we were missionaries or if they just didn't want people that weren't in their family there but it was weird. I tried so many times to start up conversations with her kids but aside from a few of them they were just not intersted in talking to us. So we just kept trying to be friendly. We gave up on sharing a spiritual thought because there were so many people and too many kids running around. So after pie we thanked sister Bench, who still was amazing; and walked into the other room to thank everyone for letting us come. So I walk in and say..."Hey everyone thank you so much for letting us crash your Thanksgiving dinner, the food was amazing, you guys have a wonderful family"....and all I get is blank stares. So again I say..."Thanks so much Bye!!"....nothin....So we awkwardly backed out of the room and left hahaha So strange.

Then on our way to our next appointment we see this homeless man with a sign that says, anything helps. Sister Bench had given us a bunch of rolls to take home so were like YES! Let's give our rolls to this man and our Thanksgiving will be so much better because we helped someone!...So we pull up to him and I roll down my window and hold out the bag of rolls and say..."We don't have much but I hope this helps"....The man looks at the rolls for a second, then looks back up at me and says..."I'll pass". I was like..."Are you serious?" And he was like...."Yes, I'll pass". So we ate our rolls the next morning for breakfast. hahah But after that we visited alot of the members of the ward and had dessert with the Davis family and we had a great Thanksgiving.

In other news we are moving later today to the Terry's. We are really excited to sleep on beds agian...as much fun as the love sacs have been. hahaha But the Hanson family has been great to live with! They are so sweet! And even though they made us eat their weird health food, bearly cooked hamburgers, and straight lemon juice, I'm gonna miss them. I have moved from the Nelson's to the Detero's, from the Detro's to Donna's, from Donna's to the Hanson's, and from the Hanson's to the Terry's all with in a few weeks. I'm excited to unpack and hopefully stay for a while. (Although this transfer is only 5 weeks so there is a chance of moving again in 2 weeks - Let us join in prayer that that does not happen!)

I took my camera in to several places to see if it could be fixed but they all said that I should just buy a new one because it will cost more to repair it. And some of the screws came out so they said what ever warrenty it was under probably wouldn't do anything because it looks like it might have been taken apart. So I bought a new one. Cheapest one I could find but it's still nice. It's a Sony...still fits the same memory cards and everything. So were all good now. By the way I had to buy more memory cards...you guys have to send them back to me!!! PLEASE! :) Thank you:)

Anyway other than that my week was alright. Unfortunately Eva had to work yesterday and could not come to church but she can still get baptized this month if she comes the next few weeks. I just hope she can eventually get work off on Sunday's all together.

Well that's about it for this week. I'm sooo excited to skype with ya'll this Christmas. Let me know what you find out with timing for Davis. I think I can do it whenever. Just have to figure it out.

Love you all so much!

Love, Hermana England

Volunteering at the "Turkey Trot Race" - 

(Not sure why it was Christmas themed;

but we went with it!)

Driving in the truck to our posts!

The whole gang of helping elves!