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Greetings from Castell Newydd Emlyn!!!!
Newcastle Emlyn is huge!!!!! (well the mission area... the town itself is quite small...) and the roads are tiny! .... i'm not even sure you could picture this kind of tiny. imagine one lane of a road... now add 3-4 foot high hedges on both sides, and random breaks in the hedges for driveways to little cottages and pastures. that's the majority of the roads. if a car comes from the other direction one or the other has to drive in reverse till they come up to a drive way and can get out of the way. that hasn't happened to me yet. i'm sure it will sooner or later. prolly sooner. knowing my luck it'll happen at night.
that first night - on our way home from birmingham was
quite intimidating. i was really procrastinating getting into the car (first time driving in England),
but i knew that rush in birmingham would be miserable, so we had to go
soon. i had a blessing before i went cuz sis. L (new companion) knew that i was
scared and some of the elders were willing :) i didn't do too badly. i
did get honked at once, i was driving in the
right lane of the motorway cuz i was going to make a turn soon, but the
right lane is the fast lane... so there was a line (a queue as they'd
call it here) behind me. they are adament about their fast lanes. they
would not go around me through the middle lane. ok. so i moved. and,
luckily with circles... if you miss your exit you can just drive around
it again. i only did that once. :) and we got home just after 9hrs.
blugh. (though we did stop at tesco extra on the way - since there are
no large grocery stores close to our place.
our home is called the 'hay loft' ... one of the members own a bed and breakfast and we are renting the top floor of what used to be a barn (i think.) it's been an adventure. expecially with the near freezing weather... it feels much colder than freezing with the humidity... it's always drafty in there (our bedroom is the warmest room of the house. thankfully) and the shower is cold. bleck. that just happened though. and brother b. (the b's own the bed and breakfast) is already working on getting it fixed. i'll be taking baths for the next few days.... potentially using the teakettle to get it nice and hot. :)
a hot bath sound really nice right now because i'm all
achey... which i my fault. but worth it. ... so sis. L was planning on
doing a talent with sis. lef. (her previous companion- who had been
here for nearly 9 months) ... dancing. indian dancing. but now that sis
lef. is gone... i'm dancing. indian dance. lol. sis L laughs...
she says my smile makes up for everything else (she is a classically
trained indian dancer... she's so cute!) i ended up tweaking our dance a
bit... added some ballet... and other things. it's unique.
definitely. maybe youtube it....
so i've met a couple of families so far. and i love
them (though i miss cardiff like crazy!) ... we have a building thankfully... and it sounds like they
have a couple of nice investigators... though no one with a baptism
date. it doesn't help that christmas is so close- everyone says they're
so busy with the holidays for church stuff. bah! eternal salvation...
what better time to be baptised than at the time that we celebrate the
birth of our Saviour!? but by january we have full intentions of
setting this area on fire!
we met the bishop and his wife yesterday morning. we having christmas over there. i'm excited. nice family...
big family. 5 kids! it'll feel like home :)
we had our d.a last night (well my first d.a... sister L has been here for 8 weeks already.) He's the ward mission leader. he's awesome. he has a powerful
testimony of the gospel and a strong desire to share it with everyone. we didn't know it was a da at first. just a visit, but then I was asked if there was anything i didn't eat. lol, i eat anything.
everything. and it was yummy stuff :)
so now the goal is to learn this area as quickly as
possible... and get the ward to love us... they were very fond of sis.
Lef... and sis. B who was here just as long (9 months in one
area!!!) it's hard for them to adjust to new missionaries... but we
need the unity :) lots of cookies, and notes and little visits. :)
it's such a beautiful area... and soooo different from
cardiff! this is the picture i think of when i read about brittain in
the old classic. the rolling green pastures, with hedges for fences,
sheep everywhere, little windy roads with trees and bushes arching
over. the sun was shining yesterday (decieving since it was below zero
(in centegrade :P ))
kk. well i'm gonna send this now... the
library closes in ten minutes... but the computers might shut off ten
minutes early... so.
till next monday... only a couple days... we'll be on around 4 ish.
i love you tons and tons!!!!
love,
Ashley
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