Today is August 25.  Exactly 3 months ago today my airplane touched down at Heathrow International Airport here in London England.  What I want to share this time is what I have learned so far and how I believe I have changed in the last 3 months?  Being objective and honest about how one has changed is a bit daunting I must admit, but here are my thoughts:

• More desire to be in tune with the Spirit.  Naively when I decided to go on a mission I envisioned being spiritual 24/7.  I'm sure the proselyting missionaries are able to achieve that lofty goal, but it's not the same for those of us who work in the mission office.  As with everything in life, we have to create the right environment.  Even when I am obedient and start my day with prayer and scripture study before coming to the office, the spirit isn't always evident.  It is when we diligently have morning devotional together as office missionaries and invite the spirit to be in the office that we get along better and accomplish more.  I have particularly noticed this during moves week when I am struggling to get the new flats completely ready for the new missionaries.  When I don't think there is any way everything is going to pull together, the Lord gives me help through others or by giving me a new idea that helps get some little thing done.  It is in these small moments that I realize how much I can accomplish if I work to have the Spirit to guide me constantly.
• Peace and comfort that all will be OK.  Once again I naively thought that my family and friends would not have any further challenges and I would have 18 months of worry-free bliss.  Of course this has not been the case, but I can testify that the promises from the Savior are true.  His comfort and peace have blessed me by helping me to turn over to Him those issues that I cannot change or fix.  The challenges haven't gone away, but my need to worry and fret has been replaced by peace of mind that all will be OK if I trust in the Lord.  The Lord promises us peace from the Comforter if we seek it.
• My personal comfort zone has expanded.  When Michael was still alive, I very seldom stepped out of that proverbial comfort zone we all build around ourselves.  It didn't matter whether it was with spiritual challenges or just normal everyday growth in new areas, Michael was my stabilizer and protected me when he could see I was getting overwhelmed.  The Lord knew I needed to lose my personal stabilizer to have the need to push myself outside that comfort barrier and to learn to rely on Him only.  Being thousands of miles away from everyone I know has created the need for me to rely more on the Lord's spirit to guide me in everything I do.  I'm still working at this obviously, but I can say I am getting better at learning to trust what the Spirit is directing me to do as long as I let go of my stubborn self-inflicted need to be in complete control.  When I allow myself to say, OK Lord, I am putting myself in your loving hands, then I find I am more capable of stepping 1 or 2 steps out of the light (my comfort zone) and into the darkness with faith that He will be there to strengthen me in what He has asked me to do.

There are many lessons for me to learn while I am here in England.  My prayer is that I will continue to recognize from where my help cometh through my Savior, Jesus Christ.  Through Him I can accomplish whatever is asked of me if I work daily to improve my personal relationship with Him and thus with Heavenly Father.  May the Lord bless each of you in your daily lives with courage to trust His loving care as He shows you how to come unto Him.

I love and miss you all.  Until next time, goodnight from Sister Cates.

Good Sunday afternoon.  It's been too long since I posted last.  No excuses.  Just super busy most of the time.  A lot has happened in the last 2 weeks.

First my mentor, Sister Hess, left on June 15 for Ogden, Utah so I've been on my own since that time.  She and I had been working on opening 9 new flats for the new missionaries coming on 10 July.  So far I have 8 of the 9 completed with proper approved paperwork.  Have all but 2 of the flats furnished, course that's not as good as it sounds since 3 of them were furnished flats.  During this time I started working with our new legal adviser from Utah who will be coming to live in Chorley, England to be the legal adviser for all of England, Ireland, Scotland, and not sure what other areas. He is coming with his wife who is completely wheelchair bound.  I'm in awe of anyone who has enough faith to go on a mission, then add being handicapped at the same time is just amazing to me.  The Lord will bless them abundantly for their dedication and courage.  Hopefully they won't have to get on and off of the train or tube without assistance as it is daunting for a healthy, completely mobile person.

Since arriving on May 25, I have had the privilege of hearing an apostle of the Lord, Elder M. Russell Ballard.  He came to London and had a special conference for all of the missionaries in the London Mission and the London South Mission (where I am serving).  Being with an apostle is always a spiritual uplift with the joy of being uplifted by inspiration and truth.  We listened to encouraging words to trust in the hand of the Lord as he is preparing people to hear the message of the restored gospel.  As we help others come unto Christ, we are blessed as well.  We also had the privilege of hearing that historical missionary fireside with Jeffery R. Holland, Russell M. Nelson, L. Tom Perry, Boyd K. Packer, and President Thomas S. Monson which was broadcast all over the world.  Our modern technology is a great blessing for our time to allow us to hear from such inspiring men of God.

A week or so ago, I moved to my permanent room where I will be for the next 17 months.  I can't believe I've been here already 1 month.  Do I sound English yet?  I'm not sure I'll know how to spell American style when I get home.  They spell several words differently than we do, such as tyre (tire), centre (center), and lots more I can't think of right now.  The biggest challenge so far though has been the English keyboard for my computer in the office.  Some of the keys are in different locations than American keyboards which has been interesting trying to type correctly, i.e., the " is on a number key at the top, the @ sign is where the " is normally.  There is an extra key on the bottom left which I am always hitting for the shift key.  It is getting better thankfully.  My new room is smaller than the one I had, but it has wifi set up in it so I can access the internet more easily.  If they would put a door from my room to the office, I could literally step through it to my desk.  It's a good thing they don't, though, cause I would be too tempted to go back in to work as I never leave at night feeling like everything is done.  Sounds like life, huh.

Let's see, what other things have happened this past 2 weeks . . . well, last Tuesday or so, Donny Osmond, his wife, and his 15-year-old son came to the London Temple to do baptisms.  They were vacationing in England and decided to come.  They were very gracious and allowed people to have their pictures taken with them.  My companion and Sister King got a picture with them.  They walked too fast for me to keep up with them, so I didn't get in the picture, but it's probably just as well for their camera:)  He doesn't look much different in person than on TV, just a little older.  His wife is beautiful and his son looks like a 15-year-old version of Donny.  It was nice to see celebrities take time to help do temple work as well as the rest of us.

Well, one last thing before I post this epistle.  Yesterday my companion and I went to McDonald's in East Grinstead (I think that's where we were).  We got there by ME driving.  Yes, I got brave enough to start driving.  You all know how much I love to drive, but I was a little nervous about whether I could do the other side of the road thing.  It was different, but it wasn't as terrifying as I thought it would be.  My companion only had to tell me twice that I was in the wrong lane:):)  Fortunately there were no other cars near us.  I will be honest though, I did not attempt one of the roundabouts with 3 or more exits.  People think our roundabouts there in the Tri-Cities are confusing, try over here where you have to be in the correct lane to make sure you are positioned to make your exit without cutting anyone off.  It's a bit intimidating and hopefully I'll figure it out.  Here I can drive for 1 year on my Washington State license (another word spelled differently, licence).  Then I have to take a driving test which I am told is very, very difficult.  Hopefully after driving for a year, I'll be able to pass.

Well, it's time to go fix dinner.  It's early in the day for all of you while it is nearly 6 p.m. for me.  I'm loving it here in England.  The people are friendly, a bit hard to understand when they speak their normal speed, but it is getting easier.  I don't think I'll ever figure out Cockney, but who knows, maybe Henry Higgins will help me out.

I don't get to do any proselyting (actual finding and teaching people the Gospel), but my work in the office allows 220 other elders and sisters to be out in the field telling people of the joy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how the gospel can help their families, how knowing about the Savior can give them hope in this world of challenge and confusion.  It is a pleasure to be serving with the missionaries of the England London South Mission.

I love you all and, of course, miss everyone, but this is where the Lord wants me to be at this time.  My prayers and thoughts are with all of you every day that you are healthy, successful, and have joy in your life such as I do.

Till next time . . . LOVE . . .

Sister Linda Cates

Well, this is my first post on my blog after dear Laci has taken a lot of time to set this up for me.  Thank you Laci.

Have completed my training at the Provo MTC and survived.  Actually, it was a spiritual, uplifting experience every day.  The trainers and others working here at the MTC are kind, patient, and very understanding.

Tomorrow morning I will be leaving the MTC at 8:00 a.m. to go by shuttle to the Salt Lake airport.  Will fly out at 11:00 a.m. and go to Chicago O'Hare airport, where I'll have a 2-hour break, then fly to London.  My plane arrives at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning.  I'm truly hoping I get to take a nap.


I'm very excited to actually begin my mission service with the good people of London.  If I can figure out how to add some pictures I will try to do that.  If you don't see any pictures, I'm still trying to figure it out.

Have a great weekend everyone.  You're in my prayers each day.

Sister Cates

May 1 -- Getting ready for the BIG leave day

Finally back from seeing extended family and on the countdown clock to May 13.  Received packet from Salt Lake for completing the Visa paperwork.  VERY Confusing.  Waiting for a phone call from Marni from the Missionary Dept to clarify many questions for the online application which goes to the UK.  Apparently this is a test to see how capable I will be figuring out mysteries in the mission office.  Yeah.

Getting Ready to go!

Week and a Half to go before I leave for Provo and Tons to do still. At least I can check the blog off my list. One down hundred and fifty to go.