An Exciting Week!! 25-11-13

Dearest Family and Friends, 

I LOVE being a Visitors' Centre SISTER!!!!! We finally got to utilize our training as VC Sisters this week by taking a less active family we're working with through the VC. We had FHE with them the day before, and invited them to come to the VC. We took them through God's plan for His Family, and the Spirit was SOOO STRONGGGGG!!!!! That exhibit was designed to "pierce to the very heart" and that it did! We all just sat there crying and we invited them to prepare to go to the Temple to be sealed as a family. We took them to the Savior of the World room and cried at the Gethsemane picture etc etc and it was great. It was the family who sent you that email Mum. Their little girl is 7 and she wants to be a Sister Missionary and her Mom said that she had a vision of her daughter as a Sister Missionary so they need to work to get to the Temple! She told us that her daughter begged her to let her dress like us that evening so she was wearing a skirt with a top tucked in haha! SO CUTE!! We love them so much! It's just amazing to feel the Lord using you to benefit people's lives for the rest of eternity and forever and beyond. 

Exciting news of the week was that we received a referral from church headquarters which means that the person contacted mormon.org or went into a VC and filled out the guest card. We went by expecting it to be just one man because all we had was one name but it turned out to be a whole FAMILY! The best part is that they have broken away from the polygamists in Mexico. He is from the Church of the Firstborn in the Fulness of Times. It was so interesting hearing about that church. They broke away when polygamy was done away and formed their own church in Mexico and there's only three families there really. They teach all the same stuff as us, except for ONE MASSIVE DIFFERENCE Haha. So they broke away, he just has the one wife but he has 32 brothers and sisters and doesn't believe in polygamy and doesn't believe that one church has the true authority - we can work on that ;) and then he knew he needed to get back to church and contacted the missionaries - ie, US! We live like one block from them and visit a family in the house next door and we never knew they were there! Heavenly Father has been preparing them. He said he used to turn the other missionaries away when they'd knock and tell them that they don't have the authority but that his church did, but now his heart has been softened and he is so ready!  There is a wife and 5 children, 3 of baptismal age!!! They want to come to church really badly cos all they've done on Sundays is sit and read the Bible for 7 hours! It's interesting because we are trained in a way that if someone reads the Book of Mormon and gains a testimony that Joseph was a Prophet then that can clear up all problems with any other commandment or claim to authority because if Joseph was a Prophet then the Book of Mormon must be true and the Church really is true etc etc but he has a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon already, he just needs a testimony of this church. And that's something that is new to both of us so we're just hoping that as we're there the Spirit will be felt and he'll know we are true representatives of Jesus Christ etc. 

Next exciting thing was when I INVITED B TO BE BAPTIZED!!! She is the 21 yr old that is married to a member. It was the best! We taught the first lesson, the restoration. She kept getting teary eyed and when it was time for me to extend the committment I felt SICK and wondered if it would ruin everything but I calmly proceeded to make the baptismal invitation and she said .... YESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!! IT WAS THE BEST FEELING EVER! Better than getting 10,000 facebook inboxes or being invited to Prom by 15 different boys or getting a Topshop voucher for £100. Inviting someone to be baptised and having them say yes beats everything. When the conversation proceeded with Sister D and B and the member present, B's husband H made eye contact with me and just smiled the biggest smile in the world, pure happiness! We just sat there smiling at each other for like 4 seconds, it was the best! We are taking them through the VC on Saturday and will teach the plan of salvation in one of the teaching rooms there. Then we are looking at the lights at the Temple and then going back to theirs for eggnog and cookies! 

The white Christmas idea is really taking off. The Stake President wrote a letter to be read in Sacrament Meeting yesterday and so all the members are fasting with us next week. It's all official now :) The Stake keeps telling us how much they love us. They're all "the Elders were great but you Sisters are magnificent!" haha we feel bad for the Elders. But not really. Haha.  It was kinda sad because the other Catholic family we were teaching told us that her husband doesn't feel comfortable with us being there and that she's not sure where the discussions will be going. So we are sending the Ward members over there to befriend them in hope he feels more comfortable. It was honestly heart breaking to hear that. But it will all be okay :) Its rained a TON in the last few days. We had to break out the winter coats and umbrellas and boots and tights. We walked everywhere in the rain. You'd have hated it Mum, walking in the rain and talking to strangers - everything you dislike haha. It was great though. People still didn't really let us in though haha. But lots of members pulled over and tried to give us a ride. One interesting man answered the door and we gave the speil and he said he wasn't interested and I said "As missionaries we're not just here to share a message about Christ but we're also here to serve in any way we can. Is there anything we can help you with?" and he looked at me and said "how about a kiss?" and I kept a perfectly straight face and said "I'm probably going to say no to that." How blunt are some people?!?! I'M WEARING A NAMETAG haha! A sweet sister in our Ward has taken my pencil skirt to sew up the split so I can finally wear it. We had dinner at her house and she was talking about her sewing projects so she has my skirt and my coat cos a button popped off and Sister D's blazer that has a tear!

We are doing a lot of service. We painted a less active's house the other day and Sis D got white paint ALL UP HER SIDE cos she slipped and fell against the freshly painted cupboard hahahahaha! Not that I found it funny ;) We also are cleaning up another less active's house and she's really fun so it's not too bad. She let us rearrange her whole house which was cool. She gave us bacon in return haha. We took freshly baked bread that a member gave us to a less active house and left it on their door cos they didnt answer! It was such a Sister missionary thing to do, Elders just dont think of stuff like that ;) it's just a single boy who is a few years older than us. He called us up the next day and was soooo grateful for it and now he wants to see us!! Serving DOES work :) We also knocked this door and this Mexican man answered and he wasn't interested and told us he was Catholic and believes in Christ and doesn't believe in other churches etc and we agreed that we believe in Christ etc and I shared the scripture in 2 Nephi 25:26 about "We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ" etc etc and it was AMAZING!! His whole countance changed, something touched him to the very heart and he just was so accepting and we might be seeing him Wednesday. Turns out he already has a Book of Mormon and needs help understanding it! WOOOTTTT! We met Jayden and Payton's parents this week. My first baptism is on Saturday at 10am if all goes to plan!

We're working a lot with the old people in the 6th branch and they're super sweet. One older lady we've been meeting with has gotten her temple recommend after years and years of inactivity and is going back to the Temple for the first time in December and she just LOVES US AND WE JUST LOVE HER.. I nearly cried of happiness when she told us that! 

Also I know I told people not to email me but now I've figured out how to print stuff off it's fine, so go ahead and email again :) 

I have to get going but I love you all so much and pray for you all every day! It's Thanksgiving this week!!!! 

Love 

Sister Nicholls

Sister Nicholls with her trainer, her trainer's trainer, and her trainer's trainer's trainer!!

Onward Ever Onward in Washington City! 18-11-13

Dear Family and Friends, 

It feels like I just emailed you yesterday!! I couldn't think of anything to write because it's only been a day and then I remember that it's been 6 days and I could write essays about everything that has happened in the last 6 days! 

First I should tell you about Jayden and Payten. They are the two little girls who we're teaching that are getting baptized on Nov 30th. They are just perfect! They're so sweet and they drew us a picture of us holding their hands and walking into the sunset haha and our nametags definitely say "Elder Nicholls and Elder Donaldson" hahahaha! Because the Elders found them and taught them twice and now they're OURS! Haha we love them so much though and they love us! The relationships you form here on your mission are priceless. They are 11 and 9. So we're teaching the girls and we all just love each other. We're like family cos we see them a few times a week. The girls are just so into the gospel and soak up everything and it reminds me of how we need to be like children. With Jayden I can just see the potential that Heavenly Father sees within her. She said she wants to go on a mission and I can just see her doing great things in her life. Payten's a bit younger so it's harder to see but she's still AWESOME! I will definitely be in contact with them after my mission! 

My companion and I were walking the streets of Washington to get to our dinner appointment in time and there was a man walking towads us on the other side of the street. The Spirit said strongly to both of us "talk to him!" so we looked at each and gave the nod and crossed the road to be in his path as only missionaries are so skillled at doing haha. We approached him and talked with him. He was all muscly and tattooed with a funky beard that was shaved in like stripes haha and had jewellery and a bandana I think, and yet us two 19 year old girls approached him and shared a message about Christ with him. He got all serious and was like "I'm a member of the church but have done some bad stuff but recently have felt like I need to come back" and it turns out he'd been divorced and gotten into bad stuff and felt too bad to go back, especially to a family ward where everyone is with someone. So we got his details and found the local mid-singles ward and passed them on to him! It was cool how we just weren't scared of him. He thanked us at the end and said how it touched him because most people cross the road to get away from him but he saw that we crossed the road to SPEAK to him! It broke my heart to hear that. 

We've met lots of good people this week and we're really hopeful for a high number of baptisms in December! We were planning for our week and saw that we are teaching about 13 investigators. We have set a goal for 10 baptisms in December - it's a crazy big goal but we are fasting and praying for miracles.  I need your prayers and your fasts if possible. It's a miracle we need. If we don't get 10 then whatever we get will be more than they've had in a long time! We taught a woman who just married a member. They are 21  and she saw General Conference and is interested in learning more about the church. So we went by their house with a member couple last night and had a really spiritual lesson about Heavenly Father and faith and prayer. The Spirit was just so strong! She looked pretty teary at parts but seemed kinda wary too, I think its because her family all grew up here but weren't members so taught her to watch out for the Mormons and now she's actually investigating it's hard to give that up. But we're hoping for some good things in December with her! We're gonna take her through the Visitors' Centre and give her the 'God has a plan for his family tour'! We also tracted into this family, the woman answered the door and said some boy missionaries had come by a few weeks/months ago and given her some "reading material" and she has a lot of questions and is interested in learning about the Mormons. Her husband is in the Marines and is a Recruiter so they're stationed here for a while. I believe that Heavenly Father has sent them here for a reason. They're a good Catholic family from LA but disagree with a lot of the Catholic teachings. She asked us a lot of questions about womanhood and if God likes women and whether it's okay to ask questions and how we are forgiven of our sins because she disagrees wtih telling the priests all your sins as it should be between you and God and she believes that God loves women too and hates how the Priests dont listen to her and tell her to stop asking questions! hahah! We found a perfect fellowshipper for her, she is from Lanzarote (I told her we went to Puerto del Carmen and she knows it!) and used to be Catholic and is the same bubbly personality as this woman so we're excited for this family! Keep praying for miracles please! 

We tracted this woman who is a Christian of some denomination and we talked with her for a while and when we brought up those threatening words "The Book Of Mormon" she actually BLESSED HERSELF hahaha! It just cracked me up that she felt she had to cross herself because of those very words haha. Needless to say she didn't invite us back again. We were walking from church house to church house yesterday for our meetings (something you can't do in England because it would be hours of walking) and this car pulls up beside us with this Hispanic gangsta with tattoos and jewellery leaning out the window and he goes "hey girls you want a ride to church?" and I didn't even have to take a second to listen to the Spirit's advice because I just said "no we're fine thanks" haha it was one of those instances where Heavenly Father is like you can make this decision all by yourself I think you're clever enough. Haha so we said no thank you and he said "you look beautiful today" and so I did what any self respecting Sister missionary can do and turned away and shouted back "thanks!" haha. If you want to get rid of a missionary just tell her she's beautiful haha. So I walked away and said thanks so I wasnt rude but AINT NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT.  We got soulz to save.!  I'm pretty sure he didn't want to take us to church haha. 

We went to a less active members' home to ask if we can do a FHE for them. We've met the wife twice and the husband once, it was her birthday so we took her the dvd about the temple. Anyway we just felt like seeing them that evening and as we talked on the doorstep about gospel stuff she said how she feels like she's known us forever! It was amazing because that's what we were actually talking about on the doorstep, those kindred spirits that you feel you've always known, then she said yeah after last time you came I said to my son that I just feel like I've seen you somewhere before. It was so cool and she was so touched.  We have a LOT of lessons booked.  Hardly any time for door knocking, I actually like door knocking though! Meet a lot of cool people. There are so many little experiences I could share with you from door knocking, where I'll say something and the woman was like "my mum who passed away last year would always say that to me.." !!! and one painfully awkward one where it was silent for like a solid 8 seconds hahaha. And one where we were lost and prayed that we'd find someone we need to find and this family pull up in the house we were standing in front of trying to see our map in the dark and after talking to them for ages it turns out they're a less active family who we had a referrral to visit with! So many little miracles! 

We spoke in Sacrament Meeting yesterday about who is my neighbour? It went well I think. We are speaking in the 3rd ward next week. Speaking every week! Making our rounds and we can't even give the same talk every time cos they give us different topics haha! It's all good experience. We have four invites for Thanksgiving thus far! 

Keep praying for me, I need all the help I can get haha! 

I love you so much! 

I pray for you all the time! 

Sister Nicholls

Crazy Dogs & Generous Ladies - 12-11-13

Dearest Family, 

I GOT BIT BY A DOG!!!!!! I know the correct grammar is "bitten" but it sounds way more dramatic when you write BIT! Here's the story. We were walking to a house and went past this house that has what looks like a cage type fence around it and this CRAZY DOG ran up to the fence at 90mph and looked like he was going to jump the fence and eat me. He was so fierce! I stopped in my tracks but he didn't jump over the fence, just barked from a distance. Then the next day we contacted a referral and IT WAS THE CRAZY DOG HOUSE!!!! We went up to the gate, and crazy dog was nowhere to be seen. All that was there was the cutest puppy in the world - now we know that the puppy is just a seductive luring trap! We gingerly opened the gate and went into the property, calling out for crazy dog but he was nowhere to be seen. If he was out there, he'd have come by now. We walked the path and reached the door, pressed the ringer and hear the loudest bark. It was echoing, so we knew it was inside. Suddenly, my heart leapt into my mouth because the echoing stopped and I knew the dog was in the back garden, making its way to the front. The vicious snarling got closer and I surveyed the scene, knowing that there was NO WAY I'd make it to the gate in time. I felt SICK. We were literally trapped in a cage with this beast. He jumped over the hill with the crazed intensity in his eyes, as Sister D RAN! She was closer to the gate than I was, and I knew if I ran he'd have me from behind. So I stayed calm, and spoke nicely and walked very slowly. The dog was RUNNING towards me and it was SO SCARY MUM!! I walked slowly to the gate as the dog grabbed my leg from behind and sunk his fangs into the flesh above my ankle on my left leg. I screamed out in pain but no one came to the rescue, so I kicked out my leg and slapped it with my hand. It was the loudest and highest pitch scream ever haha. Sister D was impressed. When the crazed beast pulled his gnashers from my leg I pulled the gate open and recovered as he snarled at me from the other side. It didn't bleed for some reason, but my finger did. There's just two big purple lumps at the bottom of my leg, it hurt so much and walking has really hurt this week but onward ever onward! I tried not to complain about it at all and have soldiered on as missionaries do. It was a journal experience for sure. CRAZY DOG! 

Last Monday night we were out tracting and always the only doors we knock on are always the ones who turn out to need us! We don't just knock on every door because most are members, but we come to a house and check how each other is feeling. Both of us know when we need to knock at that house, so we knock and it's always someone who turns out to need us! It's amazing and never gets old. So it was about 7:30/8pm and was really dark and I just got a really bad feeling. We wanted to go up one more street but there was something stopping me from walking, I physically couldn't take a step in that direction. There was this creepy looking car up there with just the headlights on and a man sitting there. So anwyay we turned around and these creepy noises started and we walked faster and faster and then Sis D said she felt like we had to GET OUTTA THERE and it was so scary! I don't know what it was, but the Spirit was just telling us to RUN! So we walked faster and then called the Bishop who lives up the road and he JUMPED in his car and was there minutes later. We jumped in and he drove us home and watched us walk in the door. We don't know what would've happened if we didn't follow that prompting. Sis D felt like someone was following us. But I don't tell you that story to scare you, I tell you it to show you how much we are looked after by the members here. In the car the Bishop said to us to NEVER hesitate to call him no matter the time of day or night if we need him. He reminded me of you Dad!  Oh my gosh the loveliest member in the world took us to Walmart on p-day and she BOUGHT ALL OUR SHOPPING!!! We needed lots of stuff for our apartment like a CHAIR haha the Elders just used one so we'd take it in turns to sit during meals haha. And a mirror, and a hair dryer, and hand towels and washing up liquid and soap! So we had to buy a lot of stuff and she bought it all for us, and lunch! It came to like $250 all in all and she got everything. I felt so bad but she was so nice! I have her details if you want to call her and thank her. 

We taught a woman and her non-member husband yesterday. During dinner I just compeltely forgot the WHOLE FHE lesson we'd planned and I was like, OH NO what are we going to do?!?!?!!??! It just vanished from my head! Then a voice in my mind said you need to talk about Joseph Smith. And I was like but WHAT about Joseph Smith!??! I'm sure his wife has told him about Joseph Smith many many times! Then so clear and distinct it said to talk about the way his family were prepared for the things he would accomplish. So I just prayed that Sis D would accept that our FHE plans had changed and as it turned out, she'd completely forgotten what we'd planned too! SO I know it was the Spirit. And it turned out sooooo spiriptual! As the woman dropped us off she thanked us for the FHE saying that just days before her husband had read her missionary journals and said that she had accomplished a lot in her life! So it was great! The Spirit was so strong. 

We were tracting in the dark the other day and there was like one house with lights on, so we were approaching that house and suddenly all the lights went off and a man was peeping through the blinds at us hahahha! We got the message, but I so wanted to just wave at him to let him know we could easily see him watching us! Perfect missionary moment.  I love teaching the Restoration on the door step! The Spirit is so strong every single time. We have only found like two people who have never heard of Joseph Smith before and both have Book of Mormon's of their own now and are reading them. I'm excited for them. One other awkward moment was when we went to this door and we thought people were in but then there was this really sensuous Adele song being played REALLY LOUDLY, so loudly that they couldn't hear us knocking if we tried. We knew something not missionary appropriate was going on behind that door so we just laughed so hard and left. We laugh a LOT together. It makes every day fun! There's this dog that we are trying to get a pic of that lives next door to us who is a little chihuahua looking dog with LONG hair that has been shaved all except for a tuft on its tail and around its neck and IT LOOKS LIKE A MINIATURE LION!!! We call him lion dog, he is so funny! 

We were walking down the road one time and the Spirit told us to talk to this young man on his drive by his car. We looked at each other and nodded and started talking to him. We could tell he was higher than life haha, and they always are around that certain house. We think a drug dealer lives there because all of them say they're there to get their van's done or their van's brakes fixed etc always car excuses but we know they're all high! So anyway we were talking to him and it turns out he's a 21 year old member who is less active and turned to drugs because of family problems. I can't tell you the love I felt for him, I just bore testimony to him of the love Christ has for Him and how He is just waiting for him to come back, and how there is something special he needs to fulfill but needs to reach his potential to get there. He started crying and felt the Spirit really strong and said he's been trying to get off drugs and come back but it's hard cos all his friends are druggies but that he would like to serve a mission but needs to get off drugs etc. It was soooooo touching and amazing to stand there crying with him. We have all his details (he lives out of our area so we referred him on to the other Sisters) and will follow up with him. I love experiences like that.

Our weekly planning takes about 3 hours on a Friday morning, and we ordered a pizza because it makes it more fun! I felt like the YM at Mutual haha. We had Zone Meeting in the morning and it was all about not racing our investigators through the sacred grove, but taking them by the hand and guiding and walking them through it. It was so spiritual! I love my Sister Training Leader's and Zone Leaders. President and Sister Center were there too! I wouldn't want to teach with them listening haha! We taught Mutual the other night, just got a call asking us to come so we hadn't prepared anything but it turned out good. It was just the young men, and the young woman who prayed in opening exercises said "Please bless that the young men will enjoy the Sister Missionaries" hahahaha! It cracked us up. We talked at Stake Conference, the Saturday Evening adult session, it went well. I was so nervous because lots of people were there, but the Spirit led it and it went really well! President Lewis the counsellor on the Presidency who we just LOVE because he loves us, came up to us at the end and sincerely complimented and thanked us. I love him! He's invited us over for thanksgiving dinner so we're excited! You'd like him and his family, they're so wonderful. He just emulates Christ at all times. We had this delicious dessert that you would've loved that was like Tres Leches cake but a pumpkin version, it was SO GOOD! The members feed us so well! Every day we have appointments, sometimes too many in one day and too much food haha. We were walking on the street and a car pulled over and I was ready to punch someone in the face for trying to kidnap us but it was this sweet old woman who wanted to give us $20!!!! We used it to pay for pizza for our planning! They get offended if you don't take it. 

We've spent a lot of time cleaning our apartment from the Elders who last lived in it. It was gross but it's getting better. I bought the grossest blanket in the world from Walmart, it's got a wolf howling at the moon on it, I LOVE IT haha. It's so thick and warm. I got two new blankets. I boughrt your Christmas presents from Deseret Book yesterday. I hope you don't have them already! I napped yesterday too, it was so good. We accidentally slept in the other day because we forgot to put the alarm on, but I woke up at 7am and woke Sis D up. That's the second time that's happened cos it happened once at the MTC. I think that must be my natural time to wake up because both times I've woken up at 7 and feel so refreshed and wonderful. I feel awful at 6:30am and it's exhausting struggling every day to get out of bed and take myself into the cold dark outside to run. The stars are super bright though cos there's no street lights out here. I'm always in bed at around 10pm because I don't take long to get ready for bed and I'm asleep STRAIGHT AWAY. It cracks Sis D up because I'm asleep SO soon. She takes longer than me to get ready for bed so the light is always on and she's not in bed but I'm just out of it in seconds of getting into bed. She has insomnia so she lays there for ages and is awake in the night and she just listens to me enjoying sleep haha. It's been so hot these last few days in the day time, I have tan lines on my feet and on my watch and my hair is really blonde. It's cold today - I had to put a cardigan on ;) 

I've just fallen in love with the Psalm of Nephi! I read it at the perfect time that I needed it and it was just beautiful. I want to read it every day haha. My testimony of prayer has grown so much in the last 5 weeks since we said goodbye. I rely on it so much and when I feel like I can't put another dog bitten foot in front of the other I get down on my knees and plead and have this renewed sense of encouragement and LOVE MISSIONARY WORK! I honestly love being a missionary. I can't remember not being one. 

Okay I think that this is all of my news for this week! I can't think of anything else to put! I love you all so much and think about you first thing in the morning and last thing at night! I hope you do too :) I got Luke's package from BYU bookstore but it was couriered so I had to go up to St George to get it. Thanks for sending it though because I've lived in the clothes when I work out, it's perfect thank you! And the shampoo and cleanser etc was perfect so thank you! 

I love you all!!! 

Sister Nicholls 

First Email from the Mission Field - 4-11-13.

Dear Family, 

I've been a missionary for FIVE WEEKS NOW, but have been doing missionary work for four so whatever. I have so much to tell you that I don't even know where to begin. So I'll start with the last few days of the MTC. The Temple Square experience was interesting. One cool part was going into the Tabernacle and doing the acoustic demonstration - so I've stood up on that part behind the barriers where the Tabernacle Choir sing, and pressed some buttons, I felt super cool. haha Then we walked in the tunnels underground! I met a boy from BYU singers who sung last year in London!  At the Provo Temple last Friday who was there on the session with us but JOHN HILTON!! I heard someone whisper "Sister Nicholls!" and I opened my eyes and there he was! He makes me so happy, I love seeing him! His wife was with him too! Great family. Then the last few classes were good, but I spent time in the Provo Hospital with Sister Pearson as she had a colonoscopy! I wrote some letters for a few hours til she was done. Then we got up at 2am Wednesday morning and flew to St George!! We handed out pass along cards to all the passengers on the tiniest plane in the world with us! There were about 12 missionaries and about 20 people on the plane hahah. It was way short and Sister Pearson and I just slept. It was needed! We met President Center and his wife at the airport and they are just so friendly and not scary at all, they just crack jokes all the time! We had interviews with President and it wasn't too long, just a short interview and then we met our trainers! I am with……...

Sister DONALDSON!!! haha Why do coincidences always happen to me?! I love it! Heavenly Father just loves giving me all these little coincidences! We are full proselyting Sisters for my first 12 weeks, so I am out in the Washington Stake! It's about 30 minutes from St George, and we are over 8 wards. It's a small area so we are walking with no bikes or cars, and live in the basement of a member Family. It's a really big basement but really basic and really white, the walls, the floor, the cupboards, the doors, everything is white. It gets really cold in the morning and evening. It's really safe though, I don't worry about it at all. They came to introduce themselves to us as we have our own door to go in round the back and they knocked on the door and we answered and they introduced themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses haha. I felt a little homesick the first night and shed a few tears but all was well. I just needed to work and it went. So the first day we just did a ton of tracting, and it's really hot in the day time! I thought I was going to burn! IT'S NOVEMBER!!! I'm scared for the summer. I love tracting! You meet so many cool people. We met one woman from a polygamist family who wasn't exactly interested in our message haha. Then we knocked on another door and the man answered topless and immediately the strongest smell of weed burned my nostrils and I thought I'd get high just standing there. He was a character! We laughed so much with him, he wasn't interested either. We just got rejected over and over and over again and I began to realise what Luke felt like for TWO YEARS haha. Except mine was just two days of that, and they reject you SO nicely haha, they're all "thank you for coming, I appreciate the visit and the good people that you are but I'm not interested in your religion, can I give you a bottle of water?" haha. So it wasn't really how Luke felt. Because the members here are SO NICE too!!!! Whenever we're out walking we just have everyone bib and wave at us and people stop and offer us rides and get out and give us money and food! We were at Church yesterday and an old man just got like $10 out of his wallet and gave it to us and would've been offended if we didn't take it! We have too many dinner appointments and when we can't make the appointment they deliver it to our house and we end up with more food than we would've had if we went to their house cos they bring everything to us! We've had two deliveries so far and it's a FEAST EVERY TIME! So much dessert and a full pan of roast vegetables and potatoes. We went to Walmart the first day to get some food and get me a blanket and pillow cos I forgot to pick one up at the mission home and we saw proper polygamists, they have french plaits in their hair so we can't do that to our hair in case people think we're them. We knocked at a door and this woman answered who was super receptive to our message (We went there because I felt impressed to choose this door over a whole list of doors and it was definitely someone who needed and wanted us there!) and she said "oh my old roommate was a Mormon, but then she got married and moved out. She was the third wife." hahahahahh and we were like, that ISN'T our church! hahahahha. She took a BOM and said she'd read it etc. I loved it! 

I already had two packages waiting for me at the mission home. One from you THANKS IT WAS THE BEST, and one from Sister Lynne Baker! Can you tell her thank you so much and that it was so so so kind and thoughtful of her! I loved everything in that package!!!! It was great because it helped with the homesickness. So on Friday night I felt pretty low again but I got down on my knees and asked for added strength and peace and just poured my heart out to Him. I told Him my sincere desire to find people to teach and to be led by the Spirit. I felt a lot better after that and then SATURDAY HAPPENED!!! SATURDAY WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!!!!! We were led by the Spirit morning til evening! We tracted ALL DAY! Sister Donaldson let me pick the places we went and the houses we visited. We have lists of all the non members and less actives in our area (they're not too long hahaha there are so many members!) and I just had this name in my head that I couldn't get out. So I said we needed to visit him. So we walked for about an hour and a half cos we kept getting lost, we passed this young man dressed like a gangsta and the Spirit said to both of us at the same time that we NEEDED to speak to him, and just as we were told that, the young man crossed the street towards us and stopped on the corner we were heading to. Naturally as only young Sister missionaries can we CORNERED him and started talking to him. We used this door approach that I came up with that morning because obviously what we'd been doing hadn't been working. I said we should just say to them "Hey we're the new missionaries in the area and we're trying to get to know everyone, we have a question for you" then insert question like, what is most important to you, or what is your purpose in life, or how do you find peace and happiness, then link it all in with the Gospel and bear testimony and ask if we can continue this conversation another time. IT WORKEDDDDD!!! He gave us his number and it turns out he's just less active. He said he'd come to Church with us but he didn't, but it was still great anyway. Nobody is receptive when you just knock on their door and say do you want to learn about Christ, of course they'd say no. You need to let them have an experience of what it would be like if they let us teach them, then don't make it super formal, just say can we come back and talk more about this? IT WORKS!!! Anyway so we were on our way to this house I felt we should go to and we passed two young teenage girls working out and said hey and kept walking, and we got almost to this house and one of the girls was walking behind us. I whispered to Sister Donaldson that it could be awkward if this was her house but we kept walking and got to the drive and the girl behind us said "excuse me, that's my house!" and so we turned and introduced ourselves and did the door approach and you know what she said?! "Oh, my sisters are meeting with the Elders and I really want to learn! Can I be taught too?" HAHAHA AND WE WERE LIKE OF COURSE YOU CAN!!!! So the Spirit told us to go to that house, not because of the name that was on the list but because of his daughter! And we had to be there at that specific moment so that SOMEONE would be home cos she was the only one home. It was so amazing to see how Heavenly Father is so aware and orchestrates everything perfectly. He knew she wanted to be taught and He led us there at the perfect moment. If we'd been one minute earlier no one would've been in. It was amazing. We're hoping to teach the whole family but we'll see. Her sisters were being taught by the Elders and are on date to be baptized on Nov 30th - the Elders left and we replaced them so now we are teaching her sisters too! So we have our first baptisms in a few weeks. We taught them yesterday about the plan of salvation and they just love the Gospel! They are 9 and 12 and don't live at the home we were at. The family situation is confusing, I think they're half siblings. But yeah it was awesome! Nothing more fulfilling than just being an instrument in His hands all day every day. Oh also we tracted into a family who know the Christensens in Oak City. He is best friends with Jessica's husband. It was a fun coincidence! 

We ate at a members home (surprise surprise it happens every day!) on Thursday night and it was Mitt Romney's cousin! Haha so cool. They live in this gated community up on the hill called Bella Vista or Buena Vista or something. It's GORGEOUS. The view is amazing and the homes are SO NICE. You should seriously consider moving there when you're retired. It's so you Mum! The people are so nice! 

My first Sunday was good! We went to as many wards as we could so we were at church from 8:45-5:15pm. I will never complain about three hours of church again. I was refreshed though cos daylight savings happened on Saturday night so I got 9 hours sleep! So needed, it's so exhausting every day. I know now what Luke meant when he said you're just tired for 2 years straight. Testimony meeting after testimony meeting was fun. I miss Basildon Ward testimony meetings! We didn't bear our testimonies because we were teaching the Elder's Quorum haha, and we're speaking in Sacrament Meeting in two weeks and in Stake Conference in one week. We taught Elders Quorum and it went SO WELL.. I've never taught the Elders but it was so different, they crack jokes and all want to talk so it was really different to Relief Society. I liked it a lot. The Bishop and Stake President counsellor was in there and I just felt the Spirit talking through me. I was fully aware that most of them were RM's and I humbly acknowledged that fact, cos we were teaching about missionary work surprise surprise! The brother whose house we live in spoke to me this morning and said that he has heard good things about our lesson (he's not in the Ward we taught at) and that President Lewis said we hit the nail on the head but in humility and with a British accent so it was perfect haha. It just felt wonderful to know that the Lord has answered my prayer about wanting it to come across humbly and not preachy or boring. 

I opened the scriptures and said in my mind, Heavenly Father, speak to me. And I opened it out to D&C 101:14-16 which was perfect for me at that moment that I read it. He knows us, He loves us, He orchestrates our lives down to the very minute if we'll let Him. I'm learning that more and more every day! We were out tracting at night, well like 7pm but it was dark and it was kinda scary but I just felt so safe and peaceful and Sister Donaldson was telling me this story about two sisters who tracted at a man's house and it turned out he was a serial rapist who was later convicted. When asked why he didn't attack the two young girls who went to his house he replied "Well I wasn't going to try anything with those two burly men standing behind them!" and they asked for a description of the men and he said that they were Aztec looking young native American men - STRIPLING WARRIORS! So I felt super safe knowing that the stripling warriors and the 6000 angels were around me. It was the best feeling ever! We've only been wolf whistled at from the car while we're walking twice haha. St George is absolutely beautiful. The mountains are gorgeous and whenever we're tracting I just feel like the luckiest missionary in the world to be here. The support from everyone and the beauty of the area is immense. I love it here. 

OK I love you a TON and I miss you soooo much! I cant wait to see you in 17 months! It'll be all the sweeter. I pray for you all the time. 

Sister Nicholls