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
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