The Highs and Lows of Missionary Life! 25-2-14.

Dear Family and Friends, 

Another wonderful week of missionary work!! This week has been full of highs and lows. Being a missionary just brings you the happiest times and the worst times. I've really started thinking a lot about how much I LOVE being a missionary and how hard it's going to be to stop being a missionary in a year’s time. It's been on my mind a lot this week as I'm approaching that year mark in a few weeks time. 

So everyone stood us up. We had our full area day on Saturday which is where we don’t go to the VC that day but can spend our whole day in Morningside and we had lots of appointments scheduled and after the appointments it would've meant that we had like 8 new investigators (because to consider them new investigators they have to have had an appointment)!!! Which is a crazy amount to have in the history of our area! So we were really excited and then they all fell through and we got 1 new investgiator instead of 8. But we were really happy with our 1 because we'd set the goal for 4 new investigators in February and we'd found 3 but COULD NOT find a fourth! We worked so hard and we had until Sunday evening to get the last, and worked and worked and worked and about an hour before we went home on Sunday evening we found our new investigator!!! We walked away from the house with the highest of fives and the biggest of fist pumps ever! It's a less active family with a 10 year old son who hasn't been baptized and their Grandma just died and he's been asking questions that they can't answer so we will answer them for them! They seem like a sweet family. 

I've been a lot more bold this week. In the white handbook it says something to the effect of "the period of time you have to serve the Lord with all your heart, might, mind and strength is extremely short." and that has been manifest in how fast it’s going so I'm starting to internalize how I have just a few seconds with each person and how it's my duty to say the things that will bring them closer to Christ because if I don’t who will? So usually I get scared and just try to not make things awkward but this week I've worked on actually saying the things that come into my head that will help the conversation be more spiritual. For example, we went to Sacrament Meeting across from the VC on Sunday and this man walked in smoking looking like a complete hobo so naturally all the missionaries run to him because that's a missionary's dream! Turns out he was a hitchhiker and the people that picked him up were LDS and dropped him off at the chapel haha! We convinced him to come to the VC! He came in and told us how God doesn't exist and how loving someone like a God is just like going through a middle man to love oneself. It was deep and different but I asked him how he ended up in St George and he told us this story of how he travels the world backpacking but got to St George and just suddenly run out of money so is stuck here for 3 months at least and I just said to him "It's not a coincidence that you got stuck in St George. I know that there is God, and I know that He is your Father, and that He has brought you here for a very special reason. As you learn more about this gospel, you will find greater peace and be able to find out that special reason for yourself". And another time when I just said something like that was when we knocked at this door and it was two teenage girls about 17 years old who are Baptists, and they were polite enough but told us that there was no need for more of God's word because the Bible has it all. Usually I'd be scared but I wasn't even scared and just bore solemn testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and basically said to them why can't we have more of God's word? That Christ who you said yourself you love and worship has given us another book so we can learn more about Him, what is so wicked about that? There is nothing evil in this book, it simply is another testament of the God you worship and love. And guess what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY TOOK ONE :)))))))))))))))))))) Don't worry I wasn't irritating or argumentative at all, I just stood up for the Book of Mormon because what they thought was a complete misconception. 

One of the little miracles of the week was that we were sent to this house to find a woman who has been less active for a while, and who answers the door?Someone I was teaching in Washington who suddenly moved and we lost contact with!!! So that was exciting!!! The Visitors' Centre had a few fun stories this week! J from Washington came in to the VC to see me and she just cried and cried the whole time. It's been four weeks since I saw her but she has lost about 20 pounds and couldn't afford to lose that. She was telling me how she's bulemic and wants to commit suicide and no one cares about her and her boyfriend physically abuses her and she has no family and nowhere to go. Seriously, being in the VC you are just an emotional landfill for people to come and dump all their problems on to you. It was a big emotional dumpage and I just cried with her. She's a broken woman and it feels like there's nothign I can do. I told the Washington Sisters and they've spoken with the Bishop about it. Another young man came into the VC and started telling us about how he was in a car crash and can't remember anything except his mission and so he's kinda stuck in the real world but feels like he should be a missionary and he was just crying talking about how much he loved his mission and his investigators and doesn't want to be back home with his family. It was a real emotional dumpage and Sister Allen and I just stood there crying with him for a long time. It was a really intense conversation because of all the emotions he was sharing with us! Another old man came in the VC crying and just asked if there was any Elders there cos he needs a blessing. We all scrambled around trying to find someone that might hold the Priesthood haha and eventually we found an Elder or two lurking and loitering around. The old man was just crying and saying that his family is going through some trials. It's such a blessing to help people even for just a few seconds and it hurts me that I'll never see them again and never be able to know how things worked out for them! 

These two young men came in from BYU and were sitting looking at the Christus for ages so I went and spoke to them and we just ended up sharing our testimonies of the Saviour and when I was done they just were speechless and said "Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that with us Sister Nicholls. You have a beautiful testimony of the Saviour. You are just glowing. That was exactly what I needed to hear" and then they leave, and it's amazing how you can know you were sent to this VC, on this day at this hour in this room for that one person who needed to hear that certain aspect of your testimony and then they're vanished from your life forever. It's a privilege to help people even if just for a few minutes. There's nothing quite like it. 

I've also been on the phone a lot this week with the young woman who I spoke to in the MTC that was on the edge of despair. She finally picked up her phone and we have regular appoitments most days reading from the Book of Mormon together and each time she cries and ends the phone call with somethign along the lines of "Thank you so much Charlotte, you are helping me more than you know. You are such a blessing to me, I love you" while she's crying, we feel like we know each other even though we've never met. She’s so sweet and she is getting the courage to go talk to her Bishop and start the repentance process and come back to church. She's only 2 years older than me! She's a blessing to me and there is nothing sweeter than being able to help lead someone back to Christ. It's moments like that when people thank you so sincerely for saying exactly what they needed to hear even though you've never met them before that I just never want to stop being a missionary. The spirit that I feel every single day is priceless and brings greater happiness than I could've imagined. Missions are the best! 

As you can tell from my pictures we have been being trained to give tours at Brigham Young's winter home! It's been exciting! We actually need to know stuff to give tours there haha. So we've been following the Senior Couples around and watching how they do it. Yesterday myself, Sister Garcia, Sister Allen and Sister Archambault went and Sister Allen trained us on how to do it. It was so funny because after she told us what to do, Sister Achambault and I gave the tour. Can I just say how much I love Sister Allen and Sister Archambault!! And of course my very own companion. But anyway Sister Archambault has been out for like two weeks but you'd think it has been like 10 years she's so good. So we did the tour together for Sister Allen and Sister Garcia who were posing as non members and it was SO FUNNY because we just started making up all this stuff about every single mark in the wall and the floor and the keys on the piano and just elaborating on everything and making it so fancy and ridiculous we had such a fun time! I'm starting to get it down though. I am reading a lot of books on Brigham Young so soon I might know more about him than I do about Joseph Smith! It's so nice getting out of the VC every now and then! 

Yesterday was just the best day EVER of my whole mission maybe. Well maybe not the best but it is definitely up there. We signed up with Sister Allen, Archambault and Phagwah to go and clean the St George Temple for a few hours. We turned up at 11am and were given some white scrubs to wear and got to work. The woman taking us around took us up to the fourth floor - the SOLEMN ASSEMBLY ROOM!!!! HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN IN THERE!?!?!?!?! NOT MANY!!! BUT THIS SISTER MISSIONARY IS ONE OF THEM!!! I'VE CLEANED THE VERY ROOM WHERE THE VISION OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS TOOK PLACE!! AHH it was amazing!! The five of us were left alone in there so I suggested we kneel down and pray and we did and it was so powerful. Tears were shed by some and the Spirit was felt by all. It was one of those special moments that you'll never forget. Then we were taken down to the sealing rooms and we all cleaned like 6 or 7 sealing rooms while singing hymns and Primary songs. It was such a sweet experience and one I will never forget. We just laughed and sung and prayed and it was the best. After we were done the head security man took us on a tour of the whole temple! The finale was taking us up to the tower of the Temple! We climbed these winding stairs up to the very top and through a trap door and were out onto the balcony round the top of the spire! It was an amazing view! We were so privileged to be able to see all those places! People were waving to us from the ground! It was soooooo cool! St George is beautiful from that view! And it has been like 75 degrees the last few days so we're tanning up nicely and it certainly felt hot from the top of that spire! AHH it was just an amazing tour! So wonderful! 

I am so privileged to be a missionary in the best mission in the entire world. We have the finest missionaries! Even this week in the VC there was this baptismal interview that went really bad and they needed a Portuguese missionary to translate and one of the Brazilian Elders just felt like he needed to turn up to the VC for some reason so came just when they needed him!!! And while he was in there, his companion was waiting for him and some visitors started asking him questions thinking he was a VC Elder haha!!! So he took some poeple on a tour and just used very vague words for all the historical facts hahahahaha it was SOOO funny!! President Center had to come at the end of the interview because it didn’t turn out too well and we were all talking to Sister Center and LAUGHING because she's the best and when they had to leave she always says LOVE YOU ALL and President didn’t say it because he's not allowed to say it to the Sisters but Sister Center said “You're allowed to say it because I'm standing right here!" so he said "Okay...LOVE YOU ALL!!" hahahaha and we all went AWWW LOVE YOU TOO and it was so cute! WE LOVE THEM!!!!!!!!!! 

I have to go now! 

I LOVE YOU ALL! 

Sister Nicholls

18-2-14

Cher Famille et Amis, 

This week has been good! Unfortunately, illness has struck but all is well! So starting with last p-day! I got my hair cut and I was so scared the whole way through but Sister Garcia kept giving me a thumbs up to let me know she wasn't giving me a crew cut haha. I felt better because I trust her perfectly! I like it a lot :) and I still have hair so all is good. We bought Cafe Rio and ate it in the car :) then we went to DI and we both got a skirt. Don't worry Mum, it's a really nice one and perfect for the summer. $5 well spent! Then in the evening we taught our Spanish investigator so I sat there and smiled every now and then! But it was so funny because half way through the lesson this old Spanish man comes in and looks at me and started talking at me really fast in Spanish and my companion was trying to tell him that I don't speak Spanish but he wasn't having any of it and would start a sentence in English then finish it in Spanish. She kept telling him to talk to her and not me but he just didn't get it and was telling me all about how he's been to London and lots of other stuff all in Spanish and then he disappeared and came back with his number written on a piece of paper for me HAHAH! I very graciously said Thank You and went red and put it in my bag. I think I burned it or something ;) We then visited Brother Stucki the high councillor over missionary work because the members here just aren't excited about missionary work. So this week we are concentrating our efforts on teaching the lessons to the members and helping them feel the Spirit then talk with them lovingly about the blessings of missionary work. Bro Stucki is arranging a Stake fast with us too and we NEED maps of our area so he told the Ward Mission Leaders that the Stake needs maps (but really its US!). Then we went to one of the Ward Mission Leader's houses and he invited us to go to Zion National Park with him and his wife in the next few weeks. I'll let you know when that's gonna happen! They gave us Valentines day treats and a balloon too so that was really cute! 

We had a lesson with this less active family last week whose home was gross!!! There were cockroaches crawling around and it STUNK. We were teaching and then this BUG just fell out of the light and landed next to Sister Garcia and she jumped and the man jumped up and grabbed it with his hand and squished it and didn’t wash his hand then shook our hands hahahah! We sanitized like our whole bodies when we left! Our Ward Mission Leader came with us for that appointment cos it's in a sketch neighbourhood and afterwards he texted us telling us to check our bags for cockroaches! Then we ran to our next appointment at Dave's house which went really well! We took this recent convert Anne with us. She was baptized in Washington 8th ward the Sunday before I got there so I've seen her name a ton of times and people would ask us about her and we didn’t know where she'd moved to and then I got moved to Morningside and BOOM she's in my new area! Crazy coincidence! So we visit her a lot and she is doing really well! She’s single and 59 and so is Dave so we took her with us to meet him and hope that eternal marriage is on the horizon! We taught about prayer and we sung "Sweet hour of prayer" because he loves it when we sing to him. He really loves us and we love him! I think of him like a Grandad haha! He actually told us that we're his favourite missionaries so far which is quite the achievement because he's had a few and he is excited to actually get baptized on MARCH 15TH!!! YEAAHHHHHHH!!!!! He went without wine for a WHOLE DAY so now we just have to make that a week! We love teaching him! I love the relationships you form on your mission! 

We had interviews with President and Sister Center on Friday! We were both nervous because we were told to bring planners and area books and then when we went in it was just so good! I was with President while Sister Garcia was with Sister Center and then we switched. The funniest thing ever happened while we were waiting for President to be done with the Elders in front of us. This 70yr old woman was there in the church building just looking at stuff so we talked with her and she just latched on to us. She was so artsy though and was wearing really tight bright coloured leggings and trainers and a scarf and big earrings and was just very very artsy. You could tell she went to art school haha. Anyway so we were talking with her and the Elders came out and Elder Lazarus came up to us to shake our hands and shook her hand too and she just held onto it and then started stroking her face with his hand and said “Your hands are so warm Elder" and then was all “You need to shake hands more like this" and was basically holding his hand and he was SO AWKWARD but he is the most polite and loving missionary ever so was trying to be nice and then she's like “Or you could shake hands a bit more like this" and put her hand in his and then LEANED IN TO HIS FACE AND BRUSHED HER CHEEK AGAINST HIS CHEEK AND THEN SWITCHED CHEEKS AND DID IT THE OTHER SIDE"!!!!!!!! Sister Garcia and I just GASPED in shock! I wanted to jump up and save him from the hands of this harlot old woman and then PRESIDENT CENTER TURNED THE CORNER just up the corridor a little way and said "What is going on over here?!?!?!" and walked over and we all just wanted to DIEEEEEEEEEEEEE but he was so professional and loving cos he knows Elder Lazarus and that he wouldn’t be the sort of missionary to bring this on himself! So he stood inbetween them and the old harlot woman put her hand on President's hip/stomach and traced her hand up his side and said “Where are you from?" and it was ALL SO HORRIBLE!!!!!! HE stepped back and I was praying that Sister Center would be done with her interviews and come out and save her husband!!! IT WAS HORRIBLE!!! Hahaha we just wanted to die it was so awkward. When everyone left she was telling us how her marriage has just failed and her husband doesn’t love her etc. I felt like saying “Well stop flirting with the Elders and the Mission President then!" It was just weird!! Anyway interviews were really good and President and I just talked about stuff for like 20 minutes and it was really chill. He didn’t even check my planner but i know he checked the Elders planner because they told us how horrible it was and that they got chastised for not having back up plans. He just asked me what my favourite scripture was and we read it together and talked about it and then he talked about his childhood and I talked about my childhood and we talked about why missions are hard and then he said "You really love the Lord don't you?" and I said "Yes I do!" and my eyes all filled with tears and he said “Make sure you tell him in every prayer because He needs to hear it." and I told him that I do and he said thank you for my diligence and obedience and willingness to serve the Lord etc. It was just a great interview! I LOVE HIM AND HIS WIFE!!!! 

Another funny story! We were in a lesson with our Phillippino miracle investigator and she has this rash on her breast that she was telling us about, and that it was really uncomfortable and then she just stood up and stripped off and SHOWED US and we were both trying SO HARD not to laugh and to be mature but she wouldn’t put it away and we just left that house and cracked up so much! It's been the highlight of our lols all weekend! 

We gave a tour of the annexe in the Visitors Centre! It was so funny because it's all about history and we don’t know anything about the history because we're brand new but we winged it and it went well. Basically, when Sister Garcia was talking I'd look at the next board and memorize what it was talking about and sound confident when I said it and she'd do the same thing. We pulled it off and sounded confident! Or if I didn’t have time to read and memorize the whole thing I'd pull a key word out and focus on that and testify about it! It was so funny. It's funny when non members come into the VC who really don’t want to be bothered and they avoid the sisters like the plague. Some Brits from ipswich came in and they really didn’t want a tour haha. And a Welsh woman came in with her family and she served a mission in London South and knows Ron and Sue Miller and translated their temple recommend interview. She said they called her "Temple Glasses" in sign language cos she had glasses so they'd know her as that. Her name was Sister Tamplin. It was brilliant to see Brother and Sister Shaw - that was a wonderful surprise. It’ s been SO busy this weekend. It's stressful when its busy and everyone wants you to do everything and be everywhere but it's all part of the work! I had some sweet young girls come in who live in SLC and we all just cried together as I bore testimony to them about God's plan for them. I love being with the young women! They took my name and added me on fb because we were all best friends after I finished talking to them,. The thing I love best about being in the VC is just being there for the people who just need to talk to someone. Often all they need is a listening ear and to feel the Spirit of the VC and I love being able to give that to people. I remember being told in blessings that I'd be able to lift up the hands that hang down, even thousands of them, and it hit me the other day that I'm doing that, I'm fulfilling that right now. Every day people come in who just want to cry and just want to talk and just want to feel close to the Saviour and we're here to listen to them and share our testimonies with them. More and more I'm just learning how much our Saviour and Father in Heaven love every single one of them perfectly. I love feeling that and never want to stop having those experiences. I wish I could remember every single person I met and what we talked about. One day Heavenly Father will be able to tell me :) 

Something exciting was when the woman from the film God's Plan for His Family came in to the VC!!! She was in town for the temple and she walked in and we were like “Who is she?! I know her!!" and then we figured out she was the Mum from Gods Plan and that we see her face 10238379 times a day! She hugged us and we were all star struck! haha! God's Plan broke this weekend - worst time ever to break! People were angry and we were like IT’S NOT OUR FAULT haha but it felt funny saying “Gods Plan has broken" haha! Dwell on the positives right ;) We get kicks out of President Center visiting the VC every few days we always try to give him a tour and it never gets old ;) 

We had bacon at District meeting! That was exciting! I've tried so hard to eat healthily this week but it’s so hard when everyone drops off cake and cookies at the VC for the Sisters. Elder Watkins brought in the massivest chocolate cake ever. It was like from Matilda. Too. Much. Cake. 

I took some pretty heavy online chats and phone calls this week. All about the polygamists and about Joseph Smith and I just love how four months ago I'd feel so inadequate and wouldn’t know what to say but now I volunteer to take over from the other Sisters who are struggling. One of the Sisters just said “I don’t want to do this chat anymore" so she switched with me and I answered all the questions and I say this because I'm so grateful for the growing experiences that we have as missionaries. I love how I'm changing and I love the way that the Lord makes your weaknesses into strengths. I'm living proof of the power of the atonement and I love serving Him every single day. We had another non member young man come in and I gave him a tour and he wants the missionraies to visit him in MARYLAND! It's just so exciting!! It's such a thrill every single time and he too said at the start “You're not going to convert me. " then at the end he was all tearful and says how he wants to be with his sister forever and that it all makes sense and he even said “Wow, we should be out telling EVERYONE about this!!!" while he had his Book of Mormon in his hand!! It was just amazing and I love it!! 

And then Monday morning we woke up having coughed all night and neither of us could talk so we called Sister Center and she told us to go back to bed. We called our WML and he brought over lots of medicine and we took some and slept then tried to go to a lesson. It was so hard and we were both nearly asleep as this old woman kept talking about the history of every dog she's ever owned. We came home and slept accidentally, with full intention of getting up and being at the VC at 3pm but both of us slept through and we ran to the VC really late and Sister Watkins just told us to go home. So we stayed in and watched every single Church movie that we show everyone, and just did missionary things like watch Together Forever and The Restoration and The District! We cuddled in our blankets and drunk smoothies. It was great because we get along so well that it just felt like having a lazy day with your best friend. The best part was when we were cuddled up on the sofa watching The District and like half an hour into it she looked at me and in her heavy accent said "So...do you come here often ;)" HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHh we both cried with laughter. I wonder who she's learned that from ;) hahahaha we have bed time stories and it's a lot like Daddy stories. We go to bed and turn the lights out and we pick a topic and both have to tell a story from our life to do with it! It's great! I love her! 

I gotta go! I love you all and pray for you and think about you and love you! 

Sister Nicholls 

PS It's getting WARMMMMMM!!

#18 Miracles (See what I did there...it would've been better last week on week 17 but whatever!) 11-2-14

Dear Everyone! 

This week has been a week of MIRACLES!!! Last Sunday we set ourselves the goal of putting a lot of people on date for baptism this week. We wanted to show Heavenly Father that He could trust us to be bold enough to encourage people to make that covenant with God, and also that He could trust us with those who are ready to receive the Gospel because we are prepared to invite anyone and everyone to be baptized. We role played it and we prayed with great faith and were ready to do whatever He asked of us. Well, Tuesday evening Sister Garcia invited Chely to be baptized. But Chely only speaks Spanish so I just sat there and smiled every now and then. It must've been a powerful smile, because she agreed to be baptized. But it probably was because of my companion's teaching skills. So we got off to a good start! Then on Wednesday morning in companionship study we prepared something for the Visitors' Centre, which is hard because we have no idea who will come in so we just rely on the Spirit to prepare a short message to share with someone who might need it. Well, Wednesday morning we felt prompted to prepare a message on "Baptism, Our First Covenant" from Preach My Gospel so we did just that. We prayed to be led to the person who might need that. Then Wednesday evening's shift at the VC came. I was at the front desk and in walked a man and a woman who looked about 30ish? I greeted them and the woman asked for a tour! I was like "We can definitely give you that!" and we started at the Christus. I got to know them a little bit and asked how familiar they are with the LDS church and it turned out that the woman was a member and the man was not. They met each other a few weeks ago hiking and he is from Canada but flew down a few days ago to hike at Zions with her and was leaving to go to Canada in just two hours from when we were having that conversation. She served a mission in California a few years ago and so she brought him in to the VC so he could learn a bit about what she believes in. They are just friends btw. So I took them over to the Joseph Smith painting and taught the whole restoration lesson, and just asked these deep questions that really made him think and he said "What does someone have to do to be baptized?" and so I told him about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity and church attendance and he said it all makes sense and I told him about the gift of the Holy Ghost and how it can be ours always after we're baptized. So thus I'd taught him like 3 of the missionary lessons ALREADY and Sister Garcia had to attend to someone else so I'm on my own this WHOLE TOUR but I was so calm! It flowed really well; usually I feel like I'm awkwardly moving from resource to resource but I just knew where to go next, what to say and what to ask and what scriptures to share. I showed him basically everything here and in doing so taught him all the missionary lessons. When we were at the Book of Mormon stand he said how it makes sense that God wouldn't just communicate with prophets in Israel but that He would talk to His children elsewhere too. And then at the Temple pictures he was so speechless and said it’s a beautiful thing to do baptisms for our ancestors who never had the chance and that it all makes perfect sense. He was teary the whole time! Then I put on President Monson's testimony from Special Witnesses of Christ and he just cried a ton and said he was speechless! So to finish it all of I put them in God's Plan for His Family and at this point all the Sisters in the VC knew he was a non member and were watching from afar! I went in to meet them at the end of God's Plan and just knew that he was the one I needed to put on date to be baptized. I was so nervous and didn’t want to ruin his good experience but I felt like I needed to! But I didn't know what to say because the usual PMG way of asking wouldn’t work as I can’t say "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood authority of God? We will be holding a baptismal service on March 8th, will you be baptized on that day?" because it doesn’t matter if I'm holding a service that day as he lives in CANADA! So I just prayed avidly and went in to close the God's Plan without thinking about what to say. It went really well! The Spirit definitely led it because I just asked him "All these things we've talked about this evening, do you believe that they are true?" and he looked me right in the eyes and said "I know that they are true." and I shared the scripture from 2 Nephi 31 that talks about Christ saying to people “Follow thou me, and how can we follow Christ save we shall we willing to keep all His commandments and be baptized?" and then I invited him to be baptized and he was silent for a few seconds (that felt like ETERNITY) and looked me right in the eyes and said YES! I then said "Like we talked about before there are commitments you have to live before you can be baptized, and you have to attend church 3 times to show that you are ready for this, but I have never met someone more ready than you are. I've never invited someone to be baptized in the Visitors' Centre before, and neither have most sisters in the history of this visitors centre, but I know that you are ready to be baptized soon and I feel that you will be ready by March 8th, how does that sound?" and he cried again and said that sounds AMAZING! Then he started telling me about how all his family has died and he has no one back in Canada and he's been looking for a church and attending many different ones but has never felt anything like he's felt this evening and he thanked me so sincerely like 1000 times and I thanked him 1000 times because he was an answer to many prayers from my heart. We all knelt down and prayed together in that closing room of God's Plan and cried together and rejoiced together. It was so AMAZING! One of those life changing moments when you know without a doubt that the God of this universe hears and answers your prayers and is concerned for the one. Justin's whole eternity and life changed in that one short hour he spent here in the Visitors' Centre and I was privileged to be able to witness it. He apologized and said he's never speechless nor cries but he just was so amazed! He thanked me SO MUCH fo rchanging his life! I was just in awe of him!! I took him to the Christus and played the message and took his details and off he went to his new life. As soon as he left I ran over to the Sisters who were watching the whole thing and we all high fived and Sister Center was there too and she hugged me for like 12 seconds and the Assistants to the President were there too and it was just all so overwhelming! Everyone was there except the Mission President hahah! The senior Sister who was there said at one point she walked past us while we were at the Book of Mormon stand and that she stopped because the Spirit was SO STRONG coming from us and she didn't want to leave the glow that was around us. It really really touched me and I just went to bed the happiest missionary in the world. The Watkins' announced at the Sisters training meeting that Sister Nicholls had put someone on date at the Visitors' Centre and they all cheered again but I just felt so awkward because I don't want it to be like a pride thing to make the other Sisters feel bad. It just reminds me of the scripture:- Ask and ye shall receive.  I think He gave us Justin because we asked for it and we prepared for it. 

And then we had a lesson with a 12yr old girl whose mum is less active but wants her daughter to be baptized. She obviously didn’t want to meet with us because she had her back to us the whole time and laughed with her little friend at EVERYTHING that we said and when asked any question she would respond "i dont know". It felt like she was sucking the happiness out of everyone's life. Sister Garcia started crying because she thought they were laughing at her English. It was bad times. But we invited her to be baptized and she accepted a baptismal date for March 15th so we'll see how that goes. We don't want to baptize her if she doesn't actually want to be baptized. She's home schooled and has only online friends and is obsessed with celebrities so she just needs some love and some confidence. I'll update you on how that goes. Then we had a lesson with Dave. We really love Dave! And he loves us! He sent us a tender text on the weekend just thanking us for everything we do for him and for the care we show him!  We did invite him to be baptized and put him on date for baptism on March 15th and it is amazing how you can't just invite everyone the same way. The invitation changes for EVERYONE! So we said with him will you be baptized and he said he so wants to be but he likes drinking wine and doesn’t know if he can give that up. We told him to set the goal for March 15th and that we would work with him. We told him he is living just like a member (despite the wine) just without the blessings that come from being a member like having the Holy Ghost or having the Priesthood! It went well :) we're excited! So we invited FOUR people to be baptized this week! Our zone leaders challenged us to do it this week too so we called them after every time of extending the invitation to tell them how it went and they were like SISTERS WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!!! Haha it was a GREAT WEEK! 

Then another miracle happened on Sunday! We had been praying all weekend to be led to someone who is thirsty for the Gospel and like always to be led to those who are prepared. Well we were going to knock on a door of a part member family when a woman was smoking outside her house so naturally as missionaries do we went to talk to her and she invited us into her home promptly! We went in and she told us that she has been going to the LDS church for Sacrament Meeting and that last night she prayed to Heavenly Father that the missionaries would come to her home!!!!!!! WHAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!! MIRACLESSSSZZZZZ!!!! We shared a message and have a return appointment. She gave us four bananas and a box of chocolates hahaha! After we left her house we gave each other the highest of fives out of pure jubilation for prayers being answered and miracles occuring! She just needs to stop smoking! 

We went to Jacob Hamblin's home for Sister Training Meeting this week! It was very interesting. He was a fearless missionary :) I cant wait to show you all these things when you come to pick me up! Another highlight of the week was when I was sitting down with Sister Allen and Sister Pearson and some girls walked up to us and said “Is there a Sister Nicholls in this mission?" and we all just stared at them for like 3 seconds without saying anything and I pointed at my nametag and said “Which Sister Nicholls?" because there are two and they said "Her brother told us to come and - " and I jumped up and gave her a massive massive hug and almost cried and said "YOU WERE WITH MY BROTHER JUST YESTERDAY??!!?@!?!? and she said YEAH!!! AND we hugged and hugged and talked for ages and then Sister Allen and I gave them a tour and they were really spiritual and it was just so nice to talk about Luke with someone haha! (She loves you Luke! She said you're the best student and that she likes helping you with your finance homework or whatever hahaha.) I liked her. Oh so we had this special man come into the VC who just stares at all the Sisters and the Watkins' have told us to beware of him, and he came up to me and he said “You know who you look like?" and I said “Who?" and he said "Alfred Hitchcock" and I just BURST OUT LAUGHING because it’s sooooooooo hilarious and so rude! I just thought it was hilarious and so did the other Sisters. I was like "Alfred Hitchcock? The MAN? Thank you." Hahaha he's really funny. We get so many regulars come in!

Well I need to go but it's been a lovely warm and sunny week. Tanning will begin in no time. It's President's Day weekend this week so it'll be busy in the VC! We had our first bus of Germans (only like 5 though) and we gave out four Books of Mormon!! it was great! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! It's the best work I've ever done and brings happiness like nothing else. I seriously smiled for like 3 days after Justin's experience. I've spoken to his Branch President on the phone and him on the phone and all is going well. I just love nothing more than sharing the Gospel, it's a beautiful thing and I love my time here! Sister Garcia and I are going to make Tres Leches this p-day!!! 

I love you all SO MUCH!  

Moroni 7: 29 And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have^aangels ceased to minister unto the children of men.

This explains my week perfectly. 

Sister Nicholls

Becoming a Multi-lingual Missionary Sister!! 4-2-14.

Good Morning Everyone!

Now don't get too trunky or too excited, but I found out the day that we will be reunited! It will be 18th March 2015!! So that means that in exactly six weeks time, I will be coming home in a YEAR! The countdown begins :) haha! I still feel really new, I can't only have a year left ;) 

It's been a fairly slow week at the VC. It is January/February after all! But there have been many highlights. One of them is how because my companion speaks French and Spanish we can do the French and Spanish mormon.org chats that come through. It's so funny because I tell her what I want to say and she tells me how to write it and the person who is talking to us from South America has no idea that I don't speak a word of Spanish other than “Can I have the bill please?" haha.  And the missionary department in SLC occasionally look at our chats (they’re all recorded to make sure that we are keeping the rules and fulfilling our purpose and not just mindlessly IMing with people) and show our VC directors the Watkins, so if the Watkins see that they'll think I'm fluent at Spanish when I'm really really not. However, I did impress Sister Garcia and the other French sisters with my French!! They were genuinely impressed, not just politely impressed haha. I didn't need much of Sister Garcia's help to write and read the French at all, I just need help listening to the French! I have no idea what they're saying when I hear it but when I see it I can do it. She is helping me read the French Book of Mormon and I'm helping her read the English Book of Mormon. I think it's good that I'm trying to learn French from her because it stops her from feeling like she is always the one being taught.  It works well! Be ready to have a fluent French daughter when I come home! I'm definitely going to study French or a different language when I get home, I need to be more cultured and have more languages under my belt. Here at the VC there are so many languages being spoken. Because of my English flag everyone thinks I'm Swedish or Swiss and every once in a while I want to pretend I am because people seem disappointed when I'm just English and can only speak English. I could definitely talk gibberish and claim that it's Swiss and no one would know haha. So many people tell their children "Look at that sister missionary! She's from Sweden!" and I'm like "Mate, does it sound like English is my second language? WE CREATED THE LANGUAGE!" but usually I'm more polite than that! Can I just say how much I love the teaching centre here (the mormon.org chats and phone calls) because we teach people from ALL over the world. The French chat was with a young man in France whom we have sent the local missionaries to now. And yesterday I had an awesome chat with a girl in Jamaica who is wanting to be baptized but feels unworthy because of some serious problems from her past. You really do get some very very sincere people who feel safe because they're behind a computer screen, but then you get the very very insincere people who feel safe because they too are behind the computer screen. But the good ones make the bad ones worth it! I am beginning to teach a girl in England who has been to church a few times before but had a weird missionary teach her and stopped investigating so we'll see what we can do with her! I'm also teaching a young man from Washington state who used to be Baptist. Speaking of Baptists, there's this big Baptist convention every Sunday night here that is highly anti Mormon! They all get together and have a power point prepared with theories against the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants etc. President Center has asked us to stay away from the area while it's going on and to avoid confrontations with them. They are very very confrontational. 

So we are working with our investigator D to get him to have an enthusiasm for the Gospel so that he willl want to be baptized. He is 59 so is taking it slow, but we have prayed for him so much and because he’s the only investigator we have we can focus all our time and thoughts on him. The last Sisters that taught him apparently would just go in, teach a gospel principle and ask him to be baptized and he wouldn’t really feel like the principle fit him or that they cared about him. So we taught him twice this week and really prayed to know what to teach and the Spirit was so strong in those lessons. We even sung I Am A Child Of God to him! We will invite him to be baptized this Thursday and we think he feels ready but we'll see. We prayed and fasted for him with our whole district (we all fasted for each others investigators) and we feel hopeful. We love him! He's a great guy. His fellowshippers are AWESOME. So loving and friendly. We are good friends with them already, they are called the Kaumans. They invited us out to Chilli's to eat with them and D last friday! It was so weird being in a restaurant and hearing normal music haha. He comes from the most friendliest Ward I've ever been to. We walked through the doors on Sunday and BOOM had like 5 dinner appointments and 17 hugs and 26 people telling us we're beautiful. It was one of the best Sunday services I've ever attended. All three hours were spiritual feasts. The Sunday School lesson was about Cain and Abel and the Relief Society lesson was about Christ's love for us. The spirit was so strong and we felt so edified afterwards and ready to share our testimonies with everyone we meet.

Another crazy thing happened this week! A woman named Sister Bristol had us over for dinner but because it's just her as her kids have moved out and her husband was at work she tooks us to Applebees for dinner. She was telling us all about her son on his mission in Paraguay and stuff and then about an hour into dinner she pulled out her phone to show us a picture of him on Skype at Christmas and it was DALLIN BRISTOL who was in my EFY COMPANY in 2009!!!!!!!!!!!! I looked at him on the phone and said "IS THAT YOUR SON?!?!!" and she said yeah and I was like "I KNOW HIM!!!!" so that was crazy and it's so weird that I went to EFY with him four years ago and now I'm serving in his home ward. His name and mission address was in the program and everything so it's one of those crazy coincidences that my life is made up of. 

I gave this tour to an older couple who aren't members and I gave the whole restoration lesson and taught about temples from the temple pictures and the first vision picture and then at the end it turns out he is a Lutheran minister. #AWK #FULFILLINGMYPURPOSE #IJUSTTOLDHIMTHATONLYWEHOLDTHEAUTHORITY #MISSIONARYLYF. Hahahaha I was glad I found out at the end though cos I probz would've been scared if I knew at the start. But we gave them Book of Mormons and it turns out they have missionaries come to their house every now and then back in Washington state. They were so sweet though, true Christians. They BOTH hugged us at the end and looked into our eyes and said "I love you" it was so cute! Good good people. I just thought about how four months ago I would've been terrified to give a preacher a tour but now it's just all in a days work. You really do stretch and grow so much as a missionary. Now I can hear people say all sorts of horrible things about the church and it doesn't hurt too bad. I can testify and not care what people think. I love how Heavenly Father teaches you and helps you fulfill your calling, no matter what it is. I love the changes you make in yourself as a missionary. Like I've always known that prayer works, but as a missionary you learn to RELY on prayer every single day. Mighty prayer is the biggest tool we have on this earth and there's nothing more refreshing than kneeling down and telling our Father how we are truly feeling and asking Him for strength. I've felt miracles in my own heart every time I do it. This week’s fasting was amazing. I felt so so so down on Saturday because we knock doors and NO one answers ever but we hear them laughing inside and then we knock and someone says "sshshhhh" and no one answers the door and we move on and five minutes later they open the door and look out at us and shut the door again! Its so funny though! But anyway I fasted and just felt SO happy and SO positive afterwards. We haven't been called to baptize, we've been called to testify. And I can do that. Our district leader gave us blessings and it was very special. But even at Church when we were fasting, in Sacrament Meeting we sung Abide With Me Tis Eventide and I knew that Heavenly Father had chosen that for me because it's one of my favourite hymns and usually in Sacrament Meeting they sing hymns I've never heard before! It was just a great Sunday! It made me want go out there and find other people to come to Church with us and feel as great as we did!

This cute girl came into the VC all alone and so I approached her and we talked and it turns out she is 17 and just moved out to go to school here and is SO homesick and lonely. So many people come to the Visitors' Centre just to feel not alone. It's really sad. We have a few regulars who are there almost every day just because they are alone and like how they feel there. So many kids come in and look up at the Christus with their arms outstretched like they want Him to pick them up. So many babies look up at the Christus and smile, and so many kids cry and shout "JESSSUUUSSSSS" when their parents pull them away to leave. It's so tender. But anyway this young girl called Priscilla came in and it turns out she's from Longmont, Colorado where a certain Eric is from! She's from his Stake and we talked for AGES about the temple and life and happiness and the Saviour and she cried and I hugged her and told her I know how it feels to be far from home and not know anyone and she gave me a referral for a non-member friend and over all it was GREAT! I love just being in the VC to help people with so many different problems in their life. 

We found ourselves a new 13 year old investigator this week. Her Mum is less active and wants her to be baptized so we are going to meet with her this week. So things are picking up. I love being around all the Sisters in the VC, they're my favourite part of the Visitors Centre. We have a lot of fun together and learn a lot from each other. It's easy to be discouraged and feel insecure though because they're all amazing, but we were talking this week and we all feel the same way as each other haha. It's just Satan trying to discourage us. But it's great how Sisters from all over the world and such different backgrounds and cultures and languages can all come together and join in one purpose and be more like Sisters than friends. Like our car is in maintenance because the other Sisters who use it curbed it really bad and its all scratched round the bumper so we are sharing our p-day with Sister Martin and Sister Brenders (from France). So they came over last night to plan with us for today as we're spending the day together due to our lack of car and we just had the best time together singing and laughing and speaking French all of us together! I'm going to miss all the Sisters a lot. We just have a very chill set of Sisters this transfer and we're growing close. The bad part about that is that when one gets sick, everyone gets sick. And sister Duval just got swine flu :{ so we are constantly santiizing our hands! 

I just need to finish off by saying how great my companion is! We are quickly becoming good friends. Last night we went to bed at 10:30 obviously but had pillow talk until 11:15 and it was so special. We trust each other a lot and work well together. We laugh a TON. I quote her a ton because she says funny one-liners in broken English. It's funny how much we can laugh together despite how she's just learning English. Her most said sentence is "Sister Nicholls, you funny" hahah. She's just adorable. I was eating something this week and pulled a face and she said “You dont like?" and I shook my head to agree and she misunderstood and said “You love?" and we just cracked up a TON because of how much that escalated from a simple not liking it to LOVING it haha. We say that all the time now. She's a very special missionary and will surely be training in 10 weeks time. She is getting better at talking in lessons and when she does it’s SO powerful. I can talk and talk and talk and she says one line and the whole lesson can end after she speaks haha! But she talks more in lessons now and is just having a hard time at door approaches but we can work on that! 

I gotta go now! 

I love you all!

Keep emailing and writing to me because nothing makes a missionary more happy than post (except when someone rings you and says that they want to be baptized, but that hasn’t happened this week)!

Sister Nicholls