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!!