Being Alive Is Super Great!! 31-3-14

Dear Beloved Friends and Family,

I'm still alive! I'm stillllll allivvee (sung in the tune of that song that Luke likes and listens to by Lisa Miskovsky). Being alive is super great! This week we've had lots of people taking care of us. The work has been slow because we have just been exhausted all week. I don't know what was wrong but still by Friday my memory was really bad. I was forgetting basic things like keys, phones, lesson materials, food, scheduling etc. It was so bad! I got scared and spoke to Sister Center about it and she just said that it will come back soon, it's probably still shock. But I think it has come back by now, I'll let you know next week ;)  The senior couples at the VC have taken good care of us. Everyone just heard on Monday that we were in a car accident and that we needed prayers, so everyone assumed the worst and were really glad when we walked in to the VC alive! Haha. But the sweetest Senior Couples in the world serve in our VC and the Kaona's from Hawaii had us over for Hawaiian food on Wednesday, and the Sutherland's from Rexburg has us over for steak and Dutch oven potatoes and double layered trifle on Thursday!!! I just love the Senior Couples, they are like extra grandparents (but obvs no one can replace my own perfect grandparents). I just love talking to them and laughing with them. Can I just say how much I love the Watkins?! Elder Watkins reminds me so much of you Dad, and he says jokes that aren't funny then cracks himself up a ton and his tummy wobbles when he laughs haha. He has a sixth sense to know when French buses are coming, and yesterday it was dead in the VC and he said "Let's hold our meeting now...actually wait, a bus will be here in five minutes" and we were like "whatever Elder Watkins" and by the end of that sentence a BUS PULLED UP and we all screamed in delight and shock! It was the funniest thing ever! Then all the French people came in and I was like "Bonjour! Comment ca va? Bienvenue! Toilette pour la femme, toilette pour les homme" etc etc and they assumed that I speak French and started talking at me and I muttered out "Je parle Francais un petit peu" haha no idea how to spell that but anyway Sister Garcia came to my rescue. When they were done with their tour, I was standing by the doors saying Au Reviour and Bon Voyage and the woman looked at me and spoke and I was like "No comprend" and so her and her friend said in extremely broken English with lots of hand gestures "You...very....nice....You...beautiful" and motioned tall and hair and eyes hahah and I was like MERCI very much and they motioned to have a picture with me and so they stood in front of the Christus and took a picture with me hahahahah then all these French men saw and formed a queue and there was like 5 people in the line to have a photo with me. I felt SO AWKWARD because the men smelled bad and put their arms around me and I stood there so awkwardly but it was hilarious. All the other Sisters were watching and cracking up! They were muttering in French so I have no idea what they were saying but they seemed pleased. I'll charge next time ;) But it's been so great having so many buses and so many people who know nothing about Mormons come to the Visitors' Centre. It really helps me feel like I'm fulfilling my purpose. There is nothing more thrilling than introducing people to the Gospel and sending them on their way with a Book of Mormon! It's hard sometimes never knowing the outcome of your work but it's great at the same time to just focus on the introductions and then hand them back to their own missionaries in their part of the world.

Women's Conference was really great on Saturday! We showed it at the VC but no one came, literally no one was in the VC so we got to watch it. I had to keep walking the place to check that people weren't approaching so I got to see most of it. It was really great! I look forward to seeing it uninterrupted one day!

We did the stop smoking lesson twice this week, once with T's mum L, and once with E. She is still going strong for baptism on April 19th, lots of prayers for her please! It's such a thrill to crush people's cigarettes as they sign their own personal declaration of independence and start a new life as a non smoker! We met up with M and we went to Swig with her and then took her around the Tabernacle and she seemed happy. It was a fun day! It's nice and warm so I have my watch tan and my toe tan back again!

So we went to one of our Ward Mission Leader's house this week, Brother Barney. He is a young married guy with a baby a few months old - CUTEST BABY IN THE WORLD. We love them so much! Sis Barney made us cookies while we were there and they were delish. Anyway so we were talking to Brother Barney and his baby kept distracting us because she's the cutest baby in the world so I mentioned how hard it is to not be allowed to touch babies at all being a missionary and he was replying to that and while doing so he picked his baby up and walked past me (I was sitting on the sofa) and he pretended to trip and "drop" (really he placed her) the baby on my lap and it was so funny because I just shot my arms up in the air like when the police tell you to put your hands where they can see them! So I wasn't touching this baby at all and she was just like leaning on my chest and I had my arms in the air and was like "OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!" and he laughed and picked the baby back up and was like "It's good to see you're an obedient missionary" hahahah! We laughed so much at my reaction! So in one week I had like 7 men hug me and one baby on my lap all without my consent #missionarylife.

So now an update on the whole car crash thing. Everyone has been so nice to us. The AP's, our zone leaders and a few different district leaders were fighting to give us blessings haha. We had a blessing from our zone leaders and the assistants brought us some ice packs and the district leaders brought us food! That way it was fair for everyone ;) then in my locker at the VC the next day there was the most tender card ever, signed by our whole zone with messages from each missionary. It was so cute and I don't know how they did it but everyone had signed it! Sister Center has called us every day since the accident to see how we are doing physically and emotionally. They are trying to arrange for us to see a chiropractor and Sister Center said if we decide to go that she will accompany us and it will be a girls day ;) hahaha! I love her! We have our new car and I have driven a few times and am just taking it slow and driving as though everyone is going to hit us. I'll be okay in a few weeks time. Above all, I am grateful for the lessons I've learned and am grateful to be alive.

On Saturday the most beautiful baptism I've ever seen took place. Remember M and A from Washington? My most favourite family ever, Sister Donaldson and I reactivated them after lots of work and persistence and love and effort and they are doing so well that M received the Melchizedek Priesthood on Saturday morning, then he baptized and confirmed his little girl Saturday afternoon. It was such a thrill to walk into the Washington Stake Center again, and even though H wasn't "our baptism" as missionaries, it was the most touching baptism I've ever been to. The Spirit was so strong, and almost everyone was in tears. I sat there and watched M put his arm to the square and say "Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ" and I just wept and wept tears of utmost gratitude to be alive to witness this miracle. If you'd seen them months ago you wouldn't have dreamed that this could happen. They didn't even want to let us in, and now they are preparing to be married in the Temple. It is a feeling unlike anything else. I just cried and cried with gratitude.

There is nothing more beautiful than being a missionary. There is nothing more fulfilling, more character building or better for your soul than being a missionary. I was so grateful for the angels that protected us on Monday so that I could see M baptize H. After the baptism we were leaving when a man stopped me and looked into my eyes and cried and thanked me for the persistence and work I'd put in with his family. I asked nicely who he was and he was M's Dad, and he and I just stood there holding hands weeping. He could hardly speak and just kept saying thank you. It's in those moments that you know the 1,000 doors you knocked to find that one was worth all the heartache and sweat, and that one day you'll be able to sit down in Heaven together as eternal friends. I know I didn't do the work, the Lord did. He prepared them. He softened their hearts. I was just there doing what I'd been asked to do. I love them so much. Each day this week I've just contemplated how grateful I am to still be here and wept each time. I love my mission. I LOVE my mission. I love the Elders and Sisters here. I love my Mission President and his wife. I know that I was supposed to come to this Mission for many different reasons, but one of them to be so that I could have President Center as my Mission President. Each day I kneel down in prayer and reverently thank my Father in Heaven for preserving my life so that I can still see the change in others when they find Christ again in their lives. There is nothing like this work! I don't want this to ever end. I love my mission. I love St George. There is nothing more thrilling or deeply fulfilling than introducing someone to the Book of Mormon and inviting them to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. I love every one of you for your prayers for me during this emotional and life changing week. I will never take for granted your prayers or my safety or each day I receive ever again. I love each day, and just like my new years resolution, I set the goal to love everyone that I met every day, to change myself and others each day, and to work so hard each day that I am exhausted each night. That was renewed after the car accident because I learned how precious each day is.
In Doctrine & Covenants section 123 it says "Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven— These should then be attended to with great earnestness."
It is my hope that I can waste and wear out my life for the next 11 months, but then forever, in bringing to light all the hidden truths that have been lost. Then my favourite is the last verse of the chapter:
17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

It has reminded me a lot of this week and how in that car accident, I cheerfully did all that laid in my power, and then was forced to stand still and see God's arm be revealed in the utmost assurance that He was there and looking after us every second of every day, and that He sent His angels to protect us and push our car forward so that the man didn't hit us at the front or side of our car, causing further damage and injury. I know that He lives, that He loves us, and that He is involved in our lives more than we know. Never blame God for bad things that happen, because He weeps along with us when hard times come. "All these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good". Bad things don't come from Him, but we endure them so that we can become more like Him.

I love each of you so much and pray thanks for your love every day!
Sister Nicholls