Dear Family and Friends,
Oh my GOSH what a week that was!! Lots of crazy things and exciting things and sad things. I'll start with the sad so that it doesn't end with the sad! Dave has officially dropped us. He told the fellowshippers to tell us. It hurt SO MUCH that both SIster Garcia and I were crying half way through the phone call and couldn’t really speak. It felt way worse than breaking up with someone. Because you have all these hopes and dreams for people, you see the way their life is changing and how happy they are and then BOOM one day it's all over. It was just unexpected because we'd seen him like two days before and he'd sent us these texts about how our parents should be so proud of us and our friendship and grace means everything to him and how he always looks forward to seeing our smiling faces and then two days later we're not allowed to contact him anymore. And we drive past his house and it hurts, and we see his name in our phone and it hurts and we just cried for a day straight. It's so hard to go about daily missionary work when you have that pain in you. The pain hurt so much and I was on my knees for about 20 minutes and I finally asked Heavenly Father to take the pain away and I came away from that prayer refreshed and invigorated, knowing that my personal Saviour had taken that pain away. He knew thousands of years ago the pain I'd feel as Dave dropped, and He chose to suffer that so that I didn't have to. I cried the Saviour's tears all week and am feeling His hands carving away my heart to be more like His. "It's the price we pay to become acquainted with God and it is a privilege to pay".
The next morning after that phone call we had Julie Rogers come in and give us a tour of the exhibit of her own art work in the Visitors’ Centre. We just got it this week and she is a local artist from Kanab. The artwork is amazing! It's called Yesterday, Today and Forever and shows us how the church is the same church that Christ set up. The pictures go in twos and one shows from Christ's time and one shows from our time demonstrating the same principle. I LOVE IT SO MUCH! I wish you could come see! It's so powerful! Anyway so our hearts were hurting and then Julie Rogers gave us a tour and we shed many tears because of the stories she shared and the spirit she brought. Each picture has an awesome story and was so inspired. I have tried to remember it all and use it for each tour I've given. I love being in that room! Hopefully it'll stay forever but we'll see.
So a funny thing happened, we were out knocking doors in this rougher part of our area and this man was getting stuff out of his car so we raced over there and said Hi and he did like a triple take and looked at me and said "WOAH!!!!!!!!! You are BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!" and then at Sister Garcia "and you are GORGEOUS!!!!" and I said "thank you! We are the new sister missionaries of this area and we wanted to introduce - " he butts in with "WOAH!!! You have a BEAUTIFUL accent!...If I was a few years younger and we were in the same religion, I would MARRY YOU!" and I was like, “Well thank you! Anyway the Book of Mormon blah blah blah" hahahhahaha and he has read everything of every religion and is "spiritual but not religious" and thanked us so sincerely for our work. He said he travels the world to help make people happy and that we are doing the same thing and thanked us so sincerely. It was nice! He was obviously high on something, he was so jittery and funny!
We had a cool experience the other day. We were planning for the next day and we felt inspired to visit a woman called R, so we put her as the back up plan for if someone cancelled on us. They did indeed stand us up, so we went over to R's house and she started crying and said that she had prayed that someone would come because she'd had a horrible day! It was awesome how the Lord knew she would have a hard day the next day and inspired us the night before to go and visit her! I love it :) It's moments like that that make every day worth it. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!
We had this crazy rain and wind this week! It was so funny because we'd come out of our Zone Meeting and there were 3 companionships of Sisters walking back to our apartments and the heavens opened and it was seriously like being in Universal Studios in one of those theatres that recreates the apolocalypse or one of those movies! We were just walking them all of sudden it RAINED AND RAINED and the wind was SO STRONG! We were trying to run forward but couldn’t run and were low to the ground and our skirts were flying EVERYWHERRREEEEEEEE and we were all screaming and laughing and crying with laughter. It seriously felt like being on I'm a Celebrity on that bushtucker trial where they try and run and the wind and the water cannons are being aimed at them. We made it into our apartments and collapsed on the floor and laughed SO MUCH all wet and windswept! It was crazy! While we were running to our apartments Sister Bristol from Morningside (remember she took us to dinner and it turned out I went to EFY with her son in 2009) saw us and invited us out to lunch! So we went to Red Robin and it was so good! She spoils us a lot! I love her and her family so much! It was a lovely surprise and we had a great time. She said that I always have a room in her house after my mission if I come to visit! I LOVE THEM! I also got to see Sister Koeven after Zone meeting cos she picked up the Washington Sisters. I waited for like 10 minutes just so I could see her for a brief second and have a hug! I LOVE HER SO MUCH!
The VC arranged for us to all go to the dentist and have our teeth cleaned. It was great! They massaged our face and neck too hahaha! I have no cavaties and all the dentists were remarking on how marvellous it is that I’ve never had a cavity or a filling! All the other Sisters heard and so it was a topic of discussion for the day! They gave me a sealer on one of my teeth that has a deep ridge in it though but you can’t feel it or see it. It was way nice to have my teeth pampered.
We had transfer calls this week and the only difference is that I've been called to be a Visitors' Centre Trainer. It's a two transfer calling and I serve with another Sister who is from Germany called Sister Schafer. Our main responsibility is to be the lead shift Sister, so people have to come to us for permission to do stuff and we make sure all the Sisters are where they should be and aren't on Facebook when they're supposed to be on mormong.org chatting haha. We have to do weekly training meetings and make sure each of the sisters are happy and we have to do the six week transfer schedule. Oh. My. Gosh it was CRAZY. It took three days of being in that office working. It was like doing a maths logic exam for three days. We had 11 companionships who have to work 5 or 7 days a week, and had to divide it according to car sharing, pdays, full area days, language skills, coordination meetings, district meetings, and equal amounts of mornings and evenings. It was such a headache!! We slaved and we slaved but Sister Schafer and I became GREAT friends during those hours! We laughed so much and just love each other! I feel like I've known her forever. I'm really excited about this assignment.
I also had exchanges this week which was amazing. I was with Sister Duval in her area, the Dixie YSA Stake! It was such a cool experience to be a YSA missionary! Everyone says I'm going there in a few months so we'll see. I'd be more than happy. It's so different from being in a family ward. We taught lots of lessons and had a great time! I love Sister Duval! We plan on living together in Provo after our missions ;) but she goes home in a few months and will probz get married before I get there. Funniest thing ever, we were knocking at a door in the evening when it was raining and we saw two people running up the road. We thought it was the boys we'd seen earlier playing volleyball so as Sister Missionaries naturally we turned away and stared at the blank door ahead of us. They got closer and Sister Duval said “Are they Elders?!?!??!!?" so I looked too and saw scriptures and nametags and she shouted "ELDERS!!!!!" and it was the AP's and they abruptly stopped and looked around and she shouted again and they looked so embarrassed haha! They were in their white shirts and had their scriptures tucked under their arms like American footballs and were sprinting up the street and she was like "Why were you running Elders?" and they looked so sheepish and were like "oh...erm....we just.....errr...." and she said “Are you trying to lose weight?" hahah BINGOOOO she'd hit the nail on the head. We exchanged pleasantries for a minute and they raced off up the road and we saw them running like five more blocks in the dark and rain! She said she saw them running a few days ago too. So then we left the door and RAN to our next appointment and we were like imagining someone in their house seeing these Elders run past and then a few minutes later these Sisters run past! It was the best!
We really are starting to see the work pick up in our area. We are trying so hard to gain the members trust and it is WORKING! We bore our testimonies in two of our wards on Sunday and it was just amazing because the members are really starting to trust us and recognize us as hard workers and they love us for it! We are showing them that they can trust us with their friends and it's working! We have a family that moved in a month ago from California that we are teaching tonight because the members worked with them and handed them over to us! We are aiming to reach standards of excellence this week which is CRAZY because we spent 35 hours a week in the Visitors Centre and only have a few hours 5 days a week in our area but we think we can do it. We are making every single minute count and are anxiously enagaged every single day and are planning meaningful activities each minute of each day to help us reach our weekly goals. We are determined to reach the standards of excellence by our faith and by our work. We are exhausted every night we go to bed but it’s the best feeling knowing that you've thrusted in your sickle with all your might. I just love testifying of Christ every single day! Please pray that we will be led to the people who are ready and be led to the places that will help us reach our goals! We love our area and we love our members and we are ready to work.
Inviting people to learn about Christ - this is my favourite thing to do.
I love you all. I miss you all. It's my five month mark this week! It scares me where the time went.
Sister Nicholls
Saying goodbye to the Sisters on the transfer van going up north this morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment