What A Rollercoaster Of A Week! 30-4-14

Dear Family and Friends!! 

What a rollercoaster of a week. So many ups and downs! It was kind of hard because we had four investigators at the start of the week and now we just have one. Gilberto has decided that he prefers the Catholic church and stands us up every appointment so we have decided to just leave it for now. THere's not much more we can do. Then we found this new investigator called Alicia because she was walking up the stairs to her apartment with a big lot of shopping and we offered to help her take it all in and when we were done with the heavy loads we shared a message of the restoration and gave her a book of mormon and have taught her twice. She is a big black baptist woman from Texas, but she is interested in learning more about the mormons. That was the start of the week. We saw her twice since then and she just doesn't like that she isn't allowed to go into the Temple because she feels that EVERYONE should be able to go into God's home. I explained that it's just like the Kingdom of Heaven - we recieve so many blessings, why should we be entitled to those blessings if we're not keeping the commandments and doing our part. It was a really rough lesson and we were exhausted by the end of it. I excused my self to go to the bathroom half way through and knelt down and plead in prayer to Heavenly Father to help us but I just had this feeling that it was okay and that it was going to hurt but everything was going ot be okay in the end. So I trusted it and felt calm and we finished the lesson and haven't seen her since. We are going to visit her one last time to teach the plan of salvation with a member but if she doesn't respond well to that then we will leave it. We don't want to push it on to people who are not ready. It's just such a shame when you feel like you're trying your best and people aren't ready for it. But we feel hopeful that as we put our trust in the Lord and give up trying to teach the people that aren't ready that the Lord will bless us to find the people that are ready. It's a big leap of faith to drop investigators that you love and WANT to progress knowing that you'll have a long week of door knocking ahead but it's what we needed to do. We felt calm about it so we did it. We were on the phone with our zone leaders the other night telling them about our dilemma and they told us that we are such hard workers because they always see us out and about knocking and contacting (we share an area, they are the spanish elders of our stake) so really we should try something different and just sit inside our apartment all day looking at the phone with the faith that it will ring with a golden referral. It was so funny! Really though because then the very next morning, like 9 hours after that happened, our phone texted with a GOLDEN REFERRAL of a family who just moved in and have requested missionaries!!!!! 

We had the best morning ever yesterday morning. We were in the Visitors' Center in the afternoon and now we dont have twelve week training to fulfill each morning we can be out at 10am for the first time on my mission. I did 24 weeks solid of 12 week training so it's really nice to be out at 10am! So we went to work and we walked and walked and walked and contacted and contacted and contacted and IT WAS SOOOO HOT and the back of my neck is all burnt and my feet and legs are SO TANNED!! It was such a successful morning. I love just walking in the sun handing out book of mormons to people. Me and my companion were chatting and laughing and getting to know each other better. It's amazing how you still have so much to learn about each other after being together for 15 weeks straight haha! But we went and contacted that golden referral and they moved here from Beaver and used to be Jehovahs Witnesses but feel ready to learn about the mormon church. Well thats the wife, the husband is less active mormon. They have a 9 yr old boy who wants to learn too! So it was a MASSIVE answer to prayers. Heavenly Father heard us pleading out in prayer to help us find new people to teach and He answered in like 24 hours! It was so great! We made two appointments with two random less active people we came across, and we had lunch with Sister Barney the ward mission leaders wife! It was delicious and I love when you spend a while in one area you get to be so close with the members. Morningside has great members :) 

So another trial of the week: my face had an allergic reaction to a new face wash that I used!! So I did something stupid and........bought a face wash for acne when I don't have acne and it reacted cos it was way too strong for my face and it was really red and itchy and painful!!!! I just wanted to scratch my face off! The Elders gave me a blessing and dropped off some medicine at the visitors centre for me and a cold pack for my face haha. It was funny but hurt at the same time. It was weird because when the Elder was giving me a blessing he kept referring to me by "Charlotte, as you..." and "Charlotte, we bless you..." and I felt like Dod was giving me the blessing. It was nice. 

We had some miracles in the visitor's centre this week! I was just sitting there doing my thing when a young couple walked in. The woman, Dana, is not a member. She has been learning about it from the boy's family though. I taught her infront of the Joseph Smith picture and showed them God's Plan For His Family and invited her to be baptized and she said YES! They are from around St George so I have been teaching her on the phone and have set up an appointment with her local missionaries to go and visit her. When I spoke to her on the phone she told me that her boyfriend who was with her that evening proposed to her after they went in the VC down by the Temple! CUTE!!! I'm excited for her!!! It will be the first person I've taught in the VC to be baptized for realz. Other than that I haven't been able to speak to the couple from Holland because of the time difference but I will contact the mission office to see how they are doing. I had some more people come in from Holland the other day!!! The sisters know to send me to the Dutch people because they really like that my dad lived there for 2 years. They were so impressed when I told them that there is a temple in The Hague and asked for me to send them the address to it so I will be in contact with ALL the dutch people to baptize them and stuff. We had some Italians come in and they were so cute! They were Catholic and didn't want to stay in touch but they liked what we talked about. They spoke with such an Italian accent! There was this French tour bus that came (like 5 every single day) but the tour guide was called Yannick and he really took a shine to the sisters haha. I was talking to him in French and English and at the end of the tour he said infront of us all "You are all very beautiful...but especially that one" and pointed at me and then said in french to the french sisters that he will be back to marry me. AHHHHHHHHH so i will hide when they come back. #SCARYTOURGUIDES

A great part of the week was when we went to teach this less active woman named Colette that we have met with for a few times but she isnt quitting smoking nor going to church so we dont see her very much. Anyway we felt like we needed to see her on Sunday and when we got there she was really upset because someone had stolen her car. It was devastating because her and her husband needed that car to get to and from work! So she has lost her job cos she couldnt get there and he is having to have a few hours of sleep then walk to work which takes ages. They already live in a really rough place. So she invited us in and we talked for a while about afflictions helping us to come closer to God and then she shared some really personal experiences with the Saviour with us, and she told us her biggest fear in life and then said "I've never told anybody that before" and sobbed and it was soooooooooo amazing to have someone be that vulnerable with us because then we know we truly are helping people as we had come to the crux of her problem and were able to help her with that. She said she will come to Church this week so we will see! Also we were out driving around our senior community and there was a group of 6 old people doing their garden so we pulled over and jumped out and helped. We were sweating it was so hot but we helped a lot and they were very appreciative and cute. They told us they weren't members but everyone in their family has served missions and they grew up in utah their whole life so we have a sneaking suspicion that they were baptized but are less active ;) once you serve in utah you can easily pick out who is a member and who is not! 

We ate dinner in this beautiful home on the hill and one side of the house was mostly glass overlooking st george so it was gorgeous! You would LOVE to live here. Seriously think about moving here. ANyway we were eating and it turns out that the man is the Vice President of Dixie State University! The food was delicious and we were on our best behaviour :) haha! Another exciting moment was when we went to the mission office to hand in a baptismal record and the senior couple in there showed us the real life transfer board!!! It's in President's office and you have to open it up because its so big! it has everyones picture and name and release date and whether they can drive and what language they speak and their leadership title and where they serve and what district and what zone! its so organized!!! It was so cool to see it all! Also Angie's mum and dad came in to the VC so that was fun to see them! 

Two funny english speaking faux pas from Sister Garcia this week: she was trying to say that this woman had eaten a lot so she is a pig but instead she said "she is a pork" hahhahaa! and then we are teaching this less active man who has an interesting story. He tried to committ suicide by cop - so he called the cops and told them that there was an emergency then tried to kill them so they shot him but only in the arm so his arm is mangled and he looks scary but he's so lovely! Bishop told us to visit and wants us to take him with us every time but he is really nice. His name is Shawn but sister garcia got it wrong and called him Swan hahahahhahahahahahahahhahahaha it's so funny because when you see him he is the scariest looking thing but she refers to him as Swan now hahaha!!! Best moment ever!!! 

Well we have to get going and continue on with our pday! We are getting our hair cut today! 

ALL MY LOVE

Sister Nicholls

Another great week! 22-4-14

Dear Family and Friends,

What a week! And it's only been 6 days since I last emailed. And it'll be 8 days again because next week P-Day is on Wednesday again because of VC meetings. GOSH who even makes that schedule ;) oh, me. LOLZ anyway this week was great! So last Wednesday Sister Garcia and Schafer and Lipke went out to lunch with the Christiansen's because of Sister Garcia's birthday! It was an Italian place that was really good! Then we went to Downeast and I might've bought a new dress. A big MIGHT. Then in the evening we plucked up all our courage and took a recent convert to visit E with us. E's whole demeanour had changed, and she let us in and cried and hugged us and apologized again and again for what she had done the day before. A spoke a lot about how she felt the week before her baptism and how to cope with it and we asked E what she was feeling. E said "I spent a lot of time on my knees last night asking God what I should do. Which church should I be bapized in to? And He told me to be baptised into the Mormon church. I want to be baptized this Saturday!" and we REJOICED and wasted absolutely NO time in calling our District Leader and his companion to get them there that second to peform the interview because you never know with E haha. She has been scheduled for baptism so many times before. So we caled them and they said that their appointment had stood them up so it was perfect. We called the Bishop and he came too! E was SOOOOO HAPPY! She lives by herself because her Mormon husband died 4 years ago and she esteems the Bishop to be the best man in the world and whenever he gives her even a shred of attention she is thrilled! So Bishop came in and she ran up to him and engulfed him in her arms and kissed him on the cheeks and the Elders followed in afterwards and she did the same with them. They looked so awkward!! IT WAS HILARIOUS. Elder Ball has a bit of a tummy on him (it is the 40 lb mission!) and she put her hands on his tummy and squeezed in delight hahahahahahhahahahahha we were crying with laughter! She was uncontrollably happy! She had the interview and they said she has an amazing testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon! We were SO HAPPY Wednesday night! We ended up not leaving the house until 9:50pm but we figured it was okay because our district leader was there too and it was for a good cause haha. I haven't been out that late in a very very long time!

More good news, we went to L and G's house (remember T's parents) and G has said that he is ready to learn more!! It is so thrilling to help a family come into the fold and be united for all eternity. We need lots of prayers for him beacuse he has anxiety and gets scared of change a lot of the time and so we are trying to show him that he needs this but also not make it sound like a huge change cos then he'll get scared and stop learning. I was bold with him and told him that his family need him to be the Priesthood holder and lead his family in righteousness, he needs to take his woman to the temple etc. That really struck him and he was really thoughtful. I love their family so much! I am excited for him.

We have our new district and it's honestly the best I've ever had. It's us and Sisters Schafer and Sister Lipke, and then Elder Ball and Elder Nye, and the Zone Leaders are Elder Wright and Elder Cavazotti. It is a spiritual feast every week yet its so fun that we laugh til we cry. We had the best training meeting I've ever had my whole mission. I guess that's  what you get when an Assistant to the President becomes your District Leader. He's used to giving Mission conference training so training at District Meeting is a piece of cake. It was SOOOOO GOOOOD! I just want to be a better missionary every single day. It's going to be a great transfer with them!!! And Sister Schafer told me she has announced to her family her decision to go to BYU after her mission! We are going to live together!!!! And Elder Ball and Elder Nye are going to BYU and are living together too! So it'll be a district reunion every day haha!!! I LOVE THE ST GEORGE MISSIONARIES! After DTM Sister Watkins took me and my companion and two other companionships out for lunch at this restaurant called Breakfast at Tifiny's - IT WAS SO GOOD!!!! We have to go there if you come and get me. It was a treat for the Sisters whose birthdays were that month and their companions! It was delicious! It was so nice to be out with her. My favourite thing about being a Visitor Centre Trainer is geting to spend lots of time with the Watkins'.

This crazy lady came into the VC and was telling me how she's been banned from attending the addiction recovery programs in St George but she needs to go because she is an addict to wheat and the wheat makes her more depressed which means her life is in choas and she can't hold down a job and she's done everything and she watched Conference but she already knows it all and no one understands her and nothing is right in the world. I just stood there and showed her some pictures of Jesus but there wasn't anything I could do for her! She was way out of reality. It was so sad to see, but I love her and tried my best! Every day people like that come in. There was this one woman came and sat in front of the Christus crying hysterically and everyone just looked at her for a few minutes. It hurt to see someone cry that much, because here we sit with our lives that are fine, we have everything we need, and there is someone there who llooks like her whole world has shattered. I went and sat next to her with some tissues and held her while she sobbed into me. I took her into Elder Watkins office and he gave her a blessing and it turns out that her daughter has been sectioned and will probably be in a mental institution for years and years and years. She was devasated because her husband passed away a few years ago (she only looks about 30) and now her daughter is gone too. It humbles me to hear people's lives each day.

We went and saw E on Friday night just before her baptism! We helped her pick out some clohes. She took us into her bedroom and had us pick her dress and we told her 1000 times she needed two sets of underwear cos one will be wet but of course she forgot them haha!!  We didn't rest until she was actualy baptized on Saturday morning. Our whole District came to the baptism for support and I played the piano. A spoke and all 6 Sister missionaries sung "When I am baptized" acapela because I can't play and sing at the same time! It went realy well and was beautiful! On Sunday when she was confirmed she was late so Bishop said from the stand that she will be confirmed next week and started the Sacrament song and half way through E waltzed in and went right up to the front and waved and sat down next to the Bishopric HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH. I felt so un-Christlike  but I was crying with laughter behind my hymn book. It was so funny!!!!!!  She got confirmed and everyone sustained her and she thought they were waving at her so she waved back. IT WAS ADORABLE!!!!! All day she was teling everyone how much she loves us and how patient we are with her and how she needed us etc. It's been 12 years and now she is finally baptized!!!! WE ARE SO HAPPY! It was truly a miracle that I'll never forget!

Yesterday night we were out walking to a house to contact and we came acoss a less active man name Justin who we met a few weeks ago that is gay and drunk all the time. We were talking to him and I noticed this car kept going past us again and again so I looked the next time it went past and it was the Elders!! They sent us a text while we were talking to him asking us to call them when we can. Turns out he had tried to start a fight with them twice and they wanted to make sure we were okay haha. HE LOVES US! We got him in touch with the Bishop when we saw him a few weeks ago and he's become bffs with the Ward Mission Leader and he prayed for us and said the most beautiful sincere prayer ever. He was praying for blessings for us and gratitude that we came into his life and then he said "And I wish that there was food here because I only know how to bless food....but there's no food here........Sisters, you're supposed to laugh at that!" hahahahahahhaahaha half way through the prayer. He was so drunk! I remember how scared I used to be of drunk or high people but now we spend like half our time around them! He is lovely though and we are excited for the changes he is making!

Well I have to go now!
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS!
Sister Nicholls

Happy Easter! 16-4-14

Dear Family and Friends,

First off, I have a confession to make. I have a sugar relapse. It was one of those days when all you can think of are cookies. And then you go to the Bishop's house, and his wife is just pulling out of the oven the most perfect cookies you've ever seen! And they just keep coming and coming until there's like fifty of them, and they get you a glass of milk and say "Sisters!! You're just in time for the cookies!! Please eat loads of them, we made way too many!" and hand you a plate with six cookies on them and you eat ALL OF THEM AND DON'T EVEN FEEL BAD!!!!!!! That's what happened to me. I've never had such delicious cookies and don't even feel bad hahaha.

Let's start with getting all the bad news out of the way. So....according to our area book, E explodes at missionaries the week before she's scheduled for baptism. So we were anticipating it but still having faith in Christ that this could be the time she calmly gets baptised! But yesterday we knocked at her door and she answered and just EXPLODED! She shouted at us for "gossiping" about her and being "so fake we are plastic" and that we don't love her and that no one loves her and no one is perfect except Christ yet we expect people to be perfect and that no Mormons go to Church for Christ but to judge each other, and that no one helps her and no one is kind etc etc so we just listened to her yelling at us for about 10 minutes and she suddenly cooled off and invited us in. We went in because we had Anne Marie a recent convert with us who is SO CHRIST LIKE and said a lot of soothing things to her like "I know how it feels to be faced with change but this is a good change" and "Can we pray together? I know you'll feel better if we do" and was just amazing. So we went in and then she switched again and shouted and shouted and we sat there and listened to it and I talked with her for a while about why she feels this way and what has brougth it on (one day when I'm home and we have time then I'll  give you details about what happened but I don't  have time right now) and the thing that changed her was when she said "You're  happy now you've seen the real me. You're happy now." and Sister Garcia couldn't talk, she was so upset, and so I just said "Trust me, we're not happy. we're probably going to go home and cry for a few days about this." because she told us never to come back and she said "No, you're happy." and I said "Really, we are not happy, we are very upset about this.  But we won't bother you ever again, it's been a pleasure to spend these few months with you."  And she just switched again and was so soothing and Mum-like and scooped us up in her arms and held us and cried and said "I'm so so so sorry, I love you both, you come again tomorrow!  You've done so much for me, you stopped me smoking, I love you, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." haha so it wasn't anything personal against us because every missionary has had that done to them before, but she cooled off and has invited us back. So we'll see what happens. She needs help more than we can give her! But Anne Marie will be great for her! So at this point who knows if there will be a baptism on Saturday! It's just frustrating when you try your best with people and they don't progress. The G family still cancel every appointment with us but keep making new appointments so it's confusing because if they're not interested you'd rather them just say that,  you know? But they say they're really interested but to come back next week, so on and so forth. Please just pray for us because we're trying our best but it doesn't feel like we're getting anywhere.

Anyway onto good things! Dad, this'll make you happy!!!!!!!! It made me SO HAPPY!! A couple walked into the VC and I greeted them and they said they are visiting from HOLLAND! So naturally I said "Spreaken ye Nederlans" or however that is spelled and they got all excited and jabbered to me in Dutch and I looked at them and said I don't speak Dutch haha! But told them that Dad served there blah blah blah they weren't members but said "We are grateful for the Mormons because it's because of the Mormons that we are here in America right now" and it turns out that they are Catholic but that they are into family history and found a cousin in Oregon or something and were going through St George to get there. So they were in town and he felt something telling him to come to the VC!! So I talked with them about feelings and how they feel at Church and reading the Bible, and told them to pay attention to the feelings they have when they're here. I played the Christus message in Dutch and felt so close to Dad cos I knew he'd have understood what it was saying, and then played the Restoration for them in Dutch! After the movie I walked into the theatre and he just looked at me and said so sincerely "I believe that what I just watched is true." and I was like "I know that what you just watched is true. How did you feel?" and he said "I feel peace in my chest. I feel that this is true" so I gave them Hoet Book Van Mormon or whatever it is and they were SO HAPPY and asked me "Where is our local Mormon church in Holland?" and I got their address and found it on lLDS maps, and they gave me their phone number and email address so I can teach them online and have asked for the local missionaries to go there!!!!! IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!!!!! He spoke great English, fluent Dutch,  German, French and Polish, so at the end when I was getting his details I got a German Sister to help because he prefers German over English. It was amazing! I kept thinking of the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants that says after you've taught with the Spirit both are edified and rejoice together, because we were both edified and rejoicing! I just love when you're in the right place at the right time to meet someone who has obviously been prepared by the Lord. His name is __________ or something and I left his details at home but I'll get them to you next week to see if you know where he is from. I remember his province was PR. But I'll check. His wife was called _________. There's nothing more incredible than introducing the Gospel to someone and seeing it change them. He was so soft hearted because he asked after watching the restoration why Jesus and Heavenly Father were two different people, as he has always been taught they were one God and believes in the trinity. When I said "They are one in purpose, but the Godhead is three separate beings" he just accepted it. It reminded me of in the Book of Mormon when King Lamoni's father or King Lamoni prays and says "Aaron hath told me there is a God, and if thou art God....etc" how he just trusted what Aaron taught him. That's what happened with F. I gained his trust by sharing the true doctrine with them and they reocgnized that doctrine as truth. It made me ponder how we can gain people's trust so that they can trust the doctrine we teach them!

Another cool story, a German couple came in to the VC and asked if there were any German speaking Sisters to give them a tour. It was a Sunday morning and there were no German Sisters there so I had to give them a tour and they really liked what they saw and learned. They didn't ask for missionaries but they took Das Buch Mormon's and really wanted to do family history so I sent them to the family search library!! I just LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! ) !!

Everyone I love has gone home. Well not everyone but lots. Elder Rawlins our DL came into the VC before going off to meet his parents and we all had photos in front of the Christus for the last time and I don't know how it happened but "Till we meet again" was perfectly playing from the VC speakers and we all started singing it to him and waving as he walked out the doors! One of those heart wrenchingly perfect moments haha!!!

We had some characters come in to the VC this week. The most gay man I've ever met from a group called Vivace if you want to look at YouTube for them came in and asked lots of good questions. He was so funny and I had a great time giving them a tour. They were in town for a concert they were doing and wanted to learn more about Mormons. He asked realy educated questions so it was a nice change to be challenged and have to really think before answering! Then I was in the annexe and it was just Sister Garcia and I and these two men came in dressed like the most hippy pirate you've ever seen, with a real parrot on his shoulder, and no shoes and they smelt so bad!! They said they were on their way from the islands to go to Hawaii to live on the beach and be sustained by the mangoes hydration and make a farm out of bamboo stick. It was sooooooooooooo great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were very educated and loved to live uncivilised and have a YouTube channel, their names were Koyote and Byrd, spelled that way because it means Be Your Real Dreams hahahah!!! I loved them so much!! They smelled so bad!!!

So transfer news! I was with Sister Schafer and the Assistants called and told us that they were ready to give us the transfer board. I seriously thought I was going to be sick! hahaha I was so nervous! I didn't want to leave my baby or Morningside! They came, we said a prayer together and then they handed us a copy of the transfer board and I hurriedly tried to find myself and NOTHING HAS CHANGED!!!!! I'm still with Sister Garcia and I'm still in Morningside! When we told the Bishop that, he was like "YESSSS!!! OUR PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED! I had the Mission Presidents' number in my phone to call him and tell him to keep you two here but then I felt like that might be too pushy, but literally the Ward Council prayed tha tyou would stay!!" So we are all happy!!! Babies never stay with their Mums for three transfers so we are lucky!
It's Sister Garcia's birthday on Friday! She is 23! She'll be four years older than me hahaha!!! Its been 91 F this week again! And today we are going to lunch with the Christiansen's for Sister Garcia's birthday!!!!

In SHORT, I love being a missionary, I love being in the VC! I love prayer! I LOVE YOU ALL! Happy Easter!

Sister Nicholls

"Beware of pride boy, your eternal soul is on steak!" 7-4-14

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been productive!! We got ourselves a new investigator named B. She is 12, and her whole family just moved from California and are all interested in learning the gospel #missionarydream! So far we have only been able to meet with B but we will hopefully see her family tomorrow! B and her sister S went to the Women's Conference last week with the Ward Young Women. That Young Women's President is the most amazing missionary you'll ever meet! She brought them with her and they LOVED what they learned and how they felt and talked with the missionaries on Temple Square and they said "It would  be so cool to be baptized and be a Mormon" and I'm like "We can help with that" haha so we are helping with that!

I had some very special visitors in the VC this week! The Watkins said "We live five hours away and we don't get as many visitors as you!" haha. I was sitting in Elder Watkin's office writing the monthly report on the VC for SLC to look over, and Sister Watkins came in saying "There's someone here for you!" and in walked the Herbertsons! I WAS SO THRILLED!!!!!!! I nearly cried in Julie's arms hahaha! I gave Elder Herbertson a nice handshake haha. I spoke to Connor on the phone too.
We sat in that office talking for ages and then I showed them around the VC and it was so surreal seeing someone from my home world here in my mission world! But it made me so happy! Reminded me that real life is still real! They gave me a beautiful package! Thank you so much for everything. Then just before I came to email I was in a meeting with the Watkins (welcome to my life, meeting after meeting! But I love the Watkins' so it's a pleasure!) and Sam Siddiqui and John Fowles and his family came in!! It was so weird but so cool! I like seeing people! Elder Watkins is so funny and reminds me of Dad so much! I said hello to him the other day and he just smiled and said "I like you Sister Nicholls." and I cracked up and said "I like you too Elder Watkins" and he just cracked up a ton and we have a special connection now ;)

I had a cool experience in the VC this week! This couple were looking around and I just felt strongly that I needed to go and speak to them. So I approached them and discovered that they aren't members, and they are visiting from Wisconsin. We talked a little bit and got onto the subject of Sabbath day worship. It was a good discussion and they were saying how they just use it as a day to get house chores done because they work so hard in the week. I said how my family love to have the Sabbath day as a day off of all of that, where we can go to church, and then do family activities in the afternoon and how much I love that. They seemed touched and so naturally I put them in God's Plan For His Family because that's what reduces everyone to tears haha. So I met them at the end and the woman was crying and I asked her what touched her so much and she said that they need to make the Sabbath day more holy! It was funny because the movie has NOTHING to do with the Sabbath but that was obviously what had stuck in her mind that the Spirit was teaching her about, and she was crying and saying how when she was a kid they'd go to her Grandma's every Sunday and it was special and now they don't do anything special and they need to change that! It was so awesome! So I taught them the Restoration and The Plan Of Salvation and gave them a Book of Mormon and got their contact details and will contact them this week and see if I can teach them again. I just love seeing it "click" in people's eyes. It's hard being a VC missionary when you have just a few minutes with someone to make a connection and help them to have a converting experience with the Gospel, plant a seed if you will, so that they will go home and want to continue learning from the local missionaries. We are just the introduction! But now with technology we get to stay in touch with people! I just love it because so many non members have come in this week so I really feel like I'm fulfilling my purpose. There is nothing more thrilling than introducing the Book of Mormon to someone!

Myself and one other Sister had to pull ourselves away from watching General Conference and missed the Prophet and Apostles to save and rescue other souls who came in to the VC. It was a case of good, better and best! I'll read Conference when it comes out in the Ensign! I am SO excited!

So I'm doing no sugar April. It's hard but it's getting easier. It's amazing how your body craves things! But the cravings are going and I'm feeling great! I hope my skin will get better and I'll lose some weight. I can't run in the mornings except like once a week because my companion doesn't run so it's boring for her to watch me run back and forth. Maybe my next comp will enjoy running! We have transfer calls this week! WHO EVEN KNOWS WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN!!! As the VCT I get given the transfer board on Thursday, so two days before everyone gets their calls so that I can begin the long and arduous process of doing the six week VC schedule. I have already been told bits and pieces about transfers so I have an idea about who's staying and who's going outbound. It's exciting! So think of me on Thursday when I find out where I'm going and who I'm with and what I'm doing before I can tell ANYONE! It's going to be painful haha. Everyone has said that they will try to read my body language and I'm scared haha!!! It's so hard to keep big exciting secrets. But I'll be obedient ;)

We had a great Zone Meeting on Friday! Basically all the EldersI know and love are going home next week or the next transfer. Then I'll actually have to branch out and make new friends?! What's that all about? It's sad. So in order to say goodbye to all our District Leaders and Zone Leaders going home we had an Around The World Lunch!  It was so good! They were all very surprised and delighted! The best part of the meeting was that we had to role play teaching with the pamphlets, and of COURSE I GOT PAIRED WITH PRESIDENT CENTER. AND OF COURSE I GOT GIVEN THE CHASTITY PAMPHLET!! Who else can say they have taught their Mission President chastity? I think I was bright red the whole time. I had to call him by his first name, John, because he was acting as an investigator and I had to give him a detailed lesson on what is okay and what is not okay hahahahahahahha,. Then I committed him to keep his thoughts clean and not commit adultery hahah! We have a special connection now ;) I was just like, OF COURSE I'M THE ONE WHO GETS PRESIDENT AND CHASTITY. OF COURSE. hahahah! Best story ever!

Yesterday we met with this mother and her daughter who is 17 that we just reactivated. I don't think I've told you about them before because i always have way too much stuff to tell you about. But we've been working with them for a while and they've been to Church for the last month so they are reactivated! We met with them yesterday and it was just so sweet. The mother's mum was there too, and she's active but lives in Texas, and she was just so grateful to us for our persistence with her daughter and granddaughter. Everyone cried and we just felt so priviledge to have met them! They are taking us to Kneaders today on our pday for a treat! IT WAS DEFINITELY WORTH WORKING WITH THEM ;) haha but I love the relationships you form on your mission! I love these people so much!!

Our babygirl E is doing good! She's still off the cigarettes and we're praying so much for her to keep going strong so she can be baptized April 19th! She seems to think it's all up to the Lord and she doesn't have to do any work. So we are trying to help her see, if she wants to be baptized April 19th bad enough, she'll do it. If she smokes again, it's not because the Lord doesn't want  her to be baptized haha! KEEP PRAYING FOR HER PLEASE!

So I found this scripture that changed my whole life, it's the whole of Moses 7. I've read it before but it never jumped out at me like it did this week. Basically, the Lord is showing Enoch the dispensations of the world, and shows him the good and the bad. The Lord cries with Enoch when he looks and sees the wickedness, and He smiles when He sees the good. I've studied it like all week and it makes me cry every time I read it because it shows us truly the character of the Lord. It's the most beautiful passage of scripture I've ever read. Enoch says something to the effect of "You've made millions of worlds, millions of universes with millions of particles, you are from everlasting to everlasting, and know everything, yet you weep when you look upon our world?" and the Lord in effect says back to him "I created each of these people with my own hands, and gave them everything, and all I asked is that they would choose me, their Father, but instead they are choosing destruction and endless torment. How can I see these things and not weep?" and it touches me so much every time. I've told you before how I feel like the Lord weeps with me when  I weep over my investigators that give up. It's His heartache that I feel. Now I've had it confirmed to me with these scriptures. I love it so much and it's so powerful using it around the Christus, as it has the mural of the universe behind Him and yet He is looking down on us with a smile and His arms outstretched just like in Moses 7 where He smiles down upon Noah building the ark. I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!!!!

Last funny moment of the week. You know the 20 minute Restoration movie we play to people? There's the Priest who says to Joseph "Beware of pride boy, your eternal soul is at stake." and us missionaries quote it whenever we can. We even have a song called Utah Provo Mission in our car that we play and play and play but change the words to Utah St George Mission, and change BYU to DSU etc etc anyway, it quotes that line in the song. Look it up on youtube, it's mine and Sister G's fave. Anyway we use that line on each other all the time whenever we say something that could potentially be prideful, and Sister G tried to use it on me but she got it wrong and said "Beware of pride boy, your eternal soul is on steak" hahahahhahahahahahah we laughed till we cried for a long time. I love having a companion with English as a second language! Who knows what the future holds for us this week with transfer calls!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT!!
SISTER NICHOLLS