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
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