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
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