Dear Family and Friends,
We had a great week this week!! And I'm so excited that it's Mothers Day on Sunday and I can Skype you! I'm going to leave the VC with a French Sister who also needs to Skype in the morning cos of the time difference and will Skype you from a Senior Couple's house! It'll be between 10 - 10:30am OK? I am so excited to see your faces! Sister Clark added you yesterday Mum so you should accept her on Skype!!
I don’t remember if I told you or not but the Bishop asked us to teach this less active family who was recently returning to activity so we have been teaching their 8yr old daughter before she gets baptized. The Dad couldn't baptize her and she wanted Elders to baptize her because her Mum is a convert and she has heard her stories of missionaries teaching her so we taught with the Elders and the Elders baptized her. It was so sweet because she is such a cute little girl. So spiritual and so pure. It was so nice to get to know the family, we're all good friends now. The baptism was beautiful too. And they gave us lots of the food so it's always great. Now I know how the missionaries feel when theWard gives them all the food after the activities. It's a good feeling :) hahah! 
We had an exciting moment the other night when the doors of the VC opened and in walked Elder Rheis from the Preach My Gospel DVD's!! I've seen his face on our dvd player for 24 weeks straight doing the 12 week training myself and then for Sister Garcia and so when he walked in I gasped and then everyone saw him and surrounded him haha!! We had a picture and took him on a tour!! It was so great!
Remember last week we were wondering about whether we should drop all of our investigators because two have fallen off date and two just stand us up and don't agree with what we teach? Well it's all back on track again! We have been able to see them all and teach them all! The lessons went so well! We went over to T's house to teach her the new member lessons and G was there and actually sat down for the lesson, so of course we taught the Restoration! It went really well, the Spirit was really strong and I love it when the Spirit just takes over because we asked great questions and he really thought about the answers and looked really happy and said so many times “This makes so much sense!" so we invited him to be baptized and he said YES OF COURSE but he needs to be married to L cos they live together, and stop smoking! So we invited him to pray about what he should do because he wants to marry her in 2016 and he kept saying that is what he wants and he wants to give her a big wedding, or he wants to take her on a honeymoon etc and I was like "Have you asked Heavenly Father what he wants?" and he got all quiet and thoughtful and was like “Wow, I think you're right. I should do that!" so we are praying and fasting for him to make his decision.
Also we saw A with Anne Marie as she is our go-to whenever lessons get tough! She came with us and we taught the Plan of Salvation and it went really well! She agreed with it and told us how she has been raised a Baptist and is almost 60 years old so will take some time to get used to what we believe. She just asked for time, but she told us how much she appreciates us and loves us visiting because she feels closer to God when we do. It is so nice to be able to do that for people. This really is the most fulfilling work I've ever done :) Sometimes it is SO hard, but that's when the Lord takes over and we make the memories we'll never forget.
I've been teaching D every day on the phone in the Teaching Center at the VC. She is so incredible. She's the one I met at the VC the other day and invited to be baptized. She is coming back to the VC this evening to meet with her assigned missionaries in her local area! She is just doing so well! We read the Book of Mormon together on the phone. We actually recieved great training on that the other day from the Head Director of Visitors' Centers at our Sisters Training Meeting. He taught us how to show the investigators how to read the Book of Mormon, rather than just asking them to read it we need to show them how and do it with them. It was such a necessary training and I've really tried to implement it with all my investigators and we are seeing miracles. G LOVES it and has raced ahead on his reading but can tell us all about what he has read and how he feels about it all. Dana loves it too!!!
We've had great progress with KC our 10 yr old investigator who should've been baptized by now but his parents keep putting it off. We met with just his Mum by herself and got to the root of her problem with the Church and it was all just about being offended by someone 10 years ago! We talked for a while and actually helped her to see it was time to come back. We were at Church on Sunday and she WALKED IN with her sons!!!!! WE WERE THRILLED!! We sat with her in RS and we all laughed together a lot and she has invited us over for dinner on Wednesday! I can’t tell you how much of a change that is. Theirs was always the most awkward house to go into because of how uncomfortable we all were around each other and now we're all besties! Miraclesmiraclesmiracles!!
Funniest story of the week was when we were walking home from KC's house with all these oranges and bananas in a big bag that they'd given us because they'd been given a ton and couldn’t eat it all. We were walking past the other Sisters' apartments to our apartment and this black cat just emerged from the bush meowing. It looked so sinister because it only has one eye! Sister Garcia is TERRIFIED of cats because she's allergic to them. I swear this cat knew that because it ran at her and she swung the massive bag of oranges at the cat and this just encouraged the cat and it wouldn't give up and was determined to brush itself around her legs!!! It ran at her again and she screamed and I grabbed the cat and she ran to the door but I had the keys so I had to release the cat and unlock the door and so the cat ran at her with its creepy eye and meow and she screamed and ran in and we slammed the door before the cat could enter! For the next 3 minutes we heard it sitting outside our door meowing sinisterly and I looked at it out of the peep hole and I swear it looked back at me hahaha. So creepy! We went out to run in the morning at 6am and it emerged from the bush again and she screamed again! It was SOOOOO FUNNY!!!! We haven't seen it for a few days so I think it's gone! Until midnight tonight, we'll probably hear some meowing at our window and I'll open the blinds and it will be staring back at us with one eye hahahahahah!!!
I had a cool experience the other night. I wasn't asleep or awake but I had this dream that I was at someone's house shining some light but they were in darkness and couldn't see the light because their curtains were not open. There was nothing I could do but bring the light to their house and wait for them to open the curtain. Eventually after a while they opened the curtains and the light was able to shine through. After they opened their curtains, their next door neighbour opened theirs, and then the other neighbour opened theirs until every house had their curtains opened to recieve the light! It helped me to really understand what Nephi says about the Spirit carrying it "unto the hearts" because I've always questioned why, if the Spirit is so powerful for some, can it not just penetrate the heart and allow everyone to feel it? I've asked that question so many times but now I've seen for myself how people have to open their curtains to allow the light in. The light can be right outside but we need to do our part to let the light in. It was powerful. I knew Heavenly Father was answering my prayer of years ago with that experience. It helps me when we have tough days to look back on that and know I'm called to bring the light to their house and wait for them to open the curtain!!!
Another cool experience was when we were out tracting and the Elders texted us to ask where we were. We told them and they turned up a few minutes later with Kneaders smoothies for us!! It was 93 degrees so it was greatly appreciated!!!! We have the best District Leaders haha!!
I've seen many miracles this week!! This work is soooo hard and requires constant consecration and dilligence, but it is so fulfilling. I need your prayers and love and support. One last thing - our Mission President has told us it is against church policy for us to have visitors at the VC and if we get visitors to avoid them and if we cannot avoid them to just say hello and goodbye. So please don't come and visit me anyone, and if you do, please don't be offended if I cannot speak to you or hide. I just need to be obedient! 10 more months!!!
I love you all, and Mum and Dad I can’t wait to see you Sunday!
Love Sister Nicholls
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