"The Lord keeps His promises!" - 27-5-14

Dear family and friends,

What a week. So I'll start off with last Wednesday. I was getting out of my car to go to a dinner appointment and we got a text from the Assistants to the President saying "Sister Nicholls, we can get the transfer board to you at 7pm this evening" and my stomach DROPPED because I just wasn't prepared for that! Usually we get it on Thursday! So I had two hours to countdown before I knew where I'd be going! I could hardly eat anything at our dinner appointment!  I was so stressed! So I went to meet the Assistants with Sister Hansen the other VCT and they gave us the sheet and I looked and saw myself right away and it says "Sister Nicholls and Sister Rizzo - Little Valley". And I just stared at the paper for like two minutes in silence and then cried and cried. I was just devastated to be leaving the area that I love so much, and my companion that I love so much, and taking over from Elders AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!! The AP's said "How do you feel?" and I just CRIED and was like "I'm white washing, AGAIN? Every area I've been in I've white washed from Elders or reopened. When can I come into an area with a companion who knows what's going on?" and they just smiled and looked really awkward because two crying girls were in front of them. Sister Rizzo is from Alaska and came out with Sister Garcia but has been up north for the whole mission so I have to VC train her and take over the area from Elder Nye and Elder Ball, our District Leader and his companion. I was sad. But I cannot bring myself to complain because this is what Heavenly Father wants for me and who am I to complain against that? So exciting times are ahead!!! Then Thursday morning the AP's texted me to say that there have been some changes in the transfer board so not to start any scheduling yet!! So we went to Sisters Training Meeting with everyone's transfer in my head and couldn't say anything to anyone and didn't trust myself to speak to anyone! But it was a great training meeting because we were just at the Tabernacle having a tour from a Senior Sister. It was so nice to not have to prepare anything but to just take a tour and learn about the history of the building!! We watched "The Windows of Heaven" about Lorenzo Snow saying that if the members paid their tithing they would have rain and then they did! It was really cool!!

Then after that we went to our District Training Meeting! It was our last DTM as our District altogether because Elder Nye is going home, and I already knew in my head that my companion and I, and Sister Schafer and Lipke were all going to be in different Zones. So I carried this heartache with me throughout DTM and it was so sad! We all wore black because it was Elder Nye's "funeral" because he is "dying" and we all wore sunglasses too so it was really dramatic! At the end of the meeting we had asked one of our leaders to bring us Jimmy Johns, it's like Subway but better, and we paid her and told her what each of us wanted ahead of time so it was all good. It was a surprise for Elder Nye as that's his favourite so we surprised him and we'd made a CD for him and he CRIED! Then all of us started crying! We've just all become such great friends this transfer and knowing that it will never be the same again is too sad! But life is made of meetings and partings right? It's been such a spiritual, hard working but fun district and I'm sure we'll have other districts that we love just as much. But this one was the best :) The Zone Leaders knew my transfer call and so did Elder Nye I guess because I am taking his Stake and President had talked to them about the possibility of that, so there was this funny moment at DTM when the Elders were showing us some nice fancy pen that the members had given them and I made some joke about how maybe I should move to Little Valley and get nice stuff and all the Elders looked at me.....and I looked back at them......and we all knew that we all knew, but couldn't say anything!! It was so funny!!

So Little Valley is just the Stake next door to Morningside, but it has just been split because it was getting too big! Little Valley Stake has sent out more misionaries right now into the world than any other Stake in the world! So the members LOVE missionaries and will do anything for them because apparently there are over 200 missionaries out serving from that Stake! It is a very wealthy area, full of young families! So we will see what we can do there! I am excited!!
On Friday morning we had a meeting with the AP's, the Watkins, the Senior Elder over the transportation Elder Sullivan, and President came for a few minutes! They gave us the new and improved version of the transfer board and it was SO DIFFERENT! Mine hadn't changed at all, but other people's had changed SO MUCH!!!! People who were training were not anymore, areas were closing, new ones were opening, different Sisters were coming back from up north etc!! SO it was cool to see how people's whole mission story had just changed before my eyes. President talked to us about it and taught us a little bit about it and talked about how just because one transfer scenario feels right, it doesn't mean that it cannot be changed at all and never feel right! He said there are some missionaries who can serve anywhere with anyone and have it be right! It was really cool, he was like "so tell me Sisters, do you think that there is only one right place for each missionary?" and we got to learn at the feet of the best Mission President in the world! IT WAS COOL! The more time I spend around President Center the more I love him! He is the most Christ-like man in the world! He just looks at you and you feel his and the Saviour's love. So it was a crazy morning seeing all the differences that had happened. But we cracked on with the schedule and got it all done by Saturday night!!!! SUPER QUICK!!!! It's always a thrill to get that done!!

Finally Saturday came and everyone got their transfer calls so I could talk to people openly without fear! We were at Texas Roadhouse with the Christansens celebrating my up and coming birthday when the AP's called to tell Sister Garcia her transfer call! We ran out of the restaurant and they told her - she is moving to Bloomington to be in a trio with Sister Allen and Sister Arnold!! I'm so jealous that she is with Sister Allen :) but she cried and cried. So our Stake is going back to one set of missionaries, still including Sister Schafer! She has been there her WHOLE MISSION1!!!!! 10 AND A HALF MONTHS IN MORNINGSIDE hahaha!!! So we went back in and told the Christiansen's and they weren't happy and no one was happy with it! But they thoroughly embarrassed me at Texas Roadhouse! They MADE me sit on the saddle and sang happy birthday to me. I refused about 10 times but they wouldn't give up! It was so embarrassing but funny! I was like "It's not even my birthday for like two more weeks!" but they weren't having any of it! It was so fun to just be with the Christiansen's!

We went back to the VC and I finished up the schedule and we were finally able to start telling people the news. We texted and called some of our investigators and members and told them that we were both leaving. So many of them were like "I'm calling President right now!" but it's okay, this is what we need to do. It just hurts because it's taken three transfers to get our area where it's at now, with 7 investigators and 5 on date - that has never happened in the history of Morningside and now both of us are leaving. But I trust that Sister Schafer and Sister Sordes are what Morningside and my investigators need now. Little KC and his brother and Mum came to the VC and brought us Litter box cake! It literally looks like a litter box! Because whenever you put anything on the table in the break room the Sisters always eat it, so they made us a litter box cake and we put it on the table and NO ONE touched it hahahahahha!!! So we got the whole cake to ourselves and it was GOOD! It was sponge cake and chocolate cake and oreos and butterfinger and tootsie rolls, it was incredible! I should've taken a picture :) But they all cried when we said goodbye. It was so sad! But I'm pretty sure I can get permission to go to their baptism on Saturday! We have gotten so close with them these last few months! M (the Mum) said herself that when we first came she had her walls completely up but we've managed to break them down. She trusts us completely and now we are leaving! That was Saturday and on Sunday when I was on shift, she burst through the front doors and straight up to me hysterically crying and said:- "We need to talk" and I seriously thought someone had died! But it turned out she went to CHURCH!!! But someone had offended her at church! Really badly. She was so angry she was SHAKING! She left church and didn't know where else to go but to the VC to see us and we talked about it with her for ages and the Senior Elder gave her a blessing and she felt much better. It was just that trust that takes you months and months to build and she finally went to Church and now we're leaving!! It just feels like a pain in my heart, but it's okay! And our black baptist investigator A went to Church too! That is a HUGE deal! Things are really picking up just in time for us to leave :(

Yesterday we spent our last evening in Morningside with each other as companions. It was SO SAD! We went to the Lund's for dinner, they are the ones who have the little 8 year old girl we taught that Elder Nye baptized a few weeks ago. We have gotten close to them so it was fitting that they were our last meal in our area. It was sad but it was fun! We laughed and laughed with each other. On the way from their house to our last teaching appointment this song played from Sister Garcia's cd about how no one else understands the pain we carry but the Saviour, and how He is there at every situation in our life that brings us pain or happiness and how He knows when no one else does. It was the perfect song to explain the sadness that both of us are carrying. It's the end of an era! When you've been with someone for 18 weeks straight, you form a bond that cannot be replicated anywhere else. You see each other through the hard times and the best times, you work together, you play together, you study together, you learn together, you pray together, you find together, you teach together, you cry together and you grow together. Sister Garcia and I have become best friends, and it's a deep friendship. We can tell each other how we're feeling and understand each other and we support one another in all things and we are devastated to be leaving each other. We can just look at each other and know what we're thinking and we say the same things at the same time and HAVE SO MANY JOKES with each other that we just laugh all the time but work so hard together. It's going to be strange her not being there. It broke my heart to do the schedule and have to schedule us on different shifts.

So we went to L and G's as our last appointment here. We followed up with how it went when they prayed to know if Heavenly Father wanted them to be married sooner than 2016. Remember I promised them in the name of Jesus Christ that if they were married and followed that commandment, the law of chastity, that the Lord would provide for their needs and they would find the money they'd need. They said they would pray. We asked them what happened and they were like "Guess what?? After we prayed we got mail that told us we were entitled to this much money each month even if we got married." So that was a MIRACLE!!!!!!!!! IT WAS PERFECT!!! THE LORD KEEPS HIS PROMISES!! So the best thing in the world happened and they are being married in August and baptized right afterwards! We were THRILLED! Then we told them we are leaving and it was really sad!!! But we watched Together Forever with them, and I can't even describe how it was one of the most tender moments of my mission! We were sitting on the sofa and they were on the floor in front of us. There was L, holding baby J, then T, then G holding baby W.  They were all mesmerized by the screen and the Spirit was so strong as the words "We can be together forever someday!" were sung, and everyone was silent and just seeing that picture before my eyes was one of the most tender moments. Seeing a family committing to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ after months and months of persistence and working with them and growing to love one another. Seeing them contentedly sitting together watching how they can be a forever family one day and feeling the Spirit knowing the Lord has sent you to that Stake for them specifically. You can't describe it. Then, baby J turned her head from her Mum to stare at me straight in the eyes and she lifted her hand to her mouth and then out like she was blowing a kiss and I heard so clearly the words "Thank you". So clearly! I just BURST into tears and Sister Garcia did too because she heard the same thing. Then the movie ended and we were ALL in tears!!! G even had his t-shirt over his face because he was crying so much and we all knelt in prayer together and held one another as we cried. They are a family that I know I was sent to St George for. They said that no other missionaries have been able to bring their family closer. L said that before we came they all had their different beliefs but now they are all one in the Gospel and promised that they would be married in the Temple in a year from August and that we need to be there. It's those moments on your mission that make it, and you forget all the doors you've knocked and all the rude people and all the heartache. I will go to Little Valley and rely on the Lord to find more families like theirs to teach.

So today we have P-day and then at 6pm we are splitting and I am getting my new companion and thus begins my sixth transfer as a missionary in St George! It feels surreal! I'm nervous but I'm excited too! Pray for me please, lots and lots! I need it. I love you all. I'm ever grateful for my Saviour's strength. He builds me up and carries me so I can do hard things. In eternity, all that will matter will be the relationships we've formed and the person we have become. He is helping me to become more like Him and I readily accept His help.

I love you all
Sister Nicholls