Crazy Times in the St George Visitors' Centre - 30-6-14

Dear Loved Ones, 

I'm going to start with a crazy story! This dirty looking young boy came into the VC. He was dressed all in black and had the sides of his head shaved. He came in at the annexe and asked for a Book of Mormon! The Sisters there were like OF COURSE and gave him one. He asked for a pencil and they gave him one and he started writing something in the front of the book. They thought it was odd but continued on their way. Then he faced his back to the door (so he was facing them) exited the building and did this weird creepy little dance thing and RAN. They thought he was strange. Then he came back in and showed them what he'd drawn, the Satanic symbol. Then he ran out again and shouted "I LOVE THE DEVIL!!!!!" on the Temple grounds. He then ran into the main building, and walked up to the Christus and went “That's creepy." And I was sitting on the seat by the front door, that is pressed up against the window. He walked past me, holding something suspect in his jacket, threw a pencil on the floor with a smirk on his face and exited. I thought nothing of it other than “That was strange." and then one second later there was this massive BANG on the window right behind me and I jumped about ten foot off my chair and looked and he was pressed up against the window with his Book of Mormon open to the page that he had drawn on. I couldn’t see what he had drawn because he RAN AWAY! We called Security to let them know some weird boy was roaming around and while we were on the phone he came back in again. We stood by the front doors and he walked right up to me and went "…..Sorry I made you jump." and I was like “Oh you're fine!" and then Sister Rizzo asked him his name and he said Jacob, and she asked him how old he was and he said 13, and she said do you live around here and he said he would prefer not to answer that question, haha, and from then on everything we asked he prefered not to answer. We were blocking his way in hope Security would make it but then he asked if he could leave so we said “Of course." and moved out of the way and he opened the door and then pulled out the Book of Mormon as soon as he was out of the building. He opened it to the Satanic page and started shouting all about Satan and the other Sisters were scared so I just opened the door and smiled sweetly and said "Thank you so much for visiting us Jacob! Please come back whenever you would like. Bring your family too!" and he said "WE'RE NOT MORMONS" and I smiled and said "Even better! Bring them with you! Thank you for coming Jacob" and he ran up the street shouting about “The mark of the beast” hahaha, some 13 year old gothic boy. It was quite the adventure. I jumped SO HIGH when he smacked himself against the glass behind me!!! I couldn’t stop laughing about it, he is just a poor confused little boy. 

On a better note! We had representatives from the missionary department in SLC come to the VC for two days this week and train us. We had to give them tours the first day and then the next two days we had training meetings from 6:45am-9pm. I will never again complain about working in the Dean's Office at 8am when I was at BYU! But it felt absolutely great to be up and out by 6.40am! Mornings are my favourite. Especially in St George it's only like 95f in the morning so it's perfect! Haha last night we were driving home at 9:20pm and it had cooled down to a cool 103f thank goodness! Haha IT’S SO HOT. Anyway the trainings were fantastic! I wish I could've recorded it all! President and Sister Center were there, and President spoke first on the first day. It was a much needed training about how we are each beloved daughters of Heavenly Father. It sounds so simple, but if you could hear President speak it feels like you are in the presence of Heavenly Father. He just feeds my soul! He said how Heavenly Father has always known us perfectly, and that when we are reunited with Him we will understand how present He was in our life and how well we do know Him. I wish every single Sister in the VC could internalize that simple truth that they are divine. Then Brother Billings and Brother Rasmussen trained us on how to teach the doctrine in a Visitors’ Centre, and how to greet in order to establish a relationship at the very beginning, and how to extend invitations here. It was incredibly done. I was fired up! It showed me a ton of things to work on, including asking different questions when people enter the VC! It's so easy to get into a routine with our resources because they're always the same resources we use! But I'm working on it :) I put it to the test and had an incredible experience. This man walked in to the VC alone, looking like a hiker. He looked about 40 something. I approached him with Sister Schafer and we talked for a few minutes. I just felt as though I recognized him. Not physically, I knew I'd never met him. But I recognized a search for truth in his eyes. I could see within him humility and a hole that he wanted to be filled. We showed him God's Plan and the Book of Mormon table and he was just so SINCERE. He wanted to know the truth so badly and we told him how to! We bore testimony and the strongest feeling came over us. I love seeing that spark of change in someone's eye. The VC is my favourite thing, because we have authority to teach the people in our area in Little Valley, but when you serve in the VC you have the authority to teach whoever comes in those doors. They have been prepared by Heavenly Father for a LONG time before we meet them. It's our job to remind them of those truths in a way that will be familiar to them. Sometimes it's exhausting trying to teach every person that comes in to discern their need and meet it, but it's the most joyous feeling to see that light in someones eyes. His only concern was “What if my family don't want to learn too?" because he requested local missionaries go there today, and I am calling him tomorrow to continue teaching him. His name is B and he was from Oregon, he was two teenagers. He asked if there was a missionary family who could teach him that might have kids his age so that they will want to learn and we explained that missionaries are young boys or girls but they can bring member families with them. He was so happy! It's my favourite thing ever to testify of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith. Online teaching is my FAVOURITE thing, because we take the role of fellowshipper more than missionary, so we become the fellowshipper every missionary wishes their investigator would have, we just read the scriptures with them and answer questions etc. Also yesterday the front desk phone rang and I was right there so I picked it up and it was this man saying "Hi, I am at an LDS Church service for the first time and I want to learn more, how can I learn more?" hahahahahaha BEST PHONE CALL EVER!! I told him about mormon.org and took his phone number and have a return appointment to teach him online tomorrow!! All these people to call and teach!! I love it! The SLC trainers talked about their missions and how they would've keeled over and died if bus loads of non members came to them when they were out tracting and asked to learn more! But we get that every day!!! IT’S THE BEST! Haha these three roughty toughty looking 20something year olds from the hoods in LA came in and wanted to learn. They asked really tough questions about predestination and foreordination and the Bible’s original clause's back in the early AD years and it took three of us Sisters to answer all the questions. We kept like tag teaming haha. They were Protestant but they appreciated what we taught and I have one of their email addresses! They were interesting haha. 

In our area things are going well. We have four with a baptismal date right now: G, K, S and L. Each are doing so well and I love them so much!! S is giving up smoking right now and is going strong so should be baptized in a few weeks! We spoke in G's ward yesterday and she was announcing to people that she is being baptized so that was solid. She has a goal to read the whole Book of Mormon between now and her baptism so she is going strong! And we are now bffs with L's family and they give us food every time we visit! We had rice there and her Mum was like “Yeah it’s similar to the soup I gave you last week!" and we both looked at each other in horror and endured the rice version of the soup from last week haha!! We sat with the whole family and read the Book of Mormon and it made me miss my amazing family. I have such fond memories of reading the scriptures together every day :) I love you and miss you so much!!! 

Sorry it's kinda short this week, I got carried away with other things! 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! Transfer calls this week, I'll find out from the APs on Thursday probz and then I'll be released as Visitor Centre Trainer on Saturday! It's sad because I'll miss working with the Watkins' so closely as I love them like parents now. But I'm happy to move on and give the responsibility to someone else! 

I LOVE YOU

Sister Nicholls

Half way....what!?!?! - 23-6-14

Hello loved ones!

So much to say and so little time to say it in. This week has been good. Here goes:-

So we started teaching someone that the Elders dropped a few months back called S. We met him at the VC and he is really sweet and said he wants to get baptized, which is every missionary's dream right? So we talked about that and set some goals to stop smoking and had a return appointment with him. He just didn't turn up. Then texted us that he was still at work and can we do the next night? So we said yes and then he just didn't turn up. So he lives kinda close to the VC so we went to his house and he said that he isn't ready etc etc and it all turns out that his girlfriend has broken up with him. Sad story. But the gospel can help with that! It was just funny that we hunted him down. We will see what we can do when the heartbreak heals.

We had a GREAT lesson with G! She has been taught for a really long time by missionaries but is scared of commitment. She grew up in Utah and goes to church all the time so knows everything, but needs to take that first step of baptism. Before we went into the lesson I prayed that we would find the key to her progression. While we were sitting there it just hit me that she is comfortable where she’s at, and she is terrified of commitment. So, whispering thanks to Heavenly Father I brought up the topic of how in life we get comfortable where we’re at but when we’re stretching and growing is when we are becoming who Heavenly Father wants us to be. She just started crying and crying and saying how she has anxiety problems and whenever she hears a baptismal date she is terrified. We talked for a long time about that and we, through the Spirit, were able to address that concern and make a plan to get over it. We set a baptismal date of August 16th and she accepted it gladly and we promised her that we would be there to help her every step of the way but more importantly the Saviour will. We hope she can keep it up and not stress herself out of eternal blessings. I think that when people are worried that they are making a huge commitment means that they are ready for it because they understand fully what a great commitment baptism is!

Another great thing happened in the VC this week! A British couple from Sheffield came in and I gave them a tour! I find that my accent suddenly gets really strong again when I talk to British people! They were asking all about the Temple in Preston and so I told them where it’s at and stuff. The wife was really interested but the husband was not too bothered. I showed them the Temple pictures and took them to God’s Plan and the woman was so receptive! She said it really touched her and that it all made sense to her and that maybe they need to make some changes in their lives. Then the most incredible thing happened – she not only took a Book of Mormon for herself, but she gave me her phone number too so I can call her and teach her when she gets home at the start of July. I’m always worried that by then they will have forgotten the things that they felt here. It happens all the time. But I left her some chapters to read from the Book of Mormon so hopefully that will sustain her til she gets home. Then adding to the miracle, she asked for another Book of Mormon FOR HER SISTER AT HOME!!! It was so great!!! I just love the miracles that take place in the VC. It’s such a sacred place and there’s nothing more thrilling than sharing your testimony of Joseph Smith with people from all over the world that you will probably never see again but for those few moments you get a beautiful connection.

 I’ve had some fun experiences in the Teaching Center this week! Remember D who I call most days? She has a baptismal date!!! IN 3 WEEKS TIME!!!!!!! I’M SO EXCITED!!!! It’ll be my first TC baptism. She is doing great and has so much faith. W met with the missionaries and absolutely loved what they taught and is progressing very nicely. Then after all my appointments were done I was just online and got the funniest phone call I’ve ever had. It was some man in Australia and went something like this :

“Hi, my name is Charlotte. Thank you for calling the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What questions can I answer for you today?”

“Hi Charlotte. Where are you from?”

“London!”

“Wow…that’s cool.”

“DO you have any questions I can answer for you?”

“Not really. I just saw some missionaries and they gave me this number so I called it.”

“Oh okay…well….are you a member of the church?’

“Yes. I was baptized three years ago but going to church makes me sad.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. What things bring you happiness?”

“My fish tank. I have Nemo and Dory in there.”

And I had to mute the microphone because I was laughing SO hard and when I unmuted it you could hear that I was smiling when I talked and said “Yes, that is wonderful. Have you ever read the Bok of Mormon?”

“Yes, it teaches to not make fun of people. So what do you think about my fish tank?”

“I think it’s great that everyone has different interests and hobbies, Heavenly Father made us all unique."

“How old are you Charlotte?”

“I don’t feel comfortable giving out that information.”

“Where are you serving Charlotte?”

“I don’t feel comfortable giving out that information?”

“Pray about it, maybe you will feel comfortable..Where’s your companion?”

“She’s right next to me, thank you for calling, have a nice day!”

And I hung up because he was SOOOOO CREEPY. As I hung up he said “Oh, Charlotte!” but he was gone! We laughed so hard about it for so long. I’ve never had that answer before about happiness and fish tanks. Then my phone rang again and some Southern lady was on the other end. It went like this:

“Hello, my name is Charlotte. Thank you for calling the Church of Jeuss Christ of Latter-day Saints. What questions can I answer for you?’

“Do you know Jesus?”

“I’m trying to come to know Him through living His gospel."

“The blood of Jesus is upon you and in the name of Jesus Christ I command-"

And then I hung up the phone. What is wrong with people?!

Anyway it’s all fun!!

We found a new investigator this week from Ohio. She is living with a member family and being adopted by them. She's 17 and is SO prepared for the gospel! It’s a pleasure to teach her. We were at their house yesterday, after Church, teaching and the mum asked if we want some soup so we said yes we were starving, and she hands over this soup that had a full complete chicken shredded up in it. Bones, skin, marrow, everything. We both looked at it and our hunger swiftly departed. But, I just shut my eyes and kept spooning it in. My stomach was turning but I tried not to think about what I was eating and pulled the bones out with every mouthful. Sister Rizzo managed a few mouthfuls but couldn’t do it and I couldn’t blame her. Easily one of the grossest thigns I’ve ever eaten.

A is still going strong! She just needs her husband to come into town from Boston so that she can get baptized! Her testimony is incredible and I love her a ton! We are trying to help our 17yr old investigator K's parents to allow her to be baptized. We went to her house this week and dropped off a card and chocolates for her parents just saying how grateful we are for their daughter and what a great member of the community she is haha! We’ll see how that goes. We tried to contact a ton of potential investigators this week but every house we knocked at the non members had moved and active members lived there. #littlevalleyproblemseveryone is a member. It’s Zion! 

Brother Somerfield my MTC teacher came in the VC! Sister Pearson and I were there so it was weird to see him and say that we’d been out for 9 months and were half way through now! He couldn’t believe it either! Lastly the best bit of info all week was I was in the VC and this man walked in that I recognized as someone I’d taught lots of times in Washington but had lost contact with! We’d put him on date for baptism in January and then the YSA Elders got involved but he disappeared off the face of the earth. I always wondered what happened to him because he was so solid. You can read my emails about him back in December. Anyway he walked in and I nearly cried I was so happy! Then he said he was here for his baptismal interview and I nearly exploded! The Elders had re-found him two weeks before and met with him twice and decided he was so ready for baptism!!!! So he had his interview and then invited me to the baptism and asked me to say the opening prayer! I did so GLADLY! It was the most beautiful baptism ever and I just loved hearing his testimony. He is probably one of the most solid people I’ve ever taught. He remembered everything we’d taught him and specific things we’d said that I had completely forgotten about! He was at his baptism all alone because his family members didn't want to come, so that was sad. But I was so proud of him! He has a great life ahead of him!

I love you all!

Sister Nicholls!

"Called To Know The Richness Of His Blessings!" - 16-6-14

Dear Loved Ones, 

I'm gonna start out by saying that I love you all so much. What a birthday it was! It was weird thinking back to all the "anniversaries" of this last week. Opening my mission call last year, going to Thorpe Park with Luke, all the celebrations! Going to Italy again and again and again haha. I love celebrating my birthday and just thinking about how 20 years ago that day I said goodbye to my Heavenly Father and probably had some last words of advice and a long hug and if spirits can cry then I know I would've cried to leave His presence. There's so many times in my life when I feel like I just don't belong here. Not that I don’t WANT to be here, but just that we came from somewhere much better and we are going somewhere much better. I guess the best way to describe it is a homesickness for our Heavenly home. Anyway my birthday was good! It felt surreal. I got sung to about 9 times haha. I woke up and we went out in the morning and there were cute notes stuck to my door, and at Zone Conference they lined up all of us who had birthdays in the last month and sung to us and gave us a treat. I took a Snickers bar and thought of you Dad :) #likefatherlikedaughter #daddysgirl #onlymaninmylife 

Zone Conference was incredible. President Center is probably my favourite Mission President. When else do we get the chance to sit at the feet of spiritual giants and learn for six hours? Great way to spend a birthday. I was nervous though because the Assistants asked myself and Sister Rizzo to talk about how we make a "hard" area successful. We only found out the night before 10 minutes before bedtime. It was the worst because our phone was on silent in our bag and then I got it out to put the alarm on for the morning and there were 11 missed calls from the Assistants and the Zone Leaders and a voice message that just said “Sisters, I don’t know if you've lost service but call us back as soon as possible." So of course the only rational thought was that everyone I loved was dead or I was being sent home for something haha. We called back ASAP and they just asked us if we would present for 10 minutes. PHEW! It was a great meeting. Then I was in the VC after that and there was a delivery for me of a balloon that said “I love you" with some chocolates and it was the highlight of the VC Sisters day because none of us had any idea who it was from! Then when I got home I found the note attached and it was from my babygirl Sam! The note made me laugh so much! Thank you! And then there was a "mystery" phone call that another Sister took and told me about and another "mystery" delivery of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen. I deduced that it was Eric! Everyone spoiled me way too much! Thank you EVERYONE for all the cards and notes and presents. I'll be writing thank you cards very soon :) I felt like a princess and stuff. 

Now onto spiritual things. I had one of the most spiritual sacred experiences in the VC this week. I was standing at the front and this scary looking man walked in. He was heavily tattooed with a shaved head. He looked like a completely broken man though, with absolutely nothing but a suspect brown paper bag in his arm. He barely looked me in the eyes and asked if we had a phone he could use. I told him of course and dialled the number for him and couldn’t help but overhear the conversation. He was pleading with someone to pick him up, but it was not successful. He said he would start walking to Mesquite and I just felt overwhelming love and desire to help this stranger. I told him to stop and helped him call the Transient Bishop, and Dixie Care and Share, but there was no help anyone could give him. He had nowhere to stay and no money and I just couldn’t let him walk out. I asked him how much he knew about the Church and he said “Nothing ma'am" because he is from Texas so he had a Southern accent and everything ended in ma'am. I took him to the theatre and put the Restoration on for him, inviting him to pay attention to how he feels when he watches it. I promsied him I'd do my best to find some help. As I walked away I said a silent pleading in my heart for this man and went back to the front. The other Sisters were like “There’s nothing we can do for him, why did you tell him you'd help him? Who are you going to call?" and honestly I just wished that you guys lived here in St George because I knew that you would take him in or give him a ride. I prayed in my heart to be led and then this couple walked in the VC and I greeted them. After talking for a few minutes they said that they were on their way back to Las Vegas but wanted to go on a walk around the Temple. I looked at the Senior Sister that was on shift and she went and spoke to them about the situation and said she wasn't pressuring them and it was their choice but there was a young man in desperate need of a ride to Mesquite. They agreed to talk with him. When the movie ended, I went into the room and bore testimony of Joseph's divine call to be a Prophet. I asked him his thoughts on what he had just watched and he said that he believes everything he watched is true, and that he felt calm and good when he watched it. He said that he wants to learn more about this Church because he agrees with everything he saw, and he actually asked me for a Book of Mormon! I asked him “What would it mean to you to find out these things are true?" and he looked at me right in the eyes, so sincerely, and said “More than you know, ma'am" and I told him that there is help and happiness ahead as he embraces this gospel. He said that he feels like he was prepared to come in here today and I said that I know that Heavenly Father has prepared you to come in here today because after you started watching the movie a couple on their way to Las Vegas walked in and have agreed to talk with you about a ride. The relief on his face was beautiful and it was sooooo priceless to see the perfect timing and miracles of Heavenly Father. He knows us perfectly, and no matter what we've done or where we're going, He wants to bless us. Before he left, he gave me his home address and phone number and I will continue to teach him by phone and the local missionaries will visit him. It was a beautiful moment. 

We spent some time with a Relief Society President this week baking cookies and putting them in cute little packages with a quote about forever families on them. We made enough for each less active and non member in that ward - all 9 of them. HAHAH. Welcome to Zion. We are going to hand them out this week so we'll let you know how that goes. We had a great lesson with A this week. She is doing SO great! She has recognized how she was prepared for this and she knows how much lies ahead of her. We are helping her progress towards baptism but need her husband to come into town before the end of June so she can be baptized before July! He is planning on coming in July but we want a miracle June baptism and she is so ready, she just wants him there, which is understandable. SO we're praying that he will be brought here sooner. We had a great restoration lesson with the Philipino family we picked up last week. They are really cute. We feel blessed to know them, I love teaching the restoration to families - it's the best feeling. We had a less than awesome lesson with R and M these two SUPER CUTE old people. They were baptized into a different denomination when they were younger and just CANNOT understand why they would need to be baptized again. They have a lot of false concepts about the Priesthood and we are just trying to see where the true concern lies. It's hard to teach them but they love our visits and feel the Spirit for sure. We just need to get them to make the connection between the Spirit testifying of truth so thus this must be true so thus you need to be baptized haha. 

I'm outta time but I wish I had more so I could tell you everything! One day I'll come home and tell you all the little stories I never got time to include! 

I love you all so much

Sister Nicholls

Last Day As A Teenager! - 9-6-14

Dear Family and Friends,

To enjoy my last day of teenage-hood before I have to grow up, I am going to Snow Canyon to hike!

So this week was a GREAT week! We wanted to get Standards of Excellence this week, but knew we would have to work VERY hard and have a lot of faith! We pleaded with the Lord to lead us to new investigators and to help us be in the right situations with the right people so we could teach 20 lessons and have hearts softened so people would accept a baptismal date etc. We prayed and prayed and prayed and then worked and worked and worked. We had 2 on date for baptism, and we'd had 9 lessons and it got to Friday night and we were thinking it wasn't looking too good because we had to get 11 lessons in the three hours we had available in our area the next day! Haha so we prayed and thought and decided to kill a few birds with very few stones - we contacted many RS presidents/Primary presidents and other leaders, and arranged to go on splits with them, and asked them to prepare 4-6 names of less active/part member/non member people we could visit in the time with them. We committed them to not talk for longer than 20/30minutes with each person. It was incredible! We had so much opposition against us because just an hour before the split was going to happen two people cancelled on us so we had to find new splits who would be available in just an hour and have people we could visit. BUT we had so much faith that it would work out and we separated. I went with a Sister Ericcson from the Red Butte ward, and we walked in the 110 farenheight heat and knocked and knocked and shared the gospel again and again!! We had a lot of fun together!! The first thing she said to me was "I have a son on a mission who is tall and blonde! I hope you're still here in four months so you can meet him when he gets home!" Haha she was trying to sell him to me, listing off that he is the AP right now and he is this and that and everything and I just laughed. She was really cute!!! She served a mission in Sweden so it was great because she knew how to do door contacting and how to talk about the Gospel! We met so many people and it really helped me to get to know the area, the members, the less actives way better than before. It was highly effective! In the meantime Sister RIzzo was out with someone else doing the same thing. We met up for dinner and then were off again with different leaders in different areas. It was nerve racking cos neither of us knew what the other was accomplishing so we were both just working hard and teaching non stop! Sister Rizzo taught two of our investigators and I was praying that one of them would accept a baptismal date because if she didn't then we wouldn't have gotten the standards! So we both just worked individually with our split and kept going and going! It was so much fun to get to know the members better. The second woman I was with had not served a mission and was awkward with people haha, but it was so funny. We went up to this part member family's home and she started the conversation by saying "Is Cale here? Sister Nicholls really wants to meet Cale?" and i nearly died of awkwardness. He looked awkward and I looked awkward and all thoughts of sharing the gospel went out the window. Then she said "The Elders have told her ALLLL about you Cale!" hahaha and I resolved that he never wanted to see us again! Then we went to another door and she said "Hi! We would like to share a message with you?" and surprise surprise they said no! But it was so cute because she was trying her best and I appreciated it a ton! After that one she asked me if she was doing it right and so I politely suggested that at the next one how about we try introducing ourselves first and then weaving a message into the conversation so she said she'd watch me do it, so we went to this family's home and they answered and we chatted and chatted and chatted and the woman is SOOOOO CUTE!!!! We just clicked with each other and she knew absolutely nothing about the church even though she had been baptized when she was younger. She didn't even know what the Book of Mormon is! But we have a return appointment for this week and I am so excited! There are just some people that you just connect with immediately! It was such a great experience! Then we went to this other woman's house and she answered the door and said "A Sister missionary and a member were at my door earlier and they shared a message!" so we cracked up that we should've liaised a bit better and figured out where they were going to go! But she let us in to teach her so she got two lessons in one day! I was like "Well at least you've met both of us now!" hahaha! So after all that we went to the VC and I ran in and met my companion and we both had the hugest smiles on our faces and were hugging and jumping up and down when we put our numbers together and had realised that we'd MADE IT!!! Or rather, the Lord had helped everything to fall into place so that we could make it! It was incredible!! We were SOOOOO happy!!!

We had this great contact with this Philippino family! The Elders had visited them and softened them up and we went and gave them a Book of Mormon and have a return appointment with them this week! I am excited!!! They started off so wary, the door was open like one crack, and we stood at the door and had sweat dripping down our faces and our backs cos all the heat seems to gather in the doorway! But we were standing there for a while inviting them to the VC and then to church and finally they realized we were trustworthy people worth opening the door for and we talked and talked and have a return appointment. I just LOVE being a missionary! It's the best! There's nothing better than talking with families about the Book of Mormon. Every single time I get to talk about how the Book of Mormon has blessed my family and brought us closer together I get a little bit choked up. I'm so grateful that you have raised me with the Book of Mormon being the fundamental unit of our family!

One of the highlights of this week was speaking at a youth conference! I was in the VC and Elder and Sister Watkins asked me if myself and my companion would mind missing an hour and a half of our VC time to go to a mansion in Washington up on the hill and talk with youth about our missions in exchange for a fancy dinner. I was like, is that even a question?!?!?! So we piled into their jeep and rode off to the youth conference together. They had been asked to bring some Sister missionaries with them so I was thrilled that I was in the right time and the right place to be asked! We rode up to, hands down, the most beautiful house I had ever seen, and we ate with the youth and made best friends with them all! At the end of the evening we talked about how we decided to serve a mission, and I made sure to tell the girls to just follow the Spirit. If the Lord wants them to serve a mission, then do it and don't look back. This has been the best decision I have ever made and I know I will be grateful for the rest of eternity for the things I've learned and the miracles I've seen. But if they're not prompted to go, then don't go and be happy with it! There's a unique plan for each one of us that will bring us the most happiness if we follow it. It was quite intimidating talking to that many youth when you have nothing prepared but the Spirit was really strong and I was grateful that I could have that experience to feel the Spirit working through me. Before we left I gave all the girls a hug and they gave us t-shirts so it was a fair exchange. On the way home the Watkins stopped at McDonalds and bought us McFlurry's hahah!! I LOVE the Watkins! They're seriously my favourite people ever. When they finish their mission I'm going to request to go outbound haha. I can't imagine serving alongside anyone else. I love how close I've become with them because of the opportunity to serve here!

Some exciting news about the people I'm teaching in the teaching centre! W who I told you about last week has agreed to have missionaries come! I taught him the Restoration on the phone and he loved it and now the Elders are visiting him and I am just in a supporting role now, just reading the scriptures with him and such. He is so well prepared and every time I speak to him or just get to talk about Joseph Smith to anyone I love it! Also D is progressing well. Then A who came into the VC the other week who it turns out is in our area is one of our people on date! She is a miracle. The Zone Leaders heightened our Zone goal for baptisms this month and invited us all to exercise faith and find a golden person to baptize this month! Since then we have prayed and prayed and we know that Heavenly Father has a few people in store because we have found two people who are ready for baptism like next week! They are living the commandments and have been to church many times! So we are going to work with them this week and see if we can have some baptisms in two or three weeks! Keep praying for us, we need it. I'm really seeing how the Lord blesses us until our cup truly runs over. We hand our cup over to Him and He just fills it and fills it! I am so blessed to be serving the Lord and learning more about myself and the Lord and His love for people. It's so sweet to love people that you've never met before, because you know it's the love that He has for them!!

Okay I have to run off now! But I am signing off for the last time as a teenager and will write to you as an adult next week :)
I'll be thinking about you all day! I prayed for Luke all day that he was having a good birthday! I love you all SO MUCH. Thank you for showing me how to love and how to serve. I need you all!
Sister Nicholls the teenager....

New Area, New Companion, New Investigators and Members to Love - 2-6-14

Bonjour Family and Friendsssss, 

What a surreal blur this week has been!! It's always that way when you white wash an area. I've really learned to just rely on the Lord. It can be so stressful when neither you nor your companion have any idea where ANYONE lives, or which wards you cover, and honestly it's kind of hard to be motivated to work super hard when you are thinking about your last area and how YOUR investigators are getting on. But I've learned to switch that off, and realise that THIS in my area, and THESE are my investigators. I need to pray for more love and charity to love these strangers that we are teaching now. It's always that way for the first week or so and then you LOVE your area. And I can see the love that I'm already having for this area since being there for about 5 days. Let me tell you a little bit about Little Valley. You get on River Road in St George (which is where all the shops and restaurants and the mission office is) and you just keep driving and driving for about 15 minutes until it feels like you're in the middle of nowhere and then there's a town! It's cute, there's like no pavements and lots of red dirt and farm yard animals and it smells like SKUNKS! It's a really beautiful little area and the members that live there are all young families so it's a lot of fun! I really think it could be one of my favourite areas once I get used to it :) 

So last pday was just really sad because Sister Garcia and I knew the impending doom that lay ahead of us! We were counting down the hours all day like "Only 3 more hours and then we're not comps anymore :'(((((((" and so forth. We packed and we cleaned and we cried and cried and cried when 6pm came around. I just couldn't believe it was time to part with my baby! Training is just incredible because you see this shy, homesick little girl come out from President's first interview with her, and when you leave her 3 transfers later she is this bold, confident, loving-my-mission kind of missionary. We've gone through SO much together and have SO many laughs together and shared such sacred experiences together that it was like saying goodbye to family when we separated. I found in a bag in my luggage this little ornament that I bought in London all those years ago (8 months ago) from that cute shop in Covent Garden by the massive paella pot, of an owl with the words "Owl Miss You" and I didn't really know why I bought it but I did and I didn't know what I would do with it. Anyway Sister Garcia LOVES owls, she has owl everything, so I found it going through my luggage and I gave it to her when we said goodbye and we cried and cried and cried! I told her that that is how I know I needed to train her, and how Heavenly Father knew months before, because months ago the Spirit directed me to buy that owl and I didn't even know why! It was cool! 

So our first day in the area the Elders gave us a tour. It was funny because we cannot ride together so we met them at the chapel and they drove ahead and we drove behind and they were on our phone on loud speaker. It was the most Mormon tour you can think of, especially in Utah "On your left is the Rustic Chapel....on your Right is the Little Valley Chapel.....On your Left is the Boulder Ridge Chapel.....On your Right is the new Stake Center that is going to be completed in a few weeks" haaha etc. Bishops everywhere and active members everywhere! But it was fun because Elder Ball is hilarious. It's weird seeing him without Elder Nye though, because he finished his mission. But he was released by phone and came into the VC with his parents and we got to give them a tour! And the best thing ever happened - we were pre-setting God's Plan (film) making it all spiritual and what not, and then the doors open and this old French woman just saunters in and walks past us into the dark hallways. Walking with purpose! We all just stopped and tried to keep a straight face! I went after her and we spoke in French about where she was going and she said she was trying to find her group so I directed her back out of God's Plan. THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!!! But it was hilarious to just see someone walk in with such purpose in the middle of a discussion. Then it happened again but with some Chinese people haha! We've had so many Chinese visitors recently. They speak no English and we have no Chinese sisters so we just sit them at the Christus and play it in Mandarin and then play the Restoration DVD for them in Mandarin! It was so funny because I put them in a room and put the DVD on and they pointed at the Asian figures that meant Mandarin so I knew which one to select and as I selected it and started talking one of the three takes out this HUGE camera, like a typical Asian, and was sitting like one foot away from me but started snapping picture after picture of me pre-setting the movie. I started giggling and then they all started taking the mickey out of me giggling going "hee hee heee hee!" and so I laughed more and then they laughed more and it was one eternal circle of happiness and laughter and pictures and Asians. 

Despite all the fun and games at the Visitors Center, there have been some really sacred experiences this week. A man and a woman walked in and I greeted them and the man said "Sister Nicholls! We were actually looking for you!" and it turned out he is from the Knolls Ward in the Little Valley Stake and had wanted me and Sister Rizzo to give this woman a tour. He has this business like The Biggest Loser where people come from all over America and live with his family for months at a time and he trains them. This woman didn't know why she had come to do this, and left her family behind, but since he started talking to her about the Church she cried and said she knew why she had come! Her name is A. Anyway we taught the Restoration lesson using all the resources in the VC. I LOVE it because you have great giant pictures and a whole table of Books of Mormon and clips of the Prophet's recent talks etc rather than just a pamphlet! And she just cried and cried and said that she didn't know why she was crying. She loved everything we taught and we gave her a Book of Mormon and will teach her from now on! There's another one of the clients who has expressed an interest so we will hopefully make contact with them down too :) GREAT TIMES. We also had another man come in the VC with a woman who was a member and he said he is interested in our teachings and went to Church last Sunday and liked it. We actually had a Laurel with us at that point because this Stake sent all their Laurels in to learn how to be a missionary so we were with a little Laurel and she looked TERRIFIED the whole time to actually be answering real people's questions about the Church. I remember when I felt that way a few months ago but we just promised her that if she served a mission she'd get used to it! So it was a great thing for her to see the Spirit touch this man and how receptive he was. We taught the Restoration again and he loved it and said it all makes sense. I am calling him from the VC this evening to teach him some more :) It's really exciting! 

On Saturday our Mission President gave Sister Garcia and I permission to go to K's baptism in the Morningside Stake Center! We were so thrilled! I can't even put into words how happy I was to be there. We have been working with him and his family since February and have seen HOW much of a difference has come on that family! His Dad even gave a talk at the baptism and his Mum said a prayer. It was incredible! To see them be baptized was one of those sweet moments on your mission that you will never forget. Sister Garcia and I loved being back together and with the Christiansen's at the baptism. Something cool happened this week. I had a dream a few weeks ago that one of the AP's gave me my transfer call and said I was being sent to Chloe. I was like, where the heck is Chloe? And he was like "I don't know...!!?!? How am I supposed to know?" The other day we received a referral from the Bishop to visit a part member family. We went along and tried our best, and asked about their children and they said, we just had a brand new baby a few weeks ago and her name is Chloe! I'd forgotten my dream but as soon as he said it I remembered in my head that I was being sent to Chloe. Haha! So we will see if the family really are interested. I'll update you on that one! 

So we are coming to know our area better each day. I tell Sister Rizzo when we go round and round the blocks and realise it was one block away that we're not lost, but that I'm taking her the scenic route. We have a lot of fun together. We do different accents when we're talking to people on the streets that we'll never see again! And after planning each night we have what we call P^3, or P cubed, meaning our Post Planning Party. In which we do something cool together (in our apartments obviously, we're not THAT rebellious). The other day one of the Assistants gave us this home made DVD of him being pulled over by Police when he was being trained almost two years ago. His trainer played a prank on him and had the Member who was a Police Officer pull him over and he got out the car and ran and poor Elder Captain was just sitting there like WHAT ON EARTH and got handcuffed and told that his trainer was a known drug seller hahaha! We asked if it was a Mormon Message and he said "No...it's more of a Captain message..." haha. SO now it's making its way around the VC for all the Sisters to enjoy. 

So the investigators that we are working with are cute! We have a 9 year old boy whose Dad is something to do with ESPN! We also have a few elderly people that we are working with. They are really cute. The old man talked about his wife Marlene like Elder Scott talks about his wife. He said so many times how she is an angel and how he has loved her from the second he saw her and there is no better lady in all the world! It was so cute! I wish more women had the respect for themselves and embraced their divine identity as daughters of God so that men could respect them as much as he respects his wife. He said to us "In this world, there are girls. There are women. And there are ladies. And you two, are very pretty ladies." He was very sweet! I like them a lot. And then we have some 30 year olds with WOW problems, and my favourite is a 17 year old girl whose parents won't let her be baptized. We became best friends instantly and she reminds me SO MUCH of Sam Shelley (SHOUT OUT). She is beautiful, she is the only one interested in her family, and she asks such great thought-provoking questions. Because of Sam's experience, I feel prepared to teach this girl. We were doing our weekly planning and before we'd even met her I remembered how we all fasted as a group of YW for Sam and then a week later her Mum said she could be baptized. So we called the YW President, introduced ourselves, and gave that suggestion and she loved it and texted all the girls and we all fasted together that K's parents would have experiences where their hearts would be softened toward allowing her to be baptized. K just cried and cried that everyone would be willing to do that for her and was really grateful. We went to that Young Women class on Sunday and taught a lesson about the Priesthood. They'd asked the Elders to do it but now we have taken over the area so we tried our best. Afterwards we had our first coordination meeting with all our Ward Mission Leaders and we took a huge pack of little Hershey bars with us and gave them one each saying that these are from "Her" (and pointed at me) and "She" (and pointed at Sister Rizzo) and they liked that a lot hahaha. We are going to be tight with them all. One of them walked in and said straight away "Missionary work in this Stake just improved by 200%. I LOVE SISTER MISSIONARIES" hahahahahhaha. But we know we have big shoes to fill because the previous Elders were incredible. And all the members LOVE THEM. Wherever we go they say how much they love them. So we're working our hardest! We went over to this cute young couple's house for dinner and they told us that that evening they were having a bonfire and it's a monthly thing - each Fast Sunday evening they have a bonfire and invite EVERYONE. We told them all the investigators, less actives, potentials and part member families we were working with and they invited them ALL and so we got to go to the bonfire and meet everyone all in one go! IT WAS SO GREAT! We had smores and watermelon and met everyone so now they know us and trust us and now we can go to their house and teach them! YEAH! I love members like that who think outside the box. We are going to be best friends with them ;) They gave us a TON of watermelon so I will live on that for the next two months. But it was so fun being at that bonfire and the other members said that they will hold bonfires each Sunday night at different people's houses and invite everyone so that we can come and meet EVERYONE. They were getting so excited and we are going to work hard together! 

Well I have to go now but it's been a great week and I am getting used to all the change! The Lord is moulding me into who He needs me to be, and even though that makes it painful when someone is chipping away at your imperfections, it is a privilege to become who He needs me to be. 

I love you all SO much. I pray for you all every day! 

Sister Nicholls