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
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