Dear Loved Ones,
Let me start with my transfer call: I am staying in Little Valley and I'm receiving Sister Biery as my new companion! I'm so excited about it! She came out a transfer after me and was trained in Morningside when I was there training Sister Garcia so we have lots of fun and know each other really well already! I'm so excited to be companions with her. Luke met her and took a pic with her when he was down here the other month! She's from Kentucky and is called German speaking here. So maybe I'll pick up some German :) I'm excited to be staying in beloved Little Valley! It's gorgeous and I love the people.
We've had a ton of storms this week! St George is really good at flooding when it rains. We were driving home through the rain and all the roads were more flooded than I've ever seen in England, and it rains a LOT in England. It was scary! I drove like 10mph and tested the brakes after each lake I drove through (Louise would've been proud of me ;]). Apart from that there has been many a sand storm! It's always bad in Little Valley then we drive back to the main part of St George and it's fine. Lots of wind, which is always a great look for a Sister Missionary wearing a skirt right? Now I'm REALLY close friends with a lot of people in Little Valley ;)
So I celebrated my first 4th July in America! Sister Pearson and I (the other Brit) had Zone Training Meeting with our Zone of Americans and as we entered the chapel we were like “How many offensive comments do you think we'll get today?" and we goaled for about 7. Within the first ten minutes we'd already hit 5! "Hey Sisters! How do you feel being in America knowing that we beat you?" or "Hey Sisters! What do Brits talk about on Independence Day?" and I felt thoroughly racially offended. Haha!! And then we sung the Star Spangled Banner for the opening hymn and all us Brits and Frenchies sung to the best of our ability! I'm getting better at that song the more I practise haha. Then after our meeting we went to the VC and Chick-fil-a had provided a lunch for us all #noeldersallowed #vcsistersonly it was great!! I LOVE Chick-fil-a! President and Sister Center came too :) Then we were on shift at the VC for the rest of the day! We got to watch 17 Miracles and Ephraim's Rescue so that was exciting! It brought back so many memories because the last time I watched them was at Christmas for our Zone Activity, and the time before that was when I opened my mission call! They'll always bring those memories back! The whole way through the films I was just thinking about the experiences I've had since I last watched them and who I've met and who I've become. Lots of growing has definitely been done. I think they'll always be nostalgic films now :) It was funny at Church on Sunday because all the hymns were American hymns that I didn’t know (except My Country Tis Of Thee!) then everyone’s testimonies were like "I'm so grateful to be a citizen of this beautiful country, we should all thank God that we are American" and I sat there feeling AWKWARD. We had a great p-day last week too! We went to the Dinosaur museum and had fun! Like true VC Sisters we couldn’t go to a museum without trying to give each other a tour. We made up all this rubbish about the dinosaurs and tried to sell it convincinly to each other. It was a ton of fun! Afterwards we went to Wingers and had lots and lots of chicken wings! That's how we do p-day in St George.
Funny story this week! We had to take out our rubbish and we put it in a bag and left it inside our front door to take out when we got home because we didn’t have time to walk to the big bins right then. So we did our shift at the VC and came home, and we opened our front door to grab our rubbish and .......IT WAS GONE!!! It was hilarious! We were like WHAT THE HECK WHO TOOK OUR RUBBISH!!!!!!! (I think it was Dexter, he's always taking things ;]) So stay tuned to find out the end of that story! Hahah!
I've officially ended my time as Visitors’ Centre Trainer. It is finished! It went by so fast. I love all the experiences I've had as a result of that assignment. I've come to love the Watkins like they are my own parents! I've spent so long in the office with them talking and talking and learning from their experiences that I'm going to be sad if I ever go outbound and don't see them every day. We talked a LOT this last week and I love to learn from them. The VC has been slower than usual with not as many buses, but that's okay! It's giving me time to reflect on things I want to improve and get to know the Sisters better. I received my half way papers last week! It contains the goals I wrote down on my first day in the mission field, so it was great to see where I'm at with them and recommit myself to the work! I never want that Greenie fire to die!
We've worked hard to help our investigators to progress. S is still doing really well not smoking. It's been a week and he's smoked ONE cigarette. He'll make it! We are praying for him and seeing him most days to keep him strong. A had appendicitus and was rushed to hospital so isn't very well but she's spiritually doing great still. She said the words every missionary wants to hear, and it even says the exact phrase in Preach My Gospel "When I first heard about this gospel, it filled a hole in my heart that I didn't even know was there." She is incredible and she feeds my soul. She is very spiritual and shared with us a great experience she had with prayer the other night. She prayed for certain things then when she was hiking a mountain the next day she felt God speaking to her and showing her everything He has given her. She wants to be baptized, and we got a miracle! Her husband is coming in to town this week!!! We prayed and fasted for that for ages! He's coming into town and she’s going to tell him she wants to be baptized, and then hopefully it can happen! I love her so much! Also we had a good lesson with K. She is still waiting for parental permission. We are trying everything we can think of. She reminds me so much of Sam! While praying for her I felt prompted to teach tithing and invite her to sacrifice more in order to receive more miracles. It was a GREAT lesson and the Spirit was strong and she cried when we knelt and prayed together at the end, beseeching the Lord that as she pays her tithing He will open out the windows of Heaven and soften her parents hearts. We are good friends with her by now and I just love her so much. She wants it so bad!
Then my VC investigators are on fire too! I have three on date for baptism this month and I'm trying my best to contact them regularly. Two miracles this week! Remember R who I wrote about last week? The guy who called the VC front desk? I spoke to him on Wednesday and asked how Church was and he was like "I felt something incredible and sweet there, and when I left the Chapel, the feeling left. How can I have that back?" so I went straight into teaching about baptism and the Holy Ghost and he said he definitely wants that. I put him in touch with his local missionaries and all is going well! He was baptized as a Baptist but knows there must be something more. I love him! I'm continuing to teach him on the phone. Then I called this woman whose number I'd gotten a while ago and it turns out she really wants to learn but her husband doesn't, so they told the Elders who had been visiting them that they can't see them anymore (worst feeling EVER), but then she said it would be awesome if I taught her on the phone because then her husband doesn’t have to feel uncomfortable! So she really wants to learn but he doesn’t so it's the perfect remedy. Sort of! So hopefully I can teach her and then she'll warm up to having real life missionaries visit again! Miraclesmiraclesmiracles!
We tried this thing the Zone Leaders challenged us to do, where you plan to be somewhere at a certain time of the day and ask the Lord to prepare someone for you. We went to the area we'd chosen, and started knocking. KNOCKING, in LITTLE VALLEY WHERE ITS 95% ACTIVE MEMBERS. Anyway the Lord did PROVIDE. We found a few less active members that are ready to come back to Church and a non-member family who were SO FRIENDLY and we're going to visit them again next week! They gave us Gatorade because it was about 115 degrees and they were all SO NICE! First thing we did when we got back in the car was pray thanks to Heavenly Father for watching over us and providing us with people. I LOVE being a missionary!
Well I need to run off now! But I'm grateful for all I've learned this transfer and I'm beyond excited for the transfer ahead. Just over 8 more months til I see your beautiful faces. Thank you for all your love and support!
Sister Nicholls
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