"God our strength will be, press forward, ever called to serve our King" - 22-7-14

Dear Loved Ones, 

This is definitely a refining experience! This week started out sooooooooo fun!! On Wednesday instead of our shift at the Visitors' Center we went to the Brigham Young Winter Home. I was incredibly rusty because it was March since I did a tour there. It's really hard to remember the wood everything is made of, and the names of the architects, and what the little holes in the ceiling mean after that many months. Thankfully the first tour I gave only wanted to know about EVERY LITTLE obscure detail haha! I just said everything really confidently so they would think I knew what I was talking about!! Then in between tours I just devoured the book about the place so I could learn little stories about Brigham. It was so fun, I love being there. It was SO hot though! We had some polygamist visitor's there for a tour, they love it at Brigham's! So it was such a nice change to do something different than being at the VC every day :) Also I came around the corner with a tour group and saw Megan Torgenson sitting there, and she brought treats for us!!!! It was SO good to see her and to talk for a few minutes. She is great! 

We did have a cool miracle at the VC this week. A Slovenian bus came and wanted a tour, and they were all so nice! I was just standing by the front desk and greeted a man named S. He started to explain to me in broken English that he felt good here. He said there was a "good energy" in this building. I explained to him about the Holy Ghost and asked if he believed in God. He said that he is Catholic. I told him that he could have a book in his own language that would give him the same good feeling if he reads it, especially in his home with his family. He was so happy and I gave him a Slovenian Book of Mormon! He went and showed his wife, then came back and found me and asked me to sign the front of it for him. I did so, and HE asked ME if he could give me his email address and have me teach him more! How perfect is that?! It was incredible. So I did, and I took his home address and he wants local missionaries to visit. If I was a missionary in Slovenia I would jump at the chance to teach someone who had already been introduced. When does that ever happen in those obscure little European countries? VC is the BEST! The other night in the VC it was really really slow, there was not ONE visitor there. So naturally, we put Johnny Lingo on in the theatre and one by one all the Sisters ended up in there while nobody was out there to talk to! We played Because of Him REALLY loudly too and there might've been some dancing too but I can't possibly disclose who might've been dancing. #youknowyou'reamissionarywhenyougetexcitedaboutplayingbecauseofhimanddancingtoitwithothermissionaries

So I'm learning a lot about relying on the Lord for strength. It's been a tough week! It seems like there was an ad in the newspaper urging everyone to make appointments with us and then to go out for dinner so that you're not in the house when the missionaries knock! OR just urging people to hurl all kinds of abuse at the Sisters! Both feasible ideas. We were trying to re-find this less active person I'd seen weeks ago and were walking to their house when we saw this old woman bent over on her drive picking things up and putting them in buckets. We were like, oh we should help, so we went over there. Before we even made it to her drive she shot up and started shouting all kinds of horrible things at us. We both just stopped and looked at her, and wished her a good evening and kept walking. She followed us still shouting and so I stopped and she kept coming towards me, and I thought she was going to hit me! I let her come closer and closer to me, and I just said “We are so sorry, we were not aware you felt that way. We will leave, have a good evening. Thank you for letting us know.” while she's shouting "NOBODY WANTS YOU HERE. NOBODY WANTS YOUR CAR ON OUR STREETS." and all kinds of hurtful things. We kept our heads held high and walked away and knew we were standing shoulder to shoulder with the Saviour who had much worse abuse yelled at him. The scripture in Mosiah 14 "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” means a lot more to me now. I am in no way comparing what we go through as missionaries to what the Saviour went through, but I know that I am coming to understand how He feels about people better. How He must've felt when He came to bring hope to people, and they rejected it. It can be so discouraging when you pray for people by name for days, spend an hour in the morning preparing for them, and then go to their house and they just don't answer. It's happened about 12 times this week. But we are learning to keep being happy despite circumstances. The Lord is sending blessings to help us remember He is still there and still loves us. We had a great District Meeting last week which was exactly what I needed. The Elder doing it was super inspired and taught about how the atonement can help us in missionary work. He used a often-used Elder Holland talk about missionary work and the atonement, which basically shows us how our missions are all about us learning how to use the atonement. If salvation wasn't easy for the Saviour to bring to mankind, why should it be easy for us. We need to cry out for help and use the atonement to keep trying and keep going. I feel like this week I've used mighty prayer more than ever before on my mission. I cant explain the sweet feelings that come as I know my Father is listening, and also that He understands me perfectly too. I plead with Him to bring my heart some joy, and I opened my scriptures and the first verse that my eyes hit said this : (John 16)

21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world

22 And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.

24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

And it was just exactly what I needed. Exactly! It brings me hope to know that He is aware of us all and loves us all perfectly. It's all a big learning experience! 

So an awesome story this week! D who I was teaching in the Teaching Centre got BAPTISED!!!

It was in Green valley so not very far away so I could go. They asked us to sing too, so myself and the two other Sisters sung "Lead Kindly Light"! It was a beautiful baptism. The Spirit was so strong, especially as the man said those words “Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ" he paused and couldn’t speak for a few seconds and everyone in the room was in tears! We brought two of our investigators and both were crying and then tried to explain to us that they felt this pressure in their chest but that it felt SO GOOD and both of them are pumped for baptism. I taught A after the baptism on a split with a member and she just cried the whole time and said she would be baptised this weekend or next weekend depending on what her husband said. If he didn’t mind her going ahead and doing it without him being there, she'd do it this Saturday. If he wants to be there, it'll be next Saturday! SO it's all great! I just remember the Spirit being in that lesson so strong, and I remember it being REALLY HOT in there haha. I think I sweated the whole way through the lesson. But that's just every day life now ;) always hot and sweaty. S is still going strong, 6 days without smoking! SO hopefully a baptism in a week and half!!

Last night  after our hard day we watched The Testaments after planning and gave each other back massages hahah #whatarecompanionsfor? I love my companion. I really love her! We are helping each other eat more healthily so I live on fruit and quinoa haha. With that said, we are craving krispy kreme donuts so if anyone wants to send us some that'd be great. The first person to send us some krispy kreme donuts will receive the prize of a HUG from me in 8 months time OK? THANKS. 

This week looks exciting! We have been asked to help out in Pioneer Day festivities on Thursday! On Friday we are going to do a free lemonade stand in the park in our area to try and find some people to teach. We will battle the heat! Also we got informed of a last minute special Multi Zone Conference in two weeks so maybe someone special is visiting! How exciting :) Exciting times as a missionary! Also a member we ate with is a dentist and is bleaching our teeth for free!! WOOOOOOO :) 

I love everything I'm learning and I love you all so much! 

Sister Nicholls