Dear Friends and Family,
Lots to type this week so I'll try and get it done! Firstly, this is week 6 of the transfer so we get transfer calls on Saturday! This is the first time I've had to wait for the Assistants to call on the Saturday morning for about 4 transfers so I'm nervous!! President has made a few outbound jokes to me recently so maybe I'll be packing my bags and getting on the transfer van for a few hours. I'm fine with whatever happens, but I always seem to be surprised so I have no guesses as to what is going on!
The highlight of my week was seeing the Herbertson family!!!
It was a miracle that we even saw each other because I wasn't on shift, but we had an appointment at the VC and so we went and before I could walk in, Sister Garcia ran out and told me to shut my eyes and took my hands to lead me in. I was so scared and said "IS MY MUM HERE?" as a joke and as I said it I heard this British voice say "Ello Sister Nicholls!" and I knew it was Nathan and I might've jumped and screamed (but all very professionally because I'm a missionary) and then hugged Julie for about 10 minutes. There was NO ONE in the VC so all the Sisters were staring haha but I didn’t care, it was great! We'd just been stood up four times that day for appointments so I was more than thrilled to see smoeone who liked us haha. We talked and LAUGHED and hugged and took pictures. It was so weird to see Nathan because I feel like we were just at the Olympics together and I was nervous to go to BYU and he was nervous for his mission and then now it's all over! It was more weird to hear them say my name. They said “Let’s pose like this for Charlotte's camera" and I hardly recognize my first name anymore! But it was sooooo nice to see them! But yeah EVERYONE stood us up again this week. I got the lowest numbers I've ever gotten. I got the same as I got when I reopened an area on the first week :o but its okay because we're learning patience and gratitude and we strengthen each other!
We spent some time making cookies and handing them out to people to make them like us more! We went back up the massive hill to give them to a non member family and it was hilarious because we discovered that there was a wasps nest up there and they began chasing us - nice move non members ;) way to keep the missionaries away. It was worse than Colchester Zoo with Luke and Perry hahaha. We RAN and RAN and RAN down that hill and wasps were chasing us and we jumped in the car and drove and then there was a WASP in the car!!!!! I have never feared for my life so much! Those were the wasps of Satan for sure. We met some great people giving out cookies though. This one Baptist preacher and his family really like us now, so we are working with their neighbours to do a FHE with them. We met a new Catholic family that just moved in and she was so cute! She looked at my nametag and said "Sister Nicholas....can I just call you Nicky?" hahaha she thought it was my first name and I just said sure thing. Everyone calls me Sister Nicholas!
I had a tragedy in the VC this week! We were about to leave to go to Church on Sunday morning at 11am and I'd been in the VC since 9am and hadn’t eaten breakfast but we'd had a nutella milkshake dropped off to us the day before and I wanted it and so I drunk most of it and there was ONE mouthful left, and in keeping with life it’s when you do the final lap or the last second or the last mouhtful that everything goes wrong. Can I mention I was wearing a white skirt and the brand new top you sent me mum. I took the last mouthful overzealously and overshot and overestimated the swig and it went ALLLLLLLL DOWN MEEEEE!!! It went down my chest into my shirt and down my skirt and into my SHOEEEEEE!!! And we had 2 minutes until Church started! We both just stood in the kitchen in SHOCKED SILENCE and I dared not look at what monstrosity I had just created. And I broke the silence with my laughter! It was EVERYWHERE! I didn’t have time to change or I'd have missed Church so instead we just wiped some of it off and ran to church! I had to sit through 1hr and a half of Sacrament Meeting smelling like chocolate milk and being freezing cold and sticky. My shoes were stuck to my wet milky feet and my arms were sticky and I just felt miserable but it was hilarious! We ran home afterwards and I washed it all today and it's all come out so crisis over!
We had our Zone Meeting this week and it was more like a Zone party. We have the Mesquite missionaries in our Zone now so they were there and when we had to return and report our numbers for each area of new investigators we're all like “We had 3 new investigators this month" or “We had 2 new investigators" then the Mesquite Elders stand up and say “We had 28 new investigators last month" and everyone’s mouths dropped open! #mostcovetedareaofthemission - haha - but the Zone Leaders provided a classy break time treat for us. There was bottle after bottle of Martinelli's apple cider and plates and plates of different cheeses from all over the world and home made bread and brownies and lots of different cheesecakes hahah. It was SO FUN! We were popping those bottles like nobody's business. It was so fun! Also we discovered that Sister Pearson and I were at the same New Years Eve party in 2012 in London! Fun fact :) but it was such a great Zone meeting.
In the VC things are going well! We have a brand new art work exhibit by Al Rounds. It's entitled "Sacred Places" and it goes through all the Church history significant places, like the Sacred Grove, Joseph Smith's house, Hill Cumorah, Martin Harris farm, Kirtland, Nauvoo, Liberty and Carthage jails, PRESTON ENGLAND, St George, Salt Lake, Hawn's Mill, Adam ondi ahman etc. It is so beautiful!! I love it and I love giving tours of it. I've taken some pics of it and will use it for my next planner art work! I had a great experience giving a tour in the VC this last week. A Sister came to get me because there were three British women in the back who wanted a tour. It always works out best when their own nationality greet them so she came to get me and it turns out they're from Luton! Haha it was a delight to hear my own accent for once. They know where the LDS Church in Luton is. One of the three women was soooo interested. They were here to golf and have been here before and will come next year. She said that the people here are just such nice people and are beautiful inside and out, and it just intruiged her as to why. We talked a lot about the Temple and about the Book of Mormon, and they told me that they had been to Deseret Book and bought a book called something like 100 questions answered about Mormons. She thought it was so interesting and when I picked up the English Book of Mormon from the big Book of Mormon table and said we could give her one she just snatched it out of my hand and said thanks! Hahaha she REALLY wanted THAT Book of Mormon! So I had to find another one to replace the one on the table. But she asked such great questions and she gave me her contact details so I will continue to teach her online. She gave me her email address and said "I shall be disappointed if you do not contact me." and just loved everything we talked about. I love the VC for reasons like that, that you get to meet people from all over the world who you can see have been prepared for that experience for a long time.
So last week I told you about the MEP who came in and offered an internship, and this week someone else came in and offered us internships. It was this incredibly interesting woman who goes undercover into Colorado City and helps save the people there. She saves women and children from abuse and she has set up a school and buys clothes from DI for the kids to wear to this school and she was just telling us all about her job and we were all captivated by it. She said she needs volunteers and interns and gave us all her business card! Ever since I got here I can’t even describe the feelings I have for the polygamists but I just feel drawn to helping them and when she came in and talked to us about what she does it was incredible. It's definitely an option to consider :) Yesterday I gave a tour to a lost boy who broke away from the polygamists a few years ago. He said he had taken the missionary discussions twice but never felt like he could be baptized. But he came in because he was in desperate need of feeling the Spirit and he has nowhere to live right now. It was heart breaking. It was really cool because in the morning during companionship study we listen to the Spirit and prepare something for the VC that we feel inspried to prepare. That morning it was the Family Proclamation. As I was giving him the tour, we ended up at the Family Proclamation and I taught about our Apostles and Prophets and their role in strengthening families, and he got all tearful and shared some horrific stories about how he was disowned and what has happened to his family. I put him in the Modern Prophets booth and put on President Monson's testimony from Special Witnesses and at the end he was all tearful and said he has made his decision - he needs to take that step and be baptized! He gave me his details and wants to be taught. It was such a great experience and we just clicked. His stories just break my heart and I can’t describe how I feel about them. It was one of those experiences I'll never forget at the VC. We had a French bus break down outside he VC the other day so there were 30 French people STUCK in the VC with no way out. We preached and preached til every one of them wanted to be baptized ;)
Lastly, the exercise is going well!! I've only thrown up one more time after exercising so I'm taking it easier and not drinking as much haha. We've started playing soccer in the mornings too. It's funny because none of the other Sisters get as in to it as myself and Sister Lipke, the Sister from Germany, get SO into it and we tackle and sprint and kick and love it and the other Sisters are like “Of course the two European Sisters are the ones that actually enjoy this" hahha. They were like “Have you played soccer before?" and we're like “We're European, its in our blood. This is what we do." hahahaha but we get all intense and everyone else just watches. We make sure we get to the field before the Elders take it! hahaha! It's all fun!
I gotta go now! I loovveeee being a missionary and serving the Lord and the people of Little Valley!
Keep me in your prayers and I'll keep you in mine.
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