Dear Loved ones,
This week has been sooo interesting! Lots of fun stories to tell so I'll jump right to it.
Our Zone Leaders are the Spanish Elders of the area, and they were teaching that man named A, remember a few emails back when I told the story of the really awkward eye compliment? Well he comes into the VC every day so we've all become good friends with him. Anyway we got a text saying "Hermana Nicholls, A would like you to give the talk on Baptism at his baptism" so I couldn't say no to that! It was on Sunday morning at 8am and it was ALL in Spanish. It was funny because he asked me to do a talk and Sister Lipke to do a talk. Loads of VC Sisters went, so all the Sisters who went were native Spanish speakers, and then there was us two who couldn't speak a word. Yet we were the two who had to speak. So I just spoke slowly and clearly in the hope that they would magically understand English if I spoke it slowly haha. #typicalignorantbrit But the baptism was BEAUTIFUL! The Spirit was strong and A was so happy afterwards.
We had a great lesson with our new investigator T last Wednesday evening. We taught The Restoration like 10 times last week! But the lesson went really well. These are what make the sweetest moments of missionary work. When you go into someone's home...or dorm....and they are just curious to know more at the start, but throughout the lesson the Spirit touches them and the curiosity turns into a sincere desire to know the truth. There's nothing more fulfilling than entering homes and teaching children of God the truth that their soul once knew but forgot, that they can be together with their families forever, and teaching them how to talk to their Father in Heaven for the first time! So at the start he just wanted to know what Mormons believed in, so we taught the restoration and at the end he said he would be baptized and we all knelt down together and he prayed! In his prayer he said the best thing ever "Thank you for sending the Missionaries to me. Let me know what I need to do to be a Mormon"!!!!!!! Sister Biery and I were like slapping each others arms during the prayer! It was such a great moment, and missions just seem to be filled with those moments that you want to last forever. Sweetest moments of my life have been praying with my investigators. I LOVE being a missionary :))))))
We had a super confusing lesson with this girl from Venezula. She is learning English and she said she was interested, then that she's not, then that she doesn't belive in God, then that she knows her prayers are answered, then that she's Catholic, then that she's not. We were like uuuhhhhhhh okaayyyyy. We just taught and are going to let the Ward fellowship her, specifically some Spanish speaking RMs! Can I just say how scary it is teaching when the members that come with you are fresh back from their missions. And they are all so great that you can guess they were probably the APs and the STLs. Every lesson I teach I get so hot and nervous and sweaty hahaha. I remember being constantly hot and sweaty when teaching in the MTC so I feel like I've gone back in time! Haha. Anyway it's good cos they know what to say and how to say it but I am just battling with so many feelings of inadequacy and stress. The Lord is helping though :) We had a great lesson with this girl named K :) she is from California and she said she'd be baptized and come to Church and to all the activities with all her roommates. Things are going well. We visited N, our investigator who is on the football team. We hadn't met him but we kept trying his house but he was never home because football practise is twice a day. FINALLY a young man opened the door wearing hardly ANYTHING and we were like staring at his face the WHOLE time and he said he was N! It was so great because his roommates were there and we gathered them all to the door, these big guys from the football team all non members, and we quitened them all down and stared at everyones faces only, and shared a scripture about Jesus Christ. When else are we going to do that in our life?! Stand at a boys dorm where all the football players are getting ready to go to practise and talk to them about Jesus?! Haha it was the best! We checked our phone on Friday night and there was this voicemail that went like this "Hi Sisters! This is the former Elder Captain of the Utah St George mission....now Chris Captain. I'm in town this weekend and have some time and need to come teaching with the missionaries. Let me know and I'll come teach with you!" so we were like WHAT ON EARTH!!! haha Elder Captain was the Assistant that just went home a transfer ago, he served in Dixie before he went home so it was SUCH a help. Some of the people we were teaching were people he found! So it was a great experience. But again a very nerve wracking and sweaty experience for the two nervous missionaries. It's always weird seeing missionaries who have gone home come back with their beards and their shorts. But the person we were teaching is from Nigeria and he just loves to debate and has every concern under the sun.
We had a TON of non members come in the VC on Friday night, there was this seventh day adventist convention in St George and they all came to the VC. They were from all over the world and were attending a conference about science and religion. It was exciting because this huge group of Romanians were there and they really wanted to see inside the church building across the street. We found the key and Sister Biery and I gave them a chapel tour. It was so random! When we were leaving I was like "I never thought my Friday night activities would include being in a chapel in St George with a bunch of Catholic Romanians". But it was a great experience. We resolved some concerns about the Sacrament and about the Book of Mormon. Again I thought about how far I've come with not being so afraid of answering tough questions in the last 11 months! It was just casual and normal and I thought how scared I would be to have done that 10 months ago. I love how the Lord helps you become what you need.
I was on exchanges with Sister Donovan yesterday, and we had one of the biggest miracle moments ever! I was in Morningside with her, and we knocked on this door and a few minutes later this scary looking man who stunk of cigarettes answered the door. He started out by grumpily saying that we had woken him up (at midday) and that we shouldn't waste our time with him. I said to him that we are his missionaries and want him to be able to know us and recognize us and come to us for anything. Turns out he was in the Navy all his life and has lived oversees so I asked him the biggest thing he learned from seeing all the world, and he said that there is GOOD in the world, not just bad. So we started sharing our message about being God's children and there being a Prophet on the earth and he said that he isn't religious but enjoys meditating but that out of all the religions he likes Mormons the best. We invited him to learn more and he declined and said he wasn't interested and we went along on our merry way. As we walked away I just felt so strongly that we needed to go back and give him a Book of Mormon. We were nervous to go back but thought about it and asked ourselves what Jesus would do. So we wrote a note in the front of the Book of Mormon and went back and saw he was sitting in front of his porch smoking and staring into space. I took a deep breath and said that we really wanted to give him this as a gift. He looked at us with such sincerity and said "I am so glad you came back. Since I shut the door I felt this glow in my chest about what you were saying. It was such a good feeling and I saw your aura's and they are such glowing and beautiful auras. I don't know what you girls have done, but you must've done something right in God's eyes." and went on to say that he trusts what we say and that he was for sure going to read the Book of Mormon and that we should go back to his home next week. We promised he would feel the same feeling as he read the Book of Mormon. He started reading right there and then with his cigarette in hand haha. It was one of the most precious moments of my mission.
Lastly, we have been screwed over by this crazy lady. Some Young Single Adults contacted us to say they met someone who wants to be taught, and set up a lesson for us. We went there and taught her and she said she'd be baptized and we made a return appointment for this evening. She went to Church and everything. Then we went to put her number in our phone and it was already saved as "DO NOT ANSWER" so we felt slightly alarmed and called the Elders and asked what they knew and they were like "She has been baptized a few times under different names and tries to get every missionary to teach her" its so weird!! And then I remembered that I'd heard about her when I first arrived in the mission, that we should avoid her because she made false accusations about the Elders when they went to teach her. So President told us all to avoid her. But we'd already been in her home and taught her haha! AND HUGGED HER!!! We were proper played like a pack of cards.
Anywayyyyy that's all my time for now! It's been a week of growing and learning. If repentance just means changing, then I've repented a lot this week. The Lord is showing me the cracks of weakness within myself and I'm using His love and strength to overcome it. I am coming to know Him better through my struggles and I never want to be far away from His spirit. I began the Book of Mormon again this week and learned how Nephi said four times "Let us be faithful in KEEPING the commandments" and he talked a lot about accomplishing the thing which the Lord commands. I learned that it's not enough to just try to keep the commandments, but we must be faithful in accomplishing that. He went back three times to get the plates. It would've been so easy for him to be like "Well we walked all this way and tried and Laban has his agency and chose to not give it to us...oh well, we tried, we did our part." But he didn't! He knew he wasn't keeping the commandments if he didn't accomplish it. So he went back again and again until he'd accomplished it. I thought about how often I blame people's agency for not giving them a tour at the VC or not giving them a BOM at the door. I learned that I need to accomplish what the Lord has asked of me and not just try or give up at the first hurdle!!
I love you all! Thank you for your support and love and encouragement! I pray for you all!
Sister Nicholls
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