Dear Loved Ones,
The St George YSA 1st Stake had a very wet weekend, and we're not talking about the storms. Four children of God entered the waters of baptism!! Two in our Wards and two in the Elders' Wards! They were both beautiful. During the time they were getting dried and ready Sister Biery and I taught The Restoration to everyone there because there were some non members there from the Elders' area so it was great. The Spirit was super strong, it's definitely something we will try again. Their confirmations were great and then T bore his testimony because it was Fast and Testimony meeting. He said how he had a void in his heart and the Book of Mormon filled that void. He even used a "quote" from the Book of Mormon and said how he will be obedient to his baptismal covenant all his life! It was beautiful. He spoke at the Recent Convert Fireside in front of everyone and all our investigators so it was great! I realized at the confirmations yesterday that it's been exactly a year since I was set apart as a missionary! One year since I have been on fb, held a baby, hugged a boy, listened to music etc! IT'S GONE SO FAST!!! And here I am one year later at my investigators' confirmations, happy and loving missionary life.
We had a sweet moment with A at the Christus after our lesson with him. We took him out there and played Homeward Bound on the highest volume it will go because no one was in the VC and he just shut his eyes and prayed again thoughout it all and at the end he looked up and had tears streaming down his face. I asked him what he was thinking and feeling and he just looked at me and said "The Gospel is so true" and we just cried together. He said how he doesn't know why he is so lucky to have found it. It was so sweet. I am so excited for him to be baptized! He'll make a great missionary one day! The AP's were there and A went up to them and said "Excuse me Elders, can you not take my Sisters away please?" but it was too late because Sister Biery is being moved to Price :(
We had some funny times with our Asian investigators this week! One was when we were teaching J and H and I speak very slowly and clearly with them and so I finished a sentence with "gospel" and Julie repeated "gospel" but just as I had said it so it was really slowly and VERY BRITISH!!! IT WAS THE FUNNIEST THING TO HEAR THAT BRITISH ACCENT FROM A CHINESE PERSON! Myself and the fellowshipper couldn't hold it together and we just died laughing. And we read the Book of Mormon with them and it mentioned the gathering of Israel, and Zion, and they had no clue what was going on so I just said "It's just one big group of happy people" and they said "Oh...like us?" hahha and so we cracked up a ton and said YES just like us! hahaha! I love them!!
We got to watch Women's Conference with K this week so it was beautiful! She is doing great for her baptism! We had miracles this week with finding new investigators. We had to find 6 new investigators to reach our monthly goals so we determined to work hard and to pray hard! Monday we found two, then Wednesday 1, then Thursday 1, and then we got to 6pm Sunday night and we still needed two more. I wouldn't let myself think it was too late, we kept our faith strong and then one of our Ward Mission Leaders gave us a random surprise referral! It was PERFECT!! They are great and we are seeing them again tonight. It's incredible seeing Heavenly Father's miracles when you are willing to work hard and pray hard and not give up. He is incredible! Women's Conference was beautiful too! There was a dinner beforehand at the Institute Building and so we mingled and then were spiritually fed.
We had a fun adventure on Thursday morning! We had to be at Brigham Young's home for our weekly Sisters Training Meeting and everyone had people they were bringing and no one could bring us so we got up and on our bikes at 7am and rode to Brigham Young's home! IT WAS HARD WORK! Our legs were pumping!! Saddle sore is a real thing. But it was a beautiful fresh morning though. The evenings and mornings have a nip in the air and it is welcome, we are so done with sweating every day! It's about time!
I don't think I ever told you that the General Primary Presidency came into the VC a few weeks ago and spoke with all the Sisters and thanked us for our service and asked us what we liked about it there. It was very special :) Also there was this woman in the VC from Essex! She was from Braintree. She was completely about energies and the earth and stuff. She was very interesting and I just loved her! I felt the Spirit guide me on the tour to give her and I knew what to say. We talked about Christ being the biggest champion of womanhood and she was touched. Then I played the Christus for her and she took off her shoes and crossed her legs in the meditation position and shut her eyes and cried through the Christus message! Then she asked to hear it again and I said how German is my favourite because the voice sounds most like what I imagine Christ's voice to be! So I played it for her again in German and she took a Book of Mormon! She was super great and I loved meeting her.
Well transfer calls tell us that Sister Biery is going to Price YSA and I am staying in Dixie 1.5 with Sister West. She is from Arizona and has about 12 weeks left on her mission, and we are going to be Sister Training Leaders together. Netiher of us are STLs currently so we will just train each other on it and see what happens! Haha I am excited for this opportunity to stretch, to learn how to love people more and to work harder than I've ever worked. Sister Garcia is in my District and I'm her STL so we get to be together sometimes! I'll let you know how it all goes. Right now I just feel nothing, I feel kind of numb still and terrified if I think about it but peaceful when I pray. I need LOTS of prayers this week. I'm grateful for wonderful STLs who have shown me an example. #morganduval #maddiebusteed haha
I love you all!
Sister Nicholls
Monday, 29 September 2014
Wednesday, 24 September 2014
Blood, Sweat and Tears! - 24-9-14
And that was just one journey on our new bikes ;)
Hahaha so many funny memories from this week. First off, I want to tell you a funny story that I will remember my whole life. So, we got bikes this week. And it all originated because the Elders performed a deception on us. So on Friday night we were planning and got a phone call from the Zone Leaders. Worrying that it might be important, we picked it up. The Elders said "Sisters! We need help. Can you help us?" and we were like "Of course, what's wrong?" and they said "We are out in Ivins at a Hispanic party and someone stole our shoes and our keys and we don't have our bikes" and we were like "OH MY GOODNESS!" because it's not even in their area and they are the Zone Leaders who just said they were at a party haha. But we were worried about them so we were like "We can call someone to come and pick you up and we can get your bikes for you" because they left them outside the VC and they were like "Could you get our bikes for us? That would be great!" So we said "Of course!" and they were like "So we actually are just getting out of an appointment and are running late and don't have our bikes but we have a ride and our shoes!" So they lied to us to make us feel bad for them and get their bikes haha. They were like "We wondered who of all the VC sisters to call and we knew you would be the ones to do it!" haha. So anyway we finished planning and ventured out into the night to get the bikes from the Temple grounds. But! The gates were locked! So we walked around to the next gate and it was unlocked. We felt sketchy because it was dark but we did what any self respecting Sister missionary would do. We put the helmets on, got on the bikes and RODE home. As I was approaching the Temple apartments, it was super dark and no one was there and the funniest thing/most embarrassing thing ever happened. I was wearing a skirt that has buttons all the way down, like the pop buttons. And as I pressed down on the pedal, ALL the buttons popped open and EVERYTHING could be seen by EVERYONE! I screamed and jumped off the bike to do the buttons up again! It was probably one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. At least everyone here is a Mormon #utahmissionprobz SO funny! Anyway after that we realized that we waste so much time walking everywhere and could save so much time riding bikes. So we decided that we needed bikes. Our District Leader and his companion never ride their bikes so they gave us their bikes! And then Sister Center heard we were riding bikes and has found girl bikes for us. So now we have girl bikes instead of painful boy bikes with no brakes haha. I nearly died riding Elder Cavazotti's bike because he conveniently didn't tell us he didn't have any brakes! ! I just shouted back to Sister Biery "Sister! I can't stop! You go! I'm going this way apparently haha". But we've ridden them so much that I think I'll have permanent saddle sore pain. Hahah we can barely walk we're in so much pain and when we sit down we groan and murmer because of the pain hahaha. But it's incredible riding around on bikes. It's helping me to be stripped of pride because it's SO EMBARRASSING. Try wearing a dress and a boys helmet riding a boys bike around a college campus hahah. When we get on our bikes and ride I always murmer "This is the lowest point of my life" hahaha but it's fun. We were trying to cross at a stop sign and when I tried to take off again my shoe fell off. All the traffic had to stop and watch while I retrieved my shoe and tried to hop back on the bike while EVERYONE EVERYWHERE sees my underwear and watches my failed start on the bike hahahahahah. Sister Biery was riding off and I was a solo missionary with a red face hahaha. We've swiped our legs on the pedals so much and ruined a dress that got caught in the chain. The bike pulled to a stop and I shouted to Sister Biery "I'M STUCK!" and she retrieved me but the dress is ruined! It's so fun though and you feel like a real missionary!
Sunday was a fantastic day! We started off by attending the Ogden Temple rededication. It was incredible. Church was cancelled because it was just that, so our investigators had nowhere to go! So we wanted to make sure our investigators are committed to God on the Sabbath day so we held a special version of Church at the VC for them. We just wanted them to have that uplift on Sunday. We met them all there at the Christus and played it in Mandarin for our Chinese investigators, and then we showed Because of Him and read 3 Nephi 11 and watched the Restoration. The Spirit was so strong and we think it was great for them all to meet each other and support each other. It was so cool having them all in one place together! Anyway the Temple dedication was incredible. At the end when we did the Hosanna Shout and sung Praise To The Man, I had one of the most spiritual experiences of my whole life. I cant even explain what happened, but I just felt the Spirit more powerfully than ever before. It felt like electricity all over my body. And I actually cried #whendoesthateverhappen and couldn't sing the song because the Spirit was so strong. I felt the Spirit cleansing me and felt clean and pure all over. I felt Heavenly Father's gratitude for missionary service, and felt how holy and strong that Temple is. I felt Heavenly Father's overwhelming love and desire for our investigators to enter the holy Temple and be sealed with their families. I felt how temporal this life is and how imperative it is to get our investigators there. It was empowering and I felt the urge to go out and share it with EVERYONE. It was such a special moment for me and I will never forget those feelings. I aboslutely love being a missionary.
Our investigators are doing really well. We are pushing ourselves this week to meet our monthly goals. We need to find 6 more investigators this week and have 3 baptisms. We are on goal for 2 baptisms this Saturday, T and J. T is doing so well and he is so humble. He says the most touching prayers ever. He prays and says "Thank you for giving me the word of wisdom commandment. please bless me to have experiences that I can share with people on Sunday." He is the best! And he said he wants to serve a mission! I needed to teach him to learn from his humble example of accepting the commandments willingly. He even was worried that he has drunk coffee before and felt like he needed to repent! He is incredible. And then J who didn't get baptized two weeks ago finally prayed and felt goodness in his heart and knows that it is indeed true so he is getting baptized too! We are so blessed. Then out of our six, Heavenly Father has blessed us to find 3 already this week, just by giving us the courage to talk with everyone and putting us in the perfect place, down to the second, to meet the right people who will invite us back. P is doing incredibly as well! We taught the plan of salvation and she knelt down and said the best prayer ever. She said "Heavenly Father. I really want this to be true. If you tell me this is true I'll be baptized." and then she told us yesterday about a dream she had where she was praying in the dream and saw the words Jesus being spelled out. It was cool! She accepted a baptismal date and is doing great! There is something really special about her, I just love her a lot!
We had such a laugh with our Chinese investigators. We brought two Chinese members with us and they translated everything into Mandarin when we spoke. We mentioned baptism and J said "Baptism?" and they both immediately started jabbering away in Mandarin doing the same hand motions of pushing someone down and bringing them back up again. It was SO funny, you had to be there. We were CRACKING up! Then J prayed and in her thick Chinese accent started out by saying "Hello...Jesus....." hahhaha and we tried so hard not to laugh. We will have to go over that with her again. But she always ends the lesson by saying she can feel the warmth from our souls and that she is learning lots from us. I love her SO MUCH! Then yesterday we had a cool experience with A. We taught the Word of Wisdom and played the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Homeward Bound for him, and the Spirit was SO strong that we all just stopped and listened and were silent for a few mintues and then he lifted his hands together and shut his eyes and was praying throughout it all. It was such a special, blissful moment that I wish I could adequately describe. It was one of those moments you wish could last forever because you're having spritual experiences with your own investigators. He is SO ready to be baptized. His non member family are coming out for his baptism too. He wants to be married in the Temple really bad but will probably go on a mission first! It's great because with lots of our investigators I feel like I've known them forever. I just love them all so much and feel like we all promised we'd find each other and share the gospel together. This tranfer is just the most happiest and perfect transfer ever. I've learned to just love people and be happy.
Had GREAT VC experiences this week! We had a French bus come and they requested us to sing I Am A Child Of God because they were at Salt Lake City VC and they sang that there. So three of us got together in front of the Temple and sung I Am A Child Of God. They LOVED it and recorded it and clapped haha. It was such a sweet moment. Had a great tour with a man who wants to meet with local missionaries! And then there were some rude Catholic and Southern Baptist people in the VC that I tried to help but they didn't want help. They left and were taking photos by the Temple and I just felt so strongly that we needed to give them a Book of Mormon. So, I told Sister BIery and we prayed and just went outside and gave them a Book of Mormon. They accepted it and were still a bit rude. But, we followed the promptings and we don't know why but someone will benefit from that some day. Even if they leave it somewhere and someone else finds it! But it's great to have a compnaion who supports you when you feel the Spirit prompting you to do something. I want to write a whole paragraph about how much I love Sister Biery! We laugh SO MUCH together, we cry with laughter about 6 times a day and we are just so comfortable with each other and learn from each other and feel the Spirit together. I never want it to end but alas it's transfers this week. If we leave each other I'll cry for the rest of my mission haha!!
Well, just know I love being a missionary more than anything ever and never want this to end! But I love you all so much and can't wait to email you next week!
Sister Nicholls
Hahaha so many funny memories from this week. First off, I want to tell you a funny story that I will remember my whole life. So, we got bikes this week. And it all originated because the Elders performed a deception on us. So on Friday night we were planning and got a phone call from the Zone Leaders. Worrying that it might be important, we picked it up. The Elders said "Sisters! We need help. Can you help us?" and we were like "Of course, what's wrong?" and they said "We are out in Ivins at a Hispanic party and someone stole our shoes and our keys and we don't have our bikes" and we were like "OH MY GOODNESS!" because it's not even in their area and they are the Zone Leaders who just said they were at a party haha. But we were worried about them so we were like "We can call someone to come and pick you up and we can get your bikes for you" because they left them outside the VC and they were like "Could you get our bikes for us? That would be great!" So we said "Of course!" and they were like "So we actually are just getting out of an appointment and are running late and don't have our bikes but we have a ride and our shoes!" So they lied to us to make us feel bad for them and get their bikes haha. They were like "We wondered who of all the VC sisters to call and we knew you would be the ones to do it!" haha. So anyway we finished planning and ventured out into the night to get the bikes from the Temple grounds. But! The gates were locked! So we walked around to the next gate and it was unlocked. We felt sketchy because it was dark but we did what any self respecting Sister missionary would do. We put the helmets on, got on the bikes and RODE home. As I was approaching the Temple apartments, it was super dark and no one was there and the funniest thing/most embarrassing thing ever happened. I was wearing a skirt that has buttons all the way down, like the pop buttons. And as I pressed down on the pedal, ALL the buttons popped open and EVERYTHING could be seen by EVERYONE! I screamed and jumped off the bike to do the buttons up again! It was probably one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. At least everyone here is a Mormon #utahmissionprobz SO funny! Anyway after that we realized that we waste so much time walking everywhere and could save so much time riding bikes. So we decided that we needed bikes. Our District Leader and his companion never ride their bikes so they gave us their bikes! And then Sister Center heard we were riding bikes and has found girl bikes for us. So now we have girl bikes instead of painful boy bikes with no brakes haha. I nearly died riding Elder Cavazotti's bike because he conveniently didn't tell us he didn't have any brakes! ! I just shouted back to Sister Biery "Sister! I can't stop! You go! I'm going this way apparently haha". But we've ridden them so much that I think I'll have permanent saddle sore pain. Hahah we can barely walk we're in so much pain and when we sit down we groan and murmer because of the pain hahaha. But it's incredible riding around on bikes. It's helping me to be stripped of pride because it's SO EMBARRASSING. Try wearing a dress and a boys helmet riding a boys bike around a college campus hahah. When we get on our bikes and ride I always murmer "This is the lowest point of my life" hahaha but it's fun. We were trying to cross at a stop sign and when I tried to take off again my shoe fell off. All the traffic had to stop and watch while I retrieved my shoe and tried to hop back on the bike while EVERYONE EVERYWHERE sees my underwear and watches my failed start on the bike hahahahahah. Sister Biery was riding off and I was a solo missionary with a red face hahaha. We've swiped our legs on the pedals so much and ruined a dress that got caught in the chain. The bike pulled to a stop and I shouted to Sister Biery "I'M STUCK!" and she retrieved me but the dress is ruined! It's so fun though and you feel like a real missionary!Sunday was a fantastic day! We started off by attending the Ogden Temple rededication. It was incredible. Church was cancelled because it was just that, so our investigators had nowhere to go! So we wanted to make sure our investigators are committed to God on the Sabbath day so we held a special version of Church at the VC for them. We just wanted them to have that uplift on Sunday. We met them all there at the Christus and played it in Mandarin for our Chinese investigators, and then we showed Because of Him and read 3 Nephi 11 and watched the Restoration. The Spirit was so strong and we think it was great for them all to meet each other and support each other. It was so cool having them all in one place together! Anyway the Temple dedication was incredible. At the end when we did the Hosanna Shout and sung Praise To The Man, I had one of the most spiritual experiences of my whole life. I cant even explain what happened, but I just felt the Spirit more powerfully than ever before. It felt like electricity all over my body. And I actually cried #whendoesthateverhappen and couldn't sing the song because the Spirit was so strong. I felt the Spirit cleansing me and felt clean and pure all over. I felt Heavenly Father's gratitude for missionary service, and felt how holy and strong that Temple is. I felt Heavenly Father's overwhelming love and desire for our investigators to enter the holy Temple and be sealed with their families. I felt how temporal this life is and how imperative it is to get our investigators there. It was empowering and I felt the urge to go out and share it with EVERYONE. It was such a special moment for me and I will never forget those feelings. I aboslutely love being a missionary.
Our investigators are doing really well. We are pushing ourselves this week to meet our monthly goals. We need to find 6 more investigators this week and have 3 baptisms. We are on goal for 2 baptisms this Saturday, T and J. T is doing so well and he is so humble. He says the most touching prayers ever. He prays and says "Thank you for giving me the word of wisdom commandment. please bless me to have experiences that I can share with people on Sunday." He is the best! And he said he wants to serve a mission! I needed to teach him to learn from his humble example of accepting the commandments willingly. He even was worried that he has drunk coffee before and felt like he needed to repent! He is incredible. And then J who didn't get baptized two weeks ago finally prayed and felt goodness in his heart and knows that it is indeed true so he is getting baptized too! We are so blessed. Then out of our six, Heavenly Father has blessed us to find 3 already this week, just by giving us the courage to talk with everyone and putting us in the perfect place, down to the second, to meet the right people who will invite us back. P is doing incredibly as well! We taught the plan of salvation and she knelt down and said the best prayer ever. She said "Heavenly Father. I really want this to be true. If you tell me this is true I'll be baptized." and then she told us yesterday about a dream she had where she was praying in the dream and saw the words Jesus being spelled out. It was cool! She accepted a baptismal date and is doing great! There is something really special about her, I just love her a lot!
We had such a laugh with our Chinese investigators. We brought two Chinese members with us and they translated everything into Mandarin when we spoke. We mentioned baptism and J said "Baptism?" and they both immediately started jabbering away in Mandarin doing the same hand motions of pushing someone down and bringing them back up again. It was SO funny, you had to be there. We were CRACKING up! Then J prayed and in her thick Chinese accent started out by saying "Hello...Jesus....." hahhaha and we tried so hard not to laugh. We will have to go over that with her again. But she always ends the lesson by saying she can feel the warmth from our souls and that she is learning lots from us. I love her SO MUCH! Then yesterday we had a cool experience with A. We taught the Word of Wisdom and played the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Homeward Bound for him, and the Spirit was SO strong that we all just stopped and listened and were silent for a few mintues and then he lifted his hands together and shut his eyes and was praying throughout it all. It was such a special, blissful moment that I wish I could adequately describe. It was one of those moments you wish could last forever because you're having spritual experiences with your own investigators. He is SO ready to be baptized. His non member family are coming out for his baptism too. He wants to be married in the Temple really bad but will probably go on a mission first! It's great because with lots of our investigators I feel like I've known them forever. I just love them all so much and feel like we all promised we'd find each other and share the gospel together. This tranfer is just the most happiest and perfect transfer ever. I've learned to just love people and be happy.
Had GREAT VC experiences this week! We had a French bus come and they requested us to sing I Am A Child Of God because they were at Salt Lake City VC and they sang that there. So three of us got together in front of the Temple and sung I Am A Child Of God. They LOVED it and recorded it and clapped haha. It was such a sweet moment. Had a great tour with a man who wants to meet with local missionaries! And then there were some rude Catholic and Southern Baptist people in the VC that I tried to help but they didn't want help. They left and were taking photos by the Temple and I just felt so strongly that we needed to give them a Book of Mormon. So, I told Sister BIery and we prayed and just went outside and gave them a Book of Mormon. They accepted it and were still a bit rude. But, we followed the promptings and we don't know why but someone will benefit from that some day. Even if they leave it somewhere and someone else finds it! But it's great to have a compnaion who supports you when you feel the Spirit prompting you to do something. I want to write a whole paragraph about how much I love Sister Biery! We laugh SO MUCH together, we cry with laughter about 6 times a day and we are just so comfortable with each other and learn from each other and feel the Spirit together. I never want it to end but alas it's transfers this week. If we leave each other I'll cry for the rest of my mission haha!!
Well, just know I love being a missionary more than anything ever and never want this to end! But I love you all so much and can't wait to email you next week!
Sister Nicholls
Wednesday, 17 September 2014
"We are sowing, daily sowing, countless seeds of good and ill." - 17-9-14
DEAR EVERYONE,
I'm trying to think of things to write because it's only been four days of missionary work since we last spoke! But thankfully life is full of ups and downs and not a day goes by on campus without crazy stories, that have us crying with laughter, happening! One sad but funny part of the week was when we finally had to drop L. Even though we're like best friends with him it just wasn't going anywhere. It felt like breaking up with someone because we love him so much and didn't want to stop seeing him but we don't have time to meet with someone who doesn't progress. We were talking outside his apartment and we told him that this just wasn't going anywhere and that it's not that we don't love him because we do, haha it brought back many memories of years gone by! We gave him some cinnamon rolls for the break up and then he beat boxed for us and we went our separate ways. Then he texted us to say he'd read some from the Book of Mormon. If he keeps reading we might start teaching him again but we're going to give him a few weeks. It is so sad!
One of the sweetest experiences of my whole mission took place two nights ago. We found this extraordinarily cute Chinese girl called J on Thursday and we've taught her a few times. It's hard because we don't speak Mandarin and she is learning English. I really love our Chinese investigators, they are just so adorable. I remember how terrified I was when I put my papers in that I would be sent to Asia but now I know I would've loved it because the Chinese people are my favourite. They are so humble and sweet and as soon as they pray they know it's true. Anwyay so we knocked on J's door to see if she was in to set up a lesson with her but she didn't understand and saw us at the door and picked up her backpack and said "Lesson now?" and was ready to go to the Institute building where we usually teach. So we said "YEAH!" even though we already had an appointment waiting for us at the Institute building haha. So we did what any missionary in Utah would do. We knocked on the door next door and asked who were members and who had 20 minutes to teach with us. The first two girls we spoke to said they were members, they were on the soccer team and were conveniently wearing their booty shorts haha. Nothing like trying to teach teenage boys when your companion for the moment is wearing hardly anything. But anyway we split and I taught J while Sister Biery taught A. It was the sweetest lesson of my whole mission. J is super chirpy and happy and I just felt so strongly this love for her. I've been praying a lot to feel Heavenly Father's love for my investigators and while I looked at her I just had this overwhelming love for her that brought tears to my eyes. I bore testimony that her Heavenly Father loved her so much and told her that He loves her the way her father in China loves her. Then she goes "Well...my Father in China passed away a few years ago" and proceeds to tell us the story of how she came home from school and her family were there to tell her her Dad had died and her whole world fell apart and she was depressed. During the story her whole body was shaking she was crying so much. I moved my chair right next to her and held her in my arms while she sobbed into me. We all were crying at this point and she said "Everyone thinks I'm so happy but I just miss my Dad and want to see him so badly but he doesn't exist anymore!" and in that moment I thought how privileged I am to get to be a missioary to share with poor little Chinese girls who have spent years thinking their Dad doesn't exist anymore that she will see her Dad again, that he still loves her and that Heavenly Father has provided a way for her family to be together forever. If nothing else comes of my mission but the peace that she felt that evening then I can go home a happy returned missionary. I can't express how much I love that girl. We taught the Plan of Salvation and at the end she hugged me for like 30 seconds and said in her strong Mandarin accent "I love you". Ahh it was heartbreaking to hear the pain that people carry with them for years about stuff like that. But I am so happy to be able to help alleviate that pain through the Gospel. It reminds me of the hymn Lord I Would Follow Thee - "I woudl learn the healers art. To the wounded and the weary I would show a gentle heart" - I love that hymn :)
I took a bus tour from Denmark yesterday! It's always fun because you feel like a real VC Missionary when there are 50 people in front of you and you play the Christus and shout loud so they all can hear you that you know Christ lives AND that the statue was created in Denmark! Haha they liked that. Bus tours always ask the most awkward questions about religion so it's a LOT of fun! I love how scared I was at the start of my mission and how the Lord qualifies you for your calling. When else do you get bus loads of non members turn up and beg to learn the Gospel? Haha! I had a long conversation with someone in French the other day, I'm for sure going to study the language more when I get home.
We had the privilege of cleaning the St George Temple yesterday! It's been closed for a couple of weeks and it was so great to go inside and clean my Father's home. Theres always a great feeling in the Temple. When we walk home from campus at night we sing to ourselves "O Babylon O Babylon we bid thee farewell!" haha as we walk home toward the Temple. Then we got to go to the lowest point in the Temple, underground, it wasn't even a real room because it was stone all around us. We had to climb down this ladder in a hole in the floor underneath the Baptistry and clean the red sand from the floor that blew in through this crack in the wall. The crack in the wall is on grass level so we could see grass but its too small to see out of. Anyway it all blew in during the storms so it was SO cool to touch the rock the pioneers touched then they got the water out of the foundation of the Temple. The water mark is still on the rocks. It was so great! I love cleaning the Temple! St George Temple is my favourite :))))
We got to see the CES Devotional on Sunday night with our investigator K and it was exactly what she needed. She got revelation for sure. She said it felt like Elder Christofferson was talking to her because her family aren't members and she wants to be baptized. I love that we get to be in the Institute Building so much and see the Firesides etc. I wish all of our investigators would keep their commitments because it shows how much we get revelation if we go to Church or read the Book of Mormon or attend things.
I have to go, sorry it's so short this week but its only been a few days and I ran outta time! Real fast, we found out J's gender: .............. HE'S A BOY!!!!! hahaha We'll see how that goes!
I love you like nothing else :)
Sister Nicholls
I'm trying to think of things to write because it's only been four days of missionary work since we last spoke! But thankfully life is full of ups and downs and not a day goes by on campus without crazy stories, that have us crying with laughter, happening! One sad but funny part of the week was when we finally had to drop L. Even though we're like best friends with him it just wasn't going anywhere. It felt like breaking up with someone because we love him so much and didn't want to stop seeing him but we don't have time to meet with someone who doesn't progress. We were talking outside his apartment and we told him that this just wasn't going anywhere and that it's not that we don't love him because we do, haha it brought back many memories of years gone by! We gave him some cinnamon rolls for the break up and then he beat boxed for us and we went our separate ways. Then he texted us to say he'd read some from the Book of Mormon. If he keeps reading we might start teaching him again but we're going to give him a few weeks. It is so sad!
One of the sweetest experiences of my whole mission took place two nights ago. We found this extraordinarily cute Chinese girl called J on Thursday and we've taught her a few times. It's hard because we don't speak Mandarin and she is learning English. I really love our Chinese investigators, they are just so adorable. I remember how terrified I was when I put my papers in that I would be sent to Asia but now I know I would've loved it because the Chinese people are my favourite. They are so humble and sweet and as soon as they pray they know it's true. Anwyay so we knocked on J's door to see if she was in to set up a lesson with her but she didn't understand and saw us at the door and picked up her backpack and said "Lesson now?" and was ready to go to the Institute building where we usually teach. So we said "YEAH!" even though we already had an appointment waiting for us at the Institute building haha. So we did what any missionary in Utah would do. We knocked on the door next door and asked who were members and who had 20 minutes to teach with us. The first two girls we spoke to said they were members, they were on the soccer team and were conveniently wearing their booty shorts haha. Nothing like trying to teach teenage boys when your companion for the moment is wearing hardly anything. But anyway we split and I taught J while Sister Biery taught A. It was the sweetest lesson of my whole mission. J is super chirpy and happy and I just felt so strongly this love for her. I've been praying a lot to feel Heavenly Father's love for my investigators and while I looked at her I just had this overwhelming love for her that brought tears to my eyes. I bore testimony that her Heavenly Father loved her so much and told her that He loves her the way her father in China loves her. Then she goes "Well...my Father in China passed away a few years ago" and proceeds to tell us the story of how she came home from school and her family were there to tell her her Dad had died and her whole world fell apart and she was depressed. During the story her whole body was shaking she was crying so much. I moved my chair right next to her and held her in my arms while she sobbed into me. We all were crying at this point and she said "Everyone thinks I'm so happy but I just miss my Dad and want to see him so badly but he doesn't exist anymore!" and in that moment I thought how privileged I am to get to be a missioary to share with poor little Chinese girls who have spent years thinking their Dad doesn't exist anymore that she will see her Dad again, that he still loves her and that Heavenly Father has provided a way for her family to be together forever. If nothing else comes of my mission but the peace that she felt that evening then I can go home a happy returned missionary. I can't express how much I love that girl. We taught the Plan of Salvation and at the end she hugged me for like 30 seconds and said in her strong Mandarin accent "I love you". Ahh it was heartbreaking to hear the pain that people carry with them for years about stuff like that. But I am so happy to be able to help alleviate that pain through the Gospel. It reminds me of the hymn Lord I Would Follow Thee - "I woudl learn the healers art. To the wounded and the weary I would show a gentle heart" - I love that hymn :)
I took a bus tour from Denmark yesterday! It's always fun because you feel like a real VC Missionary when there are 50 people in front of you and you play the Christus and shout loud so they all can hear you that you know Christ lives AND that the statue was created in Denmark! Haha they liked that. Bus tours always ask the most awkward questions about religion so it's a LOT of fun! I love how scared I was at the start of my mission and how the Lord qualifies you for your calling. When else do you get bus loads of non members turn up and beg to learn the Gospel? Haha! I had a long conversation with someone in French the other day, I'm for sure going to study the language more when I get home. We had the privilege of cleaning the St George Temple yesterday! It's been closed for a couple of weeks and it was so great to go inside and clean my Father's home. Theres always a great feeling in the Temple. When we walk home from campus at night we sing to ourselves "O Babylon O Babylon we bid thee farewell!" haha as we walk home toward the Temple. Then we got to go to the lowest point in the Temple, underground, it wasn't even a real room because it was stone all around us. We had to climb down this ladder in a hole in the floor underneath the Baptistry and clean the red sand from the floor that blew in through this crack in the wall. The crack in the wall is on grass level so we could see grass but its too small to see out of. Anyway it all blew in during the storms so it was SO cool to touch the rock the pioneers touched then they got the water out of the foundation of the Temple. The water mark is still on the rocks. It was so great! I love cleaning the Temple! St George Temple is my favourite :)))) We got to see the CES Devotional on Sunday night with our investigator K and it was exactly what she needed. She got revelation for sure. She said it felt like Elder Christofferson was talking to her because her family aren't members and she wants to be baptized. I love that we get to be in the Institute Building so much and see the Firesides etc. I wish all of our investigators would keep their commitments because it shows how much we get revelation if we go to Church or read the Book of Mormon or attend things.
I have to go, sorry it's so short this week but its only been a few days and I ran outta time! Real fast, we found out J's gender: .............. HE'S A BOY!!!!! hahaha We'll see how that goes!
I love you like nothing else :)
Sister Nicholls
Friday, 12 September 2014
"Chasten my soul til I shall be, in perfect harmony with thee" - 12-9-14
HelLlLoOoOoOo,
What a week it has been! I usually write a list of things to write to help me remember but I didn't have time this week so I will go by memory and see what happens! It's been a week filled with the usual highs and lows of missionary work! So many miracles usually accompany great hardships, but I love the hardships because that's when I feel my Saviour's arms around me when I pour out my soul to Him and plead for Him to walk beside me.
Let's begin with Zone Conference! Elder Don R Clarke of the Seventy came! I learned SO MUCH and we all felt like we wish it had been at the start of our missions. He just gave us a ton of practical advice to help our investigators stay active after baptism, or to even get them ready for baptism in the first place. We've made a checklist for each investigator to fulfil the things he said; it was like speaking in Sacrament, or sitting in the front row with them during Sacrament and having them pray during the Sacrament to know if these things are true, and having the male recent converts bless the Sacrament, and having members invite them over for dinner, and taking them to pay their tithing etc. It sounds so simple but it's stuff we'd never thought of before! If it had come a year ago it would've been awesome haha but we live and learn! He was pretty fired up and scary but he made us think a lot about how we want to be remembered by the leaders in our area! One line he said stuck out to me "the day a missionary learns to love the people more than they love themselves is the day they'll be happy" and I realized how true that is. Missionaries who are grateful and love their people more than they love getting high numbers or baptisms are so much more happier. Every day I am praying for more love and charity for my fellow missionaries and my investigators and my leaders. If I don't love them how can I profess to be Christ's representative? Funny part at the end, Elder Clarke asked for a fast typist to come up and type up everything that people put their hands up and say they had learned. All the Sisters pointed at me and I was terrified to get up in front of half the misison and type on a laptop that was hooked up to a huge board in front of everyone. I was typing really fast to keep up with all the things people suggested and so I'd type as they were speaking, and this Elder put his hand up and said "I learned that if no one takes us out to lunch we should call you and you will take us out to lunch!" and people chuckled and I typed as far as "If no one takes us out to lunch" before I realized what he was saying and I deleted it and wrote "No." on this huge board in front of all the missionaries and the Mission President and EVERYONE, and EVERYONE laughed really hard and I kept a really straight face and looked at the board in surprise and acted like I had no idea who just wrote that and how it got up there. ;)
Now for some miracles! We were at Church when CJ our ward mission leader texted us to say there was a non member at Church that we should meet so we arranged for him to come to the VC afterwards. He came with CJ, his name is A, and we gave him a tour and he loved it! He is from Vegas but is SOOO sweet! His brother is LDS and just got married in the Temple and he wants to learn more. So we taught him again on Wednesday and he accepted a baptismal date for 27th September. We invited him to pray to know that evening if it is true and stuff and we met with him Thursday afternoon and he looked us in the eyes and so sincerely said "I prayed and asked God if this is true and Sisters, I felt the Holy Spirit in me. I believe that this is all true and I want to be baptized" BEST MOMENT EVER. I will never tire of those moments!
Some VC miracles this week! I got tipped by an old couple haha ;) I tried not to accept but they wouldn't take no for an answer. Haha but I can honestly say that when they came through the door I loved them sincerely. I don't know what it was about them but I loved them and we connected instantly. They are Christian and attend a Grace Church in Illinois where they are from. I showed them around and talked about Joseph Smith and Prophets and the Book of Mormon and took them through God's Plan. At the end the man, D, was crying a LOT. He told me the most tender and heart-breaking story about how he served in Vietnam on a ship and while he was on his way there the Grandpa he was closest to died and it broke his heart and now in his old age he still misses him and longs for the day when he will see him again. He cried SO MUCH and I just wanted to hug him but couldn't obviously so just testified instead cos that's as good as a hug. I invited them to have the local missionaries come to their home and they readily agreed. D said that he knows he was supposed to go to the VC. They were supposed to be in Vegas but couldn't get there because of the flooding on the roads so were stuck here, and he said that God brought him in to the VC that day. I love them so much! I have their details and will teach them over the phone while the local misisonaries visit. Then they gave me money haha and I felt so bad and tried to not accept it but they wouldn't let me not.
We found this new investigator this week, and it is really strange but funny. We knocked on this door that had booming music behind it, pumping out Shakira, hips dont lie, REALLY loud haha. There was this Catholic Virgin Mary sticker on the door. We knocked and this person answered. It was strange because the person had pink painted toe nails, and an earring in each ear, and a girly face and sounded like a girl, but had absolutely no girly curves despite being a little bit overweight. So it's not like it was a just a skinny underdeveloped girl. We had no idea if it was a boy or a girl! We asked their name and they said J....... which is a boy name, but we swear it's a girl just with no chest haha. We taught J about the Restoration and he/she invited us back and we have sent the Spanish Elders over there because he/she lives with her Mum who only speaks Spanish. If they can meet the Mum and ask "Do you have any sons or daughters?" then hopefully we can find out the gender of J, hahahah!
We found this young man called Y who is interested in learning this week! He was just sitting on his sofa while we were talking to his roommate about the Restoration, completely not interested. We said the line "God has called a Prophet to the earth again today, someone who communicates face to face with God and shares with us what God tells him." and he literally JUMPED up and ran over to us and said "What?!?!?!?!? There's a prophet!!!!!!! Who? Where? Someone like ME who talks to God face to face?" he was so pumped about it. He said he'd be at Church and learn more so we're excited about that. We'll see! L our other investigator is still slowly moving along. It's hard to know how long to keep visiting before we drop him. We have a good enough relationship with him that we can say it like it is, and we kinda had a DTR with him so it was like pre-mission life haha. I was all "L, what are you expecting to get out of this? Where do you see this going?" haha. We told him he needs to cut out the arguing and actually do what we invite him to do or else there is no point us coming round because we're not here to argue. He said he will do better. We'll see.
We have a new Chinese investigator, they all pick their names so hers is J. She is super cute. It was a miracle how we found her because we were running to coordination meeting and this girl ran after us shouting SISTERS so we turned and ran back and she introduced us to J! We taught her and are seeing her again on Sunday. She is super cute, all the Chinese girls are so cute! I'm excited for her!
Remember D who was my first TC baptism? She dropped off the face of the earth and neither myself nor the Green Valley Sisters could find her. She changed her number and we had no idea where she moved to. I was so worried about her. Well we knocked on one of the dorms we cover and who answers but D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was truly a miracle. Out of everywhere she could've moved to she was in one of the 3 apartment complex's we cover! Truly a tender mercy from the Lord!
Sad news.... J is supposed to be getting baptized tomorrow. But he chose yesterday to tell us he isn't sure about Joseph Smith anymore. It was a surprise because he answered the interview questions so well the week before when we asked him them but then bailed last night at 9pm! We were devastated. We bore testimony very strongly and tears might've been shed and we called the Assistants who taught him for a long time before we did. By this time the VC was closing and we went outside and the Elders came and we went into the Stake Center. They talked to him and gave him a blessing and then we all knelt down and prayed one by one. The Spirit was so strong and it was so intense in that little room. I have SO many memories in that Stake Center that I think it will always be a sacred place to me. So many life changing moments have taken place in those rooms. Anyway we left it that the baptism will be delayed for a few weeks and James told us this morning that he realizes he didn't put in enough effort to nourish his soul, and that we need to teach him from the beginning and he'll try harder. But he said he felt very good last night as we all prayed and he thanked us for that experience. We got back super late, it was like 10pm but it was all for a good cause. So no baptism tomorrow but we work hard to save his soul still! Meanwhile T from Hawaii is doing AWESOME! He told us that during Testimony Meeting he felt this warmth in his chest but it was weird because he wanted to cry at the same time haha. We explained what that was! He said he wanted to go up there and share his experience but he wasn't sure if he was allowed! He is so excited to be baptized! He is GREAT! With all our investigators I just picture them all as you, Dad. Just young boys who have no idea of the road ahead of them if they accept the things we teach them - such a switch of roads they'd be going down.
REAL FAST cos I'm outta time. My foot was still infected so last Friday I went back to the doctor cos I was miserable and they said that it was infected under the scab so I had to soak my foot and Sister Clark from South Africa stepped up to the plate and ripped the scab off my ankle and the infection out of my foot. It was all puss and gross and it hurt SO MUCH! I thought I was going to pass out haha!! I screamed and I think everyone in the VC heard it. It was all raw and open wound-like afterwards but the pressure and pain was gone and every day I scrub it with hydrogen peroxide and salt and this serum and I take a ton of antibiotics and pain killers. Its mending slowly. I work and just deal with it because I will go crazy if I sit anymore. There are souls to save!
I gotta go now!
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH
The line in my subject is from Saviour Redeemer of my Soul, its been my song of the week!
Sister Nicholls
What a week it has been! I usually write a list of things to write to help me remember but I didn't have time this week so I will go by memory and see what happens! It's been a week filled with the usual highs and lows of missionary work! So many miracles usually accompany great hardships, but I love the hardships because that's when I feel my Saviour's arms around me when I pour out my soul to Him and plead for Him to walk beside me.
Let's begin with Zone Conference! Elder Don R Clarke of the Seventy came! I learned SO MUCH and we all felt like we wish it had been at the start of our missions. He just gave us a ton of practical advice to help our investigators stay active after baptism, or to even get them ready for baptism in the first place. We've made a checklist for each investigator to fulfil the things he said; it was like speaking in Sacrament, or sitting in the front row with them during Sacrament and having them pray during the Sacrament to know if these things are true, and having the male recent converts bless the Sacrament, and having members invite them over for dinner, and taking them to pay their tithing etc. It sounds so simple but it's stuff we'd never thought of before! If it had come a year ago it would've been awesome haha but we live and learn! He was pretty fired up and scary but he made us think a lot about how we want to be remembered by the leaders in our area! One line he said stuck out to me "the day a missionary learns to love the people more than they love themselves is the day they'll be happy" and I realized how true that is. Missionaries who are grateful and love their people more than they love getting high numbers or baptisms are so much more happier. Every day I am praying for more love and charity for my fellow missionaries and my investigators and my leaders. If I don't love them how can I profess to be Christ's representative? Funny part at the end, Elder Clarke asked for a fast typist to come up and type up everything that people put their hands up and say they had learned. All the Sisters pointed at me and I was terrified to get up in front of half the misison and type on a laptop that was hooked up to a huge board in front of everyone. I was typing really fast to keep up with all the things people suggested and so I'd type as they were speaking, and this Elder put his hand up and said "I learned that if no one takes us out to lunch we should call you and you will take us out to lunch!" and people chuckled and I typed as far as "If no one takes us out to lunch" before I realized what he was saying and I deleted it and wrote "No." on this huge board in front of all the missionaries and the Mission President and EVERYONE, and EVERYONE laughed really hard and I kept a really straight face and looked at the board in surprise and acted like I had no idea who just wrote that and how it got up there. ;)
Now for some miracles! We were at Church when CJ our ward mission leader texted us to say there was a non member at Church that we should meet so we arranged for him to come to the VC afterwards. He came with CJ, his name is A, and we gave him a tour and he loved it! He is from Vegas but is SOOO sweet! His brother is LDS and just got married in the Temple and he wants to learn more. So we taught him again on Wednesday and he accepted a baptismal date for 27th September. We invited him to pray to know that evening if it is true and stuff and we met with him Thursday afternoon and he looked us in the eyes and so sincerely said "I prayed and asked God if this is true and Sisters, I felt the Holy Spirit in me. I believe that this is all true and I want to be baptized" BEST MOMENT EVER. I will never tire of those moments!
Some VC miracles this week! I got tipped by an old couple haha ;) I tried not to accept but they wouldn't take no for an answer. Haha but I can honestly say that when they came through the door I loved them sincerely. I don't know what it was about them but I loved them and we connected instantly. They are Christian and attend a Grace Church in Illinois where they are from. I showed them around and talked about Joseph Smith and Prophets and the Book of Mormon and took them through God's Plan. At the end the man, D, was crying a LOT. He told me the most tender and heart-breaking story about how he served in Vietnam on a ship and while he was on his way there the Grandpa he was closest to died and it broke his heart and now in his old age he still misses him and longs for the day when he will see him again. He cried SO MUCH and I just wanted to hug him but couldn't obviously so just testified instead cos that's as good as a hug. I invited them to have the local missionaries come to their home and they readily agreed. D said that he knows he was supposed to go to the VC. They were supposed to be in Vegas but couldn't get there because of the flooding on the roads so were stuck here, and he said that God brought him in to the VC that day. I love them so much! I have their details and will teach them over the phone while the local misisonaries visit. Then they gave me money haha and I felt so bad and tried to not accept it but they wouldn't let me not.
We found this new investigator this week, and it is really strange but funny. We knocked on this door that had booming music behind it, pumping out Shakira, hips dont lie, REALLY loud haha. There was this Catholic Virgin Mary sticker on the door. We knocked and this person answered. It was strange because the person had pink painted toe nails, and an earring in each ear, and a girly face and sounded like a girl, but had absolutely no girly curves despite being a little bit overweight. So it's not like it was a just a skinny underdeveloped girl. We had no idea if it was a boy or a girl! We asked their name and they said J....... which is a boy name, but we swear it's a girl just with no chest haha. We taught J about the Restoration and he/she invited us back and we have sent the Spanish Elders over there because he/she lives with her Mum who only speaks Spanish. If they can meet the Mum and ask "Do you have any sons or daughters?" then hopefully we can find out the gender of J, hahahah!
We found this young man called Y who is interested in learning this week! He was just sitting on his sofa while we were talking to his roommate about the Restoration, completely not interested. We said the line "God has called a Prophet to the earth again today, someone who communicates face to face with God and shares with us what God tells him." and he literally JUMPED up and ran over to us and said "What?!?!?!?!? There's a prophet!!!!!!! Who? Where? Someone like ME who talks to God face to face?" he was so pumped about it. He said he'd be at Church and learn more so we're excited about that. We'll see! L our other investigator is still slowly moving along. It's hard to know how long to keep visiting before we drop him. We have a good enough relationship with him that we can say it like it is, and we kinda had a DTR with him so it was like pre-mission life haha. I was all "L, what are you expecting to get out of this? Where do you see this going?" haha. We told him he needs to cut out the arguing and actually do what we invite him to do or else there is no point us coming round because we're not here to argue. He said he will do better. We'll see.
We have a new Chinese investigator, they all pick their names so hers is J. She is super cute. It was a miracle how we found her because we were running to coordination meeting and this girl ran after us shouting SISTERS so we turned and ran back and she introduced us to J! We taught her and are seeing her again on Sunday. She is super cute, all the Chinese girls are so cute! I'm excited for her!
Remember D who was my first TC baptism? She dropped off the face of the earth and neither myself nor the Green Valley Sisters could find her. She changed her number and we had no idea where she moved to. I was so worried about her. Well we knocked on one of the dorms we cover and who answers but D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was truly a miracle. Out of everywhere she could've moved to she was in one of the 3 apartment complex's we cover! Truly a tender mercy from the Lord!
Sad news.... J is supposed to be getting baptized tomorrow. But he chose yesterday to tell us he isn't sure about Joseph Smith anymore. It was a surprise because he answered the interview questions so well the week before when we asked him them but then bailed last night at 9pm! We were devastated. We bore testimony very strongly and tears might've been shed and we called the Assistants who taught him for a long time before we did. By this time the VC was closing and we went outside and the Elders came and we went into the Stake Center. They talked to him and gave him a blessing and then we all knelt down and prayed one by one. The Spirit was so strong and it was so intense in that little room. I have SO many memories in that Stake Center that I think it will always be a sacred place to me. So many life changing moments have taken place in those rooms. Anyway we left it that the baptism will be delayed for a few weeks and James told us this morning that he realizes he didn't put in enough effort to nourish his soul, and that we need to teach him from the beginning and he'll try harder. But he said he felt very good last night as we all prayed and he thanked us for that experience. We got back super late, it was like 10pm but it was all for a good cause. So no baptism tomorrow but we work hard to save his soul still! Meanwhile T from Hawaii is doing AWESOME! He told us that during Testimony Meeting he felt this warmth in his chest but it was weird because he wanted to cry at the same time haha. We explained what that was! He said he wanted to go up there and share his experience but he wasn't sure if he was allowed! He is so excited to be baptized! He is GREAT! With all our investigators I just picture them all as you, Dad. Just young boys who have no idea of the road ahead of them if they accept the things we teach them - such a switch of roads they'd be going down.
REAL FAST cos I'm outta time. My foot was still infected so last Friday I went back to the doctor cos I was miserable and they said that it was infected under the scab so I had to soak my foot and Sister Clark from South Africa stepped up to the plate and ripped the scab off my ankle and the infection out of my foot. It was all puss and gross and it hurt SO MUCH! I thought I was going to pass out haha!! I screamed and I think everyone in the VC heard it. It was all raw and open wound-like afterwards but the pressure and pain was gone and every day I scrub it with hydrogen peroxide and salt and this serum and I take a ton of antibiotics and pain killers. Its mending slowly. I work and just deal with it because I will go crazy if I sit anymore. There are souls to save!
I gotta go now!
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH
The line in my subject is from Saviour Redeemer of my Soul, its been my song of the week!
Sister Nicholls
Wednesday, 3 September 2014
My crazy week! - 3-9-14
Dearly Beloved,
I don't even know where to begin with all my news from this week. It's been a crazy one! Before I forget my pday next week will be FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have Zone Conference with Elder Clark from the First Quorum of the 70 so everyone's pdays are being pushed back. So don't freak out when I'm not on on Wednesday!
We started out the week by meeting with our new Stake President, President Huddleston. He seems nice! We were scared because he emphasised a few times the importance of our numbers, and how we need to reach certain goals, and then handed us this spreadsheet with the Elders numbers next to our numbers per each key indicator broken down by ward. I felt SICK! Our work is being directly compared to the Assistant's work! So we came away from the meeting feeling very pressured and nervous but we're ready to work hard and not compare ourselves. Heavenly Father knows we are doing our best :) It's just a horrible spreadsheet! They dislike how much time we spend at the VC too, which is a shame because that's where the Prophet called me.
We've had many fun times exercising each morning! Me and a Polynesian Sister have been teaching the other Sisters how to play netball! We drew the field and game plans and everything and assigned everyone's positions and the Sisters are getting better at it! We play it twice a week, and we play soccer twice a week, and we run twice a week. It's weird at the Dixie stadium now because the football players are always there doing their practise and we walk past and see a few of our investgiators and our Ward Mission leader out there playing haha. So weird!
So crazy story of the week. On Wednesday we went geocaching with Sister Allen and Sister Calves, and Sister Borchert one of the Senior Sisters at the VC drove us in her Jeep with her iPad so we could find the caches. We were searching in some rocks for one of them when I scraped my ankle. It stung a lot but I didn't want to be a baby and complain about it all day so I kept going. It bled a lot and my whole ankle was hurting but I didn't want to stop.
Then on Thursday we worked and it hurt but I didn't pay it a lot of attention. Then on Friday it hurt so much that I couldn't run in the morning, and I was limping around. We weren't in the VC all day, we were just working in our area so we walked and walked and walked and walked. It was getting worse and worse and I was limping and limping and Sister Biery looked at my ankle and was like "SISTER NICHOLLS! LOOK AT YOUR ANKLE!" and I looked and behold it was MASSIVE. Super huge and red! It was really hot and hurt to touch. So we kept working and walking and I took some pain killers and we taught and taught and found and found and finally at 9:20pm we got home and we went to the Watkin's apartment and I showed them my ankle. They told me to call Sister Center straight away so I did and she put President on the phone cos he was a Vet so he knows stuff! He asked me to describe it to him and told me to go to the ER. I've never been to hospital in my life and then on my mission I go two times so far! I've never had to go to the Doctors as much as I have here haha. So Sister Watkins took us to the ER and there we were until 12:30am. We did have a great gospel conversation with this YSA girl in the Assistants' area. She is interested in learning more, so if nothing else comes of it at least we met that girl in the hospital! Maybe that's why this whole thing happened haha! The Doctor gave me antibiotics and crutches and told me to keep it elevated for a few days. I feel like I slept the whole of Saturday and most of Sunday. On Sunday morning Elder Watkins gave me a blessing and said that I would be healed very quickly. Almost instantly I could get up and walk around and the pain was gone! Like an absolute noob I went out to work that evening and ruined it all and it got huge again! So I went back to bed for another day and a half and yesterday (Tuesday) went back to work. We took another Sister's car though so we didn't have to do a lot of walking and I kept it elevated during lessons. So it's on the mend slowly! It drove me crazy not working, but at least for half of Sunday and all of Monday Sister Hee joined me on the sick couch and we just talked and laughed and watched all of the Doctrine and Covenants disc 3 haha. We ate so much food and talked about our whole lives cos we laid on that sofa for a VERY long time. I got two packages this week, one from Lukey and one from Dad! All the Sisters thought Luke was super cute sending me that package, nice one Luke ;) I see what you did there. And Dad I knew it was your handwriting, and then I opened it and it was a Victoria's Secret bag! I was SO perplexed! I was like what on earth is my Dad sending me from Victoria's Secret!!! Haha so then I opened it and was thrilled at all the delicious smelling moisturisers! You all spoil me :) It made a sick girl very pleased! Thank you!
Another great highlight of the week was when S, the man we baptized in Little Valley, came into the VC and told us he had been given the Priesthood! He was positvely glowing :) he looked SO happy and so healthy and so clean! We talked to him for ages about life and it was like meeting up with a long lost friend. It was such a sweet moment. He told us how the other day he felt prompted by the Spirit to wake up and find his Mum and he found her lying on the floor passed out from a diabetes thing. He took her to hospital and her life was saved. He told us that he knows if he didn't quit smoking and get baptized he wouldn't have been able to hear that prompting. The sweetest thing in the world is when your recent converts can see the blessings they get from their faithfulness. It's like seeing a child walk for themselves. I almost started crying I was so happy! I just love him!
T is still going super strong! We taught him yesterday and he accepted a baptismal date of Sept 27th! He is so excited for it and wants to read the WHOLE Book of Mormon "So he can go to heaven" haha we explained that that isn't what will save him, even though it is a GREAT thing to do. He is doing really well and has such a humble spirit about him. I can't wait for the day he is baptised :) he is so prepared! We have stopped teaching him at his apartment because his 7 other roommates are creepy. We were at his doorstep teaching him and one by one they all joined us (Which is a missionary's dream) but they were just being jerks! One of them was literally wearing a white tarzan type loincloth haha. We were trying SO HARD to just stare at his eyes and then the boys in the background were making stupid and inappropriate noises and it was so hard to teach. Then we said we wanted to say a prayer and one of the boys gets inbetween us and holds out his hands for us to hold hands while we pray. We walked away and were like, we are NEVER coming here to teach again! So we meet him elsewhere from now on #ysaprobz.
We met a boy named R this week who has been taught by missionaries before but doesn't feel like God is answering him about whether to be baptized or not. As we went back to teach him the second time we were talking about how the Spirit works and then all these other concerns came out. He just opened right up and told us about how his mother died when he was young and this woman across the road adopted him. His mother loved butterflies and when he moved into his new room there were pics of butterflies and he knew it was where he was supposed to be. This family always felt like they should have him and they always knew he would be a part of their family. So they like saved his life, but they are anti-Mormon. So because he is meeting with missionaries they feel so betrayed and he doesn't want to hurt them after all they've done for him. It's such a hard situation. I feel like Satan makes things as hard as he possibly can for people to be baptized. We are continuing to work with him because he is so strong and faith filled that we think he will be baptized and his family will be blessed and softened enough to accept it!
We had a dinner appointment yesterday with a couple who just got married a month ago. We dinner poached some Elders because this couple lived in their area but invited us over for dinner! They are from Delta and grew up with Justin Christensen! Crazy small world! But we had such a great time together because we are all the same age haha so they invited us back again and again so we have like a set dinner appointment each week with them! Hallelujah! They are so fun and sweet! Then on Saturday Sister Christensen from Morningside texted us and said that we haven't asked her for any dinners yet and she is expecting us to ask for one! So we told her we wouldn't refuse a dinner that evening! Haha she dropped off some dinner for us! It was so sweet! People are taking good care of us! Today for pday we were going to play tennis with Sister Borchert, the Senior Couple Sister from the VC who took us geocaching #bestfriends but then I ruined my ankle so instead we are just going to her house to eat good food haha!
All my love
Sister Nicholls
PS keep me in your prayers!
PPS it is really hard to understand motab's* words when they sing so we have this fun new game where we speak what we think they said and its hilarious! Also if you want uplifting songs you should listen to God So Loved The World and Homeward Bound by motab. They're our favourite right now!
I LOVE YOU ALL
* Mormon Tabernacle Choir
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