29-10-14

Dear Family and Friends, 

This week has been full of tender mercies and miracles from the Lord. I love how we worship a "fourth watch" kind of God. The last few weeks have felt like the area was slipping through our fingers with everyone dropping us and pushing their baptisms back and just falling off the face of the earth. Then after our many prayers and pleading to Heavenly Father for blessings, He has definitely blessed us. Did I ever tell you what Chill Night is? Chill Night happens once a week on Thursday nights at the Institute building, and there’s good food and mingling and then a message about Christ at the end by the Stake Presidency. It’s a GREAT finding tool, so us and the Elders are there each week and some weeks are more successful than others. Last week was GREAT! One of our investigators came and brought his whole apartment with him! And another one came and brought her non member roommate who we taught straight afterwards and the next day and put her on date for baptism. And we just made contact with a few other non members. It was very good! 

Also funny story for the week. So we went to knock on this house that we knew was a YSA house and we rode on our bikes. We weren’t sure if the front or back door was the main used door so we rode around the back to see but it didn’t look correct. We saw that there were no cars and no lights on so we thought no one was in. We wanted to be diligent and try anyway so we just stayed on our bikes and awkwardly knocked on the window hahahah. We were counting down from like ten so we could get away and get knocking in places where people actually are. As luck would have it, the door opened. Hahaha we were awkwardly sitting there on our bikes and had to awkwardly jump off, trying not to show everyone our underwear under our skirts, and apologize that we hadn't thought anyone was in hahaha. OF COURSE SHE TURNS OUT TO BE THE MOST GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR ANYONE COULD HOPE FOR. She immediately invited us in. She is from Conneticuit and has had the roughest life ever. She has no family and is out here alone and listened to our message of the restoration and said "God sent you to me today" and that she is so excited to read the Book of Mormon. Since then we have seen her every day! She comes to the VC on the days we can’t go to her home. She accepted a baptismal date for three weeks time! One day I will tell you all about her life cos its a bit sensitive for an email but she was a huge blessing from the Lord. The moment we left her house we looked at each other and freaked out! We both feel like we've known her forever and it just reminds me of the blessing Dad gave me before my mission. I love her deeply and am so excited for her journey to begin. She is happy that she will be getting a ward family :) Our Ward Mission leader CJ came with us to the lesson and we both immediately saw that they will probs get married.  Haha they fit each other so well and we are calling it right now! 

We also found another CHINESE girl to teach! She is really cute and accepted a baptismal date for November too. Things really are picking up. She is J's roommate. We are slowly making our way around the whole apartment haha. WE LOVE OUR CHINESE INVESTIGATORS. They are teaching us Chinese words and how to say their Chinese names. They crack up whenever we try because we are all so horrible at it haha. But we are all best friends with them now and we defintiely have plans to visit them in Hong Kong and China after our missions! I hope you can meet them when you come and pick me up! 

I got to go back to Washington for exchanges this week! The area is struggling to find new investigators so we pleaded with the Lord to open the way for us to find someone new to teach that day and the third door we knocked on they invited us in and said they'd had missionaries years before and that they would be open to learning again! We taught them from the Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment. honestly, there is nothing I love more than entering homes and teaching families that they can be together forever. It is a thrill every single day to teach from the Book of Mormon and guide others to the straight and narrow path. My life has never been filled with such purpose and I never want it to end. I am seriously considering putting my papers in and doing it again when I get home ;) We had such a great time in Washington though. It was typical Washington. We were knocking on some of the quick changing homes where people move in and out fast and this severely less active couple let us in, she used to be RS President and sent 8 kids on missions etc but now are very drunk and think that prayer is just talking to yourself etc etc. It was so sad and quite uncomfortable but I'm definitely learning so much about choices to NOT make. Sister Morales, who I was with, is so filled with love and charity and patience for everyone. It showed me how far I have to go, and I am so glad I have a few months left to learn. Why are our missions so short?!?! I still have so much to learn! 

Our investigator on the football team is doing very well!! He was Most Valuable Player of the game they played and won on Saturday, their homecoming game, but then he partied all night and was hungover all Sunday afternoon so couldn’t make it to 1pm Church!!!! We told him that God blessed him to play well and he repays him by getting drunk and not going to Church, but he told us that he felt God answer his prayers in the week when he was trying to download his homework and it said it would take 2 hours and it needed to be in within 1 hour so he freaked out and prayed and felt a still small voice tell him to check the monitor and he did and realized he was uploading the whole computer and not just one file!! He said he immediately thought “I can’t wait to tell the Sisters! They will be so happy!” It’s so great that he had an answer to a prayer. He's a good kid! He is doing really well. 

We got a new art exhibit at the VC about Hawn's Mill massacre. There are a lot of misconceptions that were set straight to us by Glen Rawson from BYUTV. It’s hard to give tours because there are a lot of horrible stories so it is hard to make it faith promoting haha! But I had a cool experience yesterday, a man from Georgia came into the VC with the strongest accent ever. He told us he was a convert of 5 years from the Baptist faith to Mormon and I just had a thought that we needed to show him God's Plan for His Family. We took him in there and at the end he was crying and he said “You have no idea how much that means to me. I have a 1 year old daughter who is incredibly sick and will probably die soon, and this is so true!" So even though he was a member it showed me how Heavenly Father still looks out for us and knows what we need to get us through hard times. He bore such a powerful testimony and he told us to always remember what we preach when life gets hard because it's all true and we never know what life will throw at us. I learned a lot from him and knew I was supposed to meet him. It was a tender moment. 

ALSO we had this family come in for Family Home Evening who told us their daughter was serving at Temple Square. I asked their name and they said she is Sister Lytle!!! I told them about you meeting her, and they said that they remembered me from a year ago when I first gave them a tour!!! Haha we had hugs and pictures and they invited us over for dinner. IT WAS DELICIOUS and they are a great family. What a tender mercy :) I like them a lot. 

We were riding our bikes down to campus and these two boys in suits who looked strangely like Elders were knocking doors. They turned towards us and didn’t have name tags on so they must have been Jehovah's Witnesses. They shouted to us “Hello ladies, how are you?" and we said “Good thanks!" and continued riding, we didn’t stop to talk to them and they said “Are you having more success than we are?" and we just said “Yep" and smiled hahahahah and they laughed and we were like, what just happened?!?! We just told JW's that we are having more success than they are hahaha! Only in the life of a missionary!!! 

ALSO we were studying and I saw this black spider on the wall. I didn’t want to stop studying so I waited til the end of studies when we went and saw that it was black with a red hourlgass on it!! A BLACK WIDOWWWWWWW!!!!!! We freaked out and decided the only thing to do would be to call President Center. JUST KIDDING we called the Senior Elder who lives next door and he came and got it for us!! So scary! 

OK I gotta go!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!  PDAY ON TUESDAY NEXT WEEK!!  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Sister Nicholls

"How many drops of blood were spilled for me?" - 22-10-14.

Dear Loved Ones, 

This week I got my first BRITISH BUS at the Visitors' Center! Every day we get buses from all over Europe and each time I crack the joke "perhaps it's the Brits today!" and so I saunter out there ready to speak French to greet the tour guides and I ask where they're from and the bus driver says "Where you are from?" It was so exciting! They all congregated on the chairs at the Christus and the tour guide says "Ladies and Gentlemen, I don't believe in coincidences and today has proved no different. Giving our tour today will be a young lady from Essex!" and they all cheered hahahahah!!! It was hilarious! There were a few from Braintree and Colchester so it was so cool! They took quite a few Books of Mormon. I was praying the whole time to know what to say to the Brits, and I brought up the Book of Mormon musical and told them that as with all things, the book is much better than the play ;) haha they all laughed and I got kissed on the cheek by many of them #europeanways #itsbeenayear haha They all left and said "Cheerio" and "Ta ta" haha! I was so pumped the rest of the day because I finally got my British bus! We also got a German bus and only one German Sister was there and she is brand new so didn't know what to do. I had just been talking to a young man who recently returned home from his mission in Germany and so I went back to him and asked if he would like to assist and he gladly accepted! It was the strangest looking thing to see one Sister missionary and one random boy in a suit giving a tour! But it was so great of him to help out and the Sister said his German was incredible! 

We have indeed continued to have rough times this week but I've felt the calm and sweet assurance from the Holy Ghost that we are doing all that we can for these people. We got dropped by text by a third investigator this week. In the Young Single Adult wards you get dropped a lot because the people let you teach once and set up a return appointment then NEVER see you again, but when it's the people who are on date for baptism and who meet with you regularly and are doing so well is when it hurts because you just love them so much. So that happened again this week and then the cherry on top of it all was when H who was supposed to get baptized on Saturday told us that he is 17 and that he doesn't feel ready for baptism yet. The Koeven's were there with us when he blew us out with that unexpected revelation. I was on splits with Sister Koeven so my companion could teach another investigator at the same time so I just had to figure it out. I prayed SO hard in my head and was guided to Alma 32 and we discussed faith and how we aren't expected to know everything before baptism, but just to believe. I realized through the Spirit that he isn't doubting Heavenly Father, but he is doubting himself. He has been taught all the lessons so he knows enough and has been to church enough but is just getting worried. I didn't want to push him to be baptized this week, so he pushed it back for a week. We keep praying for a miracle! But the great thing was that when all these things took place this week I just felt so calm and fine, and felt the assurance that this is all a part of the bigger plan Heavenly Father has. I am feeling the strengthening power of the atonement carrying me through all these times that would've been rough before. We've listened to "This Is The Christ" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir a lot this week and one line that stands out to me the most is - how many drops of blood were spilled for me? That blood that he spilled back then has carried me through this week with ease. I've felt the power of your prayers, so thank you for praying, My burdens have been made light and I am learning to just love the investigators unconditionally. 

We had a beautiful miracle with D! He has always said he'd get baptized if he found out it was true and this week he just looked at us and said "Sisters, every day this feels more and more true." We showed him God's Plan for His Family and he just cried and cried and said that he wants to be baptized! It was GREAT! He even went back to Provo for the weekend because it was fall break (Dixie campus was DEAD. Everyone left!) and went to Church all of his own accord! That's true conversion and that's someone who will keep covenants after baptism. At the Visitors' Center on Monday a different Young Single Adult Stake had their Family Home Evening to watch a movie and one of the kids brought a boy from OUR area with him! It is one of our investigator's roommates that we recognised. He is a massive punk kid though and usually is so inappropriate with us and just the last person that the world would judge to accept the Gospel. But he came and we showed him the Mormon Message "Origin" and the Spirit was SO STRONG and his eyes had tears in them and he said we can start teaching him! He has no family and moves around from city to city in America crashing in people's apartments. We are going to try to get him to stay here so he can accept the Gospel! In that room the Spirit was just burning and I just knew that God has a much greater plan for him than his own of just moving from city to city. I witnessed first hand how the Gospel can touch even the toughest hearts. 

Exchanges were good this week! My first two were hard because both the

Sisters have been in the mission longer than me and are older than me in real life too, so I felt inadequate and it was quite difficult. But yesterday I went with a Sister who is straight out from the MTC and we both just felt like we'd known each other forever! AND she is serving in Morningside so I got to go back there! They are full proselyting in Morningside now so no more VC for them, so I got a full day back there and we tracted for about 3 hours and visited some members and got about 8 referrals and miracle of all miracles was that we got a return appointment with a family I was always trying to contact when I was there. It was funny because two of the members we had visited with were two of the most solid member missionaries ever and one gave us a MASS LOAD of chocolate milk, and the other a ton of water, and we went straight to this non member family's house and at the door the Mum asked "Do you want a drink of water?" because it was still like just under 90 degrees yesterday. I had so much liquid in my body but so badly wanted to teach them that we looked at each other and said "Yes please, we are soooo thirsty!!!" and entered the home!!! There we were for about half an hour as we talked and connected and friendshipped and drunk more and more water and got an appointment for next week! We gave them a Book of Mormon and they seemed very happy! We were SO HAPPY!!! But then had to go to the next house and beg to use the bathroom haha! The things we do as missionaries ;) The highlight of the day was definitely that and then we saw M, KC and E, all people that I worked a lot with in Morningside! M is doing INCREDIBLY!!! Remember how she would never look at us and would hardly say anything? She talked SO MUCH that we were twenty minutes late to our next appointment. She was like a different person! The Sister missionaries that are there right now are so good for her and have just loved her and brought her out of her shell. They are doing so good there in Morningside. Also miracle miracle miracle update! Remember my last exchange in Morningside with Sister Donovan when we went back to the scary old man's house to give him a Book of Mormon and he said how he felt the power and the light around us and that he will read the book? We taught him and put him on date for baptism in November!!!!! He has given up coffee and smoking and cut his scary hair and reads the Book of Mormon every day and is in Enos and wants to be baptized! So we put him on date for November 8th!!! I don't know what it is about him because he's an old man but we just have a connection and it just shows how inspired exchanges truly are because if we never would've gone on exchanges I'd never have had the opportunity to meet with him and he has enriched my life for sure! 

I'm super tired because on most exchanges the Sisters talk and talk into the night about their lives and stuff and then when I'm back with my companion we have to catch each other up on the Sisters and on the area etc and so then we talk and talk and then we get up early to work out and then essentially work out all day every day as we bike around St George and walk everywhere! My body is drained but somehow I find the energy to keep going and going and never have to stop! We've had dinner with two of our Bishops and another one this week. They loved their flowers and were very appreciative! I have interviews with President this Friday morning at 10am! I love President Center! Please pray that we will be led to the elect and that we will teach with power and authority! Alma 58:10-11 helped me a ton this week :) 

I love you all sooooooo much!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR TOMORROW TO THE BEST DAD IN THE ENTIRE WORLD! You have showed me how to serve and how to love and how to follow Christ and bring people closer to Him. I am blessed to have you for eternity. Any boy in the world needs to be anything like you for me to contemplate getting to know him! 

LOVE YOU ALL

Sister Nicholls

"Have faith, have hope, live like His son, help others on their way" - 15-10-14

Dear Family and Friends,

What a week. It's always hard to go a week and a day without a day off. But we made the most of our pday today for sure! We got up and worked out as usual! We are doing our own series of runs that we call "Touch St George" and each morning we decide what we want to touch in St George. We've touched the Tabernacle, Deseret Book, Harmons etc. They are all a few miles run so it's nice to be permanently sore ;) It feels good and gets me moving in the morning. So anyway we got up and ran and did laundry and usual studies until 10am and as soon as study time was over we got our nice warm-from-the-tumble-dryer pjs on and curled into bed for two more hours. It was divine. But I couldn't sleep for a little while because it's been SO LONG since I've slept in the day (not being sick).  My body feels a lot happier! We got up and we met the Elders at this florist shop as they decided to steal, I mean, share our idea of sending flowers to all of our Bishops. We talked with the woman and she said it would be $35 per bouquet, plus delivery. We said we would think about it and left. I remembered the day before a girl who took us out on splits showed us the florist she worked in, so we drove there and the cute old lady worker has a granddaughter on a mission so worked out a deal for us all! We bought 16 bouquets of flowers with each bouquet being $7 each and free delivery!!!!!!! We were soooo blessed. The Elders forgot to bring the addresses of all their Bishops, lol ;), so they will have to go back and do it all haha but it was great!! This evening we are eating dinner with one of the Bishops and are bringing some investigators with us and the Ward Mission Leader so it should be a party! These are all things Elder Clark encouraged us to do at Zone Conference a few weeks ago. #puttingitintopractise

My first week of Mission Leadership Council and Zone Meetings and Exchanges was good!! We were very blessed. MLC is at President's house but because it has cooled off a lot we sat outside (still in the shade!) and we were given ice-cream cake as a treat for making our mission goals last week. President talked a lot about the vision we have for our mission. As a council we decided our vision is to double baptisms. We usually get just over 100 a month, and years ago President Hinckley said missionaries need to double their baptisms and it hasn't happened yet. We want President Hinckley to be able to stand before the Lord with happiness about that promise so as a mission we are working to double baptisms. We talked about how to get there and it all comes down to personal conversion and faith, obedience and diligence. We are setting higher and higher goals for each month. We have made the baptism goal for November 120 and it will increase each month. We got together with the Zone Leaders and decided that for our Zone we want 33 baptisms in November! That is 3 baptisms per companionship! We got higher than all the Zones this month in finding new investigaors and baptisms so we had cheesecake at ZTM haha! Anyway so our whole trainings at ZTM were all based on vision and faith and getting 3 baptisms each in November to set the example and set the mission on fire! The slogan for the month is "Who's your three?" and each exchange we go on is centred around finding those three and we all pray for each others three etc. We have great Zone Leaders. It was great to see Elder Nolan! He is in our Zone now and he cracks me up! It's nice to have a fellow Brit there.

We had two beautiful baptisms this week!!! A and K are going to be some of my bestest friends forever. A's was so beautiful because his whole family from Vegas came, none of them are members except his older brother who joined last year and has since married in the Temple and was able to baptize him on Saturday! A came out of the water crying, he was so happy. We taught The Restoration during the awkward changing time so his family could get a basis for what he has learned. He also got the sweetest confirmation ever! It was so perfect to see the people you love enter the waters of baptism so prepared. Then K's baptism was straight afterwards and the Koeven's from Washington brought our Chinese investigator J. I love getting to see the Koeven's a few times a week as President Koeven uses his Cantonese with them. They are the best fellowshippers EVER. Everyone loves them, including me! So they came and it was great because in the changing time, we did a last second musical item. Sister Koeven played piano while Sister West and I, and the Elders all sung Nearer My God To Thee. It was nice :) K's baptism was beautiful too and she was just radiant!

We have had some hard times this week being dropped by two of our most solid investigators by text. I felt it was coming with one of them because she stood us up twice and seemed distant. Satan runs fast, so we try to run even faster. But we take hope in the fact that one day they will remember what we taught them. It hurts each time because you love them SO much and see the potential that they don't yet see within themselves. But we are staying faithful and trying our best. I'm still soooooooo in love with our Chinese investigators. I want to teach them every day they are so perfect! We taught chastity to H and asked him to tell us what he had learned and in his broken English he said "To not have the sess before marriage." and I said "And what else?" and he said "And not have the sess after the marriage." and we had an awkward silence for a second thinking "Great, lets start from the beginning" and then he said "Only to the wife" hahahhaha and it was SO ADORABLE that I couldn't help but laugh.

We rode our bikes past a YSA looking boy (now I'm programmed to stop and talk to everyone who looks YSA age!) and naturally as only awkward missionaries can do we turned our bikes around and made him stop skateboarding to talk to us. It turned out he is from SLC and is less active and just moved here. We talked about what he likes about Church and he said "You know...I haven't been to Church because I've been waiting for someone to come and invite me. Thank you." and it was one of those little miracles. Then it's been FREEZING in the mornings and in the evenings so I wanted to call the Davis's in Pineview to deliver my winter suitcase that I gave them in May and I lost their number! So I went to the VC after rifling through my apartment for their number and BOOM THERE THEY WERE!!! They are so in tune with the Spirit! So they dropped off my winter stuff today so I can have jogging bottoms to work out in and hoodies and cardigans now its COLD! Heavenly Father looks after his missionaries!

Sorry it is shorter this week, my keyboard was a rough one to type with! I'll write more next week. Just know I'm happy and healthy and loving being a missionary. I love my companion, my investigators and my area. I'm learning so much and love who the Lord is making me into. I love my companion and we lean on each other and help each other and it's great to serve the other Sisters!

I love you!
Sister Nicholls

PS Wednesday pday next week!

"Fear Not, I am With Thee, O Be Not Dismayed! For I am Thy God and Will Still Give Thee Aid!" - 7-10-14

Dear friends and family,

What a week! I am exhausted!! We have seen miracle after miracle this week and worked so hard! I love Sister West because we work so hard together and then we work out really hard together in the mornings. By night time our heads hit the pillow and then suddenly it's 6:20 and time to exercise again! We ride our bikes all day long and I feel permanently sore but it's such a good kind of sore! The other day we tried to visit some houses around St George that we knew were YSA houses and it felt like we biked like 20 miles haha. We were so sweaty and gross and our legs were PUMPING and my skirt only got caught in the chain like twice! Good times! There's this one hill by our house that we call Everest and every time we approach it we say "Good luck Sister" and race up to see who wins that day haha! Our workouts have been great,we ran around St George for a long time this morning and it is so exhilarating. I love this town so much.

Yesterday at the VC it was super cute, we had a bunch of old people in wheelchairs dropped off from one of the local old people homes in Morningside, this was their treat for reading all the BOM, D&C and Pearl of Great Price. They got to come to the VC and watch the Restoration,and then we sung Joseph Smith's First Prayer to them and I am A Child of God, and then pushed them in their wheelchairs out around the temple grounds. I LOVED it! I had this old woman called Paula and she was so cute! I kept thinking "I love my job!" When else am I ever going to get to sing to old people and push them around the Temple grounds? Being a Sister Missionary is probably my favourite job in the world and I never want it to end! It's so cute that that was their treat, to come to the VC! We sing a lot in the VC now, as it's the fastest way to get the Spirit! Yesterday Sister West and I took a Danish bus tour around the VC and in front of the Temple we sung I am a Child of God to them and they LOVED it haha!!

General Conference was wonderful! I only got to see one complete session because I was giving tours throughout the others but I am so excited to study the Ensign next month! The bits and pieces I heard were incredible! We went to the Saturday morning session and tried to get L out of bed to come with us but he wouldn't get out of bed, so we called the Elders and they came and went inside the house and talked with him. He promised he would come so we held him to the promise. It's great to work in a team with the Elders! So he sat in between us all in a big missionary sandwich and at half time he left and we begged him to stay but he left, and then after one talk he just walked in again. We'd been praying for him and he just walked in again and sat down. We all looked at each other like what on earth, but he sat and listened! And it was perfect because Elder Christofferson and Elder Utchdorf's talks were PERFECT for him. It was definitely led by God for sure! We have resumed teaching him but we just read the BOM with him because he can't argue with that. He argues with everything else we say but the Spirit is there when we just read with him!

So remember we found two new boys and because of that referral we reached our monthly goals? Well it turns out they are creepy. We got texts from them one night asking if they can take us out on a date and asking us to come to their house to hang out. We responded that as missionaries we just teach about Christ and don't hang out or date and he responded begging us to give him at least one chance for one date and we just called the Elders and never responded. They said they went over there and he said that he already has missionaries "The tall blonde one from London and someone else" and we were like ....wooowwwww he was SO interested in learning the gospel haha. It was creepy! Again it's nice to have the Elders to just pass the creepers off to haha.

We found five new investigators this last week and it was so great! Three of them were just randomly knocking on people's doors looking for their roommates. We found this guy named J who is Hispanic looking from California. He is so funny because whenever we teach something cool like "There's a Prophet on the earth today" or "The Priesthood, God's power, is on the earth" he goes "DAANNNNGGGGGG!!!!! That's CRAZY man! Daaannnggg" hahaha it's so funny. I LOVE TEACHING YSA! And we crossed paths with this boy who looked like a member but I felt prompted to talk to him, and he is an active member with non member roommates who had asked him questions about the Church. They are all on the basketball team so are super tall! A few days later we went to their house and they were in. We saw through the window that one was listening to headphones and couldn't hear us knocking, and after five minutes we still were banging on the door and usually we would've given up but for some reason we just kept knocking and knocking until they answered! Finally someone came to the door and it was the person we were looking for. We went straight in to teaching and testifying about how God has a plan for us all and how he loves us and we never need to feel alone. You could see how it just hit him and he invited us in. We sat in their living room, bearing testimony about those simple truths, and the Spirit was SO strong. As a missionary you kinda get used to feeling the Spirit and it just feels normal, but sitting in that room was like sitting in heaven. It was tangible. And you could see they were feeling that too. Sister West explained the good feeling is the Holy Ghost and there was silence for about 15 seconds and he looked up from looking at the ground and stared into our eyes and said "....I feel it....." and we promised him that when we left, that feeling would leave too, and in order to have that feeling all the time he'd need to be baptized. He said that he wanted to be baptized and Sister West handed him a Book of Mormon. She said that as she did so, she felt the power of the Holy Ghost on that book, and felt it in her hand, and that as she handed it to him, she felt the power leave her hand and enter his. And by the look on his face and the way he held the book, he could feel that too. There was so much silence in the lesson, but it wasn't awkward silence, it was perfect silence just basking in the Spirit. AHH I LOVE being a missionary. He invited his roommate in too so he was a part of it all and we set up an appointment with them for tonight. They are these two 6 foot 8 guys on the basketball team from Vegas and California. It was a lesson I'll never forget.

We have started going out with our Ward Mission Leaders for an hour each week and having them take us to people's homes where non members and less actives are. One WML took us to one in his Ward and it was SUPER SKETCH! It's funny how parts of St George are so rich and parts are so sketch! It was this total bachelor pad behind some apartment complexes all hidden, and it was a WAREHOUSE that they are living in. There's this huge floor and it was echoey cos it was so huge! There was a skate park inside and graffiti and tons of random sofas they've picked up for free. It was soooooo funny! But it was the coolest place ever and 11 people live there. It was a miracle because we met this guy D and he served a mission, got back in 2010, and went less active, and just that very day he watched General Conference, broke down in tears because he knew he'd been neglecting his testimony, and put aside money to pay tithing and decided to come back to Church. We told him we were led to him and that God wants him back, and he cried and said he wants the missionary lessons! It was beautiful! I love it seeing how precious people are to Heavenly Father and how He leads us to them.

Our Asians are doing beautifully! It's so funny when we ask them to pray at the end of the lesson and they don't realize we mean out loud so it's silent and in my head all I can think of is "and behold it was silent for the space of an hour" hahah because it always feels so long! But Julie prays so sweetly, and she is getting the hang of saying Dear Heavenly Father at the beginning and then at the end she still gets confused and closes it by saying "Dear Jesus, amen" hahaha SO CUTE! She said she wants to be a Sister Missionary after she is baptized! she will be the cutest Sister Missionary in the world! I can't wait for you to meet all these people that I love Mum and Dad. I am truly happy here. I figured out that the Spirit in the Visitors' Center is what makes me want to be a better person. Every day when I go in there I want to be better and it's because of the Spirit. I love that place, I love my area, I love my investigators and I love my companion and my Saviour and my Heavenly Father. My companion and I are working together to figure out what this STL deal is! We just love our Sisters and see it as an opportunity to think less of ourselves and more of others. We are working to DOUBLE BAPTISMS in our Zone this month and send our Sisters motivating notes and texts each day giving them challenges to fulfill that day, and in the evenings we do drop-in visits to see how their days went. Above all else we are just being their friends and not being "those STLs" haha. I am so grateful for Sister West and her friendship, it is so natural between us and we have a great time.

I have so much else to tell you but I'll leave it here! It's been a challenging week but I've learned more about my Saviour. I love hearing your stories and I can't wait to see you. It's been a year today since I held you in my arms and wondered what laid ahead of me and how I could do it without your daily support, but the Lord has refined me and "chosen me in the furnace of my affliction" 1 Nephi 20:10. We have MLC tomorrow and I have no idea what to expect! And then my first exchange this week too! Pray for me please. Constant stretching for me is great!

I LOVE YOU ALL
Sister Nicholls

Have a safe flight to England, I'll be praying for you!