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!
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