Monday 17 November 2014

17-11-14

Dear Family and Friends, 

Well I don't have a ton to report on this week. Our D got baptized in Provo! The missionaries tried their best to get their Bishop to sign the record so that he would be baptized into their Ward, but they didn't succeed! We don't have any pictures of it because it took place up in Provo! 

It's been quite a heart wrenching week really. We couldn't see A for one day, and the next day she stood us up, and the next day she didn't come to Church, and the next day she didn't see us, and we got increasingly nervous and when we saw her she just broke down and said that her mother back in Connecticut told her that she should remain Catholic and that the Mormon Church (insert all kinds of anti Mormon theories here) etc etc and it was so hard. She has taken it really hard and it's proven to be a huge stumbling block for her. So then she started to doubt everything she's felt and has drunk coffee again. We just bore testimony of Joseph Smith and we took her to the VC to watch the Joseph Smith movie. We think we'll get Susan Easton Black to talk to her too :) #stgeorgemissionrewards haha. We also had Elder Jensen give her a blessing, and it was an incredible miracle. I knew that she would need something very specific so before he came in to give her a blessing I just said to him that she was having doubts about Joseph Smith, and then during the blessing I was praying SO HARD in my mind that she would be told something very specific. He said something like "Your schooling will go well" and I thought "Oh great, she's not even in school, now she's going to be thinking this isn't even legitimate" and then he paused for a second and I prayed so hard in my head and said "Heavenly Father, even if no one else in this room has faith, do this from my faith, I know you can guide him and open his heart to the Spirit and open his mind to hear it's promptings and have the courage to say whatever the Spirit is prompting" and then he was silent for like ten seconds and we all held our breath and he said "Heavenly Father wants to tell you that your sister is okay." and then he closed the prayer. As he left she looked at me and said "What did you tell him about my sister?" and I said "Nothing! I don't even know what happened to your sister?" and she said ".....My sister died a few weeks ago!" and we were genuinely like :OOO  for reals my mouth fell open. It was incredible! What a miracle! It helped her for sure but she has still been avoiding reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. We don't even know what to do to help because we are trying everything we can. She still didn't come to Church. 

Then I wrote about K last week. Well we saw her each day and she was doing great and then on Thursday we came over and she started out the lesson by saying that "Sisters I have something I need to tell you....I just don't think I can do this anymore" and she BROKE DOWN and told us how much she loves her church and how her family dislike her investigating the Mormon Church and how much she loves the Pope and just was hysterically crying. It was so hard so we just sat there and listened and told her how much we love her. We resolved to just read the Book of Mormon with her twice a week. She said she wants to wait until the summer to convert so she can talk with her grandparents about it because she's super close with them and hates that she is hurting them. We just don't know what to do. But I've been studying more about the Catholic church and its really interesting. We read this talk called The True Church by Legrand Richards, very good. We had dinner with her last night though, it was wonderful. We are still good friends but we don't know what to do to help! 

J is still going strong and doing good :) she's our ray of hope. We went on exchanges with the Morningside Sisters. One of the Sisters is going home in four weeks and I was nervous for the exchanges because what can I even show a Sister as experienced as her? But a miracle happened because we were planning for the next day and forgot to plan for the first hour of the day! Just randomly forgot to plan! As I was praying how to help her that night before bed, because she'd just opened up to me about how hard things are right now, I just saw us sitting at the Temple talking, so we went at 10am and sat in the Temple grounds and I was led by the Spirit to know which scriptures to share and we just cried together and strengthened each other. We had a great day together. However......we had many people be HORRIBLE to us and tell us  horrible things about Joseph Smith and shout at us and give us anti Mormon literature, that I just ripped up as we walked away, and seek us out to shout at us and tell us every anti Mormon thing they could think of. Door after door. We got likened to Satan and we got told we are going to hell. It was ridiculous. I was so done. It was tough. Utah missions are HARD because there are lots of members but then there are also lots of people who hate Mormons. 

Well I have to go....we are watching Meet The Mormons on Wednesday for Zone Conference then J's baptism is on Saturday! So excited :) lots of good things ahead. Please keep us in your prayers, we need help. Sorry it's short this week, not much happened. 

I love you all
Sister Nicholls

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