Truly He Taught Us To love One Another, His Law Is Love And His Gospel Is Peace - 29-12-14

Dear loved ones, 

I can honestly say that this Christmas was one of the best in my life. It is always hard to be away from beloved family and friends, but it just felt so special to be a missionary and to have that personal relationship with Christ my Saviour. Let me start with some special experiences of this week before going into the Christmas shenanigans! 

So we knocked on the door of this YSA Hispanic boy who lives with his family and miracle of miracles he was home. (This was actually last week on Sister West's last night but I forgot to include it last week). It was about 8:50pm so the last ten minutes of Sister West's work as a missionary. We were thrilled to go inside and he started telling us that he doesn't believe in organised religion and that he is spiritual but not religious, yada yada yada heard it all before, and we showed him He Is The Gift. He liked that and it brought a nice spirit in. He said that he would believe what we were saying is true if God told him. We asked him if it would be alright if the Holy Spirit told him instead of God and he said he could deal with that so we offered to pray with him and I offered the prayer. After invoking the blessings of heaven upon him and the household there was the sweetest feeling of peace in the home and at the conclusion of the prayer he looked thoughtful and said "I already feel it" and it was such a beautiful moment! He committed to seeing us again and said he would definitely be there. I love being a servant of the Lord and sharing His blessings with His beloved children. It was a great high moment for Sister West to go home with! 

We had another miracle. We were one person away from making our monthly goal and we had five minutes left on Sunday evening when the Elders told us that they have a new investigator for us who lives in our area and is on date for baptism in January and went to Church. It was so perfect! I've learned how Heavenly Father truly does want us to meet our goals and it's important to us so it's important to Him and He loves His children and all we have to do is pray and work and He provides everything else. 

I've seen lots of Visitor Centre miracles this week too. I had a non member woman come in who was so moved upon by the Holy Spirit she could barely step foot into the Christus room. She just cried and said she sees the Holy Spirit within my eyes. It was a very special moment. I also had a Chinese family come in who took a Book of Mormon and asked us lots of questions. That Visitors' Centre never ceases to amaze me that every day we have miracle after miracle. We get the most non members in any VC other than Temple Square in Salt Lake City and we are the biggest apart from Temple Square. I am so blessed to serve there and see the miracles come day after day. We have had lots of German non members too this week which Sister Lipke has been happy about!! 

So here are my Christmas tales! On Christmas Eve we visited all of our Bishops and took them Christmas treats made at the Stake President's house with his wife! We drove out to their homes with one of our member friends and we sang Christmas songs to them and delivered the treats and talked about goals for their Ward for 2015 and thanked them for all their work. It was very nice to see them all! We also got invited out to Golden Corral with one of them so it worked out very nicely indeed ;) After we'd driven around beautiful St George as the sun was setting and seeing all our wonderful Bishops we made our way over to the Ekins in Little Valley who had invited us over for the evening. We made gingerbread houses, my first one ever!, and ate great food and we shared a Christmas message. I love that family so much! They gave us Bath & Body Works gifts which makes me love them even more; ) There was a beautiful feeling in their home. I really love their family. Their daughter just got home from her mission and so was happy to have Sister Missionaries there. I heard so much about her while I served there and now it feels like we're bffs and have always known each other. Anyway we left their house and walked around their Ward visiting all the non members I could remember and taking them treats and singing to them, It was just so perfect and beautiful to be walking around this area that I love with people that I love singing hymns that I love. There were Christmas lights everywhere and it was so calm. It really was like the hymn Silent Night. No one was out, no cars were out, it was very peaceful and we were the only ones out walking seeing all the lights and singing hymns. I truly felt the love of the Saviour and Heavenly Father. It was the best Christmas Eve of my life just taking gifts to non members and spreading the love of the Lord.

We then went and sang to the senior people in Morningside (so I guess I just visited all my old areas) in a rest home with the Morningside Sisters. We visited widows and sung to them and it was so beautiful and sweet. They cried and gave us chocolate pecans haha. Just a beautiful spirit that night.  Then we played Apples to Apples with two other companionships of Sisters which is always fun ;) We had such a laugh. Then we all prayed together and sung O Holy Night together. The spirit was so strong and we prayed thanks for our Saviour. Then Sister Lipke and I went back to our house and continued the singing and the praying until 10:30 when we went to bed!

I couldn't sleep all night, it felt like, because I was so excited to Skype you in the morning! I was SO excited! We got up and opened presents and I loved all of them!! The one that has proved most useful is the scripture highlighter haha #missionarygifts but thank you for everything!!! I love it all. Thank you to everyone who thought of me. We then went to the VC Sisters and Senior Couples breakfast and gift exchange. There was a chocolate fountain and it was so much fun! Then we went back to the Borcherts and I GOT TO TALK TO YOU!!!!! BEST PART OF THE YEAR! After crying a little bit Sister Lipke and I laid out by the fireplace and slept. It was so nice to just lay on the floor by the fireplace and take a nap. I dreamed I was out street contacting though haha #missionarydreams We played lots of games like reverse charades which was hilarious. Then we had to do our shift at the Visitors' Centre and I remembered what you said Dad about finishing strong and working hard so that I have I no regrets when I go home and what Luke said about going home to the apartment pleased with what I've accomplished that day. So I began sharing my testimony with EVERYONE I saw. It was so fun because I didn't do it awkwardly like "I'd like to bear my testimony that..." but I just smoothly slipped into it and most of the time it led into a great tour or referral! So thank you for that encouragement, Heavenly Father knew what I needed. Then we went in the evening and had a Zone Testimony Meeting and watched Ephraim's Rescue. It was so beautiful :') I love hearing missionary's testimonies. It was such a spiritual evening and one that I will never forget. I love the missionaries here in the St George mission!! 

We were privileged to go to Little Valley again on Saturday for the baptism of L. We began teaching her back in June, Sister Rizzo and I, and she got baptised! She came into the Visitors' Centre this week and invited myself and Sister Biery so we got permission from President Center to go together. It was so fun to be in Little Valley with Sister Biery again! The baptism went very well and I'm so happy to see that she was ready to make that step :) 

Well this is my last email for the year of 2014. I cannot believe where it has gone. I feel like just yesterday I laid in my Washington apartment's rock solid, freezing, bed and set goals for 2014, the only year of my life when I would be a missionary for the complete year. I set the goal to work hard every single day, to love everyone put in my path and to change myself and others every day. I cannot believe where the time has gone and I continue to set goals and become the person the Saviour needs me to be for Him and for my future family and life. I LOVE this year. It has been the best year of my life and I have learned and changed so much. I wouldn't change a single day of it because it has moulded me and my testimony. I love  every single person I have met and need all of them. I have been blessed SO abundantly it brings tears to my eyes to think that He has strengthened me enough to have brought me through a year of missionary service. I feel so indebted that it makes me want to serve more and longer! I absolutely love my mission and I have loved 2014 and the hard times and the blessed times. How can I ever show my thanks truly? I love you all and can't wait to see you next year ;) I will be thinking about you ALLL day on New Year's Eve. I'll say a little prayer for you at 5pm here when it's the new year for you. I love you all SO MUCH and pray thanks for you every single day!

Signing off for 2014

I love you all 

Sister Nicholls

Christ Is The Lord, O Praise His Name Forever! - 22-12-14

Dear Loved Ones, 

I just want to tell you how loved you are. It's hard not to get trunky at Christmas time. Honestly I don’t let myself think about Christmas and then I don't miss you. So it just doesn't feel like Christmas. It's weird to think that next year I will be home and it would've been like five years since we were all together. I am excited though. Christmas is a hard time to be a missionary on a university campus because everyone goes home, just like BYU! We were on campus and saw one life form and all it was was a man with a metal detector who was really determined to find some metal. It's gotten very cold as well. I've very much become a St George person so I know it's not cold compared to Provo or England but it’s freezing for me! We wrap up warm and run in the mornings. It was 26 degrees this morning! My knee is still bruised and slowly improving. It still hurts a lot but I'm very sure that if I do nothing about it it will get better eventually #storyofmymission  haha When I get home I need a mass doctors apointment. I've never been so hurt and had so many ailments as I have on my mission!! 

Well we had a great lesson with N this week. We saw him just before he left to go home. We taught him about the Priesthood and how he can be a Priesthood holder when he finally decides to be baptized. He liked the idea of that and said that he would like a Priesthood blessing in January when he is back at school. N has a great spirit about him and it will be a joyous day when he decides to be baptized. 

We are trying to find ways to spend our time effectively with everyone gone! We went to Sister Rhodes house, the High Councilors wife, and made cookies with her. It felt like real Christmas. We did that again at the end of the week because we'd handed out all the cookies. It was great because we got to know them better, and people are so much more receptive to us when we have treats for them. They were all studying for finals or sleeping so to have us at the door with treats made it a lot better. We actually found a new investigator from it. We stopped this boy on the stairs and gave him cookies and started talking about Christ and he said he has been to the LDS church three times. You know a missionary's first thought when someone says they have already been to church three times? #MIRACLEBAPTISMTHATWE'VEALLBEENPRAYINGFOR but alas he invited us back for the following day and when we went it turns out he is Catholic and is happy to listen to us and to come to church but he will only read the Book of Mormon if he has a marvellous miracle that tells him to read the Book of Mormon. We felt like saying, well here it is! This is the miracle telling you to read it haha. But we are just keeping in our prayers to enlist the Lord for His bounteous blesings to allow something to let him see he should read the Boom of Mormon. Every single person comes with their own struggles and their own bags of problems. Missionary work is never easy. We always have that hill to climb with every single one of them, and I think that that is why we are so exhausted by the end of our missions from being that guide, holding people’s hands and helping them to climb up the hill. But it's not supposed to be easy “The wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land” - Ether 6:8 . 

We had a lot of fun handing out our coookies and singing to everyone. We went out with CJ our Ward Mission Leader and he drove us to YSA houses in St George and we carolled and shared the Christmas spirit. It was really fun. We went to CJ's house to teach his less active roommate. Well less active is an under statement. He is NON ACTIVE. He doesn't know if God is real. I can see a lot of bitternes with him and can just see how lost and confused he is. He says he’s prayed for ages to know if God is there but never gets an answer and it makes him angry. We can see how that will be annoying but that he needs to stay humble instead of getting angry! But I had a very special exerience there with him that is too sacred to write on an email and I'll tell you about it on Christmas Day or something! I told him and he was very touched and said that is the only thing of worth he has heard all lesson haha. I do love him though, he is great. We asked him to watch The Hope Of God's Light. Yesterday we saw CJ and he said that D went for a long drive after we left. I hope that was a good thing!! 

We had the missionary choir yesterday! It was so great to do that again and be a part of all the festivities! I was a part of a double quartet that sung Away In A Manger. I love singing at the Tabernacle, it's so historic and beautiful! I love being in the St George mission! We sung O Holy Night and lots of carols and President Center played his guitar. Sister Hee and Sister Harper, both former missionaries, were there with their parents. It was so hard saying goodbye to that group because there were lots of missionaries I was close with. We were on shift on Wednesday morning and The Wedding of Sister Duval and Elder Campbell was taking place at midday. We were all excited and standing at the back waiting for them to come out of the Temple. Meanwhile Sister Harper was waiting for her parents to come and be reunited with them at the end of her mission. We were all eagerly anticipating both events and then of course the happy couple come out of the Temple at the same time as the doors of the Visitors’ Centre open and in walk Sister Harper’s parents. None of us knew where to look or what to take pictures of hahaha!!! Why do they always happen at the same time? Anyway it was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful reunion! We all cried seeing her hug her parents and all the tears! #trunky #12weeks #jkineverwanttoleave We made this BIIIGGG sign that said CONGRATULATIONS and we went out of the VC and held it up so that the happy couple would see it and slowly one by one people started seeing it and pointing and then Sister Duval walked towards us so her husband followed and we all hugged the beautiful bride. It was so weird seeing my Sister Training Leader coming out of the temple as a married woman! hahah. I'll just be a missionary forever. 

I had some cool VC experiences this week. A Lutheran couple came in who know the Bible very well. It was one of those couples that you just know you were supposed to be the one who gave them a tour because we connected instantly. We just hit it off and I showed them the Temple pictures at the back which usually just takes about 5 minutes but we were there for about an hour and half and they just asked question after question after question and I just knew what to say with the help of the Spirit! I wasn’t nervous and it went really well! Then this one boy who was sitting on the sofa near us was obviously listening in and then he just jumped up and butted in and started answering their questions and saying awkward things and confusing things and using terminology they wouldn’t understand and not letting me saying anything and I went to find a scripture for them to read and he just started quoting it and I was trying to stay Christ-like! He didn’t serve a mission and hangs out at the VC allllll the time talking to us Sisters and he makes me feel uncomfortable. Anyway he finally left and the couple were like...who was that? and I said I have no idea and they were like, oh he isn't a missionary? And I said NO!! But it was a positive tour and they took the Book of Mormon! It was a great experience. 

Then I was putting a movie on and saw in my peripheral vision someone on the sofa crying. I went up to her to talk to her and she had just watched He Is The Gift and said she felt the Spirit and relief and the love of God for the first time in a year. She didn’t say what she was struggling with but I felt impressed to tell her of my exerience with choosing to serve a mission and how it was scary but the Lord led me and has strengthened me and now real life sounds scary!! So she looked at me and told me that was exactly what she needed to hear and we just connected so well. We hugged and cried and talked and again it was someone you just know you needed to meet. One day I'll give you all the details of these rubbishly written little stories on my emails! 

Well Merry Merry Christmas everyone. My last Christmas as a missionary! We have lots of plans and I will miss you and think about you every second of every day. My heart yearns to be with you but I'll Skype you on Thursday and probably cry because I love you so much! Every day you become more precious to me. I'll be thinking about you all week! I love you so much and love the Saviour even more and that is why I'm here serving His children, Doctrine & Covenants 19:37-41 gave me great courage this week! 

I love you so much 

Sister Nicholls

O Come Let Us Adore Him! 15-12-14

Dear Everyone, 

Let me start out the email with a funny story that happened on Tuesday. We get up at 6:23 each morning so that we are out and ready by 6:30 to get a full half hour to work out. We made it 6:23 because then we are allowed to be up at 6 to work out but thats way too early and when we get up at 6:20 we are tired all day but for some reason those extra 3 minutes make ALLLLL the difference! Plus who even needs 10 minutes to get ready to go out? 7 is plenty! haha So we got up and got bundled up to go running to the stadium. Running to the stadium includes running past the hospital, which is on a downward slope. It's very dark still, and Sister West and I were describing our dreams to each other as is necessary on a morning run. One second I was running downhill past the hospital doors and the next second the floor was coming at my face and I exclaimed, in a very non missionary kind of way, "CRAP!!" and face-planted the floor. I couldn't  have been more horizontal than I was. It hurt so much! Haha I skidded a little bit but with all the adrenaline of the moment I JUMPED straight back up and carried on running. A nurse who was leaving the hospital saw what happened and was like "Are you okay?" and I limped/ran on and we went to the stadium and played soccer and it was hard but I put on a brave face and when we got home I checked it out and my elbows, hip and knees were BROKEN haha. All scraped up and bruised. It's been nearly a week and they are HURTING still. We went on an exchange with some Sisters the next day and I felt like I had whiplash, my neck and back hurt so much! I pounded that pavement. Since then I've hit my knee on things and it feels like I'll throw up it hurts so much! But it's bruising nicely and is quite swollen so I'm just hoping it'll get better. I couldn't bend it on Saturday night and I  was in so much pain so I just prayed so hard that Heavenly Father would heal it in the night and I woke up and could move it and walk and it was GREAT!!!!!!! Prayers are always answered when it's His will and we pray in faith. 

Well it's been a rough week in our area. It's finals week so everyone is NOT HOME but is in the library or taking tests. Also we've got such a small area that by this point we know everyone and it's now a case of softening the hearts of the people we've already met. Also everyone got baptized and everyone is leaving and everyone else are flakes so we dropped everyone except N this week. We taught K and she cried again at how much she loves her church and how it's true to her so we congratulated her on her faith and didn't set up a return appointment. She said if this is the truth then it will find her again, which I thought was cool! She is so nice though, we love her and pray for her still. We got the ultimate bashing by a CHINESE BAPTIST!!! Since when were Chinese people even Baptists?!?! He saw us at his door and said "Let me go and get my Bible" and left and we thought we should've just left at that point but that would've been rude. He returned and told us everything that "we believe" in which wasn't even true and preached at us and after he was done and we told him, yeah we believe in the same thing you do about that and he was like "No you don't! I've studied it." and I said "Well I've lived it for 20 years so ....... " and he invited us in to share with us everything he has found out from his studies and I said "You know, we're two 20 year old girls who just want to talk about Jesus Christ, and I do not appreciate the way you are trying to diminish our faith." and he said he was doing it out of love because we are following Satan and he was simply declaring his beliefs. I just think it's sad how people are so comfortable declaring their beliefs to us but we are simply not allowed to declare our beliefs. People are funny. 

D and B have for sure been dropped because they have avoided us all week and when we knocked at their door, their roommate answered and went to see if they were in. He returned and said none of them were in, and as he did that I saw D come out of his room and glance our way looking scared as he ran to the bathroom. It was hilarious because he looked right at me as he ran! I thought he'd better just try and own it and stay in the bathroom but no he tried to run back without me seeing him haha. I definitely saw both times! #dropped Everyone is dropped or gone and so we have one investigator right now who knows it's true and gets himself to Church and reads and prays every day but wants to tell us when he's ready for baptism. So we are starting from the beginning. There are going to be lots of new people in January moving in around the 10th so we just have one month of nothing and no one. Idk what we'll do but we have lots of room for miracles at this point haha. 

We went to our High Councillors house for our coordination meeting this week, and it was so fun! We had pasta and bread and salad for the fourth time in a row this week, I can never eat italian food again for at least a week! But it was so fun to just be with our Ward Mission Leaders and have a fun chat rather than be business all the time. It was a special Christmas treat. 

So we begun our choir practise for the St George Mission choir, it's obligatory that all missionaries are there! It was on Saturday morning which was crazy because of transfer calls! Everyone was waiting to hear their call and I was avoiding everyones eyes because they all seemed to know my transfer call except me. I had an idea because I walked in and a certain Sister missionary looked at me with the most joy I've ever seen! I couldn't concentrate on singing at all!! We were in the tabernacle again and it was crazy because it was a whole year ago but I was sitting in my same place next to the same missionary and it was just like de ja vu. But I've been in the St George Central Zone the whole time. Everyone else has come and gone but iI'm still here! So anyway after practise I couldn't take it any more so went and asked President "Do I get a transfer call too?" cos everyone else knew theirs and he said "Well.....you are staying in the area...." and I said "do I get a companion?" and he said "No we thought you could just do it yourself...jk you will be with Sister Lipke!" and I screamed and jumped and was like I AM SO HAPPY and he said " We thought you would be!" hahaha!!! So we are staying in Dixie, but together.  The choir was good, we are singing O Holy Night and it sounds beautiful! I am a soprano in a quartet of missionaries singing Away In A Manger. I love it :) 

So today I was reading in the Book of Mormon about Mormon being like "O ye fair ones!! Why have ye rejected that Jesus who stood with open arms to receive you?" and I felt as though I could somewhat relate for the first time. I thought about all the people who have chosen to reject the Gospel and how I had very similar feelings to Mormon. I've reached that point where I just LOVE them all SO MUCH that I feel like I just want to beg them to listen. It's so hard! But it was comforting to see I'm not the only one who feels that way. We try our best and we go on. Shall we not go on in so great a cause? 

I love where the Lord is leading me and who He is helping me to become. I have two transfers left, and it fills me with fear to leave all this behind but I know progression is a part of eternity and I embrace whatever the Lord has in store for me. Sometimes the hardest times in life have us on our knees crying out for help. and they are some of the most precious and sacred times of my mission where I have truly felt the Lord lifting me higher. I love Him and strive to show Him that through my actions. 

All my love to everyone, 

Sister Nicholls

Is not a soul at this time as precious unto God as a soul will be at the time of His coming? - 8-12-14

Dear Precious Family and Friends, 

This week has been great because everyone has been back on campus again! We had a great lesson with N this week. We hadn't seen him for nearly two weeks and he'd been home in California with his family so we were nervous that he would've cooled off from wanting to learn and commit but he was the opposite! He told us that his family and friends at home had been trying to tell him negative things about the Church but he had instead taught them! He said his girlfriend is now more okay with him learning because he taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He said his family asked him what his favourite thing about the Church is and why he is continuing to learn from the missionaries and he said that his favourite thing is how he feels when he is around the missionaries :') SO precious!!!! We brought J with us because as a recent convert she has a strong testimony of baptism and why it is important. It's hard with N because he knows it's true and keeps all the commitments and shares the gospel himself but he just doesn't feel a need to be baptised. Before we went into the lesson with him we prayed very sincerely to know what his problem was and during the lesson J testified so boldly and said "You just need to be baptized N! When you come up out of that water you are filled with such joy and nothing else matters" and he said "You want to know my true reason for not being baptized yet?" and we said "YES!" and he said "I want my family to be there." which is the most legitimate reason ever! So at least it's not the commandments or a lack of commitment. He wants his family to see him be baptized. So we are just praying and fasting that they will be able to come or that that will stop being a concern for him. He is doing really well though. We can just see big things for him. We taught his roommate for the second time though and it went well! We are seeing them both tonight. In the complex they live in there are six apartments with 8 people living in them. 3 of the apartments got evicted for a party that happened and of course it's N's apartment! So they are leaving Wednesday and don't know where they will go. We are PRAYING and begging them to stay in our area haha because the Elders steal all of our investigators and if they move out and have to have the Elders we'll be MAD haha, jokes, but really. 

We found two new investigators this week, called B and D. Right now they are still uncommitted to anything. B brought up this whole argument about how the Bible is up in the air because God wants us to make our own decisions and I patiently listened it out until he was done then told him that the Book of Mormon doesn't try to change what the Bible teaches and that the Gospel is so simple, why would God want it to be up in the air? He is just interesting. It'll be a good journey for them. We tried SO HARD to get everyone to go to Church yesterday! It was one of those Sundays when EVERYONE slept in except N. We knocked SO HARD at everyone's doors and all week they promised us they would be there but they slept in. 

It was a week of miracles though because we set a monthly goal of 2 baptisms this month and are DETERMINED with faith that we will make it even though right now they're all up in air because there are various concerns with each of them. But we are exercising faith and not praying just for baptisms but praying that we will be led to the people who are ready for a December baptism or people who have been to Church enough times or people who we might've dropped who are ready again or people who will be staying in St George over Christmas who could be baptized. It's been great because we went and knocked on L's  (remember former investigator from Nigeria who beat boxes) door and he said he has been writing a paper about the Bible and Book of Mormon and the more he looks into it the more he thinks it's true! It was a HUGE miracle to hear those words come out of L's mouth! Then we went and knocked on J's door and he said "Wait right there! I have something to show you" and went and got a brand new triple combination Book of Mormon and Doctrine & Covenants and Pearl of Great Price with his name engraved. His mentor is a Mormon and has told him LOTS about what we believe in since we dropped him and J agrees with it and loves it! We were so happy and he said if he gets confirmation from God he will be baptized this month! So we have been truly blessed since deciding to pray very specfically for our monthly goals. If every area makes their monthly goals, then we'll make our misison goals. So it all starts with us! As the leaders for the Sisters we are working so hard to lead by example of making goals. I've discovered the secret - just rely on Christ and He makes up the difference! 

We had Mission Leadership Council and Zone Meeting again this week. They come around so fast! I can't believe that this was my 14th Zone meeting as it happens at the start of each month! I only have three left - WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?! But anyway we did a training to the Zone on loving your investigators and loving the people. I remembered Elder Clark of the Seventy telling us that a missionary's happiest day is the day they learn to love the people more than they love themselves. We shared some scriptures and some experiences and there was a good spriit there. It went down well and we were happy that the Spirit was able to touch some hearts. I've really seen how sincere love  for the people we teach helps them to progress and to come closer to Christ because if we are to represent Him how do we do that without love? I find myself pleading for charity because that's the only thing that matters really! 

We went on exchanges this week with Sister Gearheart to Washington. You wrote about her last week Mum that you met her former companion from the MTC who is in the London Visitors' Centre! I went with her to Washington (my Greenie area) and we tried our best. Then I went with Sister Leota from Samoa and brought her to my Dixie area! I loved being with her. We came out of the MTC together and she has changed so much on her mission. She can speak English now so we had a laugh and it was just a good day. Exchanges are exhausting but I love them! I really do love getting to know these Sisters well. Everyone has a unique story and I appreciate the Sisters more when I understand where they've come from etc. Sister Leota and I definitely have very different stories because we are from very different parts of the world but the gospel unites us all! 

Last p-day we played West vs Central Zone kick ball!!! It was exhausting because the Elders play hard! They got way too into it and it was definietly different than Thanksgiving when we played all Sisters kick ball haha. But this is when you know you're in St George mission - the game got stopped because a nice man saw us playing and went to Dominos and ordered like 10 pizzas or something for us!! So the game abruptly ended and we all ate pizza haha. We prayed thanks for the man whoever he was. #utahmissions #treatedlikegoldeventhoughweareservants 

D and H got the Priesthood! I love seeing our recent converts progress in the gospel. K went to the Temple with her roommates to do baptisms! It just fills me with joy that I can't even describe to see them embracing the Gospel and being truly converted. When we haven't seen them for a few days we miss them and see them in the Church hallways and have a joyous reunion. I just LOVE them all so much and don't know what I will do when I can't see them every day! 

We had dinner at President Center's house with J and CJ the Ward Mission Leader who met Hillary Young last week. They are just being involved with the missionaries and offer their house for lessons so we ate dinner and taught a lesson. I was super nervous as always having to teach in front of President! But it went well and they loved J. We all do. It'll break my heart when she goes back to Brazil in a few weeks!!! :((( 

I had a realization this week that I love missionary work and feel like I've done this forever because this is what I spent my whole time doing for a really long time before I came to earth and spent 19 years not really doing it. It feels familiar to us and feels right and joyous because we've done it for so long before this life, just teaching of Christ and preparing our brothers and sisters to come to earth and to choose Him. I am reading the Doctrine & Covenants and trying to finish it before I finish my mission and I love it so much! A LOT OF it relates to missionaries! 

The other day I got a card from Auntie Mandi where she talked a lot about Grandad and his last days and I was reading it in the break room in the VC and got really sad again and might've cried for a few minutes and put the card away and then did what Grandad would've wanted me to do - to work HARD! So I went out to that VC floor and I worked harder than I have worked in MONTHS! I talked with EVERY DANG PERSON THAT WALKED PAST ME and I shared my testimony WITH EVERYONE and I asked EVERYONE for referrals. And guess what? I forgot about my own sorrows and troubles and was healed. I felt like Grandad was next to me telling me to pass out the pass along cards to everyone like he always did! And I got two golden referrals that I have since taught on the phone and both want to continue learning! That almost never happens, that both I get want to learn. I tried to do the same thing last night and between us, Sister West and I got 10 non member referrals!!!!!!!! We are going to end our missions strong! I really learned that true hard work is the best balm for the soul, more than anything else. I love the power of prayer and the power of hard work. Heavenly Father is sending people into the VC that I love from my old areas every evening that I need it! 

Well that's all folks. I love my Saviour and am striving to love Him more and to have no more disposition to do evil but to do good continually. I fail every day but He picks me up and puts me back to work. I am striving to know Him more and love him more. Keep sharing the gift with everyone this Christmas time. I cried that you are all going to Grandad's funeral without me but sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven! D&C 117:13 

Love you all, 

Sister Nicholls

"Home in that heaven where Father is waiting for me" - 1-12-14

Dear loved ones, 

It's certainly been a different week. Campus was absolutely dead, so it was hard to find things to do when no one is there to teach and no one is there to knock doors. So we saw our international recent converts every day and we saw our Stake President and stuff like that. It was so eery being somewhere where you absolutely cannot see any other life form! 

But Thanksgiving was the best day ever! We got up at 6:30am (OF COURSE!!!) and got ready and had ALL the Sisters over to our apartment to host a breakfast! It was sooo fun! There were a ton of us all squashed into our little apartment but we had such a laugh! Everyone brought something and we filled ourselves up even though we knew it was Thanksgiving and we had much more to come that day. After we ate we drove over to the nearby park that has volleyball courts and a baseball court thing. We played kickball and it was all us VC Sisters and a random pair of Elders came haha. The rest of the Elders played football against YSA teams in a tournament and the Elders team WON! #GOSTGEORGEELDERS We played kickball for just under an hour and then we played soccer! It was SO fun! Again all the European Sisters got really into it and the next day we were all SO SORE! Every muscle in my body was aching haha. But we played soccer then ultimate frisbee. The grass was really slippy so we fell over a few times ;) But we laughed and had so much fun. We were playing sports for about two hours and then we went home to get ready for the day. We made ourselves presentable and then studied for an hour. During my studies I remembered that on the last two Thanksgivings I like to do a half an hour prayer of thanks. I went into the bedroom and knelt down at my bed and poured out my heart in thanks for half an hour. It always goes by SO fast! When you know you have that much time I really could think about my whole life and all the people I've met and the experiences that have made me who I am. I prayed thanks for each one of you and all you have taught me and done for me. It was so cool to see how many more people I can pray thanks for this year than last year, I prayed thanks for how far the Lord had brought me and how much He has taught me and how many people He has brought into my life. My heart truly was brimming with joy and my gratitude spilled onto my cheeks as I prayed thanks for my Saviour's atonement and the countless times it has lifted me on this journey! I truly have MUCH to be grateful for and I could've gone on for ever. It was great to have that spirit with me throughout the day of everything He has given me. Afterwards we went to the Stake Center and had a huge dinner with all the VC sisters and Senior Couples and the Watkins' etc. Susan Easton Black was there with her husband. How many of us can say we've shared Thanksgiving with them ;) haha but we ate a delicious dinner and all shared things we are grateful for about our companions and about the VC and about our missions etc.

After dinner there was a talent show and Sister Watkins told us to do something funny so we rewrote the words of Part of Your World from Little Mermaid and its called Part of Your World, Trunky Edition haha and it was all about missionaries who want to be home. It went really well! Sister Garcia recorded it on my camera so you can watch it when I get home! It was very well received. We had a lot of fun and there were lots of good talents. Afterwards we let our dinner go down for an hour before going to our next appointment, at President Center's house!! There was us, the Spanish ZLs and the APs. It was hilarious because they are just a funny bunch of people. There were two of President's children and one of them is married so his wife and little boy were there too. We had a great meal and during the meal President looked at me and he was like "Sister Nicholls, you haven't left St George yet have you?" and I was like "No......but I love it here" and he was like "Hmmmm...I think you're a Kaibab kinda girl" and then Sister Center was like "Or a Price kind of girl!" and I very quietly said "You know...I'd really love to go to Delta..." and they were like "Delta!!!!! why?!?!" and I said "Well there's  a missionary who taught my Dad who lives there with his family" and they were quiet for a second and nodded and looked at each other with a look on their faces that held the possibility of my last two transfers! SO I MIGHT BE GOING TO DELTA!!!! I MIGHT LEAVE ST GEORGE!!!!!!!! It was exciting! Anyway after dinner we played this game, like Guess the Cuckoo where we all had to write our names on a piece of paper and a statement about our lives that was true, and then the woman would pick up three of our stories and say the story and we had to tell the story ourselves and the others had to guess whose story it was! It was HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!! I did the story of when I was in AZ for Thanksgiving a couple of years ago and nearly got arrested for trespassing haha. We all learned a lot about each other that day. What happens in President's home stays in President's home. My story wasn't picked until nearly the end so I was up there lying so much and every time President believed whatever I said and voted for me and they were all lies hahahhahaha. Such a fun day! We all sung songs together and President was so chill all day, it was WONDERFUL! 

Then in the evening we went home and got onesies on and went to the Zone activity, we all watched Tangled. It was hilarious because all the Elders sung along to every song! We had such a fun evening and it was a great day! Then the next day President called me in the morning to tell me that Grandad had passed away and that he found out yesterday morning but forgot to tell me. I'm glad he did because I had a great day and was able to make good memories. I shut myself in the bathroom and cried it out for a little while before praying and praying. While I was praying I felt the peace that comes from the Saviour's love descend upon my heart. And since then I really have felt fine. I know that we were blessed to have him in our family and to learn from his example of Christlike love and service and missionary work. I know that I have a new companion with me now and that whenever I get the urge to hand out pass along cards to everyone it's because he is there whispering in my ears urging me to hand them to everyone like he always did. It's hard to be sad when you know that he lived a wonderful dedicated life, and that he is with his family again, and that his body isn't holding him back anymore. He had a strong spirit in a weak body for a long time, so I cannot feel sad. We taught the plan of salvation after I came out of hiding on Friday morning and I was able to teach it with a renewed love for it because I could truly know the joy this plan brings us. I was blessed because Friday night and Saturday night people I love came into the VC, the Gygi's, and people from Morningside and Little Valley. Tender mercies for sure. The Temple has it's lights up now and we've had like 100000000s of visitors, all of them members and none of them want to talk to us. It's been crazy! 

Yesterday was the Recent Convert Fireside and J, H and J all spoke (J from Morningside). I recorded it on my camera :) I just love those things because when I'm there I never ever want to stop being a missionary. It's incredible to hear the testimonies of those newly planted seeds in the recent converts. They are powerful and I love them so much! There is nothing like this work of salvation and I never want to not be a part of it. I love hearing their testimonies! 

Well I have to go now! I love you all! Keep #sharethegift with everyone! 

Sister Nicholls