What a wonderful week,
There are so many stories that I just won't be able to tell you about until I get home, so I'll just hold them in for 7 more weeks or whatever it is! I can't believe that this coming week holds my last ever transfer call! That feels so wrong, I swear I just went into the MTC. It feels like yesterday that we were walking towards the MTC and I thought "I have one more minute with my parents and my brother for the next 18 months" and we hugged and shed some tears and I walked off to have a nametag put on my chest. That nametag feels like home now and this town feels like where I belong. I don't know what I'll do if I have to leave St George next week for the first time in my mission! I feel like I'm going to leave and spend my last six weeks elsewhere in the mission. I'm really at peace with whatever happens, it'll just be sad to leave what feels like home and feel like a greenie again in a different place. I'll miss serving in the VC because my last shift will be Sunday if I do leave. I'll find out on Friday. Time will tell!!
This week has had many, many standings up! Everyone has stood us up. Sometimes I wish I kept count haha. But it's great because we see that the Lord had different plans for us and different people prepared. I think that reflects life in a way; we have plans for ourselves and they are definitely good plans but then the Lord has something different in store, usually better, to help bring to pass His great plan. So starting on Monday night both of our appointments stood us up but we found a new investigator as a result of both of them. We were in the right place at the right time. One of them grew up in Orem and has a less active Mum, and one of them is from California and is in a sober living house. I love the YSA because they are so open to learning.
We tried our best this week to get N baptised. We told him I'm probably leaving next week and that he has very limited time left with me as a teacher. He said he'll call President and say "I can't live without Sister Nicholls" and I said if you do that I'll be emergency transferred faster than you can say emergency transfer haha. But we had a powerful lesson with him again and he just said that something about baptism scares him. I get the impression it's less of the baptism but more of the commandment keeping. I was praying and pleading with Heavenly Father to bless him to feel something when he prays about baptism but I got this impression that Heavenly Father loves him so much and knows that he will have some problems with keeping the commandments in the coming months and will prefer that he has not made the covenant of baptism because then he will be of a greater accountability when he breaks these commandments. I feel that he will be baptised, I just think it's in a while. We are praying for events to take place in his life that will prepare him to keep the commandments. I love each of these investigators so much that it feels like my chest will explode. I wonder sometimes how I can ever love anyone as much as these people.
We had a cool experience that LUKE will appreciate. These two men came into the VC and they had some kind of European accent. We asked where they were from and they told us that they were from GREECE!!!! Their English was okay, pretty rough but we could get by. I made sure I told them YASAS haha and (Luke don't disown me for the spelling of this) elferestou hahahha and their eyes all lit up and they all said it back to me hahahaha. They were very receptive. We talked to them about the Book of Mormon and showed it to them in Greek and they ASKED for one haha. We talked about the Prophet and took them to the Christus and played it in Greek for them. Then they went to get another of their friends and bring him in so then there were 3 Greek people, the third also requested a Book of Mormon and we put them all in the big theatre to watch The Restoration. I wish I knew Luke's mobile number so I could've called him and had him talk to them in Greek because our knowledge was EXTREMELY limited apart from Kebab and stuff haha. But it made me really happy.
We also had the cutest Dutch couple come in and had a great tour! They had Mormon neighbours so they know about the Church and requested a chapel tour so we took them to the chapel across the street and had a great chat with them. The Dutch people are always the nicest people we ever get in the VC. I told them (Dad don't disown me for the spelling of this) hoo da dack HAHAHAHA I KNOW THAT IS NOWHERE NEAR RIGHT haha and they looked all happy. I wish that Dad could've spoken to them! So I felt close to my family this week seeing all the people from where you served your missions.
E is being E again and is trying to drop us but then we hunt him down and talk to him and he feels the Spirit and can't do it. He finally told us he is on drugs as well as probation. So that will prolong his baptism for a very long time. He said when he meets with us every day he has no desire to do drugs and just goes cold turkey but then he gets scared and stops meeting with us and does drugs and then we hunt him down and the cycle starts again. He loves reading the Book of Mormon and feeling the Spirit. I just love him. But he has a way to go now.
M is in the same sort of boat. He realized he needs to cut out his bad friends and asked for a few days to just pray about it and get back to us so we gave him a few days then found him again and he is doing better. We are finally in with his Mum as well, she likes us now whereas before she didn't know if we were trying to sell him drugs too! Hahaha classic Sister Missionaries trying to sell drugs to everyone.
A is doing well. We taught him the restoration and the plan of salvation and he loves it and he explained the need for a Prophet to us and it was perfect! He has read almost the whole Book of Mormon this week and he said that there must be a reason why this is the fastest growing religion in the world! He has good things ahead and has been so well prepared.
The Elders told us they went into a music store right by the temple and that an English girl works there and that I should go and meet her. So we went by and she said she had no idea that there were Mormons in England! Haha! Or that we had two Temples and two Visitors' Centers. We had a good chat with her, she is from Southampton. My accent always gets really strong again when I talk to people from England (disclaimer, I've spent 18 months solid talking about my accent and having to answer questions and people butting in during spiritual moments to ask where my accent is from. I am so excited to go home and never ever have to talk about my accent again. If anyone wants to tell me I've got an American accent, I might get mad) and we had a really good chat. She has never been to the VC but ASKED ME for my phone number and email address and said she will come to the VC one evening so I can teach her! We'll see what happens, I'm excited :)
I am almost at the finish of my New Testament Gospels study. The thing I've learned the most is how Christ is lashed out at so many times and it always says "He held His peace" I love that! He never stooped low enough to fight back even though they mocked him and spat on him and said things like, if you are Christ then who is hitting you? I love where it talks about how the angel came and strengthened Him as He performed the atonement. I know I have felt angels strengthening me throughout these last 16 months! I love that Christ always invites us to follow Him, denoting that He is the leader and we are the followers, and that He has shown the example and we follow in it. He was the perfect leader and I am trying my best to lead like Him. On exchanges this week I went back into Morningside and we tried to visit all their investigators as they are having troubles helping them to progress. It was a very effective day and we accomplished a lot. We found a new investigator at a door step who seems very sincere and it was just a wonderful day. I love going on exchanges with greenies because they listen to you at doors and in lessons and are like "WOW YOU KNOW HOW TO DO EVERYTHING" when really inside we all feel like greenies and we all feel like we have LOTS AND LOTS left to learn, But I remember feeling that way about my STLs when I was on exchanges as a greenie. It's so weird to be on the flip side. Anyway I love my New Testament studies and I love seeing how Christ invites everyone to leave everything behind and follow Him. He truly asks for sacrifice but rewards it 100 fold. He asks for the one thing that is hardest for us to give up, like with the story of the rich young man who keeps all the commandments, Christ says "one thing thou lackest" and tells him to sell his goods to the poor. He goes away sorrowing because it's too hard. And the people who say that they will follow him but first need to tell their families goodbye and stuff. It's just teaching me a lot about doing what I'm supposed to do WHEN I'M ASKED and not sorrowing over the sacrifice. I love the New Testament a lot, I've really needed this study!
Well I'm off now. Today we are going to hike the mountain that they took the sand stone from to make the temple. It's called the Glitter Pit and we will take some stones and send them home to you. It's a big group of us Sisters!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Please pray for me this week! I want to be calm for my last ever transfer call. I don't know when p-day will be next week because it depends if I get transferred or not. Write to me as though it is Monday and I will write back when I can!
Sister Nicholls
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