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

10-11-14

Dear Loved Ones, 

My transfer verdict is that I am staying in Dixie 1.5 with Sister West. This transfer is only going to be 5 weeks because a 6 week transfer would fall on Christmas Eve and no one wants to be transferred on Christmas Eve! So the next transfer will be here before we know it! We think I'll be staying in Dixie for another transfer after that too because Sister West is homeward bound in five weeks and unless they whitewash it this will become my second home. Which is nice because the longest I've ever spent in an area is three transfers and it's hard to get to know everyone and really feel like you're making a difference in two transfers, especially when half the time you're at the Visitors' Center. We
were observed by an MTC woman this week and she is in the Missionary Department for writing the curriculum for missionaries and Mission Presidents! She got home from her mission ten years ago and the purpose for coming out with us is because she writes the curriculum for the MTC and needs to keep up to date with what missionaries are doing and what challenges missionaries face. I was a bit nervous beforehand but she was REALLY NICE and literally followed us around listening. If we asked her a question she would talk in lessons and stuff but apart from that she was just listening and writing her little notes on her iPad haha. It was cool though because she taught really well and was just fun. And she had a car!!! We went for dinner in the evening with our new Stake High Councillor and his wife and she came with us like a trio!! I love our new Stake High Councillor and his wife!! It was good because knowing someone was following me around gave me the push to try my absolute best and I realised that I want to be that kind of missionary every day, no matter whether someone is following me or not. It taught me a great lesson that I just needed. 

Mission Leadership Council this week was wonderful. The other Sisters ask us what happens at MLC so I told them that it's actually just a big party for all the Mission Leaders at the Mission Home, we say that we are counselling on things but really we party, it's actually called MLP, Missionary Leadership Party. Hahaha ;) But it was a really spiritual meeting. We set the goal of 136 baptisms in our Mission in the month of November. That is higher than we have ever achieved while I've been on my mission. We calculated every single individual area's baptismal goals for the month and put it together. Usually we lower it a bit after adding it altogether but not this month - we are going for high goals. There were some doubting Thomas's so we all knelt down in prayer right there in President's living room while one of the Assistants offered the prayer to know if this is the Lord's will. The Spirit was so strong and afterwards we all just knelt there and agreed that this is doable. The Lord will teach us powerful lessons. It's great because now we are all personally committed and converted to this goal, then we had to take the goal back to our Zones and help them to be converted to it too!! Zone meeting was great and we had pizza at the end, what could be better? Our Mission is receiving a LOT of new Elders this transfer and only one new Sister, but a lot of Sisters are going home so a lot of Sisters' areas are closing and being whitewashed with Elders. So, a lot of Elders are going home in a few transfers and they are all the Missionary Leaders, so it was an interesting transfer because a ton of the Zone Leaders have been released and will train for their last transfer, and a whole Zone has been whitewashed from Sisters to Elders who used to be Zone Leaders but are now training. It's interesting!! 

I had the privilege of attending the Baptism of M in Morningside on Saturday. He is the man whom when Sister Donovan and I were on exchanges we knocked on his door and he said he wasn't interested at ALL. We walked away but felt strongly that we needed to go back and give him a Book of Mormon and when we did he was a completely different person and said he saw the light around us and when he shut the door on us he felt a power stronger than ever before and knew that we had done something right and that he wanted that light with him. We gave him the Book of Mormon and he promised he would read it. Well, I've taught him at the VC and over the phone and now he is BAPTIZED!!! I wish you could see the change that has come over this man. He was scary looking with long hair and stunk of alcohol and cigarettes and was just very scary and rough looking and when he got into that water I just couldn't fathom the massive change that had come over him. He had told us how uninterested he was and how he didn't believe in this at all on that doorstep compared to the man who gave up "all his sins to know God" and be baptized. He cut his hair and has Christ's light shining through his eyes. Oh it was so beautiful I wanted to cry. The difference it has made in this man's life. And I was thinking about what if I'd not listened to the Spirit's promptings to go back. What if we hadn't recognised it? I just love seeing how the Lord can soften any heart and all our job is is to follow the Spirit. Its just one of those miracles in my mission that I will always hold dear to my heart, to see how the Gospel changes lives. 

We had a miracle yesterday, we needed to find one more new investigator to reach our weekly goals so we prayed and prayed and had like 3 hours to knock on doors because we had a day fully in our area with no VC shift. We went to this Catholic girl's house,who we have seen many times and have developed a good relationship with, just to see how she is. Sister West just said to her "So have you ever taken the lessons before?" and she said "What lessons?" and she said "The missionary lessons?" and she asked what we teach so we told her that we teach about modern day Prophets and what Temples are and how we can be with our families forever and the plan Heavenly Father has for us to be with Him again and she said "Sign me up!! where do I go for these?" and we said that we teach them in people's homes and that we had five minutes right then if she'd like. She said "Yes!" so we sat down and taught The Restoration and it was INCREDIBLE. She said it all made sense and when we taught about Joseph Smith she teared up a bit and then just full on started crying and apologized! Haha I love it when people feel the Spirit and they don't know what it is!! She is just so in tune with the Spirit! At the end she prayed and asked God if this is Him guiding her to what the Sister Missionaries were teaching and if this is right! It was so cute. She is incredible and has such strong faith. I just love her already! 

One of my favourite things from this week is how well N is doing. We usually see him once a week but last week it was twice and this week it's been three times!! ANDDDDDDDD he came to Stake Conference with us, AND brought his non member roommate, also on the football team, AND he invited us over for dinner and made a legit dinner with chicken and potatoes and green beans!! Because he heard us say that for the day we taught him we'd had cereal for two meals and pizza for the other. He was so mad at us for not eating a proper diet that he invited us over for dinner. He also said that after he meets with us he just feels warm and good and that he knows the Book of Mormon is true. He gave us his home address so he can find the Chapel closest to his family at home because he's going home this weekend and wants to know where the local church is! He is GREATTTTTTT! When we were just talking at dinner time he was like, oh I did have a question for you guys. So we braced ourselves for a difficult question and he's like ....."How many outfits do you both have? Every time I see you you are wearing something different!" haha and it was just the highlight of everything. He is praying about baptism and we both just love him! He's just a good kid and we can feel the power of his spirit and know that the Lord has great things in store for him. For some reason we are taking it slow with him, we don't feel that we need to push a baptismal date or anything. I think it will come with time. 

J is doing wonderfully! She accepts every commandment and dresses like a Mormon! We taught Tithing and she just said that she knows this is from God already! It was great. D will be baptized this coming Saturday but up in Provo so that his non-member family can be there. He had to tell his sister (who is the only member in the family) that he wants to be baptized up there and to get the font ready etc and she told the Provo Missionaries and of course they JUMPED ON IT and thought it was their miracle for the month and tried to schedule lessons and a baptismal interview with him! We were like OHHHH NOOO YOU DON'T Provo Missionaries, HE'S OURS because he is going to this Ward and lives down here and will be confirmed into this Ward, he is just physically being put in the water in Provo and it escalated and so they just called us and we talked it out on the phone haha. PROVO MISSIONARIES TRYING TO POACH OUR INVESTIGATORS! So we won't see his baptism but it's better that his whole family get to be there for it! 

Funny experience last night! We went to the Devotional that happens at the Institute Building every Sunday night with our investigators and the guy stands up and is like "Today I'd like to talk about dating and the process of a relationship, the committment levels etc" and I just felt super uncomfortable and it got worse and worse and worse as he explored the amount of relationships you can have with a casual commtitment compared to a finalized committment and I just pulled out my Book of Mormon and kept the missionary bubble around me. It felt HORRIBLE! It felt like going to a party where things turned bad, and you have that horrible feeling and you just know you need to leave. Isn't it funny how missionary bubbles are so strong that even a Devotional about dating is awkward? So we lasted like 5 minutes of it and I said "We need to leave Sister!!" and she agreed so we got up and walked out and did missionary work haha!! 

It's been a great week full of great experiences. S who we baptized in Little Valley came into the VC this week and he is still doing strong. We read the Book of Mormon together. I just can't believe that I have only 3 transfers left. It feels like a stab in the heart every time I think that. How can it come so quickly? I feel like a Greenie still and have so muchhhhhhhh still to learn and do. It freaks me out. I just love my mission so much and love the people here. But I love you all too and am so excited to see you! The Christmas lights are up at the Temple and it looks great!! 

I love you all 

Sister Nicholls

PSSSSSS P-days are Mondays from now on!!

So Many Miracles!! - 4-11-14

I am going to type SUPER FAST SO I CAN TELL YOU EVERYTHING!!! 

First of all, our Asian baptisms were BEAUTIFUL!! The Spirit was so strong! Afterwards we just hugged and cried and smiled. I can tell that they will do great things for China and Hong Kong. H will for sure be a leader there! He is great! He bore his testimony at Church and said "I pray and get better score on my test, I think that is miracle, so I know God is there. My friend sick, I pray and she get better so I baptise yesterday, I guess that is miracle. I'm done now." and sat down. haha! IT WAS ADORBZ. Such a beautiful privilege to be there. If they are still here when you pick me up you need to meet them, you'll fall in love with them. Us and the Elders sung Amazing Grace for the baptism. I was super nervous as usual but Sister West is helping me to overcome my fear of singing in public! President and Sister Center were there as well, it was just a great baptism. 

For Halloween I dressed up as Sister Myers from The District, shout out to all RM's in the world ever! It was great! I felt so traditional haha until it got to like 80 degrees and I was boiling! We had to be home by 6pm on Halloween night, no proselyting and the Visitors' Centre was shut. So we met with our Zone Leaders and discussed the needs of the Zone and then met with the Assistants and practised our musical item for the baptism the next day. When I get home I can fill you in on all the jokes that happened that night, email cannot accurately portray all the details, but it was hilarious!! The Assistants are our best friends now. We carved pumpkins for District Training Meeting the day before and in keeping with classic missionary art I carved the plan of salvation and one of the Elders carved the First Vision (but he's annoyingly good at everything he does so you could actually tell what his was and mine was just blobs all over the pumpkin and an outer darkness haha) and Sister West carved a church haha. I love it! 

Our investigators are doing well. N from the football team is DOING SO GOOD! He makes me so happy!!!!!! He came to Church for the first time on Sunday and in our lesson yesterday he said he knows the Book of Mormon is true :)))))))))) He also said that he feels this warm feeling every time he meets with us. We haven't put him on date for baptism but he is praying about baptism. For some reason wtih him we both just feel that it needs to be taken slowly. And if that's okay with Heavenly Father it's okay with me! So we teach him once a week cos he is super busy but this week we got to see him twice!!! Things really are moving forward with him and it just fills my soul with exceeding joy. I love how when they truly read the BOM and pray every day it sincerely shows them that this is true. My confidence in sharing the Gospel has grown because I've seen how even the hardest heart can accept the Gospel. But he is just a good kid and has a good spirit about him. He is worried about his family back in California  rejecting him for thinking this is true so I told him all about you Dad and how you joined the Church by yourself. It helped :) J who got baptised in September just got the Priesthood and is doing really well! A the girl we found when we knocked on her window on our bikes is doing GREAT!! We see her each day and she is so immersed in her ward. Our Ward Mission Leader loves her and wants to marry her hahaha. #ysaprobs Yesterday we were going to teach chastity but she needed to walk to put her rent in that second so we went to her house and walked with her for like 20 minutes and taught the law of chastity while we walked. It was certainly a memorable moment that doesn't take place every single day haha! How often do you walk across a unviersity campus teaching the law of chastity? But she just embraces everything. SHE LOVED the law of chastity and the Plan of Salvation!!! 

We also found this Brazilian girl who LOVES EVERYTHING! and she has undergone a massive change of heart. She only likes logic and dislikes feelings but went to the VC and felt something powerful and said she needs to learn more. She's met missionaries in Brazil but she discredited everything they taught and didn't want to learn. But now she is like "Wow I was wrong!" and just embraces everything. She is getting baptized on the 22nd November, same as A. She comes to all the activities and is so well integrated. She was even talking to us about how she is ready to be in the minority of Mormons back in Brazil! When you go to Brazil on business again I need to come so we can see her :) I just love all these people so much!!! 

So we had a miracle on Sunday! It was Fast Sunday and I was fasting to be able to help someone who come into the VC. It's easy to get stuck in a rut when you've been there for 7 transfers straight and to just feel like you give the same tour again and again. But anyway this couple came and sat by the Christus and I was talking to them and it turned out he was not a member but she is. He said that he has always felt drawn to the Mormons though and asked me "How on earth does a beer drinking Brit get converted to the Mormons??" haha and so I told him all our family history of conversion, Dad, and Grandad Hatch, and how our family used to own a pub haha he liked that a lot. Anyway we were just relaxed and easy around each other and it was good to feel like I was supposed to be talking to them. So I said a quick prayer in my mind and felt strongly impressed to randomly start talking about Prophets and how I think it's amazing that our Church believes in modern Prophets just like in the old times and he looked at me and said "Thats funny you should say that because that is probably the strongest thing I believe in about your Church" and then I shared a scripture with him from 1 Nephi 10:18-19 and he said, "Where is that?" and I showed him and he said that is  the chapter of scripture he is on right now as he just begun reading The Book of Mormon!! It was so great and the Spirit was strong and it was easy to see how necessary this tour was for us both! And there was this YSA  boy reading The Book of Mormon behind us throughout this whole conversation and he comes in to the VC to read the scriptures each day and he came in yesterday and was like "Hey how did that tour turn out yesterday?" and it was cool because I didn't know anyone was watching. But I love being used as an instrument in the Lord's hands. Especially when He answers our prayers. 

Also Sunday was miracle day because we needed one more new investigator to meet our weekly goals. We had half an hour left before home time so we prayed and visited every single house we could think of. We didn't just pray that we would find someone, but we prayed that we would be led to the right houses, or that we would remember people to visit, and that they'd be home and that they'd hear their doors being knocked and that they would feel the Spirit when we talked and that we'd know what to say. The Lord blesses us when we are specific! We knocked lots of houses and were running round St George like headless chickens when I remembered a YSA girl who came into the VC and said she had a non member roommate. I remembered roughly where the house was and we found it very quickly and they invited us in straight away and we taught and she said she would like to learn more!!!!! IT WAS A MIRACLE!!!!!! I love how the Lord really is helping us every day when we turn to Him. 

This week we have Missionary Leadership Council, Zone Meeting, and on Saturday someone from the MTC is coming to observe us for the whole day!!! We will be in a trio. AND ALSO it's transfer calls on Saturday so I don't know when my next p-day will be! I could be up in Manti before we know it or I could forever be at the VC, who knows? So think of me on Saturday :) It's a nerve racking week with all of this!!! I love you all!!! 

Sister Nicholls

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!