Hey everyone!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! This is SUCH an exciting time of year; I love it! I hope everything back home is going well and you all are having an incredible time. Things here have been pretty average for the most part. We had zone conference which is always fun, and this time it was even better because we had all the zones on the island there, so 5 zones in all. We had a great training by our zone leaders about applying the Plan of Salvation to our mission « lives » and it was really impressive. I really like having Elder Pratt as our new zone leader; he is really impressive. Then after all of the trainings we had a little Christmas party for the missionaries. Several of the sisters in the Montreal ward had cooked us a beautiful Christmas dinner and we all got to wear Christmas hats and got Christmas presents. It was so much fun : ) I loved seeing all of the elders from last transfer who had been transferred to other places.
I don`t have much news other than that…I really can`t think of anything that`s happened this week. On Monday we went Christmas caroling for FHE, and that was a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time finding since most of our potentials/investigators are MIA due to finals or going home for Christmas or a lack of interest. We did go visit April, the recent convert who was baptized right before I got here, and that was really sad. She`s not interested in the slightestin hearing anything to do with religion and kept us very much at arms length. It was one of those times where the other person is being as rude as they can while still putting on the pretense of being polite. It really was upsetting. Poor Sister Williams took it really hard and ended up crying half the night because of it. Hopefully someday she`ll realize what she`s missing out on… This week should be pretty exciting, although a bit unproductive. My companions have both been sick for the past few days. Sister Williams was so bad she couldn`t even stand up, so we haven`t been as productive as we would`ve liked to have been. They`re now both getting better and I`m starting to get it. Not fun. But we`re hoping to all be better by Christmas : ) OH, and it`s so exciting, after weeks of begging we actually have Christmas plans now! We all hinted strongly in our President`s letters last week that we needed a Christmas dinner since we were the only missionaries we knew that didn`t have one, and then in his training, President talked about his first Christmas in France in which he didn`t have a heater in his room (there was only a space heater to heat the whole apartment and the senior comp had it in his room) and none of his presents had gotten there on time and his comp wouldn`t let him watch while he opened his, so Christmas morning he got up and ironed his sheets to remove the ice from them so they were warm enough to crawl back into and try to sleep while his comp opened his presents. So we figured we wouldn`t get any sympathy from him. BUT! Luckily Sister McKinnon was feeling generous and has invited several companionships over for Christmas Eve dinner, which should be SO fun : ) Then the Bishop of the family ward invited the whole zone over for a brunch on Christmas Day, then a woman who we just met 2 days ago invited us over for Christmas dinner since it was only going to be her and her 40 year old son, so we`re pretty excited about all of that : ) I`m not entirely sure when I`ll be calling home, but probably sometime between 1 and 5 Christmas afternoon…I don`t quite know how it will work out either. I was supposed to buy a calling card today, but I forgot to, so if we get them I`ll be calling from either the church or our cell phone. If not, then I`ll be going to the Anderson`s (the senior couple here…I just love them!) and using Skype to call home.
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! Thanks again so much for the support and letters and everything : ) I love you all tons!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Monday, December 21, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
It's almost Christmas! I finally got boots!
Hey everyone!
It sounds like things are going really well back home…it’s almost Christmas time! I’m so excited to call home and talk to everyone :) Tell David congratulations on everything with the Madrigal concert…I bet he was amazing. Any chance he can send me a recording of the songs that he sang? And Michelle too…she said she might send a recording of her choral performance, and I’d love it if I can have it. Our president is really lax with music, and at Christmas time we can listen to any Christmas music, not just LDS Christmas music. We’re still pretty conservative with what we listen to just because we know the difference between uplifting music and mission uplifting music (music that makes us motivated to actually do missionary work instead of just uplifting music), but there are a lot of elders who take complete advantage of President’s music rules. We were in the car with some elders this morning on the way back from doing laundry and they were listening to “Mormon Tabernacle Remixed” which is basically the rap version of Motab. It was hilarious, but not something that I would feel comfortable listening to everyday. We are getting the J Groban Christmas CD for evenings while we’re getting ready for bed tonight though :)
So this week was full of miracles, Saturday especially. Oh but first, I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Morse, this is her 5th transfer and she was in Quebec City for the first 6 months of her mission. She’s a lot of fun; I really like her. And she really wants to work hard and is used to working hard (Quebec is a really hard area without much success…they actually closed it this transfer but are hoping to reopen it soon) so it’s exciting to have her here. And we all seem to work fairly well together. It’s been interesting trying to adjust to 3 people in our companionship and teaching in our lessons instead of just 2, but it’s been pretty good so far. I’m excited for this transfer :) Also, since she’s been up in Quebec, she speaks French perfectly and so hopefully mine will improve. I don’t speak French hardly at all while I’m up here since we only work with English speaking YSA, but I’m hoping to get her to PVL (parlez votre langue - speak your language) with me often. We’ll see how it goes.
But anyways, back to the miracles. Saturday was incredible. We got to the church at a bit after 11 and we were supposed to meet Rob there at 11:30, but he didn’t show up. We waited there just making calls until almost noon and then were about to give up and go to the metro to contact to go for lunch or something like that, but then Sarah, this cute Chinese girl we’ve been teaching, showed up! We were supposed to meet with her on Sunday but she was leaving for China on Sunday so she was going to have to cancel so she decided to stop by the church and see if we were there. We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then Sister Williams asked why she was afraid of being baptized and she said she just had some questions and asked them and we were able to answer all of them and she was so happy at the end of it! All of her concerns (for the moment) were put to rest and she promised to read everyday while she’s over in China. It was so exciting…hopefully it will be the same when she gets home :) Then we went contacting for a bit, then came back and ate dinner, then met with Earnest and that was so frustrating…there is such a difference between teaching people who listen to answers and those who don’t. He asked a question and I started answering it and 2 words into it he rolled his eyes and made some noise (psh…or something, I don’t know how to actually write the sounds out, haha) and I was so irritated by it and said “Don’t “psh” me; I’m not done talking yet!” and he apologized and listened and I was able to answer his question. My companions just started laughing. Luckily he didn’t get upset that I was that rude…I figured he could take it ;) But it was a very frustrating lesson. Then we went to the metro to wait for our less active, Mike, who was going to meet us there and go to the Spirit of Christmas fireside with us. We waited for awhile, but he didn’t show up. So we were going to leave and guess who came out of the metro, heading home for the day? ROB! Our newly baptized man who had smurfed us that morning for our lesson and who we hadn’t been able to contact all week and had been worried sick about. Turns out he had some military function (he’s with the reserves) and so he hadn’t been able to come and he hadn’t been able to get ahold of us. So we told him about the fireside and he changed his plans right then to come with us. It was SO exciting :). Then the fireside was great. It was one of the musical ones where everyone sings Christmas songs and the Spirit was so strong. Oh, and another miracle: remember the Japanese girl I mentioned that I’d met at the service project last Saturday who had unexpectedly shown up for church last week? We ran into her at the bus stop on our way to the chapel. She had heard about the Spirit of Christmas and had wanted to come, and brought her best friend (a girl from Montreal) with her. Elder Cowley talked to her friend, Raphaelle, and she said she didn’t believe in God at all, and he bet her $100 that she would hear something that night and something inside her would click and she would know that what we were doing and saying was true. And it happened! Elder Ronndahl sang “Oh Holy Night” for the closing song and the Japanese girl, Saiah, was really touched, and Raphaelle just started to bawl. So we’re teaching her next week :) It was so perfect. I love it when those miracles happen…God definitely does have a plan and things always work out the way they do for a reason. Rob smurfed us, but we were there to talk to Sarah. Mike smurfed us, but because of that we ran into Rob. We met Saiah last week and she introduced us to Raphaelle. So perfect. I love it.
Other than that, life has been fairly uneventful recently. We passed off one of our committeds and another really great guy, Zach, to Elder Jest and Elder Laforney because they weren’t in our area which was pretty upsetting, but that’s all right…we’ll find other great people soon, I’m sure. I’m really excited to get out and start working harder. Oh, and it was great! We had a dinner appointment last night with two girls in our branch, Lynda and Sacha, and they are so cute. I just love them. And I will never again complain about having a tiny apartment. Theirs was BY FAR the smallest I have EVER seen…Their kitchen seriously wasn’t any bigger than a closet and their bedroom barely fit a dresser and a bunkbed. I would be so claustrophobic living there. But they love it, and they were so sweet to invite us over for dinner :) Then after that we went to visit a less active with another member of our branch, Jenn, and we got there and could NOT find her house anywhere. Hers was number 919, and the houses went from 921 to 917, with nothing in between at all. We even asked one of the people living in 921, and they had no idea where 919 was. So we called her and she had moved MONTHS ago to somewhere in the west island about an hour away. So we’re visiting her next weekend instead. It was pretty funny.
Oh! And we had our first REAL snow storm! I bought boots on Tuesday (thank goodness…they were entirely too much money though) and there was a huge snow storm on Wednesday. Like 10 inches. But they cleared the roads and everything, so yesterday I thought I’d be fine wearing regular shoes instead of boots, so I didn’t wear them. It snowed again yesterday. Another 4 inches just while we were in church…so crazy. I realized having boots doesn’t help too much if I don’t wear them :) But the snow is gorgeous and it will definitely be a white Christmas! I’m so excited! I hope you all have a good week and take care…I love you tons!! :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
PS: thanks for the letters! That always makes the day more exciting. Love you tons!
It sounds like things are going really well back home…it’s almost Christmas time! I’m so excited to call home and talk to everyone :) Tell David congratulations on everything with the Madrigal concert…I bet he was amazing. Any chance he can send me a recording of the songs that he sang? And Michelle too…she said she might send a recording of her choral performance, and I’d love it if I can have it. Our president is really lax with music, and at Christmas time we can listen to any Christmas music, not just LDS Christmas music. We’re still pretty conservative with what we listen to just because we know the difference between uplifting music and mission uplifting music (music that makes us motivated to actually do missionary work instead of just uplifting music), but there are a lot of elders who take complete advantage of President’s music rules. We were in the car with some elders this morning on the way back from doing laundry and they were listening to “Mormon Tabernacle Remixed” which is basically the rap version of Motab. It was hilarious, but not something that I would feel comfortable listening to everyday. We are getting the J Groban Christmas CD for evenings while we’re getting ready for bed tonight though :)
So this week was full of miracles, Saturday especially. Oh but first, I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Morse, this is her 5th transfer and she was in Quebec City for the first 6 months of her mission. She’s a lot of fun; I really like her. And she really wants to work hard and is used to working hard (Quebec is a really hard area without much success…they actually closed it this transfer but are hoping to reopen it soon) so it’s exciting to have her here. And we all seem to work fairly well together. It’s been interesting trying to adjust to 3 people in our companionship and teaching in our lessons instead of just 2, but it’s been pretty good so far. I’m excited for this transfer :) Also, since she’s been up in Quebec, she speaks French perfectly and so hopefully mine will improve. I don’t speak French hardly at all while I’m up here since we only work with English speaking YSA, but I’m hoping to get her to PVL (parlez votre langue - speak your language) with me often. We’ll see how it goes.
But anyways, back to the miracles. Saturday was incredible. We got to the church at a bit after 11 and we were supposed to meet Rob there at 11:30, but he didn’t show up. We waited there just making calls until almost noon and then were about to give up and go to the metro to contact to go for lunch or something like that, but then Sarah, this cute Chinese girl we’ve been teaching, showed up! We were supposed to meet with her on Sunday but she was leaving for China on Sunday so she was going to have to cancel so she decided to stop by the church and see if we were there. We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then Sister Williams asked why she was afraid of being baptized and she said she just had some questions and asked them and we were able to answer all of them and she was so happy at the end of it! All of her concerns (for the moment) were put to rest and she promised to read everyday while she’s over in China. It was so exciting…hopefully it will be the same when she gets home :) Then we went contacting for a bit, then came back and ate dinner, then met with Earnest and that was so frustrating…there is such a difference between teaching people who listen to answers and those who don’t. He asked a question and I started answering it and 2 words into it he rolled his eyes and made some noise (psh…or something, I don’t know how to actually write the sounds out, haha) and I was so irritated by it and said “Don’t “psh” me; I’m not done talking yet!” and he apologized and listened and I was able to answer his question. My companions just started laughing. Luckily he didn’t get upset that I was that rude…I figured he could take it ;) But it was a very frustrating lesson. Then we went to the metro to wait for our less active, Mike, who was going to meet us there and go to the Spirit of Christmas fireside with us. We waited for awhile, but he didn’t show up. So we were going to leave and guess who came out of the metro, heading home for the day? ROB! Our newly baptized man who had smurfed us that morning for our lesson and who we hadn’t been able to contact all week and had been worried sick about. Turns out he had some military function (he’s with the reserves) and so he hadn’t been able to come and he hadn’t been able to get ahold of us. So we told him about the fireside and he changed his plans right then to come with us. It was SO exciting :). Then the fireside was great. It was one of the musical ones where everyone sings Christmas songs and the Spirit was so strong. Oh, and another miracle: remember the Japanese girl I mentioned that I’d met at the service project last Saturday who had unexpectedly shown up for church last week? We ran into her at the bus stop on our way to the chapel. She had heard about the Spirit of Christmas and had wanted to come, and brought her best friend (a girl from Montreal) with her. Elder Cowley talked to her friend, Raphaelle, and she said she didn’t believe in God at all, and he bet her $100 that she would hear something that night and something inside her would click and she would know that what we were doing and saying was true. And it happened! Elder Ronndahl sang “Oh Holy Night” for the closing song and the Japanese girl, Saiah, was really touched, and Raphaelle just started to bawl. So we’re teaching her next week :) It was so perfect. I love it when those miracles happen…God definitely does have a plan and things always work out the way they do for a reason. Rob smurfed us, but we were there to talk to Sarah. Mike smurfed us, but because of that we ran into Rob. We met Saiah last week and she introduced us to Raphaelle. So perfect. I love it.
Other than that, life has been fairly uneventful recently. We passed off one of our committeds and another really great guy, Zach, to Elder Jest and Elder Laforney because they weren’t in our area which was pretty upsetting, but that’s all right…we’ll find other great people soon, I’m sure. I’m really excited to get out and start working harder. Oh, and it was great! We had a dinner appointment last night with two girls in our branch, Lynda and Sacha, and they are so cute. I just love them. And I will never again complain about having a tiny apartment. Theirs was BY FAR the smallest I have EVER seen…Their kitchen seriously wasn’t any bigger than a closet and their bedroom barely fit a dresser and a bunkbed. I would be so claustrophobic living there. But they love it, and they were so sweet to invite us over for dinner :) Then after that we went to visit a less active with another member of our branch, Jenn, and we got there and could NOT find her house anywhere. Hers was number 919, and the houses went from 921 to 917, with nothing in between at all. We even asked one of the people living in 921, and they had no idea where 919 was. So we called her and she had moved MONTHS ago to somewhere in the west island about an hour away. So we’re visiting her next weekend instead. It was pretty funny.
Oh! And we had our first REAL snow storm! I bought boots on Tuesday (thank goodness…they were entirely too much money though) and there was a huge snow storm on Wednesday. Like 10 inches. But they cleared the roads and everything, so yesterday I thought I’d be fine wearing regular shoes instead of boots, so I didn’t wear them. It snowed again yesterday. Another 4 inches just while we were in church…so crazy. I realized having boots doesn’t help too much if I don’t wear them :) But the snow is gorgeous and it will definitely be a white Christmas! I’m so excited! I hope you all have a good week and take care…I love you tons!! :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
PS: thanks for the letters! That always makes the day more exciting. Love you tons!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
I survived the transfer and am in a threesome!!
Hey everybody!
This week was WONDERFUL! :) ROB GOT BAPTIZED!!! It was SO exciting...it went really well. It was at 9 in the morning, so we had to be there extremely early to fill up the font, had a bit of a difficult time printing programs, and we ended up starting a bit late, but it still worked out all right. It was pretty funny; at about 8:45 Rob and the elders were the only people who had shown up, so we were starting to get a bit nervous. We called our ward mission leader, Jean-Luc, and asked where he was and he said "Oh sisters, thanks so much for waking me up!" Sister Williams just about flipped. He asked us if Brother Donaldson (counselor in the branch presidency) was there yet and if maybe we could just do PEC first and THEN have the baptism. Sister Williams was furious. She was trying so hard to be nice at first but then stopped and said "I'll preside the stupid thing myself if I have to! You had better be here in 15 minutes or..." and he interrupted her to say he would be there as soon as he could, but it still might be a little while. She just hung up the phone. Then the APs showed up and she started complaining to Elder Cowley and he said "Wait, Jean-Luc? He's out in the parking lot right now on the phone." and then he walks in, completely ready. It was so funny :) But the baptism itself went really well. I took pictures, I'll try to send them next week. One of the recent converts, Robyn, gave the talk and did an incredible job, and then Richard, a convert of about 2 years, actually performed the baptism, and it was so neat. He did a really great job. And afterwards Rob was so happy! He was so excited before it actually happened and then afterwards we asked how he felt and he said he just had such an incredible feeling and was so happy...he couldn't stop smiling! :) I loved it. A guy in the ward, Jared, did the confirmation which was good. He had helped a lot in the fellowshipping so it was great that he was able to participate in some way. I think it's good that members of the ward participate actively in the confirmation/baptism ordinances...that way there isn't really just the one missionary that the recent convert is depending on. They can form that bond with someone in the ward who won't be leaving anytime soon. Otherwise they'll be like many of the other recent converts who are torn apart completely when the missionary who baptized them goes home or is transferred. i think I'm going to encourage everyone from here on out to have members of the ward baptize them instead of missionaries...we'll see how that works out :)
What else happened this week? Oh! We did a service project on Saturday which was so fun! We collected food for the NDG food drive and we got to go around with the military/ SIster Williams and I rode in one of the army trucks...definitely worth the 3 hours of freezing outside while we were knocking doors, haha. I loved it. We were also on the news while we were sorting the food afterward, or at least, that's what the woman in charge told em at church yesterday, but I don't know if we actually were or where you would be able to find that to see it. But it was still a really neat experience. I also met a girl there from Japan who had been living in Quebec for 2 months and then moved to Montreal just 2 days before and I talked to her for a bit, she came around the town with us while we were collecting food, and we invited her to church and she showed up! It was such a shock...but there she was, and she stayed for all three meetings! Two of the girls in the ward are fluent in Japanese (one served her mission there, I don't know about the other one) so they both talked to her and explained everything, which was wonderful, and so it turned out really well. I'm not sure she's really interested, but she said she might come to FHE tonight and she'll definitely be at French class tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. I'm expecting a miracle this Christmas...maybe she's a part of it :)
Also....I made it through my first transfer!! My second transfer officially starts tomorrow, and I have my planner decorated and ready to go :) I'm excited. We got home Saturday evening to wait for the call around 8...it didn't actually come through until almost 10 so we were just sitting there waiting for news to come in. We had our friend Bruno sneak a peak at the board in President McKinnon's office (he cleans the mission home) on Friday and so we pretty much knew what was going on with us (President Mckinnon was so upset though...he said he's never letting Bruno in his room again. But we got the information!), but didn't know much else that was happening, so we were sitting and waiting for all the other elders to call us and tell us what was happening with each of them, and it was CRAZY. They flushed like 5 areas, 2 of them were zone leader areas which is like unheard of in this mission, and then they just put bizarre companionships together in random places. 3 of the elders are leaving halfway through this transfer to get back to school in time, so we weren't sure what was going on with them, and they ended up doing some completely unexpected things. Like Elder Porter is being transferred to some boonies area in Ottawa and training an elder fresh from the MTC for these 3 weeks and then they'll have to replace him with somebody...not quite what I would have done. As for us, both Sister Williams and I are staying in Concordia (the YSA English branch), but since one of the sisters is going home and we're not getting any new ones this transfer, they're closing Quebec City and Sister Morse is coming to Concordia so we'll be a trio. It will be an interesting experience...I can't quite decide what to think about it. Our apartment is so tiny, so we've spent the past day or so cleaning out the junk that has been piling up for the past 5 or so years and it is insane how much can accumulate. I've heard she's pretty quiet, but that she likes to work hard, so we'll see what she's like when we meet her tomorrow. I think it'll be a good transfer :)
Other than that, there hasn't been anything too exciting going on this week. Life is pretty much the same as always. We were both a bit under the weather this week so we didn't get quite as much contacting done as we wanted to, and I didn't think we were working all that hard, but we still managed to do better than every other area in our zone. Kind of crazy how that works out. And we had a miracle (of sorts). Remember that kid Michael who came to church with his friend Sonny last week? He randomly showed up at the Church on Thursday wanting to be baptized and we just happened to be there, so we taught him the first discussion and it went so well. He's had a pretty rough life, but wants to change it completely. He said he felt something in church...he almost started crying during Sacrament meeting, and he wants that always in his life. So it was great. We taught him the second lesson on Saturday and that went well too, but we're going to have to pass him off...he has an 8 yr old daughter who he hasn't seen in 3 years, but he's taking his ex to court for custody, so he's not exactly YSA. But it still was exciting to have him be so interested. And we met with a member referral who was way sweet and another really cute girl named Dominique who we met on the metro about a month back. Unfortunately both of them have finals this week so we can't see them again for another week or so, but I'm hoping for good things with both of them :)
I love you all tons and thanks so much for the letters, support, and prayers! It really means a lot to me. I miss you tons and can't wait to talk to you in just a couple of weeks! I love you!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
This week was WONDERFUL! :) ROB GOT BAPTIZED!!! It was SO exciting...it went really well. It was at 9 in the morning, so we had to be there extremely early to fill up the font, had a bit of a difficult time printing programs, and we ended up starting a bit late, but it still worked out all right. It was pretty funny; at about 8:45 Rob and the elders were the only people who had shown up, so we were starting to get a bit nervous. We called our ward mission leader, Jean-Luc, and asked where he was and he said "Oh sisters, thanks so much for waking me up!" Sister Williams just about flipped. He asked us if Brother Donaldson (counselor in the branch presidency) was there yet and if maybe we could just do PEC first and THEN have the baptism. Sister Williams was furious. She was trying so hard to be nice at first but then stopped and said "I'll preside the stupid thing myself if I have to! You had better be here in 15 minutes or..." and he interrupted her to say he would be there as soon as he could, but it still might be a little while. She just hung up the phone. Then the APs showed up and she started complaining to Elder Cowley and he said "Wait, Jean-Luc? He's out in the parking lot right now on the phone." and then he walks in, completely ready. It was so funny :) But the baptism itself went really well. I took pictures, I'll try to send them next week. One of the recent converts, Robyn, gave the talk and did an incredible job, and then Richard, a convert of about 2 years, actually performed the baptism, and it was so neat. He did a really great job. And afterwards Rob was so happy! He was so excited before it actually happened and then afterwards we asked how he felt and he said he just had such an incredible feeling and was so happy...he couldn't stop smiling! :) I loved it. A guy in the ward, Jared, did the confirmation which was good. He had helped a lot in the fellowshipping so it was great that he was able to participate in some way. I think it's good that members of the ward participate actively in the confirmation/baptism ordinances...that way there isn't really just the one missionary that the recent convert is depending on. They can form that bond with someone in the ward who won't be leaving anytime soon. Otherwise they'll be like many of the other recent converts who are torn apart completely when the missionary who baptized them goes home or is transferred. i think I'm going to encourage everyone from here on out to have members of the ward baptize them instead of missionaries...we'll see how that works out :)
What else happened this week? Oh! We did a service project on Saturday which was so fun! We collected food for the NDG food drive and we got to go around with the military/ SIster Williams and I rode in one of the army trucks...definitely worth the 3 hours of freezing outside while we were knocking doors, haha. I loved it. We were also on the news while we were sorting the food afterward, or at least, that's what the woman in charge told em at church yesterday, but I don't know if we actually were or where you would be able to find that to see it. But it was still a really neat experience. I also met a girl there from Japan who had been living in Quebec for 2 months and then moved to Montreal just 2 days before and I talked to her for a bit, she came around the town with us while we were collecting food, and we invited her to church and she showed up! It was such a shock...but there she was, and she stayed for all three meetings! Two of the girls in the ward are fluent in Japanese (one served her mission there, I don't know about the other one) so they both talked to her and explained everything, which was wonderful, and so it turned out really well. I'm not sure she's really interested, but she said she might come to FHE tonight and she'll definitely be at French class tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. I'm expecting a miracle this Christmas...maybe she's a part of it :)
Also....I made it through my first transfer!! My second transfer officially starts tomorrow, and I have my planner decorated and ready to go :) I'm excited. We got home Saturday evening to wait for the call around 8...it didn't actually come through until almost 10 so we were just sitting there waiting for news to come in. We had our friend Bruno sneak a peak at the board in President McKinnon's office (he cleans the mission home) on Friday and so we pretty much knew what was going on with us (President Mckinnon was so upset though...he said he's never letting Bruno in his room again. But we got the information!), but didn't know much else that was happening, so we were sitting and waiting for all the other elders to call us and tell us what was happening with each of them, and it was CRAZY. They flushed like 5 areas, 2 of them were zone leader areas which is like unheard of in this mission, and then they just put bizarre companionships together in random places. 3 of the elders are leaving halfway through this transfer to get back to school in time, so we weren't sure what was going on with them, and they ended up doing some completely unexpected things. Like Elder Porter is being transferred to some boonies area in Ottawa and training an elder fresh from the MTC for these 3 weeks and then they'll have to replace him with somebody...not quite what I would have done. As for us, both Sister Williams and I are staying in Concordia (the YSA English branch), but since one of the sisters is going home and we're not getting any new ones this transfer, they're closing Quebec City and Sister Morse is coming to Concordia so we'll be a trio. It will be an interesting experience...I can't quite decide what to think about it. Our apartment is so tiny, so we've spent the past day or so cleaning out the junk that has been piling up for the past 5 or so years and it is insane how much can accumulate. I've heard she's pretty quiet, but that she likes to work hard, so we'll see what she's like when we meet her tomorrow. I think it'll be a good transfer :)
Other than that, there hasn't been anything too exciting going on this week. Life is pretty much the same as always. We were both a bit under the weather this week so we didn't get quite as much contacting done as we wanted to, and I didn't think we were working all that hard, but we still managed to do better than every other area in our zone. Kind of crazy how that works out. And we had a miracle (of sorts). Remember that kid Michael who came to church with his friend Sonny last week? He randomly showed up at the Church on Thursday wanting to be baptized and we just happened to be there, so we taught him the first discussion and it went so well. He's had a pretty rough life, but wants to change it completely. He said he felt something in church...he almost started crying during Sacrament meeting, and he wants that always in his life. So it was great. We taught him the second lesson on Saturday and that went well too, but we're going to have to pass him off...he has an 8 yr old daughter who he hasn't seen in 3 years, but he's taking his ex to court for custody, so he's not exactly YSA. But it still was exciting to have him be so interested. And we met with a member referral who was way sweet and another really cute girl named Dominique who we met on the metro about a month back. Unfortunately both of them have finals this week so we can't see them again for another week or so, but I'm hoping for good things with both of them :)
I love you all tons and thanks so much for the letters, support, and prayers! It really means a lot to me. I miss you tons and can't wait to talk to you in just a couple of weeks! I love you!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
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