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!