Monday, November 30, 2009

We got your Christmas package!!!

Hey Mom!

So the internet isn’t working right now…I was able to read your messages but not respond, so I won’t be able to answer your questions in full right now since I don’t really remember what they are. I did get the packages though!! They came today; it was so exciting!! J We were doing our laundry and one of the elders (Elder Leman from Belgium…he’s so fun, I just love him) called me to tell me that I had two HUGE packages waiting for me. It was so exciting. And there were several other elders there who all made a huge deal about having enormous packages and I just laughed and said that my family loves me J Thank you so much! I’m so excited to go home and decorate! Sister Williams and I were looking through them a bit and found the little tree and the decorations…such a cute idea. Thanks again, so much!

Life here is pretty standard…nothing too exciting from this week. It has gotten pretty cold…today it’s about 2 C according to the weather in the metro (don’t ask me how cold that is in F) and tomorrow it’s supposed to be 0 C, getting to a low for the week of –2 C on Thursday. So crazy. And I still haven’t bought boots yet. We were going to go last week but then it was Sister Cerdhe’s birthday so all of the sisters on the island (all 8 of us) and Robyn went out to eat and it ended up taking all afternoon so we didn’t get a chance to buy them. So we were going to do it this morning, but laundry and groceries and everything ended up taking forever and we don’t have tons of time, so I have no idea when we’re going to be able to go get them. I need to soon though; the first snowfall of the year was today! I guess it’s a lot later than it usually is so some of the Canadians were a little nervous…one of our investigators prayed for snow the other day. Her name is Stephanie and she’s way cute, but I wasn’t too happy about that part of the prayer…oh well. It is pretty at least J

Ooh, and happy (late) Thanksgiving! I forgot about it last Monday or I would have said something in that email. It sounds like you guys had a lot of fun! And I completely forgot about black Friday…I’m bummed I missed out! That’s great that you were able to finish most of the Christmas shopping…I love this time of year! Our Thanksgiving was really fun. Elder and Sister Anderson, a senior couple here that teach Institute and are just the sweetest people, invited all the missionaries in our zone over for a Thanksgiving dinner. It was SO much fun…they set it up as a buffet and people were coming and going from 1 until about 5 pm, so we went there around 3 with 6 or so other elders and it was just so much fun. It made the day a lot better. Unfortunately, they tend to take after Grandma and Grandpa Lindsey in their celebration of Thanksgiving and only had one kind of pie…I think next year I’m just going to make about 10 the day before Thanksgiving so I can finally have a real celebration ;)

OH, there were some crazy things from this week though that I almost forgot to mention! We were in the metro on Tuesday, talking to one of the members that Sister Williams knows from another ward, and one of the drivers on the green line got out of his car and went and talked to the police officers. I guess he really doesn’t like missionaries and always makes an announcement when he sees them telling them not to proselyte on the metro because it’s “illegal”. Sister Williams recognized him because he had to talk to her one time since she didn’t understand the announcement and he was pretty rude to her. So anyways, he talked to the police officers and then they came over and told us we weren’t allowed to talk to anyone in the metro. I said that we weren’t selling anything and we weren’t handing anything out unless they were interested in which case we gave them a pass-along card, but we didn’t do anything more than that (which is within the bounds of the rules…we weren’t doing anything wrong) and they said that we weren’t allowed to do that there. I asked if we would be allowed to continue just talking to people without handing out the cards and they said that was bending the rules and we weren’t allowed to do that at all and we would have to leave the metro station if we tried. So we left the metro station and ran into one of the APs on the way out and told him what happened and he told us we should go back in there and keep talking anyways. Then if we got arrested we’d be legends J We still didn’t go back, but just rode the metro for awhile talking to people instead. Oh, and while we were riding the metro, there was one time when there were no YSA people on our car, so the train stopped and I got off to get onto a different car and try to talk to some people. Right as Sister Williams went to follow me off, the doors shut, leaving me on the platform and her in the car, and there was nothing we could do. So she rode to the next station. I waited for the next train and wasn’t sure if I should get on it or not, so I decided I might as well get on. She wasn’t sure what to do either, so at the next station she got on the train heading back to the station we had split off at. Luckily, my train arrived right as hers was about to leave and she looked over and saw me through the window (pretty miraculous how it happened with both of us being on cars across from each other) and so she quickly got off and we were back together again. And I definitely freaked out about not having a companion with me. 5 weeks into the mission and I can't be without one, haha. Also, tell Michelle that I already have the missionary voice too...it came about the first week here and I know I'm doing it and I can't stop it. I'll try to get rid of it before I come back though, don't worry :)

OH, and another crazy story...so remember that one I mentioned last week about that guy Sonny who asked for my number in the metro but we never called him, then he randomly showed up while we were waiting for someone else and so we had the elders teach him and he dropped off the face of the earth? (side note: make sure you always call the missionaries back. It's so frustrating to just wait for days and have no idea whether you should keep calling or not.) Well, SIster WIlliams and I ran into him and his friend, Michael, at the metro on Saturday and invited them both to church on Sunday. His friend is Catholic, but said they would come anyways as long as he was welcome. So they both showed up for Sacrament meeting yesterday and I invited them to FHE tonight, so we'll see if they come. Michael, after church, asked me if he was doing something wrong and I didn't quite know what he meant, so I said not at all, and he said "Are you sure? I just think I'm doing something wrong." But then I had to run because I was teaching the Sunday School class so I didn't have time to ge to the heart of his question. Hopefully he comes tonight and we can work it out. It was just kind of crazy. oh, and I did speak yesterday in church and it actually turned out pretty well! It was definitely an inspired idea...I had no idea what I was going to talk on and then I remembered the primary song "I belong to the CHurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" and so I took that song and went principle by principle through it: we know who we are (God's children...I quoted that first part of the YW theme), we know God's plan and will follow Him in faith, we beleive in the Savior, Jesus Christ, and honor His name, and finally His truth we will proclaim. I was pretty pleased after writing it. Then I was freaking out a bit Sunday morning since I really hadn't spent hardly any time planning it and wasn't sure what I was going to say and hadn't spent much time on my lesson or anything, and so I asked Bro. Banfield how long I was speaking for and he said "Oh, did I not tell you? You're not speaking today. It's the CES production so Brother Limoges is talking." So I calmed down a bit. Then 5 minutes before it started, Elder Cowley came up to me and said that there''d been a change of plans, Brother Limoges's wife couldn't come, so I was speaking after all. It was so crazy. But it went really well and I had one person come up after and say that it was just what he needed...he had been a bit iffy about church attendance recently and my talk was just what he needed to solidify his testimony. It was really neat :)

AND best news of all!!! ROB IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! :) This Sunday!! I'm so excited for him. It's going to be so wonderful. He's the first person I ever taught, and he's going to be baptized! I really can't wait at all. OH, and the girl that you talked to on Facebook, Mom, is Robyn and she is probably my favorite person in the branch. I just love her...she said she had talked to you on there and gave me a hug for you last Monday (she came out to eat iwth us) and it was so exciting. She is so cute and we talk to her just about every day. I LOVE her. But anyways, I need to wrap this up, my hour is about over. I love you all tons, and thanks again for the package! You are amazing!! :)

Love, Nicole

Monday, November 23, 2009

Are you freezing yet?

Hey Mom!

How are you? It`s always so good to hear from you! Things here are insane, like always. This week wasn`t quite as good as last week in our work ethic or quality which was pretty frustrating, but we already have a million lessons planned for this next week, so it should be a lot better! Except it`s crazy...I really thought that leaving BYU and coming on a mission meant that I wouldn`t have to deal with boys asking me out anymore. Obviously, I was wrong. I don`t think I told you about Sonny, but he was actually from last week. We met him on the metro (we had planned on going home about 20 minutes earlier and eating dinner, but we ran into one of our zone leaders and he said we couldn`t leave the metro until we had at least 2 phone numbers) and I went up and in the middle of introducing myself he asked me for my phone number. I gave it to him on the condition that he gave us his. I counted it as one of the 2 I needed to appease Elder Sabin, but really had no intention of calling him since he kind of creeped me out. He called us twice that week, and we missed it both times and didn`t call him back. Then we were in the metro last saturday waiting for a man, Curtis, and he came up to us and just kind of stood next to us for awhile. We got the elders to teach him the first discussion and he said he`d be baptized, but then never called or came or returned the missionaries calls, so they decided he was really just in it to meet me and then when he found out I wouldn`t be teaching him, he wasn`t interested anymore. Then I was talking to a man from Turkey on the metro the other day and said we were missionaries and gave him our card with our number on it and he has called EVERY DAY this week to ask me out for coffee. I`ve missed every call and haven`t called him back yet...I need to at some point, but I`ve always been horrible at that...;) THEN we were teaching a less active recent convert, David, the other day and he said at the beginning he wanted to get to know us both better. I said we had tried to get this girl Genevieve to come with us, but she couldn`t, but she`s way cute and we love her so we`d try to get her to come the next time, and he said "Well you`re pretty cute too, I think we should just have you come next time." I wasn`t quite sure what to make of that comment, so I ignored it and went ahead with the lesson. I thought the lesson was going pretty well until about halfway through when he randomly asked "Are you allowed to date on your mission?" I said no and he asked whose choice that was and I said that it was mine. It was a rule given to us, but my decision to obey the rule and I wasn`t going to date until I got home and he said "Well I can easily see someone following you back to the United States when you go home to date you." We tried to get back on topic, but he wasn`t paying much attention at all and we asked if he had any questions for us at the end and he said the dating one was the main one; he just wanted to know if i had a boyfriend or anything. We decided we`re only teaching him once a week from now on and Robyn is coming with us EVERY time. She actually volunteered and said there would be NO comments like that made again while she was in there...she`s so fun; I just love her. She`s probably one of my favorite people in the ward and she helps us all the time...I love it. But yeah, so that made for an interesting week..

Other than that, we decided on Tuesday to start the day of with service. Robyn was having a really hard time with some things, so we made cupcakes for her and wrote "we love you!" on them. It was so cute :) We had extras, so we made some with the same message for another recent convert, April, who`s been sick for the past 2 weeks and then we made a cake for a recent convert/less active, Mike, who had a birthday on Saturday. It was so fun...we went to RObyn`s house to deliver it, but she wasn`t home, so we tried to break in (she wouldn`t mind). The back door was unlocked (turns out she keeps it unlocked just for that reason...in case someone needs something from her house and needs to break in), so I opened the door, but I forgot that she had a MASSIVE dog who started barking at us and I slammed the door shut and then we couldn`t open it again. So we just left them for her outside with a little note. It was fun :) Then we went to April`s house and gave them to her and she loved her cupcakes as well. On the way back though there was this woman on the metro who started screaming at another woman who was getting off because she had a baby and wasn`t married. The woman was calling her all kinds of names and being HORRIBLE to her, and the woman with the baby just ignored her and got off the metro. I looked down the car and made eye contact with a girl about my age and she kind of half smiled so I did the same and the woman hit me with her purse and started screaming at ME asking what I was laughing at and just started swearing at me. I have NEVER been talked to that horribly in my life! It was completely shocking. So I apologized for whatever I had done and she kind of stopped. I looked the other way again and this man smiled at me (I think he just felt bad for me) and so I smiled back to show him that it hadn`t bothered me that much and she started yelling AGAIN asking what I had said, and I replied that I hadn`t said anything and I was sorry, but I really hadn`t said anything. She must have been having a horrible day because she kept swearing and yelling for another minute until the metro stopped and we got off. I just kind of laughed it off, realizing she was having a bad day adn it wasn`t anything personal, but Sister Williams was a bit shaken up and was almost crying because of it. We had interviews with President McKinnon on Wednesday and I mentioned all of those experiences to him (that was the 4th person in as may days to yell at me...and we had another woman on Tuesday tell me that Mormons had no rights and we shouldn`t be allowed to talk to anyone and we were all brainwashed and someone should investigate it. She was a journalist, so she would know ;) ) and he told me that if anyone said anything again, I didn`t need to be polite. I should tell them exactly what I`m thinking. I said I didn`t want to give the church a bad name, and he said the church wouldn`t look good if I punched the guy, but it also didn`t look good if I looked spineless standing there letting him walk all over me. So next time to go with my instincts. I haven`t had anyone bother me since, so I haven`t tried it out yet :)

Hmm...what else happened this week? Oh my gosh! This morning it was awful! Well first, Saturday night we came home a bit early and S. Williams spent 2 hours calling all of the old potentials we had and setting up appointments and since we only had the one phone and I really couldn`t help with anything, I decided to scrub the bathroom and kitchen floors and they were SO gross...I really don`t think our apartment has been deep cleaned in about 2 years. But anyways, so while I was cleaning the bathroom, I felt something in my hair and I freaked. S. Williams came running in - turns out there was a spider in my hair. It was so gross. Then this morning I was in our room doing an ab workout (we have 30 minutes each morning to exercise) and I saw this HUGE bug speed across the floor, so I called her in just as it ran across the floor the other way under her bed. We spent the next 15 minutes trying to find it and finally found it on top of her suitcase. It crawled on the floor and we caught it under this tupperware container. It was so gross...it had about a million legs and was at least 2 inches long and super fast. So we kept it under the container and waited for it to calm down and then had this master plan for S. Williams to lift the container and I would slam the dictionary down on it and kill it. Unfortunately, I didn`t anticipate how fast the little booger would be and I aimed wrong, missing the bug and it came sprinting RIGHT AT ME. I shrieked and jumped on the bed and S. Williams grabbed a tissue box and mutilated it. We decided we didn`t need a cardio workout after that...it had gotten our heart rate up enough :) Hopefully there are no more...

And other than that, life has been pretty standard. We taught a lesson Saturday to a man about blacks and the priesthood. His name is Theo,he is extremely intelligent, not receptive to testimonies in the slightest, and extremely passionate about blacks and the priesthood since he is from Ethiopia. We tried SO hard to find a member for the lesson, but after calling about 10 people and 8 sets of missionaries, we realized we wouldn`t find one. Elder Jest gave us a copy of a fireside he had found on the subject though which helped a lot, and we spent an hour and a half just answering his questions. He still has more, but we answered quite a few. We were pretty proud of ourselves at the end. And it was really neat...there was one point where he asked a question and I answered it, but I had never even THOUGHT of the question before. The words coming out of my mouth were definitely not mine, because they weren`t even ideas I had ever had before until I was saying them, and I knew the Lord was speaking through me and answering Theo`s question with me just as the mouthpiece. It`s a little hard to describe, but it was a really neat experience.

But that`s about it for this week...it`s supposed to snow tomorrow (it`s starting to get REALLY cold here) so I need to go buy boots...wish me luck! Oh, and I`m speaking in Sacrament on Sunday as well as teaching the lesson in Sunday School...please continue praying for me, I need all the help I can get :) I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week! I miss you tons!

Love, Nicole

Monday, November 16, 2009

Life is Crazy!

Hey Mom!

How are you? It’s always so good to hear from you! Things here are going really well…it’s been an interesting week. It’s crazy to see how many ups and downs I’ve already had and I’ve only been out here like 3 weeks. That’s another crazy part…it feels like I’ve been out here for at least 2 months already! I was talking with the zone leaders and one of the ward members, Jared, the other day and they were all shocked when I said I’ve only been out here about 3 weeks and Jared said “Wow…you don’t even LOOK like a greenie anymore!” I guess I’ve adjusted to everything pretty well and fit in well with the ward so they think I’ve been here longer. It makes things a little easier.

So I’ve gained an even stronger testimony this week of the truthfulness of the Elder Holland’s conference talk last October on the Ministry of Angels. I know there are angels around us all the time. This weekend was a bit interesting…on Friday night S. Williams and I went out to eat with the AP’s at this restaurant that our friend April recommended to us. We didn’t quite know how to get there, so this man gave us directions, but he gave us the wrong ones and we ended up on Rue St. Catherine, which is off limits completely for missionaries. That’s where all the strip clubs and barsand everything are, and it’s not a very fun place at all. While we were walking toward it, these 6 guys in their late 20s, early 30’s came up and started talking to me and asked how long I’d been in Montreal “saving people” and I answered their questions and one in particular just wouldn’t leave me alone. The AP’s thought I had contacted them and didn’t want to interrupt if it was a good contact, so they didn’t say anything at all. It was so awful though…I really don’t like situations like that in the slightest. But I finally said goodbye and walked away. Then after dinner (we were a bit late getting home), we were waiting for the metro and this VERY strong Catholic man, Andre, came up to E. Ronndahl and me and started talking to us. S. Williams had talked to him before about a month ago, and he had called us 3 times in one morning to try to convince us that we should be worshipping the saints. So we talked to him for a minute and he was very respectful to E. Ronndahl but didn’t listen to anything I had to say at all. It was just interesting. So then Saturday evening we ran into him again on the metro. He came up to us while we were in the middle of talking to some else and was very vocal about how the Catholic church is the only true church and the Book of Mormon is a false book and on and on and on. I tried talking to him, very diplomatically, and he wouldn’t even let me talk at all. It shook me up a bit and I was ready to cry at the end of it. Not fun. So then yesterday was Stake Conference (I’ll talk more about that in a minute), but afterwards we went to the Metro and ran into him yet again! He asked me if I had thought about what he had said, and I said that I had. He asked me what I thought and I said that I know the Book of Mormon is true and he started yelling about how we’re going to Hell and the catholic church is the only true one and we know that because it’s the ONLY one that won’t support gay marriages, won’t let a woman be a priest, and has been around since the time of Christ. We didn’t argue, but responded quietly. I say we, but mean me; Sister Williams didn’t say anything during the whole thing. He said something else, I don’t quite remember what, but I responded with “I believe there are good people in every religion” and he said “no. No there aren’t. There are good people in the Catholic Church and false prophets and gangsters in every other religion.” That was a kind of funny statement J But then he got on the metro still yelling about how Lionel-Groulx (the name of the metro) was a Catholic priest and he had built that place and we had never done anything like that. It was not a very fun experience. So I was shaking by the end of it, like I could barely stand, and we got on the other metro and almost immediately this other man came up to us and “warned” us not to talk to him, because we were children of the devil and we come in all self-righteous with our books (we usually carry a copy of the Book of Mormon everywhere we go), but he didn’t need that and he didn’t want to hear our false rumors and preachings. I tried to thank him for his concern, but he interrupted me and said that he was sure I was grateful and he could see exactly what I was thinking written all over my face, and I just smiled. He kept going on and told us we were going to Hell and said we didn’t even know anything about God, we only knew about our father, the devil, and then as he was getting of he asked “You don’t even know anything. Who is God anyways?” And I responded that God is our loving Father in Heaven, and he said “yes he is, but you wouldn’t know that because you don’t know anything about Him. He’s not your father.” It was so awful…I don’t enjoy confrontations like that at all, and I was already shaken, so I just started crying as soon as he got off. But getting back to the Ministry of Angels part from earlier…I was blessed enough to have one standing nearby. There was a giant of a man next to me who didn’t speak any English hardly, but he started trying to comfort me. He kept patting me on the back and used his finger (S. Williams said it completely covered my face…he was a huge man) to wipe my tear off my face. It was so sweet. Then he gave me a hug and told me it was Ok and not to cry. He asked if I was Mormon and then where my parents were and then gave me another hug as we were getting off. It was so sweet. I know that my Father in heaven does know me and knows what I need and He does send people to help us whenever we need it. It was wonderful. And thank you for your prayers…I know they help me.
Anyways, in other news…it has been a good week! We still go contacting a lot, it’s always in the metros. We’ve been asked by our mission president to contact 3 hours a day, so we’re in the metros at least that long talking to people. But some of them turn out SO well! We ended up getting the ugly ties earlier this week and had to wear them on our bags all week long until we committed someone, so finally on Thursday we did! We talked to this guy that S. Williams and S. Orozco had contacted while we were on splits the other day, and we committed him to be baptized! I hope it works out…it went so well in the lesson. We had 2 members there with us, which helped a lot, and he stopped in the middle of the lesson to ask how he could join our church, so we told him about baptism, and asked him to be baptized on the 19 of December. He hesitated slightly so we said we didn’t want to push him, but we knew he could have an answer by then, and he said we weren’t pushing at all. It was all just so out of character for him…he never talks to people on the metro, but he felt he should talk to the sisters and then he actually showed up to the appointment which surprised even himself. Then he finished with “Don’t worry…I’ll be a member before long.” It was SO exciting! We also talked to a girl Stephanie who was so excited to meet with us…she said she had just had such a happy feeling when we called to confirm the appointment and she was excited to learn more. It was really great! Earnest came to church, but then got sick and went to the hospital so we haven’t seen him since. But on the plus side, our less active/recent convert who told us on Monday he didn’t want to talk to us or come to church again called us 2 days ago to tell us it was his birthday! S. Williams talked to him for about 30 minutes and by the end he had decided NOT to go to the strip club with his friends and went and said a prayer and then went to bed instead! It was really exciting!

Oh, and it was so funny…every time I tell someone I’m from WV, they mention the John Denver song. I didn’t realize it was so popular until we were in English class the other day and this Chinese man asked where I was from. I told him, and he just started singing “Country roads take me home to the place I belong…” it was SO funny. I loved it. The people here are really great. And I just LOVE the elders in our mission. There are so many incredible ones. I was sick on Wednesday and so we had a million calls from people telling me to feel better soon and giving advice (eat oranges for vitamin C, boil ginger and honey and drink it for sore throats, etc.) Then E. Berrios and E. Jest (the zone leaders for the other zone that we do laundry and groceries with each p-day…I love them) called me another night because they thought I might be having a hard time and sang a song for me over the phone. Then we’ve had 2 sets of elders make us cookies this week just for the fun of it and several call us each night just to make sure we’re doing OK. I love it.

Oh! And Stake conference was yesterday which was SO fun. Elder Cook came and spoke and he has some hilarious stories. He said there was a boy in his high school who he hated and who hated him. They ended up getting their mission calls on the same day, to the same mission, and were bunk mates in the MTC. They became good friends, but each night the other elder would pull out a huge picture of a gorgeous girl and say “She’s waiting for me” and E. Cook would say “You’re such a loser…she’ll never wait for you!” They ended up becoming good friends. The girl didn’t wait though… Elder Cook married her instead, haha. It was pretty funny. So that was fun. And one of our less actives came, which is always exciting. And Rob is doing SO well! He was there and LOVED it, and he also went and visited the temple with the institute group on Friday and sat and read his scriptures and Robyn said he was just beaming the whole time and absolutely loved it. I’m so excited for him. So things are going really well here!

I’m glad to hear things are going well at home! You should video tape the girls and then send it to me…if you put it on an SD card, I’ll be able to watch it on my camera…or there’s probably another way to do it too. I don’t have my camera with me now, but I do have some pictures to send…we went to this huge cathedral last week for P-day, so I have several pictures from that. I’ll try to remember it next time and send it to you. But I’m glad to hear things are going well and I hope this week is wonderful for you! I love you tons and tons! Thanks so much for the letters and the prayers…I miss you!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Monday, November 9, 2009

Mail packages now to get them for Christmas!!!

Note about packages:

REMEMBER - Tell your families and friends that Christmas packages need to be sent as soon as possible. Otherwise, you will not get them until February!!!! Please remind them that they MUST check with the shipper to be sure there is no COD charge for customs. If packages come through the post office, there doesn’t seem to be a problem. $50.00 value is fine – more can be a problem!! If they come COD they go to package prison until you pay the fees. The office can’t do that. Thanks so much!!

What a week!!

Hey Mom!

I decided not to change your subject, since it fits my feelings perfectly, haha. It has been kind of a crazy week, but definitely a good one! We had Zone Conference last Wednesday, which I LOVED. We have two incredible AP's: Elder Cowley and Elder Ronndahl, and their training was incredible. Then the mission president and his wife both did their trainings, along with our zone leaders. I guess our mission went from being one of the worst in the North America North East area when the Mckinnon's first came back in 2007 to being on par or better on each of the factors as the other missions in the area. But then the past few weeks our numbers have just plummeted as missionaries become more and more relaxed in their efforts and less obedient. President McKinnon isn't very strict about all of the rules and just kind of hopes that we will work hard anyways, but not all the missionaries are willing to work hard and some really take advantage of his lenient attitude. It's pretty sad. So they addressed that quite a bit in the Zone Conference, and I realized a lot of things I need to work better at. Then our zone leaders came up with this "ugly tie" idea. They went out and bought 2 of the ugliest ties in the store (one is just completely hideous) and we're passing them around the zone, and each companionship has to wear them until they commit someone. So now it's our turn and I think we might have them for awhile...we haven't been having much success. There are lots of people who just don't show up for things. We had like 20 lessons scheduled for last week and only 7 of them actually happened, and some of those were because we just met with the recent convert members who had agreed to come with us for the lessons with the investigator who never showed up. So frustrating. But this week will be better, I just know it :)

The lessons we did have this past week were pretty good...we met with Rob and he's doing so well! I just love meeting with him. Elder Cowley came to one of the lessons and answered all his questions that we didn't even know he had...Elder Cowley is pretty amazing :) He can be very direct without making the person feel uncomfortable or intimidated. I haven't quite mastered that art yet...

Then we met with a man named Theo who is INTENSE. He asked me last week why God needed a body and tried to argue it with science, and I couldn't come up with a good answer that he understood. He has studied MANY religions and even was in France for 3 years studying to be a Catholic priest, but then decided it wasn't for him. So he's having a hard time accepting some of the things we teach and wants to skip right to the deep doctrine stuff without having any faith in the basic parts, and it doesn't work that way. So Saturday we taught him plan of salvation and he couldn't understand why a loving Heavenly Father would allow His children to have agency and to suffer the consequences of their choices. The member, Lynda, and S. Williams tried to explain that it's because He loves us that He lets us experience these things, but Theo would have none of that. And I was so upset by it and just wanted so much for him to understand that our Father in Heaven is a very loving God and He loves each of us and WANTS us to return to Him, so I ended up just bearing testimony about that and I was shaking and crying and I just wanted so much for him to understand. He asked why I was crying and I said I just felt to passionately about it that he HAD to understand it, and he seemed to accept it. Or he stopped questioning it at least. But then he has some HUGE issues with blacks and the priesthood (he is black) and so we're going to work with him on that next time. Say a little prayer for me please...I'll need it.

In other news, there were some funny things that happened this week. In the metro on Friday night, we were contacting and ran into our ZL and told him we were going home in 20 minutes and he said we couldn't go home until we had 2 more potentials (or had 2 more people give us phone numbers so we could meet up with them again later). So I saw this guy sitting on the wall and I went to him and introduced myself and S. Williams and said we were missionaries and he interrupted me and asked "can i have your phone number?" and I said "Sure, if I can have yours." So he gave us his number, we gave him a pass along card with ours and told him we wanted to teach him about Jesus Christ and then walked away, happily counting him as one of our potentials but not realyl interested in calling him. So he called us yesterday to ask what we were doing...we missed the call and can't decide if we want to call back or not yet, haha. Oh, we also got invited to a party while walking home on Thursday. The guy started talking to us in a mix of French and English, and we thought he was asking us if it would be warm the next day so we tried to answer, but then he said something about seeing us that night after work because we were going to have a party. I don't know exactly how the conversation went to that, but we said maybe and then he asked where we lived and we pointed to a random building about 2 streets away from where we actually lived. I figured lying was justified in this case :)

Then another funny story: yesterday we were going to a recent convert's house (Robyn...I LOVE her. She is SO amazing!) for breakfast with her, Crystal, and the elders, and we asked 2 girls for directions to the street, so they pointed out where it was, then one of the girls asked "Umm..are you looking for the Jehovah's Witness place? Because if so, that's over this way..." and we just kind of laughed and said no, we were members of our church, and she was a bit embarrassed, but we thanked her for the help anyways and just brushed it off. Then the other girl said "well they hand out really great pamphlets around here, so it's actually a complement.." and we couldn't help but laugh at that. It was just such a funny situation :)

Then yesterday at church we ended up having a new investigator come, which was SO exciting! His name is Earnest, and we weren't expecting him there at all. We met with him once about 2 weeks ago but never set up another appointment, then called him Saturday to remind him of church, not expecting much, but he actually came! It was really exciting until Sacrament meeting started and we realized our Branch President and 1st Counselor were speaking, and instead of giving inspiring or spiritual talks, they spent the whole time relating stories about their childhoods. They both tried to make them connect to gospel topics, but I had a hard time understanding the connections, so I'm sure Earnest did too. Not exactly the spiritual meeting I was hoping it would be. then I had to teach Sunday School, and that was interesting. I was SO nervous for it and I hadn't spent tons of time preparing, but everyone said I still came across very confidently and did a good job. I was speaking about missionary work, so it was something that's very close to the hearts of most of the people in there (it was the investigator/recent convert class) and Robyn and several of the other girls came up at the end and said they had to tell themselves not to cry at the end because they were so close to it. So hopefully he was able to feel the Spirit at least a bit in that class and then in Priesthood...we're meeting with him on Tuesday, so we'll see! :)

Then it was really neat, after church we went upstairs and were trying to track down who had taught this media referral we had gotten who had been taught a lesson like 2 months ago. So we spent awhile with that and it was a bit frustrating to waste that much time, but then we walked downstairs and Brother Holland (stake missionary coordinator or something like that) was talking to a less-active/recent convert, Jimmy, and said "You asked for a teacher Jimmy, and the Lord sent you Sister Lindsey. What do you want her to teach you?" So we went and taught him the Plan of Salvation. It was really neat how all of that worked out :)

But anyways, that's all the news from here! It was so great to hear from you and everything that's been going on there! I'm so glad the adoption is final...that is SO exciting! And thanks for the pictures...I always show them to my companion and she loves them too. I'm glad you got the package from S. Andrews...I actually don't know what she wrote in that letter, so I would like to see it when I get home if you don't mind keeping it :) I just love her...she is SO amazing! And yeah, if you could send the package from her, that'd be great. My companion here said packages usually take about 6 weeks to get from the US to here...I don't think letters take as long because I got the letter Dad wrote the Sunday right before I left the MTC last Monday, so those take about a week, but packages do take MUCH longer. But I want to get the one from her at some point. The pictures are the ones we took on our disposable cameras while in the MTC so I haven't seen them at all. I'm excited to get them! :) Anyways, i hope you're all having a wonderful week and I will hear from you next week! I love you tons and tons!

Nicole

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Adjustments and I am in the best area!

Hey Mom!

Thanks so much for the pictures! The kids are all SO cute...and Dad and
\david both look wonderful all dressed up :) I showed my companion, Sister
Williams, the pictures of all the little kids, and she thinks they're
adorable too. I'm glad to hear things are going well at home and I'm really
looking forward to reading Dad's letter...it's always nice to have them in
the mail so I can read them whenever I want and not take up all my internet
time reading them. Luckily the pictures didn't take long to download at all
and I have an hour now instead of half an hour on here each week.

Things here are going really well...it hasn't been too difficult adjusting,
but it definitely feels like I've been here longer than a week already. My
companion is Sister Williams. She's from Wales and is so sweet. I like her a
lot. I'm the first person she's trained so she's been a bit nervous, but
she's taking on the role of senior companion really well. AND she makes all
the phone calls which is WONDERFUL for me, haha. This first week we had 4
sisters all crammed into our little 1 bedroom apartment. I guess they'd been
living there for almost a month while their apartment was getting redone.
They just showed up one day and their bathtub had been ripped out of the
bathroom, so they moved in to my apartment. It was fun having them, but 4
girls in one little bedroom is a bit tight, so it was nice when they finally
moved out last night.

My first area here is supposed to be the best area in the mission.
Everyone's told me that so far, and it is a lot of fun. I'm serving in
Montreal in the Young Single Adult english-speaking branch, and the members
are SO fun. I guess there have been like 12 baptisms in the last 3 or so
months here, which is crazy, but the new converts are all so much fun.
There are 2 in particular, Robyn and April, who are just the sweetest girls
and I LOVE talking to them. It's still a bit difficult adjusting to mission
life and the rules associated with that, but I think I'll improve with time
:) My companion doesn't like speaking \french at all, so we really don't,
which is a bit of a disappointment, but I'm going to try a bit harder to
make an effort to speak it whenever I can. I really want to learn the
language and learn it well, so I'm going to try hard for that. It has been
difficult trying to manage my time though. It still seems like I don't have
enough time in the day to do everything I'm supposed to be doing. If we do
our language study it means we don't get out the door until 10:30 or 11, and
then we're supposed to spend 3 hours a day in contacting (which is AWFUL, by
the way...i am NOT outgoing enough or comfortable enough to just walk up to
random strangers and say: Hi, I'm a missionary for the church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but I'm working on it) and then add that to
teaching lessons, service projects, and talking with recent converts and
less actives, and it's next to impossible. Somehow the elders are all able
to do it, though, so I'm going to experiment a bit more this week and see
what I can come up with. \we'll see how it goes :)

The weather is pretty chilly up here already. Not quite coat weather yet,
but i definitely need 2 layers. Except since we're in a metro area and we
do all our contacting on the metro, we really aren't supposed to wear heavy
coats; they become WAY too hot in the metro. So somehow this winter I'm
going to have to find a balance between dressing warm enough to walk the 10
minutes from our apartment to the metro, but not too warm that i die while
I'm in there. It's going to be interesting...

The elders that I've met so far are all really wonderful. I was pretty sad
at leaving the MTC and not having those elders around anymore and not having
Sister Andrews as a companion (THAT part has been really hard...we were so
perfect for each other and had everything in common, and although Sister
Williams is really sweet, it's not quite the same), but it's been fun here
too. I talked to several people on the plane and in the airport, so that
was fun, and then we spent the night at President and Sister McKinnon's
home, which was really great. I talked with President for awhile, and he is
such a wonderful man :) And the AP's were there, and they're really great.
We're the only sisters in our zone, which is fine; the elders are all really
wonderful. Most of our appointments take place at the church (it's a HUGE
building) so we get to see the other elders in the district and in our zone
quite often, so it's fun.

Yesterday was the first day at church in this branch, and that was really
neat. the RS president, Rebecca, has her mission call and is leaving the
beginning of February for San Francisco, and I am SO excited for her! She is
the cutest girl. We spent awhile with her yesterday going over the girls in
the RS and finding out who were the less actives and who would be willing to
help us and things like that, and it's so sad to see so many people who are
less active. There are quite a few who were baptized and then 2 weeks later
stopped coming to church for some reason or another and it's just so sad to
see that. But at the same time, I'm glad that they went inactive then
instead of waiting until after they had gone through the temple and made
those covenants...those are the ones that are really hard to see.

But anyways, we've been working pretty hard...i think we could be working a
little harder, but my companion is convinced that we're working as hard as
we can, so that's been interesting. I really want to take charge more, but
we've already had one companionship inventory where she told me that she
felt like I didn't trust her or think she was capable of doing anything
because I always say exactly what I'm thinking and we do things my way. I
hadn't noticed that at all, but I guess it had really upset her, so I'm
trying not to step on her toes too much, seeing as she is the senior
companion. So somehow this week I'm going to try to find a way to sneakily
do more work without her thinking that I'm taking over...we'll see how it
goes :) But we do have one investigator who we've been meeting regularly
with, Rob, and he is wonderful. He is so accepting of everything and is
really trying hard to find things out and know them for himself. It's so
wonderful :) He had a baptism date set (Dec. 6) and we're working hard to
help him get everything ready for that. he's trying hard to quite
smoking...he really wants to obey the Word of Wisdom and knows that's a good
thing. He's still trying to figure out if the Law of Chastity is a true
principle, but he says he has faith that he will receive an answer about
that soon. But he brought up the Law of Tithing himself and decided he would
start paying it before he was even baptized. \he came to church for the
first time yesterday and came to Elder Uchtdorf's CES fireside last night
too. (speaking of which, is there any way you could get me a copy of the
fireside last night, just a printed one, it should be on LDS.org, and send
it to me please?) I'm so excited for him :)

Then there's another investigator, Therese, who we committed to baptism on
Tuesday and that was SO excited. She was so thrilled about it, and it was
wonderful to be there when she said she wanted to be baptized. The
conversation was kind of going in that direction and it seemed like the
perfect time, so I asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she said yes
over and over again. It was wonderful :) But then she didn't come to church
yesterday and we called but haven't heard back, so we dont' really know
what's going on. Hopefully she was just sick or something and will be better
soon instead of having changed her mind. We'll see.

Oh, and you asked about mailing package rules...as I said last week, you'll
have to call the mission office. They told me what they are briefly, but I
don't remember them at all
and I don't know which are the best delivery systems. Sister Castleton
knows everything though and she can tell you exactly what the rules are
because I really don't know what they are at all. But if you are thinking
of sending me a package, I want just a little clock (I had one sitting in a
bag at the bottom of my bed when i left...are you sure you can't find it)
and wheat thins, since they only ones they sell here are ridiculously
expensive, haha. I thought of some other things that would be nice to have
the other day, but they're not necessities and I can't remember what they
are, so it doesn't really matter that much :) And just keep sending letters
to the mission office...they said Canada mail is extremely slow and so not
to send it to individual residences since I might be transferred before it
even gets there.

So that's life here..pretty fun :) How are things back home. i hope all is
going well and I can't wait to hear from you next week! I love you all tons
and tons!!

Love, Nicole

PS: Grandma and Aunt Tami: I'm SO glad I got to see you in the airport!
Thanks so much for the packages...you are so sweet! i love you tons!

Oh, and it was pretty funny: in the airport, everyone else had to pay $40
for their bags. For some reason or another, they decided my flight was
international so I didn't. I love it. :)