Hey everybody!
Christmas here was WONDERFUL! I have eaten more tourtiere (meat pie) and bouche de Noel (these Christmas ice cream/cake logs) than I thought was possible. It was SO fun though. Sister Palmer is my new companion and we are having the best time together. We laugh everyday...I don't think there's been a single day where we haven't laughed for at least half of the day. On Tuesday we met at Berri and went out for poutine (as is the tradition among missionaries) and then came home, unpacked, and went to go teach a new investigator. She's actually been taught by missionaries before (she's the wife of a member) but has smoking problems and has never been able to quit, but has finally decided that right after Christmas (so this week) she's going to stop for good. We're excited to keep teaching her and bring that family closer together so that they can get the blessings of an eternal temple marriage. I'm excited for it :)
We also spent a lot of time with members and less actives this week. It was amazing to me how many people remembered to invite the missionaries over to their houses for Christmas (we got at least 7 invitations, but had to turn quite a few down), but forgot about the other single people in the ward who don't have families nearby. So Christmas Eve we spent visiting with these single less active sisters and trying to help make their Christmas a little better. We had made fudge the other day and put some of that on plates and delivered it to less active families and it was a lot of fun. Then Christmas Eve we went to this Christmas party with a family in our ward and all their relatives and the elders were all invited too and we had such a great time. WE ate all night (including a meat pie made out of moose....yes, I ate moose. crazy) and the traditional turkey dinner. We then went to midnight mass at this Catholic church with the elders and that was an interesting experience that I don't think I'm going to repeat...it took way too much concentration for how tired I was that night to try to follow along and stand up and sit down at all the right times. But it was a fun experience to do once. Then on Christmas day we went to a family in Lemoyne's ward (the elders area) and it turns out that my favorite family in our ward (the Groux's...the ones who she's 23 and a convert and they have 3 girls under the age of 3 and we go to their house like once a week) were there because it's the husband's family. They're from Switzerland and made a traditional Swiss meal which was good, but had some very different-tasting things (like these jello jigglers made out of like chicken bullion) and we were there for several hours and just laughed the whole time. At one point they gave us cookies which we had already eaten way too many other things and so I gave half of my cookie to Sister Palmer who gave her whole cookie to Elder Anderson, who gave it to Elder Helle, who stuck it back on the plate of the man who had given it to us to begin with. The man turned around and asked who had stuck it there and Sister palmer and I both blamed Elder Helle, but he pointed at us and the man thought it was us. It was just so funny though. Probably funnier in person....
Then we went to a second dinner at Sister de Seve's house. She's an older single woman and she had invited another older single woman to come and we were all sitting there and Sister Palmer and I were SO exhausted by that time that we could barely keep our eyes open. She gave us ANOTHER tourtiere (like the 6th one we had eaten that week) and so much more food that we could barely eat. It was SUCH a fun day...we really had a great time this week.
And I'm really looking forward to this transfer with Sister Palmer. She is so much fun...she's a lot like the people that I hang out with back home. And she's SO excited about the work...she goes and talks to everyone and she is so enthusiastic about it that it makes everyone else want to listen to her. I'm so excited. It should be a really good week :)
Anyways, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you have a great New Year! I love you all!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Monday, December 27, 2010
MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)
Hey everyone!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! What a wonderful season this is! I just love that we get to celebrate Christ's birth and that we know the impact that His birth had on the world. It's so sad to talk with people here sometimes where Christmas has become just a commercialized celebration and they either haven't been taught or don't care to know the real reason that we have this holiday. I love being able to share the message with those that listen that Jesus Christ is our Savior! He was born for us, lived a perfect life to show us the example, and died for each one of us. And then the most exciting part of it all: He was resurrected and He lives today! Because of Him, we CAN return someday and live with our Father in Heaven again. We can be completley pure or all errors that we might make. And we can overcome our weaknesses. I just love that part of this Gospel...it is so full of hope and joy! :) Weare STILL rejoicing in the birth of our Savior just as the angels did on the day He was born. What a wonderful reason to celebrate! :)
Things here are going really well and I'm excited for this next week. We did have transfers and I am staying here in Longueuil but getting a new companion, Sister Palmer. She started her mission 6 weeks ago up in Victoriaville and we were a bit surprised to hear that she was being transferred but even more surprised to find out that Sister Quist was going up to Victoriaville and replacing her, still keeping her 2 other companions (there is a 3 some there now and still will be). But we're both pretty excited about it...it'll be different, but so fun :)
Also this week we had our mission Christmas party and we just had the most amazing time! It started at about 10 in the morning and we got our flu shots first thing (not the best way to start it off, but at least it was over and out of the way) and then we all voted on what movie we wanted to watch. there were 3 options: It's a Beautiful Life, The Bishop's Wife (I'd never heard of that one before), and Toy Story 3. So naturally we picked Toy Story 3 and it was such a good movie! It was kind of strange to be sitting there with a bunch of elders watching a non church movie, but it was a lot of fun. Then the senior couples had all prepared us a fabulous dinner, we had several muscial presentations (one from each zone and then one or two others) and then we had a qhite elephant gift exchange. There were some random presents that were given...but it was a lot of fun. The funniest was our assistant to the president, Elder Corbett. Everyone teases him mercilessly about how he looks like Jacob from Twilight (and he really does look a lot like him) and so he opened his present and it was a poster of Jacob from Twilight. SO funny. Everyone was laughing and he posed for about a million pictures with his poster. I loved it. Then after that we had a quick visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus who gave us each presents before we headed home. The whole party ended at about 4 in the afternoon and we all just loved it.
So that was probably the highlight of the week, but we had some other good things as well. We had several DA's...several members from the Greenfield Park ward invited us out to eat with the sisters from that ward so we went to a really nice Chinese restaurant and a great Italian one. Then we also went to the Elders Christmas party in Lemoyne because they had a recent convert who wanted us to come. It was so much fun. In between all of that, we did teach several lessons and met some great people, unfortunately most of them are going out of town for the holidays, but we'll see them when we get back :) And we've been opening your presents everyday Mom...thanks so much! it's always so fun every morning to look up the scriptures and then try and guess what the presents are. We've done a pretty good job of guessing them so far...there are some really clever ones. Thanks so much :)
I hope you all have a wonderful week and an incredible Christmas...we do have such a great reason to celebrate this Holiday season :) I love you all tons!!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! What a wonderful season this is! I just love that we get to celebrate Christ's birth and that we know the impact that His birth had on the world. It's so sad to talk with people here sometimes where Christmas has become just a commercialized celebration and they either haven't been taught or don't care to know the real reason that we have this holiday. I love being able to share the message with those that listen that Jesus Christ is our Savior! He was born for us, lived a perfect life to show us the example, and died for each one of us. And then the most exciting part of it all: He was resurrected and He lives today! Because of Him, we CAN return someday and live with our Father in Heaven again. We can be completley pure or all errors that we might make. And we can overcome our weaknesses. I just love that part of this Gospel...it is so full of hope and joy! :) Weare STILL rejoicing in the birth of our Savior just as the angels did on the day He was born. What a wonderful reason to celebrate! :)
Things here are going really well and I'm excited for this next week. We did have transfers and I am staying here in Longueuil but getting a new companion, Sister Palmer. She started her mission 6 weeks ago up in Victoriaville and we were a bit surprised to hear that she was being transferred but even more surprised to find out that Sister Quist was going up to Victoriaville and replacing her, still keeping her 2 other companions (there is a 3 some there now and still will be). But we're both pretty excited about it...it'll be different, but so fun :)
Also this week we had our mission Christmas party and we just had the most amazing time! It started at about 10 in the morning and we got our flu shots first thing (not the best way to start it off, but at least it was over and out of the way) and then we all voted on what movie we wanted to watch. there were 3 options: It's a Beautiful Life, The Bishop's Wife (I'd never heard of that one before), and Toy Story 3. So naturally we picked Toy Story 3 and it was such a good movie! It was kind of strange to be sitting there with a bunch of elders watching a non church movie, but it was a lot of fun. Then the senior couples had all prepared us a fabulous dinner, we had several muscial presentations (one from each zone and then one or two others) and then we had a qhite elephant gift exchange. There were some random presents that were given...but it was a lot of fun. The funniest was our assistant to the president, Elder Corbett. Everyone teases him mercilessly about how he looks like Jacob from Twilight (and he really does look a lot like him) and so he opened his present and it was a poster of Jacob from Twilight. SO funny. Everyone was laughing and he posed for about a million pictures with his poster. I loved it. Then after that we had a quick visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus who gave us each presents before we headed home. The whole party ended at about 4 in the afternoon and we all just loved it.
So that was probably the highlight of the week, but we had some other good things as well. We had several DA's...several members from the Greenfield Park ward invited us out to eat with the sisters from that ward so we went to a really nice Chinese restaurant and a great Italian one. Then we also went to the Elders Christmas party in Lemoyne because they had a recent convert who wanted us to come. It was so much fun. In between all of that, we did teach several lessons and met some great people, unfortunately most of them are going out of town for the holidays, but we'll see them when we get back :) And we've been opening your presents everyday Mom...thanks so much! it's always so fun every morning to look up the scriptures and then try and guess what the presents are. We've done a pretty good job of guessing them so far...there are some really clever ones. Thanks so much :)
I hope you all have a wonderful week and an incredible Christmas...we do have such a great reason to celebrate this Holiday season :) I love you all tons!!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
On the first day of Christmas.... :)
Hey everyone!
How are you? How was your week? This week was really fun...it started off with a wonderful but incredibly exhausting P-day last Monday. We've been wanting to climb Mount Saint Hilaire for a little while, so we all drove out to St Hilaire (the zone leaders area) and did emails, went out to eat, and then went to go climb the mountain. it was kind of crazy though, while we were eating it started snowing TONS. We decided to climb the mountain anyways though and just take the shorter route, but then that route was closed and so we ended up taking the longer one. It was likte 5 kilometers which wouldn't have been too bad, but by the time we got to the top the snow was like 5 inches deep. it was SO much fun though. We had a great time. We were all pretty exhausted when we got back, but it was definitely worth it.
Other than that, this week was pretty uneventful. We taught a couple of people and had our ward Christmas party which was really fun. We taught Magda (the woman from Romania) and committed her to be baptized in January. It was so exciting! She has a daughter who wants to get baptized at the same time, but we have to teach her a little bit more first. I'm so excited for them...they're wonderful. Then we taught Ruth and she came to the ward Christmas party and LOVED it and then came to church and just had a really great time. She's doing really well.
Also this week we went on splits with the Greenfield Park Sisters (Sister Cottrell and Sister Tschumi) and so Sister Tschumi came here with me and we worked together for a day and it was just so much fun. I haven't really seen her very much since I trained her back like 4 transfers ago, so it was fun to be with her and catch up. We were laughing the entire time and just had a great day together finding and teaching people. We met a really interesting man...I've realized again how little clothing people wear here. We had several who opened the doors without pants on...so bizarre. But it was a lot of fun :)
We also had the chance to visit with a lot of our members this week which was really neat. I just love working with the members and we have some really neat people in this ward. I love them and I'm so excited to work even more with them! One of our members, SIster Groux, invited us over and we talked with her for a LONG time. She has 3 daughters all under the age of 3, and they're so cute! I just love that family. Transfer calls are this Saturday adn I'm almost positive that I'm staying here and I'm so excited...it'll be fun to work here for at least another 6 weeks and get to know the members even more and keep working with our investigators.
Then this week we're having a Christmas program for all the missionaries...we're meeting up with the IDM zone (so the one I was just in last transfer) and the Quebec zone and we're spending the entire day together playing games and singing songs and doing all kinds of things. I'm so excited...it should be a lot of fun this Christmas. I hope everything is going well for you back home...I love you all tons and I'm so grateful for all your love and support! thank you for all that you do :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Hey mom!
Thanks so much for you letter! I`m going to write you a real quick one now and then I`ll write a bigger one to everyone and then hopefully I`ll still have time left to write you another one. But I wanted to let you know that I DID get your packages! Thank you SO much! They came on Tuesday night and it was kind of funny, the woman we live with (Grandma) said that she signed for them but then realized she didn`t know who Nicole Lindsey was and so she almost sent them back, but then luckily we decided to go visit her that evening and as an afterthought I warned her about the packages that were coming and she said that they had just come! I wasn`t expecting them for another week or so, but they came really fast this year. Thank you so much! We started looking up scriptures almost immediately and there are some that we got pretty quickly and others that it took us a lot longer to understand. Like the toothbrush one was pretty easy...`cleanliness of teeth"! How did you find that scripture? And did you find the scripture for the package or did you find the scripture first and then decide to send toothbrushes? Pretty funny. There are some really good ones...we opened the first presents today and it was so exciting! thanks so much for the gingerbread house and candle...we're going to have a blast this Christmas :) I love you tons and I'll write more later!
Love, Nicole
How are you? How was your week? This week was really fun...it started off with a wonderful but incredibly exhausting P-day last Monday. We've been wanting to climb Mount Saint Hilaire for a little while, so we all drove out to St Hilaire (the zone leaders area) and did emails, went out to eat, and then went to go climb the mountain. it was kind of crazy though, while we were eating it started snowing TONS. We decided to climb the mountain anyways though and just take the shorter route, but then that route was closed and so we ended up taking the longer one. It was likte 5 kilometers which wouldn't have been too bad, but by the time we got to the top the snow was like 5 inches deep. it was SO much fun though. We had a great time. We were all pretty exhausted when we got back, but it was definitely worth it.
Other than that, this week was pretty uneventful. We taught a couple of people and had our ward Christmas party which was really fun. We taught Magda (the woman from Romania) and committed her to be baptized in January. It was so exciting! She has a daughter who wants to get baptized at the same time, but we have to teach her a little bit more first. I'm so excited for them...they're wonderful. Then we taught Ruth and she came to the ward Christmas party and LOVED it and then came to church and just had a really great time. She's doing really well.
Also this week we went on splits with the Greenfield Park Sisters (Sister Cottrell and Sister Tschumi) and so Sister Tschumi came here with me and we worked together for a day and it was just so much fun. I haven't really seen her very much since I trained her back like 4 transfers ago, so it was fun to be with her and catch up. We were laughing the entire time and just had a great day together finding and teaching people. We met a really interesting man...I've realized again how little clothing people wear here. We had several who opened the doors without pants on...so bizarre. But it was a lot of fun :)
We also had the chance to visit with a lot of our members this week which was really neat. I just love working with the members and we have some really neat people in this ward. I love them and I'm so excited to work even more with them! One of our members, SIster Groux, invited us over and we talked with her for a LONG time. She has 3 daughters all under the age of 3, and they're so cute! I just love that family. Transfer calls are this Saturday adn I'm almost positive that I'm staying here and I'm so excited...it'll be fun to work here for at least another 6 weeks and get to know the members even more and keep working with our investigators.
Then this week we're having a Christmas program for all the missionaries...we're meeting up with the IDM zone (so the one I was just in last transfer) and the Quebec zone and we're spending the entire day together playing games and singing songs and doing all kinds of things. I'm so excited...it should be a lot of fun this Christmas. I hope everything is going well for you back home...I love you all tons and I'm so grateful for all your love and support! thank you for all that you do :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Hey mom!
Thanks so much for you letter! I`m going to write you a real quick one now and then I`ll write a bigger one to everyone and then hopefully I`ll still have time left to write you another one. But I wanted to let you know that I DID get your packages! Thank you SO much! They came on Tuesday night and it was kind of funny, the woman we live with (Grandma) said that she signed for them but then realized she didn`t know who Nicole Lindsey was and so she almost sent them back, but then luckily we decided to go visit her that evening and as an afterthought I warned her about the packages that were coming and she said that they had just come! I wasn`t expecting them for another week or so, but they came really fast this year. Thank you so much! We started looking up scriptures almost immediately and there are some that we got pretty quickly and others that it took us a lot longer to understand. Like the toothbrush one was pretty easy...`cleanliness of teeth"! How did you find that scripture? And did you find the scripture for the package or did you find the scripture first and then decide to send toothbrushes? Pretty funny. There are some really good ones...we opened the first presents today and it was so exciting! thanks so much for the gingerbread house and candle...we're going to have a blast this Christmas :) I love you tons and I'll write more later!
Love, Nicole
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Christmas bells are ringing... :)
Hey everybody!
This week was SUCH a wonderful week! We had zone conference on Tuesday which is always fun and it just started out the week well. Then afterwards on Tuesday afternoon we went and blitzed the elders area a bit and ate with them and then went out and met a really neat girl while knocking named Victoria. She's 17, studying to be a dentist, and has already met with the missionaries (a long time ago) and is really interested in learning more. I'm way excited to keep teaching her.
On Wednesday we went out to eat with the Hochelaga sisters (Sister Davis and Sister Hamula) and I just LOVE them! They are so much fun...Sister Hamula and I have been talking about how much fun it would be to serve together...maybe someday we'll be companions! We did a lot of knocking doors this week, which was good, and got to have a couple of dinners with some of our members which was also a lot of fun. It's really neat to get to know them better and see them in a home setting instead of just at church...I really love it :) We also had a Relief Society dinner on Thursday and that was way fun...we spent all day decorating for it and then we were there for a couple of hours and it was just a lot of fun to be there with all of the other women in the congregation. We had several investigators who came and just loved it, so that was good. 2 of them (Magda and Lunabella) decided that they just loved our church so much that they want to get baptized and they came and asked us how to do that. So we're going to keep meeting with them and set a date at some point in time...I'm pretty excited about it :)
The best part of this week though was definitely on Saturday...we went to the temple with Lyse! Haha, we thought we were doing baptisms at 9:30 though so we got to the temple at 9 and met up with Sister Leonard and Sister Rodriguez, then found out that the bus from Quebec wasn't coming until later because they weren't starting the baptisms until 11. So we sat and talked with the other sisters for about an hour and I love them so much...it was so fun to catch up with Sister Leonard. while we were waiting we also called Elder Coronado, one of the elders who was Sister Leonard's and my zone leader when I was in hochelaga who is now in Quebec and talked with him for a bit, and he said how we were legends up there in Quebec...everyone loves us. It was SO neat to be able to see them all again and to look around and realize how much I love those people. I saw Lyse (which was SO amazing!) as she did baptisms for her family and it was so exciting to realize that she has been able to keep her baptismal covenants since her baptism and is still so strong in her faith..I just love it. And to know that she's now been the means of bringing even more of her relatives into the Gospel...so neat. I was all set and ready to take care of her as well, but we walked in to the temple and the members were already doing such a good job leading her around and taking care of her that I realized that she didn't really need me there. But it was still SUCH a great experience to be there and to have those memories of Quebec...I LOVE Quebec.
Then church yesterday was fun. We were asked on Thursday evening to give the RS lesson in church on missionary work, so we toodk some time on Saturday to prepare the lesson and it went SO well. We were so grateful...it is really incredible to see how much the Lord blesses us each week...I really just love being on a mission. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
This week was SUCH a wonderful week! We had zone conference on Tuesday which is always fun and it just started out the week well. Then afterwards on Tuesday afternoon we went and blitzed the elders area a bit and ate with them and then went out and met a really neat girl while knocking named Victoria. She's 17, studying to be a dentist, and has already met with the missionaries (a long time ago) and is really interested in learning more. I'm way excited to keep teaching her.
On Wednesday we went out to eat with the Hochelaga sisters (Sister Davis and Sister Hamula) and I just LOVE them! They are so much fun...Sister Hamula and I have been talking about how much fun it would be to serve together...maybe someday we'll be companions! We did a lot of knocking doors this week, which was good, and got to have a couple of dinners with some of our members which was also a lot of fun. It's really neat to get to know them better and see them in a home setting instead of just at church...I really love it :) We also had a Relief Society dinner on Thursday and that was way fun...we spent all day decorating for it and then we were there for a couple of hours and it was just a lot of fun to be there with all of the other women in the congregation. We had several investigators who came and just loved it, so that was good. 2 of them (Magda and Lunabella) decided that they just loved our church so much that they want to get baptized and they came and asked us how to do that. So we're going to keep meeting with them and set a date at some point in time...I'm pretty excited about it :)
The best part of this week though was definitely on Saturday...we went to the temple with Lyse! Haha, we thought we were doing baptisms at 9:30 though so we got to the temple at 9 and met up with Sister Leonard and Sister Rodriguez, then found out that the bus from Quebec wasn't coming until later because they weren't starting the baptisms until 11. So we sat and talked with the other sisters for about an hour and I love them so much...it was so fun to catch up with Sister Leonard. while we were waiting we also called Elder Coronado, one of the elders who was Sister Leonard's and my zone leader when I was in hochelaga who is now in Quebec and talked with him for a bit, and he said how we were legends up there in Quebec...everyone loves us. It was SO neat to be able to see them all again and to look around and realize how much I love those people. I saw Lyse (which was SO amazing!) as she did baptisms for her family and it was so exciting to realize that she has been able to keep her baptismal covenants since her baptism and is still so strong in her faith..I just love it. And to know that she's now been the means of bringing even more of her relatives into the Gospel...so neat. I was all set and ready to take care of her as well, but we walked in to the temple and the members were already doing such a good job leading her around and taking care of her that I realized that she didn't really need me there. But it was still SUCH a great experience to be there and to have those memories of Quebec...I LOVE Quebec.
Then church yesterday was fun. We were asked on Thursday evening to give the RS lesson in church on missionary work, so we toodk some time on Saturday to prepare the lesson and it went SO well. We were so grateful...it is really incredible to see how much the Lord blesses us each week...I really just love being on a mission. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Monday, November 29, 2010
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas :)
Hey everybody! :)
It started snowing this week! It was really fun until I realized that I'd left the boots I bought last year up in the Hochelaga apartment...but the sisters are bringing them down with them to Zone conference tomorrow so I'll have them again soon. :) But it's been sucha fun week...there are Christmas decorations up everywhere and Grandma (the woman we live with...we live in her basement) has put up decorations ALL around her house and in her yard, including a 4 foot tall plastic Santa that sings Christmas songs nonstop. It's fun :) Also, since it's almost Christmas time, we're allowed to start listening to Christmas CDs in the car and it's been so fun to hear all the Christmas music. I just love Christmas! We're having a Christmas party for Relief Society this thursday and another one the following Saturday for the whole ward...it should be so fun!
This week was good with Thanksgiving and everything. We had a district study with Elder Helle giving his first ever district study. He was SO nervous, but he did such a wonderful job! We talked about love/charity and how really we are out here because we love the people here. He talked about loving them in to the Gospel and how they really need to be able to feel that love of the Savior through us as they're investigating the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was really powerful. For Thanksgiving day, we didn't have any invitations over for dinner (since the Canadian thanksgiving was about a month ago and nobody in Quebec really celebrates it and we don't have any Americans in our ward), so we had our own little Thanksgiving dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and an apple pie that one of the women in our ward had given to us. We were going to make a pumpkin one, but ran out of time. Then we thought about buying a turkey but they were ridiculously expensive, so we bought ham instead. It's the first time I've ever really cooked ham and Sister Quist doesn't really cook at all, so it was an adventure, but it turned out really well :) It was so fun.
I don't have tons of time left on here so I'm not going to be able to give tons of details about who we taught, but we had some really neat lessons. We decided that we needed to work more with less actives, so we called this one couple several times and left 2 messages, but they never called us back. Then they showed up to church for the first time in over a year and intorduced themselves to me first thing and both of them said (one right after another) "Hi, we're the Rouabah family. You called us and left 2 messages but we were too busy to call back, but we're here now!" it was kind of funny. They still didn't set up a time to see us, but at least we know who they are now and they were at church socializing with people! Ruth came to church for the second week in a row, and it went really well. She stayed all 3 meetings and there were SO many people who were there fellowshipping her. She really loved it. We're going to see her again this Thursday and then we're hoping she comes to the RS Christmas party. We'll see. We also visited another less active yesterday after church who PROMISED us she'd be at church this next Sunday. It was such an odd lesson though...we had given her a challenge the last time we were there to read in the Book of Mormon (she reads it every day even though she hasn't been to church in like 3 years...usually less actives stop reading it too) and make a list of all the blessings that she sees. She did and then she told us her favorite one and then one she wants: to be part of the first Resurrection and to be there when Christ comes again. We told her that to do that, she needed to obey the commandments. She knows that. And we read several other scriptures about blessings that come through obedience, and she knows it all and knows she needs to start coming back to church to take the sacrament and renew her baptismal covenant, but she doesn't want to because she doesn't feel important. We're not quite sure what to do. But she promised she'd come this time, so we'll see.
But that's about all the time I have on here for now...it was a wonderful week, and I think this one will be even better! I love you all! Thank you so much for your support...you are wonderful. Have a great week!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
It started snowing this week! It was really fun until I realized that I'd left the boots I bought last year up in the Hochelaga apartment...but the sisters are bringing them down with them to Zone conference tomorrow so I'll have them again soon. :) But it's been sucha fun week...there are Christmas decorations up everywhere and Grandma (the woman we live with...we live in her basement) has put up decorations ALL around her house and in her yard, including a 4 foot tall plastic Santa that sings Christmas songs nonstop. It's fun :) Also, since it's almost Christmas time, we're allowed to start listening to Christmas CDs in the car and it's been so fun to hear all the Christmas music. I just love Christmas! We're having a Christmas party for Relief Society this thursday and another one the following Saturday for the whole ward...it should be so fun!
This week was good with Thanksgiving and everything. We had a district study with Elder Helle giving his first ever district study. He was SO nervous, but he did such a wonderful job! We talked about love/charity and how really we are out here because we love the people here. He talked about loving them in to the Gospel and how they really need to be able to feel that love of the Savior through us as they're investigating the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was really powerful. For Thanksgiving day, we didn't have any invitations over for dinner (since the Canadian thanksgiving was about a month ago and nobody in Quebec really celebrates it and we don't have any Americans in our ward), so we had our own little Thanksgiving dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and an apple pie that one of the women in our ward had given to us. We were going to make a pumpkin one, but ran out of time. Then we thought about buying a turkey but they were ridiculously expensive, so we bought ham instead. It's the first time I've ever really cooked ham and Sister Quist doesn't really cook at all, so it was an adventure, but it turned out really well :) It was so fun.
I don't have tons of time left on here so I'm not going to be able to give tons of details about who we taught, but we had some really neat lessons. We decided that we needed to work more with less actives, so we called this one couple several times and left 2 messages, but they never called us back. Then they showed up to church for the first time in over a year and intorduced themselves to me first thing and both of them said (one right after another) "Hi, we're the Rouabah family. You called us and left 2 messages but we were too busy to call back, but we're here now!" it was kind of funny. They still didn't set up a time to see us, but at least we know who they are now and they were at church socializing with people! Ruth came to church for the second week in a row, and it went really well. She stayed all 3 meetings and there were SO many people who were there fellowshipping her. She really loved it. We're going to see her again this Thursday and then we're hoping she comes to the RS Christmas party. We'll see. We also visited another less active yesterday after church who PROMISED us she'd be at church this next Sunday. It was such an odd lesson though...we had given her a challenge the last time we were there to read in the Book of Mormon (she reads it every day even though she hasn't been to church in like 3 years...usually less actives stop reading it too) and make a list of all the blessings that she sees. She did and then she told us her favorite one and then one she wants: to be part of the first Resurrection and to be there when Christ comes again. We told her that to do that, she needed to obey the commandments. She knows that. And we read several other scriptures about blessings that come through obedience, and she knows it all and knows she needs to start coming back to church to take the sacrament and renew her baptismal covenant, but she doesn't want to because she doesn't feel important. We're not quite sure what to do. But she promised she'd come this time, so we'll see.
But that's about all the time I have on here for now...it was a wonderful week, and I think this one will be even better! I love you all! Thank you so much for your support...you are wonderful. Have a great week!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Monday, November 22, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hey everyone!
This week was a really fun week...I really enjoyed myself. I just love Longueuil and I especially love the elders in my district...they are SO much fun! We started the week off with P-day with the rest of our district last week and we didn't really do anything special; just spent the day together as a group. Then we went and had an amazing second lesson with an investigator, Sun, who was a member referral from a less active. It was a really good lesson. We're going to teach her again tonight and I'm excited for it. Both her and the less active have little boys (ages 3 and 2) and so the lesson was a little crazy, but it was fun.
Then on Tuesday we had our interviews and that was really neat. I just love interviews...I enjoy talking to President. He told me that our spiritual progression is kind of like building a pyramid. This might be a little hard to follow (it was when he explained it), but afterwards it made a lot of sense. He said that we're here and we have to build the pyramid up layer by layer. The Spirit will come and confirm that the layer we just built is good and that we're doing a good job, but often as missionaries (and probably people in general) we feel that prompting telling us that what we're doing is pleasing to the Lord and we say "yes, that's all nice, but I want to be at the top" and we kind of brush aside the inspiration telling us that where we are right then is where the Lord wants us to be. It was really a good analogy for me, after I thought about it awhile and it made more sense, haha.
Also this week we taught a woman named Natasha who is WONDERFUl. She is a single mother of 5 children. The youngest is 2 years old and has Turnerès disease and her husband actually left her because he didn't want to take care of a handicapped child. So now she's taking care of all of them, and she's doing an amazing job. She's always so cheerful. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and we shared the scripture about without misery, we couldn't know joy; we need opposition in everything, and she said "so for people like me who have seen lots of misery, we can also recognize the joy more easily if we want to...that's probably why I'm so cheerful all the time." It was just a neat lesson. She is SO cheerful all the time...i love teaching her :) We also taught another woman named Ruth who was so sweet and the lesson was really spiritual, but Sister Quist said the lessons with her are always like that and she never really wants to act. But then she did come to church yesterday and the whole Sacrament and SS was on faith and hope, and she was crying throughout the whole thing. It really touched her. We're going to see her again this week, so we'll see what she's thinking a little bit more at that point. We also taught a woman from Romania, Magda, who met the church there and went 5 or 6 times, but never met with the missionaries. Sister Quist taught her once but then she disappeared and then last Sunday she randomly showed up at church again. We taught her with one of our progressing less actives and the lesson went really well. I'm excited to keep teaching her. This area is a lot different from hochelaga, but there is a lot of potential.
Also, last night we had a somewhat last minute fireside. It was so crazy...a week and a half ago our bishopric got an email saying that the General Primary President (I forgot her name...oops), Sister Dalton the General Young Women's president, and Sister Allred from the General Relief Society Presidency were coming to do a training and firesides. We didn't get to go to the training, but the fireside was in the Longueuil building, so we went last night and listened to Sister Allred, and it was really inspiring. First I got to see a ton of people from the Quebec Ward and it was so much fun to catch up with all of them...I really do love that ward and the people there. BUt anyways, Sister Allred talked a lot about fellowshipping recent converts and talked about how she had visited a recent convert family of 3 months in Guatemala (I think) and talked with them. They mentioned how they had Family home evening each Monday and she asked how they knew what to do for it and the dad said they didn't know what to do for it, but they had heard they should have it, so each Sunday he made a list of the things that he had questions about while at church and Monday night they would look up all those topics in the scriptures and that was their FHE. She told them other things they could do (sing songs, play games, etc.) and they were so excited. Then she mentioned another girl who was a recent convert but had never been to RS before. Sister Allred invited her to go, and she said she didn't know what relief society was. She had shown up on time for the meeting at 9, but didn't know what to do that first hour, so she'd always joined another sunday school class for another ward and thought that that was relief society. We do need to take the time to make sure that investigators and recent converts understand different things that we might find to be obvious or habitual because they probably don't know tons about them. She also then talked about the importance of Family prayer and family scripture study everyday and how that does make a huge difference. She said something that I really liked too. She said (and I paraphrase): "We've heard over and over again how the Lord has reserved the strong and choice spirits to come to earth at this time to live in this world with all of the temptations around us. I also believe that with that, God has reserved and sent forth spirits just as strong and just as valiant to be the parents of those choice spirits, to raise them and teach them the things that they need to know to live in this world." it was really powerful. Thank you so much, Mom and Dad, for raising me right and for helping me to realize the importance of those high moral values. I realized just how lucky I am to have parents who have always supported me and who have taught me the importance of the Gospel principles. Thank you so much.
I love this Gospel. I love being able to share it everyday. I love seeing the joy and peace that comes into the lives of others when they give their will up to our Father in Heaven adn make the decision to follow HIm in every way. And I love being able to do that myself. thank you all for your love and support; you are wonderful. Have a wonderful week and a happy Thanksgiving!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
This week was a really fun week...I really enjoyed myself. I just love Longueuil and I especially love the elders in my district...they are SO much fun! We started the week off with P-day with the rest of our district last week and we didn't really do anything special; just spent the day together as a group. Then we went and had an amazing second lesson with an investigator, Sun, who was a member referral from a less active. It was a really good lesson. We're going to teach her again tonight and I'm excited for it. Both her and the less active have little boys (ages 3 and 2) and so the lesson was a little crazy, but it was fun.
Then on Tuesday we had our interviews and that was really neat. I just love interviews...I enjoy talking to President. He told me that our spiritual progression is kind of like building a pyramid. This might be a little hard to follow (it was when he explained it), but afterwards it made a lot of sense. He said that we're here and we have to build the pyramid up layer by layer. The Spirit will come and confirm that the layer we just built is good and that we're doing a good job, but often as missionaries (and probably people in general) we feel that prompting telling us that what we're doing is pleasing to the Lord and we say "yes, that's all nice, but I want to be at the top" and we kind of brush aside the inspiration telling us that where we are right then is where the Lord wants us to be. It was really a good analogy for me, after I thought about it awhile and it made more sense, haha.
Also this week we taught a woman named Natasha who is WONDERFUl. She is a single mother of 5 children. The youngest is 2 years old and has Turnerès disease and her husband actually left her because he didn't want to take care of a handicapped child. So now she's taking care of all of them, and she's doing an amazing job. She's always so cheerful. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and we shared the scripture about without misery, we couldn't know joy; we need opposition in everything, and she said "so for people like me who have seen lots of misery, we can also recognize the joy more easily if we want to...that's probably why I'm so cheerful all the time." It was just a neat lesson. She is SO cheerful all the time...i love teaching her :) We also taught another woman named Ruth who was so sweet and the lesson was really spiritual, but Sister Quist said the lessons with her are always like that and she never really wants to act. But then she did come to church yesterday and the whole Sacrament and SS was on faith and hope, and she was crying throughout the whole thing. It really touched her. We're going to see her again this week, so we'll see what she's thinking a little bit more at that point. We also taught a woman from Romania, Magda, who met the church there and went 5 or 6 times, but never met with the missionaries. Sister Quist taught her once but then she disappeared and then last Sunday she randomly showed up at church again. We taught her with one of our progressing less actives and the lesson went really well. I'm excited to keep teaching her. This area is a lot different from hochelaga, but there is a lot of potential.
Also, last night we had a somewhat last minute fireside. It was so crazy...a week and a half ago our bishopric got an email saying that the General Primary President (I forgot her name...oops), Sister Dalton the General Young Women's president, and Sister Allred from the General Relief Society Presidency were coming to do a training and firesides. We didn't get to go to the training, but the fireside was in the Longueuil building, so we went last night and listened to Sister Allred, and it was really inspiring. First I got to see a ton of people from the Quebec Ward and it was so much fun to catch up with all of them...I really do love that ward and the people there. BUt anyways, Sister Allred talked a lot about fellowshipping recent converts and talked about how she had visited a recent convert family of 3 months in Guatemala (I think) and talked with them. They mentioned how they had Family home evening each Monday and she asked how they knew what to do for it and the dad said they didn't know what to do for it, but they had heard they should have it, so each Sunday he made a list of the things that he had questions about while at church and Monday night they would look up all those topics in the scriptures and that was their FHE. She told them other things they could do (sing songs, play games, etc.) and they were so excited. Then she mentioned another girl who was a recent convert but had never been to RS before. Sister Allred invited her to go, and she said she didn't know what relief society was. She had shown up on time for the meeting at 9, but didn't know what to do that first hour, so she'd always joined another sunday school class for another ward and thought that that was relief society. We do need to take the time to make sure that investigators and recent converts understand different things that we might find to be obvious or habitual because they probably don't know tons about them. She also then talked about the importance of Family prayer and family scripture study everyday and how that does make a huge difference. She said something that I really liked too. She said (and I paraphrase): "We've heard over and over again how the Lord has reserved the strong and choice spirits to come to earth at this time to live in this world with all of the temptations around us. I also believe that with that, God has reserved and sent forth spirits just as strong and just as valiant to be the parents of those choice spirits, to raise them and teach them the things that they need to know to live in this world." it was really powerful. Thank you so much, Mom and Dad, for raising me right and for helping me to realize the importance of those high moral values. I realized just how lucky I am to have parents who have always supported me and who have taught me the importance of the Gospel principles. Thank you so much.
I love this Gospel. I love being able to share it everyday. I love seeing the joy and peace that comes into the lives of others when they give their will up to our Father in Heaven adn make the decision to follow HIm in every way. And I love being able to do that myself. thank you all for your love and support; you are wonderful. Have a wonderful week and a happy Thanksgiving!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Thursday, November 18, 2010
First week in Longueuil :)
Hey everyone!
How are you all doing? Things here are going great....the first week in my new area! Longueuil reminds me a lot of Quebec...it's about the same style of work with lots of knocking and no metros. I love it :) The ward seems really great. We went to PEC the first Wednesday that we were here and I was amazed by how on top of things the ward is. They were talking about visiting teaching, home teaching, and how to help each one of the members that might need help; you know, all the things they're supposed to do during PEC. It was a big change from Hochelaga where they weren't quite as on top of things. Plus, it is RIGHT next to the temple. Like, we share a parking lot with the temple. It's pretty little, but beautiful. I'm just hoping that I get to go in at some time....eventually I'm sure I will :)
I don't have tons to say about this week...not tons happened. I love my companion, Sister Quist. She's from Utah and has a big family, and is so sweet. She's also extremely tall...like 6 feet. I just love her. And Sister Morse came back with her family adn we spent Saturday night talking to them and that was so fun. I just love her :) She was my second companion here and I have a lot of respect for her. It's kind of crazy to think that she's done with her mission already and that I'm now the oldest sister in the mission...so crazy!
There's not tons going on in the area right now. The sisters spent the last week of last transfer up in Quebec city for the symposium so they didn't get a chance to find anyone and they didn't get anything set up for this past week at all. And I guess things have been a bit slower anyways in the area. But we went finding a lot and found quite a few new potentials that I'm excited to teach...it should be great :) Oh, and then last night we had a dinner appointment with the zone leaders. it was with a family in the spanish branch here (they don't have missionaries in their branch) and it was a birthday party for their 20 year old twins so they had a TON of people that were over there and we ate and then had a family home evening with them. It was a lot of fun, but kind of strange. They came in and we were going to start eating, and then the dad came and said something in Spanish that we didn't understand at all so Sister Quist and I just sat there and smiled. Then we asked the elders to translate for us and they said the dad had banished us to this other room to eat our dinner and had asked for volunteers to go eat with us so we wouldn't be paired off and no one volunteered. They said it was the most awkward thing ever, haha. It was so pretty funny. So we sat in a room by ourselves with 3 other girls who came and sat by us. Then we tried to play the game with them but part of it involved putting lipstick lines on our face and they told us that that was face painting and we couldn't participate. It's kind of funny the idea that people have of the missionaries sometimes. But it's been a fun week and I'm excited to work in the ward. I hope everything is going well for you all and I love you tons! :) Take care!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
How are you all doing? Things here are going great....the first week in my new area! Longueuil reminds me a lot of Quebec...it's about the same style of work with lots of knocking and no metros. I love it :) The ward seems really great. We went to PEC the first Wednesday that we were here and I was amazed by how on top of things the ward is. They were talking about visiting teaching, home teaching, and how to help each one of the members that might need help; you know, all the things they're supposed to do during PEC. It was a big change from Hochelaga where they weren't quite as on top of things. Plus, it is RIGHT next to the temple. Like, we share a parking lot with the temple. It's pretty little, but beautiful. I'm just hoping that I get to go in at some time....eventually I'm sure I will :)
I don't have tons to say about this week...not tons happened. I love my companion, Sister Quist. She's from Utah and has a big family, and is so sweet. She's also extremely tall...like 6 feet. I just love her. And Sister Morse came back with her family adn we spent Saturday night talking to them and that was so fun. I just love her :) She was my second companion here and I have a lot of respect for her. It's kind of crazy to think that she's done with her mission already and that I'm now the oldest sister in the mission...so crazy!
There's not tons going on in the area right now. The sisters spent the last week of last transfer up in Quebec city for the symposium so they didn't get a chance to find anyone and they didn't get anything set up for this past week at all. And I guess things have been a bit slower anyways in the area. But we went finding a lot and found quite a few new potentials that I'm excited to teach...it should be great :) Oh, and then last night we had a dinner appointment with the zone leaders. it was with a family in the spanish branch here (they don't have missionaries in their branch) and it was a birthday party for their 20 year old twins so they had a TON of people that were over there and we ate and then had a family home evening with them. It was a lot of fun, but kind of strange. They came in and we were going to start eating, and then the dad came and said something in Spanish that we didn't understand at all so Sister Quist and I just sat there and smiled. Then we asked the elders to translate for us and they said the dad had banished us to this other room to eat our dinner and had asked for volunteers to go eat with us so we wouldn't be paired off and no one volunteered. They said it was the most awkward thing ever, haha. It was so pretty funny. So we sat in a room by ourselves with 3 other girls who came and sat by us. Then we tried to play the game with them but part of it involved putting lipstick lines on our face and they told us that that was face painting and we couldn't participate. It's kind of funny the idea that people have of the missionaries sometimes. But it's been a fun week and I'm excited to work in the ward. I hope everything is going well for you all and I love you tons! :) Take care!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Monday, November 8, 2010
Starting transfer 10...SO crazy!
the Giles, Sister Davis, and I :) after district study one day
at the botanical gardens
me with the cupcakes we made for gary! haha, the frosting was too thin though and it all slid off before we got them to him...
sisters and the zone leaders at the botanical gardens - Sister Rodriguez, Leonard, me, Sister Davis, Elder Coronado (back), Elder de la torre (front)
Sister Davis, Sister bourassa, and myself
Hey everyone :)
So...transfer calls came! And I am being transferred. We weren't sure what to expect...Sister Davis and I had our little "sisterland" hanging on the wall and tried to figure out what was going to happen with the sisters for transfers and we were completely wrong. So I am going to Longueuil, another French speaking family ward just south of the island of Montreal, with Sister Quist, and it should be a lot of fun. I'm going to miss this zone so much though! Elder de la Torre, Elder Bourdon, Sister Leonard - the people that I've been with since I've been in Quebec. But I am realyl excited. It'll be fun to stay in French speaking and keep improving that. it was so sweet: we said goodbye to Elder and Sister Giles yesterday (they invited su over to lunch) and they were just so sweet. I told them that I was staying French and they were SO excited for me. Sister giles mentioned how Elder Giles keeps telling what Ia talent I have for French...he said that people can just understand me - what I say, they way I explain it. It was so sweet :) I just love them.
Other things going on this trasnfer for anyone who might be interested: Elder Bourdon is going zone leader in Rive Nord and Elder Sybrowsky is the other zone leader there, but they're not companions; they're both getting greenies. Elder Smedley is training (it's his 2nd transfer) and Elder Coronado is going up to Quebec! He's not thrilled, but I'm SO excited for him :) The sisters stayed pretty much the same except for me, then Sister Hamula is coming here with Sister Davis (they will have SUCH a great time) and Sister Fletcher and Sister Verdeja are both getting greenies. It should be a good transfer.
This week was an interesting week: we taught several lessons, but I ended up being sick in bed for about 3 days and we didn't get tons of contacting done. Lucie is still doing wonderful and she came to a baptism yesterday right after Stake conference for the Joliette branch and LOVED it. She's so ready for her baptism. We taught Felipe the word of Wisdom, and he accepted it without any problems. He scared us a bit though at first by saying "I can give up the coffee, that's not a problem, but I CAN'T give up the drugs." We didn't quite know what to say until he started laughing. Then last night we FINALLY got a hold of Gary. We drove by his house and then i called him and at first he said he didn't have time but then I told him that I was leaving and needed his address and he let us in. The sisters are going to back and visit him again in a couple of days. I just love the people here; I am going to miss them. But from what I've heard, Longeueil is a wonderful ward, so hopefully that will be just as great :)
Other than that, I can't think of tons of things to say about this week. haha, yesterday during stake conference, the kids in front of us were OUT OF CONTROL. Sister Davis doesn't have any younger brothers and sisters, just older ones, and she kept saying how her children will never act like that. i just laughed. But then it was so funny: we had made a cheesecake for the baptism and we went in to get it right after the baptism for the little refreshments part and it had already been mostly eaten! Definitely the work of at least one little 2 year old :) And I could just picture a mom coming in and seeing him and panicking a little bit because he had eaten the entire middle out of our cake. It was SO funny...we took pictures and I'll try to send them to you next week :)
Anyways, I hope all is going well with you...I love you all tons! Have a wonderful week! :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Transfer time again....
Hey everybody!
This week was yet another exciting week in the Canada Montreal Mission. It was kind of crazy...we had so much planned, especially on Friday and Saturday, and some of it worked out, but quite a bit feel through. It was really good though :) We had 5 dinner appointments, which is the most I have had in the same week for my entire mission. It was realyl fun to get to know more of the families in our ward and to visit with them. There are some interesting people. Last Monday we went with Elder and Sister Giles (they're the mission couple in our ward...they were the mission president in Haiti for 3 years and they are SO amazing...I just LOVE talking with them!) to Frere Dommerc's house for dinner. We ate with him once before last transfer and he's really sweet. He's about 80 years old and loves the missionaries and tells me so often that I look exactly like his daughter. He hugs me every time I see him and I'm not quite sure how to ask him not to since I'm a missionary...still working on that one. But it was really fun...he made these appetizers the last time we were there and I complemented him on them. So, this time he decided to teach me how to make them. You take hard-boiled eggs and half them like you're going to make deviled eggs, but instead of mixing the yolks in for the middle stuff, you take 2 uncooked egg yolks and mix them with a TON of crushed fresh garlic, add a bunch of oil, and fill the eggs with that. Then you grate the egg yolks that are cooked all along the top. They look good, but are SO garlicy...you end up tasting garlic for the next 2 days regardless of how many mints you swallow or how much you brush your teeth. So he showed me how to make them and we made a bunch, but Sister Davis DESPISES eggs, and Sister Giles didn't like eggs that much either. They couldn't eat more than maybe 2 a piece, but he told us we had to finish all of them and we didn't want him to feel bad, so I got to eat 5 1/2 eggs myself...it was an adventure. But we had fun with him. We also ate with Serge Cardinal, a Recent convert who is SO sweet, Frere and Soeur Same who are an older couple who were just recently married and they are so cute. It was a lot of fun.
Also this week we got to teach Gary, and he said he still wants to be baptized on the 20th, but he didn't come to church yesterday and he canceled our last appointment, so we'll see what happens with him. Then Felipe smurfed us twice (meaning, he wasn't there both times we went to teach him) so we weren't sure what to do, especially since he doesn't have a phone, but then he showed up at church yesterday, which was wonderful! Lucy is doing amazing, like always. She is so outgoing and introduces herself to everyone at church and is really just a great person. I really like her :) We also taught a man named Ronnie for the 3rd time (well, my 2nd time there...). I was a bit nervous about it because the first time we taught him the lesson got a bit confrontational...he was trying to be diplomatic and I responded in what I (and Sister Davis) thought was a fairly diplomatic response, but he got a bit defensive and it just didn't turn out very well. So I was a bit nervous, but this lesson went SO well. We taught him the plan of salvation and he asked us "I'm trying to follow Christ, and I think I have the basics down, but how do I do that on an everyday scale? Every day I wake up and I'm surrounded by filth...how do I keep following the path of Christ?" He's from Haiti and Montreal is just such a different world for him...we're living in Babylon here. He's such a good man really just trying to do what God wants him to do...I really enjoy teaching him :)
Oh, and we had a complete miracle this week! Well, 2 really, but only one was related to missionary work. So the elders had met a man named Jean Bien-aime the other day and we called him and set up an appointment with him for Sunday. He wasn't there, but called us afterward and rescheduled for Monday. We went, planning on teaching a first lesson. then we got there and started talking to him, and turns out he's a less active member of the church! he was baptized 21 years ago and has been less active for probably about 18 years...his name wasn't even on our ward list. So crazy. So we taught a first lesson and he loved it and said " I love this. I really want you to come back and teach my family." He has a wife and 4 children (ages 10, 13, 14, and 21) who aren't members. So we set up a time for Saturday and went back. he was happy to see us, but his family didn't know about the meeting and they were all busy with other things. We'll see if they let us teach them or not. But it is a FAMILY! :) AND we committed him on Saturday to come to church! And he did! He was only there for the last hour, but he came! For the first time in like 18 years! It was SO exciting :)
Then the other miracle we had: it actually was not a miracle at the beginning. So on Friday night as we were getting out of the car for an appointment we heard something clatter to the ground. We looked around, didn't see anything, so just went to our appointment assuming it was something pretty unimportant. Turns out it was our phone. So we went back to the car, looked around, couldn't find it, asked the people in the store next to us and they told us that there are tons of things stolen in that area and we probably wouldn't get it back. The man at the store talked about his propane tank being stolen off his grill, things like that. So we were a bit disappointed, but knew we could get another phone the next day. Unfortunately, the office is closed on the weekends and they told us we couldn't get a phone until this morning, so we ended up just borrowing the elders phone to check our voice-mail messages and showing up at the elders apartment each night to give them our stats, and they'd show up at our house at random times to give us updates on P-day activities today and other things. It was actually pretty fun. So they showed up last night to tell us what was going on today and I borrowed there phone to call our number to get our messages (I called our phone number and then you just press # and the password) and a man picked up the phone! i was so surprised, I didn't know what to say! Then he asked me who's phone it was, and I said it was mine. i guess his mom had found it and had no idea how to work technology so she gave it to him to try and figure out who it belonged to. he'd talked to one other missionary on the phone and then answered when we called and we met him at his work this morning so that he could give it back to us! It was AMAZING! There's hope for the people in Montreal after all :) haha.
Anyways, i think that's about all for this week...we also had a 70 at our sacrament meeting yesterday...Elder Olsen. He came on his way up to Quebec for the symposium. It was pretty neat to talk with him and he bore a really powerful testimony on how he KNEW, he had a special witness, that Christ lives. It was really neat. But anyways, my time's about up..I hope you all had a wonderful week! I love you all tons! :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
PS: transfer calls are this week...time has really flown by! We'll find out on Saturday what's happening with the area. Kind of crazy to think that after this I only have 3 or 4 transfers left in the mission...so insane.
This week was yet another exciting week in the Canada Montreal Mission. It was kind of crazy...we had so much planned, especially on Friday and Saturday, and some of it worked out, but quite a bit feel through. It was really good though :) We had 5 dinner appointments, which is the most I have had in the same week for my entire mission. It was realyl fun to get to know more of the families in our ward and to visit with them. There are some interesting people. Last Monday we went with Elder and Sister Giles (they're the mission couple in our ward...they were the mission president in Haiti for 3 years and they are SO amazing...I just LOVE talking with them!) to Frere Dommerc's house for dinner. We ate with him once before last transfer and he's really sweet. He's about 80 years old and loves the missionaries and tells me so often that I look exactly like his daughter. He hugs me every time I see him and I'm not quite sure how to ask him not to since I'm a missionary...still working on that one. But it was really fun...he made these appetizers the last time we were there and I complemented him on them. So, this time he decided to teach me how to make them. You take hard-boiled eggs and half them like you're going to make deviled eggs, but instead of mixing the yolks in for the middle stuff, you take 2 uncooked egg yolks and mix them with a TON of crushed fresh garlic, add a bunch of oil, and fill the eggs with that. Then you grate the egg yolks that are cooked all along the top. They look good, but are SO garlicy...you end up tasting garlic for the next 2 days regardless of how many mints you swallow or how much you brush your teeth. So he showed me how to make them and we made a bunch, but Sister Davis DESPISES eggs, and Sister Giles didn't like eggs that much either. They couldn't eat more than maybe 2 a piece, but he told us we had to finish all of them and we didn't want him to feel bad, so I got to eat 5 1/2 eggs myself...it was an adventure. But we had fun with him. We also ate with Serge Cardinal, a Recent convert who is SO sweet, Frere and Soeur Same who are an older couple who were just recently married and they are so cute. It was a lot of fun.
Also this week we got to teach Gary, and he said he still wants to be baptized on the 20th, but he didn't come to church yesterday and he canceled our last appointment, so we'll see what happens with him. Then Felipe smurfed us twice (meaning, he wasn't there both times we went to teach him) so we weren't sure what to do, especially since he doesn't have a phone, but then he showed up at church yesterday, which was wonderful! Lucy is doing amazing, like always. She is so outgoing and introduces herself to everyone at church and is really just a great person. I really like her :) We also taught a man named Ronnie for the 3rd time (well, my 2nd time there...). I was a bit nervous about it because the first time we taught him the lesson got a bit confrontational...he was trying to be diplomatic and I responded in what I (and Sister Davis) thought was a fairly diplomatic response, but he got a bit defensive and it just didn't turn out very well. So I was a bit nervous, but this lesson went SO well. We taught him the plan of salvation and he asked us "I'm trying to follow Christ, and I think I have the basics down, but how do I do that on an everyday scale? Every day I wake up and I'm surrounded by filth...how do I keep following the path of Christ?" He's from Haiti and Montreal is just such a different world for him...we're living in Babylon here. He's such a good man really just trying to do what God wants him to do...I really enjoy teaching him :)
Oh, and we had a complete miracle this week! Well, 2 really, but only one was related to missionary work. So the elders had met a man named Jean Bien-aime the other day and we called him and set up an appointment with him for Sunday. He wasn't there, but called us afterward and rescheduled for Monday. We went, planning on teaching a first lesson. then we got there and started talking to him, and turns out he's a less active member of the church! he was baptized 21 years ago and has been less active for probably about 18 years...his name wasn't even on our ward list. So crazy. So we taught a first lesson and he loved it and said " I love this. I really want you to come back and teach my family." He has a wife and 4 children (ages 10, 13, 14, and 21) who aren't members. So we set up a time for Saturday and went back. he was happy to see us, but his family didn't know about the meeting and they were all busy with other things. We'll see if they let us teach them or not. But it is a FAMILY! :) AND we committed him on Saturday to come to church! And he did! He was only there for the last hour, but he came! For the first time in like 18 years! It was SO exciting :)
Then the other miracle we had: it actually was not a miracle at the beginning. So on Friday night as we were getting out of the car for an appointment we heard something clatter to the ground. We looked around, didn't see anything, so just went to our appointment assuming it was something pretty unimportant. Turns out it was our phone. So we went back to the car, looked around, couldn't find it, asked the people in the store next to us and they told us that there are tons of things stolen in that area and we probably wouldn't get it back. The man at the store talked about his propane tank being stolen off his grill, things like that. So we were a bit disappointed, but knew we could get another phone the next day. Unfortunately, the office is closed on the weekends and they told us we couldn't get a phone until this morning, so we ended up just borrowing the elders phone to check our voice-mail messages and showing up at the elders apartment each night to give them our stats, and they'd show up at our house at random times to give us updates on P-day activities today and other things. It was actually pretty fun. So they showed up last night to tell us what was going on today and I borrowed there phone to call our number to get our messages (I called our phone number and then you just press # and the password) and a man picked up the phone! i was so surprised, I didn't know what to say! Then he asked me who's phone it was, and I said it was mine. i guess his mom had found it and had no idea how to work technology so she gave it to him to try and figure out who it belonged to. he'd talked to one other missionary on the phone and then answered when we called and we met him at his work this morning so that he could give it back to us! It was AMAZING! There's hope for the people in Montreal after all :) haha.
Anyways, i think that's about all for this week...we also had a 70 at our sacrament meeting yesterday...Elder Olsen. He came on his way up to Quebec for the symposium. It was pretty neat to talk with him and he bore a really powerful testimony on how he KNEW, he had a special witness, that Christ lives. It was really neat. But anyways, my time's about up..I hope you all had a wonderful week! I love you all tons! :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
PS: transfer calls are this week...time has really flown by! We'll find out on Saturday what's happening with the area. Kind of crazy to think that after this I only have 3 or 4 transfers left in the mission...so insane.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Happy Halloween!
Hey everyone :)
This week was a lot of fun...we had a really great time. We had zone conference on Tuesday and it was incredible! The whole focus was on the Book of Mormon and President Cannon shared several stories from his mission about how the Book of Mormon really did change the lives of people and how we need to encourage them to read it. And it's so true. i've found those people who really read and study the Book of Mormon (members and nonmembers alike) find they have a greater desire to do the will of God...to live His commandments and to become the person that He wants them to become. They want to go to church because they realize the importance of the sacrament...they try to obey the commandments because they see the blessings that come as a result of obedience. There is a power that comes with the Book of Mormon that we as missionaries cannot replicate...each person needs to try it and read it themselves and feel that power and that spirit that comes with it. It's really neat :)
Also this week we had a couple really neat activities/miracles. We went on a split and I went Spanish speaking with Sister Leonard. It was SO fun to be with her again! I just love having her as my companion :) unfortunately, we didn't really get to teach any lessons...we got smurfed twice and then our DA forgot they were feeding us so we spent an hour at their house waiting for the pizza to arrive that they had ordered. But it was still really fun. She made me Mexican hot chocolate for breakfast and then we spent the day contacting and just laughing together. I just love her :)
Also this week we taught a new investigator, Lucy. It's a really neat story: She met with the sisters and took all the discussions about 3 years ago but then decided that she didn't want to get batpzied after all. In the last 3 years, she's continued reading the Book of Mormon and keeps coming back to the things that the sisters taught her. She came to church about 6 weeks ago, and sat next to one of our members that she remembered. The member told us about her and had asked her if she wanted to be baptized, and she said yes. However, when the member told us that, she didn't want us to scare Lucy away, so she said that if she came to church the next week, she'd introduce us to her and we could start teaching her. But then the member's been REALLY sick for the last while and hasn't been to church so finally last Saturday (about a week and a half ago) we found Lucy's name and number in our area book and called her up and set up an appointment with her. We met her on Wednesday adn again on Friday adn she's getting baptized on the 20th and wants to invite her daughters and everyone to it! We're so excited for her :)
We taught Felipe a couple of times (turns out we had the wrong apartment building last time...we walked into the one right next to his) and he's doing great. He's also getting baptized on the 20th. For Gary, we unfortunately haven't been able to realyl see him. We stopped by his house yesterday morning and he's started working 2 jobs, so it's been a bit rough, but he's got an hour break on Tuesday so we're goign on member splits and Sister Bourassa and I are goign to go teach him while Sister Davis and Sister Therriault teach Felipe and English class. It should be good.
Then this morning we went to the Botanical Gardens as a zone...it was so fun! It was pretty rainy, but the gardens were still really pretty. And if you get there before 9 in the morning, they're free. So we got there at 8:30, walked around for an hour or 3 and then came here to do emails. It was so neat :)
Anyways, I hope everything is goign well for you...I love you all tons adn miss you like crazy!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
PS: it was good to get the letters (emails) from Mike, Alex, and Bradley...I'm so glad they're doing well and enjoying their missions! I love you all tons!
This week was a lot of fun...we had a really great time. We had zone conference on Tuesday and it was incredible! The whole focus was on the Book of Mormon and President Cannon shared several stories from his mission about how the Book of Mormon really did change the lives of people and how we need to encourage them to read it. And it's so true. i've found those people who really read and study the Book of Mormon (members and nonmembers alike) find they have a greater desire to do the will of God...to live His commandments and to become the person that He wants them to become. They want to go to church because they realize the importance of the sacrament...they try to obey the commandments because they see the blessings that come as a result of obedience. There is a power that comes with the Book of Mormon that we as missionaries cannot replicate...each person needs to try it and read it themselves and feel that power and that spirit that comes with it. It's really neat :)
Also this week we had a couple really neat activities/miracles. We went on a split and I went Spanish speaking with Sister Leonard. It was SO fun to be with her again! I just love having her as my companion :) unfortunately, we didn't really get to teach any lessons...we got smurfed twice and then our DA forgot they were feeding us so we spent an hour at their house waiting for the pizza to arrive that they had ordered. But it was still really fun. She made me Mexican hot chocolate for breakfast and then we spent the day contacting and just laughing together. I just love her :)
Also this week we taught a new investigator, Lucy. It's a really neat story: She met with the sisters and took all the discussions about 3 years ago but then decided that she didn't want to get batpzied after all. In the last 3 years, she's continued reading the Book of Mormon and keeps coming back to the things that the sisters taught her. She came to church about 6 weeks ago, and sat next to one of our members that she remembered. The member told us about her and had asked her if she wanted to be baptized, and she said yes. However, when the member told us that, she didn't want us to scare Lucy away, so she said that if she came to church the next week, she'd introduce us to her and we could start teaching her. But then the member's been REALLY sick for the last while and hasn't been to church so finally last Saturday (about a week and a half ago) we found Lucy's name and number in our area book and called her up and set up an appointment with her. We met her on Wednesday adn again on Friday adn she's getting baptized on the 20th and wants to invite her daughters and everyone to it! We're so excited for her :)
We taught Felipe a couple of times (turns out we had the wrong apartment building last time...we walked into the one right next to his) and he's doing great. He's also getting baptized on the 20th. For Gary, we unfortunately haven't been able to realyl see him. We stopped by his house yesterday morning and he's started working 2 jobs, so it's been a bit rough, but he's got an hour break on Tuesday so we're goign on member splits and Sister Bourassa and I are goign to go teach him while Sister Davis and Sister Therriault teach Felipe and English class. It should be good.
Then this morning we went to the Botanical Gardens as a zone...it was so fun! It was pretty rainy, but the gardens were still really pretty. And if you get there before 9 in the morning, they're free. So we got there at 8:30, walked around for an hour or 3 and then came here to do emails. It was so neat :)
Anyways, I hope everything is goign well for you...I love you all tons adn miss you like crazy!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
PS: it was good to get the letters (emails) from Mike, Alex, and Bradley...I'm so glad they're doing well and enjoying their missions! I love you all tons!
Monday, October 18, 2010
What a week :)
Hey everyone!
This week was crazy, but so wonderful at the same time. It started off on Monday when we went on a member split...I was with Sister Bourassa and we taught Gary a really incredible lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It went SO well! He said he'd be at church, but then he wasn't there yesterday...we have another appointment for tonight, so we'll see what happened. Then Tuesday morning we got up and went to Liline's house with her aunt and that was ROUGH. She hadn't gone to church on Sunday and had completely regressed (I think that's a word...). She had a hangover and was really frustrated that we were there. We started crying and I opened the Book of Mormon to read a scripture and she said "I'm not reading from the Book of MOrmon Sister Lindsey. If you're going to share a scripture with me, it needs to be from the bible." SO Sad! I guess her friends on Sunday had told her a lot of stuff about our church that isn't true and had convinced her that the Book of Mormon contradicts the Bible. She tried to share a scripture with us, but when she opened up the French Bible, the verse was completely different than it was in English and the contradiction wasn't there anymore. It would've been kind of funny if it hadn't been so sad. She told us she didn't want to be baptized anymore and that she wasn't interested in learning more. Her aunt got frustrated with her and they ended up yelling at each other and she left, slamming the door behind her. NOT good. We didn't quite know what to do, so we decided to write her a letter. We prayed constantly while writing the letter and gave her 3 pieces of advice: remember what the Lord has already taught you and done for you, don't turn to alcohol, and don't get discouraged -- the answers come little by little. We felt at the end that the letter really was inspired by God and we knew it was what she needed to hear, so we said another prayer and dropped it off on Friday. She called us on Saturday and left a message to tell us that she had read it over and over again and cried through the whole thing and she was so confused. We called her back but she hasn't answered. We're not sure if she'll start the discussions again with us, but sometime in the future I'm sure she'll accept the Gospel.
Also this week we taught a really great lesson to our member. She's struggling a bit and isn't able to get a temple recommend and just wanted to talk to her about her options. We had a really great lesson with her about the importance of going to the temple and the Spirit was really strong. She was crying through the whole lesson and at the end Sister Davis said "that has completely changed the way I will forever do visiting teaching. If every visiting teaching lesson was like that, everyone would do their visits every week." It was just a really powerful lesson. We also taught several other people. Felipe was one of them but it was so sad...we were supposed to visit him on Wednesday so we set up the lesson, went with Sister Medina, and knocked on the door for 20 minutes and NO ONE answered. We left a note and decided to try again later. That night he called us (he doesn't have a phone so he borrowed his friend's) and asked where we were. He said he'd been waiting at home ALL DAY and NO ONE had shown up. It was so crazy. So we set up an appointment for the next day and went back...turns out the first time we'd walked into the wrong apartment building and knocked for 20 minutes at the wrong door. Kind of funny :) But the lessons went really well with him and he came to church on Sunday and had a great time. I'm really excited for him :)
Also, we had a lesson with the Paul family (the less actives that we've been meeting with almost weekly since we got here) and it was SO great! They were SO excited to tell us that they had started reading scriptures together and praying together as a couple. AND they came to church on Sunday! It was the first time in over a year that they'd come, and it was so exciting! Everyone welcomed them really well and I think they enjoyed it :) It was a really great week.
I hope everything is going well with you...we have zone conference tomorrow and then we're going on a split and I'm going to a Spanish area on Thursday! I'm way excited. It should be fun. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all tons! :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Everything here is going great...I talked about the most exciting things in the bigger email. Some other funny lessons I learned though that I forgot to put in:
1. beets should never be made in to muffins. one of the sisters in our ward gave us oatmeal muffins and we told her honestly afterwards (she had asked us to) that they were kind of flavorless and the texture was strange. She agreed with us and then we talked about more foods and she asked if we liked beets. I said yes, Sister Davis said no. So the next day she brought me a beet muffin. It was not my favorite, haha.
2. Don't cook when you're tired. I made 2 loaves of banana bread and I ended up having to cook them for 2 hours because the centers weren't done. So the edges were burned, the center wasn't cooked, and it was way too banana-ie. I had no idea what happened, but it was a miserable failure. In the middle of the night that night I woke up with the thought "Flour!" and realized that I had doubled everything except for the flour. Kind of funny.
3. This one is a sad story instead of funny: I had to call Frere Caron (the member we lived with in Quebec) and cancel the contract on the apartment. They're not putting sisters there again in the near future. It was really
This week was crazy, but so wonderful at the same time. It started off on Monday when we went on a member split...I was with Sister Bourassa and we taught Gary a really incredible lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It went SO well! He said he'd be at church, but then he wasn't there yesterday...we have another appointment for tonight, so we'll see what happened. Then Tuesday morning we got up and went to Liline's house with her aunt and that was ROUGH. She hadn't gone to church on Sunday and had completely regressed (I think that's a word...). She had a hangover and was really frustrated that we were there. We started crying and I opened the Book of Mormon to read a scripture and she said "I'm not reading from the Book of MOrmon Sister Lindsey. If you're going to share a scripture with me, it needs to be from the bible." SO Sad! I guess her friends on Sunday had told her a lot of stuff about our church that isn't true and had convinced her that the Book of Mormon contradicts the Bible. She tried to share a scripture with us, but when she opened up the French Bible, the verse was completely different than it was in English and the contradiction wasn't there anymore. It would've been kind of funny if it hadn't been so sad. She told us she didn't want to be baptized anymore and that she wasn't interested in learning more. Her aunt got frustrated with her and they ended up yelling at each other and she left, slamming the door behind her. NOT good. We didn't quite know what to do, so we decided to write her a letter. We prayed constantly while writing the letter and gave her 3 pieces of advice: remember what the Lord has already taught you and done for you, don't turn to alcohol, and don't get discouraged -- the answers come little by little. We felt at the end that the letter really was inspired by God and we knew it was what she needed to hear, so we said another prayer and dropped it off on Friday. She called us on Saturday and left a message to tell us that she had read it over and over again and cried through the whole thing and she was so confused. We called her back but she hasn't answered. We're not sure if she'll start the discussions again with us, but sometime in the future I'm sure she'll accept the Gospel.
Also this week we taught a really great lesson to our member. She's struggling a bit and isn't able to get a temple recommend and just wanted to talk to her about her options. We had a really great lesson with her about the importance of going to the temple and the Spirit was really strong. She was crying through the whole lesson and at the end Sister Davis said "that has completely changed the way I will forever do visiting teaching. If every visiting teaching lesson was like that, everyone would do their visits every week." It was just a really powerful lesson. We also taught several other people. Felipe was one of them but it was so sad...we were supposed to visit him on Wednesday so we set up the lesson, went with Sister Medina, and knocked on the door for 20 minutes and NO ONE answered. We left a note and decided to try again later. That night he called us (he doesn't have a phone so he borrowed his friend's) and asked where we were. He said he'd been waiting at home ALL DAY and NO ONE had shown up. It was so crazy. So we set up an appointment for the next day and went back...turns out the first time we'd walked into the wrong apartment building and knocked for 20 minutes at the wrong door. Kind of funny :) But the lessons went really well with him and he came to church on Sunday and had a great time. I'm really excited for him :)
Also, we had a lesson with the Paul family (the less actives that we've been meeting with almost weekly since we got here) and it was SO great! They were SO excited to tell us that they had started reading scriptures together and praying together as a couple. AND they came to church on Sunday! It was the first time in over a year that they'd come, and it was so exciting! Everyone welcomed them really well and I think they enjoyed it :) It was a really great week.
I hope everything is going well with you...we have zone conference tomorrow and then we're going on a split and I'm going to a Spanish area on Thursday! I'm way excited. It should be fun. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all tons! :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Everything here is going great...I talked about the most exciting things in the bigger email. Some other funny lessons I learned though that I forgot to put in:
1. beets should never be made in to muffins. one of the sisters in our ward gave us oatmeal muffins and we told her honestly afterwards (she had asked us to) that they were kind of flavorless and the texture was strange. She agreed with us and then we talked about more foods and she asked if we liked beets. I said yes, Sister Davis said no. So the next day she brought me a beet muffin. It was not my favorite, haha.
2. Don't cook when you're tired. I made 2 loaves of banana bread and I ended up having to cook them for 2 hours because the centers weren't done. So the edges were burned, the center wasn't cooked, and it was way too banana-ie. I had no idea what happened, but it was a miserable failure. In the middle of the night that night I woke up with the thought "Flour!" and realized that I had doubled everything except for the flour. Kind of funny.
3. This one is a sad story instead of funny: I had to call Frere Caron (the member we lived with in Quebec) and cancel the contract on the apartment. They're not putting sisters there again in the near future. It was really
Monday, October 11, 2010
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving :)
1. The sisters in my zone! Sister Rodriguez, me, Sister Davis (my companion), Sister Leonard (my companion when I was in Quebec). I just love them!
2. My zone this transfer :) We have SO much fun.
3. My district the last p-day of last transfer when we hiked Mt. Royal to see the sunrise. Elder Bourdon, Elder Hallman, Sister Davis, me
4. My zone up in Quebec before I left (minus Victoriaville and Trois Rivieres)
Hey everyone!
So today is the Canadian Thanksgiving...we were afraid that the shops and everything would all be closed, but everything is open...guess they celebrate Thanksgiving a little bit different than we do :)
Things here are going really well. This week we had a great time! We had a Work Day which is a bit like Zone Conference, but not quite as long. We had trainings by our zone leaders, the assistants, President Cannon, then we all ate together and then went on splits to go out finding for the next 3 hours. It was crazy...there were SO many missionaries on the metros! I was on splits with Sister Morse which was a lot of fun...she was my companion back my 2nd transfer and I haven't hardly talked to her since since I was up in Quebec. This is her last transfer and it was really fun to be with her and hear her advice. I can't believe that in just a few weeks at the end of this transfer I'll be the oldest sister in the mission...I hit my year mark this last week and it was insane. Time really does speed by sometimes.
This week we also taught quite a few people and saw a few miracles. We had several new investigators, 2 of whom speak more Spanish than French but don't want to attend the Spanish ward. One of them, Felipe, is incredible! He was a media referral...turns out one of his friends in Texas started meeting with the missionaries in Texas about 2 years ago and has been telling Felipe all about our church. So we got his name last weekend and stopped by the next day but he wasn't home so we left him a little note asking him to call us. He called us on Friday and we set up an appointment for Saturday and it went SO well....we showed up about 10 minutes late and he had cookies and juice for all of us. We apologized for being late and he said "I've been waiting for you for 2 months...10 minutes more isn't that big of a deal." The lesson was perfect as well and he'll be getting baptized sometime in November we think. He was supposed to come to church but ended up being sick so he couldn't, so we gave him a Restoration DVD and he watched that and read a good part of the Book of Mormon. We're SO excited for him!
ANd then church yesterday was kind of crazy...We were supposed to have 5 investigators and a less active at church, but only one showed up and he almost didn't come. We called EVERYONE Saturday to invite them, and several said they would be there. Then Sunday morning we called our less active and she said she was already read and heading out the door (she never made it to the church); we stopped by Liline's house and she said that she wasn't coming anymore; we called Gary but he wasn't there; then Felipe doesn't have a phone so we called his friend who told us that Felipe thought we were meeting him at his house instead of the metro so we started to drive over to Felipe's to go on the metro with him to church, but I took the wrong road to get there. As we're driving, Gary called us to tell us that he was dressed and ready to go, but his metro card had been demagnetized and he couldn't use it, so he had no way to get to church. We were 2 blocks from his house, so we drove over there and loaned him ours for the day so he could go to church. So the taking the wrong road to go to Felipe's turned out to be a blessing...otherwise it would have taken us over 20 minutes to get to Gary's house and he wouldn't have been able to make it to church in time. So after all of that, Gary was the only one who showed up, but he absolutely LOVED church, especially Sunday School. I had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting, and that was interesting...they called me on Wednesday to ask me to do it, so I prepared one real quick and it was supposed to take 15 minutes. However, there was a lot of ward business, the first 2 talks both took awhile, so I ended up having 7 minutes and had to cut the talk down a bit, but it still turned out well. And everyone understood my French which was a miracle in and of itself :)
So things here are going well. We have a great week set up with several new investigators planned...it should be fun. Tonight we're going on member splits because we double booked two appointments...it should be fun! Then some other time this week we're going to go on splits with the Spanish sisters. I'm excited for this week :)
I hope you all are doing well...take care and I love you tons!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
PS: Kyle - I got your chastisement and will be writing you soon, don't worry :) Thanks for your letter!
2. My zone this transfer :) We have SO much fun.
3. My district the last p-day of last transfer when we hiked Mt. Royal to see the sunrise. Elder Bourdon, Elder Hallman, Sister Davis, me
4. My zone up in Quebec before I left (minus Victoriaville and Trois Rivieres)
Hey everyone!
So today is the Canadian Thanksgiving...we were afraid that the shops and everything would all be closed, but everything is open...guess they celebrate Thanksgiving a little bit different than we do :)
Things here are going really well. This week we had a great time! We had a Work Day which is a bit like Zone Conference, but not quite as long. We had trainings by our zone leaders, the assistants, President Cannon, then we all ate together and then went on splits to go out finding for the next 3 hours. It was crazy...there were SO many missionaries on the metros! I was on splits with Sister Morse which was a lot of fun...she was my companion back my 2nd transfer and I haven't hardly talked to her since since I was up in Quebec. This is her last transfer and it was really fun to be with her and hear her advice. I can't believe that in just a few weeks at the end of this transfer I'll be the oldest sister in the mission...I hit my year mark this last week and it was insane. Time really does speed by sometimes.
This week we also taught quite a few people and saw a few miracles. We had several new investigators, 2 of whom speak more Spanish than French but don't want to attend the Spanish ward. One of them, Felipe, is incredible! He was a media referral...turns out one of his friends in Texas started meeting with the missionaries in Texas about 2 years ago and has been telling Felipe all about our church. So we got his name last weekend and stopped by the next day but he wasn't home so we left him a little note asking him to call us. He called us on Friday and we set up an appointment for Saturday and it went SO well....we showed up about 10 minutes late and he had cookies and juice for all of us. We apologized for being late and he said "I've been waiting for you for 2 months...10 minutes more isn't that big of a deal." The lesson was perfect as well and he'll be getting baptized sometime in November we think. He was supposed to come to church but ended up being sick so he couldn't, so we gave him a Restoration DVD and he watched that and read a good part of the Book of Mormon. We're SO excited for him!
ANd then church yesterday was kind of crazy...We were supposed to have 5 investigators and a less active at church, but only one showed up and he almost didn't come. We called EVERYONE Saturday to invite them, and several said they would be there. Then Sunday morning we called our less active and she said she was already read and heading out the door (she never made it to the church); we stopped by Liline's house and she said that she wasn't coming anymore; we called Gary but he wasn't there; then Felipe doesn't have a phone so we called his friend who told us that Felipe thought we were meeting him at his house instead of the metro so we started to drive over to Felipe's to go on the metro with him to church, but I took the wrong road to get there. As we're driving, Gary called us to tell us that he was dressed and ready to go, but his metro card had been demagnetized and he couldn't use it, so he had no way to get to church. We were 2 blocks from his house, so we drove over there and loaned him ours for the day so he could go to church. So the taking the wrong road to go to Felipe's turned out to be a blessing...otherwise it would have taken us over 20 minutes to get to Gary's house and he wouldn't have been able to make it to church in time. So after all of that, Gary was the only one who showed up, but he absolutely LOVED church, especially Sunday School. I had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting, and that was interesting...they called me on Wednesday to ask me to do it, so I prepared one real quick and it was supposed to take 15 minutes. However, there was a lot of ward business, the first 2 talks both took awhile, so I ended up having 7 minutes and had to cut the talk down a bit, but it still turned out well. And everyone understood my French which was a miracle in and of itself :)
So things here are going well. We have a great week set up with several new investigators planned...it should be fun. Tonight we're going on member splits because we double booked two appointments...it should be fun! Then some other time this week we're going to go on splits with the Spanish sisters. I'm excited for this week :)
I hope you all are doing well...take care and I love you tons!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
PS: Kyle - I got your chastisement and will be writing you soon, don't worry :) Thanks for your letter!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
I LOVE General Conference!
Hey everyone!
This week was wonderful....I just LOVE general conference! We got to watch all 4 sessions and it was so amazing. I loved President Monson's talk on gratitude, the talk on living a consecrated life (I think it was Elder Christofferson?), and then of course Elder Uchtdorf's talk...he's so funny. I think his was something that a lot of people needed to hear, myself included: when things get rough, go back to the basics and focus on them; don't keep trying to run at full speed ahead. I really enjoyed it. It was kind of frustrating at the beginning of conference though: Saturday morning we showed up 1/2 an hour early and whoever was supposed to come and set things up didn't come. There are 3 congregations in our building and the first person to show up with a key to the projector and the TVs and everything got there 2 minutes before it was supposed to start. it took about half an hour more to set everything up, so we finally got to start conference at 12:30. It wasn't too big of a deal, except we missed which new temples were announced and I only got the closing testimony of Elder Holland...but we should be getting the Ensign next month so I guess I'll read about it then.
Also on Saturday night while the elders all went to the priesthood session, we all had a sister night! It was SO much fun...all the sister missionaries on or near the island, older and younger (so not the ones in Victoriaville or Ottawa, but about 17 or so of us) got together at the mission home and had a huge dinner together. We were supposed to bring a dessert, so we got a recipe from Elder Bourdon for an apple tart (he's a French pastry chef), but he uses grams so he tried to convert them into cups but it didn't quite work out, so we ended up having a TON of extra butter in the crust...not quite as good as his, but the other sisters didn't seem to mind :) We also played this game where each sister writes a little-known fact about themselves and then puts it in a container. Sister Kite was in charge and so she read each slip and then gave 3 names (the one of the sister who actually wrote the fact and then 2 others) and we had to guess which of all of them we thought it was. I guess if you have more time you're supposed to have each of the 3 people elaborate on the story and then guess, but we didn't have enough time for it. It was fun though...we learned that Sister Morse had art for sale in an art gallery and that Sister Kite helped the FBI catch a bank robber...crazy, eh?
The rest of the week was pretty standard...we did A LOT of finding since we were just about at our limit of how many click we could drive for the month so we spent a lot of time on the metro and bus, and that was interesting seeing as it rained nonstop all week long, but it turned out all right. one time we were on the bus, missed our stop by a LONG ways because we didn't know we had missed it and were still looking for the street name, turned around to wait for the bus going the other direction, got stopped by a train, and then ended up being almost an hour late for that Dinner appointment with our less active...but it was ok. We taught a couple of people, spent a TON of time trying to get people to conference and had about 8 people say they'd be there and then had 3 completely unexpected people show up for the last session...it was just so crazy. We'll see how this next week goes. But Elder de la Torre is back to being in our zone and I just love him...and Elder Bourdon is a great district leader. it's been a fun week :) I hope everything is going well with each of you...i love you all tons! Take care and have a great week!
Love. Sister Nicole Lindsey
This week was wonderful....I just LOVE general conference! We got to watch all 4 sessions and it was so amazing. I loved President Monson's talk on gratitude, the talk on living a consecrated life (I think it was Elder Christofferson?), and then of course Elder Uchtdorf's talk...he's so funny. I think his was something that a lot of people needed to hear, myself included: when things get rough, go back to the basics and focus on them; don't keep trying to run at full speed ahead. I really enjoyed it. It was kind of frustrating at the beginning of conference though: Saturday morning we showed up 1/2 an hour early and whoever was supposed to come and set things up didn't come. There are 3 congregations in our building and the first person to show up with a key to the projector and the TVs and everything got there 2 minutes before it was supposed to start. it took about half an hour more to set everything up, so we finally got to start conference at 12:30. It wasn't too big of a deal, except we missed which new temples were announced and I only got the closing testimony of Elder Holland...but we should be getting the Ensign next month so I guess I'll read about it then.
Also on Saturday night while the elders all went to the priesthood session, we all had a sister night! It was SO much fun...all the sister missionaries on or near the island, older and younger (so not the ones in Victoriaville or Ottawa, but about 17 or so of us) got together at the mission home and had a huge dinner together. We were supposed to bring a dessert, so we got a recipe from Elder Bourdon for an apple tart (he's a French pastry chef), but he uses grams so he tried to convert them into cups but it didn't quite work out, so we ended up having a TON of extra butter in the crust...not quite as good as his, but the other sisters didn't seem to mind :) We also played this game where each sister writes a little-known fact about themselves and then puts it in a container. Sister Kite was in charge and so she read each slip and then gave 3 names (the one of the sister who actually wrote the fact and then 2 others) and we had to guess which of all of them we thought it was. I guess if you have more time you're supposed to have each of the 3 people elaborate on the story and then guess, but we didn't have enough time for it. It was fun though...we learned that Sister Morse had art for sale in an art gallery and that Sister Kite helped the FBI catch a bank robber...crazy, eh?
The rest of the week was pretty standard...we did A LOT of finding since we were just about at our limit of how many click we could drive for the month so we spent a lot of time on the metro and bus, and that was interesting seeing as it rained nonstop all week long, but it turned out all right. one time we were on the bus, missed our stop by a LONG ways because we didn't know we had missed it and were still looking for the street name, turned around to wait for the bus going the other direction, got stopped by a train, and then ended up being almost an hour late for that Dinner appointment with our less active...but it was ok. We taught a couple of people, spent a TON of time trying to get people to conference and had about 8 people say they'd be there and then had 3 completely unexpected people show up for the last session...it was just so crazy. We'll see how this next week goes. But Elder de la Torre is back to being in our zone and I just love him...and Elder Bourdon is a great district leader. it's been a fun week :) I hope everything is going well with each of you...i love you all tons! Take care and have a great week!
Love. Sister Nicole Lindsey
Monday, October 4, 2010
Hey everyone :) Sept. 27, 2010
Hello!
I hope you all had a wonderful week...this week seemed to FLY by for us. It was slightly disappointing because everything that we planned fell through and it rained the whole week, making finding slightly difficult, but it was still good. We taught Liline (turns out that's her name...not Lilian...she finally corrected us after 6 weeks, haha) and she is doing WONDERFUL. She had a bit of a rough weekend this past weekend and so we went and saw her last night and she was a mess. But we talked with her for awhile and by the end she had stopped crying and was laughing which she said she hadn't done in days. Oh, and we had just gotten our phone call the night before saying that we were both staying here together another transfer, and she was THRILLED to hear that. She said it was the best news all week :)
With Doris, we're going to have to pass her off. I talked with the bishop yesterday and he said that she couldn't be a part of the ward regardless of where she was being baptized, so we're going to pass her off to the Mascouche elders, but she didn't show up for church yesterday, so we don't really know what's going on with her. We called her the other day and she didn't answer...I hope nothing is too wrong.
Also this week we had the General Authority, Elder Walker, and his wife come and we had a mission conference with 5 of the 7 zones. It was SO fun to see everyone! I saw Elder Gonzalez, one of the elders who came out with me, and I haven't seen him since the mission home my first day in the mission. It was crazy. We really had a great time :) And it was neat to hear Elder Walker...he talked a bit more about missionary work and did some role playing in front of us and it was really helpful. I took a lot of notes and learned a lot :) That same day we also went on a split with the other sisters in our zone and so Sister Leonard came back and was my companion for a day. It was really great to be with her again...I just love her! She really is wonderful.
I think the craziest day of this week was Saturday...we got up early and came to a baptism for the daughter of the Ward Mission Leader, Frere Pina. They were having a huge party afterwards and he had invited a lot of nonmember friends and wanted us to talk with them. At the last minute (meaning Friday morning) he called us and asked us to give talks on Baptism and the Holy Ghost. It was fun, but Frere Pina was pretty disappointed at the end of it. It was pretty sad...it turned out to be a huge misunderstanding about everything. We went there and thought we were giving talks for the girl getting baptized (Frere Pina really only speaks Spanish so communication is a little difficult sometimes) and that this was the first time for all of his friends to hear about the church and everything and that we were there to set a good impression, talk about the church, and get their numbers to set up appointments if they were interested. So that's what we did. Then yesterday at correlation he told us that he was pretty frustrated...he'd already taught the first lesson informally to all the friends there and they had come because they were interested in meeting with us and having discussions. We thought that most of them were from the Zarahemla ward; turns out that they were mostly nonmembers. We talked with quite a few of them (unfortunately the ones I chose were Spanish speakers and one athiest who was not interested in an appointment), and got phone numbers but didn't set up appointments, and Elder Bourdon got some phone numbesr, but again no appointments. Also, we addressed the talks to the little girl, but giving doctrinally background to help the friends, but he wanted us to talk directly to the friends. It was really sad...we were doing missionary work one way and he wanted us to do it a different way. A bit disappointing, but we'll see what happens.
But anyways, so that was Saturday morning. Then Saturday afternoon we went finding, then met the other women who were singing the song at 4 to practice and the program started at 5. The program was SO GOOD. It really was amazing. There were a lot of musical numbers and they all talked about letting our light shine as women. It wasn't too long and there were short talking parts before each musical number. Then they had a huge dinner. Unfortunately, we weren't able to stay for the RS broadcast...I'm hoping to read it in the General Conference edition of the Ensign when it comes out. Instead we went and taught a new investigator and then went home for transfer calls. We're staying here together; they opened up a new sisters area in Ottawa YSA; Elder de la Torre is going to be my new zone leader here!; Elder Bourdon is getting a greenie and is going to be my distric leader; Sister Leonard is training; and then the craziest: Elder Caldwell (he's only been out one transfer) is training. It was insane...there were quite a few changes, but it will be good. I'm excited for the transfer.
Then real quick we had a WONDERFUl relief society lesson yesterday in church. A woman in the ward gave it and she was so enthusiastic. it was on "Perseverance with patience" and she gave a little story that was really neat. She said that often here we plan our lives: who we're going to be, where we'll go to school, when we'll get married, what kind of job we'll have, etc. It's kind of like planning a trip to Italy. You decide you're going to Italy and you plan everything to the letter: looking up the weather and getting clothes that will match, buying a French-Italian dictionary, looking up sites to visit, reserving a hotel, etc. You buy your ticket, pack your bags, and head to the airport. You get on the plane, super excited to start your vacation. You arrive at your destination (Italy!) and the stewardess says "Welcome to Holland." You're shocked and try and talk with her, explaining that you're on vacation to Italy, you don't want to be in Holland, but she says there's nothing to be done. So you go out, not speaking the language, knowing nothing of the country. Somehow you find a hotel, you start looking around, even buy a dictionary for that language and you realize that Holland does have some great countryside and is a realyl nice place adn you come to love Holland. It's not Italy, not what you were expecting, but it is good. She said that often in life, multiple times for each person, we hear the words "Welcome to Holland" and we can either accept it and learn to love the changes it brings in our life, or forever yearn to be in Italy and not see the beauty in the things around us. It was really neat; I enjoyed it.
So anyways, that was my week! I hope that you all are doing well! I love you tons :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
I hope you all had a wonderful week...this week seemed to FLY by for us. It was slightly disappointing because everything that we planned fell through and it rained the whole week, making finding slightly difficult, but it was still good. We taught Liline (turns out that's her name...not Lilian...she finally corrected us after 6 weeks, haha) and she is doing WONDERFUL. She had a bit of a rough weekend this past weekend and so we went and saw her last night and she was a mess. But we talked with her for awhile and by the end she had stopped crying and was laughing which she said she hadn't done in days. Oh, and we had just gotten our phone call the night before saying that we were both staying here together another transfer, and she was THRILLED to hear that. She said it was the best news all week :)
With Doris, we're going to have to pass her off. I talked with the bishop yesterday and he said that she couldn't be a part of the ward regardless of where she was being baptized, so we're going to pass her off to the Mascouche elders, but she didn't show up for church yesterday, so we don't really know what's going on with her. We called her the other day and she didn't answer...I hope nothing is too wrong.
Also this week we had the General Authority, Elder Walker, and his wife come and we had a mission conference with 5 of the 7 zones. It was SO fun to see everyone! I saw Elder Gonzalez, one of the elders who came out with me, and I haven't seen him since the mission home my first day in the mission. It was crazy. We really had a great time :) And it was neat to hear Elder Walker...he talked a bit more about missionary work and did some role playing in front of us and it was really helpful. I took a lot of notes and learned a lot :) That same day we also went on a split with the other sisters in our zone and so Sister Leonard came back and was my companion for a day. It was really great to be with her again...I just love her! She really is wonderful.
I think the craziest day of this week was Saturday...we got up early and came to a baptism for the daughter of the Ward Mission Leader, Frere Pina. They were having a huge party afterwards and he had invited a lot of nonmember friends and wanted us to talk with them. At the last minute (meaning Friday morning) he called us and asked us to give talks on Baptism and the Holy Ghost. It was fun, but Frere Pina was pretty disappointed at the end of it. It was pretty sad...it turned out to be a huge misunderstanding about everything. We went there and thought we were giving talks for the girl getting baptized (Frere Pina really only speaks Spanish so communication is a little difficult sometimes) and that this was the first time for all of his friends to hear about the church and everything and that we were there to set a good impression, talk about the church, and get their numbers to set up appointments if they were interested. So that's what we did. Then yesterday at correlation he told us that he was pretty frustrated...he'd already taught the first lesson informally to all the friends there and they had come because they were interested in meeting with us and having discussions. We thought that most of them were from the Zarahemla ward; turns out that they were mostly nonmembers. We talked with quite a few of them (unfortunately the ones I chose were Spanish speakers and one athiest who was not interested in an appointment), and got phone numbers but didn't set up appointments, and Elder Bourdon got some phone numbesr, but again no appointments. Also, we addressed the talks to the little girl, but giving doctrinally background to help the friends, but he wanted us to talk directly to the friends. It was really sad...we were doing missionary work one way and he wanted us to do it a different way. A bit disappointing, but we'll see what happens.
But anyways, so that was Saturday morning. Then Saturday afternoon we went finding, then met the other women who were singing the song at 4 to practice and the program started at 5. The program was SO GOOD. It really was amazing. There were a lot of musical numbers and they all talked about letting our light shine as women. It wasn't too long and there were short talking parts before each musical number. Then they had a huge dinner. Unfortunately, we weren't able to stay for the RS broadcast...I'm hoping to read it in the General Conference edition of the Ensign when it comes out. Instead we went and taught a new investigator and then went home for transfer calls. We're staying here together; they opened up a new sisters area in Ottawa YSA; Elder de la Torre is going to be my new zone leader here!; Elder Bourdon is getting a greenie and is going to be my distric leader; Sister Leonard is training; and then the craziest: Elder Caldwell (he's only been out one transfer) is training. It was insane...there were quite a few changes, but it will be good. I'm excited for the transfer.
Then real quick we had a WONDERFUl relief society lesson yesterday in church. A woman in the ward gave it and she was so enthusiastic. it was on "Perseverance with patience" and she gave a little story that was really neat. She said that often here we plan our lives: who we're going to be, where we'll go to school, when we'll get married, what kind of job we'll have, etc. It's kind of like planning a trip to Italy. You decide you're going to Italy and you plan everything to the letter: looking up the weather and getting clothes that will match, buying a French-Italian dictionary, looking up sites to visit, reserving a hotel, etc. You buy your ticket, pack your bags, and head to the airport. You get on the plane, super excited to start your vacation. You arrive at your destination (Italy!) and the stewardess says "Welcome to Holland." You're shocked and try and talk with her, explaining that you're on vacation to Italy, you don't want to be in Holland, but she says there's nothing to be done. So you go out, not speaking the language, knowing nothing of the country. Somehow you find a hotel, you start looking around, even buy a dictionary for that language and you realize that Holland does have some great countryside and is a realyl nice place adn you come to love Holland. It's not Italy, not what you were expecting, but it is good. She said that often in life, multiple times for each person, we hear the words "Welcome to Holland" and we can either accept it and learn to love the changes it brings in our life, or forever yearn to be in Italy and not see the beauty in the things around us. It was really neat; I enjoyed it.
So anyways, that was my week! I hope that you all are doing well! I love you tons :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Transfers calls this week....crazy! Sept. 20th, 2010
Hey everyone!
So this last week was an interesting week...I was a bit under the weather and so we didn't get as much accomplished as we were hoping to, but it was still a good week. Lilian (our committed) ended up getting bronchitis and was quarantined for the whole week...we finally got to see her for the first time yesterday. It was kind of crazy, but good. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved it and then we changed her baptism date. She's still excited and willing to work for it, so that was great. Then we also taught another committed, Gary, the Plan of Salvation and he LOVED it. It'd been about 2 weeks since we last saw him so we were a bit nervous about teaching him again and if he'd still be interested or not, but when we walked in he was just SO excited to see us and his cousin said "i don't know what you guys did to him, but he hasn't stopped talking about you since you left." He gladly accepted the Plan of Salvation and it was SUCH a great lesson. I just love him! He wasn't at church yesterday, but we're going to go visit him this evening and teach him again. Then we also taught Doris, the member referral who we taught the amazing first lesson to last week. We had a lesson scheduled for Wednesday, but then she ended up asking if we could go to her house since her daughter had been in the hospital and she couldn't leave her at home alone. Turns out she lives in Mascouche which is way far away, so we got the elders there to go teach her. They taught her and her daughter and committed her for the 16th as well. She was at church yesterday and we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and again she LOVED the lesson. She's SO excited about her baptism and about the Relief Society broadcast this Saturday...it's going to be so amazing. We're just not sure if we're going to pass her off to Mascouche or not...we have to talk with our bishop and if he says she can be baptized in our ward, we'll keep her; if he says she has to go to her ward (up in Mascouche) we'll give her up. We'll see what happens.
So that part was all wonderful. We also taught another family and a couple of weeks ago they had had problems with the idea of Jesus Christ coming to the Americas. We gave them some suggestions and then gave them the movie "Testaments" to watch as a family. We then watched parts of it together for the lesson on Saturday and it was SO incredible. Pierre Richard (the dad) said that he had become VERY emotional when Christ appeared in the movie, and we told him that that was the Spirit bearing witness that it was true. Then we watched that very end part where Christ is there and heals the dad and then you see His face and He turns away and the mom jumped up and said "That was it! That was it! I saw that!" and then went to tell us about an experience she had had years before where she had been praying in a church and had looked up and seen a man in a white robe right in front of her who had then turned and it was EXACTLY what she had seen in the movie. It was amazing. They then talked a bit together and said "it makes sense...other sheep I have which are not of this fold...of course He came to the Americas." It was really neat. We're hoping they come to Conference, feel the Spirit and gain a testimony of the prophet and then want to be baptized. We'll see what happens :)
Also this week we had a service project on Saturday where everyone from both the English and French stakes on the island of Montreal (including 40 of the 70 missionaries who are now here) went an dhelped clean up Parc Angrignon. It was so fun. We were in groups of 4 and tried to find the craziest things we could. We foudn a HUGE bag of grated carrots (random) and a purse complete with all the accessories: a toothbrush, perfume, toothpaste, a razor, clean socks and underwear...so strange. Someone else found a huge fake tree and Elder Magre wins: he found a man sleeping in a bad. He went to take the bag and then realized there was man sleeping in it...kind of crazy :) It was so fun though.
In other news...transfer calls are this Saturday. it's so crazy to think that this is already week 6 of the transfer...it has FLOWN by! We're getting one new sister and we're anticipating that most of the companionships are staying the same...Sister Davis and I are almost positive that we're staying here together, but we'll see. So it's been a good week. OH! And we had a less active at church this week...we taught her a great lesson on the love of God for her and then she came to church and it was so great...it's been over 5 years since the last time she was there and we were SO excited for her. It was a wonderful week. I hope you all are doing well...I love you tons! Take care!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
PS: I read a talk that I loved this week and it had a poem in it that I really appreciated...I thought I'd share it with you. It says:
"In golden youth when seems the earth
A summer-land of singing mirth,
When souls are glad and hearts are light,
And not a shadow lurks in sight,
We do not know it, but there lies
Somewhere veiled 'neath evening skies
A garden which we all must see --
The Garden of Gethsemane.
"Down shadowy lanes, across strange streams
Bridged over by our broken dreams;
Behind the misty caps of years,
Beyond the great salt fount of tears,
The Garden lies. Strive, as you may,
You cannot miss it on your way;
All paths that have been, or shall be
Pass somewhere through Gethsemane."
I love that. We all do have struggles and trials in this life, but the Savior has experienced it all before. He's gone through it all so that we might be comforted and know that there is someone else there who knows EXACTLY what we're going through and exactly what we need to find that comfort and that peace even during the difficult times. I'm so grateful to my Savior for His atoning sacrifice, and I love the chance I have each day to share that with others.
So this last week was an interesting week...I was a bit under the weather and so we didn't get as much accomplished as we were hoping to, but it was still a good week. Lilian (our committed) ended up getting bronchitis and was quarantined for the whole week...we finally got to see her for the first time yesterday. It was kind of crazy, but good. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved it and then we changed her baptism date. She's still excited and willing to work for it, so that was great. Then we also taught another committed, Gary, the Plan of Salvation and he LOVED it. It'd been about 2 weeks since we last saw him so we were a bit nervous about teaching him again and if he'd still be interested or not, but when we walked in he was just SO excited to see us and his cousin said "i don't know what you guys did to him, but he hasn't stopped talking about you since you left." He gladly accepted the Plan of Salvation and it was SUCH a great lesson. I just love him! He wasn't at church yesterday, but we're going to go visit him this evening and teach him again. Then we also taught Doris, the member referral who we taught the amazing first lesson to last week. We had a lesson scheduled for Wednesday, but then she ended up asking if we could go to her house since her daughter had been in the hospital and she couldn't leave her at home alone. Turns out she lives in Mascouche which is way far away, so we got the elders there to go teach her. They taught her and her daughter and committed her for the 16th as well. She was at church yesterday and we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and again she LOVED the lesson. She's SO excited about her baptism and about the Relief Society broadcast this Saturday...it's going to be so amazing. We're just not sure if we're going to pass her off to Mascouche or not...we have to talk with our bishop and if he says she can be baptized in our ward, we'll keep her; if he says she has to go to her ward (up in Mascouche) we'll give her up. We'll see what happens.
So that part was all wonderful. We also taught another family and a couple of weeks ago they had had problems with the idea of Jesus Christ coming to the Americas. We gave them some suggestions and then gave them the movie "Testaments" to watch as a family. We then watched parts of it together for the lesson on Saturday and it was SO incredible. Pierre Richard (the dad) said that he had become VERY emotional when Christ appeared in the movie, and we told him that that was the Spirit bearing witness that it was true. Then we watched that very end part where Christ is there and heals the dad and then you see His face and He turns away and the mom jumped up and said "That was it! That was it! I saw that!" and then went to tell us about an experience she had had years before where she had been praying in a church and had looked up and seen a man in a white robe right in front of her who had then turned and it was EXACTLY what she had seen in the movie. It was amazing. They then talked a bit together and said "it makes sense...other sheep I have which are not of this fold...of course He came to the Americas." It was really neat. We're hoping they come to Conference, feel the Spirit and gain a testimony of the prophet and then want to be baptized. We'll see what happens :)
Also this week we had a service project on Saturday where everyone from both the English and French stakes on the island of Montreal (including 40 of the 70 missionaries who are now here) went an dhelped clean up Parc Angrignon. It was so fun. We were in groups of 4 and tried to find the craziest things we could. We foudn a HUGE bag of grated carrots (random) and a purse complete with all the accessories: a toothbrush, perfume, toothpaste, a razor, clean socks and underwear...so strange. Someone else found a huge fake tree and Elder Magre wins: he found a man sleeping in a bad. He went to take the bag and then realized there was man sleeping in it...kind of crazy :) It was so fun though.
In other news...transfer calls are this Saturday. it's so crazy to think that this is already week 6 of the transfer...it has FLOWN by! We're getting one new sister and we're anticipating that most of the companionships are staying the same...Sister Davis and I are almost positive that we're staying here together, but we'll see. So it's been a good week. OH! And we had a less active at church this week...we taught her a great lesson on the love of God for her and then she came to church and it was so great...it's been over 5 years since the last time she was there and we were SO excited for her. It was a wonderful week. I hope you all are doing well...I love you tons! Take care!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
PS: I read a talk that I loved this week and it had a poem in it that I really appreciated...I thought I'd share it with you. It says:
"In golden youth when seems the earth
A summer-land of singing mirth,
When souls are glad and hearts are light,
And not a shadow lurks in sight,
We do not know it, but there lies
Somewhere veiled 'neath evening skies
A garden which we all must see --
The Garden of Gethsemane.
"Down shadowy lanes, across strange streams
Bridged over by our broken dreams;
Behind the misty caps of years,
Beyond the great salt fount of tears,
The Garden lies. Strive, as you may,
You cannot miss it on your way;
All paths that have been, or shall be
Pass somewhere through Gethsemane."
I love that. We all do have struggles and trials in this life, but the Savior has experienced it all before. He's gone through it all so that we might be comforted and know that there is someone else there who knows EXACTLY what we're going through and exactly what we need to find that comfort and that peace even during the difficult times. I'm so grateful to my Savior for His atoning sacrifice, and I love the chance I have each day to share that with others.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Fall is coming in Quebec :)
Hey everybody!
So this week was a week FILLED with miracles. SO many things happened! For one, the Friday before this last one all the elders in our district came and blitzed our area (they all worked in our area for like3 hours). We call it "Good Friday" and we pick a different area in our zone each week and blitz that area. It turned out really well. We were in the middle of calling all of the people and then we randomly got a call from somebody that Elder Eslick had talked to saying that she wanted to meet with us. So we set up an appointment with her for Wednesday and taught her a first lesson and it went really, really well. But it was so exciting...that never happens! So the first lesson was good and she said she wanted to see us on Friday as well so we went and taught the Plan of Salvation, or started too, but she was just in an argumentative mood and kept questioning everything and wanted proof from the Bible (not the Book of Mormon) and wouldn't accept any of the scriptures that we used. Finally I stopped the lesson, said we didn't have any more time, and when she was ready to listen to the Spirit and let the Spirit teach her instead of just going off of what she had learned when she was 15, we'd be willing to come back and teach her. It was crazy...I started crying in the middle of it and was shaking and I thought I might have said it a little too strong, but she calmed down immediately and afterwards Sister Davis said that that was her favorite part of the lesson. We're teaching her again tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.
Ok, so that wasn't the best miracle story, but there were a lot of others. We also had another woman call us because she had met the elders on Good Friday and we met with her before District Study on Thursday and the first lesson went well. She's Muslim and didn't know hardly anything about Christ and so we spent the whole lesson talking about the Savior and she was SO happy! We're meeting her again this week...it's going to be wonderful :) Then we also called a less active that the sisters had met on Good Friday and set an appointment and she was so cool. She started smoking after her baptism and felt like she couldn't go to church anymore, so she stopped coming, but she loves the Gospel and when we showed up she had invited a friend to the lesson and started testifying about the importance of the book of Mormon and it was such a great lesson. We were so excited :)
Then yesterday at church we showed up and this man and his mother (both a bit older) came up to me and Sister Davis and introduced us to a friend they had. I hadn't met any of them before, but they were so sweet. They said the friend wanted to be taught RIGHT THEN, but we couldn't, so we set up a lesson for Sunday evening, and that lesson was AMAZING. It was a first lesson and she accepted everything. We told her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, but she said she didn't need to - she already knew that it was true. She had been praying that God would place somebody in her path to lead her back to Him, and then Brother Lacroix showed up and introduced her to us. She ahd felt the Spirit through the whole sacrament meeting, done some geneology, and LOVED our lesson. We asked her to be baptized, and she said she would love to work for that. So we're going to :) We're meeting her again on Wednesday. I'm so excited. Then also in the middle of church, one of our members, Sister Bougie, came up to us and told us how a woman that she had helped the missionaries teach 3 years before had randomly come to church and sat next to her. In talking with her, Sister Bougie asked her if she wanted to be baptized now, and she said yes. So next Sunday she's going to introduce her to us, we're going to teach her everything again, and then baptize her. It's amazing the miracles we've been seeing!
So life has been good. We've been working hard, having a wonderful time, and I really do love this area. I hope everything is going well back home and I love you all tons! This really is the work of the Lord and I am SO grateful to be a part of it and see how the Lord does prepare His children and bless each one of us. Take care!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
So this week was a week FILLED with miracles. SO many things happened! For one, the Friday before this last one all the elders in our district came and blitzed our area (they all worked in our area for like3 hours). We call it "Good Friday" and we pick a different area in our zone each week and blitz that area. It turned out really well. We were in the middle of calling all of the people and then we randomly got a call from somebody that Elder Eslick had talked to saying that she wanted to meet with us. So we set up an appointment with her for Wednesday and taught her a first lesson and it went really, really well. But it was so exciting...that never happens! So the first lesson was good and she said she wanted to see us on Friday as well so we went and taught the Plan of Salvation, or started too, but she was just in an argumentative mood and kept questioning everything and wanted proof from the Bible (not the Book of Mormon) and wouldn't accept any of the scriptures that we used. Finally I stopped the lesson, said we didn't have any more time, and when she was ready to listen to the Spirit and let the Spirit teach her instead of just going off of what she had learned when she was 15, we'd be willing to come back and teach her. It was crazy...I started crying in the middle of it and was shaking and I thought I might have said it a little too strong, but she calmed down immediately and afterwards Sister Davis said that that was her favorite part of the lesson. We're teaching her again tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.
Ok, so that wasn't the best miracle story, but there were a lot of others. We also had another woman call us because she had met the elders on Good Friday and we met with her before District Study on Thursday and the first lesson went well. She's Muslim and didn't know hardly anything about Christ and so we spent the whole lesson talking about the Savior and she was SO happy! We're meeting her again this week...it's going to be wonderful :) Then we also called a less active that the sisters had met on Good Friday and set an appointment and she was so cool. She started smoking after her baptism and felt like she couldn't go to church anymore, so she stopped coming, but she loves the Gospel and when we showed up she had invited a friend to the lesson and started testifying about the importance of the book of Mormon and it was such a great lesson. We were so excited :)
Then yesterday at church we showed up and this man and his mother (both a bit older) came up to me and Sister Davis and introduced us to a friend they had. I hadn't met any of them before, but they were so sweet. They said the friend wanted to be taught RIGHT THEN, but we couldn't, so we set up a lesson for Sunday evening, and that lesson was AMAZING. It was a first lesson and she accepted everything. We told her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, but she said she didn't need to - she already knew that it was true. She had been praying that God would place somebody in her path to lead her back to Him, and then Brother Lacroix showed up and introduced her to us. She ahd felt the Spirit through the whole sacrament meeting, done some geneology, and LOVED our lesson. We asked her to be baptized, and she said she would love to work for that. So we're going to :) We're meeting her again on Wednesday. I'm so excited. Then also in the middle of church, one of our members, Sister Bougie, came up to us and told us how a woman that she had helped the missionaries teach 3 years before had randomly come to church and sat next to her. In talking with her, Sister Bougie asked her if she wanted to be baptized now, and she said yes. So next Sunday she's going to introduce her to us, we're going to teach her everything again, and then baptize her. It's amazing the miracles we've been seeing!
So life has been good. We've been working hard, having a wonderful time, and I really do love this area. I hope everything is going well back home and I love you all tons! This really is the work of the Lord and I am SO grateful to be a part of it and see how the Lord does prepare His children and bless each one of us. Take care!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
What a crazy week....
Hey everyone :)
This past week was a bit insane...fun, but a little crazy. It started out on p-day last Monday when we had to take our car in to the garage for a recall on the power steering. We ended up spending all day there and then finally taking a shuttle back to the mission office when they realized our car wouldn`t be finished in time and they gave us a new one. We ended up having to cancel our appointments for that night and went grocery shopping instead. ON arriving back at our house, arms full of groceries, I realized that I had given ALL my keys (house keys included) to the guy at the garage so he could fix the car. So we had no way to get into our house. We met our next-door neighbor and asked her for the landlord`s phone number to see if he had a spare key and while she was getting it, i dropped our car keys down her stairwell which was completely fenced off to keep her dog from escaping. So we had to remove the fence and I had to dig through about 10 years worth of cobwebs to get our keys, she got the phone number, and the landlord wasn`t home. So we sat in our stairwell for a good 45 minutes calling everyone we could think of who might have a spare key and finally Elder Kite (one of the senior couples here) called the mission home and then called us and said we had to drive to the mission home as quickly as possible because we were having a sleepover there and they were expecting us. We were a little nervous at first, showing up at 9:30 at night still in our p-day clothes after having forgotten our keys, but the Cannon`s were SO sweet about it and fed us dinner and got everything they could for us for the evening. It was fun to get to talk to them for a little while one-on-one as well. Then the next morning we got up and got ready for interviews. We didn`t have a change of clothes, so we ran to concordia`s apartment (the YSA sisters) and they let us borrow skirts, but we were still in shirts and flip-flops, but the Cannon`s thought it was great. Interviews were wonderful and we got our car right afterwards. However, it took us 2 hours to drive and get our car (the shuttle was supposed to pick us up, but it left without us and without telling us it had left) so a set of elders drove us over there. That did make us an hour late for our DA that day, but luckily the family was really nice about it. Then that pattern continued through the rest of the week as we were late to almost every appointment, couldn`t find membesr to come with us to save our lives, and arrived home after curfew almost every day. It was so insane. But it did turn out well!
We ended up going to Lilian`s house and talking to her and she is doing SO WELL. We`re planning her baptism for the 25 of September...we`re so excited! It`s going to be great. Then we also met another guy, Gary, taught him and had one of those miracle lessons where everything went perfectly. He was asking US when he could be baptized and what he had to do, so we`re planning his baptism for the end of this month/beginning of next as well. It`s great.
Then yesterday was a miracle Monday. Everything was closed so grocery shopping was impossible, but it turned out fine. We had a Dinner Appointment (DA) with a nice old man in our ward who recently moved here from Laval and he fed us SO MUCH. Luckily, we had 2 elders who came with us to help us eat. But it was this dish from Spain that has a lot of rice and then all kinds of seafood in it. I`m not a huge seafood fan, and the first thing I pulled out was a piece of calamari, tentacles and all. He was watching, so I had to stuff it in my mouth. Not my favorite, but I ate it all, even had seconds, and he was very pleased. He did ask us questions though about church history (a little quiz almost) and he decided I didn`t really know anything. He asked me about the dead sea scrolls (dead sea is said "mer mort") and I thought he said "marmotte" which is a little groundhog like animal and I was SO confused...it was pretty funny. Then after that we received a call from someone we had met on the metro the other day who we had given our card to and she wants to meat with us tomorrow. SO EXCITING! That NEVER happens! Then we had an INCREDIBLE lesson with Marie Sandra. We went in thinking we`d watch the Restoration DVD' but ended up doing Gospel of Jesus Christ and focusing on how the Book of Mormon really testifies of Christ, and then we asked her to be baptized, and she wants to be! So we`re going to work on that with her. I`m so excited...it realyl has been a great week. But anyways, I hope you all are doing well...I love you all tons!
Love, Nicole
PS: Happy birthday Dad! I love you!! :)
This past week was a bit insane...fun, but a little crazy. It started out on p-day last Monday when we had to take our car in to the garage for a recall on the power steering. We ended up spending all day there and then finally taking a shuttle back to the mission office when they realized our car wouldn`t be finished in time and they gave us a new one. We ended up having to cancel our appointments for that night and went grocery shopping instead. ON arriving back at our house, arms full of groceries, I realized that I had given ALL my keys (house keys included) to the guy at the garage so he could fix the car. So we had no way to get into our house. We met our next-door neighbor and asked her for the landlord`s phone number to see if he had a spare key and while she was getting it, i dropped our car keys down her stairwell which was completely fenced off to keep her dog from escaping. So we had to remove the fence and I had to dig through about 10 years worth of cobwebs to get our keys, she got the phone number, and the landlord wasn`t home. So we sat in our stairwell for a good 45 minutes calling everyone we could think of who might have a spare key and finally Elder Kite (one of the senior couples here) called the mission home and then called us and said we had to drive to the mission home as quickly as possible because we were having a sleepover there and they were expecting us. We were a little nervous at first, showing up at 9:30 at night still in our p-day clothes after having forgotten our keys, but the Cannon`s were SO sweet about it and fed us dinner and got everything they could for us for the evening. It was fun to get to talk to them for a little while one-on-one as well. Then the next morning we got up and got ready for interviews. We didn`t have a change of clothes, so we ran to concordia`s apartment (the YSA sisters) and they let us borrow skirts, but we were still in shirts and flip-flops, but the Cannon`s thought it was great. Interviews were wonderful and we got our car right afterwards. However, it took us 2 hours to drive and get our car (the shuttle was supposed to pick us up, but it left without us and without telling us it had left) so a set of elders drove us over there. That did make us an hour late for our DA that day, but luckily the family was really nice about it. Then that pattern continued through the rest of the week as we were late to almost every appointment, couldn`t find membesr to come with us to save our lives, and arrived home after curfew almost every day. It was so insane. But it did turn out well!
We ended up going to Lilian`s house and talking to her and she is doing SO WELL. We`re planning her baptism for the 25 of September...we`re so excited! It`s going to be great. Then we also met another guy, Gary, taught him and had one of those miracle lessons where everything went perfectly. He was asking US when he could be baptized and what he had to do, so we`re planning his baptism for the end of this month/beginning of next as well. It`s great.
Then yesterday was a miracle Monday. Everything was closed so grocery shopping was impossible, but it turned out fine. We had a Dinner Appointment (DA) with a nice old man in our ward who recently moved here from Laval and he fed us SO MUCH. Luckily, we had 2 elders who came with us to help us eat. But it was this dish from Spain that has a lot of rice and then all kinds of seafood in it. I`m not a huge seafood fan, and the first thing I pulled out was a piece of calamari, tentacles and all. He was watching, so I had to stuff it in my mouth. Not my favorite, but I ate it all, even had seconds, and he was very pleased. He did ask us questions though about church history (a little quiz almost) and he decided I didn`t really know anything. He asked me about the dead sea scrolls (dead sea is said "mer mort") and I thought he said "marmotte" which is a little groundhog like animal and I was SO confused...it was pretty funny. Then after that we received a call from someone we had met on the metro the other day who we had given our card to and she wants to meat with us tomorrow. SO EXCITING! That NEVER happens! Then we had an INCREDIBLE lesson with Marie Sandra. We went in thinking we`d watch the Restoration DVD' but ended up doing Gospel of Jesus Christ and focusing on how the Book of Mormon really testifies of Christ, and then we asked her to be baptized, and she wants to be! So we`re going to work on that with her. I`m so excited...it realyl has been a great week. But anyways, I hope you all are doing well...I love you all tons!
Love, Nicole
PS: Happy birthday Dad! I love you!! :)
Thursday, August 26, 2010
First week in Hochelaga....
Hey everyone!
So this was my first week back on the island and it i definitely different than Quebec. There are people on the streets! It was such a shock to be in the car and actually see people out walking around...definitely a change. I'm excited to work here. It's been an interesting adjustment...It took us almost 3 hours to find our apartment because we had no idea where we were, where we were going, and then the street that we lived on was broken up into 3 different streets (they're like that all over Montreal...it can be a bit frustrating at times), but we finally found it just in time to go to a DA with a family of 3 older unmarried people (2 sisters and their brother) and that was fun. They're really sweet. We then taught English class which should be fun as well. We spent Wednesday getting organized and then taught several new investigators and a recent convert on Thursday. The recent convert, Sendra, is wonderful She has a daughter that got baptized with her and then 6 other children that aren't yet investigating, but we're going over to do an FHE tonight and so we're hoping to meet them. We decided to talk about the Armor of God and then for the activity we're going to divide into 2 teams, each one having a box of random everyday things and they're going to dress somebody up in the armor of God and we'll have a "fashion show" after. It should be a lot of fun and hopefully they'll want to keep having the family home evenings with us...we'll see :)
This week actually hasn't been too eventful yet. We've done a lot of getting organized and adjusting and trying to make phone calls (which is a bit difficult since I don't understand everything they say and my companion speaks less French than I do), but it should be good. We're going to make a bunch more and this week is going to be AMAZING. I'm really excited to have the whole ward to ourselves so that we can work with everyone in the ward...they're all super nice too and way excited to have sisters. It should be fun :) I'll keep you all updated on how it goes.
Oh, and the crowning event of this week: while going through the random boxes we have in our house trying to find scissors (we didn't have any anywhere....but we did have a bag of flower petals! Who knows when we might need them?) I came across the BEST Halloween mask ever. It's the bottom half of a man's face with a cigar hanging out of a mouth with half the teeth missing and a huge nose and it looks like he hasn't shaved in awhile. I put it on and went to go find Sister Davis to try and startle her. She screamed when she saw me and then we both started laughing so hard we couldn't stop. So much fun...it's going to be a great transfer :) But anyways I hope all is going well with you guys and you all have a great week! Love you all tons!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
So this was my first week back on the island and it i definitely different than Quebec. There are people on the streets! It was such a shock to be in the car and actually see people out walking around...definitely a change. I'm excited to work here. It's been an interesting adjustment...It took us almost 3 hours to find our apartment because we had no idea where we were, where we were going, and then the street that we lived on was broken up into 3 different streets (they're like that all over Montreal...it can be a bit frustrating at times), but we finally found it just in time to go to a DA with a family of 3 older unmarried people (2 sisters and their brother) and that was fun. They're really sweet. We then taught English class which should be fun as well. We spent Wednesday getting organized and then taught several new investigators and a recent convert on Thursday. The recent convert, Sendra, is wonderful She has a daughter that got baptized with her and then 6 other children that aren't yet investigating, but we're going over to do an FHE tonight and so we're hoping to meet them. We decided to talk about the Armor of God and then for the activity we're going to divide into 2 teams, each one having a box of random everyday things and they're going to dress somebody up in the armor of God and we'll have a "fashion show" after. It should be a lot of fun and hopefully they'll want to keep having the family home evenings with us...we'll see :)
This week actually hasn't been too eventful yet. We've done a lot of getting organized and adjusting and trying to make phone calls (which is a bit difficult since I don't understand everything they say and my companion speaks less French than I do), but it should be good. We're going to make a bunch more and this week is going to be AMAZING. I'm really excited to have the whole ward to ourselves so that we can work with everyone in the ward...they're all super nice too and way excited to have sisters. It should be fun :) I'll keep you all updated on how it goes.
Oh, and the crowning event of this week: while going through the random boxes we have in our house trying to find scissors (we didn't have any anywhere....but we did have a bag of flower petals! Who knows when we might need them?) I came across the BEST Halloween mask ever. It's the bottom half of a man's face with a cigar hanging out of a mouth with half the teeth missing and a huge nose and it looks like he hasn't shaved in awhile. I put it on and went to go find Sister Davis to try and startle her. She screamed when she saw me and then we both started laughing so hard we couldn't stop. So much fun...it's going to be a great transfer :) But anyways I hope all is going well with you guys and you all have a great week! Love you all tons!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Monday, August 16, 2010
What a week...
Hey everyone!
So this week was a bit insane. It started out on Monday with the Ghost tours of Quebec, and that was SO much fun. It started at 8 pm and we walked around all of Old Quebec and the guide (who was a VERY good story teller) told us about different deaths and ghost-sightings and everything in Quebec. Definitely worth going to if any of you are up in the area :) Then on Wednesday we had Elder Boyd's last ever district study (he's going home tomorrow) and so we decided to do a little funeral of sorts for him, and it was SO fun! We went in the morning during language study and kidnapped him and then brought him to the Institute Center where we put him (blindfolded, of course) in a wheelchair and took him all around the center. In each of the areas we re-enacted parts of his mission: opening his mission call, at the MTC, first time contacting, first lesson, dying, and at the airport coming home. We had music to go with each of them and instead of words we would randomly break out into interpretive dance. It was so funny...I'll have to get the video and show it to you when I get home.
So that was really fun, and then on Thursday evening we went on our split with Victoriaville. We met up and went to St. Hubert's (a restaurant) first, and it was wonderful, and then it ended up being too late to drive to Victoriaville so Sister Leonard and Sister Hamula decided to stay in our apartment and then drive down first thing in the morning. During studies that day we (Sister Verdeja and I ) went to the institute center because the zone leaders had asked me the night before at the restaurant to play a song on the piano for the baptism they were having on Saturday and so I needed to practice it. So our split ended up only being about 3 hours long (just enough time to watch "The Testaments" with Lyse...she loved it!) and then we headed down to Victoriaville as well. We got back just in time for sports night and Sister Leonard and I had filled up some of the water balloons that Becca gave me for my birthday and we got the Bohmondas children (along with us) to throw them at the zone leaders just after sports night. It was so fun :)
Saturday morning was the baptism but I went only to play the song (it went pretty well...I messed up once but no one heard because the kids were singing too loud) and then after wards 3 of the students (Martine, Michel, and Jean-guy) took us out for lunch at Chez Cora's. It's one of my favorite breakfast restaurants, and it was so much fun! Also one of them, Michel, said the prayer and blessed me that I would be able to be safe and fulfill cheerfully the rest of my mission, and then Jean-guy had written a little note that he read at the restaurant that told me how much they had a appreciated me (we were all pretty sure that I was going to be transferred). It was so sweet! I'm really going to miss them.
Then Saturday night we had our transfer party and we actually had a really good time. We played midnight football (you turn off all the lights - or most of them in our case since we're missionaries and that's kind of sketchy to have them all off - and you play football on your knees.) It was so much fun! Except now I have HUGE rug burns and bruises on my knees...but it was definitely worth it. Then Elder Williams came (he was my zone leader my first 3 transfers here) and it was so great to see him! He's been in Maschouche the last 2 transfers so I haven't heard anything from him at all, so it was great to see him. Then FINALLY at 10:30 we got our phone call saying that our area is closing and that Sister Leonard was going Spanish in Monterey with Sister Tschumi (my last companion) and I was flushing in the elders who are in Hochelaga right now. It will be different, that's for sure. But it should be fun. And hopefully they'll reopen the area soon. It was a huge surprise for us that they were closing the area, but I know they prayed about it, and I have President's promise that they'll open it again soon. But yesterday at church was really hard...so many people were crying and I was crying the whole time. Then we spent the afternoon visiting investigators/members and giving them all the elders phone number. We stopped by Serge's house and they have a pet rabbit with incredibly soft fur so I petted it a lot, and then in the car on the way to dinner I started sneezing and could not stop. WE got to the Belanger's house and I still couldn't stop sneezing and then Sister Belanger pointed out the fact that my eye was swelling up. Luckily though it stopped and went back mostly to normal before we stopped by Patrick's house and took a picture with him, but then it started up again right after. So crazy. So I took some allergy medicine and I think it's better now :) But anyways, so that was our week. I've packed mostly and we're leaving tomorrow morning early for MOntreal. So crazy. But anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you all!
Love, Nicole
So this week was a bit insane. It started out on Monday with the Ghost tours of Quebec, and that was SO much fun. It started at 8 pm and we walked around all of Old Quebec and the guide (who was a VERY good story teller) told us about different deaths and ghost-sightings and everything in Quebec. Definitely worth going to if any of you are up in the area :) Then on Wednesday we had Elder Boyd's last ever district study (he's going home tomorrow) and so we decided to do a little funeral of sorts for him, and it was SO fun! We went in the morning during language study and kidnapped him and then brought him to the Institute Center where we put him (blindfolded, of course) in a wheelchair and took him all around the center. In each of the areas we re-enacted parts of his mission: opening his mission call, at the MTC, first time contacting, first lesson, dying, and at the airport coming home. We had music to go with each of them and instead of words we would randomly break out into interpretive dance. It was so funny...I'll have to get the video and show it to you when I get home.
So that was really fun, and then on Thursday evening we went on our split with Victoriaville. We met up and went to St. Hubert's (a restaurant) first, and it was wonderful, and then it ended up being too late to drive to Victoriaville so Sister Leonard and Sister Hamula decided to stay in our apartment and then drive down first thing in the morning. During studies that day we (Sister Verdeja and I ) went to the institute center because the zone leaders had asked me the night before at the restaurant to play a song on the piano for the baptism they were having on Saturday and so I needed to practice it. So our split ended up only being about 3 hours long (just enough time to watch "The Testaments" with Lyse...she loved it!) and then we headed down to Victoriaville as well. We got back just in time for sports night and Sister Leonard and I had filled up some of the water balloons that Becca gave me for my birthday and we got the Bohmondas children (along with us) to throw them at the zone leaders just after sports night. It was so fun :)
Saturday morning was the baptism but I went only to play the song (it went pretty well...I messed up once but no one heard because the kids were singing too loud) and then after wards 3 of the students (Martine, Michel, and Jean-guy) took us out for lunch at Chez Cora's. It's one of my favorite breakfast restaurants, and it was so much fun! Also one of them, Michel, said the prayer and blessed me that I would be able to be safe and fulfill cheerfully the rest of my mission, and then Jean-guy had written a little note that he read at the restaurant that told me how much they had a appreciated me (we were all pretty sure that I was going to be transferred). It was so sweet! I'm really going to miss them.
Then Saturday night we had our transfer party and we actually had a really good time. We played midnight football (you turn off all the lights - or most of them in our case since we're missionaries and that's kind of sketchy to have them all off - and you play football on your knees.) It was so much fun! Except now I have HUGE rug burns and bruises on my knees...but it was definitely worth it. Then Elder Williams came (he was my zone leader my first 3 transfers here) and it was so great to see him! He's been in Maschouche the last 2 transfers so I haven't heard anything from him at all, so it was great to see him. Then FINALLY at 10:30 we got our phone call saying that our area is closing and that Sister Leonard was going Spanish in Monterey with Sister Tschumi (my last companion) and I was flushing in the elders who are in Hochelaga right now. It will be different, that's for sure. But it should be fun. And hopefully they'll reopen the area soon. It was a huge surprise for us that they were closing the area, but I know they prayed about it, and I have President's promise that they'll open it again soon. But yesterday at church was really hard...so many people were crying and I was crying the whole time. Then we spent the afternoon visiting investigators/members and giving them all the elders phone number. We stopped by Serge's house and they have a pet rabbit with incredibly soft fur so I petted it a lot, and then in the car on the way to dinner I started sneezing and could not stop. WE got to the Belanger's house and I still couldn't stop sneezing and then Sister Belanger pointed out the fact that my eye was swelling up. Luckily though it stopped and went back mostly to normal before we stopped by Patrick's house and took a picture with him, but then it started up again right after. So crazy. So I took some allergy medicine and I think it's better now :) But anyways, so that was our week. I've packed mostly and we're leaving tomorrow morning early for MOntreal. So crazy. But anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you all!
Love, Nicole
"...He lives, my everliving Head."
Hey everyone!
So this week wasn't quite as eventful as in weeks past, but it was still good. We tried to have another lesson with Stephan (our committed who came to church last Sunday), but unfortunately it didn't work out. It rained most of the week and something in his house exploded and his house flooded and he didn't have any running water for like 3 days, so it didn't work out. BUt we did stop by and give him some banana bread and he was SO excited to see us! He then called as we were driving home and asked us when the next single adult activity was and if they were still having church on sunday and if he was invited. We told him that of course he was and he said he would definitely be there with his daughter (obviously something happened though because he wasn't there...we tried calling him but he didn't answer, so we're going to stop by tomorrow evening), so that changed our week a little bit. But we did have some neat experiences! We taught Serge, another investigator, the Plan of Salvation, and it turned out well. He ended up being almost an hour late, so he had called his son and had his son come and talk with us for that hour, and he was really cool. He's an interior designer and he's redoing their house and we volunteered to help paint and he said he'd call us when he was all ready. So it'll be fun :) His dad then showed up and we taught him plan of salvation and he asked some good questions, said a lot of things, I didn't understand, and then we asked him to say the prayer at the end and He just started talking to a little slug that was crawling across the picture of the Spirit World (we had the lesson outside in his garden). It was kind of wierd....I think we need to go over prayer again, haha. But he told us he loves what we teach and he'll see us soon :)It'll be good.
Then the best experience was on Saturday. First we got to talk to one of the women in our English class about the church and she wants to come to the next Relief Society activity. Then we watched Saints and Soldiers with a member who's going to Afghanistan in 2 weeks for 9 months...it was a really good movie. Intense. Then the best part was the Dinner appointment with the Rodhain family. They are so wonderful! They got baptized 4 years ago, they're from France, and he's now in the Stake Presidency. They're such a great family :) So in the morning we were trying to think of what message to leave them and couldn't think of a good one and figured since they usually have a lot of questions from the Bible that we would just answer those and then say a prayer and leave. But we got there and they said they didn't have any questions for us and were anxious to hear our lesson. So Sister Leonard opened her scriptures at random and fell on the story of David and Goliath which is a thought we've left many times (we read the story, have everyone identify their goliaths in their heads and then we give them each a little paper stone and have them write what they can do to combat the Goliath) and I had just cleaned out my backpack that morning and found that I had 4 paper stones left in there, which was perfect. So we started that and then it reminded me of a scripture that I LOVE that I had just read again during my language study that morning in 2 Nephi 4 which is Nephi talking about how he is surrounded by difficulties, etc., but he knows in whom he's placed his confidence and how God can defeat our enemies. I love it; I read it so often. So I read it to them and they absolutely loved it. Then I shared another scripture and Sister Leonard shared a story and we all shared what we had written on our stones and Sister Rodhain almost started crying and said that she had prayed that morning that we would be inspired to give a message that would help her and that was exactly what she needed to hear, and she thanked us for being the angels who brought that message from God to her. It was so neat :) I loved it. I really love that part of missionary work; being able to share the Gospel with those and knowing that God can work miracles through me and use me to help His other children here, and that's the same for everyone. We can all be instruments in God's hands if we so choose to follow the promptings of the Spirit and prepare ourselves each morning for the things that might come throughout the day through reading our scriptures and saying our prayers. I know those are the seminary answers, but I've learned that it's really by those small and simple things that we do each day that God can accomplish HIs grand designs. I love it, and I love this GOspel. I love the knowledge that we have thanks to the Book of Mormon, the other scriptures, and modern day prophets. I'm so grateful for modern day revelation and the chance I have now to share that knowledge with all those around me. It really is an incredible experience, and I'm so grateful for it :)
I hope you all have a wonderful week and I'll let you know next week what's happening with transfers (transfer calls are this Saturday night and most people are anticipating that I'll be transferred...who knows though. We'll see what happens!). I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
So this week wasn't quite as eventful as in weeks past, but it was still good. We tried to have another lesson with Stephan (our committed who came to church last Sunday), but unfortunately it didn't work out. It rained most of the week and something in his house exploded and his house flooded and he didn't have any running water for like 3 days, so it didn't work out. BUt we did stop by and give him some banana bread and he was SO excited to see us! He then called as we were driving home and asked us when the next single adult activity was and if they were still having church on sunday and if he was invited. We told him that of course he was and he said he would definitely be there with his daughter (obviously something happened though because he wasn't there...we tried calling him but he didn't answer, so we're going to stop by tomorrow evening), so that changed our week a little bit. But we did have some neat experiences! We taught Serge, another investigator, the Plan of Salvation, and it turned out well. He ended up being almost an hour late, so he had called his son and had his son come and talk with us for that hour, and he was really cool. He's an interior designer and he's redoing their house and we volunteered to help paint and he said he'd call us when he was all ready. So it'll be fun :) His dad then showed up and we taught him plan of salvation and he asked some good questions, said a lot of things, I didn't understand, and then we asked him to say the prayer at the end and He just started talking to a little slug that was crawling across the picture of the Spirit World (we had the lesson outside in his garden). It was kind of wierd....I think we need to go over prayer again, haha. But he told us he loves what we teach and he'll see us soon :)It'll be good.
Then the best experience was on Saturday. First we got to talk to one of the women in our English class about the church and she wants to come to the next Relief Society activity. Then we watched Saints and Soldiers with a member who's going to Afghanistan in 2 weeks for 9 months...it was a really good movie. Intense. Then the best part was the Dinner appointment with the Rodhain family. They are so wonderful! They got baptized 4 years ago, they're from France, and he's now in the Stake Presidency. They're such a great family :) So in the morning we were trying to think of what message to leave them and couldn't think of a good one and figured since they usually have a lot of questions from the Bible that we would just answer those and then say a prayer and leave. But we got there and they said they didn't have any questions for us and were anxious to hear our lesson. So Sister Leonard opened her scriptures at random and fell on the story of David and Goliath which is a thought we've left many times (we read the story, have everyone identify their goliaths in their heads and then we give them each a little paper stone and have them write what they can do to combat the Goliath) and I had just cleaned out my backpack that morning and found that I had 4 paper stones left in there, which was perfect. So we started that and then it reminded me of a scripture that I LOVE that I had just read again during my language study that morning in 2 Nephi 4 which is Nephi talking about how he is surrounded by difficulties, etc., but he knows in whom he's placed his confidence and how God can defeat our enemies. I love it; I read it so often. So I read it to them and they absolutely loved it. Then I shared another scripture and Sister Leonard shared a story and we all shared what we had written on our stones and Sister Rodhain almost started crying and said that she had prayed that morning that we would be inspired to give a message that would help her and that was exactly what she needed to hear, and she thanked us for being the angels who brought that message from God to her. It was so neat :) I loved it. I really love that part of missionary work; being able to share the Gospel with those and knowing that God can work miracles through me and use me to help His other children here, and that's the same for everyone. We can all be instruments in God's hands if we so choose to follow the promptings of the Spirit and prepare ourselves each morning for the things that might come throughout the day through reading our scriptures and saying our prayers. I know those are the seminary answers, but I've learned that it's really by those small and simple things that we do each day that God can accomplish HIs grand designs. I love it, and I love this GOspel. I love the knowledge that we have thanks to the Book of Mormon, the other scriptures, and modern day prophets. I'm so grateful for modern day revelation and the chance I have now to share that knowledge with all those around me. It really is an incredible experience, and I'm so grateful for it :)
I hope you all have a wonderful week and I'll let you know next week what's happening with transfers (transfer calls are this Saturday night and most people are anticipating that I'll be transferred...who knows though. We'll see what happens!). I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
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