Hey everyone!
So this week has been full of adventure, that`s for sure. Transfers were Tuesday and that`s always fun..I love being with a million other missionaries, saying hello to some for the first time in awhile, goodbye to others. It makes the Berri metro stop pretty exciting :) So this one I said goodbye to my "mom" (Sister Williams) and Sister Morse and the AP`s took SIster Pearson and I to the office where we picked up our car. Unfortunately, the car needed windsheild wiper fluid, so we had to stop and get some before leaving. It took awhile to find the place, so we ended up not leaving Montreal until about 3:15. President McKinnon called us just as we were leaving to find out how close we were to Quebec and just laughed when we told him we weren`t even close and he said if we didn`t get out of Montreal before 3:30, we`d be stuck in traffic forever. Well, he was a bit off in his timing, and we ended up being stuck in traffic anyways. Also, the car we got had just come from Ottawa and didn`t have snow tires on it (which is illegal in the Quebec province) and it started snowing, so we were driving a bit slower than we otherwise would have. It gave us plenty of time to talk, which was fun, but in the middle of one of my stories I guess we missed the exit and didn`t realize it. We realized about 45 minutes later than we didn`t recognize anything, so we called Elder Ronndahl to find out where we were (being the AP, he had access to a computer...we didn`t even have a map in our car). He tried to help us, but wasn`t much help, so we pulled over and asked a woman at Jean Coutu. She told us to keep going, get on the 30 and that would take us back to the 20 so we could make it to Montreal, but she forgot to tell us which way to go on the 30. We went the direction we thought we should take, but after about 15 minutes it seemed wrong, so we called Elder Ronndahl AGAIN and his exact words were "Freak man, you`re way out there." So we had to turn around and EVENTUALLY (7 hours later instead of the 2 it should`ve taken) we made it to Quebec. So that was fun. Then the next day, our first REAL day in Quebec, we had a bunch of finding planned and went porting for a bit (door-to-door or porte-a-porte in French) and tried to get ourselves acquanted with the area. That evening we picked an area to go porting in, but when we got there we saw that it was private property, so we tried to make a u-turn to go someplace else. Unfortunately, what we thought was the side of the road was really a ditch and our car slid into it as we were turning, getting completely stuck. We called the zone leaders and explained what it looked like and Elder Pearson, who had been stuck in a ditch twice already this winter, said we could get it out ourselves and to call the other elders. We did, they came, the car was still stuck. We didn`t have AAA or Onstar or anything, so we decided we needed to call a tow truck and called every missionary we could think of who would have a phone book and could get us the number. None of them answered. We didn`t really want to call the members because we figured that wasn`t the best of impressions to make . We finally called Elder Ronndahl again to ask him, and again he wasn`t much help, although he now thinks we`re two of the ditziest sisters in the mission. The zone leaders ended up calling the senior couple here who called a member family who called us and gave us the number to the tow truck. The truck came, got us out, adn while Elder Magre was paying, a pickup truck decided it was going to try to go around the tow truck (bad idea). It ended up getting stuck in the SAME ditch we did, and even with the 4 wheel drive and the snow tires, it couldn`t get out and the tow truck had to help it as well. So crazy. We ended up sitting there for like 3 hours...we tried porting a little, but we ran out of houses.
Then Friday was fun...we taught a recent convert in French, ported a lot, then went to sports night and played dodgeball. We met the CUTEST family from France there..I just love them. But then sometime in the middle of the game, I fell really hard, giving me a LOVELY bruise on my knee (it matches the one I got on my other knee playing volleyball on Monday) that made it difficult to even walk, let alone kneel. But it was so worth it..we had a great time. Saturday we did some more porting, taught an investigator, and taught English class (SO much fun). Then yesterday was church and that was LONG. I am SO tired of thinking in French...I got a headache the first day and it hasn`t gone away since. I think I understood maybe one out of every 10 words yesterday in church...the accent is so strong and they speak incredibly fast. But everyone was so nice and it was fun to be back in a family ward again. I LOVED the YSA branch, but it is fun to have little kids in the ward and youth and everything. The ward is about the same size as our ward back home, but with more children, and it covers a larger area. Being in Rive SUd, it means there are only about 2 active families that we can really work with and about 7 active single adults, so I`m not sure dinner appointments will be much better than they were in YSA. But we did have a really sweet woman who cooked dinner for us yesterday. Unfortunately by the time we got over there I was so exhausted and so tired of speaking French that I couldn`t contribute anything to the conversation. But I`m sure the French will come soon...I`ve been working hard and trying to input things in to the lessons when I can, so I should be improving soon. But it`s been a fun week. OH, and one other adventure: we made homemade tacos for lunch yesterday, but we forgot to turn the stove onto medium instead of on high and so it completely burned the first tortilla, filling the house with smoke and causing the smoke alarm to go off. crazy. Then this morning we woke up (PS: it`s WAY colder up here than it was in Montreal. I freeze with 4 layers on every day) and it had warmed up just enough to have freezing rain instead of snow. We went out to our car and it was COMPLETELY iced over and we don`t have an ice scraper in our car, so we just sat inside for 30 minutes waiting for it to defrost. Then walking outside is an adventure: we don`t really walk, it`s definitely more of ice skating. But I`ll be an INCREDIBLE ice skater by the time I go home :) So it`s been fun; this transfer will definitely be different than last transfer, but it should be good. Take care and have a wonderful week! I love you tons!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Monday, January 25, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
"Conduis-moi et marche avec moi..."
Hey everyone!
This week was so much fun! :) There were a lot of exciting adventures...I just loved it. Transfer calls were on Saturday and Elder Cowley, one of the APs, LOVES to make a huge deal out of it. We had our guesses and were content with those, but then he talked to us almost every day to give us new clues and try and deny old ones that he had given us. We knew that when he called on Saturday it was going to be a HUGE deal and he would drag it out FOREVER, so we asked our zone leader to call us as soon as he got his call and let us know where we were going so that when Elder Cowley called, we could act like it was no big deal. It turned out so perfectly :) We got home at around 7 and had dinner and then started our transfer night party! Basically we just played UNO, told some apostasia kind of stories (some of the missionaries have done some bizarre things..) and waited for the phone call, and then did egg white facials afterwards. It was so funny though; while we were playing UNO we got a call from a private number. It was around 9:00 and they generally start making the calls at 8:30, so we assumed that it was Elder Cowley and the private part was just another part of his making it into a huge deal so we wouldn't know if it was the zone leaders calling us (they call if everything stays the same) or if it was the APs to tell us things had changed. So we answer and the guy asked for me in kind of an odd Mexican accent and we all thought it was one of the elders just faking it. He said his name was Carlos and I didn't remember a Carlos at all, so Sister Morse thought it was Elder Velarde and Sister Williams thought it was Elder Pratt. Either way, we were pretty sure it was from another missionary. I asked his name again and how I knew him and he said that we had met at Lionel-Groulx metro about a week ago and I had called him the night before and he was just returning my call. That's when I remembered that I really HAD met a guy named Carlos, and called him the night before, and he really was interested. So I set up an appointment while my comps just sat and laughed...we were all SO SURE it was another missionary; pretty funny :)
Anyways, so after that phone call we got another call from our zone leader saying that "really quick" he wanted to tell us what was going on and said that Sister Morse and I were staying and that Sister Williams was being transferred. We were SHOCKED. Sister Williams asked where she was being transferred and Sister Morse and I just looked at each other trying to figure out what in the world was going to happen next transfer when 3 sisters leave and 3 new ones come out and we're the oldest...someone would have to flush in an area. the zone leader told Sis. Williams she was being transferred to Quebec and she freaked out...then he just laughed and said it was the opposite, they were staying and I was going to Quebec. So I'm leaving tomorrow for Quebec with Sister Pearson, which should be so fun! She was up there for 2 transfers right before they closed the area, so she knows all the people and where everything is. It will definitely be different from Montreal: for one, I'll be speaking ONLY French, and 2, there will only be about 10 other missionaries and none of them will be anywhere close to me. As opposed to now where there hasn't been a day that I haven't talked to multiple sets of other missionaries. But it will be fun; I'm really excited. And everyone has complete confidence in me...I had SO many members yesterday come up and say they were so sad to see me go and had no idea that this was my first area; i just fit the role of a missionary so well. Hopefully that sticks when I'm up in Quebec!
Other things for this week: Pday was SO much fun last week! We wanted to walk on the Jacques-Cartier bridge to take some good scenic pictures, but it was closed. So Elders Jest and Laforney and us decided to find a different bridge (we decided that was a better idea than hopping the fence and breaking the law...). We parked in the parking lot of a building (turns out it was the Montreal Port Administration building) and walked along this cliff about 15 feet above the bank of the river to get to this other bridge we had found that was closed to cars. We never made it to the bridge, but had a great time playing in the snow...it came up over my waist in some areas and it was just so much fun. I took a step at one point and sank down so far that I couldn't get out at all...I loved it :) Then today we're planning on having a pizza party with our zone and playing some games...it should be a lot of fun.
We also had a zone study this week that was really good and then afterwards, i went on a split up to Hochelaga with Sister Aymon and Sister Pearson came down here. It was so great! It was all in French, so not quite what I was used to, but I helped teach a less active member and then I also contacted a couple of people in French and got the number of a family...it was exciting. And it was fun to spend time with Sister Aymon. She doesn't really like going out with all the other missionaries so I haven't been able to get to know her really well, so it was fun to sit and talk with her all night. And it was neat to see different areas and be out of Concordia for a day, find out how to street contact, practice my French, all those things :) I'm excited to go up to Quebec and see how much I understand, and I have some pretty intense goals of how I want my French to improve in this next transfer so hopefully I'll be fluent by the start of next transfer. We'll see :)
Also this week we went out to lunch with the AP's since I'm not going to be seeing much of them after tomorrow and then we also had a "date" of sorts with 2 of the other elders on the island, and that was fun. Elder Wilson promised to bake us something weeks ago, and he finally made us a cake, so we all went out to eat and then ate the cake afterwards. Perfect Friday night activity (only during our dinner break, of course...we try to make sure meal times last only that hour) :)
For teaching, the week wasn't all that wonderful, but we have a lot of lessons lined up for next week. Gabrielle is wonderful; I just love her. And she's going to be in Quebec next week and I'm going to teach her there! It was SO exciting to find that out. It'll only be for the week, but it'll be fun to have someone I know up there already. Then surprise of all surprises: THEO showed up at church yesterday! After having dropped us about 3 weeks ago, he showed up out of nowhere, and on my last Sunday. I didn't get a chance to ask him WHY he decided to come to church, but it was fun to see him there. Someday he'll realize that the way for true happiness is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that if we put our trust in Him and work diligently, constantly trying our best, the mysteries of God will be unfolded. We don't have to know everything right now at this this second, but little by little the Lord will reveal things to us to help us throughout this life. And when he realizes that, he'll have to be baptized :)
But yeah, so that was the week! OH! And I got my package from the ward!! Thank you SO much; that was so sweet! :) I LOVED it :) Up in Quebec, we only get the mail from the office about every 3 weeks or so. The next time they'll be going up there is next Friday, the 29th, and the next time will be after valentine's day sometime...just so you know and can plan the package deliveries accordingly ;) I'm SO excited for Valentine's day...it's coming up in just a few weeks! I do have an address up there, but I'm not sure I want everyone sending things to it just in case I get transferred...not all missionaries are wonderful about forwarding on letters. But here it is in case you need it:
1341 Rue des Frenes
St. Redempteur, QC
G6K1B8
I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you tons!!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
This week was so much fun! :) There were a lot of exciting adventures...I just loved it. Transfer calls were on Saturday and Elder Cowley, one of the APs, LOVES to make a huge deal out of it. We had our guesses and were content with those, but then he talked to us almost every day to give us new clues and try and deny old ones that he had given us. We knew that when he called on Saturday it was going to be a HUGE deal and he would drag it out FOREVER, so we asked our zone leader to call us as soon as he got his call and let us know where we were going so that when Elder Cowley called, we could act like it was no big deal. It turned out so perfectly :) We got home at around 7 and had dinner and then started our transfer night party! Basically we just played UNO, told some apostasia kind of stories (some of the missionaries have done some bizarre things..) and waited for the phone call, and then did egg white facials afterwards. It was so funny though; while we were playing UNO we got a call from a private number. It was around 9:00 and they generally start making the calls at 8:30, so we assumed that it was Elder Cowley and the private part was just another part of his making it into a huge deal so we wouldn't know if it was the zone leaders calling us (they call if everything stays the same) or if it was the APs to tell us things had changed. So we answer and the guy asked for me in kind of an odd Mexican accent and we all thought it was one of the elders just faking it. He said his name was Carlos and I didn't remember a Carlos at all, so Sister Morse thought it was Elder Velarde and Sister Williams thought it was Elder Pratt. Either way, we were pretty sure it was from another missionary. I asked his name again and how I knew him and he said that we had met at Lionel-Groulx metro about a week ago and I had called him the night before and he was just returning my call. That's when I remembered that I really HAD met a guy named Carlos, and called him the night before, and he really was interested. So I set up an appointment while my comps just sat and laughed...we were all SO SURE it was another missionary; pretty funny :)
Anyways, so after that phone call we got another call from our zone leader saying that "really quick" he wanted to tell us what was going on and said that Sister Morse and I were staying and that Sister Williams was being transferred. We were SHOCKED. Sister Williams asked where she was being transferred and Sister Morse and I just looked at each other trying to figure out what in the world was going to happen next transfer when 3 sisters leave and 3 new ones come out and we're the oldest...someone would have to flush in an area. the zone leader told Sis. Williams she was being transferred to Quebec and she freaked out...then he just laughed and said it was the opposite, they were staying and I was going to Quebec. So I'm leaving tomorrow for Quebec with Sister Pearson, which should be so fun! She was up there for 2 transfers right before they closed the area, so she knows all the people and where everything is. It will definitely be different from Montreal: for one, I'll be speaking ONLY French, and 2, there will only be about 10 other missionaries and none of them will be anywhere close to me. As opposed to now where there hasn't been a day that I haven't talked to multiple sets of other missionaries. But it will be fun; I'm really excited. And everyone has complete confidence in me...I had SO many members yesterday come up and say they were so sad to see me go and had no idea that this was my first area; i just fit the role of a missionary so well. Hopefully that sticks when I'm up in Quebec!
Other things for this week: Pday was SO much fun last week! We wanted to walk on the Jacques-Cartier bridge to take some good scenic pictures, but it was closed. So Elders Jest and Laforney and us decided to find a different bridge (we decided that was a better idea than hopping the fence and breaking the law...). We parked in the parking lot of a building (turns out it was the Montreal Port Administration building) and walked along this cliff about 15 feet above the bank of the river to get to this other bridge we had found that was closed to cars. We never made it to the bridge, but had a great time playing in the snow...it came up over my waist in some areas and it was just so much fun. I took a step at one point and sank down so far that I couldn't get out at all...I loved it :) Then today we're planning on having a pizza party with our zone and playing some games...it should be a lot of fun.
We also had a zone study this week that was really good and then afterwards, i went on a split up to Hochelaga with Sister Aymon and Sister Pearson came down here. It was so great! It was all in French, so not quite what I was used to, but I helped teach a less active member and then I also contacted a couple of people in French and got the number of a family...it was exciting. And it was fun to spend time with Sister Aymon. She doesn't really like going out with all the other missionaries so I haven't been able to get to know her really well, so it was fun to sit and talk with her all night. And it was neat to see different areas and be out of Concordia for a day, find out how to street contact, practice my French, all those things :) I'm excited to go up to Quebec and see how much I understand, and I have some pretty intense goals of how I want my French to improve in this next transfer so hopefully I'll be fluent by the start of next transfer. We'll see :)
Also this week we went out to lunch with the AP's since I'm not going to be seeing much of them after tomorrow and then we also had a "date" of sorts with 2 of the other elders on the island, and that was fun. Elder Wilson promised to bake us something weeks ago, and he finally made us a cake, so we all went out to eat and then ate the cake afterwards. Perfect Friday night activity (only during our dinner break, of course...we try to make sure meal times last only that hour) :)
For teaching, the week wasn't all that wonderful, but we have a lot of lessons lined up for next week. Gabrielle is wonderful; I just love her. And she's going to be in Quebec next week and I'm going to teach her there! It was SO exciting to find that out. It'll only be for the week, but it'll be fun to have someone I know up there already. Then surprise of all surprises: THEO showed up at church yesterday! After having dropped us about 3 weeks ago, he showed up out of nowhere, and on my last Sunday. I didn't get a chance to ask him WHY he decided to come to church, but it was fun to see him there. Someday he'll realize that the way for true happiness is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that if we put our trust in Him and work diligently, constantly trying our best, the mysteries of God will be unfolded. We don't have to know everything right now at this this second, but little by little the Lord will reveal things to us to help us throughout this life. And when he realizes that, he'll have to be baptized :)
But yeah, so that was the week! OH! And I got my package from the ward!! Thank you SO much; that was so sweet! :) I LOVED it :) Up in Quebec, we only get the mail from the office about every 3 weeks or so. The next time they'll be going up there is next Friday, the 29th, and the next time will be after valentine's day sometime...just so you know and can plan the package deliveries accordingly ;) I'm SO excited for Valentine's day...it's coming up in just a few weeks! I do have an address up there, but I'm not sure I want everyone sending things to it just in case I get transferred...not all missionaries are wonderful about forwarding on letters. But here it is in case you need it:
1341 Rue des Frenes
St. Redempteur, QC
G6K1B8
I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you tons!!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
"You can count the seeds in an apple, but you can't count the apples in a Seed"
Hey everyone!
Life here is wonderful :) This week was a busy week with lots of new investigators and lots of lessons...it was wonderful. The week before we had spent most of the week finding, so it payed off this week, but it meant that we didn't get much finding time in, so this coming week might not be as great. We'll see how it goes :) But it was pretty exciting; Sister Williams had met a girl on the metro and set up an appointment with her and when we called the night before to confirm, she asked if she could bring a friend. Then we had a pass off lesson from Elder Jest and Elder Laforney, and that girl ended up bringing her friend, and the lesson just went so well! It really was wonderful; we were explaining about the Great Apostasy, and the friend (Karine) asked, "But then wouldn't God just give us another prophet? Like He did in the Bible?" It was so perfect. It just really made sense to all of them. I love it when we teach people and they actually get it. So often we teach people and they find the simplest things and try to make it in to a problem thinking that nothing religious can be as perfect or make as much sense as the Gospel does. So instead of accepting that maybe God really is a God of reason and not one of confusion, they spend the time and energy trying to find any problem they can, because they "know" there has to SOMETHING that doesn't make sense in it. That can get a little old sometime...so it was fun this week to teach quite a few people who actually understood and accepted what we were teaching, and I'm excited to teach them again this week!
And it was SO exciting: we taught Gabrielle, our miracle from last week, the Plan of Salvation, and she just loved it! I guess she's been looking into things about the church for longer than I thought...she said it's been about a year and a half that she's been curious about the church and trying to find information about it. It's so neat; she is just SO prepared! She has one issue that we know of that we're going to work out this week, but other than that, she is set to go. I just love her...we were talking about the Plan of Salvation and about baptisms for the dead, and she was SO excited and said something like "I want to be baptized for myself and for my grandparents on the same day!" and then she asked me if she was in a car wreck the next day, if I would be baptized for her, and I assured her that we would find somebody to be baptized for her (most likely by teaching her family). It was just so neat; I love her. And I love that God trusted me and my companions enough to send her to us and allow us to teach her. It really is incredible.
This week I also had to teach English class by myself, which was an adventure. My companions were teaching someone else, so I went in to English class and tried to teach them about vowel sounds, and there were two cute girls who were interested in learning about it and then one man who's been coming to English class forever who argued with me seriously the ENTIRE class. He started off the class by asking me about homosexual marriages and then how many states in the US allowed them, and he wouldn't listen to my "I don't know." He then tried to argue with the "U" sound and said that I was saying it incorrectly, and told me that "W" is a vowel, which I'm sure it's not. It made class VERY interesting. Then I was giving an example of something and said "10 push-ups" and no one in the class knew what a push-up was. I tried explaining it, but they still didn't get it, so I had to demonstrate one in the middle of class. Then a girl in the back didn't see it, so I had to do another one. Kind of crazy. Oh! And it was so sad! So I decided I wanted to strengthen my upper body during exercises this week, so early in the week I was trying to do pull-ups on this pull-up bar we have (I learned that I really have NO upper body strength and pull-ups are ridiculously hard...). The bar is in the door, about 4 inches below the top of the door frame. I did one perfectly and then went for the second one and somehow smacked the top of my nose on the door frame and it hurt SO bad, so I gave up for a bit, but then went back and tried it again. That time I did 2 and then on the third I smacked my nose AGAIN and it bruised it so I have a huge red mark on the top of my nose that I've been trying to cover up with make-up all week. My companions were just laughing at me; they watched it all day as the mark became more and more noticeable. I think it's finally starting to go away though...or at least, I hope it is :)
Oh, and I think they just need to set me apart as the Gospel Principles Sunday School teacher. I have done it SO many times in the past 2 months since I got here. We had correlation last Thursday, and Jean-Luc thanked me for doing it last minute the week before, and I said we as missionaries don't mind teaching the class, but we'd really like more than 2 minutes advance warning. We need at least a day to prepare. So he asked me right then if I would teach it and I couldn't say no because I had just said that we would be willing to help. So I taught the class AGAIN this week...but next time I'm asked I'm definitely passing it off to the Elders...teaching the entire class isn't my favorite thing to do.
Oh, and I almost forgot! It was SO fun last Monday..Elder Pratt was a bit sick and he and Elder Clarke were a little stressed with adjusting to life as zone leaders in a new area, so we decided to take them to Elder Pratt's favorite Chinese restaurant, Hot Pot. It was SO much fun! It's like a Chinese fondue place...they bring each person out a pot of soup, and you go through the line and get whatever you want to put in it and you cook it right in front of you and you can go back and get as much as you want of everything. I loved it. I tried some disgusting stuff though..I tried one of the century-old eggs where they cook an egg and then like wrap it in clay or something and let it sit for 30 days until it's black and rotten...not the best. But I ate it without spitting it out. Then we also ate several seaweed kind of things, one that looked like a coral and didn't taste very good, and then some noodles that had a really odd texture, and a shrimp with the eyes still in place on it's head. But then there were some really good things too...the pumpkin in the soup was delicious and the lamb strips were some of my favorites. We were there for like 3 hours and they really appreciated it; it was so much fun :)
Also, I found out that John Denver is WAY more popular than I thought he was. My first week here I told a Chinese man I was from WV, and he started singing the country roads song, and then this week I told another Chinese girl and she started singing the song as well. I was a bit surprised and she said "Are you kidding? Everyone in China knows that song! John Denver is amazing!" It was pretty funny. I didn't realize he was as well-known in China as he is.
I think that's about it for exciting news for this past week...transfers are coming up this week, so that's exciting. We're getting 3 new sisters, so what we're all thinking is that President is going to split up our trio here (and most people are guessing I'll be transferred) and open 2 new sister areas. But we'll see what happens...transfer calls are always exciting! Oh, also: I think I need more sleep. My eye has been twitching almost constantly for the past 6 weeks, and I think it's becoming permanent and will just last my entire mission. It could be interesting to see when it finally goes away...
But anyways, I love you all tons! Have a wonderful week! Thanks for all your love and support :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Life here is wonderful :) This week was a busy week with lots of new investigators and lots of lessons...it was wonderful. The week before we had spent most of the week finding, so it payed off this week, but it meant that we didn't get much finding time in, so this coming week might not be as great. We'll see how it goes :) But it was pretty exciting; Sister Williams had met a girl on the metro and set up an appointment with her and when we called the night before to confirm, she asked if she could bring a friend. Then we had a pass off lesson from Elder Jest and Elder Laforney, and that girl ended up bringing her friend, and the lesson just went so well! It really was wonderful; we were explaining about the Great Apostasy, and the friend (Karine) asked, "But then wouldn't God just give us another prophet? Like He did in the Bible?" It was so perfect. It just really made sense to all of them. I love it when we teach people and they actually get it. So often we teach people and they find the simplest things and try to make it in to a problem thinking that nothing religious can be as perfect or make as much sense as the Gospel does. So instead of accepting that maybe God really is a God of reason and not one of confusion, they spend the time and energy trying to find any problem they can, because they "know" there has to SOMETHING that doesn't make sense in it. That can get a little old sometime...so it was fun this week to teach quite a few people who actually understood and accepted what we were teaching, and I'm excited to teach them again this week!
And it was SO exciting: we taught Gabrielle, our miracle from last week, the Plan of Salvation, and she just loved it! I guess she's been looking into things about the church for longer than I thought...she said it's been about a year and a half that she's been curious about the church and trying to find information about it. It's so neat; she is just SO prepared! She has one issue that we know of that we're going to work out this week, but other than that, she is set to go. I just love her...we were talking about the Plan of Salvation and about baptisms for the dead, and she was SO excited and said something like "I want to be baptized for myself and for my grandparents on the same day!" and then she asked me if she was in a car wreck the next day, if I would be baptized for her, and I assured her that we would find somebody to be baptized for her (most likely by teaching her family). It was just so neat; I love her. And I love that God trusted me and my companions enough to send her to us and allow us to teach her. It really is incredible.
This week I also had to teach English class by myself, which was an adventure. My companions were teaching someone else, so I went in to English class and tried to teach them about vowel sounds, and there were two cute girls who were interested in learning about it and then one man who's been coming to English class forever who argued with me seriously the ENTIRE class. He started off the class by asking me about homosexual marriages and then how many states in the US allowed them, and he wouldn't listen to my "I don't know." He then tried to argue with the "U" sound and said that I was saying it incorrectly, and told me that "W" is a vowel, which I'm sure it's not. It made class VERY interesting. Then I was giving an example of something and said "10 push-ups" and no one in the class knew what a push-up was. I tried explaining it, but they still didn't get it, so I had to demonstrate one in the middle of class. Then a girl in the back didn't see it, so I had to do another one. Kind of crazy. Oh! And it was so sad! So I decided I wanted to strengthen my upper body during exercises this week, so early in the week I was trying to do pull-ups on this pull-up bar we have (I learned that I really have NO upper body strength and pull-ups are ridiculously hard...). The bar is in the door, about 4 inches below the top of the door frame. I did one perfectly and then went for the second one and somehow smacked the top of my nose on the door frame and it hurt SO bad, so I gave up for a bit, but then went back and tried it again. That time I did 2 and then on the third I smacked my nose AGAIN and it bruised it so I have a huge red mark on the top of my nose that I've been trying to cover up with make-up all week. My companions were just laughing at me; they watched it all day as the mark became more and more noticeable. I think it's finally starting to go away though...or at least, I hope it is :)
Oh, and I think they just need to set me apart as the Gospel Principles Sunday School teacher. I have done it SO many times in the past 2 months since I got here. We had correlation last Thursday, and Jean-Luc thanked me for doing it last minute the week before, and I said we as missionaries don't mind teaching the class, but we'd really like more than 2 minutes advance warning. We need at least a day to prepare. So he asked me right then if I would teach it and I couldn't say no because I had just said that we would be willing to help. So I taught the class AGAIN this week...but next time I'm asked I'm definitely passing it off to the Elders...teaching the entire class isn't my favorite thing to do.
Oh, and I almost forgot! It was SO fun last Monday..Elder Pratt was a bit sick and he and Elder Clarke were a little stressed with adjusting to life as zone leaders in a new area, so we decided to take them to Elder Pratt's favorite Chinese restaurant, Hot Pot. It was SO much fun! It's like a Chinese fondue place...they bring each person out a pot of soup, and you go through the line and get whatever you want to put in it and you cook it right in front of you and you can go back and get as much as you want of everything. I loved it. I tried some disgusting stuff though..I tried one of the century-old eggs where they cook an egg and then like wrap it in clay or something and let it sit for 30 days until it's black and rotten...not the best. But I ate it without spitting it out. Then we also ate several seaweed kind of things, one that looked like a coral and didn't taste very good, and then some noodles that had a really odd texture, and a shrimp with the eyes still in place on it's head. But then there were some really good things too...the pumpkin in the soup was delicious and the lamb strips were some of my favorites. We were there for like 3 hours and they really appreciated it; it was so much fun :)
Also, I found out that John Denver is WAY more popular than I thought he was. My first week here I told a Chinese man I was from WV, and he started singing the country roads song, and then this week I told another Chinese girl and she started singing the song as well. I was a bit surprised and she said "Are you kidding? Everyone in China knows that song! John Denver is amazing!" It was pretty funny. I didn't realize he was as well-known in China as he is.
I think that's about it for exciting news for this past week...transfers are coming up this week, so that's exciting. We're getting 3 new sisters, so what we're all thinking is that President is going to split up our trio here (and most people are guessing I'll be transferred) and open 2 new sister areas. But we'll see what happens...transfer calls are always exciting! Oh, also: I think I need more sleep. My eye has been twitching almost constantly for the past 6 weeks, and I think it's becoming permanent and will just last my entire mission. It could be interesting to see when it finally goes away...
But anyways, I love you all tons! Have a wonderful week! Thanks for all your love and support :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
"Look unto me in every thought. Doubt not. Fear not."
Hey everyone!
It was so good to hear from you! This week was one of those high/low weeks where there wasn't much just in the middle emotionally. It was SO exciting; on Tuesday, we finally committed Theo! We've been teaching him since before I got here and he always has so many questions and no faith, but we had a lesson last week that kind of changed things and we decided this week we were either going to commit him or drop him, depending on what he wanted to do. So we met with him, had an incredible lesson, and started talking about baptism and he said he wanted to know what was going to happen after. He wanted to know the end before he put both his feet in. We had a member there, Irena, who explained that it doesn't work like that. More often than not you have to take a step first and show that you're willing to exercise your faith and then you see the results and the blessings. I hadn't said much during the lesson up to that point, but I felt very strongly that I needed to say something, but I didn't really know what. So I agreed with Irena and just started talking and ended up telling the story about when we moved and how we didn't necessarily want to move to WV, but we knew that that was what the Lord wanted us to do, so we did it anyways, and because we were there, we now have 4 more children in our family who will be raised in the gospel and have those blessings in their lives when otherwise they might not have, and we have the opportunity to have those children in our home and learn and grow from them. I also shared a part in the Bible Dictionary that I had found earlier in the lesson but hadn't shared under Repentance, where it says that repentance is turning your heart and your will to God and without it, you cannot progress spiritually. So our job now is to find out what the Lord's will for us is and then humble ourselves enough so that we can turn our will to match his and shared that it was something I am still struggling with, but we are blessed when we do it. I then told him that God’s will for him is to be baptized, and we know that if he prays about it sincerely, with real intent, etc., he’ll have an answer by January 30 and he’ll be ready to get baptized, and he agreed and said that he would go home and pray about it. It was SO exciting…I was beyond thrilled that the lesson had actually gone well, he had felt the spirit, and agreed to go home and pray about it, and I hadn’t gotten upset with him once. It was so wonderful. Unfortunately, we met with him again on Saturday to teach him about prophets and follow up on his praying, and he told us he didn’t want to meet with us anymore. He didn’t want to pray about it the way that we wanted him to pray about it (he prefers to pray at random times as he’s walking or as he’s on the metro and believes that if God really wants to give him an answer, He’ll give it to him regardless of how or where he prays) and he still has a lot of issues about our doctrine, some of which is true, some he found on anti-mormon websites, and all of it includes deep doctrine. It was pretty funny; at the beginning he said that no man in between 30 and 50 (he’s 33) really prays the way we wanted him to, and I said that my dad did; he’s the one who taught me. And Theo said that maybe he’d call my dad and talk to him and I said he was more than welcome to and my dad would be happy to straighten him out…then he decided he’d rather not talk to him after all. But that was pretty sad. So he’s taking a month or two break and going to try to find truth elsewhere or if not truth, at least understanding, since he doesn’t believe that there really is any truth in this world. It was really hard. We also dropped our other 2 committeds this week and our other amis (investigators) all dropped us, so we’re kind of starting over. We had committed Kvaur as well on Thursday, and we set up a time to meet on Friday and I called him to remind him and he said he was out with friends and going to a party and couldn’t come. I was pretty irritated about that since that would have been the 8th time he’s smurfed us in the past 2 weeks and we don’t have time to waste sitting around waiting for him, so I told him that he had made a commitment and he NEEDED to be there. We did not have enough time to waste sitting and waiting, and if he was serious about wanting to be baptized, he needed to be there at 7:15 when he said he was going to be there. He said to call him half an hour before and remind him, so I told him I’d call at 6:45 and he WOULD be there at 7:15 or he WOULD NOT be able to be baptized. He said Ok. I called him, he didn’t answer, he didn’t show up for the appointment, and he’s not getting baptized. It was slightly frustrating, but we realized that in this way, the Lord is enabling us to go out and find those who really are ready and willing to hear the gospel. Since all of our amis dropped us, we can now spend our time finding those who are ready. So it’s a good thing after all : )
Also this week, we had zone interviews which are always good. I love talking to President McKinnon. Except I ended up crying AGAIN. Half the missionaries in our zone only see me when I’m crying, so I’ve developed a bit of a reputation for being the cry baby of the mission, but I decided that’s all right…my investigators and the members have never seen it, and they’re the ones that I want to make a good impression on. But I was talking to President and asked him what I can improve on, and he said that I have all the natural qualities to be a good missionary and once I get completely adjusted, I’ll be amazing. He said he’s just waiting for that day…right now I talk to all the members, I’m cheerful and friendly with everyone, I’m an incredible teacher (speaking of which, I had to teach gospel Principles on the spot yesterday because the teacher didn’t come and the substitute decided to go to a different class…luckily it was an easy topic so it went pretty well. It was on “God does exist”), and as soon as I forget about my life back home and am able to completely throw myself into this work, I’ll find miracles all over. So that’s what I’m working on right now…forgetting my life back home and focusing completely on the work out here.
Oh, and we did see miracles yesterday! It was SO great…we didn’t have any amis at church since they all dropped us, so we were all sitting in the front, and I looked around during the testimonies and saw a girl who I had never seen before. I felt like I should talk to her after, but didn’t think too much about it. After the closing prayer I wanted to talk to Elder Cowley and assumed that she was a visitor from out of town and would find other people to talk to, but then I saw her just standing by herself and knew I HAD to go talk to her, so I went and introduced myself. Turns out she’s an investigator who saw the missionaries on the metro but didn’t want to talk to them, so she googled our church alter and found a Facebook group. She loved our standards and one of the girls on there pointed her in the direction of mormon.org, where she chatted with some sisters in the MTC and they taught her a bit and told her where the church was, what to expect, and how to dress. So we went and talked to her and got to teach her afterwards and she LOVED church and we committed her to be baptized, when she receives her answer, on the 6th of February. It was SO exciting! Then on the way home I decided to start talking to the guy next to me (after about 2 days of not having the courage to talk to anyone, the fact that I actually said something was a miracle in and of itself). I just asked how he was doing and he thought I was trying to convert him, so he said he wasn’t interested, but I told him that no, I really did just want to know how he was and how his day was since he looked a little drained. So he told me about his day and I told him about mine and then told him a little about missionary work and he said he was interested and gave me his number so that we could meet up and talk about it some other time. By that point we had missed our stop and had to turn around and go back, so I talked to another guy who also gave me his number. We once again missed our stop and had to turn around, and this time the guy I talked to wasn’t interested, but Sister Morse and Sister Williams talked to someone and got his number. It was great. Oh, and in Second Cup the other day we were waiting for our recent convert and he didn’t show up, but the other guy said hello to me and told me that the raspberry muffin I got wasn’t as good as the blueberry muffin that Sister Morse bought, and if I didn’t like it, I could exchange it because that’s their policy there. I thanked him, went and ate my muffin, and then felt like I should go back and thank him for his advice again and tell him I did enjoy the muffin. So I went back and started talking to him and we talked about the gospel and missionary work for awhile. He seemed interested, but wouldn’t give me his number, but we did set up an appointment for Tuesday. We’ll see if he shows up or not. It was pretty neat though; at the end of the conversation he said “you know, I never understood why they sell those raspberry muffins because they’re really not very good. But now I know: it gave me the chance to learn what you all do as missionaries and where we go after this life.” It was pretty great :)
So it was a pretty good week after all. But my time’s about up; I have to run. I tried sending pictures again, but it doesn’t work on this computer, so I think I’m just going to print them out and send hard copies to you. Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful week…love you tons!!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
It was so good to hear from you! This week was one of those high/low weeks where there wasn't much just in the middle emotionally. It was SO exciting; on Tuesday, we finally committed Theo! We've been teaching him since before I got here and he always has so many questions and no faith, but we had a lesson last week that kind of changed things and we decided this week we were either going to commit him or drop him, depending on what he wanted to do. So we met with him, had an incredible lesson, and started talking about baptism and he said he wanted to know what was going to happen after. He wanted to know the end before he put both his feet in. We had a member there, Irena, who explained that it doesn't work like that. More often than not you have to take a step first and show that you're willing to exercise your faith and then you see the results and the blessings. I hadn't said much during the lesson up to that point, but I felt very strongly that I needed to say something, but I didn't really know what. So I agreed with Irena and just started talking and ended up telling the story about when we moved and how we didn't necessarily want to move to WV, but we knew that that was what the Lord wanted us to do, so we did it anyways, and because we were there, we now have 4 more children in our family who will be raised in the gospel and have those blessings in their lives when otherwise they might not have, and we have the opportunity to have those children in our home and learn and grow from them. I also shared a part in the Bible Dictionary that I had found earlier in the lesson but hadn't shared under Repentance, where it says that repentance is turning your heart and your will to God and without it, you cannot progress spiritually. So our job now is to find out what the Lord's will for us is and then humble ourselves enough so that we can turn our will to match his and shared that it was something I am still struggling with, but we are blessed when we do it. I then told him that God’s will for him is to be baptized, and we know that if he prays about it sincerely, with real intent, etc., he’ll have an answer by January 30 and he’ll be ready to get baptized, and he agreed and said that he would go home and pray about it. It was SO exciting…I was beyond thrilled that the lesson had actually gone well, he had felt the spirit, and agreed to go home and pray about it, and I hadn’t gotten upset with him once. It was so wonderful. Unfortunately, we met with him again on Saturday to teach him about prophets and follow up on his praying, and he told us he didn’t want to meet with us anymore. He didn’t want to pray about it the way that we wanted him to pray about it (he prefers to pray at random times as he’s walking or as he’s on the metro and believes that if God really wants to give him an answer, He’ll give it to him regardless of how or where he prays) and he still has a lot of issues about our doctrine, some of which is true, some he found on anti-mormon websites, and all of it includes deep doctrine. It was pretty funny; at the beginning he said that no man in between 30 and 50 (he’s 33) really prays the way we wanted him to, and I said that my dad did; he’s the one who taught me. And Theo said that maybe he’d call my dad and talk to him and I said he was more than welcome to and my dad would be happy to straighten him out…then he decided he’d rather not talk to him after all. But that was pretty sad. So he’s taking a month or two break and going to try to find truth elsewhere or if not truth, at least understanding, since he doesn’t believe that there really is any truth in this world. It was really hard. We also dropped our other 2 committeds this week and our other amis (investigators) all dropped us, so we’re kind of starting over. We had committed Kvaur as well on Thursday, and we set up a time to meet on Friday and I called him to remind him and he said he was out with friends and going to a party and couldn’t come. I was pretty irritated about that since that would have been the 8th time he’s smurfed us in the past 2 weeks and we don’t have time to waste sitting around waiting for him, so I told him that he had made a commitment and he NEEDED to be there. We did not have enough time to waste sitting and waiting, and if he was serious about wanting to be baptized, he needed to be there at 7:15 when he said he was going to be there. He said to call him half an hour before and remind him, so I told him I’d call at 6:45 and he WOULD be there at 7:15 or he WOULD NOT be able to be baptized. He said Ok. I called him, he didn’t answer, he didn’t show up for the appointment, and he’s not getting baptized. It was slightly frustrating, but we realized that in this way, the Lord is enabling us to go out and find those who really are ready and willing to hear the gospel. Since all of our amis dropped us, we can now spend our time finding those who are ready. So it’s a good thing after all : )
Also this week, we had zone interviews which are always good. I love talking to President McKinnon. Except I ended up crying AGAIN. Half the missionaries in our zone only see me when I’m crying, so I’ve developed a bit of a reputation for being the cry baby of the mission, but I decided that’s all right…my investigators and the members have never seen it, and they’re the ones that I want to make a good impression on. But I was talking to President and asked him what I can improve on, and he said that I have all the natural qualities to be a good missionary and once I get completely adjusted, I’ll be amazing. He said he’s just waiting for that day…right now I talk to all the members, I’m cheerful and friendly with everyone, I’m an incredible teacher (speaking of which, I had to teach gospel Principles on the spot yesterday because the teacher didn’t come and the substitute decided to go to a different class…luckily it was an easy topic so it went pretty well. It was on “God does exist”), and as soon as I forget about my life back home and am able to completely throw myself into this work, I’ll find miracles all over. So that’s what I’m working on right now…forgetting my life back home and focusing completely on the work out here.
Oh, and we did see miracles yesterday! It was SO great…we didn’t have any amis at church since they all dropped us, so we were all sitting in the front, and I looked around during the testimonies and saw a girl who I had never seen before. I felt like I should talk to her after, but didn’t think too much about it. After the closing prayer I wanted to talk to Elder Cowley and assumed that she was a visitor from out of town and would find other people to talk to, but then I saw her just standing by herself and knew I HAD to go talk to her, so I went and introduced myself. Turns out she’s an investigator who saw the missionaries on the metro but didn’t want to talk to them, so she googled our church alter and found a Facebook group. She loved our standards and one of the girls on there pointed her in the direction of mormon.org, where she chatted with some sisters in the MTC and they taught her a bit and told her where the church was, what to expect, and how to dress. So we went and talked to her and got to teach her afterwards and she LOVED church and we committed her to be baptized, when she receives her answer, on the 6th of February. It was SO exciting! Then on the way home I decided to start talking to the guy next to me (after about 2 days of not having the courage to talk to anyone, the fact that I actually said something was a miracle in and of itself). I just asked how he was doing and he thought I was trying to convert him, so he said he wasn’t interested, but I told him that no, I really did just want to know how he was and how his day was since he looked a little drained. So he told me about his day and I told him about mine and then told him a little about missionary work and he said he was interested and gave me his number so that we could meet up and talk about it some other time. By that point we had missed our stop and had to turn around and go back, so I talked to another guy who also gave me his number. We once again missed our stop and had to turn around, and this time the guy I talked to wasn’t interested, but Sister Morse and Sister Williams talked to someone and got his number. It was great. Oh, and in Second Cup the other day we were waiting for our recent convert and he didn’t show up, but the other guy said hello to me and told me that the raspberry muffin I got wasn’t as good as the blueberry muffin that Sister Morse bought, and if I didn’t like it, I could exchange it because that’s their policy there. I thanked him, went and ate my muffin, and then felt like I should go back and thank him for his advice again and tell him I did enjoy the muffin. So I went back and started talking to him and we talked about the gospel and missionary work for awhile. He seemed interested, but wouldn’t give me his number, but we did set up an appointment for Tuesday. We’ll see if he shows up or not. It was pretty neat though; at the end of the conversation he said “you know, I never understood why they sell those raspberry muffins because they’re really not very good. But now I know: it gave me the chance to learn what you all do as missionaries and where we go after this life.” It was pretty great :)
So it was a pretty good week after all. But my time’s about up; I have to run. I tried sending pictures again, but it doesn’t work on this computer, so I think I’m just going to print them out and send hard copies to you. Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful week…love you tons!!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Hey Everyone..Happy New Year!!
Hey everyone!
Happy New Year!! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the new year celebrations. Things here are going really well, like always : ) Christmas was incredible. We had such a wonderful time! We went with a bunch of other missionaries to Bishop Tingey’s house for breakfast and spent several hours over there and then went to the Anderson’s (the senior missionary couple) for another hour or so with several other missionaries. It’s so much fun to spend time with all of them; it was great to have a little missionary “family” while we were all here this year. After the Anderson’s, my companions and I went over to a cute older woman’s home for Christmas dinner. Her name is Sister Kennedy and she’s actually in the Montreal family ward, but she met us the other day and invited us over. It was so cute; we got there and she had little presents for each one of us. We were quite a bit late and had a difficult time finding her apartment (and then getting inside once we found it…we tried to ring the bell, but it didn’t work. Her phone was busy so we couldn’t call. The doorman kept running back and forth between his apartment and the door and finally opened it for us after about 10 minutes so we could actually get inside the apartment building…crazy.) but she didn’t seem to mind too much. We sat and talked with her and her 40 year old son, Paul, for a couple of hours and it was just so much fun. She is such a sweet woman; I’m so glad we got to go visit her.
Hmm, what else happened this week? We spent quite a bit of time trying to find people and went Christmas caroling in the metro for a couple of hours one evening with about 20 other missionaries, and that was wonderful. It definitely helped put everyone in the Christmas spirit : ) We also had several lessons, one with Theo which I think FINALLY got to him a little bit. We’ve been teaching him since I got here (so for at least 9 weeks now) and he just spends most of the time trying to pick holes in the things we teach and question everything. He says he doesn’t trust his feelings and won’t listen to them at all, but his brain always works rationally so that’s what he’s going with to determine whether the church is true or not. He has a point to a certain extent, but he doesn’t realize that generally when the Holy Ghost communicates with people it is through their feelings. It’s been SO frustrating. So we decided that we were going to either commit him to be baptized or frank him this week (meaning we’d tell him he can either be baptized or we can’t waste our time teaching him anymore…there are other people who are actually ready and willing to listen to the things we have to say), but we decided to watch “Finding Faith in Christ” first, and the lesson went SO well. We decided that we would give him the commitment at the beginning to pay attention to his feelings as he’s reading. We asked him what he thought faith was, how he thought the Holy Ghost communicates with us, and what importance all of that plays in our lives, and he answered everything perfectly. So then we watched the movie and we closed with a prayer as soon as it was over (we were a little concerned that if we started talking it might break the spirit in the room or he’d try to argue with us and we wanted the movie to be the last thing he remembered) and the Spirit was so strong during the movie. We’re not entirely sure what he thought of it, but I looked over towards the end and it looked like he was crying. I really hope that that was what he needed and he’ll actually develop the faith necessary to trust in the Lord and realize that he doesn’t need and answer for EVERYTHING right now. God’s plan is perfect; the holes that we find in it are ones that we develop because we can’t see everything or know everything that God knows. We’re in this world to walk by faith and trust in God’s plan, not to search for the problems in EVERY situation. I hope he realizes that soon.
Oh, and it was great! Yesterday, Sonny (real name = Kvaur) came to church. This was his 4th time there, which I just find amazing. Remember, he was the one in the metro that I met a couple of weeks back that wanted my phone number? Then we saw him in the metro about 2 weeks later and invited him and his friend to church, and they both came, and his friend is now taking the discussions? Well, we invited him to our ward Christmas dinner on Monday and he brought his girlfriend of one day with him. We taught them the first lesson, but they both seemed more interested in each other than they did in what we were teaching, so we decided that we needed to teach them separately. But then they smurfed us (didn’t show up for the appointments) the next 2 days in a row, so we were ready to give up (that’s like the 5th time Kvaur’s smurfed us). But then he came to church! Granted he slept through half of sacrament meeting, but he was there. After sacrament, Elder Cowley (one of the AP’s…I think I’ve mentioned him before) asked Kvaur when he was going to be baptized and Kvaur said he already had been. So Elder Cowley quickly explained that it had to be by immersion and since his wasn’t, he needed to do it over again, following the example of how Christ was baptized (by immersion, with the right authority). Kvaur wanted to know where we baptized people, so I took him and showed him the font and he was a bit scared about going ALL the way under water, so I told him it’d only be for like 2 seconds, and a man called of God, given His authority, would be there holding his arm with a hand behind his back, helping him the whole way. I also told him that it was ONLY through baptism by the correct authority that we can return and live with God again; without that, there is no possible way that we can live in his presence for eternity, and Kvaur responded with “I guess I can do that then…I’d probably have to wear swim trunks or something though…” It was so funny. I told him that we’d give him a little jumper to wear and he said “Well, how soon can I do this then?” and I told him that we had about 12 lessons that we would need to teach him, he’d have to make sure that he understood and believed everything, but if we met with him every day (stressing the importance of MEETING with him often…hopefully he won’t smurf us), he could be baptized in as little as 2 weeks. And he said ok and asked if we could meet tomorrow and then gave us his cell phone number which he hadn’t given to us before. It was so great : ) We’ll see how the appointment goes this evening…
And I think those are probably all of the really important things for this week…one of Elder Jest and Elder Laforney’s member made them a TON of Philippino food, so they gave us a bunch the other day. It was interesting to say the least. Then Sister Johnson invited us and the AP’s and a couple of other missionaries over for dinner yesterday and she made some BIZARRE food. We had goat, which wasn’t too bad, but then she made this smush stuff (that’s really the name of it) that consisted of mashed spicy beans and fish heads, and it was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever had. But Elder Cowley made me try it…yuck. Oh! And speaking of gross things…we had this incredible Christmas party at President and Sister McKinnon’s house on Christmas Eve and we had this white elephant gift exchange with inexpensive presents. (It was so fun…President McKinnon ended up with a Twilight poster and I know that deep down, Elder Udall really loved the Disney princess nightlight I gave him : ) ) Elder Karaka, an elder from Australia, brought vegemite as his gift, and it is so gross. Elder Cowley made me try it and it was disgusting…it’s a really strong, bitter, dark brown stuff that you’re supposed to put on toast and it just about made me sick. Sister McKinnon got after him for picking on “poor, innocent Sister Lindsey”…I love her : ) but my time is about up; I need to run. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Happy New Year!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Happy New Year!! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the new year celebrations. Things here are going really well, like always : ) Christmas was incredible. We had such a wonderful time! We went with a bunch of other missionaries to Bishop Tingey’s house for breakfast and spent several hours over there and then went to the Anderson’s (the senior missionary couple) for another hour or so with several other missionaries. It’s so much fun to spend time with all of them; it was great to have a little missionary “family” while we were all here this year. After the Anderson’s, my companions and I went over to a cute older woman’s home for Christmas dinner. Her name is Sister Kennedy and she’s actually in the Montreal family ward, but she met us the other day and invited us over. It was so cute; we got there and she had little presents for each one of us. We were quite a bit late and had a difficult time finding her apartment (and then getting inside once we found it…we tried to ring the bell, but it didn’t work. Her phone was busy so we couldn’t call. The doorman kept running back and forth between his apartment and the door and finally opened it for us after about 10 minutes so we could actually get inside the apartment building…crazy.) but she didn’t seem to mind too much. We sat and talked with her and her 40 year old son, Paul, for a couple of hours and it was just so much fun. She is such a sweet woman; I’m so glad we got to go visit her.
Hmm, what else happened this week? We spent quite a bit of time trying to find people and went Christmas caroling in the metro for a couple of hours one evening with about 20 other missionaries, and that was wonderful. It definitely helped put everyone in the Christmas spirit : ) We also had several lessons, one with Theo which I think FINALLY got to him a little bit. We’ve been teaching him since I got here (so for at least 9 weeks now) and he just spends most of the time trying to pick holes in the things we teach and question everything. He says he doesn’t trust his feelings and won’t listen to them at all, but his brain always works rationally so that’s what he’s going with to determine whether the church is true or not. He has a point to a certain extent, but he doesn’t realize that generally when the Holy Ghost communicates with people it is through their feelings. It’s been SO frustrating. So we decided that we were going to either commit him to be baptized or frank him this week (meaning we’d tell him he can either be baptized or we can’t waste our time teaching him anymore…there are other people who are actually ready and willing to listen to the things we have to say), but we decided to watch “Finding Faith in Christ” first, and the lesson went SO well. We decided that we would give him the commitment at the beginning to pay attention to his feelings as he’s reading. We asked him what he thought faith was, how he thought the Holy Ghost communicates with us, and what importance all of that plays in our lives, and he answered everything perfectly. So then we watched the movie and we closed with a prayer as soon as it was over (we were a little concerned that if we started talking it might break the spirit in the room or he’d try to argue with us and we wanted the movie to be the last thing he remembered) and the Spirit was so strong during the movie. We’re not entirely sure what he thought of it, but I looked over towards the end and it looked like he was crying. I really hope that that was what he needed and he’ll actually develop the faith necessary to trust in the Lord and realize that he doesn’t need and answer for EVERYTHING right now. God’s plan is perfect; the holes that we find in it are ones that we develop because we can’t see everything or know everything that God knows. We’re in this world to walk by faith and trust in God’s plan, not to search for the problems in EVERY situation. I hope he realizes that soon.
Oh, and it was great! Yesterday, Sonny (real name = Kvaur) came to church. This was his 4th time there, which I just find amazing. Remember, he was the one in the metro that I met a couple of weeks back that wanted my phone number? Then we saw him in the metro about 2 weeks later and invited him and his friend to church, and they both came, and his friend is now taking the discussions? Well, we invited him to our ward Christmas dinner on Monday and he brought his girlfriend of one day with him. We taught them the first lesson, but they both seemed more interested in each other than they did in what we were teaching, so we decided that we needed to teach them separately. But then they smurfed us (didn’t show up for the appointments) the next 2 days in a row, so we were ready to give up (that’s like the 5th time Kvaur’s smurfed us). But then he came to church! Granted he slept through half of sacrament meeting, but he was there. After sacrament, Elder Cowley (one of the AP’s…I think I’ve mentioned him before) asked Kvaur when he was going to be baptized and Kvaur said he already had been. So Elder Cowley quickly explained that it had to be by immersion and since his wasn’t, he needed to do it over again, following the example of how Christ was baptized (by immersion, with the right authority). Kvaur wanted to know where we baptized people, so I took him and showed him the font and he was a bit scared about going ALL the way under water, so I told him it’d only be for like 2 seconds, and a man called of God, given His authority, would be there holding his arm with a hand behind his back, helping him the whole way. I also told him that it was ONLY through baptism by the correct authority that we can return and live with God again; without that, there is no possible way that we can live in his presence for eternity, and Kvaur responded with “I guess I can do that then…I’d probably have to wear swim trunks or something though…” It was so funny. I told him that we’d give him a little jumper to wear and he said “Well, how soon can I do this then?” and I told him that we had about 12 lessons that we would need to teach him, he’d have to make sure that he understood and believed everything, but if we met with him every day (stressing the importance of MEETING with him often…hopefully he won’t smurf us), he could be baptized in as little as 2 weeks. And he said ok and asked if we could meet tomorrow and then gave us his cell phone number which he hadn’t given to us before. It was so great : ) We’ll see how the appointment goes this evening…
And I think those are probably all of the really important things for this week…one of Elder Jest and Elder Laforney’s member made them a TON of Philippino food, so they gave us a bunch the other day. It was interesting to say the least. Then Sister Johnson invited us and the AP’s and a couple of other missionaries over for dinner yesterday and she made some BIZARRE food. We had goat, which wasn’t too bad, but then she made this smush stuff (that’s really the name of it) that consisted of mashed spicy beans and fish heads, and it was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever had. But Elder Cowley made me try it…yuck. Oh! And speaking of gross things…we had this incredible Christmas party at President and Sister McKinnon’s house on Christmas Eve and we had this white elephant gift exchange with inexpensive presents. (It was so fun…President McKinnon ended up with a Twilight poster and I know that deep down, Elder Udall really loved the Disney princess nightlight I gave him : ) ) Elder Karaka, an elder from Australia, brought vegemite as his gift, and it is so gross. Elder Cowley made me try it and it was disgusting…it’s a really strong, bitter, dark brown stuff that you’re supposed to put on toast and it just about made me sick. Sister McKinnon got after him for picking on “poor, innocent Sister Lindsey”…I love her : ) but my time is about up; I need to run. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Happy New Year!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)