"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