6 months!!! crazy......

Hey everybody!

So this coming Wednesday is my 6 month mark...it's so crazy to think that I've already been out here for 6 months! That's a third of my mission already! Sometimes (like right now) it feels like it's flown by, but then other days it feels like it's drug on. I guess the little saying is right: "Days felt like weeks, weeks felt like days." I can't believe that I only have a year left...there's still so much left to do here!

This week was WONDERFUL. :) Zone interviews, General Conference, Easter...it really can't get much better than that! We had our zone activity on Thursday so all of the missionaries from our zone came in and we played Foo Foo ball which was SO much fun. It's a tradition in the Quebec zone...during the summer time, they play that for almost every zone activity. Above Montmorency Falls, there's a war memorial and it's a huge field surrounded by 6-9 foot trenches (or somewhere around there...thy're pretty deep) and we play soccer there. It's so much fun...you'll be on one side watching the ball and someone will accidentally kick it into the trenches so you just see the ball disappear followed by about 4 missionaries who all disappear as well and then reappear somewhere else on the field a minute or so later. It was so much fun :) There was still snow up there which made it a little more difficult and a little messier, but it was fun.

Then Friday was Zone Interviews and it was SO wonderful. I really love interviews; President McKinnon is wonderful. And I guess in Montreal all of the sister missionaries had a sisters party on Saturday during the Priesthood session of General COnference, but we couldn't go since we're way out here, so Sister McKinnon took all of the sisters (there are 5 of us in this zone) out to breakfast and then we went shopping afterwards. It was wonderful :) And during her training we had a competition with all of these Easter games that they used to play in their family every year for Easter. She also gave a training on spring cleaning and then we had a competition this morning between all the companionships in the entire mission to see who could do their cleaning the fastest. So she gave us at the interviews an envelope with a list of things that we HAD to do today (mostly deep cleaning things in each room) and at 7 this morning, every companionship opened their envelopes and started cleaning and then we called her when we finished and the order of who finished first, etc., is going to be published in the Messanger next month and there are prizes awarded for people who win. It was a fun way to make us all work :)

Then this weekend was General Conference and that was SO exciting! I LOVE General Conference weekend. Unfortunately, it was a little more difficult this year than usual. We had an investigator at each of the sessions except for the last one, so we had to watch it in French with our investigator, and since I don't understand all of the French, it made understanding conference a bit more difficult and I didn't get quite as much out of it as I usual do, but it was still really enjoyable and uplifting. And it was wonderful: Patrick came to 3 of the sessions! He wasn't going to come on Saturday at all because he didn't think he was in the right frame of mind, but I told him he'd feel better if he came. So he did and then he ate lunch with us afterwards and decided to stay for the second session as well, and he LOVED Elder Holland's talk. Then Sunday morning I called him to make sure he had a ride to church and he said he wasn't going because he'd been up to late the night before and I asked if he had learned anything the day before and he said yes and I asked if he wanted to learn more today and he said yes, but he was tired and I told him the only way he was really going to learn was to go to conference. So we found him a ride and he came and at the end I asked how it was and he said it was "worth the pain" and that he really enjoyed it. It was really exciting to have him there and have him learning :) Except I did realize I need to learn how to phrase things in French a little better. The only words I really know are very specific and direct words, so that's how all my statements come out, and I didn't really give Patrick a choice as to whether or not he could come yesterday...not necessarily the best, but he did come and he did learn :) And he felt very strongly during the session on Sunday that his date for baptism should be the first Saturday in May. So that's what we're working towards now. It's pretty exciting!

Also, for Easter, it was wonderful: I got your package Mom, thanks so much! It came on Wednesday and it was SO exciting :) So Easter morning I took the eggs and I hid all of them, except I did it like I was hiding them for Michelle and hid them in the hardest spots I could possibly think of for Sister Cottrell. Then I hid mine in the easier spots :) So yesterday morning we had our Easter egg hunt and it took awhile (we lost 2 of them...just like being back home again, haha)but it was so fun. Then SIster Cottrell knew this little easter song from preschool, so we called the elders and sang it to them and wished them a happy easter. Elder Magre and Elder Zaldivar thought it was a recording so they said they almost hung up on us, but then decided not to, but then we called the zone leaders and they did hang up on us! We were a bit upset at first, but then they called us back and explained that somehow instead of just answering our phone call, they ended up doing a three way between them, us, and one of their new investigators and didn't want us singing to them to, so they just hang up. It was pretty funny.

Then this week is transfer calls week! We're working on doing something for Elder Zaldivar since it's his last week in the mission but we haven't come up with too many amazing ideas as of right now. We're still thinking about that one. Today though we're going to a cabane a sucre where they make maple syrup and they feed us all kinds of breakfast foods and we drown everything in maple syrup. I'm pretty excited for it :) So it'll be an interesting week...we're not sure what's going to happen this transfer with transfer calls. We know we're getting one new sister in the mission which means they could open a new area...we'll see. I was thinking that both Soeur Cottrell and I would stay, but then President told Elder Zaldivar in his interview that it's about time to transfer me, so I might be moving. I guess we'll see on Saturday! But anyways, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and that you have a fabulous week! Love you all! Take care :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey