Happy 4th of July! :)

Hey everyone!

Things here are going well. Lyse came to church yesterday and it went so well! She`s so excited about her baptism...she just keeps hoping that I`m not transferred before then. Right now it`s set for the 17th, and transfers are a week from tomorrow and we`re pretty sure that our area is either closing or I`m getting transferred. We`ll see though...I was wrong the last 2 times that I tried guessing, so I don`t think I`m going to guess this time at all. But Lyse came to church and LOVED it...she said the best part was how welcoming everyone was and how they all seemed to be friends with each other; it`s very different from the Catholic church that she attended before. She also told me that she had been really disappointed with the Catholic church and she had told herself that if she ever beleived in something again, it would have to be something really GOOD and they would have to be honestly trying to follow Christ and His teachings. I asked her if she had found it and she said ``I`m not sure; I think I have.`` Then I told her that I knew she had and went on to bear my testimony. It was so great. And it was really funny because at her lesson on Wednesday she was showing us how she usually asked a question then would open the Book of Mormon and read the first chapter she found, so she showed us and the first time she opened it up to the Topical Guide under the topic of Baptism. Then she tried again and opened it to Moroni 8 where it talks about infant baptisms. It was so funny :)

Also this week one of the elders` investigators, Dominico, got baptized and he asked me to give the talk on the Holy Ghost, so I talked about the goals of the Holy Ghost...why we really have that gift. He`s here to testify of truth, to lead us, to direct us, to comfort us, but also he is there to purify and sanctify us. It was something I read in a talk by Presidetn Eyring this week...he said that the Holy Ghost cannot dwell in unholy places and that each time we feel the HOly Ghost, we can know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is working in our lives and that we area being cleansed from the mistakes that we have made. It was really neat. I thought I did ok, but I hadn`t really written the talk out and just talking in French is a little tough sometimes, but afterwards I had several people come up and say I had done a good job. Then yesterday at church I had 2 more woman go out of there way to tell me that they had really enjoyed my talk and what a good stage presence I have. It was exciting for me :)

We didn`t get tons of finding time in this week what with p-day, interviews all day Tuesday, lessons on Wednesday, and St. John Baptiste day on Thursday, but it was still a good week. We did teach an awful lesson on Saturday though...remember that Baptist preacher Sister Tschumi and I met last transfer? Well, we met these 2 YSA guys and set up a lesson with them. We show up and start to teach them with our member, Sister Belanger (she`s the one who helped us with Patrick a lot), and then up walks the Baptist preacher with his dad who had been a preacher for 20 years and they came to argue with us. It was SO frustrating. Sister Belanger bore a great testimony though and we left not too long after. It shook both Sister Leonard and I bit...we really don`t like those kind of confrontations, but it just fortified Sister Belanger. And it was so cute; yesterday in church President and Sister mcKinnon spoke (they`re leaving on thursday, it`s so sad!) and President was using a lot of the same scriptures that the Baptist preacher had used and Sister Belanger ran up from the back of the chapel and came and sat next to me and Sister Leonard and gave me a huge hug and sat there the whole talk. Then she thanked me for inviting her the day before and said that it had really fortified her testimony. It almost made me cry; she is so sweet. I just love the members here :)

So all in all, it was a good week. My birthday was wonderful...all the missionaries were here for zone interviews and they all sang me happy birthday and one set of elders bought me 2 cakes...it was so sweet :) So it was fun and I`m looking forward to this next week: working hard, meeting our new President on Saturday, transfer calls Saturday night...it should be interesting! I hope you all have a wonderful week...love you tons!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey