"...He lives, my everliving Head."

Hey everyone!

So this week wasn't quite as eventful as in weeks past, but it was still good. We tried to have another lesson with Stephan (our committed who came to church last Sunday), but unfortunately it didn't work out. It rained most of the week and something in his house exploded and his house flooded and he didn't have any running water for like 3 days, so it didn't work out. BUt we did stop by and give him some banana bread and he was SO excited to see us! He then called as we were driving home and asked us when the next single adult activity was and if they were still having church on sunday and if he was invited. We told him that of course he was and he said he would definitely be there with his daughter (obviously something happened though because he wasn't there...we tried calling him but he didn't answer, so we're going to stop by tomorrow evening), so that changed our week a little bit. But we did have some neat experiences! We taught Serge, another investigator, the Plan of Salvation, and it turned out well. He ended up being almost an hour late, so he had called his son and had his son come and talk with us for that hour, and he was really cool. He's an interior designer and he's redoing their house and we volunteered to help paint and he said he'd call us when he was all ready. So it'll be fun :) His dad then showed up and we taught him plan of salvation and he asked some good questions, said a lot of things, I didn't understand, and then we asked him to say the prayer at the end and He just started talking to a little slug that was crawling across the picture of the Spirit World (we had the lesson outside in his garden). It was kind of wierd....I think we need to go over prayer again, haha. But he told us he loves what we teach and he'll see us soon :)It'll be good.

Then the best experience was on Saturday. First we got to talk to one of the women in our English class about the church and she wants to come to the next Relief Society activity. Then we watched Saints and Soldiers with a member who's going to Afghanistan in 2 weeks for 9 months...it was a really good movie. Intense. Then the best part was the Dinner appointment with the Rodhain family. They are so wonderful! They got baptized 4 years ago, they're from France, and he's now in the Stake Presidency. They're such a great family :) So in the morning we were trying to think of what message to leave them and couldn't think of a good one and figured since they usually have a lot of questions from the Bible that we would just answer those and then say a prayer and leave. But we got there and they said they didn't have any questions for us and were anxious to hear our lesson. So Sister Leonard opened her scriptures at random and fell on the story of David and Goliath which is a thought we've left many times (we read the story, have everyone identify their goliaths in their heads and then we give them each a little paper stone and have them write what they can do to combat the Goliath) and I had just cleaned out my backpack that morning and found that I had 4 paper stones left in there, which was perfect. So we started that and then it reminded me of a scripture that I LOVE that I had just read again during my language study that morning in 2 Nephi 4 which is Nephi talking about how he is surrounded by difficulties, etc., but he knows in whom he's placed his confidence and how God can defeat our enemies. I love it; I read it so often. So I read it to them and they absolutely loved it. Then I shared another scripture and Sister Leonard shared a story and we all shared what we had written on our stones and Sister Rodhain almost started crying and said that she had prayed that morning that we would be inspired to give a message that would help her and that was exactly what she needed to hear, and she thanked us for being the angels who brought that message from God to her. It was so neat :) I loved it. I really love that part of missionary work; being able to share the Gospel with those and knowing that God can work miracles through me and use me to help His other children here, and that's the same for everyone. We can all be instruments in God's hands if we so choose to follow the promptings of the Spirit and prepare ourselves each morning for the things that might come throughout the day through reading our scriptures and saying our prayers. I know those are the seminary answers, but I've learned that it's really by those small and simple things that we do each day that God can accomplish HIs grand designs. I love it, and I love this GOspel. I love the knowledge that we have thanks to the Book of Mormon, the other scriptures, and modern day prophets. I'm so grateful for modern day revelation and the chance I have now to share that knowledge with all those around me. It really is an incredible experience, and I'm so grateful for it :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week and I'll let you know next week what's happening with transfers (transfer calls are this Saturday night and most people are anticipating that I'll be transferred...who knows though. We'll see what happens!). I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey