Monday, September 13, 2010

Fall is coming in Quebec :)

Hey everybody!

So this week was a week FILLED with miracles. SO many things happened! For one, the Friday before this last one all the elders in our district came and blitzed our area (they all worked in our area for like3 hours). We call it "Good Friday" and we pick a different area in our zone each week and blitz that area. It turned out really well. We were in the middle of calling all of the people and then we randomly got a call from somebody that Elder Eslick had talked to saying that she wanted to meet with us. So we set up an appointment with her for Wednesday and taught her a first lesson and it went really, really well. But it was so exciting...that never happens! So the first lesson was good and she said she wanted to see us on Friday as well so we went and taught the Plan of Salvation, or started too, but she was just in an argumentative mood and kept questioning everything and wanted proof from the Bible (not the Book of Mormon) and wouldn't accept any of the scriptures that we used. Finally I stopped the lesson, said we didn't have any more time, and when she was ready to listen to the Spirit and let the Spirit teach her instead of just going off of what she had learned when she was 15, we'd be willing to come back and teach her. It was crazy...I started crying in the middle of it and was shaking and I thought I might have said it a little too strong, but she calmed down immediately and afterwards Sister Davis said that that was her favorite part of the lesson. We're teaching her again tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

Ok, so that wasn't the best miracle story, but there were a lot of others. We also had another woman call us because she had met the elders on Good Friday and we met with her before District Study on Thursday and the first lesson went well. She's Muslim and didn't know hardly anything about Christ and so we spent the whole lesson talking about the Savior and she was SO happy! We're meeting her again this week...it's going to be wonderful :) Then we also called a less active that the sisters had met on Good Friday and set an appointment and she was so cool. She started smoking after her baptism and felt like she couldn't go to church anymore, so she stopped coming, but she loves the Gospel and when we showed up she had invited a friend to the lesson and started testifying about the importance of the book of Mormon and it was such a great lesson. We were so excited :)

Then yesterday at church we showed up and this man and his mother (both a bit older) came up to me and Sister Davis and introduced us to a friend they had. I hadn't met any of them before, but they were so sweet. They said the friend wanted to be taught RIGHT THEN, but we couldn't, so we set up a lesson for Sunday evening, and that lesson was AMAZING. It was a first lesson and she accepted everything. We told her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, but she said she didn't need to - she already knew that it was true. She had been praying that God would place somebody in her path to lead her back to Him, and then Brother Lacroix showed up and introduced her to us. She ahd felt the Spirit through the whole sacrament meeting, done some geneology, and LOVED our lesson. We asked her to be baptized, and she said she would love to work for that. So we're going to :) We're meeting her again on Wednesday. I'm so excited. Then also in the middle of church, one of our members, Sister Bougie, came up to us and told us how a woman that she had helped the missionaries teach 3 years before had randomly come to church and sat next to her. In talking with her, Sister Bougie asked her if she wanted to be baptized now, and she said yes. So next Sunday she's going to introduce her to us, we're going to teach her everything again, and then baptize her. It's amazing the miracles we've been seeing!

So life has been good. We've been working hard, having a wonderful time, and I really do love this area. I hope everything is going well back home and I love you all tons! This really is the work of the Lord and I am SO grateful to be a part of it and see how the Lord does prepare His children and bless each one of us. Take care!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

What a crazy week....

Hey everyone :)

This past week was a bit insane...fun, but a little crazy. It started out on p-day last Monday when we had to take our car in to the garage for a recall on the power steering. We ended up spending all day there and then finally taking a shuttle back to the mission office when they realized our car wouldn`t be finished in time and they gave us a new one. We ended up having to cancel our appointments for that night and went grocery shopping instead. ON arriving back at our house, arms full of groceries, I realized that I had given ALL my keys (house keys included) to the guy at the garage so he could fix the car. So we had no way to get into our house. We met our next-door neighbor and asked her for the landlord`s phone number to see if he had a spare key and while she was getting it, i dropped our car keys down her stairwell which was completely fenced off to keep her dog from escaping. So we had to remove the fence and I had to dig through about 10 years worth of cobwebs to get our keys, she got the phone number, and the landlord wasn`t home. So we sat in our stairwell for a good 45 minutes calling everyone we could think of who might have a spare key and finally Elder Kite (one of the senior couples here) called the mission home and then called us and said we had to drive to the mission home as quickly as possible because we were having a sleepover there and they were expecting us. We were a little nervous at first, showing up at 9:30 at night still in our p-day clothes after having forgotten our keys, but the Cannon`s were SO sweet about it and fed us dinner and got everything they could for us for the evening. It was fun to get to talk to them for a little while one-on-one as well. Then the next morning we got up and got ready for interviews. We didn`t have a change of clothes, so we ran to concordia`s apartment (the YSA sisters) and they let us borrow skirts, but we were still in shirts and flip-flops, but the Cannon`s thought it was great. Interviews were wonderful and we got our car right afterwards. However, it took us 2 hours to drive and get our car (the shuttle was supposed to pick us up, but it left without us and without telling us it had left) so a set of elders drove us over there. That did make us an hour late for our DA that day, but luckily the family was really nice about it. Then that pattern continued through the rest of the week as we were late to almost every appointment, couldn`t find membesr to come with us to save our lives, and arrived home after curfew almost every day. It was so insane. But it did turn out well!

We ended up going to Lilian`s house and talking to her and she is doing SO WELL. We`re planning her baptism for the 25 of September...we`re so excited! It`s going to be great. Then we also met another guy, Gary, taught him and had one of those miracle lessons where everything went perfectly. He was asking US when he could be baptized and what he had to do, so we`re planning his baptism for the end of this month/beginning of next as well. It`s great.

Then yesterday was a miracle Monday. Everything was closed so grocery shopping was impossible, but it turned out fine. We had a Dinner Appointment (DA) with a nice old man in our ward who recently moved here from Laval and he fed us SO MUCH. Luckily, we had 2 elders who came with us to help us eat. But it was this dish from Spain that has a lot of rice and then all kinds of seafood in it. I`m not a huge seafood fan, and the first thing I pulled out was a piece of calamari, tentacles and all. He was watching, so I had to stuff it in my mouth. Not my favorite, but I ate it all, even had seconds, and he was very pleased. He did ask us questions though about church history (a little quiz almost) and he decided I didn`t really know anything. He asked me about the dead sea scrolls (dead sea is said "mer mort") and I thought he said "marmotte" which is a little groundhog like animal and I was SO confused...it was pretty funny. Then after that we received a call from someone we had met on the metro the other day who we had given our card to and she wants to meat with us tomorrow. SO EXCITING! That NEVER happens! Then we had an INCREDIBLE lesson with Marie Sandra. We went in thinking we`d watch the Restoration DVD' but ended up doing Gospel of Jesus Christ and focusing on how the Book of Mormon really testifies of Christ, and then we asked her to be baptized, and she wants to be! So we`re going to work on that with her. I`m so excited...it realyl has been a great week. But anyways, I hope you all are doing well...I love you all tons!

Love, Nicole

PS: Happy birthday Dad! I love you!! :)