Hey everyone!
This week was WONDERFUL! :) It was a bit crazy, but it turned out so well!! MAGDA and LUNABELLA got BAPTIZED!!! :) It was SO exciting! It was a bit intense...we taught them a lot last Sunday during church and then taught Magda the Law of Chastity on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we had an hour and a half to teach Luna-Bella the Plan of Salvation, law of chastity, and word of wisdom. It was a bit crazy, but she accepted everything! Then on Wednesday as we were leaving their house Luna came running out of the house and called us back in because her mom was on the phone saying that she had to work all day on Friday after all (her boss and just called her and asked her to...it was the first time that had ever happened and she couldn't say no) and so she couldn't have her interview. So we rescheduled the interview for Saturday morning at 11 and the baptism was at 2. Elder Leavitt came and talked with them both and then President came and talked with Magda and everything went well. We ran home afterwards and finished the little treats we were making (funny story....) and then ran to the baptism which went so well! Everyone showed up late, including the person baptizing them, but that was ok. We had the first talk and everything, Frere Lasso got in the font and just stayed there for like 2 minutes until Sister palmer finally went to go see what had happened to Magda and Luna-Bella...turns out they weren't sure when to go in so they were waiting on a loudspeaker to tell them to enter the water. Pretty funny. Oh, and one hour before the baptism, our ward mission leader (who had done all the planning for the baptism...easiest baptism I've ever seen or heard of) texted us to tell us that he had written down the missionaries on the program to do the talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost. We didn't have time to prepare anything, so I ended up making up a talk on the spot, but it actually turned out pretty well. Sister Poirier, one of the members, came up after me and told me that I was an angel and that as I was speaking, it was as if an angel was speaking. She said "there are angels all around us, and you, you are an angel." It was so sweet :) I just love her. Oh, and in making the treats for the baptism, it was pretty funny...Sister Palmer and I had wanted to make a bouche de Noel for awhile now (it's this cake and ice cream roll thing that they make at Christmastime) so we decided that this gave us the perfect reason to do it. So we made one, but it stuck to the pan way too much and we couldn't even take it out of the pan, so we ended up using it to make cake balls (which miraculously turned out all right!). Then we made another one, but it kind of collapsed and the ice cream melted and it was just a mess, but we put it in the freezer and we're eating it anyways. So we finally decided just to make mini cupcakes and decorate them like a Romanian flag, so we researched the Romanian flag and make them and took them to the baptism and EVERYONE there recognized it as the Romanian flag. It was crazy....Romania is tiny! NO ONE knows what the flag looks like...just every Canadian we talked to. And our zone leaders. Obviously, Boston and West Virginia weren't the best at teaching us to recognize other countries flags....or Sister Palmer and I just didn't pay enough attention :)
So that was a lot of fun. Also this week we had a HUGE miracle! Elder Corbett (one of the assistants) called us to tell us that a man had called the Mission Office and wanted to learn more about our church and he lived in Longueuil. So we called him and set up a lesson with him for Friday morning. Sister Hayward came with us and he is the most prepared person for the Gospel that I have ever met! It was crazy! He has tried about 12 different religions and didn't like any of them, but he came in to our church and said it's the first time that he's actually felt good in a church (we had the rendez-vous at the chapel) and that he felt like he was "coming home." He then went on to tell us that he has some problems with his wife who has decided that she doesn't believe in God anymore and he wont' let her read the Bible or pray in the house at all, so he lied to her about coming to the reunion with us, but he really wants to find a church that he likes and that he feels good in and then bring the rest of his family. So we met with him again this morning and he said that he has a reason to live now; he has a goal to attain. He wants to be baptized. He spent the whole weekend looking things up online, read 4 chapters plus the introduction of the Book of Mormon, and then watched the Restoration DVD 4 times, and he loves it. He's getting baptized in March before I go home...he just has to tell his wife first. But he loves it and kept talking about how we saved his life...I just love missionary work :)
In other news, we're going to the temple tomorrow! I'm SO excited! It's the first time on my mission that I'll be able to go! I really can't wait :) Then on Wednesday we have zone conference...it should be a really good week. I'm excited for it. It's crazy that it's already week 5 of the transfer...not this week but next will be transfer calls...Sister palmer and I are pretty sure we're both staying, but we'll see :) I'm excited for the rest of the transfer with her...I love my companion, I love this ward, and I love our investigators! It's such a wonderful life :) I hope you all are having a great week. Take care! I love you all and I'm so grateful for your support and love. Thanks for everything :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
What a week :)
Hey everyone!
I hope all is going well for you guys...this week was so much fun! It was a bit colder (hovering around -6 Celsius the whole week) so nothing too horrible, but it make tracting a little more difficult. But the week really turned out well. It was really neat...we've been teaching a woman named Magda and her daughter Lunabella for a little while now and this week pretty much revolved around them. They're the ones from Romania who met the church over there and then just randomly showed up in church here one week back when Sister Quist and Sister Morse were here, then they disappeared a bit, then they showed up again and we started teaching them. They came to the Relief Society Christmas dinner awhile ago and came up to us afterwrads and said that they just loved the church and wanted to be baptized. So we started working with them more and set a date for the 15 of January, but about a week ago we realized that we still had to teach them about 5 principles and she works 12 hour days 3 days a week so it might not work out. So we decided to change their date for the 29th because that would be a little easier. We met with them this last Saturday and at the end we gave her a calendar and told her that we were going to change her date to the 29th (it was just Magda, the mom, because the daughter was out with a friend) and she said no. She said she was too impatient and wanted to be baptized this Saturday. We explained how we still had to teach her Follow the Prophet, Chastity, and Tithing (some pretty important ones...we had just finished Word of Wisdom and she had accepted it pretty easily) and she said "Ok, so after church tomorrow you can teach me everything and then on Saturday we'll have the baptism." So we said Ok and now that's what we're working for! We were supposed to teach them after church yesterday but then when they got there they said that they had to leave right after church so we decided to skip Sunday School and teach them follow the prophet and tithing during that hour, but then the Bishop wanted to meet with them for a couple of minutes (he said 5), so we waited for them to finish that meeting. Over an hour later, after RS had started, they came out and then we went with a member of the Bishopric and taught them those 2 principles. I guess the Bishop had already explained everything though because they had asked about the strucutre of the church and then he explained prophets, etc., and then he told them about temples and what we do in the temples and they asked how we got the money for them since everyone is volunteer and he explained tithing, so then when we taught them we asked what she knew about them already and she said she already knew it all and accepted them both really quickly. While they were in the interview we had told the member of the Bishopric (the one who came to the lesson with us, Frere Lasso) that we might change their date anyways because we didn't have time to teach everything and he told us that we shouldn't do that, but we should ask them what they know and if they accept it, then to baptize them anyways. So that's what we did and it worked out! We're going over on Tuesday and teaching them Chastity and then they'll have their interviews on Friday and on Saturday we'll have a baptism for both of them! I'm so excited for them. It really is neat to see how the Lord works to prepare His children. If they are prepared and they feel the Spirit, they will accept the principles of His Gospel and they will have that desire to follow Him and obey His commandments so that they can receive those blessings from Him. It's just so neat; I love it :)
Also this week we taught a really great lesson to Ruth. She's the one who was investigating last year and then stopped and then we started teaching again. She comes to church every Sunday and just loves it, but isn't really interested in acting. So we had her study Choice and Accountability this last week and on Thursday we taught a lesson on the importance of choosing. We shared the scripture in Revelations about "I would that ye were hot or cold..." and how we really need to choose instead of being "lukewarm". When we make a decision and start acting on that decision, the Lord can direct us. If it's the right decision, He'll encourage us and let us know that it's good. If it's the wrong decision, He can quickly correct us, if we're open to receiving His revelation. It's when we're stuck in the middle, this lukewarm area, that the Lord really can't help us or give us guidance one way or another. We need to make a choice, act on that choice, and listen for the promptings of the Spirit to know whether the choice we've made is the right one or not. The members we brought with us were great and bore strong testimonies of choosing and the blessings that come from the Gospel. She told us that her choice is not to be baptized. She loves having us come over, but she doesn't think it's right for her to join our church. She doesn't want to "limit" herself, which I found pretty sad because she doesn't realize that this isn't a limitation...this is the WHOLE truth! THIS is how she can receive ALL the blessings that God has for her and more knowledge than she has currently! I wish she would understand that. But we've decided to give her a few weeks. She still came to church this week and we're going to invite her to the baptism, but we're not going to teach her for a little while and we're going to see if she realizes the difference when the Spirit's not in her home as opposed to when we invite it in to her home and maybe the Lord will help guide her, if she's open to the revelations. We'll see. Sometimes it's a bit frustrating how people decide to use their agency, but there's not tons we can do about it. Oh well.
Other than that, the week was just a bunch of funny contacting moments, like always. There was an emergency transfer and we got a new district leader which was interesting...he came in on Wednesday right before district study and still hasn't even unpacked his bags yet...crazy, huh? But it's been fun. I really love our district and I just LOVE this ward. I love working with our members...we have such great people here! We had dinner at the Bishop's house and they are just an incredible family. I told him how well he's doing as a Bishop and how impressed I was with the way the ward here runs as opposed to some of my other areas, and he said he hadn't felt like he'd really been doing that great since his vision is so much higher than what the ward is actually doing, but he has some great desires and some great plans that we're going to present to the ward soon for how to best accomplish the 3-fold mission of the church. One of them is the set-a-date program where each family in the ward picks a date to find someone to introduce to the missionaries by. It's going to be wonderful. I'm so excited to work more with them members! But anyways, I hope all is going well for each of you...I love you all tons! Have a wonderful week and take care :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
I hope all is going well for you guys...this week was so much fun! It was a bit colder (hovering around -6 Celsius the whole week) so nothing too horrible, but it make tracting a little more difficult. But the week really turned out well. It was really neat...we've been teaching a woman named Magda and her daughter Lunabella for a little while now and this week pretty much revolved around them. They're the ones from Romania who met the church over there and then just randomly showed up in church here one week back when Sister Quist and Sister Morse were here, then they disappeared a bit, then they showed up again and we started teaching them. They came to the Relief Society Christmas dinner awhile ago and came up to us afterwrads and said that they just loved the church and wanted to be baptized. So we started working with them more and set a date for the 15 of January, but about a week ago we realized that we still had to teach them about 5 principles and she works 12 hour days 3 days a week so it might not work out. So we decided to change their date for the 29th because that would be a little easier. We met with them this last Saturday and at the end we gave her a calendar and told her that we were going to change her date to the 29th (it was just Magda, the mom, because the daughter was out with a friend) and she said no. She said she was too impatient and wanted to be baptized this Saturday. We explained how we still had to teach her Follow the Prophet, Chastity, and Tithing (some pretty important ones...we had just finished Word of Wisdom and she had accepted it pretty easily) and she said "Ok, so after church tomorrow you can teach me everything and then on Saturday we'll have the baptism." So we said Ok and now that's what we're working for! We were supposed to teach them after church yesterday but then when they got there they said that they had to leave right after church so we decided to skip Sunday School and teach them follow the prophet and tithing during that hour, but then the Bishop wanted to meet with them for a couple of minutes (he said 5), so we waited for them to finish that meeting. Over an hour later, after RS had started, they came out and then we went with a member of the Bishopric and taught them those 2 principles. I guess the Bishop had already explained everything though because they had asked about the strucutre of the church and then he explained prophets, etc., and then he told them about temples and what we do in the temples and they asked how we got the money for them since everyone is volunteer and he explained tithing, so then when we taught them we asked what she knew about them already and she said she already knew it all and accepted them both really quickly. While they were in the interview we had told the member of the Bishopric (the one who came to the lesson with us, Frere Lasso) that we might change their date anyways because we didn't have time to teach everything and he told us that we shouldn't do that, but we should ask them what they know and if they accept it, then to baptize them anyways. So that's what we did and it worked out! We're going over on Tuesday and teaching them Chastity and then they'll have their interviews on Friday and on Saturday we'll have a baptism for both of them! I'm so excited for them. It really is neat to see how the Lord works to prepare His children. If they are prepared and they feel the Spirit, they will accept the principles of His Gospel and they will have that desire to follow Him and obey His commandments so that they can receive those blessings from Him. It's just so neat; I love it :)
Also this week we taught a really great lesson to Ruth. She's the one who was investigating last year and then stopped and then we started teaching again. She comes to church every Sunday and just loves it, but isn't really interested in acting. So we had her study Choice and Accountability this last week and on Thursday we taught a lesson on the importance of choosing. We shared the scripture in Revelations about "I would that ye were hot or cold..." and how we really need to choose instead of being "lukewarm". When we make a decision and start acting on that decision, the Lord can direct us. If it's the right decision, He'll encourage us and let us know that it's good. If it's the wrong decision, He can quickly correct us, if we're open to receiving His revelation. It's when we're stuck in the middle, this lukewarm area, that the Lord really can't help us or give us guidance one way or another. We need to make a choice, act on that choice, and listen for the promptings of the Spirit to know whether the choice we've made is the right one or not. The members we brought with us were great and bore strong testimonies of choosing and the blessings that come from the Gospel. She told us that her choice is not to be baptized. She loves having us come over, but she doesn't think it's right for her to join our church. She doesn't want to "limit" herself, which I found pretty sad because she doesn't realize that this isn't a limitation...this is the WHOLE truth! THIS is how she can receive ALL the blessings that God has for her and more knowledge than she has currently! I wish she would understand that. But we've decided to give her a few weeks. She still came to church this week and we're going to invite her to the baptism, but we're not going to teach her for a little while and we're going to see if she realizes the difference when the Spirit's not in her home as opposed to when we invite it in to her home and maybe the Lord will help guide her, if she's open to the revelations. We'll see. Sometimes it's a bit frustrating how people decide to use their agency, but there's not tons we can do about it. Oh well.
Other than that, the week was just a bunch of funny contacting moments, like always. There was an emergency transfer and we got a new district leader which was interesting...he came in on Wednesday right before district study and still hasn't even unpacked his bags yet...crazy, huh? But it's been fun. I really love our district and I just LOVE this ward. I love working with our members...we have such great people here! We had dinner at the Bishop's house and they are just an incredible family. I told him how well he's doing as a Bishop and how impressed I was with the way the ward here runs as opposed to some of my other areas, and he said he hadn't felt like he'd really been doing that great since his vision is so much higher than what the ward is actually doing, but he has some great desires and some great plans that we're going to present to the ward soon for how to best accomplish the 3-fold mission of the church. One of them is the set-a-date program where each family in the ward picks a date to find someone to introduce to the missionaries by. It's going to be wonderful. I'm so excited to work more with them members! But anyways, I hope all is going well for each of you...I love you all tons! Have a wonderful week and take care :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Monday, January 3, 2011
Hey everyone :)
Hello!
This week was SO much fun! Sister Palmer and I worked so hard, taught a lot of great lessons, and met some really...interesting people, haha. There was one day where we talked to a million people and everyone was either really rude, contacted us through the door (like wouldn't even open the door to say hello), or said something hilarious that we just laughed at. We talked to one guy where he opened the door and he kind of moved backwards and gave us a really funny look, so we both did exactly the same thing and took a step backward and then gave him the same funny look. It was entertaining for us :) Then there was a guy who was talking to us in French who said he knew about Mormons and we asked what he knew and he said he knew about Mr. Smith and the "massacre" only he said it in french and neither of us understood at all and then finally Sister Palmer realized he was talking about a massacre and translated it into English for me (they're spelled the same but I promise the word sounds different when said in French) and I was like "OH, Haun's Mill? Where everyone came and killed the Mormons?" because that was the only thing I could think of and then the guy responds in English in a British accent "Actually, it was the Mormon's that were the killers" and walked away. We just laughed and laughed and laughed. Of all the things to remember from his studies, he remembered the name of Joseph Smith and some random story that most people don't know about. We found it amusing. And then it was also interesting to see how many people HAD to respond when we said "happy New Year." We'd say it at the door as we were leaving and people who had shut the door on us would open the door back up to say "you too." It was really funny :)
And to celebrate the new year we had a lot of fun. One of the recent converts in Lemoyne who we know well and who LOVES sisters was having a party. Or actually, her twin sisters were having their Sweet 16 birthday party and we know the whole family well so they invited us over. Since we couldn't proselyte, we went and had SO much fun. There was a lot of food and we just talked and laughed all night. And by all night I mean until 8:30 when they had birthday cake and Sister Palmer and I left so that we could get home and go to bed early. We got lost a bit, but still made it home on time, toasted at 10:15, and went to bed right afterwards. It was the perfect new year :)
Also, we're teaching a new woman who is really neat. She's been investigating the church for like 3 years since her husband joined but can't give up smoking. She finally decided that she was ready to quit, so we're starting to visit her again. Her name is Isabelle. We talked to her about smoking and Christmas day she only smoked 3 cigarettes as well as the day after she only smoked 3, so we were pretty excited and sure that she could quit by the end of January. Then they called us one time and asked us to come over and do dishes for them (they called and asked for that service and I was shocked...that's the first time that anyone's asked me to do dishes for them as service. I was seriously speechless and Sister Palmer had to take the phone from me in order to answer because I wasn't answering because I didn't know if they were serious or not) and so we went over and did the dishes while she sat at the table and smoked. We asked her how the smoking was going and she said she's cutting it in half and we asked how many that was each day and she said now she's going to only smoke about 25 cigarettes a day...she buys 6 cartons each month, which is like 1200 cigarettes a month. Crazy, huh? But we're going to work with her towards a baptism in April...she knows it's all true, but is just lacking a bit of willpower. But it will be good to work with her :)
Anyways, there were some other things that happened this week, but I can't really think of any too exciting ones. I'll probably remember them after I get home...that's what usually happens. Oh, haha, one of the guys we contacted in the street wanted to meet with us RIGHT THEN, so we followed him on a random goose chase down the street, into a Domino's, out of the domino's, down another street and finally into a Subway just to have him tell us that we were wrong. We started telling the story of the Book of Mormon and he couldn't find a picture or Mormon in it, so he said it couldn't be true. That was another time we just laughed. Oh, and the other day it was so funny: I walked in to our laundry room and saw Sister Palmer doing laundry and she had a HUGE whole in the bottom of her pajamas...it was like 5 inches long. I asked her what happened and then just started laughing and laughing. So we're sitting on the phone a couple of minutes later and telling that story to the elders and I bring my knees up to my chest and hear a huge rip and looked down to see that the whole knee of my pajamas was ripped out. Oh karma. It was so funny though :)
I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all tons!! :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
This week was SO much fun! Sister Palmer and I worked so hard, taught a lot of great lessons, and met some really...interesting people, haha. There was one day where we talked to a million people and everyone was either really rude, contacted us through the door (like wouldn't even open the door to say hello), or said something hilarious that we just laughed at. We talked to one guy where he opened the door and he kind of moved backwards and gave us a really funny look, so we both did exactly the same thing and took a step backward and then gave him the same funny look. It was entertaining for us :) Then there was a guy who was talking to us in French who said he knew about Mormons and we asked what he knew and he said he knew about Mr. Smith and the "massacre" only he said it in french and neither of us understood at all and then finally Sister Palmer realized he was talking about a massacre and translated it into English for me (they're spelled the same but I promise the word sounds different when said in French) and I was like "OH, Haun's Mill? Where everyone came and killed the Mormons?" because that was the only thing I could think of and then the guy responds in English in a British accent "Actually, it was the Mormon's that were the killers" and walked away. We just laughed and laughed and laughed. Of all the things to remember from his studies, he remembered the name of Joseph Smith and some random story that most people don't know about. We found it amusing. And then it was also interesting to see how many people HAD to respond when we said "happy New Year." We'd say it at the door as we were leaving and people who had shut the door on us would open the door back up to say "you too." It was really funny :)
And to celebrate the new year we had a lot of fun. One of the recent converts in Lemoyne who we know well and who LOVES sisters was having a party. Or actually, her twin sisters were having their Sweet 16 birthday party and we know the whole family well so they invited us over. Since we couldn't proselyte, we went and had SO much fun. There was a lot of food and we just talked and laughed all night. And by all night I mean until 8:30 when they had birthday cake and Sister Palmer and I left so that we could get home and go to bed early. We got lost a bit, but still made it home on time, toasted at 10:15, and went to bed right afterwards. It was the perfect new year :)
Also, we're teaching a new woman who is really neat. She's been investigating the church for like 3 years since her husband joined but can't give up smoking. She finally decided that she was ready to quit, so we're starting to visit her again. Her name is Isabelle. We talked to her about smoking and Christmas day she only smoked 3 cigarettes as well as the day after she only smoked 3, so we were pretty excited and sure that she could quit by the end of January. Then they called us one time and asked us to come over and do dishes for them (they called and asked for that service and I was shocked...that's the first time that anyone's asked me to do dishes for them as service. I was seriously speechless and Sister Palmer had to take the phone from me in order to answer because I wasn't answering because I didn't know if they were serious or not) and so we went over and did the dishes while she sat at the table and smoked. We asked her how the smoking was going and she said she's cutting it in half and we asked how many that was each day and she said now she's going to only smoke about 25 cigarettes a day...she buys 6 cartons each month, which is like 1200 cigarettes a month. Crazy, huh? But we're going to work with her towards a baptism in April...she knows it's all true, but is just lacking a bit of willpower. But it will be good to work with her :)
Anyways, there were some other things that happened this week, but I can't really think of any too exciting ones. I'll probably remember them after I get home...that's what usually happens. Oh, haha, one of the guys we contacted in the street wanted to meet with us RIGHT THEN, so we followed him on a random goose chase down the street, into a Domino's, out of the domino's, down another street and finally into a Subway just to have him tell us that we were wrong. We started telling the story of the Book of Mormon and he couldn't find a picture or Mormon in it, so he said it couldn't be true. That was another time we just laughed. Oh, and the other day it was so funny: I walked in to our laundry room and saw Sister Palmer doing laundry and she had a HUGE whole in the bottom of her pajamas...it was like 5 inches long. I asked her what happened and then just started laughing and laughing. So we're sitting on the phone a couple of minutes later and telling that story to the elders and I bring my knees up to my chest and hear a huge rip and looked down to see that the whole knee of my pajamas was ripped out. Oh karma. It was so funny though :)
I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all tons!! :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
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