Sister Nicole Lindsey

Final Week...

2011-03-15T14:49:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!

This is just going to be a short email this week as I'm going to be seeing and talking with you all in person in just a few days. It's kind of crazy coming to the end of my mission...I was expecting to be sad and want to stay longer or to be extremely excited to go home to the point where I couldn't focus on my mission, but neither of those things happened. Sister Palmer and I continued working like we normally had (except we took a little bit more time out of our schedule this week to update the area book) and I'm excited to come home, but not to the point where it's all I think about. I'm still worrying about our investigators and planning like I'll be here all next week. Then I'm sad to leave the friends that I've made, but not to the point of tears. I thought I'd cry at that last transfer call, but I was just SO EXCITED that Sister Leonard was coming here (she was my companion up in Quebec if you remember and she's one of my favorites...I was half praying that she would come! I'm SO excited for her and Sister Palmer!) that I wasn't sad at all. Haha, Elder Corbitt when he called told me that my new companion would be a man named Michael and I said "Oh, that's my dad!" and he said "Well that'll be interesting...your new companion has the same name as your dad...odd." It was funny :)

But this week was a good week overall. We had our sisters sleepover and training at the mission home and it was SO much fun! It was great to be able to see all the sister again and to meet some of the ones that I haven't served around yet. Everyone kept asking me what my plans are for when I come home and I couldn't think of anything to tell them...to be honest, I haven't thought much about going home at all. But it feels like it should be the next step, so it's good. So the sleepover was a lot of fun, and then the training was probably one of the best trainings that I've had so far in my mission. President gave a wonderful one about working with the priesthood and the things that they said applied not only to us as sister missionaries, but they're things that I can apply after I get home as well. Sister Cannon talked about unity and the importance of being united as sisters, and it was really neat. There is such a force for good when we all work together for a common goal. I love it :)

We taught several people this week, but nothing extremely interesting to note there. We taught Denis tithing and law of chastity and he accepted both fairly easily. He said as we were teaching tithing that everything just makes so much sense as we teach, there's no reason for him NOT to accept it. I loved that answer :) He's wonderful...he'll be baptized in 2 weeks and I'm SO excited for it! There's so much going on right now in this area...Sister Leonard and Sister Palmer will be great and I'm really excited for them.

It has been really neat to be able to reflect this last week on lessons that I've learned on my mission. One of the greatest lessons that I've learned is how much God knows and loves each one of His children. It's really easy for me to think that He loves me and my family and my friends, but it was harder to think about Him knowing the people that yelled at me in the street. But there was one day in particular that I looked around and started to really think about each one of the people that I saw and how they each had goals and hopes and worries and how God knows all of that and loves them and wants to help them. It marked a turning point in my mission where I started looking more at people as children of God instead of just as people in the street who I don't know. Another lesson I learned is just how importance obedience is. Really, each blessing is given based on our obedience to a law given by God. Our Father in Heaven really does WANT to bless us. He is even more willing to give miracles than we are to receive them. As soon as we obey even the smallest commandment, God blesses us as much as He is able, and that's something I've seen and experienced while here on my mission and I love it. I've learned a million other little lessons, but those are the two that have made the greatest impact on my mission. I'm so grateful for the chance that I have had to come here and serve the Lord for 18 months with my whole heart. I've seen so many miracles and really come to know my Savior personally and it has been wonderful to help others gain the knowledge that I have. I can't wait to go back home and continue serving the Lord with all my heart, just in a different capacity. Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers. I love you all!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Sugar high.... :)

2011-03-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

So this week was yet another WONDERFUL week! It`s March which means that spring is coming! SO exciting! :) It started raining the other day and we thought that winter was over and then it started snowing yesterday and turned into a horrible snowstorm for today, so maybe it`s not quite as over as we thought it was. But at least the snowstorm didn`t stop us from going to our cabane a sucre today! We went to one out in MOnt St. Gregoire and it was SO much fun...and SO sugary :) THey give you an all you can eat breakfast meal and you douse the whole thing in maple sugar. We went to one last year and it was really good...this one was slightly different, but it was the first time that everyone else in the zone (except one elder) had gone, so it was a great experience. And because of the storm there weren`t very many other people there, so we had a waitress there just waiting on us. It was a wonderful p-day :)

And the rest of the week was great as well. We taught our family that came to church last week again - twice. Their names our Josie and Sebastian and they are SO much fun! We went over on Tuesday evening and they didn`t have long, but we just sat and talked with them and they LOVED church. And they said that more importantly to them, their kids loved church. They asked the 10 year old afterwards what she thought and if she had had fun playing the games and she said ``I didn`t play; I LEARNED`` and they were thrilled about that. And they started asking us questions about how they could become members and we explained baptism and they wanted to plan it out all right then: who would baptize them, what clothes they would wear, who they would invite. It was great. And they asked about getting sealed in the temple and how that works and we explained it a little. We came back on Saturday and they had started reading the Book of MOrmon Stories (for kids) to their children each night and praying with them and they all loved it. We taught the Plan of Salvation, which they loved, and then set a date for baptism with them and they wanted to meet us at least 3 times a week until their baptisms. Unfortunately, we don`t have 3 evenings open each week, so we`re teaching them twice a week, but it`s still wonderful. I`m so excited to see them progress!

And we also taught Denis and it went so well. He`s progressing so well! We have 2 more lessons on commandments to teach him and then his baptism is in 3 weeks. He just needs to stop smoking. But he came to church AGAIN this Sunday (for the 7th Sunday in a row! He`s come every Sunday since we met him!) and again he loved it. He said he already knows it all, but each time he deapens his understanding, which is what he wants. It`s so great to see everyone learning and progressing...it`s the best part of missionary work :) And then we have Isabelle Poissant who is actually making progress! Her husband (a member) is in the hospital right now with a million different medical problems but he gave her an ultimatum and said if she hadn`t stopped smoking by the time he got out, he wasn`t going to come back to the house because he needed to think about his health. it just about killed both of them to think of that, but it gave Isabelle the motivation that she needed to really make an effort to stop and she`s sincerely trying. She promised to come to church this week and we`re really hopeful that her baptism will go through for the first week in April.

And also, JOSEPH called us! We haven`t seen him in over a month because he keeps cancelling our appointments at the last minute, but he called last MOnday and set up on for last Thursday. We waited there for 45 minutes and he never showed up, never texted or called us back, and we didn`t know what to do. So then yesterday I called and left a message saying that I was leaving and wanted to talk to him before I left and he called back early this morning and said that just about an hour before our lesson on Thursday (he was all set with a backpack filled with church things) he collapsed from exhaustion and some sickness and was in the hospital for 2 days and then sick in bed for 2 days and now both of his kids are sick. Crazy. So we set up another appointment for this Thursday..I pray that it actually works out.

But things are going really well in the area now. It`s amazing to see the progress and the blessings that have been poured out in this area and on the mission as a whole in the last month or so...there are miracles almost every day in each of the areas, both big miracles and little ones. It`s such a great time to be a missionary and such a wonderful mission to be a part of...I love it!

I hope all of you are well. Take care and have a great week! I love you!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

What a beautiful day :)

2011-03-01T22:20:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

This week was AMAZING!! :) We've been working hard and we're definitely seeing the blessings from it. We had a great lesson with Denis at the Groux's house and it went SO well! We taught the Word of Wisdom since we'd already kind of covered it in Sunday School class and Sister Groux testified so beautifully of it's importance. He accepted it without a problem and said that he'd been thinking for some time now that he needed to quite smoking and he wasn't sure if that was just him or something else telling him to stop, but he's going to try really hard to stop. it was great. And then he came to church on Sunday and we're pretty sure he loved it...he left right after Priesthood and Relief Society hadn't been let out yet, so we didn't get to talk with him right afterwards, but we're going to call him today and see how it went. he's wonderful though...I love to see the progress he's making!

Then also this week we taught a FAMILY!! It was a man, Sebastien, and his wife, Josee, and their 4 kids. During the lesson we actually only taught the husband, but he really liked it, said the prayer at the end without argument, and said that they wanted to come to church on Sunday. They have neighbors who are members of the Victoria (Spanish) ward, and they really like them. So then on Sunday morning we were sitting in the car before church and a number we didn't recognize called us and it was a woman from the Victoria ward who said that we were teaching her neighbor, Sebastien, and that he and his family had come over the night before and asked them a bunch of questions about church and so they had skipped their ward and were coming with Sebastien and his family to our ward. So the whole family showed up and they LOVED it! Everyone was so friendly and the kids just adored primary. Soeur Groux said they participated a lot in sharing time and she even asked one of them to say the prayer at the end because she had just been so involved in the whole class. It was so cute. We're teaching them again this Tuesday and the mom said that they were going to come back next Sunday. The dad had said that they wanted to find a church with good family values and teach their children more about Christ - perfect! I'm SO excited for them!

Then we also had our investigator Jean-Guy who we taught and he is an interesting guy. Very into meditation and very factual so when he read the Book of Mormon this week he looked up a timeline in the Guide des Ecritures at the back and decided that it was missing some things so he went through the Book of Mormon and filled it in the rest of the way and that was his study. Odd. But he said he'd been talking with his nephew about the church and then called us Sunday morning to say that both he and his nephew would be coming to church. So they both showed up and I think they liked it...the nephew said he did and he wanted to come back, so we'll see what happens. But Jean-Guy is definitely a character...we're going to commit him to baptism this week to see if he really is interested in progressing or not. We're not sure where he stands right now. But church yesterday was WONDERFUL...we had a really interesting Sacrament meeting and each of the investigators liked it and the members helped us so much. It was wonderful.

Also this week we did splits with Concordia and that was exciting! I went back to my greenie area with my first daughter, Sister Cottrell, and it was so fun to work with her and talk with her again. I just love her. And we got to see some of the people that I knew from before. And the best surprise of all: Elder and Sister Anderson showed up! they went home from their mission a couple of months ago, but they came back out for a wedding this last weekend and they stopped by the church at the same time that I was there! SO exciting! :) I just loved it. It really was such a great week.

And this next week is going to be wonderful as well. There is SO much going on in the next few weeks! I can't believe my mission is almost done and with everything that we have planned these next 3 weeks are just going to fly by. But it will be fun. I'm so excited for everything, and I just love seeing all the progress that our investigators are making! this really is the work of the Lord and it is definitely going forth. I just love it and I'm so glad that I get to be a part of it and share my testimony with people everyday! I'm so glad that Heavenly Father knew me well enough to send me on a mission to this area and to put me with this companion so that I could have these experiences. And I'm even more grateful that I listened and came out here. It's been the best experience of my life...I just love it :)

Hopefully you all have a wonderful week! I love you!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

PS: I got the valentine's day package from Heather and Kaylee this week....thanks so much! I loved it! And I got the one from Nic and Janey the week before and I LOVED the pictures...and the fudge hearts :) I have the best Friends ever!!

Oh Canada :)

2011-02-21T23:06:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody!

This week was wonderful! It finally started warming up and the snow started melting...on Friday it got up to 10 degrees! That's the warmest it's been in a long time! We were outside in just little sweaters...so nice :) But then it started getting cold again and today it's back to -12 or so. But at least for a little while it got warm and we can actual see the road now instead of just snow everywhere.

Sister Palmer and I had a lot of fun this week as well. We taught Denis on Saturday at a member's house in our ward and it went so well. He told us how the Plan of Salvation that we had taught the week before had answered questions that he didn't even know he had. He was always unsure as to how a loving Father in Heaven could help us right up until we die and then send us to hell for the rest of eternity or how a little child who died before being baptized could be stuck in limbo forever without a chance of seeing his loved ones again, but the Plan of Salvation taught him how merciful and loving God really is. He does want us to succeed, so he gives EVERYONE a chance to hear the Gospel and to be baptized, even after this life for those who don't have that chance here. And for those who don't accept it, they are still given a place in one of the glories (telestial or terrestrial). So they don't receive the same reward as someone who does try their hardest here, but they won't be eternally miserable either. And those were things that he had wondered about since he was really little but had kind of forgotten about and then the Gospel answered those questions. It was so neat. So this week we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was so funny because it was at a member's house and she was there talking a lot when we talked about faith and repentance and then when she saw that we were going to talk about baptism she was afraid that we were going to commit him and so she left the room to go get juice and cookies and then came back and said "So have they gotten to the gift of the Holy Ghost yet?" Kind of funny. We told that to our zone leaders and Elder Mongillo said "Yeah, members are chickens." We laughed quite a bit about it especially since that baptismal committment was probably the easiest one we've ever done. He accepted so readily. He really is trying to follow Christ and learn as much as he can. Even yesterday when we talked about the Word of Wisdom in Sunday School (that was a HORRIBLE lesson by the way...we were teaching it but we didn't have a single solid member in the class and our less actives and recent converts went off on all kinds of random tangents and we had the hardest time bringing it back to what we wanted to talk about. Luckily Frere Angulo came in halfway through and was able to respond to some of their questions....it was not the best lesson we've ever taught) he just came up to us afterwards and said he'd like to discuss the word of wisdom another time with us, so we're teaching it to him next. It could have scared him away completely because he doesn't follow it completely now, but it'll be good. I just love working with him :)

Oh, we also had a pretty funny experience this week: we ran to the supermarket one time during our lunch hour to pick up a couple of random things and I got distracted by the valentine's day candy (it was 50% off...I had to at least look :) ) and this man came up to Sister Palmer and I and asked if we were sisters. I said yes, just assuming he was talking about sister missionaries because really Sister Palmer and I don't look anything alike, but then he really meant sisters and so he looked at me and said "tu es la plus belle" and then turned to Sister Palmer and said "et tu es la plus jolie." So I'm the prettiest and she's the cutest. It made our day :)

Also, we had a cray adventure...we went to this one street on Friday and tried to visit a less active who wasn't home so we just knocked the rest of the street. We were parked in our car afterwards making a couple of calls and we saw this police car drive really fast right in front of us then back up really fast all the way to the street right behind us and set up a road block. We weren't quite sure what was going on, so we decided to drive away and saw a fire truck coming with another police officer. We looked to the other side and saw a tempo (one of those canvas/plastic tents that they cover their driveways with like in the picture I sent you a couple of weeks ago) was completely up in flames. Crazy. Then the next day we went back to that same road to visit some of the potentials that we had found the day before and a little farther down there were 3 fire trucks and a million police officers and a 4th fire truck came while we were there and there were firemen on top of this smoking apartment building. It was so insane. We decided it had to be arson. And we even knew who did it! There were these 14 year old boys the day before who had started yelling at us for being "temoin jehovahs" and then had tried to throw snowballs at us (they didn't have very good aim.) and we decided it was them. We thought about telling the police but then decided they could probably figure it out themselves. Just kidding....it was probably just a coincidence that there were 2 fires on the same street but we've decided to take a break from knocking there anyways, haha.

So other than that we also taught a couple of new people. one was a pass off from the Spanish elders named Jean and he was this 70 year old retired man who was really not worth visiting. He had told the elders that he didn't believe that woman could teach but they gave him to us anyways. So we went over and he told us this 30 minute story about how he switched religions about 15 times and then wanted one with a prophet and found this other church (I forgot it's name but I've met a couple of people from it before) that has a prophet and he was saying how a prophet's main role is to denounce false practices. I told him it was also to testify of Christ and tried to share a Book of Mormon scripture and he just kept interrupting me to talk about the Bible and how the Bible says that woman can't preach and he told the story of Paul twice and we said that we knew it well and then I tried sharing a scripture again and he said that before I shared that, he wanted to share a story with me in the Bible and if I reacted well, he'd listen to me; if I didn't react well, he wouldn't listen to me. I knew exactly which one he was going to share...there's one in Corinthians (I think,...or Ephesians) where Paul says that women should not speak in church and if they have questions they should ask their husbands at home and their husbands can tell answer their questions or ask the preacher, but women shouldn't talk in church (Joseph Smith Translation says "rule") and we knew that if he read that and we still kept trying to teach, he'd not listen, but if we read it and stopped teaching than he'd be more sure than every that he was right. So we just left. We encouraged him to read the Book of Mormon and he told us he had great respect for us, but was worried about our salvation since we said we believed in the Bible but weren't living it. It was so frustrating because there were all kinds of scriptures we could have shared or stories we could have told about women in the Bible and there's a scripture just a chapter or so before that one that talks about how women can prophecy if their heads are covered and long hair is a covering of the head, but all of those stories and scriptures would have just been to argue and not to listen. It's sad sometimes when people come so close to the truth but then get hung up on little things or listen more to their own reason than to the Spirit. oh well...it made for a good story in my journal :)

So this week was good. We had a lot of fun with the members and worked hard. I just love this ward and I'm so glad to be able to serve here...I really love it :) Thanks for all your support and I hope you all have a wonderful week. i love you!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!

2011-02-15T12:59:00.001-08:00

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!! I hope you're all doing something fun to celebrate one of the greatest holidays of the year :) Sister Palmer and I made sugar cookies and valentine's for several of our less actives and took them to them which was a lot of fun. And the Groux's made us each Valentine's....so cute :) And then tonight we're eating at the Bishop's house and we're not quite sure what we're doing after, but they told Sister Palmer to make sure that we wear red, and I love that family so it'll be a wonderful evening. Other than that for today we're just relaxing, trying to catch up on sleep...it should be a great day :) Except I didn't get Janey's package yet...so sad. We onyl get mail from the office every couple of weeks and the last time that we got it was about 3 weeks ago. But we're going on a split with Concordia sisters this Wednesday (I'm going back to my greenie area for a day with one of the girls I trained...I'm way excited!) so we're going to stop and pick up the mail then. So I'll get it soon! I can't wait! :)

This week was a really good week. It went by kind of fast...I don't really remember much about what happened. There were a couple of fun stories though...on Saturday we ended up having 2 dinner appointments one right after the other and that was a bit intense. The first one is a returning less active who I LOVE and who has decided that she is feeding us dinner every Saturday until I leave (even though we have dinner appointments for at least one of those saturdays already) and she feeds us TONS. She always gives us salad, the main course, and then a dessert, but she doesn't eat the salad or the dessert because the main course fills her up. But we can eat more than she can, so she gives us everything, haha. So we were there and she had invited one of her friends over and that was really neat to meet her...she's coming to the dinner again next Saturday and wants to watch the Restoration DVD with us because the less active told her about it and she was really interested. So that'll be neat :) Then right after that we went directly to another DA with a family that again fed us too much. I think I've gained at least 5 pounds just this weekend. We were both full halfway through the first meal and I honestly didn't think I'd be able to finish the dessert on the second one, but I did. But then the next morning (Sunday morning) we ate breakfast with our ward mission leader (I LOVE that family as well...they're just so cute!) and we could barely finish it and we were still full for our DA Sunday night. By the end of the salad we couldn't eat anymore and we still had the main course and the dessert. It was all really good, just a lot more food than we're used to in a very short amount of time. But I love the members in this ward...they're amazing :) And it's interesting...somehow everyone found out that I'm leaving in about a month. i was trying to keep it a secret except from one or two families, but it spread to everyone and they all keep asking me about plans as soon as I get home and trying to figure out when I'm getting married. Sister beaumier said I wouldn't even come back this summer because I'd go home, find my "chum" (boyfriend), get married, and then be pregnant this summer. Then the Grolaud's decided that I needed to marry someone French and so I'd probably marry the missionary that I was going home with. God would make it so that on the plane ride home I would sit next to another returning missionary and start talking to him and we'd get married not long afterwards. I said I didn't think that would happen since I'm not going home with any other missionaries on the same plane and I didn't think I'd fall in love that quickly and he quoted that "any righteous man and woman living the Gospel can have a happy life together" or whatever the quote was. Just kind of funny. They're not helping me focus on my mission, haha.

But luckily Sister Palmer and I are focusing really well. we taught quite a few lessons this week and things are going great. There was another man who showed up at church this Sunday who we'd never met before, Jean-Guy. Turns out one of our members invited him to come and listen to him give a talk. So Jean-Guy came in and asked us if this was the church of Leona. We didn't know that that was the first name of Frere Caron, so we thought he had asked if this was the church with the Liahonas, the French version of the Ensign magazine. And so Sister Palmer responded "Yeah, you can find one in the Library" and he was a little confused. We quickly realized that it was his first time there so we gave him a tour of the chapel, talked about missionary work a bit, and then he stayed for all 3 meetings and participated and really enjoyed them. We're teaching him on Saturday which is really neat. I'm excited :) Denis came to church again and we taught him the second lesson and he's going to work to be baptized...we're going to meet him every Saturday. He said he left our meeting on Saturday (the plan of salvation....we kind of skipped over the veil and turns out that was a HUGE thing for him, haha)and wasn't sure if he wanted to commit himself and if he wanted to keep meeting with us or not, but then he told Frere Angulo yesterday after church that he had thought about it all night long and couldn't stop and kep comparing us to every other church and finding the "catch" but so far he hadn't found one. So he wanted to keep meeting with us every Saturday until he found something wrong or got baptized. So we'll keep meeting with him until he gets baptized, because I'm confident that he won't find anything wrong...this IS the true church and it is led by God Himself. It'll be good :)

Oh, also a funny story: so yesterday we left our DA which was out in Boucherville, an area that I don't really know all that well. It had snowed several inches and the lines on the road were all covered up. So we had to turn left on to this slightly larger road and a car came down it from the direction we were turning and was in the lane I thought we were supposed to be turning into. So I looked a little farther and saw a median and then another opening for the road. So I went, passed the median, and turned into what I thought was my lane on the road. We got stuck and I realized that it wasn't a road, the other person had been driving on the wrong side of the road and we had just turned into a set of train tracks. Sister Palmer got out to try to push and 2 girls pulled over to see if they could help us, but there was nothing they could do so we asked them to leave, and then I just tried backing up and we started to smell burning rubber from our tires on the railroad tracks and then a tow truck pulled up and stopped and the guy got out and told me how to turn my wheels to get myself unstuck. It was definitely an experience....first time I've ever driven on the railroad tracks :)

But it was a fun week and this week is going to be even better. We have a lot of lessons set up already and the area is doing pretty well. I love the members of the ward and I'm so excited to work with them this week! It'll be great. I hope you all have a wonderful week...I love you and Happy Valentine's Day again!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Zero degrees has Never Felt so Warm... :)

2011-02-08T13:52:00.000-08:00

The traffic during our 4 hour drive to zone study the other day...the guy in the car next to us facing the wrong direction is the one who contacted us, haha
It snowed a lot and we have to brush all the snow off of the tempo (the driveway tent thing) but it wouldn't come off because it was piled too high on the sides so I had to climb in the snow and shovel it away from the sides of the tempo so that we could get it off the top. It was DEEP. I was literally up to my waist in snow,...crazy.
Again, shoveling snow...oh Canada :)

Me, Sister Palmer, and Elder Foster with the cake we made him
Me and Sister Palmer in front of the temple a little while ago

Hey everyone!

This week was an interesting week...the weather changed midway through and went from huge snowstorms on Wednesday to sunny skies and above freezing on Saturday and Sunday...so nice! We did get a TON of snow though on Wednesday. We left our house at about 10:15 to go to our zone study in Mont St. Hilaire which is usually about a 30 minute drive, so we decided we'd be just a little bit late. Then we got lost and started going the wrong direction, turned around and the road disappeared in this huge whiteout, but we finally found the right interstate and started heading down to our zone study. At the beginning we were about 10 cars behind this row of snowplows (3 of them slightly staggered so they could plow the whole thing at once) and we were crawling along at about 40 km/h when the speed limit is normally either 80 or 100 kmh. But we were grateful they were plowing the roads, so we didn't complain and just called to tell the zone leaders we would be a bit late. Then somehow we were right behind the snowplows and they came to a complete stop in the middle of the interstate. We waited behind them for about 20 minutes without moving and then people started trying to pass them so they moved over and set up a whole blockade so no one could get through. Then police officers and about 3 ambulances went zipping down the side of the road and a bit later the snowplows all turned around and left. There was a huge gap in between us and the cars that had been stopped in front of us (they must have been there awhile because most of the cars were turned off and covered in snow) but a fireman came down and told us not to fill in the gap but to wait where we were and that it might be another 2 to 4 hours sitting in the traffic before they got everything cleared up. It was crazy. Cars started turning around and goign the wrong direction down the side of the road to try and get off so for awhile there were cars turned every which way on the street. We finally turned around and they redirected us to another road and we decided it wouldn't be worth it to go to the zone study (they had put us on a conference call and we were listening to the trainings over the phone) so we tried following the map to get back home (by that time it was about 1:30 so we'd been in the car for 3 hours). We were driving along, had no clue where we were, and then turned a corner and there was Mont St. Hilaire. crazy. So we met the elders and had lunch with them :) Then they gave us directions to get back but with traffic and bad directions we ended up taking another 2 hours to get home...so we were in the car for a total of 6 hours that day. It was insane. Probably NOT the most productive of days.... :) But we did contact a guy in the car next to us (or rather, he contacted us) and we got his number and then he scraped our windshield. Pretty funny.

But then also this week we taught Joseph twice and it is just such a sad situation. He wants so much to get baptized and come to church, but his wife won't even let him come to church. And he's worried about the safety of his kids and of himself, so he's trying to get out of the marriage and out of the house, but he needs custody of his kids first so it's not considered kidnapping, and he's not sure if he wants a divorce or not. But he does want to get baptized and soon. Except we talked with President and he looked up the rules and either Joseph has to get permission from his wife to get baptized or he has to have signed divorce papers, which Brother Gonzalez was telling us it takes a year of separation before you can get a divorce. Crazy, huh? So we're going to keep working with him and try to help him not get discouraged. And prayer always helps...the whole ward is praying for him. And God has a plan..it'll all work out :)

On happier news, Denis came to church again this Sunday! We hadn't talked to him all week because he wanted that time to read the Book of Mormon, so we left him alone, but called him Saturday to invite him to church. He didn't answer, but then on Sunday he just waltzed right in and made himself at home! It was so great :) He stayed for all 3 meetings and LOVED them. We watched the Restoration DVD in Sunday School and the Spirit was so strong...he was really touched. He didn't quite understand why we separated into Relief Society and Priesthood and none of the 15 different explanations we gave him really helped, but he still liked it. Then at our church after church each Sunday there's free bread from a bread shop here in town that just gives to different organizations their leftover bread from the night before, so someone picks it up each Saturday night and brings it to church. We were explaining that to him and he said "Free bread? I MUST be in the true church!" So funny.

And we had interviews this week. it was a bit strange...instead of going to the chapel, President and Sister Cannon came to our apartments. Since we only have the two main rooms (the bedroom, the living room/kitchen area), there weren't very many options for where we could have the interviews. So Sister Cannon stayed with the one not being interviewed in the living room and President came into the bedroom to do the interview. It was a bit strange sitting on Sister Palmer's bed and having him sit on mine. He started out the interview "I see you have your straightener there, and Sister Palmer has her straightener set up over on that little table....glad to see you have enough space to get ready each morning." Just a little different. But it was good; I enjoy talking to them both. So overall, it was a good week.

OH, and I almost forgot: on Saturday we did some door knocking and we met the most interesting people. We had one lady in the first area ask if we had permission to proselyte there and we said yes. She wanted to see our cards so we gave her the ministerial ones that were given to us that say we can proselyte in the province of Quebec and she said we needed another one for Boucherville and she was going to call the police on us. We left the area, but then after-wards we both felt kind of guilty for running away and wished we would've stayed. Oh well. Then we moved to a different area where a man answered the door and he was STRANGE. his name is Andre and he was interested, but it'll be an interesting lesson. We told him about the Book of Mormon and he said "I love Christ. I love to read. And I love the color blue." The book was blue, so we gave it to him. Then he invited us in, but not upstairs where his friends were since it wasn't his house. Instead he invited us into the unfinished basement where he laid a piece of carpet on the floor and wanted to talk to us there, but we weren't really comfortable with that, so instead we got his address (which he whispered to us) and then left. His friends upstairs kept asking what he was doing and he kept saying "just talking!" like a 17 year old who's annoyed with his parents asking what he's doing, and they said he could talk upstairs and he just rolled his eyes. But he's married with a little boy...it'll be interesting. Then we kept knocking and met a guy without a shirt who was nice but not interested. He like shut his door and we were halfway down the sidewalk and he opened it back up and said "but one thing I do love about the Mormons is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir" and then shut it again really fast. Bizarre. Then the next lady asked if we were Temoins and we said no, we were missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and she started screaming at us to get off her property and we smiled, said ok, and wished her a good day as we were walking off and she responded with "NO! Get off my property!" We laughed at that one. Then another guy a little while on was really nice and talked to us for about 15 minutes about Quebec politics and how they should separate from Canada and different things and then told us about some great cabane a sucre's that we should go to, and then as we were leaving his wife came out with a plate of fudge that she had just made and asked if we wanted any. I just love being a missionary :)

Anyways, I hope everything is going well back home. I love you all! Thanks for your support! And happy early Valentine's Day :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Transfer news...

2011-02-01T12:44:00.001-08:00

Hey everybody!

This week was WONDERFUL...we got our transfer call on Saturday evening and it was kind of crazy...for the first time since I've been on my mission, there were no huge changes. None of the sisters changed. At all. So Sister Palmer and I are still together! We were SO excited about that :) But it's kind of crazy to think of some of the other sisters...This will be Sister Verdeja's 6h transfer in Victoriaville..so nine months out there. And then Sister Rodriguez has been on her mission for 6 months and she's been in the same area with the same companion that entire time...kind of crazy! I guess President said that he wants missionaries to get to know the members and learn to work with them better so he's going to leave missionaries in their areas for 3 to 6 transfers at a time. So in our district, nobody changed at all except for Elder Foster who's going home. There were like 10 teams that changed this transfer...such a switch from the last few transfers where it seemed that every companionship changed. I'm excited though...I love my district and it will be so fun to work with them again!

This last week was really neat. We taught Joseph another 2 times and he is WONDERFUL! One of the times we taught him over at the Groux's house and it was probably the funnest lesson I've had. I got a little distracted (it's just so much fun to play with her kids!) but it was neat for him to go into the home of one of the members and realize that you can have the Spirit in your home as well, not just at the church. And to see that the members really are normal with normal kids who get into things and draw on the walls...we're not perfect and he doesn't need to be perfect to join the church either. As we left he said "That's what I want. That's what I want my family to be like someday." It was really sweet :) And he told us that he got an answer to his prayers....he'd been praying to know if this really was the right church and he really was making the right decision and he had a miracle in which both he and his 4 year old son had a dream in which his grandma who is probably the most important person in his life came to them and confirmed that what he was doing was the right thing. So neat! He told us that and then said because of it, he wanted to move his date up to February 19. So we're going to baptize him this month! The only problem is that his wife doesn't support him tons. He wasn't able to come to church yesterday because his wife wouldn't let him and he didn't want to cause any huge problems. He called us about 30 minutes before church started to tell us that and he sounded like he was about to cry. then we got a call from one of our members last night at 10:30 saying that he had been at church helping his wife set up for seminary for this morning and as they left they saw a car in front of the temple. Thinking that it might be somebody doing graffiti on the temple or something they went over to see who it was. They saw Joseph in his car praying so hard because he didn't know what to do about his wife. It was so touching that he knew he could go to the temple and that he could seek the help of the Lord in knowing what to do in his life, but also so heartbreaking because he wants to much to have a happy family but doesn't know how to do it. We're not sure how best to help him, but we're going to keep praying for him and encouraging him in whatever decision he decides to make. I really hope things work out for him.

Also this week we taught a new investigator named Denis. On Saturday we were smurfed 3 times (meaning the person we were supposed to visit wasn't there), and so we used that time and passed by some other potentials. A lot weren't there or weren't interested anymore, but then we decided to go visit this man Denis, who we had his address and we'd contacted him about a month ago but had completely forgotten who he was. We went to his house and caught him right as he was gettin gout of the shower but he let us in and we taught him a first lesson and he was so interested. He really liked how we didn't push him in to anything or try to convince him that we were right but that we just invited him to pray and find out for himself if it was true. He said he would and he'd read in the Book of mormon but to give him a week or so before coming back so that he had time to read. Then he asked us about church. We gave him all the information and he said he was really interested and then he actually showed up! It was great! We gave him a tour of the chapel and introduced him to some of our favorite members (Sister Groux was wonderful with him...I love introducing people to her, she's so much fun and makes them feel so comfortable!) and he stayed for sacrament meeting. We asked if he wanted to stay for the other meetings but he hadn't anticipated church going so long so he couldn't this week but he said he enjoyed himself and the next time he's going to schedule more time so that he can stay for the whole block. It was really exciting for us :)

Hmmm...what else happened this week? We taught a couple of other people including the grandson of one of our members who seems pretty nice. He's a bit on the quiet side and we tried to give him a picture of Jesus Christ and he wouldn't accept it. Odd. But other than that it was pretty normal...we had a lot of fun together, like usual, and had a great time with the elders. We have wonderful elders in this district. It's crazy to think that I don't have tons of time left with them. Today is Elder Foster's last day in the mission so Sister Palmer and I made him a cake with a Plan of Salvation model on it only instead of premortal existance we put Utah (that's where he's from), we put Canada Montreal Mission instead of the world and the arrow said MTC instead of "birth" and then at the end we put wedding rings since that's what he has to look forward to. It's pretty fun, I'm excited to give it to him later today.

But that's about it for this week. i hope you all have a wonderful week and I love you tons!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

What a beautiful day :)

2011-01-20T11:48:00.000-08:00

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

What a week :)

2011-01-10T08:58:00.000-08:00

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

Hey everyone :)

2011-01-03T09:03:00.000-08:00

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

I love Christmas :)

2010-12-27T08:54:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody!

Christmas here was WONDERFUL! I have eaten more tourtiere (meat pie) and bouche de Noel (these Christmas ice cream/cake logs) than I thought was possible. It was SO fun though. Sister Palmer is my new companion and we are having the best time together. We laugh everyday...I don't think there's been a single day where we haven't laughed for at least half of the day. On Tuesday we met at Berri and went out for poutine (as is the tradition among missionaries) and then came home, unpacked, and went to go teach a new investigator. She's actually been taught by missionaries before (she's the wife of a member) but has smoking problems and has never been able to quit, but has finally decided that right after Christmas (so this week) she's going to stop for good. We're excited to keep teaching her and bring that family closer together so that they can get the blessings of an eternal temple marriage. I'm excited for it :)

We also spent a lot of time with members and less actives this week. It was amazing to me how many people remembered to invite the missionaries over to their houses for Christmas (we got at least 7 invitations, but had to turn quite a few down), but forgot about the other single people in the ward who don't have families nearby. So Christmas Eve we spent visiting with these single less active sisters and trying to help make their Christmas a little better. We had made fudge the other day and put some of that on plates and delivered it to less active families and it was a lot of fun. Then Christmas Eve we went to this Christmas party with a family in our ward and all their relatives and the elders were all invited too and we had such a great time. WE ate all night (including a meat pie made out of moose....yes, I ate moose. crazy) and the traditional turkey dinner. We then went to midnight mass at this Catholic church with the elders and that was an interesting experience that I don't think I'm going to repeat...it took way too much concentration for how tired I was that night to try to follow along and stand up and sit down at all the right times. But it was a fun experience to do once. Then on Christmas day we went to a family in Lemoyne's ward (the elders area) and it turns out that my favorite family in our ward (the Groux's...the ones who she's 23 and a convert and they have 3 girls under the age of 3 and we go to their house like once a week) were there because it's the husband's family. They're from Switzerland and made a traditional Swiss meal which was good, but had some very different-tasting things (like these jello jigglers made out of like chicken bullion) and we were there for several hours and just laughed the whole time. At one point they gave us cookies which we had already eaten way too many other things and so I gave half of my cookie to Sister Palmer who gave her whole cookie to Elder Anderson, who gave it to Elder Helle, who stuck it back on the plate of the man who had given it to us to begin with. The man turned around and asked who had stuck it there and Sister palmer and I both blamed Elder Helle, but he pointed at us and the man thought it was us. It was just so funny though. Probably funnier in person....

Then we went to a second dinner at Sister de Seve's house. She's an older single woman and she had invited another older single woman to come and we were all sitting there and Sister Palmer and I were SO exhausted by that time that we could barely keep our eyes open. She gave us ANOTHER tourtiere (like the 6th one we had eaten that week) and so much more food that we could barely eat. It was SUCH a fun day...we really had a great time this week.

And I'm really looking forward to this transfer with Sister Palmer. She is so much fun...she's a lot like the people that I hang out with back home. And she's SO excited about the work...she goes and talks to everyone and she is so enthusiastic about it that it makes everyone else want to listen to her. I'm so excited. It should be a really good week :)

Anyways, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you have a great New Year! I love you all!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)

2010-12-27T08:50:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! What a wonderful season this is! I just love that we get to celebrate Christ's birth and that we know the impact that His birth had on the world. It's so sad to talk with people here sometimes where Christmas has become just a commercialized celebration and they either haven't been taught or don't care to know the real reason that we have this holiday. I love being able to share the message with those that listen that Jesus Christ is our Savior! He was born for us, lived a perfect life to show us the example, and died for each one of us. And then the most exciting part of it all: He was resurrected and He lives today! Because of Him, we CAN return someday and live with our Father in Heaven again. We can be completley pure or all errors that we might make. And we can overcome our weaknesses. I just love that part of this Gospel...it is so full of hope and joy! :) Weare STILL rejoicing in the birth of our Savior just as the angels did on the day He was born. What a wonderful reason to celebrate! :)

Things here are going really well and I'm excited for this next week. We did have transfers and I am staying here in Longueuil but getting a new companion, Sister Palmer. She started her mission 6 weeks ago up in Victoriaville and we were a bit surprised to hear that she was being transferred but even more surprised to find out that Sister Quist was going up to Victoriaville and replacing her, still keeping her 2 other companions (there is a 3 some there now and still will be). But we're both pretty excited about it...it'll be different, but so fun :)

Also this week we had our mission Christmas party and we just had the most amazing time! It started at about 10 in the morning and we got our flu shots first thing (not the best way to start it off, but at least it was over and out of the way) and then we all voted on what movie we wanted to watch. there were 3 options: It's a Beautiful Life, The Bishop's Wife (I'd never heard of that one before), and Toy Story 3. So naturally we picked Toy Story 3 and it was such a good movie! It was kind of strange to be sitting there with a bunch of elders watching a non church movie, but it was a lot of fun. Then the senior couples had all prepared us a fabulous dinner, we had several muscial presentations (one from each zone and then one or two others) and then we had a qhite elephant gift exchange. There were some random presents that were given...but it was a lot of fun. The funniest was our assistant to the president, Elder Corbett. Everyone teases him mercilessly about how he looks like Jacob from Twilight (and he really does look a lot like him) and so he opened his present and it was a poster of Jacob from Twilight. SO funny. Everyone was laughing and he posed for about a million pictures with his poster. I loved it. Then after that we had a quick visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus who gave us each presents before we headed home. The whole party ended at about 4 in the afternoon and we all just loved it.

So that was probably the highlight of the week, but we had some other good things as well. We had several DA's...several members from the Greenfield Park ward invited us out to eat with the sisters from that ward so we went to a really nice Chinese restaurant and a great Italian one. Then we also went to the Elders Christmas party in Lemoyne because they had a recent convert who wanted us to come. It was so much fun. In between all of that, we did teach several lessons and met some great people, unfortunately most of them are going out of town for the holidays, but we'll see them when we get back :) And we've been opening your presents everyday Mom...thanks so much! it's always so fun every morning to look up the scriptures and then try and guess what the presents are. We've done a pretty good job of guessing them so far...there are some really clever ones. Thanks so much :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week and an incredible Christmas...we do have such a great reason to celebrate this Holiday season :) I love you all tons!!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

On the first day of Christmas.... :)

2010-12-14T21:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

How are you? How was your week? This week was really fun...it started off with a wonderful but incredibly exhausting P-day last Monday. We've been wanting to climb Mount Saint Hilaire for a little while, so we all drove out to St Hilaire (the zone leaders area) and did emails, went out to eat, and then went to go climb the mountain. it was kind of crazy though, while we were eating it started snowing TONS. We decided to climb the mountain anyways though and just take the shorter route, but then that route was closed and so we ended up taking the longer one. It was likte 5 kilometers which wouldn't have been too bad, but by the time we got to the top the snow was like 5 inches deep. it was SO much fun though. We had a great time. We were all pretty exhausted when we got back, but it was definitely worth it.

Other than that, this week was pretty uneventful. We taught a couple of people and had our ward Christmas party which was really fun. We taught Magda (the woman from Romania) and committed her to be baptized in January. It was so exciting! She has a daughter who wants to get baptized at the same time, but we have to teach her a little bit more first. I'm so excited for them...they're wonderful. Then we taught Ruth and she came to the ward Christmas party and LOVED it and then came to church and just had a really great time. She's doing really well.

Also this week we went on splits with the Greenfield Park Sisters (Sister Cottrell and Sister Tschumi) and so Sister Tschumi came here with me and we worked together for a day and it was just so much fun. I haven't really seen her very much since I trained her back like 4 transfers ago, so it was fun to be with her and catch up. We were laughing the entire time and just had a great day together finding and teaching people. We met a really interesting man...I've realized again how little clothing people wear here. We had several who opened the doors without pants on...so bizarre. But it was a lot of fun :)

We also had the chance to visit with a lot of our members this week which was really neat. I just love working with the members and we have some really neat people in this ward. I love them and I'm so excited to work even more with them! One of our members, SIster Groux, invited us over and we talked with her for a LONG time. She has 3 daughters all under the age of 3, and they're so cute! I just love that family. Transfer calls are this Saturday adn I'm almost positive that I'm staying here and I'm so excited...it'll be fun to work here for at least another 6 weeks and get to know the members even more and keep working with our investigators.

Then this week we're having a Christmas program for all the missionaries...we're meeting up with the IDM zone (so the one I was just in last transfer) and the Quebec zone and we're spending the entire day together playing games and singing songs and doing all kinds of things. I'm so excited...it should be a lot of fun this Christmas. I hope everything is going well for you back home...I love you all tons and I'm so grateful for all your love and support! thank you for all that you do :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Hey mom!

Thanks so much for you letter! I`m going to write you a real quick one now and then I`ll write a bigger one to everyone and then hopefully I`ll still have time left to write you another one. But I wanted to let you know that I DID get your packages! Thank you SO much! They came on Tuesday night and it was kind of funny, the woman we live with (Grandma) said that she signed for them but then realized she didn`t know who Nicole Lindsey was and so she almost sent them back, but then luckily we decided to go visit her that evening and as an afterthought I warned her about the packages that were coming and she said that they had just come! I wasn`t expecting them for another week or so, but they came really fast this year. Thank you so much! We started looking up scriptures almost immediately and there are some that we got pretty quickly and others that it took us a lot longer to understand. Like the toothbrush one was pretty easy...`cleanliness of teeth"! How did you find that scripture? And did you find the scripture for the package or did you find the scripture first and then decide to send toothbrushes? Pretty funny. There are some really good ones...we opened the first presents today and it was so exciting! thanks so much for the gingerbread house and candle...we're going to have a blast this Christmas :) I love you tons and I'll write more later!

Love, Nicole

Christmas bells are ringing... :)

2010-12-09T21:28:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody!

This week was SUCH a wonderful week! We had zone conference on Tuesday which is always fun and it just started out the week well. Then afterwards on Tuesday afternoon we went and blitzed the elders area a bit and ate with them and then went out and met a really neat girl while knocking named Victoria. She's 17, studying to be a dentist, and has already met with the missionaries (a long time ago) and is really interested in learning more. I'm way excited to keep teaching her.

On Wednesday we went out to eat with the Hochelaga sisters (Sister Davis and Sister Hamula) and I just LOVE them! They are so much fun...Sister Hamula and I have been talking about how much fun it would be to serve together...maybe someday we'll be companions! We did a lot of knocking doors this week, which was good, and got to have a couple of dinners with some of our members which was also a lot of fun. It's really neat to get to know them better and see them in a home setting instead of just at church...I really love it :) We also had a Relief Society dinner on Thursday and that was way fun...we spent all day decorating for it and then we were there for a couple of hours and it was just a lot of fun to be there with all of the other women in the congregation. We had several investigators who came and just loved it, so that was good. 2 of them (Magda and Lunabella) decided that they just loved our church so much that they want to get baptized and they came and asked us how to do that. So we're going to keep meeting with them and set a date at some point in time...I'm pretty excited about it :)

The best part of this week though was definitely on Saturday...we went to the temple with Lyse! Haha, we thought we were doing baptisms at 9:30 though so we got to the temple at 9 and met up with Sister Leonard and Sister Rodriguez, then found out that the bus from Quebec wasn't coming until later because they weren't starting the baptisms until 11. So we sat and talked with the other sisters for about an hour and I love them so much...it was so fun to catch up with Sister Leonard. while we were waiting we also called Elder Coronado, one of the elders who was Sister Leonard's and my zone leader when I was in hochelaga who is now in Quebec and talked with him for a bit, and he said how we were legends up there in Quebec...everyone loves us. It was SO neat to be able to see them all again and to look around and realize how much I love those people. I saw Lyse (which was SO amazing!) as she did baptisms for her family and it was so exciting to realize that she has been able to keep her baptismal covenants since her baptism and is still so strong in her faith..I just love it. And to know that she's now been the means of bringing even more of her relatives into the Gospel...so neat. I was all set and ready to take care of her as well, but we walked in to the temple and the members were already doing such a good job leading her around and taking care of her that I realized that she didn't really need me there. But it was still SUCH a great experience to be there and to have those memories of Quebec...I LOVE Quebec.

Then church yesterday was fun. We were asked on Thursday evening to give the RS lesson in church on missionary work, so we toodk some time on Saturday to prepare the lesson and it went SO well. We were so grateful...it is really incredible to see how much the Lord blesses us each week...I really just love being on a mission. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas :)

2010-11-29T09:44:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody! :)

It started snowing this week! It was really fun until I realized that I'd left the boots I bought last year up in the Hochelaga apartment...but the sisters are bringing them down with them to Zone conference tomorrow so I'll have them again soon. :) But it's been sucha fun week...there are Christmas decorations up everywhere and Grandma (the woman we live with...we live in her basement) has put up decorations ALL around her house and in her yard, including a 4 foot tall plastic Santa that sings Christmas songs nonstop. It's fun :) Also, since it's almost Christmas time, we're allowed to start listening to Christmas CDs in the car and it's been so fun to hear all the Christmas music. I just love Christmas! We're having a Christmas party for Relief Society this thursday and another one the following Saturday for the whole ward...it should be so fun!

This week was good with Thanksgiving and everything. We had a district study with Elder Helle giving his first ever district study. He was SO nervous, but he did such a wonderful job! We talked about love/charity and how really we are out here because we love the people here. He talked about loving them in to the Gospel and how they really need to be able to feel that love of the Savior through us as they're investigating the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was really powerful. For Thanksgiving day, we didn't have any invitations over for dinner (since the Canadian thanksgiving was about a month ago and nobody in Quebec really celebrates it and we don't have any Americans in our ward), so we had our own little Thanksgiving dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and an apple pie that one of the women in our ward had given to us. We were going to make a pumpkin one, but ran out of time. Then we thought about buying a turkey but they were ridiculously expensive, so we bought ham instead. It's the first time I've ever really cooked ham and Sister Quist doesn't really cook at all, so it was an adventure, but it turned out really well :) It was so fun.

I don't have tons of time left on here so I'm not going to be able to give tons of details about who we taught, but we had some really neat lessons. We decided that we needed to work more with less actives, so we called this one couple several times and left 2 messages, but they never called us back. Then they showed up to church for the first time in over a year and intorduced themselves to me first thing and both of them said (one right after another) "Hi, we're the Rouabah family. You called us and left 2 messages but we were too busy to call back, but we're here now!" it was kind of funny. They still didn't set up a time to see us, but at least we know who they are now and they were at church socializing with people! Ruth came to church for the second week in a row, and it went really well. She stayed all 3 meetings and there were SO many people who were there fellowshipping her. She really loved it. We're going to see her again this Thursday and then we're hoping she comes to the RS Christmas party. We'll see. We also visited another less active yesterday after church who PROMISED us she'd be at church this next Sunday. It was such an odd lesson though...we had given her a challenge the last time we were there to read in the Book of Mormon (she reads it every day even though she hasn't been to church in like 3 years...usually less actives stop reading it too) and make a list of all the blessings that she sees. She did and then she told us her favorite one and then one she wants: to be part of the first Resurrection and to be there when Christ comes again. We told her that to do that, she needed to obey the commandments. She knows that. And we read several other scriptures about blessings that come through obedience, and she knows it all and knows she needs to start coming back to church to take the sacrament and renew her baptismal covenant, but she doesn't want to because she doesn't feel important. We're not quite sure what to do. But she promised she'd come this time, so we'll see.

But that's about all the time I have on here for now...it was a wonderful week, and I think this one will be even better! I love you all! Thank you so much for your support...you are wonderful. Have a great week!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-22T22:05:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

This week was a really fun week...I really enjoyed myself. I just love Longueuil and I especially love the elders in my district...they are SO much fun! We started the week off with P-day with the rest of our district last week and we didn't really do anything special; just spent the day together as a group. Then we went and had an amazing second lesson with an investigator, Sun, who was a member referral from a less active. It was a really good lesson. We're going to teach her again tonight and I'm excited for it. Both her and the less active have little boys (ages 3 and 2) and so the lesson was a little crazy, but it was fun.

Then on Tuesday we had our interviews and that was really neat. I just love interviews...I enjoy talking to President. He told me that our spiritual progression is kind of like building a pyramid. This might be a little hard to follow (it was when he explained it), but afterwards it made a lot of sense. He said that we're here and we have to build the pyramid up layer by layer. The Spirit will come and confirm that the layer we just built is good and that we're doing a good job, but often as missionaries (and probably people in general) we feel that prompting telling us that what we're doing is pleasing to the Lord and we say "yes, that's all nice, but I want to be at the top" and we kind of brush aside the inspiration telling us that where we are right then is where the Lord wants us to be. It was really a good analogy for me, after I thought about it awhile and it made more sense, haha.

Also this week we taught a woman named Natasha who is WONDERFUl. She is a single mother of 5 children. The youngest is 2 years old and has Turnerès disease and her husband actually left her because he didn't want to take care of a handicapped child. So now she's taking care of all of them, and she's doing an amazing job. She's always so cheerful. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and we shared the scripture about without misery, we couldn't know joy; we need opposition in everything, and she said "so for people like me who have seen lots of misery, we can also recognize the joy more easily if we want to...that's probably why I'm so cheerful all the time." It was just a neat lesson. She is SO cheerful all the time...i love teaching her :) We also taught another woman named Ruth who was so sweet and the lesson was really spiritual, but Sister Quist said the lessons with her are always like that and she never really wants to act. But then she did come to church yesterday and the whole Sacrament and SS was on faith and hope, and she was crying throughout the whole thing. It really touched her. We're going to see her again this week, so we'll see what she's thinking a little bit more at that point. We also taught a woman from Romania, Magda, who met the church there and went 5 or 6 times, but never met with the missionaries. Sister Quist taught her once but then she disappeared and then last Sunday she randomly showed up at church again. We taught her with one of our progressing less actives and the lesson went really well. I'm excited to keep teaching her. This area is a lot different from hochelaga, but there is a lot of potential.

Also, last night we had a somewhat last minute fireside. It was so crazy...a week and a half ago our bishopric got an email saying that the General Primary President (I forgot her name...oops), Sister Dalton the General Young Women's president, and Sister Allred from the General Relief Society Presidency were coming to do a training and firesides. We didn't get to go to the training, but the fireside was in the Longueuil building, so we went last night and listened to Sister Allred, and it was really inspiring. First I got to see a ton of people from the Quebec Ward and it was so much fun to catch up with all of them...I really do love that ward and the people there. BUt anyways, Sister Allred talked a lot about fellowshipping recent converts and talked about how she had visited a recent convert family of 3 months in Guatemala (I think) and talked with them. They mentioned how they had Family home evening each Monday and she asked how they knew what to do for it and the dad said they didn't know what to do for it, but they had heard they should have it, so each Sunday he made a list of the things that he had questions about while at church and Monday night they would look up all those topics in the scriptures and that was their FHE. She told them other things they could do (sing songs, play games, etc.) and they were so excited. Then she mentioned another girl who was a recent convert but had never been to RS before. Sister Allred invited her to go, and she said she didn't know what relief society was. She had shown up on time for the meeting at 9, but didn't know what to do that first hour, so she'd always joined another sunday school class for another ward and thought that that was relief society. We do need to take the time to make sure that investigators and recent converts understand different things that we might find to be obvious or habitual because they probably don't know tons about them. She also then talked about the importance of Family prayer and family scripture study everyday and how that does make a huge difference. She said something that I really liked too. She said (and I paraphrase): "We've heard over and over again how the Lord has reserved the strong and choice spirits to come to earth at this time to live in this world with all of the temptations around us. I also believe that with that, God has reserved and sent forth spirits just as strong and just as valiant to be the parents of those choice spirits, to raise them and teach them the things that they need to know to live in this world." it was really powerful. Thank you so much, Mom and Dad, for raising me right and for helping me to realize the importance of those high moral values. I realized just how lucky I am to have parents who have always supported me and who have taught me the importance of the Gospel principles. Thank you so much.

I love this Gospel. I love being able to share it everyday. I love seeing the joy and peace that comes into the lives of others when they give their will up to our Father in Heaven adn make the decision to follow HIm in every way. And I love being able to do that myself. thank you all for your love and support; you are wonderful. Have a wonderful week and a happy Thanksgiving!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

First week in Longueuil :)

2010-11-18T08:04:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing? Things here are going great....the first week in my new area! Longueuil reminds me a lot of Quebec...it's about the same style of work with lots of knocking and no metros. I love it :) The ward seems really great. We went to PEC the first Wednesday that we were here and I was amazed by how on top of things the ward is. They were talking about visiting teaching, home teaching, and how to help each one of the members that might need help; you know, all the things they're supposed to do during PEC. It was a big change from Hochelaga where they weren't quite as on top of things. Plus, it is RIGHT next to the temple. Like, we share a parking lot with the temple. It's pretty little, but beautiful. I'm just hoping that I get to go in at some time....eventually I'm sure I will :)

I don't have tons to say about this week...not tons happened. I love my companion, Sister Quist. She's from Utah and has a big family, and is so sweet. She's also extremely tall...like 6 feet. I just love her. And Sister Morse came back with her family adn we spent Saturday night talking to them and that was so fun. I just love her :) She was my second companion here and I have a lot of respect for her. It's kind of crazy to think that she's done with her mission already and that I'm now the oldest sister in the mission...so crazy!

There's not tons going on in the area right now. The sisters spent the last week of last transfer up in Quebec city for the symposium so they didn't get a chance to find anyone and they didn't get anything set up for this past week at all. And I guess things have been a bit slower anyways in the area. But we went finding a lot and found quite a few new potentials that I'm excited to teach...it should be great :) Oh, and then last night we had a dinner appointment with the zone leaders. it was with a family in the spanish branch here (they don't have missionaries in their branch) and it was a birthday party for their 20 year old twins so they had a TON of people that were over there and we ate and then had a family home evening with them. It was a lot of fun, but kind of strange. They came in and we were going to start eating, and then the dad came and said something in Spanish that we didn't understand at all so Sister Quist and I just sat there and smiled. Then we asked the elders to translate for us and they said the dad had banished us to this other room to eat our dinner and had asked for volunteers to go eat with us so we wouldn't be paired off and no one volunteered. They said it was the most awkward thing ever, haha. It was so pretty funny. So we sat in a room by ourselves with 3 other girls who came and sat by us. Then we tried to play the game with them but part of it involved putting lipstick lines on our face and they told us that that was face painting and we couldn't participate. It's kind of funny the idea that people have of the missionaries sometimes. But it's been a fun week and I'm excited to work in the ward. I hope everything is going well for you all and I love you tons! :) Take care!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Starting transfer 10...SO crazy!

2010-11-08T13:59:00.000-08:00

the Giles, Sister Davis, and I :) after district study one day

at the botanical gardens

me with the cupcakes we made for gary! haha, the frosting was too thin though and it all slid off before we got them to him...

sisters and the zone leaders at the botanical gardens - Sister Rodriguez, Leonard, me, Sister Davis, Elder Coronado (back), Elder de la torre (front)

Sister Davis, Sister bourassa, and myself

Hey everyone :)

So...transfer calls came! And I am being transferred. We weren't sure what to expect...Sister Davis and I had our little "sisterland" hanging on the wall and tried to figure out what was going to happen with the sisters for transfers and we were completely wrong. So I am going to Longueuil, another French speaking family ward just south of the island of Montreal, with Sister Quist, and it should be a lot of fun. I'm going to miss this zone so much though! Elder de la Torre, Elder Bourdon, Sister Leonard - the people that I've been with since I've been in Quebec. But I am realyl excited. It'll be fun to stay in French speaking and keep improving that. it was so sweet: we said goodbye to Elder and Sister Giles yesterday (they invited su over to lunch) and they were just so sweet. I told them that I was staying French and they were SO excited for me. Sister giles mentioned how Elder Giles keeps telling what Ia talent I have for French...he said that people can just understand me - what I say, they way I explain it. It was so sweet :) I just love them.

Other things going on this trasnfer for anyone who might be interested: Elder Bourdon is going zone leader in Rive Nord and Elder Sybrowsky is the other zone leader there, but they're not companions; they're both getting greenies. Elder Smedley is training (it's his 2nd transfer) and Elder Coronado is going up to Quebec! He's not thrilled, but I'm SO excited for him :) The sisters stayed pretty much the same except for me, then Sister Hamula is coming here with Sister Davis (they will have SUCH a great time) and Sister Fletcher and Sister Verdeja are both getting greenies. It should be a good transfer.

This week was an interesting week: we taught several lessons, but I ended up being sick in bed for about 3 days and we didn't get tons of contacting done. Lucie is still doing wonderful and she came to a baptism yesterday right after Stake conference for the Joliette branch and LOVED it. She's so ready for her baptism. We taught Felipe the word of Wisdom, and he accepted it without any problems. He scared us a bit though at first by saying "I can give up the coffee, that's not a problem, but I CAN'T give up the drugs." We didn't quite know what to say until he started laughing. Then last night we FINALLY got a hold of Gary. We drove by his house and then i called him and at first he said he didn't have time but then I told him that I was leaving and needed his address and he let us in. The sisters are going to back and visit him again in a couple of days. I just love the people here; I am going to miss them. But from what I've heard, Longeueil is a wonderful ward, so hopefully that will be just as great :)

Other than that, I can't think of tons of things to say about this week. haha, yesterday during stake conference, the kids in front of us were OUT OF CONTROL. Sister Davis doesn't have any younger brothers and sisters, just older ones, and she kept saying how her children will never act like that. i just laughed. But then it was so funny: we had made a cheesecake for the baptism and we went in to get it right after the baptism for the little refreshments part and it had already been mostly eaten! Definitely the work of at least one little 2 year old :) And I could just picture a mom coming in and seeing him and panicking a little bit because he had eaten the entire middle out of our cake. It was SO funny...we took pictures and I'll try to send them to you next week :)

Anyways, I hope all is going well with you...I love you all tons! Have a wonderful week! :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Transfer time again....

2010-11-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody!

This week was yet another exciting week in the Canada Montreal Mission. It was kind of crazy...we had so much planned, especially on Friday and Saturday, and some of it worked out, but quite a bit feel through. It was really good though :) We had 5 dinner appointments, which is the most I have had in the same week for my entire mission. It was realyl fun to get to know more of the families in our ward and to visit with them. There are some interesting people. Last Monday we went with Elder and Sister Giles (they're the mission couple in our ward...they were the mission president in Haiti for 3 years and they are SO amazing...I just LOVE talking with them!) to Frere Dommerc's house for dinner. We ate with him once before last transfer and he's really sweet. He's about 80 years old and loves the missionaries and tells me so often that I look exactly like his daughter. He hugs me every time I see him and I'm not quite sure how to ask him not to since I'm a missionary...still working on that one. But it was really fun...he made these appetizers the last time we were there and I complemented him on them. So, this time he decided to teach me how to make them. You take hard-boiled eggs and half them like you're going to make deviled eggs, but instead of mixing the yolks in for the middle stuff, you take 2 uncooked egg yolks and mix them with a TON of crushed fresh garlic, add a bunch of oil, and fill the eggs with that. Then you grate the egg yolks that are cooked all along the top. They look good, but are SO garlicy...you end up tasting garlic for the next 2 days regardless of how many mints you swallow or how much you brush your teeth. So he showed me how to make them and we made a bunch, but Sister Davis DESPISES eggs, and Sister Giles didn't like eggs that much either. They couldn't eat more than maybe 2 a piece, but he told us we had to finish all of them and we didn't want him to feel bad, so I got to eat 5 1/2 eggs myself...it was an adventure. But we had fun with him. We also ate with Serge Cardinal, a Recent convert who is SO sweet, Frere and Soeur Same who are an older couple who were just recently married and they are so cute. It was a lot of fun.

Also this week we got to teach Gary, and he said he still wants to be baptized on the 20th, but he didn't come to church yesterday and he canceled our last appointment, so we'll see what happens with him. Then Felipe smurfed us twice (meaning, he wasn't there both times we went to teach him) so we weren't sure what to do, especially since he doesn't have a phone, but then he showed up at church yesterday, which was wonderful! Lucy is doing amazing, like always. She is so outgoing and introduces herself to everyone at church and is really just a great person. I really like her :) We also taught a man named Ronnie for the 3rd time (well, my 2nd time there...). I was a bit nervous about it because the first time we taught him the lesson got a bit confrontational...he was trying to be diplomatic and I responded in what I (and Sister Davis) thought was a fairly diplomatic response, but he got a bit defensive and it just didn't turn out very well. So I was a bit nervous, but this lesson went SO well. We taught him the plan of salvation and he asked us "I'm trying to follow Christ, and I think I have the basics down, but how do I do that on an everyday scale? Every day I wake up and I'm surrounded by filth...how do I keep following the path of Christ?" He's from Haiti and Montreal is just such a different world for him...we're living in Babylon here. He's such a good man really just trying to do what God wants him to do...I really enjoy teaching him :)

Oh, and we had a complete miracle this week! Well, 2 really, but only one was related to missionary work. So the elders had met a man named Jean Bien-aime the other day and we called him and set up an appointment with him for Sunday. He wasn't there, but called us afterward and rescheduled for Monday. We went, planning on teaching a first lesson. then we got there and started talking to him, and turns out he's a less active member of the church! he was baptized 21 years ago and has been less active for probably about 18 years...his name wasn't even on our ward list. So crazy. So we taught a first lesson and he loved it and said " I love this. I really want you to come back and teach my family." He has a wife and 4 children (ages 10, 13, 14, and 21) who aren't members. So we set up a time for Saturday and went back. he was happy to see us, but his family didn't know about the meeting and they were all busy with other things. We'll see if they let us teach them or not. But it is a FAMILY! :) AND we committed him on Saturday to come to church! And he did! He was only there for the last hour, but he came! For the first time in like 18 years! It was SO exciting :)

Then the other miracle we had: it actually was not a miracle at the beginning. So on Friday night as we were getting out of the car for an appointment we heard something clatter to the ground. We looked around, didn't see anything, so just went to our appointment assuming it was something pretty unimportant. Turns out it was our phone. So we went back to the car, looked around, couldn't find it, asked the people in the store next to us and they told us that there are tons of things stolen in that area and we probably wouldn't get it back. The man at the store talked about his propane tank being stolen off his grill, things like that. So we were a bit disappointed, but knew we could get another phone the next day. Unfortunately, the office is closed on the weekends and they told us we couldn't get a phone until this morning, so we ended up just borrowing the elders phone to check our voice-mail messages and showing up at the elders apartment each night to give them our stats, and they'd show up at our house at random times to give us updates on P-day activities today and other things. It was actually pretty fun. So they showed up last night to tell us what was going on today and I borrowed there phone to call our number to get our messages (I called our phone number and then you just press # and the password) and a man picked up the phone! i was so surprised, I didn't know what to say! Then he asked me who's phone it was, and I said it was mine. i guess his mom had found it and had no idea how to work technology so she gave it to him to try and figure out who it belonged to. he'd talked to one other missionary on the phone and then answered when we called and we met him at his work this morning so that he could give it back to us! It was AMAZING! There's hope for the people in Montreal after all :) haha.

Anyways, i think that's about all for this week...we also had a 70 at our sacrament meeting yesterday...Elder Olsen. He came on his way up to Quebec for the symposium. It was pretty neat to talk with him and he bore a really powerful testimony on how he KNEW, he had a special witness, that Christ lives. It was really neat. But anyways, my time's about up..I hope you all had a wonderful week! I love you all tons! :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

PS: transfer calls are this week...time has really flown by! We'll find out on Saturday what's happening with the area. Kind of crazy to think that after this I only have 3 or 4 transfers left in the mission...so insane.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-27T07:40:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone :)

This week was a lot of fun...we had a really great time. We had zone conference on Tuesday and it was incredible! The whole focus was on the Book of Mormon and President Cannon shared several stories from his mission about how the Book of Mormon really did change the lives of people and how we need to encourage them to read it. And it's so true. i've found those people who really read and study the Book of Mormon (members and nonmembers alike) find they have a greater desire to do the will of God...to live His commandments and to become the person that He wants them to become. They want to go to church because they realize the importance of the sacrament...they try to obey the commandments because they see the blessings that come as a result of obedience. There is a power that comes with the Book of Mormon that we as missionaries cannot replicate...each person needs to try it and read it themselves and feel that power and that spirit that comes with it. It's really neat :)

Also this week we had a couple really neat activities/miracles. We went on a split and I went Spanish speaking with Sister Leonard. It was SO fun to be with her again! I just love having her as my companion :) unfortunately, we didn't really get to teach any lessons...we got smurfed twice and then our DA forgot they were feeding us so we spent an hour at their house waiting for the pizza to arrive that they had ordered. But it was still really fun. She made me Mexican hot chocolate for breakfast and then we spent the day contacting and just laughing together. I just love her :)

Also this week we taught a new investigator, Lucy. It's a really neat story: She met with the sisters and took all the discussions about 3 years ago but then decided that she didn't want to get batpzied after all. In the last 3 years, she's continued reading the Book of Mormon and keeps coming back to the things that the sisters taught her. She came to church about 6 weeks ago, and sat next to one of our members that she remembered. The member told us about her and had asked her if she wanted to be baptized, and she said yes. However, when the member told us that, she didn't want us to scare Lucy away, so she said that if she came to church the next week, she'd introduce us to her and we could start teaching her. But then the member's been REALLY sick for the last while and hasn't been to church so finally last Saturday (about a week and a half ago) we found Lucy's name and number in our area book and called her up and set up an appointment with her. We met her on Wednesday adn again on Friday adn she's getting baptized on the 20th and wants to invite her daughters and everyone to it! We're so excited for her :)

We taught Felipe a couple of times (turns out we had the wrong apartment building last time...we walked into the one right next to his) and he's doing great. He's also getting baptized on the 20th. For Gary, we unfortunately haven't been able to realyl see him. We stopped by his house yesterday morning and he's started working 2 jobs, so it's been a bit rough, but he's got an hour break on Tuesday so we're goign on member splits and Sister Bourassa and I are goign to go teach him while Sister Davis and Sister Therriault teach Felipe and English class. It should be good.

Then this morning we went to the Botanical Gardens as a zone...it was so fun! It was pretty rainy, but the gardens were still really pretty. And if you get there before 9 in the morning, they're free. So we got there at 8:30, walked around for an hour or 3 and then came here to do emails. It was so neat :)

Anyways, I hope everything is goign well for you...I love you all tons adn miss you like crazy!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

PS: it was good to get the letters (emails) from Mike, Alex, and Bradley...I'm so glad they're doing well and enjoying their missions! I love you all tons!

What a week :)

2010-10-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

This week was crazy, but so wonderful at the same time. It started off on Monday when we went on a member split...I was with Sister Bourassa and we taught Gary a really incredible lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It went SO well! He said he'd be at church, but then he wasn't there yesterday...we have another appointment for tonight, so we'll see what happened. Then Tuesday morning we got up and went to Liline's house with her aunt and that was ROUGH. She hadn't gone to church on Sunday and had completely regressed (I think that's a word...). She had a hangover and was really frustrated that we were there. We started crying and I opened the Book of Mormon to read a scripture and she said "I'm not reading from the Book of MOrmon Sister Lindsey. If you're going to share a scripture with me, it needs to be from the bible." SO Sad! I guess her friends on Sunday had told her a lot of stuff about our church that isn't true and had convinced her that the Book of Mormon contradicts the Bible. She tried to share a scripture with us, but when she opened up the French Bible, the verse was completely different than it was in English and the contradiction wasn't there anymore. It would've been kind of funny if it hadn't been so sad. She told us she didn't want to be baptized anymore and that she wasn't interested in learning more. Her aunt got frustrated with her and they ended up yelling at each other and she left, slamming the door behind her. NOT good. We didn't quite know what to do, so we decided to write her a letter. We prayed constantly while writing the letter and gave her 3 pieces of advice: remember what the Lord has already taught you and done for you, don't turn to alcohol, and don't get discouraged -- the answers come little by little. We felt at the end that the letter really was inspired by God and we knew it was what she needed to hear, so we said another prayer and dropped it off on Friday. She called us on Saturday and left a message to tell us that she had read it over and over again and cried through the whole thing and she was so confused. We called her back but she hasn't answered. We're not sure if she'll start the discussions again with us, but sometime in the future I'm sure she'll accept the Gospel.

Also this week we taught a really great lesson to our member. She's struggling a bit and isn't able to get a temple recommend and just wanted to talk to her about her options. We had a really great lesson with her about the importance of going to the temple and the Spirit was really strong. She was crying through the whole lesson and at the end Sister Davis said "that has completely changed the way I will forever do visiting teaching. If every visiting teaching lesson was like that, everyone would do their visits every week." It was just a really powerful lesson. We also taught several other people. Felipe was one of them but it was so sad...we were supposed to visit him on Wednesday so we set up the lesson, went with Sister Medina, and knocked on the door for 20 minutes and NO ONE answered. We left a note and decided to try again later. That night he called us (he doesn't have a phone so he borrowed his friend's) and asked where we were. He said he'd been waiting at home ALL DAY and NO ONE had shown up. It was so crazy. So we set up an appointment for the next day and went back...turns out the first time we'd walked into the wrong apartment building and knocked for 20 minutes at the wrong door. Kind of funny :) But the lessons went really well with him and he came to church on Sunday and had a great time. I'm really excited for him :)

Also, we had a lesson with the Paul family (the less actives that we've been meeting with almost weekly since we got here) and it was SO great! They were SO excited to tell us that they had started reading scriptures together and praying together as a couple. AND they came to church on Sunday! It was the first time in over a year that they'd come, and it was so exciting! Everyone welcomed them really well and I think they enjoyed it :) It was a really great week.

I hope everything is going well with you...we have zone conference tomorrow and then we're going on a split and I'm going to a Spanish area on Thursday! I'm way excited. It should be fun. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all tons! :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Everything here is going great...I talked about the most exciting things in the bigger email. Some other funny lessons I learned though that I forgot to put in:

1. beets should never be made in to muffins. one of the sisters in our ward gave us oatmeal muffins and we told her honestly afterwards (she had asked us to) that they were kind of flavorless and the texture was strange. She agreed with us and then we talked about more foods and she asked if we liked beets. I said yes, Sister Davis said no. So the next day she brought me a beet muffin. It was not my favorite, haha.
2. Don't cook when you're tired. I made 2 loaves of banana bread and I ended up having to cook them for 2 hours because the centers weren't done. So the edges were burned, the center wasn't cooked, and it was way too banana-ie. I had no idea what happened, but it was a miserable failure. In the middle of the night that night I woke up with the thought "Flour!" and realized that I had doubled everything except for the flour. Kind of funny.
3. This one is a sad story instead of funny: I had to call Frere Caron (the member we lived with in Quebec) and cancel the contract on the apartment. They're not putting sisters there again in the near future. It was really

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving :)

2010-10-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

1. The sisters in my zone! Sister Rodriguez, me, Sister Davis (my companion), Sister Leonard (my companion when I was in Quebec). I just love them!

2. My zone this transfer :) We have SO much fun.

3. My district the last p-day of last transfer when we hiked Mt. Royal to see the sunrise. Elder Bourdon, Elder Hallman, Sister Davis, me

4. My zone up in Quebec before I left (minus Victoriaville and Trois Rivieres)

Hey everyone!

So today is the Canadian Thanksgiving...we were afraid that the shops and everything would all be closed, but everything is open...guess they celebrate Thanksgiving a little bit different than we do :)

Things here are going really well. This week we had a great time! We had a Work Day which is a bit like Zone Conference, but not quite as long. We had trainings by our zone leaders, the assistants, President Cannon, then we all ate together and then went on splits to go out finding for the next 3 hours. It was crazy...there were SO many missionaries on the metros! I was on splits with Sister Morse which was a lot of fun...she was my companion back my 2nd transfer and I haven't hardly talked to her since since I was up in Quebec. This is her last transfer and it was really fun to be with her and hear her advice. I can't believe that in just a few weeks at the end of this transfer I'll be the oldest sister in the mission...I hit my year mark this last week and it was insane. Time really does speed by sometimes.

This week we also taught quite a few people and saw a few miracles. We had several new investigators, 2 of whom speak more Spanish than French but don't want to attend the Spanish ward. One of them, Felipe, is incredible! He was a media referral...turns out one of his friends in Texas started meeting with the missionaries in Texas about 2 years ago and has been telling Felipe all about our church. So we got his name last weekend and stopped by the next day but he wasn't home so we left him a little note asking him to call us. He called us on Friday and we set up an appointment for Saturday and it went SO well....we showed up about 10 minutes late and he had cookies and juice for all of us. We apologized for being late and he said "I've been waiting for you for 2 months...10 minutes more isn't that big of a deal." The lesson was perfect as well and he'll be getting baptized sometime in November we think. He was supposed to come to church but ended up being sick so he couldn't, so we gave him a Restoration DVD and he watched that and read a good part of the Book of Mormon. We're SO excited for him!

ANd then church yesterday was kind of crazy...We were supposed to have 5 investigators and a less active at church, but only one showed up and he almost didn't come. We called EVERYONE Saturday to invite them, and several said they would be there. Then Sunday morning we called our less active and she said she was already read and heading out the door (she never made it to the church); we stopped by Liline's house and she said that she wasn't coming anymore; we called Gary but he wasn't there; then Felipe doesn't have a phone so we called his friend who told us that Felipe thought we were meeting him at his house instead of the metro so we started to drive over to Felipe's to go on the metro with him to church, but I took the wrong road to get there. As we're driving, Gary called us to tell us that he was dressed and ready to go, but his metro card had been demagnetized and he couldn't use it, so he had no way to get to church. We were 2 blocks from his house, so we drove over there and loaned him ours for the day so he could go to church. So the taking the wrong road to go to Felipe's turned out to be a blessing...otherwise it would have taken us over 20 minutes to get to Gary's house and he wouldn't have been able to make it to church in time. So after all of that, Gary was the only one who showed up, but he absolutely LOVED church, especially Sunday School. I had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting, and that was interesting...they called me on Wednesday to ask me to do it, so I prepared one real quick and it was supposed to take 15 minutes. However, there was a lot of ward business, the first 2 talks both took awhile, so I ended up having 7 minutes and had to cut the talk down a bit, but it still turned out well. And everyone understood my French which was a miracle in and of itself :)

So things here are going well. We have a great week set up with several new investigators planned...it should be fun. Tonight we're going on member splits because we double booked two appointments...it should be fun! Then some other time this week we're going to go on splits with the Spanish sisters. I'm excited for this week :)

I hope you all are doing well...take care and I love you tons!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

PS: Kyle - I got your chastisement and will be writing you soon, don't worry :) Thanks for your letter!

I LOVE General Conference!

2010-10-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

This week was wonderful....I just LOVE general conference! We got to watch all 4 sessions and it was so amazing. I loved President Monson's talk on gratitude, the talk on living a consecrated life (I think it was Elder Christofferson?), and then of course Elder Uchtdorf's talk...he's so funny. I think his was something that a lot of people needed to hear, myself included: when things get rough, go back to the basics and focus on them; don't keep trying to run at full speed ahead. I really enjoyed it. It was kind of frustrating at the beginning of conference though: Saturday morning we showed up 1/2 an hour early and whoever was supposed to come and set things up didn't come. There are 3 congregations in our building and the first person to show up with a key to the projector and the TVs and everything got there 2 minutes before it was supposed to start. it took about half an hour more to set everything up, so we finally got to start conference at 12:30. It wasn't too big of a deal, except we missed which new temples were announced and I only got the closing testimony of Elder Holland...but we should be getting the Ensign next month so I guess I'll read about it then.

Also on Saturday night while the elders all went to the priesthood session, we all had a sister night! It was SO much fun...all the sister missionaries on or near the island, older and younger (so not the ones in Victoriaville or Ottawa, but about 17 or so of us) got together at the mission home and had a huge dinner together. We were supposed to bring a dessert, so we got a recipe from Elder Bourdon for an apple tart (he's a French pastry chef), but he uses grams so he tried to convert them into cups but it didn't quite work out, so we ended up having a TON of extra butter in the crust...not quite as good as his, but the other sisters didn't seem to mind :) We also played this game where each sister writes a little-known fact about themselves and then puts it in a container. Sister Kite was in charge and so she read each slip and then gave 3 names (the one of the sister who actually wrote the fact and then 2 others) and we had to guess which of all of them we thought it was. I guess if you have more time you're supposed to have each of the 3 people elaborate on the story and then guess, but we didn't have enough time for it. It was fun though...we learned that Sister Morse had art for sale in an art gallery and that Sister Kite helped the FBI catch a bank robber...crazy, eh?

The rest of the week was pretty standard...we did A LOT of finding since we were just about at our limit of how many click we could drive for the month so we spent a lot of time on the metro and bus, and that was interesting seeing as it rained nonstop all week long, but it turned out all right. one time we were on the bus, missed our stop by a LONG ways because we didn't know we had missed it and were still looking for the street name, turned around to wait for the bus going the other direction, got stopped by a train, and then ended up being almost an hour late for that Dinner appointment with our less active...but it was ok. We taught a couple of people, spent a TON of time trying to get people to conference and had about 8 people say they'd be there and then had 3 completely unexpected people show up for the last session...it was just so crazy. We'll see how this next week goes. But Elder de la Torre is back to being in our zone and I just love him...and Elder Bourdon is a great district leader. it's been a fun week :) I hope everything is going well with each of you...i love you all tons! Take care and have a great week!

Love. Sister Nicole Lindsey

Hey everyone :) Sept. 27, 2010

2010-10-04T07:28:00.000-07:00

Hello!

I hope you all had a wonderful week...this week seemed to FLY by for us. It was slightly disappointing because everything that we planned fell through and it rained the whole week, making finding slightly difficult, but it was still good. We taught Liline (turns out that's her name...not Lilian...she finally corrected us after 6 weeks, haha) and she is doing WONDERFUL. She had a bit of a rough weekend this past weekend and so we went and saw her last night and she was a mess. But we talked with her for awhile and by the end she had stopped crying and was laughing which she said she hadn't done in days. Oh, and we had just gotten our phone call the night before saying that we were both staying here together another transfer, and she was THRILLED to hear that. She said it was the best news all week :)

With Doris, we're going to have to pass her off. I talked with the bishop yesterday and he said that she couldn't be a part of the ward regardless of where she was being baptized, so we're going to pass her off to the Mascouche elders, but she didn't show up for church yesterday, so we don't really know what's going on with her. We called her the other day and she didn't answer...I hope nothing is too wrong.

Also this week we had the General Authority, Elder Walker, and his wife come and we had a mission conference with 5 of the 7 zones. It was SO fun to see everyone! I saw Elder Gonzalez, one of the elders who came out with me, and I haven't seen him since the mission home my first day in the mission. It was crazy. We really had a great time :) And it was neat to hear Elder Walker...he talked a bit more about missionary work and did some role playing in front of us and it was really helpful. I took a lot of notes and learned a lot :) That same day we also went on a split with the other sisters in our zone and so Sister Leonard came back and was my companion for a day. It was really great to be with her again...I just love her! She really is wonderful.

I think the craziest day of this week was Saturday...we got up early and came to a baptism for the daughter of the Ward Mission Leader, Frere Pina. They were having a huge party afterwards and he had invited a lot of nonmember friends and wanted us to talk with them. At the last minute (meaning Friday morning) he called us and asked us to give talks on Baptism and the Holy Ghost. It was fun, but Frere Pina was pretty disappointed at the end of it. It was pretty sad...it turned out to be a huge misunderstanding about everything. We went there and thought we were giving talks for the girl getting baptized (Frere Pina really only speaks Spanish so communication is a little difficult sometimes) and that this was the first time for all of his friends to hear about the church and everything and that we were there to set a good impression, talk about the church, and get their numbers to set up appointments if they were interested. So that's what we did. Then yesterday at correlation he told us that he was pretty frustrated...he'd already taught the first lesson informally to all the friends there and they had come because they were interested in meeting with us and having discussions. We thought that most of them were from the Zarahemla ward; turns out that they were mostly nonmembers. We talked with quite a few of them (unfortunately the ones I chose were Spanish speakers and one athiest who was not interested in an appointment), and got phone numbers but didn't set up appointments, and Elder Bourdon got some phone numbesr, but again no appointments. Also, we addressed the talks to the little girl, but giving doctrinally background to help the friends, but he wanted us to talk directly to the friends. It was really sad...we were doing missionary work one way and he wanted us to do it a different way. A bit disappointing, but we'll see what happens.

But anyways, so that was Saturday morning. Then Saturday afternoon we went finding, then met the other women who were singing the song at 4 to practice and the program started at 5. The program was SO GOOD. It really was amazing. There were a lot of musical numbers and they all talked about letting our light shine as women. It wasn't too long and there were short talking parts before each musical number. Then they had a huge dinner. Unfortunately, we weren't able to stay for the RS broadcast...I'm hoping to read it in the General Conference edition of the Ensign when it comes out. Instead we went and taught a new investigator and then went home for transfer calls. We're staying here together; they opened up a new sisters area in Ottawa YSA; Elder de la Torre is going to be my new zone leader here!; Elder Bourdon is getting a greenie and is going to be my distric leader; Sister Leonard is training; and then the craziest: Elder Caldwell (he's only been out one transfer) is training. It was insane...there were quite a few changes, but it will be good. I'm excited for the transfer.

Then real quick we had a WONDERFUl relief society lesson yesterday in church. A woman in the ward gave it and she was so enthusiastic. it was on "Perseverance with patience" and she gave a little story that was really neat. She said that often here we plan our lives: who we're going to be, where we'll go to school, when we'll get married, what kind of job we'll have, etc. It's kind of like planning a trip to Italy. You decide you're going to Italy and you plan everything to the letter: looking up the weather and getting clothes that will match, buying a French-Italian dictionary, looking up sites to visit, reserving a hotel, etc. You buy your ticket, pack your bags, and head to the airport. You get on the plane, super excited to start your vacation. You arrive at your destination (Italy!) and the stewardess says "Welcome to Holland." You're shocked and try and talk with her, explaining that you're on vacation to Italy, you don't want to be in Holland, but she says there's nothing to be done. So you go out, not speaking the language, knowing nothing of the country. Somehow you find a hotel, you start looking around, even buy a dictionary for that language and you realize that Holland does have some great countryside and is a realyl nice place adn you come to love Holland. It's not Italy, not what you were expecting, but it is good. She said that often in life, multiple times for each person, we hear the words "Welcome to Holland" and we can either accept it and learn to love the changes it brings in our life, or forever yearn to be in Italy and not see the beauty in the things around us. It was really neat; I enjoyed it.

So anyways, that was my week! I hope that you all are doing well! I love you tons :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Transfers calls this week....crazy! Sept. 20th, 2010

2010-10-04T07:17:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

So this last week was an interesting week...I was a bit under the weather and so we didn't get as much accomplished as we were hoping to, but it was still a good week. Lilian (our committed) ended up getting bronchitis and was quarantined for the whole week...we finally got to see her for the first time yesterday. It was kind of crazy, but good. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved it and then we changed her baptism date. She's still excited and willing to work for it, so that was great. Then we also taught another committed, Gary, the Plan of Salvation and he LOVED it. It'd been about 2 weeks since we last saw him so we were a bit nervous about teaching him again and if he'd still be interested or not, but when we walked in he was just SO excited to see us and his cousin said "i don't know what you guys did to him, but he hasn't stopped talking about you since you left." He gladly accepted the Plan of Salvation and it was SUCH a great lesson. I just love him! He wasn't at church yesterday, but we're going to go visit him this evening and teach him again. Then we also taught Doris, the member referral who we taught the amazing first lesson to last week. We had a lesson scheduled for Wednesday, but then she ended up asking if we could go to her house since her daughter had been in the hospital and she couldn't leave her at home alone. Turns out she lives in Mascouche which is way far away, so we got the elders there to go teach her. They taught her and her daughter and committed her for the 16th as well. She was at church yesterday and we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and again she LOVED the lesson. She's SO excited about her baptism and about the Relief Society broadcast this Saturday...it's going to be so amazing. We're just not sure if we're going to pass her off to Mascouche or not...we have to talk with our bishop and if he says she can be baptized in our ward, we'll keep her; if he says she has to go to her ward (up in Mascouche) we'll give her up. We'll see what happens.

So that part was all wonderful. We also taught another family and a couple of weeks ago they had had problems with the idea of Jesus Christ coming to the Americas. We gave them some suggestions and then gave them the movie "Testaments" to watch as a family. We then watched parts of it together for the lesson on Saturday and it was SO incredible. Pierre Richard (the dad) said that he had become VERY emotional when Christ appeared in the movie, and we told him that that was the Spirit bearing witness that it was true. Then we watched that very end part where Christ is there and heals the dad and then you see His face and He turns away and the mom jumped up and said "That was it! That was it! I saw that!" and then went to tell us about an experience she had had years before where she had been praying in a church and had looked up and seen a man in a white robe right in front of her who had then turned and it was EXACTLY what she had seen in the movie. It was amazing. They then talked a bit together and said "it makes sense...other sheep I have which are not of this fold...of course He came to the Americas." It was really neat. We're hoping they come to Conference, feel the Spirit and gain a testimony of the prophet and then want to be baptized. We'll see what happens :)

Also this week we had a service project on Saturday where everyone from both the English and French stakes on the island of Montreal (including 40 of the 70 missionaries who are now here) went an dhelped clean up Parc Angrignon. It was so fun. We were in groups of 4 and tried to find the craziest things we could. We foudn a HUGE bag of grated carrots (random) and a purse complete with all the accessories: a toothbrush, perfume, toothpaste, a razor, clean socks and underwear...so strange. Someone else found a huge fake tree and Elder Magre wins: he found a man sleeping in a bad. He went to take the bag and then realized there was man sleeping in it...kind of crazy :) It was so fun though.

In other news...transfer calls are this Saturday. it's so crazy to think that this is already week 6 of the transfer...it has FLOWN by! We're getting one new sister and we're anticipating that most of the companionships are staying the same...Sister Davis and I are almost positive that we're staying here together, but we'll see. So it's been a good week. OH! And we had a less active at church this week...we taught her a great lesson on the love of God for her and then she came to church and it was so great...it's been over 5 years since the last time she was there and we were SO excited for her. It was a wonderful week. I hope you all are doing well...I love you tons! Take care!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

PS: I read a talk that I loved this week and it had a poem in it that I really appreciated...I thought I'd share it with you. It says:
"In golden youth when seems the earth
A summer-land of singing mirth,
When souls are glad and hearts are light,
And not a shadow lurks in sight,
We do not know it, but there lies
Somewhere veiled 'neath evening skies
A garden which we all must see --
The Garden of Gethsemane.

"Down shadowy lanes, across strange streams
Bridged over by our broken dreams;
Behind the misty caps of years,
Beyond the great salt fount of tears,
The Garden lies. Strive, as you may,
You cannot miss it on your way;
All paths that have been, or shall be
Pass somewhere through Gethsemane."

I love that. We all do have struggles and trials in this life, but the Savior has experienced it all before. He's gone through it all so that we might be comforted and know that there is someone else there who knows EXACTLY what we're going through and exactly what we need to find that comfort and that peace even during the difficult times. I'm so grateful to my Savior for His atoning sacrifice, and I love the chance I have each day to share that with others.

Fall is coming in Quebec :)

2010-09-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

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

What a crazy week....

2010-09-07T12:48:00.000-07:00

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!! :)

First week in Hochelaga....

2010-08-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

So this was my first week back on the island and it i definitely different than Quebec. There are people on the streets! It was such a shock to be in the car and actually see people out walking around...definitely a change. I'm excited to work here. It's been an interesting adjustment...It took us almost 3 hours to find our apartment because we had no idea where we were, where we were going, and then the street that we lived on was broken up into 3 different streets (they're like that all over Montreal...it can be a bit frustrating at times), but we finally found it just in time to go to a DA with a family of 3 older unmarried people (2 sisters and their brother) and that was fun. They're really sweet. We then taught English class which should be fun as well. We spent Wednesday getting organized and then taught several new investigators and a recent convert on Thursday. The recent convert, Sendra, is wonderful She has a daughter that got baptized with her and then 6 other children that aren't yet investigating, but we're going over to do an FHE tonight and so we're hoping to meet them. We decided to talk about the Armor of God and then for the activity we're going to divide into 2 teams, each one having a box of random everyday things and they're going to dress somebody up in the armor of God and we'll have a "fashion show" after. It should be a lot of fun and hopefully they'll want to keep having the family home evenings with us...we'll see :)

This week actually hasn't been too eventful yet. We've done a lot of getting organized and adjusting and trying to make phone calls (which is a bit difficult since I don't understand everything they say and my companion speaks less French than I do), but it should be good. We're going to make a bunch more and this week is going to be AMAZING. I'm really excited to have the whole ward to ourselves so that we can work with everyone in the ward...they're all super nice too and way excited to have sisters. It should be fun :) I'll keep you all updated on how it goes.

Oh, and the crowning event of this week: while going through the random boxes we have in our house trying to find scissors (we didn't have any anywhere....but we did have a bag of flower petals! Who knows when we might need them?) I came across the BEST Halloween mask ever. It's the bottom half of a man's face with a cigar hanging out of a mouth with half the teeth missing and a huge nose and it looks like he hasn't shaved in awhile. I put it on and went to go find Sister Davis to try and startle her. She screamed when she saw me and then we both started laughing so hard we couldn't stop. So much fun...it's going to be a great transfer :) But anyways I hope all is going well with you guys and you all have a great week! Love you all tons!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

What a week...

2010-08-16T23:03:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

So this week was a bit insane. It started out on Monday with the Ghost tours of Quebec, and that was SO much fun. It started at 8 pm and we walked around all of Old Quebec and the guide (who was a VERY good story teller) told us about different deaths and ghost-sightings and everything in Quebec. Definitely worth going to if any of you are up in the area :) Then on Wednesday we had Elder Boyd's last ever district study (he's going home tomorrow) and so we decided to do a little funeral of sorts for him, and it was SO fun! We went in the morning during language study and kidnapped him and then brought him to the Institute Center where we put him (blindfolded, of course) in a wheelchair and took him all around the center. In each of the areas we re-enacted parts of his mission: opening his mission call, at the MTC, first time contacting, first lesson, dying, and at the airport coming home. We had music to go with each of them and instead of words we would randomly break out into interpretive dance. It was so funny...I'll have to get the video and show it to you when I get home.

So that was really fun, and then on Thursday evening we went on our split with Victoriaville. We met up and went to St. Hubert's (a restaurant) first, and it was wonderful, and then it ended up being too late to drive to Victoriaville so Sister Leonard and Sister Hamula decided to stay in our apartment and then drive down first thing in the morning. During studies that day we (Sister Verdeja and I ) went to the institute center because the zone leaders had asked me the night before at the restaurant to play a song on the piano for the baptism they were having on Saturday and so I needed to practice it. So our split ended up only being about 3 hours long (just enough time to watch "The Testaments" with Lyse...she loved it!) and then we headed down to Victoriaville as well. We got back just in time for sports night and Sister Leonard and I had filled up some of the water balloons that Becca gave me for my birthday and we got the Bohmondas children (along with us) to throw them at the zone leaders just after sports night. It was so fun :)

Saturday morning was the baptism but I went only to play the song (it went pretty well...I messed up once but no one heard because the kids were singing too loud) and then after wards 3 of the students (Martine, Michel, and Jean-guy) took us out for lunch at Chez Cora's. It's one of my favorite breakfast restaurants, and it was so much fun! Also one of them, Michel, said the prayer and blessed me that I would be able to be safe and fulfill cheerfully the rest of my mission, and then Jean-guy had written a little note that he read at the restaurant that told me how much they had a appreciated me (we were all pretty sure that I was going to be transferred). It was so sweet! I'm really going to miss them.

Then Saturday night we had our transfer party and we actually had a really good time. We played midnight football (you turn off all the lights - or most of them in our case since we're missionaries and that's kind of sketchy to have them all off - and you play football on your knees.) It was so much fun! Except now I have HUGE rug burns and bruises on my knees...but it was definitely worth it. Then Elder Williams came (he was my zone leader my first 3 transfers here) and it was so great to see him! He's been in Maschouche the last 2 transfers so I haven't heard anything from him at all, so it was great to see him. Then FINALLY at 10:30 we got our phone call saying that our area is closing and that Sister Leonard was going Spanish in Monterey with Sister Tschumi (my last companion) and I was flushing in the elders who are in Hochelaga right now. It will be different, that's for sure. But it should be fun. And hopefully they'll reopen the area soon. It was a huge surprise for us that they were closing the area, but I know they prayed about it, and I have President's promise that they'll open it again soon. But yesterday at church was really hard...so many people were crying and I was crying the whole time. Then we spent the afternoon visiting investigators/members and giving them all the elders phone number. We stopped by Serge's house and they have a pet rabbit with incredibly soft fur so I petted it a lot, and then in the car on the way to dinner I started sneezing and could not stop. WE got to the Belanger's house and I still couldn't stop sneezing and then Sister Belanger pointed out the fact that my eye was swelling up. Luckily though it stopped and went back mostly to normal before we stopped by Patrick's house and took a picture with him, but then it started up again right after. So crazy. So I took some allergy medicine and I think it's better now :) But anyways, so that was our week. I've packed mostly and we're leaving tomorrow morning early for MOntreal. So crazy. But anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you all!

Love, Nicole

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

2010-08-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

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

"...He lives, He lives who once was dead..."

2010-08-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

This week was WONDERFUL...we had such a great time! Monday was p-day and our zone activity so the whole zone was here to play soccer and just spend the day together. We decided to eat breakfast together and so we made oatmeal, but Elder Wilson was in charge and I guess he forgot to measure something because it turned out SO salty...no one could eat it. Luckily I'd brought along a box of cereal so everyone ended up eating that before heading out for our activities :) After the soccer game we watched the movie Samuel the Lamanite (do we have that one at our house Mom?) and it was SO funny...everyone was laughing. I loved it.

Then on tuesday we started zone conference and it was great. They did it really different...instead of just having one training by President, another by Sister Cannon, another by the Assistants, and another by the Zone Leaders, they mixed it all up and everyone talked multiple times and it turned into more of a discussion. It was really good. They introduced something they called "KALDT to serve" and the KALDT stands for Knowing the audience, Asking inspired questions (that's the hardest part...I always get into a routine of asking regular getting to know you questions that I don't always ask questions that make the people think), Listen, Discern, and then Teach. It was good. And the Anderson's were there!!!! :) It was SOO exciting to see them...they're the senior missionary couple from Concordia and I used to see them almost every day and then I haven't seen them in almost 7 months...but they came up to help SIster Cannon with the dinner at the end of the conference and so I got to talk to Sister Andersen a bit...I just love them. It was one of the highlights of the week :)

Then Tuesday night after the conference we went on splits and Sister Hamula (sister missionary in Victoriaville), Sister Cannon (president's wife), and I went to visit Lyse and then a less-active, Donat Cantin, and it went SO well. Sister Cannon LOVED Lyse and the lesson was really good. She told about her conversion story and how grateful she is for the church but how much she wishes that she could be a missionary, and Sister Cannon testified about the importance of geneology and how she's being a missionary just through doing that. It was really neat. Then we went to see Donat and miracle of all miracles: I UNDERSTOOD EVERYTHING HE SAID!!!! That has NEVER happened before! He has the MOST difficult accent...but I was there and Sister cannon was praying for me and I understood it all and we talked with him and he promised he'd be at church (he wasn't...not sure why) and that lesson went well. In the mean time, Sister Leonard was with Sister Verdeja and they went and visited Serge (the guy we had the first lesson with last week who has 2 college-age sons) and he had to leave so they only talked with him about 10 minutes but he said he had asked a specific question about a worldly problem he had, and he had opened the Book of Mormon and found a direct answer! And he said there was a feeling with the book and he knows it's good. We set up an appointment to come back on Thursday, but he wasn't there so we thinkn he thought it was for next Thursday...we'll see. Then they also visited another guy, Stephan, who we met the last week of last transfer and then he went on vacation for 3 weeks with his daughter. He was busy that night but we set up another lesson for Friday. Then after that they stopped at McDonald's real quick and met several Guatemalan men who promised to call us. So it was definitely a miracle split :)

Then Wednesday we finished our zone conference and it was a second really great day. Thursday we went to our lesson with Serge but he wasn't there, so instead we took our member to pass by a less active. He wasn't there, but his nonmember wife was and she was SO sweet. We talked to her for about 10 minutes and she told us to please call and set up another time because she'd like to see us, and the member, again. It was neat. Then on Friday we had the BEST lesson with Stephan....we taught a first lesson and in the middle he just stopped and said "You know that you are amazing don't you? You two...you are incredible. Thank you so much." We finished the lesson, committed him to be baptized (right now the date is for September 18...we tried for the 11th, but he didn't like that day because of the 9/11 terroist attacks, so we changed it, but we're going to try to move it up) and then we asked him to come to church and he said he would be there. And he was!

So then on Saturday we taught English class and for some reason the topic went to meditation and one of the women was talking about a meditation center in downtown Quebec and said how peaceful it was there. Then she said "it's a lot like here. When you walk in this building, you can feel something different. You can feel the peace and the calm and the happiness. There's something here, but it's more spiritual. There you can feel the peace as well, but it's a little different." It was neat to know that she could feel the Spirit in the church building. :) Then we went and did service for Lyse, and that was fun, then we followed that up with some contacting.

Then yesterday was another miracle day!!! :) STEPHAN was at church! And he LOVED it!! He said he's bringing his daughter with him next week :) And he participated in the classes and everyone welcomed him there. It was so neat. And the best surprise: GABRIELLE was at church as well!! :) She came up to visit her mom for the weekend, and of course had to come to church :) I just love her...she really is so wonderful. She bore her testimony about the happiness that came as a result of the gospel in her life and it was so neat to hear....I just love her and I love that I was able to have the chance to teach her a little bit and to see someone truly accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the happiness that comes with that. That definitely is the best part about serving a mission...you can see the change that comes into the lives of others and you can see the happiness that comes as they draw closer to Christ and see just a little bit the love that Christ has for them and the joy that He and our Father in Heaven must feel. I love it :)

So it was a wonderful week, and we're looking forward to another great one this week! Oh, and I almost forgot: the Guatemalans called us back last night and we taught them and we're going to try to teach them again this week. Only problem: they only speak Spanish. Luckily my companion is fluent, but I think I might have to start learning Spanish as well... :) Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you tons!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

"...what comfort this sweet sentence gives..."

2010-07-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody!

So this was another fun-filled week in the mission...I really do love being out here :) It started out on Tuesday (well, I guess Monday but we didn't really do anything too special for p-day) when we stopped by a potential that we found last week, Serge. We weren't sure if he would be home or not since we didn't have an appointment or his phone number, but he was there and the lesson was WONDERFUL! :) We talked with him a bit at the beginning without really an order, and then he started talking about faith and showing our faith. I mentioned that one way that we can do that is by praying and asking God for help and then started talking about how Joseph Smith (we had already read a scripture in the D&C so we'd kind of introduced Joseph Smith) had shown his faith by praying and asking God which of all the churches was true. We talked about how there are millions out there that all claim to have the truth, but we learn in the Bible that there is "one Lord, one Faith, one baptism" and so he knew that there should be one that was perfect for everyone, but he didn't know where it was. We then told the Joseph Smith story and he was realyl touched. He started talking afterwards about how when he was little, he was Catholic and the Catholic church was the ONLY true church, and his mom told him that if he even looked at a protestant church, he'd be damned. Then he took an intro to religion course in college and found out that every religion believes that they have the truth, but what he LOVED about our church is that we asked God directly and we encourage everyone to ask God directly. We then started going through an actual first lesson a bit more with "God is our loving Heavenly Father" and how we're blessed with families and prophets to help and guide us during this mortal existance. We also talked about the Book of Mormon and he didn't quite understand at first, but then we were sitting in the garden and Sister Leonard explained that if I closed my eyes and she described the garden, I'd have one view. But if he described the garden, I'd have a different view of it. It was through both explanations (or both testimonies...the prophets in the Americas and in Jerusalem) that truth is known, or an accurate description is given. He said he found it really intriguing and he doesn't like to read very much, he has a hard time concentrating, but he was going to try and read anyways. We then asked if we could set an appointment for the next time and at first he said we could come back the first week in August, but then I explained that there wasn't very much time in the trasnfer and for purely selfish reasons (I enjoy his insight) we'd like to meet with him more often. So he suggested this Tuesday, which is PERFECT because we're going on splits with Victoriaville that night and we were supposed to set up extra appointments. I'm so excited for him...he's in his 50s probably, his parents both died within the past year, and he has a wife and 2 college-aged children who both still live at home, and one of them has attended church in Montreal before. It was so neat :)

Then on Wednesday we went and visited Lyse and taught her about temples and geneology and she is SO excited to do the work for her parents and grandparents. We committed her to have all the work ready so that in December (the next trip for baptisms) she can do the work for them and she said she would definitely do it. She is so set. Then I guess yesterday in Sunday School she bore her testimony about how she met the church (I don't exactly know what she said...we weren't in the class). She said 2 weeks before she had prayed and asked God to show her if there was a true church and if so, where it was. 2 weeks later we showed up and at first she was just happy because of the companionship. She had been so lonely that she was excited to just have people over to talk to, but then it actually grew into a real testimony and now she is so pleased with the friendship she has with us, with the members, and the knowledge that she has of the truthfulness of the Gospel and she knows that she will never feel lonely again. it's so neat. I wish I could have heard the whole testimony, but we just heard the highlights from our neighbor, Frere Caron. We were in the nursery helping because there was only one adult in there and like 7 kids, and that's a bit difficult. So we were there and it was SO much fun....there was one little boy that reminded me a lot of Jacob (only a lot younger than Jacob) and it was so cute. It was fun :)

Then also this week we had English class, which is always fun. And it was pretty neat...we forgot to start with a prayer which we normally do because we got distracted talking about things. Usually we talk a bit, say a prayer, and then have the lesson that we prepared, but this week one of the woman's boyfriends had surgery for cancer and so we ended up talking about different medical terms for a really long time and then there were only 10 minutes left and I had forgotten. But then at the end when I was asking what they wanted to talk about next week, one of the woman, Guillaune, stopped me and said "Before we finish, can we please say a prayer? I think it'd be good for Martine." It was really neat that we've been an example to these people and they know that because of our faith, we can pray to God and ask Him for help in our lives and in the lives of others. I love it.

Then we also did another little service project...one of the couples in our ward, the Lefebvre's, got sealed this weekend. She's been a member for about 20 years, they've been married about 15, and he finally joined the church last year and they just got sealed. So On saturday, while they were at the temple, we went up and heart-attacked their house. Then yesterday we were invited to their house for dinner with the elders and they were asking who had done the heart-attacking and we denied it, and so did the elders, but they ended up thinking that it was the elders who had done it, and the elders were just very confused until afterwards when we told them it was us. It was so fun...I loved it :) Then last night the Victoriaville sisters came up...we're having our zone activity today (we played foo-foo ball but it got cut short when Elder Wilson kicked the ball accidentally hitting a woman and they went crazy and said they were calling the police...interesting experience.) and then tomorrow we're having the first half of Zone Conference. Then in the evening we're going on a split, and Wednesday we're having the second half of zone conference. It should be fun! I'm excited for this week :)

But anyways, I hope you all are doing well! Have a wonderful week! I love you all :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

"I know that my Redeemer lives"

2010-07-19T14:10:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody!

So this week was WONDERFUL! :) LYSE GOT BAPTIZED!! We were a little stressed and had to make a million phone calls this week, but it turned out great and the ceremony was wonderful. I did sing; Elder Boyd practiced a lot and learned how to play the song for me. I ended up singing the words to "I know that My Redeemer Lives" to the tune of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief". I sang 3 verses and it turned out pretty well...I realized I'm a bit out of practice with singing, but it was fun to get into it again. I've also been practicing the piano a bit more recently and realized that I really do like it now that I don't HAVE to practice, haha...so we'll see, maybe I'll take that up again when I get home.

So other things for this week: we helped Sr. Laflamme again with her move, and it turned out well. I'm so glad that we were able to help; she was really stressed and it was nice to be able to go over and spend the time helping her. We also had another member, Seour Belanger, who's from Guatemala who taught us how to make empanadas, and that was really neat. I loved it; we had such a wonderful week. I also made a cake for Lyse's baptism and it was so funny...the Bishop LOVES to tease and he found out that I had made the cake (he said he knew it because it didn't look like a French cake, but really he asked Sister Leonard and she told him that I'd made it) and so he came and sat by me and for the next 3 minutes he teased me about the cake and how he didn't want to take a bite, he was scared, his hands were shaking so bad because he was so nervous that I was trying to poison everyone, and things like that, so finally I reached over and pushed his hand with the fork in it a bit forward so the cake would go in his mouth. It shocked him; he jerked his hand, and the cake fell on his tie. It was SO funny. Then the rest of the time he was eating the cake he was saying "mmmm....good..." because he was "afraid" that if he said anything else I would "attack" him again. It was pretty funny :)

Also this week we taught the Relief Society lesson, and it went really well. We talked about the 3 things that members can do that help us as the missionaries the most:
1. Come with us to lessons
2. Fellowship EVERYONE; not just investigators, but recent converts, less actives, and members. This includes doing monthly visits for visiting teaching and home teaching.
3. Invite people to activities. It's not necessary to invite them immediately to take the discussions, but if they can come to activities they can feel the Spirit, meet normal people, and become more quickly a part of the ward "family"

We told them about all of that, using quotes and scriptures, and then gave them each a little paper with the notes on it, along with a Book of Mormon (the Relief Society Presidency had asked us to do that), and I think it went well. I really enjoyed it.

So this week was wonderful. Things are changing a bit with the new president (we're only doing interviews every other transfer instead of every transfer; zone conference is now week 4 instead of week 2...things like that) but it's good. It's been a fun week and I'm looking forward to another really good one next week :) I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

"I want to be a missionary now" :)

2010-07-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody!

This week was an interesting week...it was SO HOT! We got a call last Saturday (I think) telling us to take care of ourselves and if we couldn't get our 3 hours of finding in everyday because of the heat, that was OK, they weren't going to get mad at us. Sister Leonard and I thought that that was a little ridiculous and decided we were going to do it anyways, but after our hour of power on Tuesday morning (we go out every morning from 10:45-11:45 to knock doors just to get us out and about first thing in the morning after studies) when we were dripping sweat because it was already 32 degrees C, we decided that we might have to take it a little slower than usual. But we still worked hard and had a wonderful time.

We did mix things up a little this week though...we decided at the last minute that we wanted to do a split with Victoriaville because we had never done one with them before and it would be a good experience for everyone, so Sister Leonard went down with Sister Verdeja and Sister Hamula came up here with me. It was SO much fun, but I'm glad I have the companion that I do right now. Sister Hamula is on her second transfer now and is so much fun, but she's in a French/Spanish area and doesn't speak ANY French. Then Sister Verdeja just got put up there after 4 trasnfers in a Spanish ward, and she doesn't speak any French either. So it was good for Sister Leonard to go down there, introduce her to the people, and help her a bit with her French, and I spent the day up here teaching Sister Hamula how to do a door approach since she said she'd never been able to get past the "Hi, we're missionaries" part. The work we do here and the work they do there is VERY different; they work almost completely with members, and we don't have any members to work with, so we spend most of our time knocking doors. I really enjoy it; Sister Hamula is now really grateful that she's in Victoriaville and not in Quebec. It was pretty fun. And we did a lot that day as well in addition to knocking...we went and heart-attacked Lyse, and she LOVED it. We knew that she was at a meeting for something, so we went while she wasn't there and covered her door in hearts, and she came home and called us and thanked us, saying that it really touched her. She's doing so well....I'm SO excited for her! She's getting baptized THIS SATURDAY!!! She was at church on Sunday and loved it again, like always. All the members were really sweet and were so excited for her baptism. And it's going to be great...there's a temple trip on Saturday and they're all taking a bus down, the bus is getting back at like 7, and then the baptism starts at 7:30, so most of the people are going to stay for that as well. And we have a lot of members that are involved in the baptism, so it should be good. Only problem: she asked me to do a special musical presentation, but I haven't sang in FOREVER, she doesn't care which song I sing, but I have no pianist. So it will be interesting. I'm way excited though :) We're seeing her 3 times this week, and one is to go shopping with her because she wants to buy a new dress to wear on her baptismal day. So cute! :)

Other than that, I can't think of anything too big that happened this last week. We had transfers, but neither of us were changed. We do have a new elder, Elder Bourdon, from France and he's great. He doesn't speak much English, but we all speak French decently well, so it works out all right :) OH! And do celebrate my "hump day" (my 9 month mark), the elders made me cake and bought me a random little present and then cooked lunch for me after district study. It was so cute...I LOVE the elders here! We also had dinner last night with a family from France, the Rodhain's, and they're WONDERFUL. They joined the church about 4 years ago, but their daughter still isn't a member. He's in the stake presidency, and they're just the sweetest couple. They live FAR, but they love having us over, so we go over about once a transfer (only us...they said they prefer sisters to elders, haha). They called us this morning to thank us again for coming over and said what a joy it was to have us there and how we really are servants in the Lord's hands in helping them. It was sweet. We also helped Sister Laflamme paint her house (Mom, all the painting I did with you last summer paid off i guess :) ) and it was really fun. So it was a great week overall :)

Then this week looks like it will be good. We're helping Sister Laflamme again tonight, and then tomorrow evening we have a relief Society activity, and we've been asked to prepare the lesson on exactly how the sisters in our ward can help us the missionaries, so we've put together a little thing for that. Then there's the baptism, and we're hoping to get our less active neighbor to help us make a chocolate cake for it (she makes the best chocolate cake ever, and that's Lyse's favorite dessert). Then on Sunday after church another one of our members is teaching us how to make empanadas, and I'm way excited about that. Plus we're teaching Lyse a couple of times and then we have lots of finding time left over...it should be really great...i'm excited!

but anyways, i hope that all is going well for each of you back home and that you have a wonderful week! I love you tons! Thank you for all your support and letters :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Happy 9 months! :)

2010-07-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody!

So....all the news: Rive Sud is staying open, and Sister Leonard and I are staying here together. It was so crazy...we thought for sure that Quebec Ouest (the elders here) were going to close and that we were going to take over their area, but then they kept them open as well as us. Instead they closed Hochelaga sisters. So crazy. I'm excited though, and Lyse was THRILLED when we told her that we were staying. She said that she's been praying all week that we would both stay and that neither of us would be transferred, and she decided that God answered her prayers. It was so neat :) And the whole ward is thrilled that we're staying. It'll be wonderful. I'm really excited for this transfer. It means I'll have been here for about 7 months by the end, which is kind of a long time, but I'm excited for it. I really love the ward and the members here, and then with Lyse getting baptized in 2 weeks, it will be so great. I'm way excited :)

So that was pretty much the exciting news for this week. Other than that, not too much happened. We taught Lyse and she is AMAZING. We taught her word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity, and we told her what we were teaching in advance and so she had a "True to the Faith" book that we gave her and she had already read all about both of those and was willing to make all the changes necessary to live them and so teaching the principles was way easy. And the members have been a huge help; she loves all of them and they're all so welcoming with her. She's so excited for her baptism too...it's wonderful. I LOVE teaching people who understand the importance of the gospel and really want to have those blessings in their lives...it's sucha neat thing to be able to watch them as they find the love and joy that comes only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Then we had another pretty neat experience last night. We contacted a guy about a month ago named Stephan who was really neat adn has a really strong faith in Jesus Christ due to some things in his past, and so he said we could come back another time. We've tried calling him about 50 times and he never responded, even after we left messages, so we decided to try to pass by him one more time last night and if he wasn't there then we were going to drop him. So we stopped by and he was home and at first he told us that he thought we were a sect and wasn't sure that he wanted to talk to us, but we said we'd like to just explain a little bit about what we did, so we went out to his porch and sat there and explained about missionaries and the Book of Mormon and it turned out great. He was SO excited to read the Book of Mormon by the end. He's already made a ton of changes in his life and really does want to learn more about Christ. He said we could definitely come back again, but he's going on vacation for the next 2 weeks, so he won't be able to meet with us until after that which kind of stinks, but that's ok, it'll turn out well. I'm excited to teach him. Then at the end in his prayer he thanked God for the "2 angels" that were sent to him that day. We told him that that was really sweet and he said "Well, you have to see it...you two just glow. You have to be angels. I've never seen anything like it before." It was so neat. I'm excited :)

Then this morning we met Presidend and Sister Cannon for the first time and they are wonderful. Sister Cannon is extremely outgoing and friendly and will be a LOT of fun to work with. President Cannon is a little more reserved but he has a really strong testimony of the Gospel and together I think they will just be a wonderful strength and support for the mission. I'm way excited to work with them. It will be a wonderful transfer. And this week (Wednesday) is my 9 month mark! Crazy to think that my mission is already have over...I still have so many things left to learn, so many people left to teach...so much to do! I'm excited to keep working! I love it!

Anyways, i hope you all are doing well...I love you all tons! Take care and have a wonderful week!

Love, Nicole

PS: Happy birthday Sara!

Happy 4th of July! :)

2010-06-29T05:05:00.000-07:00

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

"To be a living, modern witness in word and deed, of the divinity of His great and marvelous latter-day work..."

2010-06-18T04:09:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

This week was such a fun week. We had a really wonderful time. And SO many funny things happened...it was crazy. One was kind of scary, but then when we figured it out it was just funny. Wednesday night at around midnight the phone rang so I got up to answer it, but then saw it was from an unknown person, no number listed, so I decided I probably shouldn't answer it. Not even a minute later, we got a phone call from a 502 area code, which I didn't even recognize the area code, so I ignored it. That person called back another time and then in the next 5 minutes we got 3 more phone calls from another phone number with a 502 area code that had an extra number on the end. It was really strange. So the next day we got permission to look up where the area code is located to see if it was even in Quebec or if it was somewhere else, and we found out 502 is an area code in Kentucky, and we just laughed and decided not to call the person back because it was long distance. But then Thursday afternoon we were talking to the Victoriaville sisters and they said they had gotten 5 phone calls the night before (all at different times...one at midnight, one at 1:00, one at 2:00, etc.) from the same phone number that had called us. They had tried calling back, but couldn't get through, so they suggested that we try calling. We called back the first number and it said the number was incomplete. So then we called the second number that was too long and it went through but we couldn't understand the person on the other end at all because each time he talked it made a staticky noise like when the TV is on but not on a regular channel, so we hung up. It was so strange. Then on Saturday we went out contacting with one of our recent converts, Gabriel, and we got 2 more phone calls from the same phone number, but I missed them both. It was so strange. So later that night Gabriel looked it up on his computer and found out that the 502 isn't an area code...it's a country code for Guatemala and the phone numbers there are 8 digits, and that's why the number had an extra digit. We then figured out the person calling was a guy that Soeur Leonard had taught in Victoriaville who had just moved back to Guatemala and was supposed to be getting baptized there this past weekend, which explained why it was only us and Victoriaville who got the random phone calls. It was kinda creepy at first, but then it was just funny after we found out that it was probably just Walter trying to cal us :)

Also this week we decided to go and try and visit some less actives, and that was fun. We went and saw one, Lucien Gugiere, who I had never heard of before and then Soeur Bruniau mentioned his name. So we called him and he gladly invited us over and it was so fun. He knows so much about the gospel and has about a million books in his library. He's retired now and so he spends his time constructing a website for the church in French (since there aren't many French resources provided from the church online) where he's taking all the resource materials like "Ancres dans la Foi" and putting them online. He has every ensign ever published since 1984 when he joined the church and all the Church News as well. It was so crazy. Unfortunately, his wife of 43 years and his 3 children are not at all interested in the church and they just found out his wife has cancer and so she asked him to stay at home with her a little more. We're hopeful that soon she'll soften up a little and at least allow him to come to church without getting upset, but we'll see. We also had planned to pass by another woman who speaks Spanish but has lived here forever and stopped coming to church a long time ago, but we decided to knock a street or two first. Then Sister Leonard felt like we needed to go stop by, so we stopped knocking and went straight over there and the woman was outside with her boyfriend on the porch and we talked to them for quite awhile. He said he's atheist, but asked us quite a few questions anyways about what we're doing and what we believe. It was a really neat experience.

Other than that, the week was pretty much the same as normal (lots of knocking, a couple lessons, visiting with members and the other missionaries), except for a few random exceptions. We went one day to visit Patrick (he had canceled on the elders 3 times in a row, so we decided to go try and he set a lesson with us..kind of funny) and one the way out we saw a woman who was fairly well dressed in this little window at the side of a huge dumpster digging through the trash can. Thinking that she may have lost something, we went and asked if we could help her, and she just said no thank you and then walked away. Except she didn't look like she was homeless and searching for food...we're not quite sure what she was doing, but it was kind of funny. Then there was another time where we were on this LONG country road with nothing really around and we decided to get out and pick a few daisies to put on our table back home to make it look a little prettier. So Sister Leonard gets out and picks one or two and then turns around and sees this creepy man with long, unkempt hair, beer in hand, standing and staring at her. He said hello and she freaked out and ran back to the car. It was so funny :) Then another time we were going contacting and we parked the car and said a little prayer before starting and then when I finished I saw a car next to us out of the corner of my eye and I looked over and there was a man parked in the street next to us staring at us. We both freaked out and it took us a good 30 seconds before we realized it was just our recent convert, Gabriel. He thought it was the funniest thing ever; we both found it terrifying. But afterward it was pretty funny :) Then for English class instead of just teaching them, we went down to Old Quebec and went to a little market they have there each spring and then they gave us a tour of Old Quebec and pointed out some of the things that we had to see while we were down there. It was really neat. I think there were other random things that happened as well, but I can't really think of them right now...it was a really fun week though. I love it here :)

I'm also really looking forward to this next week...We were supposed to have interviews this Friday, but then for some reason they were canceled and so they've been rescheduled for next Tuesday (my birthday!) so that should be fun. All the missionaries are then coming down on Sunday evening and our p-day on Monday will be spent with them and then interviews on Tuesday. It will be interesting celebrating my birthday with EVERYONE here...we were planning on just having a dinner with just our district, but this should be fun too. And Gabrielle is coming on Sunday; I'm so excited! :) It'll be fun to see her again. And then we're also teaching Liz again and have some other things set up...it should be a lot of fun. I'm excited to work this week! But anyways, I hope you are all doing well and everything is going fabulous back home. I love you all tons!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

"My commission is to do what He wants done. To say what He wants said."

2010-06-07T10:20:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!

This week was wonderful...we had zone conference, which is always amazing! It was President and Sister McKinnon's last zone conference...they'll still be here for interviews, but this was their last zone conference and it was so sad! I'm going to miss them...I'm excited about the new mission president, but I love the Mckinnon's; it'll be sad to see them go. But the conference itself was wonderful with a lot of really impressive trainings.

This week was pretty uneventful...we did a lot of finding at the beginning, but then Sister Leonard got sick at the end and so we didn't do very much the last couple of days. We did teach Liz on Tuesday and it went really well! We taught her the Plan of Salvation which is my favorite lesson to teach, and I think it went well. She had a bit of a difficult time because she believes more in reincarnation and said that before judgment if we haven't learned everything that we need to learn, we just go back to the premortal existence and start over again and we do that over and over and over again until we learn all the lessons that we need to learn on this life. We talked about how agency is so important to God that He's never going to take that away from us. If we don't want to learn the lessons that He wants us to learn, He's not going to force us; He's not going to watch us suffer through this life again, still not learning the same lessons if we don't want to learn it. I think she accepted that a little bit more...we'll see. Then she said that she had had questions and she knew that she needed different answers to them than the ones that she had and so she started looking for them, and that's when Sister Tschumi and I showed up. So then Sister Gelinas bore testimony and said that if she had questions and we showed up right after, maybe she needed to start looking a little harder to try to find the answers in what we were saying instead of just thinking that she knew everything. She agreed and we're meeting with her again next week, so we'll see how it goes :)

Oh, and then it was so wonderful after that! We came home on Tuesday right after the lesson and the zone leaders had come and heart attacked our house! I just love them; they really are so wonderful. We have pretty incredible elders in our district :) Oh, and all the elders came down right before zone conference and Elder Garcia had found out that it was my birthday at the end of this month, so he kept asking me what I wanted and then decided he's making me a cake and they're cooking us dinner...I just love them :) But anyways, so the rest of the afternoon on Tuesday we spent finding...we were going to contact on this one street, but then we saw a guy with a gun, so we decided that we should probably go to a different street, haha. Then the next day that we went and taught a less active, Claire Dion, and that went well. We talked about the 10 commandments and following God's plan for us. I think it went really well...she said that with her boyfriend, they have a really good relationship between them, but not with God, and so we suggested that maybe she needed to invte God into the relationship, and one way she could do that pretty easily was through having a fmaily home evening with him and maybe the Carrier family who live nearby and she said that was a really good idea. So then we called the Carrier's and asked them if they could also call and invite her to have an FHE with them, but they said they'd tried that a year ago and she'd said no, so they didn't want to try again. It was so frustrating...I'm really learning here how important member participation and member support is for the missionary work. Everything works out better when the members are helping and bearing testimony...it's a good lesson I hope to remember when I get back.

I think that was about it for the week though...it was good and I'm looking forward to this next week. I love Sister Leonard and we have a lot of fun together, so it should be a wonderful week. I hope everything is going well for you and I love you all tons!!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

"My words are His words and my doctrine is His doctrine."

2010-05-31T21:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

This week was WONDERFUL. It was really fun getting to know my knew companion and working with her. Her name is Sister Leonard and she's from Belgium. She's so neat; I love her. She reminds me a lot of Sister Pearson: she loves to work and we have a lot of fun together. We spent a lot of time this week finding, which was good. While she was in the MTC, Sister Leonard heard tell of a prophecy from one of the General Authorities saying that someday, people all along the St. Laurent River would be members of the church and have the gospel in their lives. We're not sure how true it is, but we decided to start trying to fulfill it, so we found a street that stretches clear along the south shore of the St. Laurent and we decided that's what we're going to be working on this month. I'm excited for it :)

I don't have tons to say about this week...not much happened. We heart-attacked the zone leaders apartment on Friday and that was so much fun. They were in Montreal all day for Zone Leader council and generally they're not in the best of moods when they get back, so we decided to surprise them with hearts everywhere...so fun. I loved it :) And SIster Leonard had received a HUGE package (12 kilos) full of Belgian chocolate and candies, so we left them some of those as well. They really appreciated it adn it made things pretty fun.

We also visited with the Caron's (our neighbors) twice this week, and both times went really well. Soeur Caron is less-active and is really nice, but generally doesn't participate tons in the lessons, but both times this week she was asking questions and participating in what we were saying. It was neat. We now know a little bit more about the problems she has and so we have a better idea of where to start working next. Also this week we had a really neat experience in English class. First we asked if someone wanted to volunteer to give the prayer and Michel (one of the men in the class) gave one that he had written, beginning with "Dear Heavenly Father" and ending "in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Then for the English class we had them all write a letter to someone they didn't know to practice introducing themselves and asking questions, as well as their grammar and spelling. I brought several pictures from Montreal and let them each choose who they wanted to write. Most picked missionaries, but one woman picked Robyn and then another picked my recent convert, Rob. I'd brought a picture of his baptismal day and I explained to all the students a little about who each of the people in the pictures was so they would know what kind of questions to ask. The woman who picked Rob, Guillaune, asked Rob in her letter how he had found the church, what he felt like after his baptism (if he was more happy, etc), and if he thought his life would be better because of this new religion. I got to explain a little about his conversion story and it was really neat. It would've been better if he'd been there to bear testimony, but it was still really a neat experience and I thought it was great she was even thinking to ask questions like that.

So overall the week was good. Nothing too exciting happened, but I love my new companion and we're looking forward to a wonderful week and a wonderful transfer. It should be good :) I hope all is going well for you! I love you all tons!! Take care! :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

My voice is His voice, and my acts are His acts...``

2010-05-27T15:23:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody!

This week has been crazy....I ended up getting sick for most of it, so we didn`t get tons of work done, but we did still do quite a bit. I`ve been fighting a cold for the last 3 months or so, and it finally won this Tuesday and I was barely able to stand without falling over, so Siste Tschumi and I decided that tracting was probably not the best activity and we spent the next three days at home while I slept. Not ideal for the last week of the transfer, but sometimes there`s not much of a choice. But anyways, in between all of the sleeping, we did get some things done! We taught Liz again...she`s doing so well! I`m not sure if I mentioned her in any of the last e-mails...we`ve taught her twice now and have the third appointment with her tomorrow. We met her while knocking doors one day and she said she doesn`t believe in God or religion because there are so many difficulties in her life (she has huntington`s disease and because of that she lost her job, her home, her husband, and her family doesn`t talk to her tons) and so many people go to church just on Sundays and then are complete hypocrites the rest of the week. Or at least, that was her reasoning for why she doesn`t believe in anything. She also said that of the churches, ours was probably the most generous and the most christlike, and she`d be happy to listen to us, and if we could convince her, that`d be great. So we`ve taught her now a couple of times and I think she`s slowly starting to change her perspective and realize that we`re really there because we honestly believe what we teach. We`re here because we want others to have better lives and more happiness, and we know how that`s possible, and so we`re here to share it. I`m excited to keep teaching her...it`ll be fun :)

We also taught a girl named Shirley yesterday. She`s actually one of the zone leaders investigators, but they didn`t have a chaperone and so they couldn`t teach her and so they asked us to. She`s from Columbia, has a 2 year old daughter who was way active, and doesn`t speak a word of either French or English, only Spanish. Crazy. So we took a Spanish speaking member with us (who unfortunately was so preoccupied with the little girl that she didn`t get a chance to talk very much, but Sister Tschumi did amazing as a teacher, so it turned out all right :) ) and taught the first discussion. It was really interesting...it kind of made me want to learn Spanish, but then I remembered that I`m struggling with French and should probably stick with just one foreign language for now. Maybe in the future....we`ll see. But anyways, it was interesting...she stopped Sister Tschumi in the middle of the lesson and looked at me and told me that I was beautiful and she loved my eyes. She said that she reminded me of some of the people in her Pentecostal congregation back in Columbia who even though they wore longer skirts and not much jewelry and didn`t have that more `worldy` beauty, they were still more beautiful than most of the world because they had the light of Christ in them and people can see that and are drawn towards that. And I have that same light in my eyes that just draws people towards me. It was pretty neat :) I hope others can see that too....

But anyways, so all that was fun. Also this week we had TRANSFER CALLS!! That`s always exciting. I was pretty sure that both Sister Tschumi and I were staying here, and that`s what everyone else thought as well. Elder Grinton talked to me for awhile on Thursday (he`s my zone leader and had just talked to the Assistants the day before when they were going over what was going to happen in our zone) and told me that he had recommended that I specifically stay, that we stay together, and the reasons why he said that, and they said they thought that was a good idea so they were going to pray about keeping us together. But then transfer call night came (Saturday) and we were all at the Institute Center making fluatas (spelling?) for our dinner that we were having and instead of the zone leaders just telling us that we were both staying, the Assistants called us saying that I was staying, but Sister Tschumi was being transferred to Monterrey, which is in Montreal Spanish-speaking. Insane. So I`m getting Sister Leonard as my new companion. She came out the same time that Sister Cottrell did (so this will be her 3rd transfer), she`s from Belgium, and she speaks French, English, and Spanish, and she`s amazing. She`s so outgoing and way excited to be here and be a missionary. It should be fun...I`m excited. And pretty much the rest of our district is staying the same...Elder Williams is leaving which will be really sad, but Elder Magre, Elder de la Torre, and Elder Grinton are all staying, so it should be a blast. I`m way excited for this transfer :)

Other than that, i can`t think of anything really interesting that happened this week. I know everybody was shocked at church on Sunday when they announced that Sister Tschumi was leaving...they were all certain that I was going to leave and she was going to stay. But that`s all right...I love Quebec and I`m excited to stay here another one :) But anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful week! Take care! Love you all! :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

"To say and do what He Himself would say and do if He personally were ministering to the people to whom He has sent me."

2010-05-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

So the past 2 weeks have been so much fun! It really has been great to be a missionary. The weather has been GORGEOUS and it makes everything even better than it was before! We've been working really hard, like always, but it was nice to have a bit of a break in the middle of tracting this week. On average we go out knocking doors about 5 hours a day, sometimes more, sometimes a bit less, with the occasional less active/recent convert lesson in between. But then last Sunday was MOther's Day so we all got to call home (which was wonderful!) and then Monday we had our zone activity with all the other missionaries in our zone, followed by zone interviews on Tuesday. It really was wonderful. We spent most of the day on Monday playing soccer with the other missionaries, which was fun. I'm not the best at it, but I found that if I just run towards people and kick, something happens. Either I kick the ball and it goes away from the goal, or I kick the person and they fall down, thus also preventing them from scoring. I'm not sure that's the way the game is supposed to be played, but it seemed to work ;)

Then zone conference was really wonderful. We had a really great training from the zone leaders about redefining our vocabulary. So we set, as a zone, the definitions for 10+, committing on the first lesson, and junior companions so that everyone was on the same page and we all knew exactly what was expected of us. And they asked the Junior companions to step it up a little bit. They have great faith and great insight, and they need to show that, use it, and use their excitement to push the senior companions to be better and work harder. Sister McKinnon said that's the first time since she's been there that anyone's given a training on that and it was a little different and unexpected at first, but it went really well and I really enjoyed it. Then we also had the district leader trainings and Sister McKinnon's trainings. Oh, and the AP's told us about this really great ice cream place that we went to afterwards, and it was SO good...it's not very far away from the church and they're all chocolate dipped cones and the chocolate is so thick on them (needless to say I gave up my no chocolate goal for that day ;) ). That doesn't really have anything to do with the zone conference, but it was a fun break in the week...I enjoyed it.

Then what else happened? I talked with Patrick and he is doing SO well...I just love him. He's got some difficult decisions to make in his life right now, but he was talking to me and he said the one thing he knows he needs to hold on to is that faith. He says he prays every night and every morning and he reads his scriptures daily and he knows that that's important, so even when it's hard, he's going to keep doing that. It was really neat. I just love him! :) Then we also taught a couple other people this week. We stopped by a guy's house named Daniel who we taught once about 2 weeks ago. He told us that he had read in the Book of Mormong and it was really interesting, but then he'd looked up things on the church's website and he's not sure he wants to get involved in the church enough that he has to pay tithing or go to church each week. We talked about the blessings that come and what a blessing it is to have the gift of the HOly Ghost all the time, and he said that would be great, but he's not sure he can do it. So we told him to keep the Book of Mormon and keep reading it and then to pray and ask if God wants him to continue going forward with the gospel and we'd call him in a couple of days to see what his answer is. So that was yesterday and we're planning on calling him tomorrow so see what he's decided...we'll see how that goes! Then we've had a couple other lessons, but nothing too promising...we're going to keep working though and I'm sure we'll find someone who's interested soon!

Other than that, the week has been pretty average. Transfer calls are coming up this Saturday and we have no idea what's going to happen. We know there will be a lot of changes with the elders and there's at least one new sister coming in (as of right now at least) so we'll see what happens! I'll let you know next Monday! :)

Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful week! Take care! I love you all ! :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

More pics

2010-05-16T13:50:00.001-07:00

And here are some more!
1. Patrick, Helene, and his parents just after his baptism :)
2. Patrick`s baptism!!! Me, Elder Grinton, Elder Williams, Elder de la Torre, Elder Magre, Patrick, Helene, Soeur Tschumi
3. Me and Sister Tschumi in Old Quebec
4. The elders heart-attacked our door :)
5. Sister Cottrell and I our last p-day at the St.-Anne-de-Beaupre Cathedral

Pictures (no email)

2010-05-16T13:37:00.001-07:00

here are some pictures from last transfer...
1. Our easter cookies we made!
2. Sister Cottrell and I just after out easter egg hunt.
3. Elder Williams, Sister Cottrell, me, and Elder Grinton at the hockey game...so fun! :)
4. Sister Cottrell and I at the hockey game!

"...He has chosen me to represent Him. To stand in His place..."

2010-05-05T14:24:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

This week was WONDERFUL!! :) PATRICK GOT BAPTIZED!!!! It was SO exciting. I was a little nervous last week because he decided last Sunday that he wasn't sure he really wanted to be baptized after all, but then I called and talked to him on Tuesday and some of the other YSA called him and the elders worked with him a lot and by Friday he was SO excited about his baptism. It was wonderful. So the baptism was scheduled for Saturday morning at 10 am (he had to work in the evening, so that was the best time) and we were there with the elders at 9 waiting for him because he was supposed to be there at 9:15 so we'd have time to take pictures and get everything organized and all that. At 9:40, he still wasn't there so the elders called and he said he didn't know what the address was, but he'd be there in about 5 minutes after we gave it to him (he only lives about a 5 minute drive away from the church). At 10:00, he STILL wasn't there and I was a nervous wreck...so I called him and before I can even ask him anything he asks "Did you make me cheesecake for me?" Sister Cottrell had promised him a cheesecake (the only dessert he likes) when he got baptized. I had made one, but unfortunately I'd left it at home so I promised to give it to him on Sunday, and then I asked where he was and he said they were picking up his girlfriend and they'd be there in about 5 minutes. At 10:15 they finally showed up, we had our little prayer meeting, and then we went to get started and his mom and step-dad walked in right as we were about to say the opening prayer. So we were a little late getting started, but other than that it went so well! The Spirit was really strong throughout the whole thing and his mom and step-dad really felt it, and I think his girlfriend did as well but I didn't have a chance to talk to her afterwards. Sister Belanger did a wonderful job with the talk on baptism and then he had asked me to give the talk on the Holy Ghost and I made it through, so that was a plus. It was a little nerve-wracking, but everyone said they couldn't understand me and his mom was crying through the whole thing, so I think it was fine...Then afterwards we invited his mom and step dad to come to church the next day to be there as he received the gift of the Holy Ghost and they said they'd try to make it, but they weren't sure if they could. They ended up coming and staying for the whole 3 hours and it was SO wonderful! His step dad had a lot of questions and really appreciated all the lessons and even asked if he could have a copy of the Gospel Principles book so that he could take it home and look through it and they said they'd be comin back next week. Then in Relief Society, one of the sisters bore her testimony on the importance of families and Patrick's mom started crying in the middle and said that it really touched her. It was so great. And his mom came up an dthanked me at least 4 times for helping her son change his life and bringing such a happiness to him...it really was wonderful to see. I think the elders are going to try to start teaching them before too long as well. It's just so exciting to first see Patrick with these blessings and then see what an example he's been to his family! :) I love it!

Other than that this week I don't think I have any really great stories. We did A LOT of finding, like always, and talked to a lot of people without too much success. We got invited in to a couple of people's houses to teach first lessons, but then they never really went anywhere after that. They either told us they weren't really interested or to maybe try an dcome back in about 3 weeks. It was a bit frustrating. But then last night we decided to pass by a guy who had smurfed us last Monday (we had met him last Saturday, set up the appointment, he wasn't there) and he invited us in, we taught a REALLY quick first lesson, and he said that he was interested and he was busy this week, but next Sunday to pass by again around 7 and he'd love to meet with us! It was so exciting. Hopefully something comes of that, but if not, we'll keep working and trying and we'll find somebody soon :)

We also taught a girl named Lucy again this week for the second time and it was just so sad. She moved here from France back in January and she's been having a really hard time ever since she got here. In France she was meeting with the missionaries and had a baptism date and everything, but then she moved here and met with the missionaries once, decided it was too cold to go to the Institute to meet them, and stopped talking to them. Then she called us a couple of weeks ago, we met with her, she came to church, and then told us to call in a bit. So we met with her this past week and taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ: faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end, and she said that right now she thinks she's on the repentance step. She said she knows that everything we say is true and it's good, but it's not for her and she doesn't really want it. It was really sad. That's probably on eof the hardest things: knowing how much the Gospel can bless the lives of the people we teach and how much happiness and direction it can bring, but then they don't want it and so there's nothing that we can do. For her, I KNOW that the Gospel could help. Having the Holy Ghost with you to give you that peace and comfort and direction every day is such an incredible gift...we have the opportunity to have a member of the Godhead with us AT ALL TIMES! But she didn't want it. Oh well..hopefully someday she'll realize how much it can help and will decided that she does want those blessings. That was one thing that was so exciting at Patrick's baptism as well....he came up to me afterwards and I asked him how he felt and he said "I'm in paradise. It's amazing" and then he thanked me for it and said that without me and Sister Pearson finding him, he wouldn't be able to have this joy. And at the beginning, he wasn't sure if he wanted it. But then he saw how much it meant to me and realized that if God would give ME that happiness, He'd give it to Patrick as well if Patrick just listened to what I said and did what God asked, and he was SO excited to have that same happiness that I had. It was really neat :) I love being here. I love seeing the change that comes into people's lives and the happiness that the Gospel can bring. It's wonderful to be able to share something that is so important to me with all those that are around me and just watch as even one of them comes to know the truth and feel that same happiness. I just love it :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

"By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord, Jesus Christ."

2010-05-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

What a crazy week this has been! We've been working hard, doing lots of finding, and meeting a little of bizarre people...but it's been fun :) There are so many stories to share! But before I get to those, I have great news! PATRICK is getting BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!! :) I am SO excited for him. He's a little nervous about it and slightly concerned about keeping the commandments after he's baptized, but so are most people and he really is just so ready. He's also way excited for the baptism and the blessings that come with that (mainly the gift of the Holy Ghost). It's so great! We went over with the elders to teach him this week (it was so fun...it'd been awhile since I'd last taught him) and he was there with his girlfriend, Camilla, and so we taught the first lesson and it went so well. We invited her to be baptized as well, and she said she would if she received her answer, which is just perfect. We told her that that's how we wanted her to do it; we don't want anyone to get baptized if they don't know it's true. Then Patrick says "And I know it's true. So I'm going to get baptized." It was so exciting :) But then at the end we asked fi they had any questions and Patrick says "Yes, I just have one. Sister Lindsey, can you please explain the Law of Chastity to Camilla so that she understands what we can and can't do?" Just slightly unexpected. And I still don't know all the vocab for that lesson at all...I'm pretty sure when we taught it to Patrick I just sat there while Sister Pearson and Soeur Belanger explained it and then the second time the elders were there and took over...so it was an experience. But it was...I just love Patrick :) I'm SO excited for him!

Then probably the highlight of the week was zone conference. I LOVE zone conference and interviews :) This one was especially good...instead of talking mostly about us working harder and finding more people all the trainings focused on following the Spirit more. As we learn to follow the Spirit, to testify powerfully with the Spirit there, we'll be able to find more success and joy in our work. The people we talk to will better be able to feel the importance and the truth of the message we share and have the desire to come unto Christ instead of feeling like we're pushing them to come unto Christ. It was really interesting, and I really enjoyed it. I just love President and Sister McKinnon :)

For other news, the week was pretty interesting. We went finding on Tuesday for most of the day and we met this one older man drinking a beer who talked with us for awhile and said that everything we said made sense. We kept explaining, kept teaching, he kept agreeing (as well as laughing and teasing us about the fact that we don't have boyfriends waiting for us so he might just try to make a move...awkward) and then at the end we asked him if we could come back and he said no, which was a little unexpected. So we asked if he knew anyone else who might be interested and he gave us the name, number, and address of one of his friends. So we went by and met him on Saturday after service and he was interesting to say the least. He was a nice guy, but completely drunk when we passed by and told us he'd be itnerested in learning more about the Book of Mormon but not reading it because it doesn't have enough pictures and has too many words. Now this man is probably in his 50s, but we told him that we had a children's Book of Mormon that we could bring him with pictures and simpler words and he said that'd be great. So we set up an appointment for tomorrow and we'll be taking it to him then. It was interesting. Then we asked if he knew anyone else who might be interested and he gave us the name of another one of his friends who we passed by yesterday. He wasn't interested at all really, but it led to another interesting experience.

So yesterday when we went to pass by the referral we didn't see a car in his driveway so we decided to walk around the block and knowck a couple of doors and by the time we got done with the street, hopefully he'd be back. We were going to start at this one house but then I decided to start at a different part of the street instead. We knocked on the first door, they weren't interested. The second door was slightly more interested, but not really. Then as we were walking to the 3rd house, a man from across the street called out and asked if we were Mormons. We said yes and he said "Well, if you've got a few minutes, I'd love to talk to you." So we went over there thinking he was one of the golden investigator that you hear about and we ended up talking to him for almost an hour and a half and it was awful. SUCH a waste of time. Turns out he's a Batpist preacher with his own church that he started and he just wanted to convince us that if we REALLY study the Bible, like REALLY study it, we find that the doctrine that it preaches is not the same that is preached in "the Mormon church". It was so ridiculous. We listened to him and we gave our perspective and he just kept coming up with other scriptures and giving explanations that didn't even make sense at all. He used mostly the letters from Paul to the churches at the time and preached from them and said that no where in Paul's writings is baptism mentioned. We told him that Christ was baptized and it was important enough for Him to be baptized because it was necessary to be batpized by someone with the right authority to return and live with God again, but he said that wasn't true. He also said that we're only saved by faith, not by works. I shared the "faith without works is dead, being alone" scripture and he said that if you really read the Bible, you find that there are different scriptures talking to people at different times, and that one is talking about after the Millenium when we will be judged by works by for right now, we're only judged bu our faith. It was very contradictory throughout the entire thing, and finally at the end he told us that really, there were 2 different Gospels in the Bible: the one that Christ taught, and the one that Paul taught. And he's teaching Paul's. It was insane. Sister Tschumi and I almost started laughing in the middle. But at the same time, it was really sad because you know he really beleives it and he's going to spend his whole life teaching it to others and then learn after that it was all for nothing. It also made me realize that you really have to teach with the Spirit, otherwise it's just forcing someone, it's not actually convincing or helping them. We can't convince people ourselves; it's the Spirit that teaches and that converts. Also, I realized how much we really need the Book of Mormon, because the Bible doesn't have a fulness of the truth and can't be explained just on it's own. It was interesting.

Also this week we talked to another drunk man in his 50s or so while we were out contacting (we seemed to find a lot of those this week...) and we tried talkign to him and he said something to me and I didn't catch it at all, so he repeated it and I still didn't understand and so I said "I'm sorry; I really just can't understand what you said" and he said it again and I STILL didn't understand (it was a little ridiculous...) and so Sister Tschumi translated and said "he asked if you understood when he said that you have really beautiful eyes" and it was SO uncomfortable. I guess I started blushing and he just started laughing and the contact didn't go anywhere at all. And then I was talking to Elder Grinton and he said before he met me, he knew me as the "12 year old sister" since that's how all the other elders referred to me...I was the one that looked like I was 12 and WAY too young to be on a mission. It was pretty funny :)

So it was a fun week. We taught a couple of people, set up an appointment or two for this week, and we're going to be doing evern more finding this week! It'll be wonderful. And the weather is really pretty right now, so it makes it even better. But anyways, i hope you all are doing well and having a wonderful time. Thanks for all the letters...I'll be writing back as soon as I have time. Have a great week!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

"I am called of God. My authority is above that of the kings of the earth."

2010-04-25T14:33:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

This week was insane...Monday we spent with the other missionaries in our zone as most of them had to come here for transfers. We went and saw this huge cathedral in eastern Quebec and it was really pretty...it was so much fun! Then Soeur Cottrell and I spent all evening getting her packed and cleaning everything so that the apartment was all nice and pretty for my new companion who arrived on Tuesday. Her name is Soeur Tschumi (pronounced choomy), and she's really sweet. She's from Switzerland and speaks French and Spanish fluently and some English and German. She's 27 years old and extremely quiet. We speak almost the constantly in French, both in our apartment and outside and it is intense. I don't think I've spoken this much French in my entire mission combined. But it's good; I'm learning a lot and hopefully by the end of the transfer I'll be able to communicate better in French! :)

Wednesday was our day to really start working and it was intense. We don't have any investigators right now since we passed Patrick off the the elders (he's doing wonderful by the way....he brought his girlfriend to church yesterday, but she wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about it as he was so we'll see what happens. But the baptism is still on for the 1st of May!) and so we ended up just doing a TON of finding...like 4 hours on Wednesday, 6 on Thursday, and another 3 or 4 on Friday. It was pretty intense, but I loved it. I really enjoy knocking doors sometimes and just the hope of finding someone who is really interested and really prepared. I'm a little nervous that I'm going to push Soeur Tschumi too hard, but she hasn't said anything yet, so we're going to keep going until I get tired I guess. I'm excited for this next week and the people we're going to find :)

Also this week we had our first district study with our new district leader, Elder de la Torre, and he's wonderful. He really cares about us already and wants to help us be successful. It's really neat :) We also taught a lesson to this girl Lucie who took the discussions in France and had a baptismal date before moving here in January. She seems to really be searching for more direction in her life, but doesn't really believe that that can come through learning and following what God wants her to do. It's pretty sad and we're not quite sure how to proceed with her, but we're going to keep trying. She came to church yesterday and said all the lessons and talks and everything were speaking right to her, but she also said she doesn't really want to come back next week...it's better just as an occasional thing rather than a weekly routine. I think she'll come around soon...we'll see what happens :)

Other than that, nothing too interesting happened this week. I've been reading Jesus the Christ for my personal study recently and it is fascinating. It's the first time I've really read it, and I can't believe I haven't read it before. For me, it helps me to understand more of what the Savior's life was like. I've been reading it in conjunction with the New Testament and it really is incredible to see the Savior's ministry and miracles in depth and to come to know Him a little better through that. It makes me want to develop that relationship with Him even more than I did before. That's one truth that I want to share with everyone: we CAN have a personal relationship with our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. They ARE there to help us each individually and personally. We're not here on our own; we can talk with them and they respond. I'm learning that more and more each day, and it's so exciting when the people we teach finally catch that and realize how much more happiness and joy comes when we better understand the Atonement and our relationship with our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. I do want to share it with everyone and I can't wait to start working this week! It will be wonderful :)

I hope all of you are doing well and having a wonderful time! I love you all! :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

"Forward forever; backwards never"

2010-04-12T11:48:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!

So this week was insane...so much has been going on! First and foremost: transfer calls were Saturday night and it was not at all what I was expecting. Elder Grinton and Elder Williams (our zone leaders) came to our transfer party and already knew what was going on and told both Sister Cottrell and I that we would be so much happier and to think of the craziest thing that could happen to both of us, and that's what was going to happen. So the craziest thing I could think of was going back to Concordia and being a junior companion to Sister Morse and was thrilled with that idea. But that's not at all what happened. Instead, I got a call from President McKinnon saying that Sister Cottrell was being transferred to Hochelaga (French speaking in Montreal) and I was staying here and training again. I guess they had all the transfers worked out last Thursday, but then they got a call Thursday evening from the MTC saying that another sister was coming out so instead of just the one they were thinking there were 2, so they had to redo all the transfers and for some reason they decided it was a good idea to have me stay here in Quebec and train again. So crazy. One of the sisters is from Utah, speaks Spanish and then just the French that she learned in the MTC. The other one is from Switzerland and is fluent in French, Spanish, and English. They're planning on sending her up here, but that might change depending on personalities when President interviews them on Monday night. So crazy! It definitely was not what I was expecting.

But other than, this week we had a lot of funny stories :) We went knocking doors the other day and we met a man who made me realize that I REALLY need to learn French better. He told me his wife had died 3 years ago and so I started the door contact about how families can be together forever and he can live with his wife again and he thought I was volunteering to find him a new wife here and so he said no thanks, he's not really looking to get married to anyone right now. So I corrected myself and used the phrase "rester ensemble" which means remain together, or something similar to that, but he thought I was saying that we could come and rest there with him, and he refused saying that his son came often to stay with him so thank you, but it wasn't necessary for us to move in with him. It was SO funny. I tried to rephrase what I was saying again, but then he saw the Book of Mormon and we changed the sbuject. He did give us his phone number though and we're going to try to go back and visit him again this week. We left the house just laughing :)

Then also this week we had sports night on Friday and it was SO much fun! We played soccer with 2 balls going at once which made it insane, but I loved it. I actually got into the game this time and we had such a blast. Then on Saturday morning one of the cub scouts in the Branch invited several of his friends over to play hockey at the church to introduce them a bit to the church and the scout leader asked the missionaries to all come and play as well. It was way fun. I've never played hockey before in my life and didn't even know how to hold a hockey stick, so Elder Grinton showed me how to do it before the game actually started. Then halfway through the game he became the goalie for the other team and I ended up scoring the 2 last goals of the game. It was so funny. Elder Grinton gets SO competetive and he kept going on about how I had completely ruined his pride and he could never play hockey again...it was great. I think the boys had a really good time as well, so it was a success :)

Oh and the cabane a sucre last week was so much fun! It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it was definitely an experience you have to have when you come here. There was a live "band" there playing really twangy old country music, half in French, half in English, and then a bunch of huge tables and they just served everybody the food all at the same time. It was pretty good, and you drown everything in maple syrup making it even more sweet and better. They served the most bizarre thing I think I've ever heard of though: eggs boild in maple syrup. It was interesting. We had a great time :)

Oh, and it was Elder Zaldivar's last district study so we did a little wake for him where we had him lay in the middle of this circle and we all said something nice about him and tried to embarrass him with stories we were telling. He was SO excited...he'd really wanted one and thought we were doing something for him, but didn't know what. So then we got to district study and he's just waiting for us to say something, but we didn't until about halfway through his thought and then Sister Cottrell stood up and said "I'm sorry, Elder Zaldivar. I'm sure you've planned a great lesson, but we have somewhere more important to be right now" and then we all got up adn he followed us and he was SO excited. It was so much fun.

As for the actual missionary work, it's coming along. We did a lot of finding this week with not tons of success, but it's coming. Patrick is still doing well and we've now passed him off to the elders (he lives in their area) so that's good. And he gets along really well with Elder Magre which will be a huge help for him in the next couple of weeks as he prepares to get baptized. Other than that, we had Raymond, but we haven't heard from him since conference last Sunday. He left Conference early, missed our rendez-vous on Tuesday, and hasn't returned any of our phone calls. It's so sad when that happens and people just kind of drop off the face of the earth without even learning the best part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But we'll keep praying and keep looking and find those who are ready. I'm excited for this week...it should be a great one :) Anyways, I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your month of April! Love you all!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

PS: GABBY: congratulations on your baptism!! I'm SO excited for you! :) Love you tons

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

2010-04-06T12:36:00.001-07:00

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

Funny dinner

2010-03-22T21:50:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody!

Not much to say about this week....we worked hard and are hoping to see those blessings soon. We taught Patrick a couple of times and are hoping to have his baptism either this weekend or next, depending on when we can schedule the interview. I'm so excited for him!! I really can't wait for him to have the blessings that come from being a member...it'll be wonderful :)

This week we also met with Raymond again, and he is just so wonderful. We're going to see him again tomorrow, and we soft committed him for baptism last week, so we're hoping to commit him for an actual solid date tomorrow when we see him. We'll see though. He might not think he's ready for that yet, so we'll just have to help him understand that setting a date doesn't mean you're signing your life away; it really is just a way to show your faith and show our Father in Heaven that your ready to receive answers. He did tell us last week though that hopefully this Sunday (he couldn't come yesterday because he had to work) that he'll be at church and he'll probably try to bring his daughter and her children as well so he's not there by himself. I'm excited! It'll be so great :)

Other than that this week we spent a bit of time up in Quebec working with the elders and working with members. We had a big Relief Society party on Saturday where we watched the Emma Smith movie. They don't have it in French though so we watched it in English which I'm sure was a little tough for some of the members up here, but Soeur Cottrell and I enjoyed it! Oh, and it was pretty funny during the actual dinner part of the party; I am the messiest eater. We had pasta, and I could not get the pasta to stay on the fork, and one time it flipped off and landed on the table, so I was going to discreatly pick it up and put it back on my plate, but of course S. Laflamme (a member sitting near me) saw me and pointed it out. Then for dessert we had cake and mixed fruit, and S. Torres (RS president) had handed me a cup full of fruit. I was eating it and S. Gelina (a member who I LOVE in the ward here) was sitting across from me and started to say what a clever idea that was, but in the middle of her sentence, I somehow flipped a piece of fruit out of the cup, it hit me on the cheek and then fell to the floor. The whole table started laughing; it was pretty funny.

Oh, and then Soeur Ouellet...I just love her. She is a woman in the ward here who's a little bit crazy. We laugh so much when we're with her. But it was so funny; so after the dinner they decided that they were going to give us some of the leftovers and so S. Garcia started putting a bunch into this ziploc bag and then S. Ouellet was standing there and she said “Oh I'd like some of that” and goes to take the bag. S. Garcia said “Oh that's for the Sister missionaries” and S. Ouellet said “oh, there's more” and took the bag and left. It's so funny. I just love her. So it's been a fun week :) I love being a missionary! Hope all is well for you! I love you all tons and miss you like crazy!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Here are some of the group pictures from the ice hotel a couple of weeks back...this is the chapel they had there. From left to right: Elder Cummings, S. Pearson, El. Williams, E. Zaldivar, E. Magre, E. Spillman, me, E. Pearson.

Pictures

2010-03-17T09:36:00.000-07:00

1. During our photo scavenger hunt: Make a peace sign with an old woman
2. My team for our photo scavenger hunt!
3. the mourners at Sister Pearson's funeral
4. Sister Pearson at her funeral
5. Sister Cottrell and I in Vieux Quebec at night :)
6. Elder Zaldivar at the ice hotel
7. me and Sister Pearson, relaxing on our ice chairs at the ice hotel
8. my elders :) Elder Williams, Elder Zaldivar, Elder Magre, and Elder Pearson
9. Sister Pearson and I in one of the rooms at the ice hotel
10. Sister Cottrell and I with Patrick :) I love him!
11. Sister Pearson and I at the ice hotel
12. Our district before entering the ice hotel...Sister Pearson, me, Elder Pearson, Elder Williams, Elder Magre, and Elder Zaldivar

"Après tout ce qui été dit, le devoir le plus grand et le plus important est de prêcher l'Évangile." - Joseph Smith

2010-03-17T08:10:00.001-07:00

Hey Everybody!

This week was a crazy week...there was so much going on! Best news of the week: Patrick set a baptismal date! I am SO excited for him. So we've been teaching him for the past week and he called us one day and said that his girlfriend was going to be there the next day, so not to do another law of chastity kind of lesson (if you remember, the day we planned to do chastity he had invited 2 friends with him, and it did not go over very well) so we told him we'd review the first discussion. We got there the next day and not only was his girlfriend there, but also his twin brother, their friend Crystal, and another friend. The lesson went well, but I'm not sure they're all that serious about learning more. It was still pretty exciting though. Then, the best part, was at the end, I wasn't quite sure how to ask him for another rendez-vous with all his friends right there, so I just didn't say anything, and then he asked “So when do we get to see you again? Monday evening maybe?” So we set up something for tonight. He was also at church yesterday (a little late; he'd forgotten about dailylight savings time) and that went so well! I was talking to him after Sunday School and he asked “So...when is my baptism?” And I told him we had 2 more commandments that we wanted to teach him with just him and then he could be baptized after that, so maybe not this saturday, but the one after, and he was just thrilled about that. He went to Priesthood and volunteered the information to Elder Williams and then Elder Grinton later thought he would help push him towards baptism a bit and asked “So when are you getting baptized?” and Patrick said “in two weeks.” He's so excited about it and he really knows it's all true and he wants so much for his girlfriend to believe it to. I just love him :) Only problem: we still have to teach Sabbath day and Tithing, and I don't think Sabbath Day will be a problem, but Tithing could be a HUGE issue. Especially since we found out yesterday that he really wants to marry his girlfriend and they've been talking about it a lot, but he has to pay a dowry for her of $5,000, so it might be a little hard for him to pay tithing while he's trying to save money for that. I don't know how that will turn out...we'll just pray a lot and really try to bring the spirit in to the lesson when we teach that one. I think it'll be ok though...he knows the church is true and LOVES the Book of Mormon. It'll work out.

Also this week: we had zone conference! That was a lot of fun. I just love President and Sister McKinnon :) Sister McKinnon talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and Bible prophets and how their revelations all intertwined (especially those around 600 BC – Lehi's time) and then had us each write a verse to Follow the Prophet and sing them in front of the group. So fun. Then President McKinnon touched on a lot of different things that were all just what I needed to hear. It really was such a great conference. The weeks with zone conference and interviews are probably my favorite weeks out of the transfer. I don't get quite as much finding in on those weeks, but they're definitely more spiritually uplifting.

We also had our fireside last night and that was not as successful as I was hoping it would be. It really needed another 2 weeks of preparation and organization, but it went all right. It could've been so powerful had it worked out how we had pictured it, but it was still good and the Spirit was definitely there. The title was “Le Christ Vivant” (the Living Christ) and we went through the text of the “The Living Christ” with breaks here and there throughout it. We had Elder Magre doing the narration and we had 3 recent converts bear testimony throughout it (well, 2 recent convert and a life-long member...the other recent convert cancelled the day of) one about the Book of Mormon, one of how a knowledge of the Gospel had blessed their lives, and one I think about the Savior. We also had a congregational hymn (I Stand All Amazed) and a special musical presentation on the Restoration. It's a great idea for a fireside...I really enjoyed it.

Other than that, I can't think of anything really exciting that happened this week. It was a fun week filled with lots of work, and I'm excited for this week...we have more planned and hopefully will be able to get out and go finding more. I'm excited for it! I hope all is going well at home and you're all having a wonderful time. Love you all!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Life as a "mom"...

2010-03-10T16:07:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

So this was my first week training, and it's been a bit rough, but good. Being the senior companion is A LOT more work than I was expecting it to be! But the elders have been wonderful and I have an incredible companion, so between them and the help of the members, it's been going well.

We went to the ice hotel on Monday, and that was fantastic. It was SO impressive what they do with ice and snow here. It was pretty warm, so there were parts that were a bit melty, but it was still really neat to see. Ramouski elders also came up with us, so there was a group of 8 missionaries, and that's always fun :) Then Tuesday was an adventure. Sister Pearson left early Tuesday morning and that was SO sad to see her driving away in the bus...I really miss her; she is just incredible. But she came back with her family to visit on Saturday and Sunday and we went out to dinner with them and had a wonderful time. Her parents were so nice and it was fun to sit and talk with her and find out all about her dying testimony meeting and dying party and everything like that :) It seems like forever away before I come back home, but then when I think about it, I've already been out for almost a third of my mission. There's not that much more time left....so crazy.

But anyways, so I stayed the day with Soeur Pelletier, the sister in the senior missionary couple, and she is so sweet. She has a very difficult accent to understand, so that made the day a bit interesting, but it turned out all right. Then we went and picked up my greenie! her name is Soeur Cottrell and she's from Alpine, Utah, but has lived all over the place. She's a professional harpist (plays for weddings and other concerts and things) and has 4 younger siblings. She's a convert....everyone in her immediate family have been members her whole life, but I guess she didn't live with her family for awhile and didn't get baptized until she was a teenager, so she does have a strong testimony of the gospel and can really relate to the investigators, which is a good thing. It has been a bit difficult, however, since I only speak a little bit of French and she doesn't speak ANY French at all, so sometimes it's a struggle to understand what's going on, but we've done pretty well so far :)

And the week missionary work-wise was pretty good...I'm still getting used to having to make all the decisions and Soeur Cottrell really doesn't know anything that's going on, which is to be expected, so we're working it out together. But we did get some finding in. And we FINALLY got ahold of Patrick and had a lesson with him that went really well. He doesn't quite understand what's going on though...he knows that baptism is a commandment and it's a good thing and he LOVES what we're teaching him, but we found out in the lesson we just had with him that he doesn't fully understand what baptism implies. He thought he had to live the commandments until he got baptized and then afterwards he could do whatever he wanted, to he said he still wanted to get baptized this Saturday, but then Soeur Belanger (our wonderful member who comes to most of the appointments with us) reminded him that when he gets baptized, he's making a commitment to come to church every Sunday from then on and we told him again that he had to keep the commandments AFTER he was baptized too, and he decided that, in that case, he was going to postpone his baptism until he could figure out exactly how to obey the commandments and really feel comfortable in living all of them. So it's a good thing; we really want him to be comfortable with the idea of being baptized and living the commandments so that he can keep them his whole life, not just for another week. We're meeting with him again tonight and we're going to watch Finding Faith in Christ and talk a bit about how faith does lead us to action but we really need to trust in the Lord and know that He'll help us to obey the commandments he's given us, or something like that. We'll see. I hope it goes well....

Oh, and the other day, it was so wonderful! So our next door neighbor/landlord, Frere Caron, is just incredible. His wife and his 4 children (only one of which lives at home) are all less active, but he is completely stalwart. So about 2 weeks ago he gave us a paper with a question his wife had had concerning a part of the Plan of Salvation and returning and living with God again. We found an answer and he invited us over this past Friday to talk about it. When we got there, his wife's brother and sister-in-law (both nonmembers) were there as well, and we sat and visited with them a bit, and then started to share the answer that we had found. We then moved on to prayer and how we can always ask God for answers and often He'll answer them in the scriptures or through other people, and her brother asked how I could have such faith in that, and so I gave a few examples and bore my testimony about the importance of prayer and then Frere Caron did the same. It was SUCH a great lesson. The next day we saw Frere Caron and he thanked us again for the lesson and said that his brother-in-law had been really touched by the lesson and really impressed by the things that we had said, so he's going to invite us over again the next time that they're over there for another quick lesson :) It was so exciting!

Then we also met this man, Roger. He's a bit odd, but really intersted in what we have to say. We taught him a first lesson and he loved it (I think...I really don't understand ANYTHING he says since his accent is so strong, so I usually just nod my head when he talks and pray that he's agreeing with what I say and then keep talking) and said he'd start reading the Book of Mormon immediately. he couldn't come to church this week, but he'd definitely be here next week. We're teaching him again tomorrow, so we'll see what happens! :)

Other than that, the week has been pretyy standard...nothing too out of the ordinary. The elders came up with a game for us to play while knocking doors, so starting tomorrow we're going to be playing "rejection bingo". they made us a bingo board with different numbers corresponding to all the different ways that people accept/reject our message, and whoever gets bingo first, wins. I'm pretty excited about it :) Oh, and it's zone conference this week which is always fun, and we're having our The Living Christ fireside this Sunday...I'll let you know how it goes next week! Love you all!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

"As surely as this is the work of the Lord, there will be opposition. There will be those, perhaps not a few, who with the sophistry of beguiling words and clever design will spread doubt and seek to undermine the foundation on which this cause is established. They will have their brief day in the sun. they may have for a brief season the plaudits of the doubters and the skeptics and the critics. But they will fade and be forgotten as have their kind in the past." - General Conference, April 1994

And the moment you`ve all been waiting for....transfer calls :)

2010-03-01T10:21:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody!

This week has been CRAZY...there has been so much to do! We tried to focus just on the work, but it was a bit difficult with Sister Pearson already knowing that she`s leaving and having to organize everything for that and for her tour around Quebec when her parents come to pick her up. But at least it`s given us a bit of time to make sure that I have copies of all her pros helps and anything else I might need from her. So...transfer calls came on Saturday night and they have a tradition up here in Quebec of having all the companionships in the city get together and have a little "party" of sorts while we wait for the transfer call and that way the Assistants only have to call one person and just talk to everyone at the same time. So we were sitting at the Institute on Saturday night with Elder Zaldivar and Elder Magre waiting for the zone leaders to show up and I got a call from Prseident McKinnon. He started off by saying that they were transferring my companion (such a shock :) ) and that I had every right to be nervous for transfers (I guess Sister Pearson or someone told him I was slightly concerned...i don't remember mentioning it in interviews) because the rumors were right...I'm training. There are 4 sisters coming in this transfer so I don't know which one I'm getting yet, but only one of them spoke French before the MTC and she's going Spanish speaking. So it will be interesting...I haven't even been out 6 months yet and I'm training already! In a completely French area where I don't understand the accent AT ALL with someone who only knows MTC French. It will be interesting, that's for sure. But I'm excited...there are always miracles when a greenie is in the area, and there are going to be 4 in our zone next transfer (one elder, the girl I'm training, one girl who came last transfer, and then Sister Orozco's taking on another greenie) so our zone is going to be AMAZING! I'm excited for that :) And I'll let you know all about my new companion next week after I meet her.

But as for the rest of last week....it was really fun! For p-day last Monday we didn't do too much...we wanted to go to the Ice Hotel, but then the elders decided they didn't have money to go last week so instead we're going today since it's the new month and we have more money. I'm excited for it :) Instead, we watched the Emma Smith movie...it was good to see her side of it, but I didn't really like it that much...the Joseph Smith one is definitely better. But there are some really cute scenes in it that you don't see in the Joseph Smith movie. So that was fun :) We also taught Robin on Tuesday and that went well...we're hopefully going to see him again tomorrow. We also taught Patrick twice AND he came to church! it was SO exciting to have him there finally and the lessons were perfect for him...it was wonderful :) I just hope things work out this week...We taught him Word of Wisdom which he was great with...he LOVED the blessings from it. Then on Friday we taught him Law of Chastity and THAT was an interesting lesson. We had planned it all out and really needed to teach it to him since he was planning on getting baptized like this week (I think that's since changed, but we haven't really discussed it with him yet...) so we go to the lesson and he'd invited 2 other friends to come and sit in....not the ideal first lesson. But both friends are meeting with us again next Friday, and Patrick said he'd live both WOW and Law of Chastity, so that was exciting :) But then yesterday at church he started to tell Sister Pearson something about changing his baptism since he didn't realize he'd actually have to LIVE that law before he got baptized...so we're meeting with him again this afternoon and we'll see what happens. He has to get baptized though...he knows it's true, he LOVES the Book of Mormon, and he is ready...he just needs to have the faith and know that God will give him the strength he needs to live through any trial. So it'll turn out :)

Oh, and I think the highlight of this week was definitely our district study on Wednesday. So for background real quick: each night our district leader (Elder Zaldivar) calls us and asks us how our day went and some other questions and about a week ago he started asking random questions like what our favorite food is and favorite color is and if we could be any thing what would it be and things like that. So we gave him the asnwers, not thinking anything of it. Then on Sunday they asked us about funeral potatoes and we were a bit confused, and then on Monday they explained that they were doing a big transfer party on Saturday as a surprise for the zone leaders and it was supposed to be a surprise for us, but they weren't creative enough so they needed our help in deciding what to do. So we gave them some ideas and that it was really neat that they had decided to come and ask for our help :) THEN on Wednesday we show up for district study (a little bit late...it took a little while to do our make-up :) ) and we walk in to the institute and elder Magre is there with his hair parted and everything and in a 3 piece suit with a black tie and he told us we were doing the study in the chapel. So we walk in and Elder Pearson is handing out programs to the funeral of Sister Pearson (when a missionary goes home, it's termed as "dying" for anyone who didn't know) and the senior couple was there, everyone was in black with black ties, there were roses at the front and a picture of Sister Pearson, and it was done SO well! They had an obituary and everyone was pretending to cry and we each went up and said some of our thoughts about Sister Pearson and then they ended with a DVD they had made of pictures representing Sister Pearson's "mission life". It was amazing; I'll have to send pictures sometime. they did such a good job with it! And it was really funny because in the obituary, they used every single one of the random questions they had asked us the week before...it was incredible. We had such a great time :)

Then our transfer party was really fun too...We took our dinner break at 7 and went up there and met up with the elders. Elder Magre had the idea that each of us should bring 3 random things from our apartments and we'd all put them on a table, divide into teams, and pick 3 things and make a game out of it and then we'd each play each others games. So we split into 2 teams (seniors vs. juniors, like always). My team was me, elder Magre, and Elder Williams and we had 8 boxes of those valentine's day conversation hearts (Sister Pearson had gotten a package that morning from her mom with those in there and we couldn't eat them all ourselves), a typewriter, a bag of beach toys, and a half-deflated beach ball. So we made up this game that was a mix of skittles bowling (where each color heart has a different thing attached to it, ie: use your head, on your knees, eyes closed, etc) and kickball, but instead of bases, you had to run to a beach toy that contained candy hearts, pick a heart and read it, another team mate would type that on the typewriter, and the other team would try and tag the person out with the ball, but once you were holding the ball you couldn't move and since it was mostly deflated, you could barely throw it. Then whoever had the most hearts typed at the end won. it was pretty fun. the other team had this competition where you had to put finger puppets on the hands of a team member, tie a paintbrush to their head using string, use an ab slide to go down and dip your paintbrush in the paint and then write your initials on a piece of paper. Each team member had to do it and they timed us against their team. it was pretty fun as well :) We had SUCH a great time.

So all in all it was a wonderful week :) Finding suffered slightly which means that my greenie and I will have to work a little harder this next week, but it'll turn out well. I hope all is going well with each of you! Love you all tons!!

Love, Sister Lindsey

PS: CONGRATULATIONS on your baptism THEO!!! I'm SO excited for you :)

"I will not be a casualty of this war I didn't start...I'll fight with a fearless heart."

2010-02-23T08:36:00.000-08:00

This week was SUCH a fun week...not the best for missionary work which was really disappointing, but it was a good week nonetheless. We started out with a half p-day on Monday and then took our real p-day on Thursday. It's really odd how that works out...we're supposed to have a zone activity once a transfer, so in this zone since it's so spread out the boonies areas all come up to Quebec City the day before our zone interviews, spend the day together as a zone, spend the night with the missionaries here, go to interviews, and then go home on Friday night. It's a lot of fun, but makes it really easy to lose focus. So on Monday we took a half p-day and just did the basics (grocery shopping and emails) and then went out and started working. We taught Patrick which went really well and then we had a family home evening with the Muselman family who are converts of about 2 years and they are amazing! It was SO much fun...we had the lesson, so we divided everyone up into 5 teams (so 2 to 3 on a team) and then gave a little thing of playdough to each of the teams and they picked a card that had one of the basic principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ on it (faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and endure to the end) and had them each mold something to represent the principle they were given, have everyone else guess it, and then share a scripture that explained it. It went really well and they all loved it. Then we committed them to find a way to share that principle with someone else in some way this week. It was fun :)

Then Tuesday I was a bit under the weather, so we didn't work quite as hard (really disappointing) but we made up for it on Wednesday. Oh, and it was so funny Wednesday night: we called the Victoriaville sisters to ask them a question about the zone activity the next day, and we just assumed they were coming up on Thursday morning for it since they usually don't start until 11 so that would've given them plenty of time to drive up, and they were like "Hey, guess where we are? We're on our way and we'll be at your house in half an hour!" It was so crazy...they'd forgotten to call and let us know they were coming up the night before. So that was a bit hectic as we rushed around to finish cleaning the apartment and making room for them, but it was so fun to have them there. Then on Thursday we had our zone activity and that was SO much fun! Sister Pearson and I put together a photo/video scavenger hunt so we all met in Old Quebec and split into 2 teams and did all the scavenger hunt items. Some were specific to Old Quebec, most were just fun. We had one that was "pretend you're famous and convince someone to ask for your autograph" which was SO funny and then another was "act out a Nephite/Lamanite battle" so we took the one with Captain Moroni where his servant cuts of the scalp of Zarahemna. It was great. Unfortunately, the next day at zone interviews, I lost my memory card, so I lost half the pictures/videos that I'd taken the day before. So sad. But it was such a fun day! So we did that for awhile, went to our favorite French cafe, and then went out and worked for the evening. Then Friday was zone interviews, and I just LOVE interviews...During our personal/comp study time, Sister McKinnon took the sisters (so me, Sister Pearson, Sister Orozco, and Sister Fletcher) out for breakfast which was SO much fun and we just talked for the two hours. I loved it :) Then the district leaders gave trainings followed by lunch (we made tacos...we have some incredible cooks in our zone) then the trainings by the zone leaders, the Assistants, Sister McKinnon, and President. Sister McKinnon's was really good...she told this story about a man (last name is Drucker and he really emphasized and revolutionized the idea of organizational management) and how he said that "the Mormons are the only utopia that ever worked" and he was so impressed by the volunteers in our church and how everyone volunteers and then SHOWS UP. It really is a neat thought...I enjoyed it. And then talking with President is always fun :)

Saturday Sister Pearson was sick, so once again we kind of took it easy, but it was still a good day. We went out and found for a little bit and worked on the fireside that we're going to be doing in a couple of weeks on "The Living Christ." I'm really excited for it :) Then Sundays are always good days...so it was a good week. And this one is going to be even better :) I'm so excited for it. We met this guy last night, Robin, and we're going to teach him tonight, and he seemed like a really down-to-earth and open guy...he should be fun to teach :) And we're teaching Patrick again...I'm excited!

OH!! AND: thank you for the Valentine's Day packages/letters! It was so exciting to hear from everyone. I LOVED the packages (thanks Mom and Janey and Kaylee :) ) and it's always fun to hear what everyone is up to. I just love hearing from everyone. But anyways...my time is about up and we have lots planned for today! Sister Pearson is going home in about a week, so we're trying to squeeze in as much as possible this week. oh, and transfer calls are coming up this Saturday...should be interesting! I'll let you know in my next email who my new companion is...Sister Pearson's going home and I don't see them flushing this area since they just did that this past transfer so we're anticipating me getting a new companion. So I'll let you know who it is next Monday! Love you all...take care and have a great week!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

PS: the temperature's been hovering around 0 degrees all week...I love it! It was warm enough for our zone activity that we didn't even need huge coats. AND the St. Lawrence River MELTED!!! SO exciting. :)

"PERFECT practice makes perfect." - Elder Bednar

2010-02-16T11:23:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!! (a day late). It was SO much fun..I just love this holiday! We spent the week making cookies and valentine's and delivering them to our less actives...we have some really interesting less actives. It was the first time I'd met most of them, and they are an odd group...none of them are really interested in coming back to church or in talking with us at all really, but they were nice. There was one man, Frere Ouellit, and his wife who we stopped by and interrupted the end of their dinner and they invited us in, fed us, and then talked with us for a LONG while. He has some interesting ideas...I guess he recently wrote a book in which he re-wrote the 13 Articles of Faith and added a few and mentioned a lot of slightly off ideas. So he was telling us about those. I missed most of it since I can't speak the language, but from what I heard, his "truths" are not really in line with the truths taught to us in the Bible or the Book of Mormon or by anyone really. So it was an interesting visit.

But Valentine's Day itself was wonderful! On Saturday we had a valentine's day themed English class and we all wrote poems and made valentine's, which was so fun. Then on Sunday I woke up and Sister Pearson has this tradition in her family where each year her parents cover the ground in the hallways and on the stairs with hearts that each say soemthign about one of the children and then each of the children has to go through and find the hearts relating to them. So she did the same thing for me and cut out like 20 hearts and wrote something nice on each of them about me and scattered them all over the room. It was so sweet! I just love her :) Then we made cinnamon rolls and the elders called to wish us a Happy Valentine's Day. Gabrielle from Montreal called and wished us a happy valentine's day as well, but I missed her call because we were out knocking doors and I wasn't able to call back, but it was so sweet to know that she was thinking about me! It was So much fun...I just love Valentine's Day :)

So anyways, the rest of the week was wonderful as well. Last MOnday we went and drove around Ile D'Orleans which is this cute agricultural island near Quebec City in the St. Laurent. We invited the elders, but they didn't want to come, so we just went and we had SUCH a good time. It's definitely a place that you should visit during the summer and fall time (apple picking season) and most of the attractions were closed since it was the middle of winter, but it was still fun and so pretty. We took a million pictures out the window as we were driving down the road and they all look pretty much identical, but it was still fun. I loved it. Then on Monday evening we had an appointment with a guy we had met doing our 10+ on Saturday, Patrick, and it went so well! We just did the follow up for the Restoration to make sure that he understtod everything, and then we committed him to be baptized by the end of February and he said he would! We've taught him like 3 more times this week as well and it's just gone so well. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he got SO excited. He was really worried the other day because he only has one kidney and he was terrified that his other kidney was going to stop working at some point and he would die. So then when we shared with him a scripture about the resurrection and our bodies would be restored to their proper and perfect frames, he almost started crying. And he asked if he could put one of the scriptures up on his wall on Facebook because he just loved it. It was great. Except we realized that we might have to push his date back, so we'll see how that goes...but it'll work out :)

Also this week, it was so funny...I was making the sugar cookies and I went to take them out of the oven and I guess the towel hit the bottom part that gets really hot and caught on fire. I saw the flame and it was just little so I followed my first instinct and tried to blow it out. It didn't work. Ther fire started spreading and blowing wasn't working at all so Sister Pearson turned on the sink and we put the fire out that way. Ironically enough: the smoke alarm didn't go off. It's gone off like 3 times this transfer when there's been even the slightest amount of smoke, and the one time there's really a fire it doesn't go off. Kind of funny. Then the next day i was making navajo tacos and I was frying the bread and I didn't think about it too much, so I just dropped the dough into the hot oil, the oil exploded out of the pan, and burst into flames when it touched the burner. It was really neat to watch, but probably NOT the best idea for keeping our house in order.

Oh, and another thing for this week: we met the funniest woman the other day. We knocked on her door and I started off the contact in French and she interrupted me in English and said "yes my dear, but did you know it's suppertime?" and then invited us in to eat with her. WE went in and talked with her for awhile and she was investigating the church back like 30 years ago. She wasn't interested in learning more now, but she was a cute woman and just hilarious. She was a doctor with 3 specialties that I can't remember, a helicopter pilot, on the police force, and she paints. It was pretty impressive. So much fun :) Then also: we met a family yesterday! We didn't get to teach them because they were in the middle of dinner, but I guess they'd met the missionaries once before they were married and it didn't really go anywhere, but they said we could come back, so we're going there tomorrow to see them. I'm way excited...they're so cute! We'll see how it goes :)

Then for the rest of the week, we're actually not taking our p-day today...we're just doing e-mails. We're having a zone activity on Thursday which will be SO fun, followed by our zone interviews on Friday. So it'll be a good week! I'm really excited for it. Oh! And one of my investigators from montreal, Elena, came to church here yesterday! She's from Germany and we were teaching her in Montreal, but she's just traveling across Canada right now and not really staying in any one place for too long, but she and 2 of her friends came to church yesterday. It was so fun to see her again...I loved it. But anyways, I have to run...e-mail time is just about over and we're heading off to teach Patrick! yay! Have a wonderful week everyone! :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!! :)

2010-02-16T11:20:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

This week was a LOOONG week...it took about a year to make it through, but it was good. And I had about 3 people tell me that there was a storm in WV and asked if I was able to call my family and find out if they were ok. It was kind of funny to hear about the news from my state here in Montreal from people in my English class. I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well! Hopefully the power comes back on soon...that would really stink to be without it. That is one nice thing about being here; we have tons of snow, but they have an incredible snow removal system so the streets are always clear and the power hasn't gone off once. It's kind of funny though; the other day we were out tracting and each of the yards had HUGE mountains of snow in front of them from where they had just cleared it off the streets and there were kids playing in it and sledding in their front yards...so cute. But it will be nice in a couple of months when the snow melts and we can see the ground again....

Things here are going really well though. We had a really fun week! Last P-day we went to the winter carnival and it was SO much fun! We had a blast. It's like one of the biggest winter carnivals in the world, and it was so fun. There were all kinds of snow and ice sculptures and a whole castle built out of ice in the middle. Somewhere in Quebec there's an ice hotel that we really want to go see, but we're not entirely sure where it is, so we'll see if we can find it and make it there sometime in the next month or so. But we did play a lot of games at the carnival and they had a tent with cookies and milk so we went inside and spent a bit of time in there..I loved it. We went with the zone leaders (the district leaders went out to lunch with us, but then decided they didn't want to go to the carnival so they left, but then the zone leaders met up with us, so it was still a couple of us together. Always fun.) and I just love them. We have some really incredible elders in our mission.

Then for the rest of the week, we spent A LOT of time out knocking doors. Like 5 or 6 hours a day knocking doors. It was a lot and it really is exhausting. But on the plus side, it wasn't snowing, so it made it a better. And I don't really mind it that much as long as I have at least 2 pairs of handwarmers, 4 pairs of pants, and a couple of sweaters :) It gets cold REALLY fast. Oh, and then church yesterday was SO fun! We were a bit disappointed because we hadn't found ANYONE to come to church with us this week, but then we pulled into the parking lot and Gabrielle was there! She's the investigator we were teaching in Montreal before I left and she is just SO cute. She came up to me in the parking lot and it was SO exciting to see her! So we showed her around the chapel and then sat down for Sacrament, and after Sacrament meeting someone came up and gave me a huge hug from behind and I was so confused since I still dont' know the people in my ward well enough for anyone to do that (the language barrier is a real problem...I understand maybe half of what they tell me and they don't understand much of anything I say...not the easiest way to make friends) and it was Rebecca from the YSA ward in Montreal! She and Phoiba (another girl in the YSA ward) had come up for the weekend and come to church in the ward instead of the branch so they could see me! It was SO exciting...I LOVED having them here! Now I just need to make those same kind of friendships with the people here...

Oh, and another fun thing from this week: we went and did service at the Blouin's house. They have a cute family. The wife died of cancer just about 2 months ago, and I guess before that the sisters would go over once a week to do service, but after she died we needed a chaperone and couldn't go as often. So this was the first time we'd been up there in awhile. We went with the elders (the district leaders) and helped the 2 girls clean up there rooms so that we could move some furniture around the house from one room to another. It took longer than expected, but was SO fun! They have a really great family and are just realyl wonderful people. I didn't understand anything he said to me really, but we laughed a lot while we were over there and just had a fun time :)

This week we don't have tons planned...we have a lesson tonight and then 3 more scheduled for tomorrow, and the rest of the time will be spent finding. I'm really excited for it..we had like 7 lessons scheduled for this past week and all except for 2 smurfed us, and one of those was woman who dropped us, so it'll be fun to teach a little more this week. I'm way excited. AND:: IT'S ALMOST VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!!! I CANNOT wait! I already started making cookies and valentine's to take to our less actives...it'll be wonderful. I'm so excited. Unfortunately, I didn't get your valentine's day package yet and I won't get it until the 19th...the AP's and President always bring the mail up when they come and they only come about once every 3 weeks and they're not coming for interviews until the 19th, so I won't get it. But that just means that I'll be able to celebrate valentine's day AGAIN when it gets here!!!! I can't wait. But anyways...good luck with everything this week! I hope the power comes on soon and I'll definitely be praying for you! I love you tons and hope you all have a WONDERFUL Valentine's Day! :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

When I hear those words "This is the right place"

2010-02-03T09:14:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

So it`s been another FREEZING cold week here in Quebec filled with LOTS of finding...most days this week it`s been -16 C with a wind chill of between -24 and -30 C, so a bit colder than in WV. Plus it`s been snowing...I found out that 2 pairs of socks, 3 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, 2 sweaters, and a huge coat don`t quite cut it, so I`m going to have to start figuring out another way of layering my clothes...we`ll see how it goes :)

Things this week did go pretty well. The work was better and we had more new investigators at the beginning of the week, but then by the end most of them had told us that they really weren`t interested after all. I just find that so sad and I don`t quite understand...if you have the fullness of the gospel before you with all of the promises that God can give and the opportunity to be with your family for ALL ETERNITY, who would not want that? Why would you not want to learn more? But I guess everyone has their agency and can do with it what they will, so I`ll just keep working on finding the ones who are ready and willing to listen and gain all their blessings.

This week was zone conference which is always SO much fun! It was kind of strange to have it here in Quebec and with only one zone...in Mount Royal we had it with the IDM zone as well, so there were at least 40 missionaries there plus the senior couples, and here there were only 14 total. But it was so fun; the Victoriaville sisters came up the night before and spent the night with us on Thursday night (it takes about 2 hours to drive from Victoriaville to Quebec so most of the outlying areas like that drive in the night before so we can start right at 9:00) and it was wonderful. They got here at like 9 pm (it`s Sister Orozco and her greenie, Sister Fletcher) but then the APs were supposed to be bringing air mattresses for them to sleep on up with them when they came and they ended up not getting there until after 10:30, so we sat around and talked and ate cookies and made Valentine`s for people (we found a box of little valentine`s in French in our cupboard so we made them for other missionaries..so fun). It was great to get to know them better. Then the APs came and we tried to blow up the mattresses but we couldn`t figure it out, so Elder Ronndahl and Elder Mills came in to try and help us and it took us a good while to figure it all out and of course they had to do it the hardest way possible to make it work. But it was hilarious; I really love the two of them together.

I`m trying to remember what else happened this week and I`m having a bit of a hard time with it...it seemed like a pretty standard week. We did a lot of finding and almost got attacked by this psycho dog...it`s jaw like locked open and it was trying to jump out of it`s owner`s arms and was like biting her to try to get to us. Crazy. Needless to say, the owner didn't let us in. Then there was another guy we talked to who was being SO frustrating...it was that same night and it had been a long day of porting (door to door) and we were a bit irritated with people (and by we, I mean me). Sister Pearson went and contacted this guy who was walking his dog and he asked us if we were trying to “save” all of Quebec and Sister Pearson went to say no and I cut in and said “If we can!” He just laughed and then went on to say that that he didn't believe in anything and the purpose of life is to have fun and go out drinking with your friends and that`s all that really matters, and I was so sick of people saying that so instead of responding with something real, I said “And then what happens when you`re 80 years old and can`t walk anymore? I`d LOVE to see you go out drinking then.” He just looked at me...and that`s pretty much how the whole contact went. Poor Sister Pearson was trying to do an actual real contact, but it wasn't working out. She started laughing as soon as it was over and just loved my responses...we decided that maybe when he`s 80 and can`t walk anymore he`ll realize the importance of our message :) We`ll see.

Other than that, nothing too exciting happened this week...pretty much just the usual. But it was fun and this week is going to be even better. The French is coming slowly, but someday I`ll get it. Have a wonderful week and I hope to hear from you all soon!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

PS: my name tag broke and I lost my first one and the new ones haven`t come in yet...so there are 2 Sister Pearson`s in our companionship for the next few weeks or so... :)

Oh, also: there`s this great CD that I`ve been listening to nonstop this week..it`s the Nashville tribute to the pioneers and it`s so much fun... :) That`s where the title came from this week...it`s the song that`s running through my head.

Learning to Ice Skate!!

2010-01-25T16:07:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

So this week has been full of adventure, that`s for sure. Transfers were Tuesday and that`s always fun..I love being with a million other missionaries, saying hello to some for the first time in awhile, goodbye to others. It makes the Berri metro stop pretty exciting :) So this one I said goodbye to my "mom" (Sister Williams) and Sister Morse and the AP`s took SIster Pearson and I to the office where we picked up our car. Unfortunately, the car needed windsheild wiper fluid, so we had to stop and get some before leaving. It took awhile to find the place, so we ended up not leaving Montreal until about 3:15. President McKinnon called us just as we were leaving to find out how close we were to Quebec and just laughed when we told him we weren`t even close and he said if we didn`t get out of Montreal before 3:30, we`d be stuck in traffic forever. Well, he was a bit off in his timing, and we ended up being stuck in traffic anyways. Also, the car we got had just come from Ottawa and didn`t have snow tires on it (which is illegal in the Quebec province) and it started snowing, so we were driving a bit slower than we otherwise would have. It gave us plenty of time to talk, which was fun, but in the middle of one of my stories I guess we missed the exit and didn`t realize it. We realized about 45 minutes later than we didn`t recognize anything, so we called Elder Ronndahl to find out where we were (being the AP, he had access to a computer...we didn`t even have a map in our car). He tried to help us, but wasn`t much help, so we pulled over and asked a woman at Jean Coutu. She told us to keep going, get on the 30 and that would take us back to the 20 so we could make it to Montreal, but she forgot to tell us which way to go on the 30. We went the direction we thought we should take, but after about 15 minutes it seemed wrong, so we called Elder Ronndahl AGAIN and his exact words were "Freak man, you`re way out there." So we had to turn around and EVENTUALLY (7 hours later instead of the 2 it should`ve taken) we made it to Quebec. So that was fun. Then the next day, our first REAL day in Quebec, we had a bunch of finding planned and went porting for a bit (door-to-door or porte-a-porte in French) and tried to get ourselves acquanted with the area. That evening we picked an area to go porting in, but when we got there we saw that it was private property, so we tried to make a u-turn to go someplace else. Unfortunately, what we thought was the side of the road was really a ditch and our car slid into it as we were turning, getting completely stuck. We called the zone leaders and explained what it looked like and Elder Pearson, who had been stuck in a ditch twice already this winter, said we could get it out ourselves and to call the other elders. We did, they came, the car was still stuck. We didn`t have AAA or Onstar or anything, so we decided we needed to call a tow truck and called every missionary we could think of who would have a phone book and could get us the number. None of them answered. We didn`t really want to call the members because we figured that wasn`t the best of impressions to make . We finally called Elder Ronndahl again to ask him, and again he wasn`t much help, although he now thinks we`re two of the ditziest sisters in the mission. The zone leaders ended up calling the senior couple here who called a member family who called us and gave us the number to the tow truck. The truck came, got us out, adn while Elder Magre was paying, a pickup truck decided it was going to try to go around the tow truck (bad idea). It ended up getting stuck in the SAME ditch we did, and even with the 4 wheel drive and the snow tires, it couldn`t get out and the tow truck had to help it as well. So crazy. We ended up sitting there for like 3 hours...we tried porting a little, but we ran out of houses.

Then Friday was fun...we taught a recent convert in French, ported a lot, then went to sports night and played dodgeball. We met the CUTEST family from France there..I just love them. But then sometime in the middle of the game, I fell really hard, giving me a LOVELY bruise on my knee (it matches the one I got on my other knee playing volleyball on Monday) that made it difficult to even walk, let alone kneel. But it was so worth it..we had a great time. Saturday we did some more porting, taught an investigator, and taught English class (SO much fun). Then yesterday was church and that was LONG. I am SO tired of thinking in French...I got a headache the first day and it hasn`t gone away since. I think I understood maybe one out of every 10 words yesterday in church...the accent is so strong and they speak incredibly fast. But everyone was so nice and it was fun to be back in a family ward again. I LOVED the YSA branch, but it is fun to have little kids in the ward and youth and everything. The ward is about the same size as our ward back home, but with more children, and it covers a larger area. Being in Rive SUd, it means there are only about 2 active families that we can really work with and about 7 active single adults, so I`m not sure dinner appointments will be much better than they were in YSA. But we did have a really sweet woman who cooked dinner for us yesterday. Unfortunately by the time we got over there I was so exhausted and so tired of speaking French that I couldn`t contribute anything to the conversation. But I`m sure the French will come soon...I`ve been working hard and trying to input things in to the lessons when I can, so I should be improving soon. But it`s been a fun week. OH, and one other adventure: we made homemade tacos for lunch yesterday, but we forgot to turn the stove onto medium instead of on high and so it completely burned the first tortilla, filling the house with smoke and causing the smoke alarm to go off. crazy. Then this morning we woke up (PS: it`s WAY colder up here than it was in Montreal. I freeze with 4 layers on every day) and it had warmed up just enough to have freezing rain instead of snow. We went out to our car and it was COMPLETELY iced over and we don`t have an ice scraper in our car, so we just sat inside for 30 minutes waiting for it to defrost. Then walking outside is an adventure: we don`t really walk, it`s definitely more of ice skating. But I`ll be an INCREDIBLE ice skater by the time I go home :) So it`s been fun; this transfer will definitely be different than last transfer, but it should be good. Take care and have a wonderful week! I love you tons!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

"Conduis-moi et marche avec moi..."

2010-01-18T13:39:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

This week was so much fun! :) There were a lot of exciting adventures...I just loved it. Transfer calls were on Saturday and Elder Cowley, one of the APs, LOVES to make a huge deal out of it. We had our guesses and were content with those, but then he talked to us almost every day to give us new clues and try and deny old ones that he had given us. We knew that when he called on Saturday it was going to be a HUGE deal and he would drag it out FOREVER, so we asked our zone leader to call us as soon as he got his call and let us know where we were going so that when Elder Cowley called, we could act like it was no big deal. It turned out so perfectly :) We got home at around 7 and had dinner and then started our transfer night party! Basically we just played UNO, told some apostasia kind of stories (some of the missionaries have done some bizarre things..) and waited for the phone call, and then did egg white facials afterwards. It was so funny though; while we were playing UNO we got a call from a private number. It was around 9:00 and they generally start making the calls at 8:30, so we assumed that it was Elder Cowley and the private part was just another part of his making it into a huge deal so we wouldn't know if it was the zone leaders calling us (they call if everything stays the same) or if it was the APs to tell us things had changed. So we answer and the guy asked for me in kind of an odd Mexican accent and we all thought it was one of the elders just faking it. He said his name was Carlos and I didn't remember a Carlos at all, so Sister Morse thought it was Elder Velarde and Sister Williams thought it was Elder Pratt. Either way, we were pretty sure it was from another missionary. I asked his name again and how I knew him and he said that we had met at Lionel-Groulx metro about a week ago and I had called him the night before and he was just returning my call. That's when I remembered that I really HAD met a guy named Carlos, and called him the night before, and he really was interested. So I set up an appointment while my comps just sat and laughed...we were all SO SURE it was another missionary; pretty funny :)

Anyways, so after that phone call we got another call from our zone leader saying that "really quick" he wanted to tell us what was going on and said that Sister Morse and I were staying and that Sister Williams was being transferred. We were SHOCKED. Sister Williams asked where she was being transferred and Sister Morse and I just looked at each other trying to figure out what in the world was going to happen next transfer when 3 sisters leave and 3 new ones come out and we're the oldest...someone would have to flush in an area. the zone leader told Sis. Williams she was being transferred to Quebec and she freaked out...then he just laughed and said it was the opposite, they were staying and I was going to Quebec. So I'm leaving tomorrow for Quebec with Sister Pearson, which should be so fun! She was up there for 2 transfers right before they closed the area, so she knows all the people and where everything is. It will definitely be different from Montreal: for one, I'll be speaking ONLY French, and 2, there will only be about 10 other missionaries and none of them will be anywhere close to me. As opposed to now where there hasn't been a day that I haven't talked to multiple sets of other missionaries. But it will be fun; I'm really excited. And everyone has complete confidence in me...I had SO many members yesterday come up and say they were so sad to see me go and had no idea that this was my first area; i just fit the role of a missionary so well. Hopefully that sticks when I'm up in Quebec!

Other things for this week: Pday was SO much fun last week! We wanted to walk on the Jacques-Cartier bridge to take some good scenic pictures, but it was closed. So Elders Jest and Laforney and us decided to find a different bridge (we decided that was a better idea than hopping the fence and breaking the law...). We parked in the parking lot of a building (turns out it was the Montreal Port Administration building) and walked along this cliff about 15 feet above the bank of the river to get to this other bridge we had found that was closed to cars. We never made it to the bridge, but had a great time playing in the snow...it came up over my waist in some areas and it was just so much fun. I took a step at one point and sank down so far that I couldn't get out at all...I loved it :) Then today we're planning on having a pizza party with our zone and playing some games...it should be a lot of fun.

We also had a zone study this week that was really good and then afterwards, i went on a split up to Hochelaga with Sister Aymon and Sister Pearson came down here. It was so great! It was all in French, so not quite what I was used to, but I helped teach a less active member and then I also contacted a couple of people in French and got the number of a family...it was exciting. And it was fun to spend time with Sister Aymon. She doesn't really like going out with all the other missionaries so I haven't been able to get to know her really well, so it was fun to sit and talk with her all night. And it was neat to see different areas and be out of Concordia for a day, find out how to street contact, practice my French, all those things :) I'm excited to go up to Quebec and see how much I understand, and I have some pretty intense goals of how I want my French to improve in this next transfer so hopefully I'll be fluent by the start of next transfer. We'll see :)

Also this week we went out to lunch with the AP's since I'm not going to be seeing much of them after tomorrow and then we also had a "date" of sorts with 2 of the other elders on the island, and that was fun. Elder Wilson promised to bake us something weeks ago, and he finally made us a cake, so we all went out to eat and then ate the cake afterwards. Perfect Friday night activity (only during our dinner break, of course...we try to make sure meal times last only that hour) :)

For teaching, the week wasn't all that wonderful, but we have a lot of lessons lined up for next week. Gabrielle is wonderful; I just love her. And she's going to be in Quebec next week and I'm going to teach her there! It was SO exciting to find that out. It'll only be for the week, but it'll be fun to have someone I know up there already. Then surprise of all surprises: THEO showed up at church yesterday! After having dropped us about 3 weeks ago, he showed up out of nowhere, and on my last Sunday. I didn't get a chance to ask him WHY he decided to come to church, but it was fun to see him there. Someday he'll realize that the way for true happiness is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that if we put our trust in Him and work diligently, constantly trying our best, the mysteries of God will be unfolded. We don't have to know everything right now at this this second, but little by little the Lord will reveal things to us to help us throughout this life. And when he realizes that, he'll have to be baptized :)

But yeah, so that was the week! OH! And I got my package from the ward!! Thank you SO much; that was so sweet! :) I LOVED it :) Up in Quebec, we only get the mail from the office about every 3 weeks or so. The next time they'll be going up there is next Friday, the 29th, and the next time will be after valentine's day sometime...just so you know and can plan the package deliveries accordingly ;) I'm SO excited for Valentine's day...it's coming up in just a few weeks! I do have an address up there, but I'm not sure I want everyone sending things to it just in case I get transferred...not all missionaries are wonderful about forwarding on letters. But here it is in case you need it:
1341 Rue des Frenes
St. Redempteur, QC
G6K1B8

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you tons!!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

"You can count the seeds in an apple, but you can't count the apples in a Seed"

2010-01-13T12:13:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

Life here is wonderful :) This week was a busy week with lots of new investigators and lots of lessons...it was wonderful. The week before we had spent most of the week finding, so it payed off this week, but it meant that we didn't get much finding time in, so this coming week might not be as great. We'll see how it goes :) But it was pretty exciting; Sister Williams had met a girl on the metro and set up an appointment with her and when we called the night before to confirm, she asked if she could bring a friend. Then we had a pass off lesson from Elder Jest and Elder Laforney, and that girl ended up bringing her friend, and the lesson just went so well! It really was wonderful; we were explaining about the Great Apostasy, and the friend (Karine) asked, "But then wouldn't God just give us another prophet? Like He did in the Bible?" It was so perfect. It just really made sense to all of them. I love it when we teach people and they actually get it. So often we teach people and they find the simplest things and try to make it in to a problem thinking that nothing religious can be as perfect or make as much sense as the Gospel does. So instead of accepting that maybe God really is a God of reason and not one of confusion, they spend the time and energy trying to find any problem they can, because they "know" there has to SOMETHING that doesn't make sense in it. That can get a little old sometime...so it was fun this week to teach quite a few people who actually understood and accepted what we were teaching, and I'm excited to teach them again this week!

And it was SO exciting: we taught Gabrielle, our miracle from last week, the Plan of Salvation, and she just loved it! I guess she's been looking into things about the church for longer than I thought...she said it's been about a year and a half that she's been curious about the church and trying to find information about it. It's so neat; she is just SO prepared! She has one issue that we know of that we're going to work out this week, but other than that, she is set to go. I just love her...we were talking about the Plan of Salvation and about baptisms for the dead, and she was SO excited and said something like "I want to be baptized for myself and for my grandparents on the same day!" and then she asked me if she was in a car wreck the next day, if I would be baptized for her, and I assured her that we would find somebody to be baptized for her (most likely by teaching her family). It was just so neat; I love her. And I love that God trusted me and my companions enough to send her to us and allow us to teach her. It really is incredible.

This week I also had to teach English class by myself, which was an adventure. My companions were teaching someone else, so I went in to English class and tried to teach them about vowel sounds, and there were two cute girls who were interested in learning about it and then one man who's been coming to English class forever who argued with me seriously the ENTIRE class. He started off the class by asking me about homosexual marriages and then how many states in the US allowed them, and he wouldn't listen to my "I don't know." He then tried to argue with the "U" sound and said that I was saying it incorrectly, and told me that "W" is a vowel, which I'm sure it's not. It made class VERY interesting. Then I was giving an example of something and said "10 push-ups" and no one in the class knew what a push-up was. I tried explaining it, but they still didn't get it, so I had to demonstrate one in the middle of class. Then a girl in the back didn't see it, so I had to do another one. Kind of crazy. Oh! And it was so sad! So I decided I wanted to strengthen my upper body during exercises this week, so early in the week I was trying to do pull-ups on this pull-up bar we have (I learned that I really have NO upper body strength and pull-ups are ridiculously hard...). The bar is in the door, about 4 inches below the top of the door frame. I did one perfectly and then went for the second one and somehow smacked the top of my nose on the door frame and it hurt SO bad, so I gave up for a bit, but then went back and tried it again. That time I did 2 and then on the third I smacked my nose AGAIN and it bruised it so I have a huge red mark on the top of my nose that I've been trying to cover up with make-up all week. My companions were just laughing at me; they watched it all day as the mark became more and more noticeable. I think it's finally starting to go away though...or at least, I hope it is :)

Oh, and I think they just need to set me apart as the Gospel Principles Sunday School teacher. I have done it SO many times in the past 2 months since I got here. We had correlation last Thursday, and Jean-Luc thanked me for doing it last minute the week before, and I said we as missionaries don't mind teaching the class, but we'd really like more than 2 minutes advance warning. We need at least a day to prepare. So he asked me right then if I would teach it and I couldn't say no because I had just said that we would be willing to help. So I taught the class AGAIN this week...but next time I'm asked I'm definitely passing it off to the Elders...teaching the entire class isn't my favorite thing to do.

Oh, and I almost forgot! It was SO fun last Monday..Elder Pratt was a bit sick and he and Elder Clarke were a little stressed with adjusting to life as zone leaders in a new area, so we decided to take them to Elder Pratt's favorite Chinese restaurant, Hot Pot. It was SO much fun! It's like a Chinese fondue place...they bring each person out a pot of soup, and you go through the line and get whatever you want to put in it and you cook it right in front of you and you can go back and get as much as you want of everything. I loved it. I tried some disgusting stuff though..I tried one of the century-old eggs where they cook an egg and then like wrap it in clay or something and let it sit for 30 days until it's black and rotten...not the best. But I ate it without spitting it out. Then we also ate several seaweed kind of things, one that looked like a coral and didn't taste very good, and then some noodles that had a really odd texture, and a shrimp with the eyes still in place on it's head. But then there were some really good things too...the pumpkin in the soup was delicious and the lamb strips were some of my favorites. We were there for like 3 hours and they really appreciated it; it was so much fun :)

Also, I found out that John Denver is WAY more popular than I thought he was. My first week here I told a Chinese man I was from WV, and he started singing the country roads song, and then this week I told another Chinese girl and she started singing the song as well. I was a bit surprised and she said "Are you kidding? Everyone in China knows that song! John Denver is amazing!" It was pretty funny. I didn't realize he was as well-known in China as he is.

I think that's about it for exciting news for this past week...transfers are coming up this week, so that's exciting. We're getting 3 new sisters, so what we're all thinking is that President is going to split up our trio here (and most people are guessing I'll be transferred) and open 2 new sister areas. But we'll see what happens...transfer calls are always exciting! Oh, also: I think I need more sleep. My eye has been twitching almost constantly for the past 6 weeks, and I think it's becoming permanent and will just last my entire mission. It could be interesting to see when it finally goes away...

But anyways, I love you all tons! Have a wonderful week! Thanks for all your love and support :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

"Look unto me in every thought. Doubt not. Fear not."

2010-01-05T09:01:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

It was so good to hear from you! This week was one of those high/low weeks where there wasn't much just in the middle emotionally. It was SO exciting; on Tuesday, we finally committed Theo! We've been teaching him since before I got here and he always has so many questions and no faith, but we had a lesson last week that kind of changed things and we decided this week we were either going to commit him or drop him, depending on what he wanted to do. So we met with him, had an incredible lesson, and started talking about baptism and he said he wanted to know what was going to happen after. He wanted to know the end before he put both his feet in. We had a member there, Irena, who explained that it doesn't work like that. More often than not you have to take a step first and show that you're willing to exercise your faith and then you see the results and the blessings. I hadn't said much during the lesson up to that point, but I felt very strongly that I needed to say something, but I didn't really know what. So I agreed with Irena and just started talking and ended up telling the story about when we moved and how we didn't necessarily want to move to WV, but we knew that that was what the Lord wanted us to do, so we did it anyways, and because we were there, we now have 4 more children in our family who will be raised in the gospel and have those blessings in their lives when otherwise they might not have, and we have the opportunity to have those children in our home and learn and grow from them. I also shared a part in the Bible Dictionary that I had found earlier in the lesson but hadn't shared under Repentance, where it says that repentance is turning your heart and your will to God and without it, you cannot progress spiritually. So our job now is to find out what the Lord's will for us is and then humble ourselves enough so that we can turn our will to match his and shared that it was something I am still struggling with, but we are blessed when we do it. I then told him that God’s will for him is to be baptized, and we know that if he prays about it sincerely, with real intent, etc., he’ll have an answer by January 30 and he’ll be ready to get baptized, and he agreed and said that he would go home and pray about it. It was SO exciting…I was beyond thrilled that the lesson had actually gone well, he had felt the spirit, and agreed to go home and pray about it, and I hadn’t gotten upset with him once. It was so wonderful. Unfortunately, we met with him again on Saturday to teach him about prophets and follow up on his praying, and he told us he didn’t want to meet with us anymore. He didn’t want to pray about it the way that we wanted him to pray about it (he prefers to pray at random times as he’s walking or as he’s on the metro and believes that if God really wants to give him an answer, He’ll give it to him regardless of how or where he prays) and he still has a lot of issues about our doctrine, some of which is true, some he found on anti-mormon websites, and all of it includes deep doctrine. It was pretty funny; at the beginning he said that no man in between 30 and 50 (he’s 33) really prays the way we wanted him to, and I said that my dad did; he’s the one who taught me. And Theo said that maybe he’d call my dad and talk to him and I said he was more than welcome to and my dad would be happy to straighten him out…then he decided he’d rather not talk to him after all. But that was pretty sad. So he’s taking a month or two break and going to try to find truth elsewhere or if not truth, at least understanding, since he doesn’t believe that there really is any truth in this world. It was really hard. We also dropped our other 2 committeds this week and our other amis (investigators) all dropped us, so we’re kind of starting over. We had committed Kvaur as well on Thursday, and we set up a time to meet on Friday and I called him to remind him and he said he was out with friends and going to a party and couldn’t come. I was pretty irritated about that since that would have been the 8th time he’s smurfed us in the past 2 weeks and we don’t have time to waste sitting around waiting for him, so I told him that he had made a commitment and he NEEDED to be there. We did not have enough time to waste sitting and waiting, and if he was serious about wanting to be baptized, he needed to be there at 7:15 when he said he was going to be there. He said to call him half an hour before and remind him, so I told him I’d call at 6:45 and he WOULD be there at 7:15 or he WOULD NOT be able to be baptized. He said Ok. I called him, he didn’t answer, he didn’t show up for the appointment, and he’s not getting baptized. It was slightly frustrating, but we realized that in this way, the Lord is enabling us to go out and find those who really are ready and willing to hear the gospel. Since all of our amis dropped us, we can now spend our time finding those who are ready. So it’s a good thing after all : )

Also this week, we had zone interviews which are always good. I love talking to President McKinnon. Except I ended up crying AGAIN. Half the missionaries in our zone only see me when I’m crying, so I’ve developed a bit of a reputation for being the cry baby of the mission, but I decided that’s all right…my investigators and the members have never seen it, and they’re the ones that I want to make a good impression on. But I was talking to President and asked him what I can improve on, and he said that I have all the natural qualities to be a good missionary and once I get completely adjusted, I’ll be amazing. He said he’s just waiting for that day…right now I talk to all the members, I’m cheerful and friendly with everyone, I’m an incredible teacher (speaking of which, I had to teach gospel Principles on the spot yesterday because the teacher didn’t come and the substitute decided to go to a different class…luckily it was an easy topic so it went pretty well. It was on “God does exist”), and as soon as I forget about my life back home and am able to completely throw myself into this work, I’ll find miracles all over. So that’s what I’m working on right now…forgetting my life back home and focusing completely on the work out here.

Oh, and we did see miracles yesterday! It was SO great…we didn’t have any amis at church since they all dropped us, so we were all sitting in the front, and I looked around during the testimonies and saw a girl who I had never seen before. I felt like I should talk to her after, but didn’t think too much about it. After the closing prayer I wanted to talk to Elder Cowley and assumed that she was a visitor from out of town and would find other people to talk to, but then I saw her just standing by herself and knew I HAD to go talk to her, so I went and introduced myself. Turns out she’s an investigator who saw the missionaries on the metro but didn’t want to talk to them, so she googled our church alter and found a Facebook group. She loved our standards and one of the girls on there pointed her in the direction of mormon.org, where she chatted with some sisters in the MTC and they taught her a bit and told her where the church was, what to expect, and how to dress. So we went and talked to her and got to teach her afterwards and she LOVED church and we committed her to be baptized, when she receives her answer, on the 6th of February. It was SO exciting! Then on the way home I decided to start talking to the guy next to me (after about 2 days of not having the courage to talk to anyone, the fact that I actually said something was a miracle in and of itself). I just asked how he was doing and he thought I was trying to convert him, so he said he wasn’t interested, but I told him that no, I really did just want to know how he was and how his day was since he looked a little drained. So he told me about his day and I told him about mine and then told him a little about missionary work and he said he was interested and gave me his number so that we could meet up and talk about it some other time. By that point we had missed our stop and had to turn around and go back, so I talked to another guy who also gave me his number. We once again missed our stop and had to turn around, and this time the guy I talked to wasn’t interested, but Sister Morse and Sister Williams talked to someone and got his number. It was great. Oh, and in Second Cup the other day we were waiting for our recent convert and he didn’t show up, but the other guy said hello to me and told me that the raspberry muffin I got wasn’t as good as the blueberry muffin that Sister Morse bought, and if I didn’t like it, I could exchange it because that’s their policy there. I thanked him, went and ate my muffin, and then felt like I should go back and thank him for his advice again and tell him I did enjoy the muffin. So I went back and started talking to him and we talked about the gospel and missionary work for awhile. He seemed interested, but wouldn’t give me his number, but we did set up an appointment for Tuesday. We’ll see if he shows up or not. It was pretty neat though; at the end of the conversation he said “you know, I never understood why they sell those raspberry muffins because they’re really not very good. But now I know: it gave me the chance to learn what you all do as missionaries and where we go after this life.” It was pretty great :)

So it was a pretty good week after all. But my time’s about up; I have to run. I tried sending pictures again, but it doesn’t work on this computer, so I think I’m just going to print them out and send hard copies to you. Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful week…love you tons!!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Hey Everyone..Happy New Year!!

2010-01-03T14:44:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

Happy New Year!! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the new year celebrations. Things here are going really well, like always : ) Christmas was incredible. We had such a wonderful time! We went with a bunch of other missionaries to Bishop Tingey’s house for breakfast and spent several hours over there and then went to the Anderson’s (the senior missionary couple) for another hour or so with several other missionaries. It’s so much fun to spend time with all of them; it was great to have a little missionary “family” while we were all here this year. After the Anderson’s, my companions and I went over to a cute older woman’s home for Christmas dinner. Her name is Sister Kennedy and she’s actually in the Montreal family ward, but she met us the other day and invited us over. It was so cute; we got there and she had little presents for each one of us. We were quite a bit late and had a difficult time finding her apartment (and then getting inside once we found it…we tried to ring the bell, but it didn’t work. Her phone was busy so we couldn’t call. The doorman kept running back and forth between his apartment and the door and finally opened it for us after about 10 minutes so we could actually get inside the apartment building…crazy.) but she didn’t seem to mind too much. We sat and talked with her and her 40 year old son, Paul, for a couple of hours and it was just so much fun. She is such a sweet woman; I’m so glad we got to go visit her.

Hmm, what else happened this week? We spent quite a bit of time trying to find people and went Christmas caroling in the metro for a couple of hours one evening with about 20 other missionaries, and that was wonderful. It definitely helped put everyone in the Christmas spirit : ) We also had several lessons, one with Theo which I think FINALLY got to him a little bit. We’ve been teaching him since I got here (so for at least 9 weeks now) and he just spends most of the time trying to pick holes in the things we teach and question everything. He says he doesn’t trust his feelings and won’t listen to them at all, but his brain always works rationally so that’s what he’s going with to determine whether the church is true or not. He has a point to a certain extent, but he doesn’t realize that generally when the Holy Ghost communicates with people it is through their feelings. It’s been SO frustrating. So we decided that we were going to either commit him to be baptized or frank him this week (meaning we’d tell him he can either be baptized or we can’t waste our time teaching him anymore…there are other people who are actually ready and willing to listen to the things we have to say), but we decided to watch “Finding Faith in Christ” first, and the lesson went SO well. We decided that we would give him the commitment at the beginning to pay attention to his feelings as he’s reading. We asked him what he thought faith was, how he thought the Holy Ghost communicates with us, and what importance all of that plays in our lives, and he answered everything perfectly. So then we watched the movie and we closed with a prayer as soon as it was over (we were a little concerned that if we started talking it might break the spirit in the room or he’d try to argue with us and we wanted the movie to be the last thing he remembered) and the Spirit was so strong during the movie. We’re not entirely sure what he thought of it, but I looked over towards the end and it looked like he was crying. I really hope that that was what he needed and he’ll actually develop the faith necessary to trust in the Lord and realize that he doesn’t need and answer for EVERYTHING right now. God’s plan is perfect; the holes that we find in it are ones that we develop because we can’t see everything or know everything that God knows. We’re in this world to walk by faith and trust in God’s plan, not to search for the problems in EVERY situation. I hope he realizes that soon.

Oh, and it was great! Yesterday, Sonny (real name = Kvaur) came to church. This was his 4th time there, which I just find amazing. Remember, he was the one in the metro that I met a couple of weeks back that wanted my phone number? Then we saw him in the metro about 2 weeks later and invited him and his friend to church, and they both came, and his friend is now taking the discussions? Well, we invited him to our ward Christmas dinner on Monday and he brought his girlfriend of one day with him. We taught them the first lesson, but they both seemed more interested in each other than they did in what we were teaching, so we decided that we needed to teach them separately. But then they smurfed us (didn’t show up for the appointments) the next 2 days in a row, so we were ready to give up (that’s like the 5th time Kvaur’s smurfed us). But then he came to church! Granted he slept through half of sacrament meeting, but he was there. After sacrament, Elder Cowley (one of the AP’s…I think I’ve mentioned him before) asked Kvaur when he was going to be baptized and Kvaur said he already had been. So Elder Cowley quickly explained that it had to be by immersion and since his wasn’t, he needed to do it over again, following the example of how Christ was baptized (by immersion, with the right authority). Kvaur wanted to know where we baptized people, so I took him and showed him the font and he was a bit scared about going ALL the way under water, so I told him it’d only be for like 2 seconds, and a man called of God, given His authority, would be there holding his arm with a hand behind his back, helping him the whole way. I also told him that it was ONLY through baptism by the correct authority that we can return and live with God again; without that, there is no possible way that we can live in his presence for eternity, and Kvaur responded with “I guess I can do that then…I’d probably have to wear swim trunks or something though…” It was so funny. I told him that we’d give him a little jumper to wear and he said “Well, how soon can I do this then?” and I told him that we had about 12 lessons that we would need to teach him, he’d have to make sure that he understood and believed everything, but if we met with him every day (stressing the importance of MEETING with him often…hopefully he won’t smurf us), he could be baptized in as little as 2 weeks. And he said ok and asked if we could meet tomorrow and then gave us his cell phone number which he hadn’t given to us before. It was so great : ) We’ll see how the appointment goes this evening…

And I think those are probably all of the really important things for this week…one of Elder Jest and Elder Laforney’s member made them a TON of Philippino food, so they gave us a bunch the other day. It was interesting to say the least. Then Sister Johnson invited us and the AP’s and a couple of other missionaries over for dinner yesterday and she made some BIZARRE food. We had goat, which wasn’t too bad, but then she made this smush stuff (that’s really the name of it) that consisted of mashed spicy beans and fish heads, and it was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever had. But Elder Cowley made me try it…yuck. Oh! And speaking of gross things…we had this incredible Christmas party at President and Sister McKinnon’s house on Christmas Eve and we had this white elephant gift exchange with inexpensive presents. (It was so fun…President McKinnon ended up with a Twilight poster and I know that deep down, Elder Udall really loved the Disney princess nightlight I gave him : ) ) Elder Karaka, an elder from Australia, brought vegemite as his gift, and it is so gross. Elder Cowley made me try it and it was disgusting…it’s a really strong, bitter, dark brown stuff that you’re supposed to put on toast and it just about made me sick. Sister McKinnon got after him for picking on “poor, innocent Sister Lindsey”…I love her : ) but my time is about up; I need to run. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Happy New Year!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

Merry Christmas!!

2009-12-21T11:54:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! This is SUCH an exciting time of year; I love it! I hope everything back home is going well and you all are having an incredible time. Things here have been pretty average for the most part. We had zone conference which is always fun, and this time it was even better because we had all the zones on the island there, so 5 zones in all. We had a great training by our zone leaders about applying the Plan of Salvation to our mission « lives » and it was really impressive. I really like having Elder Pratt as our new zone leader; he is really impressive. Then after all of the trainings we had a little Christmas party for the missionaries. Several of the sisters in the Montreal ward had cooked us a beautiful Christmas dinner and we all got to wear Christmas hats and got Christmas presents. It was so much fun : ) I loved seeing all of the elders from last transfer who had been transferred to other places.

I don`t have much news other than that…I really can`t think of anything that`s happened this week. On Monday we went Christmas caroling for FHE, and that was a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time finding since most of our potentials/investigators are MIA due to finals or going home for Christmas or a lack of interest. We did go visit April, the recent convert who was baptized right before I got here, and that was really sad. She`s not interested in the slightestin hearing anything to do with religion and kept us very much at arms length. It was one of those times where the other person is being as rude as they can while still putting on the pretense of being polite. It really was upsetting. Poor Sister Williams took it really hard and ended up crying half the night because of it. Hopefully someday she`ll realize what she`s missing out on… This week should be pretty exciting, although a bit unproductive. My companions have both been sick for the past few days. Sister Williams was so bad she couldn`t even stand up, so we haven`t been as productive as we would`ve liked to have been. They`re now both getting better and I`m starting to get it. Not fun. But we`re hoping to all be better by Christmas : ) OH, and it`s so exciting, after weeks of begging we actually have Christmas plans now! We all hinted strongly in our President`s letters last week that we needed a Christmas dinner since we were the only missionaries we knew that didn`t have one, and then in his training, President talked about his first Christmas in France in which he didn`t have a heater in his room (there was only a space heater to heat the whole apartment and the senior comp had it in his room) and none of his presents had gotten there on time and his comp wouldn`t let him watch while he opened his, so Christmas morning he got up and ironed his sheets to remove the ice from them so they were warm enough to crawl back into and try to sleep while his comp opened his presents. So we figured we wouldn`t get any sympathy from him. BUT! Luckily Sister McKinnon was feeling generous and has invited several companionships over for Christmas Eve dinner, which should be SO fun : ) Then the Bishop of the family ward invited the whole zone over for a brunch on Christmas Day, then a woman who we just met 2 days ago invited us over for Christmas dinner since it was only going to be her and her 40 year old son, so we`re pretty excited about all of that : ) I`m not entirely sure when I`ll be calling home, but probably sometime between 1 and 5 Christmas afternoon…I don`t quite know how it will work out either. I was supposed to buy a calling card today, but I forgot to, so if we get them I`ll be calling from either the church or our cell phone. If not, then I`ll be going to the Anderson`s (the senior couple here…I just love them!) and using Skype to call home.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! Thanks again so much for the support and letters and everything : ) I love you all tons!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

It's almost Christmas! I finally got boots!

2009-12-14T09:36:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

It sounds like things are going really well back home…it’s almost Christmas time! I’m so excited to call home and talk to everyone :) Tell David congratulations on everything with the Madrigal concert…I bet he was amazing. Any chance he can send me a recording of the songs that he sang? And Michelle too…she said she might send a recording of her choral performance, and I’d love it if I can have it. Our president is really lax with music, and at Christmas time we can listen to any Christmas music, not just LDS Christmas music. We’re still pretty conservative with what we listen to just because we know the difference between uplifting music and mission uplifting music (music that makes us motivated to actually do missionary work instead of just uplifting music), but there are a lot of elders who take complete advantage of President’s music rules. We were in the car with some elders this morning on the way back from doing laundry and they were listening to “Mormon Tabernacle Remixed” which is basically the rap version of Motab. It was hilarious, but not something that I would feel comfortable listening to everyday. We are getting the J Groban Christmas CD for evenings while we’re getting ready for bed tonight though :)

So this week was full of miracles, Saturday especially. Oh but first, I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Morse, this is her 5th transfer and she was in Quebec City for the first 6 months of her mission. She’s a lot of fun; I really like her. And she really wants to work hard and is used to working hard (Quebec is a really hard area without much success…they actually closed it this transfer but are hoping to reopen it soon) so it’s exciting to have her here. And we all seem to work fairly well together. It’s been interesting trying to adjust to 3 people in our companionship and teaching in our lessons instead of just 2, but it’s been pretty good so far. I’m excited for this transfer :) Also, since she’s been up in Quebec, she speaks French perfectly and so hopefully mine will improve. I don’t speak French hardly at all while I’m up here since we only work with English speaking YSA, but I’m hoping to get her to PVL (parlez votre langue - speak your language) with me often. We’ll see how it goes.

But anyways, back to the miracles. Saturday was incredible. We got to the church at a bit after 11 and we were supposed to meet Rob there at 11:30, but he didn’t show up. We waited there just making calls until almost noon and then were about to give up and go to the metro to contact to go for lunch or something like that, but then Sarah, this cute Chinese girl we’ve been teaching, showed up! We were supposed to meet with her on Sunday but she was leaving for China on Sunday so she was going to have to cancel so she decided to stop by the church and see if we were there. We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then Sister Williams asked why she was afraid of being baptized and she said she just had some questions and asked them and we were able to answer all of them and she was so happy at the end of it! All of her concerns (for the moment) were put to rest and she promised to read everyday while she’s over in China. It was so exciting…hopefully it will be the same when she gets home :) Then we went contacting for a bit, then came back and ate dinner, then met with Earnest and that was so frustrating…there is such a difference between teaching people who listen to answers and those who don’t. He asked a question and I started answering it and 2 words into it he rolled his eyes and made some noise (psh…or something, I don’t know how to actually write the sounds out, haha) and I was so irritated by it and said “Don’t “psh” me; I’m not done talking yet!” and he apologized and listened and I was able to answer his question. My companions just started laughing. Luckily he didn’t get upset that I was that rude…I figured he could take it ;) But it was a very frustrating lesson. Then we went to the metro to wait for our less active, Mike, who was going to meet us there and go to the Spirit of Christmas fireside with us. We waited for awhile, but he didn’t show up. So we were going to leave and guess who came out of the metro, heading home for the day? ROB! Our newly baptized man who had smurfed us that morning for our lesson and who we hadn’t been able to contact all week and had been worried sick about. Turns out he had some military function (he’s with the reserves) and so he hadn’t been able to come and he hadn’t been able to get ahold of us. So we told him about the fireside and he changed his plans right then to come with us. It was SO exciting :). Then the fireside was great. It was one of the musical ones where everyone sings Christmas songs and the Spirit was so strong. Oh, and another miracle: remember the Japanese girl I mentioned that I’d met at the service project last Saturday who had unexpectedly shown up for church last week? We ran into her at the bus stop on our way to the chapel. She had heard about the Spirit of Christmas and had wanted to come, and brought her best friend (a girl from Montreal) with her. Elder Cowley talked to her friend, Raphaelle, and she said she didn’t believe in God at all, and he bet her $100 that she would hear something that night and something inside her would click and she would know that what we were doing and saying was true. And it happened! Elder Ronndahl sang “Oh Holy Night” for the closing song and the Japanese girl, Saiah, was really touched, and Raphaelle just started to bawl. So we’re teaching her next week :) It was so perfect. I love it when those miracles happen…God definitely does have a plan and things always work out the way they do for a reason. Rob smurfed us, but we were there to talk to Sarah. Mike smurfed us, but because of that we ran into Rob. We met Saiah last week and she introduced us to Raphaelle. So perfect. I love it.

Other than that, life has been fairly uneventful recently. We passed off one of our committeds and another really great guy, Zach, to Elder Jest and Elder Laforney because they weren’t in our area which was pretty upsetting, but that’s all right…we’ll find other great people soon, I’m sure. I’m really excited to get out and start working harder. Oh, and it was great! We had a dinner appointment last night with two girls in our branch, Lynda and Sacha, and they are so cute. I just love them. And I will never again complain about having a tiny apartment. Theirs was BY FAR the smallest I have EVER seen…Their kitchen seriously wasn’t any bigger than a closet and their bedroom barely fit a dresser and a bunkbed. I would be so claustrophobic living there. But they love it, and they were so sweet to invite us over for dinner :) Then after that we went to visit a less active with another member of our branch, Jenn, and we got there and could NOT find her house anywhere. Hers was number 919, and the houses went from 921 to 917, with nothing in between at all. We even asked one of the people living in 921, and they had no idea where 919 was. So we called her and she had moved MONTHS ago to somewhere in the west island about an hour away. So we’re visiting her next weekend instead. It was pretty funny.

Oh! And we had our first REAL snow storm! I bought boots on Tuesday (thank goodness…they were entirely too much money though) and there was a huge snow storm on Wednesday. Like 10 inches. But they cleared the roads and everything, so yesterday I thought I’d be fine wearing regular shoes instead of boots, so I didn’t wear them. It snowed again yesterday. Another 4 inches just while we were in church…so crazy. I realized having boots doesn’t help too much if I don’t wear them :) But the snow is gorgeous and it will definitely be a white Christmas! I’m so excited! I hope you all have a good week and take care…I love you tons!! :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

PS: thanks for the letters! That always makes the day more exciting. Love you tons!

I survived the transfer and am in a threesome!!

2009-12-08T10:36:00.001-08:00

Hey everybody!

This week was WONDERFUL! :) ROB GOT BAPTIZED!!! It was SO exciting...it went really well. It was at 9 in the morning, so we had to be there extremely early to fill up the font, had a bit of a difficult time printing programs, and we ended up starting a bit late, but it still worked out all right. It was pretty funny; at about 8:45 Rob and the elders were the only people who had shown up, so we were starting to get a bit nervous. We called our ward mission leader, Jean-Luc, and asked where he was and he said "Oh sisters, thanks so much for waking me up!" Sister Williams just about flipped. He asked us if Brother Donaldson (counselor in the branch presidency) was there yet and if maybe we could just do PEC first and THEN have the baptism. Sister Williams was furious. She was trying so hard to be nice at first but then stopped and said "I'll preside the stupid thing myself if I have to! You had better be here in 15 minutes or..." and he interrupted her to say he would be there as soon as he could, but it still might be a little while. She just hung up the phone. Then the APs showed up and she started complaining to Elder Cowley and he said "Wait, Jean-Luc? He's out in the parking lot right now on the phone." and then he walks in, completely ready. It was so funny :) But the baptism itself went really well. I took pictures, I'll try to send them next week. One of the recent converts, Robyn, gave the talk and did an incredible job, and then Richard, a convert of about 2 years, actually performed the baptism, and it was so neat. He did a really great job. And afterwards Rob was so happy! He was so excited before it actually happened and then afterwards we asked how he felt and he said he just had such an incredible feeling and was so happy...he couldn't stop smiling! :) I loved it. A guy in the ward, Jared, did the confirmation which was good. He had helped a lot in the fellowshipping so it was great that he was able to participate in some way. I think it's good that members of the ward participate actively in the confirmation/baptism ordinances...that way there isn't really just the one missionary that the recent convert is depending on. They can form that bond with someone in the ward who won't be leaving anytime soon. Otherwise they'll be like many of the other recent converts who are torn apart completely when the missionary who baptized them goes home or is transferred. i think I'm going to encourage everyone from here on out to have members of the ward baptize them instead of missionaries...we'll see how that works out :)

What else happened this week? Oh! We did a service project on Saturday which was so fun! We collected food for the NDG food drive and we got to go around with the military/ SIster Williams and I rode in one of the army trucks...definitely worth the 3 hours of freezing outside while we were knocking doors, haha. I loved it. We were also on the news while we were sorting the food afterward, or at least, that's what the woman in charge told em at church yesterday, but I don't know if we actually were or where you would be able to find that to see it. But it was still a really neat experience. I also met a girl there from Japan who had been living in Quebec for 2 months and then moved to Montreal just 2 days before and I talked to her for a bit, she came around the town with us while we were collecting food, and we invited her to church and she showed up! It was such a shock...but there she was, and she stayed for all three meetings! Two of the girls in the ward are fluent in Japanese (one served her mission there, I don't know about the other one) so they both talked to her and explained everything, which was wonderful, and so it turned out really well. I'm not sure she's really interested, but she said she might come to FHE tonight and she'll definitely be at French class tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. I'm expecting a miracle this Christmas...maybe she's a part of it :)

Also....I made it through my first transfer!! My second transfer officially starts tomorrow, and I have my planner decorated and ready to go :) I'm excited. We got home Saturday evening to wait for the call around 8...it didn't actually come through until almost 10 so we were just sitting there waiting for news to come in. We had our friend Bruno sneak a peak at the board in President McKinnon's office (he cleans the mission home) on Friday and so we pretty much knew what was going on with us (President Mckinnon was so upset though...he said he's never letting Bruno in his room again. But we got the information!), but didn't know much else that was happening, so we were sitting and waiting for all the other elders to call us and tell us what was happening with each of them, and it was CRAZY. They flushed like 5 areas, 2 of them were zone leader areas which is like unheard of in this mission, and then they just put bizarre companionships together in random places. 3 of the elders are leaving halfway through this transfer to get back to school in time, so we weren't sure what was going on with them, and they ended up doing some completely unexpected things. Like Elder Porter is being transferred to some boonies area in Ottawa and training an elder fresh from the MTC for these 3 weeks and then they'll have to replace him with somebody...not quite what I would have done. As for us, both Sister Williams and I are staying in Concordia (the YSA English branch), but since one of the sisters is going home and we're not getting any new ones this transfer, they're closing Quebec City and Sister Morse is coming to Concordia so we'll be a trio. It will be an interesting experience...I can't quite decide what to think about it. Our apartment is so tiny, so we've spent the past day or so cleaning out the junk that has been piling up for the past 5 or so years and it is insane how much can accumulate. I've heard she's pretty quiet, but that she likes to work hard, so we'll see what she's like when we meet her tomorrow. I think it'll be a good transfer :)

Other than that, there hasn't been anything too exciting going on this week. Life is pretty much the same as always. We were both a bit under the weather this week so we didn't get quite as much contacting done as we wanted to, and I didn't think we were working all that hard, but we still managed to do better than every other area in our zone. Kind of crazy how that works out. And we had a miracle (of sorts). Remember that kid Michael who came to church with his friend Sonny last week? He randomly showed up at the Church on Thursday wanting to be baptized and we just happened to be there, so we taught him the first discussion and it went so well. He's had a pretty rough life, but wants to change it completely. He said he felt something in church...he almost started crying during Sacrament meeting, and he wants that always in his life. So it was great. We taught him the second lesson on Saturday and that went well too, but we're going to have to pass him off...he has an 8 yr old daughter who he hasn't seen in 3 years, but he's taking his ex to court for custody, so he's not exactly YSA. But it still was exciting to have him be so interested. And we met with a member referral who was way sweet and another really cute girl named Dominique who we met on the metro about a month back. Unfortunately both of them have finals this week so we can't see them again for another week or so, but I'm hoping for good things with both of them :)

I love you all tons and thanks so much for the letters, support, and prayers! It really means a lot to me. I miss you tons and can't wait to talk to you in just a couple of weeks! I love you!

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey

We got your Christmas package!!!

2009-11-30T13:03:00.000-08:00

Hey Mom!

So the internet isn’t working right now…I was able to read your messages but not respond, so I won’t be able to answer your questions in full right now since I don’t really remember what they are. I did get the packages though!! They came today; it was so exciting!! J We were doing our laundry and one of the elders (Elder Leman from Belgium…he’s so fun, I just love him) called me to tell me that I had two HUGE packages waiting for me. It was so exciting. And there were several other elders there who all made a huge deal about having enormous packages and I just laughed and said that my family loves me J Thank you so much! I’m so excited to go home and decorate! Sister Williams and I were looking through them a bit and found the little tree and the decorations…such a cute idea. Thanks again, so much!

Life here is pretty standard…nothing too exciting from this week. It has gotten pretty cold…today it’s about 2 C according to the weather in the metro (don’t ask me how cold that is in F) and tomorrow it’s supposed to be 0 C, getting to a low for the week of –2 C on Thursday. So crazy. And I still haven’t bought boots yet. We were going to go last week but then it was Sister Cerdhe’s birthday so all of the sisters on the island (all 8 of us) and Robyn went out to eat and it ended up taking all afternoon so we didn’t get a chance to buy them. So we were going to do it this morning, but laundry and groceries and everything ended up taking forever and we don’t have tons of time, so I have no idea when we’re going to be able to go get them. I need to soon though; the first snowfall of the year was today! I guess it’s a lot later than it usually is so some of the Canadians were a little nervous…one of our investigators prayed for snow the other day. Her name is Stephanie and she’s way cute, but I wasn’t too happy about that part of the prayer…oh well. It is pretty at least J

Ooh, and happy (late) Thanksgiving! I forgot about it last Monday or I would have said something in that email. It sounds like you guys had a lot of fun! And I completely forgot about black Friday…I’m bummed I missed out! That’s great that you were able to finish most of the Christmas shopping…I love this time of year! Our Thanksgiving was really fun. Elder and Sister Anderson, a senior couple here that teach Institute and are just the sweetest people, invited all the missionaries in our zone over for a Thanksgiving dinner. It was SO much fun…they set it up as a buffet and people were coming and going from 1 until about 5 pm, so we went there around 3 with 6 or so other elders and it was just so much fun. It made the day a lot better. Unfortunately, they tend to take after Grandma and Grandpa Lindsey in their celebration of Thanksgiving and only had one kind of pie…I think next year I’m just going to make about 10 the day before Thanksgiving so I can finally have a real celebration ;)

OH, there were some crazy things from this week though that I almost forgot to mention! We were in the metro on Tuesday, talking to one of the members that Sister Williams knows from another ward, and one of the drivers on the green line got out of his car and went and talked to the police officers. I guess he really doesn’t like missionaries and always makes an announcement when he sees them telling them not to proselyte on the metro because it’s “illegal”. Sister Williams recognized him because he had to talk to her one time since she didn’t understand the announcement and he was pretty rude to her. So anyways, he talked to the police officers and then they came over and told us we weren’t allowed to talk to anyone in the metro. I said that we weren’t selling anything and we weren’t handing anything out unless they were interested in which case we gave them a pass-along card, but we didn’t do anything more than that (which is within the bounds of the rules…we weren’t doing anything wrong) and they said that we weren’t allowed to do that there. I asked if we would be allowed to continue just talking to people without handing out the cards and they said that was bending the rules and we weren’t allowed to do that at all and we would have to leave the metro station if we tried. So we left the metro station and ran into one of the APs on the way out and told him what happened and he told us we should go back in there and keep talking anyways. Then if we got arrested we’d be legends J We still didn’t go back, but just rode the metro for awhile talking to people instead. Oh, and while we were riding the metro, there was one time when there were no YSA people on our car, so the train stopped and I got off to get onto a different car and try to talk to some people. Right as Sister Williams went to follow me off, the doors shut, leaving me on the platform and her in the car, and there was nothing we could do. So she rode to the next station. I waited for the next train and wasn’t sure if I should get on it or not, so I decided I might as well get on. She wasn’t sure what to do either, so at the next station she got on the train heading back to the station we had split off at. Luckily, my train arrived right as hers was about to leave and she looked over and saw me through the window (pretty miraculous how it happened with both of us being on cars across from each other) and so she quickly got off and we were back together again. And I definitely freaked out about not having a companion with me. 5 weeks into the mission and I can't be without one, haha. Also, tell Michelle that I already have the missionary voice too...it came about the first week here and I know I'm doing it and I can't stop it. I'll try to get rid of it before I come back though, don't worry :)

OH, and another crazy story...so remember that one I mentioned last week about that guy Sonny who asked for my number in the metro but we never called him, then he randomly showed up while we were waiting for someone else and so we had the elders teach him and he dropped off the face of the earth? (side note: make sure you always call the missionaries back. It's so frustrating to just wait for days and have no idea whether you should keep calling or not.) Well, SIster WIlliams and I ran into him and his friend, Michael, at the metro on Saturday and invited them both to church on Sunday. His friend is Catholic, but said they would come anyways as long as he was welcome. So they both showed up for Sacrament meeting yesterday and I invited them to FHE tonight, so we'll see if they come. Michael, after church, asked me if he was doing something wrong and I didn't quite know what he meant, so I said not at all, and he said "Are you sure? I just think I'm doing something wrong." But then I had to run because I was teaching the Sunday School class so I didn't have time to ge to the heart of his question. Hopefully he comes tonight and we can work it out. It was just kind of crazy. oh, and I did speak yesterday in church and it actually turned out pretty well! It was definitely an inspired idea...I had no idea what I was going to talk on and then I remembered the primary song "I belong to the CHurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" and so I took that song and went principle by principle through it: we know who we are (God's children...I quoted that first part of the YW theme), we know God's plan and will follow Him in faith, we beleive in the Savior, Jesus Christ, and honor His name, and finally His truth we will proclaim. I was pretty pleased after writing it. Then I was freaking out a bit Sunday morning since I really hadn't spent hardly any time planning it and wasn't sure what I was going to say and hadn't spent much time on my lesson or anything, and so I asked Bro. Banfield how long I was speaking for and he said "Oh, did I not tell you? You're not speaking today. It's the CES production so Brother Limoges is talking." So I calmed down a bit. Then 5 minutes before it started, Elder Cowley came up to me and said that there''d been a change of plans, Brother Limoges's wife couldn't come, so I was speaking after all. It was so crazy. But it went really well and I had one person come up after and say that it was just what he needed...he had been a bit iffy about church attendance recently and my talk was just what he needed to solidify his testimony. It was really neat :)

AND best news of all!!! ROB IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! :) This Sunday!! I'm so excited for him. It's going to be so wonderful. He's the first person I ever taught, and he's going to be baptized! I really can't wait at all. OH, and the girl that you talked to on Facebook, Mom, is Robyn and she is probably my favorite person in the branch. I just love her...she said she had talked to you on there and gave me a hug for you last Monday (she came out to eat iwth us) and it was so exciting. She is so cute and we talk to her just about every day. I LOVE her. But anyways, I need to wrap this up, my hour is about over. I love you all tons, and thanks again for the package! You are amazing!! :)

Love, Nicole

Are you freezing yet?

2009-11-23T10:26:00.000-08:00

Hey Mom!

How are you? It`s always so good to hear from you! Things here are insane, like always. This week wasn`t quite as good as last week in our work ethic or quality which was pretty frustrating, but we already have a million lessons planned for this next week, so it should be a lot better! Except it`s crazy...I really thought that leaving BYU and coming on a mission meant that I wouldn`t have to deal with boys asking me out anymore. Obviously, I was wrong. I don`t think I told you about Sonny, but he was actually from last week. We met him on the metro (we had planned on going home about 20 minutes earlier and eating dinner, but we ran into one of our zone leaders and he said we couldn`t leave the metro until we had at least 2 phone numbers) and I went up and in the middle of introducing myself he asked me for my phone number. I gave it to him on the condition that he gave us his. I counted it as one of the 2 I needed to appease Elder Sabin, but really had no intention of calling him since he kind of creeped me out. He called us twice that week, and we missed it both times and didn`t call him back. Then we were in the metro last saturday waiting for a man, Curtis, and he came up to us and just kind of stood next to us for awhile. We got the elders to teach him the first discussion and he said he`d be baptized, but then never called or came or returned the missionaries calls, so they decided he was really just in it to meet me and then when he found out I wouldn`t be teaching him, he wasn`t interested anymore. Then I was talking to a man from Turkey on the metro the other day and said we were missionaries and gave him our card with our number on it and he has called EVERY DAY this week to ask me out for coffee. I`ve missed every call and haven`t called him back yet...I need to at some point, but I`ve always been horrible at that...;) THEN we were teaching a less active recent convert, David, the other day and he said at the beginning he wanted to get to know us both better. I said we had tried to get this girl Genevieve to come with us, but she couldn`t, but she`s way cute and we love her so we`d try to get her to come the next time, and he said "Well you`re pretty cute too, I think we should just have you come next time." I wasn`t quite sure what to make of that comment, so I ignored it and went ahead with the lesson. I thought the lesson was going pretty well until about halfway through when he randomly asked "Are you allowed to date on your mission?" I said no and he asked whose choice that was and I said that it was mine. It was a rule given to us, but my decision to obey the rule and I wasn`t going to date until I got home and he said "Well I can easily see someone following you back to the United States when you go home to date you." We tried to get back on topic, but he wasn`t paying much attention at all and we asked if he had any questions for us at the end and he said the dating one was the main one; he just wanted to know if i had a boyfriend or anything. We decided we`re only teaching him once a week from now on and Robyn is coming with us EVERY time. She actually volunteered and said there would be NO comments like that made again while she was in there...she`s so fun; I just love her. She`s probably one of my favorite people in the ward and she helps us all the time...I love it. But yeah, so that made for an interesting week..

Other than that, we decided on Tuesday to start the day of with service. Robyn was having a really hard time with some things, so we made cupcakes for her and wrote "we love you!" on them. It was so cute :) We had extras, so we made some with the same message for another recent convert, April, who`s been sick for the past 2 weeks and then we made a cake for a recent convert/less active, Mike, who had a birthday on Saturday. It was so fun...we went to RObyn`s house to deliver it, but she wasn`t home, so we tried to break in (she wouldn`t mind). The back door was unlocked (turns out she keeps it unlocked just for that reason...in case someone needs something from her house and needs to break in), so I opened the door, but I forgot that she had a MASSIVE dog who started barking at us and I slammed the door shut and then we couldn`t open it again. So we just left them for her outside with a little note. It was fun :) Then we went to April`s house and gave them to her and she loved her cupcakes as well. On the way back though there was this woman on the metro who started screaming at another woman who was getting off because she had a baby and wasn`t married. The woman was calling her all kinds of names and being HORRIBLE to her, and the woman with the baby just ignored her and got off the metro. I looked down the car and made eye contact with a girl about my age and she kind of half smiled so I did the same and the woman hit me with her purse and started screaming at ME asking what I was laughing at and just started swearing at me. I have NEVER been talked to that horribly in my life! It was completely shocking. So I apologized for whatever I had done and she kind of stopped. I looked the other way again and this man smiled at me (I think he just felt bad for me) and so I smiled back to show him that it hadn`t bothered me that much and she started yelling AGAIN asking what I had said, and I replied that I hadn`t said anything and I was sorry, but I really hadn`t said anything. She must have been having a horrible day because she kept swearing and yelling for another minute until the metro stopped and we got off. I just kind of laughed it off, realizing she was having a bad day adn it wasn`t anything personal, but Sister Williams was a bit shaken up and was almost crying because of it. We had interviews with President McKinnon on Wednesday and I mentioned all of those experiences to him (that was the 4th person in as may days to yell at me...and we had another woman on Tuesday tell me that Mormons had no rights and we shouldn`t be allowed to talk to anyone and we were all brainwashed and someone should investigate it. She was a journalist, so she would know ;) ) and he told me that if anyone said anything again, I didn`t need to be polite. I should tell them exactly what I`m thinking. I said I didn`t want to give the church a bad name, and he said the church wouldn`t look good if I punched the guy, but it also didn`t look good if I looked spineless standing there letting him walk all over me. So next time to go with my instincts. I haven`t had anyone bother me since, so I haven`t tried it out yet :)

Hmm...what else happened this week? Oh my gosh! This morning it was awful! Well first, Saturday night we came home a bit early and S. Williams spent 2 hours calling all of the old potentials we had and setting up appointments and since we only had the one phone and I really couldn`t help with anything, I decided to scrub the bathroom and kitchen floors and they were SO gross...I really don`t think our apartment has been deep cleaned in about 2 years. But anyways, so while I was cleaning the bathroom, I felt something in my hair and I freaked. S. Williams came running in - turns out there was a spider in my hair. It was so gross. Then this morning I was in our room doing an ab workout (we have 30 minutes each morning to exercise) and I saw this HUGE bug speed across the floor, so I called her in just as it ran across the floor the other way under her bed. We spent the next 15 minutes trying to find it and finally found it on top of her suitcase. It crawled on the floor and we caught it under this tupperware container. It was so gross...it had about a million legs and was at least 2 inches long and super fast. So we kept it under the container and waited for it to calm down and then had this master plan for S. Williams to lift the container and I would slam the dictionary down on it and kill it. Unfortunately, I didn`t anticipate how fast the little booger would be and I aimed wrong, missing the bug and it came sprinting RIGHT AT ME. I shrieked and jumped on the bed and S. Williams grabbed a tissue box and mutilated it. We decided we didn`t need a cardio workout after that...it had gotten our heart rate up enough :) Hopefully there are no more...

And other than that, life has been pretty standard. We taught a lesson Saturday to a man about blacks and the priesthood. His name is Theo,he is extremely intelligent, not receptive to testimonies in the slightest, and extremely passionate about blacks and the priesthood since he is from Ethiopia. We tried SO hard to find a member for the lesson, but after calling about 10 people and 8 sets of missionaries, we realized we wouldn`t find one. Elder Jest gave us a copy of a fireside he had found on the subject though which helped a lot, and we spent an hour and a half just answering his questions. He still has more, but we answered quite a few. We were pretty proud of ourselves at the end. And it was really neat...there was one point where he asked a question and I answered it, but I had never even THOUGHT of the question before. The words coming out of my mouth were definitely not mine, because they weren`t even ideas I had ever had before until I was saying them, and I knew the Lord was speaking through me and answering Theo`s question with me just as the mouthpiece. It`s a little hard to describe, but it was a really neat experience.

But that`s about it for this week...it`s supposed to snow tomorrow (it`s starting to get REALLY cold here) so I need to go buy boots...wish me luck! Oh, and I`m speaking in Sacrament on Sunday as well as teaching the lesson in Sunday School...please continue praying for me, I need all the help I can get :) I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week! I miss you tons!

Love, Nicole