More pics

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)

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..."

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."

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."

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"

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......

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