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
Monday, December 21, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
It's almost Christmas! I finally got boots!
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!
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!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
I survived the transfer and am in a threesome!!
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
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
Monday, November 30, 2009
We got your Christmas package!!!
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
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
Monday, November 23, 2009
Are you freezing yet?
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
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
Monday, November 16, 2009
Life is Crazy!
Hey Mom!
How are you? It’s always so good to hear from you! Things here are going really well…it’s been an interesting week. It’s crazy to see how many ups and downs I’ve already had and I’ve only been out here like 3 weeks. That’s another crazy part…it feels like I’ve been out here for at least 2 months already! I was talking with the zone leaders and one of the ward members, Jared, the other day and they were all shocked when I said I’ve only been out here about 3 weeks and Jared said “Wow…you don’t even LOOK like a greenie anymore!” I guess I’ve adjusted to everything pretty well and fit in well with the ward so they think I’ve been here longer. It makes things a little easier.
So I’ve gained an even stronger testimony this week of the truthfulness of the Elder Holland’s conference talk last October on the Ministry of Angels. I know there are angels around us all the time. This weekend was a bit interesting…on Friday night S. Williams and I went out to eat with the AP’s at this restaurant that our friend April recommended to us. We didn’t quite know how to get there, so this man gave us directions, but he gave us the wrong ones and we ended up on Rue St. Catherine, which is off limits completely for missionaries. That’s where all the strip clubs and barsand everything are, and it’s not a very fun place at all. While we were walking toward it, these 6 guys in their late 20s, early 30’s came up and started talking to me and asked how long I’d been in Montreal “saving people” and I answered their questions and one in particular just wouldn’t leave me alone. The AP’s thought I had contacted them and didn’t want to interrupt if it was a good contact, so they didn’t say anything at all. It was so awful though…I really don’t like situations like that in the slightest. But I finally said goodbye and walked away. Then after dinner (we were a bit late getting home), we were waiting for the metro and this VERY strong Catholic man, Andre, came up to E. Ronndahl and me and started talking to us. S. Williams had talked to him before about a month ago, and he had called us 3 times in one morning to try to convince us that we should be worshipping the saints. So we talked to him for a minute and he was very respectful to E. Ronndahl but didn’t listen to anything I had to say at all. It was just interesting. So then Saturday evening we ran into him again on the metro. He came up to us while we were in the middle of talking to some else and was very vocal about how the Catholic church is the only true church and the Book of Mormon is a false book and on and on and on. I tried talking to him, very diplomatically, and he wouldn’t even let me talk at all. It shook me up a bit and I was ready to cry at the end of it. Not fun. So then yesterday was Stake Conference (I’ll talk more about that in a minute), but afterwards we went to the Metro and ran into him yet again! He asked me if I had thought about what he had said, and I said that I had. He asked me what I thought and I said that I know the Book of Mormon is true and he started yelling about how we’re going to Hell and the catholic church is the only true one and we know that because it’s the ONLY one that won’t support gay marriages, won’t let a woman be a priest, and has been around since the time of Christ. We didn’t argue, but responded quietly. I say we, but mean me; Sister Williams didn’t say anything during the whole thing. He said something else, I don’t quite remember what, but I responded with “I believe there are good people in every religion” and he said “no. No there aren’t. There are good people in the Catholic Church and false prophets and gangsters in every other religion.” That was a kind of funny statement J But then he got on the metro still yelling about how Lionel-Groulx (the name of the metro) was a Catholic priest and he had built that place and we had never done anything like that. It was not a very fun experience. So I was shaking by the end of it, like I could barely stand, and we got on the other metro and almost immediately this other man came up to us and “warned” us not to talk to him, because we were children of the devil and we come in all self-righteous with our books (we usually carry a copy of the Book of Mormon everywhere we go), but he didn’t need that and he didn’t want to hear our false rumors and preachings. I tried to thank him for his concern, but he interrupted me and said that he was sure I was grateful and he could see exactly what I was thinking written all over my face, and I just smiled. He kept going on and told us we were going to Hell and said we didn’t even know anything about God, we only knew about our father, the devil, and then as he was getting of he asked “You don’t even know anything. Who is God anyways?” And I responded that God is our loving Father in Heaven, and he said “yes he is, but you wouldn’t know that because you don’t know anything about Him. He’s not your father.” It was so awful…I don’t enjoy confrontations like that at all, and I was already shaken, so I just started crying as soon as he got off. But getting back to the Ministry of Angels part from earlier…I was blessed enough to have one standing nearby. There was a giant of a man next to me who didn’t speak any English hardly, but he started trying to comfort me. He kept patting me on the back and used his finger (S. Williams said it completely covered my face…he was a huge man) to wipe my tear off my face. It was so sweet. Then he gave me a hug and told me it was Ok and not to cry. He asked if I was Mormon and then where my parents were and then gave me another hug as we were getting off. It was so sweet. I know that my Father in heaven does know me and knows what I need and He does send people to help us whenever we need it. It was wonderful. And thank you for your prayers…I know they help me.
Anyways, in other news…it has been a good week! We still go contacting a lot, it’s always in the metros. We’ve been asked by our mission president to contact 3 hours a day, so we’re in the metros at least that long talking to people. But some of them turn out SO well! We ended up getting the ugly ties earlier this week and had to wear them on our bags all week long until we committed someone, so finally on Thursday we did! We talked to this guy that S. Williams and S. Orozco had contacted while we were on splits the other day, and we committed him to be baptized! I hope it works out…it went so well in the lesson. We had 2 members there with us, which helped a lot, and he stopped in the middle of the lesson to ask how he could join our church, so we told him about baptism, and asked him to be baptized on the 19 of December. He hesitated slightly so we said we didn’t want to push him, but we knew he could have an answer by then, and he said we weren’t pushing at all. It was all just so out of character for him…he never talks to people on the metro, but he felt he should talk to the sisters and then he actually showed up to the appointment which surprised even himself. Then he finished with “Don’t worry…I’ll be a member before long.” It was SO exciting! We also talked to a girl Stephanie who was so excited to meet with us…she said she had just had such a happy feeling when we called to confirm the appointment and she was excited to learn more. It was really great! Earnest came to church, but then got sick and went to the hospital so we haven’t seen him since. But on the plus side, our less active/recent convert who told us on Monday he didn’t want to talk to us or come to church again called us 2 days ago to tell us it was his birthday! S. Williams talked to him for about 30 minutes and by the end he had decided NOT to go to the strip club with his friends and went and said a prayer and then went to bed instead! It was really exciting!
Oh, and it was so funny…every time I tell someone I’m from WV, they mention the John Denver song. I didn’t realize it was so popular until we were in English class the other day and this Chinese man asked where I was from. I told him, and he just started singing “Country roads take me home to the place I belong…” it was SO funny. I loved it. The people here are really great. And I just LOVE the elders in our mission. There are so many incredible ones. I was sick on Wednesday and so we had a million calls from people telling me to feel better soon and giving advice (eat oranges for vitamin C, boil ginger and honey and drink it for sore throats, etc.) Then E. Berrios and E. Jest (the zone leaders for the other zone that we do laundry and groceries with each p-day…I love them) called me another night because they thought I might be having a hard time and sang a song for me over the phone. Then we’ve had 2 sets of elders make us cookies this week just for the fun of it and several call us each night just to make sure we’re doing OK. I love it.
Oh! And Stake conference was yesterday which was SO fun. Elder Cook came and spoke and he has some hilarious stories. He said there was a boy in his high school who he hated and who hated him. They ended up getting their mission calls on the same day, to the same mission, and were bunk mates in the MTC. They became good friends, but each night the other elder would pull out a huge picture of a gorgeous girl and say “She’s waiting for me” and E. Cook would say “You’re such a loser…she’ll never wait for you!” They ended up becoming good friends. The girl didn’t wait though… Elder Cook married her instead, haha. It was pretty funny. So that was fun. And one of our less actives came, which is always exciting. And Rob is doing SO well! He was there and LOVED it, and he also went and visited the temple with the institute group on Friday and sat and read his scriptures and Robyn said he was just beaming the whole time and absolutely loved it. I’m so excited for him. So things are going really well here!
I’m glad to hear things are going well at home! You should video tape the girls and then send it to me…if you put it on an SD card, I’ll be able to watch it on my camera…or there’s probably another way to do it too. I don’t have my camera with me now, but I do have some pictures to send…we went to this huge cathedral last week for P-day, so I have several pictures from that. I’ll try to remember it next time and send it to you. But I’m glad to hear things are going well and I hope this week is wonderful for you! I love you tons and tons! Thanks so much for the letters and the prayers…I miss you!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
How are you? It’s always so good to hear from you! Things here are going really well…it’s been an interesting week. It’s crazy to see how many ups and downs I’ve already had and I’ve only been out here like 3 weeks. That’s another crazy part…it feels like I’ve been out here for at least 2 months already! I was talking with the zone leaders and one of the ward members, Jared, the other day and they were all shocked when I said I’ve only been out here about 3 weeks and Jared said “Wow…you don’t even LOOK like a greenie anymore!” I guess I’ve adjusted to everything pretty well and fit in well with the ward so they think I’ve been here longer. It makes things a little easier.
So I’ve gained an even stronger testimony this week of the truthfulness of the Elder Holland’s conference talk last October on the Ministry of Angels. I know there are angels around us all the time. This weekend was a bit interesting…on Friday night S. Williams and I went out to eat with the AP’s at this restaurant that our friend April recommended to us. We didn’t quite know how to get there, so this man gave us directions, but he gave us the wrong ones and we ended up on Rue St. Catherine, which is off limits completely for missionaries. That’s where all the strip clubs and barsand everything are, and it’s not a very fun place at all. While we were walking toward it, these 6 guys in their late 20s, early 30’s came up and started talking to me and asked how long I’d been in Montreal “saving people” and I answered their questions and one in particular just wouldn’t leave me alone. The AP’s thought I had contacted them and didn’t want to interrupt if it was a good contact, so they didn’t say anything at all. It was so awful though…I really don’t like situations like that in the slightest. But I finally said goodbye and walked away. Then after dinner (we were a bit late getting home), we were waiting for the metro and this VERY strong Catholic man, Andre, came up to E. Ronndahl and me and started talking to us. S. Williams had talked to him before about a month ago, and he had called us 3 times in one morning to try to convince us that we should be worshipping the saints. So we talked to him for a minute and he was very respectful to E. Ronndahl but didn’t listen to anything I had to say at all. It was just interesting. So then Saturday evening we ran into him again on the metro. He came up to us while we were in the middle of talking to some else and was very vocal about how the Catholic church is the only true church and the Book of Mormon is a false book and on and on and on. I tried talking to him, very diplomatically, and he wouldn’t even let me talk at all. It shook me up a bit and I was ready to cry at the end of it. Not fun. So then yesterday was Stake Conference (I’ll talk more about that in a minute), but afterwards we went to the Metro and ran into him yet again! He asked me if I had thought about what he had said, and I said that I had. He asked me what I thought and I said that I know the Book of Mormon is true and he started yelling about how we’re going to Hell and the catholic church is the only true one and we know that because it’s the ONLY one that won’t support gay marriages, won’t let a woman be a priest, and has been around since the time of Christ. We didn’t argue, but responded quietly. I say we, but mean me; Sister Williams didn’t say anything during the whole thing. He said something else, I don’t quite remember what, but I responded with “I believe there are good people in every religion” and he said “no. No there aren’t. There are good people in the Catholic Church and false prophets and gangsters in every other religion.” That was a kind of funny statement J But then he got on the metro still yelling about how Lionel-Groulx (the name of the metro) was a Catholic priest and he had built that place and we had never done anything like that. It was not a very fun experience. So I was shaking by the end of it, like I could barely stand, and we got on the other metro and almost immediately this other man came up to us and “warned” us not to talk to him, because we were children of the devil and we come in all self-righteous with our books (we usually carry a copy of the Book of Mormon everywhere we go), but he didn’t need that and he didn’t want to hear our false rumors and preachings. I tried to thank him for his concern, but he interrupted me and said that he was sure I was grateful and he could see exactly what I was thinking written all over my face, and I just smiled. He kept going on and told us we were going to Hell and said we didn’t even know anything about God, we only knew about our father, the devil, and then as he was getting of he asked “You don’t even know anything. Who is God anyways?” And I responded that God is our loving Father in Heaven, and he said “yes he is, but you wouldn’t know that because you don’t know anything about Him. He’s not your father.” It was so awful…I don’t enjoy confrontations like that at all, and I was already shaken, so I just started crying as soon as he got off. But getting back to the Ministry of Angels part from earlier…I was blessed enough to have one standing nearby. There was a giant of a man next to me who didn’t speak any English hardly, but he started trying to comfort me. He kept patting me on the back and used his finger (S. Williams said it completely covered my face…he was a huge man) to wipe my tear off my face. It was so sweet. Then he gave me a hug and told me it was Ok and not to cry. He asked if I was Mormon and then where my parents were and then gave me another hug as we were getting off. It was so sweet. I know that my Father in heaven does know me and knows what I need and He does send people to help us whenever we need it. It was wonderful. And thank you for your prayers…I know they help me.
Anyways, in other news…it has been a good week! We still go contacting a lot, it’s always in the metros. We’ve been asked by our mission president to contact 3 hours a day, so we’re in the metros at least that long talking to people. But some of them turn out SO well! We ended up getting the ugly ties earlier this week and had to wear them on our bags all week long until we committed someone, so finally on Thursday we did! We talked to this guy that S. Williams and S. Orozco had contacted while we were on splits the other day, and we committed him to be baptized! I hope it works out…it went so well in the lesson. We had 2 members there with us, which helped a lot, and he stopped in the middle of the lesson to ask how he could join our church, so we told him about baptism, and asked him to be baptized on the 19 of December. He hesitated slightly so we said we didn’t want to push him, but we knew he could have an answer by then, and he said we weren’t pushing at all. It was all just so out of character for him…he never talks to people on the metro, but he felt he should talk to the sisters and then he actually showed up to the appointment which surprised even himself. Then he finished with “Don’t worry…I’ll be a member before long.” It was SO exciting! We also talked to a girl Stephanie who was so excited to meet with us…she said she had just had such a happy feeling when we called to confirm the appointment and she was excited to learn more. It was really great! Earnest came to church, but then got sick and went to the hospital so we haven’t seen him since. But on the plus side, our less active/recent convert who told us on Monday he didn’t want to talk to us or come to church again called us 2 days ago to tell us it was his birthday! S. Williams talked to him for about 30 minutes and by the end he had decided NOT to go to the strip club with his friends and went and said a prayer and then went to bed instead! It was really exciting!
Oh, and it was so funny…every time I tell someone I’m from WV, they mention the John Denver song. I didn’t realize it was so popular until we were in English class the other day and this Chinese man asked where I was from. I told him, and he just started singing “Country roads take me home to the place I belong…” it was SO funny. I loved it. The people here are really great. And I just LOVE the elders in our mission. There are so many incredible ones. I was sick on Wednesday and so we had a million calls from people telling me to feel better soon and giving advice (eat oranges for vitamin C, boil ginger and honey and drink it for sore throats, etc.) Then E. Berrios and E. Jest (the zone leaders for the other zone that we do laundry and groceries with each p-day…I love them) called me another night because they thought I might be having a hard time and sang a song for me over the phone. Then we’ve had 2 sets of elders make us cookies this week just for the fun of it and several call us each night just to make sure we’re doing OK. I love it.
Oh! And Stake conference was yesterday which was SO fun. Elder Cook came and spoke and he has some hilarious stories. He said there was a boy in his high school who he hated and who hated him. They ended up getting their mission calls on the same day, to the same mission, and were bunk mates in the MTC. They became good friends, but each night the other elder would pull out a huge picture of a gorgeous girl and say “She’s waiting for me” and E. Cook would say “You’re such a loser…she’ll never wait for you!” They ended up becoming good friends. The girl didn’t wait though… Elder Cook married her instead, haha. It was pretty funny. So that was fun. And one of our less actives came, which is always exciting. And Rob is doing SO well! He was there and LOVED it, and he also went and visited the temple with the institute group on Friday and sat and read his scriptures and Robyn said he was just beaming the whole time and absolutely loved it. I’m so excited for him. So things are going really well here!
I’m glad to hear things are going well at home! You should video tape the girls and then send it to me…if you put it on an SD card, I’ll be able to watch it on my camera…or there’s probably another way to do it too. I don’t have my camera with me now, but I do have some pictures to send…we went to this huge cathedral last week for P-day, so I have several pictures from that. I’ll try to remember it next time and send it to you. But I’m glad to hear things are going well and I hope this week is wonderful for you! I love you tons and tons! Thanks so much for the letters and the prayers…I miss you!
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
Monday, November 9, 2009
Mail packages now to get them for Christmas!!!
Note about packages:
REMEMBER - Tell your families and friends that Christmas packages need to be sent as soon as possible. Otherwise, you will not get them until February!!!! Please remind them that they MUST check with the shipper to be sure there is no COD charge for customs. If packages come through the post office, there doesn’t seem to be a problem. $50.00 value is fine – more can be a problem!! If they come COD they go to package prison until you pay the fees. The office can’t do that. Thanks so much!!
REMEMBER - Tell your families and friends that Christmas packages need to be sent as soon as possible. Otherwise, you will not get them until February!!!! Please remind them that they MUST check with the shipper to be sure there is no COD charge for customs. If packages come through the post office, there doesn’t seem to be a problem. $50.00 value is fine – more can be a problem!! If they come COD they go to package prison until you pay the fees. The office can’t do that. Thanks so much!!
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