2nd Fall of Season!

Zone Conference 

photo bombers!

Nicole's Letter: 

Second Fall of Season 

Hello Everyone!

This week there were some eventful things that happened!

1) On Wednesday there was a worldwide missionary broadcast which was really good!  One of the big things that happened is that the schedule is now different.  Apparently the news in online now so you can look at it there, but it is super good! We now plan in the morning which saved a lot of patience for me :) Planning at 9:00 at night when we are tired and if it hasn't been the best day, is not fun at all.  So that is super good now!  And we get a little extra time in the morning on p-day which is awesome as well!

2) We had Zone Conference and I saw SISTER IRELAND! It was super fun seeing her, she is the best! She is in Sandpoint! They live in like a guest house of a member and have their own gym.  Everyone who asks me where she went is like Oh man, Sandpoint is so pretty! Maybe one day I will go there, who knows! But Zone Conference was good.  We learned about repentance.  It was really neat.  The origin of repentance means turn or return in hebrew.  Then it got translated into Greek making the word mean change.  But then when the word got translated into Latin, the meaning changed to penance or punish.  Which is so interesting and explains a lot.  So many people think that repentance is negative and a terrible thing but it isn't. It is merely turning away from sin and turning to God.  It is such a joyful thing and we are so lucky that we can repent, every single day.

I also had a hard fall this week! Second one of the season.  So the roads are all ice! We were walking and I went down, went down hard! My legs went directions that they were not suppose to go. It was one of those falls that you just pray that nothing got shattered.  I just layed there for a second. I didn't even care who saw me.  My knee got smashed pretty hard.  It was funny because I was just so pumped for the day! I was like this is such a good day! It is going to be amazing! And then bam, I'm down.  The other fall was with Sister Ireland but that one was just one of those cartoon falls, my feet just went up and my butt went down.  I got up so fast with that one because we were outside the person we just taught home.  But hopefully that will be the last one of the season.

 We had two lessons with Julie this week and they were good! We did a church tour one of the days.  We invited a member, Sister Muir and she was like okay I have never done one of these, what is it like" "Yah, me either" I said.  She laughed.  The ward members are definitely seeing me grow, which means a lot of fails, but that's okay.  I honestly fall on my face everyday, I make so many mistakes but that's okay I'm learning that's for sure :)

Anyways, the church tour was good, she started to understand priesthood authority.  She has been baptized twice but she was like yah I don't know what authority the person baptizing me had.  We gave her a For Strength of Youth because her kids are starting to become teenagers and She LOVED IT! I mean she would convert because of that haha just kidding.  It was cool though, she was like yah when I read the BofM more and more I am starting to realize that just no man wrote this.  It was sweet.  We found her back in NOV. Sis Ireland apparently the transfer before walked by her house and always felt like she should knock but never did and then when I got here she was like we have to knock on this door.  And when we did, she was like Oh come back tomorrow and we did and then she just let us in!

We were teaching one of our investigators, Brianna, and repentance was brought up. At the end she was like "Oh, so repentance is joy". It was neat.  She has had a really rough past.  Her boyfriend is in jail and it has been a little rocky. She is the best though! Brianna also came to church! And she stayed all three hours which was pretty amazing. Before she came she told us that she didn't want to stay for the whole meeting but then she did.  One of our members that just moved into our ward from the other ward came to Gospel Principles, she just got full fellowship back into church and her husband isn't a member but it was neat to see her testify of things to Brianna since they have similar backgrounds.  We are kind of teaching her (Jen) husband- well he would be baptized but he is on parole so he is just waiting.  They feed us every sunday and they are so funny! He was the biggest meth dealer in this area.  And so he knew of Brianna.  OH I NEED A BANANA CREAM PIE recipe.  I somehow pinky promised him that I would make one for his birthday next thursday :/ so recipes would be nice and easy ones!

Love 

Sister Stevenson

Nicole's Letter Part 2: 

Lesson of Love

Since I have some extra time this week, here is another thing that I learned.

This mission is not about me. Yes, I know it finally clicked, after all the years of hearing "It's not about you".  But this week it took a different meaning.  This really isn't about me.  This is the Lord's work and we are to become like Him.  It also struck me that I say "God loves all of us so much" and I do believe that when I say it, there is no doubt in my mind that God loves us, I know He does.  Yet, it hit me, do I really believe that?  If I truly believed that then I would see people differently because I know that God loves them.  God created them and loves them so there is at least one thing that I can love about everyone that I meet.  It is a process developing this kind of love but when we do miracles will happen.  We will start seeing others differently and we will lose ourselves in Christ.  The greatest paradox of the Gospel "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it".  It is so true, when we lose ourselves in Christ, we will find ourselves because there is more of us to find.  Just a little lesson I learned this week.

Transfer Call & Changes!

Ice Cream! 

​Last day of "12 week," I am going to miss an extra hour of studies...watching the district 

Post Falls January

Christmas Eve at the Cox Family. Sad they are moving next week. 

Christmas Eve, we went to the church and had popcorn and hot chocolate after we went caroling.  We also watch Legacy.

Dee and Lee on Christmas Day

Sister Ireland and I just walking down the street.

 me in the snow by our apartment

my zone, which is the best! Coeur d'Alene zone is the best! sad for transfers!

Nicole's Letter:
" Another Email. Another Week. Repeat."
1/10/2017

Whenever I sit down everything goes out of my brain.  This week was so long, not in a bad way but just can't even remember last monday.  Transfers are next week so that is a bit sad since most likely, like 99%, Sister Ireland will be transferred.  We have had some good times together and have seen the work in Post Falls increase.  There is so much potential here, I am just terrified that when she leaves and I am left in charge everything will stop.  Everyone loves her so that should be interesting, wish me luck.  But who knows I could get transferred, it is not likely but you never know!

Some highlights this week:

We were over at the Walshons, a part member family.  The kids, Zak and Allisen are 13 and 9.  And Allisen is pretty hyper and funny.  This time the mom was talking about her husband being addicted to smoking and then Allisen interjects and says "Addiction is like when you are at a party and they have chips and you can't stop eating the chips.  But then you get a TUMMY CRAMP and you STILL keep eating" okay so it was a lot funnier in person than what I just wrote but it made me laugh, but it doesn't take a lot to make me laugh out here :)

Bri came to church! Her boyfriend just got put back into jail in Sandpoint and she knows that if they had God and church in their lives that wouldn't have happened.  She is so cute and open to everything.  She also wants missionaries to go visit Chris in jail so we let the Sandpoint elders know and they are planning on going this week so that should be good.

Then we had dinner with this new lady in our ward who is kind of out there so we did not know what to expect.  BUT then her roommate joined us for dinner and was super interested.  She also has had a rough life and trying to get it back together.  It was a good lesson.  During it she asked why there are so many different churches. Perfect Question!! Every missionary's dream to seaway into Joseph Smith. So we are going back tonight and teaching her again so that should be good!

Then we got a referral to go see a less active.  He referred himself and it was pretty amazing lesson about repentance and faith.  He knows that the gospel provides him something in life that nothing else can.  He knows that he needs it in his life.  It was just a testament to me that there is nothing greater in this life than the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It reminds me of Peter saying "Lord where would we go" If you ever do start questioning, ask yourself "Where would I go" and it makes you realize that we do have the FULLNESS of the gospel.  It is so amazing the knowledge that we do have.  That the gospel was restored by Joseph Smith and that we don't have to live in darkness, we can have hope! Go watch The Hope of God's Light! It is so good!

Then on Sunday it was snowing big time, well it has been pouring snow (is that what you call it?!) But it was getting late, I really wanted to try Aly (we meet her on her porch before christmas and she said that we could come back so we have been trying her ever since). And walking up to her door, I knew that she would be home and open to us.  And she WAS home and let us in and we taught her the restoration.  She is open to learning more. She is such a cute young mom.  She is married to her highschool sweetheart and they have a little girl and a puppy named Kevin.  She has known a lot of mormons and says they have all been really great people and she just wants what is best for her.  So hopefully we can meet with her after she gets back into town.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is so amazing and can really change lives.  It can bring lightness into darkness, hope into despair and it can fill emptiness.  Jesus Christ really did atone for us and descend below all things alone so that we would never have to walk alone in life. 

love to all!!

2017

Nicole's Letter:

"2017"

1/2/2017

I can't believe that it is 2017 already.  2016 was such a good year.  Crazy to think of all that happened.  I finished three semesters of college in Hawaii.  Then went to Fiji.  Then came on a mission.  That pretty much sums up the year in three sentences. To say the least, it was a good year.

As I was falling asleep on New Years Eve, I was thinking that this entire year I would be a full time missionary.  And I am not going to lie, it made me a little depressed and it was daunting to think about.  But then the next morning I was talking to my companion about the coming year and she said that this is the year she is going home and it made her super sad to think about.  And then at church one of the members gave her farewell talk and the other speaker was Brother Nicholes (who has been a mission president).  In his talk he was talked about how amazing missionaries and missions are.  He told of how missionaries are literally set apart and are representatives of Jesus Christ.  I knew that but it hit me.  What a honor and blessing it is to be a full time missionary all of 2017.  I am set apart as a missionary of the Lord and this will be the only full year that I will be a full time missionary.  I know that I am going to look back on 2017 with tenderness.  Not saying that it won't be extremely hard or uncomfortable because each day proves to me over and over that missionary work is uncomfortable but it also it the greatest thing I could be doing right now.  Brother Nicholes also said that missionaries have a spirit about them, even when knocking on doors they carry that spirit.  He continued and said that even if the person slams the door they are not slamming it on the missionaries they are slamming it on the Savior.  That made me comforted since this week we knocked on this door and a lady opened it, looked disgusted and said "Oh Lord, bless these girls. And then yelled I pray that you will find Jesus" and slammed the door before we could even say one word.  (Probably thought we were JW.  Man do people hate JW, even more than they hate us.  And everyone thinks we are JW).  But that was interesting.  No matter what happens I get this time to draw even closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ.  I know that it is a sacred privilege.  I also know that the mission will end even though in my mind that day is very far into the future, it does end.  And if I know anything, I know that I want to be on that flight home with no regrets.  As I have been around more and more sisters, I feel like some are disappointed with how their missions have gone and I don't want to feel like that.  I am going to serve with all my heart, might, mind and strength.  And I know that might mean different things on different days. (I told my companion that I was going to leave everything on the field and she laughed, she is going home in two transfers:) Those are my thoughts for the New Year.  It will definitely be a year to remember and a year that I have never experienced before but it is exciting (or might as well look at it as exciting rather than be depressed about it).   

This week we went over to Dee and Lee's home and she had back surgery and we had talked about priesthood blessings before.  She said she would think about one and then Sunday she humbly asked if she could still get one.  So two people from the ward came over and let me tell you I have never prayed harder.  It is funny how much faith you have for someone else's faith-if that makes sense.  I prayed so hard that Dee would have faith and let the spirit into her heart.  After the blessing she didn't say anything.  The Brothers left and Dee just looked at us and smiled and said she didn't have any pain at that moment.  It was a very neat experience.