Winter

Alex made us Dinner

So nothing too eventful happened this week. I had to stay at the mission home until Wednesday morning. It was interesting. It is kind of like a fake house in there. Everything is so perfect and organized. But it was nice, I just slept and took a bath and had a really uncomfortable dinner with my mission President and wife (just kidding). They were really kind to let me stay and get better. 

Winter came again. But I woke up on Wednesday (the snow was coming down hard) and a realization came to me- It doesn't matter what is going on, I can still be happy! I know that is such a cliche phrase/ thought but it just connected with me and it is so freeing! I mean I still have to remind myself of that fact on the hourly as we are freezing our faces off sliding down the South hill roads that never get paved so it is just sheer ice everywhere but we can still be happy! 

Everyone was happy to see us back at church since Carol told everyone that I was in the hospital getting IVs haha oh Carol. 

Alex is getting baptized this week which is exciting! He is so repentant. 

On Thursday we had zone conference. I had to give a couple trainings, which was interesting since I was super sick but couldn't be. 

Thursday night was a humbling night. I was in a lot of pain and giving it my all but my all was so small and insignificant. I just started crying during my nighttime prayer because my 100% isn't what it used to be when I first came out. I have literally given it my all for the last 17 months and now I am feeling it. But I felt a overwhelming feeling of love from God. It reminded me of the story of the loaves and fishes. Some days we have a full loaf to give and other times it may only be a crumb but whatever it is, God gives us thanks and makes it into something more. 

Other mission things: knocking doors, walking miles, volunteering at the food bank and so much more. 

"Do you want CDIFF or don't you?"

Nicole's Letter: "Do you want CDIFF or don't you?"

Feb. 12, 2018

Sorry if this doesn't really make any sense:

Some quotes of the week

Nurse: "Do you want CDIFF or don't you"

Old man: "No I don't but I don't like yogurt"

Nurse: "Mam, you gotta put your pants back on or we will have to detain you"

----As we see bare feet running pass our "room" that is made of just sheets that they pulled around the bed.  

The old man next to us talking about his medical yesterday.  Told them of his prostate cancer and then was like 

old man: "I think they removed my bladder"

nurse: "I don't think so sir"

man: "then it was one of my kidneys"

Nurse: "Let me check your medical history. No, you still have both kidneys" 

 

Old man: "Well, it was a long time ago"

Women going by on a stretcher yelling 

"Where is my vampire family?  Give them back, you zombie slime"

 Some of the quotes that you hear as you are in the ER getting hooked up to some fluids.  

To say the least this week was pretty crazy.

Tuesday we had MLC meeting which was super good and I felt totally fine (no sickness at all).  Learned lots from President and Sister Dymock.

Wednesday it all turned for the worst.  Woke up not feeling to great but I didn't think too much about it but I just asked for the garbage can next to me just in case while we were planning.  Then all of a sudden everything came up.  I didn't make it to the bathroom but instead I was on my hands and knees in our front room throwing up everything in me into the garbage can while my sweet companion was still planning.  I asked her what she was doing while I was throwing up and she was like well I was thinking about who you would want to go see in the off chance that you would want to go out. haha she knows me too well but this time my body got the upper hand and I had to stay in.  But I was hoping that it would pass quickly like last time since our zone had a temple trip on Thursday.  But then Thursday wasn't much better.  I couldn't keep anything in me and so I was super bummed that I couldn't go to the temple.  I just stayed at Sister Blake's house and slept to try to get my fever that was super high down. 

And then Thursday night was still the same.  Up every hour double dragon it.  But luckily we went on exchanges that night and Sister Lilley came with me since Sister John didn't get any sleep the two nights before. Sister Lilley was a CNA and going into the medical field.  So in the morning she knew that I literally was going to pass out if I didn't get some fluids.  We went to the Urgent Care which was pretty pointless.  The doctor was going to send us home but Sister Lilley put up a good fight with him since my fever was high, my heart rate was all the way up to 115 and I literally had nothing in my body.  So they sent me to the ER to get an IV in me.  There they did some tests and put something up my nose and I am pretty sure that it went all the way up to my frontal lobe, it was super painful.  I didn't think I was that sick but they had to give me two huge bags of fluids and put me on morphine which made me super sleepy and dizzy.  But all the nurses and doctors were very nice.  

To add a little cherry on top of everything the APs sent out a mass text to all the Zone Leaders warning them that a bad case of the flu was at MLC.  The Zone Leaders in our zone told me about it and apparently at the end it said please forward to your STL and they were like yeah We think we will pass since it was our STL.  So the whole mission knows. 

And now I am here at the mission home to get some rest.  But I learned that the symptoms might last for weeks so that is just great.  But hey I lasted until this long, just 10 weeks shy of the end of my mission.    

oh and I missed Carol going to the temple.  What is this?! Missed two temple trips!

But God is good.  He sends so many amazing people into our lives.  The ward took good care of me and the sisters in my zone.  Also, got a really powerful blessing that was really spiritual.  God is real. (since I probably would be dead if he wasn't) 

You Gotta Have Both

Nicole's Letter:

"You gotta have both"

Lili got baptized!!! It was such a good day! We started teaching her in September and it has been a long road for the family. Lots of tears and prayers to get to this day.  And Lili was so excited! The ward was amazing and the Young Women support was strong. It seriously is the best thing to see someone take that first step toward our Heavenly Father and making that covenant. Lili also got confirmed yesterday and she was petrified to go up. I thought she wasn't going to go but her mom walked her up. And then after she was happy and confident. She said that she felt so good and couldn't even describe the feeling of how she felt. The spirit is real. 

A thought that came to me after we learned that Frankie can't meet with us anymore was that -We are doing the work of eternity on an earthly timetable. 

Miracles do happen. In the Bible dictionary it says that Christianity is founded on the greatest miracle of all. The resurrection of our Lord and Savior. Why don't people believe miracles could continue. I know that saying that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ is a bold claim but in reality it is a miracle that the fullness of the Gospel was restored to the earth once again. I mean why couldn't it happen, Christianity started with a miracle. 

 

There are miracles all around us. Do we chose to see them? This week Frankie saw a miracle even though his parents aren't allowing him to be baptized at this point in time. He got up to bear his testimony yesterday and he bore a sweet and powerful testimony that God is aware of us. He told the events that have occurred with meeting with us. He related how we asked him to be baptized and then the next week to pray about a date, following week we followed up and he told how a date came to his mind which was February 24th. He didn't know what day that was until the next week when we brought a calendar to map it all out and he discovered that the 24th was a Saturday. And it was a small thing but powerful to him that God impressed his mind with that date. I hope that we can all see those small miracles or tender mercies or blessings or whatever you want to call them because God is real and God is good.

 

Had a lesson with Tarah and her family. Tarah had read 10 chapters of the Book of Mormon! She had lots of questions for us. By the end we asked if she had prayed about the Book of Mormon and knew if it was true? She told us that before we came over she didn't think so but God used us as mouthpieces to answer her questions and she knows that the Book of Mormon is true. Now they just have to come to church. They are awesome! I love their family! 

We had lots of fun times walking and riding the bus this week. On Friday night we had to get the car from the elders (We now share the car with them) and so what would be a 10 minute drive to their place took a hour of travel time. The joys of public transportation :) but we walked super fast trying to get to this one bus stop but then we knew that we were too far so then we waited for another one but that would take us to the plaza (which is a sight to see, just where all the buses connect downtown) and then we had to wait for the transfer and then that bus took us about a 20 minute walk from the elders. While we were walking in the dark on a Friday night, Sister John was like Never would I imagine this being a mission. And I just thought "if we did, we probably wouldn't be here". There are lots of those moments but I love them! I love my mission life and I hate that I am to the point where people are now saying that I have no time left! 12 weeks, crazy! Enjoying my time while I have it! I think that I have been on a mission a while though since yesterday at dinner they asked how much school I did and I was like "3 transfers". Apparently everything is in transfers in my mind now.

Pictures:

Lili's baptism

We went to Manito park and they have a ton of daffodils, it is so pretty!  

went to lunch for birthdays​​

​​

THE NEWS

TRANSFERS>>>>>>>I'M STAYING ANOTHER IN MANITO!!!!!!

I know no one would have guessed it but here I am, staying half of my mission in one area.  Kind of crazy but I am happy! Sister John is the best and the area is so great! 

We have four people that are on date for this transfer so hopefully all will go well and they can all make their dates! 

One of them is Lili! She is getting baptized this Saturday and she is just my favorite! She was super nervous for her baptismal interview but she did great!  We made invitations before and she leaned over and was like "I just wish that my baptism could be tomorrow!"  It will be this Saturday and I can't be more happy for her! She needs this in her life!

Some other things this week:

I had my first "official" sick day on Tuesday since I was up literally all night in the bathroom.  I was so mad because I have never had to call and have to stay in but right when I told the nurse she was like you can't go out.  So I slept a lot.  But we had a lesson with Lili and we had stake reports with the Stake reports (with the stake president, high counselor and our mission president)  I was determined to not take the whole day and luckily I felt much better after some sleep and was able to go to everything in the evening! 

We had another lesson with Frankie and it was amazing!! (I mean what do I expect, he just gets it).  Anyway he prayed about a day and he felt like Feb 24 so that is what he is preparing for! Hopefully his parents will agree!! Pray for that! He said that his mom just wants him to be happy and said that he could but we are still waiting for his dad.

A story from Sister John's email:

​​"Yesterday Sister Stevenson felt prompted to go visit a family that has rejected us multiple times. Once again, they rejected us. BUT THEN. We turned around and there was a park across the street. A man and his 4 year old son were walking around the park, skipping rocks off the frozen pond. Sister Stevenson and I looked at each other and agreed we needed to go talk to him. After talking with him and leaving our number and a pass along card, we walked away down the street. But I was uneasy. It's hard to explain what I felt - I just wasn't satisfied with the conversation we had with him, even though we bore testimony and it was so strong. So I told Sister Stevenson that we needed to go back, and we gave him a Book of Mormon. He was so touched that we had given him that book and mentioned he had recently watched a powerful video about Joseph Smith!!!!! Unfortunately, he told us his wife is basically anti Mormon. We promised him blessings and he was so sincere about reading the Book of Mormon. He even started reading a little bit as we were standing there talking! He just kept flipping and scanning the pages. I have a feeling we will hear back from him soon. That was the first time I felt prompted to go talk to someone on my mission. Although it wasn't huge or gut wrenching, something just kept turning me back. I have faith that Reese will help his wife soften her heart and come into the Gospel where they will experience countless blessings as families!!"

This Week: Jan 22nd

It was a good week!  It finally hit that I am on my downward climb and I don't know how I feel about it!  This week we had awesome lessons. We had a lesson with Frankie and we taught the restoration. It was probably the best Restoration lesson we had because at the end he talked about Alma preaching to the people at Ammonihah. He talked about how the people rejected him and he tried to leave but the angel told him to return. He said that it reminded him of the apostasy cycle a​​nd how we just need to hang in there when there is rejection and stay strong!  He told his parents that he would describe seminary as "Invigorating".  He loves coming to church and loves the Book of Mormon. 

We had new missionary training on Friday. It was so good! I got to see Sister Mitchell who was my MTC companion because she is training Sister John's MTC companion.

We also had a really spiritual lesson with Alex this week. We taught about baptism and confirmation and put him on date for Feb 24th. He is so sweet. He is kind of big and scary looking but has a heart of gold! The only problem is that he still loves the 1st Ward where he was before. But the Elders brought him to our sacrament meeting on Sunday. He was nodding though because he has already been at church for a couple hours.

Lili is getting baptized on the 3rd of February and she is super excited!  She is such a good missionary and she invited all her friends to the baptism and we started teaching one of them.  We are super excited! Hopefully all goes well until then.

Pray that I don't get transferred! We find out transfers next Monday! YIKES! 

Travis is still on date for February we are praying that he makes it. He is such a solid person that is trying his best. 

Had dinner at Carols and we had nachos, bacon nachos her famous.  

This ward is amazing and someone left us lunch after church and it was like high quality food! It was so good!

We are seeing so many miracles! I love my mission.  It means everything to me and I love this gospel.  Trust in the Lord and everything will work out! Love to all!

January 2018

Hello!! We had lots of exchanges this past week which is always fun.  Sister Lilley came to Manito and we talked a lot about missions since we are a transfer off. Talked about the craziness of Spokane. It sometimes is a weird place but good at the same time! I love the people that I have met. 

Some highlights:

Had a lesson with Travis that we have been teaching since I have been here and this week we committed him to pray  when he should be baptized and he said he would. Then a couple days later he said that February 8th cant get out of his mind. So he is preparing for that day! It is exciting! Hopefully he can beat some old habits before that! 

It snowed a ton on Thursday and God is real! We had zone conference that day so we weren't out in the snow storm. And also we had it at our church building instead of in the valley so we didn't even have to drive that far! I think God knows that I can't drive in snow! It was such a tender mercy! Zone conference was good, it was all about technology. We have to update for 2 to 3 hours a day for a month. It is kind of insane. 

Something that I learned this week.

Life is a give and take. When you are willing to give a little people are much more willing to change.

We sang in stake conference and I was singing alto with 2 other people and literally none of us were singing the same note so it was interesting. People just said that the spirit was really strong, nothing about the talent haha. 

Today was probably the best pday ever. Sister Blake took us to Costco and then we had lunch at her house and she made us super good soup. Then we went snow shoeing on a trail by her house. It was so fun. I felt like a real person today! I love this ward and the people that we are teaching. Lilly is getting baptized February 3rd! She is the cutest! I love the Wight family! I have seen them go through some ups and downs.  But the gospel does bless families. Sometimes we just have to go into the dark to realize the light that we do have. 

We are having dinner with the Blakes and their friend this Friday. And he has been going to seminary every day this week. Sister Blake says that he comes to their house at 545 every morning with a big smile on his face. He is so fun and nice and loves the gospel! 

Sister John is awesome and chill.

Stake conference was super good. The theme was more holiness give me. I loved one speaker that talked about prayer.  They said that most times answers to prayers don't usually come when we are on our knees they come after and that is why it is important to find time to be still. And I know that is true in most cases, most times I don't feel that much when I pray but it comes after, comes in little pieces here and there. In the video Hope of gods light it says "Rarely does lightness come to those that sit in darkness". 

Hope all is well!! Love to all!

GORILLA MAN

I met the gorilla man that has haunted my dreams for years.  Remember the cub scout leader for the twins that popped out as a gorilla.  His family moved from Walnut Creek a couple months ago into the Manito ward.  He looked up our family on facebook and he was like "That is your dad, I know him! We are buds.  And we went to wood badge together until he dropped out" haha  it was a weird connection. 

There are so many amazing things happening in this area! We had some good lessons this week and found some people! 

Yesterday the Blakes walked into church and she asked us when she was feeding us next and I was like "Oh no, we forgot to tell her that it is tonight"  We were like it actually is tonight.  She was like oh okay well you can come over, don't know what we are having but just come over.  And then like an hour before dinner she texted and said that her son's friend Frankie texted Nathan and asked if the missionaries were somehow coming over tonight because he missed coming to church and wants to meet with us! 

It was awesome!  There are moments that like that that make me realize that God really is in the details of our lives.  It was amazing!  And the lesson went great. After we said amen, he jumped up and was like "I got to go ask my mom if I can go to seminary tomorrow!"  He was so excited!  It really is amazing how our examples go so far.  We asked how each one of them have experienced hope through Jesus Christ and Frankie was like "I know that God is watching over me by sending me friends like Ben (another kid in the ward) and everyone else to show me this.  And going to church just makes me feel good"  

Pray that his family will be in support! 

that was that this week