Dianna Update - 1/27/10

1/6/10 - "The sun will come out....who knows?"
Hola mi familia!
Just kidding, this is your English speaking missionary!! This has been another interesting week. New Year's Eve was kind of a let down. My companions wanted to go to the Stake Center because all of the Elders were going to be playing basketball there. I tried to tell them that we would just end up sitting and talking to ourselves but they wouldn't believe me, and guess what...WE DID! We were home by 9:15 and in bed by 10:30 just like every night. I can't even remember the last time I slept through New Year's. Whatever.

Guess what?! I had a hair massacre!! My bangs were martyred! We all went just to get a trim but my bangs came out even worse than I could EVER imagine!! So I bobby pin them up EVERYDAY! I'm NEVER letting anyone besides my companions see that mess. It's so upsetting. Sister Moss says that she likes them pinned up but I don't know if she really does or if she's saying that just to make me feel better. Either way, it's working.

Snow + car with bad tires = pushing, shoveling, and walking. We get stuck everywhere! When there is a cm of snow on the ground we get stuck or are moving 5 miles an hour, if that. I'm not even joking. We were determined to meet with the Sellars, an inactive mom and her kids, that we braved the snow and went to her house. When we got there we forgot she lived on a big hill. We got almost half way up when we dug ourselves into a hole. So we decided to stop and trek the rest of the way up. It's a steep hill and there was at least half a foot of snow on the ground. It was okay, pretty adventurous. There is a set of stairs we took though that could have been deadly, but we all made it out alive. What's even funnier is that we ran into the family we were meeting with on our way. They had seen us get stuck and everything. When we got to their house they were locked out so we just sat and took pictures while the mom, Dawn, went to get a spare from the neighbor :) What makes this story even better is that when we were finished with the lesson and we made our way back to our car, we could not, for the life of us, get our car out of the snow. Sis Moss and I were clearing around the tires (we didn't have a shovel) and pushing. Lucky for us a man walked by and helped push. We finally got out and down the street. When we pulled out of the neighborhood we realized we didn't remember what we had set up for next, so we pulled over in a rather dry place to look at our planner. It turns out we were planning on stopping by a potential investigators house who lives on the same hill as the Sellars!! How annoying! We weighed our decisions, we could try to go back and most likely get stuck, visit someone else, go home because we are a hazard on the road, or go "finding" in a clearer area. We prayed about it and felt we were really supposed to visit this other family on the hill. So we went back, parked on the bottom of the hill in a relatively good spot and walked up the hill. Mind you, this woman and family live at the TOP of the hill. Fun, fun. Anyway, it turned out to really be the right decision because she is interested and we have an appointment set up. They seem cool.

Just some food for thought. The sun sets while we're in church.

Just some food for the tummy. Quinoa. It's SO good. Sis. Moss introduced it to me. It's like rice, but healthier, and in my opinion, tastes better. We don't even know if you can get it in the states. It's really cool because you use it just like you would rice. You can even cook it in the rice cooker. You all should try it!!

I've been spending a lot of my study time reading the Ensigns. I never really appreciated them before but I just soak them up. The other day I read an article in this last conference issue during the Priesthood session. I forgot the title but it was about relationships between father and son. I was wondering, Dad, if you remember it and if you've read it recently. I think it could help ANY relationship. I've been trying to apply it to my companionship because we keep getting on each others nerves. I know that if we do what it teaches that our relationships can be better. :)

My mission has set forth a challenge and I'm REALLY excited about it. Any of you are welcome to join in it with me, that would be cool. We each got a hardback copy of the Book of Mormon and we are to read it from Jan 1 - Apr 4 (Easter) and we are to highlight anything and everything that has to do with the atonement. I've started and it's putting it in a whole new light, it's cool. I challenge you to join me, even just in your own set of scriptures. I'm still in 1 Nephi and I've already learned a lot.

I love you all!

Sister Nicholls

1/13/10 - I hate goodbyes!!

I can't believe that Sister Moss is going home!! She leaves me tomorrow. We drop her off at noon, I don't want to do it! It's going to be me and Sister Olsen in Halifax still so it won't be all that different. Who am I kidding, it's going to be REALLY different without her! She is the life of the party. She has the most distinct laugh in the world, you can hear it ANYWHERE. Even President Simpson said "What are we going to do without her laugh?" Also her singing voice. She's not the greatest singer but she belts it out there. It's going to be weird not having it there. We got a new Sister today we were invited to the mission home for lunch because President and Sister Simpson wanted her to meet some of the Sisters, so I'm actually emailing from the mission home today.

Have I got a story for you! I was going to tell you the start of it last week but decided to wait and see how it played out before I did. Anywho, last tuesday this guy Nick called President Moses and said he wanted to be baptized. Nick is 29 and has been an investigator for 8 years but I've never met him because he's been in Texas with family ever since I've been here. When he got back he kept calling people telling them he wanted to be baptized and the word got around to us last tuesday that it would be our job because he's in the YSA. So on wednesday night we went with President and Sister Simpson over to his apt for a baptismal interview. President had to do it because Nick has schizophrenia and needed his extra permission. Nick is a cool guy, when President was going through the commandments he looked at us and asked what we he was missing and Nick chimed in "The Word of Wisdom." This guy knows EVERYTHING about the church. He could teach us! So President approved it, we met with him again on thursday and planned the details of the baptism, speakers, music, etc. Then he was baptized on sunday. It was extra special because it was YSA conference this weekend and all the YSA from New Brunswick, PEI, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia were there! It was a good turn out. What's funny is that we forgot to fill the font so we had to wait for that LOL, and the suit was too big for him, AND he had to be baptized 3 times. It was never ended mistakes, but he was really cool about it. My favorite was that he requested a musical number from the missionaries. We agreed and asked what he'd like us to sing and he said "Families can be together forever". It was hilarious, us missionaries singing this song at a baptism! He just cracks me up! Good story, eh?

That reminds me, we were in a shopping centre (yes that's how they spell it) the other day and they had a place called "Fresh squeezed juice and Smooth eh!s". I'm totally being serious! I wanted to take a picture but we were in a hurry.

I'm trying to think of anything else exciting that happened this week but my mind is drawing a blank. I guess we've been extra busy because Sister Moss is leaving. Everyone wants to see her before we go. We haven't eaten a meal, besides breakfast, at home since saturday! And one day we were gone for breakfast too. We are booked tonight too. It'll die down by tomorrow though. President and Sister Moses even took us out to Montana's which is a REALLY nice restaurant. I couldn't believe it! I'm telling you, everyone loves Sister Moss, ALOT! I'm so blessed to have known her.

Thanks for everything, love you all!

Sister Nicholls

1/20/10 - And then there were two...

I'm not going to lie, I miss Sister Moss. It was really rough coming back to the apartment after dropping her off. She left a lot of stuff at the apartment and there were tears shed as we sorted through her stuff. It really felt like she had died and we had to get rid of her stuff. It ended up being really funny too because we decided to keep what we could fit into and of course it wasn't much because she is tiny, but it was fun trying them on. After the first 2 days were over we finally had a grip of ourselves. It was nerve racking actually going out and teaching without her because we are both still really new and it was unsettling knowing that our "fall to" was gone. We are doing great though. We have been overbooked with appointments. Since we both aren't going home any time soon we can focus better.

Love you!

Sister Nicholls