Dianna Update - 12/26/09

Let me start off with some really happy news! On Christmas we get to talk on the phone! What we have to do is have you call me though because I'm not allowed to have the church pay for the long distance phone call. I also hope that you are free at the time I'm scheduled to have phone time. My companions and I have special permission to use the mission office for phone calls because there are 3 of us and they have 3 lines. The problem is that we have to wait for you to call us because we can't call out. We will be at the office just before 3pm so you can call us at 3. I think that's noon for you. I'll be waiting, and there isn't caller ID so one of my companions may answer the phone, but I'll be right nearby. I'm excited!

This week has been quite the adventure. On Friday my companions and I got in a little spat and had to work things out, it's not easy being in a trio, but I love them both very much. All is well now though, no worries. :)

The other day we ended up getting a flat tire and it was really fun to fix that in the snow... Luckily we are near Elders who were willing to come help us. We stood outside for over an hour while they played with it. We felt bad so we went into Tim Horton's (same as Starbuck's) and bought them Hot Chocolate. They never got it off so we went and knocked on the nearest door and the man that lived there came to the rescue. It was a good thing that we had him there because he had better tools than us, plus his 2 little kids came out to help, SO CUTE!

We had the strangest/happiest phone call the other day. His story is a little long to write, I'll try to remember to tell you about him during our phone call. His name is Gary. I'll also have to explain Robert, our land-lord, to you. That's a good story.

This Sunday we decided to contact former investigators in our Area book. We went to this one house where it says Naur, a Muslim man, lived. When we got there they said no Naur lived there but they welcomed us in in a matter of seconds. They brought us upstairs and we met the family (at least who was home). It is 2 parents, Mohammed and Helenah, and their 6 kids; Salam, Sumaya, Boshra, Yousef, Ibrahim, and Zahraa. I'm pretty sure I spelled them right, don't ask me to spell the last name, it's not going to happen. It's quite the coincidence because this family is also Muslim. They stopped their night and talked with us for over an hour, it was amazing. The dad is really talkative and loves to explain his faith, and compare it with ours. We met again with them yesterday and Sumaya who is about 16 had read the first 2 chapters of the book of Mormon and was asking some really7 great questions. We also watched the Restoration with them and she also asked questions about it. She seems the most interested out of all of them. They were so great! They even fed us. What wasn't so great was that Mohammed is SOOOOO talkative that we ended up sitting there an hour before we got a word in and ended up staying almost 3 hours!! I'm excited for them.

Also on Sunday, after church, our branch went caroling to this house of a boy and his mom. The boy was in a car accident when he was 2 years old. He's now 17 but his mental and physical development is delayed. We sang a couple hymns and then we sang the Barney song with him because that's his favorite show. We also gave him a stuffed Barney. He was SOOOOOOOOOOO happy and his mom started crying while we sang. It was very nice to be there. People in Atlantic Canada are the nicest in the world, I'm thoroughly convinced.

I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas. I hope the time works out okay for you. If not, I don't know...just don't forget!

Love you!
Sister Dianna Nicholls

Andrew Update 12/26/09

Andrew has checked into the MTC (12/9). Here is his MTC address:

Andrew Nicholls
MTC Mailbox # 206
CHI-RAN 0209
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Here are excerpts from the letters he sent this week:

Letter 12/20 - Well everybody is so awesome here! Such good teachers, and this guy Brother Priest is soo smart! He's and anesthesiologist, and a quantum physicist! I have never met another man with so much knowledge! It blows my mind! So my companion Elder Kimbal and I are totally best friends. Our teachers Hermano Mortimer and Hermamo Taylor are so awesome too!

So Dianna is doing well? Good =) I cannot believe I've only been here 10 days! Awesome. I'm more than 1/70 done with my mission! Woot! That's like 1.3%! Hahaha... I miss you all tons. Please ask EVERYBODY to write me on dearElder.com. Love you all lots! Hope you all are just as silly and goofy as when I left!

- Elder Andrew Nicholls

Letter 12/23 - I finally have a chance to write a letter! It's been like forever since I've gotten here! But it's awesome here, and everyone is so cool in my district! My companion is District Leader, so I'm here to help make all the decisions. Kinda like a 1st counselor. And what's cool here is that since there's only 6 Elders in my district, my companion and I have the 4-person dorm to ourselves! Awesome! I'm totally being a lifter-upper mom =) I'm helping everybody to be their best, including myself =) So I can pray, testify, and do door approaches in Spanish now =) It's AWESOME! They feed you so much here! I'm trying to not fall into temptation of eating too much! Haha. I'm praying for you guys too, and I know the Lord will protect you while I'm on his errand. I love all of you!

Even though it's under 40 many times, it doesn't feel cold. It actually feels HOT a lot haha =) Don't worry, I'm so busy and focused I'm not distracted AT ALL from my duties to the Lord. Food - too much, Companion - VERY spiritual, Sooo awesome. I've already learned so much from him. We're like a perfect companionship it's awesome. We get along so well. and benefit from each other. Plus we both have the same situation with home life! I'm excited for Chile! So I memorized our purpose in Spanish, and can pray and testify in Spanish. I love you all and think about you guys siempre!

- Elder Andrew Nicholls

email 12/23 entitled, "So.....Much......Food...." My companion has already gained 7 pounds. Wow. I'm afraid to check the scale. So this place is pretty cool I'd have to say. There's ALWAYS a general authority here for firesides and devotionals. Even Neil L. Anderson came last night!! My companion is pretty much the cream of the crop. He's the DL. The RC is my favorite thing here!! You can call people and talk to them about the church, and even send missionaries over to their house to talk! DearElder is pretty much the hit around here. I've already gotten like 20 from DearElder, and I love reading them at night before bed! I'm so surprised about how much Spanish I'm learning! We pray, testify, greet, and give talks in Spanish! Everything is going awesome! I can't wait to get out there and teach the good word! Well I hope to hear from you all soon. Thank you for all the goods and treats that i received today. I love you all and appreciate all your support. Write you more next week :)

-Elder Nicholls

Dianna 12/5/09

I have SO much to tell you! Brace yourself! First off, thanks for the pictures :) I printed them out and put them on my bulletin board. They're my favorite (and only) pictures.
I realized that I didn't do a good job describing my life here. That could take a million years and pictures to explain, but I'll give you a little taste. We have the funkiest church building EVER. The building itself is nothing exciting but where it is... It's on top of a HUGE hill and there are 3 parking lots on the way up. We call them the Telestial, Terrestrial, and Celestial parking lots, because the higher up you park the closer you are to the church and less walking you have to do. It's funny...especially when it's raining.
My branch is awesome! It has 80 members, and there are only about 30 that come each week. BUT what's really good is that the branch missionaries are AMAZING!! They help us SO much, and the branch president is practically still a missionary, he does so much. He and his counselors call us about once a week to see how it's going. So much support.
We have this one investigator who came to church BEFORE we met him. His name is Joe and he's from China. He lived with the Stake President in New Brunswick for a year and went to church and seminary there. Now he's here for college and coming to the YSA branch. He's practically a member and I'm almost positive that he'll be baptized within the month. It's really exciting :)
Want to know something crazy? It didn't snow here for almost a month! It snowed one day at the beginning of November but then nothing until yesterday and it wasn't all that bad. It looks like I'm going to need to go get boots now.
I still have moments where I think "What am I doing? How did I get here?" The idea of being a missionary is still new to me. It's quite an experience. And weird.
My Thanksgiving was AMAZING!!! Sister Simpson called us in the morning and invited us to join them and all the senior couples in the mission at the mission home for dinner (1 pm). It was so great, we were so lucky, we were the only set of normal missionaries there. And THEN we remembered we had a dinner appointment at 4:30 so we ate 2 Thanksgiving dinners and we weren't allowed to tell any of the Elders. Sister Moss and I gave each other funny looks during the second dinner because we felt like we were going to pop open!!! We survived though, no worries.
Someone we talked to on the street told us that we should sell cars because we are really convincing. It's true, this particular guy, we gave him a pass-along card, he gave it back, and then asked for it again!! We aren't teaching him but he will definitely think about it. It was a good compliment.
So, transfers are tomorrow and Sister Moss and I totally thought we were free from any change, but no. We are getting a 3rd sister!! I don't know her but Sister Moss does. Her name is Sister Olsen and she has been here a transfer longer than me but she is extremely homesick. That's not going to be fun to be around. Sister Moss is positive that I'll love her though so I'm not worried.
I still have a lot I could say, but it will have to wait. I love you all very much and hope all is going well.

Love, Sister Nicholls

Dianna - 22 November 2009

Here is more info from Dianna and a few pictures from Halifax:

Want to hear some good news? We had one of our investigators, Terry come to church with us this week! Woohoo! And he thinks he'll come again. yay! And this week we are having 2 more come with us, Matt and Jordan, 2 of the 4 boys we had been teaching that I told you about last week. I bet that Jordan will end up getting baptized. Also, Chantale has been having us teach her for awhile. We are going to invite her to be baptized when we teach her again tomorrow. I'm so excited that we aren't just finding people to teach, now we are actually teaching people, real people, who may have a real conversion story that I'll be a part of. How cool!
Well, I know that there was more but I can't remember...OH! I was telling a story about President Simpson! Sister Moss and I, at Zone Conference yesterday, sat with President and Sister Simpson at lunch. We were talking about movies because President had said that we could watch a G rated movie on Christmas. It became one of my favorite conversations EVER! President started talking about A Christmas Story, Nacho Libre and Napoleon Dynamite!!!! He likes those movies! AND he was quoting them!! It was SO hilarious! I learn something new about him every time I see him. Also, yesterday he asked how long I have been here. I said almost 3 weeks and he was shocked! He thought it had been a few months! That's only because I see him alot in the office and stuff. He's such a great guy, I want you all to meet him one day.

Dianna's addresses

Here is Dianna's apartment address:

3135 Joseph Howe apt.2
Halifax, Canada NS B3L 4H2

And here is her mission home address:

202 Brownlow Ave. Unit F Bldg F
Dartmouth, Canada NS B3B 1T5

She loves those letters! Thanks.

Dianna Update - 4 November 2009

I want to tell you about some of my investigators. So, I think I told you last week that both my companion and I are new to this area and so we had no investigators. So we have been out all day everyday talking to anyone and everyone telling them about the gospel, it almost doesn't phase me anymore. Well, from those efforts we have met a lot of great people! One of these people is a woman named Chantale. She has Cerebral Palsy and so she is in a wheelchair. We met her on the street one day and we met with her a few days later and taught her lesson 1:the restoration. She said that she had written in her journal the day she met us and had said that God had sent her 2 angels. How sweet is that. She is 39 and not really sure of who she is or what this life means, but she is pretty interested in what we are teaching her and she is really glad to have us as her friends. We are glad to be her friends. There is also this lady Sarah Jollymore. She was in our area book and hadn't really had contact with anyone for a few months. We just showed up at her house one day and she welcomed us with open arms! She is definitely going to be baptized! She was planning on coming to church on sunday but got called into work or something. She is really excited about the church, she is a real searcher. The most amazing story we have had was that we knocked into these 4 boys (did I already tell you this?) they are college room mates. We taught them the 1st lesson and then brought them to the Book of Mormon read and then on saturday they came and played basketball with the Elders. They were going to come to church but remembered that they wouldn't be able to come because they would have stayed out late for halloween. At least they were honest.... I bet they'll come this week! There is this guy named Terry from the Caribbean. He had us come teach the Restoration and he thinks he might believe it but he wants to spend some time reading the book of Mormon and praying before he makes any drastic moves. He is a good kid and I hope he really prays and feels the spirit. He was so cool. When we came over he served us crackers on a plate and glasses of grape juice in his empty living room. It was a great place to feel the spirit. There is this sweet older lady from Lebanon that we met. She is a hard core Catholic so she doesn't believe a lot of the things we say and she constantly talks about the Holy Mother. She keeps inviting us back though...I think we have to stop going though because she no longer wants to talk about religion. She just loves that there are young people who are strong in their faith so she wants us around. That actually goes for a lot of people we meet. The older they are the more they appreciate what we are doing, even if they don't want to listen to us. The people here are just so sweet. This next girl, Lauren, is an interesting story. We were walking on the street one day and Sister Moss told me to talk to this girl but I got scared because she was smoking and had a nose ring. So we passed her. Sister Moss felt bad about it but I was still new so I didn't really care. On our way back we passed her again because she was finishing her cigarette before she went into work. I saw her and told Sister Moss that I'd try again. She told me that sometimes Heavenly Father will give us 2nd chances when we really need them. And we really did! We talked to her, she was REALLY interested, we gave her a book of Mormon and planned on meeting her the next day. She didn't answer her phone so we couldn't get her address and we left a message and called several times last week. Then yesterday we decided to go to her work and see if we could find her there and see if she just wanted to ignore us. She works at a tea shop buy the way, cute little place. She wasn't there but a co-worker was. When we walked in, the co-worker said "Hey, you're the missionaries Lauren has been talking about! Nice to meet you, I'm Amanda." Wow! Apparantly Lauren has been wanting to call us back and meet with us but since she goes to school and works 2 jobs she just hasn't found a time yet. Amanda told us when she worked next and we plan on going in then. Also, we learned that Amanda's best friend for a long time when she was little was LDS and she learned a little about our church, but was never really invited to learn more. I'm excited to give her that opportunity! I'll have to keep you posted. There are just so many more, but so little time.

Sister Nicholls

Dianna Pictures - 10/22/09

Here is a note from Dianna's Mission President's wife and a few pictures.

Dear Brother and Sister Nicholls,
Your daughter arrived in Halifax safe and sound. We have already fallen in love with her and so happy she is in our mission. Her companion, Sister Moss, is a great missionary and I think that they will really enjoy working together. Their area is here in the metro. This is a beautiful part of Canada and a great place to serve a mission. We look forward to working with Sister Nicholls and I know she is going to be a great asset to our mission. Thank you so much for raising such a wonderful daughter and for your willingness to share her with us. Thank you!
Sister Simpson

Dianna - Hello from Canada! 10/21/09

I made it safely to Canada! It isn't quite as cold as I was expecting but President and Sister Simpson said that it is unusually warm. I don't know if that is a good thing or not. I just found out about an hour ago who my companion will be and where I will be serving. My companions name is Sister Moss and we will be in the Halifax Metro area. That's great because that means we can go to the temple on our preparation day if we have time. :)

Oh My Gosh!! Anne of Green Gables didn't just stop being everywhere when I left! Last night and tonight I am staying at the Mission home and the room I'm staying in is called the "Anne" room. When they said that I'd be staying in the Anne room I had no idea what they were talking about, until I walked in...! There are 2 pictures about Anne of Green Gables on the wall, a doll of Anne the size of those American Girl dolls, the book is on the side table, and the best part of all is the Embroidered pillow!!! I'm going to take a couple pictures of it so you can see that I'm not exaggerating. It's hilarious!!!I'm just loving the people so far and Sister Moss seems pretty cool, as far as I can tell. I don't actually meet her until tomorrow. The good news is that we get a car!!!! The bad news is that before the end of the year they are supposed to get rid of 13 of the mission cars!!!!And the said Sister Moss might be one of those people who will lose one. :( And they said that when we don't have a car, we walk. I don't think they use bikes here. They might though, we'll see. So I went to the temple this morning and it was a great experience. Wednesday is P-day for my mission so there were a lot of missionaries at the temple. It's one of those small, cookie-cutter temples and man are they SMALL!! The rooms are just so tiny and they filled it up full and with extra chairs. It was still a great experience. Oh, and the person I went through for today, her name was Minnie Nichols! How cool is that!! I just love the temple!

Well, I think that is all I have to say at the moment, mind you I will have something to add 10 minutes after leaving the computer, but I guess that will have to wait. I love you all very much and thanks again for writing!!!

Love,Sister Nicholls

Dianna Update 10/15/09

Here is another update from Dianna - 10/15/09

Hey guys! I am absolutely loving your letters. It's fun getting handwritten ones but it's also fun getting Dear Elder ones because I get those the very day they are written. They print it out and put it in my mailbox. So either way is great. What way is NOT great is email. I only get 30 minutes on it a week and I want to use that time writing to you, not reading stuff....

So, I sang in the MTC choir this week! That was a neat experience! It was actually really fun. This is the biggest choir I have EVER seen. I think it even beat the Mo Tab. It was about 100 Sisters and 6-700 Elders AND you could still hear the girls! The Spirit is just incredible in firesides and devotionals, especially when we are all singing. There are over 2,000 missionaries here, so you can only imagine. You'll even hear people singing from their new language hymn books so it can get interesting at times.Thanks for the prayers. I can tell that you are praying for me. One day was really rough but then I remembered all of the support I had, from family, friends, and Heavenly Father. Being a missionary is fun but can get really rough sometimes because of all the studying and being critiqued when we teach, it can get you down sometimes.

So, my District is really cool we all get along really well. None of us can believe that we leave in just a few days! We got our travel itineraries last thursday evening. The Edmonton Elders and my 2 companions also going to Edmonton all leave Monday morning at 5 am. Then us going to Halifax leave Tuesday morning at 6 am. This means I will have a replacement companion for a day. I wonder what it's going to be like. I heard that I get to call home while I'm traveling. I don't know when, but I guess I will give you a call on tuesday. I'm flying to Halifax with a stop in Chicago. Just getting colder as I move north and east!!!I really hope I don't freeze to death! Also, my bags are too heavy now because they gave us so much stuff. So I will most likely be sending you a package of some clothes. Most of it will be stuff I can't wear anyway. It's stricter than I thought.

OH! I went to the Provo temple. It's a lot bigger than I thought. But it's not as pretty on the inside as the Mesa temple.

Well, my time is up. LOVE YOU ALWAYS AND FOREVER!!!

Sister Nicholls

We received our first letter - here is an excerpt about life in the MTC:

...I got those AMAZING cookies this morning. I haven't eaten one yet but I'm excited! So are my companions! That's right, I said companions. I have 2. They are both going to the Canada Edmonton mission though. We are the only 3 sisters we have found going to Canada and only 2 other Elders going to Halifax. But there are a few that just left for Calgary and a BUNCH of Elders going to Edmonton. My companions are so great! Sister Burgi is the cutest little thing. She is 5 feet and half an inch! She is so sweet. I think it's mainly because she is the 5th of 14 kids! WOW! She is good with people.Sister Weston is 5 foot 9 so we make Sister Burgi look even tinier :) Sister Weston is so fun. She is the odd ball of the group. She always has questions about EVERYTHING. But they're good ones.
We have had 3 mock teaching appointments so far and they just keep getting better, which is good because we did REALLY bad at the first one and were kind of put off. Our spirits are building again though. It's rough working with 3 minds but we hear that we are doing it exceptionally well, so that's good news. Also, we spent an hour in the Referal center yesterday where we call people and confirm that they got the free gift they ordered. Sister Burgi and I only got answering machines but Sister Weston talked to this one guy for 13 minutes! It's pretty scary at the beginning but the more answering machines I got the more I really wanted to talk to someone.
The schedule here is SO busy! We get up at 6 or 6:30 depending on if we are going to shower, then we have to be in class from 7-7:45 and then breakfast, then class from 8:15-11, gym until 12 (LOVE IT! They have the coolest gym EVER!), Lunch, class from 1:15-5:30, dinner, class from 6:15-9, plan the next day with your companions 9-9:30, get ready for bed, quiet time at 10:15 and lights out at 10:30. Phew! Those class chunks are broken up every so often for Large Group Meeting or teaching appointments. But my teachers are really fun! They are Brother Vallett (rhymes with Ballot) and Brother Brame (rhymes with frame). They have helped me a lot.

Dianna has arrived at the MTC and has completed her first full day! Here is her address - I'm sure she would love to hear from you.

Dianna Nicholls
MTC Mailbox # 137
CAN-HAL 1019
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Welcome to The Nicholls Missionary Report

On this blog we will keep you informed about Dianna and Andrew's missions.
Dianna is leaving September 30th for Halifax Canada. Her email address is sisternicholls@yahoo.com. We will let you know her mailing address as soon as we know.
Andrew is leaving December 9th for Rancagua Chile. We will let you know of his addresses later.