WONDERFUL HOLIDAY SEASON!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

I LOVED CHRISTMAS!!! Being able to talk to you all was definitely the greatest gift! I have got the greatest family and friends EVER! And Landon and Lexi are still the cutest and will be til I have my own kids . Can't believe Lexi is crawling! But it was just a wonderful blessing seeing and talking to you all. Just the boost I needed! 

As for this past week... it is a bit of a blur. So I will tell what I remember. Monday evening we went to a single sister's home, Dorrie Weldon, and her brother (who is not yet a member) was there. So we were able to do a lesson about Christ with them and bring it into the true holiday spirit. We invited him to church ans he said he will try to be there. That will be wonderful! Christmas eve is when we opened all our gifts also. We were SPOILED! Many members gave us gifts and our families were also generous. We were blessed. As for Christmas day... the buses don't run so we had to plan smart. Thankfully the Ottoson family in the ward is so kind. We walked to the church (50 min walk) and they picked us and the Elders up and took us to their home. We had a good lunch with them and watched Kung Fu Panda. I must admit I did miss my movies so that was a nice treat. We also played a bit of Phase 10. Brought back some good memories of up north. Then Bro. Ottoson took us to Babs where we had a good dinner, watched Brave, and enjoyed our skype calls with our fams. Not sure if anyone knows but Dec 26th here is also a holiday. It is called St. Stephens and it is another day off for everyone so we got the day off also. It was rainy most the day so we postponed our hike with Sean for this coming Monday and our other recent convert Gabrielle will be able to join us too. So that will be great! We had to be in our flat or at a members that evening and another single older sister, Sister Beldon, invited us over for dinner. Traditional irish meal: Potatoes, sprouts, turkey, carrots, and stuffing. SO YUMMY! So that is my holiday week! Next week is a bit weird as well. Sunday we will find out moves. Monday will still be our p-day, so I will be emailing monday, I know I told you Wednesday. Monday because of all the parties we have to be in our flat by 6. That will be a long night. :) Tuesday it is members only. Wednesday it depends on if one of us is moving then it is a moves day but if not it is a proselyting day. After that is normal. 

As for the work... going well. Victoria Aliphon is still good for the baptism tomorrow. We are so excited for it. Yesterday was her interview and when she came out she was just beaming and proudly said that she passed. We found a white dress that fits her well and that just made her day too. Her brother will not be able to make it so I am the back up speaker. I feel honored being apart of it and working with this family. They are so wonderful. Lately we have not been having real good success with investigators. We find that people will talk with us and maybe have a lesson on the street and set up another time to see them but they never show or it is a false number they give us. So this month we both fasted that each week we can find 2 new investigators. In the past we would not have that. But as we have put the faith and work into it, we have found success. The Lord is in this work and I am glad that I am able to be apart of it and reap the blessings of it also and see others enjoy the blessings and joy that I gain from it. 

I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful New Year's day!!!

Love, Sister Nicoll

Zone Dodgeball- Ready to Go! 

Nicoll & Garlock on Christmas Eve 

Ashlee scores on Christmas!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS IN 8 DAYS!!!!!!

Ashlee & Sister Garlock

All Sister Missionaries in Ireland

 Hello Family and Friends,

Christmas is in 8 days! That is crazy. I don't feel the complete "magic" of the usual Christmas season but it has been a different kind of "magic" for me this year. Serving a mission is... lets be honest... crazy! We constantly put ourselves out there to have the chance to be mocked, we have hardly any communication with the others in the world, we are with one person 24/7, we are  to love and serve everyone around us and be in charge of helping them to the celetrial kingdom, etc. So why do I do this? Because of what Christmas is truely about. Our elder brother Jesus Christ. Sure all those things I mentioned can get me frustrated and down many times a day but Christ and our fellow brothers and sisters are the reasons that keep me going ( and the promised blessings that will come to me ). I am so thankful for Christ and the day to day blessings I recieve from him. Most days I feel we don't even know all the blessings that come to us because of the sacrafices he made to make sure that we have the chance to be eternally happy. I think the greatest gift we can give people this year and every year is our time. Just a listening ear to someone lonely, cleaning someone's yard who is unable to do it themselves, just talking to someone who needs a friend. Those are gifts that will be remembered through the eternities. 
This week has felt a bit long but good things have happened. Zone conference was AWESOME!!! Elder Kearon, member of the 70? , came and talked with us. Nothing to report but I was definitely uplifted! There are riots going on in Belfast right now and we were to have exchanges with the sisters there but both of them ended up staying over with us. It was very interesting but fun. I was with Sister Morgan(she was in the mtc with me). She is a great missionary and we had a lot of fun together. Saturday morning we all split up and did some finding around town. Sister Morgan and I went across the street to Fairview park. I realized something interesting as we talked to many people. One man was athiest. He just couldn't believe that such a loving God would allow all these bad things happen to people (many people say that) but yet could turn water into wine. We testified of how it has helped us to believe but he just couldn't see it being real. We talked to a few like that. But we then met this man that had been through cancer, lost a son and a brother and a sister, and yet knows God is there for him and loves him. It was such a breath of fresh air to hear his testimony and faith in God. He was so kind and walks in the park every morning so we hope to take another walk with him thursday and talk more about the gospel. People that come out of such hard times with their faith stronger are such an example to me. Now for the best news of the week!!!! Every sunday we go to the Aliphon family for family home evening. The mother and 2 sons are members but the father and daughter are not. The dad tells us all the time that he will not be baptized (we still ask him every week he is funny) but we weren't exactly sure why the daughter wasn't (she is 10). We know she was going to before but the dad stopped it from happening. So we were blessed with the dad needing to go into town for something, so we were able to ask the mom and daughter about it. The girl wants to be baptized and the mom said we could ask the dad again if we want to. So when he came back we gave our lesson and ask the dad why she has not been able to be baptized. He said if she wants to that she can. He said on one condition.... if the bishop will bapize her. He has such great respect and love for the bishop. We told him to call and ask the bishop right then and there. He did and the bishop was DELIGHTED!!! WE ALL WERE DELIGHTED! Come December 29th there will be a baptism that we are so excited for!!!! A true miracle! Definitely the best Christmas gift! Well I am excited to be skyping home next tuesday! I love you all and wish you the best christmas ever!!! 
Love, Sister Nicoll

HELLO AGAIN FROM IRELAND!!!!!!!!!‏

Hi-ya Family and Friends,

Can't believe that Christmas is in 2 weeks! Time here on the mission is going a tiny bit faster. Hard to believe I am almost 1/3 of the way through my mission. Craziness!!!!!!! Then thinking I still got a year left sounds long but it is good because each day I am able to see God's blessings for me and others more fully. Everyday I am able to see God's hand in our lives. Some days are easier to recognize but each day nonetheless. The beginning of this week was great but all the fun that I can think of happened at the end of the week. Thursday through saturday I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Sister MIllward again but this time I got to go to Limerick. My first area!!! It was such a BLAST!!! I didn't see too many members but I got to see the ones I missed the most. I saw the Condies (the senior couple there) and Roisin, one of the young adults in the ward that I got along with real well. I saw a few more people but those were the highlights. Since Sister Millward and I get along so well, we had fun all weekend long. We were just saying hi to everyone and their dog on the streets and had some funny conversations with  some people on the street and found a couple more people that she can teach. I realized that unity in the companionship does have a HUGE impact on the work. Luckily Sister Garlock and I have lots of fun together too and are unified in the work as well :) One cool story happened saturday night. After I arrived back we had to go straight to the ward Christmas party (which was awesome). So once we had the opportunity to take all my stuff back to the flat it was almost 8:30pm. We were soooo tired and we struggled getting out of the flat since we knew we had to be out til nine. We finally convinced each other to go out finding around our block. Most people ignored us and walked on or just accepted our pass along cards but then..... we met Liam. He is in his 60's. We told him about how we were here to help people strengthen their faith in Christ and how we know Christ can help us. He wasn't sure how much he really believed in Christ. We then shared a Alma 7:12 with him and gave him the Book of Mormon and told him to read that chapter and pray to God to know of his love for him. We then asked if we could pray with him and he said sure. So Sister Garlock said a wonderful prayer specifically for Liam and after the prayer we were all quiet and Liam had tears in his eyes. We told him we knew it was God letting him know that He loves him and is aware of him and his difficulties. Liam didn't talk much about it but said he would read. I hope he will be baptized but if that was the last time I see him I will be okay because I know that, that is what we were suppose to do and satan did also, that is why we were so tempted to just say in for 30 minutes instead of go out. God and Christ are in this work and I am blessed to be apart of it. I love you all and hope you are doing well. Hope to have pictures next week. 

Love,

Sister Nicoll

Good week... once again!!!‏

Hello Family and friends,

Alot of this week has blurred together but looking back I can see that a lot of good things have happened. We are still making our way around Dublin just dandy! Luckily the new investigators feel more comfortable meeting at a nearby park or at the church. That is a blessing rather then taking the chance of getting lost. We did get lost twice this week but found our way back rather quickly. Thankfully Sister Garlock doesn't get upset and we can laugh it off (in frustration) while it is happening. I will just tell you two miracle stories:

Miracle one: Romania man. One night we were on our way home and we realized that we had about 30 mins before we had to be back in our flat. So we focused on getting a lesson on the street. So we turned around and stopped the first man on the street. We did our little one liner about Christ and he said he just came back from church and started walking away. We don't let them off that easy. So we asked him how church was and sucked him in. We talked about prophets and he said it makes sense for us to have one now since God did have one throughout time. He didn't seem totally convinced but we had a really good conversation. He is leaving back to Romania this week but we hope to get him a Romanian Book of Mormon before he leaves and we are committing him to meet with missionaries there :) Okay funny story with this man. His accent was thick but we could for the most part understand him. At one point we were talking about how thankful we were for the sacrifice the Savior made for us and we are now able to repent of our sins. Then the conversation went something like this:

Romanian: "We all have sins"

Sis. G: " Yeah we all do have sayings, What is yours?"

Romanian:laughing a bit" I don't think I can really say"

Sis. G: "Is it because it is in romanian?"

At this point I knew they didn't understand each other but it was a bit funny to listen too and wanted to see how it would end but I decided to spare my companion and told her that he had said sin and not saying. We all started laughing and it broke the ice really well. If you are not laughing at this story it is because you had to be there. It was definitely a highlight of my week.

Miracle two: Yesterday we met two young men that requested to learn from missionaries more about the church because one is going to be an english teacher and the other is just interested in others beliefs. Well we told them to meet us at the church around 3:30 because we would be there for church. Well we reallized that we can't be alone with them and no woman was around. We called a few people and they couldn't come (biggest bummer of not so many members and boundries being huge). We called Babs and she was was not around at the moment. So we prayed to God asking for help and let Him know that we are trying our hardest and we strongly desired to make it work. Right when we said amen Babs called and said she can catch a bus and be over in 30 mins. She arrived 5 mins before they arrived. No coincidence. Pure miracle and the lesson went great and will be meeting them again this week. Love lessons and days like that. 

Well that is about it! Over all good week. I love you all and hope that your holiday season is fully of fun and that each day you will be able to focus on the true meaning of Christmas, our Savior Jesus Christ!

Love Sister Nicoll

I dyed sister Garlocks hair today.

 Sister Garlock loves cleaning and I love taking pictures of myself so it really works out :)
ps. I did help clean

Final product. Looks soooooooo good on her!