Let's be Honest!!!‏

Dear Family and Friends!

 

Let's be honest..... this week has been a hard one. A really hard one. Not too hard to just want to give up but enough to get me down a bit. I just feel nothing is going as I wish. Many of the people that were learning and less actives they were working with before I came we have not been able to get in contact with. Many of them I have never spoken to or met. (We all know if they met me they would love me and this wouln't be a problem, Just kidding ). HOnestly it is stressful and I think it is pretty hard for Sister Pugh. It is a trial of faith and I know that and I know I will learn from it and it will be good in the end if I just stay faithful and obedient. I know that but in the moment it is HARD! The beginning of the week was really hard but it did help me appreciate more at the end of the week. An investigator that was learning before showed up at church and wanted us to teach him and said he now has most sundays off! BRILLIANT! We were able to get two dinner appointments and one of them said we could invite anyone over with us. BRILLIANT! 3 members came up and said that they have certain times during this week they are completely free and want to go out with us. BRILLIANT! These type of things give me great hope. But the love of God and things that happen that I know He is aware and cares about me is the things that give me the greatest hope and encouragement.

I still love being a missionary. I wouldn't change it for anything. I know it is helping me prepare for life. LIfe will always have opposition. And there will be good and bad days, weeks, months... But it is all a test. It has taught me to be humble and trust God. To continuely turn to Him for approval and correction. He knows us the best.

That about sums it up. Sorry it was not the happiest of emails but it is one of the most honest! Things can only go up from here! :) I love you all and if you want to join us in prayer... our ward and us are praying that we can find a family that is prepared for the gospel. We continue to search and pray. We have faith we will find them!

Love you all!

Love Sister Nicoll

KILMARNOCK!

HELLO!
Pretty sure this will be a short email but I will try to pack a lot of
things in! Well first off I made it to Kilmarnock safely. I still do
miss Falkirk and all the people there but Kilmarnock is nice. The ward
here is brilliant. They are so welcoming and really willing to help us
out. I have meet quite a few of the people and I love them already. I
have met two investigators that we are working with. One was not happy
about having a new sister and missed the other one but I think him and
I are on good terms now and have had some good chats. The other man is
very nice and is loving the gospel. He has been learning about the
gospel for about 4 weeks and loves the Book of Mormon and should be
able to make it to general conference.
Sister Pugh is my new companion and she is lovely. Sadly she has been
sick this past week and trying to take me around and such must be hard
for her but this next week we will rock it!
There are quite a few less actives we are trying to work with as well.
So sounds like there is a lot of work that will keep us busy.
That about sums it all up. Sorry if I didn't answer all of your
questions but I do have photos I will send!
Have a fabulous week!
Love sister Nicoll

Trying on armor at Dean Castle


Dean Castle, Kilmarnock


Feeding a horse

GUTTED! ABSOLUTELY GUTTED!!!! (9/16/13)

Dear Family and Friends,

 

     Let's cut to the chase. I am gutted! We got moves call yesterday and I will be leaving Falkirk. I can not believe how much I love it here! I am seriously completely heartbroken. There are so many people I have come to love and it hurts to think of leaving them and having to start all over in a new area. I am sure there will be good people there but I can't imagine there being any other Alisha, Nicky, Dave, Dee, Kirsty, Sister Kew, Irvine Family, Gillian, Flora, Iris and the list goes on and on and on. And it is harder thinking that they live all the way in Scotland and thinking I will be living in the western American states and very unlikely that I will see them again anytime soon. I am very grateful for technology though! I can at least stay in touch that way!

     Well some great things have happened this week. I am sad to say that I am having problems with the computer so I can send some pictures of events that I took. Tuesday we got to go to mutual again with Alisha and learned how to cha cha dance. That was interesting and super fun. Wednesday Dee let me cut her hair. I love when people let me do stuff like that. I think it look fab. Also that night during our lesson she let us know with tear filled eyes that she knows this what we are teaching her is true and she loves reading the scriptures and praying! Powerful lesson and the Spirit was so strong. Saturday we spent a lot of time with Alisha. It was so much fun! She came to sports day. And then we went to her house after and then she came with us to get Kebabs. Donner (practically unknown meat) Kebabs are gross!!!! But it is tradition to get one as a missionary. Fun experience!

     Yesterday was Stake conference and Alisha came with us. She seemed to enjoy and I loved it! The stake president here is amazing! So very much in tune with the spirit. Gillian came for the last hour and she said his talk seemed to hit so many points in her life. Inspired man. Alisha said she will be going to church next week as well. She also came up with us and the other youth and missionaries in the stake and sang a special musical number. It was neat.

     Then we got the call last night that I will be going to serve in Kilmarnock. I believe that God has a plan for me there or else the new sister that is coming here. But since I don't know that plan at the moment it is really hard to be excited. Going to be saying a lot of hard goodbyes the next couple days. But a leg of my bed broke this morning so that helped me feel a little bit more excited to go. The beds in our flat are horrible hahah. Okay that is enough for this week! I love you all and hope your week is fab!

Love

Sister Nicoll

Christmas Songs!!! (9/10/13)

Hello Family and Friends,

     I have realized that Christmas Songs/Hymns are one of my stress relaxers. We sing a hymn together every morning and every morning I ask if we can sing a Christmas songs. Most mornings Sister Powell is happy to do it. Then today at District Meeting one of the other leaders there suggested we sing a Christmas song. It made me and another sister there so happy. I think part of the reason I really like it right now is because the weather we have here right now is similar to the winter weather in Arizona. hahah kind of pathetic but I love it! Today I got to asking myself why does Christmas music make me so happy. I feel it is because so many emotions and memories are attached to the songs. I love the spirit of Christmas. It really is a time for love and giving. I am grateful to grow up with Christ being the centre of the holiday and will continue that. But it is only September so I wont talk about that too much right now :)

      I got to admit that this week was a bit of a rough one for me. Thoughts of home and stress of moves call this next Sunday and just realizing how soon my mission here will be over, has been on my mind a lot. There were a couple really hard days but Sister Powell was great and helped me and I just pushed through it. But even though there were low times, there were also high times. Which of course God always does for me and I love it! We met some really nice new people and saw some of those we have been meeting with. Last night was so much fun. Nicky, Dave, and Alisha were all able to go to FHE with us at the Irvine's home. We played some games and talked about the For Strength of Youth. Alisha told us how much she has been enjoying mutual and really wants to come to church. She is such a fun girl and we love seeing her. I remember when I didn't enjoy the youth programs but by the end I really saw how much they made me the great person I am today  But really the classes and everything that is offered through the church is genius and really is there to help us become better people. 

     I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying your weeks and are still finding time to serve others and spread the good word of God. I am so excited for General Conference in less than a month! Got to start preparing now! Love you all and hope you have a fab week!

Love, 

Sister Nicoll 

Randomness!

Howdy Family and Friends,

 

The reason this week is titled randomness is simply because there is nay (love how they use nay sometimes for no here) consistency for anything that went on this week! Lets start with the crazy story of monday night! As we rushed out the door to go to an appointment we realized that we forgot the keys in the flat and that the door automatically locks. Thankfully a member has a spare key. So we decided we come home a bit early and go by the members to get the key and be home on time. Well.... we completely forgot about it all so we got back a bit before 9 and we called the member, no answer. So we ran to their home, no answer. We called our District leader, who called the Zone leaders, who called the Assistant to the President. We were so embarrassed. We started getting scared because it was nearly 9:30 and being the obedient missionaries thought something horrible was going to happen like getting murdered because we are not going to be in on time. But anyways we called Kirsty and Dee to see if they can pick us up and stay with them till we get it sorted. They are so kind and did so. We tried calling our landlady but she couldn't do anything at the moment. Thankfully around 9:45pm the member with the key called us and we got in. I am not sure how long it will take me to feel comfortable staying out past 9:30 when I get home hahah. But it was a fun change in the work :)

We had exchanges and that was nice. I went to Edinburgh and realized how much I truly love Falkirk and the people here. I will be so sad to ever leave! Saturday was fun! We are starting up with the branch and investigators a sports day. We played volleyball and chair football. Then two young woman from the stake came on splits with us and we had a lot of fun and will be coming again!

Highlight of the week: Yesterday a less active named Gillian came to church! We have been meeting with her for 5 months and she is absolutely one of my favorite people! She and we have been praying for her to have the opportunity to come and it happened! She and we were so happy! I just love her!

Well that about sums it all up! Hope you all have a fab week!

Love,
Sister Nicoll

After the trial.....‏

Hi-Ya Family and Friends,

 

Back to Ether 12:6!!! So the trial was the beginning of the week. We had monday and tuesday planned out beautifully and we were so excited about it. Then as P-day was ending we got calls and texts from the people that they would not be able to meet at those times. What was are back-up plans you may ask? Chapping. Chapping. Chapping. After recieving the news, I may or may not have sprawled on the floor and told Sister Powell that we will no longer be doing missionary work or at least for a couple days. But I got myself together and we went out. Well the first 10 door, no one was interested. Next 30 doors, same story. So we went to the bus stop to go home and the bus didn't come for another 20 minutes. So after a little bit of rest and complaining, Sister Powell crossed the street to talk to someone who was not interested and I followed and then we decided to just chap the doors right in front of us. Lo and Behold the first door we chapped the girl living there knew members and said we could come back and teach her a little more next week. And guess what.... the moment would not have been so great, if the other 50 people didn't reject us. God really knows what He is doing when He gives us things that stretch us. The next day was going to be a lot of finding as well but as we were walking Dee pulled up and offered us a lift and told us that we could come by and help her and Kirsty with some service. We were delighted! The rest of the week was fab! Nicky and Alisha were able to go to the Sherman's(a family in the branch) las night and it was so much fun! Nicky and Alisha are my absolute favourites (mostly said that because sometimes they read my blog :) But seriously we love them to bits. So does everyone else that meets them.

This morning I decided to read my call letter during study. Two lines stuck out to me and it is a shame that I forgot to write it down to email them. But they said something along the lines of if I put my whole self into the work and strive to serve God as best as I can He will bring people that I can help and are prepared to receive and follow the gospel! It also said I would be blessed to have greater knowlege and testimony of the Restored gospel. 14 months later I have seen these promises come true and I am so very very grateful for that! I love Christ and His gospel! A true blessing for all! HOpe you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Nicoll

A beautiful walk while chapping in Westquarter!

Our friend Nicky likes to make dreams come true! She is a superstar!

"Humility is not thinking less of ourselves but thinking of ourselves less"‏

Dearest Familia and Amigos,

 

So I don't have much to say on the title of this email. I just heard that in church yesterday and thought it was great and can apply to everyone. But I feel I still have a lot to learn and appy about humility but I also feel I have already learned alot about it being on my mission. I have such a great love for all the people I meet with and see here in Falkirk. Our weeks are always filled with people we look forward to seeing. And yes there are also some crazies. Like this week. Last week when we were emailing, a man started talking to Sister Powell and said he would like to learn more and for us to come by and visit. He seemed a bit creepy, so of course we gave his info to the elders to go by and see. But we have a less active we see that lives on his same street and when we passed his house we hear a man yell "SISTER POWELL!!!!!!" She looked over and saw a him waving with no shirt on. She just took off running yelling "GROSS!"(not loud enough for him to hear). It was so funny. We started to slow down and I pretend I saw him behind us and told her that he was chasing us and I started to run. She looked so scared and started running as fast as she could. Oh my goodness!!! I was laughing pretty hard. I was sad because we were not able to see Alisha. She is 15 and she is Nicky's partner's daughter. She was gone when we visited Nicky this week. We hope to see her this week because she is really cool and makes us laugh.

Some of our friends have been gone this past week but we get to see them in the next couple of days. I am very excited! Especially Dee and Lesley. We have good lessons and chats with them. They are really searching for truth. I love hearing their experiences with praying and reading.

Well that about sums this week up. HOpe you all have a smashing week!

Love

Sister Nicoll

 

Sister Powell and i on our lovely bike ride last week

The beautiful scenery of our bike ride! Be jealous!