Hello to family and everyone who reads this! :)‏

Hey!

Lots of interesting and fun things to tell about this week! I am sure you are all wanting to know if I am moving or not... Well I will think about tell you that or not. So best part of this week is a lesson we had with a member! One of the members has been in the hospital alot because they were worried she has cancer ( just found out she doesn't). So one day while she was gone Sister Jelickova, a member from the ward, Sister Botts, and I went to their home to help clean it up. It was a lot of fun and Sister Botts is just one of the best people. SHe is the sweetest lady and so funny. Anyways after we cleaned we had a little lesson with her. It was about the Atonement and we read 3 Nephi 11 with her. She began to cry during it and she explained that these past couple weeks she has just been feeling distanced from the spirit. And she told us how she is so grateful for the missionaries and the spirit they bring into her life. It was so touching and really uplifted our spirits. It is wonderful to hear the work we are doing is appreciated by members! Then a funny but awkward story with one of our new investigators. His name is Mulu and he is from Etheopia(sp?). We met him on the street and he told us he wanted to learn more and so we all had time and told him that we could go to a near by park and talk with him. On the way over to the park we asked him what brought him over to Ireland, He simply answered seriously, "Find a white wife". Yep. Sister Jed and I looked at each other and just smiled. So we get to a park bench and Sister Jed sits on one end and Mulu sits on the other. And so I sit somewhat snug in the middle. AWKWARD! He loved to pat my arm and hand when he talked to let me know he was listening and understood what we were saying. Oh the joy of missionary work. He does sound sincere about the gospel and is taking it all in. We have met with him 2 other times and he has done alot better but still mentions we are pretty. So we may have the Elders teach him to see how serious he is about the gospel :) One last hightlight for this week. I got a massage!!! And it was for a service project. So neat. THere is this lady in our branch who had to get 50 hours of massaging to get her license and she asked if we would be willing. We were more then happy to help her out. :) It was a shoulder and face massage. So relaxing! That about covers this week.

So how the travel went from Scotland to Ireland! It was one of the longest days of my life. We a bus from the mission home to a ferry. We then got a ferry from Scottland to Ireland. For us to get from the ferry stop to Limerick we took about 4 different buses. I felt so motion sick. I slept or tried to sleep most the time. We left at 6 am and got to our flat around 10pm. Like I said.. Long day. But it was pretty good. Sometimes some fly over because it is cheaper. But since there were so many of us with heavy luggage, this way was cheaper.

We then too Okay so about moves......... If anyone skipped to this part first is lame! But last night we got the call that we would be staying in Limerick! I was pretty happy because I love all the people we work with! BUT this morning I got a phone call from President Brown asking if I would accept the call of moving to Dublin and working in a trio because one sister is have a hard time. She has been out for 12 weeks and is a little home sick. I told him no. I do not feel that is right. Just kidding I said yes! It was a bit hard because I will miss everyone here but I will go where I am needed! I leave Wednesday morning for Dublin. I love the work! Hard but good work!

Tell Josh and Cody hello for me! And I want to hear all about there coming home and how they are! Miss and love them! They are such great friends! Hope you all have a great week!!!!!

Love,

Sister Nicoll

August 20th 2012 email from Ireland

Dearest Family and Friends,

Hope your week has been super great, from those what I have read it sounds like it. I can not believe 3 marriages of my friends have occured maybe more and I have only been out 2 month. That is so wonderful though. I am sure they are loving it. Probably not recieving as many blessings as I am, being out in the mission field and all. Just kidding :) Marc is home already? And Josh and Cody come home within the next 2 weeks? That is so crazy!!!! THey have all been great examples to me. I am excited to hear all their fun stories in 16 months haha.
So nothing super interesting happened this week but I will try to make it sound as great as possible. It was a good week though. We had zone conference on Tuesday. The mission president and his assistance were there, so there were alot of inspiring thoughts and personal revelation going on in that meeting. None that immediatly come to mind right now though. A lot of it was focused on obedience and I felt really good because I have worked hard on being obedient because any missionary I talked to said that obedience is key. I still have things to work on but for the most part I feel successful in doing that. But always striving to do better :) I don't believe that I have mentioned meeting with our new investigator, Willy. We met him at a park and he was interested in learning more. So we went to his home and brought our senior couple along. I was so thankful they were there because it was so hard for me to concentrate in his home. He lives in a small flat and has 3 dogs, 3 cats, and 3 birds. So it was a pretty messy place and it was so hard to concentrate. The next time we met with him we made sure it was somewhere else. So we met him at the shopping centre and had a lesson about the plan of salvation there. It went much better. He read the plan of salvatoin pamphlet we gave him before our lesson and he had lots of questions which was great. But he kept saying he is going to the terrestrial kingdom because of how he lives his life. We are trying to help him understand that he can go to the Celetrial Kingdom and find most happiness there, that is what we are here to do, help people know how to find eternal happiness. So we hope to continue to meet with him and teach him more. The other biggest news is that I had my first talk on the mission yesterday. God sure blessed me with peace compared to my farewell talk. Sister Jedlickova let me practice on her 2 times that morning which was a huge help. It was about member missionary work. I told the stories about Grandma Mary, Grandma Charlene, and Kaeli-ann's conversion. I may have made up a few parts. But I told them best to my memory :) But I talked about how all of them involved members in the conversion. It went pretty good, except for the fact that my papers fell in the middle of the talk. Talk about embarrassing! But it is over now so hopefully wont be talking for a while.
Transfers will be happening next week. Next sunday we will find out if we move at all. I am praying not to because I want to be here for when Claire is baptized. I don't feel one way or the other if I will be moving or not. Because of moves I may be emailing a different day but we don't know. Usually President Brown keeps trainers and trainees together for 12 weeks.
I love you all and hope your week is fantabulous!!!!!!!!
Much love,
Sister Nicoll

Looks like she's enjoying the weather...

Sent 8/13/2012 Hello Everyone!!!!!

Hi Fam and friends,
First I would like to address two big events happening back home this week!

14th of August: Kaeli-ann's 2 year mark of being baptized!!!! What a wonderful example she is to me and now being out on the mission her conversion is an even greater example and has more meaning to me and for Chris sharing the gospel with her. I LOVE YOU KAELI!!!

17th of August: HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY CHRIS AND KEALI!!! You both are wonderul and wonderful for each other!

Okay now lets talk about me :) Can't believe another week has come and gone. It feels like yesterday I was at the Cliffs of Mohor. But much has happened this week. Tuesday I was sick. I was well enough to go to district meeting in the morning and I attempted to go to one of our appointments but my stomach was really upset. So thankfully our appiontment fell through and we were able to go back to the flat. We called the others and we cancelled the other appiontment. I slept for 2 hours. I never throw up though even though I felt like it all day. But I had a good night rest and felt great for Wednesday. God sure blesses me out here :) The rest of the week was filled with lessons and finding, of course. The best days this week were for sure Saturday and Sunday. I will give you the highlights. Saturday we visited with my most favorite people. First with Sister Smirnov. And then with Claire. Claire is AWESOME! We were worried because she was not keeping or making any commitments. So on Saturday we agreed that if she did not agree with coming to church we would have to stop meeting with her til she was ready to progress. So we asked her and she said that she was planning on going with her little boy Ethan, he is 5. We were so caught of gaurd and so happy we just kind of stared and then started laughing with joy. She did also. Of course we told her how wonderful that is and what a blessing it is to go to church. We then asked about a date for baptism and she agree to prepare for the 29th of September. So stinkin' great!!!! Amazing lesson. Last time we met with her she found out that I don't really cook so this time she asked us to stay for lunch and she had me help her prepare it. She seriously is fantastic. She leaves for Spain tomorrow but we have faith in her and God that she will continue to pray and read and prepare for baptism. She has told us how she has felt the influence of the Holy Ghost in her life as she has studied out the gospel. Later that day we met with the Senior missionary couple and had dinner with them. Then ended the night visiting Emilie Petersen, who leaves back to Utah next week. We will miss her. She returned home from her mission last her and came here to nanny. She is fantastic! So Saturday was full of miracles and great people. THen you can guess what made Sunday so great.... Claire and Ethan came to chruch! She said it was nothing like the other churches but she liked it and is planning to come back after her vacation. And Ethan even like it because he got a biscut (cookie). Yep so that about covers what has been happenig here with me in Limerick, Ireland. Oh one last funny story. The other day as Sister Jedlickova and I were walking to a less actives home some kids stopped us and were asking some questions about what we do. So Sister Jed was wearing a full length dress and a little tight fitting, so one kid asked her if she was pregnant. Oh my goodness it was funny. At least I thought so because he was dead serious. She laughed along too. Well that is about it. Hope everyones week was great. Loved the emails and letters this week again.
Much love,
Sister Ashlee Nicoll    

Pictures from Limerick

Us by the Cliff of Mohor sign last p-day. left to right Sister Jedlickova, Azariah Kelly(branch member), Emilie Petersen(Branch Member) and I

Sister Condie, me, and Elder Johnston (ZL) at cliffs of mohor

  

Sister Jed and I

Sister Jed and I

What we do during weekly planning. Made paper people and named them by who we were working with this week

Sent:

Mon 8/6/12 10:35 AM

Hello from Limerick!‏

Hi-ya! (they say that alot here),

Another week has come and gone. Crazy!!! But this week was slower. But God always makes up for that. This week He helped me by sending me the love from home this week. Thank you Amanda, Mom, Dad, and others for the package. It was absolutely perfect! My zone leaders and district leaders are all from america and they missed easy mac too, so I gave each companionship a box. We are all thankful for your kindness. The candy was amazing and the cookies stayed tasty. Can't thank you enough for it all! Then I got 5 letters that were forwarded from the mission home. 3 from mom and dad, one from Kaeli-ann and one from Tracy. LOVE IT! So thank you for all the love this week. Really kept me going as we were cancelled on time and time again. But the spiritual experiences keep rolling in. But nothing super exciting to report this week. Good week nonetheless. So I will answer some of Dad's questions. Hope you all find interest in it :)

Did any of the Elders/Sisters from the MTC come to your District or Zone?

One Elder from the MTC is my district leaders new companion. Talk about stress... being district leader and trainee but my district leader, Elder King is wonderful. Along with Elder McCarthy the Elder from the MTC.

How many missionaries in the Scotland/Ireland Mission?  How many baptisms do they say a typical missionary might have?

I believe there are about 60 missionaries in the Scotland/Ireland Mission. BUt could be completely wrong. And typical baptism I think is 3-5?

One of these emails, give us a run down of your typical day.  What time you get up, what your morning is like, when you have to be out of your apartment, what time you have to come in??

You will all be jealous of my schedule. It is so ideal :)

6:30 Wake up. Which I do quite nicely suprisingly

6:30-7 Exercise which consists of lots of stretch, a few sit-ups, a few lunges, and push-ups if I decide to get crazy :)

7-7:20 get dressed and ready

7:20-7:50 short nap :)

8-9 Personal study and breakfast! I love personal study

9-10 Companion study and planning

10-11 Training study. 12 week program thing I do with my trainer

11-9 We visit investigators, less actives, members and when we don't have a meeting with someone we talk to people around us and try to find those that are prepared to hear the word. Between this time we get an hour for lunch and dinner.

9-9:30 review and planning

9:30-10:30 ready for bed

10:30 lights out.

Sometimes it varies of course but that is a typical day. I love when we meet with Sister Smirnov. She is my favorite member. Then this week we met, Claire, she has met with many missionaries but she just doesn't want to committ to baptism or church. I think she will be my favorite investigator. She is so sweet. We probably shouldn't have favorites but... it is just too hard when you meet amazing people.

One last story and then I will answer the other questions next time. Yesterday was an amazing fasting experience for me. Strengthened my faith like crazy. I fast for lots of thing but have few I am fasting for with more focus. Hope you know what I mean. But yesterday Sis. Jedlickova was not feel well so we stayed in the flat while she napped for a bit. But I decided I would study a little more. So I read and just felt so much peace and love from Heavenly Father. I fasted that I would have more confidence to talk to people. As we went out that night I know God helped me so much! I was the first to talk to someone and I talked to alot more then usual and one guy even accepted us to teach him more. Seriously God is amazing. I know it is because I decided to study and not sleep since I was not sick that I felt that peace and confidence. God will bless us when we are obedient. Well got to go. Hope everyone has a great week! Love you all

Love, Sister Nicoll