Moves, Baptism, and A Glimpse into the Brazilian Mission

Hi-ya Family and Friends,

Moves!  I am sadly but surely leaving Dublin this Wednesday! :( It is not as hard as I thought it would be because I have known about it for about 2 weeks when Sister Millward came. But President Brown finalized that on saturday night. I will be going to Montrose, Scotland. Hear it is super cold. Yes mom I will wear extra clothes and take my vitamins :) But we have a car there. So I will learn how to drive on the wrong side and drive a stick. So cool!!!! I am pretty excited! :)

Baptism! MABLE IS NOW A CONFIRMED MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS! It was such a beautiful experience. She was so excited! Her leg hurt in the morning and she called saying she may not make it but we prayed like crazy and she showed up and she said she knew that satan was doing all that he could to make her not come. She is fantastic. She was baptized with 2 others. It was Vlad (the deaf man) sister Garlock and I met in the store a month back and his wife. They too were so excited! Seriously love baptisms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is all I will say about that. Hope to send pictures since they are worth a thousand words :)

Brazilain mission! After english class we asked if anyone in the class wanted to watch the movie about the Restoration and have a church tour. They ALL said yes!!!!!!! All 10 of them. One of the most spiritual and humbling experiences. They are all interested in the church (6 are brazilian hence the title)! All are in the elders area which is a bit of a bummer but just being apart of it was amazing! I love the gospel and how it changes people for the better!

That is all for this week! I love you all and hope you all have the greatest week!

Love,

Sister Nicoll

ps pictures next week! :)

I LOVE MY SISTERS IN ZION!!!!!!!!!!!‏

Hi-ya Family and Friends,

Gentleman don't be deceived by this title.... I still love my brothers as well but most things that I have grown a love for this week has been in situations with sisters! I love the trio I am in right now! Sister Garlock and Sister Millward are both hard working and fun to be around. Though the work can go on with sisters that do not have these qualities, I have noticed that these two qualities help the work GREATLY! Which being with them have caused me to want to step up my game and do the little things and rules more effectively and efficiently. Like I have said before... the little things make the greatest difference, which I think these two sisters have mastered pretty well and make them stand out to me. One thing that Brent (my brother in law) said to me for my birthday that would make it good was to pick one thing I may be slacking in and be more obedient to it. I am grateful for that advice. I will be honest... morning schedule is hard for me ( not much of a surprise to many of you I am sure) but this week I put a better effort into it and it has made a great difference. Even though there may be fall backs on things we commit ourselves to, If we continue to do it and strive for it, we will be bless! I love that role of the Atonement in my life.

As for other sisters in Zion.... Mable. She is such a lovely lady! We had a lunch date with her at Mongolian BBQ! It was so much fun and she is still so excited to be baptized! She is very humble about the situation and just feels blessed to have this opportunity to be baptized. I really hope that all goes well with her appointment on Thursday with getting her cast off, so that I can be there for her baptism. She asked me to speak at it... so I really hope so. I love her so much! I guess next week will find out whether it happens or not this weekend. I am praying hard for her. You can do the same and we can hopefully see a miracle this weekend :)

Another sister is.... Shirly. The cutest Chinese girl EVER! She is one of the Chinese girls that I mentioned last week that we met through English class. I am sure if the missionaries in AZ do that they will get many to come to church and to come to the knowledge of the truth as well. Anyways... Shirly does not know anything about God and church because of living in China her whole life but as we teach her she has really felt the spirit and is praying about a day she would like to work toward to be baptized! I seriously love her so much. She has the sweetest spirit about her. 

Other sisters that have blessed my life on the mission.... My mom and sister Amanda! Two of the greatest women on this earth! Right along side them are my grandmothers and also those who have been a great support are Kaeli-ann and Jennifer Bergeson! Each of you have a huge impact on my life and I am so thankful for each of you sisters in my life!!!! 

Also like to say that I do love and greatly greatly GREATLY appreciate my Pa, Chris, and Brent! But most of all I love my Savior Jesus Christ! Who knows exactly what we are going through and knows how to help us become the greatest person we are sent here to be. And of course I love my Heavenly Father! So much love for everyone this week! Hope you all have a wonderful week and talk to you again next week!

Love Sister Nicoll

PS. I would like you all to know that I am sorry for such the delay of writing you all. I hope to sometime soon but time is very limited on p-day. And being in Dublin there is much to do and being in the city is way fun so taking it while I got it. But I try to write two a week. I will get back to you as soon as I can. Know that I still love you even more and want to write you :)

pss this Sunday is moves call. I will most likely be moving. Be curious for a week......

Dublin Trio: Garlock, Nicoll, Willward

Gabrielle, Sean & Trio

Streets of Dublin

Shirly, Ashlee, Jenny

Why Bother?!?!‏

Hey Family and Friends,

Why Bother? Is a phrase used here often. I sometimes can't remember if some phrases are just Irish or if they are used back home too. Must be getting use to the culture here :) But we were talking to a young man who asked us "Why bother with doing all the rules in the mormon church, when you see people all around us doing good things but not doing all the strict rules of the church?" It was a very good question and we told him that we could just spit out answers but we really wanted to think about it and give him a better answer. So for a couple studies in the morning I tried to think about "why bother?". I came across the talk "Be anxiously engaged" from this past conference. It talked about how it may seem that our small contribution to things are not worth it and it wont make a difference. But it is not true. When we bring all those contributions together it makes something absolutely great like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That is how Christ and God want it. They know that we each have busy lives and things to do for ourselves but as we give a little effort to others and to the church we help everyone. As we are "anxiously engaged in a good cause" D&C 58:26-28 we will be blessed for sure. I took the study a bit further and asked why bother reading the scriptures daily and praying daily. My conclusion.... if you are just doing it to do it... don't bother but if you do it for answers to life questions and to do it for help and  to show your love for God then you will see why you bother to do it. It is to constantly have the spirit with you to fight through any temptations or hardships that will come our way. Now don't get me wrong... if you don't have a testimony of reading or praying yet keep trying and EVERYONE keep doing it daily but you must try to get something out of it. As we taught the young man about this the spirit lead the lesson and we realized there is more that he has questions to than just that. But I know doing the SMALL things makes the BIGGEST difference. 

Okay as for the work... going GRAND! Mable will now be getting baptized on the 23rd of February and is still very excited. I am so blessed to be apart of teaching her. This week started teaching an English class as a finding idea for new investigators. Monday we had 2 chinese girls come and they started asking us questions about the Hymn book and wanted to read from it. We were all over that of course. After the english class we told them how sister garlock can play the piano and asked if they wanted to hear and listen to the hymns. They said yes. So we sang a few hymns with them and asked what they thought. They said they felt peace and moved. One was able to come to church and she said it was perfect :) This work is great!

As for moves, they happen in two weeks. Sister Millward is actually staying with us for the next two weeks in a trio. I don't have much time to explain so I will next week. I love you all

Love Sister Nicoll  

IT ONLY GETS BETTER!!!!!!!!!‏

Dear Family and Friends,

I think I am finally coming to terms with the fact that I will never really find the groove of the mission. I think that is because there is none. Things constantly change and that is because I am trying to find out God's will for things and give up mine. But as the title says.... It only gets better!!! As hard as change is and as frustrating as it is, if it is for the better... the results will only be better! Still hard though. I realized I am not too fond of change, maybe because not much changed throughout my life but really God knows what He is doing. We all just need to settle with the fact that if we want to have eternal HAPPINESS, we need to be ready to do the things that will bring it to us. Sometimes we don't know exactly what those things are but that is why we are here. To learn and try those things. So I encourage you all to do that. Keep trying to change yourself, do the things that are hard that the Lord asks you to do, and reap the eternal HAPPINESS He is anxious to give you! :) I rambled on about that for a while mostly because once again not much to report! haha but I will think of some things. :) Thursday to Saturday was exchanges with the Belfast sisters. I was in Dublin(every once in a while it hits me I am in the awesome city of Dublin Ireland) with Sister Hansen. She is in my group of sisters. I love her lots!!! She is a wonderful sister and we got along grand! She is a funny girl and we just had lots of fun together! We were able to meet with our investigator Mable, Friday morning and she is still excited to be baptised on the 16th of February. Her leg is in a cast right now but she said that if it is not off by the 16th, she will wrap it in a rubbish bag in order to be baptised. Talk about faith!!!! She is lovely and I am grateful to know her and be apart of her learning and growth in the gospel and helping her make that first great covenant with God. So those were the highlights of this week! I will also add a pic or two and let you see what I have been up to!

I love you all and pray for you often! Keep up the work of the Lord and let your light so shine!!! :)

Love Sister Nicoll

Ashlee & Sis. Garlock after rainy hike by beach

Ashlee with Sis Hansen on exchange

Ashlee with Sis Hansen

Sis. Garlock on the Train