Transfers

Here's Nicole's email from Monday! As most of you know, 

we got to Skype with Nicole on Christmas Day. It was SO 

great getting to see and talk to her! She's doing so well.

She was beaming with joy and truly loves being a missionary. 

Her arm is even out of the sling! Here's what she said 

this week, pictures included. Enjoy!!

"Howdy!! 

    So this week was kinda crazy!  On Tuesday, the best thing we did was go caroling!! The elders in our district came up to Nine Mile and we caroled! It was a lot of fun! We got to go to Katrina's house and a couple of members' houses. We also got to go carol tracting :) It was so much fun! We have a really great district and it was such a great bonding time while spreading the Christmas Cheer (: 

     Wednesday was a day full of trying to find new people to teach. 

     Thursday was Christmas Eve. We had the opportunity to teach a lady named Jhamee the Restoration! We found her tracting a couple weeks ago. When we taught her the Restoration, she was so excited and said it made sense!! She still has a few questions, but she said it made a lot of other things click. I LOVE that about the gospel...it just makes sense :)  We also got to go to the Beckmans that evening. The Beckmans are AWESOME!! The parents just started coming back to church and their 2 middle kids, Nicole and Aleric got baptized earlier this year! Their uncle, Tom, just came back to church and received the Priesthood! They're all working on going to the Temple to be sealed for eternity!! The oldest son, Joey, isn't baptized yet, but we're trying to work on him! He's so shy though, but we'll get him! So, Christmas Eve evening we went over there, opened their nice gifts they gave us, ate chili dogs, and sung Christmas songs around the fire. It was so much fun!!! The members here are the greatest and really involve us in their family traditions (: 

    Friday was Christmas! Because it snowed all day, every day, we had a white Christmas!! (: We had a meal at the Cheney's house and got to Skype home (: Then we went to the Knacks and saw them and shared a message. We also saw Katrina again and shared a Christmas message with her :) She's doing so great!! She's really progressing with her quitting smoking and drinking coffee and she gets so excited every time she does a little better :) It makes me so happy to see how happy she is as she's taking the steps towards baptism!

     Saturday I was sick all day -_- 

     Yesterday, we had a  WONDERFUL church service! It all started with the meeting we had before church. There was a spiritual thought given that made me think. The lady in our ward talked about a painting of Christ sitting on a park bench next to a teenager dressed in all black. She posed the question, what would you ask Christ if you were sitting next to Him on a park bench? How great that question is! What would we ask Him? Then the meetings went so well too!! The Spirit that comes from going to church is indescribable!! Then, last night we got our transfer calls. Sister Blackwell is leaving and I'm staying. My new companion will be Sister Foo. We will be taking over Nine Mile AND River Ridge ward. The 2 wards were combined and then when Sister Blackwell got here 6 months ago, it split. Now we're taking the 2 of them over again. It will be different, but I'm excited! It's a little stressful after 3 weeks, but I can't wait to see how I'm going to grow from this experience. As we ponder this transfer, we see how perfect God's plan is and all the things that are falling into place as a result! I love His plan. I know His hand is in ALL things, even though we may not always recognize it! I'm grateful for my calling...it brings so much joy! 

    I hope ya'll had a great Christmas too! May you always remember your Savior and all that's possible because of Him! Have a Happy and SAFE New Year!! Don't do anything stupid (:

Love,

Sister Wilson"

 District Carroling

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the super late post!

This week has been hectic to say

the least, with Christmas and all.

Here's Nicole's email from last week.

Enjoy!

"Hey Everyone!!! 

     This week was crazy and, therefore, this email will be short.

     We had a training all day on Tuesday with President Dymock. He's been very inspired and had told us of the changes the Lord wants us to make as His servants. I am very excited to follow his counsel and guidance and seeing the miracles that will happen as a result!! 

     Thursday we had weekly planning and went out working. 

     Friday-Saturday we had an exchange with the sisters (: It was fun, but interesting. It's been snowing a lot, which is so beautiful!!!!! Due to the snow, though, we couldn't go out all day on Friday. Sister Thompson and I had to be very creative, and it was really hard. Then Saturday, Sister Blackwell had a bad migraine and had to stay inside for a couple of hours. Again, it was tough. I'm learning though, that we can't control everything. We have to let go of what we can't control and worry about what we can control. Life happens sometimes, and we don't always like it. Nonetheless, when all is said and done, the things we can't control won't matter as much as what we do with the things we can control. When we finally did go out on Saturday, it was great!! We knocked on this door that had a "Happy Birthday Jesus" snow cake in their front yard. Turned out to be a minister's house. She talked to us for a good while and then gave us some referrals of people to go see. One of them, Cicyle (si-silly) is super awesome and seems open!! She said we could come back when she gets back in town. We're really hopeful for her!!

      Yesterday, we had a great church meeting! We learned a lot about Christ-like attributes. What a great gift to give to the Savior this year! He has given us literally everything that we have. Surely we can give Him our efforts of making Him a bigger part of our lives. The only thing that that will bring us is greater joy, peace, happiness, hope, and many more blessings into our lives!! I challenge all of you to think of some ways you can bring Christ more into your lives! DO IT!!! 

      Today, we got to go to the Emerson Family's house and make eggnog. It was a lot of fun!! We separated 5 dozen eggs! It was a blast and I'm slowly getting to know more members! Transfers are coming up on Sunday and we have no idea what will happen. Sister Blackwell has been here for 6 months. She thinks she'll stay another transfer, but I have no idea. Whatever happens, though, the Lord knows what He's doing! 

     I hope you all have a wonderful week and a very merry Christmas. May we all remember why we celebrate this season and what makes it so special!! I love you all (: 

2 Nephi 19:6    christmas.mormon.org

Love 

Sister Wilson"

Christmas Tree 

 Emerson Family

  Emerson Family

  Emerson Family

"Happy Birthday Jesus" Snow Birthday Cake

Howdy!

We got another email from our sweet

Nicole this week. Things in her new area

are slow-going, but she seems to be

enjoying where she's at! Check out her

latest email below:

  "Hey everyone!! This week's letter will be pretty simple (: 

   The work in this area is kinda slow right now, but we do have one AWESOME investigator! Her name is Katrina and her husband is a member who just became active again! His name is Seth and he's so great too! Katrina is getting baptized soon and is working on overcoming smoking! She's stopped almost completely and is praying about a date to be baptized at the very beginning of the year! She is just so amazing! We had a lesson on Friday with her. Her husband bore powerful testimony of the gospel and what it's done for him. It brought the Spirit so strongly! The member we brought with us also bore his testimony on his experience with quitting smoking and what it's done for him! Again, SO POWERFUL!!!!!!!!!! Oh my heck, this ward is full of strong testimonies. I can't help but smile every time I think of these people and hear their testimonies. It's such a great strength to me! We've been working with her a lot and see her everyday! It's great (: 

     We're spending lots of time trying to find. We've been tracting and have found some good potentials! We're excited to work with them some more :) 

      That's basically my week. The work is slow here, but it WILL pick up!! I love you all and pray that everyone is doing well! Oh....there's a girl here named Alyssa Golding who left today for the MTC. Where's she going? DALLAS TEXAS!!! Look out for her!! She's female, cute, brown hair and her name is Sister Golding (: Love you all!!

Sister Wilson"

E.T.

Hey guys! Here's Nicole's latest

email. Sorry I'm getting it posted

so late! Enjoy!!

"Hey Everyone!! 

     This week has been so crazy!! It's been kinda tough with my arm in a spling, but I am so grateful for Sister Ashby!! She's been a huge help as well as the other sister who serve around me! We had some beautiful days this week! We got some more snow...and ice! But no more accidents (:

     Thursday I received a Priesthood blessing for my arm. I am so grateful for the Priesthood!!!!! I'm so thankful for the elders I serve with who are worthy enough to hold it. How grateful I am to be in this church and to know so many righteous young men!! Thursday evening we saw a miracle. We went out to street contact on campus and neither of us were feeling real motivated. I said a prayer in my heart asking God that as we put forth our effort, despite our lack of motivation, if we could see miracles...then we did!! We ran into this guy named Lindani (Lynn-Dawn-ee). He's from Zimbabwe, going to school, and has kids that are 3 and 1. He became our new investigator!!! WHOOOO!!!! Miracles happen as a result of faith and diligence (:

     Friday we had a zone meeting. It was so great! We have a wonderful zone and we're all so close! I couldn't have asked for better people to serve with. Then comes the E.T....as Sister Ashby and I were retiring for the night on Friday, we noticed a missed call from the APs (assistants to the president for those who don't know). We called them back, curious as to why they would be calling us...it's not very common for APs to call missionaries other than the zone leaders to give us information. The elders told us an E.T was going to take place in Pullman. E.T. stands for emergency transfer. He told me I was leaving Pullman to go to Nine Mile Falls and that I would be leaving the next day. Me and 2 other sisters in the zone are leaving. My heart broke. I love Pullman and I love Sister Ashby and the other missionaries I see on a daily basis. We got all packed up and got everything ready to go. Because we weren't leaving until 2, we had one last district lunch. We said our final goodbyes and headed off! It was very bittersweet. Missions are so weird like that, haha. The work was so slow in my area and we didn't have really anyone to teach. But I loved Pullman and I miss it dearly! 

     So now I am in Nine Mile Falls with Sister Blackwell. She's great and really patient with me. She's from Indiana and has been out 5 1/2 months. She's been in Nine Mile Falls her whole mission thus far. We'll be spending Christmas together! Nine Mile Falls is right next to Deer Park. It's kinda booney and really spread out. We'll be doing a lot of driving. The ward here is HUGE!! It's a family ward and there are so many people. They're all very nice and welcoming though! There's a sister here that's leaving for her the MTC before going to the Dallas Texas Mission! The people here are nice and I think it will be an enjoyable last 3 weeks of the transfer! 

     There will be a lot of pictures this week since I didn't send any last week, so bear with me!! I love you all and hope your weeks are amazing!!!

Love

Sister Wilson"

Slow Work Week, Fun Experiences

Hey everyone! Here's the email Nicole

sent us this week. She had a little mishap,

but she's doing fine. :) Read about her week below:

"Hey everyone! 

      I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did! This week was slow work wise, but we had some fun experiences. 

      Thanksgiving was great! We had many member's offer to feed us! I love our members! They take good care of us. We had two appointments that day and I felt like I was going to explode by the end of the day hahahaha. 

     The big events of the week happened over the weekend. Saturday morning we went tracting and we ran into a Chinese family. They were really nice and let us in. We talked to them for twenty-ish minutes until we had to go. As we got up to leave, the cute Chinese woman asked to take a picture with us. Seeing that we still had our coats on she felt the need to go grab a coat for herself, so that way she was dressed the same as us in the picture. She took a few pictures with us, and then invited her daughter and her husband to join. It was really funny! I love the Chinese people, they always let us in! Saturday it snowed. It actually snowed a lot this week, it was very cold, but really pretty! Everything here is white. It is such a tender mercy from our Heavenly Father. Later that day we went street contacting. Because it was Thanksgiving Break, not many people were out. As we were walking though, one of our members pulled over and started talking to us. She invited us to her home to decorate ginger bread houses. It was so much fun! They even offered to feed us dinner! It was a nice break and Sister Ashby and I really appreciated it! 

     Yesterday, we went to church and it was fantastic! We had a great Sunday School lesson on the love of God. It was a great time for me to think about all the ways I've felt His love this week. Later that evening we were out walking around and talking to people. We saw this guy across the street and decided to go and talk to him. We gave him a card with a link to the new Christmas video. (You can see this video on christmas.mormon.org It is super great...go watch it!) He said thank you and then gave me a big hug...it was SO WEIRD...I was in shock for a few seconds, Sister Ashby can attest to that. It was so weird, but it was so funny. As we were walking home, at the very end of the night I had a mishap. I slipped on some ice and fell on my side. This morning I woke up and noticed my elbow was swollen from the fall last night. After talking to our mission medical missionary, we went to the doctor's to get it x-rayed. Turns out, I fractured my elbow! I have to wear a sling for the next couple of weeks. As I pondered my situation I began to see God's hand in it very clearly. There were so many ways my fall could have been worse and it wasn't. I am so grateful for God's watchful care over us. I feel so very blessed that it didn't turn out worse than it is. I'm also very blessed to be serving in this area with Sister Ashby and the other Sisters. They have been a huge help today. 

     I hope everyone has a great week and is able to recognize all the blessings that are in each day. I'm thankful for my calling and for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. May we all remember Him in the things that He does for us. 

Love,

Sister Wilson

3rd Nephi 17:7"

Happy Thanksgiving!

We got another email from Nicole this week! We sure do miss her 

around the holidays, though Skyping on Christmas is 

always nice and something we look forward to. 

But we know she's exactly where she needs to be right now.

Read all about her week below:

"Howdy everyone! 

    This week we did a lot of street contacting and a lot of tracting (knocking on doors). We no longer have any investigators, so we spend all our time trying to find people. We decided we have to give the Lord some time to work on Jesse. We love his family dearly and we know that less visits from us will help him to see the difference and will allow the Lord to touch his heart some more. 

     Monday we went to a Chinese restaurant with Elder Jones. He's the only one who got transferred from our district, so we went out one last time all together :) 

     Tuesday night we had a really bad windstorm....it was crazy!!! There will be lots of crazy pictures in a separate email. We weren't allowed to be outside, so we went back to our apartment. Shortly after we got home, the lights went out! Because our apartment complex is already a little sketchy, neither of us sisters wanted to stay there so we all went to the institute building on campus. There was light there so we just hung out with the elders until the end of the night. It was so bad, there were a few giant trees that fell!! Fortunately, we were all safe (: God is looking out for us! 

     Wednesday, we saw a less active lady. We see her about every other week. She's going through a really nasty divorce and so we got to talk to her about hope. It was such a powerful lesson!! I'm so thankful for the hope the Atonement of Jesus Christ brings!! (Moroni 7:41). 

    Thursday it snowed (: 

    Friday we had a zone conference all day which was awesome! I love learning from mission leaders! I learned a lot about the Plan of Salvation found in the Bible. I love the Plan of Salvation. It's a Plan of Happiness that gives everyone the chance to return Home to God and to live in His presence with our families for eternity! How merciful God is to grant us such an opportunity! I LOVE His perfect plan!! 

    Saturday we found a new investigator! His name is Marquise. We think he belongs to the Young Single Adult (YSA) congregation, but we'll find out when we see him on Tuesday. We've been finding a lot more potentials. Most of them fall through, but the fact that we're finding some is a step in the right direction! Soon we'll be finding people potentially interested that won't fall through! I can't wait for that day!! We're so determined to work hard to find them!

     Yesterday we went to church and heard talks from our members on the Atonement/sacrifice of Jesus Christ! I'm so grateful for His sacrifice. I know He was the only one who could have performed it. He willingly did it for us! How blessed we are to have such a loving Savior and a Father who loves us enough to send His Son. I am so grateful!!!!!!! I hope you all can find gratitude for the Atonement of Jesus Christ this holiday season! I love you all! Have a great week and a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Love,

Sister Wilson"

 Laundromat fun!

 Laundromat fun!

 Laundromat fun!

Minh's with Elder Jones

Windstorm!

Windstorm!

Windstorm!

Another Transfer in Pullman

Here's Nicole's email from this morning!

She even sent us some fun pictures. :)

Happy reading!

"Howdy!!

    This past transfer has FLOWN BY!!! It's crazy how fast the time is going. But, good news....Sister Ashby and I are staying in Pullman another transfer!!! We are so excited to be serving in this area together for another 6 weeks!!!

     This past week we've learned a lot about the importance of the Spirit. Here's a funny story of how we learned this lesson. Since last Saturday, Sister Ashby and I have been trying to plan more productively. Instead of just planning "street contacting" all day, we've decided to be more specific. We've been pondering on where God would have us street contact and then plan to street contact there for x amount of time. Once we finished our planning, we had a little bit of time left so we "randomly" (we didn't realize it was inspired until later) decided to write out all our plans on the board for the upcoming week. There's a nice outline on the board for us to do so, but we've only written it down once and then never actually looked at it. We decided to do it that Saturday. Throughout the week we've been trying to really stick to our plans instead of straying from them. We figured if we told God we'll be in this area, then we should be there (unless God tells us otherwise, of course). We've seen lots of miracles as we've been sticking to our plans. On Thursday we saw the importance of effective planning by the Spirit. The YSA sisters we live next to went on an exchange with the sisters in Moscow Wednesday-Thursday. The sister who went to Moscow accidentally took the phone with her, leaving the sisters in Pullman phone-less. Sister Ashby and I could only contact them through sticky notes on their door. We normally see the sisters a lot throughout the day, but since we've been trying to stick to our plans better, we didn't see them at all on Wednesday. Thursday morning, Sister Ashby and I went out to street contact as planned. We took everything we needed and put them in our pockets or carried them so we could leave our heavy bags at home for the morning. We did the loop we planned to contact and realized that there weren't many people out. I thought we should stray from our plans because it wasn't very productive, but Sister Ashby convinced me to stay to our plans. 3/4 of the way through our second loop, we see our Zone Leaders drive by signalling us to stop and meet them in a nearby parking lot. When we got there, they jumped out of the car and asked, "what happened to you?! We've been trying to call you 6 times!" We were totally puzzled. Turns out, they all thought we were lost. Haha, our new phone didn't receive any calls for some reason. The sisters didn't see us at all like normal and they couldn't contact us. They all broke into our apartment to see if we were there and they found our bags still there. Looking at our board, they saw where we had planned to be and decided to try that out....we were found :) They were all so scared that something had happened to us and so relieved when we were found. Sister Ashby and I thought it was funny, but were also super grateful for the Spirit to help us know what we needed to do so that everything worked out. I'm so grateful for that funny learning experience! I hope that story made sense....a lot of background information was included to get to the point!! 

     Friday we had a district meeting. Our district leader, Elder Li, had us all go around and share a Book of Mormon scripture that has changed our lives. I don't think I have ever felt the Spirit so strongly in a district meeting before. The power the Book of Mormon brings is indescribable and available to all. I invite everyone to read it! It WILL change your life for the better, IF you let it. If you read it with real intent, wanting to know if it's true, God will let you know. DO IT!! Friday I also did an exchange with Sister Ungricht. She's a hoot! I love learning from our mission leaders!

     Sunday, we went to church. I am so grateful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'm thankful that no matter where I am in the world, the teachings are the same. I never have to worry about it being totally different. What I learn in Texas at church is what I learn here in Washington. It's what I would learn in China, or England, or New York. It doesn't change and I am eternally thankful for that! 

     The pictures attached are of our wonderful district! Sister Moody is the one with long blonde hair, Sister Rogers is the dark-haired one. Our Senior couple is Elder and Sister Williams, who's going home, and their daughter Kimberly. Elder Jones is the giant and Elder Li is the Asian :) I love them all SOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

     I love my calling SO MUCH. Words can't describe how much I love it. I'm grateful to be serving with Sister Ashby and Sister Rogers and Sister Moody again! What a blessing it is to be a missionary!  

Have a wonderful week!! 

Sister Wilson"

A giant pinecone 

Miracles, Miracles, Miracles!

Here's Nicole's email from this week!

It sounds like she had a very good and productive

week. Check it out:

"Good afternoon!!!!

     This past week was so great!! It was a little challenging at first, but Sister Ashby and I just saw miracle after miracle! 

     As mentioned last week, we went to the Temple Tuesday...it was amazing, as always! 

     We did a whole lot of street contacting this week to try to find new investigators. It was really tough at first, but it all worked out! On Wednesday, God blessed us for our efforts through a member of the church. It was lunch time, so Sister Ashby and I went with Sister Rogers and Sister Moody (over the YSA ward) to the cafeteria at the university. While we were trying to figure out what we wanted to eat, this man walks up with his friend, introduced himself, and said he wanted to buy all 4 of us lunch :) It was such a tender mercy and we all appreciated it more than we were able to express. 

     Thursday, I decided I was going to work super duper hard. I always try to work hard, but sometimes, you just get a little tired of street contacting all day. Nonetheless, I reminded myself that this isn't my work I'm doing, it's God's work and I need to give it my all. So I told Heavenly Father that I would give my all to Him and work harder than I did the day before. We found 3 potential investigators that day. And, to add a cherry on top, it SNOWED!!! Not for long, but it did snow :) It started out as rain, then went to snow, then turned back into rain. Sister Ashby and I enjoyed walking in the rain/snow with our umbrellas while tracting (going door to door to find people to teach about Jesus Christ). It was fun and a testimony builder to me that when we work hard and do all that we can, we receive blessings. And, it's not that we don't receive blessings any other time, it's just that we don't recognize the blessings as much if we're not fully focused on our purpose. I love growing experiences :)

      Friday we had a Zone Training which was fantastic! We also got to talk to a lot of people (: I love the people I serve with and get to meet! We met this man named David. He was walking his dog and he said he has lots of Mormon friends on missions whom he misses dearly. His girlfriend has family who are members of the church and he said he's opened to learning more. We got his number and we're excited to meet with them! 

       Sunday, we had our primary program. Primary is an auxiliary in the church where kids 3-11 (in my ward it's 3-7 ) sing and learn about Jesus. A primary program is when all these kids sing a ton of Christ-centered songs and share little testimonies of what Christ means to them. It's sooooo cute and one of my favorite Sundays ever!! Haha, our ward only has 4 primary kids, so it was funny to watch them all perform! Another miracle of the week is last night, our district leader texted us and said that they wanted to do something cool as a district. They decided that they were going to go out street contacting at 3:30 and then every 1/2 hour they would say a prayer that we all would find 2 new investigators. It was so neat!! We did that and we found 2 new people! We'll probably end up passing them off to the Single's Ward, but it was still pretty neat! We're excited to keep working hard to find people for us :)

       Another miracle!! So we were suppose to meet David yesterday, but he said that wouldn't work. Instead, he scheduled a dinner appointment with us for today!!! We are so excited and feel so blessed!!!! I can't wait!! 

      I love you all and pray that your week will be fantastic!! The Gospel is true and Jesus Christ lives today!! I love my calling!!!!!!!!!!

Love 

Sister Wilson"

 Snow Day

 Snow Day

Temple

Happy Tuesday

So sorry I forgot to update the blog

last week! Here's Nicole's email from

November 3rd:

"Happy Tuesday everyone!! 

     This week, not much happened, but it was still good! 

     Tuesday, Sister Ashby and I got a new investigator! Her name is Lilian and it's sorta a tricky situation....her husband is in school and they have two 3 year olds....but he's 61 and she looks in her 40s. We just adore them, but we probably will end up passing them off to family ward where everyone is around their age instead of around my age. We'll see how it goes! 

     Thursday, Sister Ashby was sick and we were inside all day. As a result, she got a priesthood blessing on Friday! It was so powerful and it reminded me of how grateful I am for the priesthood! I am SOOOO thankful for our Loving Heavenly Father who has given us His power here on earth to perform these miracles. I love love love LOVE the priesthood!! Friday evening we had our ward Halloween party...it was so much fun!! All the families dressed up together! Some costumes were Beauty and the Beast, Ninja Turtle and Pizza, Lion & Tiger & Bear (oh my!), Cruella Devil and her sidekick (don't know the name), and so much more!! It was a lot of fun! Jesse Weed and his family even came! It was so great being able to have so much fun in an appropriate way. Halloween on campus is super scary and everyone was dressed so immodestly....actually, they weren't really dressed at all....It was good to be at a party with no alcohol, fun and appropriate humor, and people with standards. I'm so grateful for this church and for the teachings of Jesus Christ that are found within. 

      Saturday was Halloween. Because Halloween is scary on a college campus, we were instructed to stay inside once it got dark. We had a lovely dinner at the Staker's home...it was all Halloween themed :) Then we stayed inside and made sure our records were updated and phone calls made..then we watched a church movie :)

      Sunday we went to church and tracted. We met a lady named Micah, and she meets the criteria for our ward! She said we could come back, so we're very hopeful! 

      Yesterday we street contacted all day. 

      Today we're going to THE TEMPLE!!!!!!! AHHHH I'm so excited...I really love that place :) It will be a great day and Sister Ashby and I couldn't be more excited :) 

       I hope everyone had a fun and super safe Halloween and an even better week! Love you all!! 

D&C 112:10 

Sister Wilson"

"Sister Ashby and I did our best to dress up as

Senior Sister Missionaries :)"