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"