Soon to be an additional family member!!! YAY!! So thank you Keshia for filling me on with what happened. I was going crazy last week because I had no idea what was going on. Seriously leaving me with just "I'm engaged, it's going to be January 1st. Bye." I felt really sad that I was missing everything, but now that I have details I feel a lot better about it. And a lot happier that my sister is getting married!!! YAY!! So keep me informed about the wedding plans. Oh and Sister Hill and I were talking about you getting a cardboard cutout of me but we didn't think you would actually do it. But I think that you can order them through Dear Elder so I will be sending you a picture ha ha. And that's great that Kurt will be carrying me around, just remember to watch me close, I can only shake hands with boys, no other contact.
Britty, CONGRATULATIONS on going to state, that is so wicked awesome!!! How did the boy's team do I hear they are better this year? I still have not seen pictures from Homecoming yet. In case you don't get the hint I really want some! Nathan, Jared is football over yet? How is that going? I heard you got snow, I'm a little jealous, but it's too bad it snowed on your games and during harvest.
So the leaves are changing colors here and it is AWESOME. The colors are a lot more vivid here. Red leaves are RED, and the orange leaves are way bright. I will try and capture it on camera for you. Another thing, I told you how much school spirit Virginia Tech fans have, but I don't think you understand yet. Everyday it blows my mind how crazy these people are about their Hokies (A Hoky is pretty much a turkey and its their mascot). So tons of people have wreaths, but they aren't fall wreaths they are Virginia teach wreaths! People have VT mailboxes, VT garden stones, VT bumper stickers, VT everything! You kind find anything VT at Walmart they have a whole section devoted to it. I have even seen cars painted VT colors, maroon and orange. And don't even try going tracting during a VT football game, no one will talk to you or they just won't open the door. Crazy People!
Okay so this week has been pretty busy. On Wednesday we had an appointment with Celine. Celine is from the Congo, she used to be the president of a college there. Then the rebels killed her family but she wasn't killed because she wasn't around for some reason. So she had to leave the country, I think she came over with some sort of program that this guy, Maurice, came up with to help people in Africa. (I'm not exactly sure on the details) Maurice was baptized a few months ago and referred us to Celine. Celine has been taught for probably 5-6 months but she hasn't been able to be baptized until she moved out of her living situation. The family she was living with was very anti and she had to sneak out to meet with us. She is moved out now and is going to be baptized on October 26th!!!!! YAYA! Celine is 31 and has a 2 year old son named Dixon, who is crazy and runs around and makes trouble. She speaks French and has only been speaking English for about 7 months. So the language is sometimes an issue in helping her understand and she has a hard time understanding things said at church. But she is way SMART and I am surprised at the things she catches what with the language and her son running around like he ate a bag of sugar.
I like I told you about Tonia last time. She is a member referral (actually the only investigators we have that are progressing have been member referrals, hint hint, members are awesome and need to get involved!!!) Anyways back from that tangent, Tonia's sons are starting to sit in our lessons and they are getting really excited about mutual. Their family has also experienced a lot of death and so teaching the Plan of Salvation has really helped them. We found out that one of her sons, Brandon, is kind of friends with a member, Keagan Bowman. So we went and talked to Keagan about inviting them to mutual, plus Brother and Sister Bowman are both in the Young Men's and Women's (And they are from Idaho too!! Preston) And they were really excited about helping out, which helps us so much. (Member involvement is great) And Keagan says Brandon has asked him questions before, but he never thought to invite Brandon to church or mutual. So don't be scared to invite people if they show interest, some people are really searching for help but don't know where to find it unless we show them.
Okay so I saved the best for last. Several months ago Sister Hill had been teaching this girl named Amanda. Amanda has been taught for a long time now, I'm not sure how long and she has had several baptismal dates but it never happened because she has issues with the Law of Chastity. Anyways we stopped by to see how she was doing and found out she is pregnant. We visited for a while and the things I heard were CRAZY!! Here goes. She doesn't know who the father is, it could be one of three guys and one of those guys is only 16 (she is 20)!! She is part of this gang and was initiated when she was 9 and she is trying to decide if she should initiate her baby when it is born. Because the baby will be protected and will always have friends (gang members) but Amanda said that being part of the gang has made her who she is and she would like the baby to have a choice. The gang sounds like a secret combination straight from the Book of Mormon! And then she has been "with" this guy for a really long time and they have been off and on for years. Well at one point she got the first letter of his name tattooed on her back, which means that she is his girl (so it is like a branding). And this is all coming from a girl who is tiny, speaks really soft, has glasses, and just really doesn't seem the type to be involved in all this. I can tell that she wants to be different and have the best for her baby but either she doesn't know how to change or doesn't want to change. We are going to start teaching her again, hopefully having a baby will help her have the courage to change. Wow!! The Gospel really blesses us and gives us freedom. She is stuck in a path she doesn't want to go in and all because of bad choices that lead to other bad choices. So you might think that the commandments limit you, but really it is allowing you freedom to be and do whatever you want to be. Something else I am realizing is I used to think that church, meetings, activities, visiting teaching were taking up my time. But really there was nothing better I could have been doing. And really what is our eventual goal in life? All these church things help us get there. Our investigators have a hard time making church a priority because they have other things they think need to get done, when really if we go to church everything else will fall into place and be much easier.
I love you all, keep reading your scriptures and saying your prayers. Make it a priority and everything else will fall into place!!
With Love from Virginia,
Sister Nicole Polatis
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