Dear Family,

Hello! Hello! How are you all since Sunday!!! It was sooooo nice to talk to you! And now I have all this stuff I wish I would have asked you or told you. Oh well, Christmas isn’t too far away. J
So I mentioned this on the phone but I tell you all the details now. Last week one of our investigators, Heidi, committed to be baptized on June 6th. Heidi is so amazing. She is the manager at a Pepsi plant here. She has sooo much energy and is way fun. Sister Merrill and Sister Hill tracted into her and Heidi told them that she had been going to church every Sunday with her boyfriend and their family when she goes there for the weekends (they live in Franklin about 3 hours away). She asked them to start teaching her so she could understand what was going on at church. Pretty much she already knows a lot about the church. We can’t tell anyone that she has set this date because she wants to be 100% sure about it and pray about it before she tells her boyfriend’s family. And since his dad is the bishop of that ward and his cousins are in our ward, we have to keep it very hush hush. Since you are on the other side of the country, I’ll celebrate with you. HEIDI IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!
One of our other investigators dropped us on Friday. It was a real shock because she was our next most promising investigators. I told you about her, Bobbi, the lady who has anxiety really bad. She had a baptismal date before but she missed it because she couldn’t come to church. She told us she didn’t want to meet with us because she felt bad always missing appointments because she was so busy and she didn’t want to waste our time anymore. We know that she has a testimony this is true and she knows this is what God wants her to do. She told us to keep us on her records and maybe in a few months we could come back. I’m pretty sure she quit meeting with us because it stresses her out and gives her ulcers thinking about coming to church, and when she gets nervous she smokes. So she feels guilty for smoking and for not coming to church which makes her more anxious. So the best way to relief all this is to quit meeting with us so we will quit committing her to come to church. Such a sad vicious cycle. But I know that if she would take a leap of faith and come to church even though she’s not comfortable, that everything would get better. This might be for the best though, give her a break, let her calm down, let life calm down. Bobbi is awesome, I know that one day she will overcome all this and be baptized.
On Mother’s Day we went over to the Duckworth’s for dinner. They are an awesome family, so missionary minded! And his parents were there, who are not members and used to be a little anti. We taught the Plan of Salvation, but not at them, we asked them to help like asking them why Christ is important. It was great and the Duckworth’s said it went over really well! I hope so.
Oh so mom wanted me to tell more about Sister Merrill. Well her dad is in the Airforce and so they have lived in several different places. They lived in Germany for a few years when she was younger. They have lived in Texas and North Dakota. And now they are in Washington State. Her dad had to go to Cuba for 6 months, so that is where he is now. She has 5 siblings and she is the oldest. Her brother is on a mission to Florida right now. Her mom makes all her siblings write her a letter every week. (I think mom should make you all do that, ha ha just kidding) She went to BYU-I and is studying Sociology.
We have an investigator named Helen. Helen is 87 years old and has been taught for almost 7 months now. She comes to church every Sunday, reads the Book of Mormon, and has kept all of her commitments except she will NOT give up her 3 cups of tea a day. She says she would give up her house, her son, everything for the Lord. And when we asked if she would give up her tea, she said that the Lord wouldn’t ask her to do that. Helen is a very stubborn, opinionated, onery old lady. She was a decoder in the Navy in World War II. She has an equilibrium problem which means she can’t lay down and she can’t turn left. No kidding!! If she has to turn left she turns a full circle to the right. And whoever picks her up for church needs to try to find a route that only has right hand turns and if they have to turn left then they have to go very slowly. She won’t be baptized because she 1 already has been baptized and 2 she doesn’t know enough about our religion. She gives all kinds of excuses like she can’t go backwards in the font (equilibrium problem) but we showed her how she could be baptized going forwards. I don’t know what her hang up is. She knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, her hang up might be that she doesn’t FEEL it. We have prayed about dropping her several times, one time we planned to actually do it, but when we got there we just didn’t feel it was right. So I think she’ll come around sometime, she might be like Brigham Young and take 2 years. She’s really funny and every week I come out of her house laughing.
So last Tuesday we had a girl named Tiffany come out with us. She just got back from her mission to Puerto Rico (I think I might have told you about her last week) Anyways she came with us to a first lesson. It was Amazing!! Everything that President, the MTC, the scriptures, and Preach My Gospel has been trying to teach us about how to be an effective missionary, she is. It was a good learning experience and also very humbling to see how far I need to go. I feel like a greenie, I feel like less than a greenie!!! I feel like the last 9 months of my mission could have been so much more effective and efficient if I could have been a missionary like her. I should have applied myself so much better. She bore powerful testimony, she answered all of their concerns with the Book of Mormon, she gave them direct commitments, and they LOVED her! They thought she was great and sweet!! She didn’t offend them but she still was bold in inviting them to come unto Christ and learn more about the restored Gospel. WOW! I guess the Lord shows us our weaknesses so that we can be humble. And as we are humble we can learn to rely on the Lord and He will turn our weaknesses into strengths. That seems to be the theme of my study lately. Man I wish I would have realized that I need to be humble and trust the Lord 9 months ago!!! Another theme in my study is what it says in the Christlike attributes section of PMG, it says “just as important as what you do, is WHO YOU ARE.” I realized that people don’t need to be convinced of the Restoration or the Book of Mormon, they need to FEEL it. And they feel it as we invite the Spirit by bearing testimony. And you can’t bear testimony of something you don’t know and feel. So I don’t need to be able to teach doctrine, I need to know it so I can bear testimony. And the more Christlike I am the more I will have the Spirit. And people are so much more influenced if they know that we love them. Love is the motivation.
Speaking of that. Last week we had stake conference but it was different. It was broadcasted from Salt Lake and General Authorities spoke, including Elder Perry and President Monson. It was broadcasted to about 63 stakes in the Eastern U.S. It was really really great. President Monson spoke about how we need to rescue our brothers and sisters who are lonely, lost, and sad. We need to send rescue missions to the elderly, the widows, and especially the less actives. He said people can change, and love is the catalyst.

Wow this is a long letter!! I love you and miss you!! I loved hearing from you!! I would love to hear more (in case you didn’t catch that it was a not so subtle hint that you NEED TO WRITE ME MORE!!!)

Love ya, your Sister Nicole Polatis