I love four wheels!!!

Dear Family,

Hello how are you? We are doing great here in Fairmont, because we have our car back!!!! YAY! We got it back on Friday and was seriously one of the best days of my mission. Having a car makes the work so much easier. We are much more productive when we don’t have to spend hours walking everywhere. And so this week we are visiting a lot of people that were too far to walk to. So guess who came to church this Sunday? LOIS!!! YAY! I have never worked so hard to get someone to church before. We have mowed her lawn, we had the young women mow her lawn, we helped her around her house, we called her the night before, we committed her to come, we had her pray about it, we prayed for it. So this Sunday we went over and had her follow us to church. She really seemed to enjoy church and there were a lot of things said that addressed a lot of concerns she has had. After church she said she had a lot to think about and said for us to come over later in the week after she had a chance to ponder on it. This is an issue we find with a lot of people, they don’t think that there is only one true church. They are confused because they feel the Spirit at other churches and those other churches also teach good things. But we aren’t saying those churches are wrong or those people are wrong, we are saying those churches are incomplete. The Gospel has been restored in its fullness, there are more blessings, more truths, more answers, more help, more ordinances that the Lord wants to give us!!! And I want to share this with people and help them see the more. But often it takes people a while to understand this and gain a testimony of it. So we are going to be patient with Lois as she searches this out. Tom and Kim and doing good still. They are really progressing. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and we bore our testimony about how we know our purpose and we have direction. And Tom said he wanted that too and how did he find it. So we told him to keep listening to us, to pray and read. I LOVE seeing how the Gospel of Jesus Christ helps people and answers their questions.Last night we had a lesson with Dave. So last week we gave him a Doctrine and Covenants and showed him some scriptures about how the priesthood has been restored and we have the same organization as the church Christ set up. Well I’m not sure if that was a mistake or not because he read a lot and then came with tons of questions!! Which normally we love questions, but Dave’s questions are more about technicalities than spiritual stuff. Dave doesn’t seem to know how or want to search something out spiritually, it seems like he is going to determine if it’s true logically. And I have no idea what happens if there are more than 12 deacons in a deacon’s quorum. So if anyone knows please let me know! We have been trying to have the Spirit stronger in our lessons with Dave and help him feel the Spirit, but wow it was super hard last night. We did commit him to be baptized when he knows this is true and he didn’t say no so that is a good sign! Also on Sunday we got 2 referrals!!! We hardly ever get referrals. One was from the Bishop, someone he had helped with welfare stuff and she had requested missionaries to come and teach her. The other was a man who had talked with a member and said he wanted to know more and he showed up to church on Sunday. His parents have been members for many years and his dad was a Bishop, but he doesn’t know much about the church. We are teaching both of them later this week. Zone Conference was yesterday and as usual way awesome!! Our Zone Leaders found these slightly hideous ties for a dollar each and bought one for everyone in the Zone (including us) and for President and Sister Thornock. I have some good pictures but I forgot to bring my cord to plug my camera in so next week I will send them to you. So something that I have been thinking about lately and that seemed to be a big theme at Zone Conference is serving with your heart, might, mind, and strength. More specifically serving willingly. Making the Lord’s will my will, the Lord’s purpose my purpose. President told us that being a disciple of Christ is not convenient. Christ’s life was not convenient or easy and following His path will not be so either. Living the Gospel is not convenient, but it is so worth it. When we quit trying to take the easy, comfortable path then we will find great happiness, purpose, help, and direction. As a missionary we do hard stuff all the time, but as we make that sacrifice we will be blessed. President also talked about our purpose. Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Christ already has paid the price (a huge price!) to give us salvation and exaltation, and all He asks is that we repent and are baptized. Such a small thing. And as missionaries we invite people to do this! To accept Christ and His Atonement. We are offering them Salvation. This is Christ’s purpose, this is my purpose. And this is your purpose too!!! Every member a missionary!! What a great work we are involved in! As I am coming to better understand my purpose it is changing how I go about this work. These people need our love and care to bring them unto Christ.I love you all!!!

Sister Nicole Polatis