Dear Family,
West Virginia is so awesome!! They have lightening bugs!!! In the evenings there are little sparks of light wherever there is grass. It’s so great! Sister Merrill and I went in our backyard and caught some. They are actually really ugly bugs, but it seriously looks like they have a glow stick attached to them. So COOL!!! I wish they had lightening bugs in the West!
It’s so humid here that my glasses are fogging up, no joke. Yesterday it was only about 72 degrees but it felt like 90. We went tracting for a good part of the day and we were so gross and sweaty after. Haha, so when we were tracting we talked to this one guy who told us he wasn’t Christian, he was Baptist! Ha ha. Actually he’s right. We go visit a member who is the nursing home, his name is Brother Kerekes. He is so great he is trying to convert everyone else in the nursing home. So far he has found 2 less actives that we didn’t know about. Anyways he asked us what a Christian is and we said well a believer in Christ. And he said you will not find that anywhere in the Bible, it says the word Christian 3 times. One of the places is in Acts and if you look for what a Christian is in there, a Christian is a member of Christ’s Church. So that guy was right!
So as missionaries we get all kinds of excuses from people for why they can’t meet with us. Well we got one this last week that tops them all. We tracted into this elderly lady who let us come in and talk with her. She seemed interested and said she would read the Book of Mormon, when we asked if we could come back next week, she said she didn’t know if she would be here. And we asked if she was going on vacation or something and she said no, she wouldn’t be here because she might die! Are you kidding me? That’s an awful excuse. We should have told her that was okay missionaries would take over in the Spirit World.
Okay so we have an awesome new investigator. The first time we taught her was last P-day. Her name is Martha, and she was a referral from the Bishop. She is going through some major health problems, I guess she has chronic gastritis (or something like that, it’s chronic anyways) and an inflamed pancreas. And she got divorced after being married for 28 years and she is very upset about that because she doesn’t believe in divorce and now her husband is living with someone else. Now she has to take care of herself financially. She works at Wal-mart, but since she is sick all the time she misses a lot of work, most of the time she goes, sick or not. And apparently Wal-mart is an awful employer, they are greedy, money grubbers with no compassion. (not her words she would never say anything awful about anyone) She lives in a two bed-room apartment which is actually very cute. She told us that most of her furniture is out of the garbage, which I could believe because it looks really good. So crazy thing though, Martha is only 55, but you would never guess that, she looks like she is 65-70. She is so wonderful!!!! Probably the best and easiest investigator ever! When we asked if we could leave her with a Book of Mormon, she almost cried and said “I was hoping you would.” And she read the chapter we left plus several other things. We didn’t have to invite her to church, she told us she would come (she didn’t end up coming because she was very sick). In Preach My Gospel it says you should contact your progressing investigators everyday, which is hard sometimes because you don’t want to be pushy or take a lot of their time. We don’t have to call her, she calls us! And she calls us and sets up appointments. She wants us to come over several times a week. We taught her again yesterday and we asked her to be baptized on July 11th and she accepted right away. Pretty much, she is the most golden golden investigator ever!
Oh so, Mom asked me about when Sister Hill is going home. She goes home at the end of this transfer so July 16th. Crazy!
We have talked to so many people who could really be blessed by the Gospel but they are just too lazy or too complacent to accept it. They miss out on all the wonderful blessings that could be theirs. We teach a lot of less actives, and many of them are like “yeah we need to get back to church” or they talk about how important the Gospel is, but their actions don’t match with their words, because they don’t come to church, read their scriptures, pay tithing, or say their prayers. By small and simple means are great things brought to pass. These small things will bring great blessings!!! As a missionary I have spent a lot of time studying about these commandments and the blessings that come from them so I can help people have a desire to live them. And the blessing promised in the scriptures are HUGE! We need those blessings!! I tell a lot of people that every problem we have can be solved by living the Gospel. But what a hypocrite I would be if I didn’t take my own advice. So I have really struggled to have energy on my mission and I have gained a little weight (not a ton, mind you). And I was reading in the Ensign this last month and they have a lot of articles on the Word of Wisdom and there were several stories about how people had decided to live the Word of Wisdom and the blessing they received. Most of those people didn’t have addictions or anything, they just decided to better apply the principles and the diet taught in the Word of Wisdom. I was thinking about it, some of the blessings I need like run and not be weary, receive knowledge and have the Spirit with you are promised if we live the Word of Wisdom. So I decided to better live it and this last week I have been trying to eat a more balanced diet and I have felt much better! It really works. Christ tells us many times that the wise man who built his house on the rock was the man who not only heard, but DID. We can’t receive those blessing until we go and DO.
Well I love you all. Have a fabulous week! Be a Hearer and a Doer!! (James 1:22-24, and Luke 6:46-49, Helaman 5:12)
Love, Sister Nicole Polatis
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Blessings, Blessings, and more Blessings!!!
Dear Family,
This week was super busy and really good. We started teaching this guy, Dennis, who is 58 and not married. His parents joined the church when he was about 30 and he has had a lot of contact with the church but never seriously investigated it. But now he is feeling a real inclination to find out if it is the truth especially since his parents are so strong in the church. He showed up last week and we taught him on Friday. He is suffering from severe insomnia, pretty much he can't sleep without medication, so he is on disability and doesn't go to work. He doesn't really know anyone in the area and doesn't get out much. He kept saying things like he feels too isolated, he's getting up in age, and his parents "aren't getting any younger if you know what I mean." And he really likes the emphasis on families and he says it's like there is a harmony in families in the church. So we are thinking that maybe part of his interest in the church is to find a wife! He is a very interesting guy. He always has a monotone voice and absolute dead pan face, no expression. Although we got a very slight reaction when we committed him to be baptized when he knows this is true. ha ha This guy is super afraid of commitment and he seemed slightly terrified about that commitment. But I have a very good feeling about him. He is sincere and he has great questions that he has really thought about. We also taught Tom and Kim again. They have some issues with the Book of Mormon. They fit in with a lot of people around here who think if it's not in the Bible it can't possibly be true. Many people ask us where in the Bible it talks about Joseph Smith, and then they tell us that because he's not in there they can't believe in him. The great thing about Tom and Kim though is that they have an open mind and are willing to give the Book of Mormon a chance. They always keep their reading commitments even though Tom struggles to read. We gave him the Book of Mormon on tape and he seemed pretty excited about that. Our last lesson we made him a timeline showing how the Book of Mormon parallels the Bible and then we watched the Restoration. It was great!!! The Spirit was really strong. I love that movie!! Kim said that a lot of the questions Joseph had are questions that she has. When we left Tom said things are starting to make sense. We had several other lessons with people and we found out a lot of their concerns and they really opened up to us. It was great. I don't know what we are doing that the Lord is blessing us so much, but I'm very grateful for it!!! The ward here is so willing to help. The people here are busy but they are willing to sacrifice their time to help us and to help each other. It's so great to see!!! I've also decided that it's so great to be a missionary. Many people may not like us and slam the door on us, but the member LOVE us. They feed us all the time and take us out to ice cream. And they tell us all the time how great we are for giving up our time. I don't feel like it's that big of a sacrifice because the members do so much to help us and the Lord helps us. And I am getting a solid testimony which is worth anything! So I got a letter from Sister Arnott this week and Jacob got baptized!!!! I don't know if I ever told you about Jacob so I'll just tell you again. Jacob is about 19, works construction, and hasn't been to church since his grandma died. Sister Arnott and I tracted into him on Easter and we went back the next day and taught him the first lesson. And he had read the pamphlet we left with him (not very many people do that!) We set up an appointment for the next week and when we called to confirm he told us he had read the chapter in the Book of Mormon we had left him. When we got of the phone I told Sister Arnott I loved him (he was the first investigator in weeks that had read the Book of Mormon) and that he was going to get baptized. She was like okay sure and teased me about saying I loved him. Well he kept missing our appointments for the next 2 weeks and then I got transferred. Right after I left he meet with them and came to church. Then they gave him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet and he quit smoking cold turkey. Sister Arnott told me that he had a beer everyday for probably the last 200 days and he quit when we knocked on his door. He has a solid testimony of the Book of Mormon. His friends tried to stop him from getting baptized but he did it anyway. And on June 6th he got baptized and on Sunday he got confirmed!!!! I was sooooo HAPPY!!! Read the Book of Mormon it will change you! So this last week I have been working on charity and in PMG there is an Christlike attribute activity (you should do it, it's great). Under charity it says something about trying to understand others point of view and how they are feeling. So I have been working on it and its really hard! And it has made me realize that I have very little idea where people are coming from because I've always been a member of this church, I've always known about Joseph Smith and I have a great life and a great family and great health. And most of the people we teach have had just the opposite. I'm very grateful for the blessing God has given me and I wonder how I got so lucky. But I do know this, now I have the ability to help other people. I know that this is Christ's Gospel and with that knowledge I can help so many people. And the Gospel of Jesus Christ will solve any problem. I may not know where they are coming from, but Christ does and His Gospel and His Atonement will help them.Thank you for your letters!!!Love you, Sister Nicole Polatis
This week was super busy and really good. We started teaching this guy, Dennis, who is 58 and not married. His parents joined the church when he was about 30 and he has had a lot of contact with the church but never seriously investigated it. But now he is feeling a real inclination to find out if it is the truth especially since his parents are so strong in the church. He showed up last week and we taught him on Friday. He is suffering from severe insomnia, pretty much he can't sleep without medication, so he is on disability and doesn't go to work. He doesn't really know anyone in the area and doesn't get out much. He kept saying things like he feels too isolated, he's getting up in age, and his parents "aren't getting any younger if you know what I mean." And he really likes the emphasis on families and he says it's like there is a harmony in families in the church. So we are thinking that maybe part of his interest in the church is to find a wife! He is a very interesting guy. He always has a monotone voice and absolute dead pan face, no expression. Although we got a very slight reaction when we committed him to be baptized when he knows this is true. ha ha This guy is super afraid of commitment and he seemed slightly terrified about that commitment. But I have a very good feeling about him. He is sincere and he has great questions that he has really thought about. We also taught Tom and Kim again. They have some issues with the Book of Mormon. They fit in with a lot of people around here who think if it's not in the Bible it can't possibly be true. Many people ask us where in the Bible it talks about Joseph Smith, and then they tell us that because he's not in there they can't believe in him. The great thing about Tom and Kim though is that they have an open mind and are willing to give the Book of Mormon a chance. They always keep their reading commitments even though Tom struggles to read. We gave him the Book of Mormon on tape and he seemed pretty excited about that. Our last lesson we made him a timeline showing how the Book of Mormon parallels the Bible and then we watched the Restoration. It was great!!! The Spirit was really strong. I love that movie!! Kim said that a lot of the questions Joseph had are questions that she has. When we left Tom said things are starting to make sense. We had several other lessons with people and we found out a lot of their concerns and they really opened up to us. It was great. I don't know what we are doing that the Lord is blessing us so much, but I'm very grateful for it!!! The ward here is so willing to help. The people here are busy but they are willing to sacrifice their time to help us and to help each other. It's so great to see!!! I've also decided that it's so great to be a missionary. Many people may not like us and slam the door on us, but the member LOVE us. They feed us all the time and take us out to ice cream. And they tell us all the time how great we are for giving up our time. I don't feel like it's that big of a sacrifice because the members do so much to help us and the Lord helps us. And I am getting a solid testimony which is worth anything! So I got a letter from Sister Arnott this week and Jacob got baptized!!!! I don't know if I ever told you about Jacob so I'll just tell you again. Jacob is about 19, works construction, and hasn't been to church since his grandma died. Sister Arnott and I tracted into him on Easter and we went back the next day and taught him the first lesson. And he had read the pamphlet we left with him (not very many people do that!) We set up an appointment for the next week and when we called to confirm he told us he had read the chapter in the Book of Mormon we had left him. When we got of the phone I told Sister Arnott I loved him (he was the first investigator in weeks that had read the Book of Mormon) and that he was going to get baptized. She was like okay sure and teased me about saying I loved him. Well he kept missing our appointments for the next 2 weeks and then I got transferred. Right after I left he meet with them and came to church. Then they gave him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet and he quit smoking cold turkey. Sister Arnott told me that he had a beer everyday for probably the last 200 days and he quit when we knocked on his door. He has a solid testimony of the Book of Mormon. His friends tried to stop him from getting baptized but he did it anyway. And on June 6th he got baptized and on Sunday he got confirmed!!!! I was sooooo HAPPY!!! Read the Book of Mormon it will change you! So this last week I have been working on charity and in PMG there is an Christlike attribute activity (you should do it, it's great). Under charity it says something about trying to understand others point of view and how they are feeling. So I have been working on it and its really hard! And it has made me realize that I have very little idea where people are coming from because I've always been a member of this church, I've always known about Joseph Smith and I have a great life and a great family and great health. And most of the people we teach have had just the opposite. I'm very grateful for the blessing God has given me and I wonder how I got so lucky. But I do know this, now I have the ability to help other people. I know that this is Christ's Gospel and with that knowledge I can help so many people. And the Gospel of Jesus Christ will solve any problem. I may not know where they are coming from, but Christ does and His Gospel and His Atonement will help them.Thank you for your letters!!!Love you, Sister Nicole Polatis
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
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
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
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Stories
Dear Family,
So this last week has been a little rough. Let me just say I am so so so so GRATEFUL that we have a car and don’t have to walk all the time. I don’t know how other missionaries do it. Your bag gets really heavy after carrying it around for 2-3 hours. Our area is really big and we live far from the center of our area where most of the work is. The bus system is not very good here either. Luckily we have great members who have helped us a lot. Since most of our potential investigators and less actives live really far, instead of trying to see them we tracted A LOT. We tracted all day Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. And we have been having very little success which is unusual. Usually a few people let us come back. All the exercise has been really good for me though! Our car was supposed to be done today but they told us it will be more like Thursday or Friday.
So story: It was Sunday night and we had been tracting for hours and the most common response was “I already go to a church.” People, didn’t you hear what we said? The Gospel has been Restored!!!! This isn’t just a church, it’s Christ Gospel in its fullness!! But they don’t seem to get it no matter how we try and tell them. So anyways over the last few days we had tracted for over 12 hours without anyone saying yes (well a few people were a little hesitant about saying we could come back). It was almost time to go home and we found Kate. We told her about the Book of Mormon and asked if we could share more with her. And she said YES!!! Flat out! No excuses, no maybes, no ummming, just YES!!! After hours of being told no, we were very surprised and it probably showed on our faces. We asked when a good time would be and she said she didn’t know but immediately gave us her number, WITHOUT being ASKED. No one just gives us their number. We were so excited!! I will let you know what happens this week. So everyone pray for Kate!!!! YAY!!!
Funny story now: So Sister Merrill and I went and visited an older lady who lives next to some members. Her name is Naomi and we also work with her at the soup kitchen. So we are talking with her and she tells us she has shingles. And since neither of us knew what they were we asked. Well she decided to show us. So she gets up and starts pulling her night gown up. I’m thinking they are on her legs, but no she keeps pulling it up, the shingles are on her back, and she isn’t wearing any underwear!!! We got MOONED by an old lady!! It was so disturbing!!!
Transfers are on Wednesday. And neither of us are moving. Even if we were though it wouldn’t happen for 2 more weeks. Turns out the MTC had the flu break out and they want to be safe that it isn’t Swine flu and so they are holding all of the missionaries for 2 weeks. So transfers aren’t happening until the new missionaries get here. Crazy. I can’t imagine the headache that will be for the MTC.
We had a great lesson with Lois this week. We were talking about baptism and the Holy Ghost. The funny thing about Lois is that we don’t really have to teach much. She talks a lot and also thinks out loud. Pretty much she just talks herself into the truth. (I don’t know how else to explain it) We just start out with a topic with perhaps a scripture and then let her start talking and she asks herself questions and then answers them and tells about experiences she’s had and feelings she has. It’s pretty awesome. Our lessons with her though are like 2 hours! This last lesson she pretty much came to the conclusion that she needs to be baptized but it must be done with someone who is worthy and has that divine connection. And in order to find out if we have that she needs to come to church. Ha ha we were going to commit her to come to church but she got to it all by herself.
Everyday that I am a missionary and the more I see and the more I talk with people the more I am so grateful that I have the knowledge of the Gospel. I don’t know how I got so blessed to be born into the Gospel. So now I need to share it. It’s like if I had the most wonderful cupcake in the world and just sat there holding it and telling people how wonderful it is, but never offering them some. We need to invite other people to taste it, then of course it’s up to them. But how much more blessed we will be if we share it. And I never really realized this until the mission, but every member needs to be a missionary. No kidding. For a missionary they have to knock on 100 doors to find one person who will just listen to them. But for a member 5 out of 10 people will take the missionary lessons and 1 out of 10 will be baptized!! Wow! Members have so much more power than missionaries do. This is the salvation of souls we are talking about here! And according to D&C 10, how great will be your joy with that one soul in heaven!!!
I love you all!!! Thank you for all the letters I got this week!!!!
Love ya, Sister Nicole Polatis
So this last week has been a little rough. Let me just say I am so so so so GRATEFUL that we have a car and don’t have to walk all the time. I don’t know how other missionaries do it. Your bag gets really heavy after carrying it around for 2-3 hours. Our area is really big and we live far from the center of our area where most of the work is. The bus system is not very good here either. Luckily we have great members who have helped us a lot. Since most of our potential investigators and less actives live really far, instead of trying to see them we tracted A LOT. We tracted all day Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. And we have been having very little success which is unusual. Usually a few people let us come back. All the exercise has been really good for me though! Our car was supposed to be done today but they told us it will be more like Thursday or Friday.
So story: It was Sunday night and we had been tracting for hours and the most common response was “I already go to a church.” People, didn’t you hear what we said? The Gospel has been Restored!!!! This isn’t just a church, it’s Christ Gospel in its fullness!! But they don’t seem to get it no matter how we try and tell them. So anyways over the last few days we had tracted for over 12 hours without anyone saying yes (well a few people were a little hesitant about saying we could come back). It was almost time to go home and we found Kate. We told her about the Book of Mormon and asked if we could share more with her. And she said YES!!! Flat out! No excuses, no maybes, no ummming, just YES!!! After hours of being told no, we were very surprised and it probably showed on our faces. We asked when a good time would be and she said she didn’t know but immediately gave us her number, WITHOUT being ASKED. No one just gives us their number. We were so excited!! I will let you know what happens this week. So everyone pray for Kate!!!! YAY!!!
Funny story now: So Sister Merrill and I went and visited an older lady who lives next to some members. Her name is Naomi and we also work with her at the soup kitchen. So we are talking with her and she tells us she has shingles. And since neither of us knew what they were we asked. Well she decided to show us. So she gets up and starts pulling her night gown up. I’m thinking they are on her legs, but no she keeps pulling it up, the shingles are on her back, and she isn’t wearing any underwear!!! We got MOONED by an old lady!! It was so disturbing!!!
Transfers are on Wednesday. And neither of us are moving. Even if we were though it wouldn’t happen for 2 more weeks. Turns out the MTC had the flu break out and they want to be safe that it isn’t Swine flu and so they are holding all of the missionaries for 2 weeks. So transfers aren’t happening until the new missionaries get here. Crazy. I can’t imagine the headache that will be for the MTC.
We had a great lesson with Lois this week. We were talking about baptism and the Holy Ghost. The funny thing about Lois is that we don’t really have to teach much. She talks a lot and also thinks out loud. Pretty much she just talks herself into the truth. (I don’t know how else to explain it) We just start out with a topic with perhaps a scripture and then let her start talking and she asks herself questions and then answers them and tells about experiences she’s had and feelings she has. It’s pretty awesome. Our lessons with her though are like 2 hours! This last lesson she pretty much came to the conclusion that she needs to be baptized but it must be done with someone who is worthy and has that divine connection. And in order to find out if we have that she needs to come to church. Ha ha we were going to commit her to come to church but she got to it all by herself.
Everyday that I am a missionary and the more I see and the more I talk with people the more I am so grateful that I have the knowledge of the Gospel. I don’t know how I got so blessed to be born into the Gospel. So now I need to share it. It’s like if I had the most wonderful cupcake in the world and just sat there holding it and telling people how wonderful it is, but never offering them some. We need to invite other people to taste it, then of course it’s up to them. But how much more blessed we will be if we share it. And I never really realized this until the mission, but every member needs to be a missionary. No kidding. For a missionary they have to knock on 100 doors to find one person who will just listen to them. But for a member 5 out of 10 people will take the missionary lessons and 1 out of 10 will be baptized!! Wow! Members have so much more power than missionaries do. This is the salvation of souls we are talking about here! And according to D&C 10, how great will be your joy with that one soul in heaven!!!
I love you all!!! Thank you for all the letters I got this week!!!!
Love ya, Sister Nicole Polatis
Friday, May 29, 2009
On Fire!!!
* Sorry the last three posts are new. We were slacking at posting. We'll try to do better.*
Dear Family,
We have been on FIRE this week!!! Everything!! The work, the weather, my mouth. . yes I said my mouth. I ate a habanera!!!! It's the hottest pepper in the world! And why, you are probably asking would I do something that stupid. Well, when you take young boys fresh out of high school and don't let them watch tv, play videos games, read, play sports, shot off fireworks or guns, etc they have to find other ways to entertain themselves. There have been a lot of strange things in this mission, for example some missionaries made bullwhips and learn to crack them really loud, other missionaries decided to wax their arms and legs, well the district I am in decided to start the habanera club eat really hot peppers. So I was inducted into the habanera club last week along with 3 other missionaries and we each ate a habanera. And let my tell you it was SO HOT I didn't think I could stand it. I immediately drank 2 glasses of milk and a bunch of ice cubes. My tongue and lips were shaking! My eyes were watering. And then I felt really sick to my stomache. And for the next 5 or 6 hours I had this weird burning feeling in my stomach. My tongues burned for about 45 minutes, although I did discover after about a half hour that peppermint oil really helps. Ha ha, it was a very interesting adventure, probably one I will NEVER do again.
Okay so the weather, that also is one fire. It's way hot and I am starting to experience the humidity. We come home everyday all sweaty and gross. And to top it off we will be walking this week. Our car is going into the shop so I get to experience what walking missionaries feel like. Although we have great members here so I don't forsee us doing tons of walking.
Okay on to the best part, the work!!! We had 5 new investigators this week. Which normally we get about 2 or 3. And we taught 11 lessons which average is usually 6-7. We were really busy all week and it felt GREAT!!! Two of our new investigators are Tom and Kim. We tracted into Tom about 3 weeks ago and gave him a Book of Mormon. We kept going back and he kept putting us off saying he didn't have time but he said we could come back the next week. Well we finally got in to talk with him. And found out he has been really depressed and he is on house arrest. He is really trying to make some changes in his life but a lot of stuff is finally catching up to him. We taught him the first lesson and answered a lot of his questions. His girlfriend, Kim, seemed really interested too and she really seemed to appreciate that we were helping Tom. When we walked in Tom seemed dark and sad and when we left he was a lot happier and lighter. It was amazing to see the difference. And he said he was glad he had let us in. He had said all the other times we had come he had felt bad when we had left.
We teach this one lady named Helen, she is 86 and the most ornery old lady I have ever meet!!! She is always telling us about how the government is out to get her and how her neighbors are disrespectful, rude people. And how her neighbor got her furnace fixed and then a week later her dog died and a few days after that her neighbor died, and she knows it was the furnace guy. And how she refuses to celebrate Memorial day on the last Monday of every month because it's just an excuse for people to get a long weekend, it should be on the 30th of May, and so she boycotts by taking her flag down. We went and saw her yesterday on Memorial day because she told us she wouldn't be celebrating it. She is so funny! She is very opinionated about everything, except religion, which is a problem for us because we can't get her to feel strongly enough about it to want to get baptized. She has been taking the lessons for over 7 months and she comes to church every week even if she doesn't feel good. But she doesn't seem to want to get baptized or see a need. Ha ha when Sister Hill and Sister Merrill tried to drop her before, Helen said "So you're going to dump me, huh?" so they didn't and we just haven't been feeling like we should yet. So we will see. This is the same lady who cannot turn left.
We also taught this one lady last week, Marlene, who is a preacher. Right now she doesn't really preach at a church and she goes to a nondenominational church. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she disagreed with EVERYTHING we taught her. She was very vocal about it, but very nice about it at the same time. She told us she would not pray about it or about Joseph Smith or about the Book of Mormon because she knew it was not true because she already had strong faith and knew what was true. She said that nothing we taught her was in the Bible (it's not in the Bible because she chooses to interpret the Bible that way!). She told us about a lot of experiences she has had, like when she received the Holy Ghost and was talking in tongues. (People around here are all about the talking in tongues things, to a lot of people it's more of a sign of being saved to talk in tongues than to be baptized!) Anyways so when we were leaving, she told us she really felt she needed to tell us some things. The only way I know how to describe what happened is to say that she was prophesying to us. She told us a lot of stuff and Sister Merrill said that some of what she told her was in her patriarchal blessing. And the stuff she told me didn't feel wrong. It was really interesting. She also gave us dating advice, ha ha, she told us that girls should NOT going looking for a man (she was very adamant about that) but they should wait for God to bring the man to us. The funny part was that most of when we were talking with her I think she was trying to convert us to being nondenominational! ha ha.
So Sister Merrill and I have a goal to meet the Standards of Excellence at least one time this transfer. The Standards of Excellence are numbers established by our mission president as numbers that are reachable but also make us stretch and work hard. I have never reached all of them in one week. This is the last week of the transfer and our last week to meet the goals and we are going to do it!! So yesterday to help one of our investigators come to church we mowed her lawn. It's Lois, the lady the Young Women did service for. Sister Merrill and I were laughing about the things that we do to get investigators to church, including mowing lawns. It was actually really great to do hard labor and get dirty. Plus I didn't have to wear a skirt and nylons!!
Anyways so this week has been great!! I have felt an added sense of help and strength this last week. A lot of stuff just worked out and I know it was because the Lord was helping us. Thank you for all your prayers and love!!! And thank you for all the letters!!!
Love ya tons and tons, Sister Nicole Polatis
Dear Family,
We have been on FIRE this week!!! Everything!! The work, the weather, my mouth. . yes I said my mouth. I ate a habanera!!!! It's the hottest pepper in the world! And why, you are probably asking would I do something that stupid. Well, when you take young boys fresh out of high school and don't let them watch tv, play videos games, read, play sports, shot off fireworks or guns, etc they have to find other ways to entertain themselves. There have been a lot of strange things in this mission, for example some missionaries made bullwhips and learn to crack them really loud, other missionaries decided to wax their arms and legs, well the district I am in decided to start the habanera club eat really hot peppers. So I was inducted into the habanera club last week along with 3 other missionaries and we each ate a habanera. And let my tell you it was SO HOT I didn't think I could stand it. I immediately drank 2 glasses of milk and a bunch of ice cubes. My tongue and lips were shaking! My eyes were watering. And then I felt really sick to my stomache. And for the next 5 or 6 hours I had this weird burning feeling in my stomach. My tongues burned for about 45 minutes, although I did discover after about a half hour that peppermint oil really helps. Ha ha, it was a very interesting adventure, probably one I will NEVER do again.
Okay so the weather, that also is one fire. It's way hot and I am starting to experience the humidity. We come home everyday all sweaty and gross. And to top it off we will be walking this week. Our car is going into the shop so I get to experience what walking missionaries feel like. Although we have great members here so I don't forsee us doing tons of walking.
Okay on to the best part, the work!!! We had 5 new investigators this week. Which normally we get about 2 or 3. And we taught 11 lessons which average is usually 6-7. We were really busy all week and it felt GREAT!!! Two of our new investigators are Tom and Kim. We tracted into Tom about 3 weeks ago and gave him a Book of Mormon. We kept going back and he kept putting us off saying he didn't have time but he said we could come back the next week. Well we finally got in to talk with him. And found out he has been really depressed and he is on house arrest. He is really trying to make some changes in his life but a lot of stuff is finally catching up to him. We taught him the first lesson and answered a lot of his questions. His girlfriend, Kim, seemed really interested too and she really seemed to appreciate that we were helping Tom. When we walked in Tom seemed dark and sad and when we left he was a lot happier and lighter. It was amazing to see the difference. And he said he was glad he had let us in. He had said all the other times we had come he had felt bad when we had left.
We teach this one lady named Helen, she is 86 and the most ornery old lady I have ever meet!!! She is always telling us about how the government is out to get her and how her neighbors are disrespectful, rude people. And how her neighbor got her furnace fixed and then a week later her dog died and a few days after that her neighbor died, and she knows it was the furnace guy. And how she refuses to celebrate Memorial day on the last Monday of every month because it's just an excuse for people to get a long weekend, it should be on the 30th of May, and so she boycotts by taking her flag down. We went and saw her yesterday on Memorial day because she told us she wouldn't be celebrating it. She is so funny! She is very opinionated about everything, except religion, which is a problem for us because we can't get her to feel strongly enough about it to want to get baptized. She has been taking the lessons for over 7 months and she comes to church every week even if she doesn't feel good. But she doesn't seem to want to get baptized or see a need. Ha ha when Sister Hill and Sister Merrill tried to drop her before, Helen said "So you're going to dump me, huh?" so they didn't and we just haven't been feeling like we should yet. So we will see. This is the same lady who cannot turn left.
We also taught this one lady last week, Marlene, who is a preacher. Right now she doesn't really preach at a church and she goes to a nondenominational church. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she disagreed with EVERYTHING we taught her. She was very vocal about it, but very nice about it at the same time. She told us she would not pray about it or about Joseph Smith or about the Book of Mormon because she knew it was not true because she already had strong faith and knew what was true. She said that nothing we taught her was in the Bible (it's not in the Bible because she chooses to interpret the Bible that way!). She told us about a lot of experiences she has had, like when she received the Holy Ghost and was talking in tongues. (People around here are all about the talking in tongues things, to a lot of people it's more of a sign of being saved to talk in tongues than to be baptized!) Anyways so when we were leaving, she told us she really felt she needed to tell us some things. The only way I know how to describe what happened is to say that she was prophesying to us. She told us a lot of stuff and Sister Merrill said that some of what she told her was in her patriarchal blessing. And the stuff she told me didn't feel wrong. It was really interesting. She also gave us dating advice, ha ha, she told us that girls should NOT going looking for a man (she was very adamant about that) but they should wait for God to bring the man to us. The funny part was that most of when we were talking with her I think she was trying to convert us to being nondenominational! ha ha.
So Sister Merrill and I have a goal to meet the Standards of Excellence at least one time this transfer. The Standards of Excellence are numbers established by our mission president as numbers that are reachable but also make us stretch and work hard. I have never reached all of them in one week. This is the last week of the transfer and our last week to meet the goals and we are going to do it!! So yesterday to help one of our investigators come to church we mowed her lawn. It's Lois, the lady the Young Women did service for. Sister Merrill and I were laughing about the things that we do to get investigators to church, including mowing lawns. It was actually really great to do hard labor and get dirty. Plus I didn't have to wear a skirt and nylons!!
Anyways so this week has been great!! I have felt an added sense of help and strength this last week. A lot of stuff just worked out and I know it was because the Lord was helping us. Thank you for all your prayers and love!!! And thank you for all the letters!!!
Love ya tons and tons, Sister Nicole Polatis
It's About The People
May 19, 2009
Dear Family,
Hello, hello. This week we had quality lessons NOT quantity. So the Lord is always trying our faith with one thing or another. We had some excellent lessons with Lois and Tammy though and meet a great new investigator.
Okay I'll start with Lois. So here in Fairmont they are building a new free way entrance; however, in order to make room for it they had to tear down some houses. So the people who lived in those houses had to be relocated. Lois was one of those people. Turns out the State is not too nice about how they go about it. They pretty much ask you to leave and if you don't they leave you alone and just start tearing down the houses around you until you give up and let them take your house. They go through and decide how much your house is worth and then tell you what they will give you for it and it is not equal value, but they offer you all kinds of benefits on the side. But they give you no time to move and are not very helpful. So Lois told us all about her terrible experience with losing her house and about her replacement house. The people who lived there before were heavy smokers and so the walls were COVERED in nicotine. She's lived there for a year and is still trying to clean all the nicotine off. Every room in the house was painted brown, with brown carpet. So she has repainted and changed the carpet. And the house has a huge yard. And since she had to move in right away without fixing the place up first she has kind of gotten behind. So we got the Young Women to come in and do service for her. They completely transformed her yard!! It looks so wonderful!! And Lois was so happy and now she is so much more open with us. A few days later we had a lesson with her and committed her to be baptized on June 21st. She is so prepared to be baptized!! She keeps talking about needing laying on of hands and how the Book of Mormon makes so much sense because she always knew that Christ was the Savior of all people so why didn't He appear to other nations. She is so awesome!!!
Then we had a lesson with Tammy, I think I mentioned her before. She is going through a lot of rough things. We took a member with us and they really hit it off. We were teaching the Plan of Salvation but we barely got past our pre-mortal life and our purpose here because she had so many questions and concerns. She has developed anxiety and depression lately and so it's really hard to keep her on topic because she is so worried about EVERYTHING and thinks that God is punishing her. She is way nice and open though and will slowly progress. The Gospel is exactly what she needs right now.
Last Friday we were tracting and we knocked on this guy's door and he pretty much blew us off. He told us he already believed in Christ and went to church, but he told us to go see the people that lived a few houses down. He said that there's always crazy stuff happening there and they burn candles and do weird things and that they could use what we have to say. So we went and knocked on his neighbor's door. And we met Dave. And Dave started asking us questions about the Koran and what we believed. Turns out he has been to a lot of churches. And he has always looked at religion as something political. I think he was trying to pull our leg and scare us off because he said he wanted to go to a church where they held rattle snakes and was asking us about some crazy religious beliefs. We weren't sure what to think about him, but he agreed to meet with us but he wanted to do it at the church. So pretty much we were thinking that we had just agreed to meet with some crazy man. So we had a lesson with him last night. And he really is sincere!! He really is looking for something, he was just putting on a rough front at first. It went really great!
So recently I have discovered something. I was a little discouraged the week before about how little success we were having, but now I realize that we must be patient, the Lord is preparing people. And this week even though we hardly taught anyone, it isn't about the huge amount of success we are having, it is about the people. We taught 3 wonderful people this week who are really searching for answers and for truth and we get to be part of the Lord's great work to help them find it!
The ward here is wonderful. It is a small ward and they really struggle. There are A LOT of less active members and members who won't accept callings. But those few faithful strong members are AMAZING!! They do so much and are so willing to help us out. They sacrifice so much. And I think because they do sacrifice their testimony is stronger and they really desire to share the Gospel with their neighbors and friends. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven, and when we are blessed we want others to have those blessings as well.
Love you all tons and tons!!!! Have a wonderful week!!!!
Sister Nicole Polatis
Dear Family,
Hello, hello. This week we had quality lessons NOT quantity. So the Lord is always trying our faith with one thing or another. We had some excellent lessons with Lois and Tammy though and meet a great new investigator.
Okay I'll start with Lois. So here in Fairmont they are building a new free way entrance; however, in order to make room for it they had to tear down some houses. So the people who lived in those houses had to be relocated. Lois was one of those people. Turns out the State is not too nice about how they go about it. They pretty much ask you to leave and if you don't they leave you alone and just start tearing down the houses around you until you give up and let them take your house. They go through and decide how much your house is worth and then tell you what they will give you for it and it is not equal value, but they offer you all kinds of benefits on the side. But they give you no time to move and are not very helpful. So Lois told us all about her terrible experience with losing her house and about her replacement house. The people who lived there before were heavy smokers and so the walls were COVERED in nicotine. She's lived there for a year and is still trying to clean all the nicotine off. Every room in the house was painted brown, with brown carpet. So she has repainted and changed the carpet. And the house has a huge yard. And since she had to move in right away without fixing the place up first she has kind of gotten behind. So we got the Young Women to come in and do service for her. They completely transformed her yard!! It looks so wonderful!! And Lois was so happy and now she is so much more open with us. A few days later we had a lesson with her and committed her to be baptized on June 21st. She is so prepared to be baptized!! She keeps talking about needing laying on of hands and how the Book of Mormon makes so much sense because she always knew that Christ was the Savior of all people so why didn't He appear to other nations. She is so awesome!!!
Then we had a lesson with Tammy, I think I mentioned her before. She is going through a lot of rough things. We took a member with us and they really hit it off. We were teaching the Plan of Salvation but we barely got past our pre-mortal life and our purpose here because she had so many questions and concerns. She has developed anxiety and depression lately and so it's really hard to keep her on topic because she is so worried about EVERYTHING and thinks that God is punishing her. She is way nice and open though and will slowly progress. The Gospel is exactly what she needs right now.
Last Friday we were tracting and we knocked on this guy's door and he pretty much blew us off. He told us he already believed in Christ and went to church, but he told us to go see the people that lived a few houses down. He said that there's always crazy stuff happening there and they burn candles and do weird things and that they could use what we have to say. So we went and knocked on his neighbor's door. And we met Dave. And Dave started asking us questions about the Koran and what we believed. Turns out he has been to a lot of churches. And he has always looked at religion as something political. I think he was trying to pull our leg and scare us off because he said he wanted to go to a church where they held rattle snakes and was asking us about some crazy religious beliefs. We weren't sure what to think about him, but he agreed to meet with us but he wanted to do it at the church. So pretty much we were thinking that we had just agreed to meet with some crazy man. So we had a lesson with him last night. And he really is sincere!! He really is looking for something, he was just putting on a rough front at first. It went really great!
So recently I have discovered something. I was a little discouraged the week before about how little success we were having, but now I realize that we must be patient, the Lord is preparing people. And this week even though we hardly taught anyone, it isn't about the huge amount of success we are having, it is about the people. We taught 3 wonderful people this week who are really searching for answers and for truth and we get to be part of the Lord's great work to help them find it!
The ward here is wonderful. It is a small ward and they really struggle. There are A LOT of less active members and members who won't accept callings. But those few faithful strong members are AMAZING!! They do so much and are so willing to help us out. They sacrifice so much. And I think because they do sacrifice their testimony is stronger and they really desire to share the Gospel with their neighbors and friends. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven, and when we are blessed we want others to have those blessings as well.
Love you all tons and tons!!!! Have a wonderful week!!!!
Sister Nicole Polatis
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
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
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
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