Pumpkin pie from real pumpkins

Hello Dear Family!!

This week has been super busy which is awesome!!! Although we have not seen our two investigators who are closest to baptism. We will see Jason tonight and Eli hopefully Wednesday. Hopefully things will Tonia will slow down and we will be able to get her to church finally. We are going to teach her the stop smoking workshop this week, although we have been saying that for the last 2 weeks, but this week it is going to happen. I love Tonia and her family they are awesome!! Tonia is so nice and she invited us over Wednesday night to see how to make pumpkin pie from an actual pumpkin! And then she said that if they have Thanksgiving at her house she wants us to come and meet her family. And she told us we could come there for Christmas. She found out that we don’t get to go home for the holidays and she thought that was so sad. But actually I’m really excited for the holidays here on a mission. Something way weird we found out though, so we knew that Travis (Tonia’s husband) was younger than her, but on Sunday we found out just how young. She is turning 37 Sunday and he is 22! The weirdest part is they have been together since he was 19 and Tonia has 4 kids the oldest is 15. Kind of crazy. But Travis seems much older than that and they seem really great together.
The other day we were teaching a recent convert, Gabrielle, and her husband, J.R. They are way fun and we always spend way too long at their house because they talk a lot and tell us all kinds of crazy stories. They are getting sealed in January. So Gabrielle’s mom is very anti and doesn’t know that Gabrielle got baptized. And when we were over there her mom called and said that she was pulling into the parking lot to visit them. Gabrielle got this uh oh look and her face and said that she really, really needed her mom to go to the store first and get some pop. J.R. was like we have 5 liters of pop have her get something else. So her mom went to the store after some persuading from Gabrielle and we quickly ended our lesson and left. Good thing her mom called first or we would have been climbing out the back window! Ha ha! That’s tough for Gabrielle, hopefully everything will all work out.
So question, gas prices around here have been dropping like crazy. They went up to over $4 a couple months ago, but have been dropping since and are at $1.68 now!!! WOW!! So I was wondering what are gas prices there? Have they been going down?
This week we taught a less active, Theresa, the stop smoking workshop. Which is very interesting, it is 15 steps to help you stop wanting a cigarette. The steps are things like brush your teeth after every meal, stay busy, drink grapefruit juice to get a different taste in your mouth, pray every morning and night. The steps have to be followed exactly or it doesn’t work. Theresa seems very serious about quitting and we have visited her everyday, and she is going crazy!! She can’t sit still, she’s eaten like 2 lbs of candy, she craves really random food, etc. She is a funny person already, but now she is hilarious. But hopefully she can do it. She is supposed to follow the 15 steps for 7 days and then she shouldn’t crave a cigarette anymore.
So something sad happened this week. The elders had tracted into this girl who said she was Baptist but was looking for a different church to go to. So they sent us over because she was young and single. We taught her an awesome first lesson and when we gave her a Book of Mormon she said she had seen an ad on TV for one and wanted one but had never gotten around to it. She said she would read the Book of Mormon and that she would definitely be at church Sunday. We stopped by Saturday to make sure she knew how to get to church and to see if she was still coming, she said she would be there. Well she wasn’t there Sunday. So we tried calling her several times but she never answered and never returned our messages. We also tried stopping by a few times. Well one time we stopped by we knew she was home, car was there and lights were on, but she didn’t answer, so we just left a note saying we had been trying to contact her and to give us a call. Well about 20 minutes later we get a very long and irate text message from her about how she doesn’t appreciate us stopping by at all odd hours, and the notes and phone calls are too much. That we are being too pushy. And that now she is uncomfortable and will just find a different church. I have been yelled at and had the door slammed in my face but this was the worst. She had been super nice and open before and I felt bad that she thought we were pushy. It really made us reevaluate what we had done to make sure we hadn’t pushed too hard. She probably had got some anti somewhere and us being pushy was her way out. Hopefully this experience won’t drive her completely away forever, she still has a Book of Mormon.
As missionaries we see a lot of crazy situations and really sad ones too. And it makes me even more grateful for the Gospel. And I really wish people would be more open to it. Oh that reminds me, we went tracting the other day and it was Freezing!! But one of the doors we knocked on was this couple who had moved here from Egypt 3 years ago. They are obviously very strong in their religion which is Christian Orthodox, but they were open to hearing more. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. He pointed out the differences in our religions, they believe that God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost are one, that God does not have a body, and there are not prophets today. They said they would pray about the Book of Mormon and coming to church, if he was serious then we fully expect to see them at church sometime. He said he was very happy to see people who live their religion and who are Christian, he says too many people around here don’t live their religion. We also learned in Relief Society is one way to be a member missionary is to be an example, not only in just living it but also in applying it such as in serving others and being friendly. This Thanksgiving is going to be great, because I have never been more grateful for the Gospel in my whole life. It’s AMAZING!!!
I love you all. Have a very, very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Love, Sister Polatis

Cough...cough....cough cough

Dear Family,

This week has been so long!! It wasn’t a terrible week but just really long, that’s what happens when all your appointments cancel! But it’s over! Well good things did happen last week. We had Zone Conference on Wednesday and Elder Arnold from the Seventy came. It was amazing! It was super busy though. We had been told that we needed to meet at the Zone Leaders apartment at 7:45 to carpool. Well at 6:45 they called us and said there had been some miscommunication and we needed to be there in 10 minutes. Well it takes 10 minutes or more to get to Blacksburg and I was still in the shower. So we rushed to get there and then we get to Roanoke (where Zone Conference was at) and we sat around waiting. But then Elder Arnold got out of their leadership meeting and wow we didn’t have time to take a breath. Lunch was even rushed. He said that we had been harvesting with a sickle, like in the old days, and we needed to update to a combine. And not just one combine we needed to combine our efforts together and with the members so we could harvest with a whole fleet of combines. He showed this awesome picture of like 20 combines going across the field in a V pattern with beaters following behind. It was cool I wish I had the picture to show you. Then he told us how we were going to accomplish it. General Authorities have a reputation for coming into missions and chastening everyone and telling them what they have been doing wrong. This was no exception but he did it in a very loving and inspiring way. Some things that are changing: we are only to email our family and only our family can email us back. We are not having zone p-days anymore, its too much driving time and effort. We are supposed to contact our progressing investigators everyday. He talked a lot about being exactly obedient and how it is selfish of us to be disobedient. This is not our missions this is the Lord’s mission, we have been given a great responsibility and trust with the areas we are in, so live up to that trust. He also gave us guidelines for planning, doing service, and working with members. At the end he bore his testimony, and let me tell you wow! The Spirit was amazingly strong there. And then he promised us that if we would faithfully fulfill our service as missionaries we would be blessed with our greatest desires after our missions. That was a very powerful promise.
So I have had this terrible cough for almost 2 weeks now and it just kept getting worse. I have done everything to get rid of it, I have eaten almost a whole bag of cough drops, drank pretty much a whole bottle of cough syrup, and taken cough suppressants. My cough was only getting worse and there were a couple of nights that I couldn’t sleep because I was coughing so hard. I really needed my cough to go away because I felt bad going into people’s houses and spreading my germs around. And its really bad when you are teaching a lesson and it is interrupted by a hacking cough. One story: So we were teaching Jason and Naomi and I was in the middle of reading a scripture and I started coughing and I couldn’t stop, they ran and got me a glass of water, and the member that was with us started searching through her purse for a cough drop, and I was coughing so hard my eyes were watering and I couldn’t speak at all. So I looked at Sister Hill and she had to teach the rest of the lesson. Although I kind of wonder if God was trying to get me to shut up, because she then went on to finish the lesson and then commit him to pray about being baptized. And Sister Hill has never committed anyone to be baptized before, she always makes her companions do it. And so I asked for a blessing from the Elders last Wednesday, and in it I was told that I wouldn’t be better instantly, but in time I would be and that I would know what I needed to do to make myself better. Well later that night we went to Tonia’s house, and she noticed my cough so she was asking about my symptoms. She used to be a nurse and she told me I had a sinus infection!!! And that the infection was going down my throat and that is what made me cough! It also explained why about a week before I felt like I had been punched in the nose. Anyways so she told me what to do for it and now I am feeling lots better! Blessings really work!!
We haven’t really been able to teach Tonia because she has been super busy. She has a house cleaning business and right now she is cleaning a condemned house. The lady who lived there, her son had died 4 years ago, and she hadn’t left it since. She didn’t use the restroom she just went on the floor. There are rats and mice everywhere. And the food that was in her fridge molded. Amazingly enough the lady is still alive and healthy. It’s super bad and the health department wanted it done it 10 days. The 10 days are over tomorrow so hopefully we will be able to start meeting with her then.
We have been teaching the Hale family for a long time (well missionaries have). The dad is less active and the mother is not really anti but she wants her kids to be old enough to make their own decision before they get baptized. The parents just separated and the dad has the kids on the weekends, so we teach them every Saturday. Eli is 11, Jakob is 8, and Zoey is 14. Zoey isn’t really interested, but Eli eats it up. He wants to be baptized but he isn’t sure if he should do it yet because he isn’t sure that the church is true. So we invited him and Jakob to pray about being baptized December 6th, and if they didn’t get an answer fine, but if they did we would plan a baptism. I have mixed feelings though, I don’t want to baptize them into inactivity. Their dad is a good guy, but they also have excuses for not coming to church or not reading their scriptures. Since I have been on my mission I have realized there is no being luke warm about the church. God doesn’t ask for part of our hearts, He asks for all of it. He doesn’t say be a Saint when it’s convenient, He asks for us to be witnesses at all times and all places. “You can’t serve God and Mammon.” I feel very torn sometimes because I don’t think our investigators realize that being baptized in our church is not just some action you do, it’s a serious promise! The covenants we make at baptism, we are required to live for the rest of our lives. But wow the blessings we receive from keeping those promises is awesome too. The Holy Ghost is strong and powerful.
I love you all. I am disappointed to hear though that you have delicious homemade fruit leather and dried apples and I haven’t seen any of it. Hint hint :)
Thanks for your love and support.
Have a wonderful week, I look forward to hearing from you.

Love, Sister Polatis

P.S. It snowed here last night and yesterday, but it is weak sauce compared to the snow we get in Idaho, it’s these little icy things

Canned Potatoes

Dear Family,

So you are getting this email a day early because tomorrow is Veteran's Day and the library is closed and so we got permission to email today. So sorry to all you who were going to write me an email tonight or tomorrow morning, just print it off and mail it.
So to begin, you know how people always talk about the worst thing they ate on their mission. Well if someone asked me I would actually have something to tell them because I ate it last week. Potatoes from a CAN!!! Eewww! I didn't even know they existed. I was expecting something bad when they told me they were canned potatoes but it was so much worse than I expected. They were mushy and gross. And they were tiny little things, probably half the size of an egg and those were the whole potatoes. Really gross. Warning: Don't eat them!
Funny thing happened on Saturday, so we went to the stake enrichment activity and we were standing in line to get food and the lady behind us was like "Sister Hill! Oh I have heard a lot about you!" And Sister Hill was "Oh really? What ward are you from?" And the lady replied, "Welch." And as soon as she said that both Sister Hill and I knew exactly who (or should we say what Elder) had been telling her about Sister Hill. There is an Elder in Welch who has a crush on Sister Hill and has for her whole mission. We knew that and a lot of missionaries know it, but now it appears that the members know it too!! It was super funny to see her face get all red. It's actually a running joke in our District that Sister Hill has captured all the Elders' hearts because I guess President has heard rumors of some Elders liking her as well. I guess I need to keep better tabs on my companion. 
I don't know if I mentioned before that I was sick (nothing serious just congestion and sore throat) and then I being the wonderful companion I am gave it to Sister Hill. We are mostly over it except now we both have coughs. People make fun of us that we both are sick and we just tell them that we have such great companion unity that we even get sick together. But I am starting to lose my voice. I think its hilarious because then Sister Hill will have to do all the talking, she is horrified at the thought and threatened me that I better not lose my voice.
So on to more interesting news than mission rumors and bad food. We started teaching this less active, Naomi Kiser. Her parents are very active in the ward and her mom asked us to go see her. So we stopped by about 3 weeks ago and offered to teach her and her boyfriend the lessons (they have a little boy together). Naomi was all for it because she wants to get active again but she wasn't sure if Jason would want to. But when we went for our first lesson he was there. He wouldn't really commit to anything and he said he wouldn't come to church. But then the next lesson he committed to read one chapter in the Book of Mormon and said maybe he would come to church. And on Sunday, he was there!!! When Sister Hill saw him she said "Hello!" so loud and happy it scared me. I think we might have scared him away with how overjoyed we were to see him at church. We talked to Naomi about it later and she said he was in a better mood that night than he had been for a while and he had some questions. We have a lesson with him tonight so we will see how it goes. But I cannot tell you how happy we are to see people at church, it's so HARD to get them there, but it's a very important step in getting them to fell that the church is true. The investigator that I keep telling you about is Tonia, and she wasn't at church because she was sick. She and her kids have not yet been to church and we have been trying super hard for the last month to get them there. It's so hard to get people to keep their commitments. Tonia does have a lot of health problems and a lot of other problems as well. Her father-in-law lives with them and he is an alcoholic. He only has about 6 months left to live because he has literally drank himself to death. They have tried to kick him out but he has no where else to go. Her brother-in-law lives with them as well and come to find out he has been having an affair with their neighbor!!! And when we were over there the other day the neighbor lady was there and told us she was going over to tell her husband she was leaving him. Tonia is very upset about the situation and has tried to kick her brother-in-law out but I don't know why he is still there. Neither her nor her husband are happy with the situation. And Tonia told us she knows adultery is wrong and feels really bad it is going on in her house. That is part of the reason she doesn't want to come to church is because I think she feels it would be hypocritical of her. I don't know what the situation is exactly but it is really stressing her out and that is a huge part of why she is sick. Hopefully things will work out or these things will motivate her to change and join the church where she can find stability. Sad stuff. The church really blesses our lives and people who don't have it are simply looking for peace and happiness and just don't know where to find it so they turn to worldly stuff.
Zone Conference is on Wednesday and Elder Arnold from the Quorum of the Seventy is coming to speak to us. It's going to be awesome. This last week I have been learning a lot about receiving personal revelation and listening to the Spirit. One of those ways is to listen to our leaders so I am super excited to hear what he has to say to help us be better missionaries. The Holy Ghost really can speak to us and tell us the things we need to hear, that promise is all over in the scriptures. We just got to learn to invite and recognize it, there is a whole chapter about recognizing the Spirit in Preach My Gospel (Chapter 4).

I LOVE you all. Thanks for your love and support.

Love, Sister Nicole Polatis

Busy Busy

Dear Family!!

Transfers are tomorrow and Sister Hill and I are staying here!!! YAY!!! That means I will be her longest companion and she will have be here for 7 ½ months now. We are way excited and happy. Most of our district is staying too which is good because we have a great bunch of missionaries here. This last week was busy we had lots of appointments. We have 2 new investigators who don't know they are investigators yet. We went and visited two less actives and in both situations they live with their boyfriend and have a child by them. So we invited them to take the lessons and to invite their boyfriends to sit in as kind of a family time thing. So far we have had great lessons and they really seem to know the Bible. On Friday for Halloween we couldn't really dress up so we went to the dollar store and got sparkly pipe cleaner and made halos so we can be angels. It wasn't really a costume because we already are angels ha ha jk. Okay lame joke. But we went to Wheatland (the assisted living home) and they had a costume dance. It was HILARIOUS. One lady was dressed up like the devil, her name is Ruth and she would dress up like that (she is a pretty funny old lady). That night the Frazier's had us for dinner (we go there every 1st, 3rd and 5th Friday) They had a bonfire and we roasted hotdogs and made s'mores! The Elders came too, they are in the same ward as us so the members usually feed both of us at the same time. They dressed up as kings, Elder Richards was King Richards the lion hearted and Elder Lundin was King Lundin Bridges. Ha ha oh the lame things we missionaries do for entertainment. It was a great Halloween mostly because I had been craving s'mores and I bought the s'mores poptarts and they taste nothing like real s'mores. Oh and Thank-you for the Halloween Package Keshia and Juan, it was very much appreciated since we didn't get much candy. And I got it the day after Halloween.
On Sunday Sister Hill and I taught Relief Society, we did a lesson on how to use Preach My Gospel. We were so excited to do it, but I think we overwhelmed them with information. We took like an hour's worth of stuff and crammed it into 20 minutes. It was a good lesson though and I think we at least made them interested to look at Preach My Gospel. It certainly strengthened my testimony about what a great and inspired tool Preach My Gospel is. We taught them how to use it in Personal Study, in family study and family home evening, in talks, and in member missionary work. Which an excellent idea for family home evening is to study the lessons in Chapter 3 and then teach it. This stuff is what we teach as missionaries and what investigators hear. It's everything they need to know in order to be baptized. You can have one person teach the whole lesson or everybody teach one principle. I Love how much emphasis is being put on member missionary work right now. What a great time to be serving a mission! And how important members are to missionary work! Out of all our investigators the only one's that are progressing have been member referrals, everyone we found through tracting are not progressing or keeping commitments. We actually don't think they are serious at all and don't want to tell us no. Which is crazy, people tell us we can come back all the time but then they don't answer the door when we come by. Or they let us in and keep telling us we can come back and then seem really surprised when we show up for our next appointment. Seriously people have some back bone and just say no. Or maybe they don't say no because they can feel the spirit telling them they should say yes.
Tonia and her family are doing good I guess, we haven't seen them for almost a week. They seem really sincere and interested in our lessons but have a really hard time keeping commitments like reading scriptures and coming to church. So we need your prayers for them to keep commitments and for us to know how to motivate them to do so.
Anyways I don't have tons to write about this week, nothing fantastic except we have been busy which is always awesome. I LOVE you. Read your scriptures, say your prayers, and read Preach My Gospel!

Love, Your Sister Nicole Polatis

Fun and More Fun

Dear Family,

So this last week has been really hard and we haven't had much success. We went tracting a lot! But it has been a really fun week. Last P-day we had a Zone P-day and we carved pumpkins. Sister Hill and I had the best pumpkin, his name is Gadiation and we carved the Plan of Salvation. I will send pictures. Then this P-day (today) we went on a hike with two other companionships. We went to Cascade Falls which is about a half hour south of us. It was really pretty and COLD. It snowed while we were up there, only a little bit and just real tiny flakes, but still SNOW! Yesterday we had district meeting and sometimes after district meeting we go to lunch somewhere, and yesterday we went to Ben and Jerry's and took the Vermonater challenge. What it is: 20 scoops of icecream, 1 brownie, 4 cookies, 5 bananas, 10 scoops of walnuts, 4 ounces of caramel, sprinkles, reese's pieces, mini m&ms, and a ton of whip cream on top. Pretty healthy lunch. We had ten people and you are timed to see who can eat it the fastest. The time to beat was 2:03 and the record was set by a bunch of young kids so we thought it would be no problem to beat. It took us 3:08! And that was hard! But it was way fun! We might try again next week. On Friday we went to the ward trunk or treat and we helped do the games. Those kids were crazy!!! They had way too much sugar! Sister Hill and I wanted to dress up but there is so little we can do so we dressed up as each other which pretty much was us just switching name tags. And that just seemed to confuse people.
Okay now for the best part of the week: Celine's baptism!! She was baptized on Sunday evening and it was way neat. After she got out of the font and was drying off in the dressing room, she kept saying she felt so different but couldn't explain it, and she wished she could speak better English so she could tell us how she was feeling. She kept saying "It isn't just water!" She didn't have to explain because you could feel it. I felt like God was really happy Celine had gotten baptized. And even though Celine had already been mostly taught and committed to baptism before I got there, I am really glad I got to be part of it.
Other good news, we went over to see Tonia and she told us she couldn't talk long because her and her boyfriend, Travis, were going to get a marriage license because they were getting married that night! They had been planning it for a week as a surprise for her daughter's birthday (that is what her daughter asked for) We were really excited and relieved because we had been planning to teach her the Law of Chastity and tell her that either they need to get married or he needed to move out. Now we just need to help her stop smoking, she has already said she wants to. Sometimes God has prepared people and they are already starting to make the right choices. Her family is awesome and last night we committed them to baptism! It will probably be later in November or beginning of December.
Oh so the Passic's (I think I told you about them before) are this really awesome family in our ward. And we were visiting them the other day and Sister Passic asked if we had coats since it was getting cold. I said I was going to buy one next P-day and she freaked out because I didn't have a coat. And started pulling coats out and when those ones didn't fit me she went to her own closet and started pulling out coats that she still wore! I tried to tell her I had a light coat and I was going to buy a winter one next week. But she insisted and wouldn't let me leave the house without one. So I told her I would take it on loan and bring it back when I got my own. They are really nice and we never leave their house without food.
I don't really know what else to tell you because this week has been really trying. I was sick at the beginning of the week and then I gave it to Sister Hill and she is sick now. It isn't anything too bad just sore throat and cough and runny nose. But we are getting through it. And missionary work is hard because salvation isn't easy. But it's the Lord's work and He will make it happen.
I heard from Darci and Jared that you went to Boise to see Brittany's games. And that they won their second game. But I haven't heard from anyone else. Tell me more! I got Dad and Darci's letters, Thanks! Oh and mom I filled out the application for the absentee ballot and I voted yesterday. Thank you! Hope everything is going great. I Love you! Have a Happy Halloween!

Love, Sister Polatis

Praying really works

Dear Family,

This week was awesome, we had lots of fun. Sister Hill's Birthday was on Thursday and I realized that Birthday's in the mission are awesome. She got a lot of packages with lots of crazy things in them and lots of food. I conspired with the Elders and we made her a cake (well they made it, I just told them what kind she liked and gave them money.) Then turns out Jyl Robinson conspired with Sister Hill's mom and made her her favorite dinner and cherry pie (It's her favorite) Oh Jyl is the daughter of the Passic's, I don't know if I have told you about them, but they are an awesome family who feed the missionaries once a month and then whenever they find out we don't have a meal. They are so nice and AMAZING. Sister Passic is always trying to give us food (she thinks we are starving) and is always so willing to help us out. So anyways back to the Birthday it was really fun, even for me and it wasn't even my Birthday. And then to end an excellent day we had an amazing lesson with Tonia and her family. I think I already told you about Tonia. We are teaching her 3 boys now, and her boyfriend (Travis) sits in for a few minutes here and there. We have had two lessons with the whole family, and both lessons have been amazing. They ask lots of questions, and you can tell they really think about it. They asked us if they could be baptized! We have only got through the first 2 lessons, so next time we see them we are going to explain that baptism is a covenant and involves other things than just getting wet. They are a great family and we also have fun when we go over there. It almost seems too good to be true, but then miracles do happen!
Speaking of miracles God really does answer prayers. I have a couple of stories to tell you. First one, the other day I had taken my camera out of my bag to use it and then left it on the seat of the car. I guess I had put my bag next to it and then when I pulled my bag out of the car I had pulled the camera out too. The next day I was looking for my camera and couldn't find it and realized that it must have fallen out. We had gone to see about 5 people the night before and so we decided to drive to each house and see if it was on the ground. Sister Hill suggested we say a prayer and after we did asked me where I wanted to go first, and so I said the first place that came to my mind (the member's house we had gone to for dinner). We went there and my camera was there one the ground!!! There's no way the first place we picked happened to be the right one, we were totally directed by the spirit. I know this seems like a small deal (its just a camera, its not an investigator or something) but it was proof to me that God does answer prayers. Next story, the elders and us planned to show "The Testaments" at the library as a community event, like a family movie night as way to find people who were ready to hear the Gospel. And as a way for members to invite their friends to something casual to introduce them to the church. So we planned it, made fliers, had the newspaper advertise it, and put it in the program at church. Then we got to church that Sunday and found out the Trunk or Treat had been just been moved to the very night we were doing the showing. So we talked to the Bishopric and they advised canceling it and moving it to next month because they had just decided in ward counsel that the next month was going to be focused on the ward mission plan. They said we would get more support from the ward if we did it that way. So we cancelled it just minutes before Sacrament started and they announced in Sacrament it was postponed. It was really disappointing for us because we had already gone to a lot of work and handed out fliers and stuff. And we have really been praying for this event to be successful because both us and the elders don't have a very big teaching pool and this was a way to find more people. And so later while I was stewing over all the effort we put in for this just to be cancelled and all the praying we had done that was for nothing. Then it came to my mind that this WAS the answer to our prayers, the Lord knew that we would have more success if we waited. And then my testimony that this was the answer to our prayers was strengthened this weekend at Stake Conference. They announced that the stake is going to be focused on missionary work. They talked about how important it is to spread the Gospel and then they told everyone to get a Preach My Gospel, read it, and then make individual and family mission plans. As missionaries we were pretty much jumping out of our seats with excitement, this is what we have been encouraging the members to do every time we have a dinner appointment. So now that the members are getting excited about missionary work, we will give them the perfect opportunity to invite their friends to!!
Stake Conference was awesome, it even inspired me to want to read Preach My Gospel more and I study it pretty much everyday. This truly is an inspired book. I have heard people say that this book was created beyond the veil and assembled here. So get one and study it, it's awesome! Great idea for family home evenings!!
Oh so I just want to tell everyone how amazing my companion is. So not last July but the one before that, her dad got in a motorcycle accident and had a heart attack and died. She said that just a few days before she was driving in her car and she had this thought that if her dad died she needed to go on a mission. She said it was really weird because she hadn't really been thinking about going on a mission and her dad was fine. Then her dad died and she made the decision to go on a mission. She went into the MTC that very next February. Her family had just moved to Idaho in the last year and were living with her grandparents. So her family was still in limbo and looking for a house when she left. She seems sad about her dad's death, but not devastated. And the way she talks about it I would think it was years ago. Don't get me wrong she isn't in denial or trying not to think about it, she talks about it and him a lot, she is just always very cheerful. I think the Lord is just really blessing her and her family for serving a mission. Actually we were talking the other day and Elder Lundin and I are the only missionaries in our district that have two parents still married and alive. And before Elder Lundin got transferred here I was the only missionary. Everyone's parents are either divorced, left when they were little, or died. How strange for a bunch of Mormon missionaries. Interesting coincidence?
Anyways how are things at home? I hear Darci is getting curly hair. I'm guessing harvest is over and so things are probably winding down. Brittany, GOOD LUCK at State!!! Go, FIGHT, WIN!!!! I want to hear more about the playoff game. No one has mentioned football so I am guessing it is over? And Alanna holds the record for the longest letter written, I LOVED it!! Oh, mom asked if the baptism for Celine was still on for this week and it is. I hope you all have a fabulous week and I love you.

Lots of Love from Christiansburg,
Sister Nicole Polatis

Virginia is GREAT

Hey my family!!!

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