Cinnamon Rolls and Salvation

This is me, Sister Bischoff, and Sister Harris. We joke that we got new companions for Christmas.

This is almost all of the sisters in the mission except 4. Half of them are going home and the other half are staying here.

This is Jennifer McDougal and her family at her baptism.

My current District, what a bunch of crazy missionaries. Left to right, Sister Hamaker, Sister Taylor, ME, Elder Mills, Elder Smith, Elder Packer, and Elder Hansen

Sister Taylor and I have the same shirt and randomly they are Christmas colors. We look like peppermints.

Dear Family

It was so good to talk to you all on Christmas. I know I told you what we did, but I can’t remember all that I told you so I’m going to tell you again. On Christmas Eve we went to the nursing home and visited people, we sang carols, and just chatted. We met one guy who was very bitter and believed that God was cruel and unmerciful, and right after that we met a 95 year old lady that was the most cheerful person I’ve ever seen. She has lots of health problems and is stuck in a nursing home but she still loves life, God and others. Then we went caroling to less actives, and at pretty much every house they offered us cookies. We had dinner with a family who are very musical and they sang us some Christmas songs, they sang O Holy Night and it was the most beautiful thing I ever heard. We then went to Walmart with all the other missionaries in Charleston and sang in front of the store. We handed out lots of cards. At 8 the store closed and we quit singing and helped gather up the carts and helped people with their groceries. One lady I talked to just broke down and cried when I offered to help. She was so frazzled. A lot of people in West Virginia have been without power from a storm that happened the Saturday before Christmas and most people didn’t get it again until Christmas Eve. We then went to the mission home and had cinnamon rolls and chili. We read the Christmas story and then just chatted. We all spent the night in the mission home and just like little kids we were all up early, the elders were up at 5:30 and when we opened the door at the top of the stairs they were all sitting at the bottom of the stairs waiting for President to let them come upstairs. President hid a cookie for all of us around the mission home and so we had to find them and then we opened our presents. President made us pancakes and then we played games until 10. At 10 we had to get going. We went to the Grants house for lunch and played games and took turns making our phone calls. Then we went to the Suttles for dinner and that was completely crazy there were so many people there. That evening we went tracting-caroling. Instead of normal door approaches we sang to them and then gave them a card. We even got offered money, I should never be offered money for my singing. All in all we had a wonderful Christmas.
Tomorrow, I will get my new companion and go back to Marietta. It was nice to be here but I am glad to go back and get back to work. The last few days have been really slow, people are still gone for the holidays. But we have found a lot of people home when we have gone tracting. One Sunday it was nice to go to church and see the members again. It’s a little strange to be back in my old area, but also interesting to see them again and see changes, like new babies, reactivated people, or move in.
Last Wednesday we went and taught Victor, who is from Mexico, and speaks very little English. He works at a Mexican restaurant here and that is where he met the missionaries. He saw their tags and said he had friends who were Mormons and he wanted to learn more. So the sisters here take members who speak Spanish (luckily there are several RMs who went Spanish speaking) and Sister Harris knows a little bit. It was interesting in the lesson because I can understand a little because of the little Spanish I have taken, but I speak even less and my pronunciation is really off. And I could barely understand Victor because he spoke so fast. But the feeling in the lesson was wonderful. It was interesting to not understand and still feel the spirit. And later the member filled us in and Victor had said that his soul is hungry for this and even though his roommates tease him he knows this is very important. It will be interesting for Victor to come to church though with it all in English but he says he wants to come.
So last month our mission hit a record. 30 baptisms in one month, usually we have struggled to hit 20. But after Elder Sybrowsky came and increased our faith and challenged us to baptism in every area every month (which is 56), baptisms, lessons, new investigators have gone up. It’s amazing to see what faith can do.
Yesterday we had a training meeting to train us to train our new companions. It was most excellent. The Spirit was so strong. And during that meeting we were all asked to bear our testimonies. And when I bore mine the Spirit bore powerful witness that God loves me. All of sudden I remember many events of the last week that made me realize God loved me. Examples, so I was really craving some of mom’s homemade cinnamon rolls and I was a little homesick with it being Christmas and all. Sister Harris said well maybe Sister Thornock will make cinnamon rolls for us on Christmas. And lo and behold, what was waiting for us at the mission home? cinnamon rolls! Coincidence I think not! I had really been wanting candy cane Hershey kisses but I am trying to save money and they cost almost $4, but what does Alanna send in her Christmas package? Just a few candy cane kisses. I wasn’t having the greatest Christmas, but then we went to the Grants and had a wonderful time and it totally made my day to talk to you all. There were many other things those are just a few. But my concerns were so silly, they didn’t effect my eternal salvation. Yet God is so loving to even take care of the silly stuff. How much more will He take care of the things that matter, like helping us find those who are prepared to be baptized, or blessing our families, or helping us build our testimony.
So we went to dinner on Saturday to some member who are converts and they shared their stories and testimonies with us. And their son is serving in Boise, Idaho right now! We had a wonderful discussion. Something he said really stood out to me, he said that no other church offers hope for the salvation of ALL of God’s children. And that is how he knows this is the true church. Wow! That really hit me as being an important thing, because as God’s children He loves us and He wants us to return to live with Him so why wouldn’t He have a plan that made it possible for everyone to return to live with Him? No matter what life you were born into there is hope for salvation. And being able to do work for the dead that is offering hope to our ancestors. We have the opportunity to help offer salvation to people, what a glorious role. That is following in Christ’s footsteps, and we are developing Christ-like love. That is the link that Elijah was talking about, it’s love. Love is the welding link. How beautiful God’s plan is for us!
Love you all, Happy New Year!
Sister Nicole Polatis

Merry Merry Christmas

Dear Family,

Merry Christmas to us!!!! God Loves us! Miracles happen! Fasting Works!! And sometimes God grants us the very desires of our hearts!!
Okay so when Sister Reeves was serving here about a year ago she taught Jennifer McDougal who was sooo totally Golden, she contacted the missionaries and wanted to be taught because she had known members when she was younger and realized later in life that this is the true church. But tons and tons of stuff got in the way, she had like 3 baptismal dates before. She had to get married so she did that, but then she had major complications with her pregnancy, and was put on bed rest. And she fell off the face of the earth and missionaries couldn’t get a hold of her and neither could the members. So no one had really seen her for 6 months. And we had decided to give her a break. Well on Sunday I fasted for our investigator Dallas to get better so he can get baptized because that’s all we are waiting for ( his family has been members for 30 years and its taken this long for him to accept it and now he is seriously ill). Our mission was promised that we could see a baptism every month in every area by Elder Sybrowsky from the 70. Well we were really hoping to see Dallas baptized in December because we didn’t have a baptism for this month. So we fasted for it and I added or help us to get a baptism. But I am of little faith and was resigned that if Dallas didn’t make it we wouldn’t see one. But then on Monday night we went out to Waterford which is way far away, to visit a less active. Well the less active wasn’t there so we decided to just try Jennifer because she lives out that way. And lo and Behold! She answered the door and let us come in and proceeded to tell us that she missed us and missed church and missed everything and that her health was finally getting back under control and she really felt she needed to come back. And then she bore us her testimony all about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong! And then she asked us if there were any openings for baptism in the next little while. And we are sitting there with our jaws on the floor, stammering about how she can get baptized whenever she wants. And we proceeded to set her for December 20th!!! The day before we leave! And she came to church on Sunday and we are teaching her refresher lessons so we see her like every other day. And she remembers so much! And her husband sits in on the lessons now and he asks questions but he will probably take a while still. Wow!! This is so amazing!!!
Okay so I don’t have much time, but an update on what it happening. Sister Taylor and Sister Hamaker are leaving to go home on the 22nd and so we are all going to Charleston on the 21st to drop them off. Then I will be going to Teays Valley (my old area) with Sister Harris and Sister Bischoff who are both from Idaho. I will be with them until the 30th and then I will be coming back to Marietta on the 30th with my greenie. So start sending mail to the mission office and they’’ll get it to me. And then about the 27th start sending it to Marietta again.
So my companions are so Trunky!!! And I am learning from their experience and I’m telling you right now. Don’t you dare start telling me how many days I have left and do not write me that you will see me in a few weeks, and nothing along those lines. Pretend like I will be here forever. I need help staying focus. And just because I am coming home soon doesn’t mean I don’t need mail. In fact its very important I receive mail, so please write ME!!!! Well I’m sorry I have to run. Love you all very much. Let It SNOW!
Love Sister Nicole Polatis

Most Excellent

Dear Family,
So we had a very excellent week. It started out slow because of the holiday and everyone was busy but it picked up after that. For Thanksgiving we went to the Cammacks and had dinner with them. Their neighbor was there and she isn’t a member. She actually grew up RLDS so we chatted with her about that. She is really good friends with the Cammacks and we have met her before. They are a very talkative family so we had a nice, quiet, traditional dinner with them. Then we went over to Ted’s house (he’s the one who got baptized at the beginning of the month) and that was completely different. His two daughters were there and their kids, I don’t know if I mentioned them to you before. We had dinner with them once and they asked all kinds of questions about our church, most specifically about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity, let’s just say it was definitely not normal dinner conversation and I blushed several times. Their names are Teddi and Traci and they are way fun. Very loud and blunt. They refuse to call us Sister and Ted told them our first names so I was called Nicole the whole night and it was really weird to me. Dinner was good but very different, none of them are much into cooking and Ted made the pies, they looked funny, but they tasted pretty good. They tried to get us to play the Wii, instead we talked them into playing cards. We played a game called Shanghi, which is like phase 10 but with more rules and strategy. It got really really intense. There was yelling, and Ted kept telling Traci to watch her mouth. Several people got punched in the arm including me, I think I have a bruise. There was under the table cheating and blatant cheating. They are very serious about their cards. We talked to them a little bit about the temple because Ted had a picture of the temple up which we gave him for his baptism, so they asked us about it. It was good but weird, try explaining what the temple is to someone who lives a very different life than LDS standards and is not really interested in spiritual things. We asked Teddi to take the lessons and she said she would think about it. Oh yeah, we also a Thanksgiving Dinner last Friday with one of our investigators, Kayla. It was very interesting. There were all kinds of people there, some related, and some they claimed as relations but they were just friends. They were playing hard rock music and kept going outside to smoke. The food was all colorless, it was weird, everything was a whitish color, the mashed potatoes, the gravy, the turkey, macaroni salad, potato salad, rolls, the stuffing. The only color was the yams and the pumpkin pie. It was kind of awkward and I felt bad because we didn’t really talk to anyone about the Gospel, and after I left I realized that we didn’t have the Spirit because of the music. But it was a very interesting Thanksgiving dinner.
Speaking of interesting food. Two of our investigators feed us on Sunday, which we really appreciated because they don’t have a lot of money and they were really excited about it. They feed us pork chops and mine was totally raw in the middle! He was saying something about how they were frozen earlier that was probably why! I ate as much as I could but I started feeling really sick, so I tried to discreetly take my plate into the kitchen and throw it away. So I have eaten raw pig on my mission now! Probably the most interesting thing I’ve eaten.
Last week we went tracting and we found this lady named Moyra. She is an 87 year old, nanny from Ireland. She came here to be a nanny and got married and has been here ever since. She is way funny. She has a cool accent and always refers to herself in the third person. She is Catholic but is really open and seemed really excited to read the Book of Mormon. We went back yesterday and taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she found it very interesting.
On Saturday we found 2 new investigators. Nena was a Book of Mormon loan and we went back and she let us teach her. Her daughter Kaitlyn, who is 19 and looks just like Andy on Motocross she even has the same haircut, sat in too. They are Catholic but they don’t currently attend. We had a great lesson with them and Kaitlyn said she’s been wondering about religion lately. I love them already, they were really great and asked good questions. I cannot really express how awesome it is to find people who are so willing to let us come in and then we have such great lessons with. It’s the best feeling in the world to share the message of the Restoration with someone and to see on their face and to have them tell us that it makes sense and it answers their questions.
Yesterday we had an excellent day. We went tracting and found 5 people! We loaned out 4 Book of Mormons and have an appointment with a lady on Thursday. Three of those people were in houses right in a row, which never happens it was cool. We also had a lesson with Mike, who I’m pretty sure I told you about before. He had a baptismal date for December 13th, but then disappeared for the last few weeks. He told us he’s been really bad lately so I think he felt guilty and was avoiding us. Mike is an amazing violin player and he used to be in a symphony and teach lessons, but then he started drinking and it ruined his life. Now he is a bum that lives with his parents and has a really crappy job that he can barely hold on to. He was changed a little since we’ve started meeting with him. And he’s really sharp and really wants to make changes in his life. He knows he isn’t doing what is right. He calls himself Evil Mike. We had an excellent lesson with him about the Plan of Salvation and reset him for January 24th and I think he will make it this time. Except he was drinking while we were there and it smelled awful! Sister Hamaker says that sometimes lessons are better with him when he is drunk though because he is calmer and not so random. It was a really good lesson but he needs to stop drinking.
So recently in our mission the focus is opening our mouths and talking to everyone. Our mission leaders are asking us to set goals of how many people we will talk to outside of tracting and then they follow up with us. It’s been hard for me because I’m kind of a chicken, but it’s been good for us because we really have become more comfortable with talking to everyone about the Gospel. So last night we were driving home and we were going past the college and we saw a girl walking home. Sister Hamaker was like, “Sister Polatis, quick jump out and give this girl a card.” We had already passed her and I said, “Okay drive around the block and I will.” So we drove around the block, but we couldn’t find her! So we went to the next intersection and saw her about to cross the street. So we drove down to the McDonald’s and Sister Taylor and Sister Hamaker dropped me off in the parking lot and then they went through the drive-thru and got McFlurries and I started down the sidewalk, acting like I was out walking, to intercept her. I gave her a card and she actually planted her feet and stopped and talked to me, it was so cool, most people keep walking. Her name is Amanda and she is a student, I talked to her about Prophets and the Book of Mormon, she kept saying she didn’t know if she was interested in meeting with us, I think it was because she was so busy and stressed about finals, because she seemed kind of interested so I directed her to website. Then I kept walking and my comps did a drive by and picked me up. We totally stalked that girl and then ambushed her! It was so cool!
Well love you all, Take care,
Sister Nicole Polatis

I'm Alive!

Hello Dear Family,
Thank you for all your love and letters wishing me better. I am much much better. So you have all obviously talked to mom and found out I was sick AGAIN! That was so frustrating and I had the exact same thing! Although I talked to the doctor and he is not sure I had the swine flu. He says it would not come back, plus my companions haven’t gotten it. He thinks it might be some bacterial infection. Although my symptoms sounded just like swine flu or some type of the flu. Who knows. I am just glad I’m over it and hopefully for good this time. We stayed in Thursday and Friday, on Friday I felt much better but I hadn’t slept in over 48 hours so we stayed in and let me get feeling all the way better. We went back to work on Saturday, which was the exact same thing that happened the week before. Crazy. It felt great to be working again. Poor Sister Taylor just got here and we had to stay inside and not work.
On Wednesday we went to Charleston and got Sister Taylor and then she hardly had anytime to unpack because a member called us and asked us to come up to the emergency room because she didn’t have anyone else to come and she couldn’t find the number for her home teacher. Then we had meetings and appointments. And then we were back at the emergency room that night because Amy, our recent converts, mom was there. We are friends with her mom and Amy asked us to come. We also had an appointment with Amy anyways so we sat in the waiting room with her and tried to have a lesson. Crazy we were in the ER twice and then I was sick the next day! I felt bad, I hoped I hadn’t gotten anyone sick in the ER.
Seriously not much has happened this week because of my sickness and then things have been kind of rough in our companionship because Sister Hamaker is dealing with depression. We had a hard time getting going after being down for a while. But we had a really good day yesterday. We taught several of our investigators and had excellent lessons with them. We taught one lady, Pam, last night, she has been taught for a long time. And she has a testimony and wants to get baptized but she can’t stop smoking. She has a serious addiction. She hates smoking and so does her family, and she is having health problems because of it. She doesn’t ever smoke in public because she is embarrassed about it but at home she smokes like a chimney. So we talked about things she could do. And we told her about an addiction recovery class the church does. And the member who came with us, her father-in-law is a trained hypnotist and he hypnotizes people to help them get over addictions. Pam really liked both of those ideas and said she willing to do anything. So it was good and I was glad we brought that member because she was very encouraging to Pam.
We had stake conference on Sunday and we had to drive all the way to Charleston for it, a little less than 2 hours. It’s crazy how spread out the stake is. President and Sister Thornock were there and a ton of missionaries, and a lady in the ward down there invited ALL of us over for lunch, so we had a good time catching up with the other missionaries.
Yesterday I got my copy of the conference Ensign, finally! And I was looking through the pictures (my favorite part) and I got this wonderful feeling of how awesome the Church is and how amazing it is to be apart of it. This is God’s church. Everyone in the pictures looked so happy and glowing. And there were beautiful pictures of families. And as you look at the pictures of the General Authorities, you can feel the power of their calling. Looking at those pictures I had no doubt this is true. And I am so grateful for a prophet, for the fullness of the Gospel, for the Book of Mormon, and I get to share that with people. Wow, I am so blessed. Something to be really thankful for. Hope you all have a happy Thanskgiving. Be grateful for something!
Love you lots, Sister Nicole Polatis

Urgent - How To Send Your Christmas Letter

Hello All, This is Nicole's sis again. We have received a letter from Nicole's mission president. They would like to enlist our help in making the Christmas season as joyful and rewarding as possible. They are asking each of us to write a special Christmas letter include photos, uplifting stories, testimony and special thoughts that would be suitable. The letters will be distributed at a zone conference the month of December and is a surprise. They would like to have the letters at the mission office by DECEMBER 1st. This is so they have time to sort them. This date is pretty early so please note it and send it soon. Send these surprise letters separately from any packages. If you want to send her a package send it directly to her. But, send the Christmas letter the the mission office.

The address is:

CHRISTMAS LETTERS
Sister Nicole L. Polatis
C/O West Virgina Charleston Mission
888 Oakwood Rd, Ste. 310
Charleston, WV 25314

Thanks everyone Nicole definitely loves letters and she lets us know about it if she has not heard from us. So I'm sure this will make her very very happy and keep her going till she returns home to us in under 3 months!!!

Pigs Flying

Dear Family,
So I was extremely sick last week, I had the dreaded Swine Flu. Or as Sister Hamaker said pigs were flying (haha get it, pig =swine, flying= flu or flew). I know missionary humor is bad. So we didn’t go to work for 2 and a half days and I lied around in pain. I couldn’t even sleep I felt so awful. But thankfully it is over. The worst part was I was sick on the 2 days when we had big plans. We had so many appointments and we are planning on getting several new investigators and we had to cancel. I felt like a really bad missionary for getting sick.
So transfers are tomorrow and we are getting a third missionary here. I’m going to be in a trio. Sister Taylor is coming, she was my MTC companion. It should be quite interesting because Sister Hamaker served with her already. And they are both going home after this transfer. Now in missionary lingo, when you go home, you have died. And the missionary who was with you your last transfer is the murderer. So in other words I will be committing a double homicide. What an accomplishment for me! I have heard that trios are fun so we will see. Sister Merrill is training this transfer. And oh man, she wrote me and turns out a few weeks ago she had to have her appendix out. She was on bed rest for a week! Poor Sister Merrill.
Yesterday we found this park and it looked really nice so we decided to drive through it. Well as we were driving past this pond all these ducks started charging towards the car. They were attacking! I think they wanted food, poor things must have been starving. They surrounded the car and started quacking. We didn’t dare get out. See what happens when you feed the ducks. It’s like the welfare system, people forget how to find their own food and rely on others. They surround you and start squawking.
So last week we were out in an area called Newport, which is really far from the center of our area. And we really only go out there occasionally to visit some less actives. I remember thinking that it was a nice area and too bad we couldn’t tract it, but we can’t because we don’t have the miles to drive out there to do follow-ups and stuff. I remember thinking that if God wanted us to teach someone there we would have to be lead to them in a different way. Well on Sunday we got a referral for a Ashley in Newport. We went and saw her but she said she hadn’t ordered a Book of Mormon, but she accepted it anyway and told us we could come back and she wanted us to come when her boyfriend could be there too because she wanted him to listen. Ha ha. Well God lead us to someone! Ha ha and He gave us a referral because if she didn’t order it I don’t know who did!
There was a day this week that I was feeling really discouraged. We hadn’t been able to teach anybody because I had been sick, we had missed catching up with all these people because of it. And then when I got better we had awful days and that day all of our appointments had fallen through. So that night I went home exhausted (I’m still tired from being sick) and discouraged. Well prayer works. Because that night I got on my knees and I told God all of my problems and I how I didn’t want to be a missionary anymore, that things were going awful, that there were all these people who needed help but I didn’t know how to help them, that I was tired, that we didn’t know what to do. It was a nice vent session. And then I asked for help and I got it. A huge wonderful feeling of peace came over me, it was warm and fuzzy. I knew I was not alone and things would go better. Prayer works, God is there. And He won’t always take the hard things away but He will help us to bear it.
Love you lots and lots, Sister Nicole Polatis

Ted is Baptized!

Dear Family,

Ted got baptized on Sunday!! YAY! He made quite a splash too! Turns out he is afraid of water and he was stiff as a board, hence the big splash. The Spirit was there really strong and it went great. His daughter, Traci, came to the baptism with her 3 daughters. We meet her before and her sister Teddi, they are both way awesome and we really want to teach them. And we asked Traci after the baptism but she said no. But we are still friends with her so maybe some day. And maybe we can give her a Book of Mormon still. We also had another potential investigator at church, his name is Sam and he is the father of Alex who is Brandi’s brother and Amy’s son, so Sam is Amy’s boyfriend, (whoa that’s complicated, that’s why you should live the Law of Chastity) He came to church mostly because Amy asked him to (oh they got back together last week and Amy really likes him still) and he is a little curious. And I was really stressed during church about it because I wanted them to feel the Spirit and want to learn more. And during Relief Society they talked about temples and I was like great, here we go with the questions. I don’t know why I was so stressed I should have had faith and trust in God. Anyways I didn’t get as much out of church because of it, but it did teach me a lesson about having a little faith.
We had an excellent week, we got 6 new investigators. One lady named Cecil, we loaned her a Book of Mormon and when we came back to pick it up she invited us in because she wanted us to explain more about it. She told us what we taught was different and yet familiar. (I wanted to tell her that its’ because it’s True!) So we have another appointment next week. Sister Guthrie invited us over for dinner this week so we could meet her step daughter Vern (Vernadette) and we taught a lesson on faith and asked if she wanted to learn more. She cried through our lesson and said she would take the lessons. She grew up Roman Catholic but has kind of lost her faith and has lots of questions. She is going through a divorce and a custody battle for her 5 year old son. He dad (Sister Guthrie’s husband) died a few years ago, she lost her job, and just moved back to this area. She is way cool and I’m excited to teach her. Two of our new investigators we are not sure if they are accountable, they seem to have some mental handicaps, but I’m not really one to judge their accountability so we will see how they keep commitments.
So I heard from Sister Reeves about our investigators in Fairmont, and turns out that a bunch of them are all connected, in a drug ring! Well I don’t think it’s all that organized, they are selling their prescriptions for money, at least one lady is, and then they are trying to get Martha in on it or steal her pills or something and there is a less active involved too who lives with one investigator. And then one investigators suspects another one of stealing from her. So yeah it sounds like I missed all the excitement in Fairmont! Needless to say most of those people were dropped because we don’t need to be involved in it.
Last week we were walking down the sidewalk and we saw these boys all gathered around this tree. So we walk over and they were looking at a squirrel on the ground that was barely moving and staring around looking terrified. The poor guy had fallen out of the tree 15 feet and stunned himself. Probably knocked the wind out of him. The boys were debating who was going to take him, one boy wanted him for a pet, the other wanted to skin him and eat him. Not sure who won, we decided to stay out of it.
Well I love you all, Take care. Love ya like a squirrel loves nuts!
Sister Nicole Polatis