Week 12 (6/25/13)

So I would first off like to point out... for those of you who were watching the brodcast, and for everyone who wasn't either... the the Florida Tampa mission is THE BEST MISSION IN THE WORLD. I have been trying to tell you, but now you all have proof. Elder Anderson said it himself... I'm pretty sure. I saw some people I know on there. :) I even saw my sweet mission president and his wife who are leaving next week :( BUT! Like I said, it is very clear what the best mission is. ;) haha and I have already set aside that the second best mission will be Sister Calder #3's (Ash's) mission :)

The brodcast was AMAZING! We all had our guesses on what it was going to be about. We really thought it would be member missionary work... and ipads. Our other guess was that they were gonig to make every mission a service mission (which would be the BEST). But it was about memeber missionary work! It was SO good! I loved seeing all those missionaries in the MTC. They are always telling us that this is such an exciting time to be on a mission! I truly believe and know that! I am in the middle of this happiness!!!! I am loving every single second of it!!!!

So Dawn didn't get baptized... she had to move like an hour away. But once she can get back into a homeless shelter down here she will get baptized :)

On Tuesday I had one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. We had a conference cuz my mission president was leaving. It was a zone conference, so it wasn't everyone. We did a musical number (Love is Spoken Here) I played the piano for it. It was so beautiful. Everyone was fighting back tears afterwords. We had tons of departing testimonies that made me tear up as well. Our mission president showed us a video. I wish I could youtube it cuz I really want you all to see it. It's about a man who was running a 400 meter dash. He was expected to win. He tore his hamstring in the middle of the race and fell to the ground. He didn't want to give up so he started hopping to the finish line. A man broke through security, it was his dad. He ran next to him and helped him the rest of the way. At the end he let him finish the race by himself. Of course. We were all balling and it doesn't help that it had Josh Groban you raise me up playing in the background. Oh man. Then he read us a quote that I loved- "All you have to do to finish the race is rise each time you fall." and he also said- "If you never give up, you can never fail." SO TRUE RIGHT! I love it!!!!! I cried a lot.

But here is what really got everyone. Our closing song for the meeting was God be with you till we meet again. We all started to stand as we sang it. It was already hard to fight back tears, but the last verse the Haitianaries started singing it in Haitian Creloe and the Spanish missionaires joined. I couldn't even sing! The spirit was SO strong I literally cannot even describle it. If you can only imagine this... all the Elders and Sister with tears running down their face in complete love for our missinon president. That's really what gets the spirit so strong... pure love. That's really what it was. We love them so much! I said the closing prayer and I still don't remember what I said and we all just cried together. 

In our mission to say thank you to people we sing Love one Another. It's our mission presidents favorite song. So when someone does something nice for us we all sing that song to them. As President and Sister Summerhays walked out we all stood in silence and then sang, without even planning it before hand, Love one Another. We all cried as we walked out the door hugging Sister Summerhays and shaking Presidents hand. It was a moment that I will never forget :)

Really nothing else is worth saying after that! I love you all so much! Thank you for everything you do for me! I cannot even tell you how much I appreciate all of you!

I love you!
Love, Sister Calder

 

WAIT! The one peice of advice that my mission president has give us is-

"GET THE SPIRIT, AND KEEP IT"

Don't you forget it :) that the best life advice right there ;)

God be with you till we meet again :)

I know you are probably laughing historically at the title of this post right now, but... I kinda like it haha...
I just wanted to tell you all how much I love you and how much I am going to miss you. So personal, I know, but I mean it :)
I've already told you a million times how excited that I am for all of this, but here is my last blabber (until next week).

I wanted to let you all know that I know, without any doubt that this is the true church. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet called of God to restore the gospel in these latter days. I know that he translated the Book of Mormon and that it is the word of God. The Book of Mormon is true. Everything that was written is to us from our loving Heavenly Father. I know that if we read it, we can feel the loving power of our Heavenly Father through His words. I know that prayer is real. Our Heavenly Father listens and hears us. He knows what we are going through. Our Savior and Redeemer lives. He loves us more than we can even imagine. We can feel of Him through our own trials. He went through exactly what we have all gone through and will go through. Through Him, we can get back to our Heavenly Father and become kings and queens with Him. I cannot wait for that day. I know if we are faithful and keep our covenants we have made, that everything will work out in the end. I know that families are forever, and that through Gods holy Temples on this earth we can never be separated, even through death. I know that President Monson is a true and living prophet. Heavenly Father speaks through him so we can know what we must do to survive these last days. This gospel is the one and only way we can get back to our eternal home. If we trust in the Lord, and listen to the Holy Ghost we can know of our plan and what we must do to fulfill or duty in our life here on earth. The power of the atonement is real. We can become clean and free through it. The temple is the house of God and the covenants and promises we make there are binding, powerful, and real. I know that trials will come, for everyone. But I can promise if you take that time to turn your life over to you Heavenly Father something good will come from it. Trials make us stronger. They make us into the person that Heavenly Father sees.
Please never forget the feelings of the spirit and the peace and joy it brings into your life. Don't lose sight of what's important. I don't think I need to tell you what's important, I'm sure you already know.
Remember that your Heavenly Father loves you, more than you can even imagine. The love He has is eternal and constant.
If you have any doubts, fears, questions, or are even just feeling joy and gratitude, talk to Heavenly Father. If you ask, listen, and have the right intentions, He will always answer. No matter what.

Remember- NO EMPTY SEATS.

I love you!
See y'all later! ;) (oh the cheesey-ness)

Love, Sister Nicole Lee Calder :)

The Farewell

I am shocked/disappointed to inform you I have NO pictures from my farewell. I was far too occupied the whole time to even grab my phone. If I don't take them, no one will. I have ruined my family. So good luck seeing any pictures of them for the next year and a half...

I couldn't sleep on Tuesday night last week. So my mind wandered and started thinking about my talk. I laid awake for about an hour, and planned my whole talk! The next morning I woke up and typed it all up!

Saturday was pretty much insane. We had this job thing for the stake in the morning that my mom and I helped with. The Rabbit Run (Easter family party) right after that. And family pictures right after that. After the family pictures my mom ran to the store for some food and we went to my cousin Michelle's house to practice Karly's song for Sunday. After that we stopped at the store for a few things, and then came home and did a little bit of cleaning. After that we went to dinner at Los Hermanos. We got home at about 9:30 and started cleaning and preparing at 10:00pm. I "polished" my talk (which is how I apparently say things at 1:00 in the morning) in the middle of all of this
We went to bed at 3:00am the next morning. I could not even explain to you what we did, but I was beyond exhausted.
I woke up the next morning convinced it had only been 10minutes since I'd crashed. But it was 7:30 and time to get ready.
I wasn't nervous. I mean, a little bit because I felt like I had to pee and my hands were cold (two things that NEVER happen... ok I pee, but I can hold it for hours) but other than that I was totally relaxed. I had people telling me that I looked so comfortable and that it was really easy to listen to because I acted like I was just talking to a friend. Guess what guys? I was. All my friends and family were there! That's why it wasn't that hard to do.
The spirit was for sure there. I felt like some (not the weird things) of the things I said were not even me talking. I prayed all week, that morning, and all before the meeting, that I would have the spirit to be with me and that others would feel the convincing power of God through the Holy Ghost.
Afterwords was insane. I went outside because I knew that you weren't supposed to keep everyone in the chapel. It didn't work like I thought it would. People still stayed in there! Goodness ;)
We had hawaiian haystacks after at my house. It was insane. Literally there was no room whatsoever in my house. There were way too many people in there! But, like I said, no picture. I loved talking to everyone and seeing people I haven't in a while. I have so many great people in my life I couldn't even name they all to you right now!
Thanks to everyone who has been a great example to my in my life. I couldn't have done this without your love and support and I am eternally grateful for that. :)