Week 65 (6/30/14)

The mission is hard.
It's the hardest, most emotionally exhausting thing I've ever done.
But just like we go through trials in our normal lives, this has made
me grow more than I can ever imagine (I'm pretty sure I said that last
week... And probably every week of my mission...). But I also never
imagined that it could be this draining. I guess that's what you get
when you are so emotionally attached to SO many people.
I found out last Monday that David (the miracle one who was baptized
in 3 weeks when I was in Tampa), passed away. That was a really really
hard thing to hear. I got an email from Sister Bennett and I was just
in complete shock. I'm pretty sure I went through all the stages of
all that emotional stuff in 10 seconds. But I stayed in the angry zone
for hours afterwords...
3 weeks ago I had the prompting to call him. It was really small, and
then I didn't even realize it was a prompting because or was just a
thought. But now I realize. It wouldn't have stopped it, or even
changed the situation, but that prompting was for me, not necessarily
him.
When I had the prompting, I texted the ZL's asking for permission and
they said the rules had been changed and that we were only allowed to
contact recent converts from past areas over email. Too bad I have 2
that I love most that do not have emails....
The hardest part of all of this has been that I had a prompting, and
wasn't able to follow it. It's no ones fault, and I was never angry
with anyone. I was just completely heart broken and torn up because I
didn't follow through with it completely. I'm sure that if I would
have realized in the moment that it was a promoting, and would have
explained, it would have been different. But who knows...
So I was angry at the world for a while afterwords.... Luckily I have
dealt with death a lot not only on my mission, but in my life as well.
I just still can't believe how much of it I've had to see other go
through and go through myself.
There must be something big going on on the other side. They're
calling the greatest people. They must need more missionaries just
like we did here :)
We caught David just in time :) it was all planned out. He died June
16th, and was baptized May 13th. Perfect timing of course, because
it's His work, and in His time.

I have 100% faith that things happen for a reason. I know that I will
see David again, just like I know I will see everyone else that I love
again. I'm sure David has met my dad and thanked him for raising me
the way he did so that we could be lead to him.
This knowledge is the reason I am out here. Nothing brings me more
peace and happiness than this eternal truth that was made possible
through our Savior Jesus Christ; who's plan I have complete faith and
trust in. I know he lives and that he loves us. Because he loves us,
he gives us things to go through so we can grow into who we are meant
to be.
This is His gospel and the way to eternal life. It's really simple,
and really worth it :)

I love you all :)

Love, Sister Nicole Calder :D

It's the back of my mini MPG

Week 31 (11/4/13)

This work is awesome! It's SO TRUE! AH! There have been so many miracles this week! The work is seriously hastening! AHHHHHH! I can't tell ya'll how excited I am! :) :) It's working!!!! I have seen it first hand!

First cool news..... our mission is getting ipads :) apparently we were one of the first to get approved and they are ordered! :D Crazy right!? Also.... I will be able to get on facebook soon :) all of our ZL and STL are able to, so soon enough I will be able to as well!

INSANE.

The spirit is so real! I have found that I smile really big when I feel the spirit! I have been starting to keep a prompting journal so every single prompting I have I write it down and then what happened through following that. It's been helping me recognize them so much more! My awesome comp made me the journal cuz I'd been wanting to buy one. SHE'S THE BEST. Yeah. She totally put a mustache on it. Aahaha. People know me way too well. It's starting to freak me out! Danny and Lindsay sent me a package with Reese's, Almond Joys, stuff to make cookies, and mustaches. No joke. I love it!

We had left the saviors peace and blessing in a members home a couple weeks ago and literally every single thing we prayed for came true! No joke! They had been searching for a new job.

Found one.

They hadn't know what was wrong with the dads knee in 20 years.

He's having surgery in a couple weeks cuz they found out what's wrong!

The son really wanted to make the soccer team even though he had an injury.

He went to the temple trip instead of the very last practice, and by putting the Lord first HE MADE THE TEAM!

And tons of others things!

We have received 9 member referrals since I've been here! That's AMAZING! Hastening. Good stuff.

My new comp, as I've already said, is AMAZING! I honestly love her so much! She even trained Sister O so she's been helping me... recover hahaha. It was an answer to my many prayers! But we decided to fast for Sister O and her new comp. It helped us both a lot. I love her so much!

Our transfer meeting was HILARIOUS. 170 missionaries got transferred. I think we have around 230. SO! The biggest transfer we've had so far! I was in the biggest and the smallest one :)

Halloween was hilarious. Pres Cusick is hard core so we were still out till 9:00 biking around. People thought they were costumes... so that was pretty funny haha :) they even said- "bikers... for Halloween"

I'm in the south. It's hilarious. That's all I have to say hahaha I love it.

So Sister Greene, the LA that her husband died. I love her! She really likes me too... I know that's weird to say.... but she really really does haha. I can't even explain. She called me Sister Nicole, which is super weird! But that's ok.... she said sometimes she makes a list of things that "I need to tell Sister Nicole" it's hilarious.

But we've been helping her a LOT! It's funny how intune with the spirit I am because I told her I could feel her husband was still there.... then she told her friend in NJ and her friend called me..... I think they think I'm like psychic or something haha Sister Beck and I laughed so hard. So I talked to that girl for 30minutes about the spirit and spirit world over the phone. Pretty funny. Hahahaha IDK what they think. But they love it :)

I don't think I told ya'll about the.... ya'll... I just typed it. Weird. So we had gone to a house of these people who their son had just died. I have never felt the spirit SO strong in a non-members house. It was like a brick wall. Their son wants them to hear the gospel! It is so REAL and powerful! It was an amazing experience for me. I gave her a BOM with my testimony in it and we'll go back this upcoming week. It's crazy how many people I have been dealing with here that have had people recently die. When President interviewed Sister O last week she told him that I needed to stay here because I have people I need to connect with. I have seen that every single day this week! So much death, and I have just connected well with all of them! I am just loving everyone I meet! The Christ-like love I've been praying for really has been working :) my comp even told me that I have the ability to show my love for people around me and they know that I love them. That's something I've developed on my mission!

We have 3 invites to Thanksgiving dinner and it's the 4th...

I love you all! Keep hastening this amazing true work! :)

Love, Sister Calder :)

My new comp plays rugby for BYU. Yeah. She makes me so happy and I just love her so much! :) she has helped me so much though everything already! I LOVE HER!

Week 22 (9/3/13)

Missionary work is HARD. I don't think I really understood that until this last week. Everyone kept telling me about how hard it would be and I just didn't get it... but I was proven wrong...

Sister Whipple has had Bronchitis the past 3 weeks. So it's been hard cuz she's really weak, but wants to keep going. Finally we got her some meds so it's been helping a lot. On Wednesday we were having the hardest day. We had a recent convert who just went through the temple tell us she's going back to the cathoic church. Then Dawn (who almost got baptized you know) said that she doesn't want to learn anymore. Then like 4 other investigators just dropped us or we had to drop them. All in one day.... we were biking around not knowing what to do just wanting to cry. There were huge black and grey clouds all around us and we were wondering what we should do so we didn't get caught in the rain. Then we just looked up and saw literally just right above us a clear blue sky. It was the most amazing thing ever. We just wanted to cry haha dramatic I know. But it honestly was that amazing. We made it all the way home (10 miles 1 hour) with clouds all around us and didn't get rainned on! It was seriously a miracle!

That same day we went to knock on an investigators door. He hadn't been answering our texts. Right when we got up to do the door I had this really bad feeling and told Sister Whipple that we should go. I had no idea why, but just had to leave. We had heard about 2 weeks earlier that there had been a murder on that very street. We decided to have someone check the news even though we thought we were being stupid to see who it was that got murdered. The bishops wife looked it up. We found out that it was our investigator who had been killed. His dad shot him and his mom. We were heart broken. I have had deaths of people close to me, but never like that. The hurt was a lot different. We did a lot of praying for him. We were just so glad that we were able to at least teach him twice and that we have other people on the other side of the veil watching over him and his mom :) that's the only thing that gets us through sometimes. We are so glad that we were privelaged to be the missionaries that introduced to gospel to him here so that he will accept it there. We have no doubt about that :)

Friday helped with our deteriorating week. We went to visit a LA in a old folks home. We taught her about hymns then went out and played and sang hymns for her on the piano. She loved it and so did everyone else! We are now going back there every week to play hymns with all the old people :) we've been studying their hymns and some of them are the same so we just play those. On Friday we basically just played Christmas songs haha :) imagine a whole room of old people singing Christmas songs :) it was pretty cute and made our day :)

I tracted for 6 1/2 hours on an exchange. We need members to do missionary work! We found nothing. It was pretty stinky and hard. But it makes me feel like a real missionary :)

 

Well! Sorry for the dower news! We are having a great week now! I love you all so much! Remember there is good that comes from everything and that Heavenly Father is helping us! :)

Love, Sister Calder