I am so sorry I have been so awful and not written. I keep thinking that I have all the time in the world now that I am home, but somehow time slips away from me and I get nothing done and I feel so overwhelmed by everything that I need to do to get my life organized again. Those planning and goal setting skills you learn on the mission are really important. I think I have been forgetting to use them. Wow, it feels really crazy to be home, really surreal. Sometimes it feels like I never left, which I really hate that feeling because I learned so much on my mission and had major life experiences, my life should be different now! I think things will get better when I get a job. I have been home for 11 days now and it’s been crazy busy.
So I wanted to tell you about our last week because it was so amazing. We had gotten a referral from the Florida mission for a guy named Mike. He had been taught twice and come to church and set with a date, but he was only there visiting, he had just moved to Marietta, which is where his wife and 4 kids are. We called him and set up an appointment, but when we went the address was an apartment complex and he hadn’t given us a number and we couldn’t get a hold of him. So we knocked on all the doors and narrowed it down to #9. We went back several times but no one was ever there. So on P-day, we were in the laundry mat, at a different time than we usually go there. I am kind of a chicken about the whole open your mouth thing, but I have been getting braver. But I opened a door for a lady and didn’t give her a card. I mentally was beating myself up about it as we were getting in the car and it came to me, “You need to go back in there and give her a card.” So I did. Turns out she was Mike’s wife!! She called him over and he said, “You were supposed to come over the other night.” I replied, “Who are you?” and then it hit me. They both said it was a sign. We went over that Saturday and had an amazing lesson with them and committed them to be baptized March 14th. They both said they had a lot to repent of and wanted to make changes for their kids. Mike knew a lot already and was so excited about it. He had really loved the family feeling at church. His 1st wife had died, when their twins were only a few weeks old, so he was so excited about being sealed forever.
On that same P-day, we had a few minutes left at night and so we went to the gas station to fill up and talk to people. I talked to a lady and given her a card. There were some guys next to us gathered around the open hood of a Camaro. That was a super intimidating situation for me, I know nothing about cars and they were about my same age, so I didn’t talk to them. Then when we were getting in the car, one guy looked over at me and smiled. “Okay God, I get the hint.” So I went and talked to them. One guy told me I had already given him a card several months ago, I didn’t remember so I told him it must have been some other missionaries, but he remembered me. And then it hit me, when I first got to Marietta Sister Hamaker and I had been doing a follow up and 2 guys had been outside working on their truck and I had given them a card. I asked him if he had gone to the website and he said no, but he should have because he was interested in religion and was very religious himself. He said we could come visit him. We went over and taught him and his wife on Super Bowl Sunday, it was a great lesson and he said it made so much sense to him. Wow! Opening your mouth really does work! I had 2 other situations that week where we opened our mouth and they said we could come visit. One girl we talked to at a gas station, said it was interesting we had come and talked to her because her and her friend had been going to different churches looking for the right one. God places people who are prepared in our paths. I know President was very inspired to encourage us to open our mouths because we saw amazing things come from it.
You probably already know all this, but because of the crazy weather, President called us Tuesday morning and said we needed to be ready to leave by 1 o’clock to come to Charleston to beat the storm. I hadn’t even started packing yet! So we hurried and got that done. God really helped us get ready quickly and I think it was because He wanted me to keep my hair appointment at noon, I thought I was going to cancel it but we got things done and I really really needed my haircut. Well I’m really glad we went, we had found this obscure little self owned salon that was a really good deal. Her name was Angie and I gave her a card about strengthening our families, she said she could really use that because she was recently divorced and her daughters were taking it really hard. She said that missionaries could come back and visit her. So then we got to Charleston, and the new missionaries had just arrived. We got to have dinner with them and participate in their testimony meeting. The next day, we went to their orientation meeting. The 2 new elders’ trainers were there to they went out with them. And President had me take the new sister, Sister Craft, out tracting. I had thought I was never going to go tracting again, but I got to experience that great thrill one more time! We did loan out a Book of Mormon. Then President sent Sister Craft to be with the sisters in Teays Valley so we could do our going home stuff. We made scrapbook pages, had dinner, talked, and had a testimony meeting. We were afraid our plane wouldn’t be flying out because there was a huge storm coming in. The Elders were all freaking out, but we made it out on time. The flight was uneventable. We meet several other Elders in the Atlanta and Salt Lake Airports.
My sister’s reception was the first day I was back and I got to see a lot of my friends and family. So Friday I wore a dress to that, Saturday we went snowboarding (yay! No dress), then Sunday back to the dress, then Monday we had family home evening and went bowling, Tuesday we went to the temple (I wanted to go Friday or Saturday but my family had other plans), Wednesday I reported to the high council, Thursday I went to Utah with my older sister and went to a Stake Women’s conference were a woman from South Africa spoke to us, she translated the Book of Mormon into that language where they click their tongue, she talked about how God made certain events happen in her life to prepare her to translate because she is one of the very few people who can read, speak, and write that language. I had to wear a dress to that too. I was a little annoyed having to wear dresses (and those blasted nylons) so much, but at least I get to wear high heels now. I painted my fingers bright blue to celebrate my freedom to wear what I want.
Being home has been good I guess. I love seeing my family and wearing jeans, but the rest of it has been an adjustment. I would explain it as being overwhelming. The first day I made a complete disaster of my room going through my clothes. I’ve been trying to organize the rest of my life, get housing at BYU, register for classes (I’m going back to BYU in April), find a job, find a car, etc. I’ve gotten some awesome snowboarding in (that’s one thing I’m glad feels like I never left, it all came back to me). I went down to Utah to look at housing at BYU and that Sunday I went to Elder’s Dix’s welcome home and saw Elder Pinder, Elder Horrocks, and Elder Webb. It was good. I am applying to be a census taker, it pays good and it will be a good in-between job before school.
When I first got home and I was driving I kept looking for someone to back me up. And whenever I am in a store with my family and I want to go look at something I keep wanting to tell them where I’m going and asking them to come with me, or trying to keep them within sight and sound. I’ve really missed having the Gospel be the whole focus of my life. I feel so apostate sometimes because I only spent a half hour studying my scriptures and I’m not serving people all the time, or thinking about missionary stuff. I feel like I’m doing something wrong, I guess that comes with adjustment. It has made me really appreciate that time in my life and having the Holy Ghost with me so strongly. I realize I need to do wholesome and uplifting things so I can have the Holy Ghost with me in real life too.
I am so grateful for the experience of going on a mission. What a wise and all-knowing God to send me to West Virginia. I needed to learn the lessons I did and meet the people I did. It’s changed my life and who I am. A mission is like a time out from life to get some extra training. Love and treasure your mission. Work hard!!!!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Baptism!
Dear Family,
Mike got Baptized!! Hooray! He got baptized on Sunday after church and it was just wonderful! He played his violin (have I told you he is a professional violinist?), he played How Great Thou Art. So beautiful! Brother Gray baptized him and Sister Gray gave a talk. The Gray’s joined the church about 15 years ago and they are way awesome members. Their son is on a mission right now in Italy, he is the first in their family and I’ve never seen parents so excited to have their son serve. Well they are also a very close family too so it’s been hard for them to have their son gone. They were so great about helping us out with Mike, and I thought it was so appropriate that they got to so closely participate in a baptism. It’ll give them something to write him about and I think they loved being so involved. Anyways Sister Gray gave the talk on baptism and she read a quote from Joseph Smith (I think) that said that when you get baptized and become a member of this Church you leave neutral ground in this war between good and evil, and you will never be able to return to that neutral ground. At baptism we declare that we are joining the Lord’s side. I thought that was such a cool way of putting it. Now we must decide how valiantly we will fight and heaven forbid that we change sides. There seemed to be a theme during the baptism. One of enduring, pressing on, of challenges up ahead, of a battle, of a great struggle. Many of the speakers admonished him to turn to his new ward family for help, to God and Christ, and to follow the Holy Ghost. Ted, who is always so in tune with the Spirit gave the opening prayer. His prayers are very unique, it’s like he is having a conversation with God. He told God that Mike was struggling and needed His Help. The opening song was “Nearer My God to Thee” which I thought very appropriate since baptism is coming closer to God through Covenants. And then the closing song was “Abide with Me” which seemed to foreshadow something to come, it talks about challenges ahead and asks that God help. All of this got me to thinking about how hard it is to become a member of this church and all the changes and growth that Mike will need to go through in the next little while. And it seems that there are great trials ahead for Mike. And it got me to worrying about if he is truly converted and ready for this. Ready to leave that neutral ground. Mike is very quiet and shy and he doesn’t say much about how he is feeling or what he is thinking, so I was really hoping that he really wanted to be baptized and not just us encouraging him to do it or pressuring him to do it. As I was pondering on that, he called. And thanked us for inviting him to be baptized and keeping on him. WOW! This is coming from the guy who never expresses himself! He must have felt something at his baptism to spur him into making such a heartfelt expression. I felt so happy and good. I love seeing people change! And it was an answer to my prayer wondering if we had done the right thing in baptizing him!
So we got a referral for a Jason, his member friend had ordered him a Book of Mormon. It kind of looked bogus because the number was goofy, plus we get referrals for people all the time and most of them are fake. So we went to see him and he invited us in and said that his friend had asked if he could send the missionaries and that he would talk to us. Turns out he is Pagan, but he thinks it is silly and wants to get out of it. He said that waving a stick around and chanting wasn’t going to keep some guy in Afghanistan from shooting him. (Must have been some prayer they teach soldiers.) He has decided to give Christianity a chance again. He was Baptist until he was 7 but then decided he didn’t like feeling scared all the time. (They preach a lot of God being an angry God, and of fire and brimstone. ) This guy has had a crazy life it sound like. He said his mom says he’s done it all and should now retire. He has 6 kids from several different women. He only gets to see one. One of his past wives or girlfriends tried to stab him in the heart with a butcher knife. Currently he is separated from his current wife because she has been cheating on him, and then he tried to commit suicide when he found out and now he is living with his mom. Crazy. We had an excellent lesson with him. We talked about God and how he is our Father. He really seemed to like everything we taught especially the idea of a loving God that is a father figure. He said his father died when he was young. We talked a little about prophets and the Book of Mormon. He seems open and willing to learn. I think he has a lot of potential!
We have a busy week ahead of us because last week we did a lot of tracting and we have a lot of really good follow ups now. President Thornock has really been encouraging us to use the Book of Mormon in our finding, by showing people how it can answer questions about life. It has been making a big difference and tracting has become much more enjoyable because we aren’t just giving people a spiel but we are teaching them about the Book of Mormon, so even if they don’t say yes, we still taught them something and planted a really good seed. It’s also taught me a lot that when I have a question I can find it in the scriptures.
Love ya like a missionary loves baptisms!
Sister Nicole Polatis
Mike got Baptized!! Hooray! He got baptized on Sunday after church and it was just wonderful! He played his violin (have I told you he is a professional violinist?), he played How Great Thou Art. So beautiful! Brother Gray baptized him and Sister Gray gave a talk. The Gray’s joined the church about 15 years ago and they are way awesome members. Their son is on a mission right now in Italy, he is the first in their family and I’ve never seen parents so excited to have their son serve. Well they are also a very close family too so it’s been hard for them to have their son gone. They were so great about helping us out with Mike, and I thought it was so appropriate that they got to so closely participate in a baptism. It’ll give them something to write him about and I think they loved being so involved. Anyways Sister Gray gave the talk on baptism and she read a quote from Joseph Smith (I think) that said that when you get baptized and become a member of this Church you leave neutral ground in this war between good and evil, and you will never be able to return to that neutral ground. At baptism we declare that we are joining the Lord’s side. I thought that was such a cool way of putting it. Now we must decide how valiantly we will fight and heaven forbid that we change sides. There seemed to be a theme during the baptism. One of enduring, pressing on, of challenges up ahead, of a battle, of a great struggle. Many of the speakers admonished him to turn to his new ward family for help, to God and Christ, and to follow the Holy Ghost. Ted, who is always so in tune with the Spirit gave the opening prayer. His prayers are very unique, it’s like he is having a conversation with God. He told God that Mike was struggling and needed His Help. The opening song was “Nearer My God to Thee” which I thought very appropriate since baptism is coming closer to God through Covenants. And then the closing song was “Abide with Me” which seemed to foreshadow something to come, it talks about challenges ahead and asks that God help. All of this got me to thinking about how hard it is to become a member of this church and all the changes and growth that Mike will need to go through in the next little while. And it seems that there are great trials ahead for Mike. And it got me to worrying about if he is truly converted and ready for this. Ready to leave that neutral ground. Mike is very quiet and shy and he doesn’t say much about how he is feeling or what he is thinking, so I was really hoping that he really wanted to be baptized and not just us encouraging him to do it or pressuring him to do it. As I was pondering on that, he called. And thanked us for inviting him to be baptized and keeping on him. WOW! This is coming from the guy who never expresses himself! He must have felt something at his baptism to spur him into making such a heartfelt expression. I felt so happy and good. I love seeing people change! And it was an answer to my prayer wondering if we had done the right thing in baptizing him!
So we got a referral for a Jason, his member friend had ordered him a Book of Mormon. It kind of looked bogus because the number was goofy, plus we get referrals for people all the time and most of them are fake. So we went to see him and he invited us in and said that his friend had asked if he could send the missionaries and that he would talk to us. Turns out he is Pagan, but he thinks it is silly and wants to get out of it. He said that waving a stick around and chanting wasn’t going to keep some guy in Afghanistan from shooting him. (Must have been some prayer they teach soldiers.) He has decided to give Christianity a chance again. He was Baptist until he was 7 but then decided he didn’t like feeling scared all the time. (They preach a lot of God being an angry God, and of fire and brimstone. ) This guy has had a crazy life it sound like. He said his mom says he’s done it all and should now retire. He has 6 kids from several different women. He only gets to see one. One of his past wives or girlfriends tried to stab him in the heart with a butcher knife. Currently he is separated from his current wife because she has been cheating on him, and then he tried to commit suicide when he found out and now he is living with his mom. Crazy. We had an excellent lesson with him. We talked about God and how he is our Father. He really seemed to like everything we taught especially the idea of a loving God that is a father figure. He said his father died when he was young. We talked a little about prophets and the Book of Mormon. He seems open and willing to learn. I think he has a lot of potential!
We have a busy week ahead of us because last week we did a lot of tracting and we have a lot of really good follow ups now. President Thornock has really been encouraging us to use the Book of Mormon in our finding, by showing people how it can answer questions about life. It has been making a big difference and tracting has become much more enjoyable because we aren’t just giving people a spiel but we are teaching them about the Book of Mormon, so even if they don’t say yes, we still taught them something and planted a really good seed. It’s also taught me a lot that when I have a question I can find it in the scriptures.
Love ya like a missionary loves baptisms!
Sister Nicole Polatis
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Sacrifice Brings Forth the Blessings of Heaven!
Well hello my dear family,
I have had a very excellent week, with some very unfortunate events. So I told about an investigator named Caitlin Love last week right? Isn’t that a cool last name. Well we had a most excellent lesson with her on Monday that I wrote you about and then we went back on Friday and again a most excellent lesson. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, she said it made so much sense. She also talked about wanting to get on the right path to heaven. And she talked about the crazy things in this world and how wrong they were. It was just so great. And then we committed her to be baptized on February 7th (We thought Feb 14th would be an appropriate day, Valentine’s day, her last name is love, she is showing a great expression of love for her Savior, etc, but we decided if she could make that day she could make the 7th so that I could be there for it! I mean just in case I get transferred, it’s not like I’m going home or anything). Anyways, she totally said yes!! And it wasn’t like a maybe I’ll think about it, but like a “yes, that is really something I would like to work towards” kind of yes! Then she said she was baptized when she was young in the Catholic church, and asked if it was okay to be baptized twice, so we explained all about authority and how we don’t baptize little kids. And she agreed with it and said it was weird that she had been baptized so young and she told us being Catholic was like a chore because her family believed it so she had to believe it. She said she would be at church on Sunday. On Saturday night we called her to make sure she was still coming and she said she couldn’t find anything to wear and felt uncomfortable coming in jeans. Luckily, she is about our size! So we gathered together our most unmissionarish clothes and headed over. Well in the hour it took to get there after calling her, I guess she had talked to her mom and then her grandma. And they told her they did not want her talking to us or coming to church with us. She is Catholic and the family it Catholic and that’s what she should stay. So she told us she couldn’t come to church. We asked her to pray about what was right, remember how she felt, and we would come back next week and see if she still wanted to meet with us. MAN!!! She was so Cool! And So Golden! And so GREAT! And she tanked, in just one hour!! Hopefully when she has more time to think about it she will change her mind. So I was very upset and sad, and I got very frustrated about the whole thing. A thought something like this crossed my mind, “If God is so powerful and the Gospel is so true, how come we never find anyone who accepts the Gospel and gets baptized without any problems. I have never taught anyone who got baptized that it wasn’t an uphill climb.” You could say I was bitter and doubting. And when I calmed down and really thought about it I realized it’s because “salvation is not a cheap experience” (Elder Holland said that). There is opposition to test and try these people to make sure they are serious about it. To prepare them to live their covenants despite opposition. The opposition when they are investigating the church is the refiner’s fire. And maybe Caitlin will overcome this and get baptized on Feb 7th , 2010. Or maybe it won’t be until Feb 7th, 2030. But this is one step in preparing her to make correct choices and accept the Gospel. In Mark 10:29-30 it reads “And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, . . and in the world to come eternal life.” She is learning how to give her will to God. It’s no easy, one step process. It will take time. As missionaries we are helping people to go to the Celestial Kingdom, not the Terrestial, to live with God, to be eternally happy, to become like God, this is no little thing. Anything worth having will take work, time, effort. In this case it will take our all. And the opposition is preparing her to give herall for the Gospel’s sake.
But I have another story. Of someone who has overcome the opposition in their path and is coming into the waters of baptism! Four months ago, we could hardly get Mike to keep an appointment. During our lessons he had a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. I don’t think we ever had a lesson with him when he was sober. He also used to swear up a storm. I’m not sure what changed, and I think it came over time. But he has changed. He is now sober, hasn’t had a smoke in over a week. He doesn’t swear in front of us. He just looks like a changed person. He seems happier and calmer. We had been a little worried about him, we weren’t sure if he was ready and if he could keep up the no smoking thing and if he really understood what we had been teaching him, he is not very open with how he feels or on the subject of religion so its hard to know. We had a lesson with him on Saturday, and before we prayed to know if he was ready. After that lesson we had no doubt he was ready. He told us he knew the Book of Mormon was true and he believed that Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson were prophets. He asked several excellent and insightful questions. He talked about how he used to do things thinking he would repent later and now he knows and feels that isn’t right. He seemed excited about his baptism. He said he had had a really good week! Hmm I wonder if that is because of the blessing he got and all the prayers we have been saying for him! Pray that everything will keep going well, that he can overcome the opposition and he will get baptized on Sunday!!!
We had Zone Conference on Friday and like always, full of the Spirit and so very inspired to help us be better missionaries in this part of the vineyard. At a missionary’s last Zone conference President Thornock asks you to bear your testimony. I was scared spitless for this one, don’t know why. I’ve never had my mind draw blank before, it’s kind of a new experience for me, I always have something to say. All I could say was I am so thankful for what I am learning, for how much my testimony of the Restored Gospel has grown. The words that came out of my mouth were not mine and after I said them I realized they were so true. That we are helping people to come unto Christ and to receive exaltation, and when we are so blessed to participate in something so sacred, it changes us. I felt those words very well wrapped up the wonderful experience I have been having as a missionary. In our lesson with Mike this week, I felt this feeling of being apart of the Lord’s great work and how truly wonderful it is!
Love you all! Thank you for your love and support!
Sister Nicole Polatis
I have had a very excellent week, with some very unfortunate events. So I told about an investigator named Caitlin Love last week right? Isn’t that a cool last name. Well we had a most excellent lesson with her on Monday that I wrote you about and then we went back on Friday and again a most excellent lesson. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, she said it made so much sense. She also talked about wanting to get on the right path to heaven. And she talked about the crazy things in this world and how wrong they were. It was just so great. And then we committed her to be baptized on February 7th (We thought Feb 14th would be an appropriate day, Valentine’s day, her last name is love, she is showing a great expression of love for her Savior, etc, but we decided if she could make that day she could make the 7th so that I could be there for it! I mean just in case I get transferred, it’s not like I’m going home or anything). Anyways, she totally said yes!! And it wasn’t like a maybe I’ll think about it, but like a “yes, that is really something I would like to work towards” kind of yes! Then she said she was baptized when she was young in the Catholic church, and asked if it was okay to be baptized twice, so we explained all about authority and how we don’t baptize little kids. And she agreed with it and said it was weird that she had been baptized so young and she told us being Catholic was like a chore because her family believed it so she had to believe it. She said she would be at church on Sunday. On Saturday night we called her to make sure she was still coming and she said she couldn’t find anything to wear and felt uncomfortable coming in jeans. Luckily, she is about our size! So we gathered together our most unmissionarish clothes and headed over. Well in the hour it took to get there after calling her, I guess she had talked to her mom and then her grandma. And they told her they did not want her talking to us or coming to church with us. She is Catholic and the family it Catholic and that’s what she should stay. So she told us she couldn’t come to church. We asked her to pray about what was right, remember how she felt, and we would come back next week and see if she still wanted to meet with us. MAN!!! She was so Cool! And So Golden! And so GREAT! And she tanked, in just one hour!! Hopefully when she has more time to think about it she will change her mind. So I was very upset and sad, and I got very frustrated about the whole thing. A thought something like this crossed my mind, “If God is so powerful and the Gospel is so true, how come we never find anyone who accepts the Gospel and gets baptized without any problems. I have never taught anyone who got baptized that it wasn’t an uphill climb.” You could say I was bitter and doubting. And when I calmed down and really thought about it I realized it’s because “salvation is not a cheap experience” (Elder Holland said that). There is opposition to test and try these people to make sure they are serious about it. To prepare them to live their covenants despite opposition. The opposition when they are investigating the church is the refiner’s fire. And maybe Caitlin will overcome this and get baptized on Feb 7th , 2010. Or maybe it won’t be until Feb 7th, 2030. But this is one step in preparing her to make correct choices and accept the Gospel. In Mark 10:29-30 it reads “And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, . . and in the world to come eternal life.” She is learning how to give her will to God. It’s no easy, one step process. It will take time. As missionaries we are helping people to go to the Celestial Kingdom, not the Terrestial, to live with God, to be eternally happy, to become like God, this is no little thing. Anything worth having will take work, time, effort. In this case it will take our all. And the opposition is preparing her to give herall for the Gospel’s sake.
But I have another story. Of someone who has overcome the opposition in their path and is coming into the waters of baptism! Four months ago, we could hardly get Mike to keep an appointment. During our lessons he had a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. I don’t think we ever had a lesson with him when he was sober. He also used to swear up a storm. I’m not sure what changed, and I think it came over time. But he has changed. He is now sober, hasn’t had a smoke in over a week. He doesn’t swear in front of us. He just looks like a changed person. He seems happier and calmer. We had been a little worried about him, we weren’t sure if he was ready and if he could keep up the no smoking thing and if he really understood what we had been teaching him, he is not very open with how he feels or on the subject of religion so its hard to know. We had a lesson with him on Saturday, and before we prayed to know if he was ready. After that lesson we had no doubt he was ready. He told us he knew the Book of Mormon was true and he believed that Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson were prophets. He asked several excellent and insightful questions. He talked about how he used to do things thinking he would repent later and now he knows and feels that isn’t right. He seemed excited about his baptism. He said he had had a really good week! Hmm I wonder if that is because of the blessing he got and all the prayers we have been saying for him! Pray that everything will keep going well, that he can overcome the opposition and he will get baptized on Sunday!!!
We had Zone Conference on Friday and like always, full of the Spirit and so very inspired to help us be better missionaries in this part of the vineyard. At a missionary’s last Zone conference President Thornock asks you to bear your testimony. I was scared spitless for this one, don’t know why. I’ve never had my mind draw blank before, it’s kind of a new experience for me, I always have something to say. All I could say was I am so thankful for what I am learning, for how much my testimony of the Restored Gospel has grown. The words that came out of my mouth were not mine and after I said them I realized they were so true. That we are helping people to come unto Christ and to receive exaltation, and when we are so blessed to participate in something so sacred, it changes us. I felt those words very well wrapped up the wonderful experience I have been having as a missionary. In our lesson with Mike this week, I felt this feeling of being apart of the Lord’s great work and how truly wonderful it is!
Love you all! Thank you for your love and support!
Sister Nicole Polatis
Thursday, January 14, 2010
It's Snowing
Dearest Family,
Did you know that many people call us Idahoans, Potatohos? Yes I’ve been called that many times on my mission. Anyways so this last week was absolutely frigid! It snowed almost everyday this week and was in the 20s or below. Burr! And we had pretty much nothing to do because we stopped teaching a good majority of our investigators because they weren’t progressing so we went tracting a lot! Can you say cold. Let me just say we were Sistersicles. We wore lots and lots of layers. It’s amazing what you can put on under a skirt. We had pretty good success, people had gone into hibernation and so a lot of people were home, however, they also weren’t too keen to open their doors and let the cold air in. But we had some success which hopefully we will reap some rewards this week. Haha, people out here are funny about the snow. The schools only were in session one day last week! And this week they have had a 2 hour delay both yesterday and today. It hasn’t even snowed that much, maybe 6-7 inches, but the roads are clear. The country roads are a little worse but not to have cancelled almost a week of school! Man oh man!
So I’m not going to lie, last week was a very rough week for us. Lets just say yesterday we taught more other lessons than we did all last week! We did have 4 member present lessons, which 3 of those were with Mike. We did have an awesome day yesterday, we finally caught up with several people and had 3 lessons. We got a new investigator, named John. He is going to school right now. He has 2 boys and another one on the way. We tried to get his wife to sit in but she said no, she said she was okay with us coming and talking to him though. He already has read to Mosiah, since we left him a Book of Mormon about 10 days ago. Although I’m not so sure he read it as just skimmed it. But he really seemed to like the idea of having a prophet. We also taught Caitlin yesterday. We had tracted into her mom back in November and taught them both a lesson. We had been unable to get a hold of them since. Well her mom is moving in with her boyfriend and will be hard to teach now but we finally got Caitlin to sit down with us, she is 19 and is still living at that house. She is so great, she called us on Saturday and said she wanted to come to church but when we returned her call we couldn’t get a hold of her. So we stopped by yesterday and had a good lesson with her. She is so cool! She looks just like Andy on Mottocross, she has a blue mustang and is very down to earth. She says she would like to be closer to God and has some questions. I am so excited about her.
Mike is doing good, he came to church again, Yay! I don’t know if you remember Ted Hill. He got baptized in November and he is amazing. He will do anything for the ward. He helps us so much with our investigators. We took him to a lesson with Mike, and has now adopted Mike and is getting him proper church clothes and picking him up for church, and talks to him on the phone. It’s great. And then we took the Gray’s with us to a lesson and they were wonderful. It’s so great to have members who are friendly and open and readily volunteer their testimonies of the Gospel. I think Mike really liked them. He looks pretty solid to get baptized on the 24th. He just needs to stay clean from the alcohol and cigarettes from here on out. So far so good, but keep him in your prayers.
Sister Young is doing very well! She had to speak in church on Sunday (they already caught her!). And I was so surprised by her insights and testimony. She is so unsure of herself in lessons and doesn’t talk much. I think it’s because she knows I’m there and I do talk a lot. So my goal is to talk less and get her to share her testimony.
So Amy got baptized in August and has really been struggling in her testimony and in keeping the commandments. We have had a hard time teaching her because she won’t keep appointments and avoids us when she knows she’s done something wrong. And she didn’t show up to church again on Sunday even though she promised, she’s missed a lot! So we went and visited her after church and told her whether she liked it or not we were kidnapping her and taking her to the church for a lesson, (where she is living is not a good environment for a lesson, she lives with her son’s grandmother temporarily, and it’s tiny, and smoke filled, and the tv is always on, and her kids won’t sit still). So we did. And we had a great, no distraction lesson. And the Spirit was there so strongly, and afterwards she was such in a better mood and had a resolve to live the Gospel. She thought she was doing good, until she sat down with us, looked at what she was doing and realized she was really missing something by not going to church every week and reading her scriptures everyday. It showed me that it is so important to learn and go to Church and read our scriptures so we can have that sustaining influence of the Spirit, because without Him we lose our resolve and desire. We must do it everyday otherwise we get off track. The Spirit is so vital, it’s like our spiritual food and water. Can’t live without it. Don’t starve your Spirit.
Hope you all have a great week! Love ya like snowmen love snow, like peanut butter loves jelly, like missionaries love teaching lessons! Sister Nicole Polatis
Did you know that many people call us Idahoans, Potatohos? Yes I’ve been called that many times on my mission. Anyways so this last week was absolutely frigid! It snowed almost everyday this week and was in the 20s or below. Burr! And we had pretty much nothing to do because we stopped teaching a good majority of our investigators because they weren’t progressing so we went tracting a lot! Can you say cold. Let me just say we were Sistersicles. We wore lots and lots of layers. It’s amazing what you can put on under a skirt. We had pretty good success, people had gone into hibernation and so a lot of people were home, however, they also weren’t too keen to open their doors and let the cold air in. But we had some success which hopefully we will reap some rewards this week. Haha, people out here are funny about the snow. The schools only were in session one day last week! And this week they have had a 2 hour delay both yesterday and today. It hasn’t even snowed that much, maybe 6-7 inches, but the roads are clear. The country roads are a little worse but not to have cancelled almost a week of school! Man oh man!
So I’m not going to lie, last week was a very rough week for us. Lets just say yesterday we taught more other lessons than we did all last week! We did have 4 member present lessons, which 3 of those were with Mike. We did have an awesome day yesterday, we finally caught up with several people and had 3 lessons. We got a new investigator, named John. He is going to school right now. He has 2 boys and another one on the way. We tried to get his wife to sit in but she said no, she said she was okay with us coming and talking to him though. He already has read to Mosiah, since we left him a Book of Mormon about 10 days ago. Although I’m not so sure he read it as just skimmed it. But he really seemed to like the idea of having a prophet. We also taught Caitlin yesterday. We had tracted into her mom back in November and taught them both a lesson. We had been unable to get a hold of them since. Well her mom is moving in with her boyfriend and will be hard to teach now but we finally got Caitlin to sit down with us, she is 19 and is still living at that house. She is so great, she called us on Saturday and said she wanted to come to church but when we returned her call we couldn’t get a hold of her. So we stopped by yesterday and had a good lesson with her. She is so cool! She looks just like Andy on Mottocross, she has a blue mustang and is very down to earth. She says she would like to be closer to God and has some questions. I am so excited about her.
Mike is doing good, he came to church again, Yay! I don’t know if you remember Ted Hill. He got baptized in November and he is amazing. He will do anything for the ward. He helps us so much with our investigators. We took him to a lesson with Mike, and has now adopted Mike and is getting him proper church clothes and picking him up for church, and talks to him on the phone. It’s great. And then we took the Gray’s with us to a lesson and they were wonderful. It’s so great to have members who are friendly and open and readily volunteer their testimonies of the Gospel. I think Mike really liked them. He looks pretty solid to get baptized on the 24th. He just needs to stay clean from the alcohol and cigarettes from here on out. So far so good, but keep him in your prayers.
Sister Young is doing very well! She had to speak in church on Sunday (they already caught her!). And I was so surprised by her insights and testimony. She is so unsure of herself in lessons and doesn’t talk much. I think it’s because she knows I’m there and I do talk a lot. So my goal is to talk less and get her to share her testimony.
So Amy got baptized in August and has really been struggling in her testimony and in keeping the commandments. We have had a hard time teaching her because she won’t keep appointments and avoids us when she knows she’s done something wrong. And she didn’t show up to church again on Sunday even though she promised, she’s missed a lot! So we went and visited her after church and told her whether she liked it or not we were kidnapping her and taking her to the church for a lesson, (where she is living is not a good environment for a lesson, she lives with her son’s grandmother temporarily, and it’s tiny, and smoke filled, and the tv is always on, and her kids won’t sit still). So we did. And we had a great, no distraction lesson. And the Spirit was there so strongly, and afterwards she was such in a better mood and had a resolve to live the Gospel. She thought she was doing good, until she sat down with us, looked at what she was doing and realized she was really missing something by not going to church every week and reading her scriptures everyday. It showed me that it is so important to learn and go to Church and read our scriptures so we can have that sustaining influence of the Spirit, because without Him we lose our resolve and desire. We must do it everyday otherwise we get off track. The Spirit is so vital, it’s like our spiritual food and water. Can’t live without it. Don’t starve your Spirit.
Hope you all have a great week! Love ya like snowmen love snow, like peanut butter loves jelly, like missionaries love teaching lessons! Sister Nicole Polatis
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Happy New Year!
Here are all the sisters in the mission except 4 and the 5 senior sisters.
Here is a picture of me and all my posterity! Left to right, SIster Young (daughter), me, Sister Arnott (first born), and Sister Stapley (grandaughter).Dear Family,
Happy New Year!!! I hope you all made a resolution to write me every week, and if you have not you should repent, and resolve to do so! Come on it’s only 6 letters. You only have 6 more opportunities to write me!!! Whoa that’s crazy to think about. In that case maybe you should write 2 times a week, so you can have 12 more opportunities to be blessed by writing to a full-time servant of the Lord!
So my new companion is Sister Young, she is from Edmund, Oklahoma. She went to BYU and was studying landscaping. She loves Japanese culture, and she’s made me very interesting in things like fungshau and Japanese animated movies. She is not very confidant in her abilities but she is very brave, she will do whatever I tell her even if it is talking to someone in Walmart. And like mother, like daughter, there are so many things about her that I can see in myself, but without being all opinionated and know it all like me. I know that would be great if I would be like that. But its very different training her than Sister Arnott, they are very different people. Sister Young has greenie fire, but in a very small and quiet way. Her quiet faith is already blessing our area. The first couple days we went tracting several times and we got a lot of follow-ups so that has been great!
The poor girl, her first 2 lessons were difficult. One was with Mike Vrooman who is set for baptism, and he was unusually quiet, so our lesson went awful and she got really stuck probably because I was really stuck. But we pulled out of it and it ended well. But it was a rocky start. And then the next day we taught Matt, who is Jennifer’s husband and he is starting to soften towards the Gospel. He has come to church 3 times and to her baptism. And he says that he wants to do what will bless his family and he thinks that them all going to the same church would be it. So he has agreed to take the lessons. He is very bitter though, he grew up very strong Baptist, has read the Bible through several times, but then lots of bad things have happened. And what he doesn’t understand is why it never ends, he says life has been one trial after another for the last 10-15 years. So he is doubting God and if God loves him. He did tell us that he feels that things are going to start changing inside him and for the better, I think he is ready to let go of the bitterness. Anyways all this came out in our lesson, he asked all kinds of hard questions. And him and Jennifer had a very intense discussion on religion in front of us and from what I gather they rarely discuss what they believe or feel. In fact he said they don’t communicate very well. But they had a great communication session in front of us! See the Gospel can help so many things, even poor communication! Look what it’s doing for them! It was an excellent lesson, we made a lot of headway with Matt. It’s just teaching in the MTC is nothing like that! And then we had another lesson with Mike on Saturday. He has been doing really good about not drinking or smoking, I think it has been a week and a half since he drank. Well we showed up and he was completely plastered. Mike has been drinking in our lessons before but not like this, plus not having had alcohol for a while it made it worse. Mike is pretty random sometimes so at first I wasn’t sure, but it became more and more apparent that what was in his cup was definitely booze. So we talked about it. He had broke down and smoked a whole pack of cigarettes and drank 10 beers that day! As we talked he felt really bad and we talked him into pouring out the rest of his beer. Put we didn’t get anywhere with the lesson. So we left. The next day he called and apologized. He felt bad he had messed up. And he had a huge hang over. Serves him right! No I think this might be good to help him realize that he really doesn’t want to do those things and he shouldn’t give in.
The weekend wasn’t so great. A lot of our plans feel through and we did a lot of tracting and it was freezing cold!! The good things is that we now have several inches of snow! YAY! And then to top it off, church was cancelled because the heat went out and it was only 10 degrees. I was really sad not to be able to go to church.
God is really looking out for us though. So the meal calendar didn’t get passed around last week when I was in Teays Valley or this week because we didn’t have church so we didn’t have any meals. But we have had a meal every night this week except one! People have just been volunteering to feed us. They’ll call us up in the morning and tell us to come over. It gives a whole new meaning to that scripture, give no thought to what you shall eat, or what you shall wear. For if God takes care of the birds and the plants than He will take care of us. So that’s an awful quoting job, the scripture is in 3 Nephi 13, but you get my gist. But if He’ll make sure we get feed dinner, then He’ll make sure we find people to teach and to help. I’m just so grateful that I don’t have to go at life and my mission alone because it would be way to hard!
Well I love you and I’m looking forward to the letters you are going to send me! ☺
Love ya, Sister Nicole Polatis
Happy New Year!!! I hope you all made a resolution to write me every week, and if you have not you should repent, and resolve to do so! Come on it’s only 6 letters. You only have 6 more opportunities to write me!!! Whoa that’s crazy to think about. In that case maybe you should write 2 times a week, so you can have 12 more opportunities to be blessed by writing to a full-time servant of the Lord!
So my new companion is Sister Young, she is from Edmund, Oklahoma. She went to BYU and was studying landscaping. She loves Japanese culture, and she’s made me very interesting in things like fungshau and Japanese animated movies. She is not very confidant in her abilities but she is very brave, she will do whatever I tell her even if it is talking to someone in Walmart. And like mother, like daughter, there are so many things about her that I can see in myself, but without being all opinionated and know it all like me. I know that would be great if I would be like that. But its very different training her than Sister Arnott, they are very different people. Sister Young has greenie fire, but in a very small and quiet way. Her quiet faith is already blessing our area. The first couple days we went tracting several times and we got a lot of follow-ups so that has been great!
The poor girl, her first 2 lessons were difficult. One was with Mike Vrooman who is set for baptism, and he was unusually quiet, so our lesson went awful and she got really stuck probably because I was really stuck. But we pulled out of it and it ended well. But it was a rocky start. And then the next day we taught Matt, who is Jennifer’s husband and he is starting to soften towards the Gospel. He has come to church 3 times and to her baptism. And he says that he wants to do what will bless his family and he thinks that them all going to the same church would be it. So he has agreed to take the lessons. He is very bitter though, he grew up very strong Baptist, has read the Bible through several times, but then lots of bad things have happened. And what he doesn’t understand is why it never ends, he says life has been one trial after another for the last 10-15 years. So he is doubting God and if God loves him. He did tell us that he feels that things are going to start changing inside him and for the better, I think he is ready to let go of the bitterness. Anyways all this came out in our lesson, he asked all kinds of hard questions. And him and Jennifer had a very intense discussion on religion in front of us and from what I gather they rarely discuss what they believe or feel. In fact he said they don’t communicate very well. But they had a great communication session in front of us! See the Gospel can help so many things, even poor communication! Look what it’s doing for them! It was an excellent lesson, we made a lot of headway with Matt. It’s just teaching in the MTC is nothing like that! And then we had another lesson with Mike on Saturday. He has been doing really good about not drinking or smoking, I think it has been a week and a half since he drank. Well we showed up and he was completely plastered. Mike has been drinking in our lessons before but not like this, plus not having had alcohol for a while it made it worse. Mike is pretty random sometimes so at first I wasn’t sure, but it became more and more apparent that what was in his cup was definitely booze. So we talked about it. He had broke down and smoked a whole pack of cigarettes and drank 10 beers that day! As we talked he felt really bad and we talked him into pouring out the rest of his beer. Put we didn’t get anywhere with the lesson. So we left. The next day he called and apologized. He felt bad he had messed up. And he had a huge hang over. Serves him right! No I think this might be good to help him realize that he really doesn’t want to do those things and he shouldn’t give in.
The weekend wasn’t so great. A lot of our plans feel through and we did a lot of tracting and it was freezing cold!! The good things is that we now have several inches of snow! YAY! And then to top it off, church was cancelled because the heat went out and it was only 10 degrees. I was really sad not to be able to go to church.
God is really looking out for us though. So the meal calendar didn’t get passed around last week when I was in Teays Valley or this week because we didn’t have church so we didn’t have any meals. But we have had a meal every night this week except one! People have just been volunteering to feed us. They’ll call us up in the morning and tell us to come over. It gives a whole new meaning to that scripture, give no thought to what you shall eat, or what you shall wear. For if God takes care of the birds and the plants than He will take care of us. So that’s an awful quoting job, the scripture is in 3 Nephi 13, but you get my gist. But if He’ll make sure we get feed dinner, then He’ll make sure we find people to teach and to help. I’m just so grateful that I don’t have to go at life and my mission alone because it would be way to hard!
Well I love you and I’m looking forward to the letters you are going to send me! ☺
Love ya, Sister Nicole Polatis
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
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
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