Nicole takes BRAZIL

Holy. Moly. Where do I even start. This week has been NUTS. But, overall, I LOVE COLORADO. Serio.

Dad, you would love Colorado. It is a combination of the Washington Forests and the Utah Mountains. I looove it. Also, we are surrounded by a bunch of 14,000 ft. mountains that people come from all over to hike and rock climb on. Unfortunately, missionaries are not allowed to do anything too risky, so I won't be climbing any of those anytime soon...

Well, here's my life for the past week...

I got in to CO on Monday. When we got off the plane, our mission president, President Anderson, was waiting to greet us along with five other elders to carry our stuff. Since the group of four that I was in arrived earlier than the rest of the group, President Anderson tool us all out to Breakfast at Dennys. SO good. For the first two days, we were in a group of 28 new people (5 were visa waiters, 2 brazil, 3 peru) and we were just in training the whole time. Not going to lie, I hated it. The majority of the people there were going to Colorado and knew the people there from their districts at the MTC, so I felt kind of like an outcast. Then, we were basically in a church gym doing training the entire time. Lame.

The other girl going to Brazil with me, Sister Schooley is my companion and I love her! I am in a trio, so it is me Sister Schooley (im fb friends with her, Chloe Schooley) and our trainer Sister Horrocks. Sister H is great! We love her! On Wednesday we had our big companion/area reveal. All of the new missionaries sat in the front and all of the old missionaries sat looking at us. Then, President Anderson called us up, one by one, to read what I would call a THIRD mission call for me. haha. It just said what area we were going to be in and who our companions were. Sooo, I am in the Colorado Springs Area. AND I am opening a new area called the YSA Rescue Team. Cool title, huh? We are over FOUR stakes of YSA members. But, we only focus on the less-active members. There are about 1800 YSA's total in the area and only about 300 go to church. So we have our work cut out for us. We won't be doing any tracting, or teaching any new investigators, we're just bounty hunters for the astray YSA's. I love it!

We do a lot of drop-bys trying to see if the members still live at the house we have listed. We must have stopped by at LEAST 20 houses so far before someone answered the door. His name is Josh (Don't forget to change that name for the Blog, madre), he is 28 and hasnt been to church since he was baptized at age 8. When we opened the door, he was wearing baggy jeans and a wife beater, His zipper was undone and I could see his nipple. lol. I am pretty sure he does some sort of drugs as well because his teeth are literally black and orange. ugh. But, anyways, he answered the door and we talked to him about his life and his religious beliefs. He told us that He believes in a God, but doesn't see the need for an atonement or Jesus Christ. He said that he doesn't take the Bible literally, but as a book of good stories and morals.Very interesting. We talked to him for about 15 minutes on his door step and then asked him if he would be willing to meet with us again. HE SAID YES! So we are meeting with him this Wednesday at 2 o'clock. It was way cool. His heart was definitely softening while we were talking to him and I am so excited to finally teach someone.

We haven't really been teaching because, since we are opening a new area assignment, we have been having to plan a lot of things out and get a lot of information from all 30 wards.So many phone calls! We are also trying to set up a bunch of dinner appointments as well because we have to live on $28/week for everything.

Also, we live in a mansion. Serio. Here's my new address google earth it sometime:

Sister Nicole Michelle Hargrove

c/o The Sherwoods

1975 Alamosa Drive

Colorado Springs, CO 80920

You can send letters there until I am transferred or get my visa. Speaking of Visas, I have not heard any official news on my Visa status, but I am very happy to be reassigned in CoSprings until I get it. In fact, I wouldn't mind staying in CoSprings, I love it that much!

Would you mind sending me grandpa's email and/or mailing address in Saudi? Thank you!

On a more spiritual note, for the entire week, I have had a feeling that I need to get a blessing... but I had no idea why and I felt weird asking for one when I didn't know the reason. I finally gave in yesterday and asked one of the elders, Elder Curry, in my district to give me a comfort blessing. It was GREAT. Turns out, God just needed to talk to me. I needed to hear every single thing he said too and I didn't even know it. In the blessing he told me a bunch of stuff, but what stuck out to me was that I would go to Brazil soon (he said SOON! ahh) and that there are people waiting to meet me here and that I would recognize them when I saw them. Crazy.

The church is SO true and I love it. Have a great week everyone. Read your scriptures. Eu amo voces.

Love,

Sister Hargrove