Nicole Mendes, a 2016 pitcher/outfielder who plays for Diamond Sports Hotshots – Davis and has committed to Oklahoma, is one of the top talents in club ball today.

She was rated as the No. 11 prospect overall in the 2016 Hot 100 and is unique in many ways, including the fact that she is home schooled and doesn’t play high school ball.

Over Spring Break, Nicole–who is interning with Full Count Softball and writing about on-the-field and off-field topics—had an experience of a lifetime: she went to England to do a mission for her church.

In today’s first of two parts, she talks about the trip overseas, traveling to the English city where she would work and getting up in front of strangers and sharing her beliefs…

Nicole sums up her experience saying, “This year’s spring break not only was a trip of a lifetime but it changed my perspective, making me take a step back and look at life with the bigger picture in mind.

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Friday & Saturday – March 6 & 7, 2015

At 1:00 p.m. I said goodbye to my parents and prepared to fly out of the country for the first time on a mission trip.

To say I was excited would be an understatement… I was ecstatic (although the 10-hour flight helped me curb my excitement a little bit)! Our plane arrived in England as the sun was coming up and we witnessed the most beautiful sunrise.

What a great way to start off our time in the country.

After touching down we made our way towards the Tube (the London Underground or subway) for the 45 minute ride to the train station.

Once we arrived at the train station, we would take the three-hour ride to Middlesbrough, an industrial town in north-east England. Our group was told that we had a few hours to look around the station, eat lunch, and explore.

Some of the kids from my group took a few pictures at Platform 9 ¾ (Hogwarts, here we come!) and everyone ate some of the delicious chocolate.

When we arrived at the train station there was a guy by the name of Mike Taylor and another named Josh who helped us organize everything. During the 40-minute drive to Middlesbrough we talked and joked.

The day went on and we found ourselves at St. Barnabas Church preparing dinner and getting to know the leaders.

Once dinner was ready we sat with our host home family and became acquainted with them.

Overall, I was up for 34 hours and went to bed that night exhausted, but excited for what this week would bring.

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Sunday, March 8, 2015

Sunday morning me and the three other girls that were rooming with me for the week woke up feeling refreshed and ready to head out to church.

This morning was another first for me as I would be giving my testimony, which was something I had never done before.

It was intimidating to stand up in a strange church in front of a group of strangers and share why I thought my life was so much more fulfilling since I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

I was nervous at the beginning of my presentation, but the longer I talked the more comfortable I became. I even had several people come up later and tell me I did really well speaking.

After the service ended the church held a potluck lunch. It was quite interesting tasting the different foods; the flavors were very different in England.

Later in the afternoon we went over to the park to play soccer and American football with the kids in the neighborhood.

It was so much fun hanging out with the kids and just getting to know them. I had a few kids ask me why my accent was so funny!

Finishing up at the park, our little band of Americans decided that we must investigate an old urban legend about some special chocolate made only in Europe.

It was said to have M&M’s, jelly beans, and pop rocks all inside a chocolate bar.

We trekked to the nearest store and tried it. The taste was half chocolate, half magic and I admit to bringing several bars back with me to the states!

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Monday, March 9, 2015

Today was the first day that we would be going out and doing work. We would be going into a school and teaching the kids about America.

I was partnered with two other kids from my group and we presented PowerPoints Presentations showing who we were and what we liked to do.

In my presentation I included softball. I took a guess that none of the kids knew what softball was and brought one so they could see what a softball was.

As the kids were passing the ball around one little boy hit it with his fist and said “Hey! That’s not soft!”

Of course the rest of the kids in the class had to feel for themselves so I had a class full of little kids beating up the ball. Surprisingly, the teacher was not too bothered by it (I think).

Later, the teacher asked her students to guess how many states were in the United States and much to my group’s amusement the average guess was two or three!

One kid guessed 10 and there were gasps around the room when the teacher said that it was still higher.

When we told them that the United States had 50 states, they could not believe it.

Finally recess came and it was as if we were celebrities. Each American had at least 15 little kids trailing after them.

After school was let out for the day, we headed over to a church called St. Mary’s Church to do Kids Club.

Kids Club was a bunch of kids coming together to play games and at the end stick around to hear the Gospel.

Mike Taylor, who we first met at the train station on Saturday, set this opportunity up for us as he was a part of UK/USA Ministries and he and his family moved to England a few years earlier.

Even though not all the kids were listening, Mike told us to not be discouraged. We were planting seeds for the future and, just because we did not see an immediate result, it does not mean a seed was not planted.

It was a hard lesson to learn but it was better that we learned it right away. It was also one that helped us for the next two Kids Clubs.

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…. In the second part of Nicole’s mission trip we read about the final days in England for Nicole including young kids who were receptive–and some not so much–plus a visit to one of the most beautiful scenic vistas the young athlete says she has ever seen.