Dear Family and Friends
Things are going great here in the Dominican Republic. I’ve been learning a lot about how to teach more effectively. We have an investigator named Carlos (it’s really just our teacher pretending) and he is really hard on us. The first time we knocked on his door he didn’t even open it up. He just stayed inside and we had to convince him through the door to let us in. Finally he let us in, and over a few different visits I could tell that he still didn’t trust us at all. He was giving us short answers to all of our questions as we were trying to get to know him and teach the first lesson, saying “Why?” all the time. “Why does God love me? What does it matter to me? Why are you here? Why do you want to teach me? Maybe you should come back when you are a little more prepared.” It’s really made me think a lot about my calling. I’m sure I will meet plenty of people like Carlos that don’t know who we are, don’t trust us, and wonder what we want from them or why we are wasting their time. After praying and pondering (I had no idea how we were going to crack this guy) I finally just told him “Carlos, we are representatives of Jesus Christ, sent here by God himself. He knows your heart and mind, He hears your prayers, and he has sent us here because of them. I don’t know why we are here, but He does. We are here to help you. So tell us what you need.”
And that did it.
I got that feeling that I always get when I teach from my heart, and I know that the spirit was helping me. He finally opened up and asked us how we can help him, and if we could answer his questions. We told him that maybe some questions would take time to answer, but we would try our best. We also told him that we would help him and teach him how to find his own answers. It was great. But it’s not easy. At all. We are currently stuck on the Apostasy. We told him (as part of the first lesson) that the priesthood authority died with the apostles. From there we were going to talk about the restoration, but he was too quick and (as a Catholic) made the connection to the Pope not having authority from God. This has been pretty tough for him. I don’t get the feeling that he doesn’t believe us, it’s just that his whole life he has been taught about the Pope. So we have had to take it pretty slow, and still haven’t been able to teach about Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon. He is a challenge, but I learn a lot from him. It’s interesting to me how the more I search for answers for his questions, the closer I come to Heavenly Father as well. Oh and we have taught him how to pray twice, but he keeps using the “Lord’s Prayer” from the Bible. I thought that was pretty funny. So anyway, wish me luck with Carlos.
We had an interesting experience at the University this week. My companion and I got shot down about six or seven times as we were walking, and spent the first half of our time there just trying to find someone that was interested (We saw David again and said hello but he already had 4 missionaries teaching him). Finally we found a nice guy on some steps (everyone’s name here is so foreign, I struggle remembering them) and talked about his family and beliefs, and he asked about ours, but after five or ten minutes he had to go to class, so we left him with a Gospel pamphlet (faith, repentance, baptism Holy Ghost)and moved on. After about ten more minutes of walking we saw 2 women (probably in their 30’s and by now I’ve given up on remembering names) and thought “why not?” We asked them if we could practice our Spanish with them for a few minutes, and they were more than happy to chat.
Well eventually everyone wants to know why and how two white kids are learning Spanish so fast, and wearing a shirt and tie in the blistering heat while sweating profusely. It’s actually a pretty good conversation starter. I’ve never been so aware of the fact that I’m white, but I’m really glad that I stick out. So anyway we tell her why we are here and start talking about her beliefs. She is a med student, but has no time for church. However she was VERY interested in what we had to say. Her friend eventually left, which would have been the perfect chance for her to escape, but she stayed right there on the grass, only to be joined in a minute or two by a different lady. We gave her a restoration pamphlet, taught the entire first lesson, and gave her a copy of the book of Mormon. It was fantastic, and we both walked out of there on cloud nine.
Other interesting highlights from the week:
I’ve been pretty stressed out about a lot of things, and I was venting through prayer one night for quite awhile. I asked for his help pretty sincerely and then went to bed. I thought everyone was asleep but then my companion asked if I was okay and I said yeah. I went to the bathroom and then he asked again. Then my other room mate asked a few minutes later. Then his companion did too (who later told me he had actually been asleep and woke up suddenly). I hadn’t wanted a blessing originally, but after that I just felt like that was what our Father was trying to get to happen. So I sat down and they all participated in the blessing, which was given by my companion. It was his first one, and I definitely felt the spirit and his sincerity, and all of us talked for about an hour after that. All of us are really close now.
On the way back from the temple today it was raining really hard and a few of us decided to sprint from the temple to the CCM. Well I’m not coordinated and took too sharp of a turn while sprinting, and my feet slipped out from under me. I ate it pretty hard on the pavement, did a weird type of ninja roll, and quickly got back up. All the other Elders thought it was pretty funny. Not to mention that tripped a few days ago playing volleyball, and have taken many, many shots to the face, some of which I did to myself. Word has gotten around that I’m a klutz.
But anyway that’s it for this week. I love you all, write me.
Con mucho amor,
Elder Nichols
Things are going great here in the Dominican Republic. I’ve been learning a lot about how to teach more effectively. We have an investigator named Carlos (it’s really just our teacher pretending) and he is really hard on us. The first time we knocked on his door he didn’t even open it up. He just stayed inside and we had to convince him through the door to let us in. Finally he let us in, and over a few different visits I could tell that he still didn’t trust us at all. He was giving us short answers to all of our questions as we were trying to get to know him and teach the first lesson, saying “Why?” all the time. “Why does God love me? What does it matter to me? Why are you here? Why do you want to teach me? Maybe you should come back when you are a little more prepared.” It’s really made me think a lot about my calling. I’m sure I will meet plenty of people like Carlos that don’t know who we are, don’t trust us, and wonder what we want from them or why we are wasting their time. After praying and pondering (I had no idea how we were going to crack this guy) I finally just told him “Carlos, we are representatives of Jesus Christ, sent here by God himself. He knows your heart and mind, He hears your prayers, and he has sent us here because of them. I don’t know why we are here, but He does. We are here to help you. So tell us what you need.”
And that did it.
I got that feeling that I always get when I teach from my heart, and I know that the spirit was helping me. He finally opened up and asked us how we can help him, and if we could answer his questions. We told him that maybe some questions would take time to answer, but we would try our best. We also told him that we would help him and teach him how to find his own answers. It was great. But it’s not easy. At all. We are currently stuck on the Apostasy. We told him (as part of the first lesson) that the priesthood authority died with the apostles. From there we were going to talk about the restoration, but he was too quick and (as a Catholic) made the connection to the Pope not having authority from God. This has been pretty tough for him. I don’t get the feeling that he doesn’t believe us, it’s just that his whole life he has been taught about the Pope. So we have had to take it pretty slow, and still haven’t been able to teach about Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon. He is a challenge, but I learn a lot from him. It’s interesting to me how the more I search for answers for his questions, the closer I come to Heavenly Father as well. Oh and we have taught him how to pray twice, but he keeps using the “Lord’s Prayer” from the Bible. I thought that was pretty funny. So anyway, wish me luck with Carlos.
We had an interesting experience at the University this week. My companion and I got shot down about six or seven times as we were walking, and spent the first half of our time there just trying to find someone that was interested (We saw David again and said hello but he already had 4 missionaries teaching him). Finally we found a nice guy on some steps (everyone’s name here is so foreign, I struggle remembering them) and talked about his family and beliefs, and he asked about ours, but after five or ten minutes he had to go to class, so we left him with a Gospel pamphlet (faith, repentance, baptism Holy Ghost)and moved on. After about ten more minutes of walking we saw 2 women (probably in their 30’s and by now I’ve given up on remembering names) and thought “why not?” We asked them if we could practice our Spanish with them for a few minutes, and they were more than happy to chat.
Well eventually everyone wants to know why and how two white kids are learning Spanish so fast, and wearing a shirt and tie in the blistering heat while sweating profusely. It’s actually a pretty good conversation starter. I’ve never been so aware of the fact that I’m white, but I’m really glad that I stick out. So anyway we tell her why we are here and start talking about her beliefs. She is a med student, but has no time for church. However she was VERY interested in what we had to say. Her friend eventually left, which would have been the perfect chance for her to escape, but she stayed right there on the grass, only to be joined in a minute or two by a different lady. We gave her a restoration pamphlet, taught the entire first lesson, and gave her a copy of the book of Mormon. It was fantastic, and we both walked out of there on cloud nine.
Other interesting highlights from the week:
I’ve been pretty stressed out about a lot of things, and I was venting through prayer one night for quite awhile. I asked for his help pretty sincerely and then went to bed. I thought everyone was asleep but then my companion asked if I was okay and I said yeah. I went to the bathroom and then he asked again. Then my other room mate asked a few minutes later. Then his companion did too (who later told me he had actually been asleep and woke up suddenly). I hadn’t wanted a blessing originally, but after that I just felt like that was what our Father was trying to get to happen. So I sat down and they all participated in the blessing, which was given by my companion. It was his first one, and I definitely felt the spirit and his sincerity, and all of us talked for about an hour after that. All of us are really close now.
On the way back from the temple today it was raining really hard and a few of us decided to sprint from the temple to the CCM. Well I’m not coordinated and took too sharp of a turn while sprinting, and my feet slipped out from under me. I ate it pretty hard on the pavement, did a weird type of ninja roll, and quickly got back up. All the other Elders thought it was pretty funny. Not to mention that tripped a few days ago playing volleyball, and have taken many, many shots to the face, some of which I did to myself. Word has gotten around that I’m a klutz.
But anyway that’s it for this week. I love you all, write me.
Con mucho amor,
Elder Nichols
