Dear Family and Friends,
This week was crazy. The bishops dad died and so i went to my first dominican open casket funeral. On halloween. spooky eh? Also saw a crazy lady running through the street in her underwear throwing rocks at people right in front of our church. Today we played lots of basketball, or at least the dominican version, because they don´t like to take it out to the 3 line when possession changes. Transfers are this week too. I´m staying here with my companion, but another elder who has one more transfer than me is training! I´ve also had to remind a lot of people that i´m ELDER Nichols, and not just hermano, or brother nichols. I feel like Jack Sparrow reminding people of his title of Captain.
I´ve got to take back, or at least clarify, a statement I made last week. I said ¨dont tell me that you read the bible¨. Well this week we found our first Jew, who said that Jesus never existed. So.... yeah... please read the Bible. What I meant last week was that I don´t like when people say they don´t need us because they read the Bible. The real reason you don´t want to talk to us is that you are comfortable where you are at, afraid of change, or heard something false about the church. I´m sure there are more reasons than this, but these are the most common ones i´ve run into so far.
I´ve been bummed about people not keeping commitments. You are probably all thinking ¨welcome to the mission field¨ right? At the very least it´s teaching me patience, and I have a better understanding of how Heavenly Father feels when we break our promises to him or don´t do as well as we should. I just wish that I felt I was accomplishing more. Not just the baptismal number, but actually helping people understand. Helping people that are truly looking and willing to act. Almost all the people we are teaching seem to have the same bland, comfortable attitude, as if they are all spiritual zombies. I just wanna scream ¨WAKE UP!!! Don´t you realize how amazing and important this message is?¨
On the other hand it also depends on how we preach. I´ve seen a difference when we ask more questions and try to break out of some of our ¨safe¨ routines. I have to challenge myself to grow right?
So this week I had an interesting experience, and it´s the reason for the title ¨bitter sweet¨ I wanted to wait to share it, but this way you can appreciate my situation more since perhaps you will feel as i feel and learn as I learn. Our ward is split into 2 areas, each area has 2 missionaries, and each has a trainer. Well this week our trainers and leaders had a meeting with President Hernandez (btw eickbush is just an elderly missionary). So I went on exchanges with elder Allen, who was in my group at the MTC. We were scared to death and when we saw our bishop we jokingly said we could the look of terror and sadness in his eyes as he saw two greenies together.
But anyways it actually went pretty well. we contacted new people for 2 hours in my area, and had 3 lessons. The cool part was the third lesson. A guy was smoking on his porch and we said hello. He just looked at us kind of funny and then we said ¨we´re missionaries from the... ¨ and he got up before we could finish the sentence. He let us in apologized for the open container of alcohol, offered us juice, told us that he had friends in the church and left. Then he came back with an 8 year old photo of 2 missionaries holding his baby girl. Then he told us how he wanted to quit smoking and drinking for his family. He told us how his mind and heart were willing but his body was weak. He said how hard it was to quit, and he always feels like he has demons with him tempting him, and how its just easier to pick up the bottle. Now to be perfectly honest, he was probably a little drunk. But not so much that he couldn´t walk, and a greenie missionary could understand his spanish. He recognized us as his friends, as someone who cared, and could help. He begged us to visit him often and help him. And I believed him. I felt he was sincere and my heart went out to him. I had been wondering if anyone truly needed us, and now here was this man begging for our friendship and help.
So I gave him a Book of Mormon. I told him whenever he feels those demons he needs to pray, and pick up that sacred book, and that the temptations would leave. We testified that we were representatives of Jesus Christ, and would do our best to help him, but he needed to give it his all. We even gave him a priesthood blessing for comfort and strength. After the blessing we had the following conversation
I said ¨Alright now Germán, you have to throw this stuff away¨
¨I can´t I´m not ready. I´ll start tonight when you two come back¨
¨No Germán you have to start now. You can do it¨
¨No no no I can´t do it¨
¨Germán, do you have faith in Christ?¨
¨Yes¨
¨Do you truly want to leave this behind?¨
¨Yes¨
¨Germán... In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to throw this alcohol in the trash¨
When I said those words, I felt an electrifying power. It wasn´t just a 21 year old kid saying it. It was the Savior. and the Holy Ghost testified of it to me with that feeling. I felt like I was taming the raging seas. Like I could have moved a mountain. I felt like Nephi in front of his brothers while he was building his ship, or Abinidi in King Noah´s court. There was a tangible power in those words.
Germán looked at me with wide eyes, poured out the bottle, and threw it out the window without a word. as he did this i felt more joy, then i have ever felt in my life, and fought to hold back the tears. I told him to give me his cigarettes, which he did. I asked him if he had more and he promised me he had nothing else in the house. As we departed i reminded him he was able to do anything with the help of the savior, and promised we would return.
Sadly, I went back to his house 8 times in the next 4 days, but we always just barely miss him. I´ve prayed and fasted for him, and I have no idea how he is doing. But every time I wonder or doubt, I remember how I felt, and I trust that did what the Savior wanted.
Elder Nichols
