Dear family and friends,
As you can guess by the title of today´s email, I hurt my ankle playing basketball. That´s about all the news I got. Or maybe it´s the only thing I can think about because it hurts a lot still. Oh and thanks to Sister James/Bredeson/Solomon for the Christmas card. Ryan looks super classy holding that koala. I hope you, Shannon, Kelly and Trapper are having fun. In other news, Elder Allen and I decided that we want to make a movie about the Book of Mormon after we complete the mission. Like an epic, better than Lord of the Rings, type of movie. I´ve spent my free time this week scanning chapter headings and taking notes on the narrative, as well as making an outline. It looks like it would have to be about 7 movies. I have no idea where we will get the money, or if we have to have permission from the Church, since the Book of Mormon is copyrighted, but I believe that anything is possible. I´m not trying to get rich doing it, I just love the Book of Mormon and want to see an awesome movie based on it. There are so many cool stories, and a movie would get a lot more people interested in it.
As for the work, we will have a baptism this Saturday. A little boy named Edwín, whose grandmother works in the temple. We also had a good turn out yesterday for church. I was super happy. The best part of my week was when we did a companionship exchange. The zone leaders asked my companion, the district leader, to go on splits with the other elders in our ward to see how the work is going on their half of the city. So I got to work with elder Allen´s trainee, which meant I was senior companion for the day. I loved it. I had to put so much more work in. I had to listen harder to the people and to the spirit. I had to decide where we were going to contact and who we were going to visit. It was such an uplifting day. I´m just one of those guys who rises to the occasion. I work every day, but when there is a higher demand, something in me always pushes me to meet that demand. It was a great day, and I even was able to set a baptismal date with a lady named Rosana. She has been investigating for 6 months. We fasted for her in my first transfer, and it finally paid off. It´s a testimony to me that God really does hear our prayers and see our fasts. We just have to be patient and put it in God´s hands, and he will take care of it in his own time, in his own way, according to his wisdom.
This is the last week of this transfer. I hope I get to stay here to baptize Rosana, but only the Lord knows where he will send me.
Elder Nichols
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Yup... I'm still here. 1/16/12
Dear Family and Friends,
Another week of fun in the sun. Things are starting to heat up again. Great. Thanks to Matt Read for the dried Tecca Sauce, I’ve been using it like a dried herb on all sorts of stuff. It’s great! Thanks to Bishop and Jason for the Christmas cards. Jason, I heard that you have to live here for 6 months first if you wanna adopt, I’m assuming that’s what those business cards were trying to tell me. Let me know if there is some sort of secret code I’m missing.
This week the four of us elders gave talks in sacrament meeting. Yours truly spoke on the importance of members helping in the work. I even mentioned how San Diego is a pilot stake for this kind of thing. It was great. The other elders spoke on covenants, doing the will of God, and the importance of the priesthood. They all tied into missionary work, and it was interesting to see how our talks complimented one another.
As for the work itself, things are a little rough. Nobody wants to come to church. They all tell us yes, but then don´t come. It´s frustrating. In brighter news, we should have at least one baptism, the grandson of a member. Also, one investigator this week not only read the entire pamphlet we left her, but also took the time to fill out the additional study questions in the back. After we picked our jaws up off the floor she asked us about the Book of Mormon. So we gave her one. We don´t normally give those out until the second or third lesson because people here don´t commit to much. We test the waters with committing them to pray about the truth of the Church, Joseph Smith, and coming to church.
Hope all else is going well. I´m still here. Letters are still worth more to me than my weight in gold.
Love Elder Nichols.
P.S. Since I normally write in English, I wanted to take a little opportunity to remind you all that I am serving in a foreign language. If there is a Google translate button, hit it now.
Mis hermanos amados, yo quiero aprovechar este momento para dar mi sentamientos y testimonio de nuestro salvador, Jesucristo. El nos ama más que nosotros podemos entender, y quiere que vengamos a Él. Nuestro Padre Celestial lo mandó a la tierra para vencer la muerte y el pecado, para que todo puedan regresar y vida eterna. Jesucristo dirige esta iglesia personalmente. Sé que Él vive. Sé que José Smith fue escogido por nuestro salvador para restaurar la autoridad, y la verdad de todos cosas. Sé esto seguramente, sin duda. Alguna persona que quiere seguir Cristo verdaderamente vendrá a este conocimiento, no creencia, por medio de oración y un estudio del Libro de Mormón, lo que José Smith tradujo por el poder de Dios. Nadie puede quitar este conocimiento, porque es escrito en mi alma, y quema dentro mi corazón. Tengo seguridad para eternidad, y testificaré en qualquier momento o lugar que Jesús es el Cristo, y esta iglesia es su reino en la tierra hoy en día. En el sagrado nombre de Jesucristo, amén.
GOOGLE TRANSLATE:
My dear brothers, I want to take this moment to give my resettlement and testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He loves us more than we can understand, and wants us to come to Him our Heavenly Father sent to earth to conquer death and sin, so that everyone can return and eternal life. Jesus Christ leads the church personally. I know He lives. I know that Joseph Smith was chosen by our Savior to restore the authority and truth of all things. I know this certainly, certainly. Someone who wants to follow Christ truly come to this knowledge, not faith, through prayer and study of the Book of Mormon, which Joseph Smith translated by the power of God. No one can take this knowledge, because it's written in my soul and my heart burns within. I have eternal security, and testify at any time or place that Jesus is the Christ and the church is his kingdom on earth today. In the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Another week of fun in the sun. Things are starting to heat up again. Great. Thanks to Matt Read for the dried Tecca Sauce, I’ve been using it like a dried herb on all sorts of stuff. It’s great! Thanks to Bishop and Jason for the Christmas cards. Jason, I heard that you have to live here for 6 months first if you wanna adopt, I’m assuming that’s what those business cards were trying to tell me. Let me know if there is some sort of secret code I’m missing.
This week the four of us elders gave talks in sacrament meeting. Yours truly spoke on the importance of members helping in the work. I even mentioned how San Diego is a pilot stake for this kind of thing. It was great. The other elders spoke on covenants, doing the will of God, and the importance of the priesthood. They all tied into missionary work, and it was interesting to see how our talks complimented one another.
As for the work itself, things are a little rough. Nobody wants to come to church. They all tell us yes, but then don´t come. It´s frustrating. In brighter news, we should have at least one baptism, the grandson of a member. Also, one investigator this week not only read the entire pamphlet we left her, but also took the time to fill out the additional study questions in the back. After we picked our jaws up off the floor she asked us about the Book of Mormon. So we gave her one. We don´t normally give those out until the second or third lesson because people here don´t commit to much. We test the waters with committing them to pray about the truth of the Church, Joseph Smith, and coming to church.
Hope all else is going well. I´m still here. Letters are still worth more to me than my weight in gold.
Love Elder Nichols.
P.S. Since I normally write in English, I wanted to take a little opportunity to remind you all that I am serving in a foreign language. If there is a Google translate button, hit it now.
Mis hermanos amados, yo quiero aprovechar este momento para dar mi sentamientos y testimonio de nuestro salvador, Jesucristo. El nos ama más que nosotros podemos entender, y quiere que vengamos a Él. Nuestro Padre Celestial lo mandó a la tierra para vencer la muerte y el pecado, para que todo puedan regresar y vida eterna. Jesucristo dirige esta iglesia personalmente. Sé que Él vive. Sé que José Smith fue escogido por nuestro salvador para restaurar la autoridad, y la verdad de todos cosas. Sé esto seguramente, sin duda. Alguna persona que quiere seguir Cristo verdaderamente vendrá a este conocimiento, no creencia, por medio de oración y un estudio del Libro de Mormón, lo que José Smith tradujo por el poder de Dios. Nadie puede quitar este conocimiento, porque es escrito en mi alma, y quema dentro mi corazón. Tengo seguridad para eternidad, y testificaré en qualquier momento o lugar que Jesús es el Cristo, y esta iglesia es su reino en la tierra hoy en día. En el sagrado nombre de Jesucristo, amén.
GOOGLE TRANSLATE:
My dear brothers, I want to take this moment to give my resettlement and testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He loves us more than we can understand, and wants us to come to Him our Heavenly Father sent to earth to conquer death and sin, so that everyone can return and eternal life. Jesus Christ leads the church personally. I know He lives. I know that Joseph Smith was chosen by our Savior to restore the authority and truth of all things. I know this certainly, certainly. Someone who wants to follow Christ truly come to this knowledge, not faith, through prayer and study of the Book of Mormon, which Joseph Smith translated by the power of God. No one can take this knowledge, because it's written in my soul and my heart burns within. I have eternal security, and testify at any time or place that Jesus is the Christ and the church is his kingdom on earth today. In the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Service and Cienpie 1/9/12
Dear family and friends,
This week we had 3 service projects for investigators. During the first one we found a cienpie, or centipede about 8 inches long, 2 inches wide. The Haitian next door trapped it in a bottle and told us the venom makes great alcohol...
In other news, it´s really really hard to get people to come to church. I would say that it is the next biggest problem after getting people married.
One guy told us that having an eternal family didn´t interest him. That was sad. Maybe he was having marital problems.
I had a cool experience where the Holy Ghost gave me the answer to a question before the investigator even asked it. I was talking about the first vision and Exodus 33, verse 11 came into my mind. Then the guy said that man can´t see God or he will die. So I showed him the scripture that was given to me, about God talking to Moses face to face, as one man speaketh to another, and that solved his doubt. I´ve never had to use that scripture before and it´s not in my usual arsenal. It was definitely revelation, as were 3 other answers given to me in response to some other doubts. It was a cool lesson.
Another man name Jose Manuel doesn´t believe that God answers prayers, and refuses to come to church, because he says that the church doesn´t save us, Jesus did. His mom told us the exact same thing. Shows us the importance of teaching our children the truth. But anyways later he was talking about how God is a God of love and nobody teaches that. I told him pretty firmly that it´s interesting to me that he wants to believe in a God of love, but doesn´t believe that our loving Heavenly Father would listen and answer the prayers of his children in need. Or that he would send us Prophets to help us learn how to cope in a world with more spiritual and physical dangers than ever before. Or that he would personally establish and direct a church where we can be nourished by the word of God and find comfort and aid from other members of the congregation.
He didn´t have much to say after that. So we dropped him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. He loves to read, so maybe that will get through to him.
We had a 2 hour discussion with one lady, the spirit was pretty strong, and it wasn´t like a debate or anything. She was just really stubborn. She doesn´t believe we need prophets, because Jesus was the last prophet and fulfilled everything. We backed up all of our doctrine with scriptures, but she conveniently ignored the points that were against her belief. Although she was willing to read the Book of Mormon.
Wish me luck, 2 weeks of holidays and people that refuse to commit to anything really put a wrench in our timeline.
Love
Elder Nichols
This week we had 3 service projects for investigators. During the first one we found a cienpie, or centipede about 8 inches long, 2 inches wide. The Haitian next door trapped it in a bottle and told us the venom makes great alcohol...
In other news, it´s really really hard to get people to come to church. I would say that it is the next biggest problem after getting people married.
One guy told us that having an eternal family didn´t interest him. That was sad. Maybe he was having marital problems.
I had a cool experience where the Holy Ghost gave me the answer to a question before the investigator even asked it. I was talking about the first vision and Exodus 33, verse 11 came into my mind. Then the guy said that man can´t see God or he will die. So I showed him the scripture that was given to me, about God talking to Moses face to face, as one man speaketh to another, and that solved his doubt. I´ve never had to use that scripture before and it´s not in my usual arsenal. It was definitely revelation, as were 3 other answers given to me in response to some other doubts. It was a cool lesson.
Another man name Jose Manuel doesn´t believe that God answers prayers, and refuses to come to church, because he says that the church doesn´t save us, Jesus did. His mom told us the exact same thing. Shows us the importance of teaching our children the truth. But anyways later he was talking about how God is a God of love and nobody teaches that. I told him pretty firmly that it´s interesting to me that he wants to believe in a God of love, but doesn´t believe that our loving Heavenly Father would listen and answer the prayers of his children in need. Or that he would send us Prophets to help us learn how to cope in a world with more spiritual and physical dangers than ever before. Or that he would personally establish and direct a church where we can be nourished by the word of God and find comfort and aid from other members of the congregation.
He didn´t have much to say after that. So we dropped him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. He loves to read, so maybe that will get through to him.
We had a 2 hour discussion with one lady, the spirit was pretty strong, and it wasn´t like a debate or anything. She was just really stubborn. She doesn´t believe we need prophets, because Jesus was the last prophet and fulfilled everything. We backed up all of our doctrine with scriptures, but she conveniently ignored the points that were against her belief. Although she was willing to read the Book of Mormon.
Wish me luck, 2 weeks of holidays and people that refuse to commit to anything really put a wrench in our timeline.
Love
Elder Nichols
Happy New Year 1/2/2012
Dear Family and Friends,
Happy New Year! We had to be home a little early on the Eve, but we brought some other missionaries over and played Risk. It was great.
I got letters from Chula Vista, the Olivers, and Grandma Cherry, and I am sending responses.
The work has been pretty slow the last 2 weeks due to the holidays, so I’m excited to start off a new year. There is a lot of great advice in the Ensign that really hit home. We have really high goals and expectations of ourselves, and good plans on how to strengthen the members and investigators. I´ll let you all know how it goes. Remember that missionaries love letters and dearelder.com is free for my mission. hehe... hint... oh and don´t use the CCM address or the pouch mail address if you want to send handwritten letters. The Miami address is correct.
That´s all for now!
Elder Nichols
Happy New Year! We had to be home a little early on the Eve, but we brought some other missionaries over and played Risk. It was great.
I got letters from Chula Vista, the Olivers, and Grandma Cherry, and I am sending responses.
The work has been pretty slow the last 2 weeks due to the holidays, so I’m excited to start off a new year. There is a lot of great advice in the Ensign that really hit home. We have really high goals and expectations of ourselves, and good plans on how to strengthen the members and investigators. I´ll let you all know how it goes. Remember that missionaries love letters and dearelder.com is free for my mission. hehe... hint... oh and don´t use the CCM address or the pouch mail address if you want to send handwritten letters. The Miami address is correct.
That´s all for now!
Elder Nichols
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