Elections 5/19/12

Dear Family and Friends, This week I’m writing on a Saturday because after church tomorrow we have to go straight home and not leave until Tuesday morning. This country is having it´s presidential elections, and if you learned anything from Elder Glenn´s letters, you would know that elections in 3rd world countries aren´t the safest thing hahaha. This week was pretty boring. Many of our appointments fell through, so we spent a lot of time searching for new people and setting up appointments with them. Finally, yesterday we taught an investigator named Carlos. Not only did he read the folle to we gave him, but he proceeded to teach us about the restauration and how Joseph Smith received the Aaronic priesthood from John the Baptist, and later the higher priesthood from Peter James and John. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. So of course we invited him to be baptized and he said yes. Nobody will be at church this week because everyone has to travel to other cities to vote. But hopefully he comes next week. He has a lot of animo, a wife, and 3 kids. Three other investigators we have are kind of at a standstill. They just won´t accept a fecha. They come to church and keep meeting with us and learning, but won´t commit to anything. It´s tough. I had a positive experience with an Elder in my district. President is making us bring our area book to district meeting so that the District Leaders can review them. We´re going on 3 weeks now and one Elder has still not written a single Teaching Record. According to his records, he has done nothing for 2 transfers. I´ve done intercambios with him, conducted baptismal interviews, and much more, so I know that he is working. He is a great Elder with a strong testimony, he just doesn´t like the paperwork. So I ended up having to pull him into another room to have a private interview with him. I could have been upset with him for ignoring his duties and my previous requests that he start writing in his records, but I never felt that was the right thing to do, or even necessary. We started with a prayer and then I thanked him for his love for the work and for the other missionaries. I asked if he understood what I had asked him to do, and what happened to obstruct that. I testified of the purpose of record keeping and being organized, and showing to the Lord how we take care of our part of His vineyard. I never once felt angry at him, and he admitted that he felt ashamed and apologized of his own free will. I learned a few things from this experience. First of all, it is very important that we are accountable to somebody. Thomas S Monson has said, and I’m indirectly quoting from Preach My Gospel, that when we track our progress, it improves. When we report progress, the rate of progress improves. We are all accountable for our actions and must give report to somebody, at least the Lord. I also learned the importance of our agency. Micromanaging is not an effective approach in this life. We leave invitations to do what is right, and people are 100 percent free to choose what they want to do. Third, the importance of love while exercising the priesthood, serving others, and correcting if necessary. I always had a good example of that from Bishop Oliver and Dirk Epperson. Hope everything is going well in the states, and the world at large. Love, Elder Nichols