The Fever 10/29/12

Dear Family and Friends, Greetings from the D.R. Today is my compañions birthday and we both have a 101 degree fever. Awsome.But our spirits are still pretty high. i got a blessing and tomorrow we get to go to the temple. Thursday we met up with Yerdis and his wife Cecilia. It was an interesting lesson. They believe that Christ was a great moral teacher, but not the savior of the entire world. They say that there are many reincarnated forms of God that have come down to reset karma and save distinct societies. So we read The Living Christ with them. The spirit was so strong. Through tears I testified that Jesus is our Savior. He has always guided us throughout the ages of history, even on two seperate continents. He guides us today through living prophets and apostles, and will soon return to reign personally on the earth. He conquered sin, death, and every trial, affliction, or heartache we could possibly experience. They told us that if they were Christians, they would be LDS. They want to keep reading the Book of Mormon and meet with us to understand it. They always pray with us and are willing to keep visiting the Church. They say its hard for them to convert because they have had their own spiritual experiences in their religion that makes it hard to abandon. I have hope for them, and know that God will reveal to them Jesus is the Christ. Saturday Elder Craig Zwick from the 70 came to speak to our two zones. It was a special treat. He made us promise not to take motorcycles anymore. I am terrified of them so it was an easy promise. He also talked about the importance of mission correlacion meeting, working hard, obediently, and inteligently. No idea if i spelt that right. He also talked about keeping our covenants. The spirit was super strong and it was a great meeting. We all came out so edified. He also told us that since the age has been reduced for missionary service, the mission department in Salt Lake has received almost 12,000 applications. The weekly record used to be 800. These are exciting times. President Hernandez said that the missionwill receive 250 more missionaries, which means most of us will be training very soon. Elder Zwick also told us that when he was on his mission, President Richard G. Scott sent him to bolivia with 3 other elders on horseback to open a new area. Crazy huh? Thats like giving me a rowboat and sending me to cuba. I talked yesterday in church. I was so excited. How funny is that? I seriously wanna be a CES teacher someday, or some other job where i can still live the law of consecration. Anyways I talked about missionary work of course, but with a twist. I started with how we started a war in heaven that has continued here on the earth. Our weapon was and is our testimony. There are casualties in this war, and that is being seperated from the presence of our heavenly father. I talked about how its ok to feel weak or inadequate in sharing the gospel, and that the grace of Christ is an enabling power that helps us accomplish otherwise impossible tasks. Christ has promised to give us the very words we need in the moment we need them. He is our biggest ally in the war. Not to mention that the members don´t have to wrry about teaching gospel principles since that is our job as missionaries. What we need from the members is their testimonies and friendship for the investigators. Finally I talked about the charity that we need to do the work. Charity is the pure love of Christ, and does not seek out her own. The true disciples of Christ have charity, and without it we are nothing. At which point I asked if I love their neighbors and family members more than they do. Is it possible to say you love them so much and be willing to let suffer seperation from God? It was very bold, but I felt the spirit. I prepared so much and could have talked for 30 minutes at least. I got 10 hahaha. So I had to go with the spirit. It was great. I love you all. I hope you are doing well. Elder Nichols