Still Alive 5/28/12

Dear Family and Friends, So we had a little hiccup down here. Tuesday night the loser of the elections was saying that the other guy cheated and it was all over the news. President made us go home early just to be safe. Other than that the whole quarantine was pretty boring. Nothing happened. Wednesday we had zone conference and Elder Cornish was the guest speaker. He focused on taking an interest in peoples lives and helping them apply the doctrines and feel the spirit, as well as helping understand that the Lord wants them to obey the commandment and not us. Most missionaries just teach the principle and then invite them to obey it, and then we wonder why it doesn´t work. Thursday through Saturday was the usual, and Sunday one investigator came to church, but forgot her 9 year old at home who we are also teaching. I´m just trying my best to keep positive, and we are all excited for transfer calls. Love, Elder Nichols

Update 5/21/12

Hey guys, The streets are tranquilo for now. President said we could use internet to update him and our families. Love you all Elder Nichols.

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

Moms 5/14/12

Queridos Amigos y Familia, Happy late Mothers Day! Turns out that they celebrate it here at the end of the month. I almost didnt call home yesterday hahaha. But it was all ok in the end. The family is doing great. Thanks to Sandy Bredeson and my Cousin Jeanine for the dear elders that I recieved. I will write back soon through snail mail. Thanks also to my other "moms" Sandy Bredeson, Suzie Trepanier, Lydia Morgan, Kay Read, and Kasey Lupton for helping me out along the way, looking out for me,listening to me, and keeping my standards high. I miss you all very much. Andrea already recieved my thanks privately over the phone yesterday, but all the world should know that she is a very special lady with a heart bursting full of charity and service. I don't just say that because she sends me packages, emails, and letters with stalwart diligence, but because she did so much over the years out of love, without obligation. That would be my ideal missionary companion right there. Someone who serves out of love for the Lord, and not obligation to family or peers. Love, Elder Nichols

Ten Cuidado ‏ 5/7/12

Dear Family and Friends, I´ve written a few letters this week for mother´s day. turns out that the american one is sooner than the latino one. Soooo.... my letters will be late. But I promise I did write. In other news, we did this awesome thing where all the missionaries in my zone worked for 2 hours in our ward with the members, visiting less active members and contacting a little bit. Its been raining like crazy so we ended up starting an hour late. All the streets were flooded about 10 inches to a foot, but we were fearless. The natives here thought it was pretty funny to see 20 dudes in white shirts and ties stomping through all the water like a bunch of fools. But then the bishop and his wife joined in. I told her she had lots of courage and she said, this is nothing, covenants are sacred. That made my heart happy. So funny story, and the reason for this weeks subject heading, which more or less says be careful, is that this week I got electrocuted. Did I spell that right? Let me explain. We had went to visit this member a few times who has a big black gate in the front of her house. One day we saw a sign attached to the gate that said, Cuidado, tiene corriente. That means more or less be careful because this has electric current. We understood the vocabulary, but thought it was a joke or something to deter thieves because nothing had happened to us before. So we entered without a problem. Funny thing about this country is that the power goes out a lot because people are always rigging the lines to steal power for free. So one day, when there WAS power, I went to open the gate and got electrocuted up to my elbows for about a second or so. It hurt a little. My companion was laughing pretty hard. Just before I opened it we had a small debate about if we should enter or not, and he said that corriente probably just means that the gate is hot because of the sun. Turns out that somewhere there is a live power line exposed to some rebar or something that is eventually connected to the gate. When the members were trying to close it the night before with a stick there were sparks flying everywhere. I told that story to the members yesterday in fast and testimony meeting. They thought it was pretty funny. I{m sure you can already make the parallel between my story and following promptings from the spirit and other danger signs. Sometimes we get lucky and don´t get hurt. Other times we get electrocuted. In the words of my good friend Mike Neal, Don´t be stupid. It hurts. I love you all. Elder Nichols

Nephi's Bow 4/30/12

Dear Family and Friends, It´s been a rough week that is really trying my patience and such. This is a well needed preparation day. This week in district meeting we talked about the things that keep us from working with the members, and how to resolve them. That was a bad idea hahaha. The complaints just came flying and I didn´t have a good feeling about the tone of the meeting. I thought for a second and the counsel of my old elder´s quorom president came to mind. In the Book of mormon we read about nephi in the desert with his family. Nephi breaks his nice steel bow, and they can´t hunt for food. The dad, and prophet, lehi complains. The older brothers complain. It falls on Nephi, the youngest, to take some initiative and he makes a bow and arrow by hand. But then comes the most important part. Not only does he take the initiative, but then out of respect for his father he goes to the prophet and asks where he should go to find food. He doesn´t say, hey you need to man up and fulfill your responsibilities! He comes with an attitude of problem solving, and a desire to work together. We applied this example to ourselves and how we can approach the members better. I have also come to the conclusion, and bore my testimony to my district accordingly, that we are not called on the mission to fulfill our desires, goals, and dreams of the mission. A missionary or anyone else in the church who wishes to serve cannot do so by himself. No man is an island to himself. It doesn´t matter if i am one hundred percent obedient and fulfill my every responsibility if others around me are falling. We must look outward and lend a helping hand. We must sustain one another in word and in deed. The Lord called his people Zion because they were of one heart, and one mind. We are not missionaries to fulfil our desires and pride, but to serve and meet the needs of other people. This is the ultimate design of the holy priesthood, the authority to act in the name of the Savior Jesus Christ. We must forget ourselves, and serve as he serves. I say serves because I know without a doubt that the Savior was resurrected and is guiding His church personally. Let us not forget this great fact, that He lives! Let us also remember that amidst all the revelations, doctrines, scriptures, arguments, accusations, or whatever it may be, that there is one simple and beautiful promise given to us in this Church. That we may know the truth of all things, through the power of the Holy Ghost, if we will but pray and ask the truth of our Heavenly Father. This is no other declaration so simple or bold. I know this Church is true, and I know that God knows it too. That is how I can promise, in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, that He will reveal this to the heart of the sincere seeker of truth. Elder Nichols

Numbers Don't Lie 4/23/12

Dear Family and Friends, Well, another transfer down. We got the call last night and my entire district is staying put. I´m grateful for that because we are all really close. So as part of my calling as District Leader, my missionaries call me every night to check in, but also once a week with their numbers. Then I report to the Zone Leaders, and they to the Assistants to the Presdent. I´ve been doing this consistently for 6 weeks now, writing it all down and what not. So yesterday after weekly reports something told me to make a graph of my districts efforts this transfer. So I added up the numbers, grabbed my colored pencils and my ruler and got to work. About an hour later I had a pretty good lookin graph.... sort of. It showed me something that I knew, but didn´t fully realize. The types of numbers that we can do by ourselves were really high. This was contacting, new investigators, and normal lessons. But the numbers that are affected by the ward, such as when they give us a referral, or accompany us in a lesson, were kinda low. You might say so what? Well, my district had 2 baptisms last transfer. I learned that it doesn´t matter how hard one individual, or one missionary companionship, is working if they are not working with the ward. The secret is.... The job of the ward is not to help the missionaries. The job of the missionaries, is to help the ward. We report to you. We teach your friends and family members. We help you spread the gospel. You stay in the area after we leave. If the ward does not want to spread the gospel, the missionaries will find little, if any success. If the investigator is friends with the missionaries, they will go inactive after they leave, unless someone in the ward has developed a friendship and love with them. Our own conversion is not enough. We should not be satisfied or content when we have done the work for ourself. That is selfish. That is like eating a giant chocolate cake all by yourself. What´s the first thing Lehi did after tasting the fruit of the tree of life? He called out to his family and friends to partake as well. Alma tells us in chapter 36 of his own conversion, and that afterwards, he labored all of his days to convert others. The salvation of God´s children through missionary and temple work is the most important and sacred duty of all of us. EVERY member a missionary! I fully realize that everyone has family, work, and callings to provide for. But the Savior has said in Mark 8 that those try to save their life will lose it, and those that lose their life for His sake, will find it. If we try to save our time to do the things that we want to do, we will be lost. But if we do the Lords will, we will find peace, and true happiness. There comes a point in everyones life where they make the decision to serve Christ, and to give Him their will and time. This is the most critical decision that one could make. I have seen, that upon making this decision, every other decision is easy. We end up obeying the commandments, not because of obligation, but because of desire to serve our Lord. So after I made the graph, I prayed for guidance on how I can help the ward better, and encourage them. 3 hours later I found myself in a Priesthood Executive Committee with all the major leaders in the ward, and one from the stake. At the end the spirit was prompting and and placing scriptures in my mind. The spirit was so strong I couldn´t deny it and couldn´t sit there and pretend like I wasn´t supposed to say something. So I got up, talked about my graph, shared the scriptures the spirit gave me, and the bishop even backed me up. Then we made appointments to visit investigators and less active members together. There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord answered my prayer and gave me the opportunity and words necessary to fulfill His will. I had faith that He would. I had a sincere heart and real intent. It was a powerful experience. I love you all, Elder Nichols

Navigation 4/16/12

Dear Family and Friends, This week was good. I learned a lot about working things out with my companion and listening to him. I got to interview some people for baptism, so we did a lot of companion exchanges. In one exchange I was looking for a scripture and Elder Rodriguez just looks at me and says Matt 19, verse 29. Turns out it was exactly the scripture I wanted. I had the words, and he had the citation. He told me later than he had no idea what it was going to say, the numbers just came to his mind. This week I want to share a spiritual thought about my dad. i know its a little early for fathers day, but i want to share it while its still in my mind. Some of the best stuff i learned was when my dad didn´t even know he was teaching. My dad is a Navigator. Under the sea that is. My step mom will probably say that on land he is hopeless without his GPS, but under the ocean he is good. In fact, he is so good that he can drive a multi billion dollar submarine in the darkest abyss without windows. Its no wonder he loves the story of the Jaredites traveling to the promised land in the Book of Mormon. I remember watching my dad prepare navigational charts for hours on end, making corrections to old maps and plotting future courses. Then, at some classified depth, my dad opens up these charts while someone looks through the periscope. Depending on what they see above, they know where they are and can make small, frequent course corrections. So maybe now it will mean a lot more to you all when I share that I always tell my investigators something that my Dad taught me. He says ¨If we don´t know where we are going, we won´t end up where we want to be¨ The Gospel is a lot like this. We need frequent, small course corrections throughout our life. It is much easier to make these smaller corrections than to crash and repair a damaged life. Through prayer, scripture study, and church attendance, we can look up through our ¨periscope¨ to heaven and see how we are doing and what we need to change. Remember, it is easier to prepare and prevent, than to repair and repent. I love you all. Elder Nichols

Guerra de las Chichiguas! (War of the Kites) 4/9/12

This will be a short one. I've been pretty busy with companion
exchanges, district meetings, interviews with president, on top of the
normal mission life of finding and teaching.

Today we are going to let off a bit of steam by making kites. Then we
are going to have a war. It should be great!

We have a baptism on Saturday, then one more the following Saturday,
assuming she passes her interview.

Mercedes, this weeks baptism, is a great lady. Her daughter is a
member which is cool, because she has support from her. She told us
that one of the reasons she knows the church is true is because we
listen and are so patient with her and explain stuff so that she can
actually understand it, and we're not just preaching to be heard.

Another guy is Billy, he doesn't speak Spanish, so we teach him in
English, even though he lives in a different area. I can still have a
normal conversation in English, but when it comes to teaching, its
SOOO hard not to do it in Spanish.

We also decorated cookies for easter, but I forgot my camera this week.

Btw, the office secretaries told me to let you know that for
"dearelders" you should select the option that says "dominican
republic santo domingo EAST". Not sure who is trying to send me
stuff, or to what other mission hahaha but now you know. Not santiago,
not west, not mtc, but EAST.

Thanks a ton. Love you all.
Elder Nichols

Conference 4/2/12

Dear Family and Friends,

Not really sure what to write hahaha. my brain is completed exhausted from conference, and there is really no way I could write in this one letter all the things I learned and felt. Not to mention what I am learning from my companion, the spirit, investigators, and calling as a district leader. However, I would like to share an experience I had last night.

After conference we went to visit a less active brother who told us he would go to conference after our last lesson. He recognized that he has promised us, and gave us his reasons for not going. I listened for a long time, nearly an hour, as he told me about how his wife went to conference but he didn´t, how other members of the ward had offended him, about how he hadn´t been doing anything wrong but others break lots of commandments, and much, much, much more. I did my best to listen with love and listen to the spirit and ask an inspired question. I asked about his marriage, and if his wife knows he loves her. he said yes, but then described all their arguments and other problems. I asked if he thinks Christ knows he is a Christian, and he said yes, declaring that he has never lost communication with God.I think he probably prays to God to fix everyone else, but I don´t think he is listening to what God may be trying to say to him. Personally, every time i recieve personal revelation, the spirit is telling me what i need to do to better myself or my circumstances, such as getting to work cleaning my house instead of just asking the office elders to move us to a different one.

A different problem is that his outward actions are not reflecting his supposed inner commitment. he is not allowing his knowledge of the gospel to penetrate his heart and shine forth through his countenance and behavior. it is one thing to know the gospel is true, and yet entirely different to be true to the gospel. He is a good guy that is very nice to us and loves to let us share some scriptures, but the scriptures are absolutely useless, nothing more than inkblots on scratchpaper, if we don´t apply what they contain. My friends, we must be the change we wish to see in the world.

Elder Nichols