The Dengue. 11/5/12

Dear Family and Friends, Greetings from Higuey. The temple trip was great on tuesday, even with our fevers. President Hernandez took one look at us and sent us to the mission doctor across the street. He told us we likely had a fun disease that one gets from mosquitoes called Dengue Fever. So we did some blood tests and sure enough, it was Dengue. They can tell because it lowers the platelets in the blood. They say the desired number is between 150,000 and 400,000. I was at 51,000. President made us stay with him and his wife that night, and then they told us we could not go back until we were better. The next day the Dengue hit us pretty hard. Fever, body aches, migraines, vomiting, rashes, loss of appetite, and no energy for a grand total of 7 days made quite an adventure. I lived this week off of lots of gatorade, a couple bananas, crackers, and an almost comatose amount of sleeping. President Hernandez, Sister Hernandez, and Dr. Shaver all had close eyes on us. We did lots of blood tests and took a ridiculous amount of acetomenophen. I am feeling much better now, but still dont have much energy. We still have direct orders to take it easy. However, I learned something fun. Even when we arent happy we can still have peace. I did my best to maintain my good attitude, prayers, and study, and I was still able to feel the companionship of the Holy Ghost. I also got a letter from a recent convert saying that her husband wants to come to church! Also that her son Jose, also a recent convert of mine, went to the temple to do baptisms. That made me happy. Take care my friends. Elder Nichols

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

No electricity but the Spirit still energizes. 10/22/12.

Dear Family and Friends, This week has been nuts. We haven´t had electricity for 10 days now. I even washed my clothes by hand. That was exciting. The biggest news, and the only thing really on my mind, is that our Hindu investigator Yerdis came to church with his wife and 2 kids. They read scriptures in class, made comments, and even sang the hymns better than some of the members. It was an honor to sit with them in sacrament and enjoy the primary program with them. We have an appointment with them later in the week, but it appears to me that everything is on track. They always have good questions, they read in between visits, we him and his wife together, and it is just amazing. I felt the spirit pretty strong with them in church, in fact stronger than in any other meeting. I hope they were able to feel that too. We also got a reference from a member that lives in Bavaro. His name is Wellington and he lives here in Higuey. we were finally able to make contact with him and set up an appointment. We visited him last night and he told us that he used to belong to another church, but it just didn´t make the impact on his life that he had been hoping for. So we taught him the first lesson and he was just floored. Had no idea anything like this existed. It was great to see such a response from someone who understands the gravity of our message. Well I´m off to write a few letters by hand. Our temple trip got moved to next week, and we are all super excited. With Love, Elder Nichols

The Right Place. 10/15/12

Dear Friends and Family, So in first place thanks to Ryan, Sandy, Briana, Sheldon, Janine, Annaliese, and Natalie for the letters. I was shocked to receive so many. It was well worth the 3 hour bus ride to the capital. My companion is now a district leader and had to go for a training meeting. The assistants told me to go with him because it was too far to go alone. Your letters mean the world to me. Think of this, letters are so important that Moroni included letters from his father in the Book of Mormon. Most of the new testament is letters from Paul. My favorite letter was from Natalie. She reminded me that our Patriarchal Blessing is the best protection we have against Satan. So I went back to my own blessing and decided to really study and mark it up like my scriptures. I learned a ton. I see my blessing in an entirely different light now. I have been reminded of who I am, why I am here, advice for trials, my future blessings and how to obtain them. Thank you Natalie. I needed that reminder. Never underestimate the power of your own testimony. The photos are of district meeting last transfer where Elder Baker snuck in some water guns and hosed us. Then afterwards we did a human pyramid. There is also a cool sunrise and my ugly mug to prove it was real and that I was there. Then a motivational yet confusing poster in our house, and finally some pictures of the Catholic Basilica. In other news, the Lord led me to some pretty cool people this week. On our way back from a zone meeting in La Romana we sat next to this kid named Alex. He tried talking to us in english but we were pretty tired so we kinda blew him off. I felt a little bad about it. A few minutes later he asked a simple question and the spirit told me to talk to him, so I did. Naturally I eventually turned the conversation to the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We exchanged phone numbers and he called us two days later. Come to find out he has had a lot of similar trials that I have had and we talked a lot about family and finding a relationship with our Heavenly Father. We have a return appointment. Lesson learned, its good to listen to promptings of the spirit. We were also visiting a recent convert this week, and I heard someone playing an electric guitar. Anyone who knows me can rightly assume that we contacted the man. We found out that he is Hindu. Not sure if I said that right. But its a religion from India. He was born Catholic and converted. I played a little guitar for him, we talked a bit and put a return appointment. He was there again and we talked for about an hour and a half about the similarities in our religions. He is a very humble guy and wants to learn more. Who knew that all those years of loud rock music would pay off? Final thoughts. I have learned that the Bible is not common ground, it´s a battle ground. I have had very little success trying to prove that we are right with the Bible. As Joseph Smith once said, paraphrasing, that every pastor interpereted the same passage of scripture so differently that finding the truth with an appeal to the Bible was impossible. I have seen this problem first hand. Instead of trying to prove that we are right, I have left my Bible at home and have been fearlessly testifying of the truth with Book of Mormon in hand. The mission manual Preach My Gospel says that Every man is eventually backed up to the wall of faith, and there he must make his stand. I believe John Taylor once said that when people come up to us and say that we are not like them, we should say ¨We know it. We don´t want to be. We want to be like Jesus¨ So my friends, don´t be afraid to stand up and stand out. Nobody can disprove your testimony. No earthly knowledge can fight against a spiritual confirmation from the Lord as to the truthfulness of the Restored Gospel. Love, Elder Nichols

More pictures. 10/15/12

More pictures, cont. 10/15/12

Deja vu 10/8/12

Dear Family and Friends, This week was Elder Thornocks birthday. So at midnight we put a bunch of balloons in his room, lit some heavy duty man sparklers, and shot glitter through a couple different fans aimed right at him. It was great. He said that he was so confused, and he thought the room was on fire. When the glitter hit him he thought it was sparks. We got the whole thing on film and pictures. After scaring him to death we through him a snickers bar and cleaned up the mess. In other news, I hoped you all enjoyed conference. I sure did. We posted up in the secretary´s office with the sofa from the foyer and tons of snacks so we could watch comfortably in english. It was great. Saturday was great and I took lots of notes, but the magic happened for me on Sunday. In order to fully explain I include a quote from my blog in August 2011 entitled ¨Going to work in Santo Domingo¨: ¨I've had quite a few interesting spiritual experiences as well. For instance, we watched a video of Elder Holland speaking to the Provo missionaries about a year ago. At the end he talked about the last chapter of John, in which the Savior has died, and the apostles (I literally just typed apóstales and had to delete) went back to the only thing they really new how to do, which was fish. The whole night they don't catch a single thing, and then the Savior comes on the shore (but they don't know its him) and tells them to cast their net on the other side of the boat. They catch so many fish that they can't haul in the net, and John immediately says "it's him" and Peter just jumps overboard. Eventually after they eat and what not Jesus asks Peter 3 times if he loves Him, and if so, then to feed His sheep. Elder Holland put it this way "I've already asked you to cast down your nets and follow me once, and now I'm doing it again. Don't make me do it a third time. If you TRULY love me then feed my sheep. You can't turn around and go back to life the way it was before" When I heard these words I swear it felt like Elder Holland was right there in the room speaking as if it was just a Personal Priesthood Interview with him and I. Those words went straight to my heart and I was flooded with the spirit. I have been praying every night as hard and intent as I can, telling the Lord I love him right before I close. So when he said that I just knew it was meant for me. Not to mention that my bishop had in a sense already told me to "cast down my nets" a few months ago, and I kind of gave up, a bit like Peter and the apostles. Hearing Elder Holland was a bit like a chastisement from the Lord, and reminded me of my duty. My nets are gone forever. I can't turn back.¨ So if you were paying attention in conference you will know that sunday morning Elder Holland gave almost the exact same talk. Why is that such a big deal to me? Because that talk changed my life. The spirit was electrifying. The Lord Jesus Christ is ever aware of me, my needs, and my prayers. He inspired Elder Holland to give that same talk again because he knew that it would mean something to me. How do I know? Because of the way I felt. I wasn´t thinking ¨Hey! I´ve heard this talk before. Guess I can take a break from my notes and get a snack¨ Nope. Not at all. I was locked in. It was like the spirit had me in a vice grip. Especially when he said ¨Why are we having this discussion again?¨ That hit me hard. Now I realize that this might not mean much to many of you, but I want you to know that it meant something to me. The Lord knows how much I love Elder Holland and his passionate speaking. He knew I would be watching closely and listening to the spirit. He knew how much that talk meant to me the first time I heard it. He knew I needed it again. I testify to you my beloved friends and family that Jesus Christ lives, and He knows us. He goes after the one lost sheep, wherever it may be, to the rescue. For all I know the Lord could have inspired that talk simply for me and nobody else. It wouldn´t surprise me. I prayed in faith for the guidance I would need this conference, and I received a miracle. I don´t know what the Lord has planned for me after the mission, but He has seen fit to powerfully remind me that this mission is just the training ground for the rest of my life. That the missionary commission is for life, and is supposed to change my very being. I am supposed to BE a missionary, not just serve a mission. The Lord expects me to show my love through my loyalty to Him at all stages that follow in my life. I declare just as boldy as Elder Holland, that I love the Lord, and I know He loves me. With my hand to the plow, I will not look back. Elder Jared C. Nichols

Faith to Find. 10/1/12

Dear family and friends, Well this week went well. I gotta tell the funny stuff first and then get to the serious testimony later. Today some guy came to our house from the power company and told us he was shutting off the power becuase we hadn´t paid the bill. Well we aren´t in charge of that because we transfer so often, but we joked around with him while the other elders called the housing office. Turns out the housing elder had the receipt on his desk and everything and there was just some mix up in the system. I´m not entirely sure. The funny part came after. The power guy came back up the stairs and said ¨um... i don´t know how to tell you guys this, but you need to call that other guy back and tell him that your landlord downstairs is stealing power from your house. The reason your power bill is so high is because her meter doesn´t even have a cable connected to it. She is plugged into the meter for your house, and I can see that she is using two air conditioners and those use a lot of energy. ¨ All four of us just started laughing. My companion called the housing elder back and told him the story and I heard ¨wait...WHAT?! HOW?!?!¨ hahahaha. It would probably be a different story if she was robbing me personally, but for now I think its pretty funny. Its just kind of a normal thing that happens here, I wasn´t the least bit surprised when he told us. Anyways we have 4 or 5 people that are progressing. One is a really humble guy named Marino. The lesson started with him saying that the Book of Mormon isn´t inspired of God. After that we had one of the best lessons I have had on my mission. It was completely guided and inspired by the spirit. I know because it was very different from my normal method of teaching. I just felt like taking a different approach. Instead of just giving him the information or trying to prove that its true, we led him to the answers. It´s hard to describe it, but we kind of helped him convince himself that it was true. At the end of the lesson he commited to read from the Book of Mormon to answer a few questions he asked us, then actually read it. Then he explained it to us. Then he came to church yesterday. Needless to say I have been trying this new approach and we have been having more success. Something very similar happened with a guy named Fierro. We helped him answer his own questions, taught frequently with the scriptures, and you could just see the wheels turning as he discovered pieces of the truth forming. I have never seen someone so excited to come to conference this weekend to see if President Monson really is a Prophet. Another large portion of my thoughts is directed towards having the faith to find people to teach. There is a lot of discouragement in my house. They aren´t finding good people to teach, and haven´t had a whole lot of success in the mission. I don´t pretend to be a better missionary, because I know that baptisms are a gift. But having faith that God has sent us here for a reason and wants us to find these people is a huge source of motivation and success. Joseph Smith received an answer to his prayer because he knew God would answer him. He wasn´t just hoping to recieve an answer or asking to see if it would work. He knew he would receive an answer, and because of his faith, he did. My finding efforts are similar. I know I am here for a reason. I know there is someone here who needs me. I know God is a lot smarter than we are and can guide people where he wants them. God is not a failure. His work and Glory is our salvation and exaltation. Trust Him. He knows what he is doing, and will never ask you to do something that would hurt you. It might hurt your pride, and maybe even kill the natural man inside you, but your spirit, character, wisdom, honor, intelligence, and virtue will grow exponentially. Love, Elder Nichols

No hay un título chistoso ‏ 9/24/12

Dear Family and Friends, Well this week we had interviews with president and everything is in tip top shape. I always go in really nervous and come out feeling great. President Hernandez is a man of few words but he is one of the nicest and I have a lot of faith that he is guided by the Lord. Its only the fourth time in 14 months that I have ever been able to talk to him face to face. Other than 3 or 4 quick phone calls from him, the majority of my guidance has been from the scriptures, the holy ghost, and prayer. It´s interesting how when we pray the way we are supposed to we end up aligning our will with his and know exactly what we should be doing. I have heard a lot of people say that their mission president changed their life and that they were so close. My experience with my mission president so far for me has been like going to the doctor for the regular check up. On the other hand, my elders quorum president, bishop, and stake president are the ones that did open heart surgery when I was in critical condition. I owe them a lot and am ever grateful for their firm examples of love and inspired counsel. Even though I only mention those who had priesthood keys and stewardship over me, there is still a long list of other faithful friends, family, and members of the church who have supported me at great cost. They know who they are and their reserved placed in my heart. There isn´t much more going on. We are focusing on finding as well as preparing for general conference. I am so excited you don´t even know. The words of living prophets and apostles for missionaries are like a Justin Bieber concert for a 12 year old girl. Very emotional and occasional tears. hehehe. Well I love you all and hope that you are doing missionary work. I will say it again. We as elders are called to teach people correct doctrine and help them through the repentance process. The members are called to bear their testimony and be faithful friends. The mission of the church is 3 fold. Perfect the saints. Preach the Gospel. Redeem the Dead. We cannot be perfected if we have not developed the charity necessary to reach out to our neighbors or ancestors. God loves all of his children very much, and we should not be so selfish as to be content with our own salvation. Be brave my friends. Be valient. Remember your baptismal covenant to be a witness of Christ in all times, in all things, and in all places. Be bold and without fear in spreading the restored gospel. There is no salvation without it. I promise that the Holy Ghost will guide you. I know, because he has guided me. Jesus Christ Lives. He is personally guiding His own church today. He speaks to His living prophets and apostles. The Holy Spirit has frequently testified to me that they are called of God. No man and copy, imitate, or falsify those feelings. I testify with all my heart, conviction, and honor that this church is true, before the presence of unseen angels as well as the all seeing eye of our Eternal Father, in the name of Jesus Christ. Elder Jared Christopher Nichols

Finding 9/17/12

Dear Family and Friends Well the last 3 weeks have gone by pretty fast. We are starting to spread the word about general conference and get people interested. This week in church we had 3 investigators. Elder Hubbard and I were pretty happy about that. There have been more and more people just falling right into our hands. Maybe the Lord is helping us out a bit because our area is so big. For now we are just focusing on being obedient and positive. This is the Lord´s work, and He is not a failure. Today I wrote a bunch of letters too, so keep your eyes peeled. Love, Elder nichols