Sent: Monday, January 13, 2014 10:15 AM
Subject: What week is it now?

 

So I've started to lose track of the weeks here now. I can't keep it straight what week I'm in just because they are going by too dang quick haha. This week was especially fast for some reason, not really sure why. Anyways, its about 45 degrees out now so its pretty stinking warm. I'm loving it haha. I'm going to go get a bike today so that I can stop walking around everywhere.

There were two big highlights of this week. The first was meeting John Daylag. He was converted in May of last year but works Sundays so he can never attend church. He still reads the Book of Mormon every day during his lunch break and pays his tithing at every paycheck so he's really an awesome guy. I think its crazy that he has that much dedication when he can't even attend church on Sunday. Oh, and he's a cook so If we go to visit him we get food which is always a bonus haha. The other Highlight was the Diaz Family. We have been teaching them basically since we got here. They have been taught but lots of other missionaries too but the best part was that she told us "I know that the Book of Mormon is true". For a missionary that's just about the best thing you can hear from an investigator other than if they tell you they want to be baptized. So yeah, we are pretty excited about their family. I'll give you an update if anything else happens with them (cross your fingers).

We had a scary moment this week too. We were standing on a corner this weekend waiting for the other elders to pick us up with the car to bring us for dinner. Some super drunk dude came over and asked us what we were doing on the corner. I was a little nervous because he had his hand in his coat like he had a gun (which I'm almost positive he did) and we told him that we were missionaries and that we had a message about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Well after we said that he looks down the street and gives someone a thumbs up. Then he asks us "You guys wanna get killed?" We were like, "noooooo... but thank for asking?" Then a dude in a Cadillac drives up behind us and just chills there in his car and the drunk dude tells us "You can't stand on corners here or you're going to get killed". Soooooooo... we walked away really fast and luckily were OK. Anyways, we won't be waiting on any more corners in Kansas City I guess :o

So the thing that has really hit me this week spiritual wise is that faith requires action. Everyone we teach we ask them "do you have faith? Enough to move that picture in 3 seconds?" They always say that they can't move the picture with their faith. So we say that we have faith to move the picture, Elder Sanchez counts to 3, and I pick up the picture and move it. The thing is, faith without works is dead. People always say that they have faith in Jesus or God or whatever but then they don't attend church, pray, read scriptures, etc. We can have faith in miracles but we will never receive miracles until we show our faith by working our hardest to bring about that miracle first. We just need to remember, God will always bless us AFTER all that we can do.

Dad asked me if I thought that service was a price we pay to receive a testimony/conversion. I don't know that exact way to answer that but I guess it goes along with my little spiritual thought. People can't become converted/gain a testimony unless they work to gain that conversion/testimony. However, I wouldn't really call it a PRICE we pay since we are really just getting more blessing because of it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that yes, service is something we must do to receive a testimony/conversion but it should be something that we enjoy, not a price we must pay.

There's not really much else that I have to talk about. I got a cold last night so its really a bummer but hopefully it will go away quick. Other than that, all is well here. It's warm. The work is going good. We are meeting people. What could be better? I hope that all is going well for all of you at home :D Love you all :D

Love

   -Elder Nyholm