Subject: Baptism This Week (We Hope!)

Date: January 27, 2014 8:54:14 AM PST

There wasn't toooooo much interesting stuff that happened this week so I don't have a ton to write about (Sorry). All is going well here although the temperature just dropped from 60 to 10 last night so its a little chilly now. We actually did have a decent amount of success in terms of missionary work which is super exciting. Ive come to learn that Sunday's are either the best of days or the worst of days for missionaries. Basically, its great when you have investigators and less-actives that you've been working with for the whole week come to church. This week we did pretty good in that department with 3 Investigators and about 7 Less-Actives. On the other hand, Sunday's can be pretty horrible when the none of the people you've been working with show up so you feel like your week was a little wasted. Hopefully I don't have too many of those haha.

So we did set another baptismal date for a guy named Manuel that we've been working with for a few weeks. He actually studied to be a preacher or something at a university for 4 years so he pretty much knows the Bible front to back. He loves reading and learning more and he's actually been reading the BoM, D&C, and Teachings of the Presidents. His big road block with us is that he feels that he needs to read and learn more (which is understandable) before he is baptized so the his baptismal date (15 Feb) is pretty generous I think. So hopefully we can get in some good teaching appointments with him and get him a little more committed.

We are having a baptismal service this Sunday for Marcos Evangelista :D He is a super awesome humble guy, probably about 65 years old, and he's super excited to be baptized. We need to teach him a little more this week but he is pretty much set to go. Elder Sanchez and I are super excited for him. He lives in a house with a Less-Active named Esteban (same age) who is super excited to be going to church again too. Its a win win because Marcos has an awesome fellowship and it looks like the two of them will be really active members :D

This week I studied a lot about prayer and got a pretty cool thought. I was reading Mosiah 24 which talks about the people of Alma getting enslaved by the Laminates. The Laminates wouldn't let them pray to God so the people of Alma "poured out their hearts in prayer". I've always been taught to always keep a prayer in my heart but I never really understood how until pretty recently. I've found that during teaching lessons I pray when I'm not talking that I will know what to say and what to teach. I pray while we are walking that we will be able to find someone who has been prepared to hear the Gospel. I pray while I'm studying that I can find a way to answer the questions of investigators. It's really amazing the blessings and guidance you can receive when you really do have a prayer in your heart. I've learned that as long as you keep that gate of communication open with Heavenly Father, he will continue to answer your prayers. He really is just standing up there, waiting to bless and guide you in all that you do. You just have to be willing to keep a prayer in your heart and strengthen your relationship with him. Again, if you want to see where I got the thought its in Mosiah 24:12-16.

So thats pretty much all for the week. Nothing really super exciting. I do get to start driving this week so we will only have to walk/bike every 2 weeks now which is good. Hope you all are doing great :D Happy Baptism to Jackson too. I'm proud of you bud ;) Anyways, Love you all.

 Love

    -Elder Nyholm