Sent: Monday, March 10, 2014 9:08 AM
Subject: Awesome week!

 

This this week went pretty stinking well. It started off pretty slow but started to pick up a lot towards the end. We got a lot of awesome lessons in with a lot of awesome people, and the majority of them were with members present in the lesson, which is a missionary's dream. We were on bikes though, which always slows down the week a bit. I don't know if I've told you before but Kansas City, Kansas consists of hills, steeper hills and more hills... So riding a bike here really kinda stinks haha. It's super annoying to get to the top of a giant hill and then to see that you have to go down again and then allllll the way back up. So really if there's anything you need to know about Kansas City, it's that the whole place is hills.

Nothing super interesting happened this week. But the week went really fast, which is always good. You know that you've been staying busy when you get to Sunday and can't remember working through the rest of the week. We did get word this week that in the next few transfers we will have 60% Elders and 40% Sisters in our mission, which is a little crazy if you ask me. I've also become really really really grateful for the opportunity to speak Spanish here because about 2 of the 15-20 new missionaries that come in every transfer are Spanish speaking. So yeah, I'm really lucky and blessed for the opportunity to speak Spanish here.

Quick Spiritual Thought: Ether 12:27And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. It's pretty funny but I've noticed lately that I really love finding the areas of my life that I'm weak in. It's awesome because once you find out about your weaknesses you have the opportunity to improve them until they become strengths in your life. But as this scripture says, God will only help us to make our weaknesses become strong if we humble ourselves before him in prayer and ask him for help, having faith that he will actually help us. As I've been reading and studying I've really come to realize that God won't help us with anything in our lives unless we have faith in him first. We don't see miracles in our lives unless we have faith. We don't receive answers to our prayers unless we have faith. We can not receive guidance or blessings from God, not matter how good our intentions are, unless we first have faith. So to me, it looks like it's pretty important to have faith in our lives. If we don't have faith, let's start to develop it. If we do have faith, let's start making it a little stronger. And the way we can begin to build or increase our faith is pretty simple. Pray, study the scriptures, attend church and follow the other commandments of God. We have a promise straight from the mouth of God that as we have faith in him he will make weak things become strong unto us. Let's make our best use of that promise.

Quick funny story. Elder Sanchez has been learning English for about 10 months now. He's basically fluent but every once in a while he can't understand completely. Well a few days ago we were getting ready to leave our apartment for the day and I asked him "You ready yet?". He thought about it for a while and then responded "You're an idiot!". I guess it was one of those instances where he didn't understand completely or heard wrong or whatever and thought that I called him an idiot hahaha. Made me laugh pretty hard. But it's always a good interesting funny time with someone that is learning the language I guess :D

I don't really have to much more to write about. Just that the week went good and went quick. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to write to me every once in a while. It's really awesome to be able to sit down and read what is happening in your lives. I love you guys!

    Love

       -Elder Nyholm