Sent: Monday, June 16, 2014 9:12 AM
Subject: 6 More Weeks!

 

Well, this week was transfers and I found I have at least another 6 weeks here in Independence Mo in the Hill Park ward with Elder Parry. I thought that you only had 2 transfers in a row with your companion if you were training or if you hated your companion. I love serving with Elder Parry and I thought the feeling was mutual but now I'm having second thoughts about what he is thinking hahaha. But no really, we work great as a companionship and are trying to be more and more effective every day.

 

Funny story of the week. I was sharing a a spiritual message after dinner at a member's home this week. My message was centered around how we can protect our families from the influences of Satan but I was trying to relate a story about the Lamanites attacking the Nephites. Anyways, I asked 9-year old Sam Olsen who we are fighting against since there are no Lamanites. He immediately yells out "The Catholics!". His dad had a pretty hard time explaining to him that Catholics are great people and that we are really fighting against Satan and temptations in our lives. Just something that made me laugh this week.

 

On a more spiritual note, yesterday during ward council the ward clerk Brother Cato shared a really great spiritual thought. About 6 years ago he had some serious health problems and ended up having 2 heart surgeries within 10 days of each other. He got through them fine and was planning on taking a vacation with his family withing the next few months. One day he was sitting on his recliner with his 3-year old son Max and Max asked him "are you going to swim with us while we are on vacation Daddy?". Brother Cato told his son "I can't swim right now". 3-year old max replied "Daddy, I will hold you". How many people do we see each and every day who can't swim through the trials that life brings to us and need someone to hold them. Each one of us is here, as a servant of god, to hold those who stand in need of help, comfort, support, etc. As Mosiah 18:8-9 says, [we should be] "desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and [be] willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and [be] willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places". I hope that as each one of us goes throughout our day that we will look for people who may be struggling and think the words of 3-year old Max, "Daddy, I will hold you".

 

Nothing super interesting or new has happened this week. It has just been a great week of teaching and bringing others closer to Christ. I hope you all have a great week! I Love You!

 

  Love

     -Elder Nyholm

Sent: Monday, June 09, 2014 7:47 AM
Subject: Its that time again.

 

This week I get to find out if I will be spending another 6 months in the Garden of Eden or no. I really hope I get to stay here because I love the ward members and the people that we are teaching. Elder Parry is also a great companion so I'm not to keen on getting a new companion either. Since I love the area so much I will probably get moved though, so I guess I'll just hope for the worst and then be pleasantly surprised if I get to spend another transfer in the area.

 

Hahaha if I were at home during church this week I would be laughing. Dad as the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric? Now at least he will have to stop doing so many projects around the house and have to focus on other stuff that won't allow him to fall off a roof or chop his fingers off. That's always a bonus huh? Anyways, congratulations Dad! Have a great time and remember to follow the spirit. The Lord qualifies those that he calls.

 

Well, I found out that Kansas City is like Disc Golf Central. Last week Elder Parry and I bought a few disks and went and played on P-Day. I was super nervous because we went straight through some poison Ivy looking stuff. Part of the course was in the forest so I was sure that I was going to have Poison Ivy, ticks and chiggers up the wazoo but we all got lucky and I guess the plant wasn't poison ivy after all. And I got extra lucky and didn't get any chiggers at all. Everyone else got a few. I guess I don't taste too good.

 

Well, we had Stake Conference this Sunday and it was awesome! First Stake Conference I can honestly say that I have ever enjoyed, probably because I am a missionary. The adult session was all based on Hastening the Work (I think everyone's probably is) and it was just a great spiritual meeting. One quote I really liked was that "The Savior reserves the full measure of His spirit for those who are fighting on the front lines". It just really stuck out to me because those that are constantly sharing the Gospel will constantly feel the influence of the spirit. If we feel like we need to feel the spirit more in our lives then we should fight for what we believe in. Go on team-ups with the missionaries. I can promise that you will feel the spirit there. Invite your friends to ward activities or other church meetings and TESTIFY of the blessings that you have received from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Give Christ a reason to provide you with the guidance of his spirit. You never get something for nothing.

 

Mom sent me a nice big box of cookies this week. It really helps me to not have to spend money on food. I just eat 2 cookies for breakfast, 2 cookies for lunch, a dinner with members, and 2 more cookies for bedtime snack. It's perfect! I figure that the cookies have pumpkin in them so they should be healthy enough to eat all the time :D Dont worry though mom, I try to eat something else healthy every day, so you can still send me more cookies if you want.

 

That's it for the week. I'll let you know if I get transferred. Have a great week. Love You All!

 

    Love

        -Elder Nyholm

Sent: Monday, June 02, 2014 8:14 AM
Subject: Super Quick Great Week

 

This week felt like at flew past even quicker than normal because we e-mailed on Tuesday last week. That, and we had a pretty decent teaching week. It wasn't nearly as good as we would've liked but its all good because we had a few investigators come to church which is really the most important indicator of whether our teaching is being effective or not. So yeah, pretty exciting week in terms of getting people to church. One of the other reasons that we didn't get as much teaching in as we would have liked is because we had a service project every other day or so. I figure that service projects are prime times for finding people who will be interested in the Gospel because they can see that we actually provide the service instead of just walking around and talking about it. There are always people watching us, they can see the differences that we make in the lives of others.

 

I'm a little sad this week because my District Leader is getting sent home because of health problems :/ He leaves today so it's a pretty big downer. He's probably the best missionary that I've seen out here and he's been the best example to me out of any other missionary I've met out here so I'm really bummed that he's leaving. On the plus side, he should be able to come back in about 4 months when he gets better so I'll get to see him again. He will also be out the same amount of time as me when he gets back so we will leave our missions together which is pretty cool.

 

There was one quote that I heard this week that I thought was really good. It's that if you live as you should "Others will know Jesus Christ by knowing you". That really stood out to me because as missionaries we have the name of Jesus Christ written on our chest all of the time. But even more important is that as members of the Church we should each have the name of Jesus Christ written upon our hearts as we promised that we would when we were baptized and as we take the Sacrament each week. Because we have that name written upon our hearts we should be standing as witnesses of Christ in all times and in all places, acting as he would in all that we do. And as we do that, "Others [truly] will know Jesus Christ by knowing [us]".

 

We did have one really entertaining service project this week. Elder Parry and I had to move a refrigerator all on our own because the people we were moving it for are old and couldn't do it themselves. So we get this fridge outside and into a little trailer and the old man starts driving away with it and we are following him. It was a great sight to watch because the road was pretty bumpy and that refrigerator was getting some pretty good hang-time. I was pretty surprised that it didn't fly right out over the edge of the trailer, especially as he went over the railroad tracks at about 35-40 mph. Pretty fun to watch. We followed at a pretty long distance...

 

That's about it for the week. All in all it was a great week that went by waaaaaaay too fast. That's good though. Have a great week everyone. I love you guys!

 

     Love

        -Elder Nyholm