Sent: Monday, November 17, 2014 8:17 AM
Subject: Two Baptisms!!!

 

So this week went pretty awesome especially since, per the subject, we had two baptisms this weekend!!!!! It was funny though because our ward mission leader was late to open the font so we had to start filling it with buckets when he finally got there and by the time the baptism started the water was nice and cold. Then we had a baptism an hour later so we were going to drain some water and put some new hot water in but Elder Lokeni didn't notice that the plug chain got stuck under the plug so more water drained than was expected so we had to rush to fill it up again for the next baptism haha. It all worked out great though and both Kaleb Christman and Jennifer Bennett were baptized and confirmed the next day in Sacrament meeting :) They are both super excited to be following in Christ's footsteps and to start a new life of dedication to Christ.

 

This week it also got really cold. The first death (snow) has fallen. Its been down at about 10 degrees which is waaaay to cold for a Californian and a Samoan. I don't know how Elder Lokeni and I will survive the winter, but we will do our best. At least in this area we have a full-time car so we don't have to be outside much. I almost think it is worse though because we never get acclimated to the cold so we are always freezing.

 

Zone Conference was pretty awesome but it was suuuuuuper long. We started at 9am and didn't get out until 4:30. Then from there we started an exchange so we had to drive 2 hours from Platte City up to Maryville (kind of a fart-in-the-wind town, about 5,000 people). So it turned out to be a pretty long day of sitting. Speaking of fart-in-the-wind towns, we went to one called Rosendale, population 143. It looks like a tornado went through the town. I've never been in a town with so many stray dogs and so many broken down houses. If you ever drive North from St. Jo make sure you don't blink... you might miss it. There are lots of little towns here actually but we just don't go to them because there is nothing there.

 

This week I read through 1 Nephi 1-3 and a cool thought came to me. It talks about how Lehi leaves Jerusalem and all his gold, silver, precious things, and takes his journey into the wilderness. The cool part though is in 1 Nephi 2:7 "And it came to pass that he built an altar of stones, and made an offering unto the Lord, and gave thanks unto the Lord our God." I thought that was pretty cool because Lehi had not yet seen the blessings which had been promised to him. He had left everything behind, except for his family (also very important subject), gone three days into the wilderness, and the first thing that he did was thank God for his many blessings. I think of our lives and how many times be have trials in our lives and we forget the little blessings that we DO receive and never thank our Heavenly Father for those blessings. I think it's a pretty special subject, especially with Thanksgiving coming up.

 

And about Thanksgiving... It used to be that we gave thanks Thursday for things that we did have and then trampled people for things that we didn't have on Friday. Now I've heard that Black Friday is going to start on Thanksgiving in some stores... I just thought that was pretty ridiculous...

 

So anyways, this week has gone really super great and we are looking forward to another awesome week. Have a good one! I Love You!

 

    -Elder Nyholm

 

P.S. Here are some little funny photos someone sent me. I hope they give you a good laugh :)