Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2015 10:30 AM
Subject: Whoops

 

I had written down all the cool stuff that happened here over the last week and then I forgot my planner so now I'm back to square one. It's great isn’t it? I think I remember most of what I wrote down, which still isn't very much but we'll see how it goes.

This week one of our members gave us a big cable machine for exercise so now Elder Monroe and I can actually be motivated to exercise. It was a beast to move into our apartment but now it's there and it's functional so we are pretty excited about that. Maybe we will turn into big muscle men now in the next 5 weeks (hahaha just kidding... have you seen our little spaghetti arms?).

We went on a tour of Liberty Jail with a recent convert and her non-member husband. On the tour there were us 4, the tour guide sister missionary, and one other guy who was really short with black hair. Elder Monroe leaned over to me and asked, "Hey, is that David Archuleta?" I looked at him and it sure did look like him. Well at the end of the tour Elder Monroe talked to him a tiny bit and it turns out that it really was David Archuleta. I guess David doesn't like talking too much though because he really wouldn’t talk to us hardly at all... he was kind of a chump.... but oh well. Just thought that you might think that was interesting.

After who knows how many times going through Liberty Jail I learned something new again. If you stand by the side of the jail so that you are looking through the barred windows, then you are staring directly at the picture of Christ in the exit room. I thought that was pretty cool because we as people seem to focus on our trials a lot when we should really be looking toward Christ despite our trials. You'll have to take a look the next time you visit Liberty Jail.

I did get the cookies on Wednesday. They are super moist and delicious still. They came in the best shape that they ever have. Thank you!

There is a cool scripture in Alma 18:34 that says "Ammon said unto him: I am a man; and man in the beginning was created after the image of God, and I am called by his Holy Spirit to teach these things unto this people, that they may be brought to a knowledge of that which is just and true". I think this scripture is really cool because each one of us has the responsibility to help others to come to a knowledge of the truth and closer to their Heavenly Father. We each have received so much joy in our lives from the Gospel, so why are we sometimes afraid to share it with those around us? I know that as we overcome our fears and our anxieties and begin to share the Gospel with those around us that we will see our lives and the lives of other change for the better, that we will see people have more happiness in their lives because of the knowledge that we have shared with them. I've seen it a lot over the past 14 months on my mission. I've seen it happen :)

Did I tell you that it has been really warm here lately? Like 50 degrees every day for the last week. I haven’t had to wear a jacket at all. Last year at this time is was probably about 20 degrees outside with a foot of snow on the ground. I'm really enjoying this winter a lot better though haha. If we are lucky we will be able to make it out of the really cold months (January and February) without too much bad weather.

So since it was really warm yesterday, we went to "The Plaza" in downtown KCMO and just became tourists for a day because it was our P-Day. It was a pretty cool place and I guess at Christmas the whole place is decorated really nice. We went too late in the season though so all the decorations were already gone. Andy Reid, Member of the church and head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs also lives like 5 minutes from the plaza. Elder Monroe went on exchanges a few weeks ago and got to go in Andy Reid's house. It must be a pretty nice house because it was big enough to have an elevator in it...

That's about it for the week. I hope you like this e-mail a little better than last weeks :) I Love You. Have a great week!

       -Elder Nyholm

 

 

Sent: Monday, January 12, 2015 8:26 AM
Subject: Booted to KCMO, Belton

 

So I got transferred this week to the Belton area of Kansas City 3rd ward. Elder Spencer Monroe is my new companion. He's from Spanish Fork UT, 18 almost 19 (this week), plays basketball, etc... He was in the same MTC district as Ryan Gewondijan which I thought was pretty cool.

Belton is a pretty interesting place. The ward here is super supportive. We have 2 sets of missionaries in this ward, us in Belton and another set in Grandview. I'm still getting used to the place but it seems like it is going to be a pretty awesome area to serve in.

It seems like sickness is going all over the place. There are tons of sick people here and it seems like everyone at home is sick too. Never a good thing.

It's pretty cool that you were able to see that little news article that I was in. I guess our public affairs lady just set that up out of the blue and we just happened to be visiting with my pal Marco Cruz when they wanted to interview us. But yeah, that was a little bit of a surprise being able to do that.

A Scripture I really liked this week is Mosiah 18:21 which says "And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another." I thought this scripture was awesome because it shows the level of love and unity that our Heavenly Father expects of us as followers of Christ. We should always remember that our Heavenly Father expects our absolute best at every time and we should always give him our absolute best at every moment. If we do then we will never fall.

That's really about it for the week. I Love You!

   -Elder Nyholm

P.S. These are the pictures of our (not-so) band. Elder Monroe is the guy with the harmonica.

 

 

Sent: Monday, January 5, 2015 8:06 AM
Subject: Happy New Year!!!!!

 

This week went super awesome. We had a lot of success this week with our investigators. We now have two investigators planning to be baptized this month so we are super excited for them and their desire to follow Christ. We also were able to attend the baptism on Kaylee and Carson Davis in my old area (The Shoal Creek Valley Ward) in North KC/Liberty. It was an awesome service and Kaylee and Carson were suuuuuuuuuper excited. It was also nice being able to see a few of the members from that ward. They are all pretty great people :)

 

Honestly, that's the whole week right there in that little paragraph. Not much else changes out here and it's really hard to put into words the wonderful experiences that we have with those we teach. If you ever want true joy just help one of your friends make a commitment to follow Christ. That's pretty much the most joy you'll ever get (outside of having a baby or something I guess - But I don't really have much experience with that)

 

Our Bishop works at the airport and he was helping to empty the hazardous material vat that was full of confiscated alcohol. Well his coworker didnt screw on the hose well enough so the alcohol kinda sprayed all over him and now his coworkers joke is "Gabe doesnt drink alcohol, he just bathes in it". Well last night we were teaching about the Word of Wisdom and came across a verse that we thought described the situation pretty well. D&C 89:7 "And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies". I hope Bishop Murphy got a good kick out of that when we texted him the reference haha.

 

I heard a quote that I really liked this week from Bishop Murphy. He said that "convenience is not a principle of the Gospel". I really like that because a lot of times we look for easy ways out of hard situations in our lives. What we fail to realize is that nothing good comes easy and everything worth having takes hard work to obtain/achieve.

 

There was a scripture that I read this week that I really liked also. 2 Timothy 1:7 says"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind". Elder Spencer also told me a quote a while back that says "Fear kills dreams". God has given us the Holy Spirit so that each one of us has the guidance that we need to return to live with him. Fear will never get us anywhere in life, but with faith we can work miracles and achieve our highest dreams. 

 

Well that's about it for the week. I hope all is going well for you. Love You!

 

   -Elder Nyholm

 

 

Sent: Monday, December 29, 2014 7:52 AM

 

This week went super well. It was great because we had an awesome Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Day was about 50 degrees and sunny. Can't complain about that. And I found out that Kaylee and Carson Davis who I was teaching about 3 months ago in KCMO/Liberty are being baptized on January 3rd so I’m pretty stoked for that. 

 

It was pretty cool being able to call home and talk to everybody. Definitely the highlight of the week. It looks like everyone is doing great. I didn't realize how big my nieces and nephews are now. They're all super big and different from the last time I saw them. It was fun to be able to see how much they've all changed and grown.

 

So far we haven't had any snow. Everyone was saying during the summer that this winter would be the worst winter Missouri has ever seen. 1) People say that every single year I'm pretty sure. 2) We've only had about 2 inches of snow and very few days with really cold weather. I remember walking in about 8 inches of snow at this time last year. I'm just praying that the rest of the winter goes this smooth. If all goes well we will only have about 2 months of winter left :)

 

I read a scripture I really liked yesterday during my personal study. In 1 Corinthians 4:20 it says "The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power". I thought that was pretty awesome because it really goes to show that without action, any "faith" we have doesn’t really mean anything. The Love that we have for our Heavenly Father is shown by the amount that we serve his children and follow his commandments. Matthew 7:21 says basically the same thing when it says "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." NOW is the time that we can show our heavenly Father our true love for him by being obedient to his commandments and serving those around us.

 

I don't really have a lot more to talk about since I just talked to you on Christmas. Thank you everyone for the Christmas cards/gifts that you sent me. I love you all. Make it a great week and (quote from my favorite senior missionary Elder Atwood) "Give 'Em Heaven"!

 

      -Elder Nyholm 

 

Pictures : 1) How to fill up a font with hot water with short time

                2) The Davis Family and me

 

 

Sent: Monday, December 22, 2014 8:42 AM

 

Hahaha Erik and Dad were in my area. Well two of them actually. They ate at a McDonald’s about 10 minutes away from our apartment and took a picture at the mission office directly across the street from where I lived for 4.5 months. Yeah I liked the pictures haha. So how did you like my areas?

 

You say that eating is the typical Nyholm thing. It's funny because while I've been on my mission I've come to find that it's "feast or famine" so when there's a feast you better eat good. Elder Lokeni and Elder Spencer always make fun of me because I eat more than them (and they aren't small guys) and I'm still not fat (yet). And you never know if a member has dessert or not so I always make sure to eat until I'm stuffed and then if they do happen to have dessert, well heck, there is always more room for dessert. Eating is one thing I've really come to enjoy while on my mission.

 

I heard that Livermore is getting hammered by rain, which is a good thing right? Everyone here asks me if I think California is going to get washed away and just fall into the ocean. I guess it's possible right. i hope that doesn’t happen though. But it's a good thing we have a boat at home I guess.

 

I'm glad that you and Kaitlin invited the missionaries over for dinner. I remember last Christmas we were opening the area and church got cancelled because of bad weather so we didn’t really know anyone in the ward at all. It was a pretty miserable Christmas looking back. All good though. This one we are set with dinners and we actually know the ward :) Remember to ask those missionaries if they have somewhere to call from as well :)

 

Don't worry Mom I will try my hardest not to break my teeth or my ankle while playing basketball.

 

I was thinking about a few verses in Isaiah 53:2-6ish. Just read them. There is a lot that you can pull from those verses. The Atonement has been on my mind a lot lately and how we can utilize it every single day. It's the most important even that have has or will happen. It's a pretty big deal. I think it's important that we all understand it.

 

That's about it for the week. I'll talk to you on Thursday. I Love You! 

 

     Love

        -Elder Nyholm

Sent: Monday, December 15, 2014 9:41 AM

We had a pretty awesome week this week. The highlight was definitely the All Mission Conference that we had. We got to see everyone from the mission and we got to see the Faitau Family because they were helping to prepare the lunch that was provided for us. I got to see my best buds Elder Parry and Elder Lokeni and my parents away from home Elder/Sister Flint. And to top it off, Elder and Sister Seaman brought Elder Spencer and I out to Mama Garden's Chinese Buffet (my favorite buffet in Missouri) because they knew we had a long drive back to St. Joe and we didn't have a dinner scheduled for that night. Oh, and did I mention that we get to drive a Chevy Colorado because our normal car is in the shop being repaired. Yeah, this week was pretty awesome.

 

Last week we played basketball in these super ghetto apartments with a less active young man in our ward and his friends, one of whom we are teaching. It was the best P-Day we've had in St. Joe because we got to play with more than 4 people. Well this week we invited them and some of the youth in the ward to bring their friends and play at the church building so we should have even more people and even more fun today than last week.

 

Bro. Perkinson taught our lesson in Elders Quorum this week and said a pretty funny quote. "Christmas isn't when you spend time with those you love. It's when you spend time with family." I was laughing so hard after I heard that. That guy could be a stand up comedian and we get a free show every single week.

 

You said Adelyn is turning 8. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADELYN! I thought she was ~6 years old..... Just goes to show how out of the loop us missionaries are. Or how forgetful we are of stuff that isn't happening near where we live. One of the two.

 

Last week I shared Jacob 3:1... This week I want to share Jacob 3:2 because it is also pretty awesome. It says "O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever." I've been thinking about that and what it means to "receive the pleasing word of God" so that we can "feast upon his love." I think a huge part of it is our scripture study because the scriptures are literally the words of God that are meant for us in our day. As we learn more about God through scripture study or other means we start to realize exactly how loving he really is to us. Once we are able to understand and comprehend the amount of love that he has for us we can begin to feast upon that love and let it be an anchor in our lives. The knowledge that God loves us unconditionally can start to become that one thing that will keep us going through any trials that we have ahead of us.

 

That's about it for the week. We are supposedly looking forward to some really cold weather and a lot of snow. I'm not excited for it. But whatever, we are on the Lord's errand right? I love you! Have a great week!

 

        -Elder Nyholm