Sent: Monday, April 13, 2015 7:24 AM
Subject: Good News!!!

 

So I'll tell you the best news first. I just found out that on March 14th Dalton Burns (who I was working with in St Joseph) was baptized! We had put him on baptismal date but he didn't quite make it but now he's set to go. I'm so dang excited for Dalton :) Also, while in St Joseph we baptized Kaleb Christman. Well Kaleb was ordained to be a Priest on Saturday and was able to baptize his Mom on Sunday so I am suuuuuuuper excited for them. Good news all over the place this week. It's nice to get that awesome news every once in a while :)

 

This week I went on exchanges in Gallatin with Elder Edginton. We had a super good time and stayed busy. While in one appointment the son of the family drank a raw egg in preparation to work out, which I thought was way nasty. Anyways, they eventually convinced me to try it soooooo, yeah that was pretty gross but not as bad as I thought it would be. I got a video so hopefully I can include that in this e-mail ;) Oh, and Elder Edginton is waaaay good at cooking and inspired me to learn. So I'm going to try it this week. I think I might starve because I'll burn everything but it's worth a shot right?

 

I got the Easter Package. Thank's for the snacks and the letter :)

 

This week we went to a member's home in Brimson MO. She is having problems with "demons". I guess that's what happens when you come to the sticks. Anyways, the Senior Sister Missionaries (S. Killpack and S. Stone) were teaching her a lesson after our talk about demons so Elder Wright and I tracted out the whole town. The Whole Thing! In about 30 minutes... Yeah there are only 63 people in Brimson and I think that the dogs might have been counted into that as well...

 

We had a Zone Conference this week. It was a special one. They gave us gifts. The Tiwi's aka "black boxes". They have GPS tracking in them and send out alerts when you are not wearing your seat belt, speeding, driving aggressively, etc. Anyways, now we have this little nifty box in the truck to make sure we aren't driving bad. The good news is that I haven't had to change my driving since we got it so I think I've been doing pretty good this whole time. Now you can feel like I'm being safe Mom :)

 

Food. We got to go eat at China 1 Buffet this week. It was everything that I dreamed it would be. I look forward to eating there as often as occasion permits. I love chinese buffet. I learned that you pound down all the Chicken and Shrimp you can, then you fill up the empty space with canned peaches, and then the cracks with ice cream. You can get a lot of food down that way and really make sure you get a good deal on the buffet :) If only that would help me gain some weight....

 

Today we are going to Adam-Ondi-Ahman as a zone. It should be pretty sweet especially since B. Lichfield (who knows a lot of the history about the area) is going to walk us around and tell us all the cool stuff about it. So we are pretty excited to do that. Did you know that Adam-Ondi-Ahman is it's own mission and that Pres Monson is the Mission President. Way cool right?

 

I learned last week from General Conference that a testimony isn't for the weak or the quitters. It's hard to develop and keep a testimony. It's meant to be that way. Your testimony will be constantly tried and tested, otherwise it would never be able to grow stronger. I think of Abinadi, who knew the consequences of defending his testimony, who after he had borne his testimony to the wicked King Noah "he fell, having suffered death by fire; yea, having been put to death because he would not deny the commandments of God, having sealed the truth of his words by his death" (Mosiah 17:20). I doubt that as we stand up for our testimony that our lives will ever be put in danger, but I know that there will be those who oppose what we believe and it will be our duty to stand up for our beliefs and to stand as a witness and bear testimony of that which we "have seen and heard and most assuredly believe" (Joseph B Wirthlin). There will be times when we stand alone, are tempted and tried, but I know that as we center our testimonies on Christ that our testimony will become unshakable. "May we ever be courageous and prepared to stand for what we believe,and if we must stand alone in the process, may we do so courageously, strengthened by the knowledge that in reality we are never alone when we stand with our Father in Heaven" (Thomas S Monson).

 

Well I think that is all the news for the week. Make It a Great Week! I love you!

 

    -Elder Nyholm

 

 

Sent: Monday, April 6, 2015 8:24 AM
Subject: Banished

 

Update on how I'm feeling. Great. Except every morning and night a sore throat comes back. It's weird because it's gone during the day. Maybe I snore now that I gained weight? Who knows.

 

About staying in Belton with Elder Young, yeah no that isn't the case. I got moved to Trenton MO (about 10 miles from the Amish town of Jamesport) to serve with Elder Wright. It is 100% Boonies. 6000 people in town, no Walmart, it's a branch, and there are signs on the side of the highway that tell you to share the road with horses and buggies.... Yeah I'm in the sticks. The members are sweet here though and there is a lot of work to be done so I'm excited to be here. Elder Wright is a awesome guy. He's from Highland UT, goes home in 3 months, had a massive stroke when he was 16 for no good reason so he can't use the right side of his body super well. But we are excited to be serving together here in Trenton. Oh and we get to drive a truck here. It's pretty nice :)

 

No I didn't get the Easter envelope yet. It probably got delayed because of Easter. I'm sure I'll get it soon. Remember to send the cookies through Priority Mail or else they will sit in the Mission Office for a few weeks before they get to me way out here in Trenton. And thank you for be willing to send me some cookies and a letter :)

 

With Easter just passing I thought of Ether 12:11 (which I know I've shared before) which says "But in the gift of His Son hath God prepared a more excellent way". I think each one of us could spend a little more time each and every day thinking of the wonderful gift that Jesus Christ is to each of us and how through him we have the opportunity to return to live with our Heavenly Father. I know that as we do this that our relationship with God and Jesus Christ will grow stronger and that our understanding of the Atonement will grow. By the way, if you haven't seen it already (but I'm sure you have) look up becausehelives and watch it. Or go to helives.mormon.org and you can find it there.

 

Jamesport, the Amish town, is in our Branch boundary so hopefully I'll get some good pictures there to show you. I hope you all have a great week. I Love You!

 

     -Elder Nyholm

 

 

Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 7:57 AM

 

This week has gone suuuuuuper well. Definitely one of the more successful weeks of my mission. We were able to meet with the majority of our investigators more than once during the week which really helped them to progress. It was such a great week that we almost didn't even have enough time to see all the people we did need to see. Being that busy feels pretty darn good as a missionary. No time to think about home. No time to be frustrated with your companion. Just 100% focus on the people you are teaching with nothing else on your mind. Hopefully we will be able to keep this up. Time goes pretty darn quick when you are this busy as well.

One of our investigator families works as the docents at the Belton Museum. It's a tiny little museum. I think the coolest display they showed us though was the display for Carry A Nation. I guess a few decades ago her life got pretty ruined because her husband was a raging alcoholic and alcohol ruined the lives of several friends that she had as well. Well as a result, she would go into bars and saloons with a hatchet and just chop up the whole place. So she was a pretty savage lady and I guess she is buried here in Belton somewhere.

We have been working with a family lately who really likes to eat Bacon Explosion (Basically a Beef and Sausage meatloaf wrapped in a lattice of Bacon and then smoked for several hours). So we got to eat some really awesome food. That morning the Ward also put on a pancake breakfast so we were able to get super stuffed that day. Oh and the person who actually signed up to feed us dinner brought us to Chinese Buffet. I think I've developed a hollow leg on my mission. I quite enjoy it :) To be honest, Elder Young and I have started waking up 30 mins early each day so that we can go run 2 miles. Maybe that's why all this food isn't making me fat.

I went on an exchange this week with Elder Torrico, one of the missionaries that I've come to enjoy the most in the mission. We had a sweet exchange together, got invited to a BBQ by a guy we just randomly met. It turns out that this guy just happens to be the son of a guy in Grandview whose wife was a super solid member but who just passed away recently. Actually, Old Keith from Grandview was the one who invited us into his son's home. It was a pretty sweet miracle.

This week I've also had the opportunity to use my Spanish a little bit. There is a Spanish Family that we've been teaching that loves to have us over to feed us. So this week I had a few hours to talk with them and got fed Tacos de Pollo (chicken) y Nopales (cactus), chicken mole, and homemade flan. I think Mexican food has really become my favorite food to eat. I just can't seem to stop eating it when people feed it to us.

As for the planes at home, I gave Dad a lesson on everything before I left. He even made an Excel Spreadsheet to keep track of everything so that he wouldn't forget haha. I guess that doesn't help if he forgot that he made the spreadsheet and everything. He should at least be able to fly his little Champ though. Unless he managed to mangle that one too bad while I've been gone ;)

I Love You Too Asher!!

We as missionaries love to put pictures on the front of our planners so they aren't so dang boring. Well I couldn't find any pictures that I liked in Ensigns or LDS.org so I made my own. I think Paul will recognize the pictures actually...

This week I came across D&C 6:34,36 while I was making one of the planner covers. It says "Fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail. Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." I really love this scripture because it helps me to realize that we never have need to fear or to doubt, God is on our side. If we build ourselves upon a foundation in Christ then no trial in our life will be able to tear down our faith. Many times in our lives we have trials that cause our testimonies to shake and waver, but if our testimonies are founded in correct principals then they will never fail.

 Well that's about all I have to write about. Thank you for your continued prayers and support. I Love You!

    -Elder Nyholm