Sent: Monday, July 6, 2015 6:52 AM

 

So we are in our new apartment and I love it. It's so much more clean and big and organized. No ant problem in the bathroom (no matter what we tried those ants would just keep coming into our bathroom in our last apartment). We no longer have the worlds smallest laundry machine so we can wash more than 4 shirts at a time. So yeah, we are really enjoying all the work and effort it took to move into our new apartment.

 

This week was a little slow with the holidays. Everyone seems to leave the small towns and go into Kansas City so there weren't too many people around here to talk to. We were able to visit with Jim B a few times though. He is determined to quit smoking and really wants to be baptized on July 26th so we are looking forward to that and doing everything we can to help him quit smoking. I swear, everyone in Missouri just loves their cancer sticks. And no one can quit using them. I guess that's why some people call Missouri "The Ashtray of America".

 

This week we tried to go do some service with an Amish guy that owns a saddle shop in Jamesport. He wasn't there though so we didn't get any service pinned down. We will probably stop by again this week though and try again. I've heard that it's basically impossible to teach religion to the Amish but I'm hoping that through our service that we will influence the younger generation. There are A LOT of Amish kids that grow up and leave the Amish community when they are in their late teens and early 20's. So we'll see what we can do.

 

Trenton does things a little different I guess. We had our fireworks show on the 3rd of July. Lucky for us, our new apartment is less than a half mile from where they were firing the fire works so we got to watch the whole show even though it was after our curfew. Before the firework show we wanted to go around and talk to a bunch of families but then we realized that everyone was drunk so it wouldn't do any good anyways.

 

We did a lot of special stuff on the 4th of July. My favorite thing we did was.... pulling weeds for a part-member family. I really dislike pulling weeds, especially because we always had to pull weeds as punishment and it was 90 degrees outside and we were in the sun. But we got it all done and set up a fountain outside and now we are going with the family to the Independence Visitor's Center this Wednesday, so it was all worth it. I haven't been to the Visitor's Center in over 6 months and I really miss it. So I'm super excited to be able to bring a part member family there :)

 

On Sunday we ate dinner with the Lichfields. Lucky for us, they live about 5 minutes away from Adam-Ondi-Ahman so they brought us there right after dinner so that we could show Elder Maaelopa around since he had never been there before. It was a pretty fun little visit and I'm super grateful for the Lichfields and their willingness to bring us there.

 

I was reading a conference talk this week called "The Privilege of Prayer" and it said "please believe how very much your loving Heavenly Father wants to bless you. But because He will not infringe upon our agency, we must ask for His help. This is generally done through prayer." It's so important for us to always remember that Faith and Blessing require some work on our part. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much and truly does want to bless us, but as Christ himself says "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek,and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." (Luke 11:9-10) I know that Our Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers and that prayer is an essential step in obtaining for ourselves the blessings that our Heavenly Father is already willing to grant us.

 

Well I think that's about it for the day folks. Make it a great week. I love you!

 

       -Elder Nyholm