Sent: Monday, February 23, 2015 8:26 AM
Subject: Still in KC3 - Belton

 

I'm glad that you got the package that I sent home and that Dad is enjoying his new tie. I'm also glad that you had fun reading through my journal haha. Yeah that was probably a pretty interesting experience but I'm sure that you get a lot more information from that than you do through my weekly e-mails. So hopefully when I wrote in there I included mostly positive experiences (although I know that often I only write in it because I'm having a bad day so...). Hopefully I will be able to keep myself from collecting anymore stuff so that I don't have to send another package home haha.

So I didn't get transferred. Elder Monroe got transferred over to Ottawa Kansas (boonies). Now my companion is Elder Young (name comes from Brigham Young's oldest brother). He's from Clinton Utah, likes ceramics and basketball, been out 7.5 months. He took my spot as district leader, which is really nice because now I have more time to study for people who we are going to teach instead of preparing trainings. It's really takes a lot of stress out of being a missionary when you don't have the extra responsibilities of a leadership role. I'll enjoy the time while it lasts :)

Yeah this is our walk week. We have car 2 weeks and then lose it for 1. It looks like it's going to be a pretty cold walk week but I kind of enjoy the walk weeks because we get more exercise and aren't sitting down all day. Also it forces us to rely on the members to bring us to appointments which is a really good thing because then we have members at more of our lessons and also develop better relationships with the members. So overall I think our walk weeks are really a blessing.

That's sweet that Erik got to go into Honduras again. I imagine the accent was probably a little weird for him but it's awesome that he still feels comfortable enough with the language that he can go into the city and talk to everyone he needs to. I speak Spanish so little that I still don't feel entirely confident in talking with the Spanish people without someone else who speaks Spanish. I don't have a Spanish companion either so I'm always on my own when we talk to Spanish people. I guess I learn it faster that way though.

I was actually thinking of making some brownies last week. Then I found out that we don't even have a baking pan so I kind of threw that idea out the window. I guess it was just God telling me that I need to eat more healthy and to stop eating junk. Yeah we do have dinners with our members 95% of the time. My meal menu is Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs and a banana. Lunch: An apple and sometimes white rice w/ hot dogs. Dinner: Anything we get fed. If we don't get fed then I eat the same as I do for lunch. It's a pretty boring diet until dinner but it's cheap and it gets me through the day so it's good enough for me.

This week I was reading in 2 Nephi 4 and verse 35 really stuck out to me. It says "...I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God..." It's a great knowledge for us to know that God is waiting to bless us in our lives. Oftentimes to receive those blessings all we have to do is ask with a sincere heart. Prayer is such a simple principle but often in our lives we go without it because we are so quick to forget that we have a loving Heavenly Father who is willing to help us with our trials. I really like what the Bible Dictionary says about prayer that "As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings." I've come know that God really does hear our prayers and that through our sincere prayers we can obtain the strength and the blessings that God already wants to grant us.

This week we met a member of our ward who drives trucks for a living. I asked him where he drives to and he told me "well this week I'm going to be making a delivery in Livermore California". Not only that but he makes his delivery right next to the go-cart place behind the Lab. I just thought it was super cool that this guy that I've never met before was going basically straight to where I live. Kind of a cool experience for me.

Well that's about it for the week. I hope the rest of the week goes well for you. I Love You!

    -Elder Nyholm

Pictures: Old Companion. Old Companion. New Companion. Old District Leader who just died (went home)