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