Sent: Monday, May 4, 2015 6:38 AM

 

Well I'm not quite sure where the week went. It just kind of flew by and now I'm sitting at this computer again writing another e-mail. It kind of feels like I was just sitting here a day or two ago. But here goes :)

 

This week our District Leader (Elder Edginton) taught me how to make BBQ pork tenderloin and fried chicken. So now I can hard boil eggs, scramble eggs, make BBQ pork, baked chicken and fried chicken. I'm really moving up in the world of cooking huh? The only problem is that I "Know" how to do it but I'm not sure if I "Can" do it. Hopefully I'll have a few practice runs this week.

 

Our dinners with Part-member families and investigators went super great. It's not really super usual to have dinner with families that aren't members but I have no shame asking people to feed us so it's kind of normal for me haha. Yesterday we didn't have a dinner appointment so I called one of the families in the ward. The husband picked up and I asked him if we could eat dinner with them. He told his wife that "the missionaries want to eat with us". She picked up the phone and said "Elder Nyholm, you are the only missionary who would ever call for a meal if you didn't have an appointment". I just thought it was funny that she knew it was me rather than Elder Wright before she even picked up the phone hahaha. But man, Sister Bailey does a darn good job cooking :)

 

This week I went on exchanges in Gallatin again. This time I was with Elder McLaws. We had a good impromptu planning session and a few good visits. We had to go pick up our dinner from the family that lives by a huge lake up near Gallatin somewhere. It was a way pretty drive getting to their house. You can actually enjoy your surrounding in the boons I guess.

 

There is a thrift store here that has the cheapest prices I've ever seen in a thrift store. Elder Wright got a really nice suit for $1.25 but it didn't fit him so he gave it to me as an early Birthday present. So now I have a sweet khaki? colored suit. Sister Bailey is letting down the hem for me and then I'll be able to wear it. Not bad for $1.25 :)

 

The Branch put on a Spring Concert this Saturday. The highschool choir was there along with the "Merry Messengers" (a group of four 70+ year old people, they were my favorite by far) and also the Ritchie Family from my ward in Shoal Creek Valley. There was a super good turn out. The chapel was full (granted it is a small chapel because it's a branch building) and the majority of people there were not members of the church so it was a huge success. Next month we are putting on a Polynesian Luau. We're going to roast a pig in the ground and have dancers and all that good stuff so we are hoping to have even more people at the building next month.

 

We also had a pretty good chat with Tobie Ropp this week. He's an Amish guy who owns a store in Jamesport and I wanted to know more about the Amish. Well I've found that if you ask someone who isn't Amish about the Amish you just get a bunch of information that isn't true, so we went in and I picked Tobie's brain about what the Amish believe and why they live the way they do and stuff like that. So now I know quite a bit more about the Amish. I even got him to listen a little bit about the Mormons which I've heard is pretty much impossible with the Amish so it was a good little missionary experience also :)

 

Next week is Mother's Day. Yes I will be calling. I don't know what time yet though. If Elder Wright's parents have church at the same time as you then I will probably call about 1 but I'm really not sure. I will probably call in the morning just to give you a better estimate. But we'll see. It's all subject to change.

 

I've been reading lots conference talks lately (in Spanish to try and keep up on that) from Neil A Maxwell. There are two that I read  titled "Swallowed Up In The Will Of The Father" and "According To The Desire Of Our Hearts". One quote that really stuck out to me was that "To be a man is to desire...what we insistently desire, over time, is what we will eventually become and what we will receive in eternity". We will eventually become that which we desire, so it so incredibly important to desire the will of our Heavenly Father just as Jesus Christ was "led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father" (Mosiah 15:7). If we seek to be like God and to accept and do his will, then in time we will learn and begin to do exactly what he requires of us in order to walk back into his presence. That doesn't mean the road will be easy. "Discipleship is a 'contact sport'". But as we go through the challenges that lay ahead of us with continued faith in Jesus Christ, God will shape us into what he wants us to become.

 

That's all I've got for the week. Talk to you soon. Love You! Make it a great week!

 

    -Elder Nyholm