Sent: Monday, August 04, 2014 12:02 PM
Subject: Going Strong

 

Well this week went by super extra fast and went pretty swell also. The big blessing this week was that Erika Beccera (who I baptized last week, I think I wrote her last name as Pujols), sister Lily Becerra, got baptized on Saturday! So I got to take a short field trip down to my old area so that I could attend her baptism. It was a pretty awesome experience and it's really a testimony to me that just because we left an area doesn't mean that we didn't leave a lasting impression or effect on the people there. So far I feel like in my mission I've been more a "Planter" but you know, that's perfectly OK with me as long as I still get to see people progress in the Gospel. And so far I've been able to do that so I'm happy :)

 

We met a pretty awesome guy this week. His name is Brother Floden, a less-active member who was baptized about 30 years ago in Germany, lost contact with the Church shortly after his move back here to the United States, and has been learning about the church again for about a year now. Anyways, we met him in the Liberty Jail with another member of our ward and had a nice sit down spiritual lesson with him. Before we really started teaching at all though he was telling us about his life and how he has people at work ask him "How do you stay so happy all the time with all this junk going on around you?". Brother Floden's answer is always "I just say my prayers and drive on". It's really a wonderful testimony to me that such a small thing as saying our prayers every day can make such a huge difference in our life. That is what sets Brother Floden apart from everyone around him at work, the fact that he says his prayers each and every day, acting with faith that God will support him in the trials and challenges that surround him. Just a thought that has kept me going over the past few days.

 

Well the weather has been great but I hear that it is about to start heating up real good, up into the 90's. Its really a bummer because this week we won't have a car so we are going to be frying outside all day. But we are going to be doing a 2 car to 3 companionship rotation so we will have the car during the (hottest) last 2 weeks of August which is good. I know there are missionaries all over the world who have it a heck of a lot worse than I do but I'm not going to lie, I'm glad I'm not in their shoes right now. I'm really grateful to be able to have a car hahaha.

 

So I don't know if anyone has heard the (not so) latest church news. I guess every missionary in the USA should have an iPad as a teaching aid and to help better organize ourselves by the end of the year. Something cool that we get to look forward to. Man we really are some spoiled missionaries...

 

D&C 18:11-13;15

"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God; For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him. And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance. And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth. And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!"  I read this the other day and it's just been on my mind ever since, especially the parts that I put in Bold. I think every day we have a lot more opportunities to "cry repentance" unto the the people than we realize. We really do "cry repentance" through our actions and the example that we put forth to others. And how great will be our joy when we pass through this life and see all those people on whom we have made a positive impression, who we have helped to return to live with their Heavenly Father. Just something that I think each one of us can do, to look at our life and see how we can set a better example for those around us so that they can find happiness in the Gospel just as we have.

 

That's about it for the week. There was more that I wanted to write but I don't remember what any of it was. That's what happens to me every week. I think my brain doesn't work with that stuff to well because all my memory is being used to remember the names of all the families in our Ward. Well... check back again next week.

 

Love you all! Good luck with the move Becerra Family. Should be fun ;) Have a great week everyone!

 

    Love

       -Elder Nyholm

Sent: Monday, August 04, 2014 12:02 PM
Subject: Going Strong

 

Well this week went by super extra fast and went pretty swell also. The big blessing this week was that Erika Beccera (who I baptized last week, I think I wrote her last name as Pujols), sister Lily Becerra, got baptized on Saturday! So I got to take a short field trip down to my old area so that I could attend her baptism. It was a pretty awesome experience and it's really a testimony to me that just because we left an area doesn't mean that we didn't leave a lasting impression or effect on the people there. So far I feel like in my mission I've been more a "Planter" but you know, that's perfectly OK with me as long as I still get to see people progress in the Gospel. And so far I've been able to do that so I'm happy :)

 

We met a pretty awesome guy this week. His name is Brother Floden, a less-active member who was baptized about 30 years ago in Germany, lost contact with the Church shortly after his move back here to the United States, and has been learning about the church again for about a year now. Anyways, we met him in the Liberty Jail with another member of our ward and had a nice sit down spiritual lesson with him. Before we really started teaching at all though he was telling us about his life and how he has people at work ask him "How do you stay so happy all the time with all this junk going on around you?". Brother Floden's answer is always "I just say my prayers and drive on". It's really a wonderful testimony to me that such a small thing as saying our prayers every day can make such a huge difference in our life. That is what sets Brother Floden apart from everyone around him at work, the fact that he says his prayers each and every day, acting with faith that God will support him in the trials and challenges that surround him. Just a thought that has kept me going over the past few days.

 

Well the weather has been great but I hear that it is about to start heating up real good, up into the 90's. Its really a bummer because this week we won't have a car so we are going to be frying outside all day. But we are going to be doing a 2 car to 3 companionship rotation so we will have the car during the (hottest) last 2 weeks of August which is good. I know there are missionaries all over the world who have it a heck of a lot worse than I do but I'm not going to lie, I'm glad I'm not in their shoes right now. I'm really grateful to be able to have a car hahaha.

 

So I don't know if anyone has heard the (not so) latest church news. I guess every missionary in the USA should have an iPad as a teaching aid and to help better organize ourselves by the end of the year. Something cool that we get to look forward to. Man we really are some spoiled missionaries...

 

D&C 18:11-13;15

"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God; For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him. And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance. And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth. And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!"  I read this the other day and it's just been on my mind ever since, especially the parts that I put in Bold. I think every day we have a lot more opportunities to "cry repentance" unto the the people than we realize. We really do "cry repentance" through our actions and the example that we put forth to others. And how great will be our joy when we pass through this life and see all those people on whom we have made a positive impression, who we have helped to return to live with their Heavenly Father. Just something that I think each one of us can do, to look at our life and see how we can set a better example for those around us so that they can find happiness in the Gospel just as we have.

 

That's about it for the week. There was more that I wanted to write but I don't remember what any of it was. That's what happens to me every week. I think my brain doesn't work with that stuff to well because all my memory is being used to remember the names of all the families in our Ward. Well... check back again next week.

 

Love you all! Good luck with the move Becerra Family. Should be fun ;) Have a great week everyone!

 

    Love

       -Elder Nyholm

Sent: Monday, July 28, 2014 10:17 AM
Subject: Another Week of Change

 

Soooo a lot changed this week. A lot a lot. So I'm opening an area, Shoal Creek Valley. It has only been a ward for 4 weeks so I'm kind of repeating what I did in the Hill Park Ward. The Elders that were here before (about 2 or 3 months ago) were a bit disobedient and got pulled out of the area so we are dealing with trust issues from the members in this ward which is hard. On top of that I'm training a new missionary (Elder Drinkall, who just happened to come out with Elder Fillerup as well... seriously, the names are no joke) which is a pretty new experience in and of itself. But so far it is going well. Bummer part about the area is that there are pretty close to zero Spanish speakers around, which is weird because 5 of the 8 missionaries in our district are Spanish speaking missionaries. So to answer your question mom, yes this week is full of new stuff.

 

Hey, Erika Pujols was baptized the day before transfers and she actually asked for me to baptize her so that was a great experience. We had started teaching her but then turned her over to the sister missionaries a little while back. Hopefully her little sister and her two friends (who have been attending church for about a month now) will follow suit. Pray for them :D

 

Mom, you should definitely take up Dustin Prusso on the invite to learn about the climbing gear and work at "the wall". That way you can come outdoor climbing with Paul and me ;)

 

On cooking catfish, we cooked some up a few weeks ago for a District Picnic. We got the fish a little wet and then put it in a dish of zataran (I think is what it was called) and then fried it and it came out REALLY good. Might be something for Dad to try in the future if he plans to cook catfish again. And the tortillas with cinnamon sugar are really good also. The Spanish members in Kaw River made them for Christmas so we had a lot of those. I agree, they are pretty delicious.

 

The thing that really stuck out to me in my studies this week comes from Moroni 10:3-5. Everyone knows that it's Moroni's promise that if you Read the Book of Mormon, Ponder it in your heart and Ask God if it is true then Heavenly Father will answer your prayer so that you Know that it is true. I think it really applies to a lot more than just knowing the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon though. I think that same principle can be applied to any situation or question that we have in our lives. We have to Read/Study/Listen/Act in some way so that we can put forth our own effort and show our determination to find out what we want to know. We then need to Ponder the matter in our hearts, really see how the things that we have studied/read/heard can apply to our lives and our situation. After all we can do we then ask our Heavenly Father to assure us that the decision that we plan to take is correct. The Spirit of God will then let us Know through feelings of  "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (as talked about in Galatians 5:22-23) if the decision that we have made is correct and at that point we really will have obtained knowledge. So I guess the goal is to see what situations or questions we have in our lives that we can apply to this pattern.

 

Well that's about it for the week. So far everything is going great here so we will just keep on keeping on and working hard. Have a great week! Love you all!

 

    -Elder Nyholm

 

Here's some pictures.

 

1) Erika's Baptism;

 

2) Great-Grandpa>Grandpa>Father>Son (Elders Christensen>Sanchez>Nyholm>Drinkall);

 

3) Elder and Sister Haws. Elder Grzan and I are the only missionaries who they have picked up from the airport. They finish their mission in about 3 weeks.

 

Sent: Monday, July 21, 2014 8:57 AM
Subject: My Birthday Week

 

Yes mom it was a pretty swell Birthday celebration. And yes the members here are awesome. I think that there are at least a few that will be sad to see me go (since I'm probably getting transferred on Thursday, I find out for sure on Tuesday). It sure does feel good to be loved in the ward where you are serving though. If the ward members don't like you then it'll probably be a pretty rough time haha. Yes I got 1 "I love old people shirt" (the black one is on backorder) and BANG, and a care package, and the lialda. Thank you for everything :D

 

The 19th of July was pioneer day and of course they do it big here in Independence MO so we had a pretty good celebration. The Polys in our ward cooked up a nice big 260-300 lb pig for lunch so that was a pretty nice sight to behold. We got there too late to see the thing whole because Elder Parry and I were busy at a "training meeting for trainers" which brings up the next point... yes I will be training a new missionary this coming transfer so yeah... that should be an experience. But hey, I'll attach some pictures from Pioneer Day.

 

That's awesome that Brady gives people wet willys now. Way to go Andrew :D

 

I remember saying something a while back about how useless I thought planning was since we never ever get to follow our plans anyways. Well, Sister Erikson who is about to go home on Thursday said something during our District Meeting that kinda hit me. She said "Life is all about how you handle Plan B". Now that I think about it, life never ever goes how we want it to or how we plan for it to. We just have to trust in God and work with Plan B. I guess what really matters is what Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:7 "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith". Really it doesn't matter where Plan B takes us, as long as we remain firm in the faith of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

Oh and by the way, we had turned 2 of our investigators over to a set of sister missionaries about 2 or 3 weeks ago because they are girls. Well, we have a baptism scheduled for Wednesday night now for Erika Pujols, and her sister and friend aren't following too far behind. So that was our bit of exciting news for the week. And for whoever looked at that last name and thought of Albert Pujols (the baseball player), yeah they are second cousins or something (which I've heard is a bit unfortunate).

 

But that's about it. Everything is going great. Love you all! Have a great week!

 

    Love

         -Elder Nyholm

 

 

 

 

Sent: Monday, July 14, 2014 8:38 AM
Subject: Interesting Week

 

This week went really well and really interesting. Generally we have a district lunch after our district meeting but everyone was too cheap to go to TacoBell or whatever so Elder Parry and I cooked up some catfish fillets that we got from an investigator that we are teaching. We had helped him a few weeks before to clean the fish so that was a fun experience and since we helped him he just gave us the fillets. We weren't really sure how it would turn out but it turned out waaay better than we thought it would and was super delicious. So we had a nice district picnic which was pretty fun.

 

The other day I was walking out of our kitchen and saw this little black thing run across our floor and went "Darnit Elder Parry. I think we have a mouse...." That led to a nice 30 minute mouse hunt, which also led to a mouse getting squashed under Elder Parry's shoe. So hopefully that was the only mouse in our apartment, but I have heard the term "if there's one there's many". We'll see.

 

Independence is also going to be on TV soon! For what you might ask? For a few episodes of COPS. I'm pretty glad that I'm inside at night haha. Maybe the reason that they came here for the show is that Independence was the Meth capital of the world 3 years ago. Fun Fact for the day.

 

This week was a little bit of a bummer for us. We had a lot of investigators getting really close to baptism but 2 of them are gone out of town for a few weeks, the other 2 have parents that arent motivated enough to get them to church or activities (Even though they themselves are members....) and we had to give 2 more to a different set of missionaries. So now we have this little tiny teaching pool that we are trying to build back up. Hopefully by the end of this week we will be rolling again.

 

A scripture that Elder Parry shares a lot that I've come to really appreciate is 2 Timothy 2:3 "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ". It's interesting to think about because when we think of war heroes and soldiers in our lives we think of men and women who were willing to risk their lives "when the times got tough and the bullets started flying" for their comrades so that their comrades would be able to return home to live with their families again one day. Within the church we aren't asked to risk our lives for those around us, but we are asked to provide service to all those in need. And what is our end goal. Our end goal really is to make it possible for others to return to live with their families, not just for this life, but for eternity. Sometimes its hard. Sometimes we come up with a million different excuses of why we shouldn't go over and help someone in need. But our charge is to "endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" and provide the way for those around us to live with their families for eternity. Good soldiers don't make excuses, they are exactly obedient to orders of their captain. So onec again, "serve the Lord, He is our captain".

 

That's about it for the week. Hope All is well. Love You All!

 

    Love

      -Elder Nyholm

 

 

 

Sent: Monday, July 07, 2014 9:39 AM
Subject: Happy 4th of July

 

We had a super awesome week this week. On the 4th of July we had welcome interviews with our new mission president, President Vest. Right after that all us Elders went over to the CoC (Community of Christ; Formerly RLDS) Auditorium to be ushers for a George Dyer Concert. It was super awesome because we had permission to stay and watch the concert. Something other than MoTab sounds really good after that is all you've heard for 8 months haha. Especially when you have permission from the Mission President to listen to it. So after the concert we had to be at home at 9:30 right when fireworks started. It just so happens that they do the fireworks right across the street from our apartment so we got to watch the firework show also, which was a pretty nice treat. Most missionaries couldnt see the fireworks from their apartments so we are pretty lucky that we got nice front row seats in our drive way. So yeah, 4th of July was surprisingly great for us.

 

So in terms of missionary work, we've been teaching a lot of Part-Member families lately. We have about 6 youth that are ready to baptized and have the desire to be baptized, the problem is that their parents either aren't supportive or are just plain old lazy and won't bring their kids to church. It's pretty sad when a returned missionary won't bring his own kids to church so that they can get baptized. That's the way it goes though I guess. So those are the challenges that we are facing right now. Parents... hahaha.

 

I heard a quote this week that I really liked that said "Ability is what you are capable of. Motivation is what you do. Attitude is how you do it". It really reminded me of 1 Nephi 3:6 which says "Therefore go, my son, and thou shalt be favored of the Lord, because thou hast not murmured". I think attitude is one of the most important things in our life that we have the ability to control. It's motivating to me to know that as we follow the commandments of the Lord and do so with a grateful and willing heart, that God will bless us because we have not murmured, which reminds me of another quote I heard this week which says that "When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes a quest, God immediately endows us with power". So again, the attitude that we have towards being obedient to the commandments of the Lord is ultimately what will help us become worthy of the blessings of the Lord.

 

So our neighbors, the Buzards, are in their 70's and not doing so well in terms of health. Anyways, they wanted to BBQ a 16 lb brisket on the 4th of July so we helped them get this huge piece of meat on the BBQ at about 8 in the morning. Then at about 8:45 I look out the window and there are flames coming out of the BBQ so I run outside and Sister Buzard is stuck on her wheelchair ramp because her wheelchair ran out of battery. Anyways, she askes me to put out the flaming brisket so I do and then for the rest of the morning we were putting out flames on this huge hunk of meat because the Buzards couldn't get out to save it due to their health. Well we finally had to leave for good to go to a meeting but at night when we came back Brother Buzard walked up to us and said "The brisket died. It burned and went to Hell". Just a funny moment that I just remembered that I thought you would get a laugh out of.

 

Well that's about it for the week. I hope all is going well for you all at home. Have a fantastic week. I love you all!

 

      Love

          -Elder Nyholm

 

P.S. Here are two pictures that I found that I just really love. Thought you would enjoy them.

 

 

Sent: Monday, June 30, 2014 9:33 AM
Subject: A Bit of Change

 

Sooo this week went pretty great. We are continuing to work with several investigators who are pretty promising, are progressing well and look like they might be getting baptized in the next 2 weeks or so. We've been getting tons of ward support so we have a member at almost every single scheduled teaching appointment that we have, which makes a huge difference in the progress of those whom we are teaching. I have really come to love the Hill Park Ward and I'm pretty worried for when I have to leave because I love the people here so much. But the day will come so I might as well start preparing for it. The big change this week was that we got a new Mission President. President Vest arrived on Saturday to start directing and leading the Mission. So it's a pretty big change for us missionaries. I think time will go by really really quick for the next few weeks as we start getting new instruction from President Vest.

 

Yes Mom, we are on bikes this week. I'm not excited in the slightest. It's starting to get pretty warm here, but worse than that, its starting to get pretty stinking humid. It's always bad when someone gets out of the car and their glasses fog up haha. I figure all I have to do is survive a week and then I get the car again and all is well. Keeping that good positive thought in your mind can keep you going pretty well.

 

We were at a member baptism on Friday and the person giving the talk about the Holy Ghost said a quote I really liked, which was that "God doesn't care where you've been. He cares where you are and where you are going". It was a great thought for me because I think a lot of times when we are called by the Lord to do something we can start to feel very inadequate or unworthy for the position that we've been called to. I think it's just important to always remember that as long as we are doing our best now, and as long as we are continually striving to become better, that we are worthy and adequate to serve in the position that the Lord has called us to. Along with that, President Keyes had us all on a conference call before he left and as a last word of advice before President Vest came in he told us "Serve the Lord, He is our Captain". As long as we serve our Lord, our Savior, our Captain Jesus Christ we will be headed in the right direction. We will be continually improving our lives and the lives of others and we will see the blessings that that service and obedience brings into our lives.

 

Well that's about it for the week. Great week with big changes. Change is good in the mission I think. It really helps to keep us focused and on top of things. So we will see how it goes. Have a great week. Love You!

 

      -Elder Nyholm 

Sent: Monday, June 23, 2014 8:31 AM
Subject: A Great Week of Biking

 

As per the subject, we lost the car this week. We had to share with the other Elders. Sometimes I hate sharing hahaha. But I tell you, biking in rain and thunderstorms really makes you appreciate having a car. This week we get it back so I'm pretty excited :D But even without the car we were able to make some super great progress in missionary work. This week we were able to help 4 people to make the decision to be baptized and to pick a baptismal date in July. They are all super solid people who really want to change their lives and follow the example of Jesus Christ. So yeah, we are pretty pumped this week.

 

Tell Erik that he is free to use any of the RC stuff as long as he doesn't break them :D The RC car is all easy fixes though so He should be fine with that for sure. Mom says no one will fly RC planes without me because they don't think they've got the skills for it. Just fly the flying wing because even if you crash it you can just throw it up and fly it again (usually).

 

I was looking for a spiritual thought to share in a Dinner appointment yesterday and came across Alma 23:6-8. It talks about the Lamanites who were converted unto the Lord by Ammon and his bretheren and says "And as sure as the Lord liveth, so sure as many as believed, or as many as were brought to the knowledge of the truth, through the preaching of Ammon and his brethren, according to the spirit of revelation and of prophecy, and the power of God working miracles in them—yea, I say unto you, as the Lord liveth, as many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away. For they became a righteous people; they did lay down the weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God anymore, neither against any of their brethren. Now, these are they who were converted unto the Lord". It was cool to me to read this scripture because it brings out the importance of being truly converted. There are so many ways that we can help other to become converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ but I think the most important way is to help them to understand how much they are loved, both by us and by God. As they start to comprehend the amount of love that their Father in Heaven has for them, they will start to understand the reasons that we are given commandments, trials, hardships, etc in our lives and understand that those things come to us so that we can become stronger in our faith and testimonies and come unto Christ. I know that as we help those who are struggling or those who are newly coming into the Church that we can help them to become truly converted so that they will never fall away.

 

Elder Nyholm

Sent: Monday, June 16, 2014 9:12 AM
Subject: 6 More Weeks!

 

Well, this week was transfers and I found I have at least another 6 weeks here in Independence Mo in the Hill Park ward with Elder Parry. I thought that you only had 2 transfers in a row with your companion if you were training or if you hated your companion. I love serving with Elder Parry and I thought the feeling was mutual but now I'm having second thoughts about what he is thinking hahaha. But no really, we work great as a companionship and are trying to be more and more effective every day.

 

Funny story of the week. I was sharing a a spiritual message after dinner at a member's home this week. My message was centered around how we can protect our families from the influences of Satan but I was trying to relate a story about the Lamanites attacking the Nephites. Anyways, I asked 9-year old Sam Olsen who we are fighting against since there are no Lamanites. He immediately yells out "The Catholics!". His dad had a pretty hard time explaining to him that Catholics are great people and that we are really fighting against Satan and temptations in our lives. Just something that made me laugh this week.

 

On a more spiritual note, yesterday during ward council the ward clerk Brother Cato shared a really great spiritual thought. About 6 years ago he had some serious health problems and ended up having 2 heart surgeries within 10 days of each other. He got through them fine and was planning on taking a vacation with his family withing the next few months. One day he was sitting on his recliner with his 3-year old son Max and Max asked him "are you going to swim with us while we are on vacation Daddy?". Brother Cato told his son "I can't swim right now". 3-year old max replied "Daddy, I will hold you". How many people do we see each and every day who can't swim through the trials that life brings to us and need someone to hold them. Each one of us is here, as a servant of god, to hold those who stand in need of help, comfort, support, etc. As Mosiah 18:8-9 says, [we should be] "desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and [be] willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and [be] willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places". I hope that as each one of us goes throughout our day that we will look for people who may be struggling and think the words of 3-year old Max, "Daddy, I will hold you".

 

Nothing super interesting or new has happened this week. It has just been a great week of teaching and bringing others closer to Christ. I hope you all have a great week! I Love You!

 

  Love

     -Elder Nyholm

Sent: Monday, June 09, 2014 7:47 AM
Subject: Its that time again.

 

This week I get to find out if I will be spending another 6 months in the Garden of Eden or no. I really hope I get to stay here because I love the ward members and the people that we are teaching. Elder Parry is also a great companion so I'm not to keen on getting a new companion either. Since I love the area so much I will probably get moved though, so I guess I'll just hope for the worst and then be pleasantly surprised if I get to spend another transfer in the area.

 

Hahaha if I were at home during church this week I would be laughing. Dad as the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric? Now at least he will have to stop doing so many projects around the house and have to focus on other stuff that won't allow him to fall off a roof or chop his fingers off. That's always a bonus huh? Anyways, congratulations Dad! Have a great time and remember to follow the spirit. The Lord qualifies those that he calls.

 

Well, I found out that Kansas City is like Disc Golf Central. Last week Elder Parry and I bought a few disks and went and played on P-Day. I was super nervous because we went straight through some poison Ivy looking stuff. Part of the course was in the forest so I was sure that I was going to have Poison Ivy, ticks and chiggers up the wazoo but we all got lucky and I guess the plant wasn't poison ivy after all. And I got extra lucky and didn't get any chiggers at all. Everyone else got a few. I guess I don't taste too good.

 

Well, we had Stake Conference this Sunday and it was awesome! First Stake Conference I can honestly say that I have ever enjoyed, probably because I am a missionary. The adult session was all based on Hastening the Work (I think everyone's probably is) and it was just a great spiritual meeting. One quote I really liked was that "The Savior reserves the full measure of His spirit for those who are fighting on the front lines". It just really stuck out to me because those that are constantly sharing the Gospel will constantly feel the influence of the spirit. If we feel like we need to feel the spirit more in our lives then we should fight for what we believe in. Go on team-ups with the missionaries. I can promise that you will feel the spirit there. Invite your friends to ward activities or other church meetings and TESTIFY of the blessings that you have received from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Give Christ a reason to provide you with the guidance of his spirit. You never get something for nothing.

 

Mom sent me a nice big box of cookies this week. It really helps me to not have to spend money on food. I just eat 2 cookies for breakfast, 2 cookies for lunch, a dinner with members, and 2 more cookies for bedtime snack. It's perfect! I figure that the cookies have pumpkin in them so they should be healthy enough to eat all the time :D Dont worry though mom, I try to eat something else healthy every day, so you can still send me more cookies if you want.

 

That's it for the week. I'll let you know if I get transferred. Have a great week. Love You All!

 

    Love

        -Elder Nyholm

Sent: Monday, June 02, 2014 8:14 AM
Subject: Super Quick Great Week

 

This week felt like at flew past even quicker than normal because we e-mailed on Tuesday last week. That, and we had a pretty decent teaching week. It wasn't nearly as good as we would've liked but its all good because we had a few investigators come to church which is really the most important indicator of whether our teaching is being effective or not. So yeah, pretty exciting week in terms of getting people to church. One of the other reasons that we didn't get as much teaching in as we would have liked is because we had a service project every other day or so. I figure that service projects are prime times for finding people who will be interested in the Gospel because they can see that we actually provide the service instead of just walking around and talking about it. There are always people watching us, they can see the differences that we make in the lives of others.

 

I'm a little sad this week because my District Leader is getting sent home because of health problems :/ He leaves today so it's a pretty big downer. He's probably the best missionary that I've seen out here and he's been the best example to me out of any other missionary I've met out here so I'm really bummed that he's leaving. On the plus side, he should be able to come back in about 4 months when he gets better so I'll get to see him again. He will also be out the same amount of time as me when he gets back so we will leave our missions together which is pretty cool.

 

There was one quote that I heard this week that I thought was really good. It's that if you live as you should "Others will know Jesus Christ by knowing you". That really stood out to me because as missionaries we have the name of Jesus Christ written on our chest all of the time. But even more important is that as members of the Church we should each have the name of Jesus Christ written upon our hearts as we promised that we would when we were baptized and as we take the Sacrament each week. Because we have that name written upon our hearts we should be standing as witnesses of Christ in all times and in all places, acting as he would in all that we do. And as we do that, "Others [truly] will know Jesus Christ by knowing [us]".

 

We did have one really entertaining service project this week. Elder Parry and I had to move a refrigerator all on our own because the people we were moving it for are old and couldn't do it themselves. So we get this fridge outside and into a little trailer and the old man starts driving away with it and we are following him. It was a great sight to watch because the road was pretty bumpy and that refrigerator was getting some pretty good hang-time. I was pretty surprised that it didn't fly right out over the edge of the trailer, especially as he went over the railroad tracks at about 35-40 mph. Pretty fun to watch. We followed at a pretty long distance...

 

That's about it for the week. All in all it was a great week that went by waaaaaaay too fast. That's good though. Have a great week everyone. I love you guys!

 

     Love

        -Elder Nyholm

 

 

Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2014 11:22 AM
Subject: One Day Late

 

This last week was pretty fantastic. We had a mission temple trip which was just amazing. There are ~280 missionaries in the mission so we did the trip in 4 temple sessions. So ~70 missionaries in each one, which is a lot for the little temple over here. This was a "special treat" for the mission because President and Sister Keyes go home at the end of this transfer (3 weeks). We also did exchanges this week so I was with a different missionary for a day which is always a nice change. It was pretty funny because every morning when this Elder wakes up he walks up to the mirror and tells his reflection "You're beautiful. I love you. I forgive you". Exchanges also means that I didn't have to plan one night because I was in his area :) I'm still not a huge fan of planning if you couldn't tell. It's always good to plan... the problem is that a missionary's plans (almost) never happen.

 

Mom, we are going strong with our 4th week with a car. It's a pretty big miracle. And to top it off, I haven't gained any weight since we got the car. I guess sitting is better exercise than I thought. It's only in the 80's here but its getting pretty humid so it's really really really nice to have a car.

 

Funny story. Whenever mom send me a package she always manages to fit in a few packages of powdered Idahoan potatoes. I love those potatoes and I figured that mom must have known it and that was why she kept sending them to me. Anyways, I was making some today for lunch and then I just happened to see some black lettering on the package and I was thinking "hmmmmmmmmm what does that say?" Well I looked a little closer and what do I see? "Use by 3/15/2011" Now I know the real purpose behind sending me those potatoes :D And i'ts OK because they still taste just as good.

 

Lately we have been finding a lot of "Golden Contacts" in his area. We have several people that we are teaching that are progressing really really well. We figure that as long as we keep putting in the effort and work smart that we should always have a few people that will be willing to learn more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, that effort and hard work is really paying off and we are super grateful for it.

 

On Sunday one of the speakers during church said something I really liked a lot which was "[Christ] died for us. But first he lived for us". As I thought about that I really started to wonder which part of Christ's life was the hardest, the suffering that he participated in in order to make it possible for us to be clean from sin -or- the perfect life that he had to live in order to have the ability to perform the Atonement for us. Just a good question to think about a bit.

 

I was studying in the BoM this morning in Alma 60 and I read a few really cool verses. This chapter is about Captain Moroni rebuking the people in the Nephite government for not sending troops and supplies to his armies. So here's what he says in verses 7,11 and 19. "Can you think to sit upon your thrones in a state of thoughtless stupor, while your enemies are spreading the work of death around you? Yea, while they are murdering thousands of your brethren— Behold, could ye suppose that ye could sit upon your thrones, and because of the exceeding goodness of God ye could do nothing and he would deliver you? Behold, if ye have supposed this ye have supposed in vain. Or is it that ye have neglected us because ye are in the heart of our country and ye are surrounded by security, that ye do not cause food to be sent unto us, and also men to strengthen our armies?" It really made me think about our lives and if some of us feel so secure and set in our ways that we feel like we don't need to spend time spreading the Gospel. Our enemies, Satan and his followers are spreading spiritual death around us among our brethren. Are we really worthy to be delivered by the goodness of God if we never put forth our efforts to save our friends and neighbors from the influences of Satan? It's our duty as Christians to help those around us to better their lives and to come unto Christ and to find the joy in their lives that we have felt in ours. Anyways, I just thought that was a pretty cool set of scriptures as I was reading this morning.

 

Well that's about it for the week folks. I'm looking forward to a great week and I hope that you all are also. So have a great one. Love You!

 

 Love

  -Elder Nyholm

Sent: Monday, May 19, 2014 8:12 AM
Subject: Doing Great!

 

This week went pretty fantastic. Mom just e-mailed me and told me about how little you really need to survive. I can agree with that. For the last 2 weeks I've been living off of bananas and cans of tuna fish for breakfast/lunch. Nice and cheap... and quite filling also. We had a nice surprise this week also. It was supposed to be our week with bikes but somehow we got blessed with the rental car for another week, and we get it again this week. So basically we've been getting unlimited miles in a nice 2014 Chevy Impala for the last 2 weeks and we are still going strong haha. Yup, missionaries in the USA are a little spoiled.

 

You said something about Iva doing fire-knife dancing. Did I tell you that I met a 3-year in a row world champion for fire-knife dancing? We went and visited him at the hospital about 2 weeks ago. No he did not cut/burn himself to go to the hospital... he just got bit by a spider.

 

This week we did a ton of tracting which actually turned out to be pretty fun. You meet a lot of, how to I put it... interesting people when you are knocking on random doors all day. So now we have a nice big pool of people to work with which is really nice. Gives us more time in people's homes and less time walking in the street.

 

Elder Parry and I are always trying to find service projects to work on with people. This week we helped an old guy (70's) move a bunch of gravel into his driveway. He's going to pour a brand new driveway but first he's gotta put gravel down so that he can pour on top. It's a long driveway too so he's got about 18 tons of gravel that he still has to move. So that will be a pretty good project that we can help him out with once a week or so. He can't really do the work very quickly on his own so he really appreciates the help and Elder Parry and I appreciate being able to do some nice hard labor every once in a while.

 

Something I noticed in my studies this week. I was reading in Alma 43 which is, as you can guess, about a war between the Nephites and Lamanites. It's pretty cool as you read through because you can see a nice pattern that you see in a lot of other scripture also. Verse 9 = Desire/Purpose. Verse 19 = Preparedness/Action/Faith. Verse 23 = Prayer. Verse 26 = Unity. Verse 50 = Success. So as you go through you can see that fighting against temptation or other bad things in your life always starts with a desire and a purpose. If you don't have a desire to become better and change our lives then we never will. After we develop that desire we act on faith that we can change by putting on "the whole armor of God" though prayer, scripture study, church attendance, etc. That leads to the ability of being able to become united with those that share your same values and those that are fighting for the same cause, which ultimately brings about success. A lot of times we look through the "war chapters" of the Book of Mormon and think "how the heck am I supposed to apply this to my life?". What we fail to realize a lot of the time is that we are in a war. Once you realize that it becomes a lot easier to apply those chapters.

 

Well have a good week. Love you all.

 

     Love

       -Elder Nyholm

Sent: Monday, May 12, 2014 8:35 AM
Subject: Busy Week

 

We had a really good, fun, busy week this week. Our normal car got recalled for a bad front axle so we got a rental car, which meant that we had unlimited miles during the week. We decided that that would be a perfect opportunity to visit every single address on our ward roster and to find out who everyone was. So that's what we did. And every single minute of it was worth it because now we have a big nice list of people who don't live in the ward anymore and also a nice list of people who wished that they didn't live in the ward anymore and who never want to see us again. That was the fun part :D

 

Well I guess the more fun part was that I got to call home for Mother's Day. It was a pretty great treat but it made me realize how short an hour is. That hour phone call goes by pretty stinking quick.

 

Oh... another fun thing that happened this week that I forgot to mention in my phone call. I performed my first baptism this week for a 9-year old girl that Elder Javeloza and I found about 3 weeks ago. Her name is Suhki. Background story. We got her to Church 2 weeks in a row (through a lot of help from the ward) then told the sisters that they should be the ones to teach Suhki since we couldn't go into her house to teach since there is no man in the home. Well, about 20 mins later during Sacrament meeting, Suhki leaned over to the Sister Missionaries and told them she wanted to be baptized. The sisters met with her Monday-Thursday to teach her all of the lessons and get her baptismal interview and yes... we had a baptism. It was a really great miracle and a really awesome experience.

 

Well that's about it for the week. I found a really cool scripture in Ether 12:20-21 "The brother of Jared; for so great was his faith in God, that when God put forth his finger he could not hide it from the sight of the brother of Jared, because of his word which he had spoken unto him, which word he had obtained by faith. And after the brother of Jared had beheld the finger of the Lord, because of the promise which the brother of Jared had obtained by faith, the Lord could not withhold anything from his sight; wherefore he showed him all things, for he could no longer be kept without the veil." So what I realized was just how important it is to have faith. We always learn that with faith we can do all things but we never really hear that by faith we can do all things and that if we have faith that the Lord is required to show unto us the truth of all things. If I were you I would just read the entire chapter of Ether 12. It's really awesome.

 

Well that's it for the week. Love you all!

 

       Love

           -Elder Nyholm

 

 

Date: May 5,2014
Subject:  Talk to you soon!

To answer your questions. We have zone conference once every 2 months. We should have one coming up again pretty soon... or maybe interviews, I'm not really sure because they haven't given us the May calendar yet. Yes I still study Spanish every day. Actually I do all my studies in Spanish so I basically have 3 hours of Spanish study each day. I will call on Sunday at about 10 or 11. It'll be a call via FaceTime from an iPad... I've been gone too long though and don't really know how that'll work out. We'll see. Just make sure you're at McDonald's or somewhere with WiFi or else you won't get to see me ;) Yeah I've still got about 3 weeks of Lialda left. No worries.

 

Oh. So transfers was this week. I lost Elder Javeloza but I got Elder Parry, who is learning Spanish, so I am pretty excited. Elder Parry is from... Can you guess? Provo, UT and his house is right across the street from BYU campus. Pretty cool kid. We are getting along well and working hard so it's pretty good. I think this will be a pretty fantastic transfer. The bummer part is that Elder Manusauloa finished his mission and went home. It's great but it's a bummer because he was one of my favorite missionaries out here :/

 

We went to the Samoan Community Mother's Day Celebration on Saturday (lots of the members of Samoan Community are members, active and less-active). Well we get there and we go around saying Hi to everyone and then they tell us that we gotta eat. So we go to the food table and they have a big old pig on the table and the servers just keep trowing tons of meat on our plate. I think I have dinner for about 3 nights left over. Anyways, we go and sit down by the Tauiliili's to eat and after a little bit Puka gives his plate to his wife and says "Man you gotta get one of these (motioning to his wife). Just eat 'till you're full and pass it off". The look on Sister Tauiliili's face was absolutely priceless. On a side note, mom said that we must spend lots of time with the Tauiliili's. We usually see them about once a week because we are trying to help them prepare to be sealed in the Temple.

 

Quick thought I got during studies. I was studying how to develop and receive a Testimony and I came across Ether 12:6. The part that I loved from it is "dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith". The thing that stuck out to me is that we will never gain a testimony until after our faith has been tried, until someone has challenged that which we believe and tried their hardest to crush it. It was pretty cool to me because there are so many times when we come across people that are totally against our religion and just tell us that everything is a lie and stuff like that. It's amazing though because every time I start walking away from people like that, I feel so much stronger in my testimony after I have defended my faith. So I guess the thing to remember is not to complain about trials that we may have, but instead to welcome them and face them with faith so that we can come out of them stronger than we were before.

 

That's about it for the week. Everything here is going great and I'm looking forward to another great week. Hope everything is going well for everyone at home. Love You All!

    Love

       -Elder Nyholm

Subject: Another Week Goes By

Date: April 28, 2014 8:02:14 AM PDT

Time just keeps flying. I never know where it went. Speaking of which.. Thursday will mark 6 months in the mission which seems kind of crazy for me. I still feel like I just left the CCM. But its good if the time is going by so fast right?

Brother Faitau who has been sober for 2.5 years now and who has not smoked in about 5 months is hoping to be able to Baptize his grandson pretty soon. He still has to talk to the Bishop about it but we have pretty high hopes. It'll be a wonderful experience for him and for the family as a whole. The Faitau Family is one of those families that I will never forget. I love those guys so much and they are growing so quick in the Gospel. They are super strong members now and are really motivated to do missionary work also. We love the Faitau Family. (I'll attach some pictures of them)

One interesting story this week, last night actually. We went to go see a pretty elderly couple (70's). They let us in and I went to go sit down on the couch. Well I sat down and I feel something poking me right in the butt and it hurts pretty bad so I lean over and feel around on the couch and what do I find? A 2 inch long sewing needle still half way in my bum. Well I pulled it out of my cheek and give it to the wife and her husband says "Well at least you found out tonight that we are pretty sharp". He had me laughing pretty hard but I think I still would have rather NOT sat on a sewing needle.

There was a 4-5 year old kid in Sacrament meeting a while back that was really rowdy the whole time. His mom wasn't really getting anything out of Sacrament because her Kid was so loud so she went the Bishop and asked what he could do about it. Well he took the kid into his office for a few minutes and when he came back out he told the lady that it shouldn't be a problem any more. Well for the next 3 weeks her son just slept right through sacrament meeting. The lady was amazed and so she went and asked the Bishop what he did to keep her son asleep all during the meetings. He said, "Oh it was easy. I just ordained him a High Priest"

Don't worry. Our Bishop didn't actually do that. Just thought you might like a nice joke ;) Got that one from Brother Maloney. He also let us know that the punishment for Polygamy is to have two mothers-in-law. That should keep people from wanting to participate in that :D

Something I learned this week that really made me think a lot. "We are not here to earn Heaven, but to Learn Heaven." Our whole life is a learning experience and every step of it is to help us learn how to become more like our Heavenly Father. How to develop more love, patience, humility, faith, etc... And the way in which we can do that is by facing our trials with faith. By depending on God more than on ourselves. By reading the scriptures and praying in order to know which things we need to improve in and change in our lives right now. Just an interesting thought that I heard this week.

So Mom told me about bad weather coming our way. Well... we did have a 50% chance of tornados here in Independence yesterday. You always know its going to be bad when its sunny and warm in the morning, drops 20-30 degrees and is pouring rain, and then warms up into the 80's again. All that temperature change is what really causes the tornados as far as I know. But Elder Javeloza and I have a basement in our apartment so we don't have to worry to much... as long as we hear the alarms :D

So I find out tomorrow what the changes will be this transfer. I've only been here for 1 transfer so I am pretty much guaranteed to stay. It's possible that Elder Javeloza will leave but I doubt that he will since we just opened up a brand new ward. I really hope he doesn't leave because we are doing really good work right now and have the trust of the members as far as we can tell. It's a pretty good atmosphere to be serving in when the members are calling you to volunteer for Team-Ups.

Well thats it for the week. Love You Guys!. Have a great week!

Subject: 1week till transfer 

Date: April 21, 2014 8:14:49 AM PDT

This week went by, once again. extremely fast. I feel like I was just sitting here writing you guys yesterday but nope… it's actually been a whole week :o Real quick, Mom wanted to know if my pants still fit now that I've gained 20 pounds. The answer.... Luckily yes. I know tooooo many missionaries that have had to buy all new clothes since they've been out and one thing I know about myself is that I am waaay to cheap to do that. So either I don't gain anymore weight or I'm going to have some really tight fitting clothes haha. I hope I go with option #1.

 

I don't really remember anymore what happens from one week to the next so it is really hard for me to make these e-mails interesting. This week was just a great week with no really super exciting stuff that happened. I got some mail though (from you too ma) so that is always good haha. We had Easter weekend but it was just like every other weekend because we didn't have anyone to celebrate it with. A member did give us little Easter Baskets though so that was cool :D

 

During my studies of the Book of Mormon lately I've been seeing something that happens over and over again. Basically, the Lord gives people a commandment and they DO IT. Immediately. No waiting, no downtime. Its something that I think everyone needs to work on in their lives because I think a lot of times we get little promptings and we just think "well... I'm busy so I'll do it tomorrow". Tomorrow is too late. The time to act on the promptings of the spirit is now. If you pay attention while you read you will see at least one example of that in every chapter of the Book of Mormon. Pretty cool huh?

 

I'm glad you guys got to see the picture from PukaRu while we were at Sonic. He is actually a returning member and his wife is a fairly recent convert so we see them pretty often. They are one of my favorite families in our ward for sure. I'll have to get a picture with them before I leave so I can remember them. Them and a lot of other families here that I've really come to love.

 

Not really much else to write about. Sorry :/ Anyways... I hope you all had a great Easter and that you have a great week. Love you Guys!

 

  Love

      -Elder Nyholm