General Conference Weekend

Dear family,

I heard about the BYU/Aggies game. I'm glad to hear they managed to win. It's hard to be a Cougars fan sometimes.   I've definitely learned that over the time I've been out here. A part of that has been me learning to be more outgoing and talkative around people.   I've made a few pretty good friends here in the mission field already.

I'm going to miss the snow and skiing a lot - and cider making too. I'll miss grandparents too. But it'll all be there when I get back, and I think I'll be able to enjoy it all the more having served a mission.

I loved General Conference!  I have to say I really enjoyed Elder Uchtdorf's talk from the priesthood session, possibly the most out of any of them. I also liked President Holland's. I spent most of Conference taking notes on all of the talks. It's surprising how much faster that weekend goes by in the mission field!

We haven't been eating dinner with members much lately, which stinks. Since we're a branch we get juggled around between the English speaking wards every month. This month the ward has been pretty lazy about getting us signed up for anything, so we've been eating at home a lot.  Usually we play basketball on p days, but I like soccer a LOT better. I'd forgotten how much I used to like playing.  

Interviews with President Weston are next week. It won't be anything unusual, just a few minutes of talking and then back to work.

Foreordination is actually something that I had been wondering about. Sometimes I wonder why I've always had things so easy. I don't feel like I've ever experienced a really hard trial, and I've always had everything I needed thanks to you guys. So I guess that's just something I need to figure out. I know that I've been greatly blessed though, and I want to live up to that.

I've recently started reading the Bible all the way through for the first time because I feel like I don't know it well enough - especially when investigators talk about it. I want to be able to connect it to the Book of Mormon because, like Dad shared in his mission experience, there are times when you need scriptural knowledge there and then in order to teach.

I'm doing pretty well. There are good days and bad days, but I know that time will keep going by fast.

Love,

Elder Nichols