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
