November 4, 2013

November 4, 2013

Dear Family,

Great to hear from you this week!

I have a miracle to share: 

We went to visit Manuel for the second time on Saturday, and started off our meeting after the prayer by asking him if he had any questions. He said: "Yes, where's your church?" (This is all in Spanish). We explained to him that the branch meets in Orland - about 20 miles away. He paused for a minute, and then said: "Well, I've ridden my bike to Hamilton before (about halfway to Orland), so I think I could make it there. It would take me a few hours, and I might get there a little bit late. I don't have a car. But I want to be at church." His faith is incredible. He's already prayed about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and he knows that the gospel is true. He accepted a commitment to be baptized on December 7th!

Right now we're trying to coordinate some way to find him a ride to church next Sunday since we don't want him to have to ride his bike. So now we have three investigators with baptismal dates: Alonso, Clarisa, and Manuel. We're really excited. Right now Clarisa's Mom is unwilling to give her permission to let her daughter be baptized. We're still not sure exactly why, but we're going to meet with them this week. Hopefully her mom comes around. 

This week was great. Other than all of that, I blessed the sacrament for the first time in Spanish, which was kind of cool. 

In other news, we got a new car! The mission replaced our Malibu (which I had grown to hate because it turned about as well as an aircraft carrier and bottomed out all of the time) with a 2014 Toyota Corolla. It's amazing how well the church is able to take care of missionaries, and I know it's because of our faithfulness in keeping the Law of Tithing. 

I've heard that BYU has changed a lot since the mission age-change. I hope it's back to normal when I get back. I feel bad for all of the RMs who are coming home right now and not really meeting anyone. 

For Halloween we had to be in by 6:00 because of all of the stuff that happens in Chico that night, so we just sat around and played board games. It was pretty fun, I guess. We got In-N-Out to eat for dinner too, so it wasn't all bad. 

  

Tell Kate congratulations on her basketball win for me! 

Mom, how's being the Primary President going? I can't imagine that. I don't remember if I told you, but we've had to teach the primary class in our branch a few times because of lack of teachers, and it's AWFUL. I know that's probably bad, but teaching in Spanish is hard, and teaching kids is even worse. I'm not well cut out for it. And doing both at the same time? Bleh. 

 

I know you do a fantastic job using your mom-skills though. You're great :)  Thanks for being my mom. You put up with a lot while you were raising me, and I'm where I am today because of that

Good on you, Dad, for talking with Pedro. A lot of people undervalue the connection that speaking someone's native language can make - especially when they don't speak English. Even when it's not perfect, I know that they tend to appreciate someone communicating with them. That's a great missionary opportunity too.

Love you, 

Jake

Miracles...in Spanish...at 90 miles an hour

October 21, 3013

 Hey family!

It's been another week as usual - except for that we experienced a miracle. A while ago, a guy named Manuel approached us and asked us for a copy of a bible in Spanish. We gave him a Book of Mormon instead, since we didn't have any copies of the Reina Valera (Spanish Bible) with us, and told him we'd come back. We did, but he wasn't home, so I jumped the fence (since his trailer is surrounded by a fence made out of various gates and we couldn't figure out which one actually opens to get onto his property and which ones are just bolted to the others) and left a copy on his porch.

Then, we went back a few days ago and he was there! He invited us in (turns out you have to take a hidden board out of the gate-fence to open it) and had us sit down. He wanted to know how to use the Book of Mormon and the Bible together, so we explained the origin of the Book of Mormon to him and why they support each other. He then told us that he had read the pamphlet about the Restoration that we left, and that he had followed the suggestion in the back to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet or not. He said he received an answer in the form of a comforting, peaceful feeling. It was awesome! And then, as if that wasn't enough, he asked us if he could bring some other people to listen to our next lesson because he knows a lot of other Spanish speakers who want to learn more about God. It was awesome! We're excited to see how he progresses from here. He seems very humble and hard-working - and he speaks Spanish about 90 mph. But yeah.

Also, this week we tracted into a lady who looked hispanic, but was actually from eastern Africa. After some confusion with language, we figured out that she spoke decent English. We ended up referring her to the Sisters, but it just goes to show - the gospel is for everyone.

I'm glad that you've had a great week. I'm doing well. It still seems like time is flying by, and I'm trying to keep it that way by working hard. I'm glad to hear that the primary program went well - we've had to teach a few primary-age classes in our branch, and it's torturous. I've come to respect people who can work with kids. I guess that's something I'll have to learn.

We had dinner with the Whitings yesterday (like we do most Sundays). It was delicious. Elder and Sister Whiting are a senior couple in our branch, and they're awesome. Neither of them speaks any Spanish, but Sister Whiting is an excellent cook. I'm being taken care of.
I have yet to eat anything as different as squirrel gravy (like Dad did on his mission) , but I'm sure I will. I've heard much talk of stomach and lengua (tongue) since I got here. Even things like kidney. I can't say I'm looking forward to that with any measure of excitement, but hey, it'll be an adventure if that ever comes along in the dinner calendar.

Thanks for sending me a package. Getting mail is always great.
Also, will you send me a soccer jersey for Christmas? That would be super cool. Preferably Chelsea (Frank Lampard).

- Jake

P.S.
It's awesome that you got so much cider this year! We'll have to do that again when I get home. The BYU game sounds like it was awesome. Another thing we'll have to do when I get home.  I've been thinking about what I want to do when I get back. Patent Law might be something I look into. BYU will be awesome as well - and I'd love to go do stuff with you while I'm there. The way I see it, the harder I work through my mission, the more enjoyable everything else will be.  

 

Hey Mom & Dad!

I'm doing great right now. Time is flying by.

It's really great to hear about how much everyone is changing/progressing. I miss you all a lot.

We have another investigator with a baptismal date! Her name is Clarissa. She's planning on being baptized on the 9th of November. So that's cool. We're just hoping that everything goes well, and that it works out. We have a new investigator named Aureliano as well, and we've been trying to contact a guy who wanted a Spanish bible from us and who agreed to take a first lesson, but he hasn't been at his trailer. I jumped his fence to leave his bible there though - since we couldn't find a way in through the apparently locked gate.

 

On Saturday I was asked to give a 15 minute talk in our branch on Sunday. I feel like I did all right considering I didn't have an excess of time. I talked about President Uchtdorf's conference talk "Come, Join With Us". My Spanish is coming along pretty well.

My companion's name is Elder Edwards (I don't know if I already told you that). He's from Alpine. He's only one transfer away from going home. I don't know how I'm going to feel about sending him home, as I most likely will. It'll probably be pretty hard to see someone else leaving.
He's a great guy, and an experienced missionary.

Halloween is coming up next transfer. We have to be in by 6pm that night, Chico being a college town and all.

I feel like I'm learning a lot - especially how to be responsible and live in a world that's becoming increasingly more wicked.

I need a new oil vial - I lost my old one. Other than that I'm doing well.

Love you all,
Jake

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

Hey everyone!

Thanks for writing.  Thanks so much for the pictures and candy. They were great :)

I'm really glad to hear about everything going on back home. The mission is going great. We're currently teaching our latest convert's mom, who is very catholic, but seems to be progressing.

 

Most of our time is spent looking up potentials/formers in certain areas. We do very little tracting except in high-density spanish speaking areas such as Hamilton City, which is basically like Little Mexico. Chico actually reminds me a lot of home. There's a ton of trees here like in Heber City, and it's pretty nice. Thankfully we get to stay out of the college area since Chico State is a really big party school.

 

We have two other investigators now. They used to be 7th Day Adventists, so their biggest challenge was having the Sabbath on Sunday instead of Saturday, but they've been progressing a lot. I feel like it might be a challenge getting them to commit to baptism though, even though I think they're ready right now. They just seem set on studying the Book of Mormon. I'm worried that they might just become "intern"-agators instead of investigators. So yeah. But whatever happens will.

 

So far I've only had two doors slammed in my face, and they were both white people. Spanish speakers are super friendly even if you're bugging them so much they can hardly stand it. They just act really disinterested. White people on the other hand like to yell and swear. So that's fun.

Spanish is coming along well enough. I can essentially say anything I want now. My problem is when people start talking really fast. But I'm learning!

One more transfer and I'm an entire 1/4 of the way done. How crazy is that? I've realized how fast time is going to go by, and how much I need to focus on working, because it'll be over before I know it.

xoxo

Jake

A Baptism!

Dear Family,

 

So. We had a miracle this week! Our investigator, Luis, hasn't been able to get baptized because his mom wouldn't let him until he's 18. So we were talking about him, and I asked if anyone had just gone over to talk about this situation with his mom before, to see if she wouldn't change her mind.

 

We decided that this would be a good idea, and set up a time to meet with her, along with a member of an LDS family who are his cousins and also fellowshippers. At first she was very reluctant, being a strong Catholic.  But then we started testifying. 

 

I've never felt the spirit as strongly as I did in that home, that night. We were all speaking Spanish, and I was speaking better than I ever have before. Our lesson that day with Luis had been the same - we were all on the same wavelength the whole time.

 

We told her that baptism was going to be the first step in him living a better life, and that it would only increase his faith in Jesus Christ. Luis shared his testimony of the Book of Mormon too, and I couldn't believe how much he's changed. His mom even admitted that she'd noticed changes in him. 

Long story short - Luis got baptized last Saturday and confirmed yesterday which we were able to do because he's been attending church. His mom came to church yesterday too! 

It was awesome to see this kid who has been receiving lessons for over a year now finally get to enter the waters of baptism. He's going to make an awesome member and priesthood holder. 

 

Love,

Elder Nichols

2 September, 2013

2 September, 2013

Hey!

I'm sure Swiss Days in Midway was just as much "fun" this year as it is every year. This week has gone by like lightning for me. I'm glad that Grandma Madelyn is taking advantage of the home theatre!

I'm glad to hear that you're retiring the old red battleship (our old Weber grill) in favor of something new. Maybe you'll have to mail me some of that bbq sauce so I can use it to work on my writing skills.  (The boys in the Nichols family have a strange obsession with good BBQ sauce).

It's great to hear about how everything's going for Sam, Kate, Libby and Jess.  I'm really proud of Sam. He's going to do fantastic on his mission.

This week we picked up a new investigator!  We're going back to talk with him later. Yesterday we tried to take another investigator to what we thought was a fireside with the Arrevolo brothers (they're all great members). Turns out it was actually a rehearsal for the upcoming Stake Youth Musical.  So, after almost getting pressganged into joining a musical, we thought it best to just find an empty classroom and teach him a lesson.

Two of our investigators, a husband and wife, came to the fast sunday meeting yesterday, which was awesome. We just need to get them on date for baptism - they know the gospel is true, they're just reluctant. The husband has told us that he knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet.

Sometimes people confuse me.

Thanks for sending another one of your missionary experiences, Dad.  I definitely don't know the scriptures as well as I would like - and learning a language is tough. But it's awesome that one of the other interns in your story was baptized because you and that other RM were able to share the gospel with people. I guess that's just a trade-off.  I've come to realize that missions change everyone depending on what they need most.

I'm glad to hear that the Priest's quorum is doing well. I hope they're preparing themselves the way they should be.

Mom, I'm working on my Spanish as much as I can. I've learned quite a bit. Thanks so much for the recipe!  I'm going to try the banana muffins this week and then another one the next. I'd like to improve my cooking skills. I know you're doing a great job as the primary president. You're you.

Tell Jess thanks for the picture, I loved it!

I love and miss everyone. I'm having a great time though.

Love,

Jake