So another week has gone by in the mission of mine and time flys by. It´s crazy how it truly does. So since promising my AP´s with the 10 contacts I have done about 90 contacts this past week all by myself and it has been really good for me. I was never entirely scared but in a sense I kinda was at the same time. But now I'm not.
We have these pass along cards that we use and people call this number that they can get the Together Forever video, it's pretty cool. There have been a couple of contacts that I did that we set up appointments with them, so I was pretty stoked about that. Also last night I taught my first lesson in the street while my comp was on the other side of the road contacting, and watching me do it alone. It was kinda scary but I did it and I was going to commit her to baptism but I forgot, oh well. It´s kinda funny though when you walk up to people and you ask them if you can say hi, and they keep walking and just ignore you. I love it, it makes me feel great. :-) Also when people say that they have enough and they don't need anymore because they have already been saved. My comp and I were walking to an appt. the other day and I stopped to contact this lady with the Together Forever card, and she said I have all I need, I accepted Jesus as my Savior for 40 years now, and I don't need anymore. Then I kinda went off on her with and said this is the only way you can live with your family forever and I kinda bore my testimony about it. She kinda got mad a little, and in the scriptures it talks about with the sons of Mosiah how people got angry when they heard the truth. It honestly hurts me when people are like that because I just feel bad for them. Also this week we had 3 family home evenings with people and my comp made sugar cookies 3 times this week. I was kinda sick of them by the 3rd time. But then on friday we had another family home evening with our recent convert. Her mom made us fresh pan aka bread, it was so good.
We went and looked at a new house to move into because we were getting kicked out of our last one because 3 years worth of missionaries lived there and it needs some repairs. The new house we looked at is way nice and we will find out today if we can move into it or not.
Also we had a really fun activity on Friday with the youth. What happend was my comp and I bought flour and then our branch presidents daughter bought us some panty hose and we cut the panty hose and filled them with flour and tied them up to make a imitation snowball, it was so much fun. At first we played dodgeball, but then it just turned into a all out war. With enough power these things kinda hurt if you throw them well enough. I was running and my comp was a good distance from me, he came a little closer and I started running and I jumped in the air and well the inevitable happened, I got nailed right in the SWEET SPOT, and then I just dropped like a bird from the sky. It hurt so bad I started yelling and then like 6 girls that were there all came over and started throwing them at my back, and I was yelling "stop" but they didnt understasnd cuz I was yelling in english. They all thought I got hit in the stomach at first. Then I told my comp if I cant have kids I am killing him haha. It was fun for the most part, then we went back and had cookies, chips, and soda. I have some pics of after so I will try and send them. It´s crazy how flour gets everywhere and I mean everywhere. We got permission to change into to regular clothing so just incase anyone was worried, we weren't getting our nice clothes messy.
Earlier that day, this guy who makes missionaries lunch in the next city over, came to our house and made us a whole chicken and french fries, and wow it was amazing. I'm not gonna lie, it was so good. Then he made some flan and by the way flan is pretty good, but the only bad part is that we ate the flan at like 1030 on sat night and my comp and I had to both get up and to to the bathroom at the same time in the middle of he night, it was really funny.
So we made some real progress this week with some investigators it was great. The family that I was talking about last week the we went over there again and they gave us this bean soup thing, it was way good and then eventually talked about the gospel. We left them with the commitment to pray and ask God if the things were true that we had taught them, but they said they didn't. So we had to talk about that and how you receive an answer, and the dad is very stubborn and by the end of the night he said he will ask, but he wont truly ask. His wife (not really his wife because they are not married) she said she is afraid to ask, but she will and their daughter is Evangelical and she was asking lots of questions, but she said she would ask. She also asked us when we meet for church so we told her and gave her the website for mormon.org. We saw her last night and she said she asked and has not received an answer, and went to the web site to see what she needed to do to get an answer I guess. It was great I really hope they can feel the truth of it.
Also the next person we made a huge jump with was this lady named Kris and Cessar we have been teaching. They have a child and they are not married either. When we first got there she told us she had a bad dream about how God was laughing like the devil at her and she was really creeped out by it and so we were talking about it and she didn't jump to any conclusions, so that was good. She asked us if we bless homes or stuff like that and we said yes, and also she asked us for a blessing of comfort. Because she asked her Evanglical friend to give her one, but he said no because she was sinning living with this guy Cessar and breaking commandments. So we did and by the end of the blessing she was crying with joy and was telling us nobody wants them to be together and they have tried so hard to make their relationship work. But we asked to to come to church and they did. I was SO HAPPY it was great. She really enjoyed it. The branch presidents son who is 6 years old, was running around on the stage and during the end while he was up their talking about who knows what haha. I was a little embarrassed but oh well she really enjoyed the meeting. I am really excited but kinda scared for when we teach the 10 commandments and the law of Chasity so if people could pray for them that would be great.
Well I love you all and pray for all of you.
Love Elder Nichols
Chile Concepcion mission
O´higgins 940
oficina 502
Concepcion Chile
Monday, November 23, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
HOLA
Hey family!!!
So I am sorry about not emailing all of you last week the comp I was using was weird and the time n my card was running out and it was just a huge mess. So some cool stuff happened this week but on Friday we had interviews with the mission president and that was good. And I was made AP haha jk. But The ap´s committed me to doing 10 contacts a day all my myself which has gone pretty good. My spanish is improving a little. But we found like 9 new investigators this week and they are all legit.
And also on friday we were trying to see if this lady was home who we had visited a while back but she wasn't home, so I had the idea to try this other house on the street who this lady said we could come by and teach her sometime, so I thought why not. So we went over there and this guy comes out and he said yeah can I help you and we said is so and so here, and he said what's it to you, and we told him the lady said we could come by, and he said let me check. He came back out and we went into the house. This lesson was so great the old mans name is Nano, and he was asking tons of questions, but they were negative and they progressively got better. It´s hard to explain over email but at one point in the lesson I bore my testimony about Joseph Smith and how the only way to know if the words we were saying were true is from the spirit and not from us, and how you have to pray and ask God if it´s true. And then I gave an an analogy, about how it´s like when his daughter has a question to ask him for ask advice it´s the same thing with our Father in Heaven. And I said all of that in spanish some how. It was amazing how strong the spirit was. I felt so much joy like an excitement of joy. The family committed to pray and ask if the message is true and we told them that they have to listen to the spirit. We have an appt. with them this Friday I am excited.
Then on saturday we walked into a evangelical church and started preaching. Actually we didn't, but we went in there for this girl who we just baptized her nephew. It was pretty different. They sing so much and they all yell during when people pray and such. It was just weird. Its sad to see how satan has blinded so many of Gods children and how the pastor of that church has no authority. It´s sad, it truly is. Then on Sunday I gave my first talk in church only 20 people were there but we did bring 4 investigators there so that was great. We are really trying to improve how many people we bring to church. But my talk went alright it was on keeping the sabbath day holy and the branch presidents son speaks english kinda but after he told me that he understood everything I was saying. So that was good.
So today was really sweet because one it´s p day and 2 we played dodgeball with out zone it was sweet. It was way funny because people asked me if I had played a lot before my mission and I laughed and said nope. I played really well today it was cool. Anyways things are going pretty well if I hadn't mentioned the milk here is way gross and so for breakfast I eat frosted flakes and put yogurt in it with bananas. So i am going to send my address in another email with the pictures I send. But I love you all and miss you all so much, take care.
Love Elder Nichols
So I am sorry about not emailing all of you last week the comp I was using was weird and the time n my card was running out and it was just a huge mess. So some cool stuff happened this week but on Friday we had interviews with the mission president and that was good. And I was made AP haha jk. But The ap´s committed me to doing 10 contacts a day all my myself which has gone pretty good. My spanish is improving a little. But we found like 9 new investigators this week and they are all legit.
And also on friday we were trying to see if this lady was home who we had visited a while back but she wasn't home, so I had the idea to try this other house on the street who this lady said we could come by and teach her sometime, so I thought why not. So we went over there and this guy comes out and he said yeah can I help you and we said is so and so here, and he said what's it to you, and we told him the lady said we could come by, and he said let me check. He came back out and we went into the house. This lesson was so great the old mans name is Nano, and he was asking tons of questions, but they were negative and they progressively got better. It´s hard to explain over email but at one point in the lesson I bore my testimony about Joseph Smith and how the only way to know if the words we were saying were true is from the spirit and not from us, and how you have to pray and ask God if it´s true. And then I gave an an analogy, about how it´s like when his daughter has a question to ask him for ask advice it´s the same thing with our Father in Heaven. And I said all of that in spanish some how. It was amazing how strong the spirit was. I felt so much joy like an excitement of joy. The family committed to pray and ask if the message is true and we told them that they have to listen to the spirit. We have an appt. with them this Friday I am excited.
Then on saturday we walked into a evangelical church and started preaching. Actually we didn't, but we went in there for this girl who we just baptized her nephew. It was pretty different. They sing so much and they all yell during when people pray and such. It was just weird. Its sad to see how satan has blinded so many of Gods children and how the pastor of that church has no authority. It´s sad, it truly is. Then on Sunday I gave my first talk in church only 20 people were there but we did bring 4 investigators there so that was great. We are really trying to improve how many people we bring to church. But my talk went alright it was on keeping the sabbath day holy and the branch presidents son speaks english kinda but after he told me that he understood everything I was saying. So that was good.
So today was really sweet because one it´s p day and 2 we played dodgeball with out zone it was sweet. It was way funny because people asked me if I had played a lot before my mission and I laughed and said nope. I played really well today it was cool. Anyways things are going pretty well if I hadn't mentioned the milk here is way gross and so for breakfast I eat frosted flakes and put yogurt in it with bananas. So i am going to send my address in another email with the pictures I send. But I love you all and miss you all so much, take care.
Love Elder Nichols
Sunday, November 15, 2009
1 month in Chile
HOLA!!!
So this past week we had a baptism. Her name is Denise and she is 17. It was rough because she had a smoking problem and she was having issues with that, but what we did to help it was we stuck 2 cigarettes in milk and let them sit for a day and then had her smoke both of them the next day. It is supposed to make you never want to smoke again. And for the most part it worked. So this past Saturday my companion baptized her and I bore my testimony at the end it was really great.
This past Tuesday it was pretty scary because we had a mini combio or exchange. And I went to this other area called tome where the other missionary went to my area and the missionary that I was going to be with had only been out the same time I had. He is from Hayden Lake his name is Elder Cockrell. Anyways it was crazy because neither of us know much Spanish but somehow we were able to teach like 7 lessons, and contact people and kind of understand what was being said. But it was a great learning experience and we really had to listen to people more carefully. It’s really hard to understand people still but its coming kinda I think.
That night we taught this guy named Sessar and his girl friend who live together or as they call it in Chile their partner, but and they have a little boy. But we have been kinda teaching them and we had taught about the first lesson the lesson before but we had not yet gotten to how Joseph smith became a prophet and so we told her about that. I know she felt the spirit. I could feel it and I could see it in here eyes it was great, but she said she didn’t have much faith. She used to believe in God a lot but not much anymore. My comp put it well he said it’s like a muscle, you have it there, you just have to use it. Then I showed her the promise in the Book of Mormon in Mormon. Also how you can come to know if these things are true. Then we committed her to read some scriptures and to pray it was cool.
Last night we found this cool family that we taught and the mom is Catholic and the dad is Evangelical and one of the daughters goes to church with her dad who is like 10, but she liked what we said. The other daughter is 17 or so, but She committed to get baptized this month but we will see what happens. My comp is really good with the scriptures and used the bible a bunch because they wouldn’t allow the book of Mormon. But by the end of the lesson my comp asked for permission to use it just one scripture and it was great. We will see what happens but yeah pretty exciting.
But for me I am hanging in there I am going to attach some pics of the baptism. The weather is getting really nice except for yesterday it was rainy and crappy so we had only 12 people at church. It’s starting to heat up which is kinda bad because we live in a huge tourist town and right on the beach and where I am at all the girls in the summer walk around in bikinis. So I am really not looking forward to that. It will take a lot of will power to stay focused at times but I know that lord will help me have strength but I will be ok. Well I must say I LOVE CHILEAN BREAD it is the BEST EVER end of story. Without bread Chileans would starve. They eat it with every meal. It`s so good though. We have two days out of the week where we have to make lunch for ourselves and I have been making egg sandwiches they are pretty good. But that and breakfast are the only meals we eat during the day. Their dinner they call it once. It`s basically bread and coffee or postum equivalent. I had my first real tea this past week with mint leaves and sugar it was pretty good. If anyone has any questions or anything about Chile just ask. Love you all so much I truly do and miss you all A LOT more than I thought I would haha but take care and your always in my prayers.
Love you all,
Elder Nichols
So this past week we had a baptism. Her name is Denise and she is 17. It was rough because she had a smoking problem and she was having issues with that, but what we did to help it was we stuck 2 cigarettes in milk and let them sit for a day and then had her smoke both of them the next day. It is supposed to make you never want to smoke again. And for the most part it worked. So this past Saturday my companion baptized her and I bore my testimony at the end it was really great.
This past Tuesday it was pretty scary because we had a mini combio or exchange. And I went to this other area called tome where the other missionary went to my area and the missionary that I was going to be with had only been out the same time I had. He is from Hayden Lake his name is Elder Cockrell. Anyways it was crazy because neither of us know much Spanish but somehow we were able to teach like 7 lessons, and contact people and kind of understand what was being said. But it was a great learning experience and we really had to listen to people more carefully. It’s really hard to understand people still but its coming kinda I think.
That night we taught this guy named Sessar and his girl friend who live together or as they call it in Chile their partner, but and they have a little boy. But we have been kinda teaching them and we had taught about the first lesson the lesson before but we had not yet gotten to how Joseph smith became a prophet and so we told her about that. I know she felt the spirit. I could feel it and I could see it in here eyes it was great, but she said she didn’t have much faith. She used to believe in God a lot but not much anymore. My comp put it well he said it’s like a muscle, you have it there, you just have to use it. Then I showed her the promise in the Book of Mormon in Mormon. Also how you can come to know if these things are true. Then we committed her to read some scriptures and to pray it was cool.
Last night we found this cool family that we taught and the mom is Catholic and the dad is Evangelical and one of the daughters goes to church with her dad who is like 10, but she liked what we said. The other daughter is 17 or so, but She committed to get baptized this month but we will see what happens. My comp is really good with the scriptures and used the bible a bunch because they wouldn’t allow the book of Mormon. But by the end of the lesson my comp asked for permission to use it just one scripture and it was great. We will see what happens but yeah pretty exciting.
But for me I am hanging in there I am going to attach some pics of the baptism. The weather is getting really nice except for yesterday it was rainy and crappy so we had only 12 people at church. It’s starting to heat up which is kinda bad because we live in a huge tourist town and right on the beach and where I am at all the girls in the summer walk around in bikinis. So I am really not looking forward to that. It will take a lot of will power to stay focused at times but I know that lord will help me have strength but I will be ok. Well I must say I LOVE CHILEAN BREAD it is the BEST EVER end of story. Without bread Chileans would starve. They eat it with every meal. It`s so good though. We have two days out of the week where we have to make lunch for ourselves and I have been making egg sandwiches they are pretty good. But that and breakfast are the only meals we eat during the day. Their dinner they call it once. It`s basically bread and coffee or postum equivalent. I had my first real tea this past week with mint leaves and sugar it was pretty good. If anyone has any questions or anything about Chile just ask. Love you all so much I truly do and miss you all A LOT more than I thought I would haha but take care and your always in my prayers.
Love you all,
Elder Nichols
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