January 11, 2010

Hey everyone

I hope everyone is doing well. It’s amazing how much a new comp and a good attitude can help things. It truly does make the difference with everything but even in life and in general. We can choose to have a bad day and let things get to us and just be mad over something we can’t control. I have truly learned that it’s not worth letting little things or even people ruin the next couple hours or even the whole day. For example last Saturday morning my comp and I went out and did contacts by this farmers market type thing where people sell produce and whatever else and we were trying to give away cards with a number on it where they would get a free video called the "Lamb of God". And by the way it was pretty warm out, but people were just plain rude and we just asked if we could say hi to them and give them a gift and they were just straight rude.
For example this older man walked by and I said hey can we say hi to you and as he was walking by he said ¨porque´´ which means *why* and he said it in a really low voice and kept walking. So at that point I had kinda had it with people so as he was walking away I said because we have a really important message for you. Then he stopped and turned around and stared at me for a few seconds with a really mad face and I was just starring back. That all that happened, I said it in a really nice voice but some people just have hard hearts.
Also a few days before that we knocked on a few doors and talked to a couple ladies and they just did not understand that there is only way to know if what we are teaching is true is by asking God. It truly hurts inside when your teaching someone at their door and they just keep going around everything you say and your questions and they just don’t have all the truth they have parts but not all of it. I used an example the other day because people always think that dios is uno solo with God is the only one we need. That it doesn’t matter what church you belong to because we will all end up to the same place anyways. But that’s WRONG.
So I said ok you have 3 buses and they all want to go to Concepcion and they all started different places and they all get maps on how to get there but only one of the maps is correct and only one of the buses will get you to Concepcion even though all of them are trying to get there. Its the same thing all the churches are trying to get to God but all of them have the wrong maps and no authority. Sorry I am going off on this it has just been something that bothers me a lot here. And we always tell people that we don’t want you to believe us we want them to ask God.


But we are pretty close to getting this women and her daughter and they have dates to get baptized for the 2 of February and they just need to ask God. Also this lady Cesia who we taught her a mix of the lessons but it was really powerful lesson she has a date set for the 2nd and she is evangelical but she is willing to ask God and see if what we are teaching is true. Also this past Sunday this woman came in with this less active member and we had taught this lady her name is Maria and the lesson we taught her was great and felt like things could go well with her. But when we taught her was like the 3rd week I was here and after that she was always in the hospital for depression. But when she walked in on Sunday it was awesome so we got an appt with her for Wednesday.

Right now we are trying to help the ward and regain the trust in this branch and just do a bunch of service for all the less actives and see if that will help anything. We found a family of 3 last night 3 girls one is like 17 and all she does is sleep all day so she has no excuse to not come to church and my new comp is a good looking guy so maybe she might come now haha. But that is our big focus right now is reactivating people but still inviting people to baptism.
I am doing pretty good as for me and just keep plugging away at the Spanish. I have started to read the book of Mormon out loud in Spanish so I hope that helps. Well not much else to say but I did eat lengua de baca which is cow tongue. It wasn’t too bad actually a little chewy but not to bad. Well everybody I gotta go but take care and I hope to hear from you next week.

Love Elder Nichols