Called To Serve: Nic's Mission

Week five: August 15th 2013

Things are going great! Everyday I’m amazed at how happy I am. The Spanish is still coming along; it’s amazing how the lord blesses his servants. I have that song (called to serve) practically memorized in Spanish now because of how many times we sing it hahaha. Well I know that if you pray and read the scriptures the lord will tell you what you need to talk about. He does it for me daily, it’s amazing how every time I prepare something, it fits the investigator in some way, shape, or form. I WISH I COULD GO TO THE TEMPLE!!!! hahah but seriously it’s been a few weeks since I have been and I want to go so bad!! I don’t even care that it will be in Spanish I want to feel the amazing spirit that is in every temple! I’m so glad that I can enter the lord’s house! There is NO other feeling like the temple, it’s so amazing and I just want to be there all day every day. Or toda dia catta dia, as we like to say here which means that. Well I’m so glad that you like your job, being with kid’s everyday would be so fun. I miss seeing babies, there are a few of the mission people’s families that lives on campus and they have a baby but that’s the only one I have seen in so long!! Things are going so great; I can feel the lords help every day. I have classes pretty much all day, Spanish to how to teach and stuff and then more and more Spanish. Love you too!!! Have a great week

Elder Park

well I hope you can get it all done in time for school! Well thank you so much!! I can’t wait to get state side and open that beautiful bag of Doritos... I want them sooooo bad you have no idea hahaha. Well I’m looking forward to opening my fun package haha. Well you can keep telling everyone that I am doing amazing, better than I ever have. Well I’m sorry that you cried, I will have to call you when I have a layover in Atlanta, hopefully you will be with everyone so I can talk to everyone. Well good job mommy keep working hard like me and we will both be different people when I get back.

I really miss the lake right now I just want to jump in some water and go swimming. Well I want a cheeseburger so bad right now it’s crazy!!! I really miss Steve fries too, they have like no sauce here besides salsa and you know I don’t like salsa so I’m dying for some good Steve sauce. They have a ton of food here so I don’t really get too hungry it’s just not too good sometimes, it’s getting better though.( Bishop Jones bike wreck) OOOOO that doesn’t sound good!! That sucks in fact. Well that’s good that he is doing good still though.

Well this week was quite an event full week. Sunday we watch a movie every night and we watched the story of John Tanner. He is an amazing man, I don’t know where they got the movie from but I would encourage anyone to watch it, he did so much and had so much faith. In the end when Joseph smith was crying I lost it and may have teared up a little. It was an amazing story and I don’t know how I have never heard of him before. Being out here is some kind of next level stuff. Being surrounded by the gospel 24/7 is so great. It’s amazing how happy I am all the time. When I’m focused on the Lords work there is almost nothing that can bring down. I know it will be different in the field because all the people won’t be so nice and it will be a whole different experience but it is so amazing in here. Every morning I wake up and Instantly have a hymn in my mind and I just start humming or singing it, and everyone knows that I’m not a singer. But it’s so amazing how hymns bring the spirit so fast, I love the hymns they are the best music anyone can ask for.

This mission has already changed me so much and made me appreciate life and the gospel so much more. Once that happens it’s amazing how happy a person can become, all I can say is the gospel is pure joy, when you’re having a bad day, get on your knees and pray because I promise you that he will help you, he has done so for me. One day I was having a pretty rough day and it was just bad and I prayed that heavenly father would give me something to be happy about or help me to be happy and for the rest of the day I had an amazing day. Prayer is such a powerful thing and I never really took advantage of the opportunity I had to talk with my Heavenly Father. The teachers tell us to not loose ourselves while teaching Spanish and the teachers are so glad me and my companion show our personalities. Not trying to brag at all but the few other companionships in our district and even in our zone ask us for help, because we do such a great job in our lessons because we connect with the people so well. Our teacher had us demonstrate a lesson in front of the class and stuff to try to teach the others. Before class started when we were sitting there our teacher read her notes about where "the investigator" is, which she said she never does, and it was great. After she said when she finds out that we are going to teach her a lesson she gets so excited because she said that every time we teach her she feels the spirit so strong and she just loves it. That was all yesterday and then after that we had TRC in which members come from the town and we teach them. While we were there some people were taking so long so we just taught our teacher. The lesson was about receiving revelation through the book of Mormon and while I was bearing my testimony in the lesson she leaned back (she was leaning forward and looking down so I couldn’t see her eyes) and I saw that she was crying. It was so amazing. It was a really powerful lesson. So now instead of having one teacher pretending to be and investigator we have 2. The lessons are going so well with them, one of them has committed to be baptized and the other we are going to ask tonight, but that’s the teacher we talked to earlier and after the last lesson when we were back in class she asked us why we didn’t ask last time, so I’m pretty sure she will agree to be baptized. We are doing so good in our lessons it’s so great. there is so much that I have learned already and I’ve only been gone a month so one more thing is that the language is going great, it’s getting so much easier now. when I’m using the computer for tall,” idk” if you know what that is so it’s just a language assisting program the church uses, so I have never been able to do any grammar things because you have to know what the sentence says to even try to do the grammar for it, and this past week I have been able to do so much grammar because I can pick apart so many sentences to find out what they say. I’ve noticed that I’m really good at reading and listening to Spanish, but ask me to speak it and that’s a whole different story. So the language is going well love you guys sooo much and miss you all. talk to you in a week and next week I’m going to the temple again so I won’t have much time but I will try my best to make them as long as possible. So this is the last week I can be on my email as long as I want because next p day is my last one here. Nic

Week six: August 22nd 2013

Yeah I got the email and I sent a few back lol but the one with me and the temple in the back is the one I want, if that’s okay if not I can send one later. My favorite scripture is john 16:33. It’s about trials and peace because of the lord. It’s so weird to hear that you guys are going to school and all that. It doesn’t seem like it should be that time again already. Well I’m glad that you guys redid that room because that was too old for all of us ha ha. Well that’s good the garden is going great. I’m glad that’s all going good, then you guys can eat all the salsa you want. Well I’m probably going to get that letter in the states because I leave Monday morning (I’m pretty sure because that’s what my flight plans say) but I’ll know for sure probably tomorrow. I’m pretty sure you have a copy of my flight plans so you and dad can be ready for calls when I have a layover in Atlanta. So have your phones on when I should be there. Well I’m pretty sure I will because I have like 200 bucks and I’m sure the MTC will make sure that we are all squared away. Ha ha ha I will remember to obey the rules lol

Well I’m running out of time because I went to the temple today so I didn’t have as much time to email as usual so this one will be shorter. This week has been really great so far, but I just want to leave. The days seem so long because all I want to do is get out in the field and teach a real investigator. I don’t care that my Spanish is pretty bad, I just want to have a real lesson, plus my companion will be fluent so he can help me out with the language. I can’t wait to fly back to the states in four days, I’m going to eat like 4 cheeseburgers and a million Doritos ha ha. It’s funny how everyone in the family has said I bet you are going to eat a lot of Doritos, you bet that’s so true. I’m like having with drawls ha ha. I’m going to somewhat miss it here though, the CCM is so great, there are so many great people here that i have become friends with. I’m going to miss them. I’m going to miss being surrounded by the gospel 24/7, and how everyone here is nice, there are no swearing or crude things here. I absolutely love it here how spiritual it is. I’m sure I will have many spiritual experiences in the field, but here when you’re walking down the street people say hi and love you, out in the field sometimes people are going to swear and spit and hate. It’s surprising how happy I am here, when you’re surrounded by the gospel, you become so happy. I got my ministerial certificate yesterday Nic

Oh yea I love the draper temple is so beautiful! I think every temple is beautiful though. Oh well I’m excited for you to go to the salt lake, that one is sooo amazing! The inside of that one has been my favorite so far of the 4 temples I’ve been to. That one is truly amazing, and when you go you get so much more love for the people who sacrificed everything to build it. well I just got back from the temple so I’m doing pretty good right now, this week has been pretty good too, it’s just long because I’m so excited to finally leave and get out into the field. The only thing that scares me is that it will be a real person that I am teaching, I can make or break their testimony and if I mess up I will feel so bad because some ones salvation is at stake. But on the other side if I do the right thing then I can’t even imagine the joy that I will feel because I helped someone come to Christ. Well the same blood that I have runs in your veins so I know you can go out there and talk to those people and befriend them ha ha. I love you so much and miss you.