Hey family and friends!!! My P day this week is tomorrow because I'm going to the Palmyra temple, but my DL said to write home real quick today! We won't have time tomorrow! I probably won't be able to respond to the personal emails this week but I promise I will next time! Just wanted to say THANK YOU to all those who have sent me personal emails or packages to the apartment! It's been amazing and I love you Guys!! Thanks for all the love!!
Here's my "journal" of the week:
Monday
Had an interesting night! The Sharon's invited us to the read through of a play they're directing at Fredonia university to give us a chance to meet some of their students! We're not allowed to proselyte at the university so I'm always happy when we can sneak in there! I was amazed at the talent of these guys! I felt a little out of my element with all of these wild theatre students but it was such a cool experience. They could change accent on command!! Hah it was amazing to see. A bunch of them were super nice to us and after shook our hands and asked us a little bit about what we do! A lot of what we do here I hope builds into the future. I hope with a lot of these people that one day they'll be sitting at home and two elders will knock on their door and instead of slamming it, they'll remember what they felt and let them in to share a message. We never know what could happen in the future!
Tuesday
Had a pretty good day! We were able to show the video to a few families which was awesome! Some of the highlights of the day were that we showed the video to a former investigator! After she said: "Wow, I felt like I've seen that before, it just feels familiar to me, I feel so peaceful and happy!" Boooooom. Cash out. We were able to testify in that moment that what she was feeling was the Holy Ghost!! We asked her if she would be willing to learn more and she said she's ready! I think there's some promise there so we'll have to go back! We also went to Grandma Joyce's house which was great! She wanted us to come over because she had a present for us! She's going through chemotherapy right now but she's always thinking of others. Sweetest lady. She's not a member but she has asked for blessings in the past! We gave her one the first day I got here! Anyways she wanted us to all hold hands in a circle and take turns praying so we did!! It was very powerful! All four of us each said a little prayer in a circle and I really felt the spirit! Our Heavenly Father truly does know all of his sons and daughters!!
Wednesday
Started the day with some service at Grandma Joyce's! She needed some serious help with leaves so we went! Crazy that I'm raking leaves while most of you are shoveling snow. Never would have thought that! After we went to Westfield to make our rounds to our focus families! Gotta share some quotes of the day. First one: "Oh I believe in ghosts alright. I have one that's always here causin' all sorts of mischief. He protects me ya see, if someone's mean to me he'll put a rock in their shoe but never in mine!" Round two: "Yeah our dog can talk. I mean it's kinda hard to pick out, but he can say please and thank you. He's a smart ol' hound dog over there."
If there's one thing I've learned on the mission so far it's that you never truly know what's going to come out of people's mouth. It's kind of a good thing for me cause I usually say the first thing that comes to my head too. A lot of times I feel like I'm pulling from the hip and letting it fly. But hey the spirit usually fixes the damage! Learning new things every day out here that's for sure!
Friday
Helped a member in the ward who is preparing to leave on his mission with a little mission prep! Man it's amazing to see how far I've come since I left home! We were talking about some of the pamphlets that he will use that SAVED my life in the CCM when I knew nothing!! The church truly knows what's doing with its missionary program! So inspired! Also we got our first snow of the year!! Kinda happy because I can't really play golf anyways, and now we can have a white Christmas!! If it doesn't melt! We will see.....
Saturday
Had a super busy day running all over the place! We taught 4 lessons and that's awesome for us. The highlight of the day was teaching our investigator Faye!! She's super excited to be baptized and it makes me smile!! She's been progressing super well except for one thing. Church attendance. Her baptism is scheduled to happen in 3 weeks and in this mission they have to come to church 3 times before they get baptized! So needless to say we've been pushing that a little bit. Yesterday after our lesson we just kinda broke it down and said look, here's where we're at and you guys have to come to church! As soon as we said that, they all were like alright we'll be there! One of the daughters said in a very surprised voice: "We're going to church??" Haha so I guess it's been awhile. Anyways I'm super excited to see them tomorrow! This will be our first investigator at church in this area in about 8 months!! Crazy!
Sunday
After much blood, sweat, and tears we had an investigator come to church. What a day!!! Haha Elder Renteria and I were waiting in the foyer just hoping they would come when the clock hit 9:30. Church here starts at 9:30 and they weren't there... See the problem? So we decided to walk into the chapel when I looked back one more time. THERE THEY WERE!! Never have I been more excited to see a crew of Nickersons. Camo hat and all, it was perfect. Faye absolutely loved church and the ward did such an amazing job in making them feel welcomed! After Faye ran up to us and said guys guess what!! I got a bible!! Hah she's just so pumped about everything and I love it! It was very humbling and I was so happy they came! The ward here has been able to help out big time with Christmas so they can actually have one! That was something I've been a little worried about with them, but it's all worked out! They've been so blessed lately and I just hope they see it! They've both been free from smoking for almost a month now, and it's all started as they've let the gospel back into their lives. How amazing!! Great day to be alive.
Just wanted to end with an awesome story I heard yesterday at church. In priesthood our elders quorum president said that back in Christ's time shepherds would always go search for the lost sheep. It didn't matter if it was 1 of the 100, they would always go search for it. When they found the lost sheep they would often times BREAK its legs and carry it over the shoulder for 6 WEEKS!! We might ask ourselves why?? Why would this loving shepherd break the legs of his sheep and carry it around with him for 6 weeks? That's gotta be heavy!! Well I can promise you the purpose is so that this little sheep learns to follow the voice of the shepherd. After being so close to the shepherd for that amount of time, his voice has to become familiar. That sheep never again will go astray.
As you read this I hope you think as yourself as the sheep and as always the shepherd as our loving Savior, The Good Shepherd. Often times we wonder why our spiritual legs are "broken." I hope that in times like these we might turn to the savior and listen to his voice. He has us on his back, all we have to do is listen.
I wish you a merry Christmas wherever you might be this season!! Hope it's filled with food, friends, and a few more pounds...
Deck the HALLZ.
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