Donut Land

Hello FAM!

Well I have learned that the Hondurans LOVE donuts! haha Me too... but they
are definitely a hit.  So a big shoutout to the B family who are a young
couple, and the wife reminds me of you, Karen and Kristine. Super
hilarious! They bought at Price mart 10 boxes of donuts for us to sell for
the R family, so they could raise money to take out their marriage papers.
It's a weird process here, no wonder there are TONS here who aren't
married! But well it was a hit! We sold a box, the elders all sold a box,
and their family sold the rest.  It should be enough to take out all their
papers.  YAY! I was super nervous how we were going to get everything done,
and sell them, becuase we had a reunion we needed to go to while they
needed to sell the donuts, but everything worked out great :)

This week has been a little different and a little less crazy without a
cell phone. haha Our cell phone got stolen on the bus out of my companion's
backpack :(  She was coming back from interchanges on the bus with another
Hermana, and the man behind her stole our phone and her money... but we
didn't realize until they got to the house.  So we still are waiting for
our phone... haha But we were just happy that was all that happened.

It has been RAINING like crazy here lately! Almost every day.  My
scriptures got soaked! So I have broken out the blowdryer these last few
days to dry them out. haha

Time is flying this change as always.  We are still working with R and N
who are doing great.  N is still in D (other place) getting his papers
because that is where he was born.  But because of the rain, he hasn't been
able to come back because busses aren't passing right now.  But we pray
that he will be able to come back soon. Keep them in your prayers as it
gets closer to their baptism that everything will go smoothly.  Plans are
that they get married the 26th, and baptized the 27th! :)

Miss you all! And can't believe I hit the YEAR mark... whoa! Seems like
just yesterday Mom and and Dad, you guys dropped me off!
xoxo
Hermana Nichols

Rainy Season

HELLO family! :) 

How is everyone?? Well hope everything is better in Texas with the weather and all.  Here the rain is beginning to come again.  It is a little chilly after it rains here so that is nice :) 

Well this week we got to go to the temple with Pres. Fortuna and Hermana Fortuna with the leadership council of the mission.  SUPER AWESOME!  It was a cool experience to go with them... perks for sure! :) 

And we had our last leadership council with them :( Super sad. I will miss them for sure. 

I always love sharing what he said :) 

We should be transparent, always striving to have the Spirit with us at all times. We should be the same person in our house as we are out in the streets.  We should be the same person we are with him as we are with our companions.  That we shouldnt try to please him, but CONVINCE the Lord in all things.  

He also talked about how we need to set priorities in our lives.  We can't do it all. But we need to learn HOW to set priorities. We should put our priorities in what the Lord wants us to do, and not what we want.  Nefi was always trying to Please the Lord, while we see that Laman and Lemuel were not ALWAYS putting their priorities in what that Lord wanted of them.  In the mission we are not only learning principles here but habits for life.  

Super great, so sad they are leaving soon :( 

Also this week we are still working with R and N who came to church this week! YAY!! They have had some hard times in their marriage and life is difficult, but I'm so grateful for the Atonement that allows us to have second chances and hope during those hard times.  We are working with them to get married and then baptized on the 27th! Whoo! Its a whole complicated process here in Honduras, but we are working on it :)  I love them! and their kids who are members are the bomb! Always making tortillas, super humble, and so obedient! 

Well I'm good here! Can't believe I'm hitting the year mark! YIKES! So much to do still! Love you all! 

xoxo

Hermana Nichols 

Familia Rodriquez

Hey fam! 

How are you all doing?  So sad to hear about Elder L. Tom Perry. :(  Also so crazy about all the crazy weather in Houston! Glad to hear Kare and Kev are okay! It is still super hot here... :) haha 

Well this week my favorite parts were again the multi zone conference Hermana Queme and I went to, and the temple trip with our investigators the R family.  Right now Hermana Queme and I are working hard with 2 families. :) They both need to get married and have problems getting to church.  So we are working on that.  We were super sad that our one family L and L didn't come to church this Sunday, and missionaries have been working with them before I got here. :( But we know that with a little more patience and teaching they will come. 

Later that day, we had a special conference with the zones in the city and Presidente Fortuna with our investiagators.  And the R family who we have been teaching this last week all came!  Most of all the kids in the family are baptized by a different Elder almost a year ago, but the parents never got baptized.  So now, we are working with the parents.  Oh they are so cute, and so humble!  It was the first time Hermano N had been to see the temple!!! Perks of being the in city, is that our conferences with the investigators are where the temple is! :) Outside of the city, its too far to travel :( But he loved it! We took a bunch of photos there in front of them, and talked about how this is the GOAL! He said afterwards that when we go again, to let him know. haha They invited us in afterwards to eat, and there was just a strong spirit I could feel in their house.  Hermana Queme and I didn't want to leave, haha We want so badly to help them prepare for baptism so they can enter the temple as a family.  They just need to get married, and also find a way to come to church.  They make tortillas for a living, so they work EVERY day, and the kids take turns going to church so some can go and the others stay and make the tortillas.  But well, we are trying to explain to them to have faith and trust in the blessings of keeping the Sabbath day holy.  Keep R and N in your prayers that they will prepare for baptism. 

Also what I loved from President's talk this week was he talked about goals.  He talked about how our goals in life should not be the end.  For example baptism is NOT the goal for our investigators.  We do not simply just want to baptize them, but we want them in the end to be able to go to the temple!  Baptism is simply just a step to reach the goal.  Goals should never be the end.  When our goal is to go to the temple it is not simply to just go to the temple and ya finished, but then it is to keep your covenants and with your spouse make it to exaltation.  Our goals help us achieve so much more in life.  Wow, right :) haha 

He also talked about how success in life is faith and exhorting yourself A LOT. working hard and believing that you can achieve.  This is how we can achive our goals.  In Alma 8:11 Alma really wanted to baptized the people, but was having a hard time because of their inquity.  We need to show the LORD we want to have success and demonstrate to him we are willing to do it all, and sacrifice.  

Well I miss you all! Can't believe it has been almost a year!! yikes! 

Love you all,

Hermana Nichols 

Loarque Updates

Hey, not much new this week.  We got to go to the temple Tuesday, so that
was so awesome! We had zone conference this week, and I saw Hermana G  and
Hermana M this week, so that was some of the highlights! :)

Our new ward is pretty sweet, and we are already working and planning with
the members! :)

Loarque

Well I have arrived in the city!   SO sad :( to say goodbye to all in Talanga and Hermana G :(  My new companion Hermana Q is from Quetzeltenango, Guatemala.  It has been a little different trying to get used to everything new again, but she is so great, too.  It has been a little hard, because everyone here keeps asking where Hermana H went, and their investigators have been sad that she left.  But it is all good, little by little I hope to gain their trust.  In the city it is a little different.  The people here don't as much invite us in as they did in little pueblo Talanga, or stop and chat with us for awhile. haha This week we had a couple conferences with Elder Duncan, from the Quorum of the 70s  and President of CentroAmerica area.  It was awesome.  In one of the conferences with the misisonaries and the organizations presidents he talked a lot about how we can all work together better.  He talked about how we are all in the work of salvation for our brothers and sisters.  He promised the members there that if they got more involved there in the work of salvation, the Lord would help solve their own problems in the home.  It was a great meeting.  

Then, on Sunday our Stake Conference was awesome! One of our investigators, F came with us and after met Elder Duncan and Presidente Fortuna.  He always has a bunch of questions, but the spirit was SO strong in this meeting, and they talked about how to listen to the spirit, which was exactly what F needed to hear.  We talked about prophets in our last lesson, and even though we told him that the answer to how to know if Joseph  Smith was a true prophet is to pray and recieve his answer.  Right now he wants to know if Thomas Monson is a true prophet, and how we can know.  So I would love  to hear your thoughts and testimonies on how you all know that Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet. 

 

This week we have found some awesome people to teach!  After one of the conferences all of us missionaries were eating in a restaurant when a lady walked by and told us about a program she had been watching and heard about different names that weren't in her Bible.  She wanted to study this book, but didn't know why her bible didn't have these names.  Super cool, because she was totally talking about the Book of Mormon, and she lives in our area! Whoo hoo!  We are pretty sure she was watching BYUtv, which I didn't know was here in Honduras, and we gave her a Book of Mormon.  She couldn't come to church this Sunday, but I'm super excited to see how it goes with E. 

 

 

Well I forgot my camera cord to charge it in Talanga :( but I'm working on getting it back.  But here are some pics from Hermana Quemes camera. :) 

Miss you all! 

 

Love,

Hermana Nichols

Leaving Talanga

Well, so tomorrow I will be heading to Tegucigalpa with all my suitcases. :( Not sure where yet where I will be, but I find out tomorrow! :) 

Super fun to talk to you all Saturday! Loved it! Mom I hope you had an awesome Mother's Day yesterday! :) and I hope Rach, Kristine and Kare you all had a great day yesterday as well! :) 

So nothing too much new this last week, we found some new people to teach this week! And super sad this week B told us that he didnt want to get baptized, because he wants to to stay in the church of his brother.. :( Noo.... But Presidente talked about this,

this week how sometimes people just aren't ready, and we can't change that.  He said that you don't want to pick a mango that isn't ripe yet... and how also we can't put the mango back once we have picked it.  So Hermana G and I remembered that with Hermano B and didn't want to push him too hard so that maybe one day later when he has a desire to know if our church is true, he will be ready to make that change. :( 

Keep E in your prayers.  I'm sad that I won't be here to see if she will continue to progress.  She is working a lot and lives far, so I hope with her schedule Hermana G and her new comp will be able to keep teaching her, but she has had some cool experiences.  She knows that our church is true, she needs the strength to make the changes in her life to be baptized.  It will be hard because her husband isn't interested, but we know that she needs to be valiant in her answer that she has already recieved.  She told us this week, too that she had seen the Tegucigalpa temple before when we showed her the picture of it.  She had dreamed of it before.  So we are just trying to work with her to act on her answer. :) 

Forgot my cord today to send pictures!!! :( NOoo... next week I will have lots needless to say! 

I miss you all! And I am so grateful for this gospel! I know that the most important thing in this life is to live the principles of the gospel.  I can see it here, and realize it more and more in the lives of people I see.  That is what really brings us lasting happiness.  I love you all, and am so grateful for my family. 

LOVE,

Hermana Nichols

Chikungunya

Hello FAM! 

Well yikes, there is literally an epedemic here in Honduras of Chikungunya, they say.  It is from the mosquitos here, and I guess your bones hurt in your fingers and your feet, and you get a really high fever.  Well Hermana G got it this week, :( and a couple other missionaries in our zone and in the mission.  Pretty much all of the members have it or are recovering from it too.  It isn't contagious, but I'm just using a bunch of OFF all the time :) haha Well we weren't supposed to leave for 3 days so her body could recover :( but she felt a little better after the first day, so we left to work.  But the nurse was not happy when she called us to verify, haha so we had to stay in the house Sunday after church so she could rest her body fully. :) But I was able to leave with some of the members or the other sisters to do some divisions to visit some of our investiagators. 

Also this week I said goodbye to Hermana C. :( Her mom is super sick, and her family talked with Presidente Fortuna, so she left a week earlier than when this change ends to be with her mom. :( Super sad, and we will keep Eunice in our prayers :( But luckily I got to say goodbye at our last leaders meeting :( 

There have been a TON of rainstorms in the night here.  So there's been lots of nights without light, and we found out that we have holes in our roof, so we have woken up to a couple waterfalls coming down on Hermana G's bed... haha :) But 

We are still working with Hermano B.  He says he likes our religion, and likes going to church, but everytime we try to talk about putting a baptismal date with him, he always says he is not ready.  So we are still working with him.  He wasn't home Sunday to go to church, but we are praying that he will feel ready in these next weeks to be baptized.  We are working hard to find new people right now to teach.  Our mission has a goal to baptized 319 before (Presidente Fortuna leaves ) in the month of May. So we are working hard and praying hard for the Lord to help us here :) 

In our meeting with Presidente Fortuna he talked about how we can be better leaders, and applied it to the story of Captain Moroni in Alma 43-53. 

We talked about the attributes he had. He was grateful to serve, he took the responsibility to ACT, he had faith and confidence in the Lord, y looked for the necessities of the people, and acted.  He had a good plan and VISION, he helped strengthen their weaknesses and turned them into their strengths.  These are some of the qualities I am trying to develop right now.  :) 

I miss you all! ANd HAPPY MOTHERS day mom!! Can't wait to talk! I do not doubt that you knew it :) and am so grateful for all you have done and taught me mom! I use a lot of the scriptures and spritual thoughts you sent in lessons and share in our District meeting and with my comps :) Love you lots! 

LOVE YOU all! 
Hermana Nichols

Sent from my iPhone