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

El Libro de Mormon, I Love It!

Buenas Dias FAM! :) 

Well yay..... crazy day, and miracle in the end.... M was baptized this last week! :) Saturday as we were getting everything ready for her baptism, we called her and she told us that her cousin passed away and she was going to the funeral and didn’t know if she wanted to get baptized.  We were sad, but didn’t want to her to feel we were pushing her to get baptized, if that was not what she wanted.  :( But later that day as we walked by the church to give back the keys of the chapel, M was there in front with her towel ready to be baptized.  Oh M :)  So we called up Presidente V and we filled up the pila in the other chapel (because ours didn’t have any more water that day.) and M was baptized. :) Crazy day, but I am grateful for all the prayers that I know you guys offered for her.  She is going to seminary right now with her friend K who introduced us to her.  

Another reason I know Heavenly Father answers prayers was this week, Hermana G and I went to go visit some of the new investigators we found in this part of Talanga that is a little farther out.  When we got there, after we taught with one hermana who was not too interested in the end... not one of our other investigators was there! So after going to a couple houses, we started walking back to where the buses are.  We saw one of the hermanas we taught outside with some guy.  So we walked over to talk with them and found out that the guy was her spouse and they are not married, but have one son.  He was baptized in our church when he was 16.  We taught with them a small lesson about how families can be together forever, and then started talking about the Atonement and reptentacne.  He said there were things he still needed to repent of, but I could tell he still remembered about what he had learned from the other missionaries who baptized him.  He told us that he hadn’t prayed in years, but the day before he had a feeling in his heart that he should pray, and he did.  And then the next day, we found him.  We invited them to come to church with us Sunday, and even though they didn’t come yesterday :( I know that Heavenly Father loves us all, and through his sons and daughters we can help others feel his love and know that he is aware of us. 

Let’s see, also this week we had an activity in the park, and we made these huge cut outs of cardboard with our district to contact people about the Book of Mormon and the Bible and how we believe in BOTH! It was actually really good, and we talked to a lot of people.  Unfortunately most of the contacts are for the other missionaries in their area, but we are doing it again Saturday :) 

I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and understand more now of how blessed we are that Heavenly Father gave us a second testament of his Son.  This week we had interviews with Pres, and I always love talking with him!   He had us this week work on memorizing a scripture from the Book of Mormon about the Atonement.  We have taught so many people this week about the Book of Mormon, that this week I chose the scripture in 1 Nephi 25: 23, 25 where it talks about why our prophets wrote the Book of Mormon… so that our children will know where to look for the remission of their sins. (memorized it in spanish) :) 

But I have never felt closer to my Savior than I have now, reading and applying the words of the scriptures in my life.  Like Nephi I Delight in reading the words from our prophets!!! I know that our Savior lives.  I know that He came to earth to take upon Him our sins, and pains, and sorrows all because we needed a Redeemer to return to live with Heaveanly Father.  I know that They love us, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church of God on earth today. 

Love you all so much! Thank you for all your prayers for the people here.  Keep in your prayers this week B to recieve an answer to his prayer that Joseph Smith was a true ´prophet, and that the family we are teaching will have time to listen to us again this week because they are always busy right now :( (E and D) 

Love,

Hermana Nichols 

Feeling the Heat

Hey fam! 

Well this week in the mission, President wanted every companionship to strive to find 50 new investigators... whoo.... Hermana G and I worked hard to find those new investigators who are ready to be baptized :) We ended the week with 44.  Now the goal is to help and find those who can progress. 

This week K, who is the son of a less active got baptized! :)  Unfortunately, M who was also supposed to get baptized did not. :(  So keep M in your prayers to help her remember why she wanted to be baptized. 

Yesterday Hermana G and I had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators E and her husband.  We have taught them before, but the husband was not interested, and only believes in the Bible and didnt want to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet and was super negative.  E however is the sister of one of the members and is super positive.  For her husband, she couldn’t come to church becuase he didn’t want her to.  But these past few weeks have been a little different :) She came to church last week with her daughters! :) We came to their house last night and even though it seemed like her husband did not want to listen again, we taught the Plan of Salvation with them.  We talked a lot about the Spirit World and how we do baptisms for the dead, and how Christ visited the spirits in Spirit Prison.  It was super interesting for them, and D her husband who knows a lot about the Bible was a little doubtful because he said that he had never heard that after we die people can have another chance to hear and accept the gospel.  But Hermana E told us about her dream she had: 

She said that she had dreamed that her brother who had died was waiting in front of a door and she was there sitting with him.  He told her that he waiting to enter, but that he stil had faith and patience that he would be able to enter.  He told her that she needed to keep doing good things so that she would not have to wait  like him.  Wow super interesting! Even though she said that her sister has already done the work for him and her family in the temple,  we told her and D that our decisions not only affect us here on earth but for generations! And that there are still famliy members waiting for them to do their work!  Well, we still are trying to work with the husband who is super hard, but keep E and D in your prayers that they will be able to feel the spirit testify of the importance of being baptized again in the true church of Jesus Christ.

Love you all! Super Hot here in Talanga.... haha Hope all is well! And super sad to her about Uncle Herb, :(  Tell everyone hi for me! 

Love,

Hermana Nichols 

Another Great Week

Buenas Dias to my favorite family! :) 

Well where to begin, this week was probably one of my favorites! 

This week we had our leader meeting conference with Presidente and the rest of the leaders of the mission.  OH man, I always love when Presidente speaks!  I forgot my notebook today :( But I will try to go over a little bit of what he shared with us as leaders.  I think this can apply to all of us in our callings  in the church. :) He talked about as leaders, sometimes it is more what we leave behind than what we actually do that is important.  At first it seemed a little odd when he said this, but as he explained... for us missionaries, he said we should always leave our areas better than when we found it.  We should leave TONS of investigators with baptismal dates when we leave the area. We should leave our companions, and sisters or elders that we served better off than when we first knew them.  How do we want people to remember us?  In every calling or position of leadership I know that this is an aweome opporotunity to leave people better off because of our example, and love for them. 

Another highlight this week was Hermana G and I got to visit our investigators who are getting baptized this next week with Hermana Fortuna! :) Oh man, I love Hermana Fortuna so much! So classy! :) She was so cute taking pictures of us with her iphone.  We took her to visit M and K.  And we felt bad because she wanted to bring us in her car, but where we were going there would be no where to leave her car in the mountains... :(  but she was great hking up all the rocky hills! And M and K loved her.   Presidente y Hermana Fortuna were here for our district conference, and Sunday in her talk she mentioned visiting K and M:) They loved it.  Well I probabaly was loving it more than they were.. their shoutout. :) haha 

But I love how Hermana Fortuna is so kind and so loving, and was so willing to walk with us in the crazy rocky mountains to go visit our investigadores in her black wedges :) 

I also loved President Fortuna's talk about how in our callings we learn to not only administer the people but minister unto them.  We learn how to SERVE them.  And that is how I kind of look at our work in the mission right now.  We get to minister to the people here in Honduares and go to where they live and SERVE them.  So sad, this week I felt so sad for the people we are working with because their life is difficult and where they live is in poor conditions.  I wished there was something more that we could do to help them, but I know that teaching them the gospel principles is how we can leave them better off for right now.  They are so humble here and so loving.  And so willing to give what they do have, and I am grateful for their example to me of how I can better give of what I have. 

Right now if you could keep in your prayers M and K, :) that they will continue to prepare for their baptism this Saturday! :) and also  that Hermano B will be able to come to church this Sunday, and also that this older couple that we found this week (A and M) will be able to come to church this Sunday.. because M has some sickness and he will need surgery in a month :( 

I miss you guys! :) But I know that time is short and just flies! 

Love you all so much! Keep the hermanas of T and C in your prayers for me too :) 

Love,

Hermana Nichols