Week 18

Szia Everyone!!!

     Hey, so it is week 18 on my mission and "life could not be better!" I hope my family caught onto that quote from Book of Mormon stories we have. It is a great musical... I sing it all the time...;) hahahaha. But this last week really has been pretty amazing. We have been meeting with one of the recent converts more this week and he is a young guy. He is super cool, and super fun! We have been teaching him about the new member lessons. He likes them it seems like and we love meeting with him! We also picked up a couple of new investigators from English class this week. They came brand new and started asking questions about the church and so we naturally invited them to church and one of them actually came! That was a bonus and we set up to see that person next week! Wahoo!

     We also have been working super hard to find people to teach. We have tracted and streeted basically the entire transfer. And so after getting a lot of "maybe" people, we went back to their houses, called their phones, and tried to set up with some of them. And one of them was super nice and she wanted us to come back and strengthen her faith. That was a super cool meeting because she knows a lot about the bible and she was super accepting of the book of Mormon! So we will meet with her a couple more times hopefully this week!

     I also would like to include what we do on P day now. Since my dad asked me to write more about what is going on, I will try. But really it is hard I promise! Hahaha, but on all P days we have to work for at least 3 hours, then we can "party". hahaha, but today we went to an American store that had a ton of American food! But yeah it was all way expensive. So I bought an A and W cream soda and a Hershey’s cookies and cream bar. Ya, that was super good! The food and sugar difference is incredible. Like the food here is not near as sugary or crazy hahaha. Then we went shopping for Elder Erickson who needed a side bag with it being the new year and we cannot use backpacks anymore. Now we are emailing, in a much nicer emailing place we found. There is even a little timer in the corner that says how much time we have left! It is so cool!

     Nothing else really happened, I feel like I am understanding people a lot better, but speaking is still hard. Hahaha, but that is ok. I am trying and that is all that matters. In time, and in practice. But there is one thing that I would like to talk about this week, and that is the importance of reading the Book of Mormon. It is so cool! I learn something new every day that I read from it, and I always want to read more! A lot of people say, " I want to make sure this is right before I get baptized or join a church." we then ask if they have been reading the Book of Mormon and they say no not really. That is so Important!!! It is vital to changing a person and bringing them closer in relationship with God. Well, love you all!

Sok Szeretettel,

Nichols Elder

Christensen and Erickson at a giant crown we found last week! 

This is probably the most gorgeous picture I have taken of Parliament! 

This tree we found was sooo big!!! 

This is a nice picture that I took. I'm really enjoying the super vivid mode on my camera 

Look at what we bought today!!!

 

Week 17

Hey Family!! And Friends!!

     So I hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas! Really! Here in Pest it was pretty sweet. We were able to open presents together, just me and my comp in our apartment that morning. Then we went to the church where we played volleyball with the other elders in our district for the next like 6 hours... Yeah, you could say that I was super sore after that for like the next few days hahahaha. Yeah, Christensen and I did not do like a ton for Christmas. We just hung out and lived with each other ya know?;) So that leads into our amazing skype session with our families! Wow, that was so amazing! I am so grateful to see my family 2 times in a year, I mean that is better than never! And it was so much fun, that was probably some of the most fun I have had since I have been on my mission!

     From that skyping session, my dad said that I needed to write more in these letters. Well... Dad. It is hard but I will try super hard to include more! It is just that for the most part we tract until we hurt from standing, then we walk and street people, then we call them on our phone. So everyday is for the most part the same. But this last week was super fun! Because! With the holidays, we tracted a ton. Because no one really wanted to meet with the holidays. So we worked, and worked, and worked! Then on Saturday, we were able to go out to eat with one of the members in our ward! That was nice, so we went to Chinese. It was so delicious, and then here is the best part. That member lost their tooth while eating! The food was not hard, it just fell out!!!!! hahahahahahahahahaha, yeah, that was funny. Then they came to sport night and had it fixed and played with us that night. It was also fun.

     We are also eating at that same chinese restaurant probably like 3 times a week because it is so cheap and so filling!!! And the people there are way nice! So yeah, life could not be better:)

      Now, this is just something that was way cool that happened. While we were streeting, my comp said I could choose who to street. So I told him, We will find the first girl and then we will set up a meeting with her and get her number! He said ok! So we went out, and then the first girl we saw, we stopped and I talked to her! She was totally ok with meeting and talking about the church and our families and stuff! So we made a date with her for a program and that was just one example of the work. Sometimes, it is hard to remember to work, and to continue to work when so many people deny the message that you are trying to share with them. But, as we work harder, and work through the hard things, the Lord blesses us. I know this, I have experienced this. I am starting to now realize that before my mission, I was so ungrateful, and I have a lot to improve on. I hope that I come back a whole new, better person. I love my family so much. I think about you all everyday and there is rarely a minute where I do not. But, I am still focusing on the work, and like Elder Pilcher would say from our home ward in Bluffdale. "Live it, love it, share it, follow it." That is the truth. I am here in Hungary right now living it. loving it. sharing it with everyone I can, and following the Lord where he will guide me. This is the greatest time in my life. I love it, miss you all!!!

Szia,

Nichols Elder

When we cut our hair right before Christmas! Ya, it was pretty hard and fun!!

Me and Aldridge Elder dressed up as the big man himself! Ya, that was a fun day. It was Zone Conference in Buda. We did a white elephant exchange and I got Hungarian peppers. Haha, but it was fun!

Our Christmas presents for Christmas morning!!!

We found a little snow! So we had to go party in it!

Here is Elder Erickson throwing a snowball at me, and right when I was taking a picture of him! So, it worked out. Hahahahahaha!

Our view from where we were emailing the families on Christmas !! IT was a gorgeous night.

We got invited to go to a sweet concert! It was so Hungarian. It was mostly Hungarian, then some English songs like route 66. Then German. Ya the German lady was fun to listen to! hahahahahahaha

Week 15

Hey family, like how are things going over there? Tell me about the life all my amazing friends, I would love to know how things are going and what has been happening? Now, let me talk about today and what we have been doing and what we did this last week! It was so dang good!!! We found so many people who would listen to us!

     So, here in the 14th district in Pest we have been assigned by our bishop to search out and find those who are recent converts and less actives! It is such a neat experience!!! I am seeing it change lives everywhere!!! We find out that some people do not leave because they want to, but because of work, they just cannot make it. So we have found like three amazing people from doing that work, and they are so much fun and we love meeting with them! Now, here is the miracle of the week. We tracted this huge 11 story building and after we had done over 140 doors, we finally got  to the end and there was 2 doors left, we tried the next door and some guy answered. We told him we were doing a survey and he started to answer our questions. At the end he asked if we were Mormon, we were like yeah!!! So then he asked about the book of Mormon, and what is it! So we instantly started to work on it!  We shared all the info we could and then he said he would read it and call us after he is done!! So sweet!

     Now today, unfortunately mom... I spent like 90 bucks on the card...We went shopping in a street of booths, and I looked for what I could buy the fam and stuff, but then we went to a mall... I found a gorgeous grey jacket and it was a good price! So I got it... Now I promise that was my Christmas gift from Europe. hahahaha.

     Well love you all, and I will write next week sometime!!

Szia,

Nikolsz Elder

Our Christmas tree that my companion's nice sister sent to us!!!!

The Christmas tree that me and Christiansen decorated for the ward Christmas party that was last Saturday!!! It was so much fun and it was mostly investigators! That made it ten times better!

Week 14

 Hey!!!

     So I am so sorry for not emailing sooner than I did. I would have totally emailed yesterday if I could have, but as you can see, my p day was moved to today hahaha. Now, let me explain why it is today. So apparently there are mini transfers in the mission, and those happen on the months when no new missionaries come into the mission field. For example, this month. So, they move p day to the Tuesday so that we know whether we need to buy groceries or not or whatever. So big surprise, I am still with Elder Christensen!! And I am loving this guy! He is absolutely incredible and we cannot wait to spend our Christmas together here in Pest.

     Now, the work here in Pest. It is going, oh it is going! We had a baptism this last week and it was absolutely incredible! I cannot wait to have another one next month and maybe another couple in months to come! Recently we have been having ok success with tracting. We have had a lot of people "dog" us, that is when they just stop coming, and so these last couple of weeks we have been tracting for sometimes like 8 hours. Non stop. We eat lunch at 1030, and we get home at like 7. Oh it is wonderful! But those are the most exhausting days, but also the best! Now, here is one of the miracles we have seen this last week.

     We had someone "dog" us for a program at the church, and so naturally we waited just in case they were still coming and just late. But, the person ended up not coming. So then we had 30 min until our next program at the church. My comp said let us go tracting. So WE DID!! For like a whole 20 min. I honestly thought it would be super difficult to find someone who would one, let us in the building, and two even listen to us. But it happened! Got let in the building very fast, then knocked on two doors, and nothing. Then on the third, this lady answered the door immediately and let us in without us even having to ask! She accepted the Book of Mormon and then we were out of time. But she invited us back over Monday! Which we went and she made us lunch, a cake and soup! It was so good, we also got to play with her cute little boy, that was mostly my job because for the most part I could understand him:) hahaha.

     So, Judd Elder is unfortunately leaving our little group of 6 here in Pest, he is going to Miskolc to be a ZL there. That is dope. So... I do not know what else to say.

Love you all!!!

Nikolsz Elder