Elder Jeff Nichols: Week 27

Hello family and friends!

How is everyone doing back at home? I hope that all is well and I hope that you are all trying to draw closer to the Savior, but not just draw closer to Him, but be more like Him in our everyday living. It is a very hard thing to do, but I promise, that you will only receive happiness afterwards because that is what I have felt. I know that I am not near perfect, but with the Savior, and with his guidance and help, I can be.

Monday: After I emailed last week, we decided to go back home and start our "march madness" here in the mission. Hahaha, so we call it "transferology" here in the mission. Basically, we try to figure out where every single missionary will be placed in the mission. Who will be the next Assistant to the President, the next Zone Leader, the next trainers, seniors, who will go where! All of that fun stuff! Ya... That took a super long time and we are not even half way done... Wahoo. hahaha.

Tuesday: Today we went over to one of our investigator's homes and made brownies at her place! We told her that we would show her how to make American Brownies!:) So we did, the only downfall was it came out a little more like a brownie cake.. but I aint complaining!:) We then talked and introduced the Book of Mormon to her and she was very accepting of it. She is basically like a Hungarian Mother to me and Thomas out here in Pécs. She is super nice and has a nice daughter who is mentally handicapped. I love that family to death. We then went back to the Branch House and met with two of our English class ladies and practiced English with them and talked a little about the gospel. Turns out, one of them has a boyfriend in Preston McMullins mission!! That man is learning Hungarian, and this lady is learning Spanish too. So wow, like I thought that was kinda cool. Haha. Maybe Preston can find him and we can skype and over time we could have the next eternal family!!!:):) After that program, we had the usual family night with the branch members. We watched the life of Celine Dion because one of the members who was in charge said that it was a very good movie to apply into the gospel. Ya... I did not really see the resemblance at all.. But it was a good language study and quite funny:)

Wednesday: We met with our super cool investigator who we usually meet with on Wednesdays. She is super cool and this was a different lesson for me. We have taught her all 3 lessons and now we had to figure out what to cover, especially for her. So we planned to talk about Authority and baptism, but when we got in the lesson, we out of nowhere changed it to faith. We found out a lot about her faith and it ended up being a really good lesson. We felt the spirit and I know she felt something. We ended up walking out of the lesson and Elder Thomas said to me, "it was a good lesson:)". Then we went tabling and tried finding people through that. Funny thing, was a man in a suit came up to us at the table and started giving us a sales pitch for a water park in Hungary that he wanted us to buy into! He said we could go out to a restaurant and discuss this over that. Hahaha. Well we told him we were missionaries and young, he said he knew, then we said no and so he left. Haha. Then this day was also one of Elder Thomas' most forgetful days! He left his bag at home, twice! Then we went and bought train tickets for this week, and we sent in the receipts to prove that we bought them so we could get reimbursed from the mission office. So we sent that in the mail, and Elder Thomas sent his real tickets in the mail... So that was funny:)

Thursday: Today was long, we worked like all day. But we had English class, and after that we had the usual conversation club. Well as we were cleaning that up, two of our English class people(a guy and a girl) were talking to me about how hard it must be not to use internet, not to watch tv, not to have a phone, not to date, not to drink, not to smoke, and not to have sex. So I stopped them there and said "actually, we do not have that until after we are married and only with that one person you marry." That got a crack out of that and then went off about it... Ya... That was one of the more unwanted conversations I wanted on my mission... But I included it in the email because I thought you would laugh;)

Friday: So today was more of a sad day. Today was the last time we had the Colledges(the senior couple) in Pécs for district meeting. They actually fly out to go home on the 17th. But today they bore their testimonies, and man, that was such an incredible boost to keep going, and to never look back. I was so moved by their words. Then we went to lunch with them as always. Then the branch ended up having a going away party for them that night. And I ended up doing a lot of translating and a lot of pictures for them. We played games, and ate snacks and had a blast. The Colledges actually gave the spiritual thought that night, and it was all about Elder L. Tom Perry's Conference address. So that would be something good to look into for you all(P.S. conference is coming again... prepare now to receive revelation!)

Saturday: This was a fun day... and super LONG!!! We woke up and went straight to the top of the Pécs mountains. We met one of our investigators up there with a few of her friends and went on a 20 k hike through the mountains! It was super super fun! There were so many bear onions though, like everything was still dead after winter, but those were coming alive fast. Then we picked some and ate some, they were super good. This hike was actually like a big deal. March 8th is actually "woman day" here in Hungary, so the women get gifts and stuff. We also had checkpoints on the hike where we got a chocolate bar and a stamp that said we were on the right path. Once we finished the hike (after 6 hours) we went home and then went and worked and eventually finished the night. But the cool thing on the hike was exactly like I expected. We had the opportunity to talk to our investigators friends about the gospel, and our lives as missionaries and stuff like that. It was super neat to meet them and talk with them!

So, this was my week. It was super fun and super interesting. I am happy to say that me and Elder Thomas are doing good! I would like to also say this week we have the opportunity to hear from Elder Dyches from the seventy in a zone conference. I am so excited for that day. Next week will be transfers, so I will be emailing on a Tuesday, not Monday.

I love you all, have a great week!

Nichols Elder