Hey mom, this is your son, Nick! Um, I’m just recording this
real quick, just to uh, to say hi.
Right now I’m kinda the only one who’s not calling home
right now. Elder Hendricks is on his second phone call home to his other
parent, Elder Wessendorf is calling, and my companion is calling, so I just
thought I’d record this and send this out tomorrow.
Things here are going really great honestly, um I’m just
completely enjoying the mission. It’s
something that has changed me. Literally changed me. Um, I don’t know, I’m trying to think of
things to say. I don’t know if you got
my email the other day, there was literally me just saying that I wish that I had
stuck with the piano kindof because I have had to play it a few times like at
district meeting the other day and I totally got called out, they are like, “Hey
is that Hymns Made Easy?” That happens
when you are in a district full of singers and they all try to sing the
different parts. I love it though.
I’m so thankful for really where I am. This is where I need to be. It’s been
amazing. I think the coolest part is
that I’ve just really seen how the Lord puts things into our mouths when we
need them. Just the other day I was
really terrified when I was going into the Bible study where I met the other
investigators, and just throughout the whole lesson because I’m not too
familiar with the Bible, like, I know all the stories, but I don’t know
scripture references, I don’t know all those things, I’m still barely working on getting all of
that down for the Book of Mormon, and I sit down, and they’ll start quoting a
scripture and a reference will come to mind, or I’ll be at least able to finish
it, you know it’s amazing how the Lord just helps me out, so much. So that’s kinda been a cool experience that I
had.
Um, I’m trying to think… Sorry for not singing earlier, I know
you kept trying to get me to do that but I was sortof calling in the middle of
the other ward’s hour, I was in the middle of the family history center, and
uh, literally people were walking by and they would just hear some random kid
singing in the family history center in the middle of the church. They were not necessarily in sacrament
meeting, but yeah… So I figured I wouldn’t
do that, sorry. Um, I guess I could
totally sing something now. I’m not sure
what I would sing. Uh, going through a
hymn book literally right now. (crashing sounds) oh, this poor piano. This piano on the stage is pretty, well,
used.
(piano note plays- he sings the first verse of “I Know That
My Redeemer Lives.”)
Ok, well, there’s that.
(Grunts, shuffling sounds) Sorry, I nearly dropped my
ipad. I’m not sure what else to
say. Right now I’m timing elder
Hendricks call so he can remain exactly obedient and not go over 40 minutes.
Oh, I love that kid so much, he’s awesome.
Elder Wessendorf is communicating with his family on his homecoming
plans. They’re like, “Yeah, we have a
banner! We won’t tell you what’s on it,
but we got a banner!” (laughs)
It’s awesome. You know it’s amazing that seriously a mission
will do. Um I just can’t tell you how happy I am that Madison is going to get
to experience this too. Elder Hendricks
got to talk to his sister who is on a mission as well, um, they sorta just did
a three way skype call and it’s just, I’m so excited to see how much Madison
and Zach and Christopher will grow. You
know, obviously I’m only a third of the way through my mission but its crazy. I
mean, I’m not perfect by any means, I feel like I’ve actually regressed a
little bit with some of my uh, housekeeping skills. But, it’s honestly amazing
what missions do.
Recently I’ve been reading in the New Testament and it’s
just amazing to read about the life of Jesus Christ to see the apostles write their
testimonies of him. It’s one of my
favorite things, honestly, I’m loving it. I still gotta say the Book of Mormon is by far
my favorite. Granted, I haven’t necessarily
read the whole New Testament cover to cover.
I’ve studied it in seminary, I’ve probably read the whole thing if you
count me reading just the individual books, but from cover to cover, no. But
the Book of Mormon is still hands down my favorite.
I had a flashback to choir the other day, I was reading a little bit out of the book of
Ruth, and “Entreat Me Not to Leave You” came flashing into my mind. That was pretty cool. Uh, I
got the audio of “Daemon” um, off of youtube (laughs) on preparation day, I just
copied the link, and uh, I got the audio file for it and was listening to it
the other day. It’s probably not
something that I would listen to all the time, but I was just like “For old
time’s sake, it talks about Jesus, I’ll justify that…” (laughs) So that was
awesome. I’ve been trying to think of
old songs that I sang.
I’ve really enjoyed all the music that you sent me. My
companion’s got a bit of a different style, so I haven’t been listening to it
too much. I really, I feel like I’ve
kinda gotten on his nerves a little bit and I don’t want to annoy him too much.
However, like, if he’s in the shower I’ve got a little speaker that plays a USB
so I’ll throw it in there and listen to music, so I promise your efforts didn’t
go to waste, I seriously, again, thank you so much for that.
Um, yeah, it’s been awesome.
I’m trying to think what else you might want to hear from me. Oh!
Remember that hammer multi-tool you sent me?
Well, I, uh, I lost it like halfway through Elder Guthrie, and we took
the car through like this free car wash, and like deep cleaned it basically,
and I totally found it. In like the cup holder
of all places. Covered up by basically
just lots of pamphlets and copies of the Book of Mormon. It’s amazing what you can fit in that little side
cup-holder thing in the driver’s door. Man. You know, the thing in the door
that most people use as a trash can. I felt
so bad, there were probably a good 15 different pamphlets that were just
ruined, you know from sitting in there and getting all crumpled up slowly…man…
tithing money… yeah...
But yeah, there’s that.
Apparently today we were supposed to be fasting as a zone. My companion and I didn’t know. I said an “I’m sorry” prayer while blessing
my lunch. (laughs) And then I’m probably
just gonna like fast Tuesday or something.
This next week is going to be crazy. I’m going to be in a trio. I’ve kinda always wanted to be in a
trio. I’ve heard like, interesting
things about them, like how it’s hard, but at the same time like I’m gonna be
in a trio with Elder Hendricks and Elder Haskins so it can’t be that bad. I love those guys both so I’m pretty excited
about that.
Um, yeah, like it’s been crazy we’re trying to hurry and
coordinate our schedules for the weekend since they’re pretty booked. We don’t have too much, but we have a few set
lessons. We’ve been kinda struggling to
get lessons in our area but, it’s been picking up, it’s been good. We’ve seen tons of miracles. I think that’s
one of my favorite things about missions so far is that like I’ve learned to
really recognize miracles. I don’t know, maybe that’s just part of growing up
more and uh, and I guess just learning to see through adult-ish eyes. I’m not sure that I’d say that 19 is an adult. (laughs) I’m fairly kid-ish still but uh, I definitely
see and recognize miracles a lot more. You know, I’ll be looking back, and I’m
like “Man! That’s a lot of miracles that
happened today!”
Um, oh, our Bishop today just rebuked everybody in church
because we have a ward temple day and he said that the majority of the worthy
temple recommend holders weren’t going to the temple. It’s been planned for like three months
out. It was pretty…like…I loved it
though. While he was rebuking, I felt
the spirit so strongly during it. And that
was kind of amazing. I’m reflecting a
lot on the temple lately, I hope to go there soon.
I just heard something so I think my companion’s done. So, I’ll probably head out and go talk to
him.
Love you, bye!
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