November 9, 2015--Week 14

Hey everyone,

It's been a hectic week as always, but we had a lot of good stuff going for us. I don't remember a lot of what went on because it has been busy, but I will give most of the important details. 

So we had a lot of good contacting time this week and we taught a lot of good lessons. One case early in the week, we were on our way home for lunch from a cancelled appointment, and we saw a lady who needed some help in her yard. We took about 30 minutes and helped her. I don't know what happened to her after that, but we thanked her, and went on our way. It was just the feeling after helping her, for nothing in return, that made that experience so important to me. It made me think a little bit. That is how we must feel about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is his church, if it is true, and it is, then sharing it with other people is all helping them. It isn't as much that I hadn't thought of this before then, but it helped to change my mindset a little about the work that I am doing. 

Other than that, most of our early week was giving out fliers for a basketball tournament that we put on for the Korean branch in order to get some Korean youth, because there are none. So we did a lot of advertising for that. That brings me to that event, we had 6 people show up, which is a lot less that we hoped for, but it was a really fun event and that is 6 people who were there who weren't before. 

Also we had our investigator Quan there helping out. He is Chinese, and he is on baptismal date as of last week, but he is still pretty iffy on the whole thing. He is doing everything we ask him to do and I think he is putting in the effort, but he is having a hard time accepting the answers that he is receiving. He helped us with the tournament and we taught him two lessons after that. At church yesterday, we had our other Chinese investigator Li there. He is golden. Everything he tells us is perfect and he knows he is receiving answers and acknowledges them. He just wants to finish the Book of Mormon before committing (which he is going through crazy fast now that we gave him a Chinese copy). He has been being fellowshipped like mad by all of the members which has been amazing for him because we have a couple families in our ward who speak Chinese. Next Saturday we have a lunch appointment with them and him and then a lesson following (which was super awesome because the member family set that up without us even asking them to). Also after church, he attended the baptism of two of the kids in our ward, and he loved it. He told us after that it was "fantastic" and that he felt the Spirit. We are really excited about Li and I think the ward is as well, so please keep him in your prayers specifically that all goes well with him, because he is an awesome guy and could really be a huge blessing to all those who he will meet. I know this because he has already blessed me with his sincere desire to find truth. 

After church we went and did some contacting that didn't get us anywhere in the immediate future, but who knows what will happen? Those were the major things that went on this week. We also found out what is going to happen with the Korean program this next transfer which was a huge question mark to all of us. So that will be interesting. Elder Koo and I will be in a trio with Elder Kahng this next week while waiting for the next incoming Elder who Elder Kahng is going to be training. Elder Owens will be leaving to go to the English Program for now. I'm excited to move forward in these next few weeks. 

I feel like the longer I am here, the more I love what I do every day. It isn't easy some days, but honestly, is anything that we do really easy? This week I have been thinking a lot about why missionary work isn't easy and I just keep being reminded of Elder Holland/President Eyring's video on missionary work and the Atonement. And I know that missionary work (or any other part of our lives) "is not easy, because it was never easy for [Christ]" who paid the price for all of our happiness. I am more and more thankful each and every day as I begin to understand better what Jesus Christ did for me and for all of us. I am so thankful for God's perfect plan, to allow all of us to return to live with him again. 

Thank you all for your support. If you have any questions for me, or anything you need from me, don't hesitate to ask.

--Elder Jacob Nickerl

P.S.  Here is the link link to missionary work and the Atonement video mentioned above.  It is about 10 minutes long, and it is an amazing video. Whenever you have time, I would highly suggest watching it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6FKiNVbw3Y