December 28, 2015--Week 21

Hey everyone!

Merry late Christmas and happy early New Years! 

We had a pretty interesting week. Because it was raining and because of the holiday season, we haven't had too many people stoked on listening to us, but we had a few good lessons. We are really trying to think of ways "outside the box" for working with the Korean people and to work with the members in the Korean branch. It's unfortunate, but just contacting Koreans on the street does not get very good of results and almost gives us negative results. So rather than street contacting, we are working a lot more with members and thinking of absurd things to try. 

Outside of that, we've done a lot of caroling this week. We caroled to our land lady who let us in on Christmas day. She was super nice to us and gave us cookies and talked with us for a little bit. 

Also, I gave a talk last Sunday in the English ward that we work with. I wasn't one hundred percent sure how to prepare it because it felt weird to do as a missionary, but I think it went okay. I felt somewhat good about it afterwards because I had a few people come up to me after Sacrament Meeting and ask for my notes with the talk.  I had to disappoint them because my notes would have made no sense to anyone else because it was just an outline with a quote and a few points. 

That's pretty much it for this week. We only had one investigator at church, and that was Li. We're hoping after the holidays the work picks up because it's pretty slow right now. 

At this time of year as we are all making goals and getting ready for the New year, I would like to share one of mine. My main goal is to be able to answer yes to this question every night before I go to bed: “Did I do the best I could every single day?" It's a hard goal to measure, but if I ever have to answer no, then I have a sick feeling in my stomach. But I know as I strive to do my best every day, and then let Jesus Christ's grace take care of my inadequacies, I can do much more than I think I can. I love you all!

Have a great week!

-Elder Nickerl

This is the family that we ate Christmas dinner with and also all the missionaries in our area.

This is Elder Kim and me. He is from Korea and in the English program. He came out the same time as I did and so we go home at the same time.  We went on exchanges for some reason, even though we aren't in the same district and neither one of us is in a leadership position. But it was fun. And helpful for both of our language learning. 

December 21, 2015--Week 20

Hey everyone,

   This has been a pretty long week because we did a lot of contacting. I am not a huge fan of contacting because it takes a lot of enthusiasm to go up to random people and start talking to them and I am not very good at it, but we have been working to find new different approaches and came up with a few this week that have worked really well for us. We found 4 new investigators this week which is really good for us. Putting it into perspective, since I have been here, we have only found 2 new investigators until this week we found 4 new ones. 

   Outside of finding new investigators, it is getting really cold here and it's kind of miserable. It's too hot to be snowing, but it's about 40 degrees with a lot of humidity and wind making for cold fingers and face. It also means people aren't quite as friendly when we try to talk with them because they don't like standing around outside much.

    I don't really have too much to report on this week, nothing really major happened outside of a lot of finding. This next week is Christmas week, and we are looking forward to calling home. For our other investigators, we have Li, he is still doing Li things. He is coming to church, but is struggling with smoking. He will come around eventually, so we aren't too worried about him. We don't teach him more than once a week anymore because we can't do much to help him past his smoking so we just stop by every week. He keeps coming to church though and loves it and wants to keep learning more. He reads the scriptures every day. Quan, we dropped, he wasn't willing to keep commitments. Then we found 4 new investigators this week, please pray that their appointments will go through and that they will be open and receptive. 

     This week in my studies, I came across Ether 12-23-27 which I have read many times, but I caught something this time. In verses 23-25 Moroni sorrows because he thinks that because of his weakness because of what he considers his inability, the Gentiles will not listen to what he has to say. Moroni worries that because of him, the people in our generation will not accept the gospel. But after this in verses 26 and 27, the Lord comforts Moroni and explains why he has allowed Moroni to have this weakness. I encourage all of you to study this scripture this week. I know as I studied this scripture, I found many weaknesses that the Lord has given me, and I think he wants us to bring these weaknesses to him so that he can make them strong. I testify of the power of Jesus Christ's Atonement. I am proof that it works. I have seen it work in my life as I have worked to learn a new language and overcome fears. I know that this same Atonement is available to all those who come unto Christ. 

Merry Christmas to all of you and enjoy your time!

-Elder Nickerl

December 14, 2015--Week 19

Hey everyone,

   This week was transfers and it was a bit of a surprise, but a good one. We were expecting Elder Koo to go to the driving area of the Korean program and for me to get a new companion, but we found out this morning that we are staying for another transfer. We're excited because now we get to keep our relationships with our investigators and that is always a good thing. Outside of transfers this week, Elder Kahng is going home tomorrow. Elder Jeon is going to follow up train Elder Trask in the driving area of the Korean part.  

Elder Evans of the 1st quorum of the seventy came this week to talk to our mission. He pretty much laid it down for us and called us to repentance. Not really, because it was really spiritual, but we learned a lot from him and he made some pretty big changes in the mission. He also gave us some good insight on teaching repentance and talked for a while about our desire for our mission and how to go about achieving that desire. He laid it out pretty clearly. There are no shortcuts to achieving what we want, you simply have to do it. He talked about how to become what we want. His tip was that it is in the small things that we do consistently over time. 

After he came, the only thing out of the ordinary this week was going on exchanges. Elder Trask and I went on exchanges on Saturday and it was pretty cool. We got 3 Korean phone numbers in 2 hours of contacting. That's more phone numbers than we normally get in a week from Koreans and the reason that was cool is because neither of us speak Korean well. And so that was really awesome. I don't have a ton of time this week, so I'll just send a few pictures.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I am thankful for all of your love and support. Until next week!

Elder Nickerl

This is all the Korean missionaries except for Elder Trask.  He was talking to someone else.  

Here is Li and I drinking Korean yogurt. 

This is the Korean branch!

Elder Koo and I with New York in the background.

December 7, 2015--Week 18

Hey everyone,

I don't have a ton to say about this week. We pretty much did what we do every other week. Went around, talked to people, met new people, knocked doors, met more people, share the Gospel, do service, teach English class, ate food, met more people, taught lessons, went to tree lighting events in the community, got kicked out of every single one of them within 10 minutes, met more people. That sounds pretty much like a good summary of this week. If anyone has questions about anything going on, or anything in general, feel free to ask because I never know much of what to say in weekly emails. 

We taught Quan and Li this week, both are doing well especially Li. He's getting close. Both

went to church. Li has started on the Word of Wisdom and is doing very well. Quan isn't going to make his baptismal date because he hasn't been to church enough, but he is still doing pretty well. We have some investigators in the Korean ward. We teach a lady, Monique, we just started the lessons with her, but she has been giving us food weekly since I got here. That's it for the most serious of our investigators, but we are still teaching a lot of lessons. That's about it to report, still hanging in there and doing well. 

Last night, I loved the Christmas fireside. In Sister Burton's talk, she talked about our Savior. She asked this question, quoting the Savior! "Will ye also go away?" And That is the question isn't it, when it is all said and done, will we go away? Will we turn away from what we know? Will we reject our Savior who has given us everything we have? Don't forget to remember him who gave us all we have. His love and help is right in front of us and all we have to do is ask. Don't turn away, don't reject it. This week, we faced rejection from a person who we have come to grow close to and it hurt. I felt just a fraction of the pain that I am sure our Savior feels when we turn away from his help. I do not intend to compare myself to Jesus Christ, nor did I mean that to sound that way, but if it hurts me to be rejected by those I care about, I am sure that pain is multiplied that our Savior feels. I know he loves us and cares about us, accept that love, and you will be happier.

Love you all,

Elder Nickerl

Elder Nickerl's new Christmas tree all decorated.

With the 12 Days of Christmas gifts!

November 30, 2015--Week 17

Hey everyone,

This week was one of the busier weeks yet. I feel like every week we just get busier and busier. We don't have time to fit in all the stuff we need to do and so a lot of times we don't have time to contact. The only problem with that, is we have been mostly busy with the English program and we need to focus more on the Korean program. So early in this week we realized that and have been putting in a lot more emphasis on the Korean program. We taught about 10 Korean street lessons this week on top of our usual English lessons. 10 lessons might not seem like a lot, but from what we have been doing that is a ton. Because of this, I feel like my Korean is getting put to the test a lot more and I am actually not too upset about it. I am in no means able to communicate well, but this week I held my first real conversation with someone for about 5 minutes by myself. 

Oh and another good thing on the topic of Korean, our ward mission leader just started helping us with our Korean. He is giving us Korean lessons once or twice a week which is really helpful because we don't have too much access to native speakers outside of teaching. Other than language, this week has been really awesome. Like I said before, we've found a pretty successful way to contact the Koreans and as a result, we are teaching more of them. 

As for our English investigators, Li is really the only one who is moving forward. We taught him the Word of Wisdom a few days ago and it went alright, but he isn't too sure about following it. He said he would pray about it and consider it so hopefully he actually does so. 

We don't have any super good Korean investigators but we have a few people we think are going to do well. There is a part member family and the husband is really interested and has been going to church for a couple of months straight now, and our Branch President is going to ask him when he is ready to take the discussions (we would have asked him, but the Branch President told us to wait). We also got a few hopeful follow up appointments from street contacts this week and we will see how those go. Oh and on Thanksgiving, the Korean Branch did a lunch at the church and invited a ton of their friends. And so we went and one of the guys is really interested in what we do and said he asked us if we could meet to have a discussion about our church. So this week please pray that all of our potential appointments and meetings follow through. 

We're excited though, this work is moving. The Gospel is true. Plain and simple as that. Jesus Christ is our Savior. He made everything possible for us. I am again reminded with the beginning of this Christmas season how thankful I am for his church and his teachings to all of us.

I love you all, have a wonderful week!

-Elder Jacob Nickerl

November 23, 2015--Week 16

Hey everyone,

This week has been awesome. The work is really starting to pick up, especially in the Korean area. 

On Tuesday, we got our semi annual temple trip and we went into NYC. That was super cool and pretty foreign to me. The city is HUGE. I have a few pictures I will send. We went to the temple via the subway and then went home on the bus. It was a really awesome experience and a relaxing morning/afternoon. After that, we went and got some Korean food with an investigator and member from the Korean ward. We do that every Tuesday night. 

Wednesday, we taught English class and one of the ladies there kept asking us questions about missionary work and so we are going to invite her to take the discussions and see what she says. Thursday and Friday I don't remember at all, but they were busy days. 

Saturday, we taught Li. We are super excited about him still, he won’t commit to anything, but he has gone to church 4 times now and loves the Book of Mormon. He reads it every night. Later on Saturday night, we taught English class, but no one showed up. We were on exchanges, I was with Elder Trask. We went and contacted in Korea town and had a pretty good experience. Neither one of us speaks very good Korean (since we both just got here) but we didn't care. It was pretty cool because normally when we contact Koreans, no one listens. However, when two white people are walking through Korea town trying to speak to all the Koreans in Korean, I guess it was pretty funny cause pretty much everyone stopped. We talked with like 5 people and taught a lesson which doesn't really happen from what I've seen. 

From that I learned a lot. 1. I can speak enough Korean to help out this area (not much, but I can contact people, small talk, teach them a lesson, get their information, and schedule a follow up appointment. 2. Koreans listen when we actually try to talk to them ALL. Normally we just talk to the ones who say hi back. We talked to them all. 3. Koreans think it's funny when white people speak Korean, and they even stop us to talk to us if we speak Korean to each other. 4. I love Koreans. Seriously, they are amazing. They are all so loving, and funny people. I'm like 75% sure I'm going to live in Korea when I get the first opportunity. Saturday night was probably the best night of my mission because that right there is evidence that we can find success with Koreans. 

Sunday was amazing too. We had 3 investigators at church (2 of which were Korean) and a few less active members. Afterward we had a little party (we do that like every week) and the members were super helpful with fellowshipping them and being really friendly. It was amazing. 

This morning, we had interviews with President Taggart, and he was super happy to hear that the Korean program is really finding results. President Taggart is awesome, he's just a really down to earth, relatable person, but still is like a "walking spiritual faith bomb." I love it here. It's awesome, we are doing well, and we are looking forward to a lot more good in the future because right now the members are all super excited about missionary work and are helping out like crazy. I know that this work is God's work. He loves us all very much. He knows what is best for us, and he has given us his instructions so that we can be the happiest we possibly can in this life. 

Have a wonderful week everyone and thanks for all your support!

-Elder Jacob Nickerl

Manhattan and the Manhattan Temple

November 16, 2015--Week 15

This week has been the busiest of my mission. We have been in a trio, because Elder Owens is gone and so Elder Kahng, Koo, and I have been covering two areas. We had no time for anything, but appointments. No contacting or anything else. 

We have been working with a new guy all week. We met with him 4 times all for like an hour. We try not to stay with anyone longer than 30 minutes, but he is an exception. He is awesome. His name is Sean and he isn't in our area, he is in Elder Trask and Kahng's area. 

For Elder Koo and I, we have been working with Li still. We were invited over to some members house with him and that was awesome. He is doing really good, but he was really struggling this weekend because of all the horrible things that went on in Paris. He was having a really hard time seeing how God would allow something bad to happen to all of those innocent people. That's a really hard question because it is one I wondered for a very long time in my life and honestly haven't really been able to understand until quite recently. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and after the lesson, he really seemed more at peace. During the lesson he told us his one purpose in life was to help the people of China. And we believe him. He is an outstanding person, legit everything he does is to help others. He came to church this Sunday for the 3rd time and he says he will always go because he likes it so much. 

We have another new semi-investigator. He is Korean, his wife is American. His wife is a member and they have the cutest kid I've ever seen in my life.  He’s like 2-3ish and he speaks Konglish. We've been working with them recently a little bit. 

Then there's Quan, we don't really know how to help him because he just won't keep his commitments, but he wants to get baptized and meet with us, but he can't if he won't keep his commitments. That's about it for our investigators. 

I'll go through my daily schedule. We wake up at 6:30 and exercise for 30 minutes then get ready then eat breakfast. Then we study scriptures and missionary books for an hour on our own. Then we do companionship study and study scriptures and the missionary books. This week I’ve been reading through Mosiah and the first half of Alma. After companionship study at 10:00 we start language study for an hour. I usually read Korean out loud for a half hour and then I figure out the vocab that I will learn for the day. After language study, we don’t speak English until 9:00 PM. After language study, we eat lunch (which is always rice with whatever food we have leftover from the Korean people who feed us non stop). After lunch, we do an hour of practice role playing lessons to each other in both English and Korean. And at around 12:45, we leave the apartment and go to appointments that we have. If we don't have appointments, we go find new people. We usually pack snacks to get us to dinner and then go back to our apartment at 8:45-9:00 then eat a quick dinner. After dinner we plan for the next day and then we do some more personal study time and get ready for bed and go to bed around 10:30. 

I don't really know what else to say in terms of things here in New Jersey. It's getting cold, but it's a late winter coming up. It still hasn't snowed. I'm excited for that to come. Then we can sweep people's driveway and stuff. I love serving people. Honestly, I know that sounds weird, but in all honesty, I always just come away from these things feeling good. I know that when we try to help others, we draw closer to the Savior and when we draw close to the Savior, we can more fully appreciate all that he has done for us. I see the Atonement working in people every day and it’s amazing that we can just leave our mistakes behind and just keep trying. It truly makes all the difference. 

I love you all! Until next week!

-Elder Jacob Nickerl

P.S. Last week of fall in New Jersey: