January 13, 2011 "Wow what a fast week!!!"

Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 12:05 PM

Subject: An Email Without a Title HAHA

Wow what a fast week!!!

   Sometimes I just can't believe how fast the weeks go! After emailing last week we went down to Lubbock to switch back from our exchange. We first went to the Robison's to help clean up their Christmas decorations. They fed us too ha! But before we headed down to Lubbock, Elder Jones and I stopped by this house we had knocked the day before. This house had big dead rats on their lawn so we grabbed one ha! (no I didn't actually touch it!) When we got down to Lubbock we tried all the other cars of the missionaries but only the assistant's truck was unlocked so we put it on the floor of their truck! Ha ya'll shoulda seen their faces when they opened the truck!!! hahah They could smell it instantly but it took them a minute or two to find out what it was! Ha it was a priceless prank!! We finished off the p-day by playing volleyball at the stake center.

   Friday was mostly spent preparing for Saturday. We met with the branch mission leader, Sabastion's family, and all our investigators to prep for the baptism on Saturday. The baptism was great! Sabastion and Gordo were baptized and we had about 6 investigators there! I was even asked to give a talk on baptism and that was a first for on my mission! The only other baptism I've spoken at was Travis Jolley a few years back!!! On Sunday they both got confirmed! This Sunday Sabastion, Isaac Porras, and Troy Velasquez (a less-active we've been working with) will all be getting the Aaronic priesthood and will be deacons!!!! That increases the deacon's quorum times 4!!!

   On Monday we went down to Lubbock and I did my first baptismal interview for a man named Ray. It went really well and he'll be getting baptized on Saturday! We spent the night in Lubbock and had district meeting the next day. I instructed on extending commitments, promising blessings, and following-up! It went really well I think. Then I went on an exchange with the companionship of missionaries in my district who are struggling. They just don't get it. They go through the motions but don't seem to care. They are more of workers than servants I guess you could say. Extra responsibility comes with extra blessings and I am grateful for that!

   Well, I finished the Book of Mormon on Monday! That means it took me 26 days but there were a lot of days I didn't even have time to read! It was great though! All the things you learn by reading it in a shorter period of time!

   Tuesday was a special day: my one year anniversary of landing here in Texas!!! Kinda hard to believe!!! Jason is doing great and he's really working on getting an answer that the church is true and he needs to get baptized. Just a matter of time now!!!

   I think that's about it from this week! Still working hard and trying to stay warm, even though it's hard to when you wake up and it's about 40 degrees in your apartment!!!! We're working on getting that fixed haha!!! Stay warm and pray and read every day. If you don't, then Heavenly Father can't give you those blessings!

Love,

Elder Nix

Snow in Texas! December 2010

January 6, 2011 "Start of 2011!"

Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2011 10:12 AM

Subject: Start of 2011!

Dear Friends and Family,

What a quick start to a new year!

   Yes, I know I'm coming home THIS year but let's not focus on that ok haha?? So the big news of the week is that Sabastion Mendez will be getting baptized on Saturday! He "passed" his interview yesterday with Elder Jones (ZL who I'm doing an exchange with right now) and tonight we are gonna set up the program and all that jazz (who I hope are still winning haha!). Sabastion is 12 and his brother "Gordo" who is 8 will be getting baptized as well. It's about time with Sabastion cuz missionaries have been trying to work with him for years now! What put it over the top is a boy named Isaac Porras who moved here from Tulsa recently and was baptized in June I think. Isaac and Sabastion have become fast friends and it's really helped the progression cuz Isaac is such a great example! For example, I'm reading the Book of Mormon right now (almost done!) and Isaac saw me reading it and he said, "I wanna read the whole Book of Mormon by myself." So he started! This kid is only 12 and he comes to church by himself cuz his dad is remarried (active mom lives in Tulsa!) and they go to the Catholic church. Isaac's dad drops him off on Sundays and Wednesdays. What a great example to all! 

    So a quick thought, read Alma 9 and think about our country! A lot of similarities me thinks! New Years Eve and Day were pretty anticlimactic around here. Needed to be in by 6 and still were normal teaching days! This year I stayed up ha cuz last year I was in the MTC and just tired haha! Now I'm used to the whole lack of sleep deal! The only thing different was that Elder Pennington got sick cuz his body didn't quite agree with some Mexican food we ate at a members house! So he was throwing up for New Year's Eve! Speaking of Mexican food, when we broke our fast on Sunday, we ate with Maria and Fernando (owners of Rascal) and they made Pasoli or however you'd spell it. Anyway it's basically pig's feet with pork and corn and cabbage and red pepper all cooked for like 16 hours! I actually ate the pig's hoof! Ya it was weird to try but surprisingly good! Last p-day we played a bit of b-ball at the church's half gym and I dunked it (have video evidence!!!)! I felt that the next morning! Oh ya, Rascal got attacked by another dog and was bleeding form side, neck, and head but is healing pretty good now!

    We had this lesson with a catholic person (referral) this past week and the first lesson was great! We went back a few days later and she had all these random questions and basically she'd been "anti-ed" by family members. It was pretty crazy ha but hard to explain! So I guess there's a member of the branch who's really not active and is about 40 who had his own church. It's a "cowboy church" which is a whole nother thing I'd have to explain. (I once saw a cowboy church that the members rode their horses into and sat on them for church!) Anyway, he uses his "priesthood authority" to teach haha and says he got his authority from the Mormon church. Well the stake president told President Roberts to deal with this and it's been turned over to us. We have tried to find his house and get a hold of him but haven't been able to yet. Basically we're supposed to tell him to come back to church or he'll be excommunicated!!! Crazy!!

    Jason is slowly progressing. I still feel like he'll get baptized but he just needs to keep his commitments before he's really gonna know this is true! It'll just be later then we originally planned. Still got faith and hope there!

    I instructed at my first district meeting on Monday. It went well and I taught about teaching people and not lessons!! We also had interviews and they went well as well! Big news: we have texting!!!!  WOW! Weird but President Monson said missionaries need it! So we have it! We had to basically sign our lives away to use it though! It will all be monitored and if a missionary misuses is then it'll be made known to the whole mission and that missionary will lose their emailing privileges for the rest of their mission! Scare tactic?? haha! But it's been a good tool for the few days we've had it thus far! We've been able to contact some people who we haven't been able to get a hold of for weeks!

    Oh on Sunday this member of the branch presidency was conducting (or how he says it conducing haha) and he said something way funny! And he didn't even know he messed up haha! He's Spanish. Anyway he called someone to be sustained as a primary worker. "All those that will in favor please show by the raise of the right hand. Any oppose please raise your left hand." HAHAHAHAH! It was hard not to laugh but I had to try not to cuz I was sitting on the stand to bless the sacrament! And he's "conduced" a lot so I dunno why he just slipped up on that ha!

    We have some great new people we're teaching! Veronica Woods, who wasn't able to come to church cuz the night before she suddenly lost all vision in her right eye! Way crazy but she's gonna come to church this week (hopefully) and really wants to know her purpose here in life! We had a great lesson with her last night with President Roberts and will see her again tomorrow. Yesterday we tried to see a less active family but they were "busy" so we did some knocking around that area cuz we had some time. Anyway I randomly picked this road after a few houses and after a few houses on the new road we met this man named Erafmo Estrada, but we just call him Mo. Mo invited us right in and we had an amazing lesson. We taught Mo, not a lesson. We taught him what he needed to hear. When we started talking about Joseph Smith a little bit and how he received an answer to his prayers and how how Mo can get answers to his prayers too, Mo said, "So what happened to the Smith guy? Did he find the right church?" Boom! We told him straight up what happened. He said he felt amazing and really wants to read and learn more. We'll be seeing him tomorrow as well! Veronica and Mo are 2 of the most legit 1st time teaching experiences I've had yet! it was great! I'm excited to work with them more and help them progress!

    Hmmm that's about it for the week I think! Elder Jones and I are gonna head to Lubbock here in a bit and switch back cuz we're on exchanges. We'll prolly play some b-ball there in Lubbock too! SWEET! ha

    Well I hope ya'll have made great goals for the new year and more importantly ways to achieve them!!!

Love ya'll!

Elder Nix

December 30, 2010 "Last Week of the Year!"

Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2010 12:16 PM

Subject: Last Week of the Year!

And just like that my "black year" or "dark year" is over! (meaning the year without being home or seeing the fam!) It's pretty crazy to think I've been here in Texas that long!

Christmas was great (Santa knows I love the Jazz ha!)! I talked to my family and of course that was the highlight! We spent time chilling with members both Christmas Eve and Christmas and had lots of fun and definitely ate way too much food! Church was only one hour long for the whole Lubbock stake and that was kinda weird cuz it wasn't on Christmas!

We had a mini Zone Conference on Monday in Lubbock. After that I went on exchanges with Elder West and brought him back to Plainview where he was trained. That was fun for him. Sebastian won't be getting baptized this week either cuz his parents are being dumb! Instead he will be getting baptized January 8th, so at least he's still getting baptized!

This next week I have my first district meeting to instruct on so I'm pretty excited for that! And we have interviews with President Robison so that is always fun too!!!

Well not a whole lot to write really cuz it's been a little slow with the holidays and family being in town and people being outta town! We're still finding people to teach tho! We found this lady named Veronica and invited her to get baptized after talking to her for 10 minutes! She said yes but she's gonna pray about the date! Pretty cool though!

And training is goin good! Lots and lots to help him work on but it's getting better!
Well, I really think that's about it! Hope ya'll had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Love,
Elder Nix

December 23, 2010 "Merry Christmas!"

Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2010 11:47 AM

Subject: Merry Christmas!!!

Hey Ya'll!

Merry Christmas! I can't believe it's Christmas already!

At least this Christmas will be a lot more normal than last years spent in the MTC! We will be spending Christmas Eve first with the Roberts family up in Tulia for a few hours and then with the Montoya Clan (like 5 Spanish families) for the evening. They have some different Hispanic traditions so that ought to be sweet! Christmas Day will be at the Beardsley's where we will call home and then at the Derricks (where we were for Thanksgiving!). It should be a great few days!

Now to the work that's been going on here in Plainview! We now have 3 baptismal dates!!! Sebastian Mendez (12) for the 31st of December, Jason Parks (27) for the 8th of January, and a new man we met named Delfino Picaso for January 22nd! Sebastin's is way quick but our mission is at like 393 for the year and Sebastin is looking to be number 400 (which is the mission goal!!!)!! This last week was definitely the most successful in Plainview in a long time ha!

We spent the night on Monday in Lubbock and Elder Densely and I burned our shirts for our year mark ha! (don't worry, I burned an old shirt I found haha!!!) Elder Pennington and I are getting along great and things are going good!

Hmmmm what else to say!!! haha Oh we had a great turn out at the Branch Christmas party!!! We had over 100 people there and about 15 non members! I sang the Grinch song and that was fun haha! Oh and it snowed for the first time really in a year since I've been here! It didn't really stick but I made a video of me throwing a snowball with the snow off the truck haha!

Ha well it's short but I think that's about it!

Have a Merry Christmas ya'll!

Love ya!

Elder Nix 

 

Hump Day! December 16, 2010 "Here Comes Part 2!!"

Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2010 10:57 AM

Subject: Here Comes Part 2!!

Well today is "Hump Day" which means this is my year mark! After today I'll be on the "downhill slide" as they call it out here! I can't believe it's already been a year, let alone the fact that it's 9 days til Christmas! It's crazy how time doesn't really seem to matter in longterm periods. Just days and weeks and hours haha! That's what it seems like to me I guess. Now on to part 2 of my mission! 

So this past Saturday I got a phone call early in the morning from President Robison and instantly I knew something was up! He called me to be a trainer again and a District Leader as well. That means I have other missionaries that I get indicators from and follow up with them and help instruct them on how to be better missionaries. I'll have four one and a half hour district meetings this month where I'll instruct. Kinda weird now that I have more responsibility. Ha not only am I training this brand new greenie but I need to help 4 other missionaries too!

Sunday, Monday, and the first part of Tuesday were spent helping Elders Nelson and Crowder pack and clean the apartment as well as say their goodbyes. Elder Crowder is back in Lubbock and Elder Nelson went to open a new area in Tucemcari, New Mexico. He's excited and he's serving with Elder Bradley who came out with me and who I saw for the first time in a year haha!! Elder Colton (John) is now home and he texted me right after he was released haha! He also called me from the Denver airport cuz he had a long, boring layover! What a great friend hahah!

So on Sunday I spoke in sacrament meeting! After a 3 minute talk or so by a member coming back into activity, we sang as a choir and sang all three songs in a row. It sounded great and every part I was worried about cuz it sounded messy, but it went the best it ever had! It definitely wasn't the Garfield 3rd ward choir, but it was as close as Plainview is gonna get for now haha! Then I spoke for 25 minutes about happiness. Right before sacrament meeting the Lubbock stake presidency walked in (how convenient). Well I thought the talk went alright but the members loved it a lot more than I did. Part of my talk I spoke about singing and the closing hymn was better than ever. In Relief Society I guess one older sister said, "Well I better do what Elder Nix said and sing so I can be happy." First time she sang a hymn in years! So that made me feel good. A member also told me that I was "throwing rocks at them" while I was speaking. I spoke about how holding grudges and choosing to be offended (Elder Bednar) will hold you back from being happy. I guess that got to some people ha! Overall I'm really glad I spoke and it was the most comfortable talk I've ever given.

Oh we got a new truck on Monday too haha!  On Tuesday we went down to Lubbock to the transfer site. There I dropped off Elders Crowder and Nelson, got jumped on by Elder Colton cuz he was way excited to go home, and took pics with and met Elder Pennington, my new greenie or "son." I figured I'd start back up my journal writing again since I’ve slacked on that the past few months now. It's now gonna be a travel log anymore either. More of a "what I learned today" kinda deal.

Elder William Lee Pennington is six foot four (dang 2 inches) and is from Winlock, Washington, sixty miles south of Seattle. Number four of five children. Likes soccer and football but not really basketball, but i'll live with it! His family went way inactive when he was 10 but got active again when he was 16 thanks to some missionaries and so he has been close with the missionaries up there. He is excited to be here and willing to learn and talk ("yay" for me) and I'm happy to be training him. He's just gotta humble himself a little and get over his girlfriend back home haha. Yeah, lets just say that's a distraction hahah! But he'll get over it/her (hopefully) and focus more! He's really too much like me when I was a greenie, but that's probably why he's here haha! So president and Sister Roberts (branch pres.) totally know Elder Pennington! He lives in Sister Robert's mom's ward and they, the Roberts and him, have met and talked before! Weird huh! Kinda like the Esquibels and me in Amarillo!!! Anyway, I'm excited to work this Elder into the ground and help him be the best missionary he can!

A lot more responsibility this transfer but I’m grateful for it! It should really help me grow and learn even more! I have lots more meetings and phone calls and planning and following up and things to worry about haha but I'm excited haha!!!

Well, I think that's about it for this week! Hope ya'll are ready to have a great Holiday season! I am! It's been 60-70 degrees lately but supposed to snow a inch maybe tonight!!! Woo HOO!!!

Alright well love y'all!

Elder Nix