Monday, December 10, 2012
December 10, 2012
Great things are happening here in Gaston. Firstly, I love yall.
Thanks for being so supportive of me. It's such a blessing to have
loving and supportive family and friends. That's something I never take
for granted especially being out here. Things are so fantastic.
Thanks for the little note of encouragement. I hope I didn't sound
discouraged at all in my letter. I most certainly am not :D I love
missionary work! Being on the bikes has been fantastic. It's amazing how
blessed we've been out here. We've met so many fantastic people that we
wouldn't have met otherwise. Everything definitely happens for a reason
and I've been able to see some fantastic miracles. On Tuesday we were
out knocking doors just around the area and there was this one door in
particular I really felt we should knock on. We rolled down to it and we
met this lady who accepted a Book of Mormon but didn't sound too
interested in keeping commitments and progressing in the gospel. I
didn't think too much of it and we rolled on our way. Thursday we
decided to follow up with her and while we were on her porch talking her
daughter Samantha comes up and starts talking to us. She's about 25 I'd
guess. But turns out she's been really interested in seeing the
missionaries and finding a church that she feels comfortable in. Friday
we came back and taught her the Restoration and she loved it. The Spirit
was so strong. She really just wants direction for her and her family
and she's very excited about getting baptized and accepted a baptismal
date for the 29th of December and she also said she would come to church
on Sunday. Saturday, we came back and tried to see her husband answered
the door and told us she was on a long distance phone call with a
relative. We left and then about an hour later felt impressed to go
back. We went back and she was off the phone and excited to talk to us.
We asked her about her husband to see if he wanted to come to church too
and she said probably not, he never goes. We asked her to invite him to
come talk with us so she went in and got him. The first thing he said
when he came out was that he was really set in his ways and he didn't
believe he needed to come to church to worship God. We talked with him
more and taught the Restoration and told him all of the blessings that
come from going to church. The Spirit was so strong and by the end of
the lesson they were both SO excited about coming to church the next day
and Steven (her husband) accepted a baptismal date for the 29th as
well. They are SO cool! I love that family. They have to sons, Andrew
who's 4 years old and Connor who's 9 months. I'm so excited for them!
Saturday was great. Sunday morning they came to sacrament meeting,
despite the fact that Andrew had a fever the night before and kept them
up pretty late. But Elder Holley and I were so excited to see them.
We've been working so hard the past two weeks to have investigators come
to church so it was such a blessing that they were able to come :D They
are so cool!!! I know I've said that before but they really are and I'm
way excited for them. They are so excited about the gospel and really
want it in their lives. One thing I really learned from this experience
is teaching people according to their needs. Preach My Gospel is so
inspired. While we still taught the Restoration, we basically applied
every aspect of the gospel to helping them have direction for their
family and having peace in life. Those two things are what they really
want most in life (something that we learned while talking and getting
to know them). It's amazing how the Spirit guides and how God knows
everything that people need. Miracles are amazing.
But things get even better! While all this was going on,
we've been working with Paul a lot this week. I'm so excited to say that
he's.................excited and ready to be
baptized this Saturday. Pray hard for him this week though. I'm sure
Satan will really try to get him but Paul's going to stay strong this
week. I'm incredibly excited for him to be baptized. He's changed so
much and having the priesthood is going to be such a blessing in their
home. We just saw him and Rebekah (his wife) last night and they are doing
fantastic. They're loving each other and enjoying living happily
together.
Also, we feel really loved by this ward. They are taking
good care of us. Mainly, Santa Clause came last night :D The Relief
Society Sisters have all been donating things to the missionaries and
they brought over these GIANT stockings for Elder Holley and I and a box
full of even more goodies. These things seriously must weigh like 20
pounds all together. (Don't worry, they included a toothbrush and
toothpaste as well :P) Things are going so well out here and I'm still
loving the work so much. It's good to hear that yall are enjoying
Christmas too and thanks for including a picture of Gideon because the
videos are in a format that doesn't work on the library computers. But
that's so great! I'm so excited for Solomon and Amanda and you guys
as well. That's so exciting to have a new member of the family.
Attached is a monthly newsletter that we get emailed to us
about the mission. I don't know if you already get them but this one has
a picture of the whole mission and Elder Bednar from when he came. See
if you can find me in it :P I'll continue to include these as I get them
if you don't already get them. Just let me know. ...............................................
Things are awesome out here. Hope yall are enjoying the Christmas season :)
Love,
Elder Nair
Monday, December 3, 2012
December 3, 2012
Hey good to hear from y'all! (As always)
This week has been pretty crazy. We took the car into the
shop so we've been on bikes all week. Times flying by over here. I can't
believe it's already December. But it's been great. I'm loving every
moment of it even though things can be pretty disheartening. I just
don't like when people reject the gospel. It's a bummer because people
don't understand how important this gospel is. We're not just going
around promoting a church to get more followers. We have the restored
gospel of Jesus Christ in its fulness and people are fine with just
waving us off before we even get to say much. But the work will roll
forth regardless. What I can have complete control over is how much I
let the gospel influence my life. That's always a reassuring thought for
me when things aren't going as well as I'd like it to.
Did you guys get to watch the to First Presidency Christmas
devotional? It was really nice. I love the spirit of Christmas even
though things will be a little different this year. I'm alright with
that though. We've been doing a lot of finding this week and knocking
lots of doors so we've met a few cool people. I'll write about them in
the future if they start progressing. But onto questions.
1. Tell us a little about Elder Holley. Where is he
from? Does he have siblings and if so how many? Is he the first
missionary in his family? What made him decide to serve? Elder
Holley's from SLC Utah. SO many missionaries coming out of there. He has
a brother who went for a few months. He had to come home because he got
sick. He's the second youngest of 6. He has three older brothers. The
other two didn't go. But he said he decided to serve when he got sick
and decided to read the Book of Mormon. After he read it over a period
of I think four months, he said he knew it was true and had to serve.
2. How are you doing as a trainer? Have you felt the Savior sustaining you in this work? I'm
doing the best I can as a trainer. God has been helping me a LOT. I've
been relying on him for all kinds of strength. I'll have to admit that I
felt pretty inadequate on the first day since I had just finished my
training and I was by no means a super experienced missionary. But I
prayed a lot with a firm hope that God would give me strength. I feel
good now. Things have been flowing after the first day I'm confident
that we're going to get some great work done here in Gaston.
3. How is Elder Holley doing.....giving lessons, studying
together, praying, etc....? What goals have you two set? How is the
work progressing? He's doing good. He's a pretty stereotypical new
missionary haha. He has a really strong desire to serve and share the
gospel with everyone. He has the fire and energy and just doesn't really
know what to do with it at the moment haha. But we're working on really
getting the lessons down and our teaching skills. He's acclimating well
even though these past two weeks have been kind of crazy with not
having a car and everything. He's pretty optimistic about everything
which is good.
4. What are my instructions for Christmas? It will be here before you know it! Is there anything you would like or need sent to you? We've started preparing a packet? It includes a tie from Amanda and Solomon. Do you want sweets or treats? Do you have enough warm clothes? I'm good. I don't really know what your instructions are for Christmas haha. The only advice I have is to send anything you want to send sooner rather than later if you want it to come in time for Christmas. I honestly don't care either way. Sweets and treats are good haha I don't really know what you want me to tell you because I've never done this before haha. But I have enough warm clothes so thank you for that. Whatever you feel like sending me is good. The only thing I can think of is that I could use a GPS but I know those are pretty expensive so yeah. I'll Skype you on Christmas and get you more details about that when I find them out.
5. Do teaching opportunities improve during the holidays, with
people at home? Share with us the things you do in an average day. Teaching
opportunities are about the same. Things all just kind of blend
together in the field but we've ran into some nice people. Actually we
have been getting some more mormon.org referrals with the new Christmas themed site, but until we get the car back we can't go out and see them.
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