Week #6 -Courage and Strength Beyond My Own

Family,

 

I'll just jump right into things and start off with a couple funny stories that happened this last week.

 

As you know (or maybe you don't know), I can't roll my "r's" when I'm speaking in Spanish. It's really frustrating and I've asked pretty much every teacher here for any advice on how to learn how. I was working with this one teacher the other day and he was just having me try to relax my tongue and blow out to get my tongue to roll. He had a diagram drawn on the board for me and everything showing me where in my mouth I needed to put my tongue to get it to roll. Well, it wasn't working to well and so he took me outside the classroom so that it could still be quiet for everyone else. We were out in the hall and I'm trying my VERY hardest to roll my "r's". I just can't do it! The closest thing I can get to it is making a machine gun sound. Ya, so just imagine me out in the hall with this teacher for literally 15 to 20 minutes unsuccessfully trying to roll my "r's". All that was happening is that I was making really, really loud machine gun noises. Man, everyone in their class probably thought one of two things: 1) That some intruder had gotten in to the MTC and was starting to shoot a machine gun, or 2) there was just some really immature Elder out in the hall. Seriously, I can't even imagine what people were thinking as they walked by. If you can visualize this story, then it makes it 10x better, if not, well...then I'm sorry. But ya, I spent just about 20 minutes out in the hallway making machine gun noises with this teacher.

 

Another quick funny story:

 

Me and Elder St. Martin (Elder in my district who has lost 20 pounds here) started to work out together this week and do some cross-fit type workouts. Cross-fit workouts are just going hardcore for like 30 mintues straight doing pull-ups, push-ups, rowing machine, sit-ups, etc. You do as much as you can hardcore for 30 minutes or so. We were inspired by one of our teachers (Hermano Pacheco). As part of working out, we both agreed to continue to eat really healthy together and stay away from the junk. Well on Wednesday at lunch I had a craving for some mint chocolate chip ice cream. St. Martin was at the other end of the table so I sneakily got up and grabbed a bowl. I came back to the table and had taken my first bite and then I hid it under the table so he wouldn't see. Well, unfortunately for me, he saw and came booking it toward me and snatched my bowl of ice cream right out of my hands and (now remember, I had taken a solid bit or 2 from it) he took it and put it back on the counter. He didn't know I had taken a few bites from it! So ya, somebody was lucky enough to share germs with me here at the MTC :)

 

Ok, now to a bit more serious stuff.

 

I've realized this week that there's no possible way that I can do this missionary work on my own. It's impossible. It's too hard to do on my own. Too physically, emotionally, and spiritually grueling. I can't do it on my own. I've come to realize that I HAVE to have the strength of the Lord with me to do this work. This is hard work. It is SO hard. You can't quite comprehend how hard it is until you've been serving. It's hard. As I finished D&C this week though I noticed that throughout the entire book it continually says that the Lord will be with us. A scripture that Dad shared with says that the Lord will "go before they face." He literally is with us. I've definitely noticed Him helping me in this labor. I wouldn't have been able to make it through these last 6 weeks without Him. There's no way. No way at all. I pray every night to be able to have the strength of the Lord with me, and He has definitely been answering my prayers.

 

Going along with strength is courage. We can have all the strength in the world, but unless we have courage to go along with our strength, it does us no good. I've had to become more courageous here on my mission. I've had to take steps that I never thought that I'd be able to make. I'm becoming a more valiant servant of the Lord as I serve Him. He's shaping me into EXACTLY what He wants me to be. A scripture that I read this week was in D&C 128:22:

 

"...go forward and not backward, courage brethern; and on, on to the victory!"

 

I'm going forward, not backward. It'd be hard to turn back now, but it's possible. It's not going to happen though. I'm going forward with faith, courage, and strength in the Lord. He will not let me fail.

 

Real quick I just feel impressed to share with you something I wrote in my journal this last week:

 

"I can't get over how grateful I am for my parents and they way they've raised me. I've realized how awesome my parents are after being here at the MTC and seeing other Elders. My parents raised me right. They taught me ALL the skills I need to have success on my mission and in life in general. I love them. I'm so happy that I have 3 sisters too. They really taught me how to love I'd say. They taught me how to be a lot more sensitive than most 19 year old boys and I thank them so much for that."

 

I hope you know how much I love you all. I love you with all my heart and I thank you so much for the people you are. You have shaped me into the person that I want to be. You've always been there for me and I love you. I miss you so much. I'm holding back my tears right now as I write this, but man I miss you guys. I love you all so much.

 

Keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

 

I love you.

 

Working hard,

 

Elder Nilsen