December 14, 2020

 Was I Ever Really Gone?

Now be honest. Most of you didn't actually realize that I hadn't sent an email in about 3 months... but that's okay. I don't hold it against anyone. Feel free to send me packages and/or letters just so I know my fans are still out there. (1517 East Kansas Ave. McPherson Kansas 67460) But good news I'm back and better than ever. After a short time home, I'm so excited to be back in Kansas serving the Lord! 

So, I'm currently serving in the great town of McPherson Kansas with my old companion Elder Robinson! Most of you will remember I trained Elder Robinson back when we were in Great Bend together so it is SO good to be back together. He is such a good missionary and a hard worker which I'm grateful for. We have done some good work here in McPherson. We're teaching a lady named Patricia who is pretty cool! She loves the Book of Mormon and most of what we teach. She's had a cup of coffee every day for over 70 years so she's not too fond of the idea of giving it up, but we got her a coffee substitute that we're hoping helps. We had a sweet experience with her yesterday. But I need to preface this story with a story. We had a devotional Saturday night from Brother and Sister Swinton who used to preside over a mission in England. Brother Swinton was telling us about the experiences of some of the converts in his mission. In a majority of their stories they all told about how they felt peace when they prayed about the church. We were then counseled to point out that as a feeling from the spirit if our investigators ever said that. So today whilst talking to Patricia she mentioned she felt happy and calm when reading the Book of Mormon and I asked her if she felt peace to which she responded she did. I remembered what we learned the night before and I bore testimony to her that those feelings were all confirmation from the spirit that what we have been teaching her is true. It was a tender experience with the spirit there to once again testify of truth. 

Well, I'd say that's pretty good content for only being in Kansas a few days! Till next time 

Warmest regards,

Elder Nixon

Enjoy this pic I took right before bed last night so I could have a picture to send with the email.

August 3, 2020

 What Can I Say Except You're Welcome

Back again for another weekly email are we? I'm impressed we've all made it this far honestly! So yes the rumors are true. I have been out for a year so that is exciting. I never thought a year ago I'd he chillin in Lawrence Kansas with my good friend Elder Scroggin! It's been a crazy journey and not at all what I expected but I've loved it! 

We haven't had too exciting of a week honestly. We've taught a few lessons with John who is progressing very well! I'm thinking he will get baptized this transfer which is exciting! 

So on my one year mark we went out to our Bishops house and they fed us dinner and then we burned a shirt which was good fun! 

Yep that's my email! Sorry it isn't too much, but enjoy the pictures!

Warmest regards, 

Elder Nixon 

July 27, 2020

 Past Few Weeks

I've been called out by my good friend Thomas Anderson for not writing weekly's. In his words "Snix you never send out emails" so here I am sending out an email! 

It's been a minute since I've written and honestly things are going just about as good as they can all things considered. We've done lots of service for members and other random things around town. 

We've been teaching this girl named Kathryn who is super cool! She came in as a referral from some Elders in Arizona and she is so cool! She loves the Book of Mormon and is so ready for baptism. She just wants to know that she knows so we are helping her with that.

Another dope person we've been teaching is John. He came in as a referral from some sisters in the Independence Missouri mission. One of the sisters is actually a girl I went to high school with so that's fun! Anyway John was raised Roman Catholic and he has been doing lessons with us and he knows our church is true but he doesn't know how to tell his mom he wants to join our church and not be catholic anymore. He's 19 and just graduated high school, but he's cool.

We had transfers recently. I'm staying in Lawrence with my companion another transfer. We went from 8 missionaries to 14 here in Lawrence because of all the reassigned buddies. There are only 4 OG KWM missionaries in Lawrence now which is so weird. One of the Elders is Elder Rogers who I was friends with in high school! 

Umm ya that's about it for content. There's probably gonna be a lot of pictures so enjoy! 

Ooh also I hit my year mark this week so that's kinda fun I guess!

Warmest regards, 

Elder Nixon

July 13, 2020

 I Took a Lot of Pics to Make Up for Lack of Content

Hello my devout fan club. Not much going on in the 785 honestly. 

We've done lots of service recently which has been fun! We have been helping a member from another ward in Lawrence get his backyard all prepped to put a pool in so it's just lots of manual labor. Let me tell ya, 2 hours of manual labor at 2pm in July in Kansas is not a good combination. It'll wear you out pretty quick and give you heat exhaustion too... anyway I went sicko mode with this metal pole. I broke up and removed a lot of the cement in the picture you'll see. My hands took a beating but maybe by the end of it I won't have soft hands...

The only really cool thing that happened this week was when I got a phone call from a kid named Jaymz Bischoff who used to be a missionary here in the KWM. He served in the area I'm currently in and he told me that he had a former investigator reach out to him and express his desire to be baptized and become a member of the church! So that's crazy flippin awesome! We're gonna meet with him soon to make sure he knows what he's doing and everything but that was definitely a miracle for the week! 

Well that's all I've got... but like I said, I took lots of pics to make up for it!

Warmest regards,

Elder Nixon 

June 29, 2020

I'm Lazy

What's good everyone! We've had a pretty chill week!

We had Zone conference in person which was exciting! Hopefully that means things are gonna start getting better here.

Um we went to the state capital building in Topeka so that was fun. 

So we went over to a less active lady's house to pick raspberries. So there was a really dense trail and there were a lot of trees too, and we, being the smart elders we are, didn’t wear bug spray. I knew about Kansas bugs but I was pretty sure they were a myth... they are not. Elder Scroggin found one crawling on my shirt and we knew we goofed up. So then we went to a barbecue at a trailer park out in the sticks, which was very interesting (some of the most midwestern people you'll meet). Then we went back home and called the mission nurse. She said to do a thorough check all around our bodies. Long story short I found a total of 3 ticks, Elder Scroggin had 9, my companion had ZERO and Elder Poulson got like 2. Anyways we called a doctor and had take a couple pills that basically just destroys lyme disease. So that was fun!

I know I'm missing some good content because I don't have my journal which I usually use to remind me of the good stuff so I'll be sure to include it all next week!

Warmest regards,

Elder Nixon

June 22, 2020

I'm an Artist

What's up everyone!  Honestly not too much happened as y'all could've guessed, but it still was a good week!

I've only got a few things to update on. Not sure if I mentioned our referral Katherine from some missionaries in AZ but we taught her a lesson that went great! The other missionaries from AZ were on the call but their technology was being rubbish so they left and we just taught! Good times!

We did lots of service this week! We helped some members from on of the other wards here in town with some yard work. They're installing an in ground pool and we helped move dirt and rocks. I got to help him measure and cut stone for a little pathway! We were there for probably 2 hours and right after we finished we went to a little town outside of Lawrence to help this lady paint a metal fence. That took a lot out of me. It was probably 90 degrees, the sun was beating down on us, and we were just painting for like 4 hours. At least we got some pizza out of it!

This week I got super bored so I decided to improve my art skills! I drew a Jayhawk on my whiteboard with dry erase markers. It only took a few hours but it was worth it!!

Um yeah that's all I've got for this week! 

Warmest regards, 

Elder Nixon 

June 15, 2020

Reunited with an Old Friend

What a week everyone! Buckle up because this is a good one!

So first I'm sorry I didn't get an email out last week. It was just SO crazy. I got the word Sunday night that I would be transferring, which was VERY unexpected. I thought for sure I was gonna stay in my little town of Wellington, but the Lord had other plans. So I had to pack everything up very quickly as we had to be in Wichita the next day since good ole Elder Briggs was headed home. Thankfully I got everything packed in time! We spent most of Monday and all of Tuesday with some Elders in Wichita which was good fun! 

Wednesday was a wild day! We usually all meet at one of the churches in Wichita for transfers but there’s some angry dude who doesn't like when we gather there, so all the transferring missionaries met up at a movie theater parking lot! We couldn't get out of our cars, so we just waited until our President sent out an email that had a big google spreadsheet on it and we were to find our new comp and leave! So. My new area is... Lawrence YSA!! I'm so pumped!! For those of you who don't know Kansas, Lawrence is the town where the University of Kansas is located (AKA KU) and I am assigned to the Young Single Adult ward so pretty much once I can talk to people again I'm gonna spend all day on campus walking around trying to talk to people! My comp is Elder Hohmann from Tooele Utah. He's a good kid! The best part tho is that my MTC companion Elder Scroggin is serving in the same area! So we see each other a lot and it's GOOD fun. Not too much fun of course... but yeah I love it here. It's very different from my last area. Lawrence is a big college town with lots of restaurants and college kids (most with leftist views, which is fine... I'm politically neutral as a missionary)! 

Let's see, so we do a ton of service here. We help out at the Salvation Army preparing boxes of food, we serve at another place giving out food to homeless people here in the area, and then other random things! 

We've done a bit of exploring here and boy Lawrence is very different than all my other areas! There as so many trees here and lots of green and even some hills! It's all very beautiful. 

Another cool thing that happened this week was that we got a referral from some missionaries in Arizona! They had a YSA girl going to college out there and she moved home, which is here, and so we're pumped about that! I'll keep y'all updated with her!

Yep that's all I've got for the week! The work of the Lord truly cannot be stopped! I'm grateful to be a missionary at this time and for all the crazy experiences I'm getting to have! God is good! 

Hoorah for Israel!

Go Jayhawks!!

Warmest regards,

Elder Nixon 

Ps... everyone tell my brother Jordan to stop trying to steal my Hawaiian shirt style. Everyone knows it's my look and he can't have it.