Walking on water and fishing for souls

So Brendan is doing great and he is still in International Falls Minnesota.  In fact he and his companion actually had a baptism a few weeks ago.  The hard work is paying off and Brendan loves it.  A few weeks ago Brendan told us about some of the things that they have been doing in their branch.  They have started holding some different activities for not only the youth in the branch but also the older members as well.  They have been doing everything from Sunday evening board games to Monday night family home evenings and they even somehow worked out a way to get free bowling on Tuesday nights.  So with all of that, they are really building some branch unity and have also created and environment where they can easily bring investigators to mingle with the members of the branch.  One of the other activities that they have been participating in with the branch is doing a little family history.  Brendan wrote home a couple of weeks ago and told us that after looking back through his ancestors on FamilySearch.org, he came across a story about one of his great-great-great-great grandparents and why we have the 'e' in Nicholes.  It turns out that Brendan's ancestors used to spell our last name like many others, "Nichols" without the 'e'.  But due to the crackdown on polygamy during the late 1800's, one of our ancestors decided to add the 'e' to Nicholes so that he could legally say that Josiah "Nichols" didn't live there when the authorities came looking.  So apparently polygamy is the reason for the 'e' in our last name. 

Brendan and his companion have had some weeks where they weren't able to do a lot of teaching mainly due to things just falling through.  And then there are other weeks where they just have all kinds of lessons.  Brendan told us about a couple of new people that they have been teaching that just really seem to embrace everything that these missionaries are teaching them.  In fact Brendan said that at one point during one of their lessons, the thought crossed his mind that the lesson was going so well and the person that they were teaching was asking all of the right questions, maybe this person was really someone that they sent out from Salt Lake to test the missionaries.  Kind of like what they do in the MTC to help teach missionaries how to teach.  The MTC invites members of the church to pretend like they are investigators so that the missionaries can practice teaching.  It is always nice to be teaching someone that just wants to learn and just enjoys hearing about the gospel and what it can do for them.  Obviously, the person that they were teaching was not sent there from Salt Lake, which makes the whole thing even better.  Hopefully, things will continue to go well and they will decide to be baptized and become members of the church.  Then on top of that Brendan was telling us about another thing that happened while they were just walking down the street.  Brendan said that while they were walking through a trailer park trying to find someone that had taken the missionary lessons previously, a truck drove by and Brendan waved at them just to be nice.  Before they knew it, the truck turned around, the driver rolled down his window and asked Brendan and his companion if they were Mormon missionaries.  Of course the answer was yes and a discussion about who they were and what they were all about, started up.  Needless to say, these missionaries were in the right place at the right time to meet someone who was interested in knowing more about the church. 

OK, so here is kind of a funny story.  Brendan has a sister that just returned from a mission in Canada as well.  Not the same mission as Brendan, but not too far away.  Anyway, for some reason Brendan seems to think that it is his duty to make sure that his sister gets set up with good returned missionaries to date.  So far he has given her number to one of his MTC teachers and now we just learned that he also have her number to two other missionaries that will be returning home soon.  We aren't sure why Brendan thinks that his sister is going to date all of these returned missionaries but he keeps referring them to her anyway.  In fact, he even tried to set up his older brother on a date with another returned Sister missionary from the MTC.  Who know, maybe one of them might work out.  But I think his sister is doing just fine without his help. 

Then there is the cross over from both Brendan's mission and his sister's mission.  When Brendan got his mission call last fall and his sister was still serving as a missionary in Canada, she knew several missionaries from the Winnipeg area that told her what Brendan could expect.  Then just recently Brendan told us about an Elder who is serving in his area that is from one of the towns where Brendan's sister served and had attended several YSA activities while she was serving there.  It is just interesting how small of a world it is when it comes to missionaries.  In fact both Brendan and his sister have met missionaries and members from the mission where their older brother served as well.  What a great thing it is to be part of a world wide church where people you meet can turn out to be friends you already know.

Brendan told us a really funny story last week.  So every Thursday morning they go and do some volunteer work at a local thrift store.  They mostly work with a bunch of really sweet older ladies.  Brendan said that there is one lady in particular who had worked as the head lady over the store quite a while and was retiring that week.   So to celebrate, the other women were holding a retirement party for her.  After Brendan and his companion finished cleaning up the store, they decided to drop in on the party to say goodbye.  As Brendan was saying goodbye, this older lady reached out to give him a hug.  Here is how Brendan tells the story,

"But as we were saying good bye she reached in to hug me, and I straight dodged her hug Matrix style. SOOOOO AWKWARD! but kind of impressive at the same time. I just stuck out my hand after and was like "call me up in two years and I'll give you a hug, but for now a handshake will have to do."  "

Of course this last week was General Conference and it was obviously the first General Conference weekend that Brendan has spent as a missionary.  It was also the first General Conference where Brendan actually listened to all five sessions rather than falling asleep in front of the TV while pretending to listen.  From the sound of his last email home, it was a real eye opening experience for him (kind of a pun intended).  Brendan told us that he really loved listening to conference and really enjoyed it when the speakers would reference missionaries in their talks.  He liked that because now that he is a missionary, he knew that the speaker was really talking directly to him.  The way that Brendan put it,

"I was on a spirit high all weekend! It is such a neat experience to be on a mission and watch conference. Like every time they say "I'm going to direct my message toward missionaries" I'm like HEY THAT'S ME!! and it is a little weird that that is finally super applicable to me. Like sometimes I forget that I'm on a mission. It just kind of feels like my life now. It's weird to finally realize that I'm one of the goofy kids with a black tag walking around sharing the good word of the restoration. I LOVE IT!"

Alright, one last story that Brendan told us about in his latest email.  So obviously Brendan is serving in a very cold place right on the U.S and Canadian border.  This time of year all of the lakes freeze over and on many of the lakes there are islands.  Some of the people that they are teaching actually live on one of the islands and the only way to get to where they live during the winter is to actually walk on water.  Well, frozen water that is.  Recently they met a neighbor of one of the members in the branch.  This neighbor happened to be a fishing guide and offered to take the missionaries out ice fishing.  So on their P-day they all decide to take a little trip out on the ice.  When Brendan finally wrote home, he told us about his big catch of the day.  He caught a 22 inch Eel Pout which really kind of looks like a cross between an eel and a fish.  Yeah, yeah an eel is a fish but you know what I mean.  Once we heard about that, we told Brendan that he had so send home some pictures.  Needless to say, they all had a great time and hopefully they will also get some new people to teach from the whole experience.

One other little note.  This last week Brendan and several other missionaries in the area headed up to Winnipeg for a zone conference.  They actually ended up spending a couple of days there due to the timing of the conference and how long it takes to drive there and back.  If you remember back when Brendan first arrived in his mission, he only spent about 24 hours in Canada before being sent right back to the U.S. to serve in International Falls, Minnesota.  Well, counting those 24 hours and the 48 hours in Winnipeg for the zone conference, Brendan has now logged a total of 72 hours in Canada even though he is serving in the Winnipeg, Canada mission.  We're sure that that will change over the next couple of years.  But it is funny to think about now.

Here is Brendan and some of his companions enjoying the cold Minnesota weather.

 

 

 

Brendan's personal best at bowling.  We may never see this kind of score again.

 

Posing with a real northern sled dog. 

 



This is the greatest place on earth.  It will be even better when it warms up.

 

 



Got to love a frozen lake. 

 



 

Say hi to my little ice fishing friend.  Too bad you will be dinner tonight. 

  

Back in the USA

So here is an interesting fact about a missionary who has been assigned to a mission outside of the U.S.  Brendan spent a total of 24 hours in Canada.  Then he was shipped back to the U.S.  Ok, before you go speculating on what that really means, I will tell you.  So the day finally came for Brendan and his companions to leave the MTC and head to the Great White North.  We got a call from him while he was at the airport.  It was the same old Brendan on the phone but with a new missionary attitude.  Then the next Monday rolled around and we finally got our first email from Brendan.  Thinking that he would be emailing from somewhere in Canada, we were a little surprised to find out that he was emailing from International Falls Minnesota. 

When Brendan first got his mission call and we were looking at the map of his mission, we noticed that the Winnipeg mission took in one tiny slice of the north end of Minnesota.  Well, that is where Brendan ended up for his first transfer.  He told us that after they got off the plane in Winnipeg, they went to the mission home, met the Assistants to the President and also the Mission President and his Wife.  Then after spending time doing the normal orientation stuff and spending the night in the mission home, he finally got to meet his new companion.  Then it was off to Minnesota and back in the good old USA.  Oh and BTW, Brendan's new companion is taller than Brendan.  So somewhere just off the border of Minnesota and Canada are two 6 foot something Elders walking around and preaching the Gospel.  If you read this and happen to see them, say hi from his family.

Brendan says that he has learned a lot in just the few short weeks that he has been out.  And he is still learning.  That is a good thing.  The learning should never stop.  Here is what Brendan had to say about it:

"I'm seriously learning so much. It's been really hard and tiring and the whole bit. But I'm loving it. Sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm loving it during the middle of the day but every night I get done and I'm so happy for the opportunity that I have to be out here and offering people their salvation. That is so insane to me, that me, the immature lurpey know it all 18 year old is trusted enough by the Lord to go out and teach his restored gospel. I've taken 3rd Nephi 5:13 to heart. I AM A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST!! As hard as it is and as hard as I know it is going to be, I'm ready. I'm changing lives and in return changing my own."

So the funny missionary stories are already starting to come in.  In Brendan's first couple of weeks out in Minnesota, he has already driven on an ice road.  It turns out that Brendan and his companion ended up meeting with some people who are investigating the church.  The problem was that they were out on the ice on Rainy Lake.  So they drove on an ice road to get there and taught a lesson in an ice trailer.  Brendan also told us about a unique tracting encounter that they had.  He said that he and his companion were out tracting one day when they knocked on a door.  Brendan said that a man opened the door and had a baseball sized wad of chew in his lip.  Brendan started out by telling the man that they were missionaries and asked if he would be interested in knowing more about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The man's reply was, "So like... fill out some paperwork".  Brendan was stumped by the man's reply and didn't know how to respond, so he just said "no".  The man said OK and shut the door.  I'm guessing that they won't be going back for a follow up.

Brendan is learning a lot about life outside of Utah Valley.  He told us a little bit about International Falls and how hard of a life many people have who live there.  Their branch only as about 40 members and they have an average attendance each week of about 20.  That is very different from the Ward that Brendan grew up in.  But he has ready met some great people who are interested in knowing more about the gospel.  Some who haven't been to church in a long time and others who are just learning about the church for the first time.  Brendan is also learning about how to deal with the extreme cold.  On one P-day when we emailed home, he said that it was about -20 outside with the wind blowing very hard.  Brendan said that when it gets that cold, it actually hurts to breath.  One night they got a call from a member in the branch whose well pump had frozen.  They spent quite a while out in -35 degree weather helping to fix the pump.  Brendan said that he had never been so cold in his entire life.

So here is a funny story that Brendan told us.  He said that he has been working on humility lately because he felt that he has a huge pride and stubbornness problem.  As a result of working on this, Brendan said that he has just been so happy that he is smiling all of the time.  He told us that there is an older lady that lives in the apartment below them that they see every once in a while.  Brendan said that she is just the sweetest old lady ever.  So the other day he decided to knock on her door to say hi.  She opened the door and said, "You have looked so happy the last couple of days... Are you in love?"  Brendan said that he lost it right there and just had to laugh.  He told her that he was in love with life, that's all.

From what we understood from Brendan's email, apparently the Sisters had two nice couches in their apartment and the Elders just had junk.  So the Sisters were nice enough to drop off one of the couches along with some treats so that the Elders wouldn't have to suffer any more without a couch.  And I thought that the extreme cold was enough suffering.  No couch too??

Not sure where Brendan found this truck or who it belongs to, but it has a great name.

Smokey the Bear in Minnesota.  It looks like a pair of ice skates that he is holding.  I didn't know that Smokey ice skated.  Apparently he does.

It's transfer day

Elder Brendan Nicholes entered the MTC on January 21, 2015.  He is the fourth missionary from our family and shares a unique story with his older sister who also served a mission.  Both Brendan and his older sister were called to serve in Canada.  Brendan was called to the Winnipeg mission and his older sister was called to the Edmonton mission.  Both of these missions cover a rather large portion of Canada and they also share a border.  But that is only where their missionary story begins. 

Brendan's older sister started her mission just 18 months ago.  If you do the math, that means that she was due to return home at about the same time that Brendan was supposed to enter the MTC.  Unfortunately, the original dates of his sister's return from the Edmonton mission and Brendan's departure for the MTC had them missing each other by 10 days.  However, when we talked to Brendan's sister at Christmas time, she really wanted to be home so that she could be with Brendan at the time when he was set apart as a full time missionary.  Things worked out and Brendan's sister was able to move her release date up.  As it turned out, she would return home on the Monday before Brendan would enter the MTC.  This gave our whole family one full day to spend together.  The timing also worked out so that both Brendan and his sister would be set apart and released as full time missionaries on the same day at the same time.  To celebrate this event, Brendan's mother came up with a unique poster that hung outside of our house during this special time for our family.  The poster said "It's Transfer Day!".  Our family was literally exchanging one Canadian called missionary for another.

The night before Brendan was to enter the MTC, we all visited with the 1st Councilor in our Stake Presidency at his office.  That night in the same meeting, Brendan was set apart is a full time missionary to serve in the Winnipeg, Canada mission and Brendan's sister was released as a full time missionary from the Edmonton, Canada mission.  The next day, Brendan entered the MTC with all of the usual fanfare, which if you have ever dropped off a missionary at the MTC, it is literally pulling up to the curb, saying some quick goodbye's and off they go for the next 2 years.  With Brendan it was no different.  However, we did go out for lunch before with our whole family and spent a little bit of time taking some final family pictures across the street from the MTC.

It was a little over a week later that we finally received an email from Brendan.  Brendan was assigned to a trio of Elders.  Both he and one of the other missionaries in the trio were called to be the Zone Leaders while they were at the MTC.  The other Elder in their trio was called to be the District Leader.  As Brendan put it, they were the "Power Companionship".  I'm not sure what power they really had during their 2 weeks in the MTC but they did have some responsibility for the other missionaries in their zone and district. 

Brendan told us that his experience in the MTC was like being on a roller coaster.  They were constantly on either highs or lows emotionally.  There really wasn't much in between.  He told us about one of the teaching experiences that they had.  Needless to say, it didn't go very well.  Brendan said that they rambled on a lot and the spirit just wasn't there.  But fortunately, that was the worst of the experiences.  Brendan said that as their time went on, their teaching experiences got much better.  Along with that, he said that they have been memorizing a scripture a day as a companionship.  Brendan also said that time goes by very slow but very fast at the same time.  He had only been in the MTC for a week but it felt to him like it had been six weeks.  With everything that a missionary has to learn in such a short time, you can imagine why he would say that.  The MTC can be rather intense.

Finally the day came that Brendan would fly out to Winnipeg.  We kept asking Brendan what his flight plans were so that we would know when to expect him to call home from the airport.  He never really gave us any plans but we knew which day he would be leaving.  Later that morning I got a call from Brendan as he was waiting at the airport to board his flight.  If you know Brendan very well, one thing that he likes to do is keep up on current events.  Being in the MTC for the previous two weeks, kind of left him without this type of information.  So one of the first questions that he asked was about some of the current events that he had seen on the TV monitors at the airport.  We also talked a lot about some of his experiences in the MTC.  Everything from his teaching and learning experiences to filling out the evaluation forms for his MTC teachers (a Sister and Elder) and in the box where it asks for information about what the teachers could do better, Brendan asked them to please date his older brother and sister.  They must have been some very impressive MTC teachers. :)

Another funny little story about Brendan during his time in the MTC actually started before he left.  The missionary suits that he bought before he left on his mission were tailored leaving the pants very baggy. Wearing baggy pants really wasn't Brendan's style and the day that he left, his older brothers teased him about how the wind would catch his baggy pants and blow him away.  So while he was in the MTC, he went to the MTC tailors to see if they would take his pants in a bit.  He was a little frustrated to find out that the MTC tailors didn't think that fixing baggy pants was important enough for them to do, and they were probably right.  The ironic thing is that once he hits Winnipeg and starts to experience the extreme cold temperatures there, he may be glad that his pants are a little baggy because he will probably be wearing several layers of thermal underwear underneath those baggy pants.  With those extra layers, he may be grateful for the extra room.

Later that day we received an email from the Winnipeg, Canada mission office telling us that Brendan had arrived safely and they were taking good care of him.  With Brendan's sister having just returned from a Canadian mission, she was describing to us exactly what Brendan's first day in the mission would be like.  The orientations, meetings, interviews with the mission president and then being assigned is first real companion the next day. We are looking forward to hearing from Brendan on his first P-day in Canada.  I'm sure that their will be lots more stories to tell.

Over the next 2 years we will try to update this blog as often as we can.  Knowing Brendan and the kind of kid that he is, we are sure that their will be a lot of great stories to tell.  We will try to share as many of those stories as we can on this blog.

Brendan with his district and zone companions

Finally getting a little bit of love from his family at home in the way of packages.