March 8, 2012--Week 1 (Hand written letter)

3/8/12

¡Hola Mamá!

So, I emailed you this morning, but I didn’t really explain how life is here due to my lovely time constraints.  Also, I forgot to thank you for the package you sent and let you know that you are the best! J

Anyway, let me give you an example of a normal day at the MTC (actually, the CCM, that’s Spanish and I can’t remember what it stands for… Centro something Misioneros).  Wake up at 6:30, or before 6 on Tuesdays for our morning service project.  We’re in our classroom for personal study at 7 and then have breakfast at 7:40.  We usually have another hour or so of study time right after lunch.  The first week we had allotted companionship study time, but now we use either part of personal study, language study, or planning time to do that.  From 9:15-12:15 we have a combination of teaching our “investigator” and classroom instruction time which is usually more spiritually oriented than Spanish oriented.  There’s one teacher in particular who I love hearing from.  Four years ago, Hermano Adams was an atheist.  Since them, he has served a mission and been teaching at the MTC.  His faith is incredible and when you’re around him, you can just feel the love of our Savior and the changing power of His atoning sacrifice.  There is truly no greater work than bringing the joy of being cleansed from sin through the blood of our Redeemer to those with no hope left in their lives.

After morning class, we have lunch.  At some point in the day (unfortunately always right after a meal), we have gym and then time to get ready for our next activity.  Through the afternoon, we either have class from 1-4 or language study.  If we don’t have class from 1-4, we have it from 6-9 and if we do, we have language study in the evening.  Dinner is at 5:15 between the two.  Planning is 9-9:30 and then we go back to the residence halls, get ready for bed, write in journals, etc.  On Tuesday nights we have devotionals (this week was Elder Evans of the 1^st Quorum of the Seventy), which are awesome so far.

Sundays are very different.  We have a lot of personal study time and it’s a lot more relaxed.  Unless you’re a DL or a ZL (thankfully I’m not J) and then you have meetings all day.  We have a fireside Sunday night.  Alex Boye came to speak to us this week.  He’s an African-American convert from England and he sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  If you have time to read about his story, it’s pretty awesome.  Afterward, we usually watch a church film (like Legacy). 

It’s been great to hear from home.  I really miss you guys!  Let the boys and Anna know I’m working on writing them all, but much more painful of a process than emailing.  Also, I forgot to send my email to Dad this week.  Could you please forward him the email I sent you?

I really hope this letter gets to you in a semi-timely fashion.  I love you!!!

Con Amor,

Elder Nickerl

P.S.  I’m also hearing about a lot of Elders not getting visas to Mexico right now.  We’ll see how that plays out and where the Lord wants me to serve.

P.S. #2  Apparently if you go to missionarymoms.com you can find out a lot of cool stuff about my individual mission and possibly meet Elder Rhodes’ (my companion going to Veracruz, Mexico) and Elder Turner’s (my roommate, also going to Tuxtla) mamas.  So that could be cool.