Christmas Eve Skype

Oh man!! It was soo good to be able to Skype you guys on Christmas eve!!! It was such a cool thing!! I love our family so much!!! and I'm reminded of that every time we all get together.  Hence why I cry so much.... sorry I promise I know exactly what to say, but I just can't say it when I'm crying.. so my Christmas was really good :) after Skyping we went home and opened our Christmas eve presents, Pajamas of course :) Put on the  new PJ's and set out some cookies for Santa :) we did all of our family traditions, we read Luke 2 and then went to bed.  That morning we went to the Barbee's house hahaha Jessica I was in a Barbee home :) we had breakfast there and opened presents with there family, which was really cool. It felt way homey.   Then after that we went out to Goochland (the middle of nowhere) and had dinner at the Amos' house and Elder Tirrell and the Sister Missionaries that were there got to Skype home, so I got to meet Elder Tirrells family!! So that was way cool. No one fed us for dinner which was sad.. but it was okay cause we have plenty of chili :) So many people in the war got us presents and Christmasy stuff, I have a total of 8 stockings haha and probably got 6 new ties.  It was so nice of the ward to take care of us like that.

So Transfers are this Thursday, and I am leaving :\ I'm really not to happy about it.  There are so many Investigators that are progressing to baptism and members here that I have really grown to love!! and I want to just keep on helping and serving them but there is no growth in a comfort zone, and I have gotten really comfortable with the people in this area and the members, so even though I don't like it, it's time for a change.  I will let you guys know next week where I am and who my new companion is.  I won't find out anything till they announce it in Transfer meeting so that will be exciting.

I love you guys and miss you all, and hope that you all have a great new year!! I wish I could be in California with.. woah.. almost typed y'all.. You guys!!! but I know that this is where the Lord needs me and that this is where I need to be as well!!! Have a fantastic week!! 

Love, Elder Sahagun

Cookies for Santa!

12-16-13

This letter was written the day after Nick's Aunt Kathy passed away. I love how he responded to this news with faith and hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ. At this time of year let us "be of good cheer" and rejoice in the glorious birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Here's his letter this week.

Dear Family, 

I can't even describe how much I would love to come home right now to be with you all,  I miss you all so much right now.. Last night I was pretty upset and really missing home and so I decided to read through some letter that had been sent out from when I first came out and was really homesick, I thought that it might help. I saw some of the funny cards that you guys sent and they made me feel a little better as I continued to look through all of the letters, I found one from Aunt Kathy that she had sent to me,  In it she had written a lot about how to deal with hard times and sadness, at one point in the letter she told me to "be of good cheer", and reading that brought so much peace and comfort to my mind,  all the homesickness and sadness that I was feeling started to fade away and I was filled with so much joy.  I know that Families are Eternal,  I know that there is reason to " be of good cheer" even during these sad times and I know that, that cheer comes from the plan laid out for us by our loving father in heaven.. I love this gospel and am so grateful to be sharing it!!  Kathy at the end of the letter said that "someone is always ready and waiting to listen to you" and I know that is true!! I love and miss you all and hope that you have a Incredible week!!! 

Love, 

Elder Sahagun

11-18-2013

FAMILY!!!! AHHHHH 

I can't even say how awesome it was to get those videos!! hearing from grandma and grandpa was awesome and Tyler and Jessica, man you guys have really already grown so much!! It's crazy, I pretty much cried the whole time that I watched the videos and am even starting to cry a little bit talking about it.  I am a pansie wow.... but definitely keep them coming it really helps to see you guys!! and I think it will help me so I won't cry as much when I see you guys come Christmas time!! 

This week has been way awesome a lot of cool missionary experiences!! 

One day we were going over to one of our investigators houses, Moses, and I had my little guitar and I was going to sing him my song, cause he also writes music and wanted to hear it.  So we got there and he wasn't there,  we called him banged on his door and nothing... so now we were out in the night, (which comes at like 5:30 now) with a guitar and our bikes.. I was like well, " there must be something that the Lord wants me to do with my guitar.  So me and Elder Tirrell said a quick prayer and knocked on a guys door that we hadn't gotten back to since we contacted him,  We knocked on his door and he answered, we explained that we wanted to bring the spirit into his home and sing a hymn to him if that was alright, he said "oh yes come!" (he didn't speak very good english) but we walked in and he pointed to a room in the back and said "go in there" so we hesitantly walked back to the room and when I walked in I saw an small old crippled man in a small room and a large hospital bed just laying there.  we introduced ourselves and shook his limp hand. and asked if we could sing him a song and pray for him.  He nodded his head, and I played and we sang Nearer My God To Thee,  It was so powerful, the spirit was super strong!! It was an incredible experience that I will cherish for a long time.

So for thanksgiving we were going to the Anderson's (Sister Anderson's) house but now we are going to the a new family in the wards house for dinner the Whites.. don't really know them, but I know that it's going to help them feel welcome in the ward.  I can't wait to get a care package, I will really be needing one :) Mom- My pants are 32by32 slim,  I haven't gotten that much fatter hahah :) 

Tyler-  Good luck with those try outs buddy!! just remember what I taught you all those years ago playing in the back yard and nailing you in the face :) hahaha Just jokes, you'll do fine.

Jessica- Look at you and your little braces!! How crazy is that? Do you just love them already ? :) 

Dad- again, those videos worked out really well, and brought me so much joy!! 

The church is so true!! I love you all so very much and hope you have a great week!! :) 

Love Elder Sahagun 

P.S. Did you think to Pray?

11-25-2013

to me
Nov 25

Details

Dear Familia dear, 

OH man, let me just first start of by saying this. Dad, you were right.  I thought I knew cold before, but I was very wrong.  Very very wrong.  IT IS FREEZING!!!! It was only like 34 degrees but it seriously felt like 20 below... rediculous!! BUT!  every hour you spend tracting or walking out in the cold is a blessing for your family.  So I'm racking up some blessing for the Sahagun's and probably enough that we could start sharing with the Knudsens and the Popes and the Allgoods as well!!  "Tis the season of giving.  

So for Thanksgiving this week we are going to the Whites.. they are a new family in the ward that we don't know that well, but cool thing we got double booked!! so we'll be having dinner (lunch) dinner is lunch here and supper is dinner, hope you followed that.  So we will be having two wonderful Thanksgiving feasts. Awesome. 

We had a really cool experience this week.  We were walking through westhampton cemetery so we could put our names on a clergy list. ( a wonderful finding idea from the front of our missionary planners) and the lady there told us that they didn't have a list like that that we could sign up on, then she gave us a bunch of names of a bunch of different funeral homes that were way out of our area that we could try.  We pretended like it was going to be helpful and left. We were kinda bummed so I decided that we should go look at all of the Jesus statues that they had all around the cemetery (there were many) we went and saw one of Jesus and a table with 11 apostles 2 of which looked more like women, slightly confusing.. then I remembered a statue of Jesus with the woman at the well at the corner of the cemetery that we passed frequently,  On our way over we saw this old guy unloading some cleaning supplies from his trunk.  He looked up and saw us and started walking towards us. He shook our hands and said "Harry Shaia"  We started talking and he told us that he was Catholic and that he was there visiting his late wife and son who had died in an accident and asked a little about why we were out here and what we were doing. Somewhere within 2 minutes of meeting this man he asked us if we would like to "join him for dinner" what? I guess so? he gave us his number told us to call him at 5:30 and tell him where to pick us up and he would have a reservation for us to eat at 6:30.  so we called him and told him to pick us up at our apartment and he did,  he took us to this Really nice Italian place called Brios, It was like 25 dollars a plate. maybe that's not that much but it seemed really expensive to me.  we talked a bit and at one point elder tirrell went to the bathroom so it was just me and Mr. Harry Shaia.  He started to ask me all about missionary stuff.  Did you know your companion before you came out? why do they move you around so much? who pays for all of this? all of the stuff that people usually ask us.  I answered question after question and then out of the blue he asked me this. " do you believe in Jesus Christ" I said "most definitely" He said" As the son of God?"  I replied again. " yes" then he asked again "that he came to save us from sin?" I confirmed again that that is what we believed.  He stopped for a minute, started chuckling and said, "I guess you are alright"

we finished dinner he then took us out to get some Ice cream at Burger King and took us home.  When we got home and he parked the car and said this " I don't think you truly understand, that you are a conduit of God to bring His message to the people here.  You truly are a conduit" he stopped, started to get really emotional and said " this Tuesday I'll be going to Mass, Know that at that time that I will be praying for you.  I  ask that you do the same for me."  we agreed that we would shook his hand and he left.  It was truly a miracle that we ran into this man.  We might not of converted him right then and there, but we made the essential first step for his testimony to grow. Planted a Seed!! Alma 27 by small and simple things!!! It was such a testimony builder for me and a great experience that I will remember forever! 

This is a great time to be a missionary, this Thanksgiving I am thankful for my family and friends that love and support me.  for the Gospel in my life, and most of all for the opportunity that I have to share it with the people here in Virginia!!  I love this Gospel and I love all of you so very much and I hope that you have a fantastic week!! I can't wait to here from you this Christmas :)  

The Church is true.

Love you all, 

Elder Nick Sahagun

12-1-2013

Hello Family!! 

What a crazy cold week it's been down here in Virginia!! Thanksgiving was awesome we ate at the Anderson's with a bunch of their fun family, then we knocked on some random guys door who let us in, let me play his guitar and then let us teach him the gospel... It doesn't get better than that, Usually, but it did, we went to the Whites house and had another Thanksgiving dinner and got a TON of leftovers, which are good on a my little budget. We got an awesome referral this week from a member.  We went over there and taught the lady the restoration, I asked here to read the last two paragraphs of the introduction and after she read it I asked her how she felt about it. she said, " it seems like something that I've been waiting to hear my whole life" Miracles, It's going to be a white Christmas, she is going to be all dressed up in white on the 28th of December!! super excited for her!!! I got the Christmas package!! Totally made my day! I put all of the Presents under my bike and hung my stocking from the handlebars, colored some dead light bulbs christmas colors and hung em up on there. we do what we can with what we have, it's not a tree but it will work.

Also!!! I was wondering and hoping that it wasn't to late to change my Mission Plaque Scripture, if there is any way that I can change it to Alma 17: 12-13 that would be awesome!! 

Also!!! I was wondering if you could send me a copy of a song from that hardback christmas song book's version of have yourself a merry little christmas with the guitar chords and all that.

I was asked to play a song for this ladies book club thing. that would be great.

It is way hard being away, but I know that the blessings will come!! I miss you guys so much and can't wait to try and talk to you guys through tears on Skype!! I hope you all have a fantastic week!! I love you so much! 

Love, Elder Nick Sahagun  

P.S. The sky is unreal here....

12-8-2013

Dear Family, 

Another week of being a missionary,  It's incredible.  Let me tell you something ridiculous, So this Sunday there was a bunch of drama about this huge storm that was going to come through and just be super devastating the power was going to go out power lines broken from the weight of so much ice all of this craziness about not having power for a week.  I walked into ward council and they were talking about canceling church... what?!? they decided to only cancel 2 hours of church, so that we could get home before the storm hit.  so went to church the storm went through and I'll show you some pictures of the effects of this incredible storm that we had to cancel church over. 

   I was like " you have got to be kidding me right now."

Apparently if the smallest amount of snow gets on the grass and lightly dusts the trees the entire state of Virginia falls apart. but it was a good week of preaching the Gospel.  We were super busy this week, we helped set up a really cool walking nativity/ creche festival at our church and then they asked me to narrate the manger scene.  , pretty much memorized an awesome quote by Gordon B.  Pretty awesome experience.  We went to Bobby Phifer's house as well.  It is the most incredible display of Christmas lights I have ever seen!!! so awesome!!!!  I love Christmas!!!! 

So I hope that we can coordinate a cool three way Skype again I'll talk to my mission president about it and get it all figured out.

I love you all so very much and hope that you have a great week!! (see ya in 15 days :) )

Love Elder Sahagun

Dear Family!! 

I am sorry that I was not able to send an email out yesterday, we had kinda a big important meeting that was so important that they had to move P-day to today!! You might be wondering what could be so important that they would have to do that, well we had a member of the first quorum of the Seventy come down to the Virginia Richmond mission!!! Elder Siatati!! it was pretty cool to have him and his wife come down and talk to us, It was kinda hard and frustrating at times, because people ask the dumbest questions. It's incredible it really is.  But it was way good, He talked to us about our purpose and how we can better fulfill it, and his wife talked to us about how we need to be unified with our companions!! It was a cool thing and It was awesome to see them!! 

We also had another meeting this week,  called "return and report" and it's a meeting for all of the trainers and trainee's in the first transfer of their training!  It was way cool, got to see a lot of missionaries that I used to serve with!  Got to see Elder Kay!!!! he said to tell you all hello for him.  We talked during the lunch hour of the meeting and it was way cool to reminisce and to remember how it was when I first came out. It was also good to see how far I've come since then!! A lot of the times it's hard as a missionary because you feel like you are not making any progress.  It's hard to see the small day to day progressions from a personal standpoint, so It was good to talk with him to see how much I really have grown. 

It has been a crazy week!! and it is getting really cold and dark and grey out here in Virginia.. Not sure I like it so much.. but we got to teach a some good people this week!! which makes it all worth it!! One of the guys we taught brought us doughnuts!! he was like here I got you guys some doughnuts... It was awesome.

Being on bike is great!! and I love it, I thought that I would just tell you that.

Mom I agree wholeheartedly!!!!  You HAVE to be able to have fun like that to balance out all of the work and stress!!! It's really hard when you have an uptight companion who doesn't understand that... but I am blessed with a great companion who's willing to work hard and have fun!! I love it, Missionary work is incredible!!  The church is true!!! and  I hope you all have a fantastic week!! 

Love Elder Nick Sahagun

Great Virginia sunset!