April 23, 2012

hello family and friends.

this week was a really great week.    wus- this week the wus came to church. and george wanted to goplay the organ. i sat by them and kira during sacrament. george lovesthe sacrament prayers he always says its time for bread or its time for water. he is a funny little guy. his birthday is april 23 oh waitthats today........ i am gonna have to go bring him a present.   kira- this week was kiras last week at church. it was sad to thinkthat he is not going to be there anymore. the elders qourm gave him acard and wished him luck in china shanghi. he will be down there forthe summer and then he will come back up to brantford in the fall tocontinue school.  wallborns- this was an amazing lesson this week. phil wallborn ourinvestigator commited to be baptised may 13. haha on mothers day. hiswife said it would be the best mothers day present. he son alex alsosaid it would be a good idea. alex got baptised a few months ago. hehas the most amazing hair it is long and wavey. it is really cool ithink. also phils wife cynthia is pregnant so its just miracle aftermiracle in their family. it is nice to see them coming back to church. Elder Wilson also another reason why my week was so good was becauseof an elder named Elder wilson. i wnet on exchanges with elder wilsonthis week he is my zone leader. it was just and amazing experience. itwas one of those experiences that will change my mission. he gave mesome advice but mainly just led by his example. he taught me twoimportant principals. each missionary needs a willingness to learn,and be quick to observe.  if they are going to be a sucessfulmissionary their whole mission. i learned a lot form him. it is a sadthing that he is going home in about three weeks.    it is going be sweet to have tyler fielding here in the missionfield having another missionary from idaho falls that i know. it wouldbe sweet if one day we could be companions. if that happened we mighthave a little too much fun. its nice to see and hear all my friendsfrom the ward are preparing for their mission. is ryan taggert sendingin his papers? has he gotten his mission call? oh wow it is  crazy tothink i have already been out 83 days. thats quite awhile im almostnot a newby anymore. haha i still feel like i am learning how to evenbe a missionary.  mmmmm about the shirts umm i think 18 1/2 would be best but im notsure... both of them work. mmm the sun has gone into hiding this weekthe ward said that it will be about 5 degrees celesus thats a prettybig drop because it has been really warm latley. but yeah this week issuppose to be a cold week again.  it is good to hear that you guys love and miss me.p.s. i love hearing zachs little funny qoutes.i love you all (dad mom austin caitlin becca kandis katie ben jakematt james and even zach)                                  love elder nick strobel.

April 16, 2012

Dear family,

this week was a great week!

wus- this week we went over to the wu's house. it was qutie fun and

funny! we started the new member lessons with them and they enjoied

it. also you remember those little battery powered cars me and becca

used to have as kids. well george has one and it is a little jeep. we

went on a walk with him he is a pretty good driver he didnt run into

anything. he always turns when you tell him to turn and stop when you

tell him to stop. he is great at listening. the he follows all our

driving directions was pretty amazing. it showed me that he really

does trust us. it was nice. also while we were talking to him he said

he has  been practicing to be baptized! he was super excited and said

that he wanted to be baptized everyweek! also he said that i was

special and that he wanted me to baptise him.

kira- this week we met with kira and taught him about the priesthood.

this sunday he got the priesthood. he is doing amazing and is getting

along perfectly with the ward.

phil wallborn- phil is a really awesome guy he has taught me some

stuff about the book of mormon and he is our investigator.

dallas- this week we started teaching a kid named dallas. he is a

teenagers an we taught him the plan of salvation. he is a really smart

kid. just after 4 days he has read all of 1st nephi.

alingham family- this week we have been getting to know the allingham

family. that moved into our ward. they are a referal from other

missionaries. this week we plan to start teaching them again.

    hey tell james congratualtions on the two touchdowns! i hope him

and jake just love playing football i know that i had a lot of fun

there and was able make a lot of friends, but also learn alot about

life. you should show them 'the boys of fall' music video i remember

that one being pretty good.

     tell zach that i am not being a bad missionary i am doing

everything im suppose to and even more. haha they are going to

legoland they are going to get a lot of legos there. and i wont be

able to make them.... hahahahahaha. also tell zach that kandis wants

to come and see him soon.

     it is good to hear about Jak Yonke i have hung out wiht him

quite a few times in high school. oh yeah thats sweet it will be sweet

to see tyler here when he comes out on the mission. it is a really

great place to serve a mission.

     oh yeah you should send me my short sleve shirts it is getting

really hot and humid lately! haha and yesterday me and elder johnson

realised we didnt have an air conditioner! Hahaha

i love mom and dad and austin and caitlin and becca and kandis and

katie and ben and jake and matt and james and zachary.

                                     love elder nick strobel

Nick's email April 9, 2012 and April 10,2012

april 9th
hello everybody,
so i only got one e-mail this week from uncle brian(thank you)......it
was nice to hear from him. i really liked that stroy about the
baptisms. it was kind of funny dont worry i wont do that!
well dang im kinda sad nobody wanted to e-mail me.
guess what else i realised this morning i have been out for 10 weeks!
i strating thinking about it and than i realised that i am 1/10 done
of my mission. i got to thinking that theres 52 weeks in a year times
2 is a 104 divid by 10 equals about 1/10. boy is time flying by i feel
like i just barely came out like last week.
 so this week was a really interesting week. so i got my new companion
and everything. it was super tough getting a new companion i dunno i
guess it was jsut werid like my new best friend elder sommerfeldt was
leaving and i had some random new guy come in. i dunno i guess it just
kind of felt like it was just me by myself.
so this week was kind of interesting
   this week i had my first bible bashing experience. it was a
ctually pretty cool and pretty fun to bash with a jehovahs witness. me
and elder johnson also got to hear a man play his gutair for us it was
pretty cool and almost funny how people can get so into their music
and sing about god so in depth. haha but yeah we had a  really cool
experience just with talking to this guy.
  kira- kira was confirmed this week. it was another one of those
amazing experiences where you could  just feel the spirit so strongly!
brother hampshire the 93 year old guy set kira apart and gave him the
holy ghost. it was really cool during this he said that kira would be
a missionary to the world. this was really cool because kira has
really shown a lot of interest in teaching the gospel to his parents.
he is an amazing kid except he wont be in brantford for much longer.
at the end of this month he leaves for china he is going back to his
homeland in shang-hi. here i think he will have an oppertunity to
influence thousands of people with the gospel. he is on the path and
has the potentical to do a lot of amazing things to push the work
forward in china.
   wu's- this week was another great week with the wu's they are an
amazing family i just love being with them. it has gotten to the point
to where when i am there i feel as if i am home. george is awesome.
even though he is blind he still acts like a normal 7 year old boy.
just running around jumping on stuff climbing around everything. he is
a wonderful kid. he pretty much considers me part of the family, just
like his big brother. his mom says that everyday he asks when is elder
strobel coming over. jack wu the 10 year old also loves it when we
come over because that means he has somebody to play basketball with
or to show off his hockey trophies to. his team won the championships
for  their league. katherine is the 11 year old girl she is probably
the best figure skater i have seen in my whole life. her parents
showed us the video camera of her skating preformance. she looked just
like one of those people that could be in the olympics. she won best
skater under 12. and beat out other girls that have been skating their
whole lives. she was good their were only 2 girls that were better
than her and they were both seniors in high school. also this week the
wu's had an amzing experience in their life john wu got the aronic
priesthood. john is really good at basketball and he is going to come
play with us today at the church.
   phil walbourne- has been coming to church quite  frequently. he
is really awesome. i dunno if i told you this already but since he and
his wife have been coming to church that have received a lot of
blessings. one of those being that cynthia his wife was pregnant.
cynthina is a member of the church but phil isnt yet. this week we
will be going to go visit him sometime. and try to get him ready to be
baptised.
  elder johnson- elder johnson is a pretty cool guy he is about 24
years old. he has been out for over a year. he had to go home and then
come back out for medical issues. which i know of but dont really
wanna say because it is akward to talk about.he is from branwell
alberta. something really cool is that his girlfriend is waiting for
him and has been waiting for him for over a year! gives me a little
hope that kandis could wait for me. his girlfriend sends him all those
cool packages and love notes and what not. its really cool to see! me
and him are going to be thinking of some cool things that we can send
our girlfriends! hahaha oh yeah another thing he is doing is kroshaing
a blanket for his girlfriend! haha it is really funny to see him doing
that.
  well i hope everything is going alright at home. and i love all you guys.
                                                             love
elder strobel.


April 10, 2012
dear mom(ill probably send this to austin because for some reason he
gets my emails the fastest.)
I REALLY LIKED SEEEING ALL THE PICTURES OF THE FAMILY AND ........
THAT KID NAMED SPENCER THAT YOU SENT ME.
sorry this is kind of short but i dont have much time to email today
maybe just 30 minutes!
umm but today was amazing i got a random package in the mail from
someone it had chocolates and treats in it. it was from a local
company here in town but it doesn't say who it was from. so maybe
whoever sent it to me could tell me! whoever sent it thank you. :)
also sister jones gave me an easter basket! it was really cool it came
with this really nice silver and pink tie.
 today also we had interviews with the mission president! it was
quite amazing it was wonderful just to talk to president scott. he is
a great man and is very inspiring. it was wonderful to see him again
it is kind of cool because i have seen him a lot more than everybody
else in my district! i just love seeing him and sister scott. also
since he came he brought the mail from the office! so i got the
package you sent the only problem is that we have just been so busy
today that i havent been able to open it yet! it looks like something
nice and big! :0
 elder sommerfeldt got transfered to brampton. he is about an hour
and 20 minutes away. i probably wont be able to see him anytime soon.
his new house is called the mission mansion. he moved up to zone
leader and lives with the ap's right next to president.
  elder johnson's story goes like this about his girlfriend. he got
sent home early for a medical issue and he wasnt planning on coming
back out. he started dating this girl named kyile for like 3 years.
they went ring shopping and were about to get engaged when elder
johnson got the feeling he should go back out on his mission. so that
probably why i made it sound like he was way into her. i just guess it
was the first thing we bonded with is that we both have girlfriends
that we love.
things i need to be sent to me
1. so it is like 80 degrees here so i kind of already need my short
sleve shirts it would be nice if you could send those to me.
2. also i told elder johnson able that blackhead popping tool. if you
can find those things you should send two of them.
oh yeah tell john and jan and austin and his wife and becca and kandis
and katie and ben and jake and matt and james and zach that i love
them! :)
  p.s. i liked to make it akward when i mention austins and beccas
signifacant others........
                                                        love elder strobel

Nick's Email April 2, 2012

april 2nd 2012
dear family and friends,
this week was quite good conference was wonderful. yet it was quite
long i had to sit through the sessions at church in my church clothes.
conference is like two hours later here than it is back home. so some
exciting news about transfers is that elder sommerfeldt is leaving and
going zone leader even though he has only been out 9 months. so my new
companion is elder johnson he is from the alberta provence as well. so
pretty much all i have heard about is that he is 24 and is 6 foot 7 so
he is taller then me didnt think that would ever happen. but i guess
it has. oh yeah i got your package like a week after you sent it i
guess i forgot to mention that in my email i really loved getting it!
i just love getting mail from everyone! i love getting letters from
you guys and from kandis. it is really nice to hear about everyones
life. i enjoy it. tell katie congratulations about the pagents! she
made a ton of money for school that is sweet. whoa i totally forgot
that he was that old. tell him i am happy he has made the choice to
get baptised. umm since you sent the other package to the mission home
it might take two or three more weeks to get here. remember whentn
that one guy brrowed austins easter bucket. well  i say that if he is
there to stay then he can use my bucket.
   the wu's the wu famioly is doing great the really enjoied
conference but we kind of need to teach them about the phophet thomas
s monson. thats big on the list for them. we are trying to get the new
member lessons ready for them with our ward missionaries. those are
the next big things for the wu's everybody loves them a ton! elder
sommerfeldt is going to be super sad when he says goodbye to them. he
is already really worrying about that because they are a super amazing
family. all of them are qutie amazing i am really excited i still get
to get visiting with them.
  millers the millers are doing good they came to conference and they
really enjoyed it! matthew is a really funny kid i like him alot.
   kira- haha kira had finals this weekend and a few on monday so he
couldn't attend conference on saturday. on sunday he slept in way late
and wasnt able to make it because he needs to study for finals he has
to get stright a's
   Derek- this week derek was with his girlfriends family again we
are planning on him to come to church this sunday. he really needs to
so that he can get baptised.
   pedersons- the pedersons are an amazing part member family. i love
going over there. and she loves having us over there. we kind of
dropped the ball the first lesson because the very next time we met
with them she asked us what was different about our church from all
the other churches. she is an amazing lady i love going over to visit
them it is kind of like i am at home when i am over there.
   diane- this week we started teaching diane about the church! she
is super nice and has two boys that are 10 and 9 they like to play
sports so we might set up some games with other kids from the ward
with them at the church.
   so last night president called me and elder sommerfeldt right at
9:00 so we were the first ones he called about transfers. during the
phone call he said that we could get 5 or 6 baptisms here next
transfer. well i hope this is true i dunno how were gonna do it but i
really think that we can. it is gonna be fun i will keep you guys
posted. i dunno why he has so much faith in me.... on average each
missionary baptises 2 people in a whole year........ so i think its
werid that that is the average. i  guess i am quite lucky! haha i have
always been lucky my whole entire life!
   so conference was great on saturday night me and elder sommerfeldt
got into talking about forgiveness and the commandments. he said that
he forgives everyone and that he lives that commandment. i said to be
funny clearly you dont know the commandments to well becasue it says
we need to forgive all men. that includes yourself and you have a hard
time doing that. it was funny becuase the very next the the first
sunday talk from conference was about forgiveness and said the exact
same thing i said the night before. i looked at elder sommerfeldt
during the talk and said i told ya so!
 oh another cool thing that i got from conference is about vision.
that one guys talk was kind of boring. but i kind of zoned out during
it and really wondered what my vision/what my purpose was.  you have
to have a vision so i prayed to know what my vision was. i got certain
promptings to different scriptures i have never read before. first was
d&c 16 and 18, and after that d&c 42 then after that was d&c 68.... i
probably should read d&c but yeah i starting studying d&c 16 and 18
and they talk about what is worth the most in the sight of god. and it
talked about missionary work and how happy you will be if you bring
one soul into the gospel.... so i havent read D&C 42 or D&C 68... so i
will have to check those out next week. so pretty much my vision im
suppose to follow is pretty cool so far.
   sorry my email is kind of short this week but since it is
transfers elder sommerfeldt wants to say goodbye to everyone. i love
you all
                                                 love nick strobel