May 17, May 22, May 29, 2012

May 29, 2012

hello family,

   this week we had a fun week in stoney creek,

 we have been out visiting the ward memebers still. the ward still loves us. but now they are only feeding us like 3 or 4 days a week so we still get fed pretty well. we talked to the zone leaders and they only get like one meal a week so that is good.

    so things that happened this week. we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. it was kind of interesting. the guy i went with. didnt really care about anything....... he was also very negative about everything... he just said he was being realistic. kind of bugged me a little.

     i like being companions with elder peterson we have a lot of fun together. to describe his personality he is a lot like colton starr just a little bit more serious. so i bet you can guess how much fun were having. it is quite fun. we have been working really hard. and we are trying to work smarter. so we got a grasp on everything now we know exactly how big our area is we made a map. and we know most the ward members now there are about 80-90 active people in our ward.

    Sharron- so sharron boomed on us again this week. we heard some stories about her from the ward. they said she almost got baptised she was all dressed up in her white clothes and then right before she backed out. and just went to the brunch after her baptism.

    this week we met a friend named terry. he is about 70 years old. he is a really nice guy and loves having us come over and talk to him. this week we taught him about what the book of mormon is. he likes me and elder peterson. so he has agreed to listen to the lessons to help elder peterson learn how to teach them. so we should be going over to teach him the restoration this week. i am hoping while we are teaching him he will be able to feel the spirit and want to change his life. he isnt interested in being converted but is curious about what we believe.

    yeah our apartment is finally clean. and we have everything organized. yeah it only takes us about 8 minutes to walk to lake ontario. today it is p- day so we are planning to go swimming in the lake. im excited. :) yeah it is already really hot here. it got up to about 90 degrees here last week. but i remember the advice austin gave me about getting the green bottle.  

   yeah umm that doesnt sound like the elder snealson i know. what a weany you should tell elder fielding to whip him into shape. yeah maybe he was just having a bad week or something. but it is good that he likes his trainer. elder snelson was a realy cool guy.

     my allergys kick up pretty bad once it got hot here.  yup elder peterson thinks im a drugy probably. so i have beeen taking those pills from the ziploc baggey label allergy 1 per day. and then another ziploc baggey that says nasal decongestant haha so my allregies are better now that i have found those. oh yeah and i got 5 bloody noses this week i ruined one of my new shirts.. oh well.

 

   oh man austin baker is back that awesome tell him to write me a letter or something even though i only wrote him like one.....or two....... i bet he doesnt like seeing katie driving his truck around the town...... yeah it sounds like his homecoming talk was good tell him to send it to me then i can give the same talk at my homecoming.

     it is good to hear that zach passed preschool. but said that he came to the conclusion that jimmer likes basketball more then heavenly father. we met a guy from barcelona he said that the religon there was soccer and that their god was this one player. sad to think that people will actually admit to that kind of stuff. and believe that kind of stuff.

well looks like i am running out of time.

     goodbye everyone love you,

                  Elder nick strobel.

  P.S.  Just kidding about going swimming in the lake!!

May 22,, 2012

Hey family whats up,

yeah are new apartment is nice now. it was trashed when we got here! so we have just been picking up at night. we have thrown away like 7 or 8 huge trash bags of garbage. haha i havent even finished unpacking my bags yet. but yeah we have been cleaning everything up and getting it all organized the past few days. so yeah its good to finally start feeling like we are in a clean apartment. we are all the way up on the 7th floor. one of the pictures i sent you i think is from our balcony we have a pretty good view of the city. and of the lake.      the stony creek ward really loves us they were really excited to see two new elders come in. they are inviting us to tons of things. on saturday night there was a ward party. it was a" minute to win it" party like the TV show. they were really shocked when we brought an investigator named sharon to the party. everybody wants to meet us. we have had dinner appointments  every night and even lunch appointments sometimes. so like two meals a day this past week. they were really excited to have us here. we have been leaving book of mormon at peoples houses with the questions of the soul highlighted and tabbed out. ( just some idea we had.) i dunno it is kind of funny every place we go to we ask them to give this book of mormon to someone. so far the families have always had somebody in mind. and even a few families said they would invite there friends to come over and have dinner with us.  my companions name is micheal Drake peterson. yeah i saw elder Tyler fielding at the meeting with all the other new missionaries. haha funny story is that his trainer was my companion in the MTC Elder Snelson. we were the only young guys that were there. everybody else had been out for over a year. i thought that was pretty sweet.    I am glad that you guys enjoyed meeting the Wu's it was kind of sad to say goodbye to them. i really enjoyed being with them and spending time with them and the jones family. it is nice to hear that i am going to get visitors. i guess that means that they actually liked me.     so this week we have done a lot of finding just walking around and tracting and just a ton of other stuff. i am actually a little sunburned i wont peel though. it is funny because when i look in the mirror i can see exactly were the collar of my white shirt is. so i have pretty bad tan lines or whatever.  so this week we started teaching a former investiagator named sharron. she is an afraican american lady. she is a really funny lady she likes the missionaries and we are supppose to be meeting with her again tonight. so this up coming week we are going to be doing a lot more finding.   me and elder Peterson are having a blast here we are enjoying the time here and are getting along great. well see ya everyone hope you are having fun.     Love elder nick strobel

May 17, 2012

hey mom,

how are you doing. today we are e mailing in the library. next week i will be e mailing on tuesday. yeah you found the right place the elizabeth apartments. im gonna take some pictures and send them to you stoney creek is a beautiful place. so my new companions name is elder Peterson he is from Bosie Idaho, but lived in Rigby, Idaho for his high school days. he was really big into wrestling. so he knows some of them same people that i do like christian Denny he wrestled him at state. so training is kind of weird i feel like i should still be getting trained. but yeah it is fun. so we are white washing the area. we meet with the ward mission leader and the bishop. the bishop has a nice house right next to the lake. but yeah the ward mission leader was talking to us and what not he said there hasnt been a new investigator here for 6 months....... so we have a lot of work to do. we are starting from square one. we pretty much can choose wherever we want to start. haha it is kind of a challenge. but president Scott e-mailed me today as well it was really good to hear from his e mail. just from what he said i am not worried about anything.   yeah elder johnson is staying in Brantford with a new missionary as well. im glad you liked the pictures if i could tell sister jones thank you i would. mmm im pretty sure the wu's have a lot of pictures of me that they want to show you. im so excited that you guys get to meet them. just tell them that i am gong to miss them a lot. and you can also tell the jones family im going to miss them to. especially faith.... haha you should ask sister jones how she is doing with the new missionary. its a lot easier to be myself here.... im still the social butterfly ive always been. nobody here will ever call me quiet.                          Love Elder Nick Strobel

April 30, May 7th and May 14, 2012

May 14, 2012

dear family,

  this week i have so awesome news! so last night it was like 10:32 and me and elder johnson were like yess we didnt get transfered. but then the phone rang and it was president scott. elder johnson answered the phone and president scott asked to talk to me. i was like oh man what did i do this time. but yeah here is the good news im going to be a trainer next transfer!!!!! some different news is that im going to be whitewash training.... president said that we will be opening the area called stony creek! im super pumped and excited! well also super scared i dunno what to do haha guess i will just have to wing it. im pretty good at making things up. so i was thinking about it last night i dont even know how to do transfers....... then i was like i dunno know how to train a new missionary..... then i was like man were whitewashing so that means were not going to know anybody...... sounds to me like a fun adventure! going in to try a lot of new things.

my new address is

90 king street east apt# 707

stoney creek, ontario

L8G-1K7

Canada      

 the skyping thing: last night was really awesome i loved seeing everyone especially kandis(thanks for inviting her over). i hope that mom had a good mothers day. haha and i know that she loves the mother days present that becca and spencer made her. the build a bear bear that has the talking voice just like me when you squeeze it.it was wonderful to talk to everyone and to see bens man boobs multiple times. so i dont have that much time today because i need to go say goodbye to everyone. but since my new companion will be brand new i will beable to email you again on thursday, my usual long e-mail.i love you guys

Love elder nick strobel.

May 7, 2012

hello everyone.

     I GOT YOUR PACKAGE THIS MORNING.it was really nice to get it. i started eating the carmeleata bars they are really good. elder johnson says thanks for the balckhead popper.he is glad that i got it while i was here. he is pretty positive that we arent going to be companions next transfer. he says president had his eyes on you while we were at the leadership meeting. oh well i doubt it im pretty sure we are going to be together for at least one more. but who knows really.  oh so i really liked the little ewok from lego land. it is nice to have. thank you so much for the package i thoguht i was stupid because i couldnt find the letter inside i looked through it twicethen i gave up. but i guess that you forgot to put one in there.     

   hey mom this sunday i get to talk to you over skype ! sister jones will be calling you this sunday to set up the times to skype you guys so you will be able to talk to her for a while if you want. yeah i sent the big long e-mail to you and austin because for some reason my e-mail doesnt like sending things to you. so i decied to send it to both of you. the dear mom guess what e-mail  was about the wu's going to salt lake and them wanting to see you.      

   im glad zach knows how to find a lost helicopter i tried that but it didn't work out to well it was just lost im pretty sure the neighbors dog got ahold of it. yeah and austin didnt tell me the t-rex story yet. 

   when i went on exchanges with the zone leaders i went to kitchener. the zone leaders are elder wilson and elder ni. this past week i went on exchanges with elder wade. funny stroy about elder wade. Is that his first name is wade too. so his name is wade wade. that cause his parents separated and his mom married someone with the last name of wade. this upcoming week is elder wades last week in the mission. so my last to exchanges have been with very old missionaries. his companion is elder wooding elder wooding is from england. also there are chinese elders their names are elders lee and elders yu. so on the name tags you can now put your first intial on them and elder yus first name is ben. so all hsi nametags now say elder B.Yu. it is kind of funny i think. also there are 4 sisters in our district. there names are hermana's fatheringham and ence- both from utah. also there are the ysa sisters. their names are sister tsai and tervaveil. sister tsai came out at the same time as me we flew in on the airplane together. 

   also this last week i went to a leadership meeting. it was a very uplifting meeting. and i got to talk to president and sister Scott again. i talked to the AP's and elder Sommerfeldt says hello. he lives in the same house as the AP's. 

     i have gotten my pillow and my other towel back it is quite nice to have them back. also i finish the book of mormon last wednesday. so it took me about 5 weeks to read it all. and guess what i am starting it again. 

   its nice to here about the family. i bet that zach is really excited to go to school. but i bet that you are sad because now all you kids will be at school. kandis tells me that zach doesnt talk different anymore. oh man thats sad. tell katie congratulations from me for being cheer captian. i was suprised she even made the team letalone cheer captain. man those other girls must be terrible.... haha just kidding. oh man chuck is bringing his themes to the next level. tell ben to BRING THE HAMMER. man i cant believe i missed that. austin finally graduated college. here people call college university. if they say college they consider that high school or something like that. i dunno it is werid. 

   Wu's- this week was a really good week with the wu's. this week i played the piano with george. i would play a song out of a level one book. it would take me like 2 or 3 times to get it right. but once i got it right george would play it right after me perfectly. guess all those years of piano lesson paid off. also we taught george a little about baptism. he wants to get baptised in may and he told me that because im special he wants me to baptise him.    Wallborne- Phil has been reading the book of mormon, really actively. he made a promise to himself that he would finish reading it before he would get baptised. he has been reading an hour a day. but that wont be enough time for him to be done by may 13. so we are going to have to move his baptism back a few weeks. 

   this week we started teaching Bob langlois. his wife is a memeber but he isnt. he has agreed to hear the lessons. we kind of tricked him into hearing them. he agreed to help me learn the lessons and he is going to critize me after each one to help me learn. it made his wife really happy that he was willing to do that.

    joe licthey- joe has made leeps and bounds. he has come to church the past two weeks. and is learnign a lot. me and elder johnson are trying to convince him to go on a mission.

    i love reading the little stories about zach. he is a very funny kid. i really miss that little guy.

   well the mission is doing great. this next week will probably be one of the best weeks in the mission. we have a lot of stuff planned for this week.

   i love you all( dad mom austin caitlyn becca kandis katie ben jake matt james and zach) 

Elder Nick Strobel

dear dad,
yeah i finished the book of mormon on wednesday. but yeah i am starting it again. it is funny that you said my patriarchal blessing will be my guide. because i was just looking over that this morning. it is really awesome. it is a great guide for my life. and i am starting to see things come true in there and am starting to make things come true in there as well. its true the adversary is attacking you from all sides. something someone told me was that the closer to the light you get the bigger your shadow is. hence the stronger and stronger you are in the gospel the more the adversary tries to bring you down. the bigger path of evil that is behind you trying to pull you down. pretty cool analogy i thought. well dad just know i love you and am proud to call you my father.
                                     love elder nick strobel




April 30, 2012


hello everyone,
the mission is going good im learning new stuff everyday.
     so this week i was flying my remote control helicopter around my house. and our house isnt that big so i kept hitting the walls. so i decided to take it outside and fly it around. i took a step outside and launched the helicopter up full blast. it was going above our house and flying pretty good. than i huge gust of wind came along and blew it over over house. i went around looking for it but couldnt find it in any of our neighbors backyards. so to end the story quickly i lost my helicopter oh man i was super bummed it was fun to fly around
at night.
    so last week when we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. i left all my stuff down there. like my pillow, and my blanket, and my toletery bag. haha so last week i had no pillow! hahaha i just used my towel. but i just bought a new toothbrush and tooth paste and normal shavers. so this past week i shaved with normal razors. but i like using my electric shaver still.
    also this transfer i started the book of mormon over again. right now i am on page 452. so next week i should be able to finish it.
   RC-
   Wu's- the wu's are doing good they are loving church. and are making a lot of friends i think. did you not get my email that said they are coming to salt lake? (this is the email. dear mom guess what! john and amy wu are going down to salt lake May17 18 and 19. they were really excited when i said my family was only going to be 3 and a half hours away. they said they want to meet you guys. they might go down to idaho falls just to see you guys! but if that doesnt work out maybe you could meet them up in salt lake one of those days. they are really excited and want to meet you guys. so in the next e mail to me maybe tell me you interest about doing this. i
think it would be amazing..... tell me what you think of the idea???)
     kira- this week we had to say goodbye to kira. the whole ward missed him at church this week. he had really become part of the ward family. everybody just loves him. this week we dropped him off a preach my gospel and just went over on how to use it with him. we also realised he didnt have a doctrine and covenants. so we have gotten him on of those and dropped it off.
      millers- the millers were at church this week. they have been coming regularly and are doing pretty well. matthew loves coming to church to hang out with his primary friends.
     wallborn's- this week the wallborns were at church. phil has been reading his book of mormon. he has set aside an hour a day to finish it before his baptism. he is a really amazing guy. when he sets his thoughts on something he works on it until he completes it. i just hope he will be able to finish it by march 13th. he is a great guy and will be such a blessing to have him and his family in the brantford ward.
     Dallas- this week dallas came to church. he is an 18 year old kid. and is just really curious about all religon. he understands and comprehends everything prefectly. he is a very smart kid. he understands things so well that he usually even forsees the deep doctrines in everything. to give an example. when we were teaching him
about the plan of salvation and talking about the three kingdoms of glory. and told him about the celestial kingdom and how you would be able to learn forever here. he asked since someone could learn forever would they one day be able to become gods.
    Michialina- this week we started teaching michialina. she is an 18 year old girl and she wants to find a church for herself. she is looking into religion and wondering about which chruch to join. she couldn't come to church this week because every other weekend she goes up to her dads house to stay.
    crystal- this week we picked up a former investigator. her name is crystal she met with the missionaries a lot about 2 years ago. she is starting to want to come back to church. she is starting to want to change her lifestyle. she was to have a family someday. and to have a church to bring them to.
    also, we are working with a kid named joe lichtey he is a member but hasnt been active in the church for a long time. he is 20 years old and we are teaching him with the childrens book of mormon stories.
    oh yeah- well i know if you put this up on facebook the jones family will be reading it. so a quick little shout out to them brother and sister jones are pretty cool i guess. they did give us new music this week. and we really like the new CD.
    well things here are going great im loving the mission.
                                           love your favorite missionary
                                                         Elder Nick Strobel