Twinkies

Hello family and friends!

During this past week I have been studying faith, hope, and charity.

In all the scriptures that include these three attributes I've noticed

that they all come in the same order "And faith, hope, charity, and

love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the

work." (D&C 4:5). It's a commonly simple topic that is frequently

spoken of, but I was curious as to know why is it always in this

order. It is similar to a tree; a seed is planted (Faith). As that

seed/faith grows, hope for things to come or hoping for greater things

to grow is constantly there. The seed/faith grows into a small sprout

(this is the beginning of our hope process) as the seed/faith

continues to grow, roots will grow deeper and larger and the tree

trunk/hope will grow as well. What I believe is that as this tree

grows bigger and taller, the leaves and branches symbolize our love

for ourselves, but not in a prideful way, in such a way that we are

defining ourselves into what the Cultivator (or God) intends us to be.

Now comes the last part of it all, blossoms are the burning, physical

desire that builds into charity towards one another. These blossoms

turn into fruit and the fruit is then shared with whoever/whatever

decides to take it. Then from that fruit comes seeds. Now one seed has

grown into a tree and has produced many seeds that are able to be

planted. This is what I believe is the reason for the order of faith,

hope, charity and love.

On Saturday we had a culture night activity with the Stockport ward.

We had presentations from Africa, South Africa, Lithuania, Germany,

Brazil, and the blessed land of America. My companion and I held down the American presentation with talking about our differences in the

American English language compared to British English language,

American football, Kool-aid, and the thing that kept everyone involved

was twinkles. BRITISH PEOPLE LOVE TWINKIES!! It was so funny to see the reaction when we took out the twinkies, eyes grew larger and

everyone was super anxious to try some.

We had a miracle the other night. Elder Lee and I were on the bus

coming home just a little late, but as we were coming up to the stop

we needed so we could take another bus home, Elder Lee told me that we should get off the bus a stop early just because, so I just kinda blew

it off and followed. As we were walking we started talking with this

22 yr old boy named Tom. Tom has had some traumatic times so we shared with him the Plan of Salvation. The Holy Ghost was there and I

shared an experience and found myself in tears because the whole

conversation touched my heart. I feel a little bit bad for the

unbelief I had for getting off the bus a stop early but I now know to

"never postpone a prompting".

Mom and family: it's been a great week! Stockport has a lot of

potential. Oh spencer... You had a birthday shout hurray, to want to

sing to you today. One year wiser and older too...

Hhhhhaaaaaaappppppppyyyyy birthday tooooooo you! 18 wow that is

insane, it's been about 16 months since I was your age! Im a dinosaur

;) I am so proud of you for finishing your eagle! I expect pics! I

love you all, I am doing really well. Haha dad, I've said it once and

I will say it again... I LOVE curry and Indian food! I have been

craving it for the past 2 weeks and when I eat it I just cannot get

enough. Mom, I now enjoy a good lasagna! And yes, sushi is amazing

haha but the food I just cannot eat are tomatoes... Bleh! Anyway, I

LOVE MY FAMILY!!!

Love,

Elder Nichols