Another week in C-Heights, California

Wassup Everybody?!

This past week was pretty cool. We were able to help a man in our ward move. His name is Marcello, and he is so kind. He fed us some stuff that they called some crazy name, but they described it as gluttonous rice. I almost threw up! Don't worry though, because they didn't see it. We had gone to a buffet place for breakfast with the ward mission leader, so I was just stuffed. The gluttonous rice is something I would try again though.

We met a professional fighter too! We were riding our bikes and he was moving into our apartment complex so we stopped and helped him. His name is Steve "the Freak". He told us that we can go work out with him whenever. So I'll be pretty jacked the next time you guys see me!

My ward is awesome. The bishop is one of the nicest guys I have ever met, and he is definitely an inspired man.

We are still working with the single mom and her two kids towards baptism. We are just trying to keep her on the path towards baptism, because her life is pretty crazy right now.

Hope everything is going well for all of you!

Love,

Elder Ethan Nielsen

This week in CA

Hello everyone!

California is a very beautiful place. It isn't super amazing or anything, but there are a bit of trees down in Citrus Heights (not a lot of citrus trees) that are really cool to be surrounded by. I will try to take a picture of what I usually see while riding my bike around.

I have been getting better with the homesickness lately. I was able to talk to President Weston about it yesterday, and he said that he is going to help me get through this. He basically told me, "No matter what happens, I'm not letting you go home." That comforted me a lot. He is such an amazing guy that loves and cares for all of the missionaries so much. He said he always has time for us and he is so willing to do anything for us. He said it just takes a bit of time to get over all of that stuff, so I'm in it for the long haul no matter what.

We had a really cool experience this past week. The first part happened about last Wednesday. We were talking to JoAnn (a recent convert of about a month) and her friend David (a somewhat anti-LDS guy) out in front of David's house where he was working on a broken sprinkler. We offered to help him, but he said he wouldn't want to get our white shirts all dirty. We then asked if there was anything else we could do, so he jokingly said that he had 2 cars in the back that we could wash. He was surprised when we accepted because he didn't think we would, so he told us he was just kidding. After that, we told him goodbye and left with JoAnn. Fast forward to Sunday. We were talking to JoAnn, and she had told us that she had been eating dinner over at David's house with him and his wife later in the week than when we had talked to him. She told us that he had said, "You know, maybe that Church isn't so bad after all. Get me one of those Books of Mormon." Heck yes! Really cool change of heart happened just because we offered to do some service. I was really excited to hear that that had happened.

Here is another experience that happened to us that my companion wrote and then sent to me.

QUE OTHER EXPERIENCE

This last Saturday has to be one of my most treasured memories on this mission so far. We were able to witness a miracle today with a family and the grandpa of the family. We were going over to an investigator's house (she has a baptismal set this coming month) and right when we left our appt. we saw a moving truck! It was one of our neighbors that was just moving out. The grandpa was the only one out by the moving truck sitting on one of the sofas he had yet to move into the truck, So we asked if we could help and he said, "yeah, I would love it if you guys helped!" The really cool part was that his father was a Latter-Day saint, and he was praying to his father who passed away just a few years ago. Right at that moment, we showed up! He told us this, and we explained that it was no coincidence. He told us we were "God-sent". We were able to talk to him about the church, and about the Book of Mormon, we were able to give him a copy, and he said he would read the whole thing. He has been reading the New Testament, So he is going to start with the B.O.M.. Really neat experience! We gave him our emails and other information about getting him a free app for the bible and book of Mormon.

He just emailed me today!
Here is his email!!!

FWD:
Elder Ethan, Elder Taylor
Wanted to thank you again for your help and The Book of Morman. I found it on the Gospel Library 3.0 app. I loaded it up on my iPad and have started reading my 2pages a day until I complete it in one year.

Wishing you both a successful mission.
God Bless

BACK TO MY EMAIL

Super cool experiences, right?

I love the people here. The family that has a baptismal date for the 17th of August is so awesome. There is the mom who is in her 30's, her son who is 11, and another son who is 10. The mom has a smoking problem, so we are going to help her with that. I am so excited though! I have really grown to love a lot of the people here though. My ward mission leader is awesome. The bishop is such an inspired guy, and you can really tell by how he leads the ward council meetings. I am just trying to learn what I can from all these examples around me!

Love you all!

Elder Ethan Nielsen

I didn't get an explanation for this picture, all I can figure is that it is supposed to mean hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil... smell no evil???

Elder Nielsen with President & Sister Weston

After Ethan had been in California for a few days, we got a picture in the mail from the mission office of him with President and Sister Weston. Ethan loves President Weston already - he said that he knows what missionary work is all about.

Photos from Citrus Heights

Our first pictures of Ethan serving in the Tempo Park Ward in Citrus Heights. Doesn't he look great??

Elder Nielsen with his companions, Elder Tomblin and Elder Spjute (and their ICEES, because it is HOT in California this week!)

The Elders with the son of the Ward Mission Leader, headed out to teach an investigator.

No, that is NOT the bike that we sent to California for him to ride on his mission. ;)

The Ward Mission Leader says:

He is putting his bike to great use (and gaining more from it than if he had the motorcycle)! They aren't letting the 100+ degree heat stop them. They have a good pool of investigators and are having great success as instruments in the Lord's hand. We are glad to have Elder Nielsen with us in building the Lord's kingdom!

Citrus Heights

Today was p-day, and we got e-mail from Ethan. I can see Monday becoming my favorite day of the week.

He hasn't sent any pictures yet, so I'm sorry that I can't upload anything other than text to the blog, but here's an update from his e-mail:

So...I have 2 companions! The reason is because one of them is going home next Monday, so he is with us until then. His name is Elder Spjute and he is from Boise, Idaho. My other companion's name is Elder Tomblin, and he is from Coeur d'Alene Idaho. They are both really cool guys. They have been good at training me, and I have become pretty good friends with both of them.

The area I am in right now is a biking area! It is a good thing, because I am going to be super fat unless I keep biking. It is also not as good thing, because it is so blazing hot here! I think it has gotten over 100 degrees every day since I have been here. Pretty crazy! 

I was able to take part in a lady's confirmation yesterday, and it was pretty cool! We also got 5 investigators to come to church, so that was really neat too. We have at least 4 people with a baptismal date, but they aren't until September and November. Hopefully, I will be able to be here for them! There is another guy that we have been talking to that has been going through a lot of tough stuff, and he is trying to come back to church. He was going to come yesterday, but he didn't wake up in time so he is for sure coming next week. This guy is super committed, and he stopped drinking coffee last week without us even asking him to! 

So I am in Citrus Heights right now. It is basically the very southernmost part of my mission. I am serving in the Tempo Park Ward right now.

It was so good to hear from him! It sounds like he likes the area (if not the heat), and is settling in nicely. He is VERY limited on his e-mail time, so it might be best to stick with handwritten letters until he gets the system down. I think he likes letters better than e-mail anyway. :)