Monday, August 26, 2013

Working hard & seeing prayers answered


Hello everyone!

This week, President Weston called us letting us know that he wants us to split up the area between the 2 sets of elders. We met and cut the area down one of the major roads, and now we have a much smaller area! Our original area was made up of about 4 subsections, and we got 1 area while the other elders got the other 3. The area we got is really busy with work though, and there are a lot of apartment complexes there too.

We are teaching a guy named Chris, and he is super solid. He got out of prison a couple months ago, and he was in there for about 8 years. He is engaged to a member of the Church who is somewhat less-active. They have been living together for a little bit, so we taught them the Law of Chastity last night, and Chris committed to live it! They said they are planning on getting married ASAP, and they are hoping they can get married this week! Our ward mission leader told us that as ministers of the Gospel, we are technically authorized to perform a marriage. It would be super sweet to be able to say I performed a marriage while on my mission! The Bishop will probably end up performing it though, so it will be super cool. We had taught him on Saturday as well, and he told us that he wanted to be baptized. It kind of caught us off guard, because we weren't even talking about baptism right then. Since he just recently got out of prison he will probably have to wait until he is off parole, but he has a really strong desire to be baptized! It is going to be super cool, because I might be able to go to the Temple when they get sealed together. Going to the temple to see a family that I taught get sealed together is one of my goals on my mission, and hopefully this is it!

I went on exchanges on Tuesday with Elder Larsen. We made sure to do a good job at planning, and making sure we were specific in our prayers. We have had a tough time setting up lessons recently, but since we were praying more specifically in order to set up lessons we were able to set 3 up! It was a really neat experience showing me how much Heavenly Father recognizes even our little efforts. It kind of relates to what someone had said to our district a couple of weeks ago. They said, "It is the Lord's work, so let Him do some of it." It definitely helps to include our Father in Heaven as we are trying to serve Him and His children.

Love you guys so much!
Elder Nielsen

Playing basketball with the neighbors (Ethan on the hoop)

A photo taken by a ward member. He loves the ward he is serving in (so does his mom!).

Monday, August 19, 2013

Missionary work in California


Hello everyone!

We started teaching an investigator named Chris this week. He is about 27 years old, and he just got out of prison pretty recently. I think he was in prison for about 8 years or so. He is a super cool guy who wants to do what is best for his fiance, her daughter, and himself. His fiance is a somewhat less-active member, so they are going to get married coming up here pretty soon. He has been reading the Book of Mormon, and he says he really wants to know what is the right path for him. He committed to pray about the Book of Mormon, so we are looking forward to him getting his answer! If he gets baptized, he and his fiance say they are going to get sealed in the temple! It is super exciting because the temple is what we are trying to get these people to aim for, and that is what it is looking like for him and his fiance!

Transfers are coming up in about 3 weeks or so, and I am pretty excited for them! Transfers are always pretty exciting, so that is definitely something to look forward to.

It has been pretty nice weather the past week or so, and I am loving it! It has been around 90, and it is tons better than the 100s that it has been at. Humidity in some places around the country like Oklahoma would be killer, though...

Sorry, there wasn't a whole lot in this letter. I love you all! Keep living the life!

Elder Nielsen


Monday, August 12, 2013

The Tempo Park Foursome

Hello everyone!

So this past week we got some new elders in our ward, so we have 4 elders serving in our ward alone! We also have a set of sisters that cover our ward and another ward, so the Lord definitely wants some work done in our ward!


The new elders are Elder Sampson and Elder Gillies. Elder Sampson is from Pleasant Grove, UT, and Elder Gillies is from Kaysville, UT. They are both awesome elders, and they are teaching me a ton. They are super good at finding new investigators, and they have helped us get better at it too. We go over to their apartments to have lunch and breakfast sometimes, and we have been showing them around our area quite a bit. Elder Sampson was on the BYU football team as a linebacker. He red-shirted his freshman year then went on his mission, so I am going to be close friends with a BYU football player!

Elders Gillies and Sampson found a new investigator as they were walking to church, and they were able to get him to come to church. That night, we were all at a member's house eating dinner, and they had invited him over as well since he is homeless. He got kicked out of his house about 3 days ago by his dad, so he has been just looking for help. We were able to teach him about the Gospel, and he is looking to get baptized on September 7th! It was a really cool lesson, and I could feel the Spirit a ton! It is amazing how much the Spirit helps you teach if you listen to what is being said and trying listen to the Spirit!

I am definitely getting more comfortable talking to people! I am having an easier time just talking to people, but now I am just working on how to talk to them in order to teach them the Gospel! It is definitely working out though, and the Lord is helping me so much!

I love you guys a ton. Best wishes from the west coast!

Love,
Elder Ethan Nielsen

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Hello everyone!

This week was a pretty neat week, as most every week has at least something cool to go with it. 

I went on exchanges for the first time this week. The missionary I was with was Elder Ewell. We had a really neat experience with a girl named Kaylee, who is about 18 years old. We were riding our bikes, and she was just sitting down on the curb. We rode our bikes up to her and just started talking to her. She told us that her boyfriend had gotten her pregnant when she was 15, she got an abortion, and that the same boyfriend lost her book of about 70 poems that she has been writing since she was about 12. She was crying as she told us this. We told her that she was a precious daughter of God, and that there is hope through the Gospel. We talked to her a little bit more, gave her our number, and then left to go to another appointment. A couple hours later she texted us saying, "Thank you guys so much for talking to me. You saved my life." When I read that text, I was shocked. It was so cool to see the impact of just talking to someone has. I've always wanted to save someone's life, and now I have. It was just in a different way than I expected!

We got transfer reports yesterday (Sunday), and there are going to be some pretty crazy things happening! The ward I am serving in will be getting another set of Elders! Elder Sampson is the name of one, and he will be training so we aren't sure who the other Elder is yet. Elder Tomblin, my companion, is now District Leader. I'll be going on at least 1 exchange a week now!

Love you guys,
Elder Ethan Nielsen

Ethan learned that to let a horse know that you want to be friends you sniff its nostrils??
Their apartment in Citrus Heights 
Elders Nielsen (left) and Tomblin (right)
(L-R) Elder Ashby, Elder Tomblin, Elder Nielsen & Elder Sampson