This past week was a great one. We met with Dane, the 13 year old young man. The best way I can describe him is having the desire of Joseph Smith. He really wants to know what the truth is, and he has felt the Spirit confirm the truth as we have been meeting with him. We taught him the Restoration this past week and we invited him to be baptized. He said he would like to prepare to be baptized on October 25th. He is such an awesome young man.
So for transfers, Elder Harris is going down to Yuba City to continue to be a zone leader. Elder Page is coming up here to be my companion. I have met Elder Page before, and he is an awesome guy. We both served in the Red Bluff Ward, and it just so happens that the area we cover for YSA includes Red Bluff! We will have the chance to go down there as we are teaching the lessons to a recent convert.
I love you guys! Have a fantastic week!
Elder Nielsen
Monday, September 29, 2014
Monday, September 22, 2014
Redding is Righteous, man.
We had a number of really cool experiences this last week. It felt different since we had P-day on Wednesday instead of Monday, but it still went really well. I went on exchanges with Elder Cieslak, and we stayed in my area for the exchange. We started the morning off by going to contact some potential investigators that Elder Harris and I have never met before. We stopped by Julia's house, and she was very friendly towards us. She told us she is a single mom and is currently working for the forest service. She didn't have much time right then so we left her with a Restoration pamphlet. She told us she would be interested in learning more! It isn't much yet, but it is exciting to see how we are talking to more people every single week.
After Julia we went to contact one of our investigators name Brianna. We haven't been able to an extensive lesson with her since we need a male to go inside her house, but she is showing a lot of interest. We left her with a Book of Mormon and invited her to read some specific chapters. She said she really wants to know the truth about whether there really is a God or not, and we explained that there is no way to completely prove or disprove there is a God. That is why the principle of faith is so important.
We had a couple more neat experiences on that exchange, but I don't have the time to get them all down, so I will tell about another neat experience we had on Friday. We were trying to contact some less-active members that the bishop doesn't know. We were able to see a couple of them as well as talk to some people who now live where the less-actives used to live. After contacting someone we started to walk out of the apartment complex just as a young man named Dane came up to us and asked, "Do you guys give away Bibles?" We told him we sure do. Then we proceeded to tell him about the Book of Mormon, and he said he would like one. We set up another time to bring the Bible by, and then went back to our truck. It was such a neat and simple miracle to see.
We were on exchanges again on Saturday, and I was in my area with Elder Percival. We went back to Dane's house to give him the bible, and he told us he really liked reading from the Book of Mormon. We talked to him a bit more about the Book of Mormon and talked to him about church a bit, and he said he would like to come. He said he should be able to come this next Sunday, so we are looking forward to getting him integrated in with the Young Men in the ward!
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is so awesome. I have never been happier than when I am trying to be more like my Savior. Following Christ's example is the only way I would want to live in order to have a fulfilling and successful life. There is no other way for me. I feel the same way that Peter did when Christ asked "Will ye also go away?" Peter answered, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life" (John 6:67-68).
I know I make many, many mistakes, even when I try my best. However, Christ knew I would do so and chose to suffer for my sins anyways. He loved me enough to choose to take upon himself my sins. He did that for YOU personally. Regardless of your weakness, He chose to die for you so you can live through Him.
I love you all so much.
Elder Nielsen
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
"For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves." (D&C 58:28)
This past week or so has been really interesting! Our P-day got moved to today since we had a Mission Tour with Elder Brent H. Nielson, of the Seventy. Everything has been a little out of sync because of that, but things are going well!
I was able to learn a lot from the Mission Tour with Elder Nielson. One of the biggest things that I received a greater understanding of is the principle of agency and our faith. In 2 Nephi 2:14, Lehi is speaking to his sons and talking to them about the Plan of Happiness. He says, "God...hath created all things...both things to act and things to be acted upon." Elder Nielson explained that almost everything in the universe was created to be acted upon, but we as children of God were created to act. We see things that need to be corrected, and Satan tempts us to be an object that is acted upon rather than an agent that acts. He wants us to wait for others to solve the problem without using the divinely given gift of agency ourselves. God has given us the power to act for ourselves, so we should use that agency to choose to follow Christ and help others along the way.
I went on exchanges with Elder Zaugg this past week, and we were determined to work really hard. We went around trying to contact some potentials. We were able to see some really cool miracles. We were having dinner at Carl's Jr, and as we were sitting there I saw a guy walk up to a table outside. I recognized him as a young man that the sisters in Red Bluff were teaching. He moved up here, and the sisters lost contact with him. We went to talk to him, and were able to figure some stuff out. He lives within the boundaries of the Young Single Adult branch, so hopefully we should be able to start teaching him soon! Miracles happen!
I love you all, and I hope you all have an awesome week!
Elder Nielsen
P.S. We went up to the top of our zone last P-day to do some more hiking, and we were able to go to Weed, California. We decided to buy some souvenirs...
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| Elder Nielsen and Elder Bradshaw |
Monday, September 8, 2014
Busy, busy week!
I went on exchanges with Elder Kelly this past Wednesday. We left in the morning to go street contacting because we are really needing to find new investigators. We walked around for about an hour and there were only a few people that we were able to talk to, but we were able to have a pretty cool experience. We were walking past a house that a former investigator told us stop by about a week ago. We had tried then but no one had answered. We decided we would try to stop by again. A lady came to the door and she said, "Hello?...Oh, I'm an atheist!" We kept talking to her and she started to open up to us a bit more. She told us that she has only ever studied anti-god literature and she would like to learn more about the Christian side of things. We told her that is exactly what we do as missionaries, and we set up a time to come back by. #Miracles. I know God led us there in order to meet her!
So, we have to go on a lot of exchanges in this zone since there a lot of new missionaries. We went with the APs on Friday, and I got to go down to Rocklin. I got to travel from one side of the mission to the other to go with Elder Barney since Redding (where I am) and Rocklin are light years away from each other. We were trying to contact one of their investigators in an apartment complex but they weren't home. As we were walking back to the car we stopped and offered a lady some help by carrying her stuff inside her apartment. We helped her and talked to her a but about what we do as missionaries. She said that she hasn't found a church to go to yet. Too bad we didn't know of any churches in the area or we would have suggested some to her... hahaha, no we asked if we could come back to teach her about the LDS church and she said yes!
We had a Missionary Leadership Council meeting with President and Sister Marston on Thursday. Sister Marston spoke on a talk by Elder David A. Bednar called "The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality" from the April 2012 Ensign. She spoke on the enabling power of the Atonement, and how it gives us the means to do righteous things that we would not have had the power to do otherwise. Elder Bednar talks about Mosiah 3:19, when King Benjamin was speaking about the role of the Atonement. “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ The Lord." It goes along with a quote by President David O. McKay when he said, "The purpose of the gospel...is to make bad men good and good men better." The Atonement helps us to change from bad to good when we "put off the natural man," and it helps us become better in order to "(become) a saint." The Atonement really does help all of us if we allow it to. It isn't just for those who are trapped in sin with no way to get out. It is for all those who are seeking to become better people. I am so grateful for the Atonement and for it's enabling power.
We just got back from our P-day activity with the zone. We went back up to Mount Shasta City to go check some caves out, and they were pretty sweet! These caves were formed when lava went through the mountain, so it was cool to check out some of these lava tubes! We got to the back of the main section of the cave, and we saw a part that you could crawl through on your stomach to go into the lave tube even further. There were about 6 of us that decided we would try it. It was just big enough for you to squeeze through at some points, but it opened up a little bit at the end so that we could snap a picture! It was awesome!
Love you all! I hope you have a great week!
Elder Nielsen
So, we have to go on a lot of exchanges in this zone since there a lot of new missionaries. We went with the APs on Friday, and I got to go down to Rocklin. I got to travel from one side of the mission to the other to go with Elder Barney since Redding (where I am) and Rocklin are light years away from each other. We were trying to contact one of their investigators in an apartment complex but they weren't home. As we were walking back to the car we stopped and offered a lady some help by carrying her stuff inside her apartment. We helped her and talked to her a but about what we do as missionaries. She said that she hasn't found a church to go to yet. Too bad we didn't know of any churches in the area or we would have suggested some to her... hahaha, no we asked if we could come back to teach her about the LDS church and she said yes!
We had a Missionary Leadership Council meeting with President and Sister Marston on Thursday. Sister Marston spoke on a talk by Elder David A. Bednar called "The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality" from the April 2012 Ensign. She spoke on the enabling power of the Atonement, and how it gives us the means to do righteous things that we would not have had the power to do otherwise. Elder Bednar talks about Mosiah 3:19, when King Benjamin was speaking about the role of the Atonement. “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ The Lord." It goes along with a quote by President David O. McKay when he said, "The purpose of the gospel...is to make bad men good and good men better." The Atonement helps us to change from bad to good when we "put off the natural man," and it helps us become better in order to "(become) a saint." The Atonement really does help all of us if we allow it to. It isn't just for those who are trapped in sin with no way to get out. It is for all those who are seeking to become better people. I am so grateful for the Atonement and for it's enabling power.
We just got back from our P-day activity with the zone. We went back up to Mount Shasta City to go check some caves out, and they were pretty sweet! These caves were formed when lava went through the mountain, so it was cool to check out some of these lava tubes! We got to the back of the main section of the cave, and we saw a part that you could crawl through on your stomach to go into the lave tube even further. There were about 6 of us that decided we would try it. It was just big enough for you to squeeze through at some points, but it opened up a little bit at the end so that we could snap a picture! It was awesome!
Love you all! I hope you have a great week!
Elder Nielsen
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Sorry 'bout that
I apologize about sending this email out late. We had a crazy day for P-day yesterday. We planned to hike Black Butte Mountain as a zone. As we were nearly at the top one of the sister missionaries rolled her ankle pretty bad and was having a very hard time walking. We were able to give her a blessing right at the top of the mountain and help her back down. It took about 75-90 minutes to hike up, and about 3 hours to hike down. After the hike we went to a barbecue at a member's house as a zone since no one had eaten since that morning. That's my story for not sending the email until today.
So we had a week packed with service! It was a lot of fun, and it made it even better that I gave a talk on service on Sunday! I love serving people, and I hope I always have the mindset of helping others. I have learned that being selfish really isn't fun at all. We helped one of our investigators move a bunch of her stuff in and out of storage. She was very grateful, and what is really exciting is she has been progressing well recently. She came to church this last week and seemed to really enjoy it. We should be meeting with her again today.
We had a cool experience on Sunday after church. The program during the sacrament meeting was compiled of having the parents of missionaries who have left from this ward speak for 3-5 minutes. The topic they spoke on was how their son/daughter's is learning from their mission and experiences they have had. I really enjoyed being able to listen to the things that we said by these others missionaries all over the world. One of the missionaries said that he has been trying to rely on the Spirit a lot more by taking action if someone comes to his mind. That action usually takes the form of a phone call or a visit. As we left an appointment after church Sunday one of our investigators came to my mind. We decided we would go see him and try to follow the Spirit. He was having dinner at the time, but he told us that he actually wanted to talk to us about getting a Bible. It was really neat because the door is open for further Gospel conversation with him now! I love when days are filled with little miracles like those!
Elder Nielsen
So we had a week packed with service! It was a lot of fun, and it made it even better that I gave a talk on service on Sunday! I love serving people, and I hope I always have the mindset of helping others. I have learned that being selfish really isn't fun at all. We helped one of our investigators move a bunch of her stuff in and out of storage. She was very grateful, and what is really exciting is she has been progressing well recently. She came to church this last week and seemed to really enjoy it. We should be meeting with her again today.
We had a cool experience on Sunday after church. The program during the sacrament meeting was compiled of having the parents of missionaries who have left from this ward speak for 3-5 minutes. The topic they spoke on was how their son/daughter's is learning from their mission and experiences they have had. I really enjoyed being able to listen to the things that we said by these others missionaries all over the world. One of the missionaries said that he has been trying to rely on the Spirit a lot more by taking action if someone comes to his mind. That action usually takes the form of a phone call or a visit. As we left an appointment after church Sunday one of our investigators came to my mind. We decided we would go see him and try to follow the Spirit. He was having dinner at the time, but he told us that he actually wanted to talk to us about getting a Bible. It was really neat because the door is open for further Gospel conversation with him now! I love when days are filled with little miracles like those!
Elder Nielsen
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