Hey everyone!
This week was an awesome one. We had a lesson with Richie this past week and we taught him the Restoration. He was very receptive to it all, and he has even read some of the book of Mormon before. We talked to him about baptism, and he said that he would like to be baptized on January 31! He is such a Christlike guy and he is always looking to help others out. I really hope that we can help him to grow closer to Jesus Christ.
So it was Christmas this past week, and it was great! We were able to spend some time on Christmas eve over at President Marston's house, and then we were able to have breakfast there as well! It was an awesome experience spending time with their family, and it made me miss mine a bit! Their grandkids were over, and they got so excited when they opened new presents. It was the coolest thing to watch.
I am reading through Jesus the Christ right now, and I am loving it. I'm really trying to study very deeply in order to learn as much as I can. I only started a couple days ago, and I have loved what I've learned so far.
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year!
Elder Nielsen
Monday, December 29, 2014
Monday, December 22, 2014
Busy holiday season in Rocklin
Just a heads up, this won't be a long email. We had a busy week with transfers, so we weren't able to do as much proselyting this week. We helped out with Christmas devotionals across the mission on Thursday and Friday too, so that made us even busier.
We had a cool experience visiting one of the less active members in our ward. Her brother has investigated the church in the past, so we were going over there to see if they were willing to take the missionary lessons. They both accepted invitation and we were able to set up times to go back over. We started talking about her boyfriend, and she said that he would probably like to take the missionary lessons as well. We are very excited!
It is crazy how fast Christmas game this year. Pretty soon 2014 is going to be over, and it will be a whole new year! I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!
Elder Nielsen
P.S. Here is a couple of our Christmas pictures.
We had a cool experience visiting one of the less active members in our ward. Her brother has investigated the church in the past, so we were going over there to see if they were willing to take the missionary lessons. They both accepted invitation and we were able to set up times to go back over. We started talking about her boyfriend, and she said that he would probably like to take the missionary lessons as well. We are very excited!
It is crazy how fast Christmas game this year. Pretty soon 2014 is going to be over, and it will be a whole new year! I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!
Elder Nielsen
P.S. Here is a couple of our Christmas pictures.
Monday, December 8, 2014
Real talk
Hey everybody!
We had the director of proselyting from the whole church come out with us this past week. His name is Brother Hemingway. It was pretty intimidating! He came out with us last Tuesday, and we were with him in the evening for about five hours. He took us out to dinner, and it was actually pretty funny experience. He asked us where we wanted to go eat, but he gave us a condition that it couldn't be fast food and it couldn't break the bank. I had heard my companion mention Cattlemen's earlier in the day. I turned to him and asked if he wanted to go there? He said sure, so we ended up going there. Once we looked at the menu we figured out it wasn't the cheapest place to eat. Brother Hemingway just laughed about it and told us to get whatever we wanted. We went throughout the rest of the night after eating a really good dinner. We went to the lessons that we had scheduled, and then we went back to our apartment to plan for the next day. After planning, Brother Hemingway told us the things we are doing well on and then gave us a few suggestions on what to improve on. Overall, it was a very cool experience!
We were able to go walk around on the college campus for a little bit this past week. We were trying to hand out the "He is the Gift" pass-along cards. We really didn't talk to a lot of people but a couple of them said they would be interested in learning more! It was pretty cool. I still don't have the best ability to talk to people, but I'm not as scared to do it anymore. It is fun!
We had a really good lesson with one of our most solid investigators this past week. She is so close to taking the step for baptism, but there have just been a few things holding her back. She brought up her main concern with us in this lesson, so now we can really teach to her needs a lot more!
Love you all! Sometimes the Lord brings the slow so that he can lift us higher. He has a plan for you to be the best you can be. Remember that!
Elder Nielsen
We had the director of proselyting from the whole church come out with us this past week. His name is Brother Hemingway. It was pretty intimidating! He came out with us last Tuesday, and we were with him in the evening for about five hours. He took us out to dinner, and it was actually pretty funny experience. He asked us where we wanted to go eat, but he gave us a condition that it couldn't be fast food and it couldn't break the bank. I had heard my companion mention Cattlemen's earlier in the day. I turned to him and asked if he wanted to go there? He said sure, so we ended up going there. Once we looked at the menu we figured out it wasn't the cheapest place to eat. Brother Hemingway just laughed about it and told us to get whatever we wanted. We went throughout the rest of the night after eating a really good dinner. We went to the lessons that we had scheduled, and then we went back to our apartment to plan for the next day. After planning, Brother Hemingway told us the things we are doing well on and then gave us a few suggestions on what to improve on. Overall, it was a very cool experience!
We were able to go walk around on the college campus for a little bit this past week. We were trying to hand out the "He is the Gift" pass-along cards. We really didn't talk to a lot of people but a couple of them said they would be interested in learning more! It was pretty cool. I still don't have the best ability to talk to people, but I'm not as scared to do it anymore. It is fun!
We had a really good lesson with one of our most solid investigators this past week. She is so close to taking the step for baptism, but there have just been a few things holding her back. She brought up her main concern with us in this lesson, so now we can really teach to her needs a lot more!
Love you all! Sometimes the Lord brings the slow so that he can lift us higher. He has a plan for you to be the best you can be. Remember that!
Elder Nielsen
Monday, December 1, 2014
Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree!
Holy cow. December is already here. Goodbye 2014! This year went by so quickly!
We had a lot of various stuff happen this week. We live with the Rocklin 5th ward Elders, and someone in their ward called to see if they could help them move...in the rain. We went to help them, and I enjoyed it! Man, I have missed the rain. I'm glad it is rainy season now here in Northern California!
We had our final zone conference in Redding this past week. It was cool to see a bunch of the missionaries I served around.
We have an investigator named Dani who is so close to baptism. She is very fickle with her decision to investigate the church. We had a lesson with her this past week. We were helping her recognize the answer of her praying to know if this is the true church. We had a kneeling prayer in the middle of the lesson, and she asked Heavenly Father if she should be baptized. She said she felt good when she prayed, and that God would then tell her when to be baptized. We were excited for her. Unfortunately, she texted a couple days later and said she didn't want to take the lessons anymore. Aah! She really enjoys church and she knows it is true, so hopefully she will come back around soon.
We got to go to the temple this past week, and it was awesome. I really enjoyed the session, and it helped to wipe away the stress for a little bit. I love the temple and the Spirit I feel there! I am going to try to hold myself to going at regular intervals once I get home. After the temple session we were walking the grounds for a bit. We saw some people take wedding pictures, and the photographer happened to be one of sisters from my ward in Roseville! It was awesome to see her, cause she was part of one of my favorite families there.
I got the flu this past week, but I am bouncing back! Elder Gessell, one of the missionaries living in my apartment, took care of me the other night. He was giving me all the medicine I needed and telling me what I needed to do to get better. I'll put a picture of Elder Gessel and me in the email.
I love being a missionary. It has it's hard times, but I love it overall. I feel like I don't measure up to expectations a lot, but I just focus on the positives and it helps a lot. Satan has gotten me to think negatively about myself and I am trying to stop for good. It isn't very fun! I have gotten a lot of comfort from Moses 1:6-16. God calls Moses "my son" and then Satan calls Moses "son of man." Satan tries to make us forgot our divine heritage, and by doing so he influences us to act lower than our standards. I know I have my Father in Heaven in my side, so if I have an eternal perspective what do I have to worry about?
Love you all very much! Have a fantastic week!
Elder Nielsen
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