Mission Accomplished.

The Gospel is truer than true.

1 Timothy 3:14

California

Hey everybody.

I suddenly woke up wide awake at 5:30 this morning and I couldn't go back to bed. As I was laying there I realized how much I am going to miss my mission. These are amazing people. I love Northern California. A large piece of my heart has been planted here, and it is never going to leave. I never thought I would come to love a place so deeply as home, but this place feels like my 2nd home. I love it here.

We met with a man named James this past week. He is a super cool guy. We sat down with him in his home and began to talk to him about some of his beliefs. He doesn't have quite the same beliefs in God that we do, so we were able to talk to him about Heavenly Father and His divine characteristics. We talked to him for quite some time and as we were getting ready to leave he said, "Man, I just feel so good. I am glad you guys came over. Let's do this again." It was an awesome thing to hear.

We taught the Starks for Family Home Evening last Monday night. Man, I love those guys. I feel so welcome and at home with them in their house. They are just such good people. They have a young son named Nikai, and he has a tendency to doze off a little when we teach (we must be boring). Sister Starks was able to snap a picture right as he fell asleep on my arm.

This will be one of my last emails home. I will be able to email next week, but only for a moment. I have loved my mission, and this last week will be great. I love the gospel and how it has changed my life. I know it is true. I know Jesus Christ is my Savior. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's restored church on the earth.

I love you all and I hope you have an awesome week!

Elder "California Kid" Nielsen

California Dreamin'

{Picture a flag icon here that wouldn't show up in Blogger} Happy Memorial Day!

Why, hello!

We did service for Brother L'Heureux's neighbor, Steve, on Tuesday and Thursday. He is a really nice guy. He is the caretaker for his uncle, so he is stuck at home all the time. We dug up a tree for him, transplanted another tree from a pot into the ground, and transplanted a huge artichoke plant too. It was a lot of fun! Elder Moseley and I love doing service for the people here, and people's hearts are definitely being softened. Steve talked to Brother L'Heureux and said he really liked spending time with us, so the door is opening for him to accept the gospel! Steve has a really good heart, so I hope things go well for him.

Ridiculous experience: After the intense service with Steve we came back to our apartment to shower and get changed into our proselyting clothes so we could go give a blessing to a sister missionary with Elder Biggas and Elder Zaugg. I had just gotten out of the shower and was in the middle of shaving when I hear our phone start ringing. I quickly ran out to the main room where the phone is while wearing just a towel around my waist, having half shaven face, and shaving cream plastered over the other side of my face. I pick up the phone and begin talking to a woman named Alisha (shoutout to my sister, Alisha, back home). As I am talking to her, Elder Zaugg and Elder Biggs walk in our front door and see me standing there in just a towel, with shaving cream on half my face, while talking on the phone. They begin their hoots and hollering of laughter, so I have to go into the other room so I can talk to Alisha without laughing myself. Alisha ends up telling me she had been studying with the missionaries a few years ago and she wants to begin learning about our church again and consider baptism. This was a pleasant surprise to me! She ended up living in Elder Zaugg and Biggs's boundaries, so I told them about it right after I got off the phone. We were running a little late so I tried to hurry my shaving and I ended up slicing myself a little bit, so I got to hold a tissue on my face for the next hour or so as we gave the sister missionary a blessing. All in all it was a very unique experience!

One of our ward missionaries is the man. His name is Brother Leach, and he is just a few years older than me. He has been bringing his friend, Tina, to church the last couple weeks. Tina has been a member of the Jehovah's Witness church her entire life. She has really been enjoying coming to church and learning more about what we believe. She asked us if she could take the missionary lessons, and, of course, we said yes! She turns out to live outside our ward boundaries which not only ends up being in another stake, but it is also an entirely different mission! Luckily she lives in the ward that goes to the same church as us, so we were able to introduce her to the missionaries right there at church. I am very excited for her because she has a lot of real intent!

The Sacramento mission recently just had a huge emergency transfer as well. Apparently about 26 companionships were affected by it, so it was pretty massive. Elder Afoa, one of the missionaries who served in the other ward in our building, got transferred to Carmichael. We got to meet the other missionary who just got transferred her yesterday. His name is Elder Torgesen, and he is from Soda Springs, ID. I found out he goes home just a week after I do, so we got to talking a little bit and found out we had a bit in common. We both came on a mission right after we graduated from high school in 2013. We are also both starting college at BYU for the Fall 2015 semester, so maybe we'll be able to hang out a bit after the mission. It was pretty cool to talk to him for a second.

We got a new ward mission leader this past week. Our last one was just released for health reasons, and another was called right away. Brother Walters is the name of the new one. We met with him on Saturday to talk about his calling a bit and how we can work together. He said he has never been in a calling like this before. It turns out to be pretty convenient because we can work with him and help him to be the best ward mission leader ever! We are excited to work with him.

I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting on Sunday, and it went pretty well! I tried to put a lot of preparation into it, so I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. I spoke on "Being BOLD in Preaching the Gospel." It was a good topic with good timing since we are working on motivating the members to share the gospel. The Stake Patriarch followed after me and gave a talk on missionary work as well, so we kind of blasted the ward with how we need to do mission work. This was actually my 2nd talk in a month, so I guess they just wanted to hear my voice more or something.

We started teaching a man named Antonio this past week. He was born in Brazil and moved to America a number of years ago. He is an older guy, and he is incredibly kind. He told us how he is going through a hard trial right now and he feels the message we have to share will bring him hope. We visited him Sunday night and he said he has been reading from the Book of Mormon. He said he will continue to read and pray about it too! I am excited for how the gospel is going to bring comfort back into his life.

We saw a cat with a mustache this past week.

It's a great day to be alive. Live well, my friends!

Elder Nielsen

The California Kid

Trudging through mud and digging up palms

Hello everybody.

We had zone conference this past week in Citrus Heights and it was super awesome. I gave my departing testimony and it was pretty weird. Honestly, it was harder to give than I thought it would be. My mission has really changed what things I really appreciate in my life. I love my mission so much. Love my family especially. You guys are the best.

We did a service project for an elementary school this past week. There were a bunch of ward members involved too, which was awesome. We cleaned up a couple walkways running from the surrounding neighborhood to the school playground, and they were pretty messy. We were able to dig up a couple little palm trees which were crazy tough to get out. I enjoyed it a lot. I have really enjoyed being able to do some service in this area. We talked to the principal of the school for a couple minutes and he seemed pretty impressed with the idea of us coming out on missions for 2 years.

We are still trying to find new people to teach right now. It feels a little like we are trudging through mud. But hey, at least we haven't stopped! We are praying and trying to find those who are truly ready to receive the gospel.

Love you guys. Hope you have a great week!

Elder Nielsen

Happy Mother's Day!

Hello everyone!

We have still been trying to work with the members a lot. It went pretty well this past week, but we are wanting to step it up. The members seem to be a little bit more excited about missionary work, and we are developing good relationships with them. They seem more willing to have us over and to let us help them out with stuff. I really hope this has a lasting effect on the ward. It would just be awesome if the missionary spirit just exploded here. This is a very good ward, and I love them a lot. The Elder's Quorum President in the ward is awesome. He is a shoe cobbler and he said he is making me some moccasins. It is really nice of him, and I am pretty pumped for the moccasins! There are a lot of other awesome members here too. It seems like the members are opening up to the missionaries more and more, so hopefully it keeps on going!

Some members in our ward had a grandson receive his mission call this past week. He is called to serve in the Argentina Bahia Blanca mission, which happens to be the same mission as my friend, Elder Ethan Durocher! I am banking on the chance that Elder Durocher trains him. I am excited for him, and it was cool to be at a mission call opening on my mission and feel that same feeling which I felt when I opened my call. The mission is the most influential and powerful thing ever. It has changed my life, and hopefully I have been able to help others change theirs.

It was so good to be able to talk with my family. Definitely a very sweet experience. Alisha freaked me out by showing me a ring on her finger and I totally thought she was engaged. I freaked out for a minute until she told me it was a joke. Erika had stuck a pillow under her shirt too so it looked like she was pregnant. My family is tricky. Love those guys a ton. #Familiesare🔗. (The paperclip emoji is the closest thing I could find to an infinity symbol).

We helped Sister Davis out with her seminary class on Friday. Most of the missionaries in our zone were there, and we were able to talk a bit about our missions and what they have meant to us. I shared an experience of when Elder Duce and I met James in Red Bluff and how he was able to quit smoking and be baptized. It was cool to see the Juniors get more excited about going on missions. One girl spoke up and said she really appreciates all of us for serving missions. She
mentioned how not everybody appreciates the missionaries but how she does. She said, "I just wanted to say thank you for those who don't." It was very kind of her.

We were able to do a bit of service this past week as well. We did a bunch of weeding and raking! I am learning how to tend a garden a lot better.

That was a big part of what happened this week. It was a good one. On to another! Love you guys a ton!

Elder Ethan "Monkey Wrench" Nielsen

May is for missionary work

This past week we did the "Stop Smoking" program for Brother Curry. We stayed in contact with him throughout the week and he did awesome! He followed all of the steps and he says he is done with smoking. He says he has no desire to start smoking again. This really is a miracle in his life because he has been smoking fairly consistently for about 15 years now. I am grateful for the chance I had to be a part of it and to see God's hand in Brother Curry's life.

We have been focusing on trying to get the members more excited to do missionary work, and it has worked out pretty well already! We had dinner with our bishop last night and his wife told us that the members are noticing something special about Elder Moseley and me working together. We are trying to be in contact with members as much as we can so they are thinking about missionary work more. Over the past couple days we have been able to teach a number of members in their homes. It is really working, and he members are definitely getting more excited here.

Things are picking up, and it is looking good. I love you all, and I hope you have an awesome week!

Elder Nielsen

Cigarettes, dirt, and cake.

This week was pretty awesome. We were able to have a lesson with one of our investigators. His name is Elijah, he is 23, and he is black. He is super tight and very sincere about wanting to study the gospel. We had a lesson with him this past week and he said he wants to be baptized asap. He came to church this past week and really enjoyed it. We are planning on meeting with him again soon.

We were able to do a ton of service on Saturday, and it wore me out. It was great though. Never can beat some good ole' service! We shoveled about a shmillion tons of dirt and had to chop up a bunch of roots from a tree so we could level the ground. It was exhausting! I love service.

We are helping one of the members of our ward do a stop smoking program. Apparently it helps you quit in a week, so I'll be able to tell you that it was successful next week! Apparently it has been very effective with other people, so I'm super excited to help this person out. His name is Mike, and he is one of my favorite members of the ward. He is less active, and he is told us that his cigarettes are a big obstacle to his activity. Hopefully this is able to help him out a lot!

We had lunch with our whole zone this past week, and we had cake available too. Elder Zaugg and I thought it would be fun to shove the cake in each others faces, so we did. Oh, the life of a missionary!

Love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Nielsen

So much.

Oh my goodness. This past week was jam packed. Here goes nothing!

So, basically this last transfer was one of the best I have ever had in my mission. We were able to get the work rolling more, get the members a bit more excited, and the zone I am in is just freaking amazing. All of the missionaries in my zone are awesome. I grew so close to them, and we all became like family. That is really never happened with any other of my zones, but it did with this one. There are only 13 of us. This allowed us to get to know each other a lot and support and strengthen each other. A few people in our zone are getting transferred, so I am sad about that. My own companion got transferred. It is sad to see Elder Inman go. I am looking forward to this next transfer though. I am going to make it a good one.

Elder Ewell, one of my favorite missionaries, finished his mission his past week. It was so cool, because I got to see him and Elder Benedict before Elder Ewell left. They had to drive a long way from up north so Elder Ewell could make his flight in the morning. They stayed with us Thursday night, so we were able to catch up a bit. Man, I love those guys.

So one of the biggest events of the week was Elder Inman and me getting sick. We woke up on Friday morning and started puking up everything we had. All I can say is it didn't feel amazing. We were pretty much bedridden for the rest of that day. Elders Zaugg, Biggs, Dunn, and Dresden came over and gave us blessings though. I'm so grateful for the priesthood. So that describes Friday. We were sick at home all day.

Saturday we did a blitz in the Antelope 1st area. We knocked on quite a few doors. We did end up getting into a seventh-day Adventists home. She was very nice, and we had a very nice visit with her. We left her the Book of Mormon. She said she would check it out. She also gave us one of her books that she reads from. It is like a biker's guide to Jesus. Like a motorcycle biker. Looked pretty interesting! I started feeling a little bit sick again. It was really weird because my neck and upper back started getting really stiff too. I was talking to another missionary and they said it could be meningitis. We went back to the apartment and I called our mission nurse. After making a few calls she figured it would be best if I went to the emergency room. So we went there at about 9:30 at night. We walked into the ER and everybody's heads turned to look at us. It looked straight out of an episode of "House" or something like that. Everybody was just staring at us with blank faces. Kind of freaked me out a little bit. I got my blood drawn, had to wait a couple hours, and then we found out I was totally fine. We celebrated that we could finally go home. We got back to our apartment around 1 AM on Sunday. It was a really weird night.

Love you all.

Elder Nielsen

The Antelope Zone, wearing the amazing shirts the sisters made for them.

Smelling the roses in the Roseville mission

This was an interesting week. There was a lot of up and downs, but everything is good. This upcoming week is the last week of the transfer, so I hope it goes great!

We had a couple lessons with Bridget this week, and they all went pretty well. We gave her a tour of the church, and we talked to her about coming to know if the Book of Mormon and the LDS church is true. At that point, she told us that about a month ago she had a dream that an angel came to her and told her "You need to find out what is true and what is false." She had that dream right before she met us, and we pointed that out to her. She seemed to understand the importance of finding out for herself, and she said she would pray to find out.

We had an awesome visit with an investigator whose first language is Russian. She speaks very good English, but there are some things that we aren't able to communicate very well. We went over to her home with a ward missionary name Brother Sprague, who is a champ. He is 89 years old and has some difficulty getting around but still wants to come out with us. He is an awesome example to me. So we taught Raeisa, our investigator, about the Book of Mormon. We bore testimony and promised that it would help her grow closer to God, and she said that is what she needs. She said she would read the Book of Mormon. I'm so glad we met her. She is such a sweet lady, and I enjoy meeting with her a lot!

We were visiting a less active member yesterday, and she was very nice. It wasn't a good time to see her right then so we set up another time to come back this week. As we were leaving she said, "you guys need something nice." She ran inside the house, grabbed a pair of scissors, came back out, and cut a rose off her rose bush for each of us. You know it is a great day when you get a rose in the California Roseville Mission!

Peace and blessings upon you all.

Elder Nielsen

Hanging out at the church on p-day

Week of Spiritualness

Hello everyone!

This weekend has been very special. It was awesome that he had the opportunity to hear from the Prophet and the Apostles this weekend. I love listening to General conference, and this one was great! I especially liked the talks that spoke on the importance and value of the family. 

We had a very cool opportunity today to go to the temple as a mission. It was even more special experience because it happened on April 6, which happens to be the day the LDS Church was formed, and more importantly, the actual day of Christ's birth. I felt the Spirit very strong in the temple, and it was so awesome

We had an awesome experience with one of our investigator's this past week. We stopped by last night, and she said she really want to know all about the church. She says she feels it is true all ready, and she just wants to learn more about it.

I love you all. I know this gospel is true.

Elder Nielsen

Sab qaum teb Highlands

Happy Easter Week, everyone!

I will explain the subject line. Don't you worry.

Good things happened this week. We are working hard and the work is definitely progressing! I am glad I am serving here in North Highlands. It is an awesome place, and it is where I am supposed to be at this point in my mission.

We finally got our bikes this past week, so we aren't walking anymore. We have been able to get around a lot quicker now, so it has been great!

We found a new person to teach this past week, and she is awesome! Her name is Rachel. We met her when we were trying to visit some of our investigators. Elder Inman and I don't know them very well so we wanted to get to know them more. While we were there on the porch Rachel came out and started talking to us. She talked about some of the things that have happened in her life and explained that she wants to start going back to church. She said she was planning on coming to our Church on Sunday, so we offered to give her a tour of the church before she came. She accepted and we gave her the tour on Saturday night. She came on Sunday with her two young boys and she seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately, her boys got a little rowdy so she took off early. We visited with her yesterday and she said it was nice. We are meeting with her again tonight in a members home, so I hope things continue to go well!

I also wanted to explain something cool about our area. There are a lot of Hmong people who don't speak any English in our area. We have one Hmong Elder down in this part of our mission, and luckily he's in our zone! He has been teaching us a little bit of Hmong so we can train talk to some of the people that don't speak any English. I've picked up on a little bit of it, but it is pretty difficult! The pronunciation of the words is very technical, and there are differences in pronunciations for different words that I don't even hear yet. It is fun though! We kind of stumbled our way through street contacting a Hmong person the other day, and they accepted a Book of Mormon! Definitely a cool experience. That explains the subject line - it means "North Highlands" in Hmong.

I am super pumped for general conference this week. I always look forward to hearing the talks from certain apostles (Christofferson, Bednar, Holland), and then there are always awesome talks from members of the Seventy. We are probably going to watch a few of the sessions in our stake center, which is huge! It has two chapels in one building. Going to be pretty sweet. The church really should rent a movie theater for general conference and sell popcorn, but only on the Saturday sessions. That would be super cool.

I love you all. I hope you have a great week!

Elder Nielsen

North Highlands

{Elder Nielsen didn't sent a group e-mail last week, so let me catch you up before you read this week's update. When he was asked to be an AP, his mission president asked him whether he wanted to finish his mission as an AP, or go back out "into the field" and focus on missionary work again. He said he wanted to serve the last two transfers (12 weeks) of his mission in another area. Last week he was transferred to North Highlands, and his new companion is Elder Inman from Lehi.}

Hello!

There are so many things that occurred this past week that I really don't know where to begin.

North Highlands is definitely one of the most unique places that I have served on my mission. My area is arguably the most southern area in the mission. The border of my ward is also the border between my mission and the California Sacramento Mission. My ward building is about 50 feet from being outside the mission, and the church I go to is where some Sacramento missionaries also go to church. I got to meet some of them this past week, and it was really weird! I have only seen Roseville missionaries for a long time, so it was weird to meet missionaries currently serving from a different mission.

I don't feel like I can do this past week justice in an email, but I will do my best! Our area is actually one of the smallest areas in the mission, so we have just been walking around everywhere. We probably walked about 25-30 miles this past week, but it seems like a lot more! We have had the chance to talk to about 3 million people so far, so that has been awesome! We had a couple neat experiences come from it so far. We talked to a man named Samuel last Wednesday. He is a man in his 80s, and he was standing out on his driveway when we began to talk to him. We got into a conversation with him and found out that his wife of about 60 years passed away about 2 years ago. He began to cry as he told us that he missed her, and it tugged at my heart strings a little bit. We talked to him about how he could live for eternity with his wife. He seemed very receptive to the message. We gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and he said he would love to read over it. It was an awesome experience.

There were a number of funny experiences that we had while walking around too. We were walking home on Saturday night after having tried to contact a referral. As we were walking we saw a lady in her 30s biking the opposite way of us down the street. As we were on the sidewalk she started biking towards us, and we began to wonder what in the world was going to happen. As she got very close she leaned over on her seat and barked "Woof!" right in my face! I walked away more than a little confused at what had just happened. There was another funny experience that we had just yesterday. We were walking towards dinner and we walked right by another lady. As she passed us she looked at Elder Inman and blew him a big kiss! It was very dramatic, which made it hilarious!

I have also decided I need to learn Russian very quickly! There is an apartment complex in our area that we were proselytizing in the other day, and the amount of people of Russian descent that lived in that complex was insane. Literally about 50-60% of the people in the complex seem to be from Russia or the surrounding countries. We tried talking to some of them, but some only spoke very broken English. However, we did talk to one lady named Raeisa who spoke fairly good English. She said missionaries had come over in the past and she always felt good when they were there. She said we could come back another time too! Luckily we have a lady who spoke Russian on her mission, so we might be using her quite a bit for this particular apartment complex!

I am so grateful for the power of the Gospel to change lives. If we focus on trying to live like the Savior then our lives will be changed for the better.

Overall, this will likely end up being the most eventful area of my mission. It will definitely keep things exciting.

I love you all, and I hope you have a fantastic week!

Elder Nielsen

Rocklin & Rollin'

Hey everybody!

This past week was pretty good. I went on exchange with Elder Gillies and we set a goal to find 2 new investigators. We were trying to go all over the place to find people to teach, but we couldn't talk to any one that wanted to talk to us. We decided we would walk towards the college campus and try and talk to people. We started talking to a guy named Micah (Shoutout to Elder Moore!), so I told him one of my best friends back home is named Micah. We talked to him for about 10 minutes and he said he has really been trying to develop his relationship with God. He seemed so sincere; we gave him a Book of Mormon and promised it would help him develop his relationship with God and he said he would read it! It was such an awesome experience.

We have an all-mission conference tomorrow with Elder Nielson of the Seventy to talk about using technology in a righteous way. I am very excited to see everyone in the mission!

I love you guys and hope you have a great week.

Elder Nielsen

Rock City

This week was very busy with Zone Conferences across the mission. They were pretty enjoyable, but they seemed to get pretty long near the end of the week. We had a meeting from about 8:30-5 for each of Tuesday-Friday, and I thought I was starting to develop "Restless leg" syndrome! The Tuesday meeting was in Anderson, Wednesday in Yuba City, Thursday in Lincoln, and Friday in Antelope. One of the main topics of the meeting was conversion. President Marston had asked everyone to prepare a 5-minute talk on how they had become converted on their mission, and I had the chance to be one of the people to give talks. It was a neat experience to hear the experiences of all the different missionaries and to piece them all together.

I love talking to people on the street, and just wherever they are! This was the thing I disliked most at the beginning of my mission, and I know I enjoy it so much. Yesterday we were having a lesson with a recent convert on the college campus, and we started talking to this guy named Tanner as we were walking out. He said he has never gone to church much but he wanted to check out Mormon.org from the card we gave to him. It is so cool to just do a little bit here and there especially if we aren't able to start teaching someone right away. He said he hadn't heard much about the church other than the musical about the Book of Mormon, so now he gets to learn actual stuff!

We also talked to a guy last night as we went to visit a less-active. He was looking at his car a few parking spots down from us, so we walked up and started talking to him. He has a bunch of LDS friends, and he told us he is searching for truth on his own right now. We shared Moroni 10:4-5, and talked to him about how we can come to know truth through study and prayer. He said he would check it out and add us on Facebook so we can keep in contact with him! He told us he likes doing a bunch of stuff, like slack lining, so we are going to do it with him sometime!

At zone conference, we also had the chance to hear departing testimonies from the missionaries who going home in the next 2 transfers. I love hearing the testimonies of the missionaries who have been through a mission worth of successes and failures. I have even come to enjoy hearing the testimonies of those departing more and more as my mission has grown shorter on the tail end. One of the Elders that bore testimony really touched me a lot. This particular missionary is a very smart guy. He has also had his fair share of trials on his mission. He shared how he has battled with depression and insomnia, so he spends most of his time in the night by himself. He said he has felt very alone at times, and the only comfort he could receive was from the Atonement. His general message was this:

"Sometimes the Atonement only assists us by causing us to know we are not alone in comprehending our suffering since we know Christ knows exactly how we feel. When we pray to our Heavenly Father, if our plea for the removal of our trials is a "not now...not yet." then Christ, because of his Atonement, is still able to comfort us with companionship. As we are in the midst of sorrow or affliction he puts his arm around our shoulders and comfortingly says 'I know...I know.' Sometimes this companionship is the strongest thing we could receive, and it is, in the end, really all we do need." In the words of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "...because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so." I know Christ is here to help is in times of trial and to help us become better through those times.

To finish the week off right I had the opportunity to go to the temple to witness the sealing of this couple, Bob and Lois. I had taught them while I was in my first area, Citrus Heights, and they are the nicest couple ever. The missionary I am with is Elder Zaugg, and he is the one that replaced me in Citrus Heights. It was such an awesome experience to be at the temple with Bob and Lois. I am so grateful I had the chance to work with them, and I am so happy they are now sealed together for eternity. They have so much love for each other, and they are so sweet.

I hope you all have a stupendous week!

Elder Nielsen

The busy life of an AP

Elder Nielsen was a little late getting his group message sent; they have zone conferences all week and he's been super busy. He did send a short message today and he sent a picture on Monday of the slack lining they've been doing on p-day:

This past week was a good one. We went on 3 different exchanges, and one of the ones that I went on was with an Elder Nelson. That was pretty confusing for people that we talked to! We were able to get a lot of good stuff done. I also went with Elder Duce on Saturday, and we worked very diligently. It was awesome to be back together with him again. Elder Duce has definitely been one of my favorite companions. It will be kind of lame when we can't see each other often since he will be going back up to Canada. I tried convincing him to move down to the US, but he said he is sticking to the land northward.

Happy Presidential day!

Hello everyone!

This week was kind of a slow one. We had to do exchanges, but they were kind of different this time. Since this transfer was so busy with stuff we just did two exchanges in one day, so we ended up leaving our area completely for two whole days. We weren't able to see quite as many people because of it, but it turned out ok. I was able to go to two of the zones that I served in at the beginning of my mission, so that was awesome!

Richie is struggling with his situation right now, so we fasted as a zone for him this past Sunday. We are really hoping things turn around for him. He knows the Book of Mormon is true, but his family will not allow him to join the church. They threatened to disown him, so it is really tough for him right now. We are hoping and praying for a miracle!

We had a cool experience contacting a guy who was working on his car while I was on exchanges in Roseville. We walked up to him and talked to him for a bit, and we were able to teach him about how the gospel has been restored to the earth by a living prophet in our day. One of the missionaries I was with recounted the first vision, and I could feel the spirit so strong. I love being able to just talk to random people about the gospel.

So one of the exchanges we went on was with the Elders in our zone, and the missionaries we live with went on exchanges the same time with another companionship. We pulled out the cotton "snowballs" mom had sent me, and we went crazy with them. Here is a little video
portraying the events of that fateful night.

Love you guys!

Elder Nielsen

Happy Birthday Erika!

Hey everybody!

So this was a pretty awesome week. Cindy, Meredith, and Teresa all came to church today. It was super cool. We had a lesson with Cindy on Saturday. We talked to her about the Restoration, and she said she believes it already. She feels like she could never really belong to a church, and she also mentioned how she has always wanted to get baptized but has never done it. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted a date for February 28th! She seems pretty excited for it, so I hope she continues to take steps of faith towards the waters of baptism.

We got kind of bummer news from Richie. He told us he knows the Book of Mormon is true and he knows the LDS church is true, but his entire family has threatened to disown him if he joins the church. He said it is an incredibly difficult situation for him. He told us he has to do some soul searching to figure out what he is supposed to do. It was so tough to hear that from him because has been doing so well, and his faith has been growing so much. We are trying to think of ways to soften his family's heart because that is the main issue at this point.

We moved all of the bunk beads in our apartment into the same room, so now all 4 of us elders are in there. It is a ton of fun because they are all cool Elders. We have PVC pipes that have been used for nerf wars, so we have been having a ton of wars at night.

We slack lined with a bunch of people from the zone today, and it was so awesome! It was so much fun with everybody trying it out and just hanging out. We have a ton of really cool people in our zone that I have known from other times in the mission, so I am pretty happy about it!

I love you all, and I hope you have a fantastic week!

Elder Nielsen

P.S. Happy Birthday Erika! Love you tons. Hope it is a great day for you.

The little things.

This was an awesome week. There were some struggles, but they're all working out. We had another zone blitz this past Thursday. That is where all of the missionaries in our zone go work in one area for the day. It was pretty awesome, and we were able to see some good things. We ended up knocking on doors for about 4 1/2 hours, and that was pretty fun. We had a cool experience knocking on this one lady's door. She started talking to us and she told us she was from Italy; I liked her instantly from that moment. She told us some of the struggles that she's going through. We have offered to share our message with her and we promised that it would bless her life. She said her husband wouldn't be willing to let us come over. We talked to her for a little while and said a prayer with her on her doorstep. She was really touched, and as we walked away she just kept saying goodbye on the doorstep. It was awesome to see how the little things we do can bless others lives.

I also went on exchanges in Auburn this past week. We weren't able to see tons of people during the day because we were helping out with service in the morning and afternoon, but we were able to see some people in the evening. The last people we ended up seeing were very friendly. They told us some of the family struggles that they are going through right now, and we were able to share a message that applied to them. The mother was crying and you could definitely tell that they felt the spirit. They thanked us for coming over, and we headed back home. It was an awesome experience. I am grateful for the simple little experiences that I have had that have helped me to more fully appreciate my mission. I know God has a plan for each of us, and he is working in our lives every single day.

I love you all very much, and I hope you have an awesome week!

Elder Nielsen

Week 6 of 7

So this is our really long transfer of 7 weeks. This is week 6, so it is kind of weird!

We are seeing a lot of progress with a couple of our investigators this past week. Teresa says she is a lot more confident that she is going to be baptized soon. She is currently just praying to know when she should be baptized.

We had a really funny dinner last night. We are eating with the family, and the table we were at was large and full of people! They had a microfiber tablecloth, so whenever liquid spilled on it it would just bead up instead of soak into the tablecloth. It turns out that I knocked over my glass, and the water ran in between all of the plates on the table and landed in the lap of the girl across from me! It was so hilarious and terrible at the same time. That kind of thing would never happen again if I were to try 1,000 times.

I found a really great quote a bit ago. President Boyd K. Packer said "The Atonement has practical, personal, everyday value; apply it in your life. It can be activated with so simple a beginning  as prayer." I love that because it shows how infinite the Atonement really is. The Atonement is meant for the mountains that we cannot overcome completely without Christ, and it is also for the everyday things that stretch us just a tiny bit further then our comfort zone. I am trying to remember that the Atonement isn't just for the end of the day accounting before Heavenly Father where I ask for forgiveness for wrongdoings, but it can be used throughout the day to strengthen me as well.

I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

Elder Nielsen

Elder Nielsen got a haircut today.

20 means maturity...

Hey everybody!

This last week was awesome. Richie, one of our investigators, came to church this past week. He is such an awesome guy. He set up an activity for the ward to go on a hike, and tons of people are planning on going! It sounds like he is getting a lot of good fellowship, and he is already helping out with the ward! He is planning on being baptized on January 31st and he announced it during Elder's Quorom on Sunday. I am so glad we have the opportunity to work with him.

So I turned 20, so I am officially no longer a teenager! It feels pretty good now, except everybody is still going to think that I am really young. Every comments on how young I look, and then they ask how old I really am. 20 sounds a lot older than 19, so it might surprise them even more now!

Things are going well here, and time is going by so fast. It is crazy that we are almost halfway through January already.

There was an awesome sunset the other day, so we decided to snag a picture of it.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Nielsen