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