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