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
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