Craziness

Hey everybody!

This week was a pretty intense one. We were helping out with transfers all day Monday through Wednesday. We also got to take the departing missionaries to the airport and welcome the new the arriving missionaries to the mission. It was all pretty crazy, but I am enjoying the chance to be able to help out wherever I can!

I am enjoying Rocklin so far! We are teaching a girl named Teresa, and she is super solid. She wants to be baptized, but she hasn't decided when she's going to go through with it yet. The Young single adult ward here is super solid. The leadership in the ward knows what it's all about, and they are very good at missionary work. I am excited to serve here!

This next week is going to be an extremely busy one. We are helping out with every zone conference throughout the mission. There is a zone conference every day from Tuesday through Friday, as well as one next Tuesday clear up in Redding. I am looking forward to being able to go back up there for a little bit, since I just left.

We live in a four elder apartment here, and it is one of the only ones in the mission. I am loving it so far! We are picking up a projector for the zone conferences tonight, and we are going to watch a church movie with it after we are all done for the night! We are working hard here, and we are enjoying it!

I love you all. I know that Christ is the ONLY way, and His example is the best to follow.

Elder Nielsen

Heading South

Elder Nielsen didn't have time to send a group e-mail today. They received transfer calls last night, and he was unexpectedly transferred from Redding after only serving there for two transfers. He will now be serving in the Rocklin YSA ward, and also as an assistant to the president (AP). He had to leave Redding quickly; in his brief email this evening he said he was already in Rocklin preparing to help departing missionaries get to the airport tomorrow. We hope to get more information from him next week about his new area, although with his new responsibilities we know he is going to be even busier. Keep up the great work, Elder Nielsen!

Faith & Diligence

This week was packed with a ton of really awesome miracles, and this area definitely needs it too! Elder Page and I talked about redoubling our diligence even and especially when we don't have a lot to do here. We were able to put in a lot of good work this week and the Lord blessed us for our efforts!

On Tuesday we did what is called a "Zone Blitz." A "blitz" is missionary lingo for when multiple companionships work in an specific area. We had all 11 companionships in our zone go to the Shasta Lake Ward, and we were able to see a lot of success! I really enjoyed being able to change up the pace with missionary work and try something new. I went on exchanges with Elder Briggs for a couple of hours, and it was awesome! I was able to ride a bike for the time, and it felt so good! Man, I miss riding a bike every day. We talked to some people that were willing to have the Elders come back over, so it was a great day!

We went to try and contact one of our YSA investigators this past week. He wasn't home, so we were just going to go and visit somebody else. As we were leaving we saw a guy sitting on his balcony with a cigarette in his hand. For a moment I dismissed the thought of going to talk to him, but the same thought kept coming back to my mind. I turned to Elder Page and said, "We need to go talk to that guy." At this point we were driving away, so we flipped around, parked the truck, and started walking toward his apartment building. We saw he wasn't on his balcony anymore, so we figured we would just knock on his door. He was willing to talk with us, and we ended up discussing a wide range of gospel topics. We are planning on going back soon to talk to him more. Let the Holy Spirit guide!

Our Bishop from the family ward spoke a little bit ago, and he shared a poem that really stuck out to me. It is called "How Different," written by R.C. Trench. I'll share it with all of you.

Some murmur when the sky is clear

And wholly bright to view,

If one small speck of dark appear

In their great heaven of blue;

And some with thankful love are filled,

If but one streak of light,

One ray of God's good mercy, gild

The darkness of their night.

We were trying to stay diligent this past week especially when we didn't have a lot of stuff going on. And it so turns out that we found ourselves in the middle of an afternoon with nothing else to do. Our mission president advised us to only go tracting if we had absolutely nothing else to do, so we went tracting! We started talking to a guy that was in his garage carrying groceries inside. He and his wife came out, and they were very friendly with us! Molly, the wife, ended up being the receptionist that worked at the doctor's office the day I went in with my dislocated toe, so we had an instant connection there. They seem like very spiritual people, and they invited us to come back another time to share more of our message! That was Part 1.

Part 2 happened a little bit later on when we talked to a young man named Alex at his door. He said it wasn't a good time right then, but we could come back the next day at 5. So that first bit was awesome, and part 2.5 was even better. We came back the next day, and the family invited us in. Apparently they have a bunch of Mormon family members in Utah. Brianna, the mother, told us she has never felt so good in any place like she felt in Utah. This family is awesome. They even invited us over for dinner this Thursday! We are very excited to be working with them! 

Part 3 was the last one, and it was also great. A lady answered her door and started talking to us. She had a t-shirt that had a non-profit organization shown on the front. We started talking to her about it a bit, and she opened up a lot. We continued to tell her about what we do as missionaries, and we shared a brief overview of the message of the Restoration. We invited her to learn more and she said, "How do I do that?" She was very nice and open, and she accepted to take the lessons! There were so many miracles that came about that day, and I am very grateful to the Lord for allowing us to experience them.

This might be the longest email I have written on my mission. I know Jesus Christ is the only way to true happiness, if only we will follow and live like Him. I love my Savior. I love you guys, and hope you have a great week!

Elder Nielsen

Every member a missionary

This week was a great week. We are trying to work with the members of the ward a lot more. We had a meeting with our ward mission leader and we are trying to figure out how we can get the members more excited to do missionary work. We are going to try to be in members homes a lot more teaching them the lessons so they have sharing the gospel on their minds more. We have had a couple of new visits with members already, and we are hoping to see a lot of miracles by working this way.

We are still working with Wes, and he is doing really well! He is still preparing to be baptized on November 15th, and then in a year his family will be able to go to the Temple to be sealed for eternity! They are such an awesome family, and I am so grateful we have the chance to work with him!

We went on an awesome hike today. We hiked up to a place called Brandy Creek Falls. There were a couple of different pools of water and some pretty sweet waterfalls! I really enjoyed it, and we were able to run back down the trail so it was just like running trail back in Utah for cross country! We also got some really cool pictures on what is called the Sundial bridge. It is a huge suspension bridge in Redding that they light up during the night, and it looks sweet!

Our ward had their chili cook off this week, and Elder Page and I were the judges. Our ward mission leader entered the contest and he wasn't too happy with how the results turned out. He has been teasing us a bit for the past couple days about how we don't know what good chili is. Hahaha! I don't think I do know what it is, but it was a lot of fun!

I love you all, and I hope you have an amazing week!

Elder Nielsen

Have Your Heart in the Journey

Hello!

This week was great! Not everything worked out perfectly, but we were able to see a lot of tender mercies. We met with Wes this past week, and the lesson went really well. Wes's less-active wife, Eva, was there as well, so we were able to teach most of their family. We discussed the Restoration with them, and the Spirit was very strong. We talked to Wes about being sealed in the Temple, and he said it is what he wants for his family. We talked to him about the path to get to the temple, and how baptism is the first step. He said he would like to be baptized, and he is going to do so on November 15th! He truly wants the best for his family, and it is going to be amazing to see how they are going to grow closer together as they are all trying to be more like the Savior.

We were trying to contact some of the people that our Bishop does not personally know last Thursday. We visited somebody that said the person we were looking for does not live there anymore. We asked her how long they had lived there, and she said they had just moved from Brazil about a month before. They had talked to a couple of missionaries there and knew a little about the church, but had never invited the missionaries over to teach them. She invited us to come back on Saturday and meet with her husband. We came back and met with him, and we were able to talk to him for a bit. It was very nice because he was very friendly and open to us! We taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel, and he was very attentive during the entire lesson. He told us that he doesn't accept everything at this point, but he does want to know if it is true. We are planning on meeting with him again tonight, so we hope he has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying in order to receive his answer!

As I was studying this morning I ran across the doctrine of conversion. A principle was really impressed upon me; in order to become converted our desire to follow the Savior must increase continually. Action alone is not enough. We MUST have our heart in the journey as well. M. Russell Ballard wrote "...you find yourself wanting to do what He would do and respond as He would respond in an effort to bring your life into harmony with His." I know that Christ lived a perfect, sinless life. It is for that reason that I feel so much joy and peace when I follow and direct my heart towards Him. As I follow the example of Christ, the Spirit confirms to me that the way of life I am living is good. Alma once said "...it is discernible, therefore you must know that it is good." (Alma 32:35). I have never seen Jesus Christ, but I don't need to in order to prove all of His teaching to be true! I can discern that I feel good when I follow the Savior, so what else do I need? I know the way to pure happiness is by following Christ's example. I encourage you all to direct your thoughts and desires towards the Savior a little more today, and then recognize how you feel. There is no better way to live!

From the desk of...

Elder Nielsen

Faith brings miracles!

So we we were able to contact a lot of our people this past week, which is really good since we haven't been able to for the past couple weeks! We are just trying to be really consistent with everyone to help them progress, and it isn't the easiest thing to do because of the dynamic of our area and the people that live in it.

We worked hard throughout the week and were able to see some of the fruits of our labors on Sunday. We were just leaving the YSA branch when we met someone who decided to come to church with one of the members in the branch. He basically told us that he doesn't have a church that he goes to so he wanted to come check ours out. We are going to go back and meet with him this next week, so that will be
awesome! The other cool miracle was in the family ward. The husband of a member came for the first time in a little while. He told her that he wants to be married in the temple to her, so he is going to be coming to church from now on! We were able to let him know that we can help him prepare for his marriage in the temple, and he invited us over to go meet with him! We are really excited because the work is starting to pick up a lot more recently, and the ward really needs it.

I love you all. Have a great Columbus Day!

Elder Nielsen

News on news.

Hey everyone! Lots of stuff happened end this week, so I will try and recap it all.

Elder Page and I are officially companions now, and things are going well. We are getting along swimmingly, and it is a bunch of fun.

We got the chance to see "Meet the Mormons" this past Friday, and I loved it! All of the stories we so inspiring, and I want to see it again! All of you who are able should see it, and then tell people about it, and then go see it again. It is awesome.

General conference was so amazing. Alisha and I are definitely on the same wavelength, because Lynn G Robbins's talk was one of my favorites as well. I loved how he touched on whether our loyalty is in the Lord or in others.

And lastly, we were playing basketball for p-day today and I messed my toe up pretty bad. I came down on the tip of my right foot and dislocated my right toe. It didn't feel too bad at first, but I found out I couldn't walk on it after a couple steps. We went to the doctor and got some x-rays, and they looked pretty gnarly. The doctor happened to be LDS, and he was able to tug it back into place. It's all good now! Now I am just sitting here in a boot in the gym. Rocking the boot!

Love you all!
Elder Nielsen