Busy holiday season in Rocklin

Just a heads up, this won't be a long email. We had a busy week with transfers, so we weren't able to do as much proselyting this week. We helped out with Christmas devotionals across the mission on Thursday and Friday too, so that made us even busier.

We had a cool experience visiting one of the less active members in our ward. Her brother has investigated the church in the past, so we were going over there to see if they were willing to take the missionary lessons. They both accepted invitation and we were able to set up times to go back over. We started talking about her boyfriend, and she said that he would probably like to take the missionary lessons as well. We are very excited!

It is crazy how fast Christmas game this year. Pretty soon 2014 is going to be over, and it will be a whole new year! I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

Elder Nielsen

P.S. Here is a couple of our Christmas pictures.

Real talk

Hey everybody!

We had the director of proselyting from the whole church come out with us this past week. His name is Brother Hemingway. It was pretty intimidating! He came out with us last Tuesday, and we were with him in the evening for about five hours. He took us out to dinner, and it was actually pretty funny experience. He asked us where we wanted to go eat, but he gave us a condition that it couldn't be fast food and it couldn't break the bank. I had heard my companion mention Cattlemen's earlier in the day. I turned to him and asked if he wanted to go there? He said sure, so we ended up going there. Once we looked at the menu we figured out it wasn't the cheapest place to eat. Brother Hemingway just laughed about it and told us to get whatever we wanted. We went throughout the rest of the night after eating a really good dinner. We went to the lessons that we had scheduled, and then we went back to our apartment to plan for the next day. After planning, Brother Hemingway told us the things we are doing well on and then gave us a few suggestions on what to improve on. Overall, it was a very cool experience!

We were able to go walk around on the college campus for a little bit this past week. We were trying to hand out the "He is the Gift" pass-along cards. We really didn't talk to a lot of people but a couple of them said they would be interested in learning more! It was pretty cool. I still don't have the best ability to talk to people, but I'm not as scared to do it anymore. It is fun!

We had a really good lesson with one of our most solid investigators this past week. She is so close to taking the step for baptism, but there have just been a few things holding her back. She brought up her main concern with us in this lesson, so now we can really teach to her needs a lot more!

Love you all! Sometimes the Lord brings the slow so that he can lift us higher. He has a plan for you to be the best you can be. Remember that!

Elder Nielsen

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree!

Holy cow. December is already here. Goodbye 2014! This year went by so quickly!

We had a lot of various stuff happen this week. We live with the Rocklin 5th ward Elders, and someone in their ward called to see if they could help them move...in the rain. We went to help them, and I enjoyed it! Man, I have missed the rain. I'm glad it is rainy season now here in Northern California!

We had our final zone conference in Redding this past week. It was cool to see a bunch of the missionaries I served around.

We have an investigator named Dani who is so close to baptism. She is very fickle with her decision to investigate the church. We had a lesson with her this past week. We were helping her recognize the answer of her praying to know if this is the true church. We had a kneeling prayer in the middle of the lesson, and she asked Heavenly Father if she should be baptized. She said she felt good when she prayed, and that God would then tell her when to be baptized. We were excited for her. Unfortunately, she texted a couple days later and said she didn't want to take the lessons anymore. Aah! She really enjoys church and she knows it is true, so hopefully she will come back around soon.

We got to go to the temple this past week, and it was awesome. I really enjoyed the session, and it helped to wipe away the stress for a little bit. I love the temple and the Spirit I feel there! I am going to try to hold myself to going at regular intervals once I get home. After the temple session we were walking the grounds for a bit. We saw some people take wedding pictures, and the photographer happened to be one of sisters from my ward in Roseville! It was awesome to see her, cause she was part of one of my favorite families there.

I got the flu this past week, but I am bouncing back! Elder Gessell, one of the missionaries living in my apartment, took care of me the other night. He was giving me all the medicine I needed and telling me what I needed to do to get better. I'll put a picture of Elder Gessel and me in the email.

I love being a missionary. It has it's hard times, but I love it overall. I feel like I don't measure up to expectations a lot, but I just focus on the positives and it helps a lot. Satan has gotten me to think negatively about myself and I am trying to stop for good. It isn't very fun! I have gotten a lot of comfort from Moses 1:6-16. God calls Moses "my son" and then Satan calls Moses "son of man." Satan tries to make us forgot our divine heritage, and by doing so he influences us to act lower than our standards. I know I have my Father in Heaven in my side, so if I have an eternal perspective what do I have to worry about?

Love you all very much! Have a fantastic week!

Elder Nielsen

Busy, busy, busy.

This past week was a really busy one. We helped out with a zone conference every day from Tuesday-Friday. Tuesday was in Roseville, Wednesday was in Rocklin, Thursday was in Gridley, and Friday was in Chico. We have one more tomorrow in Redding and then we will be all finished. Elder Barney and I had to do a bit of training on our own in front of each zone conference, and it is scary! I get super nervous every single time I get up to talk to all the missionaries, and whenever I get nervous my teeth start chattering! I think I am getting better at speaking in public though!

We had a really solid lesson with Teresa last night. She is still working towards baptism and trying to figure out if it is right for her. She has been praying a lot but doesn't feel like she has received her answer yet. We talked about the good feelings she has had as she has come to church, prayed, and read the Book of Mormon. We expressed that these feelings do come from God. It was really neat, because we were able to explain that there would be no need for faith if Heavenly Father always told us exactly what we need to do with no questions asked. Teresa's good feelings are enough of an answer in order to give her confidence to continue to exercise faith, and the next step for her is baptism. We gave her a blessing of counsel after she asked for it, and it was powerful. She said she felt very happy after the blessing, and we continued to discuss how these feelings came from the Spirit. She is getting so close!

I love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Nielsen

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