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| Elder Nielsen (and fellow missionaries) - he's so happy! |
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| "say cheese...." |
Monday, January 30, 2017
1/30/17-It's Legit the Best Job in the Entire World
This week was honestly probably the craziest week I've had here.
First, let's start with some changes. The church had a conference that we watched and they are changing a lot of stuff from the schedule, the numbers we are going to report, and training materials. It's exciting. I love change. However, we don't know how much is actually going to change because it's all in President's hands.
We had Elder Cook come and talk to us and it was amazing. His power and his spirit are second to none and when he talks about our Savior I can feel the words are true. He bore the same testimony he did in the MTC, but this time the room was much much smaller and I was so much closer.
"Lately I have decided to start being a little more frank. And there is something that missionaries need to know. There is something that I want you all to know. As one of the Lords Apostles, I know that the Savior lives. I know his voice...I know his face."
It was amazing and it just adds to my testimony of our work and that what we are doing is true. There is nothing like an Apostle's testimony. Wow I am so blessed.
Elder Garcia got his first baptism! He is my old comp Elder Canfield's best friend in real life (small world huh haha) and he is honestly so great. There is nothing like baptisms. You just feel the spirit so strong and it's such a sweet life changing experience for everyone there but especially the convert and the missionary. I am so blessed and humbled to be a missionary. It's legit the best job in the entire world.
We were walking to an appointment and there was a huge crowd of people in the street right outside of where we eat lunch every single day. It turns out a man was murdered and even before I saw anything I just felt darkness. It just makes me want to run and scream from the top of the mountain that if everyone followed Christ and the church life would be soooo much better. Please pray for that man's family. It brings me so much joy to know families can be together FOREVER!!! I've been reading in Corinthians a lot and I adore chapter 13 of First Corinthians. If we follow the teachings there we will become more like Christ. The promise is if we become more like Him we will be happier and in turn want to learn and help others more. It's like a cycle and I testify from personal experience that we have to learn the word before we can live it. Read the scriptures even 5 minutes a day and pray and I promise in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ you will be happier and your trials will seem easier.
Waking up at 6 30 every morning is hard but I love study time and then it's off to work. Our cook is really good but holy cow its getting hot, I'm not a big fan but thankfully it's nothing unbearable. We are working knocking doors and teaching until 930 at night. Lights off at 1030 and then the next day.
Please please pray for Segundo. He came to church again and we are going over Tuesday with the Bishop. I'm honestly so excited! Please pray for Family Boulevard, they are from Venezuela and their 3 and 7 year old daughters drew pictures of us. It was so cute. There is honesty nothing in the world like being a servant of the Lord- it's a blessing and a privilege. I love you all and thank you for everything!
Read 1 Cor 13
1 Cor 11:13 an amazing scripture about how we will NEVER be tried above what we can handle. When times get hard remember that this is a promise from God. He wants to help you (Moses 1:39) but we have to follow him and be obedient to receive the blessings. I love you all! Until next week....
Love,
Elder Nielsen
Monday, January 23, 2017
1/23/17- I Testify HE LIVES!
This week was all in all really good. It's getting really. really hot here, but it's not too bad thankfully. My comp and I are getting along really good and we are teaching a lot. We were working with our investigator Ruben, he was supposed to get baptized 2 days ago but went MIA, and then we found him packing. It turns out he is moving in with his dad an hour away. Yeah it's the second time that's happened. It stinks.. Anyways we were talking walking him to the bus and we ran into this amazing amazing family. They were super super sweet and we are going over Sunday! It's so amazing how your whole mission changes when you find a new investigator or family. It brings me such joy.
Elder Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will be here tomorrow and we have 2 hours with him!! It's legit like Christmas I'm sooo excited. President told us to read his last 3 conference talks and I invite everyone to read them. They are amazing and I testify they are the words of a prophet of GOD. We are so lucky to have them. I was reading his last talk and it sounded really familiar. It turns out I was singing in the mtc conference choir when he gave it!!! My mission has been full of amazing experiences like that and I'm just starting! Man this is the best thing ever!!!Love,
Elder Nielsen
Monday, January 16, 2017
1/16/17- We Picked It Up and Gave It Some Love
This week was all in all really good. Time is flying - its insane. And it even rained!!! It like drizzled but everyone kept saying how it was just pouring and pouring and how scary it was - it made me smile. My Spanish is really coming along. I had 3 families guess how long we have been serving, my comp has 23 months and I have almost 3 and half here. All of them guessed I've been here for over a year!!!! It was fantastic!!!
One of our investigators has a little brother who is honestly one of the craziest 8 year olds I've ever met. He is a sweetheart but I swear every time we see him he is choke slamming some random dog or throwing stuff or rolling around in the dirt. I love David. We were walking from a lesson and I heard this really faint meowing. I pushed the grass aside and found a little tiny kitten!!! It was a stray and it was in bad shape so we picked it up and gave it some love and then left. I turned around and it walked right off the end into the drain with fast moving water!! It was about to die!!! It was holding on to a little shoot of grass and so we ran and scooped him up and gave him to David for a present. He's crazy with animals but they all LOVE him. I honestly don't understand. He has 3 cats, 4 dogs and one of his dogs just had puppies, 10 of them!!! I want a puppy - they are so cute.
There was a riot Thursday and it was insane. All of the missionaries around us could not leave their rooms. The sisters even had some people from the mission office come and pick them up and take them to a safe place. It could have been scary but our area is wayy chill. We ordered chicken and I read a ton and watched some movies we have. "Meet the Mormons' is really excellent. I've never seen it before and I was really impressed. "Making Meet the Mormons" is great too by the way. It's a crazy world but I was reading in Corinthians and I love Pablo so my mind was safe. It makes me really really not want to get sick and have to stay in though - I wanted to go teach so bad!!Love,
Elder Nielsen
Monday, January 9, 2017
1/9/17 - Pics
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| "My watch was 12345 - I may be going crazy hahahaha" |
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| "My comp is a good man. I love him." |
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| "The first blue sky sunshine day here in probably 3 weeks. It's usually like LA smog times 5" |
1/9/17- I LOVE THE MISSI0N!
All around this week was
pretty solid. As always time is flying. I love my new comp - he's a really
really quiet guy but he is a really good missionary. He wants to work hard to
the end and it's great because he has a crazy amount of experience. We are becoming
more in tune with how we both teach and I think it's helping our investigators
a lot.
A funny thing that
happened this week is that the government put a toll in so you have to pay when
you come and go from Pro - our area. People burned tires and shut the
entire road down for a day. We had a zone meeting the next day and when we
passed through the toll there were police snipers, riot police with shields,
armored cars and straight up 6 wheeled military vehicles everywhere! It was
something out of a movie. I also killed my first scorpion. It was really scary.
The stuff I do for members these days.
This week we brought
Nestor along with us when we taught Segundo and he is seriously the most
amazing person. I'm not going to go into too much depth with his story but his
wife of 8 years left with another man one day with no warning or anything. He
has 3 girls and his youngest was barely 1 at the time. He is the most positive
person I've ever met. I learn so much every time we are together. He teaches
with such passion and power. We went to our other investigator and the
investigator straight up said "I want nothing to do with your church or
your new Bible. Please don't come back." Nestor went off. He talked for
about 10 minutes and bore one of the most powerful testimonies of the church
I've ever heard. Long story short we have an appointment with the investigator,
Alejandro, next week. Nestor was sad when he had to leave us - we were together
for 4 hours. The joy it brings me to watch someone I taught share his testimony
of the gospel and help others come to Christ is indescribable. I LOVE THE
MISSION!!!
We had 3 investigators
come to church this week including Segundo!!! I love him so much. He has talked
a lot about how he wants to build his house in 2017 but I didn't believe him.
Well, so far he has, with his father-in-law, framed the whole house with brick,
filled it in, and is finishing the roof by himself. He is an animal!! He is
also almost halfway through Second Nephi.
I finished Acts and I'm
almost through Romans. So far on my mission I've read the Book of Mormon,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, a lot of the Pearl of Great Price, a lot of
D&C and Jesus the Christ. My only problem is I WANT TO READ MORE!!!! I
seriously cant get enough. I wish morning study was for 3 hours not 1. I have
such a powerful testimony of the scriptures. We are so blessed to have them. I
know the Book of Mormon is true. I know the Bible is too. I am so excited to
meet my heroes - Alma, Pablo (Paul), Peter and of course my Savior. I am so
grateful for Him. I am so grateful for this gospel. Yeah it's hard but we can't
have sunshine all the time. The amount of joy in my soul when teaching is
indescribable. The mission is so hard, but it really is a privilege.
I love you all so much
and God lives and loves each one of you. Thank you for praying for me and my
investigators. Please pray for Segundo to receive his answer about the Book of
Mormon. THE CHURCH IS TRUE AND I LOVE ALL OF YOU!!!!!
Love,
Elder Nielsen
1/2/17 - New Year, New Pictures
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| Celebrating the birthday of his "little brother in Peru" |
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| New Year's Fireworks |
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| Elder Nielsen and his new companion at the birthday party |
1/2/17 - Happy Happy New Year
HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!! I am SO excited to be a missionary for the whole year of 2017!!!! Time is going by so fast it's making me kinda sad. I love being a missionary. This week was really fun and it was so fun to break in the new year in Peru!!! The fireworks here are insane because they are super cheap and there aren't any rules. It literally sounded like a war zone. I was in heaven! It was crazy how many there were were - I took some pics of them - they were sooo pretty.
We had transfers and it turns out I am not being transferred!!! I'm staying right here again and honestly I'm so happy!! I got a new comp and his name is Elder Salinas. This is his last transfer so I am going to kill him - mission slang for the person who sends him to the airport. He gets so sad just thinking about it. He was a district leader for over a year and he knows soooo much. However, he knows zero English hahaha. I am shocked though how much I have learned. I can talk on the phone, contact and get people's stories, ask questions and take down directions, talk about family and where they are from, talk about scriptures and the weather and food. I can do pretty much everything now - I just need to continue to get the perfect Spanish down. I would never have been able to do this without the LORD. HE has helped me soooo much!! Thank you to all of you who have been praying for me.
President got his house robbed!! by 4 men with guns!! It was 4 in the morning and they broke in and held him at gunpoint while they robbed them of everything. When the detectives came his wife, instead of turning inward, turned outward and gave him cookies and a Book of Mormon and now he is taking the discussions!!! If I had just been robbed at gun point I don't think I would be thinking about sharing the gospel the same day. President Stauffer and his wife and family are amazing.
We taught Segundo again. He is now in 2 Nephi 15. I love him so much. His father-in-law was there and he opened the restoration pamphlet and started teaching him!! He pointed to the picture of Jesus holding the lamb and said "that's you" pointing to the lamb talking to his father-in-law. He went page by page and explained each thing. Words cannot express how amazingly happy it made me. I LOVE being a missionary.
Love,
Elder Nielsen
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