December 30th, 2013

Hey Everyone!

This week was INCREDIBLE!!! First off, our mission reached - and surpassed - the goal of 50 baptisms in the month of December with 57! That's more than double the previous highest number of baptisms in a month, and we've got a vision of reaching 100 baptisms per month! It's a super exciting time to be a missionary, especially since this week was incredible! 

To start off, Christmas, and Christmas Eve were fantastic! Thanks to all those who sent me cards/letters/notes/presents! It will probably take me a few weeks, but I'm hoping to be able to reply to all of those! Some highlights from Christmas eve though were that we visited with an awesome guy - Brother Turner - and he's set a goal to be baptized on February 1st! In addition to that we taught this awesome dude from Puerto Rico for the first time - Brother Gonzalez - and it was pretty neat. It made me kind of regret that I haven't learned Spanish very much at all, but at least he spoke English pretty well! That evening we had dinner with a family and it was super tasty! We watched "The Nativity" and "What Shall We Give" (videos on mormonchannel.org) so that was pretty fun, and their family was just full of neat people! That night we went carolling with some folks from the 2nd ward and had a blast, so that was neat :)

Christmas day was an incredible whirlwind of exciting things, starting off with dropping off some presents our companionship got for the sister missionaries we get the privilege of working with before we started calling home! Calling home was a blast, sadly we didn't get to skype, but it was still great to be able to talk to all those I did! It was cool to be able to hear their voices for the first time in 7 months... apparently my little sister is 5 feet tall... which is not cool since she was super small when I left for college :( The rest of the day was pretty awesome, opening presents and eating tons of food! We had a late lunch with a family from our ward, and then 3 hours later had dinner with the family we had gone carolling with the night before! It was awesome, especially since they made homemade pizza :) We then played basketball with the other Elders while the Sisters jammed on the guitar in the gym to close out the night.

The rest of the week was pretty awesome - we had 9 meals provided for us this week, which automatically made it a great week :) But what made it even more incredible was that Abbi got baptized! It was a super neat experience to be able to take part in, especially since the person baptizing her messed up the prayer the first time, then the second and third time her foot popped out before they finally got it right! It was a super awesome time, and she was confirmed a member yesterday -  but got there right after they started singing the sacrament hymn so we did it after the sacrament. Speaking of sacrament meeting... it was pretty exciting for another reason besides that - I got to speak! The topic was missionary work for yesterday so the speakers were the Sisters and I for sacrament meeting, and then in the combined 3rd hour meeting they talked about Hastening the Work and showed the video located here: LINK! 

It was a pretty awesome week, and I have quite a few thoughts to share with y'all regarding the more important spiritual things! For one thing, this work we're involved in is God's Works! In Acts 5:38-39 it talks a little bit about that, but you should read that entire story - it's pretty cool :) I also particularly like 1 Peter 3:15, Helaman 3:25-27, D&C 88:81, D&C 18:15-16, and D&C 128:15. I also particularly enjoyed reading this TALK by President Monson in this last conference while preparing for my talk this week. Then there's this TALK that I read this morning that I thought was particularly pertinent. It's by Bishop Caussé, and I quite like it so y'all should take a few minute to read those. Since I kind of enjoy having time to respond to other emails, I think that's all for this week! Go check out those talks, and I love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

December 23rd, 2013 - CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Hey Everyone!

This week is Christmas, so Merry Christmas!!!!!! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas planned as we certainly do! But... you'll hear more about that next monday, because today is to talk about last week! There were some pretty noteworthy events this last week, such as church, Mission Conference, a Ward Party, a Funeral, and some tasty dinners that kept us pretty dang busy!

So we'll start with yesterday and go back in time, since Church yesterday was pretty noteworthy. Ft. Sill's basic training program is on Christmas exodus, so all 3 of us got to go to the Lawton 1st ward! It was my first time going to that ward's block of meetings... and I have been here a full transfer already! So that was pretty neat to go to a regular block of meetings again. We also had one of our investigators make it out, even though it was a bit icy and she wasn't feeling well... but it was important that Abby made it there since she's getting baptized on Saturday! It should be pretty neat, and we're all super excited as she's been ready for a little while now. She probably could have been baptized this week... but this last Saturday we had a mission conference!

Which was awesome of course! It went from 9am to about 7:30pm, so a ton of things happened, we got some awesome food, and I don't have much time to write about it. But, there was a lot of good training given, and some awesome musical numbers so it was pretty inspiring. A brief review of some of my favorite scriptures and such from the trainings, and from my studies this week (while I'm at it):

• D&C 58:26
• 2 Nephi 31:2-3
• Hebrews 11:1
• D&C 123:14-17
• Moroni 7:24
• Ether 12:6
• D&C 60:5, 51:22,35, 63:44
• D&C 9:7-11
• 2 Nephi 9:51
• Matthew 17:3,4
• Luke 2
• Alma 37:35-37
• Mosiah 2:41
• President Monson's Sunday Morning Talk (click the link!)

The day before Mission Conference, we had a pretty awesome ward party! There were about 200 people there, when they had only planned/estimated about 150 would come, so there was a great turnout of people! The food was awesome, and we had a fun time. I got to meet a ton of new people... but this ward is pretty big so I probably don't remember many of their names...

Also this week we were invited to attend a funeral out at the Ft. Sill cemetary for a lady named Mabel Allen... whom I had never met. It was a pretty cool service... literally (the wind was freezing!) and figuratively (the spirit was strong there), and it was neat to be able to attend that. We also had a dinner pretty much everyday this week, so I feel fat. Especially since this week is Christmas and we have a dinner everyday with a couple lunchs...

That's all for this week! Love Y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

December 16th, 2013 - Transfer Week?!?

Hey Everyone!

So... this week is transfers... but like nobody is getting transferred, so that's pretty cool. The only change is because one of our district members is going home - so his companion has to get a new person. So, transfers are already here (we did a 5 week one since Christmas is next week), but there's not much happening - I'll still be in Lawton at least until the end of January, so that's cool.

This week was pretty awesome though! We had some crazy miracles, awesome lessons (for us and others...), and some sweet dinners! Of course my favorite thing was the dinners... but that's to be expected :P 

This week absolutely flew by... it started off with our dinner at the Senior couple's home on Monday and just disappeared from there! At that dinner we learned quite a bit about following the spirit while giving blessings from the senior elder who asked us to give him a blessing of comfort due to a procedure he would be having that week. It was a super neat experience, and I definitely learned a lot. Then we actually got to give another blessing that night to a sister who has been having issues with migranes... so that was just a blessing filled night! 

The next day - Tuesday - we got to do our transferly Mormon.org time and I spent most of it watching Mormon Messages - the cool short (2-5 minutes) videos produced by the church. One that I particularly liked was "Wrong Roads" with Elder Holland ( http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-09-016-wrong-roads?lang=eng). It was quite inspirational... so you should all click that link and go watch it. 

Okay. Moving on to the rest of our day, we had some pretty sweet visits that day one in particular that stood out. We visited with an investigator named Donna and she's shooting to get baptized on the 18th of January! Over the week and a half since we had last seen her she had read the chapter we left her - Alma 32... plus 4 more! It was pretty neat to get to talk about the scriptures... since she had already read them and we didn't have to spend time doing that with her. If y'all could pray for her as she prepares for that day that'd be the best! Also on Tuesday we met this super neat part-member family who lives on post, and they're all pretty cool people :) It was just a neat day, and hopefully we'll get to teach them pretty soon here. 

Wednesday we did an exchange with the Zone leaders, so Elder Memmott and I got to work with Elder White for the day. It was an interesting day, and most all of our plans fell through from about 10am until 5pm... so we had lots of time spent knocking doors. But, it was still a pretty good day overall :) We had dinner with this super awesome younger couple who just moved into the ward in October and they made this super tasty pasta dish :) I was pretty happy, but not much noteworthy happened that specific day ;)

Thursday came and went super fast, as we had weekly planning, a couple good appointments, and the Book of Mormon class that happens each week. But of note on Thursday was the visit we had with one of the active members where we read Helaman 14:1-8... which I would recommend you all read :) It is a prophecy from Samuel the Lamanite about Christ's birth... so this time of year it is particularly relevant ;)

Friday was pretty sweet as well, especially because we got to visit with Abby again and we talked with her for a little while and decided to set the 28th of THIS MONTH as when she will be baptized. Everything looks pretty set in stone for that, so now we just have to make it happen - which will be interesting with people taking vacations around that time. So, pray for her as well :) She's super ready, and we probably could have done this coming weekend... but we have meetings and stuff on Friday and Saturday :( Aside from that, Friday was awesome because we got to have one of the awesome priests come out teaching with us and he bore some powerful testimony to one of the less active families we visited with him. He's awesome. Sadly all good days must end... 

But not today! Saturday was even better than Friday because on Friday we stopped by that part member family from earlier in the week and they told us to come back on Saturday! So... we did and they're the best! It didn't seem like missionaries had really visited them much before now, which was kind of sad as it means we're starting basically from scratch, but they're super cool people :) We also had a couple visits earlier that day with awesome families who you'll hear more about later as they keep on being awesome :) 

I'm out of time for this email... but Sunday was quite awesome as well :) We had some neat miracles that day including a visit with a family who's 13 year old daughter hasn't been baptized and accepted to have us teach her the missionary lessons - hopefully they'll all become active as they strengthen their testimonies with the basics :) We also had an incredible dinner with this super proactive family that is doing a ton of work on their friends - they typically invite at least 10 people to every activity! Not all of them show up, but the invite still leads to gospel discussions and such. Dinner was super tasty though - Roast beef and mashed potatoes with some super tasty health brownies as dessert :)

Anyway, y'all should check out this talk by President Uchtdorf: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/come-join-with-us?lang=eng

It's super awesome, and when I was reading it this morning I thought of y'all :) Also in my studies I particularly liked Alma 31:26-35. It's neat to see the different examples of prayer throughout the Book of Mormon, and I particularly enjoyed this one. Another scripture I like is 2 Nephi 19:4-8 - even though it's Isaiah it's still pretty cool :) Lastly, Jacob 5:57,65 was something that struck me today as we strive to improve ourselves the Lord of the Vineyard instructs us, his servants, to start with the most bitter branches but make sure to keep it in pace with the growth of the good because as we improve each day we're able to replace our bad habits and actions and thoughts with good ones that lead us to become more like Christ. 

That's all I got for this week! Love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

December 9th, 2013 - Productive Snowy Week?!?!

Hey Everyone,

This week was definitely interesting! We had a pretty good couple snowy/sleety/icy days that resulted in stuff kinda slowing down with our car being grounded and such. But, it was still quite a good week! 

So, some highlights! On Tuesday we got to teach this super awesome family for the first time, and they said they would be coming to church... but church was cancelled... again. Anyway, Tuesday was good :) 

Then the highlight for Wednesday was that we got to do splits with the priests! We each headed off to a different part of town and got work done! Of the 3 groups, only one of the two appointments worked out, so the other two groups got to knock a couple doors! Me and the awesome priest I got to work with didn't even have an appointment to start out with, so we got to go a knocking. It was pretty darn cold outside, but the spirit was with us and the first door we knocked on was a couple who had previously met with missionaries (in a different town) and has quite a few friends who are members! They were super awesome, and we had a neat discussion with them about the spirit world and why that's soooo important. One of the scriptures that we really discussed was Alma 40:11-14 - check it out, it's pretty neat :)

Thursday the snow hit and our car was grounded... but that was alright as we still had a member pick us up to go and visit him and his wife, which was neat. We talked about tithing and watched part of Elder Bednar's talk from this last conference: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/the-windows-of-heaven  It's a super awesome talk about the blessings of tithing, which is one of the principles "upon which the blessings of heaven are predicated" so you should go watch it!

Friday the roads were still super icy, but we had district meeting anyway, and it was pretty good. Afterward we had a district potluck type of dealio and one of the tasty things we had were cornbread pancakes... basically you take corn muffin mix, add eggs, butter, and water and make pancakes out of it... they're super tasty. Aside from that we were stuck inside, but we did get picked up by another member and he took us to his house for dinner - which was awesome by the way. One of the things that was said "Hunt the Good Stuff!" was a quote from one of their officers (almost everyone here is in some way connected to or in the army) and it's a pretty neat idea to try!

Saturday was pretty interesting... when we woke up we had a text from the APs saying Elder Morrell was invited to a baptism in Shawnee - like 2.5 hours away... that started at 10am. Luckily one of our zone leaders was also invited, so they worked it out in the early hours of the morning and were headed that way before 8am. Thus started our exchanges for the day, which started with breakfast on post - which we do every saturday and is always super tasty. Eventually after studies and such it was time to go help a member (who's a little older) clear his driveway off so that he can actually go places. It turned out he didn't have any shovels... so we went a hunting for some. But, Lowes and Wal-mart were both sold out and so we went back to his house with no luck. It turns out that rakes work pretty well for moving snow, so we ended up raking snow instead of shoveling it... it was quite the experience! Then we had a member coming out with us who's super awesome and we got to ride around in the FJ (the roads were still icy) so it was pretty exciting :) We got to visit with a couple neat folks and had some good lessons, so that was well worth the time. Then we had dinner with a really neat member family in the ward! So... saturday was probably one of the most exciting days yet ;)

Sunday was pretty fun as well though! Even though church in the city was cancelled (parking lot iced over, and lots of roads were still covered in ice... and we have old people to consider) the services on post were still going on so all the missionaries - including sisters got to go! It was a pretty great service, and the first time there were sister missionaries at the basic training service... in over 8 years... probably forever :P It was neat to see the impact the sisters had on all the female soldiers there that we don't connect with very well, it was pretty impressive. Then we had lunch with a family who are really good at cooking... I probably gained 5 pounds at that meal... then we had about a 3 hour break for studies and a visit with a cool member before dinner with another family... where I probably gained another couple pounds before the INCREDIBLE CHRISTMAS DEVOTIONAL. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is just awesome... and so were the speakers. If you missed it, you should totally check it out! http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/christmas-devotional/2013/12?lang=eng

So a couple scriptures I really liked this week were Alma 18:8-9 - I applied this one to following up with people on things you ask them to do... as a counter example ;) Then there's Ether 2:18-22 where the Brother of Jared shows us how important it is to remember what we pray for! It's so key to noticing the answers to your prayers to actually remember what you're asking for, so do it! Those two, along with the other things throughout are me spiritual thoughts for the week... but seriously! Watch the devotional!

Love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

December 2nd, 2013 - DECEMBER ALREADY?!?

Hey Everyone!

It seems like just yesterday November started... but December in fact started yesterday. So, this week pretty much flew by with Thanksgiving, Ft. Sill, and tons of work to be done there wasn't much time for sitting around! But, first things first the mission had a change of policy (the postman got mad at us for forwarding mail...) so now all mail should be sent directly to us! Pretty sweet in my opinion, so my address is:

402 NW Sheridan Rd #503

Lawton, OK 73505

In other news, I ate way too much food this week. Seriously though. Thanksgiving pretty much put me into a food coma, which was alright with me ;) Since that's pretty much the most noteworthy day we'll start there. For Thanksgiving we started out the day with a Turkey Bowl (of course!) and it lasted from about 8-11:30... which was a lot longer than we had planned on, but it was quite fun and tiring and appetite building, so that was good! After that we got to go with a family to have lunch on Ft. Sill, which was super tasty. They had tons of different food to eat, and nothing I had was less than tasty, so I was pretty satisfied. We finished lunch about 2:30... then went up to a part of Ft. Sill that I had never been to before down by a creek with some really old buildings - the guy working there ventured from the late 1800s, but he wasn't really sure. They have this cool animal thing up there, and we got to look at those for a little while and just enjoy the nature of the area so that was neat. Then we headed to dinner... and it was only about 4:30 - just 2 hours after lunch was done if you caught that. Dinner was super tasty and filling and just overall a blast. For dinner we were at the Colpoy's - a super neat couple, with the Senior missionaries, sister missionaries, and a couple other random folks. I ate waaayy too much - about 3 pieces of pie, and two platefuls of the food they had (and remember we just had lunch 3 hours before), so I was pretty well satisfied with that was well :) Then we headed home and did some weekly planning before crashing a little early that night.

Aside from Thanksgiving, this week had a couple noteworthy events. For one thing, we had a couple good lessons with some of our "Okie Talker" investigators - the people who we go to see and they just talk at us the whole time - and actually got to talk to them for most of the lesson! That was pretty neat, along with some of the interesting people that we tracted into while trying to find new people to teach. We did quite a bit of tracting this week, as some of our investigators were out of town for the holidays or had family in town making it unlikely for us to be able to visit them. Then on Friday we got to do exchanges with the other elders, so that was good. We had a good time on exchanges and saw a couple less actives and investigators and set some appointments up so it was a pretty successful day. Saturday came and went - we had one of the awesome priests out with us for a couple hours and we had a couple good tracting experiences with him ;) 

So on Sunday I got to go to Ft. Sill for the first time - since church last week was cancelled. That was a very different experience, for one thing everyone there was dressed in military attire - except for the missionaries. It was weird. Then for Sunday school there was like 7 different classes happening - Regular sunday school, new member discussions, all the missionary lessons, and a group doing interviews/blessings for people who just got to basic. It was crazy as there was sooo many things happening that I couldn't really keep track of it all. Also something that kind of threw me for a loop was the sacrament was passed at the end of sacrament meeting (after all the testimonies and such) so that was different as well. But, it was still a pretty good experience to have. 

So I was going to send some pictures with this... but that didn't work out like I had planned since this computer is pretty aged... So for my spiritual thoughts this week, I did a bit of studying on the conference talks from this last conference. A couple of my favorites from this week are:

• "Be Meek and Lowly of Heart" - Elder Solares Saturday Morning
• "The Doctrines and Principles Contained in the Articles of Faith" - Elder Perry Priesthood Session

In addition to that I've been doing a bit of studying in various epistles in the Bible and a few verses from that stuck out to me: James 4:17, James 5:14-16, 2 Peter 1:3-10, and Romans 2:6. A couple other scriptures I found this week that stuck out to me were: 3 Nephi 27:27, Matthew 8:24-27, Alma 31:5, and Helaman 11:23.

That's all I got this week! Love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

November 25th, 2013 - Thanksgiving... will be white?!?!

Hey Everyone!

So the major news item of the week... is that it snowed here yesterday! It was coming down pretty good in the morning, so church ended up being cancelled and our car and bikes were grounded... so that was exciting :) Aside from that, this week was pretty sweet! I still don't have as much time as I would like to email, so we'll get going with some highlights!

First off, last monday I got to play tennis! We have a tennis court at our complex, so for our preparation day activity my companions and I played tennis for a little over an hour! It was pretty fun, even though I was quite rusty. It made me pretty happy to be able to play again though :) Looks like that's not going to happen this week though as there's currently snow on the court....... But, aside from that Monday went pretty well :) P-days here are a bit more rushed than in Ponca, but that's alright. We had dinner with a super awesome family - they made some delicious hamburgers on the grill... since it was warm enough outside to do that ;)

Tuesday was a blast, as we got to meet a couple new people while trying to find members that we haven't met yet. So, that was pretty exciting since for the most part we didn't know what would happen when we knocked on a door. But, we got to have dinner with this family and they made this tasty chicken thing with a yellow sauce that you ate over rice - it was super tasty! Then Wednesday came and went super fast - we had a lesson out in Medicine park with a referral that went super well - they could talk a ton though. Then we came back... and pretty much had to go back out there for dinner with the ward mission leader and a meeting where we discussed the ward mission plan for next year, and that was the rest of our night just like that. 

Thursday on the other hand was super neat! We had a mission tour in Norman with Elder Craig A. Cardon from the seventy, and it was incredible! We talked about everything from Charity towards our neighbors and companions, to how Christ showed love to others, to the role of a seventy (D&C 107 does a pretty good job of describing that), to the Abrahamic Covenant, to the Work of Salvation (all 5 aspects of it), to how there was an apostasy even though John the Beloved was still here, to the difference between the presence/power and the gift of the Holy Ghost, to the importance of controlling the teaching environment to invite the spirit and help them do the things you know that they need to, and finally to becoming a more confident missionary instead of being self-critical. It was a pretty awesome conference, especially since we still had time that day to have dinner with another super neat family that served some sort of Brazilian Stroganoff thing - it was super tasty... I think Matt might have made it for me once? And we had our weekly Book of Mormon class, and a visit with an investigator! It was a pretty packed day, and super inspiring :)

Friday was neat, as after district meeting we did an exchange - Elder Morrell went to work on the other side of town, and Elder Shumway came here. He's from South Carolina and pretty awesome, and we got to see a ton of people! It was neat because we tried to meet a bunch of members throughout the day and it actually worked out... we saw most everyone we had planned - which almost never happens. We met some awesome families, and Elder Shumway had a couple cool object lessons that were pretty neat - one involved a lighter, a fork, a spoon, a toothpick, and a coffee mug or a glass. It was related to Helaman 5:12, so that was neat. He also had one involving a ring and a chain that was related to Ether 12:4, which we used a couple times as well :)

Saturday, for the most part, was a bust - nobody really let us in, but that was alright since it was only freezing cold outside. We did get to visit with a couple people, but there wasn't really much of note that day. Then came Sunday... the day of Snow. When we woke up in the morning, we got a text that church was cancelled because of snow and ice, then later our car and bikes were grounded because of it... so yesterday we only got to see a couple people, and for dinner they had to come pick us up. But, dinner was some incredibly tasty chili and cornbread with some mint chocolate chip ice cream and brownies for dessert... I was in heaven ;) The family we had dinner with is incredible as well - They're doing a ridiculous amount of work on their friends... too bad it's all in the sisters' area :P

Then we have today... which has barely started :) So, a few spiritual thoughts! Enos. This book/chapter is just incredible. I really like verse 11, and just the entire thing. But particularly verse 11. It shows how as you begin to have faith in Christ you naturally turn to thinking about others, which is a pretty neat principle. Aside from that, I've been doing a lot of studying in Preach My Gospel, particularly chapters 3 and 8 to work on being more effective in what I'm spending my time doing. A couple other scriptures I've found that I particularly like are Jacob 5:21-22 and 3 Nephi 27:6. 2 Nephi 9:51 was particularly applicable this week, as we had quite a few members feeding us :) Lastly, my favorite scripture that I read this week is Alma 37:35-37. Prayer is so key, along with obedience, and that scripture just shows us so simply what we need to do. 

Anyway, That's all I got for this week :)

Have a fantastic week everyone!

Love ya!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

November 18th, 2013 - Lawton... Be Careful!

Hey Everyone!

How are things going?!? This week has been probably the most interesting one of the mission so far, as I finally got transferred! I've been moved to the Lawton 1st ward, which is super awesome (from what I've seen so far)! We had stake conference this weekend - all about missionary work, and super awesome. We also have some fantastic people to work with, so that's fabulous! Sadly, this library only gives us an hour on the computers, so until I figure out something these emails will probably be a bit shorter than the ones I was able to send whilest in Ponca. 

So a quick rundown of the highlights from the week! Monday was awesome - one of our Investigators took us out to dinner to this nice Italian place that I had never been to in Ponca - Zinos - and it was pretty awesome. Then Tuesday I got to say bye to people and take some pictures with them, which was fun. We had dinner with a super awesome member who worked a lot with us, and he made us some super tasty roast and such. So, my last two days in Ponca were pretty swell :)

Wednesday was transfers! I got to ride down with the zone leaders, and they're super fun to be around so that was a blast. Then once I met up with my companions - Elders Memmott and Morrell - we started back towards Lawton (which is about as far from the city as Ponca... just West and south instead of North). It was a pretty great day, as we had a member drop off some pizza for us and then got to go and see some of the awesome people we work with. 

So I bet you're wondering about my new companions - yes we're in a trio (it's pretty neat so far, but different as well). So Elder Memmott has been out as long as I have - we flew on the same plane sitting next to each other. He's from Nephi, UT and is a pretty neat guy. Elder Morrell has been out 18 months, is a spanish missionary, and is from Kaysville, Ut. So, we have a pretty good time ;)

But, since Elder Morrell is Spanish he's got to do language study each day, so Thursday we had lots of time inside - with the regular 2 hours of study, plus 2 hours of weekly planning, plus his hour of language study, plus lunch... yeah we were just inside a long time :P But on Thursdays we have this Book of Mormon class for the Lawton wards, and it's pretty awesome! We talked about the tree of life and why it takes some people longer than others to find their way to the tree. It was a pretty neat class. 

The highlight from Friday was our visit with a fellow named Bo. We talked about faith and read from Alma 32 with him - which is one of my favorite chapters because it's just so simple. 

Then this weekend was stake conference - the topic was missionary work all around (both on Saturday Evening and Sunday Morning) as there's a huge push for that. It's pretty awesome to see the wards so fired up to do missionary work! I got to meet a ton of people at stake conference, and even got to see Elder Rasmuson as he's serving in our stake somewhere now :P Aside from stake conference, the highlight on Saturday was dinner with this super awesome family. Their 18 year old son invited a friend - Devan - over as well, so it was just a party! Devan ended up coming to stake conference with them the next morning, so that was awesome! 

The highlight from Sunday would have to be visiting with a couple that they were teaching before I got here - Travis and Tara - they're both super awesome, and we talked with Travis for a while just answering his questions and concerns. It was a super spiritual visit, and I think he's really starting to be more open with us about what his concerns are.

Since I'm already taking up more time than I wanted to on this, my spiritual thoughts for this week! There were a couple days I didn't get to do studies this week, which is kind of sad, but it'll all work out eventually :) So first is a list of scriptures that either hit me hard this week or were shared in Stake conference and are super awesome :) So... check them out!

• Hebrews 13:5-6
• Joshua 1:5
• John 8:12
• Ephesians 2:8-9
• James 2:17-20,26
• Moroni 10:4,5,32,33
• Alma 16:16-17
• Alma 13:24
• D&C 138:56
• Article of Faith #4
• 2 Nephi 31:19-20

Aside from all those awesome scriptures, this week I've been thinking a lot about agency and how important that really is. Something that hit me hard is how the second Article of Faith shows the principle of Agency incredibly. That's all I got time for this week!

Have a fantastic week everyone! Love ya!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Nielson

November 11th, 2013 - Veteran's Day isn't a Holiday?!?

Hey Everyone!

So... I learned today that Veteran's day is not a holiday... at least for library purposes! So, I still get to email y'all this wonderful day! 

The big news for today is that I'm getting transferred! I'm going down to Lawton - Ft. Sill, and I'll get to be in a trio there so it'll be a blast! 

Aside from that, this week has been exciting! I got to go on a super awesome exchange, saw some awesome people, and I learned some pretty interesting things! 

So the first highlight of the week... I got to spend Tuesday evening through Friday Morning down in Stillwater working with our awesome zone leaders! It was pretty neat, and super fun! To start off, Tuesday night right when we got down there we headed to dinner at this super awesome family's house! It was really tasty, and we did an experiment with them and their kids about recognizing the spirit. Then we headed out to work, and got to visit with a super awesome part-member family with this fun older guy - Brother Valega. He is awesome. Words don't adequately describe him, but the lesson was awesome! After that we tried a couple people, but nobody was home so we let Brother Valega go. The quote of the day was "Absolutely!" In Brother Valega's voice... it was just awesome how he says it ;) But, he did say quite the awesome prayer to bless us before we parted ways with him for the night, so that was neat. Then we went off to see a couple other people, but there was still nobody home and it was just starting to rain. So, we decided to go tracting a bit... since nothing is better than tracting in the rain! It was a blast! We met a couple awesome families and set up times to come back and see them - sadly they were after Friday since we were pretty booked already! The storm was super intense though... there was about 5 inches of rain IN THE STREET. It was pretty much flooding, but that just made tracting in it even more awesome. We ended up knocking on like 7 doors, and most of them actually answered but only a couple actually invited us to come back. So that day was pretty exciting :)

Then Wednesday was awesome! We basically spent the entire day teaching... which was a blast! We got to visit with a less active member, and he was having computer troubles so I got to take a look and fix his problem for him after we talked about commandments, so that was a pretty awesome visit. Then we had lunch at this super awesome mexican restaurant - Palliminos (sp?), and that was fun. Then we went out with Brother Ross, and he's super awesome. We visited a couple of their investigators, and one of them asked for a blessing... and asked me to do it!? It was super neat to be an instrument in God's hands to bless someone I had just met and knew very little about, and the lesson we had with them was pretty fun as well. We also had another lesson where we actually started out singing a hymn, and it really brought the spirit in. I might have to do that more often, as that was a first for me, since it really works. So... if I wrote about all the people we saw this email would probably be at least twice as long as the previous longest one that I've sent, so I'll stop there for Wednesday. The quote of that day was "What is he surgerizing on?" and we just thought that was a really funny saying :P  

Thursday came and went really quickly... we did some weekly planning, then had lunch at Palliminos with the Hermanas, and a random couple paid for our meal! It was super nice, and really unexpected. Then we saw a couple people before we drove out to Ripley (about 10 miles from Stillwater) to see a part-member family. It was a super awesome visit - they have a ton of animals - chickens, goats, dogs, and Turkeys. It was pretty neat :) We had dinner with them, and talked about a ton of different things - he's a police officer, so there were some exciting stories told :) After our visit with them we went... to another dinner. It was super awesome, as the member family we were having dinner with had 2 nonmember friends there! It was super neat to actually see that happen, and to see it happen well, as the spirit was super strong during the spiritual thought we shared and they both seemed pretty interested. I don't know about a quote for that day, but the family in Ripley had a goat named Gandalf... so that was exciting. I would attach a picture but I forgot my SD card reader :(

Then this weekend Flew by! I still don't really know where it went, as sooo much happened. I got to go on exchanged on Friday with Elder Chaves for a couple hours, so that was awesome. Saturday flew by, and the main noteworthy thing was the hospital visit to a less active sister - she's lived in Ponca for a year, but we still didn't have her records... that's how less active she was :P And yesterday the noteworthy event was transfer doctrine! I'm going down to Lawton - Ft. Sill, and I'm serving with an Elder Morrell and his companion (I still don't know who that is...) so it'll be exciting! 

That's the word from Elder Nielson for this week, so let's have a little bit of God's word! I had some pretty awesome studies this week, so i'll only get to share bits and pieces of it, but hopefully you get at least of little bit of the spirit of them. 

Helaman 5. It's just an awesome chapter. I would suggest you go read it, since I really like it. Alma 13 is also really good, but I particularly focused on 13:27-31, and I've been working to apply those awesome verses. 

This week I had a bunch of scriptures come to mind in a sort of a chain, but I'll just list the scriptures and we'll see what y'all think! 

• Matthew 15:16
• 2 Nephi 32:8-9
• 3 Nephi 9:20
• John 15:16
• D&C 13:1
• D&C 121:45
• 2 Nephi 31:13
• Helaman 5:17
• Alma 5:45-47
• Matthew 16:15-17
• 2 Nephi 2:11
• Moses 1:11,14
• D&C 129:1-5
• D&C 84:88
• Alma 13:24

That's it for this week! Have a fantastic week y'all! Love you!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Nielson

November 4th, 2013 - Where did October go?!?!

Hey Everyone!

Another week has already gone by here in Ponca City, and what a fast week it was! This week was Halloween - not the best holiday for missionaries, but still a good week! We got to do quite a bit of service - helping people move, and help chop up firewood in preparation for winter. 

Well some highlights from this week - aside from service! This week I got to visit with a buddy from BYU, which was sweet. He's actually from Blackwell, OK - the town just northwest of Ponca, and he's leaving on his mission THIS Wednesday. So, pray for Chad :) He's awesome (he was in my ward Fall semester at BYU), so it was fun to be able to chat with him for a little while.

This week we also had the typical halloween activity - Trunk or Treat! It went over pretty well, as we had about 20 non-members there and over 100 members came, so that was awesome :) The activity was a blast, and the candy was quite tasty!

Then there was Halloween itself... which wasn't as fun since we had to be inside by 5pm. Which was really early... the trick or treating didn't even really start until about 7, but that was okay :) A member brought us some Chili dogs to eat, so that was nice. We also had some candy to hand out (Thanks Aunt Lilly!), so we didn't get egg'd ;)

Friday I got to go on an exchange to the other side of town... which was awesome! The other side of town has some great people to work with, but they're pretty hard to catch so it's tough sometimes. But, the exchange went well and I learned quite a bit about how I can better approach people I don't know - which is always helpful. 

Well, that's this week in a nutshell! If you wanted more details... too bad. I don't really have time to type more ;) So this week I've been working on finding connections between different scriptures and studying a few different topics, which was fun. Mormon chapter 7 is probably one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. Go Read it. Like Now. 

Aside from that, here are some scriptures I've been finding connections between... I won't tell you the connections - that would be too simple, so try and find some yourself!

• Alma 41:10
• Mosiah 3:19
• 2 Nephi 9:39-40
• 2 Nephi 2:11
• D&C 121:36,39
• 1 Corinthians 2:13-16
• Moses 1:11
• Matthew 5:48
• Mosiah 5:2

I hope you all have a great week!

Love ya!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Nielson

October 28th, 2013 - My daddy's birthday!

Hey Everyone! 

It's my dad's birthday today, so Happy Birthday Dad! He's 47 today, and still kicking it! 

Aside from that, this week was pretty good! We've been doing quite a bit of service, had zone conference, and seen a few people. 

So, the highlights from this week! The first one was this Saturday, while we were helping a member clear some trees from his yard. I kinda got hit by one after he chain-sawed it down, and his son was behind me with his chainsaw on, so I didn't hear when he said "Look out". I've got a nice little scrape to prove it, but it wasn't too bad. The tree was only a few inches wide, not exactly a monster ;) That day we also got to help him pen his baby bull (I think they're still called calves, but I'm not sure) and sore it out from the other cows that his neighbor has. It was pretty exciting as it tried to - and almost succeeded - at jumping out of the pen. 

Another highlight from this week was zone conference, which was super awesome! President Walkenhorst taught about Obedience and relating that to the Doctrine of Christ, and showing us how those are soooo intertwined. It was pretty neat. Later on, he discussed repentance with us, having us watch "The Divine Gift of Repentance" By Elder Christofferson. Our Zone leaders also gave a training on "Teach when you find, Find when you teach" with a super awesome drawing related to it, but I don't have a way to send that out to y'all. There were lots of good scriptures and quotes, so I'll send you some of them:

From the discussion on Obedience:

Effects of Disobedience: Alma 41:10, Helman 13:38, D&c 1:3, D&C 97:21, Helman 5:3, 1 Nephi 20:22, Moroni 10:22, Romans 6:23, 1 Samuel 15:22-23, Alma 36:12, D&C 88:35

Blessings of Obedience: D&C 1:24, D&C 58:6, D&C 130:20-21, D&C 58:32, D&C 59, Abraham 3:26, Romans 6:23

Other Scriptures from Zone conference: 1 Nephi 16:29, Alma 37:17, 2 Kings 5, D&C 100:1, Mosiah 5:2, D&C 11:21, Alma 17:2-4, D&C 31:3, Mosiah 2:41, Moroni 10:32-33, D&c 1:23, Moroni 9:6

So... that's probably plenty of spiritual things for y'all to work with this week, so I'm going to skip where I talk about my studies. 

Love y'all! 

'Til Next Time,

Elder Nielson

P.S. the picture of my nice scrape should be attached. Also, sorry this letter is kinda on the shorter side.

October 21st, 2013 - Fall... has come and gone?

Hey Everyone!

So... this week was pretty interesting! I got a cold, the weather got really cold, we did a ton of service, and one of our investigators was interviewed for baptism! It was super exciting, so I'm going to tell you all about it :)

First off, the thing that's been on my mind quite a bit this week was the weather... for the most part it's been nice fall weather - in the high 60's and low 70's - but there was two days this week it was miserably cold. One of them, it was raining as well, and the temperature got no higher than 48 degrees. Needless to say, this Florida boy wasn't very happy. The grass was also frozen a couple mornings this week, so that was exciting. 

Along with this awesome weather, we've been dealing a lot with fun medical issues! My companion had a wonderful looking rash on Tuesday from an allergic reaction to something, and then Wednesday I got a swell sounding cold with a nice cough to go with it. So, this week has been fun in that aspect :) we've still gotten a little bit of work done, but not nearly as much as if we were both 100% well :/

A lot of the work we've been doing though has been service! One day, we spent a good 4 hours helping one of the members pack the moving truck to go to New Mexico - Sad day :( Another day we spent the vast majority of it helping one of the members work on building a bathroom in our house! It's been pretty exciting - I'll attach a picture or two of it :) 

But, the highlight of the week - by far - was Nakesha was interviewed for baptism! She passed, which was awesome :) She's super ready, but we're still waiting a couple weeks for the ward to get to know her a little better since none of her family is in town. So, pray for her if you please :)

Aside from that, last monday we had zone p-day and a super awesome specialized training meeting. They based the training on the talk "Beware of Pride" and we discussed some things we can do to become better, stronger missionaries. Some quick highlights from it: 

• Pride is competitive, so to become a better missionary don't let comparisons define you
• disobedience is a way we show pride, so obedience is a key to becoming a better missionary as it requires humility to obey someone else
• We must Know the Doctrine - as we study the doctrines of Christ, we are better able to teach, expound, and testify. Knowing the doctrine also humbles us as it increases our perspective and knowledge of God. 
• We must learn to pray. Prayer is one of the ultimate forms of humility, because a prideful person cannot pray. They cannot understand that prayers are two way communication, because they do not obey Heavenly Father and will not receive answers that do not follow their way of thinking. So, take control of your prayers! Seek to remember what you pray for, and learn to recognize those answers. Sincerely account to the Lord for what you do, and seek his counsel to help you!

Alright, those are the quick highlights from that. Now I get to talk about things I actually studied... until I think of some other random thing to throw in here :P

So, a scripture that stuck out to me this week was in Alma 37:44, when Alma tells his son Helaman to "For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land." He teaches us that it truly is simple to follow Christ because of how simple his doctrine is. In 3 Nephi 27:19 he tells us his doctrine in the simplest form I've found: "And no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom; therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end." It truly is that simple, faith, repentance, and "faithfulness unto the end" is all we need to do. But that is everything, isn't it? Think about that this week ;)

Another thing I've been studying this week is the steps that take someone from a simple desire to believe, all the way to true conversion. The Sons of Mosiah's account talks about this pretty detailed, so here are some scriptures I really liked:

Focus of my study: Alma 22:18 & Alma 23:6

Desire: Alma 32:27 & Mark 9:14-24

Testimony: Alma 5:45-47 & John 7:17

Conversion: Luke 22:32 & Mosiah 5:2

You could spend days learning about this stuff, so that's all I'll talk about for now ;)

I think that's all for this week! 

'Til Next Time!

Love,

Elder Nielson

October 14th, 2013 - Where has the time gone?!?

Hey Everyone!

So, I just realized that tomorrow is my 5 month mark... which is ridiculous, because it definitely doesn't feel like it's been 5 months since I got our here. When I hit this point during my year at BYU, it definitely seemed like it lasted forever... but I guess that's what happens when you're out working each day instead of doing something less exciting like studying. 

Anyway, this week was pretty grand!

So, some highlights! 

First off this week, we'll start with yesterday. We had a super tasty dinner at one member's house - pancakes, a hobo breakfast type skillet thing, and biscuits! It was super tasty, and we had a pretty good chat. We talked about Elder Ballard's talk and the challenge that was issued therein. He said: "We are simply asking all members to pray, knowing that if every member, young and old, will reach out to just “one” between now and Christmas, millions will feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful gift to the Savior." We discussed what it meant to "reach out" as he said, and decided that it could include anything from inviting them to meet with the missionaries, inviting them to church, to read the Book of Mormon, or even to invite them to a family home evening or dinner where the gospel is discussed. If you noticed, each thing we came up with started with "inviting" - it involves doing SOMETHING to invite people to come. We're not being asked to invite them to go somewhere, but to come where we are, to feel the joy we feel each time we do something that invites the spirit into our lives. This same challenge was issued to the Ponca City Ward from our stake high councilman when he spoke yesterday, so it's definitely something we should consider doing. So, for those of you reading this who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I invite you to accept the invitation of Elder Ballard - and the rest of the people included in that "We" (The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles). For those who aren't yet, I invite you to check it out! Come and see for yourselves what brings me - and so many others - such great joy.

Another cool thing that I found out this week is that my step-brother Frank has decided to serve a mission! Yay!! He's super awesome, and I'm definitely excited that he's made this decision to follow the commandments of the Lord and serve him. If y'all could pray for him that'd be awesome :) I know that prayer is powerful, and he could definitely use some.

This week we had a ward fish fry! I love when the ward has activities, because it's such an easy way to invite people to meet more members of the church! We had about 60 people there, and about 10 of them were non-members! It was super neat, and everyone there said they had a fantastic time. The great meal was just a bonus ;) even though I don't like fish...

Anyway, this Tuesday we had dinner with this super awesome family! We got to have Chili and Cornbread  - super tasty - and we talked a lot about the importance of finding out for yourself what things are truth. Something I realized from that conversation was that even though everyone has to find out for themselves what the truth is, there is and only will be one truth. God, our Heavenly Father, is the source of all truth, and as such he's told us that there will only ever be one true church that is built upon his doctrine. That church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I know that, and you could try to tell me otherwise, but like Alma says in Alma 30:40-41 

"40 And now what evidence have ye that there is no God, or that Christ cometh not? I say unto you that ye have none, save it be your word only.
 41 But, behold, I have all things as a testimony that these things are true; and ye also have all things as a testimony unto you that they are true; and will ye deny them?" 

Aside from all that, this week was pretty normal ;) My Studies were grand, as I spent about 90% of my time in the Book of Mormon. I started it from the beginning again on the 4th, with the intent to highlight all the times Christ, God, or any other name for them, or a pronoun referring to them is said - which results in many underlines throughout the book. It probably won't be much use for studying later, but it definitely has opened my mind to how much it truly is "Another Testament of Jesus Christ". I'm at Mormon 9 at the moment, and hope to finish it today sometime, so we'll see what happens :)

So this week was pretty great :) 

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Nielson

October 8th, 2013 - October... 7th? or 8th?

Hey Everyone!

There was a little mixup yesterday, which resulted in us emailing today instead... so sorry if that threw off your plans! I hope each of you are doing awesome!

This week has been pretty awesome. We had some pretty neat visits with people, and there was General Conference - which was awesome - to make the week that much better! There were also transfers this last week, and the new guy in the district is pretty neat - he's from Medesto, California so that's pretty cool. 

So, I'm going to start with conference... because that was pretty much the highlight of my week! I love listening to all the talks and learning things that I can do better to follow Christ, and there was much that I learned!

In order to make this make any sense, I'm just going to list my favorite thought from each speaker/talk... otherwise this might get chaotic ;) None of these are going to be word for word, it's just the jist that I wrote down, so bear with me.

Elder Hales -> The Greatest Blessings of conference come after conference is over when we live the principles taught.

Elder Solares -> Failing one day is no reason we can't succeed the next!

Sister Stephens -> 1 Corinthians 12 - Do you know who you are?

Elder Dube -> In the service of the Lord it's not where you serve, but HOW!

Elder Bednar -> As we live the law of tithing we often receive simple, significant, subtle blessings.

President Uchtdorf (Sat. Morning) -> Come, Join with us! Three reasons people do so: (1) Church restored by Jesus Christ himself with his authority (2) Church provides opportunities to do good (3) Walking the path of discipleship leads to precious blessings

President Packer -> Scriptures are a key to our spiritual protection

Elder Christofferson -> There is no career superior to being a mother or father

Elder Nielsen -> We must each develop our own game plan, but there are some things we should include: (1) Specifically pray each day, to bring someone to the gospel (2) Pray for the missionaries serving in your area and their investigators BY NAME (3) Invite a friend to an activity

Elder Valenzuela -> Let us reach out to others with Faith & Love

Elder Dyches -> All that is unfair about life can be made right through the atonement

Elder Holland -> If we do not take the time to be well, we will certainly take time to be ill later. Live by faith, hold fast to hope, and show compassion one to another

Elder Ballard -> Sharing the gospel is a privilege, not a burden

Elder Perry -> The Articles of Faith are among the most important and concise statements of doctrine

Bishop Caussé -> We must make the first move to make people feel welcome

Elder Funk -> Humble yourself, Abide in his word, and Hearken to the Spirit

President Uchtdorf (Priesthood) -> You can do it NOW!

President Eyring (Priesthood) -> The parable of the good Samaritan is also a parable of the overtaxed priesthood bearer and we are the Good Samaritan

President Monson (Priesthood) -> There is no time like the present to kick up our home teaching efforts!

President Eyring (Sun. Morning) -> God has devised means to save each of his children

Elder Oaks -> Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God's Approval

Sister Oscarson -> Desire to share the gospel & confidence to do so is a natural result of conversion

Elder Maynes -> Our ability to endure is proportional to our testimony & conversion

Elder Scott -> As you lose your life in the service of God's children, Satan's temptations lose power in your life

President Monson (Sun. Morning) -> Making the gospel the center of our lives is the key to enduring

Elder Cook -> People can be enslaved by philosophies and physical things

Elder Andersen -> We receive Comfort, Strength, Protection, and Peace through the Priesthood

Brother McConkie -> Missionaries and Teachers are still too focused on delivering comfortable, repetitious lessons from the manuals, we must learn to treasure up the lesson plan and then set it aside to follow the spirit's guidance and truly teach as the Savior would

Elder Hamilton -> There is a purpose for each hour of the 3 hour Sunday Meeting block, and we should never pick or choose which meetings to attend, but faithfully attend all of them

Elder Ochoa -> Don't forget to look up!

Elder Vinson -> The more I learned about Christ, the less I wanted to leave him

Elder Nelson -> We are never too young to learn or too old to change

President Monson (Sun. Afternoon) -> May we show more kindness to those around us

And those are the thoughts I have for conference :) Sorry if that's a little more lengthy than intended, but that's what you get :P

Aside from conference, this week was pretty normal... if such a thing exists in missionary work? We had some neat lessons with our investigators, started teaching a couple new people, and learned a lot. One visit in particular was pretty neat, as we taught the first half of the plan of salvation to one of the people we've been visiting with for a while now. He was super interested in it, but about halfway through it we veered off and discussed conference and priesthood authority instead of the rest of the plan, and it was super awesome to be able to testify of the fact we do indeed have a living prophet on the earth today! We do! The Book of Mormon is proof that Christ's church has been restored to the earth today, so read it! Then pray and ask Heavenly Father if it's true - I know he'll tell you it is, because he's the same guy who told me it is! So yeah, that lesson was pretty sweet :)

So, I guess that's all for today... since my time is up for this email :P

Love,

Elder Nielson