June 10th, 2013 - Wait... It's already the 10th?!? (June 10th blog)

Hey Everyone,
This is Jordan's blog post from the 10th. Enjoy reading!
-Spencer A. Nielson

Hey Everyone!

It's been a crazy week for sure, but things should be slowly becoming more normal now. We've done everything from tearing down fences to chopping up downed trees, to proselyting all day!

So on Tuesday we went down to a little town of about 600 people called Carney and helped out a guy there to clean up from the Tornado damage. We tore down a fence for him that consisted of a layer of Chain-link fencing, then a layer of barbed wire, and then a layer of chicken wire. It was pretty tough to get it down, but eventually we were able to accomplish the task. Then that night we were able to visit with a less active family and we talked with them about the doctrine of Christ and going to church. It was super awesome! We also met and got to teach a new investigator about the restoration, and it was super awesome because he just lives down the street from us!

Then the next day, we had a miracle where we stopped by to see one of the part member families in our ward and were able to have a really spiritual discussion about weaknesses and turning to Christ to help overcome them. It was super awesome, and I think it helped them a lot.

Then Thursday was pretty awesome as we had a member go out with us to one of our appointments. Sadly, the appointment fell through, but the miracle was after that we were able to visit with two other people and teach them! It was awesome, and I was glad he was willing to go out and help us. Sadly, he moved away to Texas this past Saturday. Then we got to visit with a recent convert named Tyler and we were able to talk about a lot of the questions he had - a lot of which regarded the Priesthood. Later that night, we were able to visit with another person and talk with him. It was pretty great!

The day after that, Friday, we had district meeting, and the zone leaders came up to visit us and counsel with us during that. We discussed getting members involved, and also the commitment pattern. It was pretty great, and the zone leaders had some awesome insights. After that we went out to lunch at a Mexican all you can eat buffet named El Patio, and it was pretty tasty (they only have the buffet for lunch) and you should try it if you're ever up this way in Ponca City. Then one of the zone leaders, Elder White, went out with us that day and we were able to visit with a less active named Marion, and his uncle ( a non member) named Darrell and we talked about the atonement and recognizing God's hand in our lives. It was pretty awesome, and Elder White had some great insights for us. Sadly, our appointments for later fell through, but the people we had set up a church tour with showed up and that was a great experience. We had the church tour with the three of us missionaries and our awesome ward missionary, Brother Avans, and it went over quite well. The family that we gave the tour to then followed us out to a ward cook-out where there was some delicious food to be partaken of. They had a great time there, and so did we, so it was a pretty great day.

The next day we got to go down with some of the members of the ward to help clean up down in Shawnee, and we spent a good 5 hours down there cutting up large trees that had fallen and putting them in a pile to be burned later. It was hard work, but was definitely worth it as we were able to help out an older lady who would never have been able to do it herself. Then when we got back that night we were able to see a few investigators and visit with them briefly, and it was another day that flew by.

Yesterday, Sunday we had a great ward council meeting, and the ward leadership was quite happy with all the effort that we had put into that week and we're going to do even better this week. Then we had church, and the family that we had given a church tour to on Friday came! It was a great experience to have them there, and we were super happy. The speakers in Sacrament talked about Priesthood keys - one was a member of the bishopric and the other was the high councilman - so they were kept pretty interested in what was going on because most of it was new information. Then they stayed for Sunday school, and I got to teach the Gospel Principles lesson and help them understand the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The members that were also in the class were a great help in explaining that clearly, because it is definitely something that is experienced differently for everyone. After out studies and meals that day, we headed out to proselyte and were unable to see any of the people on our list. We did however, at the very end of the night, meet a great potential investigator and we'll be seeing him next Saturday.

So that's my crazy week, and sadly I haven't gotten as much study time in this week as a typical week is supposed to, as we didn't have studies on Tuesday or Saturday. In addition to that, instead of the 2 hours of companionship study we're supposed to have most days of the week as part of the 12 week training program we only got to have the full 2 hours on Wednesday.

Anyway, for my studies this week I have taken on the challenge of applying the scriptures I'm reading into my life and the lives of my investigators. So, a chapter I read this week is 1 Nephi 18 and a few things stuck out to me. For one thing, in verse 3 it was awesome to see that when you pray often the Lord blesses you. Then in verse 4 when I applied it to myself I noticed that if you humble yourself and let yourself become a "work of the Lord" you'll find that you turn out "exceedingly fine" and the same goes for any one of us. Then in verses 13-15 I put myself in for Laban and Lemuel and realized that sometimes it may take until the 4th prompting for me to realize that I need to do something, and that it also goes for my investigators where it may take until the 4th time for them to realize that the message we're sharing is God's word. Then in verse 21, Nephi calms the storm through faith and I related that to when Christ did the same thing and then realized that, if God needed me to, I could also do the exact same thing through faith in Christ. It was a pretty great study session that day ;)

Then another day I studied on how to best develop the Christlike attribute of virtue, and as part of that I realized it was important to figure out what virture was. So I tried looking in True to the Faith and didn't find a definition, which made me sad. So I came up with one myself... and it's that virture is goodness and being morally strong, and that it is an attribute that when combined with Faith in Christ gives one power to do all things. So I worked on finding ways to develop virtue. I read D&C 121:45-46, and came up with some ways to let virtue garnish my thoughts unceasingly. For example, making sure that I'm always praying is important, as it memorizing hymns/scriptures so that if any unclean thoughts do enter my head I have something to call upon to clear them out. Another thing I deduced was that it was important to seek after virtue, and to pray for the Lord's help in developing it. A way to work on developing it as well is to magnify and exemplify what I have been called to do. Then I read in 2 Peter 1:3-8, and focused on verse 5, which talked about adding to my faith virtue, and to my virtue knowledge. From that I realized that as you have faith and experience things, virtue is what takes that and makes it knowledge for you to use.

Anyway, that's mainly what I've learned so far this week in addition to studying more of the lessons to know them better.

That's all for this week, oh and for those of you who are wondering, still send things to the mission office (416 SW 79th St. Ste 210 Oklahoma City, Ok 73139) as they forward them out to me wherever I am.

Love you all,

Elder Jordan Nielson

June 17th, 2013 - Alright... someone needs to slow this down!

Hey Everyone,
So this is Jordan's blog post from June 17. I know I know, I am a little late in putting it up but late is better than never right? Anyway, enjoy reading!
-Spencer A. Nielson

Hey Everyone!

I seriously can't believe another week has gone by already! I hit my month mark since I entered the MTC a couple days ago, and that was surprising enough. Seriously... missions aren't quite long enough... Considering there's about 4 months of training before you really get kicking, it's not as long as it seems. Then there's the fact that it flies by like no other!

This week has probably been the best week yet... actually it definitely has. My companion's subject for his weekly email was "Awesomest Week Ever!" and I think mine would also be that if it hadn't flown by so quickly!

On another note, you all should vote on if you prefer me going day by day or if you prefer just listing some cool experiences and scriptures... I don't really mind either way, but someone should get a vote going for me.

But anyway, Tuesday was pretty awesome! We were able to meet with a less active member and visit with him. He was pretty awesome, and I hope that he was able to feel the spirit that was there as we discussed the importance of reading scriptures daily. It was pretty awesome, as we just barely caught him before he headed out the back door. Then we met with a recent convert who hasn't been to church in a couple weeks and had an inspiring lesson with him about the importance of church. It really helped me to see really why we go to church and why it's important to make that sacrifice to get out of bed in the morning to renew the covenants I've made with my Father in Heaven. Then, because a couple members had cancelled on going out with us, we asked him if he wanted to go teaching with us that night. It was pretty awesome, as we got to visit with an older lady and teach her the stop smoking workshop and he was able to bear his testimony of prayer there and it was just a super awesome spiritual experience. Then we visited with a family we're teaching, and he was able to bear his testimony about the importance of church to them as they had come to church for the first time the sunday before. Then on the way back with him, we started talking about missions, and the coolest thing happened. He said that he had been considering if he wanted to serve a mission and do what we do, and that his experiences that night had helped him decide that he indeed wanted to serve! It was awesome to see the change in him just from that afternoon when he was kind of luke-warm about going to church to deciding to serve a mission by the end of the night.

Then came Wednesday, which was a pretty great day. We had a meeting down in the city for the new Veteran Missionaries (those who have been out for a couple weeks) and President Taylor, Sister Taylor, and the AP's gave us some awesome training and counsel. It was incredible! Then we headed back up to Ponca and with the two and a half hours we had left we got to work. We had asked in Priesthood on Sunday if any of the brethern could come out teaching with us to an appointment we had, and after none of them raised their hands our investigator who was there leaned over to us and told us he would ask his wife, but he wanted to come out with us. Then on Wednesday the investigator we had the appointment with cancelled, and all of our back ups were also not home, so we decided to see a less active older couple who lives around the block from him. It was an awesome experience as he was able to bear his testimony about church (even though he had only been there once) and they both shared some of their experiences with him. So, basically we had an investigator go out teaching with us to visit a less active... even though it probably is supposed to be the other way around. It was awesome!

Thursday came, and Thursday went. It was my first exchange, as my companion is the district leader and par tof his responsibility is to go on exchanges with all the members of the district. But... I'm out of time, so I'll start with this Thursday next week when I have more time!

Love,

Elder Nielson

June 24th, 2013 - Elder Nielson's Weekly Blog

Hey Everyone,
So I have been totally slacking in putting up Jordan's blog posts for the past three weeks but I hope you all will forgive me. So anyway here is his latest one and I will put up the other two as well so enjoy. (They are pretty long... but full of good stuff)
-Spencer A. Nielson

Hey Everyone!

How are you all doing?

Wait just a minute... It's already June 24th?!?!?!?

Alright, so I've been in the field about a month now, and it's pretty much flown by. Like seriously... July is less than a week away and it's kind of scary - we get a new mission president this Friday!

This week pretty much flew by, with zone preparation day last Monday, lots of work Tuesday -Thursday, going on an exchange to Blackwell on Friday, Tornado Clean up on Saturday, church and that awesome broadcast yesterday, and finally I'm here! But, my last email wasn't as complete as I would have liked to make it - and I have a bit more time today, so let's start there.

I kind of mentioned in my last email about last Thursday (the 13th) going on my first exchange - it was a pretty swell experience to see how another Elder does his work. I learned a lot from him, and increased my confidence quite a bit as I was put on the spot a lot more and cared less about how people responded as it wasn't my area. That might have been a bad mindset... but it definitely allowed me to be more bold with the people - which was good - and it also made it easier to talk to the people as I didn't figure I'd see them again in the near future. Then came Friday, and we had a miracle in that we were able to catch a couple people who we don't usually get to see.

Saturday was pretty great in that we were able to go out with one of the most solid members in our ward. We were able to teach and visit with 3 people and they all went pretty great. We even saw some of the people we taught at Church the next day! Speaking of which the next day was pretty awesome. We had church and it was Father's day which made church even better! It was probably our laziest church day ever as all the teachers were there and so we didn't get to substitute for any of the Sunday School classes, and most of the young men were there as well! It was pretty awesome. Then that night we had a great experience visiting with a couple less active members (who haven't been to church in probably 5 or more years) and it was neat to be able to listen to them and just gently encourage them to read their scriptures and pray and then work towards attending church.

Alright, now that we're up to this week (we're on the 17th for those who lost track like me and had to go look it up). For zone preparation day we went bowling, which was pretty awesome. My best game I bowled a 104, which was pretty solid for not having bowled in months. There was an elder there who bowled a 185 one game, which was quite impressive. He gave me a few tips as well which helped out a bit.

Then we had a great zone training meeting, where we discussed personal challenges that we face, and how through his Atonement, Christ is able to help us overcome them. We also talked a bit about how to get along better with out companions, and to apply the Doctrine of Christ into our lives. A question I asked myself a couple times during this meeting, was "How can I desire to... " and the answer I've found is generally to look back on experiences that I've had previously and then pray to understand the Atonement more. As I've done that I've discovered that the promise in Moroni 10:5 - that by the Power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things - is true for everything. I've also learned from that meeting that it is vital to get to know the members you're working with - and the members getting to know the missionaries - so that all can work together to invite others to come unto Christ.

Our zone (and now mission) is implementing a program called "#THEFLOOD". It's a pretty simple way for members to get more involved spreading the gospel to those around them. the basis for the program is found in Moses 7:62 "...and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood, to gather out mine elect from the four quarters of the earth..." So with that verse, the challenge we give to the members is that every 2 weeks they (as a family) will give someone a Book of Mormon with their written testimony inside to help spread the gospel. There's 4 simple steps related to that, in the acronym P.R.A.Y.. The first step, Prayerfully consider is related to D&C 9:8and is where they consider who they could give the Book of Mormon to through prayer. After they decide on someone and the spirit confirms to them that it is a good choice, they make it Relevant. The scripture with that is 1 Nephi 19:23 and it's where you make it personal to them by writing your testimony inside. After that you Act in faith and actually give them the copy. The scripture with that is Mosiah 4:10 and it basically tells you that if you believe the gospel see that you do these things - meaning share it in this case. After that you're promised that Ye shall receive which is related to D&C 6:29-31 and because the promise in that scripture is from the Lord, you are sure of the promise in Ether 3:12. So basically, it's just a pretty simple way to share the Book of Mormon with those around you, and if you have any questions you're supposed to ask the missionaries in your area.

So yeah... that was only about half an hour of the meeting - so imagine how awesome the rest was! Another highlight from this week was on Saturday (the 22nd) when we went down with our ward to help with Tornado Clean up in Shawnee. We spent some time down there helping clean up an antique workshop - a place where they buy old furnishings and such and fix them up for antique stores - which was interesting as there was some pretty cool things there. But, most of it looked like junk to us so we spent a little while questioning why they wanted to keep so much of it, but that was their choice. It was pretty cool as we got to basically tear down a building (as 3/4 walls has blown away on the workshop) and move the contents to a car port they had just finished. After that we headed over and helped clean up some trees that they had cut down earlier in the day - Cedar trees for those who might want to know -and they were pretty huge. They made a sweet looking chair, but I didn't have my camera on me so there's no picture of it. We then headed up to Freddy's for lunch and we had some tasty food. Something super cool happened though - we were in our yellow Mormon Helping Hands shirts, and some random lady who we will probably never see again came up and thanked us for our hard work and left the brother who paid for our lunch with a couple twenties to "treat us to some ice cream". Now I don't know about you, but we all thought that was a miracle because we felt bad for having him pay for our lunch when we had just eaten at his house a couple days ago. It was neat to see how the Lord works in small ways. After that we headed back home and got back to work.

Another highlight of this last week was the Broadcast yesterday, which if you want to watch check it out here: http://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/special-broadcast?lang=eng it's about 2 hours, so be aware but it's super awesome! I learned so much about how to work better with the people in our area, and I'm so excited to start applying it. Now, there are some pretty exciting announcements in this broadcast, but most of them are going to be phased in throughout the next year so I'll let y'all know whatever happens.  

Alright, I think that's enough highlights about what all I'm doing, so now it's time for my favorite part of emailing home - the chance to share some things I've been studying!

My studies this week have mostly come from the Book of Mormon - particularly Mosiah and the first couple chapters of Alma. Something cool I realized as I was reading through Mosiah 12-15 (the story of Abinadi teaching King Noah the commandments) was that there were a few slight differences between the commandments but the basic jist of what was being asked is the same. It helped me realize that the Book of Mormon and the Bible really do teach the same thing, and it also helped me to recognize the importance of using both.

Another cool story I read this week is in Mosiah 24, specifically verses 13-15 as they helped me realize how willing the Lord is to help us throughout or trials. It was cool to read about their experience with the Lord's help and then try and see how the Lord blesses and helps me with my burdens. A few examples I came up with are as follows. (1) He strengthens me - there's no other way I would be able to bike how far we do (at least 8 miles a day) and talk to as many people with out his help. (2) He gives me what to say - a cool experience with that this week was when we were visiting with a family in our ward and sharing a spiritual thought with them before dinner. We talked about #THEFLOOD with them, and the sister asked what to do if you've already given someone a Book of Mormon to bring up the gospel again. We mentioned publications like "The Living Christ" as a way to bring up gospel subjects that she could bear testimony about, and she said to us that she had never thought of using those before. It was cool to see that the Lord really does help us know what to say right when we need it.

Today I was studying in Alma 5, which is a chapter I really like to read whenever I think I could use a little humbling. My favorite verse in the chapter - verse 26, reminds me often that I need to consistently reinforce my testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and the Book of Mormon, for without that constant strengthening that testimony would collapse. Something else I really like from this chapter is the kind of questions Alma asks the people. Most of the questions aren't just yes/no questions but they're there to really make you think about your life and reflect. As part of that reflection I've kind of challenged myself to apply this chapter more in my life by applying that samePRAY acronymn to it. But, switch it up a little bit by prayerfully considering which question to work on/answer that day, and then making it relevant to me by rewriting it so that it is a question being asked to me in this time and then acting throughout the day to apply it. Then the Ye shall receive step is kind of related to verse 46 of the chapter where "the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit" because I know that as I work to apply these soul searching questions into my life Heavenly Father will manifest by the Holy Ghost the things that I can do to be better and become more like him.

Alright... so that's kind of a long email, but I had some time today to write one :)

I hope y'all like it, and in case you didn't notice there were a couple links in there to the scriptures to make it easy to look it up so that I wouldn't have to quote them all and make my email twice as long as it already is.

Thanks for all that you guys do to help me!

Love,

Elder Nielson

June 3rd, 2013 - First week in the field... is over?!?

Hey all Spencer here. So here is another blog post from Jordan detailing his first week in the field. Have fun reading it is sort of long...

Hey Everyone!

It's been a super crazy first week here in the field! I got here on the 28th, and was out in my area by that night which was appearantly super unusual. We got to Oklahoma at about 2pm that day, and then were at the chapel that they were doing transfers at that week before 2:30pm. We had lunch and then had a super brief orientation before getting interviewed by President Taylor and sending a super quick email to our parents. We then got to meet our trainers and companion for the next six weeks, so it was super suspenseful! My companion/trainer/dad's name is Elder Rasmuson, and he's pretty awesome. He's from Saratoga Springs, Utah, and has been out a little over a year so far. His trainer/dad was Elder Fee so that's my grandpa. He's also been out a little over a year as he trained Elder Rasmuson when he was out for only 3 months. Anyway, they're both super awesome and knowledgeable. My companion and I are currently up in Ponca City, which is about 2.5 hours north of OKC and is a pretty small town. There's about 25,000 people here and about 80-100 active members in the ward.

My first real day in the field was eventful to say the least - we had to do some shopping as we didn't get to our area until late Tuesday night. So after lunch was when we really got to work and it was pretty cool. We got to stop by and visit some less actives and a few of the investigators and get some appointments to come teach them later in the week. We also got to help the son of one of the members move back into the ward which was pretty exciting to get to meet some of the ward members that first day. The next day was much of the same, yet very different as the people we saw were incredibly different and we got to teach a few lessons which made it that much more exciting. On a random note, we get two hours of companionship study each morning (except Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays because of various reasons) and we're a bike area. With my arrival - and that of another new missionary, Elder Spafford, we split the Ponca City Area and there's now four Elders. So in our ward we have Elder Spafford, his trainer Elder Glad, my trainer Elder Rasmuson, and me! Our district also includes another companionship over in Blackwell, Elders Roundy and Platt. Anyway, back to Thursday - overall it was a pretty successful day as the lessons went well and one of the less actives we met with came to church yesterday. On Friday we had district meeting, so the morning was shot with studying and that. Then after lunch we started to go around trying some people and it ended up being what my companion called a "Trial of your faith" day, as we didn't end up getting to see or teach anyone really as our two appointments fell through and then the weather got crazy. The weather was a very interesting thing to deal with, and I got to spend my first couple (of probably many) hours in a tornado shelter under orders of the mission president. Then that night the entire district stayed over at our house in preparation for the next day.

Saturday came, and we got up at 4:45am to head down to OKC to help with the tornado clean up efforts. Once we got down there, we had a meeting first with Elder Rasband of the presidency of the seventy, and he was awesome. He had been at a party to Celebrate President Eyring's 80th brithday the day before, and President Monson had sent him with 3 explicit things to tell us: (1) President Monson loves us (2) He prays specifically for us (3) He is grateful for our efforts. The spirit there was exceedingly strong, and it was pretty cool to be able to shake his hand. The most impressive part was probably the fact that 200 missionaries in the yellow "Helping Hands" shirts standing in the chapel was a sight to behold, so much so that one of the senators of Oklahoma - Jim Inhofe - came and spoke a few words to us. It was awesome. After that meeting we got to go and clean up a giant park for 3 hours and then we headed back up to Ponca City.

Yesterday was awesome, as we started out with church meetings at 9:30am, then the 3 hours of study, and then we went off to see people. We ended up meeting two awesome potential investigators and hopefully you'll find out more about them once we start teaching them.

So in my studies this first week I've studied a large range of things. The first day I focused my studies on lesson 1, and the scripture in Act 10:34-43 stuck out to me, especially verse 43, how Prophets are called to testify of Christ and that is what they have done since the beginning of time. The next day I focused on the section in Preach My Gospel about "How to begin teaching" and worked on learning those bullet points. I also spent some time in Alma 5, which is a pretty awesome chapter, especially if you want to ponder and think about some "Search your soul" questions. I especially like the question he asks in verse 26: "And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?" It's just one of those great questions that makes you really search your soul and see how you feel when you're asked that. I also love in verses 45-47 where he shares his testimony and how he gained it in what I can think of as the simplest way. I love those verses because, by the "Holy Spirit of God" I also know that Christ atoned for our sins and suffered our pains and afflications for us. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God by that same spirit and it has also testified to me that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God. Those verses have been a great strength to me in these first few days as I've worked to testify by that same power to others. Another day I spent studying the Gifts of the Spirit, and I found it super cool that those are found in the Book of Mormon (Moroni 10:9-19), New Testament (1 Corinthians 12:1-11), and the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 46:7-26). Those gifts are super awesome, and I've been able to see some of them in real life already on my mission - it's super cool.

Alright, well that's about it for this week... this email took about 20 minutes of my email time, so I hope you read it all the way through and it wasn't time spent for nothing :)

Love,

Elder Jordan Nielson