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
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