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