February 24th, 2014 - And So It Goes On!

Hey Everyone!

I can't believe another week has already flown by! There's been a ton of things that happened this week, so I'll probably only get to share some highlights, yet again. I don't think I'll ever get to fully tell you all about the crazy adventures we get to have each day, or else my email would be forever long! Anyway, we've had a couple pretty great experiences this week that I wanted to tell y'all about!

The first was that on Tuesday we had a lesson with an awesome family where we watched "The Touch of the Master's Hand". It's a super old movie, but it was still really awesome and the spirit was strong. We also had a couple other super spiritual lessons, one of which was on Friday where we talked about the Plan of Salvation and it was just awesome. There was another spiritual lesson with a lady who's best friend growing up was a member and she basically just wanted to ask us a bunch of questions, so it was cool to see the spirit guiding our answers and to see her change as we talked.

Of course, I can't fail to mention how awesome the members are here, especially since we have a meal most everyday. But, more importantly they're doing missionary work! It's super awesome to see the members - especially the youth - invite their friends and neighbors to learn more about the church and the impact it has, and the strengthening affect it has on their testimonies. It's pretty neat to see.

Of particular note, was of course Saturday! Those are like the best days here in Choctaw, and this one was particularly good! The Harrah Band was having a pancake breakfast, and since there are a couple members in the band that would be performing there they bought us some tickets to come eat and listen to them. It was super neat, especially because there were a ton of people there! Later that day, after doing some studies and other important things we went to eat lunch with a couple members, because they wanted to buy us hamburgers at the high school soccer game's concession stand. It was super awesome for one because the lady working the concession stand wouldn't take the members money, and also because the members ended up being asked questions by people about the church just because we were there for a short time. It was awesome! Then we got to go out and help the Grants clear some brush for their fence line they're putting up to get ready to have some cattle, and that was a blast. Their home teacher is awesome and was there even longer than we were! It was super awesome because their home teach is also the Elders Quorum President and yesterday he opened it up for this next Saturday for anyone who wants to come help to get some work done, so that was awesome. That night was of course awesome because we had dinner with a ton of members since the family that signed up was also having a birthday party for their little girl, and it was just a ton of fun. Then we got to play volleyball with some members and a couple investigators and so it was just a fantastic day!

Well... since this email is already a touch longer than I wanted it to be, I'll have to just do a quick list of scriptures I found I liked in my studies this week with a couple talks that I enjoyed.

• 2 Nephi 6:9
• 2 Nephi 9:4
• 2 Nephi 9:19
• 2 Nephi 9:23
• 2 Nephi 9:39-40
• 2 Nephi 9:51
• 2 Nephi 10:23-25
• 2 Nephi 11:8
• D&C 38:23-27
• D&C 38:40-41
• D&C 39:6
• D&C 39:10-12
• D&C 41:5
• Romans 8:16-17
• "Faithful Parents and Wayward Children"
• "These Things I know"
• "Come, Join With Us"

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

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

February 17th, 2014 - Valentine's Day and a crazy weekend!

Hey Everyone!

This week was pretty dang good, with the weekend being quite exceptional. So... I'm probably going to focus on that part of the week for this email! Hopefully you all had a better Valentine's day than I did, since as a missionary we don't really have time to celebrate holidays like that... or most any holiday except Christmas and Thanksgiving ;) But, it was still pretty neat as it was the start of a fantastic weekend!

On Friday, I got to do an exchange with Elder Ott, and he's a fantastic missionary! I learned a ton, and we got to see a couple less actives before dinner with one of the exciting families in the ward! They fed us homemade pizza, and it was super tasty, and made me quite glad that there are such awesome people out here. That night we got to go out to see Tom, and had a pretty awesome visit with him focused on the atonement and how to use that in our daily lives.

Then on Saturday, we had a pretty packed day! We started out helping a family move, which was super fun as they had a good amount of help there and lots of things to move so our effort was well used. Then we had an extremely tasty lunch with another awesome family in the ward (they were busy that night so they did lunch instead of dinner), before going out to see Brother Grant, probably our favorite investigator. He's got a nice property, and quite a few horses so each Saturday we go up there and help him move some feed and hay around for them, before sharing a message with him. His wife, Sister Grant, is a member and she's pretty awesome as well, so it's always a blast. This week we got to help them put some fence posts in, as the weather was super nice and we had a little extra time since we didn't have a dinner appointment. Then we had an awesome lesson with them about the plan of salvation and temples and the importance of keeping commandments, so it was a fantastic day.

Sunday came and went like a blur, as we started out with part of our studies before church, and they rest after, with an awesome church service between! The Grants, Smiths, and Brother Harvey all came out to church, and it was just an awesome day! Sacrament was really focused on temples (we had a counselor in the temple presidency there), so we were glad for the discussion we had with Brother Grant the day before. After church we had lunch with the Bighams, which was super tasty and good. Then we finished our studies off... and by that point it was pretty much time for dinner! We did go out and try to see a couple people since we had about a half hour of wiggle room, but nobody answered :( We had an awesome dinner with the Lemmons, but since they live way out there it took up most of our night... so by the time we got home it was almost time to start planning... so it was a dang good Sabbath day!

This week I read a couple fantastic talks, the first being "Stand ye in Holy Places" by President Harold B. Lee. The other was "But If Not..." by Elder Simmons of the Seventy. But, I focused a lot of my study time in the scriptures, and so I have quite a few this week that y'all might want to check out. If you have any thoughts related to them, let me know as I quite enjoy hearing what others have to think about scriptures I like.

So, the list for this week!

• 1 Nephi 22:31
• 2 Nephi:
• 2:2
• 2:8-9
• 2:30
• 5:10,27
• D&C
• 29:5-7
• 29:49
• 30:11
• 33:8-10
• 35:5-6
• 35:12
• 36:5-7
• 38:23-27
• 38:39
• 1 Kings 3
• Isaiah 11:2-4
• 1 Samuel 16:7

When you consider that I have over 7 hours a week to study... this list could be a heck of a lot longer, but I usually try not to go too quickly ;)

Anyway, this looks like it's probably on the shorter side, but that's alright since we have quite a bit to do today. But, I hope you all have a fantastic week! Love ya!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

February 10th, 2014

Hey Everyone!

I can't believe another week has passed already, but life keeps moving on regardless of if we want it to or not! This week has been jam packed full of cool events, but since I never have enough time to write already, I'll have to pick a couple to highlight. Sorry :(

The first thing I wanted to highlight this week was the importance of having members out with us! We had a super awesome experience on Saturday where the member we had out with us bore powerful testimony of the spirit and how it had prompted him to rearrange his schedule to come out to this specific lesson with us, and it was just neat. If only y'all could have been there, because the spirit was just so powerful for the rest of the visit and it totally changed what could have very easily turned into a one-and-done family. So yeah. Help the missionaries, because if they're anything like me they really really really need it ;)

Yesterday we had a youth fireside, which was probably one of the least organized things I've ever participated in as we really didn't find out any details about it until Friday and those details kept changing all the way until Sunday. But, with some serious help from the spirit it turned out to be an awesome experience for all those involved, and the refreshments were super awesome! There were a couple miracles involved, one of which was because in sacrament meeting we found out the parents were invited to come as well and we hadn't planned on that but it worked out super well as the parents were able to testify that the situations we practiced for actually happen, so that was a pretty awesome experience. Another was that the youth actually participated! We had a couple parts planned that would have been super short without their participation, but after a little while they actually started to put in their ideas and it turned out pretty well. During the fireside we also watched a couple videos that y'all would probably enjoy:

video 1!

Video 2!

Video 3!

Since I went through all that work to put those links in... 

Anyway, another miracle this week was on Wednesday night after we had run out of plans after the member who was scheduled to come out with us bailed (he had strep throat, so it was a decent excuse), so we were debating between going in to clean the apartment (we were pretty close by and it really really needed to be done), or trying one last potential who hasn't yet been home in the 2 months since they first ran into him. So, we decided to try him and we had a super spiritual lesson that started out with him asking what our basic beliefs were so we shared the Articles of Faith, and then he asked to know a little more about Joseph Smith so we shared the restoration! It was awesome, and then after that his wife offered us some Taco soup, so my day was pretty much made. We hadn't had a dinner that night with members so we had eaten pretty sparsely, so it was definitely a miracle ;)

My studies this week were super awesome, at least from my point of view ;) I spent a lot of time reading talks, studying the Book of Mormon, and in the Doctrine and Covenants. A few thoughts from that, starting with the Doctrine and Covenants. I particularly enjoyed reading through section 20 this week, and a verse that I hadn't really noticed before was verse 76 where it talks about how the priest or elder is to administer the Sacrament, particularly the phrase "solemn prayer" as I used to think that the sacrament prayer was just kinda something that we said each week but really, we're supposed to really pray sincerely because this is something that's so vital to each of us and not something that we should take for granted or just kinda go through the motions. Another point I particularly liked was in section 25, verses 12-13. It says: "12 For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.13 Wherefore, lift up thy heart and rejoice, and cleave unto the covenants which thou hast made." And I just thought it was super neat how he tells us to rejoice and cleave unto our covenants for those are the sources of our greatest blessings from God.

Anyway, some other verses I liked that y'all should go check out are:

In 1 Nephi:

• 16:8-9
• 16:29
• 17:3
• 17:49-51
• 19:6-7
• 19:20

In the Doctrine and Covenants:

• 20:11-12
• 20:14-15
• 21:5-6
• 23:3
• 24:12-14
• 27:15-18

And then I also loved a couple talks I read this week, "You Can Do it Now" By President Uchtdorf in this last conference, and "Life is Eternal" by President Benson. So... y'all should go check those out.

Alrighty, so I thought of one last experience that we had this week that I wanted to talk to y'all about and it was quite intense. We talked to this one part member family that's always great to see about Elder Scott's talk from this last conference, "Personal Strength through the Atonement of Jesus Christ". The talk is super awesome and talks about the fathers of the 2000 stripling warriors, so if y'all don't remember it... click the link and refresh a little bit. As we discussed this talk with them though, we were able to feel the spirit testify to them that the atonement is real, and that even when we overcome things there is always more to do but through Christ we are able to do everything we need to. Anyway, it was just super awesome and that talk is fantastic ;)

I think that's all I've got time for this week! Have a fantastic week y'all! Love ya!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

February 3rd, 2014 - Snowing?!?

Hey Everyone!!

How are y'all doing?!? This week was pretty awesome, up until it snowed yesterday and church was cancelled... but aside from that it was a great week! I've had some good studies, we've had some awesome visits, and some fun in the snow ;)

To start out today, I'll talk a little bit about what I've been studying, since I know you all just love reading these things ;) First though, they changed the home page of LDS.org again, so y'all should go check it out. It's pretty neat, and the article I saw when I was looking at it I quite enjoyed:https://www.lds.org/topics/family/happiness?lang=eng Anyway, my studies this week have focused primarily on the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, as I'm going through and marking up my scriptures a little bit more. It took me quite a while to find a system that I think will work that I like, and it's been going good so far. Some scriptures I've particularly liked are:

• 1 Nephi 15:11, 24
•  1 Nephi 11:17
• 1 Nephi 13: 32, 39, 41
• 1 Nephi 14:14
• D&C 6... the entire section, but specifically verses: 7,14-16,22-24,29-31, and 34-37
• D&C 10: 66
• D&C 11:18, 20, 21, 30
• D&C 14:8
• D&C 18:4-5, 19-21, 27
• D&C 19: 23, 28

Those are the main scriptures that have stuck out in my studies this week, if you think you know why tell me ;) Aside from that I've been reading some talks throughout this week, and one that I particularly liked was this one:TALK!  After y'all are done with that one, you can finish reading my email ;)

Space to encourage you to go watch this talk :P

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2006/04/your-mission-will-change-everything?lang=eng

Anyway, onto the highlights of my week! This week absolutely flew by, but one of the first highlights I'll mention is that after emailing last week we went to Chick-fil-a, which made me super happy ;) It's a little ways away, but totally worth it. Moving on, another highlight this week was getting to watch The Testaments (a church movie) with the Smith family, as I really love that movie and how much it testifies of Christ throughout. So that day was automatically sweet.

Then on Wednesday we got to have a member out with us in the afternoon, which was awesome as he was willing to do a bit of tracting with us and we saw a ton of miracles while with him. So... moral of the story... don't be afraid to do tracting with the missionaries - it's worth it ;)

Thursday was a bit of a sadder day, as we found out that Elizabeth's grandma was in the hospital and probably not going to make it (and we've since found out that she's passed away), so if you could pray for her and her family that would be awesome. We were able to talk about Alma 40 with her, which went super well, and the spirit was super strong there so that was good. We also had an awesome lesson with another couple we visit with - Mark and Jennifer - who could really use your prayers to help them feel the spirit move them to go to church... as the reason they weren't planning on coming this week was due to the super bowl ;)

Friday was pretty neat as we met a less active member who was just moving into our ward, so that was pretty cool. It's interesting how the Lord works to make sure people don't get lost ;)

The highlight of this week though, was definitely Saturday, as even though Elder Park was sick there were still a ton of awesome things happening. We had breakfast with this awesome member family, and since our appointment cancelled we did a mini-exchange so that they could still go to theirs so I was able to watch over Elder Park and spend a little time reading "The Infinite Atonement" By Elder Callistar, which is a super awesome book. We also had dinner with an awesome family - homemade pizza! It was super fun, as they let us put the toppings and such on, afterwhich we all headed to the church for some volleyball. Volleyball was awesome, as we had about 10 people there for the most part, and two of them were a couple the other Elders are teaching, so that was fun. Then when we woke up Sunday to see it starting to snow... we were a bit disappointed as it was almost guaranteed that church would be cancelled but they waited until about an hour before to make the call. But oh well, we still had a great week!

So... to summarize, we had a great week and y'all should pray for:

• Elizabeth and her family (grandmother)
• Mark and Jennifer (Church)
• Smiths (Church)

I hope y'all have an awesome week! Love ya!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson