April 28th, 2014 - Shotgunned?!?

Hey Everyone!!

This week has definitely been an interesting week! Our zone leaders called last Wednesday and told us that our area is going to be taken over by some sister missionaries this transfer - which happens to be on Wednesday, so I'm getting moved to Ardmore, Oklahoma! My new address will be:

300 Sunset Drive SW Apt #343

Ardmore, OK 73401

It should be a blast, but first I'll reminisce about this week a little! It's been a pretty sweet week, with some neat miracles and experiences. First on my list is on Wednesday, shortly after we got that call the member we were out with introduced us to his friend Gary because we were just driving past his house and he thought it would be good, which it was. We had a pretty sweet gospel discussion, sadly he didn't decide to get baptized or anything, but I think we definitely helped him clear up some of his opinions on our religion. He was a pretty knowledgeable guy, so it was fun talking to him and hearing the member and him exchange stories about Vietnam.

On Thursday, we did a ton of planning and preparations but then got to go out and see some awesome peoples. We got to visit with Ken, and we decided to watch "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" with him, which was just awesome. If you haven't seen it, check it out! It's about an hour long, so you might want to just finish reading this email and then come back and click the link ;)

http://www.mormonchannel.org/joseph?v=870618547001

Another sweet miracle/visit this week was on Friday with Laurel, where we had a great discussion on the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson - which she basically was able to teach to us since we had given her the pamphlet last time and she had studied that thing pretty thoroughly. It was fun to not just talk at someone but actually be able to dive a little deeper with them and talk about the cool points of the lesson and not just the basics, so that was sweet.

This Saturday was pretty dang sweet, since we woke up early to go play some tennis with an awesome family in the ward and it was just a blast. Some of their kids were pretty good, but gratefully nobody got hurt (severely) in the act.

On a different note, I've had some fun studying this week in Alma, chapters 3-9, and in the Doctrine and Covenants Sections 103-108. So, some quick scriptures for y'all to check out and figure out why I liked them!

• Alma 4:13-14
• Alma 4:19
• Alma 5:14, 26, 38-39, 62
• Alma 6:6
• Alma 7:11-16
• Alma 7:23-24
• Alma 8:22
• Alma 9:19-21
• Alma 9:26-27
• D&C 103:12
• D&C 104:11-13
• D&C 104:78-79
• D&C 105:5-6
• D&C 107:18-20
• D&C 107:99
• D&C 108:8

Also this week, I read a discourse by Elder Melvin Ballard titled "Three Degrees of Glory" which was pretty sweet. He goes through and talks about the three degrees of glory (obviously), and expounds on some of the things contained in D&C 76 and 88, so it was pretty cool.

Aside from all that... there isn't much else going down this week besides moving to a new area, so I hope y'all have a fantastic week! Love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

April 21st, 2014 - EASTER!!

Hey Everyone!!

Happy Belated Easter!!! I hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday, because we certainly did here. It was a great way to top off a pretty sweet week! There were quite a few highlights this week, so hopefully I have time to cover them all. First off, I hope you've all seen the new Mormon Message, "Because of Him". If not, do it! Just click on it. It's that simple. It's dang awesome, even if it's a day or two late.

Alright. Now that you've all watched that, we can move on to less cool stuff. Last Monday we had a follow up STM, which was pretty sweet. Quotes from this talk (https://www.lds.org/ensign/2001/03/missionary-work-and-the-atonement?lang=eng) by Elder Holland were shared, and it was just a good time. We talked about a whole ton of stuff that I don't have time to get into, but it was pretty sweet. Later this week, we got to visit with a fellow named James, who is just awesome. After we had finished talking about the restoration he decided he'd pray about it every night until our next appointment (this Wednesday), so if y'all could pray with him/for him that would just be fantastic. We also visited with an awesome lady named Laurel who's been studying everything we give her and loving it. She's gone through the restoration and plan of salvation pamphlets already, and we left her to study the gospel of Jesus Christ one this last time. If you've never checked out the missionary pamphlets before, you totally should! They're all available at:https://www.lds.org/manual/missionary?lang=eng So check it out! While you're on that page, you should also check out Chapter 4 of Preach my Gospel, as I particularly enjoyed going through that this week - the quotes from President Packer in there are just incredible, as well as the one from Elder Ballard so go read them! While I'm on the topic of things I enjoyed in my studies this week, I might as well throw some of the scriptures I liked down as well for you all to check out, and I really hope ya do, since they're some pretty neat ones.

In the Doctrine and Covenants this week I was reading sections 97-103, and then I was also reading from Mosiah 27- Alma 2, and I particularly wanted to share with you guys the following:

• D&C 97:8-9
• D&C 98:11-12, 20-22
• D&C 100:17
• D&C 101:2-5,16,78
• D&C 193:12
• Mosiah 27:25-26
• Mosiah 28:3
• Alma 1:29-31

Well, those are the major highlights that aren't related to Easter, so now I'll turn my focus to the best day of the week! Easter was just an awesome day, especially since we got to start off with some studies before heading to church. Church was a blast and tons of people made it out - lots of them probably just because it was Easter, but that's totally alright. The speakers were great, and the sacrament was just incredible, as it was a fantastic time to think about all that Easter signifies. After church we had 4 families that had asked us to come over and eat with them and visit for a while, which was just a blast. So, even though I was totally stuffed by the end of the day, it was great to be able to spend time with the Bakers, Mcgees, Spences, and Bighams, all throughout the day.

One last thing before I leave y'all. If you've got a couple hours today, and haven't seen it yet, y'all should check out the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's performance of Handel's Messiah! http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/messiah?lang=eng Through the rest of today they'll have it open for on demand viewing, so y'all should check it!

Love y'all! Have a Fantastic week!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson 

April 14th, 2014 - Another week Bites the dust!

Hey Everyone!!

Guess what?!? It's SNOWING outside!!!!?!? Yeah. I didn't know it snowed in April in Oklahoma... but it clearly does. It's not that much, but there's still snow falling, which I think is just ridiculousness. Anyway, this week was pretty sweet! There was all sorts of good stuff going down, and some crazy things as well! To start off with, I'll share a few of the highlights or things that I particularly enjoyed this week!

Foremost on my list was that I got to go on an exchange in Del City! It was super fun, and we got to see a lot of cool people! One family we got to visit with already believed in most of what we were talking about, which was super neat, but sadly we had to cut the lesson short since they had to go somewhere. But, you could certainly pray for the Williams family as they continue learning! We also got to visit with a girl named Kel, who is getting baptized at the beginning of May, and she's super ready! It was neat since we were going through the baptismal interview questions with her for that visit, and it was cool to see her notice how much she's changed since she started learning more about the church. So, that was a pretty sweet day.

In addition to that, a couple other highlights were getting to see Brother Grant! He's doing super well, and the Lord is truly blessing him for his decisions of late. For one thing, he got promoted! He told us that it didn't even really seem like a possibility, but he's been blessed and he recognized it, so that was awesome! We've also had some awesome dinners and lessons throughout the week, but I don't really have time to go into all that today. We also got to go this week down to the hospital in Norman to help give a blessing to a member, which was a pretty cool experience. They have a nice hospital down there - super pretty looking on the outside and inside, so that was fun. We also had perhaps one of the best fast and testimony meetings I've been to in a while yesterday, which was awesome. There were some testimonies borne about missionary work, quite a few about the Savior and restoration of His Church, and nobody was up there for an extended period of time, so it was pretty awesome! 

On that note, I wanted to share some quick spiritual thoughts with y'all before I go!

This week I've been reading a lot in Mosiah and the Doctrine and Covenants, so that's where the thoughts will be from this week!

In Mosiah, I particularly liked:

• 15:3
• 20:11
• 21:13-15
• 23:12-14
• 23:20-22
• 24:15
• 26:30-21

And in the Doctrine and Covenants,

• 84:88
• 87:8
• 88:3-4
• 88:21-25
• 88:32-33
• 90:24
• 93:23-24
• 95:1-2
• 96:6

Then of course I'm just stoked to start studying conference! It's already on the gospel library app, and it's online here:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2014/04?cid=HPFR041114678&lang=eng

Have at it! Love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson 

April 7th, 2014 - CONFERENCE!!!

Hey Everyone!

This week was super awesome, especially because we got to watch conference!!!!!! Conference was a blast, and because I loved it so much I'm going to go through in a bit and try and summarize all the talks for you guys, so that you can know which ones to go watch (though they were all absolutely fantastic, most people don't have time to sit and watch 10 hours of people talking). But, before I get into that, we had a couple cool experiences this week that I wanted to share with y'all! First, we had an absolutely awesome Specialized Training Meeting this last Monday about becoming and rising up, and we also talked about an article by President Kimball - "Jesus the Perfect Leader" - check it out! It's a pretty sweet talk, and President Monson quoted a section of it in conference, which was neat since I actually recognized it! Also this week we started teaching a nice older woman named Pat, and it was awesome! She's super happy, and it was great to see someone so willing to read from the Book of Mormon.

Those were the main highlights this week - along with the car getting fixed pretty easily, but I don't think I mentioned it was broke, so we're going to move on from that to CONFERENCE!!! WOOO!! What a time! I hope you all got to watch conference, as it was super awesome! So, for this I'm going to just list the speaker and a quick summary since, as usual, I don't have as much time as it would take to go through this properly.

• President Monson!
• Sat. Morn -> No new temples announced, but the Ft. Lauderdale temple will be dedicated in May! The open house is happening right now, so y'all should try and check it out if you're in Florida!
• Priesthood -> Courage is needed to be who you are and make Right decisions
• Sun. Morn -> Love is the Very Essence of the Gospel
• Sun. Afternoon -> "May we Resolve to do a little better than we have in the past"
• President Eyring
• Sat. Morning -> We can leave an inheritance of hope as we keep our Covenants
• Priesthood -> Priesthood heroes have a pattern of prayer, habit of service, and a rock hard decision of being honest
• President Uchtdorf
• Priesthood -> Are you Sleeping through the Restoration by being selfish, having addictions, or having competing priorities?
• Sun. Morning -> We must have an attitude of gratitude, not just be grateful for things
• Packer -> Truths most worth knowing come through prayer and revelation, scripture study and fasting
• Perry -> Today's complexity requires greater simplicity to solve it - it requires Obedience to God
• Nelson -> Day after day increase your faith, proclaim your faith, and let your faith show
• Oaks -> The power and blessings of the priesthood are equally available to All God's Children
• Ballard -> Following up! Use the full name of the church, invite others 4 times a year to listen to the missionaries, and study preach my gospel daily! He had a cool quote that I wanted to throw in as well:
• He asked, ""Can you even begin to fathom the extraordinary outpouring of atoning grace that will be ours, individually and collectively, according to the Savior's promise to all who bear testimony in the process of inviting souls to come unto Him—and then following up on those invitations."
• Scott -> We serve the Lord First as we share our love, trust and knowledge of truth with others
• Hales -> "None is more powerful than the lesson of Obedience"
• Holland -> Courage and courtesy are required when defending your faith, and all of us will have to defend our faith eventually
• Bednar -> Study the atonement as you assess if your load creates the spiritual traction to keep on the path back to Heavenly Father
• Cook -> Family History work is a glorious doctrine, for without our dead we cannot be saved
• Christofferson -> Jesus Christ has been resurrected! Therefore, the atonement is real and repentance is necessary and urgent
• Andersen -> Remain true to God's commandments and reject false doctrine to build on the rock of Christ

That's all the prophets and Apostles... now for the rest of the speakers! (I wanted to put a break in the giant list)

• Elder Rasband -> Be willing and able to take up the Joyful burden of discipleship
• Elder Amado -> Christ Lives and will come again!
• Sister Reeves -> Daily Prayer & Scripture Study with Weekly family home evening are the only things that really need to be accomplished in the home
• Elder Zivic -> Repent and come back to the right way!
• Elder Zwick -> Willingness to see through another's eyes turns corrupt communication to ministering grace
• Elder Hallstrom -> We are on Earth because who we are is not who we can become, we must become Priesthood Men!
• Brother Ridd -> You are the choice generation! So, choose wisely by knowing who you are, being spiritually plugged in, wisely use your smartphone (and other technology), and recognize technology is provide to accomplish the Lord's purpose!
• Sister Stevens -> You can feel peace in the midst of turmoil for the Lord is mindful of you
• Bishop Stevenson -> Whatever it may be, do it now! Don't Wait! Years of preparation have led up to this 4 minutes of performance!
• Elder Walker -> We are led by a prophet and we must not forget that or the Temple covenants that we have made!
• Elder Corbridge -> You are a Child of God, and Joseph Smith was either a pretender or a prophet!
• Elder Teh -> It is critical to recognize when we have enough and the continually store treasures up in Heaven
• Elder Aidukaitis -> We must all seek the truth for ourselves through it's fruits, experimenting, and most importantly revelation!

Phew! That's all of them! Check the whole thing out:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2014/04?lang=eng

Have a fantastic week! Love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson