August 18th, 2014 - 9 months left?!?

Hey Everyone! 

One of the kind Elders I serve around reminded me a couple days ago that I only have single digit months left on my mission... it was so very kind of him! But, somehow I've only got 9 short months left out here to have fun serving the Lord. Oh well... such is life. We've had some pretty cool experiences this week, so my list of things to put in this letter is longer than what I'll probably actually get to, but oh well. We got to have a zone meeting last monday, and then went up to the temple last Tuesday. That plus all the service we did made it seem like all we did this week was service, drive, plan, and study! But, we did have a couple cool experiences with people that I might get to share.

Anyway, this week in my studies I focused mainly on the Book of Mormon and also spent some time in Preach my gospel. A couple PMG quotes that struck me real quick:

“I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.”
–Elder M. Russell Ballard

President Gordon B. Hinckley taught: “So many of us look upon missionary work as simply tracting. Everyone who is familiar with this work knows there is a better way. That way is through the members of the Church. Whenever there is a member who introduces an investigator, there is an immediate support system. The member bears testimony of the truth of the work. He is anxious for the happiness of his investigator friend. He becomes excited as that friend makes progress in learning the gospel.

“The full-time missionaries may do the actual teaching, but the member, wherever possible, will back up that teaching with the offering of his home to carry on this missionary service. He will bear sincere testimony of the divinity of the work. He will be there to answer questions when the missionaries are not around. He will be a friend to the convert who is making a big and often difficult change. … The process of bringing new people into the Church is not the responsibility alone of the missionaries. They succeed best when members become the source from which new investigators are found” (Ensign, May 1999, 105–6).

As we've tried to apply those two quotes throughout this week, it's definitely help us put in perspective the things that are really worth our time to reach our goals that we set. Also this week I've spent some time in the following places:

• Helaman 3-5
• 3:35
• 4:12-13
• 5:9-12,30
• Jacob 1,4,6,7
• 1:17,19
• 4:11-13
• 6:6-7
• 7:10-11
• Enos
• 1 Nephi 1-10
• 2:12
• 4:3
• 7:12
• 8:37
• 10:17-19
• "Prayers and Answers"

That's the short version of what I studied this week... it'd be nice if we had time for me to write a longer version, but such is life. Anyway, aside from the temple and the zone p-day we had last week some other highlights were helping a member put up hay, helping another member start her family history work, and some incredibly awesome dinner appointments. But, I sadly don't have time to write about all those :( So, I hope y'all have an awesome week! Love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson