February 23rd, 2015 - And... MORE SNOW!!!

Hey Everyone!

It seems to just really like snowing on Mondays here... because it's snowing again today, and this week was definitely pretty clear. Regardless we've had a pretty awesome week, even though it went super fast! I can't believe another week has gone by, but such is life! 

After we got everything done p-day wise last Monday we got to have dinner with an awesome family in the ward and some of their friends and it was a super good time. We had some delicious Mexican food and then headed over to their home for Family Home Evening and had a good lesson and a fun time :) Tuesday was pretty great, as we got to go out to the middle of nowhere and actually caught a family at home that we had never met before! We got to have a good visit with them and built a solid relationship, so that was pretty fun. We also had a delicious dinner with an incredible family here and then our scripture study class was a blast! We had a solid crew there, and a very good discussion about the Plan of Salvation focused on the Kingdoms of Glory ensued. We watched a sweet video that I've probably thrown on here before, but it's awesome. It's called "Our Eternal Life" and I'd highly recommend it, especially if you just want a basic overview of the plan of salvation. We focused on a couple verses in the Doctrine and Covenants which state: "21 And they who are not sanctified through the law which I have given unto you, even the law of Christ, must inherit another kingdom, even that of a terrestrial kingdom, or that of a telestial kingdom.
 22 For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory.
 23 And he who cannot abide the law of a terrestrial kingdom cannot abide a terrestrial glory.
 24 And he who cannot abide the law of a telestial kingdom cannot abide a telestial glory; therefore he is not meet for a kingdom of glory. Therefore he must abide a kingdom which is not a kingdom of glory." We also challenged them to read Alma 7 before class this week, since we're going to talk about the pivotal role of the atonement in the plan of salvation! 

Wednesday came and went pretty quick, just like the rest of this week, and our time is quickly leaving me so I'll have to make the rest of the week pretty quick. We had some sweet visits out with the Priests in the ward this week since they wanted to set up a "Priest Week" where each night we had dinner with a family that has a priest and then take the priest out with us. It went super well, so on Wednesday we had a blast with the Priest! Thursday was weekly planning for the new transfer, plus a solid night with the Priest of that night, so that day was also quite good! Something I learned in my studies this week was a quote from "Jesus The Christ", which I was reading in preparation for the talk I was supposed to give on Sunday. It's a bit long so I'll throw it in a P.S., but it's pretty sweet.  Friday came and went with a fervor - we were driving out in the middle of nowhere after district meeting in Guthrie and ended up finding another new family to work with! It's kinda fun sometimes to drive out to the middle of nowhere, as it helps us burn through conferences pretty fast (we typically listen to conference talks in the car), so it's always a good time! We also had a delicious dinner and a fantastic night out with a priest on Friday, so it was sweet.

On Saturday we got to help a recently moved in family in the ward put up their Sauna... it was pretty intense. It's a pretty neat set up though, and it was a good time and a solid chance to get to know them. We also got to see some awesome families that afternoon and had an incredible dinner that night with some of my favorite people here :) Then came the dreaded Sunday... we were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting, and it was very lightly snowing in the morning so we thought we might have gotten off the hook, but to no avail. The roads were totally fine, so we went to church and had an awesome sacrament meeting! One of the deacons in the ward gave a fantastic talk on an overview of the plan of salvation, then I spoke on the creation and fall, and Elder Fuller rounded out the three pillars or eternity concept with a talk on the Atonement. A quick quote I used in my talk real quick: The Prophet Joseph Smith said: “The great plan of salvation is a theme which ought to occupy our strict attention, and be regarded as one of heaven’s best gifts to mankind.” Then we had an awesome Gospel Principles lesson taught by Michelle :) Sunday night was pretty great, but we've gotta get headed so that's all you'll get today!

I hope you have a great week! Love y'all! 

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

P.S. Here's the Talmage quote:

"The principle of the Word of Wisdom was revealed unto Adam. All the essentials of the Word of Wisdom were made known unto him in his immortal state, before he had taken into his body those things that made of it a thing of earth. He was warned against that very practice. He was not told to treat his body as something to be tortured. He was not told to look upon it as the fakir of India has come to look upon his body, or professes to look upon it, as a thing to be utterly condemned; but he was told that he must not take into that body certain things which were there at hand. He was warned that, if he did, his body would lose the power which it then held of living for ever, and that he would become subject to death. It was pointed out to him, as it has been pointed out to you, that there are many good fruits to be plucked, to be eaten, to be enjoyed. We believe in enjoying good food. We think that these good things are given us of God. We believe in getting all the enjoyment out of eating that we can; and, therefore, we should avoid gluttony, and we should avoid extremes in all our habits of eating; and as was told unto Adam, so is it told unto us: Touch not these things, for in the day that thou doest it thy life shall be shortened and thou shalt die.

“Here let me say that therein consisted the fall—the eating of things unfit, the taking into the body of the things that made of that body a thing of earth"