November 11th, 2013 - Veteran's Day isn't a Holiday?!?

Hey Everyone!

So... I learned today that Veteran's day is not a holiday... at least for library purposes! So, I still get to email y'all this wonderful day! 

The big news for today is that I'm getting transferred! I'm going down to Lawton - Ft. Sill, and I'll get to be in a trio there so it'll be a blast! 

Aside from that, this week has been exciting! I got to go on a super awesome exchange, saw some awesome people, and I learned some pretty interesting things! 

So the first highlight of the week... I got to spend Tuesday evening through Friday Morning down in Stillwater working with our awesome zone leaders! It was pretty neat, and super fun! To start off, Tuesday night right when we got down there we headed to dinner at this super awesome family's house! It was really tasty, and we did an experiment with them and their kids about recognizing the spirit. Then we headed out to work, and got to visit with a super awesome part-member family with this fun older guy - Brother Valega. He is awesome. Words don't adequately describe him, but the lesson was awesome! After that we tried a couple people, but nobody was home so we let Brother Valega go. The quote of the day was "Absolutely!" In Brother Valega's voice... it was just awesome how he says it ;) But, he did say quite the awesome prayer to bless us before we parted ways with him for the night, so that was neat. Then we went off to see a couple other people, but there was still nobody home and it was just starting to rain. So, we decided to go tracting a bit... since nothing is better than tracting in the rain! It was a blast! We met a couple awesome families and set up times to come back and see them - sadly they were after Friday since we were pretty booked already! The storm was super intense though... there was about 5 inches of rain IN THE STREET. It was pretty much flooding, but that just made tracting in it even more awesome. We ended up knocking on like 7 doors, and most of them actually answered but only a couple actually invited us to come back. So that day was pretty exciting :)

Then Wednesday was awesome! We basically spent the entire day teaching... which was a blast! We got to visit with a less active member, and he was having computer troubles so I got to take a look and fix his problem for him after we talked about commandments, so that was a pretty awesome visit. Then we had lunch at this super awesome mexican restaurant - Palliminos (sp?), and that was fun. Then we went out with Brother Ross, and he's super awesome. We visited a couple of their investigators, and one of them asked for a blessing... and asked me to do it!? It was super neat to be an instrument in God's hands to bless someone I had just met and knew very little about, and the lesson we had with them was pretty fun as well. We also had another lesson where we actually started out singing a hymn, and it really brought the spirit in. I might have to do that more often, as that was a first for me, since it really works. So... if I wrote about all the people we saw this email would probably be at least twice as long as the previous longest one that I've sent, so I'll stop there for Wednesday. The quote of that day was "What is he surgerizing on?" and we just thought that was a really funny saying :P  

Thursday came and went really quickly... we did some weekly planning, then had lunch at Palliminos with the Hermanas, and a random couple paid for our meal! It was super nice, and really unexpected. Then we saw a couple people before we drove out to Ripley (about 10 miles from Stillwater) to see a part-member family. It was a super awesome visit - they have a ton of animals - chickens, goats, dogs, and Turkeys. It was pretty neat :) We had dinner with them, and talked about a ton of different things - he's a police officer, so there were some exciting stories told :) After our visit with them we went... to another dinner. It was super awesome, as the member family we were having dinner with had 2 nonmember friends there! It was super neat to actually see that happen, and to see it happen well, as the spirit was super strong during the spiritual thought we shared and they both seemed pretty interested. I don't know about a quote for that day, but the family in Ripley had a goat named Gandalf... so that was exciting. I would attach a picture but I forgot my SD card reader :(

Then this weekend Flew by! I still don't really know where it went, as sooo much happened. I got to go on exchanged on Friday with Elder Chaves for a couple hours, so that was awesome. Saturday flew by, and the main noteworthy thing was the hospital visit to a less active sister - she's lived in Ponca for a year, but we still didn't have her records... that's how less active she was :P And yesterday the noteworthy event was transfer doctrine! I'm going down to Lawton - Ft. Sill, and I'm serving with an Elder Morrell and his companion (I still don't know who that is...) so it'll be exciting! 

That's the word from Elder Nielson for this week, so let's have a little bit of God's word! I had some pretty awesome studies this week, so i'll only get to share bits and pieces of it, but hopefully you get at least of little bit of the spirit of them. 

Helaman 5. It's just an awesome chapter. I would suggest you go read it, since I really like it. Alma 13 is also really good, but I particularly focused on 13:27-31, and I've been working to apply those awesome verses. 

This week I had a bunch of scriptures come to mind in a sort of a chain, but I'll just list the scriptures and we'll see what y'all think! 

• Matthew 15:16
• 2 Nephi 32:8-9
• 3 Nephi 9:20
• John 15:16
• D&C 13:1
• D&C 121:45
• 2 Nephi 31:13
• Helaman 5:17
• Alma 5:45-47
• Matthew 16:15-17
• 2 Nephi 2:11
• Moses 1:11,14
• D&C 129:1-5
• D&C 84:88
• Alma 13:24

That's it for this week! Have a fantastic week y'all! Love you!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Nielson

November 4th, 2013 - Where did October go?!?!

Hey Everyone!

Another week has already gone by here in Ponca City, and what a fast week it was! This week was Halloween - not the best holiday for missionaries, but still a good week! We got to do quite a bit of service - helping people move, and help chop up firewood in preparation for winter. 

Well some highlights from this week - aside from service! This week I got to visit with a buddy from BYU, which was sweet. He's actually from Blackwell, OK - the town just northwest of Ponca, and he's leaving on his mission THIS Wednesday. So, pray for Chad :) He's awesome (he was in my ward Fall semester at BYU), so it was fun to be able to chat with him for a little while.

This week we also had the typical halloween activity - Trunk or Treat! It went over pretty well, as we had about 20 non-members there and over 100 members came, so that was awesome :) The activity was a blast, and the candy was quite tasty!

Then there was Halloween itself... which wasn't as fun since we had to be inside by 5pm. Which was really early... the trick or treating didn't even really start until about 7, but that was okay :) A member brought us some Chili dogs to eat, so that was nice. We also had some candy to hand out (Thanks Aunt Lilly!), so we didn't get egg'd ;)

Friday I got to go on an exchange to the other side of town... which was awesome! The other side of town has some great people to work with, but they're pretty hard to catch so it's tough sometimes. But, the exchange went well and I learned quite a bit about how I can better approach people I don't know - which is always helpful. 

Well, that's this week in a nutshell! If you wanted more details... too bad. I don't really have time to type more ;) So this week I've been working on finding connections between different scriptures and studying a few different topics, which was fun. Mormon chapter 7 is probably one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. Go Read it. Like Now. 

Aside from that, here are some scriptures I've been finding connections between... I won't tell you the connections - that would be too simple, so try and find some yourself!

• Alma 41:10
• Mosiah 3:19
• 2 Nephi 9:39-40
• 2 Nephi 2:11
• D&C 121:36,39
• 1 Corinthians 2:13-16
• Moses 1:11
• Matthew 5:48
• Mosiah 5:2

I hope you all have a great week!

Love ya!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Nielson

October 28th, 2013 - My daddy's birthday!

Hey Everyone! 

It's my dad's birthday today, so Happy Birthday Dad! He's 47 today, and still kicking it! 

Aside from that, this week was pretty good! We've been doing quite a bit of service, had zone conference, and seen a few people. 

So, the highlights from this week! The first one was this Saturday, while we were helping a member clear some trees from his yard. I kinda got hit by one after he chain-sawed it down, and his son was behind me with his chainsaw on, so I didn't hear when he said "Look out". I've got a nice little scrape to prove it, but it wasn't too bad. The tree was only a few inches wide, not exactly a monster ;) That day we also got to help him pen his baby bull (I think they're still called calves, but I'm not sure) and sore it out from the other cows that his neighbor has. It was pretty exciting as it tried to - and almost succeeded - at jumping out of the pen. 

Another highlight from this week was zone conference, which was super awesome! President Walkenhorst taught about Obedience and relating that to the Doctrine of Christ, and showing us how those are soooo intertwined. It was pretty neat. Later on, he discussed repentance with us, having us watch "The Divine Gift of Repentance" By Elder Christofferson. Our Zone leaders also gave a training on "Teach when you find, Find when you teach" with a super awesome drawing related to it, but I don't have a way to send that out to y'all. There were lots of good scriptures and quotes, so I'll send you some of them:

From the discussion on Obedience:

Effects of Disobedience: Alma 41:10, Helman 13:38, D&c 1:3, D&C 97:21, Helman 5:3, 1 Nephi 20:22, Moroni 10:22, Romans 6:23, 1 Samuel 15:22-23, Alma 36:12, D&C 88:35

Blessings of Obedience: D&C 1:24, D&C 58:6, D&C 130:20-21, D&C 58:32, D&C 59, Abraham 3:26, Romans 6:23

Other Scriptures from Zone conference: 1 Nephi 16:29, Alma 37:17, 2 Kings 5, D&C 100:1, Mosiah 5:2, D&C 11:21, Alma 17:2-4, D&C 31:3, Mosiah 2:41, Moroni 10:32-33, D&c 1:23, Moroni 9:6

So... that's probably plenty of spiritual things for y'all to work with this week, so I'm going to skip where I talk about my studies. 

Love y'all! 

'Til Next Time,

Elder Nielson

P.S. the picture of my nice scrape should be attached. Also, sorry this letter is kinda on the shorter side.

October 21st, 2013 - Fall... has come and gone?

Hey Everyone!

So... this week was pretty interesting! I got a cold, the weather got really cold, we did a ton of service, and one of our investigators was interviewed for baptism! It was super exciting, so I'm going to tell you all about it :)

First off, the thing that's been on my mind quite a bit this week was the weather... for the most part it's been nice fall weather - in the high 60's and low 70's - but there was two days this week it was miserably cold. One of them, it was raining as well, and the temperature got no higher than 48 degrees. Needless to say, this Florida boy wasn't very happy. The grass was also frozen a couple mornings this week, so that was exciting. 

Along with this awesome weather, we've been dealing a lot with fun medical issues! My companion had a wonderful looking rash on Tuesday from an allergic reaction to something, and then Wednesday I got a swell sounding cold with a nice cough to go with it. So, this week has been fun in that aspect :) we've still gotten a little bit of work done, but not nearly as much as if we were both 100% well :/

A lot of the work we've been doing though has been service! One day, we spent a good 4 hours helping one of the members pack the moving truck to go to New Mexico - Sad day :( Another day we spent the vast majority of it helping one of the members work on building a bathroom in our house! It's been pretty exciting - I'll attach a picture or two of it :) 

But, the highlight of the week - by far - was Nakesha was interviewed for baptism! She passed, which was awesome :) She's super ready, but we're still waiting a couple weeks for the ward to get to know her a little better since none of her family is in town. So, pray for her if you please :)

Aside from that, last monday we had zone p-day and a super awesome specialized training meeting. They based the training on the talk "Beware of Pride" and we discussed some things we can do to become better, stronger missionaries. Some quick highlights from it: 

• Pride is competitive, so to become a better missionary don't let comparisons define you
• disobedience is a way we show pride, so obedience is a key to becoming a better missionary as it requires humility to obey someone else
• We must Know the Doctrine - as we study the doctrines of Christ, we are better able to teach, expound, and testify. Knowing the doctrine also humbles us as it increases our perspective and knowledge of God. 
• We must learn to pray. Prayer is one of the ultimate forms of humility, because a prideful person cannot pray. They cannot understand that prayers are two way communication, because they do not obey Heavenly Father and will not receive answers that do not follow their way of thinking. So, take control of your prayers! Seek to remember what you pray for, and learn to recognize those answers. Sincerely account to the Lord for what you do, and seek his counsel to help you!

Alright, those are the quick highlights from that. Now I get to talk about things I actually studied... until I think of some other random thing to throw in here :P

So, a scripture that stuck out to me this week was in Alma 37:44, when Alma tells his son Helaman to "For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land." He teaches us that it truly is simple to follow Christ because of how simple his doctrine is. In 3 Nephi 27:19 he tells us his doctrine in the simplest form I've found: "And no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom; therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end." It truly is that simple, faith, repentance, and "faithfulness unto the end" is all we need to do. But that is everything, isn't it? Think about that this week ;)

Another thing I've been studying this week is the steps that take someone from a simple desire to believe, all the way to true conversion. The Sons of Mosiah's account talks about this pretty detailed, so here are some scriptures I really liked:

Focus of my study: Alma 22:18 & Alma 23:6

Desire: Alma 32:27 & Mark 9:14-24

Testimony: Alma 5:45-47 & John 7:17

Conversion: Luke 22:32 & Mosiah 5:2

You could spend days learning about this stuff, so that's all I'll talk about for now ;)

I think that's all for this week! 

'Til Next Time!

Love,

Elder Nielson

October 14th, 2013 - Where has the time gone?!?

Hey Everyone!

So, I just realized that tomorrow is my 5 month mark... which is ridiculous, because it definitely doesn't feel like it's been 5 months since I got our here. When I hit this point during my year at BYU, it definitely seemed like it lasted forever... but I guess that's what happens when you're out working each day instead of doing something less exciting like studying. 

Anyway, this week was pretty grand!

So, some highlights! 

First off this week, we'll start with yesterday. We had a super tasty dinner at one member's house - pancakes, a hobo breakfast type skillet thing, and biscuits! It was super tasty, and we had a pretty good chat. We talked about Elder Ballard's talk and the challenge that was issued therein. He said: "We are simply asking all members to pray, knowing that if every member, young and old, will reach out to just “one” between now and Christmas, millions will feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful gift to the Savior." We discussed what it meant to "reach out" as he said, and decided that it could include anything from inviting them to meet with the missionaries, inviting them to church, to read the Book of Mormon, or even to invite them to a family home evening or dinner where the gospel is discussed. If you noticed, each thing we came up with started with "inviting" - it involves doing SOMETHING to invite people to come. We're not being asked to invite them to go somewhere, but to come where we are, to feel the joy we feel each time we do something that invites the spirit into our lives. This same challenge was issued to the Ponca City Ward from our stake high councilman when he spoke yesterday, so it's definitely something we should consider doing. So, for those of you reading this who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I invite you to accept the invitation of Elder Ballard - and the rest of the people included in that "We" (The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles). For those who aren't yet, I invite you to check it out! Come and see for yourselves what brings me - and so many others - such great joy.

Another cool thing that I found out this week is that my step-brother Frank has decided to serve a mission! Yay!! He's super awesome, and I'm definitely excited that he's made this decision to follow the commandments of the Lord and serve him. If y'all could pray for him that'd be awesome :) I know that prayer is powerful, and he could definitely use some.

This week we had a ward fish fry! I love when the ward has activities, because it's such an easy way to invite people to meet more members of the church! We had about 60 people there, and about 10 of them were non-members! It was super neat, and everyone there said they had a fantastic time. The great meal was just a bonus ;) even though I don't like fish...

Anyway, this Tuesday we had dinner with this super awesome family! We got to have Chili and Cornbread  - super tasty - and we talked a lot about the importance of finding out for yourself what things are truth. Something I realized from that conversation was that even though everyone has to find out for themselves what the truth is, there is and only will be one truth. God, our Heavenly Father, is the source of all truth, and as such he's told us that there will only ever be one true church that is built upon his doctrine. That church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I know that, and you could try to tell me otherwise, but like Alma says in Alma 30:40-41 

"40 And now what evidence have ye that there is no God, or that Christ cometh not? I say unto you that ye have none, save it be your word only.
 41 But, behold, I have all things as a testimony that these things are true; and ye also have all things as a testimony unto you that they are true; and will ye deny them?" 

Aside from all that, this week was pretty normal ;) My Studies were grand, as I spent about 90% of my time in the Book of Mormon. I started it from the beginning again on the 4th, with the intent to highlight all the times Christ, God, or any other name for them, or a pronoun referring to them is said - which results in many underlines throughout the book. It probably won't be much use for studying later, but it definitely has opened my mind to how much it truly is "Another Testament of Jesus Christ". I'm at Mormon 9 at the moment, and hope to finish it today sometime, so we'll see what happens :)

So this week was pretty great :) 

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Nielson

October 8th, 2013 - October... 7th? or 8th?

Hey Everyone!

There was a little mixup yesterday, which resulted in us emailing today instead... so sorry if that threw off your plans! I hope each of you are doing awesome!

This week has been pretty awesome. We had some pretty neat visits with people, and there was General Conference - which was awesome - to make the week that much better! There were also transfers this last week, and the new guy in the district is pretty neat - he's from Medesto, California so that's pretty cool. 

So, I'm going to start with conference... because that was pretty much the highlight of my week! I love listening to all the talks and learning things that I can do better to follow Christ, and there was much that I learned!

In order to make this make any sense, I'm just going to list my favorite thought from each speaker/talk... otherwise this might get chaotic ;) None of these are going to be word for word, it's just the jist that I wrote down, so bear with me.

Elder Hales -> The Greatest Blessings of conference come after conference is over when we live the principles taught.

Elder Solares -> Failing one day is no reason we can't succeed the next!

Sister Stephens -> 1 Corinthians 12 - Do you know who you are?

Elder Dube -> In the service of the Lord it's not where you serve, but HOW!

Elder Bednar -> As we live the law of tithing we often receive simple, significant, subtle blessings.

President Uchtdorf (Sat. Morning) -> Come, Join with us! Three reasons people do so: (1) Church restored by Jesus Christ himself with his authority (2) Church provides opportunities to do good (3) Walking the path of discipleship leads to precious blessings

President Packer -> Scriptures are a key to our spiritual protection

Elder Christofferson -> There is no career superior to being a mother or father

Elder Nielsen -> We must each develop our own game plan, but there are some things we should include: (1) Specifically pray each day, to bring someone to the gospel (2) Pray for the missionaries serving in your area and their investigators BY NAME (3) Invite a friend to an activity

Elder Valenzuela -> Let us reach out to others with Faith & Love

Elder Dyches -> All that is unfair about life can be made right through the atonement

Elder Holland -> If we do not take the time to be well, we will certainly take time to be ill later. Live by faith, hold fast to hope, and show compassion one to another

Elder Ballard -> Sharing the gospel is a privilege, not a burden

Elder Perry -> The Articles of Faith are among the most important and concise statements of doctrine

Bishop Caussé -> We must make the first move to make people feel welcome

Elder Funk -> Humble yourself, Abide in his word, and Hearken to the Spirit

President Uchtdorf (Priesthood) -> You can do it NOW!

President Eyring (Priesthood) -> The parable of the good Samaritan is also a parable of the overtaxed priesthood bearer and we are the Good Samaritan

President Monson (Priesthood) -> There is no time like the present to kick up our home teaching efforts!

President Eyring (Sun. Morning) -> God has devised means to save each of his children

Elder Oaks -> Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God's Approval

Sister Oscarson -> Desire to share the gospel & confidence to do so is a natural result of conversion

Elder Maynes -> Our ability to endure is proportional to our testimony & conversion

Elder Scott -> As you lose your life in the service of God's children, Satan's temptations lose power in your life

President Monson (Sun. Morning) -> Making the gospel the center of our lives is the key to enduring

Elder Cook -> People can be enslaved by philosophies and physical things

Elder Andersen -> We receive Comfort, Strength, Protection, and Peace through the Priesthood

Brother McConkie -> Missionaries and Teachers are still too focused on delivering comfortable, repetitious lessons from the manuals, we must learn to treasure up the lesson plan and then set it aside to follow the spirit's guidance and truly teach as the Savior would

Elder Hamilton -> There is a purpose for each hour of the 3 hour Sunday Meeting block, and we should never pick or choose which meetings to attend, but faithfully attend all of them

Elder Ochoa -> Don't forget to look up!

Elder Vinson -> The more I learned about Christ, the less I wanted to leave him

Elder Nelson -> We are never too young to learn or too old to change

President Monson (Sun. Afternoon) -> May we show more kindness to those around us

And those are the thoughts I have for conference :) Sorry if that's a little more lengthy than intended, but that's what you get :P

Aside from conference, this week was pretty normal... if such a thing exists in missionary work? We had some neat lessons with our investigators, started teaching a couple new people, and learned a lot. One visit in particular was pretty neat, as we taught the first half of the plan of salvation to one of the people we've been visiting with for a while now. He was super interested in it, but about halfway through it we veered off and discussed conference and priesthood authority instead of the rest of the plan, and it was super awesome to be able to testify of the fact we do indeed have a living prophet on the earth today! We do! The Book of Mormon is proof that Christ's church has been restored to the earth today, so read it! Then pray and ask Heavenly Father if it's true - I know he'll tell you it is, because he's the same guy who told me it is! So yeah, that lesson was pretty sweet :)

So, I guess that's all for today... since my time is up for this email :P

Love,

Elder Nielson

September 30th, 2013 - 4 Months in Ponca... Where has the time gone?!?!

Hey Everyone!!

So, First things first... a couple days ago, I hit my 4 month mark of being in Ponca... I'm not even sure what happened! It's been super awesome, and gone by ridiculously fast... but... I get to stay here another Transfer!!!!! I'll still be working with Elder McGlothlin, and the majority of my district is staying the same... except for the one who is leaving on Wednesday!

So yeah, I'm staying in Ponca :)

This week was pretty awesome, we had some cool things happen :)

One of the visits we had this week we taught the plan of salvation to a lady. It went pretty well, but something she said really threw me off... she told us she wanted to go to the Terrestrial kingdom... I was so confused! I didn't think anyone would not want to go to the Celestial kingdom... But I found someone! 

Another cool thing that happened this week was I got some slippers! While on exchanges we visited a less active sister, and she gives each Elder she meets some slippers she knitted... they're super warm :) She also mentioned that she knitted Afghans... which are apparently blankets... who woulda thought? I asked her what they were, and she gave me one :) It is also super warm :) So yeah... there are tons of awesome people here!

So since I got to Ponca the member who owns the house we stay in was supposed to remodel the enclosed garage and put a bathroom in... that still hasn't really started yet (and it's been 4 months!) but we got some work done on that this week! We got to build a platform to put the washer and dryer on, because they're going to have to raise the floor to put the plumbing in for the bathroom. So yeah, we got to help with some remodeling work :) It was pretty neat.

Okay... next on my list is this ridiculously tasty restaurant here in Ponca... We spend quite a bit of time eating out... each Friday and Monday we eat out for lunch, and occasionally members will take us to get food. So yeah, it was neat to be introduced to a place unique to Ponca City. It's called J.W. Cobbs, and it was super tasty :) They have this really awesome Pot Roast, their rolls are delicious, and their burgers are quite tasty as well. The best part... is that it costs less than $10 for a full meal there - a plate with Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes, and French Fries was only $10. It was awesome. So yeah. If you're ever in Ponca City, try it. 

I think that's all the random stuffs from this week... So yeah, so stuffs I've learned this week is all that I've left to write about :)

This week I've done a lot of learning about my potential... the truth that we're all children of God is so awesome! Because of that, every single one of us has a divine potential, and our goal is to live the way we should to be worthy of that. It's super awesome, and President Uchtdorf talked a bit about it in his talk "Your Potential, Your Privilege"  (Check out the link!). It's a pretty great talk, and he brings up 3 really awesome points - Reading the Owner's Manual, Seeking Revelation, and Finding Joy. So, I've decided to relate his talk on the potential of the Priesthood to the potential of a mission. The cool thing is, the first presidency has given us an owner's manual to read - Preach My Gospel - through revelation. We also receive plenty of revelation from God, and I've been learning recently how missions are supposed to be joyful. Truly this life was made so that we might have Joy! (see 2 Nephi 2:25) 

Anyway, another thing I've been learning this week is the importance of sharing the gospel of Christ. He truly commanded his apostles to "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" and this command also applies to us. Joseph Smith told us that "After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel." So as part of that I've been doing some studying recently on how everyone is able to help in preaching the gospel. It involved a lot of reading in the manual - Preach my Gospel - and also perusing some talks related to it, but here are some thoughts I came up with:

• Everyone you meet is a Child of God - Because of this truth that you know, you should tell them! It's something that is key to knowing what you really can accomplish with your life.
• President Hinckley Said: "Now, my brethren and sisters, we can let the missionaries try to do it alone, or we can help them. If they do it alone, they will knock on doors day after day and the harvest will be meager." So how can we help them? He continued: "The gospel is nothing to be ashamed of. It is something to be proud of. “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,” wrote Paul to Timothy (2 Tim. 1:8). Opportunities for sharing the gospel are everywhere." So look for them!

I think that's enough thoughts for this week... Hopefully you all have a FANTASTIC Week :)

Love,

Elder Nielson

September 23rd, 2013 - Fall is here?!?

Hey Everyone!

In case you didn't notice, yesterday it officially switched to fall! And... get this... Oklahoma actually has seasons! It was significantly cooler this week, and the leaves are even starting to fall and change! It's pretty awesome :) 

Anyway, this week was pretty good :) We got to start visiting with a couple part-member families again this week that haven't talked to missionaries in quite some time, and they both agreed to let us go through all the lessons with them :) From what I've seen, there are a lot of part-member families here in Ponca city, and quite a few of them haven't even really had a chance to go through the missionary curriculum and learn the things that they should, so we're working to fix that.

This week we also got to do the stop smoking workshop with one of the people we visit with. Apparently a lot of smokers want to quit even before they have a good reason like the Word of Wisdom and all it's promised blessings. Who woulda thought? But yeah, that was pretty neat. It's cool to see the different reactions people have to the 15 steps - especially the grapefruit juice one :)

Another cool thing this week that happened is that we got to visit with a couple of the "super busy" investigators we have that we're almost never able to catch because they work a ton of hours and are just crazy busy. One of them we got to teach the plan of salvation to, and the spirit was so strong! We could definitely tell he was getting questions answered, and he was also seriously considering what it means to him and it was just awesome :)

This week we got to go to a birthday party! Some of the members of the ward meet at Burger King most mornings at like 8 or 9am, and we got invited to a surprise party for one of them turning 80 this week :) So... we got to eat cake at 9am on a Friday Morning :) It was pretty awesome :)

Aside from that, my studies this week have been pretty good :) I spent a lot of time in Alma and I particularly studied Alma 26, 45-47 and 1 Nephi 22. They're all pretty great chapters, so I'd highly recommend spending some time in em ;)

I particularly like Alma 46, which is the chapter where Captain Moroni raises the Title of Liberty. Something that I learned new this time reading it is that even back then they needed the constant reminder of their purpose. In Alma 46:36, Moroni causes that the Title of Liberty be raised upon every tower, in order to "plant the standard of liberty" among the Nephites. Much like that, the Prophets and apostles of our day have given us something similar, in the pamphlet "For The Strength of Youth". So, go check it out :) 

http://www.lds.org/manual/for-the-strength-of-youth?lang=eng

Anyway, that's all I got for this week! I hope you all have a fantastic week!!

Love,

Elder Nielson

September 16th, 2013

Hey Everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic week! :)

My week was pretty great, we had a ton of awesome things happen and it was super awesome!

So to start with, I got to go on two exchanges this week! Man. I love exchanges. The Elders I get to serve around are incredible. The first one I got to go on exchanges with - my district leader Elder Glad - is going home at the end of this transfer - a mere 3 weeks away. So, it was neat to be able to get his perspective on ways to do things and to get his advice. We also got to visit with a couple people and he taught me a lot about having faith that people will be at their appointments. After we do everything we can it's entirely up to them, and that's something I've really been struggling to not stress over. But, such is life. 

Then on Friday I got to work with a zone leader - Elder Cutler - who's absolutely incredible. For the first part of the day we were walking, so we stayed pretty close to the house, but we still met a ton of people. It really showed me the impact of talking to everyone! For that day, we ended up with 5 new investigators, which was more than we've had in the last 2 weeks combined. So, that was pretty sweet. We also got to visit with quite a few people that had kind of fallen off the radar because they are so busy, and that was awesome. 

In the time between those two exchanges, we visited many many many less actives - I think we actually got to meet with about 20 of them... It was intense. We've really been focusing a ton on meeting the members on our rosters, and finding out why so many of them don't come to church. I've learned that a lot of it is the habit - once you get into the habit of not coming something else will always fill that time. For example, one lady we ran into always does her grocery shopping Sunday mornings at about 10. It's interesting to see what things become priorities when church falls out of the picture. So, get to church! It's important ;) 

We've ran into quite a few people this week who question the point of going to church when so many people go and then are totally different right when they leave the building. What I've learned from that is the main reason we go - to partake of the Sacrament as administered by the Priesthood Authority of God - should really be the only reason. Yes the fellowship and the classes and activities are nice, but the sacrament is the focus. The reason we go to church then - the sacrament - is really why people who don't always do the right thing should go to church. The Savior has told us how the whole need no physician, and there's a saying throughout the church how it isn't a sanctuary for perfect people but a hospital for sinners. So, go to church :)

Anyway, on a slightly lighter note we had breakfast with the Bishop on Saturday, and he tried out his new double waffle maker... guess what that means?!?!? WAFFLE EATING CONTEST!!!!! He ended up making probably about 15 waffles... and I ate 5 of them. Yeah... I won ;) The other food was also super tasty - the eggs, sausage, bacon, and rolls which I also had my fair share of. So, yeah, breakfast was awesome! It made for a really interesting day biking, but it was still a pretty good day :)

I think that pretty much covers this week... So, some things I've been learning! 

I haven't done much just straight up reading this week, so sadly there's no list of scriptures... for those of you who like that :P

I've studied a couple topics this week, and they're pretty awesome :) I'll tell ya the topic and what I learned and see if you can't get something cool out of it as well :)

Topic 1: The Example of Ammon & The Sons of Mosiah

This week I've really been trying to learn all I can from Alma 17-26, so I studied those for a while. One of the biggest things I've been working on applying from their example is the importance of patience in afflictions. That applies to fasting and prayer, and just afflictions in general. There are multiple references throughout those chapters where they are told to be patient in their afflictions, and one way they did that is by fasting and prayer. It really is so key. 

Topic 2: The Importance of the Priesthood

I've been reading some talks from this past conference in preparation for the one in a couple weeks, and some of them hit me really hard so I spent a little more time in them. Check out:

"These Things I know" - President Packer

"It's a Miracle" - Elder Andersen

"The Power of the Priesthood in the Boy" - Elder Callistar

"Your Sacred Duty to Minister" - President Beck

They're all pretty awesome talks, and I think the biggest theme I saw in them is potential. It's so important to strive your best to live up to your potential, and the best way to do that is by living the Gospel and keeping your covenants. If you truly want to be the best you that you can be, it's so key to let Heavenly Father do the molding. 

Bonus Topic: Standing in the Light

Another cool topic that was addressed a lot in this last conference was Standing in Holy Places. My version of that is a little broader and is a combination of Elder Holland's talk - "Lord, I Believe" and Elder Hales - "Stand Strong in Holy Places". They're both really awesome talks, and there are a couple other talks that refer to light and ways to build it. For example, President Uchtdorf talked about light in "The Hope of God's Light", and Elder Porter's talk "Beautiful Mornings" also falls into this topic. So yeah, Light's awesome so keep what you have and seek more :)

That's all the preaching I got for this week ;) 

Love,

Elder Nielson 

September 9th, 2013

Hey Everyone!

So, I feel like I just emailed you like yesterday... so sorry if you feel the same way! It's actually been 6 days... so not quite a week ;)

But, it's been a pretty good 6 days! We've been able to see some people and visit with them, drive down to the city, and also have stake conference! So, some highlights!

First, stake conference. Pure awesomeness. The sunday morning session is all we get to go to, but it was entirely focused on temples and why we need to go to them. Our stake president here is also quite awesome (he's featured on some of the "Work of Salvation" Videos) and he gave us a list of scriptures to look up (actually... he quoted them to us and told us to find them and study them.)  :

These ones focus on studying the scriptures:

• Hebrews 4:14-16
• 2 timothy 3:16-17
• 2 Nephi 28:29-30
• Alma 12:9-11

These are kinda random, but they're all pretty awesome ;) Try and find the connection between them!

• Alma 37:33-37
• Mosiah 3:19
• Helaman 3:35
• Romans 6:16-18
• Moses 5:6-8
• D&C 97:8

So yeah, it was a pretty dang good conference :)

On Saturday I got the chance to tag along and go to a couple baptisms down in the city, and that was pretty sweet. The drive was long (it's 100 miles each way), but well worth it. The two people who were baptized are incredible! They both have such solid testimonies that the church is true, and it made me realize that a testimony at first is simply a belief and that's all that is needed. 

Another highlight from this week was the chance we had to visit with a fellow we recently started teaching. The cool thing was how the Lord works in diverse ways to get things done. While we were visiting with him - next to our favorite snow cone shack - a sister in the ward and her husband drove up and asked us if we'd be able to call them and come do some service later in the week. It was pretty neat, because usually at that time of day we're not at the snow cone shack, but we ran into our investigator down the street when he was on his way there.

Anyway, that pretty much sums up this week. The upcoming week is looking pretty awesome, so I'm excited to see what happens!

So for studies this week, I don't have much to share with y'all... at least that I've planned out before, so we'll see what I can find.

So some scriptures for your reading pleasure:

• Mosiah 4:2,3
• Mosiah 4:9,10
• Mosiah 4:14,15
• Mosiah 4:30
• Mosiah 5:5-7
• Alma 44:5
• 1 Nephi 18:15-16
• 1 Nephi 18:21
• 2 Nephi 25:26
• 2 Nephi 26:12
• 2 Nephi 26:25-28
• Luke 1:37
• Acts 5:29-32

Alright, so I think that's enough with a list of scriptures. So, now I get to talk about something I've been applying/learning this week! One of the things I've really been trying to apply this week is based off of Helaman 3:35, specifically the part where it says "they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ". So, I've been fasting more often, and praying a ton, and I've noticed that the more you fast the more you realize how dependent you are upon God. It's super cool. Try it!

Another cool thing I read this week was the conference talk "It's a miracle" By Elder Andersen. Check it out:

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/its-a-miracle?lang=eng

Anyway, that's all I got!

Love,

Elder Nielson