January 13th, 2014 - Another week has gone!

Hey Everyone!

It's already been another week and here is another Monday! Can you believe it?!? This week was pretty average... not much of note to discuss today, which is totally alright! This week we did a ton of service, and had a pretty noteworthy Saturday, so I'll discuss a little bit about those after some spiritual thoughts ;)

For this week, some scriptures that I particularly enjoyed are Ether 12:4 and Matthew 11:28-30, as they talk about how much we really are dependent upon our belief in Christ to get us through the tough times. A cool talk that goes along with that is "You Can Do it Now!" By President Uchtdorf, so you should all click that link and either read or watch it ;) After you're done with that, another scripture from this week was 1 Nephi 3 and 4, as I studied those chapters this week with a focus on agency it helped me to realize how much people really do have the ability to choose whatever they want. Laman and Lemuel saw an angel, and still didn't do what they were supposed to, and when they did they did it grudglingly. Another person though who had his agency was Laban, who kicked Laman out and tried to kill him, rejected their offer to buy the plates and instead stole their property, and went out drinking ;)

Anyway, this week as part of our tons of service we helped 2 people move, and spent a few hours helping a member put one of those metal sheds together.... I wouldn't ever recommend getting one of those ;) Anyway, service is pretty fun, especially since it lets us get out of our suits in this beautiful weather we've had the last couple days! 

The noteworthy day this week was definitely Saturday, as we were super busy, and running late basically all day. Our Saturdays generally start out with breakfast on post, fed to us by the branch presidency from Ft. Sill, so that was pretty tasty. Then we went back and did our studies before going to have lunch at some Mexican grill with a brother from the ward. By that point we were already running 20 minutes late to our appointment, which went super well (and they ended up coming to church!), with a neat couple we've been visiting. After our awesome member dropped us off we headed to our next appointment - and by this point we're about an hour late... - with a family that we had knocked into while looking for a member (who we figured had moved away since someone else was living at the address listed for them). But... to our surprise the member we were looking for was there, as her daughter was the person we had found living there! It was super neat, as her daughter isn't a member and her daughter's husband is also interested. We taught a neat lesson, and then at the end of it we all ate some pizza that they had waiting prepared for our visit (if you're counting that's 3 meals that we've been fed). After that we were about half an hour late to our next appointment - a dinner one with a member family - and so we went and ate even more food! Luckily our evening wasn't as jam packed, but it was a super good and filling day! 

Well that's all for this week! Love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

January 6th, 2014 - Happy New Year!!

Hey Everyone!

It's been another week already, and what an interesting week it was! I no longer get to write 2013 on anything, so that's been an interesting change, along with us staying crazy busy! Sadly I don't have much time this week as we have a zone p-day, so this email might be a bit shorter than y'all are used to me writing ;)

First off though, I'd like to share a few spiritual thoughts that I've had this week while studying, mostly so I don't forget to ;) One of the coolest chapters I've read this week was 3 Nephi 23, where Christ talks about the scriptures and how important they are. I found it pretty interesting how Christ commanded them to make sure that their records were complete, especially when it came to prophecies and their fulfillment. It helped remind me of how important it is for us to keep a journal, especially of the times that the spirit really speaks to us that we might remember those in our times of need. Another chapter I read this week was 2 Nephi 27, which is one of the Isaiah chapters. One of the things that struck me about it was how much it clearly talks about what will happen with the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. I also particularly liked verse 35, and how it points out that those who murmur are generally just misunderstanding something or why something is happening. 

One other thought before I move on to my week - There's this neat TALK by Elder Scott from this last conference that I enjoyed this week, so y'all should check it out.

Alrighty, onto a quick overview of my week! Most days this week were pretty average - trying to see people, and getting to see a couple of them, but one day that was particularly exciting/eventful was the first day of the new year! With new year's eve though we weren't allowed to be out past 8 pretty much because after that point people were starting to get together with family and prepare to ring in the new year, so we ended up going to bed pretty early that day. The next day we didn't have much planned, as we weren't sure really who would be available that day. So, we spent a bit of time tracting, and it was probably one of the most productive tracting hours we've ever had - we knocked most of a block, and almost everyone was home and about half of those set up a time to come back! It was pretty neat, especially since earlier that day hadn't gone as well as it could have - one of our investigators' house pretty well smelt of weed, and we found out that one guy we were looking for was actually in jail... so that was eventful. That night a companionship from a small town nearby ended up in the hospital, and we got to go find them some dinner, which was pretty eventful as some places were closed for new years, or closed early. 

Aside from that reasonably eventful day, there wasn't much else of note that happened this week. That plus the fact I've gotta be done with this email means that's all for this week! Love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

December 30th, 2013

Hey Everyone!

This week was INCREDIBLE!!! First off, our mission reached - and surpassed - the goal of 50 baptisms in the month of December with 57! That's more than double the previous highest number of baptisms in a month, and we've got a vision of reaching 100 baptisms per month! It's a super exciting time to be a missionary, especially since this week was incredible! 

To start off, Christmas, and Christmas Eve were fantastic! Thanks to all those who sent me cards/letters/notes/presents! It will probably take me a few weeks, but I'm hoping to be able to reply to all of those! Some highlights from Christmas eve though were that we visited with an awesome guy - Brother Turner - and he's set a goal to be baptized on February 1st! In addition to that we taught this awesome dude from Puerto Rico for the first time - Brother Gonzalez - and it was pretty neat. It made me kind of regret that I haven't learned Spanish very much at all, but at least he spoke English pretty well! That evening we had dinner with a family and it was super tasty! We watched "The Nativity" and "What Shall We Give" (videos on mormonchannel.org) so that was pretty fun, and their family was just full of neat people! That night we went carolling with some folks from the 2nd ward and had a blast, so that was neat :)

Christmas day was an incredible whirlwind of exciting things, starting off with dropping off some presents our companionship got for the sister missionaries we get the privilege of working with before we started calling home! Calling home was a blast, sadly we didn't get to skype, but it was still great to be able to talk to all those I did! It was cool to be able to hear their voices for the first time in 7 months... apparently my little sister is 5 feet tall... which is not cool since she was super small when I left for college :( The rest of the day was pretty awesome, opening presents and eating tons of food! We had a late lunch with a family from our ward, and then 3 hours later had dinner with the family we had gone carolling with the night before! It was awesome, especially since they made homemade pizza :) We then played basketball with the other Elders while the Sisters jammed on the guitar in the gym to close out the night.

The rest of the week was pretty awesome - we had 9 meals provided for us this week, which automatically made it a great week :) But what made it even more incredible was that Abbi got baptized! It was a super neat experience to be able to take part in, especially since the person baptizing her messed up the prayer the first time, then the second and third time her foot popped out before they finally got it right! It was a super awesome time, and she was confirmed a member yesterday -  but got there right after they started singing the sacrament hymn so we did it after the sacrament. Speaking of sacrament meeting... it was pretty exciting for another reason besides that - I got to speak! The topic was missionary work for yesterday so the speakers were the Sisters and I for sacrament meeting, and then in the combined 3rd hour meeting they talked about Hastening the Work and showed the video located here: LINK! 

It was a pretty awesome week, and I have quite a few thoughts to share with y'all regarding the more important spiritual things! For one thing, this work we're involved in is God's Works! In Acts 5:38-39 it talks a little bit about that, but you should read that entire story - it's pretty cool :) I also particularly like 1 Peter 3:15, Helaman 3:25-27, D&C 88:81, D&C 18:15-16, and D&C 128:15. I also particularly enjoyed reading this TALK by President Monson in this last conference while preparing for my talk this week. Then there's this TALK that I read this morning that I thought was particularly pertinent. It's by Bishop Caussé, and I quite like it so y'all should take a few minute to read those. Since I kind of enjoy having time to respond to other emails, I think that's all for this week! Go check out those talks, and I love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

December 23rd, 2013 - CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Hey Everyone!

This week is Christmas, so Merry Christmas!!!!!! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas planned as we certainly do! But... you'll hear more about that next monday, because today is to talk about last week! There were some pretty noteworthy events this last week, such as church, Mission Conference, a Ward Party, a Funeral, and some tasty dinners that kept us pretty dang busy!

So we'll start with yesterday and go back in time, since Church yesterday was pretty noteworthy. Ft. Sill's basic training program is on Christmas exodus, so all 3 of us got to go to the Lawton 1st ward! It was my first time going to that ward's block of meetings... and I have been here a full transfer already! So that was pretty neat to go to a regular block of meetings again. We also had one of our investigators make it out, even though it was a bit icy and she wasn't feeling well... but it was important that Abby made it there since she's getting baptized on Saturday! It should be pretty neat, and we're all super excited as she's been ready for a little while now. She probably could have been baptized this week... but this last Saturday we had a mission conference!

Which was awesome of course! It went from 9am to about 7:30pm, so a ton of things happened, we got some awesome food, and I don't have much time to write about it. But, there was a lot of good training given, and some awesome musical numbers so it was pretty inspiring. A brief review of some of my favorite scriptures and such from the trainings, and from my studies this week (while I'm at it):

• D&C 58:26
• 2 Nephi 31:2-3
• Hebrews 11:1
• D&C 123:14-17
• Moroni 7:24
• Ether 12:6
• D&C 60:5, 51:22,35, 63:44
• D&C 9:7-11
• 2 Nephi 9:51
• Matthew 17:3,4
• Luke 2
• Alma 37:35-37
• Mosiah 2:41
• President Monson's Sunday Morning Talk (click the link!)

The day before Mission Conference, we had a pretty awesome ward party! There were about 200 people there, when they had only planned/estimated about 150 would come, so there was a great turnout of people! The food was awesome, and we had a fun time. I got to meet a ton of new people... but this ward is pretty big so I probably don't remember many of their names...

Also this week we were invited to attend a funeral out at the Ft. Sill cemetary for a lady named Mabel Allen... whom I had never met. It was a pretty cool service... literally (the wind was freezing!) and figuratively (the spirit was strong there), and it was neat to be able to attend that. We also had a dinner pretty much everyday this week, so I feel fat. Especially since this week is Christmas and we have a dinner everyday with a couple lunchs...

That's all for this week! Love Y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

December 16th, 2013 - Transfer Week?!?

Hey Everyone!

So... this week is transfers... but like nobody is getting transferred, so that's pretty cool. The only change is because one of our district members is going home - so his companion has to get a new person. So, transfers are already here (we did a 5 week one since Christmas is next week), but there's not much happening - I'll still be in Lawton at least until the end of January, so that's cool.

This week was pretty awesome though! We had some crazy miracles, awesome lessons (for us and others...), and some sweet dinners! Of course my favorite thing was the dinners... but that's to be expected :P 

This week absolutely flew by... it started off with our dinner at the Senior couple's home on Monday and just disappeared from there! At that dinner we learned quite a bit about following the spirit while giving blessings from the senior elder who asked us to give him a blessing of comfort due to a procedure he would be having that week. It was a super neat experience, and I definitely learned a lot. Then we actually got to give another blessing that night to a sister who has been having issues with migranes... so that was just a blessing filled night! 

The next day - Tuesday - we got to do our transferly Mormon.org time and I spent most of it watching Mormon Messages - the cool short (2-5 minutes) videos produced by the church. One that I particularly liked was "Wrong Roads" with Elder Holland ( http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-09-016-wrong-roads?lang=eng). It was quite inspirational... so you should all click that link and go watch it. 

Okay. Moving on to the rest of our day, we had some pretty sweet visits that day one in particular that stood out. We visited with an investigator named Donna and she's shooting to get baptized on the 18th of January! Over the week and a half since we had last seen her she had read the chapter we left her - Alma 32... plus 4 more! It was pretty neat to get to talk about the scriptures... since she had already read them and we didn't have to spend time doing that with her. If y'all could pray for her as she prepares for that day that'd be the best! Also on Tuesday we met this super neat part-member family who lives on post, and they're all pretty cool people :) It was just a neat day, and hopefully we'll get to teach them pretty soon here. 

Wednesday we did an exchange with the Zone leaders, so Elder Memmott and I got to work with Elder White for the day. It was an interesting day, and most all of our plans fell through from about 10am until 5pm... so we had lots of time spent knocking doors. But, it was still a pretty good day overall :) We had dinner with this super awesome younger couple who just moved into the ward in October and they made this super tasty pasta dish :) I was pretty happy, but not much noteworthy happened that specific day ;)

Thursday came and went super fast, as we had weekly planning, a couple good appointments, and the Book of Mormon class that happens each week. But of note on Thursday was the visit we had with one of the active members where we read Helaman 14:1-8... which I would recommend you all read :) It is a prophecy from Samuel the Lamanite about Christ's birth... so this time of year it is particularly relevant ;)

Friday was pretty sweet as well, especially because we got to visit with Abby again and we talked with her for a little while and decided to set the 28th of THIS MONTH as when she will be baptized. Everything looks pretty set in stone for that, so now we just have to make it happen - which will be interesting with people taking vacations around that time. So, pray for her as well :) She's super ready, and we probably could have done this coming weekend... but we have meetings and stuff on Friday and Saturday :( Aside from that, Friday was awesome because we got to have one of the awesome priests come out teaching with us and he bore some powerful testimony to one of the less active families we visited with him. He's awesome. Sadly all good days must end... 

But not today! Saturday was even better than Friday because on Friday we stopped by that part member family from earlier in the week and they told us to come back on Saturday! So... we did and they're the best! It didn't seem like missionaries had really visited them much before now, which was kind of sad as it means we're starting basically from scratch, but they're super cool people :) We also had a couple visits earlier that day with awesome families who you'll hear more about later as they keep on being awesome :) 

I'm out of time for this email... but Sunday was quite awesome as well :) We had some neat miracles that day including a visit with a family who's 13 year old daughter hasn't been baptized and accepted to have us teach her the missionary lessons - hopefully they'll all become active as they strengthen their testimonies with the basics :) We also had an incredible dinner with this super proactive family that is doing a ton of work on their friends - they typically invite at least 10 people to every activity! Not all of them show up, but the invite still leads to gospel discussions and such. Dinner was super tasty though - Roast beef and mashed potatoes with some super tasty health brownies as dessert :)

Anyway, y'all should check out this talk by President Uchtdorf: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/come-join-with-us?lang=eng

It's super awesome, and when I was reading it this morning I thought of y'all :) Also in my studies I particularly liked Alma 31:26-35. It's neat to see the different examples of prayer throughout the Book of Mormon, and I particularly enjoyed this one. Another scripture I like is 2 Nephi 19:4-8 - even though it's Isaiah it's still pretty cool :) Lastly, Jacob 5:57,65 was something that struck me today as we strive to improve ourselves the Lord of the Vineyard instructs us, his servants, to start with the most bitter branches but make sure to keep it in pace with the growth of the good because as we improve each day we're able to replace our bad habits and actions and thoughts with good ones that lead us to become more like Christ. 

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

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

December 9th, 2013 - Productive Snowy Week?!?!

Hey Everyone,

This week was definitely interesting! We had a pretty good couple snowy/sleety/icy days that resulted in stuff kinda slowing down with our car being grounded and such. But, it was still quite a good week! 

So, some highlights! On Tuesday we got to teach this super awesome family for the first time, and they said they would be coming to church... but church was cancelled... again. Anyway, Tuesday was good :) 

Then the highlight for Wednesday was that we got to do splits with the priests! We each headed off to a different part of town and got work done! Of the 3 groups, only one of the two appointments worked out, so the other two groups got to knock a couple doors! Me and the awesome priest I got to work with didn't even have an appointment to start out with, so we got to go a knocking. It was pretty darn cold outside, but the spirit was with us and the first door we knocked on was a couple who had previously met with missionaries (in a different town) and has quite a few friends who are members! They were super awesome, and we had a neat discussion with them about the spirit world and why that's soooo important. One of the scriptures that we really discussed was Alma 40:11-14 - check it out, it's pretty neat :)

Thursday the snow hit and our car was grounded... but that was alright as we still had a member pick us up to go and visit him and his wife, which was neat. We talked about tithing and watched part of Elder Bednar's talk from this last conference: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/the-windows-of-heaven  It's a super awesome talk about the blessings of tithing, which is one of the principles "upon which the blessings of heaven are predicated" so you should go watch it!

Friday the roads were still super icy, but we had district meeting anyway, and it was pretty good. Afterward we had a district potluck type of dealio and one of the tasty things we had were cornbread pancakes... basically you take corn muffin mix, add eggs, butter, and water and make pancakes out of it... they're super tasty. Aside from that we were stuck inside, but we did get picked up by another member and he took us to his house for dinner - which was awesome by the way. One of the things that was said "Hunt the Good Stuff!" was a quote from one of their officers (almost everyone here is in some way connected to or in the army) and it's a pretty neat idea to try!

Saturday was pretty interesting... when we woke up we had a text from the APs saying Elder Morrell was invited to a baptism in Shawnee - like 2.5 hours away... that started at 10am. Luckily one of our zone leaders was also invited, so they worked it out in the early hours of the morning and were headed that way before 8am. Thus started our exchanges for the day, which started with breakfast on post - which we do every saturday and is always super tasty. Eventually after studies and such it was time to go help a member (who's a little older) clear his driveway off so that he can actually go places. It turned out he didn't have any shovels... so we went a hunting for some. But, Lowes and Wal-mart were both sold out and so we went back to his house with no luck. It turns out that rakes work pretty well for moving snow, so we ended up raking snow instead of shoveling it... it was quite the experience! Then we had a member coming out with us who's super awesome and we got to ride around in the FJ (the roads were still icy) so it was pretty exciting :) We got to visit with a couple neat folks and had some good lessons, so that was well worth the time. Then we had dinner with a really neat member family in the ward! So... saturday was probably one of the most exciting days yet ;)

Sunday was pretty fun as well though! Even though church in the city was cancelled (parking lot iced over, and lots of roads were still covered in ice... and we have old people to consider) the services on post were still going on so all the missionaries - including sisters got to go! It was a pretty great service, and the first time there were sister missionaries at the basic training service... in over 8 years... probably forever :P It was neat to see the impact the sisters had on all the female soldiers there that we don't connect with very well, it was pretty impressive. Then we had lunch with a family who are really good at cooking... I probably gained 5 pounds at that meal... then we had about a 3 hour break for studies and a visit with a cool member before dinner with another family... where I probably gained another couple pounds before the INCREDIBLE CHRISTMAS DEVOTIONAL. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is just awesome... and so were the speakers. If you missed it, you should totally check it out! http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/christmas-devotional/2013/12?lang=eng

So a couple scriptures I really liked this week were Alma 18:8-9 - I applied this one to following up with people on things you ask them to do... as a counter example ;) Then there's Ether 2:18-22 where the Brother of Jared shows us how important it is to remember what we pray for! It's so key to noticing the answers to your prayers to actually remember what you're asking for, so do it! Those two, along with the other things throughout are me spiritual thoughts for the week... but seriously! Watch the devotional!

Love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

December 2nd, 2013 - DECEMBER ALREADY?!?

Hey Everyone!

It seems like just yesterday November started... but December in fact started yesterday. So, this week pretty much flew by with Thanksgiving, Ft. Sill, and tons of work to be done there wasn't much time for sitting around! But, first things first the mission had a change of policy (the postman got mad at us for forwarding mail...) so now all mail should be sent directly to us! Pretty sweet in my opinion, so my address is:

402 NW Sheridan Rd #503

Lawton, OK 73505

In other news, I ate way too much food this week. Seriously though. Thanksgiving pretty much put me into a food coma, which was alright with me ;) Since that's pretty much the most noteworthy day we'll start there. For Thanksgiving we started out the day with a Turkey Bowl (of course!) and it lasted from about 8-11:30... which was a lot longer than we had planned on, but it was quite fun and tiring and appetite building, so that was good! After that we got to go with a family to have lunch on Ft. Sill, which was super tasty. They had tons of different food to eat, and nothing I had was less than tasty, so I was pretty satisfied. We finished lunch about 2:30... then went up to a part of Ft. Sill that I had never been to before down by a creek with some really old buildings - the guy working there ventured from the late 1800s, but he wasn't really sure. They have this cool animal thing up there, and we got to look at those for a little while and just enjoy the nature of the area so that was neat. Then we headed to dinner... and it was only about 4:30 - just 2 hours after lunch was done if you caught that. Dinner was super tasty and filling and just overall a blast. For dinner we were at the Colpoy's - a super neat couple, with the Senior missionaries, sister missionaries, and a couple other random folks. I ate waaayy too much - about 3 pieces of pie, and two platefuls of the food they had (and remember we just had lunch 3 hours before), so I was pretty well satisfied with that was well :) Then we headed home and did some weekly planning before crashing a little early that night.

Aside from Thanksgiving, this week had a couple noteworthy events. For one thing, we had a couple good lessons with some of our "Okie Talker" investigators - the people who we go to see and they just talk at us the whole time - and actually got to talk to them for most of the lesson! That was pretty neat, along with some of the interesting people that we tracted into while trying to find new people to teach. We did quite a bit of tracting this week, as some of our investigators were out of town for the holidays or had family in town making it unlikely for us to be able to visit them. Then on Friday we got to do exchanges with the other elders, so that was good. We had a good time on exchanges and saw a couple less actives and investigators and set some appointments up so it was a pretty successful day. Saturday came and went - we had one of the awesome priests out with us for a couple hours and we had a couple good tracting experiences with him ;) 

So on Sunday I got to go to Ft. Sill for the first time - since church last week was cancelled. That was a very different experience, for one thing everyone there was dressed in military attire - except for the missionaries. It was weird. Then for Sunday school there was like 7 different classes happening - Regular sunday school, new member discussions, all the missionary lessons, and a group doing interviews/blessings for people who just got to basic. It was crazy as there was sooo many things happening that I couldn't really keep track of it all. Also something that kind of threw me for a loop was the sacrament was passed at the end of sacrament meeting (after all the testimonies and such) so that was different as well. But, it was still a pretty good experience to have. 

So I was going to send some pictures with this... but that didn't work out like I had planned since this computer is pretty aged... So for my spiritual thoughts this week, I did a bit of studying on the conference talks from this last conference. A couple of my favorites from this week are:

• "Be Meek and Lowly of Heart" - Elder Solares Saturday Morning
• "The Doctrines and Principles Contained in the Articles of Faith" - Elder Perry Priesthood Session

In addition to that I've been doing a bit of studying in various epistles in the Bible and a few verses from that stuck out to me: James 4:17, James 5:14-16, 2 Peter 1:3-10, and Romans 2:6. A couple other scriptures I found this week that stuck out to me were: 3 Nephi 27:27, Matthew 8:24-27, Alma 31:5, and Helaman 11:23.

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

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

November 25th, 2013 - Thanksgiving... will be white?!?!

Hey Everyone!

So the major news item of the week... is that it snowed here yesterday! It was coming down pretty good in the morning, so church ended up being cancelled and our car and bikes were grounded... so that was exciting :) Aside from that, this week was pretty sweet! I still don't have as much time as I would like to email, so we'll get going with some highlights!

First off, last monday I got to play tennis! We have a tennis court at our complex, so for our preparation day activity my companions and I played tennis for a little over an hour! It was pretty fun, even though I was quite rusty. It made me pretty happy to be able to play again though :) Looks like that's not going to happen this week though as there's currently snow on the court....... But, aside from that Monday went pretty well :) P-days here are a bit more rushed than in Ponca, but that's alright. We had dinner with a super awesome family - they made some delicious hamburgers on the grill... since it was warm enough outside to do that ;)

Tuesday was a blast, as we got to meet a couple new people while trying to find members that we haven't met yet. So, that was pretty exciting since for the most part we didn't know what would happen when we knocked on a door. But, we got to have dinner with this family and they made this tasty chicken thing with a yellow sauce that you ate over rice - it was super tasty! Then Wednesday came and went super fast - we had a lesson out in Medicine park with a referral that went super well - they could talk a ton though. Then we came back... and pretty much had to go back out there for dinner with the ward mission leader and a meeting where we discussed the ward mission plan for next year, and that was the rest of our night just like that. 

Thursday on the other hand was super neat! We had a mission tour in Norman with Elder Craig A. Cardon from the seventy, and it was incredible! We talked about everything from Charity towards our neighbors and companions, to how Christ showed love to others, to the role of a seventy (D&C 107 does a pretty good job of describing that), to the Abrahamic Covenant, to the Work of Salvation (all 5 aspects of it), to how there was an apostasy even though John the Beloved was still here, to the difference between the presence/power and the gift of the Holy Ghost, to the importance of controlling the teaching environment to invite the spirit and help them do the things you know that they need to, and finally to becoming a more confident missionary instead of being self-critical. It was a pretty awesome conference, especially since we still had time that day to have dinner with another super neat family that served some sort of Brazilian Stroganoff thing - it was super tasty... I think Matt might have made it for me once? And we had our weekly Book of Mormon class, and a visit with an investigator! It was a pretty packed day, and super inspiring :)

Friday was neat, as after district meeting we did an exchange - Elder Morrell went to work on the other side of town, and Elder Shumway came here. He's from South Carolina and pretty awesome, and we got to see a ton of people! It was neat because we tried to meet a bunch of members throughout the day and it actually worked out... we saw most everyone we had planned - which almost never happens. We met some awesome families, and Elder Shumway had a couple cool object lessons that were pretty neat - one involved a lighter, a fork, a spoon, a toothpick, and a coffee mug or a glass. It was related to Helaman 5:12, so that was neat. He also had one involving a ring and a chain that was related to Ether 12:4, which we used a couple times as well :)

Saturday, for the most part, was a bust - nobody really let us in, but that was alright since it was only freezing cold outside. We did get to visit with a couple people, but there wasn't really much of note that day. Then came Sunday... the day of Snow. When we woke up in the morning, we got a text that church was cancelled because of snow and ice, then later our car and bikes were grounded because of it... so yesterday we only got to see a couple people, and for dinner they had to come pick us up. But, dinner was some incredibly tasty chili and cornbread with some mint chocolate chip ice cream and brownies for dessert... I was in heaven ;) The family we had dinner with is incredible as well - They're doing a ridiculous amount of work on their friends... too bad it's all in the sisters' area :P

Then we have today... which has barely started :) So, a few spiritual thoughts! Enos. This book/chapter is just incredible. I really like verse 11, and just the entire thing. But particularly verse 11. It shows how as you begin to have faith in Christ you naturally turn to thinking about others, which is a pretty neat principle. Aside from that, I've been doing a lot of studying in Preach My Gospel, particularly chapters 3 and 8 to work on being more effective in what I'm spending my time doing. A couple other scriptures I've found that I particularly like are Jacob 5:21-22 and 3 Nephi 27:6. 2 Nephi 9:51 was particularly applicable this week, as we had quite a few members feeding us :) Lastly, my favorite scripture that I read this week is Alma 37:35-37. Prayer is so key, along with obedience, and that scripture just shows us so simply what we need to do. 

Anyway, That's all I got for this week :)

Have a fantastic week everyone!

Love ya!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

November 18th, 2013 - Lawton... Be Careful!

Hey Everyone!

How are things going?!? This week has been probably the most interesting one of the mission so far, as I finally got transferred! I've been moved to the Lawton 1st ward, which is super awesome (from what I've seen so far)! We had stake conference this weekend - all about missionary work, and super awesome. We also have some fantastic people to work with, so that's fabulous! Sadly, this library only gives us an hour on the computers, so until I figure out something these emails will probably be a bit shorter than the ones I was able to send whilest in Ponca. 

So a quick rundown of the highlights from the week! Monday was awesome - one of our Investigators took us out to dinner to this nice Italian place that I had never been to in Ponca - Zinos - and it was pretty awesome. Then Tuesday I got to say bye to people and take some pictures with them, which was fun. We had dinner with a super awesome member who worked a lot with us, and he made us some super tasty roast and such. So, my last two days in Ponca were pretty swell :)

Wednesday was transfers! I got to ride down with the zone leaders, and they're super fun to be around so that was a blast. Then once I met up with my companions - Elders Memmott and Morrell - we started back towards Lawton (which is about as far from the city as Ponca... just West and south instead of North). It was a pretty great day, as we had a member drop off some pizza for us and then got to go and see some of the awesome people we work with. 

So I bet you're wondering about my new companions - yes we're in a trio (it's pretty neat so far, but different as well). So Elder Memmott has been out as long as I have - we flew on the same plane sitting next to each other. He's from Nephi, UT and is a pretty neat guy. Elder Morrell has been out 18 months, is a spanish missionary, and is from Kaysville, Ut. So, we have a pretty good time ;)

But, since Elder Morrell is Spanish he's got to do language study each day, so Thursday we had lots of time inside - with the regular 2 hours of study, plus 2 hours of weekly planning, plus his hour of language study, plus lunch... yeah we were just inside a long time :P But on Thursdays we have this Book of Mormon class for the Lawton wards, and it's pretty awesome! We talked about the tree of life and why it takes some people longer than others to find their way to the tree. It was a pretty neat class. 

The highlight from Friday was our visit with a fellow named Bo. We talked about faith and read from Alma 32 with him - which is one of my favorite chapters because it's just so simple. 

Then this weekend was stake conference - the topic was missionary work all around (both on Saturday Evening and Sunday Morning) as there's a huge push for that. It's pretty awesome to see the wards so fired up to do missionary work! I got to meet a ton of people at stake conference, and even got to see Elder Rasmuson as he's serving in our stake somewhere now :P Aside from stake conference, the highlight on Saturday was dinner with this super awesome family. Their 18 year old son invited a friend - Devan - over as well, so it was just a party! Devan ended up coming to stake conference with them the next morning, so that was awesome! 

The highlight from Sunday would have to be visiting with a couple that they were teaching before I got here - Travis and Tara - they're both super awesome, and we talked with Travis for a while just answering his questions and concerns. It was a super spiritual visit, and I think he's really starting to be more open with us about what his concerns are.

Since I'm already taking up more time than I wanted to on this, my spiritual thoughts for this week! There were a couple days I didn't get to do studies this week, which is kind of sad, but it'll all work out eventually :) So first is a list of scriptures that either hit me hard this week or were shared in Stake conference and are super awesome :) So... check them out!

• Hebrews 13:5-6
• Joshua 1:5
• John 8:12
• Ephesians 2:8-9
• James 2:17-20,26
• Moroni 10:4,5,32,33
• Alma 16:16-17
• Alma 13:24
• D&C 138:56
• Article of Faith #4
• 2 Nephi 31:19-20

Aside from all those awesome scriptures, this week I've been thinking a lot about agency and how important that really is. Something that hit me hard is how the second Article of Faith shows the principle of Agency incredibly. That's all I got time for this week!

Have a fantastic week everyone! Love ya!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Nielson

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