February 24th, 2014 - And So It Goes On!

Hey Everyone!

I can't believe another week has already flown by! There's been a ton of things that happened this week, so I'll probably only get to share some highlights, yet again. I don't think I'll ever get to fully tell you all about the crazy adventures we get to have each day, or else my email would be forever long! Anyway, we've had a couple pretty great experiences this week that I wanted to tell y'all about!

The first was that on Tuesday we had a lesson with an awesome family where we watched "The Touch of the Master's Hand". It's a super old movie, but it was still really awesome and the spirit was strong. We also had a couple other super spiritual lessons, one of which was on Friday where we talked about the Plan of Salvation and it was just awesome. There was another spiritual lesson with a lady who's best friend growing up was a member and she basically just wanted to ask us a bunch of questions, so it was cool to see the spirit guiding our answers and to see her change as we talked.

Of course, I can't fail to mention how awesome the members are here, especially since we have a meal most everyday. But, more importantly they're doing missionary work! It's super awesome to see the members - especially the youth - invite their friends and neighbors to learn more about the church and the impact it has, and the strengthening affect it has on their testimonies. It's pretty neat to see.

Of particular note, was of course Saturday! Those are like the best days here in Choctaw, and this one was particularly good! The Harrah Band was having a pancake breakfast, and since there are a couple members in the band that would be performing there they bought us some tickets to come eat and listen to them. It was super neat, especially because there were a ton of people there! Later that day, after doing some studies and other important things we went to eat lunch with a couple members, because they wanted to buy us hamburgers at the high school soccer game's concession stand. It was super awesome for one because the lady working the concession stand wouldn't take the members money, and also because the members ended up being asked questions by people about the church just because we were there for a short time. It was awesome! Then we got to go out and help the Grants clear some brush for their fence line they're putting up to get ready to have some cattle, and that was a blast. Their home teacher is awesome and was there even longer than we were! It was super awesome because their home teach is also the Elders Quorum President and yesterday he opened it up for this next Saturday for anyone who wants to come help to get some work done, so that was awesome. That night was of course awesome because we had dinner with a ton of members since the family that signed up was also having a birthday party for their little girl, and it was just a ton of fun. Then we got to play volleyball with some members and a couple investigators and so it was just a fantastic day!

Well... since this email is already a touch longer than I wanted it to be, I'll have to just do a quick list of scriptures I found I liked in my studies this week with a couple talks that I enjoyed.

• 2 Nephi 6:9
• 2 Nephi 9:4
• 2 Nephi 9:19
• 2 Nephi 9:23
• 2 Nephi 9:39-40
• 2 Nephi 9:51
• 2 Nephi 10:23-25
• 2 Nephi 11:8
• D&C 38:23-27
• D&C 38:40-41
• D&C 39:6
• D&C 39:10-12
• D&C 41:5
• Romans 8:16-17
• "Faithful Parents and Wayward Children"
• "These Things I know"
• "Come, Join With Us"

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

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

February 17th, 2014 - Valentine's Day and a crazy weekend!

Hey Everyone!

This week was pretty dang good, with the weekend being quite exceptional. So... I'm probably going to focus on that part of the week for this email! Hopefully you all had a better Valentine's day than I did, since as a missionary we don't really have time to celebrate holidays like that... or most any holiday except Christmas and Thanksgiving ;) But, it was still pretty neat as it was the start of a fantastic weekend!

On Friday, I got to do an exchange with Elder Ott, and he's a fantastic missionary! I learned a ton, and we got to see a couple less actives before dinner with one of the exciting families in the ward! They fed us homemade pizza, and it was super tasty, and made me quite glad that there are such awesome people out here. That night we got to go out to see Tom, and had a pretty awesome visit with him focused on the atonement and how to use that in our daily lives.

Then on Saturday, we had a pretty packed day! We started out helping a family move, which was super fun as they had a good amount of help there and lots of things to move so our effort was well used. Then we had an extremely tasty lunch with another awesome family in the ward (they were busy that night so they did lunch instead of dinner), before going out to see Brother Grant, probably our favorite investigator. He's got a nice property, and quite a few horses so each Saturday we go up there and help him move some feed and hay around for them, before sharing a message with him. His wife, Sister Grant, is a member and she's pretty awesome as well, so it's always a blast. This week we got to help them put some fence posts in, as the weather was super nice and we had a little extra time since we didn't have a dinner appointment. Then we had an awesome lesson with them about the plan of salvation and temples and the importance of keeping commandments, so it was a fantastic day.

Sunday came and went like a blur, as we started out with part of our studies before church, and they rest after, with an awesome church service between! The Grants, Smiths, and Brother Harvey all came out to church, and it was just an awesome day! Sacrament was really focused on temples (we had a counselor in the temple presidency there), so we were glad for the discussion we had with Brother Grant the day before. After church we had lunch with the Bighams, which was super tasty and good. Then we finished our studies off... and by that point it was pretty much time for dinner! We did go out and try to see a couple people since we had about a half hour of wiggle room, but nobody answered :( We had an awesome dinner with the Lemmons, but since they live way out there it took up most of our night... so by the time we got home it was almost time to start planning... so it was a dang good Sabbath day!

This week I read a couple fantastic talks, the first being "Stand ye in Holy Places" by President Harold B. Lee. The other was "But If Not..." by Elder Simmons of the Seventy. But, I focused a lot of my study time in the scriptures, and so I have quite a few this week that y'all might want to check out. If you have any thoughts related to them, let me know as I quite enjoy hearing what others have to think about scriptures I like.

So, the list for this week!

• 1 Nephi 22:31
• 2 Nephi:
• 2:2
• 2:8-9
• 2:30
• 5:10,27
• D&C
• 29:5-7
• 29:49
• 30:11
• 33:8-10
• 35:5-6
• 35:12
• 36:5-7
• 38:23-27
• 38:39
• 1 Kings 3
• Isaiah 11:2-4
• 1 Samuel 16:7

When you consider that I have over 7 hours a week to study... this list could be a heck of a lot longer, but I usually try not to go too quickly ;)

Anyway, this looks like it's probably on the shorter side, but that's alright since we have quite a bit to do today. But, I hope you all have a fantastic week! Love ya!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

February 10th, 2014

Hey Everyone!

I can't believe another week has passed already, but life keeps moving on regardless of if we want it to or not! This week has been jam packed full of cool events, but since I never have enough time to write already, I'll have to pick a couple to highlight. Sorry :(

The first thing I wanted to highlight this week was the importance of having members out with us! We had a super awesome experience on Saturday where the member we had out with us bore powerful testimony of the spirit and how it had prompted him to rearrange his schedule to come out to this specific lesson with us, and it was just neat. If only y'all could have been there, because the spirit was just so powerful for the rest of the visit and it totally changed what could have very easily turned into a one-and-done family. So yeah. Help the missionaries, because if they're anything like me they really really really need it ;)

Yesterday we had a youth fireside, which was probably one of the least organized things I've ever participated in as we really didn't find out any details about it until Friday and those details kept changing all the way until Sunday. But, with some serious help from the spirit it turned out to be an awesome experience for all those involved, and the refreshments were super awesome! There were a couple miracles involved, one of which was because in sacrament meeting we found out the parents were invited to come as well and we hadn't planned on that but it worked out super well as the parents were able to testify that the situations we practiced for actually happen, so that was a pretty awesome experience. Another was that the youth actually participated! We had a couple parts planned that would have been super short without their participation, but after a little while they actually started to put in their ideas and it turned out pretty well. During the fireside we also watched a couple videos that y'all would probably enjoy:

video 1!

Video 2!

Video 3!

Since I went through all that work to put those links in... 

Anyway, another miracle this week was on Wednesday night after we had run out of plans after the member who was scheduled to come out with us bailed (he had strep throat, so it was a decent excuse), so we were debating between going in to clean the apartment (we were pretty close by and it really really needed to be done), or trying one last potential who hasn't yet been home in the 2 months since they first ran into him. So, we decided to try him and we had a super spiritual lesson that started out with him asking what our basic beliefs were so we shared the Articles of Faith, and then he asked to know a little more about Joseph Smith so we shared the restoration! It was awesome, and then after that his wife offered us some Taco soup, so my day was pretty much made. We hadn't had a dinner that night with members so we had eaten pretty sparsely, so it was definitely a miracle ;)

My studies this week were super awesome, at least from my point of view ;) I spent a lot of time reading talks, studying the Book of Mormon, and in the Doctrine and Covenants. A few thoughts from that, starting with the Doctrine and Covenants. I particularly enjoyed reading through section 20 this week, and a verse that I hadn't really noticed before was verse 76 where it talks about how the priest or elder is to administer the Sacrament, particularly the phrase "solemn prayer" as I used to think that the sacrament prayer was just kinda something that we said each week but really, we're supposed to really pray sincerely because this is something that's so vital to each of us and not something that we should take for granted or just kinda go through the motions. Another point I particularly liked was in section 25, verses 12-13. It says: "12 For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.13 Wherefore, lift up thy heart and rejoice, and cleave unto the covenants which thou hast made." And I just thought it was super neat how he tells us to rejoice and cleave unto our covenants for those are the sources of our greatest blessings from God.

Anyway, some other verses I liked that y'all should go check out are:

In 1 Nephi:

• 16:8-9
• 16:29
• 17:3
• 17:49-51
• 19:6-7
• 19:20

In the Doctrine and Covenants:

• 20:11-12
• 20:14-15
• 21:5-6
• 23:3
• 24:12-14
• 27:15-18

And then I also loved a couple talks I read this week, "You Can Do it Now" By President Uchtdorf in this last conference, and "Life is Eternal" by President Benson. So... y'all should go check those out.

Alrighty, so I thought of one last experience that we had this week that I wanted to talk to y'all about and it was quite intense. We talked to this one part member family that's always great to see about Elder Scott's talk from this last conference, "Personal Strength through the Atonement of Jesus Christ". The talk is super awesome and talks about the fathers of the 2000 stripling warriors, so if y'all don't remember it... click the link and refresh a little bit. As we discussed this talk with them though, we were able to feel the spirit testify to them that the atonement is real, and that even when we overcome things there is always more to do but through Christ we are able to do everything we need to. Anyway, it was just super awesome and that talk is fantastic ;)

I think that's all I've got time for this week! Have a fantastic week y'all! Love ya!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

February 3rd, 2014 - Snowing?!?

Hey Everyone!!

How are y'all doing?!? This week was pretty awesome, up until it snowed yesterday and church was cancelled... but aside from that it was a great week! I've had some good studies, we've had some awesome visits, and some fun in the snow ;)

To start out today, I'll talk a little bit about what I've been studying, since I know you all just love reading these things ;) First though, they changed the home page of LDS.org again, so y'all should go check it out. It's pretty neat, and the article I saw when I was looking at it I quite enjoyed:https://www.lds.org/topics/family/happiness?lang=eng Anyway, my studies this week have focused primarily on the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, as I'm going through and marking up my scriptures a little bit more. It took me quite a while to find a system that I think will work that I like, and it's been going good so far. Some scriptures I've particularly liked are:

• 1 Nephi 15:11, 24
•  1 Nephi 11:17
• 1 Nephi 13: 32, 39, 41
• 1 Nephi 14:14
• D&C 6... the entire section, but specifically verses: 7,14-16,22-24,29-31, and 34-37
• D&C 10: 66
• D&C 11:18, 20, 21, 30
• D&C 14:8
• D&C 18:4-5, 19-21, 27
• D&C 19: 23, 28

Those are the main scriptures that have stuck out in my studies this week, if you think you know why tell me ;) Aside from that I've been reading some talks throughout this week, and one that I particularly liked was this one:TALK!  After y'all are done with that one, you can finish reading my email ;)

Space to encourage you to go watch this talk :P

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2006/04/your-mission-will-change-everything?lang=eng

Anyway, onto the highlights of my week! This week absolutely flew by, but one of the first highlights I'll mention is that after emailing last week we went to Chick-fil-a, which made me super happy ;) It's a little ways away, but totally worth it. Moving on, another highlight this week was getting to watch The Testaments (a church movie) with the Smith family, as I really love that movie and how much it testifies of Christ throughout. So that day was automatically sweet.

Then on Wednesday we got to have a member out with us in the afternoon, which was awesome as he was willing to do a bit of tracting with us and we saw a ton of miracles while with him. So... moral of the story... don't be afraid to do tracting with the missionaries - it's worth it ;)

Thursday was a bit of a sadder day, as we found out that Elizabeth's grandma was in the hospital and probably not going to make it (and we've since found out that she's passed away), so if you could pray for her and her family that would be awesome. We were able to talk about Alma 40 with her, which went super well, and the spirit was super strong there so that was good. We also had an awesome lesson with another couple we visit with - Mark and Jennifer - who could really use your prayers to help them feel the spirit move them to go to church... as the reason they weren't planning on coming this week was due to the super bowl ;)

Friday was pretty neat as we met a less active member who was just moving into our ward, so that was pretty cool. It's interesting how the Lord works to make sure people don't get lost ;)

The highlight of this week though, was definitely Saturday, as even though Elder Park was sick there were still a ton of awesome things happening. We had breakfast with this awesome member family, and since our appointment cancelled we did a mini-exchange so that they could still go to theirs so I was able to watch over Elder Park and spend a little time reading "The Infinite Atonement" By Elder Callistar, which is a super awesome book. We also had dinner with an awesome family - homemade pizza! It was super fun, as they let us put the toppings and such on, afterwhich we all headed to the church for some volleyball. Volleyball was awesome, as we had about 10 people there for the most part, and two of them were a couple the other Elders are teaching, so that was fun. Then when we woke up Sunday to see it starting to snow... we were a bit disappointed as it was almost guaranteed that church would be cancelled but they waited until about an hour before to make the call. But oh well, we still had a great week!

So... to summarize, we had a great week and y'all should pray for:

• Elizabeth and her family (grandmother)
• Mark and Jennifer (Church)
• Smiths (Church)

I hope y'all have an awesome week! Love ya!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson 

January 27th, 2014 - January's over?!?

Hey Everyone!

Sorry for not sending out an email last week! It was a pretty crazy week, as a series of events led to me being moved to Choctaw. So, my new address is:

20804 NE 10th Apt #C

Harrah, OK 73045

Anyway, this week has been awesome, so I'm not even going to bother trying to cover both this week and last week, even though last week was pretty neat.

I also don't have much email time here in Choctaw (we pretty much get an hour flat), so we're going to just focus on a couple noteworthy things after I tell y'all about the awesome studies I've had! A scripture I really liked that I came across this week is Jacob 4:6-7, which talks of the importance of prophets, but also mentions how that leads us to have faith and hope, so that was pretty neat. Another scripture that hit me pretty hard this week is D&C 6:22-24, as you truly can't have any greater witness than from God. A few other scriptures I came across were:

• 1 Nephi 6:4-5
• Matthew 28:19
• D&C 88:73
• Helaman 5:18
• 1 Corinthians 2:12-14
• Luke 24:46-47
• Mosiah 18:9
• John 21:15-17
• D&C 6:7
• D&C 6:29-31

Then I also read a talk about conversion, that I think y'all should check out if you have a minute:

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/be-ye-converted?lang=eng

Anyway, onto this week! All the Elders here in Choctaw got to speak yesterday, along with a kid who leaves for his mission to Idaho on the 5th of February. It was pretty good, and it seemed like most people were actually listening as we spoke, so that was good ;) Aside from that, we've had a couple noteworthy experiences this week, so if y'all could pray for Elizabeth, Clark, Larry, and Tom I'd appreciate it. You should pray for Elizabeth because we started teaching her this week, and she's preparing to get baptized on March 8th if all goes well! Clark, Larry, and Tom are all pretty awesome and they've been working with them for some time. we saw Larry on Saturday and each week we get to help him move hay and feed around for his horses, and this week we also got to help him put up a tarp before we taught him about the plan of Salvation - which was awesome. Larry is getting ready to be baptized on May 10th (a ways away, but that's what we agreed on), and Clark and Tom are hopefully coming to church this next week so they definitely need some prayers. Those are pretty much the major noteworthy events of this week, and we've got some rocking plans for the next few days!

I hope y'all have a fantastic week, I love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson 

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