Coral Reef North Area 10-27-14

Alright, I'm sorry about this one. You said you wanted a pic of me and my comp, but this is the only one I got. At the picnic, they did the donut on a string game, so obviously we had to get in on that.

FAMILIA!!
Whats up everybody!!?? As always thank you for all of your great emails. I'm sorry I never have time to respond to all of them! I was super pumped to hear about the new bishopric though! I can't believe how many legendary members there are in our ward. We've got some awesome members here in Coral Reef as well! The members here do so much. I don't think I've ever had such good member relationships as I have here in Coral Reef. It's awesome I love it.

Alright, I'm gonna be straight up honest and say that this email is probably gonna be junk. Haha i'm sorry I'll apologize upfront but for some reason I just have no desire to write today. . . Our week was pretty good though. A lot of things didn't go according to plan, which was a little bit frustrating, but there wasn't much we could do about it. One of which was with our boy Pedro. He is 16 and he is a boss. I wrote a little about him last week, and he was supposed to be baptized yesterday, but sadly that didn't go down. We were supposed to meet his Dad, on Saturday and explain to him everything, but he totally bailed. But no worries all the pieces are already falling into place for his baptism this upcoming sunday. Charly as well is still super solid. His divorce papers should be coming back within the next 2 weeks, and then as soon as they get here, they can go ahead and get married! The family that I wrote about as well last week is still super solid. They just have been out of town all weekend so their progress was hindered a little bit there.

Those are basically all the people were working with now. They're all super awesome, and super close to becoming members, we just gotta finish strong!! One miracle this week came last night. Last night we were determined to just go out and find some sick people. We had harvested a lot during the week, and we didn't see as many miracles as we would have liked. We began harvesting and we knocked into one of the most elect couples I've ever met. They are an older couple from Cuba, and they are incredible! They let us right into their home, and began thanking us for being there, before we had even done anything! After the prayer, the Spirit was definitely present, and they accepted everything!

That's basically it for our week. Oh, haha I remembered as well that it rained all day for 3 of the days this week, so we got some good biking in the rain action! That was fun! :) I know this is the Lord's work. There is literally nothing else that I would rather be doing. I'm gonna be honest and say that I am in pure denial of my year mark coming up! I hate thinking about that! I miss you all, but I do not want to go home. Miami is my home!! I hope you all have the best weeks of your lives, because me and my nino are gonna go out and have the greatest week of our lives!
Love,
Elder Nielsen

Coral Reef North Area 10-20-14

As always it's a great day when I get to read all of your emails. It sounded like you had a pretty chill fall break. Those leaves look incredible! I ain't gonna lie, I miss 'dem mountains! Life here in Florida can't be beat though. Breaking News!! This week in Miami we experienced a cold front!! It got down to like to 80!! haha no joke you could tell that there was a difference though. We walked outside, and for once it wasn't an instant shower of sweat hitting you! haha it felt incredible! It was ridiculous though, because literally I saw several people wearing sweaters!

But for reals our week this week here in Coral Reef was so boss! We made so many awesome memories this week! My nino and I were going so hard in the paint! I have no idea where to start. I guess I will start with Charly, (a.k.a. the guy who got t boned) He is still "super" elect! Sadly, he was not baptized this weekend, because of work, and he is actually living with his fiance right now. So were working with him to help him get divorced from his ex-wife right now, so they can get married. Our ward, also had a ward picnic on Saturday. We went and it was super fun. Our ward here is so boss. It's literally just a giant melting pot. We have a couple families that literally look like they were sent straight from Utah. Then you have some families that are just pure Latin, and speak no english. Then you have a couple huge black families of like 8 kids. And somehow they can all still meet together for a barbeque and have a great time. Ask me how it works, and I will tell you I have no idea, all I know is God is good and the church is true!

We are also working with this super elect kid named Pedro. I think I talked about him before, but he is so sick! He was so close to getting baptized this past sunday! The only thing was holding him back was his Dad. His parents are divorced so we have actually never met with his Dad, but he wants to meet with us this week to talk about it. Apparently he thinks that if his son is baptized he will be forced to get sent somewhere and start riding a bike everywhere. So once we clear that up, he should be good to go! :)

I wanted to share a real quick miracle as well from the week.  We had called a new investigator from last week that we had lost contact with, and set up an appointment for thursday. When we went over the whole family was there, and they were super excited to see us. We came in their home and literally the first thing they say when we sit down is, "Were coming to church on Sunday!" The family is a Mom, her 2 daughters, and also her daughters friend. Then on Sunday they all showed up!! It was a huge miracle, but then to top it all off, after sacrament meeting finished, literally 5 young women from our ward, came up to the daughter and her friend because they actually knew each other from school. They are all way good friends. It was seriously just like this huge mob of high school girls just walking through the church. They said they loved it though, and they already have solid member friends so that's sweet!

Well I'm sorry I don't have time to write more, but seriously this week was so boss. I will send some pics as soon as I send this, but just know that I love you all so much! The mission has literally been the greatest thing of my life. It's definitely not been easy, or stress free, but I love it so much! The people here are incredible! Thank you so much for everything as always and keep working hard!
Elder Nielsen

Coral Reef North Area 10-14-2014

FAMILIA!

Wow, I have the best family on earth. Straight up no arguments end of story. I have no idea why God blessed me so much, but He has. You all are seriously the best! I really do miss you guys! Don't think that I'm getting "trunky" or anything, trust me my mind is still focused on the work, but for some reason reading todays emails just made me even more grateful for all of you! I loved hearing all of your stories about your fall activities! Happy Birthday too Maddie!! Whoop whoop! You're getting so old I can't believe it! In those pictures all the little sisters look different and it's blowing my mind! Anyway to let you know Dad, yes, I am so down to go mountain biking after the mish! haha I feel like I've gotten pretty good at biking here, since I've been on one for the past 11 months. ;) Also Mom, take it easy! No more wrecks!

Alright, so a little bit about our week. Our week was super good. My nino is such a boss. He doesn't even act like a normal greenie at all. Pretty sure he came pre-trained. haha the only time he sounds new is when he speaks spanish. . . Kinda hard to work on that here since there's not a whole lot of spanish, but we find a few people! :) This week we were working really hard to find new investigators! We knocked a lot of doors, and met a lot of interesting people, and a lot of cool people as well! I'll share a miracle from the week as well like always:

A miracle from this week came on Sunday at church. The miracle actually starts on Saturday though. We had planned to go see a less active recent convert during the day, and we called her to confirm that we were still good to stop by. She began crying through the phone as we were talking to her, and told us this crazy experience of how her fiance had dropped her and her kids off the night before. Then as he was pulling away from their house, another car came out of nowhere driving at like 80 mph and t boned his car. She said that it had rolled 4 times, and her fiance was taken to the hospital and that at that moment she was at the hospital with him. Pretty unexpected. But we continued on with our day praying for their family. Then on Sunday morning our round up was rough. All of the people who we had committed the day before bailed. We were pretty disappointed when we saw none of them show up for sacrament. But that family that I just talked about did! And her fiance came as well! The guy who had been t boned and rolled 4 times in his truck came to church 2 days afterwards! Miraculously he survived the accident only with a few scrapes and a mild concussion. I literally have no idea how he made it. She showed us pics from the wreck, and his truck was destroyed! It's probably because he's this 6'4 black man who is built like a tank! He normally works on sundays, but because of the accident he couldn't go, so he came to church! It was his first time at church as well, and he really enjoyed it, and was able to receive a blessing from the bishop. We went yesterday and followed up with how they were doing, and invited him to be baptized. He accepted solidly and is now preparing to be baptized this upcoming sunday! Huge miracle!

Haha another kinda random story from this week came yesterday. I'm sure you already figured but were emailing today since yesterday was columbus day, so we had a pros monday yesterday. But we were just biking down the street and this guy driving his car towards us starts honking at us and pulls over. So we go over and start talking to him, and this is literally the first thing he says to us, "Hey! Are you guys those Jesus Church people who talk about God?" We're both just like, "Umm, yeah I guess!" haha he then proceeds to tell us of how lately he's felt like he needs to make a donation to God, and tried to give us like 10 bucks to give to the church. Sadly, we told him that we couldn't take it, but that if he came to church on sunday that he could give it there. He commited to come and we got all his info, so we should be seeing him sometime this week.

Like I said at the beginning, I love you all so much! I love the mission! I love Miami and I love the people here! I know this is the Lord's work. Keep doing work back in Utah, and go see meet the mormons this week!
Elder Nielsen

Coral Reef North Area 10-6-14- Training Elder Marsden

FAMILIA!
Wow to start off I just want to say congrats to the old man for qualifying for Boston! Looking at those pictures I thought, "Good night! When did Dad get jacked out of his mind!?" haha holy cow good work dad! It sounded like you guys had an awesome week and weekend down in St. George enjoying the sun! Don't worry, there's still plenty of sun here in Florida! ;)

So just to answer all of your questions. My new "son" is Elder Marsden. He is from Bountiful, Utah, and he is a boss missionary! We have had an incredible first week together, and I know that God has put us together for a reason! Transfer meeting was super exciting this week as well. I did actually see Elder Dunford there, and him and Elder Marsden were actually in the same district in the MTC in Mexico. Elder Marsden and I were so excited to go out and work this week, and it was so fun to see some "greenie fire" come alive in him as we went out and worked! We worked as hard as we could this week and it was amazing because we saw some super sick miracles! One miracle we saw was on Sunday at Conference. We had been trying to contact a recent convert who's son is not a member, and who had come to church before. We had several appointments that had somehow all fallen through so it came down to the end of the week on Sunday. We called them before conference to make sure they were going to come, but for some reason they never answered. She finally called us back halfway through the session and said that they were coming right then. We finally got to meet her son after the conference, and had a lesson with him right there, and he accepted to be baptized on the 19th! We will be following up with them tonight but we are so excited to start working with him!

Conference this weekend was definitely a huge highlight from the week as well. We just went and watched it at the church in English, and it was incredible! There were so many inspired messages, and I felt the spirit so strong testifying that those men truly are called of God! Just like I said last week about coming to conference with questions and getting them answered, it happened for me! I had a lot of questions about things I can improve on, and what I need to change, and literally all of my questions were answered! I hope you all as well were able to receive your own revelation and guidance through the Lord's servants. Really quickly I just wanted to highlight one of the talks that stood out to me. It was on Saturday Morning by, Elder Lynn G. Robins. He talked about fearing God more than man. I wish I had my notes to expound on everything that he talked about, but that talk was probably what hit me the hardest! And since you all were busy in St. George and weren't able to watch it, I would invite you all to read it, or watch it cause it was incredible!

I love you all so much! I feel so blessed everyday to have been born into a family with the knowledge of the restored Gospel. My testimony has grown so much here in the mission, and it has made me realize how important this work is. We must share the "good news" with everyone because This IS The Church of Jesus Christ! You hit it right on the head mom, when you said that one thing that seemed to get repeated was strengthening our own testimonies. This world is not going to get any easier to live in. So our testimonies must be that much stronger in order to survive! I encourage you all to go out and strengthen your testimonies by sharing the gospel and through personal scripture study and prayer. This gospel has changed my life and I know it can change anyone if they will let it. Really quickly, one of our investigators right now is actually recently returned from Iraq. He suffers from PSTD (post traumatic stress disorder) and we've only taught him a couple times, but really his biggest desire right now is to be happy. He knows that the things he is doing right now are not bringing him happiness. Teaching him is definitely a wild experience, but I know that the Atonement will work miracles in his life. And that it can work miracles in our lives as well! Thanks for everything! Have a great week!
Elder Nielsen