Coral Reef North area 11-24-2014

Elder Marsden and I with the ward mission leader

Happy thanksgiving everybody! Whoop whoop! I loved all of your emails this week as always! I'm glad to hear as well that everybody will be getting together for some turkey dinner! Say hi to everybody for me please! Tell them I'm sorry that I never have time to reply to all their emails, but that I love reading them!

Life here in the Mission seriously is too good. I'm not gonna say that's it's just sunshine and rainbows all the time and that life is just easy. Because it's most definitely not, but I still just love it here. I love getting home after a long day of work and just feeling fulfilled. Missionarry work honestly is the most fulfilling work I've ever done and that I will ever do!

This week was an awesome week in Coral Reef. My nino and I went out and did some serious work! We saw a lot of miracles and we were able to find a lot of cool people. Probably one of my favorite people right now is this guy named John. He was a former investigator from like 2 years ago, and we found him in the area book, and picked him back up. He is an 85 year old veteran and is just a boss. He came to church on sunday for all 3 hours and loved it. He just needs a little help right now to give up smoking but he will get there!

Another miracle we saw this past week came on Thursday. We were out harvesting and we had already knocked several doors in this area, and hadn't said one blessing. We were thinking of leaving to go try another area but we decided to knock one more door. We knocked this door, and this older lady from Nicaragua comes out. We asked her what she wanted us to pray for, and she asked us to pray that she would have faith. We said the prayer, and it was obvious that she felt it. She knew that we had been sent by God, she accepted everything and came to church this past sunday. She loved it and is now preparing to be baptized! 

This week as well we had a specialized training with the whole mission. President Richardson talked a lot about this new christmas initiative called He is the Gift, which will start the day after the thanksgiving. So definitely keep an eye out for that cause the Church is going so hard on it! At the end of the training President just asked us, "Were you all a little bit upset when I said you couldn't watch Meet the Mormons??" Everybody in the mission replys, "Yes!" Then he just said well let's watch it right now! So we finally got to see it which was sweet.

Don't worry about us on Thanksgiving we will be well taken care of. We have 2 meal appointments so we're chill! I'm so grateful for this gospel. I'm so thankful for this Church. I know that it is the Church of Jesus Christ. I can't believe how blessed I am to have the restored gospel in my life. I'm so grateful to be here sharing it with others. I'm so grateful for all of you!! I have the greatest family ever! I'm so grateful for my savior Jesus Christ. Truly, without him one of those blessings would be available. I know that He is the Savior and Redeemer of the world, and that through him we can accomplish all things! Love you all!

Elder Nielsen

Coral Reef North Area 11-17-2014

FAMILIA!

I can't believe it snowed in Utah!! haha we got a cold front here in Florida, it was like 65! The weather here is literally perfect right now. So random question, what are all these class things that Dad is going to every weekend?? Is he just learning how to be an orthodontist too now or what?? To answer your question Mom, no, we don't go to transfer meeting if were not being transferred.

I wish I had like some super hilarious awesome story to tell you right now, but honestly my brain is just fried. Haha I am so tired right now I have no idea why, and I'm retarted and saved myself like no time to write. But as always I will just share one miracle from the week.  Our appointment fell through at the end of the night on Friday, so we just decided to harvest in that neighborhood. The first door we knock this lady and her family opens up and the mother knew right away who we were. She said she had some friends who were Mormons and that she knew where the nearest chapel was. After the prayer she really felt the spirit and we invited her to be baptized, and she said, "But I've already been baptized in your church!" Turned out she was baptized when she was 19 and has been less active for several years. She has 2 children ages 11 and 12 who are not members and really want to be baptized now! The mother knew that we had been sent by God and is really excited to come back to church.

This week we worked really hard. We were very blessed to find that family, and know we just pray that we can continue to help them progress. I don't know why lately but we have just had the hardest time keeping investigators. We find some super sick people, and their awesome when were there, but then it's like we leave and Satan just comes in and anti's them or some crazy crap happens. I don't why it seems to be that way, but I do know that this is the Lord's work. I'm more tired than I've ever been before in my life all the time, but I'm happy so that's all that matters. I'm so grateful to be here in this mission here in Miami. I'm so grateful to have been blessed with such an incredible and I love you guys a lot! Have an incredible week!

Elder Nielsen

Coral Reef North Area 11-10-2014

FAMILIA!

All I can say is you all are da best! I'll just get straight to it and answer all of your millions of questions mom! ;) haha

Being out a year sucks. On thursday I literally just woke up mad. It feels like yesterday that I entered the field. It's whatever though I'm just going to work harder this upcoming year!

Our apartment is actually a house. It's not too ghetto, but I wouldn't describe it as luxiourious thats for sure. There's 4 of us. haha I guess I never told you this but this past transfer it was me, my son, Elder White and Elder page in our house. And if you remember elders white and page were my past companions so I've been living with the same people for forever! Elder Page goes home tomorow though so someone new will be coming in. Oh and fyi as well transfer calls came last night, and Elder Marsden and I will be staying.

Yes we cook Mom. For breakfast I always have either oatmeal or cereal. Then for lunch if we have member food i just eat that or I will make some pasta, grilled chicken sandwiches or burritos. For dinner we either have a meal appointment with members or we eat out or just don't eat dinner until we get home. usually the latter. haha i know it's not the healthiest but ain't nobody got time for that!

My companion is a boss. We get along really well. We have a fun time but at the same time we work hard. He was big into music, and singing before the mish. So I've had him sing a lot in lessons. The people love it! His spanish is improving a lot as well.

Exercise. . . Oh man. haha it's so hard! usually what we do is we just go play wiffle ball out in our street in the morning or we just do some push ups and sit ups. That's basically it. haha yeah I'm getting fat!

I have yet to see the ocean. Our area borders it, but we never go over there cause it's rich as all get out.

We try and serve as much as possible. This week we helped some members move stuff outside for a garage sale. Not too big, but once in Miami lakes we helped like 4 people move in 1 week.

I have no idea what I'm going to need for christmas. Probably just some ties. All my stuff is still good. Maybe if you wanted to send another pair of those target pants I wouldn't complain. ;) I can tell you what I do need now though! I don't know why but every week at the end of the week we run out of food! So if you could send a package with some snacks, that would be great! :) as well as some wiffle balls, and pens.   

No I did not celebrate my year mark all I did was cry myself to sleep. And the journal writing has been a little iffy, but I bought a voice recorder and I record something almost every night about our day, so that's basically my journal.

Sorry I have no more time to write and that took forever! But I love you all! Pedro didn't get baptized. Super lame excuses. This week was frustrating but good at the same time. I learned a lot. Keep going hard back home!

Elder Nielsen

Coral Reef North Area 11-3-14

FAMILIA!
Happy halloween!!! (a few days late. . .) It looked like you guys had an incredible week! I loved all the pics! haha you all looked amazing in your costumes! Halloween was pretty uneventful here in the mish. We had to be home by 7 and we weren't allowed to knock doors after 5. So basically we just chilled all night in our apartment and carved some pumpkins! It was super fun though. On the mish you don't really ever have time to just "chill" so it was nice to just have a night of not really anything.

I'm sorry I don't have a whole lot of time to email this week so this is gonna be pretty quick. We had an alright week this week. A lot of things did not go as we planned and sadly, no one was baptized this past weekend. It's chill though because they all have dates for this upcoming weekend! We were working hard as usual and we were able to see a lot of miracles, but it still felt like there was just someone constantly pulling against us! I definitely learned this week that Satan is a real being, and he is constantly trying to pull us and those around us down. At times we may not feel it, but he is there.

One of our biggest miracles this week came with Pedro. We have been working with for a long time to try and help him be baptized. The only thing that has been holding him back was his father. His father was just a little unsure about what it would mean for him when he got baptized. We had been trying for the past few weeks to set up an appointment to meet with him and we finally were able to see him on Saturday. We were able to explain to Pedro's dad exactly how it was going to bless his son's life and he was finally on board for him to be baptized! Pedro, sadly was not! We were a little bit unsure as to what happened, but he would not commit to be baptized the following day on sunday. He still came to church though. Then at church, we were just talking to him and his mom after sunday school, and then out of the blue he just blurts out, "I think I need to be baptized on Friday." We all just look at him and say, "What!?" he replies, "Yeah, during class I just really felt like I need to be baptized on friday so I want to be baptized on friday. Can I do that??" I'm pretty sure the yell of "YES!" that come from our mouth's was heard through the whole chapel! So we are super excited for him! It's about time though! ;)

One of the scriptures this week that really helped me out this week was Helaman 5:12. As I said before it just felt like Satan was attacking us, and that scripture gave me so much comfort. It talks about how if we build our foundation upon Jesus Christ is doesn't matter what things he may try and throw at us we will not fall. So how important it is, that we constantly be building our foundation on Him! He is the only who knows exactly what is going on in our lives, and the only one who can bring us true and lasting happiness. I know that as I continue to strive to follow him that I will be able to build and rely on Him. I know it is the same as well for each and everyone of us in our own lives. I love you all keep working hard, and building upon our Savior!
Elder Nielsen