Miami Lakes YSA 4-20-2015

Graffiti District

FAMILIA!! 

Wow!! Those were some amazing letters!! I guess first I'll just start off by giving some shoutouts! Kyle, you are inspiration to me!! A half tuition scholarship too BYU!? Legendary. And Maddie, that picture of you in your ballet outfit. I think I would probably shatter all of the bones in my feet if I tried doing pointe. I'm convinced that I have the best family on the planet! :) Haha Mom, you were right about my last email about just throwing that in at the end! ;) That's something I've realized on my mission that if you just a lot of good things at first and then at the end you throw in a little catch it's usually not that big of a deal! :) But really thank you so much for being understanding and patient with me! And I will see you in November! :)

This week was another legendary week living the #YSAlife. You were right about that as well Mom, I have had some pretty interesting experiences since I've got here. . . But I love it!! :) This week started off really strong! Like I had mentioned last week we had that miracle YSA girl show up to sacrament meeting in Miami Beach. Well we got to meet her this week and her name is Maya. And she is so legit!! She had lived with a member over in St. Petersburg for 6 months before she came here. She went to church almost every week over there and has been taught basically everything by missionaries in the past. The only reason she wasn't baptized was because at the time she had been living with her boyfriend as well. . . But now she moved over here so she is good to go!! 

We also saw another miracle on Sunday morning. Saturday night we received a referral from the Elders on Miami Beach for someone that they had just contacted. They said that she was interested in coming to church the following day. So we called her that night and she said she didn't have a ride, but that if we found her a ride she would come. So we got her address and we started looking through the ward list of people who could give her a ride. We found a member who literally lives 3 houses down from her on the same street, called her up and she said she would love to give her a ride!! So the first time we meet her, (her name is Indira.) was on Sunday morning when we knocked her door to make sure she was awake for church. She was, and she ended up staying for 4 hours of church!! (We had a linger longer, so that added an extra hour) She loved it! She's actually from Nicaragua and she had been to church a couple of times in Nicaragua. 

It has been a huge blessing serving here in YSA. I don't think I have ever had an area where there have been so many obstacles or challenges to missionary work. I think it is safe to say that there are so many "excuses" that we could use. But there is a quote from Elder Ballard, he said, "Excuses and Failures go together. So we must learn to get away from excuses." My companion Elder Nogueira has truly taught me the truthfulness of this principle. Ever since I got to the area he told me, "We will never say the words, "it's because we're in YSA." I'm so grateful for all of the valuable lessons I have learned on my mission. I know that if we will just get rid of all excuses that we will see more success in our lives. I know that as we increase our Faith and testimonies of the Savior it will help us leave behind any excuses that are keeping us from our full potential. I hope you have an amazing week and I love you all!
Elder Nielsen