FAMILIA!
Really another T-Swift concert?!? I'm so jealous!! Haha I was glad to hear that you all had a great time though! Dad, I'm so pumped right now just hearing about the BYU vs. Nebraska game! That sounded so intense! Yesterday a guy was telling us all about it, and asked if we had seen it, he said it was the best play he had ever seen! Alright Mom, so if you haven't sent the package yet, I would love you forever if you could also just send a Subway gift Card with it! Thanks! :)
Alright, it's been a long 8 days so I've got a lot to fill you in on! First was with Transfers! Transfers went great and we got a super cool group of greenies! There were 16 elders and 3 sisters. It's always a fun experience going and picking them up from the airport. One of them actually just graduated from timpanogos. Kylie, he said he knew you! So weird! He said that you were in College Writing together. His name is Elder Pratte. I can't remember his first name, but he played soccer! Super cool guy! The other big news with Transfers is that we are now a Trio companionship of AP's! It's me Elder Hayward, and now Elder Tanner. Elder Tanner is a super cool guy. He's from Arizona and is actually planning to play football at BYU or UCLA when he gets home. He plays QB and is a freak athlete so it's been fun to talk sports with him the past week. He reminds me a ton of Trevor Schade! They even look similar so it's hilarious! The trio is great, it adds a whole new perspective on everything which was something that I really needed so I'm grateful for it! We're all like the best of friends too so life is good!
After transfer meeting was over on Wednesday we started going hard in our area! Transfer weeks are always tough for our area just because we get hardly any time but this week we went so hard! We started off the week with virtually no Investigators, but God compensated for our efforts! We received a media referral for this lady named Lisa and she's the sickest! She's a baptist but she came to church on Sunday and loved it! We also had a huge miracle on Sunday. So, our recent convert Shanice has this daughter named Odaysha. O is 14 and is one of the most stubborn girls i've ever met! I love her, but man she is tough! We were working with her for a couple weeks but finally she just told us that she did not want to be baptized. So we just left her alone. But then on Sunday she came with her mom again to church. And we started talking to her after sacrament and randomly she told us, "I want to get baptized on Saturday." So if she sticks to her word we should be having a baptism on Saturday! Woohoo!
This week I also learned some very important lessons about the spirit. Mom, the things that you emailed me about remind me of it! There was a time in my mission where I wanted to just make sure that I was absolutely all the time always following the spirit. So I prayed about everything always looking for specific answers and I would rarely find them! It was frustrating for me and so I started studying more about it, and there were a couple thing that really helped me understand. First was a quote by an apostle, I can't remember who but he said, "If you want to talk to God, pray. If you want God to talk to you, read the scriptures." That hit me so hard because sometimes we're praying and looking for answers that are literally right in front of our faces. In the scriptures! Obviously God isn't going to give us some new deep revelation when he's already revealed it and we just have to do our part and study it and find it! The second was a scripture in D&C 58: 26, "For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward." After I read that scripture I remembered another quote from an apostle who said that God usually answers our prayers in 3 ways. Yes, No, or Figure it out yourself! God wants us to think and learn and grow for ourselves. So we have to study things out in our own minds and try to make our best decision on what we know. Then if we're right God can confirm it too us. Or if were wrong, He will let us know that it's not right. I'm so grateful for a loving, Heavenly Father who loves us enough to let us make decisions on our own to learn and grow! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Nielsen
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