Finding those that are already found.

Hey all,

Lets talk about the weather.  Over here in England, it has been overcast for the whole week.  And it has been cold and raining.  I have been able to see my breath a couple of times this week. That is not supposed to happen in August and I am not ready for the cold!  I am not the biggest fan of the rain.  It has just been a constant drizzle this week. 

We have been mostly working with the less active members in the Area this week. With August being the holiday period of the year no one is around, everyone is on "Holiday".  Even the members, we had 40 people on Sunday out of the 80 or so that normally come.  We are working with a couple of them and the good news is that they are coming to Church more often and staying for more of it.  We really don't eat at members houses here.  We are lucky if we get in with one or two members a week.   This area is really posh and people don't want to talk about religion at all. 
 
I have found that sometimes the Lord tell us to stop finding souls and to get the ones who are already found back into the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Sometimes though working with less actives is harder than finding new investigators.  The members who are less active have a reason most of the time and they know exactly what the Missionaries are doing coming around their place.  We have been taking the "Ammon" approach to working with our less active families.  And that is we have been just doing service for them.  It has gotten annoying and trying a couple of times but hopefully it will start to work out.  This week should be a good one though. 

Hope everyone has a good week.  Sorry for the short email.  Because it is a Bank Holiday,  the computer is going to kick me off in thirty seconds.

Until next week!

Love Elder Nielsen
 

Follow the Prophet

Hello everyone!

The good news is that I am not sore anymore.  Elder Paton and I did a two and a half hour work out last Monday and we couldn't move for the rest of the week.  It was bad.  I have never been that sore.  Elder Paton and I couldn't walk for most of the week. Tuesday it was alright then Wednesday to Friday it got worse.  It got to the point we couldn't get out of bed.  It was so worth it though. We looked like we where drunk because our legs couldn't hold us up.  It is over though thank goodness until we work out again.  Hopefully I will not be as sore the next time.

We had the opportunity to serve a member who needed help moving this week. They had most of their stuff out of their house but they needed us to get the stuff out of the attic.  It took us about six hours to clear the attic.  I was up in the attic and Elder Paton was at the bottom of the ladder.  One of the bad things that happened is that I ripped my pants on the ladder.  It was to the point of no repair (sorry Mom).  We all got a good chuckle out of it though.  The members have one of the best food storage I have ever seen..... in England.  They had one ton of wheat vacuum packed and ready to be ground.  By the way the wheat was in the attic.  I would clear all the boxes I thought where wheat then I would find ten more boxes.  They also had an impressive collection of music records.  They had the big twelve inch ones and the 8 track and every kind.  The records where easier then the wheat.  So thousands of pounds of wheat and thousands of records later we were done.  With every box of wheat we pulled out the wife just looked at us and said, "I AM FOLLOWING THE PROPHET."  I thought about her statement and I thought what great advice is that.  When the times get rough if we follow the Prophet we will be fine.  It is a pattern in the scriptures.  Every time the people followed the Prophet they were blessed and things just worked out.  We don't see the immediate results of it but it comes. When the next natural disaster happens the people who followed the counsel will be okay.

A tender mercy that happened this week has been just the things that have been happening in our Ward and Area.  Things are starting to slowly look up.  The Ward is starting to help us out and we are getting to know people in the Ward.  It feels to good to finally be acknowledged and helped by the Ward members.

Have a great week and continue to Follow the Prophet!

Love Elder Nielsen

When through fiery trials

Dear Family and Friends,

The adventure at Five Guys was good, way overpriced but I had to try it.  We paid $9.50 for a burger and small fry which is outrageous.  I was a little ticked but the burger was good. 

Elder Paton is from Australia and he is twenty and has been out for just over a year.  On Monday, August 11th Elder Paton and I went and worked out for P-day at a local gym in the morning for three hours.  Elder Paton is a personal trainer, so he just whipped my butt into shape today.  I am already sore and ya.  We are going to try and go every Monday but we will see what happens.

We got hit with the left overs of Bertha a huge rain storm and it was alright.  Just rained and rained most of the day on Sunday.  But we didn't flood or anything, it was just very wet and hard to get anything done.

This week has been a good one as usual.  We have been picking up the pieces of what is left of this transfer.  It has been one of the most heck-tit transfers I have had on the Mission.  It has been worth it
though.  Mostly this week we have been trying to get to know the members.  I have only been here for five weeks and Elder Paton has only been here for a week and a half.  We have just been going by members houses and introducing ourselves to try  and get to know everyone.  We have met a lot of cool members and are starting to get members excited to come out with us.  It is crazy how much of Missionary work is a cycle.  You start to get things going and then a wrench gets thrown in.  Then you start the process over again.  But it is what makes Missionary work fun.  On Sunday I was looking at the hymn How Firm a Foundation and this verse stuck out to me.

When through fiery trials
thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, thy dross to consume,
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

I have been I little miffed about all the trials I have been going through and this answered my question why.  But it is all for my good.  As much as at the time it doesn't feel like it is for my own good, it all is. I have learned that the hard way.  Some things that you go through develop things you need to have and learn.  But the light is always there at the end of the tunnel. You just need to look for it.

Sorry this entry is so short.  But we thought the Library closed at six today but it is at five.  So only an hour today to email.

Have a great week and may your trials be light.

Love Elder Nielsen

The Natural Man

Dear friends and family,

This week has been pretty stressful.  I lost three Elders out of the District in 24 hours.  Tuesday I got a call from one of the team and he said that he is getting transferred to Wales and that his companion is going home because of a medical issue.  So there went two people.  On Wednesday we had District meeting with Elder Fonseca, myself and the other team and after that we all went on exchange.  So we are biking to a dinner appointment and the phone starts to ring.  I thought I am at a red light I will see who it is and then call them back.  I look at the phone and it was the Mission President, President Rasmussen, so I answered while I was stopped at the red light.  And Before I said HI this is Elder Nielsen, I just said President I am really busy right now can I call you back?  He said sure and shortly I called him back and explained that I was on my bike at a red light and he just laughed.  But then he told me that my companion, Elder Fonseca, is getting emergency transferred tonight.  I didn't know what to say.  I was shocked and I asked when does he need to be ready and that could be a problem since we are on exchange.  But we worked it out.  I now have a new companion,  Elder Paton from Australia.  It was just a crazy day.  I went and picked up Elder Paton and we got back to the flat at about ten at night.  So while he unpacked I cleaned the place a bit.  Elder Fonseca had been in Solihull for six months so his stuff was everywhere.  We torn the flat apart making sure we got everything he needed because we only had an hour to pack.  Everything worked out.  But other than that it has just been a massive learning curve for me since I have only been in the Solihull area for three weeks and now it is the two of us that are new to the Area.  It will work out though.

Below is a picture of a statue that I took this past week and I want to explain why I took the picture. The statue is of a man working with a horse.  The man represents the human man and the horse is our passions and natural man.  I just looked at the statue and it hit home to me how hard it is to put off the natural man.  I have been thinking about this and how we can tame the natural man.  And it is through charity.  The natural man thinks only about himself and no one else.  A charitable man thinks about everyone but himself.  It is the only way that we can truly change the natural man and tame our passions to become the instruments that God needs us to be.

I hope that we can all become charitable men and women and be the instruments that God needs us to be to hasten His work.

Love, Elder Nielsen

Pictures below.

Box of new shirts Mom sent. Elder Nielsen square feet.

Elder Nielsen new shirt and tie.

Church of England

Outside our flat in Solihull, England.

Elder Paton at the grocery.

Elder Nielsen trying out the new Five Guys, smell and anticipation of how good it will be.

Five Guys burger.  YUM

New Five Guys restaurant.

The Sacrament

Dear Friends and Family,

This week was a hard week. We just had to many things to do and not enough time in the day to do them and it has been very hot and humid over here. We will go out for about two hours and then will need to come back to change our shirt because it is wet from the humidity.  It has made the work hard because people do not want to talk. They just want to get indoors and out of the heat.  It has made cycling hard as well.  Oh well, that is the life of a Missionary!  I need to enjoy the sun while it is still here because before you know it, the rain and fog will be back.

We have been going by a lot of less active this week that the Ward did not know about.  It was really fun. We met some really nice people and had a couple of them at Church on Sunday which was good to see.  The one hard thing that happened this week is I went on exchange (where my companion and I go with different Elders in different Areas) with a Elder in my Area.  It was a fun exchange but the Elders flat is right next to the airport.  The planes flew right next to their window and you could see the people in the plane window, that's how close they are!  It was really cool but also frustrating because it made talking to people in the streets really hard.  You would be having a good conversation with them, then a plane would fly over and you couldn't speak it was just to loud.  It was a good exchange though.  I like having the opportunity to work with other Elders.  I learn so much from them and their working style. 

One day last week we also had the chance to play football as a Ward.  It was a lot of fun but very hot. We played for about two hours and after that I had to go home and shower because it looked like I had just been thrown in a pool.  I was absolutely dripping with sweat, but it was worth every drip. Before we played football, a member of the Bishopric came up to me and asked if I would give a talk on Sunday.  The day he asked was Saturday evening,  so I had about an hour to prepare a ten minute talk on why it is important to prepare to partake of the Sacrament.  It turned out to be a good talk for so little effort put into it.  The one thing that I have never really realized is how many times the Sacrament Prayer say remember.  They each say it two times.  That they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy son, and always remember him. Blessing on the Bread D&C 20:77  Then the water has do it in remembrance of the blood, that they do always remember him. Blessing on the Water D&C 20:79  Every time we partake of the Sacrament we promise to always remember Him. The question I used to start my talk was do we Always Remember?  Life is hectic! We are all busy. But do we always remember Christ and his sacrifice for us.  Do we partake of the sacrament by just going through the motions or are we taking it with the intent to change. As I was preparing the talk I found lots of things I need to change.  I get to caught up with the things that need to be done this week rather than preparing myself to partake of the Sacrament.  We are not all perfect but have the chance to become perfect and we grow line upon line and principle upon principle.  We do this by partaking of the Sacrament and doing better each week.  It is the greatest blessing to be able to do that once a week.  To become better.

Tender Mercy I had this week would have to be attending Church this week.  I was way beyond frustrated with a lot of things and people so it was nice to just sit and do nothing and feel of our Savior's love for me.  Love this gospel!

Have a great week!  Love Elder Nielsen

Pictures below are from some of my adventures the past while.  The first set are pictures of the Elders flat and Church building that is near the airport.  Elder Nielsen raiding the refrigerator, more of the beautiful Country England and of course my green smoothie.  I try and drink one twice a day, who knew a Mission would make me so healthy!  And then the last few are of an old chapel and me in one of my new suits. 

Busy and Fast Week

Dear Family & Friends,

Here is just some information on the new Area I am in at this time.  The new flat in Solihull is alright as missionary housing goes.  I really liked the flat in Cannock better because we had a house and a back yard that I could go out and just sit and enjoy God's rainy green earth.  But the new flat is in a good neighborhood.  With my little bit of cleanliness OCD, I have already stripped the place and cleaned it twice but the floor in the kitchen is bad.  Our feet just stick to it no matter what we have cleaned it with.  Our neighbors are usually pretty good.  I don't think there has every been any problems with them.  The only problem we have had was that our shower leaked into our downstairs neighbor's flat.  But it was a quick fix.  My Companion and I are getting along quit well.  We only religious English talk not small talk English since he does not speak English very well it is hard to see if we have much in common.  The hardest thing I have done as a District Leader is having come to Jesus talks with other Elders.  It is hard to do this because it usually leads to them getting disciplined from the Mission President.  The other reason it is hard to do is because most of these Elders are my friends and we have lots in common.  But it has to happen.  The other day I was thinking about what strengthens my faith when I am down and discouraged.  Just thinking that I can choose how I feel helps but sometimes the power of Satan is strong enough that choosing to be happy doesn't always come easily.

I have not been in my Area of Solihull at all this week.  I have been gone four out of the seven days. We were out Monday which was P day to play football with some Elders in another Area. Wednesday we where out for District Meeting.  Then I went and worked with an Elder in his Area.  Then we came back to Solihull Thursday night then back out on Friday night to Saturday.  It was a fun and eventful week.  One cool thing though is when I was on exchange with the Zone Leaders and I got to ride in a car!  I have not ridden in a car for about a year and a half.  The best thing was that it absolutely dumping rain that day.  We saw some other Elders biking and we pulled over and told them that our heater was out and that we were freezing! ha ha  But that wasn't the best thing that happened that day.  We had the Stake BBQ.  I got to see some members from Kidderminster.  It was really crazy to think that it was almost a year ago that I was in that Area.  It was crazy to catch up with them.  Some of the people that I worked with in Kidderminster to bring them back to Church are still active and they are working to get a Temple recommend!  I was so happy for them!  The other cool thing this week is I ate a Kangaroo burger.  It was so good.  When I was with the Zone Leader we had to go into downtown Birmingham for something. We were both hungry so we just walked into a food court and there was a place selling Kangaroo burgers.  So I decided, that is something that I should try and got one.  It was really good. 

But the week went very fast.  It is good to back in my own Area of Solihull though.  As a Mission we have been working on conversion.  How to help people become converted and to convert ourselves.  It has been a good thing to look at.  It has helped me strengthen my testimony and has helped me work toward being more converted.

Have a great week!

Love you all,  Elder Nielsen

The Parable of Sin and Stinging Nettle by Elder Nielsen

This week was long.  We had meetings all this week so not much got done.  We had Zone Meeting on Wednesday and then on Friday I had a District Leader training meeting.  So Elder  Fonseca and I headed to Birmingham to the Mission Home. All of the District Leaders from the whole mission were in attendance at the Mission Home for special training.  We talked lots about the noble and great ones.  It was pretty good for me to hear.  I had been doubting why I was called to be a District Leader.  The Mission President, President Rasmussen, said that we are all called at this time to do something that needs to be done. We have the ability to reach an Elder/Sister in the way he or she needs.  It was pretty cool to hear that and made me realize that I should not doubt what I have been called to do.

Saturday was a fun day though. We had three service projects. We started at 10 in morning and finished at about 7 that night with all of them.  It was a long day and I will tell you about it in story form.

I would like to tell you the story of Elder Nielsen Vs. the stinging nettle.  There is a man we have been doing service for this past week.  His garden is very overgrown. With brambles and stinging nettle. We had cleared a good chunk of it but when we got close to the back we stopped. We stopped because we had a wall of stinging nettle that was taller than I am.  The wall of stinging nettle was even taller than Elder Fonseca who is six foot two.  We put off clearing it away in hopes that the stinging nettle would just go away.  But on Saturday we decided it was time and the plant needed to go.  I have now learned from first hand experience that stinging nettle really hurts when it gets you.  When we got home we both had to wash our arms to get the stingers out of them.  But even after careful washing, we are still feeling the effects two days later.  But it was a good lesson.  It was fun providing service until we got to the nettles.  Sin can be fun at the start as well, but the further we get into the sin and the more we sin sooner or later this sin will get you back.  We had fun doing the first two thirds of the garden. The last third was Hell.  We learn in the Book of Mormon that wickedness never is and never will be happiness.  Just because it is fun now it will not be fun later.  Stinging nettle takes about four minutes before it starts to hurt.  Those four minutes are fun but then for the next three days you are hating life. We had some cream though to put on our arms which took the pain away.  The cream is like the Atonement.  The Atonement is there for us we just need to know how to use it and be willing to act.  It was a good lesson to learn this week.  It also was a painful one though.  But the most painful lessons we learn the most from.

I had a question asked this week.  "What are Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ doing at this very moment?"  Here are my thoughts.  I honestly think that Christ is preparing for the second coming.  He doesn't know when but in the Doctrine and Covenants it talks about how he will come tomorrow. So that is what I think He is doing.  Heavenly Father I think is probably doing the same thing, but I also think that He is weeping too.  Just like he did when He talked to Enoch. Weeping because of the wickedness and hardness of the hearts of the Children of men. With Christ preparing He is doing lots. Separating the wheat from the tares and bringing people who where promised to be put in a favorable position to hear the Gospel before it's to late.  Leave me your comments on what you think Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are doing. 

It is my hope that we will all help those that have been promised and that have the desire to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I love this Gospel, the people of England and all of you that support me in this effort.

Love Elder Nielsen