The Lord will open the way

Hey all,

This past week has been a rough week to say the least.  Monday was P-day so after emailing and shopping Elder Gardner and I both ended up chilling and studying the rest of the day.  We where getting ready to teach a lesson that we had later that night with a family we found about a week ago. But as we where getting ready to head to the lesson, we got a text saying they didn't want us to come over.  So we went to dinner at a member's house.  The member needed to have a bon fire to burn some stuff, so Elder Gardner and I and the other set of Elders that were with us had a bon fire in our Missionary clothes.  I am sure that our mothers would not have approved, but it was really fun.

Tuesday we had a Zone Meeting. We left pretty early to get to Gloucester.  We normally have the Zone Meetings in Cheltnam but this week it was in Gloucester because of a Mission trip that the Mission President had planned later in the week.  It had been a while since anyone had been to the Chapel in Gloucester so long story short, you guessed it, we got lost and were about an hour late to the Meeting.  Later that evening as we planned our return trip back to Worcester, we discovered that the farther from Birmingham you get the trains don't come as often. We had about a two hour wait at the train station to get home.  But this gave us time to visit with people while we wait.

Wednesday I woke up sick so we spent most of the day inside studying and watching the bits of General Conference that we missed.  Later that evening, we went to our Sign Language lessons and we ended up taking turns signing Preach My Gospel!  We did a whole chapter under the very watchful eye of the member that teaches us.  It was fun and nerve racking at the same time.  At 4:15 we left to catch the train back to Worcester so that we would have time to walk to a dinner appointment we had.  Just our luck we missed the train so we where 30 minuets late to the dinner appointment which in turn made us about an hour late to our lesson after that.  The good that came out of all the bad that happened this day is that we got a new investigator!  The gal that we are now teaching, we teach her 19 year old son and she let us know that she wants to be taught as well!  So blessing in disguise.  Happy day.

Thursday we just hung around the flat trying to get some rest so I could get better.

Friday was a Mission trip.  We went to Bembo Farms and Gadfield Elm.  Bembo Farms is where one of the Apostles baptized the United Brethren. Historical information about Bembo Farms and Gadfield Elm .  So we had fun looking around and looking at the pond that was dug to be a font.   Gadfield Elm is the oldest Chapel the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints has.  It was a really cool Chapel.  It has been visited by three Prophets and countless members of the Quorum of the Twelve.  It was really cool.  Afterward we went to Gloucester to have lunch and play games.  There where only 3 Zones out of the 7 Zones of Missionaries that were able to attend.  It was nice to get with the other Zones and have this experience.  So our luck ran out when we headed back to the train station to get on the train back to Worcester and we had an hour wait.  No big deal until when the train came it was immediately canceled because of mechanical problems.  So we waited for a little bit for another train.  Long story short, we left from home at 3:30 am and got home at 8:30 pm.  Long day.

 Saturday we had a planning session and some service projects that we have been working on.  We finished painting a member's family room.  I don't mind painting, but not my favorite I will be a professional by the time this is finished.   It has been a hard/discouraging week but we have received lots of blessings.  The Lord will make a way out of no way I have found this week.  We where running late the whole week but he blessed us because of our efforts.

Have a great week!  Remember the Lord loves you!

Elder Nielsen

Pond that was dug for baptism

Gadfield Chapel

Elder Nielsen looking a little green in the cheeks, still not feeling well

Gadfield Chapel

Great Weekend

Hey Everyone,

What a great weekend.  I have been spiritually recharged by conference. We watched Conference at the library here in Worcester on line which was a cool experience.  But all I can say is I can't wait to be able to study the talks when they are printed.  My favorite part was the Sunday morning session.  I did not get to see Sunday night but when President Monson got up and said "this Conference has  been the most spiritual conference I have been to in 50 years" was powerful.

Last week I mentioned that we have 270 new Missionaries in the Birmingham Mission and by December we are going to be "topped off" at 300.  The rumor is that we are the biggest Mission in Europe and will be for a while.

This week has been pretty normal.  We have had meetings and with Conference being this weekend most of our time was gone.  But I had a really cool experience this week.  I was on work overs with the Zone Leaders.  Which is where I go with one zone leader and my companion goes with the other companion.  The Zone Leaders come every once in a while to see how we are doing and to get to know us better.  But we went down to the bottom of our Area and went by a less active members home.  After that we still had time so we knocked doors.  We had knocked on a couple when we knocked and a man answered.  He wouldn't open the door very wide because he didn't want his dog to come out and get us.  This is pretty common over here.  But we where talking to him and having a really good conversation, when all of a sudden this lady pulls up and looks at us for about five minuets.  She then comes up and tells us that if we don't leave now and quite harassing this man she will call the police.  So we left just to not cause trouble.  We kept knocking and started to talk to a women a few doors down who seemed pretty interested.  But while we were talking to her we saw a car come around the corner pretty fast.  We recognized the person in the car to be the man that we had just been talking to, when he sees us he stops and comes up to us and apologizes to us.  Turns out the women who was yelling at us was his sons soon to be mother in law.  And the man just said "I tell her to not act like that all the time.  But she is just a witch."  We where so stunned by what happened we called it a day.

I have really had my eyes opened lately to the devastation of divorced families.  I have worked with people that have had horrible family lives so I have seen all the problems that come with that.  We have part member right now that we are visiting with that was abused physically, mentally, and emotionally by his dad.  I have waded through the crap so to say.  And the people we are teaching now are both divorced.  It's really sad how Satan is really tearing families apart.  I  guess I have the understanding of a old man when it comes to family problems like that.  Just when I think I have heard it all, something new comes up.

We have had the opportunity to listen to the Prophet and Apostles.  I hope you realize that if the claim we have to having a Prophet on the earth is true.  Which it is.  We should be studding the talks day and night.  We are the only Church that has a living Prophet.  Listen to him.  Support him and take his advice and warnings to heart.  You will be blessed.  I can promise you that listening to the Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson will only bring good things.  God loves us so much that he calls a man just to show how much he loves us.  I would like to strongly recommend studying the talks from Conference, study your scriptures and love your fellow man.

As my mom says, keep smiling and be obedient and you will be blessed.

Love Elder Nielsen

Elder Nielsen & Elder Gardener watching General Conference Oct 2013

Hastening the Work of Salvation

Hey Everyone!

Just a bit of information about my new companion, Elder Gardner.  Elder Gardner is from Kent England which is right outside of London about a thirty minute train ride from Kent to London.  He has been out serving for 18 months or so.  My mom had asked about the cleanliness of myself and my companions, so here is the truth for good or bad.  The flats we have kept pretty clean.  Elder Davis, my first companion, was good about picking up his things but not doing his dishes.  Elder Larsen my next companion was really good at keeping the bathroom and bedroom clean and mold free.  But was horrid at picking things up anywhere else in the flat.  I have not had to many OCD cleaning moments maybe once a month.  Elder Gardner and I keep a pretty clean flat.  I can stand a little clutter but after a little bit I go and clean for a couple hours.  I always try to leave the flat spotless when we leave for the day, but the mold in the bathroom is bad over here.  But I am always on top of it getting it off and bleaching it right away.

Well on to this past week, it has been a fun one.  Tuesday started off pretty slow.  We had a appointment with an investigator.  So we walked all the way up to his place and when we got there, there was a note on the door canceling.  So that pretty much messed up the rest of the day.  In England, we can't track before noon or do any finding.  People get very mad when you knock on their door before noon.  So we passed out fliers for a charity event that was being held at the Church.  The member running the event wanted us to go in service cloths and no tags.  It was a coffee morning.  We where not quite sure if we should go with no tags but as we looked more closely at the flier it had coffee on it so no tags it was.

Wednesday we had District Meeting.  We have it in Evesham.  The cool thing was that President decided to show up to this one.  It was a very good meeting and we talked about how if we are bold committing people to do things we can have more success.  It was a really cool thing to hear.  We also had Ward football.  Once a week the Ward rents a hall that we play indoor football in.  I can't remember the last time I played football, maybe my 9th grade year in school.  But I scored many goals.

Thursday was some stopped by some people that we have been working with and then headed sign language lessons.  The lesson went really good.  I am slowly but surely getting the hang of signing.  But at the end of the lesson the man teaching it picked me, Elder Nielsen, to say the closing prayer.  I was a little scared to say the least.  So I started to sign the prayer and completely messed up so I started again.  Signing a prayer is really hard.  You have to think about what you want to say.  Then say it while you are trying to figure out the sign for the words you are saying.  Probably one of the shortest prayers I have given in a long time.

Friday was just planning for the rest of the week and going to the charity event.

Saturday was a fun day.  We have a list of less active members that we have been asked to visit see if they are still living at that address and if they are interested in returning to Church.  We did that most of the morning and then we had a Ward party.  We played some different quiz games.  The first quiz was movie still.  We saw a picture of a scene from a movie and had to name the movie and if you could the year.  The Elders where really good at that portion of the game.  The next portion of the game was a "general" knowledge quiz.  It was NOT a general knowledge quiz to this American.  We were shone a picture of an event and we had to know who, where, why, and the date of the event.  I knew none of them.  But learned a lot and had a great time.

Sunday was Church.  The Missionaries did the lesson because it was 5th Sunday.  We did a lesson on the Work of Salvation broadcast.  It went really well.  We had many members say they where going to go home and watch the broadcast on lds.org.  Link here Hastening the Work and Salvation.  But it was a good Sunday.

We have been talking about Magnifying our Callings and have had many discussions.  As Missionaries at the end of the day we feel like we should have done more.  But I guess at the end of the day the Lord knows what we have done and what we still need to do.  So I guess that the whole thing about magnifying our callings is to realize that we are going to fall short of the mark and try our best to do the best that we can do.  That has been one of the things that I have had to work on.  I can be a little OCD about things and I have realized that some days are worse than others.  In Preach My Gospel it talks about how we should rely on the Spirit.  And then turns around and says that to have the desire to be lead by the Spirit all the time is unrighteous.  One thing I have learned about the Spirit is that most of the time just doing what we naturally would do is the Spirit guiding us to some degree.  President Hinckley said that "after all is said and done if it persuaded you to be better or the outcome was good it is the Spirit".

I come to love this Gospel more every day as I study and try to tell people about it.  Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Nielsen

Adventures and learning sign language

Hey everyone!

This week has been a slow one that is for sure.  Monday was the dreaded dodge call.  And the news came in that I was leaving Kidderminster.  It was a shock to both me and my companion, Elder Larsen.  We both thought for sure we would have one more transfer together.  But water under the bridge.  I moved to Worcester.  It is pronounced Wooster or Wusta like I mentioned last week.  The spelling over here is really cool.  The names of the places in Wales are worse then England.   Worcester is bigger than Kidderminster.  It is a City and to be considered a City it has to have a Cathedral or some paper from the Queen stating that it is a City.  But it is double to triple the size of Kiddy. We have two sets of Missionaries here so pretty big.  But that was pretty much Monday.

Tuesday had been a very busy day.  Since I was leaving Kiddy, I packed for a couple of hours and then said goodbye to the people in the Branch and got things ready for the new Elder that was coming in to Kidderminster.  Tuesday night is a bitter sweet moment for Missionaries when we are transferred.  We gain so many friendships with the people that we work with it is hard to move on.  We went to the store and bought pizza, garlic bread, Oreo, and Reese's.  We pretty much had one last parting meal as companions.  It was really fun.

Wednesday was travel all day.  Elder Larson and I jumped on the train with my bags and bike.  Traveled to Birmingham Moore Street.  Where we met some other Elders at Birmingham New Street and this is where Elder Larsen and I went our different ways.  I jumped on a train to the Mission Home with another Elder and Elder Larsen went back to Kidderminster with his new companion.  I traveled to the Mission Home and jumped on a coach (charter bus) and traveled down to Glouster. There I met my new companion and road the train up to Worcester.  If you look at a map that was the wrong way to do it.  I could have trained from Kidderminster to Worcester in about twenty minutes.  But whatever.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday was pretty much just salvage what was left of the week with visits and getting to know the new area that I am in.  The one cool thing that happened is that I get to learn a language in this area.! The Ward that I am serving in has a couple of deaf people.  So once a week the Elders learn British Sign Language.  Can you believe it!  It was quite a shock.  But the cool thing is that the Elders sign the Sacrament Prayer and try (you see I wrote the word try) to sign the rest of the meetings. There are two members who can sign but the Elders are back up.

Today, Monday, we started our p-day at about 8 a.m. in the morning.  There is an area called Great Malvern.  It has a set of hills that inspired the author Tolkien for areas in the book Lord of the Rings.  The area is the White Mountains.  So we hiked all the way up to the top hoping that the fog was going to lift.  So we hiked and got to the top and the fog didn't lift. It was cool and humid but was a fun hike to get to see some of the beautiful areas of England.  There are many natural springs that you can drink from on our hike. But only one is "safe".  I say "safe" because the City looks after and takes care of it.  I bet we could have gotten water from the other springs but the sign strongly recommended that we boil the water before drinking, so I didn't chance getting something that would put me on my butt (or my butt on the John) so I passed on that. HA HA

The High counselor for our Ward spoke on Sunday about building Zion.  He talked about what Zion should be and how we can build it.  It was a very good talk.  He said that Zion can be achieved with obedience to commandments and keeping covenants.  He said that he felt like there is a Zion built in the MTC (Mission Training Center) because of the unity that the Elders and Sisters have.  So we need to build where we stand.  We shouldn't think that moving to a different area or a new Ward will help build Zion.  We need to build unity where we are now in our own Wards, Stakes and neighborhoods.



It has been a good week full of new experiences in a new area, Ward, companion but still the wonderful people of England.  I love my Mission, this Gospel and the people that I am surrounded with.


Make it a great week!



Elder Nielsen



Below are some pictures from my p-day of the White Mountains in the City, Great Malvern.

Elder Nielsen

Elders of Worcester on p-day

Elder Nielsen's new companion Elder Gardener

The only "safe" fresh water spring

Elder Larsen and Elder Nielsen last day as companions

tree in the White Mountains

City of Great Malvern

Transfer Day heading to Worcester, England

Hi everyone.

I guess the big news is that I am getting transferred. I am going to Worcester (Wusta) which is twenty miles to the south so not to far.  I will be heading out Wednesday, September 18, 2013. I'm not sure how I feel about being transferred.  I have been in Kidderminster since I came to England and I really like my companion and we get along great, but I'm also getting sick of the area a little bit and feel like I need to move on.  So on to a new adventure with a new companion. 

This week has been a fun one!  I'm not sure if I spent more than 24 hours in my own area of Kidderminster.  So Monday we had a Zone P day with everyone in Harborn.  It had its moments of fun.  We played Human Foosball here is a link of what it looks like human foosball.  It was pretty fun but as Missionaries/young men it turned very competitive. Then after that we headed back to our area.  We have been having Family Home Evening (FHE) with the single sisters in our Branch at the chapel on Mondays.  As luck would have it, our trains where running late and we missed a connection, so we where just about an hour late for FHE but even though we were late we had fun though.

Tuesday we finished the things that we didn't get to do on Monday due to travel.  We got to teach our progressing investigator.  He just got married to a member in our Branch and with our busy schedules, we have not been able to see him for about a month.  I guess the good thing is that during that month he still was reading the Book of Mormon and praying.  So hopefully he can get an answer to his prayers.  It is pretty common here in England for people to investigate 6 months to a year before taking the big step of baptism.  He always tells us that he really likes us coming over to visit and teach.

Wednesday was back to Harborn for a Zone Meeting.  We had a very good Zone Meeting about how we can improve our teaching skills.  After that I went on exchanges with one of the Elders from Redditch.  It was a pretty miserable exchange because of the weather.  It rained and rained and I did not pack an extra pair of trousers so I was soaked to the bone.

Thursday we just switched back from exchange and then visited less active members with the Senior Missionary couple.  We also had Branch Council.  It was a good meeting were we started to finalize plans for the Kidderminster Branch's big Missionary event in November.  Hopefully it all goes well. They need the event to go off really well and have people there to teach and ask questions.

Friday was just a normal Friday.  It rained all day, not a heavy rain but the annoying England rain. Saturday we traveled again.  We went and did work over in Redditch.  So a two hour train there and  back and a couple of hours working took up most of the day.  During this time, we all switched companions and tried to find people to jump start the area or to get it back going and then had some more training in Driotwhich Spa and visited members there.

I think my favorite day was Sunday. We had Stake Conference.  So we traveled back to Harborn for the third time this week.  One of the speakers talked about how the Gospel is like rock climbing.  You have the person belaying the rope and the rope.  He talked about how the Atonement is the rope and the person belaying you is Christ.  No matter how many times you fall the Atonement can and will catch you.  It was really good lesson.  After Stake Conference, one of the Missionary teams in Harborn were having a Baptism.  So we stayed for that and good thing we did.  The tap for the font was broken!  We ended up filling the font with buckets, trash cans, pots and whatever we could get to hold water!  We filled the font with cold water because the hot water heater ran out of water.  We put about 18 inches of water in it.  The funny part is that the man being baptized was a massive man, about 6'3" and easily over 200 pounds.  Built like a wall!  The Elder who was baptizing him was skinny as a rail and about the same height as me which is 5'10".  The man had to sit in the font and the Elder kneeled.  Luckily they got the baptizing done on the first try.

That was about the fun for the week.  My testimony has grown this week with all the little things that went wrong.  I find it interesting that just as soon as things start to work out and go smooth and I feel comfortable, the poop hits the fan (lack of a better phrase) or transfers come along.  But among the things I have learned is that when it gets the hardest is when you just put your faith and trust in the Lord.  I have had many great and spiritual experiences this week.  I hope that you have all too.



Love, Elder Nielsen

Elder Nielsen in his new suit.  A few weeks ago, a member told me, Elder Nielsen, that I looked like I was wearing my dad's suit.  I have lost a few pounds since being in England, so it was new suit time. 

Missionaries and the Pizza Hut Buffet

Hello everyone!

Hope everyone is doing good. This week has been a fun one and a busy one.  Not much really happened tell Wednesday when we had our weekly meeting with the rest of the District.  So we have our meeting then we decided to go to lunch together and then travel back to our Areas.  Since the Chapel in Kidderminster is close to the rail station we have the District meetings here.  But anyway, this week everyone was really hungry so we went to lunch before our meetings.  We went to Pizza Hut and had the all you can eat lunch buffet.  Use you imagination, six Missionaries going into an all you can eat!  Great for us Missionaries, but not for Pizza Hut. We walked out about an hour and a half later haven eaten 102 pieces of pizza or 12.75 pizzas.  The bill came to £41 ($64) and we ate £90 ($141) worth of pizza.  There are places here in Kidderminster that the Missionaries are banded from going to the lunch buffet.  But not here at Pizza Hut........Yet.

The other thing that happened is we had a miracle tracking.  We found a less active member who had just had a baby and just moved into our Area.  How cool is that.  Out of the hundreds of streets we could pick we picked that one.  It shows that the Spirit can led us even when we don't recognize it. We also tried something new this week trying to find people.  We did some street preaching!  We made a poster and went into the Town Center of Kidderminster to talk to people.  I held the poster while Elder Watt (I was on exchanges) went around with a white board with a question on it asking people "Have you ever wondered?"  It was kind of fun.

Sunday I found out that the Kidderminster Relief Society is in the Daughters in my Kingdom book. They are right in the middle of the book.  It is a picture from the early 1900s but still there.  It was really cool to have the sisters in the Relief Society point that out to me.  I remember really not paying attention to the pictures or much of the stories for that matter when my mom made us read it as a family.  But I have looked at it since then and am learning from it about the history of Relief Society in the Church and how important it is.

I have found that the Lord will bring miracles when you least expect it.  Just when you are about to break the Lord comes through.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and he will provide.

Elder Nielsen

View from our Flat in Kidderminster

The sign that we held as we street preached

Look to Christ and Live

Hello,

Missionary life is a hard life I have come to find out.  We started this week off pretty strong and then all the sudden it was back to square one again.  I find it really humbling to have so many people investigating and then in two to three days you loose them all.  But that is life.

Monday was just a normal pday.  Tuesday we had appointments all over town and had a very good lesson with a less active man.  We visit him once a week just to talk and teach.  He is less active because of health not by choice.  We had a very spiritual lesson with him.  We asked him what was his favorite part of the Gospel.  Most of the people we ask that to say the plan of salvation, morals, family history work, temples, or humanitarian aid.  But his answer was so simple and beautiful.  He said that the best part of the Gospel for him is knowing God.  He said we know what he looks like and acts like.  We have so much more information about him than any other religion.  It made me realize that I take that for granted most of the time.  I thought that most people had the same information as Latter Day Saints, but I was wrong.

So why did that response impact me so much?  It was because of a few things.  I can remember singing in primary "I Am a Child of God".  When you look at the Eternal side of that statement it just brings tears to my eyes.  No matter what I do I will always be a Child of God.  The second thing is how much he cares about us individually.  I have been reading the Old Testament and Pearl of Great Price.  In Moses 7 it explains it the best.  Enoch is commanded to preach to the people.  He does and they establish Zion and the Lord takes Zion up to him.  But these verses show how much God cares about us.

28 And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?

 29 And Enoch said unto the Lord: How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?

 30 And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations; and thy curtains are stretched out still; and yet thou art there, and thy bosom is there; and also thou art just; thou art merciful and kind forever;

 31 And thou hast taken Zion to thine own bosom, from all thy creations, from all eternity to all eternity; and naught but peace, justice, and truth is the habitation of thy throne; and mercy shall go before thy face and have no end; how is it thou canst weep?

 32 The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;

 33 And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should Love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood;

 34 And the afire of mine indignation is kindled against them; and in my hot displeasure will I send in the floods upon them, for my fierce anger is kindled against them.

 35 Behold, I am God; Man of Holiness is my name; Man of Counsel is my name; and Endless and Eternal is my name, also.

 36 Wherefore, I can stretch forth mine hands and hold all the creations which I have made; and mine eye can pierce them also, and among all the workmanship of mine hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren.

 37 But behold, their sins shall be upon the heads of their fathers; Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?

 38 But behold, these which thine eyes are upon shall perish in the floods; and behold, I will shut them up; a prison have I prepared for them.

 39 And that which I have chosen hath plead before my face. Wherefore, he suffereth for their sins; inasmuch as they will repent in the day that my chosen shall return unto me, and until that day they shall be in torment;

 40 Wherefore, for this shall the heavens weep, yea, and all the workmanship of mine hands.

 41 And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Enoch, and told Enoch all the doings of the children of men; wherefore Enoch knew, and looked upon their wickedness, and their misery, and wept and stretched forth his arms, and his heart swelled wide as eternity; and his bowels yearned; and all eternity shook.

This week has been one full of spiritual things and lots of hardship.  But one thing that I fall back on when I am having a hard time is the fact that God loves me.  He knows my strengths and weaknesses and how to help me.  I am given trails not to discourage me but to help me learn and find out my earthly and eternal potential.  To quote John Lennon," When I find myself in time of trouble" look to Christ and live.

Love, Elder Nielsen