Gratitude

Dear Family and Friends,

Solihull is a nice Area but nothing really goes on here in terms of Missionary Work.  Over the past two years nothing has happened really.  And the members have not really been helping at all.  They are good members on Sunday but the rest of the week we don't see them.  Please pray for hearts to be softened and that the Ward members will have a desire to Hasten the Work.

This week has been cold yet again. But that is okay since there are not too many weeks left on the Mission. The time will go quickly.  This week we had a Ward Reach Out Night.  It turned out pretty good.  We had about 8 people there and saw a good number of people that we have been dropping by to visit with. 

The work is slowly picking up.  My companion Elder M and I went and saw a man named Alan.  He has not been active for two years.  A very nice man and we talked about what was keeping him from Church.  And he flat out told us (but I will not share because of privacy).  But the cool thing is he is going to let the Missionaries (me and Elder M) come back and teach him again!  Yeah, it should be good.  We hope to have him back to Church by Christmas.  So we will see how this week goes with him as we continue to visit and teach him.  Finding over here has been really slow so we have started to just work with less actives.  And there are some good people that are close to coming back.  But also have experienced a little detour in their reactivation. 

I saw the man that I talked to about the Gospel in the bathroom at the Gym.  He is not really interested in being taught by the Missionaries about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but he likes to talk to us about our lives and what we are doing.  So hopefully his heart will soften and he will want to learn more about Jesus Christ.

The Tender Mercy for this week is Health Insurance.  I had a little accident at the Gym and strained my neck so after a visit to the Doc. no lifting anything for six weeks.  I can't even pull my suit cases down to get something.  Elder M has to get them down for me. 

I hope that as we all celebrate Thanksgiving this week we all think of the many things that we are grateful for.  I am grateful for my family and the support and encouragement they give to me, friends for the joy of having friends to listen to my venting, my health so I can run and not be weary and walk and not be faint, safety that I can walk freely, food so I can stay healthy, house for the warmth and comfort it provides, and the scriptures that I can study and learn more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving.

Love Elder Nielsen

A little bit of Toilette Humor

It has been cold this week. The weather has diffidently turned this week. It went from a very nice Autumn to freezing in a day. The rain has been a pain but that is what I get to deal with.

As you can tell from the post title, I had a funny conversation on Monday last week.  Elder M. and I go to a gym on Mondays to get a good work out and I was in the restroom and there was a man that I have talked to a couple of times on the toilet.  While he was in the stall, he began a conversation and asked where I was from and I told him. Then he asked why are you here in England and a couple other questions about my Mission.  But definitely one of the craziest places I have had a conversation about the Gospel... as he was wiping ha ha. We will just have to see if it goes anywhere hopefully it will.  But there a little bit of toilette humor to start us off with.

But tender mercy for this week was Zone Meeting.  The training was presented in a way that I have never thought of and I learned a lot.  Best thing that happened this week is that I now have Elder M. as a companion.  He has just let me rant for the past couple of days about the things that have been going on with my last companion and with the Ward.  It was good to get all my frustrations out so I can move on.  The hardest thing for the week probably has just been trying to get around to all the members we wanted to see this week.  We are trying to build up the Area around where the members live.  So we have been going by their homes asking them to pray that we will have success in their Area.

I have just finished reading the Book of Joshua.  And one thing I did as I read the book was marked every time he was told to be strong and of a good courage.  It is repeated plenty of times.  I learned that no matter what situation we are in we need to be strong and of good courage and it will work out. That principle is illustrated through the whole book.   The people rebel and Joshua just has to put up with it until they change.  And also with driving the other people out of the promised land.  He had to be strong.  Lots of things going on and nothing really went his way.  But he stayed strong.

Other than that we are still working with less actives and trying to find new people.  Hopefully with Christmas coming up it will bring lots of softened hearts that are ready to hear about the good news of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Please join with me in prayer for soften hearts during this upcoming season for those who are ready to hear that good news.

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Nielsen

LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Dear family and friends, 

I did not get transfers. I am still in Solihull.  I have a new companion this week but still in the same Area. I now have Elder M. from Snow Flake, Arizona.

But my time in the Mission Office while I waited for Elder M. was about two days.  One of the days I did service for the MP.  He likes the car park clean before transfers. So Wednesday morning I was out there at 8 am with a broom and a leaf vacuum with a couple of other Elders cleaning up leaves. I honestly loved my time as the office Elder.  I answered the phone and typed up papers for them. Easy work that was different. I had the opportunity to have a good chat with one of the Senior couples that are in the Mission Home.  He gave me some good advice and I have been thinking about how I want the rest of the mission to go.  In my patriarchal blessing it talks about disillusionment I have always wondered what it meant and how it would play out in my life, but after my time with Elder P. I now know it is to have false ideas going against the knowledge that you already have, or a reversal of right and wrong.  I am a witness that satan has a hand in disillusionment and will try to guide you down the wrong path so hold strong to the truths you know.

So this week has mostly been getting Elder M. caught up with the Area and what not. But we are in the same group of Missionaries. So we both have been out 18 months. This past Sunday was Remembrance Sunday. So basically our Memorial Day. Everyone has a poppy on their chest and there is a two minute silence at 11 am. It always has been a cool experience to do that 

After picking up Elder M. we then headed out to meet the Ward Mission Leader.  He wanted to go on splits with us so that he could get to now Elder M.  We had a good split. I went and saw the less active members while Elder M. went and saw a referral that we got from the Ward Mission Leader. It is pretty cool because they got in to teach this man. So hopefully we will be teaching him this week and he can start on the road of change.

I had a pretty crazy experience this week though. I was having a bad attitude about staying in Solihull for another transfers. I was praying and the thought came to read some Conference talks from 1970. But the first talk that I opened up to was called  "Love One Another".  As I read this talk it basically told me that if I was unhappy it was because I didn't have love for any of the people around me. That has been my goal for the coming week. To love the people around me and try to not jump to the attitudes I have had about them. It has been really good so far. I am looking forward to what happens in the next six weeks.

Seek the Lord for Divine Aid and Counsel

This week has been a trying one for sure.  Lots of ups and downs.  My companion went home on Monday.  I am sad that he is going home but also I know that it is probably the best thing for him.  I will admit that it has been hard to keep motivated to do things when he wasn't.  He always commented on how I would study every day even though he wasn't as regular at it and was impressed with my dedication.  So I am an Office Elder for the next couple of days until Wednesday maybe.

Transfers are coming up and it has just been a crazy week.  I don't think I have had a week like this in a long time. We were running all over the place to get things for the Elders in the District and then having the Zone Leaders over in Solihull for the day.  So a very long and crazy week that is for sure. But I am back to what I do best on the Mission and that is moving people. We helped a family move this week to another house in Solihull. It was a fun day moving them. It seems like I get to know the members better when I am serving them. We are helping another family move sometime this week, if I am back in Solihull, so it should be a fun week.

The tender mercy for the week is being in the Mission Office for a little bit.  It is nice to get into a new environment with Missionaries that I have not had the opportunity to meet and have a renewed spirit being around them and of course the Mission President and his Wife.  And I think that the hardest thing for the week has been packing up Elder P. and just trying to get him off.  I have enjoyed most of my time with him.  It has been hard but worth it.

Remember that the Lord loves us all and wants what is best for us.  Tad Callister said in the October General Conference "God will never leave us alone. God never gives us a responsibility without offering divine aid.."  We just need to seek that divine aid and counsel.

Have a great week!

Love Elder Nielsen

Whose side are you on?

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was a fun one.  I remember about over a year ago when I was in Kidderminster I had a girl hitting on me in the Library.  I remember freaking out when it happened.  But I did not freak out as much as I did this week to what happened.  We were waiting for a bus and a lady in her 80's started to talk to me.  I thought I would be nice and talk to her.  So we started to talk and for about five minutes she thought I was from Birmingham.  Then I told her I was from America and then the conversation went to what are you doing over here, etc.  The conversation started to die.  So I started to talk to Elder P.  for a little bit then she started to talk to me again.  She asked these questions, "How old are you?"  I said I am twenty and she just kind of laughed and said I thought you would be older than that to be on your own in a different country.  Then the kicker, she asks me,  "Do you have a girlfriend"?  I was pretty taken back and told her no and she had this smile on here face that meant a follow up question was in the works.  Thank goodness the bus came just then.  That was my funny story for the week.

A few weeks ago I had told you about our investigator, Donald.  He had been investigating the Church for 18 years.  He came to Church as soon as he was invited and has kept coming.  Donald has a crazy story though. When he first prayed about the Book of Mormon he heard a voice, a clear voice, saying, "Donald if you get baptized with them I will send you to hell". Donald never did get baptized but he was a faithful member up until the end. Donald lost his fight with colon cancer that had spread to his liver.  He was one of the best Missionaries this Ward had.  But he is in a place where he can finally accept the Gospel and partake of everything it has to offer.  Donald's Funeral was a few weeks ago.  He didn't have any family that wanted to be in attendance so it was mostly some of the Ward and his friends.  He had Police Officers there and Preachers from another faith.  He had lots of friends that talked with him and took him around to his various appointments.  It was pretty funny though. They just told good stories about him that made everyone laugh.

The member have been in my good book these last few weeks.  We have finally gotten into some houses to visit and get to know them as well as have a good England meal.  It has been several months since we had been invited to different peoples houses.

Tender mercy for the week is just that I have been sleeping again.  I have been going about two weeks with not really sleeping at night.  So this week I have had a pretty good night sleep at least every other day.  My favorite activity would have to be Zone Meeting this past week and hanging out with all the other Elders and having a fun time.  And also seeing a member from Cannock at lunch after Zone Meeting.

But I have still been reading the Old Testament and have just finished the story of the brass serpent that Moses raises up on the pole.  But before that the Lord kills some of the children of Israel because they are rebelling against Moses and more importantly Him.  I thought about it in our day.  When we rebel against God now a days we don't get swallowed up by the earth of get struck by fire from heaven.  We die spiritually instead of physically.  We have just heard from our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson and the Apostles that we need to strengthen our testimony's and get back to the basics.  I think that is one of my main priorities for the next couple of weeks so that I am on God's side and not against Him.

I hope that we are all on God's side and not against Him!

Love, Elder Nielsen

Busy but not much to report

Hey all,

What a fun week!  The weather has been nuts this whole week here in Solihull, England.  We have had lots of sun and really hot days and then in a couple of hours it is gale force winds and blowing rain.  So it has just been a bundle of joy to deal with (note my sarcasm).  But we just keep doing what we can do.  It's nice to see that the weather is changing again.  I was getting a little to comfortable without the rain to add new problems to the mix of Missionary life.

Not much to report on this week.  We have been continuing our visiting with our inactive fellow on his porch.  It has been interesting with the sun, wind and rain during our visits.  We also had the chance on Friday to travel to Birmingham and have our interviews with the Mission President.  I had my interview on Friday and then we again travel to Birmingham on Sunday after church for my companion's interview with the Mission President so that made for a fun day.

The tender mercy for this week is that I didn't mess up to bad playing the piano in Church.  They had me play hymn 305 - (you can listen to it here) The Light Divine after just walking in the building from a very cold outside with cold fingers. What a circus it was.  It was fun though.

I don't have much time today but hopefully the rain will die down and we can get back out there and find the lost sheep!

Have a great week!

Elder Nielsen

Blessings of Listening to General Conference

 Dear Family & Friends,

What a wonderful blessing to hear from our Prophet and Apostles this weekend.  We watched it in Harborn at the Stake Center.  So three buses and two hours later we were finally at our destination and ready to learn from the spirit.  We did not have investigators in attendance with us.  I have realized that not many of the Ward members in England don't go to General or Stake Conference.  As I have gotten older I have enjoyed General Conference more and more.  As a little kid it was the weekend you would try and sleep in as long as you could.  Or do something so you didn't have to listen to it.  I have just now found the blessings of watching and listening intently.  I learned a lot from this one.  I liked the common theme of how to get a testimony and how to keep it.  As a missionary we are always teaching people how to receive personal revelation and then what to do next with it.  I really liked how multiple people talked on that same subject.  The other talk that I liked was about how we cant believe everything we read in the news or Internet about what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believe.  As a Missionary we have people that try and tell us what we believe.  Some of the the things they say are true and most of them false.  But as long as your testimony is centered in the fact that Joseph Smith is a prophet you don't need to worry about what other people say.  People are not perfect and mistakes have been made.

Question this week was "When did you actually know that you were going on a Mission"?  I think I decided to go when it was announced that we could go earlier.  I still remember what happened.  I think that my family was gone for the weekend.  I had gotten home the night before from BYU-I and had just taking three tests and was exhausted. So it was me and Bruno our big black lab at home and I stayed up way late playing Xbox and watching TV.  Slept tell noon when my mom called me and said, "are you watching Conference? You will never believe what President Monson just announced".  After that I Jumped on face book and saw all of my friends posting on face book that they were going to go now.  So I just followed the crowd to a degree.  I was already planning on putting my papers in December of that year, so the announcement just made my game plan one month sooner. 

The tender mercy for the week was busing to the Stake Center to watch General Conference.  We hit the buses just right and jumped off one and ran to the other.  We made good time getting to the Stake Center and back.  I have never had that happen.  We usually miss one.

But this week we visited a less active that we have been visiting every week.  He has been away from the Church for about twenty years or something like that.  We have started to see some progress with him. We have noticed that our visits are just on the door step but have been getting progressively longer.  He is starting to enjoying us coming around I hope.  So that was a cool thing to see.  I cant wait to see what will happen in a couple of months with him.

General Conference has been a spiritual recharge for the week, I cant wait to read and study the Conference talks as they come out!  Love this Gospel!

Love Elder Nielsen