Elder Tyler Nielsen- Hawaii Honolulu Mission: Week 14: I'm moving to the City!

Elder Clapper and I at the park where we do comp study

Aloha kākou!

This week has been crazy!

Jasmine made the decision to be baptized and she is set for November 21st! I am so proud of her!

On Wednesday we got to go to Pearl Harbor again and did work on the Missouri. We set up chairs for the naval band who played there and they were so good! Actually just as we got on the bus to leave they started playing the Incredibles! I was so mad that I couldn't record all of it! After the Missouri, we did some service for a lady in another ward. She taught us how to fight with sticks in Hawaiian Lua fashion. It was scary cuz I was going first against her. I dropped the stick and ran. I mean *cough* I stood my ground as best I could.

Hey pro tip for anyone going on a mission soon. If you are trying to talk to someone around the same age as you, chances are they will think you're flirting. That happened to me some days ago. Me and Elder Clapper were just trying to set up an appointment and the girl kept giggling at us . Oh well.

Transfer news came on Saturday night! I'm now done with my 12 weeks of training and ,unfortunately, leaving Elder Clapper . My new assignment is serving in the Honolulu zone doing H-Tech! So basically I'm one of the missionaries involved with making videos and handling social media for the entire mission! I'm so excited and I've never lived in a big city before! To be honest I'm not sure where I'm living or where I'm going to be doing the majority of work but I know who my next companion is. His name is Elder Thompson. He actually came up and said hi to me at the first Oahu zone conference. I'm not sure what the Lord's trying to say to me by paring me up with the tallest people that walk this earth but he's like '6''4.

Halloween was actually pretty great! We went to the Domingos house to help pass out candy for a little bit and then we made plates of food to take home. Then we went to see Mike who isn't a member but had a lot of questions about the church. We taught him the Restoration and that is a church centralized on Jesus Christ. He was really interested! Then we talked about some movie stuff since he's a cinematographer and he told me if I ever wanted to borrow some of his cameras for mission videos I could!

OK one last funny story. So we went to the Domingos house for dinner on Wednesday. We taught a lesson about repentance in the context of baptism to their son who wants to be baptized. He showed us some of his magic tricks and they were pretty good! But for dinner we had Panda Express and they had me try Diet Mtn Dew for the first time. Now let me explain myself. I've never had Mtn Dew. I've had coke plenty of times same with Pepsi and Dr. Pepper. However I'm not sure what chemical catastrophe happened inside me but I could not handle the caffeine . I was bouncing up and down and was twitching the whole time, I was laughing at jokes that weren't funny (my own) and everyone else(including Elder Clapper) were laughing at me the whole time . So moral of the story is don't give mysterious caffeinated beverages to Elder Nielsen.

Last Tuesday we went to the temple! The night before, our mission president told us to fast. We fasted for about 24 hours which I've never fasted for that long but it was so worth it. I was so much more focused while in the temple and I could feel the spirit so clearly. I went in with the question of what I should do to be a better missionary. I was given the impression that I should study more from the Doctrine and Covenants. It's the scriptures that talk about the revelations given to the key figures of the restoration of the church; primarily Joseph Smith.

After we got out of the temple it was about 10 pm and me and Elder Clapper hightailed it to the nearest McDonald's . I've never enjoyed a quarter pounder more in my life. But the fast brought upon a lot of miracles I never would have imagined.

The reason we're asked to fast monthly is to show devotion to our Heavenly Father and putting aside the needs of our body to pray and ask earnestly what He would have us to learn. Just like Jesus Christ sacrificed his life for us and Heavenly Father, we try to exemplify our Savior by giving up eating or drinking for a short time. In my life, I've seen fasting for family members or friends who have been sick or even during the more serious years of drought in California and it's always helped in some way.

We are promised that the sacrifices we make will bring blessings to us and help us in more ways than we at first think. So if you have a question weighing down on you or you just want something in your life eased; maybe try to fast and thank Heavenly Father for what he's given us.

Well anyway that was my week! Thanks for reading this even though it's a day late. Next time you hear from me I'll be in Honolulu City! Thanks for all your love and support.

Aloha!

Pictures

1. Me and the Fenton family(my first lesson as a missionary)

2. Me, the Durrets, and the Strains

3. Me, Elder Clapper, and the McMillans

4. Me and the Gaileys

10. Picture with the Bishop Miyamotos Family