Elder Tyler Nielsen- Hawaii Honolulu Mission: Week 33: First week leading my area, Book of Mormon Class, Missionary Taxi Service 🚕

CHIC FIL A!

Aloha kakou!

With Elder Thompson out of Kahala, I've now taken the responsibility of leading the area since I'm the companion that knows it better. It's a pretty weird feeling. When I was with Elder Thompson, he was always the one with the phone texting people, scheduling meetings and appointments, and other things while I was driving. That means that for the first week of me being with Elder Chan, it was me who had to text people about appointments and things like that. It was a little stressful but now it has calmed down and Elder Chan has picked it up really quick.

I want to tell you a bit about Elder Chan! He's from Houston Texas. He went to BYU - Idaho and studied computer science. He's really good at playing the guitar and really likes music. He's half white half Chinese. And he has been out for 20 months. Only 4 left.

He's been really great to work with so far. Now to tell you about our week!

On Monday, me and Elder Thompson had our visits with people and went to say goodbye to some of his close friends in the ward. Then we had dinner and a lesson with new convert Brother Nakamura. We Read Mosiah 3:8 and discussed who Christ is to us. It was so amazing to see what Christ means to someone who had been a part of religion before coming to our church, but has a new found sense of who our Savior is and what he had done for us. It was also a painful goodbye because some of the first lessons Elder Thompson taught were with Brother Nakamura right after he was baptized.

Tuesday was the crazy transfer traveling day. We dropped Elder Thompson off at the airport and picked up Elder Chan. He just came from the small Island of Lanai where he served for 6 months! We went back to the h-tech office to work on some things and had our weekly missionary correlation meeting. Honestly that was kind of stressful for me since Elder Chan couldn't really report on anything because he wasn't here! Haha. But it was a good first day with Elder Chan.

Wednesday was kind of crazy as well. There were Elders who were in the process of going to their original assignment and we were tasked with watching over them until they left on their planes. Elder Reeve who would be leaving for Uruguay stayed with us most of the day Wednesday as we went to the pantry for service. It was really fun this time. There was basically no one in line and we were put in charge of putting food in peoples trunks. Then when we weren't doing that we were just talking and getting to know each other better. Just me, Elder Chan, and Elder Reeve. It was a really fun time! Also we had our second Book of Mormon Class today! We discussed the introduction and the first two chapters of 1 Nephi. We discussed having complete faith in the Lord and His commandments and following the prophets. Elder Chan had such a big testimony and it really showed during that lesson.

On Thursday we were once again tasked with looking over some Elders. After our h-tech day, we took Elders' Cantwell and Bourne to Best Buy so Elder Cantwell can have a camera for when he goes to Uruguay with Elder Reeve. Then me and the Honolulu Zone Leaders took Elder Cantwell to the airport while Elder Chan drove with Elder Bourne to say goodbye to some other people on island. While we were dropping Elder Cantwell off I saw Brother and Sister Grace from Mililani 2nd Ward! It was super cool to see them.

On Friday we went tracting in a neighborhood and met a really cool guy and his daughter. They heard our message and had lots of questions about what happens when we die and what happens to other people when they do bad things. It was a good experience teaching them that God has a fair path for everyone and it's not up to us what other people deserve. Then they had some additional questions that we could tell they were really troubled on and they said that they would try and text us to learn more.

I really loved that encounter because it shows how ok it is to have questions. I've grown up knowing so much about the church already, but that doesn't mean that I can't learn more if I have questions.

There is a caution however. These days there are lots of questionable things happening and it can get really easy to find the wrong answer. In this problem, the only thing we can really do is pray and ask God for guidance. I've been told that Satan can copy every feeling of the spirit except for one: peace.

If you think you've found an answer to a question, your question, and it brings you peace and happiness, then you can assume that it's the truth.

Well that's my week. Hope you enjoyed hearing about my experiences and can't wait to share more next week! Everyday is a new adventure for me! Love you all!

Love, Elder Nielsen

Pictures