Week 42 & 43: Lots of people getting sick?

At Cristines! Yay yard work!

 Aloha kākou!

A lot of people have been sick the past few weeks and the timing has just been kind of ironic. There was one day we were just going out to stop by members houses that Elder Chan started feeling a headache and getting pretty nauseous. Poor guy! So we went home and got him some medicine but the mission health advisor told us that we should stay home the rest of the day so Elder Chan could rest.

The next day, Elder Chan said he wasn't feeling too much better, then the advisor said it was best to stay in for today. 

Despite not being able to go out and do missionary work, we got to accomplish quite a bit. In the morning we had a meeting online for the social media missionaries in North America West. We took a small break around lunch time and Elder Chan taught me how to play Magic The Gathering. I'm still a but rusty but it's actually pretty fun! We also took some time to make a video of me sharing a scripture from the Book of Mormon. Then our zone leaders brought us Taco Bell! I had a Baja Blast for the first time. I handled it ok.

Later in the evening we contacted a lot of people and picked up dinner from members and shared a small message with them. Which brought the day to a nice close.

I never thought, with my mission being so long after Corona, that I would ever need to quarantine. I thought it was going to be way worse. But it was actually really fun! I got to know Elder Chan a lot more and I still felt accomplished in doing missionary work. So overall, it was a nice experience. Too bad Elder Chan had to be sick for it though.

I went on exchanges in the Tongan ward area! We mostly just stopped by members the majority of the day. But the best part was tracting! Yeah we went tracting in the Auwaiolimu area! It was so fun! I haven't been tracting in an area for a long time. We met this one gentleman who was Catholic. When he walked past us, he told us that we should be attending mass. I quickly said "Ooh! Where's the church? I've always wanted to attend mass!" This got his attention I think . Then after some talking about we believed and other things, I convinced him to take a copy of the Book of Mormon. I told him that is was a boon that helped me feel closer to God just like the Bible. After the exchange, we went to the Tabernacle for Saturday session of stake conference: a meeting where church congregations in an area meet for church instead of on their own.

Cristine has been going through some stress recently. We went by her house on Sunday and she was going through it. We just talked for a bit and shared a message to help her. Then we asked if we could rake her leaves and she said yes! FINALLY! YARD WORK! So then the next morning and then this last Saturday we raked leaves at Cristines. She gave us bacon donuts and McDonald's! The donuts were better. (See pictures for evidence)

Cristine then wasn't able to have a lesson with us on Saturday because she was stressed at the end of the day. Darn!

Another crazy experience happened when we went deeper into Honolulu to film some clips for this big testimony video I've been working on. It was kinda chaotic . It took us like 20 minutes to find parking in a parking garage and then had to pay for that time. Then when we were filming, some guys that didn't speak English tried giving us fliers, and a crazy man was walking down the sidewalk on a bike screaming something like.." I can't believe this! I'm an American!" Or something like that. But it was cool filming in the city. I felt like Christopher Nolan.  

We got to see our friend Bruce again! He's our friend who owns a shiny red moped and hangs out at the bathroom at a beach park after work every day. Last we saw him we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. This time we taught him the Restoration lesson and he said he'd like us to read the Book of Mormon with him sometime.

We met quite a lot of people this week! The one thing they all have in common is that they're fine with us talking and giving them free books and pamphlets with our information, but they don't want us to have their number or to meet very soon to discuss more. So whenever I say we meet people and we share a good, spiritual message with them, it doesn't usually mean they want to learn much more. Which honestly is ok. I'd prefer they be willing to hear an uplifting message and hear more about what we believe then someone to commit to seeing us again and not wanting to later. At least we're planting seeds. 

And one more cool experience that happened this week. We stopped by Barry's house. He was happy to see us! We talked for a long while (mostly about fishing) and I realized something. We get transfer news this Saturday and I'm probably leaving. Barry was one of the first lessons I had in this area that I've spent 7 months in. I told him before I leave I'll come by to see him. He said he'd like that. Then we went over to Brother and Sister Uyemas house. And they were the actual first lesson that I has in Kahala with Elder Thompson.

It's slowly starting to hit me that I've been in Kahala for a long time and think the Lord agrees with me that it's time for a change. I'm actually quite excited for it but still kinda sad. Saying goodbye is the hardest thing as a missionary. We'll see where they send me!

Thanks for the love and support! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Nielsen 

Pictures

E. Chan and on sick day

Recording podcast! Scary!

BACON DONUTS!

H tech getting a reward at the mall

 I saw Elder Owen at Island conference!

Just wanted to pose with Elder Chans painful nerf gun

 We hiked Manoa falls on Monday

Week 41: Exchanges Bring Miracles! Interviews with The Walkers! Happy Mothers Day!🥳

 Aloha everyone!

Another great week! On Wednesday, me and Elder Chan went on exchanges with Elder Clarke, one of the Aps. We recently haven't had any copies of the Book of Mormon to give out to people. But Wednesday morning was when our new box came in! So we went to the first place that came to mind....BEACH PARK. So we went over and started talkin'. We some nice people but most people weren't interested. Ugh....classic. But then we went to the parking lot and met a man named Sawa. He and his family are Micronesian. We just started talking to them about the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Then he said..."Can I have a copy of the book? Come by on Sunday!" What?! So we got his information and the sister missionaries that cover Micronesian people are going to give him a Book of Mormon and teach him! 

Now I would say that's where the miracles ended... but no! We felt like we should go to Diamondhead lookout and to people there. We shared messages with six different people! One of their names was Vincent. He has worked with us missionaries at the pantry before and wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon. But we were all out at that point! We got his information and now he'll be able to see missionaries at home. 

And that was only Wednesday!

On Thursday we had our last training from Sister Walker! Our mission president, President Walker and his wife Sister Walker will be leaving soon! The training was so great and it was good to meet with President Walker. I've gotten a strong testimony that President Walker honestly receives revelation for the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. He is so loving of every single missionary and I'm not sure how he manages it. I hope to see them again soon after my mission.

On Friday Elder Chan was feeling kinda sick. He had a headache and felt kinda nauseous. We had to cancel our dinner appointment unfortunately, but then we felt like we should instead attend a baptism for the kids that I recently interviewed for baptism. It was the Quartero family. So many missionaries, family, and friends were there to support these kids and it was so special. I realized that it was the first baptisms for the two sisters who were teaching them and my first baptism as a district leader. Looking back, I'm glad Elder Chan got a headache. It gave us an opportunity to see some of God's children make their first covenants with Him.

Happy Mothers Day! Something that really threw me off on Sunday was that there were WAY more people at church on mothers day than Easter. Hmmm.. I'm not sure why. Haha. We spent the rest of the day after church visiting less active sisters and wishing then happy mothers day and had dinner with a family. I also got to call my mom at lunch today! It was a really awesome day. Miss you mom 

Welp I guess that's it! Did you think you wouldn't hear miracles this time?  Well I can promise this: there will always be miracles to those who assist God. Always keep enough faith where you do what God asks. If you do, he'll bless you.

Hope you all had a great time spoiling all the mothers out there! They deserve it!

I love you all and hoe you're all doing well!

Love, Elder Nielsen.

Pictures

I cross my heart and hope to die that I will have more pictures next week. Forgive me 

Week 40: I taught a lesson in Spanish!

Elder Chan and I with our shades

 

Aloha! We've been able to meet some new people to teach, but one extra cool experience was to share a message in Spanish! We met this woman named Priscilla. When we started talking she said she didn't speak very good English. But she said she spoke Spanish. So I started talking to her! She said she was from Columbia and that she was still learning English. She asked about what we believe and I explained as best I could. Then I took out my Spanish copy of the Book of Mormon and shared a scripture with her. She liked and wanted to learn more! We got her information and had her call one of the h tech sisters who speaks Spanish. Well....I later found out that Priscilla wasn't interested in learning about the gospel, but she thought I was attractive . So maybe she will still want to be taught one day....but it's kind of an interesting situation right now.

In h-tech we made a video about eternal families with two of the office senior missionaries. Elder and Sister Kitashima. The video turned out great! Also last week we made a fun video about putting important life things first and we used the analogy of putting rocks and rice in a jar. That was pretty fun to make.

We also made 3 (almost 5) new friends! 

- Eli and Carla. We met them, shared a message and talked about baptism. They expressed interest and we exchanged information.

- Michael. We met him at the park and he said he really wants a life change for himself. We told him about the atonement of Jesus Christ and when we told him about our church he looked really excited.

We also met two guys named Frank and Tony. We told them about the Book of Mormon and what we believe about commandments. That had a lot of interest and we made really good friends with them. They are really busy because of work but we just recently texted them asking how they were and they replied!

It was a really great couple of weeks. CHOKE ton of miracles. There was some drama that happened this week but it's all over now. What I get from this is that even though the small bad things could happen during a week, we shouldn't let it control how we react to it. 

Life is all about controlling the things we can control (like using our agency) and not worrying about the things we can't control. Life is too short to worry about the small things. Just do your best and put your faith in the Lord.

Hope you're all doing great! If there's anything I can do for anyone please let me know. Love you!

Love, Elder Nielsen

Adios!