Week 79: The Power of The Book of Mormon

 Aloha everyone! It is so great to be able to share some absolutely amazing experiences I had this last week.

I apologize for not sending emails as regularly as I should. And I also apologize if my language in writing makes it sound like I'm forced to write these entries. In all reality, these are going to help me the most in remembering the key, important moments of my mission. It also gives me an opportunity to reflect on the most spiritually impactful moments in my life to you; my loving friends and family.

This last week was absolutely PACKED with memorable moments. Among these was meeting our good friend Danielle.

Danielle is a media-referral. Which means that she reached out to the church through an online advertisement and became interested to speak with us, get a copy and learn about the Book of Mormon, and attend church. We met with her last Tuesday. Elder Carlson felt prompted to share the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson which goes like this...

The Gospel of Jesus Christ (which talks about)

-The Divine Mission of Jesus Christ

-The Gospel of Jesus Christ

-Faith in Jesus Christ

-Repentance

-Baptism

-Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost

-Enduring to the End

Danielle had us meet with her at the Wahiawa Botanical gardens. Then she waved us over and we started talking. She comes from another church and is deeply rooted in Christ. She told us some struggles she has as a mother and as an imperfect Christian which we definitely related with her. And we had one of the most heartfelt lessons I've ever had. Not a single eye was dry during that lesson and I'm not really that emotional. We all felt the spirit really strongly. She took a Book of Mormon from us and we set up our next lesson for Thursday at her home.

During that lesson, we shared with her the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ...

-God is our loving Heavenly Father

-The Gospel blesses individuals and families

-God gives us his gospel in dispensation

-Jesus Christ's ministry and Atonement

-The Great Apostasy

-The restoration of the Gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith

-The Book of Mormon

-We can pray and receive answers through the Holy Ghost

By the way, she had already read A LOT of the Book of Mormon already! And everything we taught her, she understood and felt it all to be true. She said that she believed the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. We invited her to pray about herself and she said she would. I also shared with her a personal experience of how I've asked if the Book of Mormon was true. 

Later, her husband Walle brought out two paintings. One with a big blue tree with a river in the background and another with purple and pink trees with a leading fence down a path to a cross. These two images are very similar to the story of the tree of life in the Book of Mormon. [1 Nephi 8] And I said out loud "That looks like the Tree of Life! Danielle, did you paint that?" She said that she did paint them for Walle (who is a less active member!) He smiled at me and said..."You're only the 2nd person besides me who recognized it as the Tree of Life. And now it's yours." Through some miracle, Danielle had painted these beautiful depictions of a scripture story that she had never even read before! We left that house on that Thursday morning knowing that Danielle was an elect daughter of God and that we would continue to help her family come closer to Christ.

Next to our friend, Mardy. On our last visit we prayed for her home, gave her pictures of Christ to put around her house, and shared a message prompting her to read scriptures and replace bad spirits and feelings with the good spirit; the Holy Ghost. When we visited last week...WOW! What a change we saw immediately! She looked so much happier! And we felt, instead of a looming/dark presence, a warm Christlike feeling of love. She said that putting up pictures of Christ helped her remind her of Jesus Christ. And now we hope that she will continue to purify her house and make it a place where the spirit dwells. And I believe she read some Book of Mormon on her own too ( :

On Thursday, we took with us a member of the YSA ward who is about to go on his mission in Reno. We took him with us to try to teach our friend Jennette, but she wasn't available. Then we went over to see our friends Jayden and Virginia. We shared some stories with them and Brother Stockdale (the pre-missionary) got to share a scripture to help Virginia with the stress she had.

We had a lesson with a less-active member of the YSA ward named Adreus. We showed him a Book of Mormon video,  but then felt like we should just talk with him. We asked if he was doing ok. He told us he has been having a lot of self doubt and issues with self worth. We taught him that just like a robber would never try to rob an empty house, Satan attacks those who are good because they are good. We told him how awesome of a friend he was and he seemed to feel better. But it made me sad because I've had feelings before about self-worth and I knew how dismal of a mindset that can be. Please pray for Adreus and I know he'll feel better.

Patrick Harris, our progressing friend, continues to learn about the church still and is now getting ready to move! Which is big news for us because he said he would feel more ready to think about baptism and maybe visit the temple with us when he moves into his new house. Please pray for him to continue to grow his faith and receive an answer to his questions!

At our car wash on Saturday, I gave out two copies of the Book of Mormon! I was on the street with the Free Car Wash sign and the other Elders were washing the cars. They had a box of Book of Mormons and were supposed to give them out to people they met. When it was time to end at 5, I went up to one of the cars they were washing and I asked the guy if he wanted a copy of scripture. He said "Yes! I was just about to ask you that!" And then we got free McDonalds for dinner. yessah.

Alright. The last three things. We had stake conference on Sunday which is where all the church congregations in the surrounding area meet together for sunday. The heavy topic discussed that day was temple attendance.

Many talks given that day by church leaders pleaded with the members of the Stake to go to the temple more. And since I had gone the previous Monday, all I could say was Amen! I can't wait to attend the temple frequently when I get back home! It's such a beautiful place to visit! And there's another temple opening up in my area at home called the Feather River Temple. I'm going to be able to go to the open house when it's completed!

And after the stake conference, we had our interviews with President Sloat, our mission president. During interviews, President Sloat gives us personal counsel for any struggles we're going through or just gives us advice on how he feels we can improve, but he also makes a point to congratulate us on our successes. He pointed out to me that...*sigh*...I've hit 18 months as a missionary. Which means that in 6 more months, I'll be finished. He gave some wise advice on how to finish as strong as I could.

LAST THING!! I finished The Book of Mormon for the 3rd time on my mission! I learned so much from the time I've spent reading it. Some things I learned include...

- The Book of Mormon helps us answer deep questions and opens our minds to receive personal revelation (which anyone can receive)

- If we read it, The Book of Mormon will warn us of things to happen in the future. And it will help us prepare for future, unpredicted events.

- True peace and happiness comes from following God's commandments. 

- The Gospel of Jesus Christ is simple, pure and strong but people are the imperfect ones. Our closeness to God and the blessings He gives us hinges upon if we are willing to follow His gospel or not.

 

And last thing...

-The Book of Mormon is a great source of peace! I've seen it help people come to understand God and Jesus Christ. AND it helps us to recognize miracles in our lives.

Well thank you for sticking through this abnormally long email haha. I guess I've just had a lot of things on my mind since I've only got 6 months left. 

Always remember. There are numerous ways that we can feel peace in struggling times. In stake conference, they all testified that the temple was one of those ways. Whatever you're going through, seek help through divine sources like prayer and scripture.

I promise you, as a missionary for Jesus Christ, that you will feel God's love.

Well! Thank you for all of your prayers and I love you all! Keep being the best you can be! God loves you. I wish you all the best week.

Love, Elder Nielsen

Week 78: Good Start To The New Year | The Temple!!

 Aloha! 

Guess what? I got to go to the temple today! We didn't get to go inside because it's being cleaned. But I asked my mission president to let me go to the grounds and he said he was OK with it. It gave me the clarity that a typical temple trip gives and also gave me better counsel with being a missionary. I'm so glad we have temples!

In the last two weeks, I've been getting to know the people we're teaching, the members in our ward, and our area much more familiarly.

Brother Jamias recently got home from his trip so we don't get to go do gardening for his plants and get free oranges or coconuts .

 We've gotten a few missionary referrals from people who signed up online to hear from us! How it works is we reach out to them and try to set up a good time to reach out to them and answer their questions and share a message if they request it. One funny story is we tried to meet a media referred man named Miguel. We walked to his address and a guy standing outside put his hand up to us and said he wasn't interested. We asked if he was Miguel and he said that was his neighbor. We knocked on the other door and a guy came walking up from the side of the house. Then the guy through his window started lecturing us saying "He doesn't speak English! He doesn't speak English!" I knew it was a Spanish ad that he referred to so I was prepared . In Spanish, I introduced ourselves as the missionaries coming over to ask him about signing up to meet the missionaries. Meanwhile we heard silence from the other heckler . He said he didn't remember signing up but was still willing to here a message. We'll be teaching him soon.

With our friend Jolyne (candidate for baptism) we've been going over the Book of Mormon with her and she's been loving it! We read some with her and talk about what she learns from it and then we watch the Book of Mormon and look at other media related to it. She got covid recently though which is a bummer . Please pray for Jolyne that she'll do what she needs to do to prepare for baptism, feel healthy again, and gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon.

Another friend of ours, Patrick Harris, has been learning a lot from the Book of Mormon. Once we started going into it, he just got curious about everything! We see him every week now and he's learning at a high rate! We invited him to visit the temple with us and he seemed excited to! He wants to wait till he moves to go with us.

We have a friend named Mardy who calls us frequently to come by her apartment and say a prayer to cast out the bad spirits that she feels in her house. We said a prayer with her and shared a brief message. Then we gave her pictures of Jesus to give her apartment a brighter feeling and we invited her to pray frequently on her own.

We had our zone conference a week ago where we were told to become master teachers of the restoration and the plan of salvation lessons. Our leaders also had an awesome training for us about what conversion, true conversion, looks like and how we can help it happen.

This next week I will hit my 18 month mark. Oh no!  I promise to get better with writing every week. Thank you for all your love through 18 months of serving. Love you all!

Love, Elder Nielsen

Week 76: Happy New Year!![2023] 🎉

 Aloha everyone! Happy New Year to you all!

New Year means new beginnings, new area, new companion, new everything!

Elder Mulitalo left for Kona on the big Island and now I'm with Elder Isaiah Carlson. And instead of the Samoan ward, they moved us to the YSA ward! So now we're double covering YSA and Wahiawa 1st ward. I'm not really experienced with double covering let alone basically white washing two areas! But with faith we've been able to see miracles already.

To get to know the area better, we have been visiting members and the nonmember friends that the previous missionaries have regular visits with. They are all super awesome people and we've really seen the progression that they've had through the gospel.

It took us like a day and a half to move stuff around since we moved into another apartment and needed beds and other stuff. I'm sharing an apartment with Elder Tipa! 

We met with an awesome investigator named Juana who is interested in being baptized in July and she told us her conversion story and how long she has wanted to get baptized. We started to teach her about the temple and making covenants which she loved!

The rest of the week was meeting members and sharing meals with them and asking how we can best help the wards since we basically are just learning as we go. The members of the ward have been super nice and helpful and have given us a lot of referrals.

On New Years day President Nelson made a Facebook post about being Patient, Persistent, and Prayerful with making goals and resolutions. I've been doing that myself lately because there's a bunch of changes I wanna make this year and I know that his counsel will help.

Try to do those 3 P's. Patient, Persistent, and Prayerful. And you will see awesome changes this year!

Happy New Year!

Love, Elder Nielsen

Week 75: Back to Mililani | Merry Christmas 🎅 🎄

 Aloha Talofa and Happy Holidays!

Short story: I have been emergency transferred back to Mililani.

Long story: Elder Anderson (that I shared a pad with in Honolulu) is now able to go to his original assignment in the Marshall Islands/Kiribati mission! President called me Thursday afternoon and told me that I would be taking his place with Elder Mulitalo covering two wards in Mililani. The Samoan ward and a "white people" ward .

I'm staying in the same exact apartment I stayed in over a year ago so it feels like I'm back in training! Elder Clapper (my trainer who is now off his mission) actually came and visited Mililani a week before! Barely missed him. Before I left Moanalua 2nd, Ricky and Tino were baptized! Most of the work was done before I got there but I'm still so proud of them.

Another awesome teaching opportunity came from one of our members Sister Noa. She has a friend named Ina with a daughter Leilani. Ina grew up in Laie going to seminary, being surrounded by members of the church, but never getting baptized! Her daughter however is baptized. We had a super awesome lesson with them in Sister Noas home. We taught a really profound lesson about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they were absolutely in live with our message. They seemed so willing to read and pray about the Book of Mormon together  . 

 I really loved serving in Moanalua 2nd ward. It wasn't in the prettiest part of Hawaii but the opportunities of meeting new people and teaching them makes any town feel like a spiritual powerhouse. 

Me and Elder Walker were at a hospital in Honolulu to give someone a blessing when Elder Walker saw that President Sloat had tried to call us. He called me and assigned me to take Elder Andersons place in Mililani. I was really disappointed that I was gonna leave Elder Walker and the area, but when I heard I was going back to my old stomping grounds in Mililani I was so excited.

We had Ricky and Tinos baptism the same night I left for Mililani. Those two boys were so brave and faithful. They are as funny and spunky as they seem and they're only like 10. I'm so proud of their decision to come closer to God through baptism.

My new companion was Elder Mulitalo! He was a past companion of Elder Walker. He's also as funny and cool as Elder Walker made him out to be . But while I was with him, he started getting a cold! So for the remaining week and a half of the transfer, we only got to go fully proselyting for a couple days together. But eventually we still were able to do work.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! This Christmas was awesome! That all started with the amazing zone conference we had at the tabernacle. It was so good to see other missionaries and listen to uplifting Christmas messages and hear music. The heavy theme of what was said was that if there wasn't Easter, there wouldn't be Christmas. I know that the Saviors greatest sacrifice was to be crucified and to atone for our sins. But the way he fulfilled God's will, atoned for us, and overcame death is why we celebrate his birth. My family sent me handwritten letters that brought me to tears. I really miss them on the holidays.

Spending Christmas in Mililani was as fun as I thought it would be. But also very spiritual because it fell on a Sunday. I think the best part of thus Christmas was being able to take the sacrament in church. It really helped think a lot about Jesus and what he did for us. I think it was one of the most Christ-centered Christmas's I've ever had!

We were having dinner with some members in Wahiawa 1st ward when we got transfer news that Elder Mulitalo would be leaving!! I wasn't even with him for two weeks!! And now I'm leading Wahiawa 1st ward and the YSA?!  Well I'm excited but I'm also a but nervous. I was so sad to see Elder Mulitalo leave. I'm with Elder Carlson now and he's a really cool missionary.

Sorry this emails late. I'll try to do better. I hit my 17 months this week which means next month I have 1/4 left of my mission . I hope I make the most of it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

"I'll be home for Christmas."

Love, Elder Nielsen 

Praying: No More Sickness Please 🙏

 Talofa!

I'm not sick anymore!(thank goodness) but being sick last week kept me from going to to the temple! That was pretty sad. But on Tuesday morning I was up from 2 am till about 7:30 am. We were supposed to head to the temple pretty early in the morning. I asked Elder Walker if he could give me a blessing. I started feeling better! But I did not feel like getting sick in the middle of going to the temple so we stayed in and got drugs from Target. I was pretty disappointed to not be able to go the temple since I haven't gone since June!! But I promise that I'll make it before the end of the transfer. We already have like 2 weeks left!

What has made these trials go by easier for me is definitely the spirit of Christmas  I love Christmas! It's exciting to be a missionary and get people hyped about Christmas and makes the work even more fun. 

This last week had some really awesome success. We met two people named Jamie and KR. They were really awesome. We're trying to keep teaching them but we're sure where their address is and the number was wrong . I'm pretty sure we'll find them though. 

We went on exchanges with our zone leader Elder Putnam. He, Elder Walker, and I have all been out the same time and we all go home together next July . We had success with meeting some really awesome members(a really cool teaching opportunity happened because of that so stay tuned!) And we got to interview Ricky and Tino for baptism and they passed! They're getting dunked this Friday! And then to celebrate the day and how I was feeling better, we got (overpriced) Five Guys burgers for dinner  .

We finally got our car fixed this week! It was fun stopping by the mission office and saying hi to the senior missionaries.

On Friday I got to go to the pantry! That one volunteer place we went to a lot when I was in h tech. We sorted out some bread.

On that same day we met Jamie and KR, a really nice uncle named Henry who wanted to hear more about Jesus, and went to a ward party! Another ward member invited us and we I saw Santa! He's real!!

On Saturday a miracle lesson happened...we went to share a lesson with Aunty Taito and her girls with the bishop. Turns out they're family through the bishops wife! After talking for a good while, we ended up organizing getting her kids a ride to church. Yes! 

On Sunday we missed a turn on the highway and ended up on the wrong part of the island . But we met the former bishop of Moanalua 2nd who teaches linguistics at University of Hawaii and he offered to teach us Samoan. Hopefully that means we'll get better.

Well that's what happened in the good week. I'm feeling pretty healthy now (knock on wood) and we're seeing more and more miracles every day. I'm very excited for Christmas! Too bad this is the last one on the mission though.

Hope you all have had a great week!

Talofa Lava!

Love, Elder Nielsen