Excellent its another pday! Its good to hear from everybody and again it looks like a lot of changes are going on. Geez this week was awesome, we had zone training with president Probst. He is preparing all of us missionaries for may when the MTC's start teaching a new curriculum on missionary work its called the Doctrine Of Christ. Im not so sure if i am even supposed to tell you about it but it goes along with Preach My Gospel. PMG was just a stepping stone out of those old memorized discussions, Anyways The doctrine of christ is just another element to PMG which centers more fully our message around Christ, and it is really intersting to look at and see how every principle we teach ties back to our heavenly father and Jesus Christ. Its Great to see how much better and more effective the Doctrine of Christ is than just PMG, president showed us that since he has been teaching DOC we have more than tripled the number of baptism dates in our zone. Also just yesterday we were priveleged enough to have Elder Holland come and share his testimony. If any of you are not familiar with Elder Holland he is an apostle just like Peter, James, John, Bartholemew, Matthew, Nathaniel just to name a few from the New Testament. But Elder Holland is a witness of Christ and apostle in these latter days. Anyways Elder Holland shared with our stake his testimony, he started off by telling us to try and imagine what Peter the senior Apostle must have felt like when Christ was crucified. Peter had only been learning and following Christ for about 36 months to the end of Christ's ministry, he really didnt have all that much experience. Peter really didnt know what to do, he was devastated the man who he had followed ever since he was told "come follow me.. i will make you fishers of men". The apostles didnt go out and do as Christ wished them to do, they basically went back to work as fisherman I can picture them just saying well that was a great run while it lasted now thats over lest go fishing again. In John 21 Christ appears to his disciples for the third time after his ressurrection at the sea of tiberias, they were not having any success on the sea coincidence i think Not. They fished all night and in the morning Christ was standing on the shore but they knew not it was him, he said unto them do you have any meat? the reply was, No. Christ said cast your nets on the right side and we all know that they could not draw their nets into their ship. After Christ fed them he asked Simon Peter three time Lovest thou me more than these(fish) then feed my sheep! 3 times Christ asked him that and on the third reply Peter Cried and wept and finally understood what he was supposed to do. He wasnt supposed to go fishing, he was chosen to be an apostle a special witness of Jesus Christ and for the rest of his life was to go and preach His gospel or in other words feed His Sheep. Elder Holland then told us that he was too called of god to be a special witness of Christ an apostle and how special his calling was, he then told us that anyone who is baptized does the same thing they take upon themselves the name of Christ and are then disciples of him Provided they are baptised with the proper authority. Man what a special day it was to hear an aposlte of the lord speaking to a huge congregation, he then wanted to meet all of the missionaries after the meeting. We all met him, shook his hand and were able to talk to him for a little bit and then he shared with us how happy he was that we were all on missions and how important the work is. What a powerful man and so spiritual every word he spoke pierced us to the heart. It was a life changing experience it was awesome. Other than that this week was pretty normal no dog bites no injuries haha oh well there is always next week. Im still doing fine and ill probably get that package next week so im pumped for that thanks mom! At any rate I hope all of you are doing alright i keep you in my prayers. hopefully it doesnt seem like i rushed this e-mail but im excited for pday! so love you all!
Chase
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Week 6: October 18, 2010
Hello everybody from Paarl!
It has been awesome here so far i know the area very well now and im getting some pretty thick thighs. Elder White wants to be really fit when he goes home and we do everything together out here on mission so i guess im getting fit too, probably just more fit than i already was haha jk. This week we had a baptism and we have a couple more baptismal dates upcoming, its great to see some of our investigators really learning about the restored gospel and seeing for themselves how important it is. I guess of all the things i learned this week its that as missionaries we dont do what people think we do, we dont try and convince people what we say is true we just show them the way to find out for themselves which i really like. I mean we could just go around quoting scriptures and bashing people but that doesnt accomplish anything and it isnt christlike. There are a lot of (white) people here in Paarl who are very prideful and it is really interesting to see their ignorance, maybe they dont see that we are messengers of Jesus Christ and that when they reject or refute the words we say they reject Christ. Im sure a they dont look at it that way but as missionaries of his church that is exactly whats happening, almost everyone goes to church here but their ignorance stands in the way of further knowledge of the true gospel. Anyways thats missionary life, and that is the constant message i am learning out here.
Sounds like everyone is doing great! a lot of things are changing back home and that is good to hear nothing new i guess, i think dad told me that since moving across the country Ariel and I have a lot more experience and ability to adapt to a new situation. I find truth in that because when i got here in Paarl Elder White and myself didnt have a place to stay, we didnt have transportation, and we didnt get those things for a couple days. Once we had a place to stay, we didnt have electricity, dirty water, and it was very dirty and grimy from the previous owners. Once we got our bikes we figured out they were junk and walking was faster anyways. Looking back on that i dont think i complained at all and just took everything one step at a time, i dont think any other missionaries in my transfer would have been able to handle that kind of stress that situation might bring. This week will be the first full week that Elder White and I will be fully functional our bikes are fixed, our flat is clean, we have clean water, we have electricty! It feels like im living large now that we have all those things because a lot of people especially in Chicago dont have them. Its neat to see how those people can be happier than those who have them.
Mom, sorry you had a tough time packing up my room, maybe unpacking them into your new home will be easier. Ok so in my old blue scripture tote i have something that is of great value and would like to have it. My Aaronic Priesthood line is in there i would hate to lose that through the move, also if you could ask Bishop Tanner for a possible Melchezedik Priesthood line that would be awesome. wow you are moving pretty soon it might be a while for you to get my next letter because ill probably just wait until you are in your new residence. I have not yet recieved that package but i expect it to be here this next week, im pretty excited to have another pair of shoes whew these ones are getting stanky haha. The food here is pretty good, South Africans love meat and so do WE (Elder White and I) they also eat a lot of rice, sweet potatoes with cinnamon and various veggies. I have only eaten one thing i didnt like which was beet root.. and my companion dished me up a lot but i got him back by licking his fork at the next dinner appointment haha. I love missionary life it is so much fun especially when you do the right things and work hard, the lord blesses us a lot and in various ways. I feel for E. White because he has to go home at the end of this transfer.
I know everything will go great with the move and you will enjoy your new ward and thats the easy part of moving anyways wards are like extended families. Know that I love you and know that you dont need to worry about me im doing fine and nobody dares to mess with white boys on bikes here in SA. Dad, wow you seem really busy with Reliantz that awesome! I cant believe how quickly you were able to do get it up and running. Thats too bad the vandals lost again. i hope that when i get back they are really good that be cool. keep me updated on how the sid gig works out or if you are leaning more towards staying with the reliantz gig. You seem to have put yourself in a good position for success thats really good to hear. i know that you and mom will be just fine back in Boise, i feel like life has gone full circle all around the US and back to Idaho haha. To me it honestly doesnt matter where i come home to just as long as all my family is there. we always said that Seattle was diverse but South Africa is drastically more diverse than any place i have ever been. I do enjoy it here and i have great experiences here every day. Love ya Dad Thank you all for sending me your addresses i will be writing some letters later tonight in response to your emails, since we have to pay for our time on the internet it will be easier for me to do so, it would be nice to do it all on the computer but stamps are cheaper than Email here. so be expecting letters from me and know that i love you all and i keep you in my prayers.
Love Elder Nielsen
It has been awesome here so far i know the area very well now and im getting some pretty thick thighs. Elder White wants to be really fit when he goes home and we do everything together out here on mission so i guess im getting fit too, probably just more fit than i already was haha jk. This week we had a baptism and we have a couple more baptismal dates upcoming, its great to see some of our investigators really learning about the restored gospel and seeing for themselves how important it is. I guess of all the things i learned this week its that as missionaries we dont do what people think we do, we dont try and convince people what we say is true we just show them the way to find out for themselves which i really like. I mean we could just go around quoting scriptures and bashing people but that doesnt accomplish anything and it isnt christlike. There are a lot of (white) people here in Paarl who are very prideful and it is really interesting to see their ignorance, maybe they dont see that we are messengers of Jesus Christ and that when they reject or refute the words we say they reject Christ. Im sure a they dont look at it that way but as missionaries of his church that is exactly whats happening, almost everyone goes to church here but their ignorance stands in the way of further knowledge of the true gospel. Anyways thats missionary life, and that is the constant message i am learning out here.
Sounds like everyone is doing great! a lot of things are changing back home and that is good to hear nothing new i guess, i think dad told me that since moving across the country Ariel and I have a lot more experience and ability to adapt to a new situation. I find truth in that because when i got here in Paarl Elder White and myself didnt have a place to stay, we didnt have transportation, and we didnt get those things for a couple days. Once we had a place to stay, we didnt have electricity, dirty water, and it was very dirty and grimy from the previous owners. Once we got our bikes we figured out they were junk and walking was faster anyways. Looking back on that i dont think i complained at all and just took everything one step at a time, i dont think any other missionaries in my transfer would have been able to handle that kind of stress that situation might bring. This week will be the first full week that Elder White and I will be fully functional our bikes are fixed, our flat is clean, we have clean water, we have electricty! It feels like im living large now that we have all those things because a lot of people especially in Chicago dont have them. Its neat to see how those people can be happier than those who have them.
Mom, sorry you had a tough time packing up my room, maybe unpacking them into your new home will be easier. Ok so in my old blue scripture tote i have something that is of great value and would like to have it. My Aaronic Priesthood line is in there i would hate to lose that through the move, also if you could ask Bishop Tanner for a possible Melchezedik Priesthood line that would be awesome. wow you are moving pretty soon it might be a while for you to get my next letter because ill probably just wait until you are in your new residence. I have not yet recieved that package but i expect it to be here this next week, im pretty excited to have another pair of shoes whew these ones are getting stanky haha. The food here is pretty good, South Africans love meat and so do WE (Elder White and I) they also eat a lot of rice, sweet potatoes with cinnamon and various veggies. I have only eaten one thing i didnt like which was beet root.. and my companion dished me up a lot but i got him back by licking his fork at the next dinner appointment haha. I love missionary life it is so much fun especially when you do the right things and work hard, the lord blesses us a lot and in various ways. I feel for E. White because he has to go home at the end of this transfer.
I know everything will go great with the move and you will enjoy your new ward and thats the easy part of moving anyways wards are like extended families. Know that I love you and know that you dont need to worry about me im doing fine and nobody dares to mess with white boys on bikes here in SA. Dad, wow you seem really busy with Reliantz that awesome! I cant believe how quickly you were able to do get it up and running. Thats too bad the vandals lost again. i hope that when i get back they are really good that be cool. keep me updated on how the sid gig works out or if you are leaning more towards staying with the reliantz gig. You seem to have put yourself in a good position for success thats really good to hear. i know that you and mom will be just fine back in Boise, i feel like life has gone full circle all around the US and back to Idaho haha. To me it honestly doesnt matter where i come home to just as long as all my family is there. we always said that Seattle was diverse but South Africa is drastically more diverse than any place i have ever been. I do enjoy it here and i have great experiences here every day. Love ya Dad Thank you all for sending me your addresses i will be writing some letters later tonight in response to your emails, since we have to pay for our time on the internet it will be easier for me to do so, it would be nice to do it all on the computer but stamps are cheaper than Email here. so be expecting letters from me and know that i love you all and i keep you in my prayers.
Love Elder Nielsen
Monday, October 11, 2010
Week 5: October 11, 2010
Hello All,
So from now on im just going to be writing one email per week directed to all who wants to read it. This week has been a lot of fun, we have been riding these old dumpy, rusty bikes that the mission has had in storage for two years. Our mission is mostly a driving mission so us bikers dont get the usual TLC. haha so this week both of us are thinking about buying bikes ones that actually get us from point A to point B. Since we have been biking i can really feel a particular muscle grouping in my legs gaining strength. I love that feeling, its as if im back in the weight room again. For nourishment Elder White and i have been eating a lot of peanuts, eggs, pbj's and any protein we can get our hands on. Since my companion is on his last transfer i really need to learn the area in a short amount of time, since he will go home and i will probably stay here for a couple more transfers (6 weeks= 1 transfer). I thought i knew the area well but since we have got bikes the area got a little bit bigger which is good but that means i have to learn the street names, what members live in there etc. oh well no worries i have 4 more weeks to learn it all, im really glad that i have a good trainer in Elder White. He is from Utah, he grew up on a farm and is the youngest of 6 siblings. Since he is at the tail end of his mission i can see what kind of person/ missionary i can become in two years, thank you for giving me that insight this week Colin i like looking at it from that "perspective" Tm haha. Im glad that your team got the full loan for school thats awesome, and it sounds like you are up in the air again haha. Man i hope when i get back we can go on some hunting trips since i have never really done so. it sounds like a lot of fun haha, yesterday my companion and i tried to hunt a ginnie hen with sticks and stones haha it flew away but it was fun, and a lot of colored people were staring at us. Its O.K though the colored and black people think we are so cool because we are white, its like we are celebrities. In my area there are a couple ghetto's one of them is called Chicago, it is all poor people and homeless people. Its basically shacks built with mud walls and a tin roof. The shacks are really small and usually families mexi pack it into them haha. in the ghettos on weekends everyone is hobbling around drunk and high, its definatly interesting to see their lifestyle and how it differs from ours. My area also has some quite expensive homes and those are located in New Orleans and Northern Paarl, NP is where all the white Boers live and NO is where the successfull colored people live. these areas are located up on a hill and and Chicago is kind of down in a valley in between both NO and NP. Our flat is located in Np and its not too bad so dont worry mom but each day E. WHite and I scrub the floors and take care of it. Dad that is awesome you are under contract with eharmony they are pretty big at least they seem big because i remember their commercials. Thats awesome how reliantz is kind of taking off haha thats so cool. Ok so the vandals are 2-2 at least to my knowledge now thats pretty good hopefully they can get to another bowl this year and really start building up a program. Im kinda sad that the truck is sold but thats one less thing in your hands, thats a good thing its sold. and you know whatever you think is best for the powerwasher is cool with me.. it could really help you keep your new home in boise nice and sparkling. I know that whatever you do with reliantz or that gig with sid the lord will bless you with whatever decision you make with faith in him. is really interesting out here to notice how much faith can really play a role in your success, i.e Elder White his whole mission has never taught a white family, but me being a brand new missionary havent really seen how difficult it is to teach white people here in SA. this past week i decided to knock on some doors in North Paarl and had all the faith in the world that they would let us in ( just like in the colored areas, they always let us in because we are from the U.S) and at first the guy seemed really stubborn and wanted us to leave but we built a relationship of trust with him and taught him haha. Elder White was astonished that we got into their door. Faith is like that parable that states " if you fail to plan, you plan to fail" so if you think you cant do it then you wont. thought of the week i guess haha. Mom, thank you for sending those shoes last friday its going to be nice to be able to switch these ones out day by day. Im glad you dont care about shipping costs because i dont really either haha. Sounds like you guys have a great plan for housing so far, i know dad would really like to live on the course thats funny. Its really annoying when i tell people where im from i say washington and then they say oh wow D.C ive been there. In annoyance i tell them NO Washington DC is not a state.. Washington is a state ahaha they dont understand. Once you guys move ill be able to say im from Idaho again because home is where the heart is. The money that MSF provides us is o.k it gets us by but every once in a while i will have to use my debit on certain items. Overall i love South Africa, JoBerg was really shady but Cape Town is Beautifull you would love it, always sunny and it seems like you are on a tropical island. Paarl is one of those towns like issaquah, used to be a farm town but is now kinda suburban. Although here in Paarl there are still a lot of vineyards its a really cool dynamic town. Ariel How are you doing? how is School going? what about you Brian? Whitney? let a missionary know haha send me a letter if you want correspondence because i have no addresses. Love you all!
Elder Nielsen
So from now on im just going to be writing one email per week directed to all who wants to read it. This week has been a lot of fun, we have been riding these old dumpy, rusty bikes that the mission has had in storage for two years. Our mission is mostly a driving mission so us bikers dont get the usual TLC. haha so this week both of us are thinking about buying bikes ones that actually get us from point A to point B. Since we have been biking i can really feel a particular muscle grouping in my legs gaining strength. I love that feeling, its as if im back in the weight room again. For nourishment Elder White and i have been eating a lot of peanuts, eggs, pbj's and any protein we can get our hands on. Since my companion is on his last transfer i really need to learn the area in a short amount of time, since he will go home and i will probably stay here for a couple more transfers (6 weeks= 1 transfer). I thought i knew the area well but since we have got bikes the area got a little bit bigger which is good but that means i have to learn the street names, what members live in there etc. oh well no worries i have 4 more weeks to learn it all, im really glad that i have a good trainer in Elder White. He is from Utah, he grew up on a farm and is the youngest of 6 siblings. Since he is at the tail end of his mission i can see what kind of person/ missionary i can become in two years, thank you for giving me that insight this week Colin i like looking at it from that "perspective" Tm haha. Im glad that your team got the full loan for school thats awesome, and it sounds like you are up in the air again haha. Man i hope when i get back we can go on some hunting trips since i have never really done so. it sounds like a lot of fun haha, yesterday my companion and i tried to hunt a ginnie hen with sticks and stones haha it flew away but it was fun, and a lot of colored people were staring at us. Its O.K though the colored and black people think we are so cool because we are white, its like we are celebrities. In my area there are a couple ghetto's one of them is called Chicago, it is all poor people and homeless people. Its basically shacks built with mud walls and a tin roof. The shacks are really small and usually families mexi pack it into them haha. in the ghettos on weekends everyone is hobbling around drunk and high, its definatly interesting to see their lifestyle and how it differs from ours. My area also has some quite expensive homes and those are located in New Orleans and Northern Paarl, NP is where all the white Boers live and NO is where the successfull colored people live. these areas are located up on a hill and and Chicago is kind of down in a valley in between both NO and NP. Our flat is located in Np and its not too bad so dont worry mom but each day E. WHite and I scrub the floors and take care of it. Dad that is awesome you are under contract with eharmony they are pretty big at least they seem big because i remember their commercials. Thats awesome how reliantz is kind of taking off haha thats so cool. Ok so the vandals are 2-2 at least to my knowledge now thats pretty good hopefully they can get to another bowl this year and really start building up a program. Im kinda sad that the truck is sold but thats one less thing in your hands, thats a good thing its sold. and you know whatever you think is best for the powerwasher is cool with me.. it could really help you keep your new home in boise nice and sparkling. I know that whatever you do with reliantz or that gig with sid the lord will bless you with whatever decision you make with faith in him. is really interesting out here to notice how much faith can really play a role in your success, i.e Elder White his whole mission has never taught a white family, but me being a brand new missionary havent really seen how difficult it is to teach white people here in SA. this past week i decided to knock on some doors in North Paarl and had all the faith in the world that they would let us in ( just like in the colored areas, they always let us in because we are from the U.S) and at first the guy seemed really stubborn and wanted us to leave but we built a relationship of trust with him and taught him haha. Elder White was astonished that we got into their door. Faith is like that parable that states " if you fail to plan, you plan to fail" so if you think you cant do it then you wont. thought of the week i guess haha. Mom, thank you for sending those shoes last friday its going to be nice to be able to switch these ones out day by day. Im glad you dont care about shipping costs because i dont really either haha. Sounds like you guys have a great plan for housing so far, i know dad would really like to live on the course thats funny. Its really annoying when i tell people where im from i say washington and then they say oh wow D.C ive been there. In annoyance i tell them NO Washington DC is not a state.. Washington is a state ahaha they dont understand. Once you guys move ill be able to say im from Idaho again because home is where the heart is. The money that MSF provides us is o.k it gets us by but every once in a while i will have to use my debit on certain items. Overall i love South Africa, JoBerg was really shady but Cape Town is Beautifull you would love it, always sunny and it seems like you are on a tropical island. Paarl is one of those towns like issaquah, used to be a farm town but is now kinda suburban. Although here in Paarl there are still a lot of vineyards its a really cool dynamic town. Ariel How are you doing? how is School going? what about you Brian? Whitney? let a missionary know haha send me a letter if you want correspondence because i have no addresses. Love you all!
Elder Nielsen
Monday, October 4, 2010
Week 4: October 4, 2010
Letter from Chase's dad - Fri. October 1, 2010
Dear Elder Nielsen:
I pray things are going well. I'm in Southern California this week with Sid generating business. Yesterday we met with Sandy Gould at abc Disney. Sandy worked with Sid and I at RealNetworks. We had a personal tour of the Walt Disney studeo and sound studios. Today we met with the eHarmony staff and did some personal coaching with some of there staff members. Tomorrow we're off to Malibo to meet with HR staff with Dunn and Bradstreet. We fly home tomorrow evening. Saturday morning your mom and I drive to Boise to look for housing. We will more than likely take off at 2am to make it to Boise by 11 for our first appointment. We're going to have pizza with Pam and Kirk Saturday evening. Kirk is doing well with his Kemo treatments, however, cannot be in crowds due to his depleted immune system. We will probably eat with them in an open park somewhere. The Vandals continue to do well. Since I wrote last, they lost to Nebraska, beat UNLV, and lost in the last second to Colorado State. This week they travel to Western Michigan.
Mom told me you received your first assignment to Namibia. This should be an incredible experience for you. Give me the details. I pray for you daily.
Love, Dad
Chase's Response - Mon. October 4, 2010
Wow it sounds like you have been pretty busy with work and all that. thats great i knew things were going to pick up sooner or later. thats awesome you were able to get a tour of the disney studios. Right now i am not in Nam (Namibia) im in a town outside of Cape Town called Paarl which in Afrikaans means pear. its a really beautiful town with greenery and mountains all around. there are some nice areas in Paarl and some Ghettos haha. my companion and I have had some interesting experiences so far with the people here. In South Africa you are only considered black if you are dark as night, everyone else who is of brown skin is considered colored. then white people are just whites haha. its really cool here and my companion and i get along pretty well. next week i can have some pictures to show you of Cape Town and ill be taking some pictures of Paarl this week to show you. sounds like the vandals are getting off to an okay start, it seems like they can make it back to a bowl game this year if they really kick themselves into high gear. i got moms package with all the green things in them, that was nice to get along with the letter from colin. So my p-days here are on mondays now not saturdays anymore. I will most likely be here in Paarl from 12-24 weeks because my companion is going home in 6 weeks so i have to get to know the area for my next companion. It has been awesome here so far and i have really enjoyed it. hopefully you find a good deal on a house down in Boise. Thank you for the prayers i will be just fine here. talk to you next Monday.
Love,
Elder C.B Nielsen
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