Week 8: November 1, 2010

Hey again,

Thank you to everyone who has been sending me mail, its really good to read and get a little reminder of home. Thank you brother Hamilton for sending me that e-mail that means a lot to me, its nice to read another missionaries letters home with their struggles, strifes and also the excitement that comes from being on a mission. Everything is going great here, this next sunday we are lined up for 3 people to get baptized. One we know for sure is ready for baptism, we dont need to remind him to do anything and he has a wonderful testimony of the gospel. The other two might not be ready as far as the word of wisdom goes but they are trying their best and they know the gospel is true, tomorrow the zone leaders are coming down to conduct baptismal interviews for them. Its cool to see them taking a step closer to their salvation, hopefully down the road they dont fall off the path and end up less active like the 500 others here. Its so frustrating to be in an area that could possibly have two wards but because of the less actives there is only one branch. I cant believe there could be so many people that were once strong in the gospel could let satan slowly work on them and get them in a habit of not coming to church its terrible they dont understand the covenants they made. Oh well we will just go track them down one at a time.

This week we were able to watch conference wow that was pretty cool, Elder Hollands talk on the sacrifices his family made for him on his mission was awesome. The talk that really stuck to me was Dieter f. Uctdorf's talk on pride (priesthood session), wow that was powerful and while he was talking i noticed that i have a lot of pride. Its so true what he said that pride only brings an attitude of "look at all the things i have and have done, and look at how im better than you" you can see how that can be destructive to a person. Im now trying to be a humble person and have a better attitude of gratitude (Thomas S. Monson). Oh another thing that Uctdorf said, he quoted Leonardo DaVinci "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" thats a pretty cool statement.

Ariel i did get your letter and im sending you one either today or tommorrow, thank you for relaying the messages from the folks.

Colin, thanks for writing me every week its nice to read about your week and the exciting things that are happening in your life. And about the animal parks, yess last monday (pday) we went to a giraffe park, but it only had one giraffe haha man that was lame and kinda a waste of the 45 Rand per person. Seven Rand = 1 dollar so it wasnt too much. Although they did have a couple of sweet monkeys running around so that was fun oh and also a field of goats. We called one over to us and it stuck its head through the gate, while one pair of missionaries took a video my companion and i grabbed its horns so it couldnt back its head out. Surprisingly the people that worked there were laughing and of course we were too haha, that made up for the frustration of only seeing one giraffe. I hope you and Whitney continue to do well in Rexburg.

Mom and dad good luck in your new home and send me pictures if possible of the new place. I look forward to hearing from you next week.

Also it would be nice to have an address for Aunt Sondra and Uncle Kay, i would like to write them some letters.

Until next week,
Elder Nielsen