Week 29: March 28, 2011

I attached a photo of our baptism that we had yesterday, the picture was taken right after the baptism so we were already wet. Pictured from left to right top to bottom (Sister Zandile, me, Buhle and Mahle). Sister Zandile is a recent convert who was baptised in November and we have been working with her two children for the last couple of weeks.

Right now we have two more baptisms scheduled for April 24th which is right at the end of the transfer so it would be cool to see those two go through. The work in Bellville has really picked up in the last couple of month which Elder Naylor and I are very excited about.

Today for P-day we are probably going to play some foosball with the other Elders in our district, it's what we usually do when we don't have anything special planned. No matter what we do we always have fun. Mom that's pretty cool about Stephanie Skiba and those other soon to be Sister Missionaries, that's cool I have heard Sisters get into the doors that the Elders can't. Too bad there aren't any Sister missionaries In S. Africa I guess it's too dangerous or something. No I wouldn't know anything about that, so far on mission I have been in nice areas and not township. I think no matter who goes on a mission and do what the white handbook instucts them they will realize a different joy that can only found by being obedient, hard to explain but it just makes you feel good about yourself.

Wow I really miss those March Madness Brackets, it's cool to see butler In the final four they are my pick to take it all, I think they got pretty far last year as well.

Everyone is graduating from University whoa that's awesome, right now I'm kinda glad I don't have to worry about school right now, it's nice to wake up in the morning and asking myself "what am I going to do today" and always the answer is Missionary Work haha.

Oh I just remembered a story from Paarl that I wanted to tell you guys, we were walking through our area one day and we saw this kid riding a skateboard. So I thought to myself "I wonder If I could still ride one of them things" so I stopped him and asked him if i could ride for just a second, so here i am in my whites riding this skateboard and I was even able to land a heelflip with my proselyting shoes. I think we just got the kids contact information and were about the go look him up and then I got transfered. I was pretty proud of myself, I hadn't skateboarded since fifth grade or something like that.

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Nielsen

Week 28: March 21, 2011

I am staying in Bellville for another transfer with Elder Naylor, I guess the work we have been doing here is supposed to continue on for another six weeks. I am very excited about it and hope that the work can continue to bring success here and I will even have the opportunity to see some baptisms.

This week I gave Elder Naylor a nice haircut with the clippers I bought here, His hair was a bit long so he asked if I could cut it for him. Well I did and I gave him a good cut, but what I didn't realize was when I was trimming his neck I gave him a real nice rat tail. I think it looks really nice on him so I didn't tell him about it until a few days after the haircut, haha I had a pretty good laugh at that. I took some pictures of it but I forgot to bring the camera into the E-mail shop so ill send them another time.

This last week was pretty productive and we were able to fill up most of our days with appointments, so the success continues, we even need to make contact with investigators we have less contact with. It's awesome to have plenty of people to teach, all because we were diligent in finding people for the first couple of weeks. Hard work pays off that's for sure.
Hey that's a pretty good bracket you have there dad, that would be a lot of fun to track and see who wins. Looks like Brian is on top of it this year, wow I kind of miss March madness now. Keep up the good work and have an extra special week in all that you do this week.

Mom, it is alright for us to have devices that play gospel related music, just make sure it has a bunch of it so that it doesn't get old after a while. Time flies when you are busy huh? the same is true here! I hope you are enjoying primary, Im sure you do.

thank you all for your letters and for telling me what you are up to.

Love you all,
Elder Nielsen

Week 27: March 14, 2011

Shoot I can't believe another transfer has come and gone, time happens that's for sure. There is a little saying that missionaries here In SACTM have around transfers "either I will stay or I will go" which is all that can happen around these times, but right now I would really like to stay in Bellville for another transfer we are having a lot of success and a whole lot of fun.

I think this week I really had a breakthrough with using scriptures in teaching lessons, it was almost like every single topic we were talking about I could find a scripture in the Bible and Book of Mormon that talked about it. In having this skill I feel really comfortable in teaching lessons, I have always been good at just talking to people but now I think I can teach for understanding and really get people interested in the gospel, it's a lot of fun. We are going to have two baptisms on March 27th and then three probably on April 24th, that is really exciting !

Last week's Pday was awesome on top of table mountain you can see all of Cape Town and even see a tiny bit of Paarl, it was really cool to go up there and see things from an overhead perspective. This week we are going to Green market square, I am not sure exactly what it is like but its basically just a huge open market that has a bunch of African trinkets and things so that will be fun.

So Dad was Idaho's basketball team any good this year or was it just an average season again for them? I think you mentioned that they had beat Utah State which is no small task. Sounds like you have a lot of great things in the hopper as far as jobs go or clients for Reliantz.

Mom I received the package that you sent, thank you soo much it was great! currently I have two charcoal pants (suit) one green, and one brown pair.

Becky thank you for sending the pictures of Lydia she is very cute congratulations!

Love you all,
Elder Nielsen

Week 26: March 7, 2011

Well its a new month and this week I will turn six months out on mission exciting huh? Time happens thats for sure.

And yes today as a district we will be going up to table mountain! I have been looking forward to doing it for a long time and I apologize but this email will be short for that reason.

Shout out to uncle Kirk and uncle Kirt for birthdays in March hope you two have a good one. Also congrats to Becky and Lance for bringing in another little one to their family.

Yesterday we had a couple investigators show up at church, which in Bellville is pretty impressive. Missionaries usually have trouble doing so, of course we were pretty excited about that. We will see if these two progress closer towards baptism. There really is no better feeling in missionary work when you are doing everything you are supposed to and then you see an investigator finally get what you are teaching them, their eyes open up and they understand. This week we have had a lot of fun introducing the book of mormon to people and I think we have gotten pretty good at it. To me it makes perfect sense that the book of mormon was recorded just like the bible for us to have to know that Jesus is the Christ, and to know his will for us. what frustrates me is when some of these people say "I have a bible, i need no more bible" one time I actually opened up 2 Nephi where the lord says people will say such things. I don't know why people are so scared of The Book of Mormon, if they were to look at the cover they would read that its another testament of Jesus Christ, what is there to lose in reading another testament of Jesus Christ.

I know that the Book of Mormon is true, that is was translated by the gift and power of God perfectly through a young prophet Joseph Smith. I know this because I have read the Book, pondered in my heart the doctrine it contains and then asked our Heavenly Father if it was true. The answer I recieved was yes it is true, and I know God would't give me another answer than he gave Tom down the street. In teaching people we want them to understand that they need to read the Book of Mormon to know if the kingdom of God is once again upon the earth. Yes the Gospel was lost, the fullness of the gospel that is, fulfilling Amos 8:11-12 therefore the Gospel needed to be restored. The Book of Mormon is proof that Joseph Smith was a prophet, it is his fruit and it is good. Matthew 7 says that we must beware of false prophets but by their fruits we shall know them. If we don't taste the fruit of Josheph Smith we will never know if he was called of God.

Hopefully everyone has a great week,
Chase