Week 104: September 3, 2012

Thank you all for writing.

Brother Hamilton thank you for your sound advice, I will keep those thoughts in mind.

Also Sister Moore thank you for your words.

This week was awesome. Elder Romney and I had a powerful Zone Training with all of the Zone on Tuesday and then we had an incredible Zone Conference with Elder and Sister Cook and President and Sister Wood. After the Zone Conference I was asked to give my final in-field testimony and then everyone sang to me the SACTM song. It was really cool because for the past 16 transfers I was the one singing to departing missionaries, and then it was my turn.

I am still going strong, bringing as many souls to Christ before I am no longer a full-time missionary. It is something I am really going to miss. I don't know how I feel about going home, I look forward to it but at the same time I don't want to leave this behind yet.

This week I will work with a sense of urgency and do all I possibly can.

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen 

Week 97: July 17, 2012

Hello again FAMILY!

While you all are enjoying the summer heat, In South Africa I am getting snowed on! I never thought I would see snow here.

The first picture is at the Mthatha house, miss that place! however it is not the same as when I was there. The Second is proof that we had snow, the picture was taken the day after and there was still a dusting on the top of that there hill. The third picture is of one of our investigators who was baptized yesterday after church.

It was a fantastic week, but very busy. On Wednesday we had a really good training session with all of the Zone, we presented to two groups while our mission President was taking Elders out individually for interviews. Every three months Zone Leaders provide training on effective teaching and missionary skills, including fundamentals of Preach My Gospel, to all of their Zone. We also received a piece of training from President Wood in between our sessions. it was good for us to refocus and remind ourselves of important principles. The next day we drove to Mthatha to go on exchanges there. It was awesome to be back in the old area and have the opportunity to see some of the people I worked with before. Some of the brothers we took fellow shipping a lot have put in their mission papers and will get their calls very soon, that was really good news to hear. I think there are a total of three who either have their calls, or are waiting for their call to arrive, and another one is still working on his papers.

Since we were very busy this week with the training and exchanges we have to do a little catch up in the area, we are going to have to re-connect with our investigators and get back on schedule as soon as possible. We will also have to do a fair bit of finding in order to keep our schedule busy, since I have a soon to be home companion we have got to sprint him through the finish line and then the same for me in a couple of months. No slouching hah. We do have some pretty solid investigators right now who have great potential to progress but only time will tell. Hopefully Next month we can have some more baptism's.

Thank you all for the letters you all sent!

Hey could you please send me a picture of this large lawn? I have only seen glimpses of it through the pictures of Dad and Ava on the new mower (oh and by the way Dad good call on the John Deere from Lowes, I love that place!) Also If I may request photos of the basement? that would be interesting to see as well. Thank you!

Have a Great week!
Elder Nielsen

Week 72: January 23, 2012

Another good week

Hello everybody, this was a pretty fantastic week. We have really been doing well lately, with some baptismal dates coming up in February, and some great progressing investigators. Really excited about that and loving every minute of being out here.

Some of the best parts of the week was really finding new people to teach, on saturday night we were on a role. It seemed like everyone we spoke to was interesting in what we were saying and willing to let us share with them and come back another day. It was probably one of the best days I have ever had on mission, afterwards it felt great to be able to share with so many people in a pretty decent area.

Overall we have been keeping very busy and pushing the work along, each week we are making goals that will really stretch our abilities, hopefully as we continue to do so we will be able to reach new heights. Elder Vernon and I have been getting along really well, so far he has been one of my most favorite companions, we would be good friends back home as well.

We had Zone Training and interviews this past week, and we were fortunate enough to hear a presentation from Elder Hartman (Dr. Taylor Hartman) who wrote the book "The Color Code" which is now known as "The People Code". Dad you may have heard about it before, but what it is all about is that all human beings have different personalities but each of us are motivated by different things which determines our color. Me for example, I am motivated by power so my color is red, my secondary is yellow which means I am also motivated by fun. In total there are 4 colors any human being can be classified under. It was probably one of the coolest presentations I had ever seen, overall I think it helped all of us understand that everyone is the same and we all have our strengths and weeknessed that we need to overcome, and knowing peoples strengths and weeknesses helps us get along with each other better. I was able to get a photo with Elder Hartman which is attached.

Colin that dutch over lid lifted looks pretty ingenious, nicely done! Also Whitney way to hold down the plasma business, that is pretty cool they sent you down to clean up some problems.

Addison thank you for your e-mail, keep up the good work with school and practising your talent with music!

Grandma and Grandpa thank you so much for the christmas card! hope all is well with you two!

Mom and Dad, love you so much, good luck with the house hunt and work! oh and also figuring out which golf cart you would like haha! About a vehicle, I honestly haven't thought too much about it. It is going to be a surprise enough to come home to a new house and all.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week! love you,

Elder Nielsen

Week 50: August 22, 2011

HellO!

Once again it is P-day time for some rest and relaxation, actually for most missionaries it's quite the opposite HaH. The picture attached is from the All-Africa helping hands day, where members from Africa get together and do service in the community. The Cape Town stake decided to do the service this year at an old-age home, we were able to clear a lot of weeds and overgrowth in many of their courtyards where previously the elderly would stroll out and get some fresh air. It was quite a big project and after wards the facility looked much better. It was also a nice opportunity to meet up with past companions, I saw elder Naylor there and in the picture with some kids from Fish Hoek is Elder Senyange my most recent companion.

The week was actually quite hectic, the day before helping hands we had zone training in Somerset West so the we were all over the place this week. Although we had a lot of times where we were out of the area we still rocked it up in the area and made some really good progress with some investigators and we are continually finding new people to teach, mostly Father led Families too. The people we meet with usually have a really strong desire to learn more and have a good faith in Jesus Christ. I found a lot of Joy introducing the Book of Mormon with some investigators this week as well, usually people are really shocked to learn that there is an additional book of scripture from a different part of the world. The investigators that I have seen throughout my mission who actually read from it find out the truth of our message and then they have the opportunity to pray about it and ask God specifically, and through the holy ghost they receive the answer that it is true. As preach my gospel teaches "nobody can learn spiritual truths without prayer" and if I might add, before the prayer must be some action taken such as reading or a certain experience.

I have also loved cross studying the words of the savior to his followers in Jerusalem in the Bible and his words to the Nephites in the Book of Mormon after his resurrection and ascension. It is interesting how the two compound on one another and both testify of the things that he taught, I sometimes wish I had a split quad so that I don't have to flip back and forth. I guess that is the upside to having the stick of Judah In one hand and the stick of Ephraim in the other (Ezk 37). It's cool to fulfill some ancient prophesies haha

Well today we were planning on going up table mountain which would be my second time but I think the weather has changed our minds about the idea, maybe next week. It would be cool to go up again and have a camera to take some pictures of the view and preserve some memories. Because of the weather though we will probably just play soccer again, you all know how much I love soccer :) hah oh well it's a bit of needed exercise.

I continue to pray that all of you will have a good week and enjoy the rest of your summer. I look forward to hearing from you next week.

Love,
Elder Nielsen

Oh Ariel what schools do you plan on sending an application for?

Week 38: May 30, 2011

Hello everybody,

My weekend wasn't so eventful as all of yours but during the week there were some pretty cool things happen. We had a Zone training in Somerset west, and amazingly there were a couple of Elders that I know from back home, Elder Cooney and Elder Rogers. It was really cool to see them and chat with them and also receive some very inspired instruction from President Probst, which was probably his last Zone Training until President Wood comes in next transfer.

Also on Saturday I actually got to spend some more time with Elder Cooney, we had to have the Assistants come down here to Fish Hoek in order to do an interview, so he came down and we were planning to do some proselyting. As it turns out while his companion was doing the interview for one of our investigators we went and put on their spare tire because they had a flat. It was really cool spending time with him and talking a little about mission and a little about home, we had a lot of fun for that short period of time.

Yesterday we had two people be confirmed, and next week we will be having two more baptism's so basically we are just doing work. The work just continues to roll on and it's really exciting, I'm having a lot of fun and just learning lots.

It's getting a little bit more chilly, and what makes things worse is all the homes here don't have a central heating system in their homes so everyone just huddles around a small heater to try and stay warm. I guess that's why they say Cape Town is so cold during the winter, I guess I'll find out about that in the coming months.

Wow Ariel & Brian I can't believe you are just 5 weeks away from the due date that is incredible! That time will fly by exceedingly fast.

Love you all,
Elder Nielsen

Week 7: October 25, 2010

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