Thursday, August 14, 2014

Hi Family...



This week was so fast!!  It seems like yesterday I was e-mailing you!! Stephanie the lady I told you about last week said thanks for helping me, I know your church is true but I just don't want to join and have that kind of commitment!! We stopped teaching her, but she will come around one day!

Tanya and Cole the people with the five little kids who were so excited about baptism and church, well Sister Henrie found out from Tanya's sister that tithing is what scared them away.  They don't have a lot of money and so that's what stopped them, not the little Korean minister like they said.

We went out to Troy and Leonard's to visit and bought 40 dollars worth of fruit!!  They are the funniest dudes.  Troy was showing us around the yard, even though I have seen it at least 100 times. They bought 3 pigs and they had all this fruit they wanted to feed them so they asked us to help.  They are so funny.  They're the best.

Brother Poitrie (the ward mission leader) always picks up random hitch hikers and gives them a copy of the Book of Mormon.  He says they are straight out of jail and will appreciate anything they get.  He cries during every lesson he teaches and during any lesson we give as well.  He is a great man that feels the spirit.

The greeter at Walmart that we talk to every week is hilarious.  He is always asking us if we can date on our missions and we tell him no, but he asks us that question every week.  Funny guy!

The deaf guy still texts us everyday!  He always hugs us tells us that the weather is hot then says hugs to both of you.  He said you guys are my best friends since we met on July 6th last month.  We love him and appreciate his love.

Not a lot has happened this week.  We went to Kamloops for zone conference!! 

And good news...... I still haven't had fast food for almost two weeks now!

Have a great week everyone.  I love you!!

Elder Nielsen


Saturday, August 9, 2014

Great week..



This week was so fast it was crazy we got yelled at by so many people, some Koreans who hate Mormons and a bunch of first nations people.  They came to the door in their under wear and said they would beat us up and flipped us off and shut the door.  A bunch a white people told us to grow up, it is so funny when people get mad and we don't even do anything!  I said hi to another lady and she said are you a Jehovah Witness?  I said no I'm Elder Nielsen and she got so mad it was hilarious!  It probably sounds like I'm doing more bad than good, but I promise I'm not.

Elder Manley and I found this lady named Stephanie downtown one day like 3 or 4 months ago she said come visit and was super excited so we called and called her to meet and she would always have something going.  The other day she let us come over it was 3 months later and we went and taught her the restoration.  She came to church the next day with her kids but went home after sacrament because she didn't have permission from her husband to take the kids to church.  They left and we tried to get a hold of her for a month and she kept saying I still don't have permission (which I think was just an excuse).  We were eating last night and got a text from her it was 6 pages long about how she needs help and she knows we can help her.  She wants to come to church and all this stuff it was so great so we went over to her house and she was crying it was a miracle she was like I want to be baptized I want to change.  She said I didn't have your guys number saved and I went to the phone and guessed which one was yours and the first one was you and she was crying and want to be clean and start coming to church again.  Her baptism is set for August 31st which is so amazing.  Miracles!!  Here is some her text....

Hello, this is Stephanie. I am not sure if this is who I am trying to talk to. I am lost and not sure how to get out of this dark place. I just know I have been looking at myself and I am not the person I want to be. I don't like being judged and I find myself judging. I am also looking for fault in people and then I throw it at them in very hurtful words. I see now why I have no friends or family, and I really don't want to live like this any more. I am hurting my kids by doing this too. The person I want to be is one that would truly make God pleased with me. I want to be a good christian and let God work through me. I have made a lot of mistakes in my life and know he will forgive me, and I have to forgive myself, and I want Jesus to be my savior and love all of Gods creations and live a life with them guiding me. I just don't know where to start or hear him. Can you help guide me through this?

We have been running, playing basketball and bad mitten every morning and eating healthy, I think its the first time in my whole life I have gone without fast food for more than a day.  It has been 4 days and I have to close my eyes every time we drive by Wendy's or McDonald's.  I don't even want to know what its like to quit smoking that has to be so hard.  Every time I tell people to quit coffee or something I have a new appreciation for how hard it is to try and quit something.

I'm so close to getting the greeter in Walmart to let us come over.  I taught him the restoration in Walmart the other day cause he was asking us what we believe so I told him, but he has to ask his wife first.....darn women.

Arlene got up yesterday and bore her testimony it was pretty cool she has been an awesome convert.  She is amazing.

Ron the investigator he hates my companion and I.  We met with him and were like why don't you want to be baptized and he got mad and stood up and stomped out of the room and was screaming.  We said why won't you get baptized and he said I think the church 70 percent true and 30 percent false.  After our meeting he went and looked a bunch of stuff up on the internet and was asking all these crazy questions because he was mad at us.  Good news though he came to church yesterday for the first time in a couple weeks.  I told him my name and he was like wow that is a powerful name.... like a warrior or leader it was so funny! 

 I was reading all the missionaries letters from our ward, you can go look them up on lds.org.  They all sound so smart and are all doing so well which is amazing.  I heard will have 24 missionaries out by next week that is unbelievable.
  
I guess I better run.  I hope you guys had a good week!! :)

Elder Nielsen!!