Bryce and Peggy Nielson

Transfers and getting busted by the border patrol

2011-02-18T17:04:00.000-08:00

February 1, 2011
Buenos Dias

Weeelll. Shoot. All my friends are getting home. One got home last week and a couple of them are coming home in the following weeks. All the good friends of mine have left this mission as well. It was a sad goodbye. I was thinking about my recent converts here. They are some of the greatest people in the world. I have told you this before but I just have never been more amazed. There are several that are thinking about going on missions. Their love for the gospel and obedience to it is amazing.

Mom do you realize that you are old. There is no shying away anymore. YOURE OLD! Have you accepted it? What are your thoughts on this subject? We have recently gotten a couple of senior missionaries in the office. President in my interview explained how they are just not qualified. As far as computers and phones go (what they are in charge of) they just can’t do it. He is frustrated because these things need to be done, and done quickly. He is thinking about putting together a young missionary crew to control those things. I think you'd be good for the job. Just wanted to let you know, apparently (which is a surprise to me) its not all fun and games in the office for seniors.

As far as flight info goes. I got nothing. I will be home on the 16th elder carter informs me. So in the mission home on the 15 and home on the 16th, if I had to guess it would be no later than noon?

Alright Mother I have an assignment for you. Are you ready? Go online right now...and look up Douglas Az hehe, and you'll find where I am. And you'll find that the fence runs through the middle of it. Finally my wish was granted. I have been waiting to be held up to gun point my whole mission, not only that, I have wanted to stumble across an underground shaft of marijuana to turn in too. I am going to see if I can climb the fence without getting shot. I have to step foot on Mexican soil just to say that I have been in 4 different countries on my mission, 4 islands, 2 continents, 3, if you want to count seeing Africa, 3 mission presidents, 3 mission boundaries, and about every race and culture.

That’s about it. I am going to enjoy this last one. I’m way excited.

Well love you guys. Choose the right

February 7, 2011
Sweet Nuggets,

This place is like any other. It is the perfect place to die. It is
such a small town. I have nothing to compare it to; it just has its
own feel. I have never seen so many churches in MY LIFE. I am not
even kidding there are at least 4 churches on every single block, I
wish I was kidding but I am not. They are all way old and pretty sweet.
As far as the work goes, this week we taught 3 lessons!!!! Isn’t
that great. Yeah what a crappy week. This place has so much
potential though, so there will be nothing less than 15 lessons this
week. The missionaries before didn’t leave it in the best of
condition. I replaced an Elder here named, Ozzy Muniz, he went to
Payson High with me.

Alright lets get serious and worrisome, remember when I said that I
was going to climb the fence and see if I could get shot....well. Ok
so I didn’t get shot, but I did get caught. You see all I wanted was a
good picture of me climbing it (which I got of course) and anyways a border
patrol dude starting rollin our way in his truck and well the rest is
history. He pretty much just told me that if I climb on the fence one
more time that I would get shot. So the next time I will be doing
that will be outside of the city! Jk. So about a year ago they
discovered a tunnel under the border that went about to the center of
Douglas, so that was pretty cool. And last week some people were
caught for launching softball size balls of marijuana across the
border into someone’s backyard. I mean, it’s the small things I love
here in Douglas. The fence isn’t that big, and there are some holes in
it where people can climb through. I had in mind a very large fence.
I guess it is pretty controlled.

The youth here will cross the border and go buy us candy for way
cheap and pretty much anything else we want. There is a member here
that is undercover border patrol and is awesome. This family is
honestly so freaking cool. Its one of those mixed ones, he is from
Washington and she is from Chile, met on the mission. Anyways they
have three kids and gosh they are some quality people. He hooks us up
with good border patrol stories. He is loaded too.

Let me tell you about my first lesson here. We go to this house
where there is a husband and a wife and sit down. There was incense
lit up and the house smelled all weird. We start getting to know them
a bit and the wife is way interested. The husband was a big jerk and
didn’t really want us there. After the opening prayer he gets up and
grabs a small bag of weed and asks us if he can light up a joint, so
he starts rolling the thing up and we are looking at each other like
"what the heck should we say?" We told him to wait till after we were done
and he was content. All the sudden the wife comes back into the room with a
cup of tea, right as my companion says, "well today we are going to
learn about the word of wisdom"... so we continue and the husband
gets all paranoid and closes the blinds for fear of the cops, then the
wife starts getting mad cause he is high and she really wants to
listen to our message, so she starts talking in Spanish to us saying"
tell him to stop smoking, I hate it when he does this", and says that
she is from Chile and that tea is something that everyone drinks over
there. Naturally, we respond back in Spanish which leads the husband
to think we are flirting with his wife because he can’t speak Spanish.
So he gets mad and gets up like he wants to fight because we are
flirting with his wife, eventually he sits down, and his wife is so
embarrassed, she is apologizing left and right and says that she wants
to go to church but her husband won’t go with her. Anyways there were
a lot a details left out but you get the point, missionaries worst
nightmare, I haven’t even told you about the kids that are hers and not
his.

Anyways the church is still true, this place is so cool. The
missionaries here are awesome. There is going to be a lot of work
done here. I am excited to be here for my last transfer. Don’t worry
too much about me.

I love you guys, talk to you later

Feb 14, 2011
Here is the update for the week. I have done some more investigating. Turns out Douglas is full of dirty cops and border patrol. A member was telling us some stories. She used to work for an agency that would make sure the immigrants when caught were still treated like humans and not animals, and also worked to expose the corrupted authorities. Well it really opened my eyes when she told me that there are times when people get through the fence, they are beaten, and abused, and raped by BP. I was just blown away, absolutely blown off my feet. There are so many secret combinations down here, pure evil. You’re going to have to wait till I get home to get the full scoop. I'll tell you some good good stories. But you only got about 16 minutes because then I am going to go get smoky, muddy, tree sappy, sweaty, and snowy in the mountains, and then bath in the ice cold river of death. Nature is calling me!

We were knocking pretty much all last week. We found an awesome family of about 6 or 7. We a couple of other kids who are way excited about learning more as well, we hope to meet their family quick so we can make it eternal.

Wow there is an elder here, named Elder Hill, he is from Boston. I just have to say that I have never met anyone like him. I thought I had met them all but apparently not. This elder is so crazy; he is the most random thinker I have ever met. He is sitting right next to me and I thought I just had to tell you that. He constantly tells people he is black, he talks in a gringo accent all the time on purpose. We eat dinners together every night with the members, we pretty much just sit back and let him go to work. It’s just so funny.

January updates

2011-01-30T13:42:00.000-08:00

January 17, 2010
Good Morning,

This is Elder Nielson speaking. I will give you the update on Obama. The mission was all excited to go to see president Obama at the Memorial Service. All the missionaries had plans to go wait in line forever to be able to hear him speak. Too bad though. President Walker said that no one was allowed to go....except for the University Elders hehehe McBride, Griffiths, Belk, and me. So what did we do? We went and waited in line all day doing not much of anything really. We were able to get incredible position in line believe it or not. I don’t know if anyone has been watching the news or not but, we were on it. Fox, and some other national news. It was funny they kept coming right up behind us and interviewing the people about it and we in the direct background (like you could have easily read my tag). We even got asked if we wanted to "talk to the camera" and had to decline. Too bad. Well he finally came and we heard numerous governors and Homeland Security which was cool. The coolest was the opening blessing by a native Indian of Arizona, it was so interesting. So I will comment on President Obama’s speech. It was amazing! His tactics were dead on, he was very pleasing to the crowd, using many methods to sensationalize the crowd. Yeah! It was about enough to make me want to kill myself! I was so sick of the flattery; I have never heard something so false in my life. Everyone else loved it though. OK I’m going to stop talking about Obama now and get back to more important things.

There is a pizza joint down here that is amazing. You eat one and a half slices and you can’t eat any more. IT IS HUGE!

Sara Ameily got baptized this week up in Phoenix. Baptisms just aren’t as gratifying here as they were in Spain. First off, they happen every single week, and second, you don’t have to try much to convert them. Do I sound negative? I’m not meaning to. The church is growing very rapidly, which is amazing. I guess I miss establishing good relationships with people and having to help them out with concerns and what not. I get to do that here but just not as much as Spain.

I went on splits yesterday with Elder Alazri, from Jordan. He is probably one of the funniest kids I have ever met. You can barely understand him though. He struggles a lot with English, so he gets stressed out. He defiantly wants to work hard though, which I appreciate. It’s nice when the one you’re working with doesn’t want to take naps all day and goes to bed early and get up late. Everyone has their weaknesses though, I have plenty. It was really fun to talk to him and get to know him and his background. He and his parents are the only members in his family of 9. He has such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. It is great. He hates Muslims, and Saddam Hussain and Osama bin laden. He likes to shoot camel spiders however. He actually loves spiders and wants to catch a tarantula to have it as a pet for his whole mission. He wants a Mormon wife, nothing else, and wants the whole world to be Mormon. He loves food. Oh and everything that they have here, they have in Jordan, including 4 KFC's.

Times are good.

January 24, 2010

Its getting harder and harder to write these emails. Well I'll start out with the first thing that comes to mind. I put my orange home made bike on Craig’s list. I didn’t do it myself of course silly! I had a member do it. I have just been lookin’ for a way to get rid of it so I figured I would throw it up on Craig’s list for 50 bucks. I was talking to a member asking him what I should do with it the day before and he made a comment that I should post it up for 200?! Well I decided to take his word for it. Put the bike up on Friday morning and it sold Saturday afternoon full price. So now the "diamond ring" account is up to 420 dollars!

Well my best missionary buds are going home this transfer. We have sure had a good time together. One of my great friends here is Elder McBride from Calgary Canada. I would love to visit him after the mission. He is a great guy. It’s going to be weird to meet up with former comps and acquaintances. There sure are a lot of good people in this world. On the other hand, I’m about ready to pull my hair out with Elder Belk hahaha. I just have to sit back and laugh and think about how far I’ve come. I can sit and take things that I would never have dreamed of putting up with before the mission. The Lord works in mysterious ways. I do appreciate the hard times almost as much as the good. Knock on wood.

We went to the temple this morning and I was edified. The temple is something that you come out of always higher in spirit. The spirit is amazing. You made a comment about following the Holy Spirit. Its absolutely the most important thing we can do. Learn how to be guided and molded by him. I think he is often overlooked and taken for granted. I often get caught up in my day and come to realize that I had made no effort to seek after the guidance He has to offer. I thought I knew a whole lot about following the spirit. The Lord really blessed me when he put me with Elder Hepworth. He really made it clear to me the importance of it. Its not just something for missionary work, its not just something we need when we have to make a big decision, its not just for helping us through tough times. It’s for absolutely everything. It’s our job to make it possible for him to dwell constantly with us at all times. Moroni puts it better than I think anyone has. And by the power of the Holy Ghost, you may know the truth of all things. Missionaries are taught to throw that scripture around like candy. It gets to the point where you say it over and over and over, and before you know it, you don’t even know what you’re saying anymore. It loses its meaning. He helped me remember the little hidden word there, "all things". In 2 Nephi 32:5 it also explains the importance of this. The problem with humans is we need a LOT of reminding. The Sabbath day is a day of REMEMBRANCE, The sacrament focuses on REMEMBRANCE, there are countless scriptures that say, "Now, REMEMBER, REMEMBER". We need to do a little better at REMEMBERING I think. Especially remembering that we have the divine help of the Godhead with us at all times. AHH the flesh is weak. Wouldn’t it be nice if we were all perfect?

Well elder Belk is huffing and puffing so I’ll cut this one off. Love you Mom, have a good one.

New Southern companion and students returning!

2011-01-10T13:59:00.000-08:00

January 2, 2011

This week we had a baptism that just kinda fell into our hands. Her name was Kayla and she is still in high school. She was so excited to be baptized. She just beamed from one end to the other. They are not as gratifying when you don’t have to do anything....

Well you were right. We did bring in the New Year with a bang!! In fact I just realized that we are in January of 2011 today! Shows you how much I cared I guess. I am a little shocked however that time has flown like this.

Guess what?!!! I saw like three people on campus today!! I’m so excited they are starting to come back!! I am so sick of this nothing to do drought. I seriously thought I was going to kill something, like a cactus. Have you ever heard of the "Jumping Cholla" cactus while we are on the subject? You should look them up. They are so mean!! You barely touch them and they attack you and will not let go. I can’t help to think when we are out in nature just what God was thinking in creating Arizona. It’s just so different down here.

My new companion, Elder Belk. Is from Narth Caralaina, enjoys eatin' barbeque, tawkin bout eis truck, and callin e'erbody siir and mayam!! He has more energy than I can handle at times. We have to have "calm down sessions" when things get out of hand. Which happens quite often. I refuse to play music in the car because he just can’t listen without slappin his knees and dancing around. He is a little too much for me. He has the kindest heart however. His testimony is very sincere and pleasant. He is a convert as well from age 13. It’s weird to think that he could be the one to "kill me" in missionary terms.

So where would you like to go mom on your mission? I think you should go to Sweden. That’s my opinion. That would be really cool for you right? To learn Swedish? Stateside would just be boring!!

Before I forget. I talked to sister Crotts....No go. She has already made my flight plans and everything. She says to cancel it, it would cost 150 smackers. So looks like I’ll be taking the plane home. Oh well looks like I’ll just have to sell my sweet bike.

The the Priesthood of the Elberta ward:

It has been a long journey these last couple of years and i wanted to just give my gratitude for all the wonderful people that I have encountered, and that have blessed my life.

I was the "quiet one" if you can all recall. The one who would sit in the back of the classroom with a bored look on his face. I could usually be found in the kitchen stealing the cookies with Trevor and Shawn or ditching out on classes here and there. At times it was apparent that I didn’t care too much about the gospel, I don’t know it was just "going to church" everyone does it. I was constantly taught well prepared, highly spiritual lessons, but failed to take the message to my heart or at times, even my ears. I am sure most of the priests are thinking to themselves right now,..."hey that sounds like me" and the high priests are thinking,..."hmm this sound typical enough". Even though I failed to do my part by learning and applying, I will always remember a few things. First off, the love from my leaders and teachers. There are a few I have in mind and I am sure you know who you are. Those who have helped me through situations and problems that made it possible for me to be here having this awesome experience. Looking back I can see that it couldn’t have been easy, to fulfill and be diligent in your calling with kids like me, but I will always be grateful for your patience. Thank you so very much for being awesome examples of honorable priesthood holders.

As far as you Priests, Teachers, and Deacons. Don’t be like me. Recognize and appreciate what these brethren are doing for you. They love you; they want the best for you. The day will come when you are faced with the decision to go on a mission. I will give you some advice. Make the decision today. Prepare yourselves today and live the standards that will make you be able to serve when the time comes, so that you don’t waste time wondering if you should or shouldn’t. This experience has made the difference in my life. That sounds very trite. But I want you to know that I have gained more self confidence...worked out more problems...made up my mind about so many things...and put my life in the right direction more than any other experience would have helped me do. There is no other substitute. I thank you all for your great examples and look forward to seeing you in person.

Elder Nielson

January 10, 2011
Good Morning,

I don't have much time today so I will make it quick. About the shooting of the congresswoman...funny you should ask if I know about it. I was a little more involved than you may think. Guess where it happened? IN MY AREA! We were actually having an early lunch before we had to go fill up the font for the baptism we had on Saturday. Maureen got baptized by the way. So we were at a hot dog stand that was across the street from the whole ordeal. The funny thing is is that we sensed something was up, when we saw a group of suspicious people walking around. We didn’t think much of it, until my companion saw a gun that one of the men was carrying, about the time that happened. He started popping off rounds and we ran to the van. We were very lucky to get out of there alive.

You want to know the best thing about he mission? I can make up about any story I want and email it to you, then as the week passes and I can direct my thoughts to what your expressions will be when you read my emails. It does make the time better. at you expense, I’m sorry. But on a more serious note. It did happen in our area. That part is true.

Well shmell, I did enjoy the story Carrie sent me about the briefcase boxers!!!! HAHAHAHAHA that’s a instant classic.

I gotta tell you, I don't think I told you much about it before but those books you sent...ARE AMAZING. Answers to gospel questions is perfect and Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith is insane. I was very satisfied with your decisions. The other two are pretty lame I’ll be honest. Tell dad that I finished Duane S Crowthers book about a week and a half ago. It was a most interesting read. I learned quite a bit. I haven't been able to quench the fire of knowledge however. Hope that never stops.

Well the companion is ready to go so I cant just have him sit and do nothing. Hope you have a good week. Remember what is important in life.

Christmas spirit and an Elder from Jordan!

2011-01-03T09:50:00.000-08:00

Dec 13
I forgot to tell you about our temple trip last week. We went as a district in our new van. I forgot to tell you about that. All of your kids, I think, have gone through vans now!!! We have a 2010 Dodge Caravan with STOW AND GO BABY!!!! It’s a hot topic here on the University. The chicks love it. They had to switch us from the Corolla because we were baptizing too many people because of our looks so they thought they would calm us down with a soccer mom van. We just became even more attractive.

This week Kevin will be baptized. He is really excited about it and I think there is going to be a huge turnout. He has invited the whole world. Should be pretty awesome. I cant believe how much faith some of these kids have when their family is totally against them when it come to those dang "Mormons" that’s the biggest challenge we get here.

Dec. 20
Well here we are another week. It has been fun to receive letters and homemade goodies from a bunch of people that I hadn’t thought a lot about. There are so many good people in this world and in the church. Cindy Ford sent me a fat package of homemade caramels; Darlene made me a stocking and sent me a bunch of stuff. I don’t know how that lady does it. Whenever you see her next be sure and thank her on my part. I will be sure to write her a letter, I might have to send it to you first cause I cant remember the address.

This year is shaping up to be a way good Christmas. I think I am starting to understand the true meaning of Christmas, sounds silly right. There are so many more things you can do for people than just buy them a gift. I love the Christmas spirit; I love what drives that, which is the light of Christ. There have been some amazing talks given this year about Christmas and I have learned a lot. The university students are just so intelligent and some just downright understand the gospel, and its goodness. I have learned a lot and continue to do so from the great examples I have down here.

I wish I could have taken a picture of our Christmas Cactus for you guys, its hilarious. You can’t really go out and get a small tree or bushes or anything so we decided to uproot a 6 ft cactus and throw it in the van, don’t tell the authorities... It looks pretty nice in our apartment. We got calls yesterday and it looks as if I will be staying here!! I will be training again, I don’t know his name or where he is from or anything but I am sure it will be good. Elder Johnson is a stud and I am going to miss him.

As far as the teaching pool goes, it has dissipated quite a bit. All of them have gone home for the holidays including ever other student and teacher. The University is a complete ghost town. The work is expected to be very slow for the next three weeks. I am honestly so stumped on what to do. I don’t have the foggiest idea what needs to be done. No one understands me when I say that there are NO students left here. We'll see what happens.

Ahh I almost forgot. This is going to be cool to know. We got a "special call" last night from president and the assistants that there was going to be coming to the mission an Elder from Jordan! (The country) Apparently he is the first missionary to come out of that country, or even that part of the world I’m guessing? I met him this morning. He will be in our district and we are supposed to take good care of him because he is going to build up the church in the Middle East when he is done. Cool huh. Too bad I can’t remember his name right now. Its like Alakazi, or like Alzadri, or Aliababwa. We have all kinds of Aladdin jokes going on because he speaks Arabic and what not. Tomorrow we are going to treat him to some "Sonoran Hot Dogs" (big ole hot dogs wrapped in bacon, and stuffed in a glazed sonoran bun with beans, onions, tomatoes, mustard, mayo, jalapenos, lime, avocado, and hot sauce) Imagine that.

Dec 27
Good Morning.

Yes it was good to talk to the fam a bit. I enjoyed it. It is so weird that I haven’t seen you guys for so long. I am excited to see the nieces and nephs. Josh told me KC was driving. I almost lost myself. That’s ridiculous! It’s good to hear that he has a "beater" of a car though.

Well I am not going to lie, I don’t have much to write about either. I found the perfect gift for Nate and Josh however. Too bad Christmas just passed!! I think I’m going to send them anyway ok? I have to go to this Mexican joint and barter them down to nothing. I'll see what I can do. So tell them that they should be expecting something from me pretty soon.

I got myself a sweet birthday present. Some new moccasins. I am just a moccasin kind of a guy I guess. Gotta go. Love you.

Stolen bike tires and baptisms!

2010-12-07T08:46:00.000-08:00

November 29, 2010

Well it’s been a busy week, we had three baptisms. Will, Christian, and John. They are probably my favorite guys in the whole world at this point. They have taught me so much in this last little while. This week I also had the opportunity to confer the Aaronic Priesthood to Leo as well as Randy. And ordain them to the office of a Priest. You know what that means? It means that I really need my line of Authority so that I can make one for them. Our teaching pool has taken a hit, and we basically did nothing this Thanksgiving because there wasn’t a soul on campus. It was a lil rough. This next week should be good for finding. I’m excited.

Letter to the Brethren, ( a group of Joseph’s friends and school mates who are on missions and they write a letter to each other at Christmas.)

Hello my army men of Helaman?

My name is Elder Joseph Michael Nielson, I have love handles, enjoy hot sauce, have become a huge fan of fiber, and I can also pop a wheelie on my bike. These are some of the small and simple things I have come to love on the mission. You see, it all started out in a place called Jerez, Spain where I diligently worked on gaining a testimony and my handles of love. After that I learned major skills in the kitchen in the Canary Islands, perfecting the art of making a perfect tortilla with my Mexican companion. Those days were enjoyed to the fullest. Don’t think that I'm bragging or anything....I don’t know, it’s just hard to be humble when you're good at everything. I'd say that I’m probably the most humble out of all of us though. Well things were going great and then after a zone conference in Murcia, Spain, my Mission President pulled me aside and said that I was probably going to be leaving the mission. What a shock right? Yeah I guess I have to fill you guys in a bit. You see, about a year into my mission, my companion and I were walking and he suddenly needed to go to the bathroom, so we stopped at a run down old bar and he ran inside. I waited for him and occupied the time by watching the dark empty street when I witnessed a couple of guys in dark suits shoot a man running away from them in a small alley. The shots were silenced but I still heard and saw. I went and got my companion and we ran. A couple days later I found out that it was the mafia and that they had tabs on me. I was transferred immediately and after this zone conference I was told that I may be transferred for my own protection. Another call came a week later informing me that I would be going to Tucson Arizona to finish my mission. Was it that? Or was it just visa problems? I can’t remember.

Anyways here I am in the desert of Tucson. It’s not all bad though. My area is the University of Arizona. Things here are so much different than Spain and it was quite the adjustment. I am over it now and am enjoying every hour of every day. I am still learning so much about the gospel and am learning a lot from my investigators who are younger than me. That’s weird. This mission and especially this big change have been the best things I have experienced in my whole life. Never once will I regret my experiences here and what I am going to do here in my last couple of months. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I am eternally grateful and indebted for what my Savior has done for me. I am so grateful for all the hard work I’ve done and all the blessings and changes I’ve seen my time here. The gospel is amazing and has truly shaped me into the person that I was meant to be. I want to thank all the brethren who are pounding their mission out there for all the good friendships and good influences that they have had on me. You Elders are a big part in my conversion to the gospel. I appreciate everything. I want to give a shout out to my favorite Elders out there, I know I know we're not supposed to play favorites but, Stephen Sainsbury (Washboard), Jason Mathews(Plums anyone?), Austin Atkinson (The perfect man/AP), Aaron Sainsbury (long skinny head), T-bry, (I don’t think I ever caught his full name) JK Tyler Bryson, Mitch Butler (I mean D Will), Matt Koller (he's a ghost), My boy D-Weez!!!!!!! I love you all!
Elder Nielson

November 22, 2010

So we were sitting on our butts this Saturday with nothing really to do. It was right after lunch and we didn’t have too many plans. I was flipping through my old planner the day before and found a referral (Morgan) that had been given to us by some other missionaries, I had called her many times resulting in failed appointments or hang ups. I didn’t think much of the name when I came across it but decided to write it down so that we could call her the next day (Saturday). So after lunch I saw her name and decided to give the "last call". This is where things get way crazy!!! She didn’t answer!!!!! So we sat there like a couple of bumps on a log for a second and then decided to hit the streets. Keep in mind that we are only allowed to use our car on P-days. As we were going to get on the bikes and leave, I looked at my companion and said "I think we should go stop by a couple of people in the car", "ok" he said. So we got in the car and started towards Morgan’s house. She lived about 5 or 6 miles away, which is really far for us, and which is really really weird for us to be doing. Nevertheless we continued forward and finally found the apartment complex that we thought was it, my companion jumped out of the car to go check the door and it was locked. "Crap" we thought. We weren’t even sure if it was the right complex so we decided to park right below the suspected window and give her the "real last call" This time however we were greeted by a cheerful "Hello". Then without me saying anything more she proceeded to tell us how it was 'so odd' that we had called right at that moment. She said that she had had a party the night before and had taken things a little too far. She felt really guilty and had just at that moment pulled out the rusty bible and journal and was about to work it out. She was thrilled that we had called. She said that she needed someone to talk to and wanted to set up a time to talk. "How bout right now?" I said "we're right outside waiting for you." She was a little bit taken back to say the least. She came out a little embarrassed and somewhat with her tail between her legs for what she had done and how she wanted to change, with a big smile though, happy to see us, and she led us out by the pool. We got there and she just spilled her heart. It was exactly what she needed in that moment, someone to listen to her. She was so humble as she explained how her life was going in the wrong direction and how she wanted to change. We didn’t say much at all, just listened. Here are some choice lines that I picked up: "I feel like this life shouldn’t be easy, but that we are being tested". "I feel like this life is such a small part of my eternity". "I don’t want to party anymore, I just want to be happy with my family, and spend time with them" "I just feel like I need to repent" "I just cant wait to be baptized, I’ve never been baptized before but I know that I need to do it. I want to make a contract with God on paper! That when I do it, I can always look at that and remember what it means. I can’t wait!" Alright this is where I just couldn’t take it anymore. "How about December 11th" I said. She stopped and looked at me with a huge smile, and said, “I don’t feel like I am ready". We assured her that we would give her the tools and be her guides until then to help her feel sure about it. She agreed to that! What a great experience for me and Elder Johnson. I am so thankful that we were guided there that afternoon and found her at the state she was in. She was thrilled when we invited her to church. She asked if she could have the Book of Mormon, and asked us if we could set up another time to see her. I love the mission. She is just lucky that we have to have baptismal interviews and papers or I would have baptized her right there in her own pool!

November 15, 2010
Wow are you kidding me.

Brookie is 6 flippin years old, where have I been?. Guess what? We walked out this morning and I found that the back tire of my bike has been stolen. Welcome to Tucson. I was talking to a missionary the other day that had gotten his bike stolen and he said that the cops told him that there is a bike stolen every minute in Tucson... I mean I don’t know if that’s true or not but it could definitely be.

I am just sitting here in the computer lab at the university watching people. Its quite fun. I just sat back and watched people for like ten minutes deciding what I want to write. People are interesting, and to think that they are all my brothers and sisters.

Well while in Spain I inherited a pair of Spanish slacks (ridiculously tight). I wear them when I want to show off my butt. Just kidding. Anyways I brought them over here and wore them a while back. They fit fine. I am wearing them today and WOW. It feels like someone has my thighs in a vise grip. All this biking has shredded my legs into something animalistic. I knew they were getting bigger but, I didn’t quite know until I put on the pants.

Well a lot has happened this week. A lot of funny stories with people, good spiritual experiences. I am just burned out though. I have experienced most of it. I am only going to post a story if it is REALLY good. The investigators are doing really awesome. Everyone is doing so well it makes me really happy. We have 3 interviews planned for this week for baptism and 2 more we should probably schedule. Times are good. That always sucks because you know that right around the corner is a dead area or losing your investigators. Mission always goes up and down.

This will probably be my last transfer in this area. The assistants have promised me a good Spanish area right down next to the border

Thanks mom for always looking out for me and helping me make good choices throughout my life. I couldn’t imagine that I made it easy on you. I have often thought how you dealt with some of the situations I put you in. You always seemed to stand up for the right no matter what. I wish I could do that. I am definitely working on it. Tell dad that I love him. I need not elaborate. It’s for everything. I love the Lord most of all. I am indebted eternally for what He has done. He gives me the motivation from day to day to brighten people’s paths, to stretch out help others in need. I am in no way doing as much as is needed. We could all do so much better.

Peace,
Elder Nielson

Tuck and roll useful in bike crash!

2010-11-10T19:25:00.000-08:00

November 9, 2010
Alright alright

Well I’ll start off today with the weekly weather report, live from Tucson Arizona. This is Elder Nielson speaking. The weather has miraculously dropped to a staggering 63 degrees!!!! It seems as if I need to pull out my overalls for this one. The sorority chicks have defiantly been hit hard by this one! It seems as if the time has come when they have to change their attire. It used to be short shorts with butt hanging out and short skirts with the same story. Due to the weather they now wear the same exact thing...with UG's!! Isn’t that great? Actually we are teaching a sorority girl right now. She never ceases to amaze me. She has a baptismal date for the 4th of December and is progressing rapidly. The gospel and spirit she feels with us is really making her think about just how dumb her sorority is... Her name is Brittney. The work never seems to slow down. We, in the last week or two have gone from 2 baptismal dates to 9! Imagine that. Elder Hepworth went home today. I learned So much from him. SOOO much from him. I am very grateful to have been able to be with him. The mission is amazing. My new companion is Elder Johnson, fresh out of Idaho Falls, as well as the MTC. Very humble. Very faithful. It should be a good one.

Well folks, I finished the JN Express. What that is trying to say is that, I finished my bike. It cost about 45 dollars in all. Starting with the rusted chipped frame for 5 bucks. It has incredible sentimental value for me. I might as well tell a little story that happened this week....
SO It had been a long day. We were tired as we pulled ourselves up to our bikes and started the journey home. It was late, dark, and dreary. I was fiddling with my brakes as they were adjusted before, just a little off. It made it hard for me to stop the bike because the brakes were mounted up too far and I couldn’t reach them all that well. The feeling was in the air that something would happen. Shrugging it off, we continued forward. Pulling out onto the busy street, and needing speed to make it to the turn off, I ducked my head grabbed a firm grasp on the front of my handlebars and gave er all I had. Due to the lightweight frame and wheels and single speed I got up to a decent speed. Feeling the smooth ride of my new road bike I was satisfied as the wind blew past my face. When I looked up I saw the back tire of my 210 pound companion about one foot in front of me. As my front tire slammed into his back tire, I found my handlebars turning to the left uncontrollably and myself being thrown yes, over the handlebars like a rag doll. When I came to, I looked around seeing that my bike light, my planner, missionary manual, credit cards, pens were scattered all over the street. I ran back to my bike to get it out of the way of oncoming traffic as the rest of the stuff was driven over. Isn’t that fun? Oh did I mention my helmet splitting? Well luckily enough I had been practicing break-dance the week before and had mastered the "tuck and roll" I’m just kidding but lets just say I did a perfect tuck and roll and landed back on my feet! Bruises? No. Scratches? No. Left leg? No...... well.. ok I still got it.
The Lord knows when a sparrow falls, and one of his missionaries as well I assume after that one.

Well I’m grateful to be here workin’ my cake off. It should be a good week. Nothing like a greeny to keep me doing what I am supposed to. I love you all and have a good week.

Elder Nielson

3 weeks of letters from Joseph

2010-11-04T09:46:00.000-07:00

October 25th

Well here we are another week, just put week 4 in the bag and now starting week 5 of the transfer. How time flies. Things on the University have really calmed down. We baptized our teaching pool and now we are trying to find new investigators. We had one guy this week walk into church that wants to know more, he has been reading the Book of Mormon. He is prepared. We also have another guy that called us and wanted to have an appointment with us. He is also reading the Book of Mormon. They will both be new investigators this week. Their names are Will and John. We have high hopes for the both of them. Right now we have quite a few investigators that are just at a roadblock over stupid things. They can’t get over their selfish selves and accept the gospel. It’s pretty annoying. I'll tell you what, I’m SO sick of people that are mad because of Elder Boyd K Packers talk about homosexuals. This whole gay issue is what is going to usher in the second coming. It’s disgusting. Especially when the members of the Church are against what he said. HELLO!

So anyways, my driving record finally got here. Now I just get to watch a 5 hour driving safety movie to be able to drive. I'll probably skip out on that just so I can’t drive...just kidding. Well all the sisters that came out on the mission with me are now home. Shane Halvorsen is now home and hating life. Good times, good times. This mission just keeps going in the wrong direction. They keep trying to fix it and its like when you try to tighten a bolt, you tighten and tighten and then it finally just snaps or strips out. I feel like that is what is happening right now. I have been a complainer this whole time and I will be the first to say that my attitude towards all these things has been wrong and selfish. Its time to step up and be the leader I was meant to be. The leader I learned so much about while I was in Spain. Who knows, the worst that could happen is the mission getting better... I have been lost these last couple of transfers here. It’s interesting how the Lord works isn’t it? And Satan for that matter as well. Well its step up time for the last leg of the mission.

Things are going great though. I wish there was stuff to write about like cool things about a foreign country. There’s just not. The states are boring these days. Life is good, comp is good, and work is good. And now I am going golfing!!!

October 18, 2010

We just got done playing football today. We played in a grass field in the middle of campus. It has been a good solid year and a half since I have played real football. I was diving all over the place. I think I might have broken my pelvis. Tell Jordan that I wish I would have played football. He is a bigger stud than I was. Tell him not to be lazy like I was and to do as many sports as he can, Not just sports either, take all the hard classes he can as well. Even though it doesn’t make sense now, it'll hit him like a ton of bricks in the future. I am way proud, I miss those guys. I can’t wait to have man talk with them when I get back.

Well a massive smile covered my face when I heard the reckless driving ticket will be taken off my record here in a couple of days. I think of all the money I COULD have had if I wouldn’t have had to waste it on tickets. So what are the plans? We should establish them now. Are you going to be picking me up? I would prefer it that way, I have a really nice bike that I would like to keep and I am in the process building one from scratch (you gotta see it). So if you wanna work out the kinks for that one it would be nice.

Guess what? Leo brought 8 friends to his baptism...That’s OUTRAGEOUS! We asked him if he wanted to bring a friend and he said "yeah", I was expecting one at the most. Then the next Sunday we asked him if he wanted to bring anyone to church...He brought another friend!! I tell you what this guy is golden!! He just makes me happy. He has so much to do, he studies from dusk till dawn and still makes time for us. He is always apologizing for being like 1 minute late and for just the simplest things. He is so genuine.
Things with the stalker have HOPEFULLY stopped. I wrote her the "Dear Jane" and sent it off yesterday. We are hoping for no response, but we'll see. And yes I was sensitive to her..whatever you wanna call it.

Well Elder Hepworth is dying and I’m still trying to fight my way through, I will tell you one thing. I think all the retards were shipped to this mission close to mommy just in case something went wrong. It is quite the change, I do miss the elders that followed President Hinckleys dads advice of "FORGET YOURSELF and go to work" it must have got lost or distorted coming down here to "PUT YOURSELF FIRST and rationalize your way out of work" I try to be positive.

Oct. 11, 2010

We have had 4 baptisms in the last 3 weeks. It has been awesome. In Spain with 100 missionaries last year we baptized 180 or so. Here in Arizona last year there were about 170 missionaries and they baptized over a thousand. It’s a pretty high baptizing mission. This week were baptized: Leo, Nathan, and Randy. They were all confirmed this Sunday and are on their way to be faithful Latter Day Saints. Our investigator pool has dropped a bit. We are going to concentrate a lot this week on finding. It should be fun.

The church, as you know, has come out with the new Mormon.org website and it is magical. They threw a huge campaign down here in Tucson, and there are huge billboards everywhere with Mormon ads. The radio has ads, the TV has ads, and we, the missionaries got new pass along cards that concord with all the ads out there. It has really helped out the church; I’m not going to lie. Everyone has seen or heard this new pitch. Almost everyone we talk to is curious about it. I'd say its a little weird for the church to be doing that but at the same time, its workin! We receive a lot of media referrals.

Well things aren’t too much different around these parts. Well the football games here are...how should I put this...Sodom and Gomorrah!! My companion couldn’t handle it. There was a tailgate party before the game and people were just drinking like crazy, Elder Hepworth got sick and we had to leave, haha. We were knocking doors last night actually and a girl answered the door in only her underwear, which made things a bit awkward.

Well, love you guys! Have a good one!

Sleeping on ice packs to stay cool.

2010-10-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

September 27, 2010

Well, goodness

Here we are once again, another week has passed. I can’t believe that the time is passing so rapidly. I am just so so so glad that that whole mess is over. My new companions name is Elder Hepworth. He is from Rexburg Idaho and is a stud. Way humble, wants to work hard. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! He has been on the Indian reservation for his last little bit of time in the mission and has some crazy experiences. He didn’t even shop the whole time he was out there. They had chickens, a cow, goats and pig. They lived off the land I guess you could say. This is his last transfer. I have 'killed' so many missionaries it’s getting out of hand. We both come from hard companionships and I think that we will get along just fantastic. I was just so sick of it. I guess I’ll give you the update....Elder Palmer will be being sent to another mission....he just doesn’t quite get it. He has made some stupid choices and refuses to learn. We don’t need to go into detail or anything. I feel so bad for him though. It’s just a sad story. I am still a bit depressed and taken back that I was drug through that mud puddle.

Um we are having two more baptisms this week. One on Friday and one on Saturday. Randy and Nathan. I am stoked. Things are going to pick up this transfer.

What else to tell, what else to tell. I honestly don’t know. What would you like to know? Funny story, our car got taken away. There were too many cars in the mission and so they had to take away 5 or so. So now I technically don’t need my driving record, but it would be nice to have for the future. So we are 100 percent bikes!!! Goodbye SALLY CELLULITE! I prefer it that way. The only problem that poses is riding to church in extremely tight Spanish suit pants. I hope they don’t rip.

Speaking of laying on ice packs...that’s what I have been doing for the last while. It’s just too hot at night and so I pull out three or so ice packs and just lay them out on my bed. They cool me down when I lay on them and makes the night go a lil better. It’s horrid. Our apartment is an oven.

Well I am burnt out, plain and simple, I need a good nights rest. I'll cut this one short. I send you all my love and hope that you are having an awesome time.

Amazing Investigators wanting TRUTH!!

2010-09-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

September 20, 2010

Well here we are. Sorry about last week. Due to 'tard dumb' missionaries, we had yet another rule enforced about internet. So it was a huge confusion at first plus, the computer lab at the U of A was loaded. There was no place to sit down and e mail. All I had time for was to read the emails and to throw one off the president. These weeks have been enjoyable none the less. We have crazy amounts of awesome investigators. We are now working with Nathan #1 who just showed up last week to church and he will be getting baptized this next week, seem weird? That’s how prepared he is. Nathan # 2, same story, left us a message on our phone saying "that he has been looking for us cause he wants to talk to us about how he can join our church..." will be getting baptized on the second of October, strange? or prepared by the Lord? They are both just pure awesomeness. Randy, Randy was brought to us by a friend about 2 Saturdays ago. He saw the life of his friend and wanted to have what she does. He is very humble and is taking the essential steps toward his salvation. There are a few doubts but we are working towards it. If all goes as planned he will be baptized this Saturday as well. Leo, Chinese boy. He has come to church twice now. Amazing. He just eats up the words of Christ. He loves learning. This was a choice line pulled out of our ping pong match the other day, as he was destroying the two of us, "DONT WURRY! De Huly Ghost weill healp you!" He is just loving life and his date is for the 9th of October, we'll see on that one. Sara, for the 20 of November. Christian (A definite friend after the mission, my personal hero, coolest guy I have ever met) for the 28th of October. And then we also have two rappers named Jae-high and Matt for the 16 of October. Things are going pretty well I would say. The wards here are just fantastic. We have three student wards, if I didn’t tell you that before.

Well in one week we have transfers, Elder Palmer will be getting transferred, he just cant seem to get a grip on his conduct around these college students. Sad story, I don’t know how else I can help him. I have tried everything I can think of. One word, UNTEACHABLE. What can ya do? I just hope he can learn the valuable lessons that I have been blessed to learn during my mission. I tell you there is nothing like it. Absolutely nothing like it. I just thank you so much for raising me in the ways you did so that I was able to have a clear understanding about the important things in life. It was probably a little harder than what I just summed it up to haha, Am I right?

So Heather is about to give life then huh? Wow, I bet God just loves it when he has a nice happy, gospel-centered couple sealed in the temple to send one of his children to. What a blessing. I am happy for them. I hope its fatter than Andrew.

Oh mother dear how is your neck, that really put it into perspective when dad said that you have only cried 4 times in your life and those four times were not during labor. That must be quite the pain. I hope you can get a grip on that. That is a huge bummer.

Oh wow before I forget, here is my drivers license number. With transfers coming up it looks like I am definitely going to need to be able to drive especially if I am training. And the quicker the better on that one, you can just send it with an incomplete package if you want, I really don’t need all that stuff. I am actually a pro now with the mid-evil one bladed shavers. Who would have known? I just realized I am not too fond of luxuries.

Well I am going to bust out of here and go eat some pizza and release sweat on the volleyball court, I wish I had my red shorts, but then again the garments would present a problem with those.

I love you all, and hope you have a great one.

A Chinese investigator without knowledge of Jesus Christ

2010-09-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

September 7, 2010

Hello Family

Yes yes we are teaching this Chinese man named Leo. We found him last week knocking doors. He didn’t seem interested at first but with diligence we happened to get a hold of him by phone. We set up an appointment with him to come to the Institute building (we teach 97% of our lessons in the institute). He showed up. Cool story huh? And so we started teaching him about Jesus Christ and Prophets of old (normal routine), when he posed a question somewhat to the effect of, or shall I say exactly to the effect of: Who is Jesus Christ?...next move is yours. So turns out that he has no Christian background, or religious background for that matter. Which is somewhat normal for Chinese. However, all new to me. So we spent the first lesson explaining that Good comes from God and that bad comes from The Devil, who they are, as well as Jesus and the Holy Ghost (NOT IN PREACH MY GOSPEL). Try explaining what the word 'sin' means to someone who has never stolen a quarter or a candy bar! So we wrapped things up basically just teaching the basics and introducing the Book of Mormon. Give him a chapter to read and we're out of there. Or are we? No he sees the piano and states, "hey, can I try that?" yes Leo. So he sits down and starts playing a nice melody. I decided to turn open the hymns and have him see if he could play 'Nearer my God to thee'. Could he? Yes. Did he? Yes. Did we sing it to him? Yes. Was the room filled with magical spirit? You be the judge. Then we proceeded to show him the entire building with basketball court, organ, ping pong, pool,chapel, food, and Leo is just jumping out of his skin the whole time. To make a long story short Leo is going from knowing nothin' to somethin' on October 9th. Did I hear baptism? Yes.

Tommy unfortunately disappeared off the face of the earth.

Can someone tell me what kind of motorcycle Andrew has?

The companion is without medication if you know what I mean. It has gone over the line. Don’t be alarmed if I come up missing.

A package: Worlds kitchen brand Jerky, peppered. It’s going to run you about 10 dollars. Trail mix, you choose. No tootsie rolls por favor. Who knows? A big fat letter, Dads mission journal. Some good inspiring stories, A donut? Some blank cd's, maybe a nice razor, as in mechanical, I lost the charger for my electric one, maybe one of dads old ones will work for it. I have been using mid-evil one bladed plastic razors that are great at ripping off moles, but not so good for getting rid of hair. Who knows get crazy with it. Some confetti, perfume, pictures of Spanish girls, A giant cross I can hang over my bed? Just fill it with love. Its been a long time since I have received anything in the mail at all, especially when your comp gets mail every day, I am going on a solid, well, since I was in Seville.

I love you all and thank you for your support, Until the Levites perform blood sacrifices in the temple to complete the restoration of all things.
Elder Nielson

A Better Week but still missing Spain

2010-08-31T12:29:00.000-07:00

August 30, 2010

Well yes the week did go a lil bit better this time. However I still am thinking about stationing myself in Spain. Did I ever tell you about the sweet American family that was there in Murcia? It was a young wife and Husband with 6 little ones. They both spoke spanish very well as well as all the kids. There were very active in the church and helped out a lot. I just LOVED IT. It was so awesome, I was thinking that a life like that would be amazing. Dont worry though I dont think I would take it that far. I do enjoy the family nice and close, but who knows what will happen. Whats this I hear about Spanish people in Goshen?? Doubt it. Mom I think you're still a little bit mixed up with the "Spanish" people and the "Mexican" people. Yes they both speak spanish but, give me a break here. Why do I even fight it, no one can get it right anyways, everyone I have talked to has thought the same.

Things with the ol companero are getting better. We had a couple of heart to hearts and things are smoothing themselves out. It is highly stressful but there are a lot of things I can learn and take away from it. I can hear the words of Dad ringing in my ears whenever I say stuff like that. In fact, Dad and moms words seem to always be ringing in my ears at times of trial.

Well I just switched computers because a kid needed to use the computer I was on because it has a scanner. I hopped over here to this new mac and this keyboard is blowin my socks off. It's like a millimeter thick. I cant believe they can make stuff like this. This is trippin me out right about now.

So about the college kids that I teach. Its actually a little bit different than what you would think. Yes there are a lot of LOSERS that think life consists of parties every night and gettin the chicks. Gettin as much money as they can and cutting people down to get it. Making themselves the hottest thing you've ever seen and laughin at the lil guys. Wait...did i just describe myself like 2 years ago? Forget about it! "You think anyone wants a roundhouse kick to the face while i'm wearin these bad boys? FORGET ABOUT IT!" Yes yes but the people that we teach, are a different story. It really makes it clear here on the university who the Lord has prepared and who is ready for the Gospel. It is made more clear here than anywhere else. How do I explain myself? I dont know, I guess when they get a spiritual impression and see how it can bless their lives, they give up absolutely everything to do it and follow the right. As compared with the older people I have taught, whereas they know its right, but they dont make a huge effort to change,and it is a big fight to get them to see how real the blessings are. The youth are just MACHINES, they just GO and GO! I guess its just something that you have to experience first hand. The baptisimal interviews are amazing and instead of teaching I usually end up getting taught by my own age students, who just feel it and love it instantly. Its really a huge testimony builder for me when I get to see just how much they fall in love with the gospel and how bad they want to live it.

Can you say NUMBERS!? This mission is a number mission. You probably wont understand that one mom but im sure you can ask anyone of the returned missionaries in the family about that one. Its like I can't just enjoy it. I have to spend an hour every night getting the numbers and then reporting them, but like to the MAX like ten times more than normal. I understand that numbers are necessary, absolutely yes. And I do enjoy doing them, but there is a balance there. This mission is about 200 yards on the other side of that line.

Its about itme to wrap things up. I dont know where the glasses are to be honest, maybe I left them in the Sentra when I left. They are probably lost now anyway. I guess I will just have to find some here. There is just a problem because I hate cheap glasses... here goes the inner battle again. So I dont know. Those charges are legit. I had to buy bedding...someone tell me how gay that is.

Have a good one, love you all

Elder Nielson

A discouraging week . . . and Tommy

2010-08-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

August 23, 2010

Oh where to start,

I miss Spain! I would love to go back right about now. Im glad everyone thinks I had a better transition than most but I guess it just hit me.. its not that good. In fact I really dont like America like I used to, to be quite honest. The University is great and what not, the missionary work is going a lot better, there are a lot more receptive people and great youth of the church. However I am just not enjoying it like I thought I would. I hate the car, even though it is necessary. I wouldnt care if I got to drive here or not, it doesnt really call my attention that much. I miss just walking down the streets and talking to the Spanish people, everything so close and friendly. What do you think about me moving to Europe and starting a family?

Anyway the first week was a lil rough, I have a new companion that just LOVES to push any button he can get his finger on. He loves breaking rules, and crying when he doesn't get his way. We didnt have very many appointments this week so we had a lot of time to do contacts on the university...Well it would have been nice if it wasnt SORORITY RUSH!!! We got about 15 numbers the first day and they were all sorority girls, I dont care what your thoughts are about sororities, good or bad. Im here to say they are all satan's spawn and just want our bodies. It's pretty disgusting actually, especially when your comp thinks he is here to flirt and see if you can get a "ward girlfriend". Not to mention the refusal of stopping the male species and any ugly females. Im about ready to slap the kid. I cant really concentrate on the work or feel the spirit except sundays. Ok we'll stop there. No need to worry about me though, I can handle it.

Yeah it will be hard to get things going when I get back with school and all. I think I was thinking that it was going to be easy or someting like that, HELLO. Im awake now. We'll see what we can do.

Alright I might as well be cheerful, we went out to go tracting the other day and lo and behold, we found a note on our windshield. It states " I like to see you. I want to no more about the book of mormon. My name is tommy. I live at such and such" Written in the handwriting of a two year old. First thought was, "cool, thats awesome this guy is golden". Second thought " Im going to kill Elder Reed and Hall for this stupid joke." Well we went to investigate and went to his address and knocked on the door. No one answered. So we leave a nice little pass along card with a picture of a temple on it. Two days pass... "Alright lets go check out Tommy, see if he's home" So we went and knocked on the door, he opens up. This is a 35-45 year old man approximately we are talkin about. It is apparant he has had his share of difficulties in his life, small apartment, little food, alone, closet with about 3 shirts. We were a little scared going in there, but he was nice and pulled us up some chairs and we sit down and start chattin with this guy. He looks like a bum. Turns out, this guy is from Florida, he has been reading this way old school Book of Mormon for some time now and tells us that he wants to learn more about it because " the stories are great, and there is a 'power' behind the words." This guy turns out to be the humblest man and nicest man I have ever seen. He has got no schooling really, he volunteers at some kind of help clinic, he helps out the bums and gives all of the nothing he has to other people. I was shot to the very core by this man. I have never felt so...who knows, he just really made me see what.. I cant explain myself, this guy is amazing. He goes on to tell us that the Book of Mormon he has (it is thrashed) and the bible he has (it is thrashed) came from his great grandfather, who gave them to him just before he died or somethin.. And that his house had been destroyed by a tornado/hurricane and was flooded. The only thing saved in the entire house was the two books, that were sitting on top of a desk just out of the waters reach. Tell me how powerful that is!? He has been carrying them around with him his whole life and finally got enough courage to drop a note on the missionaries car and to ask "where did this book come from? its got a power?" Well I for the least part was very touched. We'll see what happens with ole Tommy!

I'll go ahead and wrap this one up and just say that I love you guys, you are my life, my support, and the most important thing to me. Thanks for all the encouragement and love. It really helps.

Elder Nielson

Thanks to Saysha

2010-08-21T21:25:00.000-07:00

To any of you who have noticed the new "face" on this blog . . . All thanks goes to my dear creative Saysha, who, through her great talents has made this all seem so nice and new. You're hired! Thanks!!

Another transfer, another surprise!

2010-08-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

August 17, 2010

WOW I cant believe that Shawn just got home!!! That is so ridiculous I just cant believe it. I knew he would be a good missionary. That makes me happy that he developed a love for the scriptures. With this huge transition I just haven't been able to have very good studies. Its been a month or two since I have had a real good one. I am losing a lot of desires to do it. However that should be changing as of tomorrow! So like you know I was here with the zone leaders (not as a zone leader) but just living with them. They taught me the rules and how people work here. They put me in the trio because in like two weeks were the transfers...I got transferred... Funny story, listen close. As of 2 or three days ago they had me going to the northwest of the mission to be a zone leader, AGAIN!!! However the day before transfers the Assistants had a funny feeling and really felt like I should be going somewhere else. Well the calls came in and GUESS WHERE I AM!? good luck...My new area is.....drum roll please.....The University of Arizona!! Can you say top 5 party schools in the nation? So my new area is the entire campus and I am going as a district leader. Here is the good part, Its an English area. My companion is an English speaking missionary, is that weird to anyone else? I was thinking that they were going to take advantage of my Spanish but hey whatever works I guess. My companion is named Elder Palmer from Spanish Fork. We know many of the same people and have probably been at the same parties before the mission. He is a good guy. He just finished his first transfer and gets homesick a lot. We'll see if we can't work on that. I just want to say that this is a truly inspired on the spot change of areas. I feel like it is definitely the place I need to be right now. I feel like I can relate and teach better to these younguns here on campus. I feel like the Lord has been preparing me for this very moment for some odd reason, my patriarchal blessings makes connections with it (even though you wont understand what I'm talking about) But I do know that this was meant to be!!

So I was a little stressed out about buying a bike and what not. I was actually going to go buy one today for that matter, I was definitely going to drop at least 450 dollars too. How exciting. However For transfers today all the missionaries got together and had a big meeting and my comp started to get to know this one kid and found out he was going home and asked him about his bike. He said that he was just going to give it to the mission and what not. He asked how much he wanted for it (bike, helmet, lights, and lock) "25 bucks" he says. Hmm I thought, " now I am going to go to the store and buy a brand new bike that I'm going to use for 7 months and never use again in my life, or, I could buy this kids bike, perfect condish, with all the bells and whistles for 25". I took it off his hands. Just like you said, mom. What inspiration. I really appreciate your attitude about helping me out first though. Thank you for all the support. I love you guys!

Well I'm not going to lie, I really do miss Spain. But I am having the TIME OF MY LIFE here. I don't know why its so fun, but it just is!! This last week and a half has just been so crazy fun and spiritual. Full of ups and downs, baptisms, fights, food poisoning and all (still trying to get that red meat carne asada out of my system). I got ripped apart by that one. I am so grateful to be here. I was so happy when I found out that our apartment doesn't have air conditioning, I prefer without for some weird reason. I just like the whole suffer thing. The more problems and challenges the better. Its kind of been my motto for the whole mission. Since day one I have prayed to have challenging, growing, and stretching experiences just so that I could suffer and learn all I possibly could in two years. I guess its workin' wouldn't you say?

Well I have had 3 baptisms in my time here and one tomorrow, isn't that great? I am excited.

Hey mom, you should send me my SPY glasses, they are the black really nice ones. If you don't have sun glasses down here, you die. Especially in the car and what not. They are in the big tote of my stuff if I am correct. Well I'm going to bounce out. Ps if you could also get my driving record and send er on down here that would be great, see if I cant get myself drivin' again. Just a copy, you can call the mission and ask for the fax number, or just whatever you feel. Love you guys! Rip it up!!

Elder Nielson

First Impressions of Arizona!

2010-08-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

Well....

The flight was a grueling one but I finally got here.

Well uh how do I start this one? The heat is very different. It burns the skin, however my body stays dry all day. Its just so different. There sure are a lot of trailer parks and cacti. Its something right out of a movie. I am officially in the mexican lifestyle. We're talking all investigators live in trailer parks kind of a thing, ya know? One thing I do love is Mexican food so that will not be a problem for me. It reminds me a lot of the Canary islands, and I am not talkin about the landscape either. Im talking apostasy! This week the first counselor of our branch up and left his family and told them not to look for him. The bright side of things is that we've got ice cream trucks rollin up and down these streets like none other, so whenever the heat gets to you, well...its right there at your reach. Apparantly the ones who play christmas music are packin the drugs. It is just so MEXICO!!

No matter what I do I just cant get this stupid grin off my face. We are in America!!! I cant help but feel guilty when we go to the gas station and buy Big Gulps for 75 cents. There is something just so wrong and dirty about it, but you just gotta love it. I almost couldnt bring myself to do it the first time, Satan works quick though. The first day I just felt sick and looked upon the people with disgust when I saw them cruisin the streets in their Cadillac Escalades and Big trucks....until I was introduced to our 2010 Chevy Colorado! and its magic GAS CARD!! Its so wrong but just so good at the same time.

Went the the store today and blew my money on jerky, reeses puffs cereal, and fresh milk. Its just inreal. Did I mention anything about our new BLACKBERRY MOBILE PHONES!?

Alright lets get to business. It's interesting how fast your language (english) goes down the drain when you are in the hood. I don't think I've got out a proper sentence since I've been here. I was put with the zone leaders here in a trio. They are both fantastic, and boy am I enjoying myself. Things here in Arizona just chilled out about 49 percent. It's hard to explain, the work is just so different and the people are so different. It's a weird transition. As far as spanish goes, everyone loves my accent. They pretty much pay me to talk to them. Whenever I meet a new member its, "OH THIS IS THE NEW ELDER FROM SPAIN?? does he talk funny? Talk!! say this!! o ha ha now say this?" and then we'll be teaching a lesson and after a sentence or two I'll get the ol, " What does that mean? I dont understand you." And then it usually ends with all of them imitating and trying to speak like the spaniards. Its an adventure.

My companions are Elder Griffiths and Elder Edmunds. However transfers are this week and so I will be moving to my own area. And im going to show them how its done. Thats a joke, they are all better than me. I dont know the ways of Arizona missionary work yet.

President told me I needed to buy a bike this week....That sucks, I am going to have no money when I get home. Heres the odd thing he took me aside and told me that I need to spend 300-500 dollars on a bike because I am not going to want something crappy. Its kind of a tight situation, I don't really know what to do. I don't really want to ask you guys for money cause I feel like a huge burden. So I will prob just buy it with my money unless you have any other ideas. I dont want to use the bike I have a home either cause it kinda sucks and its really small. I'll save it for my hot wife.

Anyways the work is a lot more progressive over here. They have more baptisimal dates between 12 companionships than we did in our entire mission. It should be a good time to be part of this. I am really excited.
\
Well thats about it, im going to go look for a bike or something.

Baptisms galore! The work moves forward!

2010-06-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

Goodness gracious,

Well lets start with the bad news first, I don’t have the package yet... oh well. BYe BYe ipod! Just tell Tony to hook me up with an i pod touch and we’ll forget about it. I have until the end of my mission to pay back the office I would assume. But you know what assuming does... (you taught me that).

Well looks like my after the mission life is just developing right along. I have a hot wife with a testimony that served in Missouri. I have a deal on rooming at USU. I have a car, what more could I need really? No but on the serious side of that...That’s ridiculous, that’s way too many blessings. About the sister, tell her to not waste her time on a tour of the dairy, I’ll take her on a tour of Spain on our honeymoon. Alright I’m going to stop with the sister jokes.

Well deciding who is going to do the ordinance of baptism is very complicated. It usually starts out with a question like this ¨hey bro, you wanna baptize him?¨ followed by, ¨sure man, if you want¨ and then, ¨alright bro.¨ No we actually try to get the members to do it as much as possible so they can have a relationship with someone who will be there forever, instead of someone who will leave in a couple of months.

The church here in Sevilla, the new one, is big like I said. The floor plan is very different however. This one has underground parking, and three floors. It kind of looks like the old temple of Athens...imagine that. Instead of spaced out and one floor, everything is just stacked on top of each other. There are only a couple of chapels that size in Spain. Most of the churches are just rented building space on bottom floors, you cant tell they are churches unless you see the chapa or placa, (cant remember how to say that in english) plaque?? or the sign.

Dodge what’s a dodge? Those exist? I haven’t seen one in quite some time now. That’s great. IM excited to see it, kinda...i guess. Tell Justin to put huge decals of Jesus Christ along the side of it. Perfect opportunity to teach.

Well that’s about the extent of it. I have been studying some hard core Mason action, and we are going to go ¨Mason hunting¨ The masons constructed many cathedrals and churches here in Europe during the medieval ages, (most all of the cathedrals here we build in that age) Well in their constructions they would secretly engrave certain symbols and letters into blocks of stone on certain sections of the building. Well I have been studying the symbols, their meanings (WOW is all I have to say, dad I’m sure knows what I’m talkin about). Anyways I’m going to go scope out some buildings today and see what me might be able to find. How curious, mother, are the masons! and Joseph Smith being one of them...and many of the founding fathers...and many today being masons. hmmm.

Anyways I’m going to end this bad boy because I got a headache from studying so much. I FEED off of MY STUDIES!! I LOVE THE CANONICAL BOOKS! I LOVE HISTORY! I LOVE RELIGION! I LOVE FREEDOM!! I LOVE JESUS MORE THAN ANYTHING!

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Goodness gracious that was a handful,

What a colorful email you have sent me. I’m not going to lie I was sucked in to the whole history of the church, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa action!! Wow the beginnings of the church, what good stuff. I definitely would like to learn more about that. We will have to break loose one day go back to visit. Soooo....did you tell the sisters that uhh...you´ve got a son in Spain on a mission?? or..? and that he’s handsome? Just kidding.

About the package, yeah that one you sent with the toothpaste and Deodorant (I love you so much) got hear about 5 days ago. It was great; it came along with a package from Carrie as well. I’m just going to have to ask for a holdback on the Kool-Aid for now. I have enough to well...i don’t know. I have a lot thank you. It was great, my family loves me. The pictures are fantastic, wow such good memories. Thank you so much again. The other package still hasn’t arrived QUE PENA! I hope it will get here soon.

We had another baptism this Sunday. We baptized Lili from Peru. Her husband had been baptized a year or so ago and the missionaries have been working a lot with her, and we finally put her under. It was my first baptism where I actually did the ordinance. It was great, the spirit was very strong. We will be having another one on the 6 of June with Andres, he is overly prepared. I can’t wait for him; I have more of a connection to him and his son Edson than I have had with any other of my investigators.

Well here in Seville they have been constructing a new church, well it’s been in construction for about 5 years now. Everyone is dying for it to open, and when it does there is going to be the biggest explosion of missionary work you have ever seen. It is absolutely massive and the placement is incredible as to everyone has seen it in the entire city. Well nobody knows when its going to be open (but we are special and have hookups) It will be opening this week or the next, not even the bishop knows yet or anyone for that matter besides us and the dude who is in charge (member) we made an oath not to tell anyone. But anyways things should be gettin pretty hoppin here in a while. I can’t wait.

pues, I love this place. I love the mission. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Have a great week. Elder Nielson

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What up' fam??? Thats good news to hear, that my package will arrive in no less than about 60 days, thats reasonable right? NO! OH well what can we do? I´ll keep you posted.

Hey mom thanks for talkin to the office for me and hookin me up with a fat loan. At least now I will be able to prepare myself for the hailstorms, earthquakes, famines, fire showers and all that good stuff.

SO Seville is going pretty good. We will be having a baptism this Sunday with Lily. She is ready and has had this goal for some time now. I will be baptizing her. That’ll be a first.

I’m racking my mind for stories I can tell but none are coming to the mind. Well there is one, but I’m not going to tell it for fear of you ratting me out to president, and him closing the area. hehe now your real curious no? Let’s just say the druggies and drunks don’t like missionaries.

The little boy named Edson that was baptized two weeks ago received the gift of the holy ghost this week in church. He went out and bought some slacks and a white shirt and tie. It was really awesome to see him like that. He has real desires to serve in the mission field. He is a great convert. He is always asking questions, so prepared. He has integrated himself with al the members and youth in the ward and every one loves him. Now we just have to work on the parents. It should be happening the sixth of June we hope.

We bought a sweet magic set for ten euros, so the last couple of days we have been practicing magic to impress the little ones and to make new object lessons. We have been having a lot of fun with all the tricks.

We have two investigators from Lithuania I don’t know if I told you. But they are philosophers. It is very difficult to teach them, because they have so much knowledge from everything. The lessons are rarely effective and they usually chase away the spirit with weird theories and symbolic figures. It is at the same time VERY VERY interesting. Because thy have studied about every religion in the world. They know a lot about Egypt and Hebrew languages and cultures. I showed them the hieroglyphs in Abraham and they flipped out, and told me what everything meant off the tops of their heads without reading the captions. When we teach they really open up my mind to look at things in different angles and to look for the deeper meaning. It has really impacted me and has made my studies significantly more meaningful. They are quite the pair. They make incredible connections in the scriptures. However, we all know that testimonies come by faith and prayer, whereas they would like it to come by knowledge and proof.

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So things are fruitful here in the land of Spain, where the wine flows and the girls dance in their polka dotted dresses, you gotta see it, its rad. Well I might as well give you the update on ¨white Sunday¨ the day of the second of may there will be 10 people dressed in white, now that might sound normal to a south American missionary, but that is UNHEARD of here in Europe, absolutely unheard of. Our area is the city of Enoch of areas. So fun.

We live kinda in the slums. Its not the greatest part of the city but hey. For example today I almost got raped by a gypsy but I’m not hating... no we were over by this huge cathedral, and there were a bunch of gypsies round about with some herbs in their hands, one came up to me and took me by the hand and started blessing me, she pulled me away from the crowd and started pointing out things on my hand and basically predicted my future, she then looked at my face and started caressing it and told me that I was beautiful and strong and that the holy virgin Maria would bless me. And when i figured out what was going on she demanded for money, ¨i gave you the blessing, NOW YOU GIVE ME MONEY!¨ ¨sorry freak aint got none to give¨ and bounced out of there. But for the most part, we don’t see a lot of bad stuff. There are just a billion Romanians and gypsies digging through the trash 24/7 and drunks everywhere, nothin new, I will take some good vids of the trash diving, its quite a business here.

NO WE DONT HAVE A WALMART, I wish. All that we have here is Burger King, McDonalds, and an occasional KFC. Other than that, American products come rarely. I don’t know if you have ever heard of the china stores here but they are ridiculous, they are on every corner and you can get whatever you want for like 50 cents, seriously, anything you can imagine. They are amazing. So is everyone freaking out about 2012 like the people here, like the end of the world action? The Mayan calendar ends that year? Any action on that?

Alright I have a way funny spiritual experience. We were walking in the street trying to pass some time just before we had to go to an appointment with our recent convert. So we were talking about things we did before the mission and what not, when I looked up and saw a Listerine poster that had a smile on it with just teeth, and coffee spilled everywhere and it said ¨sonrisa a prueba de manchas¨ which means ¨smile clean of stains¨ and I said the word coffee in Spanish just to practice out loud, and then my comp says in his hilarious English accent ¨coffee! Why is it always coffee? Why can’t it be coke? I LIKE COKE!¨ and when he yelled ¨I LIKE COKE!¨ this man turned around with a confused look on his face and said ¨do you speak English and we said yes and then he said he wanted practice so we practiced, and then he asked us what we are doing and we told him. And we taught him the first lesson right there in the street, and this guy is amazing! He is so prepared to hear the gospel right now in his life. Too bad he lives in a village outside of Seville, we gave his reference to the other elders and will see what happens. One interesting thing was when I was reciting the first vision to him in the street, everything dropped dead silent, the traffic stopped, the people stopped walking by and I recited it in perfect peace, i asked him how he felt and he showed me that he had Goosebumps. It was amazing!

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Ok family,

So uhh, this week was one for the books. How do I start? This week is transfers and so 3 missionaries will be leaving our piso, finally! One of my companions will be going home to Washington and the other (Elder Iglesias) will be staying with me. I am really excited to have some peace and quietness, be able to have my studies with the spirit and set some mean goals. The missionary work should get better when this happens.

Other good news, with two rough weeks of the rats sneaking around all the poison and traps, we finally came out victorious! Like I mentioned before there were 4 blocks of poison stolen right from under our nose and the traps being spent every night. We were almost ready to give up and render ourselves to them. Well it was a nice afternoon and my comp went to light up the burner so that i could have a hot shower and he saw the rats head under a bucket. He screamed. My comp screamed. I screamed, and came out to see what had happened. The rat was laying their dead because of the poison. It was massive and we took some good photo’s. We were feeling pretty good at this point. We went out to work and came back to find a trapped baby rat, as well as a lizard trapped in the go we had laid out weeks earlier. We are pretty proud that we are now on top of the situation and that the luck is with us.

Another thing that I must give tell, THE AREA IS BLESSED!!! This week was more than success with the rats but also with the investigators. This week in the church we had 12 investigators! We also set 6 baptismal dates! We are working with the sweetest family that is progressing so well. Andres, Mercedes and Edson. I have a love for them I can’t explain, I will definitely be keeping in contact with the son. They are just incredible. We set a date with them for the 2 of May. We also have another guy that we play football with that is named Johan, we set a fecha with him for the 2 of May as well, he is from Ecuador and his family is still there in Ecuador. We set a baptism with the girl named Roxanna (the one where I had the crazy experience) we were thinking about dropping her because she wasn’t progressing like we would have liked, so we taught tithing and then basically when we were about to end and say that we weren’t going to teach her anymore, we asked her if she had any last questions and she paused, and then said, "uhh I want to get baptized now!" Um wow ok we said and then set the baptism up, she wanted to do it the very next day but we told her that the fecha will be on the 2 of may as well. crazy crazy. Then we also have Lily from Ecuador as well who is progressing very well and will also be baptized on the 2nd of May. So that’s exciting no?

Let’s talk care package. I want a new car, cell phone, and hot wife with testimony. My companion wants a #4 from Wendys and Carls Junior... Truth is, we have a lot of American products here, so as far as food goes, it not much of a problem, I would like some more pictures hehe. but what I refer to is physical pictures that I can carry around in my bag and show to my investigators, they eat that right up. Like stuff I used to do before the mission, and just other cool stuff that have to do with my life, and the fam of course. Just pack it with love ya know, by the way, just to you know, Darlene Mathews leads the pack in sending me packages. hahaha She is so sweet!

The train rides are pretty intense, we go through tunnels and all kinds of good stuff, its pretty luxurious, yes you can get little treats and what not, but they cost. It is way cool cause you get to see all the countryside and the cool mountains, I will take pictures next time i go.

This transfer flew by I cant believe it. I can’t wait to have peace again! I strive off my studies, its going to be a good one this transfer. I love you all and thank you once again for everything you have ever done for me.

New Pictures and letters from little brother

2010-04-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

Pictures and Letters from Spain

2010-04-24T11:58:00.000-07:00

On the other hand it is good to hear from the fam. So josh has a new pimped out apartment then ehh? So is he on the hunt for a woman or what? All these stories and things i hear make me really nervous about marriage. I pray every night that i will be able to have a somewhat sane wife. I liked the story about Dad and his little trunk adventure. He always does stuff like that, at least from what i can remember.

Well as far a Sevilla goes, we are doing really good. We are having a baptism this sunday for Douglas. I dont know if i had told yo that already. We also have another baptismal date for April 11th with a lady named Lili. We made a sweet calendar for her with stuff she needs to do and learn everyday up untill her baptism day. We are really reaping the benefits of the hard working elders that were before us. I feel bad that they wont be able to see their baptisms but at the same time it makes me want to work harder and keep the area going good. Well we are alittle more oriented this last week. We are finally getting the hang of the city and the buses and what not. We have actually just recently picked up a new way a transportation...bikes. The city of Sevilla has a system where they have bikes all over the city locked up, and you can go sign up for like monthly passes and what not. Anyways to make a long story short we have been cruisin the streets on bikes lately. Its so fun i cant even describe. There are little highways throughout the whole city and when we are on bike we have full right of way anywhere we go. We also got these sweet little bells and what not. Yeah we are pretty cool.

Well the biggest celebration in spain is called ¨Semana Santa¨ (holy week). It consists of 7 days and each day they have huge processions of Saints like Marie mother of jesus and about 499 other ones. Anyways they basically act out the last week of Christs life here in the streets, even though its complete apostasy... Thats when they have the little klu klux klan people runnin all around and what not, i think heath was tellin us about it. Anyways its really massive and where will it be taking place? Sevilla. Word on the street is we will get no work done and that we will be tired of taking pictures by the end of the week. Everyting is shut down. It should be pretty interesting and you should be receiving some wicked pictures in a couple of months when i fill up my card.

Well i mean what else can i say? I was cooking some biscuits the other day in the oven, and as i was there trying to flip them with my bare hand...my companion came up behind me and grabbed my butt. It made me jump pretty good and i roasted my hand on the red hot heating bars. It made for a good laugh, and also a massive burn on the top of my hand.
Oh and another thing, we have rats, and cockroaches... we are trying to exterminate them but they seem to be winning the fight. We have got rid of the cockroaches but the rats own us. We have about 16 traps around the house and poison everywhere. but everytime we go ito the kitchen at night, the traps are discharged and the food gone, without touching the poison. Dont worry though we will get them. We already got one of its babies.

Well word to your mother, tis been a good hour. Im serious about the Ipod too. I am going to clear all that babylon music before it has a chance to temp me when i get home. So go ahead and send the card and ipod. A cleared card that is.

Love yall be good
Elder nielson

Word,

So hows the fam this week?! I´m pretty good too. I still cant believe how busy this place is! We have not even had time to do planning! We have had Zone Leader Council, zone conference, and various other meeting where we have had to prepare workshops and lessons. Which also require a lot of traveling. zone conference was yesterday and we were in charge of preparing the food and doing a workshop, We made tacos with the works for the whole zone, what a job, 30 pounds of MEAT. Good thing weve got a fat budget... we didnt have time to prepare the lesson that we had to teach either, so we winged it and it turned out very good!

To back up a bit we bought all the meat, drinks, condiments, ice cream and all that good stuff and it was all prepared the night before, so we woke up and called a taxi. the dude came and picked us three up as well as a million pounds of food and was supposed to take us like 5 minutes away to the other chapel here in Sevilla. Well we got trapped in a huge traffic jam. We just kept watching the meter go up and up and up while he was trying to guide is through this huge city to our destination. We finally had enough of that crap and told him ¨HERE¨ and jumped out, grabbed everything out of the trunk and ran to the church with an incredible amount of supplies. It was rediculous. I love it.

Well we had 7 investigators in church this sunday, WOW! thats the most i´ve had. The best part about it, is that the regular church going investigators didnt even come. Well thats not good but what im trying to say is that we have soooo many investigators. It is usually easy to remember everyones names (those of your investigators) but here its a lot diffferent. The ward members are ANIMALS! They require us to bring investigators to their family nights! Its just such a huge change. I am so thankful for those who went before me to establish this great ward here.

Its funny that you shared your conversion stories with me these last couple of weeks. We have an investigator named Nadia, she is 14 years old and loves the church. We are currently teaching her and her little brother Lincoln who is about 11. They are progressing like crazy, they are actually ready for baptism. They attend all the family home evenings at the other members house and are way sweet. The only this is is that their parents dont let them come to church. They have come a couple of times but for the most part the parents are against baptism and such things, yesterday we were over there teaching the family about the plan of salvation and Nadia and Lincoln were like begging their parents to permit them to go to church and to have them go with the fam as well. We have had some way good lessons with the parents an they are also making little progressions. The kids are golden but the parents are a little dumb. Its reminds me of your stories so i thought i´d share.

We have many other investigators here and good ones too. If i were to make expectations i would say we will be looking at 5 baptisms here minimum in the next little while. We have a baptismal date with another little boy for next week woo hoo.

Good news! remember Javier and his sister?? our investigator in fuerteventura? his sister Veronica moved to Malaga like a month or two ago, i believed i mentioned. Well she got baptized this sunday! I¨m so happy! I also heard some news from Jerez, that my two converts are still holding strong and active, and Weimar is actually preparing to serve a mission.

We went to a sweet Roman ruin site today and checkout this huge ampitheater that they used for barbarian lion fighting and what not, it made for a way sweet experience. I am having way too much fun here in Sevilla. I have the best pictures that i will be sending this week some time. the sd card has pictures from Fuerte and also from sevilla.

Well i am enjoying my time to the maximum out here, what a great great great learning experience that i am having here. I am having to do things here that i just never imagined, growing like i never would have imagined. Can i just thank you all for all the sacrifices that you have made and all your money that helps me to be out here. It is because of all these things that people are being saved over here in spain.

PS no Elder Iglesias doesnt have a gecko tattoo and no he is probably not on You Tube. Try this one Gegorio Iglesias Sanchez, you know it prob doesnt matter that much, your ust going to see a beutiful man probably with his shirt off posing. He is a high roller.

Calle Agata Nº9 bajo C
41007 Macarena, Sevilla
España

thats my direction by the way...keep in mind a havent received a letter from anyone since christmas frowny face, dont be afraid to have dad or someone write me hehe.

Back to the Penninsula -Sevilla

2010-03-04T19:43:00.000-08:00

Hello Family!

Sorry I haven't written these days, I have been in Lanzarote (other island). Things have been pretty busy in these parts these last couple of days.

So straight up, things will be pretty short in this email, knowing that its not p day and I am not really supposed to be writing emails. Just wanted to let you know that the calls came...

President called me the other day and told me that I will be going to Sevilla (where Heath served) as a zone leader! I will be in a trio with a Spanish elder (who used to be a model) and another American that is going home very shortly. I am very glad to be able to be going back to the peninsula to be with the whole gang! There will actually be people on the streets to talk to!

Anyways this is a pretty good sized step that I am being entrusted, there have only been a couple elders that had less than a year put as zone leaders. I'm pretty excited. Sevilla is the 3rd largest city in Spain I believe, so things should be pretty busy.

Well that's about the extent of it, I will be sure to throw down some more details about the whole situation next week. My flight leaves tomorrow. I am really going to miss this place here even though things get very boring at times..

Thanks for the experiences that you shared with me mom, they are most interesting. I don't know how someone so young could be guided by the light of Christ as you were. Thank you for all the sacrifices you had to make, to make it possible for me to be here today.

Sorry for the shortness of time, next week promises to be better.

Lets talk,

I spent all my computer time last week setting up these new email things that the church is changing. they now work through gmail instead of that old stuff they were using before. I have about an infinity amount of memory which means I will never have to worry about deleting emails ever again, its about as fast as lightning and very user friendly. Its a real sweet deal. The church is making a lot of missionary changes lately, everything is getting updated, revised and better. How cool.

So grandma is rollin' in the big money now heh? Thats pretty sweet. What can you do with that money without feeling guilty, I wouldn't be gratified winning something like that. Ya know there was a missionary in this mission a couple of years back that took his turn in a lottery just for fun. Yeah well he won 400,000 euros, what luck! He was then faced with the option of declining the winnings and staying out on the mission, or to accept the money and be sent home. What would you do? Well this missionary took the money and was sent home. Too bad uh? Its interesting the power of satan.

Well me and my companion did get quite a good laugh about the whole, ¨concealed weapons permit¨ I am actually still chuckling about it haha. I can only imagine, only imagine. On top of that, that 6 other sisters did the same thing hahahaha! MOM WITH A 38! I picture you guys having a ¨how to shoot a gun¨ class for Relief Society. Oh wow I need more of that stuff to lighten the mood here.

Looks like I forgot to tell you about Nic Lajuenesse, yeah he has been out for a good 8 months now I´d say. He is serving in San Antonio Texas I want to say? somewhere in Texas. We do keep in contact, I will give you his address so that you can drop him a line and tell him how good of a guy he is.

Alright lets talk Fuerteventura, The things go as usual here, the work a bit slow, however I know that through diligence and many problems come the blessing if we have patience and are able to support it well. As far as progressing investigators we don't have a lot, we are working with them all we can but nothing is really turning out and I don't see them lasting too much longer, people truly have to be prepared by God to accept a thing like the gospel.

Well this week has been wild. I don't know if you have ever heard of Carnival before but its really huge here in Spain. Its basically a week and a half of pure party. Everyone dresses up for the week and they do parades, boat races, skits, rides, all kinds of stuff. There is a specific activity every day during the week and a half. The costumes are for the most part very very well done. However most of the men here are sexually confused, reminds me a lot of myself.haha It seems like there is one thing to dress up like here for the men, and that is a woman. Its really funny! They have to make homemade cars and then they have a huge race down the streets, then they also make their own boats and see who can make it from one side of the harbor to the other without sinking. It is so funny. And of course beer is the main element that runs these kind of things. This week has been filled with drunks, men dressed as women, and a lot parades, I keep my camera on me 24-7 to catch those moments.

One thing that has been on my mind throughout the course of the mission, is how to treat people better, how to influence people and how to become a better rounded conversationalist. I have learned many things and it is really making me think about a career, different than the ideas I have had earlier in my life concerning career paths. I have been the quiet, leave me alone while I work in my secluded workshop building cool things kind of a guy. It has been interesting to watch myself turning into a "Alright lets talk this over, put me in a room with influential people, and lets make a difference" kind of a guy. You will have to tell me what you think about that.

The relationship with Elder Wardell has grown remarkably, we don't have the slightest things in common but I find that the relationship keeps growing, its a work in process, a fun work in progress, a developing, maturing, motivating work in process.

So Mom, I want to ask you a question. Being the great loving mother you are, raising your children in such a way you did, living a life pleasing before the Lord like you have, Tell me! What was the big turning point in your life? If you could pinpoint some years and experiences that you had in your life that made you the person you are today, what would they be? How do you do it?!

Just a note from mom: His email address changed. It is joseph.nielson@mylds.net
I know that a letter from family is always appreciated!! Thanks!

Letters

2010-01-20T10:01:00.000-08:00

The last entry posted before I was ready. These letters were way down on the post and I thought you might not see them, so here they are again!

Good Morning Family,
Wow as long as we´re on the topic of smog.. you know that forward that dad sent me about the astronaut and the pics of the world? Remember the one with the sandstorm from the Sahara covering the canaries? Yeah well we are in one right now. I have never seen anything like this. There is honestly sand floating in the air, I don't know how to explain it. It looks like a really bad pollution problem, we cant see the ocean or the mountains, the sun is blocked, its like a greenhouse effect (a lot hotter cause the heat gets trapped) its weird, its like having fog everywhere, but in reality, it the Sahara desert floating in the air.

Alright lets not think that I´m going to be the next Abraham Lincoln speaker. It is still very hard for me to speak in front of large audiences, it is also stressful. However I am getting better, but I am nothing huge or special, its just amazing to me how much growth I have seen. There are 6 zones in this mission, 4 in the peninsula and 2 in the islands.

Well Javier will be baptized this Sunday the 24th, if you could all pray for him so that he can stay strong and resist the desires to smoke it would be great. He needs a lot of help. If you could relay that to the whole family it would be even better, the power of prayer is incredible.

We have another investigator as well, Juan Jose. He has also promised to keep the word of wisdom and has stopped smoking because he has no money to buy cigarettes... he is from Spain and a straight up stud, he has no work right now and the bank is going to close his house, he has a bad leg and he is really passing some hard times, he cant even buy food! I have given him some of my money and I am going to give him more when I get reimbursements. He needs a lot of help as well. I feel so bad, when I leave his house that I have been blessed so much and like I don't deserve all that I have. Quite humbling.

We are MOVING we live quite far away from the church right now with our owner. I talked to President Mellor and we decided that we should move. We found a nice apartment directly above the church, its a literal 7 second walk to the church, a bit closer than what we were expecting, its going to cost 350 euros a month plus utilities, and that's extremely cheap here. Moving on the mission, tell me how cool that is. Its pretty interesting, first of all I have never moved, second of all I have never moved in Spanish... its pretty intense.

Side note: I miss the mountains so so much, when I get back I am going straight to Payson canyon and hiking to the top, then I'm going to rub tree sap all over my body and bath in an ice cold river!!

So uhhh things are good here. I love the Lord, love you guys as well.

***************

Buenos Dias!

Good stuff good stuff. I don't think there are a lot of moms out there like mine who write so much as you. Thank you, its always looked forward to.

I cant remember what was said about the Pig leg in the salt water but I will tell you one thing, its the best invention since sliced bread, you really just don't know how good it is. You can bet I´ll be packing one home in my suitcase...well that's not possible but still. Oh here's an even better part, it lasts normally for about 3 months or so, and the whole time it just sits on the counter in the heat, when ever you want some you just slice it off and eat.

Yeah me and Lucero got along pretty well, we were identical in our interests and what not, we really butted heads when teaching however. Elder Wardell and I are getting along very well these days. You gotta find something that you have in common or something you can both relate to and then you can work with that, which is currently quoting lines from Family Guy the TV show. And Napoleon dynamite.

Yeah you know what? The church really is amazing. everything about it.. a lot of people think that its just another church where you go to pray and worship. Its so much more its ridiculous, just look at the organization, the welfare system, the missionary work system, education system, so much more. Everything is accounted for up until the last detail it blows my mind, and I don't even know 10 percent of it guaranteed.

Well we just finished another great zone conference. They combined two zones into one, it was really big and they assigned me to teach a lesson on setting goals. Wow what an opportunity. It was fantastic, so fun. I love it. I also gave another talk in church last week. The progression I have made I just cant express, and I give every bit of thanks to Heavenly Father.

This week we also celebrated CHRISTMAS!! woo hoo.. oh wait that was back in December...or was it? Yes its true they do not celebrate Christmas here with Santa Claus on the 25th. Instead, they celebrate when the wise men came to give gifts to Jesus on the 6th of January. It was very different, and so that's the day when everyone gives gifts. Its a really cool tradition, then I got thinking about it and its a lot more accurate than ours...where the heck did Santa Claus come from anyway? I´ll email some pictures of it.

The baptism didn't go down, he wasn't quite ready, so we are delaying it for this week or the next, we are also going to ask his sister to be baptized with him. Should be a good one. He said he would like me to baptize him, that was pretty powerful. I´m excited!

Bueno, I hope all is good and that you have a good week there in wonderland with all the snow and what not.

********************

HELLO EVERYBODY,

What a good letter! I enjoyed every bit of it! Lets see where should i start? Well that castle picture up on the hill is in Arcos de la Frontera, I took it when I was back in Jerez. It was a way cool city, those ¨whitewashed¨ cities are pretty common in Spain. There is nothing really like it here in the Canaries. I think the Canaries should be part of South America because there are more similarities between it and South America, than Spain. PS. that was the castle that I got lost in and the construction workers had to help us down.

Yeah that tape of ¨day in the life of¨ should be pretty good I think, although it was a day of little success.

Ya know I always used to wonder why dad read the dictionary... Well lets just say that is one thing that I have picked up from him. I mean I don't read the dictionary, but I do like to learn new and different words all the time. Missionaries and people have told me here that I have a large vocabulary, I don't want to brag, rather thank dad. Hey that rhymed. Tell him to calm down with the whole heart attack thing, he better be there when we get back, I'm going to need his help as I start my life. Its interesting how you guys were so dumb and what little knowledge you had when I was 17 or so, you guys have gotten a lot smarter and a lot more useful these last couple of years...hehe

The work is going along great here, we have tried to put into practice a lot of new things we have learned in our zone conferences and it has really payed off. We are starting to see a lot of blessings from our labors. Javier will be baptized this next week, and his sister is progressing as well, she will be baptized soon as well. We have some good progressing investigators, it seems like 2010 has kicked some people in the rear, or head, and got them really going. I predict we shall be seeing much progress and success here in the near future.

We had a good fast Sunday here as well. One thing I never really practiced as a young one was the ole fast. There is sooo much power in a good solid one.

Well someone´s getting antsy over here so I think I'm going to bust out of here, I´ve never seen him this excited to get crushed in tennis haha. I'm just kidding, but seriously.

I love you all and I shall talk with y'all later.
hasta la vista

Saraha desert floating in the air!

2010-01-20T08:53:00.000-08:00

Good Morning Family,
Wow as long as we´re on the topic of smog.. you know that forward that dad sent me about the astronaut and the pics of the world? Remember the one with the sandstorm from the Sahara covering the canaries? Yeah well we are in one right now. I have never seen anything like this. There is honestly sand floating in the air, I don't know how to explain it. It looks like a really bad pollution problem, we cant see the ocean or the mountains, the sun is blocked, its like a greenhouse effect (a lot hotter cause the heat gets trapped) its weird, its like having fog everywhere, but in reality, it the Sahara desert floating in the air.

Alright lets not think that I´m going to be the next Abraham Lincoln speaker. It is still very hard for me to speak in front of large audiences, it is also stressful. However I am getting better, but I am nothing huge or special, its just amazing to me how much growth I have seen. There are 6 zones in this mission, 4 in the peninsula and 2 in the islands.

Well Javier will be baptized this Sunday the 24th, if you could all pray for him so that he can stay strong and resist the desires to smoke it would be great. He needs a lot of help. If you could relay that to the whole family it would be even better, the power of prayer is incredible.

We have another investigator as well, Juan Jose. He has also promised to keep the word of wisdom and has stopped smoking because he has no money to buy cigarettes... he is from Spain and a straight up stud, he has no work right now and the bank is going to close his house, he has a bad leg and he is really passing some hard times, he cant even buy food! I have given him some of my money and I am going to give him more when I get reimbursements. He needs a lot of help as well. I feel so bad, when I leave his house that I have been blessed so much and like I don't deserve all that I have. Quite humbling.

We are MOVING we live quite far away from the church right now with our owner. I talked to President Mellor and we decided that we should move. We found a nice apartment directly above the church, its a literal 7 second walk to the church, a bit closer than what we were expecting, its going to cost 350 euros a month plus utilities, and that's extremely cheap here. Moving on the mission, tell me how cool that is. Its pretty interesting, first of all I have never moved, second of all I have never moved in Spanish... its pretty intense.

Side note: I miss the mountains so so much, when I get back I am going straight to Payson canyon and hiking to the top, then I'm going to rub tree sap all over my body and bath in an ice cold river!!

So uhhh things are good here. I love the Lord, love you guys as well.

***************

Buenos Dias!

Good stuff good stuff. I don't think there are a lot of moms out there like mine who write so much as you. Thank you, its always looked forward to.

I cant remember what was said about the Pig leg in the salt water but I will tell you one thing, its the best invention since sliced bread, you really just don't know how good it is. You can bet I´ll be packing one home in my suitcase...well that's not possible but still. Oh here's an even better part, it lasts normally for about 3 months or so, and the whole time it just sits on the counter in the heat, when ever you want some you just slice it off and eat.

Yeah me and Lucero got along pretty well, we were identical in our interests and what not, we really butted heads when teaching however. Elder Wardell and I are getting along very well these days. You gotta find something that you have in common or something you can both relate to and then you can work with that, which is currently quoting lines from Family Guy the TV show. And Napoleon dynamite.

Yeah you know what? The church really is amazing. everything about it.. a lot of people think that its just another church where you go to pray and worship. Its so much more its ridiculous, just look at the organization, the welfare system, the missionary work system, education system, so much more. Everything is accounted for up until the last detail it blows my mind, and I don't even know 10 percent of it guaranteed.

Well we just finished another great zone conference. They combined two zones into one, it was really big and they assigned me to teach a lesson on setting goals. Wow what an opportunity. It was fantastic, so fun. I love it. I also gave another talk in church last week. The progression I have made I just cant express, and I give every bit of thanks to Heavenly Father.

This week we also celebrated CHRISTMAS!! woo hoo.. oh wait that was back in December...or was it? Yes its true they do not celebrate Christmas here with Santa Claus on the 25th. Instead, they celebrate when the wise men came to give gifts to Jesus on the 6th of January. It was very different, and so that's the day when everyone gives gifts. Its a really cool tradition, then I got thinking about it and its a lot more accurate than ours...where the heck did Santa Claus come from anyway? I´ll email some pictures of it.

The baptism didn't go down, he wasn't quite ready, so we are delaying it for this week or the next, we are also going to ask his sister to be baptized with him. Should be a good one. He said he would like me to baptize him, that was pretty powerful. I´m excited!

Bueno, I hope all is good and that you have a good week there in wonderland with all the snow and what not.

********************

HELLO EVERYBODY,

What a good letter! I enjoyed every bit of it! Lets see where should i start? Well that castle picture up on the hill is in Arcos de la Frontera, I took it when I was back in Jerez. It was a way cool city, those ¨whitewashed¨ cities are pretty common in Spain. There is nothing really like it here in the Canaries. I think the Canaries should be part of South America because there are more similarities between it and South America, than Spain. PS. that was the castle that I got lost in and the construction workers had to help us down.

Yeah that tape of ¨day in the life of¨ should be pretty good I think, although it was a day of little success.

Ya know I always used to wonder why dad read the dictionary... Well lets just say that is one thing that I have picked up from him. I mean I don't read the dictionary, but I do like to learn new and different words all the time. Missionaries and people have told me here that I have a large vocabulary, I don't want to brag, rather thank dad. Hey that rhymed. Tell him to calm down with the whole heart attack thing, he better be there when we get back, I'm going to need his help as I start my life. Its interesting how you guys were so dumb and what little knowledge you had when I was 17 or so, you guys have gotten a lot smarter and a lot more useful these last couple of years...hehe

The work is going along great here, we have tried to put into practice a lot of new things we have learned in our zone conferences and it has really payed off. We are starting to see a lot of blessings from our labors. Javier will be baptized this next week, and his sister is progressing as well, she will be baptized soon as well. We have some good progressing investigators, it seems like 2010 has kicked some people in the rear, or head, and got them really going. I predict we shall be seeing much progress and success here in the near future.

We had a good fast Sunday here as well. One thing I never really practiced as a young one was the ole fast. There is sooo much power in a good solid one.

Well someone´s getting antsy over here so I think I'm going to bust out of here, I´ve never seen him this excited to get crushed in tennis haha. I'm just kidding, but seriously.

I love you all and I shall talk with y'all later.
hasta la vista

See the silly "Mormons" fall.

2009-12-20T16:21:00.000-08:00

Well I´ll just go ahead and start this letter out by telling a quick story. We had just finished a lesson with a new investigator yesterday and we were walking back home for the night. I had a little extra hop in my step while walking because the lesson went fantastic. I saw a nice little pipe sticking out of the dirt and decided I might as well top it off by doing a 360 spin on the pipe. Oh boy. it all happened way too fast. I spun and my foot caught something and I fell off the pipe, then off the curb, into the gutter, and hit my head on the dumpster making a large racket and a thud. Wow. The best thing about it was that there was people around and they thought it was pretty funny to watch the ¨Mormons¨fall. Well looks like I am not as limber as I once was.

So you and dad are going to serve a mission then? When might this be happening? Maybe you´ll get called to Spain and have the time of your life?

Well something interesting has happened with this transfer. It has been pretty cool to see the changes that Elder Wardell and I have made in our six months apart. And lets just say its not exactly what I expected. Lets just say some of us have made good choices on the mission that have helped us grow and progress, and there are some missionaries that haven't made the greatest choices, resulting in less progression and growth. It feels like I am training. It has been an eye opener for me and has helped me see even more the effects of my sacrifices and hard work. What a blessing I had of having such a stud trainer that taught me all the things I know today regarding missionary work. It will be a challenge, but one that I am excited to accept and grow from. The misson has really made me notice and bring out what there is truly inside of me. That is that I have ridiculous amounts of potential and through Jesus Christ I can become strong in whatever things I may be lacking. I don't have a lot of time or I would enjoy elaborating on that.

I will go ahead and call at 2:00 (your time) so dad can be there, what a good guy helping out the other families have a happy Christmas.

Hmm there is a lot I would like to write in this letter put time is against me. Thank your for all your support and what not. Its nice to hear the blessings and challenges the family is having. I will be praying for you, and we will be in touch.

News from the Canary Islands . . .

2009-12-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

WOOOOOOHOOOOOO I FOUND HIM!!!! I found the next elders quorum president! His name is Javier, he lives about 30 mins outside of the city but wow he is golden. 26 years old, lives with his mom and sister (thats not unusual here if you were wondering, average move out age is 30) his mom is catholic but he isn't practicing. We found him looking for his mom, his mom wasn't there but I asked him if we could teach him anyway. We taught the first lesson, all he could say was wow when we recited the first vision. By the end he was in tears, and so was I. I haven't ever felt the spirit that strong before. He came to church this Sunday and absolutely fell in love, he asked me why he had to go to the investigator class, he wanted to go to the regular class. The whole entire ward befriended him. It was just picture perfect.

On the other hand, transfer calls just came. Looks like I didn't learn everything I was supposed to learn with my first comp in the MTC, Elder Wardell. Because he is comin' here to be with me again. I was made district leader over two islands as well. I´m gonna love it. I thrive on these leadership opportunities, something I would have shied away from before the mission...

I feel guilty for opening my package early, but the members here are going to take care of me I am sure of it. I cant explain how great the members here are, gosh if all members of the church were like these members wow, the world would be different. First impression of the island was very bad, but you just got to find the beauty. I see now why these people love to live here. Cant explain it, but it grows on ya ya know?

I still haven't received my letters from the friends, its a holiday here, this week, and then everything will prob shut down on like the 18th so if I don't get my stuff in that little gap, then I prob wont be seeing it for a while but whatev. wow I didn't know you had the birthday package in mind also. wow, I was just expecting the whole Christmas birthday package all in one idea. How much my family loves me.

Alright instead of sharing a spiritual experience this week I will share a funny one.
Me and my comp were walking across the desert to go to work and there are a lot of big rocks and what not. Anyways we were acting all hard core, doing stupid tricks off like little rocks and doing 360´s and stuff, just to make fun, and when we would do a trick we would like freak out and like act way hard core, you can only imagine... When we were done walking through the desert basically my comp decided to throw a rock with his feet. He kicked it up in the air like a foot high and it landed back down, but he thought it was a lot higher so he started to run out of the way and he slipped and fell straight on his back and got covered with dirt and a guy was watching the whole time. I was laughin' so hard I couldn't breathe.
2 hours later... we had just taught a way good lesson to a recent convert, a member, and a less active, and like 3 children (it was just one lesson all in the same room with a lot of people) and it went way good. Anyways when we finished we got up and said goodbye and what not and then left down a hallway to the outside door. Well the door was open and it had one of those baby gates set up in it. Well we were still in our hardcore" look at me I'm so cool mood," and I was like, ¨dude check this out I´m going to jump this no prob, I´m even going to grab my feet in the air just to top it off!!¨ bad idea.. I had my proselyting bag on and a Book of Mormon in one hand and I went to jump it, and my feet caught the top of it and I came down SO HARD, it was so loud!! and everyone ran out and saw me laying there on top of the baby gate (which was broken) hurtfully laughing. My comp couldn't even stand up, he couldn't even walk down the stairs he was laughing so hard. And we limped out of there. I limped the whole day, and the worst part about it was I broke the watch in half that Whitney gave me, and it cant be fixed. I feel really bad. However it was the funniest morning I have had in the mission.

well I gotta bounce out so talk to ya later fam.
elder nielson

A few excerpts from previous letters:

Alright I said that I would share a spiritual thought with you the last time so I will share one that we had this week. We had a lesson with a member named Patricia that is about 22 years old. She got married when she was 16, has one daughter, and a husband that is not a member. She wants more than anything to get sealed in the temple, but her husband doesn't really care (we see so much of that here its absolutely ridiculous). Anyways she is always down in the dumps because she is having a hard time with the life and what not. So this was the first time we have taught her, we wanted to go in and teach her the first lesson, very simply and clear in hopes that we could get in with her husband to win his trust and teach him. Anyways we taught the lesson, it went fantastic the spirit was waaay strong. Everything went well but unfortunately we weren't able to get in with the husband like we had wanted, so right before we said the prayer to close we asked her if she had any questions that she might like to ask. She paused and looked for a minute and then asked us how can someone forgive themselves for the things they had done in their life. She has had a very bad past and couldn't forgive herself entirely. Right then the spirit told me so clearly to open and find a quote that I had glued in my scriptures some time ago. I couldn't even remember what the quote said but I did remember what the title was, ¨an immediate effect¨ and that's what the spirit told me, an immediate effect, and I recognized it and asked her if she would read it for us aloud, it was a long quote and I honestly didn't remember what it said before hand. She read it and it was the most perfect thing anyone could have ever said or read in that moment. She finished it and through tears all she could say was thank you, thank you. Just goes to say that the spirit is something real, something that I am sure we all know exists. The impressions are real we just need to be in tune spiritually to be guided by it. Even though I had no idea what she was about to read, I knew that it was an impression from the spirit, and that was all I needed to trust in.

So yeah here on my little desolate island, yes we can teach the Muslims, we can teach whoever we feel like we need to teach, however every single one of them has the STRONGEST beliefs, solid as a rock never changing mindset. And that is that Jesus was just another prophet and that Mohammad was the last prophet there ever was, the Koran is the true book and they aren't really open for changing any of that. They are always down to talk about religion and never get upset or angry in what we say but there is some sort of a mind block when we start teaching Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon.. I have so much respect for them, they live their religion with all their heart and are the kindest people there are, unlike Catholics who have no idea what their beliefs are and don't live their religion at all.

By the way, did you know the best beaches in all of Europe are found right here on my island? Cool fun fact. Guess what else, I have turned into quite the cook, you probably cant believe that but whatev, I made bread and hot pockets today, I make pancakes from scratch almost every morning, and all kinds of things for lunch, all from scratch, re-fried beans, tortillas, scones, pasta, rice, salads and lot of Spanish stuff that you would have no idea is, even if i explained it..

My companion is Mexican, if you didn't know, and naturally they like beans. Lets just say i have eaten more re-fried beans, hot sauce, and tortillas in the last week than I have in my whole life. They are incredible, he makes the beans I make the tortillas. Then we sit there and eat bean burritos and talk about how bean burritos can be related to life and how we can apply folding burritos to teaching, and dating and whatever it may be.

Gettin' caught up once again!

2009-10-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Well I didn"t exactly receve a letter this week, but I figured I´d just give an update for kicks and giggles.

We are rollin up to the end of my fourth transfer, wow! That means that more than likely I will be getting transferred to a new area! wooooo hooo! I'm not going to lie, I'm getting sick of walking the same streets over and over. Hopefully they ship me off to the Canaries, so I don't have to be here when it gets cold this winter. All the Spaniards are crying how cold it is here... its about 80 degrees farenheit...

We have about 10 good investigators right now which is really good. We have been doing some hard work and it has finally paid off a bit. So in terms of the missionary work here in my area, we are doing way good.

I tryed to perfect a backflip a couple of days ago. It required a lot of muscular strain, I woke up the next morning and struggled to get out of bed because I hurt so bad. Today I am learning the ¨flare¨ its a breakdance move. We also played basketball the other day and I pulled my groin! Missionary work good, physical fitness bad!
Peace out,
Elder Nielson
Oct. 17, 2009

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Easy mom, easy.

I just finished a long week, give me a break. Nothing was on schedule, I had to go everywhere this week for residency, zone conference in Sevilla, and then conference on top of that. Basically it was a week of nothing but traveling and planning to travel. So thats why I didnt write.

Things here are going pretty good, me and Simmons get along way good. Elder Lauener (from Switzerland) that came in to be the comp of Elder Brossa (the Spaniard) is going really well. He is probably the nicest caring genuine missionary I have ever met, he is my hero and there is so much to learn from him its ridiculous. He just loves out all his companions imperfections. Its amazing. He is also teaching me how to breakdance and I have been pretty sore these last couple of days.

Yeah we just watched broadcasted conference here, it was pretty sweet. The Priesthood session blew me away. I really wanted to hear Elder Hollands talk about the Book of Mormom but we werent able to. Elder Holland and Elder Bednar are my heros.

Well good news, I just had my fourth zone conference, and I understood every word that was spoken, how assuring t´was. It was a good time. Oooh you're going to kill me, I almost killed myself...I lost the translator, and I dont dare to ask you to send me a new one... so I'm just going to leave it at that.

Hey I asked Whitney to write me a lil' something on Obama and whats going on with all that. Wow the email was so angry I thought the computer was going to explode. Lets just say she really doesnt like what he is doing. I would like to hear what you have to say about him, just a lil' bit though, I pretty much already got every detail of his life from Whitney.

Well its always good to hear that the fam is doing good, makes me happy.

Me and simmons decided to plat a game last night to help getting up on time. We took a huge bowl and filled it with water and set it on the nightstand... then we went to bed nervously knowing that whoever got up faster, got to grab the bowl and dump it on the other. Well we both woke up faster than ever and reached for the bowl with fear. I missed it by a half second and said sleepily yet fierce ¨I'am going to kill you if you dump that on me!¨ There was some unsurety in what was going to happen there for a couple seconds, and then he decided to put the bowl down. Well it wasn't really that funny, but now we look back, remembering how tired we were and the things that we said about it.

Well I'm going to bounce so yall have a good one!

October 7, 2009

Threatened with a knife!!

2009-09-24T12:39:00.000-07:00

Oooh thanks mom, that was greatly appreciated. However, here on the base they just accepted my card anyway. We had a nice round of golf that was definately overdue. The base here feels like a 50's science project. Everyone says its just like being back in America... no its not. If it is, I'm not coming back. I feel creeped out.

Well you didnt exactly write me this week, I take it you're busy.

The things here are good. We are baptizing our Bolivian this Sunday, should be a good time. Well I don't have really much to write back about.

This week was absolutely satanic. We didnt get a single freakin reference. I got shut down on the street about 459 times in a row. It really sucks when that happens. Guess what else happened. A guy grabbed me by my tie and threatened us with a knife hehe, that was a good time tool. I have never got yelled at more in my life. One guy rode circles around us on his bike yelling "Jesus is a terrorist" and all kinds of other things. Good times good times! The girls still wave though hahaha
peace

Elder Nielson

Yes, that is a snail I am eating!

2009-09-17T09:20:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, we got time.

Sorry about these last couple of weeks. Our p days have been pretty jacked up. We had zone conference and had to reschedule some stuff and thats why I wrote on different days.

Well, another transfer has ended. By the way I dont think that I told you. Remember how there are 4 missionaries in our apartment? The other two are Elder Jensen and Elder Brossa. Elder Jensen is from Holladay Utah and Elder Brossa is from Barcelona Spain. May I mention that Elder Brossa is the biggest piece of wasted space I have ever met. He wakes up at 8, and eats a bowl of cereal, goes and lays in his bed for 30 mins, goes and sits on the toilet for 30 more minutes, and then takes a 20 minute shower. He does absolutely nothing and has nothing good to say about anyone. Anyways the point of this story is that I can't look at him without getting pissed off. Therefore the spirit in the piso is rare... but transfers just came and Jensen is leaving, and coming in his place is the Assistant to the President! hahahahahaha I cant even wait. He was Elder Murphys comp when they were in the office together just before he trained me. Its like getting my trainer back! I cant even wait. I love HARD WORKERS gosh. I feel like Iam being treated very nicely beacuse I have lived with three of the best missionaries in the misison. I love love love learning from their examples!

The spanish is coming along. I feel a lot more comfortable now. I dont get massive headaches anymore from trying to listen intently. I still dont understand everything but I can hold my own, which feels good.

Oh you are going to die when you hear this. I lost my journal... we went to Gibralter again and when I was taking money out of an ATM, I set my journal on top of it... oops

Haha I laughed pretty good when I heard the whole ´drive in´ story about Josh and his kids. Wow what a stud. I dont know what I would do if I were in his situation.

Wow Nate is also a huge stud, I cant believe that. I dont think I will ever be half the guy he is. I have always looked up to him. That makes me happy that he is workin his butt off. Wow what a different outlook on life I have...

Im going to just put this out there...dad is a grandpa. whats this handin out candy bars! Cats por todos lados? Oh my. Whats he doing in his spare time these days? Has he hit up any golf courses lately?

Well I'm sure everyone wants the update on the whole Whitney situation...well your guess is as good as mine. I have only written her once since I have been out. I figured its not that important to be worrying about girls right now. Plus I want a clean start when I get back. Thats what I was thinkin. Its kind of weird though because like 4 new girls have sent me letters that I thought had disappeared. hehehe I'm sure if they saw of picture of me now they wouldn't be so interested. Fat me.

The things here in Jerez are pretty good. I am learning to excercise a lot of patience! With everything! The work is still pushin along. We are working with a good Spanish family right now, things are lookin pretty good for them. I have recently had some good experiences of breakin out of my lesson plans and going from the heart. I'm saying things I never thought I would say before, and when I say them I look back and think wow, did I really just say that? I love this growing experience, and the chances to overcome my weaknesses.
Oh I almost forgot. They found my journal, you can relax now.
Love you all,

Elder Nielson

Loves the Work like a Gorilla loves Banana's!!

2009-09-10T10:53:00.000-07:00

Check out how they keep cool in Jerez! How funny!

WOW what a wonderful letter! I just smiled the whole time I read it. This might be the first time I have said this so be prepared... I miss my family! It just sounds like so much fun over there. I wish I could be there laughing and playing games with you guys. Excellent job on the letters, mom.

Oh man the first thing I want to do when I get back, is listen to a talk by Dad. There is nothing I want more now in my life, than to be able to retain information and present it just like dad. I guess I always took it for granted, stupid me. I hope he is ready for all my questions.

About the Isais (Isaiah)thing, I just got done reading a lot out of his book, how freaking sweet is he? I LOVE THE SCRIPTURES GOOOSH. I wish I had time to just sit here and type the hundred new things I learn everyday but there is no time.

Oh man Taylor, I just had to sit back and laugh about the 5 grilled cheese thing hahaha, I remember when I was tending those guys, Taylor had his own cereal bowl. It was about 3 times the size of a normal bowl, and he would have the hugest bowl of fruity pebbles everynight before bed. Wow, what a kid.

Wow 3.5 miles a day huh thats pretty good mom, thats way good. I just met this elder today that got transferred into our zone and he runs 4 miles every morning and 25 miles on p days. He even enters and runs marathons here...which is a little jack but o well.

Alrighty...well yes I have given two talks in spanish here. I remember the first one I gave, I had like 3 weeks in, and it was the most horrible thing ever. I accidentally dove straight in to the middle of my talk and the scripture had nothing to do with what I was talking about. I read the scripture and then I didnt know how to go back and tell everyone that thats not what I meant to do, hahaha. So I just carried on and slaughtered it. I gave my next talk about 3 weeks ago, and WOW lets just say the gift of tongues is a real thing! It was like flawless....ok maybe not but I felt about 40 times better about myself. The progression I have made here has just blown me through a wall. I can't even believe it myself.

Yes its still hot here but things are cooling down, the temperature is getting pretty good for us here, I'm glad summer is over.

We have a lot of investigators, we are teaching a lot of lessons but, we really dont have anyone solid besides one. His name is Weimar, he is from Bolivia, 24 years old. He does all his compromisos (im sorry but I don't know what that word means in english) commmitments I think. He does all those, and we are going to extend a baptisimal date this week for him. We have had two other baptismal dates set up and Satan got a hold of them, one day they just disappeared off the radar and no one knows where they are and where to find them. How sad that is when it happens. Our recent convert Jose is just a stud. He comes to church every Sunday and is preparing to receive the Melquisedec priesthood. He knows his goal is the temple and can't wait to go.

I'm technically not the senior companion here. my companion has been in for 16 months..however...I am the one that plans everynight, and he follows me in the street... I have to set the example most of the time and sometimes it gets hard. I am so thankful for my freakin trainer. Don't get me wrong Simmons is a stud and I love the kid.

We walk everywhere. except when we go to district meeting. A typical day is waking up at 7:30, eating, exercising, showering, studying, work from 10:30 to 2. Then we come in at 2, because everything shuts down, and there is nobody in the street, study more, eat, language study. We leave at 5:30 and work till 10:30. Go to bed at 11:30.

I freaking love this work like a gorilla loves his bananas. Tell the fam sorry for me not writing them back, but I just dont have time. I will try.
Love you,
Elder Nielson

-----Original Message-----

Picture catch up for Elder Nielson

2009-09-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

Weathervane's and Winery's in Spain

2009-08-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well hola again.

Alrighty lets see what to talk about... well its good to hear from back home again, its something I always look forward to.

The things here in Jerez are pretty good. Me and Simmons work pretty well as a companionship and are teaching a lot of people right now. Today is p day and Simmons is sicker n´a dog. So today I enjoyed a 6 hour scripture study and it was way good. I learned a lotta new stuff in Isaiah, 2nephi, and Jesus the Christ. Its weird how I can sit down and just read my brains out for hours and not get sick of it. Im wondering where this desire came from. Im such and idiot for never reading my scriptures before the mission.

I dont know if you know this but I have gained somewhere in the region of about 20 pounds since I have been out and its starting to show in my face haha. O man I told myself I was never going to get fat. I wouldn't if I had time to work out, but I dont. I have absolutely no money at this time of the month every month, so we eat pasta or rice everyday. I think all the carbs is whats making me fat. There is no money for vegetables or fruits.

I have a hard time talking about stuff here if there are no questions, so you could send me some questions in the next letter and I could go off that.

I can't find my first sd card. The one with the pictures that you have already. so be sure to save those bad boys on the computer, if you haven't already.

I am telling you mom, if you want a tear jerking, faith raising, spiritual feeding story, you need to call up my comps parents and set up an appointment to visit with them and hear the whole story. It will blow you away.
I have nothing else to say, sorry I'm so boring.

Elder Nielson (August 24th, 2009)

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Well howdy,

There is a lot to talk about this week. But to answer the question about the pics of the dairy, YES please send, I need more pictures. And also I want a picture of the whole family together (like in one photo) just send me the last one we took, no need to get everyone together for another. Yeah send pics of everything, where we live, the house, all the goods. The members love that kind of stuff.

Thats funny that you talked to Aarons family, wow Clayton just got back from his mission didnt he? WOW Shawn has been out for 1 year! WOW, I cant stop saying wow.

Wait I have a question, why is the family all of a sudden doing all these cool things when I leave. Going to truck shows, petting zoos, camping, trips around Utah? What is this?

I had a pretty cool p-day today, we went and visited the biggest sherry/winery in the world; and there they have the biggest weathervain in the world too. It was way sweet and I learned a lot more about wine, which will really help me out in my life, and saw some cool stuff. I saw like the oldest wine barrels and about a billion of them. They also had 13 huge barrels of wine each dedicated to the 12 apostles..and they had a massive one dedicated for Jesus that is 33 times the size of a regular barrel of wine. They all had their names on them in gold and what not. It was pretty sweet, lil weird but.... I also saw barrels of wine that kings have signatured. Also Picasso, Stephen Spielberg and a buttload of other famous people.

Well lets see my new comps name is Elder Simmons, lives in Kamas Utah. You already know that right? There are 9 kids in his family, him and two other brothers are bilological, one is adopted from the states, he has downsyndrome and there are 4 other girls and 1 little boy that they adopted from Russia. Alright prepare yourselves cause this could get confusing. My comps youngest sister from Russia had 2 best friends in her orphanage when she lived there... alright lets switch this up, this story is way way too long to explain and there are way too many coincidences. So you guys are passing through Vernal and then going to Wyoming right? It would be a sweet opportunity for you guys to pass by my comps parents house in Kamas, you guys can sit down for dinner and they can tell you the whole entire thing. You really should consider it. My comp says thats alright his parents would love to do it. Their names are John and Amy Simmons. I promise you want to check this bad boy out, basically their fam has been in touch with another family, that adopted the best friend of my companions little sister from Russia. And they found out that the family lives here just outside of Jerez, this all happended way before the mission. Just so happended that my companion got called to serve here and is finally here in the same city with this family... and if I go any further my brains going to explode. Anyways his dad has written a book on this whole ordeal, and we hunted down this family yesterday and met them and are going to start teaching them. But you have to go meet my companions family and get the whole story because its amazing.
Gosh I have no time again. Well we´ll talk again next weeek, remember, send a bunch of pics about the home life.

Love you all thank you so much for all the support
Elder Nielson (August 17th, 2009)

From busy Elder Nielson 8/10/09

2009-08-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

Hello family,

Oh, crap I dont have a lot of time for this one, my bad.

Yeah the pipe thing with the little cup is máte. You will have to ask Zach about it. Yes, I had a chance to taste the Reeses, yeah it didnt turn out as well as I would have liked. It like squeezed out all the oil from the peanut butter and all the little reeses packages were covered in grease. They are a little bit dry because of that too. But still, a reeses is a reeses ya know? Man I need to tell you all about all those pictures but I dont know how. What can we do so you can have all the info on all the pics? Yes the picture of the mansion (spanish mansion) is the mission home and it is about the biggest home you can get in Spain, the church is loaded!

Did all the rest of the family go to Mindy´s house except for you two?
We are going to have to come back here after the mission so dad can see some real histoy. hehe.

Wow everyone is waiting for me I gotta go.

My new comp is from Kamas Utah and he has the biggest house I have ever seen in my life. I will tell you more next week sorry.

Elder Nielson

2 letters from Elder Nielson and some pictures!

2009-08-03T06:55:00.000-07:00

Oh mother dear mother dear,

Yes I have received that package. Oh my gosh it was the best Christmas I have ever had! The translator is perfect; exactly what I was looking for. The chocolate looks fine, I haven’t opened it yet however because I am going to savor them for the next two years. the pics of the fam was good to see, man I just cant express the love that I have for you guys, its crazy. The other elders enjoyed the pics of the fam too, and after my comp was done lookin at them he said, ¨dude that is a big mormon family, thats awesome¨ ok so it was a lot funnier then, I guess you had to be here. the koolaid packets are a hot topic here, I pulled them out of the package and the room exploded, I had to hide them cause blood was about to be shed, their worth is more than gold here. Everyone wants to be my friend now...

The public transport here is the best I have ever seen in my life, they have buses in the city that are very reliable and you can always find one when ever you need one. They also have trains, regular trains that go from town to town, medium ones that go city to city, and ones that go like 200 miles an hour that go like in between the bigger cities. Its way cool. We don’t have bikes, it would just be a hassle. Spain is built for walking so we just walk its a lot easier.

It seems weird to hear that live is going on still over there, it seems like time has stopped over there and everything and everyone will be the exact same when I come back. yeah about Jordan and Wyatt, I never understood a dang thing about priesthood and I didn’t care to be honest. I only knew that I could pass the sacrament with it or something. I’m not saying just to stop with them, but I would say keep pounding them with it so when they actually do care later in their lives it will make more sense and hopefully help out. That’s the main thing that happened with me in my life, I had been hearing all kinds of teachings, lessons, ordinances my whole entire life but I didn’t even care about them until now in my life, they didn’t heave one dime of meaning to me before now. The cool thing is now, I simply cannot stop, I cannot stop reading and studying. I have found the fire for the first time in my life, and here I am almost 20 years old. I get mad if I don’t get to have my usual 2 hour scripture study every medio dia, and it’s still hard to close the scripts and go back out to work because I want to keep studying. I absolutely love it love it love it.

Mother dear thanks for that inspiring story, what a great person you are. Gosh this letter was just going to get juicy but I have to go. But I’ll sum it up and say that the chapter of scripture that saved my life, and I’m not even kidding, saved my life is Alma 32. The faith cycle, and it will be forever my favorite scripture.
Anyways nos vemos
Elder Nielson

The monkeys on the Rock of Gibraltar.

Howdy,
Well its been another great fabulous fantastic week here in Jerez, I cannot believe that i just had my second zone conference, time is flying. We had the zone conference in Sevilla on Saturday, oh man they are so amazing, I can't tell you how nice it is to be taught, instead of to teach. Those meeting are like a shot of spirit, when you leave them you just want to go work your butt off. That's what I felt like when it got over, and then we walked outside to go catch our train and I was hit by a huge wall of 118 degrees! that has tendency to take the energy right out of you ya know?

Well my comp is finishing his mission in one week. That means I will be showing my new comp around Jerez, I'm pretty excited to be trained and actually do have responsibility placed on my shoulders.

I'm not going to lie, when I read the part about the chat with Obama, guns, wickedness and gospel I got pretty excited, I simply cannot wait to come back, sit down with all the fam, and just have a fat wickedness/gospel talk for like 5 hours. I have learned sosososo much its insane.

You are not going to like this story but I'm going to tell it anyway, we went to a little podunk town today that has a huge old castle that was way sweet, and we decided that we were going to go in and explore. The doors were locked... (mom do not worry, the police walked by and they watched us scale the castle walls and they were fine with it) well anyways we found a way in and explored for a while it was so cool, with chambers and secrets everywhere. Well we happened to get lost for about 2 hours and we could not get down hahaha. Well these construction workers saw us and helped us down, but not after I scraped every curve of my body. I have so many cuts cause we were climbing everywhere. But yeah it was kinda scary I thought I was going to have to die up there cause there was no way down.
Well I´ll wrap this one up and go dress my wounds. Thank you so much for the reeses I cant wait.

Love you mom and dad.
bye bye
Elder Nielson

Update from Elder Nielson - 7/22/09

2009-07-22T14:43:00.000-07:00

Calle Merito nº2 blq 1 1-C
Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz 11408
España

Well there she is, the address perfectly written, and if you don’t write it exactly like that they will send it to Austria...
Wait before I forget, along with the translator, send a pics of the fam...and hey if you really want to get crazy send kool aid packets too...and if you really want to get really crazy send something that says reeses on it.. but you dont have to.
Well thanks Zach for the advice, but lets be honest for a second, both you and I both know that i have been told that 37 times since I have entered the MTC hahaha I love you. Alright now that all the sarcasm is out of the way we can get serious.
Holy Moly! Carrie! I have oft times wondered who would be next to hatch a child but I didn’t think it would be Carrie for some reason. That’s pretty good, I feel bad for saying this but, how many nieces and nephews do I have now? I laughed pretty good at what Brookies said to you about the ice cream haha, she is pretty good at those one liners.
i have been writing Shawn since I have been in the MTC mom. I don’t know why he wants to know how I’m doing cause I write him like every month. How long has Mark been out, man that’s crazy that he is still struggling with the language, I’m so glad that I am learning Spanish in stead of some weird language like that.
It’s good to hear that the family is doing good there. I have recently just figured out that I have the coolest family in the world, and also that you are the most important thing to me.
well the comp is waitin’ for me so I gotta go but thanks for your support and love, and I hope you enjoy the pictures that should be arriving there pretty soon.
Elder Nielson

News from Elder Nielson

2009-07-02T09:11:00.000-07:00

Well hello family

HA I love reading letters like that! Its so nice to hear how good the family is doing. I just sit with a smile on my face while I read the letter.

Well I have a birthday present for you dad, we have our first baptism on July 12th. Me and my companion are absolutely killin’ it out here. We have 3 or 4 solid investigators, I know that Nate will laugh at that... freakin pool party in South America.. but that is very good for here in Spain. Yeah we average about 15 lessons a week just to let you know.

Man can I just tell you that this mission has already done sooooo much for me I just cant even explain, I look at my life and how I would have predicted it without this mission, and it doesn’t look good. I can’t express my gratitude about having this opportunity to be here doing this.

It is still way to hot and humid here, I have never sweated like this in my life, I didn’t even know that people could sweat as much as I have here. We helped a member move some furniture up and down four stories to his apartment, at like 10 at night, and during it, there was sweat dripping off my chin like a waterfall, down my back, dripping off my fingertips, I basically had to ring out my shirt when I got done. It’s so crazy. At night I sleep on the BARE floor in my garments with my face flat against the tile because its cooler than the mattress...with a frozen bottle of water in between my legs...

People have emailed me and told me that they saw Nate on the TV haha. hmm lets see. I just completely finished my first transfer in the field woo hoo.
Well everything is going super duper here.

Would you maybe send some tangible pictures in the mail of the family. Like a family photo instead of on the internet. and also, if you really want to go all out...a Spanish English translator, I could buy one here but it would be like twice as expensive, I think they are pretty pricy sooo, I don’t know. It would help enormously, especially when my comp leaves. I usually just use his. Well peace out.

Elder Nielson

I am having trouble!!

2009-06-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

This night is not a good one for posting! Please excuse the last two posts - it just keeps publishing while I am still trying to get it right. So just enjoy the pictures and I won't worry about any comments for now.

Our camping trip

2009-06-22T20:26:00.000-07:00

I hit the wrong button on the computer and the last bunch of pictures got posted. I still struggle with this blog stuff! Here are a few more pictures to share.

Lovin' Andrew's dutch oven potatoes!

2009-06-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad just enjoying watching all the kids and thankful that we are past that stage!! It was great fun while the sun was shining. We have such great kids and grandkids -- we are so blessed by all of you guys.

Eating snails and sleeping on tile floors!

2009-06-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hello family,

I live with 3 other elders in our own apartment. There are two bedrooms, one bath, a living room and a kitchen. Me and my companion sleep on the floor... and may I remind you that there is no such thing as carpet in Spain, just tile. I don't know what else to tell you about it, its just a normal lookin place.

Im surprised that dad hasn't told you,I sent him a email about our ward and how we do contacts and stuff. We have about 60 members or something like that in our ward, and there is only one ward in Jerez. Its a good sized ward for here in Spain. Pretty solid and we have a good bishop and leaders. Street contacts are going good, I don't really say much most of the time cause my companion loves to talk..

OH wow can we talk food for a minute? For breakfast I have a bowl of cereal, with super pasteurized milk that sits on the shelf at room tempo for 6 weeks, its delicious. For lunch I have two sandwiches, a caña de chocolate, and some drank. For dinner I have pig liver on bread and some cookies. We have a meal with the members about 1 or two times a week on average and its the best thing that has ever happened to me, the food is so good I don't know what to do with myself. The only problem is they always make about 49 times too much and we are expected to eat it. I always feel like I'm going to throw up all over the table when we are done. Some things that have changed my life for the better are: Caña de chocolate, pata negra jamòn, and Chorizo.

Wow you sound like you are getting handled by grasshoppers over there haha. I can't help but laugh, but i feel bad all the hard work has gone to waste in the garden.

HAHAHAHAH WOW NATE that is the best thing I have ever heard, haha! O my gosh that makes my year, that is so awesome. Tell him I give him props haha wow that wow holy. Which reminds me, I need to find a good fork still...

Oh by the way there is something else here that we ate at a members house the other day...snails... yeah snails. They pick up snails in their backyards by the thousands and then eat them, by the thousands. They boil them and then you just grab one, and suck it right out of its shell.. its really popular here, its called caracoles. They weren't bad, tasted like chicken basically. I ate about 50 or so.

We went to Gibraltar yesterday. That is why I couldn't email. Its was so freaking cool you have no idea. I wish dad could have been here. There are monkeys on the Rock of Gib that are way fun to play with. I'm going to send home my pics pretty soon.

Well I freeeeeakin love it more and more every day. I love this mission and everything here. I love the gospel most of all.
I love you all, peace.

Elder Nielson

A short letter from Spain

2009-06-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

Well I´d love to sit and chat but I have no time. There is so much to do. My companion is standing in the doorway waiting for me. Sorry to hear about the plague it sounds bad.

Things are going good here and I'm falling in love with the work.
Ask me some specific questions and I will answer them next week.
Sorry dad wish I could give you some goods but no time.
Love you,

Elder Nielson

Some Catchin' Up!

2009-05-31T21:01:00.000-07:00

We have a PLAGUE here in Elberta! You know that we were really excited about our garden this year right? Well, we spent a lot of money getting the irrigation pipes all put in and bought some plants and got the corn, potatoes and tomatoes in. We went out there last Tuesday morning at 6:00 a.m. to get the final work done on the sprinklers and we were so hopeful that we would have a great garden this year. We noticed quite a few grasshoppers , little baby ones (nymphs) all over the place. We went out there again in the evening and they were ALL OVER THE GARDEN!! The next morning I ran to IFA and got some insecticide to see if it could help. I got home and there were two tomato plants that were totally eaten by grasshoppers. I spread it around and by the next morning, even with the poison, there were only two plants left. They are chewing the corn off as it comes up and the potatoes haven't sprouted above ground yet, but there isn't a prayer that they will be saved at this point. I have never in my life seen anything like this. The strange thing is that it is only in selected areas in Elberta.

There were so many on our porch when we got home from church today and dad had to walk before me to blaze a path and they still jumped on my legs and I screamed. It freaks me out. The porch and driveway are just crawling. The whole lawn is alive!! It is just sick. They spit brown stuff like tobacco and it is just all over the porch. Looks like some tobacco chewer sat out there all day and just spit everywhere! Dad put some insecticide out today after church and there are hundreds of them dead on the porch. Not even a dent in what is out there though. Kirby doesn't even want to be out there. The farm has hired a plane to spray the perimeter of the farm so that they don't get into the alfalfa and eat the whole crop. Seriously, we are so disappointed. I don't know how we were so lucky to be in the battle "front". Maybe they will be gone in a week or so and we can replant but it will probably be too late. I have a greater feeling about how the pioneers felt and I actually expected that there would be massive clouds of seagulls -- I tried to pray in faith! Maybe there is something else that the Lord would have us learn from this, I don't know. The second picture is even after it was dusted with insecticide. Those hoppers must be very hungry!

The latest from Elder Nielson! I would think that this would be the length of the letter from a son getting ready to come home -- Hopefully the next one will be a little more detailed.

"Things are going good, everything is good now I just had to get in the groove. Love it here, time is flying. There are people to teach.
Sorry for the bathroom humor...
Love Elder Nielson"

Way to go Heather. She graduated from Utah Massage Therapy School on Thursday, May 28, 2009. We are happy that she did so well and wish her luck in finding a job that she enjoys! Good Job Numeeee!!

Josh celebrated his 34th birthday a little early. 34 years old! Wow. He came down on the Sunday before Memorial Day to celebrate when the rest of his siblings had gathered for another "cow cutting party." Josh, we are hoping this will be a great year for you.

Jordan is officially a teen-ager! He wasn't really excited about his cake and mini party at grandma's house. I guess that comes with being 13 now. Love you Jordan.

The granddaughters making Mother's Day cards for their mother. Always artistic and loving to play in the paint. They turned out pretty cute.

Brookie and Parker decorated Easter Eggs at grandma's house in April. Brookie was very good at it. I recorded her reciting the Pledge of Allegiance but can't seem to upload it on the blog. It was adorable though!

Elder Nielson arrived in his first area! Jerez, Spain

2009-05-18T16:07:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! We really do a lot more than just get letters from Joseph but things have been so busy that I haven't had time to post anything. So . . . here is the latest letter. Jerez is a small city of 250,000 on the Atlantic side of Spain.
He would love some letters from everyone! Sorry the pictures are so small. I don't know how that happened.

Hola familia,
Well mom you are the best person to complain to so I will start with that. First off my feet have never really felt anything near what they feel like right now, it feels like I am always walking on hot coals and glass. I played soccer with some 16 year old on Saturday for about 4 hours, they are so good, but they are also slow, they have the moves and I have the speed, who wins you ask...I do. They praise me. oh gosh I forgot I am supposed to be complaining, I have obtained a very bad sunburn, I have a huge scrape on my elbow, my throat feels like I drank a gallon of battery acid, along with a barbed wire fence drenched in lemon juice and someone is continually pouring sand down it... O geeze what else I have never walked farther in my whole life than I did yesterday. My companion is the hardest working man that I have honestly ever come in contact with, elder Murphy from California. I can honestly say that I don’t even have time to . . .(edited by mom) ...voy a destruir el bano (zach).

Well there is a lot to complain about but the truth is that I absolutely freakin love it, there is no other place I would rather be than here in Jerez. I get very worn out by the end of the day but I go to sleep with a huge smile on my burnt face. I prayed for a hard working companion and I uhhh definitely got what I wanted, well I got a lot more than I wanted, but I am so glad because it is going to set the tone for the rest of my mission. Just to let you know, its P day, the day where we should be going to see the sites and have a lil’ fun, we are going to stay home and make a color coded map of different areas in our area, re organize the area book and teach about 5 families... so uhh yeah.

Well I gotta go to the bathroom for the 2 minutes I have to myself and then get back to saving these stubborn Catholics. Ha ha it sounds like heck I know, but honestly its not that bad. I am thankful and I love it. Oh and I had octopus yesterday. That is all.

MY ADDRESS
Elder Nielson
Calle Merito Nº2 Bloque 1 1-C 11401, Jerez de la Frontera, España

so send all mail there and tell Aaron and Whit and everyone else to send all letters there. Peace.

Elder Nielson

Making a contact

2009-05-04T07:32:00.000-07:00

I looked in my email account and found a surprise this morning. A CES missionary (who also serves in the MTC in Spain) sent me this picture of Elder Nielson "in action." It was so fun to receive this and I thought I would share it with everyone.

The hope of every LDS parent

2009-05-03T23:43:00.000-07:00

Joseph is doing really well at the MTC. His spiritual knowledge is growing by leaps and bounds. What a blessing to have a child begin to know and understand all the things that you have tried to instill in him. My joy is full.

Hola

Oh ma gosh I hate computers! Ok so my P day is on Thursday to let you know, you sound like you are having fun on your little adventures that sounds like something I would like to do.
Did you get my pictures from last week pretty sweet huh? Well now I’m going to show you some pictures of what is outside my bedroom window...yes it is the temple!
Yeah but the real cool part is all the cool statues here, there are statues like every block here, no there is 5 on a city block there are so many, so many fountains too and me and my comp Elder LeBaron like to pose up next to the cool ones.
Sometimes we go out in huge herds of missionaries to go check out all the sites and what not, and me and my companion hate it so we just hang back and try and talk to people, because the rest of the missionary’s...don’t act like missionaries and its sad because they set bad examples I think. But you want to know what’s even more sad, sometimes when we are out and about people have questions about the church for us and so they come up and talk to us but we have hard time trying to understand what they are saying, so most of the time we just sit there like idiots because neither of us know how to speak the language to answer their questions. It is sad because usually people don’t come up and have questions for us and we can see that they are so interested and that we can really help them but we cant to anything about it, granted we still are in the MTC but I still wish we could answer and address their needs according to the gospel.
Alright and the picture with me and the sisters....that’s just how I roll, but don’t worry I was sure not to be touching any of them, it just looks like it.
I don’t even know what else to say besides the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, people, and only through the plan that God has prepared for us and through the atonement of Jesus Christ can we return to live with him and our families for eternity. I am so thankful for being able to grow up in the gospel and having somewhat of a knowledge of what Christ has done for us to help me out. Thank you mom and dad or instilling in me the gospel and thank you all for supporting me in everything I do. My testimony has grown so much while I have been here and it will change my life forever. I am so glad that I have this opportunity to serve the people of Spain and the Lord.
So yall have a good time while I’m gone and remember that the Lord has given you everything and has more than everything in store for you, “if you knew the person you really were, you would try harder” - Pres Eyring. Also another one of my fav's “the Lord has done his part, have you done yours?”.
No but for real, bathroom humor is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Peace out, Elder Nielson

He's Lived A Sheltered Life??

2009-04-23T21:12:00.001-07:00

Aight so... yes this is the address you are supposed to write me on...yes they allow missionaries to email their familes now, but i still want physical letters my address is

calle del templo 2,4ª Planta
28030 Madrid Spain

Anyways, sorry about not calling you when i was at the airport... i talked to you like 2 days before that and there was nothing new and so there was nothing to talk about, however mothers day is in a few weeks and i will call you around 12 or so utah time.
what are you talkin about having a companion training me? im still in the mtc...
haha the style of hair for the teenagers and little kids is.......drumroll please...MULLETS yeah! its bugs me they are so ugly and you can just tell that they are so into it. haha we went into the heart of Madrid today to do a lil shoppin and wow have i lived a sheltered life... i have never been where there are so many people and so many building and so many everything...and so many prostitutes, and so many mullets. and wow i just realized i am totally out of time so i will write you next week im very sorry i have a lot to tell you but no more time so have a good one i love you
elder nielson

Elder Nielson writes from Spain

2009-04-15T18:56:00.001-07:00

He left for Spain on Tuesday at 5:00 a.m. How great to hear he is doing so well.

so i made it! it was a grueling 16 hours on a plane and 4 hour layover in Atlanta... wow the spanish keyboard is way different im strugglin here. anyways ok so the temple is like 6 steps away from me and it stands out so much because every single building here is red! its soooo cool. i have been praying that I might love the people of Spain and let me tell you it worked! all i want to to is go outside right now and get to know people its so different here, its like im in a movie. and i decided i´m going to bring back a spanish wife. and lets keep in mind that spaniards are not mexicans nor even close to lookin the same. I really am diggin the style of clothing here also. i have had one meal so far and.... it tasted basically somewhat like roadkill. i got a sweeeeeet new companion and im so excited to actually have a companion who has similar interests as me. my old companion is here also and it was a good reunion. gosh i love it here. hahaha all the elders that came with me have the worst jet lag i have ever seen and i just got all my papers wet because i was crying from laughing so hard at them. (i dont have it) anyways they will answer a question from the teacher and just fall asleep in the middle of their answer and the elder next to me just like fell off his chair i cant handle it. it is soo funny. que mas, que mas hmm so we dont do this fake investigator crap anymore we get take the metro to the park and make real contacts im so excited. it is soo much more laid back here in madrid. like we can go wherever we want in the whole city! and just do whatever any day during our couple hours of free time. so tomorrow is p day and i hear we have a rival soccer team of twelve year old kids that always beat us..and we play soccer on a basketball court...there isnt hoops...just goals. wow this city is so beatiful with the green and red contrast i will send some sick pics. im so curious about these people here they are so different and i just want to know more. i am going to learn the language hecka fast now that no one speaks english. there are fat pidgeons everywhere. so anyways i will write a more organized lettter later but for now im going to go walk around and try to buy someting in a store in spanish we´ll see how that goes. talk to you later I LOVE IT

Sadie is 4 years old!

2009-04-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

We had a birthday party for Sadie and she was so cute. After we sang happy birthday to her and she blew out the candles she told us to come into the living room so she could open her present. She made us all sit down and when we were all seated then she opened her present. It was so funny. What a sweet little granddaughter she is. She says she is "growing like a weed." She also got to pick her own cake and frosting. She chose white cake and cream cheese frosting with raspberry topping. Of course, the girls made the cake.

Trip to Oregon

2009-04-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

We took a short trip to Oregon and were again reminded of the beauty of that state! The green foilage and grass is so different from Utah. Josh was able to come with us and that was fun. Grandma was doing very well and Bryce was able to get her a new computer and get it all set up. Unfortunately her old system was VERY old and it has been a struggle for her to learn the new Vista system. She is a trooper though and will get it figured out soon.

Grandma planned a nice dinner for all of the family to get together. Greg, Alana, Lori, Piers, Tyler and Autumn were there. Grandma got to show off her new St. Patricks day tablecloths.

Josh and I went on a tour of Fort Vancouver in Washington. It was very interesting and we had a good time. I also went to Washington one afternoon and met my sister, Brenda, for lunch and some visiting. It was good to see her.

To the Missionary Training Center!!

2009-03-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

For a new and wonderful experience in the Spain, Malaga Mission.

Remember the "New Missionary" door?

This has been a very emotional day for me. I am happy and pleased beyond words that Joseph has chosen to be a missionary. I know he will be a good missionary and will affect many lives for good and will be able to find those who are wanting the gospel in their lives. This will be a great growing experience for him and will help him in all that he does in his life. We will miss him but know that he is in the watchful care of our Heavenly Father and will be protected. Poor little Brooklynn just put her arms around him and hugged him and cried. She sure loves her uncle Joseph. She got us all started . . . it was wonderful, hard, but wonderful. I will post pictures and letters as we get them so that you can all keep up with what he is doing. I wonder what he is thinking of his first night in the MTC . . . any ideas?

The setting Apart . . . March 10, 2009 Goshen Stake Center

2009-03-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

What a spiritual feast it was to visit with President Laker and to witness Joseph being set apart to be a missionary. He received a beautiful Priesthood blessing to help him in the next two years. They took his picture and put in on the "Missionary Wall."

The Farewell . . . March 8, 2009

2009-03-11T19:39:00.000-07:00

This was one of the best Sunday's ever! Joseph gave a wonderful talk on missionary work and he had so many friends in attendance that I was a little worried about feeding all of them! We had a luncheon in the cultural hall after Sacrament meeting and a lot of the friends couldn't stay but we had a very nice lunch and had some good visiting with family. We sure did miss Nate and Saysha being here! After the friends left, everyone came back here to the house and we played a few games and visited some more. Bryce took Heath and his family on a tour of the dairy and they enjoyed that. Thanks everyone who brought food and helped in any way. It was great!

Where's the BEEF!

2009-02-26T09:41:00.001-08:00

After reading Sherstin's blog and seeing the pictures, I thought I needed to post a picture of her helping too. Also, to clarify about me being without gloves - I would rather touch the meat than have the wrinkly, sweaty hands underneath the gloves. That is much worse to me! We are hoping to get another beef before the weather gets too warm so we can all get stocked up for some summer BBQ's. I have to admit - butchers earn their money! It is a lot of work.

Temple Blessings

2009-02-22T14:06:00.000-08:00

What a blessing we participated in this week! On Friday, February 20, 2009 we were able to attend the Provo Temple with Joseph and he received his endowments. I had to keep my tears at bay because Joseph doesn't like any fuss about these things. Justin got stuck babysitting the sick kids at home but Carrie, Zach and Heather were able to join us. After a wonderful evening in the temple we all went out to eat at the Bombay House in Provo. We had never been there and were a little reluctant to try Indian Cooking but we were glad we did. It was wonderful. We walked in right at closing but they were gracious enough to serve us anyway. It was a day I will always remember.

Super Bowl Sunday

2009-02-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

Josh brought some goodies to celebrate the football game. We had shrimp, little smokies with BBQ sauce, chips and salsa, and different dips and Oreo's. It was a split decisions on who we wanted to win the game - still it would have been nice to have the Cardinals win!! Hailee's mother gave her a new hair cut so I thought I would share it with you. February already . . where did January go?

To Nevada and back again

2009-02-01T20:39:00.000-08:00

My mom has had some real trials this last year and a half. My dad died in April 2007, shortly after she had colon cancer surgery. She finally got healed from that and in March she took a real bad fall and broke her hip and had to spend weeks in the hospital and nursing home. Two months ago she had to have surgery again because of adhesion's that had formed from the colon surgery. Last week she had to go back into the hospital because of a real severe bone infection in her tailbone. She is with her caregiver now and is healing as well as possible but they say it will be about three months until the infection is cleared up. Poor little mom only weighs 99 lbs and sure would love to be able to walk without her walker again. She is a trooper. Bryce and I went down there and spent some time with her. On the way back we stopped in Beaver Utah and took the traditional picture in the big rocker. It is sure cold back here compared to Pahrump!

Christmas in Elberta

2008-12-29T21:26:00.000-08:00

Sleep . . . now that is a commodity that was in short supply during our holiday week end together. With 27 (Justin had to work nights ) of us sleeping over we were at full capacity! The adults had rooms and blow up beds but the kids slept wherever they stopped.

We love to play games . . and it usually lasts into the early morning hours. We found a new game that we liked called Sequence and it got lots of use. The little girls played Bingo and the older boys and some of the adults played the XBox - Rock Band II and made lots of noise! It was a great time!

Heather is going to school to be a massage therapist. She brought her table and gave massages to those in need. Her poor knuckles were so sore and she didn't lack for any volunteers. Thanks Heather!

We were so lucky to have snow for Christmas. The little kids enjoyed tubing behind Andrew's 4 wheeler - the big boys had lots of intense tubing afterwards. We only popped three tubes in the process! Cold but very fun.

Our Christmas dinner was held at the church for obvious size reasons. The meal was delicious and filling! We took a picture and it was requested that there be no funny faces or goofing off. Nate, ever the teaser, said he couldn't decided which way to look -- so you will notice that his eyes are crossed and goofy looking! I guess it would be hard to tell since this picture is so small.

After dinner we went into another room and sat in a big circle. We each told one another something that we loved about them. Then it was present time!! The kids drew names and the present had to start with the letter "N". That got pretty creative!

The Hair Chronicles

2008-12-16T12:18:00.000-08:00

Grandma got tired of the boys hair in their eyes so we had a

little ponytail party. Don't you think they look fantastic?

By the way, Wyatt was pinching Jordan (and looking so

innocent!) I later tried to french braid their hair and do

topsy tails. It was marginal at best! Grandpa threatened

to cut their hair himself. Better run boys!

There is always either a tea party or dress up at

grandma's house. The granddaughters love my

girls' old formals. I remember loving the same

thing when I went to my grandma's house.

Thanksgiving in Arizona

2008-12-01T10:33:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Arizona. The weather was warm, food was excellent and the games were fun. Josh and Joseph were able to come with us and made the trip even more fun. I got to celebrate my birthday there too. We went to the zoo, to Mesa to view the lights on the temple. What a sight that was. The boys played racquetball for two days and soaked in the hot tub to soothe tired muscles. The girls went swimming (in an outdoor pool)! I can't say that I remember a time when we have laughed so hard and for so long. Very fun memories! At this time of Thanksgiving, I am so thankful for the wonderful family that we have been blessed with. Words can't even express my love for each and every one of them. Thanks for the memories!

2008-11-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

Kirby (Heather's cat) is a beast. Pretty soon the kids won't be able to lift him.

The Sisters

2008-11-22T20:34:00.000-08:00

The Art of Breadmaking for future homemakers!

2008-11-22T20:29:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be fun to make some bread with the girls today. Josh, Bryce and Wyatt went to town to do some shopping. The girls were excited to grind the wheat, mix the dough and make the loaves. While the bread was doing the first raise we decided to run to the park by the church and play for a few minutes. Well, a few minutes turned into more than a few and when we came running back the bread dough had exploded out of the mixer. Pretty funny. It turned out great and we had a good time.

2008-11-22T20:19:00.000-08:00

2008-11-22T20:16:00.000-08:00

The Rewards of our hard work!

2008-11-22T20:15:00.001-08:00

Thick slices of hot bread and honey butter. Nothing better in the world!

2008-11-22T20:12:00.000-08:00

Called to Serve Where???

2008-11-20T20:59:00.001-08:00

I just realized that I never did write where Joseph is going on his mission. He is going to Malaga, Spain. It is in the southern part of Spain and his mission includes two cities in Morocco and all of the Canary Islands. He reports to the Provo Missionary Training Center on March 11 for three weeks to begin learning Spanish and will go to the MTC in Spain for an additional 6 weeks. What an opportunity to find those who are looking for the gospel.

Carrie's Tag

2008-11-20T20:29:00.000-08:00

My favorite 8 shows

Judge Judy
The Biggest Loser
Dancing with the Stars
Hannity and Colmes
Don't forget the Lyrics
AFV - with Josh laughing!
How Its Made
Touched by an Angel

8 Favorite Restaurants

Subway
Sizzler
Chili's
IHOP
Pepperbelly's
Wingers (the small black cups)
A & W
Arctic Circle - high class restaurant

8 Things I did yesterday

Sold 5200 feet of sod at the office
Drove 100 miles to work and back
Listened to Glen Beck
Finished getting Joseph passport papers ready
Wrote in my Journal
Talked on the phone
Got 3 hours of sleep because of bad cough
Cleaned the house - laundry

8 Things I look forward to

Going to AZ for Thanksgiving
Having all our family here on Dec. 26 for a sleep over
The first snow fall
Hugs from my darling grandchildren
My mammogram next week!
Getting scrapbooks up to date
The Resurrection and a perfect body!!
Lots of years with good health and family

8 Things I love about Fall:

Moderate temperatures
The red leaves
The orange leaves
Snow in the mountains
Cool breezes
Thanksgiving
Getting in my pajamas early
Holiday spirit

8 Things on my Wish list

No more bumper cars on the freeway!
A wonderful mission for Joseph
Health for my family
Lots of great memories
That my children will always love one another
That we will be an eternal family
A wonderful wife for Josh
Many years of happy times with those I love

That wasn't too hard. I want to challenge Sherstin to get a blog going so we can keep track of her family. If I can do it, you can too!! I will get Josh to do one too - or maybe will include his in ours. This is okay . . .maybe there is hope for me yet.

2008-11-20T20:03:00.000-08:00

2008-11-20T20:00:00.000-08:00

Well, the video clip that I recorded was too large. Darn. It was a great moment. We went today and got his passport on the way. Wow, it is becoming more real now that he will be gone for two years.

We are taking pictures for our ward directory, so I will try to upload - download- our picture. It is very professional! This is all still new to me, so stay tuned. . .

THE CALL TO SERVE!

2008-11-16T20:36:00.000-08:00

Joseph received his mission call on Nov. 14th. We gathered at his apartment in Provo to be there when he opened it. He was nervous and hopeful that he would be called to a foreign country. Hopefully the video of this night will be here when I am done!