SJDM ( The Promised Land)

1. Chicken feet adobo. Yuuum. 

2. The charcoal painting a ward missionary made for me.She also drew the painting of Jesus in our house. The one where he is wearing the hood. 

3. My area I have served in for 7 months. It is like this. It has a little more crowded places and a little more open field places too. 

We had another great week last week. LOTS has happened. Brother Rudy was baptized on Saturday and received the gift of the the Holy Ghost and the  Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. He was thrilled about the opportunity he had to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and receive the proper authority of God. He has such a strong desire to learn more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he reads out of the Book of Mormon everyday. He has many wonderful new friends in the church. We are very confident that he will not fall away from the church, and that he will continue enduring to the end. Our area is really starting to bloom. We have been finding prepared children of God, who have been prepared and are ready to hear our message. 

I am thankful for the opportunity that I had to be companions with Elder Alcala. He has been a good example for me, and has taught me many things in just our short time together. He has a very big heart and is very Christ-like. He cares so much about  about our investigators, less actives, and recent converts. He would do anything in order to help them. He has also helped me a lot with my Tagalog. He has explained confusing  grammar and conjugations to me, and has really helped me fine tune my Tagalog.  I know that I am leaving the Camarin 1a area in good hands. 

Also, we had transfer announcements and I am transferring! I am transferring to SJDM. I am going to be a District Leader over there! The APs told me it is kind of a special assignment. They told me my District over there is not doing to well.. They don't want to do finding or work.. And it is full of "trunky" missionaries. ( or missionaries that close to going home and don't want to work. They told me they really think I can help turn that District around. So it looks like I will have my hands full.. again! Every time I start feeling comfortable in the area or calling something new happens haha. I feel like Heavenly Father wants to keep testing me and helping me to grow. It is also kind of an answer to my prayers, I have felt like I am still just lacking something in my missionary service, I do not know what it is yet, but I fill like in this next area I will be able to find it. 

But I haven't told you about SJDM yet, SJDM is the Promise Land in our mission. ALL the missionaries want to go there because it is by far the highest baptizing zone. They had over 500 baptisms in just that zone last year. And it is also very pretty and has really cool stuff over. It is a good mix of province and city. So I am really excited to go there. 

AND I also have some more exciting news, I am officially a GRANDPA! Elder Gurtiza is training a new missionary! He will do great!

It has been such and happy and sad week. We have a ton of dinner appointments and FHEs because I am leaving and the sister missionary in our ward is going home. So it has been full of goodbyes, food, and presents. They are just giving all these random gifts. Paintings, hats, shirts, bags, and yesterday one of our RC's gave me a pearl necklace. I told her I didn't want it! But she mad me take it and she said,  give it to your mom. So it looks like Mom is getting a new pearl necklace. I am really going to miss the people in this area. I have become so close with them. It has been hard to say goodbye. 

It has been a wonderful five transfers in Camarin, but I am excited for my new area and calling in SJDM. I will do my best to fulfill my calling and help the missionaries in my District. I know Heavenly father has called me to SJDM for a reason. I love this work and the people. Have a great week. I love you all!

Pagmamahal,

Elder Nielsen 

Baptism of Tatay Rudy

District Leader

PHILIPPINES QUEZON CITY NORTH MISSION
Zabarte Rd. cor. Ilang-Ilang St., Almar Subdivision
Camarin, Caloocan City

30 May 2016

Brother and Sister Scott Charles Nielsen

1295 Dotta Dr

Elko, QZ 89801

United States

Dear Brother and Sister Nielsen:

I am pleased to inform you that your son, Elder Cody Scott Nielsen, has been called to serve as a District Leader in the Philippines Quezon City North Mission.  We greatly appreciate his efforts in this mission.  His responsible efforts will be of great worth in setting goals, planning, and accounting for the Lord’s work.

We are grateful for Elder Nielsen’s dedicated performance, his strong testimony, and his willingness to work hard to bring about success.  He is becoming a Preach My Gospel missionary and laying a firm foundation for the rest of his life.

Sister Bertin and I are blessed to have the opportunity to work with him in this great work.  Thank you for sending us such a wonderful young man.  We appreciate the love and encouragement you give him.

Sincerely yours,

Kim C. Bertin

Mission President

District Leader

PHILIPPINES QUEZON CITY NORTH MISSION
Zabarte Rd. cor. Ilang-Ilang St., Almar Subdivision
Camarin, Caloocan City

30 May 2016

Brother and Sister Scott Charles Nielsen

1295 Dotta Dr

Elko, QZ 89801

United States

Dear Brother and Sister Nielsen:

I am pleased to inform you that your son, Elder Cody Scott Nielsen, has been called to serve as a District Leader in the Philippines Quezon City North Mission.  We greatly appreciate his efforts in this mission.  His responsible efforts will be of great worth in setting goals, planning, and accounting for the Lord’s work.

We are grateful for Elder Nielsen’s dedicated performance, his strong testimony, and his willingness to work hard to bring about success.  He is becoming a Preach My Gospel missionary and laying a firm foundation for the rest of his life.

Sister Bertin and I are blessed to have the opportunity to work with him in this great work.  Thank you for sending us such a wonderful young man.  We appreciate the love and encouragement you give him.

Sincerely yours,

Kim C. Bertin

Mission President

Last week in good ole' Camarin.. yata

We had another great week this week. Brother Rudy passed his baptismal interview last week. His baptism will be held this weekend. Bother Rudy is excited for his upcoming baptismal. He is so awesome! He literally is a golden investigator. We found him and baptized him within 5 weeks. He was truly prepared before we met him. We found him a white shirt and tie. So now he is rockin' his shirt and tie at church.  We do not have any concerns or worries about Brother Rudy. We know that that he will continue to read the Book of Mormon, go to church and strengthen his testimony. Our next focus is on getting his wife to start going to church. His wife is always watching the baby of their daughter, and has never been able to go to church. Brother Rudy has even expressed his feelings to us about how he really wants his wife to go to church with him, so on Sunday we found a good fellowshipper for his wife and we have set plans to teach her and fellowship her. We found a family last week that we taught and invited to church. Then on Sunday, their whole family came to church. They seemed to really enjoy church. We found many fellowshippers at church for them and introduced them to the members in the ward. We are excited to continue to teach them, and help them understand and recognize the truthfulness of our message. We are starting to see lots of progression in this area. We are excited to help these sons and daughters of God to come unto Christ, repent and be baptized. 

This week we had exchanges with the Bagong Silang 2 Elders, Elder Martel and Elder Miguel. I had the opportunity to be companions with Elder Martel. Elder Martel is a good missionary. He teaches very simply and clearly. He is a good finder. He has no problems with talking to people he sees on the road and opening his mouth. The only thing that I noticed that he could work on was just being a little more excited about the work. I noticed that he did not smile very much throughout the day. I told him he needs to act a little happier and smile a little more throughout the day because we our representatives of Jesus Christ and we should be happy. Overall it was a wonderful exchange. I learned many great teaching techniques from Elder Martel. 

I can never remember anything that happened when I write you guys. It is always the same thing everyday. But I really love this area. The work here is great. We never run out of people to teach. Our only problem is running out of time the day. There is so much work to be done here! One story I had from this week. So yesterday, we were teaching a part member family. The mom is an active member, but the son is an active Born Again member. And he kept asking us all these questions when we taught him lesson wrong ( trying to stomp us and trying to catch a fault in our religion) But all his questions, we easily answered using scriptures in the Bible. And after we would answer his question he would kinda nod his head and agree with us. It was a really good lesson. Literally every question he had could be easily answered. The Gospel is so true. It answers all the question in this life. It is interesting, they can never find fault in our religion, because all our beliefs come straight from the Bible and the things that Jesus taught. You can never lose when the Gospel is on your side. 

This is most likely my last week in Camarin. Next week we have transfers so it will be interesting to see what happens to me and where the Lord sends me. 

Overall another wonderful week in the service of our God. I know this Gospel is true. I know God has a perfect plan for us. The Gospel is so simple and perfect it amazes me. It can literally answer every question in life. Have a great week Fam!

Mahal Kita,

Elder Nielsen

ps. the pictures I sent. The huge spider from exchanges with Elder Perkins. And last P-day we went to a Mexican Restaurant. First time I have had Mexican food in a while. 

Ball and Missionary Work is Life.

We had another great week this week. Brother Rudy attended church again last Sunday. He has now attended church four consecutive Sundays. He will have his baptismal interview this week. We do not have any concerns or problems with Brother Rudy, he knows that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on earth. We are very excited for his upcoming baptism on May 28th. Brother Danny and Sister Ester also were able to attend church last Sunday. Danny and Ester are relatives of one of our recent converts. We have been teaching them for the last few weeks, unfortunately they have only been able to attend church on one other occasion. They love our teaching visits to them and know that what were are teaching is true, but they have not been going to church. We are now trying help them understand why they need to go to church every Sunday. On Friday night, we found a new big  investigator family.  We taught them on Friday and Saturday night, and invited them to church the next day. The mother and 3 of her children were able to attend church last Sunday. We have very high hopes for this new family. The mother is already in Mosiah, and we gave her a Book of Mormon only three days ago. 

Overall it was a very busy and rewarding week. We found 33 new investigators this week and we had 9 investigators on church on Sunday. I love just having full days of work without any meetings or distractions. 

And about Dad's question. Yes our name tags are in English. The missionaries here used Tagalog name tags in the past but they are all in English now because there is a very big and popular church here called Iglasia ni Cristo. And they use Jesucristo in their church name. So apparently they didn't want the investigator to be confused and think we are the other church because they have missionaries too, so they just make all the missionaries use English name tags to avoid the confusion. A big bummer though, I really wanted one in Tagalog. 

We have been playing a lot of basketball lately because Elder Perkins and Elder Goodwin are big basketball players so we try to play a few times a week in the mornings, then every P-day we play with all the YSA and youth at the church. And also when the APs have exchanges with the other Zone Leaders we always play basketball in the morning. 

Overall another great week in the service of the Lord. I am very lucky to be serving a mission right now, especially in the Philippines. The work here is great. I love you all. I hope you all have a great week! 

Pagmamahal, 

Elder Nielsen 

THANKS FOR THE CALL!

Thanks for the call! You guys are all great! Keep working hard and helping others! See all of you at Christmas :)

Elder Nielsen 

Taking the Wrong Paths

1. Frog Season is back on! That one was a whopper!

2. It rained so their was a little flash flooding. 

3. Notice all the garbage in the water. That is how it is here.

4. Baptism

We had another great week this week. Brother Rudy attended church again for the second time last Sunday. He is really progressing and has such a strong desire to learn more about the Gospel. He always reads our reading assignments and then he will report back to us about what he read. He is very excited for his upcoming baptism on the 28th of May. His wife, Sister Thelma, always listens to our messages, but she still has not been able to attend church. We will start focusing more on his wife in the next few weeks. The Nicol family told us they were going to go to church last Sunday, but they texted us right before church and said that they will not be able to make it to church. We were able to find many new and wonderful families this week. We are excited to teach them and help them come unto Christ. 

Our Recent Converts in our area are doing very well. They are all progressing and still attending church. We have been focusing on their non member families and they are now listening to our lessons. Our Less Actives in our area are doing very well too. We have a few less actives that are close to returning four consecutive weeks, and we are continuing to help and support them.

This week was a great week of just pure Missionary work. We did not have any meetings or distractions and it was nice just getting to proselyte all day. This week I took two wrong paths, I do not even know how it happened, I have literally this whole area memorized, but it happened twice this week. We were walking and I just took a little road that I thought I recognized to get to an investigators house. ( I have gone to their house over 15 times) But we were walking done this street and after a while I realized that this was a different little path, we thought it was weird that we walked down the wrong road, but we figured it was for a reason so we started doing a little OYMing and talking with everyone, and we met this father that agreed to let us come teach him and his family. We had a good lesson and gave them all baptismal dates, and we will go back to them on Wednesday. So we are excited to see how things turn out. The other time was when we were going to an LA's house and for some weird reason I chose another wrong path by accident and we ended up OYMing again and we found a house of some old LA's that I never even knew lived their and another investigator family. I been thinking about those experiences a lot this week, I have went to those peoples houses many times, and have never gotten lost or taken the wrong path until now. I know that it would not have happened if the spirit was not guiding us and helping us find the people we need to find. I know the Lord's hand is always guiding us in his work. 

I also forgot to tell you about a funny experience i had a few weeks ago. We went to another church to do a baptismal interview for the other missionaries. And all the little youth were doing scouting, I told them that I was an Eagle Scout and they thought that was the coolest thing. Then they started quizzing me! Like, What's the Scout Law, and the Moto, and the Slogan. Then they started quizzing me on my knots.. I'll admit, I didn't do too well on that part of their quiz. I could only remember a few knots.. Pioneering was always my weakest area. But they were telling how they are going to Bagio this summer for a Jamboree and the in 2019 they are going to America for a scouting Jamboree. They were the funniest little kids. They said I need to come with them when the go to America in 2019. And now every time I see them they always say hi and come talk to me about scouting. We are like best friends now ;)  Thanks Mom and Pops for pushing me to complete my Eagle Scout, so now I can have experiences like this. :) 

Thanks for all the love and support. This is a sacred work and the Lord is willing to guide His servants if we are just willing to listen. I love this Work and all of you! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMA CONNIE! :D

Mahal kita 

Elder Nielsen

PS. I will call around 9 or 9:30, the time Dad said will work best!