Early Huntin' Season

First off, I just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUMMER! Woooowee! The big 14. You are officially church dance legal. That is exciting. Enjoy your Birthday and enjoy High School! It will be a great experience. Just work hard and enjoy every moment! You are truly a blessing in our Family!

We had another good week this week. Brother Arnold is still doing well. He has gone to church over eight times, and is now living the Word of Wisdom. He baptismal date is on the twentieth of August. Brother Elbirt is also still progressing. He has not smoked since the time we taught him about the Word of Wisdom. The ward and members have really fellow shipped him. He has many friends in the ward that are helping him along on his path to baptism. His baptism date is on the twenty-seventh of August. Brother Mark is another investigator that we have been working with for a few months. He also is addictive to cigarettes. We have been setting goals with him and working with him on his addiction. He has improved a little, but we are still trying to help him overcome his addiction to cigarettes. His baptism will be in a few months. We have had a lot of setbacks and trails this last week with our investigators. Many of our progressing investigators have been going on trips for their work, funerals, and going back to their provinces, therefore we have not been able to teach them the past few weeks. We are doing our best to stay in contact with them and keep their fires of faith burning until they get back. 

But everything is going well. Earlier this morning the Assistants came down and played basketball. Elder Goodwin  will leave the office after this transfer. He goes home in November. And Elder Perkins goes home in December. So we wanted to play one last basketball game before they left. It was a lot of fun. I missed them. It will be weird to see them leave. We woke up earlier and We played for 4 hours. The legs were a little weak after all the games. 

Then another fun story. Friday night, when we got home, Elder Rickafort went into our kitchen and said, " There is a rat" ( this has happened quite a few times.) ( and our kitchen is practically outside, so all the animals just come in and out. They last time we had a rat in the house he escaped, so we were determined to get this one. He ran out side and we kind of cornered him in a corner. We built a little barricade to block him from leaving. We were trying to catch him, but he was getting frantic and him made a run for it and slipped past our barricade. Luckily, I was standing right outside the barricade, so when he ran out, I just kind of reacted and kicked him. ( luckily, we all know I have a golden foot, and all my years of punting footballs really helped. )  so I made a solid contact. He flew about four feet back. But he got up and started running again. This time I use my baseball experience,I was holding an umbrella in my hand, so I loaded and swung. and hit a line drive. He flew right back into the wall. Knock out. Then I put a few more blows to his head and he was out cold. So the rat hunting season has began! Thank you for joining us on "Ruffin it Outdoors Missionary Edition". Tune in next week, to see the pictures ;) 

Everything is going great! I love my mission and the Gospel. Enjoy your last few weeks of summer!

Sumasaiyo,

Elder Nielsen 

Temple Runnin'

Sorry. I have slagged off a little bit on my pictures. But I will send some today.

Here are some pretty parts in my area. 

Another week already? Time just flies. We had another great week last week. Michael was finally baptized last Saturday. Baptism has been his goal for a long time, but there were many situations and concerns that had to be resolved before he could be baptized. He was very thrilled to finally enter the waters of baptism after so much anticipation. We are very proud of him and his desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ through baptism. We know his decision to be baptize will effect his kids and family for many generations to come. Brother Arnold is no longer smoking cigarettes. He was finally able to stop smoking last week. When he first started, he was smoking twenty cigarettes everyday. He slowly cut down on the amount of cigarettes he was smoking, until he finally stopped. We are so proud of him and his willingness to give up such an addictive behavior in order to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. While we were helping him smoking, we showed him a little math problem. We showed him how much money he was spending on cigarettes everyday, every week, every month, and every year. After one year of not buying cigarettes, he would save over 16,000 pesos. We explained to him that he could save so much money if he would quit smoking. He agreed with us, and was really excited to save this large amount of money. We explained to him that he must live the Word of Wisdom for four weeks before he can be baptized. He said he is willing to wait and live the Word of Wisdom the rest of his life in order to be baptized. Brother Elbert attended church again for third time. We taught him yesterday about the Word of Wisdom and he confessed to us that he had a problem with smoking. He said he was smoking one or two sticks everyday. However, he committed to live the Word of Wisdom. He told that he will not smoke anymore. We re-extended his baptism to August 27. All our other investigators are still slowly progressing, but we are stilling building up their testimonies of the Gospel and solving their concerns. 

It has been a good last few weeks of work. Elder Ricafort is really buying in and we are working hard together. He said he is starting to enjoy missionary work. That is the key, you have to focus on the people you are teaching and make it fun. We enjoy the work and we are workin' our tails off here. 

So about the picture I just sent. I feel like I am in the game Temple Run. The area looks just like temple run. Green, mossy, old brick ruins, and TONS of stairs. There are literally so many stairs here. You are either going up stairs or down stairs. It is a really good workout for the legs. My companion is still struggling a bit in the area because it is so steep. He always says the President exiled him. And put him in this area to teach him and punish him. hahha

But everything is going great. I love my ward, my area, and companion. The work here is great. I love it. It is hard work, but sooo worth it. I hope I am still in this area when we see the fruits of our labors.

I love you all! Have a great week! Chose the Right and return with Honor! 

Pagmamahal,

Elder Nielsen

Strikin' Gold

We had another great week this week. Brother Michael passed his baptismal interview yesterday. His baptism will be held this Saturday. He has shown a lot of faith and has made many sacrifices in order to be baptized. When we first started teaching brother Michael, he was not married to his living partner, but he sacrificed his money in order to pay for his and his wife's marriage. We are very excited for him, and we are glad he made the decision to be baptized. Brother Arnold is now only smoking three cigarettes a day. We set a goal with him, that by Wednesday of this week he will be completely cigarette free. He has shown great progression and determination to quit smoking in order to be baptized. Brother Elbirt is an investigator that we found two weeks ago. He has already attended church two times. He was taught by missionaries in Novaliches, but unfortunately he moved to San Jose Del Monte and lost contact with the missionaries. We met him one walking down the street, and he said he wanted us teach him. His baptism is scheduled for the 6th of August. Our area is really starting bloom. We had 9 investigator in church yesterday. Hopefully everything will continue.  

Elder Ricafort and I experienced a miracle this week. We were miraculously able to find the house of the sibling of our recent convert. We had searched for their house on a number of occasions, but we were never able to find it. On Thursday, we were able to find their kids who led us to their house. At first, we were not going to follow their kids to their house because it was far away and we had just came from that direction, but we felt prompted that we should ask the kids to show us their house. The kids led us to their house. We taught the mother and her children, and we gave them a baptismal date. On Sunday, she and her family went to church. We are very excited to keep teaching their family and help them prepare for their baptism. They have a big family. And some of their other family live close by and they are net yet members. I feel like we have struck a little gold mine in this area. All thanks to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. 

We had a little problem with one of our investigators this last week. The investigators is in kind of a weird situation. She lives in the house of her boyfriend (20) (who is a member) and his family (members). The girl (19) does not really have a home and has just finished her schooling, so she is a little low on money. We had the approval to baptize her. But we checked with the APs on last time. They called President and the President called us. We talked about the situation and President said he did not feel comfortable with them in the same house. They said they were not yet ready for marriage. The mother got offended when we told her. It was all just a mess. But President said if we wanted he could have his counselor interview her and she is she is ready for baptism. We have been praying about it the last two days, and we feel we should just wait for her baptism. It has been kind of a mess.There are three progressing investigators at their house.  The mother and her whole family did not go yo church yesterday. So we will see what happens... Da Da da Duuuun. 

The new companion is really nice. We get along really well. We are just trying to break some of his old habits like sleeping when we are working. But it is going well. I am being a little patient patient with him, but I think everything we be great. I think we will have a very successful transfer here. 
The Ether district is doing well. We are excited to have some new missionaries in our district. I am very excited for the upcoming months with this district. The missionaries in this district are planning on having many baptisms in the next few months. I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to work with the missionaries in this district. 

The mission is great. The work is really great right now. I love being a misionary. The Gospel is so simple. It saddens me when LAs and Investigators do not understand how simple the plan of God is, they are not willing to make sacrifices here on earth. I love this work and love all you!!

Pagmamahal,

Elder Nielsen 

Adios Amigos!

  We had another great week last week. Our investigators are progressing steadily. Our investigators are very interested in the Gospel and have great active members supporting them. Brother Michael will have his baptismal interview this weekend. Brother Michael is very ready to be baptized. He is going to church every week, and his testimony has really grown in the last few weeks. We are very excited for him and his upcoming baptism on July 23rd. Unfortunately, we just had a few progressing investigators move back to their provinces, but we are collecting all their information and we will send their information to the missionaries in that area. All of our progressing investigators are doing well. We are doing our best to make sure that they keep progressing. We have been focusing on finding through the members this past week, and because of this, we have a brand new teaching pool of referrals from our members.

     The Ether District is doing well. Overall, I was pleased with the results of the missionaries in this district the last couple months. There were no major problems that occurred, and the missionaries appeared to be working hard and fulfilling their callings. The missionaries in this district are starting to baptize a lot more. The Kaypian Elders had three baptisms last Saturday, and the Francisco Homes Sisters also had a baptism last Saturday. The Elders and Sisters are expecting a lot more baptisms in upcoming months. I am very thankful for the opportunity I had to work with the Elders and Sisters in this district. 

So we had an interesting things happen last week. On Friday night President called and asked to talk to me. President said there was missionary getting Emergency Transferred, He asked me if I would be this Elder's companion for the next transfer. And I said yes. He told me this Elder has had a lot of problems with his last companion and they had a big fight. He told me I need to help this missionary be more obedient, patient, and hard working. He told me that Elder Mahinay would be transferring and this Elder getting ET would be my new companion. Oh no. Here we go again.

So the next day Elder Mahinay and I went and picked up the Elder. His name is Elder Ricafort. He is a very big Filipino. He looks like a Polynesian. He is nice Elder. But there are a few things that need to be improved. But I know this a calling from Our Heavenly Father, so I am excited for the opportunity to learn and grow. And to also help this Elder grow.  

  So Elder Mahinay is heading out to Novaliches!   I am very thankful for the opportunity I had to work with Elder Mahinay. Elder Mahinay is a great elder and has a very bright future in front of him. He is a very hard worker. He likes to just get out there and teach people. He has been a very good example for me the last couple months. I am very thankful I had the privilege to work with him. 

Overal, another great transfer! Our area and work is really progressing! I am ready to start another fun transfer! Thanks for all the prayers. Be safe in New Mexico! Love you all!

Mahal ko kayo

Elder Nielsen

ROUND 2 *ding*

We had another great week this week. Our investigators are continuing to progress. Brother Arnold is now only smoking 8 cigarettes a day, and has attended church six times. Brother Michael has went to church seven times, and is preparing for his baptism on the 23rd of July. Sister Stephanie is a new investigator that we found two weeks ago. Stephanie is a close friend of some of our recent converts. We have been teach Stephanie with our recent converts. She has attended church twice. Charlie and Lilia are neighbors of one of our recent covert families. Charlie and Lilia both have problems smoking, but after we taught the Word of Wisdom to them they said they would quit smoking. Sister Lilia has not smoked since, and Brother Charlie is now only smoking 5 cigarettes a day, instead of 20. We are very happy with the progression we are seeing with our investigators. 

The Ether District is doing very well. There were no concerns or problems reported from the missionaries this week. Sister Rantayo and Sister Gacayan have a baptism this Saturday. Elder Relita and Elder Hughes have three upcoming baptism this weekend. Elders Samante and Tagulao have a baptismal candidate that needs to be interviewed this week. They will also have a baptism next week. The missionaries in the Ether District are all doing well. They are all getting excited for transfers next week. I am actually very impressed with my district. They are killing it right now. They are all getting really high numbers. I don't think I a did a single thing to help them, but they are doing really well right now. Last week that had some of their best numbers. 

Our ward seemed very excited about our new mission goal of weekly baptisms. Last night, we had a member-missionary fireside in order to get the members more involved in member-missionary work. The fireside was very successful. Every member that attended the fireside wrote down the name of one of their friends that they think we be willing to listen to our message. After the meeting, the members gave us the pieces of papers with their referrals on it. 

ONE YEAR NA! That is crazy, yesterday was my year mark. It feels like it was just yesterday that I was leaving the airport. This year has been kinda of a blur. I have learned lots of things in this last year. A lot about myself. But overall, in boxing terms, I think I lost the first round. I think I got hit more than I swang back this year. I got hit with culture shock, Tagalog, training, some callings, disobedient missionaries ect. But now I fill like I am starting to fight back. I am starting to understand the flow of everything and everything is just getting so much easier. I am excited for this next half of my mission. This is where missionary work gets fun! I have endured the hardest part of my mission, and now I just get to enjoy the next year. This will be my best year in teaching. I am determined to give it all I have. "Let's get ready to Ruuuumble.."   Round 2 *DING*

It has just been another busy fun week. Elder Mahinay and I get along really well. We have a lot of fun together. But he will most likely get transferred next week. By the way, My email will be on Tuesday next week. 

I love my mission. It is hard work and it is always so hot. But it is worth it. I want to take advantage of this precious time in my life. I know this Gospel is True. I love all you. thank you for all the letters and prayers. I hope you are all doing well! And HAPPY JULY 4TH! :) 

Mahal ko po kayo

Elder Nielsen

Ps. 3 people that I was teaching with Elder Alcala in Camrin last transfer, just got baptized yesterday! I am so happy for them!