| Elder Michael Neilson 728 W. Kingbird Dr. Chandler, AZ 85286 |
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
January 26, 2011-Livin on the Farm!!!!!
Hola Everyone!!
This last week has been superb! I love it here in Arizona and I absolutely LOVE speaking spanish!! It is crazy how much my spanish has improved since I have gotten here, I know it is a gift from the Lord, I only wish that all of Brazil spoke spanish...o well! No visas this last week, but we had investigators at church and all of them are going to be baptized here in the next couple of weeks! Plus they have referred us to their family members who seem really promising too! The work is going sooooooooooo great and it is incredible to see how much the Spirit can change people's lives! Up until yesterday we had been sharing the Spanish Ward here with 2 other Elders, but both of them got transferred and President Howes has told us that he isn't going to replace them but instead we are going to cover both their area and our area for at least this next transfer, our area is now close to 80 sq miles! We have quite a few baptisms coming up and now have over 100 people that we are in contact with...we are BUSY to say the least haha I would much rather be super busy than have no work tho. Also, my companion and I have to move out of our apartment...our new house, the top of a member's barn!! How rad is that! Like seriously, it is a barn with cows, horses and all manner of animals, I'm so stoked!! Everything out here in AZ is amazing and I love the spanish work sooooo much. Take care back home, and make sure to give the little ones loves for me!!!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson
This last week has been superb! I love it here in Arizona and I absolutely LOVE speaking spanish!! It is crazy how much my spanish has improved since I have gotten here, I know it is a gift from the Lord, I only wish that all of Brazil spoke spanish...o well! No visas this last week, but we had investigators at church and all of them are going to be baptized here in the next couple of weeks! Plus they have referred us to their family members who seem really promising too! The work is going sooooooooooo great and it is incredible to see how much the Spirit can change people's lives! Up until yesterday we had been sharing the Spanish Ward here with 2 other Elders, but both of them got transferred and President Howes has told us that he isn't going to replace them but instead we are going to cover both their area and our area for at least this next transfer, our area is now close to 80 sq miles! We have quite a few baptisms coming up and now have over 100 people that we are in contact with...we are BUSY to say the least haha I would much rather be super busy than have no work tho. Also, my companion and I have to move out of our apartment...our new house, the top of a member's barn!! How rad is that! Like seriously, it is a barn with cows, horses and all manner of animals, I'm so stoked!! Everything out here in AZ is amazing and I love the spanish work sooooo much. Take care back home, and make sure to give the little ones loves for me!!!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
January 19, 2011- The Visas Are Coming!!!!!!!!
Aloha everyone!
So this past week here has been INCREDIBLE and we have seen soooooo many miracles. We have had people tell us they want to be baptized, investigators actually come to church, and many less active (for like years) finally start to come back to church!!! It is so cool because having an investigator come to church and seeing a less active come both bring incredible joy to missionaries, and more importantly the Lord. It has really taught me to not give up on people and realize that deep down in everyone they are actually hungry to know the truth and that's what the gospel brings. We have seen so many times where we will start to either teach or talk with someone and they are super hard and stiff at first but after just a few minutes of bearing testimony and allowing them to feel the Spirit their attitude changes DRAMATICALLY. But ya, life is absolutely great AND this last week 3 people in my MTC district got their Visas!!! We had dinner at this members house on Sunday and all they did basically was rave about how rad brazil is and I will be super stoked when my visa finally does come!! and carnival is next month so brazil will just be one giant party!! I'm not sure if that's great for missionary work hahah but I love you all and hope that in everything you do in life that you know that your Heavenly Father is there for you and that thru His Son we truly will be the happiest we can possibly be in this life. Give the kids and Mom tons of love for me!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson
January 12, 2011
Hey everyone!
This last week was SUCH a great week! We have been working our tails off and have been seeing the blessings from the Lord! It's funny because I have yet to have a baptism out here and we only have one person on date, but I don't feel discouraged because we are giving it our all and I have been able to see the Gospel greatly benefit the lives of the people we come in contact with and it has greatly benefited mine too. I had my first interview with President Howes this week (week get interviewed 4 times a year) and I told him how much I love Arizona and how grateful I am to be here. To that he told me he was glad to hear that, but told me that Brazil Florianopolis is still my mission and that I should not forget that. For some reason I imagine him responding differently but he is very straight forward about my time and purpose here in Arizona. Anyways, we have been teaching this guy named Manolo for some time now and every time we start teaching him, 3-4 of his roommates always come out and listen to us. They are all in their 20s, have tats and tons of piercings and it is amazing to see how the Spirit calms them down and touches them. They all wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon and said they would read it, so rad!! The power that comes from the calling of being a missionary is incredible! It is way more powerful than I could have ever imagined, and it is because we are representatives of Jesus Christ. Off of street contacts we have people completely open up to us and tell about their whole life story. People have soooo much trust in the missionaries and it is our job to make sure we are always worthy to have the Spirit with us so we can be trusted. I absolutely LOVE this work, it is amazing!! I hope all is well back home and that Mom's health gets better!!! Make sure to give the little ones loves for me!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson
ps. an elder from my MTC district just got his visa yesterday!!! so rad, hopefully I still have some more time here tho!!
This last week was SUCH a great week! We have been working our tails off and have been seeing the blessings from the Lord! It's funny because I have yet to have a baptism out here and we only have one person on date, but I don't feel discouraged because we are giving it our all and I have been able to see the Gospel greatly benefit the lives of the people we come in contact with and it has greatly benefited mine too. I had my first interview with President Howes this week (week get interviewed 4 times a year) and I told him how much I love Arizona and how grateful I am to be here. To that he told me he was glad to hear that, but told me that Brazil Florianopolis is still my mission and that I should not forget that. For some reason I imagine him responding differently but he is very straight forward about my time and purpose here in Arizona. Anyways, we have been teaching this guy named Manolo for some time now and every time we start teaching him, 3-4 of his roommates always come out and listen to us. They are all in their 20s, have tats and tons of piercings and it is amazing to see how the Spirit calms them down and touches them. They all wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon and said they would read it, so rad!! The power that comes from the calling of being a missionary is incredible! It is way more powerful than I could have ever imagined, and it is because we are representatives of Jesus Christ. Off of street contacts we have people completely open up to us and tell about their whole life story. People have soooo much trust in the missionaries and it is our job to make sure we are always worthy to have the Spirit with us so we can be trusted. I absolutely LOVE this work, it is amazing!! I hope all is well back home and that Mom's health gets better!!! Make sure to give the little ones loves for me!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson
ps. an elder from my MTC district just got his visa yesterday!!! so rad, hopefully I still have some more time here tho!!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
January 5, 2011
Hey everyone!
I hope you all had an amazing New Years!! Ours was good out here, not very productive on New Years Day tho...we went outside just to find all of Chandler hungover or still drinking out in the streets, not the state of mind we want people to be in when we teach them about the gospel haha. We have been sooooooo incredibly blessed this last week and have seen an increase in the number of people we teach and seen incredible improvement in the people we teach! I absolutely LOVE it here. I don't even want to think about Brazil because it seems like every day I have less and less of a desire to ever go there. The work here is AMAZING and I have so much love for everyone here that it is going to be really hard to leave Arizona. Everything about this place is great!! I've seen so many blessings from the Lord and I have a hard time imagining myself receiving these blessings anywhere else. I know that I have been called by the Lord to serve in Brazil tho, and when I do get that call for my visa I know I will be very excited! The language has been coming along soooooo incredibly well, at first I thought everyone talked SO fast but it does not seem that way anymore. If you know me well then you know that I feel like I was born to speak Spanish and I am so thankful to the Lord for allowing me this opportunity. This mission has really taught me the importance of faith and works. If we ever desire to gain anything in this life then we need to first turn to the Lord, let Him know that we have faith in Him and show, by our works, that we actually do believe in Him and we are going to work our hardest. I LOVE my time out here, it is such a blessing!! My companion is amazing and I am sooooo lucky to be serving with him. I hope all is well back home and that Mom continues to improve!!! Give EVERYONE loves for me!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson
I hope you all had an amazing New Years!! Ours was good out here, not very productive on New Years Day tho...we went outside just to find all of Chandler hungover or still drinking out in the streets, not the state of mind we want people to be in when we teach them about the gospel haha. We have been sooooooo incredibly blessed this last week and have seen an increase in the number of people we teach and seen incredible improvement in the people we teach! I absolutely LOVE it here. I don't even want to think about Brazil because it seems like every day I have less and less of a desire to ever go there. The work here is AMAZING and I have so much love for everyone here that it is going to be really hard to leave Arizona. Everything about this place is great!! I've seen so many blessings from the Lord and I have a hard time imagining myself receiving these blessings anywhere else. I know that I have been called by the Lord to serve in Brazil tho, and when I do get that call for my visa I know I will be very excited! The language has been coming along soooooo incredibly well, at first I thought everyone talked SO fast but it does not seem that way anymore. If you know me well then you know that I feel like I was born to speak Spanish and I am so thankful to the Lord for allowing me this opportunity. This mission has really taught me the importance of faith and works. If we ever desire to gain anything in this life then we need to first turn to the Lord, let Him know that we have faith in Him and show, by our works, that we actually do believe in Him and we are going to work our hardest. I LOVE my time out here, it is such a blessing!! My companion is amazing and I am sooooo lucky to be serving with him. I hope all is well back home and that Mom continues to improve!!! Give EVERYONE loves for me!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson
December 29, 2010
Hey everyone!
I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!! It was super good to be able to call home and talk with you guys!!! Hopefully Mom's health is improving and the doctors will get her back home A.S.A.P! So this last week was fantastic!! Christmas Eve we got to help the Bishop and some High Counsel Members take Christmas Packages to some of the families in the Spanish ward who are going thru tough financial times, they were all soooo gracious and it felt so great to be able to perform this service for them. We (like all missionaries) seek for service opportunities every day and it is such a blessing for us when we are able to help others! It makes us feel good and feel closer to Christ while at the same time giving others a good taste of what our church is about: Service. If you ever see an opportunity to serve, take it. Mom is a pretty amazing example of this. Christmas day was incredible too! We got to teach a lesson to one of our investigators in the morning, do some more street contacting, call home in the afternoon, eat dinner at a member's home (they are a super cool cute little old couple from Columbia) and then play football with the rest of the Elders in our zone! So fun, and yet so tiring haha. Our numbers for the Christmas weekend were pretty low and we weren't too pleased with that. So. We hit the pavement running on Monday and to start off this week we have shattered our street contacting record and our return appointments off of street contacts (if that makes any sense haha). Work solves everything. If you are constantly giving it your all and doing everything in your power to raise the voice of warning, then all other worries go away. It is such a fulfilling feeling to know that you truly have worked your hardest. I love you all and wish you a great New Year (Ano Nuevo)!!!! Give the little ones and Mom tons of love for me!!!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson
I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!! It was super good to be able to call home and talk with you guys!!! Hopefully Mom's health is improving and the doctors will get her back home A.S.A.P! So this last week was fantastic!! Christmas Eve we got to help the Bishop and some High Counsel Members take Christmas Packages to some of the families in the Spanish ward who are going thru tough financial times, they were all soooo gracious and it felt so great to be able to perform this service for them. We (like all missionaries) seek for service opportunities every day and it is such a blessing for us when we are able to help others! It makes us feel good and feel closer to Christ while at the same time giving others a good taste of what our church is about: Service. If you ever see an opportunity to serve, take it. Mom is a pretty amazing example of this. Christmas day was incredible too! We got to teach a lesson to one of our investigators in the morning, do some more street contacting, call home in the afternoon, eat dinner at a member's home (they are a super cool cute little old couple from Columbia) and then play football with the rest of the Elders in our zone! So fun, and yet so tiring haha. Our numbers for the Christmas weekend were pretty low and we weren't too pleased with that. So. We hit the pavement running on Monday and to start off this week we have shattered our street contacting record and our return appointments off of street contacts (if that makes any sense haha). Work solves everything. If you are constantly giving it your all and doing everything in your power to raise the voice of warning, then all other worries go away. It is such a fulfilling feeling to know that you truly have worked your hardest. I love you all and wish you a great New Year (Ano Nuevo)!!!! Give the little ones and Mom tons of love for me!!!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson
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