Hello :)

Hello hello hellooooo :)

This week has been preettty good. Its been cold weather for me. I even wore my sweater yesterday haha. And riding a bike in the wind with a skirt is the struggle of my life hahah. It's all good and sunny here though :) and my sandal tan lines are getting pretty funky looking ;) Don't be too jealous. I get weather updates from the tourists of what Idaho and Utah are like hahah pretty funny. Also the waves have been so big! Its so relaxing to be able to open my back door and have the sound of crashing waves :). 

So let's see. I talked things out with my compadre. Yeah, humility isn't my best quality but im definitely working on it. And once we talked it out we were able to have th e spirit and guess what. Miracle after miracle. Like some days are "duds" (just no one will listen and no one will answer their doors) but really, so many miracles everywhere. And such serving people here in hawaii. If we wait for someone in a public place, like everyone tries to buy us things and give us money. Thats a big thing here in hawaii. On sis Weygandts bday we got to buy ice cream with some money given to us :) haha. I still haven't tried that dole pineapple whip icecream stuff.. Maybe this week.

THE NOOLS BAPTISM WAS SO GOOD. im so happy for them and that they were able to make this sacred covenant with god. and especially that they were able to receive the holy ghost. I just could see so much joy in their eyes. It made me want to do even more to be a better missionary to share that with others. They are the ones in the pictures. They say they understand me but whenever i ask them questions they never answer hahahah language barriers are the worst, and so common here... I am learning bits and peices to different languages though! Phillipines (mahal kita!) and then korean and japanese. hahah every time i say anything, people say "aw cute" hahah except our mean bus driver moymoy, he says i sound stupid lol. He's so nice. 

This week there have been a lot of atheists coming into the visitor’s center. It's so hard to share testimony with people when they think it is all a joke. I really do hope they can at least have felt the spirit so they know where to turn if they ever realize that god is real.. I cant imagine how sad it is for god to see so many people just openly rejecting even the idea of him :(. There were still those people that came in and just were ready. I am really excited to hear back from a few quests that i left book of mormons with and see how they like it. :). And also i just love the visitors center. it makes fulfilling my purpose so much easier! the spirit is always there. 

In the area, we had some chances to meet more people and to teach more lessons :) I feel so blessed to have so many interested people in our area. Sometimes i feel like sis weygandt isn't bold enough and we beat around the bush too much, but with both of our personalities we are able to balance each other out i think. We got to go to FHE sunday with a family and investigator. I am so grateful because sunday night without fhe is so sad! This investigator is kind of hard though because she won’t really talk to us or answer our questions... so this week we are going to try to figure out a better way to teach her... and then another investigator family we were prompted to go see and they are letting us come back and teach them. They stopped making time for the missionaries for a while and now are ready :) so that will be tonight! I love the messages of the gospel. Especially the atonement. Jesus Christ just the most loving person ever and i am so grateful to know that he already has won the war. We just have to follow him! 

Proverbs 3:5-6!!!

Aw this week just went by so fast, its weird we are already in week 5 of this transfer. Time flies when youre having fun ;)

Mahal Kita! and Aloha! <3

love sister nielsen

Feb. 16, 2016

Sister Weygandt and Sister Nielsen

Hi my loves, this week has been a crazy rollercoaster of emotions for me for some reason. whoohoo. there have been a lot of awesome experiences though. We got to teach this lady, Jane, who we met while we did our "tracting" which finding anyone that isn't a member in Laie really is a miracle haha. but she really listened to what we taught her about the Restoration and is having a lesson with us tomorrow! She is such a sweet lady and i really hope she can feel the spirit when she reads the Book of Mormon. I can't make someone else feel what I feel, but i know it would really change her life in a great way so I really have been praying for her! Also the phillipino family that we have taught a few lessons to is getting baptized on Saturday!!!! I love them haha I can barely understand anything they say and our conversations outside of gospel lessons are very very confusing for all. hahah. anyways. It's been so hard to make time for any more investigators with our weird schedule and it makes me so sad. i love the 3 hours of study, but i feel like i'm such a burden to my companion because the last hour is just beginner missionary study time so idk, it's hard not to be able to use that to hasten the work. I love the food and the families (especially poly families) stuff food down me like nothing hahah I am stuffed still when I go to bed at night hahah. 

bike life

So being in the visitors' center was kind of hard this week. My companion is always telling me things i should do differently or not do, and after a while of it it's really hard not to get discouraged. I told her to stop unless i ask her, but now she really doesn't like me and we have no companion unity... and it doesn't help that we aren't ever alone together the last few days, so we haven't had the chance to really talk it out. So it's been rough. When we teach together we don't teach with the spirit and so the last few days of lessons have been pretty pathetic. I am gonna talk to her today, but it's been real evidence to me that we really are nothing out here on missions without God's help. We really are just tools He uses if we humble ourselves. I have a lot to work on, especially humility this week. A mission is like 1000000 times harder than i thought it would be. I guess we don't change if we aren't out of our comfort zones though, right? But its been really hard not being able to just call home or to even be able to vent to anyone. I guess that's God's way of making us turn to him because he's the only one that's always there and available. I've had so many answers to prayers just this morning though, so I know everything is going to be alright. I just really have to allow myself to change and figure out how to even become basic friends with my companion. We had exchanges this week and it was good to see how other sisters do things, but the most important thing i learned was that I need to treat my companion like I'm going to be with her forever, not just 6 weeks. Because when i think of it ending in 6 weeks I give up, but if i think of being with her forever then I have to change in order to make things work. The struggle is real. But God definitely loves me and has given me tender blessing after tender blessing and really shows his love in so many ways. 

temple grounds

 

I'm glad you all had a fun week. Everyone loves to see pictures of you all,,,, especially me. Yall are so cute. 

Love you!

Sister Nielsen

our dumb chicken

 

 

ALOHAAAA

ALOHAAAA                                      Feb. 9, 2016

Guess what. its like 50-60 degrees in the night and morning and i am like freezing hahaha. I even wore my tights this morning to our meeting and a cardigan and almost my jacket. kinda hilarious. But now im like sweating so its all back to good ;) hawaii shouldnt scare me like that. I love to see the snowy idaho pictures :) i actually do miss the snow haha its almost toooo perfect here. But i am getting a little tanner. I dont want to be super brown or anything but i keep forgetting to buy sunscreen. luckily i am modest so the only places that are tan are my arms and face.. and feet haha. 

anyways, this week went so fast!!! It seems like there is nothing to even tell you that is new. Except so much happens everyday. It's pretty crazy, I spend 3 hours everyday studying (and it isn't nearly enough time. just when i get going on learning about something we have to end) but then we have our VC shift which is either 9-230 or 230-8 and so it's hard to really get anything done in our area, especially with 3 different wards. I love the business of it all though. It keeps me from being homesick or from being unfocused on the work. Today the sisters kept asking about family and jamie and stuff and it made me crryyyyy hahah i swear im doing good though. i just love yall too much ;). I heard the broncos won.. whoohoo!! 

So i am so blessed. there are some missionaries that haven't had any baptisms this whole time and I just get here and am given investigators that already have been taught everything and are getting baptized on the 20th (which is also sis weygandt's bday! how fun) and so i get to experience a baptism and everything involved with that early in my mission :) also i love them, the Nools. They are like the most faithful people. Theyre the ones that dont speak good english. So i dont even know what they fully understand from us teaching but they totally feel the spirit and know its true. I love it. Also we spend a lot of time tracting and meeting members/nonmembers. We get a lot of referrals but then its hard to match up times with them to actually meet them, so we are working on that. But the members are so awesome. There are so many RMs here in Laie so they totally know how to help us. And the ward mission leaders are so motivating and really are great member missionaries. They dont hold back! i love it. I want to be like that when i come back. It amazes me when we find people in the community that don't really know anything about our church because its like 92% lds here... but its fun to teach :) Sunday night we got to teach a FHE with a family that invited their friend Miley, and  i think we might get to teach her privately too :) i sure hope so! the gospel really does bless lives more than anyone can comprehend.

I love being the VC. its such a blessing, because people have a negative view of missionaries, but then they come over on the tram tour and we teach them for a little bit and even though they dont say they want to learn more, they often times say the spirit is so different at the VC because we aren't "as pushy", but i think its just the fact that they chose to come to us and no one made them.. so its such a blessing. And not everyone is open to learn, but we really do have so many opportunities to teach people about Jesus Christ and how he has changed our lives. I really try not to get that missionary accent because i think it makes it sound not as sincere... like it sounds more memorized. but im grateful for the holy ghost, because it doesn't even matter what we say as much as how we are able to let the spirit teach through us. I'm really a horrible teacher haha but i have had so many miracles where i just open my mouth and the spirit just speaks for me. It's such a blessing. And there are so many prepared people that come through. I finally got my first real guest card back. I hope they dont just brush off their experience they had here and can remember the peace they felt here.. And its hard to make time to go email/call them through the week, but we are figuring it out :)

Im so grateful for Jesus Christ. Ive been studying a lot about why he died for us. And I just can't comprehend the love he has for just me. I watched Becasue He Lives (a 3 minute video) and i just felt the spirit and his love so strongly. watch it ;,) Also I watch God's plan for his family like a hundred times a day haha but i love it so much. I'm so grateful for you alllll. The temple really does give us so much peace and comfort knowing we can be together forever <3 i cant imagine life without that assurance. I love GOD and the GOSPEL. 

I love you!!!!!!! (I'm starting to get the tram tour script figured out hahah "Sister Weygandt and i aren't PCC workers or students here, but we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints :D" hahah. So fun/ so awkward sometimes haha. Its all good :) 

Have a great week! Happy love day. Youre all great. 

Love sister nielsen

 

I LOVE HAWAII!!!!

I LOVE HAWAII!!!!!! Seriously ive never been anywhere more beautiful. Ill send pics :) but im no photographer hahha but its still beautiful. So yeah, sorry i couldn't call. after i hung up with mom it wouldnt let me call anymore?!?! i was very annoyed haha but i still love you ;). the flight was sooo long haha but i tried being a missionary and invited this older group of passengers to come to the visitors center in a few weeks when they are on oahu :) hopefully they come! man its been so crazy i dont even know where to begin. plus i got like 100 emails ;,) so sweet. i hope i have time to write back to everyone. wow theres so much that has happened hahah.  ok so i guess ill start with my funny story. Elder Holland came to give a devotional to our missionaries on oahu, and since my comp was in a musical number we got to sit on the front row, and I was literally the closest person to elder holland haha he probably spat on me a few times hahah. but we each got to go up and shake his hand and introduce ourselves, i was so awkward and basically forgot my name... but it was amazing to get to hear him meet each of the missionaries and see the love he has for all of us.  so awesome. Then when he spoke he just had a little microphone thing so he could walk around and was explaining why.. and i looked up and he came straight at me with hands out and lightly put his hands around my neck and shook me hahahah i was so shocked and couldnt even speak forever hahaha then he patted my face and told me the color would come back in my face in a few hours. it took me a moment to recollect myself hahah but his talk was so good! he taught us the importance of the book of mormon. he called on me several times to read verses and stuff, and then when he left he like patted me on the back (i think that was his apology for scaring the daylights out of mehahah) but everyones been teasing me that im his best friend or something. its really funny to think that Elder Holland like "strangled" me hahahah. hes awesome. 

lets see. my companion is sister weygandt and shes super sweet and humble. always saying sorry and thankyou (almost drives me crazy lol) but shes really good beceause she encourages me to teach and everything. We spend a lot of time studying and then half the day in the VC and then the leftover hours proselyting. we cover 3 wards and there aren't many nonmembers. Its awesome though because we have several families that already are in the discussions and some even have baptismal dates. On sunday we got to teach this phillipeno family that doesn't speak good english, so we have a member come translate what they say to us. theyre so faithful though, i love it! Its tricky to know how to handle some of the nonmembers because every 6 weeks new missionaries come and meet them and so theyre kind of turned against missionaries, but we are thinking of ways to reach their hearts. Its amazing to get to be a tool that god can use to teach his other children. Ive been trying to develop more humility and charity. I want my mission to change me, but its hard not to see the faults in others and want to make them change.. for example having dirty roommates and being annoyed that they don't wash their dishes. but then i have to think about what christ would do, and then i just wash them and try to approach the situation in a loving way rather than being mad and accusing.. i have a lot of work to go though on that. 

I have sooo much i have to learn. i have to learn about the exhibits in the VC but also we do a tram tour from the PCC to the VC of all these historic facts of Laie hahah i hardly say anything because it stresses me out. im so awkward sometimes. Luckily sister weygandt knows what shes doing. (she half american/ japanese.. grew up in japan). Im one of the 3 blondies here haha. there are so many asians and i love them soo much. theyre so funny. of course i love all the vc sisters. they really are the sweetest and im so grateful to be able to have basically more than one companion. its fun. and keeps my spirits up :)

oh let me tell you about where i live. i live literally right on the ocean. "beach pad" is what it is called. Ill send pics. We cant go on the sand, but my yard is grass and goes like 2 yards away from the ocean. its really pretty and fun to workout out side by it. but the problem is there are chickens like everywhere, so at like 4 in the morning they start yelling at each other and its sooo annoying. the baby chicks running around are cute though :) (we live with 2 other sisters, its a 2 level apt and kinda dirty looking but pretty cool.) Oh also, i never planned for it, but i ride a bike everywhere haha. luckily theres this garage where sisters trade their clothes, so i have collected a few flowier skirts to ride bike in. their old rusty noisy beach cruiser bikes lol theyre better than walking!!!!!! 

the members here are awesome. we teach a lot of lessons to members to get to know them better and help them come closer to christ too. the meals ive eaten are so good haha. i probably will get fat here with NO SHAME. we had this really good dish of japanese food.. like rice, egg, pork and idk what else but i loved it. also its nice because we can be out teaching till 9 and i never need a jacket. even when its raining its still pleasant. that. is. life. and i sleep good here and try not to think about bugs. i have only seen 1 cockroach. and only 1 bug bite on my arm :)

 ALso i have learned a lot about different lifestyles and its crazy. some houses are huge and elegant, and then some are like a kitchen bed and table are all in one small space. Its amazing how different our lives all are. theres a lot more i could tell you about, but maybe ill just write letters or something. 

also let me figure out pics :)

ill write a letter explaining more of my day to day :) busy!!!!

Do you wear your muumuu while the VC and then regular clothes the rest of the time?

yes about the muu muu, i have 2 different ones, one for VC and one for PCC.

Is your camera working?

it works, the screen is jsut broken. i just found out today i can upload though so thats awesome :) also  a lot of sisters tell me theyll just send me pics? but i dont trust that.

Will you ever have a transfer away from the VC?

yes i will just like random throug the mission.

 how often will your companion change?

i think usually 6 weeks,but some are with the same comp longer.. 

Will Tues be your p-day always?

yes unless i get a new comp it might be monday? but that would be in like 6 weeks so yes tuesday. 

what did you do for the 2 days in the mission home?

oh we had a lot of training and i dont even know. its beautiful in that part of honolulu though. and the girls i was with were awesome. one was from killipos i think, its an island near the marshall islands. and she had such a humble life before. like maybe not even electricity! she was my comp there and i love her. yes. shes so awesome. adn sshort

How is the bike?

yes but it makes popping noises and is rusty and old lol we might get new bikes soon!!!