Aloha!!

Aloha

Sunset in Hawaii

  For some reason i decided not to print my emails when i had the chance just assuming no one really wrote me but guess what?!! so many good friends this week and we are cut short of time a little because we are going shopping in a bigger town called Kaneohe today!!! (i hate shopping but im the driver and also i need a new pillow because my pillow here is something only Robert would like haha).

But this week i don't feel like any big events happened... 

I met a lot of really neat and interesting people at the VC. And i really tried my best to help them feel the spirit and to help them have a desire to learn more, but no one was really interested :( it's amazing how different each week is. I was feeling down about it because I feel like it's something that I am doing that i need to change, which is probably true, but i was really sad about it. Being a VC sister is so hard. It's hard to actually get to know and personalize the lessons and tours because the person comes and goes within like 10 minutes, and we have a hope that they will feel the spirit and want to learn more. It's so emotionally draining. But it is so encouraging when strong members come in and just bear testimony and strengthen us as we are trying to strengthen them. They never know how much their testimonies mean to us. Strengthen the missionaries, because as spiritual as missionaries are, we struggle sometimes and sometimes all we need is a little pick me up or a little spiritual boost. :) 

But something i really love that i haven't had a lot of time for is contacting the referrals we are given.. and yesterday i got to contact this man from Idaho and it just felt so good to be an answer to his prayer. I know that God knows each and every one of us. He leads people into our paths and prompts others so we can help each other. Now this man is going to go to church and also he committed to get back to reading the BOM again. 

We also had a really great zone conference this week. There are always things to improve on. Especially for sis yau and i. She's really relaxed which bothers me sometimes, but i'm learning patience and also a different way of seeing some of the investigators. It's so hard sometimes. But a talk i read just today was about how sin and weakness are very different things. And it's hard not to feel overwhelmed by our weaknesses, but God gave us them, so we need to humble ourselves and have faith!! 

Anyway, have a wonderful week. I wish i had more stories, but my mind is really blanking right now. I love hearing how everyone is doing. It makes me so happy. Especially seeing your cute faaces!!!! AND GUESS WHAT> GENERAL CONFERENCE IS COMING!!!!! IVE NEVER BEEN SO EXCITED TO GET UP BEFORE 6 TO WATCH IT haha. its gonna be an early couple of few days but i am so blessed!!!!\

Love you all and have a wonderful week!! thanks for the love and support!

Studying by the ocean

its been so hot lately here hahah. so crazy how different the weather is. We did our study on the beach the other day hahah well in the grass but we could enjoy the lovely weather and the ocean breeze.. what is my life?!? ;) 

oh guess what. we get to watch GC in the theatres here at the VC hahaha what a missionary dream ;).

TALOFA!

HI!!!!!                                                 March 23, 2016

This week went by so fast.. and with my new companion being so chatty I hardly wrote in my journal and so I can't remember anything!!!! AHHH! also we bought food and the members feed us so much that we hardly ate anything.. I am already so sick of rice and so much meat haha. the struggle. But the people in the Samoan and 8th wards are so so nice. And all have the hardest last names haha. The Samoan people are all loud and crazy. They had such a fun Relief Society birthday party haha. 

Samoans

So did I ever tell you about Fransisca?? She's from south africa! We get to call her and teach her more about the gospel because there aren't missionaries that live close to her. But it is such a humbling experience. (every conversation with people from all over the world is so humbling) but She really knows this church is true and she has met missionaries in person once, they didn't even give her a BOM so she hasn't even read it yet, she doesnt have enough money to travel to the chapel until the end of this month, but she is saving up so she can come meet the congregation there. But her situation is so humbling, yet she is so faithful. And helping her to realize the gospel and how she really can overcome sin and sorrows through the Atonement is such a great experience. I love being an instrument in the hands of God!!!  

Another awesome experience was from a member referral at the VC. I think oftentimes people leave referrals or dont leave them thinking their friend or family will be mad at them. But someone left a referral for their aunt, and GUESS WHAT. She has many family members that are members of the church, but from us calling her and the message we shared with her over the phone, she was interested with meeting the local missionaries and for us to call and share more. The coolest part is that they have upgraded the referral system, and since the auntie lives in Hawaii, we got a call from the missionaries wanting to know more only 30 minutes later!!!! So we were able to send the referral and the Auntie could have met the missionaries all in the same day!! DO YOU KNOW HOW AMAZING THAT IS. so so amazing. (bonus tender mercy was that our old District leader that just got moved out of Laie will be teaching her <3). Also other really awesome thing, with the new video and us working really hard, as a VC this week we were able to send local missionaries to 136 different people. The work really is moving forward so much. I am so grateful to be apart of it. 

Service at Pearl Harbor

Also, there has been a lot of mixed feelings because some of us might not get to go full field on our missions, but we had a really good meeting and were reminded how special we are to be able to be at a VC. only 2% of sister missionaries are able to be at a VC. That is something really special. We get to have people come to us and experience golden investigators every single day. We get to let everyone from all over the world, whether members or not, really feel the spirit and the love of God. I couldn’t feel more grateful for my opportunity. The only thing I don't love is having my picture taken all the time haha.

Cleaning at the temple

I love sister Yau. She leaves at the end of the transfer, so I am trying to keep her from being trunky, but mostly just trying to learn as much as i can from her. I am trying to learn patience and charity with her. Not just with her being so crazy and different than me, but that she really has taught me more about noticing the people around me, like the other sisters, that really need our love. That even if it doesn't fit nicely with our schedule, helping others is more important and that is truly what Jesus Christ would do. So this is the challenge this week: Think about the last time you really paused your day so you could really get to know someone and show them love. Then pray and decide on one person you really want to try to get to know better this week and do it. that's what Jesus Christ would do, and we all need each other to strengthen each other. That is one of the problems with the wards here. Everyone is SO BUSY, that no one takes the time to show love to their neighbors, and then there are so many LA's because of it. So go show love to others!!! and I love you all so much!

Thanks for all the emails. And have a great Easter!!! Watch the new Hallelujah video. It is soooooo awesome. I get to see it all day every day ;) 

Be good,

Love sister Nielsen 

TALOFA!

First Hawaiian Hamburger

first hawaiian burger

Hello my beautiful ohana :)                            

I hope you are all doing so good. I guess we are allowed to print our emails so like I can actually read through the emails you send without quickly skimming :) Yay!!! BTW mommy I got the fun package you sent me. Sis Yau was shocked at how sugary peeps are hahha all she eats are these really dry salty chinese crackers hahaha. Anyways, i love you!!

This week actually was really good haha it is weird to have pday on wed but the sisters in my pday group are sooo fun. i love them. they might even be too crazy for me to handle hah but i still love them. Asians are crazy >.< lol but also i love them so much. I love having a car too. we probably dont save any time though cause we are always giving rides to the other sistas! 

sister yau and sister nielsen

My new companion is so sweet. She is like the craziest girl here though too. soo friendly and so funny. The poly people love her and she's been in the same area for like 5 months so they know her really good too. She's really good at being personal with them, so all the kids love us missionaries and all the old people and basically everyone haha. I wish you could meet her. We are trying to exercise every morning.. but then today we just bought a bunch of sugar treats soooo hahah. it's like being with jamie ;) hahah. 

Okay, also it's so hard to adjust to a new comp because the teaching style is so different. Sis weygandt and i actually taught really well together. we balanced each other out really good and our tours/lessons always flowed really well and the spirit was always there. but we haven't figured it out this new transfer. we aren't really on the same page while we teach for some reason haha. but the nice thing is, if you testify of truth, the spirit is there and the spirit is the real teacher... but we are still learning :). One day I sincerely prayed to be able to recognize those that were ready to accept the gospel or those that had a need. and When the 60 guests came from tram tours, the spirit led me to a few different people and 4 of them were very interested in learning more :) and that is just one small way that I saw God's hand in my life after just saying a simple humble prayer. I love being able to share this happiness with others!!! Also a miracle is that we had some time online (with all the new schedules we haven't had much of a chance online to contact or call people) but it was 9am and we called a lady in south africa (9pm there) and were able to teach her more. She wants to learn more and is so ready, but the closest missionaries to her are an hour away, so they don't get to come teach her very much. so it is such a blessing to be able to call her and help her better understand God's plan for her. Also i laugh thinking about it because sis yau is one of those people that whispers really loud and doesn't understand some people's english, so she was always whispering really loud into the phone asking me what she said haha. But really, i love being in the teaching center online. I wish i could spend more time back there because we get all these people interesting in learning more, and then we dont have the time and i get discouraged because it breaks the purpose of getting the info... If i think about all the people i still haven't had the chance to get ahold of i get really sad. :(. If we had ipads i feel like we could be so much more effective because right now we have 6 computers and 26 missionaries................

Sad news about the area, none of our investigators are ever home.. plus in Samoan ward people are scattered everywhere because it isn't a ward boundary. And it's so hard because so many people are Less active or inactive, and of course they don't want to be confronted about it. but we have been really praying to know what their needs or concerns are.. because i know how much of a strength going to church is. and how important prayer and daily scripture study is. and it's hard to help others to understand that if they aren't willing to try it for themselves. 

Also struggle right now is we have personal study, comp study, 12 weeks study, and language study. 4 hours of study. and then like 1-2 hours in our area... soooooooo crazy. 

Oh but the Samoan ward is so fun. they speak Samoan in the meetings at church and the hymns everyone actually SINGS. and they all wear muumuus and the man skirt things(lavalava??) lol. But the struggle to me is they all look the same, all have such hard names to say, and like 4 families live in one house.. idk how to keep anyone straight haha. Also i am definitely the only blonde in that congregation so i stick out so much haha. But the people are soooo loving.. so loving that everyone kisses everyone, just friendly Hi kisses, but still surprising for me every time haha. 

Something really cool i learned in my scripture study today was in 1 Nephi chapter 17. verses 2 and 20. read it! it is nephi and laman's attitude about the same situation. when we have God on our side, our whole perspective changes!!! let God be on your side :) I love you all!!!

Have a great week! Talofa! :)

Love Sister Nielsen

Transfer Day

March 8, 2016

Guess what?!?! This is the last day of the transfer :( I have already had so much of a change of heart. I can't even believe how much the Lord will shape us when we let him. I prayed and prayed and tried so hard and even fasted, and i seriously love Sister Weygandt so much. And I even love the people we teach and that come into the VC SO MUCH more. I am so grateful.. I know there is still room to love more and to be more humble, but i also cant believe it has taken almost a whole transfer. Shesh. 

Joseph Duano aka Elder Duano

Anyways, last PDay was so fun! We went and ate pad thai and let me tell you it is so good. and Elder Duano (joseph) haha was the worker, so fun! I think i even captured a picture of him in work haha. It was fun to talk to him about the people back in Soda Springs that he taught and made me really wish I had shared the gospel more before i left. I think everyone thinks that, but I know how much more members can do than we do. But then we got to go to the PCC and see the New Zealand show and an imax theatre show. haha i love that we can go to the pcc whenever, but i still have only seen two villages.

We had an awesome lesson with a couple investigating and it was basically them talkin to the Bishop about the priesthood. They know in order to grow their faith they will have to act (read, come to church, etc) but things keep coming up! Like every sunday they have an emergency at work, they get sick, they go to the ER, etc. so crazy. :( But i know they will make it and once they do, i hope they can feel the spirit testify of the truth! 

I wish I had time to tell you about every lesson. I love all the different personalities and the different levels of readiness. Like Jane for example, she is just so ready. We talked to her about finding out for herself if the BOM was true, and she was confused because she never even doubted it. We even got a member to come teach with us and that in itself was a miracle. But I feel the spirit so much when we teach her. 

My View

On Wednesday we got to go do service at Pearl Harbor. haha we swept the decks and the gutters and it was so hot haha. It was so fun though. I love serving, and i want to research more about the attack on pearl harbor. I feel like the history would mean so much more if i learned about it prior ha. 

Some of the VC miracles we saw this week: This couple came in from India and we got talking about Jesus Christ and how much He loves us and I love him and how much the gospel has brought me happiness. And then we talked about the BOM and they wanted one but we didn't think we had a BOM in their language (i dont even know how to say it, one of those languages that just look like scribbles) but we looked and looked and there was one more!!!!!!! so i am looking forward to calling them and seein how they like it. They are Hindu so It's quite different! I have been studying about different religions basic beliefs and it amazes me how similar a lot of religions are. But yeah. and then on the way back to the PCC, they told us how much we just radiated happiness and how you could just see it. I am so grateful to be able to be a missionary. I hope i can live obediently and in tune with the spirit enough that others will be able to see the happiness we have and want to talk to us so they can have that too. 

Sis Yao and Nielsen

Sad news. So saturday we had comp inventory and just really talked out how this whole transfer has been and what we've learned and everything. And I cried because I didn't want to find out (later that night) if we were going to be together or changed. And I was just hopin we could be together because I love teaching with her. She is so diligent and although reserved, she balances me out so much! But then later we had TRANSFER NEWS. We played memory match to find out who our comp would be, our area, and what pad we would live in. I am with this hilarious crazy chinese girl (hong kong)

My favorite food

Sister Yao, and we stay in the same pad but our area is changed (i trust God, but i dont want to say goodbye to the people I just barely figured out who they are hah) but we will be in the Samoan ward and another family ward. Seriously all people tell me is that i will gain weight. great, just
great. hahah I already have gained weight im sure, so ill have to be careful. But it will be good.I"m excited :).

the district

I got the letters and i loved them. :) It is so great to read the emails of other missionaries. It really motivates me. Also Josh sent me a package and gave me a really cool scripture case :) I love getting letters though :) I still haven't sent the ones i wrote a few weeks ago lol Its so hard to remember!

I love being a missionary! And especially studying about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. "Learn of me and listen to my words...and ye shall find peace in me" :) I already feel closer to them the more i learn of them. I know they love each and every one of us. and I know that somehow Jesus Christ took all of our sins and we only need to repent and we can be cleansed!!!!
I hope you all have a great week and good luck to robert in BPA!!!!!!

Aloha, Sister Nielsen

ALOOOOOHHA!!!!

ALOOOOOHHA!!!!                          

The sunrise out my back door

Alright time is starting to fly by so quickly and our days are so busy that when we come to do daily planning in the evening we don't even have time to plan anything... I guess its a good and bad thing. But it's great because we have such great investigators <3 I seriously love them so much. So there's this lady named jane and she is like the sweetest. I will have o get a picture with her. she grows celery and bananas lol. but she is also one of the only non members in the ward so she wanted to learn more about what the people around her believed and try to understand why they looked at her weird when she smoked or things like that. so the more we have taught her the more we have found out that she really has such a hole in her life. she has never felt like this life has any purpose or anything like that. she wants to know why she is here, and as we teach her i know she feels the spirit because it is so powerful during our lessons. We have wanted to get the ward more involved in fellowshipping her but i guess a month ago there was an incident. Her boyfriend's son stole a car and was armed and was hiding at janes house i guess. and so when all of Laie police department surrounded her house and all had rifles, it freaked the neighbors out quite a bit. but the sad part is that jane is having to deal with the consequence of her "son", and he is in jail but they don’t even say hi to her anymore :( she is hesitant about coming to church because she feels judged and like the people won't accept her. and the worst part is that they -so far- wont. but that is something we are working on and trying to have with member lessons to show everyone how sweet and sincere she really is. She is reading the book of mormon but its the first book she has read for what sounds like a long time, plus she has to use a magnifying glass. so it's a slow process but we love teaching her and especially teaching the plan of salvation. I love the plan of salvation. I have always just had that as general knowledge to me growing up in the church, but teaching it to others helps me to fully realize what a blessing it is to know where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. And it's not even just wanting it to be true. It's something we can each know for ourselves that it is true. I also love that about the gospel. I love being able to tell people that all it takes is faith and action to prove your faith. The gospel is so amazing. 

Another family we are teaching (actually tonight we are teaching :)) is having a hard time with the POS because not all of it is in the bible (but it is with the JSTs) so tonight we are going to try to help them understand the restoration again. They are so awesome though. I love when people have such unshaken faith in Jesus Christ even when they aren't members of this church. Jesus is central to every lesson we teach and everything we do :) I love him.

Last night we got a referral for this guy "romie" who is some kind of Polynesian, but he speaks with such pidgin that we have a hard time understanding him haha we have already started praying for the gift of tongues because all his friends say he is so ready and earnest in wanting to learn about the gospel, but talking to him on the phone was us just asking him to repeat himself... tonight we get to teach him too :) I love how much God prepares people to accept the gospel.

In the Visitors' center there were a few miracles. Okay there were a lot of miracles but I will share a few ;). First off, this man in a wheelchair that is always hanging out at the VC with us, Danny, is so awesome. And one of the Sisters was having a hard time with something and asked him for a blessing. It was the best blessing ever. Not because he was in a wheelchair, but because he is so humble and loving and truly showed me how God can work through any worthy priesthood holder. Next, we had a few people that we hardly even talked to, like we got to know them and then asked them if they would be interested in learning more about the purpose of being here on earth, and they left their information! I know that doesn't sound crazy or anything, but when some people leave their info you can tell its just being polite or just wanting to be nice, but other people you can see in their eyes the desire to know God and it is such a blessing to be able to help others learn about God and why we are here. Also just sharing my testimony with others even if they don't leave info to keep teaching, i know they felt the spirit and might even keep the little commitments I leave with them (like to pray to God and ask if he is really there) and I just hope and pray that they have enough interest to look up mormon.org or beta.mormon.org which btw are so great and you all should look them up. :) 

I love you all so much. this gospel really is the gospel of Jesus Christ and of Heavenly Father. They both love us all so much and I get to see that daily- I hope you all can see that daily or start to look for it because I know it is there. I know that the Restoration really happened and that all the things that have been reveled to prophets in our latter days will bless us and help us return to God again someday <3 I love you and hope you have a great week!!!! 

Sister Nielsen