Little miracles are still miracles

I'm sorry I don't have a lot of time today! Pray for my sweet companion. She tweaked her back on Friday and is having a hard time. Also, send prayers out for each of the people I'll talk about in this email. And the H family, whom we're meeting with tonight, and hopefully they'll let us teach lessons to get them back to church and to help get their little girl, Riley, baptized!

Here's what I sent to my mission president, because we really don't have a lot of time today. So sorry. (Some sister missionaries in our zone got stranded in Kennewick today, and we gave them a ride back to their area.)

"We've had a pretty good week! A couple of miracles along with quite a bit of opposition, but the servants of God are always meant to swim in deep water. So grateful for the sweetness of the gospel of Jesus Christ! Most of the people we meet with, I've come to find, are less active and recent converts. That's not something I quite expected of the mission, actually. It's taken me until recently— and it pinnacled after our zone training this week— to realize that working with RCs and LAs is missionary work, too! Before that realization, I just felt really unsuccessful and like I was doing something wrong.

We've been able to have lessons with a few families and have had a fair amount of success, most who are LA/RC:

Lyn: Sister Moetala has mentioned several times that Lyn was a "golden investigator" and "a miracle." I couldn't agree more. I sometimes can't believe she's only been baptized for about as long as I've been out on my mission. We met with her just this last Friday and had a great lesson about the plan of salvation. Sister Moetala was very helpful during the lesson, as I hadn't ever given a lesson on the Plan of Salvation pamphlet before. Lyn and Greg were just eating it up. It was especially visible on Lyn's expressions. Greg, who apparently had been less active for quite some time before Lyn's baptism, was even able to find answers from General Conference this last Sunday about things he'd been struggling with since he came back to church. We are so excited for this family! They truly are a miracle.

Melody: Melody and her brother Jared were just recently baptized my first weekend in Pasco. Melody is 10(?) and Jared is 8. Their mother, Liliana, is from Guatemala, and at first I didn't know if she was a member, but apparently she is! When we met with her after dinner with them on Wednesday, we taught about the First Vision and showed them The Restoration video clip. As we taught about how God answers our prayers, Melody and Jared gave all the right answers and seemed to have learned precisely what we hoped they would. Liliana was deeply touched by what we taught. And not so much what we taught as much as the things that were spoken reminded her of a way that God had answered her prayers recently. I'm so glad that this family has a testimony of prayer!

Tre: Tre has been doing really well as we've met with him. I went to a lesson with him my first night in Pasco, and every time we go and teach him, he seems to be just soaking it all in. Tre definitely has a testimony that this is true! Apparently he's been baptized for about 6 months or so. I'm not sure why, but he's not been going to church. (I think Sis. Moetala mentioned it was because of his job...) I know that his progress has been kind of floundering, though. Sis. Moetala mentioned that it was because he's been working through the repentance process, and I can imagine he's understandably discouraged. We weren't able to meet with him this week, though. When we got there, he was asleep and his grandma, who answered the door (and is a member), told us they weren't feeling up to it because someone stole their dog. WHO STEALS SOMEONE'S DOG?! She and her husband were heartbroken. But good news and miracles, still— we found out yesterday that they found their dog when he was scratching at the door at 3 in the morning. Miracles, miracles! Hopefully we get in with them this week!

Last but not least is Tim. He's the husband of a part-member family. Apparently he's been investigating the church for a while, and I love Tim so dearly. He's really grown on me as we've met with him the last two weeks. Seeing him love his little girl (18 months) and wife (who is expecting) the way he does really melts my heart. He's doing everything he possibly can to provide for his little family, including doing all these church things when he's not even sure he has a testimony, yet. The last few times we've met with him, we've been trying to encourage him and help him see the faith he already has. Alma 32 was last week's lesson, and this last Thursday, the Spirit was so strong, I barely remember what we taught. He's doing everything he needs to, but he's just not sure he knows yet. We're praying fervently for his answer to come. We hope to commit him to baptism this week! SEND PRAYERS!

Other families we're teaching are, for the most part, part-member families.

The V Family: Rob and (I can't remember her name right now) have been members since about 2004(?). They have two children who are not members, their daughter Taylor (14) and their son Robbie (12). Robbie wrestles and is quite good, so the whole family's life revolves around his wrestling. As a result, they're inactive. We've been able to meet with them twice and had really great lessons both times. Yesterday they were out of town, and we have a return appointment with them next Sunday. Prayers! We're hoping to commit Taylor and Robbie to baptism soon.

The L Family: Belen's been a member for about 6 months. Belen's husband works in North Dakota, and we never see him. (I don't know if he's a member or not.) Belen apparently hates that their ward starts at 2:30 and refuses to go. They have has three kids: Viviana (about 13), Isaac (8), and Jacob (about 3). Viviana was taking the discussions, but recently decided she doesn't want anything to do with it. Belen and her husband want Isaac to be baptized, and she let us come back to start teaching him in preparation. The bishopric in their ward still need to get back to us about permission to do that because I've heard that's the ward's responsibility to teach [a child over age 8].

The work is great! It isn't quite what I expected, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy. I let myself get pretty discouraged, but I can feel the Lord strengthening me every day. This is where he needs me. I'm so grateful to be here. My sister will be updating the blog with some more about life in Pasco, so keep an eye out. LOVE YOU ALL! Remember that your Heavenly Father loves you SO much!

Sister Nielsen

Q&A with Sister Nielsen: Pasco edition

1. Who is your companion? Where is she from? How long has she been on her mission/in the area? I saw that she's doing the driving. They must've heard about your dipping days in Glenwood. "We're banished, genius!" Haha. Just kidding. I know it's because you're green.

Her name is Sister Moetala! She's American Samoan and talks often about how the island was so small and how she doesn't want to go back. Haha. This last Wednesday, she passed her year mark. As far as dipping stories, there really aren't a lot of dips to even explain what dipping is. She'd probably think it was something else that is completely not missionary appropriate. ;)

2. Tell us about some of the members and people you're teaching, like if they have cool conversion stories or how they ended up in Pasco.

I'll send you what I sent to my mission president about the people I'm teaching in the mass email. All the members are so great! We cover the Pasco 1st, 10th, and YSA (girls), and one cool conversion story from our ward mission leader in the first ward: Brother Clements has been a member for about 30 years. (He's actually two days younger than Dad, to the year.) Before he joined the church, he was a member of the RLDS Church (now the Community of Christ). I can't remember now why he joined, although he did tell us. He also just recently bought a Harley... so there's that.

3. What's your daily routine like? What do you do on preparation day besides email?

Well, we get up at 6:30, get ready and exercise until 8:00. Personal study until 9:00. At 10:00, we start "My First 12 Weeks" training, depending on if we have a meeting or somewhere we need to go, until about 11:00. From 11:00 we usually update the area book and make phone calls. The rest of the day we try to spend finding. That could mean knocking [doors] on streets, and then sometimes we check the addresses we found of people we found in the area book. Just whatever Sister Moetala decides we need to do, honestly. Then we usually have dinner with members at 5:00. All the members are so great. Not any food yet that's really crazy. All just kind of normal. One night we had a Guatemalan enchilada, which looks nothing like the enchilada you and I are familiar with. I don't know how to explain it. She just piled all the toppings onto a crisp tortilla. I wish I had time for details.

4. How big is your ward? How many young women are there? (That last one is mostly for me.)

Each of the wards are fairly decent in size. About like home. Except the YSA branch is not very big. We don't spend a lot of time with the YW, unfortunately, so IDK what to tell you. :/

5. What do you eat? Are there any weird Washington foods?

I haven't had any weird Washington foods yet. [See question 3.]

6. Do people have accents there? Do they think you have an accent?

Some people have kind of a "Warshington" accent. Like, yeah. Some people actually say that. No one has said anything about my accent yet.

Tender mercies from General Conference

Monday, April 6, 2015

Hello, everyone!

Things are well in Washington! I'm starting to really love it here. The members are so kind and everyone in the wards that we teach are really starting to grow on me.

I hope you all enjoyed General Conference! It was such an inspiring session for me. Being on a mission is great and so rewarding, but it also is really challenging. The Adversary has especially been weighing down on me as far as my confidence in teaching is concerned. But General Conference was able to help me recognize that I'm okay with what I already know. Elder Dale G. Renlund was especially helpful as he taught us to "Keep on trying!" as well as a few other speakers who comforted us by counselling to "hold onto what you already know." In Alma 32 it teaches, "Even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words."

No matter where you are in life, no matter what you're going through, the Atonement of Jesus Christ is there for you to make up the difference. And even if all you can do is desire to believe or desire to be better, that's enough. You don't have to be there yet. You can keep working, you can keep trying! Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has taught us to "trust God and believe in good things to come."

I know I'm not a perfect teacher or missionary yet, and you might not think you're perfect or good enough or worthy of the blessings you desire, but Jesus Christ suffered an Atonement for us that we might be made more perfect through His grace. I'm grateful to everyone for their love and support. I hope to hear from some of you soon! Hope your Easter was happy and blessed!

How'd you like General Conference? I'd love to hear your thoughts and the things you learned!

Sister Nielsen

Note from Lisa: No captions for the pictures. We'll have to have a talk with her about that. Some are self-explanatory... others not so much. Ha! ;)