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! ;)