Ïgloo Wilderness

Hi again,

This week was fun! But nothing extremely interesting happened so I will try and make this quick:

Monday it poured all day which was fun! We went to Canes with the ZLs and Elder Stanley and Fuentes had coats on, and Elder Van Tassel and I did not--the true way to appreciate rain. In the evening we went street contacting at the park at the State Farm corporate headquarters, and it was super fun! Nobody accepted a Book of Mormon though, more for me I guess! We ran into this couple who said they've been looking for a church, just not ours. We managed to leave them with a pamphlet anyway >:)

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference which was super fun! We got a ride from a private jet pilot who has been to the top of of Burj Khalifa many times! It was great seeing some missionaries I haven't seen in a while, and we learned so much at Zone Conference. In the evening we went with Brother Mills to a lesson with a guy named Lee. It went really well. The only problem with this area is everywhere we go people ask where Elder Newton (one of the past Elders here) went haha--they rave about how awesome he was, and we've even been told several times that we have big shoes to fill haha

Wednesday we went and did some service for a Nonmember named Lorna. Apparently she has beenhaving help from missionaries for over 5 years now, and everytime missionaries help her she bakes each missionary whatever they want. So she has a whole fancy menu haha--next week I will report on if she's a good cook! 

In the evening we stopped by a family who's stepmother is in the hospital with cancer. Their 2 boys are being taken care of by their grandparents right now, so we went over and had a great visit with them. They said it's hard not being able to attend church in person cause they want to protect their stepmother's health, so we hatched a plan to have us and a group of boys from the ward stop by on Sundays to share a spiritual message and chat. 

Thursday we went to do service at Minnie's food pantry near downtown Plano, and the ZLs were there too! I guess it's in their area so we shouldn't have been surprised. So we helped out there for a while and it was a lot of fun! We bagged thousands of "Pasturized Heavy Whipping Cream" and then made bags with fruits and vegetables while sorting out the bad fruits and vegetables. 

In the evening we went to the Bushop's house for dinner, and afterwards we turned their house into a film set and filmed them for a video we are making for the mission Facebook page.

On Friday I finished editing for the video, and then we did a lot of street contacting and stopbys. We ran into this old guy who we talked to who started trying to bash us on how we were wrong and the Bible was the only thing we could trust. He wasn't very smart so all of his arguments fell flat, but like all bashers he didn't let us talk much and avoided any argument piercing questions I threw at him. Elder Stanley just stood there, so I got to do all the talking. After about 30 minutes we finally got out of there. Hopefully we left him unsettled cause he wasn't very nice--he put on the facade of being nice but got more and more aggravated as the conversation continued. The best thing to use with bashers is your testimony cause no matter how hard they try they can't prove that wrong haha

On the way home by back hub on my bike suddenly broke, so we had to get a ride home with our ward mission leader. Luckily he has a bike I am borrowing while they see if mine can be fixed!

Saturday was pretty normal, the only interesting thing that happened in the afternoon is I had a meeting with the STLs for them to report on how exchanges with the Sisters went, which was fun! They are pretty cool STLs, I expected them to be uptight but they are pretty chill. It would be easier if we just did exchanges with the Sisters but I guess we can't tsk tsk

In the evening we had some pretty good Texas BBQ with the Andrus family. It was supposedly really good, but I only found it moderately good. I think BBQ is wayyy overhyped haha

Sunday we had 5 boys show up to talk with those boys from earlier in my letter. We had only been expecting 2 so it was awesome to see them show up to give support! 

On Saturday evening we had a lesson fall through with a lady named Melissa who we have wanted to meet with for a long time but it keeps falling through but then miraculously a family in the ward invited her over to our dinner with them! We didn't even ask them to do it, they just did it of their own accord. It was awesome to see, if members took the initiative in missionary work like thus more, not only would more people want to join the church, but members would have more friends!

-Elder Nielson

Armadillo!

Able was I, then I took a Nap

Hi people!

This week was super fun! 

-Elder Nielson

Haha--now only the adventurous will read on:

Monday was fun, we had basically a Zone p-day and played a lot of Volleyball. In the evening we stopped by a really nice guy who invited us in and talked with us for a while. He wasn't at all interested, but we all just bemoaned the state of the world for about 40 minutes.

Also as we were biking along we ran into this guy and I skidded to a stop cause I felt like I should give him a pamphlet. Do I did and then we asked if he would ever be interested in talking with us. He said no he was already Christian--and that was the end of it...or was it?

On Tuesday I led my second district council and I think it went pretty well! After district council we went on exchanges with the ZLs, I went back to Plano 10 with Elder Van Tassel and Elder Stanley went to Plano 6/7 with Elder Fuentes! It was super fun, I like Elder Van Tassel a lot after getting to know him more. We spent comp study going deep into the Book of Mormon, and the symbolism and genius of Mormon himself. Then we had a phone lesson with a lady named Carol and she's super cool! We had one of our ward missionaries conference called into the lesson and he was a huge help, and did a great job relating with her :) Carol said she wants to come to church and to get a physical copy of the Book of Mormon!

After that Elder Van Tassel and I did some more calls, and then headed to dinner with the Morrings. When we got there turns out they are big board game collectors and they have a board game group that plays at their house every week! And also Elder Van Tassel is a board game designer! So we had so much fun talking about Board games and missionary work with them. 

When we finished with dinner, the real fun began. Remember that guy I gave a pamphlet to a few paragraphs ago? Well in the morning we had gotten a text from an unknown number asking where can a Book of Mormon be purchased? Turns out it was the guy we gave the pamphlet to and he had read it from cover to cover and was intrigued! So we told him we could come by that night and give him one for free! 

So we stopped by, his name is Paul. Paul invited us both in, and we started teaching him about the Restoration and Book of Mormon! Paul us the most elect person I've ever met, he's originally from Nigeria and is on vacation in the US for a bit. We talked with him for about 2 hours about our beliefs, and showed him where the churches in his town are! He said he's been praying for what he should do regarding religion in his life, his wife and kids still go to a church but he stopped going because of a traumatic experience. He says we could be the answer to his prayer, and that he wouldn't have even run into us if he hadn't had trouble with transferring some money, making him have to walk to a different store. When we read Moroni 10:4 with us he marked it in his new Book of Mormon and then basically recited it to us from memory afterwards. He even had someone give him some anti-Mormon content when he had told them he had run into us, and he has rejected it cause he wants to know for himself if what we teach is true! We told him he would run into a lot of stuff degrading Joseph Smith, but that he should be careful what he believes--and he said, "Of course! Even Jesus faced fierce opposition." Which is very true. He's a chief in his hometown, and he said if he ever joins our church, many will follow his lead haha--he asked for another pamphlet before we left so I gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. Paul wants to meet every day until he leaves.

Elder Van Tassel and I had such a fun time teaching him, everything we taught Paul loved and made sure he understood. Elder Van Tassel said Paul is the biggest miracle of his mission, and that very well could be true! 

In the evening Elder Van Tassel and I had a great time talking about various subjects. And it turns out he designs board games still even while on the mission! For example he designs Magic The Gathering decks with Book of Mormon prophets, and then produces them and gives them to missionaries! Overall it was a super fun exchange.

On Wednesday we got a text from Paul asking for a Doctrine and Covenants and a Pearl of Great Price haha

Elder Stanley and I rode all around our area (probably biked about 20-25 miles) in 102⁰F weather! It was hot, but fun. We ate at Chick-fil-A for dinner cause a kind member had given us gift cards. In the evening Brother Morring came with us to another lesson with Paul! We taught the Plan of Salvation, and again it went super well! Afterwards Brother Morring took us to the famous Whataburger and it was pretty good! He also suggested we try this fancy corndog place, which we WILL be trying if I have anything to say about things. And I do

Thursday we street contacted at the State Farm park area, and it was fun! Unfortunately we misjudged how long it would take us to get there, so by the time we got there it was almost time to head back haha

We then went to teach Paul again, This time with Brother Talley. We talked about Prophets and Priesthood Authority. We said our goodbyes to Paul also, he left on Friday. It was a great lesson though, he said he wants his 17-year-old son to hobnob with people like us.

Friday nothing super interesting happened, we did have a meeting with our Zone reps who are also the Sisters in my district. So that was fun, it's nice to not have to be the one running those meetings. It was fun to talk about our Facebook Goals, and share ideas on how to achieve them.

On Saturday it was cloudy all day and we did some street contacting in a nice neighborhood near our apartments. It was super fun, even though nobody was interested it was a beautiful night and it felt like we were on a nice walk. It gave us a lot of opportunity to talk and point out funny things. We ran into a lady who "warned" us that Jesus Christ is the only way, and didn't believe us when we kept agreeing with her haha

We also had someone yell out to us "you're in a cult" angrily as he drove by. :) We also ran into a Muslim who tried to bash with us but failed miserably. It was a fun day!

On Sunday 3 people we are teaching came to church! It was awesome. We were also late to church cause our Ward Mission Leader was late to pick us up haha

In the afternoon we biked to downtown Plano, outside of our area. We did comp study in a cool park there and it was great! After that we biked the deserted roads by warehouses and water towers to a lesson with Bebe. As we biked I kept stopping to take pictures of the clouds, and imminent storms. Hopefully Elder Stanley doesn't mind, cause there's nothing he can do about it. :) It felt like an adventure cause it was stormy, we were on backroads, and there were little to no cars anywhere! We got to the Spark's house to teach Bebe and the second we got inside it started POURING!! I was glad we had made it just in time, but also a bit sad. Our lesson went super well, one of the Sparks is a board game collectors like me! 

After that we biked to the Bushop's house and the rain had slowed a bit, but we were still wet by the time we arrived. We ate Tacos and nachos and had a great time. I love the Bush's, they are having us over again on Thursday haha

Overall this was a great week, but now I have to go cause I need to check up on my district cause there are reports of flooding around the area, and it's pouring outside so I can see why!

-Elder Nielson

A Singlular Straw In Which a Bug Has Entered

Ha haha ha hahahaha haha hahaha

Now that we have that out of the way, here's how my week went:

Monday I said goodbye to all my friends in New Boston. It was really fun! Also it dumped water on us so we got to drive in the pouring rain between people so overall it was a great night. The lightning was also some of the best I've seen. We ate at Taco Bell afterwards so that was fun. 

On Tuesday we drove to transfers and went to a meeting for trainers. After that we got our new greenies and I got Elder Stanley! He was originally assigned to serve in Sweden, but he's reassigned here until he gets his visa. He seems nice enough, and I'm gonna whip him into shape :)) 

We ate at Chick-fil-A after transfers and then helped flip all the furniture at the STL's apartment back upright (they pink-washed an area that was an Elder area and I guess that's a tradition tsk tsk).

We drove for a bit and then when we got in our area things started to look very nice. When I was told this area was fancy that was no joke! It has its poorer areas like any place, but overall it's a rich area. We are on bikes, which is a change--more on this soon. 

Wednesday I led my first District Council, which was interesting. I think it went well though! Elder Barton took us to Braum's afterwards and I had one of the best chicken sandwiches and shakes ever! We WILL be going back :)

We biked around Richardson and Plano after that, and it poured and poured on us haha--I thought about getting under something and waiting it out, but where would be the fun in that? So I just kept going and we got completely soaked. It rained for about an hour, which meant it got so nice outside. We had a blast stopping by people. All of the apartment complexes are luxury, meaning they all have gates. Luckily we have all the codes for everything in our area! Even the gated communities.

Thursday was fun, we biked around and found 3 new people to teach! Also a member gave us $100 worth of Chick-fil-a haha--the members here are amazing. 

On Friday we met Bishop Bush (the Bushop) and rode in his Tesla to his huge house. He and his wife are super nice, and we had a great time getting to know them. For dinner a member brought us some authentic Chinese food with quail eggs and all. And for dessert he brought creme brulee, which was AMAZING! Now that I remember how good it is I want to have it more often. 

In the evening we stopped by a guy who I had been guided to put into our schedule but then he didn't answer. But I knew we were there for a reason and so we went up to a guy across the street who was watering his garden and talked with him. He was SUPER friendly and gladly talked with us for a while. He's intrigued by our beliefs so we got his number and set up a time to talk more, and gave him a pamphlet. After that we were in great moods and we found 2 more people as we biked around more.

Saturday we bikes to the downtown city part of our area and it was so fun! It's the cleanest downtown I've ever seen and it had no traffic at all. It's everything you would wish a downtown was. Also there's an awesome park with super cool bike trails which was a blast to ride through! We had fun biking through the almost empty streets there, and then for a dinner a member got us pizza :)

On Sunday we went to church and it's a lot like a Utah ward. Pretty big and lots of people showing up to Sacrament meeting. It was a great Sacrament meeting, we got to finally meet BeBe in person (our on date person). Afterwards we spent our Sunday doing our studies and street contacting. We helped a dude change a tire which was fun. At around 8:20 we still hadn't found 2 people which was our daily finding goal so we finally just went and sat at the park to do Facebook work. As we were sitting there though a couple walked by and I felt like we should talk to them, so we did and were able to meet our goal! They were really nice, and hopefully they will come to church to see how it is!

-Elder Nielson