The Sneaky Chiropractor

Hello everyone who is reading this! (About 5 of you in other words)

This was a super fun week, lots of pictures will follow.

Monday was great, we hung out with most of our zone, and played a lot of Volleyball. I got to meet lots of missionaries I didn't know very well and talk with them so that was awesome. We decorated cookies as a District too. In the evening we went out with Brother Hobbs, who is super funny! It was a blast going from house to house with him. We had a pass-off lesson with the STLs for Ivy, which was cool. We read the Restoration Proclamation with her, I have no doubt she will be baptized.

On Tuesday we drove to Fairview for Christmas Zone Conference! It was a BEAUTIFUL drive, so much fun to see all the pretty countryside. There were a lot of amazing musical numbers at Zone Conference and my favorite one was a Saxophone and piano duet. Also Elder Sauer conducted Zone Conference and it was super cool cause we got to sit on the stand next to President and Sister Seitz the whole time! It was great to be able to look out at the other missionaries. I also got to do numbers for the first time. After the main meeting we had a lunch, and then played a bunch of games and had a white elephant gift exchange. I ended up with a walking fluffy pig. President and Sister Seitz gave each of the Elders an oil vial and each of the Sisters a necklace. After Zone Conference we went on Exchanges with Greenville E, I went with Elder Haws and Elder Sauer went back to Heath with Elder Cypers. 

It was a great exchange, Elder Haws is super cool. Very talkative, it was cool hearing all his funny stories. We went out with Brother Herd and had a lesson with someone they are teaching. It was interesting to see a new teaching style and also one of the people we were teaching was blind and super funny!

Wednesday Elder Haws and I went to the library and had an amazing comp study!! We were able to talk about so many things, this is why I like greenie comp studies cause you can talk for 30 minutes longer! After that we exchanged back and Elder Sauer and I went and helped someone move a ton of furniture out of a storage locker. It was fun moving stuff up and down via cargo elevator, I like elevators!

In the evening we went out with Brother Lin who's super funny haha--we went out to their boonies to stop by people. We followed google maps and it kept having us turn on to more and more bumpy dirt roads. As we went it started to get super muddy and bumpy, so we decided to turn around so we didn't get stuck. Before we left though we saw someone up ahead who looked stuck. So Elder Sauer and I ventured into the mud to see if we could help. Turns out it was a Jeep and the lady driving it had tried everything to get it out. We tried pushing to no avail, until finally we decided to check what setting she was in. We checked and she had been in 2wd the whole time haha--so we put it in 4wd and then rocked it back and forth until it was out. It was a lot of fun but very muddy. 

After that we went and taught the Bonillas which was great!

Thursday it dropped from 40⁰ to 10⁰ with windchill making it -8⁰ haha--we did service at Helping Hands and then when we came out it was snowing! We ate at Inn-n-out, and had out Zone call and then went on exchanges with some other Elders. The Elders hadn't really planning anything so we just planned as we went. Which is not good, that should never happen. But oh well, hopefully I was able to help them learn a bit about how important planning is! As we were knocking on people's doors it was soooo cold some of the coldest I've ever been I think. Which was fun because we got to get in the warm car after each one!

Friday was pretty normal, we exchanged back and had some meetings and stop by.

In the evening we went out with the McCormicks which was a blast! We got to talk with a bunch of Inactive Families. Sadly they had to go early so we were worried we wouldn't have a member with us for our lesson with Tony, but we made a ton of calls and Alex Fielding was able to come with us! We taught Tony the Gospel and it went super well. Can't wait for his baptism!

Saturday we got a call during personal study from Sister Seitz asking us to come pick some packages up from the Mission home! So we drove 45 minutes out to Lucas and got to talk with President for a while! We also picked some stuff up from the Mission office with him, so it was fun to talk about his Christmas plans and other things. 

After we picked everything up we dropped off packages in Greenville and took the Elders there to lunch at Freddy's! Then we dropped off some stuff in Royse City, and had meetings the rest of the afternoon. 

We ate dinner with the Arnesen's and had Prime Rib, and then went caroling! We were trying to do it as a District but the others didn't show so it was just us and Rockwall 1. It was super fun though! Everyone loved us coming by!

Christmas was one of the best I've ever had but I'm done writing this email so if you want to hear about it you'll have to ask me

-Elder Nielson

 

Health

Hi people, this was a super great week!!

Monday I attempted to go and said goodbye to everyone in Plano 10 but nobody was home cause everyone was at a concert haha--so we just went to Five Guys with Brother Yanelli. It was really fun, I also called a bunch of people to say bye. 

Tuesday morning was a Tornado warning but we proceeded with transfers as usual, and when we got to the Stacy building all the tornado and disaster alarms were going off and it was raining giant buckets of water. Probably the most rain I've seen ever. We ran inside the Church and got soaked in 10 seconds. Everyone was huddled up in the gym so we just hung out there and talked with other missionaries. It was super fun!! Eventually the storms passed, but I know several tornados touched down in the Allen/Plano and Heath Zones. Some people also got baseball sized hail haha

When everything cleared up I said goodbye to everyone from my district, I will miss them all! Then I met my new companion Elder Sauer and we started the drive to Rockwall. 

We got to Rockwall and this is a great place!! Heath is super nice too, supposedly one of the richest areas in the whole mission! Our apartment is super nice too, we have a garage, and a gigantic super nice gym. I would totally move to Rockwall or Heath sometime in the future haha

In the evening we went out with Alex (the YSA EQP) and stopped by some people and then taught Tony. I love Alex he's hilarious, it's super fun working with people my age! Tony is super cool too, he's one of the most elect 20-year-olds I've ever met. Also we ate Inn-n-out twice within 5 hours which was super fun.

Wednesday we had District council, and it felt really weird not to be leading it for once, but also relaxing. Our District seems cool. 

In the afternoon we called some companionships to introduce ourselves, and also met with the STLs to discuss some Zone planning. Our STLs are super cool too! 

In the evening we went out with Brother Boyes and stopped by some people in Heath. Every single house is gigantic haha--and with the lake and everything this is a very pretty place to live! Every house looks like a model home. 

After our stopbys we had an SPR meeting, and our Stake President seems very gung-ho about missionary work so I'm excited to work with him!

On Thursday we went to Helping Hands Thrift store to do service which was fun. Apparently we go there twice a week to text electronics! It's fun to text blenders and TVs and all sorts or random electronic things people drop off. In the afternoon we did weekly planning and planned our exchanges. We should have about 7-8 happening in the next 5 weeks, so I'm super excited!!

We went to Inn-n-out again for dinner, and then we went and taught Jack! Jack is super funny, the only problem is he doesn't like to talk about his feelings so he makes everything into a joke. But he's super fun to teach! It feels like we are real friends already, I guess that's the perk of working with a YSA. After Jack we taught Tony again, and had an awesome Plan of Salvation lesson. 

Friday we woke up and it was super cold. We ate choosing to not turn on our heat in our apartment cause it forces us to snuggle in blankets all the time which is super fun! So our apartment stayed anywhere from 50-60⁰ all week haha

We had a bunch of meetings in the afternoon, and did some language study at the library which was fun! Then we went and had dinner at the Hobb's house, which is gigantic and super cool. They have one of those TVs that just looks like a giant painting too. In the evening we went out with Kyle and that was super fun too. Hes really funny.

Saturday we did some service at Helping Hands again, and when we brought our entire rack full of tested electronics out the people flocked to it and our rack was empty within 1 minute! The people were like giant human vultures, I think even actual vultures would be impressed. For lunch we went to Inn-n-out for the 4th time this week and a member payed for it so we then used that money that we would have used there at Freebirds Burritos for dinner :))

In the evening we went out with Richie, and then we taught Tony and put him on date! So thats super exciting, and I guess meeting 3 times with someone in the same week pays off!

Sunday was awesome, we made our Zone Plan, and then planned our Zone Conference Trainings. After that we went to the Heath Sacrament meeting and then the YSA Branch Sacrament Meeting. After church we had a meet and greet with Hot Cocoa and chips and Salsa. All of the YSA is awesome, I'm so glad to be here. 

After church and everything we went and taught Jack the Gospel of Jesus Christ and put him on date to be baptized!!

Love yall

-Elder Nielson

Ha

Hello yall!

What a week. Had so much fun, this week. By the end of the email I will say where I am going or if I am staying...maybe.

Monday evening we went out with Brother Rose, and he took his Mustang (with an after market supercharger on it) and we went all night zooming around! We stopped by an inactive family the YW told us to stop by and met a guy named Jonas, he said the other family had moved. But he was

 interested! We talked about the Book of Mormon and gave him one, he was super excited about it! Between each appointment the speed limit was merely a suggestion which made the whole night feel like a roller coaster. Definitely one of the best nights. After our lessons we got Braums which was really good as usual.

On Tuesday we went to the Barton's house and had District council. We had our District testimony meeting which was great, and then did False Prophecies and ate Lasagna too. 

In the evening we went to the Plano Stake Live Nativity! It was really cool, and it was also a warm night for it which was great. We walked through and basically how it works is you walk on a path that has luminaries and then you run into some tax collectors and other dressed up people. They have you sing a hymn, and then a kid says follow me to find the baby Jesus. Then you follow this kid and come to an Inn, and get an Innkeeper guide who then takes you along the rest of the path where you stop and meet wise men, shepherds, angels, and finally Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus. It's really cool, it was run super well, felt like a ride (that you walk through of course). After going through it once Elder Van Tassell, Elder Hansen, and I took it upon ourselves to be the hot chocolate and water carriers, and spent the night bringing hot chocolate to the tired actors. It was so much fun because I was also able to pull insights about transfers out of Elder Van Tassell >:)

 

Wednesday was pretty uneventful, we went to Minnie's which was fun, and then had 4 hours straight of meetings in the afternoon.

We went out with Olivia Allred in the evening and stopped by a lot of people. It was cool cause we were able to learn from her mission experiences!

Thursday we went to Minnie's again and then Operation Extraction (OE for short) began! Elder Van Tassell and Elder Layton took me out of Plano 10 to be in a trio with them for a day, and we left Elder Sartain and Elder Galbraith to fend for themselves in Plano 10. It was so much fun, I did weekly planning with the ZLs, then dinner at one of their member's houses and then went to English Class. It was super fun because we just got to talk so much, and relax. 

However throughout OE we kept getting frantic voice messages and calls from Elder Sartain and Elder Galbraith about various things that had gone wrong haha--apparently their member for the night canceled and they "had called everyone and literally NOBODY could take them" to which I gave them 10 names right off the bat that of course they hadn't called haha--by the end of the night somehow they had ended up stranded at a park in the pouring rain in Murphy, TX. They had somehow gotten a ride there but no ride back. So in other words it was really good to perform this operation because it helped them learn the area more than they would have if they just kept leaning on my knowledge of the area. 

We weren't originally planning on OE lasting over night but since the ride to help us exchange back fell through we decided we would have to. So I stayed at the 6-man apartment which was super fun! Many shenanigans happened. 

Friday morning we went and did comp study at Colin College library, which was awesome, and then decided to pull an elaborate prank where we pretended Elder Van Tassell had been taken from us and was going to be the new AP. Everyone believed us and it was great to see everyone's faces when he suddenly reappeared.

We exchanged back and went out with Edward in the evening which was fun, we taught several great lessons!

Saturday we got 3 dinners. The Novaks dropped off a huge BBQ spread and then when they saw there were 3 of us which they didn't expect they apologized profusely and then left to get us Braums even though the food they brought was easily enough for FOUR people. Then we went out with Brother Allred in the evening and he took us to Braums again! We taught a couple awesome lessons and Lisa and her family came to church because of it!

Sunday I was mostly stressed out the whole day because of transfers, so without further ado here is the news. I am staying in Plano 10 for another transfer to finish training Elder Galbraith! 

Have a great day!

-Elder Nielson

(P.S. I completely lied, I'm actually going to the Heath/YSA area to be a Zone Leader there haha--got you :)

Elder Sartain will be staying in Plano 10 with Elder Galbraith.