Saw A Ghost

Hi everyone! This was a great week, we had a lot of fun,

Monday right as we were nearing the end of pday I was on the phone with family and then I started getting a call. So I hung up and answered. It was a lady named Sharon who past missionaries haven't been able to get in contact with. We talked with her for about 40 minutes, she's going through a lot of hard things and is feeling very alone. I just taught her on the spot and we set up a lesson with her and one of our ward missionaries. It's great that she called us out of the blue instead of her pastor or someone else haha

Tuesday was great! I studied the war chapters in personal study so during comp study I decided to go in depth and map everything out for Elder Stanley. Many people never realize how cool the war chapters are, so sometimes us war historians need to help them out. Not sure how he liked spending an hour and a half talking about these wars but I enjoyed it so that's what matters :)

We had District Council and interviews in the afternoon which was awesome. I had Sister Carr give a training on Listening and resolving people's concerns which was super good, just what the district needed. My interview with President Seitz was awesome, he gave me tons of ideas and great wisdom. He also gave me some tips from his District Leader days. After District Council, President finished with interviews but Sister Seitz was still going strong so President just sat down with our district and shared stories and chatted with us for an hour. Then our ride home fell through also, so President gave us a ride home. It was fun to talk with him for so long, he gave us a lot of Mission President insider knowledge >:)

Wednesday was super fun, we helped Lorna again and she gave me my requested Cheesecake Brownies and Elder Stanley his Salted Carmel Cookies. We placed our orders for next time too so that will be good too. We had two lessons at Starbucks in the afternoon and evening. We had members on both those lessons which was awesome. We are trying to get members on every single lesson! One of our lessons was with Sharon and it went super well, we had Sister Sparks on that lesson. She invited her to sit with her at church which was great. We also gave away 2 Book of Mormons! (I refuse to edit that to say "copies of The Book of Mormon")

On Thursday nothing of note happened, we did service at Minnie's again though. We stopped by a lot of people to no avail. People are rarely home at apartment complexes around here. And when they are home all they do usually is peek out and never open the door. Which means they probably need to get their doorknobs looked at! It was a fun day though, we saw lots of pretty skies.

Friday we went to help the Sisters at Hope's Closet. Only problem was it was a 50 minute bike ride haha--it was a fun one though, lots of nice bike trails through parks and woods. On the way home we stopped at Chick-fil-A which was super good. On the way home it was raining and my front bike tire slipped. We both went down pretty hard haha--except somehow I looked like I hadn't even crashed. There wasn't a scratch or speck of dirt on me, Elder Stanley was a bit more scratched up though so we went home so he could change.

For dinner a member brought us a fajita platter which was super good! It also had really good rice and beans. We also got a cal from a random person saying he wants to trade some electric wheelchairs to the Church in return that they pay a bit of his rent haha--he wants to do this rather then sell them cause he thinks the church could do a better job finding people who actually need them. 

Later that evening we were at an apartment complex walking down the halls and we ran into a guy named John, and talked with him for about 40 minutes. He mentioned something about wheelchairs and we thought nothing of it, but then about halfway through our conversation he showed us a text thread with some guy from our church he had been texting about some wheelchairs he wants to trade. I then connected the dots, and realized the person he was texting was me! But every time I was going to tell him that he was texting with us, he just kept talking. So we went the whole conversation not telling him haha--we should have said something but it somehow just never happened 🙃

We texted him later and told him, and luckily he thought it was funny rather then being mad.

On Saturday the Bells dropped off our commissary, which contained no copies of the Book of Mormon cause the mission is completely out of them. Luckily they also dropped off another mysterious package hehe--they talked with us for a bit, bemoaning the supply chain issues and lack of Book of Mormons, little did they know that the mysterious package addressed to me was a whole box of the coveted books. I mourned with them about how hard it was to get them these days, but I knew that WE wouldn't have to worry haha

In the evening a member invited over Melissa to our dinner with them, which was awesome! Hopefully Melissa starts to see why she needs this church community in her life. We read the Restoration Proclamation with Melissa and the 10 members that were there which was awesome. Afterwards on the drive home where our Fellowshipper drove Melissa home she reported that Melissa started asking more questions about our church, and they talked for like an hour in the car about it. Which is huge progress!

Sunday we woke up at 5 cause our Stake President gave us a ride to the Stake Center cause of an SPR meeting we had. Our meeting wasn't until 7, but he had earlier meetings so we had no choice but to wake up early :)

Elder Stanley wasn't too pleased I don't think about getting up so early on a fast Sunday, but I thought it was pretty fun! The SPR meeting was super good, I felt really important sitting there at a huge conference table with the Stake leadership >:)

We also had 3 people come to church, one of which was Sharon! She even stayed for second hour. In the afternoon we did Stake Choir, and on the way the craziest storm ever hit us! There are branches and trees all over the roads now. It was super fun to drive in, it was the most heavy rain I've ever seen!

-Elder Nielson

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