Merry Christmas

I didn't expect to be able to write but here I am!!! Merry Christmas one and all. Today is a wonderful day to be here and to be able to celebrate one of the most important events of the world.

Today we got to hear from Elder Nelson and his wife. They were very good. Sister Nelson took most of the time and she talked about spiritual gifts and how to obtain them. She said that we have to have more than an ambition and a want but that we need a burning desire and are willing to put everything that we have to receive it. We have to work and put all or heart, might, mind and strength into obtaining them.

Elder Nelson gave us advise for the mission. He said that we need to make friends with the ward mission leader as well as the ward family history coordinator.

We will be hearing from Greg Olson later today. The spirit is so strong here today. You know that Christ did come down and that today is special. We all know that we are in the right spot and that we are doing His will. No one complains but everyone rejoices in being here on this day.

I love you all and hope you are having a Merry Christmas.

Love,

Elder Nielsen

Malipay Paskwa

Merry Christmas or as we say Malipay Paskwa! We got a wonderful gift in the mail this week! Our flight plans!!!  We are looking forward to the flight. This week went very well. Our lessons have never been better. We are teaching very well with the spirit. This week we made huge progress with Francis. He is basically our only investigator right now. He is almost ready to get baptized. He stopped smoking and isn't going through withdrawls anymore. We are working on finding his birth certificate right now so that he can get married. I hope he finds it so that we can baptize him before we have to leave.

 We all miss the temple a lot. We put other plans in for it. Last week we had a testimony meeting in our language so it was all Cebuano or Hiligaynon. It was really cool. This morning as a district we talked about our Christmas traditions and read the Christmas story.

Today we are having an extra fireside and are watching a Christmas Carol. I don't know which one. Tomorrow we are having a devotional with an apostle and then one with Greg Olson. We will have a musical then too. That will be Christmas.

 The song went very well. Everyone loved it and President Brown, the MTC president, came out and shook our hands and told us that he loved it and you could tell that he did because it seemed like he didn't want to let us go.

I miss you all and wish I could be there to celebrate the holidays.

I love you all,

Elder Nielsen

New Missionaries

This week was really good. So this week we lost one of our teachers. She is off to be married. We are going to miss her but we are hoping she comes back before we leave. We have not got our plans yet. We are hoping by Friday because if it isn't by then, we have to stay longer.

The new missionaries are great. They have a great desire to learn and are improving a lot faster than we were but I think it is because they use us because we didn't use the older group. My responsibility went well and everyone got their internet stuff done. We ran into a few problems and one I couldn't solve so the computer people are working on it.

 The language is still coming. I feel pretty good about talking about gospel related stuff but don't know much else so as long as I talk about the gospel I will be good.

This week we finished teaching Christine. She has moved to Georgia so she is gone. I think that she will be good. Francis we are working on really hard and are hoping that he gets baptized before we leave. We are working on problems and he is slowly coming to follow them.

 So I am going to play for the new missionaries this Wednesday. I tried out with another missionary in my zone named Elder Butler and he is singing O Holy Night while I play. I don't know how or why I'm playing but I just know that I am. I am excited to perform.

 I don't know what else to say. This week was pretty normal. We are all looking forward to Christmas.

I love you,

Elder Nielsen

 

An Amazing Week

This week was amazing. The language is coming really well. I am surprised at how much I know. We can teach must everything that we need to with our language but we are always seeking to know more especially since we can't hold a normal conversation. Our investigators are doing very well. We are going over the lessons with Christine and making sure we taught her everything that we needed to since we are teaching things that we taught within the first two weeks. Francis is doing well. We are working on some problems with him. He isn't married which is typical for Philippinos. He has the desire but no money to do it. We will have to see how things turn out with that. I think that I am ready to talk to some natives but I know that I won't understand much.

This week we are suppose to get the new Hiligaynon speakers. We will be the old group of speakers. We are excited to get them and to give them advise that we wish that we were given at the very start like don't take notes into the lessons starting at the beginning.

 I am over the internet stuff in our branch. I get to teach the new missionaries how to write the branch president and how to do their online courses on Sunday. I am excited to teach them.

Not much happened this week. We are really looking forward to Christmas because we hear that another twelve or higher is coming. They never tell us who but we had Elder Evans come and he told us that there is a good program set up for us.

 I love you all and miss you!

Elder Nielsen

My Testimony

This week we got our first baptism!!! Christine made a lot of progress and I think that she got confered yesterday but I haven't heard yet. We will continue to teach her until Sister Burton leaves to get married. Francis is going very well. We had a amazing lesson with him on Saturday and I think that we will solve a lot of his problems soon. It is going step by step (amat-amat for us). This ended up being a normal week for me as well. I am not as tired which is good. People don't lie when they say that you gain weight at the MTC. I have gained five pounds since I last checked. It doesn't seem like it is fat though.

 I love to play volleyball at the MTC. The net is low so we do a lot of blocking and spiking. It makes the whole game really fun.

I love reading Jesus the Christ. It gives me a lot of questions and thinks to look up. It also helps me with the work by seeing what happened to the Savior and thinking about what will happen with me.

 I don't know what else to write so our branch president told us to bear our testimony. Kabalo ako nga si Jesucristo sang maluluwas kag manunubos sa kalibutan. Magsabat ang Dios sa aton. Palangga kita sang Dios. Maghandum Sia sang baton sa ila. Si Joseph Smith kag Thomas S Monson sang mga propeta. Naghamal sila sang kamatuoran. Nagapasalamat ako parte sa Pagpasag-uli ni Jesucristo. Palangga kamo ko. (I know that Christ is the savior and redeemer of the world. God answers us. He desires us to return. Joseph Smith and Thomas S Monson are prophets. They speak the truth. I am thankful for the atonement of Christ. I love you all.)

 Elder Nielsen