An Even Better Week

Well we thought that we did good last week with all the teachings but we did a lot better this week!!! We had 50 lessons taught to investigators, less active, and recent converts!!! This is huge for us. We are so busy everyday that we have to cancel some of our appointments, that we didn't set up, so that we can make it to others. We run on so little time yet we do so much. This week we had Ferly Dojoles. She is moving along very well. She is always excited to go to church so she will be baptized on Feb. 16. Then we got Edmon and Felix to church yesterday! They came to the special sacrament that we held in Punta Salong. That is good because we are really focusing on that area. If we can get 50 people to come consistently then we can turn them into a branch which means we will get 2 more missionaries in the area! It will be an exciting time because we can start to spread out. Right now we don't even touch 2/3 of the area that we are assigned too. They are progressing very good. Both are married so we won't have problems there. Sister Nigad came to church this week! It was exciting because she also brought her daughter. She is starting to progress and we are hoping for Feb. 23 for her. Then we taught the Babila family this week. The parents aren't members so we focused on them during part of a lesson. We talked about the kingdoms of glory and talked about families. They now realize why baptism is important. We commited them to be baptized on March 2. We were also able to contact some referrals. It was a very good week for us. On Thursday, I went on splits with the district leader, Elder Doverte. We worked in my area and I took him all over the place. We had little success at first but at the end, that was our best day. We had the highest number of teachings that I have ever had. We had 14 lessons in one day! That just shows how busy we are.

The weather here is very wet. It is either cloudy and usually rains or it is hot and humid. I really like it when it is cloudy and doesn't rain because then we don't sweat as much. As for bugs I have gotten use to them. There is a lot of mosquitoes and flies. Usually when we get home we have to kill some cockroaches and some spiders. The big ones are everywhere. You get use to killing them.

The work is great and we just keep going all the time. We do the best we can every week. We are always trying to improve. We like to focus on families that are part member families. That is where we get a lot of referrals and we are able to bring the whole family to Christ.

I love you.

Elder Nielsen

Learning a Lot

Well this week we have been very busy. We have contacted a lot of less actives and recent converts. Our numbers were really high this week. Just with the less active and recent converts we taught 30 lessons with them and we were able to find new people to teach.

We are teaching the Dojoles family still. Ferly came to church so we are making progress with her. She is really progressing and we are hoping for Feb. 16 for her baptism. We contacted a man named Edmon who we found on the beach. He was searching for some shells that he could cook and eat when we were waiting to eat the crab last week and we talked to him and he was interested so we finally contacted him this week. We taught him the first time by himself and he was really excited. His wife joined us for the second lesson and he brought a friend named Felix de la Cruz. They are all very interested. Edmon has been seeing other missionaries and he says that he knows all that they taught and he isn't learning anything but when we come he is really pondering every word we say. The spirit is really touching him and he is learning so much. We invited him and his wife and friend to church and they say that they will come sometime but they want to learn more about the gospel before they come so they didn't attend church this week.

We also started to teach the Ligad family. They were a referral and they are really excited to learn about the gospel. The dad went to church for two years but was never baptized and the mom has attended church. They were taught by missionaries but a storm came in and the missionaries never returned. We started teaching them this week. They said they were going to church but never came. We are hoping that they come next week.

We have a few more referrals right now that we are trying to contact but haven't been able so far. It is a little hard to contact them because we just know the general area where they live so we have to ask where they live and it is hard if people don't know them.

The Philippines is a great place. We have been a little cold lately. The temperatures have been in the high 70's so we get cold at night. It is sad to think about this because when I get back I will freeze because I am already use to the weather.

I have learned a lot since being here. I also found out that I was taught wrong in some aspects all my life and they are teaching me the right way. First of all, pants are for wiping your hands after washing them. Also it is good to eat fast and with your hands. Hands are for getting dirty when eating. People don't really care if you burp so if you have to and it slips it is alright.

More on a serious note, things are really good here. The work is great and we are doing the best that we can. We run into problems with other churches and how they stop our members from coming to church or listening to us but all we can do is strengthen their faith. The Philippines is a great place and there are great people here. I love to serve them.

The language is coming very well. I can understand most conversations now but the hard part is to express myself. I can't speak well but I am getting a lot better. My companion says that my sentences make sense now.

I love you. Keeping following the Savior.

Elder Nielsen

PS The fish here are really good. They don't have the fishy taste plus the people here are really good at cooking it. 

Over a Week

I have been here over a week now so I can tell you more about the area. Right now we are very busy. We had no investigators when I came into the area so we are working on that this week trying to gain more investigators. We are working with a few right now but the big problem we always face is getting people to church. For the most part the people are poor and don't have a lot so that is a big problem for getting them to church because it is too far too walk. We have to just hope that they come. We work with a lot of less active members and try to get them to come back. It is called the rescue project and we work hard on it. The nice thing is that if they can speak English we are told to teach in English because they are educated and President Lopez wants us to teach them.

 As far as investigators we are working with a young girl named Anife. She is the sister of our ward mission leader Brother Tero. She doesn't want to get baptized right now because she goes to pray with her mother which is very Catholic. We think she will join eventually because all of her family is slowly joining. We are also working with the Dojoles family. They are less active and their daughter, Ferly, isn't baptized. So we are teaching them and trying to get them to come to church. They have a son, Ferboy, who wears contact lenses and they are blue so he sticks out wherever he goes. We are going to work on getting more investigators this week. We have a lot of referals so we are going out to teach them this week.

 As far as food, I have eat some interesting dishes. First off, I had crab this week and it was interesting. All foods are like crab (breaking into them) so it is hard to get to the food. You have to eat fast here, as well as a lot, or the people get upset. I have had a lot of fish cooked in all sorts of ways. I have had dry fish, boiled fish and fryed fish. We don't use knifes here. You eat either with a fork and spoon or with your hands. The fork isn't really used except to tear things apart and to scoop rice and food on your spoon.

 We hardly ever wear long sleeve. Long sleeve is for church, some zone conferences, mission conferences and general authorities.

Last Saturday we had a devotional for all the Philippines. The area presidency was setting up the new goals for the Philippines. It sounds like we are going to be working hard to help the wards do everything that they ask.

Love you,

Elder Nielsen

Hello from the Philippines

Hello from the Philippines and my first p-day. I am writing you at 1 in the afternoon and it is 10 at night over in Utah on Sunday. The Philippines is amazing. The people are so nice and I can comunicate with most of them. Most of the people here speak English so it makes things a little easier but I am still trying to speak in Ilongo so I can be clear.

 My companion is Elder Bermudez. He is 5'2" and is a native from the Philippines in Isabela, Luzon. He is a great person. He likes to laugh so it makes it easy for me to participate in the lessons because the people here like to observe others. The language is coming but I don't know that much. It is hard because they talk fast here. A lot of our time goes into teaching less active people right now but we are working with some people so that they become investigators. People here have to go to church for 4 weeks in a row in order to be baptized so it makes it hard to baptize them because of work and other things.

 Right now I am assigned to Manapla. It covers a few cities so I can't tell you all of them but we work hard. Manapla is the top of the Negros island. We are right next to the ocean.

It gets very hot here. You will be fine one moment but the next you will be sweating bullets, literally. We live Villa Angela area but they don't have addresses here. We will be there until March and then we will move because some members are building us a place right now.

 We have a great ward mission leader that helps us and he is always around to go with us so we work very closely with the members.

I love you. I hope everything continues to go well.

Elder Nielsen

New Address

Here is my new mailing address in the Philippines!

Elder Jacob Brent Nielsen
Philippines Bacolod Mission
PO Box 660
, Bacolod City
6100 Negros Occidental
Philippines


Packages have to be sent with this address

Elder Jacob Brent Nielsen
Philippines Bacolod Mission
Galo St. between Lacson & Mabini
Brgy. 22, Bacolod City
6100 Negros Occidental
Philippines

Phone:63 34-433-3001


Letters can be sent through the pouch service.  Here are the church's instructions:  Lay the letter blank side down.  Fold the bottom of the letter about one-third of the way up the page and crease.  Fold the top of the letter to the bottom of the first fold and crease.  Secure the long side with two pieces of tape about one inch in from each end, but do not seal the ends.  In the top left corner write your name and complete return address.  Affix first class postage in the top right corner.  In the middle write the missionary address as follows:

Elder Jacob Brent Nielsen
Philippines Bacolod Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150

In Bacolod

We just got to the mission home. We flew safe. It looks like President and Sister Lopez will be a good fit for me. They are very good people and very loving. I am excited to be here. I will answer all the e-mails that are piled up on p-day which I have been told is Monday or Sunday night according to your time. I love you all.

 Elder Nielsen