Next Transfer: Herriman

We taught a lot of lessons and it was a lot of goodbyes. It was hard. I cried a lot this week. It still hasn't registered that I am coming home.

I helped Elder Liquiran set up there area and it will be good.

Love you,

Elder Nielsen

Last Baptism

We had a great week. We had the baptism for the Baliguat couple. They are so amazing. They are going to endure well in the church. Brother is so strong and has a great testimony. He tells us about how all these other pastors are going to their house because of his kids and he talks about how he doesn't like it and some he says won't come back. He is really funny.

We had a good sacrament attendance for our investigators this last Sunday. We got 4 investigators there. It was good to get that many there again. The only problem is none can be baptized at the present. 3 of them have to get married first before they can be baptized and I think the other doesn't live in our area. I think they are really a part of the Kabankalan Ward area so I will have to check to see if we can go there or not.

We got Elvy to come to church. We have taught her for a while. Her husband came as well. He is a less active member. They are so nice and are doing great. They are planning on getting married in January and then she can be baptized.  We taught the Sa-ad family. They are a part member that were close to being baptized before. We are working on getting them to church. They have a baptismal date for November 29. The grandchildren of Baliguat might be this next month as well.

We will be working on finding a lot this week to help Elder Liquiran prepare them for baptism.

I think that is it for this week.

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen

PS I want Christmas music on when I get home and you can start putting up the Christmas tree now.

Time is Just Getting Faster

We had an ok week. It was a little hard because we kept on having important things to do that is taking us away from where we wanted or needed to go but it was alright. We are moving forward.

We should baptize Baliguat this week. They went to Bacolod this last weekend so we will do their interview on Wednesday. I am excited for my last baptism!!! We didn't get to many of the other investigators. We were busy with assignments. Elizar is a new investigator. He is 70+ and is really good. He wanted to come to church but was sick and didn't make it. He likes to listen though. We are also trying a lot of former investigators to see if they are willing to listen again. We hope for the best.

The weather is good. It rained a few times. For the most part it was a little bit hot for me. I hope it comes with me. I want the warm weather not the cold.

This week went by fast. I don't remember much. Time is just getting faster.

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen

PS Sorry the letters are getting small. I am trying to stay as focused as I can while here and writing is started to get really hard.

General Conference Week in the Philippines

General Conference was amazing!!! I didn't get to see the last half of the last session because bishop got up and said that we were going to hold a meeting. It was a little disappointing but I will download it and watch today. :) I liked Elder Cooks talk and President Uchtdorf's in priesthood. They were probably my favorite talking about our choices and how we need to be responsible and go toward our goals. It was all in English. I did like how some spoke in their own language which was cool. It was a little sad that our investigators didn't come because lots where busy with their rice fields getting them planted.

We got to work a lot this week!!! It was great. Baliguat is good for the 25th. Brother is way excited. I am excited for them. We didn't go to Gaston. We think they don't really want to listen so we are setting them aside. We got some new investigators that will be really good. They want to listen to our message so it is good. One is the Saad family. They have a son that is a member. We are working with them to come to church and be baptized. We taught the Sabico family. We had a great lesson on Sunday with them and brother commited to come to church himself. We are happy that he wants to help his family to make it eternal. The others are just coming along. We are working hard to get them to read and pray.

We have been getting a lot of rain. This week was full of it because of Typhoon Opong that went through this week. It was hard to work in some areas this week because it was to muddy and the rivers were overflowing so we had to figure out what else we could do instead. We visited a lot of members to get some referrals. That worked pretty well. We have referrals coming in so we are doing pretty good.

Zone Conference is on October 21 so we will be good for a week. We will get as much as we need to work.

Sorry, a little bit boring of a week. Next week might be more exciting.

Love you,

Elder Nielsen

PS: I would like to order 2 jackets, 1 coat, 2 pairs of gloves, a face mask, beeny, earmuffs, hand and feet warmers and a scarf when I get home. I would like that in the airport so I don't die. Thanks. I am serious about this.

At the Manila Temple last week

Manila Temple

This was a really good week. Going to Manila was good. I love the temple!!! I was so happy to go back and do a session. We will get one more time to go there and do another session so I am pretty excited!!!

Elder Liquiran is doing great. He is almost fluent in Ilonggo so it is great. He worked in Kabankalan while I went to Manila. It was weird because I went with the Tabugon missionaries to Bacolod but I was all by myself going back to Kabankalan.

Our investigators are doing ok as long as we can teach them. We haven't had much time since I went to Manila. It is pretty ruff when you don't get a full week to work.

Baliguat is doing good. We are excited for their baptism. We are just pushing them along. We will be baptizing anywhere from 3-5 of them. We found out this week that Brother Carbadilla is a member. Everyone was saying that he was baptized but wasn't confirmed but the records said he was so we are now just trying to get him to church. It looked like it was going to rain and did on Sunday so they didn't come this week. We had a typhoon pass on Saturday and Sunday so it was pretty ruff. We got a few more new investigators so we will see how they go. We did get to Gaston this week. They are really busy with their rice fields so they aren't home very often.

We are excited to watch general conference. They will be watching the Sunday sessions on Sunday so we will attend in Tapi for Saturday we will be in Kabankalan. We are excited that our investigators will be able to attend those sessions. It will be good for them.

Love you,

Elder Nielsen

Training

This was a great week. We had such good experiences this week. It was a little weird because the batch ahead went home. One of the elder's parents came here to pick him up and visit his areas. I got to talk to them and it was weird. They have a very thick accent and I didn't understand what they were saying some of the time. It was weird. They asked "Where are you from?" and I said "Utah" and then they said "We know that but what part?" and it was weird because usually people are ok with that. I didn't know what to do. It was like culture shock all over again!
This week I worked in Tabugon from Monday until Wednesday. I stayed with them for that time since I didn't have a companion. Wednesday was off to Bacolod to pick up Elder Liquiran. I picked him up on Thursday and went back to the area and was finally able to work.
Elder Liquiran is from Pangasinan. He speaks Tagalog. We have fun trying to talk to each other. I try to talk in a ruff Tagalog language and he tries to do the same in English so we understand each other but it sometimes takes a while before we get what the other is saying hahaha. He is really great though. He is picking up Ilonggo really quick. I am surprised. He is a really quick learner. He is going to be a great missionary.
As far as investigators go, we didn't get much teaching in so it was a little bit hard but we did alright. Baliguat will actually be baptized on October 25. They wanted to be baptized as one family unit so we moved them so they can. We needed more time anyway because we are still trying to help sister with praying. She is struggling learning how to pray so we are helping her to learn. The Gaston family we haven't taught all week. They found some work and haven't been home because of work so we haven't taught them for a while now. We are going to keep trying so that we can continue. Brother Sabico we didn't see either. He has been busy and we haven't had time to go there so we will see if we can teach him this next week. We did get to teach Brother Carbadilla. He is willing to do everything but  hasn't come to church for a while so we are working on him again to get baptized. We are working on finding a fellowshipper for him to help him. Adrian's and Bryan's mom said that they couldn't be baptized. We still need to talk to her so we are hoping to do so this week to help them. They really want to be baptized but we need her permission and it would be great if she would join as well.
We are getting excited for General Conference as well. Our bishop is going to ask the stake president if we could do a showing in Tapi so that it would be closer for everyone to see. If that doesn't happen it will be in Kabankalan which will be hard for the members because it is 64-66 pesos for 1 person to attend which is really expensive. We are hoping it will just be in Tapi to make it easier for the members and our investigators because they will want to go attend as well.
This week I will be going to Manila. We have to do fingerprinting there so we can return to the USA and while we are there we get to go to the temple!!!! I am excited to go to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love you all,
Elder Nielsen

Birthday Week

Well, it was good bye to Elder Delima this week. He left this morning about 6:30 to go to Bacolod (by himself) and I am with the  Tabugon missionaries until I get to go to Bacolod and pick up the real greenie of the mission. Yep, I am training again for my last transfer. It is going to be a challenge but President talked to me about that and said that he wanted to make me tired before I go home. I think his plan is going to work. I don't know anything about my companion and won't until Thursday when I pick him up.

My birthday was good. It was a little sad because it was also Elder Delima's last day so we celebrated my birthday put in the end everyone was crying that Elder Delima was leaving. It was ok though.

We did get a good week of work though. I am excited for the work that is going to come from our efforts this week.

Baliguat family is doing great. Brother has stopped his smoking and they are doing really good. They will be baptized on October 4th. They are really prepared and love the gospel. Their granddaughter, Macie, is going to be on the 18th. She is doing good as well. She just needs to come to church and then she will be good. We are teaching Brother Sabico as well. I think we got a spark going with him. He seems more interested in what we teach now and he was a little sad because church was in Binalbagan because it was stake conference. They didn't have the money to get there so they didn't get to come. This week they should be coming. The same thing happened with Brother Carbadilla. He loves to listen but couldn't come this week for the same reason. Gaston couldn't come as well. They are really thinking right now if they are going to change religion or not. That is something we are waiting for and trying to get them to pray about. If they convert they will be really strong. We are just waiting to see what happens with them.

Hmmm... what else happened this week. It went by so quick I am having a hard time remembering.

I think that was about it.

My birthday was good. I bought a cake and we ate it. It was pretty good but not as good as a carrot cake. I am still expected one of those when I get home.

Well that is about it.

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen

More Rain and Mud

First of all, we got a little scaried because Baliguat said they were going to Manila for a couple of weeks. We didn't know why but they were going. We found out later that is was because brother wants to stop smoking so he thought he could do it easier in Manila. They are going to stay here now but we will have to wait for their baptisms until he stops. He didn't smoke on Saturday so he might have started already. We still aren't sure when the baptism will be. We are teaching Adrian and Bryan. They are doing great and love the gospel but we will have to wait a few months before they can be baptized. Our bishop wants to make sure that they stay active so we will have to see if they continue coming to church after their fellowshipper has gone on his mission. We don't know when that will be either. The Gaston family is doing great. They love to listen and we have a good relationship with them. They really wanted to come to church this week but didn't make it. It would have been hard for them this week because it rained really hard on Saturday and Sunday making it really muddy and hard to bring the kids to church. Maybe next week they will come. We are also working with Brother Sabico. He is probably in the same position. That was a lot of our week.

It was a little hard to work. It rained so hard that we couldn't go out at some points because it rained so hard and then some places we coudn't go because the mud and one area flooded. It was a little bit trying but we should be good for this next week. The rain is hard but it should be better this week.

Elder Delima is still working very hard. He is great and is a great missionary. I will need a new cook when he goes home. He cooks so well that I am gaining weight!

Love you,

Elder Nielsen

In the Mountains

This has been a very good week and I am very tired because we are always walking. It takes a long time to go from house to house and it is a very mountainous area. Mabini wasn't even close to this. To get to Kabankalan it takes 3-4 hours and then it is another 30-40 minutes to get to Tapi. It is fun!

Elder Delima is great. We were in the same apartment for a short time while we were in Escalante. He is a great companion and has already taught me a lot. I am kind of sad that he is going home in 2 weeks.

The weather has been a lot of rain. We are high enough in the mountains that we get fog sometimes. It has been pretty cold were we are. I just have to say the water is freezing. I am looking forward to that warm shower waiting for me when I get home!!!

Tapi is a very good ward. Everything is set up and the bishop is great. He is an return missionary and does everything he needs too. Tapi became a ward last March is it is a pretty new ward.

We have lots of good investigators. Lots of families. It is amazing to see the work happening here. We had a baptism on Saturday of Reynaldo Rose (Roo- see). He has a great testimony. His wife was a member so it really helped him. We will be having a baptism on September 20th. The Baliguat family has been preparing and are doing great. They are an older couple and brother wanted to be closer to God so when the missionaries went to him he was so prepared to listen. They also have a grandchild that will be baptized on October 11 named Macie. Then we will be having Adrian and Bryan being baptized on September 27. They are 9 & 8. Our ward mission leader is really helping them. He is their support to come to church and they love it. He says they ask him if they are going to the church everyday they are so excited to be at the church. We also have a lot more investigators. I will tell you more when I can remember them more and can tell you more. I don't know the area very well yet so it is a working progress. I will send you pictures of a family that we are teaching. They were making smashed bananas with sugar which was really good. I will show you how they make it. We are also working in one area called Balicotoc. It is pretty far. We have to walk 30 minutes to get there after a 10 minute motor ride. They motors are called habol-habol. It is a pretty fun ride. In that area we are having a special sacrament and are hoping to start baptizing there so we can have a group there. A group will allow missionaries to be there so they can then progress to be a branch. It was an amazing week. I look forward to the coming weeks to see what the Lord has in store for the area and for us.

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen

PS I just want to be the first to wish you all a Merry Christmas. The season has started here in the Philippines.

PSS I expect to hear Christmas when I get home!

Week Full of Surprises

Well this was a better week and it was full of surprises. You will never guess but I am transferring today! I wasn't expecting it but it happened. I am with my new companion right now. Elder Delima is my companion. He is pretty new in the mission. I think about 23 weeks and 1 week. Yeah he goes home in about 3 weeks. He is the district leader so I get to be junior for the next couple of weeks. By the way I am in Tapi in Kabankalan zone. I can't tell you where I live, I haven't been there yet.

This week we did a lot of good work. It didn't show all the way but that was alright. We found a part member couple. Brother Jonathan is a member and his wife and her sister aren't. We started teaching them and they were very receptive. We gave them a date for October 6. They will probably continue for that date. We were so excited to find them. Then we went to some formers that were pretty interested. They just stopped because the missionaries got transferred and no one returned. We were going to go back to them this week. Spencer was going to come to church this week but his head was hurting. We gave him a blessing. He will be baptized soon. Sister is no longer working so they will be able to come to church. Earljon got shy right before church so he didn't come. He needs member support in order to progress. Jona has work now. She is 2 months pregnant. We didn't get to go to her because she is working 7 days a week now. It makes things hard for us. Hopefully it will work out for her.

I don't know what else to say. I haven't gone to the new area yet. We are e-mailing then we will eat and then head down there I will tell you a more next week when I know more about the area. I hear it is in the mountains so I am pretty excited for the area. I like the mountains better then the city.

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen

Full Week

This week we got to do a lot more than last week. We had a full week to work and no distractions. It was nice but it turned out to be a very challenging week.

We spent a lot of this week trying to talk to people and find some less actives. We did a lot of that. We talked to a lot of people and contacted some less actives but we had little success with both of them. We couldn't get any return appointment with our contacting and the less actives weren't willing to let us in or to really talk to them. It was a bit ruff but I guess it wasn't their time.

As far as investigators go for this week. Jona is doing alright. Still reading and praying but she didn't come to church again this week. She might have been in Bago so that might have been why because she went there on Saturday and might not have come back. She has been struggling lately because of the pregnancy. She says that it is causing her teeth to really hurt. It has been a trial for her. Earljohn seemed so sure he was going to come to church this week. He has been reading and was excited on Saturday. We went to pick him up and he said that his head was hurting so he didn't come again. That has been a struggle as well. Satan sure does like to make that poor kid sick. Spencer is also doing pretty good. We didn't get to teach him much this week because they have been busy. He went downtown on Sunday so he didn't make it to church. They say this week they should be good. They had to take care of some stuff for his grandmother because she isn't around right now. We did find a new investigator this week. His name is Leopoldo. He seems pretty interested and might be pretty good. He was sick when we found him so it was a little hard. We will be going back to him this week to continue teaching him.

That was pretty much this week. Lots of trials but that is ok. There has to be an opposition in all things to help us and them to improve. If there was none, we would be the same as Adam and Eve with no improvement or development.

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen

Teaching for Understanding

We did have transfers this week. Elder Monzales went off to his second area and I am now with Elder Alfeche. He is from Marikina City in Manila (same as Elder Paaño). I have known him for a long time now. He is a great missionary and I am happy that I get to work with him. He is really good. I have gone on exchanges with him before in the past and so I am really excited that he now is my companion.

So this week . . . It went by very quick it is hard to remember what happened this week.

Tuesday was a day of saying goodbye for Elder Monzales and Wednesday was picking up Elder Alfeche. The rest of the week was about normal. Jona is doing the same. She didn't come to church this week and we don't know why so we will follow up with her. Earljohn is still struggling to come to church. We will probably have to take another approach to help him. We didn't make it Spencer this week. We were very busy with some mission assignments so we didn't get to do as much work as we wanted or could. It made things a little bit ruff this week. If you remember Anafe, she is doing really great. She loves to talk to others about the gospel and share her testimony. We are working with her to get a referral so that should be coming soon. We are still working with the Turuel family. Sister isn't there anymore. There was some things that she has to do somewhere else so we won't see here for a long time. Other than that we have been working with members and less actives to help them come back or continue to enter the fold.

I would just to tell you a little bit about what I have been studying lately. It our district meetings, where I give my lessons, we have been focusing on chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel which focuses on how to teach and improve your teaching skills. Last week I gave a training on Teaching for Understanding. I was thinking about that last Monday on how I would present my lesson and I thought about it for a long time. I finally figured that I would focus on language and about not giving too much information as we teach. A big concern in all teaching is that we want to be so clear that we share everything making a disturbance and a change of focus. That causes things to be very unclear so we need to give the needed information and a couple extras that that person can understand. The Spirit is the guide for how much we can give. That is been a big help in my teaching is focusing on what they can understand and teaching a simple understandable manner in the language they speak. In this language, there are lots of old terms the people don't understand that we are taught to use. But as we simplify it, they receive a greater conversion.

I think that is important in all teaching whether religion based or not.

Love you,

Elder Nielsen  

Strong Testimonies

We had a pretty slow week this week. It seemed like we were doing so well with teaching and then we came to look at what we got done and it was very little. Oh well, we made a lot of progress this week on figuring out what needs to be done.

Our investigators are about the same. They love to listen but are struggling with their commitments. We will have to see how they continue to go.

Jona is still holding out strong. Earljohn is still listening but still struggling to get to church. We went to pick him up for church but he was too tired to come. I guess he needs a stronger testimony of the gospel. The Elisa family is doing good. They have such strong testimonies. They still haven't come to church and we were able to find out their concern so now we get to focus on that to help them overcome that hurdle. We were able to get back to Mylene Villarosa. She is doing good. Lots of questions about the gospel. She is extremely busy with school but we were able to figure out her schedule so we can now make plans to help her and to continue teaching her and her sisters.

Elder Monzales got sick again this week. This has been a big trial between us because he has been getting sick a lot so we haven't been able to work as much as we would like. I got to clean the house and we were able to find some old records that could help us in the future to find more investigators. That has also been a trial. We have been searching but haven't found very much and when we do find, we go back and they aren't there. It is a working progress but I am sure that we will get more success in the coming weeks.

As far as rain, there hasn't been any rain this week!!! It has been nice weather for the most part and the other part it has been extremely hot. We are sweating a lot. It has been a quick change but I am ok with it.

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen

We are just His tools

Here is the update this week, it has rained 26/28 days this past month!!! We had some sunny days but it ended up raining later but that was alright. The sun did dry up some of the rain so it isn't as bad as it use to be.

As far as this week, we had a good week even though Elder Monzales and I were both sick. We took a day rest and are now both fine. We did a lot of finding this week and it came up with some new investigators so we will see how that goes.

Jona is doing great as always. There is nothing really to teach her anymore. She understands everything and has a great testimony. She reads everyday so we just have to wait for the marriage. We hope it is soon but it doesn't look like that will happen. It might be another 3 months before that goes. We went back to Sister Droa and she is doing great. She says that her husband wants her to wait for when he is ready to get baptized. We are ok with that but she wants to go ahead of him because she believes it will be a while before he is prepared because he hasn't listened to us yet. When we go, he always gets up and leaves. We are hoping he will come along soon. Earljohn was so sure that he was going to go to church this week and we even went there on Sunday and he said he was going to but he never showed. We don't know how else to help him because he isn't helping himself. That is the hard part of it. We will keep working and maybe next week he will come. We started teaching a boy named Spencer Elisa. His parents are members and he is really great. He is loving the gospel and is very smart. We gave him a baptismal date for August 30. We hope to continue it. It will be hard to get him to church because the parents always goes to her mother on Sunday mornings so we will see what we can do to get them to church. We also got a referral from an investigator in the sister's area for their children. We contacted Mylene and Mariel Villarosa. They are really nice. We didn't get much time with them but we did invite them for baptism on August 30th. Their schedule is very hard but he hope to continue with them. It will be hard to get them again but we will keep trying.

We did some talking to people where members were present and we shared a little to them and got return appointments with them. We are going to contact them again and see how we can help them to progress.

Lots of good things are happening. We are just struggling to get them to church. We don't know the problem but the Lord does so we have to trust in him to convert them. We are just His tools.

Our area is very urban. It is all houses and stores. It makes things pretty hard to be in the city because it is hard to get people while outside of their houses. We don't do any door knocking so we jump on the opportunities we get to talk to people. It is better that way so they are more receptive.

Love you,

Elder Nielsen

20 out of 21 days of rain

We had an interesting week that didn't turn out just as we thought it would. Lots of promptings and going to houses to get bad results. Oh well, it has to happen sometimes.

First of all, Sister Droa didn't get baptized. She came across a family problem that we couldn't control. We are waiting to visit her to see what is going on and see if we can help to get her baptized. We are hoping for next week but she might not be able. It was sad to hear but we understand her situation. Jona is doing great. Very receptive just need the marriage. That is going to be awhile so I will let you know what happens there. Earljohn still won't come to church. We don't know his concern. He is always to tired so we are promoting him to go to bed early so he won't get tired. We didn't see Pingping because she went to Talisay and so we weren't able to teach her so we will try to connect with her this week. We got some new investigators that look like they might be good. The Amante family is very nice. Very willing to listen. We haven't been able to teach them because their daughter-in-law is a member and they want her there to listen. She has had a sick child so hasn't been able to do much. All others is a slow process.

It has been raining like crazy here. We are now at 20/21 days of rain. Lots of typhoons coming through. We hope it dries out this week and gives us some warm days.

Sorry short letter. Not much this week. Lots of walking around.

 Love you,

Elder Nielsen

Wonderful Experiences

It rained everyday this week except Friday making 13/14 days of rain the past two weeks. We held Anafe's baptism this Sunday. It was really great. She has such a great testimony. She has investigated a lot of churches to find out which one is true and she says that she felt this was the true one while the others where good but felt like something was missing. It was such a wonderful experience to be with her for that. As far as investigators go, Sister Droa's interview will be on Tuesday because the zone leaders are far away so they will be doing it on Tuesday. We are excited for that so we can prepare for her baptism this next Sunday. She is doing really great and we are very excited for her. Jona came to church again which we were excited about. She is loving the church and has had some really good experiences. We haven't given her a date because we still have to check up on somethings before we can let her be baptized but she is really looking forward to that date. Earljohn still hasn't been to church. He always has an excuse. We are working to strengthen his testimony so he will come to church and his excuses will fade away. We are also still working with Bella Consulta. We learned a lot about her this week and it is going to difficult to help her but through a lot of faith we will be able to. We contacted a new investigator this week named Pingping. She is a former investigator that stopped because she moved places. She is very interested and we were able to give her a baptismal date for August 31. She was a little shocked but I think it will be good. Sister Teruel is doing great. Still waiting for them to process their marriage papers so she can be married but they are suppose to do it this week. We are also teaching Gemma Mag-usara. She is very interested and she wants to be baptized but can't because she isn't married. Her husband doesn't want to marry so we have a problem. It might be because of money because he has no identification so it is more expensive but their is a law we can try to help them with so they can be married. We will have to see how he accepts it.

I had to laugh this week. I was transferred her 2 weeks ago and just last Monday, one of the sisters from Bacolod 2nd got transferred here as well. It was funny that we both came from the same ward and got put here.

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen

 

Very Wet

This was an ok week. We had a good teaching week and lots of time to find. That made things a little interesting for us.

First of all, Anafe is doing great. She will be baptized on Sunday. We are very excited for her because she was so ready. We have gone through the commandments with her very quick and she readily accepted all of them. She is so great. We are also expecting a interview this Sunday with Leonida Droa. She is such a wonderful woman. She readily accepts everything and is very excited for her baptism. We are getting excited for that. We also got Jona to church this week!!! We were excited about her coming because we wondered if she would because her siblings told us that she was in Bago and was coming back on Sunday. We stopped by her house just in case to invite her to church and she came!!! She doesn't have a baptismal date yet because we are waiting for her to be married first. That is a big step for her to prepare for baptism. We are teaching a boy named Earljohn. He is doing alright just having a hard time getting him to church because he is so busy!!! It is weird that kids can get so busy that they don't have time for anything else! We are working with him and he has a desire to be baptized but church is keeping him from baptism. We gave him a date for Aug. 10 for his baptism. We are also teaching Bella Consulta. She is a long time former investigator. She is very receptive and wants to follow Christ. We gave her a baptismal date for Aug 24 because she wants it close to her birthday, Aug 25. Sister Teruel is doing good as well. Still waiting for her to process her marriage papers. They are planning on doing it this week so we will see how that goes.

I just got to tell you it has rained all week!!! I am very wet! We had a typhoon pass through this week which just brought a lot of rain and they say that today or tomorrow another one is going to come through. It makes my area very muddy. My area is very city making things very hot when the sun comes out. Lots of the area is just dirt roads so it is dirty. There is a lot of big houses and businesses in our area. The big houses are hard to get into if there is no referral given so we are trying to talk to them when they are out of their houses but that is hard because they usually aren't. It is an interesting area and is going to be a challenge but it is good. We walk a lot in circles in our area but it is good.

Sorry still getting to know the area. I will try to write more next week.

Love you,

Elder Nielsen

Surprise Transfer

Well, I have something to tell you . . . I was transferred on Tuesday so I don't know how the investigators are doing in Bacolod 2nd even though I am right next door in Alijis (All-eh-he's). Sorry trying to help you pronounce it.
I was shocked when I got the call on Monday during a family home evening that I was being transferred so it was interesting and very unexpected.
I am in a good area. My companion is Elder Monzales. He is from Isabella, same place as Elder Lapitan and Elder Bermudez. I am follow-up training him right now and am a district leader of 10, 2 elders (us) and 8 sisters. It is going to be an adjustment for sure.
Our area is pretty small but we do good work. Our next planned baptism is July 19. Her name is Anafe. She has a strong testimony of the gospel. She was suppose to be this week but we moved it to give time to finish teaching the lessons to her because we have quite a bit more to do. The next planned on is Sister Droa. She is very strong in the gospel. She is to be baptized on August 2. She loves what we teach and is willing to go all the way. We also have some strong investigators. Pamela Teruel is a good investigator. She just needs to get married for baptism. Her two kids just got baptized last week so we are just waiting for them to process their papers. They went one day but there was a big line so they didn't wait. We are also teaching Jona. She is really good. She loves to listen and is having great experiences in the Book of Mormon. We are just working on getting her to church for her to be baptized. She often attends another church with her cousin so we are working to get her to come to the church she knows is true.
After that we have a lot of potential. I will tell you more when I get to know the area better.
I am excited to serve here. I think it will be my last area so I am going to work hard. The members are willing and we are getting referrals so I think that it will all work out.
Just so you know, it is very rainy here. The last 3 days, it has just been pouring water. It is crazy and hard for our area because there are rivers and they have flooded because of all the rain. It is ok. We are making it and it isn't causing to many problems.
Love you all,
Elder Nielsen

Finding New Investigators

We had an ok week. We had our problems, as normal but we are coming. We are still working on finding new investigators which is the hardest part because like you said, we are struggling with getting new investigators. It makes it hard to teach if we don't have anyone to teach. We have been working a lot with former investigators to try to find new people to teach. We didn't get much success this week but we are coming.

It is also very rainy. We try to stay in member or investigator's houses during the heavy rain but when it is light, we go out and go the next closes house. It makes things interesting and fun.

This week, Carmela is coming along pretty well. She still is about the same but she was a lot more open when we taught her last time. We started teaching her the commandments so we can help her to repent of her sins or to try to find out her concern. It was a good lesson. She is doing great with her reading, she was in 4Nephi last Wednesday and we probably expect her in Ether when we go there on Wednesday. We are hoping she will just have a great experience in the Book of Mormon and will tell us she is ready for baptism.

We started teaching a kid named Marvin. His mom is less active because she works in Ilo-ilo so she isn't home to come to church and she usually is traveling back to work on Sunday (she comes home on Saturdays). He is a little bit hard but I think he will come along just fine.

Manuel was so excited for us to teach him on Wednesday and we had a good lesson but he didn't come to church again. We don't know what is going on so we will see what happens.

We didn't see a lot of our investigators this week. Some of them dropped us or are too busy to listen so we are working a lot with members to get new people to teach and then are talking to people on the streets to teach them. That is our work for the week. We will also work a lot on finding less actives because we have 500+ members but only 130 comes to church. That is a lot better way for finding new investigators then knocking on doors.

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen

Rainy

We had a pretty fun week trying to balance everything but I think it turned out alright.
First of all, Tony Nobleza was to be baptized with Irish before he died. The ward sure does miss him because he contributed so much even before he was baptized. God does have a plan for him though and it must have been his time. They say he died while reading the Book of Mormon.
It is raining a lot lately. There is hardly a dry day here. It is nice because it isn't hot but it is also hard because it is hard to catch people home during the rain. They are trapped somewhere or they are sleeping.
Training is going well. Elder Vinoya is starting to get the language down. He is also getting really good at teaching so everything is going well.
We taught pretty good this week do to zone conference taking away Monday from us going out to teach at night. Also Elder Vinoya got sick so we missed some work there but it is good.
Carmela is doing pretty good. She believes the church is true but she isn't ready to accept a baptismal date. She just wants to observe for the time being. In Preach My Gospel it says all concerns are based on not having a testimony of the Restoration or not willing to commit to the commandments. We are lead that she is still scared of some of the commandments so we plan to teach her about that this week. We haven't seen John Paul this week so we don't know how he is doing. He is very busy playing when he gets the time. Manuel is coming. He is getting rid of his vices right now. That is the hard part. We have a new investigator named Dino. He is doing very good. We were planning this week to give him a baptismal date but we didn't get the time to do that. We will try this week. He came to play basketball on Saturday with us. It was good.
We are just trying to solve the concerns right now and continue to find.
Love you all,
Elder Nielsen

Father's Day

What a good but challenging week this week.

We had Irish's baptism this week. It turned out very good experience and was very nice. I thought something was missing probably because I was thinking of the sisters' investigator who died the day before the baptism. It was pretty sad but it must have been God's will. He sure does work in mysterious ways.

We stayed pretty busy this week. Our key indicators are getting bigger every week so we are doing some things right but we are still struggling getting our investigators to church.

As far as investigators, Carmela is doing about the same. We got busy so we didn't make it to her this week. We will be visiting her next week. We had a great experience with Miguel Javier. We were teaching him, and he didn't read the Book of Mormon so we decided we would read with him to try to get some background of it so he would maybe be more excited about reading it. We read it and he said "This isn't the same as the Bible is it?" It gave us a great experience explaining what the Book of Mormon is. We think it is helping him to be more interested in what we are saying instead of just listening to what we are saying. He seems curious so we will see what happens this week. We started teaching April Mana-ay. She is a security guard. Her sister was baptized a couple of months ago. She has been taught before but wasn't ready to listen. We started again and was able to commit her to a baptismal date. It is still a long ways away but she wants some time to prepare. We are excited to teach her and help her to understand and accept the gospel. We also have taught her brother but it isn't the easiest to catch them home.

Manuel is doing alright. We have set up a plan for him to stop his vices so we will see what happens there. We also have been looking and have found some fellowshippers for him to help him stop his vices. We hope this will help him to see what he is doing is possible.

John Paul didn't come to church so we need to move his baptismal date. We aren't sure when because we want to make sure that he is prepared and understands what we are teaching him first.

This week in our studies we have been studying about working with members. It is so important that members are working. It is very hard if it is just us so we need all the help we can get. Members are the key to conversion because it gives us the people that are ready to listen and then they have a friend to help them on their way.

Love you lots,

Elder Nielsen

PS Happy Father's Day to all the dads.

 

A Wonderful Week

We had such a wonderful week this week. We were a little worried at first but it turned out alright.
Irish had her interview and we will be having her baptism next Saturday. We weren't sure if it was going to happen because we were waiting and about 20 minutes after the schedule timed and then he said I am on my way. We think he forgot so it was a good thing we text him.
We still aren't sure how the funeral will effect John Paul's baptism. He got back yesterday. We hope that it will continue but we still have a lot to teach him for only having 2 weeks to prepare him for his interview.
Manuel is coming. He is coming very well. We are just waiting for a few things and then he is good for baptism.
Carmela is doing well. We found out she believes that all churches she believes is true as long as they talk of Christ. We are working on finding a way to help her realize that Christ built one church and gave authority for one church. It is a working progress.
We had a miracle find this week. We have been going to a new area called Malapitan. We were looking for a less active member there that was on our member list and as we were looking we couldn't find her. We asked all the people around if they had meet her and no one new her. We were going to leave the area when we heard "hello elder." We went back and it was her!!! She works in Ilo-ilo so she only comes home about once a year. The Lord put us there for a reason. Her son is there on the weekends and hasn't been baptized yet. We will start teaching him this next week. It was a miracle.
We had a great week. The Lord truly blessed us. We found some more investigators and we will be working on them this week. We will see how that goes.
Love you all,
Elder Nielsen

Interesting but Fast Week

We had a very interesting but fast week. Everything seemed good this week so I can't say much. Let me think what was going on this week. huh. . .
Well we found out that Irish needs a special interview because of somethings that she has done in her past. We aren't sure when she will be baptized any more because of that but we are hoping it will be soon. One of President Lopez's councilors will be coming over on Thursday to do the interview with her. We hope that everything will go alright. I am sure it won't be to much of a problem. If everything goes good we might baptize her on June 14. John Paul is doing alright as well. He is coming along but his grandpa died this week so we aren't sure what will happen with that. We hope it won't effect his baptism but it might just because funerals take about 10 days here. We might have to move his baptism because of that. Manuel is doing great. We hope that he will continue. Carmela is coming very slowly but I think she is starting to realize that the church is true. We asked if she prayed if that church was not true and she said that she felt nothing but when she prays if it is true that she feels peace. We didn't have much time to teach her so we will be focusing on that next time we go to teach her. We are just hoping that she will accept that as her answer because she wants to know not just believe. The rest of this week was just trying to build some relationships with some of the people that we have taught before or that we were referred too. I hope that we can teach more this next week but it might be a little hard with school. School just started today for the elementary and high school students and then college starts next week. It will be interesting to see what happens.
We teach about the same as when I was zone leader and maybe a little less just because we have extra studies that we need to do since I am training. It is better help the new missionary to understand what missionary work is and how it is best performed. It is hard to put in the schedule but it is alright. We make it happen.
I have to agree with Elder Holland when he said missionary work was never easy because it wasn't easy for Christ when he performed the atonement.
Salvation isn't easy but it can be easier if we follow Christ.
Love you all,
Elder Nielsen

Training!!!!

I am still in Bacolod 2nd Ward. Elder Paaño moved out and I stayed to train a new companion. Elder Vinoya has a great testimony and really is excited for this work. He is from Quezon City, Manila. I am excited to train because it is helping me focus more on the work. I need to train him correctly so it doesn't leave me any time to do anything else except focus on the work. I have been going home a lot more tired then any other time in my mission.
This week has been a lot of studies for us. While training we have 4 hours of study instead of the normal 3. It has been very different but has taught me a lot more. Then it has been off to the members and others so that Elder Vinoya can meet the members and we can start helping the members do missionary work. We are hoping we can do a lot more with our investigators this week. Lots of people are very busy right now because school starts next week June 2 so they are getting ready and are spending lots of time doing things. We hope they will relax this next week so we can teach them.
As for this week, Irish is doing great. Her interview should be next week so we are preparing her for that. She should be baptized on June 7. We then gave a baptismal date to Chenna's brother John Paul for June 28. He will be our next baptism. He is turning 8 on June 24 so we thought it would be good to do so. We are trying to get their mom involved so that she can listen to the discussions. We hope to convert her in the process of teaching John Paul. We didn't make it to Carmela this week because bishop's father-in-law had a stroke so we didn't go there this week. She came up to us in church and asked why we didn't go there so think that is a good sign. We also went to Eden this week.She is doing really good and she likes what we teach. We are working on getting her to read the Book of Mormon and we are still trying to get her to church. That is the hardest part. Armando went back to Cadiz so we are going to teach him. Hopefully the missionaries there will continue to teach him. Everyone else it about the same. We meet a few more people this week that are potential. We will be working to contact as many of them as we can.
Hope you all are doing well. The Lord is hastening His work. We see it everyday as we work. Lots of hearts are changing. Hope you are participating in this great work.
Love you,
Elder Nielsen

Working Progress

We had an exciting week this week. It started very good but it turned out we didn't do as good as thought we would but that is ok. We did a lot of good working with the people of the ward.
First of all, We had Chenna's baptism!!! It was so good. We ended up baptizing 3 primary aged kids that week, (2 from the sisters). It was a nice baptismal service. We are going to miss a couple of weeks before our next baptism. The next one will be on June 7. Irish will be baptized that day. She is really progressing and loving the gospel. We have seen a lot of changes in her for good. Her temper has become longer, she is a lot nicer, and she loves more to listen to the gospel rather then to us. That is true conversion. We are excited for that baptism to happen. Our next planned is on June 14 but we still aren't sure if that will happen. Armando is suppose to but we haven't talked to his sister yet to see if he can be baptized. We will have to find out this week when he goes to Cadiz to find out. We got a new investigator named Manuel. He has becoming to church for a while now and the sisters were teaching him but they didn't want to continue so we took him from them. He is very smart and has lots of potential. He has lots of problems though so we are really trying to help him with those. I hope he will progress well. Right now he is doubting if there is a God so that is something we will talk about with him this week. Carmela is doing great. Still reading and coming to church. She still isn't ready to accept her answer so we are still working on that with her. This might take us a while to do so we are hoping to know what to say.
That was about it for the investigators. We ended up spending a lot of time trying to help struggling members and working with our leaders to better help the ward to progress. It is a working progress. I hear we will get a new ward mission leader this next Sunday so we are pretty exited so that we can work with him and make more plans for the work here.
Love you lots,
Elder Nielsen
PS You might have heard there was an earthquake here. We barely felt it. Nothing happened at all with it.

No Letter, Just Talked For Mother's Day

We didn't have a letter from Jacob because we talked on his P-day for Mother's Day.

New Area President Visit

This was a great week for us. We have been so blessed this week. Our work went great and our leadership meeting was really good this time.
I will first talk about our investigators and how they are progressing.
We saw Albert as we were walking home on Tuesday so we talked to him very fast, it was almost time to be home, and he said we could talk with him on Saturday. We kept going back to him but his family says he hasn't come home for 4 days. No one seems to know where he went. We just hope he will come back some time so we can help him. Reca is good for this Saturday!!! We are excited to have a baptism again. She is so good. She has came and worked with us a couple of times even. It will be a great baptism. Next we will have Chienna. She will be on May 17. She came back from vacation so she is good to go. She came to church and that is when we found out that she was back. We are so excited. Next we should have Armando. He is with one of our recent converts. He is doing great but we need to talk to his sister if he can be baptized or not. We are hoping to talk to her soon so we can baptized him on May 24. After that we aren't sure what will happen. We had 7 investigators at church so we are expecting a lot to come. Roy was one of our investigators at church. We haven't taught him yet but we are planning this week because we have seen a great desire. His mom might be a problem but we aren't to worried about it. We haven't seen Macmac this week. He hasn't been home so maybe next week we will see him.
Our leadership meeting with Elder Ardern, the new area president, was really good. He actually didn't teach us much. He talked a little about doing great things and showed us how our mission has improved so much in one year and then he spent a lot of his time asking questions trying to figure out what other missions in the Philippines could do to improve because our mission is doing so well. The work is hastening very quickly here in Bacolod. Elder Ardern wants the whole Philippines to do the same. I learned a lot about leadership from him and being humble. Sometimes we are put in leadership positions but we also have to be able to learn from those that we are put over. He gave a great example of that. We can learn something from everyone.
Those are the big things for this week. We will be giving a training this next week and then we will have a training with President Lopez. It will be a great week.
Love you,
Elder Nielsen

Time Going By Fast

Times seems to go to fast. I was just thinking it was Wednesday this morning and then thought about it again to find out it was Monday in the next week. I don't know what is going on there.

I will be calling about 10:30 our time here about 8:30 your time if I am on the right daylights savings thing.

This week was pretty good. It rained a few times which was nice but very wet. At least it isn't as hot.

Albert had his interview and he passed but we went there last night and he feels like he doesn't know enough to be baptized. We hope to solve that one very quick so he will continue on May 4. He is very good just very stressed from work so he feels like he is getting enough knowledge. We aren't too worried about it. We think it will be an easy fix. Rica is doing very good as well. We are planning on getting her mom to sign tonight so we can have her baptism on May 10. She is loving the church and being with her new friends. We got a couple of lessons left to do with her but that shouldn't be to hard. I am looking forward to this one. Macmac is doing pretty well. He is reading and praying and has had some great experiences. He went to Pta. Taytay yesterday so he didn't come to church. He is just missing church. When he comes he will be ready for baptism. Irish is doing ok. She was too shy to come to church yesterday. She is in the same boat. We feel there is a greater problem with her as well so we are working on that. She is just like the iceburg analogy in chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel. We had 3 new investigators come to church this week. One was a former investigator that came up to us and asked to come to church with us. His name is Roy. He really wants to learn. We hope to talk to his mother some time to get permission to teach him. One of the recent converts in the ward brought her siblings to church yesterday. She told us she wants us to teach them. They are very receptive and have been taught a little before. We gave them a baptismal date for May 17. We just need to talk to their older sister for permission to baptize them.

One thing that came to mind this week was if things aren't going right, are we focusing on the Lord? Sometimes we have hard times just like Job for testing us to make us better and then there are times when we aren't doing His will. We must always evaluate this question to know where we sit and who we follow.

Sincerely,
Elder Nielsen

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, you will probably get this late. We went and played some badminton with our office staff since they will probably transfer this week, they have both been in for over a year and are about to go out. We had lots of fun.
This week went by very fast. I will try to tell you what happened but I don't remember much.
Albert is coming very well. He believes the church is true and he likes what we teach. He said that while he was working, one of his co-workers saw his Book of Mormon and asked if he was a Mormon. He said he was being taught. The co-worker said that was good for him and that it was good he was listening to us even though he wasn't a member. What a good person to promote Christ. We are now getting him ready for his interview this Saturday so that he can be baptized on May 3. Then we got Rica to come to church. We were a little worried about her having friends at church so we got one of our recent converts to be her friend. We went to her after church and asked how church was and if she had any friends there. She said that she made a friend but she didn't know her name hahaha. At least we gave her another reason to keep coming. She will be baptized on May 10. We actually talked about the word of wisdom and she said that all of them were nasty so she doesn't use them. Irish is coming along but we found out she hasn't got her testimony of Joseph Smith yet. We will be working on that so she can say it is true. We worried that she was going to move but now it seems like she will be staying here so we have time. Macmac is doing really great. He is reading and praying and having a great experience. He said that the church was true. We just need to get him to church. He is shy to go alone and the less actives with him are shy to return so we are working on that. That was about it we got to this week. It was a little bit different this week. Lots of people went on vacation because of Holy Week and lots went to church throughout the week.
Friday was our hard day to teach. Everyone goes to church on Friday to remember the cross of Christ. We didn't teach that much. I was also a little surprised because church wasn't that full on Sunday. We found out a lot of people went to different places to celebrate. It was a little different but we are still looking good for the future.
Love you,
Elder Nielsen

General Conference Week

This was a very good week. We had so many great experiences especially with our investigators and watching general conference. A lot of the talks seem to focus on us and what we are doing as missionaries. It made me think of what I am doing right now and what I need to do to improve.
First of all nothing happened with transfers. We are just the same as always. The only thing was that we now have the other assistants, there is 4 in the mission, are now in our zone so we have both pairs in the zone hahaha.
I will try to start at the first of the week and move to the end. This week we had a really good lesson with Carmela. She says that she felt the Holy Ghost as she read and prayed about the Book of Mormon. She feels it is true. We are now just working on that so she accepts the church is true and she needs to be baptized. Albert is doing very well. We were teaching him about baptism and he said as we were talking about it his mind just cleared up and he understood what we were talking about and he knew it was true. We got him to accept a baptismal date for May 3. Chienna is coming along. She is doing really good but Diana is coming a lot slower. They should be baptized on May 10 but we still need them to pray to know that it is true. We taught Rica and got her so excited to come to General Conference but she didn't make it. We will have to follow up on her but she is doing so well. She knows the gospel very well. We had an amazing experience with a new investigator named Eden. We were teaching the Restoration to her and she believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. She wants to join the church so bad. She just needs to get Sundays off so that she can attend church. We are really praying for her because she is so amazing and she knows that the gospel will bless her family. We also had an amazing experience with a new investigator named Melchora Benitoy. We were thinking she wasn't going to listen to us because she didn't come to the meeting place last time we went to teach her. This time she came and we taught about the Restoration. Tires came to her eyes and we know that she was touched by the Holy Ghost. She wasn't ready to say so but you could tell she felt the love of God and believed it to be true. It brought lots of joy to us to know that she felt it and we could see so.
Holy Week is now started and it is a little bit different to see this year. Last year it wasn't that big of a deal but this year it is a lot bigger since being in Bacolod. We were coming from General Conference and we went by a Catholic church and everyone had some decorated sticks with leaves coming off it to represent the palm leaves. I don't know what they do with them but it was pretty cool. This week, lots of people will be home so we will be teaching a lot more. The big day is Good Friday which is coming up. They will do a parade with the cross. Sometimes some people crucify themselves but not often. Sunday is just the day for people to go to church. That is about all that is different. It will be good.
I would just like to share some of my impressions of General Conference.
How is your Preach My Gospel studies? Elder Ballard tells us to share what we learn in it. I was reading the first presidency message in the front and it really talks to all people not just full time missionaries. The only thing that it says that doesn't apply is about district meetings and zone conferences.
The two big ones that struck me were in the priesthood session. Elder Hallstrom talked about how we need to give all our heart, might, mind, and strength to the Lord. We need to do everything we can to serve the Lord. He gives us all so we should give what we can. Then President Monson talked about if we have the courage to do what is right. He really focused on are we just watching the work of the Lord or are we participating. It made me think how much am I doing. There is always ways to improve. It also made me think of something Elder Brent Nielson said at a stake conference here "The Lord is hastening His work. Are you?"
I realize that is why I am out here, to hasten the Lord's work. To find, teach, and baptize so that all come unto Christ and obtain everlasting life. What work could be greater?

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen

A Rewarding Week

This was a pretty rewarding week for us. We saw a lot of blessings and our potential is growing.
We actually had only a few teachings this week. No one seemed to be home because there was a fiesta called Panaad going on. Lots of people went to attend the celebration leaving us to find a lot of people to teach.
Chienna is doing very well. She is loving the teachings and is progressing very well. She didn't come to church because she went to Bago so we didn't see her there but we did teach her. We are planning on baptizing her on April 26. We are also teaching her sister Diana. She is also doing really great. She hasn't been to church yet so we are looking at May 10 for her. We also have a new investigator that is really great. His name is Albert Javier. He is about 22. His cousin is a member. We started teaching him this last week and he came to church. We tried to give him but he isn't ready to accept it yet. He wants to learn more before he decides. Rica is ok. She didn't come to church again because they went to Panaad on Saturday night and then slept in on Sunday so they didn't come. We didn't make it to Jenick this week. We went there once but she wasn't there so we don't know how she is doing. We went to teach Carmela but it was bishop's wife's birthday and there was a big party so we didn't get to teach. We tried again but they didn't answer the door. We also started teaching a new investigator named Eden Villanueva. She is very good. Her husband is a member but less active. We just taught about eternal families and she started to cry because she new it was true. She is a great potential baptism. The only problem is she has work every Sunday. We will have to see how that goes. We also had 2 new investigators show up at church on Sunday that a member invited. They seem like good potential. We will start teaching them next Sunday.
Other then that we just had our meeting last Tuesday and did our training on Wednesday. That went pretty well.
This week should be a lot better. We will be preparing people to be taught for next week because they will be receptive during Holy week. That will be exciting.
Love you,
Elder Nielsen

Summer Break

Guess what?!!! No more school until maybe August!!! I am so excited! Graduations finish this week then summer starts for the kids. They might be changing their school schedule so they will be on the same schedule as the USA. It will be great for teaching!!! All the kids will be home so we will have lots of appointments.

This week was the move out of San Carlos and Escalante. We only found out about a week and a half ago. It was a big surprise for us. I don't know exactly how it affected our zone yet. I will find out this week in our mission leadership training on Tuesday. I just know that we now have a lot more elders in the zone because almost every unit has 4 missionaries in them now.

As far as this week, we had a really good week. We didn't get anything new as far as Sunday went, going to church, but we made a lot of progress and have some pretty good investigators that are coming.

The one looking like our next baptism is Chienna. We talked to her mom this week and taught her a short message about families and she said that she had her religion but she was good with her kids choosing for themselves. That means that we can probably baptize Chienna. We will probably do that on April 19. The next we are hoping for is Carmela. She works for the bishop of our ward. She is making progress and she really wants to get an answer if it is true. We were teaching her and she kept asking "How can I know if this is true?" We are hoping she will get an answer soon then she will be willing to be baptized. After that might be Rica. She is doing good but something is going on over at her house. We weren't able to teach her this week because of family. She wouldn't come to church this week either so we are hoping we can figure out what is going on there to help her this week. We also have a new investigator named Jenick (Jan-ike). She is really good and understands a lot of the doctrines. She looks really good. We feel that Brother Planilla is coming but he hasn't come to church yet. Maybe next week we can get him there by using his family and the importance of the priesthood in his home.

It was a good preparing week. We hope that next week, we can start getting people coming to church. That is all they are lacking right now.

Sincerely,

Elder Nielsen

Lots of Rain

This was a pretty good week for us but we had our hardships. The weather was good all week, sunny and hot, until Sunday when it decided to rain harder then any other storm besides Yolanda that I have ever experienced. It made for a hard Sunday trying to get investigators at church.

On the good side, we had our baptism!!! I sent you some pictures of the two. I will tell you when I get home who is who. It was a cool experience having them baptized. It made for a good day. They are so good and are pretty funny.

Danna is doing great. Sorry I didn't write about her because we have been going on a lot of splits since lots of missionaries have been at our house. Mostly Elder Paaño has been going to them. She is really good. We talked to the father and he is fine with her being baptized but the mother wants them to get baptized at the same time. That might take a while because the mother wants all of them to go to church together but brother is shy to go to church since it has been so long since he has been to church. We are working on that right now to see if we can change that. Rica didn't come to church this Sunday because she thought she was going to a graduation but that didn't happen. We moved her to April 26 to be baptized. We are still excited for her. We started teaching an 11 year old named Chenna. She is really good and had been to church before. She is pretty smart and she loves the gospel. She has committed to be baptized but we haven't given her a date yet because we haven't talked to her parents yet. She seems like a great potential. She came to church on Sunday with some of the members. Bishop's house help, Carmela, is coming a long pretty well. She comes to church every Sunday. She just believes that all churches are true. We have taught her some of the lessons but haven't really taught her much. We got her to come to gospel principle class this Sunday. We hope to give her a date for baptism this week. It is a little hard to teach her because she is Tagalog so Elder Paaño teaches her in Tagalog and I teach in English. She understands English for the most part. It is quite interesting. The cool part is even though I don't know Tagalog that well, I understand everything that is going on. It is definitely the gift of interpretation of tongues.

We did a little on trying to find those people again this week but we didn't work too much on it. We have been focusing on our investigators trying to help them to accept the gospel. We might work more on it this week.

Lots of good things are going on right now in the area. We hope it continues.

Love you,

Elder Nielsen

Searching

We still had a decent week but had a hard time for church. The first thing to say is we had no baptism. Mitoy went back to Kabangalan because her brother was in the hospital for some disease that I forget. We don't know when she is coming back or if so we are going to wait a while and if she doesn't come back, we will send the missionaries there a referral. We are looking at 2 baptisms this week though. We will be baptizing Aldrin and Aladin. They are doing really great. They are really fun to be around. We look forward to that one. The next one is probably going to be Rica. She is looking at April 19. She didn't come to church because her sister had some health problems as well. We don't know about Danna. Something seemed wrong when I went there yesterday so I am thinking that her mom doesn't want her to be baptized. We will go today and find out for sure if that is the case. We didn't make it to Brother Planilla this week. He was very busy and was never home so we didn't make it to him.

We taught a group of friends at one of our less active families. We think that is going well. Eliza one of the friends that seems very interested. She has a great understand of the church before so we are just adding to her knowledge of the church today. She seems very potential for being baptized. We need to figure out where she lives and she if she wants to be baptized.

The rest of the week seemed like we were mostly going around doing a new project. We are searching for some members that we don't know their present address. We try to go to their old address and find their new one then try to share with the people that we ask. We know where some are now but we have a lot more to find. It gives something new to do which is great.

That was about it for the week. Training was good. Ours went a lot better than I thought it would.

Love you

Elder Nielsen

A Progressing Area

Yes, I do cook. I cook McDonald's and Jolly Bee. Jokes!!! I do buy some American. I know how to cook and it is a lot cheaper.

We had a very good week this week. We had our training for the month so that hurt us a little bit but we still did really good for missing a day and a half of work. This week we will do the same because we have zone conference but we will have some help because we will have missionaries coming to our house so we take them out to work with us. That should help us as far as teaching.

I will tell you more about our investigators now because I know them. We have a baptism on Saturday for Mitoy. She is a house help at one of our members houses. She is really good. We are excited for this one. She is 15 years old. I will send the picture next week. We also have Aladdin and Aldrin on the 22nd. They are doing pretty good. We still have a lot to teach them so we are going to need to hurry through the lessons so they are ready. Then for the 29th we are looking at Danna Torres. She is really good, we just have to talk to her dad to find out if it is ok that we baptize them. Then this week, I found Rica Villamento. She is 8 years old, her birthday is on Friday becoming 9. She is a part member. She is very smart. She will probably be our next baptism after Danna. Her sister is active but her dad is less active so she at least has some support. That will be a great one to look forward too. We are also teaching Brother Planilla. He is really good. He is a little slow but we are really getting a great relation with him. He believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet. He was going to come to church but needed to help his son so he didn't come. Then we Roberto. He is 72 years old. We hope that we can make a connection with him so we will be baptized. Then the bishop has a maid so Elder Paaño taught her last week. We will continue this week and hopefully it will be quick to baptize her. She has been to church a lot so we are hoping.

We stay very busy in Bacolod. Lots are willing to listen and it is a progressing area. I really enjoy it.

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen

Bacolod City!

Hello from Bacolod proper!!!

That is right, I am now in the Bacolod 2nd Ward in the Bacolod Stake. Just a funny fact, there is a Sister Nielsen assigned to the same ward and we have another Sister Nielson in the zone. I am still a zone leader.

Before I get started, I got your letter with Ben's. Thanks, it was really nice to get.

My new companion is Elder Paaño. He is from Marakina City, Manila. He is really good. I am looking forward to some good times with him.

This week was packing and then going to a few members before transferring. It was hard because the Lord started that area progressing while I was there. I was a great area and lots of miracles happened there. I hope that it continues to produce good results.

After that is off to the new area. I like it here in the city. I don't have to wash my laundry, there is American food, and there is so much support here in the city. Did I mention that there was American food?!!!

I don't know the people very well yet especially we haven't gone to church at our building due to stake conference but I will tell you about some of them that I do remember. We are teaching 2 kids, Aladdin and Aldrin. They are super smart and there mom and siblings are members. We gave them a date for March 22 to be baptized. We are looking towards that. They both like to call me "Good boy." Then we are teaching Mitoy. She is a house help at one of our members. She is really good and like to listen to the gospel. She is really shy but knows the gospel. We are looking at March 22 for her as well. We have a recent convert that lived in London, England for 22 years. She is really cool! It is fun to visit her and talk some English but she also helps me with my Ilonggo now that I have to learn it again. We also have a great recent convert named, Salvie Villaflor. Her husband had a stroke so he can't walk very well but she is super active. They are both good and they keep telling me that I speak Tagalog but I don't know it very well.

That is about I can tell you right now. I am looking for a great week. I am zone leader still so we have a meeting on Tuesday and will train on Wednesday. I think we can still do good. We taught about 66 lessons this week so we are going for higher this next week.

Love you lots,

Elder Nielsen

PS We have a huge apartment because we host a lot of missionaries for meetings in Bacolod. It is really good but I need to clean it up. It will take me a while to get it ship shape.

Staying Pretty Busy

We had James baptism this week. It went very well. We were surprised by their testimonies after the baptism. They were very good. We can't continue Junjun's baptism because he hasn't been to church and we don't know if his parents are ok with him being baptized yet. We haven't had any contact with him because he has been in Bonifacio for the past week. We hope to be able to continue this week.

Our next baptism is on March 15. Mary Joice is doing great. She is doing very well and listens well as long as her aunt is there to help us teach. Members really help with keeping the investigators going and progressing. After that we are looking at Jessica. She didn't make it to church probably because it rained. We are looking at March 22 for her. Then we are looking at James friend, Alejandro, on March 29. Everything looks good as long as it doesn't rain and they continue to come to church. The members are doing great as well because they are bringing investigators to church with them that we have never taught. We are hoping to contact some of those investigators and try to teach them so they can go on the list of baptisms so we can plan for them. It is great when the members help. It makes our work a lot easier and  it helps them feel the blessings of the gospel in their lives. We ended with 5 investigators at church this last Sunday.

That is about the work we did for this week. We scrambled around this week trying to meet the needs of the investigators and members and then we were trying to keep things going with being a missionary. We had to get pictures taken so that we could go home. Then this week we had a meeting with the district president. That was a great meeting talking with him and how we could move the work forward better in the Escalante District. One thing we had an idea to do was have the branch presidents work with the missionaries. One problem for them to become a stake is tithing. We are getting enough members paying tithing so working with the branch president can lead us to those that aren't paying to help them know the blessings of tithing which every Filipino needs.

That was it for the week. We stayed pretty busy. Lots of people were busy this week so we had some struggles but it worked out.

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen