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