Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Lengthen your stride. 13 Jan 2014

Aloha Nielsen Family!

Well this week has been a lot faster than last week was. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and his continued awareness of all his children.


We did have some have some miracles, we have a new investo! His name is Ty. He's 19 years old and works as a care taker for one of the older couples in our ward. He helps out with the husband who has Parkinson disease. He comes to church every Sunday for 'work' and stays and helps out during sacrement meeting. He doesn't have much religious background in his life, but his grandparents were baptized into the lds church when they were like 60 or something. And when they died they left a book of remembrance of all the names they took to the temple or something that he was really interested in.


Tuesday after district meeting we went and did service for Marie, a recent convert of about 4 months. (She's also the one we hike diamond head with on Saturday mornings..) We helped mown her lawn and she had one of the old fashion push lawn mowers. It was kind of fun to use it actually! A lot harder than a gas one but it was a good experience. :) It took us a lot longer than we had expected, but we got it done.


Tuesday night the Snows invited us to dinner and also to watch the "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" movie with Ty. Right before the movie started I asked his is he was getting paid for this time we ate dinner and were with him. He said yes with a grin. Haha, our members are paying him hourly while he meets with the missionaries. Whatever works right!? He's such a good nice kid. He had a lot of really good thought provoking questions at the end. Like.. "Do you think everyone will one day be mormon?" It was really good and we have a return appt with him tonight. 


After the lesson we had to go and pick something up at Marie's home and I don't even really know what happen, but I don't really think she likes my companion very much and wasn't very happy with her when she just asked her a simple question. She said that she was disrespectful to her elders and was rude. My companion got a little defensive because she hadn't done anything wrong, but there was a little bit of contention in the room and I was left in the middle. I didn't really know what to do, but it only lasted about 15 seconds and then we left. I guess this wasn't the first time they've gone at it, but it was the worst one Sister Robertson said. Marie is just really sensitive and you can tell her self esteem and confidence isn't like normal adults. Sister Robertson and I talked about it after she felt bad because we are missionaries and are suppose to represent Jesus Christ. So that caused a little bit of drama this week, Marie told our ward mission leader and a few other members about it.


On Wednesday we went to this Salvation Army family rehab center. A woman named Jennifer had called and asked us to come and give her some spiritual upliftment. She's a member but has been less active for quite some time. She told us her story of how she stopped coming to church and then became an alcoholic. She's pregnant with her 3rd child at the moment and in the rehab has been sober for 40 something days. She admitted herself, she said that it was better than living on the streets and she wants to change. We had such a sweet spirit in our lesson. She then told us about her boyfriend and soon to be baby daddy and how he has shown some interest in the gospel. He wants their child to be brought up with religion in their life. So we took his number and called him and set up an appt!


Friday I went on exchange to Manoa area. My companion for the day was Sister Walter, the cutest sister missionary from chuuke. (Micronesia) She's been out for about 5 months. But we had a good day! Tracting with her was so fun. And it was a nice break and breath of fresh air to be out from the pressure of being in my area. Sister Bown (my sister in the mission, we were both trained by Sister Wright) is the Sister Trainer and she went with my companion. They were able to teach Kelly, Jennifer's boyfriend and I guess they had a really good lesson. He said he was going to be able to come to church, but called and said he wasn't going to be able to make it this week. It was a good day.


Well.. That was my week! I am trying to work my hardest and to get things done. But I still don't know the area very well and I don't feel as effective as I'd like to be my last transfer in my mission. But I am grateful for the knowledge that this is the LORD'S work, not my own. All I have to do is my best and He will make up the rest. But my goal of us this next week is to lengthen our stride. Walk a little faster, but a little more diligent. 


I love being a missionary. There's no where else I'd rather be. I cannot believe how fast time is flying. It makes me nervous.


Love you all so much! Have a great week! 


Love and Aloha,
Sister Nielsen 

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