Man, Tennessee is one hot place. Its just hot hot hot. Perhaps that is because of me though...
Either way, another week has come and gone and we remain. While in the MTC, I picked up that sentence, the first sentence of this paragraph, as a way to describe the fact that Elder Lundgren and I were there longer then we had originally expected to be there. It was a bit of a joke but there was some deeper meaning behind it, that I will allow you to interpret for yourself. I now see that thought of remaining as perhaps a good thing. I guess the only thing we can hope for is that our Heavenly Father will allow us to remain in one area long enough to do the work there that needs to be done. I couldn't think of anything sadder right now then being sent to an area for two weeks and then being reassigned to go work somewhere else for two weeks and so forth. It takes time to make results happen. It takes time to see the fruits of your labours, It takes time to grow. I guess then the greatest thing you can hear from Heavenly Father is the fact that you will remain to continue your labours in the area of the vineyard that has been assigned to you. We have all been assigned a vineyard and of course some vineyards are older, browner, and perhaps even desolate but there is always hidden somewhere a grape that needs to be cared for, to be watched over, and then to be harvested.We've had some success this last week in our 20 hours of tracting that we were able to do. I guess this mission encourages no more then 20 hours or then you show a use of time unwisely... I don't know! We were able to find 9 new investigators this last week and taught 38 other lessons. Things have been going well and I absolutely love to pound the pavement in search for those souls that are searching. The only problem is the heat and I don't mix well together, should have thought about that when I opened my call to the West Indies. I can handle the work, the sweat is the annoying part.
In the Branch report I have to highlight our branch Mission Leader, Brother Rommeich. Brother Rommeich is part-Cherokee and very proud. When I heard this I thought I could use my Native American roots to get an in with him. Sadly, when I told him I has part Choctaw he looked at me and sad, "I hate the Choctaw." We have a pretty good relationship though and he's pretty awesome, his racism aside. He likes a good racist joke. For example, I've learned quite a few words that I can't repeat for fear that I'd drive the spirit away faster then usual. He also calls Thanksgiving, Thankstaking. Ultimately, Bro. Rommeich is a great assist to the branch and he absolutely loves the work. I've never met a ward/branch mission leader who is as dedicated as he is and I'm glad to be working with him.
Also of note is that two days ago on Saturday, we caught a lizard in the apartment. After an epic struggle, we were finally able to capture the lizard in a plastic Tupperware container. We were going to participate in a catch-and-release program, but our team-up for the night, Jonah, released the lizard back into our apartment. I guess we'll have to struggle with him again. I'm not too worried though. We'll get him. I've got pictures don't worry.
Ultimately things are good. The work continues and I'm really starting to believe the saying that the church must be true or the missionaries would have destroyed it.
More next week,
Love ya'll
Elder Nielson
Monday, September 20, 2010
13th Week
Hello Family and Friends!
We are currently sitting in the Library in Athens Tennessee. Athens is a smaller city, I'd almost compare it to Vernal Utah in terms of size but I'm actually not too sure that about. I'm quickly learning the town the through the powers of tracting but more on that later.
Transfers were Wednesday and as such we drove down from Oak Ridge to Farragut. We met at the Mission Home and had breakfast and then went over to the stake center where are the groentjes (Nederengels for Greenies), like myself, were set into a room and instructed on the ways of the field. Later the trainers came in and I discovered that I was assigned to Elder Badal from Ogden Utah. Elder Badal has been in the field from 11 months now as hits his year mark next month when we'll be together. He's a great guy who likes to laugh and works pretty hard. I've been getting him in line with the White Hand Book, luckily he wasn't too far gone, and so things have been going great between the two of us so far.Like I said I've been learning the streets through the power of tracting. Since I got here in Athens on Wednesday, we tracted for a total of 19 hours, 18 in the Sun and 1 in the rain. Looking back on it, I think I preferred the hour in the rain because I wasn't sweating like a dog during that time. I love tracting and I find that here in the Bible belt we are greeted with one of three different replies generally. 1st - I'm sorry, I'm baptist and I'm not interested. 2nd - I'm sorry, I'm christian and I'm not interested. My favorite 3rd - They look at us through the window notice the name tags and yell through the door, "I'm not interested go away." I haven't been damned yet but apparently my companion was last transfer so maybe tomorrow or even tonight? The best was last Friday night we were walking through downtown (Not much of one) and we ran into who we are now calling Obnoxious Oscar. He started to bash with us and informed us we belonged to a false church. My 2nd favorite part is when he said we didn't baptize in the name of Christ. I was like what? Then my favorite part is as we were leaving my companion shakes his hand and the guys looks at him and says, "That a pretty tie." My companion was hot over that one all night. I harass my companion every few minutes with a good, "That a pretty tie."
The other thing of note is the branch here in Athens. It is a good enough size to be made a ward but it lacks the proper amount of Tithes payers among other things to get it there. The branch president is a former mission president, who if you ask me, is a bit crazy and a little out of control. He chewed me out the first night for not being fluent in Dutch, and then in PEC on Sunday said something along the lines of, "and I know there are a few people in here who's families are not having family prayer. Brothers that is not acceptable you need to do better." Trust me it wasn't said in the kindest most gentlest way. During sacrament meeting the 2nd speaker of three was MIA for a few minutes. I was waiting for the Elder Nielson your new come speak to us. I was ready though.Things have been going great and if Elder Badal could shake the snake that is after him things would be perfect. That is a story for another time.
Love
Elder Nielson
We are currently sitting in the Library in Athens Tennessee. Athens is a smaller city, I'd almost compare it to Vernal Utah in terms of size but I'm actually not too sure that about. I'm quickly learning the town the through the powers of tracting but more on that later.
Transfers were Wednesday and as such we drove down from Oak Ridge to Farragut. We met at the Mission Home and had breakfast and then went over to the stake center where are the groentjes (Nederengels for Greenies), like myself, were set into a room and instructed on the ways of the field. Later the trainers came in and I discovered that I was assigned to Elder Badal from Ogden Utah. Elder Badal has been in the field from 11 months now as hits his year mark next month when we'll be together. He's a great guy who likes to laugh and works pretty hard. I've been getting him in line with the White Hand Book, luckily he wasn't too far gone, and so things have been going great between the two of us so far.Like I said I've been learning the streets through the power of tracting. Since I got here in Athens on Wednesday, we tracted for a total of 19 hours, 18 in the Sun and 1 in the rain. Looking back on it, I think I preferred the hour in the rain because I wasn't sweating like a dog during that time. I love tracting and I find that here in the Bible belt we are greeted with one of three different replies generally. 1st - I'm sorry, I'm baptist and I'm not interested. 2nd - I'm sorry, I'm christian and I'm not interested. My favorite 3rd - They look at us through the window notice the name tags and yell through the door, "I'm not interested go away." I haven't been damned yet but apparently my companion was last transfer so maybe tomorrow or even tonight? The best was last Friday night we were walking through downtown (Not much of one) and we ran into who we are now calling Obnoxious Oscar. He started to bash with us and informed us we belonged to a false church. My 2nd favorite part is when he said we didn't baptize in the name of Christ. I was like what? Then my favorite part is as we were leaving my companion shakes his hand and the guys looks at him and says, "That a pretty tie." My companion was hot over that one all night. I harass my companion every few minutes with a good, "That a pretty tie."
The other thing of note is the branch here in Athens. It is a good enough size to be made a ward but it lacks the proper amount of Tithes payers among other things to get it there. The branch president is a former mission president, who if you ask me, is a bit crazy and a little out of control. He chewed me out the first night for not being fluent in Dutch, and then in PEC on Sunday said something along the lines of, "and I know there are a few people in here who's families are not having family prayer. Brothers that is not acceptable you need to do better." Trust me it wasn't said in the kindest most gentlest way. During sacrament meeting the 2nd speaker of three was MIA for a few minutes. I was waiting for the Elder Nielson your new come speak to us. I was ready though.Things have been going great and if Elder Badal could shake the snake that is after him things would be perfect. That is a story for another time.
Love
Elder Nielson
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
12 th week
Well after a daring adventure and a mad dash we've finally escaped the gates of the MTC, never minding the fact that they always leave the front gates open... Either way, a bit of a travel log for ya'll (See I'm southern again).
Wednesday:
We woke up at 2am in the morning to shower, dress, and square away the last of our bags. Much like usual, I had not problems at all making this deadline I was way too excited. We walked up to the Travel Office and got our travel information before meeting the shuttle. We got to the Airport at right around 4am in the morning and the fact that we were off into the wild blue yonder didn't really strike me until we were driving past downtown SLC and could see the Salt Lake City Temple. It was a cool moment but kinda of foreboding when the temple when out of view for the last time. We got through security, at four in the morning not a whole lot of people to wait in line behind, and got to our gate. Our plane left for Dallas at 6am and we arrived in Dallas at 940 local time. We boarded the sky tram got to our correct terminal ate at Subway and then called home. It was great calling everyone, and I know there are a few of your I didn't get to call, but I just didn't have time sorry! We left Dallas at 1240 local and arrived in Knoxville at 340 local. It was a smooth flight and President Griffin, his wife, and the AP's were there to great us. We drove around for a bit and stopped by the Mission Office before going to the Mission Home and having dinner. President Griffin made steaks, sweet potatoes, and a chocolate bun cake I think. It was impressive. He next interviewed us both separately and then we drove off to Oak Ridge where we'd be staying with the Zone Leaders (Elder Smith of Layton and Elder Platt of Evansten[SP?] Wyoming) of that Zone until transfers which are tomorrow(September 8th).
The other days have really started to merge together and it is kinda of hard to distinguish between individual events. Ultimately though everything is going great. We've been teaching, finding, and doing the other things that missionaries do out here.
Because we were with the ZL's I actually got to go on exchange with Elder Smith to the Harrogate Area where we worked with Elder Struthers (Vernal Utah, We actually had Seminar together my senior year and his sister was in my grade). Harrogate has been struggling a bit and it was cool to go out tracking with the other two because in the space of about four hours we were able to track into four different potential investigators. Hopefully, they will have some success teaching those individuals as they work with them this week. We also had a really good lesson last night with a part member family the Rigby's. Brother Rigby is a member and his wife and her son are not. We taught the first lesson, the Restoration, and I think it was the best real lesson that I was a part of. I was able to share a few Scriptures and experiences and it may have been the first lesson that I was with that I felt like a member of the missionary team instead of the new guy that didn't speak. It was good. The spirit was there and we committed them to Baptism on Oct 1st. Why so late? Sister Rigby is 9 months pregnant and a week over due. So hopefully with an Oct 1st baptism she'll be ready to go!
We are transferred out tomorrow but in this mission, and perhaps all of them out there now a days, mail is sent to the Mission Office and then forwarded out to the missionaries depending on where they are. So the address is:
Elder Nathan John Nielson
Tennessee Knoxville Mission
11320 Station West Drive Suite 101
Farragut TN 37934
I hope that letter is a bit coherent. If nothing else, everything is going well. I love it here in Tennessee. The church is true. People are great.
As Always,
Elder Nielson
Wednesday:
We woke up at 2am in the morning to shower, dress, and square away the last of our bags. Much like usual, I had not problems at all making this deadline I was way too excited. We walked up to the Travel Office and got our travel information before meeting the shuttle. We got to the Airport at right around 4am in the morning and the fact that we were off into the wild blue yonder didn't really strike me until we were driving past downtown SLC and could see the Salt Lake City Temple. It was a cool moment but kinda of foreboding when the temple when out of view for the last time. We got through security, at four in the morning not a whole lot of people to wait in line behind, and got to our gate. Our plane left for Dallas at 6am and we arrived in Dallas at 940 local time. We boarded the sky tram got to our correct terminal ate at Subway and then called home. It was great calling everyone, and I know there are a few of your I didn't get to call, but I just didn't have time sorry! We left Dallas at 1240 local and arrived in Knoxville at 340 local. It was a smooth flight and President Griffin, his wife, and the AP's were there to great us. We drove around for a bit and stopped by the Mission Office before going to the Mission Home and having dinner. President Griffin made steaks, sweet potatoes, and a chocolate bun cake I think. It was impressive. He next interviewed us both separately and then we drove off to Oak Ridge where we'd be staying with the Zone Leaders (Elder Smith of Layton and Elder Platt of Evansten[SP?] Wyoming) of that Zone until transfers which are tomorrow(September 8th).
The other days have really started to merge together and it is kinda of hard to distinguish between individual events. Ultimately though everything is going great. We've been teaching, finding, and doing the other things that missionaries do out here.
Because we were with the ZL's I actually got to go on exchange with Elder Smith to the Harrogate Area where we worked with Elder Struthers (Vernal Utah, We actually had Seminar together my senior year and his sister was in my grade). Harrogate has been struggling a bit and it was cool to go out tracking with the other two because in the space of about four hours we were able to track into four different potential investigators. Hopefully, they will have some success teaching those individuals as they work with them this week. We also had a really good lesson last night with a part member family the Rigby's. Brother Rigby is a member and his wife and her son are not. We taught the first lesson, the Restoration, and I think it was the best real lesson that I was a part of. I was able to share a few Scriptures and experiences and it may have been the first lesson that I was with that I felt like a member of the missionary team instead of the new guy that didn't speak. It was good. The spirit was there and we committed them to Baptism on Oct 1st. Why so late? Sister Rigby is 9 months pregnant and a week over due. So hopefully with an Oct 1st baptism she'll be ready to go!
We are transferred out tomorrow but in this mission, and perhaps all of them out there now a days, mail is sent to the Mission Office and then forwarded out to the missionaries depending on where they are. So the address is:
Elder Nathan John Nielson
Tennessee Knoxville Mission
11320 Station West Drive Suite 101
Farragut TN 37934
I hope that letter is a bit coherent. If nothing else, everything is going well. I love it here in Tennessee. The church is true. People are great.
As Always,
Elder Nielson
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
11 th Week
Ready or not, Knoxville here he comes. Nathan flew to Tennessee today. He was able to call between flights and sounded thrilled to be on his way. He said that even if he spends the next 2 years in Tennessee he is grateful to be able to serve a mission. Can't wait until he is able to write.
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