I was wrong! Here it is, the last email!

Sarah did send a letter, I just didn't get it. Here it is, forwarded by Elizabeth

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I don't even know how to start this thing, so I decided to go with my actual feelings instead of quiet dignity or anything like that.

I feel much too full of emotion to be able to express it all, but let's just say that it's good emotion. I love my mission. I love the people here whom I've served. And I love all of you. There's no way I can ever explain everything that happened here to me or every lesson that I've learned, but be forewarned that we've all changed (there's no way around that) and I think it's all been a change for good. Bear with me as I try to explain just a little bit about this past week.

It's been a good week. I feel happy. I feel like I've been giving my best work, and that the Lord is accepting it and forgiving me for the inadequacies that I have (because I am repenting every day). I really do feel at peace. It's hard to know where to concentrate, always, because there are a lot of things that I won't get to see the end to here. But, like I said in an email to Mom, it's about how many things you can START here on your mission, work on. It's not about getting to see it all through because, when dealing with things like eternal life, you just don't GET to see it through yet :)

So, wanna hear some big news???? Sister Palmer is training, starting this Thursday!!!!!!!!! Wow! She's the youngest trainer in quite a long time! But everything's changing soon, of course. I am so excited for her and I am always in awe of her optimism, down-to--earthness, and her joy of life. It has been such a blessing to get to serve with her. Every day is fun.

Well, so what happened last week? Lots of good things. We worked hard, taught lots of lessons, went finding, made phone calls, tried to get people to church, etc. Penny went into the MTC! I am so proud of her. She is going to have a miraculous mission, and I plan to write her a lot. I really love her. Actually, this week I got to think about a lot of people I haven't gotten to see in a long time because on Sunday was a My Conversion Story mission fireside in which recent converts got to share their stories and other RC's and investigators got to come. Vina shared her story, and I got to see Bessie, Chan JM, and many many other beloved people. Pictures attached. Vina and her notes (written on hand) also pictured. It is amazing to see how happy these people are. In case you were wondering, the gospel really does bring happiness. And it's really the Spirit that does all the work, not us. We are here to be instruments only. As I heard Vina's testimony, I realized that because there were many parts of the story that I had never heard before, that we missionaries had nothing to do with, really. Amazing. I love all these people so much.

The other great news is that we had a miracle on Sunday! Just another story of following a prompting that you didn't know was a prompting at the time, and seeing a miracle. So, remember Wong hing dai? Well, we have really been praying for him to be able to come to church on Sunday, since he needs to and wants to. We think he's just a little nervous to, especially since he has to bring his son with him (one has autism and one doesn't. He takes turns with his wife taking care of one or the other). Anyway, he didn't come again, on Sunday. That's the saddest thing because you hear messages that THEY need to hear (as well as you), but they didn't come to hear it. Sad. Well, we were walking to an appointment after church and decided to walk a way we never had because we thought it would be faster. We weren't in a rush. We just thought we'd try that route. Well, who should we run into but Wong HD and his WHOLE family! We were able to chat with his wife (she's really nice!) and share a Family Proclamation with her, and YAY! This is a big step for them. I think big things are to come for this family, even if it takes time. A miracle.

Ng family is also doing well, but they were busy this weekend and couldn't come to church. However, progress is being made. The mother is starting to understand more about the Restoration and about how she needs to find an answer for herself. And her daughter is reading the BOM and praying! The husband is pretty nonplus about it all (which is good, too, since he's willing to come to church at least). Everyone else is doing well, too, and plugging along. 

But I ran out of time to really say it all. Here's the thing: we're never going to get the end of any of these stories until we're on the other side. It's so exciting to get to participate at all, though.

I love my mission. I love what it's taught me. I am still processing a lot of it, but I know it's changed me in and out. I will see you all very soon, but I just want to let you know that I KNOW that God loves us. He sees potential in ourselves that we don't. He loves us unconditionally. His son Jesus Christ really DID die for us so that we can overcome our weaknesses. What a privilege to get to share this message with others, and to understand it better myself. 

I love you all.

Love,

Sister Nielsen

 

 

That's all she wrote

Dear Everybody,

We didn't get a long newsy letter from Sarah this week, only short replies to our emails. I guess she is too busy with the winding up scenes. Hopefully she will be able to write up her experiences during her last two weeks later. Here's a brief message:

I love you too. I am so excited to see you again, but it's going to be hard to say goodbye to the people and the work here. In the end, it's all about how much you can start, because you never get to really see it all through here during the mission. I am grateful for what I've gotten to start. What a precious experience. I will see you on Friday!

See you soon! 

Love, 

Sister Sarah

The penultimate missive from this side of the the Pacific

There seems to be a need for a grandiose title when it comes to big things like this. Can you believe how fast time flies????

 

Well, I love you all so much! You are the best family in the world, in my opinion. I feel so lucky to be related to all of you. I hope you're all doing well and are happy.

 

I am very happy myself, though this past week has already started to be full of lots of mixed emotions. Who knew it would be so confusing? I don't think I quite predicted it. Ah well, every day is good. I just love my mission so much and I love you all so much and I just want to have my cake and eat it too.

 

Well, wanna know what actually happened this past week? Lots of good stuff. We have had quite the week. The big featuring event was having the Church Missionary Department (aka Elder Evans, a member of the presidency of the 70) come and speak to us. It was amazing. They were here because there was a mission presidents' seminar for the entire Asia area this week. But let's back up a little and do this right.

 

So, last P-day we spent with Vina, shopping (biking didn't work out) and it was so nice to get to see her. She just is so faith-filled and is helping so many young women in her ward. Her own family is still not receptive to the gospel, but she says it just gives her more fire to have her own family be raised in the Church someday. It may be because she's 15, but she is just so excited about eternal marriage :) Hey, it's worth getting excited about.

 

Then, the next day we got to talk with President Hawks at Kowloon Tong briefly, amongst our other duties. I didn't realize till I had a chance to talk to him, but I really have been a little nervous at this last part of my mission. His wise words of advice really helped me. He can tell that I'm a perfectionist and want to make the most of these last few weeks, and he very gently but firmly told me to relax, just do my best, and enjoy these last few precious weeks. He also told me not to judge the success or failure of this goal to teach and baptize a family till at least July this year. This was wise as well. You see, if I pause to think about what this goal has done for us, it's helped us have a more family-focused outlook. We're teaching more families now than I ever have in my mission! That's a miracle already. Anyway, I really love our mission president, and I'm grateful for his inspired words. I have found more peace since talking with him, and have been enjoying my time with Sister Palmer so much! She's a blast. She has to train really soon, and though she's a little wary about it, she is faith-filled.

 

The next day, Wednesday, was so intense. So, here's the story: we were on our way to teach a LA sister with a member fellowshipper when we got a call from President Hawks asking if we could get to Wan Chai (far away) in 30 minutes. The Missionary Department wanted him to call in some missionaries whose daily planners they could look at. There

 was no way we could get there that fast even if we didn't teach the lesson, so we asked if 45 min would be ok. He consulted with them and gave us an hour. This miraculously gave us time for a short lesson with this LA, and as we were there, I could feel Heavenly Father's love for her and His assurance that this one person needed us now. Heavenly Father cares about the one. In case you weren't sure about it, it's true. Then we RAN to Wan Chai and had this incredible experience learning from a member of the 70. Our part wasn't that big, but they had us sit in for the whole session and WOW. A room full of mission presidents, their wives, and members of the 70 is quite an incredible place to be.

 

Then the next day we taught lots of lessons. Yay!

 

Then on Friday the Missionary Dept addressed us, the whole mission. It was really good. Here's what I've learned: missions really are training for life, which is training for eternity. We're all here to help each other catch the vision of what we can become. And I've learned that there is no "perfect" missionary that I'm supposed to become (I've been disappointed in finding that out) but rather, that a successful missionary is one who is repenting and trying to come closer to doing their best every day. Same goes for a successful person. This is a gospel of repentance. That's why it's so happy! I told you about my perfectionist tendencies, and how I had been getting a little discouraged, but this week's lessons helped me a lot. I am grateful that we have to atonement to help us every day. That's the only way to have a mission of no regrets or a life of no regrets.

 

As for our investigators, they're finally coming back from Mainland after new years! We saw Chan JM again, and she's doing well. I think she's perhaps a slow but steady investigator, which is wonderful.  Lulu just got back from Mainland yesterday and read all the scriptures we gave her! She is busy catching up with school, but she's doing well. :) Ng Family was busy this Sunday and couldn't come to church, but we have big hopes for them. We want to take them to the temple grounds and let them tour and teach them more about eternal families. As for Wong HD, he was planning to come to church, but we think he got a little scared and didn't come. He's kinda shy, and his oldest son has ADHD and something else, and we think Wong HD is nervous about bringing him to church. Also, his wife has found some Anti stuff online...We are praying for them. Wong HD himself is diligently reading the BoM from the beginning, and he is praying for peace for his family, and we are sure it will be ok. As for Wong JM, the mother of the LA son, we got to teach her and her kids a full lesson at their home, with a fellowshipper! This is huge progress. The son didn't come out of his room the first time we visited. Wow!

 

And, in general, I love Tai Wai ward. Our leaders work with us so well, and they have so much faith. The bishop remembers all of our investigators so well. :) It's a good place to finish a mission, I would say.

 

Well, that's my report to you all. We haven't given up on the family we hope will be baptized (still not sure how it will happen), but we are looking at all the miracles coming along the way. It's going to be a big week.

 

Love you all so much! I love my mission! I love my Savior and Redeemer, whom I have the honor to serve during this short year and a half.

 

Love,

Sister Nielsen

Time flies (esp. when I only wrote 4 days ago)

Hello Family! How are you? I am fine, thank you. I'm a little shocked by the way time has been going so fast (without even consulting me first!). It's kinda bittersweet. Full of lots of confused emotions. The result is kinda a lump in my throat, if you were wondering. But the reason for this is because of Mark 10 verses I-don't-remember-what-number, where it says that no one has left home or family for the gospel's sake, except that they've found even more family members they never knew they had. That is what it feels like for me. But I miss you all too.

 

So, the picture I attached is from this Sunday. That is Choi JM and her fun little kids. She and her children have changed so much. She got a calling on Sunday! Her kids also used to run wild, basically, but now they love church. They still have their own personalities as you can see, though. This Sunday, while they were waiting for their mother, we played the Best Game Ever with them (according to Ga Ming, the little boy): you stick a post-it note to your nose and try to blow it off. Oh how I love them.

 

 The other pictures are of New Year's dinner at A-May's (the recent convert. Her relatives were there as well.) And of the view out our apartment window. It's lovely.

 

So, now you probably want to know what happened since last I checked in. Well, lots of hard work. And miracles! (of course).

 

Namely, we spent a lot of time finding because of the new year (and saw lots of lion dances. Did you know that they go around to various businesses and dance this lion dance thing so that the business has good luck? We've been hearing the drums everywhere we go). We've also seen lots of prepared people. So cool. I mean, every single finding time seems to have some miracle. We taught one girl that we found this week, named June, and she was really humble and prepared. Unfortunately she hasn't answered her phone since, but we're not giving up. We also have run into people who were willing to schedule us right away and we're seeing them this week. Wow!

I think the best part of finding, though, is just feeling guided by the Spirit and feeling the joy of sharing your testimony even if the crowd is tough.

 

Then on Sunday we had this great miracle! Coco and her family (Ng Family) came to church again! The whole family always does everything together, so if one comes, they all come. Coco is really adamant about that. That's why it was so happy to get to teach them all together finally! We taught the restoration and emphasized the blessings that come because of that, including the temple! Coco really wants an eternal family, and it was exciting to tell her that she could have one. I hope that they really understood the uniqueness of this message that we shared with them. They have been to a lot of different churches and they think that they're all about the same. They will get it as they pray and read the BoM.

 

Sunday was generally a great day, actually. I love hearing the talks that people prepare (WE get to be taught instead of just teaching all the time! Yay!), and I love the Tai Wai members. They are really loving, accepting, and amazing. They just love their missionaries, too. And we love them. I had to start telling people that I'm leaving soon (since I only have 2 more normal Sundays here. Ack) and they were so shocked. They are so sweet and loving, and I will miss them.

 

As for how our investigators are doing, Lulu is in mainland still, Wong HD has been busy with New Years and work, and Chan JM has been in mainland too. Wong JM (the mother of the LA boy) is doing ok. We visited her on Saturday, and miracle-of-miracles, her son came out to listen to the lesson! He didn't answer our questions, but he was thinking, you could tell. They might take a while, but I have faith they will really desire this gospel eventually. And that's the report mostly.

 

Today for P-day, I get to see a friend: Vina! I love that girl. She will be going bike riding with us for a few hours. Yay! I have asked for her to speak at this special fireside called "My Conversion Story" Fireside in which she will share her story. It's the Sunday before I finish my mission. I am so excited to hear her speak. She loves sharing her testimony. And I love her :)

 

The other things coming up are a visit from the Missionary Department this Friday (exciting!) and lots of wonderful missionary work. I'm excited.

 

in fact, I have really been loving these past few weeks, and I really love serving with Sister Palmer, who is a blast. She's kinda nervous about the fact that she's training in the next 6 weeks (strange, right?) but she's really building her faith. I know she can do it because the Lord would never call anyone to do something they couldn't do. But this is truly going to be a historic time in the mission, is what.

 

If there's anything I've learned on my mission, though, it's that everyone has a lot of weaknesses, but the Lord can help us overcome them. Faith, humility, and love are very real powers. It's incredible to see.

 

Well, I love life, I love the Gospel, I love my mission, and I love YOU. Keep ga yao-ing as well.

 

Love,

Sister Nielsen

Happy Chinese New Year! Gung Hei Faat Choi!

Hello Family! Sorry for the change to the regularly scheduled program! I forgot that the libraries would be closed for most of this week and so I didn't warn you about this. Please forgive me....I'll send some pictures to make up for it.

But Happy New Year anyway! So, this past week and a half has been wonderful, but I didn't have time today to go through and list out what had happened so it might be a little incomplete. Again, please forgive me.

To start things out, Happy Valentine's Day! I love you, Family, and I'm glad you're mine. Happy hearts and chocolate to you. By chance, today is also the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, and we got to walk by a "lion dance" (dragon-costume dance stuff) on the way here. The Chinese NEw Year is by far the biggest holiday here, and it's full of eating at different family members' homes, giving out red pockets (only give them out if you're married, only receive if you're single), and lots of other traditions. This means that people have been off of work, but they've also been really busy and not able to see us. Sigh. Ah well. We have been able to get out more in the lovely weather here (don't even need a coat!) and find lots more. And we've seen absolute miracles.

But I suppose that I should back up chronologically since I didn't even tell you about last week. THIS week has been New Years. LAST week has been full of lessons!

So, do you remember Wong SinSaang who we met on Fast Sunday? Well, we saw him twice last week, and he's amazing. He's been a bit busy with new year since, and hasn't made it to church yet, but he's been reading and praying, and even had a special experience where he really felt like he was talking with diety. Hard for him to describe, but isn't it for everyone? That's the Holy Ghost telling him that God is real. Wong SinSaang is a father of two children, but we haven't been able to teach the family yet....working on it. He himself is so prepared for this message, and is so humble. At the end of our second lesson together he said he was so grateful that he met missionaries and that we were here to share this message with him. So heart-warming! Wow! No one says that! He also told us that he's looking for belief and for optimism in life, since he's struggled with depression before, and we've told him that, though the trials won't go away, the gospel can help us face them.

We just love teaching him. We also taught Chan JM another time last week. She's amazing as ever, but she's been out of town for the new year. Here's the miracle: do you remember Choi JM? She is the LA with little kids at home. Well, she has been coming back and really repenting and changing her life, which is amazing to see. We've actually taught her all the lessons again by now and we encouraged her to visit the bishop again. AND she's able to take the sacrament again and she's getting a calling soon! Yay! And what does this have to do with Chan JM? Well, Chan JM lives near her, and we taught Chan JM at Choi JM's home! Choi JM was so excited to help us, and we had her share most of the lesson. Choi JM bore powerful testimony and was just so excited to help someone. I really love and admire her. I definitely will introduce you to her, Mom and Dad. Chan JM seems to be doing well, too, but we haven't seen her for a while. She's very simple and guileless.

Well, beyond teaching them, we've been doing lots of finding mostly, which is great. Then, for New Years we had a miracle. On the first day of New Years we had a family come to church! YEAH! Coco and her family came! We had planned to see them yesterday, but they were busy. We're hoping for Saturday. They heard about Joseph Smith and temples on Sunday, and we really want to explain what makes this church so special. They go to church every week, just a different church. We think they'd love to hear about temples and eternal families.

Also, for new year we deep cleaned our apartments on Monday (yay!) and it felt good. We also had P-day on Tuesday, but none of the libraries were open. I called up Penny and we went hiking in Tai Po, which was wonderful! She leaves in two weeks for her mission, and she's so ready. I love her and admire her to no end. She is such an incredible example of faith.

And today we had a multi-zone conference, which was amazing and inspiring. President Hawks is an inspired man. He talked a lot about faith. Everyone's going to need it since so many new missionaries are coming in. 18 sisters are coming in the next transfer! Every sister will have to train and two new missionaries will have to train each other! Not kidding! And more are coming in June. Wow. What a historical time period. But I'm realizing how this mission is training for life in general and is all about building faith, a principle of power, and working hard as a result. Yeah!

Well, that's all for now. I'm out of time. But I love you all so much, and I'm grateful for your support and prayers and faith! I have decided to trust in the Lord to help us baptize this family, and I can tell it's an exercise of faith and humility. As long as I do my best and have faith (a principle of power) it will be exactly what it needs to be. My other big purpose right now is to help Sister Palmer get ready to train twice by the end of July. Wow. She's great.

Well, I love you all so much! You're the best!

Love,

Sister Nielsen

The first photo is a little holiday special. The other two are from this last p-day. Hiking with Penny!

The week of FAITH

Hello Family Dearest,

I love you! So much. Thank you so much for all of your letters and support and everything. I am treasuring this mission time and trying to make the most of it. Luckily I have an awesome companion who is a go-getter, and we've really seen miracles together.

Unfortunately, none of these miracles could ever be adequately expressed to all of you, but I will do my best. I think in the end, only Sister Palmer, and the Lord, and I really know what it felt like to go through this week.

So, if you do the math, you will find out that if we want to help baptize a family in this transfer, and if they need to be investigating for 6 weeks before that, then we NEEDED to find them last week. So we put everything, and I do mean everything into it. And we just might have found them. The great thing is that we are finding others on the way too :)

And the most precious thing of all is that this whole thing has taught me so much more about faith. The Lord tries your faith to really see what your desires are and why they are what they are, but if you prove faithful, He will give you what you ask for in righteousness. It's very powerful. I recommend reading "Trial of Faith" by Elder Anderson from last Conference. Also the story of Abraham and Isaac. These things really meant a lot to me this week. It's about consecrating yourself, not just sacrificing. I don't know that I have room for a treatise on these topics, but I'm sure you'll all learn more by studying it yourselves anyway. I invite you to read those things!

 

So, what happened this week? Well, normally we only fast on fast Sundays cuz it could get out of hand otherwise, but Sister Palmer and I felt like we needed to fast on Wed. as well for this miracle of finding a family. So we did. And we spent almost the entire week finding. There is no adequate way to describe finding except that it is a labor of faith. You are there to find those who are ready and to bear testimony to those who aren't ready yet. It's exhausting, but you feel the Lord's help to do it. Well, we went finding so much that we gave away almost all of our proselyting materials and had to go to the mission office to pick up more. And still the family wasn't showing. In fact, our success was pretty low. This was the testing part of our week.

 

And then on Saturday morning, I got some revelation that I needed to put my companion first, not investigators. So I changed my focus of my studies to help her be able to feel successful as a missionary. And then the miracles started coming. Who knew! We have to put the people around us first! And then, there was a very sacred moment during studies on Saturday morning when I just felt a witness of the Spirit tell me that this family is coming and is nearer than I know. So I know it's going to happen.

 

Well, this is what happened. On Saturday in the afternoon we had a potential investigator from AGES ago come to English class with her little 3 year old daughter (she also has an 18 year old son, but he had to study). We'd found her number in our records and gave her a ring. After English class we had a lesson with her and she opened up immediately to explain that she's really worried about her family right now (husband on brink of divorce) and wants to see if this gospel can help her. She came to church yesterday and loved it, and is coming to FHE tonight! She is definitely an answer to prayers. She is so humble. And she said thank you to us last night on the phone, for helping her get to know Christ. SO touching.

 

And then, yesterday, in finding, we found a miracle person! He is a father of two (ages 10 and 8) and he was willing to chat with us for a long time. He's very humble, and he told us within the first few minutes of talking with us that he's been wanting to learn more about church things. He's clearly been looking! We scheduled him and his family for Wed morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They might be the family. Wow, right?

 

A few days ago, we also found a really cool lady named Mrs. Lung and she is willing to see us on Thursday! She's also very humble, and from Mainland. So the miracles are coming.

 

So, I feel confident that answers are coming to our petitions and prayers. Thank you for your prayers on our behalfs too.

 

As for investigators, Lulu is doing well but we had to move her baptismal date to March 17 because she will be out of town for new Years. But she's doing just wonderfully. We want to help her keep building faith.

 

 And Ammon....he came to church finally but is maybe not ready for all of this yet. We found out he's pretty much socially converted to us missionaries, and not spiritually converted. We might have to drop him, but this was definitely a step in his progress and was good for him. He'll come back eventually. We love him to pieces, but we think that giving him time might be the best thing right now.

 

Last little note: the other day, I had a thought "call Penny from Tsing Yi" so I did. And guess what! It was the day before she was going to get her endowment. The Lord really loves His children and I'm sure that was a prompting from Him. I am so happy for Penny, and I think she was happy to hear some encouragement before going to the temple. She told me, though, that she is "just in love with all of this right now." I am so happy to hear that. She leaves Feb 28th for her mission!

 

Well, I gotta go. I love you all! I know this gospel is true and that faith works miracles!

 

Love,

Sister Nielsen

 

 

PS To the Palouse River Ward Youth: Thank you so much for the letters! You are clearly awesome people. I just want to let you know that you made my day. I can't wait to be writing all of YOU on your missions. My mission has meant the world to me, and I know yours will mean that much to you too. Keep going strong and never lose sight of your goals.

What Happened to January?

Hello Family Dearest, Family Mine!

 

I think someone stole January while we weren't looking. Wouldn't you think so? I mean, all my calendars expired a month ago already (haven't bought ones for the new year yet), and time is just flying! Ah well.

 

I hope you're all doing well. I love you immensely. Oodles. Thank you for being such a good family.

 

Would you like to hear the news from this week? It's been a week full of miracles, absolute miracles, but I'll let you know right away that no families have baptismal dates yet. The miracle is that we went from teaching zero families last week to teaching (or about to teach) 3 families! Wow! So, things are good. The big thing is that I am learning to humble myself and ask the Lord to help me do this work His way, not mine. Just because I want something doesn't mean that it's best. I think that my whole mission has been a struggle of this, but I've learned a lot from it. We can desire righteous things, but we must desire it the Lord's way and on His timing. I have seen how an area needs so much more than just baptisms to keep progressing and growing, and so I want to do this right.

 

But on that note, what's happened this week? Well, do you remember Lo Jimuih, the former investigator? Against all odds (we need more faith) she has been going to church every week lately and to FHE too, and reading her BoM assignments. Yay! She still wants to put off baptism indefinitely, but she is progressing slowly. Yay!

 

As for Ammon, we had a kind of do-or-die lesson where we told him he needed to be keeping his commitments or there wasn't much point in us seeing him. And the great thing is that he chose to do! We all decided that we won't see him again till he starts coming to church, but he set Feb 3 as the day he will come. Oh, I think he's going to miss these lessons so he'll come.

 

And Lulu is doing well too. She's not translated quite yet, but she's close. :) She's such an amazing person. She's almost read through 1 Nephi by now and is really growing in faith. I don't know if I ever explained, but she has a really bad acne problem, so she's kinda shy, but she is the kindest person you've ever met. She even walks our fellowshippers home..... :) Yeah. She couldn't make it to church this week because she had to go to Mainland for some New Years stuff, but she should be able to make it after.

 

So, now it's time for the cool stories from this week. So, who are these families? Well, you heard about Coco and her family. Things are about the same for them. But remember how she introduced us randomly to that girl last week? Well, we haven't had a chance to teach her again, but we are fairly certain that she and her dad are that family that we are supposed to teach. At least one of them. So, turns out this girl's mother passed away 3 years ago, and her dad really worries about this girl. He's never at home to take care of her, and he's afraid that she's going to get into bad stuff. So, he really wants her to go to church. He even called us today and told us that the next time he's free he will invite us to dim sum with him. Hee hee. I think this family really needs to hear about the Plan of Salvation. We really hope to be able to schedule them soon.

 

The other family is a complete miracle. Last Saturday we helped out A-May (the recent convert of whom I sent a picture. Got baptized with Yuki). We helped her son with some homework. She ended up inviting over a friend of hers and guess what! This friend is a mother of two daughters, one of whom is a teenager she really worries about. A-May shared about how the gospel has helped her own teenage daughter. So, this mother invited us over to dinner at her house last week and we shared a message with the whole family about eternal families. The Spirit was definitely there and the mother really liked it. The other family members may take their time, but we hope that we can schedule them again soon. Who knew that troubled teens were such a good motivation for parents to learn the gospel? Well, the gospel CAN help. Yay! They are good. Families take time, but I have good feelings about all of these families.

 

The last good thing has to do with the picture I sent. This girl is the little sister of a LA boy in the ward. Their parents are divorced and they live with their mom. The LA boy is addicted to computer games now and his mom really worries about him. So we went over and taught this family (even thought the LA boy is not very responsive yet) and brought this girl to church yesterday. She is only 10 but she liked it. Her mom thinks that church stuff doesn't apply to her, but we want to help her see that she needs to lead by example. Another family! We are hoping that they'll be able to make it to FHE tonight. They said they were coming.....

 

And that's the news from this week! A blessed blessed week. We are hoping for continued miracles this week.

 

And also, we're going hiking today for P-Day. It should be fun and relaxing.

 

I love you all. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this gospel is true and that it's worth sacrificing for. We're all in the work of making it back home together. Ga yao!

 

Love,

Sister Nielsen

 

Well, that's lots of good stuff, isn't it? Yup.