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.