Mar 3 Biggest mission news yet!

That’s how Anz Nielsen described the latest news in his email last week! Then he made us wait until the last half of his letter to find out what the news was so first a couple of highlights before the news…

“The power of prayer is such a real thing! I KNOW IT!! It rocks! We can talk to our Father in Heaven as one man talketh to another! COOL!!”

“man just walking around here reminds me so much of Oki! it is awesome!”

And now for the big and as he put it “life changing” news…

Elder Nielsen was just transferred to another country! To the island of Malta which is actually part of his mission and located just off the coast of Sicily. He was pretty shocked with the news of this transfer because he had only been in Brindisi for 2 transfers. They have given him and 3 other missionaries the special assignment of serving in Malta for one year and they are to learn the native language of Maltese which is similar to Arabic! He was really honored and humbled to be asked to do this and said it is like starting his mission all over again; getting on a plane (he hadn't flown since arriving in Italy back in July) and the new country, new culture, new language, new name tags (one in English and one in Maltese), new everything! He said that while it was hard to leave Brindisi he is so excited about this new adventure and he couldn’t be happier! His new companion is from Enterprise Utah and he is really excited to serve with him. He told us Malta is part of the British nation so they also speak English and it has been weird for him to see and hear things like that again, for the first time in almost a year! He said Malta is a huge tourist spot and by their 2nd day there they had already met so many people! The first night they had a dinner appointment with an American family, the husband is a surfer and served his mission in Japan and the wife is an RM who served in Thailand and has an air force friend who is serving in Okinawa right now! Small world! One of the other 3 Elders on this assignment is from his MTC district, Elder Sponseller, and he was so happy about this and that they will get to celebrate their one year mark together.

MTC District

Elder Sponseller is the redhead

He said:

“There are four of us missionaries that have been asked to do this. This is part of why I will be here for a year as well as other reasons. In essence we are the pioneers of this! That makes it kind of scary but it has really made 1 Ne. 3: 7 mean a whole lot more! The Lord has asked me to do this so I will GO and I will DO!! I am nervous about the language. All the others here are really smart and a lot better than me; this has been and will be a huge humbling experience for sure! But when I look back at the beginning of my mission to know Italian for example, not tooting my own horn, but the cool thing is I can speak Italian. There aren’t any problems any more! I can understand and speak it! This is only thanks to the Lord! There is NO WAY I could have done it with out Him! So I know that He will help me here as well!”

According to this Maltese government site Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Malta and ministered there! And the King James Bible map #13 confirms that he was there (aka Melita)!

Two of his good friends also got mission calls recently, big congrats to the future Elder Greenwood and Elder Marston who will be serving in San Fernando California and Hong Kong China!!

And yes, that is the flag of Malta, and this is how you say hello in Maltese: bonġu (pronunciation? who knows?! lol).

Watch for some changes to the site soon as we shift gears for this new assignment!