Dec 30 First Christmas in the Mission Field!

He explained “splits” are something they do once a transfer, so the leaders can see how their work is going, he said its fun!

They met with Sina again and a member Fratello (brother) Frascaro (Frah-Skah-row) had had some great experiences recently with his Book of Mormon reading that helped her out perfectly! Sina is an older lady that he says is really funny and sweet and a great lady!

They had a little Christmas party with their English course students and watched "Joy to the World" and he said that went really well.

On Christmas Eve they helped Fratello Frascaro harvest olives at his campagna, he said: “That was really cool! We felt like the people in the Nativity movie! It was great! And fun talking and hanging out with F.llo Frascaro! he jokes around so much! He always tells us that he is too strong to do anything because he would just destroy it! He is an older man, about 70! And he is awesome!”

They are planning for Anz Nielsen to baptize Peter on Saturday and his companion Anz Wood will baptize Kwame that day too!!

They threw a Christmas Eve party for their African friends and it was great, they got snacks and drinks and watched "The Testaments". He said: “They enjoyed it so much! They are here without families or anything for the holidays so we really wanted them to have a family party with us! And we think they really liked it! It was a blast! The were commenting on the movie the whole time and Richard told us that there are places in Africa still where they dress and act like the people in the movie! Crazy huh! We all really enjoyed it! It was great!”

After that they went to Midnight Mass, he said that was interesting, good though, lots of traditions, and the Bishop gave a good talk but then started talking about praying to Mary. He had told us during our phone call that his MP wanted them to attend a Midnight Mass to better understand this faith.

On Christmas Day they played the Christmas CDs we’d sent, opened their gifts (hooray they arrived it in time!) and then made the phone calls to their families. He said this about the phone call: “the PHONE CALL!!!!!!! THE BEST PART!!! Oh man it was so great talking to you!!! I loved it!!! Man oh man it was the greatest ever!!! I loved hearing your voice and having the phone work so perfectly, asking questions and not waiting a week for the answer lol! Oh man it was so AWESOME!!!!!!!!! I loved it!!!”

After that they tried to cook a turkey but their gas had run out. In Italy they have what is called a bombola (a gas tank attached to the oven/stove) and theirs was completely empty. Luckily they also have a microwave and he said it all came out fine but took forever!

This was his first Christmas in the mission field and he said “I was really missing you guys but the phone call and the presents and just being on a mission it was still a great day!”

Sunday they had dinner at the Branch President’s house and (I’m always asking him to get the recipes for me) he said: “I asked for the recipe but she just kept saying no no its not that good! I told her...yes it is! how do you make it "come si fa?" but she wouldn’t give me it lol! I even said that my mom would kill me if I didn’t! "mia mama mi uciderà!" oh well next time!

He shared these two experiences and closed with his usual positive outlook for the new year…

"Monday we had a great great great experience with an investigator and her son! Germana and Davide they are called! We went and taught them about prophets and she ended up telling US about the need for them on the earth! Then we watched The Restoration film with them and it wouldn’t work and it wouldn’t work, I was praying so hard, and they both said " the devil must not want us to watch this." but my prayers were answered and it worked and after when you looked at them you could see why the devil didn’t want them to see it...they, especially Germana was just crying and so full of the Spirit it was incredible!! And after she told us that she was full of a warmth a fever that she had never felt before! it was so awesome! THE CHURCH IS SO TRUE!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!

Then after that we had another great lesson with Sina! She had Christmas gifts for us too! It was a nice pair of socks which was really really nice of her to do because she doesn’t have that much money! It was awesome!!!

Well that has been my holiday week so far! I don’t know if we will do anything special for new years but it will be special in that it will be a new year! I am excited for that! It will be awesome!"

The Nativity Story (movie)

Just a note about the nativity movie Anz Nielsen said they watched at his conference…

He said it was a really really good version and that we should watch it too and we were actually able to find it at the base library and we really liked it!

In a later email Anz Nielsen said:
“The city in the movie nativity that you watched that they used for Bethlehem is actually in my mission and about 15 miles from me! Its called Materra! We are actually going to go there the next p-day we have available!! Cool huh?! So you can know the next time you see it (it's the one that was on a hill) that i have been there!”

Here’s a link with more info if you’re interested - The Nativity Story

Dec 23 Christmas party and conference

He said it has been really cold and rainy there for the past month but that’s good because it makes it feel more Christmassy!

They had a Christmas party with the branch that was really fun. He had to leave early to catch the bus to Catania for the Christmas Conference at the mission home. He rode the bus from 11pm to 6am the next morning to get there. All the missionaries he served with in the MTC were invited to this conference and they were all so happy to see each other again! He said it was great to have the whole (MTC) district back together again!

The Mission President’s wife S.lla Toronto made a pasta and salad lunch for them and he said she made sure they had the salad, not just the pasta! Lol

After the zone conference portion they had sports time which he said was really fun and the coolest part was President Toronto (his Mission President) who used to play for BYU, played basketball with them. Anz. Nielsen thought that was really cool and fun!

Then they had a delicious homemade American Christmas dinner with turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberries, rolls and pumpkin pie! Then they sang Christmas carols together, watched a Christmas movie: “The Nativity Story” and heard testimonies from missionaries going home after that transfer.

The next morning they had waffles and S.lla Toronto shared the story of the 4th Wiseman. He said the mission home was all decorated with Christmas and it was awesome. There were about 20 Elders and Sisters and he said it was such a great conference!

After returning to their area they had an unexpected lesson when a good friend from their English course invited them over for lunch and they read from Luke 2 talked about the reason for the season and the family said they really liked having the Spirit in their home.

He said “This time of the year is such a great time for missionary work! I love it! THE CHURCH IS TRUE! Jesus LIVES! I am so happy to be here as a missionary spreading His gospel! It rocks!!”

Dec 17 Three baptismal dates set!!!

Anz Nielsen let us know in this week’s email that he would be calling us the following Wednesday night to make sure everything worked and to set up the time for the official Christmas Day phone call!

This turned out to be a very tricky situation since the exact time that he needed to call us was when we were going to be at the Naha airport to pick Ryler up because he was coming to spend Christmas with us!

We were also very worried about even having a house phone in time, our shipment had not arrived and we had put our internet phone system in that shipment (it was supposed to be here in Oki before our arrival but ended up two months late!). So not only did we not have the cheap internet system available but we didn’t even have an actual phone to use and we were in the process of moving into an off base home that did not have a phone system installed yet!

Thankfully we did have new cell phones but the service area on those is really limited and the connection is not always good so it was questionable if we’d even be able get service for a call while at the airport.

I had a couple of friends lined up to be “on call” who were willing to let us use their telephones so that Anz Parker could call us at one of their homes if needed. I was also prepared to just go buy a new telephone if our shipment didn’t arrive in time (we were still expecting it any day).

As it turned out we saw more “mission miracles” and the call that Wednesday night came through just as we entered the airport and we were able to talk to one son then pick up the other one right after! That was VERY exciting to hear Anz Nielsen’s voice especially after not hearing it for 6 months!!

The local phone system was installed in time and Jay borrowed a phone from his work and we were blessed with a really good connection and had a WONDERFUL phone call in the comfort of our own home! Ryler was able to be there with us and it was such a blessing for our little family of four to have that special time “together” on Christmas Day!

Ok back to this week’s email…

He had asked us to send his missionary coat and other warm clothing (he didn’t take these to save room) and he was glad to get those since it is getting colder there now.

He said they have 3 baptismal dates set for Peter, Kwame and Sina, he was really excited about this and wrote: THE WORK IS MOVING!!!!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We both felt to ask all of them this last week and they all said that they would! We are really excited!!!!! man I love it! I love being a missionary!!! it is so great!! I love it!!!!! Man it is AWESOME!!!!!! All of the people are so great too!!!

He said “I have officially tried horse meat (Brindisi is famous for it) and it is pretty good lol! Weird I know! Also Brindisi is what you say for a toast (with glasses and drinks etc.) like "cheers"

He said the branch in Brindisi is about the same size as his last area and he loves that.

Then he had to cut it short because the internet place was closing (they don’t always honor the posted hours so this happens a lot)

Dec 10 - legalized and transferred!

He wrote “that is so cool that you got to see all the families we knew before!! (in Oki) That rocks! Tell them all hi for me!”

They did service at the mensa, a soup kitchen that the Catholic Church runs where they work with a nun.

After many trips to another city and lots of paperwork and LOTS of waiting Anz Nielsen was finally able to pick up his “permesso di sogiorno” which means that he is officially a legal immigrant living in Italy and he has “a cool little card to prove it!”

A typical meal – first course lasagna, second course chicken and veggies!

They do their email inside a castle and they have a friend from their English course that works at the castle.

Update on the toenail saga (remember all the ingrown toenail surgeries in the MTC?) he said his toes are fantastic and the new nail is growing in now like the doc said it would eventually do and its going great.

He explained about the Church in Crotone - Crotone is a branch. There are about six to eight members. its about a ten minute walk from home. Not bad! We ALWAYS walk lol! Priesthood starts at 9 and sacrament starts at 10 to 10:45, then we do a missionary spiritual thought!

He said they walk A LOT! “We calculated that so far i have walked about 2000 miles! WOAH huh! We spend the whole day walking! I LOVE IT though! A LOT! The (Missionary Mall) shoes are...well....one pair is shot lol! i am using the other now, but this other has thin soles so i don't know how long they will hold up lol! Its all good though! Super comfortable and plenty of room for the toes!

Here’s the photos he sent us of his worn out pair (after about 8 months) and I’m happy to report that Missionary Mall honored their guarantee and sent a replacement pair!





Anz N was transferred for the first time in the field! To the city of Brindisi. It is still on mainland, also on the coast, but instead of being in the toe in the Calabria, he is now in the heel in what’s called the Puglia. He said its great and he loves it there already!

His new companion is Anz. Wood from Birmingham England, he is “AWESOME and has a cool accent too!"

He was able to see the last remaining column of the Temple of Hera from 800 B.C. at Capo Colonna!

He met a Polish investigator who was playing guitar on the street for money. They sat down with him on the sidewalk and had a great talk about the Book of Mormon. Then he played some Polish music for them and for those of you who don’t know, Anz Nielsen plays the guitar too so he really enjoyed that!

Nov 26 - 1st Thanksgiving in the field and a sprained ankle!

ATMS there are called “bancomats”

The supermarket where they shop is called “Pam”

There are way more apartments than houses, the apartment buildings (kinda like Kinser Towers) are called Palazzi

For their Thanksgiving dinner his comp got a package with gravy and stuffing and they found some instant mashed potatoes and Anz. Nielsen had a cookie mix that I sent from Sam’s Club but the turkey they had ordered didn’t come in time so they bought a chicken instead and slow cooked it for about 3 hours and felt “pretty proud of ourselves cooking our Thanksgiving dinner by ourselves! Lol”

They were able to download all the hymns from the Church website so they can sing with those in their Sunday meetings, he said it has been a real treat to sing with music! A typical Sunday – he taught the Priesthood lesson and gave a talk and blessed with Giovanni (for the last time before he left for his mission!).

Tuni (that was scheduled to be baptized) received his “documents” and is “legal” now but they sent him to Rome! He told the Elders on the phone he was leaving that night. Luckily they were able to meet him at the train station and take pix and say goodbye. Anz Nielsen said “the Anziani (Elders) in Rome have now received the greatest referral ever! He said the greatest thing in his life right now is to be baptized. So that is awesome!! It was really sad to see him go though!”

They were hurrying to catch a train and Anz. Nielsen slipped on the stairs and fell and thought he had broken his leg! They called a member friend who took him to an Italian hospital where he had an xray and found out it was just a sprain. The following week he wrote:
“Yeah i went to the Italian hospital here in Crotone! It was crazy! Not scary, just weird being in an Italian hospital! There were statues of Catholic Saints and the Pope everywhere, as well as crosses above every door! We were able to communicate perfectly! (HUGE blessing!) I was a little affrighted lol! The update for the ankle is i am pretty much 100% now! HUGE blessing again! I walked with a brace for a while but now i am without brace and walking fine! I shouldn't have to follow up with a doctor! Pres was concerned but calm as a cucumber (how calm can cucumbers be?)! lol! Everything is hunky-dory now!!! you know the cool thing about my ankle is the doctor told me it would be about six weeks before i could walk perfectly again, but after ONE week i am totally good to go! I even went running yesterday! SUCH A MIRACLE!!”

An investigator they taught gave them peanut butter, pancake mix and American syrup and they were REALLY happy about that! He said the family had “got this food from family that live in America but they didn’t like it that much! Hooray for us!”

A new beginning

Sorry for the long lapse, thanks for coming back to see what’s new!

In Japan they have these “daruma” dolls at New Year’s. At the start of an endeavor, like our New Year’s resolutions, one eye is painted and a wish is made for good luck and the other eye is painted when the goal is reached. This year the goal I chose with my daruma is to keep Anziano Nielsen’s mission blog up to date! In my effort to accomplish this I had to make 2 changes… first I’m just going to post the highlights from where I left off to catch up to the present, and second I’m going to post just the highlights for each week thereafter (versus almost the whole letter). I really hope that this helps and that you can all share the joy of his missionary journey more often!