June 18 2010

June 10 2010

June 6 2010

Welcome Gushikawa Branch visitors!

                                         
We are members of the Gushikawa Military Branch here in Okinawa and I am posting Elder Nielsen's mission blog address on the bulletin board at our meetinghouse tomorrow so I want to welcome any who see that and decide to check out this blog!

As you can see I have not posted anything in a long time but since Elder Nielsen has been sending photos pretty regularly for awhile now I have decided to catch up from where I left off by posting photos only from all his past letters and after that I will try to stay current with weekly posts that include a little info from each letter along with any new photos he sends.

If you are curious enough to ask about specific pictures please leave your questions in the comments and I'll provide more info for you.

I hope you will enjoy following our son's mission experiences.  It has been such a blessing to our family to have a full time missionary serving in the mission field!  D&C 118:3

May 28 Two Baptisms!!!!

         

This week he emailed from both Catania and Malta because they flew to Catania again for another phase of the permesso process and began the email there then finished it up later when they returned to Malta.

While in Italy they had a lesson with a member who is half Italian and now lives in Catania. They found out this guy actually graduated from Clearfield High School!!

The highlight of their week was the baptism of the husband and wife they have been teaching!!!

This amazing golden family has totally adopted the Elders, feeding them, bringing others for them to teach, and even offering them the use of their car! I can tell Elder N. really looks forward to any opportunity they have to spend time with them. They are a very friendly, fun, kind and even multilingual family, speaking German, French, English, Spanish and Japanese! They have hearts of gold and are so committed to living the principles of the gospel as soon as they learn them!

They had a special pday meal with the couple missionaries who were leaving and the newly arrived couple and the family providing the meal served potatoes "done up American style with all the toppings."

Previously they helped a family who wanted some stuff carried downstairs; 3 days later they decided they wanted it upstairs again so they took care of that too! I told him that would be great preparation for marriage! ;o)

They met a man who is Maltese that lived in Michigan for about 48 years and even served in the Korean War!

He was excited when the family preparing for baptism served pork Tonkatsu after a lesson! He said it was delicious and the lesson went great; with the help of the Spirit they were able to answer their questions and concerns. A member of the branch was there too and testified that he knew the Church was true and really helped to strengthen the wife’s realization that she knows it's true too!!

He had this to say about planning: “[we] had a good planning session! Man I love planning! It is so cool sitting down and prayerfully discussing what we can do and then being guided by the Spirit as we make and set goals! Man being a missionary ROCKS!!!!”

He said he also loves all the studies and morning stuff they do in the missionary schedule!

Some highlights from the baptism…

"SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Saturday = baptism day! Baptism day = awesome day!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man what an AWESOME DAY!!!!!!!! I will never forget this day!!!!!! Sheesh it was so cool!!!!!!!"

Packed all their white clothing and left for Mosta

The Spirit was so strong!!!

Brother and Sister B. gave talks

They stood and sang “The Spirit of God”

They had chosen a spot previously (in the ocean) but when they got there on baptism day the tide was too low (he said they "learned a valuable lesson" through this!) but they ended up finding a spot that was even better!

His comp baptized the husband first then Elder N. baptized the wife!

After the service they all went to Brother and Sister B’s for “refreshments and conversation”

The newly baptized couple’s 14 year old daughter talked about “when” (not if!) she is baptized and that she is going to serve a mission!

The newly baptized couple said they want to serve a couple mission when they get older!

Sunday was bittersweet with a completely packed Church and the MP and his wife visiting, confirmation of the new member couple, farewell to the couple missionaries/Branch President and testimonies from the new Branch Presidency.

The newly baptized couple ("Brother and Sister I") have already narrowed it down to two Temples of choice, either Orlando Florida (to celebrate at Disneyland after) or Preston England (to see the couple missionaries who are leaving and will return to their home there). The baby "Sister I" is carrying will be their first child "born under the covenant" and when they reach their Temple goal in one year all their children will be sealed to them so they can be together forever!

Elder N summarized with this…

“Talk about the best Saturday ever! I love it! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok so this week has been uber, super, hyper, triple fudge topping, snow cone on a summer day AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man what an incredible week! THE SPIRIT HAS BEEN SO SUPER STRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It has just been so sweet!!!!!!”

May 19 email and photos

Elder N captioned this:
"Who's arms?  The King's arms! lol"

This week in Malta...
The wife of the family they are teaching asked them “So how do you know when you are ready to be baptized?” So they read Mosiah 18 and challenged them and they agreed! The baptism is officially scheduled for Saturday! This family is so golden Elder N. says they practically taught themselves! Their 14 year old is also studying the scriptures and asking about going to Seminary!

The member’s brother that they are teaching brought a friend to meet with them so that was awesome!

They had a really good turnout at Church on Sunday, he said “SOOOO many people came! [members], friends, and TONS of visitors! It was really cool! There [was] a girl from Finland, a family from Switzerland, a bunch of guys here for a linguistics conference from BYU and even a guy from the U of Maryland! Plus tons of Brits! It was really neat!”

They rode a bus to the other side of the country (about 30 minutes) to give service at an animal shelter.

The branch had a talent show, Elder N. played the guitar, the family they are teaching even participated, and he said it was “super awesome, so cool, what a blast!” The Elders sang the song in Maltese as a surprise for the couple missionaries that are leaving and said that they loved it!

The new couple missionaries arrived and they met with them and found out they will also be going to the Maltese lessons with the Elders! He said it will be hard to see the other couple go but the new couple seems really nice and he likes them already!

He also sent these photos from the talent show:

May 14 email and photos

The Malta Elders (holding dead jellyfish!?)

"Always looking up"
(Elder N took this photo via a mirrored ceiling!)

He had great things to say about the branch council, how they function so well and discuss needs of investigators and what they can do to help; he loves the support the council gives the missionaries!

Some funny things their native Maltese teacher has said:

Don’t you have adjectives in your brain?

Put a potato in your mouth!

He was excited to find Doritos at the airport on his way to Italy, he has the Malta airport pretty well memorized now!

They had several disappointments and delays on their permesso quest like arriving just as the office was closing, waiting in line for an hour and a half, waiting in line after line etc. but they finally got it taken care of, for now, another trip will eventually be needed for the next step.

They got to go bowling with the missionaries in Catania and enjoyed a meal at McDonald’s, Italian pizza, arancini, and his first ever cannoli! He said “They only make those on Sicily and I never served there so I'd never had one! It was really good! Dang I'm craving one now! lol!!”

They did splits there the following day and he was worried because it had been such a long time since he had proselyted in Italian but said it was fine and everything went ok!

They stayed with the couple missionaries the last night there and they took them to the airport the next morning at 4:30AM! A member friend picked them up at the airport in Malta and took them straight to his house to help him and then he cooked a huge breakfast for them of sausage, bacon, eggs, toast and the British classic –beans!

He told about challenging the family to be baptized and described the joy they felt and the joy they saw on this couple’s faces when they accepted! The wife asked if she could be baptized in the ocean so they are going to find out about that.

They were able to take the sacrament to a new member who cares for her invalid mother. They have spent a lot of time helping these two and have grown to love them both and while they were there this time the Mom took them both and said how much she loves them, then the daughter said that too, he said that was so great!!

In Maltese class they learned a Maltese song! They are practicing a surprise song for the couple missionaries who will be leaving soon.

He also sent these photos: