Hey there family!

Well it was good to hear from you once again, it feels like we never even got to talk!  But it sounds like you had a good Christmas and that you all were able to enjoy a good time and keep up the good skiin traditions and everything...you'll have to pass along a little hello to Troy for me.  It was was good to talk to all of you and see each of you, your all a lil different and things but your all the exact same.  I woulda thought that I was talkin to you from the sweet dorm room out in Virginia.  Crazy how fast time is flyin by.  I can't believe it.  And that 40 minutes was way too fast, but I agree with ya dad, it was good to have us all together. It sounds like things are goin well back at home. I appreciated your testimony about goin to church momma and it sounds like the ward back home is doin well.  You'll have to tell everybody hi.  That is cool that Janet and Brother Mcgill got my letter and I can't remember if I told you that we wrote Tyler a letter, but it turns out that Elder Broekhuijsen and I had a common friend, so we thought that would have been funny to send him.  And that is a sweet lookin structure with the temple being put together, that sounds like a fun thing to watch there at work dad.  Pretty cool stuff.  Let's just transport that on over to samara here! 

As far as the week goes, mine has got to be up there with probably the most crazy of my mission weeks.  we had a lot of way good things happen and just a lot goin on.  So after we talked on Tuesday, we had the next day on Wedensday getting all in for zone conference and for interviews.  That made for a good day of makin sure people were getting in on time and everything to make sure that all had time to interview with president.  He is such a good guy to take the time and interview with everybody.  We then had the big conference the next day here in samara!  it was a really good day and I learned a lot, besides the fact that the two dummies that had to order food (me and Elder Taylor) somehow undercounted and sent us sprinting out the door into the falling snow once lunch started to go find something for a couple of missionaries that we had missed.  Ya baby.  It then came time to get a couple of missionaries out the door, and so we had to step out and order them a taxi.  there is really sparatic traffic and things here especially with snow, and russian customer service doesn't exactly get five stars, so with that we went to get them a taxi and all taxi services and any friend taxi drivers we have here would say "no we're not taking orders" or "we don't have anybody going to that area".  So we got to spend the last couple of hours gettin that figured out, but hey people made their trains and it was a good conference.  Phew.  The next day we had a guy come meet us here in the office that had called up Elder Taylor and had been reading the Book of Mormon.  Turns out, he's read pretty much the whole book and was pretty down for everything.  He showed up to church yesterday and after the meeting we finished up the restoration and set a baptismal date with him!  Sweet!  Heavenly Father is lookin out for us.  But after that meeting on Friday we ran out and went to catch a train down to Saratov.  We made it and rolled on down to Saratov.  The trains are definitely going to be a good memory for a long time.  It was so darn fun to come rolling into Saratov as well, I haven't been back to a place I've served before and that was so fun.  I felt like I was comin back home.  We got in about midnight and then got up for round two of zone conference in Saratov.  This one went a lot smoother and required a lot less logistics.  and we were back in the ol Zavodskoy branch which made it even better.  After the conference, we did a lil clean up and then I got to call my old buddy Sergei!  He's doin good but his buddy Ivan, not so much.  It  turns out that just his last week the police from another city called up Sergei and wanted Ivan.  He had done some crime in that city and basically ran outta there and has been basically not being honest to anybody.  so, they came and picked him up from that member's house and took him to da clank.  That was a little bit of a bummer to hear.  But, it sounds like Sergei is doin well and actually progressing to baptism.  Elder Taylor and I actually had some time to run by and drop by that member's house- Sergei's "mom" Galina.  It was so good to see her and we just talked for a bit and prayed with her.  It was really cool I love that place so darn much.  We then ran outta there to catch our train back home to samara to get up and go to church and have a good day yesterday!  Ya baby.  So if you were wondering, that's what happened this week.

Well I sure love you all and again had such a good time seeing you all.  It definitely motivates me to be a little bit better seeing what we can give somebody else.  Have a good week and we will see you next week!

Love

Elder Nielson

Our Family All Together Again...Merry Christmas!

This is what we got to see when we answered the call.  A real live Russian fur hat staring at us

The time went by so quickly...a full 40 minutes!

Great family picture of all the kids together

Hey there and Merry Christmas Family!

Good day to you all I hope you all had a good week and I got some fun reports...it's always a treat to hear from all of you. We've had a way good week hear, and it will only get better tomorrow! Woo! We're all geared up for the big skype home. So I'm planning on 8:00 p.m. our time which is 9:00 your time is what I've heard....I guess we have a 11 hour time difference. You might want to check my sources on my time zones. but it'll be a party!

But for the most part it sounds like things are going along well there at the ranch and that you all got your big Christmas parties going on and everything. Your havin’ all the neighbors over for a party? Wow look at you go there! And thanks for the fun Siberian cabin there...it looks like you had some successful gingerbread house making. Good work I'm glad your all havin’ a good time.

Well as far as these parts go, it's definitely been a different week of missionary work than I'm used to. We had to spend a good amount of the week down here in the office preparing for zone conferences and getting schedules put together for visa trips and all that good stuff. It's pretty fun, a lot of the staff here are just local church members and they are super fun to work around with. It's fun because there are a couple members from the old branch I served in on the other side of the city and the other half are here in the branch I am in now with the branch president. We have had a party with all of them. Today we just came down actually to write and polish off a couple things for getting trains and stuff coming in and they had a whole Christmas party put together with the whole office staff and President and Sister Sartori so I just got my writing interrupted by going and eating all this pork and fish and chicken that they grilled up outside on this little sishcabob thing. It was our own homemade Tucano's! I had to turn my little light over to red...I'm about to explode right now. I took a picture and we have some good ones from the week, but I forgot to bring my cord so sorry...next week will be some fun ones. :) We also have been able to work a little closer with President Sartori and it has been really fun to be around him, I think we're actually skyping from their place tomorrow, so hopefully you'll get to meet them! Have my parents meet my other parents.

Other than that, we had time to get a couple lessons in and were able to go meet with this girl that we had found knocking named Yolandia after some play. She was so cool but we didn't find another man so we sat out in the stair well of her apartment and she sat inside and we taught her. Haha pretty funny, but she was pretty into it so we are super excited to meet with her. We also have a few others and an investigator that was already here working for baptism, so we are going to be having some great stuff going on in this area! Man it's so fun. We also had a big Christmas activity on Saturday at our branch combined with the other branch here in Samara...they put on a show for us and let me tell ya...I was not in Kansas anymore Toto. There is definitely a different taste for entertainment around here and they were doing some musical thing that was so darn funny, but they all love it. One of the songs was President Bogdanov in the mission presidency singing "we love boogy woogy". It was so darn funny with his thick Russian accent just belting out "Boogy Voogy!" We were dyin’. Church was also a good time, it's really fun to be in this branch because I have come down a couple times for different activities that I already knew some of the members so church was really fun yesterday and it didn't require much adjustment. So it's just been a really good week this week despite the cold and with a lot of new things going on.

As I said, I don't really know exact temperatures and things, but all I know is that it is so darn cold here. Its pretty fun. Luckily I have my fur enveloping my head, so I don't have too much to worry about. :) Just thought you would like that report.

Well besides that, I am super lookin’ forward to seein’ you all tomorrow! I've definitely had my time to think about a lot of things over the past week with it being Christmas and the unbelievable fact that I've been gone a year. There's definitely not much more to do than just keep on doing whatever the Lord expects of us, so that is the goal for the next year. That's something I've learned a lot of on my mission, and then it is amazing the changes that have taken place in my life as I have tried to simply do my best for Him. There are a lot of things in life I will do a lot better as a result of my mission. I hope that this continues for the second half of my adventure and I sure can't wait for it cause I can control that. I have loved my mission so much.

Have a good time today and we will see you tomorrow!

Love

Elder Nielson

 

Hi Family!

I don't know if you remember me, but this is your son in Russia. Oh my gosh I'm so sorry it has been such a mess of Russian governmental post offices and exchanges that have made a little bit of a mess in writing home. I am super sorry about that, and as you can imagine it's not a missionary's favorite thing to not hear from home. Although I might not give the best replies sometimes, keep the email's coming because that is always an uplift and fun to hear. Even if it is a tough time, I just like to hear your thoughts. With email and stuff, it doesn't seem that I am very far away from home. Thanks for your letters this week. It is fun to hear about all that is going on. So thanks. It is funny to listen and think about the things that you face and realize how they aren't a ton more different than the things we face as missionaries, it just seems that our highs and lows are closer together and so you get over things fast. And you have no choice. There is so much to learn as a missionary and I love it.

The last week has been a blur, and things are definitely not slowing down. Due to the fact that we have this cycle as 5 weeks, we are cramming everything that we usually do in 6 weeks into 5. This coming week I'll be doing some travelling with you, we're getting on a train tonight to a city called Penza to work tomorrow and Wednesday and Thursday with the 4 elders and 2 sisters there. We are so excited to get there and just floor the place to the ground. Things have been slow there and to be honest the only solution is to go in and destroy it and get the faith up. I'm so excited. Maybe we'll all do the pay day chant together or something. We will then go to a city called Orenburg next week and then have exchanges with the other district leaders in Samara here, it'll be so good.

I don't know if I was down, but mom I think you mentioned that I seem to be a little bit more up now. I don't know if I am better or worse, but we have been pushing to simply give 100%. It seems that through the mission here, people are just down and we keep looking for some solution to help people get up. But, what I and my companion have been learning lately has been something that will stick to me the rest of my life. First, there must be faith. We can't do anything or expect Heavenly Father to do anything if we don't have faith and simply read pray and go to church. Not only does faith give us hope, but it is confidence in the Lord, which gives us confidence in ourselves. I've been trying to figure out how to be myself doing the whole zone leader thing, and have learned that when we are confident in the Lord, we have real confidence in ourselves. I think a lot of people could use that. We also have to start thinking about other people. I have learned that any hard time that I have had on my mission and when I have had low energy, it is because I am simply thinking about myself. It is crazy how the second we begin to think about other people that we are given power to do anything. When I start to get tired or if I am down, I just think about somebody- an investigator or a struggling missionary- and I get to work. This is what I have learned to be real charity. I can't say I've mastered it, but I have seen how that has changed my missionary work and I don't see how faith and charity wouldn't bless our personal lives. There are a lot of things I hope to never forget.

We continue to work with Natasha and Masha, I have some pictures but don't have the ability to send right now so remind me next week. They are so rad- me and the ol’ companion Elder Taylor went and taught them tithing and it was so awesome. First time I've ever taught that- crazy huh? But they are so great and the husband in Moscow is basically indifferent to the whole situation. Don't know about the relationship there. But hey it'll be good. We had also met this other Natasha girl on a bus stop the morning that Brother Galloway came out here. She is also so awesome- she's 18 and just wants to do what God wants her to do. She will get baptized, I don't doubt that. Unfortunately we just lost her because we split our areas for a new companionship here and they will teach her. But hey, she'll get baptized. That makes me feel good. We are working with various other people, but due to the area split, we are doing some rebuilding here, which is totally cool. I love the contacting- that's where you see the most miracles. And it's fun. Man I wish I could write more and tell more stories, but the timer just popped up. Ah!

I sure love you all and can feel your support and think of you often- without getting distracted of course. I sometimes wonder what you would think if you saw some of the funny stuff and some kid tryin’ to speak Russian here. It's so awesome. Love you all, have a good week and see you next week!

Love
Elder Nielson

Another week...and no email.  Ugh! We received an email from the mission office saying Elder Nielson couldn't find an open internet cafe.  He was going to try later in the week.  It was also reported that they had made some soup that he liked so much that he was going to make a big pot of it at his apartment...said it reminded him of home.  Ahhh!  In the meantime, enjoy this picture we received from the mission home of the last zone conference held on November 1st.  Elder Nielson looks giddy!  We know he is loving every part of his mission!  Until next week...

No email this week from Elder Nielson...Booo!  There is apparently a Russian holiday and all offices and businesses are closed so he was unable to email.  Here are some great pictures though, from our friend Rob Galloway who was able to visit Chris in Samara with permission from Chris' mission president.  Apparently these two Elders, Elder Nielson and Elder Broekhuijsen are quite a dynamic pair.  I couldn't get over how clean their apartment is!  Enjoy!  

 

 Samara Airport
 

 Chris says hello to his old Young Men's leader
 

 Elder Nielson looking daper in his hat.
 

 Fellow Lone Peak Knight, Elder Broekhuijsen
 

 Wow...super tidy!
 

Love the peptobismol wall color!

Men at Work

Well hey there fam!

Well it sure doesn't seem like your too far away at all after a surprise visit from good ol Bro/ Bishop Galloway.  Man that was so crazy.  Things are goin so good, and it's just been a solid week of poundin the pavement around here.  Thanks for the fun letters, and especially the fun package.  I'll try my best to keep the wrapped stuff till Christmas...that is my year mark!  What the heck!  I’ve only been out a couple months...I promise.  Crazy how time is goin by.  I will be sure to eat some ramen and pancakes and everything with you in mind.  I'm already excited. I still can't really get over that he (bro Galloway) was able to come out here.  I sure gave him the full experience.  We have a taxi friend named Oleg that I called to go get him.  I could hear him trying to find "roob"  and asking Bro Galloway on the other side of the phone what his name was and Bro Galloway just sayin "What?"  It was so funny, we were cracking up on the other side of the line.  But hey, sounds like he is still alive and my broken Russian got him around enough.  What a good guy.  I hope I didn't disappoint, President Sartori had called me and told me about it, but i didn't know that he had lunch or something in mind.  Anyways, it was a really fun little adventure and I am glad he gave you a good report.  And glad you got to see me in my Sergei get up.  haha I think I'm too proud of that. He reported well though, we do have a great place here and are having a very good time.  And yes, I am very happy.

 As far as things go, we are continuing to meet with this Natasha lady and her daughter Masha.  The one that thought we were beautiful.  I gotta give you an impression of the way she talks, so dramatic.  i think of dad everytime acting like his spanish friends.  Anyways, she is progressing very well and we are going to go over tonight to meet again.  Yay! we have had a hard time to get meetings to go through, but it's all good.  We are able to stay busy enough with things in the zone and it's fun contacting with elder Broekhuijsen (i finally learned how to spell it right, his dad is from Holland)  because he likes it as well.  it helps a lot to have a happy companion.  you will have to find his family, they live over by 6000 West in highland there.  Anyways, we have had some good times with Natasha and Masha, she is just a little hesitant on baptism because she doesn't feel worthy enough.  That is actually great because she actually understands what it means.  We are also working so that when her husband gets home from Moscow he will allow us to continue to meet with her.  There is some phobia here about "sects" goin around.  Kinda goofy, it shuts off a lot of people.  It cracks me up though because i want to know what some people are picturing we do at our sect.  Anyways we've been praying hard that his hart is softened.  anyways, at our last meeting, it came out that she had stayed up till 2 in the morning finishing the Book of Mormon and even the alphabatized section at the end.  i think the Russian versions have the bible dictionary.  That was pretty cool, we are so excited to meet with her tonight.   

As far as other things go, we have had just some great times on the streets and other people we are working with, just have a minute before i have something noteworthy.  I am glad to hear that things are going well and that everyone is happy back at the ranch.  Congrats lil tanner on passing the sacrament and getting to the temple.  That is so awesome, just keep doing that my friend.  And thanks for the world series reports.  Haha  well I sure love you all and will look forward to next weeks reports!  Love you!

Love

Elder Nielson