Hey there everybody!

Glad to hear things are going good, things are just going awesome around these parts as well. It has been one of my more favorite weeks on my mission and there are just good things.

We had a sweet week kicking off with a couple of good lessons at the beginning of the week, especially one good one with good ol' Svyetlana. She is doing super well and is ready to get baptized. She leaves today to Germany to meet her daughter coming out from America and will be there until the 1st of June. She will talk to her about being baptized, but she will not really be stopped. She seems to just have a little more of a light in her eyes- I'm going to be honest I think this is the first time that I have experienced that on my mission. It was a blessing to sit next to her yesterday and just talk to her after church- she is happy with the gospel. It's a pretty cool thing to see and feel. She has a strong testimony, so we will wait and pray for her till she gets back.

Anyways, we took off on Wednesday morning with our driver, Roman, and headed up to Tol'yatti and picked up the zone leaders there. Elder Glavatski and I got dropped off in the city Ul'yanovsk and Elders Taylor and Whittemore continued up to Kazan. So, we spent a few days there in Ul'yanovsk and probably had a few of the best days of my mission. There are two companionships there in the city, both with a senior companion and a trainee- that was so fun to work with a "newbie" and just be pumped up with them. Anyways, Wednesday was spent working with Elder Tippets, one of the newbies. From the get go, we just had people stop and talk to us and just listen. It was so awesome, there must have been something in the air. After about 20 minutes, we stopped a kid named Dimitri and talked a little about the Book of Mormon. It was so funny, I would kind of explain something, then turn to Elder Tippets and give him the nod. It's like I would hit the play button on a cassette tape and a little tid bit of testimony would just explode out of him, then hit pause and explain a little more, explain what I said to him, then push play again and he would just testify. It was such a funny picture. Anyways, this Dimitri kid was just a cool guy and had about an hour so we went and sat down on a bench, prayed, taught the whole restoration and invited to be baptized, and prayed and got on our way. It was probably the coolest thing that I have had on my mission, Heavenly Father was definitely looking out for us.

We had the same thing at night when we were on our way home and had a kid stop us at about 8:30 and say that he wanted to know what we do because he felt like he couldn't get away from bad influences and he just wanted to get free of it...that tickled our fancies. We asked if he had time, so we plopped down on another bench and had a repeat from earlier, we taught him about the Atonement and Book of Mormon and gave it to him. Pretty cool. We ran home to make it home after that- anyways we just had things like that for three days out there in Ul'yanovsk. It was so darn fun…and fun to just get them pumped. That is probably my favorite thing to do. Anyways, we had a good time, and it was fun to be with Elder Glavatski, you will have to meet him some day. Me and him go home on the same day, he is the most humble just cool guy in the world.

Anyways, things are going super good around here. We are happy to be working with Svyetlana and others and just making a lot of good things happen. Good times. Hope you all have a good week, love you all!

Love

Elder Nielson

Hey family!

We're right back at ya this morning, Elder Taylor came down and called home early this morning from the office, so we just stayed here to get the emails done as well. Man that was such a treat to have a little bit of time to chat with all of you yesterday. Can't believe that we're already back to that, and that it was the last time! Yikes! Time seems to just be slipping through my fingers...

But I guess I'll write a little bit of what went on this past week, we had a good one and it was capped off well of course by calling home. We had a pretty open week and good opportunities to get a lot of stuff done...we kicked off stuff on Monday night with some cool contacting, I forgot to tell you about this last night. On Thursday (May 9th) is their big "victory day" that is the day that they won world war II, it is basically their fourth of July. So, on Monday they had a practice for the big parade/presentation thing that they do here. I explained a little bit about the big square here in our area that is just this huge asphalt square with a big theatre, it's actually really cool. And people rollerblade really good there, it's cool to watch as we're passing by. Anyways, they had these stands all set up on the asphalt and we came around the corner and saw the streets just lined with cops. They all came out of their holes, I have no idea where they came from. Anyways, so we kinda just froze, and see over on the square just masses of soldiers for their parade thing. They were all in their big trenchcoats and helmets and things- we both kind of just stopped there on the corner. I'm not gonna lie, to see that sight our stomachs kind of dropped, it felt like I was sitting up in Anne Franks closet and we were gonna have to start sprinting down the street. We kept walking a little bit and came to the road that leads up to the square that had tanks and trucks and all those kind of vehicles and things- it was pretty crazy looking, pretty submersed in Russia that's for sure.

Tuesday was a good day, we met with president and had a good meeting to do the transfer and things, we do those about 2-3 weeks early every transfer so that we can get people registered in their cities and things, so we did that this week. It's a cool process, it's fun to see how inspired president really is with the things he does. It's taught me a lot.

As far as investigators go though, Svyetlana is just chuggin’ right along and doing well. She loves church and loves just learning which is cool. Our other investigators are also doing well, but because of the big holidays and things, we didn't have a chance to meet with any of our other "big hitters" this past week, but we'll definitely have some good meetings squared away for this coming week. We did have a cool experience though on Tuesday, we met with a guy named Reshat who is a total Muslim guy. We had met him a week ago on the street and gave him a Book of Mormon, usually Muslims are so ridiculously against hearing anything from us, but he was super open and took the book. Anyways, we got a meeting with him and he came and has already read 1 Nephi and was wondering about baptism and things! We were so excited, it's quite the miracle to have somebody like that because most of the Muslims are just taught that they are Muslim and that's just the way it is. He even has a wife that is Russian and is an Athiest, but also started reading the Book and is interested! Woo! Anyways, we are excited to continue to work with them and help them learn more about Christ. That is what's sad, all the Muslims are such good and nice people, they live their religion and everything- but they don't know about the Atonement in their lives and Jesus Christ.  I want to share my testimony of the Savior in our lives.  We cannot become clean or do anything without Christ. I am grateful that we have that kind of knowledge.

Anyways, those are just some highlights of the week, things are just good. We are excited for a good upcoming week and some good exchange action coming up. Sure love you all and hope you have a good week.

Love

Elder Nielson

Where did April go?

Hey there everybody!

Sorry I'm running low on time, but just thought I'd give you a little update and hopefully get some pictures attached. I hope you all are doin’ good and things are going super well here.

We had a cool week going down to Saratov and Tolyatti for zone conferences. While in Saratov, I was able to be back in my dojo in Zavodskoy and even got to call Sergei (the old bro investigator) and talk to him for a little bit. He has moved away from the members, but I also called his "mom" (Galina) and was able to talk to her for a little bit while I was down there. Just a trip down memory lane from last summer. I love those people so much, I sure miss them. Anyways, Sergei is just kinda chillin’ but doing well. He still remembers me at least. Anyways, the zone conferences went really good and it was really enjoyable to listen to President Sartori. He talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and things and we were able to learn a lot from that.

As far as our area goes, Svyetlana took off to Moscow for the week, so we didn't have a chance to meet with her. We have some new people that we are working with and just need to get some good meetings going with people and get them moving to baptism. I love the people that we have, we just need to teach people how to plan so that we can get meetings with them because that is the only way that they can learn about the gospel. But, there have been a lot of good times doing some contacting and finding new people, many which are searching for truth which is the first time on my mission it seems like that I have actually heard that from people. Anyways, things are going very well.

Here are a couple pictures, I will attach them and hope that you enjoy. (He only sent one!)

 Just our first day in short sleeves! I'll look forward to next week and hope that you all have a good week. Love you all!

Love

Elder Nielson

[little extra note from Elder Nielson]

First things first- business. I think we will probably actually shoot for skyping on Saturday night (before Mother’s Day)...dont' know if that would work for you all but we were just thinking with church schedules and things that would be easier. Anyways, let me know what you think...we will shoot for the usual time at about 7:00 in the night here, I think you are 10 hours behind us, but we can use next week to make plans final. Just an idea, if that's a problem let me know. That is fun to hear about talking with Sister Sartori, I love those people. They take good care of us. Ok, I fully endorse you to be my agent in schools, I think that I will shoot for BYU, I haven't really thought about going anywhere else, so I guess I can decide later if I don't like it.

Hey there everybody!

Well, things just keep on a rollin’ here and goin’ good. I'll keep doing the big email then, it's kinda fun like I said to think about some things that went on during the week. It has probably been hands down the craziest week of my life, I am pretty out of control tired. I guess that's a good way to be. I'll try to give a little shot of how things went this week.

We actually had a pretty chill p day and finished up most things with the transfer and things. We actually had a way cool experience on Monday night when we went to meet with grandma sher- Svyetlana. She came up and said hi to us and we were just walking around a park. First thing, she just says that she got an answer that the Book of Mormon is true! Elder Taylor and I just kinda looked across at each other and were like, "do tell...” Anyways, she told us how she was just thinking about it and walking around the park and kinda praying in her heart and felt the spirit confirm to her that the Book is true. Woo!! That is the first time that I have had somebody give us the storybook conversion like that. It was way cool, definitely the highlight of the week. I am very grateful for the Book of Mormon and the power that it has.

Anyways, so we got people off on trains and things seemed pretty calm. Tuesday, we got up and got down to the office for our office meeting and things and that went good, we met with president and just had a ton of things to do to get ready for the incoming group that was coming at about 5:00 that day. We just ran around the office like a couple chickens with our heads cut off and got done what needed to get done, and got out to the van to ride out to the airport. We got out there and picked up our train of news- all 14 of them! Holy cow! It was so fun to be around them, and they are all big boys- they must be growing them bigger back there in America or something. Even the sister was taller than me. Anyways we came back and ate dinner with them and while they were interviewing we took a couple groups out and got some contacting in for about 45 minutes. It was pretty crazy, both of us with our flocklings got a couple phone numbers each in about 45 minutes. A lot of missionaries could go all day and only get a couple numbers. Pretty cool, faith really works. Anyways, we had the whole craziness of getting them and trainers out and then getting things set up for zone conference on Friday and took the missionaries out to the airport. Long story short, it's been pretty outta control.

 

 

I like your questions about the Book of Mormon, we have actually been really making a focus to use the Book of Mormon more in our mission. It is incredible all the prophecies and things connected with the coming forth of the Book of Mormon- not only the message it contains converts people, but the Lord touches hearts through the book because it is His tool for the gathering of His children which is what the entire bible prophecies about. It is so exciting to be involved in that. I have realized since i have been on a mission that everything I have in a spiritual sense is because of the Book of Mormon. My testimony started when I was 13, 14 years old and I read the book for the first time when President Hinckley asked us to by the end of the year. I read it like a novel. I have ever since actually. There are good things to studying it and going deeper, but even on a mission I continue reading it just like a novel. I have actually done that my entire mission- of course we have lessons that is study for during the last part of personal study, but all I do is just read the Book of Mormon. I am currently in Helaman reading it through in Russian. I don't know that there is any better way for any person to come to know the Savior and to know what to do in life. There have been few, and although i haven't baptized them, but any investigator that will read the Book of Mormon with any real intent becomes converted and will be baptized at some point. It's pretty cool. Probably the most important thing about the Book of Mormon is the fact that Heavenly Father can touch anybody's heart through that book by the Holy Ghost. Everybody has their own concerns and things and the Book of Mormon serves many important functions in proving the restoration, giving us a witness of the Savior, etc. but Heavenly Father speaks to people through the Book of Mormon and that is what solves concerns. I love the Book of Mormon.

 

Love,

Elder Nielson

Good Monday to you all!

We had a good week this week and it just continues to all roll on pretty well around here. It sounds like you all had a sweet trip down to California and things and sounds like you’re right back in the swing of things.

I wanted to first answer a couple questions from momma, just a few things about it out here. First, as far as Easter goes, we actually still haven't had it yet. I can't remember if I said that, but the Russian orthodox Easter is going to be on May 5. Kinda funny, they do the same with Christmas, I don't really get it. But, they love carrying their eggs around and give out their boiled eggs. The main thing would be that everyone you see on Easter says, "Christ is resurrected." They don't even say hi or anything and you could probably walk past the same person about 20 times, and they would say "Christ is resurrected" each time.  

I would say one thing that Russians love is to be dressed up and feel fancy. Walking around here, you would think that everyone was very well off by the way they dress, and nobody just walks around in sweats. Women are always in high heels- always. Anyways, they love to go to their little plays or operas or different shows and they just get decked out for that. There is definitely a difference. Then, when you are at the plays or the shows, they just love getting into it and things. And then when they really like something, they all clap so loud and then start clapping in unison. It's kinda strange but it cracks me up. They love that whole fancy arts feeling and getting dressed up for it- however there is not really programs to teach people music and things so either people are playing the piano on the big stage or singing, or they can't sing at all. But they love to sing, we sing at the beginning of Sunday School and at the end and always have some kind of hymn for everything, but they kinda struggle a lot to keep a tune. I don't know that was a bunch of random things.

One other funny thing is that they close everything with "in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." For example, if somebody makes an announcement or at the end of the branch business or anything, it is always closed that way even if there is nothing spiritual whatsoever said. It's pretty funny. It seems like I say that about 50 times at church every week. I can’t really pick out my favorite thing, I just love those little quirks that are different from things we do, there are a lot of them.

One hard thing here is just that religion is pictured as nothing but a patriotic symbol and a superstition. The Russian orthodox church has just become the "Russian church" and anything else is just a "sect" or it's the "American church". Everybody thinks that we are Catholics because they think that we are from America so we are Catholic. And then for any Middle Easterns here, they say "I am not Russian" when we ask if they have faith because that is their way of saying that they are Muslim.    There are about four common statements that you hear in every conversation with somebody: "God is one, faith is different" "Most important is that faith was in the soul" "Don't need it" and "I am Muslim, that is a sin to hear about Christ". I don't really know how to translate them, but they are the most broad statements that they make towards the fact that faith is something real and not just a claim to belong to a nationality or just some superstition that when things go bad I pray and it gets better. 

As for my companion, he's so great. Me and him are pretty much the same person, like identical. We both move at the same pace and have the same views on things and so it makes it super fun. He's kinda a Tanner Jensen. Of course, because we both work at the same speed and take control of everything that is our only down fall, but we get along super good and it's been super good to work with him. We'll be friends for the rest of my life.

Anyways, I'm running short on time, we have to do our office meetings today. But things are going good. We have the same investigators and Grandma Sher (Svetlana) is doing well and came to church yesterday. We will have a good week and I'll talk to you next week!

Love

Elder Nielson

 

Good morning fam!

How are we all doing? Man those were a lot of really good letters to get from each of you and it sounds like things are just tickin’ right along. I can't believe that we are already back to Monday, these things keep on coming faster and faster it seems. Thanks for all the fun reports and things, it is always fun to read and hear what's goin’ on whether you think it’s important or not. That's crazy dad that you are going to be taking another trip over to China- good luck with that. Come on by, we're not too far away. Anyways, hope that things go well and that you can enjoy your big travels. That is a lot of travel for 2 1/2 days.

Just to answer your question on what the sister missionaries do- well they pretty much do exactly what all of the elders do. Except every branch begs until they can have sisters and the sisters kick all the elders' trash with investigators and things. They are all super good to have around- I have a lot of respect for all of them. And thanks for all the fun updates of things that are goin’ on with missions and stuff like that momma. Those are super exciting things to hear that are going on. And finally, lil’ Tanner that is way fun to hear that you are doin’ well with your ballin’ and things. Sounds like you've been hittin’ well and stuff and that is way cool to hear. I hope you have a good season, man I'm super jealous those are such good times. You better save up some good games for when I get back to come watch you bro. And Sarah, love you lil’ sis. Anyways, good to hear from all you and hope things keep goin’ good.

Well, we have had quite the week. We are all back to transfer time and so today and the last few days and the next couple days are some nice busy ones. However, this week has gone really well and we have been able to have some really good things happen. The big one- Ryslan- is just movin’ along as usual. He is definitely a slower mover, but man we love that kid so darn much. We were only able to meet with him because the store he works at is closing down and so every time we pass by the place is buzzing and so we don't want to bother him. But we just need to help him realize how important faith really is, for some reason there is just something holding him back from trusting God because he will say that he trusts us, but will not trust God. Kinda interesting to see how that works.

We then spent a couple days back in the old area on the other side of town with the zone leaders. Man it seems like a dream ago that I served there but I forgot about how many good memories I had at that place with Elder Broekhuijsen and how much I loved that area. Sometimes things move so fast that you forget to smell the roses, but luckily I got a second chance. We pretty much contacted the whole two days which was really fun, it's funny sometimes that "dirty work" of contacting and knocking kinda drags on you, but heck we haven't had a free day to do any of that for two transfers now and it was actually super fun to just be a normal missionary for a couple days it was so good. Anyways, we also had a great meeting with big Anna this past week and taught her the Sabbath day. She has a hard time getting’ to church as do most Russians, so I hope that made an impact on her so that she started to come and take all this seriously. She is so cool though, she showed up to our meeting with little post it tabs in her Book of Mormon with questions that she had about what she read. Then we realized that she was asking about Isaiah in 2 Nephi and luckily we had a member to help us out- I don't even understand that in English! Haha it was pretty funny. We all have a lot to go that's for sure.

We then spent the day on Saturday doing the big transfer calls for the upcoming cycle. Phew- I know I wasn't very good at talking on the phone at home so I hope that I have learned a thing or two since I've been here on a mission makin’ a few calls. It was pretty fun. It is exciting to be having all the missionaries coming in- our next incoming group will be 14 missionaries! We are trying to find places to put them because half of these branches will now be missionaries! They're gonna have to start spraying for us. Probably the coolest thing from this past week though was yesterday at church- we weren't able to get anybody to church which was a bummer and so we ended up passing the Sacrament just because that was needed yesterday. So, when we went to sit down after the sacrament, I looked up and saw a kid sitting there that I hadn't seen before, so I went and sat by him. He said, "sorry, this is my first time here. I don't really know what to do, but I have been learning a lot about you guys and have even been writing back and forth with the people on the internet and have a ton of questions. But I think that I have maybe found my answer." Holy cow- it was so sweet. His name is Ivan and is about 22 and just a cool, norm dude. When we come across those types, that are actually interested, we pounce all over them. Anyways, we had good church meetings and things and he is going to come next week and wants to find answers to his questions that he thinks he can find here. Pretty cool stuff, I think it really shows how much Heavenly Father really is in charge of this work and is looking out for us.

Besides that, we have been running around helping people get on trains and sisters lift their big ol' suitcases full of who knows what in and outta the trains and getting people all switched around. Transfer time is actually pretty fun. But, we've got it mostly taken care of till we go pick up the new group from the airport tomorrow, so I can sit here in the office and write with my big snickers that President Sartori gave me. Doesn't get much better than that.

Anyways, we are doin’ well and things just keep on keepin’ on. It has been another good week down on the mission and we're lookin’ forward to another good one. I sure am lovin’ it and hope you can all feel my love at home. Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Nielson

Good morning family!

Well it is a good day here in big ol' Samara! We've had such a darn good week and it has probably been one of my favorites. I really don't know why, there have just been a whole lot of good things and probably more hard things, but it's cool how much I have been able to learn and grow from them. Those were all a bunch of super fun letters that I was able to get from each of you, I was able to answer a couple but am super grateful for all the support that I feel from you there at home. And don't worry about it momma, I totally understand, you still wrote a nice letter and I appreciate it. Anyways, it sounds like everybody is doing well and that is good to hear. That sounds way fun to be going down to St George with dad and Tanner to meet Tana and Grandpa. That will be so fun, reminds me of goin’ down and playing with dad and then getting a migraine down there. Good times, hope you do well down there lil’ Tanner! Anyways, thanks for the updates everybody and hope all the missionaries headin’ out back at the ranch have a good time. Because it's a good time.

This week has definitely been an interesting one as I said earlier. There is a whole bunch goin’ on and I am grateful for all the little experiences that happen out here on a mission. We started out the week with the big visa trips coming in and out. We are actually coming to a close of having to do those every 3 months because they now have come out with 3 year visas and we only have to leave the country every 6 months to renew our "migration cards" which we get at visa renewal time as well. Anyways, it will be a lot simpler basically and only every 6 months, just kinda some fun facts for the day for you. And, there is a possibility that we will be flying straight to Prague where the visas are made which would also be cool. Kinda random.

So, we had our last groups coming in and out which made for a good full apartment for the first part of the week. That is definitely a funny aspect of my mission that I wouldn't have thought I would have had. But, we came around to the last part of the week and were able to have some meetings with investigators and there are a lot of good things going on there. Ryslan is just still our bro. We are definitely trying to work to make him build some foundation of faith for him. He is funny, he says how things are just bad here in Russia and that nobody can really build a good life here and that anybody that does is pretty much just lying to them self because it really isn't that good. Anyways, it is really twisting us to try and help him to see the light and how much he needs the faith, he just needs to be humbled a little bit. I sure love that kid though. He's so darn respectful and probably the nicest Russian kid that I have ever met. He is always paying for our bus fares going to church or other things and always has some kind of surprise for us. Man, I can't even imagine what the gospel would do for him.

And with Anna, things are still just kinda moving slowly but surely with her. We weren't able to get a real meeting with her this week but we were able to get her to come with us to our weird culture night that we walked out of - some remix of Nutcracker - and then she came with us with a couple other members and Ryslan to get some dinner and was able to make really good friends with them and things. It was so cool, that made the torture of nutcracker fluke all worth it. You'll have to ask Sarah a little more about it, I explained it to her. Anyways, we were able to have a good couple of days and had the Sartoris come to our branch which was awesome as always. I had to go up and translate for President Sartori which was pretty cool, a little scary, when he spoke which actually turned out pretty good. Kinda fun. But church went really well besides that and big Ryslan came and gave his little donation again. And yes mom, that is the same name as the other guy we baptised. There aren't many names here for some reason, it has just kinda turned out to be that way because of the grammar and things. Kinda weird, everybody has the same name. And just so you know, that Ryslan and Tatyana that we baptized are doing super well and it is super fun to be around them and watch them grow in the gospel.

Anyways, that is about the jist of things that happened over the last week. I say it every week, but it has been such a blessing to be on a mission and to learn so much. The Atonement definitely takes more effect in our lives as we strive to be better and as we get better because it becomes that much more important. And then it is cool to see how even those things that were good remain good in your memory, and even the bad things become a good memory because we are able to be healed of the embarrassment that comes with mistakes and gain all that we learned from those experiences. It is such a blessing to have that in our lives and in our family. I sure love you all and hope that you have a good week! See ya next week!

Love

Elder Nielson

P.S. can you believe that this time last year I was just getting’ here and writing you from Kazan? So crazy how the time goes. Year in Russia baby!