Queen of "THE LAW"

Oh dear Family,

it sounds like you all are so busy. That can be a good thing sometimes, but a day to yourself is always appreciated. i hope that you all are able to find time to see the tender mercies of the Lord.

Anyway, i havebeen so excited to get to email you Ya'll this week. so as you know, i have 2 new companions, Sister Paepaetaata and Sister Reese (she's the greenie)

Sister P. is great, she is so funny, always keeps us laughing and keeps the tripanionship fun! 

Sister Reese.... she is so great! she is form mt caramel utah (where ever that is :) she reminds me of a scared, timid and unsure baby missionary i used to know....  I watch her as she tears up just talking to people and my heart aches for her, because i KNOW how hard that was to keep those tears back with every word. and as she struggles to learn the lessons, and as she compares herself to her trainer, or when i see her in the rear view mirror as she sits in the back seat and silent tears fill her eyes, because she misses home, or counts the months she still has and wonders what she got herself into.... i want to make it all better, because i know the despair that follows all those thoughts and emotions, but i also know the joy that comes when those trials are overcome through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I know the joy that is there when you realize that you know more, and can do more than you thought, because you have the Lord on your side.

I have really tried to be observant and tried to talk to her when the spirit has told me to. I have had words of encouragement and questions come to my mind to tell and ask her, and as i have followed the spirit and talked with her, i have found that she had been helped by this. She has told me on several occasions "sister nielsen, you always seem to know what to say to make me feel better" this has made me rejoice not in myself of course, but in the fact that Heavenly Father knows all of us perfectly and he knows what we need, and when we need it to help us through our struggles. he knows what sister reese needs and he helps her through other sisters like myself and sister p. Sisters that know what it was like in the beginning! 

I am so grateful for the things i went through at the beginning of my mission, not only did then force me to rely on my savior and become stronger, but now i can use them to help sister Reese! and i can promise her that things will get better, because they got better for me! I just love the way the Lord works. He truly is the great orchestrator, and he does it so lovingly! 

So now on to the not so spiritual experiences of mission life... ha ha ok so i am somewhat embarrassed to admit this, but im gonna do it anyway, cuz i now have the right to brag. k so, there is a family here in Lilburn that does what they call THE LAW.... dun dun dun.... so what it is, is an eating contest... yep. so the law is you must eat 2 plates of heavy Haitian food (rice, beans, chicken, pasta, salad, brussel sprouts, and rolls) then you must eat a bowl of fruit, then you must eat a dessert. Then.... for the sisters, you have to eat 8 snickers ice cream bars, and 10 for the elders. you must do all this to get your name and picture in "the book"  then there is a King and Queen of the law and if you want, you can try and take the crown form them.... so sister Paepaetaata holds the title as queen with 13.... excuse me "held" the title up till last night....oh yeah... Sister Nielsen is the current reigning Queen Of The Law with 14 snickers ice cream bars consumed!!!!!!!  

Im am somewhat proud and disgusted with myself for having consumed that much food. but i had to do it in order to have the full experience... ha ha! I have never been so full/sick in my life.. I never want to see another snickers bar in my life! Now i really can't wait to get on a bike... lol ill be working off the calories from that meal for the rest of my mission... ha ha.

Anyway family, i have to get going, but i love you and appreciate all that you do for me. have a blessed week

Love your favorite sister missionary

Sister Dannika Nielsen.  

BEING TRANSFERED!!!!!!!

Hey family!

So i am being transferred! To......... Lilburn! Im pretty excited for a change in venue... and a bigger apartment! ha ha i hear the apartment in lilburn in huge! My new comp is sister Papatata she is from Tahiti! and it will be me and her greenie, so i will be sort of "co-training" and i won't have to wait a week to get my mail forwarded ha ha !

Anyway, things are going pretty awesome, i am really loving my district and now im getting transferred... ha ha oh well such is life i guess! well anyway family i wish i had more to share with yall, but i have to go back to the apartment and finish packing to transfer.

well family i hope you have a good week and sorry again for the short letter!
Sister Dannika Nielsen

All is well in Suwanee........

Hey Family!

***MOM*** if you have not sent my portfolio yet PLEASE DONT WORRY ABOUT SENDING IT i don't need it

2 Nephi 31:20 "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ having a perfect brightness of hope and a love of God and of all men. Werefore if ye shall press forward feasting upon the word of christ and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: yea shall have eternal life." So i finished my first drawing in the Mission Field i tried to depict HOPE. Sister berrett told me that she wanted meto draw hope, because i was having trouble finding hope in my days, so this is what i came up with. i HOPE Y'all enjoy ;}

  

Ok i hate this part...EHHHH i always feel so bossy and demanding writing this part of my letters... i am so sorry....but sisters will be on bikes by spring, so ive got to get a bike figured out... if you call the mission office and ask for Elder Conners, he can help you coordinate that. i know he has bikes in the office that we can purchase so you wouldnt have to send mine out, it might be cheaper and less of a hassle to go through the office anyway. But if you would call him and figure that all out, i would greatly appriciate that too! Oh and if you do decide to get a bike through the office... will you be sure that Elder Conners understands that i do not want a beach cruzer.... georgia is not FLAT, it is very hilly and i don't want to die on the hills ehhhh ok im glad that part is over... lets move on to more awesome stuff =)

So as you heard, we did get hit with a pretty huge storm last week. President had all of us on lock down in our apartments for the day due to tornado warnings there was a tornado that did touch down, but nowere near our area, we just got rain... buckets and buckets of rain. coolest thing ever! i don't think i have seen a worse rain storm! oooo and the thunder was amazing! But we didn't see any tornados though... kind of a bummer, i want to see at least one while im on my mission... from a distance of course! but still want to see one!

So we had a baptism on saturday, it was probably one of the best we've had so far! The spirit was really strong, and i was just so glad to be a missionary! It is the days that i get to see someone enter the water in white that makes all the rejection and disappointments worth it! I love being a missionary and having the satisfaction of a job well done when an investigator makes the decision to be baptized! Our work is not finished at baptism though, because, then the hard part begins, the new member must now endure to the end and that first year as a baby mormon (hee hee) is rough! As the newness and excitement wears off, and there are so many changes that they must make in their life and so much new information that will be given to them. They must learn how to recognize the Holy Ghost and learn how to keep it as a constant companion in order to continue enduring. And Satan gives them no breaks he works just as hard, if not harder to get them to fail. Satan dosen't care about those who are already skrewing up their lives, he wants those who have made the decision to follow Christ. He knows that ther is happiness in that decision, and he wants nothing but our misery!

So our job as missionaries is to, with the help of the ward of course, make sure we are still visiting with them and providing an atmosphere where they can feel the spirit and encourage them to continue on the path! It's tough work sometimes! So, i would encourage yo'all to, when the missionaries bring some one to church... help fellowship these people, because new members need friends in the church, because the missionaries arent always going to be around. Suwanee ward is GREAT at this, we never have to worry about bringing our investigators to church because we KNOW they will be taken care of!  

Well family, ther isn't a whole lot more to say, other than i love y'all so much! and hope yall are haveing a great week

love you and miss you

Love

--
Sister Dannika Nielsen