Monday, August 19, 2013

I Am Having the Time of My Life Serving my Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ!

Good morning Family! 
Hope yall are had a great week last week! i Sure did! I have also never been more tired. last week was a good one, we worked our little missionary tails off and we saw some great miracles because of it! It felt so good! I do truly know why missionaries are told to work work work and loose ourselves in it, because it is when we do that, that we truly see miracles! 
I hope yall are still reading along with me! ive really enjoyed it! This morning i read in Jacob 1. so we are out of nephi. look at the progress we are making! isn't this fun! 
Something i just loved that i read this week, was in 2nephi 31. Nephi has just finished telling us what the gosple of Jesus Chirst is... Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End... and in :21 he says "and now, Behold, My beloved bretheren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God..." Nephi tells us right there in plain text, easy to understand... THIS IS THE WAY... if a man/woman wants to get closer to God and recieve a place in his kingdom... then it is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we can do that... I just marvled at how blessed we are to have such a simple and plain doctrine.... here it is, no hidden messages, no fine print, this is it.! Heavenly Father isn't trying to make us guess what he wants from us and what we need to do to return to live with him, he just gives it to us... why? because he loves us... he wants us to have the greatest chances for success in this life. Now once we know what Father requires of us... we must apply it... which is the hard part, we stumble and fall and have to get back up again, but Father has so lovingly provided The Savior so it is possible for us to continue enduring... How great is the Fathers plan! I just love the Book of Mormon, it just lays things out so plainly... because it is pure and nothing has been added changed or taken from it... how blessed are we! I hope yall will continue reading with me and sharing your insights on the scriptures! 

So some highlights from my week: we went on 2 more exchanges this week with some sisters in our zones... we are slowly gaining the trust of our sisters and we are able to help them work through some of their problems. I am always amazed at how much we can do with love... love can accomplish great things... the sisters have a greater desire to work hard and love each other because we show love to them... and to each other as a companionship... ive learned the value and importance of service, for those around us, but also and sometimes more importantly our companions... as we love and serve our companions we work together in better unity and the work goes much more smoothly... and it's just plain fun! Sister Hamilton and i are having so much fun together... she is so incredible, i learn so much from her! But being able to serve these sisters ive learned so much for myself... i love how that happens! 
   
I don't know if this is a highlight, cuz it absoutely broke my heart, but we taught one of our newest investigators that was a referral from the stake president. she is a widow of 6 years and when we went to teach her, she just flat out told us that she didn't believe what we did and that she didn't believe that there was a god because if there was, he wouldn't have taken her husband and she believes that the only way that she can ever be happy is if she has her husband back... she said if god can do anything.. then he can bring my husband back.... we could do nothing but bare sincere testimony that we knew that the gospel was true and that we knew that peace and joy could be found in the knowledge that she can see her husband again... she asked us how we knew that and we told her that we too have gone through things in our lives that have required us to put to the test our knowledge of a loving God and our Savior Jesus Christ... we haven't lost a spouse, but we have lost people close to us, or delt with problems much bigger than us and we have had to rely on the Savior and it is this that has brought peace... this lesson was very uncomfortable... there was alot of long and at times awkward pauses as my companion and i had to think about our responces to her questions... and the whole time i am thnking... "we are promised that we won't be confounded before men if we are doing the right things and being obedient... why is this happening!!" But now as i think back on the whole situation, we were not confounded, the spirit was there the entire time and we were able to share things with her that i truly believe she needed to hear... and by the end she was becoming less and less argumentitive and angry and she was calm.... she is still very bitter and hurt my what happened... and i can't say that i completely blame her... but we want to give her a way to be rid of all that anger and hurt and embrace the life of joy that the savior wants to give her. She agreed to have us back... she said "you won't change my mind but you can come back if you want"... i think that is a cry for help... she is lonely and wants someone to talk to... so she isn't turning us away... we can work with that... we will just serve her and show her love.

We began teaching this really neat young woman, she is the bast friend of a member in the ward... she is so incredibley mature... she askes the greatest questions and she said that she will have no problem being baptized once she finds out that it's true for herself.... and once she does she said that she whats to be baptized as soon as possible! How wonderful is that...! i am really excited to work with her! 
Yesterday, we were sitting in Gospel Principles and about half way through, a brother from the ward walks in with a young man and sists down... we imedietly identified him as a visitor since neither of us had recognized him. after the lesson, the brother introduces the young man and the class members on their way out all wecome him. Sister Hamilton and i introduced ourselves as the missionaries and he said he has always wanted to be a missionary... we talked with him a bit and introduced the Book of Mormon to him and we found out that he was actually on his way to a friends house when he saw the church and he decided to walk in and see what it was all about... he wants to learn more and he gave us his info and took a book of mormon and then the brother he walked in with invited him to stay for priesthood so he did.. and then after that, one of the members offered him a rid home... it was amazing to see the ward just step up and make this young man feel so welcome! We are going to begin teaching him this week!! WOW! ive never seen anything like thins happen.. ive only heard stories... but it ALWAYS seems that those that god prepares, find us... i was just so thankful that heavenly father let us see such a great miracle!  
well family, i love yall so much and i want you all to know how much i love this gospel! It has changed me! I LOVE my Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ! and i am having the time of my live serving them both!
i love you all

LOVE  
Sister Dannika Nielsen

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