Monday, November 18, 2013

I love this gospel and I LOVE the book of Mormon!

Nothing much to say here, just the same as last week!
We do have someone on date for the 7th of December! so that's pretty exciting! but other than that, it's pretty much finding finding finding.... we did meet some rather colorful people this week though.
We met a Russian Pentecostal family they weren't interested in our message, but they let us into their home to pray with them, the mother pulled several scarves out of a drawer and they all covered their heads to pray... we all bowed our heads and as soon as I went to start the prayer... all four of them began to pray out loud in Russian they were each saying their own prayer... so I just sat and listened... I wasn't going to compete and try to talk over them. when they finished we thanked them and left. it was so interesting to see how they worshiped their savior. They are good people and they worship their savior the best they know how. I could really feel that they were a very spiritual family and they were very devoted to their faith... these kinds of people  will accept the gospel one day... maybe not in this life because they are so devoted to their faith at the time, but that is the beauty of the gospel, they will have the opportunity to accept it in the next life! 
Well family, I hope that y'all are still reading along with me. Alma is a good book of scripture... a lot of it is war, but I think we can still learn so much about how God works and how Satan works... we can see the pride cycle and we can learn how to recognize it in our own lives... I love the chapters in alma where Moroni is preparing his armies for war... and because he is a righteous man, and he has the lord on his side to guide him, he stays one step ahead of the Lamanites. we too can stay one step ahead of the enemy as we rely on a loving heavenly father, he will show us what we can do to keep ourselves safe in this world.
I love this gospel and I LOVE the book of Mormon!
Well family I love y'all
have a good week
LOVE
Sister Dannika Nielsen
PS: so for the month of December you may send things directly to my apartment... this it to keep the work load off of the office staff... with over 200 missionaries there will be ALOT of mail coming in over the holiday season The address to my apartment is

1245 Britian Dr. Lawrenceville Ga.... im not sure of the zipcode, but ill get it to yall later!  

Monday, November 11, 2013

photos

DJ and her companion. one of the members of the ward that fed them for the evening last week, sent a new pic of her.....

His Grace is Sufficient"

Too often on my mission I have gotten caught up in comparing my life/self/abilities to other missionaries, and I just have to continue to tell myself that I am not that missionary... I don't do things as they do, or receive the blessings that they have, simply because I am not them... I am me... but I am also a daughter of God, and a daughter that God loves just as much, a daughter that God has given DIFFERENT talents and abilities to. that's where I get caught up, is in the "different" part because I see what I want to have in others I overlook my own talents... and by doing so it's like I am telling heavenly father that I am not thankful for the blessings and talents that I have been given... I received a blessing from President Wolfert last transfer because I was struggling with this very thing... I was comparing myself to my comp. who is wonderful, she is fun, energetic and humorous and spiritual yatta yatta yatta... and I was becoming so depressed again not feeling any desire to be here, so I went to President for help... and he just told me that I was way to hard on myself and that never at any time has he been disappointed in my work out here and that I was being ungrateful for the talents that I had been given... it really opened my eyes... I kind of expected president to tell me that everything was alright, but he was more forward with me than I expected and it kind of hurt at the time, but as the weeks passed on, I realized that he was speaking with the spirit and that the things he counseled with me about were the things that I needed to hear... I am grateful that he was a bit more stern with me instead of just trying to tell me something that would make me feel better in the moment, but he instead gave me things to thing about and ponder... and in the long run I was able to help myself out of the rut. I've always known, but I have come to better understand that there are going to be times in life that we get into ruts and we cant seem to get out, but it is possible for us to find a way out... we must rely on the lord and we must also do what we can to help ourselves. This life is full of surprises and turns a pit falls and rough patches, but they are all for our learning. because of them we learn to become more like our father in heaven... I LOVE the talk by Brad Wilcox, "his grace is sufficient" if you haven't read it I encourage you to, it has helped me not only understand grace, but also the meaning of this life here and the trials we face... a am constantly referring things back to this talk... it is amazing! wow im sorry I totally just went off, I didn't realize that I had so much to say... I hope that it all makes sense.
 Yesterday I received a rather wonderful tender mercy... as im sure you know... grandma and grandpa Nielsen were able to visit me! what a wonderful surprise this was! The Lord knew that I needed it. It helped me renew my desire to be better and work harder! I was so overjoyed to see them sitting in the parking lot of my apartment when I pulled up after church! again, some of the greatest joy we experience is with in the family! I was so happy to see them and get to visit with them for a short hour. what a wonderful tender mercy of the lord! God is great! I have always loved that our family is on good speaking terms and that we don't have any great rifts between us. I've seen families on my mission that want nothing to do with each other for whatever reason and it has always made me more grateful for my family relationships... sure our family is a bit screwy, but we are nothing like some of the families that I have seen and heard about. This week I have realized that family is where we experience TURE joy... I look over the times in my life and the most happy moments in my entire life have been with my family. I have truly come to appreciate what we have as a family and love those that may have annoyed me before. I have gained a better appreciation for mothers and fathers that make their marriages work, but can also admit that it isn't easy or perfect... I have begun to cultivate a desire to get married, and I think that's a great step considering that I wanted nothing to do with it before, and honestly marriage scares me still, but I realize that it is an essential thing for our happiness and growth in this life and for our salvation in the life to come. In preparation for a talk that I have to give in sacrament in 2 weeks, I have been reading over a talk that was given in conference by Carole M. Stephens "do we know what we have" it talks about the importance of the priesthood... I love that the priesthood is enjoyed by both men and women. I love knowing that heavenly father has given each of us a plan and steps that we must take in order to reach our full potential and also the power of the priesthood to be able to do it all... what a wonderfully simple plan the gospel of Jesus Christ is! I love it!
I am glad that you are seeing the little ways that heavenly father is blessing your life and all his tender mercies along the way. 
 I really don't have a whole ton of things to talk about this week... but as for the rest of everyone  the week was pretty good... just same old same old... day in day out. just doing missionary work. We did get to have a church tour with one of our investigators, that was pretty fun. we also go to do some service for a member, we helped them gather and spread pine straw. and then they let us play with their chickens and feed their cows! yay! and they paid us with half a dozen eggs from their chickens. I discovered that farm fresh eggs although they taste amazing, they don't make as pretty an omelet as the eggs from the stores... maybe im just doing it wrong... we also had a fun evening last night, before bed, we roasted marshmallows on the hot plate of our stove and made smores... yum! anyway mission life is pretty good! Hope all is well with you and I hope yall have a good week

Love Sister Nielsen!         

Monday, November 4, 2013

The Enabling/Strengthening Power Of The Atonement Eenables Us To Do Hard Things!

Hi again Family!
How is the book of Mormon reading going? I hope yall are still doing it! I loved this week reading in Alma 36 where Alma is telling his son helaman about his conversion. I loved especially, the part where Alma is saying that when he thought about standing before god that it filled his soul with inexpressible horror that he wished that he could just be destroyed both body and soul so that he didn't even have to exist to stand before god to be judged! I think that is how we feel sometimes when we have things we need to repent of and change in our lives, the thought of standing before our Heavenly Father is terrifying. but I love as we continue to read, he tells of his repentance and the forgiveness he received, and what joy filled his heart as he was able to be forgiven. Then at the end he says "... me thought I saw...God sitting upon his throne, surrounded by numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God: Yea, and my soul did long to be there." he had gone from wishing to be non existent to longing to be in the presence of God because he had been forgiven of his sins! what a great message that carries... the power of the atonement is real! Alma went from what was termed as the most vilest of sinners to someone who went on the become a great prophet and missionary! The atonement has the power to change lives I know this is true, to take a person who would otherwise shrink from the presence of the lord and transform them into a being who would be happy, comfortable and confident in the presence of their Heavenly Father! What great power! I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real! I have felt it and seen in my own life and I have seen it work in the lives of others... I know it is real with all my heart! We just have to accept it and be willing to change and we are promised eternal peace... how great is that! I love Alma he is such a great example of the atonement at work in a life!
I invite all of you to make a life time study of the atonement! we will never understand fully, it's power, but we will appreciate it more and more as we study and use it's redemptive power!
The atonement isn't just for the healing of sin though! there are great powers of the atonement... one in particular that I love is the enabling/strengthening power of the atonement! that enables us to do hard things!

I got this from one of my companions and I just love it!  
The six powers of the Atonement
C-cleansing power
H-healing power
R-resurrecting power
I-understand power (Christ knows how we feel) 
S-strengthening power
T-transforming power  
I could make a life long study of these powers!    

ok now onto the funny part of this week, it was another interesting week! we met a very interesting lady we call her Wendy! So we knock on her door and we introduce ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ and she says "oh, I am too!! What church do you belong to?" so we told her and then she says "oh... the Mormons...?" yes ma'am the "Mormons" then she begins to go off about how we don't believe in Christ and how we believe in witchcraft and dark powers... yatta yatta yatta... I stopped her and I said actually ma'am you have been misinformed, our faith has absolutely NOTHING to do with such things... where did you get your information... "from the internet" so I asked her if she would mind visiting our website to see what we really believe and she looked very skeptically at the Mormon.org card that I held out and said "actually I would mind...no thank you!" she then went on to tell us about a woman who had committed a murder recently and she was Mormon and how could a person that claimed to believe in Jesus Christ do such a thing unless evil spirits were telling her to do it... I just laughed at her and said "Ma'am, there are people of ALL different faiths who do horrible things, not just Mormons... they for whatever reason have chosen not to follow Christ. She didn't really say much after that, but then she told us that there was something weird going on in our religion and that we needed to pray about it so we could make a better choice. then she asked if we as Mormons celebrated Halloween and I told her that we did participate in the festivities for the fun of it! then she began to go off on how Halloween is the devils holiday and that it was "satan's way to train lil Jonny to be a devil worshipper" I just laughed and told her to have a good day! and we left... we got a really great laugh out of it though! she was a funny lady!! We meet the most interesting people out tracting! it's fun when we get crazy stories from it! ha ha!
Last night I received a prompting to go and visit a referral that we had try contacting and he stood us up.. but I had the thought to got check on him again... so we went and stopped by his house and he and his wife were home and he invited us in and asked us to tell them about the book of Mormon... so we did an impromptu lesson on the restoration of the gospel! and at the end the guy said "now I haven't been baptized, but if I got baptized I would want my whole family to be baptized." so we explained to him that the lessons that we teach would prepare him for baptism! and he said he would like that and so we will be seeing him again on Thursday!! WOW! that was so awesome! Whitewashing an area is hard, but the lord blesses us as we are obedient to him and his commandments... as we follow promptings and do as we are asked the lord has blessings just waiting for us! I LOVE my mission!
Well family, I hope that yall are having a blessed week! I love yall so much and I will talk to yall soon!

LOVE,
Sister Dannika Nielsen