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

The Lord is merciful....

AHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Wow this week has been amazing!

   Ill start by telling you how much i love you all and telling you that i know that this gospel is true and that testimony is only strengthened EVERYDAY as i get to watch the Lord perform miracles in the lives of people that i have come to love out here!

So we are teaching this really elect family that we found while we were contacting... we have taught them the first 2 lessons and they are loving it, and we have become pretty close to them. The wife has all these awesome questions and she is so inquisitive and just cant learn enough. She says that everything that we teach her makes sense and the husband is loving it and loves all that we teach as well. his dad was a minister for a church and he said that his dad had preached a lot of the same things, but he welcomes the differences. they are so awesome!

   Then we are teaching a single mother of 3 and she is great! our first lesson with her we talked about the holy ghost and she loved it! we go back tomorrow and teach the restoration we are so excited to teach her because she is just so sweet and she recognizes that she is searching for truth... she is visiting with the Jehovah's Witnesses too... yikes... but we don't let that get to us because we know that what we have is TRUE and that with her sincerity, she WILL find the truth of our teachings.

ok... so now for the crowing event of the week.... are you ready! :)

   So last sunday the 20th, we met with Sam our 19 year old investigator, and before this we had prayed and prayed to know of a date that woe should have in mind for her to be baptized, and we both felt impressed to invited her to be baptized on Feb 2nd... So last week we had a lesson with her and it was very powerful, the spirit was undeniable. we are counseld to extend invitations when the spirit is the strongest... so.... at that point, i took a deep breath and prayed and asked to be stopped if it was not right, then i went for it, i invited her to be baptized on the 2nd of feb. and my comp backed me up and it cam together beautifully... and Sam freaked out a little bit, but said that she wouldn't agree to the date, but she would at least think about it.... after the lesson i was a bit discouraged because i didn't know if it was right to have asked her... but my comp said that she had recieved confirmation that it was, as soon as the date crossed my lips... so now it was up to me to try to receive my own confirmation about this. So of course, i wouldn't be me if i hadn't had every possible doubt and discouragement cross my mind, so i spent the rest of the week thinking and praying and doubting and fretting about what i had invited.... finally i had just asked heavenly father to give me peace of mind about the lesson... then, Sunday came, (last night) and we had another lesson with Sam and not only did my heavenly father put my mind at ease, but he let me watch as he worked a miracle right before my eyes....

   We opened the lesson with a prayer, and then asked Sam about her week and what she had thought about in regards to the invitation that we left her.... and she was like oh... you mean you want to know if i want to get baptized.... and we said, yes... and then she said... "YES, i want to be baptized on the 2nd of february!" If i had been standing, i would have fell over, i was hoping that she would suprise us like that, but i had not gotten my hopes up because i didn't want them to come crashing down.... so when she said yes, i started to cry and i was completely speechless! it took me a good 5 minutes to come up with things to say, because i was completely blown away! I had prayed for a simple conformation such as peace of mind, and Heavenly Father went above and beyond that and gave me a great miracle! He always blesses me above that which i ask for. We as humans ask for what we think seems a huge miracle and then a loving Father goes way beyond our wildest dreams and gives us more than we ever expect!

   I am humbled to be so blessed by heavenly father. I am loving the work, there is discouragement, yes, but there are always tender mercies mixed in with those discouragements. I know that if we could see the eternal perspective that Heavenly Father sees... we would shrink at it's complexities and its vastness....this gospel is truly amazing, and i LOVE being a missionary

   Family, i love you SO much and i hope all is well with Y'all. Thank you for all your love and support and for providing me with this experience that will shape the rest of my life! I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior and i lean and rely on them everyday, every hour of every day! They will NEVER fail me and i know this because it is in them that i trust!

   Thank you for sending pics of Kyndras wedding it was so good to see them! i hop you are all well and healthy!

Love you so much

Love Sister Nielsen.

First Transfer

Dannika Sent her very first trainer home last week. WE knew that the week would be hard for her. she has had a hard time lately. But We know the lord is mindful of her and her situation...he keeps proving it with his tender mercies....Dannika still is holding on and going forward. She is such an example to us all....

Hi Family,

   Well i didn't die last week at transfer time, but it was really hard. I've made it almost one week... but honestly i had nothing to do with it. i know my Heavenly Father has carried me through all of it, and He will continue to carry me until i can feel confident enough to walk on my own beside him. And then just about that time, ill have another struggle I'm sure. We are constantly relying on the Lord, that is something i am learning to do very well. I realize that i can not do this work alone... this is the Lords work and we have to let him lead it. 

   So my new comp's name is Sister Worthington she is from colorado springs. she is very sweet, we get along well and we teach very well together. She has been out for about 9 months. I like her. 

   I have seen some pretty awesome things this week. I finally got a hold of the Australian lady that i contacted in the park a few months back... we are going over to see her on wednesday. so that is pretty exciting! The Lavoie family is still doing AWESOME. I love them so much. we went to their house on thursday and taught the restoration again with their home teachers, it was pretty powerful. James shared his testimony about the spirit. It is times like that and lessons like that, where i am so happy to be here. i get to watch people come closer to their Heavenly Father, i get to watch as they change their lives and become happier than they were before, i get to watch as their testimony of  their savior grows and they become closer to him... this is the most joyful feeling i have ever felt thus far in my life! 

   Saturday was a pretty awesome day too... about 2 1/2 months S. berrett and i contacted into this man who let is into his home and we taught a 1st (lesson) and he told us that we could come back in like three months... well saturday we were walking down his street and he happened to come out of his house right as we were walking by he recognized us and... called out to us and said that he didn't have time today, but he had a sermon prepared for us and he wanted us to come over. So we will probably get over there next saturday and listen to his sermon... we have our testimonies prepared in case he tries to bash.... but im not to worried about that because he wasn't a very confrontational guy when we were there the first time.

   We prayed with a Baptist Minister in her driveway. That was pretty cool. she was on her way to see someone in the hospital and we asked if we could pray for this person and she accepted it enthusiastically. so right there in her driveway we offered a prayer for this woman... 

    We have an appointment to teach a lady on wednesday... i feel pretty good about her. on saturday we asked if we could come into her home and say a prayer and leave a blessing on her home. she let us in and we offered the blessing and when we finished she described how she was feeling and we testified to her that it was the holy spirit of god and that we had a unique message that we wanted to share with her, and give her that opportunity to have that feeling with her all the time. She invited us back!!! 

WOW! i can't believe that Taran will be leaving soon! that is so exciting That is so awesome! i have a letter going out to  them today actually! !... as you will see my letter, i am doing a bit better. it is hard to send a missionary home...(sister barrett)  because i will admit i often wished i was in her place... but everyone tells me to give it 6-9 months and it will become easier... im hoping it is only six and not nine ha ha. but i think there are good things in store for this transfer!

I hope all is going well there and i hope that everyone is in good health.

I love you all 

love Sister Dannika Nielsen. 

It's A Small World

So, Chic-Fil-A opens in twin fall idaho next thrusday 1/10/13. Dannika's grandma is a news paper editor of a small newspaper in Burley, idaho. So the representative of Chic-Fil-A contacted the news paper to see if they could bring some samples of the menu and get them to do a write up in the paper about the opening of their new store... She tells dannika's grandma she is from Georgia, Atlanta.to which Renee says " I have a granddaughter serving a mission in gerogia." to which the lady quickly replies, "I live in Swuanee, Georgia, my husband is the ward mission leader. we will look her up and find her." Come to find out, dannika will be eating at their house on the 20th of this month. So this lady says she will make room in her suitcase for anything that my mom wants to send to dannika.

What an incredibly small world it is. The lord seems to know us all, and carefully orchistrates this grand thing called life

Happy New Year -12/31/12

Hey Y'all!!

I can't believe that it is already the new year!

   So there will prbably be some tough situations coming up with in the next few months... I am killing off my mother (trainer) she will be ending her mission on the 9th of January so im kinda freaking out about that, she has taught me well though so im sure ill be fine, but if i could request some extra prayers that would be great!

   It was so awesome to see you all on christmas, i was so glad that it worked out for us to all skype! I was very happy to see you all doing well! That started off my week on the right foot! i was worried that i would be distracted and depressed, but i only felt a little twinge of anxiety the next morning, and was able to push it aside and go to work!

   This week was a fantastic one! I was able to witness my own growth and abilities as i went on (my now third) exchange. On Wednesday after District meeting I went with Sister Young to Hamilton Mill for exchange! I learned so much on this exchange. Mostly I grew even more in my confidence, but the biggest thing that i took from it was the importance of being lovingly bold! Sister Berrett always pushes that trait and she is so very good at being that way, and I wondered if i even had it in me to be bold, but with this exchange, i found my bolder side (it is still under construction, but it is there)... I found myself stepping up and being bold in order to get return appointments, addressing concerns and taking control of the discussions when investigators would take the conversation elsewhere. I was very excited to find that i could do this and because it was done with love and with my purpose as a missionary in mind, it was far less scary than i thought it would be.
   With each new experience i become more and more confident that i can do this work and actually be a desent missionary... some days are still better than others, but i get along and it helps to be in the company of worthy priesthood holders. I had some trouble lastnight with worries about Tenna, i know that she is healthy and that she is making improvements, and i know that the Lords servents are promised that their families will be taken care of, but for some reason i was really worried about her, so i was able to get a blessing of comfort from our zone leaders and it helped significantly! I am so greatful that i get to serve with and around these awesome young men!

    New improvements in the work... we are still working with Sam (the highschooler) she isn't keeping all of the committments that we give her, but she does come to church so we still feel that we are able to work with her. The Lavoie family, as you know were baptized and we met with them last week for their first lesson as members of the church! it was awesome to feel the difference in their home after they had recieved the gift of the holy ghost. James (He is the one who called) is so awesome, i admire him so much! It was really neat, as we taught he stopped us and said " i know this is kind of off topic, but i talkied to Y'alls parents and Sister Nielsen, i talked to your mom and ive been thinking about this ever since she told me that you were bummed that you wouldn't be able to go with us WHEN WE GO TO THE TEMPLE." and then with tears in his eyes he got a little choked up, he said "I just want to let you know that you will be in our hearts when we go." I started to cry. it was so tender, i love this family, i can't even begin to tell you the love that i feel for them. I just wanted to give him the biggest hug... but couldn't being a sister and all... it is times like that, when i really dislike that rule... anyway I loved the fact that he was thinking about it since he talked with mom! that he and his wife have the temple on their minds, because this is the ultimate goal in this life and we as missionaries just get them started by providing the way for baptism! Then we have another investigator Karlin He is the housemate of one of our recent converts, sistere berrett has tried to get him to accept a Book of Mormon and he has refused everytime. One night we went over to visit our RC (recent convert) but she wasn't there, i think i may have told you this story, but we got to talking to karlin instead and he mentioned that he wanted to start a new chapter in his life and i told him that he could with the book of mormon and asked him if he would accept it and he did... any way, he has been reading it, and we are hoping to be able to begin teaching him soon! then there is Clara who is excited about the book of mormon, but has been sick, so we haven't been able to start teaching her, but i know she will be baptized soon!

   The work is going great... I am able to be myself around the other missionaries, my personality has begun to come out and i can actually joke and not feel to increadibley stupid!

   Well family i hope y'all have a good week.

Discover the tender mercies of the lord!

love Sister Nielsen (Dannika)