April 12, 2010

Dearest family,

Congratulations Kyle! haha I can't say that I am surprised ;) The way mom talked it sounded like you were already engaged hehe. Sounds like Kyle did a good job proposing and all, Cute little boy! What a Champion! I'm so excited for you two, that is awesome! Good work Kyle!
Sarah just had her birthday yesterday! Fun, Sounds like it was fun! Unfortunately I sent my package a little late so it will be a little late getting to you sarah, sorry about that :/ The swingset looks like a blast! Fun Fun Fun

I hope all goes well with Grandma and Her Surgery, She is such a sweetie and such an example of faith! How are they doing? I talked to Elder Cole Gorringe just about a week and a half ago. haha we think it is pretty cool that our grandparents know each other :)

Dad, Tearing it up at Nucor! :) that is so fun to hear the little miracles and all the little tender mercies that are happening to you. I know it is because you are a diligent and Faithful man, The Lord Provides! You are such and example of diligence and trusting in the Lord! You are the Man!

As for the Rest of the family, I love you all as well, and it is fun to hear the little excerpts moms throws in about you! I hope all is going well! lol I'm trying to get letters out to you haha but p-days go by really fast haha so anyways hopefully soon... But don't expect anything too soon ;) lol love ya!

I Got those packages from Mom and From Mitzi! Thank you so much! hahah Mitzi knew all the stuff that finland didn't have haha it was a glorious sight to see when I opened that Package! lol Thanks :D Mom, Thank you for that package and Cute little letter and everything.I'll try and get my SD card back to you soonish, I have My 6 month Kieli Koulu (language School) in helsinki and I will be seeing my MTC group there and I'm sure we will get some good pictures... Then I will send it! Sister K was Overjoyed to have that Picture book, and I thank you for the DVDs we used them in one of our teaches the other day! Good stuff, Thanks! She wants to send you a thank you card, so i'm sure that will be showing up in the next little while. She is an incredible lady, She was less active. She has been attending church quite regularly. She is a great lady, she is even going to a teach with us next sunday! U K is her name, I think it would be great if you could pray for her to have strength to endure. I think it has been really hard for her in her life because she is the only member in her family and her husband and all her children don't want anything to do with the Church, she has been trying to help them for years. I think that might be part of the reason she went less active was because it got too difficult and lonely. Anyways She is great.

Wow... Miracles this week! last monday evening we had a first teach with this man named I, One of the most faithful, knoweldgable men I know. He is a very prepared young man, It is amazing to see the results of the Lord preparing people. He is from Nigeria and he is in finland studying. He has one degree in theology and is study something else right now. He knows the bible so well, it is awesome. We shared for our first teach this teach that President Brown invented (well pretty much PMG Invented but president brown showed us) anyways after teaching the message of the restoration, In it it says teach baptism and extend a baptismal commitment if it feels right. Well, we did, and this is what he said " Yes, That was actually a question I was thinking about, How does one become a full member of your church" He is the man! We weren't able to set a date because right now he is working on his thesis for his schooling, but he is going to go talk to his councelor and figure out when he will have all that done so he can start meeting with us 3 times a week and he said by the next time we meet we should be able to set a date. He really accepted the message of the restoration, He is going to start studying the Book of Mormon. He is basically and Angel in my eyes :) An incredible, incredible man.

This past week has been great. B A gave a talk in sacrament that was just like wow! I think a few emails back I talked about B, He is an american in our ward and he is studying here in finland! He is a great guy! He talked about The apostle thomas and how he followed the savior and saw all his miracles, but when he heard that The Savior had been ressurected he couldn't believe. It was because he choose to doubt. B talked about how we need to all choose faith and not fear and doubt. I guess I can't really explain everything he talked about, But it was really good. He talked about how God gives us these little trials of our faith and these little difficulties in our life so that we can learn and grow so that we will be able to face bigger and bigger difficulties, until we eventually are perfect :) It was soo good!

That was my week, and I hope and Pray that we can all choose to have a little more faith in Christ and Endure, But enjoy life! Life is so great, I love it!

Love,

Elder Thomas Neal Nielsen

April 5, 2010

Dear Family,

Wow, how about that general conference! That pretty much answered every question there is about being a parent and how to be a good one. I love our leaders of the church, they teach with such love and such power! I really enjoyed it how almost all of them were focused on families and how families can be strengthened no matter what kind of situation they are in at the moment. Wow.

Something that President talked about in conference just the other day (last thursday) was how his mom Used to always whisper to the babies (his little brothers and sisters) whenever they were in sacrament. President Brown said "I thought my mom was a few bricks shy of a load, until I realized what she was saying to the baby" His mom would simply testify to the little baby about the things the speaker was talking about. Things like tithing or the sacrament so on and so forth. President said "do you think that baby understood what my mother was saying? absolutely not. But you can bet that that tender little spirit who just left our heavenly father's presence felt every ounce of the holy ghost testifying of a loving mother on earth's testifmony of the gospel" you can never start to young. I then thought of kimberlie and nate and little boston. Little boston cannot really speak yet. But I know with all my heart that that tender little boy who just came from our father in heaven's presence can feel the power and become rooted in the gospel because of a loving mother and a loving father's testimony. David A. Bednar really hit the nail on the head, I mean wow. He shared some things in preisthood session I hope I will be able to apply when I have the oppurtunity to become a father :) Good stuff! I loved Conference soo much I can't even begin to decribe!

Saturday evening in priesthood session, President Uchtdorf gave such an incredible talk on patience, He really helped me understand and open my eyes to a lot of ways I can improve and become a lot more patient. First things First... mom you will probably know the answer to this question. What kind of Child was I? was I the kind of child that would wait 15 minutes to double my marshmellow receiving? or would I snarf it in 3 seconds flat? Patience is soo important! wow I challenge all of you to read that talk when it comes out. President monson at the end said that that preisthood session was one of the greatest he had ever attended. There was a powerful powerful spirit there. love it!

I didn't get to watch sunday afternoon, but I will read it when the ensign comes out. sounds like it was good!

I really enjoyed all the talks, unfortunately I don't have time to go through all of them... but those were a few of my favorites.

Mom, it sounds like that luncheon was a good one! haha I laughed a lot when I pictured you looking through Elder Campbells wallet looking to find out whose it was... and then his mom walking up... haha that would be kinda funny to explain! lol good thing you are so funny mom :) lol that is something I would like to watch... just kinda be a spectactor and laugh alot! good times! I'm glad you liked elder quinns mom, Elder Quinn is the man. I really really look up to him.

Sarah! Happy Birthday on sunday! lol i'm going to try and get a package off to you but it will be late :( sorry. E J wrote you a letter and I will send that in the package. Wow... Sarah I can't believe you are turning 10 years old already.you are soo old ;) hehe

As for praying for our investigators, it would be great if you could pray for S S to have an understanding of tithing. He won't be baptized because he doesn't think tithing is necessary. He does believe in the book of mormon and reads it pretty regularly. This gospel could help him soo much.
Another one of our investigators M T is so close. She knows what she needs to do, she has a testimony and comes to church every sunday. She is one the verge of going to baptism but is a little tentative about it. Pray for her to have courage. That would help her so much. I'll ponder a few more of our investigators and ways you could help! This was a good idea, thank you for offering!

Well, Conference was amazing, the gospel is true, repentance is real, and The savior died for us that we might attain that repentance and ultimately become perfect and be permitted to live with our eternal Father in heaven in eternal joy and bliss with our families! It is so true! I love it :)


Love,
Vanhin Thomas Neal Nielsen

March 29, 2010

Dearest Family,

Haha sounds like a pretty same old same old week for you guys. That's pretty much what it was here. I love it though. I cannot even begin to describe all the little things I have learned here and there. I love missionary work. The ward here is so incredible. haha I can't tell you how much members help the work go forward. It is incredible. yesterday we got a referral from tampere and I guess a member in their ward pretty much just goes contacting by himself. haha That is intense :) lol I love it!

Holy cow fromage I don't know if I told you how much that Midget Jehovah's witness story made me laugh, that was a good one (in last weeks email, sorry I'm kinda slow) Good to hear that Jeff and Dusty are doing good! Those are a couple of incredible men! Dusty... I'm always telling my companions some of the funny stories we had plumbing :)

DAD! holy cow you start your new job in just a few hours! Good luck! I'll bet you are going to love working for nucor. a Nice Coushy (Don't know how to spell that work... cushy?) job where you sit in a Chair and Crunch numbers :) I'm excited for you and I know you will own it :) haha I would be very interested to hear what you do for you your job? what does your job entail? what kinda of tasks are you in charge of? what are your work hours? all that kinda cool stuff to know!

Dad, Guess what else, We were contacting the other day and I ran into a german and I counted to 10 in german to her after we got her number and stuff haha pretty cool and it made me think of my little dad in Germany.... haha I love picturing You, Ryan, And Kyle doing missionary work, Doing the same sort of things I do everyday. haha I would have loved to be companions with one of you :) haha Also We were tracting and ran into a girl that is from france, She lived in a little city... like 20 kilometers north of paris... I don't remember the city but I told her that you were a missionary in France and stuff. She thought that was cool.. but unfortunatelly wasn't interested in the gospel... I haven't ran into any koreans... Although we were going to a dinner appointment one day (like 2 months ago) and I heard two people speaking some sort of asian language and I said "ka gi ma lan go" (or however it is spelled, I said don't go is the translation I know of, it is off one of the korean cds ryan has) barely loud enough for them to hear... Then they looked at me.... They might have been korean lol that is about all the encounters I have had with people from your countries :) (way random side note..)

Sounds like your talk was incredible fromage! Thank you for your little incites :)

Ok, i'll give you a quick run down of all the missionaries I personally know from that list you gave me. I know them all but only really have been on splits and stuff with a few of them. Elder Young is the man. he is one of my Zone leaders right now. We have been on splits a couple times and he is a funny funny man, but still probably one of the most incredible teachers I know... he really has helped me understand how to teach people with your personality... somethings I am still working on :)

Elder Horne... I love him! (MTC Companion) he is actually in Pori right now (my greenie city) he is a good kid! I hope his mom goes to that luncheon because I really really love Elder Horne... My hero haha He is from Arizona...

Elder Henderson is a hard worker! I don't really know him that well unfortunately, I think I would like to serve with him :)

Elder Quinn... I can't tell you how much of my hero he is... Him Elder Horne and Elder Young are my heros in life!

Elder Gorringe's grandparents know grandma and Grandpa Williams! Pretty cool! He is a good kid.

Sorry i'm out of time to talk about all the other missionaries... but there is a little bit about them.

Something that I have learned this last week was how incredible God's love is and how when we rely on him we are able to endure our trials because his love can completely encircle us and lift us up. Christ is one manifestation of that love because with Christ we are able to in the end be as happy as we can be... I can't even imagine what 100% would be like...But I have had quite a few little tastes of it :D

Thank you all for your examples and the Love I feel. I love you all so much and hope next week is a good one for you :)

Love

Vanhin Thomas Neal Nielsen

P.S Puhumme Suomea means we speak finnish

P.P.S Sarah, E J gave me a letter to send to you! I'll send it as soon as I can :) ( I think it should get to you before your birthday even!)

I CAN'T WAIT FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE :) :) :) :) :)

I think I get to watch all but sunday afternoon session