June 7, 2010

Dearest Family,

Wow, what an incredible week it has been. 3 Investigators came to church :) I really feel like things are just getting put into place and Elder Pearson and I get to watch as these Miracles unfold! Missionary work is incredible. This week was like a missionaries dream week :) (most of it at least haha) We followed up on our commitment with Meg, And guess what she said... YES :) I was all smiles after, and I was so happy to be sharing the scriptures we did after which just confirmed that this will bring so much happiness and blessings into her life. She is going to be baptized on the 28th of August, which is kind of far away, but I think she is really commited to this and is so great! ahhh man... The gospel is so true!

Jan came to church and her boyfriend Jay became a new investigator and joined us for the teaches. He was at her house last time, and Preach my Gospel says invite everyone to join. It worked like a charm, and now he wants to continue learning and discussing with us. Preach my Gospel was written in heaven and assembled her on earth, Just ask Ryan and Kyle! So anyways that was great.

We were also able to go to Zone Conference which was a great place to learn how to improve. They focused a lot on planning and on how to align our will with God's will. Prayer is that way, just read in the Bible dictionary... it is intense! Wow, we are so blessed to have so much information at our fingertips. We have all these tools and all these oppurtunities if we will but use them. I was reading the liahona from last general Conference. I re-read The talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf about God's Love, he really does explain how wonderful and all encompassing God's love is. We ended up teaching that at a dinner appointment with the Alis family and the Lemto family yesterday. We had a really good discussion about being realistic with ourselves and seeing ourselves how God sees us. I really took this to heart as I had been thinking about some things. I think I have been a little too hard on myself sometimes, like when I didn't understand a few words a finnish person would say I would get almost mad at myself for not understand, and that isn't good. Or I always just have this expectation of being 100% perfect and not ever messing up. I guess something that President and I talked about in my last interview really just hit home as all these little things fell into place, Be realistic. God is a God of love and he helps us, he knows we will make mistakes and that is why we have the Savior and His atonement. I think that too often like President Uchtdorf says we allows little things that work for other people turn into expectations and our requirements. We need to find out what God has in store for us individually and really just make those things shine! Don't let false expectations bring you down, but be careful that you don't give your self too much slack and become lazy and disobedient to God's eternal laws, because obedience is the law upon which all blessing are predicated (D&C 130). Anyways, those were just some thoughts that hit me yesterday and I hope that you understand, I also hope I am not casting my pearls before swines... (Fromage you are the editor... Keep my pearls of knowledge safe ;) ) lol wow fromage and family... I'm a nerd... Nörtti

Also, We gave a blessing to one of the ward members who was pretty ill... Suomeksi (in finnish) I was pretty scared... It turned out well... Perfect finnish-NO... Good spirit-YES :) The Priesthood is such a blessing wow. (that was the lesson in Pyhä Koulu yesterday)

So that was pretty much all the things that happend here in Jyväskylä this last week, but guess what, instead of being deprived of time this week like I usually am I still have a few minutes... So now read your emails and I will share other random thoughts that pop into my head.

Wow, Sounds like you guys have had a few little miracles happen. Ipod, thats great. Isn't it wonderful to know who is in charge... even in little things. I'm trying to think of some funny tracting stories from this week... but everyone was fully clothed. We have be doing a bit of service for a member, working on their garden, that was pretty fun. Well I really can't think of anything else cool from this week. It was a really great week and I really Loved it! Little girls enjoy your summer :) whitney is almost a big bad senior.. wow. sarah is going to be in highschool... wierded out. I'll keep Ted in my prayers.

I love you family, thanks for your support and prayers.

Love

Vanhin Thomas Neal Nielsen