July 19, 2010

Dearest Family,

Wow, So this week was really good! again :) We had a few things happen this week. We had splits with our Zone leaders and we had Zone conference get cancelled :( The Splits went really well and we were able to see a lot of incredible little miracles! I was with Elder Falk who was adopted from russia when he was 12years old. I Talked about how natalie always used to say lightning when a storm would come. We could not for the life of us remember how to say that in russian... Natalie do you remember? Mom? anyways that would be nice to know. Elder Falk really is an incredible missionary, we had a teach and I was just in awe at how incredible it went... He is on my new top 5 missionary hero list!

Zone conference was cancelled, I wanted to cry because I love zone conference. Pretty much I just love any time that I am able to learn from President Brown! It is great... He is the man. I guess they cancelled it because there is going to be a new program for instructing missionaries. I am pretty stoked about that. I'll give you guys the rundown once I find out :) haha

So anyways, This week went really well. Meg is doing so great! She took a part of the lesson in our investigator class yesterday and did really well and testified so powerfully about increasing faith and learning about Christ. She is so great, I really wish you guys could come live my life for a day and meet all the wonderful people in Jyväskylä. We had a teach with Jan yesterday as well, She is still doing great. Wow. We have had a few other great teaches... some not so great ones. Lol, this is kind of cool thing. Fred is one of our investigators (there are a lot of people that aren't finnish here in Jyväskylä) He is learning and progressing so well. His girlfriend who is a finn decided to start joining us for the lessons so we started from the very begining and they are learning together... It is great!

Sounds like a party getting all ready for the wedding! I'm not going to lie, I'm not envious of all the work you guys have to do for that! But it will be worth it for Kyle and Jessica! Awww... So They are getting married august 3rd but I still haven't heard in which temple they are getting married! I would be delighted to hear that.

So this upcoming week is going to be great, unfortunately we are going to be gone from Jyväskylä for a couple days for some meetings, but it should be a good learning experience. This saturday is Change call so I will know if I will be staying in the wonderful town of Jyväskylä for 6 more weeks making it a total of 6 transfers here... or leaving. I really am ok with whatever happens, because I know who is in charge and who knows more than I do. :) We had a dinner appointment yesterday and we shared a couple scriptures, one of which was D&C 101:16 I wish you could understand the finnish version because when they say "Be still and Know that I am God" in finnish it says "Olkaa levollisia, Ja tietäkää, että minä olen Jumala" Wow... it just feels so much stronger in finnish haha because of the old finnish plural command! it is so great! but that scripture really hit me. He is in charge of everything, we are here to be diligent and faithful to Him. Remember that!

I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week! Life is such a wonderful thing... I love it!

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Thomas Neal Nielsen

July 12, 2010

Dearest Family,

Wow, Sounds like an eventful week in utah! The weather has been actually really warm here in finland. up in the 30's Celcius... So Like 86 farenheit.. that is pretty warm for finland, especially because they don't have any air conditioners haha. I think it is quite nice! A member said that the weather man said that 36 degrees is on it's way! that would be a record in finland haha by a lot! lol the member said the old record was like 32 or something. So we will see :) Finland is so beautiful in the summertime! wow... I hopefully will be sending my memory card to you so you can see a little bit of Jyväskylä in the Summertime! ( and winter haha I haven't sent my memory card home for a while)

The ping pong tournament was intense! I placed 3rd haha only beating my companion Elder Pearson. Elder Lytle was 1st and Elder Newman was 2nd. Then we had a really good splits! Although a couple teaches fell threw :( There was even Funfetti Cake! YUM! lol

Elder Bryant is a great guy. He is serving with Elder Quinn (again, he trained him when he very first got in the country and now he is training him how to be an assitant to the president) He is the elder in that "Evolution of a missionary Chain" Just above Elder Quinn. He does live in Wyomning, Evanston (Spelling?) that is a little drive away.

Great that grandma is doing well and that everything great! I hope everything continues going great. It is fun to hear the beginning of your (moms) email that said "I should surprise you sometime and say somethign slike "Life was horrible this week.. I hated it" But that would be a lie" Lol, That is how I feel! I feel like my emails are all the same haha because I just say how everything is great... because it really is! Jyväskylä is an incredible place! Lol Elder Pearson and I got a bit of contacting in this week and were able to see quite a bit of success. I know we should be able to endure always no matter success or not.. but success helps quite a bit I am not going to lie :)

Fun to hear kyle's dream. haha I would have loved to have been companions with Kyle.. Doing companionship study. We were helping this family in the ward move last week and I was talking with him and he said he had a dream that he got another mission call to sweden again and he was trying to figure out how he would explain that to his wife. Lol sounds like both of you long to be on a mission again! I can see why :) Mission Work is the greatest!

This week really has been wonderful and I just keep loving being here in Jyväskylä!

Sorry this email is so short! haha But everything is great here in Jyväskylä!

Love you all,

Elder Thomas Neal Nielsen

P.S. wow... I kinda over-used the Exclaimation mark! ;)

July 5, 2010

Dearest Family,

Thanks for the wonderful birthday packages and the letters! I had quite the exciting morning opening them up and I was sooo excited about the general conference CDs thank you all so much! Fromage, That face stuff was exactly the stuff! wow... I was scared that walmart quit producing it :) Thanks for your diligence in searching out and finding all those Treasures for me. Thank you all for your letters and words of encouragment, It is has been a great birthday so far. Lol our schedule is all over the place, Personal study here, Companionship study there etc. Today we are pretty lucky, because we had Splits planned for tommorow with our district leader, then he found out it was my birthday and got permission to come here for a little more than the 24 hour normal thing. So We will be spending a little bit of p-day together! I think we are going to have a ping pong tournament :) I might be a little rusty because I haven't played since Last beating Mom (or am I remembering that wrong... I actually think I got owned 7-21) Anyway that should be fun. Then another cool surprise was a less active we stopped by last week wants to start meeting, so we will be teaching him tonight. Haha guess what else? A Member (Mrs.K) Baked us a cake and after sacrament couldn't wait to show us (it was fast sunday) so she took us to the kitchen and said "Happy Birthday America" lol it was a cake of the american flag with blueberries as the stars and strawberries and white frosting and the stripes. She is great! So I believe that will be doubling and my birthday cake today! lol I didn't get a picture until we had eaten half of it (after our fast) haha It was delicious. It is just crazy how little things like that happen, even not very important things like a birthday cake. I felt Loved :D

Wait, what happend to julia's foot? Glad to hear it is healing. Tell grandma and grandpa thanks for the thoughtful card. She shared a very powerful story about Ted that really was inspiring. I hope she is healing well from her surgery. Haha I love all the stories you all shared... Dad's story takes the cake though... That is just funny. Ladd is such a great guy!

So I guess I'll go through our last week. It was so incredible. Elder Caussé (from Paris) From the area presidency came to finland on a "Mission tour" He talked about a lot of increidble things when he was in our Zone. Elder Pearson and I shared a success story about meeting someone on the street. The next step of missionary work was pretty much what Elder Caussé focused on, Teaching the first lesson and focusing all our lessons on baptism. He took us up to the front and we all together went through the steps of how we are going to get Kit (The lady we met on the street) to understand our purpose and feel the holy ghost from the very get go. Really good, now I hope we can do that! Our teach with her is tommorow. Elder Caussé is a really great guy, I talked to him a little bit about Kyle's mission... I don't know if Kyle knew this but his mission split and the dutch speakers became the Brussels belgium mission and The french half became part of the Paris mission... I think! That was a really enlightening meeting.

We have had a few really really good teaches! I love Jyväskylä so much because the members are such great missionaries and the are always willing to help and that helps our investigators soo much! They are all doing great. Meg is doing wonderful! Jan has been praying about baptism and I know she is going to get her answer about Joesph smith because she has such a genuine desire! Wow. This last week we had a meeting with a potential investigator that went really well, He prayed :) he said he felt something! I love it!

We are also so lucky here in Jyväskylä because the ward loves missionaries so much that they always want to feed us and make us fat! haha We have a lot of dinner appointments... Almost too many haha. Yesterday we were with the Jensen Family for dinner and They love you sarah! haha Elli really liked the skittles and I gave them your address and I will hopefully get theirs to you soon. Elli is off to a horseback riding camp for the week, She is pretty excited. The Jensen family really are such great examples of faith in the Lord... Wow I love them.

Such a great week, and this next week is turning out to be even better as we have like 3 potential investigators that want to meet! Small and simple things, great things come to pass. I love this work with all my heart and I really am grateful I have such a wonderful famiyl that supports and encourages me. Your letters were amazing!

I love you all and Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Vanhin Thomas Nielsen

June 21, 2010

Dear Family,

First off, Happy late Father's day! Sorry dad, I forgot because I guess they don't celebrate father's day in finland at least not on the same day lol...

So, Last week was another great week. I went to the Temple in Helsinki For the 2nd time, It was incredible! The last time I went was my very first change here in finland, Crazy how much has happend since then. There is so much power inside the temple... wow. Just yesterday the ward put on this Temppeli Tänään (the temple today) and they had it so that investigators could come and people could invite friends because the temple is such a great thing. They explained a little and the temple presidency and all their wives came and spoke to us. It was great and Meg was there... She is doing so great!

We have been very blessed here in Jyväskylä this week, I guess I will tell you of all the little miracles! It is incredible the things that fall into place, He is the master of timing. A lot of things just keep falling into place, like this teach with one of the new investigators. His name is Vance and he was an investigator about 3 years ago. We finally got a hold of him as he was a referal from sweden. His phone number hadn't worked for the longest time and then finally it worked and we got a hold of him and we had an appointment last wednesday. Earlier that day Larry, who had just recently returned from the Moscow Russia mission (2 days before) ran into us on the street. He asked if there was anything he could do to help us, and we said sure, there is a teach with this former investigator today, and he said ok. We ended up giving Vance a very desrciptive tour of the church and the main focus was the sacrament. Larry did spectacular and I guess they had met eachother about 2 and half years ago in Turku by some little miracle. Vance asked as we were in the Chapel, "So can anyone come to these meetings, like for example can I?" and we said a very emphatic YES! Little miracles

We got 2 other investigators and they are both from africa and they don't speak english the daughter is fluent in finnish and the mom is not quite as good, but she speaks french and so did the member who was there (another small miracle) .They are a mom and her 18 year old daughter. When we taught the whole overview of the restoration they really liked that we believe that the Godhead is 3 seperate beings. They loved the Book of Mormon as well.

Jan and Meg are doing soo well. Meg went with the young single adults to sister muurmäki and brother muurmäki's cabin for the weekend and they had a lot of fun and Sister muurmäki said they had 3 non members there. Wow! Our young single adults are so great, we have a coordination meeting with them every week, but we had an opportunity to talk with them all sunday and to just inspire them to do missionary work, they are doing great work! The spirit was strong in that meeting.

Random cool things this week: So we were at a teach with Meg, Just before they were all going to go to the Möki (cabin) and these two strangers walk into the church and they said they are americans and they are jehovah's witnesses and they just have a few questions to ask us. In my head I wanted to cry because I was like no way are these two jehovah's witnesses going to ruin our teach with minna. But we were courteous and talked a little bit, turns out he was a missionary here about 40 years ago... they weren't really jehovah's witnesses... They did get my blood pressure going though :) His name is Layne Rassmusen and he served in Jyväskyä before the chapel was built here. I got a picture with him, he was very nice! I even gave him your email mom so you might be seeing a random email from him someday.

Also, Do you guys know Blake Christensen? I guess a couple members from Jyväskylä stayed at his house in tremonton like a month ago (I forgot to include this in my email forever ago) I wish I would have known they were going to tremonton or I would have sent them your way :) Oh well, what do you do?

Other cool story of the week (Kinda Prideful... but I needed a boost) lol I had a doctors appointment in order to get my drivers license and I was pretty nervous because I didn't think I would know the vocab (I mean doctors are pretty tough in english ;) ) anyways It went well and the Doctor was very impressed at my finnish, He said he has friends who have lived here for almost 20 years and they don't speak as well... Gift of toungue my friend... and Prayer.. A lot of prayer!!! (haha probably delete this before anyone else reads this... I feel stupid even sharing it... But it was a much needed boost for me :) )

Miracles happen and God is a loving and merciful God. I love this work with all my heart, even the tough times teach you! We are seeing so many miracles among these trials... It is such a great learning process! I hope all goes well this week for you trekers and recepients of surgery! I Love everyone else too!

Love,

Elder Thomas Neal Nielsen

June 16, 2010

Dearest Family,

Boston is old enough to be spraying stuff with hoses and poking stuff with sticks? Sounds like you guys had a fun week with him, He is a cute little boy. Settlers of catan... you should be reading Alma where the real actions happens... Much more exciting ;) haha Wow, I love this missionary stuff, I really do.

Ok I'm going to respond to all that you guys said first, Because this week was a pretty normal week (for the most part hehe) so there really isn't much to say.

I got a call from the office that I have a package waiting for me in Helsinki :) Kiitos Paljon Perheeni :) I wont even have to wait until zone conference because Elder Pearson and I are going to Helsinki this thursday because he has his language school for a day. While he is there I get to go to the temple, and I cannot wait. It has been since my very first transfer in Finland that I have been able to go. This is going to be really good and I am way excited for that.

Also, these two things kind of go together but change call was saturday and I am staying here in Jyväskylä with Elder Pearson! I can't tell you how much I love Jyväskylä... This will probably be my favorite city my entire mission just because the ward here is so great. Wow. I love this place.
Hmmm... Well I guess that is all for all the things you guys had....

So, This week was a pretty good week. We had a teach with Minna Tiihonen after church about God's love. She is doing so great, We just to keep that Fire burning because I know she has a testimony. We have gone over a few commandments and just are helping her understand everything it is so great. We also had one of the most intense teaches I have ever had in my entire life. We taught Cecilia and Amos (a married couple from Africa) They were refuges and fled to the ivory coast for 10 years and they have been in finland for 2 years. They know the Bible backwards and frontwards, it is intense. Anyways long story short we had an intense lesson, but I think they liked the promise in moroni 10 (this is actually the 2nd time we shared it with them) They just need to do it now.

Well, I can't really think of much else to talk about, sorry! I really need to start making my Emails Epic like they used to be. Just know that I am loving the mission so much and that I would not trade being here learning what I am learning for anything else in the whole world. I have really come to a better understanding of the Lord and his Atonement. I have learned how much God loves us and how much he wants to help us. It is great, Patience is an incredible attribute to have because with it we are able to hold off on the things we want and align our will with God's will. Elder Uchtdorfs talk on patience was so great last conference. anyways, I love you all and hope you have a great week! Thanks for everything!

Love you,

Vanhin Thomas Nielsen

P.S I'm going to the temple on Thursday!!! Wahoo!

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

May 31, 2010

Dear Family,

This week was yet again a good one :) Lol we were kind of all over the place on our new Bicycles that we bought last week! (I finally found a really good deal on a bike I liked 90€ haha it is used, but it should last 2 years :) ) Maybe I will send a picture your way. Actually definentally I will, because I have been meaning to send you guys that memory card for a long long time haha. So this week is Zone Conference, and man I cannot wait, Zone Conference is one of the most motivating things in the whole world.

This week we had a really good teach with Meg, who accepted the commitment to set a specific baptismal date! (keep her in your prayers) We finished up clarifying the word of wisdom and helped her see the blessings. She is great! I really love going to my little preach my gospel that Kyle gave me and looking for things that he highlighted, Scriptures that really help him on his mission. Man, I am learning lots, ALWAYS! haha New Vocab, New ides, new scriptures, lol it is intense/exhausting... but I love it :) wow, Fromage you tell those priest in the ward that missions are the greatest! haha I still kinda get a kick because I sent them all Chocolate for Christmas accompanied with a fine letter haha and on one of the Christmas cards that every ward member signs for christmas (the ones that sister Francom sets up) on one of those it said "thanks for the Chocolate it was bank" lol that is all....

Sounds like you guys are doing great!

This week was really great, We were able to help a man with some service, he isn't an investigator, or member. Just a friend of a less active (he is Brother Rockhills Friend's friend) anyways we had a really good discussion about families as we were working on digging steps into this hill, it was really incredible. He said pretty straight forward that he wouldn't be interested in taking the lessons, But that discussion was great. We dropped one investigator this week... after not progressing or doing anything with his testimony of the book of mormon we decided that would be best. I really do enjoy that man, but we are here to find the people that are willing to act upon the Word of God! We found 2 new investigators this week. They are great, they really know the bible, and have a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon. Their names are Andi and Cina and they are a married couple. We met cecilia on the street and she said she would love to talk more about this "Book of Mormon" :) Little miracles!

We just continue to see miracles! I learned so much from this talk by President Gordon B. Hinckley entitled Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep. It was great! Mostly about missionary work, actually no entirely about missionary work, but that is my life right now and I love it! Wow, I can't wait for Zone conference, I will give you guys the run down next week! I also studied a lot about Faith, The bible dictionary is an incredible place to start... wow! Also I always enjoy your guys little nuggets of knowledge that you share, I loved going into and studying those stories about the barak and the prophtess in the bible! Thanks dad that was great! I have been reading our heritage, and man that is powerful. Preach my Gospel is so great. I taught Elder pearson Ryans little sticky note with scriptures in Preach my Gospel, and He loves it! Wow... Sorry I always just share all the random things going through my head!

Anyways, moral of the story, I love you all! Good to hear Ryan got his battle wound checked off the list (a black eye in combat training :) ! hopefully Kyle already has his list of fourwheeler accidents all checked off! haha love you all so much! (Kyle is currently in Delta with the in-laws to be 4-wheeling.. we always double our prayers when he's at such activities :)

Love,

Vanhin Thomas Neal Nielsen