Monday, August 31, 2015

Staying in Gulf Breeze!

Alright everyone this week has been kinda everywhere! But it has been good! :) I AM STAYING IN GULF BREEZE FOR ANOTHER 6 WEEKS. BOOM BABY. (Thank you to everyone who prayed that I would stay - much love) ;) Wednesday: We met an awesome lady named Patricia. She is a former investigator, and we felt like we needed to go and see her, so we did. Boom. We were able to have a short lesson and she wants to meet with us again! (Inspiration at it's finest!) We were able to see Sister Schaeffer and her husband Bryan who is not a member, but he sits in on all the lessons so that is awesome!! We had a great lesson with the Myer's about the Priesthood and missionary work two big topics that are pretty unique about our Church! Isaac is pretty excited to receive the Aaronic Priesthood soon after he is baptized! How awesome is that! It has been so amazing to see both David and Isaac grow closer together because of the Church and how the Priesthood has become so much more to them in a short period of time! So cool.
Thursday: Thursday was a good day! We did splits with Sister West and Sister Adams! I went with Sister West and Sister Kinghorn went with Sister Adams! Splits are SO fun. If y'all ever have a chance to do them, I would totally do it!
So these are notes we made to "fork" people (as opposed to heart attack them). They are glued to plastic forks and we can stick them in places by their doors, so they find the note even if we don't see them. Fun stuff! Before we did splits, Sister West took us to see a lady in our ward name Vicki Bond. She is less active but is so cool and has the cutest boys ever! Her husband is researching different churches to go to - he hasn't been too interested in church till now! Vicki's parents are very active in the church and are helping her direct her husband to the right resources to learn about our church. So she is hoping he will start coming to church with her and the boys when he comes back from Germany! (Fingers crossed.) So Splits: Sister West and I were able to go visit a few ladies in our ward, one lady (I totally forgot her name :o!) but she is from Norway! She is the sweetest lady ever! It was super fun to visit new people I haven't met since being in the ward, so I am thankful we got to go! It was a busy day but super fun! :) Oh, PS: Y'all remember Angel we did service for about 2 weeks ago!? Well guess what!? She is now wanting to meet with us! We get to see her this coming up week! I am so excited to teach her! Friday: Friday was awesome, we did some service for Kathy. We were able to clean out her toy box and around it. See? I can do that kind of service! ;) I have come to found out that service can soften people's hearts and I love doing it! I like to think that Christ, all he did was serve and he was probably super happy doing it. Service! Mmmhmm. We went to Helping Hands thrift store and did our service work there. One of the workers named Peggy - she is so sweet and I just love her to death, well I found this Book of Mormon in the back room and went up to her and said "Hey! You should read this, this is a good book!" And she took it and said she would! Sometimes all we have to do is just OPEN our mouths. Oh man. How freaking scary is that!? Oh it is. But something we learned last week at Half Mission Conference was...one drop of fear is Satan. Fear comes from him. Christ probably talked to everyone. I am still learning how to do that! But hey, learning is good. ;)
Friday night we had dinner with the Marshall's....mmmhmmm I tried sushi for the second time....and....lets just say even though I look Asian....Sushi is not my thing. But! Grateful for food! Saturday: Well Saturday we were doing studies and got a text from the ZL's about a hurricane...! I guess there are hurricanes in FL!?!? J/K. So they asked us to get our 72 hour kits all together... so we went through them and of course the food we had in the kits were expired! Classic. We were given an hour to go to the store and get water and whatever we needed, so we did. But I guess now we are okay and no one should worry!?! :) But hey! I think the Scout saying is "Be prepared," ya? We went to a fun little party for the Wight's family welcoming their newly adopted kids, Aiden and Sophia. We are so happy they have them! :) Today was Isaac's birthday party so we went over there for a bit and had a fun time talking and hanging out with them! We went to see Max today too, we shared with him Faith. He is so strong. He is going through a lot in his life but always says he knows he will be okay. His mom, Joyce, who isn't a member wants to feed us soon! She is great! Saturday night we had a fun dinner at the Bradbury family home! They are in our ward and have 3 boys! I seriously LOVE everyone in our ward.
Here is a photo of Chris,who I talked about in my July 14, 2015 blog post. He lives in our complex and "has our back." He is the one who watched "The Hope of God's Light" https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-07-006-the-hope-of-gods-light?lang=eng with his wife and really felt the Spirit. He is awesome! Sunday: Wow...you know how they say Sunday is a day for rest!?! UH, NOPE. While you are a missionary it is not! Hahah! It was a busy day but a good one!! ;) Every 5th Sunday our ward does a pot luck! So after church we had a potluck lunch...so much food it was awesome! After the pot luck we went and to see Patricia again! We taught her the Restoration...but the catch was...! We had our lesson outside in the blistering heat with Mexican music blasting in the background...but hey! It still went well, she asked a lot of questions and wants to learn more!
A girl named Jade from the Navarre ward was baptized today as well! We went to the baptism for a little while and had to leave early for our dinner appointment with the Taylor's! Cool story there....we had a little thought planned, but our lesson for the Taylor's went a lot different then I thought! It is way cool how the Spirit works, but it works! We had a killer lesson with them! Sunday night we had a lesson with the Myers and guess what!!? We set a BCD (Baptism Confirmation Date) with Isaac for this coming Labor Day Weekend! David was ordained a Priest today as well so he will be able to baptize Isaac! We are SO excited for both of them.
Overall our week has been a good one! Satan has tried to annoy me a bit, but I have Christ to help me. Anything and everything is possible because of Him. I am grateful for my mission and the chance I have to serve the Savior. I am grateful for everyone I meet and see and talk to, because everyone is a child of God. I didn't really think about that before the mission but now I really do know EVERYONE is a child of God and that is all Heavenly Father wants is for His Children is to come back home to Him, and that is WHY I am here, to help HIS children come home. I hope everyone has a blessed week! Thank y'all for the love and support! - Sister Sabrina Nielson ;)

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Amazing and Wonderful!

One word to describe this week!? Actually two...Amazing and Wonderful! Tuesday: On Tuesday we had a district meeting, we had our ZL's (Zone leaders) came and they taught about teaching. It is always a good time when they come.
Guess what! We found out we can NOT go to the BEACH anymore...good thing we went the day before we found out...!!Super bummed about that, but hey! We couldn't even go in so it is okay! .....Goodbye, beautiful Florida beach....I will miss you. But the work goes on! Tuesday afternoon we did some AWESOME service for Angel, the lady we met two weeks ago. She was SO grateful for the service we did, the Elders mowed the lawn and cut bushes and we did the weeding...hmmm...who did the harder job? I'll let y'all decided on that one. ;) Service: I like to think it is the outward love to show our love to God's children. Just like the Mormon message Lift, service does lift, it lifts hearts, and brings smiles. I love service...still not the dirt and sweat. Ha!
Tuesday late afternoon my sweet companion and I dressed in matching shirts (have you noticed that striped shirts and print skirts are in style this year?). We were able to go meet a new family in our ward,they are actually from Utah! Woot woot! I am excited to get to know them! We had a great dinner with the Cronin family, we taught them about prayer, scriptures and church and why and how they are such a good foundation in our lives. I think it is pretty cool that they are linked together...God is smart! :) Wednesday: Today was a good day! We went by and saw the Myers, they are such a good family! I love them lots! We were able to try to contact a few families, which is always a good time in Florida in August...mmmhmm. Love the heat so much...! Wednesday night we didn't have a dinner appointment, but a ward member gave us money to go get Whataburger (best burger place here in Navarre...haha) We are so spoiled here! I am so so thankful. Wednesday night we had correlation meeting where we talked to our ward mission leader about mission work. It was awesome! Thursday: Thursday! Weekly planning always! But I have learned...if we don't get distracted..which we do a lot of the time...;) we can get weekly planning done faster! Crazy huh!? Mind blown. Hahah! But I am thankful for the time that we do have to plan. Planning is good! Something I will always do because of what I have learned about it here on the mission! Thursday evening we had a great lesson with Wendy and Issac about tithing and fast offerings! It hit me pretty hard that tithing is so important! While we were talking about it and how Heavenly Father will give us blessings because we pay tithing and fast offerings, I thought about it, and really Heavenly Father doesn't need our money...He created money...so why would He need it? It is His already...I think it is a way for us to show our faith and devotion to Him. Do we have enough faith to pay 10% of our earnings? Faith is key. A good lesson for me, a good lesson for all! We had such a fun dinner with the Atkinson family and the Hall family. They are are fun and I am grateful for FOOD. Happy belly...happy Sister Missionaries. Ha! Friday: Friday is always a good day in Gulf Breeze! We were able to see Kathy and share with her a message about callings, she is coming back to church now and is hoping for a calling super soon! Callings are awesome! Sister Kinghorn spoke in church about magnifying our callings, so she was able to share some of her talk to Kathy...SHOUT OUT TO MY COMP for speaking in church last Sunday! YOU KILLED IT. ;)
Anyways! We were able to do some fun, good service at Helping Hands! I love that place, if y'all ever come to Gulf Breeze FL, Helping Hands is a must to go. Favorite store here. The manager, Steve, is the funniest person ever! Today he told me while I was organizing the costumes, "You don't need a costume" "Why not!?" I asked. Steve: "You're already a Princess." Okay how nice is he. Favorite. The people and the love - so great. And thank you, Sister Kinghorn, for the photo-bomb silly face. So, I really felt like we needed to visit Max, so we did. He is struggling a lot more than he was before, so it was good to share him a uplifting message. We had a fun dinner with the Bank's family in our ward! We do volleyball every Friday night, and a lot showed up this week! It was great! Guys! I can hit the ball! Haha woot! Saturday: Saturday was fun! Today was Issac's birthday! He is now 14! We got him a few things and balloons for his birthday which is was really fun! We did some service for the Cooper's. They are in our ward, but less active! But once again...service can lift the soul! We were able to clean her boys' room...let me tell ya...3 little boys in one room....mmhmm...crazy messy! But! It is now all clean! Sister Cooper, is a small lady..but she is good at getting things done. She is one of my favorite ladies here. Saturday night, Sister Long took us out to dinner to Cactus Flower, a way good Mexican restaurant - I highly recommend it! It comes close to Mi Ranchito back home! We had a fun fun time playing basketball! Saturday night had a Sister mission call, which means all the Sisters in the mission were on a conference call, the head STLs (Sister Training Leaders) came up with an idea to fast on Sunday for Monday, to receive guidance at our Half Mission Conference, it was wonderful! Saturday = Good day! Sunday: Sunday was awesome! I love, love, love church in our ward. It is funny going to ward counsel meetings! Who would have thought...me going to one of those! Ha. Super great! We had a fun time with the Hall's, we went to their house, they took us to the Sound...the water before the beach! I found a stellar seashell! Yep. We had a great dinner with Kathy, and guess what!!? She came to a lesson with us that night to the Myers! Let us think about this! Sister Kathy Thompson, not going to church at all for over a year, but now coming back to church and now feeding us and GOING to lessons with us...How amazing is that!?! Heavenly Father is SO good to his children. That is the beauty of the Gospel,to see other progress in this work. So Wonderful. Sunday night we went to the Woolstenhulme's and it was a good time with them, talking about families...reminded me how AWESOME MY FAMILIA IS. Love you guys!
Monday: MONDAY! Usually we have P day on Monday, but this Monday we had a Half Mission Conference which means, half of our mission met.
I got to reconnect with Sister Stradinger, from the Provo MTC! That was so cool!
Here is me, Sister Kinghorn and Sister Stradinger with our awesome Mission President, Pres. Smith
And here we are with our Mission President's wife, Sister Smith! She is so loving and wonderful! And the Smith's are from American Fork, Utah, so close to where I live. We heard from some great leaders! Elder Brett Nielson and his wife came, and also Elder Vern Stanfill and his wife came. They both are AMAZING! At the end of the meeting, my brain was full of spiritual knowledge. Some of the things that really stuck out to me, Sister Nielson talked about Holiness. What is Holiness and why is it so important for missionary work? The Holiness of everyday life, all we need to do is look more in depth about our lives. Yes missionary work is hard and somedays we want to give up! But are we looking at those kind of days as Holy? Example of that - let's say someone rejected us? What is so Holy about that? Well that person is one step closer than they were before. They now have heard a bit of our message about Christ. That is holiness. I love that so much! Elder Nielson talked about the enabling power of the Atonement... using Elder Bednar's talk. The Atonement can strengthen us, although it might not be able to change our situation, but it can give us the strength and guidance we need. Something Elder Nielson taught...Salvation never comes for a cheap price. It was never easy for Christ to sacrifice for us, so why would it be easy for us? Mind blown again. I thought about this and was like WOW, YEAH. I get it! *Light bulb* Anyways! So many good lessons learned. Elder Stanfill talked about how we are true witnesses of the gospel. "Missionary Work is a work of witnesses." That is what we do! We witness that Christ lives! That the fullness of the gospel is here on the earth again! So cool. Sister Stanfill talked about Unity. "There are no passengers, only crew members on our ship." Unity that we are united as one! Overall Monday was just a great day! I loved every minute of our conference!
I love this work. It is so fun! Once mission work becomes mission fun work, it truly can change our hearts. I am grateful for the hard times, because that is when we learn the most, just as President Spencer W. Kimball would say. "Give me this Mountain. Give me another challenge." Thank you so much for all your support and love towards me! I am so blessed and so thankful for y'all. Quote of the week. "What matters in our life is what we do for the Savior." -Sister Stanfill. Every day matters, all we need to do is "Go forth with a twinkle in our eye, a smile on your face but with great and strong purpose in your heart." -President Hinckley. I LOVE YOU. -Sister Sabrina Nielson

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Sweaty, Scary, and Small and Simple Moments

Good news! The Wight's in our ward, won the fight for the kids. So prayer are answered and now they will have two beautiful children. Adoption is awesome. This week in a one word description: Odd. (Different.) This week, I have seen Satan do his work. He is real. He knows how to discourage you, and let me tell you...IT IS SO ANNOYING. But there are always good things to come. God never leaves. He just lets us endure them, makes sure we have learned a few things, rely on Him, and then He jumps in and gives us a good moment, to remember he is there! That was this week.
It's like these crazy Florida storms. A few nights ago I was up all night, just thinking and praying to know what to do. It is REALLY hard to humble yourself when you are discouraged and upset and just sad. This week has been rough, but it is okay! The storms in Florida end, and then we have sunshine and beautful days. I have come to a conclusion that Heavenly Father lets everything fall apart, so better things will come. It is annoying and makes me wonder, but in reality I am thankful! Monday: Sister Kinghorn and I had a good P-day! We went to get some good frozen yogurt, which is always so nice in weather like Florida. Mondays are a good day, who would have ever thought? Usually people don't like Mondays but I love them. Haha. We had dinner with a family named the Stubbs. Shout out to them. They are super sweet and I adore them so much!
Tuesday: Tuesday was HOT. Trying to talk to people OUTSIDE in FL in the middle of the day is just plain torture...but we tried! (A for effort?) No one really wanted to talk to us. Others didn't care for us and that is okay, but we did talk to one! His name is Paul Towel. He is one funny guy, definitely very southern, he even has a beer belly. (Something about the south...a lot of men think it is okay to hang outside with no shirt...haha ya...) But he let us in an gave us ice cream, probably because he felt bad or he saw the gallons of sweat we both had, either way super nice. We had a fun dinner with the Smith's and that always cheers up the day! Wednesday: Today was also very hot, but we saw Sis Scheaffer. We were able to do some service for her and it is always a good time with her. We are working with her about the Christlike attributes, it is kinda funny every time we talk about one, it is always one that I need a reminder about. We met a lady named Angel, she is a single mom, also a military lady, but super cool. We aren't teaching her, but we are going to be doing service for her this week! She told us, "I am a Christian with a lot of questions." Boom baby. Wednesday night was a little more scary. For the past 3 weeks we have come home and our lights have been on....it has happened to us 3 times so far. Well back up...Wednesday morning before we left, we made SURE all the lights were off... and our back door was locked...and guess what...we come home and our lights are ON...and our door was opened!! We called the other Sisters who live in our complex, too, to see if they had turned them on...and they told us they hadn't. Both Sister Kinghorn and I had really bad vibes about it all... so not feeling safe, we called the Sisters, they came over and also felt like we needed to leave. So we spent the night at the Sisters' apartment! (Good part of the story, I slept really good? For the first time my whole mission?) Anyways! Scary experience...but we are safe! So thank y'all for the prayers! Prayer WORKS! Thursday: All our appointments fell through...but we got new locks to our apartment! We are saved! Haha. We did some awesome weekly planning...and went to the church to a Relief Society dinner and activity...but for the Navarre ward, not our ward. Funny story. Sister Kinghorn and the other sisters who are in the Navarre ward went to another room and I was left to do this activity with ladies I didn't even know...haha! It was funny. But hey! I got to know some cute ladies from the Navarre ward and represent Gulf Breeze! Haha. Thursday was just an odd day, well this whole week was just odd.
So do I look odd? Sort of like a Geisha girl in a FSU tee-shirt and glasses? Well, in Florida the sun is pretty tough on your skin, so we try to take care of it (and we got all this free skin care last week...so awesome and appreciated!) This is Sister Kinghorn and I being ourselves after a long day. Friday: Friday, was good! We were walking to the Sisters' place to get some of our stuff we left, and we saw this car back out. I ran over to the car to see who it was...(Talk with everyone!!?) I started talking to this lady in her car, her name is Louise. She is from North Carolina, her son is in the Air Force. I asked her if I could back her up...(Mission rule: We have to back who ever is driving at all times.) So why not back her up? She thought it was funny. We talked to her for a little while, and all she could say was how sweet we were and how proud she was of us for going on missions. Little moments like that remind me that missionary work is simple and sweet. It hit me, we have had not the best success this week, but meeting her and brightening her day was a success. I am thankful for that little sweet and simple moment.
At the thrift shop where we give service, there is a woman named Peggy who has decided to give me little clowns. So here are some "new" clowns. Haha! Yes!!
Here are all the Sister Missionaries in Navarre and Gulf Breeze on the sugar sands of the wonderful Florida pan handle beach. Saturday: We went to see a family, the Cooper's, who are very less active, but I LOVE THEM so much. We are going to start to see them more and hopefully get them back to church as a whole family! Sister Cooper is the funniest, sweetest lady, she always tells us, no matter what, if you are hungry you come to OUR house and we will feed you. Little does she know how Christlike she is towards us. We went to see Isaac and Wendy and brother Myers. They are such a fun family. We are hoping to set a BCD (Baptism Commitment Date) with Issac and maybe even Wendy this coming week! I am thankful for them and their desire to know the Gospel. :)
SHOUT OUT TO THE WOOLSTENHULME FAMILY. WHO I LOVE AND ADORE SO MUCH. ;) Sunday: Sunday is always a good day to think about Christ. I was sitting during the sacrament thinking about all the crazy things that had happened and kinda started to laugh, because how funny it is when everything goes wrong, then you look back and you remember the little things that helped you during the week! I guess the lesson I learned was to look for the small and simple moments in missionary work. Isn't that what Christ did? He talked to people; he loved everyone; he probably laughed a lot, but also shared his love of the Gospel. I am thankful for moments like that. Sunday night we taught about the Holy Ghost, and how the Holy Ghost can be our constant companion All the time. (Pretty cool huh?) Even though this week had a lot of downs, and the ups were small, but they meant the world to me. I am thankful for a Savior who showed the BEST example of the small and simple moments to all. I love this work, even in the hot, hot, hot x 10,000,000 sun. I am blessed to be in FL. I love FL. I love Gulf Breeze. Thank y'all for your love and support! #FTMADVENTURES. Love all y'all and each ya'll. -Sis Nie Nie

Sunday, August 16, 2015

#Good #Sad #Crazy #Thankful

Hi Ya'll, I will start with Tuesday, cause ya'll know what I did last Monday...
Shop!! And!! I bought a selfie stick to better to take pictures with. So here I am in our apartment bathroom showing off my new camera accessory and my best duck lips!!
And I also bought a Florida Seminole's T-Shirt (sorry Dad, Joey and Asa Alex...) It is so I will always remember my mission - not that I have served on the campus, but it is in Tallahassee where the Mission Home is, and I have been there! This is a bit of our Sister Missionary bedroom. And look! Sister Kinghorn and I are both blind without contacts or our glasses! One more thing in common! Tuesday we had a District meeting, which is always good. We talked somewhat about relying on the Spirit...how hard that can be sometimes! Sometimes all I want to do is rely on myself...because I probably have a pride disease. But I am learning to rely on the Spirit more and more. He is the key to missionary work.
We also rode our bikes today.....YES. BIKES. Y'all know I do NOT like riding bikes...but I did it for the third time and did not die. We rode probably 2 miles...and Bam! Hot and sweaty so bad, so fast, honestly I think it is disgusting and Sister missionaries should not be allowed to do so...but we were able to talk to a few people, so it was good! 2 miles was ENOUGH. Oh the joys of wearing a helmet too...so rad. And look at this awesome tan from my new replacement watch!! We had the chance to eat dinner with the Myers in our ward and talked about missionary work! Woot woot! Missionary work is AWESOME!
Wednesday: Wednesday was a good day! A lady in our ward named Mitzi was moving this week (here she is with me) so we have gone over to do some service for her and it was fun! She is moving with her son to Montana, she is the sweetest lady. I am glad she is going with family :) We went to see Sister Scheffer, and she gave us A LOT of facial/spa product that she used to sell but doesn't anymore, so she gave us probably about $200.00 worth! Crazy, but so sweet and I LOVE that stuff. #Blessed. We where able to talk about Knowledge, and how important it is, because aren't we only going to take what we learned on earth when we die? Knowledge is important :) We were able to teach our investigators the Myers about the Holy Ghost, and how the Holy Ghost can be a light to all of us. They are doing awesome! It has been a miracle to see that family grow and learn the Gospel together. Pretty sure that is what the Gospel is all about! :) Wednesday night we had dinner with the Wights! They are my favorite people ever! We made these awesome picture frames, mine has the Salt lake Temple on it, with FTM 2015-2016 below the temple. Super good day!
Thursday: Wow, let me just tell ya...Thursday! We went to Pensacola and helped with food orders, it was crazy! There were so many people but it worked out! Many hands make light work! (Right, Mother?) ;) Here are Brother Costlow and Sister Delaney and us helping at food orders! Thursday afternoon we did some planning. We have had some crazy things happen in our area, but the work GOES on! Nothing can stop the Lord's work, something I have really seen this day. Thursday night was a little more rough for me, because I had gotten word that day that my home Singles' Ward Bishop, Kim Oliver, had passed away of a heart attack. He lived right across the street from us, so I have been close to their family since I was three. He was so good to me and I sure loved him. We have taught the Plan of Salvation a lot lately, and Thursday night it really hit me, how REAL it is. How amazing that families can be together FOREVER! Wow. My heart is very thankful for that this week. Friday: Friday was great! We went to see Kathy and Brother Dolson, they both are doing so good! Both of them are now active in our ward! Woohoo!
Friday night we did exchanges and guess who came back to Gulf Breeze! Sister Stewart! My first companion! So we got to be a companions for a day! So fun and so great! We where able to go teach our other investigators about the Plan of Salvation, which again I am thankful for! Fridays are always a good day, especially being on an exchange with Sister Stewart! Saturday: Saturday it Rained A LOT, so Sister Stewart and I helped our Relief Society president at Mitzi's since one of our appointments fell through - but it was okay, we were able to do service! Sister Kinghorn went to Milton for a day and I stayed in Gulf Breeze. Saturday night was great! Our sweet investigator Brenda took us out to dinner and we were able to get to know her better, she is having a rough time in her life right now, but we were able to share about faith and hope. Two awesome words we were able to share with her. Faith and Hope are good reminders in life, especially when life is hard. Missionary Life and Regular Life are not easy. Why would we be on earth if life was easy? It would be too easy, so I am thankful we are given trials; because with them, we become closer to our Savior and our Father in Heaven. Sunday: Brenda came to church today! Woot woot! The Hall's in our ward came back from their trip so we were able to go see them and also had dinner with them! They are moving in a few weeks...sad. But it is okay! We had a lesson with the Myers' about the Word of Wisdom....such a scary topic to teach about...but it went well! #Healthylifeforever! Sunday night we went to the Woolstenhulme's and talked about Humility! And wow, did I need that!?! I think it is good to eat some humble pie sometimes, and humble ourselves towards the Savior, obviously this week has been Everything Heavenly Father needed to me to learn. I am so grateful for my Savior. I definitely am not a perfect missionary, but Christ is. Oh, I also got FLOSS from Brother Woolstenhulme. Yep. I love that stuff. Sunday, a good day!
Here is Sister Kinghorn and I on our "Search and Rescue" Mission. (Good shoes, huh?) Well, this week was good. Not every week is perfect and not every week is going to go how you want, but it is okay! I have learned that Heavenly Father knows ALL. He knows what will happen in like 4 minutes and He knows what will happen in 4 years. All we need to do is trust Him and love Him. Every day I thank Him for both the ups and downs, because I always learn more about my Savior through both of them. So grateful for missionary work. Missionary work will always be a big part of who I am and who I hope to be. This Church is true. It is real and I love it. Have a good, blessed week, y'all :) #FTMADVENTURES -Your fav missionary , Sister Nie Nie :)

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Service, Pres Smith, Success, Storms and Shopping!

Hey All Y'all! This week my heart is just SO full of many wonderful things, good times, fun times and spiritual times! ;) So y'all should take a hot minute and readddd! Monday: Monday is always a good day! PDAY!! Last monday, we just ran a lot of errands and kinda just hung out, but today we went shopping!
Look! I found H&M! We went to Destin, and for y'all who don't know where that is, it is about an hour away from Gulf Breeze! It is the city to tour. It's a fun place where a lot of Southerners go! There are so many outlets and of course Shopping!! We went with the other sisters, and a member from the Navarre ward. It was super fun and I might have spent some money....(SORRY Mom...they were on sale?) ;) Overall good P-day! Tuesday: We had District Meeting in the morning like always! District meeting is actually fun, we learn a lot and we get to spend some time with the other missionaries, always a solid time! We have a lady named Mitzi in our ward, she is older and is moving with her son this week, so on Tuesday we went over and did some yard work for her...and let me tell y'all...those weeds DID NOT want to come up...but y'all know me, I will not take NO for an answer...haha so we pulled All of them out. Service is the Best, especially for Mitzi - I just love that lady to death. Super sad she is moving! Tuesday night we taught Wendy and Iassc, our investigators! Issac is so smart in the Gospel, and is SO ready to be baptized...Wendy used to not allow him to go to church but her heart softened and they are both being taught! Sister Kinghorn is Awesome at teaching!! We were able to talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I think the lesson was really for me. It was such a good reminder about our Savior and how he is the Center of EVERYTHING. A good day! :)
Wednesday: So today we had interviews with President Smith....Yes we got in trouble so we had to go meet with him...Haha, yeah. Just Kidding! We have interviews with him just to talk, and he likes to hear about how we are doing, and we are doing awesome, so it was fun to report to him! He is a great President!
Here is Sister Kinghorn, me and Sister Wight from our ward at interviews at the Church. That's our car in the background with the bike rack! And! I found out today that my mom's first cousin that she is really close to, Carma Nelson in Idaho Falls, used to Visit Teach Sister Kinghorn's mom there before they moved to Sugar City! That practically makes us cousins - well sort of not, but we were both really excited that we have this connection! Sister Kinghorn is doing so great!!
After our interviews with President, Sister Wight (she is the BEST! Shout out to her!)took us out to lunch at place called McGuire's. Y'all should look it up, it is such a fun Irish place.
Look at this cute little Irish phone booth in the parking lot!! This might be the closest I ever get to Ireland!
The first time you go, you sign your name on a dollar bill and hang it up, so here is Sister Katelyn Kinghorn and Sister Sabrina Nielson's dollar bills on the McGuire's wall.
They have about 1.5 million dollar bills in that restaurant!! Crazy huh!? It was super fun! That same night, we had dinner with a family, the Cronin's. Sister Cronin is a member, but her son and daughter, are not. We were able to have a fun dinner and share an awesome lesson! Sis Cronin's daughter asked her mom if we could come back and that they should fed us more! So fist pump to that!! Wednesday, you were a great day! Thursday: Thursday wasn't too exciting besides a crazy storm...it definitely is hurricane season here! Thursday we did weekly planning, and honestly sometimes it just takes us forever and a day cause we always get distracted, but we got it done! We were able to do some finding, which is always good! :) We ran into Bro Banks, who isn't a member, but I guess you could call him a "dry Mormon" (not baptized yet, but living like a Mormon). He told us to come over, so we did and were able to visit them for a bit and kinda got stuck because of the crazy storm. Both Sis Kinghorn and I thought we were going to die, but obviously we are alive! ;) The nice thing about the rain is that it is WARM! Bad thing, it comes so randomly...always have an umbrella in your car 24/7! Friday: Oh Y'all know Fridays are my Favorite days! We saw Brother Dolson, and he is doing so good! He is now coming back to church and is loving it! We saw Kathy, and both Sister West and Mitzi came along. We were able to talk about the Book of Mormon and why it is so important! (BEST BOOK EVER!) Kathy is honestly the sweetest lady ever! I just love her so much, I will definitely miss her when I leave Gulf Breeze. We did some service at Helping Hands. FL has SO many thrift stores! They are really big out here, it's kinda funny how many there are! But it is super fun! Then we taught our other investigators, Laz and Maria about the Plan of Salvation! Probably my Favorite lesson! They both still ask A LOT of deep questions, but it is good! It has helped me increase my knowledge about the church and I am thankful that sometimes we get hard people to teach, because really I am the one learning more! :)
Friday nights we do volleyball which is always fun, though y'all know I DO NOT PLAY SPORTS...but I am learning...haha so try to imagine Sis Nielson playing sports. Ya, I laugh too. So here is Sister Vaiela helping me get tall enough to hit the volleyball! Just kidding, but you can see she is strong enough to give me a piggy back ride (okay, I don't weigh very much), but life is definitely fun with these Poly Sister Missionaries! This is inside our apartment. Saturday: We went back over to Mitzi's and did MORE service for her, this time a lot of the ward came and helped! Her son came from Montana, who is such a good person. I am glad she is going with family. She is pretty sad about it but I know it is for the best! Saturday afternoon we had a lesson with a man named Tom who lives right next door to us! He also works at the thrift store and a few weeks ago I asked him if we could share him our message and he said yes! So we were able to share with him about the Restoration. Such a good lesson! He is an artist and is amazing at painting! There are just some wonderful people here, I always say it but I LOVE GULF BREEZE SO MUCH! Saturday night we always have basketball which is fun...you could say I am getting better....! ;) hmmmm....;) Sunday: Two words. Fast Sunday. Another two words. Super Hard. From day one of fasting I have always struggled with it...but hey! On missions I guess you have to fast!?! Haha just kidding it is a good experience! I like to think I am getting better! But today Wendy and Issac and David (the dad who is a less active) came to church and stayed for ALL three meetings! How awesome is that to see a family all come to church together!?! That is the best part about missionary work. Seeing families together. I love it so much! Sunday night we went over to their house and they fed us dinner and we gave them a message about prophets and the Ten Commandments. I have always thought that the commandments were scary and all that, but really they are so simple and just common sense! And Prophets! I love our Prophet so much!! He is really called of God, I just know it! Oh, we had an even BIGGER storm Sunday night, so we stayed at the Myers for a bit longer....cause there was just no way I was driving in that weather and dying. Nope! Even though it was Fast Sunday it was still a stellar day!
Overall this week has been great! I am SO thankful for a Heavenly Father who loves all of us. No matter who we are, He loves us! I just KNOW we are created in HIS image, even though we are all so different, we are HIS children and that just makes me so happy. I might always say this, but I LOVE my mission and I can't think of anywhere else I would want to be. God is good. He is my Maker, my Example and my Everything. Have y'all a blessed week!
Oh! P.S. I have to tell you about a STELLAR deal I got today while shopping....so I got these way nice Sperry shoes for 25 dollars....I repeat 25 dollars!! They are originally 85...but 70% off...!! Super durable and way comfy and perfect for mission work! We walk a lot! I thought while I was getting them, "Mom would probably say yes....so I got them." And here they are!
Another cool story that happened today about shopping. So you know the Michael Kors watch that Rhett got me for Christmas? Well I have had it for less than a year and the bottom has gotten a little tarnished already, so we went in and I asked them if they could re-dip my watch, so it would look new again and she said they didn't do that, so I told her what happened and how long I have had it...and I guess my watch has a 2 year warranty on it...when Rhett bought it he got the warranty just in case, and because he did, they gave me a NEW watch for FREE! How awesome is that!? ;) She said that the watch shouldn't have worn out so fast. So I got a new one! I am pleased! It might be silly, but today I just have felt not only has Heavenly Father blessed me spiritually, but also for some things that I love too, such as awesome shopping deals and all..haha, so yeah - highlight of my week! ;) Have a great week, everyone! -Sis Nie Nie :)