Staying Happy

Good news! I am staying six more weeks at FSU!! Sister Beal is, too! This is her last six weeks here, so we are making it the best! :) She is SUCH a good friend. I know that she and I will be life- long friends!

This photo is our P-Day activity (is it obvious that we went bowling?) with the other Sisters. Me, Sister Hall, Sister Ecsitty and Sister Beal! :) It was good exercise, and good to have fun together and laugh. It helps us balance the things about a mission that are serious and not easy. I love my Sisters! Something good: Oh this week has been INCREDIBLE. A lot of it has to come from General Conference for sure. Beforehand, I had written some questions that were on my mind and they were ALL answered. I am so thankful for that. Heavenly Father is real. Jesus Christ is real. The Holy Ghost is real. This Gospel we have is real. Answers are real. I adore our sweet prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. Something he said hit my heart like no other thing. "May we ever choose the harder right, instead of the easier wrong." Wow, so powerful. It can definitely be SO easy to pick the easy wrong, over the harder right, way to hit it right on point! I am grateful for that reminder. https://www.lds.org/blog/what-did-the-prophet-say-at-conference?cid=HP_SU_3-4-2016_dOCS_fGC_xLIDyL1-A_&lang=eng I just loved how everyone who spoke was SO bold with so much love. It was just amazing. Probably the best Conference I have experienced in my life. For real. #thankful. We were able to fast with Jose this week about baptism. He still is wondering about it, but we know in God's time, everything will work out. We are still learning Spanish too. Haha! He is great! :) For quite some time we have been trying to meet with a guy named Sam, and we finally got to! It was wonderful! I tell you, the Book of Mormon is where it is at! We read it and people will light up instantly! It is so sweet!

Another good thing! The new senior couple and their daughter made it to Tally this week! They are the Leavitt's and they are just WONDERFUL. Their daughter, Sister Katie is the sweetest girl.This is a picture we took with Katie (you can see why she got to come with her parents on their mission - so cool!) And we took her up on Campus to take this photo by the FSU Seminole! I just love the area I am in. I am so thankful I will have another six weeks here! So many good things to come! :) Also, I was given real alligator meat! Sister Beal and I will be cooking it for my birthday on Saturday! Crossing our fingers it will turn out okay! Ha! A Tender Mercy: I have been thinking about this week and thinking of all the sweet little tender mercies I have seen and I think for this week it would most definitely be this...We walk everywhere. We are constantly doing things. We don't really eat the best things (campus probs). :) But somehow we make it. We have to walk up this death hill, we call it, and it can be super hot, and super hard and we just both want to die, but we make it, every single day. Sometimes I really wonder how all missionaries do it, but we do! Campus has really shown me that God is real. He can literally help us physically when we think we cannot do it, but He can. It might sound silly, but it is real. Another sweet tender mercy was that Maddie, who is one girl we see every so often, had a crazy hard weekend, and she decided to come to the Institute because she knows it is a safe place and Boom! Conference was on, and she listened. She really isn't too religious, but I know that she was led by the spirit. So thankful for the Holy Ghost. <3

This is Joy, who we have been teaching. We love her. Because she is married, we may need to give her to the other missionaries, but we are sure things will work out well for her! Something Learned: I really don't even know where to start, I really feel like I learn something new every day. I have been reading this book called, Life of the Savior, it is all about his teachings and his life on earth, as I have been reading it, I have been writing down my feelings about the teachings and love He gives, and it is remarkable how everything he did was out of love. There is a BYU speech that has become one of my favorite talks, "What If Love Was Our Only Motive?" https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/russell-t-osguthorpe_what-if-love-were-our-only-motive/ This week and a lot of weeks I have learned, everything the Savior did was out of love. Something that really hit home to me was this, "The Savior is our example in everything - not only in what we should do, but why we should do it. His life on earth was a life of invitation to us - to raise our sights a little higher, to forget our own problems and reach out to others." Yep. I just love that. Definitely not perfect at that, but we keep seeking and trying as Elder Holland said in Conference. :) I love the Savior. He really does love, and He has shown us how, and how wonderful that is to me. I love this mission, sometimes I think, "I love y'all! <3 Y'all now make JD'S! (Jesus Decisions!)" 1John 2:4-6>>> "4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. 6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." Walk with Him. This week will be great! :) Thank you for all you do for me! I am so excited!! Don't worry, I will NOT peek in the box before my birthday! Haha! So happy that P-day is on my birthday - what are the odds!?! It is a blessing! I will be saying goodbye to my teen years forever on Saturday, April 9. It should be fun! I miss my cute dog, Abby, but this doggy is giving me loves, so I love her, too! Another reason to be happy!

-Sis Nielson :) 1924 West Pensacola Street #113, Tallahassee, FL 32304