Y'all, Life is Peachy

Something Good: So many good things this week! Blessings for days! 

                                                   

Miss Pamela Hale came to church on Sunday and everyone was so welcoming and loving towards her, it was so sweet! :) She introduced herself in Relief Society and said.." My name is Pamela Jo Hale, and I am studying with Sister Nielson and Sister Law, and Sister Fast about your church." She just loved it, oh words can not describe how cute she is.

We are now teaching David and Pam, we had a solid lesson with them about the Book of Mormon and they loved that! We also found out, they have been married for 61 years...!!! My jaw about dropped to the floor. So awesome! And soon they will be sealed in the temple! :) 

Earlier this week we where able to do some service for Sis Dann! We washed both her cars and had a great little thought at the end! She was finally able to make it to church for all 3 hours! Blessings for her!



<3 We are finishing up the lessons for Garvin, so this week he can be baptized!! He is so excited and so ready to join the church! We are pumppppedd! 

Our Gator Nara, went back to Thailand this week, it was sad to say goodbye, but he is going to meet with the missionaries where he is going! :)

On Monday we had another bomb lesson with Corey, we asked him, if he wanted to be a Mormon and he said.." I want to be a Mormon." What a champ. :) God is so good when we work super hard and love the people we serve. 

Sister Turnage (photo on the right) was able to go out with us to some of our lessons this week! She was such a big help! Shout out to her!

A Tender Mercy: One of my favorite scriptures in the bible is in John 14:18.." I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. Some things where harder this week, but that one scripture made everything okay. I was praying to know what to do, and praying for help and I opened to this great verse. Even the smallest scriptures can mean the world when it can be a little challenging. I am grateful for the scriptures, I know for sure that God does really speak to us through the word of God. :) 

Something Learned: This past week, I have been studying a lot about Agency,and what that means to me. I have come to learn on a mission, we give pretty much all our agency to the Lord, we do that, so we can learn it and we so we can learn to live it. I think it is so cool that Heavenly Father has given us the ability to chose. He will guide us in the right direction, but in the end it is up to us to chose what is right. I am so thankful and blessed to have the gift of agency in my life, to help me do what is right and it has helped me have even a better relationship with Heavenly Father and Christ. 

"On this Mortal Journey, we must never think that our choices effect only us." -Larry S. Kacher 

Here is our District:

Our Panama City Beach District: Standing Left to right, Elder Jensen, Elder Miller, Elder Abrams, and Elder Gunnell. Seated, Sister Nielson and Sister Law. Happy in the Lord's service here in PBC, FL!

Y'all be happy and stay good! :)

 -Sis Nielson

Miracles on the Beach!

Something Good: Okay! Man this week has been crazy, but sure a great one! 

Sister Nielson with new companion, Sister Law, from Kaysville, Utah.

First! I have a new comp! Her name is Sis Law!! She is so diligent and so hard working and full of energy! I am so blessed to be able to serve with her! :) She is 5'2, so we fit pretty well together! She is the youngest of 6 kiddos and she is from Kaysville Utah! She is the bomb! Also, she is so funny, she cracks me up! 

Sisters Anderson and Nielson with Corey, who will be baptized on September 17. 

Okay! So this week! Some exciting news!! We set a BCD with Corey this week!! He is planning to be baptized on Sep 17th!! He came to church for the first time, and he loved it, he kept telling us, that it felt like home to him. It was so sweet! He cut off coffee cold turkey, and is loving the Gospel and the lessons we teach him! To help him get of coffee, I am going off diet coke...(which I LOVE too much) but! I love Corey and I want him to be able to make it! God is Good! :) 

This last Monday Sis A and I went to Destin with the members we live with and that was loads of fun! :) 

This is Garvin. He was given this really huge Bible, and still needed his glasses.

This is the biggest Bible - EVER!

Garvin is doing awesome and so ready to be baptized in just a few weeks! We took some photos of Garvin and his family!

This is the Turnage family! 

We are now starting to teach some new people, who just joined the church a bit ago, Pam and David. They are super sweet and so cool! They are from Trinidad! Who would have ever thought! So cool.! Pamela, committed to come to church this next week, so we are super happy with her!!! Overall this week has felt like 10 years and a day, but I sure love it! So blessed to be serving here!!! <3 Mission life is the BESST life!

A Tender Mercy: Cool story! So we are working with a LA lady, name Sis Dann. Okay, y'all Sis Dann is AMAZINNNNGGGG! She has the biggest heart and the sweetest spirit. She has been through  A LOT in her life, it is crazy! But this week, on Wednesday we had a lesson lined up with her, and Wednesday night before we were trying to contact a referral and than we got a text about ward correlation...which I totally forgot about:P Anyways! We head to the church for our meeting and moments later, Sis Dann comes walking into the church..little did we know she was driving to go get a beer, but saw the church and decided to come in and we were there and so were the elders, so she was able to get a blessing. After that, we went to her house and had a great lesson. Everything that night just worked out. We were all there at the time she needed us. Oh and yes! She did not get a beer that night :) I know for sure, God knows where and when we need to be to help his children who need help. Tender Mercies's for days!!

FTM - Florida Tallahassee Mission wristbands! 

Something Learned: Man this week has just been too good! This week, I have really seen the blessings of being obedient and working hard, even when it is hard, or when my body hurts so bad, or when I am just so dang tired. If we are just willing to keep going forward, keep giving it our all, Heavenly Father will bless us for our labors to serve him. I love the time I have to give it my all to my Savior and my God. "I experience the Joy of coming closer to the Savior and of his coming closer to me, most often through simple acts of obedience." -Pres Eyring. 

I hope y'all know how much I love the Gospel, I have never been so happy till now. I love serving, I love my mission, and most important I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior! They Live! :) 

And last but not least - my little tiny body photo of the week: This is me trying to punch our RC (recent convert), Michael's hand at the meetinghouse while my proud trainer, Brother Fast, looks on. Yeah. I am so tough!   Not.

Y'all have a happy week now!!!  <3,

Sis Nielson

#Blessedtostay :)

With Sister Anderson at Arleen Froemming's home.

Transfer news! I am staying in Panama City Beach!!! 

But First...A BIG shout out to my rad comp Sis Anderson for being such a wonderful companion the past 12 weeks! She has taught me so much, and has loved and served me more than I deserved. I am so thankful for Heavenly Father for letting me be her comp! I'll miss you, chump..but I sure do love ya!! <3 Thanks for all the BEST times on the Beach! XO! 

Thinking....thinking...

Second...Another shout out to my new comp beginning Wednesday, August 10, Sister Law!!! I am SO excited to serve with you and your sweet spirit!! I love you already!! <3 Photos to come. Stay tuned to next week!

Something Good:  Man, Y'all, this week has been a blessing and a half! I am just thankful, and thankful! First. I just LOVE being a missionary, so thank you everyone for helping me get where I am! Okay, so some awesome things have happened here this week! 



First! Vida was baptized!!! It was the  sweetest day for her and her familia! We had one last lesson with her, we showed her the video of Christ being baptized and asked her how she liked it. She said,
"It was beautiful." 
Then we asked her,"
Why was it beautiful, Vida?" 
And her response melted my heart. 
"Because that is our Savior being baptized." 
It was the sweetest moment of my life. We are so proud of her, and I just love and adore her so mucho! 

Another awesome moment this week! Corey! We just started teaching him, and this week we had another bomb lesson with him! We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he was just soaking it up like a sponge! He is so ready and so excited to learn more! :) We are planning to set a bcd with him tomorrow! 

Garvin update! He is pretty much planning his own baptism..yall, if anyone is more prepared than Garvin, it would be Garvin himself. Oh! He wore a white shirt and tie on Sunday which is huge..because he does not like them..but he told us he wants to respect the Lord! So proud and happy for him. So thankful for all these wonderful prepared people to serve and to teach! God is Good. 

A funny little moment this week..We went to go try a few people and while we where walking we ran into a older man (who looked like Santa). We said Hi to him and the first thing he told us was," I'm old, ugly, tired and I'm atheist." Not what we where expecting, but hey, still a good guy! 

Still alive after the Florida storm!

A Tender Mercy: Alright..we did NOT die!! Florida tends to have crazy storms! Well last night was one of them! Also, all I wanted was my mom...so mom! I love you!! The storm we had last night was interesting. So I guess we have a low pressure system sitting over us right now. Which is good because if it was over the water it would be a hurricane. But since it is over the land it is a storm that is just the step under a tropical storm. So we go to bed at our usual time,10:30. And at about 11:30 we were both still awake and it was getting really bad. The lightning was bright and the thunder was cracking and shaking the house a little. So we both look out the window at the same time and a few seconds later a lightning bolt strike REALLY close. Probably the street or even out drive way. The lightning flash that we both saw was red in color. Immediately after the red flash all the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors went off and would not stop. The lightning strike tripped the detectors and we were scared that something was wrong. We put our glasses on and went down to the member's house that we live with. The husband, Brother Combs, went up and fixed the detectors. We were able to go back up stairs and sleep. But it was probably 1:00 before we went to bed. I am so thankful for the Lord's protection while we were running from our door to the door of the members. We were exposed to the elements! Blessings! 

Something is strange here - flat screens bigger than missionaries?

So every week I seem to find something that makes me look small. Look how big this flat screen is - bigger than me!

Something Learned: So this week I have been reflecting about everything that has happened the past transfer and really the past time I have been with sis A! I have learned a lot about compassion the past few months being here. There have been so many little moments of compassion and love that I have been able to see, which I really needed to learn from and apply in my own life. Well this week I was able to have another moment to learn. So really this whole week, everyone we have seen has told us something hard, or sad in their lives and sometimes it can just be draining to hear all day, everyday, but it really helped me step back, and step into their shoes to feel a little of what they where going through, so I would be able to have the Spirit to help them, or say something that they needed to hear. Sometimes it can be hard to understand other people's lives or situation, but Heavenly Father knows them perfectly, and if we are willing just to listen and be there, the Spirit will work through us to help them. I am so grateful for the Gospel and the Love that God and our Savior has for each person so individually. 

Well y'all, if there is one thing I hope you know, that I know is that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is True! The Book of Mormon is so true, and lastly, Jesus Christ is our Savior and He Lives! :) 

Love yall peaches!
Sister Nielson


P.S. Y'all may know that I love beautiful things - like painted nails and lipstick, so I wanted to include something that astonished me. This entire tin can is filled with nail polish! Goodness!!!

Blessed to be in the South

We were with the other District all week! They are awesome!!

Something Good: This week we asked Garvin if he would be baptized on August 27th, and he said yes! He said, "Even if there is a earthquake or if the waters rise...I'll be there!" He is so ready and so pumped! This week we have just had some solid lessons with our gators! One of them we just picked up! Her name is Mrs. Pamela Hale, she is 71, and super sweet. Her son lives in Denmark, and is a member there. She has met with missionaries before, but when we came and saw her, (her son wanted us to give her a Book of Mormon) she let us in and wants to learn about the church again! It was so funny, she told us that sometimes people call her, "Pamela City Beach" She is a cutie. We had a pretty cool experience with a guy named Corey. A few weeks ago, we oym-ed (Open Your Mouth -  or talked to him) him and tried to see him, but could never get in touch with him, we told ourselves we would try one more time to see him. Yesterday we finally got to meet him and had a lesson with him! We couldn't go inside so we sat in the trunk of his car and taught him the Restoration..the whole lesson was just so Spirit-filled and he kept telling us how powerful the Restoration is. Later that night he texted us and told us how very much he is interested and wants us to be his guide to learn. He also had already read the Book of Mormon commitment we left him. The Lord is so good to his children! Moral of the story? Do not give up on anyone! :) 

s

Someone gave us a watermelon this week - 35 lbs! No, it does not outweigh me!

YUM!!!

A Tender Mercy: So one day this week, Sis A and I both where having a bad day, just a day that we wanted to be over with. Well, that night we had dinner with some members, the Padden's, and the whole night they took us under their wing and just where so kind and so thoughtful to us, it was probably small to them, but it was so big to me. I am so grateful for awesome members who are in tune with the Spirit, and always willing to help us with missionary work, and to just love us! 

Something Learned: Yesterday at church I was able to witness a pure act of Christlike love. We had pot luck at church and at the end everyone had left except my comp, me and the Nunez's (a couple in the ward) and a lady who just moved from Colombia. We where all talking, the lady who had just moved here doesn't speak a lot of English, just enough to to say hi, the Nunez's who speak Spanish were able to help her understand us. Well we where all leaving and Sister Nunez told her husband she had heard someone say to her that the lady was living in her car, and that she had no place to go..and immediately her husband said, that is not acceptable for her, and as a couple they made a decision in 2 seconds to have her live with them, till she could find a place. They ran out the church to go get her before she left to tell her she could stay with them. There was no hesitation about it, they just did it. It was just so cool to see how these members acted with Charity towards this lady they don't even know. Charity is the pure love of Christ, I am so thankful for the opportunity to witness Charity in Action. Moroni 7: 45-47 :) 

Maybe this week we could all think about someone who could use our compassion and our charity. I love yall! <3 

Sis N!

P.S. This is David! every time we leave he says..Peace, Sisters!" He is awesome!