Sweat, God's Amazing Light, and Blue Angels

Hey Y'all! This week was awesome!!! This whole transfer with Sister Coleman has gone by SO fast, we will know if we get transferred by next week! I really hope I don't get transferred, I love, love, love, love Gulf Breeze. My hope would hopefully be here for at least 6 months - so pray for that, alright? ;) This week Heavenly Father has really showed us some tender mercies, which I am so grateful for. I love him so much! My heart is full. It is amazing to be a missionary. If I could express how much I love this work, y'all would be reading for hours, and we don't want that...;)

On Tuesday we had Zone Training! It was amazing! These are the "Pensacola Zone Sisters!" The Sister Training Leaders (STL's Sister Stewart is one! Awesome, huh?) taught about having Faith in Finding! It was such an answer to my prayer, sometimes it is hard it have faith, I learned that it is more than just having a desire, but to First Trust God. What is the point to have desire to have faith, without trusting God? It opened my spiritual eyes a whole lot! Anyways! After Zone Conference we as a zone all went out to lunch which was super fun! The Pensacola Zone includes all the missionaries in our stake, which means missionaries serving in Gulf Breeze, Navarre, Milton, Jay, Pace, Fox Run, Pensacola and Pine Forest! I love Zone training and Zone conferences! So great. After Zone training before we did exchanges, Sister Coleman and I went to do some finding, it was so awesome because the whole time I was relying on God...."Okay Heavenly Father, you got this! I know you can help us find people who are ready. Yes!" Having faith in finding WORKS! We found 2 new investigators Tuesday night!! God is Good. One of them named Charmane let us in and we taught some of the Plan of Salvation. She was so open and so sweet! The other was named Laz. He was extremely open and took a pamphlet and told us to come back tomorrow! (Say what!? That happens in the South?) Ha-ha. So yes! Faith!! We also did exchanges. Sister Macclellan came to Gulf Breeze with me for a day, and Sister Coleman went to Milton with Sister Stewart! Tuesday was a great day of learning and witnessing what we learned. Boom, baby!

Wednesday was one of the craziest days so far! I was with Sister Macclellan, we did some service for a lady in our ward, Sister Mullikin, who is one of my favorite people here. Her son hasn't been to church for like 3 years. While we were pulling weeds, he started helping us and talking to us about how he has been feeling about the church and how he just doesn't know if the church is true or not (Crazy right!?) Anyways... lets not forget...IT WAS SO HOT!!! I hope all get a laugh...just imagine Sister Nielson, drenched (Literally) in sweat, pulling weeds, talking about the Gospel...ha-ha awesome, huh!? It was worth it because we were able to encourage him to read the Book of Mormon, and just shared our testimonies. Later that day we went with our Relief Society President to a living center to visit and sing songs with elderly people, oh it was so fun and so cute!!

Another really great thing: This photo is of Brother Dolsen who has been less active, but is now coming to church! Woot-woot!! After that we went with Sister West to our lesson with Laz....To describe how it went....lets just say it was a whole new experience! It was something very unexpected! I learned after that lesson, that sometimes people will just bash on what you believe and try to prove you wrong for 2 hours...but now I see it as Heavenly Father led us to him to test our faith, to be unshaken from what we believe! Maybe he isn't ready to be taught, but I know that no matter what people say about what I believe I can tell them that I KNOW the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is TRUE. No one can take my testimony away. BUT, after the crazy lesson I was thinking, WOW! What just happened!?!? But it is okay! Something good happened that night! Ready for it.....!???!? Alright. Well back up story: There is a man named Chris who lives in our apartment complex, we had given him our card with our number and Book of Mormon. He is a little rough around the edges but I know he would have our backs and if anything happened, he would stop everything and help us. He isn't a member but every time we see him we always say hi and talk. He is just a way cool guy! Anyway, we hear a knock on our door and it is Chris! He tells us that the light in our car was on (totally has our back ha-ha)! So Sister Coleman gets the keys to turn them off. Meanwhile....I have this huge prompting to tell him he should watch the Mormon Message, "The Hope of God's Light" (link in last week's blog post). So I tell him that, and he said "Yeah! Let's watch it now!" Me: "Oh, okay yes!" We watch the video and at the end he is crying and I tell him that I know Heavenly Father loves him and has a plan for him. Well, we say goodbye, go back inside our apartment and plan...then the phone rings...a number we don't know...we answer and guess who it is!? Chris. This is what he said on the phone..."Hey, are you the ones I just watched the video with?" Me: "Yes! Hey, Chris. What's up" Chris: (He is crying on the phone...) " How did you know to share that video with me? I don't know what I am feeling, but while we watched that video I saw myself in it...what am I feeling...I feel my shoulders are light..I just showed my wife the video and we both just started bawling...I have had two experience in my life where someone has shared something with me, and it is like God is talking to me, and this is one of those experience..." Me: (Speechless) Sister Coleman: "Well, sometimes we get promptings to share things with others to help them. What you are feeling is the Spirit." Well! Chris asked us to meet with him and his wife to share more with them. I was so amazed! I am so thankful for spiritual promptings, no matter if they impact in a big or small way, it all matters. That night Chris was able to feels God's love. What is better than that?

The Henderson's took us to Culver's! Members here take such good care of us!

Have yall heard of the "Blue Angels"!?!?

They do an air show every year. The Navy base is right in Pensacola, so on Saturday some of our members took us to the beach to see their incredible performance!

It was so cool!!! Have they ever come to Utah!?

They are a big deal here because they are the best pilots in the Navy. They train for a year to go around the states to do these air shows for the year! So it was awesome!!

Here we are at the Air Show! So awesome!! On Sunday a man named Tim called us. He is moving into our ward and told us that his fiancee (Brenda) is wanting to join the church and that he wants US to teach her! We are meeting with them and our on Wednesday. He told us that she wants him to take her to the temple one day to be married!! Cool huh!?!? We are so excited!!

Today, early we went to the Beach to see the Sunrise! This week was amazing!! I really have seen the Lord's hand in our work. Faith is real. God is real. The Church is so true. I am so thankful to be a part of his plan, to help his children feel his love. I know that it is through HIM it happens and I am just his little helper. It is amazing to see miracles starting to happen in Gulf Breeze. Thank y'all for your love and support! I am so blessed to have each y'all in my life.

I love my mission. Here I am jumping for joy at the beach this morning! :) I am kinda living in paradise a little bit....;)

Look! I spy with my little eye...a dolphin!! What a place!

Time does fly when you soak yourself in the work. I know without a doubt that the Savior loves us all. He has shown that so much, sometimes He shows us our weakness to show us our strengths. I am grateful for that. He lives, He is my friend, my maker and my example, I hope to be like He is one day, I hope and pray for y'all everyday. Thank you for all you do. XOXOXOX! Good luck, Fred and Jari! (Just arrived with their three darling little children at Osan AFB,Korea where he is an Air Force Medical Doctor!). God bless yall! #FTMadventures -Sis Nielson