Ministering Angel, Peace and Getting Real

Mom, My heart hurts for the passing of sweet Grandma Johnson on Wednesday afternoon. I wish so badly I could be there with y'all, but I know she would want to me stay here. And I have felt she is happy. Happy to be home with Grandpa. I love her and will miss her so much, but so grateful she could be with our family for just a while. Please send my regards to those at the funeral. I have had a lot of peace these past few days, after a few weeks of hardship I have finally felt peace, and I know a lot of it is Grandma giving me help and love. I am thankful for the Plan of Salvation and know it is real. I have gotten all your letters and am so thankful. So thank you, thank you! I am all better. Thank you for the prayers and love. I really do feel it every day. Even those hard days. I am grateful for you all. I love you tons, I will be praying for y'all, and you especially mom. I love you lots.

My week: Wow, this week has just gone by SO fast, I don't even know where to begin! I first want to say, to be real to everyone who reads my blog, Missions are SO HARD. Do I complain? Yes. Have I cried a lot!? Oh yes. Do I miss my family and friends? Oh you better believe it. But do I love my Savior? Yes. Why am I on a mission? Because I love Him. I chose to do this. I chose to take my time and give it to Him. Why? Because He has given me EVERYTHING. Could I do more? Yes. Am I happy I am on a mission? 99% of the time, yes. Why is it not 100%? Well because 1% of the mission is hard. Satan is real and he has tested me and brought me to my lowest. But God - He has brought me to my highest. I don't think I would be where I am if the mission was easy all day, every day. But hey, I love my mission. I love my time to my Savior. Anyway, onto the week that flew by!

Monday: Monday was once again, SO fun! We went to the Zoo, with the Wights - Sis Wight and little Sophia, oh my heavens, it was great! We fed the giraffes and it was just a great time.

The Zoo here in Gulf Breeze is actually pretty good, they have a lot of animals they probably don't have in Utah, like this Florida 'gator! Proof I was in Florida, guys! So I am super glad we were able to go! I love the Wight family so much. Monday night was also fun! We showed the Myers (Recent Convert) FHE, Family home Evening. If any of y'all don't know what FHE is, it is a time where families spend time together - whoever came up with it is a genius! It was fun, we were able to have a spiritual message and just have a good time together and of course....Treats!

Tuesday: Oh man, well remember how last week the Elders hid our bikes in the church? Well today we put their bikes in the trees! It was great, the best part was when they came outside the church after district mtg they didn't even notice....HA Elders. Anyways!

Here we are as a district, having our district meeting, of course. We give each other encouragement, lessons, and motivation to keep on keeping on in our missionary work! Tuesday was good, we went to see a lady named Charmane. She is super sweet and so loving. She always lets us in, we were able to share a quote and a Mormon Message..."Things That Matter Most" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjl9oNUApKg It is a good one! We then went to see Miss Joyce. Oh Joyce! She is so funny! She calls me her daughter and I just love her a ton. We shared a scripture and visited with her. Sometimes people just need a visit. Yeah? Well, Tuesday night we had dinner with the other Myers in our ward, and I was DYING...okay not really dying but I was SICK. I still wanted to go see people, but my dear thoughtful companion told me we needed to go home so I could get better, so we did! And boom. I am better! Finally! It sucks to be sick as a missionary. #theworst

Wednesday: Oh this day.....well we didn't have a car....so we BIKED. Mmmmhmm. If you really want to know how I feel about bikes, y'all can ask my mom, she knows. Anyways! We biked ALL day, well probably not all day, but for 3 hours in the FLORIDA HEAT AND HUMIDITY. Yep. Oh it was just SO fun, I guess the good outcome was two things. 1, We went to see Sister Scheaffer and had a great lesson with her, and 2, I got more tan! It was kinda crazy because the day we ride our bikes NO ONE IS HOME, I REPEAT: NO ONE. But hey! God likes to be funny sometimes. But it was good exercise and I got to wear my new CUTE helmet. Wednesday night we had dinner with the Adams. They are such a good family - a cute couple and good food! We went with sister Adams to go see Brenda. It was nice she was home, and we got to visit her for a bit. Wednesday night we also had correlation with our mission leader Brother Harris. He is a cool guy. If you need something to study this week, How about Sanctification. He talked to us about that. Yes, a big word, but ah, so good. I can tell y'all I definately need to work on being more Sanctified. It was a good time! Thursday: Thursday morning we went to help with food orders! It is about an hour away, but totally worth it! I love doing service...if there is one thing I have come to love, it would be dang service. Who would have guessed? Yes my family is probably so shocked, but my mother is probably delighted. Haha. Anyways! Service. Love that stuff.

We had lunch with Sister Dagenais and her husband Jacques. He is from Canada and speaks FRENCH! Shout out to Rhett, French! Jacques is not a member, but it was a fun time, they are good people. Thursday afternoon we did some weekly planning, guys, every Thursday!

But we got to go to helping hands today, because we had the car! Can you tell how I feel to have the car? Just had to take time to cry and be thankful for the car here. We have the car every other day, so now we go to helping hands every other Friday or Thursday so it was nice! Thursday evening we had dinner with the Wights...yes we hang out with them a lot, but we love them!!

Thursday night we went to our Relief Society activity, which was fun, but guess who got her mission call! VANESSA! FINALLY!!! AHHHH!! And...she is going to the ANAHEIM CALIFORNIA SPANISH SPEAKING MISSION!!! We are SO HAPPY FOR HER! So happy, it brought a lot of memories back to me! #ohhappytimes Friday: Friday! We went to see a less active lady named Vicki, with Sis Bradbury. Oh I love Vicki. She is awesome. She also has the cutest boys ever! We shared with her a Mormon message, I think it is called "A Mother's Hope." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ssHhzi7alI Very good Mormon message! Super good! We went to do service for Angel again, but this time is was easy and fast! All we did was pull weeds and guess what...we walked home! We walked on 98, they call it "Bloody 98" Because it is a very dangerous road to walk or bike, its a good thing we have God on our side protecting us! Sister Schlaffer came and picked us up, and we went to the church and she taught us more about FH (Family History!) familyserach.org, is awesome! Go check it out! :) She took us out to Wendys! I don't even remember the last time I had Wendy's so it was fun! Friday night was fun, we went back to the church and played Volleyball! #killenit. Saturday: Wow, today was AWESOME! We had 3 lessons that we did NOT plan. God is so good to us. We saw a lady named Tracy and we got to meet her daughter and granddaughter. We shared with them about the Book of Mormon, and explained what it was all about - gotta love that book! #ITISTRUE! We then went to see a less active family, the Coopers. They have a son who is 9 named Camden. He is such a sweet spirit. We go inside and Camden asks us if we can teach him, and uh, yeah! Oh and he wants to be baptized so bad! So we were able to teach him a lesson and at the end of the lesson he gave such a sweet prayer. I know there is a reason why Christ says we need to be like a child, humble and meek. Even though he is only 9, he has the biggest spirit. So sweet. We went to see Joyce again and guess what!? We gave her a church tour! It was AMAZING! All she could say was how impressed and how amazing our church building was...but we all know, the Spirit was there! So cool. She told us she will come to church soon! Ah we are praying! Saturday night we had dinner with the Marshalls! Love that family. Saturday later night we played B-Ball with the Elders...mmhmm. I won, j/k... but I think I am getting better?! ;) Ah Saturday was a good day! Thank you Heavenly Father! #Blessedday Sunday: Sundays are one of my favorite days. A day to think about my relationship with Heavenly Father and God. Our ward has been focusing on families. First I would love to say, how thankful and how blessed I am for my family. They mean the world to me, and I am reminded everyday how wonderful they are. I am thankful for the Plan of Salvation, especially now. All I can say and testify is that families are forever. Why would God gives us families, if they weren't forever? So thankful for that precious gift. Family. Thankful for the Nielson Clan of mine. Love y'all so much. Oh it was so awesome! Isaac who was just recently baptized was able to pass the sacrament today!!! Oh we were SO happy, he looked so happy and so thrilled. Love this Gospel. Sunday afternoon we were invited to have lunch with Joyce and her Husband Carl, Vanessa came with us and it was a wonderful time! Once again, I just love EVERYONE here so much. Sunday was just a great lovely day. Overall this week has been great! Time is flying and I hate it, because I know my time is short, so I am trying to make it the best! Finding the moments that really do count. Moments to serve my Savior. I love Him and I love the Gospel with all my heart. This church is true. No one can tell me it is not, and even though missions are hard, the Savior knows how we feel. He was felt all my pain, all my sadness, but he has also felt all my happiness. I love Him and I love this work. I am so, so, so blessed to be here in the Florida Tallahassee Mission. Thank y'all for the love and support and prayers! I love y'all Big! Sister Nielson