Is Sister Nielson Staying or going? Hmmm...

Well....So transfers.....Guess what!!?!?! Hahaha! I am STAYING in GULF BREEZE!!! Isn't that just wonderful!?! Haha! OH MY HEART IS JUST HAPPY. Both Sister Kinghorn and I will be staying!! We are SO excited!

Also our Polynesian Sisters are staying too!! We are very happy about that - we just love them! Of the Elders in our District, one is going home! (Peace out, Elder Payne!) Our District Leader is training a new missionary, so we are excited for a new missionary in our District! (Can I still be considered new?) ;) Crazy to think I will be in Gulf Breeze for over 7 months! It just makes me so happy. Sister Kinghorn and I have some awesome things happening for us, so we are so thankful we get to stay, and stay together! :) Over all this week has just been GREAT! Monday: Oh my, Monday was just a funny day, in the morning we went with the other sisters and did some service at one of the members home! We painted and just cleaned and organized! It was fun, I just LOVE service, doesn't service just make you feel so good? I sure do! We drove all the way to Pensacola for basically nothing, we were going to stay for the Zone activity but instead we just went shopping and out to lunch...typical Sister's date. ;) So I guess it was fun!! Monday night we just cleaned and got ready for the week, since in the morning we were doing service, we were able to finish our P-day later that night, Monday was just a nice day. I feel like we live in the car sometimes driving to Pensacola, but hey, gotta do what we gotta do! Service = Happy. Tuesday: We had a great district meeting. I just LOVE my district here, we have a good one! Actually probably the best one in our mission! ;) Just sayin'... Then we went to see Sister Scheaffer and Bryon. We taught them the Restoration and about the Book of Mormon. We are starting to teach our less actives the same lessons we teach our investigators, so they can remember and refresh what they have been taught before. :) We went to see Joyce. She is having a hard time keeping commitments, and we think that today she was just having a hard day, so we just prayed with her and shared faith, sometimes faith can be hard to believe when we are struggling, but I think it is the best thing to remember through hard times. Sister Adams took us to our lesson with a new investigator named Tara, she is an ex-Jehovah Witness and is struggling to know if there is a God or not. We taught a lot in Ether 12. If you need a good read, Ether 12 is a good one. :) Tara is awesome. She is a mother, a math teacher, and is very open and willing to learn, which is awesome! We had dinner with Brother and Sister Adams; they are just good people and I am thankful for them! Something awesome she taught us about service is to get a spoon and look right into it, your face will be upside down, but if we take the spoon and hold in outward, our faces will be right side up, so if we are serving outwardly, we will be able to see ourselves in the right way! Try it! :)

Wednesday: Today we saw Vicki Bond!This is Vicki, her son, Cooper, and Patch the dog. Oh this lady is just so awesome! Today we taught her the Plan of Salvation, it was just a super sweet lesson, we learned that one of her goals in life is to one day be sealed to her family...ah! Her husband is not a member, but he is somewhat searching, so we talked to her about how she can be the example, to bring the spirit into her home, to help him feel it. :)

Next we went to see a man named Tommy Dunn. This is a view from his home. Wow, huh?! Tommy is a firefighter 9/11 survivor, if anyone has been through a lot...it would be Tommy. He loves everything our church has to offer. He believes in a lot of things that we believe and also LOVES our prophet, Thomas S. Monson. We were able to watch the talk that he gave during conference which was totally great, because he said it had answered a lot of questions he was having...Oh, the spirit is so good to us! Tommy is so cool. He told us his story about his heart changing. Instead of hating the people who caused so many to die, he has looked past it, and with Christ's help, he has been able to move on. He is incredible. Then we went to see the Coopers! We taught the boys about repentance, it is just so cool to see children just "get it" and understand the gospel! It just shows that the gospel is so simple and so clear! I love it!

Thursday: Oh my goodness, today was just a day of planning, sometimes we have weeks were planning just drags on...and we just can't get it done because we have very little motivation as you can see in this silly photo... Haha - today was one of those days. But hey! It was okay, we got it done, after being stuck in the apartment for what felt like forever,

Sister and Brother Woolstenhulme came and saved us. Don't we look happier to be sprung free from apartment "planning cell?" We went shopping with them to get food! We had a nice dinner will all of them, it was nice after a long day of weekly planning. :) Planning is so important and super good, don't get me wrong, but we struggle sometimes. ;) Friday: Fridays! My favorite day! Today we saw Brother Dolson! He is doing SOOO much better! He looks 10 years younger and is talking at a normal pace! We are so happy for him, we finished talking about the Restoration with him, he told us that his brother and he were able to go over the pamphlet we gave him. So that was awesome because he was able to share what he learned. :) Also, it was cute, he has put ALL the quotes we have given to him in his scriptures, they are all taped in. So sweet. We went to see Gary and Barbara, who are not members, but a few months ago we helped them put away groceries into their home. Oh they are such a cute couple. We had a nice visit with them and shared our quote of the week. :) Then we helped at Helping Hands! LOVE THAT PLACE. Oh everyone there is just SOOO nice to us, so we love doing service for them. We had dinner with Sister Thompson...Oh awesome news! She has a calling now!! Ah we are so happy and are so excited for her!! Woot! We went over to the church and played some volleyball! Friday = Fun day :)

Friday night we found a toad in our bathroom. How did he get there? Well, that's Florida - lots of bugs and critters. Saturday: 15 miles everyone....yes...we rode our bikes for 15 miles....my legs are getting buff... when we first start riding our bikes I am NOT happy and I just DREAD it so much..but I learned something today! We rode to one of the farther parts of our area to see the Cooper's, and oh my heavens, it was such a good lesson, we were able to just talk to Julie and teach the boys, and Corrine is now even studying her scriptures on her own! It was just sooooo uplifting. When we were riding home, I was SO happy, and actually thought that we rode home faster! Well, the lesson I learned was that riding my bike 15 miles or how many we have to ride is...Worth it. All the people we see or talk too, are Worth it. I am thankful for Heavenly Father for giving me this opportunity to learn to love bike riding, it still might not be my Favorite thing to do, but I can do it, because it is Worth it. :) Sunday: Sundays are just the best day of the week! Love church, Love seeing my ward family, Love visiting people, I just love it all. We had lunch with Sister Magers, she has had a hard year, so it has been hard for her to come to church, but she came today! She is awesome! She has two kids, Bryan and Bella. They are so cute! :) We taught them how to be like Jesus, yet kids just know the Gospel so well that I feel like I learn more from them. :) We went to see Paul and Paula. Oh my, they are SO nice to us. Every time we go over they always have something for us. We were able to share them a Mormon Message, "Hope of God's Light" (A really good one :)) It was great, since we were on the computer anyways we showed them "lds.org." Paula wanted to know how she could watch General Conference...awesome! We even had a little lesson on Family History! We got Paula an account and showed her a little about it! We are excited to do Family History with her! :) I just love those two. Sunday night, Vanessa came over and brought us dinner. She is so sweet! She leaves for her mission in California (via the Provo MTC) in a month!! Ah!! We went to the church for a fireside, which was just wonderful! Love me some Sundays! <3

I love, love, love, love my mission with everything I have. I LOVE Gulf Breeze, I LOVE everyone here, I LOVE my Savior, I LOVE this Gospel. It is wonderful. Quote of the week..."As we make Christ the center of our lives, our fears will be replaced by the courage of our conviction." -President Thomas S Monson. (From this past Conference.) I know this is true, if Christ is the Center of everything we do, He can shape and mold us into becoming better. How I am so grateful for that! I definitely need molding and shaping as a person and as a missionary. I love y'all. Have a good week! <3 XOXOX -Sister Sabrina Nielson<3