Happy Fall Y'all

This week has been kinda just everywhere! But I am loving the weather and loving the work! :) Monday: Monday was fun!! Monday afternoon I was able to do Sister Kinghor's hair!!

Which is always a win-win for both of us, helps me keep up my skills and makes Sister Kinghorn look beautiful! ;) So we lightened her hair, and "blessed" her ends, and super a fun time! :) Monday evening was super fun! We went to the Crowell's for dinner. They are a newer family in our ward and I just love them oh so much! Their daughter is less active, but she is super sweet and it was fun getting to know her:) We went to the Woolstenhulme's to have dessert. We had smores! Mmm, super yummy! P days are just wonderful! Today was just a day of fun and feeling pretty! <3

Tuesday: Well today was our last district meeting with Elder Cody Payne (second from right). He is so ready to leave, but he couldn't leave without a going away party, so we all had a district breakfast, before district meeting, which was fun! We watched "Johnny Lingo" If you haven't seen it...look it up and watch it! Super funny..."8 cows, Mr. Harris" Tuesday afternoon, We went to see Joyce. Her son Max, the one we were teaching who has MS, is going down hill, it has been super hard for her, but Joyce is learning faith and relying on God to help her. I am thankful for her example to me of going forward with life, even when it is hard. She is awesome. We went to see the Cooper's, and our lesson was on the Ten Commandments! I always say this, but kids - they just GET it. They understand the Gospel. Oh it just makes me happy. I love the Cooper's. I love all of them so much. We had dinner with the Stubbs, which was fun! We had breakfast! Gotta love those kind of dinners, ya!!? ;) Overall today was a good day! Shout out to Elder Payne!! You are an awesome missionary and I will miss you, thank you for teaching me! GB will miss you! Wednesday: Today was rough, sometimes all you want to do is do nothing on missions?! I don't know why we feel like this, but sometimes we just do, but we overcame the struggle and the work moves forward! This morning Sister Kinghorn and I were able to just talk, sometimes we like to say..." A companionship is like a dang relationship" It really is, it is funny, but I am so thankful for Sister Kinghorn! She is so awesome, I just love her forever!! <3 Bikes...We rode our Bikes.....(Joy) We went to see Nana, Sister Smith's mom, who is not a member. She fell a few weeks ago and got pretty hurt, so we visited with her, which was good! We went to Sister Scheaffer, which is good - we love, love visiting her! :) We were able to do some Family History with her, which is good because we can all learn together! :) Wednesday late afternoon we went with our other Sisters to get some frozen yogurt, they were having a hard day so they invited us to come! Wednesday night was fun! We went out with the Taylor's to a pizza place (always love going out) our members are just SO good to us. We were able to teach the YW's how to make crepes. Well...actually Sister Kinghorn taught them and I was there for moral support! ;) I love our YWs! It kinda makes me miss YWs<3 Thursday: Today I hit my 6 month mark on the mission!! Crazy, I feel like I JUST got here..I don't know, maybe I did, but I still say i am new! ;) Time is going by so fast, it is just scary!! But I am thankful for the time that I do have! :) Thursday morning we were able to go to Pensacola to help with the Bishop Store House, always a great way to do service! We were able to meet our new Elder in our district! He is brand new, fresh from the MTC! His name is Elder Jenkins, and we are excited to get to know him! :) Thursday afternoon we did our normal weekly planning which is great! Gotta love weekly planning...ha!

We had dinner with the Myers', Sister Myers and Lauren took us to the beach...

Oh, can I just talk about the beach for a hot minute!? The sunset on the water....oh pictures do not do justice! If you ever get the chance to come to FL, it is a must to go to the beach in the evening...one word...Breathtaking. <3 Friday: Friday was good! We went to see Vicki, and it is awesome, she is coming along! Since I have been here, I have come to see her really grow. That is the beautiful thing about this Gospel, all we do is continue to grow. We were able to talk and share why it is so important to go to church! Oh church, is just a happy place! A place to remember our Savior. We went to see Joyce again. We gave her a picture of Christ and she put it up on one of Max's walls. It was so funny - she was saying that everywhere she looked Jesus was ALWAYS looking at her! Isn't that just so great?!;) We are helping or trying to get Joyce to stop smoking so hopefully this picture of Christ always looking at her will help. :) We went to help at Helping Hands - sure do love that place! It is a great place to just talk to people about the Gospel. Love it. Friday night we had dinner with the Wight's! Oh I just love love them! Their kids, Aiden and Sophia, are just so cute! The Wight's are excited for the official adoption day, and when they will have the chance to be sealed all together. :) It just makes me sooooo happy. :) Saturday: Saturday was good! Sister Kinghorn and I were able to take some time to prepare for our lesson for Sunday. We are teaching Relief Society! Scary huh!? It went good! We saw the Cooper's where we talked about personal prayer and how prayer works. I have come to learn that prayer really does work! It is great! :) We went to see Carlos! Carlos the one we met a few weeks ago, he got a job! Woot! Prayer does work! :) We went to see Brother Dolson. He was SO tired that he kept falling asleep which was funny, but he sure is awesome. Saturday night we had dinner with the Marshall's! It was great, we were able to talk about Conference and how to keep what we were taught in our lives. :) Saturday = A good day!

Sunday: Oh the joys of Sunday! We went to our ward council meeting. We usually have ward counsel twice a month or so, and I sure do love those meetings! Shout out to Elder Hatori, for a killer talk about missionary work! :) As mentioned already, Sister Kinghorn and I were able to teach Relief Society. It is kind of scary to teach women who are older and wiser and probably know more about the Gospel than you do, but it went well! We taught about "Feeding My Sheep." Such a good lesson for missionaries to teach! A quote that we passed out at the end of our lesson..."We must all learn to be true shepherds. We must manifest the same love to other that the Good Shepherd has for all of us. Each soul is precious to Him." The lesson was just a good reminder to reach out to those in need, especially those who are lost, to help them come back. Thankful to have the wonderful opportunity to teach! Sunday afternoon, we did some of our own FH. I was able to learn how to index. I am slowly learning more and more, and my testimony about FH is growing. I am convinced that my sweet Grandma Johnson, who recently passed is helping my testimony grow. I am so thankful for her and also faith in FH. Sunday night was fun! We had a fun dinner with the Bradbury's! Brother Bradbury is deployed but now only has about 3 months left! Wooohoo! Sunday night we went over to the Woolstenhulme's. We love that family a lot. Brother Woolstenhulme taught us all about Light, and how our light can come and go, sometimes it is bright and other times it is dim, but with Christ our light can always become brighter. I sure do love that! Sundays are one of my favorite days. It used to not be, but I have come to love Sundays, and thankful for a day to remember our Savior. I am so thankful for this Church. My testimony is simple. This church is true. I love it. Every day I strive to live what I know to be true. I love my Savior. He is there for all of us. I know the Book of Mormon to be true. I am thankful for Christ's words in it. I am so thankful for our prophet, what an true man he is. I am so thankful for missionary work, every day is worth it. Every hard day is worth it and the people here are worth it. I am so thankful for all the support and love I have from everyone, especially my family. I wouldn't be here without them. I love y'all so much! I hope everyone has a great week! <3 XOXOX, Sis Nielson

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

Another Week in Heaven

When I think about this week, I am just spiritually lifted and all I want to do is be better. This week has been one of the best spiritually. I really have felt Heavenly Father teaching me, I feel like I have learned a lot so far, but oh I just keep learning and learning, the gospel never ENDS! Its is just great! #spirituallyfed. :)

Monday: Oh my, so Monday was CRAZY! It was pouring and raining and pouring, Florida rain storms can be crazy! But that did not stop our P-day! We went to the Pensacola mall with Vanessa, which was super great, she was able to find a few things for her mission which is awesome! Oh I did NOT buy anything!! So I guess that is good!? :) Window shopping is so real on a mission. Ha! Monday night we had dinner with Trena, she brought over a boy named Kristopher, he is deaf but super sweet, Trena's mother is deaf, so she knows how to sign, and I have learned a little from her.. I now know our "mission purpose" in sign language so that is cool!? Sign language is awesome!

Tuesday: Today was just WONDERFUL! We did a district breakfast all together at the church in the morning, which was fun!

I went on an exchange with Sister Brown, she is my new STL. I was able to go to Milton for a day! Milton is very different from Gulf Breeze, but it was just good! :) We had a Family History (FH) lesson with a lady named Tammy. It was awesome because she ordered a B.O.M, but we found out she was interested in FH! Boom. We had a good lesson with her about both! We went to see a few more people. I have forgotten their names, but they are all awesome! Oh but the bishop in Milton is a bee keeper! So yes, I learned a lot about bees! It was awesome....oh did y'all know that girl bees do ALL the work?! Haha. Oh also, bees only live for a transfer...6 weeks. I thought that was funny. ;) Milton was just a fun change! It made me realize how much I love GB, and how much I will miss it when I leave...! Wednesday: Wednesday...cool story! We were riding our bikes...thank goodness we brought our rain coats! Because it started POURING on us while we were riding, but I think it is because we needed to meet Carlos!

He was outside his garage, we stopped and said hi to him. He has a really pretty dog named Hunter. Anyways! We got into talking and it would NOT stop raining, so he let us stay in his garage till it stopped. Well we found out that Carlos is struggling a lot, so we were able to share him, Ether 12:27, a killer good scripture and we said a prayer for him. He wants us to come back! After all was said and done, it stopped raining...so I think that is a sign we were supposed to meet him!? :) We had a great lesson with the Coopers, Oh I just LOVE this family much. All I want to do is bring them back. We rode over to the Banks' house! Grandpa, who is not a member (guys is it sad that I do not know his real name and that I only call him grandpa?) Haha, let us teach him a lesson, and he told us he wanted to wear his super nice suit to church, so we are hoping he will come! :) Wednesday night we had dinner with the Adams. Oh the Adams! Love them!!! I just love everyone here, I really do. :)

Thursday: Have you ever been hit with the spirit so strong that you come home and are spiritually drained?!?! Well that was today! We had a zone conference with President and Sister Smith! Oh it was just POWERFUL. They really know what we need as a mission! We were taught a lot about Family History and helping less actives come back to the church, that will be one of our focuses now, "The year of the Family" helping families make it to the temple. I am super pumped and just ready to go to work! Family History, if you know me, I am NOT one to love Family History and don't have a strong testimony about it, but now I really want to gain one. This zone conference has helped me see why it is so important to do FH. I am ready to put down my pride about FH and do it. Bring souls to Christ, FH it can do that, and I am ready to gain a love for it! Thursday was just awesome. I am so thankful for leaders and the Spirit. :) Vanessa attended Zone Conference with us, and we all "matched" that day! Friday: Well today we did weekly planning like no one's business! Honestly that was almost our whole day. President made sure that we need to plan very well, so we don't just "Walk around" So we took that and planned for everything. It was long, but it was good! :) Friday night we had dinner with the Cooper's and taught them a lesson about Faith. Funny thing about faith, I have been praying to find faith in Family History, because I really need to find it, and while I was studying about faith I was led to "True to the Faith" Funny huh? Well, I learned we need to exercise faith, because if we don't we will become weak. So we did a fun activity with the boys and just had a really good lesson with them, and honestly I think it was more for me...so I am thankful! "Faith is like a little seed." My seed is growing a little more each day about FH :) Saturday! Conference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is that too much excitement!? We watched the first session at the church and the second at the Woolstenhulme's, I really just loved, loved, loved it so much. As a missionary you can't really fall asleep...so I got a lot out of it this time! I feel like the Holy Ghost was mentioned a lot. Sometimes I wonder who the Holy Ghost is, he must be pretty amazing to uplift, comfort, counsel and convert Heavenly Father's children. So this conference I am so thankful for the Holy Ghost. In my prayers I have thanked Heavenly Father for the Holy Ghost. I have never thanked Him for that before, but if we didn't have the Holy Ghost, no one would know Heavenly Father or the Savior, so I am thankful for Him.

Saturday night was great! Paul and Paula invited us for dinner. They are not members, but have really opened up to us! We even had a lesson with them and got Paul to pray! Ah, I just love seeing people take a few more steps in their life to come closer to the Savior. They are the nicest people in the world. Something Paul always tells us, "Our home is your safe place." Why do I love Gulf Breeze so much? That's why. Sunday: Another wonderful day of Conference!!!! :) One of my favorite talks was about mothers, by Elder Holland. I just want to tell all mothers and especially mine, and also my oldest sister who is another mother to me, how blessed and thankful I am for you. Mothers are amazing. While he was speaking, it just hit me SO hard how one day I hope I can be one. I have so many wonderful examples in my life, also in Gulf Breeze. I love all my mothers in Gulf breeze. My heart is just full. Words cannot describe how wonderful this weekend has been. I love the Gospel, The good news it does bring, I just love it. I always say I love my mission so much, but I do. I just love it! I am so thankful to be here in Florida! Oh also I find out if I am getting transferred from GB, on Sunday, so I am freaking out! Kinda crazy I have been here for almost 6 months...but it has been the best 6 months of my 19 years. Haha. Hope y'all have a good week! Oh thank you all for the letters and nice words! Y'all are the best! <3 Sis Nielson<3 #Floridalover

Week of Good Times. :) #FloridaBound

HI Everyone!

Monday! Monday was probably the LONGEST Pday of my life....well mission! :) It was a good day though! We went with Trena Smith to the Navy base in Pensacola! They have a Navel Air Museum! It was super awesome and so cool. This statue represents the guiding in of the Navy jet onto the runway strip of a naval air carrier.

We saw many different kind of planes, and I got to climb into this one. We went on a "Blue Angel" flight simulator. Yes, Sister Kinghorn and I could probably fly like the Blue Angels...Haha so fun!

Oh! We went to a lighthouse too!! SO COOL! So this lighthouse was the first one built in Florida. It has 157 steps going up, it was super windy when we got up to the top...

But the view...Oh Florida is surrounded by water! It was so beautiful that I was just speechless! I can finally say I have been inside a real lighthouse...Uh, I don't think they have them in Utah....?! So that was awesome! :) Monday = Good day :) Tuesday: Oh the bikes....we rode those things again today, thankfully it is becoming a little bit cooler and I guess "Fall" is coming? Florida Fall...haha, still warm! But today was awesome! We had a great district meeting with our Zone Leaders! Good guys! We went to see Sister Schaeffer and her husband...funny story about that. So the FedEx guy comes up to the house and they recieve these 2 BIG packages...Sister Schaeffer has no idea what she ordered, so we open them and guess what was in it...haha! The ward's order of paper towels for the meetinghouse! Ha! They showed up at her house but they were addressed to "LDS Church" Haha it was funny. Then we went to see Miss Joyce! She was a little grumpy when we saw her but it is always a good time. We shared her a uplifting thought, and then rode our bikes to the Myers' house...it was a bit away....oh the joys! Isaac is just doing awesome! He knows the Gospel so well and it is great! We are teaching Wendy is mom, and hoping things will be moving along with her. Tuesday night Sister Stubbs came to pick us up and we had a fun dinner with her and her family! Bikes = Death of me. Question of the day...Will I ever ride a bike after the mission? Answer = Probably not. :)

Wednesday: Today was great! I got this awesome package from home! It has some clothes and Scentsy fragrance wax (thanks, sis) to make our stinky apartment smell nice, and cookie mixes (thanks, mom)! so I am a happy little Sister Missionary! I have been craving sugar cookies, and now I can bake some, just like that! See our new sofa - looks so great! And see how clean we keep our missionary apartment!

And speaking of our apartment, we were given this etched glass plaque from our friend, Brian, who works at our apartment complex. How sweet, huh? It is interesting to compare our picture of the Savior, and how we envision Him, to this image on the glass plaque where he has the crown of thorns. On Wednesday we went to see Dawn, who is from England. Her husband has been in the hospital for a while now. We shared her a nice quote, then we drove to the Myers' and put our bikes on the rack on the back of our car. We got the chance to just talk to Sister Myers and had a good time. It wasn't all spiritual, but just a fun visit, and it was actually really good for both Sister Kinghorn and I. Sometimes it is good just to visit. We had dinner with the Adams, and oh man, they are the funniest people ever. I love them so much!

Wednesday night we went to the Church and sat in on a Mia Maids meeting (We might miss Young Women's just a little) :) and while we were at the meetinghouse on Ward Activity night, I got picture with Grandpa. Isn't he so cute?? He is my favorite and I love him. Overall today was just splendid! Today = Happy!!! Thursday: Well today was awesome too! We went to see Vicki. We had Vanessa come with us. We taught her the Restoration and we also watched the Restoration video! It was a good lesson. We are trying super hard to get Vicki and her boys to come to church. Well, guess what?!? Today she committed to come and promised! So that was just great! So happy and excited!

We all went to lunch at Zaxby's. It was just a great time with Vanessa! Shout out to my girl! She is going to be an AMAZING missionary!! We had our normal weekly planning session which is always just SO fun...hahah (sarcasm?) J/K, but it is good!

Thursday night Wendy came and picked us up, and we had dinner with them and I got to cut her hair! Love that I can do what I love as I help others! She is going to a conference this weekend so she wanted her hair done. :) Oh happy news! Brother Myers went to Tally and brought us back "Cookie Butter" from Trader Joe's! So wonderful! We talked about families and the Plan of Salvation. A favorite of mine. Overall Thursday was a "Blessed day" :) Friday: Oh my heavens today we ate so much junk by the end of the night we both wanted to DIE. Anyways! Friday afternoon we went to Sister Townson's house and she fed us lunch. She is less active, but loves to have us come over and share her a message! So that was great! We then went over to Patty's house, she fed us little baby cupcakes! We taught her about the Book of Mormon and what it is all about. That blue book is true! :) Happy birthday to Trena! Love you, girl! :) We went to Helping Hands and did our service, love that place with all my heart! Friday night was just fun! We went to the Wights and had pizza fun night with them,

and then after that we went to the Woolstenhulme's and had Family Fun Night with them and watched "Meet the Mormons" Good movie y'all! If you haven't seen it, it is on Netflix!! Go and watch it! :) Oh Fridays. So glorious.

Saturday: Today we went to a baptism for Cody, a boy the Elders have been teaching! It was a sweet one. Super happy and proud of him. Baptism is awesome. :) We decided to match outfits for the baptism. Here we are by the meetinghouse as twinners! We rode our bikes....hahaha again. We went to visit Paul and Paula, the couple who always gives us ice cream without fail when we see them. I have no problem with that! ;) Oh yes! Today was Women's conference! Oh my goodness I loved it so much!!! LOVE the Gospel!!! We went to Pensacola to watch it, and had dessert before with the other wards! Oh it is just amazing to have a night where the spirit is SO strong. A rush of the spirit, amazing! :) They have Krispy Kreme doughnuts here! So we had to get some :) For some reason we just ate a lot of treats this week...haha! But it was a good day! Full of the spirit and full of Love! <3 Sunday: Gotta love Sundays! We went to see Camden. It was funny because we are teaching him, and his mom who is less active knows SO much about the Gospel, she was helping us and teaching too. We had him read a little from the picture book of the B.O.M (I read the picture book a while ago and understand it so much better now.) ;) It was a fun lesson! They have a ton of little kids which makes my heart happy. We went to see Brother Dolson, Dawn's husband. He just got out of the hospital and is doing SOOOO much better! Oh we are just so happy for him!! :) Sunday night we went to dinner with the Taylor's. Love them all so much.

Sunday night we went to the Woolstenhulme's and Bro Woolstenhulme taught us about Charity and Love. It was amazing. I love my Woolstenhulme family so, so, so much. I love Sundays and I love Jesus! I love Florida, I love my mission. I am so, so, so thankful to be here. My time as a missionary is the best time. Everyday is amazing and such an adventure! :) Quote of the week by our dear late Apostle, Richard G. Scott, "I witness that the remission of sins bringeth meekness, and lowliness of heart, and because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which Comforter filleth with Hope and perfect Love." love y'all! XOXOX Sister Nielson!

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

I Love Gulf Breeze!!

This week has been FULL of crazy, good, shocking things, but overall my heart is FULL. It is kinda crazy how missionary time goes. Weeks fly by, days are either super fast or super slow, but every moment, minute, hour counts! #Wanttobeamissionaryforever Monday: In the real would people do not like Monday, but Monday on a mission is the best! Monday afternoon we went out with a girl named Vanessa (Crossing our fingers she will get her mission call this week!) We went out to get Frozen Yogurt, at a place called "Sweet Frog." I think sweets are good for the soul a lot of the time:) We went shopping...but hey! I only bought One shirt instead of two! That's good, ya? It was a good time with her! Monday night, we had dinner with the Smith's and we had FHE with them, then they took us to get snowcones...snowcones in September!? Haha, ya pretty RAD! Overall, a goooooood day! Tuesday: WE GOT OUR CAR TAKEN AWAY. Uh yeah, okay back up story....so Tuesday, we had our normal district meeting, which was great! Sister Kinghorn spoke and taught about attitude! We all went out to Whataburger for lunch as a district...than we get a text from the ZL's saying we needed to call them (SCARY) So we call them..."Hey sisters we are taking your car, another set of sister missionaries needs it in Dothan, we will be there in 40 minutes to come get it." OKAY! So in less than 2 hours we were carless! So we are now in a car share with the Navarre Sisters! Which is....good. Haha! Riding bikes here we come! Tuesday was kinda crazy, but Tuesday night was fun! The Stubbs took us out to dinner and Sis Stubbs took us out to see people! Super sweet girl. Love her!!

Wednesday: Oh man....we ate WAY to much food today! Wednesday morning Sis Schlaffer took us out to breakfast to a cute place called "Sail In" she is awesome! Wednesday afternoon we went to a lady's home named Patty, she isn't a member, but she knows Mormons and lived in Utah for a bit! Woot!! We had a nice lunch with her and it was great! We went to see Sis Scheaffer, and we talked about Christlike love with her, something I have been working on for sometime now, it made me think, "Am I loving like Christ would?" Christlike love, it can get to you! Wednesday night some of the sisters in our ward took us out to dinner with Mitzi, who came back to visit, it was super fun with all of them! :) Thursday: Thursday! We went to breakfast with the sisters and had a fun time with them! We did some awesome weekly planning and updated a lot of things, since we will be riding bikes and since we don't have our old GPS anymore! Thursday night I was able to receive a blessing from Brother Smith, something that I really needed. Something I have learned while being out here, that it is okay not to be okay. It was nice to hear what Heavenly Father needed me to hear from Him. I am thankful for blessings.

Friday: Friday! I wore my new shirt - pretty Florida looking, eh? In the morning Sister West and Brother West took us out to "Sail In" (Again this week hahah!) We had a nice time with them. We went to see a lady named Dawn. Her husband is a member but he is in the hospital right now, so we went to see how she was doing. She is from London, and oh, I love her accent so much! We then did our weekly service at Helping Hands! Super fun! After that, we went to visit Sister Wight, I love the Wight's so much! Friday night we had dinner with the Smith's with the other sisters, then went to play volleyball! Still no bueno at that sport! Ha! But I love it! Saturday: Saturday Vanessa took us to our farthest area to see some former investigators and try people we haven't tried before! It was super fun with her! We were able to meet a lady named Tracy we are hoping to see again, and we saw Kathy, which is always a nice time! Friday afternoon we biked to the church from our apartment...and it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be (cause I thought I was going to die!) But I am still alive, probably because the weather was super nice! :) Saturday night we had dinner with the Marshall's. Oh and I realized that I have a cold...but as a missionary, you just gotta keep going! Sunday: I love Sundays! I love church and I love having a day to remember Christ. It is always so nice. After Church we went to see a girl named Carolyn. She is awesome. We were able to teach her the Restoration. Her mom is a new member and wants Carolyn to experience what the church is like, too! But funny story....! Her dog peed on my FOOT! It was the funnest thing...but hey! Her Aunt hurried and came over and washed my feet - it was so sweet, but so funny! I guess I am now marked as that dog's "territory" Haha so great!

Here we are with Brother Taylor at the Church parking lot. We had dinner with the Taylor's, and they are one of the best families too! Man, just EVERYONE here is the best. My heart is full because of the love I feel here. I am so thankful to be here in Gulf Breeze. Gulf Breeze will always be my favorite area, with my favorite people. Overall a good week, I love my mission. I love our Savior. I hope to be like Him one day, though I am far from it, but everyday I try. Quote of the week. "We would do well to slow down a little, proceed at the optimum speed for our circumstances, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most." -President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. (Love that man.) Hope y'all have a good week! I love y'all lots! Sister Nielson

Yippee! A Baptism!!

Monday: Monday we had a GOOOOD P-day! Sister West took us out the whole P-day!

We went to lunch to this Japanese Restaurant...and guess what I ate!?! Octopus. It was very chewy and just weird. Probably something I won't ever eat in my life again. But hey, A for effort!?

Then we got our NAILS done. Everyone, this is a BIG deal. Just kidding. But hey it is nice to have Gel nails again for a bit, also I was able to talk to this older man, who was getting a manicure right next to me about the Gospel, so it was a win-win for both of us! Haha!

We got way good ice cream that was so much needed in the heat! (Is it Fall yet in Utah?) We visited this older lady named Clara in a retirement home, oh my heart was melted! She was the sweetest thing. Something that made me laugh Clara said..."They sure do make missionaries cute nowadays." She was just so cute and so nice. (She reminded me a lot of my sweet Grandma! Shout out to you Grandma! I love you!) Monday was just a fun good day!! :)

Tuesday: Tuesday, we had our last District meeting with our District Leader, Elder Christensen (second row, at the back) who is getting transferred! And so is Sister Kirton (second row in the front in royal blue) who is serving in Navarre. We had a good last District meeting and had a little pizza party to say goodbye and all. I will miss them, but hey! Elder Christensen is now in Thomasville, Georgia and Sister Kirton is now in Dothan, Alabama, and our new District leader is Elder Hatori, he is from California and is half Japanese and Hawaiian! (Asian unity!) His photo is below with the Saturday pictures. He is cool! Tuesday we taught a lesson about church and prayer and scriptures to Joyce, and invited her to come to church. She has had some hard patches in her life, but is so kind and knows Heavenly Father has watched out for her. She is amazing! Tuesday night we had dinner with the Alvarez family. Vanessa Alvarez who is my age should be getting her mission call THIS week! We are SOOOOO EXCITED for her! She is going to be the BEST missionary out there.

So here we are in our clean, clean kitchen, grinning at the end of a super successful day! Do we look happy? Mission work is awesome! What a great day! Wednesday: I always thought Wednesday was spelled like "Wensday" till coming out on the mission...hahah...random funny moment I had. Today was a good day! We did a lot of contacting and met a lady named Susan, who let us in her house and gave us some water and we talked to her for a bit. She isn't a member but we could tell she really needed someone to talk to, so it was sweet. Her mother paints and is an amazing artist! Susan's house is full of art work. She showed us all the art work, and I just loved it SO much! I really believe if you go into someone's home and look at pictures on the wall and ask about who are in them or whatever is on their walls is a GREAT way to learn about who they are. Haha - it is kind of funny because sometimes I will just stand up and look at pictures because I love learning about THEM. It was a nice visit!

Wednesday night we had a GREAT lesson with the Myers, we showed them the video "LIFT" and after watching it, Isaac starting crying. It was so sweet because he told us he has a testimony about service and wanted to share his testimony at his baptism. We are SO excited for him. Then he showed me how to play with lasers. Should I audition for the next Star Wars series? I don't think so, either. But that was a fun activity at the Myers' house.

Thursday: Thursday morning we got up and went right to help with food orders...and as you can see I tried on a helmet. Always wondered what I would look like in a helmet. Pretty silly with a dress, right? Okay, that was random.

But - good news! Guess who is in our zone now...SISTER STRADINGER!!! In case you forgot who she is, here is here picture from the Half Mission Conference two weeks ago: She got transferred to Fox Run, so now I will see her a little more than before! If there is someone I hope to be like when I grow up, it might be Sister Stradinger. Love that girl. We did our normal weekly planning, but while we were talking to Sister Woolstenhulme on the phone, Sister Kinghorn picked up this shell I found at the sound a few weeks ago and started screaming because there was a DEAD CRAB in it....oh my gosh. It smelled SO BAD! Anyways back up story about this shell....just a few weeks ago we went to the sound with one our of members on Sunday and I found this beautiful shell, pretty far away from the water, and so I asked Sister Hall if I could take it and she told me that there might be a hermit crab in it, so we put it down and waited to see if it would come out...well it never did and we tried to poke a stick in it to see if anything would happen. Well nothing did, so I thought it was safe enough to take home...well I was sure wrong because there was a crab in it and little did we know....till 2 weeks of having the shell in our apartment. So yes. Sister Kinghorn and I are somewhat crab killers but, lesson learned. ;) Do crabs stink when they die!? Answer: YES. Thursday night was fun because we were able to make the programs for Isaac's baptism with Sister West and get a few things ready for Sunday! Friday: Friday!!! Friday we went to see Kathy,and talked about Christlike LOVE. The Language of love. It has been one of my favorite lessons to teach, because love can be taken in SO many ways, but the perfect love is Christlike love. I always say this but every lesson we teach to Kathy is something that I, Sister Nielson always need. I always laugh because really I am just teaching myself what I need. Haha, it is great. "Charity is love in action." -President Thomas S Monson. Sure do love that quote. We went to Helping Hands and did our normal service there and guess what!? They donated us a NEW couch for our apartment...our old couch smelled like Elders with BO. Mmmhmmm so nasty. So we are SO thankful to them, plus it is white and we got super cute pillows for it! Yep, we are so stoked about our new couch! A blessing from Service! Peggy and Tammy were SO giddy about giving it to us, it was so cute. Friday night we had a fun dinner with the Hogans, we went to the church to meet the Myers for Isaac's baptism interview which went super good! Overall a good day! :)

Saturday: Saturday morning we had cooralation with our ward mission leader, and we got to go to his dock with the Elders. How cool is this photo? Elder Thompson and Elder Hitori are in the background. Isn't the Gulf of Mexico something special? (Note: we are NOT on the beach!) Then went and picked up the couch with Trena - YAY! That was fun!

And here is a picture of our District Leader, Elder Hitori! He is in the background. He is part Japanese, so now I am not the only Asian in my District! This is the Meyer's garage. And while were were there...

I got to CUT some hair! Probably one of my FAV things to do as service here on the mission! I was able to cut Brother Myers and Isaac's hair for the baptism on Sunday! (Gotta look good right?) It was super fun! Brother Myers brother, and his wife came out for the baptism so we were able to meet them and visit...so I cut their hair outside...in the humidity and heat...mmhmmm, let me tell you. it was HOT. All I wanted was it to rain...and guess what happened!? Oh Rain. Haha. So funny. Even though I was sweaty and sticky, I loved it all!

Sunday: BEST DAY on the mission! Sunday Isaac was BAPTIZED! It was such a sweet baptism. Brother Myers was able to baptize him, and his uncle was able to confirm him, oh it was just wonderful! Earlier that day we were talking to Brother Myers and he was telling us how he has found his testimony, after Isaac was baptized he told us that he had this anger and hurt, but now it is all gone. Oh wow, I just LOVE that so much!! How awesome. His mom, who isn't a member, sang "How great thou Art" which was so beautiful. I am just so happy for them. It has been amazing to see this family come closer to Christ together. That is what missionary work is all about. I am grateful. I love my Savior, I love who He is and His sacrifice for us, so that one day we will all be able to be with Him again. I am grateful for everyone I meet and everyone that we get to talk about Christ to. It is the best thing in the world. I know that He Lives. He is real. He was the perfect example to all. I love y'all! Sis Nielson!