FSU is Full of Good Times!

Backtrack: I wanted to include this photo of my girls from Gulf Breeze at transfers on Jan 6, Sister Kinghorn and Sister Yo! Shout out to them!

This photo shows what it's like when we all transfer to another area and/or companion. After our instruction meeting inside a meetinghouse building, we all go our separate ways. See the bikes being put onto the backs of different cars? (Sorry, "The Best Two Years" does not show that correctly - you are never alone on any public transportation on a Mission. We stick together and increase our safety that way.)

Something Good: Wow - FSU is full of good times! This school is amazing, and the people make it even more better! I really know Heavenly Father wants me to serve here for a reason! This is a map of this gigantic campus and the next photo of Seminole Drive is on campus.

So many good things! Oh man - where to start?! Well! One of our investigators named Alan, has set a BCD (baptism confirmation date)! It was so awesome because really...he kinda just set his own! Yes! So exciting! Please pray for Alan to have the courage to talk to his parents about the Church and his baptism! And that everything will go well, too. :) Thank you! It was just an awesome lesson with him about having courage to believe what you believe. :) He is so prepared and so ready! We had lunch with one of our LA's (less actives) named Jenn. She has gone through a LOT in her life, but she is the COOLEST girl ever! Oh I just adore her so much! We had a killer lesson about being a Good Samaritan, and well, guess what..she already is one! She told us little things she had already done that week for people she knows..so awesome! Now we just need to get her to Church! :)

So! Another cool little miracle of the week! I was SUPER thirsty...like always...(sort of sunny and warm here, even in January) and asked Sister Hall if we could go get smoothies..so we do and we meet this AWESOME girl named Chasity. She is so open and so kind! So funny, but she actually took our number down, and we where able to explain the Book of Mormon to her! It is so cool to be serving where the Spirit is so good to tell us where people are! I love it! :) And, really great news - If we have people to come along with us, we are able to go to Institute class, which is AMAZING! Institute is the BEST! We are in the Pearl of Great Price class and I am learning SO much! The shortest parable in the Bible is about 2 verses long that tells us about the pearl of great price and how this man gives everything he has for the pearl of great price. So in the class it really made me think..."What I am willing to give up for the gospel?" It is such a wonderful thing we have in our lives, so a good question to think about :)

We where able to meet with our RC (recent convert) named Q, who is the FUNNIEST guy ever. Oh Q, I just adore him so much!! We did some family history (this photo with Q is in the FH library) and watched some great Mormon messages! This week we had exchanges! I was able to go to TCC (Tallahassee Community College), which compared to FSU is SO SMALL. I was with Sister Holmes, she is the greatest! :) We had this AMAZING lesson with a girl named Berkeley, who is SO PREPARED for the Gospel. We taught her the Plan of Salvation! The spirit was so strong and it was just beautiful! :) So cool - she is reading Preach My Gospel and thinks it is SO cool we can do baptisms for the dead. Man I love her so much!! So many wonderful things this week :) So many tender blessing! I LOVE CAMPUS!!!

Something Funny: Oh, so funny story...We where walking to the institute on Wednesday...and saw this guy, so I go up and start talking to him. Well, I was trying to give him a pass along card and they all fall out of my bag...haha...so he helps me pick them up...well little did I know I was walking RIGHT into a pot hole....haha so we can all guess what happened...I fell and rolled my ankle in FRONT OF HIM. SO EMBARRASSING!!! So for the second time he comes down to the ground and helps me back up...haha.. I was dying inside! Well, later that day my ankle was swollen and it hurt so bad. So our senior couple had me sit and ice it...we didn't make it to campus that day. But hey! They say talk to everyone...I sure did. :) That probably is the more funny part of the week, but hey! No need to worry I am good! :) Some things I have learned..life is embarrassing and all you gotta do is laugh out loud, a lot. :)

Something Learned: Oh so many wonderful lessons learned this week! The biggest one though I really have felt I needed to learn was that ALL efforts are NOT wasted. We talk to so many people every day and a lot of them do not appreciate our message or our little card, but the cool thing is, that if we go and tell one person, JUST ONE person, one eternal truth everyday, we are doing what the Savior himself did. That is a mission. Sometimes I am so tired of walking and talking to random collage kids who don't care, and all I want to do is give up, but then I have to remember that the Savior did NOT give up. Many times he probably felt like he wanted to, but he didn't because EVERY soul is great in the sight of God. Campus has really shown me that:) Peace. I have been studying out of Howard W. Hunter's book about what is peace. It is amazing that True Peace can only come from Heaven. God and Christ are the ones that give us true peace, which comes to us through the Holy Ghost. On campus it is loud and crazy, and sometimes I have to take a moment and sit in peace, I am grateful for our Prince of Peace. I am loving campus more and more. <3 :="" a="" all="" am="" and="" blest="" class="separator" dear="" div="" do="" each="" for="" have="" i="" is="" me.="" me="" mission="" of="" on="" so="" special="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" thank="" thankful="" to="" week="" y="" you=""> And a couple of pictures to make you smile...Here is a baby gator head!

And, what can I say? Polys are stronger than scrawny Kazakhs! But hey! We are SISTAHS!

Goodbye Lynn Haven and FSU Bound!

What an amazing week! Goodbyes said to people I love in Lynn Haven!

Here is our Lynn Haven District with our wonderful Senior Missionary Couple who has been so nice to us, especially at Christmas!, Elder and Sister Ross! They are so awesome! I wish every couple could have the privilege to serve a mission. They are such a strength to us younger missionaries! We love them!

And while we were taking photos, the Lynn Haven Elders took my camera, and this is what I found! Oh these awesome Elders! Something Good: Well the past few weeks have been AMAZING!!!

Paul and Paula were baptized, my people in Gulf Breeze! This is a photo of them taken in October! I am so happy for them, I love them so much!! Heavenly Father has been so good!! Some highlights from Lynn Haven! Here is a picture of the family I came to love the most in the brief six weeks I was there - the Morse family! Shout out to them! Thanks for all the tender loving care from Megan and for letting me adore your children!

I left Lynn Haven feeling good! The area is now better than what it was before! Carolyne, our investigator, is really considering being baptized! Our last few lessons with her where amazing. She opened up so much! Our lessons where so alive and so real! I will miss her, but I know good things will come to her! Sister Stewart is staying in Lynn Haven, so I know she will continue to help her come to Christ. :) Here is my goodbye picture with Miss Carolyne. Look at that blue sky and green grass and palm trees. Does Utah look like this in January? This is so amazing to be experiencing a semi-tropical climate in the winter. See? No coat!! I will miss this warm place next winter!

And this is one of our favorites, Leola, who we visited every week in Lynn Haven. I will miss her! She has a wonderful spirit.

Just before transfers, Sister Stewart and I were taken out to dinner at The Olive Garden by "Smokey," from the Lynn Haven ward.

And we got to go to lunch with the Smith's, also from the Lynn Haven ward. We loved them - such nice, nice people. It was a good experience to serve for six weeks - one transfer - in the Lynn Haven ward, Panama City. I know Sister Stewart will continue to do great things there! It was fun to serve with her once again! She will always be in my heart!

Here are almost all the missionairies in the Panama City Zone! This is at a shopping place called Pier Park on our last Monday P-Day. See how the building is painted the color of the Gulf of Mexico water, and coral and warm yellow, like the Florida sunshine and sunset colors. What a beautiful place it is here. I have meet such nice members, investigators and Missionary Sisters and Elders. It's been a really wonderful place to serve, even for a short time!

And now, to turn a page in my Mission Memories Book, we find that I am no longer there in Lynn Haven! I am now serving on the campus of FSU!! Dream transfer for sure!!! :) I know that I am exactly where I am supposed to be! I felt it very strongly walking right onto campus! FSU: AMAZING SCHOOL!!!! What if I went there for school!? Haha j/k! It is definitely a party school, big time! But the Florida State Seminoles sports are amazing!!

The campus is HUGE!! It is kind of overwhelming, but I love it so so much!! Missionary work is SO different on a campus...planning takes us seriously like 5 to 10 mins every night because all we do is walk and talk on campus to everyone everyday!! I love it!! It's nice to be around people my own age, too...! Oh I am just SO happy!!

My Companion is Sister Hall. And she is AMAZING!! I already love her so much!! She is so good. She is helping me adjust to the campus life so well. She is definitely an amazing missionary!

Also..she does make up...so she does my make up and I do her hair! :) You could say it's a good companionship! ;) We had a cool experience on campus just a few days ago. We were contacting and met a guy named Steven! We gave him a card and walked away. Well, he calls us back and asks us if we have heard of this movie...(Random!?) Ha. Well we start talking to him and he pretty much tells us his WHOLE life story...and it was not a really good one..he has had a rough life! (The Gospel would be perfect for him, yes?!) We give him a Book of Mormon, but he seems a little unsure, so we tell him, we could meet him again and read it with him. So hopefully it works out! The whole meeting him was definitely inspired! Before we met him, we were on our way to the stadium, but I really needed a drink so we went another way and that's when met him! He is super cool and so open!! Such a good way to start in a new place! :) So excited to serve on Campus! Something Funny: So Sister Hall and I are at home and the phone rings...we don't know the number but of course we pick it up...and a guy on the phone says, "Hey..uh, um do y'all believe that Satan controls water...?" We both look at each other SO confused...anyways! I take the phone and talk to him for a minute..I ask what his name was and his response..."Um...my name is...uh, um... it's Paul..." Hahaha! We where laughing so hard, but we kept it together! Then he asks us, if we believe in salvation and if Mormons believe the whole salvation thing! Well we tell him about the Plan of Salvation and he was all like "Yes! Thank you!" Haha!! Anyways, we ended the phone call and just died laughing...haha! Only on campus that would happen most likely. LOL! In the end...we might have thought we was a little drunk! Haha..not good! But hey, it was a funny moment for us!

Another good, funny moment was when I first arrived in Tallahassee and saw one of my Sisters...Sister V! (Sister Vaiela) We served together in Navarre...I snuck behind her and surprised her and she screamed and was freaking out! The funny part was it happened during an Institute class. We might have gotten in trouble a little... ;) If you have ever been in a Seminary or Institute, the inside of this building will look familiar to you! So here we are at the Florida State University LDS Institute! A safe and good place! So thankful for the chance I get to serve together with Sister V again!! Woot! Oh the joys of serving on a campus! Everyday we are on campus we hear the funniest, most random stuff ever! I love it! :) Something Learned: Oh my..so many things have I learned so far! First, Meekness...what is that!? Well, so far I have learned, meekness is a Christlike attribute. It comes when we humble ourselves enough that God will give us just a taste of His love for his children. Learning this is important now because it has been a little hard jumping in and talking to everyone on campus. But with meekness and love, we can do anything! I am thankful for the little lessons I am learning and experiencing,because really I need them everyday! Another thing! Talking to EVERYONE! Sometimes it can be scary to talk to strangers...I mean don't we learn not to do that!? Haha! But serving on a campus, that is ALL we do! I have been reminding myself a lot lately that..EVERY soul matters...it doesn't matter if we are judged, it matters that we try, and that give it our all.

Heavenly Father knows who is ready. Sister Nielson just needs to be humble and willing to embrace the scariness, and have courage and be a true disciple of Christ. I really am thankful I was sent to FSU. It is probably the best place to see God's children as they are. :) "Every soul is great," such a good reminder. I am loving this work. Everyday I am reminded how blessed I am to be a missionary and to be sharing the Gospel. Everyone is a missionary; we don't need a tag to be one. The tag just reminds me how to spell my name and to let people see who we love...Jesus Christ! <3 I love, love love this work!! So thankful to be in this part of His vineyard at this time! I know everything we share is true, I am so thankful for y'all, and all the love and support!! :) Hope y'all have a wonderful blessed week!! I love all y'all and each y'all! <3 Sister Nielson #FSU #GONOLES

Getting transferred!!

Hi Everyone!! So I am being transferred to Florida State University - FSU!!! Ah!! I am SO excited to serve there!!! I don't have a lot of time today to email because we have so much to do and I need to go pack and all, but I will get to email on Saturday this week...because Pdays on campus are on Saturdays! So now our mission has a new thing about transfers! When we get the call, we now get to find out where we are going and who our new companion is! So my new comp is Sister Hall. I will get to meet her on Wed! Ah, its been a short time in Lynn Haven, but I am ready for a new change! I think this is my new address...1924 W Pensacola St. #103, Tallahassee FL 32309, but I will let you know for sure on Saturday:) Well this week was great, it was kinda a crazy one with transfers and the new year. It doesn't feel like January at all because there is no snow! But people keep telling me that January and February are going to be the coldest months. Ah! I am grateful for this Mission. It has been challenging and hard, but I am thankful for it because I have learned I can do hard things. Even when I feel at my lowest, the Savior has always brought me up. I am thankful for the Gospel. It really is the Good News to the world! The worth of every soul is great to God. I know it. I am so thankful for the time I have to give it my all to the Savior. I love this work, I love it, I love it! I will send pics on Saturday, too, because I forgot my sd card. :P Love, Sister Nielson

A Nice, Sunny Christmas in Florida :)

Something Good: Well this week has had many good things!

First skyping with my family!! I sure loved seeing them all; it was a wonderful time! :) I am thankful for technology to see my cute family! So thankful that families are forever!! Second, presents from home!!! I got a box of things to "share" before Christmas, and this was one of my favorites - it is a Life Saver's book with a picture of Jesus pasted on the cover with "He is the Real Life Saver" - that is SO TRUE!!! I love talking to people about the Savior. This week has been kinda slow because of the holidays, but we have met very nice people as we have walked around our area. :)

This is Vivian, who has been really nice to feed us, and the second time at her house, we discovered we have a mutual friend in Orem, Utah, Katie Ator Anderson, so this photo came from Vivian to Katie to my Mom. It's a small world - in the Church!! We met this man outside, he was using his cane to brush some leaves out of his garage, so we go over to help him, and he asks, "What do you want?" and we tell him we just want to help him. So we do for a minute and than he tells us to go talk to his wife. We where both like.."OK!" So we go inside, his wife is on the phone but tells us to go sit down, so we sat down, and waited, she came and talked to us for a bit and showed us around her house, and she had the most beautiful Nativities ever!! I really feel like I have see more Nativiy sets here in Florida than I ever have before, I love it so much! Anyways! We find out she is very into her church, but it was just cool and super sweet how nice she was and so respectful of our church and beliefs. There are so many good people who are genuinely kind who are not of our faith that I am so thankful for. :) We went to see a family where the husband is less active and the wife is not a member. It was the second time we have seen them. The first was on Thanksgiving and we just talked to them outside, but this time we where able to go inside and talk to them, and it was great! We had a wonderful visit and where able to show them "A Savior is Born." Many good little things this week. :) On Christmas Eve we went to see Sabrina and Alex and spent time with them. It was cute because we played "Bible Trivia" with Marley, their daughter, and each time she got one right she could open a present. I feel like I want to do that one day with my future kids. ;)

We had a District Meeting on Tuesday and I got taped to the wall. Good times. We must be getting ready for Christmas and don't know what to do with all our energy, since people are busy!!

Something Funny: Only in the South would you find a sign like this surrounded by growing green plants!! Never in my life would I have ever thought it would be 80 degrees on Christmas!! It was so wonderful!! I do miss the feel of Christmas but I do not miss the cold! It was funny because we were driving in the car and we had to turn the A/C on...haha! Oh, a few days ago...we washed our car outside in sandals and shorts, and it was just so lovely. Something I can check off my bucket list!? " Wash your car in the middle of December.." (Check) :) I can understand why people come to FL during the winter...it is NICE. Some of our members were at the beach making Florida snowmen out of sand...Haha so awesome. :)

So Christmas eve we went to the Huntsman home and they put on the Nativity for us! Note the dad is in shorts and barefoot and the mom is in flip flops. Only in Florida...

So Christmas when we opened our gifts we had an awesome challenge. My mom sent us a LOT of little gifts that were identical/matching - one for each of us. We had to open the tag and read the scripture, then guess what was in the gift, the open it! It was so much fun!

Here we are with chocolate coins wrapped in gold paper. We learned that we are valuable to the Lord! The matching scarves were "Put on the beautiful garments."

We had a Christmas party at the apartment of the senior couple, Elder and Sister Ross. They bought presents and we drew numbers and each took that gift, then they read a story and we had to pass the gifts left or right, and at the end of the story, we kept the gift we had in our laps. That was a great Christmas day activity, and the Elder and Sister Ross are so wonderful to do that for us! We all felt loved! Something Learned: This week we have been sharing a story called "The Legend of the Candy Cane" by Lori Walburg (available on Amazon) (Thank you to my mother:)) We have given out candy canes as we read this story of the meaning of the candy cane, and how the candy cane is like a shepherd's staff to represent the first people told about His birth, how the J stands for Jesus, and how the red stripes remind us of his pain and his blood shed for us and the white for His life and purity. Each time we read the story, I just knew that Christ was born for me. I am so thankful for Him and all the many blessings I have been given because He was born. Even though the Christmas season is over, I know that we can all keep Christ in our thoughts and minds all during the year. :) One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the Good Samaritan. In one of the ending verses it reads.."And he had compassion on him." This story is just a good reminder that even though we are all different, we can still love others and do what Christ would do. Even after Christmas we can still serve and love others. :) I have enjoyed Christmas so much this year through focusing on the Savior even more, and I hope I can always keep Him in mind throughout this next year! :)

This is the Relief Society Room in the Lynn Haven Ward (cute bulletin board, huh?) We are saying goodbye to Allie, who is in our ward, but moving.

And here we are, post-Christmas shopping at Target with Megan Morse, who loves to shop and takes us along. She is so cute and so good to us!

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year! So thankful for another year to be alive and another year to serve my Savior and Heavenly Father here in Florida. :) #2016inFL, Love to all, Sister Nielson:)

"A Savior is Born" For Me & You :)

Something Good: Hi everyone!! Sorry it has been a bit, but I will do some catch up!!

The past few weeks have been awesome in Lynn Haven!! This area has been somewhat slow, but with the Spirit's help we are finding and talking to everyone!! Something good about the South...everyone loves Jesus!! It is awesome to be here around the Christmas Holiday because we talk to so many people who think Jesus is awesome, which makes talking about his birth even better! We have been loving giving out this pass along card with a video...christmas.mormon.org (Go watch it!) It is one of my favorite videos ever! The Gospel is the Good news to the World, so thankful for the Savior for giving himself to us. He sure is something good to talk about! Ah!!! My wonderful people in Gulf Breeze, Paul and Paula, have set a BCD (Baptism Commitment Date)!! Ahhhh!! I am so excited for them and so proud! And so thankful to have been a missionary to find and introduce the Gospel to them, to watch them change and to feel their incredible love for us and for the Church develop and blossom! So thankful to have planted that seed and know that it grew into fruit! I hope to see them again and rejoice with them in their decision - maybe they will come to Lynn Haven - only a two hour drive! :) Another good things! I sang in our ward church choir on Sunday! My first time ever singing in a church choir before..ha! It was super fun!

Some other good things! We had a "Half Mission Conference," a Christmas conference in Tallahassee with half our mission, which was so great, it is kinda nice to know other missionaries and get to see them again!Here is a picture of me and my girls from the MTC, Sister Laub and Sister Rinlisbacher!! (Re: April 27, 2015 blog post)

This is a photo with Sister Stewart and I and Sister Kirton and her companion. She was serving with us in Gulf Breeze and was transferred to Dothan. So nice to see her again!

And here is our beloved Sister Smith, our "Mission Mom" at our Christmas Half Mission Conference. Sure love her!

And here is a group of smiling Sister missionaries at the conclusion of the conference, with Sister Smith at the back left. What a great group of friends, these Sister Missionaries! I am so blessed to be here!

Oh yes! Our ward is getting way into Family History! This photo was sent to my mom from Angie Jones, who was at the FH center (Insert texted comments from Sister Jones about Sister Nielson, "I was in the FHC with your daughter when she picked up a magnified plastic. She was so cute!! She IS adorable and we LOVE her! Such a great companionship too. She and Sis Stewart make a great team!") This new emphasis is awesome for us because coming up we will get to go around places and share a short message about FH and we get to have time to work on our own FH! I really am starting to love it. We are helping a lady find her family on Family Search. It has been such a good learning and wonderful experience for me. Thankful for FH! :)

Something Funny: IT IS NOW FALL! It is funny to me how the weather works here! Also kinda weird that there is no snow whatsoever! But we do have our own kind of Florida snow...Sand!? Ha! Well Sister Stewart and I walked ALL day on day..you can imagine me...DYING. Haha, but we found an orange tree with oranges on it...went to the door and asked if we could pick some oranges! The man who answered was so nice and totally let us have oranges! Oh the people in the South...so genuinely kind and generous.

Speaking of kind Southerners, we have a good friend named Tiff, we met her at Chick-fil-a, she is probably one of the sweetest ladies I have ever met. She always helps us and calls us, "My loves." Oh she is just so cute! We always are able to share messages with her. Honestly, we go to Chick-fil-a just for her...:) I just love all these wonderful nice people in the area!

So these past few weeks, one of the things we get to do is walk a LOT with real paper maps. Sometimes we have to duck into a place that sells food and try to figure out where we are and how to get to where we are going!

And we try to be friendly and smile at everyone, and bring a bit of happiness to them, too, even if we get photo-bombed in the process. Something Spiritual: Sister Stewart and I had a cool spiritual experience a few weeks ago which strengthened both of us. During planning we decided to go through our former investigators. So we do, and we see a name...Carolyne. Well Carolyne has a lot of history with the missionaries. Well, one day we felt like we should go see her and meet her, so we do, and we knock on the door. She opens the door and starts freaking out...in a good way! She told us she was struggling a lot and just picked up her Book of Mormon, was about to read it when we knocked on the door. She kept saying, "I can't believe this!" So we go in and have a great lesson with her.We talked about faith and love and humility, and how much her Savior loves her. Carolyne is so awesome. She just knows her Savior, and if someone loves the Savior so much...it would be Carolyne. We are so excited to start teaching her and helping her come to Christ..when actually she helps us come to Him! :) I am just so thankful for her and her open heart to learn!

I am also so thankful for the people who have opened their hearts and homes to us. One is Megan Morse, who invited Sister Stewart and I over for a filet mignon dinner on Dec 22. We needed the strength that came from this good meal and the warmth of the love of her family.

There is something so wonderful about children at Christmastime especially. You feel their innocence and love, their trust and their simple and real faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I am grateful to the families who have fed us, encouraged us, and let us be of service to them. But really, they are giving us service. At Christmas, when missionaries are far from their families, it is really easy to get homesick and miss those we would be with at Christmas at home. So it is so nice when we can be invited into the homes of good people who share their families with us as missionaries far from home. So I just want to say THANK YOU to all the families and good people out there who feed and love the missionaries. Thanks for taking care of each of us. May you be blessed for your kindness and generosity. I am sure the Lord loves you for it.

And speaking of service, Sister Stewart and I got to help Megan Morse decorate for the Lynn Haven ward Relief Society Christmas evening. We even got to go with her to Hobby Lobby to get some decorating things. And good thing that Sis Stewart was there to keep us on track, because Megan and I love decorating, so we got distracted as we were shopping. Here is a little bit of the decorating on the stage behind us. I took this selfie with Megan's phone and she texted it to my mom. Something Learned: As many of you know, I am learning a lot lately...some things are harder to learn than others but I am figuring it out! Missions are definately places where you learn a lot about yourself and about the Lord. One of the biggest things I have learned this month is, Sacrifice. I have always kinda thought this word was scary and all, but really it isn't. I am thankful for a Savior for giving himself to me and to all of us, so that one day we can become and be like him. This Christmas season has been one of my favorites, I have focused more on the Savior than I ever have before and I am so thankful for the time I get to do so. I am so thankful for the best gift given to the world. A Savior. He is kind, he is loving and he is forgiving. So blessed. :) And He is the Light of the World. No wonder we celebrate Him and the way we want to follow him by giving and serving others during this season. He lights up our lives. He gives us reason to rejoice!

Hope y'all had a Blessed and Merry Christmas!! I love each y'all big!! To everyone who has sent me encouraging and sweet words, thank you so much. I love you all. <3 Sis Nielson

Seeking Heaven's Help

Yesterday one of the Seventy spoke in stake conference and his talk was "Faith in Repentance." The spirit hit me hard how important it is for everyone to have faith because we all need continual repentance. It is through Faith we can gain a relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and apply the Atonement in our lives. Last night after stake conference I was looking at a picture of Christ. We had put up lights around his picture, and He was shining. As I pondered it, the Spirit whispered to me that His light is a gift to all, if you use his perfect gift which is the Atonement. I know that in the end all that matters is what Heavenly Father and Christ think of me and each of us. He is the light. He is our center.

There are wonderful people in the Lynn Haven ward, and I am happy to get to know some of them. Here is Sister Stewart and me with Megan Morse, who sent these photo home for me. She took it as a wide angle, which makes the room look sort of curved. She is really nice to us.

This is Sophie, age four and Pyper Morse, age two. I freaked out because the Morse's have a REAL Christmas Tree!!!! I don't remember our family ever having a real tree,so this was super amazing to me. Thank you for all your love and support in everything I have done. Sister Nielson

New Home...Lynn Haven, Panama City, FL

Farewell to Gulf Breeze ward and Navarre! Here are my last photos in Gulf Breeze: Last District Photo - Sister Kinghorn and I are twinners for one last time!

Last photo with Sister Kinghorn hugging goodbye at transfers spot. She is staying and training in Gulf Breeze. I know she will be an awesome trainer! We have had a really great companionship. I will love her always!

And it is always so wonderful to see Sister Smith, who is an incredible Mission Mom. I love her so much and have learned so much from her. So then on to transfers and new companion assignments. I was in for a big surprise!

Something Funny: I am now companions with my trainer, Sister Stewart!!! Ha! We both gasped when our names were read together! How great is that! She is so fun and so funny, that we just laugh and have a great time together! It's going to be awesome! We get to serve together again, which I am SO thankful for!! We have so much good work to do here and I am so pumped and ready for the work to start! :) And!!! I got my wish to go to Panama City!! I am in the Lynn Haven ward. Here is my/our new address: Sister Nielson and Sister Stewart 2401 Stanford Ave. #503 Panama City, FL 32405 I love it here!!!

Look at these cute turtles in the pond by our apartment. Ah, Florida! Something Spiritual: Well, because of transfers I was able to go to Milton for the day with our STL's (oh I just love Milton!) we went to see an RC (recent convert) named Ashley. She has been a member for about 3 months or so...anyways! We just had this amazing lesson with her...It was so cool to see this new member of the Church center everything in her life around Christ. She told us a lot about herself, and the trials she has faced...but she would ALWAYS mention Christ. It was just a good spiritual moment for me to see someone who loves Christ so much. I know that the Savior will NEVER give up on anyone..I am thankful for Ashley for reminding me and teaching me about a personal relationship we can all gain through the Savior Jesus Christ. Another sweet spiritual moment, we went to a member's home a few days ago, the Bober's. Sister Bober is less active and her husband is not a member, but they are so nice and so open with us, we shared about gratitude and went around and said something we are all grateful for. The spirit was just there and it felt so good. :) So thankful for the Holy Ghost to help us feel warm inside. :) Something Good: So many good moments this week..of course there was some hard moments, leaving GB and everyone there..but good moments always come. :) I love Lynn Haven!! It feels so much more homey! (don't know if that is a word...) there is so much to do here...and Target exits here! Yay! :) My new ward is awesome!! It is SO big...so many good people!

One of our investigators, Sabrina...(Yes! We might have the same name!) invited us to go over to her home and have dinner and decorate her Christmas tree...okay probably the best thing I have done in a while. Her husband is from Haiti and speaks French! So awesome he prayed in French! So cool. Anyways, Sabrina and Alex are wonderful people, ah that night with them was just a good moment! Super excited to start the work here!! :) Another funny moment...well we didn't really have miles to do a lot, so we had a member take us to one of our areas and there we walked around and met a few people! Also met a guy named Cary who wants to take us to lunch, so that is nice! :) Anyways it got dark outside so here we are on the side of the road using a legit REAL map to find where we need to go and using a flash light...ha, it was just funny, because I have never used a paper map before...but learning and growing always. ;) Also, Sister Stewart is just a funny person so we laugh a lot. :) Something Learned: This week I have learned that change is good. I was so nervous to leave my first area and the people I love and care about so much..but I have come to realize that change is a good thing. I was reading in Alma and how he received a change of heart..and boom! He was given the spirit! Well, yes. Change can be super tough and scary, but with faith and with the spirit, change is good! I really feel like Heavenly Father was preparing me for change. He has taught me that a true change of heart will overcome anything. I am so thankful for the time that I was given to share the Gospel and my testimony of the Savior in Gulf Breeze. I will always be so thankful for the wonderful people and all the lessons I learned. :) So excited for the NEW adventures I will have here in Lynn Haven! So thankful for all the many blessings that I have seen and have been apart of. I love my Savior. I love this work. I love everyone here in Florida. So thankful for the time I have to be here. It is going by so, so fast! :) Thank y'all for all the love and support!! :) XOXOX!! Sis Nielson! :)