Merry Christmas

Dear Mom,
This week was good! It was good to talk to you! We just hung out with that family and stuff
afterwards and then went to a Recent converts house to eat some more.
Christmas was good we opened presents with the other Elders as well so it
was a good time. Thanks again for the gifts i loved them. That is crazy
that yall got so much snow, it was really nice on christmas here, i didnt
like that too much. This week it was a really hard week to be able to teach
people, they are all gone or with family or making up excuses haha. But it
was good! I am kinda glad that the holidays are over though so that we can
refocus and find new people who are wanting to make some new years
resolutions maybe! haha. Everything is great here, we are doing the same
thing, just teaching and trying to find people to teach. Thanks again for
everything and it was great to see you! Hope that everyone has a great
week! HAPPY NEW YEARS! Love Elder Nielson

Brayden has gone to the dogs:

Camden, Arkansas

Hey mom! 

Wow mom almost forgeting about your favorite son huh? (dont tell ashton or camden haha) Yeah this last week has flown by, I cannot believe that Christmas is this week, it is going fast. I talked to Aaron Jackson my last companion that went home, he is doing good and having a good time at home. i am glad that he is keeping in contact with me. Oh and i converted him to the movie Art of Flight! Remember that i watched that movie like religiously! So this week has been crazy, we drove all over our zone this week. Tuesday i finally got to go to Camden Arkansas!! it is in my zone, it is a small town but i got pictures of some signs. Wednesday we drove to little rock, and then Friday we drove to Monticello on this dirt road the entire way! i was acting like i was a rally car racer, it was a fun drive through the back woods! Long week of driving and going and helping missionaries in my zone. We are back teaching waysee and lisa, they are doing good we are just working hard with them and helping them quit smoking, i have never struggled this hard with someone that smokes before. They are tuff! Other than that this week was good and we are hoping that this week goes fast as well cause the christmas season is hard for missionary work cause everyone is gone and busy, but we sure will try. Hope that you have a good week and i will see yall on Christmas! Love you.

Elder Nielson 

Nice Brayden😄

These next 2 are for Brayden's brother Camden! 

Flirt to Convert

Hey Mom,
This week was a good week. We had fun and found lots of people to teach.
Kool-Aid is doing alright, he is just a typical person here that we are
trying to help him keep the commandments and receive blessings. He may not
know it right now but he needs the gospel haha. We are staying busy and
doing lots of things. We have been going on exchanges and working to help
our Zone out. But we are back to our normal P-days that last till 6 so it
has been really nice! Just nice to take a break and relax a little bit.
Last week we went to the golf range and hit some golf balls, it was dang
fun! The weather here has been beautiful! Like 60 degrees, just perfect
temperature. It does not feel like Christmas at all! I am not used to it
not being cold and snowy all the way up till March haha. I am missing the
snow! But since there is no snow i dont think about snowboarding so that is
a good thing.
This week we had some bomb lessons, we taught this one lady that we found
while eating at chilies! She is going to a bible school and studying the
bible. As we taught her we asked her questions, questions of the soul. We
asked if she thought that she was going to be able to live with her family
after this life? She said that she was not sure, she was taught that we
will all be spirits living in heaven and we will not remember our
relationships that we had on earth. That was so sad to hear, i felt so bad
that she didnt have the knowledge of living with families forever. We as 19
year old kids know more than a girl that is 33 going to school all day
studying the bible, that is sweeet! She was contradicting herself a lot, so
we invited her to read the Book of Mormon which can clarify a lot of things
and answers those questions of the soul. We hope and pray that she does
read and pray to God.
Also this week Elder Hadlock and i had an interesting thing happen to us.
We were walking down the road to an appointment we were going to when this
car pulls over and it has 3 black girls inside of it. One of the girls says
hey are yall selling something? and then we told her no and that we are
missionaries. then they all said oh my! You both are so sexy! you are so
cute. The one in the back of the car is smoking this huge blunt and they
are straight hitting on us, it was dang funny. They drove away and we died
laughing. Flirt to convert is my motto!
I did get my christmas package, am i supposed to wait to open it cause i
havent opened it yet... but i did open the one from Chad. He got me a nice
shirt and tie, they are dang nice! Tell him thanks so much!
I have no idea about Skyping yet, we know what family we are going to but
we do not know what time at all. We will find out this week. But all is
well, just chugging along. The holidays are flying by, it is already almost
the new year! it is crazy. Love you much and i hope all is well with the
family and friends back home. Love ya.
Brayden

Baptizing Kool-Aid

Hello!
Lots of questions right off the bat huh mom... haha
ok here we go. My new Companion is great! His name is Elder Hadlcok, he is
from Vernal Utah. We are a lot alike so you know that that makes for a
crazy time! But we also get work done. Transfers was good, we got a bunch
of new people in the Zone and we lost a lot of our good missionaries. We
are hoping that it all works out though! I am doing well, just lots going
on and busy all the time. Am i ever home sick? No not really, there is
times i miss certain things about home but never am i crying in the corner
wanting to go home if that is what your wondering ;) haha.
This week was a good week though. After transfers we went and saw all of
the people we teach and we found some great people this week as well. Ohh
want to hear a cool story! So we got a referral from one of our
investigators that his brother lives down the street, so we went and we
knocked on his door. We talked to him for a little bit, we taught him a bit
about the restoration and then we set a baptismal date with him! But the
best part was that he introduced himself as Kool-Aid! We set a date this
week with a guy named Kool-Aid! It was so sweet! i was telling everyone
about it haha. Nothing much else happened that was crazy really, just a
normal week of teaching. I am hoping that this will be a good month. This
week is an important one to be able to baptize this month so we will be
working hard. I hope all is well back home. I am doing good here, not much
is changing. I hope that i do not catch the flu through the computer from
you, just keep it in Idaho!
Love you and thanks for everything!
Love Elder Nielson
The one of all of us is the Pine Bluff Gang sign of all the people that
served in Pine Bluff!

Head honcho

Whats up!
This week has been a good week! Full of Food and more food. So i didn't end
up going to the temple, they said i couldn't... something about
worthiness... hahahah no it was cause there wasn't enough room. So i stayed
with the other Pine Bluff elders and we had some fun staying in Pine Bluff.
This week we had Mission Leadership council at President's house, it was
way fun! Sister Wakolo cooked, she didn't make octopus unfortunately but
she made some really good turkey! Don't ask how a Fijian knows how to cook
turkey. The Wakolos are so dang tight! I love them. They are just real
personable and love to have Fun but also know when it is business time!
This month my Zone had the goal of 20 baptisms and we had 24! So that is
great! The mission fell a little short of 100 but we still beat the record
of most baptisms in the month in the mission history. This week we went to
the Reynolds for Thanksgiving, it was fun. They had some dang good Food. We
also hit up some recent converts and just visited with lots of people on
Thanksgiving it was good.
This week we got back in touch with Cynthia, we are starting to teach her
again and we hope we can help her progress more this time. This Wednesday i
get a new companion and i am taking over as Zone Leader 1, i know right,
fancy title! I am a little nervous to be the head honcho but i think i will
be able to keep the Zone Stable. I am pretty sure that i am getting Elder
Hadlock, he is way cool. We will see on Wednesday. Lately we have been
having this crazy guy come to church, He says his Father calls him Erick...
he is all about being like Moses or something back in the old days and he
talks with an accent and yells in the middle of people teaching. It is
crazy, it does make church a little more interesting haha. But that is
about it for the week. I hope that yall have a good week and keep seeing
the blessings from God. Thank you for the prayers and the support that i
receive. Have a good one. Love you!
Elder Nielson