Happy 20th Birthday Brayden

Thanks to WONDERFUL members I got these pictures plus this message:

"We are so blessed to have your son serve his mission with us. Here's some birthday pictures we took tonight I figured you would love to see him "

Then he emailed a short letter attached below: 

Hey mom, sorry that today I wasn't able to write much or anything. We went to email this morning and the email website was down... Just my luck on my birthday! So I am writing on a members I pad and it is super hard to type with. We did have our baptism but I will have to send the pictures next week. She is so cool. Today we hung out at Katrina's house and played cards and then went to eat at chilies with a member here. We used the balloon launcher! It is awesome. I had a really great birthday. I will make sure to send pictures and things next week! I love y'all and thanks for the package and things from everyone! I loved them. I will tell you more about it next week. Sorry again... I have the worst luck ever! Love ya

She is cash

Hey there, 

Things are going good! We had a good week. We had our Zone Meeting that went really well, and we also went on exchanges this week. I was in Camden for the day! Nothing too crazy happened, other than we almost got in a pretty bad car wreck but we are pretty sure angels were helping the other car not hit us! haha. It was my fault, but this lady had to like swerve and slam on her brakes. We were in a hurry so i just drove off, as i was driving i see this car coming up on us really fast. We stop at a stop light and this car honks its horn and is acting all crazy and this big black lady pulls up next to us and starts yelling, "What the heck were you thinking!" hahaha and i was like my bad. I just looked at her and she was like ugh! and then drove off. It was pretty dang funny! she wasted her time just to chase me down. She probably wanted to fight me! ha. Other than that nothing too crazy happened. We are still teaching Josephine, she is cash. She came to church and is getting baptized this Saturday! Waysee Porter also came to church and we are going to try and see if he wants to be baptized on Saturday as well. we are praying for it. 

Dang i am pretty dang Jealous that you were able to go to Shade and Paiges Reception! I bet that was crazy! I am glad that everything went good! This week is the last week in march, our Zone needs like 6 more baptisms and confirmations to be able to hit our goal of 16. We are really stressing about it but i feel that everything will go well. We are looking like we will hit it.

So i have 7 more days of being a teenager, i want to do something crazy! haha but i probably wont, ill probably just go knock on a rich persons door or knock a door at like 9 oclock, you know... the craziest things you can do as a missionary! haha. Anyways... i hope that all is well back home. The temperature is going crazy here, it just keeps going up and down and raining and stopping and being typical Arkansas... i am sick of it haha. I want it to just stay nice cause that is good for missionary work. Hope that you have a great week! ill talk to yall on my birthday next week! Love ya. 

Love Elder Nielson 

Birthday temple trip

Hey Mom, 

So yesterday i went to the temple so that is why i am emailing today! i am not going apostate or anything! haha. I am doing very good. Our week was a long one but it was full of good stuff. Some changes came to the mission and things and we are excited to see how the work changes. We need to as a family go back to Pine Bluff and visit Katrina yall would have a blast! We are still working with Josephine, she is planning on being baptized on the 28th! She is soo dang solid. It was one of those missionary stories that you hear of where she was praying for guidance and help and then we knock on the door and she just is running with it! We just taught her this morning and we watched the Restoration video and she loved it and says she believes Joseph Smith is a prophet! Big deal. She is way solid. I call her grandma because she is just like a grandma, it is great. I went on exchanges with the Assistants this week, they said i probably am leaving Pine Bluff in April which stinks but that i am staying a Zone Leader and going somewhere else... i am going to die as a zone leader it looks like, freak! 

Other than that all is well! It is dang warm today, i am glad cause i am getting sick and tired of the rain. thanks for everything! Well i am going to go live it up and do something crazy cause i only have a couple weeks of being a teenager!! 

Peace! 

Love Elder Nielson


From Brayden's mom:
Today we received the official email saying Brayden is coming home on June 30th with his travel plans and arrival time!!!! We are so excited! The end is near😃

Overcoming addiction

Hey there! 

Our week was really good. We got snowed in a couple days that made it really long but other than that it was good! Yeah this week we had mission leadership council. At those meetings we talk about the mission and council about how we can help the mission have success and things we need to focus on and all that jazz. It was a good meeting this week, a member of the 70 came and talked with us and gave us some ideas. It is cool to be in those meetings and see how the rest of the mission is doing and how we can be better in our zones. No Elder Crane is not in our Zone, we were hoping we would be but he wasn't. I do know who sister winn is, we went to high school together. She just went home a couple weeks ago. That really sucks that everyone was sick! that is a rough week. 

So we have some great people that we are teaching. They are super prepared. It is just the dang Word of Wisdom that everyone struggles with. Satan has a grasp on that part of their life, they feel that they need that stuff to survive or get by. It is hard to help people to overcome those addictions. We have some dates scheduled for the 28th of March and we are working towards that. Things are going great, the zone is doing well and everybody is working hard. Well i hope all is well for the family. I love and miss all of you. I have no idea what i want for my birthday! I have been trying to think and i cannot think of anything! if i was home i could think of some stuff but not out here. so idk. Well i hope that yall have a great week! and that blessings come upon you! thank you for the prayers and support. Love yall! 

Elder Nielson 

Snowing in the South

Hey! 

So this week was a pretty good week. Monday we had some bad icey weather, so we had to stay in all day which was way boring! Then tuesday we were able to go out and teach. Wednesday Elder Hadlock and i had to go up to Little Rock to go to transfers, all Zone Leaders are supposed to be there.During the meeting in the morning it started to snow! It snowed all day long! In Pine Bluff we got 7 inches of snow! It was coming down! I seriously felt like i was back home with how much snow was on the ground. People were sliding off the roads and driving 10 miles an hour everywhere, the whole place almost shut down! They haven't seen snow like that in a long time! So we stayed in a couple days this week bored out of our minds so it was kind of a long week. Nothing much else exciting happened this week. We are still working with the Weaver family, they came to church and are making small steps of progress. We are working with others and trying to have a big teaching pool. It is crazy that it is already March! I only have till March 30th and then i turn 20! I only have 28 days of being a teenager left! ive got to think of something crazy to do. Things are going well, just pushing on through. I hope that yall back home are doing ok and are safe. Thanks for everything. Hope that you have a great week! Love Elder Nielson