Helaman 16:4

It's been a great, miracle-filled week!

We met a less active member named Cricket on Friday. We taught him a lesson that day, and he came to sacrament meeting yesterday! We have been able to contact a ton of new less active members to begin teaching, which we are excited about. Yesterday there were at least 8 people at sacrament meeting who don't normally come, so that was a huge miracle!

On Thursday we also found out that Danny's mom finally gave him the OK to be baptized! He is 18, so he doesn't technically need permission, but he still lives with his mom, who is very Catholic. Danny wants to be baptized so badly, so we just need to figure out when his best friend will be back down from BYUI, so that we can set a date! It is amazing to see how much Danny's faith has grown in the past 2 weeks. Everything happens in the Lord's timing, and I can tell that Danny is finally ready to make that covenant. 

We attended institute Thursday evening, and a less active member named Rafael was there (who also prefers Spanish, so I got to talk to him in Spanish!) and he told us about two of his non-member friends and asked why we were not teaching them. Yay, referrals! 

We made a "brownie hit-list" this week of several people to whom we want to deliver brownies. We made a big batch of brownies during weekly planning, and then delivered a plate of brownies to several less active members' homes. It has been fun to just make some peoples' day a little brighter, and to help them feel how much we genuinely care about them

The talks that we had in sacrament meeting yesterday were incredible! They might have been the best talks that I have ever heard in sacrament meeting (and not just because they were about missionary work!) It was actually a young married couple that was invited to speak, so they weren't YSA members. The wife spoke first, and she shared her conversion story, including bad experiences that she had with the church growing up, good experiences, and how she eventually met her husband. She talked about the importance of member missionary work, and how every member of the church that showed love to her helped to plant a seed in her heart. Her husband then talked about how we can become better member missionaries, and he compared member missionary work to fishing! Their two talks played off of each other really well, and they had the perfect balance of humor and the spirit. It was powerful! I wish that every member in the world could have heard them speak, but I am excited that they spoke in our branch. Member missionary work is really the best. So my admonition to each of you is to be the best member missionary that you can be, and don't be afraid to go out of your way to share the gospel! 

-- Hermana Nielsen

Pictures:

-Pumpkin carving for our zone activity!! But why carve a pumpkin... when you can carve a watermelon?!?!?! It's much easier. And tastier.

-More carving

-Our finished products!

-Fall DOES exist!!!

2 Nephi 1:15

Yesterday was stake conference, which went from 10-12, and we decided to have our correlation meeting with our branch mission leader right afterwards. The YSA branch normally meets at 12:30, so we actually had a couple people show up at 12:30 because they didn't know about stake conference. Two of them were less active members! We had already met one of them, but the other one was coming for the first time in a while, and he said that he just knew that he needed to come back to church! We were able to get phone numbers for both of them. It was a huge miracle, because we didn't even think about anyone possibly coming at 12:30, but since we stayed a bit longer for correlation in stead of running home to eat lunch because we were hungry, we were able to get contact info for those two less active members! We also found out that our investigator Danny went to the Saturday evening session of Stake conference... and we didn't even tell him about it, haha! His fellowshippers are on top of things!

This week Sister Neeley and I did a "blitz" with the sisters from Spring Creek! A blitz is an exchange where both companionships work in one area. I worked with Sister Tupuola, and Sister Neeley worked with Sister Murdock in our area. We were able to track down so many people and get a lot of work done; it was exciting!

I am thankful for the Book of Mormon. I am thankful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I am thankful for the knowledge and understanding that we have of the Plan of Happiness. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer! 

-- Hermana Nielsen

Pictures:

-last week's mission meeting

-I got to see Hermana Adams again!!! We hadn't seen each other for more than 3 months! 

-Sister Neeley and I

-Driving to Sparks

-We went to a restaurant in Winnemucca that had a tres leches cheesecake.... those are my two most favorite desserts put together!

-pday: Lamoille Canyon in the Ruby mountains

Alma 22:15

This week we were able to do exchanges, zone conference, and watch general conference, so it was quite the spiritually uplifting week! After zone conference, there was a fire between Elko and Spring Creek, so the sisters stayed with us in Elko for the evening and blitzed our area!

This week I was able to go on exchanges with sister Cluff in her area, and we had a powerful lesson with their investigator, Will, in which we invited him to be baptized. When we extended the invitation, he looked at us with wonder and said "Yes! Wow. Are you really asking me?!" The spirit was so strong, and that experience strengthened my testimony that the Lord is preparing people to receive this gospel!

My favorite talk from conference was probably Tad R. Callister's talk about the Book of Mormon. The enemies of the restored gospel will do everything they can to disprove the Book of Mormon... but they can't, for the simple reason that it is impossible to disprove something that is true. I also appreciated President Nelson's invitation to self reflection: if we had a choice between rubies and diamonds, or the Book of Mormon, which would we choose? Really?

Have an awesome week!

-- Hermana Nielsen

Pictures:

-My flawless companion and me

-A horse that belongs to one of the counselors in the branch presidency!

  
 -Ran into someone while buying snacks at Maverick