Week 12, Florida

Hi y'all, 

So this week has been utter madness. Yesterday, we we headed out to find a lone less-active member who lives in the tiny town of Hastings. We went from wow-this-is-a-bit-far to um-we-might-have-just-left-the-mission. But we did find the place and we didn't break the rules, though at one point we were driving on the road that serves as the ward, stake, area, zone, AND mission boundary.

But all the madness is fine because Jaime and Sierra got baptized this Saturday! Which was just incredible. This is the first time anyone I have taught has progressed all the way to baptism. Getting ready for it was utterly crazy though. I was reminding myself constantly that today's trials will be tomorrow's blessings (and tomorrow's funny stories) so now that it's past, I can laugh at everything that happened.

President Herrington (who is a counselor in the mission presidency and who had conducted Jaime's interview) had warned all of us that the week before baptism is usually pretty tough. Jaime was working on quitting smoking and wasn't anticipating anything to be harder than that. But the next day, two people proposed to her out of the blue, which I thought was really hilarious. We'd decided to hold this baptism at the church instead of the beach, which was a lot better based on the weather reports and the health of Jaime's parents, but we first had to scrub the baptismal font for a few hours before we had it sparkling clean again. It was slightly tough to find baptismal clothes for both Jaime and Sierra, though we managed fine in the end. More distressing though, was the news that the entire bishopric was out of town that day, so we asked the high priest group leader, the elders quorum president, and a bunch of other group leaders with no success. So slightly frazzled, we called up President Herrington (who used to be the stake president and could technically preside) and he gave us a definite maybe. So the day of the baptism, in the midst of making a few dozen cookies and trying to convince our speaker that he didn't need ten powerpoint slides for his 3-5 minute talk, President Herrington called and told us that not only was he coming; the entire mission presidency (plus Sister Craig) was coming too! It was great to have them, but we were a little stressed about getting everything perfect, especially since this was the first baptism I have ever put on. By the way, none of this is me complaining about a hard week, but it's funny to see how hard Satan was trying to foil Jaime's baptism and how beautifully it went in the end. Jaime and Sierra were both so happy and beaming. Sierra told me that she'd finally received her answer that this was the right thing for her and how glad she was that she'd taken this step of faith. We had to stall a little bit during the service while we waited for Jaime's parents and sister to make it (they'd driven all the way from Daytona!) but they got there in the nick of time and had a wonderful experience. And while it seemed like the entire ward was out of town/working/had family visiting, everyone's plans suddenly fell through and they showed up to the baptism instead! It was a bit of a trial of faith to see 5:00 roll around and there are 3 people present, but by 5:15 there are 30. It was just miracle after miracle. The Spirit was so strong through the whole thing and it was just perfect. They were so happy and their family was happy to see them happy. Bishop Marsh confirmed both of them in sacrament meeting the next day. Jaime is getting called as a visiting teacher (she requested it) and Sierra is started her Personal Progress and making plans to serve a mission in between school (she wants to become a lawyer). Another miracle: our ward had no Mia Maids at all, but with Sierra and Crystal getting baptized, we now have two! We've gotta find and teach some deacon-age boys now.

I received some interesting insight this week: both Jaime and Sierra have told me how strongly they felt impressed by the Spirit in sacrament meeting. Jaime said several times how real and sincere everyone was, especially when they bore their testimonies. They weren't pretending to be perfect in front of the rest of the congregation, but they were really striving to live the principles and commandments they spoke about. Each time Jaime took me aside to tell me something amazing she'd felt, I'd think something like "Well, I don't see what was so special; it was just a regular meeting. All the speakers were good, for sure, and I learned something valuable, but it wasn't the most spiritual experience I've ever had." (I'm not proud of that thought.) But for Jaime and Sierra, church really WAS the most spiritual experience they've ever had before. It made me realize that out here on a mission and having attended church my whole life, I am immersed enough in the Spirit that I can sort of take it for granted when it is present. I can feel the difference instantly when it is gone, but the people I meet out here don't know that different. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we know that difference and it is incredible. 

That's about it for this week! Also, transfers next week, so we'll see where I go!

Love everyone,

Sister Nielsen

Pictures: At the baptism!

Sierra dyed Sister Shumway's hair last P-day

The font really did look a lot better afterwards

Also, quotable quotes by Sierra immediately following her baptism: "Wow, I really do feel clean! Thought you guys were kidding about that."

Week 11, Florida

Hey everyone!

I got really sick this week so we didn't go out and do as much as usual, perhaps. That, or I don't remember much. So bear with me.

Cody and Crystal got baptized this Saturday and confirmed on Sunday, which was pretty amazing. They are both great youth and I love 'em. Crystal and Sierra are really good friends and Crystal was the reason Sierra started to attend church, and that's where she encountered Joshua, who gave Jaime the elders' number, so just a whole bunch of miracles coming together amazingly. They are both getting baptized this Saturday as well. We had Crystal and Cody and their dad over at Jaime's house this Friday to watch the Joseph Smith movie and the elders brought Joshua and we tried to bring Victor, so it was a big party.

A lot of times it seems like the plans we make for the day have no bearing on who we actually manage to see that day, so there's a lot of madness all the time. We rush about a lot and try not to get our investigators to hate us too much. We got two more last Sunday night: this sweet old couple named Earl and Betty. They have an LDS son and daughter-in-law so they know a little about the church, because Betty saw my Personal Progress medallion which I randomly decided to wear that day and recognized the Salt Lake Temple. We were able to teach them about eternal marriage and the Plan of Salvation and as we were walking out, Betty said "Take care of that locket, dear! It's so special that you remember your goal." I love the people we get to meet out here. It seems that in Florida everyone is either extremely hostile or extremely friendly with little middle ground, which makes every encounter an adventure.

The other picture is from Kaci's baptism last week. She's nine and lives in the other ward and was taught by Elders Jenkins and Smedley, but she comes to church with her deaf grandmother and so was baptized into our ward. But the font was really dirty and the elders neglected to clean it before they started filling it. But the time we noticed it was too late to refill, so the sisters (cause we don't wear pants and all) hopped into the font to emergency clean out the bugs and scrub the bathtub ring. We did a good job but Sister Cline's legs looked so bad that we checked the temperature and realized that it was 120 degrees. Luckily we noticed before they tried to baptize Kaci.

Here's an awesome pattern that we've been challenging people to use to answer their questions: Read, Write, Pray, Read, Write, Pray. I'd never done exactly that before and I was a little dubious, but it's amazing! If any of you have a serious question that you really need to take up with the Lord, try this. The scripture you read is the only thing you change out every time. Then you write whatever questions and thoughts that come to your mind and then you pray about your question. Then you read exactly what you read before over again, write down your new insights, and pray over again. Then stay on your knees for five minutes or so and just ponder. I promise that if you do this, you will able to receive revelation and peace to your soul. Anyway, that's about it. 

Love y'all!

Sister Nielsen

Week 10 in Florida (woah, already?)

Hey everyone!

This will be real brief cause the timer on this computer (public library) says I only have 22:56 left, but we didn't see as many people as we usually do this week anyway. The reason: among other meetings, Elder Zwick of the Seventy came to our mission, had an extremely intense devotional Wednesday night, and then a 9-hour 5-zone conference the next day. It was, to say the least, mindblowing, and naturally I left my notes at home before I came to write this email. But Elder Zwick basically revealed the future of missionary work and the programs that our mission and a few others will lead the way in establishing. You all already know about Facebook, but that's being expanded in amazing ways. I know people have been talking about missionaries getting iPads for a while, but it was so neat to see him hold up a 1937 version of Preach My Gospel in one hand and one of the new mini iPads in the other and show us how they complement each other. We'll be getting them sometime in 2014 and we'll be able to purchase them for $50 after our missions to insure that we treat them nicely. Our planners, area books, map books, and investigator progress records will all be on there. Any general authority will be able to go to Florida, St Augustine Shores Ward Sisters, and look at our plans for that day (our names won't be attached to them, but everything we put up will be there). The Church is setting up a cloud data plan whatever thingie so that our iPads will be connected to the internet at all times (with missionary-appropriate firewalls) so we can do facebook from there, browse lds.org, pull up a Mormon Message for a lesson, etc. There are other things he said that I've totally forgotten. He was wayyy bolder than I was expecting in calling on the ward councils to unite with missionaries. He comitted every member in the devotional to have a person in their home for the missionaries to teach within ten days. A ton of other things are happening here in the FJM but I don't have time to talk about 'em! Sorry, next week.

Sister Shumway taught Wiley the entire Plan of Salvation in ASL yesterday while I contributed a few sign comments to distract Wiley's little sister (she's 7, hearing, and a little obnoxious). Wiley lives on an Arabian farm, which makes me miss horses a ton. Then we went to find a deaf former gator and encountered his brother David, who committed to come to volleyball. I had no clue how to converse with him and my ASL is still terrible, but then we found out he does jui-jitsu[*] and MMA and then I was able to talk with him just fine. That was a real miracle. All the other sisters ordered ASL nametags and I think I'll order one too, because then it will force me to improve a lot in the 6 weeks or so before it arrives. Don't worry, I'm still studying Portuguese as well. Elder Andrade's native Spanish is a great resource because if I'm reading O Livro de Mormon during facebook time, I can just ask what "rebanho" means instead of stopping to look it up. (It means "herd" or somesuch).

We set up a table in St. George Plaza in the Old City Friday night, where we asked everyone what question they would have for God if he were standing right there and then answered it with the Book of Mormon. We met a lot of really interesting people that way (and almost got eaten by a homeless man's pit bull, but that's besides the point. And mom, of course I'm kidding!) We weren't allowed to go out anywhere on Halloween, so we stayed at a member's house and helped pass out candy, which was possibly the most relaxing time I've had on my entire mission. We're still teaching Jaime and Sierra and they're incredible, but tell y'all bout that later! Sorry, totally out of time, but Naomi is coming on a mini mission with us this weekend and I'll talk about that later too!

Sorry for the multiple apologies.

Love y'all!

Sister Nielsen

Picture: All of us on Halloween. The sisters all dressed as Disney princesses so guess who I am!

*jiu-jitsu

wow

Florida, Week 8

Hi everyone!

Can't believe it's week 8 here already! That means it's been 14 weeks total that I've been gone, which is just over one-sixth of my mission now (cause my six weeks in the MTC counts as my first transfer). For the very first time, I understand where all of the missionaries are coming from when they say that time goes by so fast. Wow.

I had tradeoffs in Mandarin (by the St. John's River) with Sister Fonoifua this week and it was amazing. We didn't have a car or specific appointments, so we just spent the evening wandering around honing my contact approach. I have a new testimony of the Harvest Prayer, which is a particular finding tool that we use here in order to help people be more receptive to our message. Rather than just knocking a door and trying to relate something they say to the Restoration (which I'm iffy at), we tell people that we're missionaries and we're in the area, offering a special blessing of the Savior's peace and comfort on people's homes. And it WORKS. Everyone in Florida wants a little more Jesus in their life and since people can almost always feel the Spirit after the prayer, we're getting lots of unexpected opportunities and return appointments from this, which doesn't usually happen as much with door-to-door approaches. So this is great. 

Joshua feels we've made such a difference in his life that he's started telling his friends to meet with us too. The elders are teaching his friend Andrew and Sister Shumway and I are working with Jaime and Sierra (single mom and her 14-year-old daughter). Jaime and Sierra came to church yesterday (Sierra's actually been coming with Crystal and Cody for weeks) and they thought it was fabulous and cannot wait to find out more. Taught them the Plan of Salvation yesterday and committed them to baptism and the elders did the same with Andrew, so our ward now has 7 dates on for this month. Joshua will be getting baptized two weeks before Andrew and he can't wait to baptize his friend. There is just so much sincere desire from all of these people to learn and grow through this church that I feel like I can't even keep up with how fast they're progressing. I love them all so much. Also, the elders are trying to get permission from Bishop Marsh to perform Josh's baptism in the ocean and they are ever so pleased with themselves. Josh also says he has more friends he thinks would want to talk to us. We might be able to baptize the entire city of St Augustine as long as he refers them to us first. He is a stellar example of member missionary work, except that he's become a missionary before he even is a member. He's hoping he may be able to serve a full-time mission, too. Anyways, exciting times! We'll see how the next few weeks go, but they will be a wild ride for sure.

I have a newly-gained testimony of church tours, too. I never understood how it could be spiritual, but we went around and showed Jaime all of the artwork on the walls and just talking about that was an amazing experience. She had to leave halfway through, but she came back an hour later and brought Sierra as well and loved it. She had been given the elders' number, called, and asked to meet at the church, so the elders called us in a panic because they couldn't be alone in the building with a woman. And then they had to run and handed her off to us. That was the first time we met her, so it was totally on the fly. But it was perfect. That night, Naomi Collins (16, awesomest Young Woman EVER!) brought her friend Stephanie to church and we gave our second ever church tour (again, no preparation). We finished in front of the baptismal font and Naomi gave the most powerful testimony of baptism and the Holy Ghost I have ever heard from anyone. We're meeting with Stephanie this week and we're going to set a date with her, but we're pretty sure she'll say yes. She texted Naomi and asked if she gets baptized, can Naomi's dad (our 1st counselor) baptize her too? Naomi's soooo excited that her friend feels so strongly and wants to invite more people, too. The youth of this church are the most amazing youth in the world. There will be so much missionary work done by the people who aren't even called as full-time missionaries yet and their testimonies are unshakable. It's kind of like we're getting to see what was going on in Alma 16:16, where it says (cue copy/paste):

 16 And there was ^ano inequality among them; the Lord did pour out his Spirit on all the face of the land to prepare the minds of the children of men, or to prepare their ^bhearts to receive the word which should be taught among them at the time of his coming—

 17 That they might not be hardened against the word, that they might not be unbelieving, and go on to destruction, but that they might receive the word with joy, and as a ^abranch be grafted into the true vine, that they might enter into the ^brest of the Lord their God.

Sometimes I feel like there isn't a lot we do as missionaries when we find people who love to learn and grow. The members here are amazing at showing that love and support to their friends, with is incredible. It still doesn't mean that the work out here is easy, because it is not. There are tough days, for sure. But the blessings that are coming from our work are incredible. Anyway, that's about all I can think of now! Sorry about the millions of things in parentheses.

Love y'all,

Sister Nielsen

Pictures:

We went to Fort Matanzas for a P-day activity last week, so this is all of us on the ferry to the fort (not a private boat and not a beach, so we're not violating mission rules, don't worry). In order, it's Sister Shumway, me, Sister Wallentine, Sister Cline, Elder Tibbitts, Elder Andrade. Sister Wallentine really doesn't like boats, hence her expression.

There is always some sort of local wildlife on our car, which needs to be removed before we go anywhere. Especially around the church, the lizards are so thick it's hard to walk.

Our floor after any given study session (promise this wasn't posed). Well, my side of the floor; the ASL dictionary floated over from Sister Shumway's side. We felt bad enough to clean up after I took this picture.

Florida, Week 7

Hi, y'all!

First off, thanks to the ten or so concerned people who informed me that gators can jump. I hadn't known that before and I am justly chastened. But I still have all my appendages so I guess that the Lord protects His missionaries.

We spent this week talking with lots and lots of new people and it paid off: we got three new investigators through tracting alone! (Well, one was a referral from the elders but they found her by tracting.) Victor loves the Bible a ton (he can quote passages of it verbatim all the time), but he needs to overcome his doubts about organized religion so we gave him a Book of Mormon and are going through it with him. I have a ton of faith in the converting power of the Book of Mormon and the truths that are so plain in it, so I'm really excited. Janet is in her 60s and is going blind, so we go over to read the BoM with her. It's a great experience to study for someone else, because it feels like you're reading for the first time and rediscovering truth and that's when my personal study impacts me most powerfully. Jane is in her 50s and lives right by the elders, which is why they referred her. Her husband just died this year and she's looking for truth in religion, but she has the greatest faith that she'll see him again so I cannot wait to teach the Plan of Salvation tomorrow. Josh is doing great and a bit of a miracle happened this week: his parents were kind of against him taking the lessons because they thought that "the Mormon religion wasn't normal". They never really stayed to talk with us because they were always running in and out but the other night, we were on their porch and they stopped for a minute to talk. By some wild chance, I mentioned that I was an archaeology student and it turns out that they are all crazy about archaeology and have a house full of treasures they've dug up here and in Georgia and out west. So they brought out tons of their favorite stuff to show us and though we never got to talk with Josh about Alma because of curfew, he tells us that his parents now like us which is just miraculous. I think they might have us over for dinner this week.

We were cleaning out David Wood's garage this Saturday with the elders (he's a reactivated member and his kids Crystal and Cody are getting baptized November 9th!) when the elders got a call to go teach the Restoration to a member's friend who really wants to get baptized. They felt bad leaving David so they asked me and Sister Shumway to go over and teach her the Restoration. We went in our filthy work clothes and set a baptism date with Leah, who is 13 and adorable. She's been coming to church with the Hatfields for a while now and she's really decided that she wants this stability and ward family in her life. And what a blessing she will receive!

What else are we doing? We were invited to a contemporary Baptist church service Saturday night, which was a little like what I always imagined EFY to be, if they have rock bands at EFY. The bishop's wife of the other ward has an exercise class in a park three times a week so we went with the St Aug sisters today and it was very intense. I'm really reallllly out of shape, though in my defense, I haven't gained any mission weight yet. Supposedly the average weight gain for the Florida Jacksonville mission is 30 pounds... yeesh. But it was a lot of fun and made me miss the killer conditioning sessions of my lacrosse days. It was also pouring, which was a lot easier to run in than the regular humidity.

This week, we focused on teaching members to decouple the invitations they extend, which basically means saying "I love you a lot and I want to share with you something very dear to me, but no matter what your response to that is, it will never affect or change our relationship." Sharing the gospel with your friends doesn't mean that you drop them as soon as they show that they're not interested in the gospel or act strangely about them forever after. The strength of your relationship (whether you know someone well or hardly at all) has little to no effect on whether or not they'll choose to accept the gospel, but the opposite is true: when an invitation is extended, regardless of whether or not it is accepted, the relationship of the two people almost always grows deeper. So decouple your invitations! Most people will feel special and loved that you chose to share something personal that makes you so happy with them, even if they aren't looking for that at the moment. In all things show love and the Lord will bless you and your friends. 

The Lord hasn't ceased to pour out His miracles on the earth. Mormon tells us that the creation of the universe and of man was a miracle and we have so many witnesses of the miracles of Christ and the apostles, so since God cannot change, He is still a God of miracles today. We're told that because of unbelief and hardened hearts, people choose not to see miracles today. Mark, the investigator who invited us to Anastasia Baptist, told us about how medical technology today is a miracle: if someone in the Bible had been able to take a heart out of one person and give it to another person so they could live, that would be one of the most amazing things ever wrought by the power of God. It still is, but people don't see the miracles around them now. I was thinking a lot about what he say and reading in Mormon 8 and I found the source of the problem:  (copy/paste from lds.org for accuracy)

 20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.

Well, that's pretty scary because that's all around us now. Luckily, the solution to help us is in the very next verse:

 21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.

There are miracles all around us today and they ALL come about because of Jesus Christ. His Atonement is central to everything we have and are. My job right now is testify of the blessings of His Atonement in everything I do, but that responsibility won't go away when I take off my nametag and become Anna again. I am still a disciple and a witness and the best I can do will never be enough to thank Christ for His sacrifice for us. Isn't that the greatest? Elder Holland said that if we were ever to understand the Atonement perfectly, we would lose all desire to sin. Preach My Gospel tells us that as our understanding of the Atonement grows, we gain a greater desire to share it with others. It has real power to cleanse and to change, so study it and let the Holy Ghost teach you.  Anyway, that's about all I have. Love you all!

Sister Nielsen

Pictures:

Sister Shumway used to be a clown, so she is a balloon animal expert. This princess took 6 balloons to make. She so needs to teach me.

My shoes are completely falling apart, but I think this says more about the quality of the shoes than anything else. I superglued them back together and they hold up all right, as long as it's not raining.

Not the best picture I've ever seen, but I love Sister Mazer so much. She is one of the strongest people I've ever met. She and our husband took us out to dinner last P-day to celebrate Elder Cancel's last day in the mission.

Florida, Week 6

Hello everyone!

Sorry I sort of forgot to warn you, but since transfers are on a Wednesday, P-day is always the day before. So I haven't died. We had transfer calls last night and I will be moving to... St Augustine! I get another transfer right here! Which is great, because I'm quite growing to like it. In fact, all of the sisters are staying here so we'll be having an awesome time.

I only have a few minutes for emails so I'll try to keep this brief. In the meantime, Sister Shumway is making balloon animals and hats for all of us and fulfilling her missionary duty of talking with people on Facebook. Unfortunately, not many of them grasp that she only speaks English, so it's always really exciting. But luckily, there are a couple who are from Brazil so I have a lot of fun translating for her. Not that I'm much better than what Google Translate comes up with, though.

This week at church, we were unexpectedly called upon to teach Relief Society at the start of third hour, but we're used to that and the topic was missionary work, in the context of the teachings of Lorenzo Snow. The lesson went amazingly, all thanks to Sister Shumway. I'm really lucky to have her as my trainer.

Josh has been reading the Book of Mormon and simply loving it. He texts us all the time to tell us what he learned and how he felt while reading it, which is just amazing to hear. I know this is what we're supposed to be doing all the time as missionaries, but it's still incredible to see it happen. He has a few things to work out so we're working towards a baptism date of November 9th. 

One amazing blessing that I've noticed from missionary service is that I now incredibly have the ability to remember all sorts of people's names. I still am not perfect at it, but the fact that I remember members, people we meet on the street for a moment, potential investigators I've never met, people's children and pets, or whatever else... I wouldn't have been able to do this before. It's been a real miracle in my life. 

Because I love to irritate people about member missionary work, I have a bit of advice for you this week. Elder Ballard asked everyone to "extend an invitation" to a friend or stranger, but he left it up to all of is to decide what exactly to extend. So what is an invitation? It could be anything from church to dinner at your house to giving someone a copy of The Family: A Proclamation. So use your imaginations and the Spirit as you decide what is a natural and appropriate way to reach out to someone. The Lord knows your heart and the hearts of every person He has placed in your life and he blessed everyone who seeks to bless another's life. Remember that everyone has their agency and if they reject your invitation, they're not rejecting you. That doesn't mean you're not successful. You're always successful when you act in faith and obey the commandments of the Lord and you will always, always be blessed. Anyway, I'm out of time but I love you all and pray for you!

Tchau!

Sister Nielsen

And P.S. I'm so glad to hear that the McLean Ward got sister missionaries! There's an amazing thing we do here that I think the young women in Virginia can do as well: you can serve a mini-mission with the sisters! You spend anywhere from three days to three weeks with them, just following them around and learning everything they do. It's the greatest. 

 Pictures: for our last district meeting, Elder Andrade had the brilliant idea of building companionship unity with an eating contest. I dunno quite how that logic worked, but it was crazy fun. Thanks to years of practicing the Cheeseball Challenge with the McLean 1st Ward Young Women, I totally destroyed in the cheerio-eating portion. Lost on the jello though because I was laughing too hard (and I don't really like jello). 

Is it week 5 now?

Hey everyone,

I guess it is week 5, because transfers are in a week. Nope, I'm not training, though I guess there's still a chance I get called beforetomorrow night. But probably not. I think all the sisters are staying but only two of the elders are. But exciting! No clue how long I'll get to stay in St. Augustine but I'll enjoy it while I can. Thanks so much for the recipes, Mom, I'll see how many of them I can do here!

My sign language is still nonexistent and I can't read the alphabet at all when people spell out words fast, so that's one of my study focuses this week. Funny story: it's a little scary to drive in the car when songs are playing that Sister Shumway knows well, because she starts driving with her knees as she signs the lyrics. But we haven't died yet!

I got a few questions about the Jehovah's Witness church so I'll first clarify that No: I'm not going apostate or whatnot, but turns out we're allowed to attend other churches' services as long as they don't conflict with our own. It seems that often the missionaries make deals with investigators that if they come to church this Sunday, they will attend their services as well. Makes sense to me, because it's a little hypocritical if we invite the whole world to our church but then refuse to go to any other church on principle. Only rule is that we can't proselyte and I wouldn't want to. But the JWs are great fellowshippers and I met an awful lot of them. So the funny thing is that this week we've been running into Jehovah's Witnesses all over the neighborhoods where we tract and being able to say "Oh, do you go to Kingdom Hall down on Wildwood? I was there last Sunday!" has opened a lot of doors that otherwise would have been slammed in our faces. A lot of people think Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are always at odds because our doctrines have differences and we are the two main proselyting religions but we're getting referrals from them, service opportunities, random people pulling over to talk to us and introduce their kids cause they recognized us... It's been really cool to see how the Lord works. Every Witness I've met has a really earnest desire to seek for truth, which I love and admire.

Another odd thing: more often than I would think possible, when we stop and talk to people on the street, they start telling us all about their past sins and lives of crime. And then they ask forgiveness. It's a little awkward because we have no authority to forgive sins; that's between them and God and we tell them that as soon as the conversation starts to dive that way. But it happens so often that it makes me wonder if this is a Southern thing? Because people consider us a form of clergy? No clue.

About our investigator, Josh, he's doing fantastically. He has so much desire to learn and be baptized and he loves every new thing he learns about the gospel. The elders are teaching him as well and he really hit it off with them, which is great. But it's not really us doing much at all; it's all the Spirit guiding everything. We were just the ones to extend the invitation. But he tells us that this message is the answer to his prayers, which is amazing to hear.

So for everyone who watched General Conference, wasn't it just amazing! I was kind of expecting a message about member missionary work, but I really wasn't anticipating two such energetic, ambitious talks in the same session. (Mom, I've gotta ask, are we related to S. Gifford Nielsen?) So in light of M. Russell Ballard's challenge for everyone to invite someone to hear the gospel by Christmas, I feel for ya. I'd love to help out if I can. My mission has been reading and using this amazing book called The Power of Everyday Missionaries and I challenge you ALL to find/check out/download it. I finally got my own copy on Thursday and I finished it Friday morning on a missionary schedule, so I promise you it's a fast read. It's written by Clayton M. Christensen, former Seventy, who you may recall that Elder Ballard mentioned, and this book illustrates why people often are afraid of member missionary work or do it clumsily and how missionary work can be natural and doable for ANYONE, no matter who you are/how outgoing you can be. It's inspired me to be the best member missionary ever but unfortunately, I'm a full-time missionary now, so I simply need to live vicariously through you all! So as you all work towards Elder Ballard's goal, I'll be sending you some of my favorite bits of advice and perhaps how I've seen it applied here in St. Augustine to help you out. Before, I would just be a pushy missionary trying to get busy folks involved in something uncomfortable, but I really want to help everyone fulfill the Lord's commandments. That's my only goal here, so I'll strive to be un-irritating!

The other sisters have a drainage pond near their apartment (Florida law states that there much be a certain number of cubic meters of runoff capacity for a certain square meterage of paved surface, so there are runoff ponds everywhere). Most attract all sorts of exotic animals, including flamingos, spoonbills, and in the case of the sisters' pond, an 8-foot alligator named Freddy. So the other day we went out to chuck bread to the fish in hopes of luring Freddy over and this time it worked like a charm. He scooted right up to the dock with his large pale mouth open, looking like some ancient behemoth of the deep swum right out of a fossil (apparently they look normal to Floridians who've seen them all their lives, but then again, armadillos look weird to me too when I see them out here). I was hanging right over to watch him while Sister Shumway clung to the back of my shirt, because he was less than 3 feet below us and I could have touched him. Now I know people always use crocodiles and alligators as metaphors for sin or the world's traps or whatnot, but I never knew they hunted like this. As Freddy came over, the thousands of small black fish knew he was coming and what he was and wisely swam away. But then he gets right up against the dock and freezes completely, allowing himself to drift. The fish forget he is there and start to get braver, swimming closer and around his head. If I drop a piece of bread right between Freddy's bulging eyes, some enterprising fish comes up, nibbles, and gets away safe. Still Freddy waits until suddenly there's a huge swirl and splash as he spins around and pops up again 15 feet away and there are a few fish missing completely. The fish are all agitated, especially when he comes back, but then they calm down and the whole cycle starts again. You can draw from Freddy whatever metaphors and conclusions you like, but it made me wonder: what about the missing fish? The other fish saw for sure what happened to them but they still went to repeat the mistakes that their fishy buddies made and maybe get eaten in turn, all for some chunks of bread I was tossing in. So I guess my goal from now on is to not get so excited over a piece of bread that I fail to notice that it's sitting on an alligator's head. It's a good thing I'm not a fish. But mostly I'm just excited I finally saw a gator. So anyway, sorry I can't be more powerful and inspiring in letters home but I love you all and hope you have an amazing week! 

Sister Nielsen