Christmas Conference :)

What a wonderful week. We had a Christmas conference with the north side of the mission and my favorite part of the whole thing was being able to sing Christmas hymns with all of the missionaries. The spirit just filled the room! I love this time of the year and I am grateful to be a missionary. 

 

I was able to bear my testimony as well, as one of the departing missionaries. I feel like I have changed since I have been out here and I am grateful for the small changes that I have made, but I am also grateful for the desire to continue to change and become better. My mission has given me the understanding and the importance of change. I don't want to remain the same. I want to continue to progress. 

 

Our APs texted me a scripture this last week and it I thought that it was just great! It is found in Moroni 8:3 " I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end." The end is not going to come with the ending of my mission. I will continue to prepare after, so that continual change will be a habit in my life. 

 

I love you all and I am grateful for your emails. Be safe :) 

 

Love, Sister Alisha Nielsen

Decembre

Seasons greetings my friends :) 

 

I hope that you enjoy this glorious photo with me and my friend James. James is an investigator and he is also dating a less active member. This photo is probably one of the classiest photos you will ever see. We were in this less-actives home and she has a lot of stuff and I saw these classy hats over in the corner and so we took pictures with them and then afterwards we taught James about the Book of Mormon. He committed to reading 3 Nephi chapter 11 and we will be seeing him this Friday. 

 

I was able to go on my last exchange with the STLs and I was with Sister Cottle. We are pretty similar and I am grateful that I have been able to exchange with her a lot. We were probably friends in the premortal existence. One thing that we talked about a lot was the reason why we serve those around us. I was thinking the other day about the Christmas initiative and the reason for all of the advertisement of "He is the Gift." I don't think that the first presidency intended to show the wealth of the church, but to reach out to as many people as possible so that they could discover the true meaning of Christmas.  I know that the leaders of the church are inspired men and women and they probably prayed a lot about this next step to spread the gospel. As I was looking back over the conferences, a new temple has not been announced since I have been on my mission, just the completion of those already being constructed. They probably were inspired to do this awhile ago and so they prepared in advance so that they could go about this new way to share the gospel. I know that our leaders are inspired and that God directs His work. His work won't be frustrated because He wanted everyone to remember the true meaning of Christmas. 

 

I hope that you all have a great week :) Stay safe and warm! 

 

Love, Sister Alisha Nielsen

Thanksgiving!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving:)

 

We were challenged by the stake presidency to tell the people around you what you are grateful for, so everyone, these are the things that I am grateful for:

 

I am grateful for the atonement. What an amazing gift that we have been given to better ourselves and to develop a relationship with God, our Savior, and those around us.

 

I am grateful for my family. I get to be with them forever! They are my best friends and I know that they were given to me for a reason.

 

I am grateful for missionary work. I would not be the same if I didn't come on my mission. I know that the principles that we teach to those around us are true.

 

I am grateful for wonderful members who live the standards of the gospel and try to share it with others. I love walking into members homes and feeling like I am in my own! I love feeling the spirit there.

 

Lastly, I am grateful for my companions. All of them! they have taught me things that I will remember for the rest of my life and I am so grateful for the friendships that we have developed out here!!

 

Everyone, life is so good. I couldn't tell you that enough :) I love you all and I hope that you all think of things that you are thankful for :)

 

Love, Sister Alisha Nielsen

Missionary work :)

Hey everyone :) 

 

My companion and I had the chance to speak in church yesterday and I loved it. I still get teary and all that mushy stuff but I felt the spirit really strong. I thought I would kick the whole chin quivering thing on my mission but I guess it is here to stay. We both spoke on missionary work and Sister Robison focused a lot on Charity. Her talk was very good! I got up and spoke about being chosen to be missionaries and how we promise to be representatives of Christ when we are baptized. 

 

A quote that I shared by Sheri Dew, " You were recommended to help run the last leg of the relay that began with Adam and Eve because your premortal spiritual valor indicated you would have the courage and determination to face the world at it's worst, to do combat with the evil one during his heyday, and, in spite of it all to be fearless in building the kingdom of God. You simply must understand this, because you were born to by virtue of who you are, the covenants that you have made, and the fact that you are here in the 11th hour. You were born to lead as mothers and fathers, because nowhere is righteous leadership more crucial that in the family. You were born to lead as priesthood and auxiliary leaders; as head of communities, companies, and even nations. You were born to lead as men and women willing "to stand as witnesses of God at all times, in all things, and in all places," because that is what a true leader does.....His kingdom is being established once and for all, never again to be taken from the earth. This is the last leg of the relay. This is when He needs His strongest runners." 

 

If this quote doesn't pump you up I don't know what will! but honestly though! We are asked to establish His church before He will come again! How important is that! I am so grateful to be a part of that and I will continue to be a part of it even when I get released because I promised that I would. 

 

I love you all! Have a Happy Thanksgiving :) 

 

Love, Sister Alisha Nielsen

Little Kiddos

Hey everyone :) 

 

It snowed yesterday and it was crazy cold! Tis the season :) Yesterday we also had the primary program and they have to be the best thing no matter where you are on earth! Children are the greatest! I was just sitting and watching (mom I really wasn't making any faces this time) and a little girl made eye contact with me and she started doing the Little Rascals wave with putting her hand under her chin and waving at me! and she was on the front row! I couldn't look at her anymore so I put my head down and every time I would look up she would do it again! 

 

Me and Sister Robison will be companions again here in Choctaw! I am so grateful for that because the people that we are teaching are amazing. I am so grateful for our companionship as well because we get along really well!

 

This week we had the chance to go over to Tabatha MeGees and teach Avery a lesson. Avery is her good friend to Sister McGee and she is so great at being a member missionary. She really is a huge example to me! We taught Avery about the Book of Mormon and bore testimony about the effect that it has had on our lives. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon because I know that it is inspired and written for us today. I was reading about Christ visiting the Americas and He is telling the people of His correct doctrine. One thing that stuck out to me this week was in Ch. 13 vs. 32-33. When we are doing what the Lord commands He promises that He will take care of the rest. I have tried really hard to KNOW this but sometimes it is just a belief. There are things that I am scared of and I forget that God will take care of it. I hope to be able to instill this in my brain and live by it. God provides. 

 

I hope that everyone is staying warm! I love you all :) 

 

Love, Sister Alisha Nielsen

November 10

This week I was reading about Alma the younger and his accounts to his sons. Normally the one that stands out the most to me is Chapter 36 because the whole thing is about his conversion story and he is bearing his testimony to his son Helaman. Well this time as I was reading I came across something that he said to his son Shiblon that really stood out to me. In verse 4 it talks about the rough times that Shiblon has had but then Alma says, "thou didst bear all things with patience because the Lord was with thee; and now thou knowest that the Lord did deliver thee"

 

This phrase reminded me of a talk that Elder Holland gave about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail. He talked about how Joseph needed to go through that so that he would have a firmer faith in the Lord and that would lead to him being the leader that the saints needed at that time. His trials were necessary for his progression. Same for us. Our trials are there for us to progress and better rely on the Lord.

 

This morning we were on our way to the library and a man was struggling up the hill on his bike. Me and my companion really felt that we should help him out so we loaded his bike onto our bike rack and then drove him home. Well he let us step in the door and there was a man washing the dishes that we have met before. haha his name is James. He saw us and with his soapy hand came up to us and hugged us and said "my sistas!" haha life is good :)

 

I love you all and I hope that you have a great week :)

 

Love, Sister Nielsen

HEY HEY HEY

On Saturday night we had the coolest lesson of my entire life. We met with Mariah in the church so it was very easy to feel the spirit. We were just getting to know her a little bit better when she basically bore her testimony to us that she knows that what she is doing is the right thing. She spent the summer down in Texas and she started dating a member and hanging out with him and his friends. Well, the seed was planted because she wanted to know why they acted the way that they did and that they didn't need to drink to have a good time. This girl is 19 years old and knows that there is more than just partying in her life. It was the sweetest thing in the world to hear her talk about it. We talked to her about baptism and she accepted the date for November 22nd. Her grandfather is in the hospital with terminal cancer so she is going through a pretty rough time. But with the knowledge of the gospel in our lives, even the hardest trials we have will come with better understanding that we have a Heavenly Father that loves us and wants the best for us and those around us.

It reminds me of when I was in Nevada and my friends would go out and party and drink. Crazy things would happen and they would come up to me the next day and over and over again they would tell me that they needed to hang out with me. haha I love my teammates so much and I miss them like crazy.

The commandments keep us safe. I can have a good time without being under the influence of a substance. Over here we call it #highonlife. haha

Happy birthday grandma Peggy (yesterday) I hope that you have a wonderful day :)

I hope you have a wonderful week and enjoy the fall weather before it is gone :)

Love, Sister Nielsen