Elder Jackson york Nielsen
New Jersey Morristown mission
spanish speaking
spanish speaking
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Elder Nielsen is happy in Elizabeth, NJ. Here is a section of his letter home this week. -K We have 11 months left after this week! I'm not even counting down though. I love being a missionary. Best decision I've ever made. I'm super happy! Remember Yomairy? Her sister got baptized this last Sunday. How fun. We have two for the upcoming week as well so we're pretty busy. I love this area. There's always so much to do! And I love doing stuff lol. My companion is Elder Sanhuesa and he's from Chile and he's so nice. We speak in Spanish all day every day and I love it. What a guy. He only has one left here in Lizzy probably but maybe he'll stay because president Hess is coming in and I'm sure he won't want to change everything right away. We'll see. President Taggarts last day is this Friday. Que sad! I love that guy. He and I just chilled for a little yesterday as we were waiting for a meeting to start for the Stake I'm in and I'm just going to miss him a lot. But I'm sure P Hess is going to be fantastic. But anyways. I'm just good. Hope you know that. This week we met this super cool family who has the strongest Uruguayan accent you've ever heard. I love it. It made me think of Jenna and her accent lol. Also this week I met this guy who found a baby deer that was almost dead and be nursed it back to life and now it's his pet lol. So funny. Oh, and also I met with these members yesterday that are SUPER cool and he taught me all about Masonry and so I've decided that I want to become a Free Mason. Hope you're cool with that. I love the church in NJ. I have a whole new respect for the apostles post-resurrection. If you read the new testament after the book of John you really can just see how hard of a time the apostles had. Their entire job was to go to different parts of the Eastern world and try to correct the inevitable apostasy and insidious heresies taking place in every church establishment. Although here we don't have to stop infant baptisms or cults based on who baptized them, sometimes in New Jersey you have to tell bishops that it's not ok to ask for a sustaining vote on a blessing for a baby in sacrament meeting. Also: I've really learned how important home teaching is. Because of the new rules in which you can't leave your area for p-day, E Sanhuesa and I are going to take a nap and then go shopping for food (which I hardly even need because my mom is so sassy and sends me things) and then to the mall. I'm pretty sure I can get packages here. Send me a super cheap one and we'll see if I get it( lol). So basically any take aways that you want from this letter can easily be summed up into 3 points: Those 3 points are that: 1. I love my mom 2. I'm still a hoodlum 3. The church is true. Xoxoxoxoxoxo --jackson.
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Well, another transfer down and Jack has been sent to his last area. He had loved Union City and all the wonderful people he has met there. Now it's off to new adventures. -K Hi cute mom. It's me: your boy. 😊 So I have some news! I'm going back to Elizabeth to be a zone leader there! Like what? That's so fun!!! I get to hang out with all of my Lizzy friends again! My companion is Elder Sanhuesa who was my zone leader while I was there. He's from Chile. So basically I'm filling the spot of Elder Justice while I was there. I'm really excited about it. I'm sad to leave my friends here but así es la vida. I'm super excited about Elizabeth. We had the nicest baptism of Jean this past Friday. What a funny guy. He's from Haiti. He got baptized and then when he came out of the water he lifted his arms up like he got a touchdown and was like "YES!" Lol at that guy. We just ordered a pizza. I have to pack tonight which is never that fun. But that's ok because I get to go see some of my friends because I'l be in the same ward that I left! It also is a super successful area and that's cool. I love Elizabeth. And guess who is coming to fill my spot in UC? ELDER DOVE! How fun. Love that guy. So things have worked out really well. I love being a missionary. Since this is my last P-day here and we won't be able to play basketball every morning at 5 from now on so we're going to ball all day today. I'm excited. I listed to that one talk from the son of Elder Holland again today about Pain. I've probably listened to it like 5 times. I love it so much. It honestly is so interesting. Not only the view of God throughout time, especially in early Protestantism and whatnot. But pain is such an interesting thing. I still haven't really figured it out but the paradox of pain and love is beyond interesting to me. Also, I love you. Thank you for all that you do for me. I am so so so appreciative. I lucked out in the parental department. I love you. -- your boy. xoxoxoxo   Burned shirt to celebrate his half-way home day!
This Thursday our sweet boy will have served one year. That's a LONG time to go without a hug! We are over the hump and we pray for smooth sailing on the downhill. We are so proud of him!! Here is a short but sweet letter from this week. -K PS...I'm in China for 2 weeks hence the China references. I'm writing this email to you from my car right now which is a Rav 4 which is too nice and it makes me uncomfortable. We're waiting for our laundry right now and then after I'm going to take a NAP! WHAT? A NAP! I'm so tired lol. We had a super busy week this week. We went on like 3 exchanges and we just went super hard. And you know that when you stop moving for more than 6 seconds and you fall asleep that it's time for a nap. So those are my plans today. And we're also going to play basketball, like always. When life is as repetitive as mission life then it goes by pretty fast. We have a baptism this week! My homie Jean. He's this Haitian guy and I like him a lot. He's super funny. So hopefully that proceeds well without any hindrances. I had to drop my favorite family this week. They know it's true and the husband had a dream in which Joseph Smith chastised him for not being baptised. Lol. But they just don't act on it despite what we do. And they know that. So everyone has their time. Including the people in China. I'm excited to see missionary work eventually start there. I actually ate Chinese food this week in honor of you. But you're right, I eat hispanic food every day. And it varies drastically from country to country. But mainly I eat some variation of rice, beans, and meat. And if they're dominican: plantains. Literally I have never eaten at a dominican household without eating some form of plantain. Like it's almost ridiculous. You know what else IS ridiculous? How much I love you. I'm so lucky that I was born to you. On my year mark I'm going to burn a ruined shirt probably. Who knows. Vamos a ver. I'm not usually one for echoing traditions but I might just be pulled into this one. But hey! One year! That's a long time! Like a year from now I'll be with you. That's doable. We can do this. I know it. I love you mom. I hope you're being so safe. Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox Also we found a bag of cocaine in a Subway restaurant. Lol. -your boy, Jack   Another great letter from Elder Nielsen. We love and miss him. Thank you for your prayers. Keep 'em coming. ❤️-K So once a year there's an all mission conference where the whole mission gets together and plays games and other hoodlem things. I played baseball. Remember my baseball days? Lol at those. Anyway. What a day for you too! CHINA! THAT'S CRAZY! You need to promise me that you're going to be so safe. So so safe. Maybe you'll come home a communist. Which is kind of like the law of consecration but not as nice and voluntary. That's so far away from our nice house. Where are you now? I want pictures and emails from you through the week. So I can see my nice Chinese mom. Today me and some friends sang Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief in front of the whole mission and it was really nice. I'm glad I learned how to sing. Took a while. And I'm glad a learned how to play basketball. I still hate the competitive nature of sports. It's very inward, in a way. All contention is selfish in one way or another. I was thinking about sin the other day and it's so interesting. Especially because all sin can be traced back to self-absorbsion. It's all because what I want and how I want it and what I feel like I deserve and whatnot. It's obviously not coincidence that Jesus the Christ was free of sin while simultaneously always thinking of others. That's pretty cool. So if you've never seen the addiction recovery videos that the church has then you should watch them. They're so good. Also, I've learned so much doctrine over the last year. I was pretty dumb coming out. But there's just so much to learn and it's crazy. I love it. Some friends and I have doctrinal discussions all the time and they're super fun. The church is cool. I hope you have the most exotic week. Stay safe and know that I am doing the same. xoxoxox your boy, Jack  |
Called to Serve June 2016-2018My son is currently serving a 2-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This Blog is for family and friends interested in following his adventures for the next 24 months. Mission CallArchives
May 2018
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