It's finally here! Elder Jack Nielsen will be arriving home this Wednesday! We are bouncing off the walls with excitement. Last week I didn't post an update because he spent the day with all the missionaries coming home this transfer and he didn't get a chance to write an email. It is tradition for missionaries going home to spend the second to last P-day visiting the Statue of Liberty in NYC. Today he was really busy packing and saying goodbye to many of the people he has come to love during his service there. Soon I'll be giving this boy the biggest hug he's ever received. The countdown is on! Thank you for supporting him these last 2 years. My cup runneth over. -K

Here is a short update on his last email.

Hi mom! More than 100 weekly emails later and here we are. Look! We did it! This was a good decision. I’m a smarter punk now. Still a punk though. But smarter. I love you so much. So so much. We never have to do this again which is really nice. We just get to hang out together by the pool and watch movies together and dance in the kitchen. But I really wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. 

It's going to be a really busy day. We’re actually going bowling with the sisters and some other stuff just to have some fun. And then I have like 20 people I have to go say goodbye to. I have a dinner tonight with Lou, who is one of my favorite dudes. He’s bought me an entire library of books to take with me (lol) so I might surpass the weight limit. Plus this really nice lady bought me the heaviest blanket I have ever owned ever. Like it’s so so so so big and pink and flowery (lolol) and imma going to take it home because she’s cute. I’ll send a picture I took with her while my comp fell asleep. 

In other weekly news, Jimmy got confirmed yesterday. Love that dude. We had a really good week at church yesterday. And everyone has been so nice. I love them. 

I’m basically packed already which is nice. I’m only bringing home one suitcase. I just have to do laundry tonight and pack a few things and I’m READY. I’m so ready. I just wanna hang out with my cool family. 

I'll see you soon. I love you so so so so so much.
your boy. -Jack

This week we were able to FaceTime Jack for Mother's Day and it was SO GREAT to talk with him and make all our plans for the coming weeks. Today marks 13 days left until we pick up our boy at the airport. I can hardly believe it's true. We are busy make preparations for his return so most of his letter home this week included lots of incidentals not post worthy...but I did ask him to write a paragraph for the blog and this is what I got. Enjoy! -K

Everything I have learned on my mission can be summarized in two important points. They are:
1. The gospel is about love. That’s the point and purpose of it all. 
2. Don’t touch your eyes after eating a spicy pepper. 

That’s it for now. I’m out. 

It was a good week. Lot of good stuff going on. Coordinating a baptism and all that stuff. My homie Jimmy was at church yesterday and walked in holding his BoM and I laughed because he’s a funny kid. All good things. This next week is my last zone conference and I get to share my “dying testimony” which you give when you’re leaving which is SO WEIRD because I never thought I would actually get to this point. Surprise. I did. But in all aspects of missionary work my life is the quintessence of normal. I’d rather tell you about funny people in my life. So I will do that. 

Let me first of all tell you a story of my favorite lil Haitian grandma that we visit. She was a member early 2000’s but hasn’t been active since but we found her and visit her regularly. She’s seriously so so funny. I don’t even understand her most of the time but my companion translates and it somehow retains it’s hilarity. She’s was telling how she loves eating too much for her age and when she eats too much sugar or something she goes and showers and gets in her prettiest clothes and just sits by the phone and waits until she feels something and then calls the ambulance to come pick her up. When she told us I literally died. She’s the funniest lady. Love her. Another funny lady is this investigator we visit that yesterday made us like a gallon of papaya shake (which used an entire can of condensed milk) and we drank all of it and it was so heavy that we all fell asleep while reading the BoM lol. She fell back asleep when my companion was bearing his testimony and he ended it by saying, “Aviole, I know all these things are true and they can bless you even though you’re asleep right now.” And it was just really funny. Last one I feel deserves mention is my man Peter. Peter is a returned war veteran who was in an explosion that left him a little off and he needs some assistance. But this man, who is like now 70-something, has no kidding, thousands and thousands of dollars of signed yankee memorabilia. The man lives in a basement with a rat problem but literally even the dust in the corner is signed by Mickey Mantle. I like him. Whenever we don’t understand him and he has to repeat himself he yells super loud like we’re super far away even though we’re right next to him and I laugh. We visit some funny people. I love them. 

I love asking the question of "Have done any good in the world today". I think it’s important to remind ourselves of that. I’m very excited about the Church’s emphasis on lightening the burdens of others with the whole ministering initiative. I love the church for its doctrine and all that good stuff but I also love it for it's day to day caring level. 

​​Today we’re going watercoloring with our artist lady. She’s funny and needs company and we aren’t doing anything today so why not. YOLO amiright. 

Other than that, know that I am good and happy and healthy and I love you so so so so soso so so soso so osososossosososososososossoso much. Don’t forget it. 

Talk to you in a bit! I love you! 

—your boy! 

 Hi mom! Only six more weekly emails from me and we’re done! What a weird feeling! I’m really happy that I get to stay here in Nanuet for my last 44 days. I like it here. I’ll be staying with Elder Merizier as well and he’s a funny guy. 

I’m writing you from my little desk looking out my rainy window. I like rainy days. This past week it got into the 70’s which was crazy because my body didn’t know how to handle it after being a cold guy for so long. We had a really good week this week! I literally had to make an investigator lunch so she would come to church lol. But we actually have several really cool people we’re teaching. Yzabelle should be getting baptized the 29th this month. She’s cool. And we’re teaching this 17 year old kid named Jimmy who is the only white person I’ve ever taught in my entire mission. He’s really cool and he and I are homies. We visit a lot of really cool people that I really love a lot. So life is really good. I went to Passaic again this past week which was nice as well. I do miss the spanish program quite a bit so I went out of my way to get some good tacos. I didn’t see any dead bodies. I got released as a District Leader last night (which usually happens so you can spend your last transfer just proselyting) and I am, for the first time since Red Bank, now a Regular Proselyting Missionary. Not a trainer or District Leader, or Zone Leader or anything. Just me doing me. Swaggin. So I’m excited for this upcoming 6 weeks.

I still teach a lot in Spanish and I translate every hour of church into Spanish which is super hard but also kinda fun. My French is ok. Enough to make people laugh and what else do you need? Not much. 

I’m really excited to come home and be Sam's best friend. Gonna love that dude to pieces. Send him down to Cedar whenever you want to because I love him. I can take him to fun places. Speaking of family, Family Search just told me that I’m related to Wilford Woodriff so I'm going to check that out today. If so, that’s pretty lit. Wanna grow a beard like his.

I really like the scripture you shared and it’s been one of my favorites on the mission fun fact. One of the things that I think is really cool is that in Moroni 8:16 he says “and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear.” And in 1 John 4:18 it says “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” And I think that it’s cool that the same concept almost down to the wording was revealed to two different men at two different parts of the world at two very different times. When we say that the gospel is everlasting, it really is. And the influence of the Holy Ghost is prevalent in all time and space, even down to a repeating one-liner written on two different hemispheres at least 300 years apart. Pretty cool.

Sorry this took so long to get to you. Elder Merizier and I invested in a ping pong net and put our dinner tables together and we pong like it’s our job. I’m still dinner table pong king. Don’t forget it.

I love you. Talk to you in a little bit. I love you with a perfect love.

-xoxoxo
​your boy

Tracy and I had the chance to visit this week with a cute sister missionary that served with Jack and just got home a week ago. She told us all about our "hipster missionary" boy and how loved he is and how hard he is working. Melted our hearts. Here's the latest from our guy. -K

What a cute lil week. All my weeks are cute and they go by pretty quick. This last tuesday we went around for like 5 hours and just cut member’s trees up with a saw because a lot of them fell in the storm we just had. That was super fun. I love working with my hands. That was pretty fun. Got to hang out with my homie Wes. He’s a v hipster dad. He’s the second councilor here and also just a really good guy. He’s a car salesman. His wife does like physical healing though mental therapy or something cool like that. Anyway. They’re cool and I’ve gotten pretty close to them. They tell me I'm doing a good job and that's nice because imma tryin. I’m tired. A good kind of tired though.

Later in the week we played basketball with the young men which was really fun because they’re all punks. Love hanging out with punks. My people. We also had zone conference this week which was fun because I was able to hang out with Elder Sanhueza. Love him. My companion and I won a game about who knows your companion best. It was fun. And this weekend I had an exchange with my friend Elder Nunes, my current ZL, who came out with me and spent a year in the Portuguese program which is really hard. And yesterday I ran around all day. So I’m a busy boy and it was a good week. 

I got a fun picture of you, dad, and Sister Spackman lol. She’s so funny. It was always fun to serve around her. I remember when she came in. Why are guy missions so long? Who knows. Solo dios lo sabe. She sent me this funny email: 

“It’s me hazie paze!!!! GUESS WHO I MET TONIGHT !!! Your cutest mom and dad. Okay they are SERIOUSLY THE CUTEST NICEST PEOPLE I HAVE EVER MET. And they love you so much. They cried when they saw me. And they don’t even know me, but it was because I was in NJ and got to be your friend and they weren’t :/ but they asked me so many questions about the mission and about you! And I told them all good things !! I told them I would be at your Homecoming with sister Daniels! Your dad asked me about picking you up and just how excited they are! Hahaha they told me 73 days.. I think they’re counting :) BUT! It sounds like you are killing it in New City with all the cute Haitians and speaking creole! Go you! Have a good week. 
Love, hazie paze.... since we’ve always been on a first name basis ?¿”

Lol at her. She was a good friend up here. Now almost all my friends are dead and I only recognize like half the mission as is. Casi ya me chupo faros. (Which is a mexican expression which means to suck lights, i.e.  to get hit by a car,  i.e. to die, i.e. to go home) Anoher good one is “bailar con la mas fea” which means “dance with the ugliest one” which means to die. Mexicans are funny. 

Today I’m just chillin. I think I have to go buy some new pants because most of the ones I like to wear have holes in it and the other one is pretty baggy and I look like a rapper from 2002 when I wear them. I’ll probably just get some cheap ones at Burlington on the sale rack or something so no worries. I’ll probably take like 4 naps. I’ll write my cute mom. Sounds like a good day to me. I'll email more later. I love you!

-your boy.