Last email from America

 How's it going all?

Things here are all going great! Just a little under a week to go! We did get our travel plans on Thursday! It was awesome! We leave at 5 AM on Monday morning and fly to New York. The flight is at 7 or so I think and lasts 4 or 5 hours. We have a 2ish hour layover there, where I will be able to call and then we have a 12 hour flight to Moscow. We arrive at 10 in the morning and stay in Moscow for 12 hours doing who knows what. So I don't know if I will be able to call in Moscow or not. But then we fly out at 11 at night and fly to Novo and get there at 6 in the morning on Wednesday morning. And then my day will start with a train ride to my area most likely unless I stay in the city. So it's going to be a long, long few days haha. But I am SOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!! A lot of the people have already left. All the Baltic missionaries and Moscow missionaries left on Monday, all the Ukraine missionaries left yesterday. So it's pretty empty. But they said that 600 or so missionaries are coming in today because there won't be any coming in next week due to Thanksgiving. I think we are getting 18 new missionaries in our zone and only 4 of those are sisters. Which is kind of different because up until now it has been pretty even with elders and sisters. This week we still have about half of class doing actual class with a teacher and then the second half other teachers come and grab us and use us as investigators for their missionaries to practice on or as a member to use in a lesson or something. On Monday night me and my companion did a "plan study teach" cycle with some elders from the younger districts because the teacher wanted us to. It's just where we go through the cycle of planning for a lesson, doing personal and comp study according to the subject you are about to teach and then doing some language study and then teaching. It was pretty fun! Me and Elder Doane did it and taught his investigator Irina about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was fun! I was chatting with one of the other teachers yesterday and it turns out that he was proposing to his now fiancee last night! I asked him how he was doing it, and he said he was going to sundance! Basically exactly where Brady did it. He promised us pictures tonight so I am excited to see. He is awesome. He served in the Baltic mission. All the teachers here are way cool. It's like they hire every cool, Russian speaking, crazy spiritual and smart people that exist. I am going to miss them all when we leave! But it's really nice that almost every teacher and a good 80% of missionaries go to BYU. so we can all hang out, see each other  and stay in touch. So that will be way fun. As for requests, I don't really have all that many. I do need some more hair gel though. so if you could get that to me before I leave that would be awesome. A photo album to put all my pictures in would be nice so that I can carry them around in one piece and all that. But I think that's all that I need really. That's crazy that Natalie and Lauren are both going to France! That's going to be way sweet! I'm jealous! And that's cool that Dani has her papers almost all done too! That's awesome! And I am glad to hear that it's a boy on the way! Cant wait to be the favorite uncle for a niece and a nephew! I liked the 'goodies for grandma' thing. Very clever. Kate, all your creatively amazing ideas like that are setting the bar a little too high haha I just don't know how to compete with that! That's too bad about all that stuff that you are going through dad haha that didn't sound fun. None of these things are fun alone so I bet that all together they are awful!  I met an elder yesterday that is from Draper and he bikes and he was also wearing a lacrosse shirt! Small world. I miss biking though, especially since there isn't all that much you can do here for gym especially with the field being closed. All the grandkids came today! Haven't met too many of them but tonight for class we will meet a lot of them most likely. It should be fun!

Many are called but a few are frozen

                                   
   
                                             The whole group - older missionaries already in Russia too
                                                                               I miss them !

                                                    AF missionaries at the map - going everywhere

Nametags finally came

                                                                  The District

week 10

Baby "brother" is on the way?! That is crazy! Congratulations! That's awesome! Now I'm just trying to remember if I put that down under my predictions for the year haha. That's funny that Janie is all excited haha I can't wait to find out what it is! And that's too bad about the elections. Good thing I will be gone :) just pray Obama doesn't screw up our relationship with Russia or anything. That would not be good. They apparently think we are all sneaky American CIA agents haha. A sister in our district showed me that same article and one similar the day before you sent it to me. That's just ridiculous  I laughed There are always haters. I have a cool story to share! So our native teachers new investigator name is Lucy. All of our teachers investigators are based off of real people they know or taught. So Lucy is one of her good friends. She was showing us some pictures of her on FB on Monday night in the classroom and randomly her phone started to ring, and it was Lucy! So she answered it and put it on speaker and we talked to her in Russian for a minute or so. Then she talked to her for a second and hung up. Afterwards she said I wonder if she is home from work and if we could teach her on skype. And she was kind of joking when she said it, but none of us were! We wanted to do it so bad! She isn't a member and she has had a lot of trials in her life. So we ended up finding another teacher who had their iPad with them and we set it up and two sisters in our district taught her while our whole district crammed into the observation to watch and listen through the tiny one way window. So we all watched and it was awesome! It was a really cool experience. they just talked for a while and she played us a song on the guitar and sang in Curdish, she is from Armenia originally, then moved to Russia, and then here to the U.S., and it was incredible! so they ended up teaching a little bit about prayer and at the end asked if she would pray and she was shocked haha and so were all of us in the observation room. We had no idea what just happened! So it was quiet for a little bit and then she said that she would even though she hadn't in a long time. and then she asked if they could meet again the next day! We were all blown away! So they were planning on doing it Tuesday during morning class. But our teacher kind of broke a few rules haha which was very unlike her. She is usually the strictest about rules. She puts the hammer down if you use any type of slang and all that. So she called the main guy over the Russian department and asked if it was cool but he was way bugged he didn't ask in the first place. Which is a little dumb because we are actually fulfilling our purpose as missionaries and inviting a real person unto Christ. But I guess rules are rules. We still haven't heard if we are allowed to still do it or not but I sure hope so! It was really cool! We all got super excited to get out of here and be able to do that in real life! Luckily for three of us, they get to leave Monday! It was bittersweet for over half of each our zones to get their travel plans on Thursday haha we were way happy for them but sad that we have to wait one or two more weeks! We all have to follow the schedule as if we were leaving though so we have in field orientation on Friday and all that and that next week will be interesting. I'm curious to see what we do. We got our Cyrillic nametags! It was like Christmas! We can't really wear them here which is sad because no one will know who you are but they are still way cool to look at! and on a another sad note, I didn't get the soft sound! but the way that it was done was almost exact. It sounds very similar to English so I guess the overall purpose was met. We should get travel plans either tomorrow or Friday. I hope we get a long layover in somewhere cool! That way we can just walk around and talk to people and hang out. I hope I get to meet someone French! I have a French BoM that I got at the bookstore so I will see if I can give it out to someone :) If not I will just keep it read from time to time. It's amazing but I legit understand a lot of it when I read it. Some concepts and conjugations I have kind of forgotten and don't know the exact translation, but I still understand! It's really fun to read. a nice little way to mix up personal study and make it not so repetitive. I thought about writing my testimony in it, but I know close to no french gospel words but I still have a week and a half so maybe I will get around to it this week.On Sunday while my comp was in his DL meetings I was just in the classroom and so I decided to work on memorizing the Articles of Faith for some reason in Russian. Memorizing things in Russian is fun. You learn a lot of vocab from it actually. We memorized the missionaries purpose that is in PMG in Russian one of our first few weeks and that's how I learned repentance, to invite, endure to the end, and all that so its really fun plus I just like challenges and memorizing things. So double bonus! So I started and I got about 7 of them down! I need to work on the last 6 in the next little bit but it was really cool because I always kind of looked at the Articles of Faith as a thing for kids. Mostly because you memorized them in primary and learn songs and stuff haha but on Sunday when I was reviewing them I realized how powerful they really are! They are exactly what we as members of the church believe. They were written by Joseph Smith, a prophet of God, as articles of our faith and beliefs. So I challenge all of you to look them over in the next week or so! They are awesome! I finally had time to load up some pictures for you. The computer in the laundry room was not a fan of my camera for some reason, just the software or something, so I had to put my card in Elder Nichols' camera and load it that way. So iIhope it works! Things with me and Elder Nichols are going great! He's awesome and me and him get along really well. Neither of us are morning people so we don't usually say anything to each other til about 8 and it all works out! haha So there are just little things like that that make us perfect comps. like today for instance, there were pizza and chicken sandwiches for lunch. So one gets two pizzas and the other two sandwiches and we get all the fixins that we know the other likes. Like mayo ketchup etc. haha i'ts awesome. We all just hang out with a bunch of other Elders from the other zone and districts all the time and tell stories at night. It's the best! I just love the brotherhood here. It's especially nice that there are elders here that are themselves and improve themselves rather than be someone different just to look like a good missionary. It's awesome. 

Nick: That's a crazy MTC story! Way funny! on a side note, we always joke with our drivers about getting food somewhere haha they always say no. but one day one of them had an extra burger and sold it to me and Elder Nichols for $3 haha so we split it, put it in the microwave, and ate it! It was amazing! A BK double stack bacon cheeseburger haha it was awesome. Thats sweet your going to NY! hope you have fun! and that everything is still alive over there! Thanks for that part at the end about living in the now. It really does feel like it's always greener on the other side but by dreaming for that we forget where we are. So thanks.

Dad/Mom: Yes, I am super happy to not have tests and all that right now. definitely thankful for that. Good luck with your FHE decision! I bet it will be flawless and all will love it. That's crazy the stake might get split or new prez. be sure to let me know! I loved the eating craisins story haha I laughed way hard. Ya I can't wait for this next week! It will be fun. We just get to hang out with each other, practice, teach the g-kids, etc. it should be fun! Glad Boston was fun and that all went well! That's too bad that work is busy and you have to wear a tie haha I feel your pain, don't worry. Jazz might be good? of course it's after I leave haha be sure to keep me posted. Ya that thing really does hurt after a while! its awful. my hamstring and IT band are like bruised haha it's no fun. No weight gain! just the same old. Gray suit worthy still.

Beed: Nice work on the Iphone! thats way cool. I bet you just play with siri all the time haha I agree with the work more and take it easy. tha'ts a good strategy. I approve. thanks for the your face joke! I missed those for sure haha and as always, thanks for the weather updates! You are a doll. I love when you write when you are super hyper haha it's the best. It just reminds me of all the good times being super hyper and your high pitched laugh with tears of joy haha good times.

Lyssa: glad halloween was fun! And that the costumes worked out. That's funny you saw kate's double haha I'm sad that I missed that. I bet that the BYU game was sweet! Those are always fun to go to. Tonight we taught a guy at TRC, his name is Keith, and he lives at Glenwood! He said that he knew Stephanie. but that was it. I don't know if anyone else still lives there. but she is in his FHE group! oh and side note, did Boman ever tell you I saw him in the cafeteria? We took a pic and he was going to send it to beed, but don't know if he did or not.

Kate: I bet Jane just loves joy school! That's a fun idea. I hope it isn't too crazy when its your turn. but now you get a little break in NY! So that's good. That's way sweet that Nate is going to Brazil! Tell him congrats for me. That would be a cool one and a lot of people go there so you have a lot of opportunites to use the language after and to meet people. So that's cool. and nice work on getting the BoM in 40 days! That is quite the feat! nice work! do you involve Janie at all with that? or is it to early for that? haha well once again congrats on the news! Can't wait to hear if its a boy or girl!

Week 9

How's it going!

   So we all found out something fun in the last 24 hours haha one of the kids in our zone got an email from his mission president asking him to bring a couple things with him. At the end he said "oh and sorry to hear that you have to stay for another week." He had no idea what he was talking about so he went to the travel office and asked when his departure date was and they told him it was the 19th. So everyone found out after a little bit and it was weird because he didn't know why it was just him and what for and why no one told him. So they were talking with the teachers about it and they said that Russia is coming out with new visas for preachers and 27 of the missionaries in the 2 zones have to stay. I guess the teachers knew because they are trying to figuring things out because the new missionaries were supposed to come in on the 14th. So everyone got way nervous at this point. We talked to president Harrison about it as well when he showed up for the devotional review and he was way mad about it haha he is the tightest. He doesn't like when people do things without telling him. So this morning me and Elder N went to the travel office after the temple and asked them when our dep. date was. November 19th! So one more week haha its mostly going to be weird because all of the Ukraine/Baltic/Moscow missionaries get their travel plans this Friday but we still have to wait another week! But it will be fun to see the new new missionaries. We get to all be grandparents! They don't know if they will just have us do RC or help teach the new missionaries or what. So it's going to be interesting. Looks like I get to be a trainer even earlier than I thought! haha. and some missionaries have to stay even longer. Vladivostok missionaries have to stay til the 26th. It's crazy. This week was good. I had to get a shot on Friday. I think it was Hep A2. And it cost $71! That's just crazy! Matt Johnson left yesterday. We saw each other in the cafeteria and he told me that he was taking off in a few hours. He asked how long I was here still and I said two weeks, which is now three, and he just gave me this look of "I'm sorry" haha so he didn't even need to say anything. The knee is doing pretty good. A little bit better. The person doing it is still Chery Clark. Not Kirk. Did they do the thing were they have that big metal thing that's like the back end of a butter knife and just dig into your muscles and all that? It feels good at first but then it gets a let less fun after that haha but then I just do the ice/stem and then she tapes it up. Today was funny because everyone was in costumes! I'm glad to hear that Halloween still exists. Me and my comp were joking around that everyone probably thought we were missionaries for Halloween. They announced in our devotional last night that people with family in the east coast could email home today and make sure things are all good. Our shuttle driver today said New York lost power and Manhattan or Maryland or some place got evacuated in some places? That's crazy! and he also told us that Obama told the troops to hold when the Libyan U.S. embassy got attacked. So I hear he is on the chopping block for that. So with the new preacher Visas I don't think we go out for trips anymore. but that's just a rumor. So I'm not too sure about whats going on with that. Giants won the world series? that's a little disappointing! AL should have won. Glad that BYU won for once! that's good news! pretty hard when I saw it. I bet Janie's costume is way tight! I'm sad I have to miss that! She makes a perfect Red Riding Hood. I'm glad that G-Ma had a good bday! and suiting up is pretty sweet! except we always have to fully suit up now even though its still way hot outside. so it gets a little hot sometimes. and you have to wear the same thing every other day basically haha but I guess that's just the life!

Sorry kind of another short one. Not a lot of time on Pdays anymore! But hope things at home are still going well. All is well here in the MTC!

week 8

We have had no time to do anything today so sorry if this is a little short. We should be getting our nametags that have our last name in Russian/cyrillic. I am pumped! I get the soft sound in my name too haha we all wanted it for some reason. Don't know why. It's just cool! It doesn't make it sound it just changes the letter before it. It looks like a lower case b and I get it! I'm so pumped! My companion wanted it way bad too but if he puts it after his l sister chenina said it would sound kind of feminine haha. We spent a little bit just going over all our names and how she thought they would be done according to how Russians would say it usually or what is easiest. So that was fun and we should get our travel plans on November 2nd. I can't wait for that day! I remember when the olders got theirs. They were pumped. So I can't wait for that.

Dad: Thats crazy that the golf trip is this week! You picked a good week to escape from Utah and all this snowy/cold weather. Hopefully it's not the same down South. I'm sure it isn't. Nice work on the talk! 20+ minutes? That's awesome! I bet you were glad when it was over haha 22 minutes of talking in that type of circumstance isn't the funnest thing but I bet it went well! That's dumb about the BYU game! I am still a little impressed that they came that close to beating them especially on their own turf. So I guess that's a kind of a win right? Poor Yankees... I heard that its the Tigers and giants in the final. I'm hoping its the Tigers. atleast keep it in the AL. plus the Giants just recently won. they need to share. Thats crazy about the 7000 applications! I don't know how they are going to do it. It's going to get all sorts of crazy here for a little while. That's too bad about Lance. People need to just get over it and calm down. He won. They all do it but he still won because he's better and smarter not that he doped more or anything. It's just dumb! 

Beedness: Your Russian didnt work. it scrambled it into a bunch of numbers and letters. but i found a pattern to be able to see how many letters there were so i figured the beginning said "privet" and then "kak dela?" so in answer to your question, "otlichna!" (wonderful) haha I can just picture you in the puffy red coat right now. I'm sorry that you have to go through another cold winter haha but just think of me with frozen eyelashes and that should warm you up! I loved how the weather in Russia was way colder than it is here. The highs were lower than our lows haha that's just going to be ridiculous. There is just no way to comprehend that. I'm sad that I didn't get to ride Dash! I didn't think about that. He better still be around when I get back and in one piece still. and I loved the 1 nephi 3 nephi mix up story haha I looked them up and I just died and showed my comp and he cracked up. I will do my best not to do that.

Lyssa: Thanks for the Cupcakes! you pulled through :) thank you very much. I wasn't having the best day yesterday as you could imagine and that and the package from you mom really helped. So thanks! Y'all are the best! I laughed pretty hard when I read the you shouldn't baptize everyone like Nacho haha good times. So I will try not to but no promises!  I love how you had the look of judgement when you read it I thought I was being clever and would just throw that out there and hope that it happened haha so it makes me happy that it worked out! That makes me sad that you won't be Nacho and the nun anymore! but the haiwain tourists sounds pretty good. So can't wait to see that! I thought I described Boris and Masha before but I guess not. My bad! So our teacher brother Holt is Boris. Well he was. Then we baptized him and now he is Nikolai and Sister Chenina the Russian native is our other teacher and she is also Masha. We baptized her yesterday though so we teach one more lesson tomorrow and then next Tuesday she will be a new character and we start over and also we teach each other. So we are teaching two sisters and the other elders teach us. Those lessons usually get pretty funny haha because we aren't as professional at staying in character and not laughing when they say something wrong that sounds blasphemous haha it's great. We have heard things like we are sin instead of saying that we all sin and that a companionship misunderstood the teacher and said that we pay the prophet in order to repent haha. it's great. 

GMA! Happy birthday tomorrow! I hope you have an awesome day!

So that's all I got for now. I have to go do an MRI real quick. I will probably check up my email after class tonight and send a few more thoughts. Feel free to send me a quick email if you have questions or anything. Love you guys!

Elder Nielsen

week 7

How's it going!

Just a little under a month left and then I will be in another country! It's really weird to think about and it just doesn't ever seem real. I just feel like I am here forever and then I get to go home haha but I have just begun! I can't wait to get out in the field. some nights our teachers find teachers that went to our mission and they come and talk to us for a little bit and we get to ask questions and it just gets me so excited! and on other nights our teachers just tell us stories about their missions. It's so fun and it just pumps you up like a pep talk! You just want to get out and baptize everyone you see haha it's awesome. Yesterday our native teacher was kind of running over the word of wisdom with us and giving us vocab that wasn't in our books and stuff that is useful and we started talking about the whole tea thing for like 40 minutes. Later we just had this huge culture lesson on tea, coffee, mannerisms, etc. it was awesome! I am so excited! So this last Sunday I got released. I was given the title of longest standing District Leader that our Branch Prez has had. Now my comp is the DL so we still have to get the mail and all of that but it's all good. So I don't know if you guys have all heard this, but along with decreasing the length of MTC stay, they have made it so that in the field, you are ready and will start training 12 weeks in... that's crazy to think that by January I will be training someone... that's just crazy! So we will see how it goes. That's crazy that they had 4000 mission applications the week after conference! I'm glad I get to leave before the MTC gets too crazy and packed. That would be a nightmare. I thought it was already packed up in here. Sister Jane Sorensen? I think it has a nice ring to it. I can see that happening! I bet is she is going to love carving pumpkins if you guys do it. I'm sad that I will have to miss it! Christmas package already? That's weird haha I hope you didn't send egg nog or anything in it! but thanks! This last week they started to put up all the Christmas lights around the MTC so hopefully I will get to see them all done before I leave! I guess they go all out with them. So I'm pumped for that.

 And I got my flu shot like my second day here so you don't need to worry about it! I still have gotten sick twice since being here though haha that first full week after the flu shot and then this last week. It was funny because in your letter you said your throat hurt and mine did too and that's when I got sick. We always got sick at the same time and I just figured we got the other sick but it turns out it just happens! And 'The District' show is what we watch in here actually. It's actually pretty old unless they made a new one and that's what it is, but we watch it all the time when learning teaching principles and looking at real life examples. It's pretty cool! Sometimes we use them in our lessons. Like once we took Masha to a "baptism" which we just showed her a clip of a baptism from the district with Russian subtitles. Boris got baptized a week and a half ago? So now we have Nikolai? I don't know how to spell that in English. Николай. and then Masha gets baptized this weekend. It was going to be last weekend but we had a rough lesson about tithing and so we had to push it back haha it's a long story.

Dad: Oh the golf trip. get a hole in one for me this time alright? I miss golf. The other day me and my comp were studying and I was just getting distracted and thinking about the rest of the day. I thought about what we were going to do next and I legit thought that I hadn't been golfing in a while and needed to go soon haha it was sad when I realized that I can't! but it's all good. It will make it that much better and funner when I get back. So think about me when your crushing a drive off a "white tee" on number 1! That's sweet that you get to go to Boston too! But that's too bad mom isnt going to tag along with you too. But I'm sure you will have fun with all the guys. That's not good that Novo is already getting cold. We keep thinking that it's cold here and we just look at each other and want to cry because it's like a warm summer day in Novo so that will be fun stuff for sure! That's nuts that everyone is on fall break right now! I bet it's weirder for you. You are all used to going to St. Geezy for the week or something but now it just isn't fall break anymore so I'm sorry about that haha. Thanks for the updates! That's the worst that Jeter broke his ankle. Is he going to be back by the start of next season? Why can't they ever win against the tigers in the playoffs! That's a joke. They need to stop choking. Good luck with all the winterizing and getting ready for winter! Just promise me you will take off the shrink wrap on the boat before the end of July this next year haha.

Beed: Thats sweet about the mission reunion! I can't wait to have those every six months when I get back. They sound like a ton of fun! I bet it's really fun for you because you don't ever get to use Malagasy very much but there you get to use it quite a bit I bet. I liked the car and water story haha thank you for passing that knowledge along haha bless their hearts. Thanks again for the weather updates. You're the tightest! BTW. the pic that you had didn't work. It was just all these characters scrunched up to the left side haha but I applaud your efforts!

Lyssa: I loved the Pizza Factory story! nice work. hahaha I can't wait to see your costumes! They sound awesome. You know what I say when I say look of judgement haha you have this look and then you laugh and say that we are ridiculous haha every time  Who knows, maybe you are doing it right now! Yes? That's cool that you are planning a Mada trip! Good luck with the Malagasy haha I gave up after a few days :) but you can do it! that's way cool! Ya SYL is rough. I bet it was annoying for you haha but it's just the way things go! It's pretty funny sometimes though. You get creative at making sentences make sense haha and really good at charades. I'm glad that you enjoyed conference! It was awesome easily the best conference yet. It's really cool that they are talking about us as missionaries a lot. It's always a cool experience to have things said about you and directed right at you.

Alright well I think that is all for the week. Thank you all for your letters, packages, and support! You are the best! Я люблю вас! I love you!

Старейшина Нильсен!

Week 6

Hey everyone!

   This week was weird because I feel like I was super busy but at the same time I feel like I didn't get much done for some reason. But it was a good week. I am half way done with the MTC! It still feels like I have forever though. General Conference was sooooo good! and the age announcement was just mind blowing. The whole MTC just started screaming and freaking out haha it was pretty funny. It's weird to think It's like the whole baby boomers thing. Getting into BYU for the first year or two will be a little bit easier than normal but come two years from now when all those "baby boomers" come back it will be packed and difficult to get in. Plus the marriage age gap for RM's is going to get smaller. It's just fun to think of all the things that will change because of it. I think a lot of people are excited about it because it's going to increase the mission force and a lot more people will be able to go now! I am sure a few people are a little angry because they wish it would have happened before they had to wait one or two years to go. But last night we had a devotional by Elder Bednar! It was amazingly good. He talked about how the Lord can do his work and hastens it on his own time. So they waited for a reason even though we may not know, the Lord knows what he is doing. I am sure they have been preparing for this for years working on cutting MTC times by a 1/3 and refinishing some buildings in here etc. But ya I think the 1/3 thing is going to happen. They had a few pilot programs over the last year or so and now they are going through with it. Big changes! And so last night we were sitting there and all of a sudden I just felt the spirit crazy strong. Then everyone stood up and me and my comp had no idea what was going on but it was BEDNAR!!!! It was a really cool experience. You can just feel him walk in the room and know that he is a man of God. He talked a lot about conference and how to study it afterwards and what to do during conference etc. It was really good. And who knows we might get another General Authority the week before we leave! that would be the coolest. We got all the greenies today! We have met a couple of them and talked with them. We met an elder from Lithuania that is going to Novo! He is the tightest! We talked to him in a Russian a little bit and asked how well he spoke. At first he said very little but we soon learned he knows WAY more than we do haha so that just goes to show how much we know haha so that was a fun experience. But we wont really get to start to get to know them till later tonight or so because they have alot of their meetings and class today. The language is awesome! It's kind of becoming natural! I don't have the tendency to say French words as much anymore which is good haha but thinking of French is still pretty difficult. I don't know how someone can know more than two languages. It's just beyond my comprehension. So we will see if I still want to do Italian when I get back. It is coming pretty easy. My comp and I have a little more relaxed view on things than everyone else in our district and that definitely helps. Some people just kill themselves over it which kudos to them for having such a strong desire, but it just isn't healthy and it's near impossible to keep that attitude up without getting burnt out. People always ask for our secret because it just like comes to us and people have this impression that we never study (we really do though haha I promise) and we just say to relax! They never take our advice haha but it's all good. They are just doing them. Thanks for all the packages for the week! Packages are the best. So thanks. I can't close my food stash drawer anymore haha so I have got my 72 hour kit all ready to go! The mitchionary bear is no doubt the tightest idea! Tell Janie that she is the cutest. I'm glad that I will be able to represent at all the events I am missing while I am gone! Today was the last day of PT! hopefully I don't ever have to go back. It makes pday less of a relaxing day because it takes up so much time. The knee is doing good though. It feels about as good as usual and back to normal. so tha'ts good. 

Beed- your letter made me laugh pretty hard haha I miss getting hyper at the Glenwood and laughing to the point of tears! and then getting that look of judgement from Uncle Lyssa :) haha but I can't wait to see the hedgehog video! It sounds like a good one. That's funny about the debate too. Good for him! and thanks a ton for the weather! It helps a lot haha it saves us from having to go back and change to something warmer. And Lyssa/Brady I love the idea of the Nacho costumes! That is the best haha I just laugh thinking about it. You need to send me a pic when/if you do it!

Dad- No solid departure date. It's going to be the 12th until like a week before and we get our travel plans and find out what the real plan is. But it is either going to be the Monday or Tuesday of that week. Russia usually leaves monday and then Ukraine leaves Tuesday. That was the trend for the older groups. That's crazy about the A's just turning it on and cranking out Ws to get ino the playoffs. That's way cool. But the Yanks clinching the #1 was easily the best news. Thanks for the updates! You will have to carve a NY pumpkin for me this year. That's funny about the home ward party too! I can see why it would be a little weird. Are there a lot of people that you don't know yet? Well atleast it was fun!

Nick- I am glad that Tuacahn went well with Janie! I'm sure it's not the funnest thing in the world to have to walk out and miss out on all the fun. So I'm glad that she behaved and you enjoyed it! Even though I never ate any, it makes me a little sad that I missed out on the prime rib haha it was such an eventful thing it feels weird not being there for it! and that's funny about the double farewell haha that would be cool/weird at the same time haha and thats also crazy about the rankings and all the upsets! but atleast BYU pulled off a win for once. that's good!

Grandma P-  Hi! How are things going? Is Brady staying on top of all the yard work? If not, you just let me know and I will tell him to pick it up! I hope things are all going well at home. That's too bad all the plants are just about frozen by now after the cold week we had. but I hope you got your works worth of veggies! I'm going to miss putting up all your holiday decorations! That was always fun to do and hear the stories behind all your decorations and the new ones you had gotten since the year before! Especially the tedious job of putting up those deer and the tree in the front yard haha that was always a fun one to try and figure out. Well try and stay out of trouble and keep my mom busy alright?

Love Elder Nielsen

Week 5

How's it going everybody?

  Sorry! this letter is way late and I didn't really have time to look over questions etc. So sorry. I will try and answer them next week. Today has just been busy with a lot of things which left me with little time to prepare and do this. So my apologies. This week has been pretty exciting haha it involved a lot of hobbling around, icing a billion times a day, and a lot of trips to the "outside world". but it's all good. I went and did physical therapy this morning. It was at Kate's work! Just in the room to the south of Kate's lobby. I looked for her car in the parking lot when we were driving up to see if she worked today or not but I didn't see anything. And then I have to go again next Monday and Wednesday morning. Then I should be good from that point. I saw C C i think is what her name was? She was good. She kind of looked at it and gave me a bunch of things to do and such. It's been feeling a lot better though. The swelling is almost all the way gone and it doesn't hurt too bad when I bend my knee I still hit points where everything tightens up but it's getting better. I played sand volleyball yesterday for gym and it all went good. So hopefully this is the last injury our companionship has for the rest of our stay haha we must be cursed or something. So things are all good here. The older group all left on Tuesday and Monday. It was the worst thing ever! I probably won't see a lot of them ever again which is not cool! Because they were all way tight. We all shared all our information and stuff before they left so it's all good. A companionship of elders and one sister went to our mission so we told them that we would see them in six weeks! They were way cool. so I'm pumped to have a little mini reunion sometime when we get there. Before they left they gave us all of their traditions to hold on to and give to the next set of missionaries when we leave haha it was funny. We got a basketball hoop for our door which is tight. We played some 2 on 2 in our room this morning after breakfast and it was fun. We got a chicken that squeaks when you squeeze it, a Disney princess pillow, a huge fan which is the best to sleep with at the foot of your bed, a handful of candy they didn't want and just random dictionaries and Russian language helper things. Also they all had cushions on their chairs in their classroom and we inherited them as well as their desks because they took all the good ones. My comp got like a gigantic tempur-pedic sample  as his seat cushion haha which is way funny. I'm excited for this week because they said it was their most productive week ever once their older district left because they wanted to be prepared for the newbies and also they just had no distractions. but I still have quite a few of distractions with all my doctor visits so it wont be amazingly productive but hopefully still more than usual. oh! just a p.s. we watched a clip in class the other day on youtube and you should watch it! it was called ""that vast empire - Mormon missionary work in Russia"! i think it was by a guy named Seth Adam Smith? It's way cool. We made our teacher play it for us like five times haha. I'm way pumped for conference! I can't wait. And all day between sessions it's just personal study time so we can get way caught up on the language. I am excited about that too! I'm still the district leader haha but I think this Sunday is the day haha I can't imagine them keeping me in longer than six weeks. Thanks for all the packages this week! Love getting packages. You always know what to send too haha the apple beer, the DP, nillawafers, the cereal mix stuff (I have like a fourth of one of the containers left haha I downed it all already because it was so good!), You're the best! and thanks for all the pictures too. nice work! We taught at the TRC tonight and it was sweet! They switched it up so I taught with Elder Hampton! He is the one from Honeyville and he is going to Baltic mission. We taught a short lesson on receiving revelation through church attendance! It was amazing! First we taught a native, Misha from Yekaterinburg, and the lesson was just amazing. we could feel the spirit so strongly and at the end we asked if we could help out at all and he just said that we already helped a ton and said what he needed to hear which was really cool! We always wonder what we can teach to members because our Russian is limited and they already understand the gospel. so it's difficult, but that testified to me that we really can help with just a simple message if we do so by following the spirit. It was a really cool experience. Then we just kind of chatted with him for a little bit which is always way fun haha I don't know why, but it is! Russian is the tightest. on Monday we had SYL. It stands for speak your language. so the whole day we can only speak Russian haha it is way difficult. If they don't speak Russian we still have to talk in Russian but just repeat in Russian. So I saw Sister Whittaker and she saw me limping so she asked what I did and I had to tell her about it in Russian haha It was pretty funny. but it was really effective. I learned a lot and got to put a lot to use even though half of the day was spent visiting doctors and filling out paperwork and we have it again tomorrow! I'm excited! it builds up to our last week where we only speak Russian all week. It's going to be crazy!

Dad,

That sucks about the Ryder cup! how do you lose with that big of a lead?! that is just pathetic. They only won 3 singles matches. well there is always next year I guess haha if they can figure it out. Since it's October, I would love if you dropped some MLB updates from time to time! that would be sweet. I've got to keep updated with my Yankees. You're going for the half ironman again? that's crazy! good luck with that! I'm sad I am going to miss out on the vacation this time! last time was a blast! but I will be hitting up in Russia by that time so it's all fair!

Alyssa,

Nice work on all the tests! That's wicked impressive. keep up the good work you two! That's weird about the old ladies in front of the relief society session. I had no idea people did that. That's not cool! that kind of makes me a little bit angry that people will go out of their way and spend time and money just to take the spirit away from us if even just for a minute. Not cool. but at least you got free Kleenex right? haha

well I think that's all folks. good look with everything this week!

Love, Elder Nielsen