Rock on \m/

It was great to see the on the Nielsons' blog that they had celebrated Thanksgiving in Warsaw.

This picture made me chuckle....

I can't be sure, but it seems one of his mission buddies is doing a "Lance"!  Those who know Lance will see it.  :)


Here are a few excerpts from today's email:

"How was Thanksgiving!!?!??!  Did you make healthy pumpkin pie and stuffing?  Man, I miss your cooking so much, it drives me crazy!  But, I found some kefir and greek yogurt and curry, so I try to replicate your cooking.  But it doesn't come close!"

"I hear it does take like 2 weeks for a package to get here but it's okay because I will eat those Date Treats whether they're rotten or not, I MISS YOUR COOKING!!"

"K--- told me I accepted his request on Facebook!  He is truly the man!  He is one of our investigators and he is the bomb, he is super open minded and cool.  He is legitimately a friend.  You should talk to him on there and tell him you're my mom!"

"Our investigators are all amazing!  We met with A--- again the other day and it was incredible.  He plays guitar and is really good.  I told him I will give him one of my CDs.  And B---- is amazing!  He's the dude from Turkey and we're meeting with him again today and I'm so excited!  He is a Traveler!"

"Everything here is amazing, the language is getting better, and we are teaching a lot more people!  Life is good!  Tell Dad that I love him so much and that I sent him a letter, too.  Tell him I'm learning so much here!"

"I missed you guys on Thanksgiving!  And it's crazy Christmas is on it's way!  But I will be able to call home on Christmas so that'll be super sweet!  Be sure to celebrate your best.  I can picture you're already listening to Christmas music everyday!  Hahaha!  Be sure to go to Temple Square!"

"Rock on! \m/"

Good to know my son knows me so well!  Yes, I did make healthy pumpkin pie and stuffing.  And I've been listening to Christmas music since October.

It's also good to know that he appreciates my cooking!

Attitude of gratitude

Our first holiday season with Lance in the mission field is in full swing. 

Thanksgiving has brought into focus the fact that he is not here to celebrate with us.  Yet, no one is sad or upset by his absence.  In fact, I had a good reason to corner everyone today for pictures!  

Traditions are a wonderful way to strengthen the bonds between family.  And Lance is very sentimental.  I have no doubt he found a way to celebrate a U.S. traditional holiday in Poland today.

We miss him, but we also know he is doing the Lord's work.  We wouldn't have it any other way! 

One excerpt from his super short email this Monday:

"The pic at the end is me and Elder Fletcher with a SUPER cool dude we found named B----.  He is from Turkey and is in Poland for like a month.  He is a Traveler and we had such an amazing lesson about God and that He is real and that you can speak to Him!  He wasn't familiar with God but he loved what we had to say and we will be meeting with him again."

Stalin's Tower

Somehow I missed the Nielson's blog on Tuesday describing what is going on in Warsaw District II!  

Here is what Sister Nielson posted:

Members of the Warsaw II District: Sisters Young and Peterson with Elders Fletcher, Wilson, Kotter, Rittmanic, Hayes and Pofelski.  The Lesson was on "The Role of the Holy Ghost" from our Teaching More Effectively course.

Elders Fletcher and Kotter are having great success.  Elder Fletcher will travel with Elder Rittmanic back to Lublin, while Elder Kotter will remain in Warsaw with Elder Wilson.

Zone meeting & email

Today we received in the mail a nice welcome letter from Lance's mission president & his wife.  They also included a picture of the three of them.

Their blog has some great pictures of the recent zone meeting:

A few excerpts from this week's email:

"The mission fund we get every month goes for food, laundry, soap, haircuts, things like that.  But the personal funds are for clothes & souvenirs, things like that.  So, I got a suit & a coat & a couple other things.  Great deals here on everything!"

"So yeah, it's me and my companion in this way nice apartment.  Elder Fletcher loves to cook so he is always cooking.  But he cooks healthy because he knows I won't eat garbage butt food & fructose crap.  Hahaha!  He doesn't want to eat that way either, so we have healthy eating habits!  I would say that God has truly blessed me with the conscious of health and I am so grateful and blessed for it!"

"My companion is an amazing teacher and learn something new from him everyday.  He really is a blessing to me and who God knows I should be companions with.  He's from Alaska and he really likes fishing & running and we eat salmon like twice a week instead of eating out.  I know he'd be down if you sent any of your Date Treats or any of your other healthy snacks."

"Thank you so much for your constant prayers!!  They truly help out and I can recognize them!!  A-- is soooo amazing!  We are already good friends.  He came to church yesterday and I sat next to him.  During the Sacrament, he read the whole introduction to the Book of Mormon in Vietnamese.  I knew he felt the Holy Ghost.  I hope he wants to keep meeting!  He is the man!"

"It's crazy going from wards my whole life with, you know, hundreds of people in each ward, and you get here and there is like 20-40 people total that come to church every week.  But the members are amazing and are so strong."

"Christmas here in Poland is SO SICK!  I like the food and the celebration is amazing.  I will have to tell you about it more when the time comes but it sounds exciting!"

"Ah, I love the book of James, too!  Check out the first chapter of Ephesians, it's so unbelievably powerful and definitely my favorite.  The whole book of Ephesians and Alma 32, of course.  That's the best!  And there's a guy in our zone that I'm going out on exchanges with these next couple days and he is into energy work, too!  So we have a lot to talk about!"

"Do widzenia"

Hey! It's P Day again!

I think Lance's English is suffering for the cause of speaking Polish fluently...this email was harder to read than most, so a lot of spelling/grammar correction is in order! 

"Hey!  It's P Day again!  So yeah, I went and bought a new suit and a new coat last P Day and they are amazing!  They are European style too, so it looks really stylin, hahaha!  And I haven't gotten your letter yet but if it's here, it'll come today, so I'm excited!"

"The thing i feel like is really important is the food I eat.  The first week and a half I didn't eat 100% healthy just because I had to try ALL the Polish food, haha!  So now, unless it's like a way good looking unique Polish dish, I only fruits, veggies, and some meats and nuts.  I realize that one of the greatest gifts God has blessed me with is a health conscience mind.  And, thanks to you for raising me into the ways of health, I will be a help to people struggling with health and be guided in caring for myself which truly is a blessing!"

"Thank you so much for praying for the guy I told you about last week.  We unfortunately haven't had the chance to meet with him yet, but we met with a guy who's name is --- and he's amazing!!  He is from Vietnam and speaks English and he is Buddhist!  We hit it off so well and dove into teaching him the Gospel and it truly was such an amazing experience!  I gave him one of my highlighted Books of Mormon and committed him to read it.  The lesson went so well!"

  

"Last night, Elder Fletcher and I were tracting on a road where the Polish Uprising took place and where the Polish people made a huge stance against the Germans.  They fortified all the streets and hid behind mountains of couches and cars and won that victory, but unfortunately the Germans were just so much more advanced and they wiped them out.  It's truly devastating to know the death that occurred  but at the same time, walking through all these streets walking past the statues and memorials, it gives me peace and happiness knowing that even through hell, the Polish people rose from the ashes!  And through their faith, which pulled them through, they were able to rebuild this beautiful town the way it is today. I am so privileged to be in a place with so much history and honor and faith.  It makes me love the Polish people even more and gives me even a greater desire to serve them and hep them back to the bond with their creator and to happiness!"

"If you can, go check out the dedicatory prayer for Poland to be a mission.  You might be able to find it on the blog but it's beautiful and so powerful!  Everything here is great!  Oh and I saw some super sick looking cottages the other day!  With gardens in each yard!  So beautiful and it's right by our place!  Warsaw is so beautiful and amazing!  It's an adventure everyday. OHHHH and we went to day of the dead a few nights ago and it was so amazing!!!!!!  All the cemeteries are so beautiful and there are candles everywhere with crosses and no crosses but it's beautiful to see the Polish people remember their ancestors!  I need to figure out how to apply pictures, dangit!  I'll get on that!"

"Everything here in Poland is so amazing!  Everything is so beautiful!  The history is so rich and so old and the culture is amazing!  There are so many super beautiful cathedrals here and old buildings...it's amazing! I am teaching a lot of people and we teach someone new every day.  My polish is not perfect, hahaha, but I can understand and speak through the Spirit, which is important!"