Well, what a week. It was a mixture of the all time worst week of my life and one of the greatest weekends ever. But first, im not sure what to tell you about my stuff. I am going to have to buy a new bike, but I got a new backpack, scriptures, hymn book, and that stuff. But with my cards. They are ordering me a new debit card, but it's going to take 2 or 3 weeks to get here is what the guy at the office told me. He gave me $100 cash, so i've gotta make that last, and it definitely isn't going to hah. i'll be fine though. But yeah, just whenever you can get me that cyprus card that would be awesome. I dont think that loan paper had my SSN on it, so no worries.
Alright, so tuesday. It was raining suuuuper hard all day and we couldnt even go out to work. We finally left around5:30 to go to our investigator Jorge who has a baptismal date. we talked to him for a while and he gave us some food. oh tell grandpa, make ASOPAO and BACALAITO. Asopao is a soup thing and bacalaito is a delicious fried bread thing. but anyways, we went to walgreens and i bought a flashdrive and elder fournier printed off about 10 pictures. It was going to take about 30 mins for the pics to be ready so we decided we'd go visit a less active real fast and then come back. we were going towards her house and because of the rain, the electricity went out, street lights and all. It was bien obscuro. we decided to leave because it was so dark, it felt weird. so we were on our way back to walgreens and we met these two young guys, probably 17 or 18. they were kind of drunk too. they were strugglin. they asked if the could use our phone to call someone to pick them up. we said that we couldnt because it isnt ours, its the churches. then they asked for a ride on our bikes. we said we couldnt because its a rule. they finally asked if we could help them get home because we have lights on our bikes. there wasnt a sidewalk, just a dark, dangerous road. we told them of course we'll help you. they would've been run over by a car if we didnt. right when we got to the corner, we decided that was far enough. we started to turn around and at that point juan (they told us there names were juan and pedro) got all up in my companions face. I couldnt see the knife, because i was on the other side of the road and it was super dark. to be honest I thought he was trying to make a move on Elder Fournier because they were acting pretty gay haha. but yeah, i was like dude this is weird, lets dip. But then i realized what was going on. They took our phone and elder fourniers backpack. I was standing in the middle of the road and was getting super pumped. Like pre football game pumped. I was waiting for Fournier to make a move and then I was gunna jump in and back my boy up. but he was being really calm about the whole thing. Pedro came over and took my backpack off of me and freakin frisked me in the middle of the road. A car came by, by didnt stop or anything. They took everything, bikes, backpacks, wallets, our name tags, everything. except our helmets. I thought it was funny when dad asked me if they took them. we totally walked back to the mission home with out helmets on. but yeah, i felt more embarrased than anything. I've alwasy been bigger than everyone and thought no one would mess with me. then we had to go to 3 different police stations and finally got a report submitted. then wednesday and thursday we didnt have bikes. we didnt get anything done. I was so mad all the time. i couldnt get the situation out of my head. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were really tough days. I felt like I didn't have the Spirit with me at all. I kept thinking about what happened and I couldn't just move on. On Friday night, I said one of the most sincere prayers I have ever said in my entire life. I poured out my entire soul to the Lord. I felt like I had been obedient, I had been doing everything that was asked of me, working hard, but nothing was going my way. I felt like I couldn't catch a break. I asked the Lord to help me know why all these things were happening to me. I asked what i needed to do. I felt the most overwhelming feeling of peace and comfort. It felt like the Lord was there with me, giving me a big hug. I felt completely content. I didn't any more feelings of anger or sadness or stress about the situation anymore. When i asked what I needed to learn from this, I heard a voice tell me "you already know what you need to do." The next morning I opened up my scriptures and read the story of when Ammon went and got his brothers out of prison. It said that they were smiten with thirst, hunger, and fatigue, nevertheless the were patient in their afflictions. Right after, they took courage and went forth proclaiming the gospel and the lord blessed them and they became an instrument in his hands for the salvation of many souls. I realized that the answer was simple. I don't need to know why I pass through my trials in life, I just need to be patient through my trials. It doesn't matter why trials come, it matters what you do after they come. I love D&C 24:8 that says be patient in your trials, for they WILL come; nevertheless, i am with you until the end. I know that is true. The Lord was with us that night. He protected us, I know that without a doubt. He was there. It was one of the strangest feelings I've ever had in my life. It was a mixture of fear, excitement, anticipation, and calm peace. I learned a great lesson this week. One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Ne 2:2 where Lehi tells Jacob "thou knowest the greatness of god; he will consecrate thine afflictions and they will be for thy good." This week was a humbling experience for me and I know that we will be blessed if we just keep going forward in the faith. The adversary doesn't want us to succeed and he will put roadblocks in our way. The last part of the doctrine of Christ is Enduring to the end. It isn't enough to just be baptized and receive the holy ghost. We must endure to the end, through blessings and trials. Elder Fournier and my motto this week was "You can't see a rainbow without first seeing rain." I know it's true. The son of man has descended below it all, are we better than He? (D&C122)
anyways, i feel great actually. I feel super pumped to be a servant of the Lord. I dont have any bad feelings at all. When i tell people what happened they are amazed that im not super mad. It's awesome how the atonement works. Alma 24 is my new favorite chapter. the anti nephi lehies (converted lamanites) bury their weapons and covenant not to fight againts the other lamanites. 1005 of them are slain because they dont resist. because of this, thousands of other lamanites were converted. one verse says "and thus we see that the Lord works in mysterious ways to bring salvation to the souls of the children of men." It's true. Lord works in mysterious ways. we cant question him.
ALMA 17:11
Love you guys, be safe!
Elder Nielson
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