ALWAYS check the weather before you do an exchange!

 

 

 

Well, hey there!

Here we are again, safe and sound. It has been another crazy week for weather. But I got out of my house this time, so we are all good! It has been quite the week! There has been a lot going on!

Monday: Well, we spent most of the day snowed into the house after the blizzard on Sunday, so that wasn't much fun. But we got to watch a whole bunch of church videos on our itty-bitty DVD player. It was a pretty great P-Day. And after we finally escaped the house, we came right up and sent out last weeks letter, so yeah, that's about all we did. 

Snow on the roof - only 3 -4 feet at the deepest



Tuesday: Oh man, we had a big day planned for Tuesday, but at about 11 O'clock in the morning, we got a phone call from a member saying that he had over 4 feet of snow on his roof, and if it didn't come down it was going to cave in. And so, as soon as we could go, we spent the rest of the day on top of his roof shoveling snow. Never did I think I would have to shovel snow on a roof, but I did it! (BTW, I am going to be super ripped when I come home from all of the snow shoveling that we do here!)

Wednesday: District meeting! Those are always fun. It had to be in Bridgewater again this week, because we had stuff planned that would make travelling hard. After district meeting, we met with some less active members, and went knocking, and did all that fun missionary stuff, you know. And then, as a big topper for the night, we went to the church for all of our Correlation and Ward Council meetings. It was a blast :P
 

Thursday: I had to drive out to Sackville for a Baptismal Interview. That was pretty fun, my first one! After the interview, we started our exchange with the Sackville Elders. I left my companion in Sackville and took one of the other Elders home with me. For future information, ALWAYS check the weather before you do an exchange! We got back to Bridgweater, and ended up being stuck in our apartment in a blizzard again. Not so much fun! It finally let up at about 6 O'clock, so to try and make it suck a little less, we went out and knocked a little bit (note: it was still snowing, just snowing a little less). As we were out knocking, we got let into this house, and the people were really awesome, and they gave us supper, and talked to us for over an hour. They weren't interested, but it was still a pretty cool story, I have never been given supper by knocking into a house before!
 

Friday: The second day of our awful exchange. We had really great studies, and then spent the rest of the morning shoveling out of our house. Snow makes for not so fun exchanges! After we finished escaping the house, we went to the church and did 12 weeks, and then went to Hubbards for the switchback. I brought my Elder home, and went right back to shoveling snow for an older lady in our ward. She had a 10 foot snow bank outside her house that was making it impossible to see when she was backing out, so we took our shovels , and cut the thing. down to about 4 feet. Not too shabby. And to finish out the night, we had our weekly games night for the ward at the church. 

Gotta love those Mormon Board Games :P

Saturday: We started out the day by going out to Chester and visiting a less active member out there. He is pretty cool, good guy. The rest of the day was pretty lame. We got stood up for one of our lessons (we were going to be meeting at Tim Hortons, haha, it's a thing to do that :P) and our other lesson texted us to cancel, so we ended up not having any lessons, so that was a bummer... But we got to do some contacting, so that's always a party

Shoveling snow off the roof

Sunday: We actually had church again! That was pretty great! It rained like crazy though, so now everything is all iced over, and more dangerous than the snow, but at least there was church! After church we took the sacrament to an older lady at home, and had a really great visit with her. She has been through so much in her life, and is just incredible. After our visit with her, we went and had supper with the Bishop and his family, they are pretty great. To finish out the night, we went back to the church for a bunch of Skype meetings.

So there, you go, that is my week.

I hope everyone is doing well, and keeping safe in the snow that I hear Southern Utah is getting :P I love yous all!

Hockey hockey, Moose moose, Maple Leaf, Sorry about that, Eh?

Elder Nielsen

 

 

 

But yeah, I am all safe now, no worries :D

Wow.... Sorry I'm late this week. Another crazy snow storm. This is blizzard #2!



OH, you wanted to look out the window? That sucks, because it snowed last night.

I don't have a ton of time here, so I'm going to be a little brief with my letter today



It has been quite the interesting week! I don't know exactly where to start... Probably Monday, that is really the best place to start.

Monday: Not a whole ton happened. We did all our normal P-day things...minus the sledding :P We had supper at a great member families place. They are too much fun. And then we finished out the night by doing some area book work. Nothing to crazy there.

Tuesday: We were kinda all over the place on Tuesday. Here, there everywhere. We had a lot of member visits, and did a lot of contacting. It was pretty great. Not too much to report there.

Did I ever tell you that Creme Soda is pink here? PINK!?!?!?

Wednesday:  District meeting. It was a lot of fun, lots of great discussion. District meetings are one of my favourite times of the week! Really we just spent the rest of the night in meetings. That is the downside to Wednesdays, lots and lost of long meetings. But all in all, they are pretty great.

Thursday: We had our apartment inspections with President. That was fun. My favourite part was when he burst in our front door and yelled "What is going on here?" We were in the study, so there wasn't anything to see, he just freaked us out a little bit. He then went through the house and checked everything, and ate some of my Cereal. It was pretty great. We then went out to Liverpool and got to meet with some people out there. It was pretty productive. 

Friday: We had the Valentines day activity at the church. We spent so much time getting ready for it. We put so much time and effort into that thing, and it turned out great! There were so many members and non members there! We had such a great time. Basically that was our whole friday, setting up for this event.

You see a giant Ice, I see a weapon of mass destruction!

Saturday: We had a couple of lessons with investigators. They are doing great! We have on on date for baptism in April, so that is pretty cool! We went searching for some service opportunities in the community, and found some places that are going to find something for us to do (senior homes, libraries, hospitals, etc.) We were supposed to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, but that didn't end up happening because the big storm set in, so we got to stay home.

I look completely terrified, because A) I was B) I couldn't move my face at all....
The white colour on my ears, is my ears, there is no snow in them...
All that water on me is completely frozen,

 I hadn't even started to thaw out yet... Frostbite for the win!

Sunday: Church was cancelled. The blizzard was HUGE! So much snow! It was actually only like a foot of snow that came down, but with all the blowing snow, it was massive! The snow drifts in our driveway were about 4.5 feet deep. And that is where the fun story comes in. Because of the drifts of snow in our driveway, we have to park the truck up the hill away from our house.  We tried to walk up to our car at about 6:00, and got stuck out in the blizzard. We got to a place (After hiking in waist deep snow) that we just couldn't move anymore. We were completely stuck out there for about an hour and  had to call our landlord, and he had to come out and save us by leading us up a different hill where the snow was hard enough to walk on, and then back through the forest, to our cabin. It was pretty miserable. It was -9 with a -26 windchill, so it was pretty cold. I, being the genius that I am, was not wearing a toque (hat) or gloves, because I thought I was just going for a short little run out to the truck... Not so. When we finally got back to the house, my hair was completely froze, and my ears and fingers were completely ghost-white and frozen solid, I couldn't move them at all. I finally got it looked at today when we got out of our house (about 5:00pm we had to wait to get plowed out.) and it is just minor Frostbite in my thumbs and in my ears, so it is only very uncomfortable, but I have been assured that I will regain full feeling in them sometime in the near-ish future... So that is fun... But yeah, I am all safe now, no worries :D

So that's my story and I am sticking to it. 

I hope you are all having a great week, and not freezing to death. I love you all lots and lots!

Hockey hockey, Moose moose, Maple Leaf, Sorry about that, eh?

Elder Nielsen

A beautiful day in the Canada Halifax Mission!

 

I didn't take any pictures of me this week... So I took a selfie for you :D
(I am never getting a decent selfie am I?)

Hello Hello Hello!

What a beautiful day it is here in the Canada Halifax Mission! A Nice cloudy day with a balmy temperature of -13 and a gusty wind chill of -27! For all those back home still using the Imperial system that would be about 8 but feels like -17! It's all kinds of fun!

The Snow Drift outside our house - it's pretty cool.

Lets see if I can think up some good stories for you this week...

Monday: It was a pretty average P-day. You got the pictures that I sent last week. We went sledding! That was pretty fun... Except we got in trouble for that... I guess it counts as a winter sport... my bad. Nothing else really happened that day, we got a call from the mission president telling us that because of the snow we needed to stay indoors for the rest of the night. So we did... Not much else to tell.

Tuesday: We had a pretty good day... Really not much to tell about it. We spent the day contacting LA's and trying to see some former investigators. We picked up a new investigator which was pretty cool! She is the mum of a recent convert, and she is so fun to talk to! I'm excited to keep working with her.

The sweet planner the Sisters made for me.

Wednesday: It was a pretty interesting day. We didn't have district meeting, so I organised a skype call with the district just to get to know everyone a little better. It was pretty great. The district is super funny! Love those crazy kids!  Other than that, we spent most of the day doing our regular missionary thing, and then spent the rest of the night in meetings. Super exciting stuff.

Thursday: Oh man. We had to do weekly planning on Thursday because we had Zone Conference on Friday. That was just super exciting as always. We decided to drive out to Lockeport to try and get in contact with an investigator that we are having a hard time finding again (note: lockeport is about an hour and a half drive from Bridgewater). So we went all the way out there, and he wasn't home... That was a bummer... But it gave us a bunch of time to do some contacting out there. We got a ton of referrals. Then we came home and had supper with a super great family! It was fun :D

The back side of the planner.

Friday: ZONE CONFERENCE! It was great! We traveled out to Halifax first thing in the morning (it took us forever to get there because of all the snow on the ground, and all of the people driving like 30 KPH... I didn't like that so much, but we made it safely. It was a great conference! I learned so much! Really that was all that we did. It took up all day.

Saturday: We had a really full day! We had a meeting with the music director of the ward because we are putting together a music concert for the bridgewater area. It's going to be great! Right after the meeting we had to run back to the church and fill up the font for the baptism of a little boy in our ward. We started filling it up super hot, and I decided to turn the temperature down a little so I wouldn't be boiling the kid... bad choice... I forgot that the cold water this time of year is a lot colder than usual... The font was freezing by the time he got in... The poor boy was shivering through the whole thing.. but this was really cute, he got out of the font and said "I'm shivering, but I don't feel cold". I about cried! We had a lesson with one of our investigators, and ended up putting him on date for April 11! That's pretty exciting! All of our other lessons fell through, so thats about all we did on saturday.

The beautiful oceanside village of Lockeport (Believe it or not, there is an ocean and a village in the picture...)

 

Sunday: Church was pretty great. After we spent the rest of the night trying to hunt down some LA's that we were supposed to get in contact with. It was interesting... not many people are too receptive to missionaries coming to their door, even if they are already members! But, we found a few, and got to teach some lessons. I ended the night with a leadership skype call, and that was the end of our week.

Some of the icecicles outside the church (there are cooler ones now that I will have to get a picture of for you)

So there we are... That is everything that I did this week. Super exciting, right?

I hope everyone is doing well, and your not getting yourselves into too much trouble!

Have a fantastic week

Hockey hockey, Moose moose, Maple Leaf, Sorry about that, eh?

Elder Nielsen

I guess to get a good picture of that boy I have to "Borrow" it from the "Mormons of Atlantic Canada" FB page!

My first official Canadian Blizzard!

The Missionaries in my area

 

Sledding in a Suit

Hello there!

Haha, so funny story, I left my brain (my planner) at home and only brought my new planner, so I have no clue what we even did last week :P I am going to try and remember at least a little bit of it...

Monday: A pretty average P-day, still poor, so we didn't do a lot of shopping. My comp wanted to say good bye to everyone because he was leaving on Wednesday, so we went around and talked to a lot of people, and he said his goodbyes, and I stood awkwardly by because I knew I would be seeing all of them again in not too long a time... It was pretty great.

Tuesday: I survived my first official Canadian Blizzard! Oh man, there was a ton of snow... But did we still go out and do stuff? You bet we did. We went all the way to the church and correlated with the sisters, and then went to Tim's for hot chocolate, and then went back to the apartment for the rest of the day to work on area book and call members because we were forbidden to go out proselyting. It was quite the adventure (and the Tim's card from Mum really helped with the Hot Chocolate! Tim's is the best!)

Wednesday: Wednesday was pretty exciting. We had a lesson with an investigator at a members house, and that went really well! I love having people to teach again! After the lesson, we went out to Liverpool to do some work, and again say goodbye to some members out in that direction. It was a pretty fantastic time. Because of the weather, all of our meetings got cancelled, and we ended up being able to spend a little extra time out in Liverpool. After we had finished up, we got into the truck and headed out towards Dartmouth. We spent the night in the Great and Spacious building with like 15 other elders so that we could be up and ready to be at the mission office for transfers at 5:50. There were way too many elders in that apartment...

Thursday: I was the only elder who actually got up on time, so I ended up getting ready, and then waking everyone else up so that they could get to the mission office. Transfers went quite smoothly. We just dropped off one companion, and picked up another and went back on our way to Bridgewater. Easy as that. We spent the rest of the day out working and doing the regular missionary thing.

Friday: Instead of doing our normal weekly planning session, we had a meeting with the sisters and set up a transfer plan of everyone that we want to work with. We went through every file for every less active and for every part-member family, and discussed and decided if we were going to focus on them this transfer. It only took like 6 hours, no big deal. Afterwards we all went off to our own supper appointments, and then finished out the day by coming back to the church for Sports night. It was a pretty exciting day.

Saturday: Well... we started weekly planning, and then got a call from a member telling us that her son needed help moving. So we packed everything up, put on our service clothes, and went out to Lunnenburg to help out. When we were done, we then got to finally finish up our weekly planning. The rest of the day was spent doing your average everyday missionary stuff.

Sunday: Church! We had a ward fast for missionary work this week, so everyone got up and bore their testimony about missionary work and member-missionary work. It was so cool! I enjoyed it a ton! After church we had our normal correlation meeting, and then went out to work. We went around a visited former investigators that nobody has been able to get in contact with for a while. Not a ton of luck there. Lots of people either gone for the day, or won't answer the door because it is freezing outside... either way, not a ton of luck. But still not too bad a day :)

And there we go. That is about all that I can remember for this week. It's a really good thing that we have these nifty little planners, or my letters would be so awful every week!

I hope yous is having a great week! (Yes I did say "Yous is", It's a Nova Scotia thing... People say it all the time) I love you all so much

Stay safe, don't do drugs, crack is whack, only you can prevent forest fires, and in the words of one of the members out here "Don't bring home any stray animals!"

Hockey hockey, Moose moose, Maple Leaf, Sorry about that, eh?
Elder Nielsen 

 

6 month tie burning celebration

Lighting her up

there she goes!