Elder Nielsen

Greetings family!
So the plan for skype is going to be about 9 AM here Wednesday morning. which should be 7 PM Tuesday night for you. That's the plan. It might be a little after nine though because we will have to set it up and stuff. So don't freak out if it's a little later than 9. Are we doing the predictions? President is really pushing this new stake thing and they will be doing a lot of traveling and training and stuff and they are going to try and set a date for it. Basically (I...) is ready to get baptised so we think we are going to move it to this Saturday! So I hope it all works out. We meet with him today. He came to church yesterday and we had to get up and speak. This last week was good! I will share a little bit since I have the time. We will talk in two days so it won't be too in detail. But this last week the senior couple from Kazakhstan came to renew their visas and we were in charge of them all day. They took us and the other elders to TGI Fridays for lunch haha it was awesome and super good. Also we got haircuts last week. Only 4.50 for the both of us! Super cheap. Elder M got a straight up Russian style haircut haha it was awesome. Mine wasn't too bad. We finally found an apartment! kind of haha. We found one that was alright. We were planning on waiting to sign for it because we had planned on seeing one tomorrow afternoon and it might be better but it was definitely an option. Then the other day we got a call to go see one. It was super, super nice. very spacious. had all the gadgets.  But they didn't have the documents for it. Just a copy and the owner lives in Moscow? We don't really know but I think they need a paper that says someone has permission to sign the documents in their place and the lady didn't have it. but she is trying to get it. So that's where we stand really. but now we are both leaving and no one is coming here for atleast the rest of the transfer. So it was all pretty worthless in the end haha it's frustrating. We also bought a Christmas tree and some decorations this last week! It's super awesome! It's our pride and joy. Tuesday we are going to all get together and we have 3 hours to celebrate together. So we are just all going to bring some food and just hang out and have a good time. I decided that one of my presents is probably a tie. So I am going to open it tonight as if it were the usual pjs and wear it tomorrow.  Also when I arrived the president had made a mission-wide challenge to finish the Book of Mormon in 40 days, the length it took Joseph Smith to translate it. So that was going to be the end of the year and i finished it yesterday! Finished the Book of Mormon on Russian Soil! It was super fun and super awesome. I learned a lot and many times having read what  I did that day helped in a lesson where I could answer a question or concern. So I could definitely see the blessings. It was a cool experience! Well I think that's about all for the week. I will talk to you in 2 days! Hope you are having a good Sunday!

Elder Nielsen

                                               The train station all ready for New Years


                                              Super Cold!!! Gotta love the fur coat though.




                                    In the metro in Novo going down the stairs to the tunnels


Привет!
How goes it all? Zone conference was really good. President Gibbons is the man. He gave this way cool talk on the two signs and three gifts. I wrote it all down so I will try and copy it and mail it home or something. It was way good. It was awesome to see everyone! I missed Elder N. He is the best. He and I chatted it up for a while. I guess his branch building is an old salon haha it's just one pretty small room and they only have like ten members. Crazy! So every week you are either speaking, blessing the sacrament, teaching, etc. glad that wasn't me haha that is intense. But he is doing awesome! And at 12:12:12 on 12/12/12, I was eating some Hawaiian pizza, in Russia, talking to all my best friends. It was the best! Definitely one to remember. We went early Tuesday to do exchanges with the ZLs. That went well. I kinda just chilled inside and did organizational work and studied while elder Mckay went out. I went out for a couple meetings though. Then we had zone conference Wed. Thursday they came back with us and we had exchanges until Friday night. Then we did exchanges with the other elders on the other bank/other district. So it was crazy haha I only slept in my bed twice in the last week and a half. Crazy! But it was fun. I learned a lot! Saturday night Elder T and I were coming back and I guess took the wrong bus. He is from my olders group so we are both new. So we had to try and find out where we were and call a taxi to get back haha it was bad and FREEZING cold. We didn't get back till about 10. Fun adventure! I bought some sweet boots last pday for 900 rubes. So like 30 dollars! they were on sale, so I bought two they are way classy though. Still nothing keeps your toes from freezing. It has been -30s or -40s this last week. Crazy cold. This might be the coldest winter in 20 years. It's never this cold until about February. All the Russians are freaking out saying it's cold. You occasionally find a crazy guy with a small jacket and a t shirt without gloves. There isn't really a rule haha it's just that you need to be really careful. If it's under -30 then just tract or bus contact or come in for a half hour and call people and set up meetings and then go back out. He authorized us to come back from 6-9 for a little bit to warm up. I guess a lot of missionaries got frostbite this last week. So he was concerned. No rule though. You can go out for as long as you want in whatever weather. It's the worst waiting for busses though. You have no choice! It's soooo cold. The apartment search is pretty dry. Nothing yet. We went to one last Monday and they didn't have the papers/deed or something which is sketchy so we left. That was the last one we had. So I got your two packages and Susan's. Tell her thanks for me! She's the best! We had a baptism on Saturday. His name is V. He is way cool. I guess he found the Book of Mormon in his Bab's bathroom and started reading the Isaiah verses. He is way into the Bible so he was curious. He took it and started to read it. In it was the info where we have church so he went a few times but it was always closed. Then one day these two kids asked if he had read the Book of Mormon! He said yes and they didn't really believe him but he started to tell the story! So they taught him and baptized him! Super solid guy. Branch president material. I found the Sedaap equal this week! its called Doshirak haha it's good stuff! It made me laugh so I had to buy some. (Sedaap is the version of Ramen noodles his brother loved from his mission in Madagascar. He has them shipped here to the U.S. Mitch tried them and loves them too.)   ( I ) is doing way solid. Taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ this week. He came to the baptism. On the train ride back, we were with the other elders in our district and one had some cards. So we did magic tricks. and I wanted some! So I asked (I) where I could buy some, and he said he would show me one day. Yesterday he brought some to church and gave them to me! It was the best. He is way solid. He is still set for Jan 7th/Christmas here. I am way excited for that. The missionairies in Novo are going to the Nutcracker. We are probably going to go to a Hockey game or something. The prices here are pretty normal I think. Some things are way cheap, some are way expensive. You can find pretty cheap stuff of everything though. I am glad that finals went well! Nice work! I bet you are glad it's over. Enjoy the break! Oceanside? Very nice. Good luck with the training! That's crazy about Lone Peak! That's legit! I am going to try and send a few pictures. Thanks for all the updates! Love you guys!

Elder Nielsen

Hello All,
It was a pretty good week here in Russia. Since you are all complaining about the cold I thought I would throw out it is -30 outside with a pretty solid wind chill haha so stop complaining :) I thought I was going to die just getting from our place to the library. So last monday we found a way sweet apartment in an amazing location. The kitchen was a little ghetto, but other than that it was crazy nice! So we put down a downpayment and planned on doing the final signing and paying rent on Wednesday. But she backed out! It was not cool. I was sad because the only way to describe their shower was it looked like a time machine haha it was crazy sweet. It was just big and way nice. So we had to hunt down our downpayment all week and finally got it back last night. We have looked at a lot of apartments with no luck. We looked at a really gross one that was not nice at all. Hardly anything worked. So we didn't do it. We have one on the line right now that is newly remodeled and supposedly nice for 20000 which is our limit. So  I am pumped to check it out! We were supposed to go on Thursday and canceled an appointment and then they bailed. So we are going to try and go see it today. So cross your fingers! Hopefully timemachine shower too! When we saw that ghetto one it was with the realtor lady's husband, the branch president. He is the funniest! He is the best haha he is way easy and fun to talk to.  He has the tightest kids too. Me and his son have a sweet, secret handshake. we met with A this last week too and he is the funniest haha he LOVES us. We had no money because we had to pay for that downpayment so he bought us a taxi home haha and he calls like everyday to see how we are doing and if he can help us look for apartments or move or anything. He was going to take us out to eat on Friday even but we had to cancel in order to get to Novo that day. He came to English on Wednesday and was showing me all his pictures on his tablet. He has been everywhere!  (I) is doing way good. He is our most solid investigator right now. He has a date for Jan. 7th, Christmas here. We taught him the plan of salvation this week and he seemed to understand it and didn't have too many questions. So all is well! He is a way nice guy. We always ride the same tram back home and just chat with him and shoot the breeze and learn new words. So it is fun.  I got the Christmas package and brought it home this weekend. So thank you! I am waiting to open the presents though. So don't worry. My comp said he saw another package at the office? So I will prob get that after zone conference. So thanks! Yesterday during Sunday school we got to watch the Christmas devotional in Russian. It was way sweet! I didn't understand a lot of it but it was still cool! I did understand the musical numbers haha they were still in English but it was cool. Especially for our investigators that came to see and listen to the prophet. It was a cool experience. 
Ya we just can't look like tourists here I guess. The president I guess was way chill before but a while ago someone came for ZC and chewed them all out and the president cracked down. So like no sports at all anymore, no music, can't cut each others hair, no pictures except in inside and all that.  The knee is still just getting worse by the day. I'm icing it and have a sock with rice in it to heat it up and all that. So just trying to keep on truckin and limp around everywhere. The man purse is sweet! It's way classy too. nice and leathery and all that. It's sweet! I think I might still rock it in America too. We will see, but it is way convenient. And happy birthday Lyssa! Hope it was a good day! and HB to you too Nicholas! Hope work is going well and that you have a good day with the fam! Hope all is well with everyone. Good to hear from you all and your stories. вы молодцы!
Elder Nielsen

Hello all. How's it going? Things are all good here. I bought my coat and a hat last week so I'm staying warm. The weather thinks otherwise though because it's getting colder and colder each day. We get a text every night saying the weather and it's pretty scary to look at sometimes haha the last two days it was about 20-30 below celsius. We had to spend two one hour blocks standing outside trying to get contacts for English club and inviting people. Business isn't really good when it's super cold though because no one wants to stop and talk to you because they are freezing too.  Also on P- day I bought a little European purse/shoulder bag thing! I was super pumped! It's way good looking and it's more so acceptable here I was super excited. So Beed, be jealous :) so a couple nights ago we visited a less active family and the grandpa is just super, super funny. He is just this old man that I dont know, is just hilarious. He knows this poem in English and he told it to us like ten times because we kept asking to hear it and it's just the best to hear in his old man voice and Russian accent. "I am running on my skis, white and silver are the trees. I am warm, WARM as can be. Try and catch me! 1, 2, 3!" haha it's the best! His name is Vladimir. He is super nice and way awesome. and then the other day we were going to the branch building and I was talking to a guy named Dima on a tram and he kept speaking English back to me. So we had this Russian/English conversation and everyone on the tram started getting mad at him haha and telling him to stop, English is a garbage language, He is a disgrace to Russia, stop talking to the sect sellsmen haha it was interesting. He just kept laughing and still talked English. I wasn't really sure what to do haha because things were getting heated haha so it was kind of awkward. We ended up seeing him again the next day. It was funny. We still haven't found an apartment. We have a lady looking for us but all the ones she finds are outside the boundaries. So we can't get them. So we are still on the hunt. A couple of nights ago we set up a meeting with a member for the next day to just drop by and share a thought. Then this guy in our branch that has skizoprhenia calls us and says that the Holy Ghost spoke to him and told him he needed to do his home teaching and that I needed to be with this member that we had previously called five minutes before. haha it was crazy! So we said ya how about 7:30! And it was cool too because her son sat in on it and he isn't a member and he agreed to keep meeting with us. We went to meet up the second time but he was still at work. So that is still in the process. Church yesterday was pretty crazy haha we really only have one solid investigator and his name is Ivan. He isn't all that solid though but he came to church! There were a couple interesting other people that came too. There is a guy that always comes and he only speaks English to the members and it's not good English and hardly anyone else speaks it so people always get frustrated with him it's funny. And then there is an investigator that is from Armenia that just likes to talk. He has this picture of him with his shirt off and he shows it to everyone it's kind of weird but he is awesome. He talks about weird things though.  He goes pretty in depth when he jokes about killing someone, which is often oh and his name is G. The other elders in our district were teaching an investigator and they let him use their personal set of scriptures that had a way cool nice leather case on it to read a scripture and he thought it was his haha so he wouldn't give it back. But they called him later asking him to give it back but they didn't meet with him for quite a while because it never worked out. This weekend one of them is going to Kazakhstan so they went to Novo and the guy showed up at church with his book! So we took it and are holding on to it for him. So it was pretty crazy. We talked to (I) after and he didn't seem to freaked out. So I hope things still work out with him. S didnt end up showing up on Monday and he doesn't have a phone so we couldn't call. It was kind of  a let down so we prayed that he would come yesterday to church again but he didn't. We are just going to keep praying and hoping that he shows up on a Sunday again! Also, in church yesterday, I bore my testimony! It was super scary. I got up there and I couldn't even remember how to say brothers and sisters haha it was super scary. Then I just started talking and I don't even really remember what I said but my comp was like blown away! So that was a really cool experience. I just love how the gift of tongues works! Congrats on the city council by the way! That is way funny! Nice work! I didn't have any problems with the card but thank you for fixing that for me. I am glad that FHE was a big success. Good luck with finals!  For P- day we all email together at the library but then we do our own thing. We usually all go to the same store afterwards. I had borsht the very first day at the same restaurant as the pig jello. And about the pictures, it's hard! We can only take pictures in people's houses or on P- day. so it's hard to take pictures but I am trying. The city is way sweet, pretty big city. Just like a normal big city. The companion is way tight. We get along really pretty well. and ya! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I appreciate it. Talk to you all next week!
Love Elder Nielsen

How's it going all! Right now it's a little hard to type because my hands are still super cold haha today it's been like -10  -15 ish C. pretty cold! I still haven't gotten a coat or hat or anything I am borrowing a coat from an elder that is in Kazakhstan right now where it is warm and just that scarf you gave me and one of my comp's gloves. We are going shopping right after we get done with this! So that will be nice. All the babushkas here get mad at me because I'm not wearing a shapka and I'm going to get sick. oh and p.s. yesterday was the Russian mother's day! So Happy Mother's day! So my first area is Omsk! Wednesday night we took a nine hour night train to Omsk. My trainer's name is Elder M! He is from Kaysville. He is the best! He is awesome. This is only his third transfer too which is crazy. He first served in Novokuznetsk. I still am not sure how to spell most things in English from Russian haha so bear with me if it's different every email or something. That's the area that Elder N got shipped off to. So we got here at 8 I think in the morning on Thursday and then we took a little nap until 1 then went to Thanksgiving. We went to the apartment of one of the sister's here and it was SUPER nice. haha it was crazy. We were all blown away that it was under 20,000 rubles a month and their bathtub looked like a time machine. Crazy stuff anyway, Thanksgiving was way good! We all brought a few things and made some things. It was awesome. There are two districts here in Omsk so we combined for that. There are two sets of elders and a set of sisters in each district then after Thanksgiving we went out and did some work! We do a lot of contacting. We did a little knocking on Thursday but that's about it. not so much of that. We set up a lot of meetings with people but they rarely work out. So that's kind of frustrating but it's awesome when it works out! We met a guy Saturday at a bus stop and he didn't have a phone number for us to call him and remind him or set up an appointment so we just had him show up at the branch Sunday at two, right after church got over. And he showed up! It was awesome! So we taugt the first lesson and we have another meeting tonight so hopeful he remembers and shows up again. He is awesome. His name is sergei. Just about everyone here has the same name. Like five are super common. So it's crazy. You can meet like 5 Antons in one day haha it's hard to keep them apart. Church on Sunday was awesome! It was the primary program. It was awesome. The kids here are the best! All the members are super nice too. It's just a nice little community here. Even on the streets you can meet some really nice people. A lot of sketchy ones too. We have had some near confrontation moments here already haha it's always a little sketchy but usually one of their friends hold them back. so it's all good. No attacks yet. Grocery shopping we will do next. We are like out of food at our appartment so we have had pasta and cereal every day but it's good! We throw in some chicken or beef, cheese, tomato sauce, it's always good stuff. The food here is pretty good. On Wednesday at the restaurant they took us all to a Ukrainian elder who is new with all of us. He had this dish that he made us try that's like pig fat jello. It was interesting. Super chewy haha and there was like a spicy horseradish mayo sauce you could put it in. So I tried all that and I turned out alright. So I think I will be good haha. The food here isn't too bad. Glad Thanksgiving was good back home! Ya I bet you have seen on the webcams but it's basically snowed everyday since we have been here haha it's crazy. and yesterday it was like -2 or something and all the Russians would just go off about how warm it was haha the people here are funny. Very talkative if you engage in a convo with them. Some guy talked my ear off for a good five or so minutes when we were English contacting on Saturday and talked about Russia Germany and the U.S. like their economy, politics, education system, language haha it was weird. I kept trying to like sneak away because he said he wasn't interested in our English practice and meanwhile all these people were passing buy if my comp was getting someone else's number, it was funny. English contacting was fun haha we just asked if people knew English and if they said yes we would just say  hi, how are you, where are you from, what's your name, all that stuff. It was funny to hear them and all that. Now I know what I look like to them haha they ask how I am and I sit there for like a minute to try and remember the answer haha. They speak sooooo fast here. and super slurry so it's hard to get stuff. I can pick out a lot of words but there are still a lot that I don't know/can't understand that they are using. but it's all good! My comp always bails me out but I get super nervous if he is doing something else or talking with someone else but it all works out usually. Sometimes they get mad at us and tell us to go back to America haha like yesterday we met a guy and he knew English super good so he would speak back to us in English when we spoke Russian and all the people on the bus got super mad at him and told him to speak Russian and not betray his country and to stop talking to us and all that haha it was crazy and then that night we saw him again at the same bus stop! Small world and he was with his girlfriend who spoke English way good too. He is super nice. He believes there's a God but just not that we need to really do anything about it like read the bible or go to church or anything. We tried to convince him otherwise but he wasn't having it. He was still super nice and fun to talk to though. Our appartment is pretty small and ghetto. Glenwood status probably a little more ghetto though haha but it's called the madhouse because it's just super weirdly designed and has weird decor and all that but it's sweet. I guess the landlord wants 4000 more rubles a month for it so we have to find a new place sometime soon. So we are working on that too. Haven't fallen on the ice yet! (knock on wood) had some close calls though haha and we haven't gotten too lost yet. We still make it home on time or to our appointment on time haha. I'm trying to think what all else there is. The tea here is pretty good. Me and M had some for dinner the other night. Super good but ya yesterday for priesthood I had no idea what was going on haha it was bad. The teacher spoke super super fast. I think he was talking about the still small voice but I'm still not sure. He was reading someone's talk but I don't know whose it was haha it was nuts and I thought Gospel Doctrine in English was hard from time to time. Class was crazy! We were talking about judgement day and the degress of glory haha it was nuts. I did raise my hand though and tried to summarize outer darkness not sure how much was understandable but I tried anyway haha. So our travels here were a little crazy. So our plane in New York got delayed. We got on it but on the runway they had something wrong with the pressurization thing or something so like two hours later after trying to fix it they kicked us off in this little bus thing and back to the terminal. I'm pretty sure that everyone spoke Russian as their first language but us so that was a little wild. We definitely started to realize we were going to be foreigners. So we waited like three more hours for our plane. We called the travel office and they said they would call Moscow and let them know when to pick us up. We get there and no one is there. So we wait like an hour and no one shows up. So we set out to find a calling card and that takes like an hour because well none of us know Russian haha so we call Gibbons and I guess because we have a three year passport we didn't need to go to the embassy and just no one told us that. so the Samaran elder missed his flight already at this point because it was super early and then we still had a couple hours until ours came. So it was crazy and then somehow in Moscow after security we lost one of the sisters so we tried to find her forever and her ticket told her a different gate and she was waiting there and so we had to figure that out too with our limited Russian. It was madness. but we made it haha that's all that matters. Well I think that's all I have time for. Talk to you all next week!