Where He Needs Me To Be

Well here we are again. Emailing. I feel like I was just doing this yesterday. I know I've said that a million times but seriously... Time goes by way too fast.
To start off. I didn't get to see Elder Holland... I'm still a little bitter, but I'll move on eventually. I was at the Hill that night and he went to the Smith Farm and the publication site. Of course the Hill wasn't on their list of things to do so I sat at the front desk, and while Sister Rogers and I waited for visitors, I threw a pity party by watching his conference talks between tours. Haha I'll admit it was a "Laman and Lemuel" moment for me. Not my proudest moment. But all is well. Our car was in the shop for 4 days. Walking 30 miles to and from Palmyra was rough. JK, the sisters in our apartment carpooled with us which was great. It was a bit hard though since we didn't get to have a lot of time in our area. Numbers for the week were a bit low, but hey, we won't go over on miles for the month;) haha that was secretly a tender mercy to have our car in the shop. We got cut on miles this month and we didn't know what we were going to do since we were scheduled opposite of all the sisters we could carpool with and driving to and from palmyra is about 20 miles over our daily limit. But putting our car in the shop helped big time!:)
Yesterday was an area day. I love those!! They used to make me nervous, but I love going out and seeing people now. Yesterday we had so many plans. We had people to see, a service project, streets to tract, former and potential investigators to contact, a couple referrals to find. The whole shebang. Well, our service project cancelled. Our referral's address doesn't even exist. NO ONE on the street we tracted was home. Lorraine (our wonderful sister with a baptismal date) wasn't home. She's cancelled our last 3 appointments. I'll admit, that was another Laman and Lemuel moment for me. I murmured. I was so frustrated that Sister Rogers and I have been doing everything we can. We've been making an extra effort to be EXACTLY obedient, we set goals, we make plans, we have these righteous desires. WHY ISNT IT WORKING OUT?! Well I'll tell you why. It was at that moment that I heard a voice inside my head that said "you aren't where I need you yet". BOOM! Just like that I was humbled. The Lords timing is perfect. That doesn't mean things are going to go the way we plan, but the Lords plan is MUCH better than what we ever plan. Sister Rogers and I said a prayer asking where the Lord needed us. We felt the need to go see our other referral now. So we went. We've tried this referral at least 4-5 times and she's never home. Well we show up at her house and she had just gotten home from work and was getting things ready to leave. Had we tried her earlier, she wouldn't have been home. Had we waited until later, when we were planning, it would've been to late. She would've been gone. I wasn't where the Lord needed me yet, but he led us exactly where we were needed in the right timing. We got to have a great lesson with Kimberly and set a return appointment. We also got to see quite a few other people. One of my favorites was Greg and Nanon. They just got married a couple months ago. Nanon has been a member for 20-30 years and Greg is born again Christian, but he LOVES the missionaries and he LOVES the Book of Mormon. We got to have dinner with them and really talk about the restoration of the gospel and it was one of the first deep doctrine lessons that I've had. He was asking a bunch of great questions and it was wonderful. Well he didn't even wait for our invitation to church and invited himself!:) this is one of those times where it's more than ok to invite yourself. And they said we have to come back for my birthday!:) they are so great! We've gotta get him baptized before he moves back to Arizona. He's so ready! Over all. Yesterday, our numbers were higher for our key indicators than all of last weeks! The Lord has a special place for each of us and if things aren't going the way we're planning, then we aren't where He needs us to be yet! Seek His guidance in EVERYTHING!! It makes the world of difference! Then I took Sister Rogers to Nick Tahou's to get garbage plates today!:) giving her the true Rochester experience!:) haha they're really good! She loved it! When I bring everyone back here, garbage plates are mandatory!:) then there's college club soda where you get 24 little bottles of homemade soda for 8 bucks and it's in this super sketchy warehouse. It's like the perfect place for a kidnapping in a horror movie. But it's totally safe:) don't worry!:)
I love you all!:) I hope you have a stellar week and really... Find out where the Lord needs you!
Love Sister Nield

General Authorities Galore

Um.... it is NOT already half way through October.... That's impossible! And fall has pretty much fallen... Everything is starting to look dead! haha But I still Love New York!

This last week was a pretty successful week!:) We got to see a lot of wonderful people! We met a wonderful couple! Their names are Clara and Therman!:) They are so cute! They went to the Gladys Knight Devotional and absolutely loved how spiritual it was and they took a lot from it!

Today we had to take our car into the shop, so we're going to be doing a lot of walking! BUT most of our success comes from walking! That's how we find most of our people which is great!
This last weekend was Stake Conference and boy was it good! We had Elder Allain Allard of the Seventy there to speak to us! It's so funny! When it comes to General Conference and Stake conference there's always one topic that I know is going to be talked about that I dread! However, it's always a good spiritual kick in the pants when they talk about family history work! I just know that I'm really bad at it, so it really does feel like a kick in the pants. But at least I have something I know I need to work on! (Let's just add that to the list;) ) haha But his talk was really great! And Bishop Boyer and his daughter Sabrina and her friend that they just converted (Sho) all spoke in the Saturday night session! They did so great! Way to represent Rochester 1st!
Then Yesterday! WOW!!! What a powerful day! We had Elder Hamula of the Seventy (the one who gave a SUPER wonderful talk on the sacrament in conference) come talk to our mission! He is such a powerful speaker! So much inspiration and personal revelation came from that meeting with him! It really made me feel like I need to step up my game as a missionary! Work even harder than my hardest!:) It was so motivating! His wife was so sweet! After an hour or so, we got to go have a drink/bathroom break and she and I were both getting a drink so I got to sit and talk with her 1 on 1 for a few minutes and between the 2 of them, I have never met anyone who is as humble and down to earth and loving as they are! It was so great!  There is nothing like shaking a general authorities hand and having them testify to you that the Savior of the world knows and loves you! Talk about powerful!

I want to add my witness to his, that I know that our Savior lives! I know it with every fiber of my being! Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world and through Him and only through Him, we have the opportunity to return to live with our Heavenly Father! All men will return to God to be judged. But not all men will be able to REMAIN with God. What can you do to REMAIN with Him? As we think of the Anti Nephi-Lehi's who "buried up their weapons of rebellion", think of what your weapon of rebellion is! What is keeping you from being completely, totally, and exactly obedient? Find those weapons. Be brutally honest with yourself. Commit to change. And bury those weapons, and never lift them up again! But, We can't be perfect. We all fall short. That's what our Savior is there for! HE LOVES YOU! He loves YOU! He wants you to take advantage of that beautiful gift he has provided for you! So what are you waiting for?

Then coming on Thursday is none other than Elder Jeffrey R. Holland!:) WAHOO!!! He's coming for a mission president seminar being held in our mission so he and a bunch of mission presidents and their wives will be touring the sites. Wouldn't it be so cool if I got to say that I took Elder Holland on tour? Ya... That would be pretty sweet! I'll keep you updated!

Training is going well! I'm learning a ton and she's learning a ton and we're learning to work well together! Sister Rogers is very sweet and so willing to work hard and I really appreciate that!

We're having a meeting with Lorraine tonight about the Word of Wisdom and a few other commandments! I'm so excited! She's going to be one step closer to baptism! One step closer to her loving Father in Heaven! I am convinced that there is no greater calling than the one I've got right now!

I love being a Site sister! Whenever we finish a tour at the Smith Farm, we get to walk back up Stafford Rd after we've just sent a group out to the grove. It's a wonderful 4-5 minutes to think about how your tour went, what you can change, what you did well. Just the other day I had a tender mercy! I like to say a little prayer in my heart as I'm walking back up the road. As I was walking back, the lyrics "I love you, a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck...." popped into my head. Tender mercy because I knew that Grandpa Nield was walking up Stafford Rd with me:) I love those moments that prove to me that there are hosts of Angels watching over us!:)

I love you all! And I hope you have a great week! Remember that someone in New York loves you! And Someone in Heaven loves you!:)

Love Sister Nield

Fall Has Fallen

Well I guess it's officially fall. And the trees are REALLY starting to change color! I'll send pictures so you can see how beautiful it really is! I'm in the most beautiful place in the world!! And the part I'm not too thrilled about-- I had to wear my coat for the first time this week! BOO!! I'm not ready for winter! I'm going to need a much better coat once winter hits but for now this wool coat will do!
Conference was this weekend!!! HOW GREAT WAS THAT?!?! Oh my goodness! So insightful! I've always heard there isn't anything better on a mission than watching conference. But I'm going to change that a bit and say there's nothing better on a mission than watching conference at the Joseph Smith Farm! There's just something about listening to our living prophet in the place where the restoration of our church happened! It gets to me!:) There were so many great talks and I've started to try to apply it to my life/work.

This last week has been filled with both miracles and challenges so we'll start with the challenges to get the bad news out of the way.

Esther dropped us... I've had a really hard time with that. I keep feeling like there's more that I could've done to REALLY help her see the importance of the restored gospel! She was so prepared and maybe if I had taught something differently it would've helped. BUT-- all these wonderful sisters keep reminding me that she has agency and gets to choose for herself and I have no control over that. (I'm not going to lie... Sometimes satan's plan sounds pretty nice-- I would like to take away people's agency sometimes so they can accept what has brought me so much joy!) But I've learned something life changing this week with Esther. As appealing as satan's plan sounds to missionaries sometimes, our Heavenly Father's plan is so much better! He gave us our agency, not so we can earn our way back to Him, but so we can show Him that we want to be there! He wants us to want Him. He's not going to force us to come to Him, so I just have to trust that somewhere along the line, Esther will run into missionaries again and she'll be more prepared then!

MIRACLE TIME!! Exchanges!! Exchanges are so wonderful! I went with Sister Newson yesterday and boy is she a great missionary! We went to U of R and walked around since she's serving in the GVB (Singles ward). It's so different because on campus, we aren't allowed to proselyte, so when my instincts want me to go and talk to all these people about the gospel and I'm not allowed to, it's a bit challenging. So we walked around and made our presence known, hoping people would ask questions. NOTHING.... But we had an appointment to go to so we left and went to see Kash. Turns out he wasn't home. Well, we started knocking doors and it's a bit different from the GVB standpoint because we get people ages 18-30 so we can't really poach in other missionaries areas but we knock anyway looking for YSA age.. No one answers.. How does this involve a miracle you might ask? Well, we realize we're on the street with one of the referrals that they'd received so we knock on her door and she's the only person to answer her door! She's not YSA age but we decided to teach her then hand her off to the other missionaries. OH MY GOSH!! She is so prepared for the gospel! We taught her the restoration and read from the book of mormon and she talked about her kids in jail. It was so cool for her to realize that the gospel can really help her! so she's totally open to having new missionaries to come over!:) Then we had a lesson with a guy named Peter that night. I have never had so many questions about such deep doctrine in my life! He'd read an anti book and was sad that that's the only impression he'd had with 'Mormons' so he wanted us to come clarify things and MAN was he intelligent! He asked some pretty crazy questions but it turned out really well and he now realizes that mormons aren't so crazy as he thought!

Everything is going great out here! I can't believe how fast time is going! My Birthday is in just a couple weeks! 20 years old?! WEIRD!!! But I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love Sister Nield

Mommy Me

Well everyone, Tuesday was transfer day. So to explain the subject line, I am now a mother. Feel free to keep reading because I'll explain that in just a minute. So the last week has been one of the craziest weeks of my life. I knew it would probably be my last week with my mom, Sister Andrus. Training lasts 2 transfers and it's pretty rare to stay with your trainer for 3 here. So for the last week or so, I'd been pretty nervous about transfers. I wanted to know where I was going, and who my companion would be. All of these sisters kept saying: oh I feel like me and so-and-so are going to be companions. And I didn't feel that. I had NO IDEA. Then I'd also heard that President would be making calls for trainers so I was excited to see who'd be training the 5 new sisters. Since I was just finishing my training didn't feel like I would be training. Well Thursday we were on exchanges and sister andrus calls and says we had 2 missed calls from president. I figured it would just be him calling to ask her to be the site trainer (kind of like an assistant to the president but for the sites and it's a sister instead of an elder). Then sister petersen's phone rings and guess who's name is on the screen? President Francis. I can't explain to you how stressful that is. My heart about pounded out of my chest. So we answered and in his cheery voice he asked to talk to me in private. Once again. That's very stressful. So I took the phone off speaker and he said "Sister Nield, The Lord has seen fit to call you to be a trainer. Will you accept that calling?" Part of me wanted to say "no, I'm not ready." But I accepted the call. The last few days have been interesting. Sleepless nights, stressful days. I've been humbled beyond any explanation. The goal of training is to be able to have the trainee ready to train in 12 weeks. I knew that was the goal and I worked towards that but I never thought it would happen. But it did. I'm a trainer and I found out who my cute new sister is Tuesday. :) Sister Rogers. She is the epitome of happiness. She is always smiling and so loving! She's exactly what I need! I'm really gaining a testimony that the Lord puts us with the people we need most and with the people who need us as well. I needed sister Andrus!! And now I need Sister Rogers, for reasons MUCH different than the reasons I needed sister andrus. I'm am thrilled for this calling to be a trainer. I'm scared out of my mind but it's definitely an adventure!! Sister andrus taught me that the only constant in life is change. And I HATE change. but that's the only constant. So I've been learning that The Lord cares more about my growth than my Comfort zone. These next 2 transfers will definitely be a growing experience and I'm so excited!:) the Lord trusts me with this precious daughter of God and he's trusting me with all these children of of his in Irondequoit. It's stressful to know that their salvation is in my hands but he trusts me so I've got to trust myself!:) Mom, next time you don't get an email right away, don't email the president... Hahaha my pday can change with transfers!:) be patient ok? I'm ALWAYS going to write you!! Congrats to Derrick and Celeste on the engagement! My bro is all grown up! Wish I could be there but this is where I need to be!:) I love you all so much!! Have a wonderful week!
Love Sister Nield

One year down, one to go! Congrats, Elder Johnson!

Happy Hump Day! Elder Johnson has been serving the people of France for a year now! Sister Nield has a little message she wanted me to share for him.

 

I want to say how proud I am of Kyle!! I can't believe it's already been a year! Time is flying by too quickly! I am so proud of him and the amazing missionary he is! He's set such a great example for me, and he's helped me so much since I've been in New York! Whether it's been advice, support, or by example, he's helped me so much. I'm working to be the kind of missionary he is. He gives 110% everyday and never complains! He's always working so hard, and that makes him a successful missionary! That's not even putting into consideration all the hearts he's touched since he's been in France! That just adds to his success! I'm so proud of him and can't wait to see what he accomplishes in the next year of his mission!

The Joys of Being a Missionary

Well not a ton has happened since the last email. This week went by a little slower but it was still good. Last P-day Sister Andrus and I went up to see Lake Ontario, which is right up the road from our apartment, and we went to Sea Breeze Amusement Park. (Of course since we're missionaries we couldn't ride any rides, but we just looked at it!) This area really is so beautiful!

We even got to have our District Meeting in the Sacred Grove. How many missionaries get to say that they have meetings in the Sacred Grove?? Not many! I am definitely in the best mission there is. Just sayin'!;) haha

It's amazing to me that every week, I get to see miracles coming from the hard work that is being put into this area. We've been trying to get Esther to come to church with us for a few weeks and guess what? SHE CAME THIS WEEK!:) I was sitting down talking to one of the members in the ward, getting to know her and all of a sudden I hear "PPSSSSTT" so of course I look up even though I wasn't really expecting it to be anyone for me and Esther was standing there, all dressed up in a cute dress and high heals since she's so classy. I was so excited to have her there and she was so amazed at how many young people were in the church! I hope all the youth back home realize how special they are! And I hope they realize the example that they are to others!

Yesterday, we had another area day. This time, we parked the car and walked for our area day. It's pretty funny how what would take 5-10 minutes to drive, takes 25-30 minutes to walk. The area seems so much bigger when you're walking it. But it gave us the chance to be able to talk to a lot more people. I love the people that I get to meet here! The first person we ran into was George. George is this cute little old, catholic man. He was working in his garden and we asked if we could help. He declined but he let us go look at his backyard that he'd landscaped all by himself. He put in a fountain and named it "Lake Lisa" after his wife. He was such a friendly little man. We talked a little about what we did as missionaries and he still seemed uninterested so we walked on. We realized that we'd taken the wrong street so we had to walk all the way back up and we stopped to talk to some people across the street from George. They brushed us off and sent us off on our way (not too surprising) but as we passed George's house he said "Did those idiots give you the cold shoulder?" haha one day missionaries will get to him! Hopefully I got to plant a seed.

Then later on in the day, we ran into this girl. Her name is Angie. We talked to her for a few minutes and got to know her, then started talking about what we do as missionaries and she started to tear up and said "You know... it's such a coincidence that I ran into you right now. I work from 2 am- 10 am and then I'm usually in bed by 5 but I felt like I needed to come out and check the mail and I ran into you.. It's just interesting that it all worked out this way because I just found out that my dad has cancer." She asked us to pray for him and we had the opportunity to talk to her a little bit about the plan of salvation and forever families. I feel so bad that for so long, I took that knowledge that I have of forever families for granted.. I don't know what I would do if I didn't know that I could have my family forever.

Never take your testimony for granted. There are people who would LOVE to know what you know! Cherish that testimony and have the courage to share it!! What's the worst that could happen from sharing it? People say they aren't interested? Ya... rejection doesn't always feel nice, but think about the alternative! What if they said they were interested in knowing more?? What if because of something YOU said, someone was able to come closer to their Savior? Just think about that!

Anyway! I hope everything is going well back home! I love you all and hope you have a great week! LOVE YOU!

Miracles & Blessings

How is it possible for time to go by so quickly? It doesn't seem real that time can go so fast! But, another week has come and gone and there's really nothing we can do about it! Thank you everyone for the many prayers that are sent this way! They make a huge difference!

We've seen some great miracles this week! One of the simple ones happened just last Wednesday. We were leaving one of our training meetings and I got the feeling that we needed to take the freeway instead of the back roads, which we never do because it's bad on miles. But right as soon as I got that thought, Sister Andrus said "I feel like we need to take the freeway tonight." So we did and didn't think much of it. Well as we were getting closer to our apartment, we were passed by about 10 cops who were flying down the road, lights and sirens and all that jazz. That was really weird, but we found out the next day that there had been a shooting in the area that we would've driven through that night! And who knows what would've happened, I'm sure the Lord would've protected us, but because we followed the promptings of the spirit, we avoided the situation all together!:)

Yesterday, we had an area day so we got to spend the whole day in our area rather than going from the sites to our area for the last hour or so of our day. We had a lesson planned with this less active named earl. The elders in our area had talked to us a little about him and made him seem like he was the most depressing man in the world. Well we get to his apartment with our cute RM sister in the ward, sister Marino, and we knocked on his door. He took a minute to answer the door because he's really sick and can barely walk. That's why he can't come to church. But he was SOO thrilled to see us! We had such a great talk about hope and faith and he absolutely loves sister missionaries! He could talk for hours about the sisters that converted him in 2004. It was amazing how I went in expecting him to be a certain way because of things that someone else had told me, but reality was much different! I've now learned to NOT have an opinion made about people based on other people's words. We have to make up our own minds about what we think and expect and believe! The Lord didn't judge the woman who had commited adultery but he said "let he that is perfect cast the first stone." And he, being perfect, didn't cast a stone. There's more to people than those things that we hear and we never know how inaccurate those judgements are until we find out for ourselves! SO: Refrain from gossip! It doesn't do ANYONE any good!

Then we also got to meet with one of our new investigators! He just married a member so he's pretty much GOLDEN! As we talked about the restoration it all just clicked in his brain! He kept saying "well of course Joseph would need AUTHORITY from God. We can't do anything unless we have authority." and He was totally into the priesthood and he LOVES the Book of Mormon. He was like "why WOULDN'T we need another testament of Christ? That just makes sense." He's so great so hopefully we'll really get him to progress and take those steps needed for baptism.

We had zone conference this last week which was SUPER uplifting! What a blessing to spend time with so many wonderful missionaries and our fantastic mission President and his wonderful wife! They're such a blessing to this mission! Before we left, President, who's this super tall, always happy and smiling, super friendly man, puts his hand on my shoulder and says "sister Nield, Always remember to be happy." Something so simple has made a big impact on me. ALWAYS remember to be happy. People are a lot more likely to talk to you if you're smiling. There are times when I get frustrated, but then I remember: ALWAYS remember to be happy. And it turns everything around. So this week, Remember that happiness is a choice and remember to be happy!:)

Love Sister Nield