Elder Dustin Nielson

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I wanna start by saying I miss you guys so much. I love you! So Ive been in Poland for 7 weeks now which means only 2 weeks left this transfer. Its seriously gone by so fast. The MTC went by so slow but luckily this transfer has flown bye. Im not sure if Im staying here in Bydoszcz or leaving. I have an interview with President Engbjerg so maybe I will be able to squeeze some information out of him. Im not sure why but the Poland Warsaw mission is getting screwed over. Right now their are 47 Elders in Poland! Thats it but at the end of this transfer 11 Elders are leaving to go home with 3 Elders coming from the MTC. So at the start of this transfer we will be down to 39 Elders. 39 Elders in the entire country, last year at this time their were 110 Elders. I guess their dropping the numbers of missionaries pretty drastically for some odd reason. With 8 less companionships President will have to have to leave some cities withonly 2 Elders. Ive heard a ton of rumors that Bydgoszcz is gonna go from 4 to 2 Elders and those 2 Elders are gonna be the Bydgoszcz zone leaders! SO I probably wont be in Bydgoszcz but you never know. I hope to stay here because Im starting to get to know alot of the members well plus Ive been leading the music every week in sacrament meeting! Which is way funny because I have no idea how to lead music. Every time I look up at the members their is usaully about five people laughing at me but for some reason Ive lead the music every week since arriving here in Bydgoszcz!  We have some investigators that I want to continue to teach and bond with. We met with Witek this week, he hadnt read the Book of Mormon or prayed on his own. We decided to focus this lesson on really teaching him about The Book of Mormon and its truthfulness! We took turns reading 3 Nephi 11 out loud together. He said he really liked that chapter and wanted to read more. He told us that he really wanted to come to church on Sunday and would really try to make it but sunday came and he wasnt thier. It was weird because I felt kind of heartbroken that he wasnt their. Were set up to meet with him tommorrow. We decided to make it a member lesson so Leszek who is the branch mission leader is coming out their with us. I sure hope that he can help us get him to church. Last week when were leaving Witek’s house he said a prayer closing the meeting and told us how he had not prayed for so long and how good it felt to pray.he also told us that he didnt read the Księga Mormona because he had no desire to but after reading 3 Nephi 11 he told us how he felt “motivated” to read it. I know that the spirit was that motivation he felt. I pray hard that the spirit will continue to put that desire in his heart, and get him up to the level I know he should be at.

Sorry I wasnt able to write yesterday. For some reason they had zone conference on p-day plus it was in Warsaw. It was an awesome zone conference though, they decided to focus it on role playing and how to better approach people contacting on the street. The zone conference didnt get over till about 9 o’clock. Luckily Andzej was their to give us a ride back to Bydgoszcz. Andzej is a member here in Bydgoszccz but he is also the secretary in the mission presidency. He is 22 years old and everyone thinks he is pretty much the future of the church in Poland. I got your package last week! It was awesome to open that thing up and eat some of the good food in their! Thanks alot, I know its expensive to ship a package that big to Poland but I surely appreciated it. I had some time to look on Idaho Sports.com so I was able to see how Hillcrest was doing. It sounds like they played lights out the first game. Im glad to see that they ended up doing pretty well. After Im done emailing, Im going to print off an NCAA March Madness bracket and fill it out then send it home so I can beat you once again dad! I haven’t watched a single college basketball game this year but I still am confident! Isnt Derek’s Birthday coming up here pretty soon?? I was thinking about him the other day, the dude is getting pretty old. Im glad to hear that his knee surgery went well. This is the first week that Ive felt somewhat ok with the Polish language. It seems to have shed a little light on me. I still have months of work to do before I’ll feel ok with it. This week I just felt like I was able to understand a ton and I even had a couple of conversations with people without anybody’s help so I felt like the man. Elder Rees and I were contacting a couple of days ago and we stopped this guy and he told us that he didnt speak Polish but he spoke English. It was so weird to contact someone in English it felt awkward and Elder Rees had no idea what to say because he has spent the past year only doing it on Polish, It was fun though! Mom I have a question,  I was talking to Sister Spear at Zone Conference and she is from Nyssa, OR. We got to talking about how you were born their and lived their for awhile. She didnt know people with the name of Moore but she has alot of friends with the Kessler name. Her Mom was born and raised their, so Im supposed to ask you if you know any Jeffries in Nyssa? I always give you a weekly weather update, this week was cold and snowy until I woke  up this morning and its warm and no snow what so ever! Summer in Poland is going to be so sweet! Well thanks again for everything, the emails were great as always! Mom, I really enjoyed your email and how you said you take each day as it comes. I set little goals each day that keep me busy and will help me so much int he long run and before I know it the days over. I have to take this mission day by day or I’ll probably die! I love y’all!

                                                                                 Starszy Nielson

I cant believe its P-Day again! Time is picking up more and more with each week it seems like. Ive been thinking about my past posts and they all seem sad and depressing! So I just decided to lighten this thing up because my life as a missionary isnt as bad as Ive been making it seem! Poland continues to grow on me. Things are starting to warm up around here which makes a missionary much happier and willing to work! Seriously last week it felt like I was walking down the sidewalk through 2 feet of snow! Pretty much everything has melted here but with warming weather and melting snow it tends to make everything wet! I would much rather be wet than numb from the cold! Thats one of the reasons that this week was a pretty incredibly great week! I met some pretty great Poles this week, The first was an Older Lady name Lanina Lanarcik who is a less active member but only because the cancer she has makes it pretty much Impossible for her to come to church. I first met her when she gave Elder Rees and I a call to come pick up some left over cake she had that no one would take. So last P-Day after emailing we headed over to her house and talked with her for awhile and ate her cake. We both felt like she loved having us be their to keep her company and bring the spirit into her little apartment. When we were getting ready to leave Lanina asked us to come visit her the next day and have some lunch with her. We told her as long as we could share a lesson with her than we would love too. So the next day, Wednesday we went over their and she had made us “Amerykańsky Pancakes.” As I helped her in the kitchen I noticed she made about 1 gallon of pancake batter! I knew Elder Rees and I had our work cut for us! Luckily to say we finished all the pancakes and ended up sharing a pretty spiritual experience with her! She is bald and all alone but still has a burning testimony and misses going to church so much but she just isnt physically able! My companion being the smart kid he is asked “What kind of cancer do you have?” Lanina replied “Well i dont have boobs, so probably breast cancer.” I laughed my head off it was seriously the best sarcastic joke Ive ever heard! It was one of those sobering experiences that make you grateful and ashamed at the same time. I just thought I would share some info of my favorite Polish person with you!

  I was able to teach a pretty cool guy who I actually stopped on the street and set up with him. His name is Witek, like every other Polish person he was born Catholic but found it to be the wrong church for him and then found the baptised church. As missionaries we enjoy teaching people who arent afraid to be different or go against the norm. Our lesson was awesome, he accepted our challenge to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know of its truthfulness. Witek is way open minded which will end up blessing him in the end! The bad thing is he is on vacation for 2 weeks but said as soon as he returns he will meet with us and attend church! I feel grateful towards Heavenly Father for trusting us to teach one of his children his true Restored Gospel. The success we as a companionship have had recently is amazing! It feels like almost everyday were meeting people who are willing to meet with us! Even if the people we stop dont feel like meeting it still feels like were having good conversations with them! We have several promising teaching appointments set up for this week so I am way excited!

   We found out a little Information about the new mission president. His name is President Nielson, haha not even a joke so that will give us some common ground! President Nielson and His wife are from Las Vegas! They seem to really want to learn the Polish language which is good that will help them earn some respect from the members around Poland. He will come and start to preside at the start of July, which is kind of sad to see President Engbjerg go, he did so many great things for the mission. My favorite thing about him is his ability to make you feel like the best missionary even if your the worst missionary in the world! I respect him a ton but Im excited for President Nielson to come as well. So I gave myself a haircut which was probably not a very good idea! Im not sure if I have ever had it this short before but oh well I wear a beanie all the time so its not to bad! To answer some questions, ya its way weird to ride buses and Tramvaj everywhere! Its fun though. I enjoy Poland and the differences Ive been able to experience! Thanks so much for the package Im sorry that it ended up costing so much. I love you all a ton and I think about you guys all the time. I love you!

                                                                 Starszy Dustin Nielson

Ya not even close! Its still freezing and Im still cold so no summer is about 4 months away according to Adam. But hey the rivers are starting to unfreeze so thats always a good sign. Adam is a guy who comes to our English every Tuesday night. Teaching English is probably one of my favorite times of the week. We have about 4 people who come consistently. They are always interested in what we do each week and how a mission works. So basically every Tuesday night we meet at the Chapel and teach a free English course. I teach the advance class which is all in English:) Lucky for me. We meet for an hour and just talk this presents an excellent opportunity to invite the spirit and bring up gospel topics! Its just a good time to sit back and hangout and talk to some great Polish people. I just thought I would share what I was thinking about.

My week was pretty much same as the previous 12 weeks. Nothing miraculous happened but I still continue to be happy and try to Improve my Polish as I still need MUCH improvement. Wednesday we have our district meeting which always turns out to be a sweet time. Thursday was Tłusty Czwartek which is kind of like a national doughnut eating day. I am happy to say I ate 18 of them. We decided to make it a zone competition to see who could eat the most doughnuts. Our Bydgoszcz district won as expected! So that was a good day. Friday was hard it was extremely co0ldand hard to find people to talk as always. One thing that will never cease to amaze me is Poland itself. The country got wrecked in world war II and its still such an amazing place. Theirs this place called Malbork which is the one of the largest castles in all of Europe! When you have time be sure to check it out on google or something. I think were going to take one of our P days and hop a train and head out their. Did you guys hear about the 2 Elders who died in Romania? I guess they died in their sleep of gas poisoning. So now all the mission are installing CO monitors which will detect gas leaks or Carbon Monoxide leaks in any of the houses! Pretty sad. it sounds like Nat must be bored out of her mind to head up to Wolf Point! Maybe thier is something up their for her….. Actually know that I think about it their isnt so their goes that idea. This Thursday will be my 3 month mark. Ive got a solid 1/8 of mission down! Seven more of those time periods and Ill be home!

Im so grateful for the opportunity to be on a mission and to have my testimony tried and tested everyday. When your back up to the wall I think thats when you can really start to think about the church and come to find its truthfulness. I was thinking, what other church has 52,000 missionaries scattered throughout the world? That made realize that I am lucky to be able to share something I know to be true with some people who might not have even heard of our church. The blessings from Heavenly Father come in weird moments or they may came at the right time. I just Know when your working on your mission your never happier, all of the homesickness is gone and your content and focused. I love you all. I hope this coming week is a little more eventful so I have more to share with you guys! Till next week!

                                                                   Elder Nielson

Hey Family of mine,

I miss you guys a ton! Things changed pretty dramatically this week, We finally had a bit of success. Hard work definitely pays off. Nothing truly amazing happened we were just able to get some meetings set up with former investigators we found in the area book! Plus, we got a couple phone numbers through some heavy contacting. I guess you could say this week was very productive, and fast! Its weird but I think this is the first week of my mission that Ive felt proud of what Ive been able to accomplish. I had a pretty interesting meeting with and older lady named Irena. She has a wiener dog that has got to weigh 50 pounds the thing is huge! His name is Jakuba, she even allowed us to call him Kuba which is his nickname! Ive never laughed so hard. Kuba is probably my second favorite dog in the world! Speaking of which, whats Ollie’s problem? Tell him to stay out of the trash, he isn’t allowed to eat golf balls either! Did you guys do anything for his birthday on the 23rd? You better have not forgotten! Or maybe that’s why he is eating things because you guys totally forgot about him on his 1st birthday! Well if that’s the case it sounds like he is justified in raising some chaos. Sunday night we decided to go visit a couple of former investigators who didn’t have phone numbers with their teaching records just addresses! We ended up walking 12 miles all around Bydgoszcz. My legs were feeling pretty dead! Thursday I had to take a 7 hour train ride to Krakow so my companion could get a new residence permit. Friday we just traveled back to Bydgoszcz. So those two days were pretty unproductive but sometimes those things come up and you have no other choice. We had a pretty funny run in with a bum last night! The guy thought we were clergy from the Catholic church, and asked us for some vodka or cigs! I just let my companion take it, it was pretty funny. Sorry my letter is all over the place and I’m just kind of typing things that are coming to my mind about the last week! I’m not sure if I have told you guys about my apartment but its the attic of an apartment building so all of the walls are slanted inward. The shower is just a bathtub and the wall is right next to it slanting up so you have to squat down or just sit in the tub and hose yourself off. Hows college basketball going? Who are some of the top players in the NFL draft this year! I heard the saints won the Superbowl. That’s cool Iguess. Im getting pretty good at ordering food at restaraunts although I get something I had no idea I ordered but Oh well Im working hard on the language. i feel like i made a ton of progress in Polish this week. Im not sure why I just was able to participate more in church and in some of our meetings! I’m still no where close to where I want to be but Ive got time so oh well! I was hoping you guys could gett Matt’s info so i cans end him a letter while he’s in the MTC. Also Tom Rices parents, I wanna send them an email or letter! Next time we have a zone conference or I have a chance to get mail. I better have a ton or else, you guys had better get writing. Hey dad i was gonna ask you if your still studying up on Polish? You need to be fluent by the time I get back, you have 21 months so get working on it! Whats Dan’s email? Thats cool he decided to go to UVU, thats where I plan on going once im home. Where is his truck at? Every wednesday we have district meeting and their so funny, I laugh the entire time! I have to teach the language lesson evidentally my companion thinks he is pretty funny asking me to give it only having been in the country for 3 weeks now! I figure we can just play hangman in Polish. Any better ideas? I sent all of you guys a personal email so be sure to read those. Good Luck this week on doing what ever you people in America do. I want you guys to send me a package with some food Ive been craving but cant get here in Poland. First off i would love some brownie mix evidentally these people havent heard of  them yet. Also some mac and cheese, i cant that stuff anywhere and you know how much I love it. Just two more things, some peanut butter and kool aid! If you could hook me up with some of that I would love it. Other than that Im doing really well, this week Ive tried not to think of home and being gone for 2 years and that seems to help alot. Thanks for all the emails and support. I love you all a ton If you get that package put together this week send it to my apartment, the address is:

Starszy Dustin Nielson

ul. Kopernika 3

85-074 Bydgoszcz

Poland

Its freezing!! I heard last week it got down to -32 in some parts of Poland! Luckily it hasn’t been getting down that low in Bydgoszcz. So I’ve been here for a solid 2 weeks now and still haven’t been able to teach a lesson! I’m not sure if its because My companion and I were transferred into an area were their haven’t been missionaries for awhile or what the deal is, maybe were just not being obedient enough! We did have a lesson set up for Sunday, but we showed up at this guys apartment and he forgot completely about it! I still pray hard each day for new investigators. Its something that will come as long as we continue to work hard and seek help. Bydgoszcz is a pretty cool place though its a pretty large city. The branch here is extremely awesome! Bydgoszcz has one of the bigger branches in Poland with a membership of about 30 active members.

      To tell you a little bit about my week, It wasn’t the most exciting week but yesterday was pretty neat! We as missionaries were invited to a family home evening with a family in our ward. They live about 45 minutes away in a small town called Toruń. We rode the bus down their and had a simple family home evening but it was neat to see that their can be a strong spirit here. This family has three of their own kids but they have 4 extra kids staying with them at the moment. They had some friends who were having some problems, so they are watching after the kids pretty much indefinitely. I Haven’t seen that kindness much since arriving. It was hard not to spend all day at their home! The kids are so fun and happy even though they are going through some very hard times. We didn’t end up getting back into Bydgoszcz till about 10 pm.

 Ive lead the music in sacrament 2 weeks in a row now! Maybe they have been able to see my musical side, not! Church is still intimidating, i want to be friendly with them all and develop a good relationship with them but the lack of communication is bound to be an obstacle. Only being in the country 2 weeks and not speaking Polish hardly at all makes it hard! But Poland is my country, I love it! Its a country that has been through so much in the past! They surprise me though, I didn’t expect people to be this upbeat but the few people I have been able to meet all seem friendly and more than willing to help in anyway they can! I love being here and even though its basically a day to day struggle, I still wouldn’t rather been any where right now!

  I’m really glad to hear of everyone doing well! It sounds like Natalie and Nikki are having a little to much fun! Tell them not to read those letters of mine or else! It sounds like mom is having fun school, right mom? Dad you keep hanging with my boy Ollie! Sounds like he is finally becoming in tune with his doggy spiritual side. Good for him! That’s what happens when you have amazing parents to look up too! Well that’s all for this week but I love you alot! Thanks for all the encouraging emails, I look forward to them each and every week!

                                                 Elder Dustin Nielson