Christmas with Dane

We had a wonderful Christmas skyping with Dane. He looked and sounded amazing. He was just transferred to Columbia to be a Zone leader. He told us how he missed Myrtle Beach and the people. He sounded and looked so happy. He asked us to turn the computer around so he could see home and what it looked like. When we turned the screen around he could see out the window and saw mountains with snow on them. He said, "I love mountains and really miss them". He couldn't believe how big the mountains here are. We asked him what kind of food he was loving in SC and he said they have the best Macaroni and Cheese....I love this boy!!

Talking to him made our Christmas magical. The day before Christmas we received an amazing card from some members in Myrtle Beach, the Goss family. They were Baptized right before Dane left the area. Their kind words touched our hearts and made our Christmas the best ever. It is a card we will treasure for ever.

It was so great to see his spiritual growth and how he has turned into a mature young man...We are so proud of him and his service. We are all so blessed!!

We all took turns having our picture taken with Dane!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Glasses???

Things are good here. I am getting transferred on December 21st, four days before Christmas. I'm a little sad, but also excited because I am getting called to be a Zone Leader in the mission. I am so excited to be a Zone Leader. This is a picture of me at the ward Christmas party. Not much else going on other than I hit my 13 month mark the other day which seemed to come faster than lightning.

Have a Merry Christmas.
Love,
Elder Dane Nielsen

We are all so excited to talk to Dane on Christmas day. It has been a long time coming! We are all getting our lists of questions together for him. Last week I received a phone call from a member, Debbie Bigham, who lived in Myrtle Beach. Her phone call was amazing. It was the kind of phone call a mom can only dream of. She told me all about Dane and what kind of missionary he was and how the people living in Myrtle Beach just loved him. She told me she owned a beauty salon and Dane would stop by and eat all the candy in her treat jar....she also said he can eat candy like no one she had ever seen before. Then I knew we were for sure talking about the same cute boy.

We LOVE you Elder Nielsen . . . Merry Christmas and a Merry New Year!!!!!!

Here one day, gone the next!

We had two baptisms this weekend. The son flew in to baptize his parents it was amazing. They are going to the temple because they love the church. I love missionary work it is the best!
These are pictures of my week. I think it is funny that there are still roses out in December, it is still so warm here. We went to a house and taught a lesson, two days later we went back and the whole house was gone. That's a picture of me standing on the steps of where the house was. That was CRAZY!!
Love,
Elder Dane Nielsen

Surfside Beach

December 5th, 2011

We think this is a picture of Dane standing next to the Surfside Beach sign. He is that little tiny black and white speck at the bottom of the sign. He told us that he thinks he will be transferred out of Myrtle Beach around the 20th. He loves this area, but knows it will soon be time to move on.

Hello Everyone,

Well, it was a great week! This next week we have some sweet baptisms coming up! I love it here and it seems weird that this is my last Christmas in South Carolina! I will be home next year at this time, CRAZY! It kind of freaks me out to think that the end is coming near when it seems like it was just so far away! But I love my mission and all that it has done for me! I love this church and the blessings it gives me. I have seen a whole different side of religion since being in the "bible belt". South Carolina truly is the bible belt and I love it! We are all so blessed to know about this gospel and we need to share it with others! If we want to be like Christ we have to do as he did, he taught and baptized people! So, we should do the same! We have so much to be thankful for this holiday season! May we all give thanks and not worry about the "worldly" things, those only bring temporary joy! Help others, those are the memories that last a life time and others are so blessed. As it says in Mosiah "When you are in the service of your fellow men, you are only in the service of your God!" I testify that that is true and as we live it we will be so blessed! Keep strong and stay faithful, the Lord knows all things! Read the Book of Mormon and pray, and he will continue to bless you all!

Love, Elder Dane Nielsen

News Letter AM 1

December 5, 2011

A few weeks ago Dane's home ward, Aspen Meadows 1st ward, asked each missionary to send a letter home to the ward. All the letters were posted in the monthly news letter along with a picture of them doing the work. It was so fun to see the growth of each young Elder from our ward. Dane wrote the following message to our ward:

Dear Aspen Meadows 1st,

Thank you for all you have done for me & the support you have given me! A mission is such a great blessing, I love every minute of it! There is no greater work than the Lord's work! Now, I want to speak a little bit about missionary work!!! The Lord has commanded us to do it! We promise to do it when we are baptized! We promise to always stand as a witness of God at all times & in all places! Now I don't mean go knock doors, but we all know someone who is a non-member or a less active. As we reach out to those people the Lord give us so many blessings! I can testify that missionary work is the KEY to this church! If we want the church to grow we do missionary work. If we want more blessings we can do missionary work. Talk to everyone about this church, it has blessed you so much now use it to bless others! I know that missionary work is AMAZING! Through my year in South Carolina seeing different wards & branch's I've noticed something between the successful wards & the not so successful ones. It is missionary work! A ward that focuses on bringing others to Christ brings themselves to Christ as well! Last October conference Russell M. Nelson left us a challenge it was to meet someone new each week in your ward and as we do that we will fell our Savior's love more in our lives! The Lord always provides a way to keep his commandments, therefore he has paved a road for us to do his work. Now it's up to us to find it and follow it! I love your all! Missionary work brings so many blessings! I always think of Hymn 27 "Praise to the Man" my favorite line is "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven" it's true it won't always be easy! NO ONE said it would be! Love and live the gospel and the Lord will bless you! Keep up the good work!

Love,
Elder Dane Nielsen!

We are so proud of Dane and his hard work. We can see that the Lord has done a wonderful job with our young son. Thank you everyone for all your love and support.

"White Christmas" in Myrtle Beach

It was a good week.... we played some football and ate a lot of turkey. We had dinner at three different members houses, it was INTENSE. I feel like Santa Clause because I ate so much food.
Not much else going on. We have been getting 10 gators at church for the past 2 weeks and things are about to light up, it's going to be a "White Christmas" in Myrtle Beach. I love it here and things are good. I love you all.
Elder Dane Nielsen

Please come to Church

We had a good week this week. We have 10 people scheduled to baptized in the next 3 weeks and all 10 of them came to church on Sunday. Usually when that happens they are solid.
We get to play a lot of football on Thanksgiving against the ward members. It should be fun. I love Myrtle Beach!

It's My Birthday

This week was a great week.... thanks to all of you guys, you are amazing! I love each and everyone of you. Thank you for the Birthday wishes and gifts. The best surprise was some of my converts from Summerville came to see me for my birthday, it was so awesome I loved it. It was great seeing them and I didn't want them to leave, they are so great they are like family to me. They are planning on going to the temple in February, I'm really excited for them. I hope to be able to share that experience with them.

The picture of the pond is a picture of our view from our back porch here in Myrtle Beach. We have a lot of great things going on her over the next few weeks.

This church is true and the book is blue. Read it!

Love you all,
Elder Nielsen

November 7, 2011

Well it looks like I will be staying in Myrtle Beach for six more weeks. I was really glad to get this news because I love it here. We are teaching a lot of people and are having great success.

On the 17th I will hit my one year mark. People always say the first month and the half way mark are the hardest. I believe them. I have been missing everyone, but know I am in the right place doing what I should be doing. Sorry no pictures this week we have been really busy. Have a great week. Stay safe and read the Book of Mormon!!!

October 31st, 2011
Had a good week this week lots of baptisms scheduled.... I can't wait. I hope to stay in Myrtle Beach for another transfer. Gotta love life.

October 24th, 2011
We had a good week. Nothing much new except we are getting a car because my companion has bad knees. We had a cool thing happen this week. We were asked at the last mintue to go have dinner with this family. We were already booked but told them we would come. We gave a lesson on meeting new people in the ward each week. Sunday the people we ate dinner with were there and introduced themselves to and sat by a new family in the ward. I guess our lesson paid off. It was SICKTER!!
On a bad note I was biking through some trees and got a vine around my neck, it knocked me off my bike and cut my neck. INTENSE!
I love Myrtle Beach.

Dane has been gone now for 11 months today. Time really does go so fast! It was great to hear from him today. He seems so happy and is doing great!

October 17, 2011

This is me at the beach, what a good time!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ya buddy, ha it was cool! We had a fun day! We have 2 baptism this Saturday and the Spanish Elders are baptizing a family of 6, so we have a total of 8 members to baptize this weekend. We met a way cool guy last Tuesday and he read the whole Book of Mormon by Saturday. The best part is... he is getting baptized on 11/11/2011 MY B-DAY, YA BUDDY!!!!!!!!! Not much else is new here! I am loving the Book of Mormon!!! Read it!!!

It was stake conference this past weekend! We are going too play basketball today. I have been running 5 miles a day for the past 8 days, except Sunday! I guess I am a runner! Things are great here! Stay safe and remember to read the Book of Mormon!!

This is our apartment. We have been having a lot of success. We had 11 less active members come to church yesterday who had not been to church in over 2 years. It was a great day, in fact we had a gator get up and share her testimony about how she knew the church is true. It was really neat.
There are a lot of good things going on in Myrtle Beach. I love it here. I just started the Book of Mormon over today and I am going to read it in 25 days. That is about 30 pages a day. I love the Book of Mormon.

October 3rd, 2011

Conference was GREAT! I really loved the Priesthood session! We were able to listen to a live broadcast in the Stake Center. This week has been really busy, I got a new companion to train on Wednesday. He is Elder Arvidson from Bountiful. He is new from the MTC. He is a great missionary that is so eager and willing to learn. I am really going to miss Elder Wilkinson, he was a wonderful missionary too.

Last week we had a baptism. It was a special baptism to me because when I was in Summerville Elder Tran and I taught this couple. The wife was baptized, but the husband was not. I left Summerville and they moved to Myrtle Beach. When I was transferred here to Myrtle Beach they were in my ward. It was great to see them again and I was able to baptize the husband.

Well, my tooth is feeling better. I get a root canal on the 19th of October. The weather has really changed and started to cool down. We have a baptism planned for this Saturday. As a district we have 14 on the books for the next few weeks and hope they don't drop off.

Well have a great week, I love you all. Stay safe!

What a long week. I had a ingrown toe nail and a tooth ache in the same week. I went to the dentist and found out I need a root canal.
Transfers are Wednesday and I am getting a new missionary to train.... it will be fun. I am loving the ward and the area it is really cool!

This is me in the great city of Myrtle Beach. We had a baptism on the 17th and hopefully another one on the 24th. There are lots of fun things to do here. It is a lot like Utah. I love it!
The picture of me in the ugly sweater with my pant leg rolled up is where I wrecked on my bike. You really can't tell but I tried to jump a river on my bike and didn't make it.
It was a fun week and there are lots of baptisms coming up in my district. The sister missionaries have two baptisms this week and the Spanish elders have one. Then on October 8th we have 17 people scheduled to be baptized. That will break a record if we baptize that many in one weekend. It will be sweet!

I love it here in Myrtle Beach!!!! We have a baptism this Saturday and then two the following week. Being a missionary is the greatest.

Last week Dane sent a letter home to everyone. It was great to get a letter we could sit down and read. He said, "Today we were getting food and stuff at Wal-mart when a member visiting from North Carolina came up and handed us $100 dollar gift card to Wal-mart!!! We were all really low on money because it was the end of the month and were trying to get stuff that was super cheap and nasty! But it was truly a blessing that he was there when we needed it the very most. I know it is a blessing from the Lord! This church is true!!! Don't ever forget it!"

One of our favorite parts of a letter we recently received said....Dad and Mom, I GET IT!!!!!! These are the greatest words a parent could hear from a missionary...the lord truly has blessed us all!

We had a good week in Myrtle Beach. Here is a picture of the beach right before we got moved to Florence to get out of the path of Hurrican Irene. It was pretty intense. We have a baptism this weekend. I love it in Myrtle Beach it is my favorite area by far. It is great. Don't know what else to say it is just ballin!

Transfers happened this past week and I got transferred to Myrtle Beach. Ya Buddy! It is such a ripe area. I love it here. We are going to have a lot of baptisms. We have one this Saturday with a 9 year old that we just said you need to be baptized. We ran on the beach this morning and watched the sun rise.... it was so much fun. The ward is awesome too. The said they want me to just baptize which is really exciting because I haven't heard those works since I left Summerville.
Picture of me at the zoo in West Columbia.
Dane has the acronym 'WWPMD' on his wall. It stands for 'What Would President McConkie Do'.

This is me and my last week in West Columbia. YES!!! I can't wait to leave. We had a baptism. The bishop here doesn't like me. We had "WARD WAR 3". They don't like us to baptize, but that is my speciality. I am getting moved this week hopefully to Myrtle Beach.
I finished the Book of Mormon last week and I started over and in 6 days I have made it to Alma. I'm going to try and finish in 15 days and then try it even faster. I love the Book of Mormon. It is great. READ IT! Check out my profile on mormon.org..... search for Dane Nielsen. I challenge you to make your own profile so I can show my gators them and help the progress of your testimonies. I want all you to go out with the missionaries and find them someone to teach!

No pics this week it rained all week and I don't take my camera when it rains. Transfers are this week. It is weird to have it rain all the time and be soaking wet and it still be a 100+ degrees. It is NASTY!

Well kind of a slow week. My ribs still hurt and we only had two baptisms. The parents of the girl who is nine said they want the girl to wait until September to get baptized, I hope we can talk her out of that. Not much going on here! Way HOT and biking in it is not FUN!

Well this week was FREAKING HOT! 115 in the shade. Holy cow. In this picture it is 106 at 5:43 pm, but that really means it is 115 because the heat index is about 8-10 degrees. I wrecked on my bike this week right in front of the church. I muffed my hand up and I think I bruised or cracked a rib it has been hurting, but I don't want to stop working.
It was a slower week not any baptisms but we have 3 this weekend. Ha ya buddy! It is good here in West Columbia. I started reading the Book of Mormon again on Wednesday and my goal is to finish it in 20 days, so far I am in Alma. I love the Book of Mormon, it is a great tool the Lord has given us to know this church is true. I love being a missionary it is so much fun. Love "ya'll". Till next week.

This is our baptism and all my ties. I have 18 ties and only one of them is an original I came out with. I hit my 8 month mark and I'm freaking out. It is going by way to fast. I just want to work and baptize. It was a fun week. It was 120 degrees on Monday and Tuesday and only 90 on Wednesday. It actually felt cold, I almost had to wear a jacket. We had a way cool baptism. I don't really know what else to say. It is missionary work. Doing the work is normal now and I am used to the routine. It is fun... you have to make it fun or else you will not like it!

That's me and my FAVORITE missionary ever Elder O'Toole. He is the man! We hung out for two days this week and he stayed with us while we had a leadership meeting. They are way fun and way long. We had a blast. It was a good week. We didn't have any baptisms this week because the people chose to smoke this week so we should have a couple this coming weekend. Got to love the Word of Wisdom. It is really getting humid here. It is rough. Summer goes until about October 1st and then it starts cooling down back into the 80's and low 90's. I can't wait for that. The humidity is crazy. Next Sunday is my 8 month mark. Time is flying. Have a good week. ROCK HARD.
We asked Dane about going to President McConkie's missionary report on Sunday. Here was his response - "Yes you freaking go. He will be an apostle someday and his talks are soooo amazing. You will not regret it. I would bike all the way to Utah just to hear another one of his talks. He talks like his dad does. Intense and he doesn't ever prepare!"

The Elders are using their ties to make a blanket for President McConkie and his wife because they are leaving at the end of June. His new Mission Presidents last name is Holme from St. George.
I love you guys and love all you do for me. I will keep you in my prayers as well. The Lord truely loves you and is watching over you. I know you are busy, but don't get too busy for church or the gospel because I have seen what it can do for thousands of people. I can testify that if you read the scriptures daily and go to church you have have too many blessings to handle. I love you guys. Have a good week.

This is me in SC baby! We bapitized a 12 year old boy this week. Satan worked hard on him. When we got to the church none of this clothes fit. He said he would not get baptized unless his sister was there and right before the baptism no one could find her. By the time we found her they had drained the baptismal font. 3 hours later he was finally baptized.
We are working with lots of people and they all have crazy problems like living with their boy friends, smoking or other crazy stuff.
It was cooler this week temps were in the high 90's. It is supposed to be in the 100's this week.... can't wait for that!
This is a picture of me on my bed talking to the President. My bed frame broke this week so I guess I really am getting fat. :( Actually I am losing weight. One of the guys we are working with made us a deal, he said he would live the word of wisdom if we woke up and ran 2 miles every day. He is living the word of wisdom so we have to uphold our end of the bargain.
I saw an open field with no trees this week. It really made me miss the mountains and open places because it is so closed and there are no mountains here.
I am going on splits with President McConkie tonight. He and I are going to teach a family and Elder Brannan is going with the Spanish missionaries. I am SO STOKED!
I love you all it was a great week. Have a good week.

This is me reading the REAL gold plates.... they are real. And us in our home aka the trailer park. I love the trailer park it makes me so happy! We taught 25 lessons to people just in that trailer park alone. Trailers are the bomb. I'm not going to live in one but the people in them are way humble.
Not too much exciting this week. The ward we are serving in called our family and canceled the baptism on Saturday. We were really really mad! We are going to try and baptize them this weekend. This ward gives us problems, but I am here to baptize not to reactivate. My purpose is to people to the waters and there job is to take them in. If they don't want me to baptize then I don't want to be here. It was a good week! We had a lady come up to us in church and say I am ready to be baptized I know it is true. It was way sweet!

We had a tornado this week, it was flippin intense. The power was out for like 10 hours. Teacher of the year right here. haha! It is starting to warm up. I love it out here, the people are crazy and teaching drunks is the funnest thing ever. I wrecked on my bike this week.... the front tire came off. It was sick!!

I guess I didn't have my camera all week. It rained too hard to be able to take many pictures. I hate the rain. It is no fun. It is like intense working in the rain. I loved the judgement day billboards and the baptist church signs all over that said maybe it will end 5/21..... but it didn't. South Carolina is crazy.

We said to Dane you will be an awesome trainer. He said - "I hope I am an awesome trainer. I am working really hard. We are going to baptize 8 people in the next 6 weeks."

JUDGEMENT DAY DIDN'T HAPPEN! I got asked over 50 times if it was really going to happen and all I said was NO, and if it doesn't will you get baptized into our church? Super fun week!! I got a call this week from President McConkie and he told me I am training a new missionary. I am so excited for that! It is getting really hot in South Carolina, the temperature the other day was 103 and 80 percent humidity. They say it gets worse I just don't see how it can. You walk outside and you are sweating everywhere. It is okay though because everyone here is sweaty and smelly, it is just so hot that people don't even care. It is about to get a lot warmer. I hope everyone is doing good. Talk to you next week. Shoot me an e-mail or letter if you have time. I love mail! Make sure to read the BOOK OF MORMON daily!!

Here are some pictures of the bike trail along the river, Columbia, and the drooping fan. It has been a good week! I am almost to my 6 month mark and my greenie is about to rub off.... I can't wait. I am super tired all the time and I am now used to the missionary routine. Up at 6 a.m. to prepare and study, out the door from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eat, sleep and repeat.

This is West Columbia, the fan shows how hot it gets in the summer it makes the fans DROOP! This baptism is the third in the last 5 years. They are a struggling ward and area. It is not fun to argue with the Bishop just to let us baptize. On average they only get 75 people to church and there are over 400 members in the area. It is kind of crazy, but it is not my fault so I am working my best to bring them back and baptize the HECK out of this area. This was my companions first baptism, he was pretty excited. He has been out 6 weeks less than I have. He loves biking..... me not so much! I love it in South Carolina and know it is where I need to be. I have seen so many miracles and I know the Lord is blessing me. I love you all have a great week.
(Dane didn't attach his photos to the e-mail!)

One of my last days in Summerville. I miss the heck out of the place, but I know my work there is done and I need to help this ward. The Summerville ward was AMAZING, they were so missionary minded. This ward is feeders not helpers, we have dinners every night for the next 2 months. I'm going to gain some weight. I can't wait to help my companion get his first baptism, he has been out 2 months less than me. West Columbia is decent, it is a big biking area and I'm not much of a biker. The hills here are crazy. It seems like I got to Summerville yesterday and now I hit my 5 month mark. The time flies when you baptize!! I can't believe I am almost to 6 months. I thought this day would never come and now I am only a stones throw away from being gone a year!

Not many pictures this week. I have been super nervous about transfers. As of Saturday I was not getting transfered, but today I got a call saying pack your stuff you are hitting the road. Kind of crazy! I'm going to miss Summerville, it feels like home and the members here are super sweet. I will miss them, but I know there are other people in South Carolina to baptize!!!!

It is no longer suit season which is awesome! I love white shirt season it is the best. I'm almost to my 5 month mark and transfers are in 8 days. I'm excited and nervous because you never know what is going to happen. I have been in Summerville for 4 1/2 months..... that's 3 transfers. I just don't know if I want to be here for another.

Kind of a boring week. It rained all week and I didn't have my camera. Lots of funny things though! It rains all day non-stop and it rains HARD. We had another baptism this weekend (March 26th). He has been scared to be baptized for the past 4 months. Sometimes it just takes a little (TLC) ha ha Not! I was kind of mean to him but it worked. I love you all. Be safe. We had a knife pulled on us, good thing I went to Gold's. PEACE. Elder Nielsen Out!

We had to go to Georgetown this week it is not a fun place. We had to stay in a trailer for 2 days it was super nasty and smelly. We did find 5 people to baptize and that was a ball. We have another baptism this week, Larry Bahm. He has been waiting to get baptized for 6 months and I finally told him if you don't want to get baptized we are leaving because you are wasting our time. I love it out here it has been pretty warm. If it hits 82 the jackets can come off, it has been 90-100 all week and it is only March. The summer is going to be pretty hot I have a feeling. Might reach 125 they said. I love you all have a great week!!

This is Elder O' Toole he is such a funny guy I love him. What a baller. This week was not too exciting. I fell into a river with my bike crossing a pipe. It rained sooooooooo hard every inch of my body was wet. I can't believe how freakin hard it can rain. It rained 1 foot in 45 minutes it was super intense.

I miss you all. It is super HOT and super fun here. I love my new roomies.

I'm doing awesome. Transfers are every 6 weeks and they happened on March 3rd so I am in Summerville for six more at least, but I have a feeling it will be my last six here.

Man I love it here I LOVE IT. The people are so great and my comp is awesome. Elder O'Toole and Holyoak the new guys are super fun.

That's us and our bikes. I love it in Summerville! It is the funnest area. I think some big changes are happening here on Wednesday. Transfers but I know for sure I'm staying. Elder Jones (the one who doesn't talk much) and Tran (my comp) are leaving so they might combine the bike and car area into a massive area that is huge. The soccer car with the bobble head deer on the hood is so SOUTHERN.

Dane had his 6th baptism last week and has another one scheduled this week. The old 'greenie' record was 6, Dane will surpass that this week. :)