Coming Home...

This is a picture of us golfing and my last baptism in South Carolina as a servant of Jesus Christ.  I am so blessed and humbled at the opportunity I have had to serve these past two years and become who the Lord wants me to be. I have a lot of thoughts and feelings right now and I know my time as a missionary is over.  I am sad that I will not be able to go out everyday and knock doors and invite people to be baptized and repent.  I am excited to see my family.  The thing I am most thankful for is the chance I have had to spend time on a mission.  It has truly changed my life forever.  I have never loved something as much as I have loved my mission.  I have been changed eternally and spiritually blessed. 

We baptized this amazing lady this week.  She is in the Air Force and read the entire Book of Mormon in a week.  We taught her for about 3 weeks then she got baptized.  I have never felt the spirit so strong at a baptism as I did at hers.  She is truly amazing.  She bought me a cake and a watch for me birthday.

This past week was so great and spiritual.  I know this week will be filled with much excitement, miracles, heartache, and joy.  I love you all so much and I want you to know I know this church is true, that Jesus is the Christ and that he lives and died for us to take away our pain.  I know the Book of Mormom is the word of God and brings happiness to all.  I know Joseph Smith was a prophet and that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today.  I love being a missionary and will cherish this experience everyday of my life.  I love you and all and pray for you always!

Love you all,

Elder Dane Nielsen

Mission Family

This is us golfing and all the missionaries in my "family tree".  I trained four of these Elders and the rest of them were trained by one of the four I trained orginally..... they are my mission family.  The David A Bednar conference was wonderful I loved it so much, the spirit was so strong.  I love my mission and being able to serve the Lord.  I would not have traded this experience for a lifetime of wealth or temporal happiness.  I have felt the love of Heavenly Father daily and the cleansing power of the atonement daily as well.  I love serving a mission and being a representative of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Love you all,

Elder Dane Nielsen

Thrashing the Nation

Not much new here.  I'm just working hard and thrashing the nation!  I love my mission!!

Love you all,

Elder Dane Nielsen

26 days....

Picture of a huge gator (probably 10 ft long) we saw this week that swam right towards us.  This is me and Elder Oviatt wearing our Spanish Fork 1/2 marathon & 5K t-shirts.  I love this work!

Love you all,
Elder Dane Nielsen

Name Tag

Not many pictures this week I'm way too busy.  I love my mission and am going to continue to work my hardest until the second I am forced to pull this name tag off my chest.

I love you all,
Elder Dane Nielsen
 ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---  
It was so great to hear from Dane today and to feel of his spirit.  As the end of his mission becomes more visible, it is hard as a parent to be so excited for his return home when you know this is not what he wants.  Dane told me today that when the announcements for changing the missionary age came out he was just praying that they would extend the length to three years.  He told me that the hardest day of his life will be November 17th, the day he returns home.

As a parent I could not ask for more.  He has not only gained a testimony of the gospel, but has fallen in love with serving the lord.  This whole process of a mission reminds me of having a new baby.  We are here at home so anxious and excited (don't forget cleaning) to see our son return home.  He will once again be returning to us straight from his heavenly father, just as he did once before.  The best part is he will be able to share all he has learned with us.  As his heart breaks, our hearts swell with pride and joy.  I long to see him, hear him, and look into his face.  With only 33 days left....I pray that he will feel the love we have waiting for him at home.

We love Elder Nielsen and thank you for making this journey of service and love possible in our home.

Love MOMOMOMOMOMOM

Grovetown, GA

Picture of me and the fire truck in Grovetown, GA.  I love my mission, general conference, and the person I am becoming.  Have a great week.

Love you all,
Elder Dane Nielsen

In the Middle

This first picture is of the other missionaries in my district.  The second one is of me and my new companion, we got a cake for one of our investigators for his birthday.  We are covering Grovetown, GA and also the Fort Gordon military base where we get to teach the soliders.  It is a lot of fun and we are having a lot of success.  I love my mission and am glad that I'm "right in the middle" as Elder Utchdorf said in his recent talk.  I still have a long time before I return home and have truly cherished the short time I have been out.  I look forward to pushing hard the last two months.  I love you all and appreciate everything you do for me and for your service in the church.  Do your home teaching and never lose the faith.

Love you all,
Elder Dane Nielsen

Grovetown, GA

Not a lot from Elder Nielsen this week with Monday being a holiday.  We did learn he was transferred to Grovetown, GA and is serving with an Elder from Idaho.  His new companion is originally from Haiti and is one of 16 children adopted by this family.  They had 7 children and have adopted 16.  Wow!  He loves his new companion and is excited to work in the new area.

Love you all,
Elder Dane Nielsen

Acheived our Goal

This past week was amazing, spiritual, and stress filled.  Our zone had a goal for the month of 14 baptisms and we only got 4 of those in the first 3 weeks.  We had 10 baptisms scheduled for the last week and we spent the week interviewing, fasting and praying, and making sure they were ready.  The hard work paid off and we hit our goal so the entire zone gets to go to the temple on Tuesday and do baptisms for the dead.  In my head I kept thinking wow we are awesome then I read something in the scriptures that was meant for me.  It is Alma 26: 11-12 where the Lord said all things happen because of me not you.  It was a neat (humbling) experience and strengthened my testimony so much. 

A priest in the ward made a cake for us.  That is the missionaries on both sides of him on the cake, he is the one in the middle.  I am also getting transferred this week.  I won't be a Zone Leader any more, they are white washing me and assigning me a brand new missionary. 

I love being a missionary!  I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!

Love you all,

Elder Dane Nielsen

SC - Zone Leaders

No message from Elder Nielsen today just this picture of him and his companion.  Transfers are August 29th and Dane feels like he will get transferred.  They have loved serving together and have worked well together.......... We love you Elder Nielsen.  Keep up the good work!!

We just received the iternary for Dane's return home;

Date: November 17th
Time: 4:04 p.m.
Place: Salt Lake City, Utah ........home!!!!!

Love you all,
Elder Dane Nielsen

Great Grandson

Every missionary in this picture has been trained by me either directly or indirectly.  The Elder on the far left is in missionary terms my great grandson.  Pretty cool!

This is me on exchanges with Elder Bailey.  He is Colin Argyle's cousin and knows Cory, Stacey, and Braxton Argyle.  The top picture is of good ol downtown Simpsonville.

We have a lot of baptisms coming up these next few weeks with great miracles happening everyday all around us.  I love being a missionary!

Love you all,

Elder Dane Nielsen

Full Circle

That's me shooting the rock and my new scripture case cover.  We had a baptism this past week.  It was an amazing experience.  A guy we baptized two months ago baptized one of his friends.  It was really cool to see the full process of having someone who was not a member change so much to have the gospel in his life, get baptized, get the Aaronic priesthood, bless the sacrament, then baptize their friend.  No doubt the church is true!! 


Elder Dane Nielsen

First come, first serve

Transfers are this week and Dane will be staying in Simpsonville with his same companion.  I wish I could send those poor boys another Lazy-boy .

That is me and Elder Muhlstien, he lives in our apartment with us.  We have the same tie so we thought it would be a cool picture.  Priesdent Holm also has the same tie.  (Who wouldn't want to look like President Holm).  I got some new running shoes this week because my others are worn out.  I'm sitting in the lazy boy reading about the prophets, apostles, and quorum of the seventy.  Things are great here.  I love being a missionary.   Our Zone has been working really hard and having a lot of success.

Yes, the chair is first come, first serve!!!!

Love Elder Dane Nielsen

This week Dane told me that he read D & C 60:13 .... "Behold, they have been sent to preach my gospel among the congregrations of the wicked; wherefore,  I give unto them a commandment, thus:  Thou shalt not idle away thy time, neither shalt thou bury thy talent that it may not be known."

He said,"This scripture is way cool!  It made me recommit for the last 4 months of my mission I am throwing it all on the table".

Last week we received an email from him expressing how he does not want to come home.  He loves being a missionary and is very scared to come home.  We realize this is a normal feeling for every young missionary.  I know this next 4 months will fly by, but as a mother I am looking forward to seeing my son, holding him in my arms, looking into his eyes and seeing the young man Heavenly Father is sending me.  We know his spirit will fill our home and he will have the light of Christ in his eyes.  What an awesome time to be a missionary.  He is on fire and we are so proud of him.

WE LOVE YOU ELDER NIELSEN 

A Cow!!!

This is all I have this week.  I love seeing cows..... it is the best!  Thought you would love this Grandma Vicki.  Sorry no pigs. :)

Love Elder Dane Nielsen

I really think he has no time for pictures so on his way to the library to email us he pulled over and took a picture of himself with a cow.......we know he loves farm animals, but a COW!!!

Mission Record

I caught another fish!  I now have the mission record with 2 fish for a total of 5 pounds.  Not a huge fish but not bad for an Elder. :)

Not a lot of comments this week other than I love my mission.  It is just sad that I hit another month mark this week, only 5 more to go!

Old Friend



Elder Nielsen and Elder Houghton, Spanish Fork, Utah...Friends!

I think he found a toy surprise in his cereal...

Elder....do you really think we are taller when we stand on chairs?



"I wonder what our zone numbers will look like"



I think they look good........

Well Elder Gentry Houghton, from Spanish Fork Utah, finally arrived in the field. It was 

so great to see him. This is a picture of us together. (Please forward this picture to 

his mom!) As you can see my day begins with a little "cocoa dyno bytes", Dr. Pepper 

and early morning scripture study. ha,ha! The next picture is of us planning on our map and then getting the numbers from our zone! What a great week. We just had a lady move here from NC, she is amazing and ready to be baptized. My new companion is Elder Haymond...he is a great missionary. I love being a missionary!

I love y'all,

Elder Dane Nielsen

Last week Dane told us that he would not be getting transferred, but would be getting 

a new companion. We were anxious to hear who he would get put with. It was 

Elder Haymond. This is their second transfer together. They served for six 

weeks together in West Columbia.  

Dane told us he is trying to stay focused on just the mission work so he packed 

away everything but his shirts, suits, ties, and study materials. He said anything 

else was a distraction from the work. I told him I was putting together a little 4th of 

July package and asked him if I should send it or not because I did not want to 

distract from his work. He told me to go ahead and send it and he will dispose 

of the unnecessary things properly....

We know Dane is working hard and loves the work....we are so blessed!

We LOVE you Elder Nielsen

Me and squirrel

This is Virginia our latest baptism.  She is a funny lady, she was so nervous to be baptized.  As we took the picture I told her to put her big girl pants on because the waters a little chilly.  That is why she is covering her face.  HaHa!  I also hit a squirrel, it was way cool. :)  We had a meeting and I got to see Elder Fonnesbeck.  He goes home on Wednesday and I'm way sad.... I love him!

This past week was awesome.  I spent two days in Greenwood helping those Elders.  On Thursday I went to Clemson (home of the Clemson Tigers) then to Columbia for a meeting.  That same day I drove back to Seneca (on the border of South Carolina and Georgia) to do a baptismal interview.  On the way back home I wanted to stop at a Quick Trip (because they have 49 cent slushies) so we called the sister missionaries to ask where one was.  They told us where it was and I asked if there was anyone they wanted us to see (which isn't like me because the Sisters live along ways away).  They said yes there is a lady that needs a blessing so she can hopefully stop smoking and get baptized.  I gave her the blessing and she immediately turned around and asked me to baptize her.  It was way cool!!

I love you all.
Elder Dane (the squirrel killer) Nielsen

Delicious Bass

Dane and his Bass

I guess this is "his pond"

Families are Forever!!

It was great hearing from Elder Nielsen today....that boy is still the same!!  Fish and all!!

"Howdy friends and fam! I love you all so much this past week we had another baptism and this Saturday we have one as well. I went fishing in the pond out back and caught a "delicious bass" !!!!!!! I love being a missionary. I look forward to seeing you all soon, but I still have work to do. I love to baptize and love being an Elder.

"Love Elder Nielsen"

We were happy to hear him say he was looking forward to seeing us all soon because on Mother's Day he told us he was never coming home. We figured he would come home after he got all his work done in S.C. We love and miss this boy! We have felt the blessings from our Heavenly Father

through his service. WE LOVE YOU ELDER!!

Living the Dream

I'm currently serving in a beautiful area with green rolling hills, (Simpsonsville).  I haven't spent a lot of time in my area because I'm always on exchanges, but I sure love it.  Happy Mother's Day. 

We had a great visit with Dane on Mother's Day.  He said he was going to create an agenda for our call and talk about coming home was not going to be on the list.  He is so focused on the Lord's work right now and that is all we could hope for.  He said his Mission President will give the missionaries signs (4 fingers means your doing great, 3 fingers means your doing okay, 2 fingers not so good, etc.).  We asked him what sign he typically gets from the President and he said he has always been and always will be a four.

Love you all,
Elder Dane Nielsen

It is a sign.....

Not many pictures this week.  I was on exchanges for 3 days in one area in the zone and 3 days in another so I was only in my area for one day.

Things are going great.  I love you all.

Love,

Elder Dane Nielsen

Piggly Wiggly

April 30th, 2012

These are my last few days in Windsor Lake and us in our Piggly Wiggly shirts.  Haha!  Piggly Wiggly is a big grocery store chain on the East coast.  I got transferred to Simpsonville which is really close to the BMW plant. It is a suburb of Greenville.  I love it here.  It is farmland with rolling green hills.  I am in a very small town about half the size of Spanish Fork. I could not be more happy. 

Mom, please text all the family and tell them "I love them".

Love,

Elder Dane Nielsen

My work is done in Windsor Lake

April 23rd, 2012

These are our two baptisms this past week and in fact my last two in Windsor Lake, I'm being transferred this Wednesday. I really enjoy this area and the people here, but I'm also happy and excited for a change.  I love this work, this is the best time of my life.

I love you all,

Elder Dane Nielsen 

My Family

It was a great week other than we hit a snake in the car. The two elders next to me I trained and the two on the far left were trained by my trainees (so my "grandchildren" as they say in the mission field). It is fun being a missionary, working hard all day and coming home at night knowing I did my very best..... there is no better feeling.
I love you all. Have a great and wonderful week.
Love,
Elder Dane Nielsen

A little piece of Wayne County

This is Elder Fonnesbeck and I this week having fun and doing a lot of baptizing. I thought Grandpa Milton would get a kick out of the picture of me on Wayne.
Thanks for all "y'all" do and for "y'alls" support.
Love you all,
Elder Dane Nielsen