A Message from Lee Dickens

Today Alan & I got a facebook message & pictures from a recent convert in the area Ali is serving. His name is Lee Dickens and he had the sisters over for dinner. It is one of those times when you are a proud parent. :)


we have all just been for a walk up over the farm after pizza. had an amazing chat about life /the future and the gospel. she's one cool missionary! Total credit to you guys ... don't think I've laughed so much in my life ... Honestly, She's amazing. I've met heaps of missionaries. some are great friends, some are just missionaries, but in the short time I've spent with her she tops the lot

Honestly... the first night I met her I had just drove 1100miles and was really tired and upset that I hadn't a chance to say bye to our prev sister and she was so quiet. I thought, oh no this will be a struggle ........ the next day I ordered the kebabtisum and holy coke. within 20 mins I was literally trying not to pee myself.. and felt like we had been pals for years ...trust me, she will be fine

basically every missionary that comes into the mission usually gets a dirty big kebab. (Elgin usually has newbies so I've always done it) but usually the first companion does it. however I found she didn't have it so I had to fix that

She got me a cracker tho as I was half way thru mine she told me to "one bite it " so said if she could I will... hence the pic of her trying to squeeze it in lol

Yep .. definitely a bit of a rebel lol ..

Week 34

So last week we got move calls and i got moved to Elgin, Scotland! It was sad leaving Ireland. so i went from the very bottom of Ireland to the highest part of Scotland you can go. so it was a day and a half journey to get here but it was great! i am training another girl named Sister Linco who is from Argentina! She is way cool and a homie. Elgin is exactly what you would picture serving in Scotland and Ireland would be like lots of green hills and these cottages in the middle of these hills. 

We get a car so that is freakin sick. I was driving and i was about to go onto the roundabout but then instead of turning left into it i turned right and drove on the wrong side so that was chill. 

We got a call the day i got into Elgin saying that everybody will be getting new moves because of the whole garda card thing that missionaries in Ireland who dont have a garda card will be leaving because i guess they cracked down so everyone is moving. And most missionaries dont even have garda cards so it was insane. the whole mission did a 24 hour fast. i was pretty confident i would stay in elgin though. So a ton of missionaries got new moves but me and Sister Linco stayed in Elgin! 

Sister Linco is a homie and is like exactly like Leti, it's way fun! We met some really cool people this week and had some great on the spot lessons, it's a small area but has a lot of potential!

I already got in trouble at church so that is fun, making great first impressions. Me and sister Linco were in gospel doctrines class and i leaned over to her to ask her something about one of the people we were teaching and i looked back up to the teacher and she had stopped talking and was looking directly at me and was like, "is there something that you want to say to the whole class?" and i was like, “no". it gave me flashbacks to freakin highschool!

We have met some really cool people this week, and we are preparing one of our friends to be baptized next week named natasha. she is so excited. it is so cute hahaha

this is a picture that describes me

Week 33

i got moved to the top of Scotland! like the highest place you can go for sisters besides the islands, so i was traveling from 6am-10pm yesterday and all this morning and i finally made it to my new area. its called elgin. 

our friend Fausto got baptized last week!

love you!

Week 32

The pday ruins were cool. I think the ruins was like an old castle. i don’t know. but it was very beautiful when you got to the top of it. 

Fiona got baptized it was so cute! She had to get dunked like 5 times though because when she would go under the water she would just float on the water and she got a belly and it was just stick out of the water. i was dying, cute girl. 

homeboys are good they are still taking the lessons, the one i think will be for sure is bukhosi. 

we have move calls this week and i think i will be moving, but i hope to stay in the republic. 

yes i write in my journals sometimes hahha i need to be better at that. 

we taught a guy last night named alex who had referred himself online and we went over and he was just like i am lost and i know that God is there and want to learn more. he is pretty cool.

my homegirl fiona

it was a party after the baptism

the ruins

Week 31

our district

Week 30

So my homegirl Sister Carabott peaced out of here, sooo i have gotten a new companion but stayed in Limerick which is such a blessing because we have a great teaching pool right now. I was very sad to say bye to Sister Carabott but it is for the best:) 

We went street finding on Saturday and I started talking to this guy named Bukohsi and he is from Zimbabwe. We started talking about the book of mormon and he was so interested that we sat down right then and there and we started to teach him. He said he only had a couple minutes to sit because his cousin was coming. Well 15 minutes into the lesson his cousin Menzie rollls up and he sits down and we start teaching him as well. they both really liked what we shared with them and they both accepted a baptism date for the end of this month! It was sick. Then we invited them to church and Menzie said that he would be able to make it, but Bukohsi said he was going to be out of town on sunday. SO the next day, on Sunday, we go to pick Menzie up from the bus stop and he and his friend walk off the bus and he says he "i hope you don't mind that i brought my other cousin Bryan with me?" We were like lets gooo! IT was awesome, Menzie rolled up wearing a leather jacket with his named written on the back of it haha. But the church service started and at the end of church Menzie said that he felt very happy there and that he believes everything that we teach him and what the church says and that he is so excited for his baptism. And Bryan loved it so much that he wanted to be baptized as well! So we put him on date also! Menzie said he was going to go home and tell Bukohsi how great church was and that he needs to come with him next week! it was amazing! 

Then later that Sunday our branch president comes up to me and my companion and says, "this family that is in our branch comes to church every sunday but aren't baptized and their 8 year old daughter just said she wanted to be baptized." so we are teaching that family right now. they are from Nigeria. there names are Gledys (the mom), Hillary (12 yr old sister), and Fiona (8 yrs old). So Fiona is getting baptized next week and we are going to try to get her family to be baptized with her :) It was a week of miracles, thats all i am going to say. I swear God was like these girls are struggling, i will give em some good people lol. 

I went on exchanges this week with my homegirl Sister Osmond in Dublin and it was great. we had a fun time and she helped me with a lot of things. It was a crazy week with everything going on so we decided that we were going to go to the Hard Rock Cafe. probably not the best idea for my wallet butttttt it was worth it. We sat at the bar and just ordered appetizers and i felt like a normal person again lol. it was great! 

1 .Me and Elder Haynes with our tall ice creams 

2. Me and Sister Carabott eating food

3. Me and sister carabott on our last day together

Week 29

i really dont know what to write about this week. it was a pretty frustrating week to be honest.

Yesterday we went to a members house for a dinner appointment and teach our investigator Rodrigo who we haven't taught in a long time. I was really excited to finally teach him and so after dinner we started to teach him and the member family started going off about how great the temple is and how they were able to get sealed together and started talking about the freakin 12 tribes of Israel! it was insane haha but very frustrating. but we got him back on track so we were able to make it out all right.

We were teaching our investigator Mike who was so set for baptism and he was so excited to be baptized. then we taught him the law of chastity and he dropped the ball. he is living with his girlfriend and their daughter. He said he was going to go home and talk with her about everything and next day we met with him and apparently she freaked out on him and got upset that he was investigating the church sooooo he told us that in the next couple of days he will tell us what he wants to do about his baptism so that sucked. very sad.

Then we taught our friend Ali, that one dude that we met on the street that was from Brazil who named his dog Salt after Salt Lake City. we go to meet him and he completely just dropped us as well. It was actually very sad. it has been an interesting week haha.

Me and my companion were doing companion study in Burger King and she was pretty upset about something so i got up in the window sill and danced in the window. if that doesn't make anybody happy i don't know what will.

We met with our friend Lisa who has been taught everything and she was struggling a little bit the past couple weeks. we sat down with her and she was so great and had been keeping her commitments! Then we sat there and asked her all the baptismal questions and she accepted all of them which is so amazing because when the missionaries first started teaching her she had no belief in God at all. The spirit was so strong during her lesson, we all got emotional haha.

I hope you all have a good week :)

Week 28- Getting Caught by PMac

This week has been crazy! i flew to Edinburgh on Tuesday morning to pick up my trainee. Her name is Sister Carabott! she is from England and is the cutest girl! We had a trainers meeting and a trainee meeting as well. President Macdonald gave us great instruction. He is so great! he is super chill and cool. and when he gives instructions he is like not expecting one answer but has really taught that whatever comes into your mind is your own personal revelation. no matter what it is. he's taught me how to receive better personal revelation. and his instructions aren't so confusing. macdonald is just simple but so powerful! 

After we were paired with our trainees they send us out the rest of the day to go street finding. Edinburgh is a big city so towards the end of the night it was time to go home and we got (well I got) completely lost. we finally made it back to the mission home 30 minutes late at 9:30 and the mission home has these gates outside of the home and apparently they close at 9. so we got back and the gates were closed and my phone had died so I couldn't call anyone haha. sister carabott was like "what are we gonna do?" and i was like "well it looks like we are gonna have to climb and hop over the gate" and she was like "what?”. So i climbed over the gate in my skirt and then sister carabott threw her bag over and was about to climb over when the mission president and his wife walk out of the mission home and they were like what is going on? hahaha it was so funny! so then they opened the gate for sister carabott. We all had a good laugh.The next morning we got up and took two buses to the ferry, then took the ferry, then took two more buses after the ferry to get back to Limerick. So it took 16 hours all together to get back. my poor trainee was wrecked haha.

We have had a great week of finding and teaching, mostly teaching. we have had back to back lessons like almost everyday, which is so nice but i do miss finding. We found some great people though this week.

We met this guy named Ali. He is from Brazil and we were talking to him and he opened up to us and shared a lot of his life with us. we sat down with him and he was really interested in what we were doing. He kept saying that he really liked talking with us and it made him feel happy. but that he doesn't know if he believes in God or not and doesn't think things happen for a reason. we explained to him what the holy ghost was and how the holy ghost can make us feel. and towards the end of talking with him he was already starting to say "maybe I was supposed to meet you guys for a reason." it was so sick! We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he wanted to meet again and learn more and asked us to write him a message in the book of mormon. so we wrote our testimonies and gave it to him. we are meeting with him tonight and i am so excited! AND GET THIS! He travels and he was talking about his dog and he said his dogs name is Salt and we were like why did you name your dog salt? and he said after the city Salt Lake City. then he continued on to say that is the one place he wants to visit! and we were like what, seriously? And he hasn't even heard of mormons or anything! He named his three dogs, Salt, Lake, and City. it was insane dude! 

Our friends Emma and Kato came to church yesterday, sad news Kato wants to get baptized but he is moving to Uganda soon so we don't think he will be able to get baptized here:( but he will in Uganda so that is good! Emma is the sweetest girl ever! she is getting baptized on the 11 of August so that is super exciting! she really enjoyed church so we are so excited for her! 

peace out guys! love ya!

1. sports

2. some random guy that we met while doing comp study that started singing to us, he was drunk of course

3. me and my trainee on the ferry

Email from Ali's Mission President

Email from Ali's mission president, sent to our Stake President, Pres. Hess.
___________________

19 June 2018

 
 

Dear President Hess,    

Sister Alexandria Doering Neilson, a missionary from your ward, has recently been called to serve as a Trainer to  Sister Carabott, a new missionary in the Scotland/Ireland Mission.  

I feel that a trainer is one of the most important of all missionary callings. As she works to teach and minister to her new companion she will have an opportunity to gain leadership skills and growth in her own life.  

Sister Neilson has been an outstanding missionary. Your support and prayers on behalf of her are greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Mark A. Macdonald

President
Scotland/Ireland Mission