Season One : Chapter 8 " The Fresh RM's ReadMe Guide"

The time in the service of the Lord was amazing! It was filled with powerful spiritual experiences and humbling lessons of the Lord. It was there I saw all of God’s children through his eyes and felt a love for them that is unmet. My heart was expanded beyond explanation for those who I did not even know. Within moments of talking or within sight I loved and cared for them as my own family and yearned for their understanding and acceptance of the gospel in their lives. Your days were filled with the spirit and you were lead by the Lord in nearly all things. It was then that we found purpose greater than we have ever found within our lives.

When I returned home from my mission I had set goals and had a vision of what life would hold. I felt ready to return home knowing I had served with all my effort and all my heart. I was ready to begin my life, complete college, date & find a career! The way I would describe life in returning home would be that of the bug that hit my windshield the other day, I hit life hard and fast. Uncomfortably fast.

I was surrounded by my peers but I was not guarded by a name tag. I had to again form who I was. I was again at the same level as those around me. I had to determine what values I learned in the mission applied in my life today. Then have the faith to live them.

Recently I have had several close friends who have returned home from their missions, I see that life is not easy and within the first few days and weeks they are realizing how different life is. Your family is still your family but your siblings are older, some are bigger, some more mature, some married or in new relationships and some with kids! How crazy, how weird and how different?

Life today may seem so different than when you left and that is true, it is different, the environment has changed but so have you. You are now at a new point in your life but soon enough and how soon that will be is kinda scary, but you will feel as if you never left and you will be caught up in the hustle and bustle of life once again. This certainly doesn't mean you ‘forget’ your mission or throw out all the changes you made but simply the life you are living now will feel normal and you won’t feel as out of place.

What can you take from your mission? How can this transition be easier? Remember the lessons you learned! Continue to study your scriptures, continue to pray earnestly and sincerely to the Lord. Continue to kneel, if you spoke a mission language study and pray in that language. Remember what you taught! Prayer is your connection with the Lord and the very first thing the Adversary would like to do, is eliminate that communication!

I would say for me it was easy in the mission to apply these principles as I was sharing the gospel with others! I was putting His work forward but in returning home I had to realize these truths once again, now it was for me. Certainly the Lord would help me in teaching His gospel. Certainly He would be there as I searched for His lost sons and daughters. But I guess after I returned home I learned to place faith that God also cared about me and my life. That he was concerned with me finding a job and as I had faith and amazingly enough honored my parents was able to find a job for school. I had to learn to put the Lord above other pursuits and decide if I would study or attend Family Home Evening? Did I have the faith the Lord could help me with my school work? And knowing Faith was a verb. Was I willing to take the time before Family night or before the Sabbath to study?  It is amazing how many decisions there are that come into play, many that we do not expect but somehow we already know what we should do before we make our choice. If I could but encourage you to be strong. The God you knew in your mission is the same God here in life and He loves and cares about you, He knows you and understands you. While you may not be looking for new investigators you are doing important works. And making important choices such as the pursuit for a spouse.

As  times of struggle come I give you this counsel, to turn to one of my favorite scriptures which reads, 

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you:not as the world giveth give I unto you, Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" -John 14:26-7

Attend the temple frequently! How often is frequently?! As much as you can: daily, weekly, bi-monthly! Make the temple a strong point in your life. There are temptations and dangers which the Lord can protect you from when you stand in holy places. There have been places and situations I have been in where I know today I was only protected because of my sincere and diligent Temple attendance

In standing in holy places we must make sure our home or residence is a place where the spirit can dwell. It is our refuge from the storm. We must have a stronghold that cannot be broken by the adversary. Attend Institute and church! Continue to learn and to grow : )

Never forget those you taught, keep in touch, use Facebook or good old snail mail but remaining in contact with them will help them and inspire you to be the man or woman you that you should be.

As I look back to my return home I realize how big of a change it was. There have been so many lessons I have learned and so many changes I have made. I am certainly grateful to the Lord for the experiences I have had that have brought me to where I am today even within the last year following my mission. Now get out there and tackle life ;)

-Trent D. Nielson

“Keep the Faith & Never Give Up, Never Surrender!”

Season One : Episode 7 "Deja Vu"

This week has been good I have been so blessed of the Lord in so many ways of my life and have learned so much. There had been so much on my mind which was once blurry that now feels so clear. Something that I have always struggled with is making decisions. I look at life very analytically and so when it comes to any choice, from a big step such as where to attend college or to a small one such as my response in a conversation I have analyzed 5 different outcomes before I take a step forward. This is both a blessing and a curse.

This habit has helped me often in my life to make wise choices and stay on the right course. At the same time it can inhibit me from making decisions or choices that need to occur in my life. I take so long debating whether I will make a choice that I don't make any altogether or simply miss the opportunity that was there. I think we all do this to some extent or know someone in our lives who do. If you are reading this, you now know I do, haha!

I remember when I was on my mission and was drawing closer to the spirit, I was striving to be my very best as a servant of the Lord. I knew I had been called of God to serve Him and His children in the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Mission. I wanted to be effective in my efforts. I believe that my biggest fear was really two that go hand in hand. The first was that somehow I would miss someone the Lord was trying to send to me by either a lack of Faith or a lack of attention to the spirit. The second fear was that I would slacken my strength or lose the desire or fire within me to serve the Lord.

I remember in an attempt to be sure I never fulfilled these fears I would strive to submit myself fully to the Lord. I remember two such occasions that fit well. As fate may have it I would often be walking down the street. At times I would see someone and think you should talk with them. If I would ignore it then it would be on my mind for several minutes and the next person I saw would bring the same thoughts to mind. After having this occur who knows how many times I finally decided I would act upon it. I wondered often if it was just me thinking that or the spirit telling me this person was important and needed to hear the message I was sharing. I noticed when I did talk with random people we passed as we were going about our work, I felt more fulfilled. After one such occasion I decided I would simply always strive to "open my mouth" to all we saw as often as possible. This may have simply been a hello and an invitation to get a free DVD but the impact this made upon me or them may never be fully known and I can confidently know because of this choice I did not miss anyone or ignore promptings of the Lord. As many missionaries are I was nervous coming into the field and was unsure of what to say or how my words could help any of the people we saw. I was astounded by the Faith and the boldness of my Father ( or senior companion/ trainer) as we went about teaching the gospel. But perhaps over a period of time I overcame that fear as I placed more trust in the Lord and how he could inspire me than my own words. I didn't not see it till now but this has the perfect parallel to my life today. Just as I had to simply start teaching for the Lord to guide our conversations and lessons.

With life we are expected to live our lives, it is kinda a big reason God sent us here. The greatest gift we have been given is free agency. The ability to act and choose for ourselves. As we take the faith to make decisions and take that first step into the darkness the Lord can enlighten our minds and our souls in accomplishing his will and in staying on the right path. Perhaps if we are doing what we need to and live the commandments then that is enough and he will be there to support us. You know I am pretty sure that sometimes when I write these blogs it is so much more for me to learn than for me to share anything with those you who may read it, hahah!

Elder Bagshaw (left), Elder Nielson (right)

Philadelphia, PA

The second experience that comes to mind is when I was serving in beautiful and green Drexel Hill, PA. I was companions with good old Elder Skyler Bagshaw. We always worked hard and had fun together. It is ironic because our personalities were so different but he was perhaps one of my favorite companions! We had been in our apartment most of a morning working on a "finder binder". A book with more detailed maps that would help us to be more effective when we were either lost in planning or had appointments fall through. We reached a point where we needed more materials. We had chosen to stay inside and work on the "finder binder" because our mileage was low and we wanted to be obedient and stay within the mile limitations we had been given. We felt strongly like we should go to the store regardless and get more supplies for the binder. This would mean we were on foot. There was a K-Mart fairly close which we could walk to. So we got ready to leave prayed and made it out the apartment door, up the stairs and as we opened the complex door and it began to down pour rain heavier than I had seen my entire mission! We looked at each other and determined to go inside and grab jackets. We were  tempted to just stay home but again felt the spirit impress us to go to the store and the thought was prevalent within our minds that the Lord would place someone in our path just as we had prayed ever sincerely for. As we walked my protective clothing had not worked perfectly and I was getting soaked in a matter of minutes. Shortly after we had crossed the old stone bridge out of our neighborhood and were approaching the main street corner we saw a man walking in the rain with a backpack on. I knew we needed to talk to him, I doubted for a second but reminded myself that someone walking in the rain must be out for a strong purpose and we would should talk with him. Amazing enough he was interested by what we had said or rather the spirit he felt and after further miracles which are for another time joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to my knowledge is active to this day.

What would have happened if we had been so focused on all the reasons not to go out of the apartment, what would have happened had we entertained the thoughts of why we should not talk to this fellow trudging through the rain with a disgruntled look on his face. Surely it would have been easy to pass him. But we didn't delay our decision. We chose to act and simply the Lord was with us.

It is amazing that this experience was nearly two years ago and today I am learning the same lessons from the Lord. Perhaps I am pretty stubborn. Good thing He hasn't given up on me yet! As I have been seeking answers to questions in my life recently and have attended the Temple this past week I received the same answers from the Lord. We are here to make decisions. Today my decisions are different than what I will say to someone about the restored gospel,  though that comes up time to time. They are more focused on my career, my schooling, my relationship and in general my future. I guess that I do not always need to know the how before I decide the what. And I guess that Faith is an eternal principle I am always going to apply. I am more certain as I go through life that there is more and more I still have to learn!

You know I had awoken this morning early only with the desire to go back to sleep. I was up early because there was a chance I had to work the morning shift. I guess I am glad I stayed up to blog, haha. Now though I think I will go back to bed. As I have mentioned in earlier blogs baking bread is pretty physically demanding and I want to be well rested when I do go in for work!!

~Trent D. Nielson

"Keep the Faith and Never Give Up, Never Surrender"

Season One : Episode 6 "And Thats Whats Up"

Life has been wonderful. I have been so busy that it has been hard to keep on everything. It seems I even let my blog slide a little! :/ Work has been intense but good. I have been blessed to work full time so I could save the money I need to. I have been training on an additional position learning to mix all the breads. I have enjoyed this position because it is more self-reliant and I can focus on what I am doing better.  As the mixer you write down a lot of information and completion times down so it is easier to keep track of goals and strive to improve!

The family is doing well, so that is good! Kirsten is growing up so fast and becoming so much older, it is fun to see her personality as I see more and more of who she will be, so far its pretty awesome. Suzy is going on 17 come September which shocks me, it is crazy she is growing up so fast. She is living the hard summer life of sleeping in, tanning,& hanging out with friends ;) Mom is thinking about going into real estate and dad enjoying his new position in ADOT. We work opposite schedules so I only see him like once a week, like really haha : (

It was so cute, the other day I was gonna head out to work after playing with one of my nephews and he says, "But we haven't finished playing yet." He may not have understood but I would so much rather of stayed and played with him haha. I love those boys they are soo adorable!

I have been dating a young lady named Emily Hays, she is pretty amazing, and that has been great. She is good to me and a wonderful example that I am constantly looking up to. We are in a long distance relationship which I was surprised she was okay with when we started dating, haha. It has been crazy because things have gone very different than my expectations. But that's alright because they have gone very good : ) For us a long distance relationship has been great, not because we don't enjoy seeing each other, haha, but because we get to really talk with each other. All the time we are either texting or calling, I am sure her roommates can attest to that! It has been so nice to genuinely get to know each other : )

Life is so much different at this point than I had expected it to be, I had so many plans and goals after my mission and then I hit reality like the bug that hit my windshield the other day, I hit it hard and fast, haha!  I never thought I would be living in Mesa or that I would be working a full time job through summer and fall semesters of college. My plans would have me working pest control or somewhere else over the summer to bring in the big bucks and returning for my final year of college to receive my Bachelors in computer science. Instead I will likely be in school 2-3 more years and I may not finish there. I am at home rather than on my own and I realize now that I still have so much to learn.

Life may be different than I expected but life is certainly good. I have been blessed with so many good people in my life not just my immediate family but I have made good friends quickly since moving to Mesa, I love my co-workers and enjoy my job. I have a roof over my head food to eat and I am earning the wage I was seeking. Surely the Lord has heard my prayers and helped me to accomplish what I need to in my life. Life may have its twists its turns and curves but in the end as long as we are pointing in the right direction at the end of the day we will be okay.

~Trent D. Nielson

"Keep the  Faith & Never Give up, Never Surrender"