Dinner with the Nielsons

Elder Takis's mom, the blog editor here.

Stephanie Nielson posted a snapshot of dinner with the missionaries on Instagram which included Elder Takis:

This was an interesting and exciting surprise.  Once upon a time, I read a LOT of Stephanie's blog (NieNieDialouges) and was touched by her story.  I shared the Nielson's story with my kids during a family morning devotional one day and it really stuck with the older kids. After a while I stopped reading the blog, though, and I had no idea that the Nielson family had moved from Utah to New Mexico. It was such a surprise to hear from Elder Takis in a letter he sent home that the Nielson's were in the stake he was serving in and that he'd been to their home for dinner. He told me to look on Instagram for the photo. I'm so glad he got to meet them.

Below is a Mormon Message video the Church made with the Nielson family. They are inspiring people.

Excuses Don't Work With Cops

8/28/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh' everyone!

Wow what a week...

Ok so I didn't get to play catch with Elder Hardman cuz he forgot his gloves so that was a bummer, but we played a lot of basketball and still had a good time.  I told him to write it down for next time so he won't forget.  We did have dinner with Christian and Stephanie Nielson and their family, that was a lot of fun, and they are great cooks!

I am getting a little frustrated with some of our investigators, and on Wednesday ( I was on exchanges, and had our district leader's companion with me) we went to their house.  I get along really well with everyone in the family, and the father has a desire to learn and do things, but his wife  is just struggling with having that desire and keeping her commitments.  We have been working on getting them to come to church for a while now.  So on Wednesday when we went over there, we were just talking to her cuz her husband wasn't home, and I asked if she would come to church, and then she started listing off all these excuses... I hate excuses, so this is what I told her when she was done giving them... "  You know, I heard once that excuses are like buttholes.  Everyone has one, and they stink."  I straight up said that.  We had a good laugh about it and the look on her face was pretty priceless. She was not expecting that, but there were no hard feelings or anything.  Well after I said that I asked her again, and then she was like, "Honestly, no."  Oh, man, I got so sad.  So we were leaving and she had to go pick someone up and she had to drive by our truck so I wasn't going to get in until she stopped her truck to talk.  So I stood there and gave the best sad face I could, and it got to her, so she stopped to talk again.  Long story short I got her to commit to come to just Sacrament Meeting.  Unfortunately she still didn't come, so I'm gonna have to come up with something else to tell her now.

On Saturday morning, at 5:00 AM,  a couple of cops rolled up flashing their lights and banging on our door...  One asked if we were the missionaries, and we told them yes, and then they asked if we had been driving on a back road the day earlier.  I said yes, and then he told us that he was going to give us a ticket because I was driving 20 mph over the speed limit.  I tried telling them that we had an emergency and all that jazz, but he wouldn't hear it and bumped up the ticket even more...  I then asked him why he didn't give me the ticket they day of, and he said because they lost us.  HAHAHAHA I'm just kidding! The only part of that story that is true is that they came at 5:00 in the morning, with their lights and banging on the door.  They said they had gotten a call and that it was connected with the church, and they wanted to inspect the building, and look for a phone.  So we let them in and let them do their business.  The weird thing is that the number that called them wasn't the number for the church, so they said they would just patrol around for a few days or so.

Later that day we were helping some members with some moving and we didn't have our truck, so we were going back and forth between houses walking.  Well one of the members had this buggy thing, and so he offered a ride.  Well you betcha we took him up on that offer.  The only problem was that it had rained earlier that day and so there were puddles and this member liked to get dirty...  So he hit a puddle and me and my companion are in our shirts and ties and what not, and we got sprayed with mud.  That was so much fun!!  But then we were wearing dirty clothes the rest of the day.

Well that's the excitement for this week, my spiritual message went along with the excuses, because they are never good, and would we ever have something between us and returning to live with our Father in Heaven?

Love y'all,
Elder Takis

Master Mouse

8/21/17

Ya'at'teh' everyone,

So this week was pretty good, we had Zone Conference, and we did a lot of service, most of which was painting.  Not a whole lot to talk about, but we finally caught the devil mouse in our house!

As you can see the trap barely got his nose.  This little stinker was smart...  we had 3 traps out, one had poison in it, and he didn't go for that one.  Then we had 2 other traps and this mouse had gotten all the bait off of both of them, so we put a fruit snack on this one that way it wasn't easy for him to get it off.  He is fast and smart and we have been trying to get him for a while. He is pretty big, too.  But he almost got away from this one cuz the trap barely got his nose.  So that was exciting.

Umm today we will be in Gallup, and I told Elder Hardman to bring his gloves so we can play catch so hopefully that will happen.  I will have Elder Cox take pics.  

Spiritual thought is a poem by William Ernest Hendley...

Out of the night that covers me

Black is the pit from pole to pole

I thank whatever gods may be

for my unconquerable soul

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud

under the bludgeonings of chance

my head is bloody but unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade

Yet the menace of the years 

Finds, and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how straight the gate

How charged with punishments the scroll

I am the master of my fate

I am the captain of my soul

I really like this poem because it really illustrates how it doesn't matter what is going on around us, what happens to us, or what other people do to us.  We are the ones who are responsible for how we come out of it all, we are the ones who make the choices to determine where our souls will end up.  We cannot blame others or the circumstance for what we choose (#AntiFaithList).  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

I hope you all have a good week, love you!

Elder Takis

Week 2

8/14/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh' everyone,

So this week I don't have a whole lot to report on.  It has been slow lately with everyone starting school and doing school shopping and all that.  So not a whole lot happened.

Umm on Thursday President and Sister Adams came to do interviews with our district, so our area got triple worked, which was good, we found some new people to teach.  Um but when it was Elder Cox's and my turn for interviews, President asked me about my haircut and if it was my baseball cut...  haha boy was he surprised when I told him what my hair was like during baseball season.  He isn't overly fond of that type of stuff, and I am pretty sure he is going to try and talk me out of the whole bleached, curly mohawk before he is done with his mission.  So we will see how that goes haha.

Umm another thing is that we did some painting for one of our members, and I really enjoyed that. Brought back home re-modeling memories.  But I loved it and got a bit OCD but it looks good haha.

My spiritual thought comes from 1 Nephi 2:16  when Nephi prays to the Lord to have comfort and to be able to believe the things his father is saying and doing.  Laman and Lemuel were murmuring and didn't care to ask Heavenly father if it was right so they never had a good attitude about it.  Nephi on the other hand, still had to ask Heavenly Father if it was right, because I am sure there were some challenging things for him to leave behind but because he didn't complain and looked to the Lord for guidance he was blessed, and he became so much more than Laman and Lemuel.  So that was my thought, hopefully it made sense.

Anyway, Love you all!


Elder Takis

My Son Got Kissed!

8/7/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh' Everyone,

So I'll just start off with this cuz it is hilarious. Well, I thought it was at least.  I'll talk about my son in a minute.  But anyway so it happened a couple of days ago, and we were out trying to see some of our investigators who are on date for baptism.  We had a little bit of extra time so we went to talk to some people we had previously met out in Smith Lake.  So we get there and then this girl who was maybe about 13 came up to us and told us that everyone was intoxicated.  So we were just like well, let's talk to some of them anyway.  So one of them, (and Elder Henderson, it was Calvin Cleveland) umm he wanted to talk to us and he was talking about golfing and bull riding, and then showed us some pictures and what not.  But I wanted to leave 2 minutes after the conversation started.  So we were trying to leave and people do crazy things when they are drunk, so Calvin was like being all friendly and wanted to do a bro hug and stuff.  But to my companion he got a little too friendly, and kissed his hand!! hahaha that was so funny! my companion was just disgusted, and I was like "haha that's your first Galani experience!"  ( I don't know if I spelled that right)

But anyway so my son (trainee), his name is Elder Cox, and he is from Missouri.  Everyone out here is like all excited cuz it is someone that isn't from Utah or Idaho.  Cuz I guess us Utahans and Idahoans aren't that great.  But it's been good. He is a really great missionary, and I feel honored to be training him (he doesn't need a whole lot of training, he is a stud).  But here he is...

Oh and another thing... Do y'all see that dashing haircut I have?  Yeah I did that! :)  I picked that up from Hudak!  Love you buddy!  But yeah that was about all the excitement for the week, but for a spiritual thought...

This comes from either Mosiah chapter 3 or 4 ( it is one of the first few chapters in Mosiah), and it is when King Benjamin is giving his address to his people.  He talks about how we are all in debt to Heavenly Father for everything he has given us and everything he has already done for us.  But he says that we will never be able to repay that debt because even when when do what Heavenly Father asks, He just gives us more.  I don't think that Heavenly Father wants us to repay the debt, because he knows we can't but he loves us so much that He is willing to give us so much more for doing what He asks us to do even when the things he asks us to do are small compared to the blessings He will give us in return, and I know that to be true, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I hope y'all have a great week!

Love Elder Takis

​

It's a Boy!

7/31/17 Email:

Ok so last week I forgot to tell you that this it was going to be transfers this weekend.  So yeah, Saturday afternoon I got a call from President Adams and he asked me to be a trainer.  This is going to be a crazy transfer, cuz everyone is training in our zone.   Some cool facts other than that about this transfer, my MTC companion, Elder McFarland is going to be my district leader! I love that man!  And there is another elder who will be in our zone, Elder Hardman, who played baseball for American Fork, so I am excited to get to know him as well.  So those are just some interesting facts about this new transfer.I am staying here in Thoreau, by the way.

SO some exciting events that happened this week...

Monday after playing basketball in Gallup, which by the way is probably more of a workout than the rest of the week combined, we got back to our trailer and like 15 minutes later a huge storm came in... Here are some pics that I got.

 

So yeah, the rain was ridiculous, but I loved it, not to mention the thunder and lightning.  But we had to go over to Crownpoint for some baptism interviews, and when we went out to the truck, which was like 30 minutes after we got back, it was still pouring, and because our trailer is at the lowest spot on the church property there was like a lake around us.  We were pretty much on a trailerboat.  But anyway so there was a decent amount of standing water around us and we had to walk through it to get to our truck.  Well when we got back we found that our roof had a leak, so our ceiling was collapsing...

Anyway after that nothing too crazy happened. Elder Henderson got his departing interview, and we have done a lot of walking, and have gotten soaked a fair number of times from the rain.

But yesterday was an adventure...  So it started off good, went to church did that whole thing, then we went with Elder and Sister Stubbs for lunch, then our second counselor Brother Lawrence took us out again.  Well we stopped by his place to load a few things up and that's when another storm hit.  Well he had a trailer on his van, and we were trying to go visit some people up these pretty nasty dirt roads. Well with the trailer and all he couldn't make it up the hills.  So we had to take it off in the middle of a storm on a muddy hill.  We put it back on the first time, and we almost rammed it into the back of his van cuz it was hard to control on a muddy hill, but we managed it the first time with no damage.  the second time, he thought he could  take it off by himself, and told us to stay in the car.  Well long story short, he lost control and it pinned him down.  Luckily he didn't get hurt, but we ran out and helped  him, and then we all put it back on.  So that was the excitement for this week.  

Spiritual message comes from Alma 5:14 when Alme the Younger asks "Have ye received his image in your countenances?"  I really like this because it gets us to really ponder our lives and to ask ourselves, "When others look at me, do they see Jesus Christ?  Do they see someone who radiates the Light of Christ? Do they see someone who is really trying to follow the Savior?"  SO I would just encourage you all to think about that and then to make a commitment to do what is needed so that they can see that.

Love you all, and hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Takis