So long Elder Crotts, It's been real... Good luck in "Sippi"

Elders Nelson and Crotts, on the "Road less traveled"

Thanks Elder, for being a great companion... keep making some noise in "Sippi"

October 31, 2011 TRANSFERRED!

Family,

Okee Dokee... lots to talk about, I think?

So first off, Betty was baptized!!! It was awesome! She is the sweetest lady ever. This month in the mission it was the most successful since I have been out. As a mission we had 54 baptisms. We had 22 of those in our zone, and 10 of those in our district of 3 areas, so our 3 areas had 1/5 of the mission baptisms... It was awesome. So the chili cook off was great, we didn't win, but I'll be honest...we made some awesome chili... it had 3 lbs of beef in it haha, it was kind of a bummer, we were really the only ones that made actual chili, everyone else just made like tortilla soup and called it chili, so we should have won. It's all good though. Elder Crotts and I went as each other, we were supposed to have investigators there, and we wanted to make sure they could recognize us, so we just switched name tags and went like that... Oh and I rocked a mean comb over... it was a lot of fun though, they had a lot of cool stuff goin on, even had a hay ride that lasted like half an hour, they went down through a neighborhood behind the church around this really pretty lake and stuff, pretty fun.

So, last but not least... I'm getting transferred... boo! I', not super excited about that, this area has been amazing. I was looking back over my journal last night, and I came across an entry when I first got here. When I was et'd I was pretty bummed, I went from one of the highest baptizing areas in the entire mission to an area that hadn't had a baptism in over a year, not to mention, I just loved Frayser, so I was pretty down, and things were pretty hard. But about 3 weeks after getting here I have a journal entry that said, "I was sick of being down... I was sick of not baptizing, and as of tomorrow things are changing, we are going to go out and work harder than anyone." My next journal entry talked about Willie's baptism, and we have consistently baptized since. I'm so glad that I didn't keep things going the way they were, this would have been a long 5 1/2 months here. Instead we got out and worked and over the last 5 months, we have been one of the most successful areas in the mission, and the ward is about to take off, they will have a ton of success in the coming months, if things keep progressing the way they are now. I'm nervous for my new area, but I will go work hard no matter where it is...

I love you guys, thanks for all of your prayers and all of your support! I can't believe I have almost been out a year... today is the one year mark of my farewell talk... haha this is going way too fast.

Love, Elder Nelson

Our "cute" Missionary

Brother Gossett's "sweet" Mustang

Betty, our adopted mom, she will be baptized this weekend.

Peek a Boo!

Dinner at the Andrews

October 24, 2011

Hello!

So, Madeline is so dang cute... haha I loved getting the pictures, I have been showing them off to people. That is going to be really weird having Jamison that close to me. You will have to find out where he is going to be staying, he could be within 10 minutes of me. Weird. I'm guessing he will probably be staying in O mound or Frayser or Raleigh.

Anyways, had another weird week. We don't get a lot of lessons, but the ones we had are really good. Betty is getting baptized this Saturday, that will be awesome. She is loving the church, and is so excited to be baptized... We took Crystal by the other day for a lesson and they really hit it off, it was cool. We also went and started teaching Sean. It went pretty well, he is a quiet kid so it was tough getting him to participate in the lesson, but it ended up going pretty well. We had a member drive out to their house with us, and on the ride home he got pulled over because he didn't move onto the shoulder to pass a cop on a one lane road with no shoulder... It was ridiculous.

Not much else goins on other than Elder Crotts and I have entered into the chili cook off this Wednesday at the church trunk-or-treat. We are going to WIN!!! haha not sure what we are going to dress up as though.

I love you guys once again. Hopefully there is more to tell about next week.

Love Elder Nelson

Retireing the Swagger Wagon!

The entire Zone inside the "Swagger Wagon"

before "she" was sold into the real world...

Success in Southaven...

Elder Nelson with Betty, an awesome lady

Elders Nelson and Crotts with Narciso, and the Sisters

Elders Nelson and Crotts with Crystal and daughters Anna and Abegail at her baptism

October 17, 2011

Hey Family,

I can't wait to see the new little one! I can't believe she was that big??? bout time T Bizzy popped her out.

So, this week was interesting. Betty got into a really bad car accident. They were stopped and a truck rear ended them at 50 mph. She got really bad whiplash and had to be cut out of the car, but other than her neck, she escaped without any serious injuries. It was a miracle. She is still planning on getting baptized, hopefully the neck won't hinder that too bad. We also are going to start teaching a kid who's dad is a member. His dad is an awesome guy in the ward, but his son Sean hasn't been baptized, so as of Wednesday we are going to be teaching him. I'm pretty excited about it We have out work cut out though. Not much else going on in sippi... I did shoot 2 under disc golfing today!! First time ever. I had like 6 birdies.

I am going to have to jump in on your Ward challenge and read Alma 49-63 this week... I recently started a Book of Mormon challenge where you mark anytime it mentions Christ with one color, another color for his words, another for his doctrine and another for his attributes. It has been pretty amazing. I just finished 2 Nephi. I have gotten so much more out of it this time, as I have read.

So, we watched a movie at the Gossett's this week. It is the new church movie "17 Miracles", and it is amazing! It is about the Willie and Martin handcart companies, so amazing. They went through some stuff.. you ought to get it. Other than that, not much to write about.

Oh, I have lost 10 pounds.. I have been working my butt off every morning, and it feels good ! haha.. okay, now nothin else to write about...

Love yall! Elder Nelson

Southern Men clean their teeth with knives!

Elders Nelson and Allen

October 10, 2011

oi! first things first, I know the new baby's name before any of you!!! cant tell you though, T Bizzy wont let me... but I wanted to rub it in... so there. I'm the favorite member of the family.

Anywho, Crystal got baptized!!! It was so awesome, she is going to be an awesome member.The baptism was amazing, there was also a guy named Ciso Martinez who got baptized with her. It was cool. I was able to confirm her on Sunday which is always fun.

Earlier this week we were sitting there and didn't have anything to do but tract and we were like lets call Crystal and see who she knows. She ended up giving us like 10 names of friends she wanted to hear about the gospel, then she told us how she was at the gas station this week and the lady at the counter was having a terrible day, she gave her a Book of Mormon and told her it was something that really helped her when she was struggling, pretty cool haha I wish more members would do that, we would baptize like hot cakes!!

The ward is about to take off here though. The Bishop just issued a ward challenge to have one missionary experience this month. if everyone in the ward took that challenge it would be amazing.

Also mom... I'm no longer your son... haha I was adopted by one of our investigators... her name is Betty, she is an older lady who is basically wheel chair bound. she told us since she had never had any children that we were her adopted sons. I made sure that she knew that Elder Crotts was Jacob and I was Esau... I'm definitely the unruly one. HaHa Betty is so cool though. she loves the church and should be getting baptized in a couple weeks, I'm really excited for it, and she says once the pecans start falling she is going to make us a pecan pie!!! yeah!

We don't have much else goin on. Southaven is an interesting area, we don't teach a lot of lessons and we do a lot of walking around tracting, but I'm pretty sure over the last 4 months we are the highest or 2nd highest Baptizing ward in the mission... we are being blessed.

I love you guys, let me know when the little one comes!

love elder nelson

.

From one Mom to another...

As I was sitting in the Minnesota airport, laying over on my way to Iowa City to help with a new grandchild, I had a great call from the mother of Jake's new companion, Elder Crotts. It was so wonderful to talk with another missionary mom, who's son is serving with my son, and to share in our thoughts, dreams, and pride in our two sons. Thanks so much for the call. Our sons seem to be working hard, and having a great time along with some success too.

October 3, 2011

Yello,

Ok, a cool story. This week we got a call from a guy named Brother Oliver that lives in Chactaw, Arkansas. He was working down in Helena Arkansas and met this guy. The guy uses the Lord's name in vain, and brother Oliver kindly says, "you know brother, the Lord would bless you a whole lot more if you didn't use language like that. The guy apologized and it got a conversation started about religion. Well, Brother Oliver brought up the church and shared a BOM with him, and the guy is getting baptized this weekend. Super cool.. He said that Brother Oliver bore hi testimony and they both started to cry, he said the spirit was incredible and the guy went home and read the BOM and went to conference, called up Brother Oliver and said, "I don't care what it takes, I need this in my life... Unfortunately, he is just outside our area, so we don't get to go teach him, but the Senatobia Elders are. Just so cool how "Standing as a witness" will open doors...

So, conference was amazing. Keith came to Priesthood session and he loved it. Then Crystal came to the first session on Sunday, and during Elder Hales talk she started to cry. Needless to say, she loved her first conference. Willie came as well, and loved it. He kept saying "Pres. Monson is a funny dude" haha it was a good day.

Crystal is set to get baptized this Saturday, should be fun. We have also been teaching this lady named Betty. We met her last Saturday and she came to church and loved it, then she came to a ward party we had at the Gossetts and had a great time. We went by yesterday to teach her ad we were doing the cup demo, (don't know if you have heard of it) basically shows the structure of the church of old and now. Her niece came out who is "devout Baptist" phs haha Well, she started listening in, and we ended up committing her to Baptism... didn't set a date, but Betty has a date to get Baptized on the 29th of this month. I'm pretty excited about that one. Hopefully we can get her niece in on it as well:) Things are just going awesome right now...

Love you guy!

Elder Nelson

Oi Pops,

Yes, conference was so good. I love Elder Holland, he just lays it out, doesn't sugar coat anything. Also, we were talking with Brother Drake about the last couple of conferences and how they are being a lot more straight forward with the stuff they say and just coming out with it, rather than beating around the bush, they have been so good.

Priesthood session was awesome. As I was heading home to go to bed, I was like, wait... Pops is probably out to eat with everybody... dang... haha

So, and eight hour day out in the gutters sounds like a piece of cake, compared to knocking on doors for 11 hour a day. Haha I don't think I will complain so much when I get home about workin... haha

I love you pops, thanks for making me come out and help you in the yard and whatnot, growing up, otherwise, I wouldn't make it out here. haha jk

Who is this?

During the Priesthood session of Conference, Stuart received a text saying "Hey, your son says to get your butt on a mission"... After replying "who is this", he was told that it was Brother Drake, 2nd counselor in the bishopric in the Southaven ward. He was sitting with our son Jake. He told Stuart that they were looking out for our son, while others were looking out for his son while he served in Pocatello, Idaho. It was great to hear him say "it is a pleasure to know your son". We also learned that Jake was having lunch and dinner at the Drake home on Sunday.

We are so thankful for special people like the Drake's, that look after our missionary...