Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Surprise email... 11/10/12
Hey y'all!!!
I don't have much time but I hopped on for a quick email. I wasn't able to go to Blytheville because their baptism was too close to ours, however, Lenora was Baptized!!! and it was amazing! She is awesome.
This week has been pretty weird. We actually were able to find a couple of pretty solid people for Elder Scott and his new comp to teach and spent a lot of time getting Lenora ready for today, but it went great. In a few minutes we are going to go do some service for a member who is feeding us tonight, then tomorrow we are going to be attending two church meetings because the Spanish Branch just joined with our ward, so Sunday School classes are going to be together but they will have a separate sacrament meeting and we are going to go to the first one. Then we are going to eat at a members home along with a couple other families. Then I gotta go out and find a couple more people. I'm excited to see everyone.
Love y'all!!!
Elder Nelson
I don't have much time but I hopped on for a quick email. I wasn't able to go to Blytheville because their baptism was too close to ours, however, Lenora was Baptized!!! and it was amazing! She is awesome.
This week has been pretty weird. We actually were able to find a couple of pretty solid people for Elder Scott and his new comp to teach and spent a lot of time getting Lenora ready for today, but it went great. In a few minutes we are going to go do some service for a member who is feeding us tonight, then tomorrow we are going to be attending two church meetings because the Spanish Branch just joined with our ward, so Sunday School classes are going to be together but they will have a separate sacrament meeting and we are going to go to the first one. Then we are going to eat at a members home along with a couple other families. Then I gotta go out and find a couple more people. I'm excited to see everyone.
Love y'all!!!
Elder Nelson
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
One week and counting!!!! 11/5/12
Hey Everybody!!!
This is super weird, most likely my last email home...the past week has been really weird. I decided I needed to bear my testimony since it was the last fast Sunday of my mission. I made it through fine, but as I walked back to my seat I suddenly flashed back to before my mission, I couldn't hold back the tears...(embarrassing by the way). It all hit me at once what all my mission has meant to me. I thought back to the day that we were getting ready for me to go back to school, when I realized that I wasn't meant to go, but that I needed to be on a mission. I don't remember any time in my life up to that point where I had acted on a spiritual prompting, but I am so glad that I did.
I don't know where I would be without my mission, but words can't describe what I have learned and come to know. I am so grateful that even though I had completely decided not to serve, that Heavenly Father never gave up on me. I am grateful for all of your prayers on my behalf.
So this week is going to be pretty crazy. We have to do zone meeting tomorrow as well as a meeting with the Stake President. Saturday is supposed to be a p day for me, but it doesn't sound like i will really be taking one. We have a baptism that morning, and then I am going with one of the AP's up to Blytheville, for a baptism of a lady I taught way back when. If I get a chance I will send you an email from Blytheville. Keep Lenora in your prayers, she is our baptism this week, and she is going to need them.
I love y'all!!!
Can't wait to see ya in a week...
Love Elder Nelson
This is super weird, most likely my last email home...the past week has been really weird. I decided I needed to bear my testimony since it was the last fast Sunday of my mission. I made it through fine, but as I walked back to my seat I suddenly flashed back to before my mission, I couldn't hold back the tears...(embarrassing by the way). It all hit me at once what all my mission has meant to me. I thought back to the day that we were getting ready for me to go back to school, when I realized that I wasn't meant to go, but that I needed to be on a mission. I don't remember any time in my life up to that point where I had acted on a spiritual prompting, but I am so glad that I did.
I don't know where I would be without my mission, but words can't describe what I have learned and come to know. I am so grateful that even though I had completely decided not to serve, that Heavenly Father never gave up on me. I am grateful for all of your prayers on my behalf.
So this week is going to be pretty crazy. We have to do zone meeting tomorrow as well as a meeting with the Stake President. Saturday is supposed to be a p day for me, but it doesn't sound like i will really be taking one. We have a baptism that morning, and then I am going with one of the AP's up to Blytheville, for a baptism of a lady I taught way back when. If I get a chance I will send you an email from Blytheville. Keep Lenora in your prayers, she is our baptism this week, and she is going to need them.
I love y'all!!!
Can't wait to see ya in a week...
Love Elder Nelson
Monday, October 29, 2012
October 29, 2012
Hey y'all!!!
So, I am finally sending some pictures from our recent baptisms. I have been slacking on the pictures, Lo Siento. This week was pretty awesome. I was able to go down to Monticello on an exchange with Elder Weight, it was a lot of fun, we were able to get a lot of good work done including setting a couple of dates with two girls they have been teaching. We also were able to set a date with Lenora, who is an awesome lady we have been teaching for a couple weeks. She is getting baptized on the 10th! so I should have a baptism my last week!!
So, on Saturday we first went and took the Benton Elders to their ward Halloween party because they didn't have a car, it was a lot of fun. We played some football and some horseshoes. (turns out I can throw the shoes with the best of em!!!) then we went to our wards Halloween festival and we dressed up as Tongan Missionaries, threw on some Lava Lava's and flip flops. Most people thought it was pretty awesome, but we think a couple people didn't know about missionaries get up's there and just thought we were cross dressing. haha
This morning we woke up a little early and hiked to the top of Pinacle Mountain, which is more of a hill. It was fun and was a great view.
Thanks for all that y'all do!!
Love ya!
Elder Nelson
So, I am finally sending some pictures from our recent baptisms. I have been slacking on the pictures, Lo Siento. This week was pretty awesome. I was able to go down to Monticello on an exchange with Elder Weight, it was a lot of fun, we were able to get a lot of good work done including setting a couple of dates with two girls they have been teaching. We also were able to set a date with Lenora, who is an awesome lady we have been teaching for a couple weeks. She is getting baptized on the 10th! so I should have a baptism my last week!!
So, on Saturday we first went and took the Benton Elders to their ward Halloween party because they didn't have a car, it was a lot of fun. We played some football and some horseshoes. (turns out I can throw the shoes with the best of em!!!) then we went to our wards Halloween festival and we dressed up as Tongan Missionaries, threw on some Lava Lava's and flip flops. Most people thought it was pretty awesome, but we think a couple people didn't know about missionaries get up's there and just thought we were cross dressing. haha
This morning we woke up a little early and hiked to the top of Pinacle Mountain, which is more of a hill. It was fun and was a great view.
Thanks for all that y'all do!!
Love ya!
Elder Nelson
Monday, October 22, 2012
October 22, 2012
Hey y'all,
We had us a couple baptisms this week, it was awesome... Sharon Phillips and Isaiah Smith were both baptized and it went great. We had like 50 people there, including President Peterson. I don't know if I told you about Sharon, but her husband and entire family joined the church two or three years ago. She has been through who knows how many sets of missionaries. I was talking to one of the AP's who earlier in his mission had served in Maple Street and had tried to teach her. Basically she wouldn't give the missionaries the time of day, but God kept working on her. It was awesome to finally see the last piece of their family come together, it will be awesome for them to finally be able to go to the Temple in a year. Isaiah is an awesome kid too. On Sunday during Sunday school, his dad, Lloyd, who has been coming to church and investigating for years told everyone he was trying to get baptized soon. Hopefully we can get him in in the next couple of weeks.
We had Zone conference this week and because it was the last one of my mission I gave my departing testimony. It was pretty surreal, I can't believe it has gone so fast. But that's all I will say about that because I still have plenty of time. Haha
Keep praying for us, thanks for all you do!
Love, Elder Nelson
We had us a couple baptisms this week, it was awesome... Sharon Phillips and Isaiah Smith were both baptized and it went great. We had like 50 people there, including President Peterson. I don't know if I told you about Sharon, but her husband and entire family joined the church two or three years ago. She has been through who knows how many sets of missionaries. I was talking to one of the AP's who earlier in his mission had served in Maple Street and had tried to teach her. Basically she wouldn't give the missionaries the time of day, but God kept working on her. It was awesome to finally see the last piece of their family come together, it will be awesome for them to finally be able to go to the Temple in a year. Isaiah is an awesome kid too. On Sunday during Sunday school, his dad, Lloyd, who has been coming to church and investigating for years told everyone he was trying to get baptized soon. Hopefully we can get him in in the next couple of weeks.
We had Zone conference this week and because it was the last one of my mission I gave my departing testimony. It was pretty surreal, I can't believe it has gone so fast. But that's all I will say about that because I still have plenty of time. Haha
Keep praying for us, thanks for all you do!
Love, Elder Nelson
Monday, October 15, 2012
Things are moving westward!!!
This week we received 2 boxes of "stuff" that our missionary is sending westward. It is exciting to see the migration and we think he will probably return with 2 empty suitcases. Can't wait for the final shipment!!!
October 15, 2012
Hey Y'all!
Sorry I am getting to you so late, we went to the State fair today! It was pretty awesome.
There were about 14 missionaries there.
So, we had ourselves another good week. We were supposed to have 5 baptisms this coming week, but it is going to end up only being 2 which is alright. We didn't feel like the others were ready, so we aren't going to push it. On Saturday we went up to North Little Rock for a baptism. I don't know if I ever told you about Ginger, the lady I taught down here then she moved to North Little Rock. Well, she was baptized and asked me to come up to it. It was cool. I was able to talk to her about her experience. Shortly after moving to Little Rock, her deceased mother came to her in a dream and told her to join the church and also gave quite a hint to do her temple work. An amazing story, I will tell you more once it is in person. Anyway, we also found a really cool girl named Alexis this week that has been searching. She came up to us and started asking all the right questions, we ended up answering her questions for about an hour and she is coming to institute this week.
We also had our zone training meeting this week and I was able to spend the day in Camden on an exchange.
Thanks for all you do for me, glad everyone was able to have a good time with the family in town.
Love you!!!
Love, Elder Nelson
Sorry I am getting to you so late, we went to the State fair today! It was pretty awesome.
There were about 14 missionaries there.
So, we had ourselves another good week. We were supposed to have 5 baptisms this coming week, but it is going to end up only being 2 which is alright. We didn't feel like the others were ready, so we aren't going to push it. On Saturday we went up to North Little Rock for a baptism. I don't know if I ever told you about Ginger, the lady I taught down here then she moved to North Little Rock. Well, she was baptized and asked me to come up to it. It was cool. I was able to talk to her about her experience. Shortly after moving to Little Rock, her deceased mother came to her in a dream and told her to join the church and also gave quite a hint to do her temple work. An amazing story, I will tell you more once it is in person. Anyway, we also found a really cool girl named Alexis this week that has been searching. She came up to us and started asking all the right questions, we ended up answering her questions for about an hour and she is coming to institute this week.
We also had our zone training meeting this week and I was able to spend the day in Camden on an exchange.
Thanks for all you do for me, glad everyone was able to have a good time with the family in town.
Love you!!!
Love, Elder Nelson
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
October 8, 2012
Hey family,
Had us another great week. We are having more success and teaching opportunities than I have ever had on my mission. We started this 40 day fast and I have loved it. I had gotten rid of a lot of the things I knew were distracting me, but more came with the fast. It feels amazing to just face all of the things. We have zone training meeting tomorrow and we are going to build on the 40 day fast. Our scripture we are basing it around is D & C 123:16 where it talks about the helm of the ship steering it and how the best way to get through the storm is to go "work ways with the wind and the waves" facing them straight on rather than avoiding them. It was funny, I remember when we would go boating how dad would always hit the waves a certain way, but I never realized why. Anyways, we are going to take all that we have learned, identify our weaknesses and then hit them head on. So we are having 2 baptisms for sure on the 20th and hopefully at least 2 maybe 3 more.
Great to hear of the change in age for missionaries. I can't wait to see how many more missionaries will be in the field over the next two years while those who just left at 19 are still out, as well as those who now get to come out at 18. Could be some amazing things happening in the world over the next couple years!!!
Anyways, I gotta run, we are playing volleyball with like 20 missionaries and we are late.
I love you guys!
Love Elder Nelson
ps. I have a request, All m stuff is brown and yellow. Could you send me a new set of g's and a new white shirt to wear home. I am going to leave everything here because it is disgusting. Thanks!!!
Had us another great week. We are having more success and teaching opportunities than I have ever had on my mission. We started this 40 day fast and I have loved it. I had gotten rid of a lot of the things I knew were distracting me, but more came with the fast. It feels amazing to just face all of the things. We have zone training meeting tomorrow and we are going to build on the 40 day fast. Our scripture we are basing it around is D & C 123:16 where it talks about the helm of the ship steering it and how the best way to get through the storm is to go "work ways with the wind and the waves" facing them straight on rather than avoiding them. It was funny, I remember when we would go boating how dad would always hit the waves a certain way, but I never realized why. Anyways, we are going to take all that we have learned, identify our weaknesses and then hit them head on. So we are having 2 baptisms for sure on the 20th and hopefully at least 2 maybe 3 more.
Great to hear of the change in age for missionaries. I can't wait to see how many more missionaries will be in the field over the next two years while those who just left at 19 are still out, as well as those who now get to come out at 18. Could be some amazing things happening in the world over the next couple years!!!
Anyways, I gotta run, we are playing volleyball with like 20 missionaries and we are late.
I love you guys!
Love Elder Nelson
ps. I have a request, All m stuff is brown and yellow. Could you send me a new set of g's and a new white shirt to wear home. I am going to leave everything here because it is disgusting. Thanks!!!
Monday, October 1, 2012
Last Transfer, He's stayin Put!!!
We could not be happier with the wonderful success our Elder and his zone are having in Arkansas. We are humbled and proud of the service he is rendering and can't believe how the time fly's..
We can tell our Elder is committed to working hard right to the end. We will definitely miss this time in our lives, but also can't wait for the future.
We can tell our Elder is committed to working hard right to the end. We will definitely miss this time in our lives, but also can't wait for the future.
October 1, 2012
Hey Y'all,
So we had the coolest week ever. Our zone just had one miracle after another. To begin the week we had 2 baptisms scheduled in the zone, which was going to drop us way short of our goal. Monday night we found out that one of the Spanish areas had two investigators commit for the weekend, Pinnacle Mountain committed one and benton committed one. Since they are all close to us we ended up having the baptism together so there were 5 baptized at the service on Saturday which included our baptism of Shelby. Then on Wednesday we got a call from Hot Springs and the Elders had committed a guy as well, so we drove down to interview him and found out that the sisters in Hot Springs had just committed 2 people, and to top if all off Elder Dannatt down in Pine Bluff had a baptism as well, and it was his first time getting in the water, so instead of having 2 baptisms in the zone this week we ended up with 9!!!
At the baptism we were able to invite one of our other investigators who had been anti'd. We committed him to be praying if he needed to be baptized as well, unfortunately he didn't recognize his answer, we were pretty bummed because we didn't have much of anything going on in the area with he and his wife going back to their old church. On the way home we felt prompted to knock on a door, so we parked and got out and through the rest of the day we were able to teach 8 lessons, which is one of the best days of my mission and find 2 new people to teach. The next day at church we set dates with them and then as we were leaving this lady named Sister Phillips, who is the only one in her family who isn't baptized yet ( Over the last two years their family has all joined except for her, she refused to but would come to church). As she was leaving she came up to us and said "Elders, I want to meet with y'all so I can get baptized and join my family!!! So she has a date for the 13th as well. It has just been one miracle after another.
I'm glad to hear all is going well back home. Transfers are today, Elder Scott and I are staying together for my last transfer which is good, we are having a ton of success together and this zone has never had this much success, so hopefully we will keep goin!!
Thank yall for your prayers!
Love ya, Elder Nelson
So we had the coolest week ever. Our zone just had one miracle after another. To begin the week we had 2 baptisms scheduled in the zone, which was going to drop us way short of our goal. Monday night we found out that one of the Spanish areas had two investigators commit for the weekend, Pinnacle Mountain committed one and benton committed one. Since they are all close to us we ended up having the baptism together so there were 5 baptized at the service on Saturday which included our baptism of Shelby. Then on Wednesday we got a call from Hot Springs and the Elders had committed a guy as well, so we drove down to interview him and found out that the sisters in Hot Springs had just committed 2 people, and to top if all off Elder Dannatt down in Pine Bluff had a baptism as well, and it was his first time getting in the water, so instead of having 2 baptisms in the zone this week we ended up with 9!!!
At the baptism we were able to invite one of our other investigators who had been anti'd. We committed him to be praying if he needed to be baptized as well, unfortunately he didn't recognize his answer, we were pretty bummed because we didn't have much of anything going on in the area with he and his wife going back to their old church. On the way home we felt prompted to knock on a door, so we parked and got out and through the rest of the day we were able to teach 8 lessons, which is one of the best days of my mission and find 2 new people to teach. The next day at church we set dates with them and then as we were leaving this lady named Sister Phillips, who is the only one in her family who isn't baptized yet ( Over the last two years their family has all joined except for her, she refused to but would come to church). As she was leaving she came up to us and said "Elders, I want to meet with y'all so I can get baptized and join my family!!! So she has a date for the 13th as well. It has just been one miracle after another.
I'm glad to hear all is going well back home. Transfers are today, Elder Scott and I are staying together for my last transfer which is good, we are having a ton of success together and this zone has never had this much success, so hopefully we will keep goin!!
Thank yall for your prayers!
Love ya, Elder Nelson
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
September 24, 2012
Hey Y'all!!!
I'm going to be real quick because we are getting together with a bunch of Elders to play fooball.
We had our baptism Saturday and it was awesome. Rylie was super nervous to be in front of a bunch of people especially for her confirmation, but she did awesome.
She asked me to give the talk on the Holy Ghost, you would think with how often I have to speak in front of other missionaries that I wouldn't get nervous, but I was still as red as a tomato. I was glad she asked me though. We also have another baptism this coming weekend, her name is Shelby. We went by with the Bishop to see their family yesterday and it went awesome. It feels nice to finally be back having some baptisms again, we went through a rough spell.
Zone conference went great as well. I had actually already started to do the 40 day fast thing, not so specific, but basically to get rid of everything that kept me from complete focus on my mission. Now it is just a little more official. I'm excited to see what we are able to do with it.
Elder Scott and I were asked to present on "Revelation through the Book of Mormon" it went pretty well other than I was really sick, didn't have a voice and was struggling to keep my nose from running, so I struggled my way through with this hoarse/nasally voice that was just terrible. haha It went well though.
So I must be off, but thank yall for all you do!
I love you!
Love Elder Nelson
I'm going to be real quick because we are getting together with a bunch of Elders to play fooball.
We had our baptism Saturday and it was awesome. Rylie was super nervous to be in front of a bunch of people especially for her confirmation, but she did awesome.
She asked me to give the talk on the Holy Ghost, you would think with how often I have to speak in front of other missionaries that I wouldn't get nervous, but I was still as red as a tomato. I was glad she asked me though. We also have another baptism this coming weekend, her name is Shelby. We went by with the Bishop to see their family yesterday and it went awesome. It feels nice to finally be back having some baptisms again, we went through a rough spell.
Zone conference went great as well. I had actually already started to do the 40 day fast thing, not so specific, but basically to get rid of everything that kept me from complete focus on my mission. Now it is just a little more official. I'm excited to see what we are able to do with it.
Elder Scott and I were asked to present on "Revelation through the Book of Mormon" it went pretty well other than I was really sick, didn't have a voice and was struggling to keep my nose from running, so I struggled my way through with this hoarse/nasally voice that was just terrible. haha It went well though.
So I must be off, but thank yall for all you do!
I love you!
Love Elder Nelson
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
September 17, 2012
Ola mi familia!
So, our baptism this week had to be pushed back to this coming Saturday, but it will for sure happen this week. We actually have baptisms scheduled for the next three weeks, we need them bad.
This week was another pretty good week, on Tuesday we had Zone meeting which we did on "Being Bold" and working effectively, it was about 2 hours and went well, we now have to plan for a specialized training meeting which will be for us and another zone. This time we only have to present for about 45 minutes though, so that shouldn't be too bad. Haha
Yesterday was our primary program as well, it was awesome and one of our investigators, a 10 year old girl came and loved it. I am glad to hear that Jack is the one that belts out the songs as loud as he can. Haha. We laughed about one of the kids in our program out here that had this high pitched squeal and he was sure proud of it.
I'm glad to hear you are taking care of the missionaries out there. Good members are always awesome, make sure you're not just feeding them though! See if you can find them someone to teach!
Love y'all!!!
Love, Elder Nelson
So, our baptism this week had to be pushed back to this coming Saturday, but it will for sure happen this week. We actually have baptisms scheduled for the next three weeks, we need them bad.
This week was another pretty good week, on Tuesday we had Zone meeting which we did on "Being Bold" and working effectively, it was about 2 hours and went well, we now have to plan for a specialized training meeting which will be for us and another zone. This time we only have to present for about 45 minutes though, so that shouldn't be too bad. Haha
Yesterday was our primary program as well, it was awesome and one of our investigators, a 10 year old girl came and loved it. I am glad to hear that Jack is the one that belts out the songs as loud as he can. Haha. We laughed about one of the kids in our program out here that had this high pitched squeal and he was sure proud of it.
I'm glad to hear you are taking care of the missionaries out there. Good members are always awesome, make sure you're not just feeding them though! See if you can find them someone to teach!
Love y'all!!!
Love, Elder Nelson
Monday, September 10, 2012
September 10, 2012
Hey Y'all!
I just gotta tell you how much I love being a Missionary! We had an awesome week Tuesday, we went up to the Spanish District Meeting, which was interesting. I am learning a little bit. I can't speak it but I can keep up with most of the conversations. Afterwards I went on an exchange with Elder Carrol the District leader up there, we rode bikes forever, haha it was rough and it was like 100 * out. On Thursday we went up to Zone leader council, it was a great meeting discussing where to go with the mission, after two great months it is nice to not really have to identify big weaknesses but focus on the next step in moving forward. We have Zone Meeting tomorrow that we are pretty excited for, which is new for me because I am usually rather nervous to get up in front of people. It will be fun though.
We have been teaching a couple named Patrick and Sandra that are awesome. On Monday we invited them to pray about being baptized. The next time we went over he pulled out his baptismal certificate from his old church and all the information from it was gone. It was really cool. He will officially be a Mormon on October the 6th. This Saturday we will be having another baptism as well, I think I have mentioned her before, her name is Riley and she is 11 years old. Over the next 2 months Elder Scott and I plan to have some great success.
Thank yall for everything you do!
Love ya!
Love Elder Nelson
ps. We didn't get to go to the Arkansas game, we weren't able to find tickets, that is all okay though because it ended up that we were really busy Saturday night and had a lot that we would have missed out on.
I just gotta tell you how much I love being a Missionary! We had an awesome week Tuesday, we went up to the Spanish District Meeting, which was interesting. I am learning a little bit. I can't speak it but I can keep up with most of the conversations. Afterwards I went on an exchange with Elder Carrol the District leader up there, we rode bikes forever, haha it was rough and it was like 100 * out. On Thursday we went up to Zone leader council, it was a great meeting discussing where to go with the mission, after two great months it is nice to not really have to identify big weaknesses but focus on the next step in moving forward. We have Zone Meeting tomorrow that we are pretty excited for, which is new for me because I am usually rather nervous to get up in front of people. It will be fun though.
We have been teaching a couple named Patrick and Sandra that are awesome. On Monday we invited them to pray about being baptized. The next time we went over he pulled out his baptismal certificate from his old church and all the information from it was gone. It was really cool. He will officially be a Mormon on October the 6th. This Saturday we will be having another baptism as well, I think I have mentioned her before, her name is Riley and she is 11 years old. Over the next 2 months Elder Scott and I plan to have some great success.
Thank yall for everything you do!
Love ya!
Love Elder Nelson
ps. We didn't get to go to the Arkansas game, we weren't able to find tickets, that is all okay though because it ended up that we were really busy Saturday night and had a lot that we would have missed out on.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
September 3, 2012
Hey y'all!!!
We are over at the Adney's home e-mailing for today since the library is closed.
This week was a great week, we were able to set a couple more dates, one with a girl named Riley who is getting baptized on the 15th and the other with a girl named Shelby who is getting baptized on the 22nd. We are so excited for it.
On Friday night we went out on splits with a couple of the Priests in the ward. Elder Scott went with one and I went with another. Elder Scott was able to see everyone they had hoped to, but all of my appointments fell through, I couldn't let that be this kids first missionary experience so we just started talking to everyone in this apartment complex and we were able to teach 8 lessons and find 3 new investigators including a couple that we contacted at the Sonic after. (we always take the young men to get a shake after they come out with us) We went by to see that couple yesterday and committed them to baptism, so hopefully that works out and they will let Daniel (the Priest) baptize them.
I went on an exchange down in Pine Bluff and was able to spend the day with Elder Dannatt, it was a lot of fun, he has grown so much over the last 6 months since he left Trenton, it was great to see.
Elder Scott and I also set personal mission records for lessons taught with members present for our mission, it was awesome and it seems like every lesson we teach there is a member there. Keep praying for us so we an get these people baptized, I can't leave Little Rock without any. haha
I love you guys!
Have a great week!
Love Elder Nelson
We are over at the Adney's home e-mailing for today since the library is closed.
This week was a great week, we were able to set a couple more dates, one with a girl named Riley who is getting baptized on the 15th and the other with a girl named Shelby who is getting baptized on the 22nd. We are so excited for it.
On Friday night we went out on splits with a couple of the Priests in the ward. Elder Scott went with one and I went with another. Elder Scott was able to see everyone they had hoped to, but all of my appointments fell through, I couldn't let that be this kids first missionary experience so we just started talking to everyone in this apartment complex and we were able to teach 8 lessons and find 3 new investigators including a couple that we contacted at the Sonic after. (we always take the young men to get a shake after they come out with us) We went by to see that couple yesterday and committed them to baptism, so hopefully that works out and they will let Daniel (the Priest) baptize them.
I went on an exchange down in Pine Bluff and was able to spend the day with Elder Dannatt, it was a lot of fun, he has grown so much over the last 6 months since he left Trenton, it was great to see.
Elder Scott and I also set personal mission records for lessons taught with members present for our mission, it was awesome and it seems like every lesson we teach there is a member there. Keep praying for us so we an get these people baptized, I can't leave Little Rock without any. haha
I love you guys!
Have a great week!
Love Elder Nelson
Monday, August 27, 2012
August 27, 2012
Hey y'all!
So I have to be quick because I only have 10 minutes on the computer. As you know Elder Carter was transferred and my new companion is Elder Scott from Ogden. He is the same Spanish speaking Elder Scott that spent a week with us in Southaven and has lived across the street from me for the last 5 months. They made him a zone leader and moved him across the parking lot. We are super excited to serve together. We are what is called a Zebra companionship, meaning that we will teach both english and spanish investigators as well as our Zone leader duties. It will be fun.
We had a great week this week, we have basically been falling bass ackwards into blessings all week that culminated with 9 investigators at church. It was awesome, we have about 5 part member families we are teaching right now, so next month could be a great one.
On Friday we had probably one of them most powerful lessons of my mission, we have an investigator we have been working with ever since I have been here, she had completely changed her life and was doing awesome. But then her whole life fell apart around her. She was still holding strong but on Friday we went by and she had fallen back into all her old habits and was struggling. We had no idea what to say, but I had an impression to read from Alma Chapter 5 which is a pretty bold chapter. We started off by telling her that for the next 10 minutes we are going to make all of us feel like the scum of the earth, but by the end we would change our lives, so we did. We figured out everything that was holding us back from being exactly what Heavenly father expects us to be and committed to get rid of them. It was unbelievable how powerful the spirit was. By the time we left her, her entire countenance had changed. We are really excited.
Anyways, I am out of time, but I love y'all! Have a good day!
Love elder Nelson
So I have to be quick because I only have 10 minutes on the computer. As you know Elder Carter was transferred and my new companion is Elder Scott from Ogden. He is the same Spanish speaking Elder Scott that spent a week with us in Southaven and has lived across the street from me for the last 5 months. They made him a zone leader and moved him across the parking lot. We are super excited to serve together. We are what is called a Zebra companionship, meaning that we will teach both english and spanish investigators as well as our Zone leader duties. It will be fun.
We had a great week this week, we have basically been falling bass ackwards into blessings all week that culminated with 9 investigators at church. It was awesome, we have about 5 part member families we are teaching right now, so next month could be a great one.
On Friday we had probably one of them most powerful lessons of my mission, we have an investigator we have been working with ever since I have been here, she had completely changed her life and was doing awesome. But then her whole life fell apart around her. She was still holding strong but on Friday we went by and she had fallen back into all her old habits and was struggling. We had no idea what to say, but I had an impression to read from Alma Chapter 5 which is a pretty bold chapter. We started off by telling her that for the next 10 minutes we are going to make all of us feel like the scum of the earth, but by the end we would change our lives, so we did. We figured out everything that was holding us back from being exactly what Heavenly father expects us to be and committed to get rid of them. It was unbelievable how powerful the spirit was. By the time we left her, her entire countenance had changed. We are really excited.
Anyways, I am out of time, but I love y'all! Have a good day!
Love elder Nelson
So long Elder Carter, Welcome Elder Scott!
So long to Elder Carter... and thank you for your hard work, dedication and a great companion, you will be missed! Hello Elder Scott my new Spanish speaking companion...Looking forward to a great time and a lot of hard work.
Monday, August 20, 2012
August 20, 2012
Hey y'all,
So I guess I will start with sharing our story for the week, won't tell you how we got on the subject but we had dinner at a members house last night and ended up having an hour long lesson from the dad about Hysterectomy's...haha with hand motions, youtube videos...the works. It was awesome. haha
Anyway, on to missionary news, Elder Carter is getting transferred, we were both pretty surprised, we figured we would be staying together or I would be leaving, but apparently not, so I will be getting a new companion on Wednesday. Things went well this week, we had a zone conference on Wednesday and our job was to create a scripture chase relay of some sort for missionaries to compete. It was pretty fun. We also were able to get Lamar to institute which ended up going well, even though the teacher decided to take the night to plead for everyone to start dating and get married...(for an hour and a half) he liked it though. We are still having some good success. Hopefully the transition from Elder Carter to the new guy will be a smooth one.
Glad to hear all is well back home. Now I will finish with a nice appropriate joke I was told this week,
"Why do they call PMSing, PMSing"????? "Because mad cow was already taken"!!!
Love you guys,
Love, Elder Nelson
So I guess I will start with sharing our story for the week, won't tell you how we got on the subject but we had dinner at a members house last night and ended up having an hour long lesson from the dad about Hysterectomy's...haha with hand motions, youtube videos...the works. It was awesome. haha
Anyway, on to missionary news, Elder Carter is getting transferred, we were both pretty surprised, we figured we would be staying together or I would be leaving, but apparently not, so I will be getting a new companion on Wednesday. Things went well this week, we had a zone conference on Wednesday and our job was to create a scripture chase relay of some sort for missionaries to compete. It was pretty fun. We also were able to get Lamar to institute which ended up going well, even though the teacher decided to take the night to plead for everyone to start dating and get married...(for an hour and a half) he liked it though. We are still having some good success. Hopefully the transition from Elder Carter to the new guy will be a smooth one.
Glad to hear all is well back home. Now I will finish with a nice appropriate joke I was told this week,
"Why do they call PMSing, PMSing"????? "Because mad cow was already taken"!!!
Love you guys,
Love, Elder Nelson
Monday, August 13, 2012
August 13, 2012
Hey Y'all!!
We had another great week, we found us 8 new investigators and we have some very solid people we are working with. Right now we have 4 baptismal dates and have a few more investigators that we are planning on setting dates with this week. The biggest thing that has contributed to our success is we have had a lot more lessons with members there, it changes the whole lesson. We should be having some baptisms very soon.
We did something pretty cool this week. Our entire zone went down to Hot Springs for what is called a ward council outreach. Each missionary was paired up with a member and was assigned to 6 - 7 less active members. We went out and invited them to a devotional much like the one we did here in Little Rock a couple months ago, we just redid it in the Hot Springs ward, there were some pretty amazing experiences, we were able to find a couple people that had never been to church in Hot Springs but that wanted to come back, as well as a couple of part member families for the missionaries to teach. We still haven't heard the total numbers for the entire outreach, but Brother and Sister Stephens and I had some great success.
Our Zone meeting went really well, it was on improving our teaching skills, we did a pretty fun companion unity activity at the end because Elder Carter and I had been thinking a lot about how important that was. About a week ahead of time we sent out a questionnaire for each missionary to fill out about their companion to find out how well they knew them, then in the meeting we invited 3 companionships up and tested them. We would ask a question and both would write it down then reveal their answers, it was a lot of fun. We ended it on a spiritual note by having a couple of companionships share their favorite scripture and conversion story, we are hoping it helped unify everyone. The zone had another baptism this weekend which takes us to about 5 for the month which is more than we had all last month, we should keep having some throughout the rest of this month.
Things are goin great out here in Little Rock. Thank yall for all your support.
Love, Elder Nelson
We had another great week, we found us 8 new investigators and we have some very solid people we are working with. Right now we have 4 baptismal dates and have a few more investigators that we are planning on setting dates with this week. The biggest thing that has contributed to our success is we have had a lot more lessons with members there, it changes the whole lesson. We should be having some baptisms very soon.
We did something pretty cool this week. Our entire zone went down to Hot Springs for what is called a ward council outreach. Each missionary was paired up with a member and was assigned to 6 - 7 less active members. We went out and invited them to a devotional much like the one we did here in Little Rock a couple months ago, we just redid it in the Hot Springs ward, there were some pretty amazing experiences, we were able to find a couple people that had never been to church in Hot Springs but that wanted to come back, as well as a couple of part member families for the missionaries to teach. We still haven't heard the total numbers for the entire outreach, but Brother and Sister Stephens and I had some great success.
Our Zone meeting went really well, it was on improving our teaching skills, we did a pretty fun companion unity activity at the end because Elder Carter and I had been thinking a lot about how important that was. About a week ahead of time we sent out a questionnaire for each missionary to fill out about their companion to find out how well they knew them, then in the meeting we invited 3 companionships up and tested them. We would ask a question and both would write it down then reveal their answers, it was a lot of fun. We ended it on a spiritual note by having a couple of companionships share their favorite scripture and conversion story, we are hoping it helped unify everyone. The zone had another baptism this weekend which takes us to about 5 for the month which is more than we had all last month, we should keep having some throughout the rest of this month.
Things are goin great out here in Little Rock. Thank yall for all your support.
Love, Elder Nelson
Monday, August 6, 2012
August 6, 2012
Oi!
Here goes the recap of our week. 3 days, 1200 miles, 3 states... 1 night spent in our own bed. I told you what our plans were last week so I won't bore you with them again, but I will say that when we returned home our AC was broken and it was the weekend so the people at the office had gone home, so we have been crashing with the Spanish Elders for the last couple of days.
This week was pretty awesome. We didn't get to do a lot of work in our area, but we set 2 more dates which takes the grand total at the moment to 6, we also had a really cool experience at church. So, we were supposed to have a few people at church, we called them yesterday morning and none of them answer so we are sitting at the back of the chapel just bummed out, none of them were there and to top it off the Stake President had come so we were pretty embarrassed. In the middle of sacrament I had a feeling that we needed to go to this guy named Jamal's house that lived pretty close to the church, but we were in sacrament so I said no. Again, it came to me "get up and get Jamal" "NO" "get up and get Jamal, it's the middle of sacrament come on" "get up and get Jamal, he needs you", "ALRIGHT" haha so I leaned over to Elder Carter and said "I'm going to get Jamal, you comin"? Yep, we ran outside, drove to his house, woke him up and he followed us to church. We sat down feeling pretty good while the the last 20 minutes of sacrament wound down and watched as one by one 5 more of our investigators came in and sat down. It was so cool. After the meeting we asked Jamal how he was feeling and he said "man, I needed to get up there and say something". Unfortunately he didn't know he could. During the day he was asked to introduce himself twice, once in gospel essentials and once in priesthood and both times he said I'm Jamal, gave a brief bio and said I'm planning on being baptized here in the next few weeks. Elder Carter and I couldn't help but smile and give a fist bump behind his back. After priesthood ended he was swarmed by members inviting him to their home and to activities, it was really cool. It taught me real quick not to ignore a promoting.
I am glad ya'll have turned into the missionaries "go to" meal, that is pretty cool. There are very few people out here that we would feel comfortable just showing up and asking to have dinner. Ya'll must be doin something good.
We are looking forward to this upcoming week to get out and work our tails off and find more people. We have a zone training meeting tomorrow that we are planning right now. We aren't sure what to focus on, but we are thinking companion unity and something else to do with teaching. We found out that our mission is one of the top finding and baptizing missions but our percentage of those found who get baptized is the lowest in the States, so we need to improve our teaching.
Thanks ya'll for all your support and prayers, I love ya!!
Love, Elder Nelson
Here goes the recap of our week. 3 days, 1200 miles, 3 states... 1 night spent in our own bed. I told you what our plans were last week so I won't bore you with them again, but I will say that when we returned home our AC was broken and it was the weekend so the people at the office had gone home, so we have been crashing with the Spanish Elders for the last couple of days.
This week was pretty awesome. We didn't get to do a lot of work in our area, but we set 2 more dates which takes the grand total at the moment to 6, we also had a really cool experience at church. So, we were supposed to have a few people at church, we called them yesterday morning and none of them answer so we are sitting at the back of the chapel just bummed out, none of them were there and to top it off the Stake President had come so we were pretty embarrassed. In the middle of sacrament I had a feeling that we needed to go to this guy named Jamal's house that lived pretty close to the church, but we were in sacrament so I said no. Again, it came to me "get up and get Jamal" "NO" "get up and get Jamal, it's the middle of sacrament come on" "get up and get Jamal, he needs you", "ALRIGHT" haha so I leaned over to Elder Carter and said "I'm going to get Jamal, you comin"? Yep, we ran outside, drove to his house, woke him up and he followed us to church. We sat down feeling pretty good while the the last 20 minutes of sacrament wound down and watched as one by one 5 more of our investigators came in and sat down. It was so cool. After the meeting we asked Jamal how he was feeling and he said "man, I needed to get up there and say something". Unfortunately he didn't know he could. During the day he was asked to introduce himself twice, once in gospel essentials and once in priesthood and both times he said I'm Jamal, gave a brief bio and said I'm planning on being baptized here in the next few weeks. Elder Carter and I couldn't help but smile and give a fist bump behind his back. After priesthood ended he was swarmed by members inviting him to their home and to activities, it was really cool. It taught me real quick not to ignore a promoting.
I am glad ya'll have turned into the missionaries "go to" meal, that is pretty cool. There are very few people out here that we would feel comfortable just showing up and asking to have dinner. Ya'll must be doin something good.
We are looking forward to this upcoming week to get out and work our tails off and find more people. We have a zone training meeting tomorrow that we are planning right now. We aren't sure what to focus on, but we are thinking companion unity and something else to do with teaching. We found out that our mission is one of the top finding and baptizing missions but our percentage of those found who get baptized is the lowest in the States, so we need to improve our teaching.
Thanks ya'll for all your support and prayers, I love ya!!
Love, Elder Nelson
August 6, 2012
Because I am so very proud of our Elder, it seems that for once in my life I am not the emotional one when it comes to him??? But this morning as I landed at the Salt Lake Airport bright and early (from visiting Tays in Oklahoma) the airport was filled with new missionaries with their brand new shoes and suits... Some just waiting for their flights, some on the phone talking to family, and I was filled with emotion! Just knowing what each of these Elders have in store for them, and thinking of what the past 21 months have been for our Elder fills me with gratitude (and a little longing)...
We are so very blessed! KJ
We are so very blessed! KJ
Monday, July 30, 2012
July 30, 2012
Hey Y'all!!!
Things are goin awesome here in Little Rock!!! I guess I will tell you about our week. On Tuesday we went on an exchange with the missionaries down in Hot Springs, Elders Keller and Anderson. We went down to their district meeting and then went out to work, we had gone down to do a baptismal interview for a kid named Joshua that they had been teaching. I was able to do the interview and it was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life, this kid was awesome and so prepared. Then Elder Anderson and I went to teach one of their investigators named Doc, who they were struggling to get baptized, he had some concerns that he needed to overcome, mostly with understanding. Well, we had an awesome lesson with him and the spirit was really strong so I asked him if he wanted to be baptized that Friday, and he said yes, so we got the interview done that day as well. Both of them were baptized and confirmed on Friday and apparently it was an amazing baptism.
We had a great week ourselves, we were able to set 3 baptismal dates with some pretty cool people. This next week is going to be crazy. I will share our "itinerary" with you. Tomorrow morning we are getting up and driving 2 hours to Fordyce Arkansas to a district meeting, then we will drive to Monticello AR, to go on exchanges with the Elders there, Wednesday morning we will get up and drive back to Little Rock and get to work for the rest of the day, that night we will drive up to Conway Arkansas, then we will wake up early the next morning and go with the Conway Zone leaders to drive up to Memphis for what is called Zone leader council, where all the Zone leaders get together with the President and do some training and discuss the mission, then we will drive back here that night. It is going to be crazy, we don't get much sleep as Zone leaders haha not much at all. It has been a lot of fun though.
Glad to hear all is well back home. I love you guys!!!
Love, Elder Nelson
Things are goin awesome here in Little Rock!!! I guess I will tell you about our week. On Tuesday we went on an exchange with the missionaries down in Hot Springs, Elders Keller and Anderson. We went down to their district meeting and then went out to work, we had gone down to do a baptismal interview for a kid named Joshua that they had been teaching. I was able to do the interview and it was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life, this kid was awesome and so prepared. Then Elder Anderson and I went to teach one of their investigators named Doc, who they were struggling to get baptized, he had some concerns that he needed to overcome, mostly with understanding. Well, we had an awesome lesson with him and the spirit was really strong so I asked him if he wanted to be baptized that Friday, and he said yes, so we got the interview done that day as well. Both of them were baptized and confirmed on Friday and apparently it was an amazing baptism.
We had a great week ourselves, we were able to set 3 baptismal dates with some pretty cool people. This next week is going to be crazy. I will share our "itinerary" with you. Tomorrow morning we are getting up and driving 2 hours to Fordyce Arkansas to a district meeting, then we will drive to Monticello AR, to go on exchanges with the Elders there, Wednesday morning we will get up and drive back to Little Rock and get to work for the rest of the day, that night we will drive up to Conway Arkansas, then we will wake up early the next morning and go with the Conway Zone leaders to drive up to Memphis for what is called Zone leader council, where all the Zone leaders get together with the President and do some training and discuss the mission, then we will drive back here that night. It is going to be crazy, we don't get much sleep as Zone leaders haha not much at all. It has been a lot of fun though.
Glad to hear all is well back home. I love you guys!!!
Love, Elder Nelson
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
July 23, 2012
Hey Y'all!!
We had us an awesome week! Our presentation on Wednesday went well, I think. We did a giant object lesson of Lehi's vision, tried to have some fun with it. We were able to find eight new investigators this week, which is more than we have found in awhile. We are going for even more this next week, trying to get our teaching pool up and goin.
We decided for p day we would take a trip to the zoo. It was a lot of fun, hopefully my pictures will work out this week, but we had a good time. There were 6 of us there, the two of us and four of the spanish elders that live close by. Elder Carter and I have been having a lot of fun. We decided with as hectic as things have been, we might as well have some fun out here, so we are.
Tomorrow we are going down to a city called Hot Springs to do exchanges and a Baptismal interview with some missionaries down there. Should be good, we really want to do our best to unify the zone. Our zone is petty notorious for being unsuccessful through the years. We plan on changing that though! We should hopefully be having some baptisms coming up this month to report on. It has been a minute... haha
Anywho, I love y'all!!! and all is darn good in Lil Rock!
Love Elder Nelson
We had us an awesome week! Our presentation on Wednesday went well, I think. We did a giant object lesson of Lehi's vision, tried to have some fun with it. We were able to find eight new investigators this week, which is more than we have found in awhile. We are going for even more this next week, trying to get our teaching pool up and goin.
We decided for p day we would take a trip to the zoo. It was a lot of fun, hopefully my pictures will work out this week, but we had a good time. There were 6 of us there, the two of us and four of the spanish elders that live close by. Elder Carter and I have been having a lot of fun. We decided with as hectic as things have been, we might as well have some fun out here, so we are.
Tomorrow we are going down to a city called Hot Springs to do exchanges and a Baptismal interview with some missionaries down there. Should be good, we really want to do our best to unify the zone. Our zone is petty notorious for being unsuccessful through the years. We plan on changing that though! We should hopefully be having some baptisms coming up this month to report on. It has been a minute... haha
Anywho, I love y'all!!! and all is darn good in Lil Rock!
Love Elder Nelson
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
July 16, 2012 Zone Leader
Elder nelson has been called to serve as zone leader of the Little Rock Zone. We received a letter from his Mission President regarding the call and the fine hardworking missionary he is. We are so very proud of him for his hard work and love of the Lord and the people of Arkansas. These experiences give him an amazing amount of growth and maturity, and we are so grateful.
July 16, 2012 Welcome Elder Carter
You're in Bermuda??? What the heck? Haha. Hope y'all are having a good time, because I sure am.
My new companion is Elder Carter, you might remember him, he was in my district up in Trenton, he is the one who is 6'6, we are having a blast. Being Zone leader has been super he tic... I will try to describe my week this week. Wednesday we went to transfer meeting and it got over at 7:00, they officially called us as zone leaders, then informed us that we have a zone meeting where we train the whole zone at 10:00 am and that President Peterson was going to be there to oversee it. Haha We were up to 1:00 am preparing for it. Then we finished and get a call that we are meeting with the Stake President, the AP's and the President to discuss our zone at 4:00. Unfortunately, we knew nothing about any of them seeing that we were called the day before, so we spent the afternoon calling all the areas and asking them about the work. That meeting ended up going great. When we finished we were informed that we needed to go to the hospital to give a guy a blessing, so we start hedging there, we get there and ask them for his info and they say they don't have it yet, so we went and spoke with the chaplain about getting on some kind of list of clergy for people to talk to in times of crisis. They finally got us his info and we went to his room....wrong room. So we asked the nurse and she looks up and says there is no one by that name in this hospital. We went home and about 9:45 we are getting ready for bed and the Elders who asked us to go called and said that they had given us his nickname and that he was going into surgery the next morning and. Needed a blessing that night. So, we hopped in the car and drove back then ended back home around 11:00, didn't get to bed until like 12:00, so another sleepless night. Saturday was spent stressing about my talk the next morning. (I may be able to write a talk on my own now, bit I sure as heck am scared to death to give one). Haha. Didn't sleep much that night. Then last night we got into a cleaning tirade, because our apt. Just has way too much stuff,so we were organizing and throwing stuff away. Once again, didn't get much sleep. Now we have a zone conference and we will have a 45 minute assignment to train half the mission on, so they are keeping us busy, not to mention our phone rings off the hook non stop. It has been cool though... Hopefully we can do a good job. Our zone is somewhat notorious for being all that successful,but we are going to get things going.
I love y'all. Hope all is going well in the civilian world.
Love, Elder Nelson.
Monday, July 9, 2012
July 9, 2012
Hey Ya'll!
This week has been crazy! I'm a spanish missionary!!
Elder Vea was transferred early, so they put me with the Spanish missionaries that live by me, it has been pretty fun. I have been brushing up on my Spanish. I'm pretty terrible. We were able to get a lot of good work done, we set a couple of dates with two of our investigators as well. On Wednesday we drove up to North Little Rock for leadership training, it was really good. President has decided that now that he has taught us exact obedience and that he can trust us, he is letting us just go out and get it done. I'm pretty excited about it and I think the whole mission is too. We are expecting some miracles to happen, especially in Little Rock. Then as we were leaving I received a call from the lst councilor in the bishopric asking me to speak this coming Sunday. This will be my first talk of the mission: interesting. I am speaking on missionary work and he asked me to try to get the ward excited about missionary work rather than chastising or anything. I'm kind of excited for it???? go figure. I'm sure I will turn red as a tomater though.
President also asked me to spend the day today with an Elder that has been having a tough time and his comp. is going home so he needed somewhere to stay, so we are going to boost his spirits some hopefully. I will be picking up my new companion on Wednesday and we will get to work. President already told me who it is, so I guess I can tell you, his name is Elder Carter, I served around him in Tenton, he is like 6' 7" and he is a great missionary. I know we will do well together.
I am glad to hear all is well in Utah.
I love ya'll,
Love Elder Nelson
This week has been crazy! I'm a spanish missionary!!
Elder Vea was transferred early, so they put me with the Spanish missionaries that live by me, it has been pretty fun. I have been brushing up on my Spanish. I'm pretty terrible. We were able to get a lot of good work done, we set a couple of dates with two of our investigators as well. On Wednesday we drove up to North Little Rock for leadership training, it was really good. President has decided that now that he has taught us exact obedience and that he can trust us, he is letting us just go out and get it done. I'm pretty excited about it and I think the whole mission is too. We are expecting some miracles to happen, especially in Little Rock. Then as we were leaving I received a call from the lst councilor in the bishopric asking me to speak this coming Sunday. This will be my first talk of the mission: interesting. I am speaking on missionary work and he asked me to try to get the ward excited about missionary work rather than chastising or anything. I'm kind of excited for it???? go figure. I'm sure I will turn red as a tomater though.
President also asked me to spend the day today with an Elder that has been having a tough time and his comp. is going home so he needed somewhere to stay, so we are going to boost his spirits some hopefully. I will be picking up my new companion on Wednesday and we will get to work. President already told me who it is, so I guess I can tell you, his name is Elder Carter, I served around him in Tenton, he is like 6' 7" and he is a great missionary. I know we will do well together.
I am glad to hear all is well in Utah.
I love ya'll,
Love Elder Nelson
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
July 2, 2012
Hey Y'all!!!
Things are going well out here in Lil Rock, a little slow but picking up. This morning we went mini golfing with 8 of us missionaries...it was a lot of fun. We have one more week in this transfer and it sounds like Elder Vea will be leaving. We were finally able to get this lady we are working with to Church and she loved it. We are hoping she will be able to be baptized this coming month. Other than than, not a lot to report.
Sorry this email will be sort, should have more to tell you about next week.
Love y'all!!!
Love Elder Nelson
Things are going well out here in Lil Rock, a little slow but picking up. This morning we went mini golfing with 8 of us missionaries...it was a lot of fun. We have one more week in this transfer and it sounds like Elder Vea will be leaving. We were finally able to get this lady we are working with to Church and she loved it. We are hoping she will be able to be baptized this coming month. Other than than, not a lot to report.
Sorry this email will be sort, should have more to tell you about next week.
Love y'all!!!
Love Elder Nelson
Monday, June 25, 2012
June 25, 2012
Hey y'all!!!
We had a pretty fun week this week, we had zone conference on Wednesday up in North Little Rock and spent most of the day up there, it was really good. Last night was the highlight though, with all the chatter going on about the church down here, they held a devotional titled "Because you asked, We Believe in Christ". Members were only allowed to come if they brought a non member. We filled up the chapel at one of the buildings and about half of those attending were non members. President and Sister Beheshti the Stake President and his wife spoke. She spoke on what every mother hopes her children and grandchildren will come to know and he spoke about the Book of Mormon. They were both really good and very spiritual talks. President Beheshti is a pretty fiery guy, so he threw down about the Book of Mormon, he really didn't give any room for argument. Afterwards they let people mingle and we went around as missionaries and tried to talk to people and answer some questions, it was really good. There was one guy that wanted to bash with Prsident Beheshti, but he put him in his spot rather quickly. It was a lot of fun, even some of the people who are part of the school that denied entry to the little boy because he was mormon came, and a Catholic Priest. It was all really good.
Elder Nelson is doin good out here in Little Rock, we have run into more anti here than anywhere on my mission, but it's all good, we can handle it.
I love y'all!!!
Thanks for everything,
Love Elder Nelson
We had a pretty fun week this week, we had zone conference on Wednesday up in North Little Rock and spent most of the day up there, it was really good. Last night was the highlight though, with all the chatter going on about the church down here, they held a devotional titled "Because you asked, We Believe in Christ". Members were only allowed to come if they brought a non member. We filled up the chapel at one of the buildings and about half of those attending were non members. President and Sister Beheshti the Stake President and his wife spoke. She spoke on what every mother hopes her children and grandchildren will come to know and he spoke about the Book of Mormon. They were both really good and very spiritual talks. President Beheshti is a pretty fiery guy, so he threw down about the Book of Mormon, he really didn't give any room for argument. Afterwards they let people mingle and we went around as missionaries and tried to talk to people and answer some questions, it was really good. There was one guy that wanted to bash with Prsident Beheshti, but he put him in his spot rather quickly. It was a lot of fun, even some of the people who are part of the school that denied entry to the little boy because he was mormon came, and a Catholic Priest. It was all really good.
Elder Nelson is doin good out here in Little Rock, we have run into more anti here than anywhere on my mission, but it's all good, we can handle it.
I love y'all!!!
Thanks for everything,
Love Elder Nelson
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
June 18, 2012
Oi!
That's pretty cool that you get to talk about me in church Mom. Kind of a lame topic though. I'm sure they won't be too mad if you can only think of about 5 minutes worth of things to say...
Things are going good out here though, we had a hectic week, a bunch of stuff happened in my District, so I have been going on exchanges left and right to try and help people out. Things are better now though.
I don't have a lot of time, we just got done playin ball with President and now we have to head out to go shopping so I'm going to have to keep it short. Yesterday we went over to a recent converts house in the ward for a Father's day party, they live in the hood, so it was quite eventful, even included a fight, chitlins, gunshots and a Fathers Day cake! They let us help cut the cake though because we were "Future Fathers" it was pretty fun. We were able to escape with food in our bellies and no bullet wounds. Always a blessing... I gotta run, but I love y'all!!!!
Love, Elder Nelson
Hey Pops,
Sorry I didn't send you anything for Father's day, things have been crazy here. We have had a bunch of problems in my District, So I have been on exchanges and meeting with President to figure out how to help out some missionaries. I was thinking of shooting you a text yesterday and saying "Happy Father's Day", but I figured I needed to be obedient. Things are join good though. A little slow as far as missionary work goes, but we are working hard. We are just starting into bike week, so that will be fun, it is supposed to get up to like 97 this week:)
Thanks for everything Pops. I love ya and happy Father's Day!
Love Elder Nelson
That's pretty cool that you get to talk about me in church Mom. Kind of a lame topic though. I'm sure they won't be too mad if you can only think of about 5 minutes worth of things to say...
Things are going good out here though, we had a hectic week, a bunch of stuff happened in my District, so I have been going on exchanges left and right to try and help people out. Things are better now though.
I don't have a lot of time, we just got done playin ball with President and now we have to head out to go shopping so I'm going to have to keep it short. Yesterday we went over to a recent converts house in the ward for a Father's day party, they live in the hood, so it was quite eventful, even included a fight, chitlins, gunshots and a Fathers Day cake! They let us help cut the cake though because we were "Future Fathers" it was pretty fun. We were able to escape with food in our bellies and no bullet wounds. Always a blessing... I gotta run, but I love y'all!!!!
Love, Elder Nelson
Hey Pops,
Sorry I didn't send you anything for Father's day, things have been crazy here. We have had a bunch of problems in my District, So I have been on exchanges and meeting with President to figure out how to help out some missionaries. I was thinking of shooting you a text yesterday and saying "Happy Father's Day", but I figured I needed to be obedient. Things are join good though. A little slow as far as missionary work goes, but we are working hard. We are just starting into bike week, so that will be fun, it is supposed to get up to like 97 this week:)
Thanks for everything Pops. I love ya and happy Father's Day!
Love Elder Nelson
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
June 11, 2012
Hey Yall!!!
Glad to hear you are enjoying Oklahoma... Weird that you're just around the corner. So, I think I told you how much I love the random stuff you get to do for service while on a mission, like cutting down trees, tearing down barns, farming, all that good stuff. Well this week we were able to learn how to put a laminate wood floor in. (Kinda had to teach myself) We ran into a lady who is trying to move into her new house but was really overwhelmed by it all. We offered to help and she told us she needed her floor done. We tore up the carpet, cleaned underneath and then laid down the floor. It was really cool. We did a pretty good job and it looks really good. Then we went back a couple days later and helped her move in. It was fun, we had 6 missionaries with us and a member. We are hoping to be able to start teaching her soon. She has 3 little kids that are awesome.
On Tuesday we had District meeting and I based it all on President Eyering's talk from General Conference "Mountains to Climb". Our District has had some tough times and it was definitely needed. Then I was able to go on an exchange with Elder Scow, he has been out about 3 months and is an awesome kid.
Yesterday and Saturday we had Stake Conference, Elder Hymus of the Seventy spoke as well as President and Sister Peterson and the Temple President and his wife, it was really good. The Stake President spoke about the members raising their children. Apparently in the stake their are like 126 young men from 18 to 26 that could be preparing for a mission but only 18 of them are. It was a very bold talk, but very good.
As far as our teaching goes, we are focusing in on a few of the investigators we have right now that have good potential as well as the members. We will hopefully be able to get it all going. Missionary work definitely isn't easy, but it is a lot of fun and very fulfilling.
Thank you for all your support, I love y'all!!!
Love Elder Nelson
Glad to hear you are enjoying Oklahoma... Weird that you're just around the corner. So, I think I told you how much I love the random stuff you get to do for service while on a mission, like cutting down trees, tearing down barns, farming, all that good stuff. Well this week we were able to learn how to put a laminate wood floor in. (Kinda had to teach myself) We ran into a lady who is trying to move into her new house but was really overwhelmed by it all. We offered to help and she told us she needed her floor done. We tore up the carpet, cleaned underneath and then laid down the floor. It was really cool. We did a pretty good job and it looks really good. Then we went back a couple days later and helped her move in. It was fun, we had 6 missionaries with us and a member. We are hoping to be able to start teaching her soon. She has 3 little kids that are awesome.
On Tuesday we had District meeting and I based it all on President Eyering's talk from General Conference "Mountains to Climb". Our District has had some tough times and it was definitely needed. Then I was able to go on an exchange with Elder Scow, he has been out about 3 months and is an awesome kid.
Yesterday and Saturday we had Stake Conference, Elder Hymus of the Seventy spoke as well as President and Sister Peterson and the Temple President and his wife, it was really good. The Stake President spoke about the members raising their children. Apparently in the stake their are like 126 young men from 18 to 26 that could be preparing for a mission but only 18 of them are. It was a very bold talk, but very good.
As far as our teaching goes, we are focusing in on a few of the investigators we have right now that have good potential as well as the members. We will hopefully be able to get it all going. Missionary work definitely isn't easy, but it is a lot of fun and very fulfilling.
Thank you for all your support, I love y'all!!!
Love Elder Nelson
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
June 4, 2012
Oi! What's up y'all...
We had a pretty interesting week this week. On Wednesday we took one of our investigators to the ward mission leaders house and had a lesson with her. It was an amazing lesson and we set a date with her. That night she came to institute and loved it, the next day we were in a lesson and received a text from her that said "Hey guys, I'm no longer allowed to meet with you or go to any of your church activities. Thank you for everything, I love you guys". We were pretty heart broken but are still praying for her. We still have hope though. p.s. Satan sucks...
Anywho, I think I told you about how our ward mission leaders wife hit a ladies dog and we started teaching her. Well, we now started teaching her mom, and she is awesome. She was talking about her beliefs and they lined up perfectly with ours, she has been prepared. We taught the restoration and she just cried, she loves the Book of Mormon and knows the church is true. She said when she saw us walk up she had this incredible feeling come over her and she knew she needed to talk to us, she came to church and cried all through sacrament meeting. (it's almost not fair for an investigator to come to fast and testimony meeting). haha Anywho, we are pretty excited about her.
So, our Stake Conference is next week, and the choir director came and said they needed like 20 people to fill spots in the choir, so Elder Vea, Elder Mayberry, Elder Carson and I went to practice. We were pretty bad, but are going for it anyway.
We also got permission from President Peterson to plan a Luau. It's going to be pretty fun. Elder Vea is going to teach us the Haka and Elder Hanneman is going to come down from conway and do the fire knife dance. Should be pretty fun.
I love you guys!
Love Elder nelson
ps chiggers are finally gone!!
We had a pretty interesting week this week. On Wednesday we took one of our investigators to the ward mission leaders house and had a lesson with her. It was an amazing lesson and we set a date with her. That night she came to institute and loved it, the next day we were in a lesson and received a text from her that said "Hey guys, I'm no longer allowed to meet with you or go to any of your church activities. Thank you for everything, I love you guys". We were pretty heart broken but are still praying for her. We still have hope though. p.s. Satan sucks...
Anywho, I think I told you about how our ward mission leaders wife hit a ladies dog and we started teaching her. Well, we now started teaching her mom, and she is awesome. She was talking about her beliefs and they lined up perfectly with ours, she has been prepared. We taught the restoration and she just cried, she loves the Book of Mormon and knows the church is true. She said when she saw us walk up she had this incredible feeling come over her and she knew she needed to talk to us, she came to church and cried all through sacrament meeting. (it's almost not fair for an investigator to come to fast and testimony meeting). haha Anywho, we are pretty excited about her.
So, our Stake Conference is next week, and the choir director came and said they needed like 20 people to fill spots in the choir, so Elder Vea, Elder Mayberry, Elder Carson and I went to practice. We were pretty bad, but are going for it anyway.
We also got permission from President Peterson to plan a Luau. It's going to be pretty fun. Elder Vea is going to teach us the Haka and Elder Hanneman is going to come down from conway and do the fire knife dance. Should be pretty fun.
I love you guys!
Love Elder nelson
ps chiggers are finally gone!!
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
May 29, 2012
Hey y'all,
Transfers are this week, and Elder Vea and I are staying together. We are pretty excited for the work here. We are trying to get permission to plan a luau. We would roast a pig and Vea is going to teach all the missionaries in the area the Haka!!! Then we are going to perform it and have some fun. Should be cool.
Things are going pretty good though. We have a couple of really cool investigators, hopefully all will work out with them. Also, I found out that one of my investigators in Trenton went up to Elder Ford and told him that she and her whole family want to be baptized. I'm pretty excited for them. She has given up her whole life so she can be baptized. Hopefully I will be able to go up there for the baptism, probably not though...a little far.
I'm glad that Dad invited everyone to join in on the BOM challenge. I'm loving it. I am a little behind schedule because I left my bag at another missionary apt. for a couple of days with my book in it, but I will be catching up.
Thanks for all the prayers for us to receive some ward missionaries It sounds like hopefully they will be sustained this Sunday. It will be a big help.
I gotta run, makin it short since it isn't p day.
I love y'all!!!
Love Elder Nelson
Transfers are this week, and Elder Vea and I are staying together. We are pretty excited for the work here. We are trying to get permission to plan a luau. We would roast a pig and Vea is going to teach all the missionaries in the area the Haka!!! Then we are going to perform it and have some fun. Should be cool.
Things are going pretty good though. We have a couple of really cool investigators, hopefully all will work out with them. Also, I found out that one of my investigators in Trenton went up to Elder Ford and told him that she and her whole family want to be baptized. I'm pretty excited for them. She has given up her whole life so she can be baptized. Hopefully I will be able to go up there for the baptism, probably not though...a little far.
I'm glad that Dad invited everyone to join in on the BOM challenge. I'm loving it. I am a little behind schedule because I left my bag at another missionary apt. for a couple of days with my book in it, but I will be catching up.
Thanks for all the prayers for us to receive some ward missionaries It sounds like hopefully they will be sustained this Sunday. It will be a big help.
I gotta run, makin it short since it isn't p day.
I love y'all!!!
Love Elder Nelson
Monday, May 21, 2012
May 21, 2012
Hey y'all!!!
Mom, that song you were talking about in your letter about the guiding lights in the storm... that has actually been one of President Peterson's favorite analogies to use. I love the story, how they had the two lights and when the boats lined them up, they knew they were driving down the safest path. President always talks about how Christ is the higher light and we are the lower light. We have to be obedient so that we are in the right place and then we can help to guide the people we meet. If we aren't where we are supposed to be it is of no use. Pretty cool.
Anyways, in the Little Rock ward things are going pretty good. In the past the missionaries have had a tough time with the ward here (we weren't allowed in ward council or PEC. There are no ward missionaries and they never did any missionary activities or what not). But, I was able to go talk with the Bishop last week and he allowed us to go into Ward Correlation and talk about missionary work, and things are looking good. We are planning a movie night where members can bring friends just to watch a church movie, as well as organizing a Bible study class one night a week. They are also extending some callings to Ward Missionaries. We ask for your prayers on that because they have had a tough time finding members to accept the calling. Anywho, it is going to be a big help to be able to get in and find out what is going on in the ward and whatnot.
We had a Zone Conference on Tuesday that was kind of the grand finale to Atonement week, and it was awesome. We watched the video that I forwarded to you (you should post it on the blog) it is amazing, gave me a whole new perspective on the Atonement.
Things are pretty good here. Elder Pinchak was actually moved down to Benton Arkansas, so Elder Vea and I are taking over the area and we don't know anything about it yet, so things are a little slow, but they will get better.
Thanks for everything y'all!
Love ya!
Elder Nelson
Mom, that song you were talking about in your letter about the guiding lights in the storm... that has actually been one of President Peterson's favorite analogies to use. I love the story, how they had the two lights and when the boats lined them up, they knew they were driving down the safest path. President always talks about how Christ is the higher light and we are the lower light. We have to be obedient so that we are in the right place and then we can help to guide the people we meet. If we aren't where we are supposed to be it is of no use. Pretty cool.
Anyways, in the Little Rock ward things are going pretty good. In the past the missionaries have had a tough time with the ward here (we weren't allowed in ward council or PEC. There are no ward missionaries and they never did any missionary activities or what not). But, I was able to go talk with the Bishop last week and he allowed us to go into Ward Correlation and talk about missionary work, and things are looking good. We are planning a movie night where members can bring friends just to watch a church movie, as well as organizing a Bible study class one night a week. They are also extending some callings to Ward Missionaries. We ask for your prayers on that because they have had a tough time finding members to accept the calling. Anywho, it is going to be a big help to be able to get in and find out what is going on in the ward and whatnot.
We had a Zone Conference on Tuesday that was kind of the grand finale to Atonement week, and it was awesome. We watched the video that I forwarded to you (you should post it on the blog) it is amazing, gave me a whole new perspective on the Atonement.
Things are pretty good here. Elder Pinchak was actually moved down to Benton Arkansas, so Elder Vea and I are taking over the area and we don't know anything about it yet, so things are a little slow, but they will get better.
Thanks for everything y'all!
Love ya!
Elder Nelson
May 20, 2012
Today we were able to drive down to Spanish Fork and visit with The Crotts Family. Elder Landon Crotts served with Jake last year in Southaven, MS. They were great companions and very hard workers. It was a joy for us to meet this great family, and visit with them about their missions and of course our missionary. Landon is now home with his 2 years behind him. We appreciate him as Jake's companion, and know that Jake felt the same.
Monday, May 14, 2012
May 14, 2012
Hey Y'all,
I'm going to keep it short since I was able to talk to y'all yesterday. It was awesome being able to see and talk with everyone. Seems like everyone is doing really well. The kids have grown up so much. It's crazy... Thank y'all for all that you do.
Love you!
Elder Nelson
I'm going to keep it short since I was able to talk to y'all yesterday. It was awesome being able to see and talk with everyone. Seems like everyone is doing really well. The kids have grown up so much. It's crazy... Thank y'all for all that you do.
Love you!
Elder Nelson
Awesome Mother's Day Call...
May 13, 2012
Best Mother's Day ever...
It was just wonderful to be able to talk and "Skype" with our cute Missionary!!!
He looked great, and seemed happy and working hard in Arkansas. The entire
family was able to talk to him, along with a few choice songs from the Grandkids...
We are so very grateful and proud of the work he is doing and the fine "Man" he
is becoming...
We love you Elder!
Best Mother's Day ever...
It was just wonderful to be able to talk and "Skype" with our cute Missionary!!!
He looked great, and seemed happy and working hard in Arkansas. The entire
family was able to talk to him, along with a few choice songs from the Grandkids...
We are so very grateful and proud of the work he is doing and the fine "Man" he
is becoming...
We love you Elder!
Monday, May 7, 2012
May 7, 201s
Hey Y'all!!!
We had a crazy week this week. Our baptisms didn't go through, they aren't quite ready, but we are still working with them.
So to the craziness. I attached a video up top that happened literally 500 feet from our house. It was nuts.
Basically, a 14 year old boy stole a wallet from a man at a gas station, and so the man chased him down in his mini van and literally ran him down. Actually killed him. ???
Then on Thursday we are out on our porch eating lunch and this drunk lady starts cussing us out. So we were just kinda listening and laughing, when suddenly this guy walks past... he stops right in from of us and says "Hey, I'm Elvis", and then begins to sing and dance for us. Then just gave us a wink and continued on his way... THEN... Saturday night the same drunk lady comes up and was yelling stuff, but then she said she was homeless and needed food, and we had some leftover Little Caesar's in the fridge, so I heated some up for her and when I walked out, this little kid was there asking for some, so I gave some to him too. We sat there while she ate and then told her we had to get in. So, we go inside and a couple minutes later all of a sudden someone is trying to come through our front door, then through the back door, so we turned out all of the nights and found us a few blunt objects to use as weapons. haha Well, it all stopped so we get in bed and 15 minutes later we hear some arguing on our front porch that is followed by 4 gunshots...and by front porch, I mean ON OUR FRONT PORCH. It was nuts! It's all good though, we just went to sleep and no one else bothered us. Needless to say, I love this area. Every day there is something new and unexpected. Can't wait to talk to you guys next week. Not sure what time or if I will be able to skype...
Love y'all!!!!
Love Elder Nelson
We had a crazy week this week. Our baptisms didn't go through, they aren't quite ready, but we are still working with them.
So to the craziness. I attached a video up top that happened literally 500 feet from our house. It was nuts.
Basically, a 14 year old boy stole a wallet from a man at a gas station, and so the man chased him down in his mini van and literally ran him down. Actually killed him. ???
Then on Thursday we are out on our porch eating lunch and this drunk lady starts cussing us out. So we were just kinda listening and laughing, when suddenly this guy walks past... he stops right in from of us and says "Hey, I'm Elvis", and then begins to sing and dance for us. Then just gave us a wink and continued on his way... THEN... Saturday night the same drunk lady comes up and was yelling stuff, but then she said she was homeless and needed food, and we had some leftover Little Caesar's in the fridge, so I heated some up for her and when I walked out, this little kid was there asking for some, so I gave some to him too. We sat there while she ate and then told her we had to get in. So, we go inside and a couple minutes later all of a sudden someone is trying to come through our front door, then through the back door, so we turned out all of the nights and found us a few blunt objects to use as weapons. haha Well, it all stopped so we get in bed and 15 minutes later we hear some arguing on our front porch that is followed by 4 gunshots...and by front porch, I mean ON OUR FRONT PORCH. It was nuts! It's all good though, we just went to sleep and no one else bothered us. Needless to say, I love this area. Every day there is something new and unexpected. Can't wait to talk to you guys next week. Not sure what time or if I will be able to skype...
Love y'all!!!!
Love Elder Nelson
Monday, April 30, 2012
April 30, 2012
What up y'all!!
We had us an awesome week. Krystal was baptized on Wednesday, and it went great. We also set 8 other dates for this next month! We were pretty stoked. President was thinking about closing down Maple Street a few weeks back because it wasn't producing any success, but I don't think he will be able to now! Krystal's three daughters, Infinity, Adriana and Heaven have a date for this Saturday, we also have 2 scheduled for the 16th with a guy banned Jerry and a day named Denise. Then on the 26th we have a family that we found, Deborah, Jammell and Tayana. They are all really cool. I am really glad to be here.
I am glad that you were able to meet Badge! Don't worry too much about what he said about Maple Street. It's not too terribly bad. haha Although I did get hit up for food, and cussed out nearly every day this week! I love it! Luckily my comp isn't too scared of it. The other night we had just finished planning and we were siting on the porch. This drunk lady comes by and starts to cuss us out and yell at us. So, Elder Vea (who was on the phone with a member) yells out "Hey, REPENT," so she comes running back and he keeps yelling "REPENT" haha it was pretty funny to hear him with his broken english..
The other day we went to do some community service at a local park, and we were off in the woods clearing some brush for a hiking trail and all of a sudden he is at the top of this big hill doing some kind of rain dance. All of the guys we were working with are on parole and had to be there and they are yelling at him to stop so it doesn't start to rain. So then he started doing the Hakkah! They were really surprised t hough when he told them his favorite meat was their prized fighting dog... It was a really fun morning. He has taught me a couple tongan words and phrases, so the whole time we were pretending to talk back in forth in Tongan, in all reality I was just saying "this food is really good" over and over again.
Anywhos, keep us and our investigators in your prayers!
Love y'all!
Elder Nelson
ps. I received your package and letter... thank you so much.
We had us an awesome week. Krystal was baptized on Wednesday, and it went great. We also set 8 other dates for this next month! We were pretty stoked. President was thinking about closing down Maple Street a few weeks back because it wasn't producing any success, but I don't think he will be able to now! Krystal's three daughters, Infinity, Adriana and Heaven have a date for this Saturday, we also have 2 scheduled for the 16th with a guy banned Jerry and a day named Denise. Then on the 26th we have a family that we found, Deborah, Jammell and Tayana. They are all really cool. I am really glad to be here.
I am glad that you were able to meet Badge! Don't worry too much about what he said about Maple Street. It's not too terribly bad. haha Although I did get hit up for food, and cussed out nearly every day this week! I love it! Luckily my comp isn't too scared of it. The other night we had just finished planning and we were siting on the porch. This drunk lady comes by and starts to cuss us out and yell at us. So, Elder Vea (who was on the phone with a member) yells out "Hey, REPENT," so she comes running back and he keeps yelling "REPENT" haha it was pretty funny to hear him with his broken english..
The other day we went to do some community service at a local park, and we were off in the woods clearing some brush for a hiking trail and all of a sudden he is at the top of this big hill doing some kind of rain dance. All of the guys we were working with are on parole and had to be there and they are yelling at him to stop so it doesn't start to rain. So then he started doing the Hakkah! They were really surprised t hough when he told them his favorite meat was their prized fighting dog... It was a really fun morning. He has taught me a couple tongan words and phrases, so the whole time we were pretending to talk back in forth in Tongan, in all reality I was just saying "this food is really good" over and over again.
Anywhos, keep us and our investigators in your prayers!
Love y'all!
Elder Nelson
ps. I received your package and letter... thank you so much.
April 29, 2012
We had the wonderful opportunity of attending Elder Badger's homecoming today... He and Jake served together in Frayser, TN last year and had some awesome experiences together. It was so special to hear him speak of people we had heard about, and about our son as well. He was an incredible missionary and of course made us miss our Elder...
When he heard where Jake is serving now, he just shook his head and said, "I could tell you stories, but you wouldn't sleep again, so I won't"... That certainly helped??? haha Our Elder has assured us that he is protected not only by the spirit, but by his large Tongan companion.... Thanks to both!!
When he heard where Jake is serving now, he just shook his head and said, "I could tell you stories, but you wouldn't sleep again, so I won't"... That certainly helped??? haha Our Elder has assured us that he is protected not only by the spirit, but by his large Tongan companion.... Thanks to both!!
Monday, April 23, 2012
April 22, 2012
Hey Y'all!
I don't have a lot of time, but my new area is awesome. It is the same place they took us the day we entered the field, back a year and a half ago. (I even got a picture yesterday of the first house I knocked).
The area is called Maple Street. It is the smallest area in our mission, in the inner city of Little Rock. It is a pretty rough place. We get broken into every once in awhile, I had heard, but all is good because my companion is a big guy!!! His name is Elder Vea, and he is awesome. He is from Tonga and this is his first time in the United States. I am loving it. We are in a ward with 4 other missionaries, so that is fun.
We had a pretty cool experience this week. They have been teaching this family but weren't able to set a date with them. On Thursday, we had an awesome lesson with them and were able to set a date for the 5th. anywho, we went to this appointment with them and another set of missionaries and their investigators, and the other missionary's investigator had their Pastor there and an anti video that they started showing us. So we kind of started bashing a bit, (threw down on them pretty good), but we were nervous that we may have lost our investigator "Krystal" and her family. Well, after we left they called and said that we had handled ourselves like true Christians, unlike the other people, and from what they had seen and heard, they knew or Church was even more true. So we asked them if they wanted to move their date up, and now at least Krystal is going to be baptized this Wednesday. We are pumped.
So, answers to your questions:
I haven't received your package yet, because everything has to go through the mission home, so it won't get stolen. They will get it to me at the next meeting.
Our new area is dangerous, but we are protected.
We are about 45 minutes from the mission home.
I told Elder Badger to give you a hug at his homecoming...
I love you guys!
Hope all is well...
Ofa Lahi Atu!!!
Elder Nelson
I don't have a lot of time, but my new area is awesome. It is the same place they took us the day we entered the field, back a year and a half ago. (I even got a picture yesterday of the first house I knocked).
The area is called Maple Street. It is the smallest area in our mission, in the inner city of Little Rock. It is a pretty rough place. We get broken into every once in awhile, I had heard, but all is good because my companion is a big guy!!! His name is Elder Vea, and he is awesome. He is from Tonga and this is his first time in the United States. I am loving it. We are in a ward with 4 other missionaries, so that is fun.
We had a pretty cool experience this week. They have been teaching this family but weren't able to set a date with them. On Thursday, we had an awesome lesson with them and were able to set a date for the 5th. anywho, we went to this appointment with them and another set of missionaries and their investigators, and the other missionary's investigator had their Pastor there and an anti video that they started showing us. So we kind of started bashing a bit, (threw down on them pretty good), but we were nervous that we may have lost our investigator "Krystal" and her family. Well, after we left they called and said that we had handled ourselves like true Christians, unlike the other people, and from what they had seen and heard, they knew or Church was even more true. So we asked them if they wanted to move their date up, and now at least Krystal is going to be baptized this Wednesday. We are pumped.
So, answers to your questions:
I haven't received your package yet, because everything has to go through the mission home, so it won't get stolen. They will get it to me at the next meeting.
Our new area is dangerous, but we are protected.
We are about 45 minutes from the mission home.
I told Elder Badger to give you a hug at his homecoming...
I love you guys!
Hope all is well...
Ofa Lahi Atu!!!
Elder Nelson
April 15, 2012
Well, thanks to the wonderful people of Humboldt and Trenton, Tennessee... We have heard that our son is safe and sound in "North Little Rock, Arkansas" We appreciate all of the texts and e-mails from members of his Branch, who love him and wrote to let us know how special he is to them and the mission. Your southern hospitality to our "Elder" has meant so very much to us, we know that you will always be special to "Elder Nelson".
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
April 17, 2012
Hey y'all,
So, I got the transfer call this morning... really weird, I have now been here for 6 months, but it has flown by. I'm not too happy I am having to head out. Elder Ford text President and asked if I could be left here, but it sounds like I'm needed elsewhere.
This past week has been an interesting one. We are pushing George's date back because he just isn't quite ready. We want to make sure he understands what he is doing. Hopefully in a couple of weeks he will be baptized. We found out on Wednesday that one of our investigators passed away. Her daughter who is like 30 asked us to come over and talk to the family. We had a good talk with them. We were really glad that even though they are very active in another church they trusted us enough to have us come over and help out. We have a lot of hope for them. It is a husband and wife and their 5 kids. The wife is a sister to a member of the Branch up here. They have started into the Book of Mormon, and we are praying they will find answers as they go.
Talk to y'all next week from wherever the heck I end up. There are like 20 areas opening up, so it could be anywhere.
Love ya,
Elder Nelson
Monday, April 9, 2012
April 9, 2012
Hey y'all,
We had a good week this Easter. We are getting a little more settled into our new place, we do have hot water! Now we just need to get a stove, refrigerator and a dish washer.
We had a bit of an uneventful week. We did have an awesome lesson with a family we started teaching. The mom is the sister of a member here. On the way over, the member called us and said "I can't be there tonight, but I just found out that they have invited a baptist preacher over too", So we were preparing for the worst, and praying for the best. When we first got there he hadn't shown up yet, so we started praying that he wouldn't come. Haha. We definitely wouldn't have had a problem bashing with him, but the spirit is never there when someone bashes. Well, he just decided not to show, and we had an awesome lesson. Hopefully we will be able to go back by and see them again soon.
Being District Leader is going pretty well. It is a bit stressful, having to plan a District meeting every week. Right now I am still praying and trying to figure out what to do it on tomorrow. As some added incentive, President Peterson is going to start visiting Dist. Meetings, so that will add some pressure, but it is all good. They always end up being okay.
Elder Ford and I did receive your package, and he said to tell you thanks! We both wore our new ties to church and had quite a few compliments on them.
Hope all is well back home!!
Love, Elder Nelson
Monday, April 2, 2012
April 2, 2012 THE BIG MOVE TO HUMBOLDT!!!
Hello!!!
This week was pretty awesome! On Tuesday we had District meeting and I was able to get Sister Olinger to come share her testimony with the District, it went really well. Then, I went to Dyersburg on an exchange and to interview a family that they baptized this week. It was really cool. Doing baptismal interviews is one of my favorite things to do now.
On Friday we officially moved down to Humboldt. We have been roughing it a bit, we had no running water until this morning so we had filled up a barrel with water and were using that to take I guess a sponge bath. Also, with no running water meant no toilets, so the back yard doubled as a commode. We finally got the water on this morning, so we had a shower. Problem is that there is no hot water... It was rough.
Conference was pretty awesome. The satellite was down, so Saturday morning we went down to Jackson and watched. We had one of our investigators able to come down, his name is George.Elder Scott's talk I got the impression that we needed to call one of our investigators named Cory that we hadn't seen in a few months. I called him up and invited him to come to Priesthood with us. We all hopped a ride with Brother Fisher down tho Jackson again. Yesterday we went back down there again to watch Sunday sessions and in-between we went with the Sisters serving there to a members house for lunch.
Well I would keep writing but my time on the computer is up.
Love y'all!!
Love Elder Nelson
Sunday, April 1, 2012
A wonderful visit with the Fishers
We had a wonderful visit with the "Fishers" from Humboldt, Tennessee, who live in the Branch where Jake is serving. They were in Salt Lake for a few days, so we were able to get together for lunch and spend time hearing all about our son and his service. They truly love him as their own, and we are so grateful to this great couple who are taking care of our son. We loved hearing what a fine missionary he is and how hard he works. We are so proud! During lunch, Brother Fisher just happened to get a text from an Elder Nelson", but because he is a rule keeper, we only got a "Hello" through Bro. Fisher, and a friendly wager that his mother would cry before the visit was over. Sorry Brother Fisher, I couldn't hold back the tears knowing they would be hugging him before I would. We send a very warm thank you to these wonderful people and all of the people of the South who are taking such good care of our son.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
March 26, 2012
Hello family,
It is so weird to hear about all of the younger guys in the ward heading out on their missions. Aren't they like 10 years younger than me??
This past week was pretty awesome, we started working more with some of the investigators we had found and were able to set 4 dates. Only one of them came to church, his name is George, and he seemed to like it. After he asked us to give him a blessing because he is going in for back surgery today. We also had a training meeting down in Memphis that was pretty awesome. We talked about the importance of the spirit. It was pretty cool right when we got back from the meeting we were on a real spiritual high and had some of the most spiritual lessons ever. They also were so much smoother and different than most. Kind of gave me a glimpse of what we can do with the spirit.
So, this morning one of the memos here, Brother Warren picked us up and took us fishing here in Trenton. It was a ton of fun. We each caught about 4 fish each and I caught my first catfish! Then he took us to his place and cooked us up some deer steaks. Just FYI, I'm going to move back to the South...I'm buyin into the southern way of life.
We are going to be moving down to Humboldt this week, so it you send anything you can send it to our new address at 163 Medina Hwy, Humboldt, TN. 38343
I love you all!!
Love Elder Jake Nelson
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
March 19, 2012
Hello family,
We had ourselves a pretty awesome week. President Peterson gave all the missionaries a challenge to find one new investigator each day this week. We got out and contacted a ton of people and were able to get one every day and ended up with 10 , it was awesome. Hopefully, it will mean a lot of teaching this coming week. We probably won't be moving until the Fishers get back from Utah.
So Wednesday we were walking around talking to people in Humboldt down in the ghetto. We came up on the local basketball courts and there were about 50 kids out playing ball. We went up to contact some and see if we could get some investigators to teach and they started heckling us a little bit, so I challenged one of them to a basketball game. It got a pretty good laugh from the crowd that this white boy in church clothes was going to play, until I stomped the first kid. Well the rules of the court are that if you win, you keep playing until you loose a game. Well, I ended up playing 10 games and never lost , so I just told them we had to go. One of the kids there named Reggie is a pretty religious kid, and started asking us some questions. We ended up teaching him and he is pretty interested in the church. We are going to keep teaching him. It was pretty cool and a lot of fun. Now when we walk through Humboldt, everyone knows us and gives us shout outs. Hopefully we can have ourselves another good week this week.
I love you guys! Hope all is well...
Love, Elder Nelson
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Transfers...So long Elder Dannatt, Hello Elder Ford!
It's been a great few months with Elder Dannatt. Good luck to you Elder... You've been a great companion and missionary...
Welcome Elder Ford... to Trenton Tennessee...
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
March 12, 2012
Hey y'all!!!
We had a pretty awesome week. I dropped off Elder Dannatt on Wednesday, he was transferred to Pine Bluff Arkansas, I have only talked to him once since he left though.
My new companion is Elder Ford, from Layton Utah. He has now been on his Mission for 6 months. He spent the first 6 down in Memphis, in a place called Orange Mound.
How is Oklahoma? You still need to be sure and send me a t shirt from there. I'm glad you noticed how many churches there are. Haha. It's nuts huh? From the library we are at I could throw a rock and hit probably 8 different churches. Y'all should drive through the ghetto once while you are there. It is interesting to see little houses with church signs out front. I'm still trying to figure out what the difference between 1st, 2nd, southern, and all of the like 1000's of them. It's nuts.
We had a pretty good week this week. We ended up having 5 people to church which was awesome. The Branch Presidents wife invited her friend and kids. Hopefully we will be able to keep teaching them. The kids loved church.
We aren't sure when exactly we are going to be moving down to Humbolt, should be in the next two weeks. We just need to finish up a little on the house down there. We are pretty excited. It's a nice place. I'll get y'all the address as soon as I remember to.
Anywho, I love y'all, thanks for all you do.
Love, Elder Nelson
Monday, March 5, 2012
March 5, 2012
Hello,
So we got transfer calls this morning, and Elder Dannatt will be leaving me. So on Wednesday we will head down to Memphis and find out who the new guy is and head back and get to work. We had a pretty good week, we did some more service, and we are working on getting the members more involved in missionary work. We changed around a lot of the things that we have been doing, hoping to get some better results. So far it seems to be going pretty well. We have been teaching a couple named Mitch and Emily who have 2 kids, and we found out this week that Mitch is good friends with Andrew Turner in the Branch, so Andrew went and talked with him and invited him over to his house for dinner to talk about the church. So we are really excited about that.
I talked to the Loval High School Baseball coach down here and I am going over to work out with the team on Monday afternoons until the season starts. That should be pretty fun. I know a couple of the guys on the team just from going around talking to people, so I will see if we can use it for missionary work as well.
We also are going too be moving down to Humboldt sometime between now and April 1st. Humboldt is geographically better for us. Brother Fisher has a house he has been trying to rent out and he talked with the financial secretary of the mission and they worked out a deal so we get to go and live there! It's going to be pretty cool. It is a nice house just east of Humboldt on the Medina Hwy.
Anywho, thanks for the shoes, they are great, a little snug on the feet, but they will stretch out a little bit. They were much needed, we have been doing a lot of service as of late and I worked right through the soles of my other shoes.
Love you guys!
Elder nelson
Monday, February 27, 2012
February 27, 2012
Hey y'all!!!
Had a weird week. I told you that we were going down to Memphis for a mission tour and to hear Elder Allen speak. He is the head of the missionary department for the church. We went down there on Thursday and it was awesome, and I also stayed down for Leadership training on Friday. Both days war intend to Elder Allen and President Peterson as well as a guy named Brother Donaldson for about 7 hours. It was sweet. The mission is going to change a ton. They talked about some of the things that the mission has done just as traditions, like a conference call every Monday night with the leadership in the mission. Well, all the things that aren't in the book are now gone, so we won't have months zone meetings either, which means I get to prepare more district meetings... We are pretty excited though. He also said no more tracking!?!? haha his words were "it's stupid, it's unproductive, stop... so we are going to be working a lot more with the members. It is going to be a lot different, but will boost the mission in the long run. We have been averaging about 30 baptisms a month as a mission, but we have set a goal to start getting 80 and then go even farther and get 150 a month! We are really excited.
Next week we will find out who is getting transferred, but it is sounding like Elder Dannatt will be leaving. It is pretty amazing how much he has grown over the last couple of months. It has been pretty cool to watch.
Tell everyone hello for me!
I love you guys!
Love, Elder Nelson
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
February 21, 2012
Hey family!
So, the baptism this week... It will go down As the most difficult baptism of my mission. Everything that could go wrong, did. I will have to give you the details once I get home. BUT it happened, and it ended up being awesome. Demitri got a call Saturday night that his mom had gone in for surgery and had some complications. He had to hop on a bus at 9:00 that night for North Carolina, so he hasn't been confirmed yet, but should be this week or next.
This upcoming Week is going to be pretty cool as well. Today we are going to help a member move, which will probably take most of the day, tomorrow we are first going to help the Branch President cut some limbs out of his tree, then we are going down to Humbolt to help the Fishers out. He is having to get everything moved out of his old house Wednesday, because the lady he sold it to is moving in. We are also helping him put a kitchen in...the Fishers are the Corbetts of Treton, they are awesome, they usually feed us a couple times a week. They have a couple of sons who are living in Utah, I think one lives in Taylorsville, the other in Mapleton?
Anywho, then on Thursday, we are going to Memphis for a mission tour. Elder Allen, who is over the missionary department of the church is visiting the mission, so he will be speaking to us. We are all pretty excited, then we may be doing some service on Saturday, so it is going to be an interesting week. Hopefully we will be able to find some people to teach and get some lessons in between service and Memphis.
I love you guys!
Love, Elder Nelson
Monday, February 13, 2012
February 13, 2012
Hey all!!!
We had us a really good week. Elder Hanneman and Elder Gerber came up and worked with us one day this week. Elder Hanneman is the one that is going to play baseball and football at BYU. It was a lot of fun and we got some good work one. We also woke up a little early and went over to the high school and ran some stairs on the bleachers and then got to throw the football a bit. It was fun.
I got to climb a few trees this week, haha it was fun. I had to coup and cut down some limbs out of a members tree that were about to fall. I also fell about 15 feet out of a tree, the limb I was holding on to broke, but like a cat, I landed on my feet. It was pretty sweet.
Demitri had his interview this week, and all went well. He will be getting baptized this coming Saturday and he is going to have Elder Dannatt do it!! It will be his first time!
Today we are going down to Humboldt and spend the day hanging with Dustin and Dimitri. We are supposed to play some basketball, but I guess a pretty bad storm is heading our way, so we may not be able to.
I love you guys, talk to ya later!
Love Elder Nelson
Monday, February 6, 2012
February 6, 2012
Oi!
Hello Everyone!
We had a really good week this week. I don't ;know if I ever told you about Demitri, he is a friend of some members here that we have been teaching for awhile. We could never figure out what was holding him back, but we had a lesson with him this week and finally were able to figure it out, and set a date with him for the 17th. We are excited for it.
That's pretty exciting Elder Crawford is heading out, he is going to love it out here. The ALRM is the greatest mission in the world. Hopefully he at least serves around me so I can say hello to him!
I had my first district meeting this week, I really don't know how it went, but Elder Dannatt said it was good, but he is probably lying. We talked about extending and helping investigators keep commitments, our district has run into some trouble getting people to church. It definitely is a little stressful preparing for District meetings, but it's all good. Other than that we are doing quite a bit of finding. It is a little more difficult finding people to teach in the winter because not as many are outside, but we are gettin the job done anyways.
I love ya'll Thanks for everything!
Love Elder Nelson
Monday, January 30, 2012
January 30, 2012
Hello,
This week has been weird! I can't believe that Elder Boice is home. When I came into the field, he was 10 1/2 months out, now he is gone... haha really weird! I learned so much from that dang kid, I really don't know how I would have made it my first two transfers of my mission if I had been trained by anyone else.
Anywho, this week was pretty cool.. We knocked a ton of doors and found some really cool people. We were supposed to have like 7 people to church...none of them showed, that is what we used to refer to as the famous Blytheville let down. It's all good though, we are going to keep working with them and good things should happen.
So ya, President Petersen called me on Monday, and called me as District Leader. I'm over the youngest district in the mission. We have 3 new missionaries, and the oldest missionary besides me has only been out 8 months. They are all grew missionaries though. My District consists of the sisters serving in Jackson, the Elders in Dyersburg, and us. Each week I will prepare a district meeting, we just discuss the work and other stuff, as well, each Sunday the other areas will call in to me and report their numbers of the week, I record them and then call the zone leaders down in Frayser and report to them. I as well will go on exchanges with Dyersburg at least once a transfer. Normally I would with all the areas in the district, but since the Jackson missionaries are Sisters, I won't be going down there, It will be pretty cool. I have been a little stressed about preparing District meetings, but I'm excited for it. I get the same feelings as when I was first out and preparing to teach Gospel principles each week. It scared me to death but that was one of the things that helped me a lot in learning to teach, so I know that this will help me grow as well. I will also perform the baptismal interviews for those being baptized in Dyersburg and in Jackson. I'm excited for that, I have heard that baptismal interviews are great experiences.
This week Kollin Newhouse came to church in a white shirt and tie and passed the sacrament again, it is so cool seeing recent converts begin to get involved in the church. Briana also sang in their sacrament meeting down in Jackson. I haven't heard how it went, but still awesome that she was able to do that.
At church one of the members started talking about how I needed to run for president, she got quite a few members to agree with it. Haha. And I was thinking back because for some reason I have had so many people tell me things I should be when I grow up...so far the ones I remember are... President, preacher, pilot, surgeon, Pediatrician, comedian, sports therapist, model ???
Janitor, talk show host, sports analyst, astronaut, fire fighter, police officer, motivational speaker, mountain man, actor, pyro technician, professor... Haha and there have been many others... I think the one that suits me best is janitor. I'm really good at unclogging toilets. Oh! And I was told I need to be a boxer... I really have no idea where all these came from, but ya,don't even know why I'm telling you about it either.
Love y'all,
Elder Nelson
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)