Southern Men clean their teeth with knives!

Elders Nelson and Allen

October 10, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

love elder nelson

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From one Mom to another...

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

October 3, 2011

Yello,

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

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

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

Love you guy!

Elder Nelson

Oi Pops,

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

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

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

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

Who is this?

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

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

The Drake Family of Southaven

The Awesome Drake Family!

September 26, 2011

Hello!

So, yes I got a new companion! His name is Elder Crotts. Elder Crotts was actually one of the first people I met on my mission, he served in west Memphis, Arkansas when I was in Blytheville and we would carpool to meetings when we had to go to Memphis. We call him "Mario Crotts" because he drives like he is in a video game. haha Anyways, he is from Spanish Fork, and a really nice kid. He is an incredible teacher, knows the scriptures really well and I am excited for this transfer to see what we can do.

So we had an interesting week. We didn't teach a whole lot because of the transfer, but got out and worked hard. On Saturday night we didn't have any new investigators for the entire week, so we went out contacting. We kept praying to find someone and we saw a family out on the porch, so we went over and talked to them and this lady named Betty said she had always wanted to read the Book of Mormon, so we gave her one and invited her to church. She was so excited to come so we set her up a ride and she came and loved it! Only thing was, we didn't go because Elder Crotts had an allergic reaction to something we ate the night before, so we spent most of the day in the apartment. It's all good though...

Crystal is still doin well. We should be meeting with her tomorrow. She was at church yesterday and is still going strong and planning to be baptized on the 8th. We are excited for it.

Not much else going on in the South... Hopefully a little more excitement to report on next week...

Love yall
Elder Nelson

PS. Can you please send me the new special edition of the Ensign, the gold one with 3 Nephi on the cover...