October 31, 2011 TRANSFERRED!

Family,

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

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

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

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

Love, Elder Nelson

Our "cute" Missionary

Brother Gossett's "sweet" Mustang

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

Peek a Boo!

Dinner at the Andrews

October 24, 2011

Hello!

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Nelson

Retireing the Swagger Wagon!

The entire Zone inside the "Swagger Wagon"

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

Success in Southaven...

Elder Nelson with Betty, an awesome lady

Elders Nelson and Crotts with Narciso, and the Sisters

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

October 17, 2011

Hey Family,

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

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

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

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

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

Love yall! Elder Nelson