Called to Serve

Called to Serve

Monday, June 2, 2014

Good Ole' West Hills

Hey sorry for the late email!  None of the libraries were open yesterday for Memorial day! Elder Smith is gone to Sylmar!  It's so sad!  He's in a trio over there and I'm still here in West Hills for another six weeks.  Not that that's a bad thing.  Sometimes an area just kind of wears on you if you're there for more than 2 transfers.  I love the area though.  Its awesome.  My new companion is Elder Baughan.  You may remember that I served around him in Valencia.  He's a great guy and I'm excited for this coming transfer.  We've already seen a ton of miracles together and we're getting a long well.  He's from a little town just outside of Greensborough North Carolina, called Kernersville.  He's been out for 13 months and his last companion was elder forsythe, my MTC companion!  They did really well together.  Elder Baughan hasn't changed to much since he was in Valencia.  He really is a good missionary, he just has some different views on things, but we're working together pretty good.  Both of us have different teaching styles, but that's always to be expected when you get a new comp.  He's a good teacher and loves the people.  It's awesome and I'm so glad I get to be with him and learn from him.  Another cool thing about transfers is that my trainer, Elder Ehninger was released as a zone leader and is now my district leader!  It's so cool!  he's changed a ton and has loosened up a lot from when he was with me.  he's Elder Ahn's companion in the other West Hills area.    Like I said earlier, we've had a lot of good things happen this week, mainly with Marisa.  We've been meeting nearly everyday with her and no, we are not teaching with brother Maeza anymore!  We've been teaching her at Rachel Young's, a recently return missionary who is our gospel principles teacher.  She is an amazing fellowhipper for her and Marisa has been progressing so well!  We've almost taught her all the lessons.  She met with the bishop on Sunday to talk about her financial issues.  During the meeting, bishop taught her all about tithing and fast offerings which was awesome!  Bishop is going to help her pay her gas bill as well, which was a big step for Marisa, because she hates accepting financial help.  The adversary has definitely been working on her ever since we set a baptismal date with her for June 7th, but she is perservering.  Her apartment has bedbugs, she literally has no food, and her gas is turned off, she gets no sleep because her mom has schizophrenia and she has to take care of her, plus a whole bunch of other stuff.  The amazing thing about it though, is that she's able to stay happy through it all!  She's accepting the gospel so well and she's so happy even though she has all of these trials!  She is amazing!  She has food now, but an exterminator is coming for the bed bugs this week.  We met with her yesterday night and taught her the word of wisdom and tithing and fast offerings and she accepted it all.  At the end of the lesson, we told her that bishop would be out of town for her baptism on June 7th.  We asked her if she wanted bishop to be there.  She told us that he had to be there.  We then asked her if she could do the baptism this Sunday, and she agreed.  Its so awesome!  She has her baptismal interview tomorrow and we'll be meeting with her everyday this week until her baptism on Sunday.  She asked me to baptize her and I gladly accepted.  This week is going to be crazy with all the preparation and calls we have to do to make the baptism happen on Sunday, but I feel right about doing it earlier, rather than later.  She's ready and I'm so excited.  Most of our other investigators have been falling off of the radar.  Our teaching pool is dwindling, but we found this awesome new investigator this week.  Her name is Mellisa and she's in her 20's.  She's catholic Christian and we met her by giving her a pass along card while crossing the street.  When we gave her the card, she turned around and started to talk to us and ask us questions.  We set up an appointment and she is solid!  She's catholic Christian and wants to follow Christ as close as possible.  We taught her the Restoration, and she was feeling the spirit big time!  We've met with her one other time and pointed out the spirit to her.  She told us that she doesn't want to convert, but to learn more.  her only problem is that she's scared to change and come to church.  We're going to teach her family tomorrow so we'll see how that goes.  She knows, we just need to get the family involved and it will be easier for her and them.  Our other investigator we met with this week was James.  We're about ready to drop him, just because he can't understand, due to his disability.  We've tried so many different approaches and ways to teach the restoration, and he just doesn't get it.  We're continuing to pray about and for him and we know that if we get the answer to drop him, the Lord won't hold him accountable for not being able to understand.  We finally got in contact with Penny and we set up a lesson for tomorrow as well.  She's doing a lot better and is now able to go to public places, so hopefully we can get her to church this Sunday.  Matthew Jalsevac is still crazy and his "friend girl"  who is a member in Illinois is coming down to visit next week.  He's been sober for 6 days so that's good.  The ward is doing amazing at fellowshipping Marisa.  They're calling her and she's calling them for rides and what not.  Things are great here in the village.  Street contacting is still crazy.  People aren't the nicest to missionaries, but its awesome.  I love it!  Till next week!
 
Elder Nelson
P.S. happy Birthday Ryan!!!!

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