Yay, I'm 19! I'm so old I can't stand it! Ya the birthday was good! I didn't do anything special, just tracted and street contacted. We did go to Denny's with Marisa and Isaiah so that was fun. It was a solid day. Sadly I didn't get your package Mom and Emily. I did get Grandma's package and letters from the Kings and Edlings though! Thanks for that! They were awesome! Hopefully your package makes its way around to me soon! Preferrably this week sometime because transfers are next week and I'm probably leaving. It's not very common for a missionary to stay five transfers in the same area in this mission, but it does happen, and I have a weird feeling that it might happen to me just because I'm so ready to leave the area. I love the area, but I'm just ready to go somewhere else. If I do stay, it will be interesting, but I can handle it. I do get to go to the temple this Wednesday for my birthday with Elder Baughan and I'm really looking forward to that.
This past week was a little slower than usual. We didn't find anybody new and didn't teach as much as usual. The Nicklow family canceled their appointment with us and are going out of town this week to go camping, so we won't be seeing them for another week. We did teach Bertha this past Tuesday. She is still as prepared as ever. We had a good lesson on the importance of the Book of Mormon and reviewed the Restoration with her. She told us that she believes all of it. She had tried to read the Book of Mormon during the week, but she said she can't read the text because its to small, so we're getting a large print copy for her. She is a little harder to teach because she talks a lot, but she's awesome. She told us she wants her son to start learning with her too and to bring him to church. She also said that the 7th day Adventist that she's meeting with is wanting her to be baptized in that church, but she said she won't do it, because she doesn't feel that its right. That's good. She told us that she feels right about us and that we should continue to teach her before baptism. She also said that she would try to make it to church for an hour on sunday because she has to work. She didn't make it though, but hopefully next week.
We also taught James again. Despite the impression that I got from him last time about being able to understand better, I was wrong. He still can't understand. He must have a learning disability, because he told us that its really hard for him to learn anything. He is reading the Book of Mormon though and coming to church. He is still holding on to all the Catholic traditions and what not though. He can't let go of Catholicism, but that's okay considering he has a mental disability. We'll continue to try to teach him and be as patient as possible, but if he doesn't come to be able to understand during this life, I know there are missionaries waiting to teach him on the other side, where he will be free from his disabilities.
We taught the Indian family too. They are still reading the Book of Mormon as a family as well, except for the Dad. We taught them about how if the Book of Mormon is true, then there is only one true church and that church is our church. It was hard with the language barrier, but the kids understood it and accepted it. We think the Mom understood it as well. We couldn't have put it in any plainer terms. She told us she would at least try to make it church this sunday, but she didn't make it.
We only had one other investigator lesson this week and that was with Soloman, our investigator from Kenya. We haven't taught him in the last 2 weeks so we reviewed the Restoration and focused on the Priesthood. he had been reading and he believes the Book of Mormon is true. He came to the realization that what we were teaching meant that only our church holds that priesthood to baptize. He told us that he "needs us now more than ever," and that he considers that we could be "messengers from God to help him attain salvation." We were like that's exactly what we are! He committed to come to church this next week and to continue to read and pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. This lesson was a lot better than our other lessons with him, because he actually stayed on topic, rather than go off on random tangents like he usually does! It was great!
We did have two less actives come to church this week! Our Indian, Shiraz Verma and an older guy named Bro. Hurt whom started teaching a couple of weeks ago came. It was great. We also had zone conference on Wednesday for 8 hours! it was amazing! I got so much out of it! President talked a lot about the law of Consecration and how we asm missionaries get to live that law closer than at any other time in our life! We also talked a lot about tteaching lesson 5. It was so so so good. The mission is also piloting a new program called Just Serve. Each companionship in the mission is supposed to try to get 10 hours of community service in per week. It should be awesome! I love doing service! We're probably going to start volunteering at the Salvation Army and a bunch of different rehab centers around our area since we have a ton of those. It should be fun. Yup, that was my week! It was fun! I'm loving the mission! Thanks for all the Birthday wishes and everything! Love you all!
Elder Nelson
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