Called to Serve

Called to Serve

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Mid Mission Crisis

Sounds like everything is going well at home!  Happy Birthday Grandpa, Ryan, and Jordan!  Thanks for making a rock for grandpa for me mother!  I'm excited for the package.  It sounds awesome!  How's Emily liking High School?  What classes is she taking? Alec Crosby is going to New Hampshire!?  That's so sweet!  He'll love it!  Sounds like Christopher is getting ready to go to the MTC soon!  That's exciting!  He'll be a great missionary!  Jackson is coming to California!?  He's going to freak out.  Oh well.  Weird I hit my year mark last Thursday.  I'll probably go through a mid mission crisis or something!  It doesn't feel like I've been out a year.  I don't even want to be out a year!  I still have so much I gotta do!    

Anyways, we had a pretty good week this week.  We taught Ivan again this Tuesday.  He was as gangsta as ever.  He told us he read through the Plan of Salvation Pamphlet 3 times since we saw him last and he taught us the whole plan of Salvation from beginning to end.  It was so cool!  He's great.  We taught him more about the book of Mormon and the Priesthood and Keeping the Sabbath day holy.  We committed him to baptism and he promised to come to church this Sunday.  We haven't been able to keep in contact with him though.  He wasn't home for our appointment on Friday and won't answer his phone and didn't come to church.  Ya that's how it goes most of the time when I commit someone to baptism.  They fall off the face of the Earth, but we'll keep trying by because he really does feel the spirit everytime we come over and when he reads and prays.  He told us himself he knows its all true.  

Later on Tuesday we had interviews with President Hall which was great.  I was going to ask him if I could have lunch with Lindsy since she's 10 minutes away.  I got in the interview and I immedietly knew his answer would be no, but I asked him if its okay if I see her at Stake Conferance since that is in 2 weeks.  He said to not seek her out, but that if I do see her, I can talk to her and give her a hug.  I then just asked him questions on how I can help my district. It was so good to talk to him and see him.  Interviews are like the one time that I actually get to talk to President 1 on 1 since he's so busy.  It was great.  

We also taught Lillian and Jose that night too.  Elder Blumel found them before I came in.  Lillian has been reading the Book of Mormon though and she told us she knows this gospel can help her and her son.  We taught her the Plan of Salvation and committed them to baptism and to come to church.  They didn't come to church. No one came to church, except for recent converts that we're teaching which is good. This ward has a lot of recent converts that have been starting to go less active.  The ones in our area are still going strong though and we visit and teach them regularly.  

All of our Baptismal dates dropped.  Princess Clemente is just not interested right now.  She just refuses to participate in the lessons we teach and keeps telling us that she is already going to church with her friend.  We did go on exchanges with the Zone leaders this week and she asked a ton of questions on the temple apparently, so thats good.  She'll get there one day.  She told us she knows the Book of Mormon is true.  For right now, we'll keep going over to teach her Dad the new member lessons.  Esperanza and Lluvia dropped too because I have actullay never met with them since I've come into the area.  Elder Blumel says their solid, and I beleive him, but they keep canceling appointments and are going through a lot of financial and emotional struggles right now, so the missionaries are not their top priority now.  As with Princess, They'll get there one day as well.  

We did start teaching an Armenian family this past Thursday.  Jorge and Lili.  Jorge is about 15 and is really interested in learning about other churches.  We met him on the street.  He's part of the Christian club at his school.  His mom Lili and him go to an Armenian church, but they're super nice and open.  There are a ton of Armenians here and they are super prideful about being the first christian nation in the world.  They're usually pretty closed off, but Jorge and Lili are open.  Lili didn't really understand the Restoration.  She felt the spirit though.  She doesn't speak very good english, but Jorge does.  he told us he'd read and pray.  1st Armenian investigators of my mission so far.  

Friday we went on Exchanges with the zone leaders.  I went with Elder Dahlke to his area.  it was an eventful exchange.  We taught a pretty good lesson to an investigator, and after the lesson, the member that we had with us saw his friend in one of the rooms that he hadn't seen for a couple years.  Turns out his friend used to live with a Mormon family and went to church with them.  He said that he'd sit in with them next week.  Miracle!  We also taught this guy who's father tried to bash with us in spanish.  It was quite the adventure.  It was the first time I got bashed in spanish.  His son translated, and we just said a closing prayer and left because all they wanted to do was argue.  90% of the people we talked to the whole day were Latino.  It was great!  Also at 2:30 in the morning, the fire alarm to our complex went off and we stood outside for 20 minutes while everyone in the complex just stayed inside their rooms.  Someone just pulled the fire alarm.  It was an interesting experience.  it was a lot of fun though.  Elder Dahlke is from Idaho and reminds me a lot of Jense Gray.  He plays Trombone and Jazz is one of his passions so we connected really well and had a great time.  

So ya!  It was a great week!  My district meeting went really well too.  The Kempfs  have been having a harder time.  They just barely hit their halfway point in their mission and all the people they've taught and baptized ahve gone less active.  I did my district meeting on receiving revelation for each of the areas your in and gaining a greater vision for your mission.  I related 1 Nephi 19:1-5 to missionary work and receiving revelation for each of our areas.  I learned a lot from it and afterwards the Kempfs thanked me for the district meeting and told me and the zone leaders that that was exactly what they needed to hear.  It was really good to hear that because I was really unsure if this was what the district needed going into the meeting, but it went really well and the spirit testified.  It was great!  

Well there ya have it!  That's my week!  I love you!

Elder Nelson      

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