Well howdy! To answer your question dad, no your emails aren't to long. I can read pretty fast, and I have time to read them, and if I don't I can just print them out. They're great! Also thanks for the package Mom and Grandma! They were great! I love all the stuff that you sent me from your mission grandma. There's a lot of things in there that I can learn from!
Well as you can see, from the subject, we've been knocking a lot! Nothing out of the ordinary though. That's really all you can do to find in this area is knock. Its all residential like I told you, but we're really trying to talk with everyone, so whenever we're driving somewhere in our area and we see someone on the street, we pull up next to them in our car and start talking to them. When I was with Elder Smith in West Hills, he told me that he and couple of other missionaries in the zone would even stop cars to talk to people. He found a really solid investigator family by doing that. We haven't tried it yet, but we will at some point. Needless to say we're talking to a lot of people, especially our area, and seeing a lot of miracles in our area and throughout the zone. It's awesome!
We went on exchanges Tuesday to Wednesday with some of the Sylmar Elders. I went up to Sylmar with one of them and they're are just killing it in their area. They have so many investigators and are finding a ton! We found 4 new investigators that day and talked to a lot of people. I was in the zone working in the ghetto up there. So fun! The missionary I went with is so solid. His name is elder Jones and he's from Idaho Falls. He's only been out for 4 months, but he's great. We found a family and taught another person just knocking. Miracles are going down up there.
On Wednesday we knocked and knocked and then knocked some more. We got a few potential investigators and set up appointments with them. That's the thing about this area. We are setting up a ton of appointments with people and they're all falling through. I guess that's the problem with every area, but somewhere, somehow, some of them will eventually go through. The conversations we're having with people are really good too. That's another focus. Have quality conversations with people about the gospel. Its not just about the quanitity. That night we taught the Wilsons again. We watched a church movie with them and the spirit just flooded the room. Once it was over, we kind of just sat there in silence listening to the spirit for something to say. Eventually each of us bore testimony of the savior and the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was awesome. They're taking us out to dinner tomorrow and then we're going to continue teaching them. I think the more they feel the spirit, the more they'll want to come back to church.
I went on another exchange on Thursday with Elder H in North Hollywood. That area is exploding with work too. Elder H was trained for 6 weeks by my trainer Elder ehninger. He's changed a lot since the start of his mission and he and his companion are seeing a lot of miracles. They probably have the most investigators in the zone right now that they're actively teaching and they are finding some pretty golden people. They don't really knock in their area since there are so many people on the street, but we knocked for about 30 minutes and found a new investigator from it. It was great. We also talked to an atheist dude who tried to bash with us. His point was that you can't just believe people because they tell you something. I didn't try to argue with him. Actually I didn't say anything at all, but elder Hyde did. it went nowhere, but it got me thinking, how do we really know the truth of something? By experiencing it for yourself. When a science teacher teaches something, usually they'll have you do an experiment to experience it yourself, so that you can know the truth of the principle being taught. The same goes with everything taught whether it be on the scientific side, or the spiritual side of things. Just because someone said they did something in a lab somewhere in France, doesn't mean that you know they did it. They could be outright lying! Anyways, I won't go off rambling, but the things that that atheist told us really built my testimony of what truth is and how we can know truth. The only way to know truth is by experience and through the power of the holy ghost. Well we talked to 70 people on the exchange that day. It was great!
The next day we had to go on on an exchange with Elder S because his companion is still having concussion issues. They've been in the apartment a lot of the week. I went out with him all day while Elder F stayed with Elder C. It was good. We knocked all day again and taught some of their investigators. We exchanged back at the end of the day.
Saturday we continued to knock and knock and we found quite a few potential investigators. It was a pretty fruitful day. We also went on splits with the Armenian elders from the arcadia mission again which was fun. That night we found a new investigator! WoooooHoooo! It was interesting. We had an appointment with this family and they invited us in and started calling there whole family together almost like they've done this before. We talked to them for about five minutes and told us they were actually baptized a couple years back in Hawaii and had been sealed in the Temple and went less active. They have 3 kids. Kolbe, Naomi and Kaylyn. Naomi is 9 and isn't baptized. The parents are Jamie and Ed. They're awesome and want to have us over for dinner on Wednesday this week. They went less active because of the way the members were acting when they moved to Long Beach. They were super political and it was hurtful to them and they stopped going. They still have testimonies though and are willing to have us teach them. They don't really know if they want to come back to church yet, but we'll help them get there. We taught them the Restoration and it went well.
Sunday we didn't have anyone at church. We knocked more though and at this one door this guy named Joshua answered. He had like a surfer look to him and he talked like a surfer, except preacher style. It was an interesting experience with him. he told us that he plays piano and sings to worship and my companion was like "well lets hear ya play!" He invited us in and sung a 5 minute song to us about Jesus. It was pretty good! We then asked him how he came to have such a great faith in Christ and he told a 45 minute story that seemed very rehearsed, probably from telling it so many times, but it was moving nonetheless. He prayed for us and then we left. It was good to see that he had a faith in Christ, but he just wasn't open to more. It was fun. Experiences like that happen all the time out here, where people invite you in and then they just try to preach to you. Sometimes, some of what they preach is true, but even when you offer them more, they don't think that there is more and to say that there is more is to say that God is a liar. Its sad to see the subtle craftiness of what the philosophies of men and the devil do to people. God is continuing to reveal truth to us today and is always waiting for us to show our faith so he can bless us with knowledge. This church is so true. I don't see anyway that it possibly couldn't be. God is a god of miracles and he does not and will not stop to reveal truth to us.
Thanks for everything! I'm loving it out here and I'm seeing miracles everyday!
Elder Nelson
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