Called to Serve

Called to Serve

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Barev zez!

Yo!  Alright so this week has been a pretty crazy as far as helping out missionaries throughout the zones go.  It's been taking some time away from the work, but whenever we have been able to work in our own area, we've seen a ton of miracles.  We've really been working on listening with love and being bold with people in our conversations and our teaching and its been awesome!  We've had some of the best conversations with people this week of my whole mission, even though only a few yielded visible results.  It's been awesome. 
 
So to start off we had an exchange with the Sylmar Elders on Tuesday.  I took the DL's companion to my area.  The exchange was alright.  The thing about it was we had to take some missionaries to the doctors and we were there for about 2 hours, so we didn't get to work as much as we would've liked, but it was good to able to help them out.  We taught a really good lesson that night to Michael and Angela who are recent converts.  Wednesday was just one of those days where everyone rejects you.  We had some really good conversations with people that were spiritual, but everyone rejected us, some hardcore, others not as much, but, the whole week kind of felt like that.  It was a good week though nonetheless.  We ran into a basher who just opened the door looked at us and just started laughing.  he then asked us, "do you even know who Joseph Smith is?"  he then went off on a whole bunch of anti-Mormon stuff about Joseph Smith.  We had a couple of those this week, but it was all good.  Every time we get that, I just gain a stronger testimony of what real truth is.  I'm really starting to understand the concept of light and truth and how more truth leads to more light and so forth, like in President Uchtdorfs talk in General conference.  That night we had dinner with the Sanchez family and invited them to Stake Conference.  They said they would pray about it and talk about it.  Nomi, their nine year old told us that she had been reading the book of Mormon and that she's been looking up a lot of the words in it in the dictionary.  She is so awesome and so smart.  Hopefully we can strengthen them enough to start coming to church.  Nomi would just eat it up.  The wife of the Sanchez family is more apprehensive about going to church than the husband.  The husband is more like a go with the flow kind of guy while the wife is more controlling and likes structure.  Their awesome though.  Bishop is going to go over there this week and introduce himself and sit down with them to talk.  Should be good.  Thursday was a long day.  We had weekly planning and we ended up driving up to Santa Clarita to grab the old Burbank 2nd sisters apartment keys to get there area book for The B2 elders.  The sisters area closed down so those elders cover the whole ward now.   The rest of the night we knocked and we also taught the Wilsons.  They are doing well, but are still resisting coming to church for some reason.    They are reading the scriptures now though which is good.  Friday we went on exchanges with the Burbank 1st Elders and I went with the DL in that area.  Elder Kosmicki.  He's been out for 6 months and is a good missionary and really confident in what he's doing.  It was a good exchange.  That morning elder Smith and I taught a lesson with bishop to a former investigator named Elizabeth.  She is awesome.  it was an amazing lesson and she was crying at the end of it.  She felt the spirit and accepted all of it and committed to be baptized.  She wants to go to a baptism though before we put her on a date.  She is great.  Saturday we did service for a member.  We helped him lay sod on his lawn.  After we knocked and then went to the Saturday Session of Stake Conference with Elder Sitate of the Seventy and Elder Sabin of the San Diego Area Presidency.  It was awesome!  On Sunday our Stake Presidency got reorganized and Our ward mission leader got called as the second counselor!  So we don't have a ward mission leader anymore.  He was the best ward mission leader I've ever had on the mission.  It was sad but he'll do amazing in the stake presidency.  The group that was called are powerhouse together.  The rest of the day, we knocked and went and helped out some missionaries with companionship sturggles.  it was a good week and I learned so much!  I love you all and I'm praying for you!
 
Elder Nelson 

Monday, November 10, 2014

Amazing Week!

So this week was amazing!  We ended making a last ditch effort to teach Chad on Tuseday!  We were going to explain to him that we were going to drop him if he wouldn't keep his commitments and start coming to church.  As soon as he opened the door you could tell that he was so happy!  He let us in and told us that he'd stopped smoking for two weeks and that he's been off of drugs too!  He said he feels so good and happy!  It was so cool!  The Lord answered our prayers!  He told us that he would start reading and praying again and he committed to come to church this week since he was out of town yesterday!  he is so cool!  It was a miracle!  That night we taught the Ramirez family.  All we did was talk about baptism and one of the first things that Lucy said to us was that Chris had told her the night before that he wants to get baptized!  It was so cool!  After a lot of arguing between brothers and grandparents, we decided that the whole family would get baptized on March 8th.  Everyone has committed except for Laura, the mom.  However I think that she'll commit this week.  She is awesome, but a little more reserved than the rest of the family.  She'll come around!  She knows it's true, she's just afraid of the commitment.  I love that family!

Wednesday was awesome!  We knocked all day and met some awesome people!  We got a lot of potential investigators!  It got up to 95 at like 1:00 which is like the most non productive time of the day.  Nobody is ever home, but we knocked and knocked and knocked. . . then did some more knocking.  It was fun!  It's interesting.  I'm finding that the more I work, the greater desire I have the next day to do it again!  Faith starts with desire and my desire is increasing, so therefore, my faith is increasing also!  I love it!

Thursday we taught our new investigator named Sandra.  She is a friend of a member in our ward named Sister Collete.  Sister Collete gave her a book of mormon and has been inviting her to church for the past like month.  She had us over to her house to teach Sandra the Restoration.  Sandra is Catholic, but told us that she believed everything we said.  It was a good lesson.  There is a bit of a language barrier though.  I don't think she understands English very well so we might be passing her off to the spanish missionaries.  She is pretty solid though.  The rest of the day we knocked and did weekly planning.  

Friday we knocked and knocked all day!  We officially got kicked out of an gated apartment complex that we snuck into.  We sneak into it all the time.  We only knocked two buildings before we got kicked out.  It was fun!  there goes something off of my mission bucket list!  It was kind of lame how we got kicked out though.  There was no fight or any degree of chaos involved. They just drove up to us on a golf cart and told us that we can't knock in here.  So we left.  We taught the Ramirez family again that night.  We taught the Plan of Salvation for James since he had never heard it before.  it was a good lesson.  

Saturday we taught two of the most solid new investigators I've ever had.  The Ricaldi family.  They're a ref feral from bishop.  They live in the house of som members who moved out to Utah.  Those members gave them a Book of Mormon and told them a little about the church.  Greg and Michelle Ricaldi have three kids and they have been going to Real Life Church for the past couple years, but stopped going because one of the child workers was arrested for child molestation.  They are now looking for a new church.  They had so many awesome questions and were super interested!  The thing is, they act exactly like members already!  They are so cool!  The only concern they have is church being at nine.  They loved the Restoration lesson and they asked us if we could come back.  usually we have to ask them!  It was so cool!  They're so solid!  I just hope I don't get transferred so I can teach them some more!  We then knocked the rest of the day as usual.  

Sunday was one of the best Sunday's ever!  The Ramirez family came to church and Selvin gave a talk!  He told us his conversion story which is so cool!  Also our Elders quorum president Brother Baker gave a talk on family and marriage and the temple that was super good!  Lucy and Laura were bawling!  I think Laura is starting to realize that she should be baptized with her family!  Gospel Principles was really good for once too!  We talked about the fall and everything was super simple.  Every weird comment that was made, Bro. Howard shot down.  Also Jason Crosby got the Melchezidek Priesthood in Elders Quorum which was so awesome! The sisters investigator Linda got her answer that the church was true in Relief Society too.  It was an amazing church meeting.  After church we studied and visited a couple potentials.  We visited this old couple, Don and Joane who let us in.  Both of them are Catholic and they're interested in learning about mormons because their granddaughter is marrying an RM in Vegas and is starting to read the Book of Mormon.  We taught them the Restoration, and they told us that they had no intention of joining the Mormon church. (That'll change.)  They said they would read and pray about the Book of Mormon.  We explained to them that either we're lying to their face or we're telling the truth.  They told us that they thought we were telling the truth.  It was pretty cool.  They are so nice!  Both of them lost their previous spouses to cancer and they have only been married for 3 years.  It was fun teaching them.  They had a lot of questions.  

Anyways, that was my week!  It was amazing and full of miracles!  Elder Davidson and I have been experimenting with food for the past couple of weeks.  We don't get much interesting food here in California, so every week we go to the canned food isle and buy something really interesting.  We've tried canned raw crap that we thought was cooked in Mac and Cheese (Yellow Death) and Sardines and a couple of other things.  We're going for anchovies or xavier or something this week.  We experiment a lot and so far none have been very good.  There has been one good experiment though.  Put siracha sauce on a PB&J to make a sweet and spicy PB and J!  It's interesting!  P-days we do fun stuff like Ultimate frisbee with the zone.  Last week we had a nerd war with the whole zone in the gym of our church.  It was epic!  We had bishops permission so don't worry!  Know that I'm praying for all of you!  Thanks for everything you do!  I love you all!

Your favorite missionary
Elder Nelson

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Transfers

Wow this last 6 weeks was probably the fastest 6 weeks of the mission.  It's already transfer week and my companion Elder Ford is being transferred sadly.  He's off to be a district leader somewhere.  This past week has been a good one though.  As always we saw a lot of miracles!  You're probably sick of hearing me say that, but its true!  We've been able to help out our zone a lot this past week and haven't gotten much time to work in our own area.  Also my companion has been sick all week, and somehow we found a new investigator.  I'm telling ya. . . MIRACLES BABAAAAAY!
 Wednesday we had to drive up to the mission office to pick up some Elders that needed a ride back.  They had to drop off their car there because it was a medical car and they didn't need it anymore.  Elder Ford took a nap most of the day until the evening time because he was sick.  I studied and got caught up in my journal.  Have I told you how hard it is for me to write in my journal as missionary?  I'm getting better at it, but there are times on my mission that I haven't written and I've regretted it.  Anyways, that night we went to the Sanchez family for dinner.  it was really good.  Still a bit awkward like the last time, but good.  We taught them the importance of studying the scriptures and praying as a family and they committed to start reading everyday.  We should be going over this Wednesday as well.  I know they know that it's a good thing we knocked on their door, but I think that as of right now, they don't know what they want.  I have a plan to address this next lesson and its going to be good.  That family has so much potential and I know the Lord led us to them for a reason.  I have a really good feeling about them and I hope that I can teach adequately enough for there hearts to be touched by the spirit and have a desire to come back to church.  Thursday we spent almost the whole day with some elders at a doctors appointment in Mission Hills.  It was a long day.  Elder Ford was really sick and when we got home at about 7:00, he went straight to sleep.  We still hadn't done weekly planning, so I had to do that on my own.  He knew he was going to get transferred anyways, so he left it up to me.  Friday we. . . I can't really remember. . . wait for it. .. Oh ya it was Halloween!  I almost forgot!  That was weird.  Anyways.  We had to wake up early that morning to bring one of the missionaries in the zone up to the office for his departing temple trip.  After that we spent most of the day in the apartment since Elder Ford was still really sick.  We did go out later in the day though and try and contact some potentials.  No one was home.  it was weird too.   People were trick or treating by 5:00 and we were out on the streets still.  No one got mad at us which was nice.  We had a curfew of seven and the rest of the night we cleaned the apartment.  I also cut my own hair for the first time!  it looks pretty good too If I do say so myself.  Saturday we worked almost the whole day!  We got to go on splits with the Armenian elders and talk with some Armenians.  We even said a prayer with one of them.  it was sweet!  We got a lot of potentials too.  it was a good day and it felt good to be out working all day again.  We got transfer calls that day too.  Our zone is mostly staying, with a few exceptions.  One of the sisters' areas is being closed and both of those sisters were really sad about that.  Sunday we had to bank out of church early to bring that departing missionary up to the office for his departing interview.  Elder Fod said goodbye to a lot of members yesterday and his recent convert Michael.  When they said goodbye, Michael gave him a big hug and told him that he had changed his life and eterenity.  It was powerful.  That man has changed so much and it was hard for my companion to say goodbye.  But that's what you get for being a good missionary.  It was a powerful moment.  Anyways, we knocked and found a couple more potentials throughout the day, and ya! It was good.  We found a strip of Arabic apartments in this complex that we're going to bring Arabic stuff to next week.  That'll be cool.  Well,  it sounds like things are going swell back in the great walled city of Salt lake. (Say that in an English accent!)  I love you all! 
Elder Nelson