Last Week of Transfers

Well its already the last week of transfers again.  Its crazy. time just keeps going faster and faster.  I've only got two transfers left after this one.  I'm going to make the most of them.  It's really weird, the closer I get to the end of the mission, the more I want to work hard and finish off strong.  As usual, I hope that for these last two transfers I get to train or something, but I'll most likely be staying here for the last two.  I'll let you know next week what happens.  :The zone right now is doing great.  We're finding a lot of new investigators and there has been a baptism every week this whole month.  Hopefully we can keep that up this next month.  The missionaries are happy and working and the wards are good.  The Stake is great and very supportive of the work.  I still think living in a house is awesome.  Things are good.

The work side of things in our area is doing ok.  This week wasn't the greatest week for our area. We had a couple of investigators drop us and we didn't pick anyone up this week.  We're trying to meet more regularly with the investigators we do have, but its been really hard to get in contact with them.  We did teach Josie again this week.  The lesson was good for the most part.  Our goal for the lesson was to get her to pray and she did at the end of the lesson.  It was really good and we all felt the spirit very strong.  We talked about the Book of Mormon and how she'll be able to receive her answer.   Hopefully she'll be able to get to church this week.  She's still laid up on the couch letting her ankle heal.  We also read the Book of Mormon with Cheryl!  It was really good and she loved it!  We read 1 Nephi 1 with her and she thought it was amazing!  Most of the rest of the week we were knocking and trying get in with other investigators, but it was to no avail!  Sadly, we're probably going to have to drop a lot of our other investigators this week since we haven't been able to meet with them.  

We had a meeting with the high counselor over missionary work, Bro. Jensen on Tuesday night.  He is such a good man and helps out all the ward mission leaders so well.  In that meeting we update him on the status of the missionaries and the work in each of the areas and how they're working with their ward mission leaders.  It's really good.  We also met with President Hall, Bro. Jensen and the Stake President, President Lindberg.  He is great too.  The Stake is doing super good and we correlated what we could do to help the Stake do the work more effectively.  It was sweet.  I haven't had one of those meetings since I was in Burbank.  This Stake is so awesome!  The ward is super awesome too.

We didn't have anyone at church sadly, but we did help out in Primary which was super fun.  We taught the Primary kids about the Holy Ghost and the Priesthood and answered their questions.  We also filled up the font for the baptism yesterday which was awesome!

We went on two blitzes on Saturday.  That's where all the missionaries in a district get together and work in one area to find in the area.  On one of the blitzes we talked to a basher which was dumb.  My comp. liked it though.  That's the one thing that I didn't miss about being up here.  The bashers are straight evil.  They deceive and try to catch you in your words and they drive the spirit away.  It's dumb.  I've haven't run into too many, but there have been a few. 

Other than that, things are going well!  This work is great and I love it!  I hope all is well!  Love you all!

Elder Nelson

Santa Clarita Baby!

Well things are well here in the Saugus.  I still love it and I'm still exhausted, but that's good.  Sounds like you all had a good time at Justin's graduation, touring Boston and Salem, and everything else that happened last week.  Hope everything goes well with moving to Phoenix.  I'm almost finished with Soar for USU.  I'm still deciding some things though.

As for the work this week it was great! A member saw my bag at dinner on Monday and basically forced me to take one of their bags to use since mine is falling apart.  So I figure that I'll just use the bag they gave me and give it back to them just before I go home.  This will probably be my last area anyways.  So that was a blessing.  We had interviews on Tuesday with President Hall for the whole zone which meant we had to train and role play with missionaries all day.  It was pretty sweet.  We trained on using the Book of Mormon to resolve concerns and we had a sweet role play with some of the sisters that they said helped their investigator with the lesson they had with him on Friday.  He's now praying for a baptismal date.  We also met with Fernando that night.  We taught him and his sister on the doorstep.  We read a little bit of the Book of Mormon with them and they thought it was cool!  They want us to keep coming back, but he still hasn't told his parents.  We actually got in contact with his dad yesterday and he said that he would love for us to teach his son.  He isn't interested at all though.  He knows that what we're doing and teaching will help his son so he's happy to have us over.  He's from El Salvador and isn't very religious.  

We taught Josie on Wednseday and she is just eating it up.  She is so happy to have us come into her home and teach her and she really wants to come to church.  Sister Murphy, her friend is going to start reading the Book of Mormon with her this week.  

We taught Sheryl on Wednesday also.  She is a Catholic lady we knocked into who loves the missionaries and has met with them before for two years.  She said it was the most spiritual time of her life.  She has never been to church though and only read parts of the Book of Mormon.  She has a really good understanding of the restoration, and thinks that it could be true, but she has had a lot of spiritual fulfillment with being catholic.  She doesn't want to come to church because of that, but she does want to read the Book of Mormon.  She is awesome.  

We went on exchanges this week with the assistants.  I went up to their area with Elder Coles.  I hadn't served around him since my first area, but it was awesome to see how much he has changed and grown on his mission.  He's great and I learned a lot from him about how I can help the zone out.  Back in our area Elder Smith and Jones started teaching a part member family who are apparently super awesome.  They were from a member referral and they all want to come to church.  They're name is the Lippert family.  I've met them a couple times and they are great.  Sister Lippert isn't a member and she really wants to find out what were all about.  Bro. Lippert is less active and his parents are active in another ward, but he really wants to come back.  

We went on another exchange with Elder Laushbaugh.  I went to his area and we worked super hard.  it was a good exchange and we saw miracles.

As for investigators at church we had none, but next week we will have some.  It'll happen.  We have quite a few people we're working with that have a lot of potential and the ward is willing to help out. It's gonna be a great week this week!

 Happy Birthday Emily!  Love you!

Love the rest of youtoo!

Elder Nelson  

Saugus 2nd Ward

Well this will probably be a shorter email since I just talked to you guys yesterday.  That was awesome by the way.  

This past week has been pretty good.  We found 2 new investigators. The first we found was named Josie.  She was actually a member referall.  She loves the church and the missionaries, but just broke her ankle and her friend, Sister Murphy asked us if we could give her a blessing.  We did and she loved it.  She felt the spirit and we were able to teach her.  She was super sad that she couldn't come to church because of her ankle.  She is great and has a lot of time to ponder, pray and study what we teach and she's the kind of person who will actually do that so things should go really well with her.  It'll be great to keep teaching her and hopefully start teaching her husband too.  He's gone a lot so it's hard to get in contact with him.  

Yesterday after dinner we taught this 13 year old kid who was out in his driveway on his skate board.  He was pretty good and he showed me his kickflip and other tricks.  His name is Fernando and he was really interested in the Restoration.  He told us he always wondered why there were so many churches and which one to go to.  He goes to a Christian church right now with his family.  We were able to answer his questions and we taught him the Restoration and he connected really well with Joseph Smith.  He was stoked to hear that there was another prophet on the earth and really wanted to find out more.  We're going back on Tuesday.  I just hope his parents won't shut him down.  That happens a lot when we teach teenagers.  They're so open and are willing to learn and listen, but then their parents just shut us down and tell us not to come back.  It's sad, but we move on.  Anyways, Fernando is great.

We also had MLC on Wednesday and Zone Training on Friday which went great.  All of the training at MLC was on how to use the Book Of Mormon effectivly and its importance.  President went in depth about how important the small plates are and how the spiritual journey that Nephi takes is a paralell of the spiritual journey that our investigators take.  That's one of the reasons Preach My Gospel tells us to commit our investigators to read from the beginning.  It was really cool and I had a reaffirmed witness that the book of Mormon was true.  The zone seemed pretty excited to use the Book of Mormon more in finding and teaching too.  They liked the training and I know we all felt the spirit.  I love the Book of Mormon.  Other than that the zone is doing well for the most part.  I'm doing great and I love being a missionary!  I love you all!

Elder Nelson

Howdy Doo!

Hey!  Holy cow its mothers day next week!  So we were thinking of like 4:00 or 5:00.  We'll probably call you that morning or something.  It's gonna be my last call.  That's weird.  We'll probably still skype and hopefully it will be working well this time.

Anyways.  I got the letter you sent mom.  Thanks Connor for the talk!  It's so good and I'm still studying it.  

The house looks good and I'm excited to see what it looks like when I get home.

As for this week we talked with a lot of people!  Our zone led the mission in the number of conversations and we found a lot of new investigators.  The missionaries are happy and so many miracles are happneing its not even funny!  We went on exchanges this week and I went with Elder Schnepff and the first door we knock on this lady lets us teach her.  Her name was Denise and we've been back one time since.  She has a problem with women and the priesthood, but she has been keeping her commitments, except she didn't come to church this week.  She is very open and willing to learn and knows that we were sent from God.  It's flippin sweet!  

Most of our other investigators canceled their appointments with us, but we're still working hard and pounding the pavement!  We knocked a lot of doors this week, found some good potentials to go by and see.  Sorry there's not a lot to report this week, other than we freakin worked hard.  It's getting hot and its fun.  We also did a service project this week at the gibbons conservatory up Bouquet Canyon.  That was fun.  We directed traffic and picked up trash and what not.  We also went on another exchange with Elder Anderson which was fun!  He's great!  It was a good training and we both learned a lot.  

Anyways I love you all!  

Elder Nelson