Called to Serve

Called to Serve

Monday, June 29, 2015

Fire in Saugus

Yup there was a fire in Saugus this past week up Bouquet canyon.  Nothing happened though.  I think maybe one house burned down up in the canyon, but no one was in it.  There were also two other fires throughout the week.  One was in Newhall which is where President lives.  President and his family had to get evacuated from their house because the fire came so close.  The firemen used there house to set up watch or something.  We had a stake correlation meeting on Wednesday with him and he was showing us all these pictures of the firetrucks in his driveway and the fire and what not.  They got the fire under control so nothing bad happened, but the smoke was all over Santa Clarita.  We were knocking and the ash from the fire just started raining down on us.  It made knocking pretty interesting.  Fire and brimstone are coming!  I don't know much about the other fire, but its all good!  

We did some service way up in the boonies of our area.  it was almost out of the mission.  We got a referal from a member to go up to this lady and help her out.  She's french and has one daughter and lives in a cabin in the mountains.  It's so cool!  We got lost trying to get to her house and we were running through the woods knocking on doors to find her.  Eventually we found her.  It was fun.  We raked up dead grass on her property since it was a fire hazard and the fire department wanted her to clean it up.  We tried to talk to her about the gospel and she told us that she didn't want to hear any of it.  She doesn't beleive in God anymore since her husband passed away 3 years ago.  She told us that her daughter does though and that she would like coming to church.  We came back later in the week and did more service and talked with them both about coming to church and they committed to come either this week or the next.  We talked with them a little about the plan of salvation also and told us that we could come talke to them more about it this week.  They're sweet.

We also taught Denise which was interesting.  We taught her the last part of the plan of salvation in our ward mission leader's home.  It went well for the most part, but she's gotta be looking at anti stuff or something, because she is making super weird paralells with the bible and book of mormon.  Kind of like Joseph Smith wrote it from the bible.  The thing about it all is that she hasn't prayed with an open heart and really tried to seek for the answer.  She's keeping commitments, but her testimony isn't really growing.  She is learning a lot, but she isn't seeing things spiritually.  We've done our best with teaching and guiding her in the right direction and what not.  We're continuing to teach her and guide her, but she needs to really pray and want to know.  Right now, it doesn't really seem like it though, but hopefully she'll come around.

We weren't able to meet with Sandy this week, but she did come to church with her two kids!  They only stayed for Sacrament meeting, but are planning on coming back next week as well!  She is so cool and the ward did amazing at fellowshipping them when they came in.  The 9 year old, Bryce is autistic and has a hard time sitting in one spot for a long time, so sacrament was hard for him, but they told us they liked it.  

Other than that this week we've been knocking a lot and trying to work with members effectively and what not just to find and teach.  A lot of our investigators are dropping of the radar.  The Hindu man that I was excited about told us that he couldn't meet for two weeks.  Our other investigator Sheryl has canceled a lot on us lately, and the one investigator that we are activly teaching has a lot of concerns.  Things are good though and I'm learning a lot from these people.  I'm doing well and things are going super well in the zone for the most part.  I love you all and thank you for everything!

Elder Nelson

Monday, June 15, 2015

Exchanges

Well I got the package you sent mom!  Thanks!  It was great!  I don't have much to say this week, at least I don't think so.  Whenever I start writing I feel like I don't have much to tell and then I just keep writing and remembering things, so we'll see what happens.

This past week we went on exchanges with all the Elders in the zone starting on Tuesday.  Tuesday was just a day exchange, meaning we didn't spend the night.  The reason being that we had our mission temple trip on Wednesday and we had to leave early in the morning to get to the temple.  The exchange on Tuesday went really well.  Elder Jacobson came with me to my area.  He's a solid missionary and a great guy.  We had some super good conversations with each other throughout the day about the spirit and joy and motivation in missionary work.  We were able to feel the spirit as we talked with each other and build each other up.  We knocked most of the day and no one wanted to talk to us, except for the last door.  It's interesting how much that happens.  You'll go all throughout the day and no one will answer or no one will talk, until the last person.  It was a faith building experience, as everyday on the mission should be.

The temple trip was awesome!  It's weird to think that will be my last one with the whole english side of the mission.  I get to go at least two more times before I go home, since my birthday is in August and I get to go with the departing missionaries in August.  

Thursday we did exchanges with the Solamint ward elders.  Elder Barnett came to my area with me.  He actually came out on the mission with me and we have never really served around each other before, so it was good to get to know him.  He's super fun and loves the work and loves to work hard.  He's a district leader right now and this is the first time he's been in leadership his whole mission and he is stoked for it.  His district meeting this past week was awesome!  It was amiracle actually and was a catalyst to an answer to one of the sisters in his districts prayers.  It was at this district meeting that I was able to find out why I knew I was supposed to be in that bash with the Masters College man last week.  A certain sister in the district has been struggling with having people bash her testimony and beliefs and it's been really hard on her.  Reasonably so too, because people tell us we're wrong everyday and tell us that we don't know anything and that we're deceived , etc.  Anyways,  the meeting was on bearing testimony and doing so in teaching situations and contacts.  We all shared experiences about how we'd seen the power of testimony and I shared the experience we had in the bash.  After the meeting, the sister came up to Elder Jones and I and thanked us for sharing our experience, because that was an answer to her prayer!  She had been praying to be able to relate to someone and know what to do with all the rejection ashe had been facing and she told us that we answered her prayer!  It was so cool and it was all because and inspired district leader chose to train on what his district needed.  It was so cool!  All in all, I love Elder Barnett and he is a great district leader.  

We went on exchanges Friday with Elder Anderson.  He came to my area.  I tried to focus the exhcnage on the same things I talked about with Elder Jacobson and it went really well.  Elder Anderson is great!  

We also taught Denis this week.  We went over the Family Proclamation with her and she agreed with it for the most part, but she had some objections.  Her main concern right now is getting her to pray.  She hasn't prayed about any of what we've taught and it is very evident.  She got emotional when we talked to her about prayer, because she says that she just can't and she doesn't know why.  She did come to church this week though!  She wanted to come to Priesthood with us to see what it was like.  We took her to High Priests to help her see that Relief Society is so much better, but it didn't work.  She liked High Priest's better than relief society!  She said she'd give relief society another shot though next week.  

Other than that, everything is great!
Love you all!

Elder Nelson

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Transfers, MLC, ZTM, and the most edifying Bible Bash

So for all of yall who want to know.  My new address is 20778 Plum Canyon, Saugus CA 91350.  Its a nice place.  It's considered "ghetto" to the ward.  Our neighbors are a part of the medical marijuana industry, so we always come home to an apartment smelling like weed, but that's nothing new.  In the Valley, everywhere smells like weed.  Anyways with transfers being this week and MLC and ZTM, it was a really busy week, but it was full of great things, and some not so great things. Let me tell ya about it!

So transfers went great and everyone got settled in well to their new apartments and areas and what not.  Some of the new missionaries here in the zone are stoked, and some are not so stoked.  We're working with them though.  MLC was this week which was awesome.  We we learned a lot about miracles and what a miracle is.  The main focus that prepared us most for ZTM was the training we received from the assistants on commitments.  It was really good and definatly something we needed.  

We went on splits this past week with Nate Vandermark.  He's getting ready to go on his mission in July.  He got called to the Semara Russia mission.  he's so awesome.  We took him out knocking with us and we found a new investigator with him.  It was great.  That same investigator we taught on Saturday and the lesson went really well.  he didn't come to church though.

Our zone training meeting went super well on Friday.  People were crying so that's gotta say something.  It was great and the spirit was there.  My testimony was strengthened a lot as I taught.  We did part of a training on sharing miracles and it helped me realize just how amazing a mission I've had.  I may not have baptized a whole bunch of people, but I know that the Lord has used me help change people's lives everyday, no matter how small of a change that was.  It was so cool.  The power of remembering is essential in the conversion process.  We learn that from Moroni 10:3 when Moroni tells us to "remember."  Remembering causes us to recognize the goodness and mercy of God and that will open our hearts to the spirit, and that's what happened during ZTM.  It was so cool!

We also started to teach a 12 year old girl this week named Lexi.  She is awesome and has been taught before.  She has a testimony of the church and the book of mormon and everything, however, her less active mother isn't supportive at all.  It's so sad. I've run into so many situations like this on the mission.  The mother is a convert, but fell away from the church.  She is very iffy on letting Lexi get baptized, and even if she did get baptized, she doesn't live in the most conducive conditions to the gospel.  Her brother always has friends over and they are always smoking and doing drugs and what not.  The dad left them.  The mom just had a baby.  Things are just crazy over there.  We did help them clear out their side yard full o trash, but the mom didn't even seem like she wanted us there.  She said we could help though and we did for about an hour and then taught Lexi and her friend.  Hopefully we can get something to happen their, but it will take a miracle.  

Speaking of miracles.  Friday night we planned to knock a street and we knocked right into a home of some less active members.  The members weren't there, but their son was and he told us that he had grown up in the church, but isn't a member.  He said he was just staying with his parents for a couple days, because he's got some problems in his marriage.  He told us that seeing us and talking with us was exactly what he needed.  I was then able to bear testimony that I knew that god led us here specifically for him to hear us.  I then shared a scripture with him and we prayed since he was just heading out.  He told us that he knew the gospel was true.  We're going back this week. It was so cool!

Saturday morning we had an interesting time.  We talked with a potential who dropped us but reffered us to their neighbor downstairs.  We knocked on the door and when it opened I shuddered.  I saw a big purple shirt with Masters College on it.  He invited us in and had us take a seat.  I was thinking oh crap I flippin hate bashes.  We sat down and said a prayer and the guy tried to act like he didn't remember what we shared, but we got it out of him that he did.  He basically taught us the first lesson and we were like yep that's what we share and then we asked him to pray about the book of mormon and he said that he felt that that's wrong.  He then whipped out his bible and his wife came and sat down and they told us that they were both Greek and Hebrew majors.  He tried to show us that there couldn't be any more scripture or revelation. We then showed him some scriptures.  It was interesting though.  There actually wasn't any contention.  The spirit was there.  I felt it and I know my companion felt it. Eventually we told him that nothing about what we say or share will make sense until he prays about it.  He then got frustrated and told us that we're a cult and that he would pray for us and what not.  It was interesting though, because I knew we needed to be there and both of us bore porewful testimony, to which he could say nothing.  He told us before we left that his whole goal with meeting with us was to discourage us from doing what we were doing.  In fact, the conversation we had, made me want to work harder!  I felt the spirit and I told him that.  We then left.  It was an interesting situation, but it was the most edifying bash I've been in.  

We also had an investigator come to church!  It was Denise.  She had a real problem with it though.  She hated the fact that Relief Society and Priesthood split and that women can't hold the priesthood.  She told us that we were so 1940's and that its 2015 and that women do what men do know.  She got contentious with one of the members which wasn't good.  We told her that next week she could come into priesthood if she really wants to, just to see that they're not learning anything different.  She doesn't have a testimony yet, but she is open and she is reading. We don't think she's reading with the right intentions though.  Our next lesson is going to be all about how she can resolve this issue by knowing if the Book of Mormon is true, and then we're going to go over the Family proclamtion with her.  It'll bee good.  

Well there ya have it!  Love yall!

Elder nelson