Happy Easter!

Hola Como Estas.  Happy Easter family!  This week was pretty slow honestly.  Working hard doesn't always bring the results you want, but whatever, I love the work no matter what happens.  We had a bunch of appointments fall through and we didn't find anyone this week.  One of our investigators showed up to church and 3 of the less actives we're teaching showed up as well so that was awesome.  Our investigator that came was our alcoholic friend Mathew Jalsevac.  He's been sober for about a week now.  We had an appointment with him Wednesday and set goals with him to help him quit smoking and drinking.  So far it's working.  We also taught the Dawes family, a less active family that we've been teaching for a couple weeks.  We're teaching their kids who are crazy.  It's so hard to teach them.  The older of the two kids wants to be baptized.  She's 9, but her mom wants her to understand more before she's baptized.  She knows enough already, but her mom has some reservations.  We also taught Marisa on Thursday again with Bro. Maeza.  As usual, he took over the lesson.  We told him what we wanted him to do and what we were going to teach, but he just took off.  Super frustrating.  Thursday we got a call from the mission office.  They told my companion Elder Smith that his grandma died.  It was super sad and its been really hard on him, but he's not letting it get him down.  He's still working like a champ.  We went on exchanges Friday with Elder Smith (Black Smith) and Elder Ahn.  I went with Elder Smith to his area of the ward.  They've been having trouble finding people too.  Their investigators aren't doing to well either.  We had a good exchange though!  We talked to so many people and had some awesome spiritual filled contacts.  It's honestly just so hard when you teach someone by the spirit and to their needs in a contact, and you know that they're feeling the spirit and they reject you.  Something I've been studying and working on these past couple of weeks is Christlike Attributes from ch. 6 in Preach my Gospel.  I asked President hall what he thinks I should work on in my interview with him a couple weeks ago and he told me to study that for this next transfer.  This week I've been focusing on Charity, the pure love of Christ.  I've been praying to gain a stronger love for the people here in California and to be able to put myself in their shoes and have compassion for them.  It's been working and I feel like it's been helping me in contacting and teaching.  The thing about loving the people more is that rejection feels so much more severe than it used too.  I can't even begin to fathom what Christ must have felt like when people rejcted him, but I'm starting to see just how severe and needed this gospel is in people's lives.  It's amazing what charity can do and the perspective it brings.  Charity is such a deep concept.  All of the Christlike Attributes are so deep!  I love it!  it's amazing the change that I can see within myself as I've been studying these things.  Well that's what I've been learning in preach my gospel this week.  Thanks for sharing what you've been learning with me mom!  It's awesome!  The thing about Preach my Gospel is that you can't just read it.  You really have to dig deep and study it.  Don't just read in chapter by chapter, dig into the individual principles and try to think of ways to apply them into your own life.  it's amazing what it does!  I love Preach My Gospel.  Anyways, back to the exchange.  We just contacted all day which was a lot of fun.  It's so fun to try new things with different contacts and get to know people.  it's amazing how some people will just open up.  After our exchange my real companion and I met this guy who was going through a real hard time.  We asked if we could pray with him and during the prayer he just broke down in tears.  He was feeling the spirit and wanted us to come back.  It's moments like that on the mission that keep me going.  It's amazing what can happen in a contact in less than a minute.  We went to a baptism in the Chatsworth ward that night.  Our investigator Angelica was supposed to meet us there, but she didn't show up.  The other West hills Elders were there too and they brought a woman and her daughter that they met on the street only 2 hours before.  After the actual ordinance and during the missionary moment, the daughter started to have a seizure.  The missionaries giving their presentation showed the easter video Because of him and during the video, Elder Smith (Black Smith) carried her to a pew in the back of the room and I helped him give her a blessing.  I anointed and he sealed.  All of this happened within 2 minutes and we were trying to be as quiet as possible.  Amazingly most of the people there didn't even notice.  The lady the daughter was sitting next to was a nurse.  She helped us and we carried her out into the foyer of the church.  She was convulsing on and off still.  It was pretty crazy. She was alright though.  She's epilectic.  Her mom who was there with her told us that this happens often and that she was super excited about the baptism.  We carried the daughter to her car and they drove off.  Easter Sunday was great.  We sang in the choir and taught the Dawes which was super stressful, but it all worked out.  So ya, there's my week for ya!  To answer your question dad, yes I have a Nishiki mountain bike.  It's kind of crappy and I bought it overpriced, but I love it.  I can't believe I'm already 7 and a half months out!  I feel like I got here like a month ago!  Time flies when you're spreading the gospel!  It's awesome!  So I loved the Easter package mom and grandma!  Thanks so much!  I need to send you my SD card home.  I'm lacking on taking pictures!  I really need to take more so I'll work on that.  I'll send my card home this week.  Exclusive with this card is a special tour of my apartment.  You'll love it.  I love you all! 

 

Elder Nelson