Well I'm back in Van Nuys! Not to sure how I feel about being back in the ward yet. Its a little weird and the area is just ghetto. I like ghetto, but it just doesn't feel as clean and pure as the beautiful land of Burbank. Probably because its not. The ward here is very sparse and sacrament meeting attendance is low. There are only a handful of active Melchizedek Priesthood holders, and there is so much less active work. Our bishop is one of the best bishops in the mission though. His ward mission plan is da bomb! Its the most effective one I've seen in the mission and he knows how to use the missionaries to help his ward. There are 3 sets of missionaries here as of this coming week. There used to be 4 with the senior couple, the Kempfs, but they're leaving for home this week. They have been proselyting missionaries for the ward for the whole year of their mission here and the ward loves them. They're throwing a going away party for them on Tuesday. They really are awesome missionaries. They were in my district when I was here last year. My new companion is Elder Kosmicki. He's from Nebraska and is 20 years old. He's been out for 9 months and he's a great missionary. He's been a zone leader for a transfer and is very confident in everything he does. This transfer is going to be a good one for the both of us. We've bonded this past week really well and have recognized that both of us can learn a lot from what the other has. We're good friends already. We do work a little different from each other, but we're working things out and we've seen some success this week in our area.
We found two new investigators this past week. Both were former investigators. The first was named Richard. He is one of those guys who just has had bad luck his whole life. He's really trying to figure out why so many bad things happen to good people. We taught him the plan of Salvation and we answered his question. His grilfriend has been meeting with the Spanish missionaries and he has gone to the Spanish ward before, but the thing is , he doesn't speak Spanish. I don't know how he communicates with his girlfirend either because she doesn't speak a lick of English! It's quite the oddity. We also started teaching this guy named Lieutenant. He's a Vietnam Veteran with 2 purple hearts. He was part of the special forces and during battle he lost the use of his right leg so he is in a wheelchair. He has the mouth of a sailor and is a drug dealer. No joke. He really wants to come to church though and he's willing to take a cab or the bus there since not very many people in the ward have cars either. He'll be an interesting one. We are also teaching a less active named Cyndi Logston. She has been coming back to church since December and is working on getting her Patriarchal blessing. We taught her the Plan of Salvation this past week too and it went really well. She hasn't stayed for all 3 hours of church yet though, but hopefully she'll stay next week. We also taught this part member family, the Boddy's. The wife of Bro. Boddy is Philipino and not a member. She is Catholic and likes to bash with us, but she's actually warming up to our teaching. Bro. Boddy is a less active and from what I saw when we went over, only wants us to teach so that he can prove his wife wrong. He is not a happy man. She seems very happy though. She is willing to come to church, but she's embarrassed because her husband won't pay tithing. Hopefully we can get something going there. One of our other investigators is supposed to get married by bishop tomorrow at the church. His name is Shamal and he's the husband of a less active. he actually got baptized a year ago in the Arcadia mission, but he was never confirmed. He really wants to get baptized, and he had a date for the 8th, but we have to push it back because he's flakey on appointments and our bishop has to work out paperwork with the other mission president and our mission president. I got to go on exchanges with the assistants this past Friday to Saturday with my old Companion Elder smith. It was awesome and so good to work with him again. We've really become great friends and we had a very uplifting exchange that I definately needed.
It should be a good week this coming week. We have MLC Wednesday and ZTM on Friday. The Grenada Hills zone seems to be pumped up for this coming transfer and they had a good week this week. I know North Hollywood killed it this past transfer, so hopefully we can transfer that same fire to this zone.
On another note, I got a call from the mission office this week telling me that no one in the mission got accepted to go home a transfer early. So there is no way I'm coming home in July. My realease date is going to stay August 26th. So hopefully I can go to school still even though I am coming home 3 days before it starts.
Thanks for all you do! I love you!
Elder Nelson
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