Pigskin soup and a stinky miracle!

Dear mom and family, (I hope he starts sending pictures soon…..)

 

Please send the Asthmonex to my apartment, I'm on the last week of mine, and I can tell the difference as it's freezing!  And yes, I did get all the packages, thank you so much!!

 

Second, Pres Crane, a counselor of the mish presidency invited us over for dinner onThanksgiving, so that's where we're going! Also, we're having a turkey bowl in Short Hills on thursday morning!!!! We get to play football for two hours on thanksgiving!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!!!

 

Okay, I'm gonna start off this letter with a joke. Jk, it's a funny story though. So last week (8 days ago) in elders quorum, the 1st counselor in the branch pres. was teaching and he asked the question "what is the great whore of all the earth?" like it talks about in the scriptures. Without missing a beat, Hermano Acuna raises his hand and says, "La iglesia Catolica" The catholic church hahaha!!! It's a good thing we didn't have any catholic investigators there that day haha!!

 

Last week was really good!! Tuesday I taught in district meeting, and that went really well! I changed everything I was going to teach that morning, and changed it again as we went along haha! We went over Ether 3:1-9 the brother of Jared's prayer and it was really good!!!  We talked about having faith and praying in faith and by doing so, you can see the hand of the Lord in your life every day, because it is always there! And it's true!! We've used that lesson with members this week too!

 

 Wanna hear another funny experience I had last week? I knew you would ;)  So I had my first taste of weird food this week. I think it was on wednesday...anyways, we were at a member's house, the Lopez family, and we shared a message, and then they offered us some food. So they brought us these big bowls of soup with beans and something else in it. I asked E. Jellen what it was, and, like a good trainer, he responded by telling me to eat up. So I threw in a slab of some beans and what looked like a strip of ham in the soup. The texture was really gross, it was squishy, and kinda made me gag. And it didn't taste really good....like it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good haha! I continued eating, and E. Jellen was talking to the husband. He had said something about chanco, so I knew it was something pig, and then he asked E. Jellen how to say it in english. E. Jellen said, "Skin, that's how you say it in english." I FLIPPING ATE PIGSKIN SOUP!!!!!!!!!!!   After that I had the hardest time finishing. We had just had dinner right before that, they had given us huge bowls to finish, it didn't feel or taste good in my mouth, and now I knew what I was eating. It took all I had to finish. And then they brought out dessert, which I later found out was some form of pumpkin, which was cool, it tasted alright! But after my first bite of the dessert, I knew I was going to throw up. So I asked if I could go to the bathroom, and I went in there and I prayed haha! I prayed that I would have the strength to finish and to not throw up, and I was in there for like 5 minutes. Right after I prayed, like RIGHT after I prayed, I farted. And it felt really really good (Did he just say that out loud???) (Seriously can't. Stop. Laughing.). I was able to go out and finish, even though I was still full. It was a miracle in a really strange form haha!! How do you like them apples? ;)

 

 Two things about Elder Jellen, we started eating those Trolli eggs from Halloween, and he requests that you send some more. We haven't found them here yet. So like...an early Christmas present? ;) Jk, maybe if you could throw one pack in there for christmas, that would be great, Elder Jellen says thank you ;) He also told me this week that I look like Roddy from Flushed Away. I don't know where that came from haha!!! But whatever, I've accepted that my chubby cheeks make me look like a rat ;) jk, they're not that fat yet!

 

We got two new investigators on thursday, Bessie and her mother, Kenia.  Bessie was a referral from a member in Newark, and I think she's super prepared!! She's been going through some trials recently, and we don't know what they are, but we were able to go in and kind of get to know her and talk about faith and prayer with her. We testified of how faith and prayers have helped us, and asked her a few questions to help us evaluate where she's at with her faith, and it was a really really good lesson. Edwin, the member from Dover, came with us to that, and it was really powerful! It was one of the more powerful lessons I think I've had here! I think Bessie's friend that referred her asked her if she wanted to go to churhc, and I think she said yes, so we're gonna invite her this week! I'm really excited for her, I really think she could be baptized in this next transfer!

 

Speaking of transfers, tomorrow is the official last day of my first transfer in NJ, woo!! Elder Jellen will be my companion for this next transfer too, which I'm stoked about, I love Elder Jellen! It's so weird because it's his very last transfer. After today, he can count the number of p days he has left on one hand.  We tease him about that all the time, he gets so mad haha!!

 

 On saturday I went on another exchange with Elder Flores. He's only been out like two transfers more than me, and he's from Utah, but he was born in Mexico. Spanish was the first language in his house, but I would have guessed that english was because he's very fluent in both, no sort of weird accent at all. It was a really good exchange


Elder Flores came to Morristown and Elder Jellen went with his comp, Elder Davis, to Dover. It was a DL exchange because we have no elders in our district to exchange with haha! It was my first chance to run the area, which was a little nerve wracking for me, especially since I still have a hard time understanding alot of the people, but it ended up being really really good!! Saturday I spoke the best spanish I ever have, and I understood most of what was going on! We met our goals of two member present lessons and two others! We also went to find a man Elder Jellen and I contacted on the street, Jeremias. He wasn't home, so we started walking down the road. As we were about to pass someone, I felt prompted to contact him, so I did. Turns out, he was Jeremias, and now we have an appt set up with him for next saturday! Talk about a miracle!

 

Elder Flores stayed with me until after church on sunday. We found out on a short notice that we had to give the lesson in elders quorum too, so in our personal study we went over an article in the october Liahona, quentin l cook's "whatever thou art, do well thy part." The lesson went really really well!! We talked about the roles that we have in life, husband, father, missionary, member of the church, brother, church callings, and that by turning the light of Jesus Christ (john 8:12) we can magnify and succeed in these roles and become better. We took up the full hour, got everyone involved, and had a really good lesson!

 

This week started getting freezing, so thanks again for the blanket and stuff! It's so different from the Utah cold. It's like the bone chilling winds of the mountain tops haha!! Tyler, remember that time at snowbasin that the wind was blowing really hard and it was so foggy and so cold? It feels like that every day haha! But still no snow....Man, I wanna go snowboarding so bad!!!!!!!!

 

Well, that's all for this week! Hope everything continues well at home!! Love you all!! :)

 

Love,

Elder Nelson

Hair cuts and Guinea pigs.....oh my!

(Again - no pictures from him, so just thought we'd throw in a few just for fun)

Dear  mom and family,

No I have not gotten any packages yet...but they go to the mission office, then our sr couple brings them to district meeting, but I don't think I'll get them til the 1 of december because the ZL's get mail for the first of the month and my district meeting just got moved away from the zone...long story... 

For christmas, I would appreciate maybe a couple pairs of wool sunday socks haha! My feet are kinda chilly ;) but other than that, whatever works :) Maybe the best two years soundtrack? Some more music would be nice!

 And sorry I couldn't email on monday, it was veterans day and the library was closed...so here I am!

Okay, so first off a flippin awesome experience. Elder Jellen and I went to burger king on thursday night because we were hungry and had a little bit of time for dinner before heading home for the night. We ordered, and while we were waiting, another guy came up and ordered. He came over and said, "are you guys from utah?" we said "yes, have you seen missionaries before?" he flashed us his utah drivers license, so we started talking to him.

We said, "what brings you out to New jersey?"

'Work, I'm a musician.'

"oh really? do you have a show this weekend?"

'yeah, i'm playing with my band tomorrow.'

"awesome! what do you play?"

'i play the bass.'

"sweet! whats your band called?"

'Air Supply.'

Both of our jaws dropped. Because as far as I can remember, air supply is very similar to mayday parade. They're self labeled because they're so big. And here we are, talking to the bassist, Johnny Lightfoot, in burger king. So cool!!!
(um.....maybe this will date me....I'm not sure how he knows who they are......isn't Air Supply a band from like, the 80's?)

It's Elder Jellen's birthday tomorrow, the big 21! His little brother got his mission call last week.  For his birthday, a member, the Acunas, invited us over for dinner to have cui. I was so stoked to try it!! Guess what it is! ...Guinnea pig. (Eew.)  I was so excited!!!!!  But they couldn't find any guinnea pig...so I think we're having something else...(did they try Petsmart?)

I got my first haircut the other day. And I thought it looked really nice! It took like 5 minutes at a supercuts down the street from our house. But when I woke up to do it on tuesday morning, it was so ridiculously uneven! I couldn't make it look normal! So I had to cut a few pieces,(Tanner, with SCISSORS and his own hair??? uh-oh)  and now I think it looks alright, but it's still not really even haha! I haven't had a normal haircut in like three months!!

Do you know what else I haven't done in forever? Drive. I finally got my tiwi card that will let me drive last friday!!  But...they took our car away last thursday...(That's some serious Murphy's law at work!)  They moved us into morristown so that we wouldn't have to walk as far, and then they took our car because we're a walking area...so now we don't even have the measly amount of miles we had per month haha! And that's why they moved our district meeting to the chapel in Morristown, but the rest of our zone meets somewhere else. So really, I don't even know when I'll get mail......this could be a problem...;)

A really cool thing happened the other day though! Since we walk, we freeze. I bought just a cheap two dollar beanie from walmart on monday, and later that night, a non member, Andres (relief society pres's husband) called us, met us, and gave us each a cheap pair of gloves, a scarf, and some earmuffs! The Lord knew we were freezing! And when we were cleaning out our old apartment, we found a box of hand warmers!!!! Wahoo!!!  But if you still happen to maybe buy some nice gloves, that would be cool too :) these gloves were a blessing, but I don't think they'll last the whole winter, they're more like glorified fall gloves ;)

Still haven't heard from Nate, so if you could find him or his email or something, that would be great!!!

We have two investigators on baptismal date, but I think only one actually will, if any. This guy in his mid 20s, Abel, is here from Honduras I think, and he came to work, but he also told elder Jellen that he made a promise to God to follow him when he came to America. So we've been teaching, and we had a member with us in our last lesson and our member pounded Abel, trying to get him to commit, so we got him to commit to pray, and I think eventually he will get baptized, I'm just not sure about the 8th of December...

We also committed Sandra  and her boyfriend, Nelson (first latino I've met that shares my name!), to be baptized, and when I asked Nelson, he quickly nodded his head, but Sandra was kinda arguing/confused about it.  I don't think Nelson really cares about the church - God is important to him, so he tries to be a good person, but thats all. If Sandra gets baptized, he will too, I'm sure of it.  But I think Sandra keeps on inviting us back because she feels, as do many here, that as long as they have a religious discussion with the missionaries every once in awhile, that's fine with them and fine with God.  But it's not.  I just wish I could take away people's agency for 15 minutes, meet with them, put knowledge into their heads, make them see how all the gospel makes sense, and then let them realize that it really does make sense, then commit them to baptism. That would make it so much easier haha!

Also, I had to give a talk on sunday on the plan of salvation. I was kinda nervous, because it had to be all in spanish. I studied, and just took up my preach my gospel with me for my notes, and E. Jellen said I took up all the full 10 minutes, so that was good! Spanish is hard for me!  I feel like I plateaued, and now I'm digressing...it's so frustrating!  I just wanna be fluent already!!

I'm on exchange right now with the ZL, Elder Jones. He looks exactly like Andrei Kirilenko!!!! It's crazy!!!!! He's from cedar city! And I'm also on exchange with Elder Taylor, from Portland Oregon. he's in a trio with the ZL's because his comp went home on monday for medical leave. It's really fun! I can actually understand how the lessons go because they are both english missionaries haha!

That's all for this week, glad to hear all is well at home, glad to hear I don't have to try and meet a new family member over skype ;) (So.....you are probably wondering 'new family member'?  .....in a letter we sent to him we told him we had some exciting news.......drumroll please......  ......and the running joke in the family is that if there's some big news, you know, the kind that warrants a family council - it's either we're having a baby, ...or moving.  Thankfully it was neither.  We just FINALLY - after 6 months without one,  got a new microwave!) 

Keep on keeping on! Love you!

Love,
Elder Nelson 

Best week yet!

Great news for us!  We got TWO letters this week - one in the mail, and one via email.  PLUS someone in his branch sent this picture to our phone.  LOVE me some good happy missionary pictures!  I know I've said it before, but it seriously does my heart good!   I'll just share a few snippets from his written letter first:

Dear Mom and fam,

The Spanish people here in NJ are very friendly, whether they want to talk to us or not!  When we go street contacting, they alway listen to us and take our cards.  Unless they're drunk, in which case they still take our cards, but sometimes they do funny things......for example.....give us black-man-bro-hugs, or contradict themselves - like THREE times.  I think it's kind of funny.  But I think there's only been one person that we've even talked to that doesn't believe in God, so that makes it easy to talk to them about it.

I placed my first Book of Mormon!  It was at someones door!  We went to a potential investigators house to hopefully teach a lesson or set up an appointment.  The lady wasn't there, but her roommate answered.  Her name is Ofelia.  We were talking to her, just like nay other street contact., and at the end - as usual, we asked if she knew anyone who needed a message of Jesus Christ.  She gave us a referral, which was surprising, and then we kept talking with her.  We found out that she's Baptist, and then we kept talking, and then it got to the point where I gave her a BoM!  It was great, and now we have a potential investigator!

Unfortunately, a lot of people bail on their appointment or cancel them. But that won't be a problem for long.  As soon as I master Spanish in a week or two, people will be begging me and Elder Jellen to come by! :)

Just by way of notice, I am growing facial hair.  I shave every other day because you can SEE it on the second day.  And NO, it is NOT just three or four hairs on my lower lip.  It's LEGIT facial hair.  That's right :)

Anyways, have a great week! I love you guys!

(Facial hair comments had us laughing right out loud!  Legitly laughing :).  

Letter # Dos:

Business first....USAA card is working, but I don't think those charges were mine...maybe monitor it for any charges out of NJ, and if there are any, take the necessary action haha!

Driving record, they got it!

I have received one package from you guys, the envelope with trolli eggs, thank you much!!!

SD card, there should be like 200 pics on there....that's bad news if they're gone, because they aren't on my camera either... (HELP!    Tanner sent us his SD card in the mail - all his pictures from Mexico - but the computer reads nothing, and when we stick it in the camera it just gives us a 'cannot be accessed' message.  Anyone ever had that problem, or know why it would be doing that, or what we need to do to retrieve the pictures on it? - I'd hate for him to lose all those pictures from the MTC!)

This week was a week. We had interviews with pres. jeppson last wednesday, SOOO COOOL!!! He told me several times that he felt like I was going to be a great leader in the mission, so I'm a little bit scared for next transfer......I'm not ready to lead haha! ;)  But it was really cool! He just asked how I was doing and checked up on me. Another thing he said a few times was that he felt that I have a really strong spirit, and that made me feel good! I love the Jeppsons, they're amazing! And whenever we meet with them, there is always good food.

 

So I had another humbling experience this week. Five buttons popped off my coat on wednesday I think it was...so at the interviews, Hermana Orton helped me sew on two of them, then I did the rest that night. My fingers are so clumsy. It took me like 45 minutes to sew on three flipping buttons. But its all good, I got 'em on, and thats what matters!!

 

So wednesday was Gang initiation day, and we had to be indoors by 6. So we got home, and ordered pizza for delivery. We got a pizza, cinnastix, and sprite from dominoes! It was the bomb!! We had to be in at 6 on thursday too for halloween, but we didn't get trick or treaters...not that we would have given them our candy anyways ;)

 

So another big thing this week, we moved apartments on saturday. Before we were on the outskirts of morristown, and it took about 45 minutes to walk to the closest place, but now we are right in the middle of Morristown. The apartment is way nicer than our other one, and it has a fitness room with a treadmill!!!  Which is good because I'm getting fat.  We're in a walking area, the members rarely feed us, and I'm getting fat.  Not good haha!  So I ran this morning for the first time in like....8 weeks ;)   But the apartment really was a tender mercy for us, they almost didn't let the church rent it because the church has no credit. But thanks to much prayers and fasting, we got it!!

 

 We had dinner last night with the Gomez', the EQP and his wife. It was sooooo good!!!! There was rice and chicken and sausage all mixed together, it was so good!  Then when we were stuffed with that, they had to bring out a watermelon...I felt like I was going to throw up before the watermelon, but then I had to eat 4 pieces of that....it was good. Dad, I have a whole new respect for those elders you forced bratwurst into.  (We had the missionaries over for dinner several years ago and served real-authentic German bratworst.  Jason had joked with us before about how missionaries are taught to just take whatever food is served to them to be polite.  It was obvious these elders didn't love the brat worst, but Jason just kept OFFERING and OFFERING them more and more!  I thought they might actually throw UP at the dinner table!)

 

We are teaching this new investigator, Sandra, and I think she'll get baptized! We've only had two real lessons, and the last one was really distracted because she was watching her roomates baby, but she has great faith and really believes in the Savior. I think she'll come around.

Also, we went to see Ofelia, the lady I gave the BOM to last week, and we went with our ward mission leader, Hno. Morales - a convert of 4 years. We got there and Ofelia had a friend there, her friend and Hno. Morales happened to know eachother, and so we're teaching both of them now too! I think we have an appointment with them tomorrow actually!  I have a good feeling about them!

 

We still play soccer every tuesday, which is great! Last week Obdeli, an investigator and the EQP's son, brought all of his soccer buds to play, and I scored 4 goals on them!! (SO....if he's still scoring 4 goals on them, I'm thinking he can't actually be THAT fat yet) :) Maybe they'll have a new respect for the elders and all get baptized ;)

 

Cool story, Last thursday I think it was, Elder Jellen and I were looking for an address we had obtained by street contacting. We got to the end of a long road, and the address didnt exist. But as we were about to turn back, I felt like we needed to do something there. I told E Jellen, and so he let me take the lead. We said a prayer asking for guidance, and then I had the weirdest feeling, like the spirit was pulling me in a direction. I just remember stepping back and letting my body move haha!  It was so weird!  I walked around, almost in circles, as if the spirit was testing out how my body worked for a few minutes, but I was not in control! Then I went to this door. We don't knock doors here because we have so little success doing so, so this was my first door to knock. I knocked, and nobody answered. So the spirit walked around again, then to the next door. I knocked and someone answered! Then I talked to her in spanglish, shared a small message and got her contact info. Afterwards, E Jellen and I both felt we had done what needed to be done. It was really cooL! I'm not sure if she'll get baptized or not, we're still trying to meet with her, but it was a cool experience!  

 

That's about it for this week, it was a good week, the best is yet to come! We're still praying for a baptism, I'm praying for the gift of tongues, and we're working hard! Glad to hear everything is well at home, Tyler, good work ;) Addie, happy birthday! Emma, good work staying out of drama! I pray for you guys daily, be safe, love you!

 

Love,

Elder Nelson