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
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