Haircuts, 100 days, Batman, and M&M's

Dear Mom and Family,

 

Yes I got asmonex last wednesday, and we do have the advent calendars! It's safe to send stuff to the apartment!

 

As for the Book of Mormons....I dunno...haha! You could send your testimonies and I could translate them and write them in? or you could translate them? A lot of the people out hear can't read very well, if at all, and most don't speak but very little english...

 

Also, is my Social Security Card at home? I'm not sure if I brought it or not....and I can't find my passport…(um…..that's not good) I'm going to keep looking, but I'm not sure where I put it, so I'll keep you posted there too!

 

I need your guys' skype username and whatever other info I need to call you. We are going to a members house, I'm not sure what time yet, but I will know for sure by next monday. But I need your skype on monday so that I can call you!

 

As for things I need, just a USB cord in the next envelope/package to charge my ipod...and I think that's it...

 

My haircut went awesome!!! I couldn't get the back, so I gave myself a mullet ;) unintentionally, but it looked just like I remembered it ;) Then I had elder Jellen come in and cut the back. It was surprisingly easy, E Jellen has some clippers, so you just set the size and go! He's giving them to me when he leaves! But it looks like a pro cut it ;)

 

Last week was really good! It snowed pretty hard last Tuesday, so they canceled District Meeting and took away driving priviledges. But the driving thing didn't affect us - So we just walked around in the snow on tuesday, but we got 6 lessons, which was awesome!! One of the lessons we taught was to Selena. She is going to get baptized this Sunday if we can meet with her enough and finish teaching everything!!!!!!! So that's way exciting!!!!!!

Wednesday was a big day, I celebrated my 100th day away from home! Holy Cow has it REALLY been that long??? It was a good day, other than the fact that we didn't teach a single lesson haha ;).  We had District meeting with the rest of the zone, which was really good. We did a round robin thing where all 3 district leaders in the zone prepared a 30 min training, and then everyone went to each one in their districts, and we just rotated. E Jellen talked about 1 Nephi 4, and how Nephi was made a promise that he would be guided by God and how he would know that it was God guiding him. Then he made the comparison of our daily planners to the liahona, and that if we are following our plans, we are being led by God because nightly planning should be a spiritual experience. It was really cool!! Elder Taylor, another DL, talked about how our purpose is to share the message of how families can be happy together, and his commitment for us was to take a picture of our families to a lesson and use it to share how families can be together forever. So that's what Elder Jellen and I did on thursday, and we had a few really powerful lessons on why it's important to follow the prophets and have family scripture study and prayer, so that familes can be eternal! The other DL was in charge of role plays, so we just practiced, it was good!

 

 Thursday was a bugger though!  The first place we walked, my coat got snagged on a fence, so now I have a little hole in the sleeve. Things just didn't go right on thursday. Just little things like that were happening all day, but we still got in four lessons! At the end of the day, I realized it wasnt quite as bad as I had thought, but I don't want it to happen again haha!

 

Okay, wanna know something awesome?! The Mars candy factory, the M&M factory is in my zone!!!! It's in Hackettstown NJ, I've been in Hackettstown!!!! I guess the English elders there live right next to it!!!! Is that crazy?! Here's another fun fact, Batman was filmed in Newark. Newark is Gotham City. Elder Jellen showed me a picture of the town hall that's on batman, but it was a picture he took because he served in Newark! Craziness all around!!!!!!  

 

(This was selfie Jason took the day his call came - just to send to Tanner and rub it in while he was still at school)

Friday was awesome, we had this thing called the Jingle with the Jeppsons, where we went to Pres. Jeppson's house and they made us a huge breakfast, and then afterwards we sung some songs, rang some bells, and he talked alittle bit about Christmas. It was really interesting, he focused on the personal worthiness of Mary and Joseph to be able to have the Christ child. It was really cool! We had another lesson with Selena that day, she is remembering lots - IT's awesome!!!

 

Saturday brought us another snow storm that we were supposed to get up to 10 inches before sunday morning. It snowed all day. I like the days it snows here, because it's so much warmer than any other day!! When it's not snowing, it's icy cold, so I prefer the snow haha! But right as we walked out of our apartment on saturday, I totally slipped, just like Charlie Brown, and landed flat on my back. I just laid there for a minute because I realized how funny that probably looked. I now have a bruise on my left bum cheek. But it snowed all day, and we got probably 6 inches of snow. It was enough, and it froze overnight, so they canceled church yesterday.

 

But yesterday was still amazing! We didn't go to chruch, we just stayed home and studied. But all the spanish missionaries were suppposed to put on a choirside last night for members and investigators in all of NJ. The Maughans, our senior couple,, was giving us a ride, and they told us they'd be here way early. So they picked us up with the sisters in our area, and then they realized how early they were. So they took us back to their apartment and fed us so much food! It was awesome, I love the Maughans!!The Maughans are also my favorite because they gave us some almond roca. E Jellen doesn't like almond rocas, so he gave his to me :) happy day :)

 Then we went to the choirside. It was really cooL!!! We sung lots of songs in spanish, and they had several elders and sisters participate in musical numbers! My favorite one was a guitar and ukelele duet, it was so cool haha! But the spirit was strong there, and I could really feel how much God loves everybody there. The choirside was in Union City, which is right next to New York! So I got my first glimpse of the Empire State building and all sorts of skyscrapers! IT was soo cooL!!!

 

We get to actually go to New York for our temple trip on thursday! We're going to the Manhattan temple as a zone, and I'm way excited! We're taking the train to new york, and then the subway from the train station to the temple! It's going to be so awesome!!!  (Seriously. so. Awesome.)

 

But that's all for this week! It felt like it went by way too quickly to be a week!  I hope all continues to go well at home! Love you guys! You're in my prayers!!

 

Love,

Tanner

Snow, personal revelation, and drunk people!

Dear mom and family,

 

Thank you for the asmonex! Haven't got it yet, but I've been out for a week haha ;) I think it should come today! And when I run out, how do I get it from the pharmacy?

 

Christmas, I'm not sure exactly what the plan is...we have to find somewhere so that we can skype, so I'll keep you posted as soon as I know! And it's totally fine with mission rules if Ally comes, so that would be great!

 

Well, sounds like a fantastic week for you guys! Things are going well here! Elder Jellen goes home at the next transfer conference, so my last day with him is January 7, and he flies home on the 8. Less than a month now, and he's freaking out haha!!  He doesn't want to go, and I don't want him to go either! I love him, and the members do too! I think if I was half the missionary Elder Jellen is, I would be satisfied with my lot in life.  And also...I'm scared for when he leaves because the members are so attached, and no one is as good as elder Jellen, so I'm terrified they won't help out at all. ;)  But it'll be a good learning experience for me! ;)

 

So for pictures, I still haven't figured out how I can do that....last time I tried it at the library, it didn't work...I'll bring my camera next week and we'll see if we can get something through :)

 

WInter, We had our first real snow last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!   It snowed and it stuck!!!! I  t started snowing right after we got home from church, and then all the time we were walking in it too!!! It was awesome! But then we woke up today and as soon as we left our apartment to walk to the library, we saw that it was all ice....it's like that big ice storm we had last year in Utah. It's so slick, and everyone here uses buckets of salt on the smallest spots of ice. I think it's ridiculous, kinda insane, but whatever floats their boats. Nobody here likes winter, I think I'm the only one. It's getting cold though! I wear a hat almost everywhere now, and we always have on our gloves, and I have a pair of thermal bottoms that I wear daily too. We're warm as long as we do that!

 

So every month Pres. Jeppson picks a monthly focus topic for all the missionaries. October was faith, November was prayer, and December is Always remember him (Jesus). Our zone and district training meetings branch off of these focuses, and we are encouraged to apply them daily. Zone training meeting is the first tuesday of every month, and the whole zone gets together, and the ZL's give us a training. I LOVE ZONE AND DISTRICT MEETINGS SO MUCH! I always find lots of things that stick out to me!!  And I'm sorry I don't remember everything now, but I wrote it all down, so maybe I'll write a real letter with some stuff in it.  But I remember one part they were talking about receiving personal revelation. We do that by praying about what we need revelation on, right? But we need to do more on our part to receive revelation from God. It is our job to ask God inspired questions, (inspired questions like we ask to our investigators) to find out inspired revelation. We are God's eternigators. So there's a spiritual thought, if you want revelation, come up with a specific, inspired question, then ponder the question in your heart, study it out, and you will receive. "Ask and ye shall receive, seek, and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened up to you.  D&C 4.

 

 On a side note, I was reading a GC talk from April 2012 by Elder Evans of the 70 about missionary work. It was a really good talk!! It talked alot about how sharing this gospel can bring us and others much joy! Something random about that talk, it said you should send missionaries hand written letters haha! I thought that was funny ;)  (Hint taken…..we mailed letters)  (And I'm sure he wouldn't complain if any of you wanted to send a letter either) :)

 

 So this past week, our main focuses have been our investigators, Selena, the 8 year old girl who is getting baptized soon, and Bessie, our new investigator.  Selena has autism, so we've had to find new ways to teach her. I bought a picture book in the MTC, so we've been teaching her very simply with pictures, and we gave her a Book of Mormon Reader to help her read the scriptures. We also made a calendar of things for her to do that we're  giving to her tomorrow, it has daily prayer, her baptism date (Dec. 22), her confirmation date (Dec 29), and other assignments can be wrritten in that we ask her to do. She has a very short attention span, but the picture lessons have really helped her focus and understand. I can't wait til she gets baptized!!

 

Another exciting thing about her making the choice to be baptized is the impact it's having on her mom. Her mom has said before that she has plans of being baptized, just no idea when. She only isn't baptized now because of her husband. They are technically not married, but they live together and he's the father of her kids, it's a pretty common situation here. But after our 2nd meeting with Selena, this is what she said, "You know, the parents are supposed to be good examples for the kids, not the kids for the parents." She told us that she's coming to the point where she has to decide if she will move out, or if she will convince her husband to get married. So she is closer to baptism than we ever thought!!

 

With Bessie, we had our 2nd lesson with her last week. We were going to talk about the plan that Heavenly Father has for us, that we choice to come to earth even though we knew it would be hard, and how we can find peace and happiness in the Atonement if we have faith, repent, and are baptized. We brought Hno Carvajal with us, our branch 2nd counselor. He's a convert of about 12 year's, very rooted in the gospel, and very knowleadgable. But...he likes to talk...which having a member that talks is really good, but he got very off topic alot, and he talked way more than anyone else who was there with us haha! The lesson was still good, I think Bessie got the point of the lesson and she invited us back on thursday for dinner and a lesson, woooo!!! ;) Hno Carvajal at one point talked about the sacrifice that we make as missionaries, leaving our homes, families, and friends for two years. We don't get paid, we do it of our own free will, and we can't talk to home more than once a week through email. They were really impressed by that. I am convinced that Bessie will get baptized within two months, no doubt in my mind. But her mom, Kenia, has sat in on both lessons and participated. She's not really looking for anything out of us, other than to learn with her daughter, but I think when she learned that, it kinda opened up her eyes to see, "you know what, maybe this is something really important." So that was awesome!!!!!

 

 Here's a weird/cool experience! Last night, we were walking to Selena's house to give her a lesson, and we passed a man on the street. We greeted him in spanish, and he was caught off guard and started talking to us. At first he thought we were JW's (Jehovah Witnesses), which unfortunately, is a really common mistake out here...but we established who we are and we went up on his porch to talk with him. His name in Nelson and he's from Honduras. He was a little drunk, but not drunk enough to be completely out of it, and he had a bunch of questions. We talked to him for like 40 mins, in spanglish, and at the end, he gave us hugs, and he accepted a B.O.M. We asked him if he'd read it because it was another testament of JEsus Christ, and he said "Por que no?" why not haha!!! It was really cool! One part where he showed his drunkeness though, he established that because my last name was Nelson, I have roots somewhere in Europe. He 'foretold' that an aunt that I have in Europe will soon communicate with me and change my view on Jesus Christ forever. Kinda spooky. I love drunk people ;)  

 

So the Morristown stake for the past 2 or 3 years has done this thing called the Christmas Creche. They take the gym and set up tons and tons of nativities and stories of Jesus and they open up the church for Fri, Sat, and Sun for anyone to come see. We've been passing out invitations for like a month, it's huge!!! So we went yesterday right after church, and it was so amazing!!!!!!! I wish I would have had my camera with me, but I hadn't realized we were going before we left home. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of different collectors nativities friom all around the world, and it was so beautiful, and they had soft christmas music in the background. I could feel the spirit of Christ there really strongly! We were asked to help for a little while after we went through, and I talked to a few people who weren't members. They said it was the most beautiful, amazing thing they've ever seen. Everyone that went, member and nonmember, investigator and person from the street, felt the spirit there. We weren't allowed to proselyte there, but I think this Creche opened up many many many opportuinites for conversions. I want to come back after my mission and see it again, it was so amazing!!!!

 

 Well, that's about all for this week. Keep on keepin on, dad I can't believe you would grow your hair back!!  (no….he hasn't grown his hair back yet……we have sort of a bet thing going on…..If I win, he grows his hair back!)

;) Love you guys, have a great week!! :)

 

Love,

Elder Nelson

The Handsome.

Dear mom and family,

 

Special request from Kaden- dear elder my weekly letters to him please :) or have his mom do it, whatevs haha! (Will do)

 

Another request, can Ally come over for the Christmas call?

 

And I don't have the exact Walmart address, but it's on Ridgedale Rd in the Morristown, Hanover area. Have you sent the asmonex yet? I ran out last night…(done and done)

 

One more thing, I haven't been able to download pictures onto the library computers yet, sorry!!!! But it's okay, I really havent taken many pictures here haha! ;) I'll do better!! ;) (Alrighty then…..I'll just have to keep throwing on some 'throw-back' pictures to keep people entertained!) 

 

And also, last thing, could you send me a list of p90x workouts that I can do with very limited equipment?? Thank you!!

 

Yeah, I totally know pres. Crane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner, but we couldn't go cause we were at a members house....he's so cool!!! That's awesome!!!! Go best mission in the world!!!

 

Well, this is the first year I can say that I'm not excited for the holidays! We've been helping Carlos set up his Christmas stuff this week, and everytime it just makes me homesick!!!

Thanksgiving was good though, we spent it with Carlos and his family, Judith and Andres. We had normal food...turkey, stuffing, cornbread, veggies, the works. Also on the morning of Thanksgiving we had the Turkey Bowl in Short Hills. 3 zones all met at a football field there and we played ball!! It was so much fun, and basically I'm a pro at football ;) jk, i'm not that good, but it was fun, I scored touchdowns, I threw touchdowns, and we had a blast!!!!

 

Last week was transfers, and so we got a couple new people in our zone that I haven't met yet haha! We did get a new senior couple though, the Maughans! They're from Idaho, they know Elder Redder's (from the MTC) family, and they're related to Elder Jellen!!! They have given us several rides, and they're so technologically impaired haha!! It's really funny!! They're assigned to our spanish branch, and they don't know a lick of spanish, but they're studying and trying to learn! It's so funny to hear them say things because they're kinda hicks, so  they can't pronounce spanish very well haha!! But they're awesome, I love them!!!

 

I got my first nickname this week, El Guapo. It means The Handsome. Yup. That's me. haha!  Hno. Acuna gave me that nickname and he calls E Jellen Monjesito (little monk) because he looks like a Jew because he comes from a Jewish family haha! His dad is the only convert in his family from Judaism, so Hno. Acuna always jokes about how E Jellen should go live in a monastery haha

 Hno Acuna is so funny!!!!

 

 This week was very low key...not a lot went on. Our numbers went down because of the holidays, not to make excuses, but we couldn't get into people's homes because they were gone or with family. We didn't have the opportunity to teach Bessie this week because she was in Maryland, but she got back yesterday, so we're going to call her up today!!!! I'm so excited for that lesson!!! In planning, Elder Jellen and I found a few scriptures that we really feel inspired to share, so I'm stoked!!!! We don't know exactly what she's going through, but she has told us that she is going through some trials right now, so we wanted to share with her the plan of salvation up to the atonement, and then focus on how we can get help through the atonement as we do certain things. It's gonna be amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Also this week we found out that we probably will have a baptism this month!! Patricia, an eternigator that is only not a member because her husband won't legally marry her, wants her 9 year old daughter to be baptized, so we are going over there to talk to her about baptism tomorrow!! It's not really a huge success in the context that we did a lot of work, but it's a huge tender mercy, God is throwing us a bone with this one! Kiddy dunkin, wooo!!!

 

Speaking of eternigators, here's a cool miracle this week!! Our other eternigator like Patricia, Lila, had to take her 6 year old son, Izac, to the hospital on saturday because they thought he had pneumonia. We had an appointment with them, but we missed it because elder Jellen had a meeting in Dover. When we found out, we walked over to the hospital to give him a blessing, but when we got there, we found him fine, sitting on the bed, with his family around them. We asked them how they were, and two minutes later, the doctor released him from the hospital. So we said bye to the family and walked back home. As we left, we were talking about it, and we both felt really impressed that we had gone there for the dad, Ray. He is not a member and is against the church. Lila can't be baptized because he won't marry her legally because he doesn't want her to be a member. So we've been praying a lot that his heart will be softened. And we both felt that maybe our legs are the way to soften it haha! Just by us being there and showing support for the family when something was happening to them seemed to have a big affect on him. Maybe we'll baptize him yet!! ;)

 

My personal studies have been getting better too!! I've tried to study specific topics when I don't have any investigators to study for, and I've been getting a lot more out of that too! It's really cool to see how much you can learn when you  are looking for an answer, which seems like a no duh, but I think alot of times we overlook the simplicity of getting answers to our prayers. So that's been cool for me to see!!

 

 

That's really all for this week haha...it's been pretty low key...haha! Glad to hear all is just peachy at home, keep up the good work team Nelson!! Love you guys!!

 

Love,

Elder Nelson