Totes Ally-Ooping....and the Beach!

Dear Family,

Sounds like a blast of a party with the walkers!!! Where did Landry serve his mission? And little T-Minnow got called to Ecuador?! Wow, everyone is going to south america now!!

You can send stuff right to the 59 Manor Dr. address!! Red Bank is safe ;)

And sorry,  E Beus is the one from Spanish Fork, but I didn't send a picture with him last week....so...I'll do better at that!! ;) (Kind of fun....we actually met Elder Beus at the Airport - they left for Mexico MTC the same day!)

We had interviews with president Jeppson on Tuesday, and it was our last interviews with him before he goes home :( I admit, I cried a little bit....Pres walks out the door on July 1. Nuts. Then we were able to teach a couple of lessons, and it was all good.

On wednesday, we had 5 lessons set, but we only had 2 of them actually be there! But we were able to go give a blessing to a less active that had had a brick fall on his head from 4 stories, and he got a bunch of staples in his head....ouch, right? So we gave him a blessing, and then we had the BEST LESSON EVAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! with Angel Cruz, that awesome investigator!!! He's 24 and from El Salvador. And he's pretty much the perfect man. He plays the guitar, he plays the piano, he's good lookin, has a little bit of facial hair, but not too much, he's sentimental, he cares about his family back in El Salvador, and he writes guitar music, but like really good stuff. He only writes music about God and like loving his mom. People have tried to get him record deals and stuff for writing inappropriate stuff, but he won't do it. He literally listens to the same type of music that we do haha!! One of his favorite artists is mission approved because he's a spanish singer, and he sings about God. Jesus Adriano Romero be his name. He's Angel's favorite singer. So anyways, we went in and taught Angel the Restoration, and he talks a TON, but we were able to control his questions and his ideas into the Resto!! It was a really good lesson, and he totally understood it!! So then we invited him to be baptized. He said yes. We invited him to be baptized on June 15. He said no. But then he said, "could I get baptized on July 22? That's my wife's birthday, and it's a really special day for me, and I'd like to be baptized on a day that is special to me because it really signifies the beginning of my new life." HOLYYYYY.....WHAT?!?!?!?!?! WHERE DID THIS GUY COME FROM?!?!?!?!?!!? WHY IS HE NOT ALREADY AN ANGEL?!?!?!?! (get it, his name is angel? ;)) So yeah, Angel is a boss. Then after the lesson he played his guitar for us. He played a really sweet song that he wrote about his mom, and it almost made us cry. It was really, really good. He's a boss. So then to finish off the night, we taught this guy named Fernando. He was a former investigator from awhile back that really never had a good reason for being dropped, the missionaries just stopped going by. So we went by and taught him the Restoration too, and he was totally involved, and E Beus and I have comp unity like a boss, and basically, another one of the best lessons I've ever been apart of. At the end, we went over the BOM, and we really emphasized praying to know, and we committed him to pray to know, and it was really spiritual, and he started telling us about this experience that he'd had where God had saved his life, and now he felt obligated to follow him and be a little bit better than he had been, and he committed to Pray to know. It was awesome. We're going back tomorrow to seal the deed.

On thursday we taught a less active, but she didn't come to church this week....we also played basketball, and, as always, it was a donkey show. E Beus and I are awesome though, so on one play, I totes (um.....for those of us 'olders', I did some checking, and 'totes' means 'totally' apparently) :)  did a Blake Griffin spin and alley-oop. It was amazing. And everyone on the sidelines was screaming and shouting and stuff, it was the best haha!!

On friday I went on exchange with E Garcia! We went to his area, which is Long Branch, right right right next to the beach. We were able to teach five lessons, one of them at an old folks apartment complex like 10 feet from the beach, so he took me and let me look at the beach and we took a couple of pictures, and that was my first glance at the other end of the world! I still haven't had an opportunity to touch the sand, but I've seen it, and that is enough for now. E Garcia and his comp, E Flores, are also serving in our branch, so we went to the branch soccer night that night, and it was fun!! It had been awhile since i'd played soccer though, and I had done a really rough leg workout that morning, so saturday I was really stiff haha!! But it was a really good exchange! E Garcia is still in training, and he's from honduras, but he came to New York by himself when he was 16. It took him from the time he was 14-16 to cross the border of Mexico, he tried 11 times!!! And now he's 25, but he's so awesome!!!

On saturday, after the exchange, we weren't able to teach any lessons....the one lesson we had set was a dinner appointment with a member, and she called us and told us she was going to be late, so she told us to come by at 7 instead of 6. We happened to be walking past her house, and we saw a bunch of members in her front yard setting up a party, so we went and talked to them. They were indeed setting up for her birthday party. It wasn't a surprise party, because she was also setting up for it....so...it was really awkward and they fed us really good tacos and then we left and were not able to get a lesson....

On sunday we were supposed to have 4 investigators at church, this woman named awilda (a former who had never been to church but we invited her anyways), Katy and Alicia (our two investigators, daughter and mom), and angel cruz. Out of the four, we had three at church. Everyone except Angel came. Which, let me tell ya, I have never been so heartbroken that an investigator wasn't at church. I was so sad!!!!!!!! Angel was so amazing!!!!!! He had talked to his boss like a week early so he could come into work an hour late so he could just come to the sacrament meeting!! And he was going to ride his bike like four miles to get there and then ride his bike to work, and he is so dedicated and so amazing!!!! But here's what happened: He actually called a taxi to take him to church, and he was going to show up like 10 minutes late. So the taxi came and picked him up, and then dropped him off at the wrong church....so then he had to walk a few miles to work...it was heartbreaking for us, and he was actually really disappointed too, but hopefully he'll be able to come this week!!!!!

But yeah, that's the digs from Red Bank this week. We get to go to the temple on Wednesday, and I'm way excited!! Hope you guys have a great last week of school, a great week of running preparation, and a great memorial day!! Love you guys!!

Love,

Elder Tanner Nelson

Finally Transferred, and now he's Yao Ming!

Dear Family,

Okay so......they kept me in Mo-town.........

JK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am in Red Bank, almost as south as the mission goes, and I am right next to the beach!!! In fact, I think we are going to the beach later today to chill out on P-day!!!! How awesome is that?!?!?!?!?!?!! I've officially seen the Atlantic Ocean now, and pretty soon, I'm gonna go touch the sand :) My companion is........................................a dud.........JK AGAIN!!!!!!! My companion is Elder Beus, the one we met in the airport the very first day when we were checking in my bags to go to Mexico!!!!! So I just got a friend for a companion!! ;) It's great down here, I love it!! I love everyone that I've met so far, it is awesome to be here. The only thing I don't like is that it's a driving area....which it's tiny, it could be a walking area, but we have a really really nice 2013 ford fusion instead....oh well....and I can't use my door bands or pull up bar in the apartment because the doors are too small....but other than that, it's great here!!

My new address is:

59 Manor Drive

Red Bank, New Jersey

07701

This week was good, just weird getting to know new people and a new area. 99% of the people down here are Mexicans and some El Salvadorians. The people are really nice!! I still haven't met all of our members, but i've met enough that I kinda know what's going on haha!! We get fed a lot here too....but whatevs! Maybe it's my duty to get fat. We also play basketball on Thursday nights!! Let me tell ya though, basketball with Mexicans is NOT real basketball. It's like the most crazy thing in the world. They all play basketball like they play soccer, so it's like a crazy passing game, and then they just chuck up a crazy weird shot. And when they're on defense, they just slap and run into you!! It's ridiculous!!!!! And they never call any fouls!!!!!!! Like I got fouled 59078134891749 times and they called one!!!! The only good thing (and it's not even that good of a thing) is that I feel like Zach out there. No one is as tall as me. There's one guy that's close, but I'm seriously like the Yao Ming of Mexican basketball. I'm gonna be a baller when I leave this area.

Because we're right close to the ocean, it's really humid over here. And because it's so humid, it rains alot. E Beus said it rains like 2 or 3 times a week, but we've only had one big storm since I've been here. But it was big haha!! It just happened to be on our walking day (the day we can't use our car) so we got soaked haha! It was last friday! We had a dinner appointment at 4:30, a dinner appointment at 5:30, and then we were walking around for the rest of the day trying to find a lesson, and it started dumping on us at about 7:00. That was prolly the closest I've ever got to swimming besides that one time I was playing volleyball in Mexico. Our umbrellas didn't even help at all haha! Mine actually broke, so I might have to go buy a new one haha! But it soaked all the way through my coat, my pants, my shoes (they're still wet), everything! But it was still pretty fun!

So right now we have 3 serious potential baptisms for this transfer: Katy, Alicia, and Angel Cruz. Katy is a 10 year old girl who pretty much will get baptized in the next few weeks. Alicia is her mom, and she is married to a less active guy, Ivan, but she's willing to commit if he will commit to go to church. Then Angel Cruz is this way cool 24 year old guy from El Salvador! He is prolly one of the most sincere, genuine guys I have ever met. He defines "real intent" in the scriptures!! The only problem with him is that he talks more than mom does after church ;) But we are working with him, and he's gonna get work off next sunday to come to sacrament meeting, and he's gonna ride his bike there. He is dedicated!! But yes, those are the peeps we are working with right now!!

This branch is huge!! I guess there's only about 50% of the people come to church, but there's consistently about 80-90 people at church! Also, the branch mission leader called us last tuesday, five minutes after I got to our apartment for the first time, and asked me to give a talk on sunday....so I've already talked in church within my first week. But church yesterday was so crazy! It seemed like the Utopia of all branches in the world compared to Morristown haha!! I guess there's a bunch of problems, especially with drinking and the law of chastity (only about 20% of the people that come to church take the sacrament), but at least they understand the significance of that stuff, and there are people that have callings!! That's way more than we had in Motown haha! It's looking good so far!!

But that's about all for the week, just trying to figure out the area and meet all the people!! Glad to hear all is well back in L-town!! Can't believe summer is literally right around the corner....Crazy how fast time flies!! Love you Guys! :)
Elder Tanner Nelson

Transfer Prank

Dear Family,

Yes "sincere" is the one he got a record label on I think!!!! (Elder Packer had composed some 'electronic' music - pretty cool!)

It was soo good to see you all yesterday!!!! (Mothers Day Skype calls are THE BEST. THING. EVER.!) I can't believe that I've called home twice and there are only two calls left in my mission....

So really, I already told you everything about last week, so this is gonna be a pretty short letter....but last night, we were all in bed talking (actually I was trying to get to sleep, but the other elders were talking ;)) and at like 10:50 the transfer text came in from the zone leaders. And wouldn't ya know it, it said that E PACKER WAS GOING AND I WAS STAYING!!!!!!!!!!! I was SO TICKED!!!!! 

(this picture is with the Padilla family that he absolutely loved)

I really do love Morristown, but I am soooooooosoooooooosooooooosoooooo ready for a change. So so so ready. Like it's not even funny. So I was furious!! I punched my pillow and body slammed my bed, and my comps were in shock too, because we all thought that E Packer and E lattuga were gonna stay, and just be a duo again. But the text said that E Packer was one and done in Motown, and I get 6 transfers here....I don't even know how long it's been since I was that mad....it was like a soccer rage, like when that one kid stomped on my thigh last year in all stars!!!!! I was pretty upset haha! Had some serious repenting to do for my attitude ;) So then, I was still in a rage, and i couldn't even do anything. My blood was boiling, my adrenaline was pumping, and I couldn't sleep, but didn't feel like reading the scriptures, nothin. So I just laid there and did nothing but think about it. I was sooo mad haha!! So like 15 mins later, our zone leaders texted us and said "jk, transfer text coming out tomorrow morning." I was even more ticked and just a tiny bit relieved!!!!!! So yeah, they were totally lying. They totally got me riled up for nothing...and....guess how much sleep I got last night? That's right, not very much ;) It took me FFFFFFOOOOOORRRRRREEEEEVVVVVEEEERRRRRR to get to sleep because I was so on fire haha!!! I didn't sleep too much last night ;) But on the bright side, I am finally leaving Morristown, the area of my birth. And I can't even wait. I'm stoked. And exhausted.

 

But yeah, haven't really done too much other than that...I packed up most of my stuff last thursday during TAC (transfer apartment cleaning), so I just have to worry about the little stuff tonight. We went to Olive Garden for lunch today because E Packer had a gift card...the sisters still have our car and Sis Ericksen is getting transfered so I have no clue how I'm getting all my stuff to transfer conference haha!! I've accumulated so many pairs of shoes out here....and I've only bought two pairs!! E Welburn (the one from Nephi) gave me a pair...a member gave me basketball shoes....I don't even reallly know where they all came from, but I have to find a place to put them all now ;) The worries of my life right now....sheesh...;)

 

Transfer conference is tomorrow, there's tons of places I could go, and honestly, I have no clue haha!! But I'll keep ya posted next week!! Thanks for tuning in to this weeks broadcast of missionary mail weekly, and we'll see ya next monday! Love you guys! :) Have a great week!! Don't waste the most three important weeks of schooL!! ;)

Love,

Elder Tanner Nelson

Broken umbrella

Dear Family,

Aw man, you guys are gonna have to tell me how the old springville house is!!!!!!! I can't believe that that was like....8 years ago.....I can't believe I'm just 18....I can't believe I've been gone for 8 months....I can't believe I was only baptized 10 years ago. That's a weird thought haha!!! A whole lotta unbelief today ;)

 

This week was good!! The weather was crazy though!!! Wednesday POURED all day, it even broke a couple of records between wednesday and thursday on rainfall received in 24-48 hours!!! It was pretty fun to walk in. Except for my $11 mens wearhouse umbrella finally broke :( goodbye my weather beaten friend :(

Not too much happened this week. We taught alot of lessons to just regular members. I don't know why, but for the past couple of weeks I've just felt like we're falling so behind, like before this week we hadn't been able to find any new investigators in like three weeks, and I didn't feel like we'd been seeing any of the members or anything. It was really weird...But!! We found two new investigators this week, and it was a really really really cool experience!! Their names are Mariano and Carmen!! So we got a referral from the sisters named Fran several weeks ago, and we've been trying to track him down for like a month. We found out that Thursday is his only day off, so we tried by his house on thursday night. Mariano answered the door, cause they all live together, and Fran ended up not being home, but without even knowing who we were, Mariano was kinda just like "come on in guys". It was pretty sweet. So we got in, and Mariano was cooking this soup/greul stuff, and so we talked with him, introduced ourselves, talked with his 3 year old daughter, Kaylie, and then a little while in, his wife, Carmen, came in and talked with us too!! So we just talked for awhile, got to know them, and then just shared a short message about Jesus Christ in the last 10-15 minutes. There's this really cool lesson that i'd never seen before, where you fold up a piece of paper a certain way and then tear it once, and you tell a story while you do it, so it ends introducing the Book of Mormon and introducing our main message of Jesus Christ. The pieces of paper also spel "amor" (spanish for love) so it's a really sweet lesson haha!! The spirit was way strong, and they were intrigued by the message!!!!! We're going back tonight to teach them the Restoration!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Side note on them, they are the only members of the Salvation Army church that I have ever met haha!!!

Also on thursday we taught our only investy with a baptismal date, Donaldo. We taught about the importance of coming to church, and then we invited him to come to church, and his response was that he couldn't come cause he had a soccer game!!!!!!! E Lattuga was kinda ticked haha! He said "Hermano, we just finished talking about how and why to keep the sabbath day holy, and now you aren't going to come to church because you have a soccer game?!?!" It was pretty funny ;) Unfortunately, he didn't come to church, so we have to push his baptismal date back....

E lattuga has the Living Scriptures DVD in spanish, so that's what we watch sometimes for language study. It brings back some pretty good memories of watching those on VHS right before church because that was the only thing we could watch on sundays ;) 

I had another cool experience on saturday!! E lattuga had DL Council, so E Packer and I walked around Dover for a couple of hours with two other english missionaries contacting people. This white guy named Darrell actually contacted us. He's an agnostic scientist. His first line was this: "so what's the good word on Darwin?" what a nerd ;) But we talked to him for like an hour. It didn't really change his opinions at all, but we gave him a book of mormon and committed him to read the intro and pray, and he said he would!! But the thing I gained the most from that was a stronger testimony, because everything he said gave a reason of why not to believe in God, or why it could be false. He was a very intelligent and very logical guy, but to me, it just doesn't make sense on how there couldn't be a God. Like who in their right mind could believe that everything came from nothing?!!??! It just doesn't make sense!!!!! The thought that came strongest to my mind while we were talking to him was that our faith in Jesus Christ and in Heavenly Father give us a hope to live a good life now to achieve a better one later. I feel bad for people who don't have that hope, because they really don't have a purpose to even live. The gospel is true, doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith!!!!

The Maughans went home today, that was crazy. I was here when they started their mission, and I'm still here when they ended it. They just served a 6 month mission, but I got really close to them!!! I cried yesterday saying goodbye to them at church haha!! I love the Maughans!!!

Hey, can't wait to see you guys on sunday!! :) Good luck on your talk mom!! Love you guys!! :)

Love,

Elder Tanner Nelson :)