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

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

 

Blessings, Mt. Dew, and a new favorite hymn!

Wahoo!  He made it to NewJersey, and we FINALLY got a picture from the mission home!  ....Did my heart good :)

.

 

Dear Mom and family,

Okay, about missionary work. Those people you've been thinking of, seriously just don't even think about it, just invite them to church. I know it sounds crazy, but just do it. Or give them a B.o.M. Or just ask them what they think about God and start a conversation there. I know you've probably heard it a bajillion times, but people won't break off a friendship or anything if you talk to them about that stuff. We read a talk the other day that had several stories like that, and every single person that members talked to said something like "oh thank you, i've been curious about this" or "yeah, i've been meaning to ask you about that" so I'm not telling you what they're gonna say, but.....I kinda am. Even if they don't know it, they're interested in the church ;)

 

Elder Jellen did indeed go to Mtn View high, and he does indeed know Mr. Fong, I asked him that when on day one. However, he never took Mr. Fong's class, he only heard from his friends that Mr. Fong is hilarious and one of the best teachers ever, kudos to Mr. Fong. You can tell him I said that ;)

 

Last week was a crazy week! It started off kinda slow, but on wednesday we got 3 referrals, which exceeded our weekly goal!! We have yet to meet with these people, but they all seem really interested in the churhc!!! Thursday was zone conference, and that was AMAZING!!!!!!!!  I love the Jeppsons so so so sooo much, and yes, they do leave next July :/ so that's really sad....but zone conference was amazing!  I had been having a rough day on wedensday, and so it was an answer to my prayers! The mission focus for the month has been faith, so we talked alot about faith, and I really felt my faith strengthened! There was also a special musical number, three elders sang Be Still My Soul, and it was amaZing! New favorite hymn!! So I came home on thursday night ready to work. Thursday night we had an appointment with Laura, a member who is a HUGE help to us. We went to share a short message and to help her prepare a talk for sunday, and while we were there, I understood nearly everything that was said!! Ever since then I really haven't had much of a problem understanding what is being said, I just can't speak back to people haha! And so that's my major focus this week. Expanding my vocabulary and using my mouth to talk to people.

 

Last week was great about not feeling homesick, that is until last night. We went to have dinner over at Carlos (member, 23) Judith (member, Carlos' mom) and Andres (Judith's husband, Carlos' step dad's) house, and they had a guest, Lina, who is from Morristown, but is moving to Utah this week. Her son is coming home from his mission on wednesday, and she is not married, and he is an only child, so she was telling us about how hard the past two years have been and how she would have hated to serve a mission and how she never wanted to even, and then she found out that I've been out here for two weeks...and she proceeded to ask me about if I missed home and yadayadayadayada. She even told us that her son had wanted to extend his mission, but she had told him absolutely no because she missed him. So last night was kinda rough ;) But i'm better now! I promise!

 

We've given two more blessings for the sick this week, and we felt the spirit in both! The first was on saturday night, we received a call to go to the hospital and bless a man. We got there and found him, he was in Medical Intensive Care unit, I guess he had just had an aortic spasm or something, where his aorta had a weak point and just split. I think he'd been in the hospital since thursday. So we went, and there were a few people there. His wife, his son, his daughter, and a friend. The friend was converted about 5 years ago, the rest of the family was catholic, and our unconcious friend who needed the blessing was a Jew. The wife said that they knew how much the friend's faith meant to her, so when the friend offered to call the elders for a priesthood blessing, they accepted. They are from an area near here called Dover, they are in an English speaking area. Every member here is really good friends with the missionaries. It's kinda cool. Anyways, we explained what we were going to do, with the oil, then the blessing. The son asked the wife, "okay mom, what do you think. Would the Rabbi approve?" the mom quickly replied "oh i'm sure he would" but I wasn't so sure. It's okay, we gave the blessing, we felt the spirit, and we planted a seed of faith in the nonmember family, so that even if they don't take the discussions now, they're still friendly to the Mormons.

 

 I've been starting to get kinda discouraged lately. Our mission goal for baptisms in october was 37, and as of yesterday we have 47. But 0 of those come from us. We've gotten several refferalls recently, we've found many new investigators, just nobody here has time. Everyone comes from other countries to work, so we talk to people on the street, give them a pass along card, and get their number and address, but then we never see them again because they flipping work 24/7!!! That's the hardest part about being out here, nobody has time. We can work with people who are firmly set in their religious beliefs, but we can't work with people if we can't meet with them!!! So we get into this rut, we have set lessons, everyone cancels, and the only ones that don't cancel are the people who are already members that we meet with to see if they need any help and share a small message with. Gah!!! It's so frustratiNg!!!!!!!!!!!!! If we could just take away one small part of people's agency and just say, "okay, you are meeting with us weekly on monday at 7. You are meeting with us bi weekly because you're preparing for baptism, so tuesdays and thursdays at 4." and so on, and just meet with them for half an hour, I think we would have so much more success as far as baptisms go. But.....nobody has time for us poor elders :( please keep these people's busy schedules in your prayers ;)

 

Well, that's about all for this week. Thank you for your love and support, good luck in school, sports, work, dating, and resting!! Love you guys!! :)

 

Love,

 

Elder Nelson

I haven't yet, we don't get mail weekly...I think i'll either get it tomorrow or next tuesday hopefully....

 

P.S. a few things I forgot.

One, I might need an inhaler soon. 

Two: will you please either get me bro garner's email or tell him to email me?! And Nate Scott too! I did hear from Trever.

Also, just  with the next thing you send, in my nightstand at home by my bed, there should be a little blue marble. Would you mind throwing that in an envelope or something with your next letter? And with that would you find Ms. Merrell's email address, teaches AP english literature at layton? I have to thank her, she gave us each that marble and an important life lesson. Thank you!

 

 Also, a few experiences I forgot! These ones are more just funny though!

 

Friday night we had a branch activity. The missionaries go to most of those so we can get the less active members involved. After it was done, Hno. Gomez, the EQP, gave us the rest of the brownies there, a ride home, and a 2 liter of mountain dew. It's been a great two days since ;)

Also, last week or a week and a half ago, we started teaching this less active, Juan Benites. The hermanas, Orton and Cole, were teaching him, but recently, he asked Hermana Orton to be his girlfriend, so we started teaching him. Some people just don't have common sense...;)

It's great being here, but I'm the most exhausted I've ever been in my life! We get home at 9, and then we plan, and we try to go to bed as quickly as possible, usually no later than 10 for me! but we try to be in early, and if we're lucky, we get in by 9:40. I think I'm gonna go to bed at 7 on the days we have to be home at 6 ;)

Our Mormon in Morristown!

He didn't include any pictures this week, so, as not to have picture-less post, just thought I'd include some 'pre' pictures.....

 

Dear mom and family,

 

Okay, first here's some items of business ;)

 

So...all of my watches got lost or stolen, so I only have my white one! So if you happen to see a cool one or two, feel free to send it - I wouldn't mind at all!  Also, all the wheels on my luggage broke, so I might need new luggage sometime in the next two years, that one is less important. Here's a few other things:

       Sweaters, I do need these, one or two would be nice.

       Winter gear, I am definitely going to need soon. Like a hat and maybe gloves, but mostly the hat is the important thing.

       Extra blanket, I only have my orange one, and it's great for now, but the nights or getting pretty chilly, so soon I will need another blanket. There weren't any in my apartment, darn!

       USB cord, my ipod is gonna die and I dont have one, but I have the wall plug in!

        Shoe rag, I need to polish my shoes, but I don't have a way to do so...so If you could throw that in soon that would be great, thanks! 

      Also, this is just an extra thing, but I think it's at Deseret Book, there's a little missionary quote book, Elder Chamberlain in the MTC had it, and it was great for motivation and inspiration! So maybe a Christmas present or something? Thank you!

 

Good to hear from you guys! I am in my first area, Morristown New Jersey, the same name as the mish. My companion, Elder Jellen (whose dad is a professor of biology at BYU, you'll have to ask Jeff if he knows him) (So....Jeff.....Do you know him???), and I are over a small branch of about 45 members I think is the total. Although yesterday at church, we had a total count of 32. We work alot with the members. But most of our work here is reactivating inactive and less active members of the Spanish branch. I still haven't really knocked any doors, which is kind of what I was expecting, but we do walk around town alot. Our area is fairly small, which is kind of nice, considering we are a walking area. We're a walking area with a car, but we only have 500 miles a month, so we're pretty much just walking except for special meetings and conferences and stuff. Like I said, we serve in a small Spanish branch, and there are two sisters that serve with us, Hermanas Orton and Cole. I think when I start being able to talk spanish, I'll know every person here because it's so small.

 

Right now, we have two investigators that I've met that are close to baptism. One of them, Obdeli, the EQP's son, we just put on baptismal date for 8 of Dec on Saturday! The other, I still havent met, but Elder Jellen says he's closer than Obdeli!

 

The spanish is probably the hardest part of being out here. That, and the homesickness haha! I think when I left mexico my head knew that I was going to NJ, but my heart felt like it was going home, so that kind of threw me off when we got here haha! But it'll be alright, I'm doing better today! But I still can't speak spanish! And I know it's only been a week, but I spent six weeks in mexico speaking spanish for cryin out loud!!! I should be a flippin native by now!!!  But instead, I can't even understand what anyone is saying...they talk way too fast...and it doesn't help that I'm the new guy, so they want me to talk and introduce myself and all that jazz haha!  But it's okay, I'm reading the book of mormon in spanish, so hopefully that'll help!

 

I love Elder Jellen- he's a great guy! Our situation is a lot like the best two years in the sense that I'm green, and he's on his last round, as soon as he's done training me he's going home to Orem. He speaks the language, and I don't know what they taught me in the MTC.  But he's a hard worker, and we get along well!!  Interestingly enough, we have the same plaque scripture!! At a less active's house the other day, he asked me to pick one of my favorite scriptures to share, so I shared that one, and after he told me that was the one on his plaque too! So that's cooL!!

 

NJ is really not like the stereotypical place you would think. It's a nice place in the right areas! A lot of the members really love it here! But there is an apartment building where one of the members, the Acunas, live. It smells horribly like smoke, and I hate walking in there! The other day at the Acuna's house, they gave us this herbal tea from peru along with a sandwich. My first experience with foreign food. I couldn't say no, but it was definitely not good....Elder Jellen told me to load it with brown sugar, so that helped a little, but definitely not my favorite haha! Yesterday was our first dinner appt, and the branch pres, pres Lorenzana's house. It was his wife's birthday the other day, so the whole branch got together to celebrate, including us and the sister missionaries. And, lo and behold, I had my first spill. I spilled chips and sierra mist on my shirt and on the floor. So that was embarassing, I dont think they'll ever invite me back ;) but it was good! They had like the tres leche cake that I LOVE!!!! It was delicious as ever!! Every tuesday night, we go to the church to play soccer with a few of the members, so that's great too.

 

Next week is two holidays, Halloween, and Gang Initiation Day. GID is on oct 30. On both those days we have to be in our apartment by 6 for safety.  Mom, don't worry, most of the shootings and stuff happen in Newark ;) (Oh my WORD.....did he REALLY just say that???  'Don't worry' and 'shootings' in the same sentence??)  I'll be fine, we live in a really safe area too, away from most everything. I'm excited to have that experience!

 

Also, for Anneke and Amelia and Elizabeth and Ally and everyone else that wants me to convert Cake Boss, unfortunately there isn't a spanish branch in Hoboken, which I'm frustrated about, so I will never go there. Also there is no spanish mission in Sparta, which is lame. However, I do think we get IPads in April. I will keep you posted.

 

Love you guys!!

 

Love,

Elder Nelson

4 more days!

 

Dear mom and family,

Awesome for Annekke!!!!!!! Mexico is crazy ..........tell her to stay off the roads ;) but a mission here would be sweet!!! But Clint is in one of the Mexico City missions, so no go there...provo mtc or mexico ccm?! Exciting!! 

I don't know my exact travel plans yet, but I'm pretty sure I leave on monday!!  We have in-field orientation tomorrow, not sure what that is, then I have to give a talk on sunday and conduct a district meeting, then we're outta here!!  My comp was the senior comp for 3 weeks. Everybody spends the whole time with one companion, someone that came in the same day as them. I'm the senior comp now ;).  He's going to Albequerque, same as everyone else in my dorm! There is only one other kid here going to jersey, Elder Beus who we met at the airport in SLC! So, that'll be an adventure!!

My spanish is coming along alright, we finished all of our lessons, we know basically everything there is to know about spanish ;) - now we just need practice. Spanish makes a lot more sense than english. There is a ton of rules, but there arent really any exceptions to those rules like in english...now it's just a point of knowing the vocab and using it correctly! There's a quote in one of our language books that says something like 'A man does not know his own language until he studies a foreign one' and that is so true. I've learned so much about english while studying spanish haha!!

This conference was definitely the best one ever!!  Some really inspired messages!! I wrote down that one too, 'doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith', it was a really really really good conference!!

 

Last P day, after emails and stuff we go back to class. P day officially ends here at 5:15 so we can have daily planning, dinner, and class.  For class last thursday, we took some time at the end to do an activity with the class next door. We paired up individually. Then everyone in the other class had a  question, and we had 10 minutes to prepare a message for them. I got paired up with Elder Richey, an elder who has had big problems with his comp. They don't even talk to eachother, and they are the main part of our discussion in sunday leadership meetings.  Elder Richey has very low self esteem and self confidence, it's hard to watch that!  But I love the guy, he's an amazing guy!  So his question was 'Does God know me'?   So I went back and said a prayer asking to know how to help him. As I prepared, I came up with two Scriptures, Jeremiah 1:5 and 31:3.  Both have to do with God's love and how He knows us. I shared that message, and told him about how God knows everything he is going through and knows how to help him and loves him. The spirit was so strong!  He started crying towards the end, and he told me that was exactly what he needed to here. He said something that really made my day, really made me feel worthwhile. 'Thank you for being worthy to have the Spirit with you and to know what I needed to hear.'  He kept on thanking me, and we hugged a few times, and said a prayer of thanks.  He left for Ecuador on monday, and that was probably one of the coolest experiences I've had here!!

 

As for Taylor and Mav, I see Taylor quite a bit, his room is in the floor under mine, and his class is in my same building. We're gonna get a picture today actually.  But I really hardly ever see Mav...maybe three times since I got here? And I have heard from Dylan, but not Trevor....and that's awesome for Nate!!! But tell him to email me, the lazy bugger ;)

 

Good to hear everything is going well there, Love you guys!!

 

Love,

Elder Nelson