Companion getting a "Dear John" = rough week

Dear Family, 

Welcome to Red Bank. The humid, hot, rainy, oceanside town. I seriously love it so much here!!!!! But it's super hot and humid like every other day haha! There has been like three days that it's like utah hot, but most of the time it's just sticky and sweaty. Thank goodness for mesh garments :) But it is nice that it's finally summer!! Kinda...every single person alive and their dog is working 24/7, and half the hispanics don't have air conditioning...plus our apartment manager just made us take out our big swamp cooler out because and I quote, "it looks unattractive on the side of the building." So...we just have the dumb little ac unit that came with the apartment. It gets pretty hot sometimes!

On monday we had a noche de hogar with the Tlatepa famiy, and they fed us enfrijoladas, which are basically tortillas soaked in beans with salsa and avocado and stuff. They are so good. e Beus ate 7, and Wilfrido, our old branch mission leader, made me eat 8. I almost died!!!!! But other than that, nothin happened on monday.

On Tuesday we had zone training meeting, which was awesome!! The new monthly focus is love, and we also talked alot about setting a Vision, Goals, and Plans for our mission, and for our area, and for our investigators. I also went on exchange with E marchant, an english elder in my district! He's so funnY!! We taught Odilon, a member who we teach during his lunch break on tuesdays, and Marta Reyes, a less active whose husband just died. We taught her about the Atonement, and it was really cool. She shared her testimony that she knows that she will see him again, even though he's not a member, and the spirit was definitely there. And Marta even came to church this week too!!! But then we had like three people juke us, so it was lame.

On Wednesday we taught Awilda, an investigator who kinda reminds me a little bit of mema ;) except shes shorter, fatter, and doesn't remember anything, but other than that...mema is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much cooler though (Of COURSE Mema is cooler) :). We taught a really good Gospel of jesus christ lesson, but afterwards, e beus told me that he's taught her that same lesson like 3 times haha ;) She doesn't understand the importance of getting baptized or anything, her family is pretty much the only hispanic family that is well off, and they're really americanized. They are fluent in english and spanish, and I think they're family is better at english. So hopefully we can get something going there. After that we had a noche de hogar with another member/lessactive family, the victorias. Their last name isn't actually Victoria though. Its a family of three sisters: Victoria Guadalupe Santamaria, Victoria salvadora Santamaria, and Christina somethin somethin. In what world does it make sense to name two of your children the same name?!?! Victoria Guadalupe is active, but the other two and their families aren't....So yeah, we had a fun family night, and they fed us ham and cheese sandwiches, and then we had another eating appointment right after that with David and Rocio. We're going back for another fhe with the victorias tomorrow, and I think we're gonna play soccer with them, just like we do at home!! ;) They have a 14 year old punk kid, so hopefully we can get him involved there. 

Thursday was kinda rough, especially for E Beus...we did weekly planning, and we set a really good Vision, Goals, and Plans for our area, and we were in the apartment planning and stuff until like 5 haha! But after that, we went over to teach Katy and Alicia, and alicia's husband Ivan (less active). katy was napping, and then alicia woke her up and she was mad, and ivan wasn't even home, and we even got the Velasquez family (members) to come on team up with us there!!! So finally ivan came home, and we just read the second half of Alma 32 with them because that was what we assigned alicia to read and she didn't :( so. That was a bummer lesson. Then they invited us to stay for a bbq they were gonna have because hna velasquez is ivan's sister I think? but we couldn't because we had a lesson with Angel, which we were stoked for. So then we get to Angel's house, and he's not there. He juked us because he got held up at work!!!!! They work too much!!!! Also, E Beus got written off by his girlfriend(Poor poor guy!), so...after Angel, we tried by a few people, and then we went back to the BBQ haha! I didn't even know E Beus got written off until that night after everything was over, he just kept on truckin on!! I love him so much!! We also weren't able to go play basketball, we ran out of time...

So then on friday, we had our walking day. We walked and walked and walked and walked, and no one was home. Then we had our one dinner appointment with the Plazas, and they fed us pasta. Then we walked and walked and walked and still, no one was home. So we went home and went to play soccer. It was good, but the gym is way tiny, it's like the west gentile church size, so you can barely move...it almost wasn't even soccer ;) but whatevs, we got to do some running around. 

Saturday was kinda rough too...we had a meeting with Pres. Flores, the branch president, and he's way cool!! We planned a BBQ which they decided will be on June 26 (hmmm, that's a weird day to have a BBQ...;)) and then they're like, wait, that's your birthday E Nelson!! Another reason to have a BBQ!! haha! So my birthday will consist of studies, weekly planning, a BBQ, and basketball. ;) but then we had to drive to Freehold, like 45 minutes south, to find a walmart to buy some supplies for a zone cake for an all mission activity this week! E Beus had it hardest on saturday I think, he had a lot of time to just think. So we talked about it, I tried to listen, and I'll tell ya what, he's taking this like a champ. He broke up with her before his mish so that he could be focused and prepared, but then they've just still been writing and she was planning on waiting for him. But, then he got written off, not for another guy, but for other stuff, I don't quite know... but, he's still working way hard and not letting it distract him!!! But literally every single person we tried by juked us on saturday. It was really hard to not be discouraged. So then we called angel to see if we could meet with him later that night, and he said he had a little bit of free time in between 7:30 and 8:30, so we did get that one appointment!!! And it was so needed!!!!! We just talked with Angel, figured out what's been stressing him, and just talked about life. His daughter who was sick is better now, so that's great!!! Then we read a little bit of Alma 40 which was his homework from last time. We explained just a tiny bit of the plan of salvation, and then he asked if we could stop until the next lesson. He really likes to go in deep explanations, so he like the digest tiny pieces of info at a time, it's actually really funny ;) but then he had a few minutes and we had a few minutes, so he brought out his piano keyboard and played us a new song he wrote for his wife!! It was so good!!! E Beus said it almost made him cry, partly out of sadness for his girlfriend, and partly because it was just so beautiful ;) it was really good!!! Then e beus told him that I play the piano (which I don't, I only know how to play 100 years by five for fighting ;)) and so I played that and Angel pretty much invited us to be in a band with him. He said if we had time sometime we could all go to his recording studio and make music, so you'll prolly be able to hear us on the radio soon. Look for "Angel and the band" ;) But then we went to bed happy. That made the week successful!

Okay, Angel is so prepared. He said he's going to start setting an alarm on his phone for when he needs to read the scriptures. And he said he doesn't need a ride to church anymore, he's going to be riding his bike every week. Plus also he showed up early to church. And he likes going. He is such a boss!!!!!!! I hope I'm around next transfer to baptize hiM!!!!!

Sunday was good!! The branch here is very unlike Motown, very cohesive, very functional. There are still problems that are being worked on, but for the most part, I feel like sundays are a successful day! Angel came to church, Marta the la came to church, and we had a random investigator show up to church for the second week in a row, and so I'm kind of praying this ends up like a miracle where she shows up to church with a member and then three weeks later we baptize her...;) she wants us to teach her during sunday school next week, so that's awesome!!! Then after church we were only able to teach one lesson, a street lesson to a drunk guy haha! But we tried by a less active, Miguel Lopez, who is trying to stop drinking. But....he was drunk....not good....After we talked to him we had to take a break for a little while, e beus was having a really hard time this weekend, and I don't blame him!! E Beus is prolly the most loving person I have ever met. He just loves everyone here so so so much, that even just seeing miguel drinking again brought him to tears. E Beus is a boss, and I'm learning lots from him!!!!!

As far as scary hood stories, salt lake isn't even hood compared to 90% of new jersey, mom you prolly couldn't live here ;) (We told him about Tyler and Emmas adventure running out of gas and getting off the 600 North Salt Lake exit trying to find gas....at nearly 1:00 in the MORNING.  Pretty much the sketchiest of all the SLC exits!)

But that's about all this week, it was rough, but good!! Hopefully miracles coming soon! :) Love you guys, have a great week!! :)

Love,

E Tanner Nelson

Summer but alas....no tan.

Dear Family,

There is an Elder Mull out here!!! I only know him by name though...he's tall, skinny, and blonde, does that sound like him??

Haven't got the package yet, but maybe today or tomorrow!

Well, the good news is it's summer!! The bad news is, I can't really get a good tan....;) The worse news is, the people are working more and harder than ever, which I didn't even know was possible....but it's made it almost impossible to get in and get lessons with anyone, because the men are always working and we can't go visit the women alone, it's pretty ridiculous...

So last monday we were able to teach a less active, Guadalupe, which was really cool, because I guess E Beus hasn't been able to teach her since he's been out here. But we invited her to church, and she said she'd try. She didn't however come...but I think we'll be able to start seeing her more often now!! She doesn't seem happy, she's in a weird sitiation...Let's just say there are TONS of Law of Chastity problems here, so only like 20% of the people that come to church actually take the sacrament...it's a problem...Hence, lots of the people we teach aren't happy. Monday night we had a Noche de Hogar with la familia Tlatepa, and they fed us a lot of really good food. And then we shared a short message and left. Monday wasn't supposed to be P-day because of the temple trip, but because of weird circumstances and a Mem. Day branch party (which consisted of the missionaries, the branch mission leader, and the branch president, that's it) it basically was a P-day haha! Because of traffic and weird store closings for mem day we didn't get home til like 7:30 haha! But we still got 2 lessons!!

On Tuesday we were only able to teach one lesson. We taught Odilon, who is a way strong member! Like I said, everyone here works 24/7, so we teach him in the afternoons during his lunch break at like 4:00. It was good! We've been teaching members about their role and importance in missionary work, because it's a commandment from Jesus :) John 21:15-17, and Odilon is preparing a referral for us!! Which is awesome!!!!! Referrals are so hard to come by!!!! But that was good! 

Wednesday was the temple trip!!! So our zone leaders picked us up at 6:30 in the morn, we drove to Newark and met the rest of the zone there, then took the train up to Penn station, then the subway right up to the doorstep of the temple! It was awesome, as always!!! Then we took the subway and the train home, switched up cars a little bit, and I drove home from Newark. It took us 3 hours to get home. New Jersey traffic is way way waaaaay worse than anything you could ever find in Utah. No joke. After we got home, we had a dinner appointment with David and Rocio, members! David actually just barely got called as the new branch mission leader yesterday, and he's a boss teamup!! They bought us the best tacos ever, tacos al pastor!! It's pork marinated in pineapple :)

Thursdays and Saturdays are the worst days. We didn't get a single lesson on thursday. We drove around and walked around all afternoon, and our only set appointment canceled on us. But then we had basketball that night, which usually makes it okay, but the Mexicans gang up on me now, and it's not even cool!!! Like I'll post up, I'll get the ball, and then all five of them surround me and slap me! It's not even basketball!! The good news is, my block stat is way high. But it was a good time.

We taught five lessons on friday!! The Plazas (elders quorum pres and fam) and Luz (member) fed us at back to back appointments, then we gave a blessing to luz' son, and then we had a lesson with Fernando, our investigator. David came on teamup for that one, and it was so good!! Last time we talked about the Restoration and committed him to read 3 Nephi 11 and pray to know, he didn't specifically pray to know or read, so we read that chapter with him and talked about the importance of baptism. He asked a lot of good questions, and we were able to answer them, and David explained some things in a way the missionaries can't because we still don't speak spanish ;) But we really felt the spirit. And we're pretty sure he did too. We've got another lesson with him tomorrow, and then hopefully we can get him on baptismal date!! He hasn't been baptized before, which is good, it eliminates a lot of confusion haha!

Saturday I was on exchange with E Garcia again for a few hours while E Beus and E Flores were at district leader council. E Garcia is still in training, so I got to kinda be a trainer for a little while during studies and stuff!! I hope I get to train or be a district leader or something soon! It was a really good experience for me! That night, E Beus and I were able to teach a former, Awilda, who randomly showed up at church last week out of nowhere, so we set expectations with her, and hopefully we can get her on baptismal date soon too!!

On sunday, the sisters in our branch had a baptism, and it was really good!! Not as good as Obdeli's ;) but it was good!! Then we had a lunch appointment with some members, and ate more really good food. Then we couldn't get in to anyone's house for the rest of the night haha! The weekends are the worst because literally EVERYONE is drunk, so we can't get good contacts, we can't teach lessons, we can't do anything...

That's about it for this week!! I can't believe you guys are out of schooL!! IT's nuts that it's already june....I have less than a month of being 18 left...Have a great week guys!! Love ya!!

 Love,

Elder Tanner Nelson

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 :)

No Hats for you, and a broken nose for your companion

Dear Family of mine,

 

E Packer's name is Brent Logan Packer (goes by Logan) and his parent's names are Brent and Tonya Packer!! SO...there ya go! They live in Kaysville, right over by Garybrook neighborhood by burton lane!!

 

Wow, looks like everyone has grown like 4 inches since I left...Tyler, How tall are you?!?! Emma, congrats!!!!! (She's finally taller than mom)  :) Addie, where are you at on mom? ;) Dad, I promise I will come back taller than you, even if it kills me!! ;) You guys are growing like crazy....

 

The weather here has been pretty crazy too!! We haven't had like a legit "warm streak", the most we got was like 3 days of 60's, then it dips back down to 40's and rainy, then 60's and rainy and windy....it's nuts, there is never a normal day. I'm really excited for the summer too, but I've heard it gets really hot especially because of the humidity, so maybe I'm just excited for the winter again ;)

 

This week was good! The conference with E Perry last monday was AWESOME!!! Then our district meeting on Tuesday was good too. We went on exchange on Tuesday after DM, so E Drewes (my last district leader) came to Motown with E Packer and I!! It was kind of a rainy day, so we were only able to get into one home for a lesson before soccer, but soccer was still fun. ;) Unfortunately, that was the last time I'll get to play soccer in Motown :( The gym is all decorated for a wedding this week, and then next week it's all decorated for mormon prom, curses!!

 

 The Sisters Ericksen and Smedley, the motown sisters, got in a car crash on tuesday night, so on wednesday afternoon, after we exchanged back, we went to do mormon.org time, and after that, we had to give the sisters our car, cause their area is huge, and we don't really need a car. I didn't really care, but my companions were pretty ticked haha! I survived all winter without a car, and I prefer to walk anyways. We didn't even need it ;) But guess what I found out during mormon.org time!!! I can make pass along cards with my name and face on them!! How cool is that!??! Anyways, by the time we got home from helping the sisters, we were only able to get two lessons in for the night...

 

On thursday we went down to the doctor in North Arlington, and you have to drive through Newark (E packer's last area) to get there. E Packer knew of a hat stand that you could buy a sweet New Jersey snapback hat for like 5 bucks, so we went to stop there on the way home. There wasn't any parking though, so E Lattuga pulled up on a yellow striped spot next to the curb, and E packer and i were just gonna run out really quick and grab a hat a run back. But there was a cop right behind E Lattuga, so right when we were almost to the hat stand, the cop shouted through his megaphone "you can't park there, get movin!" and so E Lattuga had to drive. E Packer and I took off running after him, and he drove as slow as he could, so we were still within sight and sound of eachother, and we just tried to catch up haha!! Finally we got to a point where we could run across the road and catch E Lattuga, and there were all sorts of crazy people shouting at us and stuff, it was quite the adventure! Needless to say, I still don't have a New Jersey hat...;)

 

Friday was Zone Conference, and it was soooo good!!!!! Pres. Jeppson gave an amazing training on the Atonement, it made all of us cry haha! I don't have my notes with me, but I'll put some stuff in the next letter about it!!! I love going to Zone conferences, I always get so much revelation. It's awesome.

 

Saturdays are usually pretty tough because if the weather is good everyone is working until the night, and if the weather is bad, people congregate with their families and don't let the missionaries in. So we walked for alot on Saturday. We had correlation too, which is still ineffective...but after that, they asked us to help set up for the wedding that's taking place this friday. So we did because it was still too early for anyone to be home from work. It was kinda weird setting up for a wedding....everyone looked stressed except for us haha!! After that, we taught Obdeli, who is still the coolest man I've ever met!!!! We were actually able to share the because of him video with Obdeli and his nonmember brother, Warner, who is also really really really cool, and I'm convinced he would get baptized, he just doesn't have time because of college and work. But that was a really cool lesson!! Then we taught Carla and Josue, the honduranian members that we ran into last week!! They came to church again and they're gonna fit into the branch just perfectly! The only problem is with Josue. He's 14, and he only speaks spanish, so he's basically our only full spanish youth. All the other youth speak better english than spanish, and there's only one really close to his age, and that one barely speaks spanish at all!! So we are his friends right now, and we're working on that haha!!

 

Here's a funny story about saturday night though. We got home, and I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed, and E Packer was trying to use E Lattuga's abroller. He had never used one before, so he didn't know what he was doing, so he was trying to use it on his toes. But he rolled the thing too far back, and slammed forward on his face and broke his nose hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!! Then he had to give a talk on sunday and I couldn't help but laugh when he first got up because his nose was so off center!!!!!! It was soooo funnY!!!!!!!!!!!  (As a side note, Elder Packer ended up having surgery to fix the broken nose!)

 

Sunday was good too. We went to church...ate lunch....walked around trying to find a couple people, then went to Belia's for dinner. We had a really good lesson with the Gomez family and Lila's family that were both there on how to be a missionary. We shared d and c 18, and then did a contacting role play, and then they had to come contact us. It was really fun and everyone loved it! Then we went home and went to bed and now here I am ;)

 

This week I really feel like I've learned the value of hard work and diligence. I love my companions, but sometimes I don't think they work very hard. Alot of the times I'm the only one doing anything productive, whether it's washing all the dishes and trying to keep the house clean, or motivating us to leave and get out and actually do missionary work, so I'm grateful that you guys taught me that!!!

 

Have a great week guys, I love yoU!! :)

 

Love,

Elder Tanner Nelson