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