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

Swimming in the Rain and a visit from an Apostle

Dear Family,

 

Mom, if you have any cool renditions of church hymns or something that you could send sometime...that'd be sweet :) I got a way nice keyboard from the Morales family, and E Packer is teaching me some good stuff haha!!

 

E Packer has kinda got me into techno music....when people we teach find out that he was a DJ before the mission, they look up his stuff. And it's soooo good. Look up DJ Arctica on youtube or soundcloud.com!! He's got a record label for one of his songs!!!!

 

This week was crazy. Tuesday we had an exchange with the zone leaders, and I went with E Newman (he's from Syracuse!!) to Ledgewood. It DUMPED rain that day. Remember that picture from the MTC of when we played volleyball in the rain? Yeah, it rained hard like that. Except this time we were in our nice clothes haha! We were driving around in the rain, and then we got to a house that we were going to try by, and it started raining harder. So we got out of the car and sprinted up these waterfalls running down the stairs and we got so soaked, and the guy wasn't even home!! So we swam back down the stairs and jumped into the car. We were soaked for the rest of the day haha!! But it was still fun!!

 

Wednesday we exchanged back, and after that we went to help some members set up a clothing drive. Our stake did a clothing drive where people just donated clothes and things they didn't need/use so that other people could come and just get a bunch of stuff for free. We helped a member get a few things over there and then set it out, and then the people in charge said we could go through everything and see if there were some things we wanted. So I got a pair of proselyting shoes (kindof a combination of old man sneakers and sperry topsiders) and a couple of t-shirts. After that, we walked around for a long time, just trying to get in to people's houses. We were only able to teach one lesson that day, not because we didn't try, we were seriously walking ALL DAY!!! But the lesson that we did teach was really good. This lady in our ward, Patricia, has been less active for about 3 months because she hurt her leg really bad by slipping on the ice. So she's asked us and the Maughans to come and do like a FHE with her every week. She has a son who is like 8 months younger than me who has been less active for almost 3 years-ever since his older brother died. His name is Nick. I've shared a few lessons with him, and I really like him!! He's a really really great kid, and he's way cool!! But Patricia wanted Nick to be involved in these FHE's, so when we got there, Nick wasn't there, and we watched "only a stonecutter" with Patricia, but nick came about 30 mins later, and we watched the Because of HIm video, and it was waaaay powerful!!!!!! I love Nick, and I could tell he felt the spirit!!! Hopefully we'll be able to get him to church!!!

 

Thursday we taught several lessons, and two of them were the Because of HIm video haha! We shared that alot, but it was soo powerful every time!! That is one of my favorite three minute long videos about Jesus ever!! ;) Our last stop was the Chiviliu's, but right when we got there, the AP's called me and asked if I could help them go give a blessing to a sister missionary in another area. So I left and my comps stayed, and it was a really cool experience!! A sister training leader had been going through a hard time, and although she didn't say anything about what she was going through, her blessing was awesome!!! God loves all His children and His work goes  forward to bless every single one of them through the Priesthood!!!

 

Friday we taught several lessons as well. We have also been teaching the Restoration alot to members to help them relearn the basic principles of the gospell, and it's amazing to me how much some of these converts have learned and grown through the gospel IF  they've rooted themselves and learned the gospel through their efforts. On the flip side, it's amazing to me to see how many of these converts who haven't really understood the purpose of the gospel don't even know who Joseph Smith is...As a part of the hispanic culture, church is just something you do. Everyone believes in Jesus, and everyone has a "church" to go to, and so some people don't understand the importance of going to THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH, so that's the part that we are trying to bring to all the members.

 

Saturday we had a really cool experience. We were walking down the street, and this kid on a bike stopped us and asked where the church was. We started talking to him, and found out that his name was Josue, and he was a 14 year old boy that moved here with his mom 3 or 4 months ago. They were members, they just hadn't known where the church was or any members! So we went by to visit them later that night and they are so cool!!!! Josue does BMX, likes boy scouts, and wants to go to church, and his mom, Carla, is waaaaay strong in the gospel!!! We got them to church the next day!!

 

Easter sunday was good too!! The sister missionaries made abranch choir that we all have to sing in, and we sung "I know that my Redeemer lives" in spanish. It was really cool!! There was also a really good talk given by Hno Morales about being humble like the savior. It was really good! After church we had two dinner appointments...it was alot of food...but we watched the Because of HIm video again haha! Something that stuck out to me from that was that because the Savior suffered, died, and resurrected for us, there are no ends. You can't ever sin too much, that the Savior won't forgive you if you truly repent. You can't ever feel too much pain, that the Savior doesn't know how to help you get through it. With Jesus Christ, not even death is an end. Rather, it is a new beginning.

 

Today Elder L. Tom Perry is here in NJ!! So he's giving a special conference to all the missionaries!! IT's gonna be sooooo awesome!!!!! Everyone looks great at home!! Tyler, I'm diggin the white tux, you stud!!!! Emma, did you die your hair? Looks great!! Addie, you remind me of toothless....;) Love you guys!!! Send me pictures of the house!!! I've heard it's pretty cool! ;)

 

Love,

Elder Tanner Nelson

Jersey drama and some piano playing

Dear Family,

Yes I did indeed get the pictures!!! Tyler, you tool ;) lovin' the stache bro ;) Everyone is looking well and sounds like fun moving allllll the time!!!!!!!!

Real quick, for the face norwex rag, I don't need to buy facewash, do I? Also, I have 9 puffs of asmonex left, so if I could get some soon, that would be swell :)

Everything is well in Motown!!! The weather is great, the companions are sweet, the numbers are up! Last Monday after p-day, we taught three lessons to two less actives and an active member. Tuesday, we had our first district meeting. E Lattuga is the DL right now. Before dm, he had us do a district language study, which was the first time I've ever done that, but it was kinda fuN! We all met as a district an hour before DM, and we just talked about principles of Spanish we didn't understand and all helped eachother and learned a song! I'm actually really grateful for where my Spanish is at right now, I'm really pleased. I can communicate just about anything that I want to, and my accent isn't terrible! I actually have gotten several compliments for how good my Spanish is, and how young I am in the mission, so that made me feel good ;) After DM we ran home, taught Carlos the member and another less active family before going to soccer. I really do enjoy playing soccer. I hope they play it in every area I go to. I scored the first goal of the night, with Obdeli workin with me!! ;) It's really fun to see everyone go at it in the church gym, it's almost as good as all the little girls on Emma's birthday ;)

We taught Obdeli on Wednesday, and let me tell ya, Obdeli is still THE COOLEST guy I have ever met. He's so chill, and understanding, and he's a way good team up!!!! But remember how I told you last week that E Lattuga was known for being a flirt? Yeah...so Obdeli told me (in secret) that E Lattuga sent Laura (member, Obdeli's girlfriend) flowers right before he came ....so...that's awkward....also Laura broke up with Obdeli for no reason apparently?? It's a weird situation...Jersey Drama ;) I'm not sure if the right thing to do right now would be to talk to E Lattuga? Because he is kind of a flirt, but I don't think he would do something like that from talking to him, but he might? I dunno, if it turns out to be a problem, I'll take action haha! Right now we are preparing Obdeli to go do baptisms for the dead!!! He is still my most solid recent convert ;)

 Thursday was a really good day. We taught Marvin, our investigator, and committed him to a date of April 27!! He accepted, but we have to push it back a week because he didn't come to church yesterday :/ he is solid though! He is a 17 year old boy that E Diaz and I found. He's way good at soccer, and he's way way way prepared!!! He's gonna be my one that got away if we don't get him baptized...we also taught Donaldo, our media referral, and committed him with a baptismal date of May 18. He needs to come to church too, but I think he'll be ready. Then we went to Lila's house (dry member)and she gave us a piece of pizza, then we went to the Chiviliu's and they fed us baleadas. They are soooo good. Look em up!!! Classic honduranian delights!!!

On Friday we taught a few more member lessons, then at night we had our coordination meeting with the branch mission leader. It was NO BUENO. Sis. Ericksen, the sister from Layton here, is super duper ambitious, bold/overbearing, really really really strongwilled and stubborn....and our branch mission leader still doesn't really understand the purpose of these meetings so he just goes off on story telling show and tell time...anyways, he said something, and then Sis. Ericksen went on this rant about how it wasn't a part of our purpose as missionaries (when it totally was) and had this freak out and was really rude and then we ended up being late to our house and everyone was mad and frustrated, and E Lattuga had to deal with the issue because he's DL and so it's just been drama for the past few days...crazy stuff. This is worse than high school.

Even with all this drama though, I wanna be a DL so bad!!! Not even just to say i'm in charge, I just want to have some responsibility and be in a better position to help the missionaries around me. I really really really really wanna be a DL.

 On Saturday, the weather was BEAUTIFUL. It's starting to turn into spring, so we just wear short sleeve shirts, and I wish I had muscles to show off, but it still feels so good!!! E Lattuga had a DL council meeting, so before that we went to the Morristown Diner, and I didn't know what to get, so I made a hasty decision and got a big bowl of oatmeal with a blueberry muffin. It was alright, but a wasted opportunity at a diner. I hate quick decisions ;) We went over to the Morales, and they gave us an amazing berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. We've been teaching all of our members the PMG lessons from the beginning, and so that's what we taught them. Hna Morales' mom is in from Guatemala, and she's hardcore catholic, but she joined in the lesson, and we had a lesson on steroids with her and the spirit, it was soooo cool!!! There was lots of testimony, and we committed her to read the intro and pray about it. It was sweet.

 

 Sunday was good. But all three of us just about fell asleep several times. We've all been so tired!! We had to get up and get out of Elder's quorum for a few minutes, it was bad haha! Even though I can understand Spanish, it's hard for me to stay awake just listening to it ;) After church, the only lesson we were able to teach was at Belia's house. They also fed us really good pasta and steak and the amazing mozzarella cheese quesadillas. It's always a good time over there.

And here I am, today, Monday, on the computer. Guess what!! E packer is teaching us how to play the piano, and my skills are starting to come back!! ;) I'm gonna start learning how to play hymns on this keyboard the Morales are giving me today, and e packer has already taught me this way sweet song and we made up a sweet jam last week! Our p-day afternoons now consist of going to the church, pulling three pianos into the gym, and playing for an hour or two.  (As a music mom....can I just say that I LOVED hearing this??) :)

Anyways, good luck finishing the house, it sounds crazy haha!! Love you guys, have a great week!! :)

Love,

Elder Tanner Nelson

A fabulous Trio

Dear Family,

This past week was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! I love my trio, it's so bomb!!! My companions are E Lattuga and E Packer. E Lattuga has been out for 21 months, and has actually served in Motown before. I was worried about getting him as a comp because he's been emergency transfered a few times for flirting and stuff like that, and he's really well remembered around here as kind of a flirt by the members too, but they all love him! And so do I!!! He's way cool, and from Las Vegas!!! E Packer is so sweet. He's only 1 transfer older than me, and guess what? He's from Kaysville, Utah. Wanna know what's crazier? We share the same friends, but we've never met before. Like he's way good friends with Trevor Fry, Austin Seegmiller, Collin Pace, pretty much all my junior high friends!!!!!! Is that crazy, or what?!?!?!!?!?! He was a DJ before the mish, and so he's got a keyboard, and basically just busts out these really really cool versions of hymns and stuff. He's teaching me and E Lattuga how to play a little bit. It's awesome. Besides all that, we all get along really really well!! We have very similar personalities, and I've decided that I wouldn't mind staying in Motown for longer in this companionship haha! We joke around alot, and we're always laughing and having fun, but we are being obedient and doing what we're supposed to and teaching the people, which is important. This will probably be the best transfer of my mission so far!!

 Tuesday, the only thing we did was get them unpacked and played soccer. Which was fun. Wednesday, we had Zone Training Meeting, where our zone leaders trained and introduced the new monthly focus, which is consecration. April month is consecration month :) One quote that I really like from I think it's E Maxwell, is "consecration to the Lord is the only surrender that is actually a victory." It's really cool, because the Lord really can make more out of our lives than we ever could! These past few days we've been writing up "consecration contracts" where we commit to be more consecrated and obedient missionaries.

Aside from that, we taught an investigator of ours, Beatriz and Grisel, that E Lattuga actually found when he was first here! It was cool because they remembered who he was, even after a year haha! We have seen them twice this week, and they are open to hearing the message, but it's hard to teach them because Grisel (beatriz' daughter) has two twin girls who are 11 months old, so they just cause chaos and distract everyone...We also taught Marvin, an investigator that E Diaz and I found a few weeks ago! He's 17 and still in high school, but he's very promising! I think he could get baptized this transfer!!! We taught him the Plan of Salvation, and then at the end, we committed him with a baptismal date of April 27! And.....he accepted!!!!!!! He just needs to come to church, but he is so prepared, he understands so much, and he prays the RIGHT way every time since we taught him how!!!!!!! He even included in his prayer the question of if the things we had taught him were true!!!!!!! I'm really excited for him. He comes and plays soccer with us, and he's really good.

Thursday and Friday were days that we just taught a few member lessons, and got everyone reacquainted with E lattuga and just acquainted with E Packer. The weather here is so weird though. It had been great up until Friday, and then friday and part of saturday it rained...

But this weekend was awesome, because it was conference weekend!!!!! General Conference is basically like the superbowl for missionaries. We love it. So much. I loved all the talks!!!!! Also, as a mission, after the first session on saturday we started a mission-wide fast to find families and whatever other personal things we wanted to fast for! So after the first session on saturday, we went to subway with a few other elders and sisters to have our last supper, and guess how much I ate? I ate a footlong, which I bought with subway points, and then another 6 inch, and then a pear. I ate a TON of food. And I prolly could have eaten more...is that gross? ;)   But then we fasted until after the first session on sunday, and I felt fine pretty much that whole time! That was my first full 24+ hour fast! After the first session on sunday, all the branch members made a bunch of food and we just pigged out with the branch haha!

To watch conference, we went to the church. They had it in english in the chapel, and spanish in a different room, but we just watched it all in english. You gotta get everything you can out of conference, and I'm not quite perfect in spanish yet! ;) But it was really good. I felt like an overall theme of the conference was ways to protect against satans temptations and trusting the lord enough to be obedient. It was really cool to see the emphasis of families as well, I felt like alot of people mentioned eternal families, and that's a really cool principle that is found in the church that no one else has! That families can be together forever, and I know that's true!! Through the Atonement and gospel of Jesus Christ, we can live forever as a family, and with our Heavenly Father :) And that is just pure awesome :)

I finished the BoM in my studies yesterday, and I can promise you that the BoM is true!!!! I'm starting to study the New Testament now, and I'm excited!! I would exhort you all (in the words of Moroni) to do what they said in conference and study Preach My Gospel. Because there's tons of stuff in there that can be applicable to daily life as well. I've read several parts that I've totally applied to life in general, not just missionary work!! So it would definitely be smart to start reading ;)

Well...I'm sorry to hear the house is taking alot of work...but i'm glad I don't have to do it!! ;) JK, good luck with the house and school and soccer and everything!! YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST FAMILY EVER!! LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

Love,

Elder Tanner Nelson

Pictures are of me and my compas. E Packer is the tall ginger and e lattuga is the short one :)

Finally....a CAR!

Dear Family,

 

Haha was there more to that letter that I missed?? That's so awesome, Joseph better be excited!!! And Angels Landing is seriously like my favorite hike ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that place!!!

 

So the big news of this week...................I am......................................................................staying in Morristown for transfer number 5. The good news about this, I know it will be my last transfer here, so I'm for sure out in 6 weeks. The better news, E Diaz is out, he got called zone leader, so I get a new companion tomorrow! The crazy news, They're putting me in a trio in Morristown, so jk, I actually get TWO new companions tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The even crazier news, the assistants gave us a car yesterday!!!!!!!!!!! It's crazy because our apartment charges 100$ a month for parking, so we're gonna have to be parking somewhere different on the streets every night haha! But it'll be an adventure. Looking back on these past two transfers, I've seen that it really was fun being with E Diaz, but it was really hard, and I learned alot. But, I'm really excited to get my new companions tomorrow haha!

 

Last week was good!! Tuesday we had a great District Meeting, E diaz and i gave a training, and then the motown sisters also gave atraining, turned out really well! We trained on how to use the BOM to respond to objections. Basically, every question about the gospel and our religion can be traced back to faith haha. So faith is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. We got caught up in a few things after the meeting, so we didn't really even have time to go out and proselyte before soccer that night. But soccer was fun!!

 

Thursday was really good too!! We have this man that comes out from Dover to go on teamups with us, Edwin, and he is so awesome!! We also got this media referral a few weeks ago, and he's an investigator that we teach on thursdays. His name is Donaldo. And he's gonna get baptized this transfer. He doesn't have a date yet, but he accepted the invitation!! He's really interested, and I didn't get to teach him the week before, but last week we went to teach him the gospel, and when we'd ask him "donaldo, what does faith mean to you?" he'd be like "well faith is like a belief in something you can't see, right?" "donaldo, why is it important to be baptized?" "well, Jesus was baptized right? And we need to become clean from our sins." and it was like that for flipping every gospel principle!!!!!!!!!! It was soooo cool!!!!! We'll definitely be working really hard with him!!!

 

IT rained all day friday, all day saturday, and all day sunday. It was a super bummer. On friday, E Diaz had to go to a new zone leader meeting, so I was on exchange in Motown with an english elder that is actually in my going home group, E Doezie. He's kinda been struggling in his mission I guess with homesickness and stuff, so during our lunch hour, we went to Carlo's Bake Shop. I told you they opened one up last week right? WEll, in case I forgot, they opened up a Cake Boss bakery right down the street from my apartment!!!!!!! So yeah, we went, and I bought myself a cream puff. It was the most expensive cream puff I've ever eaten, but it was pretty good. It cost me two bucks, but it was like the cheapest thing on the menu haha!! After that, we went and taught Carlos, our member, then we had to go help move stuff into our apartment for my trio!!! When E diaz got back from his meeting, we had to do our transferly cleaning in our apartment, then we had a branch activity. The sisters were in charge of it, so we played charades with BOM stories, and it was actually quite fun. E Diaz and I were with two little kids, and we acted out the story of the Liahona like a boss, but noone guessed it!!!! Ridiculous...;)

 

Saturday was busy too. After studies, we had to finish up cleaning because we didn't have time to finish on friday, and then we went to a surprise party that one of our members was doing for Sis Pearson, who is going home tomorrow. We ate lots of food, and it was also quite fun. When that was over, we went out with the assistants to go try by one of their investigators who they are passing off to us because she speaks spanish! But she juked us, curses...SO we went and walked around in the rain for awhile. We were almost ready to head home, but I felt prompted to go try by a former. We went by and Alberto opened the door, who wasn't our former, but we've talked to him before. We asked if we could come in, and he let us in. We were talking to him and his friends/roomates/possibly relatives? and we immediately started teaching the Restoration. We got three new investigators in that lesson, Alberto, Alan, and Lestor. They are way cool!!! Except for Alberto knows the bible really well, and he doesnt' believe in the BOM at all, and he argued alot....E Diaz pulled out 2 nephi 29 on him, and I was ticked at him after the lesson for that, because I don't think alberto liked that at all...but luckily, E Diaz is OUT and I'll be taking over from here ;) Hopefully we'll be able to bring them into the fold too!!

 

 Sunday was amazing. At church, no one came to the first hour, gospel principles, so us, the sisters, and hno carvajal (branch mission leader) prepared our lesson because we were teaching the combined 2nd hour on missionary work. Hno carvajal made a "plan" where the stronger members visit and teach the weaker members (basically family home teaching, but the plan is called "nourished by the good word of god" because noone here does home teaching or even has callings as home teachers...) so he presented that for a few minutes. Then as missionaries, we taught the members their role in missionary work, as team ups, getting refferals, how they should treat investigators at church, and teaching with us. WE've had a lot of problems where us or the sisters take a member out on a team up and the member completely takes over the lesson and the investigator never wants to come back to church, so we talked alot about that. It turned out really really good!!

 

Then for sacrament, it was testimony meeting. It was sooooo powerful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! E Diaz bore his testimony, sis pearson bore hers, and a member, Hna Padilla, also bore hers. I have never seen her at church in all the time I've been here, but her family comes almost every week. She bore her testimony about how the example of one family (the carlos gomez family, who actually was doing their part in hno carvajal's plan) in teaching and visiting and being a good example to her brought her back to church. It was awesome!!! Then Hna gomez got up and bore her testimony about how god knows the reasons why we are where we are and what we need to be doing, and it was powerful!! Then Sis Maughan (senior couple) got up and bore her testimony in spanish, which she's been practicing really hard!!! It was really good!! THEN, E MAUGHAN GOT UP AND BORE HIS TESTIMONY IN SPANISH, AND HE PRETTY MUCH GAVE UP ON SPANISH, AND IT WAS BETTER THAN SIS MAUGHAN'S!! I definitely saw the gift of tongues in full effect today. But wait, it gets better! Right as the 1st counselor was getting up to end the meeting, OBDELI GETS UP AND BEARS HIS TESTIMONY ON HOW THE GOSPEL HAS CHANGED HIM, AND THEN HIS DAD BEARS HIS TESTIMONY ON HOW HIS PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED!!!!! It was definitely a very powerful, and emotional, sacrament meeting.

After church, we got our car from the assistants, went to dinner at the carlos gomez family's house, then we went to the Morales for another dessert before sis pearson leaves. Then we went and taught the Chivilius so E Diaz could say goodbye. And now I am here. It was a good week, and I'm so ready for the next one!!

 

Love you guys, ustedes son los mejores!!!!!!!! Les quiero mucho, cuidense!!!!

 

Love,

Elder Tanner Nelson

 

p.s. any workout tips will be accepted, seeing as I will have 25's, 10's, a pullup bar, milk cartons, and crossfit :)

The Cake Boss

Dear Family,

 

Sounds like another crazy week over there!!!!! But it's just as crazy over here haha! I feel like I've barely had time to breathe this week!!

 

Transfers are next tuesday, and I'm pretty sure that I'm leaving Mo-town, at long last!! I'm gonna miss some of the members here, but I think I'm way past ready for a change. A change in companions, a change in scenery, a big change. E Diaz thinks I'm gonna go district leader down in Paterson, which I wouldn't mind, Paterson is a pretty hood area ;) I have no clue where they'll send me...guess I'll find out next tuesday! But if you are sending any mail, if it wont be here before march 31, please don't send it haha!

 

Like I said, this week was crazy. Tuesday we had an exchange, E Welch, a new elder serving in Dover, came to Motown with me, and we just exchange after District meeting on tuesdays. We drive to district meetings with the sisters and the maughans, and the sisters hadn't been able to grocery shop on monday, so we had to stop at a place on the way home with the maughans, which made it so we didn't get home til about 4:30. We went out and proselyted for awhile, but seriously, noone was home. So we just walked around and tried to contact for an hour and a half before soccer haha! Soccer was the only lesson we had that day. On a sidenote, I kinda don't like playing soccer with the natives haha! It's good because they're all pretty good, but because I'm white, they think I don't know how to play, so they put me and E Welch on the junky team with the only little kids that come to play, and we have to show them up the hard way. ;) Nevertheless, I do love tuesday night soccer night.

 

On wednesday we exchanged back, and then E Diaz and I went to go teach Ramon, our crazy bible knowing contact from last week. We had discussed a way to teach the BOM in district meeting the day before using the whole intro, so that's what we did with him, and it went really well, but really loooooong. He understood and accepted the BOM really really well, but he is so knowleadgable about the Bible, it's crazy. He said he would start to read it, and he also said he was going to make a list of questions for us and the next time we came. We arranged a teamup with our branch mission leader, who is also very knowleadgeable about such things as the bible, but unfortunately, when we went by on saturday, ramon was working :/ so that gives us extra time to study!!

 

On thursday and Friday, I had to go to a Leadership Training Meeting that went from 8:30-4:30 both days. They usually have those meetings every 3 months, and you're supposed to go in your first 3 months in the mission, but because the last one would have fallen on christmas, everyone that has come into the mish since lsat october (my group) had to go. It was really really goood, Pres. Jeppson, Sis Jeppson, the Assistants, and all the Zone Leaders and sister training leaders gave trainings throughout those two days, and we role played like a bajillion times...on the bright side, I don't hate role plays quite as much as I used to ;) But it was really good, I learned alot about how to be a better missionary and how to apply PMG to my investigators!!

 

While I was at that meeting, E Diaz was with his last companion, because his companion also had to go to the meeting, so we just did an exchange there haha! They stayed in Motown and worked our area until we got done and got home.

 

On friday after the meeting, the Maughans had us help them. Sis Maughan is trying to teach a couple of 11-14 year old boys, Raymon and Anthony, how to play the piano, but they haven't been dedicated to practicing. So she wanted me to try to motivate them. So I pulled out my piano skills from years past, shared D and C 25:12, and played the right hand of the basic hymns "now let us rejoice". They were pretty impressed. ;) But I really think they thought it was cool that I played the piano haha!! I told them that I regretted quiting (which I do mom, and Emma and Addie and Tyler, don't quit, it's not worth it) and I think that  helped motivate them!

 

 Saturday, Hno Carvajal (branch mission leader) came out with us, and we ended up teaching like 5 lessons, which was way good!! The Morales invited us over for breakfast too, it was really good!! Also, they just opened up a Carlos' Bake Shop (cake boss) here in Motown!!!!!!!! So we definitely went to go see it, it's pretty cool!!! Funny story about saturday though....So usually, E Diaz and I take like a 30-40 minute nap during our lunch hour to get ready for the day, and that kind of tides us over. But because of our exchange and the leadership training meeting and everything going on this week, we haven't had time for a single nap. So on saturday night, we had our appointment at 5 and 6 cancel on us, so we went home for our dinner hour. We both decided we were just gonna sleep for 30  minutes and then we'd go out and work, we were so exhausted!! So we got in bed at 5:30 and set an alarm for 6:05. But the alarm never rang. Which sounds suspicious, but we checked it like three times after the fact, it was set for 6:05 pm, the volume was all the way turned up, it had a loud ringer, it just never rang!! Anyways, I woke up at 8:00, woke up E Diaz, and we were both astounded that we'd slept that long!! So we quickly got ready and ran out the door, and were able to teach one more lesson before getting back home at 9 haha!! The crazier thing was, right after we were done planning, we both threw on our pjs and went right back to bed, the nap didn't even affect us haha!!!!

 

And then it was Sunday. Sundays are nice because you can wake up at 6:30, go shower and get all ready, and then nap until study time. We take as many naps as we can. We had one hour of personal study, then the Maughans picked us up for our PEC meeting. We got there and were waiting for a long time, and no one called us in for PEC, so we went to the English ward's sacrament meeting haha! After that, we went about our spanish branch schedule as usual. I had to give a talk, and I only had time to prepare it on saturday and sunday morning! It was on the talk "We search for security in counsel" by Henry B Eyring in June 2008 liahona. I prepared alot about how the prophets speak for God and how they care for us and direct us to  places of security. Sister Pearson, one of the sisters in our branch, spoke before me, and she took up almost all of my time because it was her last talk in the missino, she goes home next week. So I only got like 5 minutes, and I felt kinda dumb because it was so short...but oh well, it still went well!!

 

But that's about all for this week, it was crazy!! We're still trying to contact tons, but Satan has been working really hard this week, we have had a really hard time getting contacts that are more than just handing out a card, which is what we strive for, but oh well, the work goes on!! I'm in 3 Nephi 1 in the BOM, which is way ahead of schedule, but when I'm done with it, I'm going to study the bible so I can better answer questions and understand where other religions are coming from! I really know almost nothing about the bible haha....

 

Hope you guys have a great spring break!!! Love you!! Good luck with the move!!

 

Love,

Elder Tanner Nelson