Triple hard stuff….and triple gross stuff.

Feb. 18 2014

Dear Family,

 

Hey, tell Nate to email me or get his email address please! And same with Annekke, I haven't even heard from any of these people!  (….and to all of you - they LOVE getting letters.  Even short simple ones.  It does their hearts good.  So, let me know if you need his address)

 

And yes, hno. means hermano (brother). Brother Carvajal is our branch mission leader.

 

Thank you for the asmonex, the walmart people here are dumb ;) Because I've picked it up before in Utah, and they even found your name on there mom, with our address, but they wouldn't give it to me, and they couldn't find Jason Tanner...but thank you!!

 

I'm glad you found a house that's close!!! I didn't want you to move far ;) But that's excellent! Tyler, keep on conditioning, but don't worry if you don't make the team. They're just a buncha tools anyways ;) Emma don't you dare stop playing piano!! (I made SURE Emma read that TWICE!) :)  And Addie, the easiest way to lose teeth is to let dad go at em, ok? ;)

 

So...Obdeli...............................................................................................didn't get baptized on Sunday (darnet all!). He had his interview on Saturday, and he passed that easily, and we had our DL try to convince him to get baptized on Sunday, but he's like "no, I wanna make E Nelson suffer. Imma be baptized in a few weeks." And of course this is two days before the transfer text goes out of who stays and who goes, so that frustrated me like none other. But he said he will get baptized within one month, so we're going to shoot for March 9 or March 16. Please pray harder!!! ;)

 

Also, E Diaz and I are both staying in Motown for one more together. Which is great, because I get to see Obdeli's baptism, but stinks because I'm having a really hard time dealing with E Diaz...Honestly, I feel like the transfers just keep getting harder. The first two were hard just adjusting to being away from home and then trying to learn spanish, and now I feel fine about being out here, and I can communicate with just about everybody, but I can't get along with my companion!!!!! There are days when I feel like we're great, I can get along with him well enough to be happy and get the job done. But more often than not, I feel like I'm drowning. It's not even the fact that he was a bad kid and likes to talk about bad things sometimes, I can handle that. (Okay, I'm about to let out a stream of complaints, please understand I am working to deal with this, and I can take care of myself, I just mostly need to vent haha) He argues with just about everything I say, and I don't think we've ever had an argument that needed to happen, because he just argues about dumb dumb stuff. He contradicts himself in everything, I swear. He's not funny, because he always just laughs about dumb stuff and makes innappropriate jokes. He doesn't know me at all!!!! The other day we were walking and I was trying to have a normal conversation, and I thought we might actually have one for the first time! But two seconds later, he started talking about all the times he went clubbing and all the things he did there and what other people did to him and who he went with and all that stuff. So then I found an opportunity to say something, so I brought up my girlfriend just for a topic of conversation (and I'll have you know, I've lived with the guy for 6 weeks, I don't know if he knows I have a girlfriend. Let alone how many people are in my family. Or what I like to do. Or anything else.) and as soon as I started talking, he went right back in to talking about this one girl he met at a club!!!!!!!! Sometimes I feel like I don't know what I did to deserve this companion, which I know is bad. And he's a very dominant person, which is bad, because when there's work to be done, I feel like I'm a dominant person too. Hence, some of the arguments...But I feel like he's just taking over. I feel alone. He doesn't know who I am, I can't be myself around him, heck, I don't even know who I am!! I feel like I've lost myself, and I don't know what to do. And I hate the fact that even though he's been a pretty disobedient missionary at times, he's gotten tons of baptisms, when I feel like I've tried my hardest, and I still haven't even gotten one. I don't know how he feels, but I am not excited for the next 6 weeks. Please pray that I can have patience and charity!! I will be doing the same!!! (so seriously hard to know they are struggling - hurts my heart).

 

 I'm really sorry this week is kind of a bummer haha...Last week was probably one of the hardest weeks of my mission. E Diaz and I weren't very unified in teaching, weren't unified in hardly anything. And I miss you guys a ton!! You guys mean the world to me!!

 

We did have valentine's day this week!! We had a branch party at the church. And this was the schedule:

   Examine love stories from the bible

   Invite a couple of people to share how they met their spouse

   play a couples game.

So E Diaz and I had just happened to bring a box of dominoes, so we went into the back room and played dominoes until they brought out dinner ;)

 

Probably my most spiritual experience this week was during one study time, I read over my patriarchal blessing. It's frustrating to me because I feel like my patriarchal blessing is very vague, and I like very specific instructions ;) But it was just comforting to see that God does have a plan for me.

 

I did have some crazy food yesterday! Mundungo is the name. It's cow intestines. Which is kinda gross, knowing that you're eating what a cow pooped out of...it doesn't taste too bad, but it's just gross…;) b (Triple disgusting!)

 

Anyways, I hope this week goes well for all of you with all the goings on over in L-town!! Have a great week, I love you all! :)

Love,

Elder Tanner Nelson :)

Book of Mormon focus and mission advice

Feb. 10, 2014

Dear Family,

 

Good luck with the house!! You're most definitely in my prayers!!!

 

So our monthly focus this month is on the Book of Mormon. Pres Jeppson challenged us to read the bom in 90 days with a topic. So the topic I picked was Jesus Christ. I'm reading the book of Mormon and every time it says Jesus' name or makes a reference to him, I circle it. He is literally on every page!!! But I have a question...when it says "Lord" or "God" in the scriptures, is it referring to Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ? Because I've found several instances where it could be both haha! But it has just been cool to see that the Book of Mormon really is centered completely on Christ and on how him and his teachings can help and bless our lives. And Pres Jeppson's promise to us is that if we read the Book of Mormon and start our reading and end our reading with a prayer, that our testimony of the book of mormon will be strengthened stronger than it ever has been before! So I'm stoked to continue learning!!

 

Also something really interesting that I've never noticed before is that in all 3 of the first PMG lessons start with the Atonement of Jesus Christ. That's how central Jesus is in our gospel and in our lives, that we are supposed to talk about Him and his atonement for us at the very beginning of our first 3 lessons with our investigators!!

 

Also, kaden mentioned something about Mrs. Nobles in his weekly letter, does anyone know whats going on there?? How is she doing?

 

So the main event of last week is......drumroll......Obdeli!!!!! We went over the baptismal questions with him, and he's so ready. We didn't teach him fasting, tithing, or keep the sabbath day holy, because he already knew it!!!! So he has a baptismal interview on wednesday with our district leader, E Drewes, and then we're gonna push him to get baptized on this sunday. We talked to him about it, and he said maybe, so then we told him that one of us is leaving next week, and we both want to be here for his baptism, and he said a less firm maybe, and then last night was the kicker. We had a lesson with a member, Laura, and I'm pretty sure that her and Obdeli have a thing...anyways, he was over there, and we had a lesson on prophets. It was a really good lesson, and I think it really helped both of them. After the lesson, we were talking about Obdeli's interview. He was a little bit nervous about being able to pass, but we reassured him he'd be fine. E Diaz says he's one of the most knowleadgable baptismal candidates he's ever had! So then we asked him if he'd get baptized on this sunday if he passed his interview, and he said, "es posible." It's possible!!!!!! Then Laura was like "i think you should get baptized on this sunday" and then we asked him if he would like his dad, the elder's quorum president, to baptize him, and his face lit up!! He hadn't thought about who would do it, but he was stoked to have his dad be able to! And I think he almost consented to doing it!! We have a branch party on friday for valentines day, and he made an off comment that it's a party to celebrate a new branch member, and he's just so ready!!!!! We're gonna keep trying to convince him, because after his interview, satan's just gonna be working hard on him, so there's no point to wait any longer!! So please please please give him and us your prayers and faith, and hopefully we'll have us a baptism this week!! :)

 

Not much else happened this week....we've officially dropped Selena, we haven't seen her in more than a month...and the Eduardo familykinda turned out lame too...haha!! We only have one real "investigator" there, and it's Eduardo Flaccito (skinny eduardo). We have him with a baptismal date of March 2, but we'll have to push that back because he's had to work because of the snow every sunday so far...but I think we'll be able to get him dunked next transfer! He's very promising!

 

So this is the last week of the transfer, and I definitely think E Diaz is going and is going to be a zone leader. He's been feeling the same thing, and there are 4 open spots that he could go to. I think he's going ZL, and I'm gonna stay in Motown for just one more transfer, and then I'll leave somewhere else haha! But I'll let you know for sure next week!!!

 

Our new branch mission leader, Hno Carvajal, has been working very hard with us. He is very aggressive and very passionate about the work. But us, the sisters here, and the Maughans are very frustrated with him because he views everyone as bad people, and how they aren't doing anything right, and how everything needs to change. So we're trying to work with him, because there are alot of changes that need to be made. But the members are good people, and they're trying. So that's been pretty frustrating for us.

 

Other than that, not much happened. The sisters found an investigator family, and handed them over to us. That's what they get for poaching ;) we're going to be meeting with Arturo and Ilsa and their little daughter here pretty soon. Awesome story about them, the sisters got in contact with them and they wanted them to come to church. But yesterday for churhc, we were combined with the English ward at a later time because another stake was using our building for stake conference, so our sacrament was in english (which was so weird by the way, it made me miss our home ward!!).  So I guess Arturo and Ilsa showed up, saw it was in english, drove home, and texted the sisters. The sisters texted them and told them that it was only that hour that was in english, so they came right on back. They were there and participating in the other two hours of church. They are so prepared!!! So hopefully more news on that next week too!! :)

 

 Tyler, mission advice....scripture mastery!!!!! I know it sounds dumb, but you should work on at least knowing the references and general topics of all the scripture masteries, and have at least a couple of them memorized!! That will help you tons!!! Also, it would be great for you to study preach my gospel sometimes, not just the lessons, but also the rest of the book too :) Also, learn to pray right. I would encourage you to take an hour or so and study about prayer in the scriptures, preach my gospel, general conference talks, and learn all you can about prayer. Heck, you can even ask me to write a letter or something! ;) Then work on praying right, every day. That'll help all of you tons!! :)

 

Love you, I will keep you in my prayers, be safe!! :)

 

Love,

Elder Tanner Nelson

Restoration vs. Superbowl!

Feb. 4 2014 Dear Family,   What a week. So this week I kinda blew up on E Diaz. I think part of the reason he's been bugging me so bad is because I'm worrying alot about gaining weight and I'm stressed because of new companion and about working so hard and so long and not seeing any success and just alot of things heaping up. So I straight up told him everything I was thinking and feeling. And he just took it. He told me later he almost threw it back on me and got really upset as well, but luckily he's had a rough companion too that taught him lots of patience ;) E Diaz is still very different than me, but I think a lot of the original problem was me being prideful and not trying to work in unity. So things are tons better!! The past few days since thursday have been great!! I'm trying to be more tolerant without letting rules slide, and I know last week I said he was a disobedient missionary, but he's usually really good, he's just done some things that are strong no nos. I really do like E Diaz, but I think he will be one of my harder companions haha!   How about a funny story? So on saturday morning, E Diaz was sick. So I did my studies and then took a short nap and then I needed to cut my hair because we had interviews with president today, so I just did it on saturday. We had cut E Diaz' hair the night before, and he had a cool little tool to do the taper around ears, so I decided to use it. I didn't even think about the fact that he cuts his hair alot shorter than mine, so I used it around my right ear, and then realized that it was noticeably shorter than the rest of my hair. And the funny thing is, right before I started cutting my hair, like seriously about 30 seconds before I turned on my clippers, I thought to myself, "Self, Brianna Bown would be proud of the way you cut your hair. It always looks good." Humility comes in many forms….(Love me some practical 'humility' lessons)!    So last monday was a miracle night for us!! After P-day was over, we were walking around trying to find a former named Eduardo. We went and knocked on his door, and the guy who answered told us that Eduardo lived two doors down. So we went and tried that door. A man answered, and we asked him if Eduardo lived there. He said that there was two Eduardos that lived there, and he was one of them! So we asked which one had met with missionaries before, and neither of them had!! Turns out they had moved in to that apartment only a month ago, but the crazy thing to me is that they were both named Eduardo!!! They let us in, and we shared a message. It was soooo cool, and then we went back on Wednesday, and so in total from that house, we got 5 new investigators last week from that house!!!!!! We had a killer week for our numbers, the best week of my mission!!! 7 new investigators, 3 on date, 21 total lessons, 10 member presents, a KI of 23, which is about double from what we average!! It was so cool to start to see success!! Now we just have to work with these peeps and baptize.   Obdeli only has two lessons left, and he knows he's going to get baptized, but he wants to get baptized where Joseph Smith got baptized, which means we can't go...and also, he prayed about it, and he wants to be baptized in the end of february or the middle of march. So there's a chance I won't be here to see it :(   Selena has pretty much dropped off the face of the earth....we haven't seen her in about 4 weeks....   One of the new investigators we picked up (actually two) are Norbia and Marcos. We were teaching them the Restoration on sunday night, right during the superbowl. The best we could do was get them to mute the tv, so it was still on. But as soon as I started quoting the first vision, everything stopped. And from that point on in the lesson, they didn't look back at the tv. It was so cool!! What other church has a message that can stop people from watching the superbowl?!?! That's right, none!! ;)   There's this soccer store by our apartment that we go to sometimes, and so the other day after E Diaz and I duked it out ;) we walked over there because he had some pants to take back and we needed to relax. So we went over there, and we've been in there several times, so we know a few people that work there. Anyways, we started talking to the guy that was working there, Victor. His parents are columbian, and he likes soccer (obviously). So he asked us about what we do and why we have name badges. We explained it to him, and then he asked what we were doing in a soccer store. So we told him that we played soccer on tuesday nights, and we invited him to come! We gave him a pass along card with the address of the church and the time and he said he'd love to come! Hopefully he remembers and comes tonight!!! Even when we're relaxing, we do work. ;) As a side note, I also collect soccer cards now ;) (not exactly sure what the duck hat means.  Just a funny picture he sent us) :)    That's about all this week, it was hard, but turned out good and successful!! But now I'm getting scared about getting transferred....there are seriously gonna be in between 3-6 baptisms here next transfer, and either E Diaz or I am leaving. So if you  could put in a few prayers for me to stay, that'd be great! ;) Thanks!!   You guys are in my prayers always, let me know about the house!! Love you, have a great week!! :)   Love, Elder Tanner Nelson

Translating already!

Jan. 28 2014

Dear Family,

Yes I did get the package with soccer shoes, two vests, and cardigan! Thank you so much for that!! And I have a question, where did you get those KIND bars? (Just FYI….they are DELISH healthy protein bars…..that actually TASTE GOOD…..Sam's club is cheapest place to get them)  Those are good!! Also, I think this is the last thing, I need to buy asmonex next monday. I can get it at walmart, there's a pharmacy. What do I need to do? Do I need to take anything, or should everything be there and good, or what? Thank you for sending me so much stuff, sorry I'm so needy haha...

This week was challenging. E Diaz and I do not get along as well as I thought we would at the beginning (danget), and I feel like we're both very easygoing people! I feel like E Diaz is so focused on getting numbers that he skips the part where we're supposed to care about people and teach by the spirit, so that's been a really weird transition. And I almost feel like I'm losing my personality around him because I can't be myself! I try to have normal conversations with him, talking about something I learned in psychology or med anatomy, or something I like to do, just a normal conversation, and he acts so uninterested! Doesn't say anything, doesn't show any sign that he's listening, so I just don't say anything anymore. He only talks about 5 things. 1. Girls (not in a good way) 2. poop/farts 3. getting huge and the way his pants fit him 4. his last area and the food they ate there 5. the disobedient things he's done. It's RIDICULOUS. Mom, you'll probably laugh that I said he talks about poop too much. You can say it, you were right (YES!  I LOVE it when they recognize that parents may have been right). But it's gross, and that's all he talks about!!! So really, our relationship is pretty much he talks about that stuff, and I try to act uninterested and tell him I don't want to hear it if it's not mission appropriate, and he usually says it anyways. And I thought having a native comp would help with my spanish, but really, the only spanish he's taught me are buried spanish slang words, that you shouldn't say even if you weren't a missionary. Honestly, even though E Diaz helped jump our numbers up, and we have the highest numbers in the zone right now, I would consider him a disobedient missionary. He's played call of duty on his mish, he's done all sorts of stuff. So that's been tough. If the rest of my mission is like this, it's gonna be the longest two years of my life.

With that being said, sorry about the complaining and whining. But the good news is, Obdeli is progressing!!! Last week or two weeks ago we gave him the baptismal date of Feb2, this sunday!!! We met with him twice last week, the first time E Diaz led the lesson and really it was just rote presentation of the first half of the plan of salvation. The second time, I had us role play his lesson in comp study and we thought of some questions that we could ask him to help him feel the spirit, and the lesson was AMAZING!!!! We taught the plan of salvation from the atonement, and the spirit was so strong the whole time!! He definitely felt it, and we kept him involved, it was a great lesson! At the end of the lesson, we asked him how he was feeling about baptism. He said he's been praying, but doesn't feel like he's received an answer. I pulled out Moroni 10:4-7 to talk about the Holy Ghost and how we could feel that good things are an answer, and then E Diaz pulled out Alma 32:15-19 and talked about how sometimes God asks us to act out of faith, and that was really powerful. Probably the most powerful part in the whole lesson. Obdeli definitely felt the spirit. We encouraged him to keep praying, and yesterday at church we talked to his dad to see how he's doing, and he told us that Obdeli was fasting yesterday about it!!!!! And we haven't even taught him about fasting!!! It's insane! I don't think he'll get baptized this week, but we're hopeful about in the next two weeks!!!!! That was the highlight of the week!!

I'm sorry that I really bagged on E Diaz, there are some moments when I really do appreciate him. He has a lot of scriptures memorized, and he has baptized alot of people, so sometimes he has really helpful input.

So as for all the branch changes, really not much changed haha! The branch mission leader and the first counselor in the branch presidency got switched, so now we work with hno Carvajal. He's really cool too!!! Also the relief society pres got released, and they brought two families from the english ward into the branch, the Verdus from spain, and the Gomez from Columbia.

Yesterday at church there were all the stake representatives there, and only two of them spoke spanish, so they asked me to translate for everyone in sacrament meeting!!! I sat in the back corner of the chapel, and everyone else had on a headset, and I spoke into a mic and translated into english!! Translating is so much harder than just speaking and understanding because you have to use both languages simultaneously. It's like talking to someone and texting at the same time(rubbing your head, patting your stomach…:), just in two different languages :) But that was really cool, and I'm grateful for the gift of tongues!!!

I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time on my mish this week!! It's crazy to me how much I learned every time I finish, and then I start again, and I'm only in 1 nephi, and I have already learned so much agaiN!!!!! E Hughes, from the MTC, said that one time he read the book of mormon and just put a little red x next to every time it mentioned Christ, and he said it was amazing how many x's were on each page. I think i'd like to do that sometime. I know the Book of Mormon is true, and I know that because I've read it and felt the power that comes from applying it in my life!!!

I found two new investigators this week! I was on exchange with E Jester, my zone leader, and we went to teach a former, Norbia, and a contact, Jackie. They both invited us back! Jackie is actually friends of the Morales in our ward, so we're gonna bring hno morales on a team up with us soon, convert everyone! :)

Other than that, not much happened this week. Like you said, lots of snow, and the temperature has been ice cold, except for today. Today it's hot. The weather in New Jersey changes way way way more than the weather in Utah, don't even complain about anything there! ;)

Love you all, good luck with the house!! It makes me sad too that you're moving, but everything will be alright because God has a perfect plan for each of us, and he knows where he wants us to be and what he wants us to do and who he wants us to become! Just walk by faith and put your trust in him, everything will turn out perfect!!  Love you all!! Have a great week!! :)

Love,

Elder Tanner Nelson :)

Teaching English, and a tough companion

Jan. 21 2014

Dear Family,

 

No there wasn't a cardigan in the Christmas package (um….a little weird.  We put TWO cardigans in his package.).  Also, could you send my soccer shoes too? You can just throw it in with the cardigan. Thank you!

 

This week was challenging for me, adjusting to a new companion. E Diaz is so much different than E Jellen. So much different. The natives of spanish countries are so much different, just in pretty much everything they do. E Diaz is totally cool with just walking around the apartment naked, pooping with the door open, being wild and free, and he makes alot of crude jokes. And he was a bad kid before his mission, he tells me some of the stories, and it's really bad!! I believe he's truly repented, but he still talks about some of the stuff he did and he makes jokes about it and laughs about it, and it's really bad stuff! Just as a hispanic, he's really open, and not that being open is bad, but he's too open. He's suggested we shower together on several occasions, just like he's done with past companions/roommates. The hispanic culture is very very very different than the american one. (um….not even sure what to put here?…..wasn't even sure I should include that…….but, so as to keep all his letters complete, there it stays).

 

Don't get me wrong, I still like him!! I'm just having a hard time learning how to live with him. Another thing with him, he's really big on getting the best numbers. Which isn't bad, it's really important to get good numbers!! but I feel like he almost disregards the spirit to get the biggest numbers. Last week was a really successful week, we had some of the best numbers I've ever had! But I feel like the spirit was missing from alot of those lessons and everything we did. So I'm trying to figure out how to bring the spirit more strongly into our companionship and still get those huge numbers that he wants.

 

Anyways, let me tell you about my week! Last sunday, we were talking with Laura, and she said that Obdeli, her friend, the Eq's son, and a former of E jellen's and I, wanted the lessons again. So we called him up, and set up an appointment for last tuesday. That lesson went really well, and then we taught him again on last friday and committed him to a baptismal date of Feb 2. E Diaz thought that lesson went really well, but he pretty much just lectured Obdeli about the Restoration haha...they give us these pamphlets to use, and we talked about their importance in zone conference, but I feel like we just read it, and it wasn't a very spiritual lesson at all. Nevertheless, God, in his infinite mercy, has prepared Obdeli, and so Obdeli is letting us come back today! He's told us several times that he is doing this for him, nobody else is pressuring him into this, so we are working as hard as we can with him! He's our most promising prospect right now, and I feel really good about him!! Hopefully we'll get him dunked this transfer ;)

 

We've started playing soccer again on tuesdays, so we brought a sign up sheet so we could somehow "trick" people into meeting with us ;) (Maybe I should try to 'trick' my kids that doing chores really is fun?) out of the 10 ish potentials there, we got two names and phone numbers....both of whom I don't think are interested at all. But we start each week with a spiritual thought and a prayer, and tonight we're going to ask them to sign up if they would like to hear a message about Jesus Christ. We are also going to try to focus our spiritual thoughts out of the B.O.M. so that they can see its a good book haha!

 

We had to go to the hospital twice this week to give blessings, one of which to a potential named Nestor. Also a former of mine. He asked us for a "prayer or something" so we gave him a blessing! He was released from the hospital like two minutes before we gave him the blessing, so we're not sure exaclty what was wrong haha! But we were able to get a lesson with him last week, and we're going back to teach him again tomorrow! He wasn't very steady when E Jellen and I taught him, so I have my doubts, but who knows, maybe he will be there! E Diaz has high hopes for that, and so maybe I just need some more faith haha!

 

We had zone conference on thursday, which is crazy because I feel like we just barely had the last one!!! It was really really good!! I love listening to Pres Jeppson speak! This month's monthly focus is repentance, so we talked alot about the role repentance plays in our lives as missionaries and how we need to share that with our investigators and help them understand it. With that, our zone goal has been focused on repentance as well. We have something to study everyday on repentance to help us learn and apply it. We also make sure to include daily repentance and accountability in our prayers. It's been really interesting to see how big of a role repentance really does play in our lives! Repentance is the process that we repair our relationship with God, and it is how we become more like Him. Repentance is a change, but just repentance with real intent is not enough. We need to repent for what we've done, and then TAKE ACTION for how to correct it. I am realizing more and more what I need to work on and trying to take those actions that I need to to become better!!

 

One issue that I really need to work on is pride. I have a lot of pride haha! Especially with learning to deal with a new companion. He is used to a very different style of missionary work than I am, and so its frustrating to me sometimes when he tries to have us do something out of the ordinary for me. It got so bad one night haha, I kinda laid down the law, and it was about something really dumb!! It had been a rough day, still adjusting to E Diaz, and so in nightly planning I had enough haha! He wanted to start assigning investigators B.O.M. chapters to read, and I pretty much told him we weren't going to do that, I made up a pretty lame argument, but I held to it, my pride and stubbornness would win!! He was still adamant that that's the way we should do it, and so in my frustration and pride, I just gave up, told him to do it his way then. We ended with a prayer, and I went to get ready for bed, my ego still shot. After about 5-10 minutes, E Diaz came up and apologized, and I apologized too. I was in the wrong, I apologized for my pride, and he forgave me. That's one thing I really appreciate about E Diaz, he is very forgiving, becuase he has to deal with all of my imperfections! We worked it out, and I knew that I had just been prideful, and then we were good!! We assign our investigators to read chapters out of the B.O.M now, and I think that by giving an investigator an inspired chapter for them to read can really help in the conversion process!  Still workin on my pride, patience, and humility though ;)

 

We've started helping the Maughans, our senior couple, teach an english class on fridays and saturdays. last week was the first lesson, and we were expecting a lot of potentials to show up because we had advertized it all around town and gotten several calls asking about it. On friday, just a few branch members showed up, and on saturday, only one person showed up haha! Sis Maughan is the main teacher, but I think she's going to have me take a bigger role in helping teach, which is weird, I've never taught english before ;) we'll continue to do that for a little while, and see how it goes!!

 

The Acunas came back from vacation!!!!!!!!!!! We went by to see them and share a message with them on saturday, and it was really good to see them!! It really helped me to see that the branch members didn't just love E Jellen, but they actually cared a little bit about me too!! They still call me el guapo ;) and we had a good time talking! Hna Acuna lost her copy of the bible, so I gave her the free copy that I carried around, and she had me write a note and sign my name in it haha!! I love the Acunas!!

 

Meeting with the Acunas also provided for a nice opportunity that E Diaz prayed he would never get on his mission. Hna Acuna fed us something, something that I've only heard myths about. It's called  "Mundungo". Any guesses on what it is? Yep, that's right, cow intestines.(blech.)  I ate cow intestines. I guess normally it's in like a soup dish, but she mixed it with this chicken, so I thought it tasted fine, it was just weird knowing what it was haha! But E Diaz suffered that day haha! It trashed his stomach haha!! But theres my big adventure for the week!!

 

 Glad to hear all is well at home!! YOu are all in my prayers!! Love you, have a great week!! :)

 

Love,

Elder Tanner Nelson :)

 

Fruit NInja……for reals.

Dear Mom and Family,

Haven't got the package yet, but I'm doing better haha ;) I think I had an initial freakout, but I still am getting a little fat and losing basically all my muscle...;) so I'm slowly but surely working on that!!  (He keeps sort of freaking out that he's getting fat. …..if he is, he seriously hides it much better than I can!)

Yep....it's finally come...the end of E Jellen....today is my last full day with him, and then we have transfer conference tomorrow....I would be lying if I said I haven't cried, maybe on mutliple occasions...but hey, gotta keep them tear ducts working right!! ;) Last week was crazy, he had his departing statue of liberty trip on monday, departing temple trip on thursday, along with his departing interview right after that. Ever since his departing interview, he's defintely been different. He says that Pres. Jeppson made hime trunky because he wants him to go on a date within 31 days of being home haha! But he's been stressed. I've been grateful for how he's handled it though! He's still very much the amazing missionary I keep telling you about, even though he doesn't want to go and he's sad about leaving everyone! It's just so weird that it's finally here….(We went to Elder Jellens homecoming, and I have to say - he is awesome!  I'm so grateful Tanner had such a fabulous trainer!)

I think I know who my new companion will be though! Technically I don't find out till tomorrow at transfer conference, but E Jellen and I are about 95% sure that it's Elder Carballo, one of the AP's. He's a native of Mallorka, Spain, and I'm not sure what to think about this ;) He is getting released tomorrow, and they're calling my old ZL, E Jones to be the new AP!!! We're pretty sure he's coming with me because he's going to a spanish walking area, and he didn't get to go exactly where he wanted, which was union city. That's what he's told us. And the rest of the info just makes sense. The AP's cover the same area as we do, so he's familiar with the area. My particular area hasn't had a baptism in 2+ years, so they're looking to fire it up with some exAP power, he's fluent in spanish, and he'd be able to take over as district leader very easily because of his experience as a leader. We asked him and he just said "I dunno, you'll just have to wait and see!" So we pretty much know it's him ;) it'll be interesting. I really like him, but he's alot different than E Jellen or me. He's very...official. So it'll be interesting, I'm interested to see how it turns out haha!

(Remember a few weeks ago….Alex Boye???  Seriously so awesome!) 

This week we have somehow managed to hit almost all of our goals, despite all of E Jellen's departing trips and the freezing cold. So that's great!! This week has been an amazing week of change for me. I think it's probably been the week that I have changed the most as a missionary. We watched a mormon message with a member the other day about New Years, and I read Pres. Uchtdorf's talk about starting fresh in the ensign. Both very powerful messages about learning from the past, not living it, and moving forward with faith and hope, and the future can be better than the past, if you make it that way. I was really grateful for those messages, especially in this huge time of change. I've been really anxious about the New Year, and you know how I get when I'm anxious haha ;) my worries just kinda take over. I asked E Jellen for a blessing of health to help with my anxiety on New Years morning, and it was amazing. It brought such a feeling of peace and comfort to me, I wrote down everything in my journal! At the end, I remember very specifically I was healed from anxiety, blessed that these fears and anxieties I was having would be softened, and blessed with a keen knowledge that Jesus Christ, my brother, did all that he did for me. It was really amazing, and ever since then, it's been a TON easier to control my thoughts and feelings. That, coupled with those inspired messages about looking to the future with faith, have really helped me this week. I really want to be out here, not that I didn't before, but I have a new perspective on the Lord's work. There has been a spirit brought into my life this week that I never want to go!

 (Tanner in NYC eating his first 'city' hot dog)

It was a good week, although nothing super amazingly crazy happened with our lessons or anything haha! Like I told you last week, I spent monday with the AP's, and that was fun. While E Jellen was at the temple on thursday, I spent the day with my Zone Leaders, and that was fun too haha! Thursday is weekly planning day, so I did that by myself, then I made a cake while the ZL's finished theirs. After that, we took a 10 minute break, and E Jester and I may or may not have played fruit ninja. He has several knives that a member gave him in his last area, including this huge hunting knife. So he took that, and we found an old apple and pear in their fridge, and I threw the fruit to him, and he cut it. It was pretty awesome!!! (Apple's influence is reaching farther than just electronics, it's affecting our very way of living ;)  (We were all seriously laughing out loud at the mental picture of real live fruit ninja!) And then after that we had TAC, which is a once a transfer, heavy duty apartment cleaing. So I helped clean the ZL's apartment. And then we went and picked up E Jellen!

Yesterday I got the opportunity to sit in on a District Leader Council with E Jellen, the two other DL's in the zone, and the ZL's. It was a really really cool experience to be able to see the influence of prayer and council in planning for the needs of the zone. I hope that I'm able to be apart of that soon!

There have been several funny instances in the past two days...yesterday E Jellen and I were walking to our first appointment, and we both slipped, charlie brown style, several times! It's so icy here haha!! This morning I was dancing because a really cool version of "give said the little stream" came on, and I ran into a door....E Jellen and I have really really funny late night (10:15) conversations....Life is great!! I'm grateful to be out here with an amazing companion and an amazing calling! Thank you for all that you do at home, be safe, enjoy every minute of every day, don't procrastinate, and live life with no regrets! Love you! :)

Love,

Tanner :)

Lots of walking, drunk guys, and miracles….oh my!

Dear Family,   (And FINALLY some pictures - …..Did my heart good!)

 

 I have the R.M. soundtrack already, I only listen to the hymn renditions (I hope they call me on a mission, abide with me tis eventide, give said the little stream) and that stuff is my favorite haha! I have 4ordained and EFY 2012 and 2013, so more EFY would be great, it's all approved. Anything else like that you can find is great too haha! Like I said, the Lower Lights are really good and also approved....so...;)

 

 What a week! My companion was not E. Carballo like I thought it would be!! My new companion is Elder Walter Diaz, a native of El Salvador via Texas. Born in E.S. but moved to texas when he was like 10. He still has a little bit of an accent though, and his spanish is definitely native. I think that was the language they spoke in his home. He's been out for about 10 months now, he's starting his 8 transfer. I'm still weirded out that I'm starting my 3rd transfer haha! But he's cool, I really like him! He's a lot different than E Jellen...He's not quite as firm as E Jellen I don't think. Like he has a testimony, and he's committed to work, but he's not quite as...missionary like maybe? To me he doesn't seem quite as converted, more out here to have a good time. But he's really cool! Pres. Jeppson calls him the man of steel, so I'm gonna get yoked this transfer!! ;)

 

This week has been really weird. I dunno if it's just because Elder Diaz is here now or what, but it's been weird. On Tuesday the only thing we had time for was soccer, which we've started playing again! We are going to be starting each session with a prayer and a spiritual thought and get everyone's info so they are all potentials, so that'll be really good!! Elder Diaz and I were so sore after that though haha!! It was a lot of fun!

 

Wednesday we taught four lessons, which is really high for us!! We picked up a former named Pricila. I have only taught her once, like my third week in the mish, until E Jellen and I dropped her. So we just did How To Begin Teaching and tried to start teaching the Restoration. Towards the end, we established her beliefs, and the one thing she absolutely does not believe is that there is a living prophet today. It's weird though, she wants to be baptized...so...we have work to do haha!! But we had a really good lesson with her!

Funny story, on wednesday when we were walking around at like 4, a black guy pulled up next to us and gave us fliers to this Bethel AME church dinner that night. He double checked that we were going to be there like 5 times. The time was right when we had planned on having dinner, so we figured we might stop by for some free food :) we finished up our plans before dinner and headed over. So we get there, and walk in, and sign as the elders so we can get our food. We walk in and sit down, and realize it's like a charity event. It was too late to get up and walk out, but too weird for us to fit in with the other hobos....So we ended up eating a quick meal with the hobos, and we got two potentials out of it! We both felt really bad about taking that food, but we figured there was a reason for it, otherwise that black guy wouldn't have triple checked that we were coming. I still feel bad, but oh well...I can check eating a meal with hobos off the bucket list ;)

Another Funny story, on wednesday night, we were walking home at the end of the night, and a drunk man stopped us. He was Enrique, a former that I have never taught, but who Elder Jellen and I dropped. We saw him on the streets sometimes, but he was always just looking for money. So he stopped us and recognized me, so made a big deal out of that, and starting talking to us about the word of God and how good we were and the importance of God, crazy stuff!! He was very flamboyant with his arms and motions, I was surprised he was still standing!!! It was hilarious!!! What made it funnier was that E Diaz couldnt stop laughing. And it was contagious, so I started laughing too!!!! It was probably quite a sight to see, a stoned man acting out a scene and two young men cracking up right in front of him haha!! Then E Diaz leaned over to me and said, "Elder Nelson, I peed my pants!" Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!! It was so funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The next couple days passed without incident. Very tranquilo, very regular. Nothing to report. We taught a couple lessons, but nothing more than we have done before. I'm sorry!

 

But Saturday was another good day. We had correlation with Hno Morales, and that was really effective. E Diaz and I rewrote the branch mission plan ( with a few notes from E Jellen) and we brought that to correlation. We discussed alot about what needed to change and what we could do, and we got some really good ideas! We also had P.E.C. on sunday where we discussed all of that with the Branch Presidency. We are having branch conference on the 26, and I've heard the branch is doing a 100%turnover change sorta  dealio! So that's hopefully when we can start encouraging people to work together and start back at the basics of daily prayer and scripture study. The next two weeks can't go fast enough!

 

Also on saturday, we taught Ana, a former that E Jellen and I picked up again last week. We taught her with Hno. Morales, and had a lesson. I don't know that it was good or bad, but we learned alot and know what we need to do now. Hno morales kinda took over the lesson and didn't go where we wanted to and didn't let anyone else talk...but after that, I said to her "You know the B.O.M. is true, you've been to church tons of times, you pray daily and received an answer through prayer, so how would you like to be baptized?" She responded that she doesn't feel prepared, yada yada yada, so we're going back on wednesday, and we prayed about it this morning, and we feel like we should commit her to a baptismal date of Feb. 2!!! So that'll be great!!

 

Yesterday we had a really good lesson with Laura, a member. And after the lesson she told us that Obdeli, a former, the Elders Quorum President's son, and her friend, wanted to take the lessons again. So we called him up right then and are going to go teach him tomorrow!! I really feel like these two incidences with Ana and Obdeli weren't coincidences, and that they really will be baptized soon. I think we're going to commit him to the same date as Ana!!

 

That's mostly all for this week. We've been contacting like crazy, had lessons and discussions with several drunk guys, seen miracles, taught lessons, and walked for miles. Welcome to Morris-Hood!!

 

Glad to hear all is well, tell Grandpa Berry I love him, and I love all of you as well!! have a great week! :)

 

Love, Tanner :)