Dear Family! Well week one is DOWN! HA im going to try my best to upload some pictures after this so you can see everything but wow. Let me begin at my trainer. His name is Elder Langi, he's tongan, HUGE, BUFF, and has a scholarship to the University of Utah as a running back. Ya. i know. look him up on their roster hahaha. He's the best trainer anyone could ever ask for. Seriously. Every day is such a blast, he is so nice and just does stuff for me all the time, and his whole life is love.(a quick funny moment) The other day we were making calls, and we had to call the bishop, and it was Elder Langi's like 5th call, and he's staring at our jesus wall...yea. its awesome...anyway he goes "well bishop give us a call and we love thee...i mean you and appreciate everything you do and we say these things in the name of jesus christ amen... OH SHOOT!!" I started laughing so hard and ran around the apartment for like an hour. So don't tell anyone we pray to our bishops. He says funny stuff all the time and changes the lyrics to regualr songs all the time and talks about our mission and stuff its hilarious.He can also rap freestyle, its crazy he just rhymes on the fly, its crazy, after church yesterday i was like..." Langi, why doesn't anyone just COME TO CHURCH" and he goes"two words. Brown missionaries" hahaha its great. Love him. He says we just lead with love, everything we do is about LOVE! he's the district leader! so i get to kinda see what he does! its great, we wake up at 5:45 every morning and jog to the gym and lift weights and then come home and make protein shakes haha. I love it so much. We are full bike, but we have permission to ride with the sisters in the neighboring area whenever we're going to nearby places!
Im serving in the Tampa 1st ward, in the city of Tampa. on a map you can see the city of tampa and then the peninsula right below, the bottom half is our area. Its the bomb, the ocean/bay is like 5 minutes from our apartment. The downtown has an island called Davis Island and thats in our ward. Straight up DEREK JETER LIVES THERE! His. house. is. huge. haha, Bro. Hawkins from our ward sat in front of him in the movies last week and said he's a pretty nice guy. Ya no big deal. It's just derek Jeter. Ha. Its awesome. The humidity, isn't that bad the rain cools the temp down and oh man. The rain drops are GIANT! its awesome. The thunder storms are INSANE! the lighting strikes every three seconds. Oh man. honestly i love it. every day its just hard to suck it up and get outta bed, or take a deep breath and tell someone you're a mormon and talk to them, but the Lord takes care of you. Every time. Its amazing. we live in jerrasic park! The plants are like giant, the grass is so thick and long and there are 5 billion lizards everywhere! haha but ya. Its great. so no more knocking doors, I haven't knocked on door! and we wont ever! All our finding is different, either at stores or through service or different stuff. we have to be creative. It's suppose to be through the ward, and the ward is working so hard, but there are only 5-6 families who are really strong and dependable.
So our main work right now is less actives. Thats what we'll spend our time doing, and find along the way. Our top three investigators are Dana and Madison Mclean. They both have committed to baptism right before the last transfer, Elder Langi's last companion tracked into them and out of their entire area, they are the only one's who opened up. They found them in February and they are finally getting ready, they just have to give up tea and coffee and then they'll be ready, dana likes her coffee and madison has given up tea! She's hopefully going to get baptized on the 4th! we're going to challenge that date for her when we see her tonight. Dana we're hoping the week after, shes just having a harder time. BUt they. are. amazing. We love them so much. The third I haven't met yet alexis heredia, she's harder to track down but hopefully we'll see her tonight! So my second day on the mission I went on exchanges while me and Elder Southem's comps when to district meeting, we went to his area. We were seeing less actives and after a couple, no one was letting us in, so we stopped at a members house to give a little spiritual thought, they were converts and I asked them about their missionaries and they showed us their names and I was feeling so overwhlemed, just hoping to be that for someone, and so far it just seems like no one really cares :/ but, as sister Bronson ( the wife, they are about 70), started praying and the spirit was so strong, and I felt Heavenly fathers love for me stronger than I ever have before, telling me that I am out here for that reason, to help someone, and man, that spirit was so strong, she was crying and the whole meeting I was holding back tears, cuz I was with a comp i had known for 10 mins in a place I've been for one day, but I cried and hugged this woman and thanked her and she hugged me back, it was like hugging my mom again! It meant so much to me! and that moment changed my mission. After we went and taught a part member family, the father had not been baptized but the rest of the family was very active, as we taught the spirit was there and gave me confidence, the father listened and made me feel important, and I bore testimony at the end that if he would accept these things and be baptized his wife whom he loved more than anything, and his 4 little kids, could be together forever. And i know he felt something. It was so powerful, and that gave me strength as well. There have been many other little things but most of all I am learning that I am not perfect, and I am not alone.
The Lord requires us to have faith and act, the stronger that faith, the easier it will be to act, and the quicker he can bless us. Family I love you so much, I am learning how to love, how to really love, and boy do I love all of you. I would not be me without all of you. Mom, Dad, Bryce, Michael, and now Megan. Thank you! I invite you (as any good missionary would) to forget yourself, to forget about your time, your comfort, your feelings, and go help someone. Elder Langi has a saying Lead by love. Mom and Dad lead with love, in the family in the home, at work in our callings, lead by love. Magnify your callings, cuz you never know when your missionaries need someone to depend on but can't because the bishop is out of town and he's the only one willing to give them a ride, or when the investigator doesn't want to come to church because there is only 3 young women and they're all 12 and 13. So please, magnify your calling, and forget yourself. Bryce, lead on the team, always take the high road and never take the easy way out, I wrote you a letter so you'll be getting that this week. Michael and Megan, same to you. Especially with each other, just lead each other, together with love. I love all of you, and we are so blessed to live where we live, in utah, but please, don't get comfortable, It's so nice and happy, and easy going, but magnify! also my last request. TAKE CARE OF THE MISSIONARIES! Sign up to feed them and make sure they teach! It means the absolute world to them! I love you and can't wait to hear from you!
Be Not Afraid; Only Believe
Elder Nelson!
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