Nothing Else Matters

A couple cool experiences.... We went on splitz last night and Hawkes and Lloyd are spanish Elders... well I went with Hawkes to the spanish lesson..and participated in my first spanish lesson...man. It was sooooo... cool.... and I loved it. The spirit was sooo STRONG! and I just kept thinking of things to say and TRIED so hard to translate it in my mind. The little I did say sounded so dumb, but after I did say my few little phrases the spirit told me that the message got to this man. at the end I said the prayer in english... and afterwards... miguel goes... "que bonita..." and man... I just felt the spirit so strong. and the phrase every nation kindred tongue and ppl" came to mind. There is nothing that can stop this work and gospel.

 

Also Elder Kopishke from the Seventy came to our mission and we had a conference with him! He taught a lot about being bold.. that was the biggest thing I got out of it. That the prophets and missionaries in the book of mormon didnt teach and go around the points cuz they were afraid to tell them to stop drinking... no. He loved them enough to teach them what God wanted them to know. To repent and come unto christ. Well we taught a lesson Sunday night and thats what happened... he came asking about a problem and eventually it came to the word of wisdom... and I just was afriad to say it.. Well the member we were with just threw it down. Like hey, you gotta stop smoking drinking, having sex out of marriage, they're sins and god isnt gonna answer your prayers when you are doing that... i was like...woah... but it worked. The spirit took over and it was there. He, was like...ya... we went into agency and how we cant make choices for ourselves with those things and eventually I was like... hey this is what we teach (showed him a baptismal calendar and it has all the lessons on it) and was like, you go through this, we'll ask you to do some stuff, and try out these commandments, and if you do them, and feel good and you find out its true then will you be baptized? and he was like... hesitant...then goes... yeah... and IT WAS SO COOL! cuz the whole time.. it was just all in his court. We were telling him, its all on you. anyway we will keep working with him.

 

lastly, we have two hawaiian Elders, Elder Nitta and Elder Aloheakia, and they are so musically talented... Well, at the conference they sang a medley of joseph smiths first prayer and a childs prayer.... it was so good, first of all their voices are incredible...but what they did was amazing and changed my life. So they sang a couple verses of Joseph then switched to A childs prayer and sang the verses...then they both sang, again. "Heavenly Father, are you really there...?" and then the music went on a little and got very tender and peaceful and went back into joseph... and then they sang... "suddenly a light decended... brighter far than noon day sun... and that verse...and into... ( and this they sang stronger and more powerful... "Joseph this is my Beloved... hear him oh how sweet the word.." at this moment I felt the arms of something perfect... a literal encircling love around me. and it went from the top of my head to the bottom of my toes... and I sat there in this feeling and could not move... i sat there and in my minds eye... pictured when that event took place. I know. With absolute certainty that Joseph was a prophet. I know its true. Through that I know this gospel is true. AND nothing else matters. Nothing. This work is true. and I look to your example mom, and all others who wish to obey the Lords invitation, and commandment to Hasten the Work. And we must obey.

 

Be not afriad; Only Believe

 

Elder Nelson

SO MANY AMAZING MIRACLES!

OKay so just to get you excited before i go into the email, ill be finding out who my new comp is today, at one... but also, this last week was probably the greatest week on my mission. There were so many amazing miracles... 

I am so excited to be here another transfer! I HOPE I STAY TWO MORE! (that way i spend my b day here :)! but ya im way excited! all the missionaries in our district stayed (expect elder freeman) he only got to stay one week... and at transfer calls he goes.... "well i wasn't surprised but it still hurts..." I was like oh man... poor guy. He wanted to stay. He hasnt had the easiest time out here and I think he felt comfortable. I loved being his companion! He is such a humble quiet kid but his testimony is solid but we will see where he gets transfered today! and i will be picking up a new companion! fun fact, we have the metro area, downtown, in our ward so pres cusick decided that for the first 3 complete days in the greenies mission they and their trainers will spend it down there just contacting and then go to their areas! How cool is that??He has a separate apartment just for them and they all just bunk in there! so that will be cool!

I'm so glad the farewell went so well!! That is so good!  AHHH sophia?? I CANT BELIVE SHE IS GOING!? her and ELSIE? that is so crazy and soon!! :) tell Sophia Good luck and I love her! Im sorry I haven't been able to talk to her at all! 

 And about your book of mormon reading and goals that is fantastic! My goal is to not PASS ONE PERSON without inviting them to SOMETHING! The mission is now all 100% proselyting!

But thank you so much! I am getting it. I am learning how to put my talents and passions to work. How to effectively use the tools we have, and have the faith and courage to do it all, and correctly :) its so exciting :)

OKAY!!! SO THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!! AHHHH

MONDAY

I woke up at like 4:30 and heard like clanking and stuff... well... Elder Shupe was making a TON of bacon and eggs and I was like ITS YOUR LAST DAY AND YOU ARE GOING TO EAT ALL OUR FOOD! hah just messing with him and he just ignored me ,,,ahahah i cant wait to tell you guys ALL the stuff Elder SHupe did and said when I get back hahah you will die. but the APs were like hey we are on our way we are outside... so we packed all up and he goes... hey man, the foods not for me its for you. (he made me breakfast every day of our companionship.....) so that was really cool.... 

ELDER SHUPE AND ELDER NELSON

well we got outside and I tried to explain to him how much he helped me and how much I loved him... but just couldnt... so I gave him a letter and a tie... ( he didnt give me anything in return but i was like its okay im teaching him how to show appreciatioon ( my pride) said goodbye they threw him in the van and left and elder freeman came out and we went up to apt well... I walked into the room and sitting on my dresser was a pair of shoes... and a tie.... I was pretty choked up but had to keep it together for freeman... but wow... I was blown away... Well that was p day and that night we went out finding... street contacting and all night... NOTHING! It was so frustrating cuz I finally had the courage to just go out and invite and find! well eventually we gave a couple cards out and it felt good! well... this man called elder freeman over and started talking to him... told us the whole neighborhood was out to get him and told us satan was a woman called me the f word like 5 times and told us if we told anyone the things he was telling us he’d kill us... oh ya he was drunk and shirtless... and we both were like MAD after that... and i was like heavenly father? I know you're testing our faith... and I know something will happen but come on?? well... i thought a lot... and finally just thought... if i dont try again... satan has won...and i know for a fact God lives and loves me and says all i need is faith... well i asked one more person...and he said yes! My wife and I were looking for a church! I’ll call you tomorrow and we can find a time to talk! Thanks!! i was about to do a back flip! It was sooooo flipping COOL!! and another guy accepted that invitation too and we gave him a book of mormon! MIRACLES! 

 TUESDAY came around 

we had lunch w the belises AND! on the way a lady pulled up in her car and said she wanted us to come over and talk to her family! She was a recent convert of about 3 years and we had been calling her for a long time and just never found her! It was crazy! well that evening coming home! we were passing burger king and a man waved at us and we went up and talked to him... he said his wife was a member and the missionaries used to come over all the time and they want us to teach their daughter! AND the mans mother was in the hospital and they asked us to give her a blessing the next day! IT WAS CRAZY!!! I was blown away!! 

WEDNESDAY! we had zone meeting and we had some great trainings! then afterwards we went to the library to do our facebook time and a lady walks up to us and says are you the missionaries from the latter day saints? she wants to come to church and she just got baptized this summer and moved here a few weeks ago! :) how crazy is that! then we gave a mans mother a blessing (non member) and she loved it! and the family told us to call them and set up a time to see their family! and that night we did some finding and me and freeman got to talk a lot.  He is quiet and shy but a humble missionary with a strong testimony.  I really enjoyed being his companion.  Even if only for a week.

WELL! THRUSDAY!! we went to the library for FB but it was closed... we started to turn back and do some contacting...well we stopped this guy... he accepted a card...and we showed him a picture of Christ and asked him what he saw... and he said "that is jesus before he died on the cross..." and then another picture and he said that jesus again... well Then I said, “and we believe through our faith and trust in him we can over come our trials and stuggles in life”. Would you be interested in learning more about that? HE SAID YES! and that we could walk with him to the library and talk more about it! We continued with the plan of salvation, and we said that in order for us to make it back to God we need to be baptized and follow christ and he will carry us! and we invited him to baptism and he said yes.... 

WE literally just about lost our minds...... but get this... THE NEXT DAY!  bother lewis took us to chipotle!! ( it was delicious....) 

Alright well got to go! Love you guys!! :)

haha just kidding we met this kid again (marco is his name) and taught him lesson one and introduced the book of mormon and especially talked about eternal families... and we found out a bunch of amazing stuff about marco... his parents died when they lived in Ecuador 10 years ago. Marco is 18 and has to work as much as possible so he can support the household with his older sister and brother... and he just lost his job... well we got to testify to marco...that if he just prays and finds out for himself that its true, then he can know... that he can be with his parents again... together. Forever. And all the pain and struggles will be gone, never to return again... he said he wants that. Very bad.... well saturday we taught marco the gospel of J.C. and he set a baptism date of march 1st... whether he gets baptized on that date doesnt matter... but I know marco has been prepared for this... And these are the miracles that come with desire, obedience, prayer and just the Love of Heavenly Father. I actually do have to go, but I know that our family is being prepared for amazing things too. In missionary work. I love you all so much, and thank my Father in Heaven I could have family that wants to be apart of the work of Salvation. I know its true. I know the preisthood was restored... I know the book of mormon is true. and that The church is led by the Lord Jesus Christ. I love this work.

Be not afraid; Only believe 

Elder Nelson