It's not weight, it's wings!

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope that these letters can be a source of inspiration and maybe
even answer someone's prayer! I pray that the Holy Ghost can attend me

as I write these things down. I don't want to just give a recap of
what happened or write home really quick. I hope that people will read
and ponder these things. I pray that we all remember to re-Convert

ourselves each day.

I also invite you to ask questions! If you are reading this and you
are not sure how to do missionary work but you want to!? My email is
stephen.nelson@myldsmail.net

So this week was... Amazing!

I am so converted to planning. Planning will literally be the key to
how much you do. You want to be busy? PLAN! You want to be productive?
Plan! In advance... And then do it. And go in with an attitude of
faith.
We planned so much and we taught double the lessons! The goal is 20

and we hit 19. We had 8 Investigators at church. 8!!!? Can you

believe that? 5 new investigators and ahh!!! We are just so blessed!
All this work came out of no where. I'm so so grateful. I think I
finally figured out how to do it!  We love each of them so much. I
find myself telling people. You have to commit! You have to just
promise The Lord, and then do it! We are just going to be your
guides!! It's all you! And then when they do it themselves it's beyond
words. I wish everyone could do this.

"S" a recent convert, has not drank coffee for like 3 weeks! We

taught her, she gave us so much grief and agreed to do it? And didn't
touch it! Today she had an interview for the temple!? Ahhhh!

We taught a family, the father is a non-member at the Hansen's

Tuesday, she is missionary MVP! So good. She'll just come up to us and
be like hey come teach us a lesson with these people this day... Uhhh
hello?!?!? Hastener right there!! Creating opportunities to teach,
that is hastening the work! "A" is open and we have an appointment
this week but they are beginning to realize how much love the Savior
has for them!

We taught another family, a mother who was baptized and then went
inactive and she wants to come back and her husband and two boys
agreed to take the lessons, and they are excited to learn! The moms
brother, is on fire right now! He just got sealed to his wife
and baby and just loves the gospel! He can't get enough of it! This
ward is just hastening the work! We just make a list of members who
wanna help us and then tell them, hey!! Let's do missionary work

together and then we figure it out! And then investigators come... The

Lord provides!

We are teaching online lessons to a young lady who is friends with a

lot of the youth in the ward, her name is "C" the nicest, and I mean

nicest girl. Ever... She came to church and loved it and said she

wants to come back!! We will be teaching her and... The young man who

is teaching her with us just decided to bring a friend too, and we

talked to him. Ya, he said he loved it. Loved. It! And we

got a txt from the young man in the ward saying that he said he
already told his parents he's "converting"!! So we will be teach him
this week!?

Just tonight the Kemples' had Breah and Becky over, Breah is preparing

for baptism on the 12 of July, and we taught a lesson about missionary
work, the spirit was so strong! And think about all the people

affected by that lesson? Sis Kemples' whole family? Us? Becky and then

Breah! That is missionary work at its finest!

Shell, is a youth who got baptized, she just showed up at McDonald's

while we were there using wifi and it was so cool because we were

praying all week to hit our goal of 20 lessons and so many kept
canceling, then she just walks in and we teach a lesson in McDonalds!
She is so awesome, she brought her friend to church too! And she liked

it!? Can you see how amazing that is? All these amazing things happening

just because people are inviting like crazy??

Shell holding a sign that says "Mormon's Rule"

I have been praying and praying and pondering and practicing
missionary work for a long time. I've invested all my time trying to
figure out how to be successful how to be good at it and help as many

people... Well, with a ward like this. It's starting and it's

hastening... But before I get there.., I wanna explain sacrament
meeting.

First off "C", a 24 yr old guy who is at a huge turning point
in his life came and sat by me, he already agreed to be baptized but
just is hard to schedule with... Beast. But it was the farewell of
Savannah Clawson the family with 7 daughters ha, she's going to San

Diego California Spanish speaking! And she gave a great talk. Their

family is just so solid!  And Erica Welch who is going on a mission
too but is leaving for college she is a boss missionary too! We teach
a bunch of online lessons with her, she threw down in her talk! And
told everyone that she knows exactly who she is and where she is going
because she is a Mormon! And Sister Clawson ( the mom) and it was

fantastic it reminded me of you mom, the love you have for your

missionaries and seeing it turn into a love for missionary work! And

then Savannah's sister sang a song that hit me so hard,,, she sang "One
Voice"... All the emotions of Michael leaving and coming back and then

me leaving... And the reality of where I was and what I was doing hit
me!

I'm sure most of these people we are teaching will progress and I will
let you know how they are doing, but for a second I wanna talk about
what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. It is the program and plan that

saves us, it gives us happiness. You and I Cannot be truly happy without it.

I know and declare that because of Jesus Christ, I can smile, I can

laugh! I can heal from my wounds, i can grow! There is no change or
growth or joy without the Savior and Redeemer. And all he has asked us
to do is sign up! That's all. He's the reason we have a family, or a

job, or a car or a tv or eyes to see and ears to hear, so why don't

we just sign up! Be baptized and if we have done that we better renew
the contract. And do what he's asked!!

The gospel of Jesus Christ asks a lot of us, but what if we didn't
have it, and our salvation was all on us. We'd be pleading for it!! So

I've been trying to look at it differently. Look at the commandments are

the key instead of the lock! The freedom to choose instead of bondage
to be  imprisoned in...

"The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a checklist of things to do;
rather, it lives in our hearts. The gospel is not weight; it is
wings.It carries us."

I know that there is so much happiness that you can tap into if you
just do missionary work. Invite someone to do something! Make a
friend. Tell a family member you love them! Read a scripture and post
it on Facebook! And then look at what could happen, like it's
happening in the Palm Harbor Ward. There is so much to do. I love
being a missionary,

Answer someone's prayer today!

Be not afraid;only believe

Elder Stephen Nelson