Stand by the Savior

First off I love you, more than you all even know, seriously. I feel your love, and I break free of doubtful thoughts. Your love, just as my setting apart blessing said, is getting me through.  My family is my everything. I am so sorry I took for granted your love.

 Dad and Bro Gabbitas giving blessings to those kids and Bryce, is such a blessing to me, and so important.  Dad and Bro. Gabbitas are using the power of God as it has been given. Christ would have done the same if he were here.  Thank you for being worthy. School starting...woah, Bryce is getting old! And football season is the best part of it! What a great opportunity to spread the gospel through example, to Bryce I say be humble and put the Lord first and he will renew your strength beyond what you can think!  I promise, without the Lord I promise you i would not have done any good on the team.  Its more important to win in your heart, and in the eyes of your teammates than on the scoreboard!! But I know you'll have success! I love you bro! You have a letter coming! Im trying to send a package soon! DRIVING!?!? thats not right!! I would love to be driving out here haha, we are FULL bike, but we get rides a lot its awesome!   Please give me Grandma Rose's email or address or something, I see now the love that my grandparents have for me and how I didn't show it enough in return:/ I love you grandma and Grandpa Nelson and Grandma Rose. 

Thank you for hastening the work! I know you all are tying to magnify your callings and be dependable members of our ward! You all can to help make our ward a zion-like ward and Bryce believe it or not is the only one with keys in the house, Dad doesn't have keys, Michael doesn't, Bryce does, he is the President of all the kids 14-15 in our ward boundaries, through prayer and thought he can change lives and magnify his priesthood, save lives and be a ministering angel to them with the assistance of the angels of above! Bryce I invite you to do this!

I often become discouraged when I feel that same pressure on me, but whom the Lord calls he qualifies. We will never ever, ever be left alone. Be confident in your calling and know that we can do all things the lord asks! We are not meant for small things! Know that we have a calling from beyond the veil know that we are not suppose to standby living life making no difference. The lord has allowed us to grow up in the church so that we can serve the world standing as a light for others, and showing others the light of our own testimony!

This week I have felt the love of the Savior in me. No matter what comes up, the savior felt it. He was alone standing for what he knew was true, he suffered he set the example and he recieved nothing. Out of simple love he rescued us all. So this week, as we taught our investigator Kim, about the book of mormon, and she said i know its true, because it talks about the book of mormon, and another, Annette, said that no matter what she goes through, jobless, friendless, caught in the addiction of ciggarettes, and explaining her triumph over abuse, tell us that she will never give up on the Lord because she knows that he is there for her. If he can bear all of us in his hands and his feet, and if Kim can know its true simply because of Christ, and Annette can preservere with faith in Christ when the entire world is on top of her, and they progress towards baptism, then we can do our part. We can stand by the savior now and forever, we can stand and proclaim the gospel and invite someone to church or magnify our priesthood, read the book that joseph died for, we can pray with our families and the Lord will work miracles with us! I love my savior, and I know i am not doing nearly enough for him, but I love him. And will continue to try! I invite all of you to do something this week out of sincere love for the savior! Whether to help your own soul or the souls of others! This is all he aks of us! I love you all so much!

Family, I love you and I know you are doing good things, Michael and Megan, you say you are reading and learning with each other thats amazing, keep going, I want to have a marriage like that. Mom, I know you're reading and working hard in your calling. Dad, i know as well. Bryce, I know you're trying to balance it all, you're doing it all, and I am with you, so lets all invite and bring others closer to christ! I hope I don't sound preachy or annoying, I just really had a great moment this week that made me really appreciate the Savior, and feel so much love for him! I can't wait to hear from you again. I miss you.

Be not afraid; only Believe!

Elder Nelson

D & C 112:10

Just an FYI..... Elder Nelson writes 2 emails home each week.  One letter he writes strictly to our family and the other he writes is like the following telling us what he has learned this week.  I am going to try and combine the two when I figure out how to do that.  At least the interesting facts that he shares in his personal email.  Anyway, enjoy!

This week was so humbling. In all senses of the word. All week we struggled to really find people to teach, and we just were trying to stay positive and trying to do all we were supposed to, to hasten the work, but could not quite figure out how to do it. We are trying to be instruments in the hands of the Lord and just be led by him. And did not see how we really were suppose to do that. We are stuck in this transition time of the old and new ways of missionary work. So we just prayed, and prayed, and tried. Saturday night hit and we were just trying to stay positive and being funny, and getting a little light minded; just then we recieved a text to speak in sacrament meeting, on any topic of our choice. This was a wake up call and a burden at first, but once we humbled ourselves, we realized what a blessing this was. We both prepared and the spirit spoke through us. As we looked over the congregation we saw that we had present 7 investigators, 5 less actives and 2 recent converts. One of the ladies in our ward who has recently been baptized, divorced, and struggling to find a job, brought her friend to church. She spoke with us after church and said she wanted a book of mormon and a gospel principles book and loved her time here at church. How humbling this experience was, the Lord hastened his work and we just needed to humble our hearts. We stand back and look what the Lord does. So I invite everyone to Humble your hearts and watch as the Lord will take your hand if we are just willing to move our feet. I know this work is His and I know it is true. I Love all of you.

Be not afraid; Only Believe

Elder Nelson

D&C 133:37

So, I don't have much time today but, I just wanted to explain something very important! 

The WORK IS HASTENING!

Missionary work is taking a huge change, and change that in the words of Robert D. Hales is the equivalent to the restoration of the gospel! Missionary work is now completely through the members! If you have not been to lds.org and looked at hastening the work I invite you to do so! It explains how the finding is now through the members and together with the help of the missionaries we will bring the gospel to every nation kindred tongue and people! We cannot tract anymore because there shouldn't be any time to do so! We need to spend every moment teaching the friends and family of those who are already members of this great church. So we are told by Thomas S. Monson to open our mouths! That's all. If you invite 100 people this week then you have succeeded, if you have invited one person this week. Then you have succeeded in this work. But you MUST open your mouth! AND SHARE IT! We have the truth, the only way back to the loving arms of our Father. We are selfish if we are coasting and just getting by until we can finally enter the gates. That is LUKE warm and He will spew us out. We must be either hot or cold, in or out, and if we are in, then we must OPEN OUR MOUTHS! As missionaries we are trying to qualify for the next level of tools to share and speed this up, but for now we must have people to teach. Your friends, your family, your coworkers. If you are not sure how to do it, ask the missionaries! If you're sure what to say ASK THE MISSIONARIES. If Joseph Smith being called of God to restore the everlasting Gospel and recieve the power and Authority which which save all of us was important enough to listen to and follow, then WE MUST open our mouths!  I know and have a firm testimony that our savior lives and he is ever present in our day to day lives. Through the power of the Holy Ghost we will know its true, and if we truely truely endure to the end we will see our Father and our savior. I know these things are true, and I know this call is immediate and vital! I love all of you so much! And cannot wait to share the miracles that come with this! We have a family that recently called us in desperate need of help, and they know we can help them in all aspects of her life and her grandchildren, she has committed to coming and is believing all we tell her! She is progressing and said she will prepare herself for her first step of faith in baptism on the 31st! So Pray for Roxanne! the miracles have already begun!

Elder Nelson!

Be not afraid; Only believe

We can't do it without him!

Ah so this week was all about prayer and faith! The Lord will help you become all you need to be. But I just know I can't do it without him! We taught sharing time in primary this past sunday and oh man those kids are crazy but man I learned so much. The gospel is simple and is not based on logic, and dissection of scripture, it's about faith on the simple things and then asking our father if its true! That's all it is. When we want something or need something its because we FEEL imcomplete without it, or we FEEL sad so we want to feel happy, or feel hungry and want to be full. When we feel hungry we don't go studying about why our body responds the way it does when we're lacking food? So why would God make the way to know things are true by going out and dissecting it? well he didn't he just wants us to go find the right food, eat it and then he will answer us by giving that FEELING! our heart is where we will know truth, our brains will help us choose, but our heart is where we can KNOW! As I felt things in myself lacking, and the needs of our investigators or other missionaries lacking, prayer was the answer! Elder Langi and I have been praying for so many things, as a missionary you truly realize how much we really lack. But the Lord will answer in his MARVELOUS WAY! It was a great week and the Lord has answered my prayer. As our investigators are realizie how their prayers are being answered, I know they will see the change! We have a family here, a mother and a daughter, the daughter is being prepared to be baptized and the mother is being reactivated. They pray so much now, and how they have been saved from trials. And in the midst of that, she has been an answer to our prayers. So pray and listen to how you FEEL!

 Just a cool side note, about 40 missionaries went to the Tampa Bay Rays game vs. the Giants and we sang the nat'l anthem! It, was. the. coolest.thing.ever. When I send my SD card home you can see some videos and stuff. I forgot on the actual performance tho, so that sucks. but ya it was so cool, the entire mission came to the actual game and it was so awesome to see my old district from the mtc as well as new missionaries! It was awesome to hear the announcer say, "missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints! and the section where all the missionaries were just LOST THEIR MIND! We felt so small down there, but that was again, another answer to my prayer saying. NO, you are never alone, just these 200 missionaries is a small portion of what you represent.

 We are never alone, He is always with us, and He is the head of this work, and this entire world. How grateful I am to be right with my father, as I live in HIS world. I know these things are true, God loves each of his children and wants to communicate with us. I know it. I love all of you! The church is true in TAMPA! Be Not Afraid; Only Believe. Elder Nelson

"Do you love me" John 21:16

Dear Family and anyone else with some time to read this ;) This week I want to talk about Love. The miracles that have revealed themselves this week in the Tampa, Florida mission, and especially Tampa One, cannot be overlooked. They are simply "God winks" as one of our investigators says. But they are all driven and earned by LOVE! The savior asked Peter if he loved him and Peter answered three times, saying Lord you know I love you, as we remember Elder Holland talking about in conference. And the Lord said then feed my sheep. If that is what love is, then every single member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is a missionary. You don't have to wear a tag to feed his sheep! You just have to talk with people! They don't even have to been non-members, they can be your mother and father, or brother. But to show your love to the savior we must feed his sheep. This week I have learned that love is expressed by how much you are willing to share with one another! When you are willing to tell someone, "you are an incredible person and have help me so much with my life", that is feeding his lambs! It's that easy, and the more we do it, the more we love him! And at the same time we are showing LOVE TO ONE ANOTHER! I love these people of Florida and I wish I just had the strength to compliment every single one, and talk to them. On Friday, I had been praying for the ability to talk with people, look past all appearances and myself and just open my mouth. As my companion and I stood in line at the post office, a woman came next to me and I allowed her to step in front of me. She responded by saying, "how kind." She then looked at my tag, and I so desperately wanted to just say SOMETHING! and right then she said, you know, I read some things about the mormon church and I thought to myself..... here we go.... but her response surprised me. She said what she read about Joseph smith translating the record, intrigued her and she was wondering what the record was. I said, "well would you like to read it?" and handed her a copy of the Book of Mormon and she was so happy to get it. I was about ready to burst, but as I got her information and we left, I said I silent prayer thanking the Lord for allowing me to show my love her her and Him. Even when we start off with a closed mouth, and simply act lovingly, the Lord will let the spirit testify of the love inside someone else! I invited all of you to SHOW YOUR LOVE! Really show, and when you have TELL you love. And the Lord will be sooo happy. Family, I can't begin to tell you how much I love you. I am sorry I wasn't around every day to tell you how much I love you. but, I love you. You made me who I am. You are all examples of my savior and I love you deeply, and would do anything for you. I love you. Thank you. I cannot wait to hug all of you and tell you how much I love you. Mom, Dad, Bryce, Michael, and Megan. I love you. Be not afraid; only believe LOVE, Elder Nelson Ps. I love you :) <3

Moroni 7:37 It is by Faith that Miracles are wrought

Saka Ha Fe! (Hatian Creole) Tampa Florida, is absolutely amazing! The scenery is beautiful the weather is nice and the humidity feels good actually believe it or not!! HA first off thank you for all the emails, that seriously blows me away, the love and support almost brings me to tears, this week I just felt so much love, I can literally feels your prayers throughout the days!

So just to give a little preface to this week, we have been trying to do three things in this first area.  Elder Langi and I, become best friends with the members, reactivate those who have fallen, and love everyone with selfless service! Those are our goals, each day and week we have numbered goals that measure our success for the mission, but most importantly we try to see if we are doing those things, and at the end of the week, the blessings that come, are incredible.

Last week on tuesday and thursday Elder Langi and I and a trio companionship went to volunteer at the Wheel Chair olympic games at a field right. next to. the Raymond James Football Stadium, (home of the Buccaneers) , ya... Bryce? probably the coolest thing ever. They did shot put, javelin, and discus from their chairs and it was so cool! They take it so seriously and are all injured Veterans! They all had great stories, we did it as a finding tool, and met so many great people! They were great! Elder Langi has no fear and just talks to EVERYONE! I'm slowly learing how to do that, but love it all the same! Thursday was the archery portion...that....was so cool!!! We found some potential investigators from it, but the greatest part was really just meeting these amazing people!! We also did a car wash as a zone on saturday... so this was the craziest story of all.  So we got there and washed the mission cars for the first hour and a half just to make it look like we had a lot of customers ;) ha and as we started to get frustrated a lot of the missionaries were out holding signs, all the sudden they took off running and I was like what is going on???? 5 mins later, all 6 of them were pushing a small car down the street Elder Langi still had his "free car wash" sign up ha, we pushed it all the way into the church parking lot and washed it, it was out of gas, so then we pushed it all the way to the end of the street to the gas station, oh and it was pouring rain!!! haha the woman was SOOOO Greatful!  and promised she would call, everyone was so optimistic and I think because of our desires the lord blessed us! Moments like these fuel the mission, they boost you through the times when your appointments fall through and your investigators tell you not to come by anymore... they are the tender mercies the Lord Gives us. We were EXHAUSTED! Running down the street pushing a car, two of the Elders were in their white shirts, and we were all sweating and soaked, and yet WE WERE ALL SMILING!  

Take every day with a smile! No matter what happens just smile! Whatever you endeavor, whatever the mistake you made today, whatever you are asked to do, or what gets taken from you, smile and know the Lord is in charge. Just don't WORRY about what isn't going right! cuz the Lord is in charge. BE HAPPY! its hard yes, but you'll be happy! thats what makes it worth it! We can "Just be happy" because the Lord has promised us if we just have faith he will handle it, thats a promise!

 Last week we had one investigator come to sacrament meeting and it was great, Madison, she's preparing for baptism and her mother as well, but they were both out of town this week.  As we invited others to come to sacrament we were both skeptical, hoping they would come. Another less active told us she would come, her word is hard to trust since she says yes many times and yet we can barely track her down each week, BUT! as Elder Langi and I remembered this, we said "they said they would be there, so lets trust them" and then we were happy!:) Sunday came around, I was on the stand (i had to give a talk) and boom, she walked in, it almost brought me to tears. But what is even more amazing, is the miracles the Lord gave us with another family. That morning we recieved a call from a less active, she said her mother wants to come to church, so we were like WE WILL COME PICK HER UP! and we did, she walked out of her apartment, with her two grandchildren and got in the car with us and we went to church, her girls went to primary, she came to gospel principles and relief society and said, " I will be here every week." All. Non. members. Now that is a miracle. An unexpected blessing. As I spoke and looked at the people, and said whatever the spirit prompted me to say, my testimony of faith again was strengthened. Earlier that week at zone meeting I was called in the moment to give a five minute talk on....faith. I know this is scattered, but can you feel how MANY BLESSINGS COME WITH THIS?! So just DONT WORRY! Act on your faith! I am so humbled with the miracles that have come, and the strengthened testimony I have received! I still have so much to learn but i know that if we just act on the promises of the scripture D & C 84:85, the spirit will tell us what to say in the moment, if we just act on faith good things will come! :) 

Elder Langi and I each night, talk about our vision, we talk about how much the Lord has blessed us, and we say prayers that mention all the miracles we have recieved. We are so blessed and so lucky, how great is this life. 

I know that these things are true, i know them, and i know that the Lord will never, EVER leave us, he has promised us he won't! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOU SUPPORT! The church is true.

Be not afraid; only believe

Elder Nelson

Week #2 I'm in Florida!

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!