No Choco Cita

G'day Mates!



Transfers have come and gone again. Me and Elder Christiansen are

still companions! Yeah! We were pretty excited to hear the news

because the assistants before were saying they were going to have to

split us up. We're having a lot of success and we're especially

excited to both see John Munday prepare for his baptism in March. We

had two baptisms this weekend!! Woooo! Melesia Hufanga and Angel Lole

both got baptized on saturday. It was a massive baptism. There was a

huge feed afterwards. A couple other people the other elders in our

ward got baptized too so 4 people in the Parramatta ward were baptized

this weekend. This ward knows how to do missionary work.



Elder Stringam has completed his 2 years. Crazy! His family was there

with him at transfer meeting. Then for lunch his family took me and

Elder Christiansen out for lunch. We went to a local Kebab shop. It

was delicious. It was so weird being with Elder Stringams family! But

so fun. He's got a great family. Hopefully the Stringam and Nelson

families will be able to meet up sometime. The Christiansen family

will have to come too :).



I finally got over my flu I had and its been great to get back into

the work. We've got some great investigators. One miracle we had this

week happened on saturday. So we try to find new investigators every

week. We hadnt found any this week. So on saturday night when I was

feeling better we knelt in prayer and asked Heavenly Father to guide

us to find a new investigator. So we had a few potentials in mind and

then we went out looking. We followed up on a couple addresses I had

and man every one of them was FAKE! LIARS! haha man it was rough but

we decided that we would tract a couple houses near one of the

potentials I had. An Indian fella answered the door named Richi and he

is so awesome. He was way interested and so was his friend. We found

two new investigators in those 30 minutes we had to find a new

investigator last week. It was a great testimony builder for me. I

know that God answers prayers. Sometimes, according to HIS will,

almost immediately!



We had a special visitor a couple weeks ago that I didnt tell you

about! Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles came to

our mission! It was such an awesome experience. He was actually

supposed to go to the Brisbane mission but since its so flooded there

he couldnt fly in. He visited us instead and we had a great visit. He

is definitely an Apostle. His insights and testimony were inspiring. I

know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only

true and living church upon the face of this earth. I love you all. I

hope you all had a great week full of smiles and laughs. We have

plenty of reasons to rejoice! Especially to know the Great Plan of

Happiness.



Elder Nelson

Grandpa

G'day!

How is everyone? Man I was really worried when I saw the subject

heading of your email "Grandpa." But I was relieved to hear that he's

okay now. AND THEN you send the pictures and Grandpa is chilling at

the top of a ladder! Holy cow Gramps! Take it easy mate! The pictures

are great though thanks. I cant believe Dad was even adventurous

enough to hang upside down from the roof either. Oh maybe its because

he only weighs like 90 lbs. pssh. Anyways! Sounds like everyone is

doing pretty good though.



Elder Christiansen and I had a fantastic week this week. I cant even

begin to tell you how awesome this week was. Well first of all I'll

just say that the ONLY downside to this week is that I got sick. I've

been sick as the past few days and its been so dumb. I had a fever and

the shivers and its just not cool. But I got a blessing and I'm doing

heaps better. Second of all. WE HAVE TWO BAPTISMS THIS WEEKEND!!

Wooooooo!! Melesia Hufanga and Angel are getting baptized. Melesia is

a cousin to the Leota family in our ward. Brother Leota is ALL about

missionary work. Its pretty much all he talks about but hey he's

awesome and he's helped HEAPS of people come into the church. Melesia

is from Tonga but she speaks pretty good english. She has a strong

desire to be baptized which is so awesome. Then Angel! She is actually

cousins with Melesia.(YOu'll learn REALLY fast that when your dealing

with TOngans, pretty much everyone is Cousins with everyone! hahaha).

So on tuesday we were having a great lesson with our investigator

Arthur (from TAiwan) at brother Leotas house(which is another really

cool story) and then in walks Angel. She's 10 yrs old and two of her

older siblings are members. Bro Leota says her parents arent members

but someone else said they are just less active so we dont know whats

going on there but she comes in and tells us she wants to get

baptised! Of course Bro. Leota played a BIG part in it with talking to

her family and everything but she said that she has wanted to get

baptized since she was eight. So we were like........SWEET! haha its

been a week of miracles. BUT! that wasnt even the best part of our

week. I know. Crazy eh?



The best part of our week is when we met with John Munday. It was

definitely a spirit filled lesson. They had just gotten back from

their trip to New Zealand and while they were there they stayed with

his partners family which is awesome because they are strong members

of the church. They made sure that him and jay came to church and also

participated in Family Home Evening. We were so happy to hear about

that. So on wednesday we had a lesson with them and we had AWESOME

fellowship there. Bro Leotas son, Semisi(he's a young guy on the

bishopric) and his wife. They are newly weds. John and Jay live

together but they arent married. So we followed up on his reading and

he had done his assigned reading and then when the spirit was strong

we committed him to be baptized. He immediately said yes! WOOOOO! But

then of course the only thing that would keep him from getting

baptized is keeping the Law of Chastity. SO! we just got right into

it. We told them how much we loved them and how much Heavenly FAther

loves them and then taught them the importance of the Law of Chastity.

The air was tense for just a second when we started teaching it but a

spirit of love filled the room as the lesson went on. If an outsider

were to look in at the situation and what was being taught they would

probably think it was ridiculous but when the spirit is there anything

is possible. The best part of the lesson though was when the Newly

wedded couple got to bear their testimonies of the blessings of being

married and keeping the law of chastity. It was an awesome experience.

When Elder Christiansen and I got in the car we couldnt help but just

yell " YESSSSSSS!! WOOOOO!" THEN! this sunday John and JAY said hey we

want to meet with Bishop. BY ALL MEANS! So they did and now they are

getting married on the 12th of March. John will also be getting

baptized on that day. Man.........too much excitement! I love being a

missionary. Shall we not go on in such great a cause! I love you all!

This is the Lords church. How lucky are we to be apart of it.



Elder Nelson



Mum,



HEY!! Well this week has just been too good. Let me know when you put

money in my account. I know the Souvey man thats a member gets back in

March. So may not start buying stuff until then. Do you want Ugg

boots? We probably cant afford to get everyone Ugg Boots. What color

and what size shoe do you wear? What does everyone want? I thought I'd

for sure get stephen and Bryce some Kangaroo coin sacks! haha you know

what I'm talking about. I think I'll get one for Adam and probably

Katie as well. HAHA. Maybe stephens friends would want some. Man I

just need a list of what everyone wants and then I can add up the

total of how much it will cost. The bat in those pictures is dead. It

was fried on the telephone wire. The bats here are HUGE!! Stephen's

trip sounds fun! Keep up the good work Bryce. We all know that the

only sport they will accept in the Celestial Kingdom anyway is

Basketball. True story. I prayed about it. haha jk. My official

release date is July 12th. Crazy! I cant believe this is the last week

of the Transfer. Theres a good chance that me and Elder Christiansen

wont be companions next transfer which is pretty crap. I have a

feeling we'll hang out a lot when we both get home. I'm training soon

too. I dont know when. Maybe my extension seems a bit longer to you

but to me its not long at all because we work on transfers. So if I

didnt extend I would only have 3 transfers left but now I have 4 so It

gives me a greater chance to train since training a missionary usually

takes longer than just 1 transfer. Exciting changes are right around

the corner. Well I should probably end this now. Love ya heaps. Catch

yas.

Gentiles!

G'day Gentiles!




REPENT! How ya goin mates? I hope you all had a great week. Ours was

full of meetings meetings meetings but it in the end it was very

fruitful.



We had Zone Council, Leadership Training, Interviews, Zone meeting and

also a few trade offs. Which, as a missionary, leaves you with only a

little time left to get some work done in your own area. But President

promised us that we would be blessed and we were. Our lesson with

Ziggy was a great spiritual experience. He's kiwi as and so funny. He

loves his old legend stories but he's got a good heart and we're

working hard to help him to his baptism. The biggest thing right now

is smoking. We've committed him to quit and we're doing all we can to

help him to do that. He's been smoking his whole life so its just

second nature to him so its really hard for him. We're praying hard

that he will be able to break the habit. We talked a lot about the

Atonement the last time we saw him so I hope that he will trust in our

Saviour during these hard times.



Arthur and Eric. Our two Taiwanese friends are doing alright. We had

an amazing miracle happen this week. We taught Arthur at the Leota's

house which was good. We watched Finding faith in Christ in chinese

which was Hilarious. It was so funny because I've seen it so many

times in english that I pretty much have it memorized and then we

watched in Chinese. It was like watching one of those old chinese game

shows. So now to the amazing miracle: we thankfully got them to church

again even though its so hard for them because they dont understand

very much english. While we were in Sacrament Meeting all of a sudden

this older couple walks in and they look like they are possibly

Chinese. Both me and Elder Christiansen are praying the whole time

that they speak chinese. After the Benediction we just B lined it

straight to them and asked them where they are from. They said "Where

we from? We from Taiwan!" The angels were definitely singing the

Hallelujah chorus. Brother and Sister Kuo are just visting Australia

on Holidays and visit family and they just happen to visit our ward!

So cool! That was our exciting miracle this week. Luckily they are

staying for a few weeks so they will be teaching Arthur and Eric with

us while they are here. They thought they were on Holiday. Psssh.

ha....psssh. NOT!



Another AWESOME miracle was on thursday. The Chin family invited us

over for dinner. They are a cool couple. Bro. Chin is a music

producer. He's awesome. The more he talked about it the more it

sounded like something that I would love to do. He also plays the

Sitar! Haha its awesome! The sitar is that Indian guitar thing you

always hear on movies ya know? So they are cool and they just happened

to have this flat mate Haryuo. She's from Japan but speaks really good

english. I told her that Uncle Jerry served in Japan and lived there

for two years and she thought that was really cool. Well we finally

sat down for a spiritual thought after dinner and we started a

discussion and then Haryuo was like "yeah when I first came to

Australia I went through a very dark time and I did a lot of spiritual

searching." "I always thought to myself What is the purpose of life?

There must be a place after and there must be a place where we were

before." Elder Christiansen and I thought it was a joke! It was just

too perfect. We were like Uhh and then we saw Brother and Sister CHIN

and their eyes were wide as and then we knew it wasnt a joke. They had

just never talked to her about anything having to do with the gospel

and they live with her everyday. So obviously we talked about the Law

of Chastity! haha JOKES! We of course talked to her about the Plan of

Salvation. It was a great discussion. A few days later we picked up a

Book of Mormon in Japanese(because they didnt have any plan of

salvation pamphlets in Japanese) and then introduced that to her. She

was very excited to learn about it. That night I learned that It just

goes to show that no matter who they are in your life you just dont

know until you ask them if they are interested in the gospel. The

Chin's were so suprised. It doesnt mean she will get baptized but at

least it will be a great spiritual experience and it will definitely

plant a seed.



So those were just a couple miracles from our week. We had more but

those will just have to wait for later :). I love this great work and

I know more than ever that the Lord is FOR SURE in this work. This is

HIS work and he is not afraid to show us that it is. We just have to

have the courage to open our mouths. Hopefully we'll be having a

baptism on the 22nd. Melesia is looking pretty good for that date.

She's been in Brisbane with family but the Leotas told us that she has

been calling and is really excited for her baptism. I'm thankful to be

on a mission. I love you and I wish you the best. Latas!





"Parramtta, Service with a Smile :)"



Elder Nelson



Mum,



Hey!! Thank you for approving the Extension. If I just end the next

transfer after the 31st of May then I will probably be coming home the

2nd week in July. I'll let you know when I actually know the official

date. We had Interviews with President and he just asked me how much

longer I have on my mission because I told him that I want the

opprotunity to train. I said well my release date is for the 31st of

May and Sister Wight has already given me my "trunky call." Which

means she calls and tells me she is getting my flight plans ready and

everything. President just rolled his eyes and then I said I was

wondering if there would be a possibility to extend? He said he loved

the idea of keeping me longer and he asked when I went into the MTC. I

said June 17th. He was like WHAT?? Becuase our transfers switched to

theirs at the merge. President said he has the ability to extend 30

days after the original release date. But of course he said I had to

clear it with the fam first. We talked about how this will give me a

better chance of having time to train. Since originally I would have 3

transfers after this one and I've only been with Elder Christiansen

for 1. Also a typical training period is two transfers. I hope that

helps you understand a bit better. Now, I dont HAVE to train. But

President said that I should definitely be given that opprotunity and

the issue right now is that he needs good, experienced leaders. And I

cant really be a Zone Leader and Training at the same time. I mean its

been done but its not really effective. So thats the story. I love you

all. I havent gotten the package yet. Did you get mine and the letter?

Happy New Year!

G'day!




HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 2011 came so fast! I remember last year when I talked

about how 2010 would be a year to remember since its the year I spent

the bulk of my mission. So many memories. I dont regret a minute. I

learned heaps and saw so many miracles. Elder Modlik and I were

together this time last year and we were doing a bit of reminising the

other day. By the way he says "THANKS HEAPS AS for the T-shirt. He

LOVED it you shouldve seen him. He was like a giddy girl. Elder

Christiansen and I had so much fun for New Years. We get along really

well. I feel like I say that about all my companions. I've been really

lucky. Elder Christiansen and I are like best friends though. He

reminds me a bit of Adam but he's not as goofy. Hopefully you'll get

those pictures soon. I sent a letter and some pictures home just last

week so it should be there soon. We did stay up until midnight on New

Years. We played a couple games like connect four and jenga. I am the

Jenga champion! But Elder Christiansen smoked me at Connect four. We

went to Woolies and got some food for our New Years feast. We had

hamburgers and milkshakes. Delicious as. It reminded me so much of

home. Then we just chatted it up and told stories. Good times.



We had a good week. It was hard because of the Holidays but there are

some great things happening in the Parramatta Ward. Its awesome

because everyone is making New Years resolutions and most of them have

to do with missionary work! Yesssss. I have a feeling that my time

here in this ward will be very worth while. To answer Bryce's question

we've got a few solid as investigators right now. Melesia, John and

Ziggy. Melesia is from Tonga. John and Ziggy are from New Zealand.

They are all great people and trying their best to follow Jesus

Christ. Unfortunately john and Melesia were out of town for the

Holidays but they should be getting back this week. We've had some

AWESOME experiences with them. I wish I could tell them all at once.

They are all progressing really well so in these next couple weeks

we'll have to see how they do. I'm so excited though. I'm excited for

this year too! Of course my main goal is to finish strong. I wonder

how Elder Hogge must be feeling right? Ah! I love you all heaps! Ofa

atu.



Elder Nelson



p.s. We had another Awesome experience this week where we were on our

way to an appointment and these two Muslim ladies were stranded in the

middle of the road because their tire blew so we stopped and helped

them. It sounds pretty regular but me and Elder Christiansen felt

really good about it because there is definitely a division among the

Muslim and Christians in our area. Muslims and Christians unite! Who

you gonna call?? THE ELDERS!