Open your mouth! I am! But nothing is coming out...

G'day Everyone!

I didnt get an email from you this week but I hope everything is alright. Everything is great here. We had a blessed as week. Remember our new investigator from Kongo? Well he has a bunch of his family living with him here and when we went over to teach him this past week and we found out that the rest of his family was interested too! It was really exciting. We were teaching their whole family all at once. Its mostly him and his siblings but some of them have kids too. It was my first experience teaching a non member family all at once. So that was sweet. Did you know people from Kongo speak French? Man it blew my mind that they were speaking French. After that on the same day Elder Stringam and I were with a member, Johnny, and our appt fell through so Elder Stringam was prompted to go see this Less Active family that we've been trying to see since we came into this area. Well we caught them finally and we found that Bro. Norrisons wife had returned from America and she wasnt a member so we began to teach her too! This week was a week of miracles and it was quite humbling too because it helped me to realize again that we are just the instruments and the Lord has complete control over this work.

I've been sick with a cold this past week and I lost my voice for a couple days. It was so stupid. How the heck can you be a missionary and not be able to talk?? Believe me its impossible. Unless you are sent to a Sign Language mission. The few times that I tried to get involved with teaching and finding I ended up just sounding like a dying animal and instead of them asking us Oh can I learn more about Jesus Christ? They were asking us Do you need some Medicine? You want some water? "Okay Cut!....you tell him man.....I'm not gonna tell him...you alright charlie?...you want some water?"-Brian Reagan. I got no sympathy from my companion either. He was laughing at me ALL week. haha I guess it was pretty funny but he's a jerk. One funny experience we had was we were driving to an appt and we were stopped at a light and Elder Stringam was laughing at my voice and then at the same time we saw this old man bent at a 90 degree angle doing this power walk with John Stockton Shorts on haha. And at the very moment that we saw him I went to take a drink from my water bottle and I just started busting up laughing and I couldnt stop! The bad thing was that I was driving and I didnt want to spray the steering wheel and the windshield with water so I held it in but ya know when you get at the end of a laugh and you breathe in? Well yeah I got to that point and there was water in the way so pretty much I just started drooling out water because I was still laughing and I was trying to inhale at the same time and yeah....pretty much I almost drowned. crack up as.

When I tried to talk and people couldnt understand me they would go what? speak up! What? And it reminded of an experience I had when I was a little lad. "I'd like a small chocolate shake please...?" Thats all I'm gonna say Dad. You finish the story......jerk haha

We got offered to play american football this week. Yeah......I'm gutted I cant play. Just thought I'd bring that up since stephen is Mr. football these days....yeah you think your cool! Well they're trying to recruit me in Australia MATE! yeah buddy....haha jk it wasnt anything big I'm just making it a big deal because I'm trying to boost my self esteem :)....

We taught Sharing time this week. Wow. that was a crazy experience. But so fun. Little kids are so knowledgable of the gospel. There is a great spirit in primary. It also brought to my mind the scripture Mosiah 3:19 how all of us need to submit to God as a child doth submit unto his Father.

That was my week! I hope you have a great week! Love you all! Catch ya


Elder Nelson

A family of big heads!

G'day!

 

Tell Ryan Busch that I said congratulations on his call. Thats so awesome!! Man Columbia. Thats awesome. I'm guessing he's speaking spanish? Thats so great to hear. Holy Cow stephen take it easy mate! They're just gonna box you up and send you to the NFL soon. What team would you play for? Thats so great to hear that your doing so well. I cant wait to see you in action! Good luck on your talk too! I know you'll do great! I gave a talk yesterday on Faith in Jesus Christ and I decided to mix it up a bit and focus my talk on how Faith is Trust so we must Trust in the Lord with all our heart. I loved preparing for it because I learned so much and I saw some ways that I could strengthen my trust with my Savior. It was funny to me because It also taught me a little more on following the spirit too. I wrote down a few things down that I wanted to say and some scriptures that i could quote in my personal study but during the day I didnt feel right about it so I ended up revising it and writing down some personal experiences that I have had before my mission and on it that have helped me to trust in my Redeemer. After I did that I just knew that that is what I needed to speak on and share and it was a great faith builder to me.

 

Stephanie Hargrave is getting baptized this week!! YAy!! We're all so excited! she's so ready! She's keeping the word of wisdom and she's reading the Book of Mormon often and praying. We had the relief society presdient come with us to a lesson and we talked about callings and she was like oh I want one! when do I get a calling?? Elder Stringam and I are loving the mission life at the moment and we're just praying and fasting to find new investigators now.

 

We're having a ward talent show this week too. Its going to be awesome. The Elders Quorum and the Elders will be doing a combined Disco Dance number. Yeah buddy. We'll let you know how it goes.

 

We just played some basketball at the local gym and it was so fun! I havent played basketball in ages. I hope I can play some intermural(sp) ball while I go to Uni.

 

Well I love you all and I hope everyone is happy and healthy. Miss ya heaps as! Cheers

 

Elder Nelson

 

p.s. MAN! I miss watching stephen and bryce play sports. Stephen you are a skux. remember that word from Elder modlik? SKUX AS! Mum you need to take the ruler and measure how big stephen's head is now haha jk. I hope its not too big but you should be proud of yourself stephen. Keep it up. I see Elder Modlik at all the Zone Leader Councils so thats every month. He's still in Hebersham Zone with Elder Hill. He's been there for like 7 or 8 months now. Oh yeah President Simmons said that Head Quarters in Salt Lake still recognizes us a two missions. I dont know when or if they are going to announce it. Maybe General Conference...? Probably not. Its not that big of a deal. If grandpa is gonna start on that house then that means he'll still be working on it while I graduate from college so I'll be set with a job! YES!! hahaha. I have no idea what school I want to go to. Michael smith was going to UVU and he said it was really good. I wouldnt mind going there. I'll probably just send in a bunch of different applications to different places and see how we go. For now if i had to choose though I'd probably say UVU. And plus Grandpa said that he'd have the theater and pool tables in before I come home so SWEET AS!! haha jk but whats the update on that anyway?Well gotta go. Love you all. have a good week!

The Courage to Stand Alone

G'day Everybody!

 

Wow after reading your email this week and seeing the pictures that you sent my heart is just so full of joy. I'm so grateful for this gospel. It truly is the "good news" and glad tidings of great joy. I have never been this consistently happy in my life! But I know it is because I never truly understood the gospel. As I've been on my mission so far I've seen the changes that have taken place in our family and I feel so unworthy of the blessings that have taken place.  But I know that it has happened by our obedience to the commandments and by our willing to submit OUR will to the Father's.

 

Thats so exciting that Dad had the chance to meet with the Chipparro family. I cant wait to meet them! How awesome is that that you(Dad) got to witness the fruits of your labors. Even though it was AGES ago...old man. haha just kidding. I got an email this week from Muno and Genevieve and they are living in Aukland, New Zealand now. Genevieve is teaching and Muno is doing labor work. They said that they are working on their non member and less active family members and they have a baptism on the way. How exciting is that?! Good call on bringing the mexican caviar mum. It distracted them from actually realizing how weird we really are :). The most exciting thing for me to hear about your experience with the Chipparro family is that I hope it has given our family motivation and inspiration on doing missionary work. The more we become missionary minded the more we will have the spirit in the home and the more we will draw closer to our Savior. I know that is true. The more we will also be following the counsel of our living prophet, Thomas S. Monson too because he has told us to RESCUE THE ONE. Are we following the prophet? Are we focused on the "one"? Who is the ONE for ME today? Where much is given, much is required and since God has blessed us greatly I hope that we will serve him greatly.

 

Transfers are here! I'm staying in Wollongong! I really like it here. We have a baptismal date with Stephanie Hargrave! She will be getting baptized on the 21 of August! Elder Stringam and I are really excited. She's really solid and she's quit smoking completely. We're still working hard to "Grow the Ward" and find those elect sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.

 

Quick random fact: I made some new friends in the mission. One of them is a Zone Leader in Liverpool Zone and his name is Elder Mc Conkie....yup....thee Elder McConkie. He's related to Bruce R. McConkie. SWEEEEEET!!! (I cant remember if I told you that already)

 

Half of this week consisted of meetings meetings meetings but they were really good meetings. They were training meetings and we had some really good experiences being trained on how to be better missionaries and how we can teach with the spirit. I've been humbled SEVERLY haha and I've just realized A LOT of things that I need to improve on. So that is what we are working on in our Zone and the whole mission at the moment. I'm striving to be like unto Ammon. In Alma Ch 18 Ammon teaches King Lamoni with the spirit. He Asks Heaven Sent Questions, Listens with Love, Discerns the Needs of his Investigator(King Lamoni) and then uses Short Powerful Statements of Truth. For example: King Lamoni believes there is a great spirit. Ammon makes sure that he really wants to know what this great spirit is and then simply states " This is God." So I'm striving to be more like Ammon.

 

There is another thing that has been on my mind a lot lately and its the phrase "Have the courage to Stand Alone." This is actually a quote from my patriarchal blessing that has helped me a lot lately. I just wanted to bring it up because I especially wanted Bryce and Stephen to remember that in hard times sometimes we have to courage to Stand Alone and keep the morals and standards that have been taught to us. I know that if we exercise our faith to stand alone our Heavenly Father will bless us with more courage, faith and confidence that God knows us individually and that he loves us.  I know God lives and Thankful to be his servant. I love the feeling of being his instrument in bringing others unto his Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for your support and prayers. I miss you and love you all. Take luck!

 

Elder Nelson