G'day
HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD MAN! I hope you had a good birthday. Sounds like it
was a lot of fun. We had a great week this week. Full of teaching :).
Well first of all Grace didnt get baptized. I know. Bummer. I cant
remember how much I've told you about her but let me fill you in on a
little bit of her story. She is probably the most interesting
investigator me and Elder Christiansen have ever taught on our
missions. I dont know how you could be more interesting. Grace is from
the Indian Reservation in Arizona. She's part Native American and
African(Soudanese). She didnt grow up with her family and she told us
that the "chiefs" raised her. We assume that she means the leaders of
the Reservation. She keeps in contact with them often and one of the
things they asked her to do is to get involved with the Aboriginal
people her in Australia. Missionaries tried to teach her before but
they lost contact after awhile. We taught her from the beginning and
the thing that she was most interested in was the Book of Mormon. She
heard from the chiefs that their history is in the Book and that she
needs to learn about Nephi. So thats what sparked her interest again.
We gave her a Book of Mormon in the first lesson and committed her to
read it. After we came back we found out that she had read the entire
book of Alma! She told us that it was definitely a history of her
ancestors and she knew that it was true. From there we taught her the
Restoration and Plan of Salvation and she progressed really fast. We
were so excited. The only thing was that almost every time we met with
her and even in between appointments by telephone she would tell us a
concern she had: "we're racist, we have to get married, why?, we have
to be modest, women dont hold the priesthood, what goes on in the
temple ,etc, etc. The list seriously goes on and on. She tested us on
everything! Its really been a great learning experience. But anyway
amongst all of that we committed her to be baptized and she happily
said yes. So a couple weeks ago we had an appt and she brought up some
concerns that she had in the past and we said "Okay Grace, we've
answered these questions before. Let's get ALL of your concerns out on
the table so we can answer all of them and move on." But we said it
really lovingly ya know...ha. But it worked and she got it all out.
SO! this weekend she was meant to be baptized but we met with her on
friday and we asked her some "heaven sent" questions about her
testimony. We asked her about how the chiefs felt about her getting
baptized because she told us before that they werent too keen on her
joining the church. She said "yeah they're fine the only thing that
they told me is that when I join the church I'm not allowed to go into
the temple..." UHHHHH....RED LIGHT! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! We heard
that loud and clear and we asked her if she believed that Thomas S.
Monson is the living prophet and she said yeah but then we explained
that that means that pretty much whatever he says goes. "So grace that
means you need to choose. Are you going to follow the prophet or the
chiefs." THATS THE DOCTRINE! She heard THAT loud and clear and she
said well I cant betray my chiefs and so thats where we're at now. We
explained that its up to her testimony of the Book of Mormon because
if that is true then Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet. She's
reading the Book of Mormon everyday now.
Well that was a really long story but thats the Gos right now in Elder
Nelson's life. The nitty gritty haha.
John's doing great. His Marriage/Baptism is next week. We watched the
Testaments last night with them. They really liked it. Good movie as.
Theres a rumor right now that I might get transferred next week so I
might have to visit from my next area to see John's baptism.
Monika came to church too! She's our Punjabi friend. Shes still ready
to go for her baptism next month. She told us a crazy story this week.
I dont have enough time to tell you it. She's got some serious dramas
going on in her life though. She loves the gospel and its helping her
a lot.
I know that Miracles happen. Christ's Atonement heals the broken
hearted. Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet. He IS Gods
mouthpiece. I read a scripture this week that I really like in the
31st chapter of Alma. "....our affliction was swallowed up in our joy
in Christ." I love that line. I hope that in all our lives we can
allow the sadness and afflictions and trials to be swallowed up in our
joy in Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ amen.
Elder Nelson
HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD MAN! I hope you had a good birthday. Sounds like it
was a lot of fun. We had a great week this week. Full of teaching :).
Well first of all Grace didnt get baptized. I know. Bummer. I cant
remember how much I've told you about her but let me fill you in on a
little bit of her story. She is probably the most interesting
investigator me and Elder Christiansen have ever taught on our
missions. I dont know how you could be more interesting. Grace is from
the Indian Reservation in Arizona. She's part Native American and
African(Soudanese). She didnt grow up with her family and she told us
that the "chiefs" raised her. We assume that she means the leaders of
the Reservation. She keeps in contact with them often and one of the
things they asked her to do is to get involved with the Aboriginal
people her in Australia. Missionaries tried to teach her before but
they lost contact after awhile. We taught her from the beginning and
the thing that she was most interested in was the Book of Mormon. She
heard from the chiefs that their history is in the Book and that she
needs to learn about Nephi. So thats what sparked her interest again.
We gave her a Book of Mormon in the first lesson and committed her to
read it. After we came back we found out that she had read the entire
book of Alma! She told us that it was definitely a history of her
ancestors and she knew that it was true. From there we taught her the
Restoration and Plan of Salvation and she progressed really fast. We
were so excited. The only thing was that almost every time we met with
her and even in between appointments by telephone she would tell us a
concern she had: "we're racist, we have to get married, why?, we have
to be modest, women dont hold the priesthood, what goes on in the
temple ,etc, etc. The list seriously goes on and on. She tested us on
everything! Its really been a great learning experience. But anyway
amongst all of that we committed her to be baptized and she happily
said yes. So a couple weeks ago we had an appt and she brought up some
concerns that she had in the past and we said "Okay Grace, we've
answered these questions before. Let's get ALL of your concerns out on
the table so we can answer all of them and move on." But we said it
really lovingly ya know...ha. But it worked and she got it all out.
SO! this weekend she was meant to be baptized but we met with her on
friday and we asked her some "heaven sent" questions about her
testimony. We asked her about how the chiefs felt about her getting
baptized because she told us before that they werent too keen on her
joining the church. She said "yeah they're fine the only thing that
they told me is that when I join the church I'm not allowed to go into
the temple..." UHHHHH....RED LIGHT! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! We heard
that loud and clear and we asked her if she believed that Thomas S.
Monson is the living prophet and she said yeah but then we explained
that that means that pretty much whatever he says goes. "So grace that
means you need to choose. Are you going to follow the prophet or the
chiefs." THATS THE DOCTRINE! She heard THAT loud and clear and she
said well I cant betray my chiefs and so thats where we're at now. We
explained that its up to her testimony of the Book of Mormon because
if that is true then Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet. She's
reading the Book of Mormon everyday now.
Well that was a really long story but thats the Gos right now in Elder
Nelson's life. The nitty gritty haha.
John's doing great. His Marriage/Baptism is next week. We watched the
Testaments last night with them. They really liked it. Good movie as.
Theres a rumor right now that I might get transferred next week so I
might have to visit from my next area to see John's baptism.
Monika came to church too! She's our Punjabi friend. Shes still ready
to go for her baptism next month. She told us a crazy story this week.
I dont have enough time to tell you it. She's got some serious dramas
going on in her life though. She loves the gospel and its helping her
a lot.
I know that Miracles happen. Christ's Atonement heals the broken
hearted. Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet. He IS Gods
mouthpiece. I read a scripture this week that I really like in the
31st chapter of Alma. "....our affliction was swallowed up in our joy
in Christ." I love that line. I hope that in all our lives we can
allow the sadness and afflictions and trials to be swallowed up in our
joy in Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ amen.
Elder Nelson
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