Awesome Zone Conference

So as for the latest here at Purdue:
Last preparation day we were playing ultimate dodge ball as usual and Elder Hurst got hit in the ear with one of the balls and it was a hard hit. In fact it made him drop to the ground. To be clear I want you to know that I wasn't the one that threw the ball but none the less the ear that he did get hit in is now described by a semi-professional (ME) as dead. It has now been a week since last preparation day and he still cannot hear out of that ear, pretty crazy huh, we joke that it is his sacrifice for the work. No worries though we gave him a blessing and Sister Collins and the Area Doctor are looking for a specialist for him to go to.
Sounds like a pretty exciting week so far huh? Just wait it gets better.

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference and it was Awesome. Unfortunately the schedule had to change around and we weren't able to train our zone but President Collins apologized and then he told us that as Zone Leaders we will be getting a lot more responsibility coming up this next transfer because instead of having 4 Assistants we will only have 2. It is really interesting because just as you were saying that the WWLT was a lot about family and taking responsibility off the Bishop, well it is kinda like that here with the mission leadership. I am excited though for all the new responsibility it will be a greater growing experience and it will help the work be more effective.

Right after Zone Conference (Peru, IN) we had to bring back some missionaries that don't have a car and then we had to drive all the way back to Logansport which is right next to Peru. In all it took about 2 1/2 hours to do it all. Though long, we were perfectly fine with doing it because it was for a baptismal interview of someone who is now officially a member. Elder Hurst conducted that and then in the mean time I was able to teach one of my old investigators with one of the missionaries there and it was a rare experience.

Our area is officially Purdue University YSA but since there are 2 closed areas in our Zone, meaning there are no missionaries serving there, we cover those as well. Now the unfortunate problem is that both of them are about 30 miles away and because of mile restraints we can't get to them very often. So on Wednesday we were able to go out to lunch with the Williamsport Branch President who is a professor here at Purdue and we got a lot taken care of. Elder Hurst and I are really excited about what this Branch is wanting to do and he came prepared. They want to have us go work in Williamsport once a week in a way that we will not have to use any of our miles, plus they will feed us and find exchanges. Since we will only go once a week they have it set up so that we wont be doing any finding because they already have people that want to be taught, referrals, part-member families, etc. They want us to use the little time we will have effectively.

On Friday we went on exchanges with the Assistants and I went with Elder Busby. It was an Awesome exchange and I learned a lot from him but unfortunately his time will be up this transfer. We did though finally find out that we truly are related. His Grandma sent him newspaper cut outs of His Grandpa and good ol Ray Nelson. His Grandpa was the pitcher and Ray was the catcher and they were like 2nd or 3rd cousins and very good friends.

On Thursday we had another exchange but this time it was with one of the District Leaders in the Zone. I loved it and it was particularly good because I got to bike and do some tricks and plus another 1 in a million opportunities happened. First to backtrack a little, last week I got a letter from one of the families in Angola and they had gone to Purdue and they filled me in on a lot of really cool stuff that I never had known before but amongst all of that they said that they would be coming down to watch a football game and they volunteered to take me out to dinner if that was allowed. As I read this letter my eye's just lit up, so I called and got permission and we met up and had an awesome time at dinner.

Now as I look back at this week there has been a lot of 1 and million thing that happened.

Well this week was amazing and this transfer has just flown by and is almost over already. I'm working hard and I'm being blessed and others are as well and that is what matters.
I love you,
Elder Nelson