Having a BLAST here as Zone Leader..

?- I remember last year when I had come to Purdue for exchanges you had mentioned that Kelly had a brother who was going to school here. I was wondering if that is still the case?

As for my exciting week. First off I have been having a blast here as a Zone Leader with Elder Hurst. Something that I have noticed is that being a Zone Leader is not all that different from being a District Leader. It really is all the same stuff but there is just more of it. Instead of focusing on 1-2 companionship's it is now 7. I also really love the opportunity to meet and associate with so many missionaries.

Now then you are probably wondering about how our Halloween went, or maybe your not but I will tell you anyways. We were in at 6:00 and we had weekly planning. Doesn't sound too exciting but it was really good. In order to stay safe, especially here on campus with all the parties and stuff President Collins had us stay in, but we did get a little taste of it all on Friday. We were teaching an investigator who is going to be baptized on November 20th and we were teaching at the institute as we always do. The interesting thing is that the singles had a big combined Halloween costume competition and dance at the same time. Good for us is that we were able to teach her during the fashion show part of it so the lesson still went good but, when just as walked out from the library they started the dance and it was loud. This might sound a little weird but both Elder Hurst and I felt really uncomfortable and we got out quick. It was really funny to see some of the costumes though, they were all very creative.

We also had Stake Conference this week and as Zone Leaders we work directly with the Stake Presidency. Saturday morning President Ellis called us and asked if we would report about the zone to all the Ward Mission Leaders in the Stake and the Stake Council. It really caught us off guard but we already had a lesson planned at that time so he told us that our lesson was more important so we lucked out. I t was a good thing too because we didn't have anything prepared. Also President and Sister Collins were guest speakers and President Collins had all 21 missionaries present stand up. It was funny because he introduced us as the Zone Leaders and that if there are any problems to call us and he introduced us as Elder Nelson and Elder Huse. On top of that he had just got done saying that he knew us all by name but then he got Elder HURST's name wrong.

As for something this week that truly showed the workings of the spirit: it was in a 1st lesson with someone. We found this person by doing question of the day and set a return appointment with him. All we new about him was that he was Catholic and had recently denounced the faith and is presently Agnostic. In the past short time that I have been here I have learned to love talking to people that are this way because they have realized the error in their previous doctrine and now hope for God and want to know the truth. As we sat down we wanted to start with questions of his. As he asked us these questions from his heart it was very evident that the Lord has been preparing him for the truth. His questions were regarding the beginning of our church, Joseph Smith and how the Book of Mormon fit into it all. It was perfect because that is what we had been planning on teaching about. As we taught of the Joseph Smith story and of the first vision his interest increased dramatically. This continued as we taught more and more and we could see the Spirit working inside of him. I wish that I had the time to talk about it all but there is just too much to say, but I will say what his biggest reaction came from. It was about the nature of the Godhead. He was taking about the trinity and of God being omnipresent and then we told him that we don’t believe that at all he almost came out of his seat and had this huge smile. it just blew him away as we taught him about the Godhead. It was one of the most exciting lessons that I have ever been involved in.

Well my time is up. I love you all,
Elder Nelson