Elder Tanner Nelson

still workin hard

2011-04-25T20:17:00.001-07:00

SO this week was pretty fun and we saw a lot of miracles and I have had a lot of growing experiences. We have been finding tons of really sweet people that just want to learn the gospel and come closer to God and a lot of them are Asian. Something that a member pointed out this week is very interesting. This member has a son in Russia on his mission so he knows a little about the Russians and he pointed out how different people react differently to communism. Russians are very cold by nature and hard hearted and yet the Chinese for the most part are very honest and open minded people. So we are super blessed to be able to teach are to share the gospel with these people. We also went on 2 exchanges. For the first one I was with Elder Farmer and we were in our area at Purdue. We were able to find a few really good people and were able to set appointments with all of them except for one. It was hard because we couldn't find a time that was open for both of us, but no worries we called and finally found a time that worked out, we will be seeing him later this week. For our second exchange we went down to Logansport and blitzed Elder Rees and Elder Edwards area. I went with Elder Edwards who is from Mesa so we got to talk it up like Arizona boys do and it was great. At the very start we taught this guy and set a baptismal date with him for the 14th of May. I even got to see some members and give them a surprise. We were able to do a lot of great work and have a lot of fun while doing it. We also had another "Why I Believe" fireside that went well but was a little stressful at the same time. We ended up starting 15 minutes late because everyone was late and then 3 out of the 6 speakers didn't show or couldn't come for one reason or another so in order till fill in the time I decide to share my conversion story and then we ended. In all it went well but it definitely took a lot of effort on our side of it all. I did get to see some members from Kokomo, were I was trained, and got to say goodbye to them so that was cool.

Well I'm still working hard and giving it all I got. I love you, Elder Nelson

4/18/11

2011-04-20T13:57:00.001-07:00

I also have another question. I am trying to sell my bike before I go home and I hope that it does sell but I was wondering that if not, would be a good idea to sent it home. I asked FedEx and they gave an estimate of $75ish to send it. and If i do I would need you to put that money into my account from my other account. What do you think?

This week was a sweet and interesting one. We were able to teach a lot of people that are looking for answers to questions that we can help with. It was one of those weeks were we would sit down for nightly planning and the next day would practically be full of appointments and that is how it still is. We have been trying really hard to improve ourselves, our companionship and our area and it definitely has not gone unnoticed by the Lord. We have really been blessed recently. In fact we have also noticed that a good 3/4 of the people that we are teaching don't have a belief in God for themselves, yet.

I am 21 now but I don't feel any different that is for sure but I will say that it was the best birthday that I have ever had. Our whole day was just on fire. We started it all with visiting a really good district meeting. Then we came back to Campus and we only talked to one person but she was really cool. She was actually out holding a board that said:
"Pray for Japan" so we went over and talked to her about it and actually ended up saying a prayer with her and then setting up a lesson. From there we actually went to a lesson with a Chinese grad student. Most Chinese and oriental students choose an American name that they go by so that other people can actually say there names, but anyways, He was very interested in learning more about God and Christ because his greatest role model is his grandmother and she is Christian and because of that he wants to learn. There was somewhat of a language barrier but not really that bad. We talked to him about what it is we do as missionaries and that our goal is to help him grow in faith and then to be baptized. He then asked what baptism was. We both got really excited as we explained what it was along with explaining very simply about faith and repentance and then also receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Then we invited him to be baptized and with a lot of excitement he said YES! We sat down and had gotten up within the time of 20 min and that is all that it took. We actually were able to meet with him again on Friday and he volunteered to say the opening prayer and in it he expressed thanks for us teaching him how to pray and also for the chance to learn and to prepare to be baptized. So it was a good Birthday. Also another really good day was Saturday. It was really rainy but we stayed very dry. The reason is because we sat in the institute and didn't leave it for 4 hours teaching people and it was great. Really quick I also wanted to say that on Sunday I experienced the hardest lesson of my mission on Sunday. It was with a Chinese guy that had really bad English and we had to teach through a member that is Chinese as well. It was really hard to stay focused at times.

I love you all and I hope that you have a great week

4/18/11

2011-04-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

Conference Week

2011-04-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

Conference was amazing and I was able to learn a lot . I went into this conference with a lot of questions and I got all the answers that I need for now.

So this morning was the big suspenseful morning. It was the morning for transfer calls and the day that would determine the who and the were I would be spending my last transfer. The news is that we didn't get a call and that means that Elder Roberts will be the companion to kill me off and that I will spend the rest of my mission at Purdue. I am super excited and as I thought about it I realized a few different things. One, I would be serving at Purdue for 7 1/2 months. My second 7 1/2 month area, Logansport was the first. Along with that I will have served a total of 17 1/2 months in the Lafayette Zone. That is almost 3/4 of my mission and I wouldn't of had it any other way. I am overjoyed and excited for the next few wonderful weeks ahead.

So as usual you all probably want to know about how this week went. It actually started with an awesome exchange with Elder Jones. We were able to work really hard and have a blast doing it. It was just like when we served together previously. We also went on an exchange with the two Elders that serve in one of my beloved old areas of Logansport. All by coincidence I was able to see and speak to a lot of the members there that I grew to love very much and i was even able to go and try to contact the very first man that I was able to see baptized but unfortunately he was not there. We were able to talk to his son that I was also able to teach when I served in Logansport.
Within this exchange we were driving in a town called Flora. It is just a small town but a very nice one. I remembered that once when I served in Logansport I had visited a mother and 2 small children. As our plans fell through and we were on our way to another town we drove down that specific spot of road in which this mother had lived and I noticed it quickly. We knew that it was no coincidence that we were there. We drove up the road slowly as i tried my hardest to remember the trailer that this young family lived then again and again but with no such memory. While we were doing this we noticed a man that had walked out of his home and had been watching us go back and forth. We finally decide to stop and knock on some doors to see if we could find this mother but first we talked to this man. We said hello and asked him how his day was and if he had ever met missionaries before. He then told us that he was a member. We started to talk more and it turns out that he was baptized 10 years ago in Lafayette and that his records were in Illinois at the time. We found out that he had no home and no phone but that he was moving around a lot but we were able to give him our information and the address of the church in Logansport. It truly is amazing at how the Lords ways are not our ways. Over all it was a very good week and within our own area we were able to see a lot of miracles as well. We saw them while walking around campus, we saw them in meal appointments with members and especially within lessons with amazing investigators. In fact we were able to have 3 investigators come to general conference. Two of them enjoyed it a lot and we haven't been able to talk to the other. I do know this though. There were very special talks that were very specific to each of their individual needs. It was one of those feelings of: 'I hope that they are listening to this one'
I love you all and I greatly appreciate all of your love and support,

Elder Nelson

Many Exciting Things

2011-03-31T18:29:00.000-07:00

This week was full of all sorts of things. Many exciting things and also some disappointing things. As the exciting things. We had a missionary Blitz on campus. We had 10 missionaries, most from the Zone and then the 2 Assistants, all on campus. it seemed as if were ever you looked you could see a missionary. Also we had a few members from the singles ward come out and help talk to people. They are such a great help some of the members even went off by themselves and taught people. Over all I think that it was a great success on many different levels. For one all of the missionaries had a blast, some were shy at first but campus' are really good at forcing missionaries out of there bubble. We didn't hear a single complaint from anyone. Actually all that we did hear was requests for another one soon but I don't think that will happen this semester. Another really great thing that happened was that between the time the missionaries showed up and left they are progressed in many different and unique ways. One of the big reasons for the Blitz was to advertise what we called "Why We Believe" Purdue. We had it just Sunday night and it's purpose was as a missionary finding tool. The purpose of the Fireside was so that more people could learn about what it is we believe and we used our resources to do it. It turns out that there are a good couple of dozen faculty and professors at Purdue that are members. We had professors from the engineering department, Chemistry, Business, Computer Science and others. It turned out to be Awesome. We have now 2 more people that we will start meeting with this week. Here is something really cool. One of the speakers is in Chemistry and his name is Phil Low and he has literally almost cured cancer and it super close to a Nobel Prize. Now Let me tell you what I think that my mind blew up like 3 times as he was talking, he is so smart. During his talk he explained how Science and Faith go hand in hand and gave a few examples of it. He talked about the Big Bang theory and evolution and then death. As an example he explained very clearly that in our galaxy there are a some 100 billion stars and that our galaxy is one of more than 100 billion more like it. It gives quite the perspective doesn't it. He then explained how religion just tells us that everything was made by God but lacks the mechanism and the how he did it and then how science is just the opposite. Then he said this about big bang, if it had happened just a second slower or a second faster nothing would have been created but as we know things are here so it happened right. He said that the odds of it moving at just the right speed are 1 over 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 that is one big number in fact 23 zeros. Isn't it Awesome that precision is so important to God and that he always does things in that way. I loved what he said next. He said that all of the scientists that are at the Nobel level know that there has to be a God.

So out of all this Awesome stuff that happened this week there were the low times. We had 12 Lessons fall through on us this week but that is ok because God always has a plan for us.

I love you all so much and I always enjoy telling you about my week. Till next time.
Elder Nelson

3-19-11

2011-03-23T17:24:00.001-07:00

Well there you go. Now Dad can start up golfing again, hahaha. It is amazing how the Lord makes everything work out. Such as Wade being released ahead of time. I hate to say it but I called that one. Oh and who is President Workman? and I apologize ahead of time if he is someone that I should know. Who was it that came to reorganize everything?

So this week was crazy. We gave 2 trainings back to back in district meetings and because it was Spring Break so we went to 3 other areas for exchanges and to help other missionaries out in their areas but really they were helping us a lot by giving us something to do. We went to Crawfordsville, Lebanon and Spanish land and they were all a blast. Especially Spanish land it was a lot of fun trying to learn some espanol.

Even though it was really slow in our area because of Spring Break we still found 2 sweet new investigators and let me tell you they are sweet. I wish I had some more time but I don't.

I hope that all is going well and continues to do so,
love Elder Nelson

Getting Ready for a Baptism!

2011-03-11T22:39:00.001-08:00

So this week has been a little crazy. We had a leadership training this week that we trained at and it was a little stressful. We had 2 hours to fill and yet we probably put 6-8 hours into preparing for it. It was a lot of brainstorming and finalizing and then starting from scratch again. In fact the morning of the training, we ended up re-doing it all. In the end it all worked out and the conference went really well. Other than that our week went relatively slow. We did a lot of finding but we weren't able to find anyone very interested in learning more. We did have one really good lesson with an investigator that is Awesome. Tuesday night as we were planning out our next day we could not find anything to do or anyone to see in the evening but we decided that we were going to find someone. We went all day and we hadn't found anyone that we could teach, no one at all. It was the end of the evening, around 8, and we gave an investigator a call that had actually missed an appointment with us the previous day. He answered the phone and we asked him about a time that we could meet with him next and he said: well I'm not doing anything so I'll run over right now. He came over and explained that the previous night he actually fell asleep studying and thus slept through our appointment. The Lesson went great and he was dead set on coming to church but then he didn't. He said that he would explain it all to us on Tuesday when we meet with him.

Oh and this weekend we are getting everything ready for a baptism. This guy has been investigating for more than a year and it is finally time. He's excited, we're excited and everyone in the ward is excited.

I'm out of time but I love ya.
Elder Nelson

May 17th

2011-02-24T15:10:00.000-08:00

Another transfer is over and we got the call yesterday from President Collins but get this… I'm not the one that is leaving. Elder Cubit will be training a new missionary for his last transfer and I will be staying here at Purdue and will be training a new Zone Leader.

As for this week and the last week it has been great, last week more so than this week. The only reason I say that is because it was in the high 40's, 50's and it even got to the 60's. It was a glorious week. Elder Cubit and I also gave a training to our Zone at Zone Conference last week and it went really well. We were given 2 hours and we trained on the fact that we are here to invite people and they commit themselves to do things to come closer to Jesus Christ, and then we follow up with how they are doing. It was awesome! and the Spirit was there testifying of the truthfulness of what was being said. Elder Cubit also gave a special musical number by singing the song: "O Lord My Redeemer." It was powerful and it helped me to reflect and remember who Christ is, and what it was that he has done for me personally. I then thought of how he has done those same things for all of Gods children and that is why I am here, to help them.

This week was full of great things as well. Because of all of the meetings and the crazy weather we had to visit and train at all 4 District meetings in the Zone along with 2 exchanges. For one of them I went with Elder Sterling and visited the Spanish in Frankfort, it was a really cool experience. Since I don't speak spanish he would translate my testimonies into Spanish but other than that I prayed silently for him. In one of our appointments I could kinda follow along because I can recognize the words for things like the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith but as they were talking I had the idea of bearing my testimony of the Book of Mormon being true and of Joseph Smith being a prophet of God. It just stuck in my head and so I finally got an opening and bore my testimony while Elder Sterling translated. Later I decided to bear my testimony of the love of the Bible that I have and the importance that it has in the Restoration. Afterwards we talked about it and they had met with that investigator 11 times and it just hadn’t hit him yet and now it has and it is starting to sink deeper into him. The Holy Ghost is now one of my closest friends and I love him, it amazes me on a constant basis in this work and the fact that we are not doing it alone.

I love you all,
Elder Nelson

Loving my area..

2011-01-04T21:25:00.001-08:00

So this week has been a pretty sweet week. We went on 1 1/2 exchanges. The first of which was in Logansport and it was way fun. I didn't get to see or do anything really special but it was good enough just being there and work in an area that I love. The next day we went to Frankfort and worked there and it was a lot of fun. We did a lot of contacting former investigators and one of them remembered who I was and where I was from. I only met him once on an exchange and that was more than a year ago now. That day was a lot of fun. We got into 2 homes and taught the Restoration and now there are potentials that the new missionaries will be able to go and work with. On Thursday we had President interviews and we decided to train the missionaries as they came. It was a lot of fun and probably one of the fastest days on my mission. Elder Jones and I trained all the missionaries 1 on 1 and each training was about something completely different and yes we even trained the Sister missionaries 1 on 1. We went into the chapel, with Elder Jones training on one end and myself on the other. On Friday we had Zone Leader Council and it was sweet as usual. We were able to meet and exceed our mission baptismal goal for December, we helped 22 people come to Christ. It was a landmark occasion, it was the first time in years that we as a mission have met our goal let alone exceeded it and on top of that we broke the average for baptisms in the months of December. Then we set our new baptismal goal for January at 25, and get this the very first baptism of the year was on the first day of the year and he was in on of the areas in our Zone.
My time is short but I have to tell you about our Sunday. We went to one of the areas that we cover and it was awesome and they love missionary work there. Get this they picked us up for church and then had our whole day planned out with things to do then they fed us and brought us home. I really like that area and the members that belong there.

The new year has started off Amazing and I love you all,
Elder Nelson

Christmas this Week!

2010-12-20T21:29:00.001-08:00

So as for calling the siblings I hope so but I don't know. I am going to try and get approval so tell them to answer a number that they don't recognize. As for when I will be calling, it will probably be around 3:00 my time and 1:00 your time.

I am really excited for Christmas this week. I remember that last Christmas was the best Christmas ever and if our plans all go well this year will be even better. For Christmas Eve we have planned that the whole Zone, 16 Elders and 4 Sisters, will come to Lafayette and we will go caroling around houses for a couple of hours and it will be awesome. We also hope to send a good message to people about missionaries and in turn the Church. After that the Stake President here along with his family will be taking all of us to an all you can eat Indian buffet for dinner. After that we will all be going to his home and having a white elephant gift exchange to finish off the night. Then that night all of the out of town missionaries will be spending the night with a companionship here in Lafayette. Lucky for us there is a set of Sister missionaries in town to be able to have the other Sisters stay the night. Christmas morning we will all have our personal studies as usual and then we will all be having a huge Christmas morning breakfast with Waffles (we got 3 Belgian waffle makers), omelets, sausage, milk, the whole shebang, then afterwards we will be having a Christmas devotional that will be our spiritual high for the day. After that we will play dodge ball followed by watching: Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration and then there will be more board games and volleyball and such things. So I am really excited because it will be a blast and a half.

Other than all of that this week was pretty good. We did a lot of finding this week because it was finals week and no one had any time to meet, and now we don't really have an area because Campus is a ghost town now. We also worked a lot on finding an apartment because this transfer we are getting 20 new missionaries and that means that we are opening 5 new areas in the mission and one of them is in our Zone, and they will Spanish missionaries. It will be awesome for this town of Frankfort because they say that 1/3 of the town is Hispanic and it is a completely untapped area.

So you might be thinking: well what are we going to do for 3 weeks if there is no one to teach. Well we have at least this week covered, we will be going and blitzing areas with other missionaries to help them out and we will also be going to Frankfort and Williamsport because there are no missionaries there and that means that they are all ours.

Well I look forward to talking to you all on Christmas. hopefully I don't forget, hahaha, just kidding.

Merry Christmas!

Elder Nelson

I Haven't Frozen Yet

2010-12-16T10:16:00.000-08:00

No I have not frozen yet but I have gotten close a few times. This last week it was 5 degrees one day and that wasn't counting the wind chill.
This week has had it's ups and downs. I just about killed Elder Jones.... no, that is a lie we get along great, in fact even extraordinarily well. This week has been a little ruff though because this week is finals week and everyone is studying their brains out. So we did a lot of finding this week and to be completely honest I thought this would be a long week but it went by really fast. We were able to talk to a lot of people and found a lot of people with a lot of potential, but it was the same thing for everyone: call me next semester. It is all good though because this way we will just have a lot of people to call in January.

Something really exciting is that we will be getting 20 new missionaries in January and that means there will be 5 closed areas that will have missionaries again. Something really exciting is that one of those areas will be in our Zone and it will be a set of Spanish missionaries.

I think that the best part of this whole week was this morning. I wasn't having a very good morning so I decided to study about the Atonement. I flipped open to the Plan of Salvation lesson in Preach My Gospel were it teaches about the Atonement and I don't have words to really explain it but I will try my best. As I read the Spirit started to work within me. As I read farther and farther He came with more and more power until the testimony of what I already had of Jesus Christ evolved into a greater knowledge of the reality of Jesus Christ and all he sacrificed for us, and how much he loves me, and how much he knows I can do, in order to live with Him and with our Father in Heaven and with all of you.

Alma 7 has so much power behind it as does Luke 2. Read them both and remember Him.

I love you,
Elder Nelson

You'll never guess

2010-12-07T13:47:00.001-08:00

You will never guess who my new companion is. It's Elder Eric Jones he was one of the river guides with Brett and I in Jackson Hole. We've been talking river stories for the past week straight and now we will have even more stories to talk about later.

As for what I need. To be honest I don't really need anything. Wait that was a lie. We are planning to get together as a Zone on Christmas and we are going to do a white elephant exchange and I was wondering if you could send me a copy of that story that Dad reads for passing presents around. You know the left, left, left, right, left thing. As for CD's the answer is yes. We can listen to Mormon Tabernacle Choir, oh and that song that they sang for the Christmas devotional with the organ and the orchestra was amazing. We are also allowed to listen to any other artists that sing church hymns and that would be awesome to have but there is also the new Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie that just got released on DVD. I think that it is titled: The Doctrine and Covenants or something like that, it is a set.
So I don't care who you are but that story about Brian is pretty funny. Let him know that it doesn't matter how long it takes thought what matters is that you get it eventually, right, I think that is how it works doesn't it?
So you mentioned cold weather and you definitely hit it right on the head. It was 8 degrees this morning but it is all good because I think that I am ready for it but I guess it wouldn't , matter whether I'm ready or not because it is here.

So as for a quick run down of the week. It snowed for the first time this winter. Also we had Zone Leader Council this week and we talked about a lot of stuff. We set our baptismal goal for the month at 21. It has been interesting at how the missionary work is becoming more effective, even though our month goals have been going down our percentage of baptized investigators with a date is going up. Last month there were 22 people that got baptized and that was 60% of the baptismal dates set and if we meet our goal this month we will have baptized 73% of those who set a date. It really excites me for all of these miracles to happen and it really is a blessing to have a zone leaders eye view of it all. The Lords work really is going forward and more people are gaining a stronger conversion so that they can endure to the end.

I will admit though that it has been hard this week. When we set our Zone baptismal goal of three we had 6 investigators with a baptismal date in our zone and after last night we now only have 1. Going through trials is hard and they make you question yourself but at the same time we must have faith that everything will work out and that the Lord knows what to do.

Well that is all I got for now but thank you for everything. I love you all and have a wonderful week.
Elder Nelson

Thanksgiving was awesome!!!

2010-12-02T13:14:00.001-08:00

That is Awesome that everyone had a good time for Thanksgiving but the question is: did the guy's get anything?

Believe it or not but another transfer is done already. It was unreal at how fast it flew by and then we got transfer calls this morning and it turns out that Elder Hurst is needed somewhere else and I will be staying right were I am. It blows my mind how every mission is different and it is different because the Lord has different errands for us all. For example starting on Wednesday Elder Hurst will be with his 9th companion and I will be with my 15th counting the MTC. That doesn't matter though because I wouldn't trade my mission for anything.

As for the week, it was a good one. Towards the beginning of the week we met with one of our investigators that I would define as too intellectual for his own good, if you know what I mean, he is very bible leaned. This lesson was unlike any other lesson we have had with him before. I say this because usually he is very confident in what he says and thinks ahead of what to say, not in a bashing sort of way but just an annoying one. Anyway, this time we confounded him. He was unsure about what he was saying and realized that he didn't know everything and it was all because of inspired questions. I love that as missionaries we have no idea what people think or feel or even need but that we are armed with someone that does, the Holy Ghost. In the MTC Elder Bednar spoke to us about this same principle of being led by the Spirit and I reflect on it often. He said something that I hope to never forget and it was this: "Be good boys and girls, keep the commandments, honor your covenants and you will be led by the spirit." I have really been able to learn that principle throughout my mission and at the same time the Lord continues to teach it to me because I keep forgetting it. As a matter of fact both Elder Hurst and I were both rebuked about not leaning on the Lord and trusting him always. I don't know how it happened but somehow during my personal studies I got to Mosiah chapter 2. As I studied verses 20-24 really grabbed my attention to the point that I felt horrible that I had been neglecting Gods hand to some degree and then after our studies I found out that Elder Hurst and I both studied the same exact thing, even down to the exact verses that spoke to us.

As for our Thanksgiving it was AWESOME! We had dinner with a member of the bishopric and it was amazing plus extremely filling to the point that we had no desire to even think of food but that still wasn't the best part. What I loved the most was that we were able to go and have two service projects. One of them was a mission given to us from the Stake President and it was to organize and run a missionary can food drive and we only had 3 days to do it all. I gotta admit it was a little hard, especially with our limitations that we have as missionaries but it was a great turn out none the less and we think that we were able to gain a lot of trust from the Stake President by doing so. As for the other service it was at a church that was doing a big turkey dinner for the city and we went and helped them set up and take everything down and we think that we were able to leave a very strong impression on them of us.

Well I'm out of time. Love,
Elder Nelson

Soon it will get really cold...

2010-11-24T18:35:00.001-08:00

I hope that we have a good Thanksgiving as well. In every area in the mission there are some up sides and some down sides and Elder Hurst and I are starting to see the down sides of serving on campus for this time of year. Biggest of them all is that at a University there is something called Thanksgiving Break and then the big nasty one is called winter break. It is really hard to do missionary work if there is literally not a single person in your area to teach. We were able to figure everything out for this Thanksgiving break because it is only for a few days. Actually we will be going on exchanges with missionaries in their areas but I don't think that it will work for winter break because it is 3 weeks long instead of 3 days.

As for the weather. It has been around 40ish for the past week or so and surprisingly enough I am perfectly comfortable with that, but soon it will get really cold and that will be hard.

So there really isn't all that much to talk about this week. I do have to report that people for the most part are flakes. I say that because almost every appointment for the last 3-4 days has fallen through. For example we were waiting at the institute (we always teach there) and this guy has not shown up yet so, we call him. He tells us that he is actually getting ready to go home early because he could to which is understandable. What happened next is what confuses me, we asked when he had found out he was going to make an early trip home, ,he said he had known for a couple of hours. This guy was just going to let us sit there waiting for him while in the mean time he was headed home, I wonder why it is so hard for people to be honest. I'm sorry but this was the case for up to 13 lesson appointments in the past week, and I have learned a lot about patients and diligence but still, it is really easy to send a text or give someone a call.

Over the past week Elder Hurst and I have been talking about all of the none gospel related lessons we have learned on our missions and then we realized that they are related to the gospel in some way, shape or form. I feel that the Lord has taught me a great deal and has helped me be right in the middle of the refining fire but it is really interesting that once you burn off most of the big stuff you work on all of the small stuff.

I really have learned a lot and you have had a big part in helping me get to where I am now. Thank you. Love,
Elder Nelson

Awesome Zone Conference

2010-11-16T13:43:00.000-08:00

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

Out of Love

2010-11-11T15:41:00.001-08:00

Mom, I love you a lot and out of love I would like to point something out to you again: you don't answer my questions. I really would like to know if Kelly's brother is still going to Purdue and if so what is his name?

Now this might sound weird but one of the highlights of my week was that I found out that I'm a Zone Leader. I know, I know but don't judge me yet. I know that I have been a Zone Leader for a couple of weeks now but it didn't hit me until this week. It was something that I knew in my head but not in my heart. This was an answered prayer that I have been asking for ever since I got the call from President Collins and my answer came to me at something called Zone Leader Council. This council takes place on the first Friday of every month. It is where President and Sister Collins, the Assistants and all 16 of the Zone Leaders in the Mission meet to discuss the challenges of the mission as a whole, and set goals to solve those problems. It was amazing. It will be counted among one of the most powerful experiences in my life. The Spirit was thick and very much there. As I walked into the mission home and saw all these amazing leaders and spiritual giants I had feelings of unworthiness, to be counted among them was never something that I thought of ever happening. As we started, the answer to my prayer was slowly coming into focus, and then as I stood in front of them all, leading the recitation of the scriptures I felt equal. I now know that I have been called and counted worthy to serve in an additional way to help build Gods Kingdom, and it is an honor. Ever since then I feel that I have grown exponentially in every aspect of the work. Elder Hurst and I have even recognized that our teaching has become even better than what it was.

As for another amazing highlight I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with one of the District Leaders in our Zone and it was in one of my old areas: Logansport. It was so much fun and we got to see many miracles. In fact one hit home big time for me. We also trained at their District Meeting and along the way there I had been thinking about some of my old investigators. As we started the meeting we were talking about our stewardships (investigators that need our prayers) and one of the names on the list for the Logansport Elders sounded familiar. As they went on and explained who he was and what to pray about it sounded more and more familiar. They said that he had been taught before and that he believed that those missionaries were truly sent from God. That is when I asked: Does he live right on the Wabash river and they said that he did. Those missionaries were Elder Ashton and I, all of a sudden I got really excited. It turns out that we had stopped by because we were passing through the area just to say hi and what I didn't know until now is that at that very moment was the first time that he had contemplated the thought of suicide without thinking of what would happen to his kids. If that isn't the workings of God I don't know what is.

Also on our exchange we had planned to teach a potential and we ended up teaching him and his whole family which totaled 7, and all of them above 15ish and all are new investigators.

As you could tell we had an amazing week and I don't even have enough time to tell you about the 5 new Chinese investigators we have.

Love,
Elder Nelson

Having a BLAST here as Zone Leader..

2010-11-02T20:44:00.001-07:00

?- 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

Working on Purdue Campus

2010-10-27T21:27:00.001-07:00

As for the new information: 2330 Northwestern Ave. Apt. #6, West Lafayette, IN, 47906

It is really exciting being here because my new companion is Elder Hurst. We were in the MTC together and it has been a blast. Our zone is the Lafayette Zone and it is the biggest in the mission with a total of 4 districts and 16 missionaries. Something else that is exciting is that my first and second areas are in our zone. Our immediate area that we work is Purdue University Campus, and we cover the YSA Ward. It is so exciting because I had come here on exchanges before and now I get to serve here. This ward is by far the most missionary oriented I have ever been in. I think it helps that 90% of the guys are RM's. It is really different working here compared to other areas. We never go tracting but instead we just walk up to people on campus and just start talking to them. One thing that takes some getting used to is called: question of the day. We have this poster board with different pictures of Christ and of Joseph Smith and then a whiteboard that we write a question on like: Why are there so many Church's? Then we just call people out as they are walking by and talk to them about the question. It was really weird for the first time but now it is a lot of fun. Another thing that is different is that there is a lot more stuff to do. We actually cover the 2 closed areas that are in our area as well and on top of that I have all of the Zone Leader stuff but it isn't too bad. I really love being on campus for many reasons, one of which is because everyone here is between 19-30's and they aren't set in their ways. Also everyone is away from the influence of their parents so they can make their own decisions. I have noticed that I have to get a lot better when I teach because there are a lot of students from other countries like China, India, Africa, etc. and most of which aren't Christian, so it puts a really nice spin on things. a few really exciting things is that we now have set 2 baptismal dates and one of them was atheist and the other was Hindu.

Well that is all I got for now. Love ya,

3 Amigos are now no more

2010-10-20T13:45:00.001-07:00

I just learned some unfortunate news that Elder Bowen (my 2nd Greene) had to go home because he started passing out a lot and they couldn't figure out why. Also we got transfer calls this morning and the three amigo's are now no more. Elder Jones is being transferred, Elder Goodwin is staying in Zionsville and I am being transferred as well. So they will be putting 2 brand new missionaries into Carmel. Now there was something a little different about the call I got, it was President Collins and I have been assigned to serve as a Zone Leader. It was not what I was expecting considering my track record of time in areas and I really wanted to train again but it says a lot about the Lord. He has a plan and he has errands for us to do and once we do those things he gives us another. He puts us in the exact place that he needs us.

As for everything else it is going good and I'm having a blast.
love, Elder Nelson

This week has been loaded with tons of cool stuff!

2010-10-12T19:57:00.001-07:00

This week has been loaded with tons of cool stuff.

It all started with the 2 day Leadership training meeting we had this week were I got My MTC companion--Elder Felton as my temporary companion and also we had special guest trainers. There were two guys that both just happened to be bishops in their home wards and they came from Salt Lake. Both of them work for the church on the missionary council. One is the training director of the MTC and the other is an infield missionary trainer both of which were on the team who helped put Preach My Gospel together, they also helped a lot with the new Fundamentals of Preach My Gospel- Teaching Skills AKA the Simplified Curriculum. I learned a lot and it was an amazing spiritual experience. One of the cool things I learned is that Preach My Gospel is one of the most reviewed publications that the church has ever made. They said that most books and things are just looked over by a few apostles but the whole Quorum of the 12 and the First Presidency were heavily involved with the making of PMG and that there are many words, sentences and paragraphs on each and every page that were direct revelation from God to one of his Apostles.

Immediately following this training I got back with my normal companions and we went and taught a first lesson to an older man and wife. The difference between it and other lessons is that we taught the Doctrine of Christ throughout the whole lesson and they knew exactly why we were there. The Holy Ghost was there with great power and we committed them both to baptism. Unfortunately they then told us that they are snow birds and would be going to Florida for 7 months in a few days but we made sure to get their information so the missionaries there can find, teach and baptize them.

I'm out of time. Love,
Elder Nelson

Temple Announcement

2010-10-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

As for the new temple announced: everyone is ecstatic, including me. So you might already know but the prophet is the only one that decides on when and where a temple will be built. In this stake the Stake President gave a commitment this last stake conference of indexing 1,000,000 names before the end of the year and I heard that they hit the goal just before conference. Something that I have been saying for a while is that "when they build a temple in Indiana I will come back to see it dedicated." and now I guess I will be visiting back a lot sooner that what I thought.

So I have some good news. Elder Weaver was sent home on this last Friday and the reason is good, because he is going to get a lot of professional help and he is planning on coming back out. So that means that I am now in a threesome with the Elders that are assigned the Zionsville Branch (they were already in my district) and we are covering both areas until transfers in 2 1/2 weeks. I will say this: it is something that is also inspired. We all believe that this threesome is exactly what our areas need to get a jump start. Now I will also be able to get to know these Elders much better and be able to fulfill my calling much better; which is to help them become better missionaries. My new companions names are: Elder D. Jones and Elder Goodwin who are both from Utah but Elder Goodwin lived mostly in California. It has been really fun trying to get everything figured out because we are going back and forth between apartments and living out of bags plus we have to balance our time between the 2 areas but it hasn't really been all that bad, just different.

So General Conference was awesome as usual and just as usual there seemed to be a handful of certain focus points. One of them was that of Agency. I loved how they pointed out so plainly that Satan has no power over us unless we choose to give it to him and even when that happens we cannot blame anyone for anything that we do. It is always our choice. Another one that they pushed a lot, as usual, was missionary work and President Monson just laid it out straight: go on a mission whether young or old. Also I really liked how they talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and how he is literally a member of the God Head and that he should not be taken lightly and that we need to learn how to trust God.

There are a few really cool things that happened that got me ready for this. One thing is that I have my miracle journal that I am really pushing myself to keep up on and part of what was said on Sunday was that we must be grateful of what the Lord gives us. Also on Sunday morning in my studies I was learning all about Trusting God and then they emphasized it in conference as well.

Well I love you all a lot,
Elder Nelson

"Love all my Companions like Brothers"

2010-09-28T20:34:00.001-07:00

I'm so happy that everything is ok and I know that Grandpa is happy right now.

My new address is: 824 Winter Court, Carmel, IN, 46032

My new companion is Elder Weaver and he is an amazing person, you just have to look really hard and get it out of him. We are doing good together I think. It is really interesting that you say that you said you had a lot of troubled companions. It is interesting because in an interview President Collins told me that missionaries like me don't get good companions very often. I will say this I have learned to love all of my companions like brothers but, most of them have been these types of missionaries. It has been really interesting to be able to look back and see how the Lord works: line upon line. I have learned and continue to learn that the Lord has a plan and we all have a part of that plan. He also will never give us anything that we cannot handle. If I had Elder Weaver as a companion a year ago (not possible he wasn't out yet) I would not have been able to handle it and I could possibly have just given up. But this week I have been thinking a lot about different Christ like attributes such as charity or humility but specifically patience. As I have pondered and studied I have learned this: patience is a really hard thing to have. You are now probably thinking about how I possibly could have missed this concept for this long but hear me out first. I've learned that there is a lot more to patience than just not losing your temper, the Lord teaches us line upon line. He starts us off with one thing at a time and then once we have a good form of patience to work with, then we move to something else and he helps us with that until we're ready to move on again. As we are learning new things the Lord is using those things to build upon other testimonies that we have gained previously. I'm sorry if none of this makes sense but it is truly amazing how the Lord truly is the master builder. He knows exactly what order things have to happen and that it is different for everyone.

Something else that is cool. I have always felt comfortable in any LDS church building that I have been in, it feels like home. In this new area it has felt even more like home than anywhere else and I have been trying to figure out why and then it hit me while we were at district meeting: it is a clone building of the 18th St. building at home, same floor plan, same carpet, same colors, couches everything is exactly the same.

Well that is all I got for the time I have.
Love
Elder Nelson

Big Suprise

2010-09-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

As for this week it has been pretty crazy for me to. So there I was eating my breakfast on Tuesday(Being here in Carmel for all of 6 days) and the phone rings and it is President Collins which is a big surprise and then he gives us an even bigger surprise by telling us that Elder Jorgensen(My companion) was to be emergency transferred at noon that day because there was an Elder that needed to be near LDS Family Services. So now here I am with another companion and his name is Elder Weaver and he is from Vernal, UT but he was raised in Idaho Falls till he was 16 and then moved. So Elder Jorgensen is like a brother to me and I know that this emergency transfer was all in the Lords hands but the one thing that I was worried about it that I did not know the area at all and hardly any of the members, but luckily I did get to meet all of our investigators, so at least I had something under my belt.

Now for the miracle. I love the Lord so much and it still amazes me at what he can do. Before I even met Elder Weaver I said a prayer and asked for all the help that I could get, and my Father in Heaven really has given alot. For one he has helped me stay calm and have courage and then he has brought alot to memory. Still though even greater than that is that I have been able to learn things such as: the area, members names, etc. at a level that I know that I could not and have not been able to do by myself. The Lord knows so much about me, in allk reality he knows more than I do even and because of that I have seen that the chalenges that he gives me are to teach me about myself, to teach me of what I am capable of, and to teach me of what I can become. A sign of success is showing progress and that is exactly what has been happening to my testimony. It has come a long way in this short amount of time and the awesome thing is that the only part that I had and have in it is the desire to become better and then the Lord does the rest.

Thanks for all that you have all done for me and for all your prayers, and keep praying because I'll take all the help that I can get. Love ya.

Elder Nelson
P.S.-Elder Eric Jones came out with me and we were river guides together and now he is one of my Zone Leaders, we finally can talk river, hahaha.
P.S.S- There is a young family that just moved into the area and the husband used to run the river as a guide to and we just went off on it for a good 10-15 minutes before Elders Quarm started.

Just Awesome as Usual

2010-09-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

It is so true that miracles happen everywhere and they have been happening here as well with great abundance. I am now in the big city, and it is called Carmel, it is the equivalent to Scottsdale, you know like how everyone is loaded beyond reason, but I have already learned to love it so much and it is the 2nd ward that I have served in. So I am still a district leader and my new companion is named Elder Jorgensen and he also is from the SLC and lives like 10 minutes from Grandma's, he is the man! and I love him like a brother already. The district that I'm in is a little bigger than the last one instead of 2 areas there are 3, and it is an area of Elders and then an area of Sisters. I must say this-- that it is truly a pleasure to be able to serve around such amazing missionaries, we haven't had a district meeting yet but I have already learned so much. I am especially impressed in the Sisters they just go and make miracles happen and one of them is a Greene too.

So… the area is Awesome, the Ward is Awesome, my companion is Awesome, my district is Awesome and all is going just Awesome as usual.

I Love you and I'm working hard and remembering who I am,
Elder Nelson

Assigned to a new Area...

2010-09-12T10:18:00.001-07:00

I got the big call this morning and I will be getting assigned to a new area and companion tomorrow. It is one of those things that I'm am really excited about but at the same time I don’t want to go and then all wrapped together I have no regrets and I know that the Lord has another work for me to do in another place.

This week was awesome as usual and I learned a lot. One of the miracles that I saw this week was while I was on an exchange with Elder Nash. Just really quick I have to say that this exchange started off really slow because our interests in life are almost completely different and it looked like it was going to be a long day but then it hit me like a freight train: we are both missionaries and called of the same God so we started to talk about the gospel and that is when it took off. So now the miracle: we were in Kendleville and just got done with service and the next thing to do was tracking but then we got this call from a Less Active member who wanted a blessing long story short, all the plans for the day got white washed and moved around. So after our break we had planned to go and tract that street that we were going to earlier. No one is even answering the door and then this door opens to us and we are invited in before we even say anything, so at this point I am super excited, then we get to talking and this man is a preacher at a local non-denominational church and the missionaries used to come over all the time just a few years ago and then they stopped. Then 5 minutes after we sit down his wife shows up, having just finished working, and she is overjoyed to see us as well. We start with a prayer and the their questions start coming and then Elder Nash starts us off on ! Nephi 10 and we read it with them, Elder Nash handled it very well, and at the end of it all there are still questions but the wife says that it feels and sounds like the Bible does, and she is right of course. At the end of it all the husband says that he doesn't have a desire to read the Book of Mormon and then through out some excuses involving time and being a preacher and all these types of things, in the mean time I'm just thinking about how since being a missionary I have learned that there is always time to be made but I kept that to myself. As for the wife she said this, she is having knee replacement surgery and wouldn't be able to meet for at least a month, BUT, she was going to take the Book of Mormon with her while she is in the nursing home and she will read it there. i am so happy that we got to change our schedule because if not we might of met him but she would have been at work still and you could just see the Spirit working within her, it was a blessing to witness.

Another miracle that myself and Elder Marchant saw while tracting was on last Friday. Everything was perfectly in place, you know the wonderful liquid sunshine was coming down upon us, no one was answering the door, all the good stuff. Then we see that the next door has a covered porch which looked very nice and dry and this wonderful lady opens the door and she is busy cleaning up her great grand daughters mess but quickly we mention the Book of Mormon and she tells us that she has one sitting next to her bed, and this doesn't happen to often so we ask if she has read any of it and she answers us by saying : yes i try and read it every night, and this is when our jaws just dropped to the ground, our mental jaws of coarse.

So something that I loved was that yesterday we got to help a Less Active Part Member family dig a 50 foot trench and it was AWESOME to be able to get a shovel into my hands again.
love ya,
Elder Nelson

"Miracle After Miracle"

2010-09-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

Alright so not to beat around the bush or anything but this week was jam packed with miracle after miracle and it was all because of the Simplified Curriculum.
1. We went to teach this potential investigator with a member for the first time and we get there and sit down and she starts to tell us that she didn't read the pamphlet we gave her, and that she was going to stick with her church (7th Day Adventist). It went silent and we sat there and then we started to testify about the Book of Mormon and how it is true and that there is ONLY one way to find out if it is true and that is to read it, pray about it, and especially have a sincere heart and real intent and then and only then will someone get an answer. After we finished saying this we asked her again if she would have the faith to try and she said: Yes, and afterwards we proceeded to have a powerful lesson. What I loved so much is that had this happened and I had not known of the Simplified Curriculum I don't know what would have happened and she very well could have been lost as an investigator.
2. We had planned first thing in the morning to go and to try a potential investigator and as we were walking we passing by Trine University. I know that there is a member that works there who is from Sturges, Michigan who is trying to help us be able to proselyte on campus there. So I had this thought to go and see if he was there because school just started again. So we get to his office and he isn't there but as we were walking back down the stairs he was coming up so he told us to turn around and go back to his office so we could talk. As we are in his office he told us that he is going in to be tested for Prostate Cancer and he is a newly wed and as most people do, he wants to live a little longer, so he asks us for a blessing. He received a beautiful blessing. The blessing was amazing but here is the small simple miracle that made this all possible: after the blessing he told us that on his drive he had been praying for help, guidance, and comfort and that as he was parking his car he saw us walking in the front doors of his office building. I love how it really is "by small and simple thing that great things shall come to pass".
3. We had a Less Active that we needed to find and the problem was that he lived in an apartment complex and we didn't have a phone number or a apartment address to go off of so we said a prayer and we started to do what we do best: tract. We tried one building and it didn't feel right so we went to another and the first door that we knocked on was him and he was happy to see us. We found out that all he needed was a ride to church and he could come but he had an electric chair so we went back the next day and someone had given him a walker out of nowhere.
love Elder Nelson

Momentous

2010-08-27T18:06:00.001-07:00

That is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(Ashlee’s pregnant) I'm so excited It looks like I will have a lot of new little ones to get to know when I come home and I'll have to get to know the old ones all over again. I really hope that Brian's big name is as good as he has made it out to be.
Speaking of names this week I was studying out of Jesus the Christ and it was talking about how important names really are especially the ones that the Lord gives. For example when Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter it was because Peter literally means: the Rock, now that is something to think about. Also, Christ gave James and John a title too, but I can't remember it or pronounce it for that matter but it means: the sons of thunder. So basically I’ve got 3 boys names.
So you can probably already guess what my week was like and you are probably right, it was Momentous. So this week was a little different than most weeks but now that I think about it there is no such thing as a normal week as a missionary. Anyways, this week unfortunately Elder Marchant was sick from Tuesday evening through Friday which really was unfortunate especially for Elder Marchant because his mission has been really nothing except for trial after trial but he is taking it all like a champ and is just ready for the miracle headed his way.
As for me this gave me an ample amount of time to have an intensive study of the scriptures, Jesus the Christ and of the Simplified Curriculum. During this period of time I was able to learn a great deal on all levels but what was really happening was that I had opened my mind and my heart to be taught, the Holy Ghost took this opening to do so and in the process I was greatly edified. I wasn't taught a lot of complex doctrines but instead I was taught of the simple and precious principles that are the foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I learned a lot about myself during this time as well and it is this: I have a purpose, and this purpose is not to have a great knowledge of the scriptures or of the doctrine, I know this because I can remember very little of the words I studied so intently. My purpose is to be a testimony, it is to have a testimony of the principles that are the structure of the gospel, and in this I am proud.

At Zone Conference with Elder and Sister Golden as our guests I learned that I am important and that there is nothing that can replace a worthy vessel. I also learned it is the small and simple things that matter, and as long as I am a worthy vessel then there is nothing to worry about.

I love the Lord, and I know, without a doubt that he loves me, and that it is not only me that he loves but it is all of our brothers and sisters. Being able to be involved in this work is a privilege indeed.

I love you all and thank you for praying for me and i know that the Lord looks over you too,
Elder Nelson

This week had it's ups and downs...

2010-08-17T18:01:00.000-07:00

So you all remember how I was with Elder Bowen? Well that is no more unfortunately. Last Monday right after we got home from shopping we got a call from President Collins and he told us that we would be involved in an emergency transfer and that Elder Bowen would be leaving and reopening an area with a companion that has been out only 1 transfer longer than him. This area is called Peru and I remember it being closed 1 year ago. So the assistants came and took him from me and gave me my new companion: Elder Marchant. Elder Marchant has had a very interesting mission experience, OK so he is from Las Vegas born and raised and then was sent to Chile, Concepcion for his mission and he was only there for like 6 weeks and then had to go home for medical leave because his growth plates haven't fused yet so his knees just killed because of walking soo much. So then he was at home for like 2 months and was never released, so they sent him out here to Indiana Spanish speaking. Now there were a few reasons why he came with me but the main one was that while he was home he lost a lot of the language and then he just couldn't pick it up again out here so they put him with me. So it stinks that Elder Bowen had to leave but it's not that bad because my new comp is good too. Also now we can't bike because the doctor told Elder Marchant to stay away from it.

So this week had it's ups and downs and interesting things too. On Tuesday Elder Marchant came, on Wednesday we had district meeting that went extremely well and then I had the first exchange with Elder Deardeuff and sent Elder Marchant with Elder Nash in Kendleville. The exchange went very well and I found out that Elder Deardeuff is a genius, he said that the last time he took a IQ test was when he was like 17 and it was in the mid 150's, plus he finished high school at 14 and he could have a doctorate right now if he actually enrolled in the colleges he visited. He’s on his 34th time reading the Book of Mormon, pretty crazy huh, but at the same time he is one of the humblest people I know.
love ya all
Elder Nelson

Tanner's testimony

2010-08-09T17:44:00.001-07:00

There is a missionary here and his name is Elder Busby and we wanna find out if we’re related, he's from Utah but has some family in Arizona, he said that his family is from England and his great grandfathers name is: George Melvin Busby.

As for the district leader duties it's really not that hard but I am having a little hard time with one thing, and that is how I'm gonna be able train at district meetings. It's not the actual getting up and doing it but it's the material I have to do it on. The reason is because it is on something completely new that the Brethren just created: the Simplified Curriculum, it isn't replacing Preach My Gospel, Preach My Gospel is the sleigh that has all the toys, and the Simplified Curriculum is the 8 reindeer that deliver it to all the boys and girls. In fact this week was loaded with awesome stuff and a landmark event. This week all of the District Leaders, Zone Leaders, and new Trainers went to a 3 day training conference where we were trained by the Assistants and President Collins on the new way missionary work is going to be done. I will say this much: the days of Aug 4-6 at this conference were the most spiritually powerful days in my life. In this extremely short amount of time the Holy Ghost taught us to trust him and it was done with great power, he made himself known to us and gave myself an experience that I will never be able or would want to deny. At the beginning we were all promised that the Holy Ghost would be with us for those 3 days and he was. At the end we were promised that by the time we sang the closing hymn : "The Spirit of God" the fire would burn, and it did. It did it with such power, such warmth, such peace, and such assuredly. I know that the Simplified Curriculum is the next level of missionary work that we have been waiting for, I know that it is revelation given to a prophet from God, I know that the gospel will flood the earth like no other because of administering to the one, and I know that the Holy Ghost is a member of the God head as is Jesus Christ, and God the Father, and I know that "the standard of truth has been erected, no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing, persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, army's may assemble and calamity may defame but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, until it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime swept every country and sounded in every ear, til the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done."

Trust God. Be strong. Do missionary work. All else will be taken care of. I love you all and this is what i know to be of God.
Elder Nelson

We got moved into our new apartment....

2010-08-03T11:55:00.001-07:00

So first off you are probably wondering why I'm writing home today and that is that P-Day has been changed to Monday from now on.

We got moved into our new apartment and it is awesome. I can easily say that it is my favorite apartment so far. I will say this though, in my experienced history of helping other people move I have learned to really like it. I see it as a larger scale 3D tetris game but after this move I have learned that I greatly dislike packing up and moving, it takes forever but I survived so it's all good.

So this week has been full of a lot of interesting, fun and companionship bonding times. Earlier in the week we talked to an apostate member and he was a really nice guy but he was telling us that only his parents are active members and that all the 8 children are not affiliated with anything. It just tears my heart out to talk to people like this because he says that he has read the Book of Mormon and the Bible and has said that neither were true. He went on to say that he believes that there is a God but that he sees him as a hands off kind of guy. I know that it is just our job to be a voice of warning but for me it still hurts when we talk to someone like that especially a member.
A funny thing that happened that day was that right before we saw this guy we were riding our bikes and we were going up a little hill so I shifted down and stood up to pedal, well at that instant when I put all of my weight on one of my pedals the chain slipped and down I went and I must say that it was pretty funny and it especially made Elder Bowens day. hahaha.

On this same street, later on in the week we were tracting and we knock on this one door and as it opens the man in side says: " O look it's the Elders!" and he invited us right in . Well love it and hate it when this happens because: someone really wants to talk to us which is good but I hate it because we never know who these people are but they know who we are so it's all talking by faith. Anyways we have a short lesson with him and we find out that he used to live in Alaska some 25 years ago and that he always wanted to be a mountain man so he went out to live in the bush. He told us that when he was up there he had a friend that is a very strong member of the church and he was given the Book of Mormon to read and so he did. In fact he decided that he was going to fast until he finished the Book of Mormon cover to cover and he said that this probably made him read faster too, hahaha, and he did it in 2 1/2 days. as he was saying this we were both in awe. Unfortunately he said that he didn't get an answer but he said also that he did take all the missionary discussions, but he didn't think that it is bad but he doesn't know that it is true either. We talked to him about how God doesn't always answer roght away but that it takes time and a lot of faith plus being in tuned to recognize the answer when it does come, so we gave him a Book of Mormon and he said that he would read it again and that also he was interested in the foot notes so he is going to look every one up, I think that it might take him a good amount of time if you ask me but we did also set up another time to meet so I'm excited.

Another miracle that we saw was that while we were tracting right after getting done talking to some very rude people we found an inactive member and she has been inactive for a very long time but she did tell us that during her life whenever she had been going through a tough time and didn't think she could make it, on the edge of giving in she would turn around and every time see a set of missionaries walking and it would give her that strength to fight harder, and then she saw us and has been wanting to come back for a while and she has also wanted a Book of Mormon again so we were led to her.

Times up remind me to tell you about another bike crash,
love ya

I Have Been Called as District Leader

2010-07-28T12:10:00.001-07:00

So we got transfer calls this morning and it was President Collins on the phone. I have been called as a district leader and luckily me and Elder Bowen get to stay together through another transfer. Also this Saturday we are gonna be moving to a new house so the new address is: 620 E. Broad St., Angola, IN, 46703.

So as for this week it has been AWESOME! A lot of really cool stuff has happened this week. So for the past two Sundays in a row we have had visitors at church that have just been passing through and I strongly believe that they were all sent here to help inspire the branch to do more missionary work. For instance last week this Hispanic truck driver from Mesa, Arizona visited and during priesthood he got up and shared a missionary moment. He said that he has been away from home for 45 days, He said that everywhere he goes he takes Book of Mormon pass along cards and he keeps them in his from pocket and in the past 10 years he has given out 19,000 cards to people and gives them to everyone and just tells them that it is from God and is something that will bless their lives. He went on to say that by doing this he has got on average of 24 families a year to be taught by the missionaries and in the year of 9/11 he found 43 families. This man inspired me so much and also reminded me that missionary work is easy.

As for the person that came this week there was a miracle in how they didn't get lost. So on Saturday night we had an extra 15 minutes before a meal appointment (It was the best steak dinner I have had in along time) and we are driving when we see Brother Wilson standing on the corner by his house so we decided to go say hi and see what he's doing. Well as we talk to him we find out that he is waiting for a family that is passing through town that are going to be staying the weekend with the Wilson's. The catch is that this family didn't know were the Wilson's lived and that is why he was on the corner. A few minutes later this mini-van comes down the street and she sees us doing what we do best, and that is standing out like a lit candle in the dark, and it is the family that we were waiting for. So it turns out that this family is doing a fund raiser for the Shriner's hospital because their 3 kids were all taken care of there. Bro. White is riding his bike from the Oregon coast to the New York coast while his wife and two of his daughters are driving along side of him and they are giving inspirational talks along the way. Before this year Brother White never rode bikes until he started to train for this.

I love how both of these normal people have made such a huge impact on everything around them and it goes to show what the gospel of Jesus Christ is really capable of when it is fully embraced.

Also something completely spontaneous that we did this week was this pioneer day celebration called the Vermont Settlement up in one of the towns that we cover and we found out about it on Friday and then we had a booth in it. Unfortunately we didn't get any investigators from it but I think that we planted a lot of seeds.
love ya,
Elder Nelson

New investigator

2010-07-14T09:58:00.001-07:00

So this week has been AWESOME Elder Bowen and I are like brothers now and it has been a non-stop laugh and spiritual powwow this week. For instance yesterday we almost died because we were helping this member take the siding off her house and we got to the AC cable box and this ladies brother was the one telling us what to do, and he told us that he didn't want us messing with it cause it was 220 wire and it would make our mission rapidly end. So he told us to go around it and that he would take care of it. So, we did but the plan was to cut the sheet metal around it but we found out that the installers did 2 smart things: 1)they only put screws into the sheet metal and not any wood 2) they put one of the screws right through the middle of the 220 wire and right as we saw it-- this little time bomb went off and made this pretty big arc. Now the good thing about this is that no one got injured and also, because we did that it didn't go off with insulation all around it and potentially burning the house down.

Also this week we got a new investigator and she is pretty awesome. She was a referral that we got from Salt Lake because she and her friend went a 2 week road trip and went 5,000 miles and covered 15 states and one of the places that they stopped at was in Utah at Cove Fort, and was interested in learning more about what we believe. We were able to have a solid lesson with her but the member that came with us talked a little bit too much, hahaha, but he still helped out alot.
Also we are getting in good biking shape because we went to Fremont twice this week and that is a 10 mile trip both ways and it's only getting easier.

So I'm short on time but I love you all,
Elder Nelson

P.S.- wasn't there a reunion last summer?

We had a zone conference

2010-07-06T10:25:00.001-07:00

So before I start about this week I have to tell you about what happened last week that I didn't tell you about. there was a huge storm and a tornado warning and that means that a tornado was sighted. We got a call from our Branch mission leader who told us that he talked to the emergency preparedness specialist and he actually does preparedness stuff for a living and they told us that we needed to go to the church because we have mold in our basement, so we did. I can now say that I have slept the night at the church and the storm was just crazy but we were completely safe in the mothers lounge.

So as for the week at hand, let me say this much: a lot happened. One of the things that we are the most proud of was that we biked to this town of Fremont and when we started it didn't look too good but the next thing we knew was that we were rolling into town. We also had Zone Conference this week with President and Sister Collins. Leading up to it I had the mixed feelings of excitement and also being very nervous. President and Sister Collins are amazing and they blew away all my expectations, the funny thing is that they said that we blew them away as well. Sister Collins said that in Utah they went to a zone conference and they said that it looked like they were having an ugly tie contest and that when they saw us and saw how we acted it blew them away. You should have seen the smile on their faces as we sang and as we recited our scriptures. Anyways they are awesome and they also brought a lot of changes as well that will take a lot of work to get used to but I definitely know that it will make the work move forward more than it ever has before. I know this because at the mission president training seminar the whole 1st Presidency, the quorum of the 12, the 7 presidents of the 70 and the residing bishopric were all there and they expressed that they all keep us as missionaries in their hearts always and that they worry for us.

So some other fun facts are that we went to contact this referral that we got form SLC but they weren't there but as we turned around this little Ford Ranger with a flat tire rolls up in front of the house so we go and see if he needs some help. Well long story short it turns out this kid just started auto school and we ended up changing his tire, and yes I had to get down and dirty in my white shirt and tie but its all good because my shirt got a little dirty but a miracle happened and that is that my tie didn't have even a little dust on it. So we did our calling and shared a short message about the Book of Mormon with him and gave him a card but unfortunately he lives in Chicago so those missionaries will get a call hopefully.

love
Elder Nelson

This week was AWESOME!!

2010-06-30T11:02:00.000-07:00

So something crazy is that President Collins will be here tomorrow and then we have a Zone meeting this Friday. It will be weird not seeing President Corey on the stand, but he has done his job and now it is time for President Collins to do his.

So this week has been Awesome! Elder Bowen and I definitely are not wasting any time becoming brothers. As for the miracle and highlight of the week though: we were tracking first thing in the morning and no one seemed to be home until we found the one person that was. We knocked on the door and this guy opens up and invites us in without any hesitation or introduction. We found out that he had talked with missionaries before and has a Book of Mormon but at the time when he met them it was during the school year and he is a teacher and soft ball coach so he didn't have any extra time. So we proceed to teach the first lesson: The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the spirit was there and he’s very open to all that we shared. He said that a lot of it made sense. He is a good guy and by the end of the lesson we committed him to read from the Book of Mormon and pray to know that it is the word of God and that when he receives that answer that he would be baptized and he said: Yes, of course, that would be the most appropriate thing to do.

Elder Bowen and I are having a memorable time and we are working hard. Elder Bowen continues to impress me and he teaches me a lot and that is a good thing because I still have much to learn.

Also I don't thing that I have told you but we will be moving into a new house here shortly and I'm really excited because our 300 square foot house gets old after to long.

I love ya all and I hope that you will be able to survive the heat but look on the bright side --at least you don’t have to deal with the humidity and be all sticky,
Elder Nelson

New Companion!

2010-06-22T16:20:00.001-07:00

New companion is Elder Bowen and he is from Salt Lake City--of all places!!!
So as for this week: it has been awesome and Elder Bowen is on fire. He may be new out but his faith is remarkable. There have been so many miracles that have happened this week and funnies too of course. As for one of the funnies: So we went to take a bike back to these members that were letting Elder Phillips borrow it and we shared a short message with them and of course they are asking Elder Bowen about what he thinks about Indiana and all that good stuff. Well He tells them that he thinks that it would be cool to talk to a preacher and how it would be a good story to tell, so we leave and we go tracking for his first time. So I show him a how to do a basic door approach and then it his turn so he knocks on the door and the person opens up and Elder Bowen says: "Hi !!", and then there is dead silence for a few seconds so I step in and we finish talking to the person. Once we left the door step Elder Bowen goes onto tell me that he has always been pretty decent at talking to people but at that moment he couldn't even remember his name, hahaha. So any ways you remember how He said earlier that he wanted to talk to a preacher? Well, he didn't have to wait long because the very next door was one and it was my turn but Elder Bowen has some good input.

Miracles did happen this week and all of them were because of the Faith that Elder Bowen in following the spirit. One example is that we haven't seen these investigators that work at a dairy farm and are very difficult to get a hold of and to make it harder still they live in a town called Hamilton which is a little ways off from Angola. So we had planned that we were gonna be going out and working in that town and then we were gonna be trying these investigators later on. Well as we were leaving Elder Bowen says that we should go and try them first just to see if they are home so we did and they were and we were able to have a lesson with them. Now a problem came up because we had planned to watch a video with them but it turns out that their DVD player is busted so now we had no idea what we were gonna teach them. We went along with it and had the prayer and still I had no idea what we were gonna teach so I say another prayer to myself as I flip open my Book of Mormon and then it hit me that we were to teach about the title of liberty so we taught it and it went perfectly.
While we were also up in Hamilton we had planned to go and try this old investigator from years ago and and we are looking for this house we just couldn't find it but just as we were about to give up Elder Bowen pointed out a small street in front of us and low and behold there was the house and as we talked to the husband of the old investigator he got interested in what we have to say so HE set up a time with us to come back and teach and it is even crazier because this guy has been in and out of prison for like 15 years and used to be apart of the Aarion Brotherhood but now is completely clean.

Well allot has happened this week and my new comp and I get along super well and we're laughing all the time,
love ya,
Elder Nelson

I will be staying as a trainer again

2010-06-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

Today we got transfer calls and Elder Phillips will be leaving and I will be staying in Angola as a trainer again, and I'm really excited about it because one I get to stay here a little longer plus since I have done it before now I have a better idea of what to do.

As for this week a lot has happened. Since President and Sister Corey will be leaving us at the end of the month and President and Sister Collins will be coming we had a mission wide conference with everyone. Having everyone there made it a lot of fun because I got to find all the missionaries that I have served around and with (that are still here that is) and talk about how everything is going. As for the conference itself: it all went very well. One of the cool things is that for one Sister Corey wrote these two songs and then she made a missionary choir and Ball State University was there to record it and they were just awesome. Also President and Sister Corey gave us trainings and their testimonies and it was so powerful a lot of it was advice for our missions and also for our life. It was really funny actually because Sister Corey was telling us that when they were called to come to Indiana President Faust told them that they would not be judged on how many baptisms happened while they were here but instead it would be on how all our (the missionaries) families were in 20 years. After saying this Sister Corey said: "We worry about you all the time, our salvation is on your shoulders" hahaha the way she said it made everyone laugh.

So as for the rest of the week it went fairly well. Unfortunately not very many people opened the door this week, but every time that something amazing is about to happen there will first be a period of trial so that we are ready for that miracle or not.

Well either nothing else has really happened or I just can't remember. O, wait I forgot to tell you about what happened last week. So you know how you had the lesson about supporting missionaries for young women's? Well, when they had that lesson here they gave us a huge box of candy and snacks and stuff.

Well that's all I got, love ya,
Elder Nelson

Tornado siren went off!!

2010-06-09T18:53:00.000-07:00

President Collins will be coming out in the beginning of July I think and it will be crazy, in fact this Thursday we will be having a mission wide conference with everyone, it will be a lot of fun to be able to see everyone.

So today was a lot of fun. We went over to bro. Alwoods (wilderness survival pro) and it was awesome, something that shows how good this guy is, is that animal planet has been trying to get him to do a show for them. We did some sweet stuff. He taught us how to make fire with a bow drill and also he started to teach us how to track, you know like follow foot prints and stuff it was way sweet, and then he was telling us that next time he'll teach us how to read peoples faces and body movements so that we can have an extra edge when it comes to tracking and talking with people.

So as for this week it has been Awesome, there are so many miracles that happened this week. One of which was this investigator that we had a lesson with and she told us that she got an answer to her prayers and she knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God but then we ran into a snag when we started to talk about baptism, because she said that she was baptized already as a child by her mom.
So we obviously need to teach about authority a little more but with patience she will be able to connect the dots eventually. Also something else that happened this week was another miracle and it was really cool. On Saturday night the tornado siren went off at about 10:20ish and we walked out side because we didn't know what it was, so we asked our neighbor that was outside and he said that it meant that tornado's have been sighted. Well it wasn't too much longer that our branch mission leader gave us a call to tell us that there was going to be a tornado watch till 5:00am and that he will call us if anything happens. So being blessed with a little common sense I got my shoes and my backpack and put some important things next to my bed so that I could just get up and go. Now the cool thing comes up next at about 12:50 in the morning I woke up and I was wide awake and I decided to put a shirt on over My G's of course, and the next minute almost the siren went off again and our branch mission leader calls and tells us to get into the basement and to stay there until he calls us to say that it's safe. So naturally i got up put my shoes and backpack on and was ready to go out the door and Elder Phillips is still half asleep so I say lets go and all he wants to do is stay in bed and sleep but I finally get him to come. But let me tell you what that was some of the loudest and longest thunder I had ever heard we stayed up for about an hour but the wonderful thing was that I didn't worry even a little about our safety, I knew that everything would be taken care of. Another Awesome thing is that our Recent convert is just on fire and is going to the temple this weekend and is super excited about everything and other than that she also makes the best pie I have ever eaten.

Well i gotta go put i love you all and love hearing from you,
Elder Nelson

I'm Pretty much Famous

2010-06-03T08:51:00.000-07:00

I just learned that 1. the Boy Scouts of America came out with a new scout book and
2. that there is a ton of pictures in it from the scout camp that I worked at including one of me on pg. 200 so now I'm pretty much famous.

We were flipping through the Mormon times and we saw an add for wanted best/worst dear john letters for an article that they will be doing, hahaha, i don't care who you are that is funny.

As for the baptism it went extremely well and it was very powerful too. It was funny because her 2 sons were watching the baptism and they were right up on the glass and when she came out of the water the oldest one (3 years old) said: "Mommy’s OK" and it was so funny the only down side was that her family didn't come but I was really happy to see the support and love the branch showed her.

Also something that I had a blast doing was doing some service for this lady that got baptized. We were able to get into some wranglers and a t-shirt and we went out and helped her fill in all the pot holes in their long driveway that leads to her parents house (she lives with her parents) and we also put some p-gravel down for an extra parking spot. I was in 7th heaven while we were doing it I mean from the time I grabbed that shovel till the time i set it back down I had a smile on my face. Elder Phillips just couldn't quite understand why doing hard work makes me happy but it is just one of those things that you can't explain to someone.

So unfortunately i"m running out of time but that's what i get for deleting half my letter by accident but thank you for all that you do to help me out.
love
Elder Nelson

5/26/10

2010-05-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

The Baptism it is this weekend and she is so excited and so is everyone else too.
As for me and my comp we are doing very good and having a lot of fun while working hard.
So this week a lot has happened a lot of bad stuff to tell you the truth but all the good stuff made it well worth it all. There have been a few people that have been on the verge of inactivity and we have been working hard trying to help them out as much as we can, its the kind of stuff that we were on the phone with the branch president almost every night but, there is that one thing that made it all worth it and that was one of our investigators passing her baptismal interview with flying colors and she is really excited for her baptism this Sunday and so are we. As for me and Elder Philips we are doing really well and time is flying by way too fast. But this week we did get the opportunity to speak with a pastor form a missionary church. It all started off by him coming out to try and do his duty as a Christian to save us from what we were getting ourselves into but the whole conversation went perfectly, meaning there was no contention at all but that doesn't mean that there weren't disagreements. But what was really cool was that he is a strong man competitor (AKA Big Dude) and he and 2 others here pulled a semi truck and broke the world record-- but i would rather drive it.
love ya

3/18/10

2010-05-19T15:01:00.001-07:00

This week has been very eventful and by that i mean we were able to set 2 baptismal dates. One of them will be at the end of this month, she is basically a member already she just hasn't been baptized yet. The other will be at the end of next month and she is the same as the first but she is married to a member that went inactive for a long time and the only thing now is for him to conquer some things and get the priesthood so he can baptize his wife.
Really not a lot has happened this week other than setting those dates but something else that is awesome is that we ate over at the Larsens (sweet members) and they introduced us to what is called the Larsen burger and it was good, it is a burger patty, buns, grilled pineapple, grilled onion, and real mayo, and it is really good.

Well it was just one of those weeks but we're working hard and having fun, I love you,
Elder Nelson

P.S.- send me some pictures of the new temple please

2010-05-09T16:31:00.001-07:00

That is awesome news about Taggard but i have one question: does the D stand for DeWalt, hahaha.
I thought that the family reunion was last summer?

So a lot has happened this week, a lot of miracles that is. The first one was Awesome. We went for a return appointment with this investigator and we had planned to teach the Plan of Salvation to her, we get there and it is just a perfect day outside, which is a good thing because her husband wasn't home, and we start to talk to her about what she has read from the Book of Mormon and she had a lot of questions about things but she was apologizing a lot because she was only able to read the first chapter of 1 Nephi. So we talk about some things and then she starts talking about stuff and we are just getting really confused because she is talking about things that are not in the first chapter of 1 Nephi so we ask her how much she read and at this point we get the biggest smiles on our faces because we found out that she had read all of 1 Nephi TWICE!!! We were super excited and then it just kept getting better because it also turns out that she has been telling her mom and sister about the Book of Mormon and how great it is and she said that she was gonna offer hers to her sister, its crazy, she is doing missionary work.

Another crazy thing that happened the other day was that we were tracking, (ya hard to believe isn't it missionaries knocking on doors), but anyways there is this guy talking on his cell phone on his front porch and we walk up to him and totally blows us off, he wouldn't even take a card, so we go on our way. Now this is the unexpected part, we are walking back to our bikes and as we walk past this house this same guy comes out of the front door and calls out to us: " OK now I'm interested." So we walk up to the porch and he asks us how old we are so we say 19 and 20 and then he asked why we are doing what we do and it turned into a solid teaching opportunity and now we have taught him the Restoration lesson and given him a Book of Mormon and we also talked about getting baptized so it was way cool. It just goes to show that there are always reasons for everything and one of those reasons for young men called as missionaries is to set an example.

So a temporal miracle that happened this week was a bike ride out to a meal appointment with a member. Now there was more to this ride than what one might think because it was 5 miles and it was up and down some gnarly hills, but it was a miracle. i think one it was an answer to our prayers about being able to get there safe but also a fulfillment of the promises that we are given for keeping the Word of Wisdom. I was able to conquer every hill with relative ease and still had plenty of energy left over, plus it was a beautiful ride through the country.

So something that I didn't have enough time last week to tell you about was that we were having a baptism on Sunday and it went really well. He is an 11 year old that we have been teaching for the past couple of weeks now and his mom was less active but is now super strong. One thing that was really funny about it all was that when the branch president put him under the first time he kicked his legs like a back stroke so he did it again and this time the president stood on his feet but this time he went under with his mouth wide open, hahaha, it was really funny.

So I'm still working hard and everything is going great in fact we just got back from a members house named Bro. Alwood who was showing us a bunch of survival stuff and let me tell you what he knows his stuff, he was a army sniper, he worked for a company called black water(ask Kent) and now he travels the world giving trainings on survival and other stuff.

love ya
Elder Nelson

I'm learning a lot!!

2010-05-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

The weather here has been around the 60s- high 70's and it rains hard every once in a while for like 15 minutes but the weather here is unpredictable.

So this week has been awesome and a lot has happened. Remember that kid that i said got baptized last week, well he got confirmed on Sunday and it was really good. He bore his testimony and it was amazing to me at how much he has grown in just one week, he was powerful in all that he said and it goes to show that the Lord always follows through on his promises immediately and those blessing make a dramatic difference in peoples lives.

So really quick i would like to say that since I have been on my mission I have learned alot on what things are most important in life and one of them is not this stupid game called: Farmville, that it seems like everyone plays on-line, I mean there is this guy in his 40's in the library right now playing, I mean really it is like 12:00 on a Tuesday and there is nothing more constructive to do?

Sorry that was just something that was on my mind. Anyways a lot has happened this week and unfortunately i can't tell you too much about it cause it classified stuff , but what I can tell you is that we will be having another baptism coming up pretty soon, now and we just found out last night. It is a single mom and she has such a strong testimony of everything. She is one of those people that know that if she is going to do something they will do it right and that is what she is doing. She also has 2 sweet sons that are 2 and 3 and they love the missionaries. They just get huge smiles on their faces when ever they see us and that definitely brings a smile to our faces too. So we have all these pass along cards that we give out to people for things like the Book of Mormon and movies but one of them has a picture of the Salt Lake Temple on it and they are so funny because they call it the Jesus Castle, hahaha. They have to have it with them before they go to sleep but the one they had was torn up, so we made a indestructible one for them reinforced with card board and packing tape.

So are have you got Spencer Taylors Adress so i can write him?

Ooo also this week we found this guy that has been taught by missionaries since 2004 and we just stumbled into him and he thought that we knew who he was but in reality we were soo lost. Later we were able to meet with him again and we found out that there are really only 3 things holding him back from being baptized. 1. he wants to finish the Book of Mormon all the way through, he said that he has got like half way 3 or 4 times
2. he needs to gain a testimony about President Thomas S. Monson being the Prophet of today and
3. he works 7 days a week, so really he doesn't have all that far to go.

Well my time has come up so I'll talk to you on Sunday,
love ya,
Elder Nelson

2000 miles away....

2010-04-20T20:26:00.000-07:00

{Note: this email was not intended for the blog... but because of it's length he didn't have time to write any other email to the family....}

i'm glad that you like the truck you should e-mail me some pictures of it and as for the mission I would have to rate it as a 10 all the way down the charts because i have seen and learned so much.

Now sinse i have learned so much i have a few questions for you; 1)Who is Bryce? 2) How long have you known him? 3)Is he a member of the church? 4)Is he a worthy priesthood holder? 4a) If no to 2 & 3, how did you meet him? 5)How old is he? 6) Will he pull you up or push you down? 7)Are you steady dating? 7a)If yes, when was the last time you read the "Strength for the Youth"? 8)Have you kissed? 8a)If yes, read "Strength for the Youth" again. 9) Is he still in school? 10)Does Mom and Dad know you are seeing him? 11)Who puts gas in the truck? 12) How much do you think that the gas it takes to get to the foothills and back costs?

13) Why would your brother who is on a mission in Indiana ask all of these questions? Because I love you, because I see every day how Satan works, because I have seen too many friends and loved ones at home and out here let themselves tied down with flaxen cord and then very quickly it turns into near unbreakability chains that cause a world of heart ache, because I know that my Redeemer lives and he loves and cares for us so much that he has blessed us with modern day prophets and apostles that receive revelation directly from Christ on how we can live the very best life possibly and then to receive Eternal Life with our Heavenly Father and i know that as we follow ALL of his commandments we will have True happiness and we will be lifted up at the last day instead of having to the feel the regret of making the wrong choice and justifying something. Amanda I hope that you wont take this the wrong way, I'm not saying that you are doing any of these things I am just sincerely telling you what i have learned and what my testimony is.

Well i hope that you keep having fun with life and make sure to have fun this summer cause it is coming up quick, love ya ,
Elder Nelson

P.S.- Tell Bryce that your brother who is on a mission and only has one year left says hi. P.S.S- were did you write this e-mail at, did you write it in a school class or did you have school off today?

My thoughts on humility...

2010-04-17T15:20:00.001-07:00

First off it was all perfect timing the package got here yesterday and it was awesome i especially liked the tie and i can’t wait to wear it.

As for the ticket i have some money left over from Christmas still and there is a member here his name is Bro. Wilson and he is a lawyer and deals with tickets alot so he said that he’s gonna help me with it all, more specifically to make sure that i don't get any points on my license.

That is really good to hear about Brett and how he is staying strong and I'm also exited for Preston Taylor, do you think you could please get his address so i can write him before he leaves, that would be awesome.

As for miracles, that is so convincing to hear about dad, that is one thing that I truly believe is that modern medicine has all been inspired of by the Holy Ghost.

As for what you said about me being blessed with good companions it isn't just luck, it's inspiration. I know that President Corey is an inspired man and that when he pairs up companionship's I know 3 things. 1) it is the Lords will 2)there is a reason and 3) there is a way set forth in order to achieve that reason. In order for all of this to work one must always be working on humility because without it you will not recognize the will of the Lord and then you will never learn the purpose of being together and then you will not be able to know the plan to do that purpose.
Recently we have been teaching a couple about Christ like attributes and what i have come to learn for myself by the power of the spirit is that without humility one can never achieve any of the the others. One cannot be patient without first recognizing that they aren't perfect, one cannot be diligent in moving forward if they already think that they are there, one cannot truly have charity for someone that is imperfect without recognizing their own imperfections, no one can work on becoming like Christ without first recognizing that they can't do it without Christ.
A valuable lesson learned long ago that has been continually built up is: " forget yourself and get to work", It is a hard thing to do but as we are humbled we recognize that all things are possible.

It has been a good week, last week we had an amazing Zone conference and interviews but this week should be good as well because we have stake conference coming this Sunday.

Sorry I'm running out of time very fast but thank you for everything especially the thoughts and now i can say that I'm not a teenager any more, hahaha.
love,
Elder Nelson

An easter gift..

2010-04-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

On Easter, we got a letter from a member in Indiana.

Happy Easter from Angola IN. I am David Henry, Clerk in the Angola IN Branch. Earlier today I had brunch with your son and took this photo. I promised I would send it to you and tell you hello. He is a great young man and we are proud and pleased to having him working with us in Angola . He and his companion, Elder Phillips, seem to work together well. We enjoy them both. Last Thursday evening my wife and I had dinner with investigators and participated in a lesson. He did very well. He has a good sense of humor. Please let me know if there is anything we can do for you.

David Henry

i got a ticket...

2010-04-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

Conference was amazing but as hard as i try i still cannot stay focused and awake when Elder Scott speaks I really try hard but I just can't do it yet.

As for the work out it is called P90X it is awesome and very hard at the same time and in fact today we did a way sweet work out with a member from Kendleville(the missionaries that we share our car with). We did two different things the first was boxing and it was way sweet, before i start i should probably tell you that this member is like this crazy martial arts guy and he teaches people it on the side but mostly just self defense stuff, but anyways i had a blast and i learned alot and then also we did some ways to defend yourself from someone with a knife and that was very handy to know just in case and then something else that we learned was some double sword fighting but don't worry we just had bamboo sticks.

As for the weather here it has been perfect it's been in like the 60's-70's and it has been so nice to work i mean I'm not saying that I didn't like 8 degrees with wind chill but you know what I mean.

So alot has happened this week and believe me that there has been alot of miracles and alot of new really solid people that we are teaching, but there is one thing that has stuck out to me over all of conference and then also throughout all the lessons that we have taught and that is this: I have learned how the destroyer works. Think of it why did Satan want Moses to be killed as a baby? Why did he want Jesus to be killed as a baby? Why did he attack Joseph Smith relentlessly in the sacred grove? Why does he attack that which is the purpose of our Heavenly Fathers plan, the family? Because, he didn't want to deal with Moses the prophet, because he didn't want to deal with Jesus the Christ, because he didn't want to deal with Joseph the prophet of the restoration, because he doesn't want to deal with families being able to help each other live together forever. I have learned and gained a testimony that Satan will do everything in his power to destroy something so that he won’t have to deal with it. It is the same for all of us in all of our stories, Satan didn't want to deal with Rod Nelson and Marsha Hansen that would become Elder Nelson and Sister Hansen who would then become Bro. and Sis. Nelson and start and raise successfully a righteous posterity. Myself being included, it would have been easier for Satan to destroy Tanner the boy instead of now Elder Nelson, a representative of Jesus Christ.

I love you all so much that you don't even understand, you have all helped me in my life even though I've messed up here and there but you were always there, and now i will always promise to be there as well. Yesterday i messed up again, i had made it more that a year but i got a speeding ticket and i am no longer a coward and will try to hide my mistakes, so I'm sorry and this time I will make it the rest of my life.

I love you,
Elder Nelson a missionary from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

new area-- Angola!

2010-04-02T16:52:00.001-07:00

Now to tell you about my 3rd area. The name is Angola and it is in the north eastern corner of Indiana, right next to Michigan and Ohio and it is AWESOME here i couldn't of asked for any better timing to go north. The spring has started but it is still a little chilly in the mornings but the summer will be here soon and it will be alot nicer up here. As for my companion his name is Elder Phillip, he's 6'5', from Saratoga Springs, Utah and he is AWESOME i think that this companionship will be the best yet.
My new address is 615 S. Elizabeth Angola, IN, 46703.
Now as for the week thus far it has been really good and allot of that is because the branch here is awesome, in fact the branch here has more active members than the Logansport Ward did. Also once again i have found someone that knows people i know, do you remember the Tidwells? they were a military family and lived in Yuma for about 2 years, they have a son my age, Kyle and their daughter got married a little more than a year ago, Rebecca, but anyway come to find out they lived here for a while too. Also we have had alot of success with teaching people, we have a good sized teaching pool and it has been growing.

As for some none spiritual sweet stuff that happened this week. So i don't remember if I’ve told you before but i do P90X, if you haven't heard of it before it is a really crazy work out and let me tell you that there are some crazy work outs in it but I'll be the first to tell you that if you do it honestly you see results fast. Anyways for one of the work outs you have to do wall sits for 90 seconds and me and Elder Phillips were doing them and right at the very end when it was really hurting i fall through the wall, it caught me off guard and I got out of it quick , hahaha. That is one of the things on our list of things to do today is to fix it soo it will all be good. So after that happened i started paying closer attention to how cheap our little house is for example in the wall that i sat though is a good 12' long and there are only 2 studs in the whole thing. Also this week we got an apartment inspection and the only thing that we didn't pass on was that our freezer had like 2" of ice built up on it so this week we each got to learn how to defrost a freezer. So we did the whole pot of boiling water in it but that was not working efficiently enough for the time that we have available. So we tried something and it worked very well. We had the awesome idea of using this extra iron that we had, SO we found a glove and ironed the ice away and it took like 5 minutes it was sweet.

I love you all and thank you for all that you do to help me i use lessons learned at home in my every day life now,
Love Elder Nelson

New Area!!

2010-03-24T14:52:00.001-07:00

I'm glad that Amanda finally got the truck and ya i could see why you think of me when she drives up the driveway. Does the truck look the same?
Now as for training, I'm done with it. this morning we got the call that I'm gonna be transferred tomorrow and I'm gonna go back to normal senior companion. To tell ya the truth we're pretty bummed about it cause we only got to be together for 6 weeks but it's all good and I'm excited to go to a new area with new people and a new companion. I feel good about it all i did my best to show him the ropes and the other day we were walking, him in front of me, and it just blows my mind at how much he has grown in this short of a time in fact in one aspect of the work he is as good if not better than i am now, and i have been out just shy of a year and he’s been out like 2 months. I'm really proud of him and i have learned alot too, but now i have taught him everything that i can and it's time once again to "go and do the things which the lord hath commanded". I'm also feeling good about leaving the area as it is because in preach my gospel it says to leave the area better than when you got there and that is what i did, and I'm confident that i have done all that i was suppose to do here.

As for this week i can tell you this, we found like 10 new solid investigators and most of them are young families and all of them have little or no religious background. With one of the families this week we were able to teach the Restoration lesson and it was the powerful one yet and that was because the couple was really feeling the spirit and they were asking alot of questions and they even pointed out that they could feel the spirit really strong during the 1st vision at the end of it all they had a ton of questions and just wanted to know everything plus to top it all off they were saying that they know they should read the bible but that they really were more excited about the Book of Mormon.

Keep praying for missionary work to move forward and also that my next companion will be cool, lol.
I love ya all.
Elder Nelson

Resotation lessons

2010-03-17T14:50:00.000-07:00

First off i'm sorry about last week and the week before that i had a huge letter written both times and i was about to finish but the time ran out on the stupid computer here at the library and it made me really mad soo im sorry about that, but i will give you a brief on everything starting with 2 weeks ago.

So it was AWESOME as usual we found alot of people that wouldn't even give us a chance BUT we had an amazing lesson with one of our investigators. We taught her the Restoration lesson and everything was perfect. She is soo humbled, we had it at her best friends house (Relief Society President/husband in the bishopric), the dinner was really good, and then the spirit was extremely powerful, we would teach and testify and then the members would do the same and it was as if the spirit was testifying to her the truth of everything that we would teach her. It is by far the best and most powerful Restoration lesson that i have ever been involved in.
Also last week we were able to go and do some service for a member and it was a different kind of AWESOME. Bro. Bettcher is his name, he has a wife and 4 kids from infant-6, he's a mechanical engineer, has a nice house, 20 acres, 5 chainsaws of all sizes, a hydraulic ram powered log splitter, and he has his own personal Backhoe, basically this guy lives my dream. Anyways we went up and us, Uriel(15), and Bro Bettcher we split a ton of wood and stacked it all, and it didn't stop there he then proceeded to make us all steaks and then he introduced us to something called Reece’s cup s’mores and it was good.

Love you lots!!
Elder Tanner Nelson

sorry about last week...

2010-03-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the e-mails but for last week:
So it all started off with an exchange with Elder Manookin (district leader) and it was a blast, i just love going out with him because he is so funny and it was just amazing as well. While we were out we were on our way towards a street to tract on and from the other side of the street we hear this short old black guy with a high pitched voice and he was a little buzzed to say the least, and he was preaching Jesus to us and he was just the funniest little guy because of all these things put together. But the cool part was that while we were talking to him his friend came out of his house and told us that he had a few questions and that once we were done talking to come into the house, which we did. So we get into this guys home and he has the table cleaned up so that we could all sit down and talk and we ask to start with a prayer and afterwards we find out that his name is: Cherry(that's not a typo) and he goes on to tell us that 10 years ago he had a heart attack and was pronounced dead, but came back to life and since then around 5 members of his immediate family have died of heart attacks. He has gone to a few different churches and he just gave up 5 years ago and he showed us that his bible hat sat in one place and hadn't been touched for that amount of time, and there was a big layer of dust on it. Anyways we go on to testify about eternal families and the plan of salvation and he is getting really emotional at this point in time. I then told him something that i have never once said my whole mission and that was that we had Gods answer to all of his questions and prayers. We then go on and ask to leave a blessing on his home and something that didn't connect in my head until after all of this was the fact that i have never blessed a home before. Once he gathered his wife and their infant daughter we knelt down and gave a wonderful blessing on them and their home. After the blessing the spirit made itself known very well known and there was alot of emotion coming from Cherry in fact he wanted us to come back the next day and then every day after that as well and he even told us that he wasn't gonna drink or smoke until we come back and talked with him more. As we were walking away it was a very cool feeling the type of feeling that i could barely have enough strength to walk, i can very easily say that this experience is the most powerful experience i have ever had on my mission. Now unfortunately we went back and tried him every day and unfortunately we weren't able to see him again until Friday when i was on and exchange with Elder Miller(assistant) and unfortunately he isn't in the mood to talk to us for a little while because 2 days after we had that experience his best friend and neighbor died, but all we can do is try.
Also that week was full of alot of people that wouldn't even give us a chance but we tried.
Ok so were gonna rewind just a little bit here back to Thursday. Thursday was awesome because we had a mini-zone conference with just our zone and we also had President interviews, and both went very well. So you all don't know President Corey very well but to put it simply he is a deep well of knowledge and the mission has always known that but he really blew us away at conference. Pres. Corey loves the New Testament and he decided to go through it with us and point out all the unique Mormon doctrine and we only got through Romans and The book of Revelation but i had no idea how much doctrine in the Bible there is to back us up out of the Bible.
Anyways back to Friday the 12th. I was able to go on exchange with Elder Miller and Elder Nielsen went with Elder Stranski and it was an Awesome exchange for the both of us and it was really funny because Elder Nielsen and i were talking about it at lunch that day and he was saying how good E. Stranski is and then he said that he almost doesn't feel worthy of working with him
So now we’re caught up to this week. Yesterday was a very eventful day for me and us as a companionship. It was good for me because we got to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and I got to go with elder Jeppesen and we have gone together before and it was so fun. For this exchange i told E. Jeppesen that i have felt like i haven't felt like I have been getting better here lately and it was an answered prayer because it felt like the lord blessed me with the eyes to see that i have alot i can still really dramatically improve on in fact everything, especially the things that I'm already pretty good at so now I'm really excited because i have a long way to go.

I have tried to tell you about all of the big stuff in the past few weeks for the sake of limited time but as for the work we have been finding new families to teach every day so it goes to show that things get bad right before miracles are about to happen.
Again im sorry about the last couple of weeks, i love you all,
Elder Nelson

Zone Conference Teachings..

2010-03-07T13:43:00.001-08:00

For ThE highlight of the week-it was this: Zone Conference this last Saturday. It was a unique experience because our area 70: Elder Lancing came and he is a powerful man but he didn’t come alone he was also with Elder Costa from the Presidency of the 70 and his english is bad but wow is he funny he told us about his conversion into the church (1st generation member) now these two were more than what we deserved but also we were honored to be in the presence of an Apostle of the Lord: Elder D. Tod Christopherson. Something that was going through my mind while we were waiting in line to shake there hands and introduce ourselves was this: Why am i so privileged to be with these mighty servants of the lord? Elder Costa was the one that answered this exact question of mine in his training. He said that it is because we are mighty spirits of the lord. A goal of mine that i have had since the beginning of my mission is to become a master teacher and along with this I’m always searching for ways to do that and i received the next step i need to learn from Elder Costa as well. He said that all things that go up must come down and it is the same with the spirit when we are teaching by it, it will reach a climax and when that happens we need to testify and get out of there so that the spirit will stay with them and dwell in their hearts. And then he said well what if the investigators say "o stay we have some fresh baked cake and freshly squeezed juice just for you" were supposed to say "thank you but we have another appointment but we have 15 minutes tomorrow so put the juice and cake in the refrigerator and we'll be here tomorrow at 3:15". hahaha he’s funny he then said that " when you go back the next day as you are eating your cake you ask them how they felt yesterday after they left, so you find out and the spirit will be up again so you testify and get out" but then they say "o well what about the rest of your cake and juice" you say well we have 15 minutes tomorrow at 3:15 we'll be back" he said "never pass up a good opportunity"

Another great thing that i learned is something I’m gonna have a hard time with just because i love it soo much: "Resist the temptation to teach" Elder Costa

Well, i hope all is going well

Love, Elder Nelson

Training..

2010-02-16T14:14:00.000-08:00

The training has been crazy this week. I got super excited when i heard about it but then the cars got grounded because of all the snow that came down and that’s when i started getting really nervous. Then Elder Manookin (district leader) played a prank on us and said that transfers would be delayed another day again but it really was gonna be on friday, so we found out that morning it was a joke but it was ok we got there on time. Then there was another funny, during transfers President Corey calls out all the new companionships and then he does the trainers last, when he got to us he noticed that he didn’t have the paper with our pairs on it but he figured it all out. Then another funny part its that my greene is from Utah and his name is Elder Nielsen, everyone thinks that it was a joke on his part.

As for Elder Nielsen, he’s from Richfield, Utah and he is a fireball missionary, he’s a decent teacher for now but he is diligent and is improving alot each day, I’m definitely blessed to be chosen as his trainer. For his first tracking experience we played a really good joke on him and unfortunately I’m quickly running out of time but we did get it on video so its all good. As for investigators we have a few really solid ones and it’s awesome to see how their testimonies grow right in front of you and its also a blessing to be able to teach and testify to them. i love ya

I'm trainer!

2010-02-09T14:01:00.000-08:00

As for the weather it hasn't been bad but last night we got about 2-3 inches and it is still coming and it could be bad cause they might have to delay the transfer meeting. O ya transfers are up again and this morning we were talking about it and i said that since we haven’t got the call yet we probably would stay and then the phone went off and i answered and President Corey was on the other line, we knew something was gonna happen cause usually the assistants make the call unless it is for leadership. Also i have now been in Logansport for 6 months and we thought that i would for sure be leaving but instead Elder Ashton is being transferred and i am going to be training a new missionary which is AWESOME im soo excited and a little nervous at the same time but butterflies are a good thing.

So before i forget I’ve noticed recently that i never got a line of authority (priesthood) and i really want it.
As for this week it has been alot of tracking but it has also been alot of fun we have found alot of people that have good potential of being solid investigators and one of them reminds me alot of Luis (superintendent for Denver). Also this week we had an investigator at church and she is practically golden plus she was a referral from members and her fellowshippers are the relief society president and her husband the 2nd counselor in the bishopric, it just cant get any better than that.

Well i hope you all have a good one and pray for me as a trainer that i will do a good job. love,
Elder Nelson

"I haven't done anything like this since Deagan Const."

2010-02-04T13:46:00.000-08:00

This week has been awesome and really depressing too but as for the depressing part first. So we had this investigator and he has just been going down hill really fast and on Wednesday i was on an exchange with Elder Manookin and we went over to teach him and give him one more chance but what ended up happening was not expected at all. We told him that if he read the Book of Mormon for a week straight for 10-15 min a day that everything would improve, but instead he ended up getting offended and made sure that weknew that he was doing everything that he could do and that he doesnt have 10 min a day to read because he has other more important priorities. So during this whole thing my heart just felt like it was ripping in half and wewere finally able to calm him down and apologize for offending him, we testified, prayed and told him that we would try and stop in every now and again to see how he is doing but then he said something that really tore me a new one and that was this: " I don’t invite just anyone in to talk to me so if you’re not with them Elder Nelson i probably wont let them in." after he said that i just felt horrible and i definitely didn’t feel capable enough to teach anyone so we went to the church cause they were having mutual, so that we could talk to Brother Bettcher (young mens president). We get there and he is mad too because no youth showed up and he lives like an hour awayso basically he just wasted 4 hours of his day. Anyways we were talking to him and he was telling us that we didn’t have to come help him at his house on Saturday if we didn’t want to cause it would be like -10 with wind chill, but i let him know that no weather stops missionaries.
So now to the AWESOME part of the week and this was at the Bettchers for service and what we did was this there were six of us in all, 3 chain saws, 1 back-hoe, 1 log splitting machine, 3 diesel trucks and about 50 wild cherrytrees in a line next to a farm. Your probably already thinking what on earth were we doing, well the answer to that is that the Bettchers heat their house on wood and we were there to help him in a sense keep him his pregnant wife and 3 young children warm at night. So i was soo excited because i haven’t done anything like this since Deagan Con. and i was soo ready. Just to let you know, no one got hurt and no we didn’t use any machinery even though i really really wanted to but even though we didn’t that doesn’t mean that we weren’t busy the whole time. There was a whole system and at the start we had to clear all the cut branches but once we got going we were the ones loading the trucks with the split wood. Ill say this though it was alot of fun but in rating the difficulty level, lets just say this: wood is alot lighter than concrete. Anyways we stacked the trucks to like 3' above the sides of the bed and what we learned was that a mondo filled truck of wood will last about 2 weeks and we got 6 loads of mondo filled trucks, so basically i think that they are good for the winter. O something else was that before we started loading the trucks the average loading time was like 2 hours and then unload was like 20-30 minutes well when we did it it took us an hour to load, plus we were stacking it so we got like a third more in than normal and then we got timed and it took us 7 min to unload, soo we definitely had a blast and it was well needed to relieve some stress.

well my time is short so have a good one and i love ya all, Elder Nelson

"awesome game.."

2010-01-27T17:53:00.000-08:00

The weather has been pretty crazy here, a couple days ago its was in the 50s and now we have an inch of snow on the ground and it is still coming.

As for running now it helps alot it gives ya time to think about nothing except breathing and putting one step in front of the other, now running a mile is easy so now its like 1 1/2 miles plus Elder Ashton has a soccer ball
that we kick around while were running soo its always something to look forward to in the day.

Maybe Dad should get a game system called theWii and they actually use that at rehabilitation centers and it has these exercise games on it, you might want to look into that a little.

So is Amanda driving the truck now? is it even running good?

Thanks for sending that book i havent got it yet but I’m sure it will help alot.

So as for this week it has been alot of fun and alot of hard work too for starters we watched the movie: The Testaments with an investigator and i had forgotten just how powerful that movie is even though it is mostly fiction. We went out and ate dinner with this member family and it was awesome for 2 reasons the first is because the mother had just quit her job and I was super proud and so was she because the boss of the company was being unethical and she always felt guilty working there soo she put her foot down and quit on the spot and then 3 others there are quitting too.

So while we were there one of the kids friends was there and we were playing this game that i made up(ill tell ya about it later) and he was having all the awesome questions and we found out that he was 14 and his family is split religiously speaking and he was in the middle just like Joseph Smith so we got super excited and taught him about the book of mormon and the first vision.

so im out of time, love,
Elder Nelson

"January Thaw" and getting into shape!!

2010-01-19T14:15:00.000-08:00

Family, It has warmed up in the last week up to the high 30's but the members here were telling us that this is called the January thaw and that it will get bad again in February so that really cut my legs out from under me.
Something else that is new is that me and Elder Ashton have started to run every day. So we started this Saturday and it was up hill and we ran up hill and only made it about 4 blocks when we realized that we are some out of shape missionaries. After that though we got to take Sunday off and then on Monday it was a little easier--our goal is to be able to get up to a mile which will be sweet.
I don’t have much time left but really quick i wanna tell you about the family home evening that we put on last night. It was Awesome, we had a lot of people show up and for the first part we had a box car build off and it was loads of fun, and after that we had a drive in movie and watched the Lamb of God movie it went very well. Love, Elder Nelson

Nerf Wars..

2010-01-08T15:58:00.000-08:00

so to start i would like to say how genius and funny taylor and sheri’s christmas card was.

But anyways im glad that everything went over soo good and everyone had fun, all except for the fox that is. And as for me not changing I see that a good thing because a missionary should leave home and come back the same but with a stronger testimony.

But as for our Christmas it was sweet as i told you it all started with going out caroling and then Christmas morning we went and played santa and chad the surfer dude, then on the 26th alot of fun really happened cause we got to go on a blitz of our area(many missionaries work one area) with the zone leaders witch was way awesome. The reason that we did was because their area is Purdue campus and its winter break so no one is there. But anyways during our break we got into a hugenerf gun war in our house and it was soo much fun and a really good workout too.
Last week were transfers and elder Ashton and i are still together but the crazy thing is that one of the areas in our district got closed so now there are only 4 missionaries in our district. We ended up going toLaFayette to hang out with the zone leaders cause one of them was getting transferred and it was so much fun cause we had another series of nerf war games and by the end of it all we were really tired.

But as for the work this week it has been going really good we have been finding more and more people to teach and it is awesome. Unfortunately we have had one investigator that has gone down hill into drugs and things again but we had a super solid lesson and the spirit was truly the one teaching because his attitude has gone up and we went back and starting to teach him the plan of salvationand we ended up stopping at the atonement but none the less it was really good. In fact while preparing for this lesson we wanted to focus alot on the atonement so what we did was very cool. we read the account of the garden of Gethsemane out of Matthew and then read out of Alma 7:11-13 which goes even deeper and gives a stronger testimony of what Christ did spiritually for all of us and then we followed with reading D&C 19:13-20 and i really like this one because it shows how much the savior wants us to use the atonement and then it explains what will happen if we don’t. So i think you would all like it alot so you should do this for FHE some time.
well i love ya all and thanks for everything,
Elder Nelson

This week..

2009-12-17T13:40:00.000-08:00

So as for when I’ll be calling i dont know how that all will work out, but i will let you know next week and as for the weather it has all been good we have only got a little snow here and there but then it all melts so the lord has definitely been on our side this week.

That is a real shame for Amanda but ya know life happens and if everything worked out perfectly then we wouldn’t learn anything now would we. It is awesome that you brought up making priorities in life we actually taught a lesson about that late last week. How we did it was this: we pulled out a glass jar and filled it to the top with rocks and then asked if the jar was full? they said yes it is. We then proceeded to fill it with small rocks and shook it to fill in all the spaces, then we asked again is the jar full? they laughed and said yes again. Then we proceeded to poor sand in the jar and it filled in every other empty space. Now the big rocks represent the important things in life like ones health, kids, spouse, family time and soo on, and the smaller rocks represent the things that are important but aren’t as important such as ones job, house, car, school and then the sand is all the stuff that just fills in the cracks like music, TV, shopping and so on. The lesson to learn is that if you put all the sand and little rocks in the jar first then there isn’t any room for the important things in life.

So this week tons of miracles have been happening and it has just been awesome.One of them is this guy that we found the other day and the way it happened was this, we had met this really nice lady a few weeks ago and we told her that we were gonna get her a Christmas movie(Joy to the World) and we finally decided to go over to give it to her but while we were walking up to her house there was a sheriffs car out front and we didn’t know what was gonna happen so we knocked and it turns out that it is her son and him and his kids are staying with her because there are some marital problems going on, but he is AWESOME. He automatically knew who we were because his mom told him about us and we sit down and they just start bringing out food to feed us lunch(unexpected) and then before we even get to talking he gives us his personal cell number and tells us to call any time we need help or something is going on, Ok so i have to point out how awesome this is. But anyways we are eating and we finish and then he asks us what it is we believe because he doesn’t know anything about us so we give him a full Restoration lesson and Elder Ashton had a huge part in it all cause he kept the kids a bay so that i could teach and it went way good so in the end we gave him a book of Mormon and committed him to read it and to pray about it and he said he most definitely would cause he works nights and does alot of reading and what was the most important part of the whole thing was when he said: " I really need this".

So everything has been sweet and im acclimating very well im now comfortable in low 30's.

Also this sheriff that we are teaching while we were talking i asked him if he new who sheriff Joe was from maricopa county and it was really funny cause it turns out that at there station they actually have a signed picture of him!

so I got the thermals and they are good and as for driving we only have an allotted amount of miles we can drive a month and we have to use those for going to other towns to teach gators so we don’t use the car too much anyways but i do stay safe.

love ya much and thanks for eveything,
Elder Nelson

Thanksgiving was good..

2009-12-12T16:39:00.000-08:00

First off i would like to say thank you for the thermals, i haven't gotten them yet but when i do they will be well used because this Thursday the HIGH will be 19, that is insane, i mean seriously who would actually want to live in a place like this. It seems like faster and faster now the weather is helping me explain to people why this message is soo important because if it wasn't true i would never had come to indiana and i WOULD NOT be tracking in 19 degree weather.

Anyways thanksgiving was really good but the sad thing is that we are almost done with the leftovers.

tangent- it snowed Monday and then it all melted by the late afternoon.

A few things happened this week.For one we set a baptismal goal with an investigator for the end of the month. Also we had this sweet zone conference were they scared the crap out of me about driving in the snow and on ice and i think that that was there whole intention. But i think now i understand what to do and all--so it really helped me out. As for the family we are teaching, they are soo sweet they really like us and they came to a ward FHE that we put together last night and it went really well. We have been planning this for some time now and it just soo happened that we had an exchange yesterday so it turned out that it was me and a greeny and it was sweet. We set up a big obstacle coarse in the gym and then we had three volunteers. Now each volunteers goal was to try and find the end goal which was a big ol candle on the other side of the room but there were a few catches. The first one was that they were blind folded and everyone else was trying to get them to go the wrong way. So the first person went and he couldn’t even find his way out of the first part, then for the second person we had one person that was softly trying to help them and they almost made it and then the 3rd person the person that was trying to help them would give them little taps and he made it to the candle and then of coarse all of the kids wanted to do it and then the kids got the dad of the family to do it and it was just alot of fun. Anyways after that we went and myself and elder Blanner(greeny on exchange) gave an awesome lesson explaining that this course represents the course of life, and it went soo good we had the whole map drawn out on the black board and everything represented something in the life that we have to go thru. It was all about the fact that we can’t do it by ourselves and that in order to get to our destination in the end we have to follow the promptings of the spirit. After this whole thing was done we had hot chocolate and cookies and everyone had fun especially our investigators. The awesome part about it all was that we were talking and as we did we were learning too soo the spirit was definitely the teacher.

I love ya ,
Elder Nelson

New Companion..

2009-12-06T14:42:00.001-08:00

That is really good to hear about dad I’ve been praying and working hard too. As for my new comp we get along really well, and of course there are things here and there but nothing that is even worth thinking about. At times it does get a little hard because i have to do most of the teaching cause he is really shy and isn’t very confident in himself and in the promises that the lord gives us all through the scriptures. I've been trying to help him out the best that i can but usually only when i really feel like i need to say something or when he asks a question. He asks advice on how he can be better and I’ll usually show him some scriptures that say that the lord will bless us with what to say and that it all depends on how much faith we have in him. One that i go back to alot is: Proverbs 3:5-6. Also i'm trying to teach him that we wont be able to learn and grow unless were trying soo it all comes down to just doing it yourself. Again though i dont know everything cause im still learning too, and in the past week or 2 he has come a long way.

As for the the climax of this week was that last Sunday we had a young family of 5 come to church and it just so happened to be missionary Sunday so we got to speak. They only came to sacrament but i think that almost everyone said hi to them and welcomed them which was awesome. Then last night we actually showed up late because of a crazy emergency but they still brought us in and they didnt care, they only cared that we were able to make it. Also they were yanking our chain and saying that we just missed dinner and they gave us cookies and banana bread and it was just awesome. For the first like 10-15 minutes we just talked about our days and we were gonna ask them about church but right before we did they were asking about what the sunday school classes were like. We were telling the kids about all the stuff they do and they were super pumped about it. After all that we went on and watched: The Restoration with them and all the kids stayed sitting and didnt make a sound and the dad actually fell asleep, which he apologized for but i told him that it was because the spirit gave him soo much peace that it rocked him asleep. But it was awesome and im soo stoked about this family they are just awesome.

As for the weather yes it is cold but not cold enough for that coat yet but there have been a few very light snows and it is starting to frost every night but then the sun melts it before we go out but i do have a request; could you send me a few sets of thermals because they are kinda pricey out here.

Love
Elder Nelson

I'm Senior Companion..

2009-11-24T16:51:00.000-08:00

My new comps name is Elder Ashton and he’s from Tucson and what is even crazier is that he came out the transfer after me and now I’m the senior companion, its pretty crazy and rare that someone goes senior soo early and what is even crazier is that almost all the missionaries i came out with are senior comps now, we are working hard and teaching alot of people and this last week we have been having really good lessons.
Is dad out yet? i promise that im gonna be working even harder to the point that i just fall into bed each night from being soo drained, I will do everything that i possibly can to help dad get better, i promise.

love elder nelson

tell dad that i might have grown up but I’m still his son and proud of it

Its getting Cold...

2009-11-24T16:50:00.001-08:00

Yes its getting colder and there will probably be snow on the ground at the end of the month and what everyone is telling me is that i need to go buy some really good high top boots soo im probably gonna get some next week because i do not not want my feet to be wet all winter and the only rule is that they have to be able to take a shine, so thats that.
we did get transfer calls this morning and my companion Elder Timothy is gonna be a zone leader and i getta stay in logansport and that is what i wanted 1-- because im not done with logansport yet and 2-- if me and Elder Timothy stayed together we wouldnt be able to hang out back at home cause we would be sick of each other if ya know what i mean. But as for my new comp all they would tell me about him is that hes got AZ blood in him which is sweet cause this will make 4 out of 5 comps from AZ, i think i hold the record now.
As for the baptism her name is pricila ramirez and she is 9 almost ten and she has been trying to get baptized for the last 2 years so we just so happened to be the ones that were here to watch.
Can you send some pomegranates to Sister Corey at 1980 E 116th st, suite 200, carmel, IN, 46032. she asked if i could get her some, she really likes them alot.
As for me right now not much new is happening but im working hard and im really nervous and yet excited for my new comp but other than that all is going well. As for something i need for christmas the easiest thing would be just money and then i can just get what i need like boots.
thanks for the support im working hard and lovin it, Elder Nelson

Thankgiving and other things

2009-11-14T10:10:00.001-08:00

As for thanksgiving plans all we got going right now is setting up a turkey bowl and hey heres an idea you should invite the missionaries over for thanksgiving!!

As for the weather up here it has been really good too its been about 50-60s and it feels soo good but indiana looks ugly and depressing cause all the leaves have fallen and all the fields are being harvested so its kinda depressing.

I’m a little short on time but this week has been really good i went on 3 exchanges since last tuesday and they have all been awesome and one was with elder stevenson and he’s from gilbert and he’s also an assistant so that helps. we have been finding alot of investigators and it has been awesome i have now seen for myself that when we go to an appointment and it falls through we we aren’t sent to that area for that person instead it was to find someone else who has been prepared for the gospel and its a miracle that i have been able to see alot lately. Last saturday of the 7th we had a baptism and it went perfectly and it was super powerful. also i baptized my rule book and name tag. i was leaning over the font fixing the plug and it fell out of my front pocket.

love,
elder nelson

Halloween in Indiana

2009-11-03T19:46:00.000-08:00

ok so Halloween was awesome and we went to the ward party and it was alot of fun but instead of trunks we decorated classrooms and ours was the best but you will be able to see that for yourselves when you see the videos, also we got permition to go down to kokomo to celebrate elder thomsons b-day which halloween just so happens to be on as well, but what stinks was that we had to be inside at 6:00.

Also i just remembered that there were a few people from back at home that served in this mission could you please talk to them and ask them what areas they served in? one person that i can remember is the guy that his dad owns the big plumbing company i think.

as for the work its been going good. the other day i decide to start praying before every door we knock on, ya know just a quiet one to myself, the cool thing was that every door that opened, opened right after i said: amen, and we ended up finding 2 new investigators and one of them has no real church background but in the last 6 months he has been clean of drugs and booze and has turned to god for help in life and everything else. He said that he believes everything coming out of 2 nephi and many other places in the book of Mormon so he is sweet.

well im runing out of time so love ya lots.

Indiana weather--

2009-11-03T19:45:00.000-08:00

Hey family,
Is it cold yet?? it is a little difficult to answer this question because the weather inIndiana has ADD. Last week it was chilly but the last 2 days we have only had short sleeve shirts on but then today its dark and gloomy out soo who knows what the weather is gonna do next but the saying in Indiana is that if you dont like the weather just wait 15 minutes, hahaha
Did you get the coat I sent?? yes and it wasnt what i was expecting but i trust taylor soo we'll see how it works

I actually get jons emails and i just read the last one he will ever write and it is soo crasy that he is going home this friday i still feel like he had just left, it really goes to show that 2 years really isnt all that long.

So as for my week it was pretty good we got to hear from elder Richards of the 2nd quorum of the 70 and his wife. I liked it alot we sat in our seats being trained by him from 9:00am-1:00pm and it was all awesome he told us our mission funnel chart and then he told us the average funnel chart for the US and the for theUS and Canada and our mission is way below average. For example for every 58 investigators there is one baptism in our mission and for US and Canada its for every 12 investigators. also indiana will be getting even less missionaries and that means one thing and that is that now we have alot more work to do and we have to make up for the lack of missionaries so out of all the missionaries in the world we have to be the elite. Also we heard about alot of changes that will be happening and im sure dad will know about them.

So soomething crazy that i learned this week was that while reading king benjamins speech in the first few chapters of mosiah a subject that he was talking about was children being accountable and stuff so i thought of moroni8:8 when moroni totally throws down on baby baptism and then the thought of christ popped into my head and i was thinking about how he lived a perfect life without ever committing a single sin thus making him the only perfect sacrifice to be able to perform the atonement. Well then it hit me so hard that i yelled out: "WOOO" immediately followed by my companion elder timothy telling me to shut up and save it for companionship study. Soo the reason for baby baptism is because they believe that EVERYONE is born into sin because of adams transgression right, but everyone that believes in christ also knows that he lived a sinless life right, soo according to this belief it means that Christ sinned because he was simply born thus making him not perfect and unable to perform the atonement, so this belief completely contradicts jesus, and there you have it, it is FALSE, BAM!!! well i hope you find that as cool as i do.

ok so thanks for the emails and stuff but i like to hear more details and have more of a conversation instead of me just reporting stuff each week.

love ya,
Elder Nelson

Baptists and Mormons

2009-10-21T18:08:00.001-07:00

The members out here arent very good at alot of the things that they do are really different from out west but i guess thats why they send missionaries from the west to the east to show how to run the church and send the missionaries from the east out west to learn how the church is run.

im really looking forward to this jacket and my scarf.
So for this week it was very interesting but one of the most interesting things that happened was this: so a while back this baptist chaplain for the jail grabbed us at KFC and is from AZ so he gave us his card and invited us over for some chimmy chongas if we ever wanted some. So the other day we finally got around to calling this guy and he was super excited that we did so we went over for some dinner and they were all very nice and welcoming(all-him,wife and 5 daughters) and we had a very good time over there and we talked about how much better Az is than IN and we had alot of laughs, it was a very homey environment and the food was soo good. Anyways at the end of it all before we left he extended us an invitation that if we ever were hungry or wanted to play games or watch tv we would be welcome, we told him that we would love to come back but it wouldn't be to watch tv or play games, to me it kinda sounded like a trap to test our dedication to being obedient, but that is just me jumping to a conclusion. Anyways after that he told us that if we would like to talk "theology" for half a day or so then he would love to and he wouldnt beat around the bush about what we disagree on but he said we would do so on one condition and that is that we will not argue with each other, that it will have a discussion like adults, and once he said that we accepted his polite offer. As we left we made sure to show them all our appreciation and thanks and they said that hopefully we could build as friendship off of more than just cause were from AZ, hahaha, and he also gave us each a copy of this book that is the biography of his father who has past away,he said its alot about AZ and their church and that it talks about how his father grew up ouside of Eager and how much he loved the mormons, so we thaught cool and went on our way. Now the day after right before i was gonna put away the book for after the mission i was looking at the table of context skimming over the chapter in it we i saw that one was labeled: "mormonism" so i skimmed through the few page chapter and basically he was bashing the church and said that he had stumped some missionaries on the whole adam-god thing by President Young so that made us think that this guy is gonna try and get us in a corner and it really makes me mad when people are so judgmental about the church and think they understand things that they really dont.

anyways this week was alot of fun and this week we get to hear from a quorum of the 70 and we’re gonna help on extreme makeover in kokomoso be watching for that show, lol.

love ya and its really nice to get details about back at home,
Elder Nelson

2009-10-14T17:56:00.000-07:00

It sounds like alot of fun back at home with everyone and our stake conference is coming up like next weekend but what im really excited about is this wednesday for our zone conference a member of the quorum of the 70 is coming to speak to us so it'll be really cool.
So something that i studied this morning that i think is pretty cool is that i learned about how Egypt started in Abraham 1. Its pretty crazy it turns out that one of Noahs was named Egyptus and she was the one that found it and her sons name was Pharoah and it turns out that he was a really righteous ruler but he couldnt have the priesthood cause he was a descendant of Cane and then over time the pharaohs went bad and claimed that they did have the priesthood. That’s pretty crazy huh that is some more proof that there is no way that Joseph Smith made up the Book of Mormon or the pearl of great price cause i dont think that anyone knew how Egypt started. Something else that i learned that is very similar to that story is you know the first Nephi in the beginning of the Book of Mormon. Well in the first chapter of Jacob it says that because Nephi was soo much the man that in his honor each king theNephites had was given the title of 2nd nephi or 3rd nephi and so on according to the order of king they were and then over time they go bad like the pharaohs. Well since I’ve been out i have definitely gained a testimony about scripture study and in fact it is a commandment as said in 2 nephi 32:3.

So a little bit about this week. Well lets just say that if i were to use one word to describe this week it would have to be: miraculous. The reason that i say this is because this week was full of miracles. For one of the many that happened, it took place on friday and we were on an exchange with the spanish elders(they cover the entire stake by themselves) and we went to this apartment complex were we new there were alot of mexicans and within the time period of about an hour and a half we found 3 new spanish investigators for them and found SIX new english for us, see i dont think that you understand the magnitude of the situation at hand, let me help you understand a little better. In indianathis finding 6 new gators in a week isnt heard of let alone a total of 9 in less than 2 hours . Well you know how there are always tons of missionaries from the factory of Utah, well at our district meeting theassistants and our zone leaders came to watch and one out of the 10 missionaries that were there 7 of us were from the greatest state Arizona and one from utah, hahaha. So this what happend this week!!

Elder Nelson

conference and other things...

2009-10-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

we got to watch all of the conference and i got some really good notes. It was the first time that i had ever watched all the sessions and it was awesome. I really Elder Bednars talk and yes Elder Hollands was AWESOME i had goose bumps all over, i would like to see Andrew try to tell him the book of mormon and the church aren’t true (Andrew is this british dude that somehow calls missionaries in our mission and just tries to bash with us, But anyways there were alot of really good talks for instance the new apostle, Elder christophersons was really good and elder timothy and i really liked Tad Calister, he was the one that threw down on the trinity and how stupid it is and also talked about how the 3 kingdoms is clearly even talked about in the bible. Conference definitely got us both really fired up, we were even talking earlier about how we wish we could clone ourselves so that we will be able to cover more ground, hahaha.

Soo one bad thing about this week is that every car in the mission lost 100 miles a month, by that i mean that for every car there is an allotted amount of miles we can use a month, for instance we used to have 1200 miles for our huge area and now we have 1100, and then there are the miles that we are forced to burn up by traveling to zone conference, district meetings, and president interviews so basically we have to bike and walk alot more now so we dont run out of miles. We actually drew a circle around our house with the radius of like 20 mile and we decided that anything within that circle we have to ride to, sounds like fun huh.

well, everything's going good!! i have pictures that should be there shortly....

Elder Nelson

wind

2009-09-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

so one thing that i would like to address really quickly is that i HATE wind and yes all the leaves are falling and changing colors but unfortunately it is starting to get cold so if you would send me my blue hoodie sweater because in my pros clothes its all good but on p-days in normal clothes it is a little cold so if you could do that it would be greatly appreciated.

so one very cool thing that i have learned this week is that a member in our ward that we cover is named Bill Eager and his grandfather is the one that founded good ole Eager and he said that he knows of the Nichols so yet again it is a small world.

something else that was an epic adventure was that on friday the assistants came on exchanges with us and i went with Elder Shahan(Utah) and since their van has unlimited miles we took a long journey to a town named Rochester which was an hour drive, and i finally got to the northern edge of our huge area that covers like 5 counties.

ok so the spiritual highs for the week was we had our president interviews and those are always awesome. President Corey is the best mission president in the world and knows a ton. Also this last saturday we had the baptism that went really well. ok so Elder hougue is the elder that i replaced because he is finished with his mission and now he is going to this high end engineering school called Rose Holmand which is in southern indiana and he came up for the baptism too and that was sweet. Also the confirmation was really powerful on sunday.

Now every monday we have district meetings and yesterday was the last one for this transfer soo afterwards to make sure that we went out with a bang we had pinatas and it was a blast.

well thats all i got for the week so ill talk to ya later

love ya,
Elder Nelson

Yehaw!!

2009-09-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

so ya it is really crazy cause at the end of next transfer i will hit my 6 month mark which means I’ll already be out 1/4 of my mission which is just crazy and i still am learning like a wild fire on soo many subjects that i cant keep up with everything that i want to learn more about, i have a huge list, its epic.

that is sweet about brian and taylor and just funny about denver its really crazy cause right now im with another elder on exchange and his name is elder cris peterson and his dad is bow hunting too (FYI- he’s from gilbert and his grandpa it mayor larry nelson, small world huh)

Soo other than that this week has been AWESOME we set 2 baptismal dates and one is this saturday, he has been investigating the church for 2ish years and another crazy thing is that one of the first elders that taught him is elder jonston, now you dont know who he is but he was one of halls MTC teachers, crazy huh.

So also that was awesome is that we had our Purdue campus blitz and it was AWESOME as expected and what is really cool is that one of the girls that i taught is now investigating the church and is taking the lessons from our zone leaders, the crazy thing about her is one she is a freshman in a sorority, she has zilch for a religious background, her dad is athiest, her mom is southern baptist, but, even though she has all of this she was searching for something and she didnt know what it was and now is trying to obtain what that something is. It goes to show that everyone NEEDS the gospel and most dont even know it. So one of the things that clicked(i knew it before but didnt have a testimony of it) for me this week is not to judge someone on there past or even how they are living their lives now but instead to see what someones potential for the future is, and EVERYONES potential is to go through repentance and baptism which wipes their history clean and to god it is all forgotten as if it had never happened.

i got your box you sent me and thx alot, i really did like it but try not too send too much too often cause we ate all of it that same day it came in the mail, hahaha. (Editors note: we sent two dozen cookies, 1 dozen rice cripsies, 12 cups of puppy chow! you do the math!)

Love ya ,
Elder nelson

Awe-SOME!!!

2009-09-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

ok so this week was an alright week, NOT!! it was an awesome week, for one last p-day our whole district went to a dojo in kokomo(member owned) and we had huge battles with those play swords with padding and on them, and we got to wear hockey masks for protection, it was a really good comp inventory, we were able to burn up all the energy that builds up inside of us and it was soo much fun.

then on thursday we had to go to Indi for elder timothys doctor appointment to find out about whether he needed surgery on his ankle or not (he broke it like 6 months ago) and whether he had to go home or not and luckily he just needs to go to some rehab for a little while so its all good. So on our way back we stopped by kokomo to take our break with them and then we took them to logansport to blitz our area and we had alot of fun(FYI-all 4 of us are from AZ and no one from our district is from utah, hahaha).

now the climax of this week was yesterday when we went on exchange with the zone leaders and i went with elder miller(also from AZ) back to Lafayette cause their area is Purdue universty campus and let me tell you it was AWESOME!!!!!! now let me tell you y it was such an adventure. Now for normal missionary work all you do is go door to door and talk to people w/ your comp. Now this is not true on campus, on campus there are people everywere to talk to, i discribe it like and a kid in a candy store, missionaries are the kids and all the candy are people to talk to. So you can only imagine my excitement, but there is another catch about campus and that is that you’re on your own. How this works is a companionship goes to an area with a good number of people and you stay in that general area and you split up and go teach and talk to people by yourself, and just by myself i taught 11 lessons, now the reason that is really good is because in a average day as a normal missionary you teach like 5 lessons together. Pretty crazy huh, it really puts a missionary to the test to see if you can hold your own and on the drive back to logansport to switch back elder miller said i passed with flying colors, he said out of all the missionaries he has EVER taken on exchange to Purdue i did by far the best, and he said that one of those missionaries is going home in 2 transfers. Before he told me that i thought that i did pritty good so he really boosted my confidence :)

now for this coming week i can make a really good guess on what will be the climax and that will be on Wednesday when our entire zone of 20 missionaries are gonna go blitz Purdue campus so im really stoked for that.

WEll thats all i got, tells spencer to stop getting hurt and tell alli to tell everyone from camp hi for me, love you lots,
Elder Nelson

Transferred!!

2009-09-08T21:10:00.001-07:00

ok to explain myself about last week i blame the computer, i had a really good letter about everything and right as i was about to send the email the time ran out on my computure and it deleted everything so im really sorry

anyways so my new comp is sooo sweet in fact i had gone on exchanges with him last transfer and we had joked about serving together soo you can just imagine the reactiopn from both of us when
Pres. Corey called out our name, we had huge smiles on our faces and were just like "NO WAY" its awesome and started a new epic adventure

so his name is elder timothy and this makes my 3rd companion so far that is from AZ, hes from phoenix and he is also district leader, we have soo much in common like football and our personalities and having spontaniouse adventures that lead to amazing memories, like we have talked about kofa and san luis' football and how we both just smashed them both its pritty funny

ok so to make this transfer even crasier not only was it a double transfer and i got an awesome elder but even crasier i am now in Logansport witch is in the same district as kokomo soo its sweet, soo i have been helping the new elders there alot with getting to know the area and everthing

so as for missionary work we have been having alot of success we've been tractin really good streets and finding alot of new investigators and we even have three right now that want to get baptised soo we are haveing alot of fun and its making time fly by, like one of the investigators we just got is a 61 year old veteran that was a ranger in vietnam and got a whole bunch of medals but he is just one

o ok so this one guy we were talking to yesturday asked us that if we had had a real job before we came out and that if we knew what it was like to have to WORK for our money if we would have still would have left it all to serve a mission? well after he asked i kinda chuckled and told him that i knew for an asurety that i still would because i did, then i went on to explain to him that i worked concrete for 8 months and raised hogs for 8 years along with other jobs it kinda made him a litle quieter, FYI he was also on the edge of drunk, lol.

soo i think youll like the pics ive been getting and we made a few videos too of our new house that i think you will like but thats all i got, soo i love you and thanks for everything,
Elder Nelson

hard at work..

2009-08-28T18:21:00.001-07:00

so this past week we have got soo much done, we were able to finish the new ward mission plan, reactivated a few people and that was super awesome like this one girl, juliona. She is a recent convert about a year ago and we played horse in the downpour of rain with her to get her to see how much we really do care for her and then we were teaching her out on the porch and had a super powerful testimony meeting with her Elder Payne and I shared things that we had gone through and that we dont want her to waste her time making mistakes like we did. It was soo powerful we were all on the same mindset and were thinking the same things and by the end of it all even a few tears got ripped out of me. It was an amazing calming feeling and ever since she has been doing great shes going to church, going to mutual, and she is going to seminary too i hope she stays strong, i really do.. I had such an amazing spiritual experience this week the level in which i cant tell you, but you can know that it had to do with my first time actually being the one giving a blessing:) There is just soo much personal revelation and such presence from the spirit this whole week. Our ward mission leaders wife gave me a copy of a talk she gave on the star spangles banner and it is super powerful and in it she related the american flag to moroni’s title of liberty i had never even thought of it like that along with other things, for instance the meaning or folding the flag 13 times and alot of other awesome stuff.
well im off on another adventure with another companion, i love you all and continue to study and move forward cause if we're not moving forward were moving backward
love Elder Tanner Busby Nelson

"We've been getting a lot of rain"

2009-08-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

we have been getting alot of rain, sunday night there was a huge thunder storm and it was poring i would have never known if elder payne hadn't woke me up to see but i just past out like a minute later, in the morning he said that he hardly slept but for me it was one of the best nights sleep in a long time, rain and thunder just put me to sleep like a baby, lucky me, hahaha. And then yesturday while we were talkng to a new investigator outside to set up a time for a family home evening with them his wife felt a drop of rain and i kid you not 15ish secounds later it was a down poor and all the streets were flooding with water and then 10 minutes later it was blue skys again, i swear that indianas weather is ADD.

So it is soo crasy because next wednesday the 26th is the end of this transfer and we dont find out if we are being transfered until the morning of the 25th, i gotta admit im a little nervouse because i dont really wanna leave kokomo quite yet, but wut ev, if i leave i leave, :)

Love ya, Elder Tanner Nelson

Great disappointment..

2009-08-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

so we only got a tiny piece of the storm it brought me great disappointment but for the hour that it was here is rained and blew pretty hard.. as for this last week let me say this: it has been very interesting. Last week i had said that my companion and i had a huge streak of not teaching together for either exchanges or it being p-day, well i can now say that since then we had only taught once together because of a few reasons. The first being that for the first half of last week we were both on exchanges and then for the second half my comp, Elder Payne, had a sinus infection and then yesterday we went on exchanges again today is p- day and then tomorrow we are going on exchanges again so by the end of it all we will have taught together once or twice in the space of 2 weeks crazy huh. But i have loved every minute of it, exchanges help me learn alot faster than normal simply because i can see different ways of doing the same things.. ok that’s all for now,

Elder Tanner Nelson

"I'm SOOO Stoked!!"

2009-08-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

so just to let ya'll know there is a huge storm headed my way rite now and suposedly it is supose to from sinsinati to indianapolis i am so stoked hahaha i just got off the phone with some elders in my distric that are saying that it is starting to flood there pritty good o man im soo excited its gonna be AWESOME, you can probably see in on the weather on the net if you want

so anyways me and my companion haven't taught together for almost 5 days now because we have been going on exchanges with the other elders in our district and the zone leaders for our zone(this is because my comp is the distric leader) and it has been soo much fun, i love seeing that everyone has thier own teachng style and our own strengths and weaknesses and what was really sweet was that yesturday i went to Laffiet with one of the zone leaders and we worked on Purdue campous it was soo much fun and we ate dinner with the stake president and his family and they are very cool people but made me feel really good was that my zone leader told me that he is extremely impressed at how fast im learning and that im teaching is at a much higher level than what i should be so that was a huge confidence booster. Other than that i have a blast.

love, Elder tanner busby Nelson

Hoosier pride

2009-07-28T17:58:00.000-07:00

so this week has been awesome because we were finally able to get a 17 year old less active girl to got to church and to mutual she is a super awesome person but the only member in her family and up until now really she has hasn't been with very good influences that respect her standards but those people are finally leaving and when they did she was left hollow but it is soo amazing at how much happier she is now then just a week ago, also another amazing thing is that a recent convert in whom is soo powerful in his testimony is getting the priesthood this sunday, also at the end of each day this week we have been able to end with a member lesson and that always boosts our spirits and an extremely awesome thing that happened just today in fact is that our bishop took us golfin again and i not only got 2 pars but i was my first ever birdie and i was the only one to get one today hahaha, it was soo much fun and later today some elders from our district are comming down to play some b-ball :)

k soo i talked about how we had some bad stuff happen to us this week well to start our appointment with an investigator fell through because right as we got there she got a call from the doctor and had to go to the hospital for blood test results, then our other investigator we haven't been able to get a hold of sinse last week but we did meet the owner of the house that he lives in and he doesn't like us very much but what peacked this week of was when i was thinking about all that this one less active girl was going through ya know like feelong hollow and not knowing what to do and this was last night and it hit me like a freight train and it was the exact same feeling that i had towards the end of working at Degan Construction LLC, and tj,branden, denver, ami and taylor probably have a good idea of how i felt at the time and it was that exact same feeling but this time i was feeling it for this girl and i just hate that she or anyone would even have to experience even a fraction of that fealing, and im gonna use this experience of mine to my advantage to help her out of the hole that shes in and the sun will rise tomorrow

soo this week has been an interesting one as one might read but im doing fine and staying as strong as i can

love ya to death and on,
elder tanner busby nelson

Ps- email is sweet but letters in the mail are really nice to get too

More Pictures!!

2009-07-27T15:32:00.000-07:00

To the left is a link {the picture} to a web album of all of Tanner's Pictures he has sent...

There are some really great ones! both of him and of Kokomo... Enjoy!!

Beware--- there are a LOT of them!!!!! :)

Another update....

2009-07-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

Dear Family--

so this week we had a guy curse us off his property and the usual rejections but then we got a refferal from salt lake for this guy named dustin and he wanted a book of mormon and he is soo sweet and is super excited to learn more. he said that he had been raised catholic but he always felt like there was something missing. then while tracking we found this african american woman named Ashlee who is in besd rest fora couple weeks because she got a blood clot from smoking so we told her that the book of mormon can help her stop smoking and at first she was a little hesitant about it but once we started to teach her about it and the restoration and read a little with he she was totally feeling the spirit got super pumped about learning more( by the way this was all standing in the doorway with her on the couch cause shes a single lady) and before we left she said that she was having a horrible day and then she was happy

so basically its a missionary life im doing fine, Kokomo is awesome!!!

Love ya, Tanner

A LO-ONG Letter!!

2009-07-15T11:22:00.001-07:00

so sorry about last week but that was all that happened but this week there were a few more things

we'll start with tracting and let me tell you we did alot this week, infact in one day we knocked out an entire unit and in that one unit only 8 doors opened and out of those 5 turned into arguments and the other 3 were slightly interested.
Now not trying to make fun of other religions but the bulk of these bashs were about the trinity and as most know that is that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are all the same person and i gotta say that this idea is one of the most illogical ideas of all time. Now one of the reasons i say this is because its totally bogus because if it were true then that means that Christ prayed to himself, talked to himself, and in mutiple times for example when he was baptized he anounced through the clouds who he is.
now having that said the number 2 most ridiculous idea is that someone tried to tell us we are saved by that grace thing and that it doesnt matter what we do as long as we believe in Christ meaning that we dont have to keep the commandments. She asked if we knew where we're going after we die and we told her that we hope we go to paradise because its Christs decision and she said that she knows she is going to heaven, and then i said "so your skipping judgement" and she said yes. Now the saved by grace is half right--Gods grace is Christ performing the atonement and paying for all of our sins but if we dont use it and do all we can to be perfectly obedient. If we dont then its like someone buying you the best truck in the whole world and you just leave it in the driveway it doesnt do you much good if you dont use it--does it. ?

now for the grand most bogus idea i have ever heard which goes along with my #2 and that is that we dont need to repent and no matter what we do if God is just then he will send us all to hell, now after this guy saying this i dont know why anyone would go to this church. Now one thing that they kept relating it too was going to court and having to pay for our crimes no matter how bad we feel but what they couldnt understand is that if we truly repent then we are paying for it.

so thats a gist of trackting for us but on the bright side of things..

so the county fair is going on this week and some members for a dinner appointment took us there yesturday and i was super excited when i heard that we were going and it was way fun they had alot of cool stuff and their livestock was inside so that was the first place we went after we ate. So let me tell you it is a small fair there were maybe around 60-70 pigs and only like 6 beef and walking through i was expecting there to be really good looking animals cause all the big farms are around in the states up here but let me

A mission life:

2009-07-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

-all of our appointments fell through this week

-we trackted all week
-an old dropped investigator is trying to use the church for money
-we went on exchanges w/ the zone leaders and then w/ some other elders in our district
-glenn beck is in one of our zone leaders' ward back home
-there was a ward 4th of july party/BBQ and it rained all day
we have one investigator whos a scottish preacher

and that basically sums up my week but its all good these people just dont know what there missing and we constantly hear the words "im comfortable were i am" and of course the occasional basher who knows absolutely nothing but im still all good and i wont give up

i dont have any more to say cause not much happened this week butits going by fast

I love you all tell everyone i said hi

Elder Tanner Nelson

{Last weeks letter said..}

i can decribe Indiana really fast for ya:
is:
1. humid
2.green
3.flat
isn't:

moutainous

star{ous}

jack-in-the-box{ous}

well thats indiana

im glad for megan and especially for sheri

i love you all and we're working hard out here

Elder Nelson

oops!!

2009-06-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

Tanner's email is:

tannerbusbynelson@myldsmail.net

sorry for the mix up!!

We got an email!!

2009-06-23T15:30:00.000-07:00

Family--

Basically Kokomo Indiana is totally awesome, the one ward here is super awesome and so strong. my favorite part so far is that the members tell us to submit a shopping wish list each week and then each sunday the church fridge is packed with food hahaha, its awesome, and along with that we have tons of dinner appointments and the way we get around is a 2008 Chevy Malibu, i gotta say its pritty sweet, and we only have to ride bikes when we run out of miles for the month witch hasn't happened yet. :)

so when we flew in to indiana President Corey, Sister Corey and all the assistents were there to pick us up and guess what? it was raining hard, it was AWESOME, so that night we stayed in Carmel at the mission home (FYI- Carmel is the richest part of all Indiana) and had a few meetings, President Corey and his wife are awesome and so nice. So Wednesday morning we had a ton of pancakes (it reminded me of when Denver cooks) along with interviews and another meeting with some pics, so while we were getting assigned our trainers one of the spanish elders is getting trained by an Elder Busby and that really caught my attention and i really wanna meet him.

but anyways my trainer is Elder Bryan, hes been out 22 months anyways hes from the Recon stake from Tucson, he was a wrestler, converted at 12 and we keep playing the name game but still cant figure out anyone we both know, hes an awesome missionary, hard worker, District Leader, and is becoming an awesome friend, and for the rest of our district i've only met two but there all pritty chill, one is a vegan though.

so basically Indiana is very flat, you can see for miles,its also very green, and yes extremely humid, when you walk outside you automatically are sticky but this is because it rains like 3-4 times a week, and man let me tell you the thunder storms and lighting are something else up here, i mean when one strikes like 6 strike and they go like across the sky instead of down to the ground it sweet, and then there is the really cool thing about Indiana and that is: Tornados DUN DUN DUN!!! and mom dont freak out but Thursday night the assistants called and told us that we needed to go home cause of a tornado warning and one of the signs of a tornado is that the lighting and the sky are green and that is exactly what was happening it was sweet.

Kokomo has like an 18% unemployment rate which makes it one of the fastest dying cities in America which is sad but good for the work.

so far its all good tracting in fun and easy, as a companion ships are lessons flow smoothly but we only 1 investigator and a few in actives but we have found like 5 more potentials, and were are in the bible belt so within just this week ive been able to categorize most people: face slammers, listeners and then face slammers, content, fear of change, and of course the bashers that everyone loves

so thats really all i got, im praying and studying hard and leaving nothing behind

Love Elder Tanner Busby Nelson

Oh! and you all can email me now... eldertannerbusbynelson@myldsmail.net

P.S- ive only seen like 6 steers so tell Bryan im sorry, but Kokomo do have the worlds largest steer stuffed at a park

and i hope Sheri is doing alright

dad we need to know how to make Carne and we need some jerky please

More Pictures

2009-06-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

Here's some more pictures of Tanner and his friends in the MTC..

This is Tanner's teacher.. from the MTC...

Finally, he sent the pictures that we have been waiting for... We're not quite sure how it is done but it is AMAZING!! These are their re-enactments of The Matrix:

We got a letter from Indiana!!

2009-06-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

And over 250 pictures!!! they are hilarious! Tanner has finally arrived in Indiana

his address is.. (he emphasizes that we put his first name also..)

Elder Tanner Nelson

1938 Jones Pl.

Kokomo, Indiana 46902

Tanner's companion is Elder Bryan who is from Tucson. Everything is so far going great, he is having fun.. here's some pictures...

this is tanner's friend Brandon (from Yuma)

:) swine flue!!

this is his district..

Many, many, many more pictures to come!!

..

2009-06-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

family--

so this week has deen AWESOME we have been learning so much doctrine and were finally starting to understand it all, it makes alot more sense.

so this weeks devotional was really funny because right before we started one of the security guys was at the podium and said: "if a member of the first presidency or a member of the quarm of the twelve just so happens to walk in we should stand" it was so funny and everyone started getting really excited, alright so after that we went on and started to sing our 3 intro/get in the mood/calm down songs and after the first verse of "put your shoulder to the wheel" Elder Bednar walked out and we all stood up and it was the most powerful song i had ever heard, and then we continued to sing we need the every hour, it was even more powerful than at stake conferance when he came. so the first thing that Sister Bednar said is that if she had the time she would call each of our mothers and tell them house good we looked, After she spoke Elder Bednar began and it was nothing like his talks in general conference he was so funny and we were all just cracking up, i think it was good for all of us to know that brotheren are all down to earth, then he shared a personal experience from his mission but its too long to tell you so look up "20 marks" by President Packer its an awesome example of this. but also i thought it was awesome that one minute he would be joking and laughing and the next he would be dead seriouse, but out of his entire talk the most powerful was his testimony. but i now realize that when he was telling us the answer to this question he was giving us all a blessing.so truthfully i had to leave out alot from his talk that was just amazing but i have a limited amount of time.

and all this good happened but then i slipped up today when i was washing my whites, um so there was a pen left in the washer and it destroyed 5 of my shirts and some of my garments,

I love you all and im learning alot and making awesome friends

love, Elder Tanner Busby Nelson

P.s.- i looked at the pedigree chart wondering why we needed it and now i know where Busby comes from :)

2009-06-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

so its official, we all went to the travel office today after we got back from the temple and we found out that it has been set in stone that our whole district will have the opportunity to stay at the MTC until the 15th, so that will make a total of 5 weeks in the MTC, but wait the wierd thing is that the elders who reported the week after us still leave on time, which means they leave before we do hahaha fun stuff huh, so if anyone else from home is reporting before i leave let me know who they are.

By the way me and brandon found tj at lunch and he looks soo different with longer hair

the good thing to all this is that we get to go to the temple twice a week till we leave and we get to learn all the other lessons because normally you only learn the 1st and 2nd lessons then you have to learn the others in the field

other than all that i hate to say it but theres not much else going on, i beat the swine flu, studing hard, learning a ton, were comitted to start and finish the book of mormon before we leave..

Love, Tanner

There's been a change in plans...

2009-06-01T16:22:00.000-07:00

YIKES!! here's a letter we just received via email from tanner..

well there has been a little change in plans, since the swine flu has hit the mtc instead of leaving tomorrow june 2, no one will be leaving until maybe the 15th, sounds like fun huh, but dont be worried about me i got it thursday evening have been in quarentine for Sat. and Sun and all without a doctor till this morning and when i did see him he said i was basically over it so im all good, let tj and braden know so they can get ready for it. well thats basically it and ya im kinda mad but its nothing to go crazy over, but some of the other elders are being way too immature about the whole thing.. love, elder nelson

"The end of the beginning"

2009-05-29T17:24:00.000-07:00

{this time i think i might fix a little spelling :)}

dear loved ones,

First off i would like to say that on tuesday june 2nd ya'll better pick up the phone when i call. ya thats right im almost out of this little bubble they call the MTC, and guess what? tuesday morning we leave campus at 4:00 and our flight is at 7:00, but to add onto that we fly to Atlanta and are stuck there for 3 hours until we finally go to Indianna.

and it just so happens that one of Brandons teachers served in indiana just last year and im so pumped, he said it gets to -10 in the winter but wut is really bad is the wind chill from the lakes, he also said that Pres. Cory {tanner's mission president} is way cool along with the fact that we will be doing alot of trackting but we also get to do servise trackting were we go to farms and offer to help them out :)So thx all of you so far and i really am learning mor than i ever thought i could and im having amasing personal revilation, I love you all and thank you for everything you've done :)

Tanner
{Then he added more personal letters to each person of the family}

P.S.- if ashlee wants me to talk about her she needs to right me.

Scripture of the week-
2 Nephi 32: 2-5

Another letter...

2009-05-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

[please excuse the typos.... i just copied and pasted:)]

This week has been crasy the very first full day seemed like it took FOREVER!!! and after that we've been learning a ton but until sunday came around my brain was like a mixed smoothy but having no class on sunday it gave Elder felton and myself to relax and figure out wut we were gonna do and ever since then ive just been obsorbing everything, ansd now were pritty good at the first lesson and we start the secound tomorrow, but i have a new name for the MTC and that is: SPIRITUAL BOOT CAMP, and it is just that. O by the way Elder Felton is from phoenix and there is one more elder from thatcher and my whole distric is awesome were all so good together and our Zone leader is from snowflake and hes going to mongolia, thats insane, the average temp there is between like 80 to -100 so i guess i got it pritty good huh.and of course all the teachers i can describe in one word: PRO, they are rediculously good and really cool. so today was our first P-day and it was basically awesome along w/ all our gym it really gives our brains a chance to vedge a little, so today was pritty easy and we went to the temple and they have a whole dressing room just for missionaries it was way awesome especially because even without our tags everyone new exactly who we were. so thats pritty much it, brandons doing really good from what he tells me, so love ya lots, let the fam know i wanna hear from them all and i need brets adress please :)
Love, Elder Nelson

Our first letter...

2009-05-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

Tanner sent his first letter home... as it was one completely-incomplete run-on sentence here's what it said:

Family-

The MTC is pretty awesome. So far my companion Elder Felton is from Phoenix and it's been like a wild fire ever since we met. Oh, so i don't know how anyone gains weight here cause there is no whole milk and the food isn't much to speak of either. But I don't understand one thing: football camp had the same 3-a-day schedule and it has hard physical labor, but today doing no physical activity at all i felt like passing out at 3:00, it was the weirdest thing, today has just been so long. Oh! and Eric Jones [A friend from when tanner was working on the river] is one of my roomies and Brandon's [Tanner's close friend] companion is really cool too like most everyone here is, especially the Elders in my district. Tell Denver thanks for making me wake up so early cause its not even a problem. And tell Ami thanks for teaching me to break into rooms cause my roomies got us all locked out with no keys and I got us back in with a Subway card. And i won't be able to e-mail till next Thursday.. and when i do please don't email back cause the computers turn off after 30 min. so when writing to me please use Dearelder.com it's pretty self-explanatory. Please write and send me goodies :)

Love,

Elder Nelson

this is tanner and his friend Brandon right before entering the MTC

He made it..

2009-05-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

Elder Nelson arrived in the MTC on May 13th. His address for contact is:

Elder Tanner Busby Nelson

MTC Mailbox #123

IN-IND 0602

2005 N. 900 E.

Provo, Utah 84604-1793

He is expected to depart the MTC on June 2nd..

I'll post his letter as they come..

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission...

2009-05-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

Elder Tanner Busby Nelson has been called to the Indianapolis, Indiana mission. He is to report to the MTC May 13th, 2009. Updates to be followed.