Hello everyone!! Its great to get letters from everyone and here how you are doing! I am doing well! It was good to hear about Ryan’s farewell and that it was good! He wrote me a letter the other day so it was cool to hear from him. I knew he would cry all the way through his farewell though! He reminds me of a convert even though he has been Mormon his whole life. The convert missionaries here are super strong. They may not know as much as others but their testimonies are very powerful. Elder Brown decided to come on his mission two months ago after he had some experiences that turned him back to Christ. He doesn’t know a lot but he is awesome and has this crazy thirst for knowledge that helps me when I feel like sleeping or teasing the sisters instead of studying. I love to study though. It’s amazing how fast and how much you learn when you have the spirit 24/7. It’s really cool. Oh I saw Keagan by the way! His class is on the floor above mine so we have been running into each other. I haven’t been able to talk to him much though although i did get some pics with him! I failed to get pictures with Bridger before he left so the first time I saw him I was like Keagan!  Let’s take a picture!! Hopefully I run into Ryan sometime before I leave That would be really awesome! I have been wondering about his drop off and how his experience has been going!! Im sure he will do great here. So one thing our teachers taught us is that we have to let the spirit guide our questions and thoughts during our lessons. It turns out that this is harder than I thought. We had a whole lesson on Revelation through the holy ghost and how to listen to the spirit. It didn’t help much. I feel the spirit but it’s hard sometimes to let it guide the conversation. Well I was pondering about it during study time and I am pretty sure I had an impression on my mind from the spirit. The thought came to my head that I need to realize how important the spirit is to my teaching. And that until I am not taking it for granted like I won’t be able to use it fully. The thought then came to my head that the MTC is a place to break you down so you can realize how much you do need the spirit and you can learn to rely on the lord. I’m having a stupor of thought now so I can’t remember the full thought but I wrote it in my journal and I felt the spirit really strong when those thoughts came into my head. My companion did as well when i shared it with him. I hope that made sense.  Mom when you said you wanted to watch lost it reminded me of an experience I had this week. One of our investigators, Ben, Has been having a rough time because his family died in a car wreck. So we showed him this mormon message about a guy that lost his fam in a car wreck also, but relied on the lord and the atonement and forgiveness to get through it. Well there was a piano theme playing throughout the entire clip and right in the middle it starts to sound exactly like the theme from LOST. I seriously felt sick to my stomach because It reminded me of home and you and of course how awesome lost is, and I was homesick for like five minutes. I’m serious though go watch it and listen to the music! Its called like forgiveness, something something haha so look it up!! The video was money with the investigator by the way. Can you say committed to baptism??   Oh yeah so last week i wrote a letter to Elder Andersons dad right. He works for Nabisco(Oreo,Chips Ahoy, Nutter Butter) and I told him that his son was just going through the worst withdrawls from nabisco products because that is basically all he has eaten his whole life because his dad gets as many of the products as he wants for free! So today elder anderson got an email and his dad is sending us a package haha. I wish you could have read the whole letter. It was pretty funny.  ummmmmm me and Elder walker have been working out everyday in the fitness center. We were thinking about how if we were here for nine weeks we would get so ripped. Elder walker has had a shortage of garments and has therefore had to double up! So he has smelled like death the past few days. Thank heavens for laundry!! Well I’m over my time limit so I gotta go!! I love you all and tell the nephews i miss them!! The spirit is so strong and The scriptures are so true! I’ll write you a letter with info about me calling from the airport and what not and probably some other stuff that i need sent to me in santa rosa! I love you!!

Elder Nelson  July 26th 2012

 

 

 

To mdnelson1957@hotmail.com

From:	Andrew Nelson
Sent:	Thu 7/19/12 10:15 AM
To:	mdnelson1957@hotmail.com

Hey everyone!! I got all your letters and it really is true about how awesome mail is! Yesterday I got 5 letters and a package and none of my companions got anything so they were way mad and I was just beaming!! The MTC is awesome!! I have been learning so much its crazy! my teachers are the bomb.com! They are Brother Jacobson and Sister McGill. They bring it every class period and are so smart! Sis. mcgill is a scripture master and knows them like the back of her ahand along with preach my gospel! Its been a huge privelidge to learn from them! and I really think I might be in love with sis mcgill! me and Elder walker everyday after class look at each other and say I think Im in love!! She is so awesome!! My companion by the way is elder anderson. he is really cool and quiet and we teach really good together and get along well. The other two elders in our room elder brown and elder walker are also awesome and they are seriously aweosme. Elder walker and I are long lost best friends and are constantly busting up because we have the same sense of humor ! Its really fun! Elder brown is really sool too. he is from north carolina and played football at arizona state university. cool eh? He didnt plan on coming on a mission until like two months ago. but here he is one of those guys that you love like crazy but that get seriously annoying at times. Its crazy how perfect these guys were for me here at the MTC I feel like each one of them was meant in some way to be my companion here because they all help me grow and get better every day. My comp elder anderson compliments me very well and off sets my personality very well. We bring it when we teach and get along well. Elder walker is my best friend! he is what will get me through the MTC. We are always laughing and joking aroung and making fun of people!! Our zone leadres are from england and we are always making fun of them and their accents and trying to talk like them haha its funny. We play them at soccer as well and they all theink they are so legit cause they are from england but really they suck.. except for elder barber. he actually is legit. anyways If it wasnt for him i would be a depressed wreck probably! Elder brown is helping me learn how to love and get along with people. He realy is awesome and he wants to learn so much and is always volunteering in class and so in order to get a word in edgewise i have to beat him to it! but he can really get on my erves sometimes as well. he was made our district leader and hence gets a little power hungry so I have to try and love him through that. HE is so cool though and I learn a lot from him!! So the MTC experience is going well!! I was a little worried at the beginning. but its great. Well mom I am pretty sure i have gained so much weight. Its so hard to not eat like crazy here! you have no idea! there is dessert at every meal and you can go back as much as you want. Usually when I eat to much and feel like crap I get mad at elder anderson and say Why did you let me do that to myself elder!?! Really though I told him its his job to not let me eat more than one plate! So yeah. When we moved into our room there were two elders already in it. Elder cunnold and elder fabian. Elder cunnold is from new zealand and he is like a suave cool guy that played proffessional rugby haha so he was telling us about all the american sisters here and how as soonas he opens his mouth and says something the girls swarm over him because of his accent haha. There are some crazy sisters he told us about!! One of the craziest gave him family pics of her and is writing him letters that say they are going to get married and before he left to go to the phillipeans she got a photo with him and he showed us on his camera that when you zoom in close on their hands she was trying to hold his hand!! hah crazy right!! So me and my companions we decided that all these sisters here are in two categories. cause we see some and we are like why is she not married?? This is our conclusion.. they eaither really love the gospel and the lord, which is cool, or they must be crazy. haha it might be rude n=but we thought it was funny and if you talked to some of the sisters here..you would undeersrtand!! Im glad liesel and jen just loved the lord so much ;) Crap I only have four minutes left... sorry about the organization and spelling errors. im trying to type as much as possible! Well on a spiritual note the MTC is so humbling. I feel like i know next to nothing but it also makes you realize how much i really do know and i really am learning so much. the first day here we had to teach and we just havent looked back! i am teaching everyday basically. It is a lot harder to teach than you would think! Every day though i am getting better and learning a ton. just yesterday me and elder anderson had a way spiritual lessin and we both testified and taught with great power!! it was great to feel that and be successful instead of feeling frustrated!! I wish i could write more but i have thirty seconds haha I love you all and loved your letters!! Ill probabkly write a hand written with some stuff i