It is almost
Christmas!!! I love this time of year so much and the spirit is so much more
evident in the lives of everyone we talk to! It has been a great week! Elder
Welch and I have continued to develop our companionship unity and are becoming
better friends. Ever since day one with him I knew that it would be hard but I
have had this great feeling about the potential that Elder Welch has and that
our companionship has! I foresee us accomplishing great things here in woodland
together!
I am very excited to
be here in this ward at this time of the year! This holiday season is always
very fun and exciting and I look forward to the time that will be spent at
members homes with their families! I am always very humbled by the love that
the members show us.
We are going to be
having some great baptisms here in Woodland in the next couple of weeks! J.R.
Gallagher is getting baptized this Saturday at 7:00pm and Lori Stonebraker is
getting baptized on the 29th! Both of them are amazing people and I don't think
I have ever met more solid converts. These people seriously just need to be
baptized! They are so good and are doing EVERYTHING that they should be. It has
been a honor to teach them and to hear their conversion stories. We have some
other great people that we are working with as well, and guess what! New area,
new people, SAME PROBLEMS. Smoking and GETTING MARRIED.We have three
investigators who could pretty much be baptized if they would just get married.
One of them would need to stop smoking though. IT is so crazy how the world
views marriage these days! It is like it isn't even important! This morning in
my studies I read a talk by Dallin H. Oaks about Protecting the children! It
talks about marriage in it and about how the world is destroying something that
has been ordained and set apart by God to be sacred and special.
We had a pretty sweet
miracle happen this week! We had a former investigator call us out of nowhere
and ask us to come teach her! IT was sweet so when we went over and got the
full story she told us that she had been investigating a few months back but that
she dropped the elders and didnt want anything to do with them anymore.. well
after a while she started to miss the elders and the spirit so she started to
try praying again and then began to read the Book of Mormon and she knew
immediately that this is what she needed in her life and she also knew that she
had to step away from it to be able to realize that it was what she needed!
During the lesson she kept asking "when can i get baptized!?" haha it
was so sweet but we told her that it would take some preparation (she smokes)
and we set her date for January 12th. She then told us that she was "all
the way in" and that " she was going to give this all she had"
It was a great lesson and the spirit was very strong as we taught her the
Restoration!
I taught my first
District meeting this week! It was really fun! Everyone after said that it was
great and so as far as I know it went pretty well! There were some things that
could have gone better but there always is! The lesson was on revelation
through the Book of Mormon.
I went on an exchange
this week with Elder Johnsen one of our Zone Leaders. It is always so fun to go
on exchanges and see how other missionaries do things and go about the work.
Elder Johnsen was a VERY good planner and I picked up some things that I am
going to start applying to my planning.
I love you all and
hope your christmas is going great!! OH! Skype on christmas!! let me know what
the best time is for you guys.. we will have district meeting that day so there
will be times that I cant do it but let me know when is good for you and next
week I will let you know when is good for me! cause i dont know at this point..
I love you!!
Elder Nelson
