October 28th, 2013

This week was great! i got your letters by the way i just got them super late. but i did get them! So that was good!  Lets see. This week we had a great lesson with two of our investigators, kelsy strong and quinton. They are both super solid and agreed to be baptized! We taught them in a members home after dinner! The only thing with them is that they are both not married to the person they are currently living with. So we didnt set a date with them because neither of them are in the right situation to rush a marriage. So you can pray that they will have things fall into place for them to eventually be baptized. 

      So I am training another new missionary this transfer! My third born in the wilderness! So I am excited for that! Elder Rouse will be going to my old area in Ukiah! It was good serving with him but I am excited about the change! 

       So I can tell you that our mission is yet again going to be doing another pilot program. seriously the story of my mission life is change. We are constantly getting new things to do and try out. This time it will involve family history. A member of the seventy is coming December 8th to train us on what it is all about. So that will be coool. 

       This week went by so fast I don't even know where all the time went but it is over. I have been sick the past few days so that hasn't been fun.  Just a head cold pretty much! 

      Well I dont have to much to say this week.

Love Elder nelson

October 21st,2013

Hello familia.  So I just have to tell you all that this week is sweet! was sweet. We saw so many miracles and we taught so many lessons! it was a big time jump. We set three new baptismal dates as well! all with a part member family! It was legit! And we also have a lot of really sweet people to teach! it has been so fun! The past few weeks have been hard! We havent had any baptismal dates and no one has wanted to listen to our message. We have been finding a ton and sometimes everyone we talk to throughout the whole day will say no. We wont get one single potential and we have had a lot of days like that. So it has been frustrating but  the cool part is that this last week was just so full of awesome stuff that i almost don't even really remember the hard weeks. All i know is that our efforts and faith have finally brought forth some fruit! So it was awesome to see that. I have noticed that a lot on my mission. We will have a lot of hard long weeks but then blessings will come and you don't even remember those weeks because you are too busy with miracles. you receive no witness till after the trail of your faith! Isn't that the truth. But the witness sure is worth the trial. And in the end you grow so much more because of it. It is really cool to be aware of that. To feel it and recognize it in myself and in my life that the lord is totally in control. He gives me the exact circumstances i need to grow and become better and lets me struggle and fight just long enough to learn what i need to and then he sends the blessings. Every time. It reminds me of Hollands quote from a mormon message. Some blessings come now some and some don't come until heaven but for those who embrace the gospel. they come. I know that that is true! you don't even realize your growing and being blessed until you look back and see where you were and go, what the, how did i get all the way up here?? that  is kinda the feeling that i have had the past day as we have reported all of our stuff for the week. it felt so good to report those dates after weeks of inviting and no one accepting! 

     SO I should tell you that we had a pretty cool experience this week. We were contacting in downtown arcata on a friday night. you wont fully understand it by me explaining it but it is nuts down there.  haven't talked to very many normal people. but there are always people there so that is where we go to get our contacts for the day. So anyways it was crazy because it was friday and everyone was at the bars and partying and there are lots of crazy homeless bums and hippies and it is just a melting pot of people. Its pretty much sodom. 

      But we were contacting and no one was interested. There is a central place in arcata called the plaza and it is  pretty dangerous so we stay away from it because that is where a lot of the bad stuff happens. but we ended up on a corner of the plaza and we looked at each other and elder rouse asked me if i wanted to go through the plaza just once haha. I was like sure lets go for it! So we walked in and along one side of the plaza is just tons of bars and we happened to be on that strip. Passing bar after bar and everyone outside them was drunk or drinking or smoking or homeless. But anyways we get to the end of the street and there was this big group of weirdos at the corner and we were about to intersect with them and it was really sketchy when in front of us a ways this kid walks up and says, Well what are two mormons walking around a bunch of bars for? We just laughed and shook his hand and he introduced himself as a member of the church. Obviously less active cause he was pretty drunk. But we talked with him for a bit and as we talked people were making jokes and laughing at us and stuff but then out of nowhere came these two other guys who introduced themselves as mormons as well! they were less drunk. One of them had a brother on a mission and was going to be moving down to LA in a few days to live with his other brother who was a member and had served a mission. He was less active. The other guy was a less active as well and he lived here in arcata. So here we are in this dump skechy place and out of the cracks come these members haha . I felt at that moment what jesus christ meant when he said, ye are the light of the world a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. At that moment i felt that we were the light in the dark for these three members that had fallen into forbidden paths and were lost. And when they saw our light  they came. So anyways we have appointments with two of the three cause one is moving. They all expressed desires to come back to church especially after i bore testimony about the atonement and that no one has done too much to come back.  and they really respected that we were brave enough to be walking around in the plaza. one of them wants us to come over for dinner so he can feed us and we gave out a book of mormon to him. 

    So that was a little scattered and my spellling is bad because my fingers are freezing. But that was a really cool experience. And it was really fun. 

      Well this is week six can you believe it? Another transfer has come to pass! it will be intersting to see what happens. 

      Welp, i dont have to much else to say. I love you! 

Love Elder Nelson

October 14th, 2013

Dear Family, 

     Hello! I had a great week this week! Elder Cartwright and I spent three days in Crescent City going on exchanges with the Elders up there! It was really fun! Crescent city is a beautiful place! It is right on the coast! For our exercise one morning we walked to the beach with golf clubs and hit rocks into the ocean! It was sweet! I wish i could have taken pictures but unfortunately my camera is broken. i will stick it in some rice to see if that helps and i look forward to getting another. this was like the worst three weeks not to have a camera. I missed a lot of good photo opportunities!! Luckily, ill be here awhile and will be able to make up for it! 

     So that was fun to be able to go up and work with the elders. We had a zone blitz in eureka on Saturday. The Elders there are struggling so we all came down and did work in their area for two hours. I think it helped them out a lot. They have a lot of people to go see now. 

     So lets see, what else, we have some cool people we are working with. At church on Sunday we had three investigators show up! That was great! One of them, Quinten, was the boy friend of a less active member who came to church for the first time in awhile. they had just moved here from Utah! So hopefully we will be able to teach them soon once they get settled. We also had a girl named Kelsey Strong come to church. She is the good friend of a member  and this is her third time at church. In gospel principles she started crying as we taught about god and knowing god and we had dinner with them that night so things are going god with her. And the last one was Marvin who is basically a Mormon he just has to get baptized. But he is on paroll and cant be baptized until he is off of it. So i know i have been bad lately at telling you about who we are teaching but things have been slow in that department. We are super busy and always doing stuff but the teaching pool is small. And we are having a hard time finding people to teach. we will contact 20 plus peeps a day and there are days where every single person will not even give us a chance to say hello. So i have felt like I'm in Sodom and gamorrah ha ha. but we keep on going. It is always in the lords time! I know he is aware of me and my efforts to do his work. And i know that if i find someone to teach it is because he lead me to them or he led them to me. I am just a tool in his hands. So it is in the lords time. Apparently he wants me to learn a lesson! 

   Elder Johnson says he loves you! 

He is one of my favorite people i have met on the mission. I love him. 

    I got the raw meal! Thanks for that! I have been missing it! 

Lets see what else..this is one of those weeks where it was just a blur so I cant think of much to say. 

    This next week is zone conference so im sure that will be great. 

So I just have to say Mom and dad I love both of you so much! I don't know what i would do with out you! I always look so forward to getting your letters each week and hearing about how things are going. Mom you always crack me up with some of the funny things you say! So I am very thankful to you for writing me each week! There are some elders that i have talked to recently, that have not received one single letter from their mothers their entire mission. I cant imagine that. I am very thankfull for your prayers in my behalf. I decided awhile ago that no matter what happens i am not going to be a miserable bum so I am going to laugh and have fun and smile every single day. So i do. But missionary work is hard. These past few weeks have been hard. I feel like satan has been working on me extra hard lately. So I definently feel your prayers! 

      I know that Jesus Christ lives and is our savior. I know that becuase of his enambling power i can be strengthened to do more than i normally could while relying on my own power. I have felt him bear me up and I know he is aware of me and my struggles and challenges. As I have served him i feel like i have slowly come to the know the savior alittle bit better. What is that old saying, if you want to know someone really well you need to walk a mile in thier shoes? I feel like I have bee doing that in a smaller sense. As i have served and represented him i have come to know him better. And as I have come to knw him better i have felt myself changing to become more like him. And as i have become more like him i have become more like God. Which is pretty much the main purpose of us being here to become like god by following his son jesus christ and using the atonement. We are so blessed to have this knoweledge!

     So have you ever wondered if we ever renew our temple covenants? or when we renew them? I thought it was so cool in conference when the young womans pres spoke and quoted one of the prophets when she said that when we take the sacrament we renew every covenant that we have made with god. The sacrament has taken on a new meaning for me as i realized that along with the baptismal covenant, I also renew my sacred temple covenants as a partake of the sacrament...How important is it that we take it worthily!!? now i understand a little bit more. I love general conference! I am so thankful to be a part of Gods Kingdom on the earth. I am so blessed to be apart of his royal army. When the people asked jesus christ where his kingdom was he said it was not of this world. Likewise our reward for living the gospel and serving him dont fully come until the next life as well. Some people are shocked when we tell them that after our missions we just go back to life! no special reward or payment or status....for now. All of our rewards will come after this life. We are buying stock in heaven haha or in other words we are laying up for ourselves treasure in heaven. Blessings in this life but even greater blessing after. So many people dont understand. THIS ISNT IT. There is more. and when they come to that realization as they stand before god they are going to realize that they came unprepared for eternity. They didnt have their spiritual food storage. I feel so sorry for them. Especially the ones that so boldly rudely rejected us and cast us out. Because we dont represent ourselves. We represent the savior of the world. How blessed are we to be a part of his great work. to not have to wonder or search or seek truth. We have it all right in front of us. there is no hole to fill. We have the fullness of the gospel and plan of salvation. I stand all amazed. 

     Ill get off my soapbox now. Well, i love you. And i will talk to you soon! Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!! 

Love Elder nelson

Oct. 7th, 2013

Hey family! It was good to hear from you this week! That is so exciting to see Brenden Returning home and Jake getting his mission call!! That is sweet! Isn't that the same mission that you served in dad? That is just awesome! 

     Alright some items of business! First, Last week at the beach there was a terrible incident! We were all playing ultimate Frisbee and there was a rogue wave that came out of nowhere and went up the beach and soaked all of our stuff that was lying on the beach. So my camera, yes my camera got drenched. and it isnt working. Soooo I don't know what you want me to do. Should I send it back or what? And also I need another camera...Let me know! The mail is all worked out so you can mail me stuff now. I got all of your past mail as well. 

      I hope that you were able to watch all of conference! It was the bomb.com I cant wait to re read those talks and study them. I feel like conference always comes at the perfect time. Every six months I think generally speaking that the entire church needs a boost. I know i do. It comes at the perfect time! 

      I n Preach my gospel under the section about prophets it mentions the word truth like 7 or 8 times. I love that because one of the main roles that a prophet has is to teach truth. So many people in this world right now just have no clue what is right and what is wrong. they dont know when they pick up a religious book if everything that they are reading is true. I remember a time when some jehovas witnesses knocked on our door and gave us pamphlets. I started to read a little bit of it and i was just feeling very skeptical and confused and unsure about a lot of what i read. I didnt know what was truth and what was a lie. And I am not smart enough and spiritually in tune enough to pick out truths from half truths and lies. And it hit me then that that is why I am so thankful for a prophet!! We have materials that are published in our standard works and many other manuels that we can read and study from and have NO DOUBTS that what we are reading from is true...except the journa lof discourses...some of that stuff seems super sketchy haha but that is besides the point! We dont have to doubt!! We dont have to be confused! We have all the answers before us and they are stamped with the prophets and apostles approval. I love that. I love truth and I am so thankful to know the truth. and to now at this time be able to declare the truth to all that i meet! It is a great blessing!! 

      I am so thankful for the atonement that allows me to change everyday to become more like jesus christ! We are such a proud people. I have talked to many people with the mindset that I dont need to change! I am who i am and i cant change that! I am me and this is how i will stay. But they are mssing the big picture. The whole purpose of the atonement was to enable us to change not just superficially but even the very desires of our heart. I have felt this change overcome me on my mission. as I have submitted to the will of the lord my heart and my desires have been changed. The things I used to think that made me me have been altered and changed to make a better me. But I am still me. people dont get that! I dont even fully get it. But it makes sense because i have felt it in my life. It is a beautiful thing. 

     I hope each of you have a wonderful week. We are seeing many miracles every day out here in the service of god. I love you! 

Love Elder nelson

September 30th 2013

Hey family!!! how are you!!!!  I am glad you emailed me because I havent been able to get mail this past week either. I will be able to get it all tomorrow hopefully. The problem I guess is that we just moved in here right before i came and when someone moves in the post office changes the locks. so we have been trying to figure it out and we should have a key tomorrow! 

     Things have been crazy. For three days last week I was in shiloh Park! My very first area! We went down monday night and left wednesday night! So Elder Cartwright and i were both able to go visit some people in our old areas!! it was awesome!! The reason we went down is because on monday night early we had Zone Leader Conference With Elder Adjukitus. And it was trotally sweet. He pretty much told us that the church is very happy with what we are doing here in our mission but they aren't satisfied. And then he proceeded to point out everything that we stink at and laugh at us! That is really what he did. So we were all laughing at ourselves and how bad we are haha. He then taught us about how we can improve. It was basic stuff but very much inspired. He told us Zls about planning and how our weekly planning needs to be way better. It was good. 

     So I havent had a full week of work yet in my area. The first week I arrived in my area on wednesday and then left monday and got back wed. so i have only been here like a week still. But it is good. 

      So you are still having questions about online work. I will try to explain some things. I have now been able to give two talks on on that very subject. (i spoke in church on sunday here in arcata) So The first way in which it is effective is that it is the supreme way of contacting a lot of people in a short amount of time. and it is just as legit as a face to face contact because it practically is. 

       So first here is a story. in church last week one of the members  i had introduced my self to sent me a request on facebook. I didnt know that he had until I signed in to add a few of the members that i had met like the bishop and stuff as friends in between classes. I saw that he had requested me and i accepted his friend request. A few seats down from me there was a ring tone that went off and he looked at his phone and then me and said oh hey you accepted my friend request. So he was alerted by a notification that i accepted his request,

   That is the exact same thing that happens when I send a message or send a video or post a video on someones wall or send a friend request or like a comment or photo pretty much anything I do makes waves because someone is gonna get a notification...do you see how effective that is? Say i send a message to a non member that was referred to me. He is going to get a notification and see my name and photo and be like who is this guy. Next thing he is going to do is go to my profile to see who i am. My profile is open. he can see everything. He will probably look at some photos read some of my posts. ( all of me in missionary attire and about the gospel) Maybe he will then click on the "about section" where you can put down information about who i am and what i like. Well in the about section of my facebook, my testimony is written. so he could read my testimony. Boom. How many contacts with the gospel did he have just by going to my page? Quite a bit. Maybe something will strike him and he will want to learn more? Who knows. But that is exactly what happens because that is what i do when someone i dont know adds me. and that is what we all do. Statistics say that it takes seven interactions with missionaries before they will agree to be taught. With the internet we are going to burn right through those seven contacts. 

     Next. Something I have been doing is searching for groups on facebook. Like groups for new mothers or groups for "truth seekers" whatever that means haha but as i have found these groups I then go to the mormon messages library and find a mormon message that fits exactly what the group is about. So for this new mothers group i posted a video about mother hood. In the truth seekers group i posted the video about the restoration with L. tom Perry. At the very end of it it says. "truth has been restored" haha. So now lets go back to the notification thing. When I posted this video in the groups every single person in the group is notified that i posted something. How many members were in the truth seekers group do you think? over three thousand. I just contacted three thousand people and they were all notified in some way that i posted. From that post I have a bunch of conversations going with people who had questions about the video. I also had a lot of people attack me haha but it is awesome!! Do you see how effective this can be? it is so sweet. 

     I have joined groups that are specifically for members as well. THe groups are for Lds members in europe and england and germany and I am getting referrals from many of them because i posted in the groups introducing myself and telling them about what is going on. 

     This last week I taught two lessons. One was with an excommunicated member that lives in germany. Her name is vera. She really wants to get back into the church but is having a hard time forgiving herself and her family is holding her back. I was able to teach her about the atonement and about how everything wrong about us and our live will be made right because jesus christ suffered for us. And that because he knows us individually he can strengthen us to overcome our burdens.Everything we have felt he felt first. And she was so grateful. 

     I taught another girl named Sky! she actually lives here in arcata. We were out contacting people in downtown arcata towards the end of the night. We talked to this awesome couple who werent interested but told us thier daughter actually lived in erda for a few years at a boarding school of some sort. They said she loved it and that she almost was going to join the mormon church but that she moved back here and never did. Well before they left I asked them if we could add their daughter on facebook. And they said they would get my name and tell her and let her make the decision so we said okay. Well the next day i got her friend request and started a conversation with her. This was the conversation! 

• Sky : when I was in boarding school, one of my family teachers who was Mormon told me that the LDS church doesn't approve of tattoos.
• 

  9/28, 5:02pm

  Elder Andrew Nelson

  In GETTING tattoos yes but if you already have them it doesn't matter!
• 

  9/28, 5:04pm

  Sky Alexa Tinseth

  ohh okay I understand now!

  I will talk to you more later on, I'm off to babysit now!
• 

  9/28, 5:05pm

  Elder Andrew Nelson

  Okay awesome I look forward to it!! Have a great day!
• 

  9/28, 5:07pm

  Sky Alexa Tinseth

  you too!
• 

  9/28, 5:10pm

  Elder Andrew Nelson

  the past is the past! That is the beautiful part about the gospel. God doesn't care nearly as much about where you have been or even about where you are as much as he cares about where you are willing to go with his help. And I just want to testify to you that it is through following Jesus Christs example and being baptized that we take the first step towards the greatest blessings available to us in this life and in the life to come! Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized sky??
• 

  9/28, 7:04pm

  Sky Alexa Tinseth

  I'm definitely considering it now. I would love to sit down and really get told all about your faith.
• Sunday
• 

  9/29, 10:06am

  Sky Alexa Tinseth

  enjoy church today!

  
  

  
  

  I was going to leave it at that but the spirit prompted me so hard to not let her get off that easy so i invited her!! She also wants to have us over for dinner! So we will be going to see her this week sometime!

  So online work is legit. I have contacted pres collings and still need to reply to him but he wants to hear more about it. Maybe you can direct him to this email for me? Or forward it to him? that would be great!

  I am so pumped for general conference! If you want to be up to speed on what the most recent revelations from god are watch general conference!! Also I want to invite you guys to watch at least one session if not both sessions on sunday at the church dressed in your sunday best! I really regret all those wasted sundays when i fell asleep and didnt listen to the words of our great prophet and apostles. Many members out here go to the church for every sesion as a family. I want to do that with my kids. At least one session on sunday. Just an idea for you. I know you will all be way more open to personal inspiration.

  Oh so something else cool is that within the bounds of our HUGE area we have an indian reservation. Hoopa Valley. We are trying to get a branch started up there. This last week we went out to work there(it is an hour away) And we found a sweet family! We invited them to the sacrament meeting in hoopa on sunday. (There is only one a month) They came and loved it!! We are going back this week to teach them. Also at church were a ton of members and they brought friends and we set appointments and asked for referrals and we are going to be quite busy in hoops this week. It was an awesome miracle.

  So The zone leader thing dad. Pres alba wanted the zone leaders to be influencing more missionaries so he split most of them up, put them in a four man pad and had them train up new missionaries or help get older missionaries and struggling missionaries on track. So i live with elder cartwright who is my zl companion.

  I will let you know next week about mail i would just email again until it is figured out for sure. Thanks

  Have a great week!!

  Love elder Nelson

  ps we are going to the beach :)