Monday, October 14, 2013

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

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