Elder Nelson (April 18, 2016)

Here's the week in a nut shell: 

We went finding -we taught hopefully by the spirit - we tried to baptized! #ballsohard!

Me and Elder Peterson will be here in Catawba for another 6 weeks together! He is from Twin Falls, Idaho.  He has a twin and has one older brother and another set of twins beneath him! No other news!

Elder Zwick came to our mission and that man is a truely inspired man!  Love him!  We learned so much!  He was called into the seventy in 95. He served as a mission president 2 times and is fantastic!

This picture is of a friends child in a past area! His name is Ben!

Love you all so much! Let me know if you have any questions!

Elder Nelson (April 4, 2016)

My glorious week!!'

So Holly is getting baptized this weekend! I'm so excited for her! She is on fire and loves reading.  Also, a part member family in my last ward had their baby and he's so cute. I'll try to send a photo!

This week we got a hacky sack? And played on pday and it's pretty fun!  Also, went on an exchange with Elder Rounds this last week and he's an exciting kid.

While walking on the reservation we started off with one dog and then dogs came from everywhere and joined our pack.  By the end there was so many dogs I was so scared I was gonna be killed by them, but I guess all you have to do is yell "go home" and they turned right around and left.  It was pretty neat!!!

While playing with the hacky sack before General Conference started
the second time I accidentally kicked it on top of the church building😱 so Elder Peterson got on my shoulders as I tried to squat him.  I forgot all the teachings of my mother and thrusted my knees up
then pulled my back up from a bad position and completely destroyed my back.  While doing this I had thrown my companion off and he had landed on his back and we both laughed in pain for a good minute or so😂😂😂😂.

Thanks again for listening to my message. I love you all and hope we can share the gospel in many ways this week!!!

I love this song.
3. I am a child of God.
Rich blessings are in store;
If I but learn to do his will
I’ll live with him once more.
Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with him someday.

📫ElderNelson😀

Elder Nelson's Email (March 28, 2016)

My weekly email to those I love.

Here I am siting in my new apartment.... 

So this week has been full of exciting movements. First, we finally moved into our own place and it was fun.  We got most of the missions office staff here and some elders from up the way.  Then, after the move we helped some members with a move and some gardening  -it was fun.

We met with Holly and we asked how this time was different from the last time she met with missionary's and she said it just feels right and she is loving it! She made it to church and so we're excited to see her baptized after General Conference! She is on fire -we love her!

There's this guy somewhere that says some funny stuff and he's from Jersey or something so I quote him a lot -but the other day in a Sunday School class we had the Stake Presidency teach us and one was teaching about
hope and while he did this man probably said, and I quote, "I think that's where the faith comes in" 5 to 5 times during that hour block.  It was hilarious!  I'm not kidding! I can't get over how funny that was to me!!!

Nothing too now - we're in a small apartment!

Thanks for all the support and love we love you!

Carolina on my mind! (March 21, 2016)

This week has been great!  We have been able to see the hard work we put in last week pay off. This Sunday we had Ashley, a part member family, come and she stayed with her 4 year old little girl.  We also had Holly S there! She's gonna be baptized on 4/8 and we're so excited!!  She has a lot of support in the church.  Her family is like
half the ward. 🤗

Also, this week we were able to meet with some great people and really help them progress!

Okay so I'm gonna give you the skinny on the area which I am serving now.

First off, we drive a Corolla and it's so nice!  Also, we drive 30 minutes each morning to get into our area and back home, hence the videos on the late night drive homes with the windows down! #thebest.😏 

My companion is from Idaho -he's legit.  He was a big wrestler in his prime and we laugh a lot! His name is elder Peterson!  The reservation is like all members.  It looks like Utah when you look at the area!  Back a lot of years ago when churches were starting here, preachers came to the Indians and said come join us but they didn't let them partake in the traditions of the tribe, so they didn't like those churches.   Then when some Mormon missionary's showed up they loved all the teachings and we allowed a lot of the traditions to continue! We built
a church building on the reservation and basically the whole tribe would walk to church each day and loved it! But the problem arose when the whole congregation was family basically and then someone got offended and that whole family left😳.  That's history of the Catawba tribe.

I went down to Pineville with Elder Brown on exchanges! He came out
with me and so it was fun to catch up with him! Also, I went to Monroe
and got to go on exchange with Eder Prado- he's Latino!

That's all! Thanks so much for all the love. I love you.

"Shut Up and Listen to me!" (March 14, 2016)

Wow it's been a quick week! Like if you agree👍 jk.! 

A lot of stuff has gone down this week we have seen a lot of miracles!  We were looking through some formers and found a girl by the name of Holly and she basically vanished right before her baptism date.  Well now she's back so we are teaching her again and she has the cutest baby but he's so sick right now so we're hoping he will get well!

We also had zone meeting and one of my mtc peeps is our zone leader so we kinda have some trust there so it's nice and he's funny! Also, there is a missionary here who doesn't hug? Isn't that weird? My mind gets blown and I have a hard time liking this kid just because that but I'm gonna work on it!!!,
We actually got to talk with one of the sisters from the district 2 videos! I'll send a picture she is so hilarious!

So while talking to this crazy guy he tells us that wolfs went to the ocean thousands of years ago and said amongst themselves "dang there's a lot of food in there" and so they become the killer whales?? So yeah
that was a good convo! I love them!

The old chief of the tribe here just found out he has cancer.  His name is chief blue and he is like the nicest man in the ward!!

It's warming up here so that's always nice!!

We played ball with some Mexican kids and got schooled but I was proud of myself! And we taught them the message of the Restoration and will return this weekend to baptize them!!!!!😃😃😃

Love you all thanks for all you do for me ...I love you! Please let me know what I can do to help!

John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent (Feb. 29, 2016)

Yolo family! This is a great time to be serving our Savior! We had a few people at church that will be baptized soon!!!

I'm going to South Carolina a place called Catawba... it's a Indian reservation. I'm excited but sad cause we got some exciting things!  Price made it to church and will be baptized on the 12th. Also, Nicole and Ben will be married on that same day!

It's been great here and I feel as Jesus did when he had to leave the Nephites 3 Nephi 17:6 "and he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you."

We were able to see a lot of people and have a lot of good visits.  Here's a photo of Price as well as Courtney.
Thanks for all of you... I love you!

"Yeah, I'll be transferred due to a bed bug infestation" (March 7, 2016)

Thanks so much for all the love!  I would love some house warming gifts such as nutrition snacks maybe jerky, chips, protein, music, and candy and notes, thanks! God will bless you....😏

This week has been pretty wild so I came down to Catawba and found out we were living at the Fortmill elders apartment because of the bed bug infestation....... That's right - our apartment has had 5 treatments and
they continue to find them until this point.  I guess  - hey may be gone..... I'm not sure how I feel! So we moved back in on Saturday!!!

We went to a lot of people's houses and found a lot.  We also had a stake luau and it was off the chain!!  We went out on teams with a member to find some home teaching family's and this guy we found was totally the guy and he had a gun in his right hand behind the door.......... Yeah this was on the Indian reservation.....So yeah I'm excited!

I'm with Elder Peterson! He's from Twin Falls Idaho! He is 3 months into the mission and is a solid buck!! He wrestled in high school!

Here's some photos! Thanks for all you do for me I sure do love it!  Please let me know what I can do or pray for!! #iwill.

"I remember standing in the hoodTellin' my partner, and my momma, everything gonna be all good" (Feb. 22, 2016)

This week has been off the chain!!

Nicole and Ben are so great! I love them! They're gonna get married on March 12 and if I get transferred I'm gonna have to sneak back to see that! FYI next week is transfers.

There is a part member family and the daughter that's about to turn 12 and myself get along pretty well and we're working on learning the dance moves to the nay nay and whip song. It's pretty funny!  They haven't come to church in awhile but Clair (the daughter) is reading and loving the Book of Mormon! We hope one day they can come back! Love them!

We got Price and he's the best - so hilarious! The other day we were joking around and he's hilarious! I'll send a video of a phone call we had with him! Hahah he is still alive. He's gonna be baptized soon!

Brother Henire just bought a Corvette and so naturally we set it up so I could drive in it so we went on splits and I got to ride with him and he throw down! Haha we drove pretty careful and safe for sure😉

We had a family history event down in Charlotte and it was a blast.  They had all these fun pictures thingies and we took a few!

My companion has a go-pro so we film contacts and we got a pic of me talking to this guy it's great!

Love you all so much I'm grateful for encouraging words and love I receive each week!

Find Christ more! Love you!!!!! Elder Nelson

"A Strange Thing in the Land" (Feb. 16, 2016)

Well sorry I didnt write yesterday it was a "work" day!

So here's the exciting news! Nicole and Ben are getting married in March and she's gonna get baptized after!!! I love them they are the ones I was da'ing with last week at church!

So we taught these 3 little boys -names from older to younger: Brandon, Andrew and Bruce! We went back for a third appointment and they had 3 pages of notes on doctrine from the teachings of Joseph Smith, but we
helped them understand and they're still feeling good about it!!

We had zone conference and I was so out of it for some reason I was kinda star gazing in the gym and we were role playing and president started to walk up to us and we were practicing asking inspired questions and I said this long stupid question and he turned around and watched other kids and then yesterday we get a call from the zone leaders about a business item that needed to be shared during district meeting tomorrow and one was to not complicate inspired questions! Hahah totally my bad!

We took photos With the Me car from Talledega nights.

This week went by quick!

I love Christ and His forgiveness! I know He lives!

Love you all! Please write back if you want blessings😉

Don't look at her in the face! (Feb. 8, 2016)

Hey y'all thanks again for turning in this week here from Carolinas finest 😏
I'm gonna give you the 401 on the work here in Concord this week! We don't stop believing that's for sure!

We had Zone Meeting this week and it was fun!  We had like 4 companionships have different topics to have discussions on and this one Elder goes on with a story for about 10 minutes and I couldn't stop laughing due to the fact that there was no discussion happing.  I just think I he didn't know what exactly he needed to do so by the end I had tears in my eyes and was bowed down asking for forgiveness...

Word got out that I'm the 2 Nephite..............😐

We went to a soup kitchen and it was a blast!  Everyone was so excited about the super bowl and how the Panthers were gonna win. hahahah but sad news anyways.  We had a blast!  We got to really see all the good
people in that soup kitchen and I was humbled.

We decided that we didn't want to go find people this Saturday so we set a slack line up in the park and planned on contacted and walking on the line and it turned out to be a success! A member caught a picture of us talking with this family and they were really great! It turned out really good!  Got to talk to more people then normal so
probably gonna do it again!!  My comp is sick at it!  I can only like walk the line and he jumps around on his butt and stomach and does all these cool spins it's so crazy! I'm gonna learn!!!

We went to a investigators house and me and her have a plan to do a dance routine and get it on film so that's in the making!

One of the part members told me he was gonna ask his girl to marry him tomorrow and then hopefully they'll get married in March and she can finally be baptized! I would be so happy to be here for that - I love them!!😍.

I love you all can't wait to help with anything please let me know what I can do to help!!

Love you!

I cut Elder Norconks hair! (Feb. 1, 2016)

This week has been fun and I'm gonna try to expound on it through my own words!

This week we had interviews with president and he had each companionship teach him and his wife the restoration in 4 minutes.  Then gave us a nice rebuke and we moved on! He told us that we needed to
put Christ more into our principals and teach more about Christ!

We did exchanges and Elder Bingham came to our area and it was very exciting!  We met some good people and really enjoyed each other.  He is more quiet and not really like me so it was good! He's from like by Vernal Utah!
We taught this less active and we read Moroni's promise and it was powerful!

I crashed so hard this week on my bike!  I was going probably 20 or 25 and went over the train tracks and just straight looked like a crazy!  And nothing too bad happened other then my helmet smashed pretty bad on
one side so I'll make sure to crash on my other side of the head so it still works! Also, right after this we needed to teach a lesson so we were trying to teach the Plan of Salvation and I was bouncing in and
out of conciousness and so it was pretty powerful lesson for me! I'm just kidding!  It was straight a mess!  I was all over the place! Hahah but I'm all good!

This week we had Brother Johnson take us out to dinner at Steak and Shake and it went straight through me and I couldn't even go on teams with him cause I needed to be in a restroom! But he is great and is a
fun kid!  He got back from his mission a few months ago and it's so nice to teach with him.  You just have to look at him and he will start teaching the next principle in the lesson!

I talked Elder Norconks into letting me cut his hair and ruined his life!!! Haha it's pretty funny!

Thanks again for all you do for me I feel so blessed right now and feel all the love you have for me!!!

Love you!!!

Yo yo (Jan. 25, 2016)

Hey all! This week has been great!

So Elder Huff went to Summerfield - one of my old areas! That's pretty exciting! I'm still here with Elder Norconk! He has a slack line!  Also, he is is tall! 

This week has been good - one of our investigators slipped up on something so we pushed his date back for February 6 and were really hoping he can overcome!

Ella is great!  She is reading and preparing for baptism this weekend! So we're super excited!

I'm loving the mission right now! We got a new zone leader and he's a nice guy!

We had some snow days and couldn't drive or bike so it was a long couple days but had some fun! Also, church was canceled so that was sad but also fun cause we did a district conference call and shared our testimonys and it was powerful!

We also had a world wide missionary broadcast from Salt Lake.  I guess the first time for over a decade! And now it's gonna be a yearly thing I guess! Nothing really new. We got taught by some great people!

I love all of you! I'm grateful for your love!

📫Your Missionary ElderNelson😀

What a New Year! (Jan. 18, 2016)

This week has been exciting!

Story about Keith. Keith is one of the sisters' investigators.  Apparently it got awkward and so they dropped him over to us.  We saw him and wanted to set expectations talk about how we wanted him to act upon the feelings that he'll receive as he studies this gospel to be baptized. We asked him what he wanted to get out of meeting with us.  He said "I want to learn magician tricks and I've also learned how to be invisible".   This man has been studying with the sisters for over three months.  I'm not trying to hate on the sisters  - this guy was just a
bit of a loon.

Price has been living the Word of Wisdom for 6 days now!!  yay We are so excited he's going to be baptized on January 30!

Devastating news Elder Huff is going to get transferred!  It's been great but I guess the Lord sees him in a different way  - he's going to my old area Summerfield I was there last winter.  I'm hoping he can get in contact with the recent convert Tim Harper who I was able to help come to baptism.

Michael Johnson is a recent convert in the ward and has truly changed his heart - it's amazing. We were able to help him move into a new home. He's been living in a hotel the last year and before that living in his car for the year before.  He's finally in a home and we had the chance to help him move.   It is so exciting and his family are truly progressing in the Gospel!

Brother and Sister Wright from New York made us Café Rio burritos pulled pork style!  It was delicious!  They're super great and fun to be around!

During Stake Conference yesterday we heard from Elder Rasband, Elder Halls, Elder Clayton and Sister Reeves. They spoke to 104 stakes over in this part of the world and it was powerful, but hard to stay focused cause we didn't have any investigators there😥

I'm getting Elder Norconk and he has a slack line and some really good skills.  Also, he has a gopro so we're gonna go off the chain these next 6 weeks! I'm pumped!!

Well, I don't have any other news for y'all! Other then happy Martin Luther king day👏🏿

Love y'all! I really do appreciate emails via here or hand writing letters to my apartment or just a post card that says love you!

Thanks again stay classy west-coast!