Well, We had a nice Christmas week here in Japan. Actually yesterday it snowed a little. I'm not sure if it would usually count as a white Christmas but I will count it this time. We had a bunch of Christmas parties that we went to this week so that was good. We actually went with some investigators and they really enjoyed going so that was good. We had a lot of fun talking with everyone about the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I'm way sad Christmas is over. The big hype and now it's just gone. It is always a fun month. It wasn't quite the same hear in Japan but it was still pretty big.
We actually have been trying to give people presents and gifts but everytime we have tried to give something to someone we end up coming home with twice as much stuff. It goes to show that you can't give the Lord the crust of bread without getting a loaf in return. We actually went to this member's house just to drop of a little goody bag that we made and she ran inside and came back with like a chicken platter, apologizing that that is all she had. There were like 10 pieces of chicken on it. All we gave her were a few treats and she gave us a ton a food in return and wouldn't stop apologizing because it was so little. And I'm just standing there like you gave us your Christmas dinner, it is plenty, actually it's too much!! But she just kept apologizing. My companion and I were able to feel the Christmas spirit as we visited everyone and we saw immediate blessings for spreading the Christmas spirit. I hope everyone enjoy(s)(ed) Christmas and have a happy and safe new years!!!
Love
Elder Nelson
Christmas Party! (December 18, 2011)
Well we had a great week before Christmas and it was topped of by a wonderful Christmas Party. We had a great week preparing for this Christmas party, and we weren't sure how many people were going to come. We invited a lot of people and worked really hard to get as many people there as possible. It was a great program. It started at 5 and the young men and young women put on a nativity and did it by shadows. They made cut outs and made them move on the projection screen. It was a good and then the primary was the angel choir and then there was another choir that sang Silent Night. It was way good. Way spiritual. Then after that we watched the Christmas devotional and that was really good. Then we had a huge feast and there were so many people that we couldn't all fit in the cultural hall...no one could sit down we were all standing. So in our ward there are about 80 active members and we think that about 150 people came to the party which is a huge success. It was so great. The four of us misisonaries couldn't keep up with all the people we didn't know there. It was really ridiculous. I tried to talk with everyone but it was just too much.
Then on Sunday we were hoping that some of them would come to church but only a few came. It's still good. then after church we went and as a service sang at an old folks home. It was fun. They loved us. It was funny talking to them. Old people are always surprised when foreigners can speak Japanese. They also like taking my picture but it was good. I learned some Japanese traditional songs, now if I can remember them it will be a different story.
It was really nice seeing the Nativity and listening to the music. It was such a great opportunity to feel the spirit and be reminded of the true meaning of Christmas. I am grateful for the Savior's example and the life he lived for all of us. The Nativity is such a miraculous one and I am touched to hear it every Christmas season. He is the Christ the Son of the Living God
Have a great Christmas. Make it a memorable one!
Thank you
Love
Elder Nelson
Then on Sunday we were hoping that some of them would come to church but only a few came. It's still good. then after church we went and as a service sang at an old folks home. It was fun. They loved us. It was funny talking to them. Old people are always surprised when foreigners can speak Japanese. They also like taking my picture but it was good. I learned some Japanese traditional songs, now if I can remember them it will be a different story.
It was really nice seeing the Nativity and listening to the music. It was such a great opportunity to feel the spirit and be reminded of the true meaning of Christmas. I am grateful for the Savior's example and the life he lived for all of us. The Nativity is such a miraculous one and I am touched to hear it every Christmas season. He is the Christ the Son of the Living God
Have a great Christmas. Make it a memorable one!
Thank you
Love
Elder Nelson
忙しい (busy) (December 11, 2011)
We have had another extremely busy week. We can't manage to stay in our own area for too long. We had the opportunity to go down to Nagoya and hear a general authority. It was a very good meeting. I was able to learn a lot. We talked a lot about trials and why we are given trials. It's very interesting. I think in the April conference, Elder Christopherson told a story that explains it best. He talked about a kern bush and then how Hugh B.Brown didn't get a promotion because he was a member. He later learned that God was preparing him to become an Apostle. It's very interesting the way trials can help us.
When I was traveling to Nagoya I had the opportunity to talk to some high school students on the train. It was probably one of the most interesting experiences because I never expected it to happen in Japan but they saw that I was a Christian and we started talking about Christmas. After that, they were like do you know Adam, and I'm like of course. They were all shocked and then I started talking about the fall and prophets. It was way cool because 99.9999% of Japanese high school students don't know any of that so it was cool to talk about it with them. They are doing a play at their high school about it so I thought that was really cool.
Englsih class is going really well. We are starting to teach free private lessons but basically the free private lessons are lesson 1 in Englsih and it has gone really well. Two people have shown a lot of interest so that is good. Along with that we are still doing Book of Mormon Englsih class and all the students are still reading the Book of Mormon so it is going great.
When we came here to Hamamatsu, the Bishop was kind of cold...like he wouldn't really talk to us. He would just shake our hands and kind of ignore us but yesterday he came up to us and shook our hands and then one of the speakers didn't show up so he asked us to speak in Sacrament Meeting. I thought that was a blesing because it shows that he trusts us. Our topic was Duty to God and how it has helped us. Funny thing is mom and I last week emailed about what I learned from Brother Horsley, so I talked a little bit about that and the great experience that it is and how much it can help. It went pretty well but I am thankful for my leaders and parents that helped me to prepare for this mission. Well, honestly nothing will prepare you fully for a mission but you can try to get as close as possible.
I am thankful for the opportunity I have to be in Japan for one more Christmas. It is a speacial place. Have a great time and be thankful for this time of the year.
Love
Elder Nelson
When I was traveling to Nagoya I had the opportunity to talk to some high school students on the train. It was probably one of the most interesting experiences because I never expected it to happen in Japan but they saw that I was a Christian and we started talking about Christmas. After that, they were like do you know Adam, and I'm like of course. They were all shocked and then I started talking about the fall and prophets. It was way cool because 99.9999% of Japanese high school students don't know any of that so it was cool to talk about it with them. They are doing a play at their high school about it so I thought that was really cool.
Englsih class is going really well. We are starting to teach free private lessons but basically the free private lessons are lesson 1 in Englsih and it has gone really well. Two people have shown a lot of interest so that is good. Along with that we are still doing Book of Mormon Englsih class and all the students are still reading the Book of Mormon so it is going great.
When we came here to Hamamatsu, the Bishop was kind of cold...like he wouldn't really talk to us. He would just shake our hands and kind of ignore us but yesterday he came up to us and shook our hands and then one of the speakers didn't show up so he asked us to speak in Sacrament Meeting. I thought that was a blesing because it shows that he trusts us. Our topic was Duty to God and how it has helped us. Funny thing is mom and I last week emailed about what I learned from Brother Horsley, so I talked a little bit about that and the great experience that it is and how much it can help. It went pretty well but I am thankful for my leaders and parents that helped me to prepare for this mission. Well, honestly nothing will prepare you fully for a mission but you can try to get as close as possible.
I am thankful for the opportunity I have to be in Japan for one more Christmas. It is a speacial place. Have a great time and be thankful for this time of the year.
Love
Elder Nelson
Abundant blessings (December 4, 2011)
Well this has been a great week as we try to get in to the Christmas Spirit. It's a little different here. This year Christmas is on a Sunday so some people in Japan will have a day off but it is not a holiday, unforunately. We do have the privilege of seeing Christmas lights every once in a while and stores are pretty decorated...but it's very different from America. If you ask a Japanese person what they do for Christmas they say eat cake. Giving presents isn't a big thing here in Japan. But nonetheless we are preparing for a huge Christmas Party at church. It is going to be way fun and the youth have put a lot of time into it. I am way excited as we try to get people not of our faith to come to this party.
Another thing that I had the opportunity of doing was eating steak. There is this Peruvian family in our ward. It is a very sad story because the whole ward and even the missionaries thought he had moved back to Peru. For some reason me and my companion felt the need to visit him even though everyone else thought he moved. Two weeks ago we met him and his wife. It was a way good experience for me to know that God cares for all his Children and that eventhough sometimes people maybe forgotten by other people, God never does forget them. But last week they invited us over to their house and fed us steak...it was way good. If that isn't a blessing I don't know what is.
Another blessing I had was to go back to Fuji and meet many people I served with and worked with a year before. To my surprise some people remembered me...actually a lot of people remembered me. As I was able to travel to Fuji I thought of how much I had grown and changed over the past year. How much I have seen the hand of the Lord in my life and I have been blessed. It was also a giant blessing to go back to a ward that I have previously served in and meet all the members again. The point of the visit is to train the ward mission leader so that he can better work with the missionaries and the members more efficiently, so it was good but always nerve racking. It has been exactly a year since I have left Fuji and I am so grateful I got to go back and meet friends. It was such a huge blessing to me. It just reminds me that the Lord knows and answers our prayers in miraculous ways.
I am way excited for this Christmas eventhough I will be away from Family and Friends but it will be a time to share Christ's love with people who desperately need it.
Love
Elder Nelson
Another thing that I had the opportunity of doing was eating steak. There is this Peruvian family in our ward. It is a very sad story because the whole ward and even the missionaries thought he had moved back to Peru. For some reason me and my companion felt the need to visit him even though everyone else thought he moved. Two weeks ago we met him and his wife. It was a way good experience for me to know that God cares for all his Children and that eventhough sometimes people maybe forgotten by other people, God never does forget them. But last week they invited us over to their house and fed us steak...it was way good. If that isn't a blessing I don't know what is.
Another blessing I had was to go back to Fuji and meet many people I served with and worked with a year before. To my surprise some people remembered me...actually a lot of people remembered me. As I was able to travel to Fuji I thought of how much I had grown and changed over the past year. How much I have seen the hand of the Lord in my life and I have been blessed. It was also a giant blessing to go back to a ward that I have previously served in and meet all the members again. The point of the visit is to train the ward mission leader so that he can better work with the missionaries and the members more efficiently, so it was good but always nerve racking. It has been exactly a year since I have left Fuji and I am so grateful I got to go back and meet friends. It was such a huge blessing to me. It just reminds me that the Lord knows and answers our prayers in miraculous ways.
I am way excited for this Christmas eventhough I will be away from Family and Friends but it will be a time to share Christ's love with people who desperately need it.
Love
Elder Nelson
Thanksgiving (November 27, 2011)
Well...thanks for the package. Unfortunately I didn’t get the package until Saturday but it’s all good. I have eaten a lot of it and it is really tasty. Thanks so much. I think the other missionaries would really like to thank you for the bacon bits. They are almost gone. They make bacon sandwiches with bacon bits. So I think they would express their thanks.
Also whenever I go to people’s houses and show them pictures they always say mom is cute and looks really young so I figure mom would like to hear that.
Ya thanksgiving was good I guess...it was sad but good. We tried to find a service to do and couldn’t so we decided to donate blood. That was way fun. My companion almost fainted because he had never done it before. They only took 400 ml so it’s like nothing. It is the most you can give...I think in America you can give like 800 ml but I’m not sure.
Then we ate a lot of dinner. The package didn’t come so I made this stew stuff...it’s kind of like potato soup but obviously not as good. Elder Brown made this fried Chicken stuff. Then Elder Amussen made mashed potatoes and Elder Imaizumi made this fried beef stuff which was really good.
The sad part was we had a huge party planned in Ogaki with a big turkey but I guess there is nothing you can do.
The baseball activity was way fun. We are already planning the next one!!
Which reminds me...what do you do for mutual...my ward wants to start doing mutual every week but they don’t know what to do. I said we would come up with ideas to help them but I forgot what we did...I know we did mission prep and watched the Office at Brother Horsley’s but what can they do with a young men and young women with a total of 6 to 8 people with very little leader support and people live far away??? Any Suggestions?
We got some new investigators this week. One is really good. He is Brazilian and his wife is a member. In the lesson his wife keeps pushing him to get baptized and wants him to baptize their 4 year old daughter when she gets old enough. He also has interest in eternal families but feels obligated to his Catholic family. I think he has a lot of potential though.
We also teach one English class a week, so that’s fun but we got a new investigator from that. He believes in God and we taught him how to pray and he offered a great prayer. It was heartfelt. He is awesome and hopefully he will come to church next week...unfortunately we will be in a different ward next week, because we have to train their ward mission leader. I’m really excited because it is the Fuji ward. That will be really exciting to see all my old friends.
Some more interesting news is that President Stevenson is coming to visit our mission next week so we will have a zone conference. He is The Area President and was the Nagoya mission president before President Treveller so that is very exciting. I also get to go to Nagoya this week for zone leader training. So we have a pretty busy next couple of weeks.
I went on a companion exchange with Elder Adachi last week so that was way fun. It was cool to serve with him again. He’s a good missionary. I told him I’d come visit him in July or August and he said he’d come pick us up from the airport if he has a car. So that’s cool.
I bought a suit and it was half off...I was so excited...it is pretty cool but guess what the waist size is 32 inches. It actually fits pretty well though.
Yesterday we had a really good lesson in Sunday School. We talked about thankfulness and how we should be thankful for the Holy Ghost in our lives. We read this book and it was really touching (I actually ordered it) but it talked about all the different times when the spirit has touched people and gave them that peaceful feeling. As I heard that I thought how thankful I am for the Holy Ghost and how much it has helped me in my life, especially getting transferred to a new area with a companion that does not know the area at all. I have seemed to somehow be able to find the places we need to go magically. The funny thing is every time I think I got to a place really fast all by myself, the next time I get lost. But every time when we find the house quickly and I give thanks for the help of the Holy Ghost it is just as easy to find the next house. It is crazy how the Spirit works but I am so thankful to have its help in my life. It has been a blessing and I am really grateful for this gift. It is really a great gift from our Heavenly Father. And as long as we are standing in Holy Places we are entitled to it.
Love you all very much. Hope you had a special Thanksgiving and as we move into the Christmas season, Hope you feel that spirit in your life
Love
Elder Nelson
Also whenever I go to people’s houses and show them pictures they always say mom is cute and looks really young so I figure mom would like to hear that.
Ya thanksgiving was good I guess...it was sad but good. We tried to find a service to do and couldn’t so we decided to donate blood. That was way fun. My companion almost fainted because he had never done it before. They only took 400 ml so it’s like nothing. It is the most you can give...I think in America you can give like 800 ml but I’m not sure.
Then we ate a lot of dinner. The package didn’t come so I made this stew stuff...it’s kind of like potato soup but obviously not as good. Elder Brown made this fried Chicken stuff. Then Elder Amussen made mashed potatoes and Elder Imaizumi made this fried beef stuff which was really good.
The sad part was we had a huge party planned in Ogaki with a big turkey but I guess there is nothing you can do.
The baseball activity was way fun. We are already planning the next one!!
Which reminds me...what do you do for mutual...my ward wants to start doing mutual every week but they don’t know what to do. I said we would come up with ideas to help them but I forgot what we did...I know we did mission prep and watched the Office at Brother Horsley’s but what can they do with a young men and young women with a total of 6 to 8 people with very little leader support and people live far away??? Any Suggestions?
We got some new investigators this week. One is really good. He is Brazilian and his wife is a member. In the lesson his wife keeps pushing him to get baptized and wants him to baptize their 4 year old daughter when she gets old enough. He also has interest in eternal families but feels obligated to his Catholic family. I think he has a lot of potential though.
We also teach one English class a week, so that’s fun but we got a new investigator from that. He believes in God and we taught him how to pray and he offered a great prayer. It was heartfelt. He is awesome and hopefully he will come to church next week...unfortunately we will be in a different ward next week, because we have to train their ward mission leader. I’m really excited because it is the Fuji ward. That will be really exciting to see all my old friends.
Some more interesting news is that President Stevenson is coming to visit our mission next week so we will have a zone conference. He is The Area President and was the Nagoya mission president before President Treveller so that is very exciting. I also get to go to Nagoya this week for zone leader training. So we have a pretty busy next couple of weeks.
I went on a companion exchange with Elder Adachi last week so that was way fun. It was cool to serve with him again. He’s a good missionary. I told him I’d come visit him in July or August and he said he’d come pick us up from the airport if he has a car. So that’s cool.
I bought a suit and it was half off...I was so excited...it is pretty cool but guess what the waist size is 32 inches. It actually fits pretty well though.
Yesterday we had a really good lesson in Sunday School. We talked about thankfulness and how we should be thankful for the Holy Ghost in our lives. We read this book and it was really touching (I actually ordered it) but it talked about all the different times when the spirit has touched people and gave them that peaceful feeling. As I heard that I thought how thankful I am for the Holy Ghost and how much it has helped me in my life, especially getting transferred to a new area with a companion that does not know the area at all. I have seemed to somehow be able to find the places we need to go magically. The funny thing is every time I think I got to a place really fast all by myself, the next time I get lost. But every time when we find the house quickly and I give thanks for the help of the Holy Ghost it is just as easy to find the next house. It is crazy how the Spirit works but I am so thankful to have its help in my life. It has been a blessing and I am really grateful for this gift. It is really a great gift from our Heavenly Father. And as long as we are standing in Holy Places we are entitled to it.
Love you all very much. Hope you had a special Thanksgiving and as we move into the Christmas season, Hope you feel that spirit in your life
Love
Elder Nelson
what a week (November 20, 2011)
We had a very eventful week...we met a bunch of different people but best of all someone was able to get beptized here in Hamamatsu! His name is Takayanagi...say that 3 times quickly maybe it's easier if it looks like 高柳. I'm not sure but anyway he got baptized!!! The spirit was really strong. He was definately a prepared soul. A few months ago he started coming to the church's outreach program and eventually one of the members told him to listen to the missionaries and so he did and he was baptized on Saturday. It was really great. A lot of members came and supported him, especially the ysa. Takayanagi is 24 so he has a lot of friends and fits in well here. I was actually supposed to speak at the baptism but I got canceled because the speaker before me took a long time. But ya he is great and you could just tell that he was so happy and filled with the spirit.
So we also met a Malaysian and some one from Sri Lanka...I'm not sure if it's spelled correctly put they are doing a home stay with a part member family. We talked with them for a while and they are both college students and really nice...they both have a little interest in religion but we had an apointment on Saturday but due to hurricane force winds and rain we weren't able to go there. I mean we actually tried to bike there but they live really far away as it is and we couldn't get a ride so we had to cancel...hopefully we will be able to met them on Saturday. We have an appointment with the Malaysian so that will be good. They are here going to college.
Best news of all...we are having a ward baseball activity!! lol... How cool is that. I think it is going to be really fun. They rented a field and we are playing baseball on saturday. No but seriously it will be fun. A lot of less actives and non members hopefully will come.
Well we have a member in our ward. He has just started coming back to church after being less active for 16 years. I actually couldn't tell that he had been less active. He seemed like such a strong member but as I listen to his story I could tell that he had had some rough times. He started by serving a mission and came back and got married and had children...but then problems started. And because of those problems he became seperated from the church. He ended up losing everything. It took me a few minutes to realize why he was so happy and so peaceful after he had lost everyhting. He is now coming back to church...active in everyway possible...he is serving people, he is participating in lessons. He has done all he can to come back and because of that he has been forgiven. Christ has taken his sins away and now he has a clean slate. That is why he is happy. Eventhough he made some mistakes he has been forgiven and has felt that peace through Christ's atonement. Just like this brother when we are down we can be forgiven, Christ can literally pick us up and help us back on the path. Takayanagi's baptism is just the start for him but he, Just like all of us, has the Holy Ghost in our lives and through the sacrament can be forgiven.
Love
Elder Nelson
So we also met a Malaysian and some one from Sri Lanka...I'm not sure if it's spelled correctly put they are doing a home stay with a part member family. We talked with them for a while and they are both college students and really nice...they both have a little interest in religion but we had an apointment on Saturday but due to hurricane force winds and rain we weren't able to go there. I mean we actually tried to bike there but they live really far away as it is and we couldn't get a ride so we had to cancel...hopefully we will be able to met them on Saturday. We have an appointment with the Malaysian so that will be good. They are here going to college.
Best news of all...we are having a ward baseball activity!! lol... How cool is that. I think it is going to be really fun. They rented a field and we are playing baseball on saturday. No but seriously it will be fun. A lot of less actives and non members hopefully will come.
Well we have a member in our ward. He has just started coming back to church after being less active for 16 years. I actually couldn't tell that he had been less active. He seemed like such a strong member but as I listen to his story I could tell that he had had some rough times. He started by serving a mission and came back and got married and had children...but then problems started. And because of those problems he became seperated from the church. He ended up losing everything. It took me a few minutes to realize why he was so happy and so peaceful after he had lost everyhting. He is now coming back to church...active in everyway possible...he is serving people, he is participating in lessons. He has done all he can to come back and because of that he has been forgiven. Christ has taken his sins away and now he has a clean slate. That is why he is happy. Eventhough he made some mistakes he has been forgiven and has felt that peace through Christ's atonement. Just like this brother when we are down we can be forgiven, Christ can literally pick us up and help us back on the path. Takayanagi's baptism is just the start for him but he, Just like all of us, has the Holy Ghost in our lives and through the sacrament can be forgiven.
Love
Elder Nelson
Hamamatsu (November 13, 2011)
Well it has been very sad leaving Ogaki. I mean I lived there for over 8 months. I got to know the city and the people so well. It was really sad but I'm excited to be in Hamamatsu. Hamamatsu is actually the biggest ward I've been in by far and there are a lot of young people as well...so it's very exciting. Actually Hamamatsu has a really cool single adults program called out reach. Basically on Mondays and Fridays ysa's can come to the church and meet with the missionaries, play games and we have a spiritual messages. It is supposed to help them have a choice to come to the church instead of do something not as good. So on Friday we had a massive bbq and over 10 people came. All single adults. Way fun. There was soo much meat...it was awesome. A recent convert and a person who will get baptized soon came...so that was awesome.
We also have family home evening with them on Monday nights but it seems to be way great. I'm excitied for tonight's. Well I was surprised how busy zone leaders are. It might be just this transfer but we are especially busy. President Baird asked me and my companion to meet with with all the ward mission leaders in the mission and help them be better mission leaders. There are only 6 areas in our zone so that's good but the farthest area away is about 2 1/2 hours by train...it is pretty ridiculous. And it costs a lot of money as well.
So we haven't proselyted in our new area too much but, on Saturday we met the ward mission leader in Fukuroi (the area next to ours) and that went really well. He is a really good member and will do anything to help us. After that meeting he took us out to lunch so we are like best friends. Then yesterday we had stake missionary meeting. We met with the stake president and that went really well. We were both really nervous. and we left right after church and thought we could get to the meeting on time but it took over 2 hours to get there so we were a little late. But it when really well and after he invited us over for dinner...so that was really fun. I actually know the members in other wards better than mine. So its very exciting but im excited to be in Hamamatsu. I think its a really good place and the members seem excited to help. Unfortunately I don't know the area that well. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to serve in Japan.
Take care and have a good week!!
Love
Elder Nelson
We also have family home evening with them on Monday nights but it seems to be way great. I'm excitied for tonight's. Well I was surprised how busy zone leaders are. It might be just this transfer but we are especially busy. President Baird asked me and my companion to meet with with all the ward mission leaders in the mission and help them be better mission leaders. There are only 6 areas in our zone so that's good but the farthest area away is about 2 1/2 hours by train...it is pretty ridiculous. And it costs a lot of money as well.
So we haven't proselyted in our new area too much but, on Saturday we met the ward mission leader in Fukuroi (the area next to ours) and that went really well. He is a really good member and will do anything to help us. After that meeting he took us out to lunch so we are like best friends. Then yesterday we had stake missionary meeting. We met with the stake president and that went really well. We were both really nervous. and we left right after church and thought we could get to the meeting on time but it took over 2 hours to get there so we were a little late. But it when really well and after he invited us over for dinner...so that was really fun. I actually know the members in other wards better than mine. So its very exciting but im excited to be in Hamamatsu. I think its a really good place and the members seem excited to help. Unfortunately I don't know the area that well. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to serve in Japan.
Take care and have a good week!!
Love
Elder Nelson
word of wisdom... (October 30, 2011)
Well this week has been a pretty solid week filled with adventure. Well we had a halloween party and that turned out pretty well. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves but it was fun! I spent about 500 yen on a costume and I dressed up as my companion and I think Dwight said it best, "imitation is the highest form of flattery.......Identity theft is not a Joke, Millions of people suffer every year," Yep. We also had to guys from the mafia show up...well I hope they were dressing up but they were pretty good at playing the part...lol
We have a very busy week ahead of us. We challenged our investigator that has been coming to church lately to baptism and she readily accepted. She bore her testimony that God has helped her overcome her trials in the past and that Baptism is something she would like to do. We haven't taught her all of the comandments but basically everything else has been taught. We taught her the word of wisdom yesterday and it went pretty well. She has a few bad habbits but she wants to quit and has that desire, so far she is doing well. I actaully gave up something to motivate her. I can't use any type of sauce on my food. It is hard because my parents have sent me bbq sauce and I have a habit of putting it on everything. I also can't use mayo or ketchup which just makes life difficult but it's all worth it to give Kayo motivation. She is such a great Example. One of the things I love about her is that when she first started coming to English class in July she said she had no interest in learning about the Chruch. But then after participating in the Book of Mormon Engliah class her heart has been changed...she has gained a testimony and she wants to follow the example of Jesus Christ. Basically this is how are lessons go "Kayo, what does it mean to you to have a living day Prophet" She replys "it's awesome" And just smiles. I think she is such a great example. Her baptismal date is actually this Sunday but we have a lot to teach and she needs to be able to keep the word of wisdom this week. I believe she can do it.
During sacrament meeting we sang The Iron Rod. I decided to sing it in Englsih for the first time in a long time becasue there was an englsih hymnbook next to me. The lyrics of that song hit me so hard. The 3rd verse talks about temptations and the pathway gets clouded but if you hold to the Rod, God will help you. Then in the final verse it says We can make it to the tree and Partake of the fruit of the tree of life. What a great promise that is. If we hold on to the Word of God we will get through any temptaion no matter what. All we have to do is hold to that Rod and God will help us and lead us back to him. I know God has helped me and will continue helping me!!
Have a great week
Love
Elder Nelson
We have a very busy week ahead of us. We challenged our investigator that has been coming to church lately to baptism and she readily accepted. She bore her testimony that God has helped her overcome her trials in the past and that Baptism is something she would like to do. We haven't taught her all of the comandments but basically everything else has been taught. We taught her the word of wisdom yesterday and it went pretty well. She has a few bad habbits but she wants to quit and has that desire, so far she is doing well. I actaully gave up something to motivate her. I can't use any type of sauce on my food. It is hard because my parents have sent me bbq sauce and I have a habit of putting it on everything. I also can't use mayo or ketchup which just makes life difficult but it's all worth it to give Kayo motivation. She is such a great Example. One of the things I love about her is that when she first started coming to English class in July she said she had no interest in learning about the Chruch. But then after participating in the Book of Mormon Engliah class her heart has been changed...she has gained a testimony and she wants to follow the example of Jesus Christ. Basically this is how are lessons go "Kayo, what does it mean to you to have a living day Prophet" She replys "it's awesome" And just smiles. I think she is such a great example. Her baptismal date is actually this Sunday but we have a lot to teach and she needs to be able to keep the word of wisdom this week. I believe she can do it.
During sacrament meeting we sang The Iron Rod. I decided to sing it in Englsih for the first time in a long time becasue there was an englsih hymnbook next to me. The lyrics of that song hit me so hard. The 3rd verse talks about temptations and the pathway gets clouded but if you hold to the Rod, God will help you. Then in the final verse it says We can make it to the tree and Partake of the fruit of the tree of life. What a great promise that is. If we hold on to the Word of God we will get through any temptaion no matter what. All we have to do is hold to that Rod and God will help us and lead us back to him. I know God has helped me and will continue helping me!!
Have a great week
Love
Elder Nelson
What?? (October 23, 2011)
Yesterday we had a pretty good day at church. there were 4 investigators that came and 3 less actives but anyway one of the investigators is married and her husband gained 45 pounds after marriage. The american in our ward also gained 45 pounds...so there is something with getting married and gaining weight.
I also feel like I'm a different person. Some people don't even recognize me when they are looking at my pictures. so I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
I like that training with the canadian guy. He sounds like he learned alot from that experience. I think that is brilliant and inspired.
I probably should tell you that Japanese people are very interested in Las Vegas and I think I have accidentaly invited 50 people to stay at our house. So if any one takes me up on that offer I apologize in advance. Alright I haven't really told 50 but maybe 20. Im pretty sure no one will take me up on it so don't worry.
An interesting side note...we met to Brits the other day. They were not too friendly to us. I don't know why we didn't even say a word about religion and they just started being mean to us...what can you do. They were with our Singapore friend and so we started talking to him and then with the Brits but they weren't to kind to us so we just left. It was interesting.
The reason I went to the police station is like 4 months ago I found a wallet with a couple of bucks in it so I took it to the police station and they said I could have the money inside. So thats why I went to the police station.
My companion is gettnig a little better at riding a bike. He umm only almost got in an accident. I was riding in front and a car passes me and all of a sudden I hear the car honk and Elder Dinkel was in the middle of the road and then quickly swerved. He was riding down the middle of the road not paying attention. But even with that he has improved greatly.
I feel like I have just rambled on forever. so I don't think I'll have time to write a real letter because I still need to write President Baird and I only have 18 minutes left but anyway it has been a good week. Like I said before investigators are doing well. We actually had a really good experience of how missionary work should be in a sense. We met our investigator on Saturday...the one who came to church last Sunday (she is doing great by the way) we met her and her friend and ask her if she is coming to church tomorrow. She says yes and then her friend gets all interested like what is church. Then the investigator starts teaching her friend about church. Then the friend and the investigator come and the friend ends up inviting her sister to come as well. And that is how it should be done. Like it was easy no pressure and now we have a bunch of new investigators and by a bunch I mean two but still that is awesome. This just doesn't happen in Japan very often so that's why I'm excited. Church has this scary image but now for them its completley good. Hopefully this helps the members see that it is not scary to invite your friends to church or church activities. We also had another student from english class come. She is awesome. Everything we ask her to do she does. She will be speaking Englsih in no time. And have the Book of Mormon finsihed in no time. It's very cool.
That is basically our highlight of the week but I also had another really good experience. Back in July or June I can't quite remember but a long time ago the Elder's Quorum President told us of this less active that the missionaries use to visit but haven't in a while. I said cool and we went over and visited them. The son hadn't been to church in 30 years but he came to Sacrament Meeting yesterday!!! He felt the warm feeling that sacrament gives to you...he felt the healing power of Christ's atonement even though he hasn't come in 30 years. But his mother is not a member. She is a Buddhist and doesn't quite understand Christianity and doesn't think she can learn. When we went over there on Friday to confirm our trip to church with the son, we talked about church and the peace it brings. She finally said after 3 to 4 months of visiting her every week that she wants to go to church. It was so cool. I never thought those words would come out of her mouth but of course the spirit has power and because this is the Lord's work, people will change. Unfortunately she wasn't able to go to church yesterday but hopefully she can come this week. I really love her and this people and I'm thankful for the opportunity to come here.
Keep working hard and be defenders of the faith.
Love
Elder Nelson
ps speaking of defenders of the faith, we have this investigator who is like 69 and he is awesome. He won't come to church or get baptized but he invites everyone to church and asks questions in English class like do you believe in God, and things like that. I don't know why he won't come to church but I think it's awesome that he is helping us.
I also feel like I'm a different person. Some people don't even recognize me when they are looking at my pictures. so I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
I like that training with the canadian guy. He sounds like he learned alot from that experience. I think that is brilliant and inspired.
I probably should tell you that Japanese people are very interested in Las Vegas and I think I have accidentaly invited 50 people to stay at our house. So if any one takes me up on that offer I apologize in advance. Alright I haven't really told 50 but maybe 20. Im pretty sure no one will take me up on it so don't worry.
An interesting side note...we met to Brits the other day. They were not too friendly to us. I don't know why we didn't even say a word about religion and they just started being mean to us...what can you do. They were with our Singapore friend and so we started talking to him and then with the Brits but they weren't to kind to us so we just left. It was interesting.
The reason I went to the police station is like 4 months ago I found a wallet with a couple of bucks in it so I took it to the police station and they said I could have the money inside. So thats why I went to the police station.
My companion is gettnig a little better at riding a bike. He umm only almost got in an accident. I was riding in front and a car passes me and all of a sudden I hear the car honk and Elder Dinkel was in the middle of the road and then quickly swerved. He was riding down the middle of the road not paying attention. But even with that he has improved greatly.
I feel like I have just rambled on forever. so I don't think I'll have time to write a real letter because I still need to write President Baird and I only have 18 minutes left but anyway it has been a good week. Like I said before investigators are doing well. We actually had a really good experience of how missionary work should be in a sense. We met our investigator on Saturday...the one who came to church last Sunday (she is doing great by the way) we met her and her friend and ask her if she is coming to church tomorrow. She says yes and then her friend gets all interested like what is church. Then the investigator starts teaching her friend about church. Then the friend and the investigator come and the friend ends up inviting her sister to come as well. And that is how it should be done. Like it was easy no pressure and now we have a bunch of new investigators and by a bunch I mean two but still that is awesome. This just doesn't happen in Japan very often so that's why I'm excited. Church has this scary image but now for them its completley good. Hopefully this helps the members see that it is not scary to invite your friends to church or church activities. We also had another student from english class come. She is awesome. Everything we ask her to do she does. She will be speaking Englsih in no time. And have the Book of Mormon finsihed in no time. It's very cool.
That is basically our highlight of the week but I also had another really good experience. Back in July or June I can't quite remember but a long time ago the Elder's Quorum President told us of this less active that the missionaries use to visit but haven't in a while. I said cool and we went over and visited them. The son hadn't been to church in 30 years but he came to Sacrament Meeting yesterday!!! He felt the warm feeling that sacrament gives to you...he felt the healing power of Christ's atonement even though he hasn't come in 30 years. But his mother is not a member. She is a Buddhist and doesn't quite understand Christianity and doesn't think she can learn. When we went over there on Friday to confirm our trip to church with the son, we talked about church and the peace it brings. She finally said after 3 to 4 months of visiting her every week that she wants to go to church. It was so cool. I never thought those words would come out of her mouth but of course the spirit has power and because this is the Lord's work, people will change. Unfortunately she wasn't able to go to church yesterday but hopefully she can come this week. I really love her and this people and I'm thankful for the opportunity to come here.
Keep working hard and be defenders of the faith.
Love
Elder Nelson
ps speaking of defenders of the faith, we have this investigator who is like 69 and he is awesome. He won't come to church or get baptized but he invites everyone to church and asks questions in English class like do you believe in God, and things like that. I don't know why he won't come to church but I think it's awesome that he is helping us.
すき焼き (sukiyaki) (October 16, 2011)
Well we had another interesting week here in Japan. It is starting to cool down and rained a little bit this week but it was nice.
Well I went to the police station on Saturday. I'd rather not say why I went to the police station but it was a way funny experience. So my companion and I walked through the front door and there was this police officer doing something with a teenager ,he just stops and walks up to me and asks me what I need...then I blink and there are 8 cops swarming around me. Asking me what I need...then one of them tells me that the police office is closed. I was like really they are like yes. Then they started asking me why my Japanese is so good, which always makes me happy when people ask that. But either Japanese police officers have nothing to do or that Americans look really guilty. It was just a funny experience. I'm still confused why I needed 8 cops to help me.
I also had this new dish which I'm pretty sure I haven't told anyone about. So in celebration of my birthday we went over to a members house on Monday night. So in Japan they have this portable stove thing so your food can be hot while your sitting at the table...so on that stove thing they cooked (see sometimes they cook their meat lol) meat and mushrooms and other vegetables in this sauce called sukiyaki sauce....pretty clever name if you ask me. But so they cook that and then you take an egg and crack it in a bowl...you mix it around and then when the vegetables and meat is done you take it from the pan and dip it in the raw egg and eat it. It was actually pretty good. When I come home I'll be sure to make it for everyone, so that you can see what you are missing. But that family has an 18 year old daughter that hasn't been to church in a couple of years probably because there is no one her age in the branch but she usually doesn't like listening to the lessons but we were able to teach her a powerful lesson about the book of mormon and how it can help us in our lives. Her parents are really strong members and bore testimony to her and it was a great experience.
So yesterday we a person come to church. She is 26 and is actually really good at english. She seemed to enjoy church and made many friends so that is exciting. She has such a great heart and just wants to learn more so it's great. I actually gave a talk in church which isn't unusual in a small branch. But I talked about faith and the power that we have if we have faith. I also talked about how to get faith. We have to first act and then the miracles will follow. I have seen that through my mission and throughout my life. Especially if in learning Japanese, as i try to talk to people God has blessed me with the gift of tongues.
And by the way our english class is going pretty well. We actually started the children's englsih class about a month ago and not too many people are coming so we went around to preschools and gave flyers that we made for the preschools. They volunteered to hand them out so hopefully that helps.
Have a great week. Continue following the council of the prophets.
Love
Elder Nelson
Well I went to the police station on Saturday. I'd rather not say why I went to the police station but it was a way funny experience. So my companion and I walked through the front door and there was this police officer doing something with a teenager ,he just stops and walks up to me and asks me what I need...then I blink and there are 8 cops swarming around me. Asking me what I need...then one of them tells me that the police office is closed. I was like really they are like yes. Then they started asking me why my Japanese is so good, which always makes me happy when people ask that. But either Japanese police officers have nothing to do or that Americans look really guilty. It was just a funny experience. I'm still confused why I needed 8 cops to help me.
I also had this new dish which I'm pretty sure I haven't told anyone about. So in celebration of my birthday we went over to a members house on Monday night. So in Japan they have this portable stove thing so your food can be hot while your sitting at the table...so on that stove thing they cooked (see sometimes they cook their meat lol) meat and mushrooms and other vegetables in this sauce called sukiyaki sauce....pretty clever name if you ask me. But so they cook that and then you take an egg and crack it in a bowl...you mix it around and then when the vegetables and meat is done you take it from the pan and dip it in the raw egg and eat it. It was actually pretty good. When I come home I'll be sure to make it for everyone, so that you can see what you are missing. But that family has an 18 year old daughter that hasn't been to church in a couple of years probably because there is no one her age in the branch but she usually doesn't like listening to the lessons but we were able to teach her a powerful lesson about the book of mormon and how it can help us in our lives. Her parents are really strong members and bore testimony to her and it was a great experience.
So yesterday we a person come to church. She is 26 and is actually really good at english. She seemed to enjoy church and made many friends so that is exciting. She has such a great heart and just wants to learn more so it's great. I actually gave a talk in church which isn't unusual in a small branch. But I talked about faith and the power that we have if we have faith. I also talked about how to get faith. We have to first act and then the miracles will follow. I have seen that through my mission and throughout my life. Especially if in learning Japanese, as i try to talk to people God has blessed me with the gift of tongues.
And by the way our english class is going pretty well. We actually started the children's englsih class about a month ago and not too many people are coming so we went around to preschools and gave flyers that we made for the preschools. They volunteered to hand them out so hopefully that helps.
Have a great week. Continue following the council of the prophets.
Love
Elder Nelson
General Conference (October 9, 2011)
Well this was a pretty good week...I had a great conference/birthday weekend. I really loved all the conference talks. It's hard to pick a favorite. I found it interesting that alot of people talked about missionaries and what to do after the mission. Maybe it just felt like that because thats what I was listening for.
Well on Saturday morning me and my companion woke up and and got ready for the 10 mile bike ride to the church where we would watch conference. The funny thing was on Sunday when we were coming back it seems that my companion stopped a number of times. Thinking he saw some money on the ground. I think he really wanted fried chicken...lol. No but seriously. We are trying to apply conference into our lives and missions. Sometimes we aren't always going to find money on the ground so we can eat out (even tough I think I might start praying for that occasionally) but I think the messages are all good.
A couple of things I thought were interesting is I'd make sure that girls are home on time because I would not want her father coming and picking her up in the middle of a date...also I liked Elder Bednar's talk. I have never really considered doing family history on my own but now when I get home I'd like to try. I think that kids really could help because lets be honest most kids are better with computers then parents.
Well I had a nice birthday. I was in another ward but I was still sung to. So it was very nice. This one guy forgot it was my birthday so he tried to give me his tie...but I refused to take it. I got a few treats from the branch but that's about it...the best part is that today I'm going to my favorite restaurant...its called yakiniku. You go to a buffet and they give you raw meat...and you eat that...no im kidding. There is a grill in front of you and you grill it your self...pretty cool right.
Well have a great week.
Love Elder Nelson
Well on Saturday morning me and my companion woke up and and got ready for the 10 mile bike ride to the church where we would watch conference. The funny thing was on Sunday when we were coming back it seems that my companion stopped a number of times. Thinking he saw some money on the ground. I think he really wanted fried chicken...lol. No but seriously. We are trying to apply conference into our lives and missions. Sometimes we aren't always going to find money on the ground so we can eat out (even tough I think I might start praying for that occasionally) but I think the messages are all good.
A couple of things I thought were interesting is I'd make sure that girls are home on time because I would not want her father coming and picking her up in the middle of a date...also I liked Elder Bednar's talk. I have never really considered doing family history on my own but now when I get home I'd like to try. I think that kids really could help because lets be honest most kids are better with computers then parents.
Well I had a nice birthday. I was in another ward but I was still sung to. So it was very nice. This one guy forgot it was my birthday so he tried to give me his tie...but I refused to take it. I got a few treats from the branch but that's about it...the best part is that today I'm going to my favorite restaurant...its called yakiniku. You go to a buffet and they give you raw meat...and you eat that...no im kidding. There is a grill in front of you and you grill it your self...pretty cool right.
Well have a great week.
Love Elder Nelson
文化祭 (Cultural festival) (October 2, 2011)
Well we had a pretty cool day today. We went to one of the high schools nearby because there was a festival. It was pretty fun I thought. Two of the less actives in our branch go there along with many other people that we have met. So it was very fun. We made a lot of friends...maybe too many. We went there with a member but we talked with the high schoolers more than the member. That was cool. The problem was that people kept buying food for us...or just giving food to us. Like it was good for a while but then like it was too much. I mean it was really good for our English class because we told everyone that we teach free englsih and now we are good friends but it was too much food. We were talking to this group of high schoolers and ther was this girl who spoke really good english so we were trying to get her to come to englsih class and she asked if I wanted fish. (now this is after I ate sembe. yakisoba, karaage, ramen, more sembe, creme puff balls and more) So I told her I was full and I couldn't eat. She just smiled and turned to the guys who were cooking it and said...he says he wasn't hungry. I was like no. So I ended up with fish on a stick. The eyes and everything staring at me. They were nice and didn't make me eat the head but everything else I ate.. I still have that taste in my mouth. ;( . O by the way senbe is this shrimp flavoured cracker maybe but its like10 inches long and its 4 inches wide. Then there is an egg...fish dry ramen noodles... sause and mayonaise. it is pretty interesting but it is challenging to eat...its messy. Im just going to say the sembe is better than the fish thing.
So this week was pretty good. We are working with our branch on the pool of propinquity. We are trying to get 500 people into it. Then with those 500 people we have monthly contact with all of these people. The members are going to help us, because 500 people is a lot of people. We also are going to be praying for everyone in the pool every day so as you can see we definitely need the members help. It is very cool because it is going to help them prepare to be investigators.
We also had a great lesson with an english class student. She is going prett well. She just has the spirit of wanting to learn. It is so awesome. She is doing really well. She hasn't been able to come to church yet but she is praying and reading the Book of Mormon so that is very exciting.
We also saw another miracle. A less active that we have been working with volunteered to pray. He never wants to pray and yesterday when we visited him he said he wanted to pray and he gave a pretty good prayed. It was from the bottom of his heart which is the most important thing. That was very cool. I was very suprised but it was good. His mom who isnt a member is also doing well. She gives us referals all the time but won't come to church. She says she is too old. What is that. No but she is also progressing I think.
I hope you enjoyed conference. I am way excited to hear it. It is so cool having the opportunity to hear the Prophets. They are called of God. Enjoy your week.
Love
Elder Nelson
So this week was pretty good. We are working with our branch on the pool of propinquity. We are trying to get 500 people into it. Then with those 500 people we have monthly contact with all of these people. The members are going to help us, because 500 people is a lot of people. We also are going to be praying for everyone in the pool every day so as you can see we definitely need the members help. It is very cool because it is going to help them prepare to be investigators.
We also had a great lesson with an english class student. She is going prett well. She just has the spirit of wanting to learn. It is so awesome. She is doing really well. She hasn't been able to come to church yet but she is praying and reading the Book of Mormon so that is very exciting.
We also saw another miracle. A less active that we have been working with volunteered to pray. He never wants to pray and yesterday when we visited him he said he wanted to pray and he gave a pretty good prayed. It was from the bottom of his heart which is the most important thing. That was very cool. I was very suprised but it was good. His mom who isnt a member is also doing well. She gives us referals all the time but won't come to church. She says she is too old. What is that. No but she is also progressing I think.
I hope you enjoyed conference. I am way excited to hear it. It is so cool having the opportunity to hear the Prophets. They are called of God. Enjoy your week.
Love
Elder Nelson
transfers (September 25, 2011)
So...transfer calls were today and I am going to stay in Ogaki....yay!!! No but seriously I am excited. I love the people here and I have made so many friends just in random places...for example, we email at a cafe and we have become really good friends with the people that work here. they all know us and that we come here every week on Mondays to email our family. But today before I started emailing we talked to one of the ladies and talked about the impotance of family as she expressed her remorse of her divorce but said it was really tough. And how she wishes Japanese people took the role of family more seriously. And there are people like that all over Ogaki that I have grown to love. I also love my companion eventhough he causes a lot of stress. I now understand a fragment of what parents go through when they are trying to raise teenagers. The fragment might be very small but I'm starting to understand.
Actually on Saturday night we went to a member's house. We just wanted to drop by some cookies but she let us in and we talked for a while about how to help random less active members. After talking with her for a while she looks at my companion and said Elder Dinkel you look so happy and just excited to be here to work. You look like you are having fun...then she looked at me and was like you Elder Nelson not so much. You look tired and like you are worried about people, and trying to think about how to help them. I was like that is pretty accurate but I'm going to work on not looking so stressed out.
I had this really delicious food this week. I call it Japanese hashbrowns. They are so good. So you make mashed patatoes and then put some vegetables and meat in the mashed patatoes. Then you bread it and fry it I think. They are so good. A member surprised us last night and gave us 5 of them...they were so good. My companion likes microwave eggs which I refuse to eat. I tell him why microwave eggs when I can spend 2 extra minutes and have a fried one. Im just saying I don't think I will ever eat microwaved eggs.
We are still working really hard to promote english class. We actually made this big poster. I think it will help a lot. We also pass out a lot of flyers. So we go to the train station and we meet a lot of people. 2 days ago we had a lot of good experiences as we talked with everyone we could. We became real good friends with 4 high school boys that were interested in what we did. That was fun. Talking with everyone is something that was really hard at first and sometimes it is still tough but it is really rewarding. 2 new people have started coming to english class and they look like they have interest. I think the english class is so great because we talk alot about how to become better people and how to strengthen our families.
So we got hit by a typhoon pretty bad. It rained really hard here. There was flooding in Nagoya and Tokyo and it looks like it did some damage. I feel like Japan is having a tough year you know. First a tsunami' earthquake, nuclear disaster and we have been hit by 2 huge typhoons...last year we got hit by a small one but that was it. It is tough but we keep on going and trying. The people here are strong so that is good but I think they are going to start turing to God for help. A nation that doesn't really believe in God really needs His help now.
I am so excited that general conference is coming...unfortunately I will not get to watch it next week but I have really grown to love conference. It is one of my favorite weekends as a missionary to go listen to the Prophet's voice. In this months Liahona there were a lot of talks about how we can apply conference talks to us. One of my favorite talks from last conference was by Elder Christopherson. He talked about a current bush and how a gardner cut the bush down. The bush got angry at the gardner because it was making suck progress and it needed to be cut down. He then related a story about how God "cuts" us down to make us better. And some times we go through hard things but we will always benefit from them. Enjoy the Prophets messages. And have a good week.
Love
Elder Nelson
Actually on Saturday night we went to a member's house. We just wanted to drop by some cookies but she let us in and we talked for a while about how to help random less active members. After talking with her for a while she looks at my companion and said Elder Dinkel you look so happy and just excited to be here to work. You look like you are having fun...then she looked at me and was like you Elder Nelson not so much. You look tired and like you are worried about people, and trying to think about how to help them. I was like that is pretty accurate but I'm going to work on not looking so stressed out.
I had this really delicious food this week. I call it Japanese hashbrowns. They are so good. So you make mashed patatoes and then put some vegetables and meat in the mashed patatoes. Then you bread it and fry it I think. They are so good. A member surprised us last night and gave us 5 of them...they were so good. My companion likes microwave eggs which I refuse to eat. I tell him why microwave eggs when I can spend 2 extra minutes and have a fried one. Im just saying I don't think I will ever eat microwaved eggs.
We are still working really hard to promote english class. We actually made this big poster. I think it will help a lot. We also pass out a lot of flyers. So we go to the train station and we meet a lot of people. 2 days ago we had a lot of good experiences as we talked with everyone we could. We became real good friends with 4 high school boys that were interested in what we did. That was fun. Talking with everyone is something that was really hard at first and sometimes it is still tough but it is really rewarding. 2 new people have started coming to english class and they look like they have interest. I think the english class is so great because we talk alot about how to become better people and how to strengthen our families.
So we got hit by a typhoon pretty bad. It rained really hard here. There was flooding in Nagoya and Tokyo and it looks like it did some damage. I feel like Japan is having a tough year you know. First a tsunami' earthquake, nuclear disaster and we have been hit by 2 huge typhoons...last year we got hit by a small one but that was it. It is tough but we keep on going and trying. The people here are strong so that is good but I think they are going to start turing to God for help. A nation that doesn't really believe in God really needs His help now.
I am so excited that general conference is coming...unfortunately I will not get to watch it next week but I have really grown to love conference. It is one of my favorite weekends as a missionary to go listen to the Prophet's voice. In this months Liahona there were a lot of talks about how we can apply conference talks to us. One of my favorite talks from last conference was by Elder Christopherson. He talked about a current bush and how a gardner cut the bush down. The bush got angry at the gardner because it was making suck progress and it needed to be cut down. He then related a story about how God "cuts" us down to make us better. And some times we go through hard things but we will always benefit from them. Enjoy the Prophets messages. And have a good week.
Love
Elder Nelson
A lesson learned (September 18, 2011)
Well, I have learned alot this week but I think the biggest thing I learned was to look both ways before you cross the street. I also learned of the healing power of cookies, and I'm sure I learned some other things but I'm just drawing a blank.
But anyway this week we had speacialized training. So we went down to Nagoya and met President Baird and a lot of other missionaries there. That is always fun to do. We talked a lot about how to be better teachers. We talked a lot about love and how we have to love people as we are teaching them. If we Love them and ask them questions we won't have to wonder what to say. I think Elder Holland says that in pmg pretty well. But he hit a point which I found interesting. But in 1 John 4 it talks about God and the nature of God. It also says that if you Hate your brother you can not love God. Which means that if you hate your companion you hate God. I found that interesting and so because I Love God no matter what I will love my companion. He said a lot of cool things that I really liked and another thing he talked about was revelation. A lot of times we look at revelation about being this hard thing and something that is nearly impossible to receive but it's not. It is so simple. We get revelation and we don't know it. I thought that was interesting also I liked how he explained the spirit. If you see an apple on a tree. You know that it is an apple tree. So then if you notice one of the fruits of the spirit (Galatoins 5) you know that it is from God. I thought that was interesting.
Well my companion got hit by a car this week. He was fine but I learned that I have to look both ways before I cross the street. The lady felt terrible and he was alright but it was traumatizing for me. The only thing that broke was a pencil. So that is good.
Also my branch president has been sick for a while so we decided to make him cookies and he is convinced I gave him magic cookies because after he ate them he was healed. He has thanked me like 5 times since so that was pretty cool.
We had a really good experience on Thursday and Saturday with an english student. One of the students came early and we talked to her and all we did was ask questions which she answered just the way we wanted. For example how do you feel when you read the Book of Mormon. "confused but I have a good feeling". Well we can tell you how you can have that good feeling all the time it is through something called baptism, can we teach you more about this. She said yes and we had a meeting on Saturday and the spirit was very strong. She really wants to learn so hopefully she continues to read the Book of Mormon and pray.
We also had a lesson with a part member which went really well. The mom(non member) Went to church 30 years ago and felt a good feeling and still remembers. Unfortunately she has trouble walking now but maybe she will come to church when her legs get a little better.
Have a good week
Keep strong
Love
Elder Nelson
But anyway this week we had speacialized training. So we went down to Nagoya and met President Baird and a lot of other missionaries there. That is always fun to do. We talked a lot about how to be better teachers. We talked a lot about love and how we have to love people as we are teaching them. If we Love them and ask them questions we won't have to wonder what to say. I think Elder Holland says that in pmg pretty well. But he hit a point which I found interesting. But in 1 John 4 it talks about God and the nature of God. It also says that if you Hate your brother you can not love God. Which means that if you hate your companion you hate God. I found that interesting and so because I Love God no matter what I will love my companion. He said a lot of cool things that I really liked and another thing he talked about was revelation. A lot of times we look at revelation about being this hard thing and something that is nearly impossible to receive but it's not. It is so simple. We get revelation and we don't know it. I thought that was interesting also I liked how he explained the spirit. If you see an apple on a tree. You know that it is an apple tree. So then if you notice one of the fruits of the spirit (Galatoins 5) you know that it is from God. I thought that was interesting.
Well my companion got hit by a car this week. He was fine but I learned that I have to look both ways before I cross the street. The lady felt terrible and he was alright but it was traumatizing for me. The only thing that broke was a pencil. So that is good.
Also my branch president has been sick for a while so we decided to make him cookies and he is convinced I gave him magic cookies because after he ate them he was healed. He has thanked me like 5 times since so that was pretty cool.
We had a really good experience on Thursday and Saturday with an english student. One of the students came early and we talked to her and all we did was ask questions which she answered just the way we wanted. For example how do you feel when you read the Book of Mormon. "confused but I have a good feeling". Well we can tell you how you can have that good feeling all the time it is through something called baptism, can we teach you more about this. She said yes and we had a meeting on Saturday and the spirit was very strong. She really wants to learn so hopefully she continues to read the Book of Mormon and pray.
We also had a lesson with a part member which went really well. The mom(non member) Went to church 30 years ago and felt a good feeling and still remembers. Unfortunately she has trouble walking now but maybe she will come to church when her legs get a little better.
Have a good week
Keep strong
Love
Elder Nelson
Subway (September 11, 2011)
Well I have a feeling that this weeks letter is going to be short...well I just started and I only have 10 minutes left. I have just been sitting here thinking about what I should write but nothing really came to my mind. My companion is doing good. He wanted to be cool so the other day he bought a bag of squid jerky and ate it all. I don't know what he was thinking but he ate it all so I was impressed. He is just trying to adjust to the culture which is really good. I also learned that erasing the board with you finger is bad in Japan...like I always use a eraser but my companion used his finger and he got in trouble so if you are ever in Japan don't use your finger to earase the board.
I interviewed someone for baptism this week. that went really good. She was is a really good person and wants to follow Christ so thats really good. The spirit was really strong in the interview so that was really cool.
Also I like going to subway. Like its expensive but I mean after not having sandwiches for a year then coming to Ogaki and having a subway it just made me happy. I go there very often...not too often but often enough. But anyway I usually try to talk to the people working there but this time I talked to the lady working and just as we are about to leave she tells me that her mom died in February. And that because of that she doesn't like smoking or drinking which is cool but I am glad we have the plan of salvation and I am glad that for some reason she shared with us that her mom passed away...I don't know why she did but I am glad that we can share the plan of salvation. Its awesome that we have this.
Have a great week and go forward with hope...we actually talked about hope in our English class lesson this week and so that was great but hope is a great tool.
Love
Elder Nelson
I interviewed someone for baptism this week. that went really good. She was is a really good person and wants to follow Christ so thats really good. The spirit was really strong in the interview so that was really cool.
Also I like going to subway. Like its expensive but I mean after not having sandwiches for a year then coming to Ogaki and having a subway it just made me happy. I go there very often...not too often but often enough. But anyway I usually try to talk to the people working there but this time I talked to the lady working and just as we are about to leave she tells me that her mom died in February. And that because of that she doesn't like smoking or drinking which is cool but I am glad we have the plan of salvation and I am glad that for some reason she shared with us that her mom passed away...I don't know why she did but I am glad that we can share the plan of salvation. Its awesome that we have this.
Have a great week and go forward with hope...we actually talked about hope in our English class lesson this week and so that was great but hope is a great tool.
Love
Elder Nelson
台風 (Typhoon) (September 4, 2011)
Well...the big news for this week is that we had a taifuu (typhoon (almost pronounced the same)) but anyway. friday, saturday and sunday activities all got cancelled. It was kind of boring. We tried to work but it was rough. It is actually still raining. I heard we got hit worse than the middle of the typhoon because it didn't really rain there but it still is raining here. We actually got like 4 calls from members telling us not to leave the apartment...so we obeyed but that was only on Saturday. On Sunday and Friday we tried but it was still pretty difficult. On Saturday we decided to make prayer lists for every member in our ward. It was a pretty fun task. Well it isn't that hard seeing how there are like 25 active members but it was a good experience. Everyone in our ward has at least 4 people to pray for so I think it will be a great experience for our branch. I also think it will help our investigators and our potential investigators. President Baird asked us to do this but he said if every member is doing this, we can't imagine the power that we have...so I'm excited to see this work.
So because we are having our members pray for our investigators I have been praying for them every day. It actually has been a great experience. But I don't just say their name and then say please bless this person. I more go along the lines ...Please help Branch President Aihara. He is a hard worker. He is a very great dad. He loves this branch and will do anything to help them. Please help him receive revelation for this branch. Please help him know how to invite his friends to the activity. Please bless him to be a great example to his friends. Please help him hear the promptings of the spirit and when he hears them to not be afraid to act on those promptings. I love him. Please help me find ways to seve him...then I would go onto his wife, then after I finish the branch I go to investigators and family and friends and so forth. So as you can imagine it takes some time but I have learned so much from this. I really have grown to love them even more so then I did. I always wondered how Enos prayed all day but I am now starting to realize that I probably could too but I have to get out and work.
I also attended one of the greatest fast meetings of my life last week. It was so awesome. There was a less active 17 year old who got up. Until about a month ago he wasn't coming to church. He didn't want to go to efy but he ended up going. Before efy the few times I have talked to him he was cool but really had no interest in serving a mission. He came back and gave a powerful testimony and said in two years he would be going on a mission. The spirit was really strong and then after that my comp sang a solo "a poor wayefaring man of grief" then by that time almost everyone was in tears and this really sweet sister go up and bore her testimony. And she did really well too. I wanted to go up but I was afraid I would ruin the sweet spirit that every one was feeling. It was really cool.
Take care. Continue in the faith. Hold to the Rod.
Love
Elder Nelson
So because we are having our members pray for our investigators I have been praying for them every day. It actually has been a great experience. But I don't just say their name and then say please bless this person. I more go along the lines ...Please help Branch President Aihara. He is a hard worker. He is a very great dad. He loves this branch and will do anything to help them. Please help him receive revelation for this branch. Please help him know how to invite his friends to the activity. Please bless him to be a great example to his friends. Please help him hear the promptings of the spirit and when he hears them to not be afraid to act on those promptings. I love him. Please help me find ways to seve him...then I would go onto his wife, then after I finish the branch I go to investigators and family and friends and so forth. So as you can imagine it takes some time but I have learned so much from this. I really have grown to love them even more so then I did. I always wondered how Enos prayed all day but I am now starting to realize that I probably could too but I have to get out and work.
I also attended one of the greatest fast meetings of my life last week. It was so awesome. There was a less active 17 year old who got up. Until about a month ago he wasn't coming to church. He didn't want to go to efy but he ended up going. Before efy the few times I have talked to him he was cool but really had no interest in serving a mission. He came back and gave a powerful testimony and said in two years he would be going on a mission. The spirit was really strong and then after that my comp sang a solo "a poor wayefaring man of grief" then by that time almost everyone was in tears and this really sweet sister go up and bore her testimony. And she did really well too. I wanted to go up but I was afraid I would ruin the sweet spirit that every one was feeling. It was really cool.
Take care. Continue in the faith. Hold to the Rod.
Love
Elder Nelson
Takoyaki (August 28, 2011)
Well it has been a pretty good week...I mean my companion is still alive. So I'm not doing too bad. No but new missionaries coming over here have so much to learn. It is a big change. Everything is the opposite....including their language. It is fun but he is going good.
So yesterday after church we had a luncheon because we do that at least once a month. It was pretty good. We had two less actives there so it was very good. Actually we rode our bikes to go pick one of them up and then came back on bikes. He is like 43 and lives at home. He hasn't been to church in about 20 years so it was a good step. He talked with random members and made friends I think. Although he didn't come to sacrament meeting he took one step in the right direction so that is good. I don't think he has many friends so I think that he enjoyed talking to people. The stake president also visited our ward so it was nice to talk to him. He is a very Good man and loves the people so it is very good. But at the luncheon we had some tacoyaki. I'm not sure if I have ever explaned takoyaki before but it is a pretty popular Japanese dish. If you translate Takoyaki it means cooked octopus. It is like a ball of goo with tako in the middle. It is not that bad...actually octopus is good. If you get over the chewy tentacle part it is actually really good. I actually ate like 7 of the gooey balls.
Any way we had this new girl come to english class. She is 23 and from Peru. Then I was telling her about all the english classes we teach. and she is like why do you do all this for free. And I told her I love the people and I love to serve. Then she asks about the mormons. And so I talked to her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and the need for a restoration and she was like that all makes sense so we are supposed to meet with her again tomorrow but it was really cool to talk to her and that is why I put so much effort in to english class because I believe it is a great finding tool. But it was really cool.
We also had a firework show here in Ogaki. We went and passed out flyers there and the fireworks were cool but we had some people that said they would come to the english class so it is very exciting.
Have a great week. Keep pressing forward.The church is true.
Love
Elder Nelson
So yesterday after church we had a luncheon because we do that at least once a month. It was pretty good. We had two less actives there so it was very good. Actually we rode our bikes to go pick one of them up and then came back on bikes. He is like 43 and lives at home. He hasn't been to church in about 20 years so it was a good step. He talked with random members and made friends I think. Although he didn't come to sacrament meeting he took one step in the right direction so that is good. I don't think he has many friends so I think that he enjoyed talking to people. The stake president also visited our ward so it was nice to talk to him. He is a very Good man and loves the people so it is very good. But at the luncheon we had some tacoyaki. I'm not sure if I have ever explaned takoyaki before but it is a pretty popular Japanese dish. If you translate Takoyaki it means cooked octopus. It is like a ball of goo with tako in the middle. It is not that bad...actually octopus is good. If you get over the chewy tentacle part it is actually really good. I actually ate like 7 of the gooey balls.
Any way we had this new girl come to english class. She is 23 and from Peru. Then I was telling her about all the english classes we teach. and she is like why do you do all this for free. And I told her I love the people and I love to serve. Then she asks about the mormons. And so I talked to her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and the need for a restoration and she was like that all makes sense so we are supposed to meet with her again tomorrow but it was really cool to talk to her and that is why I put so much effort in to english class because I believe it is a great finding tool. But it was really cool.
We also had a firework show here in Ogaki. We went and passed out flyers there and the fireworks were cool but we had some people that said they would come to the english class so it is very exciting.
Have a great week. Keep pressing forward.The church is true.
Love
Elder Nelson
Trainer?? (August 21, 2011)
First off I only typed a little last week because I went to a bbq and my companion had to pack and everything so it was busy to say the least but, It was way fun. I had some meat that I have never tried before. For example ostrich and crocodile and kangaroo. My personal favorite was crocodile. It tasted like Chicken on steroids. Don't ask me how we got crocodile meat in Japan but is was delicious. (No I still like bacon more, but still it was pretty good.) Unfortunately it rained and we had no umbrellas but it was fun. I also ate caviar (ya I'm not sure how to spell it) but it is called ikura. I have had small fish eggs before but these are bigger. And they are ok. Basically they are like balls of fish juice and when you chew there is just a bursting flavor of fish. I also ate nato which is fermented beans. I still have trouble eating that. It's just not that great. I tried to make the new missionary eat it but he took one bite and said no more...and I was like fine. I am trying to be nice but I have some work to do because I made him take a bite of some of the fowlest foods in the world(next to pickles of course).
Alright I met a man from Sweden today and I felt like I was looking in a mirror. He had golden hair and bright pink skin...it made my day.
Well ya last week I wasn't kidding when I said I went trainer but I am way excited and having a blast. Well as everyone has been saying there is this new curriculum for trainers. It is pretty intense but we have an extra hour to study which has its ups and downs. We also got Dvd players in our apartment. It's sweet. But they have very strict rules for example we can't even watch general conference on them right now. Trainers are the only people in the mission who have them right now. haha. So on Tuesday I went to Nagoya for some training and that was fun. There, President Baird told me 2 times that if he decided I wouldn't have been trainer, he said he would have transfered me somewhere else. It was kind of weird hearing that but it reassures me that God is incharge and he knows what he is doing. So I am glad I am trainer and excited. It hasn't been the easiest week of my mission but it has been rewarding and fun. Let me explain to you what it is like. I'm like K and he is like J. Men in Black. So ya I give him the little gun and he doesn't know how powerful it is basically. I mean if you watch it you would understand...I think it's pretty accurate.
It has been a fun week. We are really trying to focus on less actives because our branch could really use more people at church...also the less actives could be blessed form going to church so it's a win win win situation. haha. No but seriously we have a fall festival coming up and we are visiting any person that has ever had any relations with the church so that we can invite them. It is going pretty well. We have met some interesting people. We went to the station to pass out English class flyers and we met this black guy from Detroit (He doesn't like the Lions so we are friends). He was very funny but he has been here for 10 years and was very nice to us. He invited us to go over sometime so we are going to take him up on that offer this week. He loves singing gospel music and told us that we could make money if we started marrying poeple. Then as we were leaving he is like call me any time I gotchyo back bro. So I felt like I was back home for a minute.
We have a good week planned and I'm excited to still be here in Ogaki. I was way surprised to stay but I know this is where the Lord wants me to be.
Love
Elder Nelson
Alright I met a man from Sweden today and I felt like I was looking in a mirror. He had golden hair and bright pink skin...it made my day.
Well ya last week I wasn't kidding when I said I went trainer but I am way excited and having a blast. Well as everyone has been saying there is this new curriculum for trainers. It is pretty intense but we have an extra hour to study which has its ups and downs. We also got Dvd players in our apartment. It's sweet. But they have very strict rules for example we can't even watch general conference on them right now. Trainers are the only people in the mission who have them right now. haha. So on Tuesday I went to Nagoya for some training and that was fun. There, President Baird told me 2 times that if he decided I wouldn't have been trainer, he said he would have transfered me somewhere else. It was kind of weird hearing that but it reassures me that God is incharge and he knows what he is doing. So I am glad I am trainer and excited. It hasn't been the easiest week of my mission but it has been rewarding and fun. Let me explain to you what it is like. I'm like K and he is like J. Men in Black. So ya I give him the little gun and he doesn't know how powerful it is basically. I mean if you watch it you would understand...I think it's pretty accurate.
It has been a fun week. We are really trying to focus on less actives because our branch could really use more people at church...also the less actives could be blessed form going to church so it's a win win win situation. haha. No but seriously we have a fall festival coming up and we are visiting any person that has ever had any relations with the church so that we can invite them. It is going pretty well. We have met some interesting people. We went to the station to pass out English class flyers and we met this black guy from Detroit (He doesn't like the Lions so we are friends). He was very funny but he has been here for 10 years and was very nice to us. He invited us to go over sometime so we are going to take him up on that offer this week. He loves singing gospel music and told us that we could make money if we started marrying poeple. Then as we were leaving he is like call me any time I gotchyo back bro. So I felt like I was back home for a minute.
We have a good week planned and I'm excited to still be here in Ogaki. I was way surprised to stay but I know this is where the Lord wants me to be.
Love
Elder Nelson
bon yasumi (August 14, 2011)
This is a very special week in Japan because its the week when they honor their ancestors. Most people travel to their home and go visit the graves of their ancestors so it has been a pretty eventful week. Well not really it was normal but still. This week was also transfers and I have been in my area for 4 transfers already so I was pretty sure I was going to get transferred. I mean 6 months in one area is pretty long. But when I got the call this morning it turns out I was wrong. I am staying in my area for 1 more transfer (at least) and I am going to be a trainer...pretty interesting...I was surprised. I am nervous to become trainer but I think it will be fun. I know nothing about my new companion...not even a name or what race he is.
Last night we went over to a member's house. It was really fun. The father use to be the branch president but is now less active and the mother is the only one that comes to church. It's really sad because the kids prayed and they were good at it but I don't know why they aren't coming to church. But anyway we had a delicious dinner than taught a lesson, then had dessert and right as we are about to eat dessert my companion says his stomach hurts and asks for some medicine. By the way my companion earlier told them that his favorite food is ice cream. So the member gets him some medicine and says that you probably shouldn't eat the dessert...which was like jello with fruit in it. Then the father takes a bite and says This is so good...it's the best thing ever. Man if I couldn't eat this I would die. And my companion is just siting there sad and his stomach hurts...then the dad goes we should teach him a lesson about patience and long suffering...let's have ice cream he says. He needs to learn patience. So the mom goes and gets ice cream and we ate it in front of him....I enjoyed that way too much. haha.
But anyway I'm way excited to continue to work in Ogaki. I know im supposed to be here again. Thanks for the Love and support.
Love
Elder Nelson
Last night we went over to a member's house. It was really fun. The father use to be the branch president but is now less active and the mother is the only one that comes to church. It's really sad because the kids prayed and they were good at it but I don't know why they aren't coming to church. But anyway we had a delicious dinner than taught a lesson, then had dessert and right as we are about to eat dessert my companion says his stomach hurts and asks for some medicine. By the way my companion earlier told them that his favorite food is ice cream. So the member gets him some medicine and says that you probably shouldn't eat the dessert...which was like jello with fruit in it. Then the father takes a bite and says This is so good...it's the best thing ever. Man if I couldn't eat this I would die. And my companion is just siting there sad and his stomach hurts...then the dad goes we should teach him a lesson about patience and long suffering...let's have ice cream he says. He needs to learn patience. So the mom goes and gets ice cream and we ate it in front of him....I enjoyed that way too much. haha.
But anyway I'm way excited to continue to work in Ogaki. I know im supposed to be here again. Thanks for the Love and support.
Love
Elder Nelson
Peruvian Party (August 7, 2011)
Well this week was pretty interesting. First of all I ate cow tongue..ya I never thought I would eat that in Japan but I did. It wasn't bad. The funny thing is that I ate it at a sushi restaurant and as I told people that I had cow tongue this week they were like cool...and then I told them I had it at the sushi place and they crack up and say it must have been disgusting why did you eat it there. I had never seen it before so I just took it and ate it. It was a little tough and just me thinking that a tongue was in my mouth was hard but besides that it wasn't bad. I also had pickles and seaweed salad with a little honey on top. Alright this might be the worst thing I have eaten in my entire life...I feel like I'm underexagerating...like I don't want to complain because I'm sure people in other places have to eat worse things but this had to be the worse thing I have ever tasted. My companion who loves pickles said he didn't like it...so that is saying something. I even asked the lady who gave it to us if she liked it and she said that she didn't like it but she eats it because it is good for you. as if...one more bite and I was done for.
There was a summer festaval this week and that was pretty fun. We went with a less active and we met so many people that we know...it was so much fun.
English class is going well. The number of students has dropped a little probably because summer vacation just started so we are trying to make new handouts to pass out to people but it is taking longer than expected. We are still reading from the Book of Mormon...we are on page 21 so we are making good progress.
We always see this guy riding a little moped in front of the church when we go to set up for eikaiwa. It is so funny because he goes like 15 miles an hour under the speed limit because its so old. He always gets passed by cars, it's funny. We have been trying to figure out where he is from because first of all he waves to us and Japanese people wouldn't usually wave to us. He also has a nice mustache which isn't Japanese at all. So on Tuesday we see him and he waves to us and yells champion. Ya random but on Saturday as we are heading to an appointment we rode past his house and he was outside so we stopped and talked to him...come to find out he is Peruvian. We talk a little about the Book of Mormon and he invites us back the next day. The next day right after chruch we show up and turns out it was his birthday party...it was way fun and the food was delicious. We had Peruvian chicken and they all treated us like kings. We talked with them about God for a little while and then the subject got changed to gay marriage. They were all against it which is cool. The funny thing is that we talked with Peruvians in Japanese...there is something wrong with that...we should choose an easier language. They had all lived here about 10 years and they were so angry when we told them we had only lived in Japan for about a year. They wanted to know how we got so good. It is easy when you put your trust in God to help you. Just experiences like that show me that God really does help us and that we Have the Holy Ghost. We have help that other people don't realize we have but it is there. I know that God has blessed me and will bless anyone that seeks for his help.
Thank you everyone for your support...have a great week. be careful Pray always.
Love
Elder Nelson
There was a summer festaval this week and that was pretty fun. We went with a less active and we met so many people that we know...it was so much fun.
English class is going well. The number of students has dropped a little probably because summer vacation just started so we are trying to make new handouts to pass out to people but it is taking longer than expected. We are still reading from the Book of Mormon...we are on page 21 so we are making good progress.
We always see this guy riding a little moped in front of the church when we go to set up for eikaiwa. It is so funny because he goes like 15 miles an hour under the speed limit because its so old. He always gets passed by cars, it's funny. We have been trying to figure out where he is from because first of all he waves to us and Japanese people wouldn't usually wave to us. He also has a nice mustache which isn't Japanese at all. So on Tuesday we see him and he waves to us and yells champion. Ya random but on Saturday as we are heading to an appointment we rode past his house and he was outside so we stopped and talked to him...come to find out he is Peruvian. We talk a little about the Book of Mormon and he invites us back the next day. The next day right after chruch we show up and turns out it was his birthday party...it was way fun and the food was delicious. We had Peruvian chicken and they all treated us like kings. We talked with them about God for a little while and then the subject got changed to gay marriage. They were all against it which is cool. The funny thing is that we talked with Peruvians in Japanese...there is something wrong with that...we should choose an easier language. They had all lived here about 10 years and they were so angry when we told them we had only lived in Japan for about a year. They wanted to know how we got so good. It is easy when you put your trust in God to help you. Just experiences like that show me that God really does help us and that we Have the Holy Ghost. We have help that other people don't realize we have but it is there. I know that God has blessed me and will bless anyone that seeks for his help.
Thank you everyone for your support...have a great week. be careful Pray always.
Love
Elder Nelson
花火 (Fireworks) (July 31, 2011)
Good evening!!
Well we had a pretty crazy week here in Ogaki but it was fun. Well first off this time of year in Japan is very interesting. It is the time of fireworks and festivals so it is fun. So the other day we saw fireworks...they were very far away...probably a 50 minute train ride away (so we went to the top of our apartment and watched them) but the funny thing is that is still our area. I have never even been close to that place and there are people that live their in our Branch's boundary. Its crazy but anyway...the fireworks were very pretty even though they were very far away.
This week I had the opportunity to go back to Inuyama...it was very fun. I visited many people that I taught and met with and loved so it was very good. First we visited a recent convert and talked with him for like one hour. He is 20 and wants to go on a mission so that's exciting. Then we visited a lady that is not a member but when I was their I visited her a lot in the hospital and she is doing good. From that we went and visited an investigator that I taught. When I was in Inuyama he was drinking and smoking but come to find out he has stopped. That is very exciting. He expressed worry about stopping coffee but we explained that if you can stop drinking and smoking you can stop drinking coffee and he said he would...he is so close. He is progressing so very slowly but he is progressing. His wife is a member so she helps a lot. I think he will get baptized pretty soon. It was very cool to see him again. It was very fun to go back.
We try to do as many service projects can but this week I think we signed ourselves up for too much. We went over to this members house and we looked at his back yard and it is like a jungle. There are bugs everywhere, mosquitoes, giant frogs, snakes...and much more but we were supposed to clean it up. After about 2 hours we had 8 bags full of weeds and all sorts of who knows what in the bags. It was fun...there is still a lot to do there but it was cool seeing all those animals. After we finished we told the member what we saw and he was like what no we can't take down the forest now...we have a whole ecosystem back there. His wife just starred at him...haha. But I learned something interesting back there. In Japan I usually dont get bitten by mosquitoes right. So during this weeding project I decided not to wear repellent. There were mosquitoes everywhere but I thought I'd be fine. My companion put on the repellent. So after I was fine but the next day I woke up and I realized that I had been bitten about 10 times and that could have been prevented. We need to always remember to wear our repellent even if we think we will be protected we always need to be putting on the armor of God. We can do that by reading the scriptures and praying everyday. Going to the temple regularly would also give a huge boost to your repellent. Don't take the risk like I did even if you think you will be ok...put on the repellent no matter what.
Also another side note is that my companion put on repellent and got bit 40 times...so even if you are wearing repellent don't go to places you shouldn't be going to...even if you are wearing your armor. He would have been bitten alot more if he didn't wear protection but he would have been better off just staying away.
This week at English class we had 6 missionaries there. It was pretty cool. The assistants and the Zone leaders decided to drop by...it was pretty cool except I was the one teaching the englsih class. It went pretty good but I was pretty nervous.
Also this week we had an investigator come to church. He is pretty cool. Yesterday the topic during sacrament meeting was patriatical blessings. It was interesting but to say the least he was a little confused. I told him that he should start preparing for his and he looks at me and was like I have to be member don't I. I smiled and said its not that hard all we have to do is get baptized. Baptism is just a symbol of us keeping God's commandments and in turn we receive a lot of blessings. He said he'd think about it. But I thought it went pretty good. He is a good kid so we will see what happens.
Have a great week
Love
Elder Nelson
Well we had a pretty crazy week here in Ogaki but it was fun. Well first off this time of year in Japan is very interesting. It is the time of fireworks and festivals so it is fun. So the other day we saw fireworks...they were very far away...probably a 50 minute train ride away (so we went to the top of our apartment and watched them) but the funny thing is that is still our area. I have never even been close to that place and there are people that live their in our Branch's boundary. Its crazy but anyway...the fireworks were very pretty even though they were very far away.
This week I had the opportunity to go back to Inuyama...it was very fun. I visited many people that I taught and met with and loved so it was very good. First we visited a recent convert and talked with him for like one hour. He is 20 and wants to go on a mission so that's exciting. Then we visited a lady that is not a member but when I was their I visited her a lot in the hospital and she is doing good. From that we went and visited an investigator that I taught. When I was in Inuyama he was drinking and smoking but come to find out he has stopped. That is very exciting. He expressed worry about stopping coffee but we explained that if you can stop drinking and smoking you can stop drinking coffee and he said he would...he is so close. He is progressing so very slowly but he is progressing. His wife is a member so she helps a lot. I think he will get baptized pretty soon. It was very cool to see him again. It was very fun to go back.
We try to do as many service projects can but this week I think we signed ourselves up for too much. We went over to this members house and we looked at his back yard and it is like a jungle. There are bugs everywhere, mosquitoes, giant frogs, snakes...and much more but we were supposed to clean it up. After about 2 hours we had 8 bags full of weeds and all sorts of who knows what in the bags. It was fun...there is still a lot to do there but it was cool seeing all those animals. After we finished we told the member what we saw and he was like what no we can't take down the forest now...we have a whole ecosystem back there. His wife just starred at him...haha. But I learned something interesting back there. In Japan I usually dont get bitten by mosquitoes right. So during this weeding project I decided not to wear repellent. There were mosquitoes everywhere but I thought I'd be fine. My companion put on the repellent. So after I was fine but the next day I woke up and I realized that I had been bitten about 10 times and that could have been prevented. We need to always remember to wear our repellent even if we think we will be protected we always need to be putting on the armor of God. We can do that by reading the scriptures and praying everyday. Going to the temple regularly would also give a huge boost to your repellent. Don't take the risk like I did even if you think you will be ok...put on the repellent no matter what.
Also another side note is that my companion put on repellent and got bit 40 times...so even if you are wearing repellent don't go to places you shouldn't be going to...even if you are wearing your armor. He would have been bitten alot more if he didn't wear protection but he would have been better off just staying away.
This week at English class we had 6 missionaries there. It was pretty cool. The assistants and the Zone leaders decided to drop by...it was pretty cool except I was the one teaching the englsih class. It went pretty good but I was pretty nervous.
Also this week we had an investigator come to church. He is pretty cool. Yesterday the topic during sacrament meeting was patriatical blessings. It was interesting but to say the least he was a little confused. I told him that he should start preparing for his and he looks at me and was like I have to be member don't I. I smiled and said its not that hard all we have to do is get baptized. Baptism is just a symbol of us keeping God's commandments and in turn we receive a lot of blessings. He said he'd think about it. But I thought it went pretty good. He is a good kid so we will see what happens.
Have a great week
Love
Elder Nelson
Typhoon (July 24, 2011)
Well we escaped the typhoon but our Monday, Tuesday and half of Wednesday were kind of rough. It wasn't terrible but apparently it just missed us but it still rained and was windy but everyone cancelled on us. Which is too bad but on Tuesday night we were supposed to have english class and our branch president called and said we should cancel it...it was a little to late to cancel but no one really came anyway so it wasn't a big deal. But then he is like you shouldn't like leave your apartment until the typhoon was over but that was Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon it ended and by Wednesday night there wasn't a cloud in the sky. So it was nice.
And now today it is storming. We hear thunder about every 3 minutes and the rain is just coming down but when we came here it was not raining that hard so it kind of goes in spurts. Even though it is cloudy and everything it is still very hot and very humid.
This week we stopped and talked to a person who was from Greece. I don't think I have ever met someone from there and I wasn't expecting to meet someone from Greece in Japan but he was a very nice man who was here on a business trip. His english was very good but his Japanese was also good so that was impressive. We talked a little bit about religion but he is born again christian. I think...he never said that he just kept saying born again so its a wild guess but he was very friendly.
Unfortunately none of our investigators were able to come to church yesterday, but it was still a good service and we had the opportunity to teach a less active about the plan of salvation. It went pretty well but he had a lot of questions but I won't complain. But after church we had missionary week and with a member we went and visited some less actives. It was pretty fun. One we visit regularly and they are a way...interesting family and the other we have never met before but we met them yesterday. He has been less active for quite a while because over 10 years ago a new version of the Book of Mormon in Japanese came out. And the name was even changed but he had the old one and we gave him a new one and challenged him to read it. The old one has very hard Japanese and is hard for Japanese people to understang but the new one is just a little hard for Japanese people to understand. But anyway he seemed way excited to read it.
Unfortunatley our investigators aren't progressing like we would like them to. We can't force them to do anything but we can help them try to keep comitments which we will continue to do invite them to do that. As I was studying the scriptures this week I read a scripture that explains how I feel. In Alma chapter 13 verse 27. Alma explains how it pains his heart when the people procrastinate the day of their repentance. But we will keep working hard to help them keep those commitments.
Have great summer week!
Love
Elder Nelson
And now today it is storming. We hear thunder about every 3 minutes and the rain is just coming down but when we came here it was not raining that hard so it kind of goes in spurts. Even though it is cloudy and everything it is still very hot and very humid.
This week we stopped and talked to a person who was from Greece. I don't think I have ever met someone from there and I wasn't expecting to meet someone from Greece in Japan but he was a very nice man who was here on a business trip. His english was very good but his Japanese was also good so that was impressive. We talked a little bit about religion but he is born again christian. I think...he never said that he just kept saying born again so its a wild guess but he was very friendly.
Unfortunately none of our investigators were able to come to church yesterday, but it was still a good service and we had the opportunity to teach a less active about the plan of salvation. It went pretty well but he had a lot of questions but I won't complain. But after church we had missionary week and with a member we went and visited some less actives. It was pretty fun. One we visit regularly and they are a way...interesting family and the other we have never met before but we met them yesterday. He has been less active for quite a while because over 10 years ago a new version of the Book of Mormon in Japanese came out. And the name was even changed but he had the old one and we gave him a new one and challenged him to read it. The old one has very hard Japanese and is hard for Japanese people to understang but the new one is just a little hard for Japanese people to understand. But anyway he seemed way excited to read it.
Unfortunatley our investigators aren't progressing like we would like them to. We can't force them to do anything but we can help them try to keep comitments which we will continue to do invite them to do that. As I was studying the scriptures this week I read a scripture that explains how I feel. In Alma chapter 13 verse 27. Alma explains how it pains his heart when the people procrastinate the day of their repentance. But we will keep working hard to help them keep those commitments.
Have great summer week!
Love
Elder Nelson
海の日(Sea Day) (July 17, 2011)
Hey...how is everyone doing in Las Vegas? Well that's great. I heard you got some well deserved rain...we also got some rain but I'm not going to say it's well-deserved. It's actually raining really hard right now and there is a typhoon on the way so its pretty exciting.
Well we had interviews this week. It was fun to go down to the Nagoya fish market. It wasn't quite as fishy this time though because we went in the afternoon and they are all done gutting the fish and cutting up sting rays by that time. President Baird was Good. Its always nice to talk to him. I remember how bad my english is when he's around because he uses words that no one can understand. I think he makes up words and then gets them added to the dictionary because they are in there but any way it was real nice to see him. We had a nice talk about my area and the investigators here and how we can help them. He gave me some advice and has been following up with me sense. So that is good. We are trying to get Emi baptized but she went out of town this weekend because it is a national holiday today. Today is sea day. Yay for sea day I'm pretty sure no one knows what it means or why they have it but it is a holiday. Any way no one had to go to the sea today because it came to us...haha but seriously it did. Any way enough about sea day...ummm Emi is supposed to get baptized this weekend but because of parent's permission and everything it is going to be pretty difficult but we are going to work our hardest to accomplish this. But ya I like President Baird, he is a very smart person.
We had a pretty good expirience yesterday but we always offer our help to less actives and they usually say no but yesterday after church they call us and ask us to fix a bike. Well, it was harder than we thought because the bike was locked and the key was lost. So we tried to pick it and break the lock but it didn't work. Like why don't they teach that in Boy Scouts. I'm an eagle scout but I can't pick a lock...come on. I was embarrased but any way we carried his bike to the bike shop so that they could fix it because he needed it today. We figured that the bike was in the mire so we pulled it out. Any way it was nice but there we met the less actives friends who like as soon as she started talking to us tried to Bible bash us but what they don't understand is that there is nothing to bash against when it is personal testimony. So it was interesting. She was way nice but any way it was good.
Anyway..we have a busy and exciting week ahead of us. Well yesterday at church I gave a talk on the pioneers. As I prepared for the talk I learned how the trials made them better people and strengthened their faith. So it is a good thing we have trials so that our faith can be strengthened. Have a nice week.
Love
Elder Nelson
Well we had interviews this week. It was fun to go down to the Nagoya fish market. It wasn't quite as fishy this time though because we went in the afternoon and they are all done gutting the fish and cutting up sting rays by that time. President Baird was Good. Its always nice to talk to him. I remember how bad my english is when he's around because he uses words that no one can understand. I think he makes up words and then gets them added to the dictionary because they are in there but any way it was real nice to see him. We had a nice talk about my area and the investigators here and how we can help them. He gave me some advice and has been following up with me sense. So that is good. We are trying to get Emi baptized but she went out of town this weekend because it is a national holiday today. Today is sea day. Yay for sea day I'm pretty sure no one knows what it means or why they have it but it is a holiday. Any way no one had to go to the sea today because it came to us...haha but seriously it did. Any way enough about sea day...ummm Emi is supposed to get baptized this weekend but because of parent's permission and everything it is going to be pretty difficult but we are going to work our hardest to accomplish this. But ya I like President Baird, he is a very smart person.
We had a pretty good expirience yesterday but we always offer our help to less actives and they usually say no but yesterday after church they call us and ask us to fix a bike. Well, it was harder than we thought because the bike was locked and the key was lost. So we tried to pick it and break the lock but it didn't work. Like why don't they teach that in Boy Scouts. I'm an eagle scout but I can't pick a lock...come on. I was embarrased but any way we carried his bike to the bike shop so that they could fix it because he needed it today. We figured that the bike was in the mire so we pulled it out. Any way it was nice but there we met the less actives friends who like as soon as she started talking to us tried to Bible bash us but what they don't understand is that there is nothing to bash against when it is personal testimony. So it was interesting. She was way nice but any way it was good.
Anyway..we have a busy and exciting week ahead of us. Well yesterday at church I gave a talk on the pioneers. As I prepared for the talk I learned how the trials made them better people and strengthened their faith. So it is a good thing we have trials so that our faith can be strengthened. Have a nice week.
Love
Elder Nelson
what a....week (July 10), 2011)
Guess what?!? the rainy season is over! There should be a day of celebration. just kidding but seriously...supposedly it ended on Friday. Then guess what happened on Saturday it rained. haha. Of course. No but apparantly it is going to get really hot this week. So that is exciting.
Well...I hope everyone had a great week. We had a great time at our Fourth of July party. It was really fun...until my conpanion got sick. But we had a lot of people there. We had less actives come and investigators come and people who just wanted to eat food come...so it was really good. I made some food and my companion made some food and then people brought snacks and we had a watermelon!!! Ya it was so cool but any way my companion got really sick right before the party and hasn't quite got back to 100 percent yet.
Well on Monday we had an appointment with Emi. It went pretty well. She had work until 8 so it was a little difficult to meet her. So we met her at her work which is McDonald's. We biked there and it was just pouring down rain. So we walk into McDoanald's drenched. Then we talked with her for a while and discussed baptism. We set a date for her but it might be a little difficult to meet that date but we will work towards that. She was very excited to be invited to be baptised. Something I didn't know but have since found out is that she has read all of the New Testement. How cool is that? How many 15 year old girls have read the new testiment? And she is Japanese. She said she read it for a school project and all her friends made fun of her but she said that it was a good book and loves it. How cool. So she knows a lot about Christ but she doesn't know a lot about our church yet so we still have a lot to teach but she is awesome. She reads the Book of Mormon so it is good.
We should have a really good week this week. We have a bunch of appointement and it will be great.
Have fun be safe.
Love
Elder Nelson
Well...I hope everyone had a great week. We had a great time at our Fourth of July party. It was really fun...until my conpanion got sick. But we had a lot of people there. We had less actives come and investigators come and people who just wanted to eat food come...so it was really good. I made some food and my companion made some food and then people brought snacks and we had a watermelon!!! Ya it was so cool but any way my companion got really sick right before the party and hasn't quite got back to 100 percent yet.
Well on Monday we had an appointment with Emi. It went pretty well. She had work until 8 so it was a little difficult to meet her. So we met her at her work which is McDonald's. We biked there and it was just pouring down rain. So we walk into McDoanald's drenched. Then we talked with her for a while and discussed baptism. We set a date for her but it might be a little difficult to meet that date but we will work towards that. She was very excited to be invited to be baptised. Something I didn't know but have since found out is that she has read all of the New Testement. How cool is that? How many 15 year old girls have read the new testiment? And she is Japanese. She said she read it for a school project and all her friends made fun of her but she said that it was a good book and loves it. How cool. So she knows a lot about Christ but she doesn't know a lot about our church yet so we still have a lot to teach but she is awesome. She reads the Book of Mormon so it is good.
We should have a really good week this week. We have a bunch of appointement and it will be great.
Have fun be safe.
Love
Elder Nelson
4th of July (July 3, 2011)
Well Happy Fourth of July!! I hope every one has had a great weekend and had a nice bbq and some watermelon and watched some fireworks. That sounds nice. Speaking of watermelon they are really expensive here in Japan. One is about 30 dollars. Ya expensive. But any way I had some interesting food this week I had chocolate covered seaweed...ummmmm ya it was interesting. I also had chocolate jalepeno...that wasn't actaully that bad. It tasted like chocolate with a really strong spicy after taste. So it was good. I never thought I would have spicy chocolate but the day came. Also I had salmon eggs this week. Those were also interesting. I can't say I disliked them. They had a really strong taste. Dad I think you would like it...mom maybe not. I will definately have it again. We eat onigiri sometimes. they are very popular but it is a rice ball with something in the middle and wrapped with seaweed. They are pretty good but I had the fish eggs in that. I like the tuna mayo ones but they are pretty good.
Well thats about it. Tomorrow we have a fourth of july party so that will be good. It is for english class and hopefully we have a big turn out. I have been calling former students all week and it looks like some of them will come. So that is very exciting. Last week at english class we were talking about some one that I respect and I of course in the little group I was in said Jesus Christ. I figure he is a good person to respect. They asked me why and I said that as people were killing him, Jesus Christ forgave them immediately and that is a very respectful trait in someone. We talked a little bit about him amd what happened after death. Then from there this other man in my group said that there was this sun god that was trapped under rocks for three days and then escaped and there was light again. It seems similar to Jesus Christ so we talked about that. And that is how english class went. We also talked about the tree of life last week. The same man asked what the fruit of the tree of life represented and why didn't Laman and Lemuel eat the fruit. It was a great question. I'm still not sure of the answer but it sparked a great discussion. He is one of those people who you think will never get baptized but slowly his heart is changing.
Well I'm not sure how much I have told you about Emi Chan but she is pretty much the most awesome girl ever. Bar my mother of course no but seriously I gave a talk in sacrament meeting and challenged everyone to pray and from that she started praying. It wasn't even a formal commitment...awesome. We haven't had a real chance to teach her a lesson but we have an appoitment and we talk to her as much as possible. She also said that when she reads the Book of Mormon she feels Jesus Christ is helping her. Is that not awesome. Ya it is.
Have a great week. I love you and I know this church is true and it is guided by revalation.
Love
Elder Nelson
Well thats about it. Tomorrow we have a fourth of july party so that will be good. It is for english class and hopefully we have a big turn out. I have been calling former students all week and it looks like some of them will come. So that is very exciting. Last week at english class we were talking about some one that I respect and I of course in the little group I was in said Jesus Christ. I figure he is a good person to respect. They asked me why and I said that as people were killing him, Jesus Christ forgave them immediately and that is a very respectful trait in someone. We talked a little bit about him amd what happened after death. Then from there this other man in my group said that there was this sun god that was trapped under rocks for three days and then escaped and there was light again. It seems similar to Jesus Christ so we talked about that. And that is how english class went. We also talked about the tree of life last week. The same man asked what the fruit of the tree of life represented and why didn't Laman and Lemuel eat the fruit. It was a great question. I'm still not sure of the answer but it sparked a great discussion. He is one of those people who you think will never get baptized but slowly his heart is changing.
Well I'm not sure how much I have told you about Emi Chan but she is pretty much the most awesome girl ever. Bar my mother of course no but seriously I gave a talk in sacrament meeting and challenged everyone to pray and from that she started praying. It wasn't even a formal commitment...awesome. We haven't had a real chance to teach her a lesson but we have an appoitment and we talk to her as much as possible. She also said that when she reads the Book of Mormon she feels Jesus Christ is helping her. Is that not awesome. Ya it is.
Have a great week. I love you and I know this church is true and it is guided by revalation.
Love
Elder Nelson
English Class (June 26, 2011)
Well I hope everyone had a great week...I had a pretty interesting one. Well I keep getting nose bleeds which is weird but thats ok. I never got them in Vegas but thats whatever. I also got hit by a car. It's not as bad as it sounds. She really just tapped me but thats ok. It is a problem here in Japan. There are a lot of bikers and cars tend to hit us every once in a while. But me and my bike are fine so its cool. A lot of other weird things happened but its ok I'm still alive so its all good.
Something cool about Japan. Apparently Masquitos in Japan don't like O- blood because they won't bite me. Its awesome. My poor companion gets like eaten alive by bugs but I go unharmed...haha. But seriously at first I thought it was wierd when people told me mosquitoes didn't like my blood but I believe them now.
So I'm not sure how much I've told everyone about english class but right now we are up to 4 classes and in all of them we are using the Book of Mormon one way or another. So basically we are doing awesome in that sence. I have never been so busy on my mission. It is a really good thing. But we are also going to start teaching a children's englsih class. So we are going to teach from the childrens book of mormon stories and teach them primary songs. Basically it will be like a primary lesson on Tuesdays with some english. It will also require their parents to attend so hopefully it will increase our teaching pool. We have so parents in our ward that want it...alright the one parent in our branch wants us to do it so we will help her and hopefully find so new people...some people have allready shown interest.
We had two people attend sacrament and also one came like 90 minutes after church ended but thats ok she tried. So one of the people that attended sacrament was the lady who called about the bible last week. This week church was a lot more smooth for them. The mom is actually a member. I didn't even know but she was baptized a long time ago and now with her daughter has started attending church. This is very exciting. The daughter said she has seen a lot of miracles in her life and that has caused her to start wanting to learn about God...very exciting if you ask me. Also the girl that came 90 minutes late is the 15 year old girl that comes to englsih class. We challenged her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon which shouldn't be too hard because she allready reads the Book of Mormon she just needs to pray. So it is going great.
Well have a great week in the summer. It is getting pretty hot over here. It is way better than komatsu winter. The sun feels way good but I only can take it for like 20 minutes than I need sun screen...ya I am still really white...well now pinkinsh but I was white. Take care...the Gospel is true.
Love
Elder Nelson
Something cool about Japan. Apparently Masquitos in Japan don't like O- blood because they won't bite me. Its awesome. My poor companion gets like eaten alive by bugs but I go unharmed...haha. But seriously at first I thought it was wierd when people told me mosquitoes didn't like my blood but I believe them now.
So I'm not sure how much I've told everyone about english class but right now we are up to 4 classes and in all of them we are using the Book of Mormon one way or another. So basically we are doing awesome in that sence. I have never been so busy on my mission. It is a really good thing. But we are also going to start teaching a children's englsih class. So we are going to teach from the childrens book of mormon stories and teach them primary songs. Basically it will be like a primary lesson on Tuesdays with some english. It will also require their parents to attend so hopefully it will increase our teaching pool. We have so parents in our ward that want it...alright the one parent in our branch wants us to do it so we will help her and hopefully find so new people...some people have allready shown interest.
We had two people attend sacrament and also one came like 90 minutes after church ended but thats ok she tried. So one of the people that attended sacrament was the lady who called about the bible last week. This week church was a lot more smooth for them. The mom is actually a member. I didn't even know but she was baptized a long time ago and now with her daughter has started attending church. This is very exciting. The daughter said she has seen a lot of miracles in her life and that has caused her to start wanting to learn about God...very exciting if you ask me. Also the girl that came 90 minutes late is the 15 year old girl that comes to englsih class. We challenged her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon which shouldn't be too hard because she allready reads the Book of Mormon she just needs to pray. So it is going great.
Well have a great week in the summer. It is getting pretty hot over here. It is way better than komatsu winter. The sun feels way good but I only can take it for like 20 minutes than I need sun screen...ya I am still really white...well now pinkinsh but I was white. Take care...the Gospel is true.
Love
Elder Nelson
Farming (June 19, 2011)
So basically this week was a pretty good week. On Wednesday we had an appointment to go over to a members house to eat dinner and to help their daughter learn english. She is traveling to Utah next month and really can't speak english so she is a little frightened. She also hasn't been to church for a while...but anyway we went over to their house but before we got to their house we took a detour to their farm. Basically in order to eat we had to dig up potatoes and pull onions so we could eat. I got my clothes a little dirty but no big problem...we got a lot of potatoes and onions for them. It was a very cool experience. We actually had to work for our meal.
On Saturday we were at the church for no real reason. I mean we kind of had a reason but it wasn't that good but any way while we were there we received a phone call at the church and now our chruch phone doesn't have an answering machine so it was a good thing we were there but any way a lady called and said she and her daughter would like to learn about the Bible and what is the best way to do that. I almost fainted with excitement. But anyway I told her that she should come to church the next day. She willing agreed to come. They had a....decent experience at church...I actually think we scared the daughter but the mom really wants to come again.
We also had two other investigators at church. One I really think will get baptized soon becuase she acts like a member. We just need to find time to teach her but she is pretty busy. But give it a little time and it will be good. It is way exciting.
Also this morning I learned something interesting about Japanese history and the language. We teach an investigator every Monday morning and always end up talking about history of Japanese religion. But today I learned the kanji for Emperor . If you seperate the kanji it means Heavenly white king. And they started using that kanji 2000 years ago and before 2000 years ago they don't know who the Emperor was but ever since that time they know. Coincidence....I think not. I think it is pretty interesting. Espeacially the knaji. It is a really cool langauge. Difficult but at the same time cool. It always strengthens my testimony that this is the true church.
Have a great week.
Love
Elder Nelson
On Saturday we were at the church for no real reason. I mean we kind of had a reason but it wasn't that good but any way while we were there we received a phone call at the church and now our chruch phone doesn't have an answering machine so it was a good thing we were there but any way a lady called and said she and her daughter would like to learn about the Bible and what is the best way to do that. I almost fainted with excitement. But anyway I told her that she should come to church the next day. She willing agreed to come. They had a....decent experience at church...I actually think we scared the daughter but the mom really wants to come again.
We also had two other investigators at church. One I really think will get baptized soon becuase she acts like a member. We just need to find time to teach her but she is pretty busy. But give it a little time and it will be good. It is way exciting.
Also this morning I learned something interesting about Japanese history and the language. We teach an investigator every Monday morning and always end up talking about history of Japanese religion. But today I learned the kanji for Emperor . If you seperate the kanji it means Heavenly white king. And they started using that kanji 2000 years ago and before 2000 years ago they don't know who the Emperor was but ever since that time they know. Coincidence....I think not. I think it is pretty interesting. Espeacially the knaji. It is a really cool langauge. Difficult but at the same time cool. It always strengthens my testimony that this is the true church.
Have a great week.
Love
Elder Nelson
Nagoya (June 12, 2011)
Well it was a pretty good week. We were able to go to Nagoya for a zone conference like activity. Pretty much President Baird talked to us from 10 am until 6 pm...it was really long. Like really long. At like 12 30 they gave us pudding cups and I was like afraid for my life that that was lunch. Then by 1 30 I was starving again. Then at 2 30 we got lunch so that was good. They had me worried for a while. It wasn't a bad lunch it was chicken rice and curry. Pretty good. It was still a long training. But anyway it was a cool...we had it at the Nagoya institute house...if anyone knows where that is it is pretty funny. In downtown Nagoya there is this huge fish market and right in the middle of this huge fish market is the institute house. It is always interesting to walk down there because you see so many interesting things like on Thursday I saw some people like cutting off the tail of a whale and that was pretty cool and right next to the door of the institute there were these huge fish...probably still alive and also there were people like spraying the dead fish guts off the ground...I dont think Sister Baird liked it...haha. It smelled like dead fish all day, but it is way funny that that is where the institute house is.
Well English class is going well. I am way surprised but we got yet another new student so that was cool. At first I was not 100 percent for Book of Mormon english class at all. I thought we would lose all our students. But obviously I was completely wrong. It has not only stayed the same but has grown maybe even doubled. It just goes to show that even when according to the world it should fail, when you listen to your preisthood leaders you will succeed no matter what. Like obviously God's hand is in on this because I have never seen an english class grow so fast...it is incredible. and it isn't just here it has happened in some other areas so it is really awesome.
It is cool having a companion from Australia...I learn a lot about english. He uses alot of words that I don't understand...like prong...what is that. or fairdinkum... I still don't know what this means. We eat about the same food...maybe because we are in Japan. but it is still cool.
Like I said it was a good week. We had 4 people supposed to come to church but because of ailments and sickness and concerts only one came but I will not complain. She is a really cool 15 yr old girl...and because of our branch being tiny we have no young women so she went with the relief society. I think she enjoyed it. Then during sacrament meeting she sat next to a family and really enjoyed it...she said she would like to come back next week. It was very nice. But like in America we have the same issues at church as well. So I gave a talk yesturday and I thought it was pretty hot (mainly because I was sweating) but as I was speaking the women thought it was too cold and turned the ac off. It reminded me of Las Vegas summers at church. Obviously somethings are the same no matter where you go...haha!!! But any way I spoke on prayer it was really basic and just geared towards the investigator...you think after speaking in church two times a month I would get use to it but I still get a little nervous but just a little...I guess I wouldn't be human if I didn't but I told the story of how a man fell into quicksand and prayed to God. After a man came and asked if he needed help. The man in the quicksand said no God will help me. After that another man came and offered help but the man that fell into the quicksand denied it and said that God would help him...He then died and went to heaven and asked God what heppened I prayed to you and you didn't help. Then God replied I sent two men to help you...the ward seemed to like it but it is true...sometimes we don't realize that God is helping when he always is.
Well have a great week.
Love
Elder Nelson
Well English class is going well. I am way surprised but we got yet another new student so that was cool. At first I was not 100 percent for Book of Mormon english class at all. I thought we would lose all our students. But obviously I was completely wrong. It has not only stayed the same but has grown maybe even doubled. It just goes to show that even when according to the world it should fail, when you listen to your preisthood leaders you will succeed no matter what. Like obviously God's hand is in on this because I have never seen an english class grow so fast...it is incredible. and it isn't just here it has happened in some other areas so it is really awesome.
It is cool having a companion from Australia...I learn a lot about english. He uses alot of words that I don't understand...like prong...what is that. or fairdinkum... I still don't know what this means. We eat about the same food...maybe because we are in Japan. but it is still cool.
Like I said it was a good week. We had 4 people supposed to come to church but because of ailments and sickness and concerts only one came but I will not complain. She is a really cool 15 yr old girl...and because of our branch being tiny we have no young women so she went with the relief society. I think she enjoyed it. Then during sacrament meeting she sat next to a family and really enjoyed it...she said she would like to come back next week. It was very nice. But like in America we have the same issues at church as well. So I gave a talk yesturday and I thought it was pretty hot (mainly because I was sweating) but as I was speaking the women thought it was too cold and turned the ac off. It reminded me of Las Vegas summers at church. Obviously somethings are the same no matter where you go...haha!!! But any way I spoke on prayer it was really basic and just geared towards the investigator...you think after speaking in church two times a month I would get use to it but I still get a little nervous but just a little...I guess I wouldn't be human if I didn't but I told the story of how a man fell into quicksand and prayed to God. After a man came and asked if he needed help. The man in the quicksand said no God will help me. After that another man came and offered help but the man that fell into the quicksand denied it and said that God would help him...He then died and went to heaven and asked God what heppened I prayed to you and you didn't help. Then God replied I sent two men to help you...the ward seemed to like it but it is true...sometimes we don't realize that God is helping when he always is.
Well have a great week.
Love
Elder Nelson
梅雨 (rainy season) (June 5, 2011)
It sounds like everyone is having a great time and preparing for summer...actually us too. We are preparing for the hot and rainy summer that we have ahead of us but it should be fun. We also finally got a ward mission leader so that is very exciting and a 2nd counselor in our branch presidency so it was a very succesful week.
Well usually I like talking about interesting food so this week I want to say I had the best sandwich in the world. It had bread, lettuce, onion and bacon (No, Not real bacon!! it was fake. I could see through it and when I cooked it, it didn't smell awesome so it wasn't bacon but the closest I could get, My imagination had to do the rest but still) chicken (marinated in chipotle(sent from my parents)) egg ( yes, I cooked the egg) salsa (I found a 16 oz bottle at the store and it was so good I ate it all last week....kind of sad) and mayonaise. It was so good. It was kind of expensive and I don't want to get sick of it so I don't have it for every meal......It was so good. So basically I'm not always suffering from eating tenticles of octupus that I swear were moving 2 minutes before I ate it but I actually have "edible" food every once in a while.
This week was actually a really great week. It was awesome. We had an open house at our church. And we have been preparing for it for a month trying to get members to bring their friends. Now what ever happened none of their friends came...sad. But we got 6 people to come. One was an investigator. She is 15 and comes to our english class twice a week. She really wants to learn english and live in America when she graduates high school so we help her with that but she is very busy so we have a hard time meeting her. She came to the open house and loved it. She took every pamphlet and looked at every picture in detail. She said when she gets time she'd love to come to church...it was awesome.
We also had another english student come to church yesterday...it was pretty cool. He is a senior in high school and isn't very good at english but he is getting better. He came to church and loved it. He said he was going to come to church next week as well. That was pretty cool.
So we went to a museum last p day and found someone whose daughter is a museum worker so that was cool. We went back on Friday and talked to him for a long time so it was really good. He has read a little but says it is too hard to believe but it's ok. We will continue to talk with him and I think he will see that it is not that hard to believe.
My companion and I have been learning a lot about the two main religions here in Japan recently; Shinto and Buddhism...it is very interesting. They both definately come from ancient times and testify of Christ...it has just been changed very much. There are ancient writings that only monks can understand but the common people can't understand but a lot of these stories have resemblence with our stories and the Bible. For example there is a red arch outside of the temple and shrines. What can that represent...maybe the passover. And you have to wash your unclean body before you can enter the temple. There is also an ancient story that talks about how the Deity of the sun was hidden in a cave for three days and the whole world was dark and then after 3 days the rock was removed from in front of the cave and the Deity came out. There really are so many things that relate. It really helps my testimony and is a great way to be able to relate to the Japanese people.
I know this church is true and love Japan... have a great week. And wish the best to Nicole because she is starting down the scary path...marriage. No Just kidding but seriously good luck...
Love
Elder Riley Nelson
Well usually I like talking about interesting food so this week I want to say I had the best sandwich in the world. It had bread, lettuce, onion and bacon (No, Not real bacon!! it was fake. I could see through it and when I cooked it, it didn't smell awesome so it wasn't bacon but the closest I could get, My imagination had to do the rest but still) chicken (marinated in chipotle(sent from my parents)) egg ( yes, I cooked the egg) salsa (I found a 16 oz bottle at the store and it was so good I ate it all last week....kind of sad) and mayonaise. It was so good. It was kind of expensive and I don't want to get sick of it so I don't have it for every meal......It was so good. So basically I'm not always suffering from eating tenticles of octupus that I swear were moving 2 minutes before I ate it but I actually have "edible" food every once in a while.
This week was actually a really great week. It was awesome. We had an open house at our church. And we have been preparing for it for a month trying to get members to bring their friends. Now what ever happened none of their friends came...sad. But we got 6 people to come. One was an investigator. She is 15 and comes to our english class twice a week. She really wants to learn english and live in America when she graduates high school so we help her with that but she is very busy so we have a hard time meeting her. She came to the open house and loved it. She took every pamphlet and looked at every picture in detail. She said when she gets time she'd love to come to church...it was awesome.
We also had another english student come to church yesterday...it was pretty cool. He is a senior in high school and isn't very good at english but he is getting better. He came to church and loved it. He said he was going to come to church next week as well. That was pretty cool.
So we went to a museum last p day and found someone whose daughter is a museum worker so that was cool. We went back on Friday and talked to him for a long time so it was really good. He has read a little but says it is too hard to believe but it's ok. We will continue to talk with him and I think he will see that it is not that hard to believe.
My companion and I have been learning a lot about the two main religions here in Japan recently; Shinto and Buddhism...it is very interesting. They both definately come from ancient times and testify of Christ...it has just been changed very much. There are ancient writings that only monks can understand but the common people can't understand but a lot of these stories have resemblence with our stories and the Bible. For example there is a red arch outside of the temple and shrines. What can that represent...maybe the passover. And you have to wash your unclean body before you can enter the temple. There is also an ancient story that talks about how the Deity of the sun was hidden in a cave for three days and the whole world was dark and then after 3 days the rock was removed from in front of the cave and the Deity came out. There really are so many things that relate. It really helps my testimony and is a great way to be able to relate to the Japanese people.
I know this church is true and love Japan... have a great week. And wish the best to Nicole because she is starting down the scary path...marriage. No Just kidding but seriously good luck...
Love
Elder Riley Nelson
寂しい (lonely) (May 29, 2011)
Hey,
So the Tokyo missionaries have returned home. It was very sad to leave them because they were cool and we won't even ever have the chance to see them at zone conference again but thats ok life goes forward and we will continue to do the Lord's work. Life in Ogaki is good. We had a typhoon blow through this week. It was really crazy but it has pretty much finished so that is good. Members have been telling us that the rainy season is here so that is exciting. The members were all like I feel so bad for you. I would not like to be in your shoes. A mission is hard in Japan isn't it. We're like yes so can we come visit you sometime and they usually say sorry we are busy this week maybe next week or some other time so it is really tough. Not everyone is like that either but it just make it that much more difficult.
Today we met an investigator and had an awesome lesson. He told us all about Shintoism. It is very interesting and while he was telling us about it we were able to realize the similarities in our religions. For example before you can enter their shrines you have to wash your hands and your mouth because you are impure. Through that we were able to compare it to the sacrament and how by taking the sacrament our sins can be forgiven and we can be made clean again. We talked alot about the sacrament and he was very intrigued. We talked about all the similarities and there are a lot. It is really crazy.
Our english class is doing way good. We have gotten 2 new people that have started coming and they both are planning to come to church this week. It is really good. We are really excited. As people read the Book of Mormon they see the good that it teaches and have started to become more interested. We still have a lot of people just interested in English but people are starting to notice the good things that we are doing and that we are willing to help people. I am really happy with the english class and I think a lot of good will come from it.
I can't remember if I have said this before but once a week on Wednesday we go to a book club and they are really nice to us. Honestly we get more meals from investigators than members but they always give us snacks and things from their gardens. But it lasts 2 hours and we get about 20 minutes to share a lesson and last week we read with them the third to last paragraph in the family proclamation...and they Loved it. They complimented on how important this is and the women especially love how it says that men and women are equal partners. It was very good. And it is great when we can connect with the Japanese people and show them that what we teach is a good thing.
I Love this church and am excited to continue working here in Ogaki.
Take Care
Love
Elder Nelson
So the Tokyo missionaries have returned home. It was very sad to leave them because they were cool and we won't even ever have the chance to see them at zone conference again but thats ok life goes forward and we will continue to do the Lord's work. Life in Ogaki is good. We had a typhoon blow through this week. It was really crazy but it has pretty much finished so that is good. Members have been telling us that the rainy season is here so that is exciting. The members were all like I feel so bad for you. I would not like to be in your shoes. A mission is hard in Japan isn't it. We're like yes so can we come visit you sometime and they usually say sorry we are busy this week maybe next week or some other time so it is really tough. Not everyone is like that either but it just make it that much more difficult.
Today we met an investigator and had an awesome lesson. He told us all about Shintoism. It is very interesting and while he was telling us about it we were able to realize the similarities in our religions. For example before you can enter their shrines you have to wash your hands and your mouth because you are impure. Through that we were able to compare it to the sacrament and how by taking the sacrament our sins can be forgiven and we can be made clean again. We talked alot about the sacrament and he was very intrigued. We talked about all the similarities and there are a lot. It is really crazy.
Our english class is doing way good. We have gotten 2 new people that have started coming and they both are planning to come to church this week. It is really good. We are really excited. As people read the Book of Mormon they see the good that it teaches and have started to become more interested. We still have a lot of people just interested in English but people are starting to notice the good things that we are doing and that we are willing to help people. I am really happy with the english class and I think a lot of good will come from it.
I can't remember if I have said this before but once a week on Wednesday we go to a book club and they are really nice to us. Honestly we get more meals from investigators than members but they always give us snacks and things from their gardens. But it lasts 2 hours and we get about 20 minutes to share a lesson and last week we read with them the third to last paragraph in the family proclamation...and they Loved it. They complimented on how important this is and the women especially love how it says that men and women are equal partners. It was very good. And it is great when we can connect with the Japanese people and show them that what we teach is a good thing.
I Love this church and am excited to continue working here in Ogaki.
Take Care
Love
Elder Nelson
Zone Conference (May 22, 2011)
Well we had another wonderful week.
We actually had the chance to go to Nagoya and have Zone conference. It was way fun to see other missionaries that I haven't seen in a while. It was incredible because President Baird only spoke for 10 minutes. I was shocked. He loves talking more than any person I know. But Elder Ishi of the quorum of the 70 spoke to us for like 30 minutes. He talked to us about his mission experiences and about how much things have changed since the time he served his mission. Then we heard from a doctor and a psychiatrist. Those two speeches were.........................interesting. They were good the doctor talked about how we need to wash our hands and do some other things that I have forgotten. Something about cleaning the bathroom often...ya I know not that important. Oh ya also about dealing with raw meet. Apparently we need to be more careful with raw meet, but I don't understand because Japanese people eat raw Chicken and Raw horse. I know pretty cool right. The other person talked about how we are all fallable human beings and we are supposed to fail. I'm not sure if that was supposed to help us or what but that was good. Then the zone leaders and assistants talked to us and conference was over. It was a very cool experience.
I had a cool experience this week. Well, my companion is officially dying. Ya I know it's sad but he has stomach issues and wasn't able to eat anything for three days. It was terrible. Not letting a missionary eat for three days has to be something like giving child birth. Man it was terrible. I know how the husband feels now. Alright maybe I am exagerating a little but not much. So I went out with the other missionary in my apartment and we went and taught english class. Like right when it was about to start this man walks in and starts asking me for pamphlets because he couldn't read the Japanese one that he had. He recently broke his leg and has some free time apparently. He is originally from Peru but can speak pretty good English and Japanese. Unfortunately all I had was Portuguese pamphlets but he took them. I invited him to church but unfortunately he wasn't able to come. He showed a lot of interest. It was cool because people don't ususally walk into church asking for pamphlets...hopefully we are able to meet him again.
Well actually an investigator called us this week and said the Book of Mormon was about Jesus' evil brother. I don't know where she found that but it's not in my copy of the Book of Mormon. It's too bad that things like that happen because of the internet but even though things like that happen it is good to know that through prayer we can find out if the Book of Mormon is true and we don't have to rely on other sources.
Have a great week
Love Elder Nelson
We actually had the chance to go to Nagoya and have Zone conference. It was way fun to see other missionaries that I haven't seen in a while. It was incredible because President Baird only spoke for 10 minutes. I was shocked. He loves talking more than any person I know. But Elder Ishi of the quorum of the 70 spoke to us for like 30 minutes. He talked to us about his mission experiences and about how much things have changed since the time he served his mission. Then we heard from a doctor and a psychiatrist. Those two speeches were.........................interesting. They were good the doctor talked about how we need to wash our hands and do some other things that I have forgotten. Something about cleaning the bathroom often...ya I know not that important. Oh ya also about dealing with raw meet. Apparently we need to be more careful with raw meet, but I don't understand because Japanese people eat raw Chicken and Raw horse. I know pretty cool right. The other person talked about how we are all fallable human beings and we are supposed to fail. I'm not sure if that was supposed to help us or what but that was good. Then the zone leaders and assistants talked to us and conference was over. It was a very cool experience.
I had a cool experience this week. Well, my companion is officially dying. Ya I know it's sad but he has stomach issues and wasn't able to eat anything for three days. It was terrible. Not letting a missionary eat for three days has to be something like giving child birth. Man it was terrible. I know how the husband feels now. Alright maybe I am exagerating a little but not much. So I went out with the other missionary in my apartment and we went and taught english class. Like right when it was about to start this man walks in and starts asking me for pamphlets because he couldn't read the Japanese one that he had. He recently broke his leg and has some free time apparently. He is originally from Peru but can speak pretty good English and Japanese. Unfortunately all I had was Portuguese pamphlets but he took them. I invited him to church but unfortunately he wasn't able to come. He showed a lot of interest. It was cool because people don't ususally walk into church asking for pamphlets...hopefully we are able to meet him again.
Well actually an investigator called us this week and said the Book of Mormon was about Jesus' evil brother. I don't know where she found that but it's not in my copy of the Book of Mormon. It's too bad that things like that happen because of the internet but even though things like that happen it is good to know that through prayer we can find out if the Book of Mormon is true and we don't have to rely on other sources.
Have a great week
Love Elder Nelson
祭 - (Festival) (May 15, 2011)
Good afternoon!!!
Well we were able to have another pretty good week here in Oogaki Japan. It is really nice outside. I love the weather. We also had a huge matsuri..or festival. It was really fun. There were so many people there. Everyone that lives in Oogaki was there. It was a way good experience. We met a less active and his friend there and talked with them for a while. It was very good. The less active friend is in turn an investigator. We will be able to meet him again this Wednesday so that is exciting. They pulled floats around and there were just so many stalls to buy things at and stuff like that. There was interesting food and interesting people. It was a great experience.
Well Book of Mormon english class is going well. People are actually enjoying it which surprised me and also they are doing their homework which is reading the Book of Mormon. Sweet!!! It is starting to make people ask questions...we are making real progress and we are now on page 10 so we have read about a good chunk of the story.
Yesterday we had a pizza party. Probably the best pizza I have had in 15 months 2 weeks and 15 days...no im just kidding but seriously it was way good. We had two investigators come as well and we actually had the weirdest/best lessons of my mission. There was a member there and he is like...I am tired of planned lessons so lets just read random scriptures. so we opened the scriptures to random pages and the first one was about charity, the second one was the introduction to the Book of Mormon which was cool. The third one talked about how if you read the scriptures you will KNOW that Jesus Christ is the Savior and the fourth was in Third Nephi and it was the Baptismal prayer. We couldn't have planned it better. I don't know if I will ever do it again but it was sweet. We were able to talk about baptism with the members and investigators and though no one commited it was way powerful. I think it was a good lesson because the investigators were losing interest and the spirit was so strong that they have more interest now!!!
So it was an awesome experience.
Keep living the Gospel...It's the way to true Happiness.
Love
Elder Nelson
Well we were able to have another pretty good week here in Oogaki Japan. It is really nice outside. I love the weather. We also had a huge matsuri..or festival. It was really fun. There were so many people there. Everyone that lives in Oogaki was there. It was a way good experience. We met a less active and his friend there and talked with them for a while. It was very good. The less active friend is in turn an investigator. We will be able to meet him again this Wednesday so that is exciting. They pulled floats around and there were just so many stalls to buy things at and stuff like that. There was interesting food and interesting people. It was a great experience.
Well Book of Mormon english class is going well. People are actually enjoying it which surprised me and also they are doing their homework which is reading the Book of Mormon. Sweet!!! It is starting to make people ask questions...we are making real progress and we are now on page 10 so we have read about a good chunk of the story.
Yesterday we had a pizza party. Probably the best pizza I have had in 15 months 2 weeks and 15 days...no im just kidding but seriously it was way good. We had two investigators come as well and we actually had the weirdest/best lessons of my mission. There was a member there and he is like...I am tired of planned lessons so lets just read random scriptures. so we opened the scriptures to random pages and the first one was about charity, the second one was the introduction to the Book of Mormon which was cool. The third one talked about how if you read the scriptures you will KNOW that Jesus Christ is the Savior and the fourth was in Third Nephi and it was the Baptismal prayer. We couldn't have planned it better. I don't know if I will ever do it again but it was sweet. We were able to talk about baptism with the members and investigators and though no one commited it was way powerful. I think it was a good lesson because the investigators were losing interest and the spirit was so strong that they have more interest now!!!
So it was an awesome experience.
Keep living the Gospel...It's the way to true Happiness.
Love
Elder Nelson
Plague (May 1, 2011)
It was a decent week all things considering. My companion and I fell ill. So we did not have the most productive week this week. He got sick at the beginning of the week and I got sick toward the end. We both had fevers and felt really weak but we both recovered and made it to church. It was a very nice day at church. The members seemed very excited to have 4 missionaries serving in Ogaki. It seems that it hasn't happened for 20 years so everyone is surprised and excited to work.3 of the 4 missionaires bore our testimonies so that was good. We are just filling everyone with dendo fire.
So Japan is starting to get warmer...actually it is the side of hot today. I am excited. I am ready for winter to be over and summer to come. It is about to get really hot and humid.
We saw a pretty cool miracle this week. My companion left his id card at a store on accident. There was also a copy of his passport in there and some other important things that he left there. So after about two hours we realized that he left it at the store and went back to find it. They didn't have it there and we searched our apartment and couldn't find it. We just prayed really hard in hope to find it. At about 9 o clock this man comes and knocks on our door. We open it and he says he has something for Elder Bardzinski. It was is id card along with everything else that he left at the store. It was pretty cool. It was way cool that someone went out of their way to bring it back to him. He was truly blessed of God.
Have a great week and a happy Mother's day...take care
Love
Elder Nelson
So Japan is starting to get warmer...actually it is the side of hot today. I am excited. I am ready for winter to be over and summer to come. It is about to get really hot and humid.
We saw a pretty cool miracle this week. My companion left his id card at a store on accident. There was also a copy of his passport in there and some other important things that he left there. So after about two hours we realized that he left it at the store and went back to find it. They didn't have it there and we searched our apartment and couldn't find it. We just prayed really hard in hope to find it. At about 9 o clock this man comes and knocks on our door. We open it and he says he has something for Elder Bardzinski. It was is id card along with everything else that he left at the store. It was pretty cool. It was way cool that someone went out of their way to bring it back to him. He was truly blessed of God.
Have a great week and a happy Mother's day...take care
Love
Elder Nelson
Subway (April 24, 2011)
Ya!! there is a subway in my area. It is only like 10 minutes away from my apartment. It is pretty sweet. I found it last Monday and plan to go a lot...too bad it is way expensive but I haven't had a real sandwich in a while so it is way nice. Last week I had a blt...I think on the footlong there were 2 slices of bacon so I was pretty impressed. It was almost like I was back in America and as fake as the bacon was it was the best I have had in a long time...it was such a good day. I had octupus pizza but I have had that before. So that isn't too exciting but everything else was pretty normal.....for me. But the new missionary struggles. It is cool to see how much I have grown and changed and what I have learned to like. Way cool experience.
Ya so my new companion is Australian and is pretty cool. He says some defferent things like it is heaps fun and stuff like that...we are having fun here in Ogaki.
The Tokyo missionaries might be going back next week but no one really knows. Our zone leader says a few might start going back but we are not really sure...it is funny that they came for like one transfer and now they might leave. What can you do...just keep working. It will be sad to see them go but that's alright.
Investigators..........................We got a new one...kind of. She is way cool. She is 15 and is always happy. Most Japanese people don't act like her but she started coming to english class. It works really nice because her homework is to read the Book of Mormon and she does it every week. She has a great attitude about reading it even though it is hard english. She also wants to come to church this week so we are really excited for her.
I hope every one had a great Easter and continues to remember the great gift that the resurrection is. It truly is a great gift that everyone gets...no matter what. It is pretty exciting if you ask me.
Love
Elder Nelson
Ya so my new companion is Australian and is pretty cool. He says some defferent things like it is heaps fun and stuff like that...we are having fun here in Ogaki.
The Tokyo missionaries might be going back next week but no one really knows. Our zone leader says a few might start going back but we are not really sure...it is funny that they came for like one transfer and now they might leave. What can you do...just keep working. It will be sad to see them go but that's alright.
Investigators..........................We got a new one...kind of. She is way cool. She is 15 and is always happy. Most Japanese people don't act like her but she started coming to english class. It works really nice because her homework is to read the Book of Mormon and she does it every week. She has a great attitude about reading it even though it is hard english. She also wants to come to church this week so we are really excited for her.
I hope every one had a great Easter and continues to remember the great gift that the resurrection is. It truly is a great gift that everyone gets...no matter what. It is pretty exciting if you ask me.
Love
Elder Nelson
bamboo! (April 17, 2011)
Ya I ate bamboo this week. I know I thought only panda bears ate things of that nature but apparently that is not true. Humans can also eat bamboo. It was pretty good but it was a hard. It was kind of like a potato but absolutely different. I'm not going to lie I would definately eat it again. I also saw another miracle this week. We received those costco chocolate muffins...you know the giants ones...ya those from a member. It was like the best thing ever. It was way sweet. I haven't tasted something that chocolatey since my parents sent me a package...just kidding but seriously they were delicious. Too bad they got eaten with in like 5 minutes of receiving them. It's ok they were good.
I have been thinking lately about the blessing that it is to come on a mission. Let me give you an example...I was talking to this guy on the train a while ago and even though he didn't have too much interest in the church we talked about why I was here. He said that it was such a great opportunity to come here. I have been able to learn about a new culture and a new language. It really has been a great experience to learn new things and meet new people. It is also fun to meet all types of new people that I get to interact with almost everyday. In that way it is awesome. In another way all the blessings that you and others receive. I was talking to my bishop's wife who lives in an area I previously served in and her daughter served a mission. She talked to me for like 10 minutes about all the blessings she has received because her daughter has served a mission. Also I know my parents have received many blessings. Really it is the best thing a young man can do. All those blessings don't include all the miracles I have seen and all the things I have learned. It really is a blessing and I don't even realize half of it.
Continue working hard back home and put your trust in the Lord.
Take care
Love
Elder Nelson
I have been thinking lately about the blessing that it is to come on a mission. Let me give you an example...I was talking to this guy on the train a while ago and even though he didn't have too much interest in the church we talked about why I was here. He said that it was such a great opportunity to come here. I have been able to learn about a new culture and a new language. It really has been a great experience to learn new things and meet new people. It is also fun to meet all types of new people that I get to interact with almost everyday. In that way it is awesome. In another way all the blessings that you and others receive. I was talking to my bishop's wife who lives in an area I previously served in and her daughter served a mission. She talked to me for like 10 minutes about all the blessings she has received because her daughter has served a mission. Also I know my parents have received many blessings. Really it is the best thing a young man can do. All those blessings don't include all the miracles I have seen and all the things I have learned. It really is a blessing and I don't even realize half of it.
Continue working hard back home and put your trust in the Lord.
Take care
Love
Elder Nelson
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