学校 (School) August 30, 2010

Good afternoon.

Wow I can't believe summer is over. I have been asking all the kids here when school starts and I didn't realize how soon it actually was. Time is flying. I can't believe it is almost September. It is insane. Wow I bet everyone is excited to start school. Especially seminary what a great opportunity to learn. Everyone is lucky in America to have the opportunity to go to seminary. At least in my ward there is only seminary once a week and it is on Sundays after church. Occasionally they have it on Fridays but not too often. It is a very good opportunity to learn and prepare for later in life...for example to serve a mission. It really helped me so have fun and try to learn because it will help, I promise.

This week was way good. We have started teaching new investigators. It is always fun to teach people. It is actually one of the funnest things I do. Its wierd how that works but its true. We teach a lot in English but also Japanese. My Japanese is improving but I still have trouble. I made some mistakes this past week but I have learned from them. It is better to make some mistakes and try then make no mistakes but never try. I am getting better each day so it is good. It is hard though when we are tracting and we run in to Portuguese speakers. Then we struggle in Porteuguese but they are really receptive if we could just talk with them a little better.

Today was pretty cool. We went to Nagoya and saw our zone leader. Our poor zone leader was in the hospital so we went and visited them. He is doing way good and is going to be released shortly. I know that God takes care of his servants. We also had Pizza Hut...It was soooo good. I haven't had good pizza for a long time. There was like a speacial and a Medium was only 8 dollars. It is usually 24 so it was a steal. They put corn on their pizza which seems wierd but it's not bad. It's actually pretty good. So that was way fun. I also had the opportunity to play ping pong which is way fun. They really do have ping pong tables in every church over here. There is no basketball court so thats tai hen but whatever.

Lately we have started doing tracting a different way. So like we are in Inuyama but our area is like in 8 cities like its huge. Its like way big so it is easy to get lost. We just ride for a long ways and then get lost. Then we ask people how to get places. Because we are sincerely lost and looking for something they help us. We have actually found many people by doing this. We find the good people because the mean people just don't help us. The nice people do though and we invite them to English class or tell them what we do. Like we are vollunteers and we help people become more happy and that works too. It is way fun.

We had zone conference this past week. it was way good. We only have it once every three months now so it is more rare but it was way good. Everyone at first was way afraid of our new mission president. Now everyone loves him. He likes to yell but he is just very emotional. He teaches us with such power. It is way awesome. He is way good. He challenged us to read the Book of Mormon by Christmas so I have started it over again. It will be way good. We are doing the challenge that at the end of chapter 5 of pmg if you want to look. He also promised us that our investigators would get an answer to their prayer about the Book of Mormon in 3 days or less. He said it shouldn't take weeks to get an answer. If they have faith and are truely praying they can get an answer in three days. That's not just true for them that is true for everyone. He also taught us about trials. He told us a story and then taught us how important it is to stay in control of your temper. If you lose it bad things can happen. So when you are having a bad day just think of the Savior. It was way good. He is a really powerful teacher and a way good mission president.

How is your area and your companion doing? My area is fine. There are a lot of interesting people but you know its all good. My companion is awesome. He is way cool. He is also way smart. He got his bachelors degree at the age of 18 so ya he is pretty smart. We have fun.
Have you learned much about Buddhism? I have learned that no one really knows what Buddhism is. They all say they are Buddhists but that have no idea what they are talking about. It is their excuse for not listening to us but its lame. No one knows what it is.
Do you have sister missionaries in your district? Ya actually I think that sister you are talking about is in my district. Funny. Her name is Sister Severson. She is way cool.
Are there any native missionaries in your area? Like are there missionaries gone from my home ward. Yes two. The Bishop's daughter and a Brazilian member's son. Those two families I think have fed us more than the entire ward combined so we like them alot.
Dad and I had the TV on this morning and we learned in Japan the end of summer they celebrate with fireworks. Has that occurred in your area? I have seen fire works but they have celebrations all summer so I am not sure.



Have fun as you start school and have a great week,


Love
Elder Nelson