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
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
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