3/23/15

Lots of excitement this week! We had the opportunities to prepare two baptisms this week! It is amazing to be able to see these people who are ready to make this commitment. Baptism is so important. They are both excited and ready to act on their faith and get baptized.

I love these people and it is going to be sad when I have to leave! But that is one of the great things about the gospel, we will see each other again! Its one of the best things to know! I have am inside source from a missionary who serves in a ward with the sister of my mission president in Brazil that says my visa is done! So thats exciting! No official news though! 

Every day I have the opportunity to study for 4 hours. One personal, one companion, one training, and one language. How great is that! Time set aside to learn! My favorite hour is probably personal study! I love to study out of the scriptures! There is so much great things to learn! There is so many things on this earth. So much you can do. But only very few things can we take with us and help us after this life. Studying the scriptures and gaining knowledge from them is one of those things! The things we can learn will help us in both this life and the next! The Book of Mormon is so amazing! There is so many great things to find in the scriptures! And the only way to know if what i'm saying is right is by doing it! So go find out!

-Elder Nelson

3/16/15

My visa has been processed! I could be leaving in 3 weeks to Brazil! So exciting! I kind of wanted more time in Arizona but it looks like I wont have much more! The Lord works in mysterious ways!

We have done a lot this week! Its been pretty great!  A lot of people that we have been teaching and meeting. Not much to say about it just driving around meeting and teaching!

One of the coolest things to see as a missionary is the joy the gospel can bring to peoples lives. How it can help them with any problem, addiction, or anything and help them become better. Its really awesome to see that in peoples lives. I love being able to help them learn of God's plan for them and how Jesus Christ made it possible for them to become better and leave their wrongs behind them. I love helping people and love growing close to them. I didn't know I could love people like this before, they're awesome! Anyways, have a good week!

-Elder Nelson

3/9/15

This week has been awesome! It rained for a bit the first two days and was a difference from the nice warm weather! But it is nice and warm now! It is great down here though. I love it!

We've done a lot of teaching this week. But a lot of diligence and work. We have to be persistent to meet with people. A lot of people are stubborn.. haha but great! Its awesome and great to learn from. Hard work pays off.

One of my favorite scriptures that I read this morning was Alma 24. I love this Chapter so much. How the Lamanites become angry with their brethren the Anti-Nephi-Lehies and come upon them to battle. The Anti-Nephi-Lehies were so righteous and wanted no more bloodshed with their brethren so they buried their weapons. As the Lamanites came upon them for battle, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies lay down to pray and called upon the name of the Lord. The Lamanites slayed like 1000 of them while they praised God. But then something cool happened. In verses 24-27 it says, "Now when the Lamanites saw this they did forbear from slaying them; and there were many whose hearts had swollen in them for those of their brethren who had fallen under the sword, for they repented of the things which they had done. And it came to pass that they threw down their weapons of war, and they would not take them again, for they were stung for the murders which they had committed; and they came down even as their brethren, relying upon the mercies of those whose arms were lifted to slay them. And it came to pass that the people of God were joined that day by more than the number who had been slain; and those who had been slain were righteous people, therefore we had no reason to doubt but what they were saved. And there was not a wicked man slain among them; but there were more than a thousand brought to the knowledge of the truth; thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people." We don't know how the Lord is going to work. We just know that he knows what he is doing. He knows. And everyone is invited to join him and partake of the greatest joy there is. There is no greater joy than this gospel. I know this.

-Elder Nelson

3/2/15

The field.. is amazing!

We flew down here Tuesday with about 10 other missionaries with their original call to Mesa! We met President Jenkins and his wife at the airport, they are pretty cool! Found out right away that this is a iPad and Facebook mission! So that should be fun! We did a lot of introductions and paperwork and then we were out to the field! We were temporarily put in a companionship for that day to experience the mission! It was crazy to be out. We walked everywhere. I found out that a lot of children here basically raise themselves because their parents aren't really in the picture, working or just not there. So we get to talk to a lot of kids! Its real fun! But its really nice here! I really enjoyed the warm weather when I walked out of the airport!

The next day we had our first transfer meeting and I found out my trainer, Elder Young! He is a really cool guy and a great trainer! Basically our first few days here, no one would answer their doors to their scheduled appointments. It was kind of depressing. But eventually we started seeing people! The members here are really cool and they feed us great food! They say no matter what you gain weight here! They said that they had a problem with missionaries gaining weight so the president made them run a 5k! That's fun! I'm sad I missed that!

Well we got to do some service at the Phoenix marathon. We handed out water, Gatorade, and energy pack things to the runners at about the 19 mile mark! It was a really cool experience. We also got to go on a hike this morning on the Hieroglyphics mountains. They call it that because there are hieroglyphics on the sides of the mountains as you go up the trail. Pretty cool!

One great thing I leaned this week was about the power of prayer and following the prompting of the Spirit. One of our investigators, or the investigators that the previous missionaries were teaching would never answer the door! We went literally 3 times a day for a few days just to introduce me as the new missionary! We really wanted to be able to teach them and it was really sad to see them not home. We didn't want to lost them. One time before we were about to head over I had a strong prompting to pray that they would be there. Part of me wanted to ignore that prompting and go anyways. But I listened to it and asked my companion if we should pray. We knelt down and I offered a prayer that they would be there so we could teach them. And what do you know, they were there and we were able to teach them! What a great experience! There was without a doubt that it was because of the prayer that we were able to teach them! We were celebrating afterwards! This work is great.

-Elder Nelson