Sorry, type-0, i meant Enos..not ether...

On Mon, Oct 22, 2012 at 11:44 AM, Austin Nelson <nelson.austin@myldsmail.net> wrote:
Hey!
so this week was awesome!! so President Andaya had to go to manila for a doctor check up, so we had to pick him up at Catarman airport on saturday morning at 6am. Catarman was the zone i was zone leader in my 3rd area. and it is the farthest zone away. so we left friday and had a little road trip..elder Sang-an and I (my companion). it was a long drive! so this weekend we attended the Catarman Stake conference...and its crazy cuz i feel like i just attended it a couple months ago when i was there. time flies by!!  so do you wanna know what i saw  on sunday.?? and only in the philippines! so in the middle of stake conference, there was a little boy about 5 years old or so, he came running down the aisle and guess what he was wearing?!! NOTHING!!! this kid was but naked, and only had a buttoned up shirt that was unbuttoned... right in the middle of someones talk. im not going to lie, i have never seen a naked little boy running thru the chapel in the middle of the meeting!! haha i couldn't believe my eyes! let alone during a stake conference with all the leaders there! it was crazy!
So i also got to see all the members from San Isidro, my 3rd area! and they were so excited to see me! the pretended to kid nap me and take me back to their area! haha so it made me feel good to see them again. and what was even better was to see brother Chase Robinson, you is an Phil-am(american/filipino). when i was there he was really less active, and then we visited him and we became good friends and he became active. then i transfered. then yesterday, he was sustained to receive the Melchizedek priesthood! so it was great to see that progression from becoming active to seeing him recieve the mel. Priesthood! so i am super happy for him. and grateful that i had a chance to help him make those changes.
So since we picked up president and Sister Andaya from the airport, we got to spend the whole weekend with them. mainly just the drive home that took like 8 hours, so we got to get to know them really well. i love being so close to them all the time. it is quite a blessing! i love them so much! i know they are called by God! And President reminds me so much of dad! and he even seems to look like him! so its been awesome to be around him so much!
Well this week we have zone Interviews, so this last week we spent a lot of time on preparing a training! there are so many trainings to prepare! but we're excited! its been cool to see how the spirit works and revelation with helping us prepare trainings! so i'm excited for that! we are training the missionaries to on how to become more spiritual, and raise to that higher level...live the higher law that Jesus Taught. and To always be at the highest standards of conduct. so im excited to see how it turns out.
I really am loving it here! time goes by so fast! too fast! i love serving the missionaries and being able to help them. although, its just not the same as missionary work cuz i don't get to work as much. but we try to get some proselyting in, but its hard cuz we are always gone or busy. but i know that God has a purpose for my work, and called me to this calling for a reason, so i'll do my best to fulfill it!
I had a good study while i read ether verses 3-9 i think.. and learned that one that feels the healing power of the Atonement becomes converted. and once you feel this power, this miracle, you will want to share it with others. so that really stuck out to me. like it says in Luke, once you are converted, strengthen your brothren. so i thought i would share that with you.
Thank you for all you do! i love you all! hope you have a great week! thank you so much for the emails!
Love you all!
Love, Elder Nelson

Hello everyone!
We got to watch General Conference this week! and it was amazing! i loved it! i was trying my best to just soak it all in! the speakers were amazing! i felt like they talked alot about keeping the law of chastity, repentance,and standing strong for your beliefs. i loved it! The priesthood session was awesome too! i loved elder Christensens talk, he talked about how men need to step up, and he shared alot of facts about how low mens grades are and stuff. and it really gave me a desire and motivation to do the best in everything that i do. And i am grateful for the blessins that i have received becuase of the gospel. i really feel like i am doing my best and not slacking off and being lazy.  so it should encourage all the men to step up and not be lazy. so i liked that talk. it was inspiring!
And of course, Elder Hollands talk! WOW is all i can say. he was so bold but in a loving kind way. I didn't even want to take my eyes off him to take notes. but i did take notes on something that i learned from him. i learned that the grass is not greener on the other side. just like the disciples went back to their normal way of life like they were before, probably thinking they would catch alot of fish. but they didn't. so sometimes (especially here) members have some problems/trials, and they think that if they return to their way of life before, they think it would be easier. but little do they know, its not. they won't catch any "fish". but it shows the mercy that Jesus Christ has for us. that even tho they turned from him, he said cast your nets on the right side and they drew fish! so as soon as we hearken to his voice, we are immediately blessed! so the Grass is never greener or better on the other side...meaning not in harmony with the gospel teachings. so thats something that i learned from his talk. and feel like its something that i can help people realize here. which we did, last night, we FINALLY had a lesson. it was with a less active brother, and we shared to him this and he committed to show his love by reading the scriptures and coming to church. so we'll wait to see him at church! :)
I loved Conference!! it was just a huge spiritual feast! i feel like i get more out of conference here than i did at home...maybe its the way we dress when we listen to conference...if we are dressed in pajamas and just sloppy, we probably won't get much out of it. we watched it at our chapel here in tacloban (the stake center).
It was cool to see the crowds reaction when President Monson announced the new age requirements for missionaries! that is so cool! do you know how many more missionaries that will add???!! i think it was really add thousands to the 50 of thousands we already had. i think its so cool! im so excited!

so this week was transfer week, and it was also the most busy, and STRESSFUL week! i am learning how to manage stress. idk if you know, but the Assistants do EVERYTHING! we meet with president and have transfer council, which is where we discuss who is transfering and training and stuff like that... its really cool to see the revelatory process in that. i assume is kinda like assigning missionaries to missions, but not that big, but its really cool to see President Andaya receive the revelation to where the missionaries should be assigned, what their assignment should be, who their comp. should be and all that stuff. so after that, its all us. we do everything and it takes forever and is really busy. some days we get like 4-5 hours of sleep. so its really busy, but its an awesome experience! i am learning alot, and loving my mission. i have been praying that i will have opportunities to serve other people, and i really get that opportunity with this calling. i love it! so everything is going great here! time is flying by! Thank you for all you do! all your prayers and support, i really appreciate it!
I love you All!
Have a great Week!
Love, Elder Nelson

HEY everyone!
so i feel like not much happened this week, cuz we had ZERO lessons, but a lot of stuff happened as well. and it evened out for not having a lesson cuz we have been so busy. so we had ZLC this week, and that went good, im getting more comfortable giving trainings now. its just weird that the trainings are for the whole mission, so it adds quite a lot of pressure, but im staying humble and i have seen how the Lord and the spirit works thru me. so i had an awesome experience this week with helping a missionary. and this was an experience that really helped me realize that this calling is to help others, and even tho i don't get to teach a lot, i get to help other missionaries so they can teach more effectively. so we got a call from President Andaya, and he wanted us to visit the Zone leaders in Calbayog (3 1/2 hours away), we didn't really know why. cuz all the zone leaders that we have in our mission are just awesome missionaries...no problems, but for some reason, president Andaya wanted us to visit them. so we cancelled our plans, and went to visit them. and so we worked with the elders there, had a couple hours of work, and come to find out they were having some companion issues, but thats something they could've fixed on their own, so we helped them with that, and then i got to talk with one of them individually. and This whole time, we didn't really know why we were there, we just knew that the Lord told pres. Andaya to send us there so we went. and so i talked to him about Letting go of worldly things. he's a great elder, very obedient hard working, but just hasn't really let go. so i took with me a talk that Ryan sent me called "the Fourth missionary" and its about 4 types of missionaries. 1st is disobedient and goes home early, 2nd is disobedient but finishes his mission. 3rd. is very obedient but still holding on to the worldly things..and 4th, serves with all his heart might mind and strength. it was really helped me to do my best to be that 4th missionary. and so i read part of that too him. and it really just hit him.. even teared him up. he said he's been having a hard time lately and this is exactly what he needed! It got really spiritual, and he ended up asking me for a priesthood blessing, which i gave willingly. and  a few days later he texted me saying, "Thanks so much elder nelson. This talk you gave me has changed my entire outlook on my mission and has helped me to repent. i am so grateful that the lord sent you here to help me. i really had to ponder some things and think hard about  my mission. i know that the lord sent you here to help me when i needed it most. and not only me bu i want you to know that it has motivated Elder... and elder...to be the fourth missionary. thank you for following the spirit to help me in my time of hardship, i love you elder! keep leading this mission in the right Direction". so thats what he texted me and it really hit. and made me realize thats why president sent us, cuz the lord wanted us to go there. and it has really made an impact on him. and me! i hope all this makes sense, im trying to explain it. but it really made me realize that i have a huge opportunity to serve other missionaries, and i love that. i love serving others so they can become better missionaries. So for me that was a really neat experience, very spiritual...hope it makes sense. but i loved it!
I love My mission! i am having a great Time! and love being so close to the spirit!  i love serving the lord and serving others. i love the scripture mosiah 2:17..cuz its so true! when we are serving others, we really are in the service of our God. so thats my testimony builder this week! hope you enjoy!
And this weekend in Gen. Conference for us! i am so excited! so i'll let you know that i think of it!
Hope you have a great week! thank you so much for all the emails, and support! i love you all so much!
Love Elder Nelson

HEY!
Its already OCTOBER!! i cant believe it!! time is going by so fast! so this week was crazy!
so like my last email, i said i was getting my toe pulled.(i mean my toe nail). it was another ingrown, but what happened was it was the same toe that got removed partially last time, and then it didn't grow back right this time, and my nail wasn't a good nail.. your nails are suppose to be pink and shiny right, well mine was all white, so it wasn't a good nail, so they just removed the whole thing! it was my left big toe! ouch!! it was painful, still is! but i'm doing great! so no worries! I was still on exchanges in my area when i got it removed, so i still decided to work even tho it was still hard and painful to walk. so what we did was, we rented a pedi cab driver (its a bicycle with a side cart on it) and the driver came with us the WHOLE day! haha so pretty much he worked with us. and most of our appointments fell thru, so we spent a lot of time finding cuz i don't know my area very well, (i've only worked there a couple times cuz we're never in our area). so while he was drving us around, we would be talking to him about the gospel, and we were just sharing with him the whole day. and while we were at someone house, we was sitting in his pedi cab reading the Book of Mormon! cool huh?? so he said he'll try and come to church. it was just cool cuz even tho it was hard to work becuase of my toe, we were still able to talk to people about the gospel. and i know that we planted a seed for that man!

and we got to teach Jim this week! he is AWESOME!! so cool! one of my favorite people to teach!! he's the american one. so we visited him while i was on exchanges with elder mantala, and he was SO excited and happy to see us. cuz he had received an answer from church that he really wanted to share with us. and it was awesome cuz he got his answer the following monday after church and he connected it to church. he knew he got his answer cuz he came to church. he's going thru a lot of problems right now...like his wife just left him (his 4th wife) and he finally realized why they are all leaving (that was his answer that he got from church) so he shared with us his answer, and we were so ahppy to hear that! and then he was like "for a guy with me, where do i start??" and that made us even more happy cuz it shows that he is open and willing to listen and follow to what he needs to do to change his life! so we shared with him the gospel of Jesus Christ, about faith, repentance, baptism, recieving the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. and told him if he always prays, read, and goes to church, he would eventually get rid of all his bad habits. and then he asked, "do you guys have like a list of all the things that you aren't suppose to do, or is that something that i have to find out through out the book of Mormon?". we were like wow! so we gave him a gospel principles book, and he is going to read about the law of chastity.. :/ and word of wisdom, and a bunch of other stuff. so he is  really progressing! he's moving forwards at least!
unfortunatly, he didn't come to church yesterday, he had something come up. but he is still moving forward.

so this week, we have had zone conferences, and a missionary couple came down to our mission to talk to us about health. they are the medical couple in the philippines. they are actually elder wilkes aunt and uncle, so that was cool, they got to see each other. and when we were in ormoc, President andaya and the medical couple were staying in a really nice hotel...and president andaya Got us a room too!! it was so nice! one of the best nice sleep every! AIR CON!! it was actually too cold. but it was really nice, we were very spoiled! haha but it was good experience!
well i hope you enjoy the pictures. i put them on a word doc. so i hope that works better so i can send more pics! i'll try and send the rest!
Well, i love you all, and am still pryaying for you all. i miss you and love you all! hope you know that i am having a great time, and am loving my mission! have a great week! and hope you enjoy conference! i don't get it til 2 more weeks!
Love you,
Love, Elder nelson

HEY!
well this week was awesome! super busy of course! and i don't have a lot of time on the computer cuz i have to get my toe nail removed in an hour....i know, again!! i am not looking forward to it, but it is ingrown again!! but i'll be fine..i'll just come home with no toes!

so we have this investigator that is an american from Florida. and he is awesome! his name is Jim, and things are starting to really get crazy in his life. but he loves when we visit him. we visited him and he was telling us what was happening with the US (he has the news, we didn't know anything..) like with the US embassies and mitt Romney and obama and stuff. and basically, we just took the opportunity to talk and testify about the book of mormon. we told him that the Book of Mormon was written for our day, and that it has prophesied these things, and he just loved everything that we talked about. told him that if a nation will serve God, they will prosper (ether chapter 2..). and he really agreed! he said, "man, everything that you have said about Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon, i totally agree with it 1000%! i feel good when you talk about it and when i read it, and it just makes sense!" man we loved hearing that, and took that opportunity to testify to him that it IS true. and he was just loving it and he Committed to come to church!! even he has some major problems in his life..(his filipino wife just left him and took some of his money with her...so its not going too well for him..) but despite all that, he was committed to come to church! so yesterday, before church, we went and picked him up at his house and walked with him to the church! and he loved church!! he is in his 50's i think and is about 6 foot 2 or so, and all the members were asking me if he was my dad...hahaha (its not very often that an american goes to a LDS church in the philippines) but we told them he was an investigator, and i think we were probably more nervous than he was cuz ...we were scared that the speakers might talk about something too deep or even false doctrine. for example, in Gospel principles class, it was on missionary work, and we just read the verse about "preach the gospel to all creatures".. and the teacher said that we needed to share the gospel with all the plants and trees and stuff like that...haha so we were kinda cringing when she said that, hoping that Jim couldn't hear what she said..haha but it was great! he really liked it and said that he'll be coming back next time. and ah, i just love visiting him, and he loves us. he thought it was so cool that our church has no paid leaders! and he loves the idea of the missionary program that we have. he is just an awesome guy, he is planning on going back to the states tho..IF mitt Romney wins..haha thats what he said. he really like Romney. so that was our awesome success story this week, JIM came to Church!!! \

This week, we have been traveling and going on exchanges with other missionaries. and lets just say the philippines has some BEAUTIFUL places!!! seriously! so beautiful!! its so green, and its like driving thru a jungle, over mountains, thru valleys, along the ocean...you name it! its been really beautiful!! so its really cool to see the mission! our schedule  was like, wake up, travel to one island, work with the missionaries there, then evaluate them, stay the night with them, and then the next morning, travel again to another area, work with them, evaluate, sleep, travel, work, eval. sleep travell......ah kapoy! its so busy! and i get to practice all 3 languages cuz i think the tower of babel was here in the Philippines!! no joke! so many different languages and dialects... but its awesome and gift of tongues is real!! its such an awesome chance to serve others! i love it! well, this seems to be all the time that i have time for! just know that i love you all! and i love it here in the mission! I know that Jesus Christ is Our Savior and that He loves us all! and i love him!
Have a great week! thank you for all your prayers and support! Love you all!
Love Elder Nelson

HEY!

so this week was Crazy! so we had transfer week, and that was so busy. we had no time for any appointments, and we were picking up missionaries from the airport, taking them to the airport, and pickup and driving around Elder Cook and his company. that Was awesome!! elder cook came out of the air port wearing a golfers hat on..it was awesome. he def. pulled it off well. President Andaya Drove Elder Cook and Elder Nielson and their wives. and me and my companion drove around with Elder Tadd r Callister of the Seventy and his wife. and that was really cool, to spend time with them. and we took them to the Leyte landing of Douglas McAurthor, from world war 2. and Elder Cook took me by the shoulder and said that President Boyd k. Packer was also in this Leyte landing during WWII. it was just really awesome to talk with an apostle, and he shook my hand, and touched my shoulder...haha it was cool. They are just normal people that do extra ordinary things.. and when we dropped him off, he complemented me and my companion, and just said that we were great missionaries and he could tell by just looking at us. so it really made us feel good to spend time with some Apostles of the Lord. so that was an awesome experience..

Also, like you heard, there was an Earthquake here friday night (our time). and i have felt 3 or 4 before this, and this was def. the strongest. at first, we thought it was just a little earth quake...and then it got stronger,...and stronger...then seconds past, and then it wasn't stopping...i'm not going to lie, it was a little freaky when it got stronger and wasn't stopping. the whole building was just shaking..and the walls looked like jello and the floor was like walking on one of those mechanical surf boards.. it was pretty intense, but also the coolest feeling.. we were in the mission office planning, and luckily it is an earth quake proof building. and then the power went out. and then we had to stay up calling all the missionaries making sure they were ok. and then Eastern Samar, we have some missionaries over there that had a tsunami warning, but luckily it never came.. the center of the Earthquake was out in the ocean by eastern samar, and it was a 7.9 magnitude in Eastern Samar, and a 6.1 here in Tacloban i thing.., but we are all good, everyone is safe. so don't worry, just a way cool/intense experience!

Also, we have one cool investigator that we are teaching, his name is Jim and he is from Florida. he is an American. and he gave us some of the updates on Mit Romney! he said that he is really doing good,and that he really like what mit Romney is doing. so it was cool to hear the updates.. but you guys would know more than i do...but anyways, we prepared to teach jim about keeping the sabbath day holy, and we shared with him Mosiah 13:16-19, and before he started reading, he already knew what we were going to teach him, he kinda felt like we were giving him a guilt trip (in a joking way) but anyways, we taught him, and it was such a good lesson. he tried really hard to get out of it by saying.."i think i can still work on sundays and still keep it holy.." and then we said, well it states very clearly that we shouldn't work on sundays.. and he was like, "I know I know, you guys are right..i should follow this". and it was just an awesome lesson, we promised him blessings, and committed him to come to church, cuz that was what was stopping him from progressing,,he was always working on sundays. so he committed, and when we left he said" see you guys tomorrow at church..." so we were so happy! it was very spiritual, and we just felt so good to finally get out and teach some one.... 

now you're probably wondering if he came to church....well, the next morning he cancelled on us..he couldn't make it! dang! so he didn't come :( it was pretty heart breaking! but we have faith that he can do it. but we did our part, and the lesson was great! i love teaching! its so fun!

And one more cool thing this week, this morning i got my Filipino License!! I Can Drive now! its so sweet! it feels so weird to be driving again! i haven't driven in so long... and its so different driving here..its like they have no traffic rules!! people just go as fast as they want, and in and out of lanes, and passing people when ever you can...on either side of the rode...you gotta see it, its crazy, so i finally got my license and can drive now, its pretty exciting.

Well, i really am loving it! we finally got time to get in a lesson or two. thats the hard part about this calling, never have time to work in our area. we just planned out our month, and every week this month we will be gone, travelling the mission and going on splits from tuesday to friday...this whole month. so it will be so busy, and time is going by so fast! but i am loving it, and it is def. Helping me become more responsible. i love being so close to President Andaya, i know he is Called of God, and he has helped me so much! i have so much respect and love for that man. and you know, he actually reminds me of Dad! i just see Dad in his face when i look at him. i feel a connection with him, its neat. so he really reminds me of Dad. I love them Both!!:) they are def. two people that have really impacted my life for good and made/making me a better person! I love my mission, and doing my best to serve with no regrets! I love our savior, and His Gospel. i know this Really is HIS church, and we are so blessed to be apart of it.

I love you all! have a great week!!

Love, Elder Nelson

ps. after the earthquake, we thought that all the catholic churches and Iglesia ni Cristo's fell to the earth....but not yet...but it was close!

Hey, so as you can see the subject line, we had an earthquake last night. and President Andaya wanted us to email our families and tell you that we are ok. so yep, we are still alive...so far. we were in the office last night planning, and then our desks started moving..we thought nothing of it at first..just felt like a normal earthquake at first that we felt last January but then it got stronger, and stronger, then it wasn't stopping. it got pretty strong, and then the power went out. it lasted for like 45 seconds..which is pretty long for an earthquake (is what i am told.) compared to the last earthquake in january, that lasted for like 8 seconds..so this one was pretty big..biggest one i've felt for sure. it was awesome tho!!! God is so powerful! so yeah, we are ok, as far as i know, there are no fallen buildings... but as for us missionaries...we are ok. and Tacloban is safe against tsunami's. so no worries. all is well! I love you all!!
talk to you all on monday! :)
Love you!
Love, Elder Nelson

Hey!
so just like the subject line says, I got Emergency Transferred!! remember how i have been sharing with you all about how much i love my new area, companion, members and so forth...well last monday, after email, about an hour or so later, i got a call from President Andaya, and he said, "elder, pack your bags, you're being emergency transfered"... and man, when i heard those words i think my heart stopped! he told me to be at the mission office the next day with my bags at 7am to meet my new companion and be put in my new area...so i was so shocked! i had every possible thing going thru my head about where i am going. i seriously thought i was going to be transferred to some random, in the middle of no where, area with some missionary that needed help. thought i was stepping down from zone leader..i thought of every possibility. i was so upset that i was transfering, life was SO good! i was loving everything!
but, so i went to the mission office the next morning, and president Andaya took me into his office, and asked why i think i am being Emergency transferred, and i told him i have no idea. and then he said, well Elder Johnson (the AP) is going home on friday, so i would like to call you to be the new Assistant...so yeah, there you have it, thats why i was emergency transferred.. i am the new assistant to President Andaya! its quite humbling and exciting! i am actually really excited, at the same time, still in shock that he called me as the new AP. All the AP's since i have been here have died in the office, meaning they were AP up until they went home. so i wasn't expecting it cuz i still have a while to go. so i will either be AP for 8 months, or step down my last 1 or 2 cycles...so we'll see. and most of the AP's gain about 20-30 lbs in the office...so thats the curse for being in the office...but i hope i don't cuz..yeah, thats just big!!
but it is good tho, i am excited to be around President Andaya a lot! he seems serious all the time but he is actually quite a joker! and as soon as Manila gives me my Passport back, i get to get my Philippines Drivers license!!! i am so excited to finally drive again!! its really exciting!

And even better, tomorrow, elder Cook is coming to Tacloban for A missionary Fireside for us. and guess who picks him up from the Airport?? WE DO!!! so i get to meet elder Cook, elder Nielson of the Seventy(he was the area presidency in Idaho i think), elder Callister of the seventy, and their wives! and we get to take pictures with them. so i am excited to meet an apostle of the Lord!
But now, i am going to be super super busy! as for as missionary work...we work when we can. since i have been here this past week, we've had one lesson! thats it! but we do our best to find time to work. thats going to be weird tho, but some how i just have to realize that i will helping other missionaries as well. i read a cool quote from President Monson this week, he said something like, "we won't be asked how many positions we held, but rather, how many people did we help?" so that really hit me and comforted me. i know this calling is to help others..help missionaries bring others unto Christ. and i will do my best to help them.
as for my companion, he is Elder Ausban. he was actually my 1st Zone leader when i got here in the mission, and now we are companions.haha its kinda funny. but he is awesome! we get a long great! he is from Stockton California and goes home in 6 weeks. its weird seeing everyone going home now. i feel like i just got here! but life is good! i am loving it! even tho my appartment doesn't have air con...the office does and the cars do so i guess its ok..haha Jk. life is good, i am loving the mission.

We did have a family come to church for the first time that is not yet members. and they are awesome. we haven't taught them yet becuase of time, but they are so ready, they are golden investigators. they have two little kids, and wants them to grow up in the church, and the mom said that she was wondering which church she should go to church at, cuz there are so many. and they really liked church yesterday, so i think they will really progress. we just felt so blessed because even tho we are so busy, we still are being blessed with success in our area. so thats one of the blessings this week. so i hope you have a great week! kids starting school now?? tell everyone i say hi! can't wait to hear from you. i miss you all and love you all! hope all is well! love you!
Love, Elder Nelson

Hey!
so yeah, this week was awesome! it has gone by so fast!!
so first off, we had exchanges on friday in Alang-Alang!! which was my second area, i was there for 6 months, and probably is one of my favorite  areas..i just LOVE the members there! so some of the members knew that i was coming back, so one of the sisters in the branch cooked lunch for us. she is a really good cook! her name is sister michelle cerdon. she actually served in this mission with Nate peters! she is really nice and will do anything for anyone...i'll just say that her mansion in heaven will be right next to Jesus Christ's cuz she serves people so much!
so a couple awesome things happened. in alang alang, i got to work with one of our converts! he is working on his mission papers! it made me really happy to see that he is still active and now preparing for a mission. so he worked with us. and i got to see a lot of the members that i visited! it was awesome to see them again. i would love to be assigned there again!! and then i got to visit the Branch president. he is doing awesome. he said that since i left, 3 families have been sealed and they are increasing in Mel. Priesthood! so that made me so happy to see that the area is progressing. the area presidency expects Alang Alang to become a stake in the future...that would be awesome! so yeah, it was really awesome to go to one of my previous areas again and see the members again. also, i saw the Branch President of my 1st area, i miss my first area too. so that was cool, i saw two previous Branch Presidents in one day! awesome! i have become really close to all the Branch Presidents in my areas. thats the first place you start to gain trust of the members.

so i want to tell you about one of our investigators..so this week, we have been teaching this investigator named Ephraim Medeja. and he is what you would call a Golden Investigator! he is only 17 and soon to be 18. he was the one who actually found us. and everytime we teach him, he just soaks it in and we are just amazed at some of his comments and questions that he has for us. i've never met a 17 year old that is so willing to serve God. i would even say he is at a higher level than i was when i was 17..spiritual wise. so his parents are Catholic, and they actually don't want him to be baptized. they have signed him up in seminary to become a catholic Priest. so thats the struggle right now, is getting his parents permission and getting him out of the catholic seminar school thing. but he really is awesome. like we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he said,"i want to give my whole self to the Lord, i want to share this with other people"..do you know any 17 year old that says things like that?? awesome huh? we were like blown away when we heard that. and then he asked," can i be baptized even tho my parents don't want me to"?? unfortunately no, so he might have to wait till he is 18. but thats in October, so its not to far away. if it were up to us, he could be baptized now...or even earlier. like he is just so ready..it seems like it to us any ways. we asked him why he listens to us, and why he wants to be baptized and he said "this is where i feel the spirit of the Lord, and where ever the spirit is that is where i will be." and then he asked, "how do i find out my spiritual calling"?... amazing questions huh? he has like 20 written down questions just like these..like deep sincere questions. we are just blown away that he is only 17, and he is taking everything in. progressing so fast! has come to church 2 times now, and he even WORKED with us! amazing huh! in our first lesson, Elder Cypers(my Batch) and i were on exchanges and we taught him the Message of the Restoration, and compared the apostasy like a house (christ church) and then a storm came and house fell, and all the people grabbed all the peices of the house and made their own house (their own church). and compared it to why we have so many churches today. and that just clicked for him. he says that he has been going to all the churches, looking for the whole truth. and we testified that all the truths of the gospel has been restored and the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints is the Lords Restored church and has the fulness of the Gospel.. and he says that he knows that it is the truth. and he cares so much about everyone that he just wants to share this with everyone! its awesome! i can go on and on about him! cool how his name is Ephraim huh? so thats some of our success that we have been having in our area..so like i said earlier, our challenge right now is getting his parents to let him get baptized. if he gets baptized, which he really wants, he will probably get dis owned from his family. and so his parents are making him go to seminary in the Catholic church to become a priest. so if you could keep him in your prayers, that his family's hearts may be softened and that he can be baptized, that would really help. and that he can get out of the catholic crap, i mean class..haha so yeah, thats Ephraim.

so the mission right now...is doing Great!! i love it! absolutely love it! and next week elder Cook is comming! i cant wait! i have prepared some questions for him. do any of you have any questions that i should ask him?? i am so excited! my companion and i are doing great! we get a long like...cookies and milk! i really love our companionship, and hope no one transfers! which is next Week!! time is going so fast!
hope all is well, have a great week. you are all in my prayers! I love you all!
Love Elder Nelson

ps, idk if you saw on the news, manila is flooded, but not my mission. we are fine and safe..no calamities..yet. we did have an earthquake like two weeks ago, but that was really fast and was only for like 1 second. so we are safe..no worries!

Hey! so this week was awesome! a lot of things happened this week, its
been a hard week tho, meaning we have been working really hard. idk
why, but it just feels like we are working so much harder right now. i
feel like i have been doing my best my whole mission, working my
hardest, but now...maybe i am just seeing the results from the hard
work. for example:
this week we have been doing quite a bit of tracting actually. my
whole mission we have been focusing on reactivating the less active so
they asked us not to do tracting, but now its like half and half. they
want us to find those elect people who are ready for the gospel. so
this week we did some tracting, and it was awesome! so on wednesday
during tracting, we were led to this guy names Rodger, and we tried to
introduce ourselves to him, but he was kinda rude about it. he
wouldn't really let us talk. he told us that he worked Jordan Salera,
who is in our ward, and already knows about us. and he kept sharing
scriptures from the bible and saying that no man can enter in to the
kindgom of god with out a new life (he didn't mention baptism, but
thats probably what he meant) but anyways, he just didn't really give
us a chance to say anything so i told him, "brother, thank you for
sharing with us, we hope that you would be kind enough to let us share
with you too becuase you did all the talking. so we are having a
family home evening this friday with Jordan Salera (who is in our
ward, he works for him). and we would like you to come, so you are
invited." and thats about all i said, and left. i invited him to the
FHE expecting him not to come cuz i didn't think he was interested at
all. but what i said kinda hit him cuz on friday, Guess who showed up
to the FHE?? RODGER!! and guess what we found out? he is a pastor!!
for one of the Born again Churches. (no wonder why he wouldn't let us
share to him on wednesday). so we had the lesson and i explained all
the principles up to the restoration, and then we watched the
Restoration video. and it was awesome! he was quiet for the whole
thing.
then at the end, we asked if he had a question, and of course, he did!
so he pulled out his bible shared some scripture in tagalog, and then
said,"i have studied the Bible and i have never found Joseph smith in
the Bible, its not there!". as soon as he said that, i just got so
happy, cuz i knew the answer! Jordan(member in our ward) got really
excited too. so i told Rodger, the pastor, to open to Ezekiel
37:16.(about the stick of judah and the stick of Joseph) and he read
it from his bible, and he actually didn't have the king james version,
so we gave him our king james version and he read it, then pondered
it, then compared it to his bible and pondered some more. and i
testified to him the Joseph smith is in the bible, and that we know he
is a true prophet, and we need to pray and ask God if he is and thru
the Holg Ghost we will tell us that it is true. and ah, it was
awesome! Rodger had nothing to say after that.it stumped him, cuz he
was really positive that the bible did not include anything about
Joseph Smith. it felt really good to use the scriptures to answer his
question, and then to prove that our message is true. but even tho
that is evidence that it is true, it is useless if you don't pray and
find out from the Holy Ghost. so that was my experience this week with
a pastor.
also, during the FHE, we had two other workers of Jordan there, that
weren't yet members yet. and they loved the lesson. their names were
John carlo and Sam (young man and young woman both 17.) and they
really wondered how to know if it was true, and so we shared moroni
10:3-5 and that answered their question. and John Carlo, he told us
that he was wondering where the truth was. he said that it was
bothering him so much that he couldn't sleep at nights, and when he
would wake up it was like he had no sleep. so he was really wondering
where the truth was. and so we committed him to read and pray about
our message. and we know that he will find that truth if he does that!
man it was awesome! spirit was so strong!
a lot more things happened this week but becuase of time i don't have
time to tell you all of them but don't worry they are in my journal!
:)
just know im doing great! i love you all! and i love being a
missionary! my companion is the best! favorite companion so far!! so
hope you all have a great day!
Love Elder Nelson

maupay nga kulop ha iyo ngatanan!!
so yeah, We got Robbed this week! man it was ah, crazy. i've never been robbed before, and i want my stuff back! so our apartment has a gate on the door and then the door itself wouldn't lock. so we have just been locking the gate on the door. and i guess someone broke one of the bars on our gate and it was only big enough to fit a little kid thru it. and they stole our sandals, my companions tennis shoes, they stole my music speaker, laundry soap, and one of our cooking pots!! it stil had food in it!! we cooked mac n cheese the night before and it still had some left over in it..and it was probably spoiled by then..but they took it. so we reported it to the police and the next day we were talking to a couple members and they were like, "elders, did you really get robbed??" we were like "yeah, but how did you find out"? they said that they heard it on the news...we were on the radio the next day being announced that we had been robbed. they said that two mormons had been robbed from the neighborhood that we were in..so that was kinda funny that they put us on the radio..haha but they didn't take too much stuff..just enough to be bothered about it! luckily they didn't take any money. so we got our land lord to fix our door, so now it locks now, and they won't get in! we know that it was kids tho..cuz only kids can brake in thru that little gate...but idk why they would take our shoes..they wouldn't fit in those!!..so we went to the police station to report it and holy cow..they are really great...(cough cough) they all were like on face book, and they drove us to our apartment to check it out and they guy wasn't even in a uniform..probably didn't even have a badge! haah they are just funny...really casual.. you know, i actually have seen the police here do one productive thing here since i've been here..haha they don't do much....
so we had a baptism this week too. it was quite a miracle with what happened. before Darwin could get baptized he had to get married first. and getting married here is a pain the the butt!! there is alot of paper work and its very expensive. and the stake pres. and bishop didn't have their license yet to marry someone. so they were trying to get married by the mayor..and they just were asking for more and more money. but long story short, they got married on friday and got baptized on Saturday. it was awesome! he is solid! his wife is super small, but is already a member, and they plan on going to the temple next year! so that was awesome!
so yesterday, one of the members from AlangAlang (my 2nd area) came to our ward yesterday so i was able to get an update on all the members. and she said that Mark Boneff (one of our baptisms when i was there) just got his mission papers finished and is submitting them now! he's going on a mission! sweet!! so that was awesome to here! so i cant wait to go on exchanges in alang alang!! i love my zone, area, companion.
Elder Woolley, my companion, and i sing alot before and after we do something..like planning, studies, lessons..just everything. and its supper fun. im learning how to blend and sings parts like bass and tenor. its supper fun! i kinda wish i did choir before my mission...but o well.ha
so this week we have been putting extra effort in preparing lessons for our investigators..so we prepared a lesson for this guy named james. and it was about prophets and the book of mormon and praying to know the truth of it. and it was an awesome lesson. we taught in unity, the spirit was really strong, and he was understanding us....and long story short...he rejected our message! sometimes we just don't understand...no matter how simple or clear we teach, even if they feel the spirit and the truthfulness of it...they still have the choice to reject it. so thats what i've been noticing this week is they still have the free agency to accept our message..and its our job to teach with power and authority and thats what we have been doing. i love teaching! its so fun, and i just love seeing peoples lives change!
so yep, thats about all that happened this week. great week! hope you enjoyed it! i hope you had a great week too! i know that this is the lords work and i am so happy and proud to be apart of it! i love you all! have a great week! gotta go! mahal ko kayo!!
Love, Elder Nelson

so like i said, Life is great for me right now! i love my mission! i would love to end my mission in this area! i could def. stay here for a long time! the members are great, and the Sacrament meeting was REVERENT!! which is really rare! there wasn't too much noise during sacrament, i was really shocked and impressed, cuz all my areas...sacrament isn't that reverent. so so far, so good! i love it here. its my first area that is a ward!

and we have an american investigator names Joseph. and he is from california. and has lived her for 7+ years now. and he is what you would call a "Golden Investigator". he is awesome! it was hard to teach in all english, its really weird! hard! but was like, "i really want to know if this book( the book of mormon) is from God. I think it is but i want to be 100% sure, im at 80-90% sure that it is,  but i want to know for sure" and we couldn't believe what we were hearing. and we talked about the steps of the gospel (faith, repentance, baptism, HG, and endure to the end) and we found out that he had been a heavy drinker for years...like from age 13 to 46(his age now) drinks 7 days a week, and he has cut it down to 2 days a week. and he said that he has faith, and really wants to get rid of this addiction. so we ended up giving him a blessing, and according to his faith, we'll see if that helped him. i know that it well. i haven't seen so much desire and faith here like i did from this guy. he said that he really wants to follow Jesus Christ. and ah, he is just awesome! but still has a long ways to go. so i have hope for him that all will turn out great!

so life is great here. and i hope is is great for you all as well. i love it here, and am having a great time! i love you all! thank you for all the support and prayers! if there is anything i can do for you let me know! I love you!
Love, Elder Nelson

so this week has been full of exchanges! been crzy busy. it was fun, we had exchanges on wednesday with the assistants and that morning their car had a flat tire. so we had to fix it. and it took forever. it took like 1 1/2 hour to find a jack that would be big enough to lift up the van. and then we finally looked in a spot that we would never had imagined...that was were the jack was that belonged to the van. (the asian cars are weird!!) so we got it jacked up and got the lug nuts off that were super tight! and then, the tire would NOT come off! we were pulling, shimmering and jimmering that tire for like 20 mins! then we started kicking, still wouldn't come off. then we said a prayer to be blessed witht the strength to take it off. we said amen and acted on faith...Nothing! still wouldn't come off. so we were so confused why it wouldn't come off. then a guy that stopped by was telling us what we needed to do, and i told him, "we need to kick the tire so that it'll come off" (trust me, i know how to replace a tire..haha") then this guy told me, in english, "i know, but your kick has no force"...haha i was like Oh, you did not just say that...really?? so that got me a little...riled-up..so i went to show him my kick DID have force. so i just turned and gave that tire a kick, and the tire popped right off!! haha i was actually really shocked...but then it was funny cuz he just told me that my kick had no force. so that was the funny highlight of the week. i hope you understand, it made sense to me and is funny in my head.haha

but from the exchanges with the Assistants, elder Ausban and i visited our Recent convert, Ryan, and we talked to him about when we saw him with the cigarettes. and it was a really spiritual lesson. i looked him in the eyes and told him i loved him, and told him that everytime i see people that don't follow the commandments it hurts my heart. and i told him that what he did hurt me, but i assured him that he can be forgiven and that i am here to help him. both our eyes were wet with tears, it was really spiritual. and we got a peice of papper and made like an action plan for what he will do to stop. so i think it will really help. i really love that kid. i bought him a tripple book of mormon hard bound english and gave it too him. ..i still have faith and hope for him that he'll start coming to church...even though he DID NOT come yesterday to church...ah! but i guess he was sleeping..must have slept in too late. but at least he didn't go to the disco ... 

but what was cool., was his friend that was with him that i saw smoking came to church yesterday. and pulled me aside and told me that he had stopped smoking, and stopped doing what was bad, and said that he repented and got rid of his bad habits. he said that he realized that it wasn't good. so that made me happy! 5 of them are coming to church and getting ready to be baptized..so i'm exctied! but this week is transfer week, and there is rumor that the zone leaders are going to be put in Catarman, which means we would be pulled out...or i get transfered..which is possible..maybe i'll go to cebuano area...idk.

but i am loving it here! And learning alot! i love the work! i love my mission and i love our savior. thank you for your prayers and support! i love you! love you all!! so much! and miss you, and think of you(all) often!

have a great day!/week!

love, Elder Nelson

hi!!
so i'll try and be fast, idon't have much time. so this week has been awesome!! first was zone conference in Calbayog which is elder Ebisa's new area (my last companio) so afterwards i got to work with him in his area, and it was awesome! felt like we were companions again! he is really one of my favorite companions! then the next day, president Andaya had asked 6 of us from our zone to help translate and be volunteers for the medical mission that came to Samar Island. the US mercy ship was there along with the US marines and Navy doctors. so we got to help translate for the american doctors to the filipino patients. it was really awesome! and so nice to talk with AMERICANS!!!! and the doctors that had on a light blue shirt were actually members. i guess the church actually funded 75% of this medical mission. what they do is they go to a place for 15 days and do opperations on the ship and just help the people and its all free! so they were in calbayog for 15 days but we only got to help one day, and we had the yellow helping hands vests on. it was a great experience!
This week, the training that we recieved was to find professionals, those elect people. cuz most of the less active are these just really pore people, and what the church needs here are some good leaders. so we are looking for the elect. and friday night, we went to our investigators house (Jomar's house) and it just happens to be one of the biggest houses, and they invited us right in. our purpose there was to meet his father and teach him cuz he is a professional. and he was finally there! and so we meet him, built some trust and he let us teach him. we taught him and his family the message of the restoration. is was a great lesson! very spiritual! and afterwards he expressed that he always wondered why there were so many religions yet only One God and he wondered which one really was the true church. so we testified that our message was true and that the church was true. and we committed him to pray and to ask God if it is true..if our message is true. and he said that he would. and he is looking forward to our next visit. so i think something could happen from this. i hope and pray that he will continue to listen to us! his name is Carlito Mariano. so if you want, please keep him in your prayers that he will except our message! so i was so happy after that and feel like there is a lot of potential there! so that is one of our success stories. and guess what? one of my investigators, Jhonald, went to the temple!! just the other month or so..the one that got baptized right after i left. ah it made me so happy and brought tears to my eyes!! so glad that he isn't less active!! (there are so many less active here!!!) but really, i was happy to hear that!
we also had our stake general priesthood session, and i was one of the main speakers. it went good, and it was a good turn out. we then had permission to play basketball afterwards with the priesthood. it was fun! and some of these filipinos are ballers! they know how to play!! so it was fun!
so my week was fun and awesome! i love it here, and it has just been a very..spiritual week this week. i had a great fast sunday..even tho the start of sacrament started with 26 people there...but more showed up..(a lot of the priesthood that attended stake priesthood saturday didn't come cuz they were tired..probably from basketball..haha)
but i just want you to know that i know this church is true! i know the Book of Mormon is true, and i know that Jesus Christ lives! and i love him.
thanks for all your support! love you all!!
Love
Elder Nelson

hey, How is everyone?! how is life??
well my life is doing great! its full of ups and downs, and full of surprises!
so this week was crzy busy! so i'll update you about our baptisms!
yep, we had 2 baptisms!! Ryan, the investigator that i have been
telling you about every week, yep thats him, he got baptized. and his
5 friends are all coming to church and to activities and will most
likely get baptized on july 7! so keep them in your prayers!! i think
most of them are solid and will be great missionaries. one of them is
18 and is just soaking up everything that we are teaching him. he
still has a long ways to go. but we also had Sister Rose Marie that
got Baptized! she like begged us to baptized so we thought we would
let her. she is awesome! and i know that this decision that she made
will bless her life incredibly. so this week, i saw the fruit of our
labor. like i told you all before, i was kinda wondering if i was
making an impact in our area cuz we are always gone and feel like we
aren't doing a lot of work. but after i thought that, thats when i met
ryan. and now look at him, he is now baptized and now a member of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! so its been so neat to
see this whole process in his life from the start all the way to his
baptism, plus more. and his friends as well! so thats the status with
our investigators.
I am enjoying my calling as well.i love working with stake leaders,
and i am preparing my talk for this saturday for the Stake Priesthood
meeting. im excited and honored to give a talk.
 
so these last few weeks, the church has organized or funded a medical
mission in the philippines.. and President has asked that my companion
and i volunteer to be translators. so we went on saturday and there
were a ton of people. and all the army and police men have these huge
machine guns (even security guards here have huge guns, like sawed off
shot guns and they probably don't even know how to use them...) and
once they saw us, they had us go straight to the front (probably cuz
they saw that we were americans) and so we went to the front and long
story short, they told us that they didn't need us cuz they had too
many volunteers. so we were so disappointed. we were so excited to
help. cuz the doctors are americans and most of them are members. and
they need translators. so i was really looking forward to talk to some
members from america. but the US navy and army was there..and wow, its
so weird to see americans here! its weird. its actually quite
comforting that i am not the only white person in the middle of no
where. and man, i forgot how big americans are. i was so use to being
the biggest person here, and when i saw how big some army men are, i
was like wow they are huge! but im sure in america its no big deal. so
this week, wednesday and thursday we get to help translate again, and
this time we'll get in cuz we are going with pres. Andaya. so we are
excited!
so thats about all thats going on. i am really enjoying it here, and
time is going by so fast! i cant believe its almost July, and time is
just counting down. its almost transfers i feel like. we are so busy.
lets just say it doesn't take long for me to fall asleep when my head
hits my pillows..im usually so tired that i am too tired to get into
my covers.. haha so thanks for everything! i love you all and thank
you all for your prayers and support! i know i couldn't do it without
you all. i pray for you all as well. have a great day! Just remember,
the Church is always True! its So true, and we are so blessed to be
members of the True Church!
Love you!
Love, Elder Nelson

Hey! so i had a huge email all typed up and was JUST ABOUT TO SEND IT!!!! then the power went out and it DIDNT save!!! dang!! so this won't be as long becuase of time.

so thanks for the update. so about the worms, idk if i do. i feel fine actually. all the missionaries that were assigned here have gotten skinnier, but one of them had 18 worms about 9 inches long each...haha so idk. i'll talk to sister andaya to see if she wants me to take a deworming pill. but idk, i kinda wanna keep it to lose weight..haha JOKE. so i have been doing push ups everyday! proud of me?? i can do 80 in one minute, and thats my max. my goal is 100! so almost there. and i do sit ups. i have some abs...but they are kinda hidden..haha 

so i'll just up date you all on everything now. so this week was awesome! we went to tacloban for zlc. that was great. then came back and finally got to work in our area. we got more new investigators..i just wish we had time to teach them more!! so Ryan, he is like the leader of the pack, leader of his friends. they all follow his example. and so we got him ready for baptism. and he passed the interview. and he will be baptized this friday june 22. and i get to baptize him. which is awesome, cuz i was the one who found him, and i have seen the changes that he has made all the way to now when he is now getting baptized. and he already wants to go on a mission. we are going to get him a date to go to the temple too! man, i am just so excited! like even when all the active members didn't come to church because of the Paquiao fight, he and all his friends came! and im excited for his friends too cuz they are all going to follow his example to get baptized and then go on missions and then be leaders! i am just full of joy! we def. worked hard for this! and also this friday, we have sister rose marie who has been begging us to let her get baptized. she was suppose to get baptized last april but had word of wisdom problem. but she has now stopped since then so we finally feel like she is ready, and she passed the interview and she will be baptized as well. i am so excited!! we are being so blessed right now! i love it here! i love my branch! i really feel comfortable here in the branch now. me and the branch president are really close too. they trust us and love us. so i love them as well! even the stake leaders are awesome. we meet with them often in Catarman. and they are so nice. and we have earned their trust. and they have asked me to speak in the General Stake Priesthood session. so i am so grateful for them. they said that they appreciate my kindness and how i approach them and deal with them. and that i don't boss them around or tell them what to do. so i really appreciate their compliments to me. so i am doing great! having a great time! i love the gospel. i have been reading the GC talks cuz we finally have the liahona. and i encourage you all to read it! i love the talk about being converted to the gospel thru his church. i think..basta, its on page 13 i think.read it, its awesome. i gave a talk about it in sac. meeting. and the spirit was there and i thought it went well! so i love you all and pray for you all! i love you! HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!! you are the best! truly are! i love you!

have a great day! 

love 

Elder Nelson

Maupay nga hapon!

so this week was awesome!! count your many blessings!! cuz thats what i have been doing , and the blessings are ENDLESS! so i want to update you about our AMAZING awesome investigators! so they are progressing and its awesome! we watched the restoration video and man, its just awesome. they get everyone together and they listen!! and they are reading and praying everyday. and the ones that are progressing the most are Ryan and Alvin. they are 17 and 18 years old. and they are following our commitments and ahh, i just cant express my excitement for them!!! they truly rock! and Ryan is getting baptized on June 22 and the rest are getting baptized on July 7! it would be sooner like june 30 but we have General Stake Priesthood meeting! and guess who they are having speak!! Elder Nelson!! amazing huh?? i think a ton of people will come! :) and fyi, that elder Nelson is me.!:) haha so i have been thinking about what i should speak on to all the priesthood in the stake...i have been thrinking about D&C 121:34-37. i think this is so important that i memorized it. i think every priesthood holder should memorize this. so thats why we won't have a baptism that day cuz we'll be in Catarman. so the next week will be their baptism and i am so excited! i felt like i wasn't really making a difference here in my area becuase we are so busy, but i know now that we have made a big difference. the Lord was so kind to bless us and its just non stop! i love it!

so this week, we had transfers, and elder Ebisa (my best friend) transfered! so our Branch President (is awesome) organized a little farewell. so all our investigators came, and lots of the  members.  we sat in a big circle, and elder Ebisa sat in the middle and one by one, the members/investigators came forth and said their little message/farewell. it was awesome. and then the last one was our branch president, pres. Samante. and i want to tell you what he said. he said that he wanted to talk to me and elder Ebisa, so he said "this is to Elder Ebisa and Elder Nelson..."i have been Branch President here for a long time, this august will be 7 years. in this time, i have seen many missionaries come and go. i have seen good missionaries, some nice, some obedient. i have also seen some...not so good. but when the missionaries were pulled out (about a year ago) and zone leaders were put in here (zone leaders should be in catarman, not san isidro) and they all have been good. all the zone leaders have been good missionaries, but out of all these good missionaries there are two that are the best.  These two best missionaries are the ones with us right now, elder Nelson and Elder Ebisa.." wow, it was awesome! he was so sincere! it put tears in my eyes, and elder Ebisa and i looked at each other, both had tears in our eyes, and it really just touched us, touched my heart. i really appreciated his compliments! and i knew that i have been doing good. then the thought came into my head..."what did i do to make him say that"?? haha but all i have been doing is my best, so i guess it is paying off. so it was a confirmation to me that the Lord is proud of me and is happy with what we are doing here in San Isidro. i literally feel like the Lord is just pouring down blessings upon me and my area!! wow its awesome!

so a little update, my new Companion is Elder Galang. he is From Baguio Philippines and came out from being assigned in the office. so he was one of the office elders and goes home in August. and wow, time is going by so fast! i cant believe its already JUNE! time is going too fast! also, good news, i have lost weight!! a total of 10 lbs!! i think i actually lost more cuz the scale said i lost 13 lbs but when i got on the second time it said i lost only 10. but thats good for me. but...i think i have a worm! yeah i have been excercising...push ups everyday..i can do 70 straight, my goal is to get to 100 straight. and i have been walking just about the same i think....so i think its a worm but i'm not sure. maybe i'll keep it cuz  the little guy..! :) haha

well i love you all! thank you  all for everything! all the support love and encouragement. i am doing my best and having a blast! truly is the best two years! and i am loving it here!

i love this work! i love the Gospel, and i love the Savior! he is my best Friend!

love you all!

Love Elder Nelson

hello everyone!

so this week has been great, super busy and super hard! haha yeah, its not always easy here. but i am enduring. haha so we had companion exchanges like this whole week, and didn't get a lot of time to work in our area. and so that was hard cuz when sunday comes around we see the fruit of our labors...and i think the tree died cuz we didn't see much of the fruit of our labors at church. it sure is...painful. why don't they come to church?? where is their faith? but the sacrament attendance went up. i think thats one thing that is hard about being zone leader is you don't get a lot of time to focus on your area. but im doing my best, and staying positive. i really am loving it, loving it all! :) quite the experiences...!!

 so this week has actually been a hard week for me mentally. and this is why. so i feel like i just finished or endure thru one of my trials and thought it'd be smart to ask the lord for another one. i remember praying that he would give me something that would bring me closer to him, like a trial/hardship. and i testify that he does hear and listens and ANSWERS our prayers! he answered my prayer, like literally the next morning when i woke up. i was just having a hard time mentally, couldn't really focus, and it was pretty hard to solve cuz we had exchanges the whole week, and alot of traveling and i had no time for my self to really solve it. but in my personal study this week i read Alma chapter 38, and i felt like alma wrote that just for me. it helped me so much, and gave me a lot of comfort. but what helped the most was when i prayed. sunday after church, i just had this really sincere prayer, and i just opened up and poured my whole soul to Heavenly Father. and when i started my prayer i felt really heavy but when i ended i felt light, and i felt peace and joy in my heart. i felt love, i felt a warm feeling inside. he answered my prayers this time as well. it was such a neat experience to feel the power of prayer. i then read my blessing and that sealed the answer to my prayer, then i read President Eyring's talk "trust in God, and then go and do" from Oct 2010 GC. and it just hit me. i learned that when we are experiencing sadness or sorrow, it is because we are lacking trust in the Lord. its so true. if we trust in the lord we'll be happy and won't worry. then in his talk it talked about peter walking on the water from Matt 14:26-31 i think. and i love this passage. i learned that the lord calls to us to come to him. and if we have trust in him and look to him, we can come to him thru our trials, walking on water thru the storm. but Peter, when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and started to sink. he then cried saying "save me" and IMMEDIATELY the Savior reached out and grabbed him. i noticed something in this passage, peter must have already been super close to the savior for ,him to be able to "immediately" grab him. as in, probably reaching arms distance. so i thought it was interesting to notice that peter was that close to Christ, yet he took his eyes off him and stopped focusing on Christ. and he then started to sink. he probably thought he was close enough and safe to be able to take his eyes off him. but if we take our eyes off Christ, we will sink and our faith will fail us. so we cant think we are safe even tho we are close to Christ, cuz if we take our eye off him, we will sink.we have to continue to endure to the end with our eyes on Christ. but since we are all imperfect, and all sinners, we will fall at times, but if we "cry"for help He will immediately save us. he then says something like, oh ye of little faith why did you doubt?? so i took this as, we cant doubt our faith. we cant doubt the answers to our prayers that he has already given us. when we doubt  or are fearful, it was because we are lacking faith and trust in the Lord.  i know that is true, i feel like that happened to me, but  because of his infinite love that he has for me, he IMMEDIATELY saved me. i love the Savior! I feel like i have come so close to him! i am grateful the trials that he has given me that have brought me closer to him. so that is some of the things that i learned this week. i hope it made sense, it made sense to me. haha

i am loving it here, and working hard and doing my best with my eyes on the Savior!

now let us go forward with our eyes on Christ! i love you all!

mahal ko kayong lahat!

Elder Nelson

so this week was crazy busy! it flew by! had a lot of new experiences this week. first, one of the sisters in my zone got super sick, and was diagnosed with dengue..which i guess you can die from. so she went to the hospital up here in northern samar...and its just not a good hospital. and she got worse so we had to send her to tacloban cuz thats where the nice hospital is (compared to here..nice?? haha) but elder Ebisa and i couldn't really help cuz our area is the farthest away, so we started a zone fast for this sister. and this morning we heard that she is doing better finally...but she still isn't alright yet. so thats what's new in the zone.
so one of the members here, her son saved this kid from drowning and from his efforts, he didn't know how to swim so after he saved his friend, he drowned and died. so instead of doing cpr on the spot they took him to the doctor in Allen which is about 30 mins away...and the doctor didn't do anything...so the little boy died. its pretty sad. this member is a recent convert. he husband was killed in the past and now her son died. so last night pretty much the whole branch went to her house to comfort and we put on a little service and i was asked to speak. ah it was weird, i do not like deaths!! there wasn't much happiness there last night. but i shared about eternal families and gave some thoughts of comfort.but afterwards i was pretty shaken up, funeral services here are creepy!!
but this week we had a super awesome spiritual experience! again! so on sunday,our sacrament attendance was really low, and i kinda felt disappointed..or maybe discouraged too..idk if there is a difference between the two. i just felt like we worked super hard and then they don't come to church! people are just so blind! why cant they just see....how important it is to go to church...yet alone keep the commandments! so i was kinda bummed at the turn out. but the sunday school lesson was awesome. the teacher asked about the stories in the book of mormon about how hard their missions were. and he asked if Abinidi knew that he was successful? did he see his success?? no, he died, but because of him, Alma was converted, and becuase of him he baptized 204 souls...so even tho Abinidi didn't see his fruits of his success, he was still successful. so it opened my eyes a little bit. and i reallized that i need to look at the long picture cuz sometimes we don't see the fruit of our success right at this moment. so that is what i learned during sunday school. and then we had an amazing experience..after we went to a members house to eat the cake that Ash sent me.haha (they are the only ones that have a oven...and it was very good! american cake! yum! thanks Ash! haha) after that, we went to one of our new investigators, and he jumped right up and was ready for us to teach him. he even invited 3of his friends! so we taught them the message of the restoration. and Ryan and his friends were listening really well, and the spirit was so strong. i was being helped with the language too cuz they were understanding me and answering our questions. and we got to the first vision and it was as if it wasn't me that was talking. and we explained how the true church was restored and we invited them to be baptized and they all said yes. and we gave them a date for june 16. and then we one of them to pray and ryan just volunteered! like on rare occasion will they pray if they are asked. but ryan like asked us if he could pray. so we let him and he asked Heavenly Father to help him be ready to be baptized by june 16. which is probably the first time i have heard someone pray for their baptismal date. we came out of that lesson and just said "wow.. what an awesome lesson"! so spiritual! so i know that our work is paying off. it was such a better feeling than the discouragement..haha i don't want to be transfered! my work is not finished here! so it was a great week this week!
so i hope you all are doing well. i loved talking to you, it was so nice to talk to all of you! i love you all and miss you all!
mahal ko kayo!
love, Elder Nelson

hello everyone!! so i loved talking to you all on the phone, and i thought since i talked to you i would spend the time to send you pictures. so sorry for the not long email, i told you everything that i wanted to tell you. i had some amazing experiences and i was so glad that i got to share that all with you! i love you all hope you enjoy these!

Love Elder Nelson

hello everyone!

so i just want to share about my experience with stake conference yesterday! it was probably the best stake conference i have ever attended in my life. actually, it was the best! we had elder Ardern and another general authority. elder..Adoro i think? but elder ardern was the one who interviewed me and my trainer a while ago..remember that? so i'll share with you just some of my notes from stake conference. so sister Ardern talked about 5 standards or habits of the family. 

1)family prayer! she talked about the husband and wife should have prayer together (just like companionship prayer!) so i highly suggest, if husband and wife is not praying together as parents then they need to start it! thats one habit that i want to keep from my mission! is companionship prayer...and inventory! haha 

2)family standards. she said to make family standards. she then talked about pres. Kimball (i think) and how he said parents should watch movies that the little kids cant watch. if they shouldn't watch it than neither should you! (and mom, i remember you always saying this to me...you were right! but you didn't hear this from me...haha) but we should listen and watch things that invite the spirit. ask ourselves, does it invite or drive away the spirit?? 

3)family scripture reading..Every day! she said that he family did just 1 page a day, and if they missed a day, they went back to the beggining. it took 531 days to finish, and when they finished they started again! and it wasn't too long wasn't too short. she said the blessing from it is that now she see's her kids reading with their families. they made a habit to read the book of mormon every day. so i hope all of us can do that! i have a strong testimony about family scripture reading! and its especially hard to get people to do it here! so please..Do it! :)

4)Family Home Evening- she suggested to plan service activities as a family. and she said if time is hard to find, then make time! every where around the world has FHE set for Monday evening! that means thats when God wants us to have it. so when should we have it?? MONDAY!  and don't let things get in the way to stop you. cuz satan is there and will try and stop you!

5)Family Sabbath Day worship! go to church as a family! sit together as a family. and keep the WHOLE day holy! if god created the earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th. do we have something more important to do than God's creation of the world? as in, he worked 6 days and rested the 7th so so should we. our work is not more important than his.

so thats what she talked about. and i loved it! i love my family and know that gospel blesses family! before i close, cuz im running out of time, i want to share elder Ardern's message with you. i absolutely loved it! felt like the heavens were wide open pouring out revelation!

he talked about The Weightier Matters. just basically about the differences from our church from any other church! so he talked about the priesthood. he said that the priesthood is to be used for service towards others. "you cannot give yourself a blessing, you us it to bless others. its a beacon of service for others. you cant place your hands on your own head, you place it on someone elses to bless them." i really liked that. so important to honor the priesthood! we're so blessed that we have this power and authority. i know that no other church has this.

then he talked about he family as well. i just really loved this. he said,, Pleading , "please DO NOT sacrafice family unity for money" (thats big here cuz alot of people try to go abroad to make more money, and it destroys the family!!) he said, "you place your family at risk when there is extended amounts of time away from your family, especially between the husband and wife" so important to have family time. there is a time for work and a time for family! :) he then talked about discipleship. he said Poverty is NOT a barrier of Discipleship. the cycle of poverty can be broken if you pay your fast offerings. he said, its not about how much you pay, its about the faith and obedience to paying it no matter what. in closing, he talked about sorrow.. you know "mourn with those that mourn.." he said sorrow is good because "sorrow takes us to repentance, repentance takes us to changes, and changes bring us closer to Christ." so i just loved it! i could go on and on about what i learned but there is not enough room nor time! i loved it tho! i know that the gospel truly blesses the family. and i hope that we all will learn to do His will to live with him once more! :) lets go forward and do our best to be a better disciple. i know that this church is the Lord's church and i know that He is our savior! i love my Savior!

love you all! thank you for everything!!

love you!

Love Elder Nelson

hey! ok, yes i am alive. sorry it took so long..i had no choice. so monday (p day) was a brown out which means no electricity, which means no email. then on tuesday we traveled to tacloban for...the hospital. and since our area is so far away from tacloban we had no time to email on tuesday either. but president andaya let us email now. and yes i just got out of the hospital. so i had these warts on my fingers, and one was really big. so i got those removed. and there was a big one on the side of my head on my temple. got that removed too! have i ever told you that i HATE annatesia!?? thats the most painful part!! and i think the one on my head has been there for a long time but it just got super big. they say its a virus from the scissors that they give hair cuts with. so maybe thats what its from. idk. but basta, its gone now. and no, no transfer. i was actually thinking that us two would transfer and be replaced with sisters cuz our area isn't a good area for zone leaders ccuz we are always traveling and are not there. i thought we would be put into the main center of our zone (catarman) like every other zone leader's area. but nope, staying here. which is fine. i guess you cant just run away from your problems huh? need to stay and solve them. so yeah sorry to make you worry, i had no choice. ha

so sorry this will be short, i don't have a lot of time... plus its hard to type with my deformed finger! haha its nott that bad.  well this week we did have 3 baptisms.. and man it feels like all our investigators are girls!!! im sorry, but i want to teach some males!! its just so easy to teach girls for some reason. but i guess they need the gospel too. haha but we do have one investigator that is a male. and he is awesome! i hope he gets baptized!! please pray for him, brother Rody. he came to church 2 weeks in a row. and he will be traveling with us to go to catarman for stake conf. which is two hours away. so he is progressing!

 

and my birthday was great! elder Ebisa woke up early and made me breakfast. and then my pen leaked and stained my white shirt! dang it! and then went on splits with one of our district leaders. so thats pretty much what happened. it was a great day tho. and then it was elder ebisa's b day on saturday and i faked like i was sick and surprised him with a surprise dinner. with our investigators who happen to be  like one of the richest people in our area. she is super nice. and progressing. she is the owner of our appartment and thinks of us as her kids. she's a little old now i think. but i did get my fist kiss on the mission...haha let me explain. so when i surprised elder ebisa, they sang happy birthday and we went to give nanay (the rich women, our investigator, super friendly...yeah) a handshake and she gave elder ebisa like a greeting hug and then a kiss on the cheek..i was like AH! then she did the same to me...i was like AH...dont...too late..haha she just gave me a kiss on the cheek. like when people greet people...one of those. but it was still weird.haha

so all is well, my health is good now and i have no more warts.. i've actually been trying to go jogging! i did that twice! haha so don't worry. thanks for all you do! thanks for all your prayers. just know that i am safe and everything is ok. sorry it took so long to email. i had no control. just know that i love it here. i love this work, and am constantly trying to do better!

love you!

Love, Elder Nelson

hey!
so today, we had a zone activity at one of the resorts in our zone that had pretty nice sand. so we played ultimate frisbee on the sand right next to the ocean! and it is def. summer now! cuz it was hot! still is! and i sure got fried! but it was fun to get together as a zone. when i first was called as zone leader i felt like i wasn't as close to my zone mates and that they didn't really trust me, but i feel like they trust me and look at me as their zone leader now. its always weird for me to be the youngest as the leader. but thats just what happens i guess. so it was a fun zone activity.
so this week, was a great week! we had 3 companion exchanges.. wednesday thursday and friday. so  it was fun to work with the elders in my zone, but i also missed working with my companion! he's awesome! we get along so great! hopefully he doesn't transfer! and  wow, its almost transfer week! time is going by so fast!
well, i feel like i cant remember anything else that has happened this week. oh, idk if i told you, but i am the pianist in my branch. like in my last area there was at least one person that knew, but here i am the only person that knows! and im getting a lot better at it. im also teaching my companion. we barrowed a key board from a member that doesn't know how to play so in our apartment i teach my companion....when there is time! haha
well this week has been agreat week i just don't know what else to say. im all typed out! ha just know that i love you all! and im working hard and doing my best!
oh, i'll tell you about our new investigator! Rody! so his tatay,dad, is super hard hearted and won't listen and during our lesson we learned that christ was born before 50B.C. and that he was the first person to be born on the earth...so im grateful that i got to learn something new that day...haha Rody's dad is the one who said this who is a "devoted Catholic". so we taught rody, and the lesson was awesome! we've finished the message of the Restoration with him. and both lessons, we wouldn't take his eyes off us. he was so focused! so we stopped by his house before we went to church for our meetings at 7 am. and he got dressed and came with us to church...at 7AM! he was at the church for a total of like...5 hours plus! he is awesome and progressing! he really wants to know where the truth is! so thats the awesome event of my week!
and how is your BofM reading?? mine is awesome! increases my testimony everyday! don't let a day pass by without reading it!  3 things it'll do for us, it'll give us an added amount of the spirit, more desire to follow the commandments, and a testimony of our savior!. so if you want those 3 things...what do you need to do??? READ! i know that that is true and i'm doing it in my life and its a big help!
i love you all!
Love, Elder Nelson

hey! thanks so much! i love the update! sounds like everyone is doing great!!! wow, the gospel sure blesses families!!!! thats one of the things i've really noticed since i've been out! countless are the blessings he has given us! and kourtnee will do fine, you are right, she needs to study! we gotta do our part before god does his. (even tho there were alot of times where i didn't do my part in school and i guess i just got lucky! haha) and about olivia and porter..i haven't heard anything???what song? i'll look thru my emails.. also, this week on wednesday, we'll have Leadership training, so thats when i'll get mail and stuff. so thank you so much for advanced! if i don't get it this week i'll get it next week. just cuz we're in the farthest zone, we don't get mail alot.  and usually the mail gets to manila and then it takes forever to get here cuz...they go by filipino time! which means everything is late! i can't believe i'll be 20 tomorrow and in two weeks i'll be out for a year and then it all starts counting down! im never going to be trunky tho , 'im only going to pass thru this place once". never again as a full time missionary. so i'm loving the mission!
so thanks so much for the update!
this morning we played ultimate frisbe on a white sand beach in Northern Samar, Bobon. it was awesome! it was really tempting to get wet cuz it was hot and the water was probably too warm! but it looked refreshing!! so im having awesome experiences here! as for the language, its going good. in my area, it has 3 langauges. its fun. i like it cuz i get to use both waray and cebuano and then i get to practive tagalog. but man, there are still those days where i feel like i can't speak at all!! but i've been blessed with the language.
so hows the waggamans?? hows your side of your family?? we need to get them all back into the church! we need them to return! once they truly understand the doctrine of jesus christ, they will truly understand and never be less active! their spiritual roots will grow deeper by the understanding of the doctrine. thats what i'm learning here! there is so many Less active! but they are coming back...slowly! ha but really how is everyone??
tell everyone hi!
Love you!
Love, Elder Nelson

hey!! maupay nga kulop!
so a very very busy week this week! so i'll try and get everything in
in this email. but i don't have much time so i'll try. so monday, we
went to tacloban. and for you to understand, its like driving from
boise to SLC on roads like McCall but WORSE! instead of a river on the
side its the ocean so thats cool. but the roads are really crappy and
the drivers do NOT know how to drive here! their foot is like a
Drivers Ed student's foot. very ...shaky? as in, he goes on and off of
the gas and its a very jerky drive. so i actually kinda of get car
sick which is weird cuz i never do! but i made it, the most painful
thing was my BUTT! but i did get to see the San Juanico bridge for the
1st time in day light! did you know, its the longest bridge in Asia?
yep.
so we had ZLC (zone leaders Council) and it was fun to get together
with all the zone leaders. i got to share my testimony with them as a
new zone leader. and then President Andaya gave a training and it was
one book of mormon. and he encouraged us to get a new copy of the BofM
and to start the book of mormon and mark all the references of the
savior. so i was a little hestitant with this cuz i just started the
book of mormon a little while ago. but i followed his council and i
feel like my testimony and love of the savior has grown so much! i
know that the book of mormon is really another testiment of Jesus
Christ! and the book of mormon truly does testify of Jesus Christ. so
thats my little project that im working on right now.
then as it says in my Subject line above, Hospital! so i have been
getting these stupid ingrowns!! and idk why! i've never had problems
with my toes until i got here! idk why, this place is just cursed! so
dirty!!! so yes, my left big toe nail..got Partially removed! the
doctor said my toe nail wasn't healthy and wanted to remove the whole
thing, when only it needed partial, so i agreed and then we got into
surgery (the anestesia (sp?) is the worst part!) and he ended up just
removing partial. which isn't as painful. but its still...frustrating!
so hopefully that'll be the last! hopefully! then, i had some warts on
my hands cuz of how dirty it is here, so they gave me some medicine to
put on them. so we spent the day at the hospital and then traveled
back to our area! ah i hate the drive! but ayos lang!
then, General Conference! well we weren't allowed to attend Saturday!
:( even priesthood. so our chapel is so far away from the stake center
that we got to watch it in our building. our BP got the broadcast in
english. and after the sunday sessions, elder Ebisa and i stayed after
and borrowed the disk to watch priesthood session! it was
awesome!amazing! i loved elder Bednar's talk about fulfilling our
callings in the priesthood. he said something like," you break your
covenant when you transgress and when you do NOTHING". its so true!
and i felt like that will help alot of missionaries in my zone! so we
didn't get to watch saturday. but i'll just have to wait for the
enisgn. i took lots of notes. i loved elder Andersen's talk on the
savior! i love his talks cuz they are always about the savior. so i
loved that on! and Elder Richard C. Edgely's talk was good, applied to
my work as a missionary with less active. so that answered alot of my
questions why members become less active! and how to help them come
back! i learned so much! i can't explain it all, i just loved it!hope
you all did too as well! well time here is doing great!i love ithere,
and time is going by so fast! hope you all are doing great! thanks for
all your prayers!
I love you all and pray for you all!
Love, Elder Nelson
 

maupay nga hapon!!
so another busy busy week. and i don't have much time, so i'll try my best to catch you up on things. so this last week, we had like no time to work in my area because we were in like every other area of our zone. and my area is the farthest area IN our zone. so tuesday we had companion exchanges (splits) in Catarman, and it was a low pressure area so it rained and rained, and rained some more!! we were soaked! some of the roads turned into rivers! and there were some floods too. and we couldn't use a payong (umbrella) because it was too windy and would just break it! so yeah, it was nice getting all wet, and from that, i've gotten sick (probably from the lack of sleep too) i've just had a cough. but im good now. so fun experience.
so then our stake had a "little MTC" and they asked us to teach the ward/branch missionaries the lessons. so that was a neat experience, and from that, there will be so many future missionaries! and then we were JUST about to go back to the area, and then the sisters in our zone called and said that their apartment is haunted!! so we went all the way back to their area and dedicated their apartment, and they still didn't feel safe, come to find out, some one had died in that house, and its right next to the cemetery. so they ended us getting a priesthood blessing and they feel better now, but they're looking for a new apartment now. so our week was just super busy! with all this and baptismal interviews. and we had like no lessons in our area. i think the hard thing for me is not getting down for not teaching people. cuz we're doing things that have to be done, but we just don't get lots of time to teach. but when we do get time, i love it!
so one of our investigators, Sampayan family, they are the owners of our apartment. and we taught them the message of the Restoration, and it was an awesome lesson! the spirit was so strong,and they were really attentive. and they came to church yesterday! so it was fast and testimony meeting, and the 1st councilor of the stake presidency was bearing his testimony and he testified about families, and about how families can be forever! and when he said, i felt the spirit and i looked at sister sampayan and she was crying! so i know she felt the spirit, and she loved the whole 3 hours of church! she said that she will come to church again next week cuz she loved it so much! so im pretty sure she is getting baptized! i hope! so thats whats going on with our investigators. well i love you all! and thank you so much for all you do! i love Luke ch 13,14! i suggest reading it!
love you!
love, Elder Nelson

maupay nga hapon!!
hey, so i'll try and do my best to update you all with the little time
that i have! so good news,  my old companion, elder Leutze is still in
my last area, and they had 6 baptisms!! right after i left! so i am so
happy for him and for our investigators that got baptized! and wish i
could have been there for that, but oh well. i know i helped bring
them the gospel, im so glad that they accepted it. i love missionary
work, i wish i could be called elder for the rest of my life! i love
seeing the joy, the true joy, that this gospel brings to those people!
and i know thats what im doing in my new area.. so a little update, my
area now is San Isidro. and its right on the coast, so very close to
the ocean. we eat rice 3 times a day, and usually with fish. i really
am becoming filippino! the only thing is my skin...i don't think i'll
ever be as dark as them! oh, and i am tall. but other than that, im
filipino. haha i actually really love the fish here...we just fry it
whole and eat it with rice. its good. and my companio...is AWESOME!!!!
He is Elder Ebisa. he is the NICEST person i have ever met! i hope we
will have more than 1 transfer together! we are pretty much
brothers,...we're best friends, he is so nice, he gives me so many
compliments and i just love our companioship. we are working our butts
off too. and wow, i never thought zone leader would be so busy...i go
to bed around 12 and get up around 5 just cuz we're always
traveling..its just so busy, but i LOVE it! our zone is doing awesome!
and remember that missionary i told you about in the MTC? the one that
almost got sent home for downloading stuff?? well he is one of our
district leaders, and he has turned around like 180 degrees! he's an
awesome missionary and we actually get along GREAT! so i
wonder...where/what would he be like if i kept my mouth closed in the
mtc???so he's doing great now.
as for the language, im learning tagalog from my companion. and its so
mixed here..its not just one language, its 3, all of them mixed
together! which is crazy cuz it should be waray, but its all 3. so im
loving it. my companion says im fluent in Waray, but im still not
satisfied, im constantly working on improving my language.
we also had zone conference this week. and it was awesome! I love
President Andaya! so he came up with these certifications that
missionaries need to get passed off, and its like 3 steps and theres
alot of things that you have to do..its like christlike attributes,
memorizing scriptures, and teaching skills. and so far only 3
missionaries have passed this so far in the mission, and i was one of
them. so it felt good to accomplish something like that, cuz it has
helped me become a better missionary. and become the missionary that
president Andaya wants me to become and most importantly, the
missionary that the lord wants me to be. well, im out of time. just
know that i love you all. and that i love this work! i know that this
work is the lords work and this gospel is the ONLY way to True
Happiness! so i hope we can all help those who are "lost" and bring
them back to experience the joy that we are feeling. i love my
mission! and love you all! thanks for all your prayers!!
Love you!
Love, Elder Nelson