HEY! Magandang umaga sa inyong lahat!
so where do i start??!
well this week was awesome! and i am just learning so much!! and time is flying by too fast!!! wow its already march, which means im getting old!!! haha
so lets see, i had a couple cool experiences this week that i'll share with you. so elder leutze and i went to go visit a less active...well yeah, he would be considered a less active, cuz he became active but now he's less active again. and i've been here long enough to watch this whole process. so Brother Perez is his name, and so we taught him about the importance of sacrament attendance. and let me just tell you that my understanding of the sacrament has increased so much, and i know that it is the most important meeting that we have in the church. and i just want to pound it into these members heads the importance of the sacrament!!!! they have so many stupid excuses.. "oh elder, i don't have any money" or "i don't have any clean clothes" or i have something to do, or i have to work.. the list can go on and on. (i think i'm going to make a  "book of excuses" and it'll be full by the end of my mission!haha) i just don't understand, how hard is it to save one or two pesos every day so they can go to church on sunday??!! or how hard is it to WALK!?? they just don't understand!, if you don't have money, you WALK! so thats what we've been trying to get these members to realize, is to realize how important it is to come to church. so we did that with bro. perez and it was a successful lesson, and the spirit was there and we promised him that his wife would get better (she is in the hospital cuz she is supper sick) IF he came to church....so church came around...and he WASNT there. gosh! its so disappointing to be waiting at the church and then they don't show up. its very disapointing! but anyways after we taught him, we went to visit another less active, and i haven't met the husband yet, and so they were actually all there. but Brother's mom and mother in law were there and then there was one other guy that was there...and this was probably one of the experiences of the week...
so we sat down on their wooden bench in front of their little shack, and we just started to BRT (build relationships of trust). and then this other guy that was there just started asking a ton of questions like, why are you here? what did you teach bro. Perez? why are you teaching? and just a bunch of stupid questions. but we took the opportunity to share the gospel. so we started to answer his questions. one of the questions was, what are you doing here in the philippines. and i simply told him that we are missionaries and we are helping people come unto Jesus Christ thru his gospel. and i told him of what we do and stuff, and i said it was confidence, and it was in fluent waray. but again, every sentence i said, he would ask a question and i couldn't say 2 sentences without him asking questions. but one thing that i was so proud of and grateful for was that every question that he asked (with the intention of finding fault about our church), i had an answer to it. and i didn't just know the answer but i knew that it was true. every question that he asked could be answered by the message of the restoration that we wanted to share with him. but what i got most out of this was, we told him that thru the gospel we can become clean and be ready to stand in the presence of God to be judged. and again, he asked a question and he said "are you clean? are you ready to stand in front of God"? and when he said that, i just felt the spirit come into the room, and i looked him straight in the eye and said" yes! I KNOW i am clean! and I am ready!" and i just testified to him that i was clean and ready! and man, it just felt SO GOOD to say that with all confidence, and i had no doubt that what i said was false. and the other one that he asked was "do you know Jesus Christ"?. and i was so grateful for this opportunity the most, cuz again, i looked at him in the eye and testified to him that i knew Jesus Christ. and told him that i know he is my savior and redeemer. He is my Brother! He suffered for me and thru him, i can become clean and return to live with God again. and i just testified of Christ. and then i just paused, and the spirit again came into the room and it was so Strong!! and what was better was, after i said that, he could Not question my testimony! he tried to change the subject, but we did what we were suppose to do- we Testified of Jesus Christ! so i was so grateful for the testimony that i had of the restored Gospel and that my companion had a strong testimony too, cuz we knew, without a doubt, that what we said was true! to make a long story short, Brother had us leave cuz the guy asking all the questions was a Born Again, and said that we needed to leave. so we did. i was disappointed that he wouldn't listen to us and that we couldn't give him the truth, but we left knowing we did what we were suppose to. even tho i wanted to sit that little man in a chair and duct tape him and tape his mouth shut and just have him listen...but i guess it doesn't work that way! haha but i wish he could've listened to us. so that was our experience with the Born again! :)
So i hope all of you are continually strengthening your testimonies cuz times will come when people/satan will try your testimony. and if it is not strong enough, it will waver and you will fall. so i am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His Gospel! it truly blesses families!! and God truly loves us, he loves all of his Children. we are so lucky and blessed that he loves us so much that he has given us a prophet to lead and guide us. i know Thomas s. Monson is God's prophet on the Earth today! and that the church has been restored thru Joseph Smith. We are so blessed that we have the priesthood restored again to the Earth! i just love this gospel! I am learning so much! most of all, I know Jesus is the Christ. and i am so grateful that i am one of his Representatives! i love this calling!
i love all of you so much! thank you so much for all you do! keep it up! mahal ko kayo!!
Love,
Elder Nelson