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This week was way good, lots of great learning opportunities and experiences!

This week we had a way fun activity with some potential investigators and some ward members. It was called Wakuwaku Cooking, which means "excitedly" cooking. We made some bread things with stuff put in them! Ok, so that description was horrible, but I'll put pictures. It was way delicious!

On Sunday night, got a call from someone asking us if we could go and visit an investigator that evening, because they needed to meet the missionaries that night, and were busy every other day for the rest of the week. So, we gear up from where we were, and get biking. And then the rain. And then the hills. And sometimes rainy hills. But! It was probably one of my favorite experiences I've had in a long while. While biking, I don't have to think super intensely about what's going on, so I got some great time alone with just my thoughts, nature, and God. I know that everything that our Heavenly Father puts in our path is exactly what we need, whether that be a rainy night, a beautiful sunrise, an evening of heartbreak, or the feeling of greatest triumph. Everything that happens is for your good, if you let it bring you closer to God. That is a lesson I keep learning over and over again. Just when I think I've learned enough, or I'm finally to a good point, Heavenly Father reminds me that I've got a long way to go. But, I know that as we humble ourselves, rely on the Savior, and turn to our Father, we truly can grow from our experiences, until the perfect day comes, and the King calls, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

I love you all! I hope you have a great week!

Elder Nelson

The cooking stuff!

Making bread featuring the craziest kid in the Eastern hemispheres 

Bread things!

Met this way cool old man who dyed his hair pink

A cool kid we met this week! I say kid, but he is actually older than I am, but whatever!

Once upon a time, I had good email titles

This week was awesome! First things first, there was a server crash last week, so if you sent me an email, and didn't get a response, I'm not trying to insult your honor! The emails were all funky last week, so I'm sorry if you didn't get a response! If you want one, just resend whatever you sent before. Thanks!

There is so much going on, I hope I can accurately write down (type down whatever) my feelings!

This week we were trying to get two of our investigators to a church building that was about 45 minutes away, so we arranged to have a member come and drive us all. But, there was a miscommunication, and I forgot that I live in Japan, so everything is mini sized. The members
car could probably hold the member, our two investigators, and probably two more Japanese people, but there was absolutely no way to fit two huge people from America and Brazil. So, we put the
investigators in the car, ran through the rain to the train station, hopped on a train, and then ran to the church just in time to meet them there. It was a way good night, we saw so many miracles and saw
God's hand in our work through the whole evening.

This week we had Zone Conference with President Wada. It was way awesome! We talked a lot about a lot of things, but a thing that I really enjoyed was a training that President Wada gave. We dissected 2 Nephi 4:16-35, and I was taught a very important lesson from the Spirit. Something that has been weighing on my mind recently has been the concept of charity. We all know that charity is the pure love of Christ, and that we should strive to have that love in our lives. But, while we were reading from 2 Nephi 4:21, and the Spirit hit me so hard. When we truly love like Christ does, it should be something that just consumes everything inside us. Like a purifying fire, it consumes all of our contempt, pride, evil thoughts, back biting, hate, sins; it consumes it all, and leaves us with peace, hope, and love. That is the purpose of the Atonement of Christ, to help us overcome all of our weakness and be filled with the pure, purifying love of Christ. Never be afraid to give too much of yourself, to hold back any love that you have. Just give, give all you have to God, and let His love change you.

I hope that you all have an amazing week! Love you all!

Elder Nelson

PS We were eating with a member, and I got served a salad. And I ate it. Boom. Growin up.
PPS I have big, important responsibilities. This week I had to figure out what size of curtains our windows needed. #workinhard

Insert title here

So, this week was Valentine's Day, which means that we got to....... do nothing special! In Japan, the culture is that on Valentine's Day, girls buy chocolate for guys. It sounds pretty good for the guys,
right? Well, it comes around on a holiday called White Day in March, where the guys usually give that same girls back about 3 times the chocolate received. Fun stuff! I actually forgot that it was
Valentine's Day until some members gave us a treat after Church. But! It was still a great day! We had Ward Conference, so there were a ton of people at church, which was awesome! The weird thing about that day was that it very very humid outside, and so all of the floors and the ways of the church building were, for lack of a better word, moist. You could run your hand down the wall and it would come away damp. Despite having to use words like moist and damp, it was still very cool!

One very cool thing that went on this week was we had an event called Questions of the Soul. It is basically President Wada coming to our Ward and teaches gospel principles the best way I know how: movies. He has several different movies he uses, I've heard that he uses Indiana Jones to illustrate the principle of faith. This week, he used the movie The Mission to illustrate the principle of repentance. It was all about this one man who was completely burdened down with guilt, and thought that he had no way to find peace, to find forgiveness. He shared a very strong lesson and testimony about how completely and perfectly Christ's atonement can cleanse all of us. There is no mistake, no error, nothing that Christ cannot cleanse. I know and can bear testimony that because of Jesus Christ, mankind is free and all can return back to our Father in Heaven. I love our Father in Heaven and His Holy Son, Jesus Christ, and I am eternally grateful for the sacrifice that He made for all of us.

Thank you all! I love you all a ton! Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

Not to be confused with my straw for teaching the Restoration of the Gospel

I am King

Temple P-Day

This week was way good, and it got even better because we got to go to the temple! So, that was awesome! Also, a general authority came, so that was awesome! And one of our investigators is very awesome, so that is awesome! Over, it was a very awesome week!

The temple was grand, as always, and it made me very contemplative. We only get to go every couple weeks, and I know many missionaries around the world don't get to go at all, so it has really been put in perspective for me how amazing the temple is. I've been thinking a lot while in the temple, (I know, very dangerous game, thinking) and I came to a conclusion. In the scriptures, it says that man exists so that we can have joy. The whole point of our existence on this Earth is to learn to become like our Father in Heaven, and like His Son, Jesus Christ, and live a life full of joy. The path the Savior set for us is a perfect example of how to find joy in this life, and live with eternal joy in the life to come. Find joy in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and feel the deep love that He has for you.

The general authority that came to visit is named Elder Whiting (I totally forgot his first name (^_^;)  ). He gave a talk in a general conference a bit ago entitled Temple Standard, which was a very good
talk. He was amazing, he is the Area President of the Eastern Asia area, covering Japan and Korea, I believe. He was a very powerful speaker, and just overall gave an awesome conference!

We have an investigator named Izumi San, who is pretty much the coolest person around. His life has definitely not been an easy one, but he has been making such wonderful progress as he chooses to come unto Christ. He has been making so many changes in his life, and he is working way hard everyday. If everyone could shoot him a prayer, that would be amazing! It is so amazing to see the gospel of Jesus Christ once again change someone's life. Seeing the Saviors power working everyday is such a privilege, and I can testify of the power of the Savior's atonement, it has the power to  change lives and bring light to where there was darkness, change guilt to peace, and free those who
are bound. I love the Savior, and bear testimony of His reality. He loves you, as does our Father in Heaven!

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

At the temple, I ran into Elder Miller and Elder Christensen. Fun!

The district at the temple!

Elder Siquiera and me

Us and Izumi San. The camera is being way funky, so it looks like our room is being translated.

Yay title

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great week! I have very little time today, but here we go!

Elder Siqueira is way great! Working with him has been an awesome experience so far. I learn a lot from him everyday, especially about teaching people and loving them. He is like a really deep pool of
water when it come to knowledge. He's really deep.

OK, lame attempt at thinking of something clever to say, things this week were really good! Today we had one very cool miracle happen. We were out shopping, and we are stopped by this person from America. Turns out he is a member, and has been living in Japan for over a year on a military base for the military. He was a way cool guy, but he wanted to say hi because he said that he hadn't seen missionaries in years and that it made him way happy to see us, so he had to go talk with us. We talked with him, and I knew that Heavenly Father guided him to us that day. It is such a testimony to me that Heavenly Father loves all of his children so individually, that He cares so deeply that He would arrange the little things so that one of his children could get a boost during the day. I know this work is God's work and that He wants to help His children. Please, reach out as the Spirit directs you and be the light in someone's life today. As you do that, I promise that the Lord will bless you and will guide your efforts.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

PS I bought so many bananas today. Today, I am King.