Elder Holland visit!

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a great week, this week was incredible, Elder Holland visited Japan! It was way good! The rest of the week was good as well.

One cool miracle that happened this week was we were at church, and a potential investigator of ours who usually comes to our Sports Night stopped by. His parents were visiting from China, and so we got to talk to them, play some basketball, and eventually give them a copy of the Book of Mormon in Chinese. It was way cool, I feel our investigator is much more open now to hearing the gospel because of the influence that we were able to have on his parents. We should be meeting with him tonight to have dinner with his parents before they go back to China next week.

Also, side note. I don't know why, but I just seem to find a ton of people from China. Like, everywhere I go, I meet tons of people from China or Taiwan. I know how to say like 5 things in Chinese, and they are "I am fat" and "God loves you". Always fun.

Elder Holland visited! He was here from Saturday to Sunday, and gave three conferences. I didn't see one of them, but one Sunday morning he gave a special multi-stake stake conference broadcast, in which he gave one of the best talks I've ever heard about the Savior's visit to America. I can't do it justice over mail, but I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and the special message it shares about the Savior.

The other conference was on Sunday night, and it was broadcast from Kichijoji, which is where I am serving right now! I got to watch it live with some investigators and recent converts, and it was so good. It was recorded, and I shared it on Facebook, so please go watch it! (Elder Nelson's Mom here: Feel free to watch the entire devotional, but Elder Hollands talk starts at about 1 hour, 17 minutes if that's your preference.) I know that the Savior lived so that all of us, every single one, can overcome their mistakes, be cleansed from their sins, can be fixed when they are broken. I know He lives!

Love you all! I hope you have a great week! Thank you for all of your support!

Elder Nelson

Our new friend!

This is the church benches 20 minutes after church, 6 hours before Elder Holland arrives for the conference.

If you watch the conference, this is the man who translates. He's also a Stake President where I used to serve, and a friend. He's seriously one of the nicest people ever, and one of the best translators in Japan. Love this man!

I'm sorry I'm lame at taking pictures.

Hello! I'm never sure how to start this first line of an email, so I'm just going to write the first thing that comes to mind. Dragonflies. Ok, good.

This week was really good! We had a busy past couple days, but they were full of some great miracles. It's amazing to see the hand of the Lord guiding us here.

One miracle was on Saturday and Sunday. A random Vietnamese man came to the church out of the blue, and asked if he could come to church the next day (Sunday). We of course said that that would be fine, and we went to church with him the next day. His name is Gyap, and moved to Japan like a week ago. He's Christian, and wants to meet and study more with us. Elder Battaglia was able to sit by him during church and translate some of what was going on for him, and eventually just taught him the whole Plan of Salvation. He is way prepared, and I can't wait to keep meeting with him!

We had a couple meeting this week, for new District leader and a follow training meeting for the new missionaries. Something that President Warnick always shares at those type of conferences that has become more and more true to me recently. It's found in Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." I know that whenever you are gathered in the name of Christ, you can have His Spirit to be with you. That can be in sacrament meeting, Sunday school, even family prayer or scripture study. Please strive to be aware of those opportunities and God will bless in so many ways. He loves His children!

Thank you all! I love you, and I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Elder Nelson

We got dinner with an investigator friend from a different ward. This kid is way awesome! He loves the church, and even though he can't join the church yet, he bore to us some amazing testimony of the blessings of the gospel. Great experience!

Did the platypus come from beavers and ducks, or did ducks and beavers come from the platypus?

Greetings and salutations, o readers of the email. I hope you all had a great week! It's been a crazy week, and I can't believe it's time to write another email, but here we are!

We got to attend the temple on Tuesday! As always, that was awesome. I love being able to attend so regularly, I've learned that every time you go, you can receive guidance and directions from the Lord, and you can feel His love more fully. I encourage all of you to go as often as you can!

The reason this week was so crazy was it was transfer week, which meant going to pick up and welcome all the new missionaries who came into the mission, and also send home all of the missionaries who were finishing their missions. It was such an interesting experience to see both sides of a mission, getting to see how far I've come and how much more I have left to learn.
I love how the new missionaries have so much energy and excitement, they're just excited to be in Japan and talk to real Japanese people and eat real Japanese food. I felt God's love for them and felt just how much He would guide and bless them. God really does care about us. I know that.

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

Elder Nelson

Sorry I don't have more pictures, I'll try and get some that were taken this past week and send them next time. Love you!

何のタイトルがいいだろうかね。

Hello everyone! It's been a really busy week, but a lot of great things have happened. I love being a missionary!

There have been a lot of interesting experiences this past week, one was having to wait in line at a Japanese driving school. While waiting in line, we got to talk to this guy for 30 minutes about how he loves his family and wants to be a good father. We had a great conversation about the blessings of the gospel on families. We didn't exchange any contact information, but it was really cool to see that God prepares people, and they are everywhere!

I've been able to talk with and with a lot of different missionaries this past week, and I've learned a big lesson. The focus of missionary work, the focus of the gospel, is to bless individuals and families. I've always known that, but this past week I've learned so much about how every single person on Earth is a child of God, and how He loves every single one of them. I know that if you pray to see with God's eyes, to see each and every person you meet as His son or daughter, you eyes and heart will be opened, and you will have a greater lover and capacity to serve His children.

I love you all! Have a great week! Also, happy February!

Elder Nelson

We had MLC this week as well!

And zone conference!

And district meeting!