2 years mark

Hello everyone! I hope that this email finds you all happy and well! I didn't think that this would ever come, today is my two year mark from entering the MTC. Craziness!

This week was crazy, Elder Hemi, Elder Gonzales and I went and worked as hard as we could. We met a lot of new investigators, several of whom we met for the first time and said that they would like to be baptized. We met one kid and gave him a church tour after meeting on the street, and he said he loved being there. We introduced baptism and he said that everyone should know about this. Needless to say, we are way excited to be working with all these new guys!

Our boy, Jun, met again this week and had a great lesson on the Plan of Salvation. He's loving the gospel and everything he is learning. He will be coming with us to church tomorrow. Thank you all so much for your prayers on behalf of all these people that we meet and work with!

I love missionary work! Nothing in my life has meant as much to me as serving the Lord here in Japan. For anyone who is considering going, please serve a mission! Anyone who is able and worthy to serve should do it, it will bless their lives more than they can imagine. Heavenly Father lives and loves each of us, and His Son Jesus Christ has shown us the way back to Him. I love them and the opportunity to serve them here!

I love you all!

Elder Nelson

tengo hambre!

Hello everyone! This was a great week! We don't have a ton of time today to write, so I'm going to keep this one short.

I have a new companion! Elder Gonzales is from Columbia, and is a way fired up missionary. He came in yesterday, and we've been able to see a lot of miracles working together so far. We've had a lot of fun so far, and I look forward to begin able to keep working with him!

I know that God lives! He sent us here to learn and grow through our experiences, and as we rely on Him we can and will draw closer to Him and return to live with Him again. I love this gospel and being a missionary!

Have a great week. Love you all!

Elder Nelson

Summersummersummer

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all enjoying summer vacation, and the summer heat! I'll bet it pretty hot over there as well!

This week was way good, we were able to get a lot done, and see a lot of miracles! I love being out and talking with people, it's always an adventure. We were just walking on the street, and Elder Hemi complimented this guys shoes, hoping he would stop, but as soon as we complimented them, this group of old Japanese ladies just burst out laughing, and started repeating the compliment over and over as if it were the funniest thing they have every heard. We just had to take a minute to stop laughing because of what happened, but it's always nice to have a good laughing break during the day.

We taught a lesson with this guy who moved here from China named Hu. He has a ton of questions, ranging from "why are there so many different churches?" to "why do people go to church" to "why do bad things happen to good people?" It went well, and the thing that we kept coming back to was that the only way to know for yourself was to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and that through that, you would have the faith to overcome any trail that came your way. I have high hopes for our boy Wu! Keep him in your prayers!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

How is it July?

I could have sworn it was February last month. Oh well! This past week was really good! We were able to see a lot of miracles. The Lord is guiding the work here!

We taught a lesson to a man from Mexico this past week. He talked to us about how Jesus Christ has blessed his life, and how he has been guided by Him. It is really cool how God has prepared him to receive our message. Several years ago, his grandfather gave him a book produced by the church, and he read it and was positively influenced, so he has very good feelings towards our church. We were able to share about the Restoration with him, and bear our testimonies of the Book of Mormon. He was really accepting of it, and we should be having another appointment with him next week!

We had splits with the Elders in Kunitachi, Elder Gonzales and Elder Handly. Elder Gonzales and I were working around a train station in our area, and this kid comes up and starts talking to us. Turns out he met the missionaries around this train station over 2 years ago, and has wanted to meet up since, but he has never seen them again. So, when he saw us, he came up to us and started talking. We gave him a Book of Mormon, and should be meeting with him again later today! I know that the Lord's hand is over this work, that He helps His missionaries, and that He loves each and every one of us.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

Also, here is a picture of a different kid we met this week. Caught blinking. Every time.

I love the rain!

Hello everyone! I have given up on trying to have clever introductions to these emails, so I'm just going to start talking about the week. Here goes!

This week was amazing! We were about to get out and work a lot, even on days were it was pouring rain. On Wednesday, there was so much rain and wind. But, we went out and tried talking to this guy that was walking past the front of the church, and we were able to stop, talking, and eventually just decide to talk more in the church. So, we went inside, gave a church tour, and taught about the Restoration. I went really well, even though he decided not to continue to meet and learn more, I know that God put him in our path so that we could teach him. Blessings!

We also had Zone Conference! We focused on the role of the Book of Mormon in conversion. I loved it, I was able to feel the Spirit bear testimony to me about the divinity of the Book of Mormon. One of my favorite parts was when President just let the missionaries have some free time to stand and share experience that they and investigators have had with the Book of Mormon. I want to keep improve my ability to share this book, and help everyone read from it. I'll keep working harder to do just that!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

We also got to Skype with the one and only Elders in Yamato!

Transfer week!

It has been one crazy week, we had transfer come up, and everything that goes along with that. Lots of fun, lots of work!

We've seen a ton of miracles this week, new investigators have been coming out of the wood work. Its cool to see the Lord's timing on certain things, there have been some people that we met over a month ago who are now just starting to meet up, but they look really solid. We got to talk to a guy we met on the street over a month ago on the phone, and we set up a time to meet tonight. He said he would bring some friends so that they could learn about Jesus Christ. Looking forward to that!

We had a way good lesson with an awesome couple we met on the street a bit ago. They were way open to the message of the Restoration. The man said he had been wondering which church was true. He always has know the Bible was true, but he was never sure about his own church, so he is so excited to hear that he could pray and know if the Book of Mormon. We are excited and praying about them! The Lord knows and loves His children!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

We had lunch. It was good.

🇳🇿 🇳🇿 (On my phone these are British flags)

Hello everyone! I hope you are all enjoy this beautiful June! A lot stuff went on this week, but of course, Elder Nelson is gonna be lame and only write a little bit. As always. Sorry! Time is always such a killer! And writing is hard. But enough excuses, I just write my email now.

We had a fun ward activity this past week that included a cooking contest. The theme was "Meat", and so we made beef sushi. The member we worked with went all out and bought this way expansive beef, so it tasted soooo good. Lots of fun!

Also, I got a new companion! His name is Elder Hemi, he's from New Zealand, but was raised in Japan until he was about 13 years old, so his Japanese and English are perfect. It's been way fun working with him so far, and I look forward to working with him even more. He's a killer missionary, so this should be a good transfer!

One thing that I learned a lot about this week was the power of prayer. There were several times this past week where I had no idea what to do, or how to best accomplish God's will, but I prayed and
almost immediately received help and guidance in ways I'd never have expected. Like, we were waiting for a new investigator to show up to an appointment, but he never came, and I said a silent prayer about what we should do. Almost immediately there was this way cool kid who just came up to us and started talked. We should be meeting with him sometimes this next week! I know that God answers prayers and that He loves His children!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

Ward party sushi

Elder Hemi ft. p-day guitar

Ward party sushi

Polynesia

Hello everyone! I hope that you have all had a wonderful week. I can't believe that it is already June! Like, that's 6 months into 2017. I thought that is was February like a week ago.

We had a way good activity this past week called Polynesian Night, where a ton of missionaries from Polynesia put on an activity where they taught about their culture and family history. They bore a lot of testimony on how the church has blessed there family. It was a really fun event, and we had lots of potential and new investigators come. Also, at the end, they did the haka, which I'll attach.

We taught a lesson with our boy, Tomoya Kun. We talked about God, and something that we felt inspired to share was about how all of us are children of God. That is one of the coolest things ever! God loves you, and has prepared a way for you to be happy in this life, and for all eternity. I was able to feel the truth of that as we taught, and I am so grateful to be able to know that. I love the gospel!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

(^_-)-☆

First things first, shout out to my brother Steven on his mission call! Stockholm, prepare yourself! Congratulations Steven! Also, good job on graduating.

This week was a really good one, we had some we had some great miracles. First, a kid that we found last week came to church this week with his sister! It was the first time that he had been to a Christian church before, and he said that he had a good time, and would like to come back. We are planning on meeting with him tomorrow!

It was actually a really cool experience with him, he called us in the middle of the week, and expressed that he wasn't sure about our church (he saw some anti-literature and his family wasn't supportive), so we were able to talk, and he was able to understand that if he read the Book of Mormon and got an answer for himself, it didn't matter what anyone else said, it was between him and God. The power of the Book of Mormon is real!

I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Elder Nelson

Also, here are some pictures.

We climbed Mt Takao

If you've ever served in Japan, you understand this picture

Elder Yang giving a training

Miracles!

This week has been one full of a ton of miracles! I don't have a ton of time because we are going to hike Mt. Takao later, but I'll try and get some stuff down.

This past week we had a conference and we talked about preaching the message of the Restoration in everything we do. Sometimes missionaries think that in Japan the message of the Restoration doesn't have any application because there aren't a lot of Christians, but we really focused on sharing the unique message to the world.
That night, as we were out talking to people on the street, we found so many people to teach about the Restoration. Like, so many people. We met several potential investigators, and one man came with us off the street into the church to hear about Joseph Smith. The next day, we met even more people, with one man asking for our number so he could help us get in contact with people to teach about Jesus Christ. Then the next couple day were just full of teaching people about the Restoration. We found one kid who will be coming to church tomorrow with his sister. Lots of miracles are being given to us here!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support! I love you all!
Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

PS. I'll try and send some pictures tonight after we get back from hiking :)

Mother's Day!

Skyped today, so I'll write out a big letter next week.

Love you all!

Elder Nelson

Short sleeve season is here.

The spring has come, and with it, short sleeves. I love the hot weather that we have in Tokyo, and getting to wear short sleeves with it makes it all the better. Tender mercies!

This week went so so so so fast! It was transfer week, so we met with the new missionaries and the returning missionaries. It's always a wonderful experience getting to work with everyone. One really cool experience was getting to work with a new missionaries who hadn't been to the MTC yet, his mission is supposed to be in California, but he is waiting on his visa, so he is temporarily severing here. I got to proselyte with him for a bit, and it just astounded me how much he could do. He had never really been trained on anything, but we went out and he was just on fire. I asked him why he could do what he did, and he said that he just tried to follow the Spirit. A great lesson in humility and relying on the Lord in this work.

We met with our friend, Niina, this week. He has now finished reading all of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and is working his way through the Book of Mormon. It was really cool to see what the scriptures were doing for him, he said when he had finished reading the Doctrine and Covenants, all of his questions had been answered. We taught him about the importance of prayer, in not just knowing the gospel, but really feeling the Spirit and knowing it in your heart as well. I could feel the Spirit in that lesson. God cares for all of his children!

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

Subject

Hello everyone! I can't believe that another week has gone by. There has been so much that has happened that I can't even try to put it in an email, but I'll try and get some stuff down. Always fun!

We held Family Home Evening this past week in the Warnick's home. They are always so gracious to host a Family Home Evening once a month, and this time was pretty fun. We brought our investigator, Niina San, and we played a game and had a lesson about the Restoration. It was really fun, and it was great to help our friend be able to associate with more members. And the snack at the end was really good, so that was a nice bonus as well.

We had our zone conference this past week! It's always great to get with all of the missionaries in the zone and get to learn from the Spirit. I got to be one of the translators, so that is always fun. This time around we focused on the Spirit's role in conversion. I learned so much that the Spirit is the one that brings about conversion, and I just get to be along for the ride. I'm so glad that Heavenly Father gives us the chance to be able to participate in His work, and that as we do everything in our power to push the work forward, He performs His miracles.

I love you all! I hope that you have another great week! Next week is May, that is absolutely ridiculous!

Elder Nelson

好きなタイトルを入れて下さい。

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all enjoying the wonderful spring weather recently! Things have been really beautiful this week, and we had many miracles. I love seeing the Lord's hand in this work!

Last week we got to have dinner at a member's home, and it was so good. They made a ton of different types of food, and it was all so good. While we were there, Elder Choi shared a message about the living prophet today, and re-emphasized that we shouldn't just forget General Conference for the next 6 months, but try and remember it from here on out. Really god night!

We saw a cool miracle with a man named Urakami. He's just been a potential investigator in our area book for a long time, but we called him and set up an appointment. We visited his home and were able to share the message of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. He was really open to it, and hopefully we can visit him again soon. I know that knowledge of the Plan of Salvation will be a huge blessing in his life.

We met with our man Niina the other day. We had asked him to read 2 Nephi 31, and he read that, and also 2 Nephi 30 and 32 so he could get the context. He also flipped through the Book of Mormon, and stumbled upon 2 Nephi 27:19. He made the connection that it was referring to the Book of Mormon, and he straight up asked us, "Is this saying what I think it's saying? If this is talking about the Book of Mormon, then this book way important." It was so cool to see the power of the Book of Mormon bless our investigators life. I know that God lives and watches and guides His children.

I love you all! Thank you for all the support and help that you have all given me. I hope that you have a fantastic week!

Elder Nelson

Here is a picture of our meal with the members. Good ole Elder Sakae

hooking us up with the selfie

My arms are tired.

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful week! We've had a nice, busy week.

We had splits this week with the Elders serving in Fujisawa, Elder Magana and Elder Elsmore. We had a way good split, we saw a lot of miracles and talked with a ton of people. One person we talked to was a kid who had attended a Christian university, so he spoke really good English and had read from the Bible before. He's way cool, hopefully we can meet him again this next week!

We taught two lessons to a guy named Niina. He's a way nice guy who is so prepared for the gospel. We were talking about the atonement of Jesus Christ, and Elder Ishikawa and I had the opportunity to share our testimonies of His sacrifice. As we spoke, I could feel the Spirit fill the room and there was such a good feeling of peace. Christ lives, and because He lives we can all have joy and peace in our
lives.

I love you all! Have an amazing Easter! Take this great chance to share about the Savior with someone close to you! Love you!

Elder Nelson

We went and ate donburi. On the left is Elder Sakae and the right is Elder Choi

General Conference!

This week was an awesome one, we got to see a lot of miracles and God's hand in our work. And General Conference was amazing!

So, this past week, Elder Ishikawa and I were out talking to people on the streets and we stop this one guy named Niina. Turns out, Elder Ishikawa had actually found this guy over a year and a half ago while serving in Kichijoji previously. He had met with the missionaries a couple of times, but hadn't for a while. But, we ran into him, and were able to go to General Conference with him and then have a lesson afterwards. Really cool miracle.

Also, the cherry blossoms are out now and they are way pretty! I'll send some pictures we took.

General Conference was incredible! I don't know how the apostles manage to make it better every year, but they did it! I went into this conference with several questions, and all of those questions seemed to be some of the main themes that were talked out. God lives and loves His children.

Thank you all so much for your letters, support, and love! Thank you so much! Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

Kid we met on the street!

The District!

It's Spring!

Hello everyone! It has been a great week, Spring is finally rolling in. I love when it starts warming up, there are so many people out and about and that are willing to talk. Lots of fun!

One exciting thing that happened this past week was that we ran into Elder Matsumoto again! He finished his mission several weeks ago, but only lives about 2-3 hours away from Kichijoji. He was at the church with some of his friends, and we had just finished district meeting, so we got to say hello. Always good to see him around!

This past week I've learned a really good lesson about prayer. We have an investigator named Yoshi, and he's been praying several times a week recently, and whenever I ask how his prayer are, he always tells me that when he prays, he feels his view of the world changing. He feels more positive and has more hope. It may be small, but I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers. He loves us and is always willing to help us!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Also, go to mormon.org and check out the new Prince of Peace Easter initiative. It's so good!!

Love you!

Elder Nelson

Also, here are some pictures.

If your hotdog is cold, does it become a normal dog?

This was a great week! Really busy, but a lot great things happened!

I got my Japanese drivers license this week! Elder Battaglia did all of the driving in our  companionship last transfer, but he's left now, so I get to do it. Pretty exciting!

It was transfer week, so we welcomed into the mission new missionaries, and worked with them for a couple days. It amazes me just how much people are prepared and blessed just in the small time that they are in the MTC. I feel so blessed to be able to see the new missionaries and all of the hope and excitement that they have for the work. I know that Heavenly Father will take their efforts and perform miracles through them.

I love this work, and I love the opportinuty to be a missionary in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's service. I hope that you all have a wonderful week!

Elder Nelson

Also, thank you all for the birthday wishes! They mean a lot!

Taking the new missionaries out to eat tsukemen for the first time.

Elder Choi

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a great week, this week was a very busy one, but so many good things happened!

We had one cool miracle happen on Saturday. Elder Battaglia visited a less active who lived near the church about 3 months ago, but we haven't been able to meet with him since that time until yesterday. He was baptized over 5 years ago, and has been less-active for a large part of that time. However, he still considers himself a member of the church, and we were able to meet him at the church on Saturday to have a lesson. It was the first time he had been there in many, many years, and I believe that he was able to feel the Spirit while we were talking with him. Another example to me of how the Lord never gives up on His children!

The reason that this week was so busy was because Elder Choi from the Area Presidency visited our mission! He spoke on a lot of different things, but one thing that impressed me so much was how the Spirit works with him, and in a broader sense of things, how much the Spirit works with all of God's servants. Elder Choi gave two conferences, both of which were very different, but both were exactly what each specific audience needed. He followed the Spirit and talked about what he felt like he should talk about, and gave some amazing training. It was a great experience!

I hope you all have a great week! It's starting to warm up here, and I'm excited for the cherry blossoms that will be blooming in the week or so!

Love you all!

Elder Nelson

PS Also, Elder Battaglia is transferring this week and my new companion is Elder Ishikawa. He's a stud.

( ◠‿◠ )

Hello everyone! I hope that everything is going well for all of you. This has been a great week here, I'm sorry that this email is going to be shorter, we went to the temple today and had several things that came up, so I don't have a lot of time.

We had a way awesome lesson with a kid named Yoshi last week! We taught about repentance, and the blessing that it is in each of our lives. He seemed way excited to try it out, and has been praying and read from the Book of Mormon since. We should meet with him again tomorrow, so I'm way pumped for that!

The temple was awesome! It always is a special experience for me going there. I'm am extremely grateful for the fact that I get to attend so frequently, it has been such an amazing blessing for me and my mission. The Lord gives personal instruction to each of His children in His house.

Sorry for the short letter, I don't have a lot of time. Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Nelson