Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;
For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him.
D&C 18:10-11
Hello everyone! How was your week? I hope that it was just fabulous! I don't have a ton of time today, so sorry for the short letter. Here we go!
This transfer is going great! Elder Dana is such an awesome person and awesome missionary, we are working harder than I've ever worked before. We see miracles everyday, and the Lord is really helping us out over here! He loves all of His children!
We had Temple Pday today, which was amazing! We are so blessed to have temples on the Earth, they are places where the Spirit is always so strong! I would highly recommend everyone to read President Nelson's talk from the last general conference, and then go to the temple and ponder. I promise any questions or doubts you have can be answered there. The Lord loves to teach in His own house!
I'm running out of time, but I hope you all have a great week! Good luck everyone at home in school, with graduation just finishing or coming up real soon! I love you all!
Wow, what a week this has been a crazy week, I cannot believe that we are already at another Monday! So much stuff happened!
Oh, before I forget, I should mention something about the earthquakes that have happened in Japan. I felt absolutely nothing when the earthquakes went on, it was pretty far away. But, it was still pretty
big, so please pray for all of the people down in the Fukuoka area!
So, first thing is that we got our transfer calls! I will be leaving my beloved Atsugi, and will be transfer to Fugisawa as a Zone Leader in the Fugisawa Zone. That is the same zone that Atsugi is in, so I'm glad that I'll still be able to be in the area, I really love this zone and all the people in it! My companion is named Elder Dana, I've known him in for the past couple transfers, and I am so excited to be working with him!
We taught a lesson this week to one of our investigators and got talking about the Priesthood. We shared President Monson's talk from the most recent General Conference Priesthood session, and shared just how amazing it was that Heavenly Father has given this sacred trust to His children. The Priesthood is amazing, and the Spirit was so strong as we bore testimony about the reality of God the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ. This church is so true, and has the power of God on the Earth.
Thank you all so much for your love and support! It means the world to me! Love you all!
Elder Nelson
PS Shout out to my brother Jonathan De Andrade for his mission call to the Tokyo South Mission!
PPS Here is a picture of the District eating some lunch
(Elder Nelson's Mom here. I didn't have time to get this up yesterday. He did write on his regularly scheduled Monday.)
Why, hello everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful week, because I sure did! We got to watch General Conference!
General Conference was so good! I really loved all of the talks, and I know that the speakers were all inspired by the Holy Ghost while they were writing their messages. There were several talks that I really enjoyed, but among my favorites were Elder Eyring's talk in the Saturday Morning Session, Elder Bednar's talk, Elder Uchtdorf's talk in the Sunday Morning Session, Elder Holland's talk, and both of President's Monson's talks (Priesthood Session here, Sunday Morning Session here). I know that President Monson is God's living prophet on the Earth, and so his words have such a special meaning for all of us, especially when the words are so few. I'm so glad that we have the opportunity to study his words, and feel the guidance of the Lord in our lives.
One very cool miracles was that we were watching General Conference in the Stake Center, which is about 45 minutes away from our normal church building, and when we finish we walk down the stairs and bump into one of our investigators! We haven't seen hide nor hair of this guy for a bit, and we didn't know if he would ever turn up again, but he was at the Stake Center! We asked how he knew we were there, he said that he had no idea that we would be there, but he was in the area, and felt like he needed to come into the church building. I know that Heavenly Father is guiding His children, and that He care so deeply for each and every one of us!
I love you all so much! Have a great week!
Elder Nelson
PS My mom should be proud of me, I ate lunch with an investigator today, and they gave me a salad to eat. A salad. With huge chunks of tomatoes in it. And I ate the whole thing. Boom.
PPS One of my most favorite quotes from General Conference: "The first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength" Elder Jeffery R Holland
Hello everyone! This letter is a day late, and you know what that means, we had a Temple Trip P-Day! It was great, I love the temple so much! I loved attending the temple when I was living in Provo, but it just gets better and better as times goes on for me. We are so blessed in this church to have access to so many of the blesses that are found in the temples!
Conference happened this weekend, but Japan doesn't get to see it for another week because of translating, so I'll get to wait in anticipation for another couple days! How was conference for everyone? What was your favorite talk? I want to know!
This week all of the Sakura trees in Japan bloomed! Sakura means cherry trees, and they are absolutely beautiful! The sad thing is they only stay around for about a week, but while they are here, it is amazing! I love that Sakura season is usually right near Easter. Sakura season means that winter is over, and that new life is coming. Christ Resurrection means the exact same thing for all of us. I love this gospel!
Hello everyone! I hope you had a great week! This week was a busy one, but a very good one!
This week was a very busy one! We were running all over the place with a couple of meetings and activities that were going on with the zone. One Tuesday, we had a blitz in the next area over with everyone in the zone. Pretty much, for the blitz, we all go to one area and just work as hard as we can to help find new investigators for that area. We saw some awesome miracles and it was great to be able to work with other missionaries and learn from their example, even if it was just for a little bit. On Thursday, we had a training for the new missionaries, and then on Saturday we had interpreters training. We had a lot of time on trains this week!
This week was Easter! We have seen the new video that the church put out about Eater, Hallelujah, and it is just fantastic! I feel the Spirit so deeply every time I watch it, and we've been trying to
sharing it with as many people as we can, both on the street and to our investigators. In Japan, Easter is not a commonly celebrated holiday, in face, most people have never heard of it. But it has been
amazing to see change that occurs in people's lives as they learn about our Lord for the very first time. The power of the atonement and the resurrection is real. I know Christ lives, and I'm glad that we can celebrate Him this Easter season!
I love you all!
Elder Nelson
The Zone
The after district meeting cake. It was my birthday!
This week has been one of the busiest weeks I've ever done so far, and let me tell you, it was one of the best weeks from my whole mission so far!
Elder Dowdle and I have had some great experiences this past week, one of them being that we were walking and talking with people in front of a train station, and we see this group of maybe 35 college kids just standing around. So, we walk up to about 5 of them and start talking. They had had just a little too much to drink that night, me thinks. While we were talking with them, more and more of the college kids joined into our circle, until there were about 17 kids all talking to us. They asked our ages, and we asked them to guess, and after guesses being around 25ish (Japanese people always think Americans look older than they really are), we told them we were 18. They just lost it. Probably one of the loudest moments I've had in my life, just all these college kids screaming in the night in the middle of a train station. So, that was pretty fun!
This week, we've ran into several people who have had pretty much the same question: Why bother with Christianity, or religion in general? They all think that Christ had some good teachings, but didn't believe anything past that. We have had the amazing privilege to stand and tell them just why Christ is important, that He is the Living Son of the Living God, and that because of Him, all mankind will live again. Because of Him all of our sorrows, all of our griefs, all of our fears, can melt away, and be replaced with a perfect peace and love. Because of Him, all will live again, and can return to live with our Father. Because of Him, all that is wrong will be made right. So many people in this world don't know this one simple truth, that through faith and obedience of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, all mankind can be saved. So, go be that light that God needs you to be. Go and stand as an example, and be the instrument in God's hand in bring many unto Him. I can promise you will be aided and guided by the Holy Ghost, who will comfort and guide us on our journey through this life.
This week has been a good one, there has been a lot of good things that went on, and a lot of things that I got to learn from!
First big thing is, I have a new companion, and when I say new, I mean new! He is fresh from the states and is ready to get working. His name is Elder Dowdle, and he is from Montana. He's a big ball of fire and is ready to take on the world, always down to go up and talk to anyone and share the message of truth! He has something along the line of 11 brothers and sisters, and is one of the youngest in his family. He's the first one in his family to serve a mission in Japan. He is doing
really well and I look forward to working with him!
This week I learned a great lesson on just how much the Lord works on us in ways that we don't even realize. There have been weeks where I felt like I haven't even progressed an inch, or changed at all, or that I am still the same person that I was a month ago. Those times are some of the hardest, because you feel like you want to grow, that you truly desire to become better. Having the opportunity to work with Elder Dowdle has really put my whole mission in perspective. I can see
a lot of myself in him, and I can see so much that has changed, so many things that I struggled with at the beginning of my mission have become second nature. I know that Heavenly Father puts things in our paths, He gives us our mountains to climb so that we can become stronger and progress eternally towards Him. I know that without Him, I would literally be nothing, not able to progress, change, or
improve. But, I do know that with Him, I can do all things. Trust in God's timing, and know that as you trust in Him, He will turn you into the person He knows you can become.
I love you all! Have a fantastic week! If it rains, go dance in it!
