I love Christmas!

Hello everyone! It has been a great week here in Kanagawa! Elder Burnham and I are having a way good time here, and have seen a ton of miracles and had some many tender mercies poured out upon us.

One of those blessings was that our man Watanabe San got baptized! Watanabe San is the greatest. We met him at our English class about 3 weeks ago, and got talking to him. We set up a lesson with him, went to church with him on Sunday, and invited him to be baptize in our lesson after church. He said he would have to think about it, and went home. Well, he called us on Tuesday, and said something along the lines of, "So like, I wanna, ya know, get baptized. I was thinking about baptism, and then the Holy Ghost came into my mind and said 'Be baptized.' So, how can I do that?" That was about two weeks ago, and he got baptized just this weekend. Huge miracles!

We got to go to the temple on Tuesday last week, right before transfers. As always, it was a very wonderful experience. I went to the temple this time with some questions on my mind that I needed help from God to answer. As I went through the temple, and pondered about my question, I received an answer that I know is from God. I know that Heavenly Father gives direction specifically for each of His children, and that you can always turn to Him in prayer.

I love you all! Have the best Christmas ever!

Elder Nelson

The boys are back

Hello everyone, I hope you are having a wonderful little December! If you can, go do some sledding or something! Enjoy the Christmas Spirit!

Because Christmas is in just a couple weeks, this transfer is cut short, and the next one is going to be extra long. But! This transfer, I'm staying in Kanagawa, and my new companion is... Elder Burnham! That's right, the MTC companions are back! We're both way pumped, and I know that this transfer is going to be a really good one!

I had several experiences this week that taught me a great lesson about the Holy Ghost. I won't go into detail, but I had felt several times to do something. I did it occasionally, but not nearly as much as I should have. I didn't think it would matter all that much, but this past week Heavenly Father let me see what I had been feeling what I had felt. I can testify that God gives us individual guidance through His Holy Spirit, and as we follow that, we will be blessed, even if we don't understand exactly the why of those prompting. I promise that as you follow those prompting, the blessing will come.

I love you all! Have a great week! Drink some hot chocolate, listen to a Christmas song, and share the new Christmas video with everyone. Love you all!

Elder Nelson

The zone after our zone meeting

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Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a very good December! Everyone! Get into the Christmas Spirit!! If you haven't seen the new Christmas video put out by the Church, go look it up! It's so good!

We had some splits this week, on Wednesday we were with Elder Konno and Elder Talbot. We taught several lesson over the split, and had some great finding time. We met with our boy Watanabe San this week, and we were able to teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He's so willing to hear what we have to share about Christ, especially about the atonement and repentance. He's been progressing really well this past week, so that's been a huge blessing.

We met with this kid this week and were able to share a really simple message about who God is and who Jesus Christ is. He was way humble and just took in so much, that was a miracle in and of itself, but as we were talking we were able to share the video, "Because of Him", which is about what Christ has done for us. One of the sweetest feelings filled the room as we watched that video, and then as we shared our testimonies and feelings for the Savior. Jesus Christ lives, and He cares so much for each of you.

I love you all! Have a great Christmas season!

Elder Nelson

Early Saturday morning to play soccer with the ward

Elder Talbot and Elder Konno with us on splits

Elder Molen, Elder Spackman, me at MLC. Elder Spackman ends his

mission next week, so this was probably was the last time I'd get to

see him.

We got snow!

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, and the subsequent beginning of the Christmas season. I love this time of year! I'll just be walking down a road here, and there will just be
Christmas jingles playing over some speakers. I love it!

It snowed this week on Thanksgiving! We haven't gotten snow in Tokyo in like over 50 years, so that was way awesome. It didn't really stick, but it was still awesome to see out of the window.

We had a great opportunity to teach an investigator after church this week, and we talked about a lot of different things, but one thing that stuck out to me was how we come to know things in the gospel. Our friend had some many questions about how he can know, but the one thing we kept coming back to was the Holy Ghost and the Book of Mormon. I'm so grateful for the guidance of Heavenly Father in our lives, and that He guides and blesses us each on an individual level. All that He requires of us is that we ask.

Thank you all! I'm sorry this week is short, I'm running out time. Have a great week! Enjoy the new Christmas video on Mormon.org !

Elder Nelson

The view from our apartment with the snow

Here's the letter!

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week! We had transfers this week, and I am in Kanagawa. I love it here! Here is one thing special about this area, and the zone that I'm in. This is the hilliest zone in the whole mission. And I haven't used my bike in almost 5 transfers. So this has been fun. But really, it's been so good! I love this area, and the ward is way awesome!

My companion is Elder Ota. He is from Hokkaido, Japan, which is the northern most part of Japan. He's such a hard worker, and we've been having a great time so far. I really look forward to this transfer!

Also, right after transfers, my friend Kon was able to get baptized! I was lucky enough to be able to come back and participate in the baptismal service. He's the best!

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

 We had to strap my suitcase to my back and bike it to my apartment

Here are also some pictures from Mount Takao

Here's a random man who wanted to take a picture with us

I had time, once.

I hiked a mountain today, so I don't have time to write an email. I love you all, and will write a good one next week. I'll also reply to everyone's emails then too!

Also I'm getting transferred to Kawasaki. My new companion will be Elder Ota, I'm really excited!

Love you all!

Elder Nelson

But why is October already gone?

Wow, I can't believe that we're already in November. This week was a really good one, there were a lot of great experiences that gave opportunities to learn from the Spirit.

We had MLC this past week on Wednesday, so I got to go up to Kichijoji for the day. That was great, I was able to learn a lot from my time there. The next day we had Zone Conference, which was also a wonderful experience. A major theme from both of the conferences was Family History.  We were able to learn so much about it and how it is such a powerful tool in the Lord's service. Shout out to my mom for doing all the Family History work! It's something that I definitely want to start applying more and helping our investigators and recent converts get into.  (Elder Nelson's mom here: Click here to go to FamilySearch.org to set up your free account and get started building a family tree and searching records for free.) 

Sacrament meeting was really great this week. One thing that I've been able to learn a lot so far is that in opportunities to learn from the Lord (the temple, attending church, General Conference) you only get out as much as you put it. This past week I felt the Spirit strongly as I took the sacrament and sought the Lord's guidance. I love the sacrament, taking it really can and will help us grow closer to our Heavenly Father.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

PS Sorry my letters are short. I'm lame, I know. Here, have a picture of some ribs a member made for us. First time I've had ribs in over a year :)

Skype companionship study with the AP's