Monday, March 27, 2017

New Comp, working hard & a Zone activity!

This week was really good!

Tuesday night we got home at like 9:30 after being on the road all day! We had transfers, so it was just a crazy day. And there are 21 new missionaries in Puerto Rico! So I was in charge of driving some of them around from President's house to the chapel where they meet their trainers and stuff. It was fun and stressful. But it's always cool to see the new missionaries and feel their love for the work!

We worked super hard during the week and we saw the fruits. We worked a lot with the members and taught an old guy named Herbert. He's been an investigator for a while and had a baptismal date but now he has another one and came to church on Sunday and loved it! It was really cool to have him there, he was super happy.

We've really been working to help the Young Single Adults work more in the work, and this week I think we saw more excitement from them and we were able to also find some cool younger people that have potential to progress in the gospel.

Today we had a Zone activity and we got to play water balloon volleyball and some other games in Mayaguez in a park close to the beach. It was really cool to just laugh and relax with the zone and have fun together. As a zone we came to the conclusion that we want to baptize 22 people in April. That's a huge number and has never been achieved before... so here we go! We really got to break it down and talk about how we're going to do it. So we're really positive about this goal and we're hoping we can achieve it!

Elder Arteaga is a really good companion (my new companion, he’s from Mexico). He wants to work hard and is really centered on working with the members and doing activities and stuff. So we're going to try and do more activities to see if we can get a younger crowd to come to church!

This truly is His work and I can see it more than ever. Now is the time that the Lord needs our help to bring to pass all that he has planned for His children. I know that this is His true church.

Love you all!

Elder Nelson
Elder Bradford (the big one), Elder Willes (smaller one), and me at the Zone activity
Elder Arteaga selfie
With Elder Corales and Bishop Rodriguez

Monday, March 20, 2017

it just makes you love the mission!

Man I can't keep track of the time anymore! I swear I try to do something and all of a sudden the time is gone or gets used in something else. I have no idea how President Boucher can manage the whole mission. This week was full of surprises and some let downs, but we did see a really cool miracle.

Things have been rough as a zone. Only the sister missionaries in the zone have been baptizing. The elders in the zone haven't had a baptism in over 3 months. Which is rough, really rough. So we've been trying to figure out what's going on... but things just continue the same!

The baptism we were supposed to have on Saturday fell through. We had a 9 year old boy lined up to be baptized but apparently his family wasn't ready to support him or something... we passed by like 3 times in 2 days and nobody would answer us or tell us what was going on. Basically they kinda shut us out. But hopefully now we understand the situation a little better and now we can work a little slower to prepare him to be baptized.

On Sunday we out to another city that I had never worked in and we felt that we had to talk with a dad and his 16 year old son who were playing a pretty serious 1v1 game of basketball. So we kinda stopped the game and talked with them and they were super cool! The dad was like in love with the Book of Mormon and wants to come to church and looks like they both have some serious potential! So in the midst of so many distractions and the craziness of the week and the stress we have encima, I think we found a little miracle and we'll see what comes of it!

On Saturday we got to go to a conference with Elder Andersen of the Quorum of the 12, and it was awesome! The spirit was so strong there. I also got to shake his hand so no big deal... But he talked a lot about helping the Young Single Adults to bring their friends to church and it's so true! They know everybody and are way better at talking to their friends than we are! So that's our goal, is work more with the YSA. Literally you could just feel how inspired his talk was... Goodness gracious it just makes you love the mission. After the conference I felt like I never want the mission to end!

I know that this is His church. We are the only ones that can do His work because we have the truth! The Restored Gospel is what every person needs, even if they don't recognize it right now.

Love you all!
Elder Nelson
T-minus 86 days hahahha wooooooooo

With Elder Corales and Sergio Eynar (a recent convert) in the San German plaza
With my companion, Elder Corales


Monday, March 13, 2017

Working hard in the Zone!

This week was so hectic. It's been really mentally straining lately to try and get everything done plus work in our own area. With Zone meetings and meetings with President Boucher and exchanges and all kinds of stuff just make it really stressful. But we manage, good life practice I guess, hahaha.

So last week we had a huge miracle with Yaniel (the 9 year old boy) coming to church. We went and visited him again this week and we were able to set a baptismal date with him for the 18th! The only problem is that like 80% of his family are less active members so they don't really give him the support he deserves. He really only gets support from an aunt and an uncle who were the ones that brought him to church. But then yesterday they didn't even come to church! So Yaniel didn't get to come and we have to see how we're going to finish the prep to get him baptized.

On Tuesday we were in Mayaguez for a Zone meeting and President showed up and helped us a lot with the teaching in the meeting. He always brings a spirit that we can never nail. Then we talked with him about the zone and went back to San German for like an hour, had an appointment with Herbert (who's our 83 year old investigator) and then we went back up to Mayaguez and met with President again to talk about the zone over dinner at Denny’s. Which was really good. Then we went up to San Sebastian to a meeting with the Stake President to talk about the work. Then we went out to Cabo Rojo for an exchange and I stayed there working with Elder Bradford. It was a pretty solid exchange, there's just lots of problems in the zone right now. Not a lot of success.


Saturday we were both in Aguadilla all day working with the elders there. It was super hot and sunny. Which killed my face. I didn't have any sun block- not that I usually use it anyway... but my face got destroyed in the sun! It was really cool though working in Aguadilla. We found one guy that was super cool. We walked past his house once, then walked past it again and I felt like we should talk to him but we didn't stop. Then his son kicked a ball into the street and I went and got it and we had the opportunity to talk with him and he was super cool! Just the small miracles make the day worth it, especially when you listen to the spirit!

Love,
Elder Nelson
Aguadilla exchange with Elder Higgins and Elder Martinez
March MLC meeting (Mission Leader Council)

Monday, March 6, 2017

Just small little miracles! Prayers are answered.

Honestly this week was like the week of prayers being answered. We've worked so hard lately to try and find a baptism and finally our prayers were answered but it took a ton of work!

We spent a whole week from 9 to 10:20pm searching through old area books and records that the missionaries have made in the past, looking for people that would have interest in the gospel and could be baptized in March. Friday night at like 10pm we finally found what we thought we were looking for, but it was a long shot. So we went out on Saturday and found the family and it turns out the family had been living outside our area for like 6 years and just the other day moved back to San German! So we found them and found the little boy and asked his aunt and uncle to bring him to church on Sunday. AND THEY BROUGHT HIM TO CHURCH AND HE LOVED IT. It was super cool. Just small little miracles!

We also found two really cool couples in places that I had no idea we would find them. We were out in the middle of nowhere and found these 2 couples that were super cool.

That was the week really. Just lots of work and searching and finally it paid off and we saw a miracle!
I know that prayers really do get answered, just not in our time!

Love you all!
Elder Nelson