Things That Make You Go HMMM???

California doesn't do winter....
Hello everyone from all over the place!

This week has been awesome and full of many miracles as usual! However California refuses to accept that it is almost December. It has been in the high 90's all week and I am going insane! 

This week we met with a super awesome woman by the name of April! We had only briefly met her in the park the week before but got her number to meet. We met with her at the same park the following week. She is sooo cool, she also is super prepared. We began teaching her the Restoration and the spirit was very strong. We invited her to be baptized and she was so excited! She said "I have always wanted to be baptized but I didn't have anyone to guide me!" She also said "You truly are the Lord representative's". We're very excited to continue to work with her this week!

Now skipping all the way to Thanksgiving! We had a football game in the morning which was fun and super competitive. I trucked a sister because she was so small and out of my eye sight!😀 But she is doing all good now so we're good! Then we had dinner at the Bodicas. She is so awesome and loves missionaries, plus the food was good! After that we headed over to the church to have a Zone activity. We played glow in the dark trashket ball. Then we played Ghost in the Graveyard which was supppper funnn! Thanksgiving was super awesome, it was very fun and I can't believe I will be home for the next one! 

Then on Friday we met probably the most insane Chinese lady I have ever met! She was a referral from her neighbors who were members. We went over and she immediately requested our help. She demanded that these crows be taken off the power lines. She said "The crows represent an Evil Cult from China that have been sent to persecute her"! Then it gets WAYYY better! She explains how the moon is following her every where she goes! She said "No matter where I go the moon is always following me, so it must be fake"!! THENNN... she explains how she can't drive because the devil puts stuff in her food and car so when she drives so goes blind!!!

THENN... to put the icing on the cake, we ask her if we could share a msg with her about Jesus Christ. She then says the following: "Christ has already come down and personally put his crown upon my head, so I don't think I'm in need of any help"!! 😨

So that was super cool and I only shared half the stuff she said! 

Sunday was great also. We had 2 investigators at church (Crystal and Li feng). We also taught a guy by the name of Bill at 5:00! He was super hyper and was trying to understand everything in the lesson in less than 30 seconds! 

Great week full of just your normal missionary stuff!! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Zone Activity-Ben & Elder Porazzo

Elder Willes, Investigators, Shanon and Ben having dinner

Grateful, Thankful, Blessed

Wow, we're busy!

Hey guys!!

This week was great, we saw so many miracles and we have stayed very very busy! 

First thing I would like to talk about is a woman by the name of Jenny Jackson. So all the way back in June we taught Jenny through a member referral. At that time her husband had just recently passed and she was very depressed. We came over and taught her the Plan of Salvation. It was hands down my most spiritual lesson on the mission. She called us her little angels and wanted to meet every day! However, after that lesson we could never get in again. We were confused and sad, but we moved on and had little contact through out time. 
About 2 months ago Jenny came to church with one of her friends. She had another very spiritual experience at church, but again we could never get in with her! We recently knocked her door and she ignored us. So we decided we were done with her. We sent a text and asked if she really was interested in our message. She never replied so we decided to focus on our other investigators. Then about 5 days after that she asked us to come over! We came over and sat down with her for the first time since June!! She had been cold shouldered by her friends because she listened to us and attended our church. She missed her friends so she started going to their church and cut us off. We began to resolve her concerns, she had ALOTTT. In the end she realized what God had for her was much better than her friends. We read 3 Nephi 11 with her- it was very spiritual lesson. We are now meeting with her again!  God has a plan for her!  I will keep you posted. 

Second Miracle: We taught Crystal again this week. We brought along Shanon who just got baptized in September. The lesson was super good and Shanon testified of the importance of baptism. Crystal is hoping to baptized on Christmas Eve. It is so cool to see someone you worked with for so long turn around and begin to testify of the importance of the Gospel! Shanon has been an amazing tool in the Lords work- we worked with her for a hot minute. But she knows her stuff and loves sharing the Gospel! 

Great week out in the mission! Time will teleport and it will be Monday super soon! 

Have a great week; 我爱你们!!

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Ben with some great members of the ward

I try to send pictures or videos of the family once a month to Ben-just to keep him in the loop of what is going on here in the family. I sent him a funny video of Eli running around flying like Buzz Lightyear. I have the EXACT same video of Ben doing that when he was that little and thought he would LOVE seeing how grown up his brother is and more alike than he thinks, even with the age difference. (17 yrs)

In Ben's email to me he commented on the video and said how cute it was that "Sam" was running around. LOL

I had to clarify to him that it was Eli which I could feel his chin drop even through the email. Eli was barley crawling when Ben left on his mission and is now running around and active as ever! Just one of the MANY changes I'm sure we will see when he comes home. 

This same week I received the cutest email from one of the sisters in Ben's Zone. I LOVED getting the random pic of my son, but what I LOVED more was that she was being ever so diligent in following the rules of the mission. It made my heart happy!

Hi Elder Nelson's Mom,

I am Sister Harris. I am in Elder Nelson's Zone and he is super cool!!! We had service the other week and we were taking random pictures and we happened to snap this picture. He thought that it was pretty cool and wanted it, buuuut we can't email other missionaries in the mission. He gave me your email so that I could email it to you so you can email it to him. 

He is a great missionary and is a great example to us missionaries in the Riverside mission. 

Love,

Sister Harris

Service 11-21-17

Hey Nelson...What Day Is It???

Woo Hoo...It's HUMP Day!

Hey guys! 

Time flies fast when you're having fun! I hit my year on Thursday! Time is flying, but I still got a bit to go! This week was full of so many miracles I don't even know where to start! 

We had the opportunity to teach some great people this week. We have been finding a ton of women in there 20's recently. LOL 
The first one we found was Sharon. She is super cool even when we had to teach her in her garage.😏 She loved the message and is excited for more.

Then later in the week we went to a Chinese Cooking Comp! All of our Chinese members were there, along with some of our investigators! I will drop a video down of the craziness that was happening, it was very fun! Our investigators Winnie and Jing won money, so they for sure had a good experience! 

The pinnacle of the weekend was Diana's Baptism! Diana is one of the most animated Chinese people I have met. However, she loves the Gospel, her testimony is an amazing example to me and helps me to become better. I could see light coming off of her at her baptism, she never stopped smiling and was bouncing around everywhere! She gave a 10 minute testimony at her baptism and it was amazing. President Hammon attended and Elder Crowther translated to Pres, (bless his soul). Amazing experience!! On the mission you truly get a taste of the love Heavenly Father has for his children. I for sure felt that at her baptism. I know she is going to do amazing things and help many people! 

Yesterday, we had a visit from Elder Keech of the Seventy. It was such an amazing experience. He told us he had nothing planned and he would just follow the spirit... He was an amazing example to me and I wrote a ton of notes! He told us the magnitude of our callings and how much trust Heavenly Father has put into us. He was completely correct when he said how great our calling was. I love this work and helping Chinese people understand that:

1.There is a God

2.That he in fact loves them perfectly. 

3.That he wants them to come home.

Is something I wouldn't change for anything else. The light that I see come into them as they grow that faith and start on their path is indescribable. Miracles have not ceased, in fact I'm pretty sure they have doubled. I love this work and don't want to be anywhere else.

Love you guys have a great week! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老​

Elder Crowther, Ben, Diana & Elder Willes at her baptism

"Partying" with some Chinese friends😉

Elder Willes, Elder Keech & his wife & Ben

HUMP DAY!👔😁♥️

1 year ago today, I held this handsome son of mine for the last time as he was prepared to embark in the service of the Lord for 2 years.😥

I remember my heart aching to the point I thought it would burst and many moments since where I was sure I could not cry any more tears.

While this has been one of the hardest years for me it has also been one of the best. I must admit I NEVER in a million years thought that I would ❤️LOVE being a Missionary Mom. I have never missed someone the way I miss Ben, but to my surprise I am ❤️LOVING this journey.

I 📩LOVE Mondays (P-day) because I get to read his emails and draw from their spiritual strength. I 😍LOVE hearing how he is changing and growing in ways that only parts of a mission can do. I ♥️LOVE to see the pictures of laughter and joy with those people and companions that will become lifelong friends. I 👫LOVE connecting and gaining new friendships with other Moms/Dads that I never would have otherwise. I 👀LOVE seeing the Gospel in a different light and through his eyes. I 😉LOVE how it keeps me on my toes because I picture how hard he is working and how strong he has been, and I want him to be proud of me for doing the same. I ♥️LOVE, LOVE, LOVE putting together packages that hopefully brighten those frustrating days and I get excited to see and hear through pictures and words the man he is becoming. 

It has been a blessing and a rare gift to witness the generosity of those around him and us that want to help and see him succeed. 

Some days it seems like he just left, most days it feels like he will never return but I do whatever I can to enjoy every moment of this journey “WE” are on.😃I will never be able to adequately express how proud I am of him and the AMAZING example he has set for so many. 

365 days down…365 days to go! 

Miracles All Around Us

Well October is gone!
Hello everyone!!

Weeks are just getting faster and faster on the mission! I'm hitting my year mark in like a week and a half. It's starting to freak me out that this whole missionary thing actually ends.

This week was great! Elder Willes and I have been working super hard to find those who are prepared. But first, I had my first Halloween on the mission. We watched "The Other Side of Heaven". It was a great movie. Our whole zone dressed up in black so we looked pretty sweet (pics below).

We came into the week with a good amount of potentials so we're excited to teach some peeps! However, not one wanted to meet😢but that's missionary life for ya. We prayed very hard that the Lord would prepare some people we could teach that week. We got to about Friday and went to a referral of a Chinese home. Normally a referral consists of a name, address and what they are interested in. However in our case since no one knows Chinese, we pretty much get sent address's of where Chinese people live! So it's kind of going in blind but we do our best. We contact a home just like that, we talk to some lady at the door who said the owner isn't home. So then we see a van pull up into the driveway right as that happened. We walk over to the garage with only the name Jewel to go off of. A van of like 8 Asians just starting flying out of the van. We're asking every one of them if they are Jewel. They all ignore us until the driver comes out like 8 minutes later (super awkward). She said "Yes I'm Jewel". We explained our purpose as missionaries and what we do. She said she had been going to her other Christian Church for like 10 years and had been baptized there. We testified of the restoration and how our message could bless her. For some miracle she said we could come over Sunday! We went over Sunday at the time we had set ready for any arguments she would present during the lesson. We taught her the whole lesson without one argument, just honest questions. She said she was willing to read the Book of Mormon too! MIRACLES DO HAPPEN! 

I also had my 2nd MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) this week, I love them. They are so fun and very spiritually edifying! We talked about/ prepared for the visit from the 70 next week. Elder Keetch will be visiting our mission next Monday! So my p-day will be moved to a Tuesday, since I will be in meetings from 7:00am-8:00pm! However I'm very hyped and will let you know how it went! 

It's finally getting cooler out here, its only in like the 60's and I'm freezing. I officially have become a Californian, anything below 80 I think is the Arctic...I'm still grateful to be out of the 100's! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Pics:

Pics of some good friends, since they are finishing their missions :(

Elder Willes, Elder Pennington and Ben at Multi Zones

Ben with Elder Olsen & Elder Anderson. 
Some good friends from the mission, preparing to go home

This picture popped up on my phone with a text that read:

"They've been fed and watered"

Hahaha! 😁I absolutely LOVE getting these type of  texts from members with pictures of these handsome Elders! It makes my whole heart💗 happy!