ACUPUNCTURE...Proof That Stabbing Someone REALLY Can Make You Feel Better

New Changes

Hello Everyone! 

This week was super exciting and full of Chinese people! We had the opportunity to teach some great people this week, one being Anna. Anna is the wife of one of our members. They just recently were married and she is very interested in the Gospel. We went over on Wednesday and taught her the first lesson. She was eating it up and had tons of great questions. She is super willing to read and pray, we are very excited for her and I will keep you updated! 

One of the more eventful things of the week would have to be Saturday and Sunday. 

Saturday: We received our calls for the new areas we will be going to! Elder Crowther (Previous companion) got a Zone-Leader call and is coming to be with me. Elder Willes is heading out to UCR campus to be with Elder Yang! I'm excited to serve with Elder Crowther and am looking forward to the future! 

Sunday: We went to church and watched a regional broadcast which was all in Chinese, that is a fast way to get a headache! After Church we went and taught a guy by the name of Bin. He is super cool and brought us Chocolate Milk! He is super willing to read and pray, I look forward to meeting with him again.

The highlight came that night when we went and visited some of our Chinese members. The Jiangs were our last family for the night. They greeted us with dumplings, it was great! However they asked if we would like to try acupuncture? I hate needles and was so hyped I asked, "I have a hurt forearm will that mess up the acupuncture? (trying to get out of it)." Brother Jiang and Sister Jiang having medical degrees in Chinese Medicine and start freaking out! He grabs a bowl of oil and some rubber thing then starts attacking my arm. He starts rubbing all over til he find the pain, he then rubs it aggressively for about 25 mins! Then some how my arm felt better!!! He said I want you to come over 2 more times and I will have it better! Then to end off the treatment he shoved a needle in my hand. He then said I will get a lot more on Wednesday. So that was a great way to end the night! 

Have a great week guys, LOVE YA! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Acupuncture 

(So proud of Ben! He is SOOOOO scared of needles)

Chinese BBQ

Ben talked to us a little more about what happened with transfers. They knew in the morning that Elder Crowther received a Zone Leader call which meant he was coming to the Jurupa Zone, but everyone thought for sure it would be Ben leaving-he's been in this area since May. But....SURPRISE, they moved Elder Willes to UCR. What a twist of what everyone thought. 😲

When Ben was telling his story of acupuncture he said, "OK family- if you don't know what acupuncture is, remember Poe from Kung Fu Panda? It's when they shoot him with all those needles and he falls down and can't move." Haha! So my son to use an Animated Movie to explain life adventures. 😁LOVE IT!♥♥ 

I'm pretty sure they have won him over with the oil and rubber method of helping with pain. He said, "They came out with this oil and rubber scraper thing and Brother Jiang pours it on my arm and starts aggressively rubbing it and my arm starts to immediately bruise. He tells me that wherever it goes dark is where the pain is. He was 100% correct! He would rub where it would hurt and I would flinch. He rubbed on my arm for about 30  minutes and he told me to come back a few more times. It already is feeling better, so I don't know what kind of black magic- gypsy work they did, but it worked!"😊 Maybe he can come home and use the method on all of us! 😉

It's More Than A Haircut...It's A Lifestyle

Miracles Ain't Ceased

Hello Everyone!

This week was super awesome, we taught a lot of amazing people!

Tuesday: We gave a training on "Having great Faith". We trained about 60 missionaries and the mission presidency. So that was a little intimidating, however it went super well!

Jumping to Thursday: I had the opportunity to go on a Exchange with Elder Lowry. Great newer missionary in our zone. He came to our Chinese area, it was a super fun exchange. The Lord blessed me with so much energy and desire to do the work! We met some great people that day, one being Lucy and Lucia!
So we were teaching English class and a new family came in I didn't recognize. They said a friend told them about our English class. Lucia, the younger one, like mid 20's asked me about our church since she read my name tag. To quote her she said "I want to learn more about your church and who you represent. Can we meet sometime so we can learn more? We would also like the address to your church please." I was super surprised by how quick she asked for that! After class we exchanged information and said I would call her the following day!

Friday: We got to go see Evangel one of our recent converts. The first thing I noticed was she had one of her major teeth missing! That threw me for a loop but at least she still had her mullet!!! Then the first thing she said was, "Elder Willes you have gotten fatter. Elder Nelson you have gotten skinnier and I like your sweater". Oh how I love the bluntness of Asians! She is doing great and said she would be at church on Sunday!
Later that night we had the opportunity to go over and teach Ryan one of our very Less-Active members. He agreed to take the missionary lessons over again, however his wife is not baptized and not interested. As we were teaching him the first lesson she came into the kitchen to cut some vegetables. We could tell she was listening very closely to our conversation. Ryan expressed how he felt God had not been answering his prayers, and felt that God needed to give him everything. I explained that just like our parents here if they give us everything in this life, we wont grow or know how to do anything! I said, "Our Father in Heaven is the same. He expects us to learn and do our part in order to receive help and guidance, so that we can continue to grow and have our own testimony." Ryan fully agreed and thanked me for the help. The cool part was Selina came over and sat down she said, "You know what you are doing, and you answered a question I have had for a long time." She sat in for the rest of the lesson and agreed to read the Book of Mormon. We are so excited that she was touched by the spirit and I knew what to say not only for Ryan but for her also!

Saturday: Today was super awesome! We had the opportunity to go and teach Lucy and Lucia. Their lesson was super good, they were eating everything up we taught them. Lucia took a Baptismal date for 2/11 since she will be leaving to China on the 2/15... She is super solid and she said something super cool during the lesson. 

"The night we came to English class I met Elder Nelson (Elder Willes was in another area). I wanted to learn more about your church and who you represent because you had a literal light coming off of you. You were so polite and knew what you had was good for my family". 

I thought that was so awesome! She thanked me for my kindness and knew we were representatives of the Lord.

Sunday: Lucia came to church and had a great time! She met many great people and has lots of new friends. We are very excited for her and the major progression she has made in so little time! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

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Eating weird things on the mission-✔

(Crawfish Service & Pigs Tongue)

Ben LOVES feeding ducks!

Cafe Rio (Tender Mercy) & Visit with Evangel

I know I say this all the time, but I LOVE listening to Ben's recordings! As a Mom it helps me know where he is emotionally, because you can hear it in his voice. This week he sounded so, so, so happy! When talking about his exchanges with the District Leaders he laughed and said that the other missionaries chuckle at how different their (Mandarin Mission) is from the others. 

In this mission when they try to find prepared people, they call it "Seeking with Faith", but Ben calls it "Stalking with Faith" Haha😁 and he talked about how you have to "Racially Profile" people, which sounds so wrong. But what he means is there are a lot of Asians that live in the states that are born here and only speak English. Then there are those that only speak Mandarin. Those are the ones they are seeking out.  The Elders that are not familiar with the "Mandarin" finding process, think it is crazy. LOL😀

Ben told us that most of the Chinese people he meets always say they have been to our "Big Church" in Utah! They mean the Salt Lake Temple! Whether they like our church or not, so many of them have been to our Temple and love the beauty of it. 

One thing that has been funny on this mission journey is the "secret" competition between Isaac and Ben on who is going to be more fit and have bigger muscles than the other. Well... maybe I should say the determination that Isaac is having on being bigger than Ben. This week Ben told us that he benched 200 pounds!! That is insane!!😲😲 I am so proud of him for accomplishing something he has worked so hard for. 

Ben went on to talk about one of the women they taught and baptized, Shanon. Hearing how much he loves and cares for her is endearing. She literally came from talking about the BOM being nothing but "fairy tale stories" to having it be one of her most prized possessions. What a testament this has been to Ben of the power of the Gospel and the happiness it can bring.

What a great week he had out in the "Mish"!

1 Year In The Field!

I cannot believe how fast time is going and that I have hit a full year in the field already.

I hit my 14 months tomorrow too, I hope my Chinese catches up eventually! 

This week was a very fast and busy one! 

Monday: We had the opportunity of teaching a woman by the name of Winnie (like Winnie the Pooh) she is a very die hard Christian, however thinks we are awesome! We taught her at a High School library which was interesting! Her lesson went really great and she is willing to read the Book of Mormon! 

Jumping to Thursday: We had the opportunity to go over to Ryan Chen's home again. He is a less active member in our ward. He has not allowed Missionaries in his home for over 2 years. As of recently he has been letting us come over. He called us and asked if we could help with some translation. It was fun to do, and he agreed to take the missionary lessons again too! He has been coming to church and truly does have a good heart! 

Friday: We watched the Funeral of President Monson, it was super sad however very uplifting! The cheer that he brought to this world was an amazing example to me. I hope that I may be able to emulate the constant positivity  he had in all things! I know he is a Prophet of God!  

Saturday: My back still hurts from this day! We have been receiving some rain as of recent and it's brought down some gnarly mudslides! So we went up to the Bishop of the Corona stake to deal with the damage. His back yard had 3 ft of mud everywhere you could see! The whole pool was filled to the top with mud... So we got to work and got super dirty.. One of the sister missionaries was helping me shovel mud and she fell in and destroyed all of her clothing. After a little bit of laughing on both ends we got it all taken care of! 

We also taught a new family. The husband and wives names were Jack and Kelly. The lesson went OK other than their kid was flippin crazy. He was throwing things all over the place and was trying to kill their turtle! SUPER FUN LESSON

Sunday: Shanon came back from China! We were so excited to see her again. She is hoping to make it our to the Temple before the end of January!!

Great week, we have been super busy and the Lord has blessed us so much! 

Pics: I have one! I was covered in mud waist down however the picture doesn't show much... whatever! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Mudslide Service Activity

Anatidaephobia...The Fear That Somewhere, Somehow A Duck Is Watching You

Forever on the Grind!

This week was full of still warm weather and now rain I guess!

Elder Willes and I have been working super hard. We have been trying our best to rely on the Lord and find those the Lord has prepared! 

We had a lot of good lessons this week, one being with a guy named Andy. Andy is a great guy who wants to baptized more than anyone I have met. However his time in America is over in about 4 days... We explained the importance of us needing to teach all the lessons and he needs to come to church multiple times. I never thought I would have to tell someone they couldn't get baptized!😢 However he will be back in March so we got all of his contact info and we hope to see him then! 

On a fantastic note! I got pooped on by a bird this week... Elder Willes and I were talking to some Chinese hunks, then I felt a splat on my forearm... I look down to see a nice big glob of bird poo! I look at Elder Willes who is looking confused at his pants. He was covered from his shirt all the way down to his legs in bird poo! The people we were talking to started panicking and I dropped everything and went to wash up! So in conclusion Satan has all kinds of very creative ways to stop the work. However we got their numbers and are setting up an appt for this week, 

SO... NICE TRY SATAN! 

Other than that we went out with my first trainer (Elder Zeng) and got some food! Weird to think he has been home since February! 

We did some sweet service this week and I took a picture with a super weird looking duck bird thing! However I was super freaked out because it was getting mad at me! 

Have a great week, LOVE YA! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Service with the "Duck Thing" (Ben's words)😁

The "Duck Thing" did not like Ben!!

Surprise visit from Elder Zeng & Elder Merriman 

Matching Ties

Ben, Elder Willes & Elder Phister

It's 2018 Already?

It's 2018?? !!
Hello all my good people out there!
I honestly cannot believe it is already the year 2018...I am now on the decline and it's super scary!
However, I am just going to keep working like normal. Time is flying, but it is the adventure that counts!

We had a very fun week and got to meet with some great people this week. But first would have to be Christmas! Skyping was AMAZING and it's always a trip to see the fam! They all look so happy and I cannot believe I have 1 more Skype! We then had a sweet Zone activity and played some good 'ol Capture the Flag! It was way fun and for sure a Christmas to remember!

We taught a family this week. The Dad's name is Shen Dixiong. He knew a friend of mine who is serving in Arcadia (Elder White). That was cool to hear that connection! He is a cool guy and came to our English class with his family.

We also taught Crystal again this week. She is doing so good and has already read to the end of 1st Nephi. We are expecting her to be baptized in the next few weeks. Elder Willes and I are staying super busy and have many amazing people we hope to meet with this week. I hope all of you had a great New Years, we sure did! 

Love all y'all! Happy New Years!
Elder Nelson 孙长老

Christmas Gifts from Hank and Tina