Monday, February 26, 2018

Always Have The Temple In Your Sites


Back Again
Well that was fast!
Hello everyone sorry you have to hear from me again! 
In this wonderful short amount of time not much has happened but here are a few of the highlights:

1. We had the opportunity to go to the Temple again! It is weird because we can only go every 6 months so it makes your mission seem even faster. I only have one more left.... However, I loved it and the peace in the Temple is unmatchable! I will drop some picks below!! 

2. We taught a man this week by the name of Alex Liu. He is super awesome! He has a very large desire to learn about the gospel and has tons of questions! He came to church with his wife on Sunday and they loved it. I will keep you updated on how he does this upcoming week! 

Overall nothing too crazy going on sorry.. such is missionary life!

Love you all so much, have a great week! 
Elder Nelson 孙长老

Temple Trip with our Temple pose!😉

Made my first steak & first time eating one with chopsticks! LOL😁

North Zone on top of Mt. Rubidoux


Thursday, February 22, 2018

Temples and Technology




Hello everyone! 
First off, sorry that im coming in on a Thursday! I forgot that we had a temple trip coming up this week! 
However I am excited to go to the house of the Lord. We only have the opportunity to go every 6 months! 

This week and a half has been quite entertaining! We have seen many miracles and are excited to continue to work hard! 
One miracle I would like to talk about would be Pius and Arthur:
Pius and Arthur are two investigators we have taught for a bit. We have been trying to get them to church and progress. Last lesson we went in and discussed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We explained the importance of baptism and why we all need this sacred Ordinance. He gladly accepted along with his son, he said "I want to be fully prepared and worthy of this sacred blessing!" He also testified to us why our church was the true church. He said "God knew there would be confusion in these last days, He knew we would have problems and many questions". He then proceeded to grab his Book of Mormon off the table and shook it saying: "But because our Heavenly Father loves us He gave us this book through His Holy Messengers. That is why I know this church is true!" WOWOWOW! To hear that from an investigator was so striking. Pius helped me realize that the Book of Mormon truly does bring true conversion! We are excited for Pius and his ongoing progression! 
Another unexpected thing happening with our mission is we will becoming a technology mission! 
By the start of April we will all be receiving smart phones and social media (Facebook). It is weird to be getting this at this time, but I am excited for the Language materials and Wechat!!
Wechat is a Chinese social media app that they use to do everything! It will help us be able to find/communicate with more Chinese people!
Fun week and I am excited for all the new and exciting things, Peace!

Elder Nelson 孙长老


Service with my homies

Exchanges with Elder Steiner

Ben shared one of his experiences while on exchanges with Elder Steiner. He went to talk to a referral that was given to them and when the door opened he was met with a Chinese man that high, in a man bun and had 2 tampons stuck up his nose. Lol😁 After a few minutes the man explained that he wanted nothing to do with them and their message. As they were leaving they noticed another door open by their car full of Chinese people, so they head over to talk to them. The man Ben was speaking to kept shutting the door on him (not the first time that happens), so Ben starts talking in Chinese to him. He flings the door open in complete surprise and asks him how he knows Chinese and in Ben's words, "Somehow I was "magically" in their house. The weird thing is he was filming me with his I phone and had me on Skype with about 10 other Chinese people all listening to me. Then one of his homies from the back room named Jefferey comes out and starts talking to us. I learn that they are all going to school to become Helicopter Pilots and they are only here for 1 year. I ended up teaching Jeffery a few concepts and we are hoping to meet up again with him this week. It was really weird, all these Asian women kept coming out and asking how I know Chinese in between cooking. Lol."  
On Ben's recording he offers us a more detailed look into his week. He goes day by day and this week on Thursday the 15th he wrote "Kill Myself" in Chinese. Lol He was trying to remember why he would write that and said he only writes that in his journal when he is super sick. Poor kiddo. 😕

On Saturday he went on exchanges with one of the AP'S, Elder Sorenson who is a "farm boy"as he put it. Different than Ben the city boy, but he said he is an AWESOME Missionary! They were able to meet with a great family that had 2 kids. In Ben words, "Kids make or break it. But these kids were AWESOME! The Dad had some struggles with the BOM but the kids LOVED it, which is not normal when you put kids and BOM's together. After the lesson the kids were showing him their favorite verses."

Another lady they are still teaching is, Amy. Ben just loves her! He thinks she is so funny because she comes to church in what Ben describes as "Porn Clothes" and has a picture of herself in a towel as her phone case and her phone screen case is her in lingerie. Haha😀 They are trying to work with her on the whole modest thing, but Ben just adores her. 

On Sunday they were leaving church to teach Jenny and noticed some Chinese people across the street ripping out trees. They thought, "Hey we should go help them", but they are in their suits still. They walk over and see if they can be of service and Ben tells us that the Lord provided a tender mercy and helped keep their suits in good shape. "Funny how that happens when you are willing to serve." he said. A man came out that wasn't aware that they could speak the language and started yelling at everyone in Chinese, "These are the Mormons, you cannot speak to them! They are the  Mormon church! Over and over.  
So they started talking to this man in Chinese and he did a 180. Ben said this happens a lot that people will talk about them in front of their faces NOT realizing they can understand what they are saying, then when they start communicating they really flip out and then are completely interested in the gospel. 
I remember Benjamin told us one time that the reason they seem to come around so quickly and want to hear about God is because they know their language is really tough to learn and they have a hard time learning English. But to have 2 guys or girls be able to learn it in a matter of months, at least enough to communicate, they know there must be something higher helping them out and they want to learn. Ben says:
"They eventually invite us into their house and they want to learn the gospel. They have a daughter named Cindy and  they are trying really hard to hook me up with her. The mother is relentless and starts grilling me with all these questions. How old are you? I answer, 19. Are you in college? (that is super important to them). I explain that we are missionaries and when we get home then I we will start college. She tells me, "Your Chinese is really good and you are a handsome white man! My daughter is 20." I nod my head and she says, "Isn't she beautiful!" I don't even know how to respond at this point, but she keeps nudging with her head towards her daughter like, make the move! Lol 
Chinese woman are obsessed with white men, it's insane. Then if you know Chinese on top of that, it's even more insane. It was hilarious. They spent the whole time trying to hook me up with the daughter. Don't worry, I did not hook up with the daughter! Lol

Ben is officially past 15 months and the Elders are starting to call him old, which he doesn't like. It makes me happy to hear that he LOVES serving the Lord and is starting feel sad that it is coming closer to an end.  





Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Missionary Valentines Day? You Mean...CHINESE NEW YEAR!


Happy Chinese New Year

What's A Valentines Day?
Hello everyone! 

Just starting this email off by acknowledging that Valentines day is super irrelevant on the mission, however it's almost CHINESE NEW YEAR! Which means it will be super difficult to meet with anyone, but that is ok!! 

This week was quite crazy and full of Chinese:

Wednesday: Elder Crowther and I did a split. Elder Crowther went and taught a person by the name of Amy. She is the wife of a member in another ward. He is like a 70 year old white man and she is like a 25 year old Asian! So that was interesting, however the lesson went really well. She has a few concerns such as she didn't like church because she couldn't understand it. But she was super stoked to meet our Chinese group on Sunday Whoot!! Whoot!! 

Thursday: Thursday was quite fun too! We went with a less active to teach the Wang family she had referred to us. They only had like 30 mins so we couldn't teach as much as we would have liked too. But they were still super cool and looking to come closer to God so we will keep you updated on them! Then that night we had dinner at a Chinese home. It was actually the parents of some kids we teach in our English class, so they were non members. They are super cool, we had squid which was interesting but still a good meal! 

Saturday: We wen't on exchanges with the AP's so... ENGLISH LAND!! It was an alright day, we taught a super awesome family. The kids were LOVING the Book of Mormon, even after the lesson ended the kids kept showing verses to the dad. I hope they work out, it was super weird to teach in English... I found it harder than a Chinese lesson! 

Sunday:
We had church as usual, we had Sara, Angela and Amy all there! They all liked it, especially Amy. She had been attending the other ward that whole time, and her English wasn't that good. So she was super stoked to have met our Chinese group! 
That night we had the opportunity of going over to Yutong's house (Investigator). He is doing super good he is almost through 1 Nephi! We taught him the Importance of the Sabbath day and why we need to keep it Holy. He loved it and committed to keeping it. He promised us he would be at church next Sunday. Right before we left he gave us a ton of Chinese Chips, I'm too scared to eat them so they are on my desk! 

Overall great week, time is flying by so fast im freaking out! 

Have a great week 我爱你们!!!
Elder Nelson 孙长老

Elder Crowther & Me-On Top Of The Mountain


Delicious Hot Pot Meal

Ben LOVED getting 2 packages this month!


All the reasons we LOVE Ben!

Should I be concerned that my son is on the "Dark Side" with those Light Saber Chopsticks?😏

I always ♥LOVE♥ when Ben shares some thoughts with us about things that are happening at home. It warms my heart to know that even though he is SOOO busy out in the field doing the Lord's he let's us know that we are not too far from him thoughts and prayers. 
I read a scripture the other day that I thought was awesome.
Hebrews 11:40 read the JST footnote at the bottom. "for without sufferings they could not be mad perfect". I thought that was very true, if this life was perfect we wouldn't get much from it! 


Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Patriots Didn't Win?? There Can Be Miracles, When You Believe



Grind Week
Hey Guys, 

This week was not too crazy so I don't have a ton to talk about. But everyone has those weeks in the mission so what can I say! 
However there are a few highlights from this week.

1st: We taught Yutong again this week. This is our 4th lesson with him now and he is doing really well! He is on date for baptism on the 4th of March! He also took us out to dinner and dropped 140 dollars at a BBQ place!! He is a great guy and we are excited for him.

2nd: We had a family come to church on Sunday that we are excited for! We had previously tried to teach them however the Dad (Ken) was not too keen about that. He says "We are a traditional Chinese family, and we will be staying that way". So we backed off a little, but he still really likes us! They have made some good friends in our ward who have been working on them. Thus the miracle of them being at church on Sunday!! We hope to be able to teach them this week.

3rd: Patriots didn't win the Superbowl!! There can be miracles if you believe!! 

Short email, long week. Love ya guys!
Elder Nelson 孙长老

"Sweet" Belt and "Stinker" Head😁