When You Use Your Chinese Language Skills To Bust Criminals

I can't wait for the part of the mission I know Chinese!!

SOOOOO it's a little late...

To explain my email caption. We spent a nice big chunk of our P-day today doing translation! Translation is always a stressful thing, especially when its very important. We had a family that had just moved from China. They requested we come do translation for them to buy a new apartment! So we did that for a good amount of time today which really, reallly stretched my Chinese. But we did it and it all worked out! I learned all kinds of new Chinese words and found myself a wonderful MIGRAINE! However, all went well and we loved to do the service.

So now we're here emailing tonight since our whole P-day got eaten up. 

One highlight of the week would have to be Amy's lesson. It was super awesome. We read Alma 32 with her and asked her how she could continue to grow her faith. She gave some great answers and accepted a baptismal date for April 15th. The Lord is blessing us a ton and we are hoping to have about 4 baptisms in April!! 

Church was also very fun! We had 6 investigators come and they all loved it. We found a new family this week and they came on Sunday. They ate it up... every second of it. When we taught them earlier that week the Mom got very emotional when we talked about the Book of Mormon. She was so excited there was another record to help her come close to her Savior! 

Great week and looking for another great one! Love all y'all! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Ben told us the funniest story from something that happened this week. 
"We were at our District Mtg. when we get a text from the English Ward Mission Leader. He says, "I need you to call me." I text back, "We are in a mtg. I'll call you in a bit." He says, "NO! I need you to call me back RIGHT NOW! I have a Chinese criminal that I have handcuffed and I need you to translate for me." I am thinking, "What the flip?" 
The Ward Mission Leader is a DEA Agent, so he busts people for drugs and Chinese launderers all the time. I walk out of the mtg and call him. Brother Gurero is pretty ancy and jumpy so to hear him all serious is weird. He says, "I need you to ask this Chinese criminal if he has keys to apartment C and what he's doing here." So I ask the guy and he says, "What?"  So I ask him again, "Do you have keys to this apartment?" He say no. I ask him if he lives in apartment C and he says, "No! No! No!" Brother Gurero asked me to ask him why he was here and the man said, "I am just here visiting a friend, I promise!" Then Brother Gurero says, "Bull crap! I want you to figure out why he's here!" The man keeps saying he is here just for a friend, he promises! I am aggressively getting the phone passed back and forth between the 2 of them translating. I am thinking, "This is super fun!" LOL 
Then Brother Gurero says, "Ask him if there are any drugs or weapons in his van." I ask him and he says no. Brother Gurero says, "Ask him again!" The man keeps saying, "I don't know what you are talking about! I have no weapons or drugs!" Then Brother Gurero says, "Ask him if we can search the van!" I ask him and the man keeps saying, "What? What?" Like he keeps playing dumb. He is stuttering Uh, Uh, Uh... and finally says, "Sure." Then Brother Gurero goes all back to normal and starts yelling to all the other DEA officers, "That's what's up baby! That's my homies! These boys speak Chinese! The 2 white boys, their 19 and they know Chinese! We got an up on the business now! That's my Elders, thanks guys!" and then he hangs up. 
So that was really fun!"

Irish Blessings

Week of Changes!

Hello everyone!! 

This week has been a very exciting and stressful one! 

Elder Crowther and I received our new phones on Thursday which has been quite the change! However we are excited for all the new, great ways we can serve the Lord. We have been able to do some video lessons which is very new to us too! However, have been great blessings and make it a lot easier to meet with investigators! 

To resolve confusion here are the rules for Facebook:

1. I had to un-follow all members from home and family. 

2. We can continue to follow any non members and less-active members.

3. We use our Facebook's

 right now for proselyting and keeping you informed of how the mission is going.

4. We can't respond to any family or members at home. However, we can respond to any nonmembers or less-actives.

So we are excited for Facebook and finding more creative ways to spread the good word!! 

The highlight of this week was Alex's baptism!! It was a great one and the spirit was very strong! Alex gave a very strong testimony at the end. He said something that really stuck out to me. He said (translated of course), "I have been taught a lot about the eternities over these weeks. I have come to understand that we truly aren't receiving Eternal Life unless it is with our Family." 

Very true statement that made me think, we need to strive to grow those relationships with our family, he is striving to be sealed to his wife and son for all time and eternity! Alex is a great guy and we're sad to see him head back to China but know he will continue to do great things out there! We hope for his wife to be baptized within the next month! 

Hope all of you have a great week! LOVE YA

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Alex's Baptism

St Patrick's Day Fun!

Technology Makes The World A Much Smaller Place

When Ben first told us that he would be using Technology in their mission, I was SOOO excited!😁😁 I knew he wouldn't be able to communicate with us through FB, but just to be able to see a picture, a quote, and not just on Mondays, was going to be such an incredible thing. I just never knew how much happiness it would REALLY bring me!

Ben's first post popped up on March 15th with this picture of Christ and a beautiful update on how it will work from here. After I read his post I looked at Jon and said, "Wow, I cannot believe how much our son has changed!" Here's what it said:

Hey family and friends, as you can see I am back on Facebook! Our mission got approved for it but my focus is still going to be on bringing people unto Christ. I can only email on Mondays still so if you desire to contact me please use my email, ben_nelson@myldsmail.net Please don't tag me in anything that wouldn't represent Him! I love what I do, and the amazing Chinese people I get work with!
我 爱 你们 !!

He followed that up with a handsome profile picture and an update on being able to use technology to do a video chat with some of their investigators. He looks so happy to be out on the Lord's errand! What handsome Elder's those boys are!

You Cannot Put A Roof On A House With No Walls

VERY VERY busy!!

你们好!!!!! (Hello everyone)!

This week has been fantastic and Elder Crowther and I have been working super hard!! 

The first thing I would like to focus on from last week was Alex and Lin Liu. 

They are an amazing couple that we have been working with for a while now! They have been progressing super super fast. Alex will be heading back to China on March 20th and is going to be baptized on March 18th. Lin is very very very pregnant and actually had her kid today! They came to church yesterday and I was terrified she was going to go into labor mid way through church... But they are doing super good, we finished their lessons yesterday. They have read through the end of Mosiah and are eating everything up! We are very excited for them and the Lord has truly blessed us.

Second cool experience this week-we had the opportunity of teaching an EXTREMELY prepared couple before they headed back to China. We met with them in the morning and they left that night to China. We received a call from the husband who asked us if he could join our church? We asked if we could meet to teach him a little bit more about our church and how he could join. He explained his scenario to us that he was leaving the following day to China. We set up and appt and taught him and his wife. They ate everything up and we gave them as much help as we possibly could before they headed back. We set them up with the Rep out in China and plan on finding a church out there. Now with Wechat we will be able to stay in contact with them and see how their progress is going!! We are excited for all the great people we are working with and the Lord has truly blessed us 10 fold! 

Elder Crowther and I will be together for another transfer which now puts me at 8 Transfers in one place! WHOOT WHOOT! We are going to keep working hard and are excited to receive our phones this week love all yall!! 

孙长老

Ben, Lin, Alex & Elder Crowther

Ben cracks me up in these pictures with the ducks. He must REALLY love the ducks they have in Cali! 😁

This week I shared a picture with Ben that was going around on a group page that I follow called, Missionary Mommas. This picture brought me to tears the minute I saw it. 

The caption read:

"My son Josh just sent me this picture of a statue of missionary bikers at the MTC. He said, “It looks like two angels are riding along with them!” I thought this photo was amazing and it really depicts the angels that surround and guide our missionaries throughout their missions! As a mom this picture gives me a tremendous amount of peace.♥

I 100% agree! Us Mommas need all the reassurance we can get  that our babies are being watched over and taken care of even if it comes in the form of a snow storm in Utah that outlines the cool Missionary Statues at the MTC.  

The Divine Call and Gift Of Prophecy

Miracles have not ceased!!

Hello everyone, another great week out in Cali! 

This week we saw many miracles and I would like to focus on one in particular.

We began teaching a man by the name of Alex a few weeks ago. We met him very late at night, right before we were going home. He seemed very interested in our message and was very willing to meet! 

He has been to church twice now and his wife has also began taking the lessons. His time in America is very short however he is progressing very fast. He plans to be baptized on March 18th and his willing to do all necessary in order to reach that goal. His wife will be having a child this week so plans to be baptized in April. We are so grateful for the Lord's hand in our work and helping us to find this very prepared couple. They are absorbing everything like it is nothing, we are excited for them and I know miracles have not ceased!! 

We are also very excited for the upcoming tech changes in our mission. The work is going to be progressing very quickly and it will be easier to contact our investigators! Also I will finally have some have decent Language study. 

Time is flying and I am almost at 16 months! Love all of you- have a blessed week! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

These 2 crack me up! I LOVE their poses! ♥

Ben bore testimony this week of their divine mission of prophecy and how he believes that if he tells someone something or promises them something, he has faith that the Lord will make those things happen. You can hear the faith and trust he has in his voice of this principle. What an inspiring thing to hear my son testify with such conviction of the Lord's promises when you learn to listen and stay close to the spirit. 

Preston heading back out to Mexico!

Another really EXCITING thing that happened this week was one of Ben's Best Friends, Preston was able to enter the mission field again. He left on Thursday March 1st back to Mexico! Preston has been like another son for us and to see him so happy to get back out there and serve the Lord is a wonderful thing. I know Ben has been really praying for his friend and to see the miracles of the Lord take place right in front of your eyes is faith promoting! 

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