Here's To The Death Of My Teenage Years...

Lovin Life!

Hello Everyone!! 

I would like to start this email off by thanking all of you for the Birthday wishes. It was a good' ol mission B-day, which means I forgot it was my B-day about 3 times! We went out for dinner which was nice and Elder Johnson bought me some ice cream on the way home! It was a great B-day and I can not believe I am now 20 years old! 

We had a very fast week full of all kinds of miracles. We taught some new investigators this week who look very solid and willing to progress. The 2 I would like to focus on are named Chen Feng and Dong Xiaolin

Chen Feng has a very little educational background he didn't even graduate from Junior High! So he has very very little faith in himself to learn. However, he said, "He was baptized in New York in some random Christian church along with his wife". They knew nothing about what they were doing other than that they should do it lol. He said that his wife wanted him to find a church out here and then 5 mins later I messaged him! He gave a good prayer at the end of the lesson asking for the strength to learn of God. We hope that they will continue to meet with us and can help them continue to learn.

The second was Dong Xiaolian. His lesson was also very good, we had very little time. We focused on how he can come to know God and the importance of keeping commitments. He agreed and said he will give it a try! 

We also were blessed with 5 investigators that came to church! Linda has been referring a lot of her friends to us and it has been amazing! We had another investigator named He Shang who came and she loved it! I was sitting next to her the whole time to make sure she was understanding everything. We are excited for all the people we are teaching and the Lord has blessed us immensely. 

All is going well for us out here in the blazing wilds of Riverside. Thank you for all the love that is being sent my way. Hope all goes well with all of you! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Happy Birthday Ben! 

Birthday Ice Cream-20 NEVER looked so good!

Chasing The Wrong Asian

Always on the Grind!

HELLO EVERYONE! 

What a blessing it is to be in the California Riverside Mission! 

We worked really hard this week to find the prepared. We had multiple days this week where we walked over 7 hours. We know the Lord is preparing people for us and we are out here to find them. It got to the point I was running after a Chinese woman and she ended up being Korean. 

We were blessed this week with some amazing lessons along with some new people to teach! One, in particular, I would like to focus on is named Jean.

Jean was actually a referral given to us by Linda who is another one of our people we are teaching. We had very little time to meet with Jean but she is amazing. She has 2 cute little kids and wants what's best for them. We shared very simply about the importance of the Book of Mormon, prayer and her relationship to God. She came to church the following day and said 孙老师，孙老师!! Meaning Teacher Nelson (since I teach English class haha). I have read the Book of Mormon and I love it, I want to learn more. We are very excited for her and hope that she continues to progress.

We also met with Linda who is doing very very good. We taught Tithing and Fasting to her and she is very willing to keep it! She has been reading too and progressing very fast. She is taking the lessons very seriously and has a very large desire to come unto her Savior!  She also came to church alongside Jean. 

Another crazy thing is I turn 20 years old this week!! It is very weird to think that is already going to be my Birthday on Wednesday. Oh, how time flies! I feel a little too old now that I am going into the 20's but such is life! 

We are continuing to work hard and have many amazing people to meet with this week.

I love this Church!! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Ben-Elder Johnson

20 Months!

Hello Everyone! 

How time is flying and man it is getting hot! 

I officially hit my 20 months on the mission today... That is super weird.

This week was a fun one, we had some amazing lessons! We also had transfers so our zone got all types of pulled apart along with the rest of the mission since we had 28 missionaries going home this transfer.

I have lots of friends going home so this was a hard transfer for me...

ANYWAYS, I'll talk about our lessons now.

First off, we met with Zing twice this week. First time he asked us how he could make a donation to the church. We had just barely taught Tithing and he said he would keep it and wants to give back. We explained the process and began to talk about baptism. He still feels he isn't ready even though he 100% is!
We then met again on Saturday and taught the last lesson we need to teach as missionaries. He was super excited about Family History and going to the temple. He just needs to BAPTIZED!

Later in the week, we met with Linda. We emphasized the BOM since she hasn't been reading. The lesson was super good and she agreed to start reading again.

We met with Mr. Li on Saturday and taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He had been baptized before but acknowledged he needs to be baptized in our church. So we put him on date for 8/12! 

The Lord is continuing to provide many mighty miracles! I love this work.

Elder Nelson 孙长老

The Boys and The Zone

Ben's New Companion

I Am In A Relationship With Air Conditioners

I now know what living on the sun feels like!

OH MY GOODNESS IT IS SOOO HOTTTTTT. It hit 118 this weekend and we were melting. Bike Elders can't go out past 106 so we had to stay in a lot of the weekend. We were going insane and were so excited when it was 105 so we could go outside!! I haven't sweat like this in a while and I am pretty sure I am killing my companions haha.

This week or half week since I emailed hasn't changed too much. We were able to teach a good amount of our investigators this weekend so I'll talk about them. 

First, we were able to teach Linda. She is doing really good and is on date for baptism on 7/29 (we hope she can hit that date). We taught her the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity and it went really well! She also came to church on Sunday and stayed all 3 hours!! 

Second, we taught Zing again, he is on fire! We taught him tithing and he asked if he could pray about it first. We are hoping he is baptized in the next few weeks! He takes each lesson very seriously and is constantly striving to come closer to God.

We got to teach Mr.Li and his daughter Jessica about the Plan of Salvation. He had been praying and reading! He was very into our lesson and had many great questions. We gave Jessica a children's Book of Mormon and she was eating it up.  We think they have lots of potential!

Last miracle that happened. Since we were locked in we were very anxious to get out. Right, when the temp was ok we went seeking and met a Chinese woman name Kary working on her laptop on campus. We were able to teach her on the spot and she loved it. We taught a very brief overview of our purpose and how she can come to know God. She ate up everything we taught and wants to meet again! 

This week-no matter how hot- was still full of many miracles. We taught many people and have some great potentials to meet with this week! The Lord is blessing us and we are going to keep working hard! 

Love you guys have a great week!!

It was so hot this possum died on Campus! 

Me excited about the heat! 

Nice sunset

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Ben excited about the heat

Possum Tag Pic-Beautiful Sunset

A Work of Miracles

Hello everyone!! 

If there is one thing I have learned more than ever on my mission it is that "Miracles have not ceased". 

The Lord provided us with many this week as we were willing to work hard no matter how hot it was lol! 

We taught many new investigators this week! I hope to share a couple of great lessons we had with them and others this week! 

The first person we taught was a 75-year-old man by the name of Gram. He is actually from our English Area that we are working in also. He recently had a stroke so he is currently recovering. We came over to his house for the appt and his daughter said he was walking the neighborhood. We went and found him and walked back with him to his house. He moves about as slow as you can possibly imagine. But he is doing great with his current health condition. We then sat down in his garage with him and shared the Restoration with him. He is a great guy with a desire to come unto his Savior. He has been Baptist for 30+ years and said: "He was looking for something new". We had a great lesson with him and he had some great input. We are excited to continue to work with him in these upcoming weeks! 

Next, we had the opportunity of teaching a woman by the name of He Shang. She is very sweet and we had found her a bit back at UCR. We began the lesson and asked her some questions to see what she already knew. She had VERY little background knowledge. She didn't who God was, who Jesus Christ was or even what the word scripture meant! So we started with the basics. The lesson went really good as we shared the Plan of Salvation with her. She accepted a date for baptism on 8/25! 

Next, we taught Zing again. He is on fire right now!! He reads and prays every single day. He said he feels guilty when he doesn't. We talked about the importance of baptism and how that is his next big step. He took a date for baptism on 7/15! That is pretty soon but he is looking committed to that date. We taught the importance of Fasting to give him that extra support in keeping the Word of Wisdom. He fasted alongside us on Sunday! We are excited for him and the much progress he has made!! 

The last Miracle of the week was on Sunday!! 

We were doing studies when someone added me on WeChat that I didn't know. We began to talk and get to know each other and figured out he was Christian. He asked if we were Mormon? I replied with a yes, and he said GREAT! I have been to SLC and want to understand more about your Religion!! This just came out of the blue and we were stoked. We set up an appt for him 1 hour later and met with him and his daughter. Great lesson and he fully committed to reading the Book of Mormon and praying every day! 

As you can see the work is on the move, thank you for all of your prayers! LOVE YAA

Picture: Had to say goodbye to an amazing senior couple this week! I have been with them since day 1 and will miss them very much! THANK YOU THORNE FAMILY! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Ben- Sister and Brother Thorne-Elder Johnson

Happy 4th of July!

Ben's Best Friend Brandon coming home from Guatemala 

4th of July Package