Watermelon...Fruit Of The Gods

So Much Watermelon...
HELLLO!

Im going to attempt to write out this entire week full of so many amazing experiences and all kinds of Chinese craziness.

First I come to you on a Tuesday because me and Elder Willes were so busy that we didn't even have time to email yesterday. I will explain why in a sec! I'm going to write by days, sorry if it's a little long.

Monday: 
Nothing special got stuck doing deep cleaning which took like 6 hours!!

Tuesday: 4th of JULLLYYY!

Holidays are for sure unique on the mission and tend to make you miss home alot. Especially this one since we throw a huge party every year and blow a lot of stuff up! But it's OK, I'm in the right place and wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

We did have a special holiday though. We had "Meet the President". President Hammon came in on Tuesday and we had a mini conference with him and got to know him better. He is so loving and so interested in each one of us. I already love him and am very excited for the new exciting things he will bring to the mission! He gave me and Elder Willes a special shout out being the only Chinese missionaries in the whole mission.  He said, "It must be hard to see a lot of your converts go back to China. But just remember what impact you're making on that country and its people. You see all these missionaries come from Mainland China which is a miracle in their circumstances. Stay strong and one day when China opens they are going to need Mission Presidents." He pointed at us and I about started balling. Especially since most don't understand our scenario cause there is only 2 of us! 

Then we had a nice activity after dinner and we played basketball and Volleyball. Very fun 4th of July! 

Wednesday:

No too much other than we taught Shanon. She is doing well. We are helping her to realize the importance of these things and how they can help her personally. We always change what we're teaching her mid lesson!

Thursday:
We went out to Evangel and Blair's very early and taught them the Recent Convert lessons. We planned to get Evangel's temple recommend on Sunday. They are so great and basically teach me every time I go there! 

We had dinner at a members home by the name of Duncan's, a great family. We then quickly headed over to the sass queen herself... Christine our 10 yr old investigator. She is so funny and we taught her the last lesson she needed to have her Baptismal interview! We set her interview for Sunday at 4:30! 

Friday: 
We did service, not too much to talk about that. Then we later in the day got to teach this super awesome lady by the name of Ada. A member has been bringing her to church and it took awhile to meet with her since she is so busy. We taught her the whole Restoration with Brother Miao. I asked her, "Why do you think we need to read the Book of Mormon?" She said, "It's the foundation of everything right? If I do my part and read everyday I know the Lord will bless me!" I was shocked that she said that great answer lol. 😊

Saturday: 
We started off the day with a Blitz (every missionary goes to another missionary's area in there Zone and walks their area). We walked around and it was 107° the whole time. I was drenched in sweat and only talked to 2 very mean white people! So that was wayyy fun. Then we drove allllllll the way out to Hemet (an hour drive). We taught Cher the Plan of Salvation. She loved it and half way through the lesson, since they own a restaurant, they brought out like 6 plates of food and said here you go! So me and Elder Willes had dinner at 3:00 lol!

Then at about 7:00 we taught Steven & Jerry, awesome guys. They were in awe that we didn't come from monkeys! They said they will be at church on Sunday.

Sunday: 
Ok this day was nuts... as always.

We got to church set up everything as usual, Elder Willes sat on the stand because he had to give a talk. We forgot to bring the phone so I was constantly patrolling for investigators. They all started flying in as I'm giving out translation to everyone! We had 8 people at church, 2 of which were families! So blessed this week. Then we had Christine's Baptismal interview so she will be baptized next week!!!!!!

Almost done guys, I'm so sorry. We then got to teach the man, the myth, the legend... Guns! Here's a little background on him. We found him in a park and he was super nice. He gave us his phone number and we called him later in the week. The number didn't work so we were wayyy sad and moved on. We ran into his mother at the park, she was very nice to us,  but she wouldn't give us his information. Then the other night we ran into her on the way home and asked if we could walk her to her house and say hi to Guns!  She said, "Sure." So finally after about a month we met Guns again! We set an appt.  for Sunday night and finally got to teach him along with his wife and a few others. He is so amazing and they said, "We think this will bless our family. We will come to church this Sunday!"

Amazing miracle we found him and couldn't be anymore grateful!

Last but not least this is why we emailed today. We got a call from Ada one of our investigators asking us to come give her father in law a blessing, he is very sick. We didn't know what she meant by sick til we got there yesterday. This poor man has ALS which slowly kills you and there is no cure. We walked into his room and it looked like a hospital. He had cords coming from every direction and was living off of artificial breathing. He could barely tell us his name and we gave him the blessing. He had just enough strength to tell us thank you. We told him that his Father in Heaven loves him. We hope to go back and teach him the Plan of Salvation before he passes. Very spiritual experience and quite scary! 

Thats all guys sorry for the long one! 

Wo Ai Nimen! 

Here is a pic with my little homie and a 4th of July pic!

Also the reason for the caption is at every single appt. we have Chinese people give us a huge bowl of watermelon no matter who they. So I've had like 500 gallons of watermelon this week so RIP...

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Ben with his "Little Homie" 😁

4th of July 2017