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

Sacrifice and Patience Brings Forth Blessings

The Lord Always Provides

HELLO EVERYONE! 

This was another week of miracles for us. We tried our absolute best to endure the trials of last week so the Lord would bless us. He, in fact, did that for us.

We found many new investigators, who all were very willing to progress to accept baptism and come to church with us.

The ones I would like to focus on are named Jenny and Frank. Jenny is the mother of Frank and had begun to attend our English class. We had an amazing lesson with them and put them on date for baptism for 7/29! They had no religious background at all so we taught very simply, however they loved all of it! They said they are very willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray. They also came to church the following day and had a great experience there! The Lord truly blessed us with them. 

Second, HUGE miracle is we met with Zing again this week. He had asked specifically to talk about how he could keep the WOW. We expressed how when he felt the temptation he could read and pray instead. He was very willing to try this, we talked about how keeping the commandments will access light and dispel darkness. We lastly gave him a blessing at the end of the lesson to give him strength. He freaked out after the blessing and said " WOAH WOAH WOAH, 3 times during your prayer I felt a very warm feeling I cannot describe." We explained how that was from the spirit and he said: " I believe it too". Very powerful lesson and we are so excited for him! 

The last miracle of the week was Anna was baptized on Sunday!! She is an amazing example to me and I am very grateful I had the opportunity to teach her. She has a huge testimony that she is a Child of God. She expressed in her testimony that I am a Child of God is her favorite song. She said, "As I have been baptized I am now certain that I am one of his children". We are excited for her in her new adventure, she will be an amazing example to many! 

Great week and we have many more miracles in store! LOVE ALL OF YOU.

Elder Nelson

孙长老

Ben's Scholarship he was awarded while out serving

Anna's Baptism

This week was sad for me because we got an email from Ben that said his bag was stolen and guess what was in it....HIS RECORDER!!!😳😳 I cannot hear my boys voice anymore until I get him a new one. He only has a little bit of time left but it gives me so much comfort to hear him talk. Plus, I feel I can hear how he is REALLY doing by his tone. I guess this just means I am on the hunt for a new one! 😁

Refiners Fire

Hello everyone! 

I promise my title isn't only Refiners Fire because it is scraping the 100's out here.

This was a hard week, nothing to sugar coat. However, we worked our tails off I can say that. This week was graduation on campus, which made it very VERY difficult to proselyte. We maybe saw 15 Chinese people the whole week. We paused many investigators as most are heading back to China this week! 

BUTTTT that will not tear us down. We still got 2 potential families this week which want to meet when they get back from their vacations next week! 

Zing (one of our investigators) agreed to keep the Word of Wisdom for 1 week! That is a huge step for him and we hope he sees how it can bless his life.

There are a few very important principles I learned from this week:

We worked very hard this week to find the prepared. But with graduation, it was EXTREMELY difficult to be on campus and find really any Chinese people. However, we learned many valuable lessons this week:

1. I can't control agency, as much as I would like to sometimes, haha people have the freedom to choose.

2. Patience is a Godly virtue. This has been something I have been working on my whole mission. I tried really hard to focus on the miracles and recognize what the spirit wanted us to do this week.

3. "Thy will be done, Lord not mine." If there is something I learned this week above all it is this. As we truly, I mean TRULY trust God, give up our will to him, and do as we would have done, then and only then do we begin to see the miracles. We worked hard, we all did a study on the Holy Ghost as a companionship to be more spiritually sensitive. I learned that if we will align our will fully with His then we begin to see God's hand in all things.

We plan to have a week of miracles! I can't wait to tell you all about them next week! 

Love you all, stay cool, because we won't haha! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Cheesin and messing around for the camera

A.S.K.

Back Into the Frying Pan

大家好!

Another HOOOTT week out in good'ol California! 

We are on bikes and have tight collars, so it has been a nice sweaty week! 

However, that will not stop us from working hard to find the ELECT! 

This week was full of many miracles and fun events. The first thing I would like to talk about is Elder Lai! I have the wonderful opportunity to train again. Elder Lai is from Taiwan, he is 24 years old and already graduated college! He is super smart and very humble and willing to do the Lord's work. I feel as though he is training me, he has no problem teaching and has already amazing English! 

We worked hard this week as a trio to find the Elect! We found 4 new investigators and are very grateful for the blessings the Lord has given us. 

We had 4 of our investigators also come to church and had a great experience! We have been teaching 3-4 lessons every day and have stayed very busy. We know the Lord is trusting us with his children and we are doing everything we can to be worthy of those blessings. 

On Saturday we had the opportunity of teaching a FAMILY!! WHOOT WHOOT! The Du family currently live on Campus and are doing Postdoc. Science work for the school. He and his wife are both scientists by profession. We had the opportunity of teaching him and his wife along with their 6 year old son! The lessons was amazing!! We taught them the Restoration and answered many of their questions, he knew who President Nelson was and said he was a good man! He expressed to me that he and his wife have been "taught" to doubt everything. He said, "My wife and I do not believe their is a God". However as I have done scientific studies and experiments over the years, I have come to the conclusion that life is too complicated". He continued " I am convinced there is a supreme being that is looking after us, and I hope you can help my Family find Him". We were very humbled by their humilty and willingness to learn. They promised to read the Book of Mormon and are excited to tell us about their studies!!

We have been blessed and are planning to continue to work hard! God is good and loves us all very much , He is in the details of our life. Let us all work a little harder to make that connection with him this week! 

LOVE ALL OF YOU, hope you have a cooler week than we will! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Ben-Elder Lai-Elder Johnson

Tag Pic

When you are so exhausted from doing good!

Bear Necessities Package

These seem to be becoming a common package😏

Ben is such an example to me of humility. He is technically the "trainer" for Elder Lai and yet he speaks a lot about how much he is learning from him. The two of them have a pact that Ben only speaks in Chinese to him and Elder Lai will only speak English to Ben. I LOVE that they are doing all they can to improve and learn from one another. Another successful week out on the mission! 

Avoiding INFINITY WARS Spoilers

Hey Everyone!! Its been a SUPER hot week out here in Riverside, however, we are still working hard to find the Elect!!

We have been working with some amazing people and are excited to see them progressing. 

The first one I would like to talk about is Miranda. We have been teaching her for about 3 weeks now. She is so humble and very willing to learn. We picked up her friend Ellie on Friday and they both are very interested in our message. We emphasized the importance of The Book of Mormon and how it can bless their lives. It was a very spiritual lesson and we hope to continue to meet with them! Miranda came to church on Sunday and had a fantastic experience!

Second would be Linda, we have been working with her for a bit now. She is progressing very well. We realized it had been a very long time since we had taught the Restoration, so we decided it would be a good review. When she came into the lesson we noticed she had been crying quite a bit. Not digging into it too much we began the lesson. We got to the family portion of the Restoration and I was prompted very clearly with the following: "She is crying because she just got in a fight with her husband, testify of how this can repair family relationships". I began to talk about how families are not perfect. However, we know the Gospel can mend any family problem and grow those relationships into something better. She immediately focused in and asked how? We explained that the Book of Mormon could answer the questions of the soul and help her receive revelation on her behalf. She was very intrigued as our member named Gracie, who was just recently baptized, testified of how the Book of Mormon can help her families relationship. It was a very powerful lesson and we are so grateful the Spirit was there to help us to teach people not lessons.

The last thing, it's a new transfer and I am staying in Riverside! Elder Maxwell is going English and I will be training our new Chinese missionary, Elder Lai. He is from Taiwan and knows very little English. I am very excited about this new adventure.

Have a great week guys LOVE YA!!

Elder Nelson 孙长老

A random pic that Elder Johnson took

Ben got a new surprise with transfers this week. The entire Zone thought that he would be called as an AP, which he did not want to do because it means he has to go English. Of course Ben would do whatever he was asked, but Chinese is a HARD language to learn and he wants to make sure that he can stay on top of it. Instead of that happening, they were surprised with him being called as a Trainer again and being placed with a companion from Taiwan. The great thing about this is Ben will be able to speak and continue to learn the language better with Elder Lai being that it is his native language. His English is not very good, so the 2 of them working together they should be able to help each other out. 

I think my FAVORITE thing about this weeks email is that Ben said his main focus lately has been to NOT FIND OUT WHO DIES IN INFINITY WARS! LOL😂 Not sure he can avoid that being in one of the MOVIE CAPITOLS of America. 😏

Ask And Ye Shall Receive...

Hi Everyone!!!

Our week has been quite eventful! We had the opportunity to teach a few new investigators.

The first is named Miranda. Miranda is my age and super interested in the Gospel! She loved our message and has been reading the Book of Mormon. She came to our English Class and we got to meet with her after. I will keep you updated on her progress!!

2nd- was quite entertaining. We had been praying as a companionship to find someone. We prayed that we would find someone exactly at 7:00. As we came around the corner at UCR there she was! I stoked up a conversation with this woman who I later found out was named Cinya! She was mind blown I spoke Chinese and was interested in our message. We set up an appt with her the next day. We had a very good lesson on the Plan of Salvation with only a few questions after she gave me an hour and a half sermon on the history of Daoism, which was a challenge for my Chinese haha. We are excited for and are very grateful for the miracle that was given to us.

Yihang was also baptized this Sunday! He is a great guy with a true desire to follow Jesus Christ. We are excited for his new adventure as he attends YSA. There were so many students at his baptism it was great.

We are staying busy and the Lord is blessing us!

Love you have a great week!! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老 

Elder Yangs Last Week

Happy Finals! May This Last 6 Months Be Ever In Your Favor...

Jump Day Package (Hunger Games-Final 6 months)

Just Keep Swimming...

Hello Everyone!

This week has been a very grindy week.

However such is missionary life, we have been walking a lot to find those that God has prepared for us. I have some nice blisters on my feet so I know that we are working hard haha!

We had the opportunity of meeting with some of our investigators this week. 

1st being Chaoliang Zhong. He self-referred himself after watching many Mormon messages. He said he felt peaceful and wanted to learn more! We taught him for the 2nd time this week. We taught him the Restoration of the Gospel with an emphasis on Families. It was a very good lesson and he committed to continue to Pray and Read! We are excited for him and his willingness to learn.

We also met with Yihang yuan this week! He is looking good for baptism and we have his baptism set up for this Sunday! The Lord has truly blessed us with many people ready for baptism. He understands the Doctrine very clearly and knows what is necessary to receive Exaltation! We are excited for him and his upcoming baptism! 

The work is going good and we are working hard to find those that God has prepared. Thanks to all of you for reading my boring emails for 18 months now! I love all of you and hope you have a great week! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Love that smile!

Service with his companions

Hiding in his collar because he is cold! 😁 

I love getting pictures like this of my son! It makes me so happy to see him having fun, being his GOOFBALL self and enjoying his mission. 

This week for Ben has not been too crazy, other than A LOT of walking and seeking with faith. He was able to see Vivian again, which he hasn't seen for about a year. She came to English class and then to church which was a pleasant surprise for Ben.

He is LOVING serving with Elder Maxwell and Elder Johnson. They work hard and want to get out and find those that the Lord has prepared. 

I cannot believe we are down to only 6 months left! It is great to hear Ben talk about how much he loves his mission and how it feels weird to think of home because he wouldn't mind teaching and doing this for the eternities. What a great attitude he has about working and serving the Lord!