Fogg

 

Hello again, (I can't think how to start in an interesting way, 'tis sad)

This week was really interesting, we had a lot of fun.

Tuesday we had District Council as usual, and we helped at the food bank afterwards. I may have already said this in a previous email, but if so that's fine because it still applies: everytime we do service at the food bank I just wish I was eating the food rather than packaging it up!

Elder Clark and I left early because we had a lesson to get to. When we got to our lesson we were in good spirits (as usual, it's hard to put me in a bad mood, when things like Panda Bears®️ exist in this world). This is also one of the guys we got to watch conference, and this was our first meeting with him since that. We entered his apartment, not noticing the look of doom upon his face. We said "hi" and sat down..We had no idea what was about to transpire . . .

Wednesday was great, we did some street contacting. It was very cloudy, and as we walked around there was basically this constant mist coming from the sky! I've never actually seen the sky MIST us, but that's what it was doing. Because it would probably rain at any moment we weren't able to really find anyone to talk to as we walked around, but it was still really fun because fog and mist are the best things ever. It was just the perfect temperature too, felt like we were in a rainforest (minus the rainforest of course).

Thursday I wrote a video and we filmed that. We need to get people to church, so we made the video so we could share it with everyone we can in our area, both formers and inactive members. It was really fun to make. In the evening my comp and I decided we were going to make as many calls as possible so he did the logging and I did the calling, and in about an hour we got through around 80 people. :) 

Friday was a lot of fun, we stopped by a ton of people with the ward missionaries. We has some great conversations and got a few inactive people to church as a result. It's really fun to go out and stop by people with the ward missionaries, especially when we take the Lear. 

On Saturday we did some service for a member. We helped put up arches using fencing for their tomatoes to climb up. It was hard to do but it looked great when we were done. We also helped clean out their storm shelter which was really fun! I have never even SEEN a storm shelter in real life and so it was cool to go in it. Although I still firmly believe storms are more fun when you are IN them.

On Sunday we did the usual Sunday activities. I couldn't think of anything interesting we did on Sunday so I guess the question is: Has anyone ever tried a pogo stick?

. . . Okay, back to Tuesday hehe

So we said a prayer to start, and then the first thing he says is, "So don't take this the wrong way, but this is probably the last time we will meet." He then told gave us his Book of Mormon and told us to take it when we go (little stinker). We asked him why, and he told us that he watched Conference, and he doesn't agree with how prophets and Apostles are chosen. He believes the way our church does it is "of men" and only God can choose a prophet or Apostle. We weren't going to let some utter drivel (UD for short) like that slide unaddressed, so we explained how a new Apostle is chosen by prayer and revelation among the remaining Apostles and how because it is done like this it IS God who is making the decision. We even showed him the chapter in Acts where they replaced Judas' spot in the Twelve Apostles and showed him how they did it the exact same way we do it. He wasn't convinced even though he firmly believes in the Bible. And when we asked him how he thinks it should be done he couldn't even answer that. Little did we know there was more UD to come. He then proceeded to tell us that there will also always be one Apostle who's bad because among the original 12 there was Judas. So we asked if he thinks there should always be 11 Apostles then instead and he said no but gave us no explanation. It was some of the most ripe UD I have heard in my life. Not a single thing he said made the most remote sense haha--we could see it was useless to argue anymore, we didn't want to really get into a bashing session. If you can call disproving something that already doesn't make any sense at all bashing haha

Another thing he did is he asked us how old we were and when we said 19 he said "well I'm 55 so I can reason through things a bit better than you." We just about said "want to know how old President Nelson is though?" But we refrained. Before we left he also said some blood-boiling things about how Brigham Young was a horrible person and I almost snapped but I held my cool, we said a prayer with him, and withdrew.

It was sad to lose one of our best people we were teaching, but we quickly replaced the one we lost with 6 new people to teach, one of which flat out told us she would consider Baptism on our first lesson with her!

That was my week

-Elder Nielson

Sometimes I Wonder What an Akdrebu is

Hihi,

I'm going to hop right in:

Monday night was super fun. I went on exchanges in Texarkana with our DL Elder Nelson in the evening. We decided to go to the dangerous part of town just to spice things up a bit. We knocked on a few people's doors, but mostly we just walked around and talked to anyone who was outside in the apartment complex and neighborhood. Everyone we talked to we shared the new Easter video with. It was awesome because nobody can turn down a 2 minute video if they are already outside, they would have to think of a really good excuse. And even then we would offer to help and render their excuse null and void hehehe

It was so fun to walk around with Elder Nelson and talk to everyone. We were able to find 5-6 new people to teach just because of that video and we gave out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon too, all in an hour and a half haha

On Tuesday after district council we did some service at the food bank, and then Elder Rainey (our DL's comp) and I drove back to New Boston on exchanges. Because we were going back to my area I finally got to lead the area. So I drove for the first time on the mission, and was given the sim card. It was really fun to be the only one who knew the area, so I got to lead on everything. The only thing I was sad about is that back in Texarkana there had been a tornado so I sadly missed that. According to Elder Clark and Elder Nelson they didn't see it but they heard it. It sounds like a freight train (which is my favorite sound so now you see why I am sad)

Wednesday we exchanged back but Elder Clark is having me keep the sim card so that I get some practice with it. We had a lesson with someone we're teaching at 3, so Elder Clark and I drove to his apartment, and just before we got out it suddenly starting pouring and pouring. The sky's were literally just dumping water and it had suddenly gotten super dark. We were in a super thick storm so we just stayed in our car. Then the lightning and thunder started to get really bad and Elder Clark felt like we should go back to our apartment, much to my dismay. I have always loved being out in storms but I guess this was prime tornado weather so it was probably good we headed back. It was really hard to see as we drove because it was raining so hard, but we got back safely. Sadly the storm only lasted a couple hours and them it suddenly got sunny and nice again as if there hadn't been a storm for weeks tsk tsk

On Thursday we did a lot of member calls and planning. We did 16 other intriguing things on Thursday but I shall not mention them because where would be the fun in that?

Friday was a great day! We went out and did stopbys with our ward missionaries. It was an overcast day and it was extremely beautiful. It was also the perfect temperature, not too hot and just the right amount of humidity. Everything is getting so green here and I love it! We stopped by lots of formers, and some members too. We were able to share the Easter video with a new person and they are now interested in being taught! Another guy we stopped by talked to us for about 40 minutes about how the government is trying to take his family's land and the sad state of this world. Just my kind of person :) 

On Friday we also had dinner with some members and they made us their version of Cafe Rio. It was really good, especially the pork. 

Saturday it was really humid and foggy and misty and cloudy. And the perfect temperature. So basically my favorite kind of weather besides straight downpour. I don't think my companion shares my love for weather like this but it's okay because I like it enough for the both of us. 😎 We did a ton of calls on Saturday (at least 40). About a quarter of the people we called picked up which is pretty good honestly. We got a few good lessons set up. Someone came in the Wendy's we were at while we were making calls and said something like "you can't save souls sitting around, get out there!" Or something like that. We just ignored the rude comment and continued to call but I think he realized that we actually WERE working because after about a minute he came back up to us and offered to buy us lunch haha

Easter Sunday was fun, church was really good. Elder Clark and I also studied and did a lot of Facebook finding at parks under pavilions while it was pouring, so that was really fun! We had Easter dinner with a member in our ward and I think Elder Clark and I ate more then their whole family combined so we were pretty proud of ourselves.

Other than that (and the duck incident) that was my week.

-Elder Nielson

00:36:00 hours

 

Hello again,

This week was kind of fun

Monday evening we had a lesson we had set up with someone on Facebook who "wanted to learn about our beliefs but had no intention of converting." We of course set up the lesson anyway. Our plan was to hit her unexpectedly with truth and THEN we would see how much her note that she "wouldn't convert" would hold up hehehe

Unfortunately though she never showed. :( 

Tuesday was very strange because it was a normal day for me and Elder Clark, but our whole district we knew was in Allen for transfers. Me and Elder Clark each made a video at the church since we didn't have lessons set up on Tuesday. We also did a lot of Facebook work and we are starting to have lots of success! We are talking simultaneously to so many people through messenger and slowly finding ways to set up in person meetings.

Wednesday we got to meet our new DL and he's hilarious. His name is Elder Nelson and he has so much energy at all times that it's hard to keep up. He's great though and I think this will be an intense transfer. 

We also did a bunch of stopbys here in New Boston after district council. As usual hardly anybody answered but I don't mind because then I get to leave one of my beautiful cards and put a note in Area Book saying "Left a card." 🙂 It's very satisfying. I hope people appreciate the cards Elder Clark and I leave--each one is hand-crafted genuine leather and sharpened with the newest window-cleaning technology.

Thursday was pretty busy. In the afternoon we helped an inactive member with some wood. The amazing ward missionaries were there with us and so they used their chainsaw to cut the wood into manageable pieces while we then moved and stacked it. I'm so glad chainsaws were invented (on March 23, 1337 at 9 am if you were curious) otherwise that job would have taken 10-50 times longer haha

After service we ate dinner with the ward missionaries and their house is so clean and cozy! It seems like the perfect house to retire in and do missionary work from. 

After we ate Elder Clark and I had a lesson with a new family who past missionaries had taught at some point. When we got there they were making dinner and fed us a second dinner! They gave us no warning otherwise we wouldn't have eaten before. Their two kids talked and talked to us the whole time, it was really fun. The parents apologized not realizing that both Elder Clark and I come from huge families so if there is one thing we can handle, it's kids talking to us. The lesson went well and the parents had lots of hard questions but I could definitely see this family getting Baptized sometime in the near future. 

Friday was pretty normal, although we did have mission conference which was fun. I especially liked Sister Seitz' address on delighting in the Gospel. She challenged us to think of a list of things we delighted in and so far I have added the Book of Mormon and food to my list.

On Saturday we had our ward Easter Activity so that was fun to attend. They had all sorts of games and unfortunately Elder Clark and I were bamboozled by some youth into doing the sack race while in our proselytizing clothes--it was not a comfortable experience, although we did beat some people.

Saturday evening a member got us some Texmex food and it was probably some of the best Mexican food I have ever had. 

Sunday was pretty average, in the evening it rained while we were sitting at a table in a small gazebo so that was fun! It was nice to hear and see the rain and not get wet.

That's far from all that happened this week

-Elder Nielson

Quoth the Raven

Hello everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well, and is staying away from feral badgers. They get especially feral at this time of year sadly. 

This week was fun so here we go:

Tuesday we had the last district council of the transfer and Elder Crane from our district is going home :( 

District council was really fun and we did something called "false prophecies" where we all make guesses about who is going to be transferred and where. For anyone going home we make guesses on how many months until he/she is married haha

On Tuesday I also realized to my dismay that when it comes to storage space I may care more than I thought. A week or so ago I had been telling someone with disdain that my parents loved storage space so much that they would get drives and things with unfathomable amounts of storage space, before it seemed to even be necessary. But this week I noticed that I had 15 GB of trash on my SD card that my phone couldn't delete. I tried to click "empty trash" and nothing would happen. Nothing I tried would work, and even though I have plenty of storage left on the SD card I couldn't bear the thought that 15 GB were just sitting there, out of reach. :( Luckily I was able to fix the problem by putting the card into a different phone and deleting the memory before transferring it back. :) So I guess I am more like my parents then I thought.

Wednesday it was really rainy! It poured all morning, I will attach a quick video. Luckily in the afternoon the rain finally stopped cause we were going over to a non-member's house to do some service. We helped put up some fencing, and also loaded up a trailer. Luckily because of the rain the ground was very wet so working on the fencing was pretty easy. 

In the evening we had another phone lesson with one of our progressing people and we taught the Word of Wisdom. I don't know how willing she is to keep it though, she seemed pretty hesitant so we asked her to pray about it to gain her own testimony about it. Also she hasn't really been committing to come to church even though we keep inviting her to come, so if she isn't interested in keeping those commitments we will probably drop her until she is more ready.

Thursday in the afternoon we sent out mass texts to hundreds of former investigators in our area inviting them to watch General Conference. 😀 It was fun to watch the phone send out text after text haha--hopefully a few of them watched it. Also on Thursday a member family invited us over "for dinner" and I thought nothing of it until we arrived and a encountered their giant German Sheppard, which was none too happy to see us. It went insane with barking when we entered, but luckily its trainer was there. Apparently they are trying to train their dog to not freak out around new people and we were their first test. Dinner was pretty good though, we had homemade pizza! 

Friday was a fun day, we went out with the ward missionaries and stopped by a bunch of inactive members. I got to give someone a blessing and we also helped someone move in.

In the evening was when the real fun began. A former investigator randomly reached out to us and said he would love to meet the "new guys" and asked I'd we wanted to come over for tacos. We, being the type of people who like tacos, said, "Sure!" He loves talking with missionaries and even though he isn't interested in becoming a member right now he loves to talk with us about the scriptures because they fascinate him. The tacos were amazing (made with his own deer meat) and maybe someday we will get through to him.

Saturday and Sunday we watched Conference which was really good. We lounged at the church using 3 chairs each since we were the only ones there. On Sunday we watched with our Elders Quorum President and his family. What was y'alls favorite talk?

Some pictures will be attached with no captions, as is my custom :)

-Elder Nielson