"And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved."

Monday, October 27, 2014

Salama Tompo

Hey everyone how are things? I am doing pretty well here in Tana, haven't been sick and the work is going well so I have no complaints. Here is a question that has been on my mind for a day or two; How much control do we have over our lives? At what point do we draw the line between all we can do and those we can't? I know we have a choice over many things some big and some small but I want to hear your thoughts on this.

Now onto what has been happening this past week.On last Monday we taught a recent convert named Malala and her aunt and uncle (both of whom are apparently younger than her but Elder Webb doesn't know so what ever). Because of this visit her uncle decided he wanted to come to church/conference this week which is obviously awesome and the best thing is that he actually came for a session, don't know if he came to others but he at least came to one.

Tuesday pretty much everyone droppped us, yea it stinks. Wer had this great program setup and it just got shot dead, the only time that worked was a recent convert lesson a six in the evening which is pretty much the end of our day as we are told not to wander around in the dark because it can be dangerous, we can stay out as long as we have an appointment to be at but no tracting in the dark.

Wednesday was also fun, we taught a guy named Fabrice and he is super crazy smart but he likes to talk and go on random topics . At three we had our service of teaching english which turned into teaching Portuguese, no offence to those who speak portuguese but I didn't work at it very hard, already trying to learn a language, no use trying to through in random stuff. Again we had nothing to do until an appointment at 6 so we tracted through our area until then and had a pretty good lesson.

Thursday, Thursday was fun. We had our first zone meeting where we met all the people in our zone, Elders Cooley and Stringfellow from my MTC group are in my zone. We had a very good time and went out to lunch with most of the people. We taught a very good lesson with a man named Toky, we taught him about the Book of Mormon and Prayer, he seems very eager to read and learn, very smart person. Now here is the fun part, while we were teaching our Branch President about a church manual to help him in his duties we had our first big storm, it was so cool. We had another appointment to get to which required a bit of a walk, so we put on our coats and went out. It was so fun walking in the rain, my coat works well so my top half and head stayed dry but my shoes pretty much filled with water by the end. Unfortunately for Elder Webb his coat doesn't work as well, his hood only goes about halfway up his head, somehow rain gets through his jacket, and he wears glasses, so basically he was blind and soaked, super fun for him. But we still had a good lesson, I taught about Adam and Eve and Elder Webb taught about the Atonement, very good lesson.

Friday, pretty fun (sorta but mostly not really).Our first appointment sorta fell through. We had some member help to teach that members friend, we show up the member is there as is his mother but no friend so we gave them a vataza-panaihy (may not be correct spelling, also it means spiritual thought) on missionary work. We had read from Jacob 5 and I just felt likie asking them to read the Jacob, so I did and we think they hadn't read Jacob yet so it will be good for them. Everything else fell through, we would drop buy they couldn't do it, we would come later and they weren't there. we had plans to do a street board (its a board with a gospel topic that apparently draws malagasies like crazy, they come and we talk to them about the subject and have them sign a paper if they want to learn more) but unfortunately the stand to hold the board was being used at that time so that didn't work out. Also Elder Stringfellow came on a split with an Elder in my house so I got to see and talk to him for a bit that evening, that was fun.

Saturday, CONFERENCE! We had priesthood and the saturday sessions, so good. I think we were at the Office from about 8-3, it was great. I think my favorites were President Uchtdorfs about "Lord is it I" and collecting Spiritual light and using the right tools. I also enjoyed the talk about welfare and fast offerings as it is a pretty big problem in some ares. And again our appointment dropped us that evening.

Sunday was also CONFERENCE! I need to read thye first session because I saw that one in malagasy but the talks I did enjoy were Elder Bednars and Elder Scotts, both were amazing.

Now to answer people, mom my allergies seem to be doing fine, I think I have used my medication once. Sad to hear that BYU lost to Boise State.

Dad, I am doing good, the language is slow but coming (very slowly). My companion is doing good, we get along with each other. I believe the average height of people here (its hard for me to judge) is I think about near my chest, about midway up my upper arm. Church is good, can't do much but the people are good with me, we meet in a big house with many rooms so each class can meet. Also I am pretty sure Halloween doesn't exist here, from what I could tell from people in english class it is pretty much a foreign concept.

Glad to hear from everyone and knowing that everyone is doing good, keeping working hard and focus on today, the rest of the days will fly by if you do. Love you all and I am thinking and praying for you

-Elder Nelson

Elder Nelson's Mom here: Click here for a link to view, listen to, or read any or all of the Oct. 2014 General Conference.  Click here for a link to Pres. Uchtdorf's talk from the Priesthood Session Elder Nelson mentioned , here for Elder Bednar's talk, and here for Elder Scott's talk both from the Sunday Afternoon Session.

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