Sooooo, its been 6 months already... weird

Hello again, it has been another week and it has been a good one!

Ok well it didn't start off very well, on Monday we had three times all set up, but the first tells us to wait for him while he finishes work and the time after him had randomly shown up and told us that they could not have us so we just waited for our first time to finish and do some contacting. But after waiting for a while he comes out and tells us that he is still working and asked if we could reschedule. We head up to our final time and wait for him at his house but he never showed so that day got got very little done, what can you do.

Tuesday we stopped by a less actives house; the less active was not there but his mother was, she had learned before and likes having the missionaries over. While there and trying to find out what she has already learned so I just started listing off the names of the lessons, The Restoration, Plan of Salvation, ect. While I do that Elder Anderson just puts all of the pamphlets on the table in front of her deciding that we will teach on which ever one she picks first. This woman immediately picks up the Joseph Smith one, we begin reading it, she often times didn't let other people read because she was enjoying the story and at the end repeatedly said "tsara be ity", or this is very good. It was a great time and we will see how she is doing tomorrow.

Thursday I went on my first ever member split, wooo! His name is Norbert, he is our 2nd Councilor in the Branch, and he is a returned missionary from South Africa so he knows English! We had a great time, while Elder Anderson was out doing our normal program I went out with Norbert to find less actives; to see where they live, if we could have a quick meeting, invite them to Church ect. We taught three LA's (less actives), I learned where a lot more live, one that I visited with Elder Anderson at the end of the day came to church on Sunday, it was a very good day.

Saturday we had a very good Zone Conference, President Adams gave a lesson on Honesty and Integrity, the Assistants gave a little bit on planning and being prepared, and for the final part we... watched Meet the Mormons! It was super good and we all enjoyed it.

That is about it for this week everyone, it was a good one, thank you all for your thought and support. See you all next week,

-Elder Nelson

Field in Depot

Elder Anderson with their member help

Elder Tiu and ?

Mpangalitra (thieves) and beach soccer

Ahoana Tompoko!

This week in Tamatave was a bit rough but in all it went well.

We taught Erik again and just read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon which is all about Lehi's call, his vision, leaving Jerusalem, in an effort to ensure that he has read a bit and understands what is going. The reason is when you know nothing about the church or the Book of Mormon it can be very confusing or strange when you read for the first time. When we suggested that we read he got an excited look on his face and just wanted to keep reading a we went along. He just seems like he enjoys learning and we enjoy learning with him.

We are also teaching a young man named Victor for about the last two weeks and he is just amazing. Yesterday as I was talking to him at church he just pretty much just said to me " so when are we going to talk about baptism". I of course was a bit stunned and I said "you want to be baptized?" and he tells me yea like" duh of course I do, why wouldn't I?" So our next lesson with him will be on baptism and figureing out stuff like that. So strange yet at the same time so good and special, it was awesome.

On Saturday we were went to a soccer activity, we were told that there would be investigators and such and it was very fun. We did beach soccer, opened and closed with a prayer, had some drinks, it was like a regular activity back in America. Also Elder Anderson was almost robbed while on our way to the activity. We decided to take a pus to the activity so we are just going along minding our own business when the pus driver begins tapping Elder Anderson and I thought he was just telling him to pull his arms more into the pus. But I look behind us and there are three young men running behind us which is nothing weird hered, people are running every where. But the pus slowed down a bit and suddenly those guys are up by Elder Anderson, trying to grab his bag/ open it to grab his stuff. That lasted only for a few seconds before they were off down a side street because thieves are not looked kindly on here. But they got nothing, we are good, and had a great time at the activity.

I think that is it for this week, I love working here so much the people are just so amazing and I love working with them. Until next week,

-Elder Nelson

Good morning Starshine! The Earth Says Hello!

(The title of this weeks letter is courtesy of my friend Sister Jessica Jackson currently serving in Germany, if you would like to make any suggestions for future topic ideas please email and a selection will be made)

Hello everyone that reads this, if you get this in an email but do not read then shame on you and begin reading 'saotra tompoko!

This week has been pretty good, we work hard, my companion got sick (no idea from what) and ended it off with a baptism. Not a bad week I suppose.

Our week began with teaching a new investigator named Erik, his brother, and his mother. Erik seemed the most interested, answering questions, even asking questions which is something that is a little rare here; most people just take what we are saying. Erik even asked for clarification of where our church is but he sadly did not come to church this week but I still have a very good opinion of him and we will work on stressing the importance of coming to church.

On Thursday we had our weekly District Meeting and our District Leader Elder Turner gave a very good lesson on needing to change our thoughts and desirous to those of the Lord, using Romans 8 and I would encourage you all to read it.

Elder Anderson was sick on Friday and he was sick all day, I could not leave, probably the worst thing ever. But at one point I got a burst of energy and just memerized words like nothing else, I probably memorized about 18 words, most of those were the verb with their acompaning passive, circumstantial, and roots. Now I just need to that that everyday and then some.

Saturday was the baptisms that I mentioned last week but unfortunately only one occurred because Eugene was suddenly asked to got to Tana for a conference so we need to reschedule with him but good news is that Florette still got baptized so that went very well. The service went well without any problems and on that Sunday she received the gift of the Holy Ghost.

I think that is the biggest points for this week, see you all later!

-Elder Nelson

An excerpt from a little note Elder Nelson sent to his dad: Some foods that I have tried are mofo akondro (banana bread but it is a whole banana covered in batter and fried), nims (little roll of fried pastry with various things that could be put inside), sambosa (same as nims but in a triangle shape), cow tongue with peas on rice, ravitoto (crushed leaves served on rice and meat if you have some), and apparently one time at a members when we asked what the food was they said it was mimy sy legume (cat and vegetables). The meat was in little sausages and it tasted funny so it very well could have been cat.

The cat and vegetables that members gave us, tasted a bit weird

Thio and his family are members and they have us over every Wednesday

Sunday, the day after the baptism

The picture of the small child and the video are of kids that live next to our member help and as they were dancing any way and wanted attention I took a video

So, here we are again, another week in Toamasina/ Tamatave

This week has just been hard, whether it has been hard lessons, or the day is just physically exhausting I am just so tired by the end of the day but it was not in vain, Elder Anderson and I have just been building an awesome program.

We have an investigator named Elisette who just one day randomly showed up at church, we got her number, started teaching her, and she has not missed a single day of church for almost a month and a half. That in itself is very amazing because most people we teach don't come (and a few are coming to the point where we may need to drop them because they do not come to church and have stopped progressing; that is always a sad day). But the cool thing about Elisette is that when she heard that we were having baptisms this week she wanted to know when she can also hatao batisa (be baptized) and she was very bummed when we told her that she could not be baptized in February (she really pushed for that) but we kindly told her that she would have to wait a bit longer because there is still more for her to learn. She even told our member help that she is ready to be baptized and I think so to but we need to just stay patient and ensure that everything is learned.

This week while tracting we found this just ballin' group of threeish families near the canal in our area. They just let us in, we talked, go to know them, they all seemed very interested, we started teaching about God but we just ended up discussing faith and describing/ explaining the faith is like a little seed story in Alma 32; I really enjoyed going there and we are most definetaly going back.

This past Sunday (yesterday) was transfer news and I will continue working in Morarano with Elder Anderson. Elder Ahlstrom from the house is going to Tana to work in the Office and Elder Tiu from my group is coming up from Tana, we are going to have such a great time.

I think that is it i believe for this week write you all in a week, amanaraka indray (next time)


-Elder Nelson

ps I almost forgot but we will be having two baptisms this week and one of our investigators named F asked me to baptize her so ya that is all, bye bye

Hello Everyone, How Are You All?

Hello everyone, how are you all?

Tamatave is doing very well, remember the two potential baptisms that I mentioned last week? Well they both had their interviews and.... They both passed, if nothing happens or pops up (as sometimes occurs) they will both be baptized on February 7th, Elder Anderson and I are both very excited for that.

This past week nothing super special happened except that on Tuesday we got super rained out, appointments dropped and we could not contact because of the rain but luckily some members invited us in to their homes to take shelter while the rain slowed down.

On Friday I went on a split with Elder Stringfellow in Ankirihiry while Elder Anderson went with Elder Turner to do a baptisimal interview. It went well, Elder Stringfellow is a super good missionary and knows how to ask good questions. As Elder Stringfellow is part of my MTC group I was a bit nervous to go out with him but we went out and had a great time. I learned some good things on that split.

Yesterday was very special because we do not have much of a program on Sunday so we were not going to teach much and do a bunch of contacting. Our first lesson was with a guy named Juno but when we got to his house he was not there. But as we were leaving we hear someone calling "ANDERSON". Juno is the only one who does that and we ended up having a lesson with him. I really enjoy teaching Juno, he is great and he really loves having us over, he even offered to go around and help us maybe one day we will take him up on that offer.

We have had a good week, right now I have been studying in the war chapters in the book of Alma (Chapters 45-62) and it is all about how our "enemies" cannot gain an advantage over us if we follow Gods path, that is the only way that the Lamanites right now have gained any power over the Nephites. It is good to remember that as long as we all hold true to what we have been taught then our enemies will never gain a hold on us. Have a good week everyone and enjoy every minute of it,

-Elder Nelson

Juno- I love him a lot. Yesterday he asked us if he could go around with us. He is just awesome.

I have no idea what that bird is.

The kids were just there at the spot where my picture was taken and I just decided to take their picture. They just scattered when I pointed the camera at them but the lone kid in one didn't quite make it. The others mostly stayed.

Who wants to go out and work? Well you can't because your areas on fire

Hello everyone,

This week was actually super good and if you are wondering about the title don't worry I will get to it.

Morarano is doing well, we are getting a lot of times, many of our investigators are doing well. We, Elder Anderson and I are also doing well, safe and ready to have another good week. Some news is that we may be having two baptisms by the end of the month, Eugene and a woman name Floritte. We gave both of them practice interviews and seem ready for baptism, their interviews will be this week.

This week we had a couple from the Office, the Rossiters, come down for a conference for returned meetings and to do house inspections and Sister Rossiter said "I am very impressed, this is probably the cleanest that I have ever seen this house" so it goes to show that a house of four guys can keep a house clean, at least when an inspection is coming... But with the Rossiters came two things for me, 1. some birthday cookies that I was not able to recieve in Tana and 2. a Brand New Bike. The old one that I was using was workable but was on the small side so I was a little scrunched, and the seat I had was pretty much not a seat anymore but a hollow tube that I was sitting on with a small covering for padding. Normaly this is not a cause for a whole bike but the Mission decided to get now bikes and gave one to me, so it all works out.

Now about this weeks title, which happened yesterday. Elder Anderson were working normally and were headed to Veriry (a smaller area in our area), we had gone a different way which allowed us to drop by an apparent less active and have a quick visit, nothing special. We get going on the path to our investgator and we see this pillar of smoke off to the side which is not to weird, just thought someone was burning trash. Our investigator was not home, his family said that he was not home and his family said that he had gone to the fire so we naturally went to go look at the fire. It was HUGE, when we got there a house and a place where they store wood was on fire, maybe with some trees but that is beside the point.

The thing is most of the houses here are made of very dry wood with tin roofs so it is very easy for them to burn. Now Elder Anderson and I were not idle, Elder Anderson called in what was happening and we went to help our members and investigators move their stuff to safer spots.

The fire eventually got put out leaving about 40 homes burned to the ground and some injuries but no deaths that we are aware of. Then that evening it rained super hard putting out the rest and leaving to have another evening where we get home soaked (it has rained almost every night, but it is ok because any chance of continued fire was quickly gone).

I think that is about it for this week, we are still doing good and are working hard, thank you all for your prayers and have an awesome week.

-Elder Nelson

The Letter That Took 4 Tries

For some reason, Elder Nelson kept accidentally sending his letter before it was finished.  Each successive letter was just like the previous ones, only a little longer and with an additional apology at the top.  I include only the final copy for your enjoyment and sanity!

(sorry, acidentally sent the letter before it was done, like not even close to being done, lets try again, and I apologize for bad grammar in the first letter)

(again sorry for the second letter, weird day)

(Apparently I am struggling and can't send just one full letter, I'll try to keep it to three ok? No rage)

Hey everyone who reads this, how are things going? Elder Anderson and I had a really great week.

One thing that we can both agree on is that we are getting better at teaching together. We are getting better at recognizing the others body language and letting the other speak which has allowed us to actually have a really good feelings in our times/ lessons.

So I said that this week was good and it really was, I am very proud of one of our investigators named Juno. Yesterday we had a very good lesson on Faith and we read a section from Enos, the section where Enos recieves a remission of his sins through his faith on Jesus Christ. I enjoy sharing Enos because it is very clear on the way that Enos gained a remission of his sins, and plus I like Enos so it was good all around.

This past Thursday our Zone Leader Elder Bowler came on a split with us to observe how we are doing and to provide aide and guidance in lessons and at the end of the day. One thing that he told us was that we are good at explaining the what and the how of a topic (ex faith) but that we should remember to explain the why of the subject, the reason it is important. One point of why faith is important is that everything here in the Church goes by faith, testimony, miracles, the reason we pray and go to Church, they all center around faith.

This week President Adams and Sister Adams came down for interviews and they were good, it was great to talk with Sister Adams and chat with the other Elders as we waited for our interviews. But on Sunday we got a big surprise; we were having sacrament meeting when randomly President Adams and Sister Adams walk in, Pres Adams went to a meeting but Sis Adams stayed and literally said after a small greeting "I don't expect to have every word translated"- Sis Adams, trademark and copy right (insert year here). So we tried but I can barely understand enough for it to make sense in my own weird head but to translate, hmm not so much.

My last thing this week, we were in a lesson and we decided to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon for the lesson because this person was a recent convert and it is more interesting on everyones part to still discuss the needed things but to do it in a different way. But when we came to the section where Joseph Smith states that the Book of Mormon is the most true of any book the Spirit came and it was goode to sit and discuss about the BoM, the testimonies given and spirit felt was just amazing.

I hope that you all have had a good week, have another enjoyable one, love you all

-Elder Nelson