26-6-13

Hello everyone!

This last week has been a whirlwind for us, it just flew by so fast! It's scary! Everyday is like a blink! I'd do almost anything to slow time down, it's flying by way too fast! Only 4 weeks to go, it's a scary thought. But still, I have some time left. I've been thinking alot about how I've used the last couple of years. How efficiently I've used my time. How well it's been put to use. It's interesting to note how hard I've worked has depended alot on my companion. How much he did, how hard he worked, how much he encouraged me. Sometimes my companion would make me work hard by being the example, other times by not giving me the opportunity to hide behind him. It made me realise just how important your companion really is, they define how well you will do in life and how you'll finish your "Mission" of life. That's why it's so important to pick carefully who your spouse will be, because they will define you for the rest of your life.

I love you!

Anziano Nelson.

20-6-13

Hello everyone!

So this week has been crazy with lots of things going on. We had our last Zone Conference Tuesday, both for me and for our Mission President. It was really powerful. All last week I'd been thinking about the power of the Book of Mormon and the importance in our work. I'd been thinking about basing my training on that for District Meeting next week. Guess what the Conference was all about? Book of Mormon. I was reminded of how important that little book is, and why it's so essential. It's the one thing that holds up the Church of Jesus Christ as true, without it the Church could not exist. Everything about the book is perfectly designed to fulfill it's many functions, and without the Book of Mormon we cannot have the fullness of joy that the Scriptures are designed to help us have. I love the Book of Mormon, and I have done from the very first time I received an answer that it's true, after having read and prayed about it. It has the power to change the life of anyone that opens and reads it with an open heart. It really is the keystone of truth upon the Earth. I have a request for you all. I want you to write down your testimonies of the Book of Mormon, and then email them to me at:

kieron.nelson@myldsmail.net 

I need you to do it before Sunday! I would like to include the testimonies in the District Meeting next week. If you don't wish to be identified, then leave a note at the end saying so, and I'll make sure that you won't be. Thank you so much!

I love you! 

Anziano Nelson.

Hello!

So I've just entered my final transfer, what a dreadful prospect! It's kind of been a shock. Especially watching the Missionaries I knew in the MTC stand up and give their final testimonies, knowing that I'm next in line! Really strange. Everyone has changed so much. There is one piece of consolation, my MTC companion is in my District now, so we'll be "dying" together, and better yet, we'll get to do an exchange in our final transfer - we'll have started the Mission together, and fnished our Mission together! We never did get to serve together as companions as we wanted, but we got the second best thing! But it's strange, being the most senior Missionary in the Mission, thinking about all the experiences that I've had, the good, the bad and the just down right brutal! I hope that I can put them to use for the last part of my Mission! That's the great thing about serving a Mission, you know when an era of your life is drawing to a close, so that you can focus yourself that one last time and use everything you have, your energy, your experience, into one short space of time, showing what your best really is!

I love you!

Anziano Nelson.

Hello! 

So I got a very sad letter on friday. It was one that made all the Missionaries who saw it say that they were sorry. I'll give you a clue what it was before telling you. My MTC companion got the exact same letter. It was the Customs Letter, that has the details of things I need to do to prepare to go home. It was...unpleasant! Though I am excited about coming home and seeing you all, being with everyone again, eating real meat (not paper thin slices of it) and normal life, it's still sad to be thinking that I'll be leaving this life behind, all the people and the joy you can get from serving the Lord directly for 24 hours a day (unfortunately that can be all too literal at times!). I still have seven weeks of it left, and I'm prepared to work hard in that time. I hope that I am able to go out at my best. It's been a great two years, two years that I'm going to be reflecting on for a long time I think, a decision that I don't think I'll ever regret making.

I love you!

Anziano Nelson.

Hello everyone! 

So this week has been a little bipolar with the weather. One day it will be pouring it down with rain, and then the next the sun will be blazing down on us worse than in a desert, and the day after that it will be raining like no man's business again! It's been playing havoc with my head though, I've had a lot of headaches recently, probably because of the rapid pressure changes. One of the good things that it's done for us is that it's forced us to adapt. Forced us to think on our feet so that we could be at our most effective, given the circumstances. That's something that I've found to be absolutely essential. The ability to change and be willing to do the best thing. Too often we can fall into being rigid, especially as we get "more experienced", we get stuck into our ways, maybe because they are what have given us success in the past, but then we don't pay attention to what's happening in the present. The Lord doesn't want us to be tools that can only be used in one circumstance, he wants us to tbe versatile instruments that He can rely upon, no matter the situation, which is why I think during my Mission I've been subjected to various trials, all trying to tip me off balance, because when things constantly change, we are able to adapt, and become that versatile instrument that the Lord wants us to become.

I love you!

Anziano Nelson.

Hello!

This week has been very busy trying to sort things out and organise my time in Lugano. But it's interesting that in this time in which we're doing so little finding work, that we're getting blessed so much in other areas, we've found more potential investigators in this period in which we're hardly getting any time to go out and work, than before when we had almost the entire time to do it! It's just proof to me that the Lord never closes a door without opening a window, that no matter what we're having to deal with in life, He is still able and willing to to give us all the blessings that we need and want in life.

I love you!

Anziano Nelson.

Hello!

So I'm being transferred again, I think I really upset President this time, so much that he can't stand the thought of me being in the same country as him, so he's sent me to Switzerland! I've heard tell that it's the most beautiful place in Europe, I guess I'll find out tomorrow! I'll be living right on a lake, with a beautiful view, according to the previous missionaries who've served there. However I spoke to one of the other Missionaries who served there, and he has a photo of a thermometer proving that it had reached 50 degrees while he was there. I really hope that it doesn't do that this year, I start suffering at 30/35!

Something I've really learnt while in Muggiò how important the members really are. Most of my work came from members, involving them in teaching, but most importantly, teaching their friends. We were full by the end, no time to do anyhting but teaching. Something that they proved to me is that when we open our mouths with our friends, the Lord will help us. The Lord will show us what to do. Then, most importantly, we mustn't be afraid to trust our friends to the Lord's servants, the Missionaries! I'm comfident that your friendships will be strengthened and that you'll have friends that will truly love you as you share the Gospel with them, just enough to whet their appetite, and then allow the Lord's Ordained servants teach them the Gospel. There's nothing that grows love faster and stronger than the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

I love you!

Anziano Nelson.