VISA

So I got my Visa! I got a call from the mission President over the weekend informing me that I'll be leaving this Saturday. I haven't gotten my flight plans yet, but I think I'll probably skip Sunday as I cross the dateline. Pretty weird. I looked up the time difference for Sydney, and it looks like it's 6 hours behind, plus a day. So you'll probably start getting my emails in the afternoon on Sundays. I'm excited for my last week here in LA though! I forgot to mention in my previous emails, but the world series between the Dodgers and the Astros has been big news here. My companion, elder Patrick is from Houston, so we were well posted on all the scores as the games went on. Halloween was just like another day in the mission life, except we weren't allowed to leave our apartment after 6pm.  Everyone says there's weird stuff that goes on in LA during Halloween. 

Weird/Funny/Interesting experiences:

We were looking for some less actives in probably the nicest trailer park I've ever seen and this old guy walks up to us and starts talking about how he joined the church back in the 70's. It slowly spiraled into how the world is ending and how when the natural disasters hit, he'll be the only one who survives because he has a garden behind his trailer (two cherry tomato plants and a lemon tree). Towards the end, he started accenting everything he said with explosion sounds and motions with his hands. Elder Hiatt joined in and I about lost it. I had to turn around and try to ignore the conversation to keep from laughing. 

Early this week, we stopped to help this old lady pick her lemons/limes (the word for both in Spanish is limon). She sent us home with around 150 lemons/limes. So I've had fresh lemonade every day this week! 

We carved pumpkins last p-day, which was pretty fun. We're headed downtown today with some of the other elders, so I'll try and finish my package of souvenirs and get it sent home. 

Spiritual experiences:

We took Miguel (one of our investigators) to the visitors center this week. It was a really cool experience and we could see his Faith grow a lot. On our way out, this guy who was working on the lights at the temple stopped us and talked for a solid 20 minutes about his conversion story. This guy took 3 years of being an investigator before he was baptized. He said that if he had known then what he knows now, that he wouldn't have waited so long. It really hit Miguel hard, because he's in the same situation. Miguel has pushed back 2 baptismal dates because he feels like he doesn't know enough. He told us yesterday that it made a really big impact on him. 

The next two stories are two drastically different examples, so I'll let you draw your own conclusions. 

First story: Earlier in the day on Halloween, we knocked on the door of a less active member. Her son answers the door and tells us to wait just a minute. A couple seconds later, we hear a scream from inside. We all look at each other a little nervously. Karen (an older southern black woman) opens the door and says pretty forcefully, "who sent you here?!" We kind of look at each other confused. She then starts talking to the sky, "I prayed for a miracle and you went ahead and sent me three!" She then turns to us "God sent you, didn't he?" We go inside, have a great lesson, she cries, agrees to come back to church. In her words "God's telling me vacation's over." 

Second story: Again, we're visiting less actives. It's about 8:30, and pretty dark outside. We knock on the door and 50 ish-year-old man comes out on the porch. We ask how everything is going and he responds, "Not well. Everyone keeps dying on me. And before you go any further, I'm not coming back to church." We say, "okay, do you mind telling us why you feel that way?" Turns out, he had been converted by his wife, but they had never gotten along. "Never got married in the temple, because if I can't stand her here, why would I want her in the afterlife?" He eventually got tired of "all the hypocrisy" in the church and left. On top of that, he "honestly tried, but I never received a testimony." Elder Patrick (who comes from less active, part-member family) then called this man to repentance. Elder Hiatt and I were a little shocked that he was so upfront,  but it seemed to work. Elder Patrick explained that the Savior didn't just suffer for this man's sins, but for all mankind. This man had no right to deny others and himself of the changing and cleansing power of the atonement. This man, who up to that point had been pretty confrontational, starts tearing up and cuts off the conversation. He could very obviously feel the holy ghost testifying of the truth we taught, but he refused to let go of his grudges against the church. 

On that inspiring note, have a great week!

Elder Nelson II

Pictures 1,2, and 5: our pumpkins from last p-day. Also, sister Newson knows Kurt! Small world!

Picture 3: somebody had a statue of Diego from ice age

Picture 4: I'm pretty sure none of those scriptures prove their point, but feel free to enlighten me if anyone has a different interpretation 

Picture 6: somebody had a free-range chicken in LA

Picture 7(that I can't find): El sushi loco--only in LA do you find Mexican sushi places.