Sydney Australia Mission- Jan 28, 2018

First off, I want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes! One of the benefits of living in Australia: all the holidays come a day early! haha. I got the packages from Heidi and Mom! Thank you so much! (Mom-I love the wallet; Heidi-I don't know how you knew, but lemonade doesn't exist in Australia. Thanks!) 

Congratulations to Sadie on the robots! As I recall, my first year with PEP, we finished 2nd from last as well. As for Tad, I would be interested to see a picture of your code. As I recall, I struggled for hours trying to figure out a "more elegant solution" as you put it. haha.

Okay.

Drumroll...

....

WE GOT AN INVESTIGATOR TO COMMIT TO BAPTISM! I'm pretty sure I talked about Sam Vaisevuraki last week, but I'll do a quick review for those of you who don't read my emails consistently (I know who you are :). Sam has been inactive for around 20 years. A few months ago, Elder Sim and I were able to run into Natasha (his wife) as she was walking into the house. She told us how she had been taking the discussions from the Jehovah's Witnesses, but that she was willing to give us a shot because 1) her husband was already a member and 2) she knew we had some famous rugby players in our ward. (probably more because of #2) We stopped by heaps of times, but we were only able to visit with Sam once. After that, he was always "busy" or "working." But Elder Falaniko and I were finally able to get in with the help of Brother Perrett (one of the before mentioned rugby players) and share a message with Sam. He broke down and shared about how he had been humbled now and was ready to come back, but he was just scared of taking the first steps. They've been coming to church the past two weeks and accepted our invitation to be baptized! When we called Bishop with the news, he quite nearly dropped the phone. jk, but not really. This will be the first convert baptism in recent memory for the Camden ward.  

Weird thing about that: In our mission, an investigator is counted as someone that you teach twice and set a return appointment with. So Natasha and Niko have come to church twice (attended gospel principles) and committed to baptism, they don't count as investigators because we haven't had two official "lessons." I still don't understand that, but I will sustain my leaders here. 

DON'T STOP READING YET! THERE'S MORE!

So more big news from this week: In July, the Sydney North and South Missions will be joined into one mission. That may seem like not very big news to all of you, but everyone here is preparing for the worst. I have heard stories about the north mission. 

From what we've heard, they will probably stop calling missionaries here for a while until the numbers drop back down to a normal level, but it will be pretty crazy for a while. Our mission is already one of the largest (some areas they have to split travel up over several days for transfers), as well as one of the most culturally diverse. I know President Bingham already has to work pretty hard to keep everything running, so adding the actual city part of Sydney with extra land will be pretty crazy. 

That's everything interesting from my life. haha. 

Elder Nelson

P.S. 3rd of March on the Baptisms 

1. I'm not sure what Elder Falaniko is doing, but we found hakuna matata street

2. we were super stoked to update our area book.

Miracles- Jan 21, 2018

This week was full of cool miracles, so I'll just go straight into the spiritual moments.

A few weeks ago, I had knocked on the door of a girl named Mele. She seemed willing to listen to us and told us we could come back in about a week. We had tried a few times, but nobody had been home. So on Friday, Elder Falaniko and I went back to try again. I hadn't written down the address (rookie mistake, right?) but I had been past the house a few times. But when we went over to the area, I couldn't seem to find the road she lived on. We walked around for a few minutes and decided to head back to the bus stop. As we were waiting for the bus, I turned around and noticed a bunch of smoke rising from the area we had just been in. We went back the following day and found the house easy. I don't know if we would have been in any danger from the fire/arsonist, but it was interesting to see God's hand in keeping us out of the path of danger. 

The second miracle: So a couple weeks ago, Elder Simanungkalit and I  went to the store to look for a new GPS for him. While we were there, we saw one of the workers eyeing us a little bit. We waved and said hi, and he introduced himself as a recent convert of just a few months. He told us that he was working on his mission papers so that he could leave right as he reached 1 year in the church (he's 18). We left and didn't think much of it. But this last Sunday, as we're getting ready to go to classes, I see him wandering around. It turns out that he actually lives in our ward boundaries, but had been going to Campelltown 1st ward for some reason. We directed him to the right class and were able to help him out.

The last miracle this week: About a month ago, Elder Simanungkalit and I met a lady named Natasha Vaisevuraki (see previous emails). Her husband is a member, but he hasn't been to church in 18-23 years. She has been interested in getting her kids involved in religion and actually started meeting with some Jehovah's Witnesses. We met Sam (the husband) once, but he was very aggressive and had some doctrinal concerns about the church. He kept saying, "I don't believe that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are 3 different people. I just need somebody to sit me down and explain why you guys teach that. If they can explain why you teach it that way even though it's not true, then I will come back to church." We kept trying to stop by, but he was never home. So on Wednesday, we decide to go try again with Brother Perrett. To our surprise, he opened the door and invited us in. We had a really good discussion with him (aka he started crying). He shared how he has always been very prideful and it has gotten in the way. He told us how in the past couple weeks, God has helped humble him. He apologized for how contentious he was before and told us he was ready to come back. He kept saying how he really was just scared of making the changes in his life. Normally, these experiences don't translate to church attendance, but--miracle of miracles--he showed up to church with his wife and 4 kids! They all attended the Gospel Principles class (newly created with help from the ward) where we all discussed our Heavenly Family. The teacher explained very clearly how Heavenly Father interacts with us through the Holy Ghost and the light of Christ, which was exactly what Sam needed. It was so amazing to see the lesson taught exactly to his needs. 

It's fun to hear from home! Thanks for all the emails!

Elder Nelson

1. Evidence of miracle #1

2. On the train

3. We found a kitten for a less-active family. I don't know if it's on par with healing the lame or raising the dead, but they thought it was a miracle. Hopefully we can get them back to church haha

Cocoa Samoa- Jan 14, 2018

First off, I will agree with Colton when he says that this week has been a little stressful (haha) President Bingham asked me to train a new missionary straight from Samoa (I've been in Australia for one transfer). I laughed when I read mom's email this week because she said "just be glad you don't have to train in Japanese." Elder Falaniko started learning English in the MTC, so proselyting sometimes ends up looking a bit like charades haha :) On the up side, I'm learning a little bit of Samoan :)

Life is good though. Elder Falaniko is super excited to learn everything, which makes it easier. He was the first person in his family to join the church 2 years ago and since then, his entire family has been baptized.

We got two new flat mates! Elder Aiono (American Samoa) and Elder Olson (Alberta Canada). Elder Aiono is a big guy. He started as a nose tackle (I don't know what that means) for the Oregon Ducks before the mission. He's a super funny guy and it's nice to have another Samoan speaking missionary on hand to translate if we need it.

Elder Aiono's uncle (lives in Sydney) dropped off some stuff from Samoa this week. I got a really nice lava-lava (it's olive green with black tribal patterns). I feel like doing a haka every time I put it on. I also got to try some Cocoa Samoa. I'm not sure how they make it, but from what I understand, it's mostly straight cocoa and it comes in a hard block. To make the drink, you grate some of it off into boiling water and add sugar. It tastes slightly burnt, but it's pretty good. I'm probably going to try a timtam slam tonight with Cocoa Samoa. Ote fiafia ile Cocoa Samoa. Manaia

Spiritual Experience:

We were teaching Brooke last Saturday and she had some questions about families in the plan of salvation. She was a little upset because we stress the importance of families so much, but she is currently going through a divorce. She couldn't see how there was a place for her in the church. I felt impressed to turn to Elder Falaniko. After some brief explanations (he was mostly following along with the discussion, but we had to explain her question), Elder Falaniko shared his conversion story with Brooke. He then pulled off the sleeve that he wears and showed her the tattoo on his arm. He told her about how before he became a member, he made some bad decisions, but when he was baptized, all those sins were washed away. We shared about how ours is not a religion of mistakes and punishment, but one of forgiveness and growth.

Elder Nelson

Help! Jan 7, 2018

So I got a call Sunday morning from the AP's telling me I'm going to be training. I've been here for 1 transfer. Any suggestions from the RM's? I don't want to mess him up too bad haha

For Pace: I haven't tried the cheese wiz thing, but I bet you haven't tried an Oreo/Cadburry chocolate bar. :) I've also had some pretty awesome chocolate oreo milkshakes.

To Mom: Two pants should last me a while, but I'll try to take a picture of the tag. Also, I have been working really hard and am down 2lbs from the beginning of the mission (168-166). *for all you doubters out there*

To Isaac: Good luck at college! I'm super excited for you! don't get stressed out too much and enjoy yourself. 

To Mom again: I took some color enhanced pictures of the coastline (I figured out how to work my camera). I don't know about a quilt, but it was a pretty good view.

First Transfers! (in Australia)- Jan 7, 2018

2018 looks like it's going to be a good one! Transfers are tomorrow and it looks like I'll be the only elder out of the four of us staying in Camden. I can't believe that I've already been in Australia for a whole transfer! The mission's practically over! haha.

Elder Simanungkalit has been cleaning out all of his old stuff, so I've received lots of cool gifts. I'll include a picture of me in my new lava-lava (spelling?). In addition to the lava-lava, Sim's mom bought him a suit that was way to big for him that he's been carrying around for months, and it actually fits me perfectly. Like better than the one I brought from home. Pretty crazy. So I've got a brand new suit now. :) 

So it's been super hot this last little bit. Yesterday, somebody told us that it was 45C and 80% humidity. I've decided that I'm not even going to do the math on that one. And apparently it gets hotter towards the end of January/February. It's raining a bit today, so it's cooled off a little. 

Funny moment:

(Long story up to this point) We ended up teaching a Japanese man with the help of a translator. His name is Eisaku and he speaks very little English.  Elder Simanungkalit openly admits that he has a really weird accent; from what I gather, he grew up in a home where 5ish languages were spoken, plus he has a slight speech impediment. And then he learned English in Australia. So he's a little difficult to understand. One of the phrases that he uses all the time as a filler is "the things" or "that things." As we're teaching Eisaku, Elder Sim keeps throwing in "the things"/"that things" into his language. Eisaku gets super confused and insists that we stop and explains what "that things" means. We spent forever trying to explain that it doesn't really mean anything, but I don't think he ever really understood.

Spiritual moment:

So Brooke is progressing really well. We had dinner with her at bishop's house the other night and we had a really good discussion about reading the scriptures and praying. At one point, she brought up that she is really passionate about doing family history work and learning about her ancestors (ding ding ding! that is the correct answer!) The only difficult thing with Brook is that when she brings up all these gospel principles, we can't stop and talk about them, because in order to explain the spirit of Elijah, you have to explain the spirit world/baptism/ordinances. And to explain all that, she needs to understand the basics of Christ and little details like God (the guy who created us) lives in heaven (where we go after this life). She just has so little knowledge of the basics that we can't start connecting the dots for her quite yet. So we just leave it vague when we say that our church provides lots of family history work opportunities. 

That's about all for now!

Elder Nelson

1. When it's too hot for pants 

2. Sim has a killer diet

3. A Grass Hopper (actually looks like grass??)

4. Jumping picture (except Elder Tang didn't jump)

5. Our District

6. Somebody LOVES hotwheels cars

Christmas Kangaroos! A Whole Swarm of Them!- Dec. 7, 2017

So for anyone visiting Australia, the best time to see kangaroos is between skype calls on Christmas day. haha. I'll include pictures (probably a wallaby). I got some more pictures of a group of them (a herd?), but they're a little bit further away and difficult to see. Kangaroos are super weird because the whole (flock?) will stop and stare at you for 15 minutes before deciding that humans are a threat. As if on cue, they all run away in a mass panic. 

Other wildlife: Elder Petchon (flatmate) is from the Philippines. Spider fighting is pretty big there, so he has been teaching me how to play with spiders without getting bit. I will include pictures (warning: the spiders are fairly large here).

Christmas was really fun. We got to visit lots of members and came away with quite a bit of candy and a few ties :)

Sim and I bought matching sunglasses for Christmas because our eyeballs are getting sunburned ;) haha that's Australia.

All the libraries are closed this week, so our whole zone is trying to use 6 computers. I should probably cut this one short ;) I'll try to send a longer email next week.

Elder Nelson

1. My spider taming

2. A wallaby
3. New Glasses
4. Our Christmas Gifts from the members

ELLDAAAIRS!- Dec 22, 2017

First off, sorry for the early/short email. Hopefully I'll get onto a more regular schedule eventually, but we've got Christmas this Monday, then New Years, then transfers, then P-day might change (still up in the air).

Not much has happened since Tuesday, except WE GOT OUR FIRST NEW INVESTIGATOR!! Brooke is in her 30's, has 3 children, and (without divulging too much info) is currently going through all the trials you can think of. Literally every tragic, life-shaking event that readily comes to your mind happened in the months of November and December. That's really hard for her, so we've been trying to help out as much as possible, but teaching her is honestly so rewarding. She has no religious background at all and literally knows nothing about Jesus Christ, God, or what the different religions teach. We taught the Plan of Salvation the first time we met and when we went back to visit, she said that she had read through the chapters we left, as well as the pamphlet, and she believes everything she read. After her father died this year, her brother had several dreams about the spirit world. She told us that she wants to share this with her brother because it is exactly how he described it, except he doesn't believe in a God. She also is really eager to start teaching her kids about religion, but in her words "I don't know what to teach them yet, because I'm still learning. So you have to treat me like one of your Primary kids." So for Christmas, we bought her the illustrated old testament, new testament, and book of mormon storybooks. Hopefully it will help her and her kids gain a better foundation for everything.

In other news, we had a multi-zone Christmas conference on Wednesday! It was pretty awesome to get to meet so many other missionaries. I met Sister Burgoyne from Idaho Falls! She said she graduated from Compass Academy in 2016. I don't think we had ever met before, but we knew a lot of the same people! If any of my friends from the Idaho Falls area know her, definitely send me an email! She also ran X-country if that helps.

Elder Sim and I just got back from giving a blessing to Sister Vicencio. She's an 86 year old lady from the Philippines. When she talks to us, every sentence is prefaced by "ELLDAAAIRS!" She is so funny and I already love her so much. She's in a lot of pain right now (her body is just shutting down), but she still has a REALLY good memory. Unfortunately, it's difficult for her to get ready for church every week because of the pain. She feels guilty because she hasn't missed a week of church since she joined in the 80's (pretty impressive). She wanted us to come by and give her a blessing specifically so that she can make it to sacrament meeting tomorrow. Her faith is an inspiration to me. She truly understands the importance of the sacrament in her life. She lives in a senior living community, so there is some assistance, but she has to shop on her own. This presents a problem because of the pain in her legs. So her next door neighbor (96) goes around with his walker and delivers her groceries every week, as well as making the rounds to all the other neighbors. I was amazed at the dedication he has to serving others. I hope that when I'm that old, I will have life figured out as well as he does. 

I'm super excited to see everybody on Christmas(my time)/Christmas Eve(your time)! I'll try to call around 3 my time.

Elder Nelson

Death by Fruitbats- Dec. 17,2017

First off, sorry for the late letter. We moved our P-day so that we could go to the temple this morning! It was super awesome!

This week we travelled out to Picton, which is in the middle of nowhere. It's a very scenic trainride, though. I personally love going out to the country areas because of all the nature we get to see. So as we're tracting, we hear this screeching noise that gets louder the closer we get to this bridge. As we're crossing the bridge, we look down and see the trees down by the river blanketed with fruitbats. According to my companion, you don't want to get to close because they're pretty dangerous??? I took some pictures, but I don't know if you can see the bats. Basically everything not covered in leaves has bats on it. Pretty cool.

So the feasting continues :) sorry for those of you who might be starving in Argentina. I'll try to make this the last email about food. haha. I've included the latest picture of me and our pickings from one night this week. We ate as much as we could, and they still sent us home with so much food (mostly candy, so it's all good). The Islanders have this really good sweet potato that they cook in coconut cream. It's pretty much solid protein (probably why they eat it). It's pretty sticky, like oatmeal, but so good! And it's gray. If they have anything like that in the states, I want to find some when I get home. To give you perspective on how much it is customary to eat here, I'll share with you a story relayed to me by Elder Simanungkalit. So during his time visa waiting in Indonesia, they assigned him to serve with a Samoan companion. For P-day, they went to this restaurant that specialized in serving lots of meat. Similar to Big Jud's back home, they had a 1kg challenge where they serve you 1kg of meat (2.2lbs). His companion easily completed the challenge, and they went back the next week for the 2kg challenge. And the following week, as well as the week after that. They finally asked him to stop coming when he completed the 4kg challenge in under 25 minutes (by himself). That is the equivalent of about 9 Big Jud Burgers. For those of you who want to have thanksgiving every night, here is the dieting schedule I follow: 1. If I'm hungry, I drink lots of water. 2. If I'm still hungry, I let myself eat an apple. 3. I then sweat a gallon of water every day. There you go. 3 easy steps and you can eat whatever you want for one meal a day. :)

(pause for a second)

The second half of this letter is going to be a little more spiritual, so here you go:

 

Over here (and probably everywhere) the people think that after we serve a mission, we're guaranteed a job as a minister in our church. It is honestly a little depressing how everyone assumes that we do this for money. This country is very concerned with making and spending money. Last week, when we were caught out in the rain (4 hours of walking country roads), not a single person stopped to offer us a ride. It was kind of eye-opening to me because I never really understood how Jesus could say that it is near impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Australia is entirely peopled with wealthy individuals. (interesting thought on that: in Jesus the Christ, Talmage notes that an eye of the needle in Christ's time actually meant the side gate into a city (tight fit). Camels could only enter if all the baggage was removed) That being said, I have met some truly amazing individuals over here who are perfect examples of selfless service, as well as raising strong families.

Spiritual thought:

I think I've mentioned Dave before, but some quick background on him; Dave and his 6 other friends (studying theology) have started their own church a few blocks away from ours. We have been teaching Dave off and on, but it feels like he is more interested in learning the doctrines of our church merely so he can pick and chose what he likes to teach to his own congregation. This made me stop and think for a minute; what if Dave copied every single one of our beliefs--just started the Mormon Church II down the road? What would be different? The obvious answer is the authority from God. But equally important is the convincing power of the Holy Ghost. Dave is a smart guy, but somehow I don't believe that he could stand up in church on Sunday and tell the congregation that God had asked them to move to Ohio. He couldn't call 30 year old men to leave their families and share the gospel in another country for an undisclosed period of time. Nobody in his congregation would travel across the plains in the middle of winter and sacrifice their lives for his religion. Why? Because it is the Church of Dave--not the Church of Jesus Christ. All too often, we forget that we are not just another church in a sea of varying beliefs. It is because this is the Church of Jesus Christ that when the prophet calls all worthy, able young men, ages 18-25, I responded to the call and came out here to preach the gospel. This IS the true church. Don't doubt that.

Elder Nelson

Stranded- Dec 10, 2017

So Elder Simanungkalit and I got stranded out in the middle of nowhere this week :) We decided to take the bus out to Oakdale, which is a small town 45 minutes away. We figured we could knock some doors out there and visit some of the members/less actives. But as soon as we get off the bus, it starts pouring buckets of rain. It was literally more water than getting sprayed by several hoses. And then it started hailing. We ran to the nearest house and stood on their porch. It was a little awkward when they came out to look at the rain, but it actually worked out because it was the only conversation we had that day (Australia is pretty tough). None of the members were home, so we knocked doors for a bit and then headed back to the bus stop. Long story short, the bus (comes every 2 hours) disappeared. We called the transportation office and they couldn't find out what happened to it. But the entire 4 hours, we had the impression that the bus could be coming any second, which made it even worse. My favourite part of the day, though, was as we were knocking doors (100 metres between houses), this dog started following us. We named him Elder Victoris (long story). Walking in the rain with a dog we had just met just made me super happy for some reason.

While we were in Oakdale, I also saw a few kangaroos! Sorry, no pictures yet, but don't expect too much. They look pretty similar to deer (colour, head shape), except they only have 2 legs.

Every Saturday morning, we play footy (rugby kind of) with all the elders in our zone. It's super fun, and it's nice to play in the morning when it's not as hot.

You'll be happy to hear that despite all the feasting that happens here, I have managed to not gain any weight. I'm still going strong two months into the mission, Dad! :)

As for the spiritual side of the work, the successes we see are much smaller than in other places. This area is especially tough. We have been working with a few less-active families who sincerely want to come back to church. That's pretty cool. It was also super awesome to see pictures of Miguel's baptism from Los Angeles! I'm so proud of him!

For Christmas, I'm probably going to Skype home on Christmas day (my time). We still haven't set a time yet, so just email me with what time works best. If I can call 3-5pm (my time), then I'll probably get a member dinner out of it as well, so just keep that in mind ;)

That's about all for now!

Elder Nelson

Picture 1: Most of our zone after playing footy

Picture 2: Our Christmas tree

Picture 3: Me and Elder Victoris

50 Missionaries Perform the Haka- Dec. 3, 2017

So for the first (and probably the last) time in my life, I was asked to perform the Haka at a Samoan funeral. I just learned it that day, so I wasn't super confident in my haka skills, but it was SO COOL! We had all the missionaries from the Macarthur and Mortdale Zones there, and most of them are already islander (meaning they are familiar with hakas), so it was pretty awesome. There's a lot of build-up to the actual performance (war cries, grunting, heavy breathing), which just makes the haka super intimidating. I can totally see how it would be used to pump up warriors/rugby players.

The service was really good. They probably had about 1000 people there, which was really good for the family. The missionaries were also asked to carry the casket in and out, as well as sing called to serve and the army of helaman. It was a super powerful experience. The family also invited us to stay afterwards for the food and everything, so President Bingham let us stay out later (crazy!)

I'm also learning how to play footy (very similar to rugby). It's actually a really fun sport, and you end up getting a lot of exercise. President Bingham only wants us to play touch, which is probably a good thing, because elder sim is probably 3-4 times smaller than some of the other elders. haha

Australia also won the Rugby world cup!!! (not really a big surprise; it's always between Australia and New Zealand)

So last P-day we went to the botanical gardens here, which is just a big reserve park with a small section dedicated to growing lots of cool Australian plants. Elder Sim was going to catch a snake, but we couldn't find one. Instead, we took a picture with a komodo dragon! (see attached picture;) 

So spiritual experiences:

We started teaching a 10 year old girl named Kalena. At first, I was a little bit apprehensive because at 10, I feel like she doesn't know enough to make an informed decision about becoming a member of the church. But as I got to know her, I realized just how special she is as a person.  She lives in Claymore, the ghetto portion of the area, in a house with her single mom and older brother who are not interested at all with taking the lessons. But she has been prepared by Heavenly Father to receive the lessons. She always takes time to sit down with us (outside) and is interactive and engaged in the lessons. She is sincerely interested in improving her life. It serves as a testimony to me that the elect hear God's voice and respond to the call, regardless of the age.

We got to go give a blessing this week to a less-active family. While we were there, the mother broke down and started crying because she felt so guilty that she called us to give a blessing to her son (1 year old who has hand/foot/mouth), but hadn't been attending church. It turns out that her and her husband had been discussing bringing the kids back to church for a while. To me, it was obvious that Heavenly Father put things in motion to change that desire into action. If they hadn't called us for a blessing, it would have been months before the missionaries stopped by and extended an invitation. But Heavenly Father knew that they could benefit from having the gospel in their lives right now.

That's about it for now! 

Elder Nelson

To Pace: see the attached pictures

Picture 1: A little thought from my personal scripture study. haha

Picture 2: So I've got a new Frisbee trick I've learned in my downtime at the end of the day. See if you can get it down by Christmas ;)

To Isaac: Thanks for the pictures :) They mean a lot more when you're on your mission ;)