Life in the City- Feb 25, 2018

So I got transferred to the Sutherland ward! Some quick facts about the ward:

• insanely rich. cheapest property/house is around $2million
• super old. I think the average age in our ward is 70. not joking
• they're all white. it's a huge change from the Campbelltown area.
• lots of pristine beaches and cool stuff to do. unfortunately, beaches are red-zoned (for good reason haha)
• almost the entire area is downtown. (great for street contacting)
• the areas along the coast are just 4-5 story mansions with private beaches. 
• we can use the train to get pretty much anywhere

This week has been pretty crazy. President Leota (seventies and our new MP) wants everybody in the mission to catch his vision, so Elder Smith and I have been doing a bunch of trainings all over the zone (I think I forgot to mention last week that I was assigned to be a ZL) Because we cover the Mortdale zone and the mission offices are here, we get to work very closely with President Leota. which is pretty cool. :) 

President Leota's vision is based off of Matthew 10:5-10. It's a good scripture for any missionary to read because it's advice from the Savior to the Apostles right before they leave on their missions. The main focus for us is going to be working almost solely with less-actives (lost sheep) and "preach as ye go." So no more designated finding time (knocking doors for hours on end). Hallelujah.

Elder Smith (my new companion) is from Farmington, Utah. He went to Viewmont High School. We found out that I have actually been inside that High School a couple times, once for Tyler Whiteside's book signing and once for a band competition. Small world :)

Our flat mates, Elder Bohne (Bah-nee) is from Canada, and Elder Zimmerman (F-ah-nix) is from Bountiful. We're in the sister's old flat, which is awesome because we have knives, utensils, and two toilets. Unfortunately, it's really small. Elder Smith and I are sleeping on the floor for the foreseeable future because there's not enough room for two more beds. I just remind myself that one, soon to be two of my best friends would gladly trade me for their cockroach infested homes. ;) (shoutout to Abby and Colton in Argentina and Zimbabwe)

I'll try and get some pictures of the upper-end houses this week. Unfortunately, the only time that we've been able to work is late at night when it's dark.

Much Prayer and Fasting- Feb 18, 2018

Fair warning, this email is going to be kind of dry; this week has been a little rough.

So on Wednesday morning, President Bingham was cycling with some other guys and had an accident. Apparently he hit a rock, came off the bike, and hit his head against a wall. He was wearing a helmet, so his head is fine, but the whiplash broke his neck, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. The doctors here are waiting till he is stabilized before they fly him back to America for treatment. We don't really know what is permanent at this point, but they keep stressing that his condition is pretty bad. 

In the meantime, the first presidency will call an intermediate mission president until we know more. The theme for our mission now is "carry on." Everything will still go as normal with transfers tomorrow, as well as the two missions merging in July. The AP's spoke about how getting transfer details sorted out usually takes an entire week, but for some reason, President Bingham had finished about 95% of the assignments the day before.

Yesterday I found out I was leaving Camden ward. It's really hard because we have so many investigators that are going to be ready for baptism within the next few months. This next transfer will include a lot of new learning and leading opportunities, which is kind of scary with president gone. We're not supposed to ask people back home to fast, but I will ask for your prayers. 

Pictures and emails from home are always welcome :)

Elder Nelson

1. This crazy demon bird that hangs out around our bus stop

2. Traditional Samoan chanting staff??? not sure what it's called, but Elder Falaniko starts chanting every time he holds it.

3. Last picture with these guys

4. My birthday present that I bought with money from grandparents. It was only $29 which is an extremely good deal over here (lunch from McDonald's is $15). Islanders always break stuff haha;)

5. 10 seconds of praying and you can ensure your salvation! it's that easy! 

I'm the Whale- Feb 11, 2018

To answer a few questions from home:

How are Sam and Natasha?

Unfortunately, they haven't been to church the past two weeks. We're not sure what happened yesterday, but last week, Sam missed church so that he could go buy church clothes (really?) That just made us laugh. But other than that, they are all doing really well.

Does the mother and father both work in most families there?

It varies. The cost of living here is extremely high, but childcare is even more expensive. Somebody told me that they pay $200 per day per child. So depending on the size of the family and the age of the kids, it is sometimes (almost always) cheaper for the mother to stay home. 

Do you know any of your neighbors?  Are they friendly?

One of our neighbors (Simon) really loves BMX racing. He's older (probably 50's), but he still has an assortment of bikes and is always working on one. It's kind of funny because we have the worst bikes in the mission. Something is always falling apart and he will stop us every day and insist that he fix whatever's broken at the time. He's not very interested in religion, but he's always good to talk to. 

Spiritual experience from this week:

On Friday we were out knocking doors, but I kept getting this nagging feeling. So I stopped my companion and told him that I really felt like we needed to visit some members in that area. I flipped through the ward list and found one name that I had never seen before. The only problem was, I hadn't taken a picture of the map, so I had no idea how to find the street (there are hundreds of streets in this area). We walked to the end of the road, only to find out that we were actually on the street that we needed to find! So we went to the house and knocked on the door, only to find a less-active lady from the northern part of our ward that had been avoiding us for weeks, but was just visiting her sister for the day. It felt like the story of Jonah and the whale. You can't hide from God and you can't hide from whales. I'm the whale. 

I'll keep this one short :) 

Elder Nelson

1. I caught Elder Anitema stealing the watermelon. jk he just looks suspicious.

2. Last pday we went to a traditional tongan farm that the members here take care of. They fed us really good watermelon.

3. Me next to a Taro plant. Taro is kind of like a gray sweet potato. Most islander meals have taro as a side dish.

4. Elder Falaniko and I at a local lookout. 

Hello from Australia!- Feb 4, 2018

Hello from Australia! Life here keeps moving along. I don't have anything super exciting to share this week, so I thought I'd answer some questions from back home.

What are some of the local sayings and colloquial things people say in your area?

Heaps- use instead of "a lot"

Far Out- use instead of "wow" or "that's crazy"

Eh- use exactly how you think Canadians would. Eh

Good on Yah- use like "good for you"

Flat- apartment

What is the music like in your ward?  Does everyone sing?  Does it sound good?

Islanders are generally pretty musical. Unfortunately, our ward chorister likes to pick songs that nobody knows, so it's hit and miss.

When was the last time you saw an answer to prayer?

My companion and I were stuck out in Glen Alpine (pretty far from our flat) last Monday around 8:30pm. I knew that the bus wasn't supposed to come for a little bit, which meant that we wouldn't make it home on time. So we said a prayer that a member would drive past and offer us a ride (not very likely). Probably 30 seconds later, I see a member driving up the road. I was so confident that they would stop. Unfortunately, God had other plans. For some reason or another, the member decided not to stop. A few minutes later, a bus driver pulls up and offers us a ride (the bus wasn't on the schedule). The driver (who wasn't a member) just bible bashed us the whole time, but that's okay. He wouldn't let us leave the conversation, so I just told him that I didn't foresee the discussion leading anywhere productive, so we had to get off. He was super offended, but it was interesting to see the Lord answer our prayer in his own way. Maybe that was what the bus driver needed to hear. 

It looks like you are in a car sometimes and you talk about public transportation. Do you have a bike? Do you use it? 

So we have a massive area, two sets of elders, one car, two bikes and extremely limited K's (kilometers). And the bikes are not very good. We end up using the bus most days.

Is there anyone you would like us to include in our prayers?

Me. Is that selfish? haha

What is your favorite smell right now?  Least favorite?

Last night, after fasting, a member bought us a ton of KFC. That smelled pretty good. :) Honestly, though, I have to say that I miss the smell of guavas from LA. There's not a lot of plants here that have nice smells. I don't know about the worst smell, but there's an area in our ward that always smells like dog poo. Like a few square kilometers. It is kind of impressive to think about how much coordination it would take between neighbors to pull off something like that, but I have to wonder what it does to the property value. 

How has your testimony grown since leaving home?  How has the atonement strengthened you as a missionary?

My testimony has grown heaps, but probably the biggest change has been my willingness to serve the lord 100%. I'm learning how to get along with other missionaries as I strive to be consecrated in my efforts. 

Are there any youth in your ward preparing to serve missions? How are you involved with them?

There is one girl from my ward that just barely got her mission call, but the other elders have been meeting with their family. There is one RC that moved into our ward recently (17yrs old) that wants to serve a mission. We're going over to his house this week to teach the discussions again.

I'll try and do interesting stuff this next week. ;)

Elder Nelson