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 ;)

Elder Nelson vs. Black Widow- Nov. 27, 2017

So it turns out that humans have evolved to be very good at killing spiders. haha. I found a black widow in our flat this week (don't freak out mom, they're only dangerous if they bite you ;). I'll include a picture. It was pretty cool to see one in person. I also found one this morning in our back yard that was in the middle of an epic battle with a cockroach (I will also include a picture). I haven't seen any kangaroos this week, but hopefully I can get a picture next week (fingers crossed). We do also have a 2.5 ft lizard in our back yard. I'm pretty sure it's watching me because every time I have a camera on me, it doesn't come out :( I also think that it's poisonous because it has a blue tongue, but I can't remember exactly. Maybe look it up and send me a picture of different lizards with blue tongues haha :)

So the people here tell me I have a very strong American accent. I'm not quite ready to lose it though, because it gets kids in the street to talk to me. They all want to know what I think about Donald Trump (haha) so send me some of the latest news so I can stay up to date.

I don't know if I mentioned this the past two weeks, but I'm serving in the Camden ward. We also cover part of cambelltown (shoutout to Colton). I honestly love it here. Everyone says that the work is really slow here, but the members are awesome! We're getting lots of referrals and everyone's keen to help with member lessons and FHE nights. Bishop's wife had a big thanksgiving party on Saturday (normally not celebrated) for the American missionaries and also invited a fairly large crowd over. It was really awesome to see that she cares about us :) Something that's a little different over here is that with the Islander culture, there are a lot of famous athletes that are also Mormon. So I mentioned Sam Perrett (super active, amazing elders quorum pres.)(also was rugby world cup champion), but we also have brother Hopoate who has been gone playing for Tonga in the world cup right now. Bishop jokes that since Tonga has been winning, church attendance has gone up (true) The Lord works in mysterious ways, and if Tonga doing well in rugby means people start coming back to church, that's all right with me :) haha.

So every Wednesday, we do rescue visits with the elder's quorum. This week Elder Simanungkalit and I went with Brother Perrett to stop by some part member families and share a quick spiritual message. We had planned to stop by this one house, but this 10 year old boy opens the door and tells us that his parents aren't home. Brother Perrett sees that he's wearing a rugby jersey and starts asking him about how his team's doing. They have a pretty good talk and we tell him that we'll try and stop by later. As we were walking past the house later that night, we see a car pulling out of the garage. So we run over and stop the mother and start talking. She tells us how her son was super ecstatic that Sam Perrett had stopped by and talked about rugby. But we talked to the mom for a bit and it turns out that she's really interested in becoming active in a church. She said, "I've been talking to the Jehovah's Witnesses, but that's just because they knocked on my door. Since Nico (the son) is super excited about rugby, and my husband's already a member, maybe we'll start taking lessons." So we're going to try and start meeting with them :) I've decided that using Brother Perrett's fame to steal JW investigators is not a sin. ;)

Another cool story, we stopped by a less active member's house a week ago Monday to share a spiritual message. It turns out he's originally from western Ghana! (shoutout to Isaac) We talked a little bit about the church there, and it led in perfectly to Elder Simanungkalit's message about the standard of truth (Joseph Smith). We had a super spiritual lesson about how "no unhallowed hand can stop the work" and how the gospel is spreading. He shared about how when he first moved to Australia, the stake presidency came into their struggling elder's quorum and told the elders that they wanted to split the ward, but they needed more active priesthood holders. Brother Amaoko was sceptical (the elder's quorum was already struggling), but the split the ward anyway, and with the increased effort to reactivate the elders quorum, that ward is now the Camden ward! It was really awesome to hear his testimony. We have a dinner planned for this Saturday, so hopefully we can get him coming back to church.

That's about all for now!

Elder Nelson

p.s. I didn't want to include this as part of my weekly because it's more solemn, but there was a missionary from my stake here in Australia serving in Samoa that was hit by a car and killed not too long ago. The family wants all the missionaries in the zone here to take part in the funeral, which will be good. But I also would like to request your prayers on behalf of the Patiole family.

1. Black widow in our flat

2."White" sandwich bread (at the other elder flat--don't worry mom, we're pretty clean)

3. Black widow fighting a cockroach

Big Jud's Has Nothing on Samoa- Nov 19, 2017

So. Much. Food.

Prior to coming here, I was preparing to eat a lot because I had heard that eating is a big part of the Islander culture. I can tell you right now that there is no way to prepare for the sheer quantity of food that we get here. I love the hospitality that all the Tongans and Samoans show us here. Below, I have attached a picture of (only) the left over beverages we were sent home with from dinner at Brother Nauto's (keep in mind there were only five of us, we have meals most nights, and I didn't even get a picture of the leftover food). I talked to Sam Parrett (famous rugby player and elder's quorum president) and he recommended trying to eat mostly meat and greens so I don't pack on too much weight. Elder Petchon said that at the last baptism he had, the whole ward showed up and brought food. The missionaries got sent home with so much food that they couldn't close the trunk. We had a ward party on Saturday and they had this really good drink that I want to try to replicate, but I didn't get the recipe. It's probably 50/50 water and milk with shredded watermelon, coconut, and pineapple. There's enough stuff in it that you have to chew it.

In other news, Australia is really cool! Our ward boundaries include a significant portion of a national park here, so we went on a short hike last P-day. We saw a kangaroo (in the wild!) but I didn't get a picture of it :( I could have sent a picture of a dead one on the side of the road, but I think I'll wait for a better opportunity ;) Our ward is really awesome! It might be slightly smaller than the one at home, but the members here are awesome! The bishop's wife asked us to come into Relief Society yesterday and bring 10+ copies of the Book of Mormon. One of the sisters shared her story about giving away a Book of Mormon and it inspired the rest of them to come grab copies for their friends.

The work here is a little bit slower than most other places. I still haven't taught a lesson yet :( Most people here just aren't interested. The Australians either hate us or don't care. The Islanders on the other hand, are super awesome! It's fun to walk down the street because pretty much any Polynesian person you see will wave/give you money for food. I've heard that anywhere from 50-70% of Tonga is LDS, so if they aren't a member, then they generally have good feelings toward the church anyway. They also have a deep respect for missionaries, so we receive all sorts of gifts. And refusing food/gifts is considered rude (they don't get mad at you, they just won't invite you back), so we end up having to throw away lots of food.

I'm going to format the last part of my email a little differently this week because I just wanted to tell a little bit about my companion's backstory. Elder Simanungkalit is seriously super cool.

So he grew up in 3rd world Indonesia. He reminds me a little bit of Challin (my cousin). He loves dangerous animals (but not spiders) and grew up wrestling crocodiles (he says something about using a rope). He currently has one as a pet back home that's 5 metres long. He caught it when it was (only) 3 metres. The largest he's ever wrestled is 7 metres. He said its mouth was bigger than his torso and head. Anyway, he gets his call to come to Australia, but his visa is delayed, so he can't leave the country. Since the closest MTC is in the Philippines, he gets reassigned to go straight into the mission field in Indonesia. Because of some disobedient missionaries, his home stake has some problems with trusting the missionaries and the work is going really slow. So his mission president assigns him to serve in his home stake because the people there know and trust him. Because his dad's in some stake calling, they end up seeing each other and working together quite a bit and even has dinner with his family. While at dinner, his girlfriend shows up to his house. After about 4 months of waiting, he finally gets his visa. So he flies out to the MTC in the Philippines. In the Philippian MTC, they don't have any missionaries learning English. So he spends 3 weeks with the native togalog speakers (he doesn't speak togalog) learning how to be a missionary. (at this point, he also receives his first copy of PMG). After his 3 weeks in the MTC, he then comes to Australia, having never spoken English before (this was in March). In the intervening time, his father (a translator for the church) promises him that his English will improve if he finishes Jesus the Christ. So he tries twice, but gets stuck in the middle both times. He tries a third time and finally makes it through. He finished it a few weeks ago and he says that his English has improved. haha.

Also, his name is pronounced see-man-ung-call-it.

I'll try and answer some of your questions, Mom:

What are some Australian holidays coming up?

Christmas. They celebrate all of the same holidays here for the most part, minus thanksgiving and the 4th of July.

What new foods have you eaten?

We had carne asada on top of fries covered in cheese with barbeque sauce and the sweet and spicy sauce that I really like. That was pretty good. The Tongans and Samoans here hate salad/anything green, so we get a lot of different meat. Also, KFC is really big here with the Islanders, so a lot of times, they'll drop off a bucket of wings for dinner.

What is your companion's, and the other missionaries' in your apartment, conversion story? (personal or family)

Elder Petchon is from the Philippines (the church is exploding over there). His family was converted when he was really young, but he said that they originally kept having the missionaries over because they entertained the kids with magic tricks.

What are your neighbors like?

Neighbors honestly never talk to each other here. We've met one guy, and he lets us borrow his lawn mower every P-day. Not many people are interested in religion, though.

Tell us some Australian phrases.

Crikey (use instead of wow)

Chips (instead of fries)

Macca's (McDonald's)

Did you pack everything you needed? Do you have to scramble and buy anything?

Not really. I'm doing pretty good

Anything you overpacked?

Same.

What is the weather like? Do you miss winter?

The weather's actually been really nice here. 75-85 mostly. Everyone says that it's super unusual though, so it's about to get really hot. It's also drier here than I thought. About the same as LA

What is something funny that happened this week?

Elder Simanungkalit and I changed our ringtone to the recording "from the conference center in temple square..." that makes us laugh anytime anyone calls.

Is there anything/ anybody you would like us to include in our prayers?

Just for people to soften their hearts here. Nobody sees the need for religion.

That's about all for now!

Elder Nelson

1. My area. to the left of my finger is all national park, so we don't go out there. Up and to the left is Sydney

2. The national park

3. The national park and Elder Simanungkalit

4. Lots of apple juice. I also forgot to get the 2 bottles of Sunkist in that one as well.

5. What the houses look like here (this is a pretty rich area)

6. Name your own Vegemite Jar!

7. Australian drivers only use roads as a suggestion. People park on their manicured lawns regularly. This picture is in more of the ghetto area (still not that bad) but notice that those are sidewalks, not roads. The nearest road is a good 100 yards away.

P.S. There haven't been any truly massive spiders yet. Just moderately big ones. Elder Petchon (also grew up in a 3rd world country) has zero fear of spiders. He plays with them (with bare hands) and tries to get the spiders to fight, but apparently, the spiders here aren't as aggressive as in the Philippines.