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

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