Transfers!

Dear all,

So it is transfers yet again! My how time just flies by! Well, it looks like I'm staying in North Platte yet another transfer! But my companion and good friend Elder Benson is being transferred. I sure will miss him, but I know the Lord is in it, so all is well. We are also getting more Elders here in North Platte, so I will be back to just working in 1st ward instead of working in both 1st and 2nd. This makes me a little sad because that means I won't be working with Bruce Winters and the twins Hope and Faith anymore. I have seen Bruce progress so much, I just wish I could still work with him until I see the day that he comes back to church! Hopefully I am still in North Platte for that day.

This past week was pretty good. We actually got to go on exchanges with President Weston last Saturday. When he came every appointment that we had made for that day fell through, so that was a little embarrassing, but it all worked out in the end. We actually went to go see an inactive family, the Spradlins. We have been going to play card games with the kids the last couple of p-days so we could have fun on p-day and try to get closer to the family so that we can eventually get them to open up. So we stopped by with President and talked with Brother Spradlin for a while and it turns out that Brother Spradlin had been involved in some big ordeal where a lot of members of the church accused him of things and even after the Stake came out and told everyone that there will be no sides taken, there still were and he just decided that he wouldn't go to church anymore. He still has a testimony though, so President asked him if he wouldn't mind us coming back and teaching his family a bit. He said he would let us know. President then told us after we left that he will come back to church, we just have to keep working with him. He also said not to even bring up attending church with him and to not even let the ward know that we are teaching them. He said just go over there and teach them the doctrines. So that was some pretty powerful stuff!

Well that's all I have for this week. I'll try to remember more for Monday! I hope everyone is doing well! Keep up the good work everyone!

With tender love and care,
Ofa atu,
Elder Timmy Nelson

Less Active Work!

Dear All,

How is everyone doing!? I've been doing great! I've been super tires these last few days, but I've felt like these last few days have been super awesome! Sadly though, we haven't been getting a lot of investigator lessons in. We have, however been making some progress with some Less Actives! Some not so much progress, but we have been feeling the Spirit super strongly with some, so we know it just comes down to their agency to choose on whether to act on these things or not.

One person I'd like to talk about today I think I have talked about before. His name is Bruce Winters and he is the father of Faith and Hope. He is the one who won't let his daughter get baptized. He is a member himself, but he is inactive and goes to a different church all together. Well in the past he has had a problem with missionaries and he disliked them very much. He's warmed up a whole lot to Elder Benson and me since then though. We've been meeting with him and his daughter Faith about twice a week. Sometimes it seems like he is just trying to stump us, but we do our best to keep the Spirit there and not "bash" because we know that will only drive the Spirit away and that will push him away from the church even more. But the last couple of times he's had less "stumping questions", which to me seems like he is making progress. He is very nice and feeds us at times too. I have faith that we can help him come closer to Christ, but that doesn't mean we can take away his agency. He's got to choose for himself. We're just bring the truth to him, it's his decision to act on it or not though.

Well I wanted to talk about more people, but I am running very low on time! Michael did come to church yesterday! That was awesome and we are working really hard with him to get him to stop smoking and drinking coffee. I hope all is well! I love you all and am so very grateful to have you all in my life! I am so blessed! The Lord blesses me every day, as I know he does all of us! I hope you all recognize His hand in everything as well, and I pray that I will never forget His hand is everything as well. The Lord loves each and every one of us more then we can ever comprehend! Never forget that!

With tender love and care,
Ofa atu,
Elder Timmy Nelson

The Mission Field.

Dear all,

I wanted to start off by saying sorry about last week! I don't know why, but I totally forgot about this email! My brother Matt had just gotten married and I was reading about it and such and it just totally slipped my mind! Hopefully, though, it will never slip my mind again! I felt pretty bad that I had forgotten!

Well I have one story I wanted to share from the week before. It was more of a funny/sad experience again. That's right, more drunk/high people! We were going to go knock on a less-active/part member family at this apartment complex and this drunk guy comes up to us and is all like! Hey I want you to meet some people! They want to talk to you guys! So we went over and on his porch is a big group of drunk/high people. I was like "oh crud!" So they get talking to us and this one guy starts talking to me one on one while my companion is talking to everyone else. The guy I was talking to was just like "So could you tell me what you guys are all about." So I just told him our basic beliefs and he was all like "Really? So people don't like you guys just because you believe in a modern day prophet? That's messed up!" And he just kept going on and on about random stuff. He said stuff like "I really look up to you guys. Like, seriously dude. You guys are like heroes." and "Sometimes I think to much. Like, I'm addicted to thinking." It was pretty hilarious! So then the guy who owns the place started talking to me about how without respect you have nothing and my companion started talking to the high guy that I was talking to before. My companion told him he offered the Book of Mormon to the guy I was talking to and he said "I would, but I just don't have the capability of reading right now." As we were leaving the guy who owned the place "goosed" us. Now I can officially say I have been goosed my a drunk man. Joy! Haha Drunk people are crazy. We try to avoid those people every time we visit the less-active family.

As for this past week things were a little slow again. We had received a bunch of referrals which we were excited for, but all through out the week our appointments fell threw. It was pretty disappointing, but we haven't lost hope for those people! Patients is key! But patients doesn't mean not being persistent and bold. But at the same time, not pushy. But anywho, I'm sure you all remember Micheal. Well he missed last week and this week! We also tried to meet with him like all week, but he was either not home or too busy. We had him set for the 25th of this month, but now we are going to have to re set him. He's made a little improvement with smoking and coffee, but he is still addicted. We hope to be able to continue making progress with him, but if we don't see any progression with him in the next couple of weeks, I think we'll have to drop him for a while. Still no progressing with anyone else. Hope and Faith's dad says they can't be baptized until they are 15, so I don't think we'll be seeing a baptism for them anytime soon unless we can somehow get their anti-ed dad to change his mind. We have been seeing his attitude towards us improve, just not toward the twins getting baptized.

Well that's about all I have for this week. Tomorrow is Zone Conference so we'll be having a three hour drive tonight. I hope everyone is doing well! Again, sorry about last week! I won't let it happen again! I love you all! Keep up the good work everyone! Every member a missionary!

With tender love and care,
Ofa atu,
Elder Timmy Nelson