Happy Birthday!

January 13, 2013

I'm Legal!!!   (tomorrow)

Thanks for all the Birthday wishes!  Sounds like you guys are having a party today!

Well I don't have to much to report on.  My comp has been sick with the Flu so it has been a pretty slow week!  Tuesday we had a follow up visit with Twilla.  On our way to our house this guy stopped us in the street and we talked to him.  He had a lot of questions!  His name is T, he kept asking about the Book of Mormon.  He kept saying it was hard to believe, with out seeing the Gold Plates.  So we just bore our testimony to him and he just said I know you guys are "fo Real", you are looking me in the eye and I know you guys believe it.  So we offered him a Book of Mormon but he just wanted  a mormon.org card.  So we gave him one and told him he can request missionaries and a copy of the Book of Mormon.  He was just passing through here he was on tour with Disney, doing a hip hop dance thing.  So we missed our appointment with Twilla but our Ward Mission leader still went with out us and she dropped us.  So I'm glad we got to talk with T instead of her,  haha, jk.

Dang Jed you did good in your match!  Congratulations!  Was that varsity?  (Yes, and Kyle gave Jed a little pep talk the morning before the match.  It seemed to work well!  haha!)

Well I hope you all have a good week!  Happy Birthday Chaylee!

Love you and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Bubba Nelson

Happy New Year!

December 30, 2013

It was good to see all you guys as well!  I just wanna Skype again now though, ha.  (Me either!  Can't wait for Mother's Day!)  Well hopefully that card with my testimony was a good enough Christmas present then!  (It was!)

(Here is his Testimony - on the Atonement..."I know through the Atonement we can return to our Father in Heaven.  If we accept Christ & believe Him not just believe IN Him. He will make us perfect through Himself.  His infinite perfection makes up for our finite sins.")  LOVE IT!!!

They are having the Open House for the Temple for 2 months right? Did you guys go for family night last night?  (Open House is Jan 18th-Feb 15th)  Yes, its been an awesome experience to be a part of building the Gilbert Temple in some way!  I was just thinking of that rock that I put in the foundation yesterday actually.  My comp. asked me how I got on my mission and I told him the story.  (When they had the groundbreaking for the Temple, our Stake gave all the youth, Primary and YM & YW the opportunity to write something on a stone and put it in the foundation of the Temple.  Bubba wrote on his That he'd have a desire to serve a Mission.  His desire and prayer was answered! - Jed, Ellie and Chaylee had the same opportunity.  Jed and Ellie also have had the opportunity, along with hundreds of other youth, to write their own Title of Liberty and will carry it as part of the Cultural Celebration, before the dedication of the Temple.  Such rare opportunities for our kids!)

and no Sister Olson he doesnt think you are a freak haha.

You guys aren't gonna do anything for New Year's Eve?   Go blow stuff up at least!  (Oh, Bubs!!)

Why didn't Jed work for Dad during the break?

Dang I had $150 in my room lying around??  Thats pretty sweet!  Thank you for the money? (He's in a biking area now and needed a bike!)  I'm a little better at saving $$ out here.  I spend a little here and there and then IDK where it goes - ha!  I forgot to show Maddie that she is on the back of my planner.  Out of the 2 planners that I put pictures on she is always on it and will be on all of them!  So, I might need more pics of her sometime in my Mission!

 Thanks for all the Christmas gifts!  Hope you guys had an awesome week!

Love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Bubba Nelson 

P.S. We finally found a new Investigator her name is Mary and we are going back to visit her Thursday!  Also, we ran into the "nicest anti-mormon" so he says he is, last night! They were arguing with us about grace and how the Book of Mormon says we are saved by grace after all we can do.  And they were saying we are all automatically saved!  I guess he also offers Missionaries $20,000 dollars to give up there garments and to go home.  He didn't offer that to us though.  I guess he is pretty famous in this mission - ha!

Merry Christmas!

December 23,2013

Hey family and friends!!

Thank you for you packages and presents!  Christmas/thank you cards are coming your way!:)   I got transferred to Kennewick, I'm serving in the Kennewick Park Ward.  

The Sisters got doubled out and me and my new companion, Elder Chadwick, got doubled in.  So we have no idea what's going on in this area, really we are just winging it and saying a lot of prayers!  We have been trying to contact all the investigators.  We had our first meeting with our Ward Mission Leader.  He was impressed with all that we have done, especially since we are on foot.  This area use to have a car but it left with the sisters, of course!   It's ok, I like walking, keeps me in shape! 

 Sounds like everyone has been pretty busy and having fun right before Christmas, but none of it sounds as fun as when I get to Skype, haha.

  Christmas season is pretty awesome on the Mission!  I get to focus on the true meaning of Christmas alot more! 

  We had to teach the Relief Society yesterday (freakin weirdest thing ive ever done!)  But it was pretty cool.  Our lesson we were assigned was Elder Packard's, talk The Atonement, from last years General Conference.  It was an awesome talk, I suggest reading or listening to it!  I started reading the book Believing Christ, on Thursday as well and that tied in with the lesson perfectly!  I learned alot from that lesson. Like that Christ's infinite perfection cancels out out finite imperfection, as long as we accept him and believe him, not just believe in him!

     Did you guys get my package?  Did you like my magnet that was in there? :)  haha

 Well thanks for all you guys do and the love and support you give me!  Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!:)  Love you all!

Love,

Elder BUBBA Nelson

Coulee Dam

Dam Elders

DiamondBacks

Last P-Day in Coulee Dam

Only One Way

The Brown's

The Cobbs'

December 16

WEEKLY LETTER!!:)

  

 Well I'm getting transferred!  I'm going to Kennewick!  I thought I was ready to leave this one horse town, but I didn't realize how much I made it my home away from home!  It's like leaving home all over again! I hear your first area is the hardest to leave I sure hope so, because I can't do this every 5 months!  That's good you sent Elder Pesnell's package separately because I haven't gotten my package yet.  They start holding everything the weekend before transfers, if they know you are getting transfered.

  Did you get those videos from Brother Cobb.  I don't know what they were about but he wanted to send them.  He is the funniest old man ever.  He loves Duck Dynasty!  He turned it on for like 5 minutes for us haha.  He is the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric so it's all ok, ha.  He said no one can go 2 years with out watching it!

  I'm gonna beat Jed up I still haven't gotten a letter back from him!

Sounds like everyone is doing good at home. Thats good that dad is staying busy!

 Christmas season is different out here I don't feel like it is next week.  But I have gotten 3 presents from members.  All the hymns at church have been Christmas songs so that has brought the Christmas spirit a little.  We went to the Bishops house for a Bishops Youth Discussion, it was on the 2nd coming.   I learned a lot of new stuff!  That actually brought the Christmas spirit too. 

 I hope I don't have a biking area, haha.  I would love to ride a bike but I don't want to in the winter and I don't want to have to buy one!

 Oh yeah, we get to call for like 10 minutes Christmas Eve to make sure everything is good for Christmas.  So have someone set up a Skype account so I can get it from you guys Christmas Eve.

Hope all is well!   Love you all!

Love,

Elder Bubba Nelson

P.S.  My Mission President calls me Elder "Bubba" - told you I'd get to keep my name!!!

Figuring something to do.

Elder "Bubba" & Elder Pesnell

P-day Baller.

Going to chop wood.

December 9

Yeah I got your package thank you!   I don't know if ill be here for Christmas so you might just wanna send it through the Mission Office.  We get Transfer Calls this saturday. I wanna leave but i also wanna stay. There are some members here that I don't wanna leave but I also kinda want a different area.  Haha no offense to this one horse town! 

 Lucky you got to hear Alanah's sister sing!  I hear she is pretty good and she is singing for the Gilbert temple thing.

  

  How is Jed doing in Wrestling this year?  Yes, please send me his matches!

 You didn't take pictures at the Christmas party of Maddie?  I wanna see how big she is.  That's funny that she boss's the kids in her class around haha.   So her and JJ get along pretty well then?

 Yeah we were supposed to be able to watch the Christmas Devotional, but they didn't set it up in the church because only 1 family was gonna watch it there.  Only 70 people come to church averagely and there is only 21% activity in this ward, haha its nuts!

 This week was pretty good.  I went on exchanges Tuesday.  My comp and the other Elder that came here went and taught one of our new investigators Cathene. They taught her the plan of Salvation and at the end she said it just makes since so they invited her to be baptized and she said she was already baptized in her church so why does she need to be again.  And they answered her question and she understood. When they were about to reinvite her to be baptized her son, that is like 45 that lives with them, walked in and the whole atmosphere changed so they decided to hold  off.  I guess her son thinks he has been saved after a fall he had in the bathroom and he told his mom she was going to hell because she is a woman, hahaha.  So I think that's why she liked the plan of salvation.  I never met her son but my comp did and says he's kind of off a bit and has no job and doing nothing with his life.

 Well I hope all is going well at home.  Love you all!

Love,

Elder Bubba Nelson

Elder Nelson-December 2

Dear Family/Friends!!

  My week was pretty good!  It was weird being away from home for Thanksgiving though!  Those two families that did that dinner, like 30 people came.  That was the least I have ever eaten on Thanksgiving, haha.  Just had like a regular dinner serving.  It wasn't like ma's and pa's cooking!  I don't remember the last time I had a traditional turkey Dad always smokes one and its way better!  But it was pretty good!  This old farmer brought a goose that he killed and cooked!  I didn't try it.  My companion did and it made him sick, haha!  No one had a pecan pie, so me and my companion went and bought a Maries Calendar Pecan pie and it wasn't as good as homeade but thats missionary life ha.  I had Mrs. Kay's (T's Mom) Pecan Pie at the dunes one Thanksgiving and it was BOMB!!

  Teaching has been going pretty good!  We have found like 5 new investgators in the past couple weeks!  This week was a little slow and because of Thanksgiving and I've been getting my winter allergies or whatever I get every winter.

  Sounds like November was pretty rough for you guys there.  

  This week was rough I didn't get any mail until Saturday, then Bro. Cauthen saved me and I got his on Saturday.  He's a true Bro haha.

   Holiday season is gonna be weird out here!  But it's going pretty good!  It's a lot better than I thought it would be.  All the members here make you feel at home. 

  Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and got fat!  Thanks for all the love and support!

Love,

Elder Bubba Nelson

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Whats going on with the internet? (Our internet has been down all month.  After 3 visits from Cox and me replacing every modem, router and wire it's finally working!)  Why is life so hectic right now?  (Oh, my!) How are things going with J.J.?   Are you guys still planning on going to the Ranch for Thanksgiving?  Yeah I'm glad we have a place to go for Thanksgiving too! 

  Well my week was pretty good.  We had that meeting with elder Richards last monday and since then we found 4 new investigators.   Our zone set a goal to get 2,000 oyms (open your mouths) before Christmas. As our gift to the Savior.  One night we were tracting for an hour and only had 2 people answer their door.  I was a little mad about that.  But when 8:30 rolled around, when there is nothing to do, we decided to go get hot chocolate at the gas station.  After we checked out and about to walk out, the cashier asked us if we had a pamphlet with us.  So we went out to our car and got a pamphlet and taught her the restoration right there in the gas station.  It went pretty well.  We finished and were just talking with her, then a cop walked in and she had to get back to work.  Cops ruin everything!  But we gave her our number, well so i thought, I got my cell number and my Missionary cell number mixed up, so we gotta go back and give her the right one.  The work is going pretty good here.  It's weird being away from home for the Holidays, but that's alright, it's not as hard as I thought it would be. 
Jed and Ellie, I wrote you letter so I will be expecting some back.  Hand written letters -  is like Christmas every time I get them - haha.

I just sent you guys alot of pictures!  Did my package get stolen or have you  not sent it yet?  (Nope - I'm a slacker and haven't sent it yet!)

 Elder Pesnell says Hi

  Well I hope everything is going well for all of you!  Thanks for all the love and support! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Nelson

"Bubba"