Thursday, March 4, 2010
3/1/10: A Little Blurb From Elder Nelson
My year mark is about here and it has just crawled theses past few weeks, because people keep reminding me about it. I got my "your over the hump" Camel the other day and that was weird. I remember seeing people get that a year ago and thinking to my self: it will take forever to get to that point, but now I'm here. I'm just tripping about what my last week will be like...
Thursday, January 21, 2010
18 January 2010
18 January 2010
Dear Family,
Well I was hoping that Kim would be able to come home this past week, but not yet I guess. She was so lucky she was out of it for the kidney stone. Elder Barney, my last companion, had one due to his large consumption of Mountain Dew and he told me it was the most pain he has ever been in his whole life. And he has experienced many different kinds of pain- he has broken many bones and also had a kidney removed. He would take the broken bones over the stone any time.
Have they said when she will be able to come home? When will they start her next Chemo round? This will be her last one -thank goodness. I'm so very thankful that she has been able to make through this, she is so incredibly strong and Iron willed.
So I'm in my new area, called New Smyrna Beach. My new address is:
958 Village Trail
Apt #304
Port Orange, FL 32127
This is an interesting area, it will take a while to get used to. Brother Holmquist took me to meet Elder Peterson, my companion, in Melbourn- then we drove back North to the area which is in the Deland Stake and Zone. The apt is actuality the biggest one I have had so far, but it is still a two man. This is my 3rd area and I still haven't had the chance to experience a 4 man.
This area was a mess when I got here. It seemed that the Elders in the past thought they were on a vacation. And the apt itself was trashed. One of the first things I did in this area was go on a cleaning rampage. It was disgusting- garbage everywhere, but now it’s nice and clean. The dish washer was busted, too, so I spent a while fixing that till it was up and running again.
To answer your question about our pool of ‘gaters… when I left my last area I left it in much better shape than I found, with lot of people for the Elders to work with. Looks like I will have to do the same here. There are two ‘gaters in this area. I met the first one a few days ago and the first thing done was giving her a baptismal date for the 30th of January- but it needs to be pushed back till the 6th of February because of stake conference. The other has a smoking addition that we need to help him get over.
Elder Peterson is from San Diego and loves video games. He has also read some of the books I have gone through so it makes for good conversation.
The Daytona 500 is coming up in a few weeks, and I am right next to the speedway so I might get to see some of that or at least hear it.
I hope Kim comes home soon so you can have Christmas, it will be one to remember that's for sure. I wish I could be there, too. And I could be: all you have to do is get a large cardboard cut-out of me, with added bulging muscles of course, then I won’t ever leave!
I love you all so much more and more every day, and am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for all the progress Kim has made.
Love,
Elder Nelson
Dear Family,
Well I was hoping that Kim would be able to come home this past week, but not yet I guess. She was so lucky she was out of it for the kidney stone. Elder Barney, my last companion, had one due to his large consumption of Mountain Dew and he told me it was the most pain he has ever been in his whole life. And he has experienced many different kinds of pain- he has broken many bones and also had a kidney removed. He would take the broken bones over the stone any time.
Have they said when she will be able to come home? When will they start her next Chemo round? This will be her last one -thank goodness. I'm so very thankful that she has been able to make through this, she is so incredibly strong and Iron willed.
So I'm in my new area, called New Smyrna Beach. My new address is:
958 Village Trail
Apt #304
Port Orange, FL 32127
This is an interesting area, it will take a while to get used to. Brother Holmquist took me to meet Elder Peterson, my companion, in Melbourn- then we drove back North to the area which is in the Deland Stake and Zone. The apt is actuality the biggest one I have had so far, but it is still a two man. This is my 3rd area and I still haven't had the chance to experience a 4 man.
This area was a mess when I got here. It seemed that the Elders in the past thought they were on a vacation. And the apt itself was trashed. One of the first things I did in this area was go on a cleaning rampage. It was disgusting- garbage everywhere, but now it’s nice and clean. The dish washer was busted, too, so I spent a while fixing that till it was up and running again.
To answer your question about our pool of ‘gaters… when I left my last area I left it in much better shape than I found, with lot of people for the Elders to work with. Looks like I will have to do the same here. There are two ‘gaters in this area. I met the first one a few days ago and the first thing done was giving her a baptismal date for the 30th of January- but it needs to be pushed back till the 6th of February because of stake conference. The other has a smoking addition that we need to help him get over.
Elder Peterson is from San Diego and loves video games. He has also read some of the books I have gone through so it makes for good conversation.
The Daytona 500 is coming up in a few weeks, and I am right next to the speedway so I might get to see some of that or at least hear it.
I hope Kim comes home soon so you can have Christmas, it will be one to remember that's for sure. I wish I could be there, too. And I could be: all you have to do is get a large cardboard cut-out of me, with added bulging muscles of course, then I won’t ever leave!
I love you all so much more and more every day, and am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for all the progress Kim has made.
Love,
Elder Nelson
11 January 2010
January 11, 2010
Wow it was great to hear from Kim. Wow.
She gets to go home, after all the trials all the support all the problems and all the love. She gets to come home again, YES!
Man It feels so weird not being there to experience all of this. I got the long end of the stick this time. I hope that my mission will benefit you all in the hard times. Man Kim, you are making me lose all my hair too!
Well I got a call from President on Saturday. I was right- I’m getting transferred to the Deland Zone. My new area is called New Smyrna Beach, and my comp will be Elder Peterson- he was in my zone in Hunters Creek.
Elder Barney is very sad that I am leaving- he is just as worried as I was when Miller left. He will do fine. He is getting a good companion who he is bigger than Barney is to so he will keep him in line. I’m leaving this area better than I found it. We have a pool of many ‘gaters and have a few baptisms coming up. I hope I will be able to go to them. I’m sad to leave this area- there are a few members here I’m really going to miss. And there will be Elders I won’t ever see again ether. But I guess that’s why we have Facebook, right Kim?
Well it snowed a bit on Saturday… wait, hold on a sec... yeah. It snowed a bit on Saturday. It was pretty cold and we were on bikes that week. No gloves, and it was hailing too- ouchy! But we were blessed for it: we found 3 new’ gaters, one of which is very positive. His name is Leo- he’s from India. Yeah… so I never thought I would see snow in Florida- at least not on my mission. But yeah, I did- crazy. I loved it! Soon it will be back up in the 90s. It hasn’t been this cold for this long in 10 years I think.
I went to the Temple again on Friday with the Bairs. It was great- I wish we could go more than every 3 months. But I’m glad that I can go at least that often. They took us out to eat afterward at a Mexican place with tasty burritos... which we ate on the way home in their car, so it got a little messy.
We set some new goals as a mission with the top result being 100 baptisms a month and 1200 a year, which is a new, new stake. That’s the goal… let’s see if we can do it.
How is your Book of Mormon reading? You should do what I’m doing and mark in red every time you see Christ talked about, or anything he says. I have found about 5000 so far, it makes reading more interesting and personal I think.
I love you all I am so glad that Kim can come home again I hope that she continues to improve.
I will let you know my new address next week, and tell you about my new area.
I hope you all have a wonderful new week.
Love,
Elder Nelson
Wow it was great to hear from Kim. Wow.
She gets to go home, after all the trials all the support all the problems and all the love. She gets to come home again, YES!
Man It feels so weird not being there to experience all of this. I got the long end of the stick this time. I hope that my mission will benefit you all in the hard times. Man Kim, you are making me lose all my hair too!
Well I got a call from President on Saturday. I was right- I’m getting transferred to the Deland Zone. My new area is called New Smyrna Beach, and my comp will be Elder Peterson- he was in my zone in Hunters Creek.
Elder Barney is very sad that I am leaving- he is just as worried as I was when Miller left. He will do fine. He is getting a good companion who he is bigger than Barney is to so he will keep him in line. I’m leaving this area better than I found it. We have a pool of many ‘gaters and have a few baptisms coming up. I hope I will be able to go to them. I’m sad to leave this area- there are a few members here I’m really going to miss. And there will be Elders I won’t ever see again ether. But I guess that’s why we have Facebook, right Kim?
Well it snowed a bit on Saturday… wait, hold on a sec... yeah. It snowed a bit on Saturday. It was pretty cold and we were on bikes that week. No gloves, and it was hailing too- ouchy! But we were blessed for it: we found 3 new’ gaters, one of which is very positive. His name is Leo- he’s from India. Yeah… so I never thought I would see snow in Florida- at least not on my mission. But yeah, I did- crazy. I loved it! Soon it will be back up in the 90s. It hasn’t been this cold for this long in 10 years I think.
I went to the Temple again on Friday with the Bairs. It was great- I wish we could go more than every 3 months. But I’m glad that I can go at least that often. They took us out to eat afterward at a Mexican place with tasty burritos... which we ate on the way home in their car, so it got a little messy.
We set some new goals as a mission with the top result being 100 baptisms a month and 1200 a year, which is a new, new stake. That’s the goal… let’s see if we can do it.
How is your Book of Mormon reading? You should do what I’m doing and mark in red every time you see Christ talked about, or anything he says. I have found about 5000 so far, it makes reading more interesting and personal I think.
I love you all I am so glad that Kim can come home again I hope that she continues to improve.
I will let you know my new address next week, and tell you about my new area.
I hope you all have a wonderful new week.
Love,
Elder Nelson
Monday, December 28, 2009
Dec 28th
It was great talking to you on Friday, you sounded happy and positive. How have things gone these past few days? I hope Kim is starting to get her blood cells back.
This week has been a weird week for me. We spent a lot of time with members and didn’t get many chances to teach. It was fun though. Now its back to work- nothing special will be happening on New Years… we don’t even have a dinner for that night. So it will be a nice quite evening- exciting huh? And we used all our silly string already so we will have to do something else.
Sunday was weird. Bishop Gantz canceled all the meetings before church so we had a normal morning for once. I even got to study for an hour before the Denninghoffs picked us up. They have a son serving in Cali, and Sister Denninghoff talks about him all the time. On the way to church I spoke with Even, their youngest son, about his Eagle Scout project, and he talked about all the stress he was under to get it done. I told him it was well worth it and to get it done as soon as he could.
I’m excited that the days are getting longer. I hate not having light because it cuts back on the amount of work we can do; even if its 5:30 the people seem to think the day is over because its dark outside, and they don’t have to talk to you. It’s a pain.
When does dad go back to work? After the New Year?
Em told me about when kim was crazy and she talked about me, and said no one was home to eat the crackers. What else did she say? We can use it against her later on. I don’t think I said anything weird after I had my wisdom teeth taken out. Did I?
The closest people to Baptism we are working with right now are Chris Wohlhueter and Sam Mikekills. Sam has a date for the 9th of January and everything seems to be going well for that. Chris we will be taking to the temple to give him a tour of the grounds then commit him to be baptized to join his family forever. So pray that his heart will be softened. I love him and his family dearly and I know that he will be baptized sooner or later.
Elder Barney and I will be going to the Temple on the 8th to do a session with the Bairs. It’s about time- I haven’t been there in a while.
I love you all with all my heart and hope you have a wonderful new week full of the Spirit.
Love,
Elder Nelson
This week has been a weird week for me. We spent a lot of time with members and didn’t get many chances to teach. It was fun though. Now its back to work- nothing special will be happening on New Years… we don’t even have a dinner for that night. So it will be a nice quite evening- exciting huh? And we used all our silly string already so we will have to do something else.
Sunday was weird. Bishop Gantz canceled all the meetings before church so we had a normal morning for once. I even got to study for an hour before the Denninghoffs picked us up. They have a son serving in Cali, and Sister Denninghoff talks about him all the time. On the way to church I spoke with Even, their youngest son, about his Eagle Scout project, and he talked about all the stress he was under to get it done. I told him it was well worth it and to get it done as soon as he could.
I’m excited that the days are getting longer. I hate not having light because it cuts back on the amount of work we can do; even if its 5:30 the people seem to think the day is over because its dark outside, and they don’t have to talk to you. It’s a pain.
When does dad go back to work? After the New Year?
Em told me about when kim was crazy and she talked about me, and said no one was home to eat the crackers. What else did she say? We can use it against her later on. I don’t think I said anything weird after I had my wisdom teeth taken out. Did I?
The closest people to Baptism we are working with right now are Chris Wohlhueter and Sam Mikekills. Sam has a date for the 9th of January and everything seems to be going well for that. Chris we will be taking to the temple to give him a tour of the grounds then commit him to be baptized to join his family forever. So pray that his heart will be softened. I love him and his family dearly and I know that he will be baptized sooner or later.
Elder Barney and I will be going to the Temple on the 8th to do a session with the Bairs. It’s about time- I haven’t been there in a while.
I love you all with all my heart and hope you have a wonderful new week full of the Spirit.
Love,
Elder Nelson
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Mike's Christmas Phone Call
Mike was able to call and talk to us this Christmas at the hospital. It was so wonderful to hear his voice and talk to him. It sounds like he is doing great. He was really worried about Kim, but being able to hear that she's getting a little better was a huge relief to him.
I need to get off pretty soon, but I wanted to say that I asked him how many baptizms he has had so far. He said he wasn't sure, they're really not supposed to focus much on numbers like that. But after thinking for a minute, he said he was pretty sure it was somewhere around 18-20. Wow, how amazing is that?
I am so proud of him. In just a short hour, it was easy to see how much he's grown in just under 10 months of being a missionary. I love my brother!
I need to get off pretty soon, but I wanted to say that I asked him how many baptizms he has had so far. He said he wasn't sure, they're really not supposed to focus much on numbers like that. But after thinking for a minute, he said he was pretty sure it was somewhere around 18-20. Wow, how amazing is that?
I am so proud of him. In just a short hour, it was easy to see how much he's grown in just under 10 months of being a missionary. I love my brother!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Dec 14 and 21
Dec 21
I'm not sure what time I will get to call sometime after 3, I know that. Most likely not long after that. I sent you all a package too, except don't open it till Christmas. So you will all be at the hospital again? I thought we were done with that. Just when we thought it was going to be okay.
So its just some infection that wrecking havoc on Kim because she has no defense against it? Stupid, everything was going so well.
We had our zone conference this past week, we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and sang lots of Christmas songs. They gave us a Book of Mormon to read and to mark all the places where Christ is talked about all the names of Christ and everything he says in red. Which makes reading the BOM fun it turns in it to a game almost. So far I have found over 500.
I went caroling last night with some of the ward members; it was lots of fun and it was in the 40s so it was close to what it should be. We went to a bunch of houses and sang bunches of Christmas songs. The people were happy to see us as well.
I love you all so much. Everything was going so well- I hope Kim will be recovering by Christmas- that will be the Best gift. I hope I can call on your cell phone so we can use the speaker- that will be much better. That and I wont have to work through the hospital again. Last time was a pain trying to get through to you.
I love you all, I hope you will have a Merry Christmas
Love, Elder Nelson
Dec 14
This week went pretty well- we went on lots of exchanges. We had our zone p-day, ate lots of junk food and had fun. We had a district meeting the next day we talked a lot about planning and then practiced our tracting skills running around the gym contacting one another and teaching each other. Sister Freeman went a little nuts while contacting. It looked like she was going to eat poor Elder Moon while she tried to get a "new gater". You would have to see a picture of her to understand why Elder Moon about died.
After the meeting I went on an exchange with Elder Lussier in my area, we tracted and had a good member exchange later that night. Elder Lussier was very excited to be right on the beach pretty much. He about wet him self out of excitation. He is from Mesa Az.
The next day I went on a exchange with the APs, we found a few new gaters one of which might be positive. It rained on and off that day and we got pretty wet. We had to hurry and get to our apt, dry off and eat- then went out on another member exchange to teach Sam, one of our gaters. The lesson went very well we set a baptismal date with him for this coming month.
Sunday was pretty busy as usual- we went over to the church at 6 then had our meetings like normal. President and Sister Darrington came to our church meetings, which was awesome. They tore the members up for referrals and we got about 20 people we can now follow up with- sweet! They need to come more often now. Right after church we had a baptism. Emily Wohlhueter. Because it was right after church we had a ton of people show up. They had lots of support. She asked me to baptize her, which I was happy to do. Later that night they brought us a Christmas tree, which we now have up.
All in all it was a good week. I hope Kim recovers, I cant believe she got this everything was going so well... oh man not good.
Well I hope good things happen this week.
Love,
Elder Nelson
I'm not sure what time I will get to call sometime after 3, I know that. Most likely not long after that. I sent you all a package too, except don't open it till Christmas. So you will all be at the hospital again? I thought we were done with that. Just when we thought it was going to be okay.
So its just some infection that wrecking havoc on Kim because she has no defense against it? Stupid, everything was going so well.
We had our zone conference this past week, we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and sang lots of Christmas songs. They gave us a Book of Mormon to read and to mark all the places where Christ is talked about all the names of Christ and everything he says in red. Which makes reading the BOM fun it turns in it to a game almost. So far I have found over 500.
I went caroling last night with some of the ward members; it was lots of fun and it was in the 40s so it was close to what it should be. We went to a bunch of houses and sang bunches of Christmas songs. The people were happy to see us as well.
I love you all so much. Everything was going so well- I hope Kim will be recovering by Christmas- that will be the Best gift. I hope I can call on your cell phone so we can use the speaker- that will be much better. That and I wont have to work through the hospital again. Last time was a pain trying to get through to you.
I love you all, I hope you will have a Merry Christmas
Love, Elder Nelson
Dec 14
This week went pretty well- we went on lots of exchanges. We had our zone p-day, ate lots of junk food and had fun. We had a district meeting the next day we talked a lot about planning and then practiced our tracting skills running around the gym contacting one another and teaching each other. Sister Freeman went a little nuts while contacting. It looked like she was going to eat poor Elder Moon while she tried to get a "new gater". You would have to see a picture of her to understand why Elder Moon about died.
After the meeting I went on an exchange with Elder Lussier in my area, we tracted and had a good member exchange later that night. Elder Lussier was very excited to be right on the beach pretty much. He about wet him self out of excitation. He is from Mesa Az.
The next day I went on a exchange with the APs, we found a few new gaters one of which might be positive. It rained on and off that day and we got pretty wet. We had to hurry and get to our apt, dry off and eat- then went out on another member exchange to teach Sam, one of our gaters. The lesson went very well we set a baptismal date with him for this coming month.
Sunday was pretty busy as usual- we went over to the church at 6 then had our meetings like normal. President and Sister Darrington came to our church meetings, which was awesome. They tore the members up for referrals and we got about 20 people we can now follow up with- sweet! They need to come more often now. Right after church we had a baptism. Emily Wohlhueter. Because it was right after church we had a ton of people show up. They had lots of support. She asked me to baptize her, which I was happy to do. Later that night they brought us a Christmas tree, which we now have up.
All in all it was a good week. I hope Kim recovers, I cant believe she got this everything was going so well... oh man not good.
Well I hope good things happen this week.
Love,
Elder Nelson
Confession
I have to admit, getting ALL of Mike's past emails onto this blog has been a bit too daunting a task, and I have therefor not even begun to try. So, what I am going to do is just start now, and post his current emails as they come in. I'm sure you will get the general drift.
Thanks to all of you who care about Mike and will check here to see how he is doing.
Love, Emily
Thanks to all of you who care about Mike and will check here to see how he is doing.
Love, Emily
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