Skip to main content

Elder Nelson - 4th of July

Dear Family,

Mission NewsOn Monday Elder Southard came to live with us for a week. He badly rolled his ankle on March 1 and it has not healed. The doctors said that if he stayed off of it for 4 to 6 weeks, it would probably heal. Last week he was with the Elder and Sister Downs.

Elder Southard

He was a perfect gentleman, never complained and was easy to have around except that he was on crutches. He has a great attitude and wonderful humble spirit.

He came with us to the office. We tried to keep him busy helping us out and we were successful half of the time. Unfortunately the pain in his ankle got worse and the doctors now recommend surgery. He flew home Saturday. Hopefully he will be back in a few months. The Church says that he has to be able to walk 6 miles with out stopping for 3 consecutive days before he can return.

We went to a District Council in Arlington. Elder Corcran is the district leader and did the training on charity. He has a wonderful enthusiasm for the work and the people. He truly loves the gospel and the gift of charity. It was one of the best district councils we have been to.

Tuesday night there was a mission presidency meeting. President Caplin likes to do the Zoom video conferencing. The meeting was supposed to start at 8:00, but President Caplin did not join until 8:40. The meeting went to 10:40. The main topic was Young Single Adult wards. When we first came to the mission, when family ward missionaries found a YSA friend, the friend was referred to the YSA missionaries. The problem with that is that many friends were dropped in the hand off. Now if missionaries find a YSA friend, they keep them and teach them. The missionaries work with the YSA lead missionaries to involve them in YSA activities and invite them to the YSA wards. Also the YSA lead missionaries are also assigned to a family ward. In one way this has worked well. YSA baptisms are up. Many get transferred to the YSA wards. However the YSA wards are feeling abandoned by the missionaries and feel they don’t participate in the teaching and fellowshipping as much as they want to. We are making some adjustments to the program to more fully keep the YSA members involved.

Last week I interview Mariama. Yesterday I had the delight to baptize her.
 
Singing the opening hymn at the baptism.
 Another brother was baptized, Ray sitting to my left. The brother that baptized him was baptized two years ago. There were 6 other friends that attended the baptism. Next week an Iranian woman will be baptized.

Fun Stuff
On the 4th we went to Bull Run in Manassas. This is where the first major battle of the civil war was fought and another major battle 2 years later. It was fascinating to see the cannons and other weapons and also see how the battles were fought and the strategies that were used. Most people on both sides of the war thought the war would last a few weeks or months. The Union recruits were recruited for only 90 days of service. Spectators showed up with picnic baskets to enjoy the spectacle. How wrong they were! This war was the deadliest of all of the wars in US History. 600,000 died.

Manassas Battlefield at Bull Run
In Virginia a “run” is a creek or small river.

Next week on Tuesday the new missionaries attend a new missionary training. The Senior Office Missionaries put on the lunch. It was decided that we wanted watermelon. I suggested we cut the watermelon the way Aunt Jane does. We tried to follow her procedure, but hers looked a lot nicer. Part of the secret is getting a bowl of the right size.

I like how the result is long “spears” with no rind.



WES NewsSaturday I worked on sales pitch to sell WES. Now I need to find some potential buyers

Family NewsOn Saturday July 13 the fun begins! Mom and I are looking forward to the pictures and videos – and the stories.

Love,
Dad

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elder Nelson - New Senior Missionaries and a Party on the Farm

Dear Family, Mission News I spent a fair amount of time preparing for the arrival of two senior couples. They have assignments that are very vague. They don’t really have anyone that supervises their work. The mission president is too busy with the junior missionaries to even know what they are doing. The stake presidents and bishops are likewise preoccupied their high priority responsibilities. Much is left up to the senior missionaries to find and create good things to do. The last two couples that came floundered for a couple of months before they engaged productively in the work. It was very frustrating for them. I am working with the stake presidents under the direction of President Caplin to make sure there is direction and responsibilities for these couples when they arrive. I want them to hit the ground running. I spent about 5-6 hours sending a bike home for an elder that had to go home early. Picking up the bike, helmet and lights from three different location...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister Nelson - Happy Birthday Olivia and Malia

Dear Family, Another good week has raced by with birthdays, transfers, teaching with the missionaries, and baptisms. And I am sitting here trying to remember everything. Monday was a long day. Garn was out talking with missionaries talking about their phones and usage. He has been tasked with coming up with a mission plan for the wise/righteous use of technology as well as checking with the missionaries about their device usage as it shows up on the reports from Salt Lake. It has been a fast learning curve going from knowing how to makes phone calls, texting, checking emails etc. to knowing how to conduct audits of the phones, transfer sim cards from phone to phone, find lost data, and fix broken phones. I was trying to get bills with problems paid, our senior dinner assignments for the mission home get together sent out, and answering the front office phone. Tuesday was another office day. We were trying to things ready for zone conferences. We take all of the mail for the zones...
Post a Comment
Read more

Elder Nelson - Little Miracle

Dear Family, Mission News One of our visa waiters needed to go to Atlanta to get his visa for Mexico. Our alarm went off at 3:55AM to get him to the Dulles Airport by 6:00AM. We picked him up from the airport and got him home by about 10:30 PM. It was a long day. We planned to take a nap, but we were too busy. The elder’s name is Giovani Garcia. His father was baptized in Guatemala, moved to Texas, married and had children. Normally getting a visa to Mexico is not hard, but Elder Garcia was here for two transfers. Of the 117 missions in the US he was assigned here. Of the 10 Spanish units we have in the mission, he was assigned to a ward whose membership includes the missionary that baptized his father in Guatemala. This brother was somewhat less active and Elder Garcia has helped him become active again. The Lord works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform. We got up this morning at 4:53AM to take him to the airport to fly to Mexico City. The mail is heavy and we in the of...
Post a Comment
Read more