Happy Easter

SO okay this week was awesome- But I am literally so tired from walking five miles today already - we went to the Zoo in fukuoka! So fun but I am way tired and hungry so this might be a short message. Gomen. Also we have a lesson in like twenty minutes.

So Stamatia San came with her daughter to church! yay! we are going to watch finding faith in Christ with her today to help her come to know more about Christ.

Easter Was great- We went to a members home for dinner with Nozomi our investigator. Two YSA girls came too! They are so good about fellowshipping her.

I am not sleeping in the kitchen anymore! Yay I have my own spot in the Bedroom.

So we have 4 sisters living in the apartment. sister Maynes, Kuchar, Cullison and Me. Sister Cullision is my companion. Shes really funny and we get along great!

Also I tried eating bamboo this week- when you boil it or something it turns into an artichoke like thing which was so awesome cause I miss those so much!

We also had a Less active that we are metting with come to church!

I am just really scattered today, sorry!

We had interviews yesterday which were great- President gave me the exact advice I needed. He was like oh no! dont tell me you are a sixth transfer! Which was a nice compliment so I guess he doestn think Im a total Looser haha. 

I am way proud of you guys for all the missionary work you are doing!!!!!!!!

Thank you for all the Easter Emails and stuff- I will try to get back to you all ASAP!

Love you!

Sister Nelson

So this is my hair from the back! Its shorter in the back than the front- its probabaly not as short as you were thinking but Its still Super short for me! I can still bun it though on my head so thats nice.

This is my companion!!! She is super beautiful and has long hair like rapunzel! We get along great! This is us at the Zoo.

Bobbed

Hello!! Happy Easter!

I hope everybody is having a great week and doing fun easter preparation stuff!

Things are going great here in Chikushino- but the only problem is that the computers at the church crashed because microsoft went crazy or something? what happened? any way so we have to be at the community center and only have about a half an hour to email so gomen if this is short!

We had a great experience with fasting yesterday. We fasted for Nozomi San that she could have a spiritual expierence and feel the spirit. She has been praying and wondering if this is true. She is also reading the Book of Mormon and is doing great! She says its really easy to understand because its a story (Nobody says that...) so its awesome. She came to conference and had a really good expierecne! I think she was a bit overwhelmed but I know she felt the spirit. SO we didnt have a huge miracle from that but it was progress!

we did however have another miracle. When you fast and expect miracles, the Lord delivers.
We had a prompting to visit this lady who gave us her information but cancled our appointment so we had been trying to contact her. She was never home.　so we went to go contact her and her neighbor was home and was lilike no you guys went to the wrong house she lives over there! So we went to the Right house and she was home, let us in, and we had a great lesson about the  Book of Mormon and Prayer! it was a miracle! she made a return apointment for wednesday. She is so cute and has a 17 year old daughter and a 2 year old daughter. She was born in greece but speaks english and Japanese! way cool. Anyways she was lilike I ve never had THAt experience that people have where they know that God exists. So we shared our testimonies about how we came to know. I was lilike do you want to know? and she was like yes! so we promised her that through reading and praying she can have that type of experience and can have a relationship with her Heavenly Father. I told her about one wime when I was little (the day we got Lucy the cat) and she got stuck in the car and I went and prayed- immedietly affter that she was unstuck. I knew that God answereed my prayer. Also I told her about how I made a goal to read the Book of Mormon every day (when i was about 14 or so) and then in my fathers blessing before school Dad said in the Blessing that Heavenly Father was proud of my goal to read the BOM. But I didnt tell anyabody about my goal! so I knew he was aware of me and Loved me. I encourage everybody to share  in FHE or something about how you came to know that you have a father in heaven!

Also conferecne was great! I prayed to know how to help my family even thought I am here and I really feel like through PMG and studying it together we can become more united and recieve the direction we need as a family. So I was thinking of just starting with the Christlike attributes chapter and picking an atribute to do as a family or individually and we can both report on how it went! or something? what do you think? Also I wanted to challenge you guys to invite somebody to hear the discussions- and to pray about it as a family! I am going to ask some people I know from home to take them and follow up with people who I have given book of mormons to. I am excited to do missionary work together!!!!

Okay I know that they may have already done the mission prep class, but I found this awesome talk by Gordon B Hinkly of the list of 10 things to take home from a mission and I thought it was really great mission prep! And kind of lays out goals for your mission and things to work toward before your mission too!

1. Knowlege and love for God the Eternal Father and his son Jesus Christ
2. Knowlege and love of the scriptures
3. increased love for parents
4. love for people among who they labor
5. an appreciation for hard work
6. the assurance that the Holy Ghost will  always inspire us and comfort us when we need it
7. understanding of the importance of teamwork
8. the value of personal virtue
9. The faith to act
10. The humility to pray.

Wow arent these awesome things to work toward? I am still working on them but can testify that  I have been developing all of these things on my mission and have become a better person because of it. I know that as we ask for help with these things that god will help us achieve them! even if you arent a missionary these are all greata goals to work for! You can do it- we can becase we think we can, and he knows we can!


Okay so you may be wondering about my subject heading. Bobbed....
what do you thnk it means?



I also read a greatttttt fantastic little discourse on the fig tree that Jesus Cursed. He cursed it, a withered dying plant instead of something full of life to demonstrae the power he had to do anything -even destroy.He was tender and merciful and smart even in that demonstration of the priesthood. So it makes his sacrifice even greater- the fact that he let people do cruel and terrible things to him in order to bring about the eternal purposes of Heavenly Father. (thank you Sister Neuberger!!)


Yes! I cut my hair! I have a bob!

I look like Kiera Knightly in Princess of Theives,....except for obviously not that cool. Its probably a bit longer than hers.

I love it!!!!!!!!!!!! SOrry I cant send pictures on this computer...Ill work on that.... But I really lilike it and I was like why did I not do this four hundred years ago!


Love you all!!  Have a great Easter!

Sister Nelson

SPRING IS HERE!

SPRING IS HERE! SPRING IS HERE!

guess the movie!!!!

Konichiwa! Okay so it was spring last week but then it got cold again- its like one degree outside right now. But　its fine. 

I got my bike this morning! I am so happy!!!! 

yay for all the awesome stuff you guys are doing! Rugby sounds fun- good job with the horses Chan- Yayy varsity track Sav! Thank you for emailing me parker!  I hear you had fun plunging- I think if you did that in Japan they would probably throw you in prision for like four years. haha. Yay for traveling and work Dad! Get it! Mom I am obsessed with that chamelion picutre!!! so good!

Yas Chundlr eye Kan steal reed englush! Dunt Wurri ! 

So this week we went HIKING in the mountians for Pday! It was so fun! I will show a bunch of pictures. We also saw the Hanami or cherryblossoms. they were out this past  week! Beautiful!

We had 3 investigators come to Sacrament meeting yesterday! What! Fasting brings miracles.

I just wanted to talk for a sec about fasting. When we fast, we should have a good attitude and a purpose for our fast and EXPECT blessings　to come! Heavenly Father blesses us according to our faith. Expect Miracles and they will come! 

Have faith in Fasting and fasting will become fun! (maybe not fun, but at least you can look forward to your life getting better!)

We　had a great lesson with Nozomi about the plan of salvation. She came to church again and loved it! the ward did a great job of fellowshipping her. We had a...not so great lesson with Minrin. first of all he is viatnamese and speaks not very fluent japanese so its a little bit of a struggle to teach him. But he came finding with us after pday- it was fun and he saw how much this means to us. He is also catholic so he was a little confused with some things like why we dont worship Marry and how God is our Heavenly Father, Jesus is Gods Son, and the Holy Ghost is a spirit. But he hasnt ever read the bible so we are still trying to get a knowlege of his religious background. We felt like we may have pushed him a little to fast and didnt follow the spirit very well　so we felt awful after his lesson. But we fasted and prayed for him and HE CAME TO CHURCH AND LOVED IT! Even though he cant understand everything, he can feel the spirit. One of my favorite quotes is from Jeffry R. Holland and says 

Preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words. 

Guess what? I dont have to be fluent to preach the Gospel! 

We had a fun dinner appointment with a member of the Stake presidency and his family. Their family is part member but it was so fun and they had such a good spirit in their house. Even though not everybody was a member, they didnt shy away from doing the things that are important and commandments from god, like praying as a family. I learned a lot from them and I want to have a cute family like them someday! He is 30 and is in the stake presidency. WOW. That is a big responsibility but he is so happy about it! his attitude is a great example to me. So is his wifes, she totally supports him! something funny- the elders put them on the list for less actives becasue he is not in Chikushino very often for church because he travels from ward to ward! haha but he is actually VERY active. They thought it was hillarious. 

We have to cover a lot more area in Chikushino- everything is way more spread apart then Ube so we bike a lot. but its fine. 

I am eating pretty much the same stuff- although my goal is to try melon bread this week- apparently its way good! I also LOVE curry. and Naan! If you want a good new recipie- I suggest spinnach and chicken curry with brocoli, onions and whatever other vegitables you want with NAAN! NAAN is the best!!!!!!!!!!! Also pumpkin curry is way good. I have no idea where you buy curry in america. maybe Schnucks? thats my osusume (suggestion)

Love you all! Remember what you learned in Conference! Dont forget to hand out your invitiations!

Sister Nelson

Sorry I am not very skilled at photography! David and Grandpa dont look at these! haha

New Area!!!

Hello! 

So this week was pretty crazy. I transferred to Chikushino on Thursday morning. It was fun to meet in Fukuoka with other missionaries who were transferring so I got to see a bunch of friends and my MTC companion. Chikushino is pronounced Chee coo She no.

I AM LIVING WITH KUCHAR SHIMAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

enough said. Best day of my life. She is companiions with Maynes Shimai who is also a good friend from the MTC. 

My new companion is Sister Cullison. She is 25 and she Literally is  our couisin Sedona in 10 years. Literally. Same person. Its crazy. She is super nice, loves animals and service and her family. I think its going to be a great transfer! She also reads Kanji pretty well so thats awesome! She also has long hair like Rapunzel and looks like anne of green gables. 

I cant send pictures from this computer here in Chikushino bc its old. But I will figure something out! Maybe Ill just send them home or something. 

When I was leaving Ube, some members came to see me off at the station. Brother Tateishi was sick so he recorded a video on Sister Tateishis phone and was like 

Sisters, I am sick. Sorry. You are leaving and we are really sad. Zan nen desu. (that means shoot or too bad). Thank you for your help, Ganbattene! 

It was way cute! Also sister tateishi made us some beaded rings, Way cool.

I cried like a baby when I said goodbye to Fujitake Shimai and yoshioka Shimai. I learned a lot about faith and how to be a teacher from both of these ladies and they both helped me to be a better person and missionary. I have a great picture that I will have to send home. 

We had a lot of miracles this week in Chikushino. The sisters have had a really hard time finding new investigators recently but were able to find like four last week on a junkai. We had a great lesson with Nozomi san about the restoration and durring it I was impressed to invite her to be baptized. So I did and she accepted! What? Miracle. She came to church and said it was so easy to understand, she loved the people and they did a great job of fellowshipping her. Okay heres the deal. If you dont fellowship the investigators, they wont stay active or wont even get baptized. So even if you think they are weird or something, GO FELLOWSHIP THEM! It is SOOO hard to be at church with investigators who dont have friends at church.  it just looks bad and it makes them feel like they are an outsider and have to do something to get inside, when really they should be loved from the moment they walk in the building. Most people leave the church because of bad relationships with people- even before crisis of faith. So its pretty serious friends.

As members of the church, you have a commission to do missionary work and one of the best ways to do that is to FELLOWSHIP THE INVESTIGATORS!! Okay sorry that was a rant but its really important to me.Anyways she loved church and came to a YSA acivity last night! it was great!

We found this other new investigator from Tennessee who speaks English! wow! we are meeting with her this week. She is greek and Japanese. 

I realized that Heavenly Father really answered my prayers this transfer. I made it a goal at the beginning to become better at talking and understanding Children- they use a completely different speech pattern. i was able to teach Tamura San who has a cutest daughter and was able to meet her friends with babies and young children and through that experience my goal was fulfilled! I feel more comfortable with my plain form/ children vocabulary. Also they teach a Childrens English class here in Chikushino so that will help too.

I love the church here in Chikushino! There are actual Families!!!! and young people! ube just basically had old couples and I loved it but I feel like I am in America kind of. Well not really but its just nice to have families and babies and loud nursery kids. 

Chikushino is in the mountains by fukuoka. it is a city but there is also country if you ride out for a while. Its kind of claustrophobic but I will get used to it. We are in a valley surrounded by mountains. I love the view its so pretty! especially in the morning when you can see the mountains cutting through the fog and the clouds. 

I read this great talk about Christ's Ministry and his mission. His mission was unique to him. As the literal son of our Heavenly Father, only he could perform the atonement for all of our sins in order for our hearts to be able to be sanctified and become perfect.  (hebrews 10:10). Nobody else can pay the price for anybody elses sins. But we can follow the pattern of his ministry to become perfect and become like him. When I read that I was like YES! When we follow the example of Jesus Christ, we take on his ministry. What do you guys think about that? Sorry my thoughts are really scattered today.

So my bike isnt here yet- its still in Ube so Ive been riding this junkai bike that is from probably before Joseph Smith was even born. Its a little frightening especially since Chikushino is all curbs. It　might break under me at any moment. Wahoo!

Love you all! Have a great week! 

Also, My address is the same- it wont change my whole mission so keep sending stuff to that one! its the mission home so they just send packages and letters from the mission home to the correct appartments. 

Sister Nelson

I am way excited for General conference and for easter!