Michael and Stephen Halloween 1996

Little did I know when we dressed these 2 in these Halloween costumes that year, just how telling these costumes would be about the kind of people these 2 boys would be. Michael has become our Knight in Shining Armor in our family....He is a great missionary and has come to our rescue with uplifting letters of testimony and strength since he has been on his mission. And Stephen is and always has been such a clown! ....He makes us laugh everyday and brightens our lives with his laughter and his passion for life! I love Halloween!

Serving the Lord in Australia

Elder Nelson in Australia October 25, 2009

Well, here he is.! We finally got pictures of our missionary this past week. We can see that he is not suffering at all. He is having a great mission and being treated like a king! Here's his latest letter home.

I think about my family a lot and the one thing I want is for you all to be happy! Find happiness! Find joy in the journey! I know its not easy but we have to try to be of good cheer in adversity. The Lord is always there to carry our burdens. I'm sorry that there is so much change happening. But I remember President Scruggs was talking about change and how neccessary it is. He compared it to a plant who was growing beautifully and then got cut back to the bottom again by its gardener and when the plant cried out why did you cut my beautiful branches? The gardener replied you have greater potential. It was something like that but basically we need change because it gives us another chance to grow and become more christlike. If we always trust the Lord we will never stray off the path. My favorite scripture is 2Nephi 4:34 but I would say read the whole chapter its so good. Anyways I hope that you all can find some happiness especially in being with each other. I love you all so much. Manwia le aso! Have a good day! FA!

October 18,2009 Planting Seeds by Elder Nelson

This past week was an interesting one. Michael still has not sent any pictures home yet. So, I will continue to post the pictures we took of him before he left. It has been a tough week for me but getting better by the minute. I cancelled my facebook account as I found myself being addicted to it and wasting a lot of time although I did make some good friends but it eventually became more of a problem for me. I just miss that contact with some of those friends especially new ones made but oh well, you live and learn and then you live and learn again. So, I must trudge on in life and make the most of every situation. I do feel grateful for many things especially for this remarkable young man in this picture. So, I will share some of his words this week as he seems to teach us something new every time he writes home. Oh how I miss him so much!

"My companion and I are still working hard at finding but this past week we focused a lot on less active families and trying to bring them back to church. One of our members said that he wants to work with us to bring back his brother into the church and his brother's daughter....We also got a Ward Mission Leader, bro. Fa'aui lol,he's a crack up and I was worried at first because he likes to muck around but he sat us down and he's got some great plans to work with us and the ward to really spark the missionary fire in all of us. So'I'm excited! We should see some great changes happening. I know that working each day we're planting seeds and maybe another pair of missionaries will do the reaping but it feels good to be doing the lords will.

Mum, So I hope everyone is okay because I havent gotten an email from home for 2 weeks now. If you are punishing me for not sending pictures home then I'm sorry! I sent like 7 cd's home this past week so get excited! Anyway love you all an miss you heaps. Hope to hear from you soon!

(yes, it is true, 2 weeks! we are the worst family ever! it was just bad luck and bad timing....better in the future..promise:)

October 11, 2009 Conference! Elder Nelson

......I really enjoyed conference and the opportunity we have to hear from the wonderful Sisters, members of the seventy, and apostles and prophet of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The spirit truly manifested to me that they are called of God and that if we hearken unto their counsel and heed their words we can experience more blessings in our daily lives. I loved David A. Bednar's talk on being more diligent and concerned at home and how we should openly express or love, be consistent on spiritual matters and share our testimonies. I love my family and the blessing of goodly parents who strived to be consistent in f.h.e. and family prayer and scripture reading even though I think my brothers and I made it close to impossible to do so lol! ......I feel so bad for my Australian brothers and sisters because there are so many who do not believe in God. They dont know what its like to feel God's love in their lives.

......Mum, thank you for your diligence as a parent and a nurturing mother. I'd love to hear your and Dad's tesimony if you could send them to me and I hope you decided to have testimonies shared more often in the home. I think Stephen and Bryce would love to hear your testimonies.

......Dad, thank you so much for being such a great father. I thought about you so much during priesthood session. Wasnt it great? You've always been a great example and I've learned a lot from you, even when I didnt want to haha. I feel bad for not confiding in you more and asking for your advice. I feel like I've missed out on a lot. I hope my younger brothers dont make the same mistake. I love you. How grateful I am for how Heavenly Father has blessed my family. I miss you all so much.

Elder Nelisoni

October 5, 2009 Preaching Repentance

..."I've grown to love studying the scriptures. It's the days when I truly feel like I've feasted upon the words of Christ when I really feel like I can be bold and confident in preaching repentance unto these people. As it says in D&C 16 (paraphrase) 'The thing that will be of most worth unto us in this life is to preach repentance unto the children of men or in other word, "Feed my Sheep" as Christ commanded'. In D&C 18 it say's 'How great shall be your joy if you bring save it be one soul unto me.'
I know how great the joy is to be a missionary and Iwant to feel that fullness of joy someday. I hope your desires are the same. I know that this is Christ's one and only true church and we have a living prophet today, Thomas S. Monson. I know that God lives and Jesus is our Lord and Saviour. I am so thankful for his infinite atonement. I love my family and for how blessed I was to be born into this church and to be born of goodly parents. I love this gospel."

....I love to hear how blessed my family is. Keep the ball rolling. Keep praying , reading scriptures and spending time as a family. Also, one thing that I've found that really strengthens a family is when you do service together as a family, especially for other people and the more you do it the more you get used to doing it. Kuz I know sometimes we can be whiners lol. I mean mostly us boys:) I'll talk to you next week.
Love you,
Elder Nelson

Feeling Empowered!

Today I am feeling empowered. It didnt start out that way. In fact I woke up this morning not wanting to get out of bed. I was so depressed! I did my regular routine and drove to seminary made lunches and fed the dog. Then I got dressed and took the dog for a walk. After feeling sorry for myself and feeling like my life was being taken over by circumstances and things that seemed to be out of my control, I suddenly got a strong urge to take control. So, I called Mike and told him that the dog was no longer allowed inside the house and in addition to this the TV was no longer going to be on. ( Now I'm talking about the televison. Whe chores are complete and when all else has been done then they may watched approved movies with permission.) But as far as all the junk that is on the tube these days....no more of that in my house. I am sick, sick, sick of sitcoms and the like. And I am sick and tired of this big dog taking over my home chewing up anthing that is left out and running my furniture like he is on a track feild! I felt so empowered and started cleaning and taking back control of my life. Some things may be out of my control these days but I can still create an enviornment that is conducive to what I want my life to be like.

Then I started thinking about this coming up weekend. When my best friend Denisa and I will be going away together ...alone....cant wait! We started this 3 years ago and now we are hooked. She had followed me to each of my National Sales Meetings for the past 3 years and now I am no longer working for that company. But that is not going to stop us this year. So, we have decided that we will continue to take our time away from life and family and kids and stuff and go enjoy ourselves on a girls weekend. We are going to drive down to So. Cal go to the beach and maybe hit Disneyland......maybe....who knows....we are just gonna play it by ear and relax. So, now I am even more empowered since I know this is coming up. We have been best friends for 27 years now and have not missed a beat of eachother's lives.....I honestly dont know what I would do without her in my life. Here's to my BFF! Denisa, I love you! And here's to girlfriends and empowered women everywhere!