24 February 2013

Hey it's good to hear everything is going well.

Hilary's going to be a powerful missionary. I'm excited for her and all the other soon to be departing missionaries from the ward. There's a lot of good going on in the field right now. I'm very excited about the future of missionary work in the branch here and throughout the world. 

Firstly thanks for sending me all that information. I hope I'll be able to get everything straightened out soon. 

This week was really fun. We did a lot of tracting which has been nice getting back into. Also, we've been combining our tracting efforts with working with the branch. A new branch mission leader was called. We talked with him last night and established things that we're going to work on and focus on in the branch. There were a lot more members at church this Sunday so it was great finally getting to meet everyone. We visited a few members yesterday and had great experiences with them. We're hoping to help a lot more people want to come out with us so that we can do a lot of fellowshipping. The stake's focus for these next two months is member missionary work. I'm very excited about that helping the branch to be missionary minded as well. It's going to help a lot with all the work that will be going on here shortly. I'm looking forward to getting well acquainted with the members here and helping them accomplish their goals in missionary work. I know this little branch here can become a ward very soon. I remember all the stories about our little branch in the past and how much it has grown since then. 

It's good to hear Solomon, Amanda and Gideon are doing well. That's awesome that they are being great member missionaries.

This week I got to go on a companionship exchange with Elder Memmott (my trainer). It was so much fun! I had a blast and I learned a lot. He has a lot of wisdom and his brother entered the field just last week. If you see an Elder Memmott in the ward or stake make sure to let him know that his brother was an awesome trainer. 

In my most recent studies I've been focusing a lot on purifying and sanctifying your heart. The only way that missionary work is accomplished is that if we as missionaries are being worthy conduits of the Spirit. As missionaries we are held to a higher law. We have a little white handbook of rules that we read from everyday. These rules are so important. Obedience to God's commandments brings the presence of the Spirit. Exact obedience to the commandments (which on a mission includes the mission rules) will help us receive a greater portion of the Spirit. As my spiritual knowledge and sensitivity grows, my thoughts become more pure which leads to my actions becoming more pure and vice-versa. Every thought and action that we have that isn't in accordance to the commandments of God brings up a little spiritual traffic cone. The Spirit then has to worry about going around that traffic cone and through you in order to touch the hearts of investigators. I'm hoping to eliminate all my spiritual traffic cones so that I can be a truly direct course for the Spirit to touch the hearts of my investigators and influence my mind and heart to say what needs to be said. This takes a lot of fasting and prayer on my part. This is how the ancients did missionary work. They purified themselves so that they could be the most worthy conduits of God. They were truly vessels enlightened by the Holy Spirit. As this is accomplished your faith in God increases because he will deem you worthy to do his will and promise the blessings that He would promise people. God's promised blessings will always be fulfilled so as I truly strive to become a representative of Jesus Christ, His words will be my words, His promises will be my promises. 

Preach My Gospel is such an inspired program. It leads and directs us in gaining the conversion that we need to not only greatly influence the lives of others, but to influence the course of our lives on such a large scale in such a short amount of time. Serving a full time mission is the greatest opportunity for growth that I have ever experienced in my life. And this is only the beginning. There is nothing that I would rather be doing than being out here and serving my Savior. I hope and pray that no one who is worthy and able to go, will miss this great opportunity.

Love,

Elder Nair 

19 February 2013

It's very true I am settled in my new area which is the mighty city of Marion, South Carolina. It's another big car area and I'm serving in a nice little branch here. There are about 50ish active members but I'm out to change that. It's great. This area covers all the way up to the northern border of South Carolina. It's about an hour drive from Myrtle beach. I love it here. White people are the minority up here. There's a couple tiny cities and then a lot of more spaced out/ rural areas. It's a bit similar to Gaston in ways. It's great being up here though. I feel quite a connection with these people.

There are a lot of pretty nice projects up here. It snowed on Saturday night! That was crazy. We got about an inch of snow so just enough to coat everything and make it look like wintertime. I think the snow kept a lot of people from coming to church this Sunday. People are very leery about driving in the snow up here so there were probably like 35 people at church this Sunday. It's a nice little branch though, I can tell I'm really going to enjoy it. It's a bit of an older branch but there are still a few younger people that attend. My new companion is Elder James. He came out at the same time as Elder Holley. When you train, on the second day that the new missionaries come out, you pair up with a random missionary and go tract for a couple hours. Elder James was the random missionary I paired up with for that day so it was cool seeing a familiar face.

They've assigned me to be a district leader over here. It's nice because with the organization, district leaders get to talk to zone leaders a lot and Elder Memmott (my old trainer) is one of my zone leaders up here. It's way fun getting to talk to him again. I'm excited to serve with him in this capacity now.

There are some great families out here. We've met a lot of really great people. Two in particular are Amanda and her kids (Ver'quavious, Daveona, and Nathaniel) and this lady named Angel. We had a great first lesson with both of them. Amanda and her family seemed really interested and accepted a baptismal date of march 16th. I'm excited about that and hope all goes well. We have a return appointment with them tonight. Angel is very active in the church she attends now, but she's a great Christian lady willing to hear us out. She would make such a great member. She's so excited about God and the truth would do a lot for her.

We're staying in an apartment here, just Elder James and I. It's a nice little place. I'll work on sending pictures because this library is a bit nicer than the library in Gaston so the computers should take cameras. I'll find out soon though.

Emily, the daughter of Crystal whose mom we helped reactivate in Gaston, was baptized this past Saturday. It was sad not being able to attend the service but I'm excited for their family and am excited to one day come back and see them active in the church.   

That's exciting that you'll be working in the temple. That will be a great calling for you. I still miss the temple a lot but I hope to be able to go soon. I know I'll be back there soon enough.

We have a set of Senior couple missionaries in our branch as well: the Bowmans. If you know Camille Nuttall (might be wrong about the last name) in the I think Naperville 1st ward, it's her grandparents. Camille's older brother Reis is going on a missionary soon or is already out. So small world (haha)

Hope yall have a good week. Love yall

Elder Nair

Gaston

11 Feb 2013

Hey I got your email, I'll be in my new area on Wednesday.

It's a bittersweet moment receiving this call to serve somewhere else. I'm sure going to miss all the wonderful people here in Gaston. I love it here. But I know that I'm going to  love the next area I go as well as the people there. Getting a new start will be an exciting experience. I hear the first transfer is always the most nerve-racking. I really feel loved here. We have some amazing investigators right now and I just love them all so much. They'll all be baptized very soon. It's crazy just up and leaving these people right in the middle of their conversion. There are many investigators here that have such solid testimonies of the gospel. It's amazing to see how truth and the Spirit work together to bring about such a mighty change in people in such a short amount of time. There have been many miracles here. 

Samantha unfortunately did not get baptized but she is still fantastic. We're really helping her get lots of support from the Ward at the moment. She's awesome, she just has no support at home right now. She will be baptized one day I'm sure. She knows the Book of Mormon is true and really loves it. I intend on keeping contact with her in the future. 

This week's been great. It's been a huge whirlpool of emotions with all the work that's going on, plus me leaving. I'm trying really hard to leave plenty of work for the next Elder that arrives. There's lots of good going on here so I'm excited to hear about how it all ends up going. 

I really enjoyed that lesson this Sunday too. It's pretty nice that we all go out of the same manual. Conversion truly is a lifelong thing. It's something that needs to continue growing and continue being rooted deeper and deeper into our hearts if we are to withstand the trials of this life.   

I just wanted to let yall know that I'm really grateful for what good parents yall are. You see a lot of different family situations out on a mission. I'm always getting reminded of how important it was that yall raised me right. I will remain ever grateful for that. I'm so blessed to have yall as parents. Thank you for raising me right, teaching me consequences for my actions, helping me understand the importance of living the gospel and inspiring me to serve my mission. Being out here is such a great blessing. I've probably said this before but I'm so grateful for everything I've learned and for the things that I know I will continue to learn. Love yall

-Elder Nair

4 Feb 2013

From:Elder Nair

Yeah, time is flying out here. It's very crazy. I'm incredibly excited about the work. It's going so well. This month should be a good one. Transfers are next Wednesday so two weeks from now I'll let yall know where I'm at. I'm trying to do all I can to leave this area with lots of momentum here so the next Elder here can see lots of success.

 

I'm glad you're having success and a positive outlook on your missionary efforts. I hope they continue. Just know that no effort is wasted. Simply by being a great example and then letting people know that church is such a great part of your life will open their hearts for future opportunities. It's so much better to teach someone who knows members of the church because they know that we aren't what some of the media depicts us to be. You think after a Mormon ran for president people would get the picture haha. But people always benefit from multiple good examples and people who are fellowshipped stay active.

 

You quoting that scripture reminded me of this scripture I read this morning simply because I'm trying to memorize it. I've been reading in the old testament and just came across it today. I don't remember exactly what it says yet but it's 1 Kings 10:7. It's when this lady from a far off land comes to meet King Solomon, after she hears and experiences his great wisdom in person she says at first she didn't believe but after her eyes saw it, the greatness exceeded that which she had heard. (or something along those lines) Basically the reason I like it so much is because of the parralel I made in my head to us approaching our Savior. While we believed, it's going to be so overwhelming seeing the matchless love that our Savior has for us. I bet the perception that we have of Christ's love and glory is not even half of what we can imagine. It's amazing to think that the great love that I feel Christ has for me, is so small in comparison to how much He actually loves and cares and helps me. I try to recognize my daily miracles but His hand is literally in everything good in my life, whether I can tell that they're good or not. The more I think about it, the more peace I feel in my heart. Every little breath of life that I take is another gift from him. How amazing is it that we get to live and experience this mortal life.

 

We're working with some great people right now. Our investigator Sandra is just so prepared. She's such a spiritual person and has so much love in her heart. I don't think I've seen a person with more unconditional love in her heart. She came to church for the first time yesterday and just loved it. She feels the spirit so strongly and recognizes us as servants of our Heavenly Father. I'm very excited to see her accept all the blessings of the gospel in her life. Just pray that things continue to go smoothly with her. We've been working with her for quite some time and the first time she came in contact with missionaries was May of last year. I'm very excited for her.

 

I still really miss the temple. I'm excited to go again one day though. Hopefully near the end of this year.

 

Thanks for sending me those. It's a really big help. The mini Preach my Gospel is treating me very well. It's good to have two out here. I take the little one to meetings and things so it's convenient that it's so much easier to carry. We've been able to distribute copies of the Book of Mormon. We're always out finding new people wherever we go. This week we've been teaching a lot of the people we're working with right now and helping them prepare to live a strong and active life in the gospel. I'll do my best in keeping in touch with everyone. Just let them know how much I love them and I'm sorry that I can't talk to them as much as I'd like. But things are busy and I'll have lots of stories for them in the future. I'm keeping up my journal so I don't forget anything :D

 

Love yall hope yall have a great week :)

-Elder Nair