23 June 2013

Dearest mommy and daddy, I love yall :) This week has been SWEET. yes in all caps. It's been SWEET. I'm loving being out here in Spartanburg with Elder Seaver. He's a great missionary and has lots of experience. We're having so much success right now. It's awesome. There's this less active family that he's been working with for awhile who they've never quite gotten around to teaching or helping them progress in the gospel. They have two unbaptized kids Taylor (15 year old male) and Ava (10 year old female). I met them a few days after I got in the area and we got a chance to teach them and start making some progress with them. Then last week the mother Ladda told us that when she saw me that first day apparently there was something about my smile and she just knew in her heart that her kids were going to be baptized with us two. It was awesome! They came to church as a family for the first time in 10 years yesterday! We're so excited for them. Also we're just finding tons of people that are preparing to be baptized. July is going to be a busy and awesome month! I'm so excited for it. Miracles on miracles are happening here! Thank yall so much for your support and prayers :) Exciting things are happening in the mission-field. I know they've been using some Facebook missionaries for awhile so I'm not quite sure what all this talk of new technology is entailing exactly but I know it'll all work out for good. There was a video clip of Christina or Sister Rosa in that meeting which was kinda cool. I love this wave of missionary work and being apart of it. It's fun stuff. Those are some awesome stories that you've shared. I appreciate all of them. I'm going to keep this email short so I can send you some pictures so I can finally send you some pictures! Love ya, Elder Nair

17 June 2013

Thanks Mom and Dad! Firstly I appreciate you bearing with me. I have lots of pictures that I'll have to show you eventually. I've just been a little slack with getting them sent cuz of the limited computer time that we have and with library computers it's pretty hard to work your stuff on them. But yeah things have been pretty busy with the new move and all. I'm in Spartanburg now serving in the Spartanburg 1st ward in the upstate. I'm kinda moving all over the state which is awesome. It's great being up here. They've asked me to be a zone leader up here and I'm pretty excited. This is awesome. I love being up here. My companion is Elder Seaver and I'm in an apartment with four missionaries. It's a lot of fun for sure. I'm so excited about the work here. They've been in what's called a three pack for the last few weeks and were working solely in the other Elders area so I'm getting another fresh start here. We've met some great people already and we're going to do some fantastic work here. Happy Birthday Mom, Happy Fathers Day Dad, and Happy Birthday/Father's Day Solomon! I love yall so much. I hope you can feel that. I know I don't always show my love to yall by writing letters and things but always always always know that I love yall so much. That's good to hear that despite all of those trials yall had a great experience with the tabernacle chior. I remember you telling me about that a little bit ago so I'm excited it went well. Miracles abound out here. It's awesome that so many people are coming out on missions. I love that. I didn't think I'd be out here with more than Elder Laplant and Elder Whipple at this point but with that annoucement everyone is joining us! That's amazing. Elder Stephen Brown is going to the Arizone Tempe mission while he waits for his visa. It was good hearing from him again. I can tell Spartanburg's going to be lots of fun. I'll let you know how things pick up as we get the work rolling here but I'm feeling lots of miracles coming. I love this gospel so much. It's amazing getting to do this all day every day for so long :) There aint nothing better than being a missionary. That's for sure. Love yall! Elder Nair

9 June 2013

Hahaha your comment about yall officially being old made me laugh. Yall are fantastic and age is just a number :P I know that yall will continue to serve the Lord with all your heart might mind and strength. Speaking of opportunities to serve, I'm getting transferred to a new area tomorrow. I'm not quite sure where I'm going as usual but I'm officially leaving Marion. It's always tough leaving an area because of all these wonderful people that you love but I know with all my heart that the Lord's hand is in this work directing me where to go, what to do, and what to say. I hope to be an example to others and do my absolute best work. I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the temple yesterday with Jessica, a recent convert that we've been working with. It was her first time going and since we've been working with her and helping her, she wanted us to go with to do baptisms. It also was the stake temple day so President Harvey had us do some initiatories and an endowment session as well before we left. It was fantastic. I don't know if I made it apparent enough in my past emails about how much I missed the temple, but I had a fabulous time and it was incredibly refreshing. This gospel is so true. I can't even begin to describe how I feel about it. To answer some of your questions, I pretty much get to play the piano at every fireside and district/zone meetings and I also got to play a special musical number of Come Thou Fount this past Sunday. I don't have too much time to practice the piano unless I'm doing a special musical number, in which case I get a little bit of practice, but my skills have kept up as far as I can tell. My exercise is going terribly, i've gain 50 lbs!...haha just kidding. Morning workouts are fantastic. I love getting up and getting straight to work first thing in the morning (next to morning prayers that is). It helps your energy throughout the day and keeps my strength up. I'm still the exact same size for the most part. My personal studies are always fantastic. I learn a lot about the scriptures and I've been lately studying some church history in Our Heritage. I haven't gotten too in depth with that book yet but I'll start soon. I love the Ensign and have been enjoying our modern day scriptures so much. Service opportunities are great. I love helping people out so much. We cut ragweeds out of a corn field to help the Weatherfords out. If you want to learn more about Brother Weatherford, he played for University of Tennessee back in the sixties I believe. Dad will probably love it. That's fantastic to hear about all the missionaries to be/ missionaries in the field already. I'm glad this work has blown up so much. It's good knowing that the work is truly hastening. I hope Alex is doing well. Got some pictures from that that look rough but I know he's going to endure it happily cuz he's one tough cookie. Haha I can't believe Brother Clark did that challenge! That's awesome haha. Wow I have to figure out what his secret is when I get back :P just kidding...that's ridiculous. Let him know that out here in Myrtle Beach there's a place with an 80 oz steak challenge so if he's ever in South Carolina and wants $90 worth of free steak, the place is called Thorny's. I don't intend on trying that challenge anytime soon. I'm excited about serving in a new area. Nervous but excited as always. It's been great serving with Elder Esplin. I've learned a lot and I hope to be able to leave this area with good things going and get to work in a new area. Missions truly shape your life. Love yall so much Elder Nair

3 June 2013

Hey yall!
It was so nice to hear and see Gideon in action and a little bit of Solomon and Amanda as well. I love them so much :D I'm so glad that things are going so well for them :)

I'm grateful for the examples that yall have set before me. I can't thank yall enough for that. It's so great being out here and making the changes that I need to to be a great contribution to society and to the Lord's kingdom. I love being out here.

Things are going good. I'm guessing that my time in Marion is coming to a close soon but I'll find out for sure this Saturday night. I'm excited that Myeshia is doing so well. She sticks to her guns for sure. She's going to be a great example to Audrey and the rest of her family as she continues strong in the gospel and comes to the temple. We're making some great progress with a less active lady that has had her feelings hurt in church in the past but she's finally getting over it so that she can have the promises that God has already blessed her with. Leaving areas is always sad but I know that I'm going to love my next area and trust that I'll be wherever the Lord needs me to be.

Today has been pretty fun so far, we got to help the Weatherfords (The people that yall almost got to see at the temple) harvest some potatoes this morning. It was great! It's been raining really hard all morning so I'm like soaked but I enjoyed it all the more because of the rain :) We're okay over here in the beach area with the tornadoes. They're staying clear of the East coast from what I can tell. But hurricane season is starting up earlier than usual and apparently it's going to be longer than usual. I'm not worried though, God's going to take care of me as he sees fit. I don't get to see much media but from what people have said, it sounds like the tornadoes are tearing through the lower part of the midwest as usual. I hope everyone is okay. The weather is really getting worse and worse just as God's prophets have testified. It's crazy that some people don't see this weather as signs of the times cuz it's gradually gotten up to this point.

I'm not worried though. I know what I need to do to be safe. I just hope that people will accept the gospel message so they can be safe as well. I love these people so much. It's tough having so much love for these people because it makes you sad when they use their agency to choose the wrong way. But I find great peace in a conference talk by Elder Holland called the Grandeur of God. It is impossible to have so much love for someone or something, without feeling the pain of disappointment sometimes. I find it hard to comprehend that God, a perfect being with everlasting joy and happiness, can weep with and for us. It really displays his true nature. I see the little things that I have to go through with seeing people reject the message of the gospel for now, but I can't imagine how God feels when one of his sons or daughters never accept the fullness of the gospel. I can't picture how much it would hurt to watch one of my children stray away and choose to be out of my presence for time and all eternity. That would be heartbreaking.

But it's all a part of life. Without experiencing some form of sadness we would have no idea what true joy would feel like. It's amazing to know that eternal life is a continuation of the life that we now experience on so many levels. The more that I see the correlation between this Earth and the eternal, the more I feel like I can do to prepare for the eternities. I don't know how people can be so complacent with what they have and think they know everything that they need to know about God and the heavens. Even the great prophets who have seen into the heavens learn more and more each day. No matter where we've been blessed to start or what we've been blessed to experience, we can build on that. No other religion or set of doctrines can compare to the doctrines that God has created. I love this gospel and this church so much.

That's awesome that yall got to see church family from Michigan City! My memory of them is limited but I do have very fond memories of them.

Hope everything continues to go well back home

Love yall,

Elder Nair

28 May 2013

Hey surprise surprise! I actually get to email today since the library was closed for Memorial Day so I get another added birthday present right here :D

Yeah I did all the celebrating yesterday/ kinda throughout last week. I splurged a little bit too much but I really really enjoyed my birthday present. I didn't quite know what you meant when you said the extra was for cushion so I'll just let yall know what I did with it. I got myself a sweet watch from Walmart that I was in dire need of. My ol snap band watch fell apart in my last area, so I've been watchless for quite some time now. I really like the watch I got and I will forever remain in thanks to yall for it.  Then yesterday Brother Putich, the young men's president in the branch gave us a ride up to North Myrtle Beach where we went to this place called Alligator Adventure and got to see lots of live alligators, and some snakes and birds and things. But the alligators were the best part.  Then we ate at this buffet called Ryan's. It's basically like a Golden Corral so that was good. And then we went to a gift shop where I bought some cool stuff. I had a great birthday! Honestly, it is so nice because I'm in an area where I'm not too far from Myrtle Beach so there are so many cool things to do! But with no income coming in at the moment, I'm a little shorthanded as far as going and enjoying some of the attractions out there. So basically I couldn't have asked for a better gift :) Yesterday was so much fun!

The temple trip is two Mondays from now so I'll let you know all about that when that happens.

And Brother and Sister Weatherford (the lady you almost got to meet at the temple) invited us over for lunch and we watched Sister Monson's funeral as we ate. That was a really good service.

There really isn't anything better than being a missionary. We're meeting some great people and having a lot of fun so things are going so well. I'm just a little sad that I'll be most likely leaving the area here soon. You never really know but it's looking like that's what will happen. But I'm content with wherever God needs me. I know I'm going to love wherever I am because no matter where I go, I'll still get to be a missionary :) I think the love for these area's just comes more from the fact that I'm a missionary here. I'm so excited to hear about all the great missionaries that are being sent out. They're going to be so great! I love the hastening of this work! There's so much happening in the world and God's work is rolling forward unceasingly. I feel honored to be able to be a part of it.

I'm learning so much out here I can't even believe it. My testimony is growing so much. I just love the gospel with all my heart. It's pure happiness. Even when my situations tough, the Savior's pulling me through it. I know there isn't anything that will happen to me that God won't help me endure in happiness. I love that about these precious truths.

 

Love yall! Thanks again so much for everything that made my birthday special :D

Elder Nair