28 October 2013

Hey yall! I'm so excited to hear the good news about your member missionary work! The more you do it the more natural it feels. Thanks for keeping me updated in the work over there. I'm so glad that it's going well! Elder Christensen is so correct. We have complete control over our agency i.e extending the invitation, but we don't have control over others agency. That's a principle that you definitely learn out here. It can be quite frustrating at times when people you're working with choose to go against the light and truth that they've felt but just remember that it was God's plan to give us agency and Satan's plan to take it away from us. We have to experience the bitter to enjoy the sweet. I'm glad that I'm back by Airport Family Dentistry. I'll be having my teeth cleaned there this week. It's quite convenient because I realized my Dental insurance card was lost with my wallet way back when but since they have everything on file at Airport Family Dentistry, I'll be good to go. I'm glad God's helping me out and getting me through each day even throughout the stresses of trying to get all my things back in order. The work here is going well. It's a lot of planning for a lot of different people. Everyone has a different issue that they're going through, but they're all loving the gospel. Firstly is M&B: M is on probation and once she is off, her and her husband want to be baptized together. She might get off early in November for being good her first year. Please pray that things will work out for her. Then we have D&P: P is trying to overcome smoking. She has short term memory loss so it's difficult for her but she is a very sweet lady and her and her boyfriend D will work out either moving out until they get married or getting married once she has overcome this addiction. Warren: He's waiting for his mom Tomeeka to be baptized before he is. She works third shift so she is often sleeping so it's hard for us to meet with her. Pray that we'll be able to help her have the energy to meet with us and come to church on Sunday. Kruehto (Crew-too): He's from Burma. He's doing great there's just a small language barrier. He's been in the states for a little over a year but loves the gospel. There isn't a Book of Mormon available in the two languages that he speaks besides English but he is really striving to learn. There's a lot of good going on here. The members are fantastic and really have a strong desire to help us out. President Holm just gave me the okay to read it so please send it! I'm excited to get some great tips for helping out the members even more! I'm glad yall are planning with the missionaries and seeing success in that effort. Do yall remember an Elder Watson from like 6ish years ago? I may have already mentioned him but I met him in Spartanburg. He served in the Naperville 4th ward back then. It was pretty cool reminiscing with him. Keep up the great work! I love yall and I love this work. It's definitely the best thing I've ever done in my life! Love yall Elder Nair

21 October 2013

Big news for yall today! I arrived in WEST COLUMBIA SOUTH CAROLINA this past Wednesday. If you notice on your map of South Carolina you'll see that West Columbia is rather close to Gaston. So close in fact that we meet in the same building of the Congaree ward! (that's the name of the ward that I was in in Gaston :D) I was excited beyond belief. I'm serving up here as a zone leader in what is now the West Columbia South zone. It used to just be the West Columbia zone until all the sisters came and the mission split. But the areas in my zone are Gaston (sister's area now) & Cayce (both Congaree ward), West Columbia Elders (us) West Columbia Sisters (both in the West Columbia ward), Columbia YSA (sisters), Orangeburg Elders & Sisters, Traveling Spanish Elders and Columbia Spanish Elders. My new companion is my first companion that's not from Utah! Elder Saunders, who came out with me. It's so much fun getting to spend time together serving with him and also being back in the West Columbia area. Elder Saunders and I, our first day in the mission field, the West Columbia zone leaders took us out to go tracting in their area. After tracting for a bit, we stopped in to see these two recent converts of theirs Jazmine and her sister. It's so cool now because they give us a ton of referrals and they remember meeting us day one of the missions. It's so much fun being back here! We're also teaching this family that Elder Saunders tracted into that day last year. It's awesome! It just feels like home being back here. Apparently people have been talking about Elder Memmott and I's Halloween costumes with the trunk-or-treat coming up so soon. It looks like I got back into the area just in time haha. I'm not sure if you remember our old costume but I'll try to include a picture in this email. This ward is fantastic. It was so tough leaving Spartanburg because of all the wonderful Micronesian families that Elder Lee and I were working with. They're so cool and I'm going to miss them so much. Fortunately though, I've come into this area where just as much success is happening. It's making the transfer a little bit easier. This ward is so missionary minded. It's awesome. This past Sunday we were invited into the Primary to talk to the kids about being member missionaries and inviting their friends to the upcoming Trunk-or-Treat. It was so adorable. Those kids just make me smile :) Elder Saunders and I are super blessed here and I'm just excited beyond belief to be back here. A couple of the people we're working with here in the SCCM (we abbreviate it the South Carolina Columbia Mission :P) and more specifically in West Columbia are Warren and Cru Tu (pronounced Crew Two, he's from Burma). I'm going to meet all the other solid investigators here this week so I'm pretty excited about that. Things are just stellar :D. I love being a missionary so much. We're living with the Columbia Spanish Elders, Elder Judd, and Elder Silva. Elder Judd was serving in Charleston where he met a Brother Bankey. Apparently Brother Bankey was up in Syracuse, New York a few years ago where he met his favorite missionary, a black elder, who served in the army, and is now preparing to be a dentist and also happened to be named Elder Nair. Small, small world. But yeah let Solomon know that one of the Elders I'm living with was just serving in Brother Bankey's home ward. I love how cool stuff happens like that. I love yall. Hope everything continues to go well. I'm sure I'll get many more ideas about member missionary work here in this missionary-minded ward. They have so many cool ones that I'm looking forward to learning more and more about. Keep up the great work and keep being great examples! Just remember that no effort is wasted. You never know what's going to happen a year down the road. Cru Tu, decided to stop meeting with the missionaries after Elder Saunders tracted into him a year ago but just a few weeks ago he got online and requested that the missionaries come back and visit him. Not in a million years could we have guessed that that would happen. God's hand is truly in this work. I love it :D Love yall, Elder Nair

14 October 2013

I'm getting transferred!!!!!!!!!! Sad day, sad day. There's so much great work going on here. Elder Lee and I have been having a blast in Spartanburg. I'm going to miss this place so much! I'll be serving as a zone leader again in a new area so I will let you know next week when I find out where I go. As usual I'll be heading to the big transfer meeting this Wednesday and I'll find out my new companion and the new area that I'm serving in that day as well. I'm going to miss everyone here! I'm definitely leaving this area with lots of momentum built up. The new missionary that replaces me will surely have a fun time. We have 6 wonderful people being prepared for baptism in these next two months. It's sad that I won't be able to attend their baptisms but I know they'll be in good hands. This ward has grown on me so much. It's changed so much since I've been here. We went from about 75 active members at church every Sunday to about 120. It's grown and thrived and just been wonderful and really fast paced here. As much as I'm going to miss it, I know that I'll love my new area and the new people that I'm serving around. Transfers are always such a bittersweet moment. Especially when there are so many wonderful people preparing to be baptized. The temple was amazing! My goodness gracious. I just love going there. I hope to go with the Nguyen's soon. I love that family! They're my favorite. We're definitely going to be lifelong friends :) They're hoping to go to the temple before I get off my mission. I hope it happens so I can go with them :) I remember Brandon. I hope he does make it back around. I wish I had been more involved with him. Knowing what I know now, I could've done so much more in my youth to help everyone. I didn't have the direction that I now have in helping a new member/investigator get involved in the church. I'm going to make helping new people a priority in my life. They really need all the support that they can get. It's such a crazy life change that can be really scary. It's like a completely new lifestyle. It takes a lot of dedication and courage to make it through that first year. And Satan is really working his hardest then too. It sounds like the work is going great over there too. How soon will Riley be leaving on his mission? I forget how old these kids are getting. With the new mission age it just seems like they're aging way faster than they should be haha. Who's the next group that will be coming out into the field? Spartanburg is definitely somewhere I have to come back and visit. There's just been so many fond memories here. 4 months was not enough time to spend here. It just flew by in the blink of an eye. I could basically serve in one of 11 different areas at this point. There are 6 stakes in our mission and each one has 2 zones in it, leaving two zone leader areas. Greenville East, Greenville, West Columbia, Columbia, Charleston, and Florence. So I could literally be anywhere in the state. I'm pretty excited about the future but will still miss everyone here. Hope all continues to go well with yall. I love yall with all my heart. Love, Elder Nair

9 October 2013

Hey! Since we have our temple trip tomorrow, we're having our P-day tomorrow. But the assistants decided that we should do our emailing before we go since it will take awhile to get to the temple and back so we're taking care of it today. Sorry if you were expecting an email back on Monday! Don't worry I haven't forgotten about yall :P This week has been really cool. Conference is always spectacular. My favorite talk was Elder Uchtdorf's in the priesthood session. That was a really good one. I just love the focus on missionary work right now. We can really use it with members in our efforts to find those who are ready for the gospel. There's a lot of intense changes going on in the mission field. Here in the SCCM we're staying pretty traditional but some other missions have been getting the iPads and all that incorporated into the work. I don't know when we're going to start doing that but for now it's been great doing things the old-fashioned way. I'm so excited to go to the temple tomorrow! I've been looking forward to it for so long. It's crazy that it's already here! Time is just flying, flying, flying. It's so crazy. But time always flies when you're having fun. I really love being out here so much. It's amazing to see myself change. I know I've probably said this before but I was just thinking about the change that's taken place in me and I could've never seen myself with this much desire to do what my Heavenly Father wants me to do. I love how Preach My Gospel emphasizes changing the missionary. I really want to become Christlike in every way that I can. I love the confidence that the gospel brings. Things that used to seem scary to me, I feel like I can face with no fears. I feel like I can be successful in anything that I put my mind to. The self-discipline that I've gained out here is amazing. It seems that I've accomplished so little in my life before my mission. There's so much more that I could've done. But I'm looking forward now. Having the gospel in your heart just changes your perspective on everything for the better. I'm proud of Solomon! Congratulate him for me please. I'm glad things are going so well in his life. Having your priorities straight makes so much difference. It's sad seeing my brothers and sisters who don't have their priorities straight. I want to help them so much. There's no better way to have peace in this life than by living the gospel. There's strength there that no one can give you but the Savior. Keep being a light to your friends and our family. I'm glad progress is being made there. I've really grown to desire the welfare of those around me. I want to help them. There's so much more that I wish I could do for them. But I understand that I am where I am and God sees fit for me to do what he's allotted to me. I hope to do the best that I can with it. Love yall so much, Elder Nair