To my Cousin James...

At the beginning of this past summer, I began working for Aloha Pools and rapidly discovered that for my age I was not very strong... It became a source of mockery at my job. Well after about a week of that I decided it was time to GET BIG.  So I called my cousin James (who is the largest person I know) and asked him simply, "James, How do I get big?"  His reply was simple. "I lift heavy things over my head." So James came over and taught me something that truly changed my life...  

It was a simple statement. "Why Not?"

"James, How many reps should I do?" "200." "WHAT???" "WHY NOT?"

"James, What dumbells should I use?" "The biggest ones." "WHAT???" "WHY NOT?"

Well I listened to him and I got stronger...

This week I realized I wasn't as strong as I wanted to be. Well the voice of my beloved cousin came to me and asked me, "Why Not?"

Why Not- Do a good morning exercise everyday?

Why Not- Talk to more people (even the scary ones).

Why Not- Work harder and Trust in the Lord more than I have ever before.

This was only amplified by an EPIC first Zone Training in which, I gave a lesson and SANG! haha it felt so good to sing again even if it was awful!!! but it was super fun!  But this Zone Training was all about being more effective finders and it WORKED!

It was incredible we began finding new people, handing out tons of copies of the Book of Mormon, and really learning to love the people here.  

Our District is really working hard and becoming stronger.  I went on another split this past week with Elder Bruneel (A good old Idaho Farm boy as pops would say) and we passed out 6 copies of the Book of Mormon! That is unheard of!!!!!!!!!!! IT was awesome! When we truly put forth the effort and trusting and believe that the Lord was willing to work along side of us, WE GOT WORK DONE! 

Funny story about getting work done.  Elder Bruneel's comp last transfer was named Elder Bonzo and Elder Bonzo had a belief that if you walked to an Asian person with a chinese Book of Mormon they will be chinese and they WILL take a Book of Mormon (As racist as this sounds it is highly effective) well we saw a asian person and we thought "Why Not" and... IT WORKED HAHAHA THREE TIMES HAHA!!! (because Darmstadt is a Uni-city a lot of Chinese come to study for super cheap, tuition is 200 euro a semester).  It was glorious we got an appointment and everything even if the appointment fell out it was still cool.

Well We wanted to see some more miracles and so we started walking back to LuisenPlatz (the city center)  and we were praying the whole way. Well we saw this guy and walked up to him and asked "Kennen Sie deises Buch?" (DO you know this book) and guess what he ONLY spoke french and Spanish and THEN out of no where Elder Bruneel starts speaking Spanish! 

GIFT OF TONGUES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was awesome so in broken spanish we gave him an a quick intro to the book of mormon and had him call a spanish member in our ward and set up an appointment!! WOOT MIRACLES!

Well Elder Bruneel and I had basically all of our appointments fall out on Thursday so we did a lot of contacting. Well when our appointment at 8:30 fell out we decided that instead of going home a little early we were going to try for our 7th Book of Mormon pass out. Well as luck would have it, We ran into the only practicing Muslim teenagers in the city that night and BOY O' BOY were they ACTIVE Muslims.  Well I couldn't understand a word they were saying because I can't understand Deutsch much less Deutsch with a THICK Turkish accent so I was sitting there nodding my head in agreement with Elder Bruneel and shaking my head when the Muslims would talk (this was not effective and advise no one to try this as it is rather offensive telling people straight that they are wrong).  Well as time goes on I was continuing shaking my head until the moment this young Muslim looked me in the eye and said, "Forget the other Elder he is ignorant, but YOU, YOU are an ANTI-CHRIST."  Well the first thought that went to my head was, "He thinks I am Nehor..." but after I realized how comical the situation was.  If you know anything about Muslim beliefs they do not believe in Christ but some in his mind he believed in him just enough to know that I was his opposite.  Well luckily, I had Elder Bruneel to back me up and He just lot started quoting Revalations  you know real "Fire and Brimstone" type of stuff. He was talking about how the Earth would roll up like a scroll and what not! IT WAS EPIC! Yes the whole anti-christ thing was a little rough... BUT I am stronger because of it...

Well the week ended with a fantastic ward event. A PINEWOOD DERBY!!! In which I took 6th out of 62 (Why Not). Thank You Very Much. These pinewood derbys are insane though! they have an Adult category which is just ridiculously competitive.

Well family, I love you and miss you!  

Well I just want to quickly finish the story about James and I. So after James inspiring two word sermon he sat me down on the weight bench, and gave me dumbbells the likes of which I could not lift to save my life. I looked at him knowing if I complained I would get another two word sermon... James could obviously sense my distress so he looked at me a said, "If you try, I will spot you."  As I went through this pass week with these words the two word sermon in my head, I reflected upon the promise that came along with the challenge.  "If you try, I will spot you." God knows us and will help us, When and If we'll simply try to "lift heavy things over our heads."

I Love Y'all!!! and miss you like crazy!!!

I am praying for all of you!!!

Elder Nilson

PS this rock is massive