Missionaries in front of the temple
Ian's Portrait
Sunday, August 29, 2010
helping the new-bees
Dear mom, dad, and Ariel,
It's lively over here! Today we were able to be the hosts for new missionaries and it's amazing what people forget. one misssionary forgot his scriptures, notebooks, and pens! By the way, before I forget I had to go to the doctor today, it seems some sort of sickness has been getting around the M.T.C. as of late. So, you might be getting a bill soon :( sorry, I won't have time any other day to do it. Thank You all sooo much for the letters! They bring back memories and peace. Along with this letter I've included some pictures, have fun!
The light saber pictures were done with a highlighter and the super-man-s were done on a bolted down ironing board! We also had a chance to go to the temple here and the Celestial Room is Gorgeous! We get to do a Temple walk and take pictures there on Sundays. It's pretty funny cuz one of the Elders here (Meserve you can see him in the pictures) has a couple friends of his (girls) that like to "visit" the Temple on those days the missionaries are out. XD ha, ha, ha!
Speaking of the Temple 08/26/20/10 I sat next to a man who sculpted some bronze statues over at the M.T.C. I didn't get his name but he said that his teacher was Avard Fairbanks (dad's great uncle) maybe you know him?
Oh, and my doctors name was Fairbanks as well. (Grandma's maiden name) He told me that there were only two lines of Fairbanks and that he had been doing geneaology work for years. I then proceeded to tell him about ours and how our name came to be...He said that he would look into it. It's amazing how small the world is!
I'm still waiting to hear about the bike?
Love You!
Elder Ian Nessen
(What Ian didn't realize when he wrote this is that the sculpture/artist is Stanley Watts a friend we knew while we were living in S.L.C. when Ian was about 7yrs. old. and the Doctor we believe is a relative of his grandmother's...YES IAN, IT IS A VERY SMALL WORLD! and I don't believe in coincidence.)
2nd e-mail letter
Hello Everyone! I'm glad to hear that everyone's doing okay! I have so many things to tell you in sooooo little time! Even now I'm sweating bullets trying to figure out what to saw! First off is pictures: I just put some in the mail for you all to see! (and don't worry mom and dad those were taking during P-day!) Sleeping is still interesting here, those pipes are still shaking the whole room. If I could explain it any other way I would compare it to exactly how a roller coaster sounds without any people . The late night conversations are still pretty interesting too! Why,just the other night Elder Olsen said that I was yelling in my sleep to "water the trees!" :P
I guess it's better than my zone leader though, He apparently was threatening someone in his sleep lol his companion said it so weird. He said that Elder Arbon just started saying "I'm gonna punch you!!!!"and he just starting wailing on his pillow! He said "for a guy with one arm, I wouldn't consider it a weakness. "So it's very entertaining at night.
And just a couple days ago we had Jeffery R. Holland from the Quorum of the Twelve visit us! It was AMAZING!!! I don't have the notes nor the time to share it with you right now, but I can tell you that there is a second side to him that you don't see at conference. He's very stern and very funny and everything he talks about is a wake-up call for everyone. I encourage everyone back home to look up his talk "Don' you Dare Leave",( or something like that) It's extremely encouraging for missionaries and members alike and he is now my favorite speaker. (sorry Erying and Monson) please don't send a lightening bolt!
Over here we train for investigators that we might meet in real life. We had one assigned to us named Bergita, and she was a very stone hard lady. It was a very spiritual experience because even though the conversation started with strong retorts and harsh statements, it ended with all of us nearly in tears because of the Spirit. Up until this point I can pretty much tell you all that I have had a hard time recognizing it, but knowing how the conversation turned out and the things that were said, I now have a firm testimony in the knowledge of the Holy Spirit and everything it does for us. I know the Lord loves us and guides us to whre we need to be at any given time to help bring his gosepel to the world. Thank you all so much for being my friends and family and I wish you all the best of Hope!
love,
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Friendly Reminders
08/19/2010
I'm sorry for not being able to write to you sooner. They slapped me with a rule, "write letters only on p-day" (Thursday) I hope I didn't worry any of you. I'm learning so much! I am greatly amazed that a person can change so much in one week! I am surprised as well that you guys kept all those letters! It makes my experience eventful! There's an elder who received almost 20 letters and 4 packages this week already. All the elders joke about beating him up just to receive one of his letters. It's pretty cool though because I bunk with him and he feeds me some of his donuts :)
I've even met a few elders who remind me of friends back home! Elder Fredrickson (Zach Giffin-Pope), Elder Thopson [companion] (Parker Krebs), Elder Havely (Houston), Elder Peterson (me), Elder Goulding (Grey), Sister Ward (Sister Proksch) and Elder Bick (Ryan...except shorter). Love you all and miss you!
Love,
Elder Nessen
Insomniacs
08/19/2010
Hi everyone. It's Ian. Everything is going well at the MTC I saw Tracy Brown and Elder Mesa today! They seem to be doing alright. Tracy is happy and excited to be leaving on her mission and has a strong Norwegian testimony. Elder Mesa likes company and seemed really happy to see me, though the atmoshpere about him seemed a little sad... Overall he's doing pretty good though.
I'm bunking with three other Elders; Olsen, Meserve, and Thompson (companion). All of them are great and each day I spend here at the MTC I appreciate the fact that I wasn't put with any other districts in my hall. It seems they like to mess around while they should be working, but boys will be boys I guess. I just can't find the time to be able to do what they do, because there are so many things to learn and firgure out before I leave to Tampa Florida. It's pretty funny trying to sleep though. Every night there's this repetitive vibrating that shakes the room. People say it's the pipes, but as far as anyone really knows, our room is the only one with that problem. And when we sleep at night my companion and I sleep talk to each other. Elder Olsen says he can't get to sleep because of our "conversations". lol. Honestly I think it's Elder Meserve's snoring that keeps him up. I know it's woken me up a COUPLE of times.
Even through the partial insomnia we've managed to be able to make it to gym and other fun things around the field during exercise time. I'ts great because my companion loves to work out so we do that often. Our most favorite exercise though is 9 square. It's 4-square but with 9 squares instead of four. You wouldn't think it, but it gets really heated and fun. Rules: The ball can only hit your square once, if it bounces out after a bounce you're out. If the ball bounces into your square, you can do anything to make the ball hit another person's square, as long as you touch it before it hits their square. If you hit your own square, you're out. And everyone moves in a clockwise fashion into the empty square until you enter the center (king square). I think this is a great activity for mutual, everyone loves it!
Anyway, my time is about up so I will leave you all with my warmest wishes and an awesome 9-square game. I love you all and miss you, but don't worry I'm not homesick yet! The MTC is great! there's so much more material here that you can see and it's so spiritual and a big wake up call that, I can assure you, I needed. I encourage everyone to come on a mission. And If not that, just come to the MTC it'll convert you anyway. Happy Birthday to all of those whom I miss: Devon Blake, Tony Teleaga, Devin Cook, Tayler Suckoll, Madi Shino, Destinee Rogers, Austin Pitkin, Julia Payne, and anyone else I might have forgotten. Until next week, Love you all!
ELDER,
Ian Nessen
They Weren't Kidding
08/12/2010
Hello again!
Things are growing increasingly hard, but we are still managing to pull through. They weren't kidding when they said we'd be busy. I just wish we had some more time to fit in, more time for scripture study and lessons. They give us a lot of curriculum, but very little time to actually do it. I'm not homesick, so don't worry about me, there's plenty of things to keep me busy here! Some things are hard to adapt to. I don't miss games or TV that much...in fact I don't miss it at all. I do miss putting my hands in my pockets, gum, saying "dude," friends, and my nice fridge (it needs a new bulb btw). My companion Elder Thompson is really great though! Get this, he loves lifting weights, video games, and he worked as a cashier at Smith's! He's awesome! (I'm also sharing a room with Elder Olsen and Meserve). I haven't found Elder Meza yet, but I'm still looking. I probably won't be able to write to you guys very much, because they want me to write to a Branch President during this time. But I want you all to know I'm doing well and love you lots!
Love,
Elder Nessen
First day at MTC
08/11/2010
Hello everyone!
It's been my first day at the MTC and already I love my new companion! Elder Thompson is really cool, he reminds me of Parker Krebs back home. As I looked around it seems to me like there are a lot of people that remind me of friends back home. Just today I already met a guy like Houston. I think "Elder Hevley" is his name. It's been a pretty full day overall. We were taught how to interact with investigators today. We all sat in a group while an actor played the part of an investigator. We had 3 in all. It was really a wake-up call to a lot of us, because teaching looks easy when you're on splits with Elders. They had me really busy today so I couldn't set up my email or talk to Elder Meza, so I'll have to do it another day. I'm so excited to be here! Tell everyone "Hi!"
Love,
Elder Nessen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)