Elder Nelson: Lafayette (Hudson email week 22)

First week in my new area and it's been awesome. We are teaching so many people here in Lafayette it's a different experience. Unfortunately there's been a freak ice storm and its kept us locked in our apartments (we can't drive) since Sunday which has been a bummer hopefully it warms up. Fortunately we are teaching a guy who lives in our complex so it's nice to meet in person. Lafayette is a small town, somehow they have a walmart? Not sure but I am thankful. We split the area with 2 sister missionaries, dont know how that works🤷‍♂️ but I'm not one to complain, they actually live right next door. We've been able to spend some time with them, we actually just finished up a welcome to the branch introduction video and the clip on this email is the last bit, if you want the full thing you'll have to find it on facebook it's too big to email. We had probably my best lesson as a missionary yesterday. It was with this guy named Ryan, some elders in Mt. Juliet cold called him sunday and put him on date actually, he had met with missionaries 12 years earlier while living in Wisconsin. He actually considers himself a member already. We were at President Gildays house for lunch with a non active family (you'll hear pres gildays name a bunch hes such a stud and vaguely reminds me of danny devito) but after we got the news about ryan we called and him and got to know a bit about him and then pres Gilday actually drove us out to Ryan's home, picked him up, and brought him back to his house to have a lesson, then pres Gilday drove all of us back to Ryan's and dropped him off. The member missionary work is sooo impressive and so nice and pres Gilday exemplifies it. Anyways we had a restoration lesson with Ryan on sunday and it was awesome, he remembered a ton from the previous missionaries. We then had our plan of salvation lesson yesterday and it was so much better too! He still remembered a ton, he basically taught us all about Adam and Eve. He remembered mostly everything too and then we got to the last part and the 3 kingdoms and while I was explaining who went where he got all emotional. He said from what remembered from the previous missionaries he thought he only qualified for one of the lower 2 and he had settled on that and was comfortable with it. When we told him it was not only possible for him to receive Celestial exaltation but that he was on the covenant path towards it, he became so emotional. He teared up and couldn't stop thanking us and I couldnt stop myself from smiling. Repentance and change is real and the joy it can bring into our lives is immeasurable. (He'll be getting baptized very shortly)

Love Y'all ❤ happy valentines!

1. Me and elder holland (parkins first transfer comp)