Update on Luciano: Asking for an Arm and a Leg

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by Sam Nelson (emeritus):

A little bit of background for those of you who aren't familiar with Luciano's story. Luciano is a convert to the church and was involved in a tragic train accident over a year ago that cost him both his right arm and right leg. Read my previous blog post for more details. Or watch a short video story about Luciano.

After the MMM blog post and a follow-up BYUtv broadcast, there was an incredible outpouring of support. Helpluciano.com raised close to $30,000 in one week! Support continued to grow and we raised not only enough money to get him prosthetics for the rest of his life, but a couple very large donors (who chose to remain anonymous) pledged to sponsor him along with his father to come HERE, to the United States, to be outfitted with top-of-the-line prosthetics and up to six months of rehabilitation at Loma Linda Children's Hospital in California.

After a surprisingly long and difficult legal battle, Mauricio and Luciano were finally granted visas to travel to the United States. We immediately booked him and his father flights and they are here! We are taking care of them in Seattle until January 6th. Today I took them to visit downtown Seattle, which is very different than Chiguayante.

Luciano is extremely upbeat and optimistic as usual. He was involved in the Paralympics in Chile and won two gold medals and a bronze. He still goes to church by himself every Sunday and reads his scriptures everyday.

I'll be tweeting (@realSamNelson) about Luciano's Christmas vacation if you want updates, then will hopefully get him set up with his own Twitter account soon so you can follow him for the months in California.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen. It is truly a miracle after his horrifying experience of losing an arm, leg and eye. The scariest part has to be … what happens next? Wheelchairs/crutches are useless without an arm and prosthetics cost more than your house. An army of 400+ people/families came together and completely changed his life.

MMM Library: I Had A Bad Feeling About Serving A Mission

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by Sam Nelson (bio)

This post was originally published August 4, 2011.

I remember when I was first filling out my papers to go and serve my LDS mission. I had always wanted to go and always planned on going, but for some reason, I just had the sickest feeling about it. Was it because I wasn't ready? No … I was ready. Was I unworthy? No … I was fine with everything. Was this the spirit telling me that it wasn't time for me to go? Was it the spirit telling me I was supposed to wait to put my papers later? was I meant to go to another mission? I didn't know.

When push came to shove, my bishop told me I should go at that time and I did. I received a call to Concepcion, Chile and right away I was sent to my Aunt White's old sector (where she'd served ten years earlier) where I helped her converts and also worked with them to bring many other people to the restored gospel. I was exactly where I was supposed to be, exactly when I needed to be there.

Just a few months ago - while on my mission - I had a similar experience, I decided to take a risk, and take it upon myself to go open a new area called "Puente Ñuble." Everything about the idea made perfect sense and - initially - I felt good about it. It was not in any way against any mission rule, but it was different. Leaving a designated sector was never done before, but it seemed like the right thing to do in the given situation.

That night I had the sickest, worst feeling about it. Thoughts came … "How stupid would you look if this didn't work!? Why are you taking it upon yourself to do something that has never been done before? Who do you think you are? Why don’t you just do what you are supposed to do?" The next morning I woke up and told my companion that I wasn't doing it. I told him that it was a silly idea, and totally irrational … "I just had the worst feeling about it." I said. But after some time, and a lot of talking, the other elders that lived with me convinced me to do it, and I did. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say, those last three months were the most successful and fulfilling of my entire mission. In fact, if the 21 months before that were nothing more that a preparation for my time in "Puente Ñuble." I would still consider my mission the most productive two years of my life.

Asking For An Arm And A Leg

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by Sam Nelson (bio)

If any of you have been around a newly returned missionary, you’ll notice two things.

1) They won’t stop talking about their mission.
2) They will bring up the same few people over and over.

Luciano was that for me. I baptized Luciano Concha when he was a young teenager in my first area. Despite few friends in the church and being the only member of his family, he attended church every Sunday. He loved it, he had a difficult life and found comfort and hope in the gospel. The gospel was the perfect outlet for his highly intelligent and curious self; after only one year Luciano had read the entire Book of Mormon twice, the New Testament once, and was halfway through the D&C. When I returned to visit him later on my mission, I realized I could talk to him about Book of Mormon stories and church doctrine as if he were an adult.

You meet thousands of people on the mission, and between those thousands of people there are a few that are simply extraordinary. A few people you feel like, alone, would have made your entire mission worth it. You know that in the future, they will be leaders in the church, and their children will have the opportunity to grow up in a gospel-centered home. It’s a rush just thinking about the potential impact on future generations. There was no one more like that for me than Luciano Concha.

Three months ago I received a barrage of emails and Facebook messages with the tragic news that Luciano was involved in a train accident. Although he miraculously survived, he had the misfortune of losing his entire right arm and leg.

Boys & Girls

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by Sam Nelson (bio)

When I was in high school there was a huge craze over the Satsuma scented body butter by The Body Shop. Girls would lather on the potent orangy-smelling lotion and fill the halls with the rich tangy smell of satsumas. In the minds of the girls and all their friends, they were cleverly luring the boys with the strong smell of sweet artificial oranges. What they didn’t realize, though, was that this particular smell wasn’t really that attractive to us.To boys, the strong artificial orange smell reminded us of urinal cakes. Not that there is anything particularly wrong with the smell ... it’s a very fresh smell. It just reminds us of urinals.

From my observation, I’ve noticed there is similar confusion about what is interesting in the returned missionary dating field and I want to clear up the fog a little bit.

1. Boys are the best source for info about boys. Sometimes I wonder if girls aren't spending a lot of time trying to attract boys by worrying about things boys don’t care about. Want to hear a secret? Weird new styles that clothing vendors try to push as the latest fashion make girls no more attractive to me. Nor do their nails, shoes, poofy shorts, or giant belts. These things don't make you less attractive, either. I’m just pretty sure the only people who will ever care is other girls. (Unless you're pursuing a guy who is really into women's fashion).

I think the problem is that girls get all their boy advice from other girls and boys get their girl advice from boys. The other night we had a bunch of girls over and had a really long discussion about what girls and guys really like. It was fascinating for us guys to hear what girls thought was appealing to guys, and vice-versa. Girls had a really hard time understanding such basic things. When one of my friends said, “If I really like a girl, it will be a long time before I kiss her,” it immediately made sense to every guy in the room, but none of the girls understood what he was talking about. When one of the girls said, “I never text guys first even if I really like them,” all of the guys in the room were surprised. Which actually brings my to my next point ...

For The Mormon Teenager

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by Sam Nelson (bio)

image via LDS Living

The teenage years are weird. People are mean. You are lonely (every teenager is), popularity feels like the most important thing in the world and it seems like all you have to do to be "cool” is sex, drugs, and alcohol. Then there’s that rush of hormones you don’t know how to deal with. It's one of the most challenging times of your life, but you are too old to talk to your parents about it and too young to talk to your friends. And everyday you are making decisions that will shape the rest of your life.

Being an LDS teenager is brutal ... especially now.

I was excited to get an email a few weeks ago asking me to do a youth fireside about teenage issues in Salt Lake City. I definitely wasn’t a perfect teenager, but there was one little thing I did that made my teenage years soooo much easier.

The Two Brothers film showed a dramatic turnaround in my life that happened after a decision I made in five minutes. I wish the film could have explained that experience in a little more depth, because it was really simple and I'm convinced that anyone else can do it very easily and get the same result.

At the fireside I started with this example ...

Proclaimed Upon The Housetops

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by Sam Nelson (bio)

"Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops."

A few weeks ago I was sitting at home bored and typed my name into YouTube to look for old videos my brothers and I posted when I was in high school. To my surprise, I scrolled down and saw a thumbnail of me singing and dancing with a microphone in my hand! It was a video of me rapping about modesty to the tune of Sir-Mix-A-Lot's I Like Big Butts for my EFY talent show. Apparently some girl with a camera on her phone filmed it and posted it years ago. Over 30,000 people have viewed the video... and I didn’t even know it was out there!



Fortunately for me, the video isn’t too embarrassing, even though it exposes my weirdness as a teenager. It got me thinking about the long-term implications of increased technology, though. Nowadays, filming something and putting it on YouTube is as easy as taking out your phone, pressing a button to film, then pressing another to post.

I predict that this will become an issue as my generation grows up and incorporates into the adult world. How weird would it be to see a video of your young women’s president Jello wrestling at a BYU frat party? Or a video surfacing of your bishop taking a bong hit when he was a teenager? Your wife (or mom) making out with some greasy skateboarder in high school? Will things like this impact you when you are a boss? A doctor? An elementary school teacher? It causes problems today, but I predict that when today’s carefree younger generation grows up, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media permanently floating around cyberspace are going to become extremely irritating. What do you think?

Guest Post: Sell Out

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Have something to say? Anyone can submit a guest post to Modern Mormon Men. Just send us an email with your post, a post title and a paragraph of introduction (on yourself).

Sam Nelson recently returned from a mission in Chile and is currently studying Economics at BYU. He is part of The 5000 Days Project and is the subject of the film "Two Brothers" released in October 2011. You can read Sam's other guest posts here and here. You can also follow him on twitter: Follow @realSamNelson.

I’ve always been a proponent of doing what you love. After I knew I could put my embarrassing high school academic record behind me and start fresh at BYU I started to dream ... What if I worked at Bain and went to Harvard? I wanted to start my own business someday. I had an uncommon passion for business strategy and a weird knack for microeconomics. I thought about possibly being involved in politics ... I realized I could make a career out of doing what I loved and what I was good at and do it all day every day! Daydreaming about that future was so exciting that it propelled me from being a 3.2 GPA student in high school to a 3.9 GPA student at BYU. I’m not saying that to brag. And it wasn’t because I was just secretly really smart the whole time, it came at a huge cost. Freshman year I had my schedule worked out so I could finish all my classes by noon and study afterward ... There were quite a few days where I would be in the library until it closed at midnight. When you find a life goal that you are excited about ... life changes. I knew I could do well as a dentist like my dad, but I dreamed of more. The birds in the bush were so much more exciting than the bird in the hand!

After a year of college I left for a two-year mission in Chile. In those two years I changed a lot. The mission lets you experience first-hand the ironic joy that comes from forgetting yourself to better the lives of others. Also, if you get sent to Chile, you spend time with the happiest people you’ve ever met and they live in sheet metal houses ... It sounds cliché, but I really “got” that neither money nor prestige buys happiness. In Chile they don’t even really think much about people’s successes or failures. I got let in on a little secret ... Money has nothing to do with happiness. It was the belief that money could affect happiness that made people unhappy (rich or poor). Eureka! It was like when I was in elementary school and I realized that my grades didn’t actually matter!

Guest Post: I Had A Bad Feeling About Serving A Mission

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Have a post you think would be good on Modern Mormon Men? Both modern mormon men and modern mormon women can submit guest posts via email. In addition to your post, please include a post title and a paragraph of introduction (on yourself) to run above the post.

Sam Nelson is a newly returned missionary from Chile and will be studying economics at BYU in the fall. He is also part of the "5000 Days Project," was featured in a youth mormon message and is the subject of a BYUB feature film that will be released this September. You can read Sam's first guest post here.

I remember when I was first filling out my papers to go and serve my LDS mission. I had always wanted to go and always planned on going, but for some reason, I just had the sickest feeling about it. Was it because I wasn’t ready? No … I was ready. Was I unworthy? No … I was fine with everything. Was this the spirit telling me that it wasn’t time for me to go? Was it the spirit telling me I was supposed to wait to put my papers later? was I meant to go to another mission? I didn’t know.

When push came to shove, my bishop told me I should go at that time and I did. I received a call to Concepcion, Chile and right away I was sent to my Aunt White’s old sector (where she'd served ten years earlier) where I helped her converts and also worked with them to bring many other people to the restored gospel. I was exactly where I was supposed to be, exactly when I needed to be there.

Just a few months ago - while on my mission - I had a similar experience, I decided to take a risk, and take it upon myself to go open a new area called “Puente Ñuble.” Everything about the idea made perfect sense and - initially - I felt good about it. It was not in any way against any mission rule, but it was different. Leaving a designated sector was never done before, but it seemed like the right thing to do in the given situation.

That night I had the sickest, worst feeling about it. Thoughts came … “How stupid would you look if this didn’t work!? Why are you taking it upon yourself to do something that has never been done before? Who do you think you are? Why don’t you just do what you are supposed to do?” The next morning I woke up and told my companion that I wasn’t doing it. I told him that it was a silly idea, and totally irrational … “I just had the worst feeling about it.” I said. But after some time, and a lot of talking, the other elders that lived with me convinced me to do it, and I did. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say, those last three months were the most successful and fulfilling of my entire mission. In fact, if the 21 months before that were nothing more that a preparation for my time in “Puente Ñuble.” I would still consider my mission the most productive two years of my life.

Guest Post: The Grey-Grid Painting

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Sam Nelson is a newly returned missionary from Chile and will be studying economics at BYU in the fall. He is also part of the "5000 Days Project," was featured in a youth mormon message and is the subject of a BYUB feature film that will be released this September.

I grew up with an artist for a mother, and she would tell me about her ideas all the time. One of my favorites was her description of the “Grey-Grid Painting.” One day when we were in the car she said “Ok Sam, listen to this idea… Imagine a big huge canvas that is divided into a checkerboard with hundreds of little squares. 98 or 99% of the squares are grey, so imagine the big canvas with a whole bunch of square that are all different shades of grey. And between all of the grey, there are a few bright brilliant colors; but just a few scattered throughout. The painting is almost entirely grey, but the few squares of bright colors make the whole thing beautiful.”

She said, “To me, that is what being a mother is like. 99% of being a mother isn’t all that fun. I spend hours doing laundry, and cooking, and driving kids to sports, and sitting through t-ball games, and disciplining, and washing dishes until my fingers look like raisins… and no one even says ‘thank you.’ Really 99% of being a mother is kind of grey. But there are a few moments in motherhood that are so bright, and so beautiful, and so brilliant that you can hardly describe it; and those moments actually make motherhood worth it. If you take a step back, and look at the whole picture of motherhood, it is beautiful.

When I was sixteen, the story made sense and it sounded like a cool idea, but I didn’t really get it until my mission.

Anyone that has served a mission will tell you about how great it was and how much he or she loved it. But any returned missionary will also tell you that it was hard. You talk to thousands of people, and knock thousands of doors, and sometimes you walk more than 10 miles a day so that maybe, you can help someone discover the restored gospel. You push yourself to the bleeding edge physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. You never take a sick day. All day you think about, study for, fast for, and pray for your investigators… who don’t even end up caring. As much as I loved my mission, 99% was tough. But man, when someone stops drinking, or when a marriage is mended, or a family discovers the gospel together, or a teen decides that his future can be brighter than what he grew up in… It’s incredible. There were a few moments scattered throughout my mission that were so bright, and brilliant, and amazing that I would easily trade every difficult part of my mission for them. And now, as a returned missionary, I can take a step back and look at my mission as a whole and say the whole thing was beautiful.

I would guess that most things in life that are worthwhile are the same way.