Monday, April 25, 2016

Another Week!

Hello everyone! Its good to hear from everyone again. Although it is always a little bit bittersweet on Mondays because I always look forward to it and then comes the time to write home and it just makes you think of home. But oh well thats life. ANYWAYS. Sounds like everybody is settling in before the summer time hits full force. it will be cool to have a bunch of people in house for mothers day and the baby blessing.  Im sure it will be quite the experience. SO We had changes this week and Elder Wallace went to Ilopongo, the last place he wanted to go. And I received Elder Letona from Guatamala. He is super awesome and was actually my district leader for a change back when I was training in San Miguel. So this week has been pretty interesting.  we spent a long time looking for a house for the hermanas that came in. We finally found one and are finishing the contract on Wednesday so they can move in. SO thats been fun. We also have been working really hard in our area. We have a lot of progressing people right now and are hoping that they make the decision to be baptized. I like the area even though it can be difficult at times, but that's how it goes. Me and Elder Letona get along well.  the only problems can be understanding cultural differences.  

Anyways thats basically it. One investigator finally got his answer from the First Presidency to be able to get baptized after waiting for five months and doing a bunch of interviews. We are super happy for him and now are just working on him getting married to his wife that doesn't want to get married. That seems to be your very typical investigator here in El Salvador. Also there are 4 people training in the zona so we are always dealing with the fun stuff that comes with new missionaries in the mission. Basically thats all i got for this week. This week we have a multi zona so that will be fun. i always love being taught by President Vasquez. Also I got this weird cancer looking thing on my arm that Hermana Vasquez got mad at me for not reporting. So Ill probably be going to get that burned off next week. Yummmmmm, Fried Elder Nelson. Love you guys thanks for everything!

Elder Nelson


Monday, April 18, 2016

New Changes!

Hello everyone! its good to hear from you all. I cant believe that another change has come to a close. I feel like i just got to San Vicente! But every time I feel like Im getting a decent amount of time i remember that all my friends are pretty much going home this summer... sad. But oh well. This week was fun because we got to go to the temple! It was fun because I was really able to do everything pretty self sufficient and in Spanish. It seemed so normal to me that I think it will be a little shocking and I may not understand what is going on when I do it in English again. But it was fun to be able to go through with the whole zone. Also with this change my companion is leaving! We just got notified like 30 minutes ago and so I will be receiving another companion here. Also they are opening another area here in San Vicente and are going to put sister missionaries here.  So tomorrow we have to go look for a house for them to stay, which is going to be fun. But other than that, life goes on as always.

This week work was was pretty normal. My companion got pretty sick one night with vomiting but he is better now. The hermanas in our zone baptized a family of five and one of the sons who was baptized about a month ago did the ordinance for his whole family. It was really cool to see and to be a witness of the ordinance. As each one got baptized they were freezing cold but huddled around the font before changing so they all got to see each other getting baptized. It was a pretty cool experience. We have a couple really positive investigators but not as many as we would like, and finding people in this area is always the struggle. But i look forward to the changes because its always nice to get fresh ideas in the area and about the work.  Even though I'm nervous about who I will be receiving.  Whether or not you get along with your companion makes a huge difference. 

Well thats all I got.  Not a lot of big news other than that. The time passes by pretty fast most days. But I still feel very new and try not to get daunted or overwhelmed by what is going on and what i still need to do in all the time that I have left here. But I have felt a lot of comfort through prayer.  I have also been thinking a lot on some of the talks given this GC. I learned that its okay not to be perfect and to have struggles. Its okay to feel like you just cant do it. Through the spirit we can retain a remission of our sins and a lot depends on the desires of our hearts. If we really desire to get better and keep falling short, the atonement is and available to everyone. Not just for bad people trying to be good, but also for good people wanting to be better. 

Thanks for all the support family and friends!


Elder Nelson



Video of the Bell Tower in San Vicente
(LOUD. Turn volume down.)





Monday, April 11, 2016

Happy April!



Hello everyone happy April. The time for me is so weird and flying by actually really fast. I am super jealous of you guys getting to go to the new Provo temple! It looks so beautiful. I cant wait to be able to go there one day. Also mom I think I caught a glimpse of a selfie stick that you had and I have to admit I had a moment where I was super proud of you but also dont think I will be able to be seen in public with you if you have it. sorry not sorry..... hahah just kidding. I loved the pictures. And, question.. is that the El Salvador restaurant right south of BYU?! Is it closed?! NOooo we had so many plans to go meet up there with people from the mission. I hope its not actually closed. Anyways this week seemed to fly by despite being a kind of hard one. It was just one of those weeks with a lot of problems and I felt so emotional and physically drained. it was really hard to keep pushing on at some times. But like every problem, it all passes eventually. I had a good fast this week that really helped me get strength. Our investigator Eliseo was super positive but we learned there might be complications with the law and things with the law in this country aren't the easiest to deal with. So right now we are waiting on answers from Presidente and we may have to postpone his baptism but we are hoping for the best. 

Also country problems.. the government cut all the cell towers down close to the prisons because they were having trouble with the communication with people inside the prision. The thing is we have 6 missionaries in a city an hour from us that have a giant prision in the middle of the city and we lost all contact with them. So that was a fun time with a lot of sleepless nights trying to get verifications every night to see if they are all okay. Many times we had to go down and search the city for them. But we did get communication established a couple day ago so things are getting back to nowmal on that. Also we had a zone conference this week that I feel like went alright. OH and I got your package mom! Thanks for the candy and Nutella and PB.  You are the best. 

Anyways this week we have a temple trip on wednesday which is AWESOME. My first time going to the temple for a long time. We have an early session so we are going to have to get up at three to get out there in time but Its worth is. I love the temple and crave the spirit that is felt there. It is such a holy place and I am in need of the spiritual revival it gives me and the chance to really ponder and talk with the Lord. I love all you guys and thank you for everything! TILL NEXT WEEK.

Elder Nelson 

photo: a family invited all of us in San Vicente for a Birthday dinner

Photo:"


Monday, April 4, 2016

Zona San Vicente... una zona diferente

Hello everyone! This week has been quite the crazy week I am not going to lie. I hope everyone had the chance to listen to conference, I thought it was really good. I wont share a lot of my notes but I loved the one in Saturday morning about us all being children of God and what that really means. Also Elder Bednar with the retaining a remission of your sins was stellar. And that tender moment I loved was after the talk on helping the refugees and President Uctdorf got all teary eyed. There was a lot of great talks, but it was kind of weird for me being a missionary because almost all was on the family and things that don't pertain to me as much here in the mission. I guess that's why its good to take notes for the future. Anyways I'm trying to think of everything that happened this week. I had so much to say but in the moment you kind of just forget it all you know. Anyways on Tuesday we had interviews with President which was pretty good. It was kind of hectic to get everything all set up for when he comes but we got it achieved. That same night though one of the hermana missionaries in our zone got really sick and got rushed to the hospital. She is okay now but ill just say we missed a lot of sleep that night because we had to be ready and up for anything. The rest of the week we went hard at contacting people and trying to find new investigators. The Lord really blessed us and opened a lot of new channels that we didn't see coming and we are starting to see some good progress in our area. Eliseo is still doing really good. Its crazy to see how the Lord prepares people. We are still panning his baptism for the next week and hope everything goes through. I'm not sure what else to really say. A lot of weird things happened this week that i really have no words for. I have adopted a new motto for our zona here in San Vicente.... "Zona San Vicente.. una zona diferente". It fits well because I have had some of the weirdest experiences of my mission and maybe life in just this short time. i love it here though and there is a good chance ill be here for a long time. Me and my companion get along well and are working hard. I loved general conference and am excited to go back and review the talks because that's when I seem to get the most out of them. Anyways I hope everything is going good back home Love you guys and thanks for all the support!

Elder Nelson

PS here is a sneak peak video of when I got lost in a giant sugar field/jungle.