New Area!

HEEEEEEELLLOLOO . Hey everyone. sooooooo this week  was pretty good. As I am sure you know I had changes so I am no longer in San Vicente. Monday and Tuesday were sad saying goodbye to everyone there in San Vicente. I really loved it there and was attached to some of them. Little Eileen that got baptized last week when she found out  was leaving started crying and wouldn't let go of me. So yeah that was pretty sad. But changes aren't always a bad thing. So I left on Wednesday morning and i am now in.... APOPA!!! Yeah sorry mom, I know you hated when I was in Apopa. But I promise I wont die okay. hahah just kidding its all good. SO yeah I was in Villa Mariona for almost 6 months back in the Christmas season and I came back as Zone Leader. My area is more in the city part of Apopa but it was cool because I have already been able to see some of the members from Villa Mariona. The area is good and the zone is usually successful SO i am really excited to be able to work here. My companion is Elder Markham. He is an awesome missionary from Portland Oregon. Me and him are actually the same person. He also was a big football player and will probably play after the mission as well. Sadly this is his last change. He goes home in about 5 weeks. But he isn't baggy at all and works supppperrr hard so I'm very excited for this change. 

WELL yeah so we are going to have a baptism this week. Its a kid named Fernando that I actually met when I was here the last time around and is finally getting baptized. The ward here is pretty good for the most part.  well at least there are some families that are super good and the rest don't really do anything. That's usually how it goes. The zone is good here too and  a lot of area is closed because the missionaries had problems with the people there. so in those wards when people come to church that aren't members the bishops will call us and we go and teach them in the church. SO we end up traveling a lot. Also Chalatenango is part of our zone which is pretty far away. We have about 20 missionaries in the zone I think. i dont really remember but theres a lot. Well thats all I got. Thanks for all the support love you guys!!!! Here is a picture of one of my favorite families from San Vicente. Enjoyyyyyyy. 

Changes?!???!

Hellooooo friends!!! It was great to hear from all of you this week! Sounds like life is just GREAT because life is good here like always. This was quite the week and like always in this moment I forget everything but oh well we will see what comes out in the letter. First off, Changes are this week..... anddd.... I have changes! I will be going to my fourth area and will be leaving this Wednesday. I don't know where I will be going they don't tell us until Tuesday night and then Wednesday I just have to find my way there. I am super excited and nervous and also sad. I really liked it here in San Vicente. its been good to me. At the beginning of the change it was kind of hard to get along with my companion but we found the right mixture and I'm actually sad to be leaving him. We had a lot of success together! 

Anyways this week was kind of crazy. Anyways this Tuesday I probably had one of the best experiences of my mission. It is really sacred to me so I probably wont share everything. But we have this investigador that has two kids and she has been receiving lessons for about 3 years now. All this week we have been having this huge tropical storm and there hasn't been a day I haven't been waddling through the streets with water up to my knees. Anyways we went to a lesson in a member's home that lives close to America (thats the name of the investigador) and we arrived soaking wet. We got there and as we were talking her elderly mother who is really, really "cranky" arrived at the window of this members house and started shouting very bad words and insults at her and it was really bad. It was kind of one of the moments you just had to put your head down and pray. Anyways there was a huge fight and finally she left and America was crying and super angry and we just starting singing hymns and she was bawling. Me and my comp were praying that God would give us the words to say because we had no idea what to say. After the prayer, all I can say is God did his miracles and I dont even remember the lesson well I just remember the strange feeling of opening the mouth and words were coming out that weren't mine or my companions. The spirit was so strong. I honestly felt the presence of angels in the room and they comforted her and touched her deep in the heart were she needed to be touched. Long story short, they all committed to baptism. The kid got baptized this saturday and the other two are going to get baptized the 29th of July. This is was makes this mission great. 

Also on Saturday we got permission to go to the temple. Its rare the Pte gives permission to go because the grandparents of a family that we baptized in June are going to get sealed. We got permission to go see their sealing. It was remarkable. That is what the mission is about, creating eternal families. I know the church is true and I am very thankful for the chance to serve. I know the temple is very sacred and the spirit will guide us when we need it. Thanks for all the support.  Love you guys!!

Elder Nelson

Happy 4th of July!

Hello everyone!! Happy 4th!!! Today was pretty fun. For pday we got together as a zona and ordered pizaa and played volleyball and good old american football and what not. So I got at least a little part of the traditions. There are only like 2 other Americans in this zone so I guess many weren't as excited as I was. ANYWAYS. Sounds like everyone had a good time up at Joe's place! I can't believe you guys were in sweatshirts... It's July! But glad that Heber still goes hard with the 4th of July life. 

Anyways, this week actually went really well. We had a lot of service projects and my hands are all blistered up. Mostly I spent many hours this week chopping plants and weeds with a machete which is always fun. And Sunday I spent hours shoveling dirt which was also fun. Needless to say I'm really tired. But other than that we had a good week. We found a lot of people and had 9 people that came to church with us that weren't members. Many of them are progressing a lot. This weekend we also did a fast together with an investigador so she could make the decision on when she wants to get baptized. Although she didnt' make the decision at the end we did have a powerful lesson and got her to express her doubts on why she won't get baptized. She says she has doubts about Joseph Smith that we never knew before so that was a huge blessing of the fast because now we know how to help her. Fasting always is an awesome experience here in the mission. We also has leadership council with President which was really good. Sad news is the next week a bunch of my good mission friends are going home. Shout out to my boy Elder Kimball that goes back to Utah. It's been good to be with you man. Also Elder Marriot and Elder Pace and Elder Letona they are just a few of the many great ones we are losing. Time is flying by. 

Anyways, I have a storng testimony of this gospel. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. This morning I was reading in Helaman 5 and it struck me the miracles they could do because of their rightousness and faith. Also, I loved the words from the father to his sons Lehi and Nefi. He talks about how he gave them there names for there forefathers that crossed the sea and that they should always live to honor their name. It's a good reminder. I always what to strive to honor the name my parents have given me. Love you guys! Until next week!

Happy Monday!!

Hello everyone! Happy Monday! Sounds like a crazy week! First off congrats on dad for being famous!!!! 10 seconds of fame, the camera does you good! hahaha good to hear everything went well there. And wow Congrats to the Bell Famly! Kevin you are going to be an awesome bishop its not surprising to me that the Lord called you! You got support and prayers coming from El Salvador!! Also congrats officially to Gater and Curt for being home and what not (now just dont forget about us youngins in the mission here. a care package or two would be awesome thanks) hahah no just kidding. Hope everything goes well in the upcoming 4th of July weekend. Cant beilieve June has already passed by! Super fast. 

Anyways this week was better. Something crazy happened, the sister missionaries in our ward got taken out of the area. One of them went home and so President took them out and didnt put anyone new in. I think he is trying to motivate the branch to start working more. But that means that the branch area is just us!! This branch used to have 6 missionaries and its huge but right now its just us so we spent a long time this week looking for members and investigators and being lost! Plus its rainy season and we have been getting these huge flash rain storms this week. Its hot and super clear in the day and within 15 minutes a huge storm comes. One day this week we got stuck outside and the water was up to my knees in the street! Super crazy and ill never forget it. Me and my companion are getting along better. I am learning to be more humble. Pride creates contention and contention drives away the spirit. Ive seen big changes in myself as ive focused on that. But anyways we have a ton of lessons already planned this week because a bunch of members are starting to help us. We also have a lot of service projects planned this week.

Anayways thats all thats happened this week. I have a strong testimony of this church and the book of mormon. I have seen the rise and fall spritually of people and families and a lot has to do if they are reading the book of mormon. Elder Duncan taught us, if you want to be inactive, all you have to do is stop reading the scriptures. Its so true. Love you guys. take care!

Elder Nelson

Happy Father's Day!

Welp another week has gone by. I cant say this was my favorite week and I cant say it flew by super fast either but hey im alive still so thats all that matters right? Anyways I cant believe Curt is home.... that makes me a little baggy but honestly how fast has the two years past by. Also congrats too to Sarah on the wedding and HAPPY FATHERS DAY.  sorry i didnt say it last week but hope everyone enjoyed their fathers day.  Especially my dad because he is the best father out there. We had an activity for fathers day where we took photos of people in the park and we are going to print them out and take them to their house. Ill send a picture of it. It was good. In like 3 hours we got over 120 references and so we have a lot of work to go contact them all. This week went alright. We have some positive progress with some people but we are just missing small pieces so they can't really progress and get baptized. Last night we taught a family in the house of a member and at the end they asked what they have to do to get baptized before we even invited them to do it. Dont you just love when the happens? Why cant that happen more often... anyways they still have a lot of work to do to get prepared but it was something pretty positive for the week. 

Other than that me and my companion have been getting along alright. We dont get along the greatest but right now we have seemed to find the way to work together so it should all be fine. It just doesnt make the time fly by super fast and not as fun when things feel weird but hey i guess they cant all be the best. The branch here is super awesome. They are finally starting to work with us and have trust in us which is helping a lot. i get along with all of them really well and i dont want to get changed for that reason. But i think i still have some time left here before that happens so its all good. 

So thats all I got. just one more time HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD you are the best daddy in the world and i am so grateful for everything you have done for me and are doing for me. Keep being the best and im so grateful God has blessed me so much by letting me be your son. Have a great week!!!!

Elder Nelson

Hello again!

Hey fam fam. Hope everyone is enjoying the good old Arizona heat. Here its winter season and its been raining every day. Actually the past three or four days we have gotten huge rain storms that suddenly flood all the streets. Its always fun living in Central America. Anyways we put on the rain coats but it doesnt really help.  You kind of get soaked all the way through anyways. But that's part of the adventure right. Anyways not much really happened this week so Ill be a little short here. On Saturday we had interviews with President Vasquez. It was really good we mostly just talked about how we can do better in the zone. He has an idea about using the Liahona magazine for missionary work. A lot of people have a huge stack just collecting dust in their house. So we are inviting people to invite their neighbors and friends to read one and leaving it with them just saying how much they liked it. Then a week later asking how it went and inviting them to come to a Family Home evening! We have already tried to explain it to some families and hope it goes well. Its also a good idea for those of you trying to find a way to share the gospel! Its really not threatening and super powerful; almost always makes me cry when I read the church magazine. 

Anyways other than that we had a Zone conference this Wednesday that went well, I think. Also we did two days of divisions so that made time fly by. The zone here is really young so we are trying our best to work with everyone in the zones so we help them out and give them confidence! Well thats about all that has happened so far. My companion has been a little sick so we didnt get to work a whole lot this weekend, but i hope to be able to get at it this week! Love you guys so much and thanks for all the support!!

Elder Nelson

hello from Elder Nelson!

Hello everyone happy Monday. I hope everyone is having a perfectly boring monday because that's how Monday's are in the real world. But here its different. Here we hooked up with another zone and there was about 25 of us elders. They came down and we played basketball and futbol all morning so that was fun. There is a lot of cool American elders in the other zone so it was nice to socialize because here there is only one. But anyways sounds like the trip was pretty fun! Wish i could have gone, ill hit up the next one hopefully. Time is flying by here.

So I do have a new companion., His name is Elder Quezada and he is from the Dominican Republic. We really don't have anything in common and so its been kind of awkward this week but we did have two baptisms this week! Kevin and Walter got baptized and it was awesome. They are super powerful especially Walter. He always wants to say the prayers and cant wait to get the priesthood to start passing the sacrament. This week we also had a consejo de lideres so we went to San Salvador on Friday and after we had to go pick up baptism clothing in Zacate so we really haven't had a whole lot of time to work this week. I love this area. the branch is really good to me and we are starting to work better with them. But this area is still difficult. we spend a lot of time just looking for people to teach and right now we are planning activities to find people so i hope they work.

Yesterday i had a cool experience with the fast that I did. I always have the coolest experiences and although they are hard to do in the mission they always make things go by so much better. So I started the fast asking for help to find some more people interesting and willing to get baptized and then we went out to work. We weren't having a lot of success everyone was sick or wasn't home so we spent a lot of time walking. As we were walking a thought came to my mind of a girl we contacted about a week ago and never went back to visit. We happened to be close by so we went and her and her brother were home and let us in. We had a really good lesson and they accepted baptismal dates and wanted to come to church this Sunday. They seem super prepared and we are excited to help. Also in the moment that we arrived their grandma was sick and we were able to give her a blessing. 

Well that's all that happened this week. Hope you guys all have a good and safe week back home love you guys and miss you guys! This week will be busy. we have a zone conference and a bunch of interchanges so should fly by. Till next monday!