Rough Week

Another beautiful picture of Monte Patria
Wow! My very short haircut. I didn't know how to tell her in
Spanish how to cut it so she just cut it short.

This is the internet cafe where I email every Monday.
The Arancibia family.

The first family I ever ate with in Chile. They are awesome!
Leather scripture covers I had a lady here make for me.
My fam in August at my farewell picnic.
Thanks! Chelsea for the picture.

Hey everyone hows it going? So this week has been quite a busy one with some ups and downs for sure. The beginning of the week started out horrible. I was also doing intercambios with an elder from Monte Patria that day and nobody was coming out of their houses to talk to us. It was a rather lousy day. Within 12 hours, we lost our top two investigators and recent convert as they were going out of town til February. Later on the week got a lot better. We were able to get into 7 houses off of contacts this week and now have 7 new investigators with 2 that have a baptismal date. We have been getting a lot more help from the members to come with us as well which helps. So we are now on the downhill slide of this change. It is crazy how fast the weeks go by. ...well thats kinda been my week. Its still hotter than ever here and my watch tanline is pretty sweet. Alright, gotta get goin. Thanks for everything! Love you all. Elder Nelson

Still in Ovalle

Some beautiful Chilean countryside...Monte Patria

A crazy dog that sits next door on the roof top.

Our Branch President Gutierrez & Family

I made French Toast for breakfast...Yum!

" Our Teams" (Me & Elder Tondevold)

On the way to Villa Seca

hey everyone! so this week i went on divisions with the zone leaders. i went down to their sector which is the main part of ovalle. it was a good day but pretty darn hot. so something funny that happened...last night we were teaching this one lady and her little 2 year old daughter who cant stop talking to save her life found like a small cherry or something. she showed it to me and then stuck it in her mouth. apparently it was really sour because she puckered pretty good. she pulled it out and the juice was running over her fingers. it was deep red and she started saying it was bleeding. it was pretty funny.
so a lot of people leave for the summer time for their vacations. we had 1/3 of the people go to church that normally do. i gave my first blessing to the sick in spanish yesterday. usually i just do the first part. well thats all thats really happening for me. we have found more people to teach and have one person scheduled to get baptized on feb 14th. we´ll see how it goes. well until next week, take care! love, elder nelson

Zach's Mission Call

Congratulations Zach!

Cincinnati, OHIO - March 18, 2009

Happy New Year! 2009

The ties I've bought in Chile....nothing's too flashy down here!
The chips Elder Tondevold & I have eaten in the past 6 weeks.

Happy monday everyone. This week has been full of all sorts of things to talk about. First of all, new years. We were allowedto be out until 11 but had to be driven back to our pension. We were able to go to the family Honores for a nice dinner. The families Ochoa and Tello were there as well as some other people from another branch. The food was really good. I must admit i spent the new year chime sleeping but it was well worth it. on new years day everyone down here is wasted from the night before so there wasnt all that much to do in the streets. We went to a family and they offered for us to have a snack which turned into dinner. They played all our favorite rap songs we had given them a list to look up a few weeks ago. Last monday my companion and i decided to buy some presents for a family in our branch that doesnt really have a lot. We got both of the boys some nice ties, the girl some of her favorite chocolate, our convert a picture frame and pics from the baptism last week, and then another kid who was staying with them while his parents were out of town working some battle bots. One of the boys loves to play basketball and told us he was saving up for one so we went and got him one. He loved it! he actually had to leave when he got it because he was crying i think. They were grateful for their gifts. They are probably my favorite family down here. The kids left for their dads house up north for january so saturday night we went and got pictures with them and played uno with them. They all wrote us letters and their mom gave them to us Sunday evening.

So on the funny side of things this week, whenever there is a guy that we contact that is rude and slams the door, we pretend to count things on his house and act like we want to make "re-adjustments" to his house. well there was a guy who was way rude so we started doing it and he came flying out of his house yelling and asking why we were taking down notes of his house. we told him that we werent but then he said dont give me that...i know you are spies from the u.s. but i havent done anything wrong. i am not a robber. it was hard to keep a straight face. he thought we were from the us government.
Well it is hard to believe that my 2nd change is over. We are having changes tonight. Okay...i guess i will let you all know where i am at next week :)
Take care everyone! love you lots! enjoy the snow for me ;) Con Amor, Elder Nelson

A five layer flower down here...very cool!
and these huge spiders everywhere!