Happy 26th Anniversary Mom & Dad

Happy 26th Anniversary Mom & Dad

This past week, we had a lesson with Scarlett. She didnt believe in Jesus Christ the first time we taught her but now it seems like she understands what all he did for us. She really enjoys reading the Book of Mormon and loved Alma 32 with the stuff about the seed. Caterin came to church for the 3rd time and is all but ready to be baptized. she is really looking forward to it. We are planning it for the 5th of September. Yesterday in church, Felipe, who was baptized on August 1, received the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained to the office of Deacon. Right now we are busy working on finding more people. We need to work a little harder at getting references from the members.
Elder Tensmeyer is doing really good. His spanish is progressing so much! He is starting to understand more of the things that people are asking him. He teaches really well and is going to be a really good missionary. He already is. We are getting along really well. This past thursday, we had a mission conference in Villa Alemana. I got to see Elder Tondevold. He finishes at the end of next change! I gave him some Taco Bell hot sauce. He about flipped when he saw them. It was good to see a lot of the missionaries that i came in with. Elder Owen was excited to hear that I might be moving to Sandy in the future. I was also able to see Elder Davila. He is doing good up in Cabildo with Elder Daniels. He was excited to hear how things were going in his old sector.

Today on our P-day we are going shopping....then we are going to play soccer as a zone at 4. tomorrow we are having a big soccer activity in the church with a bunch of non members that we have invited. we´ll see how things go. well that is all that is really going on with me. I love serving the Lord down here in Chile and I know that the Gospel is true. It is easy to see that as you share it and watch the people change and receive the blessings that are promised for us. Take care. Chao Elder Nelson

Peanut Butter in Chile

To celebrate my 1 Year Mark on Thursday....a Big Barros Luco (Steak Sandwich), Quatro and...

Mora crema (blackberry ice-cream cake) Mmmmm.....

friday night we took the peanut butter I got in my "1 year pkg" from home to our bishop´s house and had once with them. once (11) is like tea time...the chilean dinner. the bishop´s sister and her family of 3 were up here for the weekend. they were all nuts about the peanut butter too! imagine...awesome chilean bread with awesome american peanut butter! we had some peach jam that was really good but i was thinking about dads rasp huckleberry jam the whole time!

the birthday party of the bishops wife on sunday, aug 16.

we had a BBQ that was awesome!

hermana muñoz blowing out the candles

We are getting ready for Caterin´s baptism for the 5th of September. She is really excited about it. We have also started teaching a girl named Scarlett. She is like 25 years old and lives alone. We actually contacted her at her mom´s house and she told us to go to her house later on in the week. Well she is really accepting of us and really open to what we share. She told us that she doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ, as in that she doesn’t think that God would let His Son go through all that he did for us. She is really accepting of everything else and yesterday, she came to church. She liked it a lot but had to leave after sacrament meeting. She asked us if we could come by on Saturday and that next Sunday she would be able to stay in church longer. Other than that, we are busy looking for more people to teach.
My companion is doing well. His Spanish is getting a lot better and we are getting along great. Someone actually found a picture of us from my blog and sent it to his brothers haha…weird how things get around. This past week, I did interchanges with elder Watkins. It was fun to take him around my sector and chat a bit. Well that’s what all is going on this week. Things are going well and all.

Take care and love you guys! Chao elder nelson

1/2 Way.....

Elder Nelson's 1/2 Way.....Happy 1 year!

August 13, 2009

Very first companion....in the MTC...Elder Bastien
learning spanish in the MTC
The sunsets in Chile are the most beautiful ever!
apartment in El Belatto
I love the people here...they're amazing!

The friendly smiles we get...

Vina del Mar....one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

I'm so glad that I got to actually serve in the city.

We can hardly believe that 1/2 of his mission is already done! Just a short year ago today...we had bitter-sweet tears as we left him at the MTC in Provo, UT.

We have loved being a missionary family and are grateful for all of the blessings the Lord has blessed him (and us at home) with during this past year. We are especially grateful for Jaren and his desire to serve a mission and to be the best missionary in the world. "Thank-you" to the people in Chile for feeding him and the kindness and friendship shown to him there. We look forward with great anticipation for his Monday emails and are so thankful for the technical gift of the internet and email where we can get a fast "letter" and also chit-chat back and forth. We love to hear his stories about all sorts of things from dog bites to baptisms. We especially love hearing his voice on the holiday phone calls and all of the pictures that he sends each week.

We love to see pictures of him as a missionary, his new companions, the area, the members, the food and yes, even the perfect stack of juice cans that he and Elder Tondevold drank during a 6 week exchange.

We love the instant pictures like when he had a bad hair cut and he said..."wait just a minute....I'll send a picture and show you." or the "Good Morning Mom!"

So...we're reliving a few great memories from this past year today on his blog with some favorite pictures....we're excited for this next year and of course, we're counting the days til he's home. If this next year goes like the last one...it will be here in a flash. Thank-you to all of his family and friends for the letters, donations, reading his blog, asking how he's doing and all of your love and support.

My First Greenie! Hola! Elder Tensmeyer

Elder Tensmeyer-My first "greenie" - Ogden, Utah

Hey everyone how are things going? So this week has been pretty good. We got our changes last Monday night. Turns out that I am TRAINING this change! Haha. I went down to Viña on Tuesday morning and was there by 9:00 in the morning but had to wait there until around 4:00 to meet my new companion. There are only 7 of us in the mission training this change. Two from my group that came to Chile together are training…Elder Mower and me. Well my new companion is Elder Tensmeyer. He is from Ogden, Utah. He is a cool kid and likes a lot of the same things that I do. We get along really well and have a good time. It is so weird to see someone that is in the same shoes that I used to be in only 10 short months ago. He speaks really good Spanish and will be a great missionary. The only thing is that he almost understands nothing. Ha. Good thing that happens to everyone though and only time can help that.
So this week in the missionary work, I had a really good experience. We were teaching this less active lady one evening who hadn’t been to church for a long time and had just moved to the area about a month ago. Her name is Nativity. She is a single lady with three daughters. They are really in a financial problem but she did come to church last week and is really excited about getting back into being active again. We shared with her a document called “Permaneced” which talks about the importance of staying active in the church so that one can receive all of the blessings that God has for us. She really liked it and then talked about when she used to have a book that she would read that really helped her feel closer to God but that she doesn’t know what happened to it. I pulled out one of our copies of the Book of Mormon to give to her. I don’t think I will ever forget the look on her face and her reaction when I gave it to her. She was so grateful for it and the way she held it really showed how grateful she was to receive this gift. There aren’t many people who accept that book in that way. The member that went with us even told us that it was a great experience for him to see how she accepted the Book of Mormon. A couple days later, we were walking in the street and she stopped us and told us that she had been reading it. She said thanks to us again.
Well other than that, we are just keeping busy with the same ole. It is weird that a year ago today I gave my farewell talk. Even weirder that I hit a year in the mission on Thursday! Wow how time flies. Well change #8 here we go!
Take care everyone. Chao

Felipe & Matias Baptisms!

Felipe and Matias

Pablo Alcayaga and Novia Camila

family Macchiavello and their young one
I'm getting good at frying eggs :)

Hey so this week was a busy one! We had the baptism of Felipe and Matías Romero. It was a very nice program and a lot of people came. After Felipe was baptized, he started going up the stairs and then turned around and jumped head first into the font haha. I was one of the witnesses and had the doors closed with my head peeking in and saw it. It was pretty funny. Matías then got in and got wet up to his neck even before getting baptized haha. This week we had a lesson with Caterin and she told us that she really wanted to get baptized and realized that she needed to go to church-that was what she was missing. Well she came to church yesterday and loved it! She was already walking to the church when we went up to look for her. She said that she had had a work party for her husband the night before and hadn’t gotten home until like 2 in the morning but was going to church no matter what. It was pretty cool. We had been working with a lady named Jessica. She is really receptive and loves the “classes” we give her. She has the problem that she works on Sundays. We were wondering on whether or not we should keep teaching her because she can’t really progress and we have other people to teach. We even fasted to know what to do as well as to help her know the importance of going to church. She told us this week that she was going to take an indefinite amount of time off of work so that she could go to church and prepare to get baptized. She doesn’t really need to work because her husband does but did it for something to do. She said she was going to church this coming Sunday so we will see how things go. The two families that we have been working with to re activate came to church as well. We went around yesterday to a few families and got pics with some of the families in the sector. Tonight we have changes. Wow the change has gone by fast. I really hope I don’t get transferred. We have a lot of potential for this next change in the sector. Well that’s what is going on here with me. All is going great and I am lovin it. Talk to you all next week!