Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Have a Great Thanksgiving!

How are things going? This week went by really fast for me. On Wednesday we had interviews with President Gillespie and his wife. So president Gillespie commented on how he liked my tie haha. Elder Nelson, the assistant was like what!...he has never given me a tie complement nor heard one to anyone else haha. 2 points for elder nelson (me). They took us all day because we had to grade area books and be there until all the missionaries were done. Afterwards the assistants showed up and we did intercambios with them for the evening. On Friday we had our mission conference in La Serena. We talked a lot about extending baptismal invitations. It was really nice in Serena. It was easily 15 degrees cooler with a pleasant breeze. Ovalle was really hot when we got back.
On Wednesday in the morning I finished the Book of Mormon. I was able to finish it in one month, one week, and one day. It was a really neat experience for me. We started reading it again but this time we are marking anything that has to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, (faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, enduring to the end, and the atonement).
Yesterday, I had cow stomach soup…it wasn’t that bad but not the greatest thing in the world. Its really chewy and tastes like fat.
So the family that we found a couple weeks ago, Alex and Maribel and their 7 year old son, Joaquin, came to church yesterday!!!! They really liked it and when we asked Maribel, the mom, if Joaquin liked it or not, she said that he didn’t want to go home. It has been a great experience seeing this family grow. It was a neat way that we found them too. My comp and I decided to do contacts in this one neighborhood and we just started kind of wandering around and not stopping at any of the houses that we knew had people in…we got to this one house and yelled and out came a guy who immediately let us in to his house. We shared with him the message of the restoration. He said that he liked it and everything but he wasn’t about to go to church or change religions or anything like that. Well yesterday him and his family came to church and are going to come to the English class that we teach on Thursday nights in the church. They are absolutely awesome and it is truly a blessing to be able to see a family learn about the gospel. Its always a highlight of the day when we are able to go by and teach them. They are always so excited to see us. One of our investigators, Ignacio, passed his baptismal interview on Saturday and is going to be getting baptized this Saturday afternoon. He is pretty excited about it and so are we.
Well I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving! Eat some turkey and rolls for me and try to keep Oscar from eating too much pumpkin pie haha. Love you guys. Take care.
Chao
Elder nelson

Here's a long lost video from the MTC that I happened to run across:

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

BIG Spiders!

Ovalle Sur sector
the same mexican restaurant i went to with elder tondevold and elder owen a bunch...so good.!!!!!

hey how are things going this week? things for us went really well. This week we started teaching our branch president's parents who areent members. they have listened to the missionaries before but were never really interested. It seems now that they really have an interest in progressing. They came to church yesterday as well as the branch president's sister and her family. We are going to start teaching them this saturday which should be sweet. Presidente Varas (the branch president) is so excited to see his family taking steps into the gospel. yesterday we had the primary program in church which is always a hoot. there were only like 6 kids who participated but there were still some funny moments.
this coming week, president gillespie is coming up on wednesday to do interviews. we will get to eat lunch with him as he does the interviews in our church. we are going to be eating with the district president it lookds like. on friday we have zone conference up in La Serena. Its been awhile since i have been up there!
so the spiders are starting to come around again and we have had some fun catching them and lighting them on fire...the people down here say thats how you have to get rid of them or if not, the eggs will hatch and there will be more. i was able to kill one that was streaking across the wall about to head behind a desk but nailed it with a rubber band which took off a few legs and ended life right there haha...we then took it outside and burned it.
the weather here is really getting hot. summer is definatly here in Ovalle. it gets nice when the sun goes down so we only have to bear the hear till about 7 when the sun starts setting.
The book of mormon reading is going well. I am almost done with 3 Nephi. it is like pure underlining as its Christ´s ministry. we have to be finished by friday morning...shouldnt be hard to finish by then.
well things are going great for me down here. I am loving it and we are really working great, elder allen and i. one of our investigators that is getting baptized on the 28th said he likes to play bball so on saturday we played. it was pretty fun. he was terrible but it was fun to get out and play a bit.
well that is pretty much what is going on for me here. we are teaching a lot right now and preparing a few people to get baptized here in the next few weeks. we should have a couple families of investigators in church next week which is exciting. Woo HOO.
well take care everyone. chao
elder nelson









Thursday, November 12, 2009

We meet again...the Family Ochoa from Ovalle
Group Picture...Elder Ford and his mom (in front laughing)
An odd fruit here: chirimoya
Another beautiful Chilean Sunset!!!!
A mask here at the mission home

Hey everyone!
So this week was a very busy one. On Wednesday, I went and did interchanges out in Punitaqui. I had done them out there last year and about died of heat but this time it wasnt that bad. I was with elder Allenbach who is from Farmington. On Thursday night, well, at 1am Friday morning, Elder Allen and I left for Viña for Zone Counsel. We got to Viña at 5:30am. The bus ride was freezing! Viña was even colder! We had to wait until 8:30am to meet up with everyone, so we went to the zone leader´s pension in Viña to wait. The cousel was pretty fun actually. It was cool to see a bunch of friends in the mission that i rarely get to see. For lunch, we had some taco salad and strawberry shortcake for dessert. SO GOOD! Haha...perks of leaders from the USA. ;)
We got back from Viña on Saturday morning at 1am, so in all, the trip was 24 hours. On Satudray and Sunday we had district conference. President Gillespie came up for the Sunday meetings and Elder Jorge Zeballos (of the 70) came up for the whole thing. He is actually from Ovalle so loved coming back home. There were some great talks given. It seemed that the main focus of the Sunday session was missionary work. Hma. Gillespie spoke! She had everything written down of course but did really well. She had all of the missionaries stand up she said that these were the missionaries of the members here in Ovalle and gave a big thanks. There were a lot of people from Limarí there that were happy to see me. The old branch president there, Hno. Gutierrez was thrilled to see me. President and Sister Gillespie drove us to the pension to drop off a box of Books of Mormon. They came in for a little bit to see the pension and stuff. Good thing we cleaned up! ;)
In terms of the missionary work, we are getting ready to have a couple baptisms in the next couple weeks. One is a guy named Claudio Wilches. He is a husband and father of one son. We just started teaching the family so the idea is that he gets baptized whenever his family is ready, he baptizes them. The other baptism is a guy named Ignacio. He is 26 years old and showed up to church last week with his university professor who invited him to come. He loved it and accepted a baptismal date right away! It was pretty sweet! We are really excited for them!.
So how is the Book of Mormon reading going? (Just a little reminder) :) Hope all is good back home! Take care everyone! Chao Elder Nelson

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Zone Leader in Ovalle Sur (south)

The four elders in our apartment in Achupullas
The Achupullas Zone
Elder Tondevold (left)visits us in Ovalle before he goes home
my new comp: Elder Allen
New Companion: Elder Allen
Hey everyone how are things going? Things are going great for me. This past week we had changes and I ended up leaving Gomez Carreño. I am now back up in Ovalle in the Branch called Ovalle Sur (south). My new companion is Elder Allen. He is from Lake Oswego, Oregon. The bus ride up here wasn’t all that great. We left at 8:00 pm from Viña and ended up arriving in Ovalle at 1:15 in the morning. The ride was SOOO hot! They didn’t have the air conditioning going and all the windows were closed. I asked them to turn the air on so they did for like 15 minutes and then turned it back off. I found that it is a lot cooler putting your head right next to the window. That’s the only way I survived haha. My first day here it was unusually hot for this time of year. It got up to like 98 degrees!!!! It was unreal. All the rest of this week it has been enjoyable in the lower and mid 80’s.
This week has been a really fun one and I truly enjoy being here. I have already seen many people that I already knew from this branch as well as a few from Limarí. This coming weekend, we have district conference with all of the districts in Ovalle. Elder Jorge Zeballos of the 70 will be here as well as President Gillespie. Elder Zeballos is actually from Ovalle so that will be kind of cool.
Elder Ford, one of the assistants in the past, just finished his mission this past change. He finished here in Ovalle Sur and the people here had a going away party for him. His family came down to get him and none of them know Spanish so during lunch that day and during the party that night we served as translators for them. They really enjoyed getting to see some of Elder Ford’s converts and people from this branch. Elder Tondevold came up to Ovalle on Thursday morning with his family so I got to meet them as well. They are really enjoying their time in Chile. It is crazy to think that Elder Tondevold is out of here now….
Elder Allen and I really had success this week as our first week together. It really feels great having a companion that knows how to do everything instead of having to worry about everything that has to be done. We get along really well (even though he is a Blazer fan). We were able to find a family this week that invited us in to their house. We taught them about how the gospel blesses families. They had been having family problems or something but told us how grateful they were for the time that we spent sharing with them. They accepted another appointment so we will see how things go. We are teaching a lot of people and are expecting to have a few baptisms this coming month.
Really there is a lot going on here and I don’t know where to start. I did receive my package which was great! The jam is AWESOME!!! Thanks :) really enjoyed the great American Halloween candy as well. On Halloween here, there were little kids who came by the pension in the night. Good thing I bought a bag of candy. When one group of kids came up to the gate, my comp and I asked them what they were seeing that they were all dressed up and one of the kids said, “Chilenos”. Haha it was pretty funny. I wasn’t expecting that answer.
So I am now serving in downtown Ovalle. The main city is all flat and then it kind of goes up onto a hill and that is where all of the other sectors are. Our sector is really big and we find ourselves taking colectivos 2 or 3 times a day but I absolutely love it here! It feels so great to be back in Ovalle. Our branch is awesome and our Branch President is really focused on missionary work which is good.
Well that is what is going on for me. I have walked into an area that has things going on which feels great. We are filling our “fuente” of investigators as well which is helping us stay busy teaching.
Hope all is well at home. Take care and say hi to everyone for me :) chao Elder Nelson