Happy New Year!

talking to the fam on Christmas Day!

Elder Ehlert (an assistant) and me

Christmas caroling at a children's home

more Christmas caroling...

a Christmas present from Elder Millar my comp!

our Charlie Brown Christmas tree and ZL presents

(sent to Elder Hale in our apartment)

Our Branch Christmas party....chicen & rice

Left to right: Elders Millar, me, Fernandez & Hale

Hey everyone how are things going? I hope that you all had a great Christmas. Mine was good. This week was full of events. On Wednesday, we got to wake up nice and early to go to La Serena for our Mission Conference. It was a very nice conference. There was one part where we all broke up into our zones and went around to different stations learning something new. The zone leaders were in charge of teaching the stations. The station that my comp and I had was called Enseñar al Encontrar or teaching to find. We taught people how they could establish a relation of trust and share a complete gospel lesson in less than 1 min and 30 seconds. It was pretty fun. We did three groups and each group took around 40 minutes and then we switched. There was also a Christmas program. I was asked to lead the congregation in singing a few Christmas hymns. President and Sister Gillespie gave us all a personal journal for Christmas. It has the mission logo on it. It’s really nice.
That evening we had our Branch Christmas Dinner. It was really good and there were a bunch of people that came. Good stuff. It was like the food that we eat every day haha; chicken, rice, and salads.
On Thursday, we had an activity as a zone. We went to a children’s home and sang Christmas songs and then gave them gifts. We had one elder dress up as Santa clause. It was a good time. That evening, we ate dinner with the Gonzalez family. They made a ton of food! It was really good.
On Friday we had a zone activity. Elder Millar and I went to the church early and started making breakfast. We made waffles and pancakes for everyone. It turns out that we are pretty awesome breakfast chefs. There was enough for everyone to get full. It took awhile to make enough waffles for 14 missionaries with only one waffle iron that made only one round one at a time. We then watched some videos on Preach my Gospel and then played soccer out on the court. It was a really fun activity. That evening we got to talk to our parents! It was really good to be able to talk to them and the rest of the family.
Well that is kind of what has been going on for me this week. I don’t have much time to explain other things that have been going on because they are all long stories….but I hope that everyone has a great new year! Take care! Chao!
Elder Nelson

Feliz Navidad!

Elders Fernandez, Hale, me & Millar

my childhood twin and little buddy: Christanobal Gonzalez.

I think he looks like me as a kid only with dark hair and eyes....

the week has been really good. i have had a lot to do. i closed two houses in the notary this week for other elders in the zone. we had interviews with president Gillespie on wednesday which were pretty sweet. they gave us all special water bottles from a special donar. they filter the water, and we also got another filter. purified water for 2 years! woo hoo! On saturday and sunday, we went christmas caroling around to the members and investigators in our branch. there were a lot of members that came with us and on sunday we were able to do it by car to get some of the others that live a little further out of the way. it was a really nice experience. this coming week we have our christmas conference in la serena on wednesday and the ward christmas dinner that night. on thursday, we are going to a little childrens home to sing christmas carols and give out presents. tatiana and camila arent going to be getting baptized on christmas :( they have to work that day and camila still isnt ready....we do get to talk to the families though in the evening! yay. that will be fun. Well we had a good lesson with Alex and Maribel. We talked about the blessings that we get from marraige and eternal marraige. They want to progress but its kind of a slow process with them. mainly with the dad and the word of wisdom. he told us though that even though he has only read the first 11 pages of the Book of Mormon, he knows that it is true. that was a neat experience. It was probably one of my favorite lessons i have been in.
well hope all is well at home, have a great Christmas everyone! love ya feliz navidad, elder nelson

A Warm & Sunny December in Ovalle

Hey family how are things going? It sounds like you all had a really busy week. I think that that goes for me too. This past week we had changes. I am now with Elder Millar. We get along really good and have had success this past week together even though we haven’t had that much time to work. We got full nights of sleep on Wednesday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night this week. All of the other times we were up till late doing something.
On Friday morning at 1:00am, we got on a bus heading to Viña for the Zone Counsel with all the zone leaders of the mission. It was a really cool conference that we had. It was in the Mission Home (where the Mission President lives). We went over some new things that are going to be introduced to all the other missionaries at our Christmas Conference on the 23rd. The conference got over at 4 in the afternoon. We finished the conference with an awesome lunch of chicken cordon bleu and a big brownie for desert. YUM!!!
This week we found a few new people to teach and we have appointments with them this coming week. We are going to be doing interchanges with the assistants on Tuesday and having interviews on Wednesday with President Gillespie.
Yesterday we had a really neat lesson with a couple investigators, Tatiana and Kamila. They are a mom and daughter that we have been teaching for some time now but yesterday they accepted baptismal dates for Christmas Day! So it looks like I might be able to have a white Christmas in Chile after all! :) We also had a lesson with Gerardo and Mireya. They are Presidente Nataniel Varas’ parents (our branch president).
Well that is what is going on for me right now…just staying really busy up here in Ovalle -in the nice heat of the sun ;)
Hope all goes well for you this week. We have a few activities planned for the week in the Branch for Christmas.
Take care! Chao
Elder Nelson

Staying in Ovalle Sur with Elder Millar

Stuff that kinda tastes like Cotton Candy....you buy it on the street.

Hey family,
How are things going? Everything is going good for me here in Ovalle. The weather really cooled down this weekend and it was down right lovely. haha. It only got up into the mid 80's. So the change day has come around again. Time has really flown by these fast few weeks. So it turns out that I am going to be staying in Ovalle Sur training another new zone leader and Elder Allen is headed down to Valparaíso to be zone leader there.

In the branch, we had lunch with Alex and Maribel on Saturday. The week that they came to church, they signed up to feed us. Afterwards, we watched Together Forever. They really liked it. It was a really fun time with their family. Their son, Joaquin, is so hilarious. He is only 7 but is just full of personality. He had a lot of really funny stories from school and with his classmates. On Sunday, Gerardo and Mireya came to church. They said that they really enjoyed it. I thought the meetings werent that great seeing that it was story time in sacrament meeting and there were 3 three year old triplets right in front of us that were totally out of control the whole time haha. At one point they were in a three way choke hold. It was hard not to laugh.
This week we changed pensions. We are going to now have 4 misisonaries in the Ovalle Sur Branch! We had been running all over town getting everything finalized and ready to go and got all moved in on Saturday.
Well tonight we have our last district meeting of the change and then we get to announce changes. Should be fun haha.
take care everyone and thanks for the letters. Love you tons, elder nelson

Blazin' Trails in Combarbalá & Strawberry Cheesecake for Thanksgiving

Hey family how are things going? Everything is going great for us down here. We had a week that went by really fast! On Thursday, it was thanksgiving for all of you but down here its kind of unheard of. Elder Allen and I decided to make some homemade strawberry-blueberry cheesecakes to celebrate the special day. We made them from scratch. Well Elder Allen crushed the cookies for the crust that is and I did the rest ;) haha. They ended up turning out DELICIOUS!!! I will send some pics.

We kept one and with the other one, we took to a family in our branch, the Vega Ibañez Family. The dad is in the District Presidency and the mom is the branch relief society president. They have three little daughters that are hilarious. They are just a downright awesome family but are really going through a financial struggle. The dad works out of town all week long and gets home for the weekend and the mom is a school teacher and takes care of the three girls at the same time. Between health problems of the girls and all of the church responsibilities, the hermana ibañez kind of had a mental breakdown from stress. Her husband was really worried about her and on Sunday asked us if we could just pass by a couple of times during the week to say hi and see how she was doing and if she needed anything from us. We passed by on Tuesday night and she wasnt doing that great and kind of told us what was going on...stress. So........we took her the cheesecake and she told us that it was a miracle for her that we would make her a cheesecake. One of her companions in the mission made one one time and she loved it. She asked us why we were giving it to her and we told her that it was thanksgiving. She asked us what exactly that day meant for us because she had heard some things but wasnt really sure. After telling her about the history of the holiday, she started crying. She was so grateful for what we did and later on in the week, told us that she absolutly loved it. It was a great thanksgiving for my companion and me.

The following day, Elder Allen and I went out to a little town about 2 and a half hours away from Ovalle called Combarbalá. It really is out in the middle of nowhere. We went there to see the possibilities of putting the church there. There hadnt been missionaries there for over a couple decades. The elders from Punitaqui, Elder Allenbach and Elder Clemence went with us too. They had talked to a few people on the bus going out to Punitaqui that were interested in the church so we went out to see what the deal was in Combarbalá. Turns out that it was an awesome trip. We got there and found the guy, Nelson, who is a black guy from the Dominican Republic and teaches english in his own institute. He studied in Harvard for a year and has a bunch of family in Boston and Miami. We didnt really have a plan of attack when we got out there so we decided to say a prayer and go do some contacts. Elder Allen and I had 2 hours to do contacts until we had to return and teach Nelson and his family. We started doing contacts in a neighborhood and got into the first three houses that we knocked, all of which had interest in the church and what we were teaching. A few of the people had family members or friends that were members in other cities and were very interested in learning more. The other elders ended up getting into 4 houses in the three hours that they did contacts. It was a really neat experience doing contacts where missionaries have never been. People really were interested in what 4 gringos were doing in there city. We got a lot of stares as we walked through the streets. It was pretty funny. So it turns out, that as we were teaching Nelson and his family, he pulls out a picture of his baptism and tells us that he was a member and got baptized 13 years ago in the Dominican Republic. He was interested in having the church out there and now we understood why. None of his family were members and he had a lot of friendships in the town. He teaches english to the mayor and is great friends with one of the town representatives. We sent a report to President Gillespie about the trip and the success we had so now we will see if the church spreads to Combarbalá.

On Saturday, we had a baptism! Ignacio Sanchez (26) got baptized. He was a member referral from November 1st and got baptized on the 28th of November. He was so excited for his special day and was really happy for the decision he made in his life. His friend that introduced him to the church and who invited him, baptized him. This week, the branch president, Presidente Varas’ parents accepted baptismal dates for Christmas Day or Christmas Eve! That will be so sweet if they keep progressing to be able to have a white christmas in chile! We have our work to do in order for that to happen though. It is crazy that there is only one week left in the change! It has gone by so fast! Things are really going great in the sector. Elder Allen and I are getting along really well. We started over on the Book of Mormon this week. I am about ready to finish 2 Nephi.
Well I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Take care this week and talk to you all next week!
Chao,
Elder Nelson