Winter in Chile and my last mission conference

Elders David, Diaz, Pleytéz, Saldivar, me, Owen

hey family how are things going? this week was a good week and we were able to accomplish a few more things than the week before. This weekend we did interchanges with the zone leaders, Elder Owen and Elder Pitcher. I went with Elder Owen and we stayed in Los Aromos. We had a lot of success on Saturday. We were able to find a few new people to teach. We ate lunch with our branch president, President Nuñez. On sunday, we had a special stake conference in Quilpué and Elder Nuñez, and area 70 came and spoke to us. He spoke for about 45 minutes on traditions that need to be changed in the church....and especially in the stake of Quilpué. He talked about how the Bishop is in charge firstly, of the youth. for adults, they should first go to the elders quorum pres, high priest group leader, or the relief society president. he also spoke about the importance of serving others and looking for oportunities to do so. callings in the church at some point come to an end and by releasing someone, was it for doing a great job and moving aside for someone else to learn, or was it so that someone else would do the job that was supposed to get done. He spoke on the importance of the mother and of his own mother in his life. In the evening, we had a family home evening with the Erices family. They had invited their inlaws to join us. We talked about the blessing it is to have on prophet on the earth today. This week will be full of activities. We are going to do a mini mission with some youth from the stake. We are going to be their companions for 2 days. On friday we are going to have my last mission conference. It is going to be with all of the south......22 of us will be giving our final testimonies.....The weather here is just flat out cold. It has been down to 46 degrees inside our house when i wake up in the morning. luckily i stay nice and warm at night haha.well have a great week everyone and have an awesome PIONEER DAY!!!!!! Happy birthday mom!!!!!!!! have a great one! love you all love,elder nelson

My Going Home Instructions

Elder Owen presents me with my going home instructions.

Lots of mixed feelings.

Pia Parada turns 4! Happy Birthday Pia!A bad windstorm blows

this chain onto power lines-

hey everyone howa are things going?

this was a pretty slow week but we are getting things coordinated with the branch to do more family home evenings this week. On tuesday, we had a crazy rain and wind storm that lasted about all day. one funny thing was we decided to visit an older lady in the ward that we did service for once last change. we never go by her house and felt that we should go by around 12:30 in the afternoon. as we got there she opened the door and told us to come in, getting out of the rain and wind that was steadily increasing. As we entered the house, we noticed that she had to places set at the table for us to eat. I looked at my companion with a confused look on my face and noticed that he was giving me the same look of confusion. Hermana Teresa then told us that she was expecting us for lunch that day. According to her, on sunday, she had spoken with the sister in charge of our lunch schedule and told her that she was going to give lunch to the missionaries on the 6th. we didnt know what to do because we had lunch planned with another family at 1:30. Hermana Teresa told us to sit down so we did but we told her that we were both getting over colds and could only eat smaller portions (yes, we were both getting over colds at the time). Turns out that she had stopped giving lunch to the missionaries awhile ago but decided to sign up again. Luckliy for us, while in her house, the rain and wind was so strong that we couldnt even hear Hernana Teresa talking to us. We were glad to be indoors during that part of the storm. We felt bad that the hermana had gone to all that trouble to make us a nice lunch but at the same time we were grateful that we went by her house to see how she was doing. It would have really hurt her feelings if we hadnt shown up to eat. She is 85 and her memory isnt really in top shape anymore. It was rough trying to down the second lunch an hour later but we both succeeded in doing so. We didnt want to even see or think of food afterwards though...haha it was a funny experience i should say...
tomorrow, july 13, i hit 23 months in the mission. wow. this week we had a really spiritual lesson on the sacrament with an older lady. It really strengthened my testimony about the importance of going to church every week to renew our covanant that we made with Him. I received my going home envelope that requires me to make a 5 year plan for my life. one of the categories is "la búsqueda" or the search (for that special someone) haha. there are 5 time boxes: 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years. in the search, the boxes with 3 and 5 years are crossed out haha....i also need to write a final letter to President Gillespie explaining what the most gratifying thing about serving a mission has been for me. we are visiting different organizations each week in church. last week we visited the relief society and shared a scripture with them about the importance of the mother and thanked them for all that they did for us. yesterday we sang the mission hymn in the priesthood opening. well the gonzalez family is still sick but it looks like and we are praying that we will be able to teach them this week sometime. it really is a patience tester for me but with lots of faith and prayers, we will be able to prepare the family without even teaching them. Well everyone have a great week.

chaíto-- Elder Jaren E. Nelson

Last Change #15

Ricky the Yorkie
Villa Hermosa

hey family how are things going?
this week was a bit slower than last week. there werent that many things that happened. The gonzalez family is still sick and can't leave their house. We just hope that they dont lose the desire to listen to us afterwards. We are praying for them. Other than that, we are looking for people to teach. On Friday night, we had a ward talent show. It was a fun time. for the organization of missionary work, we did a skit. others sang songs, did skits, played an instrument, and other stuff. Well this is my first week of my last change in the mission. its weird to think that i am the oldest one in the mission now...its even more weird- even scary- to think what comes "next change". I will receive my change this evening. today we are going to play soccer with other missionaries in the zone.
Well I hope eveyone had a great weekend and a happy 4th of July. people in the ward here told me happy independence day. love you all. have a great one! chao-- Elder Jaren E. Nelson

Sweet Week

Another beautiful fall sunrise in Chile.
Elder Tondevold's Sister-in-law "to be" doing study abroad. She visited our branch.
Good-bye! Elder Gulbrandson

Hey everyone how are things going?

First of all, Happy Big 50 DAD! wow you are getting old. "te estaí poniendo viejo" as they would say here.

also, happy 4th of July!!!! Let freedom ring!

This week was a really great week for us. It went by really fast and was absolutely full of events. On Wednesday, I went on interchanges with Elder Owen. It was really fun to go with him. We go home together. It was cloudy in the morning but later on in the day it started to rain and by the night time it was pouring. luckily i grabbed my emergency umbrella but still by the end of the day, i was absolutely soaked. to get home we had to walk through the center of Quilpué which was just pure rivers instead of streets. there are no draining systems here. my shoes are still wet from it. luckily i have another pair to use.
On Thursday, we had a mission conference of the Interior. It was a really good conference and focused on the importance of establishing trust with our ward where we are serving.

During the conference, President talked about the World Cup and said that he realizes that we are humans and that this is a special moment in sports history and the whole country stops when the team is playing so he gave us permission to watch the game on Friday against Spain. We watched it with our ward mission leader and the family that we are working with in the branch. They live across the street from them. We lost 1-2 but it was cool to be able to watch the game. Chile classified for the next round but have to face Brazil.

Later that night, we had a lesson with the whole Gonzalez Vega Family and were finally able to teach Juan, the dad. We went over the message of the Restoration and invited the family to get baptized. The dad without hesitation said yes and turned to his wife and asked, "and you?" It was so special to see them have the desire to better the relationship and love in their family. The daughters also accepted. They have a baptismal date for the 24 of July!!!!! woo hoo!!!!!! It was such a special lesson and I was even choked up after sharing the first vision. We invited them to go to a baptism in another ward in Quilpué to see how it was on

Saturday. They went with our ward mission leader and loved it.

On Saturday, we had the privilege of going to the Temple in Santiago. It was such an amazing experience and was so much more meaningful for me after teaching gospel principles for the past year and a half. Hopefully that is the longest time I go without going to the Temple in my life. It is something so necessary.
On Sunday, something unique happened. We arrived at church early in the morning and after getting everything all ready for the meetings, the power went out, including the heating. Right before the meeting i was asked along with my companion to speak. My companion went first and I went second. I decided to share my conversion story and why I was here in the mission. Why, I have no idea, but right from the get-go I was emotional. I talked about the importance and great power of the examples that i have had in my life and in my family and also the importance of doing the small and simple things in life like seminary, scouts, mutual, going to church, and things like that. It was a special moment in my life and left many people teary-eyed. I was thanked by many after the meeting for sharing my story.
Well it really was a special week for us and hopefully this week is just as good to finish out the change. I cant believe how fast it has gone by! Have a great weekend everyone and eat some watermelon for me! haha. chaíto
elder nelson

June 28, 2010

50 Days left!!!

My new bed...no more sleeping in a "U" Yeah!

My Old BedAh! I love you new mattress!!
I am so happy! It's so nice and flat and doesn't dip in the middle? And it is just waiting to give me a good nite's sleep!

hey everyone how are things going?
this week has been a very wet one. the chilean winter is here as just about everyday of the past week had rain. It finally cleared up on Saturday afternoon which brought in clear skies and cold temperatures. Things went pretty slow but we have some good things going on for this week. The gonzalez vega family that went to church last week was gone for the whole weekend but said that we could come by whenever this week to teach them so we will be starting teaching them tonight. Chile has now won two world cup games and the whole country is in an uproar of excitement. They just beat Switzerland this morning 1-0 and everyone is driving around with flags and honking their horns.
Well that is about all that has gone on this week. Happy late fathers day to all you dads out there haha. have a great week and talk to you next week. take care
elder nelson

Backwards MTC time...9 weeks left

Quilpue

New Merengue flavored Oreos here
My plaque

hey good morning how are things going?

Well yesterday i hit my 22 month mark. Its really weird that I have the same time left that it takes to go through the MTC...9 weeks. Elder Saldivar and I get along really well and are enjoying our time together. Last night he got his first experience of strong Chilean rainstorms as it dumped on us for a good few hours. Luckily we were inside for the family home evening and were driven back home. even though we were outside for only a minute or so, we still got pretty wet. Today its a bit overcast and they are calling for more rain tomorrow but we will see.

things are going good here. Last night we had a neat experience. We planned a family home evening with our ward mission leader and another family that are members. They invited a family that lives in between them to come. Well by inviting them to the family home evening, they went to church in the morning and in the evening to the family home evening. they told us that they were looking for a change in their lives and loved it in the church. They felt really comfortable there and their kids liked it too. They have two daughters ages 15 and 9. The one that is 9 loved primary and the other was sick and didnt go. It truely is a blessing to have a family to teach here. I know that God does answer prayers and that there is a great special power in fasting. The Gonzalez family has been well taken in to the branch and it will be really fun watching them progress in the Gospel. We also received a reference from Villa Alemana where I was last change. It was for a 14 year old girl that wants to get baptized. Her name is Tatiana. We taught her and her mom on Saturday night.

We are pumping up the branch and trying to get them excited to share the Gospel with their friends, relatives, and neighbors. We are having family home evenings with the families of the branch. We try to have at least 3 or 4 planned each week. It has given us good results so far.

Earlier in the week we had interviews with President and Hermana Gillespie. President Gillespie told me about how important the ability to focus is. He told me a story about when Rush Limbaugh went golfing with Tiger Woods and was just amazed at how nervous he (Rush) was at playing with so many people watching him but on the other hand, watching Tiger just be able to close everything out and focus on the job at hand helped him to have the success that he wanted. We need to do that too in our lives at whatever thing we are focusing on. He told Elder Owen, a missionary that has the same time as me that we need to "Choose to be young again (in the mission)." That will give us the same fire that we need to keep going and finishing strong.

I was also able to go on intercambios with Elder Pleytéz, my zone leader from Honduras. He lives in the Tegucigalpa mission where Jonny Roberts served. We had a good day and were able to find a lady to teach that listened to the missionaries awhile ago. Her name is Lidia.

Well everyone have a great week! Love you all!