2017/04/24

Hola amados hermanos mios,

lets start with the end of last p-day. after i emailed you last week, we went and climbed a mountain in Truth or Consequences, called Turtleback, it was good, it took a couple hours, and it was hot, but fun. not a lot else that is very exciting happened this week.

we have been spending most of our week in Hatch rather than T or C, because there has been a little more work to do there. the weather has been warm and sunny all week.

the other week, we went on exchanges and my companions rode bikes the whole day, so since elder Peterson and i switched places, i let him use my bike. about 2 days before that, i had tightened all the spokes on the wheel, then when we switched back, they said my bike broke, so when we got back to our apartment, i found that the derailer was broken off, and all the spokes were loose again. the funny thing was, that when my companions rode bikes before, they had problems with tires popping, so when they started, they prayed to have no problems with their tires, and they didn't, it was problems with the gears and spokes. also, Elder Tanner's brakes were too tight, so he was really tired and trailing behind the whole time. now i have a stronger testimony of more specific prayers.

other than those things, we had some pretty good lessons this week. one of or investigator families has been having trouble with opposition, the daughters weren't doing too well, but the mom has been doing awesome, she came to the first hour of church, eventhough she was sick, and she brought one of her daughters too.

also during church, there were three amazing speakers (they were us). and this was my first week going to an all english branch since before my mission, becasue last week was stake conference, and the week before, we had to skip out after the first hour, to make it to the branch council of the other.

Love ya'll! have a beautiful rainy week! 😊

Elder Nielson

i got the package with the reeses in it, but we are still working on the other. did you get both of the postcards, or just one of them? 

here are some pics:

in the car

wandering missionaries

the wonderful cities of Hatch and Truth or Consequences

 some funny music my companion has

 mountain climbing

 Reese's

​broken bike

2017/04/17

ARREPENTIOS, ARREPENTIOS! TODOS VOSOTROS!

this has been an interesting week. i have only slept in my bed in Hatch twice this week. this is because we went up to T or C for a couple nights, then we went on exchanges, and then we stayed in our ZLs apartment to save miles.

the exchanges went well, i was in the area of Miranda with Elder Belus, he is a great missionary a great person. we got a cool exchange picture in front of a sunset, and it looks cool even though you cant see us very well. i met lots of fun  and interesting people. one of the part-member families we thought right before we started the lesson, all but 3 of them left and got a puppy and came back 5 or 10 minutes later and then we did the lesson. when they left, we realized it was only us 2 and 2 hermanas, and a 7 year old, so we had to wait outside. the lesson was how to remember the 10 commandments with your hands, it was crazy and fun.

we also had stake conference this week. Elder Randall K. Bennett came and visited. the Saturday night session was a couple of members giving their conversion stories, and elder Bennett talking about their conversions and then about how missionaries shouldn't be finding, they should be teaching who the members find for them. he is funny and a great speaker. then on Sunday it was very similar, there were a couple of short talks, and elder Bennett explained a little more on their topics, it was great.

we have been doing Family History work every saturday since i got here, and  i am still learning, but it is going good. my companion Elder Burnett is having trouble with a Norwegian line of his, he always comes out of it saying he doesnt have the spirit of Elijah and its funny. but even the family history consultant is having trouble with this line.

all is still well, the weather has been nice and sunny everyday this week. i kind of miss the rain and wind of washington sometimes.

wishing you all a wonderful week, con amor,

Elder Nielson

fotos:

mis companeros

Exchanges

 Mission president's street

something funny in the bible

2017/04/10 With Pics

Sorry I have been a bad blogger. I am WAAAAAY behind, so here are a few oldies but goodies.

Ross

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Buenos Tardes,

Update: my new area is AWESOME! the area of hatch covers from Truth or Consequences all the way down to radium springs, which is where they got radiator springs from. we cover two branches, both English, but the Hatch branch does Spanish translations sometimes. so we are mostly working in English now, i need to keep practicing Spanish so i don't lose it. both branches are very small, but i have met a lot of the people in both already.

we have a little adobe house in Hatch, but the city of Hatch and the city of Truth or Consequences (TorC) are about 40 minutes away, so to save miles we drive up to TorC and stay in a member's motel for a couple days to proselyte up there and then drive back down after the couple days.

my two companions are Elder Burnett and Elder Tanner. they are both really good with spanish, and great missionaries. we found out that we all liked the Legend of Zelda games 😁. Elder Tanner did track and cross country as well, and Elder Burnett likes to read. 

we are doing well here, some of our investigators dont progress a ton, but we recently got a couple of new investigators who are very prepared, they are very open and have a lot of potential.

it has been interesting talking about the gospel in english, during lessons i have to really think to not say something in spanish, and then i cant remember the word in english, its frustrating. but its still the lords work and i am having a great time.

Love you guys, adios

Elder Nielson

2017/04/03 Transfers

exciting week this week.

General Conference was good, it was probably one of my favorite parts of this week. we watched all of the sessions of conference at our church building. they had it in both English and Spanish in our building, but the three of us that are still greenies watched it in English so we could get the most out of it as we could, while out senor companions watched in Spanish. one of the talks that i liked the most, i don't remember his name, but during his talk he invited all investigators who were watching general conference to be baptized, and i thought that was pretty cool.

Transfer news. on Saturday, we found out that Elder Cota and Elder Ziebarth are staying together and i am being transferred to an area called Hatch in New Mexico. I am being moved out a trio, right back into a trio. i don't remember my companions' names, but one of them only has a couple transfers left and the other has one less transfer than i do. trio life is the best. i have heard from other missionaries that Hatch has one of the best green chili burger in new mexico and maybe even the country, i'm excited to try it. its in a restaurant called Sparky's, abut its only opened Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. my new area will cover a town called Truth or Consequences, so that will be interesting.

for the past 2 days i have been stuffing all my stuff into my suitcases and hoping it will fit, because if it doesn't, its going to be trouble.

last Monday, on the way out of the library where we email, a guy stopped us and started talking and kept talking, and talking. we even took our conversation outside, but he kept talking. the only thing i remember from our conversation, was when he asked in a quiet voice if we voted for trump. then later he started making jokes about how trump will be assassinated by us, because we were in our white shirts and ties. he was saying that i would be the shooter, Elder Cota would be the guy with binoculars making sure everything is going all right, and Elder Furlong would be the guy who keeps the girls occupied while we did the job. he was crazy, but completely hilarious, because he would talk nonsense half the time.

my spiritual experience of this week, was when we watched conference, and were able to watch all the sessions, and take notes on them all. i felt the spirit a lot throughout each session.

Es todo, les quiero,

Elder Nielson

P.S. photos

cool picture of the sky 

  ​bueno, somos los misioneros!

creepy dude on the side of the road

 Elder Furlong lighting up this out of tune piano

  when doing family history, found one of my ancestors

 ​sweet castle school

 ​a car next to ours had this on their windshield

2017/03/27 Good Morning Por La Manana

Buenos Dias For The Morning,

its been a little weird getting used to another trio in these areas. we have had to split our time in the 2 areas, but now we have a ton of miles 😊. this last week we have had problems with people cancelling our appointments, mostly them forgetting about it and going somewhere else for the day. but we have plenty of appointments set for this week with some potentials and investigators.

we are getting excited for general conference, an we are debating on whether to watch the English of the Spanish one, because 2 of us are still fairly new to Spanish and will understand more if we watch in English, so we will see what happens.

we had an appointment for a lesson at an old folks home, but either the member in there forgot to invite people, or everyone forgot to go or werent really interested. so we taught four people, 2 members and 2 non-members, who were both of different faiths and not too interested in the lessons. awkward...

we had a zone conference on Friday, that went from 8 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon. it was mostly about stuff we have heard before.. well, all of us except for the brand new greenies like my companion. but its still good to hear this stuff again and remember it better.

we also had exchanges this week. exchanges are when we switch companions for a day. since there are three of us, Elder Ziebarth and i went to Fabens with Elder Blanchard. so that is three of us greenies. I came out in the field, then a transfer later came Elder Blanchard, then a transfer after that came Elder Ziebarth, so this it the progression. we had a great time, between the 3 of us, we could understand pretty much everyone. 

my spiritual moment of the week was during zone conference. it was when they showed us the video for the Easter Initiative. its called #PrinceofPeace if anyone wants to look it up, its pretty sweet. i could feel the spirit when we watched it, and felt that this is true, and that Christ died, and lived again for all of us, so that we could do the same. i will enjoy sharing this with others over the next few weeks.

Love you all, tengan buen semana,

Elder Nielson

Fotos:

See these clouds? they arent clouds, this is a dust storm

 ​heading to exchanges

 ​3 different churches in Fabens, Tx. where we went for exchanges

​we visited them all and had a great time 😉 broma (broma means joke or kidding about the last one).

2017/03/20

stuff happened this week.

on Thursday, we got a call from the assistants to the president, and they told us that Elder Stone is being transferred. and its the middle of a transfer. so we went to one last appointment, then stopped by one part members house, took a couple pictures for him, then went home so he could pack. i stayed in Ysleta, the same area i've been in since i was born, but now we are a tripanionship in Ysleta and San Elizario again. this is my second tripanionship in these two areas, but this time its with two different elders. now i make jokes that my father(Elder Jones, my trainer) and my mother(Elder Stone, my companion directly after my trainer) both left me  and now im stuck with my drunk uncle(Elder Cota) and his son (Elder Ziebarth, or trainee of Elder Cota). this gets confusing. anyway, i dont know why or where Elder Stone was sent to, but hopefully i will get an e-mail from him.

Our one investigator on date fell off date this week. she wants to get baptized, but there are some things that need to get settled first, and so help me she WILL get baptized while i am here! anyway she will be in Juarez for the next two weeks, so that doesn't help.

i got another sunburn this week, it is pretty much gone by now. i forgot where i put my sunscreen, so when elder Ziebarth and I went walking to our appointments, i got burned. i bought some today, and aloe vera, so hopefully, i will become as dark as some of the Mexicans who live here.

yesterday it got up to 90 degrees, and the next couple of days here should get up to 90 as well. this is crazy, its only march and its already 90 degrees out. if its this hot now, how hot will it be when its actually summer? is it too late to be transferred? just kidding, its great down here in El Paso.

we got some new investigators, this last week. one guy thinks Trump is trying to become King of America. that day i got burned, we talked to pretty much everyone we saw, because we walked to all of our appointments. most everyone we met said they would like to hear a message and that we could come by later, except for this lady standing outside her church at a garage sale, she wasn't interested.

that reminds me of my favorite quote i heard last week. we were with a member and we were talking and then the member started talking about a friend of theirs that he was talking to about the gospel. his friend said, "No i don't want to be a Mormon." so the member said to him,"Not yet." so, when people say, "No" to our message, what they really mean is, "Not yet". and as Elder Pearson said during the zone confernce last December, everyone is somewhere between remebering and remembering, so its just a matter of time before they remember and are baptized.

Love you all, have a great week,

Elder Nielson

My two companions

 The BEST 2 zones

 Some cool graffiti

 We found an old treadmill

 A pile of tumbleweeds

2017/03/13

Hola otra vez,

many interesting things happened this week. we forgot to change the clock in our car yesterday, so we arrived to dinner a half hour late, after a drop-by invited us in for dinner. then the bishop's wife chased my companion around the dinner table, because he wanted to put his dishes in the sink by himself. then when we drove by one way to a member's house, we saw a car parked on the side of the road, with its door open and a person laying on the ground by the car. after we set up an appointment with the members, we went back the way we came and when the person was still on the ground we stopped to see if we could help. at first we weren't sure if he was alive, but i saw him breathing, so we shook his shoulder and woke him up. when we helped him up, he couldn't stand still, he was so drunk. we left after getting a promise that he wouldn't be driving.

we dropped one of our investigators in a part-member, in-active family, who kept on cancelling appointments on us, for about the past month. on Thursday we stopped by and set up an appointment for 7 the next day, but Friday morning, she texted and said she was in Juarez, so she wouldn't be home. we stopped by at about 2 anyway, and guess what? she was home! her mother-in-law called her out to the door, and we acted like we hadn't received her message, and she said everything was still good with our appointment at 7. So we came back later, with a member, and when we knocked a light turned off and no one answered. so we called and she picked up. but when my companion said, "somos los misioneros!" (we are the Missioneries) she hung up. then we texted her and asked if she was really interested, and she said no. we told all we wanted to do was help her have god in her life, and she said she was christian so she did have god in her life. That's when we stopped texting and dropped her. fun times!

we have had problems with our appointments cancelling and not showing up all week, a couple days, all of our appointments cancelled. but when we went on exchanges, only one of our appointments fell through, and we had great lessons, with the appointments and a couple drop-bys with in-actives. our week has started to turn around.

we have big plans for this week, which include getting four investigators on baptismal date, and getting a ton of new investigators.

remember that at least 2 people love you all, this missionary, and the Lord,

Elder Nielson

Elder Cota dropping a knife in the blender (HAHA)

 Sweet bass piece of art