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

-----------------------

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

2017/03/08

Buenos tardes,

sorry I didn't e-mail earlier, we had missionary Monday, which is one of the days of the year that all the missionaries in our mission go to the temple. so we had to switch our e-mail day to today. it was great, one of the temple workers said that the group that I went in with, was the biggest he has ever seen in that temple. we had missionaries form 2 or 3 different zones, and the members who drove them, and some temple workers. it was great, the temple was beautiful, and they let us into one of the sealing rooms too.

we have had a good week, we kept on visiting the members on our ward list we don't know, and we set up appointments to get to know them better. it has already been paying off, we have gotten a ton of referrals, and potential investigators, its been great.

on our phone we have been getting a lot of spam and scam calls lately, we recognize them pretty quickly now. one of them is a guy with an Indian accent named jon wanting to know about my windows computer. I think about trying to waste their time, but then it would also waste the Lord's time, so maybe not.

one of our potential investtigators this week, was a girl at Whataburger (kind of like mcdonalds, but mainly in texas) and we found out she is jewish, but invited us to come back and teach her more about the gospel. back in our car, we started talking about what we will teach her, and we will have to do more of an explanation on Jesus Christ. my companion has been wanting to teach a jewish person for awhile now.

not much else has happened this week, we are still trying to find a new apartment that isn't too expensive, and that isn't 4 miles outside of our area, we found some good ones that we will try by.

I will add some pictures too.

Love you all, happy Christmas,

Elder Nielson

​

2017/02/27

bueno dia de preparacion!

our first full week after transfers has been great. when i was with elder jones, we went over on miles, becasue a dyeing missionary doesnt care, but he left me with 25 miles everyday for the rest of this mobnth, and then we went over on miles a couple of days, so the last 2 days we have been riding bikes. yesterday we got a ride to the church from the other elders, then rode out bikes to all our appointments, then back to the church and waited for about a half hour for the elders to come pick us up, and we couldnt call them because they lost their phone. entonces, yesterday was an eventful dia de reposo.

we dont have any investigators on date right now, but we will get a couple pretty soon. one of our new investigators is the ​son of a member and he and his father are the only nonmembers. he is a teenager with and earring and low rider pants, but he has some good questions, like where god came from. since we dont have a specific answer for this, we just taught that god is our loving heavenly father again, it went well, but there were a bunch of distractions during this lesson.

this week during service i got a sunburn in my neck and arms, its pretty much gone now, but hopefully this is the first of many! finally! on my way to get a tan!

not much has changed since last week, we are looking for a new apartment that isnt outside of our area. we found one, and it is right in the middle of our area, so that would be perfect. now we are working with the apartment inspectors about a new apartment, so we will see where it goes.

we got a bunch of referrals yesterday, so we will be tracking them down this week, hopefully they turn out well.

my spiritual experience for this week was when our new investigator opened up to us more. we had visited his family before, but he wasnt very interested before. now that he is esking more questions, we are starting in the right direstion. we will get him there.

thank you everyone, for all your support, love you all

Elder Nielson

2017/02/22

Heeeeeey fam, que pasoooo?

this was my last week with elder Jones as my companion, and its been fun, but he is going home so i'm happy he finished his mission on a good note. elder Jones would always deny that he wasn't trunky (the word we use when a missionary is getting homesick, and less missionary-ish), but he was starting to get trunky, not a lot, but a little.

we had one more baptism this week, everything went well with his marriage license, so he got married and baptized last Thursday, then we took home most of the left over food and cake.

sorry i didn't email until now, but we had to wait to email so we could tell you we got to our next area safely. well, i got to my area safely. i'm still in the same place, but have a new companion, his name is elder Stone (Piedra in Spanish) he is a ginger, but he has good Spanish, and nothing else matters...broma, he is cool, and he is ready to start in a new area. he has been out 7 months, so he isn't a greenie. the elders we share an apartment with, only elder Cota stayed, and he got a greenie, Elder Ziebarth, and he looks like cousin Ben, its weird how alike. they are all cool, so i believe we will get along well.

not much else has happened this week, other than getting a bunch of stuff from elder Jones, and staying with ZLs from another zone for a day because my companion left the day before transfers.

this will be a difficult to get used to, because i always had elder Jones who always knew what to do, where to go, and who to go try by. so now i have to take control for awhile, because my companion is new to the area. anyway, it will be fun trying it.

es todo, love you all, wish you all then best,

Elder Nielson

Elder Cota

 Elder Faber in Elder Jones's suitcase

 Elder Faber in Elder Jones's suitcase

 This Elder looks like Luke's cousin Ben 

 Elder Nielson's New Companion

2017/02/13

bueno, etse es los missioneros, tenemos un breve mensaje sobre Jesucristo que yo testifico he bendicido mi vida en muchas cosas.

it is raining today, so we don't need to wash our car. i was able to understand most everyone who spoke to me yesterday at church, so i'm still getting there with my Spanish, and it is fun to see how far i have come, even just from leaving the CCM. i only had to jump one fence this week, but nobody was home.

our investigator who is getting married and baptized this week went to get a marriage license two weeks ago, but bought the wrong one, and we only figured it out Saturday night. now he has to go back, but it didn't open until about nine, and here in Texas, after you buy you marriage license, you have to wait 72 hours to use it, so if he gets it this morning, his wedding will have to be on Thursday. none of this is a real problem, but he bought the rings, and they are inscribed with the 2/14/17 on them. but now there is nothing we can do about it. he is excited to be married and baptized finally.

last Wednesday, we left to drive up to Albuquerque for the special MLC. it was a long drive, but we talked most of the way, so it was good. that night about 10 of us stayed in an apartment, with 5 of us sleeping on the floor, it wasn't that bad. the next day the MLC started with President and Sister Guffey talking to us for a little bit. then Bro. Lee Donaldson talked to us for about 5 hours with a lunch break. i took many notes, it was great i learned a lot, found some things i need to work on, and had fun. we learned some ways that we can use technology, even thought we don't have smartphones or ipads...yet.

we have been volunteering at a food bank since the time i got here, and a couple weeks ago, they took our pictures to draw us on a wall inside as a mural. and i was the first one to be started, its still not finished, but it looks good already if i do say so myself.

this is the week before elder Jones goes home so we are going to find a ton of news this week, its gonna be lit.

i shared some pictures to you msn account. in it there are pictures of us carpooling with other elders (1st), playing a fun futbol game (2nd - 5th), on the drive up to the MLC (6th - 12th), meeting my brother elder Rivera (13th), us at the food bank (14th), recording us singing a song in the bathroom (15th, 16th), more carpooling (17th), and more futbol (18th).

(I wasn't able to access those pics yet--Ross)

love you all, thank you for the support.

cuidense,

Elder Nielson

2017/02/06

hola mi familia y amigos,

this week has been fun, we had our miracle baptism. Elder Jones was relieved, after working with him for, pretty much the past year. nobody got hurt at this one, but the water in the font was still cold. we really need to get that fixed.

our investigator who is getting married and baptized on the same day is getting ready, he bought a suit, and a new shirt, and a couple of ties. he wanted to do the wedding at 6 in the morning because he didn't want anyone to come, he wants it to be small with almost no one there. we convinced him to reconsider and have it at about 7 at night, because we have a zone training from 8 in the morning to 2 or 3 in the afternoon. and we told him we wouldn't invite anyone.

this week we have a special mission leader conference, where they invite random people of different time spans in their missions from all over the mission to attend, and i was invited to go. so we will go up to Albuquerque on Wednesday and stay the night, then have the MLC and eat dinner after, then go back down to El Paso. the drive each way is about 4 or 5 hours, so that will be fun.

our mission president told us that if we get 9 baptisms in our zone this month, he will take us out to dinner. Elder Jones and i have one already, and 3 more planned that i believe will all make it. and Elder Jones wants the dinner before he goes back home, because he leaves on the 21st.

a miracle we had this week, was when we went to a nursing home to visit a member. we were on our way out and the receptionist let us out, because you need a pass code, and she said, "have a nice night elders!" so we stopped her really quick, and she said she was a less active member. we asked if she would like us to come over and share a message, and she said her husband isn't a member, and was taking the lessons awhile ago, but stopped, and she said that they were wanting to come back to church. but they prefer English so we gave this referral to the Socorro elders, and hopefully something good comes out of it.

another miracle the Elders of San Elizario had, was when they got a call from a lady who said that she has been sober for 9 months, and is wanting to get baptized. they take down her information, then go to try and find her. she only gave them directions, but they called back and got her address. that is when they found out that she lives 12th Ward boundaries, so she would even go to the mission trail ward. i hope the other elders got a miracle baptism. this was funny because the San Eli elders were really excited, but they don't get to teach her.

Wish you were all here to see how great this place is.

Remember everyone, the Church is true, the Book is blue, and Moroni is on the ball.

Love you all,

Elder Nielson

(I think Luke misses our Benz.)

2017/01/30

Bienvenidos,

we had a good full week. we had this Worldwide Missionary Broadcast on Wednesday, it was of a couple of General Authorities going over the last missionary broadcast and explaining it a little more. It was good, i learned a lot. in the broadcast they also had 2 announcements. one was a change in our daily schedule, all it is is that we now can choose when to do our studies, when to exercise, and everything else we do daily we can choose when to do it, so we have a more agency. and we also got 2 more hours added to our p-day, that is one of the things i am most excited about. the other announcement was, that before we had 9 key indicators that we would report to church headquarters, like baptisms, lessons taught, and referrals. but now they are cut down to 4 key indicators, baptized and confirmed, investigators con baptismal date, progressing investigators, and new investigators. so now we don't have to worry about getting a certain number of lessons each week, and get a variety of them, now we can teach lessons to share the truth.

we met this crazy less active lady, she was an interesting character, who came to us for help, because she was wanting food, and home items. but we cant help with that, so we offered physical labor, and referred her to the relief society. but her sons aren't baptized, so the area they fall under could have 2 new investigators.

we have had alot of service opportunities this week. this mornings was us trying to get a 4ftX4ftX3ft swamp-cooler air conditioner from on top of a house into the bed of a truck. it took awhile to disconnect it from the house and much less time to get it in the truck.

Elder Jones was sick for a couple days, so we had to stay in our apartment for awhile, but it was fine, i studied a lot.

one of my miracles this week, was when everyone in a part-member family showed up to church, and the 9 year-old son is the only one not baptized. we have spent the last 2 weeks trying to set up a lesson with them, but every time they said, 'otra dia esta mejor' or they just weren't home. when they showed up to church, the parents came up to us and started saying they were going to baptize him this Saturday. so we just went with it, because he is ready and we have been teaching him for awhile. Miracle Baptism!!

love you guys, say hi to everyone for me (literally everyone),

Elder Nielson