Meeting President Wilhelm

It's pretty amazing to a mother that her two boys who are both called to serve missions in Chile should rub shoulders with this very wonderful man.  Jaren first had President Wilhelm for his mission president for the first half of his mission. He was able to meet up with President Wilhelm at his mission reunion last April and told him of his brother who was going to the Osorno mission. Now Elder Wilhelm presides over the Osorno Region as an Area Authority.  Jentry had the privledge to have him at a meeting and he so graciously posed for a picture for his brother.  How cool is that!

 

 

Jentry with Elder Wilhelm as his Area Authority, Osorno, Chile - September 2012

 

Jaren shortly after arriving in Vina del Mar, Chile with his Mission President & Sister Wilhelm - October 2008

Hola Family!

How is everything going for everyone?  I have to write on Saturday this week becasue just about everything is going to be closed on Monday to Wednesday so tha'ts the reason that the letter is today and not Monday.

This week has been a busy one, we hada a zone conference in Puerto Montt which is a huge city with a mcdonalds and pizza hut about an hour away from Fruttillar, and we had some great stuff from President Rappleye and his wife. President Rappleye was talking about a meeting that he had attended with president wilhelm, and quoted him a few times, and then after lunch he finished his presentation and then turned the time over to Elder Wilhelm who had been sitting on the front row. He is the Area Authority and lives in Puerto Varas which is about 30 minutes away and is actually our zone. He talked about his conversion, which I didn't know that he is a member of only 26 years, and he was Stake president of Osorno after being a member for 3 years. He talked for a while and then opened everything up to questions, he talked for a while which was awesome. Aferwards, the APs had an activity, but I went over and talked to him in spanish and told him that my brother was a missionary for him, and asked if I could have a picture with him to send home to Jaren and he was more than happy to do that. He is a great guy and I might have the oppurtunity to work a little more with him in the future.

After that, it has been rainy. Thursday was probably the nicest day so far of the mission and yesterday was my inaugral use of my rain boots. I went out with my rain pants, boots, jacket, umbrella and I stayed pretty dry, but it was cold. It sure does rain hard here. This week is going to be hard, we cannot work except for fixed appointments from monday to wednesday because of all of the drunk people in the street. That will be difficult to be cooped up for that long, but it will be nice becasue the branch is having a party today (Saturday) where I will be able to have my first chilean empenada! I have been looking forward to that since Jaren talked of them.

It should be fun to see how everybody celebrates down here, and with hard work, I will be able to understand everything for the next 18th of Septiembre.

Well we had a rough thing happen last night, we were teaching Monica who had a date for baptism, only needs to get married, but we found out that there is legal problems, because chilean law is weird, and if they get marroed, they are going to lose a house so they have to do some stuff, so they told us that we had to wait until december for a baptism. I hope I am still here for that to happen. It was kind of interesting becasue I was trying to explain the gospel of Jesus Christ talking of 2 Nephi 31 which was her reading (And she read 4 times which was awesome). We talked about faith and asked what is faith and she gave us an answer almost exactly from alma 32, same with repentence. Then we were talking about baptism and Elder Rupp explained some stuff and then it was my turn to go into talking about the baptismal questions and I was thinking of how to go into them, and I kind of repeated myself saying how we need to follow the example of our Savior and she stopped me and told me something interesting, that when I am talking, she can see my face light up when I talk about these kind of things and how she can her the words of God when I am talking, just because she sees how much I am enjoying the work and trying so hard to be able to understand them, and I am almost there. I think it is amazing the progress after 3 weeks, I can't even begin to imagine after 2 years. I am just excited to get there.

Well, I hope everything continues to go well for the family, I love you all and miss you. During the rough times, which are plenty, I just think about you guys and how much I truly love my family and how thankful I was for the last time we all had together, which helped our family unity so much. The other thing, is when we teach the first lesson, the first topic is that we have a loving Heavenly Father, the second is that the gospel blesses families. I am grateful that I can truly testify to every person that I talk to that that principle is true. I have seen it in our lives. 

I love all of you,

Love Elder Nelson

¿Cachaí?

a typical rainy day in Frutillar

My first sighting of Volcan Osorno - picture taken from the bus

Our cabana

Estufa de leña. Our little wood stove.

My MTC sprained ankle

Hola Familia,

Well another busy week with the mission work, it rained a little this week but not too much, for the most part it was sunny except today. It is very cloudy today which is too bad because we were going to go down to the lake to take pictures of the 3 volcanoes that I can see, but it's too cloudy so I will have to send them another day.

Well in the missionary work, we have had another up and down week, our investigator who has a date for baptism hasn't made any progress to get married and her date is scheduled for the 22nd of this month, she has accepted everyother commitment including the law of chastity just hasn't made any advancement to be married. We´re hoping things work out so we don't have to postpone her baptism. We also have another person with a date for baptism for the 13th of October but we don't know because he still needs to be taught alot.

So we taught the very catholic lady some more and her house still gives me the creeps, she has dolls and she loves María, the mother of Christ and has alot of that type of stuff, we are starting to get nervous though that she only likes to have someone to talk to but doesn't has much interest in the church because we go there and she talks as fast as she can and we really can't understand and she just tells us her problems and we barely teach. I think we are going to try one more time and if it is the same, we are going to drop her. We also found someone while knocking doors who is intersted and said he'd be baptised becasue the stuff we have taught is true, he just is busy with work. That's really the thing we have been working at is desafying more or challenging to be baptised. We have heard if you challenge people to be baptized more, the Lord will see that and he will put in our path people who will be ready to be challenged. Other than that not too much has happened, just working hard. My spanish has improved a ton which is a good thing, every chilean says that they can understand me and a couple times chileans say I speak better than my companion haha, I don't that much but they say I speak good casteyano.

At night I stay warm, I wear thermals, wool socks, night pants and a sweatshirt to bed with 3 thick blankets so I'm fine most nights, its really cold in the morning and coming out of the shower in the morning.

There are four that live in our cabana.  We have an elder named Elder Brindley from Minnesota and his companion elder Bracho from Argentina who live with us, its the best way to help my spanish is to talk to elder Bracho because he can't speak any English but we are teaching him a little like what time is it and how are you. And we do have hot water, although sometimes it is only luke warm.

We listen to music and I love the jenny oaks baker and paul cardall, those are the most fun to listen to during study time.

It's fun being a trainee, I'm steadily improving everyday so I can eventually maybe train.

I don't know how much we walk, just a lot and I think that I am gaining weight because I eat alot of bread haha. 

Well I hope all is going well with everyone,
Take care.

Les Amo,

Elder Jentry Nelson

PS we aren't changing our p-day btw, we are having a zone barbecue and then on tuesday we are going to just leave the house if we have citas because everybody is drunk or "Beracho" so there is no use in contacting, so expect letter monday. 
K, well once again, take care con todos

Con Amor

Becán

How is everything up north?

It has been another cold and rainy week here in Frutillar and a real roller coaster of mission work here. On Tuesday I had the opportunity to challenge someone to be baptized and she accepted, we have a date but the only problem is she has to get married to the man she is currently living with so this could be a bit of a problem, we taught the law of chastity on thursday and it was extremely uncomfotable because they had a discussion about marriage right there in front of us and she called him out on watchin `` Peliculas cochinas´´ and they argued for a little with us right there and a member there with us as well but she agreed to try to live the law of chastity which is good, and she went to church with us yesterday. I hope she is ready for the 22nd of sept for her baptism.

After that though, most of our appts. fell and it was very rainy and windy which isnt fun here haha, everytime it is raining, I think welcome to the mission that I have heard about.

On Saturday, we taught a lady and she was one of those super catholics with the creepy pictures of Jesus holding a heart everywhere and I couldn't understand her at all because she talked so fast. I'm starting to understand alot better now though.

So my day is simple, I wake up at 7, eat study have lunch at 12:30 at our mamita´s house. We then do a little more study (We study more for my training which is 12 weeks) and are out at 3-4 and return home at 9:30-10 at the latest, bed by 11 but I am normally too tired before then and am in bed as soon as we are done with planning. Yeah we have to walk everywhere, and I have been wearing the goretex shoes which have been holding up great in this wet time, I've needed it. Sometimes though to go places like Fruttilar Bajo we take a collectivo which is like a taxi and costs 400 pesos which is around 85 cents. At church we have around 80 people in our branch and it is a good but busy day. I haven't played the piano becuase the branch president won't give me the songs beforehand to practice, kind of frustrating because I want too but he keeps forgetting. After church we go eat at a members house, we went to a young married couple´s house who were actually married in the temple about a month ago which is a huge deal around here because the temple is so far away. After church we just work some more.

My spanish is coming, I can understand everything that gringos say other than words that I don't know, about 80 percent of a gringo and a latin talking and about 60 percent of two latins talking, I have definately seen alot of improvement in my spanish in two weeks and know the only way is up.

Like I have said the weather is crazy, we have had a perfectly nice day and it is pouring an hour later, or the opposite, yesterday and today have been very nice days though, I still never go anywhere without my rain jacket and rain pants. Right now we are actually living in a little place called a cabaña which is just a little house. Its one of the nicer ones of the mission with a wood stove and a space heater, it sure is cold in the morning. If you want to try to look it up on google maps, its on the street pedro montt and near the corner of pedro montt and san pedro and its where three little houses are and we are in the middle one. It's not too bad of a place.

Im eating kind of everything, alot of chicken rice, beef, pork and a ton a bread. There is bread at everymeal regardless of desayuno, almuerzo or an once. 

Someone asked if we celebrated Labor Day in any specific way and the answer is they don't have labor day here haha, that is a made up American holiday. But the 18th of Sept is coming up and we got permission to move our p-day from monday the 17th to the tuesday the 18th and are going to Puerto Varas and are going to have a zone barbecue and play american football which should be funny with some of the latins haha, we´ll see. Im really excited for it, there isnt really a point to us working because everybody is just getting drunk and its more unsafe to be there in the street. Im probably going to buy a chilean flag though for that day to celebrate. I hear its just crazy and shops all around town are starting to decorate and get ready for the Day.

Well I hope all is going well and you guys are always in my prayers, I've really started to make my prayers more meaningful in the mission and I realize how much I need blessings right now.

Take Care,

Love Elder Jentry Dale Nelson