Carta Moroni day

Hola y Buenos dias!

First of all it was awesome to see the pictures of dad baptism, that made me so happy to see and hear of my parents participating in missionary work, apresurando la obra (DyC 88:73)

Just help the family as well so that all of them can stay really active, ican never stress the improtance enough of retention.

This week was good, i could haardly work in my sector until like friday as i was doing intercambios this week but just in other parts of osorno but it was still fun. On Wednesday, i went out with an elder from peru and it went well, we taught alot which was good, and then on thursday i went out with Elder Amone, the BYU linebacker who is an AP, and it was so crazy, he decided to cross the street at the end of a green light and he got hit by a car haha not too bad, he jumped on the hood but it was still pretty funny, i was almost a witness of a byu linebacker losing his scholarship because he was in a car accident in his mission haha but luckily there wasnt any problems, and to all you utah fans, no i did not push him haha.

It was fun though, i got his byu tie he used on signing day thruough a tie trade so it is pretty cool.

But i filnally got to be in my sector on friday which was great and we are teaching alot, and are getting along great as companions, it is alot of fun with him, we are working really hard right now, but it was a frustrating church though, for some reason not many people showed up to church and most of the leaders werent there including the bishop because he was in a meeting with the other bishops and stake president (during all the church meetings...) but it was fine in the end, just kinfof a joke at the beginning though, 

Today for pday, we played basketball and volleyball in the only church in the mission that has a carpeted, indoor gym so that was alot of fun as it has been incredibly hot lately here in chile.

After that, we went into the office to do verifications with the asistantes and there in the office we saw the famous moroni letter, which is a letter with a picture of the angel moroni on the envelope telling me that my time is winding up and i need to start planning how i am needing to start planning how i will be getting home so that is going to be a fun thing to be doing in the near future, yes, i have less than 

4 months but that just means that i am at the time where i can be working thte best in the mission.

I love you all and thank you all for your support.

Love Elder Nelson

Elder Ballard, Elder Rasband, Elder Gonzales in Chile

Feb 18, 2014

Wow, what a incredible week that we have had, it has probably been one of the best weeks of my mission, it was extremely great weather (today is raining though) and yesterday was the best conference that i have every gone to, it was so great and so spiritually uplifting.

On wednesday, we had cambios so i have come here to the city of Osorno in the zone of Rahue which is great, and i am with a boss of a companion named Elder Smithson from Gilbert, Arizona, he is way cool and we have known each other since the MTC because we started the mission together, he is cool, he also studied in the Air Force academy and is wanting to be a pilot, its great, we get along great.

So on sunday we had a special stake conference where Elder Walter F Gonzalez who is the area president spoke with his wife and with the temple president and matron of the santiago temple, so good. They spoke of three principle points.

1.The inportance of always having a current temple recomend, even if you cant always go

2. Reading the book of mormon as a family always

3. Paying tithing AND OFFERINGS

It was great and i was at the door because we are zone leaders to greet elder gonzalez when he came into the conference which was a great experience.

On Monday morning, we had to go the city of Puerto MOntt super early for a very tiring day, so i was playing the prelude music with some violins and it sounded really good, and the Elder Ballard, Elder Rasband and Elder Gonzales so i stopped the piano and stood then the told me to keep playing but then i had to stop again to go shake their hands which was awesome and Elder Ballard told me that my playing was very good haha, sso when i got done there wasnt a seat around except up on the stage so i decided to go and sit behind all of the general authorities haha, bu it was a great conference, Elder gonzalez was the only one who spoke spanish, the others had a translater but it was awesome to hear them in english.

My favorite quote of the day that i heard was

"I would rather offend man that i would God", that is the reason that we invite everyone to hear the gospel and we dont worry about being rejected.

Just so many other cool things that i couldnt even begin to talk about, just the entire time i felt the spirit, and i loved it.

I hope that everyone takes advantage of the fact that we hvae living day apostles and prophets and seventy, we need to listen to them and do as they say.

I love you all and am so grateful for this sacred time in my life to be a missionary.

Love Elder Nelson

Leaving Puerto Montt and going to Osorno

February 10, 2014

Happy Valentines Day! to everyone this week.

We have been having a very cold week as I have actually had to use my thermals a day this week which is really odd for the summer time, and it has been raining a ton which is normal but not as much for February.

So, this next week as we are going to be having a visit of Elder Ballard, Elder Walter F Gonzales and Elder Rasband, Hermana Rappleye (Wife of President Rappleye) and said that she found out that I played the piano so she wants me to play the piano in the conference and we all have to be there an hour before the conference and she wants me and two other missionaries who play the violin to do a piano and violin duet for the hour, with other songs that I can play by myself. I am playing the piano with a sister missionary who is actually from Sugar-Salem (Hna Lee) and an Elder named Elder Crotzer. We have a handful of arrangements of Come Thou Fount, Our Saviors Love, a song called Resurrection (Which isn't a hymn but is really pretty), I Know That My Redeemer Lives, Joseph Smiths First Prayer, a hymn medley of Amazing Grace, As Now We Take the Sacrament and How Great Thou Art, and then we are making some hymn arrangements from the Paul Cardall book of More Holiness Give Me, I Feel My Savior's Love and God be With You til We Meet Again, and then if there is still time i am just going to be playing other Paul Cardall songs.

I have practiced by myselft a couple hours every day and with Sister Lee a couple hours everyday as she is in my zone, but its going to be a little bit more complicated on Wednesday because we have some changes which will be difficult. I am going to be leaving Puerto Montt after only one cambio. I am a little sad. I am going to be going to the city of Osorno as a zone leader in the zone of Rahue, which is another part of Osorno, but I am really excited to be with my companion, he came to Chile with me and we have known each other the whole mission and have been friends the whole time, his name is Elder Smithson so it will be fun there with him.

Just to remind everyone, next Monday I will not be writing because we will be in a special conference, but will be on on Tuesday.

Take care everyone!

Love, Elder Nelson

 Our new Valentine ties from Elder Smithson's mom

 a signed picture for our mamita

 Elder Smithson 

D&C Countdown 138 sections - 138 days

February 3, 2014
Happy February everyone!

It is starting to look like the summertime here in southern Chile has already ended as it has been really cold here and very rainy all week. Today has been the coldest that it has been in a long time with having to wear a sweater and a jacket. I think it is going to be a very cold winter here but that's alright because I won't be here in the winter.

So, we have been super busy with teaching this week, we found a really great litttle family of four, but it is weird because they are basically the same age that I am, they are 21 and 20 (she was born in the same month that I was born) and have two daughters of 3 and 1 years, they are great, we are going to have to marry them because they aren't married but that hopefully won't be a problem, they have been reading the book of mormon and love the plan of salvation so it will be great to keep teaching them.

I did an intercambio this past week with an Elder from El Salvador, it was great, his name is Elder Quezada and I have known him for a long time as he is from the same group as me, that is one of the things that I love from the mission is getting to know so many people from all over the world. I have friends from Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela etc, it is awesome.

Well, we are still getting really excited and preparing for the visit of the Apostle Ballard in a couple weeks, it is going to be a great experience, we have been focusing alot on inviting people to go and to see him, the only problem is that it is a little away from puerto montt, about 30 minutes by bus outside in the town of Puerto Varas but it is going to be a great experience.

Well, I hope everyone is doing well, on Saturday I started a D&C countdown where I start with seccion 138 and read a section everyday going down haha, crazy how the time flies.

I hope all is well, I love you all.

Love, Elder Nelson

Buenos Dias mis queridos amigos & familiars!

Buenos dìas mis queridos amigos y familiars!

This has been a long and exhausting week. I feel that it has been one of those weeks that we have been busy almost every day with between 2-4 extra missionaries in our house.

On Tuesday, we had intercambios with the assistants to the President. I went with an Elder from Salt Lake named Elder Adams. My companion went with an Elder from Florida who is going to be playing linebacker at BYU when he gets off his mission named Elder Amone, he has a full ride to play at BYU and I was talking to him and he said he had scholarship offers from all of the big schools and was the number 15 linebacker from his class. That day ended up being very rainy and cold. I always knew that the sun can't last that long here.

On Wednesday, we had interviews with the president, so we had interviews all day long as ZL. We have to stay in the chapel the entire time and make sure that everyone is there and what not, so that was also a long, tiring day, and we also had some elders that were staying with us a couple days so it was just a lot of juice.

On Friday, we had to go to Osorno as there was a counsel of leaders of the mission. That was also an activity of the entire day, but it is cool because we are having a new program to be able to find all the inactive members in Chile where we have access to the names and directions of every Chilean that is registered to vote in all of Chile. That should be good as there are so many people here that are members and we don't know where they are.

On Saturday, I had a fun trip to the dentist as my permanent retainer broke so I had to go get that fixed, its crazy how cheap Chilean dentistry is.  $40 for the repair.

Well, we are getting ready as a mission for some very special guests, Elder M. Russell Ballard, President Ronald Rasband of the Presidency of the Seventy and Elder Walter F. Gonzalez who is the President of the area South America south.  I am so excited for that! We have a special stake conference the 16th of February and the 17th of February we have a special mission conference with them. I am really excited for that. That means that we will have our p-day Tuesday the 18th of February not the Monday so if I don't write, that is why.

Well, I hope that you are all having a wonderful week. Thanks so much for all your love and support.

Congratulations to Jacque on her wedding this Saturday!

Love, Elder Nelson

 Pichanga and Root beer floats. 

We found root beer at a store called JUMBO.  It's like a Walmart.

 A dog we found sleeping on his back.  He reminded me of when Oscar would sleep in a bed like a human with his head resting on a pillow.  Funny!

Far Left:  My companion, me and some elders from an intercambio

Rain and Sun

Dear Family,

This has been a really good week with some really weird weather, it has been around 27-30 degrees celcius all week which has been great but so hot.  Today it has been pouring rain all day which has been a little disheartening but it should go away. I guess it isn't southern Chile without a little (or should I say a lot) of rain! I am starting to get accustomed to the pattern of a couple weeks with a lot of sun, and rain for 3 days, and then in the winter time its the opposite with alot of rain and sun (but cold) every 2 weeks.
Well, this Martin Luther King Jr day, I will be doing the exact same thing that I did for Thanksgiving, Presidents day, Memorial day, Labor day and every other holiday that you guys get the day off. All of those holidays don't exist here. The only holidays they have are Christmas, Easter and days to worship all the saints and Maria. That's about it. And actually all those days are celebrated pretty much the same.

So this week, I did an intercambio with an Elder in another part of Puerto Montt, his name is Elder Crotzer, he is from New Mexico. I think this is the first time that I have ever met someone from New Mexico, but it was fun. It's crazy, he ends his mission in September of 2015, that sounds so far away. 

We will be super busy this week.  On Tuesday we have intercambios with the AP`s and on Wednesday we have interviews with President Rappleye.

Oh, another thing super awesome that we are really excited about is we are having a special stake conference on the 16th of February.  A special guest is coming from Salt Lake City to our stake conference here in the Puerto Montt Stake.  It is Elder M. Russell Ballard, it is so aweosme, and there is a chance that I will be singing in a special missionary choir for this event. I am pretty exctied for that and happy to be here in Puerto Montt for this time. 

Well, I hope that all are having a nice winter time, and enjoy MLK day.

Love, Elder Nelson

Dog Bites & Rabies Shots!

Hello family!  What an interesting week. I finally got to go back to Los Muermos this week which was a lot of fun. I got to see a bunch of people that I'd taught which was fun, and a lot of people were super happy to see me. It was great to see all of the people although I just barely left about 2 months ago.

This Friday, we had a counsel of Mission leaders, so we had to go to Osorno to the mission home and have a counsel with all of the zone leaders, sister training leaders and the AP´s and President Rappleye, it was a good counsel where I was able to learn a lot, and I also got to see a bunch of elders that I haven't seen for a long time which was really nice to see.

On Saturday, we went to visit a less active member and we were ouitside the fence yelling. My elbow was resting on the fence and a mean dog came at me and bit my elbow. It was rough because afterwards we had to go to the hospital because they found rabies in Chile and so the church has every missionary in Chile that gets bit by a dog has to get rabies shots. It wasn't too bad of a bite though it was bleeding a little bit and broke the skin which did hurt a little. Now I have to have a series of 5 rabies shots over the next month so that I dont get rabies haha, how sweet is that...

This week was nice, we have been finding so many people that we really feel have the possibility of progressing which is great including a handful of families which is always really nice. It's just hard for us to have them come to church becasue in the weekend we couldn't find them to remind them and then they didn't come so we are going to have to be working alot more with that.

It is very hot here. We have a day of rain about once a week but other than that it is just hot, hot and more hot. I think it only feels so hot because we are out in the sun all day and our sector is just pure hills. But it is nice and I definitely prefer the heat over the cold which we´ll be having in about a month.

Well, I hope that all is well with everyone back home. Stay warm and enjoy the snow.

Love, Elder Nelson