Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day!

Wow, this was a really long day and that explains the reason that I am writing so late.

This week we have been busy like always. I did a couple of intercambios this week, one with my ex companion Elder Dunn and the other with an elder that lives in the house named Elder Muiba. He is from Bolivia, they were both good. I think that is one of my favorite parts about being a zone leader are all of the intercambios that we do.

This week has been very cold. Some of the coldest days of the year so far but luckily without rain. It's a bittersweet thing because when it rains it is a little warmer. We have been lucky to have the privilege of a nice fire that keeps us warm at night time and almost everyone has a nice fire.

We had a good P-day today. We went on a trip to a city called Entre Lagos. The Mamita there is the mother of our Mamita so we went and ate lunch there with her.  It is gorgeous place with a big lake right there and lots of beautiful scenery. There was road construction so we ended up getting back a little later than expected and I am exhausted after a long day and we still have some work to do.

We are staying busy, and I am just trying to stay focused and everything,  just still a little anxious for everything.

I hope all is well.

Love, Jentry

See you in a month!!

Dear Family,

Now starts the one month left countdown- it is incredible to think my two years are almost done.

This past week has been very cold and rainy but luckily we have a nice fire in the house and that keeps us pretty warm and dry which is a big blessing, We are getting into the winter time, but it is almost nicer when it rains because then it isn't so cold. When there's rain, it is a little warmer. Everyday now I have thermals and my rain pants in my backpack because it can rain at any moment!

I did an intercambio this week with an elder who is in his 2nd week in the mission, from Orange County, California. It was once again weird to be with someone who has so little time in the mission, but it helps me to be motivated and to still be a good leader and to set a good example for him which is important as he is so young in the mission. The intercambio reminded me of my first zone leader who ended his mission when I ended my first cambio and that is how I will be.

It was a good sacrament meeting. My companion and I did a duet. He played the flute and I played the piano.  We did a hymn medley of Amazing Grace, As Now I Take the Sacrament and  How Great Thou Art.  Everyone absolutely loved it! Many people told us that it was the best sacrament meeting that they had been to because it was so different. It  has been nice to share my musical talents here in Chile.

We had a good week with less active members. We have been visiting a less active sister who went to church for the first time in about twenty-five years and loved church.  We also helped two other families to go to church for the first time in many years so that made it a good week. We are working hard and enjoying this last time.

Thanks for everything! Sorry the letters are getting shorter but that is going to make it so I have more to tell you in a month!

Love, Elder Nelson

Last Cambios and new companion

Hello Family!

Well, it was good to be able to talk to my family, only it made me a little trunky thinking about the short time left.

I was able to catch up a lot with my family of the things that are going on with me so not a lot of new there. This past week we started our new cambios. I was all day in the bus terminal as we had to be there to welcome in all of the new missionaries, and then we went to a farewell party for all of the missionaries that are ending their missions. It was weird to see, but this was my last time in the terminal all day!

This cambio has been going great, I am now with a Chilean named Elder Thomas. He is a little bit younger in the mission which is good for me and I am excited because in the zone is the elder I trained Elder McDonald, another ex-companion Elder Dunn and also Elder Fastidio from Grants Pass! A lot of missionaries that have known me for a really long time.

We also had a zone leaders counsel which was good because we were just talking about all of the rules and changing some of them because President Rappleye wants a good change when he goes home and doesn't want people taking advantage of the new mission president.

Another busy week but I am enjoying it. It has been rainy all day long today but at least I am warm at night and that is the important thing for me-haha. I am just getting good at making a fire, that's for sure.

Well, I hope all is well with everyone!  The next time we talk will be face to face in person.

Love, Elder Nelson

See you next month!

May 5, 2014

Well family, I can't believe how another cambio has come and gone and now I am left with my very last one.

The weather has been really rainy this week but luckily today has been a great weather day, where I haven't needed a jacket but most other days I have been needing my big coat and thermals the entire day.

On Wednesday we had a talent show. We did it on Wednesday because there wasn't work or school on  Thursday and it was really nice. A lot of people ended up coming out and had a lot of participation from the member. We in the missionary work did the routine of a missionary using the midget man skit, Elder Wood was the head, me the hands and Elder Peterson the feet, it turned out really good and everyone enjoyed it. There was a couple of other fun create acts that people did as well.

This week was hard on the teaching side of things because everyone went on vacations out of town and so we had a lot of appointments fall but it ended up being a good week in the end as we had 4 investigators in church which was really good.

On Saturday we received the cambios and it looks like i am going to be ending my mission here in Rahue Bajo which i am really excited for. A Chilean named Elder Thomas is going to come in and be my companion. It is going to be crazy to think about going into my last cambio but it will be great.

I had a cool experience today, we were in a supermarket Jumbo which is almost like Wal-mart and a guy says: "Hi elder!" in English so we start talking. He is a Chilean that lives in Nebraska and is a professor at the university of Nebraska. He teaches political science. We were talking a good bit and we talked about Utah because he went there one time and wanted to go to temple square but wasn't able to. I got his number and email and told him when I get back to the states, if he comes to Utah, I will take him on a tour of temple square. He was a really nice guy.

Well, I am planning on calling at 6:30 Chilean time on Sunday which will be about 4:30 Utah time or 3:30 California time. I don't know the address that i will be using but do have a member and will see if they can get it set up before Sunday. I am excited to talk to everyone on Sunday.

I love you all!

Love Elder Nelson

PS. See  you all next month (I can say that now haha)

May Day! 2014

Happy May Day everyone!
It is amazing how fast April went! I can't even believe it!

This week was a extremely fast week as we were just constantly running the entire week, and I think that this coming week will be the same.

Well, in the whole week, we had 3 intercambios, including one with the AP`s. I went with Elder Amone again (the BYU linebacker) it was cool. We had a good day but also had to cut it short because we had a meeting with the stake president. I also did an intercambio with my MTC companion Elder Wood who is living with us right now and then another intercambio with an elder from Tremonton, UT. Just busy busy busy.

Good news! we had a baptism this weekend! It was little girl named Sofia. It was nice. Her uncle was the one who baptized her and it was a good service I had the missionaries do a special musical number: A Child's Prayer, which turned out nice although my companion vowed to never sing again.

This week, we are going to have a talent show for a ward activity, so there should be some pictures of that next week. We are still trying to think of some talent that we could do as the missionary work here in the ward, but I am sure that we can have it done.

This week, we are going to be having a zone leaders counsel which are always good and we always get to see old friends that we don't see very much which is nice.

Also the weather sure is starting to get cold, its crisp fall weather here right now and it's weird knowing I am going to go into summer soon.

I hope all is well,

Love, Elder Nelson

 Sophia's baptism by her uncle

 A wedding of an investigator...yes, we had to wear white ties

Working at the Red Cross & my last interview

Dear Family and Friends,

This was a very hectic week with a lot of doing other things other than proselyting, but it is nice because we are going to be having a surprise baptism this week of a little girl who is family with some members.

We have been helping a lot with the Red Cross of Chile, because they have been having a lot of fires in the area of Valparaiso (a city in Jaren's mission). They asked for some missionaries to go over and help load up a semi of food and other materials. It was great and they were really appreciative.. One of the missionaries actually got on the cover of the local Osorno newspaper. It was really cool and a lot of people really looked at it so if you have time look up the Austral from Osorno, and it was the paper on Wednesday the 15th. The only downside is that there were a lot of young high school girls that kept coming and trying to flirt with all of the gringos haha. We just answer their questions and then walk away. On Wednesday, we went and helped again in front of the supermarket taking donations, but it was stupid because the managers of the supermarket wanted us to take off our name plaques because we were supposed to be there with Red Cross but we told them that the plaque isnt coming off so they got mad. oh well, we were still serving them.

On Thursday, we were having to go to a little town called Purranque to do some baptismal interviews for a women and her son.  The women is going to get married and baptized this week and they both passed the baptismal interview, but it ended up taking a good portion of our day. Afterwards we had choir practice as we were the bass section in the stake choir for the stake Easter concert, it turned out to be really nice and a lot of people came. There are some really talented people in our stake who did solos and duets. 

On Saturday, we had interviews with President Rappleye. It is the last interview before my going home interview. He just took the time to talk to me about finishing strong and sprinting to the finish which I am trying to do. He started my interview with the statement "Wow, you are about done huh?!", fun fun.

We also have been teaching a little girl who is family of some members and it looks like we will be having a baptism on Saturday. It should be a nice week, very busy but capped off with a baptism.

Well, I hope that everyone has a great week.

Love, Elder Nelson

 service project

 cow & calf statues in Osorno

 

Singing in the Stake Choir of Rahue

April 14, 2014

Happy Easter everyone, this was a really good week.

Well, I got drafted into the stake choir so this week we have been doing a lot of rehearsals because there is going to be a big stake choir concert on Friday. I am one of the basses and probably one of two that knows anything about singing.  Its funny because I thought  sang badly but the lady called me to be the bass part in a quartet, so that is a lot of fun, but its not easy, they actually have kicked a couple people out of the choir for not singing very good, its hard work being in the official Stake choir of Rahue.

Well, the time came for my companion to receive his carta Moroni which is a letter that asks us to give the name of the airport etc, basically the letter that says that the time in the mission is coming to an end so get ready. I worked with the secretary of the mission to get it laminated and put it in jello which is funny because he saw about everything but had no idea, we then brought the jello to a zone meeting that we had, it was one of the better ways to give a carta Moroni.

We are doing so good in the zone right now, we have been increasing alot in about every single number including baptisms which is awesome right now, we have been doing a lot of intercambios. I did one with an Elder Mendoza from Trujillo, Peru, and another one with Elder Perkins from Las Vegas. I have been in the mission about seven times as long as those two elders combined. One has a month and the other has about 3 months. I thought it was funny because Elder Mendoza ends his mission in March of 2016. I am hoping to be married by the time he comes home!

So a funny and gross story. Yesterday was the final of the Chilean national soccer championship and the local favorite Colo-Colo won, so everybody was in the street drinking and partying, we were going down a hill back to our sector on the side of a busy street. There was a guy about 20 feet in front of us who was semi drunk, and to make it known we are very used to people just peeing on the side of roads etc, that is very common, but this man went out to the side of the road about 20 feet in front of us and drops his pants and starts having diarrhea  right in front of us, and then he fell in it!!! It was probably the grossest thing that I have seen in my mission!!!

Well, it looks like in the next couple of weeks we should be having some baptisms here in our sector, which is great because we have been working really hard with a lot of people. I hope that we can start seeing our fruits.

We are just getting ready for the holy week here in a primarily dominant catholic country. I am so blessed that we believe in a living Christ, everybody should go and watch the video on the page easter.mormon.org  it is such a great video and really helps us to keep in mind the importance of this special time of the year that we are celebrating. We need to remember the words "He is not here, for He has risen" Lets remember it and share this message with everyone.

I love you all and hope that you have a great Easter.

Love Elder Nelson

Carta de Moroni delivered in Jell-o

The bass section of the Rahue Stake Choir