30 January 2017

Hey everyone,

Life is good here in Catocha! Things have slowed down with our investigators this last week. We are still trying to work with them to make them understand more.

So we will start this off with a good story. My comp and I where walking to go meet up with a contact when a guy yelled, Elders! Come Here! So we walked over to say hi and talk with him. He asked where we were from and how long we have had in the mission. After all of this he told us that he loves the missionary’s because we are nice to him and always talk with him. So after about 5 mins of talking he said, do you elders like pizza. Of course I said yes. So he took us up to his restaurant and gave us a free pizza to try. He told us it’s the best pizza in Catocha and it wasn’t too bad.

So something I have learned on my mission in the little time I have is that I need to have patience with everyone! My comp, other elders, and members. Be thankful that we live where the bishop or branch president want to help everyone. It’s been hard to work with some members of the church here and the branch presidents.   But we need to love everyone! Hope all is well and people are loving life.

 

Love

Elder Nelson

January 23, 2017

Hello everyone in Canada! Hope all is well and you are all doing good. So we had a crazy week this past week. Lets start with basketball in Catocha. We decided to take a break and shoot hoops one day.  Then we played a game with some of the people there so it wasn’t really a break because we contacted them all. They ask me every time we see them when can we play again haha.  So we went to watch one of the members play basketball for their team one night and as always during half time people go shoot around.  I went up and shot around for a bit and then after a kid came up to me with a paper and asked for me to be on there team hahah I had to tell him no but I wanted to so bad haha.

So in other news I had my first baptism last Saturday! I was able to do the baptism. But that wasn’t the plan haha. We were going to have the grandpa do it because he is a member. But he needed an interview beforehand, and you can all guess what happened if I was the one who performed the baptism.  So my companion told me, hey you have to go get changed. At first I thought he was joking around but then he looked at one missionary that is from Idaho and said tell him in English. The missionary looked at me and was like it’s not a joke. So that was really fun. It was super awesome to have a baptism in my first area.

So lets talk about food for a second hahaha.  We went to a member’s house yesterday and we had lunch. The mom said that she was going to cook this meat for us but I didn’t hear it totally so we went to the house and can you guess what it was.... Dog! That’s right it was dog meat! The correct name for it was little dog. And they didn’t just give me one piece, they gave me 3 pieces!! It was a crazy week here in Catocha haha.

Hope you are all doing well in the cold it was +35 yesterday hahaha loving everything and life is good.

Love you all 

Elder Nelson

Jordan's first baptism in Catocha, Guatemala 

Getting ready to perform his first baptism in Catocha

January 16, 2017

Jordan's letter this week...no pictures tho :( Maybe next week

So we didn’t have our baptism this past week... We couldn’t have the interview. But we had the interview last week and now we have a baptism this weekend! Super happy about that. 

So about our week. Nothing really new has happened in Catocha. We have been trying to find new people to teach but it’s hard. I’m the kind of person that’s like, Okay let’s get this done let’s get teaching people lets go here, or lets go there. I don’t like to be doing nothing. But my comp is very lazy when it comes to work. We came home from church yesterday and he was like I’m too sick to go work so he went and laid down but I told him after 1 hour okay lets go to work. I feel like I’m really more of the senior comp at this point. He makes me laugh because yesterday after we taught 2 lessons he had to go sit down because his foot was hurting him and said he can’t play sports today. But as soon as we woke up he’s like okay let’s go we need to get ready for sports. So maybe he just likes sports more than work HAHA. Some good news as well is that we had 6 investigators at church. We got the most in the whole zone and then the guys in our district had 5 at church so we were the best district for investigators at church. 

Well we only have 2 more weeks in this change and I might get a new comp or I might be put in a new area who knows. Hope all is well in Canada! 

Love you all
Elder Nelson

December 12, 2016

So let’s start this email with what I did last Tuesday. We had the meeting for all the new missionary’s. It was super good and I learned a lot from it. The only bad thing was we had to wake up at 2 in the morning and catch bus. So that was a fun way to start haha. So during the week we were teaching one investigator who told us that she had a dream that we baptized her in the river in the town we live in. Kind of weird to hear she had a dream about it. So we wanted to know for sure what her answer was. So we went back the next day and she had moved. So that one didn’t work out very well. But we have to keep moving forward. We were contacting one guy and he was a little crazy. He kept going on about heaven and hell and all that. I believe he had a little to drink beforehand. So back to Tuesday I got the package from my family. There was one problem. There is another elder nelson in the mission who got a package the same day... So we had to open everything that wasn’t wrapped. It was good because some stuff had Elder J Nelson on it but the other elder is also Elder J Nelson. So thanks for all the stuff I received haha my comp and i really like the guns haha. Anyway nothing really new happens. Getting close to Christmas. So I can skype my family soon. Hope everyone is well. Love you all

Love Elder Nelson

New missionaries and trainers and the AP's

 AP, the mission president, and his trainer companion

*AP is Assistant to the president 

December 05, 2016

Hello to all In Canada!!!

Well I will tell everyone that Spanish has been super hard for me this past week. My comp said to me its weird to see me say words correctly, as well I can understand most. But I cant read anything right... So this has been super rough for me this past week. As for my hitch hiker I am happy to say that its gone and im feeling 100 times better. 

So we were teaching this one family and they are doing some good work I believe. They are coming out to everything and the come to church all the time. So anyways last night we were teaching and the guy just gets up and brings over this contaner and pulls out a snake. At it was weird because we have been teaching this family for awhile now and we have walked past the snake all the time. Crazy haha. 

So I keep forgeting to tell people that we have to do P90X every morning... Some days I cant sit down.. its good for me tho. Its weird to know that its December and there is no snow. Everyone down here is getting ready for Christmas. Its funny all the music for christmas is in english. Hope everyone is doing well in the cold and everyone is excited for Navidad!!

Love you all take care
Elder Nelson

Jordan and his companion Elder Mondoza

The snake they have sat by for the last 2 weeks without knowing

Playing soccer with the zone leaders in the next town.

November 28, 2016

Jordan's letter today

Well lets get the bad news out of the way first... The past 3 days Ive been really sick.. yes i did get a hitch hiker in my stomach.. dont worry its not harmful to my body it just makes me really sick. But thats the only really bad thing that has happened so far in the mission. Yeah I know life gets tough but when I teach a lesson in my broken spanish and see the peoples face light up and understand, Then I remember why i am here. Yeah life here in a mission something is always happeneing. Last Wed, We had our first splits, so I had to lead one of my zone leaders through my area teaching and tracking... It was funny at the start because he looked at me and asked,Do you know where you are going. I responed, I think so haha. He was a good sport about it all and very understanding beacuse i didnt know the area that well. I want everyone to be greatful for running water because me and my Comp (he is from Panama) didnt have water for a couple of days.. Once again its the mission life. I have had many people ask me about Trump and i just respond by saying Its not important to me because im from canada. Also tons of people just stare at me and they dont smile until i smile and say Hola orsomething to them. I would like to share a scrpiture with everyone, its Alma 8:19 It talks about when alma went to a city to teach and he asked a man for food. Why do i share this scripture this week? Its because my comp used it last night at a members house when we were hungrey. Super funny. Love life here in Catocha, Yes its hard and difficult but i know i can do it. hope everyone is doing well. Love everyone and miss you all.

PS One rule we have in the mission is we are not aloud to drink coke.... You can all guess how hard this is for me haha 

Love Elder Nelson

One of Jordan's teachers in the CCM (MTC)

Jordan with his district in the CCM

Where he is going to serve for the next 2 years

November 09, 2016

Here is Jordan's letter this week....I guess not much changes. But it will be soon...

Elder Owen just read to me that the cubs won the World Series which is very exciting. I could only think about papa in heaven jumping up and down with joy seeing his cubbies win hahaha. my Spanish has been improving a lot i believe my teachers say that’s it is amazing how far I have come since day one. Sorry to hear about Syds team... Just have here remember that I lost in every eks as well until my grade 12 year. Hope everything is well back home. And as for walking around ... it never happens haha we usually all go to a room and just chat it up hahaha. This mtc has been great but the mission field is where the magic happens.

Well to be honest it’s really hard to write anything new that i haven’t already said. Foods great, Spanish is hard, the district is awesome. I can finally say that I have been way better at Spanish and that I now can do a whole lesson without notes and I can read my Book of Mormon in Spanish like a Latino haha. I am almost able to understand everyone that speaks to me which is very good. Basketball hasn’t changed I do hold the 3 point title in my zone with 6/10. The Canadian has game haha. And Elder Owen are going to try and stay in touch during our missions and then hopefully meet up after its all said and done in two years Sorry that there is nothing new and exciting here on this email to everyone but when you sit in a classroom for 16 hours a day nothing really does change. I hope everyone is enjoying the great white north. I miss everyone back home and wish you all to be safe.

Love,
Elder Nelson