27 March 17

So we had changes in the zone! And I will tell you what i told my day last Monday. God hears and answers prayer! Meaning was very happy with this change hahah but here’s the crazy part. My new comp is from my first zone when I started my mission. Elder Market. I know what you are all thinking, Elder Market…. but that is what his names is in English. Crazy right?   But when we got everyone for this zone everyone was here and set to go. I was helping people with their bags and all that. But my comp was nowhere in sit. So I walked over and asked the zone leaders where he was and they said that he was on his way he just had to go to immigration with his other comp. But this was at 11:30 am. I received him at 5:00pm, It was another pday for me haha

 

So we had a slow day on Wednesday. We didn’t have one lesson... But we are just getting used to working with the new comp. But we had plans to visit the ward mission leader. We have be voluntold to sing on Sunday in front of the whole ward. When we got to his house I told him, you know I don’t sing in English, let alone Spanish hahah. But he’s making us do it anyways haha. So we went to visit one family that always gives us food. But they said that they were talking with my mom on Facebook and they got everything that i love to eat. So we had tacos! The mom said we have a son in the mission right now and we know how your family feels so we want to help the missionaries anyway we can. It’s kind of cool that they can talk to my mom and dad all the way here in Guatemala haha 

So i love it when people lie to us at the doors. When i seen the person in the house and then they say that they aren’t home. Really gets to me. But we just need to keep looking for people who are ready. So we found we received this one reference from a member the other day. She has a daughter who is less active and the son in law is not a member and the mom wants us to teach him and baptize him. It’s interesting because the missionaries taught him before and he said that he felt really good when they talked. As well he said that his life had a changes when the missionaries were visiting him. A change for the better. So little by little we will try and help him come into the church. 

 

So we had inspections here the other day. Don’t worry we passed with flying colors! But the Sr. missionaries are really awesome. Their name is the Oylers. They are from Utah and they are really good with all of us. They are pretty much our grandparents in the mission. It’s awesome after we have an inspection because they always have jolly ranchers for us. Some days I’ve been really craving jolly ranchers so it awesome to get some from the haha 

 

So we found some one that looks really good for the church. His name is Francisco. He is living with a less active family and he wants to know what the correct church is. So we have invited him to come to church and all that just need to see if he will come or not haha. We had a fire side at the church this week. It was for a returned sister missionary. We didn’t stay to long because we felt like we needed to be working. So we stayed for a couple of mins then took off. So a little bit about my Spanish. One person asked me the other day, elder how much time you have in the mission.   I responded and asked how long do you think I have they then told me just over a year. Well when I told them that I had 5 months they couldn’t believe it because my Spanish was so good. I was very surprised to hear someone say that about my Spanish aha 

 

So we Funny story about Sunday. We had to plan for a lesson to the whole ward. The thing was we had two weeks to work on this but we had been planning for our investigators and other things for the weeks. So let’s just say we had nothing for this on Sunday haha. I asked my comp in sacrament, hey what we are going to teach. He said I don’t we will think of something. So we planned on the fly and it wasn’t too bad. But the other was we had to sing in front of them as well before we taught. I told the ward mission leader. Hey you know I don’t sing in English, what do you think I can sing in a language that I don’t know haha. So it was a very interesting Sunday. 

 

So this week has been really crazy. Got a new comp and we are working a lot more with the members. Thanks for everything that you all do for me. Thank you for your love and support! 

20 March 2017

Hey everyone! Well First off I would like to say that the weeks are going by really fast now. When I was in the MTC weeks felt like days and days felt like weeks. But now it seems like pday ends and then its Thursday and we are doing our weekly plan. Crazy how time fly’s in a mission. 

So yes as you know our dates for baptisms all fell... One because the guy never showed up and the other because they can’t get married... It’s been rough to see both those fall through but we look forward with what’s in front of us and grab life by the ropes and go for it! So we have 2 new investigators we got on Wednesday. It’s a dad and his daughter. They were taught by the missionaries about 5 years ago and I was very surprised to see how much they knew about everything. He asked us about the book of Mormon and he told us that he has one that he has read. When he said this his wife wasn’t very happy because she’s super catholic. But he said he liked it. He told how it’s written from prophets here in America. So we put a fecha with them so we will see now if they come to church. 

 

I’m not going to lie I’ve been really sick this past week. My stomach hasn’t gotten used to the food yet haha. I was talking with our district leader one day and he said. Don’t worry it doesn’t get better. You’ll always be sick on the mission haha. I was like, wow thanks for that man haha. Our district leader is really awesome. Too bad he’s from Utah haha 

So we did some searching for Elias the past week. Because it was like he fell of the face of the earth. Super weird to not see him. But on Thursday we finally found him! He told us that he had to go see his Aunt who is every sick and just got back the other day. He felt really bad that he never told us that he was out of town. But we told him it was no problem. So more important is that we set up for him to be baptized on the 18the of March now. Let’s hope nothing bad happens this time.. 

 

So we have been asked to have two family home evenings this week. We had one with a super awesome family. We gave a message about families. It went really good. After words we played a game with them all. We played the one from minute to win it with the Oreos. We had them all laughing and going nuts with this game. Not meaning to brag but I’m almost a pro with this game. haha 

I think I found what{s making me sick. I think that its chow main. The reason for that is that i ate it last week and I felt sick. And we had it at the member’s house for the family home evening. And i felt so sick after... But I’m still alive!!

 

So we keep finding new people which is really good. We found two people the other day. A girl and her Aunt. We taught all of lesson one with them. They understood a lot and they really enjoyed our lesson. But the thing about the aunt was it seemed liked she couldn’t use her lags. But she was the happiest old lady I’ve met of my mission) she’s like 78 years old. We have been contacting a lot this past week. I was able to get 20 contacts in one day. It’s crazy to get a number like that. This is good for two things. One we get to find new people and see if people are interested in the church, two I can practice one on one talk with a person in Spanish so my Spanish is improving little by little.

 

It’s been an interesting change with this comp let me tell you. We never see eye to eye. He only wants to help the people that he contacts and he talks to. I say hey compa lets go visit this family when we are here and he goes. Nah its best that we don’t. But we will walk from one part of the area to the other to visit his contacts. This totally takes away from the meaning of one team) that’s one of our hashtags. We work or are asked to work as one team or one family. But he is very prideful and selfish. I asked him the other day. Do you put yourself before people or do you put people before you? He turned and said its better if I’m before everyone else in my life. This ticked me off. It’s been hard to be the bigger person but little by little.

 

So on Sunday we went by for my comp to say by to some of the members because we didn’t know if we had changes or not. So we went to one family who we are trying to reactivate for lunch. They told us, Elders come over at 1:30 for lunch with the family. We aren’t going to turn away food. So we went and we walked into the house and there as all this stuff for a birthday. Balloons, banners, streamers. So I asked whose birthday it was. The dad turned to us and said its mine today. We kind of crashed his birthday hahah but they are one awesome family so it was okay. After we went up to visit one family that always has pizza for us. But it was funny on Sunday night. We walked into the house and the mom said Elders we just ordered Dominos for you. You need to understand that we just sat down when they said this too. They tell us every Sunday. Elders, anytime you want to come up and eat the house is here for you. So that was awesome! We then went to the bishop’s house to see how his family is. The bishop here is very young. He has two young kids that are really funny. So we went to visit them and the one kid came out with a mini soccer table to play. We had some good laughs with the kid’s haha. The bishop here is really funny and awesome but he’s no Bishop Prince hahah 

13 MARCH 17

So we have been working really hard here in Ecinmoica. Last week we had 86 Contacts. As well 28 lessons. So it was a good week for work. Now we just need to get them to be investigators and we can get them progressing. So it’s for sure that we will have the baptism on the 11 of March. He has everything, he is ready for everything in the church. So we are really happy about that. It will be the first baptism in the zone for this month! 

 

So in a mission we have ups and downs. It seems like you go 1 step forward and 2 steps back. For example Sara the other investigator that we have has date to be baptized on the 18the of March. We have everything good for that the family is all good with it the church is ready to help. But remember that this was the investigator that is getting married as well. So that’s all good to go and all that. The only thing is that the wedding will cast Q300! Which we don’t have... So we are going to see what will happen. 

 

So everything was going good with our one investigator Elias. The interview was planned and the date for the baptism was planned. The only bad thing that happened was his wife came out are went off at us about how he’s a bad man and his sick in the head and he’s crazy and all that but we have never seen that. As well he told us that he did some bad things in his life and he told us he repented about it all. So we had an interesting day with that. 

 

So our investigator Sara is super awesome. She wants to learn a lot about the church and everything we do and she is really excited for the baptism. I really want to baptize her but my comp told me, No I want to do the baptism for her. You can do the other one. He told me straight up no. I know he’s selfish and all that but i never thought it would be this bad. Oh well I know I’ll be with him for another change. Like my old man said if you love your comp you will only be there with them for one change. But if you hate your comp you will be stuck with him for 3 changes. So we’ll see what will happen. 

 

So everything went good with the interview for Elias on Thursday! Which means he will be baptized on the 11 of March. We have everything set in place for that! Our district leader is funny because he said okay we need to do this perfectly because we only have one form. But he messed up on the form so we will just fill one out on the day of the baptism. 

 

We got some sad news on Friday. We are working with bring this member back to church and as well baptize his wife. It was all really good. She was taking the lessons well. She was understanding everything. She was ready and she wanted to be baptized as well. But the kicker was we had to get them married. We had everything set up, the church was going to help with the Q300 to cover the wedding. That was all looking good. But when they got their papers back for the marriage and it’s said on the husbands that he was already married and is still married. He thought the divorce papers went through but they didn’t. So now if he wants to get married he has to be divorced first. But the kicker there is it will take 2 months at the least for the papers to go through. As well it cost Q4000!! And I know we don’t have Q4000. It was hard when we told her she can’t be baptized yet... She started to cry when we told her. As well the husband started to cry as well. He said that he’s sad that he can’t have his family be eternal yet... it was really hard.

 

So we were going to have a baptism on the 11the of March. On that day everything was good. We had water) because sometimes we don’t have water. We had clothes for the baptism. We had members and investigators to come. Everything was perfect. But our investigator Elias who was going to get baptized didn’t show up.  HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN? When you have everything and you pass the interview.  But I decided to go back and remember the lessons with him. And he never had a problem with anything, he read, He came to church. He was ready for everything. But then I said maybe this was one of those too good to be true moments. Like this was supposed to be the problem with this investigator. I was really mad and really upset but then I remembered one scripture in Alma 26:27. It reads Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said go amongst thy brethren, the laminates, and bear with Patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

 

You learn a lot on a mission but most important you learn patience through hard times. Because there’s a lot of hard things in a mission but we just have to keep moving forward with patience. 

 

Love Elder Nelson

​Here’s one guy from our zone Elder Campos. He’s from Chili. He’s pretty crazy but he’s awesome haha 

06 March 2017

So we have been playing games with the Zone almost every p-day. And the game we play is Mafia. It gets really crazy when people start yelling in Spanish haha. We have one member in our zone and he is dying the change. He’s always really chill but during the game he gets really into. He sits there and it’s like he’s the guy from lie to me where he reads people. So we always have a good laugh about that.

 

So we had some problems with the comp. We knocked a door and you need to know my comp is afraid of dogs. So we knocked the door and this dog started to bark and go nuts. And my comp started to run. So I grabbed him by the tie and pulled him back to the door. You need to understand that I have told mys you hear a dog because if he see you then he will run after you and think you are playing. So i grabbed him by the tie and pulled him back. After he got ticked and I told him that he shouldn’t run. Always interesting with him. So we always buy food for our house at night I usually buy 3 eggs for breakfast in the morning. But anyways I was still buying things and my comp left me and started walking home. I finally caught up ripped him a new one that night.

 

So we are teaching this one family that’s super awesome. They believe the book of Mormon is true they believe Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. And that this is the true church. Sounds like the perfect investigator right_ well not everyone is perfect and what I mean by that is we said Okay that’s awesome that you know these things for yourself. So will you come to church and understand more about this church?  She turned to us and said no I don’t think I need to because every church teaches the word of God and every church is the same. So I’m going to read the Book of Mormon still but our family will continue to go to the church here. This is where we have to back track and teach lesson one over again and tell them that there was only one true church here on earth and that its now back on the earth for all of us. Little by little with everyone. So remember that crazy guy with the bad drink. Well he is one of best investigators still and looks like we will baptize him here on the 11 of March. But even he has problems. We talked to his wife today and she said that he has 2 personality’s... I don’t know if that means anything for the church or what but I’m worried that we won’t be able to help. I don’t know we will see what or district leader says about all this. Oh yeah we might be helping people get married as well in the coming weeks. And I know what you’re thinking. That’s not what missionary’s do. They help people be baptized not married. But when you have an investigator that wants to be baptized but isn’t married you have to help them with this as well. So we will see what happens in the coming week’s haha.

 

So we went to see our crazy investigator who we don’t know if he has a drinking problem or actually has 2 personalities. But we decided to see for ourselves. So we talked about the word of wisdom and he has no problem with nothing and all is good here. He said he wants to follow the way of the Lord so he said he wants to do everything he can. As well he said he wants to take the sacrament every Sunday with us. This is super good! So remember the one family where the husband is less active and the wife isn’t a member.   And she thought we are apostles.  Well she always has some crazy question for us when we visit. For example she read a part of Moroni where it talks about the gift of tongues. And she said Elder Nelson does that mean you have the gift of tongues because you have little time here in Guatemala and you speak good Spanish.  So you have received the gift of tongues.  And I didn’t want to be like Yup you know it. I was like well yes I believe I have received that from our father to help me in the mission. As well there is a lot of studying with that as well. It’s always fun with that family. We have a date for them to be married and for her to be baptized all in the same day! That’s going to be one crazy day! 

 

So we had a divisions with the district leader the other day and let me just say the best part of that day. We got pizza hut after all was said and done. So that was awesome! But after we ended divisions came back to this area to work again. Our investigator Elias has a date to be baptized on the 11 of March. He is super awesome and he loves everything about the church. He said that he wanted to go out and teach people this as well! How awesome is that.  So I’m really happy we have a date for him to come into the church. As well our investigator Sara who is going to be married to her husband who is less active and be baptized on the same day is super good! She always has questions about the church and everything we teach. They have a really big heart for the elders as well. They love us. We were talking to them Saturday night and she asked, So after these lessons are over will you continue to visit us_ They really like having us over. As well she asked about the changes that we will get and asked if she would ever see us again. We said it’s possible when they go to the temple together. That’s what is awesome about this mission. If we have converts we can go with them to the temple no matter where we are in the mission. It was great to hear that they want us there for that day. They are huge blessing for the mission and this area. Not only for their love and the want to know more. But as well they always have food for us Hahaha 

 

So we have a baptism this weekend for Elias. We have everything set up, an interview and the bishop has everything for us to be set up as well. So it’s really good. We are really excited with this and all that. We have been really working hard with both Elias and Sara.  Sara is the investigator that always gives us food.   We have the date for her and her husband to be married and for her to be baptized right after. Super excited for that as well. Life is getting a bit better here in the mission. Just need to get to work and good will come. 

 

So Monday we have a family home evening planned with the family that always has root beer for us. And when we were in church she told us, Elders anytime you want pizza or something just call us. This is when we planned for a family home evening. She asked after Elder Nelson Would you like pizza and more root beer as well?   I was so happy and was like a little kid, Yes Please haha.

 

Hope all is well for everyone and you aren’t to cold back home Haha life is good because we keep moving forward. Thank you for all your love and support!! Love you all!


Elder Nelson

 

 

So I have been thinking a lot about the last package I got. I loved everything I got from the package from my family and Kiana’s family. But I only ask for one thing. If you plan to send another package I ask to have some hand written letters from everyone. I love the candy and peanut butter and everything I get but I’ve seen people get hand written letters and they are always really happy. I don’t want to sound like you have to do that it’s just an idea if you plan another package haha.