26 June 2017

Hey there everyone. So I want to start this email off about what happened last pday. We decided to play soccer with some members and investigators. We played for a good time then they said next goal wins. And guys who got the game winner? That’s right the white kid that can’t play soccer hahah. It was a good pday to be honest but I’m really getting tired of playing soccer every week. What can you do though when this is the main sport here in Guatemala haha. So after our pday was over we went to see some recent converts. Once we got to their house we found them painting a room. We asked them if they wanted help so we did some service for them. But let me tell you I could hear Grandpa Jim in the back of my head as I seen this member paint this room. I could only imagen Jim down here seeing all the crazy things people do for work. 

 

So we have this one investigator that is really good he wants to learn and understand but has really weird questions. Like really weird. He asked us the other day about the Mormon party. The reason why is because he has a friend that is a member and he showed a video of him at an YSA dance I believe. So he asked what do we do, what do we drink like is it alcohol or something else. So we talked about the word of wisdom and the law of Chasity. But let me tell you this guy doesn’t care what he says haha he just says anything he wants and it’s very blunt... to be 100% honest I don’t know if it was a good lesson or a bad lesson. He is a good guy but man is he crazy haha.

 

So we had a lesson with someone who we contacted. We started to talk about how the church blesses families through their hard times. And it was the first time that I had a person cry when I was teaching. It was really good to see because I think she was feeling the spirit and that she was really understanding it. She then asked a bunch of questions about the church and how she could understand the message and know that it’s true. It was really good to see that see wanted to know more. 

 

So we had the last multi zone conference this week with President Caffaro. And with just 5 mins in we were all crying. We gave president a football that was all signed by all of the missionaries. He was a couch for BYU American football. And when we passed the ball to him, He started to cry. It was a good moment for us all because he said out of all the teams he coached. This team was the best. Then we sang the hymn the army of Helamen. It was a very emotional conference. After it was all said and done they gave us a like gift with a photo of the whole mission as well as a book mark that had all the teachings on it for us. And let me tell you I was doing well without crying until we got to say bye to them. I thanked them both for everything that they did for us. Then Sister Caffaro talked to me and then she made me cry. She said how happy she was to see that I have been here in the mission sticking out in the hard times. She told me this and it made me cry to be honest hahaha I know Elder Nelson does have feelings just sometimes he doesn’t like to show them haha or talk about them haha 

 

So things are start to get slow again. The area seems to be going up then down really fast. I don’t know what we are doing wrong, we are working and doing the right things I think. But I don’t know what is happening with this area. I love the people here that is one thing. But fech is it hard every now and then. It has to be the time I guess. 

 

So I keep it pretty cool here in the mission. I don’t get to frustrated but I did the other day. We have this investigator that started to get mad at a member who didn’t say hi to her. And she started going off about this at that. So finally I said, hey there is something that Christ taught us, and that was to love more and judge less. And the teachings of Christ is to make our lives better. Then I ended the lesson and we left. This area is probably one of the hardest areas in the mission. To be honest the area is kind of nice but no one wants anything haha. They tell you that straight to your face. We changed our contacting to tell people that we are here to help people. And they still don’t want anything. 

 

To be 100% honest I think they will close this area in the next change. We have 6 areas right now in the mission that don’t have missionaries. And president told us that this next change there will be 5 more areas without missionaries. It’s really sad to see that there aren’t many people coming to the mission. We can only hope that things get better for us here.

 

 

Well another week done here in the mission. The area is picking up little by little it’s not going to change night to day but little by little. I’m really happy with what we are doing here now. The members are now working with us. Our ward mission leader finally wants to work with us. He’s a pretty cool guy actually. We have investigator that is super awesome. The mom has been through a lot of rough things. She had two kids that were born early. One was born 6 months early. It’s a miracle that she is alive. The mom said that god must have something more planned for them if he kept them around. I’m really hoping that we can help them and we can make things good for them. 

 

The mission is always up, down, side to side and sometimes it stands still. But there are sometimes where it moves really really fast. The best way to make it move fast but not too fast is to work and keep finding ideas for everything. I want to thank everyone who has sent me things of motivation to press on and ideas that would give me the boost! Thanks for all you all have done for me here in the mission! Thank you for all your prayers and love you send my way!! Talk to you all next week! Love you all!

19 June 2017

So we had changes. It was really sad to see my friend leave for home. He was a really good comp. Yes there was times where we didn’t get along but I think that’s normal. After all he was a really good and funny guy. Something funny about the mission, when you come into the mission you are born to an area and your first comp is your dad. And once you receive a missionary that’s new fresh off the boat he is your kid. Kind of funny like that. But when you are ending they call it that you are dying. And the comp that you are with when you end the mission is your killer. So guess you could say that I killed a guy. 

My new comp is really cool though. This is his second area and I’m his third companion. I feel kinda bad for him because he didn’t even leave the zone. He just came over to the district here. The changes went really fast for us haha. 

So we decided to work with more members this change. We have started to visit more and more all the time to see what’s going on and how they are doing. Not gonna lie this is gonna be a hard second change without the help of the members. We are gonna be very patient with them all but we will hope for the best. 

So like I said last change it was really hard to get contacts. But let me tell you this new comp is really good at talking. He talks a lot, which is a good thing. So we have a recent convert that doesn’t have a really good husband. He doesn’t like the church but talks to the elders all the time. So we went to visit them the other day and her mom got mad at us. Because the elders are here to help people but she was mad that we weren’t helping the members husband. To be 100% honest I wanted to go nuts on the girl. I told her straight up, that people can choose if they want to accept us or not. We always offer and invite but if you don’t accept that’s okay. As a missionary you have to show love to everyone. That’s the hardest part. When you really want to tell someone how it is, but you remember that you are an elder and you have to show love. You can correct people but in the correct way and a nice way hahah.

So we finally have people to work with us. We have a ward mission leader that is kind of less active but we got him to come to church the past weeks.  He said that he would like to come work with us. We went to this one family that we always visit. They always are sitting in front of there house with a friend. So today we turned the lesson more towards her and made it more to help her. I feel like it went well. She wants to understand more and she always liked to talk to us in the past.  We found this one guy the other day as well. He is super awesome and he really likes what we teach. The one thing is when he reads, he reads really, really loud, But only some words. For example, if the word God came across the line he would say it really loud then go really quiet again. It was interesting to hear haha

So things are starting to look better in the area here in Publo with the members. They are finally working with us. We went with the family that washes our cloths. They gave us a call because their friend needed a blessing. It’s really weird down here because they always want the elders to bless the people when they have the same priesthood and are worthy. So anyways we went out to give this guy a blessing and he was in some rough shape. His whole leg was all stitched up and man did it look rough. He told us that he went to other church’s and they wouldn’t give him a blessing. They said they didn’t have time. So we had a great way to teach about the church a little bit. We have one recent convert who is the only one of her family. So we decided that we should teach them. The other night they had this chili on the table. So I asked if I could try it. They all said, Elder Nelson this is really hot are you sure?  I was like Heck yeah! But man I almost died!! It was sooo hot! They all got a good laugh out of it though hahah.

So our week wasn’t 100% better, but we have improved a lot. We are now finding new people and working more with members. This should be a good change with Elder Cruz.

Well as always thanks for all the love and support that you all have for me! Thanks for all the prayers as well. Talk to you all next week!

Elder Nelson

Dinner after getting firewood

The ants he ate the other day....gross.  However he said they were good.  Just need to put lime on them.

Out getting firewood for cooking tortillas

12 June 2017

Hey there everyone!

So this is my companion last week in the mission. I thought there would be days were we wouldn´t do a lot. And to be honest that’s ok. Its okay I accept that he wants to go home and all that. It’s been really great knowing this comp. From being my zone leader, to my comp. He’s been a really good friend. 

So last Tuesday we had a visit from a member of the 12 apostles. Elder Renlund. He gave a really good talk. He talked not just to our mission but the east mission, the central mission, and the MTC. There was a lot of us there in the one place. The really nice thing is he greeted us all by hand and asked where we are from and what mission we are in. It took along time. But it was super cool. After we had to go with my companion for his final interview with president. We went to the office and there was a bunch of us missionary´s there. So I have a funny story about this. In the mission you are given an emergency fund just incase. And after the mission you need to give that amount back if you used it or you just give back your fund. So my comp has been saving up all his coins for about 7 months. And he had 200q in little coins to give back to the mission. I asked why he was doing that and he told me it was because it would be super funny to see them count it all out. So after the elder was finished he came out and just shook his head at my comp. It took him forever hahaha. It was all good the elder had a good laugh about it. 

So it has been non-stop rain here in our area. Everyday we are getting wet. I can’t think of the last time I came home and my feet were dry. We went down one street and when we came in there wasn´t much water on the road. As we were leaving we had to walk through a river that was up to my knees! Crazy right!  Everyone was watching us and thinking, those crazy white boys what are they doing. The good thing was after we walked through the red sea we made it to the house of our new investigator. He contacted us on the street one night because he wanted to practice English. So when we got to his house we turned it around to have a lesson in English. And let me tell you that it is sooo hard to do. Now I know you are all thinking, Why? Why is that hard for you to speak English. Let me tell you, I have been doing the lessons for 8 months now, but only in Spanish. So as we are teaching I would be switching back between Spanish and English. To be honest it was a good lesson. The guy understood everything about the church as well he understood our English. When we went back a second time to see him, he read all of lesson 1 and did the questions as well! He is finally a good investigator here in Pueblo.

So we went back with a family that we met here in our first week. They never came to church, they never read, they would only listen to us. So we thought that we would go and see how they were doing because we didn´t see them for two weeks. So we went to see how they were, taught them a lesson. They still don´t want to come to church but oh well. After we finished my comp said okay well this will be the last time that you see me after because I’m going home. And right as he said they all the kids started to cry, and cry hard. For some family to never get baptized or to never do anything with the church, they sure did like the elders though.

I’m really not a fan of the rain. It rained here all last week everyday. Not just a little bit but really hard. I quote Forest Gump, We have sideways rain, little rain, big rain. Sometimes it rained from the ground up, but for some strange reason one day someone turned the rain off. 

It reallly sucks going into a lesson being dripping wet, and then right after the lesson going out and getting wet again. We had to walk through a river pretty much one time. It was up to our knees. And super cold! Hopefully the rain will stop here soon!

Well just like the end of every change there is a chance you will get a new companion and with my comp going home I knew I was gonna get someone new. I get elder Cruz from Honduras. It’s nice because I have met him before and we got along pretty good. It’s a really weird change though. Everyone in the district is gone. We have 9 elders in the district. And out if those 9 only two of us are staying. Now we are gonna have 2 sisters and 6 elders. Before we had 3 zone leaders. It’s kinda crazy. We will see how it goes. I’ll be honest with you, I am sad to see this Elder go home. He taught me a lot. I guess I’ll just have to meet up with him after the mission!

This week has been crazy and hard.  But all good thoughts right!

Thanks for all the love and support you all have for me!

Elder Nelson

At the conference when Elder Renland spoke...this is Jordan's friend from Meixco

05 June 2017

Hello people from the great white north! 

To be honest with you all I don´t know how to start this email. Things here never change, the town hasn´t changed in 25 years. We have had a really bad week to be honest. All of our investigators pretty much fell. We couldn´t get into any doors to teach anyone as well. I think people are starting to get mad with us because we keep going to the same houses to see if they want to listen. But we always get the same answer every time. A great big no… But we just need to keep looking! 

We did find this one guy that was really nice. He let us in and we shared something quick but nothing more. We are really trying to get some help from the members but they don´t want to help. Its really hard because before there was always 2 Spanish speaking elders here. And now there are two white boys and they have never seen two at once. We have this one member that wants to go on a mission and wants to come out and help us but he always says he’s too busy or this and that. My comp and I think that people are just kind of resistant here towards us. Or that’s just how they are to everyone that comes in the area.

So I’m really not liking people here to be honest. Ill tell you why. Because they don´t like white people. We have maybe 3 people that like us here. One recent convert, her husband who isn´t a member but listens, and our little tienda guy. I may or may not have lost it on a guy the other day. We were in a taxi and normally its 3 quets each. Well this one guy charged us 5! I know that seems like I’m cheap but every taxi charges 3 each. My comp and I went off a bit on him and I almost asked if it was because we were white. I was soooo close! As well our neighbor hates us as well. We found a dead cat outside our house. The weird thing is there is no way for a cat to get to were it was unless it came from the neighbors side. So the neighbor stopped us and was soo mad. She said, hey you boys know you have a dead cat in front of your house. The thing about it there is no way that she could see into our yard. So I believe that it was her cat and she just through it over and made us take care of it. This has been my hardest area so far in the mission. I’m at a loss for what to do here.

We have one investigator that was super awesome. Remember the brother and sister that were going to get baptized here?  Well the sister doesn´t want to progress or come to church because a member doesn´t want to go out with her. So now she won’t talk to us or even look at us in the street. So to be 110% honest I don´t know what to think about this area. And to make it worse there is no pizza anywhere!!

So turns out that cat was the lady´s next door! She went around telling everyone that we had this dead cat. It was so stupid. My comp and I were so mad when we found that out. Some people.

So the things with our investigators has been up and down. The brother and sister that wanted to be baptized. Don´t want anything to do with us. We went to there house the other day and they don´t want to read anymore. They don´t want to go to church or anything. And you want to know why? Because a guy in the ward won’t date her. She was almost baptized for some boy! So since she doesn´t want anything the brother doesn´t want anything either. People really make me mad sometimes. We seen a member that asked how they were doing and we told her the story and she goes, I knew it! I knew they wouldn´t get baptized! I was like thanks for the help lady. This is why your branch doesn´t get better because the members don´t want to help and they don´t like new people. They just judge everyone. The good thing is we went back to the one family that was going to get baptized. We told them that we weren´t going to pass for them anymore because they wouldn´t read. So we stopped and then went back to see how they were. Well they have been reading everything and they came to church as well. So we will see how they do in the coming weeks and see if we cant help them.

This change has been really crazy. This area is really bad. We had a branch council here on Sunday. And the branch didn´t want to help us with anything for the people. They asked, elders how are we doing with investigators?  And we told them that they might need some help and they just rolled it off. I really hope I’m only here for one more change. If I’m here for more I’ll lose my mind!

Well that was pretty much my week. Thanks for all the love and support you all have! Thanks for everything!