26 Feb 2018

Hey there everyone 

SO we had a good week here in the zone. We are all working really hard to find new people and we are really close to baptizing the people we have. My new comp and I are working super hard. He is a really good guy. Like I said we knew each other way back when we started our missions so it was really awesome when I heard that we were going to be comps. 

So here in the mission we had a goal for this month to get 100 baptisms. Now we were all putting in our hard work and trying our best. Here in the zone we had two people ready to be baptized. But something happened and they weren’t able to go through with it. So we got a message from president Sunday night that said we had 98 baptism’s... 98... we need two more to hit our goal. Now me as a zone leader that really hurt me. It was because we could have hit the goal but we didn’t give it our 110%. Yes we did work hard and do everything we could but we came up short. It’s like going to the Stanly cup finals and losing in game 7 in overtime. Getting that close but not being able to complete with what we wanted. But now we know what to do. My comp and I have some things planned out for the zone for this coming month to see what we can do. 

So we were able to take Giovanni and Guillermo to the temple this week as well. We were able to have them see what it was like and have the sisters give them a tour. The thing is Giovanni’s family are all members. So it is really easy for him to get baptized because his parents will give him permission. But he doesn’t want to do it that much. And Guillermo on the other hand wants to get baptized and really wants to grow and learn in the church. But we don’t have permission from his parents yet. So we are going to work with that this week to see if we can help him and win the confidence of his mom. He was even talking that he wanted to go on a mission in the future. So we are really going to try and help him out. 

So when we went to the temple I saw a bunch of members from my old ward in Santa Marta. I was sitting down in the visitor’s center and out of nowhere the kid that always came on visits with us was there. So I jumped up and gave him a big hug. We talked for a bit and then he told me that Simon was there as well. I don’t know if you remember Simon but he was one of my baptisms there in Santa Marta. The day we went there was the first day he went into the temple to do baptisms. I was so happy when I heard and seen that!! It was so weird to see him to be honest. He has changed so much from when I first started teaching him. He just seems like he is happier and is just enjoying life. It was really great to see him. It made me see that what I was doing was helping other change their lives for the better. It’s been hard for me to see that during my mission but when I seen Simon it really made me see and feel that I was doing a good thing. 

So we did divisions with some members here on Sunday night. And these guys are crazy haha. They are two ex missionaries that have been home for a while now. And all they do is ask one another why aren’t they married yet or why aren’t they dating someone. They always just go off about that haha the thing is they are really good guys. They help us out a lot in the ward. They are just so weird when they talk haha I just hope that when I go home I don’t become like that when I see my friends haha.

But everything is going well this week here in the area. We are kind of upset that we didn’t hit the baptisms go but we are going to do all we can to be better. That’s a great thing about the mission we can try something and if we don’t complete it we can get up and try again. But in a different way. 

Thanks for all the love and support that you all have for me! I love every one of you! Thank you for your prayers and love! Hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Nelson