Walk all day in the pouring rain...

Hello my wonderful and awesome family! I hope all is well and that everyone was able to enjoy their 4th of July. I want to start off this letter by letting everyone know how awful of a son I am. Guess what I forgot to do? I forgot to wish the one who gave birth to me a Happy Birthday! Freak.. I was thinking about that all week. I feel so bad! Sorry Mom.. I hope you can forgive me! But thanks so much for all you do for me and for being my mother! I love you so much and am so grateful for you. Anyways it sounds like the 4th of July was fun as it always is for you guys. Guess what I got to do on the 4th of July? Walk all day in the pouring rain and through puddles of ice cold water because their is no drainage system here in Chile. Literally the roads are like a river. I didn´t have my camera that day because everything in my backpack gets soaked and I don´t want my camera to break. Actually, it rained 5 days STRAIGHT. You might think like during the night or for a couple hours it doesn´t rain, but that´s not the case. It literally rained for 5 days straight. One more thing.. haha it´s not light rain. It´s like the kind of rain that would normally flood the park. I am not exaggerating this ladies and gentlemen. Believe it or go home. So basically what I have to do is walk through a lake where my feet go completely underwater. But it´s whatever! It´s probably not good but I sometimes think of missionaries that are in the states, speaking English, and get a car. Freaking lucky.. haha anyways a little about my week and then I will respond to some of the questions you guys had in your emails. First off, I now have this nasty infection in my fingernail and when I press on it pus squirts out. It hurts sooooo bad. I had to call the doctor and he asked me if I could come in the following morning because he needed to check it out. I reminded him I am in the Concepcion mission, not Santiago. I´m too far so he told me to dip my finger in salt water and see if that helps. Yayyyyy I love the medical care here it´s so awesome. Also for the past week and a half, underneath my eyes have been really purple and little tiny bumps everywhere. Who knows what´s wrong but what can I do right? It´s all good though because if I was healthy that would´ve been weird. Okay onto Franco and James.. we haven´t been able to get a hold of Franco at all this week. We have no idea what happened but we are going to keep trying. It´s super frustrating.. I have been praying and fasting for my health and for our investigators but it seems like the investigators just aren´t progressing and my health is just getting worse. Mom, I have a favor to ask you if you could. The other day we were going home from an appointment and we randomly just stopped and we quickly visited a member. We had no plans to do this but we did it anyway. We got in there, and just started talking to her and her husband. She eventually started crying, and finally told us that her daughter that lived in Argentina had found out that she has cancer. She told us that she had actually prayed that day that the missionaries would go and visit her. It was pretty cool but she wants her daughter´s name to go on the prayer roll in the temple. Obviously it´s difficult here because the nearest temple is in Santiago.. but I told her I would ask you to put it on there for her since there are plenty of temples there in Utah.. we´re so blessed! Anyways her name is Maria Pilar Castillo, so if you could do that it would be awesome! The story of Brian in Lake Powell is pretty incredible. I know it was no coincidence that he was only 5 feet away from him, was able to drag him to shore, and give him a blessing. It is living proof that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, saw God and Jesus Christ, and that the Priesthood was restored to the earth through him. Being members of the church, it is our responsibility to exercise our priesthood to help others in need. That is a super cool story and one that I´m sure he´ll never forget. Not a whole lot happened this week.. so I´ll answer some questions now. Yes Dad, people are constantly watching soccer here in Chile! Haha they love their teams here. Colo Colo and University of Chile! And I´m definitely glad you guys chose to keep the corolla around.. I freaking love that car and have grown to be so much more thankful to have a car after seeing how many people don´t have one here. Please please please keep it around! Mom, I loved when I read that part about how our loved ones rush to or side in times of difficulty. I definitely have no doubt that that is true. Freaking Jeremy.. moving to Orem. Noooooooooooo.... don´t leave my house! Just kidding.. if that´s what´s best for you in this moment then do it. Have you decided what classes you´re gonna take yet? Trevor.. stay strong! Only a couple more weeks to go and you´ll be done with school! And ready for Brielle.. that´s awesome. I´m a little disappointed I won´t be able to see her, but remember to send pictures Heather! A new computer huh? What happened with the other one Mom? And that´s cool about the Ipod Touch.. if Dad would learn how to use it he would love that thing. They are so useful. What generation is it? Also, are you guys planning on going to Dustin´s farewell? I believe he told me that is in in 2 weeks, and I would love it if you guys could support him. I freaking love that kid and am so excited for him! How´s Grandpa been doing lately with the way Grandma is? Anyways I am going to try and send some pictures so I´ll talk to you guys all next week! Thank you so much for your letters, your support, and everything you guys do for me. I love you all so much!
                   Elder Neilson OUT!!!!!!!!