You Killed My Fish in Broad Daylight :(

Heyyyyyyyyyy friends and family! Your letters and everything always make my day and I thank everyone for that! Looks like it was my fish´s time to go... haha it´s all good! I know the trick to keeping a fish alive for 4 years and I should´ve shared it with you before I left :( haha just kidding. But yeah I should still be here in November so that´ll be cool to go to the temple in Santiago. We would travel all through the night, get there in the morning, and leave again around 6. We´re still not sure on all the details but we´ll figure it all out! This Sunday we had Geraldine and Karen in church. Remember them? They are family of some members and this was their 3rd time they´ve gone to church. Geraldine has a baptism date for the 12th of October, but she has had plenty of dates before. Keep her in your prayers so she can go through with it this time! By the way I had to conduct again... there´s no 2nd counselor so I have so much work to do. The President basically makes me and the secretary do everything. The secretary is named Leo, and he is awesome. He is 28 and always willing to help us. He had to order supplies for 2014 the other day but didn´t know how so I had to go help him. Basically nobody knows how to work a freaking computer here haha it´s ridiculous. Also, we had a movie night on Friday and nobody could figure out how to hook the DVD player to the TV. We finally got there and so they asked me to do it. I was like yeah okay where´s the HDMI cable? Everyone looked at me like what in the world is that? That makes the 3rd time here in Chile I´ve had to check a calendar to make sure we´re in 2013 and not 1963. I´ve also had to make a bunch of excel spreadsheets and post them on the wall because nobody else knows how. I´m pretty sure that´s why they always keep at least 1 gringo missionary here haha. The other day we were in Huepil with a member visiting a reference she gave us. We were trying to find the street so we went into a little store and asked the lady there. There was this mom and her little boy in there as well. You know how kids always say stuff out loud that you don´t want them to? Haha well yeah as we were leaving, the kid looks at his mom and says, ¨look Mom! He is HUGE!¨ Haha I just started laughing and so did the Mom. I told her I get that a lot so not to worry. It was pretty funny and reminded me of Teagan saying stuff to cashiers with Robyn. Also as we got off the bus there, we offered to cut some wood for this old guy. He told us no but we insisted. We got a lot done in like 45 minutes and afterwards his wife came out to give us these huge ice cream cones and told us how grateful she was. We didn´t have time to teach them but hopefully another day! We also received a reference from another member. She was talking to this lady as she saw us walking in the distance. She told the member that we had always stopped by her house but that her family wouldn´t let us in. She had been reading the Book of Mormon and she loves it. The member invited her to a family night at her house and we watched a movie and invited her to church. She couldn´t come this past Sunday because of something going on, but she wants to come next week. It´ll have to be in 2 weeks though because of conference. Her name is Gladys so keep her in your prayers as well!  We´ve also been working with this inactive member in Huepil. His name is Alexis and he is a returned missionary. He must be around 40 years old but he first married a returned missonary as well.  They eventually were divorced and now he´s married to a catholic lady. He called us over to give blessings to his kids the other day and afterwards he was like wow, ¨I can feel it again. That feeling of the Spirit is here right now.¨ He wants more than anything for his kid to be a missionary he said but they don´t go to church so I don´t know how that´s gonna work. He´s a cool guy so we´re working hard to reactivate him. He has a down syndrome daughter that blocks the door when we´re about to leave.. haha it´s funny. I´m glad you guys all had a good time at Olive Garden for Dad´s birthday.. man I miss food from home. I also really enjoyed the pictures you guys sent me. I was wondering how Grandma was doing because it had been awhile since I got an update on her. Also that´s too bad for Grandpa and his eye surgery. I hope all goes well and his vision can get better. That´s good you guys were able to give him a blessing, that should help. By the way, I talked to Seth last week. He told me he has been between jobs saving up some money and stuff and that he´s hoping to get his papers in within a month or 2. That´ll be good and I´m excited for him.  Also I was disappointed when I read that Trevor´s funny email was lost because of the kindle.. next week smoothieman! Can´t believe Dad is coming up on 30 years at Wells Fargo.. that´s crazy! Haha keep pushing Dad you´re awesome. I´m definitely looking forward to General Conference this weekend. Like Brian said, it feels like Christmas is next week :) haha it should be good and I´ll be in a little room inside the church watching it in English by myself while the members all watch it in the ¨chapel¨. I definitely will be listening closer and taking note because I´m sure there will be a lot of advice to missionaries because there´s so many serving right now. I´m excited for that. I couldn´t believe how much Dallin looks like Hayden in the Utah picture you sent me Mom. He is so freaking cute and huge oh my gosh. And Bella looks so good and healthy. Haha after seeing all these dogs here.. wow. Again I´m glad she´s at home with you guys and not here. Could you do me one more favor? Send me one more package.. with Brielle in it? I just want to hold her once is that too much to ask? By the way no I haven´t gotten my package yet. I´ll let you know when I do. Anyways I can´t think of a whole lot more.. my letter was a little random and over the place today... sorry! I love you guys and thanks for everything! By the way, do you guys read my letters to my nephews? Just curious.. I love them. Good luck to my Utes this week against UCLA! Until next week.......

                                         NEILSON OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

p.s. I have saved the pictures of grandma and grandpa and Bella and my nephews so I will be printing them soon! Thanks again.. I love receiving pictures and videos more than anything!

And Utah beats the team down south!!! GO UTES!‏

I first again want to congratulate my Utes on pulling out the win against BYU and winning bragging rights for the next couple of years! Sounds like it was a good game and Travis Wilson played well. That´s dope. Also thanks for the pictures and videos Brian/Heather. You guys are ballers... so is Hayden! I loved that video of him.. and wow his teeth.. hahaha crazy! All my nephews/niece are ballers by the way. If anyone was wondering I miss them so much. Anyways about my week! Looks like I will be staying here in Yungay with Elder C another 6 weeks. All the members are making fun of my companion because he´s been here forever. This is his 5th change here.. but hopefully we can get a lot done. Anyways yes I had the 18th of September here this past week. For those of you who don´t know what it is it is basically the 4th of July. I ate a ton of empanadas and we went and saw a parade and visited a bunch of less actives. The parades weren´t as cool as ours but there were literally like 200 horses there.. I was like woooooooooooooooow. Should´ve been expected though since we are literally in the middle of nowhere here in Yungay haha. I took some pictures so I´ll see if I can send them after this email. Anyways this week was a little slow but it´s all good! Last week on Sunday I was at the church making a list for the talks to be given this next month when we got a call from the branch president saying we had to go run some oil up to him to give a blessing to someone. We quickly ran to the house and of course he had left. Haha we as missionaries have to do EVERYTHING here in Yungay. Anyways the family invited us to lunch so we quickly ate. Eeeeeeewww my piece of meat they gave me was horrible. I´m not kidding but if you guys would´ve had a choice between that piece of meat they gave me and that piece from Hometown Buffet, you definitely would´ve taken hometown´s.. no doubt. When I found my opportunity, I took it. I had no other choice but to slip the piece of meat in my pocket and chuck it out later. Hahahahaha like for reals oh my gosh I almost threw up when I saw it. Anyways after that we got a call from another member asking us when we were going to eat lunch at her house. Anyways we ended up having to eat 2 lunches.. which wasn´t too bad because I didn´t really eat the first haha. Anyways the other day we were coming back from our district meeting in Chillan and there were no seats so we had to stand up. Being tall and hideous and ugly I couldn´t stand up normally without ducking. Haha so the bus guy came back and opened the moon roof and told me to stand under there so I wasn´t so uncomfortable.. haha it was funny. The other day we were sick of being here in Yungay so we went to Pemuco which is about 25 minutes away from here. It´s like Huepil, but the other direction from Yungay. There´s one member there so we had lunch with her and spent pretty much all day there. I asked her to use her bathroom and she was like yep it´s out in the back go ahead. I went out there and it was like this little outhouse they had built. They had dug a big hole and put a spare toilet seat over the hole. I was like are you serious? Haha people are soooo poor here it´s so sad. Anyways we taught 9 lessons there but nobody would commit to church because it´s too far away. We can teach a ton of lessons in Huepil and Pemuco but they are too poor to pay for the bus. By the way if I´m still here on November 15th, which I should be, I´ll get to travel to Santiago with the branch here to go to the temple! I´m first counselor in the bishopric so I basically have to. It costs like $1100 for the bus so we´re trying to get at least 30 people to go to split the cost. It´s a little difficult because some people can´t afford it which is sad. We can easily go to temples because we have cars and they´re close.. but they don´t have cars, a close temple, or very much money to pay for a bus. It´s sad but we´re trying to combine with a different branch to have more people. Anyways the other day we were contacting and we got into a house with 2 old people. They offered us a drink and we were like yeah sure. Haha anyways it smelled a little funky and tasted soooo nasty that I choked it down. Later on we told a member about it and turns out it was alcohol. Hahaha I was like wow alcohol tastes AWFUL. Anyways don´t judge me because we didn´t know any better! There´s not a whole lot more to report this week... I just want to wish my dad a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY on the 27th! Can´t believe he´ll be 40... wow time flies ;) haha but I´m going to try and send some pictures so hopefully all goes well with that! By the way Hermana M was here for a change and got transferred... :( we got along really well and this new girl is just way too much. Hermana T told me she is dying with her and misses Hermana M... stupid changes. Anyways thanks again for all your letters I love reading them and seeing how everyone is doing! Again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dad!  I love you so much and am so thankful for all you have done for the family. You are such a baller. I´ll talk to guys all later and I LOVE YOU ALL!

¨ My eyes are opened up with pure sunlight, I´m the first to know... ¨Here we go, life´s waiting to begin.¨ AVA

Big Chilean Holiday 18 September

 With the Hermanas in Yungay

Big Macs Taste Good

Hey everyone.. another week has come and gone and I´m here in good old ghosttown Yungay! I´m a little disappointed to see my Utes lost to Oregon St... sounds like with a tough schedule it good be a long year.. but good luck to my Utes this week against BYU!  Anyways about this last week. We had a nice family night planned with these members that are too poor to travel from Huepil to Yungay. They invited a ton of people and the kids invited their friends, but as we got there, nobody had showed up. It was a little disappointing but with her kids and her we still had a family home evening. She has an 18 year old, 15 year old, and 11 year old girl. The 15 year old is really extremely tough for her. The 18 year old is pretty cool and way nice but she struggles with the 15 year old. She wants more than anything for her 2 sons to serve missions. She always talks to us and them about it but the 18 year old is quiet and the 15 year old is super against it. I shared with her my testimony about how much the Gospel has blessed my family and life at home. She got a little emotional and it made me feel bad for her. The 2nd counselor from the bishopric also came with us to see her money situation. We found out she doesn´t even have money to buy wood to burn to heat up her house. We´re going to see what we can do for her. It´s been really cold this last week again.. I guess the past week was just a nice little break. In church, we had 22 people there including us 4 missionareis and the bishopric. The branch is declining, but we are doing all we can. I had to conduct this past Sunday by the way. Yungay is really small.. I´ve been here for 5 weeks and I´ve basically knocked on every door. Mostly it´s working with all the less actives and trying to reactivate them and baptize their kids. Us or the sister missionaries haven´t had investigators in church for 4 weeks now but we´re still all trying to keep a positve attitude. By the way Elder M is in my zone again! He got emergency transferred from Linares and is now training a kid from Orem. We actually met up in Chillan today to eat MCDONALDS! Wow that Big Mac has never tasted so amazing. I also looked at portable DVD players but I got Dad´s genes with my money and well it ended up I am going to still wait haha. (Thanks Dad)  I also tried to make the M & M cookies again for a family night we had with a recent convert but wow they ended up even worse. I got the recipe from the internet but brown sugar doesn´t exist here so I had to find a specific recipe but maybe that´s why. By the way changes will be this Thursday instead of Monday because there´s so many missionaries that will be coming in. We´ll find out Wednesday, and we´re pretty sure my companion will be getting transferred. I´ll let you guys know next week. By the way, I laughed when I read Cole´s letter. Yes I have eaten PLENTY of completos here.. they load on the mayonnaise and avocado but I always ask for just a little bit. Too much avocado makes me feel not so great.. (maybe that´s what happened to Cole). But yes it is a hot dog with tomatoes, avocado, and a buttload of mayo. Mom yeah Elder H is like my best friend here in the mish.. too many memories from the MTC haha. But there´s 2 of them from Arizona but his name is Jace. Anyways yeah with the Facebook, I´m pretty sure you can just accept everyone that adds me. They can´t find me unless I give them my first name so pretty much the people that add me will all be good to accept. Thanks for mailing my package... we´ll see how fast it gets here and I´ll let you guys know when I get it! I´m definitely excited.. I´ll be thinking of what I want for Christmas! Beach Boys over Utah Football Mom? I´m not gonna lie and tell you I´m not a little disappointed but it´s all good! :) Yes it´s the 18th of September here on Wednesday (pretty much the 4th of July) and it sound like I´ll be eating a buttload of empanadas! Last year the P-Day was on that day too.. but obviously I´m writing you today so I have no idea. If my companion leaves we´ll be saying goodbye to everyone that night anyways and eating a ton so I´m excited for that. By the way Jeremy asked me about if we would be getting ipads and stuff like DJ Teaskie.. I¨m not sure I haven´t heard a whole lot about that. I heard that stuff would be starting at the beginning of next year so maybe that´s when we´ll start with that stuff. I think that would be good because the door to door stuff sometimes isn´t all that effective seeing as to I´ve knocked on every door here in Yungay already. I´m also more of a technology guy so I would enjoy that haha. I´ve also been talking to Dustin and he´s now in the mission field and worried about Spanish. But guess what? His district leader is Jordan Tuckfield from school! They are working in the same ward and everything.. Jordan Tuckfield is a good friend of mine and Tanner´s. That´s pretty dope! By the way Brian and Heather, thanks so much for those videos! Wow I think those are probably my favorite things I could receive.. I also love the letters too I´m just saying! Wow Dallin is just freaking huge and a spit image of Hayds and Teags. So crazy to see him walking. I also like to think tht Brielle´s smiles were for me and for me only! Sorry Heather I´m gonna take credit :) haha but no really thanks so much! I miss everyone so much and I pray for you guys daily. I´m going to sign off here because there´s not whole lot more to report but I´m going to try and send some pictures. I love you all and until next week....
         
                         NINNON OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An American flag made by a member in Chile....missing a few stars. :)

 A ward activity in Yungay..representing the US of A!

 Trenton's attempt at M&M cookies for the ward activity.  He said they were a failure.

 P-day in Chillan

 Trenton's living quarters in Yungay.  He refers to it as his "hut".

I Love My Utes! 2-0

Hello everyone! Again thanks for all your letters and everything.. you guys are awesome. Congratulations to my Utes on the blowout.. should be interesting when Pac-12 play starts here pretty soon! Thanks Trevor and Dad for the updates there.. keep them coming weekly! Freaking miss going to the games.. ugh. This week was alright.. a little slow because we had some activities and other stuff going on. First off we had the country activity on Saturday.. I ended up cooking M & M cookies! Everyone else was cooking a meal so I decided to do a dessert. After looking everywhere for chocolate chips, I came to the conclusion that they don´t exist here in Chile. I found the mini M & M´s which were really expensive but I ended up doing that. A lady wanted to help me make them.. but let´s just say.. they were a huge and giant FAILURE. Hahahaha I took some pictures but I´m a little mad because I forgot to bring my camera. The dough was extremely runny so I said yeah let´s add a little more flour. Well, she makes bread for a living.. so she added SOOOO much flour and kept on adding more. After telling her a million times it was good she finally stopped. Hahaha they ended up a mix between bread and cookies so I´ll send the pictures next week if I remember. Anyways the people that came to the activity absolutely loved them and were all asking me for the recipe. Good thing they didn´t know what they were supposed to look like :) Anyways a lady made the American flag too (has about 38 stars.. she got a little lazy) but I have some pictures of that too. Next week hopefully. We have still been working with Geraldine but her aunt has been really sick so we´ve had to put her on hold. We´ve also found a lady named Maria that was really interested in the Book of Mormon so that´s pretty good. She does have a problem with smoking but we´ll see what we can do. We also had a conference in Chillan this past week. As I was sitting by Elder H listening to President Arrington and the assistant talk, they called on us to do a practice. Anyways it went pretty well and the assistant told us he thought it was really good because he didn´t feel like it was a practice. Also, I had a mini-cambio with Elder W from Idaho this week. He has been here for about 3 weeks and wow let´s just say I have made a ton of progress since I got here haha. It ended up being a good day and we taught 5 lessons. It was nice being able to put in an idea of mine and not get shot down within 2 seconds (By the way I miss Elder B hahaha.) Yesterday I had to travel to Chillan again for the Stake Leadership meeting. I had to go with our branch president and we ended up being there for about 3 hours. There weren´t very many people that went to church in the stake because it was daylight savings time and half the people forgot to change the clock.  Anyways yesterday Nicol and her family (kids- Thomas and Cristobal.. I sent a picture of them when I left Linares) called me because they said they missed me! Elder B, Elder M, and their companions were there eating lunch and they called me to say hi! Haha I definitely miss their family. Anyways she told me she was going to email me and she did. Apparently Elder C was in Linares as well and she apologized and told me to just stay patient because he is ¨different.¨ Also some more things that I´ve already heard about Yungay and about how tough it is here. She made me promise that I would go back to Linares before I left to go home.. haha she is so funny. Anyways not a whole lot more to report so I´ll get to some of the questions. First off.. I did dance a little bit. They put on the song ¨Limbo¨ by Daddy Yankee and they loved all my dance moves. Mom, the Skull Candy earphones would be my preference.. but whatever works. Don´t worry about the Labor of Love DVD.. I know you can´t fit many things so don´t worry about sending the DVD´s. If you bought a jumprope already, you can send it. If you didn´t, it´s all good. I would like to leave some room for other stuff. You weren´t able to find my flashdrive? Hmmmmm... if you aren´t able to find it I´m not sure. I guess I could buy another one here I just don´t know if it would be cheaper from home. The one Brayton gave me is 32 gb and it´s plenty but I want to have all my pictures one on and other stuff on a different one. Yes it is starting to get warmer now so that´s a good sign! I honestly loved the story of the lemonade stand. Brian´s letter definitely made me laugh. I´m proud of my nephews for sticking with it! 54 bucks... wow. Robyn mentioned something about Disneyland.. what´s up with that? That better wait. Anyways I can´t think of any more things for the package.. I don´t know what size you´ll be sending.. I trust you know what I would like! By the way.. how´s Utah´s kicker? I´m sure he can´t possibly be worse than Coleman.. so that should be good. I had a dream 2 nights ago that the dog that follows us everywhere was Utah´s kicker. Hahaha so weird. I also had another dream we were are the football game and I started crying. Mom asked me if it was because I was going to miss going to the games when I was on my mission. I said yes.. but luckily cousin Nate was there and he came to sit by me and made me feel better. Hahaha gotta love dreams. Anyways thanks for all your letters everybody.. and all the pictures (Trevor, Heather, Robyn, Brian). Not gonna lie I had a tear when I read that Dallin said my name.. haha and the video of him walking.. oh my gosh he is huge. I´m not sure if I´ll have time to send some personal emails off this week but next week I will make sure to leave enough time. I´ll see what I can do. Again thanks for everything and I love all you guys sooooo much. I have definitely learned that family is the most important thing. Until next week......

                        TRENTON DANIEL NEILSON OUT!!!!!!

GO UTES! 1-0

GO UTES! Thanks for all the letters everyone it´s good to see how everyone is all doing.. I´m doing alright here in Yungay! We had a recent conference in Chillan where Elder Gonzalez from the 70 came to speak to us. He is from Uruguay and he did a really good job talking to us about how we can use the Book of Mormon to solve all of our investigator´s problems. Midway through his talk, he asked all of the missionaries who we would most like to see do a practice with him. It was obvious he was meaning for us to say President Arrington, but out of nowhere Elder M shouts out ¨Elder Neilson!¨ Haha everyone turned and looked right at me and started laughing. I went BRIGHT red haha it was so embarrassing. I didn´t end up having to do it but of course Elder M would do something like that! I also met up with him, Elder B and Elder B. I definitely miss living with them because my companion right now DOES NOT TALK. Elder B called me that night to let me know that Solange our investigator got baptized... he was supposed to send me pictures today but either he forgot or hasn´t gotten on the computer yet.  By the way we got to church the other day and the stake president of Chillan was there. He was on the phone and asked me what my name was. After a little bit, he called me into the bishop´s office and told me that he just got off the phone with my mission president, and asked if I would accept the calling a 1st counselor in the Bishopric. Haha so yes I am now the 1st counselor in the Bishopric! I also have to visit a bunch of less actives and try to find their likes and dislikes and according to that extend assignments they can do in the church. We´ll see how that goes! Also, as we sat down to have our Gospel Principles class, our ward mission leader looked at me and told me, ¨Ehhh it´s your turn this week.¨ Anyways without even knowing our anything I had to teach our class. Our branch has a lot of work to be done here if they want their chapel so we´ll see what we can do. We have been going to Huepil lately, the place that is 20 minutes away on bus, to visit Geraldine, Karen, and Paola. (her friend) Geraldine´s aunt has been really sick and her other aunt hasn´t been coming to church so that means Geraldine can´t come either. Her baptism date is now for the 21st instead of the 7th. She just needs to come to church one more time and a few other lessons for her to be baptized. My companion, not having any (can´t remember the word here but basically he doesn´t think about the time) Anyways we ended up missing the bus and he had the great idea of walking towards Yungay until someone would pick us up. There were absolutely no lights anywhere and pitch black and after a half hour I said it would be smarter to go back and wait for the 10:30 bus. A member had told us it takes about 3 hours to walk from Huepil to Yungay and it was obvious walking back for the other bus was the best idea. I didn´t wanna walk 2 and a half more hours to Yungay haha. We ended up taking the bus and finally got to Yungay. What an adventure.. but we´re also working with a girl named Ana in Huepil that said she wants a baptism and that she was going to invite her 2 friends to come to church with us. We went to visit her Saturday night, and my companion called her like 5 times in a row. The 5th time she answered and got all mad at him for calling her so many times and she didn´t end up coming to church.  On the 7th, we are going to have an activity where all the missionaries and a lady in the ward are going to represent their countries. We have to cook a typical plate, and have pictures and all the information and everything.(including typical dance) I have no idea what to do for the food because I suck at cooking.. but we´ll see what I can do! I´ll see if I can send some pictures next week. By the way one more thing on my package list: A pair of earphones. These places here don´t have headphones and I normally like to listen to church music while I send my emails. That would be cool.. and I mean earphones like one in one ear and the other in the other haha. By the way congratulations to my Utes for being 1-0! Sounds like it was a close game.. thanks for the updates Trevor and Jon. Keep me updated on all the games please! By the way even though I´m far away I still supported them on gameday. I carried my Utah shirt all day in my backpack :) But there´s not a whole lot more to report here in ghosttown in Yungay. P-Days aren´t the most exciting thing here.. I guess if you guys want a picture of a tree, rock, and some dirt all in one I could do that. Sounds like Mom and Dad had a good time on their trip! That reminds me.. there´s this lady here whose dream is to go to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful. Haha she was super jealous I had been there before and was asking me all about it! But thanks again for writing me and maybe I´ll see if I can send you guys the picture of my hut! I love you guys and I´ll talk to you all next week!

¨If I had a chance for another try, I wouldn´t change a thing, it´s made me all of who I am inside.¨ AVA