I will say it right now but this letter isn´t going to be very long. I would like to do something a little different this week as Mom well knows.. I will be completing a year out in the mission field this week. Honestly I can´t tell if the time has gone by fast or slow, but it´s crazy to think I´m halfway done. What I would like to do is make a small list of 25 things I have grown to be more thankful for while out on my mission, and 10 things that I have learned as well.
Thankful List
1. MY FAMILY
2.My friends
3. My house
4. The United States
5.The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
6.My car (Dad´s car)
7. My bed
8.Water heater
9.Insulation
10. Prayer
11. Book of Mormon
12. Phone
13. Computer
14. Call of Duty ;P
15. Sports (Basketball)
16. Good policeman
17. Dishwasher
18. Good medical care
19. English
20. Music
21. Angels and Airwaves
22. Carpet
23. Bella
24. Restaurants & Stores
25. Air Conditioning & Heat
Things I Have Learned
1. Family is the Most Important Thing
2. The United States has it GOOD
3. Always keep a good sense of humor
4. Always be grateful for what you have
5. If you want something done well, do it yourself
6. When things are bad, rely on the Lord
7. When you´re tired, push harder
8. Complaining never fixes anything
9. The Gospel is what holds families TOGETHER
10. TRUE happiness comes from keeping and living the commandments
There´s a little list for you guys that I thought you might enjoy. This week has been a lot of the same stuff. A struggle trying to find new investigators but it´s all good. We have had some good lessons with some people but 2 people that we felt really good about left on vacation right after the 1st time we met with them so it´s kind of been frustrating. They should be coming back sometime this week so hopefully we can meet up with them again. Before I forget, can someone send me a really simple recipe to make pancakes from scratch? I have flour, baking soda, water, sugar, salt, and stuff like that but I can´t seem to get it to work out right. That would be cool. We have been meeting some more less active families that are actually receptive so that should be nice. Our investigator whose girlfriend is a member, has been difficult. He is awesome. He played pro basketball here in Chile (not sure how good he is yet) and he wants to play with me. We are trying to find a good day to do that. He´s not married and has a little 10 month old girl but wants to get baptized. He knows the church is true and everything, and says they have plans to get married this year. We were able to talk to the wife and she said she thinks he´ll get baptized within the next 2 months. We just got to keep working with him. Apparently he always came to church, but for the past 2 weeks he hasn´t which is weird. He keeps saying they are going to come especially because the wife plays the piano, but they haven´t. Kind of weird but we will figure it all out. Nothing really cool happened this week. Anyways, there is a sister missionary that keeps telling me she wants to go home but she´s not going to. I´ve been leaving a lot of scriptures for her that helped me when I was struggling in Linares and she always thanks me and tells me that they helped her. That´s cool to hear about Cole.. congratz to him. That would be a lot of responsibility and I¨m sure he´ll learn a lot. Sounds like Utah basketball is on the uprise.. unlike the football team. Booooooo. By the way I saw pictures of Dallin... oh my gosh. The kid is huge and looks like such a baller. Please don´t let him grow up anymore. I just want to play with that kid and have a dance party :( Sounds like everyone enjoyed Trevor´s birthday and had a good time. Can´t believe he´s 31.. and yes Mom.. you´re only 21 so don´t worry :) Congratulations to Kelvin for being cancer free.... that´s awesome news. Hopefully they get everything figured out with that blood clot and he can grow up healthy. Anyways there´s not much more to report so I´ll sign off and talk to you all next week! Tell my nephews and niece I love them and they´re all ballers. I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NEILSON OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, February 24, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
I´m not very creative this week...
Hello family.. another week down. From the sound of everything, sounds like you guys had the world´s most boring week this past week. Haha just kidding but anyways before I forget I want to wish smoothieman a HAPPY BIRTHDAY this week!!!!! My bro.... Is this number 31? I believe I´m right but wow bro YOU.ARE.GETTING.OLD. :) it´s all good though!! I hope you have a good day and you all can go hit up Olive Garden or somewhere cool to eat. Anyways yes the lunches have been a lot better. We have lunch every day except Mondays so I´m getting fat again like I was in Linares. My stretch marks went away in Yungay but yes they are back again. I´m so ugly Mom. :P Anyways yes Sister R was right.. every single person is on vacation right now. And if they´re not, they won´t leave their door to come talk to us. Not gonna lie it´s been difficult, and at the end of the day I´m dead after walking up and down the hills. Our sector is famous for those hills just so you all know. I´m glad you could see on google earth :) Yes our house stands up higher in back of the house in front.. I´m pretty sure you have the right house there. I said we got boned because we split our sector up into 3 different parts and the sisters gave us elders all the rich areas. Hahaha but it´s all good. We have gotten into like 2 houses this past week. As I was about to leave yesterday, I had this thought just to grab a Book of Mormon and use it in the contact. As I contacted this man that left his house, he was really interested in it. We got in and we talked about it, and we left him with 3 Ne. 11 to read. He is really busy and told us he only has Sundays to meet with us so we´ll see what happens. Yes the cookies were really good, but no I never ended up buying the pizza yet. For sure I´ll do it within the next 2 weeks to celebrate my 1 year mark. Quick question.. is there any way Mr. Mac would send me more shirts that are actually my size since they screwed up? Just a question. If not I´ll be fine.. I usually wear long sleeve anyways (It´s been pretty cold here at night). Dad, how you enjoying your braces? They SUCK right? Hahaha now you know how we all felt when we kept having to get them adjusted! Valentine´s Day was a little uneventful.. no different than any other day. I´m glad everyone was able to go out to eat and enjoy the day. I was walking up hills all day. But I´m used to it and it´s worth it because we have the best message in the world and even though many people don´t want to hear it, there´s a few that are waiting. Just have to work, work, and work some more to find them. 29 missionaries from the stake now? Definitely didn´t know that. Seems like a lot to me.. that´s cool. Did you guys end up going to Lava Hot Springs? Wait a minute, Jon having to study? Deja vu... hahaha keep pushing Donovan. Still waiting on a letter from Jeremy to update me on Staci.. I´ll just be patient. That´s sad that Brandon passed away.. hopefully Tanner doesn´t take it too hard. We had talked about him a lot but wow.. Teaskie has definitely had it rough during his mission. I feel bad for that kid. Okay so a little bit more about this week... I got to baptize someone on Saturday! Her name is Alejandra, and she was the sister´s investigators. Anyways she was having a tough problem with the Word of Wisdom and receiving an answer to her prayers. So two weeks ago, I had a support interview with her. I went and I found out what she needed and helped her with the W.o.W. and receiving an answer to her prayers. Apparently after the interview, she completely stopped smoking, drinking, and everything. Later on, I found out she had received her answer to her prayer and that she wanted to get baptized. Last week I went to go do the baptismal interview, and she passed. Then she told me that she wanted me to baptize her. So anyways that was pretty cool and she has a really strong testimony. I took some pictures so we´ll see if I can get some sent off. There´s a ton of people in the ward that could have baptized her, but she told me she felt most comfortable with me, which was cool. I also left all my baptismal clothing in Yungay, so I had to borrow a tie and some pants from my zone leader. Anyways I can´t think of a whole lot more. The ward here is so sick.. except for the fact that me and my comp had to clean the baptismal font and get everything ready by ourselves for 5 hours on Saturday. But things get done and there´s people willing to actually visit people with you, if you have the people to visit :/ Like I said, we are in the hunt for investigators and are trying to look up old investigators, less actives, and knock on doors. Also trying to get to know the members better so we can find people through them. By the way, this week Elder Ronald A. Rasband and M. Russell Ballard will be coming to talk to the young single adults in a church building by our stake. We´re not allowed to go though but that would´ve been cool. Being District Leader has been good.. I enjoy helping people but it's hard preparing the classes every week :/ Anyways I can´t think of anything else to report and I want to send some pictures.. so I´ll sign off. But thanks for everything and I love you all!!!!
Alejandra's baptism 2-15-2014
Saturday, February 15, 2014
¨Rich and prideful¨- Smoothieman knows best
Monday, 2-10-2014
Here are a couple of pictures. There´s a couple at the beach we went to last week, one at this dinosaur park thingy here in Cónce, one in my area above a little bit, one of my companion, and one of a tarantula we found and I actually held.. I know I can´t believe I held it either (reminded me of Jon on his mission) and an example of the houses I have to contact.
it´s one of my short sleeved ones that actually fit so I don´t really wanna burn it. The rip doesn´t show when I tuck it in. But I´m just going to point something out.. In 1 year from today, I will be coming home! Apparently something happened and they cut 3 weeks off our missions or something because there´s so many missionaries I´m not really sure. But if the calculations are correct, it would be 1 year from today. Just sayin. I´m glad you have all received my handwritten letters... took me awhile to write all of those hahaha. The washer and dryer thing is good but bad at the same time. It was nice having someone else do it, but you always had to go without your clothes for some time. Here you can just wash it and be good to go. And I have to buy soap and stuff but it´s not that bad. Mom, I already knew how to do laundry and iron thank you very much...:) I made those peanut butter cookies today... actually turned out decent. I usually murder stuff like that but it was a surprise. Anyways there´s not much to report here from Santa Sabina... we have no area book, no old investigators, no futures or anything to look up. All we have are a few addresses of some members and contacting. The days are going by super slow but it´s all good. In time it should pick up hopefully. There is one investigator that the sisters gave to us because there were problems with the wife thinking he liked Sister R. He is planning on getting married and baptized in March apparently, but he has been super hard to have a lesson with. He LOVES basketball though, and wants to play with me and his Dad. Apparently he played professionally in Brazil or something and he wants to see if I can play or not. We are trying to set that up. He goes to church but we just haven´t been able to sit down with him and talk to him. We have to wait until Wednesday so I¨ll let you all know how that goes. By the way last week on the way to Santa Sabina I lost my wallet. No idea where, but I probably had like 20 bucks or a little more in there. I just forgot about it because there was nothing I could do and it was just going to bug me. Anyways this week I will be ordering a pizza from Papa John´s just to spoil myself. Thought you´d all like to know :) Mom, I hope I answered all of your questions. Thanks to Trevor and Bri I got my questions answered about the Corolla and Jeremy and Staci. Trevor´s letter gave me a good laugh too.. I´m glad my Corolla (Dad´s corolla) is enjoying her privacy. Please let her know, that I think about her every day as I walk up and down the hills here in Santa Sabina all day. She is surely and dearly missed, believe me. I don´t know if you can really understand how much I miss that car.. I literally think about it too much I think as the cars just zoom past us on the road. We take too many things for granted! Anyways I hope I answered all the questions and let you guys know everything. Oh by the way, I saw a kid going into his house the other day with a Utah Football hat on. I almost gave him a big hug and took a picture but I didn´t. Thanks again for all the letters and pictures... you guys are ballers! I love you and I¨ll talk to you all next week!!!!!
p.s. Dad the weather here is awesome. We can see the ocean from a lot of places in our area when we´re on the hills and there´s constantly a nice wind that is so amazing.
Here are a couple of pictures. There´s a couple at the beach we went to last week, one at this dinosaur park thingy here in Cónce, one in my area above a little bit, one of my companion, and one of a tarantula we found and I actually held.. I know I can´t believe I held it either (reminded me of Jon on his mission) and an example of the houses I have to contact.
Elder Ribeiro and I
Hello everyone. Another week down. After waiting a ton of time, I finally got a computer. There´s about 2 million missionaries in this one internet cafe so I had to wait forever, but here I am.
How´s everything going back in my favorite city in the entire world.. Sandy? That city is my city, and I love it. I like that song by the way. So this week has been interesting. Basically every day and all day, I was walking up and down hills. The area I´m in has so many ups and downs
it´s ridiculous. If I´m walking, I´m either walking down a hill or up.There´s no in betweens... and
I´m soooo dead when the day is over. To make it worse, we don´t know a lot of people so we have been contacting a TON. And like Trevor says, the rich and prideful
don´t like us. We hardly get into ANY houses, but we are trying to be patient. We have found a few people but we haven´t had a 2nd lesson with any of them yet. The ward here is so sick though. There´s so many people in church, and apparently from what I hear, everyone is on vacation. That makes a lot of sense because 1 out of every 6 houses we contact there´s a person home. Everyone is on vacation in Viña Del Mar it´s ridiculous. There´s so many returned missionaries in the ward and they´re all way cool. One kid we´ve been working with that has helped us a lot just got his mission call. He is the bishop´s son and he just got his call to Fresno, California, He´s way excited and leaves in May. We have been trying to get to know all the members so that we can actually work with them and find more people through them. It honestly has been soooo difficult though. My companion is 20 years old, and he knows we need to have a lot of patience. Little by little we will figure things out. My church is the one in Santa Sabina.. Barrio Norte is some sister´s church that I have in my district. The church is a really good size and we live pretty close to it. Our house is actually in the back of the white house with a black gate so you probably won´t be able to see it on google earth. All our areas are sooo rich and the members tell us how much patience we are going to need to have. Yes I talked to Krisha Ardnt but I don´t know where she took off to. She was really worried about the language haha but she´ll be fine. I did talk to Dustin the other day and he sent me a picture and yeah he´s lost a lot of weight. Hahaha apparently he just sweats all day every day because it´s so hot and that´s why. I miss that kid though. Dad did tell me about his braces the other day, and he actually made me laugh.¨Can you imagine an old man with braces?¨ Hahaha that gave me a good laugh. So for my hump day, I¨m thinking about burning a shirt but we´ll have to see. I´m not sure if I have enough but we´ll see. One is ripped in a spot butit´s one of my short sleeved ones that actually fit so I don´t really wanna burn it. The rip doesn´t show when I tuck it in. But I´m just going to point something out.. In 1 year from today, I will be coming home! Apparently something happened and they cut 3 weeks off our missions or something because there´s so many missionaries I´m not really sure. But if the calculations are correct, it would be 1 year from today. Just sayin. I´m glad you have all received my handwritten letters... took me awhile to write all of those hahaha. The washer and dryer thing is good but bad at the same time. It was nice having someone else do it, but you always had to go without your clothes for some time. Here you can just wash it and be good to go. And I have to buy soap and stuff but it´s not that bad. Mom, I already knew how to do laundry and iron thank you very much...:) I made those peanut butter cookies today... actually turned out decent. I usually murder stuff like that but it was a surprise. Anyways there´s not much to report here from Santa Sabina... we have no area book, no old investigators, no futures or anything to look up. All we have are a few addresses of some members and contacting. The days are going by super slow but it´s all good. In time it should pick up hopefully. There is one investigator that the sisters gave to us because there were problems with the wife thinking he liked Sister R. He is planning on getting married and baptized in March apparently, but he has been super hard to have a lesson with. He LOVES basketball though, and wants to play with me and his Dad. Apparently he played professionally in Brazil or something and he wants to see if I can play or not. We are trying to set that up. He goes to church but we just haven´t been able to sit down with him and talk to him. We have to wait until Wednesday so I¨ll let you all know how that goes. By the way last week on the way to Santa Sabina I lost my wallet. No idea where, but I probably had like 20 bucks or a little more in there. I just forgot about it because there was nothing I could do and it was just going to bug me. Anyways this week I will be ordering a pizza from Papa John´s just to spoil myself. Thought you´d all like to know :) Mom, I hope I answered all of your questions. Thanks to Trevor and Bri I got my questions answered about the Corolla and Jeremy and Staci. Trevor´s letter gave me a good laugh too.. I´m glad my Corolla (Dad´s corolla) is enjoying her privacy. Please let her know, that I think about her every day as I walk up and down the hills here in Santa Sabina all day. She is surely and dearly missed, believe me. I don´t know if you can really understand how much I miss that car.. I literally think about it too much I think as the cars just zoom past us on the road. We take too many things for granted! Anyways I hope I answered all the questions and let you guys know everything. Oh by the way, I saw a kid going into his house the other day with a Utah Football hat on. I almost gave him a big hug and took a picture but I didn´t. Thanks again for all the letters and pictures... you guys are ballers! I love you and I¨ll talk to you all next week!!!!!
p.s. Dad the weather here is awesome. We can see the ocean from a lot of places in our area when we´re on the hills and there´s constantly a nice wind that is so amazing.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Dr. Pepper & Root Beer
Hello family! Has anyone ever realized once you get comfortable with something, it all of a sudden changes? Well that´s definitely what happened haha. All comfortable there in Yungay, knew everybody, knew where every street was, and BAM! I have no idea what the freak is going on. Okay so I´m learning little by little. Santa Sabina is huge. There are a total of 6 missionaries here now. 4 sisters and then us 2 elders. Basically this whole week we have just been contacting and trying to find some investigators. We literally have had to start from SCRATCH. We don´t have any reference of old investigators, futures, less actives, or anything. We have been exploring and trying to figure out what is going on. We have found so many members just knocking on doors it´s crazy. We also have a list of all the members now but we don´t know if they´re active or less actives. We have been trying to visit them to get to know them and everything. There are so many nice houses in our area it is nuts. The people are loaded... and full of pride as well. It´s extremely difficult to even get one to come out of their house to talk to you. Definitely different than Linares and Yungay. Laid back there with really nice people. Here is a different story.. but we´ll see what happens. My companion is from Brazil, but lived in Argentina for awhile too. He speaks like he´s from Argentina, but says he´s from Brazil.
Today we went to the beach with our zone which was pretty cool and played ultimate frisbee. I always have the worst luck at beaches. We were playing and I went up to catch the frisbee and landed on this huge rock. Anyways I started bleeding really bad and had to put my socks on and shoes and play in that. It was cool anyways and I got some cool pictures which I¨ll have to try and send next week. By the way we accidentally found these members and I was talking to this lady about my family. I found out that her husband served in Viña Del Mar, and knows Jeremy. They weren´t ever companions but he knew of him. I wrote his name down in my planner, and took a picture of when he was on his mission, but I forgot everything. I thought we would be going back to our house before writing but obviously that´s not the case. More details and pictures next week... SORRY!
District Leader is a lot more work. I taught my first class the other week which went pretty well. We are in the biggest zone in the mission with 25 missionaries. I have 6 sister missionaries in my district. By the way our ward has the highest attendance out of all the wards in our mission which is pretty cool. Church went well... it was kind of weird how it just.. FUNCTIONED. A ton of priesthood there which is the complete opposite of Yungay. In priesthood the teacher wanted to watch a video which all of us. After finally getting the TV to work, it wouldn´t read the video on his flashdrive. After wondering what they were gonna do, I mention that I have the same video on my flashdrive. After the class the teacher just came and gave me a big hug and said I don´t know what I would have done without you.. haha it was funny. The lunches haven´t been as great as I had hoped. We have been eating a lot of humitas. I don´t even know how to explain them but their like little things full of mashed corn and they´re so bland. In time, I think the lunches will get better. Our house is pretty decent though. Yes Mom, we have our own washer and dryer now and wash our own clothes. However, the dryer isn´t working right yet and we need to find someone to fix it. We have an iron too which is surprising. We have a blender and an oven too! And a Domino´s and Papa John´s. And we can easily shop at a Jumbo which has more american stuff. Anyways this all means I¨ll be eating more of the stuff that I really enjoy so I´m excited. Even though vanilla ice cream barely exists here so the shake thing I´m not sure about. This area I´m in is actually the area I was in for 2 days when I had to come here for the new missionary conference. Remember the couch I had to share with Elder H? That´s my house now haha. There were 4 missionaries there but now we only live the 2 of us. I remember with Elder Peper that day, we visited some investigators... and I´m trying to remember where they lived to go visit them but it´s been awhile. That would be cool though. Anyways Thursdays and Sunday nights I´m on the phone for an hour and a half verifying with my district and the zone leaders about the week.
Leaving Yungay... was difficult. I got to know the members there so well. I didn´t want to leave quite yet.. I wanted to stay at least one more transfer. But I know I was needed somewhere else. Like Dad said, it was kind of hard on the members too. A few of the members I went to say goodbye to cried when I was saying goodbye. I know I have more sectors to be, but I have a feeling I will want to go back to Yungay before I head home. It was just so cool getting to know such a small branch and working with the few members there. The people are so chill there too. So different here. By the way, the weather here is sooooo sick. It´s not really cold, but it´s not really hot. There´s some nice wind here which makes it so much better. Yungay was sooooo hot! With the music mom, yes we have a DVD player and we should always have one. So if you wanted to send a CD, that would be fine. I had seen some pictures of Bella and I had realized that she was a lot fatter. Better be careful and keep up with that diet of hers. She is a baller. Sounds like the Super Bowl or the commercials weren´t all that great. Oh well.. maybe next year. #chargernation I love you guys all so much and think about you DAILY. Not sure if that´s a good thing but I can´t help it because you guys are all ballers. Thanks for everything and I´ll talk to you guys all next week!!!
Today we went to the beach with our zone which was pretty cool and played ultimate frisbee. I always have the worst luck at beaches. We were playing and I went up to catch the frisbee and landed on this huge rock. Anyways I started bleeding really bad and had to put my socks on and shoes and play in that. It was cool anyways and I got some cool pictures which I¨ll have to try and send next week. By the way we accidentally found these members and I was talking to this lady about my family. I found out that her husband served in Viña Del Mar, and knows Jeremy. They weren´t ever companions but he knew of him. I wrote his name down in my planner, and took a picture of when he was on his mission, but I forgot everything. I thought we would be going back to our house before writing but obviously that´s not the case. More details and pictures next week... SORRY!
District Leader is a lot more work. I taught my first class the other week which went pretty well. We are in the biggest zone in the mission with 25 missionaries. I have 6 sister missionaries in my district. By the way our ward has the highest attendance out of all the wards in our mission which is pretty cool. Church went well... it was kind of weird how it just.. FUNCTIONED. A ton of priesthood there which is the complete opposite of Yungay. In priesthood the teacher wanted to watch a video which all of us. After finally getting the TV to work, it wouldn´t read the video on his flashdrive. After wondering what they were gonna do, I mention that I have the same video on my flashdrive. After the class the teacher just came and gave me a big hug and said I don´t know what I would have done without you.. haha it was funny. The lunches haven´t been as great as I had hoped. We have been eating a lot of humitas. I don´t even know how to explain them but their like little things full of mashed corn and they´re so bland. In time, I think the lunches will get better. Our house is pretty decent though. Yes Mom, we have our own washer and dryer now and wash our own clothes. However, the dryer isn´t working right yet and we need to find someone to fix it. We have an iron too which is surprising. We have a blender and an oven too! And a Domino´s and Papa John´s. And we can easily shop at a Jumbo which has more american stuff. Anyways this all means I¨ll be eating more of the stuff that I really enjoy so I´m excited. Even though vanilla ice cream barely exists here so the shake thing I´m not sure about. This area I´m in is actually the area I was in for 2 days when I had to come here for the new missionary conference. Remember the couch I had to share with Elder H? That´s my house now haha. There were 4 missionaries there but now we only live the 2 of us. I remember with Elder Peper that day, we visited some investigators... and I´m trying to remember where they lived to go visit them but it´s been awhile. That would be cool though. Anyways Thursdays and Sunday nights I´m on the phone for an hour and a half verifying with my district and the zone leaders about the week.
Leaving Yungay... was difficult. I got to know the members there so well. I didn´t want to leave quite yet.. I wanted to stay at least one more transfer. But I know I was needed somewhere else. Like Dad said, it was kind of hard on the members too. A few of the members I went to say goodbye to cried when I was saying goodbye. I know I have more sectors to be, but I have a feeling I will want to go back to Yungay before I head home. It was just so cool getting to know such a small branch and working with the few members there. The people are so chill there too. So different here. By the way, the weather here is sooooo sick. It´s not really cold, but it´s not really hot. There´s some nice wind here which makes it so much better. Yungay was sooooo hot! With the music mom, yes we have a DVD player and we should always have one. So if you wanted to send a CD, that would be fine. I had seen some pictures of Bella and I had realized that she was a lot fatter. Better be careful and keep up with that diet of hers. She is a baller. Sounds like the Super Bowl or the commercials weren´t all that great. Oh well.. maybe next year. #chargernation I love you guys all so much and think about you DAILY. Not sure if that´s a good thing but I can´t help it because you guys are all ballers. Thanks for everything and I´ll talk to you guys all next week!!!
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