Pictures

Here´s us in an American clothing store. It was awful. It was about half has cool as shopping in the D.I. My companion was so shocked I went into an american clothing store and didn´t buy anything. Honestly it was 3 times worse than the clothing in the D.I. Here´s a picture I took with one of the shirts in the ¨men´s section.¨  Hahaha

Here is a different part of the river that is right behind our hut with a bridge over it. We went there today to take some pictures because there´s nothing else to do here hahaha

Here is Soledad... she is an investigator of the sisters here and she got baptized on Saturday! I had to direct the meeting.. she was baptized by Leo there.. the secretary here in Yungay. He is awesome. He is member here that is very willing to help us.

Heyyyyyy family and friends how is everyone back at home? Thanks for all your letters, videos, pictures, and everything else! Freaking Utah.. I think that makes the 4th or 5th year in a row our starting quarterback can´t stay healthy. What a joke. I feel like the USC game was one of those games where I would´ve just been sooooooo mad and frustrated while watching it. Utah is a totally different team home and away it´s ridiculous.
 I haven´t gotten the prescription yet but they were going to send it by mail here to Yungay because nobody ever comes here to this ghosttown and I´m supposed to get it today. We´ll see if it helps with the stomach pains in the morning. That´s good Mom you´re enjoying work and your primary calling. How are you enjoying the new and remodeled office?
 Anyways we are still working hard to find more people to teach. It´s extremely tough here in Yungay with it being so small but we are trying to be creative. I will be teaching my first English class this Friday night right before our weekly movie night to try and bring more people to that. I´ve had a lot of people asking me to do an English class so it should turn out pretty well.  I hope you guys are all doing well and enjoying life back in good old Utah! Thanks for all your letters and for all do you to make our family the dopest family out there. Love you all!

Cowboy Corndogs

Getting checked out for stomach pain

 Birthday cake!

 Birthday lunch with members and sister missionaries

Hello my family! I am doing well here in Yungay still working hard to find more people to teach. I can´t believe Utah beats Stanford then loses to Arizona. That blows.. keep me updated on Travis Wilson´s injury. This past week has been a little slow like the other weeks but it´s all good. We have been contacting and trying to find more people to teach.  We got into a house the other day and we started teaching this lady. After about halfway through, she asked us what church we were from. Even though we had already told her, she was super confused. When she realized we weren´t Catholics, she got super disappointed and just stared at the floor for like 20 seconds. After she got super angry and kicked us out. Hahaha I was like wooooooow okay. Also we contacted this lady the other day. I handed her a pass-along card with a picture of Christ on it. She took it, ripped it all up, threw it on the floor, and slammed the door without saying anything. Hahaha people are so annoying sometimes. Anyways yes Mom, we had our interviews with the mission president. It went well and we talked about how it was going in Yungay being the 1st counselor. He knows it´s a lot of work. Also on Sunday, we got to church and we were making the announcement list for sacrament meeting and who was going to be speaking. Our ward mission leader, didn´t know he was supposed to give a talk, so he refused. Guess who has to give a talk in place for him? Well Elder Neilson, of course. I had to direct the meeting and while a member was giving a talk, I started to write down a few things I was going to say. I was going to be speaking last, after her and the 2nd counselor of the stake presidency. After she spoke, the 2nd counselor quickly looked at me and asked if I would hurry and talk so he could go last. Well, I ended up going up there with absolutely nothing not knowing what to talk about. Hahaha I ended up just talking about why I decided to serve a mission and the blessings I have seen in my life thanks to the Gospel. It ended up going pretty well. The medication the 1st doctor prescribed for me... well the paper got lost because the 2nd doctor kept it and never gave it back. I have to call the nurse her so she can call the 1st doctor back and figure out what it was that she prescribed me. It´s mostly just when I wake up in the mornings I have really bad stomach pain. Elder M was in Yungay with 2 other gringos, and apparently they got really sick too.  My companion now had 2 other gringos before me and they were super sick as well in their stomachs. The food is really distinct here and I´m thinking that´s the problem but we´ll see. The doctors said there wasn´t anything big wrong so that´s good. I honestly don´t know about my Christmas package yet. I need to think about it this week. I´m a little worried about only having 2 short sleeved shirts here for the summer. It´s already getting super hot some days and I feel like maybe more than 2 would have been a good idea. I do have some Christmas music on my ipod so I should be good there. I´m not sure about shoes yet.. If I need some I¨ll probably be able to buy some here in Chillan.  What else what else.. I don´t know. Our biggest struggle here in Yungay is finding more people to teach. We are trying hard to work with the less actives and to find people through them. We found a less active last night and her kid is 8. We are going to visit them tonight and all she wanted was to see pictures of my family. She wants to see little American kids because they are so ¨handsome.¨ She´s going to love the pictures of my nephews/niece! Also this week, we have family nights planned for every night with members/lessactives/newconverts. It should be good and hopefully we can find more people to teach through them. Anyways I think that´s about it for this week. But I do have some bad news. I talked to the mission president and apparently when Elder Gonzalez from the 70 came to the mission he told us we weren´t able to go to the temple in Santiago. So there goes that idea.. I was a little disappointed but oh well! It´s all good. Plenty of temples back in Utah right? Anyways I should probably go but thanks for everything and I love you all!

                                                     TREMPIN OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Utah takes down #5 Stanford!!!!‏

Good job to my Utes for taking care of business in RES Saturday night. I remember all my friends last year telling me how Stanford was going to kill Utah when they came to town.. never doubt my Utes!! I´m not going to lie and say that news made me a little homesick and made me wish I was able to be at that game.. but I know have more important things to do here in Yungay. I just keep telling myself I´ll be there for Travis Wilson´s senior year when we´ll win the Pac-12 and all head to Cali together for the Rose Bowl. Anyways, you´re all probably wondering why I´m emailing so late and being disobedient and emailing when I should be proselyting. Well... I had the wonderful opportunity of going to the hospital today on my birthday! Haha yesterday I didn´t feel to well so we left church early and I called up the nurse in our mission. She was worried about all my stomach pain I had been having so I had to travel 2 and a half hours to Concepcion to have an ultrasound. Anyways long story short I have to take a bunch of medication so we´ll see if that helps. I´ve been so sick of feeling like crap that I just decided to call the nurse to finally get checked out. Hahaha it was funny they put me in a wheelchair to take me down to the room to get the ultrasound.. I looked at them and said are you serious? I honestly thought they were joking for so long but yes.. I walk all day every day but I can´t walk down the hall to get an ultrasound.. my pride was at an all time low getting rolled down that hallway by a dude.But anyways thanks so much for all the pictures and the birthday video! I loved Hayden´s video.. ¨I´m 7 now! I´m 7... ¨ Haha definitely made me laugh. Also I started laughing when I saw the family video.. haha thanks so much you guys are the best! I was able to make the cake yesterday and I got some pictures.. I don´t know if I¨ll have time to send it because I honestly don´t have a ton of time tonight. I had a bunch of emails to go through before I got to writing this because you guys are awesome.. and I also had to watch those videos a few times. As for this week.. not a whole lot to report again. Geraldine wasn´t able to get baptized because she was missing some teachings, but we got the permission from her parents and everything this week and she is set up for the 19th. She does live in Huepil, so it makes it a little more complicated. We´re not sure if our District Leader will be able to come here this week for the interview, so it might have to wait for the 26th.I will keep you guys posted. This Sunday I had to direct Sacrament Meeting, bless the bread, and bless the sacrament. It´s a joke here.. there honestly is no priesthood here. I like the sister missionaries here, but wow if there´s no priesthood it wouldn´t hurt to have 2 more elders here to help out. Anyways we´re still working hard with all the less actives here because there´s a bunch. We´ll see what we can do. I´m glad the baby blessing went well.. I really enjoyed the pictures! If anyone was wondering.. Dallin has definitely been the biggest shock out of all my nephews. He is so different and huge now and looks like the perfect mix of Hayden and Teagan. It´s nuts. Also sounds like the sealing session was awesome.. wish I could of been there for the blessing and that but it´s all good! I loved Grandpa´s styling glasses. I definitely got a good laugh out of that hahaha. About my shoes and stuff... I believe there´s places I can buy shoes yes mom.. but the size 12 I´m not sure. I had to buy some slippers when I first got here and yeah size 12 doesn´t exist. About the office mom with the computer skills thing.. I honestly wouldn´t mind that haha.. I love computers and everything to do with them! Everybody asks me what I want to do when I come home and I tell them I´m thinking to do something with computers I just don´t know what. Anyways on Saturday we had an activity for the young men and women in Chillan. We don´t have any.. so we had to find some investigators and their friends. We ended up with 4 people that went.. I was actually planning on helping them out dancing to Starships by Nikki Minaj... but last minute we didn´t get permission. They danced to One More Time by Britney Spears. I´m not gonna say it was the greatest dance I´ve ever seen. Anyways there´s not a whole lot more to tell you guys.. I feel like I should be telling you guys more about my week but honestly like I´ve told you guys Yungay isn´t the happening place. I can´t believe I´m not a teenager anymore.. thanks Macee for reminding me how old I am now. But again thanks for all the emails/pictures/videos you guys sent me. You guys are awesome. I just remembered I didn´t bring my cable so I can´t send the pictures today but hopefully next week. I also wanted to write some personal emails to you guys a little bit but I don´t know if I´ll have time. We´re supposed to be in our house in 15 minutes planning for tomorrow haha. The President and his wife actually just called me about a half hour ago to wish me a Happy Birthday. They´re awesome.. we actually have interviews with President Arrington this Wednesday.. so that should be good. Today we were lost in Concepcion looking for the mission office when I spotted some more missionaries in the distance. We met up with them and it was Peter Morgan from school! Haha he is in that area so he helped us out.. anyways I hope I answered all the questions that you guys had and that Mom can now relax that I got my letter sent off.. but I should probably head out. Thanks again for everything and I love you all! Congratz to my Utes again and good luck to them this week against Arizona! ¨Utah Man Sir, Will Be Til I Die!!¨ GO UTES!

My Leg Itches like there´s as Banana Peel Glued to it‏

Trenton received his birthday package in 2 1/2 weeks.

His birthday is on October 14th.

Hey everyone how´s everything going? Conference was awesome this past weekend.. sounds like everyone had the chance to watch it. I´m a little disappointed about my Utes. 0-2 with Stanford coming to town. Uh-oh. With 6 turnovers and still being in the game at the last really surprised me. We´ll see what happens! I´m also a little disappointed you guys left the game early.. but I forgive you all! Yes I was able to watch the conference in English in my own little room with my Starburst.. that was nice. Yes that is right.. I GOT MY PACKAGE! I got it last Wednesday so that was good. Thanks so much everybody.. I loved it! Everything I wanted was there so you guys are awesome. Hayden, Teagan, Carter and Dallin.. thanks for your gifts! I have pictures that I will be sending so stay tuned. I forgot to make an outline for my letter today.. so hopefully it´s not all over the place and I can remember what happened this week. We still have been working in Huepil a lot and with less actives. Geralddin we are still working with.. she wasn´t able to come to general conference but she still has a date for the 12th. She has been hard to find in her house to teach and she is missing some teachings still.. so hopefully all goes well. Anyways Saturday night it suddenly became my problem at 10:00 pm that we didn´t have a computer or anyone that knew how to set it up to watch the relief society meeting in the morning. The branch president always leaves everything last minute here and just dumps it off on me. The stake president is actually really frustrated with him. The only day he does work here for the branch is on Sunday. I´m working hard with the elders quorum president named Hermano Poblete with whom I will get to a little later. He is awesome. Anyways I had to go find a computer last minute and set it all up for the 2 members that came to watch it. Saturday night for the priesthood session, there were 3 people there to watch it. We had more members there for the Sunday morning session, but zero for the afternoon session. Yes yes yes it is obvious, WE ARE IN YUNGAY. Haha that´s kind of a joke known around the mission... good old Yungay. Also yesterday, a member had had a computer for a very long time but nobody in Yungay knew how to set it up. Haha we had a family night over there and I got it all set up for her and she was so thankful. It´s sad here.. there´s so many people that can´t read, type, or know anything about any electronics. Freak I can´t think of anything exciting that happened this week.. sorry. Today a less active member asked me if I knew how to cook this special soup. I was like nope.. haha she was like are you serious? She told me I needed to learn how to cook.. she asked me what do you do if your mom is sick? I told her we usually can just go grab fast food. That probably wasn´t a good idea.. haha apparently we´re rich! Haha people don´t understand how many fast food restauraunts/restuarants there are in America. The only restaurant here in Yungay is this lady that cooks.. you go into her house and sit at her table and she´ll cook you something real quick. Be thankful to live in America! That reminds me the day I left Linares. Eduardo and his family wanted to see our house on google earth. Yes I got a ton of crap because are house is ¨HUGE¨. They were like wow how rich are you? Haha it was funny. I also had a mini-cambio again with Elder W in his area. That was definitely a long day. He really really is struggling with the language and we didn´t have any appointments. We stayed at the zone leaders house with Elder P (Lone Peak) and Elder M because they were in a mini-cambio too! Houses of 4 are so much better.. I sometimes feel like I´m going to die of boredom in my house of 2. Anyways Mom I didn´t really have a favorite talk.. there were a lot of good ones. I really like Russel M. Nelson´s about the human body and how it´s such a great gift from God. Also Gerald Caussé from the presiding bishopric did a good job. He spoke to us in the MTC on Easter if you don´t remember. The guy that gave the closing prayer in priesthood session also came to our mission not too long ago and he helped us out a lot.. Elder Gonzalez. Holland always does a really good job too! Anyways about the address of our house. It´s 62 Chipana.. at least I think it´s 62. It could be 64 as well...There´s a wooden house just inside the black gate to the left.. and you have to keep going down the trail and it´s the last house on the left in front of the river. Let me know if you can find it! That´s cool Brielle is getting blessed this coming Sunday.. take some pictures of her and send them to me if possible! That sucks for Real.. sounds like they really choked like Utah teams love to do. Yes Dad it´s starting to get warmer here now in Yungay and it´s so much better. The freaking winter here sucks big time I´m not gonna lie haha. Sophie when she finds us on the street will follow us still.. my companion is really scared of dogs so he always locks it in the front yard of people´s houses. Sophie loves to hide behind other cars and jump out and chase cars as they go out. She´s almost gotten hit a few times because she doesn´t see the other cars coming from the opposite way. Haha but there´s 2 dogs that chill at our house because they live around there and they´re pretty dope. Some P-Days I´ll just go out and play with them. And yes there´s a ridiculous amount of stray dogs here in Chile! That´s good you went and visited Grandma.. I´m sure she really enjoys the company. Is her health good besides her mind? And how is Grandpa doing? The other day I had the feeling that I just wanted to talk to Grandpa so bad.. haha it was weird. But honestly I can´t think of any more exciting things that happened.. good luck to Utah against Stanford.. wish I could be there! #5 team in the nation will hopefully be an exciting game if Utah comes to play. Let me know how it goes! Also thanks for the package again.. it´s awesome! I will be making the cake at Hermano Poblete´s house this Sunday.. his birthday is also the 14th. We will be eating a really good lunch and then we will eat the cake afterwards.. I´ll see if I can take some pictures! But thanks for everything and I love you all! I´ll talk to you all next week..... PEACE OUT NEIL FAM!

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".