Week 13 12-21-15 Plaza Hunicul

Hola

So my new area is big!!! We walk a lot but its all good hahaha Both my comp and i are new so its been harder. We don't know where anything is or who anyone is. We had a good week tho. We had some good contacts. I also found a rocking climbing wall...it was dope. I sent a picture. It was super cool!! So my comp is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He only knows a couple words in English so we speak Spanish the whole day. I actually understand him though. It's awesome. I dont have a problem only speaking spanish because i can almost always say what I want now and I understand him. I have to say the Lord has a hand in that. My Spanish is a lot better now. I understand the members haha and most say its good for only 6 weeks:) I still have a lot to learn but its good. My comp is awesome tho. He has a strong testimony and likes to work. I have already learned so much from him. I was scarred at first to have a latino comp but it has shown me that my spanish isn't all bad hahah My area is only 3 hours south from Rincon so the weather is pretty much the same but its starting to get hot...Plaza Hunicul is right next to Cutral Co which is a more known city. Its like Rancho Cucamonga and Alta Loma. For church they have classes first and then the Sacrament and I had to give a talk in church and i didn't know till like 5 minutes before the meeting hahaha The life of a missionary!! Well i think thats all. Im excited to talk to you guys on Thursday. Love you all!!

Freakin i was dying when i was reading about the car. I can just imagine the jokes hahahahah We should get one to take down to mexico;) The adventure Crossover!! I was dying at how mom called it a mini van and the guy was like no its a crossover hahahah Thats awesome with Torie!  Well i hope everything is going good! Also in my district there is an Ecuadorian guy. Where did you serve in Ecuador? ¿Como esta mi llave? -Elder Conforme

For transfers i will tell you on Thursday because its confusing haha but we take a bus.

Love you all!!

Elder Nielson

Week 12 12-14-15 Rincon de los Sauces

Hey!!

So this week was crazy so first of off we had transfers and half the mission got whitewashed including Rincon........Im super sad about it because i love it there and i only got one transfer. I'm going to miss Elder Bursach too.. I'm going to Plaza Huincul and I have a Argentina Latino. That is exciting but my spanish should pick up super fast. Dad there is only two Elders and two Hermanas in Rincon. I know those 2 families. I sent a picture of Family Ponce.

On Monday we cooked chorizo in the church with some kids and we cooked in the oven so we were taking them out. The pan had a lot of grease and it spilled and a huge fire started hahaha it was big!!! Bursach turned the gas off with the switch and then the whole church was filled with smoke. It was super scary when it was happening but after it was super funny hahah

We had a pretty good week with lessons. We had a less active call us out of no where and was like here i want to start going back to church. We went and visited him and this guy was LOADED!! He is like 27 and is a famous photographer. He had all Apple stuff which you cant buy in the US, Xbox, and the Canon 6D. He was super cool too. He was going to take us to the volcano too but we got transferred :( 

Nothing else really big happened this week. We had a super cool sunset and then on sunday we just visited familys. People always say its hard to leave the mission and i never understood it but after Rincon I do. I have a love for the place and the people. We had to bear our testimonys and I actually cried because I was super sad I was leaving. The thing about Love is so true!!! I love the people of Argentina!! Love you all!!

Dad-

Its super weird having it be Christmas but having it be hot!! This last week was pretty hot. I wore my wood tie to church and everyone loved it but yeah its crazy how big Greg King's bowties have gotten and i have the first one!! I'm pretty sure I get to Skype. I will let you know as I find out!

Mom-

Hope you feel better. I cant believe that you have only gone up to the lights once!! The gift of tongues is so true. Its crazy how fast i have already learned Spanish. They dont have a ton of stuff but i will look for some thing and let you know!! Thanks for all the updates but with the screenshots its always super small. Love you tons Mom!!

The Chicos we have been teaching!!

Andres is the guy with Bursach and I

Family Ponce

Family Arpones

The little kid is Aitor!! He super cute

Family Maza

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Week 11 12-7-15 Rincon de los Sauces

Hey!!

So I,m going to start off by telling about some crazy things in Argentina. So on the cigarette packages, they all have warnings of how bad they are and stuff but people still smoke them hahah and super young kids smoke and drink in public like its nothing.
Everyone has mopeds (scooters) that they trick out and think they are the coolest things haha I have seen a couple super nice dirtbikes tho. I saw like a brand new KTM 200 or something. It was sweet. This place would be so fun to ride dirtbikes dad.

So the One Eyed Unicorn is what a missionary called it but the ladies breast feed EVERYWHERE....in church, the park, riding on the back of a scooter, and wherever they want hahaha

Argentinas are crazy when it comes to ladders hahaha. I sent a picture but there was another one and this guy had a ladder standing against a pole and was on the very top rung!!

Thanks for the Christmas tree!! It was super cool!!

This week was good but we did a ton of walking....We having been trying to get new investigators because we only have like 5 right now. We visited a ton of people but no one was home. We did have some crazy contacts tho. We had like 5 people this week just stop us and want to know what we did. It was awesome and I'm starting to understand people way better. On Monday I bought a new razor and i got the cheap ones because it had like 10. I open them and it has 1 blade......................I cut myself like 6 times. It was horrible hahaha So we had some really good lessons things week. We had like 2 lessons with Bruno and Karen who we have been trying to visit since i got here. They also came to church!! They are awesome!! We had one of Santis friends Rodrigo come to church who we have taught a couple times and he said he wants to be baptized. YESSS!! We had a great lesson with Gerson and he is great but he has a girlfriend that is in Peru until Enero....So we are going to have to wait for that!! Which sucks! Oh i almost forgot. We had a huge storm that lasted 2 days. The thunder and lighting was crazy. The lighting is pink here!! I wish i could take a photo of it. I used my jacket and it worked great:) The president and the APs came to Rincon on Saturday too and we had interviews which were super good. I could actually understand him this time haha He said that my Spanish is good too!! Its crazy how much I have improved in just 5 weeks. 

Well love you all!! Hope everything is going great back home.

Thats fun going to the lights with everyone. That was always so fun! Its weird because its super hot here and doesnt feel like christmas at all haha But we should be having some bomb fun this month. Last night they also had a BMX contest in the plaza. It was pretty cool.  Im jealous you saw the new Hunger Games!!! haha 

Well love you all and miss you. I hope the Christmas season is great!!!

The kid with the glasses is Hermano Maza's son Nataniel. There family is awesome.

Week 10 11-30-15 Rincon de los Sauces

Hey fam!!!

This week was another great week. Yi Boy got another baptism!! The kid that we baptized is a stud too.Well this week seemed really fast too!! We were able to teach a lot of people this week. We have been trying to get some new investigators so we visited a ton of the people that we had contacted. Sadly no one was home or they were ¨busy¨. Thats the nice way for people to say we dont want to talk to you haha but everyone one is so nice about it here. Rincon is awesome because its a small town and everyone is really chill. We had like three storms this week but it only rained for like an hour and it was during our language study!! The weather has been pretty nice but then on Saturday and Sunday it started getting hot again. We taught Santi who is one of Eyners friends. The kid I baptized last week. He is a stud. He is always inviting his friends to lessons and already doing missionary work So we had him pray about being baptized last week and he said he had this warm feeling and felt the spirit. This week he was way more interested in the lessons and he got baptized on Sunday!!! Elder Bursach got to baptize him so that was really awesome. We also had a primary program this week.....and oh my gosh the kids here are crazy!!! I had the biggest head ache Sunday because I'm trying to focus to understand the language and then the kids were so loud hahaha We had an awesome lesson this week with Gerson. We taught him about prophets and going to church. He said if he found out that there was a true prophet he would drop everything for it. We talked about prayer and I got to talk a lot and understood almost everything. The gift of tongues is true!!! haha It was my best lesson. I hope we can have more of those!! We taught Mateo, Lautaro and Rodrigo too. They are 14, 13, and 9. They are super funny and studs Hopefully Lautaro gets baptized this week. He always remembers stuff and we asked him to pray so hopefully!! 

Well this week was good and this next week should be another great week. 

Love you all:)

I miss Thanksgiving. I hate you for having deep fried turkey, wings and pumpkin pie....Some elders in Cutral Co had a member make them a pumpkin pie too. I love the food here but i miss american food!!!  That's crazy that Mckenzie is already leaving and that I have been out for 2 months. The language is getting better but I am still having a hard time getting Elder Bursach to speak Spanish all the time...I miss the Martinez too but I am having fun here. We always stop and play futbol with the smaller kids. Its super fun!! Can you send some pictures every week of stuff during the week?
 Love you guys and miss you!!!

Santi and Elder Bursach at his baptism.

We had some sweet sunsets this week!!

Rincon from the Cristo Statue

Elder Mccutcheon(ZL) and I up at Cristo

Week 9 11-23-15 Rincon de los Sauces

We Had Our First Baptism(Voice From the Best Two Years)

So this week was a super awesome week!! On Monday I got my first Mate and Boca Jersey!! So we started off the week good. We had a least one lesson a day and then on Thursday night we had to go to Cutral Co again for a training with the APs. That night was the worst....So we got to the pension and the APs were there so we had to sleep on the cold tile ground!!!! I had a towel to lay on and then luckily I bought my sheet but it was still freezing. I slept for like an hour and then woke up and couldnt get warm. They had a little heat so i moved over by it and slept for like 30 minutes and then would wake up hahaha i will remember that!! 

So the training was good. It was about how when we are obedient we receive blessings from God. Which is so true. A guy in the MTC said When you are obedient you receive blessings but when you are exactly obedient you receive miracles!! Its soo true. So awesome story that goes perfect with that. On saturday we had to do a baptism interview for one of the Hermanas investigators named Isi and her had mom said she couldn't be baptized. So we had started a fast the afternoon. So we meet with her and she stills says no but says she will go to church. Next day she comes to church and after Elder Bursach talks with her and she says she isn't going to her other church but to our church and that she wants to know more about baptism. That right there is a miracle. 

Sunday we also had a baptism for Eryner our investigator and i got to dunk him!!! It was a greatest experience ever. When we got in the water I was super nervous and the water was way cold. As I started to say the words of the prayer, the water got really warm and the spirit was super strong. It was such a cool experience!! I also was reading an Ensign that Shelly sent me and it was about Jesus Christ and the Atonement. One cool thing I learned about the fall of Adam was that God had to give him the choice to choose the fruit or be cast out. If he hadn't he wouldn't have been using his free agency. I had never thought about that so it was cool. 

This weeks weather was really weird. It was super stormy. A member said its because El Nino is going to hit us!! He said it already hit Peru so that should be interesting. Has the surf started getting big again? 

Well this week was a great week and this next week we have at least one baptism but we may have 3 more if they are ready. I'm pumped for this week. I'm sending a ton of photos from the last couple weeks. 

Love you all!!

Dane and Andrew in Buenos Aires

Week 8 11-16-15 Rincon de los Sauces

Hey!!

This week was good but rough! We didn't teach a lesson till Thursday so we did a lot of walking....haha Im glad my shoes are nice and not Payless shoes like Chad hahaha I was getting down and thinking come on let me see how it is to teach a lesson and i asked god to help me teach a lesson. That afternoon I was thinking and i remember a quote from Elder Bednar, he said This mission isn't about you, your success, or what you want. Its about the people you are serving! That was a huge reminder that when its hard to keep going because there maybe one person that i can help. That helped me get though this week. So we taught Erynor on thursday who is a 13 year old and goes to church every Sunday by himself. He is getting baptized on Sunday!! On Wednesday we had a huge storm and it hailed and it was the size of marbles!! It was crazy!! There was also a crazy sunset that night. The sky looked like fire. I love the sunsets here!! Mom you would think they are so awesome. I'm going to send some pictures today of them.
  So we finally had asado on saturday! Saturday was the The day of tradition so the branch had a big party. It was super fun and they did a couple of songs and dances. They had chorizo but it was in the form of a big hotdog like a the ones we have that start with a B haha I cant remember what they are called. It was super bomb!!! After the party we went and did service. We had to dig up the poop pipe haha and add some attachment to get. When we took off the pipe some poop came out hahaha so that was fun!! So that took like 3 hours so that was most of our day. Another funny story so we were walked down the street and this random guy was like do you know how to tye a tie and we were like ya! So i got to tye his tie right there in the street. It was a funny experience! 

Some more stuff about my pension. So we have hot water, ac and a heater so thats super nice! Its a pretty nice pension for Argentina. Yeah not understanding people is rough. It wasn't bad at first but i hate it now haha We had a zone meeting last week and the ZL is a gringo and i could understand like everything but when the natives talk its way harder to understand...Its like a totally different language but I'm starting to get words. I heard about the gay lesbian thing but it doesn't seem like the Argentina people care much about it but I may be wrong because i cant understand everything.  . Mom the food is super good here. I love it. The dulce de leche is sooo bomb!!!!! Its my favorite! For Pday last week we played futbol which was fun so i have a lot of improvement haha Its fun tho. Oh yeah i taught a kid how to say some things in English, so i will send a video of it hahaha we are teaching him and two other chicos his age Well that's about it! Love you all and miss you!!

Dad I have tried to think that same way about the people! We have a couple areas in Rincon that are super poor. Its awesome to see how they are still so happy tho. I have tried to have the same attitude. That's fun that you guys went to the Reign game. I can't believe that this was Tanners first time seeing a hockey fight hahaha. That's awesome that they still remember the hotdog at the Volleyball games!! That's great haha Im jealous that they have a football field now. How did Rancho's football team do this year? I can't believe Osos Water Polo lost. That's crazy and a bummer for Tanner. Well love you and thanks for everything!!

I tried sending more pictures but the internet is super slow sorry and I'm out of time!! I will send more next week first while I'm writing:)

Week 7 11-9-15 Rincon de los Sauces

So the first like three days we stayed in Neuquen because my companion Elder Bursach(from Lehi, Utah) is a district leader and they had a big meeting on Friday. My area is Rincon de los Sauces. It's at the top of the mission at the border of Mendoza. The church has only been there for 2 years so the work is going crazy right now. Its a little branch of like 50 people. The church is in the 2 story building like 10 minutes from the pension(boarding/apartment). All the missionaries told me that the work is great there and we will be baptizing a ton of people. The members are all super nice and we have had lunch everyday. We also have a member that does our laundry so that's a score. My area looks like southern Utah. Its all dirt roads beside like 3 main roads. Its amazing how happy everyone is when they have like nothing. I have already started to love everyone. We haven't taught a lesson yet because no one has been home and we haven't been super organized because its been a busy week so I'm super excited for this week and to start doing the Lords work. I have been reading everything is spanish and i cant feel it helping. In church  I didn't understand anything. That's how the first day was. But I am slowly starting to understand words if its one on one. I told my companion to just talk to me in Spanish because the first day he was speaking English. I have been cleaning my shoes everyday so they last and look nice. Rincon does that beautiful sunsets its awesome. The food is also amazing! They always have meat which i love and this saturday we have asada so I'm super excited for that.I sometimes think i am in Glamis because a lot of people ride motorcycles haha Its a great place. I cant wait till i can understand and speak to the people. I have got to say since i got here. I have a totally different desire to learn the language. Well everything is going good. Love you all!!

I don't have anything pictures this week because we went to a zone pd in Cutral Có and i forgot my camera. So next week i will send a lot. That's awesome that Kate is undefeated. Good luck in CIF. I only have like an hour to email so my spelling may be bad hahah Correct it for me please!! They said that packages always get here but they can cost a lot if they are big. So if you want to sent small packages its okay:)

I forgot to tell about the weather. Its hot like California summers but there is usually a little wind so its not too bad!!  

Week 6 11-4-15 Travel to Argentina

Dane was able to call home from the airport. On Monday 11-2-15 he flew from Salt Lake to Atlanta, then at 9:10 pm he got on the plane to Buenos Aires,  When we talked to him he didn't know how he was going to get to Neuquen. According to Google, it's a 12 hr drive from Buenos Aires. He arrived in Buenos Aires at about 11:00 am Tues morning local time.  He let us know that someone picked him up along with 5 other Missionaries going to Neuquen, and drove them to another airport where they took a flight to Neuquen.

Mike Nielson



Hey I got to Neuquen and the president and the A.P.'s picked us up! The airport was tiny and we just walked off the plane and in to the airport. Its a super cool town! I'm excited! Yesterday was a little stressful but I think it was hearing all the Spanish and not understanding and then being exhausted. We drove to the mission house and we went over the rules and had dinner. We had empanandas. I spelled that wrong but whatever. They were amazing. I cant wait to have all the food. Well today we are just chilling at the mission house and doing interviews. So tomorrow I will find out my companion and where I will be going. The mission president is super chill and nice. I'm excited. Well I don't have a lot of time so I love you all. Neuquen is going to be awesome.

Dane

Week 5 10-29-15 Last Week in MTC

Yeah so all the Argentina missionarys fly down on the same plane so I will be with him!(Andrew Moore andrewjohnmoore.blogspot.com/)  That will be fun. There is going to be a lot of missionaries flying down to Argentina. 

So this week was pretty good. I got sick so i was sleeping a lot which was nice but sucked. Im pretty much over it so hopefully im good by monday. So monday night we had a sick jam session with all the polys up stairs! It was so much fun and nice to just chill. The MTC is all just go go go! We finished teaching our TRC investigator on friday. He was really good and I learned a lot from him. We also finished our last spanish lesson so now we are just reviewing. Its good because there is so much that i have forgotten. So monday the district A left. Which was sad because they were all so awesome. Its crazy that we leave monday. Im excited. Its going to be dope. So we have skype investigators and our last one was from mexico but she said she had friends from Neuquen. She said they have thick pieces of carne and noodles. So i should be eating good and then she said that the elders get muy gordo...cual esta no bueno. We have infield training which everyone says is horrible but i plan on going in with a good attribute. 

This week for our Tuesday night devotional we had Neil A. Anderson.  He is great. He talked about sacrifice, Opposition, adversity, and diligence. Well he talked a lot about sacrifice and how we all sacrifice something when we are on our missions. For some of us its a big sacrifice and for others its not but He said you have to sacrifice to gain something and then he said the lord will give us 1000 blessings x our sacrifice! I thought that was super cool and helps a lot being on a mission. That was like the perfect talk to hear before going out to the field. And i also got to see an Apostle so my time in the MTC is done haha 

Well thats about it this week because i was sick a lot of the time. Oh I almost forgot something big haha so every week you prepare a talk in spanish and then they pick 2 missionaries to give their talks. So this week I was luck enough to be able to give a talk...I was super nervous but everyone said it was good. So i guess i was alright. I get to start packing tonight which is crazy to think about. If the mission goes as fast as it does here i will be home in no time. Love you all and miss you! Cant wait to talk to you on monday:)

Thanks a ton! I got the backpack and sour patch kids! The backpack is dope. Its perfect. Thats awesome that Rancho killed Osos again. I miss those games, they were soo crazy! well i dont remember talking to any sister going to Rancho but I dont know. I hope teaching starts to be better with that PE class. Thats so funny what happened in the haunted house hahaha i can totally see matt being like what are you guys doing! Well im glad everything is going good and everyone is good! Keep killing it Kate!! That would be sick if you guys went undefeated. Is varsity too? Well love you all:)

Elder Shupe and I at the Provo Temple.

Elder Peterson is going to Nicaragua, He is super cool!

Hermana Hussey she is going to Nicaragua!

Last P-Day in the MTC. We played sand volleyball and the sand doesn't feel like California sand:(

Week 4 10-22-15 MTC

Hey guys!!

Its so crazy that its been a month!! They arent kidding when they say it flys. We get our flight plans tomorrow!! Yayy baby!! Its crazy that im going to be in Argentina in less that 2 weeks. I just want to get down there and teach already. On saturday we were looking at Neuquen and we looked up meeting houses and we go to one in the mountains and it was an apartment im pretty sure. It was soo cool! So this week this lady that works here and is from El Salvador randomly came into our classroom and I talked to her in spanish for like 10 minutes like it was nothing! it was the coolest thing ever. That was one of those moments were i was like i do know spanish because i have been questioning how good my spanish is. Well this week for our devotionals we had Chad Lewis who was a tight end for BYU and then the Eagles. His talk was soo good! He talked about how important his mission was for him and then he also told about how he climbed Mt.Kilimanjaro with some wounded warriors. He had it pretty easy because the sherpas carried everything but it is still way cool! That would be a fun one to climb! On our Tuesday devotional i sang in the choir ( i know a shock right but its actually really awesome, the spirit is just so strong its amazing) and we had Erich W. Kopischke (Of the Seventy) he talked about how important Joseph Smith is to everything. He said that "we cant teach without talking about the Prophet Joseph Smith". That was a really cool thought. So the district with Black, Peterson, Ishamm, Meza is leaving next week which is sad because i have gotten so close with them. Its also exciting that we are almost out of here too. Well this week nothing else really interested happened that i can think of right now. I love you all and miss you! I hope everything is going good at home:)

Thanks a lot! Can you send my flag too?   Yeah i got Matts email thanks! Thats sooo awesome that Kate got moved up to practice with varsity! Its the greatest feeling when you get noticed like that! Im so proud of her:) Thats soo sick perri's photo got in a contest!! Thats good that she has something to keep her busy and that she is good at!! I would do the same thing if i was perri but im sure its just cuz she misses the smell of me;) (Response to: Perri sleeping in Dane's room) I hope senior year is going good Perri! Do everything you can because it flys!! hahah Well good luck with your jobs. High school seems the funniest to me too! That's awesome that surfing was great! Yeah i want to try one of those SUPs but I have to agree surfing still looks more fun. It doesn't bum me out because i know im doing the right thing in my life right now. I forgot in that talk by Chad Lewis he said If the lord wanted you to be doing something else, you would be doing it. That just insured me that I'm doing the right thing.

Love you guys!

​Pointing at my Mission!!

​Donovan Toki! from High School.  He is going to Sacramento

This is Elder Anderson he is going to Arkansas. He is a stud

Uepi from High School holding the ties. Tie trading gets crazy!

The tie and watch that I got from trading!

(Don't worry i didn't trade my Nixon)

Elder Isham is from Hawaii and is going to Nicaragua! He is so funny haha

We decorated our whole room with Halloween stuff that we got from a district that was leaving!

Week Three 10-15-15 MTC

Hey!

So this week flew by so quick! We had a good week. We did great in all our lessons which is awesome! The Spanish is starting to come which is great. Shupe is getting way better which is nice cuz then we can go back and forth in lessons. The spirit I have learned is also so important to have in lessons. When you have it Spanish just seems to flow way easier. This week we had a lesson and i wasn't feeling the spirit and i just couldn't speak spanish for the life for me and we get out of the lesson and I'm like, that was horrible and Shupe is like, that lesson was awesome. One of the greatest things I have learned here is that the holy ghost is awesome and works and you have to have it to teach someone. I got a package from Shelly this week and she hooked me up! I love you . She also sent me some talks that were super good! The one was like 14 pages but it told about this guys mission and it had so much good stuff. It just showed me how much i still need to work on and what kind of missionary i want to be!! Well Kanongataa has been cutting everyones hair hahah  and hey Uepi did come to the Provo MTC. I havent seen him yet but Toki said he saw him and this hermana said he is on the same floor as my classroom. So i should see him a lot. Thanks for getting all those pictures. I actually found the couple of pictures that i brought but it would be great to have more. I didnt realize how much i would like them! Can you get some of the pictures of me wakeboarding and sports stuff. That would be awesome. and you I cant believe its 3 weeks already. Its crazy how the days just fly by now!! For gym i have been playing volleyball and the other day i blocked the same guy like 4 times!! its was soo awesome! I love volleyball i wish i had played a club team in highschool. that would have been so much fun! We got a new branch president but before he got released we all had a meeting with us and he told us about how to be postive on the mission and a ton of good stuff! We got new guys last week and one is elder Anderson from the LA area and one night we talked for like 30 minutes about surfing hahah he is super chill! He is going to Arkansas! so he is only here for a little bit but he is a cool guy! 

How is kate doing in volleyball? they winning? They seemed to have a pretty solid team! Good luck kate! Keep killin!!

How is work perri? still at chick fil a right? I miss chick fil a and just food! The MTC food isnt bad but it all has that same kind of cafeteria food taste hahah I have surprisingly not gained any weight.

Probably because i have been running! but this week i didnt go at all because shupe was sick for most of the week. So hopefully this week is better!! Can you tell Grandma thanks for all the letters! I have been meaning to send her one but i get busy! Hey can you also go on my phone and see you you can text Matt for his email? I want to see how he is doing!!

Well thanks for everything. I love you Mom!

I love you all soo much! Thanks for everything you have done to get me to this point in my life!!

I cant wait to get to Argentina!!  

This is Hopkins and Peterson! Peterson is my bud! He is super cool. Him and I are really close