Week 18 1-25-16 Plaza Hunicul

Transfers and Asados!!!

Hola!!

Feliz Cumpleaños Dad!!!!

This week was the best week of this transfer. The work is really picking up. Its awesome. We had a good amount of investigators now and found 4 new ones this week. The lord has really been helping us with the work. This transfer was hard but the hard work has payed off!! We had transfers Saturday and Elder Martinez got transferred which sucks...I really liked him and learned a ton both in Spanish and the church stuff. ( I don't know how to word it hahah) My new comp is Elder Valenzuela . I haven't met him yet but he is from the US. He arrives in the afternoon so next week i will tell you more about him. 

  This week we had some really good lessons. So with Maria, who's husband didn't want us to teach her, we got to have a lesson with him. It was really good so hopefully he reads and prays. She is super prepared so we just need him to want it too. 

     Saturday we had 2 asados!!! It was amazing. We had one with Flia Castillo and her son is one of our investigators also. Then Flia Almarza invited us over for Dalilas birthday and had an asado. We had to leave before it was all done but they gave us some to take back to our pension. Yayy. They are a less active family but have started to come back to church. Its awesome and Dalila is 9 and hasn't been baptized so we are planning to teach her too. Well that's about it this week!! It was a very good week. Oh yeah i finished my training this week! Well love you all!!

Week 17 1-18-16 Plaza Hunicul

What a week!!

Hey!!

This week was different. It was up and down. We had 4 investigators say they dont want us to pass by but we also found 2 new awesome investigators. With Maria we have passed by but her husband doesn't want us to teach her so we haven't been able to.....I hate people sometimes...!!! Well one of our new investigators is Carla. She is like 26 and awesome.  We were walking and not having success. we passed by a members house and I thought we should go visit.(We had never passed by them before). We pass by and they have a friend Carla. We taught her right there and put a cita for the next day. The next day (Saturday) we had a lesson with her and her member friend. We invited her to church and gave her a BOM. Sunday the first hour we didn't have an investigator and I was bummed... but the second hour Carla showed up with the member!!! She talked a lot in the class too. It was awesome. I also had to give a talk in sacrament meeting. It was really good I thought haha I wasn't very nervous either:) That was the highlight of my week! 

We also did service for the bishop. We had to move a lot of dirt!!!! It reminds me to go to school hahah The next day my back was super sore too haha But its all good now. We have a Kisco next to our pension so twice this week.We brought milanesa this week too. I love them. They are one of my favorite foods. Also a funny thing. So all the cars are stick so we were walking and a car wouldn't start so the guy was like can you help me. We started to push the car and he jumped in and jump started the car haha

Well thats about it this week! Love and miss you all!

Elder Nielson

Week 16 1-11-16 Plaza Hunicul

Ecuador Smoothie!!!!

Hola!

Me encanta su español padre!! 

This week was mas o menos! The weather has been super random. We had a couple storms but it rained in the night. We had a lot of investigators last week and this week none of them were home....We visited an old investigator that was in the area book. We taught her the first lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon. She said she was going to go to church and we made plans to pass by in the morning and take a taxis to church. So before i finish that story we had a training with the zone in Zapala Thursday. It was super good and fun to see other parts of Argentina. Well they have a new rule that you cant go to the classes in church if you dont have an investigator so we passed by Maria who lives close to our pension.(Our pension is 40 minutes from the church). We passed by at 915 and she wasnt there....We looked for a couple other people but nothing. We ended up arriving at church at 11 but we stopped by her after church and she said that she read and prayed and feels this is the right path for her!!! YESS

Some other cool things this week was we had an Asado with the Bishop! I ate so much but it was soo good hahaha After we were walking back with the other elders and a kid asked "¿Que significa Hola en ingles?". Elder Feulien who is from Buenos Aires but knows english a little says it means douchebag.....i was dying because it was so random hahahahah P.S i didnt teach him that! 

We had exchanges and i went with Elder Conforme and we made the smoothie that dad makes. It was super good! Elder Martinez and I also made pancakes but they are more like crepes. We had strawberrys, bananas and dulce de leche with them. 

Well hope you have a great week and love you all!!

Mom i loved that talk you sent me. Elder Martinez and i have been talking about that a lot. Its so true. A lot of people have faith but not hope that God with bless them. I have tried to be happy all the time because it makes everything better!! I feel the same way with free agency. There is times I just want people to do what I tell them haha. Im sorry about my comp and my words hahaha I'm just being me :) Love you!!

Dad I'm glad I'm not the only one with a bad hair cut haha  That's awesome about El Empalme. I think its weird how things work out. The first two weeks in this area were hard but I love it here now. The members help a lot and also my comp. He is always happy and wants to work. It helps me when we are having a bad day. They dont say Chevere or bacan. Martinez said its Mexican hahah So I can use them when I get home. In Argentina they say Que tal or capo. For cool. Well you should go hike and send me pictures. I love you!!

Elder Nielson

My zone

My dream car in Argentina

Week 15 1-4-16 Plaza Hunicul

California weather!!

Hola!!

Happy New Years!! I start my first full year in the mission! So this week was HOT in the beginning and then was stormy over the rest. It rained Wednesday and a couple other times for like 10 minutes. Its just like California haha 

This week we had 2 more new investigators and both were people that we had for backup plans to visit. The Lord has been helping us a ton lately. I got to invite my first person to be baptized and they said Yes!! I also got to see how spiritual Elder Martinez is this week. One day he said we need to go contact in this area. There is a family ready. We were contacting and the last house that we visited before lunch was a lady Lorena. We talked a little and invited to come back another day and she said no.  She was a Testigo (Jehova's Witness) and started to say how Jose Smith isn't in the bible and all this stuff. We just listened and then Elder Martinez bore his testimony and invited to come back. the spirit was so strong and she said  yes. We left her with a lesson 1 pamplet. It was an experience I wont forget. We plan on visting her today so we will see how it goes.

For New Years we had an Asado with our district in the church. It was sooo bomb. We had carne and chirzo. Martinez cooked it and it was way good. It was super fun to chill and then we returned to our pension and watched the fireworks. I love them and they have so many. In the street a mordo blow up and it looked awesome but not safe haha Its crazy they have firework stands on the side of the streets everywhere. Also there was a big storm so there was lighting too. It looked super cool with the fireworks. I tryed to take a timelapse with my gopro but it didnt start....I was pretty bummed. On the 1st we played futbol and just chilled because it was our p day. 

Some other things this week that happened was I found 100 pesos!!!! I bought the mate hahah i sent a picture.  We also had an asado on Saturday after we did service with a less active family and then the family came to church on Sunday! I got a haircut too....it looks fine but its not the best haircut haha but hey i dont need to look good for the girls right now;) 

Well this week was super good and this next week should be too. I miss and love you all!! 

Hey dad the elder conforme said that the thing with burning paper mache people still happens in Ecuador. We don't have anything crazy like that here. Only fireworks and Asados!!! One wierd thing is all the motorcycles are aircooled like the old bikes but they are new bikes. I have only seen one bike with radiators and it was in a shop. Elder Conforme said that El Empalme, Ecuador is super horrible and he's really sorry for you. hahaha Also Salomon shoes are really big here.  Love you tons!! 

Hey mom 

We all have bad days in cornhole. I miss playing with everyone and i know that the mission is the right thing and its also super fun here haha There is a lady here that has 8 cats that live inside!!  I have really seen the lord in my life this week and its so true. We have hard times so that we can see the good times. We talked about free agency in church and I thought how we can do everything for a person to accept the gospel but they still have their choice to accept or decline.  The Spanish has got way better with Martinez and I'm starting to think in Spanish more! Thanks for everything! Love you !!

I love you all tons and hope you have  a great new year!!

Week 14 12-28-15 Plaza Hunicul

I thought the States had crazy holidays!!

Hey!!

This week was super good!! I spoke a little to soon about it not being hot here......It way hotter Saturday and Sunday. hahah we are sleeping with the fan now which we didn't before! Its not much hotter than California but we don't have ac and stuff hahah. 

Well a couple things I forgot about was on Christmas eve we had PUMPKIN PIE!! it was super bomb!! On chirstmas we had an asado and i tried the blood sausage haha it tasted like stuffing. The asado was super bomb but the asado we had for lunch on christmas eve was the best meat I have had......it was pig!! After lunch we playing soccer which was a lot of fun and then went to the church and I got to play the guitar. Martinez is super good at guitar too. Saturday we got our first investigator. She was a contact we had earlier that week and we taught her the first lesson and I got to share the first vision and the spirit was super strong. She has a lot of questions and I think she is going to be good. On Sunday we also so had 2 more lessons and actually taught a lady the first lesson on the side of the street. It was super cool. 

A cool experience I had this week was we were trying to decide what to teach a lady we had one lesson with. My comp wanted to teach the Atonement and I wanted to teach the First lesson. We decided to pray about it. I said the prayer and I asked which one. I said the first lesson and then the Atonement. When I said the Atonement I had this warm feeling. It was super cool to see that the Lord answers prayers. We didn't get to teach her because she wasn't home but it was still an awesome experience. 

So on Thursday we went to the church for Elder Martinez to call his family and we didn't think that there was an alarm so open the door and its good. We walk in and all of a sudden the alarm goes off and its super loud. we call the bishop super quick and get the code and then like 20 minutes later we hear the bell ring and we look outside and it's the police......haha everything was fine and they just took Martinezs information! 

Well that's about it!! Love and miss you all!!

The gift a member brought for us

At the park hahah

At a members house for Navidad

Navidad Night

The asado :)