CUY

Dear Family,                                                                                                                         

Well this is it, last Monday after we wrote home, the zone leaders read us the transfer sheet. Drum Roll Please.....the whole zone stayed less one from a triple that was a temporary in the mission. Nobody will ever again get the fateful call to the jungle because the mission divides on July 1, and transfers next are July 30. I´ll never know the jungle, but the cool news is, in the jungle they don´t eat cuy (guinea pig) they eat monkey and bugs and turtle instead, but this week I had cuy. It´s a lot like pork but with kind of a natural seasoning to it that makes it a little more savory.  It was so good and the sister even showed me the head in a bowl, cue the ewww from Melissa ;) I had a foot still attached to mine, but it was fried pretty good, so the meat around the achilles was tender. Haha alright that’s all the gross I’ll give you, but really its super good.

I received the package last Thursday, about 2 and a half weeks right? Thanks soooo much for everything, I am cherishing each part and writing a bit for those in the ward who wrote me notes.

Elder Gaibor and Elder Nelson help cook
cow heart kabobs and entrails

I´m so glad to hear trek was a variety of experiences once again. My memories of the trek are all inspirational and teach me that I can do hard things no matter what might come my way. Those experiences prepare the young men for missions and the young women for missions or college or being a mom. That can be tough too, and we don´t give moms enough credit.  Mother’s day here is like New Year’s, its huge and theres festivals everywhere, that’s how it should be worldwide really.

This week is the second to last week of preparation for a triple baptism of primary and youth aged converts. Daniel is still having a few troubles with scary issues, but he is finally going to get baptized after wanting to for 3 years. He´s taught me a lot about the power of perseverance.  If we make an effort constantly, if we are anxiously engaged in a good work, it doesn´t matter how long we have to try, the Lord will reward us according to our faith. Narda is a dry Mormon, she turns 10 in a couple of months, and she has been coming to church with her grandparents for a year or two. She shows me the positive power of good grandparents, like the ones that I have. Thank you so much Grandma Nelson and Grandma and Grandpa Anderson, you´ve all been the best a grandson could ask for. Keep on being good members an honoring your covenants. Briseyra turns 10 today, and she has had a tough go of it already. When her grandparents moved out of the city, her aunts and uncles and her mom (single mother) all pretty much went inactive and her uncles started to drink once in a while. She shows the maturity of someone more like 13 or 14 years old, but she’s only 10. She is personally helping her mom to reactivate in the church and that’s incredible to me. They all get baptized on the 29th by relatives or friends in the church after having received their missionary lessons. 

Other than that, we have had really great experiences the past few weeks with references. For example we had mission correlation meeting with the bishop in our ward and as part of it we explained how we are trying to work with less active members in order to complete their families and also gain references from them. The bishop right there gave us 5 names of people who have been baptized, gone inactive and now have spouses or children that aren´t baptized. He had two or three more names even as we were closing the meeting. Pray for names to come to you for the missionaries, It´s so important I can´t even express how much for us to share the gospel with everyone. This week we visited one of the families and this week the kids went to church. The husband isn´t a member, but wants to change his life. He has a baptismal date for next month. I have been writing a lot more detailed in my journal, so really my journal and these letters will end up being companion volumes that show in parts my testimony of the mission work. First, that Jesus is the Christ, the living son of God, and that he has paid for our sins whether we accept Him or not. Second that the Atonement is more profound, more extensive than we will ever ever know. Third, that the family is the most important thing you can ever develop, and more valuable than all of the work or friends or "fun" anyone could ever have. This gospel is the only way that we can return to live with our Father again and remain happily forever with our families.

I love you all, I pray for you daily, I hope that my experiences her in the mission benefit you spiritually and that the blessings are forthcoming for each of you.

Love Elder Nelson

PS Read the Book of Mormon this week, I don´t know why but that´s really really important for me to write.

Kebabs and Entrails...yum

Dear Family

Well the truth is that I lost my first USB drive, but I have two more and that other drive only had a few pictures of the temple and of the choir that I directed, and the video of the choir. I´m totally okay with that and today the letter will be a touch shorter because I spent some time backing up photos on USB number 2. 

Yes mom I heard about Braden being engaged, I just thought I would play a little trick like Braden with Rosi, haha. (*Braden never responded when we told him we got a new dog, Rosi) Ashley by all reports seems like a wonderful girl and as a prospective missionary she probably is really deeply rooted in the gospel, which is really the foundation of a good marriage. With the several talks Braden and I had in between Utah and Washington,  he´s ready for marriage and I´m extremely proud and excited for them both. Please welcome Ashley into the family as warmly as Joe. The news had me distracted much of Pday, but now its only when it comes time to pray. I love to hear wonderful news like that.

News about Lima East: all of the ward members have told me it includes the majority of the sierra, so expect a frio fuerte and lots of mamitas like the tradicional pictures of Peru. That's a bit for Christian.

As for fathers day, this one might strike a chord and I´m sorry if it does. Has anyone visited Grandpa´s grave for a while? I´d like someone to do that sooner than later. It seems like he occupied my mind for a while on Father´s day. He provided well for his children and even afterward provided for his Grandchildren. I know I don´t even realize the privileges that have come to me as a result of his decision to work hard all of his life. I love him now while I am here in the mission field that he loved so much more than ever. Dad I feel the same way about you. You have worked so hard for our family and I´m positive that I didn´t say I love you or thank you or I´m sorry enough while I was home. You always chose to be the bigger man in any disagreements we ever had. This may seem a little small to you, but if my other blog doesn´t have an entry on Fathers then it was on my list of subjects I wanted to write about. You are my biggest example of a righteous man and a covenant keeping father and I love you.

My experience of the week for this email is more of a group of experiences. We are working right now on completing a few less active families with the hope that completing them also activates them. The investigators are two 9 year old daughters a father a 16 year old son and a 17 year old cousin who lives close. Each one is a different family and each one has specific challenges. Teaching the youngest ones is giving me a chance to really fine tune my Spanish and explain the gospel in a simple, easy to understand way. It´s helping me to get back to the basics. The best part is that in all the cases except the dad, there is a worthy priesthood holder whom we've asked to do the baptism. It´s the best of all worlds and I know that in that way these kids will remain active in the church. The father is a really interesting one. Arturo is an adventista, which usually means that he would want to bible bash a while before opening up. I don´t like that because A it gets rid of the spirit in a hurry and B I can´t do it because I don't know the bible well enough. The difference with him is that although he has a beer every once in a while like maybe two times a month, he's a really regular guy, he has seen how those who know the church have less complicated lives and that appeals to him. He has had a lot of things going badly lately and that bothers him, but he knows that when he prays he feels calm about things like that. Basically he's the most prepared you can be to getting baptized, he's just missing the lessons and attendance. We have had one lesson with him and one with the rest of his family because of the work schedules, but already his family has come back to attend at least once. I love that he knows what a difference the gospel makes in life, and I hope he continues in his good decisions.

That picture at the coast is actually me and a zone leader, Elder Tana, or Elder Tanita because of his height. He's about 4´10´´ I think. He´s so great. Our mission president gives permission to zones to visit specific parts of the city for Pdays because our mission doesn´t cover any of the historic parts of the city. For that reason we made it to the coast on that pday. No, my companion is about my height and has about 40 pounds on me. I´ll send pictures next week of us cooking anticucho (cow heart on kebobs) with a member. They also cook the entrails with a vinegar baste. Its a little of a delicacy here, and its soooo good :) We do get a long better than Elder Arce and I, and he actually spent ten months in Lima before the jungle, but he definitely prefers it here, which is a real blessing because he will likely stay here. He says the jungle was really cool and great to look at, but the work isn´t the same, people inactivate quickly and its just different.

Well time is short and so´s the letter this week, I promise I´ll write more next week. Tell Aubs it´s okay, parked cars can really jump out at you from my experience. I love you all and pray for you constantly.

Love,

Elder Nelson

Satan's Subtle Tone

Coastal Lima

Dear Familia,                                                                                                                   

So much mission news! Megan will do great in Provo, it’s been her dream to serve for a long time and I´m excited for her to be in P-town, where memories are made. Tanner Gill is too young to serve a mission, wow time flies there doesn´t it.  And Christian, if there was one youth in the Tri-Cities that exemplified temple worship even before he understood the full importance of it, it´s Christian Burrup. He´s going to be a Seventy someday or something. Such an example to me of a spiritually minded young man.

Sorry for the lack of explanation, but the museum was a museum of the Catholic Church history in Peru like all of the museums here haha. All of them have some kind of connection to that church but yeah that was the confessional of Peru, hace muchos años. torture them until they admit that they aren´t a Catholic, it was really sad, especially the one with lash marks, that made me think of what Christ endured for us and the fate of the martyrs of the ancient church. Center of Lima is all the buildings, it’s the old part of Lima but all of it but the palace and the Catholic church that fits like thousands have been converted into a shopping broadway.

Miraflores area of Lima

This week for Pday we went to where the money is in Lima, on the coast to a place called Larcomar. The differential of money is astounding. We even went bowling, but my score was pretty rank, I came in second with only 109...I going to have to relearn a few things. In the next email I’m going to try to send a panorama that I took of the coast, super cool. The Marriott is to show dad that there’s a space to the right that he could build and we could visit....;)

Dinners are exactly the opposite, now we have pension and that means we have a sister that cooks for us for dinner. It´s perfect we go buy like 60 cents of fresh bread an maybe an empenada for breakfast and have that with the evaporated milk drink (they call it leche de gloria) and then dinner is something that the hermana fixes up for us. Also I need the recipe for pancakes stat, a sister wants to treat us to pancakes and homemade pizza and I don´t know how to do pancakes other than a mountain of flour and eggs and milk, but flour plus what is like bisquick? Anyway, a recipe would be nice, thanks :) I mark the receiving date on all the mail that I get, and it looks like on average it´s three weeks, this time with grandma´s dear elder a little more, if you send a dear elder please put the date, there’s no stamped date usually and so I have no way to know when you sent it.

This week we had this crazy experience with an investigator who went to seminary for two years and then stopped going to church and seminary because his parents stopped him from getting baptized. In the past year, he started listening to metal music (note: be careful of the things you let Satan suggest to your mind through the subtle power of the musical word or tone...that’s an original) and he felt powerful when he listened to it. Lo and behold he started to see a dark figure in the streets but never face to face, only from behind. Then he and his family heard noises after leaving their apartment with nobody inside after one of our visits, like someone pacing on the metal roof. It gets freakier, but the end of the story is that we dedicated the home against the power of the adversary and he (15 years old) gets this super strong headache after the prayer. We gave him a blessing and it subsided to this feeling like a wrestling match inside of his chest. Friends and Family, the power of the adversary is real and strong, but it is absolutely and unequivocally insignificant in comparison with the magnificent and God-given power of the holy priesthood. Guard yourselves against any slip that might carry you down this path that leads to nothing but misery and regret. Our friend Daniel erased all of the music from his computer, all images of darkness and even his facebook account. He has a very long road of recovery to go, but you all don´t even have to glance at the other fork in the road for a moment to know that you don´t want what´s at the end of it.

Super glad they are on the other side of the fence :)

I am having experiences that will shape and mold the rest of my life here in Peru, and it´s all thanks to my Heavenly Father, who has blessed me with family, friends, teachers and leaders who helped me to see who I could become. Now my companion helps me to learn more and more every day. He understands quite a bit of English and is super super obedient, it shows in the results we are having in the area. We get along really well except for that he walks a little slow...we are fixing that bit by bit :)

I love you all and hope that your decisions bring you closer to that awesome Being who created us.

Love,

Elder Nelson 

Switcheroos

Hola Familia!                                                                                                               June 3, 2013

Switching apartments

Elder Arce as he leaves for Argentina

Things got a little crazy here this week. As a result, I have a new room, a new companion, a new laundry sister, and now we have medio pension which is pension just for Dinner. So from the beginning, last Thursday I think it was, Elder Arce got a call from his trainer, Elder Garcia, who is leader of a zone in the offices area. It was a warning that the other elders destined for Argentina were leaving in the morning for their mission and that we would likely get a call soon from the zone leaders. Well, he was dead on, but we had already started moving rooms because of the twice weekly fiestas above our old room. So half of our stuff was in the old room and half in the new room. Well the end of the month was approaching pretty fast, so we called the bishop and we moved all of the stuff except a desk and a couple of things for hanging clothes, and the water heater for the shower to the new room. It´s a pretty small space, so we played “tetris” for a while. For a reference, the two rooms are like my old bedroom with a bathroom that’s probably about 10 square feet. Also we fit two beds and two desks and an armoire in the space. It´s a little cramped, but cozy and easier to clean than the other one. So elder Arce left for Argentina early on Thursday morning and then there was a conference with President Blunck all day on Thursday. I was in a trio for a day and a half and then waited at the offices for three hours for my new companion from the jungle. His name is Elder Gaibor, from Equador, yes it rhymes and is great fun to say under my breath :)

Our first actions on the night after he got here (Friday night) were to teach a few lessons. But the morning after, we moved the rest of the stuff. I´ve taken icy showers for about a week, but it was the same my first week here, so no biggie. We also spent some time making our beds so that we aren’t sleeping on the floor on mattresses. The zone leaders are finding pieces to a bunk bed for us so that we can have a touch more space soon as there is only a foot in between the two beds and at the foot for movement. The climate change from the jungle to Lima and the lack of clean air here messed with Elder Gaibor a bit and so he spent a day laid out in bed and I spent the day studying and prepping lesson plans and organizing the room. I gave him a blessing in the morning and he started to feel better toward the end of the day, so we went to mission correlation meeting and taught some less actives a lesson then headed home. Sunday however, was great, Elder Gaibor is really teaching me to ask EVERYone for references. With him we are having a lot of success with the members, even less actives. He has about a year in the mission and it shows.

 

Juan and Maritza and us had a lesson last night that was really good., They told us about some miracles that happened surrounding their baptism that we hadn’t known about, and I bore testimony of the importance of keeping a journal of the blessings that our Father gives us.  Juan told me that he will plan to do that starting that night. However, here’s a couple of the miracles that happened for them.

Juan is a machiner, he builds machines for companies that hire him to a specific purpose. At his job site this week (in between his baptism and his confirmation) he was cutting some steel pipe (about 4 inch width) and he had this thought come into his mind to be careful. Well he thought to himself that he was always careful with this particular machine because of the dangerous nature of the beast. He was checking the sides of the cutter when the steel pipe bent in half instead of cutting. The pipe passed on the side of his arm not even but almost grazing it. But his head had been in the spot at the same moment seconds early and it would have crushed his skull. How incredible is that! He said he knows now that the same feeling came over him during his confirmation that came over him when he had the thought to be careful.

The two parents have seen some incredible changes happen in their home because of their listening to the missionaries, and they’ve also noticed that during fast and testimony meeting, almost all the testimonies have the usual common things and in addition they mention the change that’s happened because of the missionaries (almost our entire ward are converts of varying times in their lives) Juan and Maritza say that their daughters are always kind to each other but now, they are extra careful to serve one another. Also their daughter Yubiza left her work, which was a stress on the family and on Sundays, specifically because she wanted to spend time with the family. It’s incredible the things that they have done even without us asking, and its evidence to me that our Heavenly Father works in us constantly to mold us into the people we have the potential to be. 

The family even have introduced us to the brother and sister in law of Maritza to teach. They attended the marriage, baptism and even the confirmation. He’s a former Jehovah´s witness but left their church because he watched his aunt get shunned by his grandma for committing a single sin. The whole congregation apparently doesn´t talk to you ever again if you sin. You can attend but nobody will acknowledge your presence. It’s super sad, but its opened a door for this brother and his wife to be able to listen to us with open hearts.

So in answer yes, we are always  working with new investigators and with less active members in order to gain new investigators. We do a lot of work trying to reactivate converts who aren’t quite fully converted, but he majority of our work is with less actives and investigators.

Questions:

Yes my pen is ballpoint.

Hooray for cocoa, its super expensive here. oh and a drink you ought to try: Evaporated milk with a couple of spoons of sugar like a third of a cup or less of the milk with the rest of the mug filled with hot water. That’s super common at breakfast here with nesquick or milo (fortified nesquick) if you want some other flavor to it. It´s super good, but I’m sure super fattening haha. 

 

I love you all and pray for each of you often, just know that I am safe and happy and working in the Lord´s vineyard to brings souls from the harvest.

Love,

Elder Nelson

The Wedding Planner :)

Dear family,                                                                                                                         

Juan and Maritza

A question for Jackson, Did he know a hermana Arcos during his mission? Her sister lives in our ward and the hermana will be getting married somewhere near BYU soon.

A happy birthday to Braden in 6 days and a warning for those others who haven´t quite remembered. His is tricky because its on the next calendar page haha. I hope that everything is going well for you.

The biggest news this week is that we found out that Maritza doesn’t need her birth certificate until at most two weeks after the wedding. SO she got married to Juan on Saturday. Wahoo! That was almost all week that we spent in the municipality getting her papers all ready and legalized and health checks and all kinds of other fun stuff. I will really know how to marry people when I get home, if you catch my drift.  The mission put on the wedding in the stake building just north of my area and so Elder Arce and I went up about two hours before it all started to help with prep and so that I could be there for the choir...again. This time I had about 4 days preparation with only one practice. Thankfully all were returning choir members and I wasn´t director. Three elders and 4 hermanas in the group. We sang Families Can Be Forever in Spanish and then verse one again in English, and the hermanas were all latina so they had a fun time learning to pronounce Earth. Elder Arce has a video of it, and so I will get that from him maybe this week. We are thinking of just swapping memory cards during a computer time so we can exchange fotos and videos of the choir performance. The wedding was great, and the stake president spoke before the officials did their spiel. He spoke about the importance of having a selfless attitude in marriage and looking for the good in each other to the point of not being able to find the faults. It was really powerful.

Yesterday was their baptism. But the first test was if they would come to church again on Sunday. They did, but the doors of the church close during Sacrament, and they made it like two minutes before. I had been reading this week in Jesus the Christ about the parable of the ten virgins, how at the day of judgment even the church will be divided as to whom will be saved and who won´t be. When the doors close for sacrament and literally three minutes later there’s two or three families waiting outside in the cold (read 60 degrees...yeah I’m accustomed)) I had this overwhelming feeling of sadness, like that’s how it will be, we are partaking of the sacrament and the others just didn’t quite make it. I felt really pained about that because they’re members too, right? Anyway, little perspective check there.

 

I baptized the dad, Elder Arce baptized Maritza, and Elder Garcia got permission to come baptize the daughters. It was a great example of ward participation when the relief society put together a musical number and the leaders of every group were there to support this new family. Afterward the family each bore their testimony and more than anything the testimony of Brenda hit me. She didn’t believe in God before ad so this was huge. She got up and said how she was nervous during the afternoon before the baptism but when she left with her family she felt just this pure feeling of love come over her, and then again after she left the water. BAM! Hit by the spirit like a ton of...blankets haha. They are such a golden family, and I can see them continuing active in the church for the rest of their lives. That night they invited the brother and sister in law of Maritza to the next Sunday to see them confirmed. Already doing missionary work!

I don’t use my earplugs because I’ve just gotten used to the sound of the cityscape outside, it’s actually pretty normal and when I get home it will be strange to have any silence. I use the drops occasionally, (drops to make the water taste like lemonade) but the big news is that I bought an electric kettle this week so I can have manzanilla (chamomile) and anís (anise) and leche de gloria (glory milk) because its pretty cold out. For the refills for my pen, black would be best, but if it’s the other pen I can take either, I just need one or two black for official papers. In the area we have more or less two areas, the hill and everything else. Everything else is about 10 times the size of the hill, so they are pretty receptive, but really we do most of our work through the members references. The people on the hill are super impoverished and so they have lots of time usually and so that’s always good to be able to get in with them and show them how the gospel can help them lift themselves up in more ways than material.

All of the Lima missions go to the temple more or less every 3 months so that’s always good. Mission Lima East I think has sierra and city. Congrats to Christian and one more similarity between us apart from birthdays. That’s just sooooo cool. One more Tri-Citian in Lima.

Thanks to dad and Braden for their letters as well and I received the dearelder from Melissa from before Mother’s Day on the last P-Day, so that’s a good gauge of time for ya.

I love hearing from you and I feast on every letter. In this area we can´t print letters but sometimes I want to print parts for review, so I guess in another area maybe that will be possible.

I love you all, take care of each other and keep in contact with one another, the family is the most important thing in the work here and it should be the goal of our lives to strengthen those eternal bonds.

Love,

Elder Nelson

PS:

Also the food picture is of cau cau...it’s a little like the goulash that I made back at the Y. mmmmm rico :)

Turn Outwards

Dear Family,                                                                                                                            

So much news from you all this week! It feels a little like the day after fast Sunday after last week’s letter. Also a warning, I’m on the computer with problems with the letter t again, so please excuse that.

First a little bit of an experience. We have been working with a family of Catholics recently, Juan and Maritza. They have been investigating for 5 months, and waiting all 5 for a copy of Maritza´s birth certificate to come through the system so they can get married. Well this Saturday will be a massive marriage and this Saturday will be a massive baptism. That means three different zones will have all of their couples married in the morning and baptized in the evening. It´s going to be really sweet to see all of the couples making this decision for their families and starting their paths to the temple. The only problem is that if you don´t have a couple to marry, you don´t attend. Maritzas certificate still hasn’t come and so it’s getting kind of close. Please pray that it arrives in time. They want to get married and are willing to live the commandments of the church it’s just that the adversary works really really hard when we start to do things right. Her older daughter (22) even made the decision on her own to attend church even though it means quitting her job she has right now. That is huge. She has really struggled with giving us time to visit because she only rests one day a week and this decision means she won’t work for a while. She also has a pretty Catholic boyfriend who she wants to move forward towards marriage with, but she knows that the temple blessings wouldn´t apply if he doesn´t join as well, and he doesn’t really have an interest. She’s showing a lot of faith right now, and Satan has been attacking the health of their extended family ever since they started to really progress.

We´ve decided to change our room to the first floor of a house that is owned by an abuela of a missionary bound for Spain. Every week in our current room, our neighbors above have one or two parties, and it always seems to fall on a day when we have to get up early to hacer tramites for Elder Arce´s visa or go collect investigators for church.  It will be a little smaller, but definitely quieter (he beds are on the interior of the home) and so I’m glad for the move. It’s also like kity corner from the church, so it’s really convenient for meetings and baptisms and such. She and her husband aren’t members, so there’s also that kind of built in investigator deal. It´s been approved by the zone leaders so we will start moving in a week or two.

In answer to dad´s questions about pensionistas: 

They don´t clean or cook for us, but we do give our clothes to the president of the relief society for cleaning. She doesn´t iron, but usually if I have worn the shirt for an hour of study it doesn´t need it because everything is handwashed and then hung dried. A pensionista provides breakfast and dinner, nothing more, but sometimes doubles as the sister who washes the clothes and in extreme cases (the neighboring ward) also cuts your hair for free. I’m just a touch jealous haha. Elder Arce is just 8 months older than me, more or less. He had his birthday the 2nd of May. We get plenty from the mission to cover our needs and also a churro now and then. I am using the skills you taught me about how to use money responsibly, and it comes as a surprise to the other missionaries when I have plata left at the end of the month. They all think I will be the next financial secretary, but really it’s just common budgeting with envelopes.

I don´t have to use the flea collars, but I use the bed cover. Bugs aren’t really a problem in the city, just cockroaches and cleanliness. We get a bottle of hand sanitizer every transfer and I use it constantly. The water isn’t safe to drink unless boiled, but we have big water cooler jugs in our room so we have safe water. The only time I used the bug spray was for the zoo just in case, but that wasn’t really necessary. If in three weeks I go to the jungle, then I will need to use all of it haha.

I carry my DNI everywhere, which is my ID and it can’t be stolen electronically. I carry it in my scripture bag, so no I don´t have to use the passport holder. In fact, my passport is with the office right now, I think they keep it until after my mission, which I actually prefer, it’s more secure there, and I don’t have to worry about it.

The weather does change here, like a swing of 15 or 20 degrees when it’s a cloudy day, but it’s actually refreshing to me to be honest. For air conditioning most just open a window or use a pedestal fan. For heating they buy a big can of propane and hook it up to the house. I think the sore throat I’ve developed this week is the result of air quality and the temperature change, but I really don’t know, usually it’s just in the morning so I gargle well and I am cutting sugar as best I can to get rid of it.

I would love to get some photos of the house at spring time or even of the temple. People like to know how we live and the concept of houses separated by space is a little foreign to them...yeah that’s where the phrase comes from :)

I am loving my mission, and every day is different. Sometimes it can be frustrating, but I am learning and writing so many things that will help me to be the person that I aim to become. Always have goals that you want to complete in the next month, and year. Dad I love hearing how your business is progressing, things like that didn’t interest me as much as they do now that I am further away. It’s cool to hear what’s going on with each of you in that way. I am learning that as we turn outwards, others turn to us. We had a great experience doing service for a neighboring area his week, delivering clothes for the impending cold (I write cold but really it’s still hot during the day sometimes, mostly it’s at night) to the families who live on the hills. They are all so grateful for whatever they can get to keep their kids clothed during the winter and more than willing to give us their contact information in return. The missionaries of that area will be visiting each family with a message this month and we return to parcel out the rest of the clothes on Wednesday this week.

I love you all and want to say how proud I am of your examples. The photos I have of you all have been especially useful this week in showing families how my family is in all different areas of service ion the church but that we all are happy in what we do and the lives we lead. I am out of time, but I love you all!

Love,

Elder Nelson

Dennys, Mary and Brenda

Querida familia,

It was so good to hear from you all. Sorry to Darci and Joe and Braden that I wasn´t able to talk/see them more. I would have loved to hear and talk with them.  I hope grandma feels better soon, nobody likes being sick. Elder Arce has been sick with a stomach bug for a few days, so we have to return to the room often sadly. It´s hard to take a break when I know there are so many people waiting, but well when duty calls haha. As for the blog, I really think Melissa and Kolby have techno genius as well, or at least enough to know how to manipulate a blog page. If not, Carrie has a blog and so she should be able to show you how to get things back to how they were, that is if she´s in town and willing to hop on over to our house.

Melissa looks a lot...older? I don’t know if that’s the right word, but she definitely looks more mature, tell her to stop that growing business, and not to look at boys unless they are at stake dances. Kolby...well le falta una corbata, pero todo está bien allá. (lacks a tie, but all is well there.) His question reminded me that he will be on a mission while I am here, and that was both a happy and sad thought. He will be learning how to do the work while I am teaching others to do the same (that is if I am training at that point). What a wonderful thing the mission is and how it changes people into more than they think they can achieve. If you get a chance, a great parable from the scriptures is described in Jesus the Christ (I’m reading that lately) It´s the parable of the secret seed, all about leaving the word of God and not knowing when it will come to fruition, so so so missionary work.

Well, stories from the field time: Dennys and Mary, the couple we´ve been working with recently told us one night that there was a problem that was out of their hands that would impede them getting married on the 11th, two days back. The next morning in a special visit with them during our usual study time, Dennys told us that he had an old girlfriend levy a claim for food support for her son of 12 years. That’s a monthly fee for 12 years of support, to the tune of 8000 nuevosoles. Basically it’s more than he might make in a typical year as a musician and he has 4 kids with Mary to support. He´s been super positive through the whole thing, even though he can´t get married because the claim includes an order of capture, so he can´t appear to be married without being arrested. He wants to work it off and we are thinking of hiring Mary as a pensionista so we can help them gain a little faster. They are so positive about all of it, and they have been gold from day one, reading the Book of Mormon as soon as they got it and saying prayers in spite of some otherworldly resistance. They can use a few prayers for sure.

The other is Brenda, the 15 year old daughter of an investigator family. 15 is the age of junior year here, so she studies night and day solid without breaking for much. We caught her on Friday night free and so we talked to her about her lectura of the Book of Mormon. She hasn´t been reading and forgets to pray. This is especially hard because she didn’t believe in God before Elder Arce and my grandpa (Elder Arce’s trainer) started visiting their family in January. She read a few verses from the Book of Mormon with us in between games of the Peru V Mexico volleyball game that she was watching and was able to understand when I told her about primary prayer rocks. She didn’t really love that idea of a rock under her pillow, but really that’s the idea right, its uncomfortable if you don’t pray. Well I gave her a little extra homework for the weekend we will be checking on tomorrow: Read Alma 34 and pray every night minimum. She reminded me a lot of Melissa and Kolby combined in a weird way haha. But really she´s the last member of her family that needs to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, so I´ve been hoping she goes through with it.

The ward had a mother’s day dance activity at the church on Saturday night. The men of the ward had put the chairs in a square in the chapel and set up these huge speakers. True to form, no one really showed up until a half hour in, but the music was super loud salsa and huayno, which is a kind of salsa from the sierra (mountain regions) Hermana Valer, the one that reminds me of grandma nelson was pulling sisters from their chairs to join in the dancing. She has sooo much energy! It was a success, we even had two of our investigator families show up after we left, which was super duper exciting. It can be hard to get people to take the step of going to church or even an activity, but if they just get there, the members can step in and give them a reason to keep coming back.

In other news...it finally happened. My CROSS pen from Brother and Sister Strickland that I got for graduation died. There was no more ink left during planning last night and I had to write super big to get continuous lines to come out. Refills for that would be really great, but I know it’s tough to send things, it can wait until much later for sure. I like the other pen I have a lot too, it’s a Pilot Easytouch. Funny how when you use things all day long, you get attached to them though.

In response, all the sisters I have met while here are super effective, especially because we as elders can´t teach single sisters or single mothers without a priesthood holder present. They can take all of those references and whomever else they find in their area and I don´t think they have to tract much because of the sheer number of single mothers there are everywhere.

I read my patriarchal blessing from time to time, and keep it in the top drawer of my desk for easy reference. It´s cool how different things stand out at different times, even when you think they only apply to a certain facet of your life, they apply elsewhere too. That´s really vague, just know that I am getting guidance out of my patriarchal blessing too haha.

It´s sad when missionaries lose their vision of potential in the field because I know that in the CCM there were those who weren´t focused, but everyone was at minimum obedient. We can literally turn an area around with the help of the members if we focus ourselves on the work, but that’s not possible with disobedience. I´m learning that sometimes my stubborn nature is a good thing, but only when employed in the correct way. It can benefit everyone to be a little stubbornly righteous right? All in all I love this mission and I know that I have come to this mission with these missionaries and these wards and investigators for a specific reason. It´s my work to figure it out and use it to bless those around me.

A quick note about pictures. There will be extensive replacement of all the pictures on the blog when I get home, because I send you pictures that have been reduced 50 fold in quality so that I can send them in email format. I have all of the originals in full quality and I wish I could send those instead, but I would have to use 4 or 5 hours for internet time haha.

I love you all, and I hope that my being here on my mission is a blessing to you individually. I don´t try to think of home during the day because It’s easy to lose focus, especially because home is associated with English, which isn’t really understood in these parts. Just know that in the quiet moments that I am reminded of each of you and that is when I petition for your blessings. I have specific things that I ask for each of you related to your success or happiness, and I hope that you are doing everything in your power to trust in faith that your Father can give you what you need when you need it. The scripture says that if you open your mouth, you will be given in the very moment what you need to say. That goes for all other things as well. When you need it, heavenly help will come.

I love you all and hope that things are running smoothly on the homefront.

Cuidanse bastante,

Elder Nelson