Short email this week because we got to Skype him!

I'm really grateful things went smoothly with the video it could have been a lot worse with the connection. It was great to see all your guys faces! Our sacrament meeting was nuts, theres a house right next to it and they were blasting music the whole time. Love you and miss you guys but I love being here too.

Love

Elder Nelson

Christmas in Bolivia

It was a good week this week, the weeks are really starting to 
fly by. Everything went pretty smoothly I finally got to go the Bolivian 
flea market and do some shopping, I got 6 soccer jerseys and Chinese hat 
and a flash drive. Flash drives are what all the missionaries use down here 
to have music and videos and other stuff. 
 
 
This should be a good month for missionary work, we have 5 people with baptism 
dates and we found some promising investigators. We taught some interesting 
lessons and some good lessons, everyday is different but everyday is good in the 
mission. 
We don't have a ton of opportunities for service cause no one ever wants our 
help. Lot of mixed feelings about the missionaries here and a lot of little 
churches and their pastors bash on us and the book of Mormon and how its evil. 
I don't know if I ever mentioned this but I teach an English class at the 
church. We were about to shut it down because we weren't getting non members there but 
we found an investigator who teaches English and comes every class with her son. 
We're hoping that they will be baptized but her husband is not very interested 
and they're not married so that's something that they'll have to overcome before 
baptism. We did a lot of contacting or door knocking or clapping in front of their house cause 
they don't have a door this week. Couple of lessons with some very strange 
people, and interesting conversations with people that are pastors for 
their church. Overall good week and yesterday all the areas closed to the 
city sang in an activity that our mission put on for Christmas. I have some 
pictures from that I'll send. 
 
Love 
Elder Nelson 

Panetones

Its christmas time here for sure and you know its christmas cause every store in the world here has a million cakes called panetones which is basically a nasty cake premade and sold in a bag.I have learned a new meaning to sick while ive been here. Time is going by super fast, and yes we just had our first cambio or transfer in the mission, everyone in our house stayed put, our zone leader changed and we have some new guys in the zone but not much of a difference. We had a surprise visit from Presidente on Sunday and he met with us 4 in our district, he told me hes heard a lot of good things and is happy with my progression here. He said he might make me a trainer for a brand new missionary next transfer so in about 5 weeks! Yikes. Its so weird with my spanish cause I'm definitely progressing and recieving a lot of help but I feel like I havent learned anything. Its coming along slowly, Im grateful I have the oppurtunity to learn a language cause it has humbled me a lot. I pray for you guys everyday too hope your leading the family in scripture study every night I have to pull teeth to get anyone to read here. 
Love
Elder Nelson

Well lets say I had a good learning week, it was very long and rough. We only taught 5 lessons in the whole week and that means a lot of walking around. I didnt get to do anything for my birthday a member was supposed to bring us pizza but he couldnt and we didnt teach any lessons so it was rough. That night I woke up because my stomach felt weird and went and threw up and i was able to go back to sleep thank goodness but the next day I threw up 3 times and had a fever that night. I took like 4 medications from the whack bolivia pharmacy. Stayed in the house all day but i was able to watch meet the mormons that night on a little tv so that was nice. I get a little better every day and today i feel fine but it was just a rough week. Dont get me wrong im happy to be here and getting sick sometimes is somthing all missionaries go through. Im excited to work hard this week, Im starting to understand the scriptures in spanish so that helps my study a lot and we a have a baptism service this weekend so that should be good. love you mama

Love

Elder Nelson

Bolivian TV Shows

Hello everyone! Ill make up for last week with a better email and some pictures.



This past week was really great! Wednesday was definitely our best day. All of our appointments fell through and so we went and contacted around the area and we taught 3 families in a row in the middle of the day which is like super rare and in our second lessons with them they told us that on Wednesdays they are usually never home! Only 2 of the families seem to have interest but thats still really good I think and in our first lesson with them they said they would be baptized if they received and answer to their prayers. With most of our new investigators their concerns always seem to be how can we know which church is true when there are so many? I just eat that up. I love it cause it leads right in to the restoration and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. For me its just so simple and clear.



Only one of our two baptisms happened this week. There are certain requirements to be baptized and our other investigator the 11 year old from the part member family couldn't meet with us like 3 times in a row and so we couldn't have him do his interview to be baptized and we pushed his date back another 2 weeks, the last week of the transfer window. Our other investigator Celedonio is 20 and lives on the second floor of our house so it was only a matter of time til he was baptized. He is super awesome and loves the scriptures and always does the commitments we give him. His service was really great and Elder Urrutia baptized him which was awesome, because it was his first baptism he did himself in his mission.



Thursday I had an exchange with the zone leader. It was nice to be with a gringo for a day and it was fun. He is very interesting, he is a great missionary, but he also loves to watch the bolivian tv show calle siete while we ate dinner! It was a good exchange, I went to his area and we had a lesson with one of his investigators and he committed to baptism. After that we were walking around and it was super windy like felt like hurricane winds, but while we were walking there was a menos activo family who was replacing the mud on their floor and so we helped them because they were pretty old and it was hard work and we filled their whole floor and them answered the fathers questions about the second coming and he was really scared  so we comforted him and told him he had nothing to worry about and just needs to keep the commandments and he wont have to worry really tender moment for me with this family and how great the promises of the heaven must sound to these people who have nothing, and are happy. It was a good exchange but i'm glad Elder Urrutia is my companion hes a great trainer. Overall really good week for the missionary labor in Satelite and im happy to be here, i hope i get to stay in this area a while.

Spanish and Sheep

This week was super fast and nothing crazy happened. The spanish is coming along but i have 5 minutes to write this email haha. We have two baptisms this week for which im super stoked! Just another weeks worth of missionary work here we found some new investigators that seem promising but a lot of lessons and appointments fall through but thats just the nature of missionary work. The language is coming very slowly but im glad i still have like 8 or 9 weeks of training. I heard we have a new king and not a queen in the united states, it was the all the talk of Bolivia this week, or really the talk that I could understand haha. I have no time so heres a picture of me finding the Lords lost sheep the great missionary work.

Power of Prayer

 Hola familia 
 This week was super long and tough. Having to have a man with us to teach 
families in the afternoon is basically impossible. We had a lot of appts fall 
through and it was super hot. On Saturday at lunch I was thinking wow this 
really sucks and I want to go home, I have so much time left, I'm gonna be here 
for an eternity. After lunch we started a fast and I just was begging Heavenly 
Father to help me change my attitude and focus on being here and also to help me 
with my spanish, because it is really frustrating not being able to understand 
people. 

That afternoon it was super hot we didnt teach anybody we just walked around, 
and we were fasting, but my prayer was being answered. I didnt feel bad that we 
werent teaching anyone or how thinking about how hot it was,I was just happy. 
Right around 4 we went to visit a family thats never been home and before we got 
there I just said a prayer please let them be home. They were home! We read a 
chapter of the book of mormon with them, but it was a fight to stay awake to be 
honest lol. 
 Anyways it was just a big turn around moment for me and a testimony builder. 

Right now we have 5 baptisms scheduled for this month which Im super stoked for. 

They are all great investigators. So I cant wait to send pictures. Our lunch 
pensanista is super good and I havent eaten anything here that I didnt like, 
except for milk with rice in it and corn is kinda nasty lol but that was with 
someone else. Spanish is coming along slowly. My goal is to finish the BoM in 
spanish by christmas. Exciting to think ill call home pretty soon :D. 
 
 Overall things are pretty good down here, very calm friendly and generally 
receptive to the gospel. There are no gangs or anything kinda interesting, the 
elders are the baddest guys around here lol every once and while we see some JWs 
but theyre to scared to try and bible bash with the Lords Fold. 

Love 
Elder Nelson 
 
The ducks here are like super ugly hahaha like straight descendents of the 
dinosaurs

Happy Halloween!

Im in some janky internet cafe writing this so bare with me. I guess its almost been 2 weeks of craziness out here in the big b. I dont even know where to begin so much has happened. 

The flights to get here sucked, we flew from mexico to peru and peru to bolivia. I thought that 6 and 4 hour flights would be fine but it is a long time when you cant do anything but look at the seat in front of you and sit there and sweat uncomfortably close to people. I got to Bolivia at 4am and sat in a customs line for an hour and a half then finally met my Mis Pres and my APs. We took a short drive to a mission home and we all got to sleep thank gosh. We woke up around 11 and went to get lunch with the Mission president and the office elders in the presidents house. Ive been a little worried about the food here but everything ive eaten so far has been great. Lot of meat and a lot of Rice haha. Oh and ive also never aprreciated Coke so much in my life. 

My trainers name is elder urrutia the biggest latino that ever was haha. He is from chile and he is the only latino to ever be bigger than me haha, but hes just a big teddy bear and I think president cabezas sent you a photo of us. I didnt bring my cord to send photos today but ive got a bunch. He is a good trainer and his english is better than most here which isnt saying much but he knows enough english and i know enough spanish to get by.

So this place is pretty poor but nothing like the horror stories I heard, Im in the outer part of the city so its a mix of poor and fine in my area. But we dont have an actual chapel we have an abandoned open roofed hotel and we went to clean it for a baptismal service and oh my heck was it nasty but I put 2 hours into that thing and made it somewhat decent. It will be a lot easier to clean it for our baptisms speaking of which, we have got 2 dates!

My first lesson was with the guy on or second floor, and he said he wanted to be baptized before we even started! He had recieved some lessons from urrutia and his previous comp, but my first real baptismal date was with a kid named gary whose mom is a member but thats it, and he came to church on sunday and we taught him lesson 2 after church and I invited him to be baptized and he said yes! It was a great experience. We also invited 2 others to be baptized that said yes but one isnt married and the others are going out of town and dont know when theyll be back. 

Church was ok, I introduced myself to the ward but that was about it, the ward is great but I can barely understand them. In the church meetings it was really frustrating cause i didnt understand anything. 

A lot of things can be frustrating here especially the language but a good lesson makes it all worth it. Helping real people with their lives is what this work is about and the spanish will just be a matter of time and work. Once I have that down ill enjoy myself a lot more here, but I love it here already so I just cant wait :)

Love

Elder Nelson

New P-Day!

Elder Nelson arrived safely in Bolivia Tuesday morning (4:15am!) His new P-Day will be Mondays!

5 Days til Bolivia!

Yo! Im writing a little later today because I had a bunch of stuff to get done today. I weighed in all my bags and im good to go! I leave monday and my flight leaves at 430pm here time. I should have some time to call home in the airport! So just be waiting for me from around 12 to 3 your time! 

This week has been pretty good just trying to learn this language. I was able to sit a lunch with someone from Bolivia which was really good for me. People there he told me speak really fast and with their accent a lot of the S´s are like J´s which is basically silent hahaha which is horrible when your trying to understand what their saying being new to the language, but he told me my spanish was really good and my accent wasnt like a white person haha. I was able to ask him a bunch of questions about santa cruz cause thats where he is from. He said its all mostly flat, and not mountainous like the west side of Bolivia. So I think its gonna be more jungely. He also said that Santa Cruz is nicer than the rest of the country and the girls are prettier haha. I asked him if they play tennis there and he said only the rich people play tennis. So im hoping for some members that play. 

Thanks for the packages they are always sweet to get and rub in the face of my district haha dont worry I always share. It was also nice to get that letter too so thanks fam. Everyday here blurs together with our schedules like they are. Our new district in our zone discovered the mighty cage and we have been able to dominate them in the mighty sport of futbal rapido haha. Hopefully the Ducks will be blessed for my missionary service and they will be able to go on a good streak and sign Hampus haha.

My district is the best district here. We all are good friends and get along super well. Theres one guy in here that has been my Zane away from home and hes been a big blessing in my life here. Hes elder curtis. He just makes me laugh a bunch and our district calls us the duo haha. He just keeps me sane haha

I guess from my emails it may sound like all I do is mess around here haha, but thats just because I dont talk about the 12 hours of boring studying I do cause no one wants to here about that haha, but believe it or not I do actually work here haha. My teachers here are the best ill send the pictures of us when I get to Bolivia, speaking of which 4 DAYS BOOOOY, so stoked to get wrecked haha. I just hope I can communicate with my mission president haha. 

Im looking forward to calling home talk to you guys soon

Love

Elder Nelson

​Elder Curtis and I 

Also my lit poem make sure to post that on the blog

Happy P Day!

**If you're having trouble getting the email for this blog, please check your spam folder in your email for the confirmation email for this blog**

This is gonna be a boring email I feel like haha nothing funny or crazy really happened. Which is good and bad I guess. This past week was pretty boring in that I mean that everything was pretty routine. I feel like these next 12 days are gonna be one big spanish cram fest haha. What I really could use some help with is being able to understand the latinos better when they speak, cause they talk so fast! I just need my ears to develop hearing them talk so fast haha. I can get my point across in the lessons most the time but if theres something I dont know how to say I just go around it haha. Mostly the thing I do in lessons is just try to listen resolve concerns, piece a message together, and point out the spirit. Thats all I can do haha but usually its enough. 

Super gnarly to think that Ill be out in the real mundo here pretty soon. I almost know ill get there and have no idea whats going on at first so, Im just working hard to make sure I have to do the least amount of learning in the field as possible.

Me and my district buddies call the hermanas here muggles now haha we just try to stay away from them haha. Our district is coming along alright in the spanish, but there is definitely a separation of a learning curve for some members so its hard to see them struggle so much so we just try to help each other out. 

My maestra told me something really funny the other day, shes a great teacher for me because shes got a good sense of humor and she doesnt get mad at me. But she said in spanish basically im intelligent but I get distracted and have to much fun haha, which is literally what every teacher has told me in school my whole life haha except for my first grade teacher who told me I was dumb. Well ill show her ha ha.

I wrote a dope poem but I forgot to take a picture of it so ill send it next week haha.

Thats about all thats been going down besides my district killing it in futsall or cage soccer or in spanish futbol rapido. We beat two latino teams BOY so you know were legit. You guys are also in the clear to send packages again, I have room in my closet ;) 

Much Love

Elder Nelson

Fishbowling

Hey everybody!

Weeks are all blurring together it seems like its going so fast but it also feels like I never had a life before this lol. Everything has been going pretty well here THANKS fo the packages too! Im good for this week cause im running out of room in my closet haha. Me and my companion are getting along well. I have got a couple of good buddies in my district too, but overall our district is doing really well every once in a while someone will get down but ive instituted fishbowling in our district at least twice a week. Thats when everyone goes around the room and says something they like about a person. There is a huge presence of the spirit of love there when we do that and it really builds our district. Its easy to get negative out here but you just gotta stay focused and stay positive.

This past weekend was pretty good cause we just watched every session of conference and so all we did was eat and watch conference lol. We learned a lot about receiving personal revelation and coming into things with questions and we will be able to recieve personal answers either from the talk or something the Espíritu Santo will whisper to us. It was a great experience and a nice break from spanish. 

Spanish is interesting because I make progress in ways without being able to tell if that makes sense. Its easy to think you havent made any progress here It kinda feels like I havent learned anything new, but yesterday we had a super awesome experience. We did this thing called TRC which is when volunteer members from local wards come to the ccm and you and your companion teach them a lesson, and they dont speak any ingles. So I walked in having no idea what to expect but it went super well! Our first lesson was a guy who had been a convert of 4 years and he said he was struggling to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Usually my companion carries the lesson cause hes better at spanish, but this time I led it. Sometimes I had no idea what he was saying but I catch just enough to guess what hes talking about haha. So i was able to testify of how important the BoM is and that he needs a testimony, and I showed him moronis promise and he said he had never seen that before and he committed to reading the BoM and praying about it. It was a great experience.

After that experience I felt a lot more confident about my learning spanish and being able to understand and teach people is becoming more of a reality. Also one of my night teachers was asking us where were going and I said Bolivia and she was like, your gonna be happy because the Bolivians are the easiest ones to baptize in south America hahaha woohoo! She said the people there have really strong faith and they are very open to missionaries :D

Overall its been good here Im not quite getting anxious to leave and I know how well im able to do right when I get in the field is up to my studying in here so Im glad Ive got just over 2 weeks left to really kick it in gear. 

Love

Elder Nelson

heres me saying bye to our awesome zone leaders. Im also like the oldest one in my zone they call me grandpa sometimes haha

*Last Weeks Missing Email*

HEY FAMILY! AND FRIENDS! I guess ill just send the mass email to mama.

What a crazy bunch of days it has been. Right when I got here there was like 5 people in my district so we got dissolved and me and my companion Elder tanner got put into our new and current district 11c. So thats why I wasnt able to email yesterday lo siento (sorry) I wasnt happy about it either. So its beautiful here at the ccm or mtc. I love it here, ive never been so busy in my life but I was expecting that. Everyday consists of mainly instruction or coaching personal study or companion study or language study. The food here is great every tuesday is costco pizza night so you that basically inspires me every week to make it to next tuesday haha. I miss everybody a lot but im not allowed to think about you guys very much haha 3 minutes a day is what the ccm recommends haha but thats pretty tough. Honesty I could not have gotten a better district everybody is awesome and it helps me to keep my focus here. My companion like i mentioned is Elder Tanner who is a great companion from Utah. He is very obedient and stressed to obey the rules to the point of annoyance sometimes but Id much rather have that than a lazy companion and he´s got the best spanish in the district which is good and bad because sometimes he carries the lessons with our "investigator" but ive learned a bunch of spanish mostly religious or greetings but more spanish is coming back to me from school. Honestly I didnt know you could be so mad and annoyed with someone but at the same time love them and think their great haha future marriage skills I guess but I get to pick that companion haha

   So some highlights of the week were definitely some seminars from Elder Bednar which was about being converted to Christ. He said a testimony is not enough. He also said we now ordained missionaries but he said "so what" which was like whoah haha but I liked it, it got me fired up. Other address was from Elder Holland who talked about casting our nets and aside and becoming fishers of men. Which could be interpreted today as leaving our families friends, and hobbies behind and focusing on the work at hand. Everyone kept saying the first week is the hardest and blah blah blah but ive been having a great time. Only a few moments of homesickness but I just pray those away real quick haha, gotta stay positive and stay busy. Today has been my first pday but I didnt get much of a break because our district went to the mexico city temple which was awesome I had a great experience there.

   So some gnarly experiences that have happened. I gave my first blessing to an Elder in my room who was feeling homesick. It was a good experience but I was super nervous it was short but I think it was effective. Two elders in my house have decided they need to go home, I felt prompted to give one of them some counsel and it was a really great spiritual experience and he will be back to finish his training here in no time and get out to field. Now some not so great but equally gnarly experiences. I was playing soccer with our branch and by the way were at 7000ft altitude up here and it kills me when I run haha. Also when I sweat (i call it my mexican sweat) because it burns my eyes like hot sauce for some reason haha. but anyway we were playing soccer and i scored a sweet goal by the way. while we were playing an elder was swinging on the goal post and the goal post fell and he fell under it and the crossbar hit him right in the face or I should say crushed his face it was horrible! I literally have never seen so much blood in my life! He broke his nose in two places and gashed his eyebrows and the left side of his face like where his cheekbone should be was indented in his face! The most brutal thing I have ever seen. Miraculously he had no eye or brain damage so it was literally the best case scenario and I heard his surgery was successful. Also this morning I was eating a piece of toast and a piece got stuck in my throat and I was choking! I have never choked on anything before so I didnt really know what was going on but I didnt panic. The people next to me were completely oblivious and no help. So I summoned a gust of wind from my belly and coughed as hard as I could, and I coughed it out lol, but that was the extent of my afflictions lol.

My spanish teacher loves me she thinks im super funny. I just love learning spanish but its tough! I love it here at the ccm and I miss everybody 3 minutes a day.

                         some people from my district guy on the right is my companion

my district at the temple

Soccer, Spanish, and Dr Pepper

Last week, our email form our missionary got lost in the internet, so we FINALLY got another one this week!!

HELLO EVERYBODY

 

This week has been pretty good so far. It has flown by that is for sure. Everyday is pretty much the same here so it makes it go by way fast. The language is coming along slowly it just takes a lot of work and effort with some help from the Lord. I love speaking spanish, I dont really get frustrated too much because I dont really care about making mistakes I just try my best. I spoke to some hermanas from mexico today and they told me my spanish was muy bien haha. That always feels good to get compliments from the native speakers. My district every lunch sits with latinos so we only can speak spanish to them. Usually they are super friendly and correct us on our pronunication. I met a guy who was from bolivia yesterday he was friendly, but he had tatoos all over his hands hahaha thug elder what a beast.

There was an elder in our district who was feeling really homesick so I gave him some counsel and suggested to the district that we all go around the room and something we like about him. I think it really made a difference in his life and he kept thanking me but I just told him it was the Lord working through me.

It has been funny with the food and the other district members cause the the food is making their stomachs upset if you know what I mean haha, but the funny thing is that my stomach was upset all the time before i got here if you know what I mean but Ive been great this whole time ive never eaten more fruit and salad in my life lol. Except for when we all ate like a bunch of jalapeños as a district lol that killed everybody. 

Me and my companion are getting along great its all about give and take in a relationship ive got to adjust a little but so does he to be fair so things are well, but its important to have unity because if you and your companion are not getting along you cannot teach with the spirit at all, and if you dont have the spirit you are just wasting your time trying to teach people.

People talk about the gift of toungues a lot here. Its a big part of learning the language but the main thing is just to work hard and you just notice little things. You just remember more than you usually would or feel prompted in a lesson to go in another direction and you just know what you need to say. I was having a hard time feeling the spirit in my lessons cause our investitgator was just our teacher so I felt like it was just practice. But I realized I needed to practice teaching with the spirit so I really act like my teacher really needs the gospel and try to help them and its been great.

Ive been doing great here my district plays cage soccer everyday for gym time when it doesnt rain which is nice to have some rain for once, but ive been scoring some sick goals lately but the best one was a cross from my companion right over the goalies head and I headed it in the corner it was the dopest thing in my life, after I scored that I was just like the church is true! hahaha chiste which means I joke lol. MOST IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT TODAY. IF YOU GO TO MISSIONARYPACKAGESMX.COM YOU CAN SEND ME STUFF AND THEY PICK IT UP FROM COSTCO AND GIVE IT TO ME. DR.PEPPER AND CHEEZEITS OR CHIPS OF SOME KIND WOULD BE VERY APPRECIATED. THANK YOU. Thats the website a guy told me but if it doesnt work find a way to send me something! hahaha 

Much Love 

Elder Nelson

On His Way!

                          Early, early this morning Elder Nelson was dropped off at the airport!

His first stop is the Mexico MTC where he'll spend a few weeks preparing to teach the people of Bolivia in Spanish! Be sure to email him at pknelson@myldsmail.net

September 13th is Approaching!

3 More Days til Take Off!

Parker is getting ready to head off on his mission. First stop is the MTC (missionary training center) in Mexico for a few weeks, then off to the Santa Cruz North mission in Bolivia!

On this blog, we'll feature his emails home and share his stories and pictures!