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!

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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