Tuesday, May 27, 2014

A New Trainer!

Well, I finally got a completed family!! And I have also been asked to be a trainer (training a new missionary - funny thing is - I am sort of still a new missionary!! :)) which almost for sure means I am also going to be the District Leader. Wow! I am a little stressed out about that, I guess, but whatever. I am sure I will I learn a lot with these next couple of transfers. Transfer day is like in 10 days haha - time to really work on Tagalog ha-ha.

Mom - It kind of sucks that there's not going to be any more Burst of Color Run... Oh well, I know it's a lot of work to coordinate and carry out - I wouldn't want to be the one to organize it! I don't blame you guys for needing a break!

Dad - That's awesome that you are going to be the school choir conductor next year ha-ha. Just remember to really take into consideration what the students want to sing. Even if your pretending haha. Pretend to really consider them. :) It sounds like you have a really good chance of getting a track and field banner this year! I hope you get it! I can't wait to here what will happen.

Well, I hope you all have a great week. I typed this pretty fast so sorry about the crappy wording ha-ha.

Love you lots!

Elder Nielson

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Just saying hi!!

Haha! The highlight of my week last week was definitely Skyping home! (well other then my completed family baptism). Eek - I really hope Dad didn't put my Tagalog speaking on the blog! I honestly can speak 100 times better then that - haha. Anyways the skpying was really nice. I got to see all of your lovely faces! I hope you didn't mind not getting an email last week! I didn't think it would be that necessary.

Well I am having a great time here still. Hopefully I will continue having a great time until the end of my mission - heehee. Well I guess I am almost finished with my transfer with Elder Tupou. What scares me is that I might be training next transfer and that I also might be District Leader. Elder Tupou is DL right now so if I am training I will be DL cause he will be gone. Oh well I will do whatever I am needed to do.

Well I am glad that you guys had a pretty good week. I am also super glad that Kenzie passed her driver's test. That is awesome.

That is super cool that Lynn and Dean Crapo's son will be coming to the Philippines on his mission! Iloilo mission has lots of languages in it - haha. Probably he will learn more then one when he goes there. Hilagaynon isn't that popular here in the Philippines I wonder if that will actually be the main language he will use. Tell him to get at least one pair of dark pants or else he will feel all by himself in the meetings and stuff. The food is great as long as you are willing to eat a fair amount of rice. When I say fair amount I mean everyday if you have a Filipino companion. Most of the Filipino's are great cooks which is great.

Well, wish everyone well and tell them I love them.

Elder Nielson


P.S I added more photo's but not my baptism photo yet...
                                 
A scenic view???? Why is there never an explanation to these crazy photos?

                                 
Elder Tupou also enjoying the view!
 A little bit of rain!
 Maybe some swim time too! 
Some friendly looking puppies!
 
 
 

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Best Mother's Day EVER!!! :)



Happy Mother's Day!

So excited to report that we were able to connect with Erik through skype on Sunday night! It really made my day, week, month! We were all so excited to see his face and hear his voice again! He is doing so well! He is really loving the Philippines and is so happy there. I am so relieved each week when his happy letters reassure me, but by the end of the next week, I start questioning it again - but I can honestly say that he looks so extremely happy. Which is amazing to me because his life has really changed so much living there. Erik has always been a very picky eater - he loves the basics like roast beef and mashed potatoes - I truly think it's a miracle that he loves the food there because it is so very different from what he was raised on. I would NEVER have guessed that he would try something like Balut (boiled duck embryo!!). And might I also add that he has always been very particular about bathrooms, and adequate cooking facilities - and he definitely has had to adjust to that change. Showering in ice cold water out of a bucket with cockroaches and snakes swimming around his feet, washing ALL of his laundry by hand, cooking everything in one pan on a one burner cooktop, and the knowledge that rice goes with every meal you eat! Sounds like someone has learned to live the simple life. :) I am so grateful that he has learned this - I know that he looks around and sees that he has so much more than most of the people that he meets every day - he is grateful for the little things in life. That's something that can be very hard to teach your child these days. He learned it all on his own! :)

Erik's dad did some cutting and pasting and put some of our skype call together for you to hear. We tried to include some stories as well as some of his Tagolog skills (its coming along - its a pretty tough language to learn). I hope you enjoy it - don't feel like you need to hear it all. We recorded over an hour of the call - so it could have been a lot longer! ;) About halfway through the call our power went out here in Rosemary so we had to finish the remaining call on my cell phone so the image changes a bit - sorry!! 


Wednesday, May 7, 2014

New Digs!

I am super sorry for not emailing you yesterday. I ended up in a super crappy computer shop and the power shutdown 2 times. Both while I was trying to send you a letter. We ended up having to leave because we had a really awesome Family Home Evening planned at one or our progressing investigator's home and then we couldn't even get into the shop right next to our house last night cause all these kids were playing in it.

Well things went pretty good this week. The one problem I had with my trainer Elder Richards was that he didn't really make me do anything or let me talk in lessons but now I am teaching almost half the lesson and talking to everyone. Elder Tupou makes me talk to everyone I see. One of our key indicators in this mission is OYM (open your mouth). It means talk to everyone. We record the amount of times we talk to someone and share a gospel principal. With Elder Richards we would get like 20 a week and he would do almost all of them now this last week I got 69 and I did them almost all by myself. Elder Tupou sure knows how to work me - haha.

Well, it sounds like you had a pretty good week other then the snow. How did Dad hurt is leg? I think Dad would love to live here. In San Pablo basketball is so big. Every little compound has a nice big roofed-in basketball court and all day everyday they are filled with kids playing basketball and in the evenings they run really big, popular basketball tournaments. It is too bad that the Filipinos are short because if they were bigger we would probably see a lot more in the NBA. They actually have their own professional basketball league call the PBA and that is super popular as well. The people here live and breath basketball. I think it would have been really fun growing up here.

My new area is nice. We already have one investigator that should be baptized in the next 3 weeks. We gave her a baptismal goal date on the first day I got here and she has progressed ever since. In fact that is where we had the FHE. Our apartment is kinda crappy but it is a lot bigger. The bathroom really sucks - haha - it is super small and not nice at all. Also the water is ice cold. Not a real fan of it. Elder Tupou is pretty good about cleaning too. Normally the one who cooks doesn't need to clean so whenever I cook Elder Tupou cleans, which is really nice. I really liked Elder Richards but he wasn't quite as eager to clean as Elder Tupou. One really good thing about Elder Richards was that he was obedient to almost all of the rules which was really good.

Anyways It is time for me to go out and get some work done (well do studies first at least).

Love you all lots and have a really great week!

PS I will try to skype you on my Monday (your Sunday). See you then.

Elder Nielson