Monday, October 27, 2014

A nice clean apartment surprise!!

Well, to start off the email, we had two elders stay at our apartment for the last three days. It was getting really dirty because we normally don't have any time to clean, but that kind of stuff doesn't fly with Filipino Elders. When I woke up this morning the entire apartment had been spot cleaned ha-ha. They were just finishing up mopping when I got up. They thought that they would surprise us ha-ha. Best surprise ever! We organized everything and even found some nice Christmas lights so we made my side of the apartment into a Christmas styled p-day room!

The other big thing that happened was Elder Hapi got pretty sick, so that meant that I got to catch up on a lot of sleep. Sleeping here in the heat is not fun either. It is not relaxing at all. When you sleep in the heat you have crazy dreams and you don't fully close your eyes. Also when you wake up you feel like crap.

Mom, I find it pretty funny that you crashed the car. But that is also really bad ha-ha. I can't believe that happened ha-ha. Was it the Elantra? You should have taken a picture. (This is Erik's Mom - I didn't actually crash the car. I simply backed it into a pallet of shingles that were sitting on the end of the driveway right behind my car!! They should have been placed on our roof but the delivery truck leaked oil and couldn't go on the driveway to put them up there!!!!!! Grrrrrrr!!!!!)

Well I am also pretty excited that the girls won the Bassano tournament. It must feel nice to wear the Bassano tee shirts around ha-ha.

Thanks for the email love you lots.
 
Elder Nielson

Monday, October 20, 2014

Me and Elder Hapi!! :)

Thanks for the emails! Everything is going great here.

I had no idea that Kenzie was even considering med school. That is great! We could totally take it together haha. I still want med school but I am not totally sure that being a dentist is the right job for me. Oh well, I will worry about that stuff later haha. We will be just a nice big happy family of doctors haha! I have also been thinking about BYU. Just thinking, but thinking none the less.

I picked up another baptism this week. Zion got baptized and Elder Hapi did the baptizing. I also got to baptize a little 8 year old member girl which was super fun as well. I hope Elder Hapi is having a good time. I am really trying to get him off to a good start. Things in the area are getting a lot better. Right after the baptism a bunch of members came up to us and were asking if they could work with us and give us referrals. It is starting to get exciting here in Lopez. Hopefully we can pull a couple more baptisms out before I am done training Elder Hapi. The requirements for baptisms are getting really, really high. It is becoming extremely hard to find and get a baptism in one transfer. So for elders like me who have re-opened every area they have been in, we don't get to baptize 50 people on the mission. That's ok. I can live with it. Hopefully we will have another baptism coming up in the next few weeks. But that is still just a prayer haha.

I can't really think of anything extra that you can fast or pray about other then helping us know what we need to say to less actives out here. I just came across an entire area that is almost all members but are inactive. Elder Hapi and I sat down and talked about what we should do here and we both decided that we should really try to reactivate the members and then try to get referrals from those newly reactivated members. It is definitely a new focus for me on my mission but I think we can make it work.

Well I sent some photos this week. Hopefully you like them. Love you all lots and I wish you all the best.

Elder Nielson

 Elder Richards, Elder Hapi, Elder Richard's companion (maybe??) and me!
 You know how dogs like the wind blowing in their ears???...
 ...well I seem to like it too!! :)
 Zion and I on his baptism day!
 A little girl that we also baptized.
Elder Hapi and I!!

Monday, October 13, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ha-ha! Sorry about not explaining the photos from last week! Ha-ha. We butchered a pig at a members house on p-day because it was the death date of one of their cousins. They chopped the pig up, of course, and had a huge meal with many different dishes. The sticker-like things are called pogz. It is a game that little kids play here. It is almost like trading hockey cards. The chocolate pudding stuff isn't chocolate pudding at all. It was cooked pigs blood! :). It didn't even taste that bad.

Well, this week I got my new companion. His name is Elder Hapi. Everyone here jokes about his name. "Are you always happy?" they would say. He is a big Maori Elder. (Side note - We read on a different blog that he is 6'6" and 350 pounds! - Big guy!) He is pretty cool and is super excited to get as much missionary work done as he can. He really knows how to show real courage. I remember in my first area how scared I was to talk to people. I had Elder Hapi talking to people on the bus ride home ha-ha. That is how you show your faith. He will learn the language so fast.

Well all is well in Lopez. We have a baptism next week. Zion, the little boy that I have talked about before in my letters. I feel like he is ready and I can't wait for him. Wow I am sad that I missed Thanksgiving... We didn't eat anything too special for dinner... Well that is sad ha-ha. Joke lang.

I can't believe that Paige will be home in like one month! Ha-ha that is crazy. I still got quite a while before I get to that point. Well, I am glad to hear that the girls played in Banff. I want to smell that cool mountain air again. I can't wait for that . Well, hope you all had a good week. I love you all a ton.

Elder Nielson

Monday, October 6, 2014

A very busy week!

2 weeks almost no work and training ulit (again).

That one sentence pretty much sums up this last week and this coming week ha-ha. 
 
Last Monday- Butchered a pig (Katay sa Tagalog). Received a phone call from President. President said he wants me to train again and had me promise to be perfectly obedient and give my trainee the best experience of his mission in his first 3 months. I told President I will do that. 
 
Last Tuesday- A good full day of work. Got a lot of good stuff done.
 
Last Wednesday- Had district meeting. Elder Kikel is training as well but because they had their phone stolen he didn't know until district meeting when we told him. Not that big of a deal other then after district meeting we had to leave to San Pablo (6 hour ride) and stay over night for trainer's training meeting the next day.
 
Last Thursday- Elder Kikel and I were companions for the 2 days leaving our actual companions back at home (they had a party...). We had a great workshop by President for the new trainers. Elder Kikel left his bag with all of his toiletries in San Pablo. Sucks to suck! We went to a mall on our trip back home and celebrated with Pizza Hut (Way fancier here then back home). 
 
Last Friday- Worked but got punted from all of our appointments so we just visited members and taught them lessons because of the up coming transfer day.
 
Last Saturday- We had a ward baptism planned (I don't know how we ended up in charge of it). The little girl that was supposed to be baptized chickened out because we had to do it in the ocean I think (the water is way too dirty in our chapel). We rescheduled her to be baptized on the 18 with one of our investigators - Zion.
 
Last Night- Worked again but mainly visiting and teaching members for my companion.
Today- P-day! We will get some work done later tonight.
 
Tomorrow- Fiesta here in Lopez. Tons of people, alcohol, and karaoke. Should be a party. It also means we can't really get much work done.
 
This Wednesday-  Zone training meeting. We leave for San Pablo to stay over night for transfers the next day.
 
This Thursday- I get to meet my new companion.
 
This Friday- Work and introduce my new companion to the ward.
 
This Saturday- General Conference
 
This Sunday- General Conference (My new companion, if American will have seen Conference already once ha-ha (10 hours of conference, 14 hours on a plane, 10 hours of conference again ha-ha).
 
Well this is what things look like for me, out here, in the mission. I am super excited to get to train again. It was super fun to get to mold a new missionary last transfer and I get to do it again. 
 
I can't wait to see how big Max and Beckett are when I get back. Tell Max and Beckett I will try to send them a letter next week. Please remind me to get it done. Also tell them that if they are good and help their mom and dad out a lot I will help them build a fort when I get back home. But only if they are good and aren't being bad ha-ha.
 
Well I love you all a ton. I really hope everything goes great and according to plan back at home ha-ha. Well, the work is still progressing and I am still alive and doing just fine.
 
Elder Nielson
Sort of like branding at the Hall's house - sort of???!!!
 The least horrible of the many pig butchering photos. Yup - that's Erik holding it. Of course!
 Hmmmm. Not sure what this is. Looks like chocolate pudding. Let's hope it is.
A family we are teaching.
 
Some horsing around with the kids. They love me!!
 The Zone Leaders with Elder Kikel, his companion, Elder Daranciang, and myself.
 A parade marching right in front of our house! 
 Some tiny ward members??? Just a guess.
 
A feast!!