34 Ties: Finally some pictures!!

Thanks for the email Mom. I am starting to see really good improvements in all the aspects of my work as a missionary. I actually can't believe how far I have come over the last year and however many months. When I left the MTC I was scared to death haha, but I thought that I understood what a missionary could/should be. I was very confident that if it was an English mission I would be just fine. Man was I dead wrong. Everyday I learn something new, I improve some basic skill, or work harder to become better in some way. Everyday I improve slightly but I am still so far away from achieving my goals. My goal for my missionary work will probably take me to the end of my mission. Elder Pulido has helped my out a ton with teaching skills and such. The next thing I want to work on is building a good relationship with the wards and branches in my mission. I am always able to get close to a few members but It is super hard to get close to a lot of members ha-ha. I feel like that would be a huge step in my mission.

Well things are going great out here. I am sorry that I haven't had any huge spiritual experiences lately. I guess whenever you are able to get someone to live the Word of Wisdom, it is considered a miracle. We had a really good lesson this week about the Word of Wisdom. The lesson went pretty good and by the end we saw a real desire to change in one of our investigator's eyes. It is always really cool when that happens.

We actually had kind of a crappy week. Elder Pulido hasn't been feeling all that well and we weren't able to go out and work on 2 of the days. The results were that we had no one come to church. Elder Pulido said it was the second time that had happened to him on his mission. I said it has happened to me a lot more then 2 times.

I sure do miss being a part of basketball back at home ha-ha. Actually I manage to play it about 2 times a week. I can't believe how popular it is out here. I think it would be great idea for me, you, Uncle Kris, Chase, and Jake to all go out to the Philippines for a basketball vacation. We could play every night to make money for our expenses for the next day. All we would have to do is buy plane tickets and we are golden ha-ha. They have some crazy rules out here because there is no referees and I would have to teach you guys how to play Filipino street ball. The Filipinos would be all about trying to beat some "americano" white guys for money ha-ha. :)

Oh well, all is still well out here in the pines. We also had some good drama with the STLs, the sisters in my zone, and our district leader this week but I probably shouldn't tell you anything about that.

Tell Kenzie and Tori to be good and continue to work hard in school. Tell Kenzie that I will pray for her.

Well Love you all lots.

Hopefully Chase gets called to the Philippines! I will be his trainer! ha-ha!.

Elder Nielson