Letters

The last entry posted before I was ready. These letters were way down on the post and I thought you might not see them, so here they are again!

Good Morning Family,
Wow as long as we´re on the topic of smog.. you know that forward that dad sent me about the astronaut and the pics of the world? Remember the one with the sandstorm from the Sahara covering the canaries? Yeah well we are in one right now. I have never seen anything like this. There is honestly sand floating in the air, I don't know how to explain it. It looks like a really bad pollution problem, we cant see the ocean or the mountains, the sun is blocked, its like a greenhouse effect (a lot hotter cause the heat gets trapped) its weird, its like having fog everywhere, but in reality, it the Sahara desert floating in the air.

Alright lets not think that I´m going to be the next Abraham Lincoln speaker. It is still very hard for me to speak in front of large audiences, it is also stressful. However I am getting better, but I am nothing huge or special, its just amazing to me how much growth I have seen. There are 6 zones in this mission, 4 in the peninsula and 2 in the islands.

Well Javier will be baptized this Sunday the 24th, if you could all pray for him so that he can stay strong and resist the desires to smoke it would be great. He needs a lot of help. If you could relay that to the whole family it would be even better, the power of prayer is incredible.

We have another investigator as well, Juan Jose. He has also promised to keep the word of wisdom and has stopped smoking because he has no money to buy cigarettes... he is from Spain and a straight up stud, he has no work right now and the bank is going to close his house, he has a bad leg and he is really passing some hard times, he cant even buy food! I have given him some of my money and I am going to give him more when I get reimbursements. He needs a lot of help as well. I feel so bad, when I leave his house that I have been blessed so much and like I don't deserve all that I have. Quite humbling.

We are MOVING we live quite far away from the church right now with our owner. I talked to President Mellor and we decided that we should move. We found a nice apartment directly above the church, its a literal 7 second walk to the church, a bit closer than what we were expecting, its going to cost 350 euros a month plus utilities, and that's extremely cheap here. Moving on the mission, tell me how cool that is. Its pretty interesting, first of all I have never moved, second of all I have never moved in Spanish... its pretty intense.

Side note: I miss the mountains so so much, when I get back I am going straight to Payson canyon and hiking to the top, then I'm going to rub tree sap all over my body and bath in an ice cold river!!

So uhhh things are good here. I love the Lord, love you guys as well.

***************

Buenos Dias!

Good stuff good stuff. I don't think there are a lot of moms out there like mine who write so much as you. Thank you, its always looked forward to.

I cant remember what was said about the Pig leg in the salt water but I will tell you one thing, its the best invention since sliced bread, you really just don't know how good it is. You can bet I´ll be packing one home in my suitcase...well that's not possible but still. Oh here's an even better part, it lasts normally for about 3 months or so, and the whole time it just sits on the counter in the heat, when ever you want some you just slice it off and eat.

Yeah me and Lucero got along pretty well, we were identical in our interests and what not, we really butted heads when teaching however. Elder Wardell and I are getting along very well these days. You gotta find something that you have in common or something you can both relate to and then you can work with that, which is currently quoting lines from Family Guy the TV show. And Napoleon dynamite.

Yeah you know what? The church really is amazing. everything about it.. a lot of people think that its just another church where you go to pray and worship. Its so much more its ridiculous, just look at the organization, the welfare system, the missionary work system, education system, so much more. Everything is accounted for up until the last detail it blows my mind, and I don't even know 10 percent of it guaranteed.

Well we just finished another great zone conference. They combined two zones into one, it was really big and they assigned me to teach a lesson on setting goals. Wow what an opportunity. It was fantastic, so fun. I love it. I also gave another talk in church last week. The progression I have made I just cant express, and I give every bit of thanks to Heavenly Father.

This week we also celebrated CHRISTMAS!! woo hoo.. oh wait that was back in December...or was it? Yes its true they do not celebrate Christmas here with Santa Claus on the 25th. Instead, they celebrate when the wise men came to give gifts to Jesus on the 6th of January. It was very different, and so that's the day when everyone gives gifts. Its a really cool tradition, then I got thinking about it and its a lot more accurate than ours...where the heck did Santa Claus come from anyway? I´ll email some pictures of it.

The baptism didn't go down, he wasn't quite ready, so we are delaying it for this week or the next, we are also going to ask his sister to be baptized with him. Should be a good one. He said he would like me to baptize him, that was pretty powerful. I´m excited!

Bueno, I hope all is good and that you have a good week there in wonderland with all the snow and what not.

********************

HELLO EVERYBODY,

What a good letter! I enjoyed every bit of it! Lets see where should i start? Well that castle picture up on the hill is in Arcos de la Frontera, I took it when I was back in Jerez. It was a way cool city, those ¨whitewashed¨ cities are pretty common in Spain. There is nothing really like it here in the Canaries. I think the Canaries should be part of South America because there are more similarities between it and South America, than Spain. PS. that was the castle that I got lost in and the construction workers had to help us down.

Yeah that tape of ¨day in the life of¨ should be pretty good I think, although it was a day of little success.

Ya know I always used to wonder why dad read the dictionary... Well lets just say that is one thing that I have picked up from him. I mean I don't read the dictionary, but I do like to learn new and different words all the time. Missionaries and people have told me here that I have a large vocabulary, I don't want to brag, rather thank dad. Hey that rhymed. Tell him to calm down with the whole heart attack thing, he better be there when we get back, I'm going to need his help as I start my life. Its interesting how you guys were so dumb and what little knowledge you had when I was 17 or so, you guys have gotten a lot smarter and a lot more useful these last couple of years...hehe

The work is going along great here, we have tried to put into practice a lot of new things we have learned in our zone conferences and it has really payed off. We are starting to see a lot of blessings from our labors. Javier will be baptized this next week, and his sister is progressing as well, she will be baptized soon as well. We have some good progressing investigators, it seems like 2010 has kicked some people in the rear, or head, and got them really going. I predict we shall be seeing much progress and success here in the near future.

We had a good fast Sunday here as well. One thing I never really practiced as a young one was the ole fast. There is sooo much power in a good solid one.

Well someone´s getting antsy over here so I think I'm going to bust out of here, I´ve never seen him this excited to get crushed in tennis haha. I'm just kidding, but seriously.

I love you all and I shall talk with y'all later.
hasta la vista

Saraha desert floating in the air!

Good Morning Family,
Wow as long as we´re on the topic of smog.. you know that forward that dad sent me about the astronaut and the pics of the world? Remember the one with the sandstorm from the Sahara covering the canaries? Yeah well we are in one right now. I have never seen anything like this. There is honestly sand floating in the air, I don't know how to explain it. It looks like a really bad pollution problem, we cant see the ocean or the mountains, the sun is blocked, its like a greenhouse effect (a lot hotter cause the heat gets trapped) its weird, its like having fog everywhere, but in reality, it the Sahara desert floating in the air.

Alright lets not think that I´m going to be the next Abraham Lincoln speaker. It is still very hard for me to speak in front of large audiences, it is also stressful. However I am getting better, but I am nothing huge or special, its just amazing to me how much growth I have seen. There are 6 zones in this mission, 4 in the peninsula and 2 in the islands.

Well Javier will be baptized this Sunday the 24th, if you could all pray for him so that he can stay strong and resist the desires to smoke it would be great. He needs a lot of help. If you could relay that to the whole family it would be even better, the power of prayer is incredible.

We have another investigator as well, Juan Jose. He has also promised to keep the word of wisdom and has stopped smoking because he has no money to buy cigarettes... he is from Spain and a straight up stud, he has no work right now and the bank is going to close his house, he has a bad leg and he is really passing some hard times, he cant even buy food! I have given him some of my money and I am going to give him more when I get reimbursements. He needs a lot of help as well. I feel so bad, when I leave his house that I have been blessed so much and like I don't deserve all that I have. Quite humbling.

We are MOVING we live quite far away from the church right now with our owner. I talked to President Mellor and we decided that we should move. We found a nice apartment directly above the church, its a literal 7 second walk to the church, a bit closer than what we were expecting, its going to cost 350 euros a month plus utilities, and that's extremely cheap here. Moving on the mission, tell me how cool that is. Its pretty interesting, first of all I have never moved, second of all I have never moved in Spanish... its pretty intense.

Side note: I miss the mountains so so much, when I get back I am going straight to Payson canyon and hiking to the top, then I'm going to rub tree sap all over my body and bath in an ice cold river!!

So uhhh things are good here. I love the Lord, love you guys as well.

***************

Buenos Dias!

Good stuff good stuff. I don't think there are a lot of moms out there like mine who write so much as you. Thank you, its always looked forward to.

I cant remember what was said about the Pig leg in the salt water but I will tell you one thing, its the best invention since sliced bread, you really just don't know how good it is. You can bet I´ll be packing one home in my suitcase...well that's not possible but still. Oh here's an even better part, it lasts normally for about 3 months or so, and the whole time it just sits on the counter in the heat, when ever you want some you just slice it off and eat.

Yeah me and Lucero got along pretty well, we were identical in our interests and what not, we really butted heads when teaching however. Elder Wardell and I are getting along very well these days. You gotta find something that you have in common or something you can both relate to and then you can work with that, which is currently quoting lines from Family Guy the TV show. And Napoleon dynamite.

Yeah you know what? The church really is amazing. everything about it.. a lot of people think that its just another church where you go to pray and worship. Its so much more its ridiculous, just look at the organization, the welfare system, the missionary work system, education system, so much more. Everything is accounted for up until the last detail it blows my mind, and I don't even know 10 percent of it guaranteed.

Well we just finished another great zone conference. They combined two zones into one, it was really big and they assigned me to teach a lesson on setting goals. Wow what an opportunity. It was fantastic, so fun. I love it. I also gave another talk in church last week. The progression I have made I just cant express, and I give every bit of thanks to Heavenly Father.

This week we also celebrated CHRISTMAS!! woo hoo.. oh wait that was back in December...or was it? Yes its true they do not celebrate Christmas here with Santa Claus on the 25th. Instead, they celebrate when the wise men came to give gifts to Jesus on the 6th of January. It was very different, and so that's the day when everyone gives gifts. Its a really cool tradition, then I got thinking about it and its a lot more accurate than ours...where the heck did Santa Claus come from anyway? I´ll email some pictures of it.

The baptism didn't go down, he wasn't quite ready, so we are delaying it for this week or the next, we are also going to ask his sister to be baptized with him. Should be a good one. He said he would like me to baptize him, that was pretty powerful. I´m excited!

Bueno, I hope all is good and that you have a good week there in wonderland with all the snow and what not.

********************

HELLO EVERYBODY,

What a good letter! I enjoyed every bit of it! Lets see where should i start? Well that castle picture up on the hill is in Arcos de la Frontera, I took it when I was back in Jerez. It was a way cool city, those ¨whitewashed¨ cities are pretty common in Spain. There is nothing really like it here in the Canaries. I think the Canaries should be part of South America because there are more similarities between it and South America, than Spain. PS. that was the castle that I got lost in and the construction workers had to help us down.

Yeah that tape of ¨day in the life of¨ should be pretty good I think, although it was a day of little success.

Ya know I always used to wonder why dad read the dictionary... Well lets just say that is one thing that I have picked up from him. I mean I don't read the dictionary, but I do like to learn new and different words all the time. Missionaries and people have told me here that I have a large vocabulary, I don't want to brag, rather thank dad. Hey that rhymed. Tell him to calm down with the whole heart attack thing, he better be there when we get back, I'm going to need his help as I start my life. Its interesting how you guys were so dumb and what little knowledge you had when I was 17 or so, you guys have gotten a lot smarter and a lot more useful these last couple of years...hehe

The work is going along great here, we have tried to put into practice a lot of new things we have learned in our zone conferences and it has really payed off. We are starting to see a lot of blessings from our labors. Javier will be baptized this next week, and his sister is progressing as well, she will be baptized soon as well. We have some good progressing investigators, it seems like 2010 has kicked some people in the rear, or head, and got them really going. I predict we shall be seeing much progress and success here in the near future.

We had a good fast Sunday here as well. One thing I never really practiced as a young one was the ole fast. There is sooo much power in a good solid one.

Well someone´s getting antsy over here so I think I'm going to bust out of here, I´ve never seen him this excited to get crushed in tennis haha. I'm just kidding, but seriously.

I love you all and I shall talk with y'all later.
hasta la vista

See the silly "Mormons" fall.

Well I´ll just go ahead and start this letter out by telling a quick story. We had just finished a lesson with a new investigator yesterday and we were walking back home for the night. I had a little extra hop in my step while walking because the lesson went fantastic. I saw a nice little pipe sticking out of the dirt and decided I might as well top it off by doing a 360 spin on the pipe. Oh boy. it all happened way too fast. I spun and my foot caught something and I fell off the pipe, then off the curb, into the gutter, and hit my head on the dumpster making a large racket and a thud. Wow. The best thing about it was that there was people around and they thought it was pretty funny to watch the ¨Mormons¨fall. Well looks like I am not as limber as I once was.

So you and dad are going to serve a mission then? When might this be happening? Maybe you´ll get called to Spain and have the time of your life?

Well something interesting has happened with this transfer. It has been pretty cool to see the changes that Elder Wardell and I have made in our six months apart. And lets just say its not exactly what I expected. Lets just say some of us have made good choices on the mission that have helped us grow and progress, and there are some missionaries that haven't made the greatest choices, resulting in less progression and growth. It feels like I am training. It has been an eye opener for me and has helped me see even more the effects of my sacrifices and hard work. What a blessing I had of having such a stud trainer that taught me all the things I know today regarding missionary work. It will be a challenge, but one that I am excited to accept and grow from. The misson has really made me notice and bring out what there is truly inside of me. That is that I have ridiculous amounts of potential and through Jesus Christ I can become strong in whatever things I may be lacking. I don't have a lot of time or I would enjoy elaborating on that.

I will go ahead and call at 2:00 (your time) so dad can be there, what a good guy helping out the other families have a happy Christmas.

Hmm there is a lot I would like to write in this letter put time is against me. Thank your for all your support and what not. Its nice to hear the blessings and challenges the family is having. I will be praying for you, and we will be in touch.

News from the Canary Islands . . .

WOOOOOOHOOOOOO I FOUND HIM!!!! I found the next elders quorum president! His name is Javier, he lives about 30 mins outside of the city but wow he is golden. 26 years old, lives with his mom and sister (thats not unusual here if you were wondering, average move out age is 30) his mom is catholic but he isn't practicing. We found him looking for his mom, his mom wasn't there but I asked him if we could teach him anyway. We taught the first lesson, all he could say was wow when we recited the first vision. By the end he was in tears, and so was I. I haven't ever felt the spirit that strong before. He came to church this Sunday and absolutely fell in love, he asked me why he had to go to the investigator class, he wanted to go to the regular class. The whole entire ward befriended him. It was just picture perfect.

On the other hand, transfer calls just came. Looks like I didn't learn everything I was supposed to learn with my first comp in the MTC, Elder Wardell. Because he is comin' here to be with me again. I was made district leader over two islands as well. I´m gonna love it. I thrive on these leadership opportunities, something I would have shied away from before the mission...

I feel guilty for opening my package early, but the members here are going to take care of me I am sure of it. I cant explain how great the members here are, gosh if all members of the church were like these members wow, the world would be different. First impression of the island was very bad, but you just got to find the beauty. I see now why these people love to live here. Cant explain it, but it grows on ya ya know?

I still haven't received my letters from the friends, its a holiday here, this week, and then everything will prob shut down on like the 18th so if I don't get my stuff in that little gap, then I prob wont be seeing it for a while but whatev. wow I didn't know you had the birthday package in mind also. wow, I was just expecting the whole Christmas birthday package all in one idea. How much my family loves me.

Alright instead of sharing a spiritual experience this week I will share a funny one.
Me and my comp were walking across the desert to go to work and there are a lot of big rocks and what not. Anyways we were acting all hard core, doing stupid tricks off like little rocks and doing 360´s and stuff, just to make fun, and when we would do a trick we would like freak out and like act way hard core, you can only imagine... When we were done walking through the desert basically my comp decided to throw a rock with his feet. He kicked it up in the air like a foot high and it landed back down, but he thought it was a lot higher so he started to run out of the way and he slipped and fell straight on his back and got covered with dirt and a guy was watching the whole time. I was laughin' so hard I couldn't breathe.
2 hours later... we had just taught a way good lesson to a recent convert, a member, and a less active, and like 3 children (it was just one lesson all in the same room with a lot of people) and it went way good. Anyways when we finished we got up and said goodbye and what not and then left down a hallway to the outside door. Well the door was open and it had one of those baby gates set up in it. Well we were still in our hardcore" look at me I'm so cool mood," and I was like, ¨dude check this out I´m going to jump this no prob, I´m even going to grab my feet in the air just to top it off!!¨ bad idea.. I had my proselyting bag on and a Book of Mormon in one hand and I went to jump it, and my feet caught the top of it and I came down SO HARD, it was so loud!! and everyone ran out and saw me laying there on top of the baby gate (which was broken) hurtfully laughing. My comp couldn't even stand up, he couldn't even walk down the stairs he was laughing so hard. And we limped out of there. I limped the whole day, and the worst part about it was I broke the watch in half that Whitney gave me, and it cant be fixed. I feel really bad. However it was the funniest morning I have had in the mission.

well I gotta bounce out so talk to ya later fam.
elder nielson


A few excerpts from previous letters:


Alright I said that I would share a spiritual thought with you the last time so I will share one that we had this week. We had a lesson with a member named Patricia that is about 22 years old. She got married when she was 16, has one daughter, and a husband that is not a member. She wants more than anything to get sealed in the temple, but her husband doesn't really care (we see so much of that here its absolutely ridiculous). Anyways she is always down in the dumps because she is having a hard time with the life and what not. So this was the first time we have taught her, we wanted to go in and teach her the first lesson, very simply and clear in hopes that we could get in with her husband to win his trust and teach him. Anyways we taught the lesson, it went fantastic the spirit was waaay strong. Everything went well but unfortunately we weren't able to get in with the husband like we had wanted, so right before we said the prayer to close we asked her if she had any questions that she might like to ask. She paused and looked for a minute and then asked us how can someone forgive themselves for the things they had done in their life. She has had a very bad past and couldn't forgive herself entirely. Right then the spirit told me so clearly to open and find a quote that I had glued in my scriptures some time ago. I couldn't even remember what the quote said but I did remember what the title was, ¨an immediate effect¨ and that's what the spirit told me, an immediate effect, and I recognized it and asked her if she would read it for us aloud, it was a long quote and I honestly didn't remember what it said before hand. She read it and it was the most perfect thing anyone could have ever said or read in that moment. She finished it and through tears all she could say was thank you, thank you. Just goes to say that the spirit is something real, something that I am sure we all know exists. The impressions are real we just need to be in tune spiritually to be guided by it. Even though I had no idea what she was about to read, I knew that it was an impression from the spirit, and that was all I needed to trust in.

So yeah here on my little desolate island, yes we can teach the Muslims, we can teach whoever we feel like we need to teach, however every single one of them has the STRONGEST beliefs, solid as a rock never changing mindset. And that is that Jesus was just another prophet and that Mohammad was the last prophet there ever was, the Koran is the true book and they aren't really open for changing any of that. They are always down to talk about religion and never get upset or angry in what we say but there is some sort of a mind block when we start teaching Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon.. I have so much respect for them, they live their religion with all their heart and are the kindest people there are, unlike Catholics who have no idea what their beliefs are and don't live their religion at all.

By the way, did you know the best beaches in all of Europe are found right here on my island? Cool fun fact. Guess what else, I have turned into quite the cook, you probably cant believe that but whatev, I made bread and hot pockets today, I make pancakes from scratch almost every morning, and all kinds of things for lunch, all from scratch, re-fried beans, tortillas, scones, pasta, rice, salads and lot of Spanish stuff that you would have no idea is, even if i explained it..

My companion is Mexican, if you didn't know, and naturally they like beans. Lets just say i have eaten more re-fried beans, hot sauce, and tortillas in the last week than I have in my whole life. They are incredible, he makes the beans I make the tortillas. Then we sit there and eat bean burritos and talk about how bean burritos can be related to life and how we can apply folding burritos to teaching, and dating and whatever it may be.

Gettin' caught up once again!

Hello,

Well I didn"t exactly receve a letter this week, but I figured I´d just give an update for kicks and giggles.

We are rollin up to the end of my fourth transfer, wow! That means that more than likely I will be getting transferred to a new area! wooooo hooo! I'm not going to lie, I'm getting sick of walking the same streets over and over. Hopefully they ship me off to the Canaries, so I don't have to be here when it gets cold this winter. All the Spaniards are crying how cold it is here... its about 80 degrees farenheit...

We have about 10 good investigators right now which is really good. We have been doing some hard work and it has finally paid off a bit. So in terms of the missionary work here in my area, we are doing way good.

I tryed to perfect a backflip a couple of days ago. It required a lot of muscular strain, I woke up the next morning and struggled to get out of bed because I hurt so bad. Today I am learning the ¨flare¨ its a breakdance move. We also played basketball the other day and I pulled my groin! Missionary work good, physical fitness bad!
Peace out,
Elder Nielson
Oct. 17, 2009

*****************************************************************************

Easy mom, easy.

I just finished a long week, give me a break. Nothing was on schedule, I had to go everywhere this week for residency, zone conference in Sevilla, and then conference on top of that. Basically it was a week of nothing but traveling and planning to travel. So thats why I didnt write.

Things here are going pretty good, me and Simmons get along way good. Elder Lauener (from Switzerland) that came in to be the comp of Elder Brossa (the Spaniard) is going really well. He is probably the nicest caring genuine missionary I have ever met, he is my hero and there is so much to learn from him its ridiculous. He just loves out all his companions imperfections. Its amazing. He is also teaching me how to breakdance and I have been pretty sore these last couple of days.

Yeah we just watched broadcasted conference here, it was pretty sweet. The Priesthood session blew me away. I really wanted to hear Elder Hollands talk about the Book of Mormom but we werent able to. Elder Holland and Elder Bednar are my heros.

Well good news, I just had my fourth zone conference, and I understood every word that was spoken, how assuring t´was. It was a good time. Oooh you're going to kill me, I almost killed myself...I lost the translator, and I dont dare to ask you to send me a new one... so I'm just going to leave it at that.

Hey I asked Whitney to write me a lil' something on Obama and whats going on with all that. Wow the email was so angry I thought the computer was going to explode. Lets just say she really doesnt like what he is doing. I would like to hear what you have to say about him, just a lil' bit though, I pretty much already got every detail of his life from Whitney.

Well its always good to hear that the fam is doing good, makes me happy.

Me and simmons decided to plat a game last night to help getting up on time. We took a huge bowl and filled it with water and set it on the nightstand... then we went to bed nervously knowing that whoever got up faster, got to grab the bowl and dump it on the other. Well we both woke up faster than ever and reached for the bowl with fear. I missed it by a half second and said sleepily yet fierce ¨I'am going to kill you if you dump that on me!¨ There was some unsurety in what was going to happen there for a couple seconds, and then he decided to put the bowl down. Well it wasn't really that funny, but now we look back, remembering how tired we were and the things that we said about it.

Well I'm going to bounce so yall have a good one!

October 7, 2009

Threatened with a knife!!

Oooh thanks mom, that was greatly appreciated. However, here on the base they just accepted my card anyway. We had a nice round of golf that was definately overdue. The base here feels like a 50's science project. Everyone says its just like being back in America... no its not. If it is, I'm not coming back. I feel creeped out.

Well you didnt exactly write me this week, I take it you're busy.

The things here are good. We are baptizing our Bolivian this Sunday, should be a good time. Well I don't have really much to write back about.

This week was absolutely satanic. We didnt get a single freakin reference. I got shut down on the street about 459 times in a row. It really sucks when that happens. Guess what else happened. A guy grabbed me by my tie and threatened us with a knife hehe, that was a good time tool. I have never got yelled at more in my life. One guy rode circles around us on his bike yelling "Jesus is a terrorist" and all kinds of other things. Good times good times! The girls still wave though hahaha
peace

Elder Nielson

Yes, that is a snail I am eating!

Alrighty, we got time.

Sorry about these last couple of weeks. Our p days have been pretty jacked up. We had zone conference and had to reschedule some stuff and thats why I wrote on different days.

Well, another transfer has ended. By the way I dont think that I told you. Remember how there are 4 missionaries in our apartment? The other two are Elder Jensen and Elder Brossa. Elder Jensen is from Holladay Utah and Elder Brossa is from Barcelona Spain. May I mention that Elder Brossa is the biggest piece of wasted space I have ever met. He wakes up at 8, and eats a bowl of cereal, goes and lays in his bed for 30 mins, goes and sits on the toilet for 30 more minutes, and then takes a 20 minute shower. He does absolutely nothing and has nothing good to say about anyone. Anyways the point of this story is that I can't look at him without getting pissed off. Therefore the spirit in the piso is rare... but transfers just came and Jensen is leaving, and coming in his place is the Assistant to the President! hahahahahaha I cant even wait. He was Elder Murphys comp when they were in the office together just before he trained me. Its like getting my trainer back! I cant even wait. I love HARD WORKERS gosh. I feel like Iam being treated very nicely beacuse I have lived with three of the best missionaries in the misison. I love love love learning from their examples!

The spanish is coming along. I feel a lot more comfortable now. I dont get massive headaches anymore from trying to listen intently. I still dont understand everything but I can hold my own, which feels good.

Oh you are going to die when you hear this. I lost my journal... we went to Gibralter again and when I was taking money out of an ATM, I set my journal on top of it... oops

Haha I laughed pretty good when I heard the whole ´drive in´ story about Josh and his kids. Wow what a stud. I dont know what I would do if I were in his situation.

Wow Nate is also a huge stud, I cant believe that. I dont think I will ever be half the guy he is. I have always looked up to him. That makes me happy that he is workin his butt off. Wow what a different outlook on life I have...

Im going to just put this out there...dad is a grandpa. whats this handin out candy bars! Cats por todos lados? Oh my. Whats he doing in his spare time these days? Has he hit up any golf courses lately?

Well I'm sure everyone wants the update on the whole Whitney situation...well your guess is as good as mine. I have only written her once since I have been out. I figured its not that important to be worrying about girls right now. Plus I want a clean start when I get back. Thats what I was thinkin. Its kind of weird though because like 4 new girls have sent me letters that I thought had disappeared. hehehe I'm sure if they saw of picture of me now they wouldn't be so interested. Fat me.

The things here in Jerez are pretty good. I am learning to excercise a lot of patience! With everything! The work is still pushin along. We are working with a good Spanish family right now, things are lookin pretty good for them. I have recently had some good experiences of breakin out of my lesson plans and going from the heart. I'm saying things I never thought I would say before, and when I say them I look back and think wow, did I really just say that? I love this growing experience, and the chances to overcome my weaknesses.
Oh I almost forgot. They found my journal, you can relax now.
Love you all,

Elder Nielson