Hello again family!
First off I just want to say hello to all my friends! My mom said that a lot of you are following the blog and reading my letters. It touched me when I saw all the support I'm getting and I thank you from the bottom of my heart! I love you all so much and I know that I'm blessed with some amazing friends and family. Really, thank you.
So I've decided that since my visa still hasn't come one of two things is going to happen soon:
1) I'm going to have some crazy health problem all of a sudden that if I had been in Argentina I would have died or...
2) There's gonna be some FAT natural disaster in Argentina
That's what I've decided. What do you think? :)
This week was a good one! Just like the title of the email says, I'm still persevering patiently! I received one of the best compliments EVER this week from one of the Hermanas here in my district. She's one the of the advanced ones that we joined with, so she's a native and speaks super good spanish. We had been in class and I had talked in spanish a few times and then after class she came up to me and asked, "Elder Nilsen, where did you learn to speak spanish like an Argentino?" BEST COMPLIMENT EVER! I was so happy :) I guess my spanish is sounding pretty good! My castellano accent must be sounding pretty legit if I'm getting compliments from natives :)
This same Hermana also told me, Elder Hansen, and Elder Weiler that we are an inspiration to her because of our work ethic and diligence still even though we could be sad and depressed. She said it really impressed her that we are still all working so hard. So yes, we are all working very diligently here and doing our best to become better everyday.
Back to the topic of spanish real quick. The gift of tongues is real. No doubt about it. It's so cool how I can study a word just once or twice and then I'll be able to remember it later in a lesson or when I'm just talking. The gift of tongues is so helpful. I know without a doubt that I wouldn't be able to be speaking as well as I am if it weren't for that amazing gift. Sometimes I think back to high school and when I was talking spanish and I think about how useful this gift would've been then! Just know that I have a strong testimony of the gift of tongues ok? I wish that you could hear me speak spanish! I'm trying my best to speak it 24/7 and it's pretty fun. I'll be talking in english now and I'll totally just accidentally throw in a spanish word there. It's pretty funny. Like at lunch today I was talking to someone in english and they asked me a question and I went to go say "of course" but I accidentally said "claro." Yay spanish!
So I feel like I should briefly mention in here that I made myself a workout plan for when I eventually get to Argentina. There's really no reason why I'm mentioning it in here except for the fact that I want to tell you the name of it. The name of my workout plan is: "Legítimo Leo." :) Yup, I'm still quite the fanatic of Messi. It's a pretty solid workout plan if I do say so myself. I will not get fat!
Speaking of Messi, I rock my jersey every night (thank you for it again Lyss! :) ). It's fun to wear it because there's a bunch of natives in the residence halls that are crazy soccer fans and by wearing the jersey I either become automatic best friends with the natives or I become automatic enemies. It's fun. I wear it around and I hear people from their rooms shout "Ya Messi!" or "He stinks!" as I walk by their rooms. Either way I just smile and raise my fist and yell, "MESSI!"
I feel like I should give a quick little update on how my companionship is going. I don't talk much about Elder Hansen so I'll just talk a bit about how things are going there. Well...to be honest, between both the visa situation and Elder Hansen I'm learning a lot of patience. I don't want you to get the wrong idea, because I love Elder Hansen. It's just that after you've been with someone 24/7 for 11 straight weeks you find some stuff that kinda sorta really bugs you. I love Elder Hansen, and I'm learning just how to be patient. Patient and humble I guess. He just likes to correct me a lot and it's kind of a bother (especially when he corrects my spanish in the middle of lessons), but you know what? It's teaching me how to just buck up and deal with it. He's got a lot of awesome qualities and I always try to focus in on those. We teach fairly well together, but I'm pretty stoked when I get a new companion in Argentina that shows just a TAD bit more enthusiasm in everything. I know that may sound super hypocritical because in the past I haven't been one to show much enthusiasm, but I promise I'm a lot better now. I talk a lot now. Bet that makes you happy huh Mom? :)
Yesterday we had the chance to teach one of our former "investigators," Javier, again. We had stopped teaching him because we were going to be leaving for Argentina so we hadn't seen him for a while and other Elders had been teaching him. Well they couldn't make their appointment yesterday, so we filled in for them. What a change in Javier! He had changed so much! When Elder Hansen and I had been teaching him he was pretty stubborn and didn't want to pray and just had a lot of issues that would be tough to deal with in english let alone spanish. Wow. He has changed so much. I've always heard that the gospel blesses lives, it changes lives, it transforms people, etc. But actually seeing what the gospel does for someone was so cool! It inspired me to work even harder so that I could bring this gospel to people in Argentina and make them better people. I am so blessed to be able to be messenger of Christ that gets to share this gospel and see the change it makes in people's lives. I can't wait to see it change more lives in Argentina.
Well, I guess this is the end of another weekly email. I want to thank you all for your prayers and fasting. I most definitely noticed an increase in patience and strength this week and I know that it's because of you and your prayers. I really feel the strength that comes from your support.
I love you all. SO much.
Working hard,
Elder Nilsen
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