Week #17 - Success Requires Perseverance

Family,

 

Another week, another email! I say it at the beginning of every email, but geeze the weeks go by fast. I can't believe it. I'm coming up on 4 months already! Crazy.

 

Anyway, before I forget, I want to make a quick shout out to my bud Dean. Dean! I was sitting in the dentist's office the other day and the song "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias came on! I immediately thought of you and how we'd listen to that song (and others) before school. Good times huh? Man oh man. I started laughing out loud as I was sitting in the waiting room. People were probably wondering what I was laughing at, but whatever! Hit me with a letter sometime man! I'd love to hear from you! That goes for all my friends actually. I want to hear from you! I can't promise that I'll write back too quickly, but I LOVE letters and I'd love to hear from all of you. I got a letter from Cassie and I'm working on getting back to her right now, so ya. I'd really appreciate it if you'd write me mis amigos! I love you all and miss you guys like crazy.

 

In case you didn't know this already, it is SO hard to wake up in the mornings at 6:30. Never in my life has 6:30 felt so stinkin' early. This past week I made a goal to do at least 50 pushups everyday (except Sundays of course) on my mission. So far I've kept it! In other physical activity news, I am still slowly improving in soccer. We play every Friday with investigators, and I am quickly discovering that there is no "just for fun" mode when it comes to soccer for hispanics. Nope. They take their soccer very seriously. I don't know what good this does by telling you, but I just kinda felt like sharing that little thought of mine. I try to keep you updated as much as I can :)

 

Do you remember Buster and Loadie? The pitbulls? Well, this past week we had the exciting opportunity to give them baths. Holy cow was that an experience. I might have screamed like a little girl a few times (shh, don't tell anyone), but we did get the job done. They jump so high! From the moment we turned on the hose, they were jumping as high as they could to try to bite the head of the hose. I was the first one to use the hose, therefore I was the first one to try to fight off their attempts to bite the hose. It was terrifying! You can see my fear in the picture that I sent you I'm sure. I was freaking out, trying not to get bit, and screaming like a little girl. It was fun though! The other Elders laughed at me because they thought it was so crazy that I was screaming. I don't know about you, but two big pitbulls jumping higher than my head is kind of scary right? I think so!

 

This past week I came close to having a "spanish breakdown". I feel pretty confident in my spanish, and I'm starting to understand more and more everyday, but at dinner on Saturday night for some reason I couldn't understand anything that was being said. I have a bad habit of saying "si" to people when they ask me a question I don't understand, and I was doing that a lot. Everyone was just sort of laughing and what not (what's NOT hilarious about a gringo that's not understanding anything?) and the lady who was feeding us dinner started to ask me some questions. Yes, it was funny, but I was getting really frustrated. She wasn't purposely making fun of me, but I was starting to get hurt. She asked me (in spanish obviously, joking too) if I wanted her to kill me. I didn't understand so I just smiled and said "si" and everyone started busting up. I just felt like an idiot and wanted to run home to Temecula. Obviously I couldn't do that, so I just sat in silence for the rest of the dinner and only talked when I had to. I thought my embarrassment was over, but as we were leaving we asked if we could do anything. The lady quickly responded by saying that me and Elder Cheney could sing a hymn for her. Great. I was like, "seriously?" I put on a smile and we sung "There Is Sunshine in My Soul Today" in spanish. I was so annoyed. The whole way home I was trying not to cry and I just prayed that I could receive some comfort and to really have the gift of tongues. Everyone tells me all the time that I speak so well and that I have nothing to worry about. I appreciate that, but it's not speaking that's my problem. It's understanding what the heck people are saying to me! It's a process, and I think just about the only thing I can do is to just keep listening and being patient. Another tough thing that I sometimes think about is the fact that here in Idaho, everyone is Mexican. So here I'm learning how to understand Mexican spanish, but as soon as I get to Argentina I'll have to learn to understand the different accent. It should be challenging, but fun, so I'm looking forward to it. Just please pray for me earnestly that I may be able to have the gift of tongues please. I'd REALLY appreciate it.

 

This week we didn't really get to teach too many lessons. It's pretty tough this time of year in Idaho to find people to teach because of the fact that it's planting season and everyone works until about 10, 10:30 at night. Since we have to be back to our house by 9:30, it's hard to teaach people. The wives are often home, but we can't go inside without a male present. It's tough, but the good news is that I really think this area is about to boom with the work. Elder Cheney and Solorio "whitewashed" this area, meaning that they opened this area up. Before they got here there weren't any missionaries here, so we've been working hard to find all the people that are ready. We have about 3 or 4 families that I really think are ready to hear about the gospel, but it's just a matter of catching them at the right time. We'll continue to work hard to share this amazing gospel with everyone that will listen.

 

I feel like I should update you just briefly about what I'm studying during personal study everyday. I'm slowly but surely making my way through the Book of Mormon. I'm taking it VERY slowly and finding little golden nuggets in every verse I read. It is such an amazing book. I know that it's true, and I know that we can feel closer to God and Jesus Christ as we read it. I know that because as I've been reading it I've felt more of my Heavenly Father's love for me. It's true, so what else matters? I just read this morning in Mosiah 15. What an awesome chapter! Wow! All about Christ and His atoning sacrifice for me. For you. For EVERYONE! Geeze. I've enjoyed reading in "Jesus the Christ" too lately. I've started it now for the 3rd time here on my mission, and I'm determined to read it. The stake president here told us that if we read "Jesus the Christ" it would change the way we serve, so I'm going to read it! I want to serve with all of my "heart, might, mind, and strength" and I know this book will help me.

 

We had stake conference here in American Falls yesterday, and boy was I surprised! I thought it was just going to be a regular conference and we'd hear from the stake president and his counselors and what not. Boy was I wrong! It was a broadcast from Salt Lake and we got to hear from both Boyd K. Packer and M. Russell Ballard. Blessing? I think yes! We also got to hear from Ronald A. Rasband from the seventy, and I'd like to quickly share with you what I learned from their talks.

 

Ronald Rasband talked about standing in holy places and how we need to be firm in standing there. He talked about temples and how they are a holy place where we can stand. What a blessing it is to have temples here on the earth! Goodness gracious. I feel so overwhelmingly blessed with all I have. He talked a little about spiritual sanctuaries and how the temple is one of them. I thought about it, and thought that we need to be continually building our personal spiritual sanctuaries so that we can always be standing in holy places and can fight off Satan. Good stuff, real good stuff.

 

President Packer talked about a lot of stuff, but one thing he said that I really liked was when he was talking about how tough it is to live in the world nowadays. He said that we're here at this time because our Heavenly Father knows we're strong enough to be here. He compared it to a coach who sends in his best players in the 4th quarter to win the game. Well, it's the 4th quarter and we're here to win the game and come through for our "coach", Heavenly Father. It's the bottom of the 9th and the bases are loaded and we're up! What are we going to do? It's up to us!

 

Elder Ballard's talk was my favorite of them all. I don't know if what I'm going to share with you is exactly what he talked about, but it's what I got out of it. I learned from his talk that if we have an increase in faith, we'll have an increase in success. More faith = more success. Simple right? I loved that. I thought about myself and how I need to be continually increasing my faith so that I can have more success here on my mission. Along with that, he also talked about how success requires perseverance. Success, as I'm sure we all know, doesn't usually come instantly. We have to be continually striving to have success, and we often have to break through discouragements to be able to acheive success. Another thing that I learned about success is that we can't let discouragement impede us. We can't let it stop us in our duty to do! Our duty to DO. I really like that. It's all about action. In order to have success we have to take actions of faith. It's often scary, but if we can get through the fear or the discouragement (or in other words, the opposition) we will have success! So cool.

 

My duty here on my mission is to rescue souls. To bring my fellow brothers and sisters to the truth. It's tough and I face a lot of opposition. Heavenly Father knows I can do this work though. He knows that I can have success in this labor of love. He gives me opposition in all things so that I may be able to learn and grow. How great is that? He helps me learn and grow as I help rescue people. Funny how God works sometimes isn't it? I'm on my mission to help OTHER people, but Heavenly Father is helping ME too along the way. It's all about persevering. Persevering will bring success.

 

I hope that my letters, in some way, are encouraging and uplifting for you to read. I try really hard to invite the Spirit into my letters, and I just hope that you can feel it as you read. I know that it's sometimes difficult to recognize the Spirit in our lives, but it's there. I've had a couple personal experiences this week where I have learned that the Spirit is always with us if we're choosing the right. I've learned that at times we may not always recognize when we have the Spirit with us, but we can IMMEDIATELY recognize when it's gone. Gotta live worthy of the Spirit. Have to.

 

I love you all so much family. I can't wait to talk to you this Sunday! YES!

 

I love you.

 

Not alone as I strive for success,

 

Elder Nilsen