Week #25 - Seeing Miracles

Family!

Can you believe it`s July already? Where in the world did June go? Who
knows? Yesterday was my `in the field longer than in the MTC day`! The
time in the field has gone by so much faster it`s crazy! I think I`m
slowly starting to become a believer of 2 years flying by. It just
took me about 6 months to finally believe ;)

This was an awesome week! Elder Whitlock and I worked hard, but even
better, we worked smart! The mission has a standard of excellence that
they expect (numbers-wise) from every companionship every week, and
Elder Whitlock and I were able to acheive 80% of the key indicators!
Yes, that`s really good! The mission has a weekly newsletter that gets
sent out every week, and at the end of each month those companionships
that acheived 80% on key indicators and had 4 baptisms for the month
get their faces in the newsletter. Well, me and Elder Whitlock have
made the goal to get our beautiful faces in `El Sol`! It`s going to
take a lot of work, but I know that we`re both capable of doing it
together.

As promised, here`s the list of things you see on the streets of Argentina!

-shoes (any kind you want! half of a shoe, just the sole, burnt shoe, etc.)
-burning trash (Saturday nights especially!)
-dogs (EVERYwhere. Black dogs, brown dogs, white dogs, spotted dogs,
dogs with 3 legs, dogs with paralized legs, dogs making....other dogs,
any kind!)
-broken printer
-bones (I don`t know what kind, so don`t ask)

It`s a crazy place here (as I`m sure you can see)! I sure love it
though! Oh, and for the dogs, if they ever do come at you the whole
fake like you`re picking up a rock strategy works ;)

GOT ASSIGNED TO GIVE A TALK IN SACRAMENT MEETING

Want to hear some good news? We`re going to have a baptism this week!
Yes! His name is Nestor and he`s all set to be baptized this Saturday.
We taught him for the first time on my 2nd night here, and it`s been
so awesome to see his progression! He is the ex-boyfriend of a member
in our ward, and I`m so excited! The first baptism I`m going to see!
Yes! I feel like this is the first time I`ve mentioned him, so this
probably sounds like we`re having this baptism out of nowhere. Sorry!
I always feel so rushed when I email, so I usually forget to mention A
LOT of things. I always leave the cyber (where we email) and kick
myself for the first 20 minutes afterwards thinking about everything I
forgot to say! I`m working on balancing my time well on here so
hopefully I`ll start to give more details!

With Fernando, we`re progressing pretty well. He didn`t come to church
yesterday ;( but it`s ok! There`s gotta be opposition in all things
right? From what he`s told us, we could tell that he`s had a drinking
problem in his past, so we knew we`d have to teach him the Word of
Wisdom pretty early on, so we left him the pamphlet to read and told
him we`d talk about it next time. Well, we came back and we asked him
about it and he told us that it just makes perfect sense. Miracle! No
objections at all! But wait, it gets better! We explained it to him
more and he said that he just makes sense and it seems like it would
help us be more healthy. We asked him to live it and he said yes and
then he told us that since the first time we`d met he hadn`t drank!
Miracle! Yes! He always cries when we meet, and he cried again and he
just talked about what a difference he`s seen in his life since we
started meeting with him. He said he thanks God for running into us
and that he just feels so blessed. When he was telling us all of this,
I just felt so happy! I felt like I really was making a difference!
I`m not just wasting my time! We`re going to keep working hard with
him and help him be ready for his baptismal date at the end of this
month.

The man that read half the Book of Mormon! Well, we`ve tried to meet
with him a few more times, but he`s developed some pretty bad
bronchotis ;( He wrote us a note though and said that he`s still
reading, so we`re going to keep on passing by and hopefully soon we`ll
get to teach him!

JUST MAKING COOKIES ON A SUNDAY NIGHT!

Well family, I love you all so much! You are constantly in my prayers.
Keep praying for me please! I feel your prayers and I appreciate them
so very much!

I love you!

Starting to see mighty miracles in La Fe,

Elder Nilsen