Week # 27 - Tears of Pure Joy

Hello family!

Wow. What joy I feel right now as I begin typing this letter. I´m an uncle! Uncle Bub! Wow. Family is what it is all about. I feel so much love for all of you right now, and I can´t even begin to express myself right now. I am so happy! This is so wonderful! Family, family, family. I love you all. Tears of pure joy are rolling down my face as I type and think about you all. Wow. What love. What love. The best part about this all is that it´s not making me homesick at all! Not in the slightest am I homesick. What a blessing! This truly is the first time since I´ve been in Argentina that I don´t feel extremely homesick as I email all of you. Wow. I miss you, yes, but what joy! What pure joy I feel right now. I truly, sincerely love each and every one of you (including little baby Jane now!) with all of my heart! Wow. I am just overflowing with love for all of my family right now. Geeze. I love you. I love you all. I feel like this right now, but this probably isn´t even the tiniest part of how our Heavenly Father feels about us! Wow! He loves us so much! I thank Him for the incredible family that I am blessed with. Faw! I love you all so much and I feel the Spirit so much right now! I´m literally shaking as I type right now. I love you all. With all my heart.

What a crazy last 9 days it has been. I feel like crazy is the word I use every week to describe my weeks here on the mission. I guess every week is just crazy huh? But yes, this week was a roller coaster. Let´s see, this week I got to have a BBQ on top of Fernando´s house, got bit by a dog, burned a tie to celebrate 6 months on the mission, and got told that we have the churros´ (gangsters) protection. Let me expound briefly really quick.

The dog that bit me just barely nipped the back of my leg. It was a member´s dog and is a cross between a german sheperd and a pit bull. Quite the combo no? I´m lucky I didn´t die! Ok, it really wasn´t that big of a deal, but it still gave me a little bit of a fright. Elder Whitlock had always told me to not walk close to it, but I forgot last week and he attacked! He just barely got the back of my leg and only drew a little bit of blood. I´m tough though, don´t you worry :)

I burned my tie to celebrate 6 months! I coated it with WD40 first, set it on fire, and the sprayed it with axe :) I wish I could send you the video I recorded, but pics will have to suffice. It was fun and I can´t believe I´ve already made it to 6 months! Crazy!

So the churro. We had a rough looking guy come up to us this past week and he asked us if we´d been robbed a few weeks back. We told him yes and he then told us that they had taken the guy that had robbed us, beat the snot out of him, and then took him to the jail. He said that we shouldn´t have any reason to fear walking around that area anymore. Pretty crazy huh? We have the protection of the churros! Yes!

We taught a new member lesson to N this week and he told us that when he had walked home from his baptism last week he felt like he was flying ;) So cool! He also said that when I confirmed him he felt like he was floating out of his seat. Holy Ghost! So cool! This church is true and what Nestor told me about feeling like he was floating was a testimony builder to me of the companionship of the Holy Ghost. He´s real, and He´s with us if we´re living worthy!

We taught F and his family again a few times this week and guess what? They´ve agreed to be baptized! We´re going to baptize a family in a few weeks! AHHH family! That´s what it´s really all about! I was the lucky one that got to ask them to be baptized! It was such a spiritual experience for me. I felt the prompting to ask them building up inside of me and then when I asked the question, it felt so wonderful and right. More testimony builder to me that this church and what I´m doing is true! F family didn´t come to church, but F did! His family is a little shy, so we´re going to teach them and bring a couple members with us this week to help introduce them. I´m confident that all will be well with them. The word ´golden´ has taken on a whole new meaning to me now!

F came to church this week too! Faw! I was so happy he came! We invited him a few days before and he said he couldn´t come because he had other commitments, but then me and Elder Whitlock just promised blessing and testified from our hearts the peace he would feel at church. We promised so sincerely and read a scripture with him and he started to cry a little bit and then told us that he would go. He went! We went to pick him up on Sunday morning and we found him wearing a white shirt with some slacks. It made me smile inside and outside ;) The whole time we were at church I just had a prayer in my heart that both F and F would feel the peace that is found there.  They loved it! What an answered prayer! They both loved it so much and they´ll be coming back next week. Yes! Prayers are answered!

 

I just want to end by telling you once again how much I sincerely love each and every one of you. I am so happy that we are such a strong and united family, and I know that it is because of this gospel that we have. The gospel unites us and give us so much happiness! I´m bawling right now thinking about how blessed I am to have you in my life. Wow. I love you all so much and I feel the Spirit so strongly right now as I think about you and the love I have for you all. I pray that you can feel of how much I love you through what I´ve tried to express to you all. Wow. I love you all so much. It´s all about the family. That´s what it´s all about. Love. Man. Wow. I don´t have words right now to express what I feel. Love. That´s the best I can do. I love you all so incredibly much and these tears of joy that I´m shedding are just a testimony to me that families truly are what life is all about. I love my family so much.

With tears of joy,

Elder Nilsen