Week #38 - Obligate

Family!

From the title of this email, what are you thinking? It`s kind of an interesting title and I`ll clear everything up really quick: no, we did not obligate or force Verena to get baptized. Don`t worry! She made the decision to follow the example of Jesus Christ all on her own :)

It was a great week here. Things are still somewhat difficult and I feel like I`m still adjusting to everything here in the new area with the new companion and the new senior companion, but we did well this week. Elder Hutchings and I tried really diligently to apply the scripture found in DC 82:10 this week:

`I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say but when ye do not what I say ye have no promise.´

I love this scripture and I love it even more in Castellano because the way it translates is:

I the Lord am obligated when you do what I say, but when you don`t do what I say you have no promise.

I AM SO HAPPY WATCHING THE FONT FILL UP!

Castellano scripture reading is great because the way things translate back into English make them sound more modern and easier to understand, so I like it! But yes, this week we attempted to `obligate` the Lord and it paid off for us. We identified some of the areas where we could improve with our obedience and we worked hard to be 100% obedient and work our very best and then allow the Lord to come through on His promises. Well, we learned a double lesson this week. 1) The Lord comes through on His promises just like the scripture says and 2) sometimes the Lord comes through only after we have the `trial of our faith` (Eth. 12:6). When we began this week with our obligation goal (yes, that`s what we called it!) we still weren`t seeing much success and we were fighting off those feelings that come when you don`t have success. We kept at it though and then on Sunday we saw the Lord come through on His promises. We were able to complete with 80% of the key indicators this week! Yes! On Sunday we still needed to find 5 new investigators and we needed to have 5 baptismal fechas to get us at 80%. The zone leaders came over to our area and I got to go on quick divisions with Elder Wilson (I love him so much! He`s makes missionary work SO fun!) and we did some serious work with the Lord`s help. Well, I said that we needed 5 new investigators and guess how many the Lord blessed us with? 10! Can you believe it? The Lord loves us so much and he will reward us according to the righteous desires of our hearts! He loves us so much and I KNOW He will bless us if we strive diligently to do our part. It just takes a little bit of determination, diligence, and then some good ol hard work. Gotta love it.

Verena`s baptism was great! Not many people came (this ward isn`t quite as united as the ward in Laferrere :( ) but it was still a great little service. Her boyfriend (return missionary) baptized her and all went well! The only small problem we had was draining the water after the service, but we got it out don`t worry :) I had the opportunity to confirm Verena a member of this wonderful church on Sunday and I just never get tired of the feeling I get when I perform priesthood ordinances. I love feeling like a capable, worthy instrument in the Lord`s hands. So wonderful.

GO BEARS!  In honor of Emma!!

I`m so excited for conference this weekend! I can`t believe it`s conference again! Wow! It`s October! We get to watch conference in English, so I`ll be sure to get the most out of it. If we had to watch it in Castellano it`d be ok still because I have been amazingly blessed with the gift of tongues. I get lots of compliments every week about how good my Castellano sounds :) Thank you Heavenly Father for the gift of tongues :) I know where my success comes from and I will not accredit any other source! I have such a strong testimony of the love that Heavenly Father has for each one of us, His children. He loves us SO much and He will bless us as long as we`re choosing the right.

I love you all so much!

Striving diligently to obey the Lord,

Elder Nilsen

Cleaning Champ!!

capo = stud

 

espiritual = spiritual

 

in castellano everything`s backwards entonces capo espiritual = stud spiritual = spiritual stud :)

 

i`m a goof.

 

and speak spanglish.

 

i love you.