I want you all to know how much I love you. Boom. I never have sufficient time to fully express how much I love you all, but I pray pray pray that you can all FEEL it. You may not be able to READ it, but I pray that you can FEEL it. So yes, I love you all so much. You are constantly in my prayers and you will be forever! Dad! 2nd counselor in the stake presidency! Awesome! It would be weird to say congratulations, so rather I´ll just say that whom the Lord calls, he qualifies. You are one amazing man and one amazing example for your son to follow. I love you Dad.
This week was...I don´t know. I don´t have a word to describe this week. It was hard, fun, challenging, rewarding...pretty much everything! The biggest thing that I felt this week was just sort of an overwhelming sense of opposition. I´m not sure why but it just felt like everything was working against me. I pushed through, like always, and came out a better person through it all. I´ve learned a lot and just like always, the trials and challenges have helped me grow. In fact, I think I´ve learned a lot this week that will help me in my future marriage believe it or not. Elder Cheney, in Idaho, always told me and Elder Solorio that the mission is just a disguise for one giant marriage prep class and now, looking back, I think he´s right! I´ve learned this week that there are some jobs in life that require the concentrated efforts of TWO people. Missionary work and marriage are 2 of those things most definitely. They are jobs that require diligent effort by TWO people and when one of those people doesn´t necessarily give their all, it makes things very difficult. It´s daunting sometimes to think about doing to work by yourself, but I´ve also learned that I´m not really ever alone. The Lord is always with me assisting with HIS great work, and he´ll never let me down. Never. So yes, what I´ve learned is that when I´m a husband, I´m going to always give my 100% so as to not let my wonderful wife down. This whole little paragraph has been so scatter-brained, but I hope you understand a little. I love my companion though don´t worry. He´s a goof, and I´m going to keep on encouraging him to be his very best. Letting the love take over control here. Woo!
So, we´ll be having a baptism this week! Yes! If we have lots of faith and pray hard we´ll have 2! Fabian is for sure going to get baptized this week. He´s all set for everything and I love him so much! Alejandra, his wife, is a little scared to go through with baptism so that´s where we´re going to need a lot of faith. She knows the Book of Mormon is true, she knows baptism is the way, but she just is embarrassed to be in front of lots of people. Ah! Don´t let personal feelings of embarrassment prevent you from receiving all of heaven´s wonderful blessings! We´re going to work and pray this week and we´ll see if we end up with 2 baptisms this Saturday. 1 for sure though! Fabian is such a boss. He´s told us that before we started teaching him and the family he was always nervous and angry. He said that once he´s started reading from the BOM and praying he´s felt so much more tranquilo. Yes! Blessings from heaven! They´re there! He used to drink too, but he´s stopped doing that now too. They had a birthday party for their son last Saturday night and a bunch of family came over and they had a BBQ and they were all drinking. We had prayed that he wouldn´t drink and we passed by and ate lunch with them on Sunday. We saw the empty wine and whiskey bottles and we asked him if everyone was drinking. He said yes and I was a little nervous for the next question. I asked him though, because I had to be bold and ask him! ´Not you though right?´ I said. He shook his head and said ´no, no...tengo mi jugo!´ (I have my juice!) Yes! Go juice! Please keep him and Alejandra in your prayers this week!
Elder Wilson, my awesome Zone Leader, came over on Sunday afternoon to help us find a few more new investigators we needed to find. I love going on quick divisions with him for a few hours! I love him so so much! He picks me up when I´m feeling down and he helps remind me that missionary work is exciting and fun! Sometimes I forget how much fun the work can be! He really helps me and without him I don´t know how I´d be getting through this little rough time here. He´s a boss. Anyway, he introduced a new vision for our zone this week that´s all about becoming converted through obedience, faith, and sharing our testimonies. I love it! He shared with us the scripture in Proverbs (I don´t remember where exactly) that says that without a vision, a people will perish. We need a vision! He was talking to us about vision and then I came up with a nifty little phrase:
´The only way you´re gonna get where you wanna go is if you know where you wanna get.´
Pretty good right? It´s so true though! It reminded me of my favorite talk from the previous general conference (in April) by Elder Vincent O. Haleck titled ´Having the Vision to Do´. We have to gain a vision of how Christ sees us in order to reach our full potential here in this life. I had that beautiful point reiterated (sp?) to me this week. With a vision, we can see where we want to end up. Without one, we´re just going to meander slowly through life. So, where am I going with all of this? To be honest, I have no idea. I´m pretty tired right now and I feel like I´ve just sort of rambled and not made any sense at all this whole email. I think I need to go eat some food. Ya, that´d be good. Anyway, right now I´m in the process of making my own personal vision of my mission. What I want to become. So yes, there´s the email title. I´m trying to catch a vision of who I can become. Who can I become? I don´t know exactly. I think sometimes I lack a little self confidence in myself and sell myself short. I´m a son of God. He loves me and He knows who I can become. I´ll turn to Him and He´ll help me see the vision of who He wants me to become.
Well, I hope that this email makes a little sense to all of you back in the good ol United States. I rambled a little bit, and for that I´m sorry. I´m going to go take a nap I think. Good idea? I think yes. It´s rainy and overcast and it´s perfect nap weather. ´Can´t you see that it´s just raining? There ain´t no need to go outside (til 6 when p-day ends :))´ Thank you Jack Johnson.
Anyway, I love you all so much and I hope you don´t ever forget that. I love you I love you I love you!
Trying to see who I can become,
Elder Nilsen
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