How the heck are you all doing? I just want you to know (like always) how stinkin` much I love you all! Ah! My love for you is so hard to express in words, but man I just....LOVE YOU! AH! LOVE! I was telling Dad that my family means SO MUCH more to me now than it ever did before the mission. Gosh dang I love you so much. I hope you can feel just a small little bit of this overwhelming love that I have for all of you. You all mean the world to me and I can`t wait to hang out with you all FOREVER! Woo!
Love, love, love...gotta love it right? I really am grateful to my Heavenly Father for the capacity that He`s given me to just...love! I feel like loving others is a gift that Heavenly Father has given me to use to help build up and lift His other children. I knew that I was a lovey kind of person before my mission, but man the love I have for others has just been magnified so much since I`ve been out here. It`s a convenient little tool that I`m gonna be using as I serve these wonderful saints here in 25 de Mayo.
Just FYI for all you gringos (haha, I don`t consider myself a gringo anymore :) ) 25 de Mayo is pronounced like this:
ben-tay-seen-co-day-ma-show
Let`s all practice together! Ready? Uno, dos, tres...ben tay seen co day ma show! Yes! Very good! :)
Wow, I`m such a goof huh? Gotta love it! :)
OK! Speaking of 25 de Mayo (you all better have pronounced that correctly!) Let me give you a few detalles (or, details) about this little gem of an area.
First off, the apartment here is HEAVEN! Oh my goodness. I had heard before I got here that this apt was the best in the mission and I must agree! To start off, IT HAS AIR CONDITIONING! AHHHH! What a flippin` blessing right? Holy cow. But wait, it gets even better. IT HAS A WASHER! AHHHH! I was astonished when I saw a washer that works. I haven`t washed my clothes with a washer since I left Idaho! I compared one of my shirts to one of Elder Fernandez`s shirts that he`s been saving his whole mission to wear home and my shirts are all so stinkin` yellow! It`s ridiculous! Hopefully after my time here in 25 de Mayo my shirts will look at least a LITTLE bit cleaner. The good thing though is that when I`m with other Elders no one can tell how dirty my shirts are because all the other missionary`s shirts are yellow too! Woo! I remember my first day in my first area and Elder Whitlock commented about how white my shirts are. He told me they`d get yellow like his, but I didn`t believe him. Well, I believe him now! Anyway...I`m getting off track here. Also in the apt there are 2 sofas and one of them has a hide away bed! A hide away bed that is right underneath the AC! Guess where Elder Nilsen has been sleeping? Yup. Underneath the AC on a CLEAN, queen size bed. Heaven. Also (if all this wasn`t wonderful enough), the apt is conveniently located right next door to a cheap ice cream place. What up?!? I`ve enjoyed a little bit of ice cream this week :) So ya, on one side of our apt is the ice cream store and the other side it`s a huge catholic church :) Gotta love the neighbors! I think we`ll spend a lot more time visiting the ice cream neighbors and not so much time with the catholic neighbors :) As far as the area goes outside of the heaven we call our apartment, it`s SUPER tranquilo (calm, I think?). It`s not ANYTHING like my first 2 areas here in Argentina. (Oh ya, just a fun little fact about Laferrere, my first area. Yesterday we got news that the Elder that was assigned to that area got stabbed in the face with a stick. Don`t worry, he`s ok, but I just wanted to mention that to show how wonderfully dangerous my first area is. I love my hometown! Laferrere!) Anyway, my area here...we have bikes! What?!? It`s because all of the areas here out in campo are super huge, so we need bikes to cover everything. So yes, bikes! The way all the cities are set up out here in campo is that they have a cute little (well, one block) plaze in the very center and it always has a huge catholic church right next to the plaza. We live right in front of the plaza with the church (like I mentioned) right next door to us. The area is SUPER rich in the centro but going 10 or 15 blocks in any direction you`ll quickly find yourself in more humble areas. As you can imagine, that`s where we do most of our work. Be humble! Woo! I don`t know if I`ve ever really mentioned much about the Argentine siesta, but from 1 to about 5 everything always shuts down. It wasn`t so bad in Lafe or in Parque, but out here in campo the siesta is sacred and EVERYTHING shuts down. The place looks like a ghost town between 1 and 5. I`m still trying to figure out what exactly we, the missionaries, are supposed to do during that time. What we`ve done this week is go to the church from 2 to 4 to do some branch president training. Campo lifestyle...super tranky (tranquilo).
As far as the branch goes, we`ve got a strong little group of about 30 that go every Sunday to our little chapel that is a house that`s been converted to be a chapel. (P.S. I can`t wait to baptize people here because our `font` is a little pool out back behind the church! Woo!) I love all of these members so much already. I feel a sincere love for them already and I feel confident that the love I have for them will drive me and give me the inspiration to guide, direct, and serve these wonderful people. They`re all so nice to me and I love them. I taught gospel principles class on Sunday and afterwards one of the members told me that I`m a great teacher. `Usted es el maestro!` That helped me feel super good and confident. Sometimes, I feel like I`m not the greatest as far as giving classes or speaking, but I feel like that hidden talent of mine is going to be magnified and brought to light here in the next few months while I`m here. It`s crazy to think that the 2 Elders here in 25 de Mayo just sort of run everything as far as the church goes. If you`re wondering about something, wondering if we`re in charge of it, the answer is yes. EVERYTHING. It`s a little weird sometimes because it`s tricky to balance missionary work with branch work, but I know we`ll be able to do it.
Elder Fernandez is doing a pretty good job of training me. He always assures me that it`s a lot easier than I think, and I think I`m beginning to believe him. He`s a fun little companion. He`s trunky. It`s funny. He goes home in less than 2 weeks and so he`s always talking about home and stuff, but we`re still doing work! He told me in our little comp inventory (part of weekly planning) that he truly admires my obedience. That made me happy. Obedience is the key! I`m glad that others can recognize my obedience. Being obedient is so much more fun than being disobedient. Happiness comes through obedience! Remember that all of you future missionaries!
I thought of good ol Opa (OOOOOPPPAAA! :) ) this past week. A few weeks ago my wristband on my watch broke and I`ve been going without a watch for awhile, but I just couldn`t take it anymore this week. We went to the watch store and I was looking for a new watch when I realized that I could just have them fix the wristband! Bingo! I thought of Grandpa and how he`d have been proud. `Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!` I love you Opa!
We were teaching some lady this past week and she was asking about where I was from and stuff like that and then she all of a sudden asked me if all the people in the USA were good looking or handsome like me. Argentines are kind of flirty sometimes if you didn`t know. But this lady is like 40. Awkward. Anyway, I just smiled and said `ya, actually you know what? I`m the ugliest one. Everyone else is a lot more good looking than me!` I`m learning how to be quick on my feet in a different language! ;)
This area has got some great potencial as far as baptizing goes. There`s some really good investigators here and I`m super excited to work with them. The only challenge for right now is that almost everyone out here in campo is juntado (living together and not married). Well, to be baptized you have to be married or live in different houses. It`s just sort of the Argentine thing to be juntado first and then years later, if things are still going well, get married. It happens a lot. But anyway, we have some great investigators right now that just need to get married (or, in some cases, get divorced first and then get married again!). So, it`s looking like I could possibly be part of getting some people married here in the next few months! How fun!
We met a sweet guy named Claudio the other day at the plaza in front of our house. He waved us down and told us he moved here about 5 months ago because someone told him he`d have work out here, but there`s no work to be found. We talked to him for a bit and found out that him and his wife with their 2 kids (15 and 10 years old) live out of the city a little ways in a carpa (sort of like a tent). We got his address and went and visited him and talked to him for a bit (found out that he`s MARRIED! Woo!) and got to know him a little more. We didn`t have a lesson with him at that moment, but we met his family, invited him to church, and promised him some of the many blessings that come through the gospel. Well, guess who came to church? Claudio! With his daughter! Woo! I can definitely see them in white, getting baptized a few weeks from now. We`ll be working with that family and I`ll be sure to hit you all with some updates next week.
This past week I`ve been thinking lots about past leaders I`ve had in the church. Bishops, YM leaders, etc. I have so much more respect for all of them now. For some reason I`ve been thinking lots about good ol` Bishop Jake and how great of an influence he was for me personally. I always admired how well he worked with the youth, teaching us and personalizing the lessons he gave. I`ve realized that I would love to be able to personalize the gospel for the people here in 25 de Mayo just like he personalized the gospel for me. I hope you know how much I love you Bishop Jake! You`re a great man! I love you! Brother Minor also came to my mind a little. I love you G-money! I hope to be able to teach the gospel in a simple, personal way like both Brother Minor and Bishop Jake did. I`ve had so many great example in my life, but those two men were the two that came to mind this past week. I love you both!
Like I was mentioning a little bit earlier in this bomb email (I think it`s pretty bomb :) ), I`ve been blessed with the ability to love. I am so grateful for this gift and I`m so grateful that I`ve been given this great opportunity to be able to magnify the love I already feel for others. I`m going to be able to see others in a different light and I`m going to grow so much. As I magnify my love for others, I`ll feel my Heavenly Father`s love magnified for me too. What a blessing! Serve others unconditionally, not expecting anything in return, but the Lord blesses us anyway. He loves us so much! He`s the perfect example of love, and we should follow His perfect example! Love unconditionally. Have mercy. Be patient. Seek the good. Charity never faileth. Things that came to my mind. Following the example of He who was and is perfect is definitely the way to go. We`ll never be able to reach that level of perfection, but we just need to do our part and the Atonement will cover for what we lack. It`s all so amazing how perfectly it comes together. I love God`s plan for us, His children. What I love too is that I get to teach that plan to others! Blesssing? Um, yes!
Have a great week! We determine our own destiny, so aim high!
Magnifying the love I have,
Elder Nilsen
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