Darn it! I`m so short with time AGAIN! I`m so sorry in advance for the shortness of this email. Let me hit you with everything that I can in this short time that I have left!
Oh...and one other quick thing before I start this letter...
I love you :)
Ok! This week was pretty good! It actually went by pretty fast too! I`ll save time by not talking about how confusing time is, don`t worry :)
We went out to Saladillo (part of our branch 45 minutes away that has missionaries, Elder Eppich! YA YA!) to do a baptismal interview for them. It was super fun! I`ve always loved being with other missionaries on my mission, but I love it even more now that I don`t hardly ever get to see other missionaries because they`re all too far away. We enjoyed our time with them, I did the baptismal interview of 14 year old Lautaro and then we had some fun making `waffles` and pancakes with Lautaro and his neighbor. Everyone was quite impressed with my pancake flipping skills :) Oh. Ya.
Didn`t have the GREATEST succes as far as missionary work goes this week, but I`m still trying to change up this area a bit. The key indicators are suffering for a few weeks while I try to change things up so that we can acheive the key indicators but also have quality investigators. Before I got here, this area was acheiving indicators every week, but I think it`s because the area was `set up` to acheive the numbers, but not really acheive our purpose to baptize people. It`s hard to describe over email what I mean when I say `set up`, but just understand that we`re slowly but surely changing the area here so that we can have quality key indicators and not just acheived key indicators. Please pray that we`ll be able to find some quality new investigators this week because our teaching pool is pretty shallow right now. Please please please pray that some of these people will open up their hearts to us during this next week. People in campo are super closed people and lots are pretty stuck up in their pride because of their wealthiness (sounds like a verse from the BOM or something!) so it`s hard to teach people, but I know that if we have some prayers offered up in our behalf we`ll be able to see some miracles. Thank you!
Like I mentioned a few weeks ago, we`re reading the Book of Mormon as a mission right now and this morning in our daily reading assignment we had 3 Nephi 11. Holy. Best. Chapter. Ever. AHHHH! Whenever I read it, I get super pumped for when Christ comes again! It`s going to be the most glorious day ever! I`m so excited. What makes me even more excited and happy though is helping other people get ready for that day when He comes again. In 3 Nef 11 when He comes, the first thing He teaches is about baptism! Shows how important it is! I`m so lucky to be able to share that important message with these people here in Argentina. It`s worth the long, unfruitful days. I learn and grow everyday, no matter what type of `success` we have. I`m being obedient and diligent, so that`s success enough for me!
I`m short on time so I`m gonna attach a part of the weekly letter that I wrote to President Carter today to explain a useful thing I learned this past week.
I learned a lot this past week. It was great to recognize how the Spirit taught and testified to me and answered the exact questions that I needed to be answered. I really do have a testimony that the Spirit knows us personally and will (in His own due time) answer our questions and comfort us in our trials. One of the most reassuring answers that I received this past week from the Spirit was in question to a doubt I had about why I am out here serving as a young, unexperienced branch president. I had been thinking about it all week and then, out of the clear blue during sacrament meeting on Sunday, I immediately just received comfort and confirmation about my role here in God`s great plan. I really do know that God`s plan of salvation is a personal plan and that every one of us has a specific role to play in that plan. Well, thanks to the Spirit, I had my eyes opened a little more as to where I fit in the grand scheme of things. I don`t know how to describe it exactly, but the Spirit just quietly whispered to me that everything I am going through right now is just all in preparation for even greater things that are to come. I`d love to expound more on this experience, but I`m not sure how to. I was just sitting there in sacrament meeting, pondering about my purpose in God`s plan, and then before I knew it I just had felt direct peace come to me from above. I`ve just come to the conclusion that God knows me better. He can see what`s ahead of me, and so He`s just getting me prepared for future things. My dad was just talking to me in his letter about how he used to pray for a significant spiritual experience to be able to feel God`s love (me and him are VERY similar!), but over time he realized that the peace he felt inside was testimony enough that God does love him. That`s exactly how I feel right now. It`s not that I was doubting about God`s love for me, but I just wanted to have some sort of experience to see His love for me. Well, over the last few weeks I`ve gradually grown and grown and now I can look back and know that God truly has given me that experience that I was praying for. It just came over time and not all at once. God`s never going to give us more information than we need to keep going forward. He gives us `line upon line, precept upon precept`, always providing us with the necesarry information/inspiration we need. We grow over time, and not all at once. That`s the best I can explain it for now, but it really was comforting to know that God knows me and that He loves me and sent the Spirit to come teach me exactly what I needed to know.
It was quite amazing really! The Spirit just comforted me, taught me, and inspired me all at once. We all have a role to play in God`s plan. I`m catching more and more of the vision that Christ has for me, and because of that, I have confidence that I`ll be able to acheive more and more. I always think of O. Vincent Halek`s talk from General Conference last April (almost a year ago, wow!). If we see ourself how Christ sees us, we`ll be able to acheive and do so much more. That`s the great little lesson I learned last week.
Oh! One other thing...if you could all pray for both Hugo and Paula I`d appreciate it. They`re our best investigators we have (they already said they want to be baptized) but they both just need to get divorced first from other spouses, and then get married. Pray that all may go well with their divorces please! Thank you!
I love you all so much :)
Fulfilling my role,
Elder Nilsen
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