Oh I love you all! I love chatting with you all on Monday mornings and seeing how you´re all doing. Puts a big ol smile on my tired face. I love you all so much and thank you all so much for your continual love and support.
Well this week we had a surprise visit from the zone leaders! Yes! I love when they come! I love being able to learn from them and grow as a missionary. It´s super fun to tune and refine teaching skills and I love improving. Don´t worry though, I think I´m learning the balance between the importance of improving but at the same time taking it easy on yourself. I recognize that perfection isn´t going to come over night and that it´s a process. I´ve learned lots of patience with myself as I slowly perfect myself. It´s super fun :)
Did some service this week for an older man in the branch. Hacked down some trees in his backyard...with a machete! Woo! It was super fun! First time using a machete since I´ve been here. I was taking hacks at the tree pretending I was playing a little baseball. Oh how I miss baseball! I was chopping trees, talking out loud to myself saying, ´pitcher winds up, throws it, fastball on the inside, batter swings....(I would hit the tree at this point) and it´s a home run!!!´ It was fun :)
Had a yummy asado with the familia Casas this week too. Argentine asados rock. Hands down.
I feel like I´m just throwing out details of the week and not describing super good. It´s killing me. I´d love to write for hours and describe every little thing...but I can´t :( Hope these words suffice for you! I guess I can always include parts of what I write to President Carter in here because I always write really good to him! I feel like the quality of my letters have gone down recentely...sorry bout that :(
Shout out to the buds from Los Barbos! Yesterday I quickly showed the Familia Casas the video of us dominating in dodgeball. Brought back some good memories! I love you guys all so much! (Oh and I´ve asked people here what los barbos means and they all say it doesn´t mean anything...I´m trying to convince them it means catfish, but they may have me outnumbered).
We found a super sweet guy this week! The Hermano Casas called us up and told us he had just talked with a guy in the plaza and that we needed to go talk to him. Well, we left right away and went and found good ol 84 year old Oswaldo sitting in the plaza. He was sitting there wearing a suit and just enjoying the brisk weather (yes! it´s getting cold again!). He lives in a senior home and he leaves from there during the siesta because he hates the siesta and they make him take it if he´s there. He´s super funny and we committed him to be baptized! It´s gonna be tough to get him to church because the senior home doesn´t let him out until 12, but we´ll definitely make things work. It was really cool to hear from Hermano Casas how he decided to talk to Oswaldo. He was walking through the plaza and saw Oswaldo and felt all of a sudden that he needed to go talk to him. He immediately obeyed and talked to him and told him about the church and the missionaries. Stud member! Yes!
The most important thing I think I´ve learned this past week as far as missionary skills goes is the importance of asking inspired questions to people. I´ve learned that when we ask inspired questions, the investigator ends up teaching them self with their own answer. I just absolutely love seeing the Spirit work in other people´s lives, especially those who aren´t super familiar with feeling the Spirit. The lightbulb turns on for them and understanding just comes. It´s really neat. The lightbulb is always there for them, they just need a little help to turn it on! Turn on the light! I love teaching and I love that I get to do it everyday! It´s gonna be so fun to teach in english too when I get back because no matter how fluent I become (I´ve gotten pretty doggone good too, gracias don de lenguas!) english will always be easier for me. I´m feeling myself be shaped into a really good teacher. It´s all about questions, personal experiences, and testimony. Bring the teaching to life and change some lives!
Hey! Christian (cousin Christian!)! What up Vancouver!!! Do work my cuz! Nothing better than missionary work! It´s hard, so be prepared, but there ain´t nothing better. Super pumped for you bro :)
Nothing much I can think to talk about in this letter...just know that I sure love you all so much. I know that this church is true. No doubt about that. I´ve had the Spirit testify to me so many times that there´s no way I could possibly deny it. Share this good news! The missionaries always need your help! Missionaries are full time teachers and members are full time finders! Help us out! There´s people that need you TODAY so go find them. All you buds that are reading this that aren´t members of the church...just please check it out! My love for all of you, my friends, has grown so much since I´ve been away and now I come to realize that the church is the best gift I could ever give to you! Go check out mormon.org or something. Super tranquilo. I think you all know from my example over the years that us mormons are pretty normal (or shoot...maybe I´ve been a bad example of being normal :) ). I promise you all that if you check it out, you won´t waste your time! Be like nike and just do it! (Oh how I love nike :) )
I love you all so much!
Turning on the light,
Elder Nilsen
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