I`m afraid that I made one of the worst decisions of my mission this past week and I`m going to have to ask for forgiveness from all of you (especially Heidi and Jesse). I assure you that I made this decision hastely and that I really didn`t mean to do what I did. I really do regret my decision and I lament it terribly. Please forgive me because...
I traded away the black and green wedding tie.
Please forgive me, please. I traded it for a cool red tie from zone leader Elder Fernàndez, but as soon as the trade was made I regreted it. He wore it to church on Sunday and I almost cried thinking about what I had done. Please accept my most sincere apology Heidi and Jesse. I`ll do my best to make it up to you one day.
In good news however, I was told that I look like Michael Bublè this past week. Heck yes! I`d consider Michael Bublè to be good looking, so I would definitely take that as a compliment! I`ve officially been told now on my mission that I look like Michael Bublè, Brad Pitt, and Elder Bednar. Woo! What a combo right? I`d like to think that I have the looks of Pitt, the voice of Bublè (and then I woke up!), and the spirituality of Elder Bednar. Oh. Ya. :)
Before I forget to tell you, we got the news last night that Elder Aramburu is headed out of 25 de Mayo. He`d been here for a while and I was pretty sure he`d be out, but now it`s official. He`s been a good companion, but I`m looking forward to what`s ahead too. I`ve learned lots from Elder Aramburu and I`m looking forward to learning lots from my new companion too. Pray that I`ll get a good one! I`m feeling really confidently that the Lord`ll bless me with a capo (stud) and I`m just hoping that my feelings are going to match up with the Lord`s will. I`ll find out on Wednesday! Get to go into the city! Woo hoo!
We were with some other Elders on Saturday because I had to go to Bragado (a city about an hour from here) for special branch president training, but while we were eating lunch with the other Elders I was looking at the pictures of Elder Hougaard (fellow Pocatello visa waiter with me!). I was looking through the pictures and I came across the picture of his girlfriend and asked him if that was his girlfriend. Before he could respond Elder Aramburù jumped in and exclaimed, `hey! you`re occupied!` It was super funny for me and Elder Hougaard because `occupied` isn`t really the right word there. Elder Hougaard was laughing while he said, `what, is he a porta potty?` It was pretty funny for us and I`m hoping it gives all of you a chuckle too. I`m worried that it might be one of those `you had to be there moments` but I figured, what the heck? Oh and PS...my girlfriend is prettier :) Anyway...
We`re (my new comp and I) are going to have a baptism this week! It`s a good little `welcome to 25 de Mayo` present for my new companion if I do say so myself :) Good ol` Carlos `corcho` (`cork` in spanish) is gonna get baptized this week! He`s like 45 years old and I`m praying that everything goes well with the service and with the preparation that we`ll need to do this week. It`s gonna be a little crazy since we`re leaving the area tomorrow morning and won`t be back until Thursday morning, but I`m thinking that the Lord will take care of all the little details. Corcho is a super good guy. He hardly talks at all and I`m not so sure that he remembers much of what we talk to him about (he can`t read), but what`s important is how he feels. He`s told us that he feels good in the church, and I know that that`s the Spirit testifying to him of the truthfulness of it all. It`ll be really cool to see him enter baptism`s waters and it should be fun to have a baptism in the little `pool` that we have out back behind the church. Please pray that all goes well for little corcho.
Hugo and Paula are doing pretty well. There`s no real news with them except that they`re still doing great and we`re slowly but surely getting them off cigarettes. We`re still helping them to try to figure out things with their divorces and we`ll just keep praying and working with them! They rock!
The old man that we found at the plaza, Oswaldo, is doing all right. We haven`t taught him again because he`s been in the senior home and he`s been going to the doctor for his knees, but we`re hoping to be able to find him in good shape this week and be able to teach him some more.
Our best investigator right now is named Iris. She`s the sister in law of the old branch president here that moved away. She`s like 45 years old and she`s progressing quite well. She`s got a baptismal fecha (date) for the 20th of April. We set it a little further away because she`s told us she wants to take her time and make sure this is what she wants to do, but from what she`s said she loves it all. She loves Relief Society and Gospel Principles class and she`s (as she said) `feeling something grow inside of her.` Oh how I love to hear those words from investigators :) Pray for Iris please that she`ll keep progressing and be able to get baptized next month (wow! it`s already almost April!).
I should just quickly mention that yesterday we got to listen to Elder Nelson from the twelve speak to us. We had district (stake) conference through satellite and it was super sweet. We got to travel in a little bus (kind of like Bishop Jake`s shanghai) to Chivilcoy 45 minutes away. It was fun to lead the little branch into the building. I felt like I was marching with my soldiers :)
The most important lesson that I had reiterated to me this past week was the importance of listening to and following the impressions that the spirit puts into your heart. I wish I could tell you that I learned this lesson by following an impression to talk to someone on street that ended up being a sweet golden investigator or something like that, but it was actually a little bit scary.
I was with Elder Fernandez on Tuesday night when we decided to go visit a less active member who had told the Elder`s Quorum president that she wanted the missionaries to pass by. She lived on some back road and it was pretty dark, but we decided to go anyway because we`re in campo and nothing bad happens out here. We got to her house and her and her husband came out and unlocked the gate and let us in. She was bawling and told us that she`d been waiting for us. We at first thought that that was pretty cool. We were excited that we had showed up right on time to help her out. We went in and started talking to her and her husband. We found out that the husband isn`t a member and neither is her younger 17 year old son. We were excited that we had found some new potential investigators! She told us about how she met the missionaries years ago in a different city and how she got baptized and her older son had been baptized too. She then told us a weird story of how that same son had somehow ended up in prison. The more she talked, the more and more uncomfortable I felt. I didn`t know why, but I just felt uncomfortable and uneasy. We talked a little more and then she asked us to give her a blessing. We were more than happy to do that for her and then we got out of the house as quickly as we could. As we started walking down the road me and Elder Fernandez were both silent, thinking. I turned to him and asked him, `hey how do you feel?` He said that he felt weird. I told him that I felt the exact same and that I felt really uncomfortable. We both felt like something weird goes on inside that house and we both felt a little scared as we walked down the long, dark road to look for our bikes that we had left chained up on the paved road (there`s a rule that says we can`t ride on dirt roads). We kept talking about the experience, saying how weird and not good we felt when Elder Fernandez stopped me and said, `hey let`s say a prayer.` He offered a quick prayer and we felt a little bit better and we got to our bikes safe and sound and then back to the apartment safe and sound too. At that moment, I didn`t know why I felt so weird, but I just knew without a doubt that the holy ghost, the GOOD spirit, was not in the home. I felt something, but it was not good. The next day Elder Fernandez and Aramburu went to visit a member and they asked about the inactive sister and they immediately told them to be very careful at that house because the husband is in to witchcraft and weird sorcery stuff. Uhh huh. There we go. I had to call up President Carter and tell him about the experience and then he gave me special instruction on what to do with the situation. Don`t worry, we won`t be going back into that house. Not a chance.
It was a kind of spooky experience, but it was a testimony builder to me of the role the spirit plays in warning us of danger (both physical and spiritual). I`m just really grateful that I was spiritually attentive to be able to recognize the spirit`s quiet warning. You constantly have to listen to the spirit and learn from him. Living worthily qualifies us to be able to be warned, to be taught, to feel God`s love. Worthiness is the key. Live worthy of the spirit so that you can be protected! That`s what I learned and I hope you can apply that in your lives this week.
In happier news...
Tomorrow I`m gonna finish the BOM! We`ve been reading it as a mission for the past 2 transfers and we`ve finally come to the end. What a powerful book. Oh how I love it so much! I`ve felt my testimony grow as I`ve read and studied it and I know that it can do the same for anyone else that reads it with faith. The book is true ladies and gentlemen, the book is true and that`s why I`m so far away from home sacrificing these 2 years. `Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven!` It`s true.
Well folks, I`d love to stay and chat all day, but I`ve got things to do. I bougt 100 pesos of cleaning supplies this morning to be able to clean our pensh, and I`m pretty pumped about that. Clean penshes are spiritual penshes! Don`t forget it :)
Love you all so much.
Listening and learning,
Elder Nilsen
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