Dear Family,
I have a lot of
things to put in this letter so I hope I can make it all fit. First of all
Thanksgiving passed by without much fanfare again. People don’t celebrate it at
all here so Elder Bringhurst and I were going to buy some chicken and potatoes
on Thursday and have our own Thanksgiving. The picture of the missionaries and
I is in front of the mission home.
In front of the Mission Home |
As for going to
the temple we will be going the 14th of December and we will be going through
in Spanish. We went last year in Spanish too...I hope I will be able to
understand more this year. I am soo excited to go to the temple. I love the temple
so much and I love just walking in and feeling the Spirit without a bunch of
cars whizzing by and without having a million appointments and running around
and working hard and doing divisions.....but when we go it is just for me. Not
to say I don’t love those other things, but it will be nice to go. And as it
says in my patriarchal blessing what I learn there will help me help others
understand their purpose in life.
This week a
crazy thing happened. On Wednesday we had an appointment with a reference form
the Center for Visitors named Navarette. We went and knocked on the door and
her husband answered. He was obviously not well in the mind, I think he had
sniffed one too many solvents. He told us no...but his wife told us to come in
so we went in to their little apartment while he wouldn’t even shake our hand.
The whole time we were teaching he was standing over her shoulder and pacing
back and forth and answering all the questions for her. So we left and set up
an appointment to come back to teach her daughter who would be able to
accompany us to the chapel Sunday. We went back and taught her daughter..but
outside in the courtyard of the buildings where they live and afterwards we
went to go give a book of Mormon to Navarette so that she could read even
though she couldn’t go with us the church that week. He wouldn't open the door
and kept saying that no one was home...but we kept insisting so finally the
door burst open and he asked what we wanted. We told him we wanted to give a
book to his wife and said...fine give it to me then. He had just recently
sniffed...it smelled like it. With his (The husband’s) hand outstretched Elder
Bringhurst told him "It won’t do you any good. It is for your wife and we
will only give it to your wife." That kind of agitated him...haha. He took
a menacing step towards us and Elder Bringhurst started down the stairs...unfortunately
I was too far back in the balcony to make a break for it and as he lunged at me
I ran past him and down the stairs...then he started down the stairs after us.
Needless to say we went down those stairs faster than I have ever gone down stairs
in my life. Once we got down the stairs he stopped chasing us. Kind of a cool
experience to tell the kids someday right? We didn’t go back for a return
appointment.
Hector and Ami |
Also this week
Hector was baptized. He is the spouse of Ami who was baptized about three
months ago. She was sooo excited. My tie makes my shirt look dirty...but it´s really
not I promise.
On Saturday we
found an older lady named Guadalupe. She accepted to go to the church on the
next day and explained that she had gone to many churches before looking for
the truth and looking for harmony in her home. We went and picked her up and
she came with us on Sunday. In Gospel Principles at the end of the lesson on
faith Gilda (Who got baptized about 3 weeks ago) asked to share her testimony.
She told Guadalupe (without knowing her at all) about her conversion
experience an about how before being baptized her son wouldn’t even talk to
her. Now they are very close and fixing a lot of things that needed fixing. She
said that though faith Guadalupe would know and feel the truthfulness of the
message. She bore testimony about how God had guided Guadalupe to this
church on this day to feel peace and tranquility so that she would know that
this was the true church!! How cool is the way that the Spirit works in each of
us to the benefit of those who need it most. I know the Spirit guides us.
Why do I have to
put a Mexican number on Skype? Why can´t I just use the same phone number?
Well, I have run
out of time. I love you all so much and thank you so much for the talks.
Love,
Elder Nelson