Sick :(

Dear Family,

This week was pretty tough. I was sick since Thursday on with a fever and body ache and nausea and an incredible amount of tiredness. I don´t really know what started it. It might have been that I was dehydrated or something like that. All I know was that I dragged myself around all day Thursday and Friday trying to get some work done. On Thursday we went home at 7:30 and I slept all night. (But we woke up on time). Then on Friday we had to stop working about 8 pm to do the same. I didn´t really know I had a fever until we bought a thermometer from a corner pharmacy...but it is in Celsius so I am learning to read thermometers in Celsius. The worst part about being sick is probably not being able to work. Or even when we are working the focus isn´t what it should be. Time is so precious. But before all that started we got to go the airport on Tuesday.

On Tuesday Elder Perez arrived from Honduras. He was waiting for his visa, and was excited to get to Mexico. It was a little tricky because there are two exits that the passengers come out of and they don’t tell you which one they are going to come out of...they are about 100 meters apart and so we were running back and forth trying to see if he had come out yet. We took him home with us and worked with him until the next day when we had a little training meeting with him and his trainer and we sent him out. Because he had gotten there on Friday we had to have a changes meeting for some special changes. 

Ema and Fatima, Elder Jordan and Elder Nelson

But aside from all the things that happened this week Ema and her granddaughter Fatima were baptized this week! Ema had been having a hard week because she kept having nightmares about changing religion...but she was so happy afterwards. She is such an elect person. She said after her baptism that she knew that changes were hard. Many changes were going to take place in her life but that she knew that if she placed her trust in God that everything would work out just the way it should .

On Sunday we went to work after the baptismal service to try to salvage what was left of our teaching pool and try to aumentarlo (increase).  It started to rain and we had planned to go and knock some doors in a bunch of buildings called la Unidad Habitacional el Milagro. On the way a true miracle happened. We were walking and contacting just as we always do, not feeling particularly inspired to go down any one street so we went the way we usually do. On the way we contacted an older lady who started talking about how she had had the missionaries over before but had not accepted because of a misunderstanding over tithing. As we talked to her, her son came over and told us to come with them to their house. Once we got inside his house he told us the story about why he had accepted our invitation to learn more. On Monday he had tried to commit suicide. His girlfriend had left him for another and he felt as though nothing else in the world mattered.  Sunday he had been praying and asking God to please send someone to help him know how to feel better, how to cope. He said he didn´t know why he had left the house. He just felt like he should go outside....it was in that exact moment that he went outside that we had contacted his mom. He said that he knew that God had placed us in his path and that our encounter was a true miracle. Imagine that!! Had the Spirit punched me in the noise and told me to go down that street? No. Had it nudged me to tell me to contact the old lady? No. We were simply being obedient, doing what we should do and following the plans we had made the night before. God expects us to make the plans, make the goals and do the work. He expects us to do what we should and be obedient....and when we do He can consecrate our work. It was a miracle, but if we had not contacted her, or been diligent or not followed the plans we had made God would not have been able to put the people who needed us the most in our path. The miracles come after all we can do.

Well, I love you all. I hope you are doing what you should so that God can consecrate your actions. Kolby...have fun and don´t be stupid. I love you all so much. I pray for you everyday.

Love,

Elder Nelson

Today I feel a little better. I still have a fever a little bit but I am taking ibuprofen and lots of water. The work must go on--sick or not. Tonight we are going to President´s house so that tomorrow he can take us to Tulancingo for the interviews. We will do divisions with the Zone Leaders there and on Wednesday with Pachuca.

 

From a letter to Brett:

Dad,

Thanks for the letter. As far as the responsibilities and leadership and work goes, I have alot more responsibility now. Before Elder Bringhurst and I were about equal. I was the senior companion but since we both had the same time as assistants it was the same. Now I am teaching Elder Jordan how to do everything,. We are working with his teaching and finding and administrative abilities so that when I leave he will be able to carry on the work. If something goes wrong or we forget to do something it is obviously my fault now. But I am getting used to it and Elder Jordan is a good companion so he will be ready pretty quickly. We only cover 1 ward, Campestre Aragon. We do get to know the leaders pretty well because we have to coordinate with them to visit our converts so that they know who they are and where they live. They accompany us on visits and we coordinate in ward council. We work mostly with the bishopric and the Relief Society president because for some reason all of our converts are relief society. I love them and they take good care of us. The Relief Society president took dinner to our house on New Year’s Eve and the counselor in the stake presidency invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner. We go with members on splits to pick up our investigators on Sundays...but other than that not very much. Also....tamales are really good, but much better if put in a rolls and made into a sandwich. The tamales from the US are way different from the DF ones...but they are all pretty good. I love you so much Dad and I pray for you every day. I love your letter and questions and I am glad for the example you have given me. Thanks, I love you.

Elder Nelson