What Really Matters

Dear Family,

As far as my sickness...the doctor said that it was probably a viral respiratory infection. But it is gone now, I feel 100 percent.

This week was pretty crazy. On Wednesday Elder Jordan and I went to the airport at 5 in the morning to pick up Elder Terry. He is from Peru and was waiting on his visa. We picked him up and took him to our house where we studied a little bit and then left to go do divisions. I went to Ecatepec, Ward Izcalli with Elder Castillo from Pocatello Idaho. The area is really cool...basically all hills and full of people. We had a good day and found a couple of new investigators. Returning from Ecatepec on Thursday we went to Aragón where we picked up an Elder that had to go home for health problems. We worked the rest of the day as 2 companionships and at 5 in the morning on Friday we went to go drop the elder off at the airport. Then we went back to Aragón where we trained Elder Terry with President and the secretaries and conducted the special changes meeting that had to take place for the new Elder Terry arriving and the missionaries that had to go home for health. Finishing up the special changes meeting we took the other Elder that had to go home to the airport and finally about 4 in the afternoon on Friday we got to work in our area as a companionship. Today we are going to the secretaries house in Naucalpan because tomorrow we are going to have a planning meeting with President and on Thursday we will have the Zone Leader Council. On Monday (a week from today) we will be picking up the new elders and taking them to President´s house and on Tuesday are the changes. I have never been so busy and so happy and so involved. I feel like time is going by so quickly and I don´t know what to do to make it go more slowly. Everything is just coming up so quickly and I just don´t want to think about it. I have seen so many elders finish their missions....the last 6 months have been so telling as to who is truly converted. I want to finish well so badly. I want to work so hard that my companions are whipped afterwards. A lot of elders get to this point and start relaxing....but that´s not how I feel I will do it. It has to be a total and complete 24 month  mission for me or I will never be satisfied. Since I only have one chance to do it right I need to nail it. I think we can´t really appreciate the mission unless we are actually on it. It is something powerful and incredible, something life changing, something you can´t describe. When you put all your heart might mind and strength into it, it is hard to imagine that it will actually end. I feel like I will be a missionary for the rest of my life and that is the end of the story. Nothing from back home except my family is really important to me anymore. I could care less who won the Super Bowl or how the Mariners did. I couldn´t care less who is running for president and who is leading in the opinion polls. I don´t care...what is important is finding people who need to gospel...being prepared to teach them with power to the point where they are baptized for a remission of their sins and make changes in their life that will bring them to the very presence of God. What could be more important than that? How could you possibly give that up? It is not possible to comprehend the significance of this work or its implications in this life and the life hereafter. I love it with all my heart and soul. I realized that it truly has changed me...I could never be the same as I was before because I know. I know that God has restored His church with the authority on the earth today... I know that the only way we can obtain happiness in this life or exaltation in the life after is por medio de obediencia a los leyes y ordenanzas del evangelio y un esfuerzo constante por siempre seguir progresdando.  (through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel and a constant effort to always follow progress.)

I actually am wearing a different belt because my other belt broke and the other one is lost or stolen. I had to go get a new one. The only ones they had were ones with belt buckles so I just picked the most conservative one I could find. Also I did renew my visa about 3 months ago so everything is in order. I won´t get deported upon arriving home. Well I love you all so much. I pray for you and I know you pray for me. Hope you have a great week and I hope you find someone for the missionaries to teach this week.

Love,

Elder Nelson