Short and (Bitter)Sweet

                                                                                                                                                                               

Well....this is it I guess. I still don`t really feel like I am actually going home even though my bags are all packed and weighed and all that is left out are my boots my rain jacket and my triple and my backpack. I don`t really know what to write because I suppose we will be talking a lot on Saturday. We had a change of plans and we are actually going to the temple on Wednesday instead of Friday and I have to go to the temple all by myself because my companion can`t come and President didn`t want me to pay for a joven to come with me.....so that should be pretty weird. I will still be attending the sealing of the Carrapia Hernandez family and I am very excited about that.

I guess I just want to apologize before hand because I am going to be a very strange person when I come home. I am already starting to feel kind of frantic because I really just want to stay here and work and find, teach and baptize. But I will do my best and just like you ask that I be patient with y`all I will probably need to same. Well....I have a couple of other things that I need to do with this hour and so I love you all and I will see you on Saturday.

Love,

Elder Nelson

Last Full Week

Dear Family,                                                                                                                                                                                          

I really can`t believe that it is Monday again. You just get so caught up in the week that you don`t notice the time passing and then all the sudden it is Monday again and here we are in the internet café writing the family again. Well I am gonna answer the questions first. The new offices are on the temple square. They built them in the apartments where the sister missionaries working in the centro para visitantes used to live...but there is no CV anymore so they built them there. The sign is on the bottom of the staircase because everything from the base level up to the 5th floor is the office. (The area doctor and the office couple and the secretaries live in the offices). The inside of the offices looks exactly the same as the picture of the Ostler family in visiting Elder Swenson. Originally (when I was an assistant) the offices were in Tecamachalco because that is where the Area Mexico offices are and that was where the church had space for us. But the offices now are right outside the Aragòn stake center and so it will be a lot easier for mail and everything.

This week we had a lot of good things and a lot of bad things happen. We had an assistance of 17 from Santa Ana Hueytlalpan this week in Sacrament meeting so things are looking really good there. We had three Melchizedek Priesthood eligible men attend (we need 7 to make a branch) and one young man was ordained a deacon. The bad part is that all of our investigators from Tulancingo didn`t go to church...which is funny because we only work 1 day a week in Santa Ana and the other 6 in Tulancingo. Go figure.

Also one thing that has been bugging me a little bit is that I sent a package home about 3 months ago...it takes a long time for packages from Mexico to get to America so it isn`t lost...but could you pray that it get there please? It didn`t have that much in it just the jeans and shoes and stuff that I didn`t want to throw away but that didn`t fit in my suit cases. Thanks.

Well the 4th of July I was in divisions with another American, Elder Quist, but we forgot that it was the 4th...such great Americans we are. It is such a blessing to live in the U.S. and have the order and freedoms that we have there.

Good for Allison, I think she will be a good missionary. Anyone is if they can learn to deny themselves and follow Christ. Tell her I said good luck and to tell her that the mission is a lot like a cross country race.

As for traveling on Saturday...as a matter of fact we are the only mission in all of Mexico to do things the way we do them. Most missions send missionaries home on Monday or Tuesday but since we are the best mission in the whole world we have to do things our way.

GOOD NEWS!!!! I just heard that the Carrapia Hernandez family (the first family that I baptized in Campestre Aragòn) is getting sealed!!! They are going to be sealed on the Friday 20th at 12 noon. The good news is that since the missionary going home session doesn`t start until 2 pm I get to go!! That is the best way to finish a mission and I am soo excited for them. I won`t be traveling to D.F. until the 20th I think but I haven`t really thought about it that much.

It feels a little surreal that this is my last full week of work. I still feel normal...like I still have a whole year left in the mission. I have been praying every night that I not realize how close it is and that I can keep my focus so that is an answer to a prayer. Every time I think about how this is my last full week it gives me an energy boost because I have to talk to everyone in all of Tulancingo in 2 weeks.

This letter is a little short because I really just want to go work. I know that the Lord is preparing souls for us to save in this moment and that thought doesn`t let me rest or slow down. When I peer into the face of my Savior Jesus Christ on that great day of judgment I want Him to be smiling. I am anxious to please Him and I know what He expects of me. I aim to please and serve Him...and I figure that everyone else I am trying to please will be happy with me if I can achieve to make Him happy. Thanks for your prayers....please pray that we can find solid investigators and families to leave for Elder Reynoso.

Love,

Elder Nelson 

A Burning Witness

Dear Family,                                                                                                                                                                                       July 2, 2012

Sorry for making you hack into my account every week but I figure I might as well send pictures anyways since you can hack in. I sent the picture of me in front of the sign on the new offices. I don`t know exactly what you`re looking for or if you want one of me IN the offices but I still have one more shot to get the pictures so let me know.

This past week was a hard but rewarding week. On Thursday we had my last zone leader council in Aragòn. This was number  17 for me and I have been going to these for so long that I don`t know what I am going to do next month when I`m not invited. At the end of each zone leader council the zone leaders that are going home before the next council have to stand up and bear their testimonies…so this time it was my turn. I have seen so many great missionaries stand and bear powerful witnesses of revealed truth so I was a little nervous. I haven`t been nervous in a really long time and so it was kind of strange to feel that way again. As I stood up the precise words that I wanted came out and I felt the spirit so strongly witnessing to me that the Lord had made all my hopes and dreams come true. Ever since day one my main goal has been to become the missionary that God would have me be and that I would accomplish all that the Lord had prepared for me in the mission. I felt a burning witness that I had become what God had wanted me to become...I obviously have much more to go and I still have 3 weeks left to improve and repent. I am so grateful for a loving God who knows my name, who knows my desires and my interests, who knows my weaknesses and knows my strengths. I will forever be grateful for a God who loves me enough to chasten me and mold me into what He would have me be. I feel like I know and understand Christ better when He said "I came to do the will of Him who sent me."

President Hicken is coming to Tulancingo next Wednesday (the 11th) for interviews and so he will deliver the money in my interview. That is a cool story how everything worked out and I am glad that you got to talk to President Hicken. He is a great man and I love him so much. He has taught me a lot and I am grateful for that. It`s funny because he reminds me a lot of Grandpa. They both did the same thing, they were both successful they both get mad rather quickly if things are not perfect and they are both really wise. Elder Pukahi was a secretary when I was assistant and he now is training a new missionary in the area right next to the offices so I think they do divisions sometimes so that he can help in the offices with the visas. With the delivery of the money on the 11th that will give me one more P-Day afterwards to be able to get a couple of things....by the way what color of hammock do Darci and Joe want? I don`t know if I can get exactly the color they want but I can at least try. I still don`t know where to get one...but I know that God answers prayers and I`m sure that I know somebody that knows where to get one. That is one thing the mission has taught me...if you don`t know where to get it--get to know someone that does. Nothing is truly impossible with a little creativity and improvisation.

I think that the analogy of being a tool in the hands of the Lord is great...but it goes a little deeper than that. In the process of sculpting and changing us God puts us in positions to be able to have influence over certain people. If we don`t listen to the Lord or follow His promptings then we will not have the proper influence or effect necessary to achieve the Lord`s purposes when we are called upon. I am glad that the Spirit (touches people) because while I can say words...the Spirit is the only one that can give feeling and change hearts.

Also so that you know the temple will be open until the end of July so I will be going to the temple on the 20th!! I am so excited for the temple I love it so much and I haven`t gone since December.

Well we have to go pay the rent and print some pictures so that we can start working at 6. I love you all and I am praying for you. Thank you for your prayers and letters and thoughts. My letter from my family is always one of the highlights of my week. Until next week,

Elder Nelson

Santa Ana Hueytalpan

Dear Family,                                                                                                                         

Every week I think to myself that I just barely wrote this letter and that there is not much to write...then I start thinking about all the things that happen in a week and I realize that there really is a lot to write. 

This week we started a project with the ward in a little pueblo of about 7,000 called Santa Ana Hueytlalpan. There are several members there (inactives) about 40 minutes away from the church building in Tulancingo. There used to be a good amount of priesthood but they all are working in the U.S. This is the next closest pueblo to Tulancingo and there are a ton of little towns out there waiting for the gospel. We are going once a week with the priesthood from our ward to activate and baptize and hopefully create a branch. Tulancigo is a small town...but this place is really small. Most of the people work in the fields for the food that they eat and most of the town doesn`t have paved roads. There are cows and horses and chickens all over the place and it is awesome!! I would say that about 90 percent of the people have never heard of the church before so there is a twofold mission of preaching the gospel and establishing good public relations. The four missionaries went on Friday to check it out and see if there was potential. Everyone told us that we should be careful because the pueblo was a little dangerous seeing as how there is quite a bit of witchcraft in Santa Ana and that after dark every one carries pistol and shoots first and asks questions later. We left before it got dark but I am so excited to see the work finally roll forth in Insurgentes. Our ward (look at it on ldsmaps) is huge...about 7 hours wide and contains thousands of little pueblos and cities that need the gospel. We are growing from the center out and starting the work of preaching the gospel to all nations and tongues. The people in Santa Ana don`t all speak Spanish...there is a dialect callled Otomi. Usually the older generation doesn`t speak Spanish very well but all the adults and young people do. I don`t really plan on learning the dialect but I am picking up a phrase here or there. As we were visiting the less active on Friday several started to cry. They had been so long without a visit and felt a little abandoned. We had two or three families come again on Sunday from Santa Ana so I am really excited to see that grow.

We had my last Zone Conference on Wednesday so it was my last time seeing a couple of my friends here in the mission. Elder Reynoso and I were in charge of taking care of the food for the conference. It was a multi zone conference with a total of about 45 missionaries. We had a sister in the ward make guajolotes (the famous original thing from Tulancingo). It is a sandwich made with a large roll with enchiladas and beans and meat in it. They are pretty good and they are pretty cheap too. Normally it costs about 15 pesos so we fed them all for about 3 bucks a head.

I assume that I will go to the temple again but we get the calendar for July on Thursday in the Zone Leaders Council. The temple closes in July but I`m not sure which day. I really want to go to the temple again before I go. I love it in Spanish and I love the Mexico City Temple.

 

We are working hard and seeing miracles, time in the service of the Almighty just flies and I just wish it would never end. I`m anxious for in a couple months when Cameron has the opportunity to serve because you just can`t describe it...you have to experience it. Thank you for the USB drive...I got it this week and I printed the pictures.

One last problem.....debit cards expire and mine has swiped it`s last swipe. I had a little money from my personal card in cash in my suit cases just in case and I used it last week at Teotihuacan...but then afterwards I went to replenish it...and the card expired in May. I haven`t been able to get a hammock yet because this part of Mexico doesn`t really use them that much and I haven`t found a place that sells them...but de todos modos (anyway) if I`m going to buy one for Darci and Joe I need a new debit card...kinda quickly. Just some food for thought. Thanks for everything you do for me. Thank you for your prayers.

Love,

Elder Nelson