January 31, 2011

What an awesome missionary. This letter cracks me up. :)

Hey Fam,
I have had a great week. we had transfers in the mission but i stayed here with the same comp so thats cool. we found the same guy that day, and hes doing alright. we are not teaching him but we felt like we were in the right place at the right time to help. its good to feel like God has that confidence in you.

so just to let you guys know what went on this week:
first we found a family that is really cool, Felix and Joseline, and their two little girls. Joseline is amazing and progressing really well. Felix is just crazy and funny. He likes to party and drink. but they're are only like 24 and 25 years old and not married, so thats going to be a hard one but, there progressing so thats awesome.
something funny, we were walking down the street and there was this old lady picking fruit. so like good missionaries we stopped to help. we picked all the fruit off that tree. then as we were finishing the neighbors walked out and noticed what we were doing. they then said to each other,"they're stealing the fruit off the neighbors tree!!" so then the old lady is like thank you, and just walks off with all that fruit. nothing happened or anything but we just robbed this guy thinking we were doing service.( not our fault :) ) but it was really funny.
also as we were in the street this huge part of a tree just fell down on top of this car with a bunch of kids in it. close call but they're all right. We passed this guy that was wasted on his bike who stopped us. at the time i didnt know he was wasted. he stopped my comp and was like "you guys have to help me because i just hate life and im all alone". so we were like ok, we are going to help you. then he told us that he was going to shoot himself. we thought oh no not again, so we tried to help him. but he just got mad. then we saw that he was just really really smashed. but at this point he wouldnt let us go. i dont think my comp noticed that he had been drinking, but i was just going to end it because we were not getting anywere with this drunk guy. so i gave him a pamphlet and said that we would go by his house. then it just turned funny because he took the thing and just chucked it, yelled at us and said "i just wanted a hug, is that to much to ask?" so i gave him a hug and left laughing. it was a great experience. helping people here in chile one hug at a time.
but we have really been blessed this week, i am mystified be the tender mercies of the lord that he gives us everyday. at the time things just seem like trials, but as we look back we realize that the times we grow the most aren't when we have easy times but the hard times. God has an incredible armor for us. as we increase our understanding of God's plan, we begin to see that hes in charge and to see the things from his point of view. its good stuff.
Love you guys,
Elder Nelson

January 24, 2011

Dear Family,

Hey Hows it going!!! I'm going great!! we have had a great week. I'll start with a funny experience. we were in a car with a few members when we ran into one of those police stops that are pretty common here. well my comp got freaked out a little bit. and when the cop, who was not having a great day, he got a suspicious of us because we don't look like we are from here. i was in the front seat and Elder Rhodes in back. I'm not sure why but my comp put his hands in the air and looked really nervous, and red, but hes always red and we are kind of burnt. so the cop started asking a lot of questions and my comp couldn't really answer very well in Spanish. well it was all really funny and ended with my companion getting searched. he was freaked out and the rest of us were laughing our heads off afterwords. its great to be new in the mission!!

i hope that dads doing alright and that hes getting better. i dont need to tell you that hearing that kind of stuff makes me worried. he better be taking good care of himself. please keep me posted. its great hearing of the success that your having there in the ward. keep it up, and keep helping the converts.
Well, love you all thanks for everything.
Elder Nelson

P.S. i got the christmas card, thats a really old picture of me, it was weird to see it. but i really liked the whole thing.


Hey Jessie, How's it going,
Its great to see the pictures, it looks and sounds like you are doing great. i got your Christmas card this last week. it looks great!!! just to let you know its alright to send the video. i don't think there is any rule against it, not that i have heard of anyway. we had an experience that was very interesting on our way here to use the Internet. we passed a man walking here, and said hi to him. then waiting at a light he caught up to us, and we passed him again. as we were walking a man fell down on his bike so we stoped to help him. as we were helping him the man walking passed us again. then we kept going and passed him for the last time. as we passed him, and he was behind us, he yelled to us( which is not unusual). what we thought is the worth of a life, so we walked with him talking. As we stopped he told us that he was going to see his dad and his brother to say goodbye, and that he was going to end his life. We were placed in his path to help him, he told us to go to his house later and to give him a reason to live. i don't know what will happen later but i know that God uses us to help his children in need and to be an instrument in the hands of God. Also to be worthy in order to be able to help. that desire weighs heavy on my soul.
Thank you so much for your support and for everything that you guys do. Jess you have always been a great example for me and i am very grateful to have been blessed with such a great family.
Love,
Elder Nelson

January 17, 2011

oops, sorry i didnt write last week. there was a problem and i couldnt get to it. but before i forget i will write the letter to the scotts.....done. ;) so im trying a new thing and i made a list of some of the things that happened during the week. we had a crazy week full of ....challenges. here it is.
we were in the house of some members teaching a lesson about charity, when suddenly they start telling us about a lot of problems that they have been having and how the father is going to just leave. then the son started yelling, and then the dad got up and just started beating up of the kid. i couldnt just sit there so i got up to stop it. but i wasnt able to. It was the weirdest thing i have felt, because it was like i could not move. well God helped me out a lot because it is not something that we do as missionaries...we cant get into that kind of thing. then he left and left us there with the mom. i didn't know that to say or do, but was prompted to give a blessing. as we put our hands on her head, i felt a feeling of love so strong. it was like something that i have never felt before, we just started crying. i know that it was the love that the savior feels for her and that he used us to let her know.
that was my real dramatic experience this week.
some other funny things that happened are those funny Spanish mix ups. my companion was buying Turkey (pavo) but said dirt(Polvo), needless to say i was laughing my head off. And you would think that with older people that kind of thing never happens, but we were buying lunch another day and a sister from the ward was buying. so she told us to go next door and buy a drink. but as she was saying it she repeated the "next door" part at the end. well in Chile when talking they don't say the d at the end of the word very much, so instead of understanding ´´a lado´´ i understood Helado. in Chile they say the two words very much the same, she was very confused when we walked out with ice cream.
Also our tires got slashed on our bikes. that was a bummer. a sister we just got active broke her foot going down the stairs at a Family night we were having in the church. ( there's another cool blessing story with that one, and she is doing a lot better)
what else?
i played basketball for the first time in a long time, that was embarrassing.
a lot of things happened but more than anything i could really see the hand of God in my week. the work goes on and we are finding the people that need us, the best thing it to get to a family and hear that we got there right when we needed to and that we gave the mesage that we needed to give in that moment. the Spirit is a wonderful thing.
well i hope that that was better.
Love you guys,
Elder Tyler Nelson

(Sorry, I can't get this image to flip around...)
Getting my hair cut from a sister. It was her first time.


Typical missionary food. Eating a bag of cookie dough.

A really cool bike ride.

January 3, 2011

Hey hows it going, I'm writing a little later because we went on a 3 hour bike ride through the mountains this morning and it took a lot of time, but it was a lot of fun. it sounds like a lot of fun what everyone is doing, i was really happy to hear from jessie and kevin also, it sounds like they're doing great, and i cant wait to get the pictures. i wanted to ask breanna a favor, if she could. i found out that in the mission, nobody asks for emails. Instead they just look everyone up on facebook. i know that sounds dumb but it is huge here in chile. i know nothing of facebook but its the only way that i can keep in touch with companions and converts and members here in chile. i was wondering if bre could make me one and get it going so that i can just give people my full name and be able to keep in touch with them, after the mission. i cant use it on the mission and i don't want to have to worry about it and have it be a distraction so if she could do it that would be great. love you guys!!!!
Elder Nelson