December 25th, 2009

Elder Nelson called Dad's cell phone (while the family was at the cabin) right at 9:00 Christmas morning. Dad put the phone on speaker and mom called Kevin and Jessie on her cell phone. Kevin and Jessie were able to hear everything he said. He had 40 minutes to talk, we talked for 39 min. 40 sec. Here are the notes we took from Elder Nelson’s phone call!

He is in the Northern part of Santiago, next to Mexico avenue, in the center, looking at a map. Mission is one of the most strict, but because of that he feels that is very spiritual. Learned that there are a lot of missionaries that are not following the rules, but if you don’t follow the rules, you won’t have the spirit. It is really easy to break the rules unintentionally. One time, we got to bed a few minutes late, we felt like we really needed to pray for forgiveness. Even though it was not a big thing, we felt like it made a difference and helps us have success.

He sounds great! He has a Chilean accent already. He has a hard time remembering English because they use Spanish all the time. Like, when dad answered the phone, he couldn't think of how to say greetings in English.

Went to the temple the other day. It was awesome, interesting. I was used to going every week in the MTC, then now it has been a while. It was during Christmas time, we told our converts that a year later we could go with them.

2 investigators right now are really strong, one may get baptized this week. Everyone is going every which way during Christmas, so it’s hard to keep track of everyone during the holidays.

Christmas day is like a p-day, three hours to work, then we get to go to families for Christmas, we get to stay out til 12:00am. That’s awesome. Here they celebrate Christmas on the 24^th, they celebrate at night, starting at midnight. Right now, there’s no one in the street, because they are all sleeping. At 12:00am, they have dinner and are up until 3-4 in the morning. We went to the mission home. We had a play of Christmas, all the missionaries were there. A lot of missionaries I knew from the MTC were there.

He loved the Christmas presents he got. He got a box from his boss from work.

I feel bad I haven’t written a lot of letters. Dad says, I hope you are writing more in your journal because you are not telling us a lot about your mission. Tyler says, It’s hard to write. I’m not writing as often as I need to. In the night, is the only time to write.

Usually don’t eat breakfast, then we have a huge lunch at 2.

We can’t say no if we are given food, they get really offended. But we try not to eat. Mission rules are you can’t buy anything, or be spending time in a store, after 6 because that is a prime time for proselyting. After a day's work, if you want to eat, the only time you can is between 10:30-11:30pm. There’s not a lot of time.. that's what it is hard to write in my journal. You have to choose to either eat or journal.

Most missions you wake up at 6:30, leave house at 9:00-9:30. But in our mission, we get up at 7:30 and don’t go to bed at 11:30.

Right now, it is 1:05pm (Arizona time is 9:05).

There is a couple of people here from Arizona, so I can ask them questions, like what time it will be at home.

You can’t find Dr. Pepper anywhere (in response to a question from Bean). There is only one store which Walmart bought, it’s called Lotos. This is one of the only places you can find American items because Walmart bought it. The only thing ppl drink here is Coke. I didn’t drink it (Coke) at all at the MTC. They also have this juice thing, everyone has them here (Jugo).

When I was in Butuco, I ate Chicken Hearts and the thing that’s on a Turkey... the Gobbler. The only thing I don’t really like here is beans. They have something that is like a bean soup, that’s the only thing I really don’t like. I eat a lot of rice and meat. They have a lot of fruit here. It is better than the states. It is really fresh.

Here we are walking a lot. A lot of members give us food. There is something like a fruit cake (Pandepascua), we eat it all the time. It is like sweet bread.

In this sector, it is not that bad (poor). In my last area, it was.

Do you do a lot of tracking? What does your day look like? A lot of tracking, a lot of inactive members, some of the best investigators we get are through the inactive families. We work a lot through the inactive members. We are trying to gain the trust of the members in the area. We can’t just waste time at the members’ houses. We are working on gaining their trust.

In Spanish- This is the true church. We can become closer to Heavenly Father if we follow His principles. This is the way to find true happiness and peace. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. Through Him we can live and we can be with our families forever... We can find happiness in this life and in the life after...

Once you’re done with your mission, your parents can come pick you up. Now it is like the hottest time for us(not compared to AZ though). In about a month, will be the hottest. High 80’s right now. January is the hottest.

What is a cool experience you have had? – It is really interesting. I have noticed when we talk to ppl on the streets, you’ll be sharing the gospel. All the sudden, they’ll start crying. Then, they’ll start talking about their problems. “I smoke, I drink, I need help. Can you help me?” It is incredible. The spirit works on ppl in incredible ways. It is interesting, you’ll talk to them, then you’ll try to set an appointment. Sometimes you never get a chance to come back later, but I know that they felt the spirit in that moment. It is really interesting, in my last sector, one of the investigators, actually 2, tried to kill themselves. One was fed up with life. Really sad stories. I don’t want to go into details. I love these people. It is always really sad. It is amazing because you are able to help them. I didn’t baptize. I think my companion will get to baptize some of them. But, I helped find them. It is incredible, the change you can see and bring into ppl’s lives. I can’t think of really cool experiences right now.

The biggest change in me? Lately it has been really interesting to witness the changes in myself that I’ve had. A huge change. At first, when I was going to go serve a mission. I didn’t understand what I was getting into. It is the purifying fire. Everyday you work on purifying your heart to receive and teach with the spirit. Forgetting yourself and thinking of the ppl you are serving.

In Butuco, we could use the internet, it was nice to send pictures. But here, we don’t really have anywhere we can send pictures. So, I don’t know. I might end up not being able to send some for a while.

Thank you for your support. It means a lot.

Dad- you have a lot of people pulling for you.

I love you guys. Thanks for everything, for your support. It has been great. I am happy. I am happy to be here. I don’t want to be anywhere else. I’ll talk to you Mother’s Day!

He sounds like he is doing really, really well. We were really happy to talk to him. Merry Christmas! The Church is true! :)