Week 21: Dog Fights!

Buenas Dias!

This week has been a pretty good one as far as personal progress goes. I finally have the hang of being senior companion and talking in Spanish 24/7 down. My Spanish is improving significantly and I feel like a missionary.

I forgot to mention that last week in church I had to give a talk (in Spanish of course) and I was kind of nervous because a 10 minute talk in Spanish was not something I was expecting to give. We had a half hour for 3 of us to give talks, my comp, myself, and the mission leader. My companion went first and I was expecting him to take 12 minutes because he can speak Spanish and knows the phrases and stuff, but he gave his talk and it was 3 minutes long! That made me freak out! I gave my talk and it was 14 minutes long so our mission leader didn't have to talk for too long. But I was really proud of myself that I actually did it :)

This week I got the Christmas letter from my family and notes from my sister. They were awesome and made my day :) 

This week we were still looking for investigators and teaching one old one. We are teaching "P" who is completely ready for baptism, she just has to do it. She came to church which was awesome, but this week we are going to try to put a baptismal date. 

"R" the returned missionary came to church in a suit this week which was super awesome! We have had a couple more lessons and he is returning to the church and feeling the spirit again. It is awesome to see the happiness that he has now that he has returned, he is more open and friendly with everyone! I hope that we can do the same thing for lots of people.

This week we encountered a family who is inactive and feels abandoned by the church. They got baptized and afterwords the missionaries left and they weren't visited by anyone else. We were the first missionaries in 6 years to pass by. We are going to try to show them the love that we really feel for them and help them to return, but they actually go to another church now where they "feel loved". For this reason we still work with our converts, because they need support and not to be abandoned. 

I still have fights with dogs and hate them with a passion. Now I know why a 3 headed dog guards the palace of Hades, because dogs really are of the devil :) This week A HUGE dog was chasing me and I was freaking out, I had a huge rock but was jumping around and running and I thought I was going to die! But finally its owner came out and got the dog and put it back inside. I can honestly say that I am never going to love dogs after being in Chile haha :)

This week not much happened, We are just working hard every day to try to find people who can benefit from and will accept the gospel.

We have interviews with the president of the mission in our apartment tomorrow, so today we are cleaning and organizing and fixing everything like crazy!! Goodbye nap time :(

This next week is going to be awesome and I have faith that we will have success.

I love you all,

Elder Nielson :)