Week 65: Holding down the Fort

Hola Buenos Dias Todos!! :)

This week was a great week of teaching, crazy activities, and funny thoughts :)

This week we went to a Muslim mosque (Spelling?). In Chile there are 3 different Islamic buildings and one (The only mosque) is in Coquimbo where I am serving :) Normally I might have gone there on a P-day but the Mohammad association there is putting on a religious convention which will be kind of like what President Eyering did in the Vatican about marriage except we are talking about loving and helping others. It will be interesting because besides the audience there will be a representative from the catholic church, the 7th day Adventist church, the Islamic religion, and my companion and I. It will be interesting because we will be the youngest people there talking about the theme, but I am pretty stoked :) When we went to go get details the lady gave us a tour of the Mosque and it was interesting, it was pretty cool, but it was weird to me to be in such a sacred and religiously important building and not have an overwhelming feeling of the spirit. It made me realize that I am really grateful for the temples and the spirit that I feel when I am there :)

This week we have been teaching a lot. There is a lady who is 29 who is awesome and not awesome at the same time. We have spiritual lessons with her, she gets really excited to do the stuff and then doesn't do it, so we have a lesson about the importance of acting on the knowledge that we have and she does it. But now she is saying that she is too busy to come to church on the weekends because she got back together with her boyfriend who lives about 2 hours away and that she is going to be there every weekend. We are just praying that they break up, because from what I have heard he doesn't treat her all that well so it would just be better for everyone if the broke up :) 

We also have been teaching a family that has been progressing. The mom is super awesome and believes and accepts and acts on everything that we teach. The son is cool, but is a little bit... Lets just say there is lots of space and cobwebs in his cranium, but he is willing to follow his parents example (he is 19). And the dad... Is super awesome, but super doubtful. He wants vision or scripture to answer everything. He looks for every doubt that could exist and wants us to have an answer for it. We can answer every doubt, but isn't accepting anything until he runs out of doubts. He is praying to receive an answer to the Book of Mormon, understands what the answer will be like, and is willing to act on that answer and follow the teachings of the Book of Mormon when he gets the answer. So if we could have your prayers that he can receive his answer, that would be awesome :)

This week a spiritual experience that I had was when I learned the kind of happiness that the gospel can bring us. The bishops dad has been an investigator for a long time because he has depression and sometimes falls into deep pits of depression making him lose will to do anything. But after listening to him we found out what he thinks God is like and what he thinks of himself. He thinks he is a failure, weak, idiot, who has done no good, and can do no good, knows what is right but is too weak to follow it. It made me sad to hear that, but at the same time, I knew that he didn't understand God, because I could feel the love that God has for him and how much he wants him to succeed. I know that God is our Heavenly Father, that he wants the best for us, and has given the way for us to achieve that. And loving us even more gave us a way that after falling short, failing the test, or giving in to a weak moment, we can come back to him. I know that he lives and loves us, I know that he wants to see us progress, and I know that for that reason he gives us ways out of trials, difficulty, sins, but at the same time doesn't personally take us out of those situations, he just reminds us of how we can take his way out.

This week I also had some fun moments!

Holding down the Fort!

This week I was on interchanges with an elder that has been in the mission for almost 4 and a half months and we worked really hard. After getting back to the apartment, having a good planning session, and having a spiritual discussion, we decided to have some fun. To have fun and stay within the rules in the mission takes a lot of creativity and short activities. Which is why we decided to flashback to the little kid days and make a fort out of blankets and sheets and to sleep in it. It was pretty legit and alot of fun :)

Last P-day after writing we decided to play Ultimate Frisbee and it was the bomb. We had 2 sisters that played with us as well and it was hilarious because they were more aggressive with each other than any of the Elders were. But we all enjoyed it and had a great time :)

Ha ha ha probably one of the most memorable moments of the week was when we were on a bus. We were on the bus from part of our sector to another part which was far away. While on the bus an old lady got on and someone got up to give her his seat. When he got up it ended up being a big buff black guy in fleite pants and a hat on backwards. He had a normal t-shirt on but was so buff that it was tight and looked like the sleeves were going to rip. I noticed that my companion was looking at him too. I leaned over and whispered

"He's Huge isn't he?!"

my comp replied "Yeah super huge, and black"

Me "And fliete too"

My comp "Yeah super fliete"

That's when I decided to confess something to my comp

"That's what I feel like when I wear my fliete pants"

Comp "Big and Black and Buff and Fliete"

me "Exactly"

Ha ha it was funny because it is how I feel when I have my fleite pants on. I just feel super gangster and awesome, but then I have to remember that I'm a little skinny white kid with sweats on ha ha :) But I thought it was hilarious :)

Anyways, Shout out to my dad! He is rocking his birthday this Saturday, so wish him a happy birthday! :)

But I love you all! Stay golden and love life!

Love,

Elder Nielson :)