Email from 10.26.09

Here is a pic of the Sanchez's and me:

To answer some of your questions: we eat at someone’s house a couple of times a week then we teach a little lesson. Yesterday for our lesson Elder Hamilton thought that we should sing a song just him, me, and a guy named Brian, in front of a whole freaking family. Yes to answer your question, it was uncomfortable lol, but we got through it and they said we did a good job. Also, I would like to tell you another story about another language mess up I had; so there is a guy Named Oscar and he is an investigator and last Saturday I asked him if he would be baptized. He kind of looked unsure so I told him that he should be prepared in two weeks to be baptized. Ok, but the funny part in this is when I was telling him that he should be prepared I accidently said another word so I was try to say "You will be prepared for your baptism in 2 weeks" but what I apparently said was "you will be prepared for your Beat Down in 2 weeks" WOOPS lol, But after a good laugh he said he would be baptized in 2 weeks, so there you go, the spirit can work through a fumbling fool such as myself. Now we just have to teach him some commandments that he is currently struggling with and into the waters of baptism he goes.

We are teaching about 5-6 investigators, and almost all want to be baptized but circumstances aren’t allowing them to. For instance, there are three kids that want to be baptized and their mom told them they can’t but the dad said they can. They are divorced, and the mom has custody, so I’m really close to going over there and dusting some shoes off, lol, if you know what I mean. In our companionship I am the more bold one, I constantly ask if the investigators want to be baptized and sometimes I have to ask elder Hamilton to challenge some of the investigators to something. For example, when we went over to the house with the three kids; for some reason when my comp and I went to the mothers house he looked really nervous then looked at me and said "You got this" then went and walked towards the kids and started talking to them. I was not so happy about that but I was going to ask the mom to let her kids be baptized. But she never came to the door, apparently she doesn’t like us too much. One reason I know this is because when the kids saw us at the door their eyes went really wide and they said "I don’t think mom wants to talk to you" I think that’s what got Elder Hamilton so uptight. But how bad can it be? They are all like 5 foot nothing lol. I’m basically a giant to them. Anyway, so we will be going up to her house again later.

No one has gotten baptized yet, like I said things just keep coming up that won’t allow them to be baptized. But we keep praying and trying to do all we can. I have given a lot of blessings since I have come here; I even did a blessing on a home, because the mother of the house thought that her daughter was bringing in some bad stuff.

I will look out for that letter from Levi. Tell him he really is an Awesome Jr.

On p-days we do anything we want until 6:00 pm then back to teaching.

Things are going good over here, I haven’t heard any news about an upheaval of Atheism. Course, I don’t know much about what’s going on outside the world of south Florida. There is a huge amount of different churches here, some with names that I have never heard of such as "The Church without Walls" the question is, how does the roof stay up? lol

Here is my haircut from my comp:

Email from 10.19.09

So we wake up about 6:30 go downstairs lay around for a bit and sometimes sing a song depending on how tired we are, then the four of us have prayer. We eat, shower then at 8:00 we have personal study, and you study whatever you want.

At 9:00 we have companion Study, sometimes we will role play, other times we will go through and read parts of preach my gospel, or translate some pamphlets, there are a lot of things we have done. At 10:00 the English Elders (Elder Nutt and Elder Fredrick) leave to go to appointments, while Elder Hamilton and I do some Language study for an hour, usually reading the Book of Mormon out loud. I can actually read really well I just can’t speak the language.

At 11:00 we head out to our appointments, we come back at 2:00 for lunch. At 3:00 we go back out until about 6:00 when a member will usually give us some dinner, we teach a lesson, commit, and leave. We go back out until 8:30-9:00, we go back to the house, plan for a half hour, then just hang around and have good time until 10:30-11:00 then we go to bed. That is my day.

The bike stays at the house I have used it once when I went on exchanges with another Elder. and me and Elder Nutt and maybe the other two will be biking early in the morning for some exercise.

I cut Elder Nutts Hair 2 days ago and he said I did an awesome job except for almost cutting one of his side burns off lol. Then he cut my hair today, and he made super low cut its not a buzz but its short and it feels good out here in the Florida weather.

We usually go shopping on p-days and I usually get just a lot of bread for sandwiches.

Daniel Sanchez probably won’t be getting baptized this week or this month, we just found out what his real problem was, and it is his family, who aren’t really for Mormons, and one of them is a Baptist preacher. So we think he is afraid of being disliked by his family. So yesterday I gave them the story of how dad joined the church. I did it in English cuz I can’t tell a story in Spanish I have enough trouble trying to not tell people i love their wives let alone telling a detailed story about dad... sigh, so Elder Hamilton translated for me.

Yesterday we were fed twice in just one hour after the other, and they wouldn’t stop giving us food. I felt like I was going to throw up, so when we were at our second dinner appointment, me and Elder Hamilton started pocketing our food, because we couldn’t eat any more.

Well now that I have been out here for almost a month, Elder Hamilton has me Teaching some lessons mostly by myself, it gets hard at times but, I get through them. We found out that one of the members in our ward has three children that haven’t been baptized. So we taught them all the lessons, and all of them want to be baptized except one of the kids is in a gang and does some wrong stuff. I told him straight out he needs to change. He said he would. then I asked him how he would change, then he made a plan sort of on how to change.

We met an older couple who is about 80, both of them, and they called in to receive a free restoration dvd. They talk about the most random things and they talk all the time, it is so hard to keep them on track. The wife (we think) wants to be baptized but the husband told us "I was born Catholic. and I’m going to die catholic" lol, but he still wants us over kinda weird huh.

We receive Referrals by members usually but occasionally we receive one by text on our phone, saying that this person wants a free something, So we go over there and give it to them, and usually put in a quick restoration lesson.

We also live in Town House with another set of missionaries. Here is a pic of my comp and the other companions. (His comp is the one sitting on the desk)

The Love for Investigators. :)

Ster had zone conference this last weekend. Here is a pic of the Palm Beach - Coral Springs Zones within the Ft Lauderdale Mission. He is in the middle left side of the picture. Doesn't he look younger than most of them?


So here is Ster's email from Monday, October 12th. I just have to say TOO FUNNY.

I’m going to tell you a little story that is very embarrassing for me but probably funny for you guys. Well you know the Sanches family right? Well like I said, Daniel isn’t a member so we went over to teach him and I challenged him to be baptized, twice, cuz he said no the first time. I then started really talking to him and I was telling him how our Father in Heaven loves him and loves his wife. And for some reason my Spanish was just horrible today, I felt like I couldn’t say anything. The only thing I could get out of my mouth right was my commitment for him to be baptized,a very humbling experience. Well anyways, so when I was telling him that the Lord loved him and loved his wife, I accidentally said " I know God loves you and knows your doubts and I love your wife" Well played Elder Nisson. Of course I didn’t know I said that until after the meeting when my comp told me what I said. But nevertheless Daniel said he would try to be ready in two weeks so at least the spirit got to him. Thank goodness the spirit can speak through goofs like me lol. Ahh good times.

We set a date for three children to be baptized one for this week and two for next week. So that’s pretty cool. Well guys I love you and the fam so much, this work is truly the work of the Lord and I am so happy to be a part of it.

Email from 10.05.09

So Ster let us know that his only kind of communication he will be sending is through email so here is his last email...

We didn't have the Baptism last week because the woman that was supposed to be baptized disappeared, and we haven't been able to get a hold of her. So we are trying to baptize her this week lol, we also might baptize a 17 year old girl named Lian this week or next week, she just showed up at church with a friend and she said she wanted to be baptized. We're like "sounds good".

We teach mostly in Spanish except for a few that either like speaking in English or don't like speaking Spanish, like Lian she can speak Spanish but she doesn't like to. Which makes it easier for me, because my Spanish is not good. But not being able to speak Spanish keeps me humble lol. Though one member gave me a compliment the other day he said you don't know a lot of Spanish but your pronunciation is really good, that made me pretty happy.

There is this family the Sanchez, and I met them last week, but that family is my favorite out of all the people I have met before. The Wife Lillian Sanchez is a member and has been through the temple and has had a daughter serve a mission, Her Husband is not a Member, so we are trying to work on him, and we took the Bishop with us to help in the teaching experience, and finally he agreed to read the book of Mormon and pray about it, so that's a good sign. This family is so awesome. and their food, DONT even get me started on how good it tastes. I ate so much yesterday at their house it was almost disgusting lol, but I think they took a liking to me, they make fun of my Spanish or the lack there of, jokingly of course. Sister Sanchez is my favorite she will always talk to me in Spanish and I will try to answer but it is almost always wrong cuz I have no idea what she is saying and she speaks really fast. (Side note she does speak English the husband doesn't) and she will say, Elder Nisson do you understand me (in English) I will usually say something like "Hermana you know I don't speak Spanish" or I will say something like "no se" and she will always come back with some remark like "Elder Nisson Why not?" I say something like "I don't know" lol good stuff you kind of have to be there to understand it all. But its funny. This family is like in their 40's I think. They're super nice always telling me something like "Elder Nisson this is your house (in Spanish)" I will have to look at my comp and go "what did she say? something about having a house?" and then she will usually tell me in English what she said. Like I said Awesome Family.

So we are teaching the husband Daniel hoping he will desire to be baptized so they can have an eternal family. I have testified a couple of times of the truthfulness of the gospel, but in my mind it always falls short cuz I can't say much, but I know that the Spirit can speak through my bad broken Spanish. It doesn't make it easier though knowing you can't express what you feel. but in the Lords time all things will be as it should, and at this time all things are as it should. Well I'm going to write some more here in a few seconds.

Alright so things are going good the people are really nice. My comp is good, no one cooks at our house, we all just eat sandwiches or something the members give us. Speaking of food I ate this desert called Flan, I'm not sure, but it was delicious ask Spencer if he has ever had it.

No I'm not learning the geography cuz I have no idea where we are going and they don't use a grid system here so I'm lost like usual. Well I love you guys and I hope you will always remember that this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ and I know that as we are obedient and faithful we will know the true happiness the gospel brings.