¡Feliz Navidad! I hope that yáll had a wonderful Christmas Season. It has been so much fun down here in Juarez. This week has been so eventful.

So on our P-day, we took a field trip to downtown Juarez. It was a lot different then Ciudad Satelite where I serve. There were a lot of people and it felt a little bit more Mexican. It was a little bit different but remember this is out of my area, Mom. But while we were there we came across a murder scene. I was like "that´s more like it. I was beginner to think I was in the wrong mission." So that´s one. I also saw a cardboard cut out of the pope which was a little weird. I thought taking a picture with him but then I realized, I didn´t have my camera. Maybe next time. 

On Tuesday or Wednesday I forget, I think we almost got (Mom don´t listen) almost got jumped. That was so scary. Both me an my companion jumped so bad. We were walking to another Elders house at about 8 o´clock and we went through the narrow passages between the houses and some guy turned the corner so fast. Whoo who needs rollarcoasters. 

We have an awesome family (mom you can listen again). I met them my first week here and I thought they were members. Our first meeting with them they asked about their kids going on missions. I thought my spanish was bad because they couldn´t be investigators and want to pay $10,000 to a random church and have their children go to a foreign place for two years. It was weird. We taught a lesson for like 2 hours. It was intense. They are a big family too. Talk about a diamond in the rough.

Christmas Eve or Nocha Buena was really different. There is an elder who was in my CCM district. We were really good friends and we got put in neighboring areas. We live super close together so we always hung out. Well he has always had a really hard time being away from his family. I think the Christmas Season really broke him. He had a mental break down got sent home. It was really hard for me. It just goes to show that you need to have a firm unshakable testimony in your mission. This is a very demanding calling. I walk close to 15 miles some days. It taxes your brain to try and listen to crazy people who you have no idea what they are saying and even if you did you have no idea how to respond. Not only that but you have to be a spiritual giant who can teach spiritual kindergarten. It´s hard but it is worth it. 

After that I got put into a tricompanionship. I feel so tiny because I have two Latino, District Leaders, trainers who are over 20 months. Not to mention I don't have a phone like they do so no one calls me on the weekend which is really sad. But it is ok because I have an espiderman phone I can use. 

I had a great time talking to you guys. It was so much fun being able to see your faces. Also my companions loved their stocking. Thank you for the gift it was awesome. I loved all the letters the most. 

It got really cold this weekend. On Saturday it snowed. It wasn´t like the first snow of flurries but it was wet heavy snow. It was rough too because it would change from rain to snow and then back again. We were out contacting in Waterfield which is really far from our casa. We were having no success. Sometimes we would find the address only to be a deserted building. Juarez is super diverse. It´s a transit city so a lot of people will move in and out. So we were contacting and we had high heels of mud because we had to walk through a cotton field to get to the area. Then it rained, then it snow. It was so much fun to play in but then it got really cold and wet and not so much fun to play in. We decided to call it a day and head home but that was several miles. So we hiked and hiked and hiked. I felt like a pioneer, I didn´t think I was going to make it. on Friday we had watched 17 miracles and I was just like point my feet toward the US and remember me kindly. So we stopped by a store and called for a ride. What a relief. The members were so nice that they took us to AaaTiTi to eat. I feel like the song Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd¨ sums it up perfectly 

´´Out in the desert they wander,

Hungry and helpless and cold;

Off to the rescue he hastens,

Bringing them back to the fold.¨ 

So we hung out at la casa de familia Cruz el domingo. They canceled church because of the snow which was sad. So we played games all day with the Cruz family. It was really hard because we played the slap, clap, snap game where you say each other´s names and go until someone messes up. It´s really hard in Spanish. We played with Pedro, Santiago, Juan, Uno al nueva. It was hard. The worse part was when I was uno and I had Juan next to me. Juan sounds like one and uno is one. I got so confused. Sometimes I was Juan and I would call out One and lose. No manches. 

Well it has been a great week full of snowball fights it´s almost like work all over again. It was a white Christmas just one day late which is surprising with the horrible postal system in Mexico. Have a great week, Send me questions of Mexico I´ll send you mine.

Love,

Elder Nelson

What a week it has been. My first real week as a missionary. I wish I could tell you who we visited and what we said, but I have no idea. It is so hard to understand the people here and they speak as close to English as you can get. I´m toast. No just kidding. I can catch a word every now and then but the hardest part is not zoning out.

Well Juárez is different. It is a lot more dangerous, it´s a lot of fun and surprisingly a lot of Spanish. It´s really different than a lot of missions. Let me show you.

Can´t drink the water                                   too dangerous

Can´t not wear shoes in the house                too dangerous

Can´t knock on doors                                  too dangerous

Can´t have bikes                                         too dangerous

Can´t have a car                                         too dangerous

Can´t have somewhat not crappy phones      too dangerous

Can´t talk sometimes                                  too dangerous

Can´t carry stuff home                                 too dangerous

Running across 6 lanes of busy highway       not too dangerous 

All in all it is a strange place to be a missionary.

There are a lot of experiences I want to tell but I don´t know if I´ll have time. 

So yesterday we went to to church and that was weird because it´s Mexico and I´m a missionary. We didn´t introduce ourselves to the ward because they think the bishop hates us. He wasn´t there so I don´t know. We went to lunch with members afterwards-we eat lunch at 2 with members every day and that´s about the only real meal we have. Afterwards we went to an investigators house to see if we could teach her. She was asleep and she wanted to stay asleep so she gave us food and then bid us good bye. It was really strange. 

One tuesday my first day in Juárez with my companion Elder Borgel, we were walking around and going to the store to get supplies for the week. All around the city and in mexico there are tons of gated communities and if not you have a gate no yard. So we walk past a guard shack and he talks to the guy and gets 200 pesos. I was like teach me brother I need to know how. I guess that that was a member who paid us instead of feeding us. Weird though, I wondered if my companion was a gangster or something. 

My first day here was interesting. I serve in Satelite 1 and my companion is the district leader of Satelite which includes us and a set of hermanas in Satelite 2. It was awesome because one of my amigos from my CCM district is in Satelite 3 and lives close so we are almost always together. It is nice to be close to an american. My house is supper tiny. The clearence is aweful. I can see over the door which shouldn´t be. Our house is the warehouse for the area so I get whatever I need whenever. There are a lot of nice houses here and I swear the second members we ate with are movie stars or something. Then you have crumbling houses too. It´s really strange. Our Area is huge probably one of the biggest in the mission so we walk alot. There is not a lot in between houses so we walk. Even our house is outside of our area so we have to walk just to get started. 

Elder Nelson

¿Qúe pasa? 

Well this is my first week in the field and it is.....different. So here´s the story. 

I woke up at 3:00 in the morning to get ready to leave. Yet I had been off and on saying not goodbye to my casamates all night long some leaving before two. Like my companion said it’s not goodbye but more like suckybye so we always just say hasta mañana. We got on a bus and left the walls for good. We got to the Mexico airport which is huge. We had people guiding us through the whole thing until the security were we had a latino travel guide. All in all there were cinco americans and tres latinos. So we had a plan to give out pass along cards on the plane. I got a window seat and then was waiting and waiting. Finally, Elder Reyes sat in the far seat. Perfect two on one and he can speak Spanish. Then a guy came and sat down and as soon as we took off he hit the hay. Way to blow our plan. I can’t just wake him. What am I going to say "Come unto me all the and you shall find rest?" So I waited and after about 2 hours I look out the window to see Juarez. Well it may be the land of blood and bullets, but it is really only the land of every shade of brown. I don’t know how I’m going to do it. They are all clearly in violation of the word of wisdom. All the place is café no verde. So we came to the mission office then the mission home. Wow I was walking into a mansion. For a minute I thought my mission president was Bill Gates or maybe Labron James. I don’t know. Then we had a delicious three course served by a maid. How? Then we got put up in a hotel, wow I want an extension and I’m not even close to done. 

So we met our companions today and area. I’m serving in the Satatilite 1 area with my companion Elder         We have a tiny house. They use it for storage for a lot of stuff but I have no clearance head wise. It´s cool though. I’ll have to buy some winter closes because the second day here it was snowing. Not much because we can’t spare the water but it was cold. I almost thought I was north of the boarder in Canada with Tadd. 

Well that’s about it not much just about. I just know two things its cold and I don’t have anything. I also don’t know one thing and that is Spanish.

Hasta 24th.

Elder Nelson

Wow six weeks has gone by so fast. I don´t know what has happened and I´m really sad I´m not fluent in Spanish yet. (HAHA)

So it´s the last week here at the CCM. This past sunday we said bye to the district ahead of us. We had one leave the week before but this one was so much harder because we knew them for 5 weeks and we were pretty much the only ones in our zone. It´s even worse to think that the new district that just showed up won´t appreciate us that much when we leave. What´s rough is that we don´t have those dumb dumby-dots so even in week six we´ll have missionaries two weeks in asking if we´re new. Its funny because the only way people know if your new is if you are wearing a suit so when you go outside of the walls you look brand new. 

Last night we got our plane stuff. That is when the thought that we actually are leaving sunk in. We got our super mega nuclear waste water filters today. They will last for two years so we should be good for now. If only they had a filter for street tacos. We also got all the paperwork stuff so we get to read and understand that. Half of it is in spanish so I´m screwed.

Anyways, so like I said we got a new district this week which was cool. It´s weird because we are suppose to be the examples or so our maestros say but we know less spanish then these folks. But still it´s funny to hear the things they talk about that won´t be that big of a deal later. 

Today we went to the temple. That was so cool. The Mexico City temple is designed after a Mayan Temple and it is awesome. It is a lot bigger than the one in San Antonio. The best part is that you have to ride two or three escalators to get to the endowment room. They even have a clothes rental place which is huge. It is so cool. It´s funny because I guess sizes are not compatible in Mexico because I got some skinny jeans for my pants and some tiny slippers. It was funny because I was struggling at the vail and I should know what to say. The best part was at the beginning about half of the missionaries forgot their name.  It was an awesome experience.

My companion must think I´m crazy, so in class we learned how to contact people on the street and so our homework was to contact ten people before the next lesson. So I thought, hay wouldn't it be fun to contact the Manager of the CCM´s house so me and my poor companion went and knocked at his door and his wife answered. I was so nervous I think our short lesson consisted of me holding up a pass along card and saying the words ¨I know that christ is our savior¨. Ha that was cool. I asked my teachers before if it would be ok or if it would be rude and they were just like ¨And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.¨ (D+C 122:7) A lot of help they were. We came back today because we set up an appointment and our teach said we needed to follow through with it so we did and she slammed the door in our face so I guess it was a two in one kind of experience. Once again, a lot of help our teachers were. 

Well that´s about it. I guess the next time I will be emailing you will be in the campo. (In the mission field)

Hasta Luego,

Elder Nelson

Hola, how´s it going. 

Well I just had a great day today. So we had to get in our suits and go to reception so that we could get our visas. They loaded us up on a Mercedes Bus (the church is true) and headed for the Immigration Center. Well the bus was definitely made for Mexico. I had no leg room at all. It was so great to make it out of the walls. It was strange though that´s for sure. bad drivers in Texas would be extremely cautious drivers here in Mexico. I told my companion if my Mission President asks me to drive a car I´m going to straight up say no. Ha Ha Ha. The cops here never turn off their lights ever. I´m sure drivers would be horrified if they heard of undercover cops in america. They also have police trailers on the side of the road. It´s funny because they put that silly light on top. We saw a bill board for a US basketball in Mexico City (The Kings will play the Boston Celtics as part of NBA Global Games at Mexico City Arena), I guess from what I heard the teachers here are going which made some of the Elders jealous. We saw a McDonald here. That was cool. It was also cool because the Sam Clubs here are so nice they get a road sign for them. They have street sweepers here. It´s crazy because they are people on the street sweeping with straw brooms. They look like the cinnamon brooms for Christmas. Anyways we made it and it was weird. It was like a DMV but it is in Spanish. It was scary. We didn´t have too much down time but I brought stuff but I didn´t study because every time they called a number I freaked out trying to translate. My number was 78. The worst ever. It sounds like 68 and 58 so I was tense for about 20 numbers. Anyways we left and came back. On the way back I saw a police officer outside of Office Depot with a shot gun. Sheesh, I guess those rulers inside there were royalty or something. It was nice to make it back.

Its weird because the Radio Plane came around this week again. It was funny because it was during Sacrament Meeting and it was hard not to get distracted. From what I´ve heard it is a Circus plane but I have no idea.

So anyways, thanksgiving was nice. We had a gratitude board where we listed all the things we were grateful for. It was awesome. I also made a Not Grateful For Part. It included and was mostly composed of Mole.  We also had a good Thanksgiving devotional. It was hard because at first it was really glitchy. At the end the Oak Family sang. He´s a good apostle and I´m sure his family is nice. I like the other part of the devotional. So it was funny because Sis Oaks mentioned that two of here daughters were pregnant and I thought it´s not labor day is it?

So during this devotional we meet these too Latinos who were so cool. Elder Juarez and Elder Esponosa. They are some cool guys. It´s fun to talk to them because unlike the teachers they seem to ¨remember¨ stuff better. 

So every week we have TRC which is where we teach investigators who are volunteers from outside the walls. The only thing is they act themselves so if they are a Stake President or a less active then they are a Stake President or a less active. It´s really hard because they are real people, really fast, and for the most part they already have at testimony and you have to figure how to strengthen their testimony. Anyways so we have this one lady and right in the middle of our lesson she smashes her hands together trying to kill a mosquito. It was so funny I almost brust out laughing. 

I have actually gotten really good at killing mosquitoes but I only grab them and then squeeze. It´s really fun but you have to practice. It´s nice because the mosquitoes are slow and don´t bite as much but when you scare them they book it. Weird. 

So my teachers have started to really like me and one of my Maestras told me every time she sees me she wants to play. Anyways so I think I have been getting out of hand too much because we have like four or five maestros in the salon each day. I blame it on my bad puns. Ha Ha. So we were learning about Querer in the past and the conjugations. So the conjugation for ustedes is Querían which is pronounced carry on so I ask isn´t there a song about this, Carry on Carry on Carry on. Oh I love having bilingual teachers.

Well I have to go, I love you lots.

Elder Nelson

Ps all I want for Christmas is emails, marshall, etc, etc, etc, etc, ect, 

Love you lots