Thursday, March 25, 2010

Cockroaches and More Cockroaches

Hola hola hola,

sounds like you guys are all doing good and working a lot. the transfer ends in 2.5 weeks so time is flying by. but no thats ok, you dont need to send any steaks or hot dogs. i got a lot of food and but italian spiced sausage every week so please no. but speaking of food, about two weeks ago i bought 10 mangos for 5 bucks at the italian market and bananas every week. but every morning i have a protein shake with mango and banana, ice cream milk, and the protein powder. im not gonna lie dad i think our little blender works as delicious of miracles as the blender you got. theyre really good shakes.

but also we have found these dominicans here in south philly and they own a corner store. and in all the corner stores they have a little kitchen in the back where you can order cheese steaks, hamburgers, and everything else. so the people we are teaching have friends who own a store a block away and they sell cheese steaks for 2 dollars. so elder glover and i have had 2 cheese steaks this past week which are pretty good for 2 bucks. but south philly food is the best man we got everything here.

this past sunday we had stake conference and of course no one showed up from our little branch because of traveling about 20 blocks but it was really cool and they released one of the counselors to the stake president. the counselor they released i have had the opportunity to know and have a relationship with him because he speaks spanish and has come to our branch a couple times. but he was released and the area 70 member was there too. it was President Eyring's son Elder Eyring and i had a good talk with him before the conference because he speaks spanish too. but that was cool to meet him and learn about him.

The most exciting thing that happened this past week was on monday and tuesday. we have district meeting at the church and so Elder Glover and I get to the church on monday early before we start and we turn on the lights and are going to our room when i see this thing in the middle of the hall way and its about 2 inches long an inch wide and dark brown. we get closer and see that its a cockroach. haha someone did a bomb in the building and killed a lot of the cockroaches in the building so we went around and there were about 10 on monday that were almost dead, still alive a little bit. but then we came back on tuesday night for mission correlation with the ward mission leader and before we had the meeting we got on the roof of the church with our branch mission leader and looked at the city. but then we went down and as we turn on the lights down the hallway again, theres the cockroaches. there were about another dozen that night and the best part was my companion and the other english elder freaking out because they were so scared of the cockroaches. they would look at em and then one of em would jump or flinch cuz they thought they saw another one and then the other would freak out and run. it was rediculous and i thought we were in girl scouts for a minute. it was like waving a dead badger by sarah and her not wanting anything to do with it.

but as for the work, things are going great and we have found a lot of really sweet people to teach and unfortunately a lot have sifted themselves out. but things are going great and we're excited for conference. we have had some great lessons though where people have opened up and you can see the Spirit working inside them and answering their questions. its been rough though trying to go back and see them and they are never there because of work schedules. but all is well and we're doing great. hope you guys have a good week and thanks so much for the package. im saving it for sunday to have a nice sunday meal.

tengan la fe para superar los problemas que tienen y Dios les ayudara. hasta luego.

norman

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Gladys Knight and the Saints United Voices

hijos mios,

man this week was awesome. it really has been a fun week. our email addresses changed to this new myldsmail cite and so this new one is the right one but if people sent me emails through my old address they still come to the new one so all is well (chase.nielson@myldsmail.net). dont even worry about me not having clam juice, i bought some clams last week to prepare to make it. but unfortuneately i havent gotten it yet. (We sent him ingredients for clam pasta YUM!)

But this week was so awesome man. we finished the week strong with a lot of lessons and half were member involvement so that was great. then on tuesday we had zone conference and i had a great learning experience and it helped a lot. in zone conference our zone leaders thought it would be clever to have us wear the headphones and they translated everything people said in english to spanish. but they made me translate for about ten minutes of President Murrays instruction and it was rough. i hadnt really translated before and so it was good. but we really learned a lot through our instructions and practices.

we learned from President Murray about faith and i was thinking a lot about faith and what i believe in. then i thought about who has faith in me to do this work. i was thinking about my name tag and how it says Jesucristo but also it says Nielson. so i was thinking about how cool it is that Clead, Angus and other grandparents are there cheering me (and curtis) on. so i was wondering if you could send me a little bit of history or storys from the Nielson Schulberg side and the Wilson Hansen side, just a page or two that i could have more of a knowledge of who they were and appreciate their sacrifice more. thanks.

So then yesterday rolls around and in the morning i went up to north philly and did a baptismal interview for the other elders in my district. we went on a little exchange for about 2 hours and so me and Elder Woodbury, my last companion, went to the ladys house to do the interview. on the way there i started talking to some mexicans that were diggin up this cement with a jack hammer. i asked if i could try it and they were all for it. so i drilled two more holes and then the big piece of cement popped off. it was pretty fun you should get one for the farm dad.

then after waiting for the lady to show up we had the interview and it went really well. we left and then came back down to the south. after a quick break we went out and taught to quick lessons and in one of em my companion saw his first cockroach that was climbing on the wall and he disrupted the lesson a little bit.

but we left and on our way to go find someone from the past we saw these kids playing baseball and so i jumped in and it was called half ball. they play in the narrow street with a wooden broom stick and half a tennis ball. so i get up to bat and am thinkin im gonna show these younger kids whats up and how we do it in Idaho. so the kid throws the pitch and its horrible. then the second one comes and i swing pretty hard, right before i swing one kid yells "hold on to the bat," haha i wiff the ball and the bat goes flying out of my hands. its flys over these cars and lands about quarter of a block down. haha it was pretty funny and they were kinda worried i broke their bat. but we got out of there quick.

then later we went to GLADYS KNIGHT. we went with a less active member and his girl friend who isnt a member. she doesnt speak english but he does. but man it was such an awesome devotional. they sang so good. you should check it out on the web. Saints united voices, it was awesome and really felt the Spirit there. but our guests really enjoyed it and the atmosphere was great. we were on the 6 row back so it was great seating. but Gladys can sing man, she also bore her testimony and told her story of conversion it was pretty neat. but ya things are going great and i hope you guys keep workin hard and doing a great job. times flying. have a great week.

love you guys.

chase

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Awesome Week!

Hey Nielsons,

Que pasa amigos? man this week was awesome awesome awesome. but thats great to hear you guys are doing good and working hard. sounds like things are going good back in B-Town.

we had a great sunday and i felt so good and relieved afterward. It was fast Sunday you know and i had been fasting for this family to come to church who were less actives and used to be really strong. we saw them earlier in the week with the high priest group leader and had an ok lesson with them. we left it with things kind of in the air hoping they would hold to thier commitment of coming to church. also the high priest rambled on a little bit which made us lose a little bit of confidence in how our time their affected them. but so we get to church and one of the members asks about if the less active family is going to come. i told the brother(hes mexican by the way) i didnt think so because i had called them twice already that morning and they didnt answer. so sacrament meeting is going on and i had to translate for the branch president to spanish because he is Loa. but we're up there talking in front of the 16 people there and we're about reading to start the hymn for the sacrament and as i am in the process of telling everyone in spanish what he just said, the family walks in the chapel with these huge smiles and their faces are just glowing. i am shocked and stumble through the spanish to finish the sentence. then wait for him to say more, but as i am waiting i look at my companion and he's stoked, then i look at the family and they're all happy, then i look at the member we took with us earlier in the week to go see the family and he is smiling ear to ear. after that i couldnt hold my smile anymore. it felt like a pillar of love was surrounding me i just broke down and left the room. it was the most satisfying, fullness of love i have ever felt and i was just crying in the other room. my companion came out and was worrying what was going on, other members that were outside were asking what happened. but i just sat there and cried and it felt so good i cant describe or remember a time when i felt so fully satisfied or happy. The Lord answered our prayers and was there to help us. It was a great experience and i feel a whole lot better about the work we are doing now in South Philly. Things have always been going good and we are building the kingdom but i guess it was just slower than i had wanted and God will let things pass in His time.

Yesterday we did awesome though, we taught 8 lessons and 6 of them were with members so that was probably the most productive day ive had in this area. But also you probably saw the purchase i had of some new shoes. that was the dumbest decision ive made on my mission so far. i bought em and then felt bad for buying em. wore them once and then the next day tryed to take em back. they woulddnt take em so i guess its an alright investment because they will last me for 3 years if i take good care of em. things are going good though, i got nothing to complain about. we are improving a lot as a companionship and are talking to every hispanic we see so we have seen the fruits of talking to everyone with some awesome new investigators.

But you guys have a great week and take care of yourselves. dont be loving the warmer weather too much. its been nice here and we are anticipating taking off our suits in a couple weeks. love you guys, cuidense por favor y si quieren algo de fily ya saben que pueden escribirme lo que quieren. (I think this means that if we want anything from Philly, just write to him and let him know what we want in case he leaves in four weeks from now when the new transfer starts).

faith hope charity and love

chase

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Guaranteed Six More Weeks in Philly

Hey chicharrones como les va?

ya i know the weeks are flying by. ive been out 9 months already and another transfer is starting. im still here in south philly and elder glover is still my companion so i got 6 more weeks of hannah montana.

This past week was pretty good. nothing crazy happened but i did rip my shoes playing basketball last thursday so im gonna buy some new ones today. the whole front of my shoe ripped and it was like i was wearing a sandle. but we had an awesome sunday with 22 people at church and two investigators. it was crazy cuz we had to run out of sacrament meeting to go get our investigator, then i had to teach the gospel principles class, then we had to leave right after church and go up to do an emergency baptismal interview for the zone leaders. my companion was a little frustrated but it was good.

We have had a lot of great lessons this week and been teaching a lot with members. tonight we have a packed night and we are going on splits so it will be fun. we havent been able to ride our bikes though because we dont have helmets. but the weather has been really nice and we have only been wearing our suit jackets so thats good. but i got the package from the cornells youll have to tell them thanks a bunch for me. also i was walking the other day and saw this red dodge truck and thought of Dave Hessing. you need to tell that guy hello for me and tell him im not a mexican yet.

But things are going great. I have been studying a lot from the book of Mormon in the Book of Mormon and man he was a stud. he was such a great example to how we need to always keep pushing and never give up even when you feel like you have a lot of burdens. he was 16 and was in charge of the whole army of the nephites. he experienced failure at first but then kept going and never let up on the people that he loved so much even though they were making such bad decisions.
I love the ipod. i listen to it all the time and before i get into bed i always listen to Have I done any good in the world today? or A Childs Prayer. i think those two are my favorite himnos right now.

oh we also are priviliged to have Gladys Night coming here with her choir and they do a devotional all over the country for people. but we are going with some less actives to it on the 17 of this month. it is going to be pretty cool and all the wards and branches have a big part in it. we have tickets as a mission but you can only go if you are bringing someone. luckily we got someone to go with us so it will be awesome to see what happens. but i hope you all have a great week and take care of yourselves. thanks for all you do and dont ever eat chicharrones. you might want to start doing some extra push ups and sit ups brooks and blake to prepare yourselves. peace.

love.

philly chase