Crazy Life of a Missionary

Hola Familia Nielson,

You guys are looking pretty white in those pictures, looks like you haven't been skiing enough to get a goggle tan. Five Guys is really popular out here and everyone always tells me about how their fries are from Idaho when I tell them that Im from there. But sounds like you guys are doing good and keeping busy. Here we are doing a lot and have made a lot of progress with the people we are teaching and also finding new investigators. We were able to have a lot of experiences this past week and last night

Elder Winter and I were talking about how crazy the life of a missionary is. For example yesterday we had a meeting with the ward council and we were discussing a less active lady that we teach and how her son was scared away from primary by some little girl. The Primary President in the meeting then ripped into us about how they are all nice children. We then had our Church meetings and Elder Winter was falling asleep the whole time because he was throwing up all night last night, also a less active came to church that we visited out in a mental hospital. Then we had a meeting with President Schaefermeyer and the Reading Stake Presidency and talked about how missionary work is going in the zone. Then had dinner at a great family's house and they argued with one another about camping and then sleeping in a hotel. Then we taught a young couple from Dominican Republic and had a great lesson. Then we had to go home early because Elder Winter was going feeling like he was going to throw up again so we went home and started preparing for weekly numbers. Things we do as missionarys are so different and we are always on our toes doing something. Its pretty cool.

This past week though we were able to go up on exchange in Hometown PA and teach some spanish people. We had a great exchange and it was really humbling because both the Elders are great examples of dedication. The one missionary went to his dad's funeral about two weeks ago and then the other missionary talks to his mom on skype every Sunday because she has only a month to live. I was really nervous going into this exchange but when we got there and I forgot about their situations and just focused on the positive things, it was a great experience. We had a great lesson with this Dominican family and afterwards I wanted to give them a hug because I missed teaching these awesome people.

This is going to be a good week with a lot going on. Tomorrow we have Zone Conference and then on Saturday I get to go back home to Philly and be in a Spanish Training that my old companion Elder Morrison is putting on. So it will be great. Have a good week and enjoy the springtime weather. We went running outside this morning and it was awesome, 45 or something degrees and today is great. Hasta Luego amigos. con el amor de fily

norman