#57

Buenas Tardes!

Hey family, good to hear from you all! All is well here! Glad to hear all is still going good back home. Great job with sports girls! I am very impressed! Keep up the good work!

Well, this week passed by without much happening it seemed. We spent a lot of time working with the zone more then anything else. We once again recieved emergency transfers. It seems like we get them once every week. A companionship of sisters was going to come in to the zone and fill in the sector that elder Aguirre left closed, and so we had to get up early thursday morning to head over to the old house and clean it. It was pretty dirty, and by time we had it all cleaned, it was time to start all the district meetings. So we got on a bus and headed over to the stake center just in time for the meetings. We talked and taught about the importance of using members in the lessons with investigatores. It is what makes the people want to change. When they see the example of members living the gospel in the true church, they too want to live it. So please Nielson family, always help the elders out with lessons at the house if they need you. After the meetings, we got a call telling us that the sisters were not going to come, but instead one of our district leaders would be leaving to be a secretary of the mission. The senior couples that ran the offices are all ending their missions, so they called three new secretaries to help out. So we had to deal with those changes and get him all packed and ready to go after. It took us an hour to get there and make sure the house was all nice and ready (we have to do that for every emergency change) and then another hour to return. So in that day, we got to our sector at 7 at night. So, we werent able to get much work in there. It seems like we are losing more and more time in our sector. We hope to be able to learn how to manage our time better to be more efficient. 

We are still looking for people to teach. We have a few promising families, but none that have attended church yet. We hope to be able to have more success soon! The zone is doing great, we are pleased with the work they are doing. I am a little frustrated for the lack of people here, but, we soon will find the people that god has chosen! So untill then we just need to keep on working hard. 

Well, this is all i got for this week! I hope you all have a great week! Love you tons!

Elder Nielson

p.s. I forgot to tell you about the birthday parties i had! Please add this to my group letter!

So, for my birthday i got two cakes, and i had to bite both cakes, and both cakes ended up in my face! Ecuador traditions of biting the cake....how fun! The first cake that i got to eat was the one that you sent me! I asked a member to make me the cake, and she invited a few members over to celebrate with us! It was a great night, and the cake and food was good! I enjoyed the cake so much! Thanks for sending it!!  The tradition is that you sing happy birthday, then afterwards you have to bite a little piece of the cake. So i bit the cake, and while my head was right by the cake, i had my face smashed into the cake by four or five hands...haha dont ask me why, It is just what they do! 

So the next party was also a surprise! On tuesday the 21st, one of our DLs wanted to do a district study, so he invited us over to their chapel and we studied together for an hour and a half. We ended the study, and then entered the other two districs of the zone! They came in singing happy birthday with cake, pop, and chips. It was funny because my comp knew all about it, but i had no clue that the whole zone was gonna suprise me. So it was a great day as well. When i was supposed to bite the cake this time, i made sure that no one was behind me, and then i bit it. But, what i wasnt expecting was one of the elders to reach up from under the cake box to push the cake in my face. That got me bad, and i was wiping frosting out of my hair and eyes haha! But it was a great time! I was really happy with my zone for throwing me that party!