#73

Hey family! It is good to be able to read your email once again!

Wow! It sure has been one interesting week! I dont even know where to start! The time, like i always say, is just flying by! The holidays here were crazy! I will make sure to tell you how everything went. 

Well, to start things out this week, I am getting to know my companion better. I am still a little upset that elder loza got sent out, but my comp is a really good guy too. He is from bolivia, and he is a bit of a nerd, but in a good way! In his scriptures he has stickers of digimon and dragonball Z, but i get along with him really well. He is a humble guy, and he is still really surprised that he is now a zone leader. He keeps telling me that "I feel like I am just doing splits with the zone leaders"...he reminds me a little of elder calhoun from the best two years...."should i write that down?" haha! I am going to enjoy the change with him, he is a cool guy and we are working hard. 

This week latin and central america have celebrated something scalled "carnaval". In this time period, it is completely aceptable to soak people with water, throws eggs, foam from a can, and flour at them, and basically act like crazy people! We spent the whole week running, and getting wet. you will see from the pictures how bad it was! Becuase everybody was on the street celebrating and getting drunk so much, there wasnt much time to work. We are a little anxious to finally be able to work this week! We didnt have anyone at church this week. Only 50 people assisted. The rest went out to sell things for the carnaval weekend. But, next week will be better! 

We had a fun service project as a district this week. We were able to help an old lady change houses. We loaded all of her stuff in the back of a shipping truck, and we all loaded up in the back and headed out to help her move in to her new house. The only problem was when we were in the back of the truck going to the new house. Some how, the sisters found a can of foam, and as you can see from the pictures, sprayed me and the district leader, elder hunt. We had no place to hide, so we just had to take it. It was great to serve! 

We had an activity of the branch today, it was great! We played carnaval, and i got completely deystroyed!! Everyone had flour, eggs, and water. We spent the whole time getting soaked. I had a bucket, so i made sure to soak the whole branch. Afterwards, they all gained up on me, and so i ran from them for a while, but afterwards they caught me and gave it to me hard! It was a fun activity, and it was great to reunite us as a family branch. About 40 people attended, so we were happy. 

Then after the branch party, one of the district leaders called us, asking us to come to their chapel fast so they could give us a few papers that we needed to send in to the offices. When we got to the chapel, we opened the outside door and walked around to the soccor court, where the other missionaries were waiting us. Then, we were ambushed by the whole zone! They all got out of their hiding spots and atacked me and my companion. They had us all surrounded, so we just had to take it. I took two eggs to the head, lots of tint, foam, water, and i dont know what else! You can see what happened in the pictures. needless to say, I spent a long time in the shower! 

So that has been my week, a lot of celebrating, and not too much working! I am a little anxious to get back to work. We are needing to spend more time there. We are hoping that we can do just that this week! I am happy, I am healthy, and I am working hard! Time is moving bye so fast! It is great to be a part of the work of the lord! I really enjoy it. I am learning so much, and I hope to learn even more. I love you all so much and pray for you often! Have an excellent week!
Love,
Elder Nielson