My First Area: Jardin del Valle

dear lex and family:

happy birthday this week. i wish that i could have sent you something but by the time that you would get it it would be like  a month.

it's good about your job and the pie party. i am glad to see pictures of home and the pie party.  that's cool about the snow. the first day of the actual mission i got here and it poured rain so i was totally soaked, but, oh well, that's the mission for you. ha ha. that's sweet that you get a company truck. what kind is it? do you still have your car? if so, that is a lot of cars at the house, ha ha. but yeah, sounds like work is hard but good for you. good to hear that everyone is doing well. i missed the pie party that makes me sad that is the only thing that i look forward to during thanksgiving. oh well, that is what is going to happen on Christmas. i have some bad news about the call on Christmas, i only get a half hour to talk on the phone, so that sucks bad! but i guess you got to go with what you got. i don't have that many pictures yet so i will send some another day so that you can see what the area is like.

my first week i have been exhausted by the time that i hit my bed. i am like already asleep when i am walking to bed. it's so crazy! we got right to work right when we got here. i flew from santiago south to concepcion and then drove north half the way back on a bus for four hours to jardin del valle around talca. we are in the ghetto, the ghetto! think about the ghetto of ogden times like ten! all the houses are tiny and every house is connected to the next and they are tiny. our house is small. i have 3 guys that i am living with. my comp, which his name is elder murillo, is from logan and his parents are from el savador so he is dark skinned and speaks spanish so well that all the people think that he is a local and i am the only gringo.

i got sunburned when we were doing service digging holes for trees and so i am like a tomato. nobody can understand me and likewise i can't understand them. this language is not the same one that they taught me in the mtc, just like in the best two years. every house has a fence with a gate with spikes on the top and you have to yell halo pronounced "alo" outside the gate for the people to come outside and so that's interesting. everyone here is evangelical and catholic and i have had so many doors slammed in my face. there are dogs everywhere that, like, are all diseased and they all want to eat me. they are everywhere and the people here drive crazy. i am so surprised that i haven't been run over yet! i almost got hit by a bus last night, if i wouldnt have jumped out of the road he would have hit me. we have been working hard we have nine investigators right now that all have soft baptismal dates and a lot of them seem like they really will get baptized. but yeah, we'll see. the ward here is really tiny. everyone here calls me elder nuevo cause i am new, so yeah, that is like my only name not nelson, nuevo.

our house is tiny and we don't have any furniture we only have those white plastic chairs with a white plastic table and i haven't had any time to unpack. right now i have been living out of my suitcases cause by the time we get home i am exhausted. the plane ride was long and i didn't get a wink of sleep for some reason but oh well. but anyway, my sector is huge! i will never run out of work here for sure there is so many people. we're not allowed to play soccer so that sucks, but we do get a lot of time to email so that is good. the food here is not good. so far i am struggling so bad with that and everything here is really expensive and we get like no money. but o well, i guess. i am trying to eat all the stuff here because if you don't like clean your plate they get offended easy so i hope that it works out that way.

a couple things that i would really like is i need a scripture bag that has a shoulder strap and can strap around the waist only because my back and shoulders are killing me so that would be amazing if you could, but yeah, if not i will find one here. and to let you know about packages they get sent to the mission home then to us so it takes like three weeks for a package to get to the home and we don't get them from there for like three weeks so if you are going to send stuff for christmas then probably need to do it this week. but that's pretty much it about chile for now let me know if there is anything else that you want to know. its good to here from you all thanks for everything i miss you all tons good to hear that everyone is doing well.

love elder nelson