February 6, 2013

Dear Friends and Family,


The last few days have been big for me, yesterday they took my finger prints to give to the Argentina Consul to process for my visa, and I messed up and they didn't have any more papers to put prints on, so I had to redo them today, the day we met with the Argentina Consul, so I got it done this morning. Luckily, gave it to the Consul for Argentina and he said they looked good and that I would have about a 90% chance of being approved. Argentina is really strict and they don't really like the church but love the money they get from the church, so we were advised to not ask religious questions during the Q and A with him and to be very respectful, but I think it all went well and what he said about Argentina made me 200 times more excited to go! So hopefully they will process the visas and I’ll be out of here in a week to two weeks, if not by then I will get a temp assignment. This probably makes no sense I am trying to get through this with the little time I have but hopefully I’ll be in the field at maximum 2 weeks! this week during this whole process of meeting with the visa agents and the Argentina Consul, my patience has been tested in only ways that I can understand, but I learned from it, I learned to rely on the Lord no matter what and to relax when finger printing ha! I love this gospel and I am so happy to be here on a mission. Yes I am staying longer in the MTC than I thought, but if it be the will of the Lord, it’s my will as well. The Lord knows all and I'm blessed for being here! Well that's the only real exciting thing from me this week I guess. The language is going super well and I love speaking it and I'm having a good time here! I hope all of you are well!
Love Elder Nelson

January 30, 2013

Friends and Family,

This week has been kind of a blast. I love being a missionary and being able to serve those in my zone. Over the past two weeks, we have had 12 new elders come in and I've gotten real close with most of them. So fun to learn more and more about people. There is an Elder Ficklin in my zone and he’s from Mesa, AZ but he used to live in Spokane, so we have made so many different connections it’s kind of funny! I told him i went to West Valley and he said "awww come on...CV all the way" i thought, oh brother, even people that don’t go to that school are obsessed with it. It’s just been so fun! Through every person there is always some kind of connection, especially through the church! I have come to love others more this week too. I find that the best way to really get to love someone is just to simply get to know them. I think a big reason why people don’t like other people is because they just don’t really know them. I find that as I get to know others, my first impressions good or bad always change for the better. So I leave now in less than two weeks with still no confirmation on my visa. I’m not sure what to expect to be honest because nobody has told me anything. So I just hope and know that if I have it or not ill go where the Lord wants me to go. My favorite chapter in Alma is Alma 26. One day in my study, I prayed for the Lord to guide my study. I had no clue on what to study, so I just started reading from where I left off in the book of Mormon. I came across Alma 26. Ammon is a missionary I look up to. Through his words in this chapter, I could hear the Lords words tell me what he wants me to do. I could feel my desire to do His will grow as I was reading it. He guided my study that day, and he told me what it is he wants me to do and who he wants me to be. I was brought to tears because of the power I felt. Through Ammons words, the Lord was talking directly to me. I'm so grateful for this book! The Lord speaks to us through the writings of prophets! I testify of that because it happened to me. I love this gospel and I love you all!

- Elder Nelson

January 23, 2013

Friends and Family:

This week has been a Big building week for me. I have so much to learn, but i know that I’m getting more and more guidance and help from the Lord each day. Yesterday i began to read Jesus The Christ. Such a great book so far, I have developed a strong love and need for my savior just from the first three chapters. in Preach My Gospel on page 8 I think, it says as we come to learn more about the atonement, our desire to share this gospel will increase, and I testify that is true, as I come to really know this gospel and as I come to really know the difference in living the gospel and not living it, in this life and after, I find and realize how important it is that we lovingly declare this urgent and important news to our brothers and sisters. Jesus is The Christ. Christ lives today and I testify of His reality in my life. I love my big brother. He loves me, He cares about me, He is the one who will plead my case to Father in the last days, and the least I could do for him is to preach His gospel with the spirit, and invite all others to develop a relationship with Christ.

My days here in the MTC are numbered. I leave in 3 weeks, hopefully if all is well with my visa. I have not heard anything, which could be good, but it also could be really bad, so I keep praying for it but only if it be His will. I love my zone and district. It’s been wonderful being with them. i have the responsibility to help orient the incoming Elders and Sisters into our zone for their first two days in the MTC. It’s great because i get to know them all really well right away. Last week our zone received a new district. 6 elders 6 sisters all going to missions in Chile and tonight we get 8 elders and 4 sisters all going to New York except one going down the road to the Ogden mission! Pretty exciting. My companion elder Michalek is great!! We get along really well, he’s such a nice kid and he’s such a peacemaker! I’m blessed to have him as my comp. I learn so much from him! Spanish is well! I love it! I just need to be better at speaking it more ha. Anyway I hope yall are well! I love you all!

- Elder Nelson 

January 16, 2013

Jared's 5th letter; received January 16th 2013

Dear Friends and family,
This week has been same old, but I'm growing in every way but it’s really hard to explain. I'm being taught by the spirit and only my spirit can really understand the change, there’s really no way i can put it into words other than just that my love for this gospel and this work and grown so much since i have been in the MTC. Yesterday was a big day for me tho. As i was sitting in devotional waiting for it to start, all of a sudden the whole place got quiet and everyone stood up and as i looked down at the stand, Elder Holland was walking in, prepared to speak to us. Right as he walked into the room, the spirit illuminated the room. He gave a WONDERFUL talk that really helped me understand my role as a missionary. My heart was pounding out of my chest the whole time. That talk was one of the most important talks to me. My spirit and soul was feasting on every word he said. My feelings after the talk were amazing. i wrote in my journal that i felt full and complete. Now that talk may have not had such an impact on others that were there but i was astonished. The room was still but as he spoke with the words and with the power of the spirit i felt as if Provo hit a massive earthquake. Yesterday changed my life and who i plan to be as a missionary. Often times we feel like we need to "get through" our missions so we can then begin our life. Something Holland said was that "This is Real Life with a capital R and a capital L" Missionary work is Real Life. It is our purpose here. It is the only work we do here that we can take with us after this life! Holland also said to us " I command you to get at least one convert on your mission and it better be YOU!" He talked about how it hurts him as well as all the other general authorities to see inactive return missionaries. Preach my Gospel was created for the purpose to converting the missionaries first, so they could go teach with the power of God. All this stuff just Hit me hard and I'm more motivated than EVER!

The MTC has been great. i love it here. My Spanish is going good, we have finished all the grammar and now going into review. i can teach a good lesson in Spanish, i have the first vision down in Spanish and now i guess i really need to focus on the day to day stuff in the language. I also need to focus on the Argentina accent so i don’t sound too gringo when i get there ha, but all is well and I’m so overjoyed to be here, i love you all.

Elder Nelson

January 9, 2013

Jared's fourth letter; received January 9, 2013


This was a big week for me. As i have been continuing my studies and my efforts of being a missionary, my thoughts about things have been switched to an eternal perspective. it’s really been amazing to me how I'm seeing things so differently now. It makes me a happier person because no matter how hard things get for me at times, I will have a peace in my heart knowing that, this life and things that happen here, are only temporary and really don’t matter. They especially don’t matter because of Jesus Christ and his suffering for us. because Christ suffered for us, he took with him all our worries sorrows and sins, so there should be no reason that they should weigh on us when he has already taken them, all we have to do is submit ourselves to the Lord, keep his commandments and give him our sorrows and sins. I testify and know from my own life that this is true. Give it to the Lord. But with that, we must also recognize all blessings come from him, therefore we must be ever so thankful to our Savior. im so thankful for such a merciful Master!

But life here has been good! i really got use to my teachers and really began to love them so much, but now they left and we got new ones because it’s a new semester at BYU so schedules change. The new teachers are great, very serious and tough but amazing! i just miss my old teachers, they have taught me so much and things were going really well with them, so it has really been a test of my faith to be honest, but when i look at it as a challenge from the Lord to make me better and change me into the kind of servant he needs, its motivating and I’m growing to love my new teachers!!

My study a few days ago was in Moroni 7. it talks about hope and faith and how both are important, but it also says that hope and faith are nothing unless we have charity. to me i took it as we will not be blessed unless we love and serve the lord's people! That’s really motivating to me and after i studied that, i was go pumped! well I’ve only got about a month or so left here in the MTC, nothing back on my visa yet, so i hope it comes in soon! Hope you guys are doing well!


- Elder Nelson

January 2nd 2013

Jared's third letter; received January 2nd 2013

This week has been wonderful. I have been soaking in so much of the gospel. I have learned more in these past three weeks than i have in the past three years. This gospel is truly amazing to me. This week has been interesting. Last Wednesday i went and got my rib checked out,the MTC heath center was full so i went to the

BYU health center, and it was just some inflamed tissue and muscle. Still super sore but getting better. one of the Elders in my district got appendicitis (i hate spelling medical terms but i hope you all understand ha) so he was out for a few days, but he got to see his family who came down from West Jordan, Ut. but he is well now. There has been a flu break out here, like real bad. I'm fine (knock on wood) but many members of my zone are out due to this. There has been so many kids with this flu and even many kids who got sent to the hospital, kinda crazy, but we are on a no hand shaking deal here. My district is wonderful, there are three elder companionships and one sister. The sisters leave tomorrow for the Dominican Republic MTC so it is sad but they will love it. My Spanish is getting lots better, more and more things begin to click for me each day. Speaking it more really helps, it’s awesome! i have really grown to love my teacher Hermano Salisbury. he is so spiritually strong and teaches me so much. Every time he teaches i just get so motivated and excited about being a better missionary. he’s been a blessing to me. I get to see Elder Clark Randall!! What a blessing in my life!! That Elder brightens up my day every time i see him! He’s such a stud! Other than that this week has been same old learning, but i love it, its so fun.



-Elder Nelson

Jared with his district!

December 26, 2012

Jared's Second letter; received December 26, 2012


Week two down. going into my third week is exciting, im finally getting in the hang of things! this last week was big for me tho, i had a lot of eye openers and ah ha moments to missionary work. i leartned a lot about setting goals and planning, and ive been really learning the importance of the book of mormon in conversion and what a useful tool it is. it proves everything about this church, i love it! this week has also been very fun, ive been bonding more with my district and comp, and making this work fun is the key to well having fun and not making it miserable. always being happy really helps my motivation! thursday i was playing basketball and this hot shot basketball played thrusted his knee into my ribs while he was going up for the lay in. he had good lay in form, but in MTC ball he will soon learn that this isnt college basketball and jets need to be cooled somtimes ha, but im in pain a lot because of it, i sneeze of cough and it feels like a knife is stabbing my side, and it sucks sleeping because every position i lay down it irritates it, so im gonna get it checked out, i thought it was just a brusie but it dosnt seem to feel that way anymore. oh well, im sure ill be fine. The spanish is comming along good. i just need to keep studying and speaking it more so that when i need it the spirit will help me find it. but im not discouraged about it or overly excited and doing tremendously well with it. but im right on track and keeping up. its been a fun/interesting experience.
Christmas was wonderful. it was good to hear from some amazing speakers like Russel M. Nelson and the painter Greg Olson. their testimonies of christ really helped my testimony. i have to say, i got the most out of this years chirstmas for my testimony than i ever had in my life. my love and appriciation for the Savior greatly enhanced. i grew to love him not just as my savior or as Jesus Christ, but as my brother and family member who knows me personally. we watched the movie it's a wonderful life. what i great movie, i loved it, its very motivating and eye opening, we really do help out more people than we know. my christmas day was wonderful and i hope all of yours was fantastic as well! I know my Savior lives and i know that this is his true church.
Love, Elder Nelson

December 19, 2012

Jared's First letter; received December 19 2012

Hello everyone! This last week at the MTC has been crazy!! I love it tho, I’m so happy to be here and I LOVE being a missionary, I can only imagine how excited I’ll feel when I get into the field! But this last week has been by far the best experience of my life and its only one week into my mission. I love this gospel and I’m learning so much more about it and I’m learning a lot about how to bring investigators to come unto Christ and how they can receive a testimony by reading the Book of Mormon. My first day was nuts for me. I got a lot of rules and a lot of teaching thrown at my face and it didn’t feel good, but as I woke up the second day, prayed for help, and I’ve loved every min since! I’m honestly so happy to be here the spirit is so strong and I love the feeling of always being busy in the work of the Lord. This is what I call being engaged in a good cause and it feels so good! I love this work. We are doing role plays right now and teaching a fake investigator. His name is David Ramos and we have to teach him in Spanish. Spanish is weird, but I’m getting it. My progression from day 1 has been a ton, so I know the spirit is helping me learn. It’s been tough but as we teach him, with the spirit I feel the Spanish words come to me and I can get across what I want to say. One time i was trying to say that Christ died for the sins of the world and sins in Spanish is pecados, but i said pescados which means fish ha so Christ died for the fish of the world ha so it was funny my comp laughed at me and David was confused but it was all funny! My companion is Elder Michalek (Mitch-a-leck) and is from down the road in Lehi Utah. His family is from Argentina so he has background in the area a bit and his dad gave him a bunch of advice! He’s really cool, he really wants to learn and grow, he graduated last year and has never left home before so everything is a new experience for him. I was called to be the leader for my district for the first little while and it’s been a great experience for me. I have more responsibility and more stuff to do on top of all the stuff that we are already asked to do but it’s been a blessing to me to get to know my district and serve and love them. i love helping those in my district. i love them all! President Mortensen is my branch pres and he’s so cool! i love him. the second counselor is hermano nilsson who served in Cordoba and served with President Salas (My mission pres). its been great to get to know them! I saw elder jordan whitehead and elder daniel ellingson and elder ryan medlyn all from Colorado. it was great to see them after so long. Once i figure out how to send pics i will!! my shoes have already tore out so that’s a bummer, thats what i get for bringing old shoes i guess, but i have other newer ones that are intact still so I’m good! ha! I leave for Argentina on Feb 11th, so I’ll be here for 9 weeks, pray for the visas!! Well i love you all and i hope all is well at home!

Love, Elder Nelson

Elder Nelson with Elder Michalek 

Elders Ellingson, Whitehead and Nelson