March 11, 20013

Friends and family:

Hola Como Estan? I have had tons of fun this week! I have had great spiritual experiences and tons of learning opportunities. I love the 3 other Elders I live with! We are all pretty close as a group! Elder Ferrin is Companions with Elder Powell and elder Ferrin is a visa waiter also going to the Argentina Mendoza Mission. He’s cool, we have a lot in common and it’s been nice to be around a new fresh gringo elder too! We learn from each other. His comp is the District leader and so he took my companion on an exchange and so that left elder Ferrin and I, The two gringos, to go teach our lessons. So fun, we biked a lot that day. But all of our appointments fell through kind of sad, but we helped a guy change his tires on his low rider Chevy pickup! So we got to do some service and such, plus we go to share a little message about the savior and this gospel and we are going back to see him today hopefully! But he was cool, we spoke our broken Spanish to him and he spoke his broken English to us, so it was a good learning experience ha! I love sharing the message of the restored gospel. Usually, in my door approach, I say that we are missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ of LDS, but recently I have been saying we are representatives of Jesus Christ ( in Spanish). I've found that phrase has so much power to it. We are not simply missionaries of a church, we are representatives of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and we wear His name and declare the sweet message of this Gospel to His lost sheep or most importantly, our brothers and sisters. As I read this week in DC 33, in verse 3 it talks about how we are the last servants he shall send into his vineyard to work. It is, (like in the parable in Matt 20,) the 11th hour and the work is Hastening. As I read that and studied this concept, the importance of my calling and this work hit me like a bag of bricks! It takes me to the Chapter of John 21. Christ comes back to the apostles after his death. Christ found the apostles fishing again, where he found them three years earlier. Christ looks at Peter and asks him three times if he loves Him. He asks Peter if he loves Him more than all the fishing, Peter says Yeah Lord, I do love Thee. The Lord then says, "Then feed my Sheep". Elder Holland gave a talk on this in Oct. 2012. Dad you watched that talk so many times and I thought you were crazy, but as I begin to realize the reality of the 11th hour and as I began to put myself in Peter’s shoes. In my heart I hear " Jared, Do you love Me" and when I hear that, All of a sudden my worldly cares seemed less important and my heart came to be desirous to serve the Lord and do his work with all my might! I want to be able to say with my whole heart to my Savior "Ye Lord, I do Love thee" But I'm a natural man, and the cares of the world creep back in every so often, and I've got so much more to learn and so much more learning to do, but this week was a wakeup call! My work, my will, my desires must be in line with my Savior. "Not my will but Thine be done" I love you all!

Love, Elder Nelson