My first baptism!

Hey guys!

The last two weeks have been nuts! All kinds of weird crazy awesome cool stuff happening in the area. And I have some really cool news to share!

So two weeks ago was Christmas. A lot of people think that Christmas time is the best time to share the gospel, which in a lot of ways it is. People are more open to listening to gospel stuff and all that. But dang Puerto Rico shuts down during Christmas time! We couldn't find anybody! We went like 3 days straight without being able to contact our investigators. But all is good, because the Sunday after Christmas I had my first investigator in the church! I've been out for 6 months and Michelle was the first investigator I've ever had in the church on Sunday. Which says a lot but anyways she loved church and was super accepted by everybody and she was really emotional about it and she just loved it and she's going to get baptized we just know it. She has such a strong desire to change her life and follow Jesus Christ!

Also on Christmas I got to skype the fam and that was super fun! Even though Tanner sounds like he's 22 and on steroids, it was cool.

Like 2 days before Christmas we were contacting in an area and we contacted this house and we could hear the guy inside say to his kids "don't talk to the Mormons, they're bad". So we contacted the house again (which in Puerto Rico is yelling 'buenas' in front of the house) and this guy screamed "what was that?!?!" and when we asked if we could give him a card with a picture of Jesus, he yelled "No. Leave!" Hahahahha oh the good people of Puerto Rico. Gotta love em.

Also the same day that Michelle came to church for the first time, one of the investigators of the sister missionaries asked me to baptize her! Her name is Kaneesha and she was one of the first people that I met in Vega Baja and she's really cool and her family is really fun to be around. So she asked me to baptize her which is really cool because she's my first baptism! On January 2nd I had the opportunity to baptize her, and Elder Morales baptized a guy named Marcelino who's super cool and funny. So, 2 days into the year and the ward already has 2 baptisms! And on the 16th Michelle will be baptized and everything will be awesome here.

Me and Kaneesha Segui Martinez before her baptism, Jan. 2, 2016.  My first baptism!

On Tuesday the 29th we got stopped in the street by some random guy and this encounter was really weird because he only wanted to talk to me because he only wanted to speak in English. So here's the situation - he asked us if we do service for people. Obviously as missionaries we said yes. So he said "awesome. I need help painting my house because I have back problems. I've done almost all of it already, but I need a little more help. Can you help me tomorrow?" So we said yes and the next day he picked us up and took us to his house. But this guy is nuts! He told us that he had done almost all of it himself, but we had to stop twice on the way to his house so he could buy two 5-gallon buckets of paint! Like, wouldn't you think that if the guy had done most of it already he would already have the supplies at the house???? So we got to the house and the guy hadn't painted anything!!! ZERO. There was no paint on the walls. And we told the guy "we need to be back at 1:30". This guy pulled some big tigeraje to get us to stay until 4! HE ABUSED US. And when we finished with the 2 rooms that we got done (we only got 2 rooms done) he said "so when you come back tomorrow you can finish all this and work until 6, esta bien?" LIKE WHOA DUDE WE AIN'T COMING BACK TOMORROW. He just wanted to use us and use us and use us. And the dude really rubbed Suero the wrong way because he's from Puerto Rico but is racist against Latinos. Like that doesn't make sense at all. But whatever. And he's called us like 10 times since then and so we blocked his number. He just wants to abuse us. He even lied about his name to us! Like come on man.

Then it was New Year’s Eve and that was extremely long and boring because we couldn't do anything. But at 11:55pm it got exciting when the fireworks went off and the drunk neighbors knocked over a firework that blew up in the street and freaked out all the drunk ladies on the front porch.

On January 1st I completed 6 months! Crazy how fast time has been flying!

Soooo that's it I think. Basically. I probably forgot a lot because it's been like 3 weeks since I wrote a blog email. That's all the exciting stuff I think.

All in all I know that the church is true and that it changes lives. I'm seeing it change the life of Michelle as she commits to the things that she needs to do in order to be baptized and receive the blessings of the gospel. It's changing her life and at the same time is changing mine as I see her determination to be better and follow the example of Jesus Christ.

I love you alllllllll the mission is great and hard and awesome but I love it and I love you all!

Love,

Elder Nelson

Me and the Boucher's at the Christmas party!

Christmas party at the President's house.  Elder Suero, Amaro, Morales and me with our Christmas presents.

Me and Elder Suero at the Christmas party

Christmas Eve I treated Elder Suero and me to a dessert from Church's called the Volcano or something like that

New Years Eve with the neighborhood dog that always sits in front of our house with the neighborhood cat.  They're buds.

Me hanging with the neighborhood cat on New Years Eve.  Cat hangs out in front of our house.

We went out with a couple families last P-day (Dec. 28) to a farm and hung out there all day and then had a cool Family Home Evening with all of them in a cabin thing

Me and Marcelino who also got baptized on Saturday.