September 25, 2017

My first baptism...kind of

Well for all of you who told me how cold it is in Utah this week, I want you to remember for me it is now Spring, not Fall, and the days are not yet really hot, but I can really feel the humidity starting to build. It's no bueno. By the time Christmas comes around and you all are freezing, I'll probably be a melted popsicle on the sidewalk so that'll be fun!!!

       

       This was another interesting week. I don't know how else to describe it. I'm teaching this chica named Talia and she has a sister who invited us to their baby's baptism this last Sunday. We definitely didn't feel good about going to a Catholic baby baptism, but they insisted we come to the lunch after so persistently that we caved. To say we took some persecution would be an understatement, but the chicken we ate was unreal so if I could go back, I think I would do it again. Still think it was kinda dumb but oh well!! We live and learn as missionaries I guess!! So now in the future I know, if it’s a Catholic event and you show up as a Mormon missionary, people will make fun of you. 

       I'm pretty jealous of all of you who will be able to listen to the General Conference in a language you understand. That will not be a privilege I will enjoy so please take full advantage of it for me!! We spend lots of time teaching about the importance of prophets out here so please please, please watch it with an open heart and be willing to take the advice our prophets give us from God!

       I thought it would be fun to write about some of the fun cultural things that have been interesting to discover. First off is the bidet. Not sure how to spell that but pretty much they don't use toilet paper here. They have a separate throne in each bathroom whose sole purpose is to give your bum a bath each time you defecate. So yeah that's been a fun change I guess. Also, to greet people here, they kiss on the cheek. All the members know not to kiss the missionaries, but every now and then when we're contacting they don't know we aren't supposed to and they just go for it. I think I've been kissed more as a missionary than I was as a high schooler :) My companion laughed his head off the first time it happened. There's dogs all over in the street but not the gross mutts in some foreign places. They're all relatively clean and all have homes and they can be a nuisance but whatever. Uh que mas? I dunno I'll write more another week!!!

Love you all so much!!!

Con amor,

Elder Nixon

Tucker's cake he made 

No toilet paper in Argentina...only bidet's

Here are some pictures I found off Tucker's mission blog of his first day in Argentina.

Meeting his companion, Elder Bareiro, for the first time

Tucker with President and Sister Allred

September 18, 2017

The madness and the Book

Well this week was actual madness. I went on splits Wednesday in the city and ended up in the house of some guy named Leo. As usual, I couldn't understand a thing and we taught our lesson but this guy was nuts. I don't think he was completely sober personally, then the one thing I understood was Elder Curtis asking him if he's ever killed someone and he said yes and that he went to prison for 6 months! What?? Then last night we were at a dinner appointment with a less active and he wanted to show us his hacking skills and he did some pretty dang shady stuff on the web, not gonna lie. So yeah, we meet interesting people for sure. Oh yeah, to add to the madness (and controversy) my companion who doesn't speak English loves English Christmas music so when you all start arguing in November if it's appropriate to listen to, remember I've been listening to it since September! Also I went to the hospital this week so that was madness as well. I had a bit of a fever and I told my companion who called the mission nurse who insisted I go to the hospital. He was convinced I was dying, even though I felt decent and prescribed me two days of bed rest. So that's always interesting for an eager missionary. On the bright side, I am well studied and rested now!

Our focus this week was on our 14-year-old investigator, Tomas. Before this week, he didn't believe in God but now he does and came to church and has a baptismal date for this month so hopefully that all goes well!

The last thing I wanted to include was how much people have been emphasizing the Book of Mormon in my life lately. It has literally been the name of the game for me. It's all we talked about in the MTC and all we talked about in zone meeting this week and is how we are instructed to contact everyone. It is true! Remember last April that President Monson asked us to read it every day!! PLEASE DO THAT!! FOR ME :)  I know the Book of Mormon is true and will change lives!!! 

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!! PRAY FOR MY SPANISH! ;p

Con Amor

Elder Nixon

One of our investigators, the sketchy hacker, is a welder so here's a pic of that

Our district

September 11, 2017

Cuando no puede entender nada

Well that problem of having nothing to write about in the MTC is definitely gone. Now I have the problem of what to include and where to start!

Well, to start at the beginning, I arrived at my mission home on Tuesday. We were met by President and Sister Allred and a big platter of Empanadas. So yeah, right off the bat the food has been incredible and I'm very thankful that members feed us all the time because it is nigh impossible to find food in our pension (what we call our apartments). There's lots of pastas and breads and everything is really oily and delicious. Anyways, we spent the night there, had some training, then went to meet our first companion and head to our first area!

So this is where things get interesting. My companions name is Elder Bareiro. He's from Paraguay and is super nice and helpful and I love him. He actually goes home after this transfer so he knows what he's doing too! Here's the kicker though.....

 HE DOESN'T SPEAK ENGLISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So yeah, I dare you to try and imagine what I go through every day! I literally can't talk with anyone! (effectively). To say learning to communicate with him was hard is an understatement, but we can basically do it now! Also, speaking of understanding, I can't do it! lol people talk to me and it goes clean over my head. They have a real thick accent here so the words sound nothing like I learned and I only know the words I need to teach the gospel lessons so yeah, I definitely don't understand much that's going on around me. I just kind of smile and focus really hard, trying to pick up phrases I understand. So yeah, it's completely Spanish for me! Even writing this email in English felt weird at first!

Well this is gonna get a bit longer than normal but y'all can deal with it or just stop reading I guess! To get around the city we walk. We walk A LOT! I think I have probably walked close to 15 miles this week no joke. Probably 3-4 miles a day.  The streets are dirty and all my stuff is getting broken in real quick. K I'm out of time. Look for pics and know I love you all and will send more info about my life here next week. Just know that although I can't understand, I love the adventure I am on and that I'm serving God and I am so happy here!!!

Con amor,

Elder Nixon

Elder Nixon in his awesome apron!

Elder Nixon doing laundry by hand

Elder Nixon and Elder Bareiro

ESTOY AQUI

Holá familía! I am here in the mission home! It was a crazy trip but here I am and I´m ready to go to work. Just wanted to let you all know I am safe and will write on Monday and I love you all so much!!! You are all in my prayers and LES AMO MUCHO!!!!!!

Con amor

Elder Nixon

Elder Nixon and Elder Fugal

Boarding the plane to Argentina

September 2, 2017

Well this is it folks!!! I head out to Argentina Monday morning and hopefully Wednesday will be in my first area and be out serving the Lord and the people of Rosario Argentina!! So yeah, hopefully the days of having nothing to write about will be long gone! The MTC has been a joy, but part of me is ready to say good riddance!

So this week was actually pretty entertaining! We only had classes up until Thursday so all those days were really dry but Friday was pretty neat. We had an infield orientation which is pretty much where we take an entire day to cover all the things we need to know for a mission but haven't yet. It's a lot of stuff like working with the ward and finding people and contacting and whatnot. One of my favorite things we did was a role play where we pretended to be missionaries and the other missionary pretended to be a member. OK this is gonna get confusing so pay close attention. We're both missionaries, but one is pretending to be a member. Then within that role play, we role played helping members talk to friends about the gospel. Does this make sense? Pretty much it was role play inception. I was pretending to be a missionary who was pretending to be a member's friend and it was pretty trippy. Just like the movie, we often lost track of what role play we were in!

The other thing I've realized this week was my standards of entertainment have hit rock bottom. There is some youth theme music on LDS.org that I literally jam out to when I can. Before mission, it was just nice music that I would sometimes listen to on Sundays, but now I think it's genuinely the best thing I've ever heard! Like I wanna get up and dance to it even. And all it is is soft Christian rock. We also had the staff of the MTC put on a play of what to expect the first week in the mission field. It was horribly corny and had terrible puns and before the mission, I would have thought it was so dumb, but now I just sat and laughed so hard and thought it was the funniest thing in the planet. So, standards for entertainment are pretty much in the pits. So if you have any awful jokes, send ‘em to me and in all honestly I'll probably find them funny!

THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART TO READ IF YOU GAVE UP EARLIER :) So like I said the next time I write, I'm gonna be in Argentina and be completely legit finally. I thought the last thing I'd put into my MTC emails would be my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it's the reason I'm doing all this after all! I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's kingdom and that true joy in this life is found through obedience to the principles and commandments given to us by God. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and I love that book with all my heart. I have read it and I know it is of God. I know that Joseph Smith was a propeht and that he brought us the restoration. I know that happiness is found in serving others. Sé que esta iglesia es el reino de Dios y la amo con todo de mi corazon!!!!!

I love you all and would appreciate your prayers as I enter the next chapter of my journey!!!!

Con Amor,

Elder Nixon

The first pic is me, Joff and Park all together at once! I love seeing my old friends here! The second pic if you look close, we all have ties around our necks or in our hands. This is our tie trade night. All the dudes in our zone come out with the ties we don't want anymore and we just barter around and try to stay entertained. It's pretty dang fun! The last picture is one of our district in front of one of the coolest murals here with one of our teacher!