February 5, 2018

Nuevos Investigadores a FULL

Not too much to report this week world. We were challenged by our president to find 27 new investigators and pretty much that´s been all we´ve done. We walk and talk and sweat an unimaginable amount every day. So far, we have 14 and have til Thursday to find the rest. So please pray for us in this because we really are giving it everything we have. 

Also, shout out to KAM WELLING for getting called to Cape Verde speaking the language most similar to the celestial language (Spanish ;)) 

Yeah sorry, that´s all I got this week.  Remember that God is good and with his help we can be made strong in the hardest of situations. You´re never alone :)

Con amor,

Elder Nixon

One of these fotos is me and my comp making an asado, the other is a really pretty sunrise we had and I don't remember what the third one is but hopefully it´s self-explanatory

January 29, 2018

La re apostacia

 It was a great week people. Lots of walking and contacting. 

For my birthday we went to an all you can eat buffet. It was a lot like the ones in the states-overpriced and a sacrifice of quality for quantity but we had two districts there (16) elders so it was lots of fun. After lunch, we went to visit the Flag monument in the city. It´s pretty much the only thing touristy in Rosario. It´s got a real baby Empire State Building mixed with the Lincoln Memorial vibe. If you look it up online, you'll see what I mean. It was a ton of fun and really pretty to look out over my entire city here. The best part of my day though was a lesson we had in the afternoon with a contact in the streets. Or I take that back. It could have been seeing my best buddy Connor got his mission call to MEXICO and we´re gonna be able to speak in Spanish and I´m just really proud to be his friend cuz if you don´t know him, he's a straight stud. 

This week I also finished 6 months in the mission. Time flies people and if I`ve learned anything in that time is that we can´t afford to live with regrets. Make the most of every minute God has given you in every situation.

We met a man this week who is actually a member of the church but super inactive. He sat us down and literally 20 minutes straight spit false doctrine in our faces. After that my comp stood up and called him to repentance to which he stood up and promptly kicked us out of his house. It was actually a really sad experience. This man´s problem was he thought truth could be interpreted. What God has said is truth and truth never changes people. We cannot and should not change God to fit Man. We as humans must change to fit what God has set forth. 

I love you all so much!

Elder Nixon

One foto is our district and zone leaders and president in a district meeting this week. The other is me inside the memorial trying to get a good selfie :) And the last is how missionaries celebrate birthdays- taking obnoxious photos in children's ball pits.

January 22, 2018

Gracias

Thank you everyone for all the birthday wishes! Sorry if I didn´t get around to emailing you back personally but I´m running out of time, as always. Figures. Anyways don´t worry about me, we´re going to some all you can eat buffet as a district to celebrate so we´ll be sure to party hard (missionary style).

This was a really good week. The highlight was definitely zone conference. We had it in the mission home for some reason and it was super good and really powerful. We talked a lot about the Sacrament and the importance of it. I know that the Sacrament is something God has given us to help us become more like Christ and we should never underestimate the importance of it. We should do everything in our power to be able to take it every week. 

The night before the zone conference we had to sleep over in the pension of some other elders in the district. We threw the mattresses up on the bed and slept there so that was pretty dope. HAHA funny story that night a little boy came to our door to try and sell us a cake but the Elder that answered the door is brand new and thought it was a gift so he straight up just took it out of the boy's hand and shut the door. We had to hunt the boy down to make sure he got his money!

This week I´m going to complete 6 months in the mission. It´s incredible how time flies. I hope you all know how much I love all of you and appreciate the influence each of you have had individually in my life.

Con amor

Elder Nixon

January 15, 2018

s...w...e...a...t

I´m writing this email in a gas station so that´s cool. I´m definitely not in a little town anymore. Rosario is big and bad and honestly pretty dope. I love living here. We have a shopping mall close to our house and I about died walking in because it seemed so foreign to have a place selling clothes right next to one selling food.

It´s been hard having this "whitewash". Neither of us ever know where we are and the old missionaries didn´t leave us ANYTHING TO WORK WITH. It´s the worst but lots of fun too. We do lots of contacting and walking and sweating.

Speaking of sweating, I had a night this week where I literally woke up over 5 times from the sensation of sweat falling off my face. So maybe you understand a little better just how hot it is here.

We had one day this week where we arrived at the pension at 8:45 but I didn´t want to go back until 9 like our rules state so we decided to contact the streets around us and found our only investigator that we have now. He already had a Book of Mormon and has read it completely. The only problem is we actually aren´t sure if he lives in our area cuz we don´t even have a map of where our area covers.

Life is good people. God is good and loves us each so much.

Con demasiado amor

Elder Nixon

One of the pics is me and my first ward mission leader and the other is me and Elder Cabrera on the roof of our apartment complex after a rainy day of contacting!

January 8, 2018

Trucho

Well world, I'm sorry but this email is gonna be pretty pathetic and I'm not gonna have time to write any of you individually either. I just had transfers and they moved me to the City in an area called Las Delicias. Apparently, it's one of the most dangerous in the mission. It has a ghetto in it that is pretty dang bad. 

My new pension is pretty cool. It's got a little patio and it looks out over the city. I'm in an apartment on the second floor of some complex but it's really small and dirty. It'll take some love to clean up for sure. 

My new comp is from Chile and his name is Elder Cabrera. The fun part is he just barely arrived here too. It's called a whitewash. We're both new to the area so we're always lost and have no idea about anything. 

I'll do better next week. 

Elder Nixon

January 1, 2018

Feliz Año Nuevo

Feliz año nuevo gente! This was a pretty great week. 

We had a baptism this Saturday for Yuliana. She was pretty excited about it and our President even came! So that was really fun! 

Honestly, I'm struggling to find stuff to write about which is sad cuz I know I did a lot this week. We celebrated New Years in a members house and then had to come back to our pension by 10:30. My comp and I stayed up talking til midnight in hopes of seeing fireworks but mostly we just heard horns honking and explosions of little toy fireworks and saw the light of one firework just barely peak over some trees. So yeah that was kinda depressing. Other than that we have eaten a ton of sweet bread and asado this week. 

I dunno what else you wanna know if you're still reading this. Sorry for the lame email. I'll repent and do better next week!!!

If any of you want a good New Years talk to read, look up "Remember Lot's Wife" by Elder Holland. It's pretty great. Go set some goals that will last you past February and become better people every day through the atonement of JESUCRISTO!!!

Con amor,

Elder Nixon

I wrote this email to my fam and my mom said I should share it with everyone because people can benefit from it so I'm just gonna be a good obedient son :) It's about the baptism we had this week.

Well fam I had my first baptism this week! It really was a complete miracle. The full story is very complex and would be very hard to put in email without using hours but the jist of it was we found this little girl (9 years old) on Wednesday and baptized her Saturday which is crazy crazy fast. We had 8 investigators scheduled for this day at the beginning of the transfer and all of them failed. My comp and I were feeling pretty sorry for ourselves about that and started praying for a miracle. This was all Tuesday. We started a fast and Wednesday while we were proselyting we saw Yuliana in the street with her aunt and Elder Mallett leaned over to me and said "there's our baptism" Yuliana received all the lessons earlier this year and really wanted to be baptized but her parents (inactives) said no. Well now she's living with her grandparents (active members) and when we asked her parents if she could be baptized, there had no problem with it all of the sudden. When we asked her what day she wanted to have the service, she told us this Saturday! So that's what we did! We're working to use it to reactivate the whole family now!

God answers prayers in mysterious ways fam. We had been working our hearts out with 8 other people, thinking that our miracle would be one of them and then right when they all fell to craps, out of nowhere came Yuliana walking in the street, asking to be baptized. Remember that God will stretch you to the breaking point of your faith sometimes before giving an answer. It's what he did with me this week! 

Remember to hold on to the faith and always stay happy. God is a God of miracles.

con amor

Elder Nixon

Moroni 7:33

The first pic is what happens when missionaries get bored on new years eve. It's also my favorite way to kill flies in our pension. The second pic is me with my favorite machete. The amount of service we do with that thing is impressive. Also if you think I wouldn't wear a long sleeve thick shirt in the blazing heat just for the pic, you're dead wrong. The third pic is the baptism we had! Good times people!

December 26, 2017

Feliz Navidad

Well world, they told me to write on Tuesday so I'm so sorry for the stress and pain I caused all of you by not being able to read my emails on Christmas and have to wait an extra day. The best things in life are always worth the wait though! ;)

This week Argentina kinda got wrecked on the economic field. We've had to stay in our pension a few times this week because people are rioting in the big cities against their president and it's gotten pretty violent. Nothing to worry about where I'm at though so don't worry!

We had a special zone conference this week to celebrate the Navidad. We talked all about Light and how we can be the light of the world and follow the Light which is Christ. Also, Silent Night is so much better in Spanish. It literally translates to "Night of Light, Night of peace."  We got to play soccer with all the elders which was super fun too. Anyways the world is getting darker so step up and be the light it needs!

The last thing would be a quick debriefing on Christmas culture here cuz I know you're all curious! Basically, they eat dinner at 11 at night and then spend the whole night dancing and talking and don't go to bed until 9 in the morning. They also throw little fireworks everywhere that just make noise and sound like gunshots. So that was how I spent the night- lying in bed listening to car horns and firecrackers. It was awesome :)

Love you all so much and hope you had a very, very merry Christmas while I had a Feliz Navidad! 

Con amor

Elder Nixon

On a side note, if you give a little boy a kilo of salt (2.2 pounds) he might put it in his mouth all at once and start vomiting after. I am an eyewitness!

here are some pics. One is me with the family we spent Christmas Eve. We had this super good asado (basically bbq but there's really no comparison) that was a good 3 inches thick and was cooked with hot coals beneath and a live flame over it for two hours so to say it was the best meat I've had in my life would be an understatement.  One is me at our Christmas conference. They let us wear p-day clothes which may have been the best part. The other is a dope picture from a service project we did in the mud cutting out roots.  

I thought about it and the meat was too good to not to send a picture of it.