Dear All,
This last change has just gone by super fast. It reminds me of the time when Brent Nelson and I rode up to Salt Lake City from Las Vegas in 4.5 hours when I was seven years old or so. This last change truly feels like a couple of hours to me. It was a good change, and we are looking forward to cambios tonight. I want to stay here in La Sarena, but I also want to go somewhere new at the same time. :) The Lord will decide, and I will obey. Simple as that.
Matias´s baptism was excellent. I was surprised last week when we went to his house to ask him who we wanted to baptize him. Haha. We gave him three options: "Elder Dupre, Elder Nelson, or your grandpa?" I was almost positive he was going to ask his grandpa to do it when he suddenly says, "Elder Nelson!!" And so I had the oppurtunity to baptize him, and it was a great baptism. He was so excited to be baptized, and I was honored to have preformed that sacred ordinance for him.
The greatest part came after Matias´s baptism, though. Just so you know--here in Chile, EVERYTHING is locked up super good. For example, the church has huge gates around its yard, and then there are bars around all the window, etc. It´s just the common thing here in Chile. (We even heard this week that our chapel was bombed and put to flames a few times in the 1980´s by some Catholics. Wow. No wonder they are so protected!)
Anyways, Elder Dupre and I--after the baptism--were on the side of the chapel, turning the key to the drain of the baptismal font, so--of course--it could drain. Haha. But to our surprise, when we went to leave the chapel, the chapel, along with all the big gate doors surrounding the chapel were locked! The Bishop left without realizing that we were draining the water. Haha. And so Elder Dupre and I were trying to see if there was a way out. We found a pretty short part of the wall, and we were going to climb up and jump down. But...the church was smart and knew people would want to do the same thing. That part of the gate was covered in barb wire! Haha. And so there was no escape.
Our only hope was to wait for someone to walk by so that we could use their phone to call the bishop. We talked to some people, but they weren´t willing to help us. Haha. Finally, a homeless guy comes up, and we ask him if he has a cell phone. Haha! Of course, he doesn´t. And so I was expecting him to just keep walking. I was surprised, though, whenever he asked us, "What is the number of the person you need to call?" We were both caught by surprise! But we gave him the number and 100 pesos so that he could go call the Bishop from a pay phone. We thought he was just going to run off with the money at first, haha, but to our surprise--again--he showed back up saying he called the Bishop. The first thing he said was, "Man! Your bishop is mean!" HAHA. He talked about the conversation he had with the bishop for a while and then we finally asked, "So, wait, is he coming?" He just smiled and said he was. (We tried to set up an appointment with the homeless guy afterwards, too, but he wanted nothing to do with us. I think he wanted more money.) But yeah--to make a long story short, the Bishop showed up, saved us, and we all got a good laugh. It was a good, fun hour of being held hostage. :) Haha.
But yeah--yesterday at church was good, too. We had four investigators attend. Manuel is an investigator that Elder Birchall and I ALWAYS tried to teach, but we never could. (His wife is a inactive member.) Elder Dupre got here, tough, and we´ve been teaching him ever since. He´s met with missionaries in the past, but he never committed to being baptized. A few weeks ago, Elder Dupre committed him to being baptized two or three times in the same lessons. AGAIN--I was surprised when he said, "I want Elder Nelson to ask me." HAHA. And so I committed him to be baptized on April 25, and he just nodded his head. But yeah--April 25 is next week, and he should be finally getting baptized! The greatest! That is one reason I want to stay here in La Sarena, too. If I miss his baptism, that´ll be hard for me, I think. :/ But..the work goes on! :)
Well, I want to thank everyone for the e-mails. I got 23 this week, and it was good to hear from everyone, especially from Timmy and Luke. I wanted to cry after reading Luke´s e-mail. Haha. I am truly blessed with the greatest siblings ever!
I hope everyone is great. I love you all, and I look forward to this next week. Enjoy the pictures, and I will send a few more, too, in another e-mail. Have a great week, everyone!
Con Amor,
Elder Nelson IV
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D&C 122:7
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