November 23, 2013

Hey family, yeah it's saturday. long story, but today has to be our p day.

anyways, tons happened. So on tuesday, elder henao got transferred to a place called carolina, near san juan. my new companion is elder jewkes, he's from taylorsville, ut. he finishes in february.

so before elder henao left, i dared him to eat a snail, and he TOTALLY DID IT. it was so legit.

so elder jewkes and elder castaneda are our zone leaders now. but they arent companions. so that means either elder galvez or i had to be the district leader. elder galvez is still beingtrained, so they called me to be the district leader. BUT, they ended up combining our district with another one, so elder rodriguez is now our district leader. so yeah, i was district leader for 3 hours haha. woo hoo.

so elder henao is the diabetic one. but now since i've got another companion, it would be nice if he could get a gift too haha. he really likes movies and stuff. idk, just be creative. he's 100% opposite of me haha but it's cool, we get along well.

This week I have really been studying the Atonement. I was studying the Plan of Salvation on wednesday and I had a really spiritual experience. I really realized that the atonement is the most important part of the Plan of Salvation. I was thinking about all of the Plan of Salvation lessons that I have been taught since I was in primary, and it seems like the plan of salvation always told me where i came from and where i was going. I never really focused on the Why am i here part. I have always known that we need to go to church, be baptised, and do all of those things, but I really realized that day that no part of the plan of salvation would be accomplished without the atonement. When we can understand the atonement is the most important part of the plan of salvation, we cn really understand why it is the we need to have faith in jesus christ, why it is that we need to repent, why it is that we need to be baptized, and why we need to continue taking the sacrament weekly. I also studied the take entitled "like a broken vessel" by jeffrey r holland from this last general conference, and realized that there is always hope in this life. The atonement unconditionally overcomes the bands of physical death, and it conditionally overcomes the bands of spiritual death. Cuando nos acercamos a cristo, podemos sobrellevar nuestros dificultades y debilidades. I really gained a much greater appreciation for the atonement this week and I really feel like Lehi did when he partook of the fruit of the tree of life: "And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit."

Good luck to everyone in their basketball seasons.

i love you all and hope that you have a great thanksgiving!

happy birthday to crystal!

I hope that everyone has a good week. I love you all!

Elder Nielson