Lincoln Mission November 28-December 4

 I have received my transfer news and I'm going to a place called Arraiján! I'm on the outskirts and will be climbing a lot of hills, speaking with a lot of kuna people, and taking a lot of bucket showers! My new comp's name is Elder Brinkeroff who I've heard is a really cool guy. I'm super excited. It's sad to say goodbye to Elder Johnson cause he was an awesome companion, but we'll see each other around. 

Nov 28th

This date is the independence day from columbia or spain. I can't remember at the moment. It's also the day that the government repealed the law that caused everyone to go crazy, meaning no more closed roads, riots, or protests! We were do excited. Everyone was driving around and flying flags. We were also invited to tear down a wall for a member, which was super fun. We just took a sledgehammer to it and took it out. That same day there was a massive march on our street. It was flooded with people and just absolutely crazy. So hard to do the work or even just move around. Some guy was launching massive firecrackers out of his hand and there were 3 massive speakers mounted on cars. It went until 1 am. I could barely sleep. Gotta love it.

We had a great family home evening with a large group of members and it was so fun. We stacked a bunch of cups, with the base being 12, to represent the organization and doctrine of the church. We had one of the kids knock it down to show the great apostacy (when God's church was lost,) and then built it back up again to represent the restoration of the church by Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith. The spirit was really strong, and what made it even more... fun, was the fact that both grandpa's were dead drunk. It was really sad to see because they expressed their desire to come back to church and be sober, but would never admit it while off alcohol. One of them promptly laid on the floor and fell asleep and the other was nodding off the entire time. We're going to attempt to help them.

I had a super fun exchange with Elder Japa, who's from the Dominican Republic but lived in spain for 10 years. He has really good spanish (I would hope,) and was absolutely hilarious. He speaks decent english as well, so he would randomly seitch to english and say something so random. I love that guy. Their house over there looks like a castle, because the person who owns it is very rich and a member. She's really nice and offered the misisonaries to rent the house for a really great price. She has walla thst literally look like some castle ramparts and even has an iron gate. We also found the lamanite church, "templo lemuel," and you need to read the Book of Mormon to understand it. 

We also found an amazing family that is so ready to hear the gospel. They had so many questions and loved the message that we dhared with them. We felt the spirit so strongly and left on a spiritual high. As we were walking down the street, a man who was absolutely wasted was walking towards us. We're used to seeing a lot of drunk people, but this was a little different. About 10 ft away, he flashed us. Too much. Something that should never happen. We ran and he tried to grab us, but we shook him off and booked it down the road. It was ok though because the family we met came to church the next day, and absolutely loved it. To be honest, ut was the best testimony meeting I've been in and made these 3 transfers here worth it. It went on for an hour and a half. Our friend took videos of us sharing our testimonies (I don't know the rule on that,) and the spirit was overflowing. We had kids, teenagers, recent converts, returned missionaries, less social members, and more all share their testimonies. Our president called it a miracle and I agree with him. God's timing is perfect. It made it such a wonderful day.

We had our district counsel, which was great, and then went to a restaurant to celebrate a few elders who hit a year. An elder named Elder Oviatt and I ate a burger called "Everest." They gave you speciel plastic gloces to improve this immersive experience. 4 patties, a ton of cheese, a ton of bacon, topped with more cheese, and a little cut up pepperoni to go with it. I barely finished it, and ended up lying on the side of the road unable to move without fear of dying. Worth it. I did intercambios with Elder Olson one day and then with Elder Oviatt the other. And we all spent the night at there house, so we could go to zona libre. It was fun until I realized I had to sleep on a yoga mat with my towel for a pillow... I dare say it wasn't the best sleep of my life. I did end the last hour in a kuna hammick, but it was a little banana. Mission experiences. We opened up our transfer news together which is always an interesting and anxious experience. I'm very happy with where I'm going and hope I can do what the Lord needs me to there. An elder who served there gave me a kuna dictionary, so now I can learn to make jokes with them  It's hilarious seeing a gringo trying to speak dulegaya.

Well, that's pretty much it. We're having a problem with our google photos right now so there won't be many (if I can even get to work.) Hope y'all are doing great and have a fantastic week

Elder Nelson