December 29, 2014

Wow that was an amazing thing just to talk to you guys and just see your faces. It was so crazy to see how much things have changed and to see nixon say my name. When he said my name I dont know if you could see but so many tears came down my face and also when Tatum said Uncle joshi what did you get for christmas. That was diffinitly one of the highlights of my day. To see my Nephews growing up and seeing them just learn new things was really the best gift I could get on Christmas. My nephews are so special to me and I hope they know that everyday. Also what was really a good gift was talking to you guys. It was super cool cause when Ben started to speak spanish a little bit I understood everything he was saying. It was super cool and Benjamin thank you for the advise. Honestly after I spoke with you guys I feel like my spanish is perfect now. Haha but I did mess up when I was saying my testimony in Spanish but that is ok. I was literally the happiest person in the world and it was just really nice to talk to you guys. Sure it was hard to say goodbye and hit the end call button but really 6 months is not long at all. I said it in the airport when I called you guys to. I said oh Christmas isnt that long and really it didnt take long at all to get to this moment. It is going to fly. Just stay busy and dont think of me at all and it will go by fast. hahaha No of course think of me always. haha After I said goodbye everything was good but I did shed a few tears but then it was back to work. Work work work. I love to work and especially on Christmas when everyone is in their homes and with their families. We proselyted and really all the doors we knocked on nobody wanted to hear our message. haha but that is ok cause it really taught me a good lesson and it made me a man. Of course I was already a man before but this made me even a bigger man. haha wow. This Christmas was really special and it was really great to feel Christs love for me. It made me feel closer to him and really closer to you guys also. So many things that I am thankful for but really this Christmas made me think about the things that are most important in my life right now. It was great but now we are back to working and through working really hard and focusing on the work is what will bring me more happiness in my life and make this whole process go faster. I am sorry about this letter cause it isnt that long cause I told you all about what was happening on Christmas but this week we have a baptism maybe. It depends but either way we just need to be pacient and keep on working. Pray for Alysia that through the Spirit she can realize this is the true church. Well I love you all and really it is amazing to feel your love here even though you are far away. I love the mission and this gospel and I cant wait to serve my saviour each and every day for the next 2 years. Much love.

Elder Nieman

PS It was so funny when I swore in spanish in front of you guys. hahaha That is just part of learning a new language. hahaha

 y los Elderes

 Feliz Navidad de MIlli

El templo en la noche

December 22, 2014

Well yeah last week we had cambios and I have a new companion. His name is Elder Colque and he is from Bolivia also. He is really cool and he helps me out a lot. Haha but I still need to get to know him a lot better and just start getting used to everything. Honestly I miss Elder Alacama and it kind of sucked that he went but that is ok cause now I will be able to know more people and find out how people work. haha Yeah so since Elder Alacama went that means I have to direct the area and wow I thought I knew my area but directing an area is hard. I never realized how much I would have to think about which person needs us today and it just takes a lot out of you. Officially my training is over and now I am starting to become a missionary and honestly this past week has been crazy and super tiring. haha I just pass out on my bed when we arrive to our room. I hope that everything will be easier and I will be able to make decicions just like that. haha probably not and it might get even harder but hey that is good for my strength and I will grow by that. Sometimes it is really awkward cause I have to start out the lessons and find the investigators needs and sometimes I dont know what to say. So we will just be sitting there in silence not saying a word. Ohhh it is so painful but honestly I feel like my spanish is improving even more from that and I am happy that I get to practice my spanish even more. With Elder Alacama I didnt really talk that much with the people and Elder Alacama did all the talking. Now I have to do all the talking and when I cant think of a word to say I just have fun with it and start laughing. I really am trying to stay positive but sometimes it is just rough. haha

Well this week is Christmas and I really dont know what to expect. So many things happening at home that arent happening here is kind of weird to think about but I am sure I will be fine. This is going to be such a cool expirence for me even if I will be bawling my eyes out. hahahaha No I wont be doing that cause I never cry. haha I am actually pretty excited for the activity with the mission president tomorrow and just excited for Christmas and see how people celebrate it. Oh by the way my P day isnt today it is tomorrow. Today we proselyte and tomorrow we do something with president Boswell. I am also excited to talk with all of you and see how you are all doing. That is going to be so nice and I really cant wait to see your faces. This week I have been thinking all about you guys and all the traditions we do and I just think right now it is Christ that we should all think of. This is going to be a new thing for me and I cant wait to see how I react. haha even if it is bad or good. haha I am sure it will be good and it will humble me out even more. This week I dont really have any great stories but I just want you all to know that I love you all so much and honestly I hope this christmas you are thinking of ME. hahaha No really I hope you are thinking of Christ and what he has done for every single one of us. I have the oppúrtinity to share the gospel on christmas and remind people what Christmas is about. What a great responsiblity and great oppurtunity to feel the spirit and change peoples lives on Christmas. I would just want all of you to know that Christ is the light and joy of Christmas and we should all remember that he is our savior. He loves us and we love him and how we can share the love of christ is by giving and showing people the Love of Christ on Christmas day. This week will be interestiing but a good interesting. I love you all so much and I will talk to you in a couple days. Oh and also in a couple minutes cause I get a 5 minute call with you all.

Love Elder Nieman

Elder Colque and I

December 15, 2014

Well tomorrow are cambios which are transfers. Probably Elder Alacama is going to go somewhere else and I am probably going to stay in Andahuaylas. I might get someone that I have to train which is really freaking me out but hey that is fine. I started to think how my training went a lot this week and really I feel like it went good but I really dont feel like I am ready. haha Elder Alacama has been so good and I am so grateful to have him as my trainer. Wow time flies by when you are walking and working your butt off. It is officially 4 months and honestly this last month went so fast and the next will probably go even faster. I have been thinking a lot about time and wondering if it will go faster or slower. I finally came to an answer that it doesnt matter and all you have to worry about is serving the Lord with all your heart and forgetting yourself. These past weeks have been the toughest but happiest moments of my life and it just makes me think that this isnt so bad. I cant believe that next week is Christmas and how it is going to be so different for me. I really actually started to freak out about that until me and my companion visited this family yesterday and they had a tree up and blasting christmas songs. I started to think about you all and started to be really homesick. HAha which isnt good at all but as I started to think, I wasnt focused on anyone else but myself. For a moment I looked up and I saw this family all smiling and everyone was having a great old time. Every thought in my head of homesickness went away and I said to myself this is what it is all about. I should be more thankful for things I have and start focusing on bringing people the happiness I feel every christmas. It was a really good night and I was so happy to see the joy in peoples faces. Of course I miss every single one of you but this is going to be so good for me to focus on things like eternal families and the light of christ and how this gospel blesses so many families. My heart is filled with love right now.

Also this week we invited someone to be baptized. Her name is Alysia and it was so cool cause as we were saying Do you want to be baptized she immediatly said yes and there was no doubt in her voice. It was so amazing and I love missionary work. Her date for baptism is on the 3 of January. So many things that happen in a week I cant tell you all of them. OOOh but there was this one time where we were walking pretty fast and these houses in Peru are really weird. Sometimes I have to duck to avoid them while we walk and I have to duck going through doors and just everything is so small. Well we were walking and I wasnt paying attention to what was in front of me. Well I ended up hitting this house with my head and it made a huge smacking noise. I am pretty sure I blacked out for a second cause when I opened my eyes I was sitting on the ground. hahaha That was a pretty crazy thing and probably not good cause ever since then I feel like I cant talk in spanish. hahah no just kidding but that hurt so bad. Also this week I received the package from grandpa. Woooooow I love and miss his cookies. haha Even though they were crushed I enjoyed every single one. They were so good. Other than all those I think that is all for this letter. Next week I get a pre call to you guys next monday and tell you the Skype thing. I am not sure when but I will tell you next week. Well I love you all and I hope your week is great.

Love you all
Elder Nieman

 Familia Cuya. They are so great 

This is us on a freaking moto!

December 8, 2014

Well this week it kind of hit me that it is December and I wont be in my home not doing any of the traditions or just the little things that we do as a family. I really didnt think about it that much but wow it will be interesting what happens on Christmas. Even though I havent been on the mission for that long I feel like I have felt every emotion that a human can feel. It just makes me think of Jesus Christ and how he suffered for all of the sins of the world. It is really the most amazing thing and I think some people forget what he did for us. This week I was teaching lesson 2 and lesson 2 is about the plan of salvation. I was teaching this married couple, Victor y Flora who are strongly catholic and arent interested in converting. When we were teaching about life on earth and what our purpose is. It got to the part where it talks about Jesus Christs atonement. When I started teaching Victor stopped me and said what is the atonment of Christ. It kind of caught me of guard and I kind of wanted to say something like are you serious. Haha but I didnt but when he asked that I felt something in my heart just kind of hit me. I told him that Jesus Christ made the most amazing sacrifice and heroic act in the history of the world. It was amazing cause I felt like the spirit could crush me like a grape. It was so strong and I knew that they could feel the spirit and it was just really cool cause after that moment I feel like this couple that wasnt really interested at all changed their minds and are actually thinking about it. I really love teaching lesson 2 cause it talks about the plan of salvation. I love telling people they can live with their families forever and that we can live with God. It is really amazing to seepeople change and just the people that hate you start to love you. People like Catholics and Jehovas Witnesses come up to me everyday and say that you are preaching the wrong stuff and I am lost and I just smile at them and say in my head they dont know the truth yet. I feel really bad for them and I wish they would listen to our message and realize it is true. It kind of scares me because I have seen them preaching in the streets and I wonder if they were to come to me with questions and ask me if I would be able to answer them. That brings me to the other thing I did this week. Cambios with Elder Netzley my zone leader. Cambios are like splits with other missionaries. But lately I have been doing a lot of switches with different people. But we got done with the day and it was really awesome cause we taught and I just thought it was a normal day. I asked Elder Netzley if there was a time he didnt know the answer and he just says the spirit will always lead you and in those times you wont even know what you are saying. Really I can not wait for that day. Something more that he told me is that I had a gift. It kind of sounds cocky but I really want to tell you guys this. He said I had a gift that whenever I started to teach or just started to talk about anything the spirit was present and that every single of his investigadors told him after the lesson that they felt something in their hearts and felt this force. When he told me that I just kind of gained a lot of confidence and just really made me think that God gives everyone gifts and if you dont know your gift it will come in a time in your life where you feel lost. I am so grateful to be serving and showing people the correct path. I love everyone here and I just want to say that the church is true. I love you all and I will talk to you next week. Oh and tell uncle jared and parker and mayzie and tre and britt that I loved their letters!
Love you all forever
Elder Nieman
This picture is Bernandino y Constanina. These two are married and recent converts. Bernandino is deaf and Constantina is blind. Talk about the perfect couple. Bernandino is 90 and Constantina is 92. Wow these two are moving to Venisuala for a couple months and they have been so great. We teach Bernandino on the computer and he is so happy all the time and he is such a funny little man. Constantina is so amazing to because of her faith in Jesus Christ. They are a family that I really love.

Bernandino y Constanina 

 We are very thankful for the calendar haha!

Our room is looking so good with all the decorations you sent. 
Thank you.

December 1, 2014

Hahaha embarassing I forgot which day was Thanksgiving. Well Happy thanksgiving this week and I just want everyone to know that I love everyone and I am grateful for your emails and just all the support I have recieved. This week was a little long but hey it is over and it is P day. This week we had 22 lessons and 22 lessons is really good for the area I am in. So many expirences I have but dont have the time to share them all. By the way my spanish is here.... hahah yeah right but wow something happend this week and I just started to talk and I feel like my spanish is here. I still need to study a bunch but it feels really good that I am not totally lost. haha This week was thanksgiving and I really didnt think about the day until a hermana said to me happy thanksgiving. Haha and wow now it is December and I really feel like I am getting into missionary life. I am so happy right now and really I have been happy ever since I left on my mission. I really enjoy talking with everyone and just starting to build relationships here. On Thanksgiving day we didnt do anything cause Peru doesnt celebrate that day cause of course it is an american Holiday. But we had an activity in the chappel and woow it was so much fun. We played games and us missionaries preached and it was so great. There was this game where we had to race and when I was racing Elder Martinez I slipped on the floor and banged up my leg pretty bad. It was so funny though cause it was in front of the whole ward. It was really embarrasing but I just thought that is how I am. I am always falling. haha But that was really good cause a lot of investigators were there and they said they really enjoyed their time.

This week I had cambios or transfers with Elder Martinez. Elder Martinez is Argentinian. Haha I spelled that weird but he speaks so much different than everybody. It is so hard to understand but Elder Martinez is one of my best friends on the mission so far. He has helped me in dificult times and just has been a great friend. But we started to proselyte in his area and wow I realized I have a rough area. Everybody accepted us in their home and gave us food and was so nice. Haha my area is great but it was really good to expirence something different. ohhhhh I saw a monkey in the street and got to play with it for a second. Monkeys have personalities and it was so cool to play with one. His name was Cesar and he was so awesome but anyways to the lessons. In one of these lessons we were teaching and I started to talk and teach but when I ran out of words I look to Elder Martinez and expect him to say something. haha he just looks at me and smiles and I swear we were there for about two minutes while I tried to translate in my mind the words I wanted to say. haha It was so awkward but really good for me cause in the next lesson when I ran out of words, I didnt pause, I kept on going and it felt really awesome to speak. Elder Martinez really knows how to push someone and his companion Elder llkjjjsjdie (haha his name is so hard to spell) but Elder ajhdkjjfls is really lucky to have him.

Other stuff that happend this week is I recieved my package from Santa. haha Thank you for sending me that package and really I am trying not to look and peek but it is kind of hard when my companion sees chocolate. Seriously every missionary is crazy about packages and just start attacking your package if you have one. So I havent looked at any of the presents but most of the candy you sent me is gone. I was so mad but that is how it is. I will send a picture of my pacience with the gifts. haha oh and the snowman is so awesome and I have started to look up the scriptures today. Well that is all I have for this week but I love you all for eternity and the plan of Salvation, The plan of God, The plan of happiness can help me live with all of you forever. I am grateful for this gospel and all of you. So many things but I will talk to you in another week.

Love Elder Nieman

 Oscar and his familia. They are way awesome

 Yeah, it's a monkey! It climbed all over me and tried to take my plaque

Yeah, there ya go. I'm not peeking and my 18 year streak of snooping is broken!