Elder Joshua Nieman

Oh this week was really interesting. I dont really know what is going on at all and I can say this is the hardest thing I will do. Well that is until I learn the language fully. This week was kind of a downer for me but hey I am going to have a lot of those on my mission. But this week was the first time I felt hopeless and felt like I wasnt going to be able to do this. I am not going to lie to you cause that is bad but I broke down quite a few times. I know I am not supposed to tell you all the negative but I know you guys know that I will be fine. One of these past days I was having a really hard time cause I didnt understand and I couldnt really think. We went back to our room and I immediately kneeled down and prayed to our heavenly father. I prayed for about a hour asking for help asking for some way I can get through this. After I prayed we went to one of our meetings at a members house. We watched a mormon message in spanish. haha I didnt know what they were saying but I remember watching this one before. It is by Elder Crisoferson. haha I botched that name. But in this video it told a story of a farmer that cut down this beautiful tree and the tree asked why did you cut me down. Why did you do this to me. The farmer then says in order for us to become beautiful and perfect again we must be cut down. By being cut down it will make us stronger and it will make us more like HIm. Right now I am being cut down and I might not know why I am being cut down but I know I will become stronger from this whole experience. After that day I was a lot more positive and felt differently about learning spanish and just being on a mission. If you havent seen it then go watch it cause it is really good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr8xvw0cgw0     (This is the video Joshua mentioned)
Anyways Peruuuuuuu. haha oh I love everything here. I love the people and I just love drunk people. haha that is kind of random but they are litterally the funniest people ever. This one guy comes up to me and starts yelling that I am Moroni and I should make him stronger with my magic power. I did pretty good at not laughing until he picked up a garbage bag and started to throw it up and down and he started to run out in the streets with oncoming traffic. He was so nuts. He threw the garbage bag at the cars and started yelling at everyone. Yeah we had to run pretty fast to get away from him. Everything this week has been really good though. I am starting to get to know a lot of the members and a lot of our investagodoras. They are all so happy and they love life. Haha The only thing that I dont like is that they call me gringo, americano, and sometimes they just look at me like I am a monster. haha everyone is so short and their doors are really tiny to. I am getting off subject though. I feel like a lot of people here do not like americans. haha That is ok. This one lady we had lunch with hates americans and the first thing she said to me was... You have beautiful eyes. So that is a really good sign. Also a lot of people like it when I smile at them. They just start laughing and saying oh gringo. haha I really like the work we are doing and I am so excited to learn spanish and actually start to communicate better. Oh and to answer your question I do have a sweater and I use my jacket a lot to. WHat it sounds like it is going to get a lot hotter. We didnt get to watch confrence which I though was kind of weird but that is ok cause we ended up teaching a bunch of families that day. I noticed something this week. The children love missionaries. They just come up to you and give you hugs. haha it is adorable. The food here is really good and I havent had anything that weird. We did have I think pig ears or some type of ear but it was pretty good. I am not getting that sick either which is good but I might later. It sounds like everything at home is going really great and I am just happy for all of you. You guys are the greatest and I love every single one of you. My family and my friends are the greatest thing that I could ever have.
I love you all forever
Elder Nieman

Joshua's address in Peru:                                                

Elder Joshua Nieman
Peru Lima East Mission
Calle Los Agrologos 368
Urbanizacion Las Acacias De Monterrico
La Molina, Lima 12
PERU

email:  joshua.nieman@myldsmail.net

Blog:     joshison.blogspot.com