Welcome to Sunnyside folks...

Holy cow,

 It's truly has been a roller coaster of a week. I'm super excited to finally be in Washington, but I'll tell you I miss the MTC a lot. I made some really good friends and it was hard to let them go. I hope in this email I can remember and describe all the things that happened in my first week in the field. 

So after a super long day of flights, I finally landed in Yakima around 9:30pm. There I met the Pendleberrys and we then drove to the mission office. That night I spent the night in the zone leaders apartment. Man it felt good to go to bed. The next morning we drove back to the mission office to grab the rest of my luggage. That morning I met the mission president and his wife as well as other office presidency. After getting to know each of them we left for the mission home. The mission home is literally the best place. It just made me feel back at home with all the decorations. This day was also a longer day, because it was basically all orientation stuff. President Jackman and sister Jackman are the best. They are super cool, normal, and hard working. They remind me a lot of mom and dad, and they also look similar too. They even let the new missionaries sleep in until 7am the next morning. 

To clear up any confusion of where I'm serving and whose my companion, I am not serving in Leavenworth, that was just my guess before president Jackman showed the transfer board. I'm serving in a town roughly 40 min from Yakima called Sunnyside. My companion is Elder Bradshaw. He's been out nearly a year, he's pretty funny and a cool guy. He's from Utah and is also the youngest of 4. He had a pretty normal life up until his high school years when he had done some pretty bad stuff. I won't tell you the major details, but his mission has truly changed his life. 

So transfer day was last Wednesday, which is where you saw some of those pictures on Facebook. I will be updating my Facebook with a newer profile pic so be on the lookout for that. Bradshaw and I loaded our stuff in the car and headed to Sunnyside. Somehow we got hooked up with a sweet car, a 2017 Toyota Rav-4. Such a nice car. We are both brand new to this area, or mission terms we got doubled in, so it's been a rough adjustment getting to know the people and the area especially because it's my first week. 

The people in Sunnyside are mostly Hispanic. There are a few pockets where its English. However, I would say most of the Hispanics know English, especially the kids. Usually if they grew up in Sunnyside they speak English, but if they came from Mexico, then they speak Spanish. So it's nice to teach lessons in English, but hopefully next week I can get more practice with Spanish. Sunnyside is also a lot of farm land as well. Right when you take the exit, you'll see a bunch of cows. There's not a whole of shopping or restaurants here, but have we have all we need. Our apartment is pretty decent. For the two of us its actually pretty big. The sisters that lived there before us and left us with basically nothing, so we've been sorting out some things but will need more from the store today.

 

So far every night we have been eating with our branch members. It's hit or miss you'll get a authentic Mexican meal, but the majority of the time you do.  I don't mind and have enjoyed trying new things here even though sometimes it doesn't or shouldn't look edible. Haha. Although I will have to tell you about this one dinner. So Saturday night we had dinner at a family called the Sorsycks. They served Taco Salad and it was pretty good. Well about 30 min after my stomach started to feel pretty sick. I wouldn't have imagined it was the food, I just thought I needed to go to the bathroom really bad. Well after knocking on a few doors and a lesson or two, my stomach pains were the same and it was time to go back to the apartment. I quickly showered and went to bed. Usually when I lay down I feel a lot better, but in this case I didn't and I just could not fall asleep. To summarize, I probably threw up about 6 to 7 times throughout the night, getting only a few hours of sleep. It was a rough night, and the next morning was my first Sunday in the branch, one that I could not miss. After emptying both the black and grey tank in my body, I was left with zero energy and I didn't want to eat a whole bunch, but I did feel a lot better and I feel fine now. 

We have a pretty small branch. At most there would be 40 people, which from what others were explaining was higher than I expected. President Wise asked the new missionaries to introduce themselves and so Elder Bradshaw, another new Hermana, and I each went up. Our Branch starts at noon. Our Elders quorum is super small, there's only 5 of us. So I'm looking forward to getting to know each member of the branch. 

We don't have a lot of plans for Halloween this week. Hopefully we can carve some pumpkins or something. Thank you so much for the letters and packages. I love them. We really have the best family. Good luck with school and work. Happy, happy happy birthday Mom. 

 

Love you and miss you all a lot.

Elder Nissinen 

For pictures this week, check out the shared google drive folder. I will be uploading pictures throughout the day. 

I finally met someone from Hillsboro!

Buenos Dias o Buenas Tardes Familia,

 Hope you've all had a great week. It just seems like a few days ago when I wrote to you all. I honestly can't believe I've been out for 5 weeks. Time flies by so fast. I have a lot I want to say and I don't even know how to begin. 

I'Il start with Spanish. My Spanish is doing pretty well. I've learned so much here at the CCM. My vocabulary has improved both conversationally and especially with church words. I love speaking Spanish, but at the CCM it's not as easy because the majority of us are Americans who speak English most of the time. The last two weeks, however, is only Spanish. Some days and conversations are harder than others, but I can't wait to speak it fluently. 

Friday night, after dinner, my companions and I were walking outside to go back to class. Somehow I lost track of them and we went different directions. Right before stepping outside of the cafeteria I heard an Elder say "Hey Joe". It had been the first time someone had called me by my first name. I turned around and to my surprise I saw Grant McGregor. We talked for a few short minutes before I had to go. He has a few more weeks left before he goes to Chile Santiago. I was so happy to see someone I recognized and knew. Also that night it rained terribly. You can expect thunder and lightning pretty much every night. If you even thought about going outside without an umbrella, you were going to get soaked. And when you're wearing a white shirt, it doesn't look all that great when you can see right through everything. Haha. Some times there can be a few inches of rain on the streets. Those are some of the best nights. 

A week or two ago, elder Mazaleyrat was brushing his teeth and, I must have said something funny because he accidentally spat(sprayed) toothpaste on my suit jacket and pants. We tried getting it out, but had no luck. Along with that, two of my other pants had a small rip in them. One of them I had only worn once. Now, not only did I have one pair to repair,  but now a second. I looked down at my pants and said "seriously", like the kid inventor off the Ellen Show. Luckily at the CCM they have a place to dry clean and sew. I took them in and it costed me 210 pesos or 13 bucks. Super cheap and they did a great job on all of them. Now I don't even know where the rip is at. Haha. 

We have been teaching Dayana and Raul (our teachers) pretty much every day. In the beginning or for the first few weeks, we had a lesson prepared and then we would write down what we each wanted to say. Like literally write down the sentences. We did this because at the time because we didn't have a lot of vocabulary nor sentence structure. However, the last two weeks, I don't believe I have taken any notes to our lessons. It can be difficult sometimes, but the investigator(our teacher) always corrects us if we didn't know a word. We have definitely been better about working together as a companionship in all things. Elder Hilton and Mazaleyrat are great guys and I'm going to miss them a lot as well as my district.

Some parts of the CCM were long, hard, and slow. I honestly thought spending 6 weeks was going to be super tough. I now reflect back on my first week here and have no idea where the time went. Studying all day, with minimal exercise time was difficult for me, especially because I like staying active. But somehow the days went by so fast and before I knew it, I was eating dinner. Each night when I wrote In my journal, it felt like I had already written in my journal 10 minutes ago. So crazy. The MTC presidency here are super cool and kind. I loved going to the Tuesday and Sunday Devotionals with them. 

Unfortunately I won't get my flight plans from the Reception until this evening. I have been asked to be the Travel Leader for one Hermana who is going to Yakima who will be on all the same flights. So at least I'm not by myself. They did send me an email two weeks ago about my flight stuff, but nothing different than what we knew before I left. I will forward that email to dad, but for everyone else here's what I know. 

- I leave Monday October 22nd for my flight from Mexico to Dallas Texas. 

- My flight leaves at 8 AM, so I will have to get up super early. 

- Once I land in Dallas I'll have about 30 minutes before I board again. 

- From Dallas I will fly to Seattle, which is about a 4 hour flight. 

- There I have roughly a 2 hour layover, which is when I can call home. 

- Then I'll take a 40 min flight from Seattle to Yakima and land around 6pm. 

Well I can't wait to be in Yakima. I will miss the CCM a lot and the many friends I've made. I can't wait to Facetime and hear from you all. I'm getting excited just thinking about It. Thanks so much Bailey and Jimmy for letters. I loved them. 

I love and miss you all so so much. 

Elder Nissinen. 

I met the real Jimmy Washington from "The Ringer"

What's up family, 

I hope you've all had an awesome week. To be honest, besides General Conference, theres just not a whole lot else to write about. So I'll try my best to tell you all the highlights of this past week. 

Last Wednesday we took our second visit to the temple. I love going to the temple for a few reasons. First off, it's the only way to get outside of the gates in the CCM. Being cooped up in a class nearly 8 hours a day, the temple is always a day you look forward to. You get to see different people, and the cool streets of Mexico city. The second reason I love the temple is because they have a small gift store right outside. They sell scripture cases, t-shirts, and super cool knitted ties, which are my favorite. They are 300 pesos which is roughly 18 bucks. You know they're making a fortune when it literally only costs them less than dollar and every white guy in the CCM is wearing one. Haha. I'll have a picture in the drive of the ones I got. The third and final reason I love visiting the temple is because it's truly an amazing temple. As I've mentioned in the past letter, it's the largest temple outside the U.S. The pictures do not describe the size of the Mexico Temple. It also amazes me to see how well kept the temple grounds are and always maintained. Even here at the CCM, every morning you will see a bunch of workers edging, mowing and doing general cleanup. Some days I wish I had the Toro mower and was mowing the lawn. Yes, the temple is truly amazing and the experience inside can be as well.

 

My companions, Elder Mazaleyrat, Hilton and I are all doing great. Our lessons we've been teaching have been improving but there is always room for improvement. Our district is truly awesome. There is really only two guys that joke around in the classroom, and that would probably be me and Elder Stock. He has the same personality as me, and yes that's including all the dumb and dumber quotes and what not. He's even seen "The Ringer" which always makes for a funny conversation. Theres also another missionary, not in our district or zone, but his name is Elder Newton. Man, this guy is hilarious, and our personalities are also the same. He flew in with basically my whole district, which is why we know each other, and we sit next to each other during our meals.There are days where I've never laughed my head off so hard over some of the things we've talk about. I love it. I'll add some photos of him and I, plus our district in the drive. 

The Spanish is coming. If it's clear and not 100 miles per hour from a Latino, I can pretty well understand everything. As far as my speaking ability, I think it alright. It's no where near fluent, but I know that it will be with time. The food here is always great. Pineapple, watermelon, and cantaloupe are really getting old though. The Horchata (the milk after you eat cinnamon toast crunch) is not  too bad. not too good.  They always water it down so it just taste weird. My favorite drink is this mango orange stuff. It's so good. I have it every meal. Theres a few responsibilities that zone leaders have. We have meetings Sunday morning and few others throughout the week. We get the sacrament set up, the sacrament meeting set up with prayers and hymns. We are also in charge of the Zone meeting on Saturday evenings. There was a newish elder who came in a few weeks ago and was assigned district leader in his district. Well he thought he owned the world with his calling and he started to tell people to only listen to him and what he says, goes. Well the three of us heard about him and so we talked to his companion to see what was actually going on. What he said he was doing was true and so we had a meeting with him personally to calm him down and tell him what his role was as a district leader. 

Well it finally happened. First session, Saturday morning, President Nelson dropped the 2 hour church. For me, it hasn't really sunk it yet, but we all were anticipating that it would happen. I love how the they came out with a new Come Follow me program with the new additional program for Individuals and Families. It's great to see the church wanting more focused time in the home. What about those temples. President Nelson isn't messing around when he announces 12 new temples at one time. As you can tell the church is expanding and he wants everyone to be able to enjoy and have the opportunities to visit the temples. 

All the talks were great. A common theme I noticed between most of then was "Staying on the Path". I'm not sure who gave the talk, maybe Elder Neil L Anderson, but someone mentioned why we have to face and will face difficulties in our lives. I just couldn't help to think of Dad's quote, "We do Hard Things". Another talk that kind of took me by surprise was President Nelson's Sunday morning session talk. I like how he addressed we aren't Mormons, but Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was a powerful talk and he said some pretty cool blessings when we use the Lords name in his church.

We truly have the best family. Some days I look around at the Elders and Hermanas, and just think if I have nothing else, I do have the best family. We are so blessed. Thanks for the package and the letters. The trail mix is the best. Those are my favorite days. It's hard to believe I've been out for 4 weeks now. 2 more to go. 

Love you all so so much. 

Elder Nissinen. 

This will explain the title of my letter. The guy on the left of me looks identical to Jimmy Washington. I had to get a picture. Every time I see him I think in my head the quote he says in the movie. "I do it for all of you" 😁

Hola Familia,
Hope you guys have had a great week. It's hard to believe I'm already half way through my time at the CCM. Time goes by so fast at times, and slow at others. 

To pick up from where I left off last week, Elder S. left Thursday afternoon for home. I haven't heard any news since he left, but I really enjoyed spending time with him. I hope he can one day continue to serve a mission. My companions are the same I had before. Elder Hilton and Mazaleyrat. 

P-Days are truly the best days. Last week I got haircut. When I walked into the salon, the lady thought my companion was the one getting the haircut. Every time I told a missionary I was going to get a haircut, they would just laugh, and then had to explain why I like it short. Unfortunately they weren't able to cut anything under a 2 on the sides for some reason, so honestly I feel like I need another one. We also cleaned up our Casa, changed our sheets, and did some laundry. My favorite activity to play here is Volleyball. When there's gym time I play Volleyball. Some missionaries are really good, so that's partly why I like to play. 

Last Sunday was fast and testimony meeting, because next Sunday is General Conference. So the Saturday night before we didn't have dinner and that Sunday morning we didn't have breakfast. It was the first time I can remember fasting for a full 24 hours. It was difficult, but our whole district was able to do it. Each week our Branch Presidency assigns a topic from Preach My Gospel so missionaries can prepare a talk based on that topic. I've written one each week in case I get called up to speak. Luckily that hasn't happened yet. I did the same for my testimony. As a few companionships went up, Elder Mazaleyrat looked over and told Elder Hilton and I, "Let's go". We went up and each bore our testimonies. 

Although I could have done probably just fine without notes, I had them just to help keep my thoughts organized. It was tough to speak in Spanish, especially when over half the branch is Latinos, but they all said they liked it and my pronunciation was good. 

My Spanish is definitely improving. I can understand nearly everything someone says. That's mostly true because at the CCM it's at a beginner level, hah. I can carry somewhat of a conversation and work my way around words I don't know. Spanish is a very complex and simplistic language at the same time, but I've learned so much these past three weeks. 

We've been teaching Dayana and Raul, who just act like investigators, but really are our teachers. We switch off every other day for who we teach. Since there are the three of us teaching it's kind of nice, because we each have different ideas. Sometimes it can be difficult because one may speak a little longer. We prepare our lessons based on the topic our investigators need the most. So usually we just split up the lessons in three parts, so each of us gets roughly the same amount of speaking. After each of our topics are assigned we kind of just separate and prepare our portion of the lesson by ourselves. I didn't mind preparing by myself, but it just kind of irritated me. Elder Mazaleyrat would prepare at a different desk, while Hilton and I would halfway prepare the lesson together. Elder Mazaleyrat is a great guy and I love him, but every time I wanted to prepare the lesson together, he would just ignore it. Sometimes he can be a little stubborn. I guess that also might be out different upbringings and personalities. Haha. I finally had enough of it and told him and Hilton to come outside and study. Before we began preparing our lesson I told them that we needed to work together on the lessons and not so much individually. Our lessons were great beforehand, but felt like we were missing something. So hopefully this week we can improve on that. 

The Latinos left Monday, very early in the morning. Which also means theres no one in our Casa. Sunday evening, before they left, we gathered in the living room and had a testimony meeting, then ate some snacks. They were super cool and we're going to miss them. Mosquitoes at night are problem in our casa. It doesn't matter if we shut every window, or door, somehow they get in. Luckily I don't have any bites yet. Even when we go to sleep, out of nowhere you can hear the buzzing of the mosquito. So annoying. 

Well there should be some exciting news coming this weekend. Maybe 2 hour church, and some new temples. An elder told me here that they also might allow missionaries to decide how long they want to serve(12, 18, or 24). I don't think it's true, but who knows. 

Our family is awesome. Thanks so much for the letters this week, Dodo and Ninnie. We are so blessed. 

Love and miss you all so so much. Peace out  

Elder Nissinen