What's going on??,

          I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving eating mashed potatoes and the whole works. I'm so glad you all enjoyed my 100 things I'm grateful for list, it took me a few days to think of them all and I wanted to send it before the holiday. Yes, as you can tell there were a lot of random things listed, but as I thought about the things I'm grateful for there were so many things. Well, this week I have had some ups and some downs and some completely turn arounds. So hopefully I can't describe each of those in this letter.

Last Wednesday was my first time doing Exchanges. The Zone leaders came down from Yakima and stayed two nights at our apartment. Their names were Elder Overson and Elder Smith. They came in on Tuesday night, then we did our exchanges the next day. I was companions with Elder Overson, who knew zero Spanish. Both of them knew nothing in Spanish because they are English elders. Sunnyside is primarily Hispanic, which would mean all the doors we would knock on and the person who spoke Spanish, I would have to speak. It was a great experience for me taking the lead in some of those conversations, I loved it. We knocked on quite a few doors that day and found some great people. The Elders  left the next morning.

Thanksgiving day, my first holiday in the field. This was a very interesting day. Many ups and many downs. That morning we went to a nursing home as a district and sang Christmas songs. The people really enjoyed it and we will definitely be doing that again. After that we went back to the apartment to do some studying  Elder Bradshaw and I were exited to go to out Thanksgiving dinner to less active families home. I knew in advance that it wasn't going to be much of a Thanksgiving dinner just because some Hispanics get into it and others don't. With that in mind, I wasn't awfully disappointed when the mom handed us salad, rice and bread. Haha. That night we also had our "Daily Dose" class or our English class that the Hermanas and us teach. Since is was Thanksgiving night, we had no one show up. That evening Elder Bradshaw was just a little different in attitude, I will explain some of it in the next paragraph. 

This had been on my mind the past few weeks. I wanted to talk about it with Elder Bradshaw, but couldn't find the right time to. Well we were driving around about 8:30 and he didn't say a word to me, and I could easily tell he was frustrated in some way. I kept my composure and tried to ignore it. We were driving around giving people jolly ranchers and a little thanksgiving note attached to it. I had a roll of tape on the dash and when we were making turns around corners it would slide back and forth. Elder Bradshaw grabbed it and chucked it in the backseat. Unfortunately, he missed and it nailed me, point blank in the face. It was at that moment, when I had to talk about some things. I had never really gotten this way before with him, until then. We talked about a lot of things the rest of the evening, probably until 9:30 or so. He had been really stressed out with dealing with the Hermanas and being a district leader and a trainer all at once. I told him that keeping those things to himself would only add to the stress pile. I told him that he needs to utilize me, even though I'm young and new in the field, I am here to help. That was basically the majority of what we talked about, but there was also some things between him and I. So at the end of the day, I was thankful he threw the roll of tape at my face, because we both needed this conversation. The wall that was once between us, is a third of its height before which was not building our relationship. So many things are resolved and we are doing much, much, much better now. Hopefully we can continue like this. 

Saturday was an awesome day. Elder Bradshaw taught a family back in Yakima a while ago and just this last Saturday the family was able to be sealed. Elder Bradshaw nor I had been in a temple sealing before, so it was super cool. We went to the Columbia River Temple and it was an amazing temple! Brother Garcia, the guy driving us, took us to Costa Vida. Missionaries there get 60% off as well. It was so good. This was definitely one of the highlights the week. 

A few days ago, President Wise (Our Branch President) asked Elder Bradshaw and I to give talks in Sacrament Meeting. Luckily we had a few days to prepare both our 12 min talks in Spanish. I wouldn't say I kicked it out of the park, but I feel like we both did a decent job. We were also asked to do a lesson for a Sunday School class. I loved sitting in primary and singing the songs, I wish I could do that every week. This upcoming week, we don't have too much planned. Sunnyside puts on a really big parade this Saturday, so that will be fun, buts that's about it. 

As you can tell, it has been a week of Ups and Downs and Turn-Arounds. I love MY family very much. I miss and love you all. Make sure to check out the google drive for some pictures. Starting next week is Light the World, so go watch those videos, then start Lighting it Up. 

Love you Elder Nissinen