For anyone struggling with creating Let's Encrypt certificates (or just as lazy as I am), try out https://gethttpsforfree.com/ .
If you don't need the certs automatically installed, nginx users are generally doing well with the webroot plugin (which automatically creates files to perform the ACME challenge, regardless of what webserver is serving those files). This will also work for renewal, as long as you're able to do the initial configuration of your nginx to work with the certs you get.