Joy in the Journey

¡Hola Familia!

It has been a great week. Maybe not super successful numbers-wise, but we had some great experiences and laughed a lot. I love my companion. We are just living it up because transfers are next week and we figure we can´t be lucky enough to have another transfer together. I guess we´ll see!

B made it to her confirmation! She is a great little girl. The best part is how her formerly inactive grandma (who she lives with) is coming back and is really finding the happiness and peace she has been seeking in the church. We have still been teaching & visiting a lot of less active members, and are seeing a few coming back and the rest are moving in the right direction. They are all wonderful. 

We´ve had some really fun lessons with S (11 year old girl) and A (her 8 year old neighbor boy). They are the cutest kids ever. They came to Noche de Hogar on friday. Yesterday we were teaching them the 10 commandments and somehow we came up with a song and dance to go along with them to memorize and we were all just laughing hysterically. A thought it was especially funny when I couldn´t say the words right when we sang them fast. Good thing I got over being sensitive about my spanish a long time ago. :)

E, our cute little grandma recent convert, paid tithing for the first time yesterday. She is amazing. We´ll be visiting with her and she´ll say things like, "you need to teach me the hymns!" and "I need to pay tithing! How do I do it?" She is so faithful. The other day when we were with her, her granddaughter came over and we began to talk with her. She showed a lot of interest, and we are going to visit and teach her with E this next week!

A cute 16 year old girl named A, investigator of the elders, was baptized this week and hna Tovar and I were asked to give the talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost. She is a really great girl, and it was a lovely baptismal service. I shared one of my most favorite scriptures with her:

 2 And now, my son, I trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your ^asteadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that ^bendureth to the end.

The Lord finds great joy in us when we endure and continue looking to Him!

We had an awesome lesson with D this week. She is a young mom, really smart and curious about things. When we talk with her she pays such close attention, and the biggest thing is that unlike a lot of people we´ve taught she actually reads and prays! The only hard part is that she works like crazy. All the time. But we had a really powerful lesson with her. At one point we were testifying about the truthfulness of this church, as the true church of Jesus Christ. My companion turned to me after saying something, and D too. At that moment I had no idea what to say - I had just been listening closely. But I opened my mouth and the words began to come. I really felt like it wasn´t from me - her Father in heaven was speaking directly to her. I honestly can´t even remember what I said, but my companion said later that she felt it was perfect for her. The Lord really does help us in our weaknesses, He makes up for our inadequacies to bless His children. 

This is HIS work! There are so many more miracles and tender mercies that we see every day. The Lord is mindful of each one of His children, and is inviting us to come unto Him. It is the only way to find peace and happiness in this crazy world. 

I love you all!

Hermana Nelson

PERSONAL NOTES

Dad - Ahh I am so jealous of that snow! That looks amazing. I bet you wish for a little of my heat. :) I love that you and jake study PMG. You know what is my favorite part about the story of Enoch though? Before it all, before he becomes powerful and mighty in word, he too struggled with feelings of inadequacy - he didn´t feel like he could speak well enough. 

31 And when Enoch had heard these words, he ^abowed himself to the earth, before the Lord, and spake before the Lord, saying:^bWhy is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people ^chate me; for I am ^dslow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant?

 32 And the Lord said unto Enoch: Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy ^amouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good.

I feel the same way sometimes. But the Lord calls on the weak and simple, and He makes us strong! So awesome. Have fun on your trip this week! I haven´t gotten the package yet, hopefully soon.

Mom - You had weather similar to mine this weekend. :) sounds like fun! I´m trying not to think to much about the move though. But I´m glad you had a good weekend. And a happy birthday! I hope you know I thought of you all day and hoped you were being pampered. Love you tons!

Matt - Ahh, lovely San Fran. A few weeks ago I was talking with an elder who served as a visa waiter in san fran and it brought back all those fond memories of that awesome place. You are lucky to live there! love you! hope you have a great week too!

Angelica - I really love your insights. It´s so true what you´ve said about happiness - we are meant to be finding it along the way. And so true that good friends make all the difference! I feel that way about my companionships. It makes such a huge difference when you love each other and enjoy each oither´s company. I have been lucky to have awesome comps. 

Paige & Jared - Those boys! They are just too much! I can´t believe Brenner is so big already. I can´t wait to meet him. 

Jacob - lucky you to play in the snow! Sounds like fun. Are you still finding time to read in the midst of all those computer games? Hope so. REading is the best. Especially the scriptures. :) love ya!

Me with Brisa at her baptism!

Lovely Carmen de Patagones from the other side of the river

Meet Me Halfway

¡Hola Familia!

That´s right, this week I passed my halfway mark! I seriously can´t believe how fast the time is flying. It´s a little scary to think how fast the next 9 months will go. But there´s still so much to come and lots to learn! 

In honor of my halfway mark, we had lots of half - themed things this week. I´ll explain.

This weekend we had half a baptism! B, our cute little 8 year old was baptized. But due to unfortunate circumstances she couldn´t make it to church on sunday and so missed the second and equally important part - confirmation. My companion and I felt awful... it only added to the disappointment of seeing how few people came to church in general on sunday. It just makes me so sad when people choose to reject the things that are of most value and importance - the things of God. There will ALWAYS be obstacles, reasons not to obey, but when it all comes down to it if we have faith that the commandments are from a loving Heavenly Father we will make the small sacrifices to follow Him. Not all was lost though, because we went to visit B and her grandma later that day and she really is changing and turning her life around to come to church every sunday (the grandma that is).

We got halfway through our musical number with the elders at the baptism before laughing. They just could not keep the key and it sounded awful! Also... I may be a little to blame too because I accidentally said llorar (to cry) instead of orar (to pray) and that just killed my companion. Needless to say it was a great disaster, but so funny.

Anyways, it´s been an interesting week, and at times a little hard but the Lord always sends tender mercies to keep us going! We had a great english class this last friday, a ton of people came and we had a quiz and everything. We have more and more lunches with members every week which is awesome money-wise but not so much gaining weight-wise. Oh well. 

There is not a doubt in my mind that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. He is still guiding us, speaking with us to day. I feel so lucky to go out each day and share this good news! 

con amor,

Hermana Nelson

PERSONAL NOTES

dad- those jokes are killer! love it. I´m glad you guys remembered my halfway day. :) I am so jealous of all your snow! The heat just doesn´t stop here. The good part is that I´m more tan than I´ve ever been. But still whiter than everyone else! Hey guess what - Romans 8 is one of my favorites too and I read it just the other day. So good! 

mom - I can totally relate with the being humbled all the time thing. Thats me every day! Fortunately though humility is exactly what the Lord expects us to have, and allows us to become more dependant on him. Hey! HAPPY BIRTHDAY this week!!! I sent you a card a couple weeks ago and hopefully it will arrive soon. I love you and hope you have a great day! And have so much fun in phoenix!

Matt&Angelica - that girl of yours is just too cute. Way to make me trunky! I love it though. Thank you both for the awesome emails. I seriously love them. love you guys!

Paige & Jared - I can´t believe little Brenner is getting so old!!! ahh those boys. Tell Ryker I am looking forward to the pie he is sending. :) Tell them I love them! 

Jacob - How are you my brotha?? Whats the latest in your life? Love you!

¡Tengo Gozo en Mi Alma Hoy!

¡Hola Familia!

Okay, this has been my favorite week in Argentina so far! It has been such a wonderful week. First off, I am a little late emailing today because we went on an adventure this morning, a cute sister from our branch drove us down to the  riverside, we took tons of pictures (I´ll send em) and enjoyed the tranquility of the giant trees and the slow-moving river. It was so beautiful. 

Yesterday was the best sunday ever, because we had a record number of people in the church! (40) This week we really focused on reactivating our less active members and there were many who came this sunday. There was just a different spirit there, a spirit of excitement and activity. And so many more priesthood holders! It was so wonderful. And then our cute little investigator B (who´s going to get baptized this weekend!) went up and bore her testimony. It was the best thing - she talked about how God can´t be here with us but when we pray to him we are able to see Him. And then everyone started getting up after here and talked about how touched they were by the words of a child. It was awesome. 

Alright, here´s the best part. So there´s this family we´d been trying to start teaching, we´d met the kids (they have like 8 under the age of 13) but not the parents yet. Wednesday we finally sat down with the mom, G- she is only 27 years old, has all these little kids, but is actually married to her husband! That is no small thing. Anyways, we began to teach her the Restoration. Right as I was in the middle of Joseph Smith´s account of the first vision, she interrupts and goes, "I had an experience just like that once - when I was 11 years old one day I saw a man dressed in brilliant white, more white than anything I had ever seen, in the air, and he held a golden trumpet." She said this same man, an angel, had appeared to her a few times when she was having really hard times and he never said anything, but when he was there she felt overwhelmed with great peace and joy. My companion and I just looked at each other. Hna. Tovar pulled out her agenda, on which she has a picture of the Nauvoo temple, and said that the man she saw was the angel Moroni, who stands atop our temples. We read to her the account of Joseph Smith when Moroni appeared to him and his words matched her description exactly. Wow! She never thought that those experiences had had much meaning beyond bringing her peace when she needed it. But we testified to her that she had been prepared by God to recognize the truth when it came to her. Griselda is amazing and we are so excited to teach this family! She couldn´t make it to church this sunday, but sent her two oldest daughters to go with us and Brisa and they loved it.

Miracles are happening here in Carmen de Patagones! My companion and I were talking about when things really started turning around for us - and it was exactly when we made a commitment to consecrate ourselves more fully to the work and be more exactly obedient to the small things. It is so true that obedience brings blessings, and exact obedience brings miracles! 

We are continuing to form great relationships with the members here. I have really loved visiting with the less active members - hna Tovar and I have found the middle ground of giving them love and understanding, but also testifying with boldness of how things are and should be. It has led to some really great lessons and we feel like a great wave of reactivation is coming up. Hooray!!

This is truly the Lord´s work. I have no doubt of it. I am so grateful that I get to spend each day immersed in the gospel of Jesus Christ - because it is the only way to find peace and joy in this crazy world. 

Love you all!

Hermana Nelson

p.s. Today marks 2 months in Argentina :)

PERSONAL NOTES

dad- what a wonderful email! I´m gonna print it and study it more later. So I just finished reading Jesus the Christ (best book ever - so sad to finish it) and now decided to read the New Testament starting with Acts. I´ll have you know that I am so grateful for the love you´ve always shown for the NT! Also it makes me think of all the places we visited.

mom- what a crazy mailing situation! Hopefully i´ll get the package soon. I sure do miss some american foods! How is your new work going? Thank you mom as always for your love and prayers, I really do feel them and they are such a wonderful support!

Matt- That´s awesome your first baptism was also a little old lady! They are the best, truly. And I love that story about the rain miracle. There really is great power in fasting and prayer! Enjoy going to the temple as much as you can - I sure miss it here. 

Angelica - those videos you sent are killer! She is just too much. And no, I haven´t gotten the package yet, hopefully nothing happened to it and I get it soon! I hear the mailing to here is crazy. 

Paige - I just love how scholarly Keke is already - what a smart little boy. And rascally Rykie. I´ve told my companion all about my nephews. So true what you said about companions - and I feel so lucky to have had really great ones. It makes such a huge difference. Even when you get along though sometimes 24/7 is a lot of time together!! 

Jake- Lucky! I want a snow day. And lots more time to prepare your talk! That´s nice. I have just been working as usual, preachin the gospel and stuff. I have to talk to strangers all the time and that can be a little scary but the Lord gives me courage. I´m so glad you like Once Upon a Time! What a great show. I´ll watch it with you when I get home.



For our Noche de Hogar (FHE) activity we set up Lehi´s dream in the cultural hall and dressed up like angels to direct the people through it. The elders complained that we are just trying to top their activities (its true)

From our adventure this morning - we walked over the Rio Negro and took a bajillion pictures on the bridge. It was a beautiful morning!

with the awesome Hermana Tovar! I love her!!



Just some delicious desserts after Noche de Hogar - with Elders Arnes y Merenluoto, who we share the area with



...our silly dog, who really wants to live inside the house.

January 27, 2014

¡Hola Familia!

Wow! What a week it´s been. And the best part was... E´s baptism! Our cute little old lady made it all the way and was baptized and confirmed a member of the church this weekend. She passed her interview with flying colors, and apparently liked our district leader (who interviewed her) so much that she asked him to baptize her. The funny part is that he is ridiculously tall, and she is ridiculously tiny. So they made the best pair ever. You can see that in the pictures. It was an exciting baptism to say the least, a young girl that the elders of our branch have been teaching was baptized too right before E. So... the water levels may have been a little high for our tiny abuelita. She floundered a little on the way up (also made difficult by the fact that Elder Bench is 7 feet taller than her) but recovered well. Hermana Tovar and I laughed mostly because we were relieved she didn´t drown. Anyways, E is wonderful and we are so excited for her to begin this adventure as a member of the church!

We had some ups and downs this week, because we´ve been going through a bit of a weeding process with our investigators. We are really trying to focus on those who want to and will progress, those who truly have the desire to change. The low point of the week was when we found out that J didn´t want to continue with us. She wouldn´t answer the door or talk with us, just sent her friend to say it. I was pretty crushed - I had such hopes for her and knew that she needed the gospel. But I guess this isn´t her time. The Lord is still mindful of her however, and someday she will let it back into her life.

We´ve been really giving it our all this week, so we can find new investigators. I hit an all time record for lessons taught in one day on Thursday - 9 lessons! When we reported our numbers to Elder Bench that night he was flabbergasted. It was awesome, and we found a great new investigator named L! He is 21 years old and we contacted him in a park where he was practicing his soccer skills. I didn´t want to go contact him because he was listening to music and everything but with a little encouragement from my comp we began to talk with him and he invited us back for the next day! We had a great lesson, one of those where you just feel every word guided by the spirit. He was very receptive and we are hopeful for him.

Friday night the Noche de Hogar (FHE by the missionaries) was by the elders and we watched the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie. Even though I´ve seen it a million times before it really touched me. He, along with all the early saints, gave up so much for the gospel. The story of the restoration really is miraculous! When people thought the heavens were closed, that God was done speaking with His people, angels again visited man on earth and the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored! It is amazing. It reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures from the Doctrine and Covenants:

 19 Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of ^agladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of ^btruth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great ^cjoy. How beautiful upon the mountains are the ^dfeet of those that bring glad tidings of good things, and that say unto Zion: Behold, thy God reigneth! As the ^edews of Carmel, so shall the knowledge of God descend upon them!

I love you all, and I love the gospel. It is true! We are so blessed to have these things. I feel incredibly blessed to have a strong, faithful family who writes me words of comfort and happiness each week. Thank you!!!!!

love,

Hermana Nelson

PERSONAL NOTESç

Dad - sorry about the missed skiing opportunity! Sounds like the usual matterhorn near miss. It sounds like you are just a regular uppity international businessman. Maybe you could send me souvenirs sometime... ? haha. I am doing fine on money, I was short on the fund from the mission this week so I pulled some out of my card. We don´t often have meals by the members here so we have to buy a lot more food. Thank you! 

mom - so you got the job?? that´s awesome! Congrats! I´m hoping the hours won´t be too much though? Just making sure you´re not too stressed, the usual. I loved the email about the cold. Especially the part about Jake going to the bathroom right outside the door. I miss that doggy! 

Matt&Angelica - those pictures are amazing!!! I miss beautiful places like that. The summer after I get back I will come be your nanny so I can have some northern cali adventures too! Thanks for the emails guys! I love what you said about making time for the gospel matt. There are so many people here, less active members, who distanced themselves from the gospel because they are workaholics. It´s so sad how they´ve forgotten what matters most! So I´m glad you haven´t. :)

Paige & Jared - Hope all is well is the perfect tempuratures of southern cal! And that those little boys aren´t causing too much trouble. Send me some more pictures please. :)

Jake - haha good thing you´ve got some more time to prepare your talk! Perseverance? That´s a great topic. The story in Mosiah 24 that I sent you is a good example of that. The people´s problems weren´t solved right away, they had to continue working and having burdens. But the Lord strengthened them, until they could finally be delivered! Also my favorite scripture in the book of mormon, 2 Nephi 31:20, talks about persevering. It´s the only way to obtain eternal life!! Love you jake!

Here are some photos from the baptism!!

...and this is our pet dog, Bibi, with a kitty who visited us one day :)

P.S. 

I forgot this funny story -
S on sunday I was directing the music for our little branch and I started singing the sacrament hymn but realized that no one was singing along. This crazy guy in the back yells, ¨no one knows this song!¨ and I paused to look at the president and he just said, ¨sigue, hermana¨. (keep going). So I sang a solo for the sacrament hymn! I was super embarrassed but apparently played it off well because my companion said I looked super composed.

Just thought I´d let you know about the little adventures we have every day. Don´t worry, I´m writing them all down!

LOVE YOU!
Kenzie

Dog Days of Summer

¡Hola Familia!

What a great week it´s been. It´s been a hot one for sure, but the Lord has been blessing us so much. E, our investigator, is doing so well! Even though we still have things to teach her, and she hasn´t been able to read the Book of Mormon (waiting on a new pair of glasses) she already knows this is the true church. In our lesson yesterday she said it´s what she has been looking for, and the way she feels at church and in our lessons is peace and tranquility. So you know how normally I pretty much can´t understand anything she says? Well yesterday during the lesson all of the sudden I noticed that I was understanding her! I got all excited and was so sure I had received the gift of tongues when I realized that I could understand her because she was wearing dentures. Oh well! Looks like I´ll have to wait a little longer for the gift of tongues. And pray she keeps wearing dentures.

We found someone really special this week. We went to visit a less active lady, but she wasn´t home. Her neighbor, a young mother named J, was sitting outside and we started talking with her. She has had a terrible life with many trials, and is 26 with 4 children and no husband. She said she has wanted to go to church but was afraid to go by herself. We set up an appt to come back and teach in 2 days. In the meantime, she came to our fhe activity. We had the most amazing lesson with her. J said that because of the things she endured she wasn´t sure if God exists or loved her. We shared with her that evil and sadness will always exist in the world, but we can always find the good and there is the evidence of God´s love. I shared one of my favorite scriptures with her, that is found in John 16:33, spoken by Jesus Christ - 

33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have^apeace. In the ^bworld ye shall have ^ctribulation: but be of good^dcheer; I have ^eovercome the world.

We testified to her that through the power of Christ´s atonement, she could find healing and peace. He has established His doctrine and His church on the earth again so that we can have good cheer! She was so humbled and prepared to receive this message. It was a wonderful, powerful lesson. This gospel truly has the power to change lives.

We have had many great lessons this week, and B, our cute 8 year old, is preparing for the 8th. She and E came to church on sunday.

Our doggy friend Bibi is as faithful as ever and goes EVERYWHERE with us. It´s pretty cute even though we get lots of wierd looks. We thought she was our protector but its usually the other way around - we are always scaring off the dogs that try to chase her away. We´ve also been trying to teach her how to be a lady, good habits and to not chase cars.

This work is wonderful! We die of exhaustion every night, but it is the best kind of tired when you know its been in the service of the Lord and His children. I have learned so clearly that there is a lot of wickedness and sadness in the world, but this gospel, the message of Jesus Christ, is the light that will always win. It´s true!!!

I love you all!

Hermana Nelson

Dad - Sounds like you´ve been humbled by the release from the choir president gig. It was probably time though - we wouldn´t want all that power to go to your head. Sounds like fun in the snow over there! I´ve forgotten what it feels like to be cold... enjoy it for me. We need to do a ski trip the winter I get back! I really enjoyed what you said about Abraham. He is pretty incredible... I hope to someday have faith like him.

mom - Don´t worry mom, we make sure to wear sunscreen every day and find the shade to walk under! Also things are really picking up so we´ve been spending more time in houses. But I am enjoying being a little more tan than usual. Sorry about the job! I´m pretty sure you´ll find success soon though, what with those perfect grades and everything. I really am learning to trust in the Lord´s learning process. He knows best of course, but it does take a lot of faith sometimes. I´m starting to get the hang things more and more, and more confidence in speaking up. The other day in a contact I accidentally said "we are a message" instead of "we are missionaries sharing a message". Oh well. We just can´t be afraid of failure!!

Matt&Angelica - I just figured out I can watch videos on these computers! You should send some of skye so I can hear her voice. Hope all is well over there!! Love you guys! I think of you all the time and have told my comp about how awesome my siblings and their spouses are. 

Paige&Jared - thanks for the email jared!!! You were the only one of my siblings this week haha. I love hearing about the funny things your boys do. The other day all of the sudden I remembered how much I loved the times when we would be putting them to bed, and I would get to lie next to them and sing little songs and give them kisses. I have to not think about that too much though - that´s trunky stuff!

Jacob - how was skiing? I am a little jealous. Anyways, getting excited for your talk?? I absolutely love the scriptures, especially the book of Mormon. One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Nephi 4: 15,16, when Nephi talks about how "his soul delights" in the scriptures. We should feel the same way! I think one of the biggest things that we can learn from the scriptures is that all things are possible with God. Even though the good guys are sometimes smaller in number or strength, when they trust in the Lord they will always win! God can make us happy even when things are hard or seem hopeless. I love Mosiah 24:10-17. The Lord will always deliver His people!!  Love you Jake! Good luck!

Old Ladies and Doggy friends

¡Hola Familia!

What a week it´s been. Despite battling some minor illnesses (that heat and sun is a killer) it´s been a great week full of lessons and tender mercies. The Lord is blessing us for sure. The biggest news is that we passed transfers and both me and hna. Tovar are staying in Carmen de Patagones!!! Woohoo! By the end of this transfer it´ll be the longest I´ve every stayed in one area. Also, I passed my 8 month mark. Crazy.

Given my companion´s penchant for contacting old ladies, we picked up a new investigatore named Icade who looks a lot like out other old lady investigator, E. I is a really sweet lady and is working towards a baptismal goal of february 8th! One of the miracles we had this week happened with her. So I was pretty dehydrated and not feeling too good wednesday, so we spent  a lot of the day at home. But we had an appt with Icade at 7 and I knew we had to go. So we set out and found her at home, and not too far into the lesson her daughter AND her son came over - they are both middle -aged ish with families and happened to stop by their mom´s house that night. We taught the Restoration to all of them, and it was a wonderful lesson. The son, Dario, was especially interested and listened so intently the whole time. We set a time to come and visit his family this week! We made the effort to go out and work and in one hour we had a great lesson and found 2 new investigators.

We went to visit our investigator A, who had kind of dropped us a while ago, just to see where she was at and have a final desicive lesson. We found her visiting with a friend and we sat and talked with them for a while, eventually making our way to talk about the restoration. A is still pretty set in her ideas, but it was a great experience and her sweet friend, M (another cute old lady) loved us and we are going to teach her too! 

We made a new friend this week. His name was b until we realized she was a girl, and changed her name to b. She sleeps outside our house and likes to go running with us in the morning, and saturday went proselyting with us all day. Normally I really don´t like the dogs here (there are SO MANY STRAYS) but she´s a cute one.

I should mention one of the tender mercies. It may sound silly but it meant a lot to us! So yesterday we had a lesson with I, and really wanted to show the Restoration DVD to help her understand what happened a little better. First we couldn´t get the player to work, and then the plug wasn´t long enough but she found an extention, and then it started playing but was in english. And there was no controller. My companion and I were both praying so hard, then she pressed stop and then play again. All of the sudden it was in spanish! We nearly cried. But then it started skipping. We prayed harder. A few minutes later it started running perfectly. It was such a tender mercy and it allowed us to really invite the spirit and then invite her to be baptized!!!

The Lord is with us. One of my favorite scriptures in Doctrine and Covenants is in section 84:88:

And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.

This is His work! We are never alone.

I love you all,

Hermana Nelson

PERSONAL NOTES

Dad - Jack almost died??? Ahh!! I dont know what I would do if he did. What a crazy story. I love your new years resolutions. And tell Haley I say congrats and I can´t wait to speak spanish with her!!! What an awesome thing. Have fun on your trips!

Mom - I am so glad you are relaxing! And watching some house hunters international I hope? Also, that subject line was super funny. It´s funny that the cheerfulness thing came from me because that was always something you were telling me I needed to work on. And I still am! Sometimes I am too hard on myself and my comp finally told me to stop expecting so much of myself and recognize instead the successes. She is a great example to me. So working on that!

Matt- I love the scripture about leaning not to your own understanding. That´s something I´ve had to work on a lot here! It was great to talk to you too on christmas, I´d forgotten a little how funny you are. You´ve been weird since the day I was born!

Angelica - Thanks for the lovely email! It´s so good to be reminded not to wait to be happy until the next thing. Sometimes I think that all my problems will be solved when I get home, when things get hard. But then I miss all the wonderful things happening here! I LOVE those pics of Skye! She is so beautiful. What a fun life you three have. Also, I havent gotten a package yet, was it sent to here?

Paige - Thanks for the email!!!! Oh my goodness and that video. Your boys are too much. I had so much fun with you guys last year. And I totally understand about crying about the house... I did the same thing. Fortunately we have awesome memories, and are still all together. We are such a blessed family. 

Jared - Thanks for the email! Oh wait. You didnt send me an email. :) jaja.

Jake - Are you guys getting some good snow at least for sledding? We´ve made some good sled runs at our house! Are you taking piano lessons? Good luck on your talk!!! That is so awesome. The scriptures are the best. :)

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

¡Hola familia! And happy new year!!

This was a great week. New year was definitely more low key than usual, we didn´t have a dinner appt so we searched high and low to find non-acoholic apple cider (or any kind of fancy drink) because that was my one request. It was delicious. If I thought the fireworks were loud christmas eve, they were nothing compared to new years eve! It was crazy loud and we may have peaked outside for a bit to watch all of them exploding overhead. It was a really neat moment - just to realize that I was in Argentina, the tiny little town of Carmen de Patagones, celebrating the end of a year and the beginning of a new one. As a missionary!! It´ll be something I remember forever.

Our cute old lady investigator, Elena, is still doing really well. We went over to her house the other day to help her make empanadas. She is so cute and willing to learn! We love her. (even though I pretty much don´t understand 80% of what she says)

We found Graciela this week, who is a really interesting older lady who loves to talk (but then again, who doesn´t love to talk here?) and we had a good lesson. The best part though was when she gave us two steaming hot cups of tea. My companion had thought she was talking about an herbal kind when she asked... so there we were, trying to figure out how to not break the word of wisdom. Our opportunity came when she left the room for a minute to help her little granddaughter. My companion goes, "hurry! Give me your cup!" and she dumps the contents of the cups in the sink. When she came back in we were sitting there calmly pretending to sip tea from the cups. I nearly died laughing when my companion "finished off" her cup and set it back down.

Friday was my one month in Argentina mark! I can hardly believe it. Yet I am definitely feeling more comfortable with the way things work and the language. We taught a Noche de Hogar (family home evening) at the church, all investigators/members are invited and the missionaries teach a lesson. I struggled a bit but when all else fails I just bear my testimony!

We got a new elder in our branch this week, and he´s a gringo too! So I don´t feel so alone in my language struggles. 

It´s been so great. We have ups and downs, but the Lord always sends tender mercies. I especially love my personal study time - I always learn so much from the scriptures. This week I was reading my "lema" or motto, a scripture in D&C that I have loved throughout my mission. And I want to share it with you! (sorry if I missed a word, quoted from memory)

"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power, then may we stand still with the utmost assurance to see the salvation of God and for His arm to be revealed." 

This is the Lord´s work! All He asks is that we do our best, and remember to find cheer and joy in the journey. He loves each one of us!!

Hermana Nelson

PERSONAL NOTES

*Can I ask a favor of you all? I am in sad need of hard copy photos. Of everyone!! Old or new. So if you could send me some I would love it!!!

Dad- love the pictures!!! those decorations are the best thing. I also really loved your resolution about not stressing. I think I´ll do that too. :) Sounds like a wonderful holiday time you guys had, and everyone is so beautiful! Now what trips are coming up for you?

Mom - perfect grades??? Wow! I am so impressed. Not that I´m surprised though. Thank you for your spanish too, also impressive. ;) There are some other blondes, people descended from germany, but not many. And keep me updated on info helping my comp with byu!! She is so grateful.

Matt&Angelica - I love your missionary resolutions angelica!! You are gonna see miracles and wonderful things. THere is nothing like the joy that comes from sharing your testimony. Also, Skye is the most spoiled little girl ever!! haha.

Paige&Jared - Keke especially looks so huge!!! I love it. How is the apt job going? Whats the weather like there right now? One year ago exactly I was living with you guys!!!

Jake - Thanks for the awesome email! I am so glad you had a great christmas. You are the best little brother ever (except not so little anymore!!) and are learning and growing so much. Dont forget to read your scriptures and pray every day!!! Love you!