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!

December 30, 2013

christmas morning!

A fancy christmas breakfast - and you can see the milk that comes in bags!

walking to lunch with the Gira´s! The only christmas ever when I will get a sunburn.

in front of Presidente Gira´s house - we were also joined by another hermano in the branch

¡Hola Familia! Y Feliz Navidad!

It has been a great christmas week in Carmen de Patagones. It was definitely the most unique christmas I´ve ever had, but awesome. Christmas eve was a usual day, we taught some lessons and then had dinner with the M family. They are the sweetest and made us delicious carne y pollo asada. That night we got home pretty late so we just went to bed, but once there I read the christmas story in Luke 2 out loud by the light of a flashlight. All of the sudden it struck me how this is as close as I could get to what it really was like - quiet, unannounced, in a humble little town. The words had greater weight and significance for me than ever before.

We woke up, put on some christmas music, and opened a few little gifts. I had some I´d saved from my family (thanks mom and dad!!) and my companion´s gifts hadn´t come yet but she had a little something from me. We sat and talked about christmas memories and things we´ve learned on our missions, and had a fancy christmas breakfast of cereal and milk. Christmas day consisted of a lovely lunch with the familia G who we love, skyping with family (so fun!!! but it´s taken us a while to recover from the subsequent trunkiness) and making little gifts. That night we went over to a less active family, just a mom with 6 kids and they´ve had a really rough time. We brought little gifts for each one of them. It was the greatest thing just to see the looks on their faces and huge smiles - they were small things but brought such joy. It was the greatest gift for me!

We´ve also had some great lessons this week. We met again with N and E, the young mom and her mother, and once again the spirit was so strong. We met the dad, he is also awesome and we have a really good feeling about the whole family. They are reading and praying and we can´t wait to meet with them again!

We met again with E who is the cutest old lady. We were teaching her when her brother came in, T. He´s had some rough times and has a lot of questions but we had a really powerful lesson with them both and committed them to read and come to church. T didn´t make it, but E did and she loved it!! She said we can plan on seeing her there every sunday. :)

I´ve learned a lot this week. There´s been ups and downs for sure, but we press forward. The other day I had a really powerful learning experience during personal study. I felt prompted to study about humility. I realized that some of the feelings I´d been having had come from pride - my frustrations with the language and all the new things. What I was taught that morning is that when we are humble, we recognize our need for the Lord´s constant help. When that happens, when we humble ourselves, there are amazing blessings (read Mosiah 4:12). We are able to feel the love of our Heavenly Father! So I´ve been working on humility. And it´s been helping me to find joy in the work.

The church is true! This is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. 

I love you all!

Hermana Nelson

Christmas Miracles

Hola Familia!!

It´s been a wonderful week. There´s been lots of fun, lots of sweating, and lots of spanish. Ánd we´ve found some awesome new investigators. Tuesday we were just knocking doors and stopped at one where the window was open. We said hello, introduced ourselves, and the lady inside didn´t say much but opened the door to let us in. We started talking and she is a very religious lady who has a lot of faith. We jumped right into the message of the restoration and she seemed to really enjoy it - and then accepted a baptismal date! Her name is A, she´s about 60 and has some rough experiences lately. But she has found great strength in God and in the bible. Yesterday she came to church!!

Wednesday all four of us missionaries went over to Presidente & Hermana Gira´s cute little house by the river to do service. We helped clear out their yard and cut grass, but only about 30 minutes into it Hermana Gira called us (the hermanas) in to help her make gnocchi´s. It was so fun and they were delicious!!

Thursday evening, at around 10 pm, we got on the bus along with the rest of our zone to head up to Bahia Blanca for the mission christmas conference! It was about a 4 hour drive and we tried to sleep but were pretty dead when we got in at 2 in the morning. The perk of being the only hermanas in the zone is when the APs came to the terminal they picked us up to take us to our place and the elders were left to fend for themselves. We stayed with the hermanas who serve in the area by the mission office. It was such a great day!! We started off splitting into two groups, and going to sing. My group went to a assisted living home for those with severe special needs run by some nuns. It was the cutest place. Also this guy played a few amazing guitar songs for us - imagine gypsy kings live. It was awesome, and such a cool ambiance, sitting there in a courtyard. And to feel of the innocent spirits of those people! Afterwards we met up with the rest of the missionaries and went to sing in the main plaza/park of Bahia Blanca. It was surrounded by really amazing old buildings, and we had people taking pictures and people from the local news. In that moment I was so happy to be here, experiencing Christmas Argentina style. I also made some new friends - a couple of hermanas standing next to me who had been visa waiters too and gave me some good advice. I also saw Hermana Hadley, my mtc hermana, and some of the hermanas and elders that I entered the mission with.

Afterwards they decorated the cultural hall in the mission office so beautifully and we had a christmas lunch, complete with motab christmas music in the backround. Then we had a talent show - there were funny skits, beautiful musical numbers, and even a dance. Then was the best part - President Parreno gave a devotional and spoke on the central message of christmas - LOVE! Jesus Christ descended below it all and came to earth because He loves us. And so this christmas we need to share the message of love. And then surprise, we all got letters from our parents!! That was my favorite part.

We got home late late that night. But something changed for me. As of saturday, my confidence is a little more back! I´ve been praying so hard to get into the work here, to love it and to have courage to open my mouth. And its happening. Yesterday we had the most amazing lesson just randomly with this cute young mom and her mother. The spirit was incredibly strong and for the first time I testified without feeling like the language was blocking me. It was amazing and felt so good. Each day gets better and better and with time I am coming to love this mission.

well, Feliz Navidad everyone! I hope its wonderful! Enjoy the cooler weather for me, it´s pretty hot down here. :)

Hermana Nelson

Personal notes

dad: Snow! Lucky!! Utah sounds fun. I shoulda had you visit my friends. Oh well. I´m glad you guys had a great time there. Thanks for the letter! I loved hearing about christmas in italy. Here I think it might be a little more worldly but we´ll see. 

mom: hooray for finishing school!! And vacations. It sounds like you guys are having a great time. I cant wait to skype! The area is a small town, it´s got a hoppin little centro but for the most part its small houses, all squished up next to each other. There are a lot of dirt roads. We walk a TON. There´s only one pair of shoes that works for the walking and they won´t live too long at this rate. :) I´ll tell you more about it tomorrow.

Matt&Angelica: It´s been a while since I´ve gotten a Skye picture!! Also will you guys be with mom and dad for christmas? I hope to see you on skype.

Paige&Jared: I LOVE those pictures! Your boys are adorable. Rykie especially looks super grown up. And Jared looks super skinny! haha.

Jake: Jake!!! Too busy having fun to write me?? How was good ol utah?

Firsts

Hola Familia!!

What a week it´s been. There´s a card that I got from my family that I have up on my wall - the front says "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone". Well I´ve been at the end of my comfort zone maybe a million times this week! But it´s cool to see how its pushing me to become better, stronger, and (eventually) more like my Savior.

So, as the title states, there were lots of firsts this week. Here ya go:

- First huge spider experience. My companion was in the bathroom and all the sudden I heard her scream. She runs out yelling about a spider. I grabbed a flip flop, peeked around the corner of the door, and decided that my bulky running shoes would be a better option. It was massive! But I conquered my fears and smashed it. Then my companion smashed it a couple more times just to make sure it was really dead.

- First time teaching a gospel principles class in spanish. We also have a Noche de Hogar (family home evening) every friday with a few members of the branch and we taught that too. It´s a real challenge to focus on following the spirit rather than the language but both ended up going really well!

- First real lesson on the restoration with a new investigator! An appt fell through so we were just knocking on doors. This young mom opened up, let us in her home and we taught her! It was awesome and she was so receptive. She commited to read the intro to the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We haven´t met with her again yet but are very hopeful.

- First big miracle. Well, miracles happen all the time. But this was a big one. So we met this cute young 17 year old girl on the street and she wanted to meet with us, but every time we went to her house no one answered. We were walking back from the chapel and there she was, walking home just about to get there. She was glad to see us, and we went in and met her mom. They both were so awesome - the mom is catholic but doesn´t practice, and they have had some spiritual experiences lately in connection with their grandma passing away. Pierina, the girl, was especially so receptive. We found out that the reason they never answer is because there house is actually far from the place where the door is, so they pretty much never are able to answer it. The only way we were able to get in with them is because we happened to be right where Pierina was! Awesome.

- First time eating way too much food. And it wasn´t the only time for long. We ate with presidente and hermana Gira again at their cute house, and they fed us milanesa and delicious bread. Presidente kept saying how little we ate and made me eat more. His reasoning is that I´m so tall that there´s lots of room to fit it. I hear that a lot here! Everyone thinks I´m super tall. :) Fortunately the food is super delicious. And the stomach aches have been minimal. My compa likes to make food for us and she is an awesome cook. One day she made us empanadas - which are the best thing ever!!

- First time playing the piano for sacrament meeting. That´s right. I´m gonna get a big fat "I told you so!" from my dad. There were so many times he said I would regret not being able to play better because one day I´ll be serving in a tiny little branch where no one will be able to play the piano and they´ll expect me to. And that´s exactly what happened. :) It was an adventure for sure, I played a super basic version of the hymns but it ended up alright. Now to practice for next sunday...

So lots to learn! Sometimes I get discouraged about the differences and the language but there are wonderful things that pick me back up.

Yesterday I was getting kinda down on myself, missing utah, feeling sad about not being able to understand people, and my companion was so patient and kind and said everything I needed to hear. But what really changed me was when later that night we went to visit Hermano and hermana A, who had just lost a son. They expressed their great sorrow and grief, and he cried. But I was so touched as they demonstrated such great faith and trust in the Lord and his plan. They were clinging to the gospel, and finding strength through the Savior. He shared a poem with us, the one that President Monson quoted in his last talk, about "the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees". It speaks of how the Lord is molding us, and greatness and strength comes only through test and trial. We went to comfort them but I came away comforted.

I have a testimony that the Lord answers prayers. I have a testimony that there is a reason for everything, and that one day all will make sense and we will see the bigger picture that the Lord sees. I have a testimony that Heavenly Father loves us and knows us perfectly! Some days are hard. But when we choose to become better from it and not bitter, we are choosing to become more like the Savior.

I love you all, and miss you! Have a wonderful almost-christmas week.

Hermana Nelson

Dad - I am a little jealous of your snow. It most definitely doesn´t feel like christmas in this heat :) I loved the story of your experience sharing your testimony! That´s awesome. Nothing feels better, especially when the people you share it with are important to you.

mom - Guess what!! I got a tan this week. That was another first. And not a sunburn-first tan, a real tan. That was big news too. :) So glad to hear you´re done with school! Now you better relax.

matt&Angelica - What´s the latest in good ol cali? Hows my favorite neice?

Paige&Jared - Send me some more pictures of your boys!! I miss them. I hope they like the christmas present I got them. And congrats JAred on the marathon! Thats sweet.

Jake - sorry about all the homework! Good thing you´re so smart. Are you still reading a lot?