December 29, 2014

Hola hooooola :) It was super fun talking to you guys on Christmas! I'm glad you had a fun day and finally got some snow! We're definitely wishing that we could go sledding! But we have the sun instead ;) I'm glad you liked my cat story too hahhaha I really liked your story too! That's hilarious! Dulong and I were reading it here in the library and just cracking up! You need to tell me more of your mission stories! 

Our Christmas here was really good! Christmas Eve we spent with a couple of families, had a devotional with a few different zones, and then played sports at the church with elders. It was really weird basically having two days in a row off! But it was nice and relaxing! It was a really special Christmas to really focus on the Savior as we were just there in our little apartment and as we were sharing it with other families. It's the best when we can brighten people's days and bring the spirit into their homes.

This was a pretty good week! It was kind of hard to meet with people because of Christmas and all, but we were able to find some new people! We also dropped some people too though. Finding the elect! We found the Flores family this week, Grandpa Jorge, Gustavo, Gabriela and their 3 kids ages 1, 2, and 3. As you can imagine, our lessons with them are a little crazy at times, but really good. We were able to have a really powerful lesson with Jorge about the atonement and coming to church. They're all been looking for a church and really wanted to come. We actually had a lot of people this week telling us that they were going to come, so we were super pumped then the day came, and nothing :( so all of sacrament meeting we were pretty bummed. Then we taught primary, and as we were putting the chalk back afterwards, we turn around and see Jorge!!!! We were SHOCKED! He said he was a little late but that he sat in the back and just got finished with the 1st class! I have no idea how we missed him coming in! But he loved it! Oh man I can't even explain how excited we were! After church he said he really liked it and is planning on coming next week and bringing the whole family! WOO! I'm really excited about him! 

Alexandra (the Torres's daughter) is actually getting baptized this week! Yay! She's super cute! Yesterday at church she pulled out her Book of Mormon and said that she had been reading it. So awesome :) We also found Esmerelda who is a young mom that is moving here this week and said she's looking for a church and wants her kids to know God. uhh... PERFECT! So we're going to help her move in this week and they'll come to church Sunday! The area is still a little slow, but I think it's starting to pick up a little! Blessings from on high! :) Well hope you have a great week! Love you! 

Hermana Nelson :) 

Oh and I have a lot of pics today!  

Christmas Eve Devotional Dinner

PJs From Hermana Barraza

Kylee's Stocking

Christmas Morning!

Shirts From Luna

Christmas Lunch

December 22, 2014

FELIZ NAVIDAD! Woo woo! haha I'm glad you liked the Christmas card! We had a pretty fun time with it ;) Right?? Dulong and I still have moments when we're like, "wait, we're together again??" It's been really good though! This area doesn't have a whole lot going on right now, but we're going to work really hard and get things going again! Yeah I know the Elders will take care of them! I talked to the elders last night and they said they're doing well and is on date for baptism in January! So excited for them :) So we'll be skyping at 3pm your time on Christmas! YAY! I'm so excited :) 

So we have a couple of people here that we're working with. First Veronica, she was on date for the end of the month, but told us that she's not ready and isn't sure about things anymore. She also might be going to Mexico soon... so we're not really sure what's going to happen there! 

Eziquiel is pretty new, we haven't really taught him anything yet cause he keeps cancelling our appointments, but he came to the Christmas party on Friday and loved it! (yes I got to go to another Christmas party!) All the members were great with him, we had a church tour with him and you could just tell he loved every bit of it! He told us he just really wanted to come to the services on Sunday to see what it was all about! We thought for sure he was coming, but he didn't :( and we have no idea why! So hopefully things will pick up with him this week! 

One of the members brought a friend with them to the Christmas party, and so we're starting to teach him! His name is Jesus and he's really cool! He was taught by missionaries before, but has a bad drinking problem, so hopefully we can have a miracle with that! And he came to church Sunday! yay! But unfortunately he's out of town all week for Christmas so we can't see him :( but he said he'll be coming to church again!

We also had a cool little miracle yesterday! The Elders in the ward had a baptism yesterday, so after when we left, we got a call from Bishop asking us where we were and to come back because the daughter in Torres family wants to get baptized next week! So of course we rushed over and talked to them about it! The Torres family has been less-active for a while and has just started coming back the last couple of months, then they came to the baptism and the daughter decided she wants to be baptized too! But she's 8 1/2 so it's still a stake baptism, but we're still going to teach her since she doesn't really know much since they've been less active. So we're teaching her everything this week and she's getting baptized this Sunday! So that was super cool! We're really excited to be apart of this little miracle :) 

Also, funny little story for the week: we were at a potential investigators house, we knocked on the door and they didn't answer, but everyone here has like storm doors that are really hard to see through, but they are hard to knock on, so usually you try and open it and then knock on the real door. So anyway, Sis. Dulong goes to open the storm door, and turns out the real door was open too, so she just opens the door and right then out of no where a cat runs in their house!!! HAHAHA I was DYING! So just hurries and closes the door! Not kidding it happened all in like 3 seconds! So then they came and answered the door cause a cat was just chillin in their house! hahah it was hilarious! Well hope you have a great Christmas! Excited to talk to you this week! Love you :) 

Hermana Nelson

Saying Goodbye to Hermana Graham!

Kylee's Little Tree

December 15, 2014

Happy transfer weekend! Oh goodness it's been so crazy lately! We were effected big time. I got a call from President Mullen Saturday morning. I'm going to be a sister training leader in Riverside! So that's crazy! I'm really nervous! And if you think that's crazy enough, guess who my comp is? Hermana Dulong! We're so pumped! That takes a HUGE stress off! I'm really excited to be with her again and serving in Riverside! But, I'm soo sad to be leaving Corona! I love it here! AND! Our area is closing :( Hna. Glenn is going to Hemet and Elders are taking over our area. Well actually we split our area in half with the elders. 

It was really hard saying goodbye to everyone yesterday! So bittersweet! Our area is finally doing better, and now both of us are leaving :( we did not expect that! And! Oh man the worst part was saying goodbye to the Silvestre family last night! We were all crying, and they're just confused! They came to church again and are really progressing! This family seriously has my heart! It was the worst last night! But I told them that I'm going to come back from their baptism and when they go through the temple and they said, "well of course!" The Elders taking over will be really good, but it's still scary! On the way home, Raul (the dad) called us and said that Omar (the 8 year old) was crying, and if we could talk to him on the phone for a second. Holy cow! He was bawling and saying how much he is going to miss us and how much he loves us. :'( Sooo sad. But we told him we're going to write letters back and forth and he has to beat the Elders in basketball, so he liked those ideas. 

This week I've really been trying to be led by the spirit, and teach with power& authority. I had a cool experience where I was led to this guy, we started talking, and he said he could just see and feel the difference of something and he didn't know what it was. He said that he has had the worst day and he was praying asking where God was, then we walked up. He said he just felt calm and better when we were there and wants to know what it is and how he can get it. He's really cool! He's coming to church, and unfortunately didn't end up being in our area, but the Elders are teaching him! It still blows my mind all the time on how the spirit works. I love it! We also did a service project this week where we did tours and sold ornaments at basically a "Festival of Trees" type thing. It was really fun! And it was such the opposite of what I've been in lately! We were in this huge mansion, all these fancy trees everyone, and everyone there is just so rich! I just started thinking about all my cute little spanish friends that don't even have a Christmas tree and it just made me so sad! I've had a couple of little kids tell me that they think they're just not celebrating Christmas this year, but it's okay, cause sometimes that happens. SO SAD! We are all so fortunate in all we have! I think all of us can do a little more, give a little more, and be a little bit better. So that's my challenge this week! Help someone out :)  Well have a great week! Love you :) 

Hermana Nelson :) 

December 8, 2014

Heey! :) I'm glad you guys liked the pictures, I have a bunch more to send out today too! Haha no worries we haven't had transfers yet! This week! So we will see! I'm guessing I'm leaving, but that's what I thought last time, so who knows! Anything could happen! Yes I did get the package, thanks so much! We're excited to start opening everything! 

I know! We really built that relationship with Monica, and we had another really good lesson with her this week, but she didn't come to church again! When she said that she was! So we don't know... we think we might be dropping her, cause she hasn't really been reading either :( but this week was actually the best week of the transfer! We finally have a teaching pool, even though we're not sure how solid everyone is yet! We picked up a lot of new people, and had a lot of great lessons! AND! Guess what! It rained for pretty much 2 days straight! It was crazy! At first we were thinking it was going to be awful, but it was actually so great! We just had our little boots and jacket on with our umbrellas :) And since everyone here in California considers this basically a blizzard, everyone stays home, so everyone was home and let us in! It was awesome! I loved it! 

Time for the miracle: THE SILVESTRE FAMILY CAME TO CHURCH!!!!! Ah it was the best thing ever! All 5 of them! It went so great! The ward did awesome! Everyone was coming up, talking to them, and inviting them to all this stuff. AND! They already knew like 4 different members there! So that was awesome! The kids really liked primary and young womens, and the parents liked it as well! I'm really excited for them! They're still very fragile, cause they're SO catholic, but they came, and they liked it, so hopefully they'll just keep coming, praying and reading! For sure keep them in your prayers! They're such a cute family and totally act like they're already members. 

Another cool thing that happened this week: we were trying to see a former, and they didn't live there, but we felt like we still needed to be on that street for some reason, so we were looking around and decided to try this orange house (yes i know, orange haha) and the lady there let us come back, we had a really good lesson with her, and we put her on date! Super cool! Her name is Adriana, and unfortunately she couldn't come to church this week, but she should be coming this week! 

Hope everything is going well at home :) Love you mucho! 

Hermana Nelson 

ps what in the world I've been out a whole year! Where does the time go??

Decorating For Christmas!

Rainy Day!

Rainy Day!

December 1, 2014

Heyyyy! Sounds like you guys had a great Thanksgiving! We did as well, but you're right, I did miss my banana cream pie ;) Gloria invited us over for lunch, but when we got there was not done! So basically we cooked it because she still had to shower and get ready haha Hna. Glenn and I realized we know more about cooking then we thought we did! So we ended up being there for like 3 hours... and then it ended up being more like dinner. But it was really good. It made Gloria's day! Her family is a little crazy, so it was basically just us! However, right after that we had dinner with the Ortiz family. Oh my goodness. I thought I was going to die. I was already full, and I had to do it again! There were moments when I was like, "oh man, I'm not going to make it" haha but luckily I kept it all down! Hna. Glenn and I got in the car after and just wanted to die haha SO MUCH FOOD! But it was all really good! Then all the missionaries in Corona went to the Stake center for the night and we played soccer! I had to sit out the first game til my stomach settled though haha but it was a really good day!

Thanks for the Thanksgiving package! We ended up making the cookies with Monica and her kids and they loved it! I'll send a picture! They're so cute! It was fun, and then we were able to teach their whole family. But they didn't come to church again :( We were super sad! If they don't start really progressing soon, then we might have to drop them. Same with Gloria. She is the hardest person to teach! I love her to death, but she just gets so distracted and doesn't understand anything. She did come to church though! This transfer has just been so hard investigator wise. We are trying sooo hard and nothing is really coming from it. I know there are people ready here, it's just a matter of finding them! So we're just going to keep trying our best!

I am really excited about the new little video the church came out with for Christmas! If you haven't seen it yet, go see it! "He is the Gift"christmas.mormon.org and share it all over sociall media and with everyone! It's super good! I love it! We had a training on it with President Mullen this week on using it with everyone, so I think it will help us find some good people! The church is putting a lot into it! It's going to be on Time Square, it's going to be on the youtube home page, it's going everywhere! In the Ensigns it has 9 cards with the website on it, so make sure you pass them out to people :) It's a great way to feel the true meaning of Christmas. This is the special time of year that we can really focus on the Savior and give and serve to others as he would do. That's so awesome that you are studying the Gospels! Right? It's crazy how much more we can learn from it! You'll have to share with me some of your insights :) Well hope you have a great week! Love you: )

Hermana Nelson

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Making the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Mom Sent!