January 26, 2015

Hooooola! Holy cow! Ready for this? I'm being transferred today!!!! Biggest shock ever! I was completely blindsided! We thought for sure I was staying and Hna. Dulong was leaving, but nope! Dulong is staying here training the new sister that's coming in and I'm leaving to Jurupa to be comps with Hna. Santoyo! I'll still be an STL just in that area! Jurupa used to be a part of Riverside, but in the last like 10 years or so it became it's own city, so it's super close, and I'm actually still going to be living in Riverside. Which will be really weird cause I'll be driving past the Sixto's like everyday! I'm soooo sad to be leaving! Only 6 weeks here! It's crazy! And the area is finally doing so good! :( I'm not ready to leave, but I know the Lord has other plans for me! I just keep thinking of the song, "I'll go where you want me to go." It's been a hard one to swallow saying goodbye to everyone, but I'm excited to go to Jurupa. It's hopping over there right now! There's going to be 6 sister missionaries and 2 elders in the ward!!! Crazy right? It's going to be so weird! But I'm super excited cause Hna. Carlson is coming to this ward too, so we're going to be together like all the time! So we're excited :) And I love Santoyo. She's from Mexico city and she's hilarious! So it will be fun and my spanish will get even better!

BUT! I was able to end on the best note ever yesterday! JORGE GOT BAPTIZED! Aw it was the best :) I love him! He's soooo good. I'm so excited to see all the great things he's going to do in this ward! And it was his birthday yesterday :) He just loved it. He's changed so much! It's so amazing the change that happens through the atonement. It's incredible. And the visible change you can see in their face as these people have made these changes and come closer to their Savior. Jorge's son Angel was able to come to his baptism too, which just made him so happy! It was great :) But oh man! Saying goodbye to him was awfulllllll. We were both crying. He just didn't understand that even though I'm going to be so close I can't come and see him, or even call him. But I told him we can right letters so he's really happy about that! Maaan. Bittersweet moments! But he's excited to come visit us in Utah and he's going to go through the temple in a year so we'll be coming back for that :) 

Everyone else is doing really well too! The Sixtos accpeted a baptism date for the end of Feburary!!! We are so excited for them! The parents are still a little shakey on a couple of things. but the kids are awesome! So I went by last night to say goodbye to them and the same thing that they can't believe we can't really have communication. But I told them I'll be coming back for their baptism :) 

We also picked up a new investigator this week named Benny, who has problems with drugs, but really wants to change. We had a really good church tour with him where the spirit was really strong. He's also on date for the end of February! He needs a lot of work, but he has a good heart and has a lot of potential! 

Sara wasn't able to come to church this week, but will next week! She's also been hard to meet with this week, but this week will be better for them. 

I'm also missing Alexandra's baptism on Saturday :( but I might ask to see if I can come back for that, so we'll see! Maybe! 

Well I think that's about it! Just lots of goodbyes! Another chapter of the mission is ending and another beginning! Have a great week! Love you :) 

Hermana Nelson :) 

Oh and to answer your question, the exchanges that we go on are just 24 hours! We also had another one this week, and an english sister came here with me, and she loved spanish land! But I mean, who wouldn't? It's great :) 

Hermana Cortez

Hermana Barraza and Gabriel

Maria

The Cifuentes

Jorge's Baptism

Jorge's Baptism

The Sixto's

The Gutierrez's (The Ward Mission Leader and His Family)

January 19, 2015

Hey! Happy Martin Luther King day (we just barely found out about that) and anniversary! Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun! I'm jealous! I can't believe the fire alarm went off though! That's hilarious! hahah yep I can still taste the cricket. We made the elders eat some too and it was so funny. 

So this week was awesome!!!! Best news first: Jorge passed his interview and is for sure getting baptized next week!! Yay!! We're so excited! And so is he :) He's just the cutest little old man :) Yesterday at church when we were leaving ward council, I turn around and see him sitting there reading his scriptures! He got to church like an hour early just to read :) He has progressed so much so quickly it's amazing! He told of of the members, "They knocked on my door, and the spirit knocked on my heart." Probably the best quote ever. He's great! His family is still pretty spotty, but we're going to be working with them! We're excited for them to come to his baptism since the spirit is always so strong. 

We also had a few lessons with Guadelupe and her cute family. Her husband is a member and his whole family are members. She really wants to get baptized, but they're not married so she can't, and they want to get married but somthing about that there's like a new law coming out in May that they can get papers, but they can't get married til after that? We're not really sure. It's really complicated, so we're going to see what we can do about that. 

The Sixtos are doing pretty good! They're sloooowly progressing, but still progressing! They still won't accept a baptism date, but they did read in the BOM finally and they came to church again! So that was a huge relief! But they still haven't stayed for the classes, so we're working on that for this week. They're such a cute family though! The parents are just super hard to read. I never really know what they actually think about everything haha

Okay! So miracles! We had 6 people at church yesterday! We were so happy!!! Jorge, Guadelupe, The Sixtos, and Sara. So awesome!! We were definitely blessed a ton! And so Sara we just met on the street on Saturday night and invited her to come, and she did! So we're excited to see what happens with her :) 

We've also had some exchanges with the sisters lately, and man, exchanges is always an adventure! I went to Moreno Valley, I had to drive there, they didn't have a GPS so we were using a map, and she didn't know how to use a map, so as you can imagine, it was interesting. hahaha But it was fun. I also had to drive in Anza! (a truck too, so it was fun, it made me miss fred haha) So I'm getting to know the mission real well! Anza is like 2 hours from Riverside! It's seriously in the middle of no where! It was so weird! And it was an english exchange so I went into english land. I missed my Spanish world :) But all the sisters here are so awesome and I'm learning a lot from them! It's fun to be able to serve with them :) 

Well that about does it! Oh wait! We went hiking this morning with the Elders and that was super fun! I can't remember if I mentioned that we can now do zone activities with the Elders twice a month? So it was fun! Well hope you have a great week! Love you! 

Hermana Nelson :) 

Exchange in Anza

Exchange in Anza

January 12, 2015

HEY! Yeah!!! We were able to got to Alan's baptism this week, and it was AMAZING! Oh man I can't even explain how happy I was! And his wife and her family! Aw it was so great :) I can't wait til they get to go to the temple to be sealed with their baby :) One year! And it was really fun being in Corona again and seeing a lot of the ward members there. Love them! 

This week was pretty good! Jorge is doing sooo great! I'm so excited for him! We were so nervous for our lesson on this past Saturday because we weren't sure if he and his wife were actually married, and we were going to teach Word of Wisdom, and we knew that he drank and stuff. So we were praying reallllllly hard for that lesson and it was AMAZING! They are married! Which was a huge relief, and he totally accepted W.O.W.! We talked about how are bodies are temples and he loved that! (He reminded us yesterday at church that he is a temple haha.) He accepted it, and said that he was completely done with it all and it was in his past. We were so excited! He's so great! Then yesterday at church a member asked him when he's getting baptized and he said January 25th :) YAY! AND! He told us that it's his birthday! So he thought it was cool that he was literally born on that day, and will be born again on that day too :) We're so pumped :) keep praying for him! We were also able to teach one of his son's and he accepted baptism in February, but he's not as solid right now, so we'll see :) Jorge really wants his whole family to follow his example, so that's the plan! Oh and one more thing about him :) He told us that he has really seen the difference since we've been coming over and he's been coming to church. That he feels so much peace and happiness, that he knows this is right :) So precious :)

The Sixto family was planning on coming, but then when we went by their house Sunday morning, they said they were going to leave and visit one of their family members :( so we were really sad! They were only able to stay for sacrament last week, and it was kind of a weird meeting, so I'm not sure how they liked it... they said it was different.. we were able to teach them the Restoration this week, and they have a lot of doubts about it, so will work with that. We'll see! We have a family home evening with them tonight, so hopefully that's good! 

We were able to have a lesson with Ezekiel FINALLY, and it was really good, and we for sure thought he was going to come to church, and didn't :( we don't know what to do with him. We don't know if he's just lying to us or what. Cause he seems really cool, but ends up not doing anything! And apparently he still goes to his church every saturday and sunday. So we'll see :( 

We were also able to go to the temple this week! Yay! But! Unfortunately, we got there right when the session closed, so we couldn't go in :( But we were able to do initiatories for a lot of people so that was really cool! I haven't done that for over a year now, so it was really good :)

Well I hope all is going well! Happy 25th anniversary next week! (just in case I forget to say it next week!) WOO WOO! 

Oh also, I ate a cricket last week that a member gave us. hahah so that's officially the weirdest thing I've eaten so far! It took me like 10 mins to actually do it and we have it video tapped haha, very crunchy and salty. Oh how I'm grateful I serve in the States! Have a good one! Looove you! 

Hermana Nelson :) 

Temple Trip

Alan's Baptism!

Kylee Ate Some Crickets!!

January 5, 2015

Feliz ano nuevo!!! 

Warning: long email, but lots of good stuff in here, so read it :) 

Right?? I can't believe it's 2015! But here it is! Sounds like you all had some good holidays! For New Years Eve we just went to the stake center again and actually played monopoly with the elders haha it was actually really fun. The most intense game of monopoly I have ever played! Then we did deep cleaning the next morning... which was fun... :) You got more snow? Guess what! Different parts in our mission got snow too! Crazy right?? But unfortunately not here. But we can see it on the mountains! 

Alright, where to even begin! So much happened this week! It was a roller coaster! We felt like every emotion this week! First of all, for the BEST news ever! Guess who's getting baptized! ALAN!!! In Corona! Hna. Dulong and I taught him! I don't know if you remember him? But he's married to a member and they're like my favorite! We had to drop him, cause he just didn't want to get baptized, but he was basically a member! He went to church and had a calling in boy scouts! His wife got pregnant like.. 2 months ago? Once that happened I knew that he'd be getting baptized soon, and wanting to get sealed in the temple with his new little family. I told him when I left Corona that I would come back for his baptism and when they go through the temple, and the day is here! So we get to go back to Corona Saturday for his baptism!!! I'm SOO pumped! So that was the really good news we got this week!

We had a one day this week that was just ROUGH. Everyone cancelled on us, multiple people dropped, and no one would let us in! We seriously had one appointment all day! And Jorge called us saying he wasn't coming to church Sunday cause he was in LA. So it was one of those days that you just want the day to be over, but hey, you gotta have the bad ones to recognize the good ones! 

We had MLC with all the zone leaders, sister training leaders, assistants to the President and President Mullen, this week and it was SO good! It seriously got me so motivated to just get out and work and baptize! They talked about repentance and making sure we're using it every day, and I had a really cool experience with it that night. I can't even explain it, but I felt like I was Alma the Younger as he just felt the joy of repentance. I seriously have never felt that strong of a feeling before, that I can't even describe it! It was something soo much bigger then me, within me trying to explode out of joy! And I mean I've repented many times before and felt the comfort, forgiveness, and relief of the atonement, but never anything like this. I think it was coupled with the strongest desire that I've ever had to share the gospel and to be the best missionary that I can be. I only have 5 months left and I SOOO badly want to help this area! So I challenge you as well to make repentance more in your life. Make it daily. Make it specific. Make it more not for yourself, but to change yourself so that you can help other people. I think that's what was different for me this time. It wasn't about what I was going to gain from the process of repentance, but what others would gain as I would try to become a better person to help them. That's the difference. 

Gabriela (Jorge's, son's girlfriend) is doing pretty good! We had a few really great lessons with her this week, she's been reading and said that she can't even explain what she feels, but keeps reading so she has it. THE SPIRIT! She's preparing for baptism, but obviously they're not married, so we have to get them married first. But it will happen! Saturday night we had an awesome lesson with her and she told us how excited she was to come to church, that she bought a new outfit and everything. We got her a ride and were so excited, then she called us sunday morning and said she couldn't go cause she was busy. BUSY?? Really? Ay. So that was a HUGE bummer. We were kind of depressed Sunday morning just thinking, "well great, no one is coming to church." BUT. We received an AMAZING miracle! The Sixtos family that we've taught twice said this week that they'd try to come but weren't sure. So we thought they probably weren't, and we went by Sunday morning and they were all ready! And they came! 5 of them!!!! WOO. We were so happy! Like I said earlier, it's been a roller coaster of a week! Also! Last thing :) Sorry this is really long. So we ended up dropping Eziquiel because he never came to church and would never keep appointments with us, but last night we saw him on the street, and talked to him for a bit. He said his wife left him and it's been really hard, but he really wants to learn about our message and I quote, "This time I'm inviting you over" So we're excited to be teaching him again cause I really feel like he has a lot of potential if he would just come! 

Well that's the end of this book :) Just please keep our investigators and area in your prayers that we can better help these people so we have PROGRESSING investigators. Hope you have a great week! Thanks for everything :) loooove you! 

Hermana Nelson :) 

p.s. I cut off 5 inches of my hair haha 2015! woo woo!