Pictures from 12/23 email

Christmas Miracle

This week was wonderful! We had a really fun Christmas dinner and white elephant thing at the church in Cusco with three other Zones. As you can see, we got really cool gifts... and I still managed to get crafty here with my wrapping skills haha. We had a really great devotional with music and testimonies. At the end, the President gave each of us a book of mormon for US to read this year. They gave us two scirpture markers to use. One to mark all the things that Christ says and the other to mark all of the references to Christ. He promised us that as we stay focused and find opportunities to serve and teach this week, we will have incredible spiritual experiences this week. I feel like I have already had amazing experiences this past week and had opportunities to testify of Christ and his restored gospel with greater power. I feel my testimony and faith in Christ grow as I share it with others.

Thank you to Mom, Megan, Natalie, and Dad and Keri for the Christmas packages!!!!! HOLY COW!!! YOu all are ridiculou! THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH. It made me so happy!

Here´s one of  the many  Christmas Miracles... Yovanna and her son Ribaldo are getting baptized this Saturday! I have never met someone so ready and prepared for this. She has incredible desires to follow Christ and be happy! Yesterday she was supposed to have her Baptismal interview... but she wasn´t home when we went to pick her up! AH it was a littlechaotic, but then we finally found her accross the river selling this weird fish stuff with her mom. Thankfully she was willing to leave to go to her interview. It was crazy, but as soon as she walked out of her interview, she was BEAMING. I could see the light of Christ in her. She is so ready for this. She has been through crazy things in her life and is so ready to leave it all behind, feel clean, happy, and free of her burdens. I am so excited for her and her son this Saturday. I know this is the greatest decision they could make for their family. Ribaldo asked if I could be his God Mother haha. They do that a lot here when they get baptized haha. Even though it is probably just because I am a gringa, I am honored to be his Godmother haha... whatever that role entailes.... I´m not really sure. 

So excited to talk to you this week!! I will be on Skype or google hangout. I will call you in the afternoon 1 to 2 my time. Brian and ALly I would love to talk to you too!!! So can everyone be ready for that? I will call you via google hangout... but just incase, can mom and megan have your skype open too? So I will call Mom first at 1 and Dad 2nd at 1.25 ish. Sound good? Can´t wait!!

Merry Christmas! I love you all so much and am grateful to have such an amazing, supportive family! Eat lots of pie for me!!!! I love you!!

Love,

Hermana Nelson

Feliz Navidad!

Well... almost. What, 3 weeks? Woohoo! I got my first Christmas package this week! Thanks Mom! Don´t worry, I saw the little Christmas tree on it and haven´t opened it yet :) But I just want you to know that it is KILLING my companion. I had to hide the package so she can´t see it and try to steal it ;) We found out our plans for Christmas today in our Zone meeting. We are going to Cusco on the 20th for a christmas dinner and devo with the President at the mission home! I´m stoked for that. The mission home is like the happiest place on earth. On Christmas, we´ll just have a normal day of teaching... doing what we do best!

The President is amazing here. He stresses obedience a lot, but also puts a lot of trust in us. I am grateful for his example and guidance here. Something really great happened this week. Maybe you´ll think this is boring, but to me it was an answer to my prayers. Two things have been on my mind a lot this last week: 1) How can we help the ward? and 2) Family History. Little did I know or realize that number 2 would be the answer to number 1. On Sunday a new Family History person was called for the stake and it happens to be someone that we have a really good relationship with and he´s in our ward... so that made me super happy and excited to get going on Family History. And then today in our Zone meeting, the Zone Leaders told us that the President wants to push Family History more in the wards. He said it will be a great tool to help investigadors, less actives, and recent converts, as well the youth who are preparing for missions. I didn´t realize that one of our responsibilities as missionaries is to not only preach the gospel, but to do family history work for the dead. I took a family history class a year or two ago at BYU and I really feel like this is all just meant to be. I definitely don´t know everything about Family History, but I am SO excited to get to work on it here and help others find and learn more about their families. The ultimate goal is the temple and I know this will be a great tool in helping people prepare to go to the temple. 

Another great thing... Yovanna and Esther. AH seriously. They are rockstars! They have come to everything we invited them to, including church. In sunday school, they each introduced themselves and got emotional as they expressed their gratitude to Heavenly Father for helping them come to church and for sending us (las hermanas) to them. Yovanna said she has felt so much peace since we´ve been visiting her just in the last week. I don´t feel like it has been me at all that´s brought that peace... it is definitely the spirit and the love of the Savior and Heavenly Father that she is feeling. They have such great desires to follow Christ, and to follow the commandments. They are a miracle family and I love them so much!! 

CHRISTMAS DEVOTIONAL!! We got to watch it via satelite last night! That´s right, we´re pretty high tech here in Sicuani. It was incredible! Even though it was in spanish and I couldn´t understand everything, I definitely felt the spirit. It was a great reminder of what Christmas is reallly about. I loved President Monson´s message when he said this is the time to start focusing on giving rather than recieving. I think we hear that a million times during Christmas time, but it really is what it is all about. All the little things than we can do to give is so miniscule when compared to all that the Savior gave for us. I am so grateful to be here in Peru, serving the Lord and serving as a representative of Jesus Christ at this time. I can´t think of a more meaningful thing to be doing during the ¨Christmas Season¨. 

Thank you for your emails and lots of love! I think about you lots (but not too much ;)) and pray for you all everyday!!

Love, 

Hermana Nelson

Diciembre! Que en el mundo?

Good week! 

1. Thanksgiving. No, we didn´t have turkey or stuffing, but we had fun talking about what we were grateful for! I was slightly ill on Wednesday... due to something a dear investigator gave us to drink. "Here drink this! It´s good for your health!". Yeah. Nope. Haha. So instead of stuffing my face on Thanksgiving, I was letting my stomach recover haha. But I am all better now!

2. I am definitely a foreigner here. I don´t really realize that until people point it out. People have called us "barbies", "twins", or they ask if we are sisters, to which we reply, "Yes, of course! Sisters of the church!" Haha. One investigator ( The same one that gave me that drink... was surprised to find out we are only 21, because she thought we were 40 years old. Okaaaay. And then she started hitting my stomach telling me that I look pregnant. Thank you Ambrosia. The school kids always try to speak english to us in the street, saying "Hello!". Or weird old men will say things like "hasta la vista bebe!"... like that´s the only spanish we know hahaha. I like to be really funny and when people yell "Look! Gringas!", I look around and say, "What? Gringas?! Where?!!" They get really confused and I think I´m really funny. 

3. Heavenly Father works through weak people I have learned that through experience and through stories in the Scriptures. I love the stories of Peter the apostle. He made many mistakes and had weaknesses, yet Christ trusted him to lead the church after his death. Joseph Smith was the same... had many weaknesses and wasn´t very educated, yet the Lord entrusted him to restore his gospel! I am grateful that the Lord works through weak people, because I am weak and cannot do this work without him. 

4. Miracle Yovanna! Wow. craziness happened last night. I don´t know if I told you about the girl that we met like a month or more ago... we found her son in the street and helped him carry something back to his house and then ended up having an incredible lesson with his mom, Yovanna. She has been through crazy things, with her ex husband, and has so much pain still from all these terrible trials. We were excited to teach her more and help her overcome these things... but she was never home! We could never get ahold of her! People were telling us she moved... so we kind of gave up on her. Then yesterday, we saw her son walking through the street! AH! We walked with him back to his grandparent´s house where his mom was. His grandparents and Yovanna happily welcomed us in! She explained that she is never in her house, only to sleep, and that her phone broke! The only way we would have found her again was by randomly running into her son in the street again. Seriously a miracle. Long story short, we found out from her mom that their whole family is baptized in the church! Yovanna didn´t even remember at all! They have so much faith and want so badly to follow Christ and to do God´s will. They are amazing examples of faith. That was an answer to our prayers. It just shows that God really is aware of everyone and sometimes sends us places to help people even when we don´t realize we are being led to someone to help. 

Loving life and the mission as always! Thank you for your constant words of encouragement and love! I love you and miss you tons! 

Love,

Hermana Nelson

Gratitude is the Attitude

So our District Leader was convinced that last Thursday was Thanksgiving, but I was convinced it was this week... and then we were all just really confused and thought we missed Thanksgiving! I guess that´s what happens when... you live in Peru. But I was happy to hear from your emails that I didn´t miss Thanksgiving! Haha good thing because I wanted to share a few things I am thankful for in honor of the Dia de Gracias:

1. My new toothbrush. My teeth feel so clean

2. An hour to study personally every morning. I have learned and grown so much from this hour everyday. I love it!

3. My Agenda. Sadly, I have been without my missionary Agenda for over a week now. The Zone Leaders still need to get more for this transfer. Ah! It´s crazy. I love that little book and miss it dearly.

4. Prophets, apostles, and the Seventies. They are amazing. I have read a few talks from previous conferences this week, I heard Elder Nelson last week in Cusco, and heard from the Area Seventy for a leadership conference. They really are called of God and guide us to do the work of the Lord. I am grateful for their guidance and wisdom to learn from. I´m grateful that we have modern revelation from God through the prophets today.

5. Hair Dryers. Yes, they are great if you want dry hair, but even better... they work as a great space heater! 

6. Hot Showers. Yes. I love them. And love them more when I don´t have them. 

7. Washing machines. I am grateful that we have someone do our laundry for us every week, but as we helped a lady in the ward wash her family´s clothes... and my fingers became raw from scrubbing by hand all those clothes... I realized how much I love washing machines. It´s like 1/8 the time and your hands don´t suffer haha.

8. Everything about the gospel! I love it! I feel more joy now than I ever have and I know that is because I am learning more about this gospel and my testimony is strengthened in the teachings of Jesus Christ everyday. 

9. Margarita and Hermana Flor. Our cook and the member we live with. They make me feel at home and so loved here. I love them!

10. Chapstick and lotion

11. My water bottle. Which I currently can´t find. whoops. 

12. The Book of Mormon. This book is so true and I feel just peace everytime I read it and teach about it. I know it´s true because of that peace I feel. It has stories that apply directly to our lives today. It testifies of Christ and gives us even more of his teachings and example.

13. To BE A MISSIONARY!!!!!

14. Cats. Had to throw that in here. People love cats here too... or at least some of them. Is it bad to say that by favorite investigators just happen to have cats?? ;)

15. MY FAMILY. I am so blessed to have the BEST family in the world. It´s true. I have the greatest siblings, parents, grandparents, cousins... everyone. I am especially grateful to have so much support and love from my parents and siblings right now. I love you all so much and feel your love and prayers here in Peru. I am grateful to have grown up in the gospel and in a loving home. THANK YOU for your examples and for your patience with me when I am crazy and do stupid things. I love you so much! I hope you all have a FABULOUS Thanksgiving and think about how incredibly blessed we all are. 

Eat lots of turkey and pie for me. I will be eating rice and probably the friend of the turkey...chicken. or Guinea Pigs. Not sure yet ;) Haha Love you!!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Love,

Hermana Nelson

Pictures

11/18-Elder Nelson Came

Hola Familia!

Here´s my WIP (Week in Progress):

1. PATIENCE: Wow, I didn´t think that was something I really was lacking until I came here. Ha. Lilliana´s husband came back and they decided to live together again, which means that she didn´t get baptized. Rough stuff, however, we are visiting with them both to see what his desires are. She wants to get married and baptized, but he doesn´t want it. He has a very hard heart, but I have faith that he can change. It will be an amazing day when they are married and baptized together as a family. I know this gospel can change his life and make them happy and united, he just needs the desire. This is what I have to be patient with. So many people are having a hard time progressing here. They know everything, there are just little stumbling blocks in their way. I have learned that I can´t expect people to change overnight. I have to be patient with them! 

2. Elder Nelson! We got to go to Cusco yesterday to hear Elder Nelson speak to three stakes. Over 2,000 people came!! It was INCREDIBLE. Just the setting and having that many people so excited to hear from this apostle of the Lord, brought the spirit to that chapel. He talked about missionary work. He had all the missionaries stand and thanked us for our work. Then he said "the best missionaries don´t wear badges!" It´s so true. Members are the greatest missionaries there are! I love the scripture in D&C11:15 that says you don´t need to be called to preach. At the end he said he felt impressed to end his talk in spanish. He doesn´t know spanish! He bore testimony of the atonement in perfect spanish. It was incredible. The spirit was so strong there last night. 

3. You know you live in Peru when... people put baby chickens under their shirt to keep them warm during a lesson.

4. FIRST PACKAGE!!! Thank you mom so much for the package!! I loved it! All the candycorn is gone already and the trailmix is almost gone haha... don´t worry, I shared with other missionaries on our bus ride to cusco yesterday. I also got letters from Megan and Brian and ALly! Thank you so muhc, it was so fun to read. I also got Allison´s wedding invite! I don´t think I´ll be able to make it, but pass on my CONGRATULATIONS to her!! That is SOOO exciting! AHHH!!! 

5. As you will find a picture of....we are celebrating thanksgiving by making a jar and putting things we are thankful for and then we are going to read them all on thanksgiving! We want to teach our pensionista how to make mashed potatoes haha.

I love you and pray for each of you everyday!! Thank you for the emails and love!!

Love,

Hermana Nelson

My Purpose

First of all, CONGRATS to MR. IRONMAN! You go Dad! Thank you to everyone who sent me pictures this week! I LOVED THEM! I have the cutest family! And... chloe´s costume oh my gosh. Oh this week I saw a diamondbacks shirt, a redsox hat, and a Michigan sweatshirt hahaha so funny!

If anyone has any ideas for fun lessons and games for FHE nights send them to me!! 

If anyone is sending a package soon, I have a few things I would like from the good old states... Slippers ( I know, that sounds really high maintenance, but my feet are cold and the floors are dirty. :) I Love you). Sticky notes with extra strong stickiness! Greg olsen Prints. Can you hook me up? A lot of the families really want a bigger picture of Christ in their house. All they have is the small pass a long cards we have for them. 

Megan! I am in a internet shop. Music is blasting and little kids keep coming up to me and saying ¨Hello, how are you¨ because that´s all they know how to say in english. haha. Say hello to your class for me!! 

This week was full of a lot of happy and emotional experiences.

1. We stopped by an ivestigators house who we have just been waiting on to get married. When she opened her door, I immediately noticed her face was badly beaten up with scratches and a swollen black eye. Her boyfriend beat her up really bad. I will spare telling all the details, but it was horrible. She was just crying. But the wonderful news is that they are finally separating. Before even talking about it, she told us that she wants to be baptized. She said that she feels so alone and knows that she can`t raise her two kids by herself, so she needs the gospel and the support of the church. She told us that she knows that the gospel will help her raise her kids in a good environment with good morals. She is going to be baptized in two weeks. I can`t even explain how excited I am for her. She has been through so much emotional and physical pain in her life. I am so incredibly excited for her to have a fresh start. Life is going to begin again for her with her baptism. 

There are two other women that we have been talking to that have similar situations. I think every woman we teach has this same kind of thing in their past. It is horrible. It makes me a little angry at the men here. But we met with a family whose Dad was a drunk and abusive for a long time. Through tears, he explained to us how everytime we stopped by he was reminded of God. He told us he wants to change. I have already seen the happiness that this has brought their family. It just confirmed and strengthened my testimony that the gospel can change lives, and bring families together. I am so excited to see what happens with them. 

2. HALLOWEEN! Everyone makes loads and loads and loads of bread here for halloween. Like crazy amounts. I still really don`t understand it. They just make it and eat it. So we got a lot of bread last week. Also, I realized how sensitive of a subject Halloween is. Like a lot of people really hate it and think it is of the devil. So we just stopped talking about it haha. But we celebrated by switching name tags for a few hours. Woohoo!! haha

3. STORMS!! ALL THE LIGHTS WENT OUT. It was scary and we couldn`t see A THING! But luckily, we made it home before the rain came pouring down! All safe and sound. It was fun to watch the lightning from the window!

I love you all so much!! Always praying for you. Thaknyou for all your support and encouragement every week! And the pictures!! Oh and Mom! I got your letter and pictures and the music this week! Thank you!! Love it all!!

Love,

Hermana Nelson

Favorite part of the day? 9:00pm Planning. Obvi.

Cat! Crazy eyes!

The lights went out! 

The Bike Shop. Peruvian Style

HOLA

Okay. so much to say.... Also, Im sorry if my grammar stinks and I dont sound excited at all in this email... the punctuation stopped working. Ahhhhh. Haha.

This week was great. We had Zone conference. The President and his wife came. They gave wonderful talks on obedience. Kind of stresses the importance of being obedient to the commandments and the mission rules. 

We had an amazing Zone meeting this morning. We were all in tears by the end and the spirit was so strong. I love our zone. The leaders are amazing. I feel a little outnumbered at times being the only hermana companionship out of 10 other elder companionships haha, but its all good.

We have been teaching a lot. Mostly working with Less actives... No one wants to come to church.... they have the worst excuses too. Its raining.... I am washing clothes.... I have to plant seeds. My comp and I were laughing at how different it is from the states. Imagine someone in the US saying they cant go to church because they have to plant seeds hahah. Oh boy. Also people love talking here. Like really like talking. Well ask a question in a lesson and theyll respond with their whole life story. Haha its great because they love opening up, but we just have to be careful with what questions we ask. One lady, Eulalia... I asked her how she feels about going to the temple to be baptized for her daughter that died. I didn÷t undertstnad much of what she said, but all I heard was Menopause and then she pointed to her braids in her hair. You can imagine how confused I was haha. Turns out, she was sick and the doctors thought she had cancer, so she shaved her head... what... then they found out that it was only menopause... oh good hahahah. Now she has her braids back. Oh I love the poeple here. It is even more fun now that I am understanding and speaking more. Its a good time. 

I love Peru and being a missionary. I feel more happy and healthy than Ive ever been. Thank you for your emails and love. I love you all so much.

Happy Halloween. Have fun. I want pictures of everyones costumes. Ah I didnt realize how much I use exclamation points until now... Sorry. EXCLAMATION POINT. 

I love you.

Con Amor,

Hermana Nelson

Address Update

My mail address is just the mission office. But unfortunately it is different than what was in the packet. It is...

Av. La Cultura 2417

En frente la Urb. Santa Ursula

La Capilla Mormon

Cusco, Peru

They forward any mail or packages I get to the Zone leaders who then give it to me. I have heard that it takes about a month for packages and letters to get to and from here. The packages can only be under 5 kilos.

Pictures...

A real missionary

Hola Familia!

This week rocked. I had a great learning and humbling week, but it was so wonderful at the same time! Here are the deets:

1. Sister Leaders. The Sister Leaders came to visit us last Tuesday for two days. We went on splits with them and it was so great to learn from other people`s teaching styles. I had a little humbling experience with them. They comforted me and assured me that the language would come. They were a little blessing that day. I learned and am still learning that I need to rely more on my companion, Preach my Gospel, and the Lord. I can`t do this my own stubborn way. 

2. Agua Caliente. Yeah folks, that`s right. We got HOT WATER up in here!!! We went from cold ice showers, to warm wonderful actually enjoyable showers. We also got ipads, cars, and we`re allowed to have cats for pets now!! Woohoo!! Okay that`s all a joke, but hot water is seriously a wonderful thing. 

3. Oh the beauty. Peru is beautiful! I didn`t realize it my first week because I was staring at the ground or at my planner trying to figure out what the heck we`re doing... but now I actually look around. The doors are my favorite thing here. Each one is different! I am taking pictures of a ton of doors. The sky is ridiculously blue here. I love it. The weather is perfect. A little rainy sometiems, but pretty dang good. 

4. This Sunday was hard because hardly anyone came to church! It was a little frustrating. Everyone works and cleans and does other things on Sundays and when they promise they´ll come to church, they don`t. It`s their own decision, but it is sad for us because we KNOW how happy this gospel makes people and especially strengthens families. My comp and I got a little overwhelmed with emotion last week as we studied the joy of this gospel. It truly is amazing. We have everything we need to be happy here and for eternity. I am SO grateful for the churhc in my life and to have the opportunity to study everyday.

5. Church. Okay. So I officially feel like a real missionary. I found out AFTER I agreed to play the piano, thay I am the ONLY one in the ward that plays. And let`s just clarify something... I know how to play like 3 hymns... semi well. YIKES. Well the last two weeks I have `played during sacrament meeting. And the Bishop just likes to throw randoms hymns that I´ve never played before at me... It`s rough to say the least, but I love it. Haha. I also gave a talk in spanish(obvi) on Sunday. Not sure if anyone understood me, but it happened and it rocked.

6. The Laguage. Once again. Yeah, that`s a thing. Last week I said that Brian used to buy hamsters for us to eat... I meant to say that he boughtthem for his snake!! Haha we got a good laugh out of that one.

I love you all. I am loving this mission thing. I still am learning A TON and have a long way to go, but I love it here and am so happy! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Nelson

Do You Believe in Miracles?

Woah. A LOT to tell you all. The last week in the MTC was cray cray. My comp and I delt with a crazy bizarre situation with a district and girls and... ah I`m not even going to try to explain, but I`m glad it`s over ha and I learned that I am grateful that I had such an amazing companion and district in the MTC. I miss the MTC and all the studying there, but this thing... the real world... this thing they call ``the feild``... yeah, it rocks.

 

Here`s the highlights:

 

1. Altitude. What Altitude? I am extatic to announce that I have defeated the altitude sickness. That`s right, no sickness at all! I feel great! I can feel that we are high in the sky and it`s harder to breathe, but while most missionaries get sick for days, I haven`t had any sickness. Blessings I tell you. Miracles.

 

2. My Comp. She rocks. Hermana Allred is her name. We have a lot in common and we are both American which is cool because we can speak english! Yay my favorite! We are the first only American companionshp in this mission... ever. Or at least that`s what Hna. Allred says. Kind of crazy. We are both blonde and very white, so yeah we kind of stick out like a sore thumb here.

 

3. Sicuani! I am in an area 2 hours outside of cusco called Sicuani. It is beautiful! Look it up on Google maps. The ward is amazing. Really supportive of missionary work. There are A TON of less actives here so that is our main focus. It`s hard, but awesome. The poeple are so sweet here and so welcoming. Our cook, Margarita (also the RS president and the most amazing women ever!... in Peru) told me that they have to kick me out if I don`t know spanish in a month. They really are welcoming... haha no but really. I love the people. We all kiss each other on the cheek to greet each other. So sorry if I come home kissing everyone.

 

3. The language. Oh the language. yep. Yeah. That thing. Hm. Spanish is a language. I am trying to speak it.

 

4. Miracles. Saturday was a disappointing day because we had a ton of appointments and everyone and their dog decided to not be home. I´m convinced there was a party we weren`t invited to. It was discouraging a bit. Then as we were walking with a member, we decided to visit a lady we had tried earlier that day. We randomly ran into her on the street on the way to her house! Crazy! She`s never home so that was a miracle we saw her. Then we went to her house and met a couple that was renting out a room there. We began teaching them. After teaching them about the Book of Mormon and a little bit about what we believe, we asked if they had any questions. Andre, the man, said, ``Yes, when can I be baptized``. Um. What? Woah. Yeah... Okay I can work with that. Seriously it was a crazy miracle. They have a lot to work through and learn before baptism, but I knew that the spirit had testified the truth of this gospel to him. Heavenly Father had prepared us and humbled us for that experience. He truly knows far more than we do. I am grateful for that.

 

Thank you all so much for the emails and stories. I love you all so much!! Conference sounded like a blast! I LOVED IT!! I couldn``t help but think about you all while watching it. It was fun to think that we were all doing the same thing at the same time. Probably the only time that`s going to happen for a while. The gospel really brings families together... no matter how far you are from eachother.

 

I am doing well and loving life as a missionary. It`s hard, but I am learning so much. I am recognizing my weaknesses too. I am learning that I am very stubborn and like  to do things my own way. I´m sorry you guys have to deal with that! That`s annoying. I am learning that I HAVE to rely on others and there is no way I can do this on my own or my own way. Proverbs 3:5 THat`s what`s up.

 

Love you!!

 

 

Hermana Nelson

NEW ADDRESS

Starting 10/3/13:

Send all letters to the Mission office until we hear from her and where her first assignment will be.

Sister Kelly Nelson

Peru Cusco Mission

Jiron Ricardo Palma

Manzana A Lote 2 4to Piso

Urb. Santa Monica, Cusco

PERU

FELIZ NAVIDAD

Dearest Familia!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAILEY!!! Ah I love you girly. I had an experience that was just a little blessing to ease my Hailey withdrawls. As I was running laps at Physical Activity time I heard a distant, and soft ´´Hola´´... So I stopped and realised it was coming from a hole in the brick wall. Haha. kind of strange, but I walked over to meet a little 2 year old girl and her mom. I got to ask her questions like, ´´Cuantos años tiene?´´ and ´´Que dice el gato?´´... She even make a pig noise for me and said ´´perro´´ and ´´ruff´´ and ´´meow´´. I about died. It reminded me of Hails bails so much! I love her and miss her.

 

Happy Aniversary to my NATALIE AND CHRIS!! Woohoo!! Rock on! Love you both!!

 

Christmas? Yes, it is General Conference this weekend... but that´s not the kind of Christmas I am talking about. It is our LAST P-DAY in the MTC. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa???? Yeah. Crazy. These 5 weeks have FLOWN by! Next Tuesday early in the morning I will fly to CUSCO and my mish pres will send you an email and a pic saying that I arrived safely, and then I will email you on my next pday... so probs thenext monday! I am SO excited to go to Cusco.

 

Okay unfortunately I am getting kicked of right now ahhhhh. But I love you and have had wonderful experiences this week. I am So sad to leave the CCM. My teachers and district are amazing. I am learning to be more humble everyday... I have a LONG way to go! I will write you when I get to Cusco! Love you all so very much!

 

Con Muco Amor,

 

Hermana Nelson

One month

Familia! Oh how I love you!

 

How are all of you?? Thank you for your emails and thank you to NATALIE for the first handwritten letter!! Woot woot!! She even included a beautiful piece of artwork. The bar is set high. ;) Thank you so much for the emails though. I am LOVING reading them!!

 

This week was Crazy!! FUn! Crazy! and humbling.

 

Friday we went to get some of our visa paperwork worked out... it was fun to drive into downtown Lima! Beautiful city! Then we talked to a few people while we were there and shared a message about Christ with a guy that was in line with us. It was a very cool experience.

 

Saturday. Procelyting! Ugh. Good. But this time was way harder. We only visited less active members in the area. It was difficult because I felt like their hearts weren´t as open to hearing our message as much as random people that were more seeking it out. It was a really good learning experience, but difficult. Luckily we had a teacher and a member with us. I did better speaking moer this time, but it was still hard to understand people a lot. Even though I didn´t always understnad people´s whole story, there was a common feeling I had in each lesson... That was that God loves each of us so much and wants us to truly be happy. That was actually a common theme of the week. Let me explain...

 

Sunday was a little weird. I wasn´t on my spiritual high as much as I usually am and that was getting me down a little. Things were annoying me more than usual. I knew that I needed to change something. I read an article in the Ensign about expressing thanks to Heavenly Father, then I happen to read a few scriptures about the same thing... then I heard a devotional by Elder Richard G. Scott about conversing with our Heavenly Father and expressing our gratitude to him. Well, if that wasn´t a slap in the face, I don´t know what is. I decided to start that night and all ofMonday only thanking Heavenly Father for things rather than asking for blessings. As I did that, my day, attitude, and EVERYTHING changed. I found so many opportunities to serve as I forgot about myself and focused on being grateful. Sunday afternoon, my companion and I were called to be the new Sister Leaders in our Zone. That has been such a blessing. I have grown to love so many of the girls and found great opportunities to serve them in the past two days.

 

There is a girl in our zone that has been under a lot of stress from day 1. Her sister has meningitis and had to get brain surgery. The prognosis was sketchy and they didn´t know what was going to happen. She can only get updates once a week through email, so you can imagine how stressful that would be. We saw her walking outside with her companions (they are in a trio) just crying. So we looked at each other and knew that we hsould go talk to her. As we sat down to talk with her, I felt so incredibly humbled. She sacrificed SO MUCH to be on a mission, yet she is so incredibly strong. She is the most positive, happy, and has an incredible spirit with her always. She is an inspiration. Her companion shared with us that she lost her brother recently in an ATV accident and how she knows that he is with her in spirit helping her serve. After talking to them, I just cried! I realized how aware Heavenly Father is of each of us. He knows exactly our strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and joys. He knows what we need. I don´t feel like I was prompted to go talk to Hermana Burgraff because she needed my help, but because I needed to hear her powerful testimony. I am constantly reminded of the love that Heavenly Father has for each of us. We all were given specific trials according to our own strengths and weaknesses... they are made to make us stronger.

 

I have learned a lot about charity. The minute I started forgetting abotu what blessing I needed and what I wanted, I felt the spirit. My comp and I are focusing on being more Charitable this week. We have been writing anonymous notes to a few girls that we feel need it everyday. Just a short note on a hot pink sticky note and a scripture we feel like they might need. It has been so fun. I realized the importance of charity more when I read the scripture (in mosiah I think) saying that what we do to others is like doing it unto God. Or something like that. It´s good. Look it up.

 

The Book of Mormon is true. Heavenly Father is truly our loving Father in Heaven and knows what we need. Trust in him and ask him for help! Or just thank him! You´ll be amazed at what happens.

 

I have a really funny story. REALLY FAST: The older district played a nice prank on us. 2 of the Elders (Zone leaders) came in our room and told us that the President is really mad. That some bad things happened while procelyting that day and that some of the people in our district were mentioned. They told us to just wait and read our scriptures until the president came in to talk to us. Then two other elders came in, shakign and basically in tears. Told us to get out our handbooks and turn to the page about relationships with other missionaries. We were freaking out!!! I have never seen our disrtict more reverant in my life. We were all racking our brains to think of what we could have possibly done wrong. We all thought we were going home. Then all of a suddent their whole district runs in singing ´´We wish you a merry Christmas´´!! We died. It was so hilarious!!! Itá a tradition here that a Christmas tree is passed on to the next best district in the CCM. I guess we got picked. Oh man, it was good. Can´t wait to plan what were going to do to the next District. I´m taking suggestions for the prank... Brian?

 

Thank you for all your support and advice. Brian, Thanks for your advice about not getting over confident or too doscouraged about the language. Definietly realized the importance of that on Saturday proceltying.

 

I love you and miss you so much!!

 

Love,

 

Hermana Nelson

Week 3

Bill Nye The Science Guy

Y'all ready? Another great week in the CCM! Here´s the highlights:

1. LATINAS: All of my roommates went on to the big world and we got 4 new LATINO roommates! They are hilarious. I can´t understand a lot of what they say, but we make it work. They teach us Spanish, and we teach them English. Every night we play the ´´Como se dice...´´ (How do you say...?) game. One girl tries to teach us slang and the others tell us not to say the things she teaches us! Oh what fun. They are helping my spanish a lot! I showed them my calendar of family pics and they loved it! I learned how to say niece and cousins in spanish!

2. MI MAESTRO: I am convinced I have the best teacher at the CCM, Hermano Bejar. We had a stress class last week where we all brought our pillows into the classroom and screamed into our pillows hahahah. We had a great lesson on focus the next day with him. We were paired up with another companionship and told to teach them a lesson on anything. So we started and then two girls from our district started going around and saying really sad, mean, and discouraging things in our hears while we were teaching. They said things like, ´´You´re spanish is terrible! Why are you even here? No one is listening to you! They can´t understand what you´re saying... wouldn´t you rather be hanging out with your family?´´ It was EXTREMELY hard to focus. And although I know they were just acting, it brought all our spirits down a bit for that short time. After, we went back in the classrooom and had all ten of us teach him. We all were so focused on HIM and had nothing distracting us. It was amazing. The moral of the story? You can probably guess, but it was about being focused. When we are distracted by discouraging thoughts, temptation, or focusing too much on our own wants/needs, then we can´t get anything done. It was a cool lesson

Also, Hermano Bejar acts as a fake investigator for us to teach a few times a week. His fake name is Marcos. Yesterday, we were teaching him about the commandments and Word of Wisdom (drinking, smoking, coffee etc.) and we brought a ´´member´´ (really just an elder from our district). He bore his testimony about how he used to smoke 30 cigs a day... it was really funny because he´s a missionary actually... ha get it? (i´m starting to realize how things are a lot more funny here than they will be to you guys). Then I assigned Marcos a scripture to read before our next lesson and then realized he didn´t have scriptures so I just gave him mine, and said ´´for you!´´. He said, ´´Oh thank you!´´ and proceeded to find a pen and write his name in the front cover of my scriptures hahaha. We were all trying to refrain from busting up laughing. So I will forever remember Marcos, the fake investigator I had in the MTC.

3. SUNDAY. Obvi. Always the best day ever. It was stake conference... which means ALL OF PERU was watching a broadcast from SLC. Elder Scott and Bednar spoke! Scott gave an amazing talk on treating women well and helping women realize their divine nature and individual worth. I loved it. It reminded me a lot of the experiences I had in Africa with the horrible treatment of women. I know I will see that a lot in Peru. It made me think a lot about one of the reasons I wanted to serve a mission. I know that the gospel is the only thing that can truly make me happy and change lives. ´´The gospel can change behavior better than the study of behavior can change behavior´´... A paraphrased quote from Preach my Gospel. Then we watched a MTC devo from Holland. Oh wow. Always a good day when you hear from Holland. He is such a powerful speaker... sometimes a little startling, but dang good. He talked about the mission changing our lives. I think I have tried to ingrane in my brain that the mission is not for me, but for the people I will serve, when in reality, it is for me too. I should expect to change. I should WANT to change and go home not wanting to just quickly go back to ´´normal´´. He said ´´Don´t EVER EVER EVER go back to what you were before.´´ I really loved that message. He said everyone expects us missionaries to be perfect and work really really really hard... ¨don´t let us down´´, he said. No pressure, right? These messages just made me realize even more why I want to be here and how excited I am to see the changes in other people´s life as well as y life.

The Dear Elder thing takes at least 3 weeks to get here, so not a good way to go. Spread the word. Our mail box is pretty empty. But It might be better to mail letters to my cusco mission home bc I don´t know how long it will take.

I haven´t recieved any letters from Tiger yet. Hm. Just sayin.

Bill Nye the science guy is on dancing with the stars Yeah, I totally know all the hot gossip.

Love you all SOOO MUCH!

Con Amor,

Hermana Nelson

Our whole district at the temple!

Kids going to CUSCO

Everyone switched cameras for the day and took pics... this one was one of teh gems i found on my camera today haha

Roommates!

Companion!