Week 1

Well, being a trainer what everything I thought it would and wouldn`t be. I feel overwhelmed and stressed, am learning more that I ever thought I would, and absolutley love my companion! Honestly I feel so incredibly blessed to have her. She`s perfect! A little about Hermana Guajardo you all should know:

1. She is Mexican

2. She has step 1, 2, and 3 of Clinique

3. She has really cute clothes she lets me borrow

4. She is a convert as of 1 year ago. 

5. Her sister is serving a mission in Ecuador and they left the same day. Her parents aren`t members yet.

6. She speaks spanish, obviously, so I get to learn spanish a ton better! Woohoo! She also really wants to learn English, so we practice English too.

She is an amazing missionary and has such a strong testimony. She is very bold and not afraid to speak to everyone! She is motivating me to be a better missionary, work harder, and focus more on the people we serve. I am grateful for the incredible lessons we have already had together. Our first comp study we had, we sang "I stand all amazed" to start, and it had us both crying. Haha, I think we are going to get a long great. I strongly feel that she is going to be teaching me FAR more than what I will be teaching her. The next 12 weeks are going to ROCK. 

Sorry this is short, but I love you all and am still praying for you everyday :)

Love,

Hermana Nelson

P.S. Yesterday I ate a cat for the first time! It was delicious.

P.S.S. Happy April Fool`s Day. 

Here Comes the BOOM!

Fambam,

This week was wonderful as always, because being a missionary is the most wonderful thing in the world! We had a few sad things and a few great joys this week. 

We visited the Ore family this week (see picture)... ah I about died. The Mom is active and all the kids... they are the best! The Dad is a little bit harder. We have made incredible progress with him these past two transfers. He has been coming to church and even wants to go to the temple with his family this year. Well, all that dramatically changed last week. Something small happened with a member in the ward, and all of a sudden he told us he doesn`t want to come back to church. Granted, what happened shouldn`t have happened, but he reacted very strongly to the situation. Because of a small offense by another member he decided he doesn`t want to come back... nor go to the temple. He basically just threw everything out the window! I can see the pain it causes his wife and family. It KILLS me. Hermana Thompson and I tried to tell him everything the spirit was telling us to say... we tried to help him understand that people aren`t perfect and that we don`t go to church for them. He was very kind, but wasn`t taking any of it. You know that feeling when someone breaks up with you? And they tell you you´ll still see each other around and you´ll still be friends?... That`s exactly how it went. We got dumped. But there is no way we are going to stop visiting him. I know that the Lord has his own timing for Hermano Ore. Something will change one day. I don`t know what or when that will be, but I have great faith that that family will go to the temple one day. I love them WAY too much to let this family go. 

Since we live in Cusco, we get lots of tourists coming to our ward. They are usually very white and speak no spanish... which means we get to talk to them! At first it was really fun talking to white people... and then it just got more and more uncomfortable. I don`t know what it is, but it feels so incredibly awkward to talk to a white person who`s not a missionary. I like to call this "Awkward White People Conversations". Elder Standifird`s parents came to pick him up from his mission this week and we had lunch with them. It was SO uncomfortable! I can`t talk to normal white people!! Needless to say, I have come to 2 conclusions: 1) I am really awkward and 2) I may never come home because that sounds like the most uncomfortable situation EVER. Way too many white people.

Alright, here comes the BOOM!... We found out our changes this morning. I was SO stressed this last few days... we all were. The anticipation for changes are the WORST! Today we were yet again, SHOCKED! First, Elder Doza (Zone leader) is going to be a ZL in Puno. Next, I found out I am going to be training in this same sector!! AH! scary! Hermana Thompson is going to be a Sister Leader in another sector far away. And Elder Albert (other Zone Leader) is going to be an assistant!! haha everyone but me is leaving this ward. I kind am going to die a little bit. But, my District Leader from Sicuani, Elder Lehman and another awesome Elder are coming to be the Zone leaders and open the sector here with me. It´s all so crazy! We all screamed a little bit. I am excited, nervous, scared, freaked out, and somewhat calm... I know that this is exactly what I am supposed to be doing here. I don`t feel at all adequate for this calling, but I know I will learn a ton. I will find out who I am training on Wednesday. Woohoo! Prayers accepted :) 

Love you all so much! Hailey, I´m glad to see your hair is growing enough to have pigtails! I am also working on that. Chloe you are more adorable than ever! Love you girls. And family love you all so much! Look forward to a package from me soon! :) 

Love, 

Hermana Nelson 

The Iceberg.

Familia,

This week was so wonderful! I am feeling more INCREDIBLE LOVE for the people here. Seriously, my heart just BURSTS for them sometimes. I am coming to understand Heavenly Father`s incredible love and concern for each one of us. I feel bad for how much pain we put him through sometimes. 

We had an amazing experience with a less active member Maribel and her non member husband, Josè. Out of nowhere, he decided he wanted to listen to us and we taught him an amazing lesson with a member yesterday! At the end, I could see that Maribel was a little softened. The spirit was so strong, I knew there was no way that she could`ve felt that spirit too. I asked her how she felt and she told us that she feels like if her husband ends up joining the church, she wouldn`t feel so alone and confused and feel like she could really come back too. She has been incredible difficult to figure out. She just keeps telling us that she wants take her time to make her own decision to come back. We totally understand that, so we have been talking to her about prayer a lot. However, we realized that her problem was that she just felt alone. She had no support from her family. The iceberg. We found it. 

This week I am extremely grateful for the spirit. For example, I would be really grateful for the spirit if it woke up my companion at 4:30 in the morning while someone was trying to break into our room or something... and she felt impressed to get up and slam against the door to scare the creep away... and then the peace that I would feel from the spirit after a crazy experience like that. I also would be grateful for the Elders that made us switch rooms with them that next morning to a more safer place on the 4th floor... and would be so happy to now be living with our Pensionista, Yomira. I mean, all hypothetically speaking. The spirit is a great thing. I feel very safe and protected to have the spirit with us as misisonaries.

Our pensionista`s son, Brian... got a tongue ring this week. His mom still doesn`t know... He has to keep it in for a week, so he`s really avoiding eating around his mom. It`s really funny, this situation sounds ALL too familiar... really I mean who does this remind me of... ?? Hm. BRIAN. 

I LOVE PERU. It is so beautiful. I honestly feel like I am coming to recognize the love our Lord has for us and coming to know that through the beauty of the earth I get to experience here. 

Love you all!! You are incredible!

Love,

Hermana Nelson

p.s. We ate at Chili`s this week. AHH

Pictures 3/17

Our cute friend from the street

We went to this really cool place called Tipòn, old incan ruins. Pretty incredible.

awkward solo pic. I hate taking pictures by myself. This fountain represents an Incan lengend about the 4 brothers that founded cusco... If you know anything about the BoM, you´ll think that´s pretty crazy.

I´m in love with Peru.

The District.

My BFF

PIZZOOKIE. We robbed someone`s cookie mix their mom sent them and make Pizzookie. It was so incredible worth the terrible stomach ache after.

Getting in touch with my inner Incan self.

Super cool.

Frozen lemonade. Ahhh if you only knew how amazing that tastes...

FABIAN!

3/10 Pictures

My favorite little boy in the ward, Lehi. He is perfect!

 Carnival. This Sunday and last sunday, was a fun little holiday called Carnival! Oh my. To summarize what this holiday is all about... everyone throws water balloons, buckets of water, and foam spray at... well really anyone! So as you can imagine... we are white, in skirts, blonde, just innocent girls trying to share the word of God with the people of Cusco... naturally, we were the perfect targets. It doen´t help that everyone is drunk and can´t think resonably. Last week was worse, we got balloons launched at us from the top of buildings, foam sprayed from cars, people running after us with buckets of water... It really was just hilarious. Last week we bought our own spray to defend ourselves. This week, we had nothing. And it really wasn´t as bad... until we got home. We were eating in our pension´s house (where the elders live), just enjoying this delicious soup she made. Then all I remember was Elder Albert saying something like "Y'all are great, but sorry...CARNIVAAAAL" and it was all down hill from there. There was foam spray EVERYWHERE in that house! It was ridiculous! Our pensionista and her sons were all into it too! We were dying laughing! Ah, a great way to end the week. hahaha

We Trusted in the Lord

Last week I talked about trusting in the Lord. Well, this week I want to talk about what happens when you trust in the Lord. Buckets of blessings!

Honestly, I haven´t written a lot about our investigators we are working with because there haven´t been any that are progressing, sadly. It has been rough to constantly try to visit the same people and have the same results... they´re not home, they haven´t read or prayed, they didn´t come to church. People that we really love, weren´t accepting what we were teaching. Last Sunday, we decided to fast specifically to be able to be guided by the spirit to find these new people that we know the Lord has prepared for us. We prayed and listened more sincerely than ever. It was all we could do. We could only TRUST that the Lord would guide us. We really had no other options. In reality, we were desperate. I wish we didn´t wait to be desperate to trust in the Lord, because the little miracles we saw this week were amazing. 

Remember Dora and Vicki? They got baptized in Lima and return from their travel this week, but her son, Oscar has been in Cusco all this time. We got a few signs that we should go visit him. So, that we did! We visited him twice last week and had amazing lessons. He is extremely interested in the church. He is a little lost... when we asked if he believes in God, he said, "well I believe in you, and you, and you, and I believe in myself".. he prays to the energy of the universe and says, "it works". He started reading the Book of Mormon and really liked it. I know that he will find true happiness through this gospel. His doubts and confusion about religion will be answered through prayer and through the scriptures. 

As we visited a less active, Maribel, we have been working with, we found her brother, Daniel, who we didn´t know was a member. He straight up told us that he inactivated  himself, but he said "I think this Sunday would be a good day to come back". Of course we agreed and told him we would see him Sunday! He came! He said he wants to start at square 1 with everything and just relearn it all. After church we saw him go to the bishop, with his wallet and said,"Bishop, I haven´t paid my tithing in over a year... how much do I owe". We watched the bishop smile and push his wallet away. Haha. He is going through this change of heart. He truly wants to follow Christ and get his life back on track. 

We also recieved a great reference from a member. A man named Raul. He is super interested in the church and also wants to get his life back on track. 

Other great things happened that I don´t have time for right now, but honestly, I felt the spirit guiding me more than ever this week. As I truly opened my heart to the Lord and His will for us, I was guided to people that truly were ready for us. It´s amazing what happens when you trust in the Lord.

I love you all so much!! I pray for you everyday!

Love,

Hermana Nelson

3/3 Pictures

Fluffy Dog and our amigos in the stree.

A lady from our ward... Flor de Maria. She is a little bit like really crazy, but she loves missionary work and helps us a ton! 

I ran into my convert from Sicuani yesterday!! Oh my gosh. Remember the kid that we would randomly run into in the street in Sicuani? That´s how we first met him, how we found him after he went MIA after a month, and once again here in CUSCO! Crazy. It was so fun to see him! I just screamed and gave him a big hug... whoops.

We have a senior missionary couple in our mission. They invited us over for dinner... Who knew roast beef, broccoli, and mashed potatoes could taste SOOOO good. Oh the little things.

One time, my companion lied that her birthday was last Saturday. Well, told everyone she was just kidding, but apparently one Elder didn´t catch wind that it was a joke... he told our District Leader, who called the Zone Leaders... and next thing we know there´s a giant cake at our district meeting with her name on it. The Zone Leaders knew that it actually wasn´t her birthday, but they decided to give her justice for lying about her birthday and let then buy a cake. Oh my gosh it was SO funny. It´s a tradition to smash their face in the cake. We made sure we smashed it extra hard :) haha

Trust in the Lord

Familia!

This week was great!! We were quarentined to our rooms for 2 days basically because there was a strike and riots and all kinds of craziness going on outside for a strike against gas prices. There were NO taxis for two days until the afternoons. It was a little crazy and somewhat really unecessary because I´m pretty sure the gas prices haven´t changed. So good job team, your strike did absolutely nothing. Now we all know you´re all crazies.

I read a great talk this week called "Trust in the Lord". I was overwhelmed with emotions as I read it and realized that we are NEVER alone. He said in the talk, "Don´t face the world alone. Trust in the Lord." I realized that there are times that we may naturally rely on the Lord more because of circumstances or trials we are facing. However, we should learn to always put our trust in the Lord. We should look to him for help in ALL things. He is always with us, if we allow it. We can find the guidance from him in our lives if we show him we are willing to follow his commandments. We can "rediscover how great life really is" by putting our trust in Him. Life is full of craziness and things we cannot control. Sometimes all we can do is trust that Heavenly Father has a plan for us. He didn´t send us here to fail, but to learn and progress and to prepare to meet Him. It´s a great plan. It´s perfect! I love the scripture in D&C 105:14 where the Lord says, "I will fight your battles". He will support us and carry us through our battles when we truly ask for it.

Love you all and appreciate your love, support and prayers! 

Have a FABULOUS week!! 

Love,

Hermana Nelson