YOMO

Mi familia,

So I have like zero time to write today, I hope you all forgive me. We had an amazing week here in Cusco! So many new things coming out of the woodwork, I can´t believe it! At times I think, "wow, what did I do to deserve such amazing miracles?"... then I remember that I haven´t done anything. Everything blessing we have recieved here in this new sector has been a direct blessing and miracle from our merciful and loving Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for his help in this work. I see the love and grace of the Savior slowly changing the hearts of the people we teach. 

Another thing you should probably know... Mom, please don´t kill me. Although, that´s not really possible for you to do right now, so I think I´m safe. There is a phrase we say here in the mission... YOMO (You only mission once). With the support of my dear companion and my zone leaders, I took this phrase to heart and did something a little drastic. I will leave it at that and let you look at the pictures I attached. Haha.

I love you all tons! Thank you for your emails! I am praying TONS for you all... especially my little sick ones :(

Thank you for your love and support! 

Love,

Hermana Nelson

 Our pensionista wanted a "family picture" with us to frame and hang in her house. This is the fountain that we live right next to. It´s beautiful! I love our pensionista, Yomira. She is amazing, and cooks amazing food for us... except for that cow stomach we had that one day. ahhh...

My FAVORITE companion! She is the best! We are so goofy together, but also work hard. She has a great spirit about her and keeps life fun and optimistic! Love her.

Loving the new area

Hola familia! I am absolutely loving this new area! Opening a sector has never been so much fun! I can definitely attribute that to the INCREDIBLE members, my companion, other missionaries, pensionista... it´s all amazing. I love the people and the work here. We are working with a lot of less actives, which can be difficult, but things are progressing with them, so I have high hopes! There are also a lot of families preparing to go to the temple, so it has been really fun to talk about the blessings of eternal families, etc. Last night we taught a couple who is going to go to the Lima temple in about a month. I showed them pictures of each one of you! I told them that each of you have been through the temple. I am so grateful for that. So grateful to be able to say that! 

As we are getting in the groove of opening a sector, the elders are getting used to sharing a sector haha. As I mentioned last week, everyone is obessed with having hermanas in the ward. They give us all their references, want us to visit them, and walk around with us for hours showing us the area and introducing us to new people. Every once in a while, we have a run in with the elders or at the end of the day they´ll ask, "Oh how was the Espinoza family? Yeah, they told you had already stopped by before us." Yesterday was especially funny, A member brought us to a less active´s house to visit and probably 5 minutes into our conversation, there was a knock at the door. Lo and behold it was the Elders! I guess you could say they were a little less than pleasantly surprised haha. We all laughed about it. What can I say... 

My spanish is still happening... haha. Sometimes people tell me, "You don´t speak much spanish, do you?". Oh really? I don´t? Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I wasn´t aware that I´m not fluent in spanish yet! Mostly, I just laugh about it. Ha. ... ha. 

There is a teenage girl we are working with who is amazing. She was baptized in a different city about 6 months ago, and later moved to Cusco. She is a really special girl. She doesn´t talk much, but you can feel how special she is when you are with her. Her mom died about 3 years ago, her dad lives in a different house... she is the youngest and living in her own little room she rents by herself. I still have a lot to understand about her and her life. We had a lesson with her last week. We had planned to share a specific scripture. As she got her Book of Mormon off her shelf, she handed us this little picture of Christ wiping the tears of a little girl. On the back it had a scripture reference from Revelations 21:4. It was in english, so she wanted to know what the scripture said. We looked it up in spanish and were completely hit by the spirit. The scripture says that the Lord will dry all your tears. I have never read that scripture before. Hermana Thompson and I just looked at each other and looked at Jacelin. We felt an incredible love from our Heavenly Father for her. I could feel that the Lord has wiped her many tears. My testimony was strengthened once again that our Heavenly Father truly cares and is watching over each and every one of us. 

I am having so much fun and so many great experiences here. My comp is amazing! She is hilarious. Sometimes too much for me to handle. She lost her voice this week and I don´t knowo what I was thinking, but I suggested we sing a song before we prayed while we were in a lesson with this older lady. Well, it ended up being more of a solo sung by me. The lady wanted to sing more... so I sang three songs, yes practically solos (because if you knew the people here... they don´t really sing). I was DYING. I was on the verge of a laughing attack meltdown. Luckily I held it together. 

Love you all so much! Thank you Grandma and grandpa Nelson for the christmas card and pictures! So adorable! I LOVE PICTURES!!!! The clasons, hamiltons, and mom send me Christmas cards too! Thanks a ton! SPECIAL THANKS TO NATE FOR THE GO PRINTS. OH MY GOSH I WANTED TO CRY: Those are BEAUTIFUL! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I am so excited to give those to families here. Ahhh thank you so much! 

Love,

Hermana Nelson

Transfer to Cusco

Hola Family! Happy New Year! Or as they say here... ¡Feliz año!  

Last week was really sad to leave Sicuani... we ran aroudn like CRAZY trying to say goodbye to everyone! It was sad, but I feel like what I was there to do was done and there really is something great for me to do here in Cusco. 

This new sector is AMAZING. SOOOOO different than Sicuani, it´s crazy. I still don´t fully comprehend it all yet... I was in this little town where everyone new each other and I came to know every street corner, every drunk, every dog, every owner of every store... and now I am in CUSCO, the heart of Peru! It´s huge. There´s lots of really big buildings, tons of tourists, cars!... It´s like I´m going through another culture shock haha. It´s crazy and I love it! This first week has been way crazy. So you asked what "opening a new sector" really means. Well, let me explain:

1. You don´t have a home. So you sleep on the floor for a week in the other sisters´ apartment (8 girls in one place... yes it´s insane.) So you have to take a taxi to your area everyday. 

2. You are the first hermana´s in the area for a reallllly long time! Everyone we have met from the ward has been SO excited to meet us and say, "WOW, it´s been forever since we have had hermanas in our area!"

3. You don´t know ANYONE or ANYTHING. Therefore you have to meet everyone and learn everything! Luckily we have two amazing elders in our ward (more on that later) and INCREDIBLE members helping us (more on that later too). 

4. Area book. Yeah that thing is empty.

We aren´t completely starting from scratch with this area because there have been elders here forever, but we are just added to the ward with them, so we have to start our own area book. What´s hard is that neither my companion or I know this area or anyone that lives here. That is really what opening a sector is. They put two new missionaries in an area to start from scratch, or almost scratch. But honestly, although it´s been a crazy week and it´s a little overwhelming to be in this crazy, yet amazing new city... I have seen INCREDIBLE blessings and miracles here. Do you want another list? Okay fine:

1. We found a house! This was probably the greatest miracle of this week!  We thought we found a place in a perfect location, perfect size, perfect everything! We went to check it out with the Elders and the owner... and while we were there, everything looked perfect, yet felt so wrong. We walked away all with a bad feeling, like it just wasn´t right. Yet we didn´t know where else to look! We prayed and began a fast to be able to find an apartment. We had that same bad feeling about that apartment and both really felt like there was something better we would find. We followed those feelings we had and decided to turn down that apartment and continue looking, trusting that the Lord would put something in our path. My comp has been sick the past few days, so our dear Zone Leaders went out in the rain ALL day friday to look for a place for us to live. We continued to pray for a miracle that day. At about10:00 that night, the Elders called us and told us a miracle happened! They found an apartment in a perfect location, right next to our pensionista and the Elder´s house. It really was a miracle. We also found out some crazy things about the owner of the first apartment we looked at. I´ll spare the details, but it is a place we would never want to live, nor will we ever live there. I am grateful for the guidance of the spirit, and the power of prayer and fasting. I believe Heavenly Father was truly guiding us and protecting us and prepared an amazing place for us to live! 

2. Everyone loves us! Seriously, everyone is stoked to have sisters in the ward! The releif society president is stoked to work with us and we have already recieved countless references and offers from members to come with us to teach. 

3. I am convinced we have the GREATEST ward in... well, the world. I have been completely SHOCKED at how incredible everyone is here. Ward mission leaders actually exist? Members actually WANT to come teach with us? Ward council... it´s possible to be under an hour... AND effective? We have a family history specialist... for our WARD? An attendance of 102 at church is low? Yes, it is all shocking, and such a blessing. It´s the ward of my dreams! These people are truly catching the vision of the Work of Salvation. 

4. I got placed with the greatest companion ever! Hermana Thompson is incredible! She is so sweet and such a hard worker. She is so positive, yet realistic. She listens to my dumb stories and is so patient with my spanish... even when it takes my a year to get my point accross. She is uplifting and truly a blessing. I am so grateful to be with her here! I really feel like this companionship was inspired and we are meant to be in this area. I´m so excited to see what is to come in this new sector. Especially now that things are calming down and we have a house... we can REALLY get to work and start visiting all these amazing people in cusco! 

I love Cusco! It is definitely different than Sicuani in EVERY WAY, but I am already falling in love with the people and the environment here. I know that this is where Hermana Thompson and I are supposed to be right now. We have amazing Zone Leaders and a District Leader, Pensionista, and Ward. They have helped us SO much!! 

Welcome to CUSCOTOPIA!!!

Con Amor, 

Hermana Nelson 

"Venid a Cristo... llegar a ser como Cristo."

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