Ether 12:27

Holy cow it`s really hot here. I didn`t think it could get much hotter, but it does. The funny thing about Puerto is that every time we talk to someone the first thing they say is "Ah it`s hot! Isn`t it?", as if yesterday wasn`t hot and tomorrow won`t be just as hot. The weather is a natural conversation starter even if it is ever so constantly. brutally. HOT.

This week was ahhhh good. They always say that if you ask God for patience, he`ll give you opportunities to be patient. That was proved to be more than true this week. I was very humbled this week by many circumstances, and more than anything by coming to see my own weaknesses. Sometimes we get into a dangerous rhythm of "oh yeah, I know what I`m doing". I was praying to be more humble so I can really come to know Heavely Father`s will for me here. He gave me a few good opportunities this week to humble myself. We had planned a lesson for the 2 new families we are teaching and had planned to teach the Law of Chastity and invite them to get married and baptized. We planned out the lesson, and prayed and fasted all day hoping that everything would go well and that they would accept the invitation to be baptized. We were all focused on them. Going into the lesson, we felt good and started off reading the Book of Mormon with them because they hadn`t read. The spirit was strong as we taught about the importance of the Book of Mormon. Then we went ahead with the lesson we had planned about chastity. It was fine... they understood, but were very distracted by babies crying and other random questions and soon enough we kind of lost control of the spirit. By the end, we didn`t feel good about inviting them to be baptized. I ended with by sure testimony of the Book of Mormon. I felt the spirit as I testified of that truth and as my companion testified of our Heavenly Father`s love for us. We left the lesson feeling a little frustrated with how things went. After a long day we were physically and emotionally exhausted. We talked it all out and went over where we went wrong. I came to realize through that experience that I was putting my trust in my own weak abilities rather than putting my faith in my Heavenly Father and his all-knowing power. Although we were fasting a praying, I wasn`t truly doing it with faith in Him. I was doing it with faith in myself. It helped me to remember that I need to truly turn to Him and "consult him in all my doings" and let him direct my path. He showed me my many weaknesses this week and helped me to be a little more humble. It constantly amazes me to think about how imperfect I am, yet how much trust Heavenly Father has put in me to Preach His gospel and brings souls unto Him and His Son. How could he possibly be okay with letting me loose to do that?? Well, it`s because he loves me. He trusts be because he knows I can do it. He has a divine potential and plan for each one of us.

I love being a missionary. I am still learning and learning and learning. I can`t imagine my life without this experience! We are working with lots of knew people and hoping to see more progress in this sector as we turn our will to Heavenly Father. 

Thank you for the video with Nate. We are working with a less active, Karol, that is suffering from depression. I`ll tell you more about her crazy and miraculous story next week. Definitely helped me understand a little more of what she might be going through. 

Love you SO much! 

Hermana Nelson

P.S. Candy, the cat had 4 baby kittens and then ATE them!!! AHHHH talk about traumatic.

P.P.S. Found three REALLY abnormally HUGE cocroaches in our bathroom last night. I poured like half of our hand soap on one of them to kill it. It worked. Also found a scorpion. Oh and we were invited to eat lunch with a member this week. They made Hamburgers! LOTS of hamburgers!! I`ll send pics next week. 

Cuentas tus bendiciones.

This week was really great! We saw even more little miracles... seriously the Lord is blessing us WAY too much! 

So, maybe you`ve noticed, but we are really focusing on families right now. The President a few months ago challenged us to contact EVERY family we pass in the street. Seeing a family all together in the street is a very unusual thing here, so it`s a rare opportunity when we run into a family. President Harbertson said that he strongly feels that these families are prepared to here the gospel and progress because they already have that foundation of a family. Also, in order to help build the kingdom of God, we need families! The family we met last week, we haven`t been able to get in contact with again, but we`ll keep trying this week. We actually found two new families! Once again, walking by a park we saw two couples with thier babies... Hermana McMahon and I just looked at each other and without hesitation went right over to contact them. We were able to make another appointment to visit them a few days later. They are two really great couples that are seeking guidance for their families. The husbands work security at a near by jail and have a lot of days free so it makes it easy for us to make appointments with them. What really surprised us was when they introduced us to their friend that also lives with them, Eduardo. He came out with a Book of Mormon and another church book in hand! We were like, "uh what? are you a member?!" He explained that he was a member from Cusco recently baptized, but was inactive since he had been in Puerto for 5 months. It was seriously another testimony to me that Heavenly Father really is looking out for his children. He knows us personally and knows what we need more that we ourselves do. He`ll send us help if we will only accept it. Eduardo and on eof the couples, Jonatan and Vianet came to church yesterday! So many people were at church yesterday! We are seeing progress littl eby little and seeing blessings in the lives of the people we visit. 

Love you all and praying for you!

Hermana Nelson

Soy Peruana

You know you`ve been living in Peru too long when your skin starts turning darker, you`re starving for dinner because you didn`t have rice for lunch, and you crave rice and avocado at the end of the day... and your arms start getting hairier. Just a few things I may or may not be experiencing.

We saw a miracle this week when we contacted a family in a park... The mom had serious desires to learn about the truth about religion. It feels good to be able to testify to people that promise them that their doubts and questions will be resolved as they listen to our message. We have an appointment with them tonight so we`re pretty stoked abou that. Other families and miracles are in process! I`ll update you more next week!

Love you all so much! Viva Peru!

Love,

Hermana Nelson

Obedient Faith

This week was great! A few really great experiences on how our faith can bring about  miracles. On saturday we set a goal to find a new investigator, although we were only going to be working in our own sector for an hour or so because we are going to do work in another sector all day. Yet, we had faith! Well, while visiting families in the other sector, we found a lady that lived in my sector! She accepted a visit from us this coming week!

 

This week we are going to watch conference in the chapel! Mom, I do live in the jungle, but we aren`t that deprived! I`m super excited to watch it and we are all praying that our investigators come!! Especially a new couple, Nilo and Yenny, I`ll tell you about them next week!

 

Love you all tons! Have a fabulous week!

 

Love,

Hermana Nelson

Weak Things Made Strong

This week was really good! Feels like it went by really fast. One of those weeks that we didn`t see HUGE progress in a lot of people, but we saw a lot of great, significant starts to great things. We have been visiting a lady, Viki, since I have been here. She is a less active and has a lot of physical, mental, emotional, financial, and spiritual struggles. However, her faith is firm and strong in God. She knows who Jesus Christ is and understands His hand in her life... that will never change. She is a single mom with three kids and is only 26 years old. I have grown such a great love for her. Especially this week. We had the opportunity to visit with her a little more often than usual and have really powerful lessons guided directly by the spirit. We had planned one day to talk about the Chastity and ended up going from that into the Gospel of Jesus Christ and repentance... another day we were going to talk about Tithing and ended up talking about the redemption that comes from the atonement and Faith in Christ... Each lesson we had, we felt guided by the spirit to change our lesson plans and focus on Jesus Christ and his gospel. In each lesson we testified in a different way how the Atonement can heal us. I know that is true. It is truly all in our hands. If we truly desire to be freed from a certain burden, guilt, or challenge we have, we need to turn to Jesus Christ and his gospel. Like the Book of Mormon and Bible teach us countless times... He is the only way by which we can find true happiness in this life, be redeemed of our sins, and eventually recieve the blessings of eternal life, the greatest of all gifts. 

I am grateful for the Atonement in my life and how I have seen it work in the lives of others. It is a gift for all of us to use for our whole lives. We`ll never be perfect, but we were made to become better everyday. Thankfully, the Atonement makes that possible. 

I love you so much!!

Love,

Hermana Nelson

Mosiah 5:13

HOLA familia! Como estàn? Estoy muy bien! Hace calor aquì. Me gustan gatos. 

I guess you could say my spanish is getting better, right? No, but seriously, despite the 4 North American companions I`ve had, I feel like I am really picking up on Spanish. Yesterday in a meeting we watched a short video and part of it was in English with subtitles and then it switched to spanish without the subtitles and I didn`t even realize... I was like "wait where are the subtitles in spanish?, these latin missionaries aren`t going to understand what it is saying!" and then I realized that it was speaking spanish. It`s all becoming just a part of my brain. It`s a weird thing.

So, as you all know I am training again! It`s going super well and I am learning a lot. Hermana McMahon studied spanish before so she pretty much knows everything, we`re just practicing speaking more. She is learning and progressing so much everyday! Seriously everytime we do those super fun and sometimes really awkward "practice lessons" during companion study, she puts everything we studied into practice and then applies it what we do during the day. She is really helping me to go back to the basics. I feel like I am really remembering the most important things of missionary work and that I am progressing a ton. I feel more fully emmersed in the work! I don`t feel so strange to be a missionary, but it just feels more of who I am now.

We have seen some great miracles these past couple weeks in our sector. We recently found and are teaching FOUR NEW FAMILIES! Talk about miracles. I am super excited about each of them because I feel that they all have a desire to learn about Jesus Christ which is a great first step! One family, Alicia and Renè (we contacted Alicia in the street because her friend was holding a cute puppy... we look for all sorts of excuses to talk to people haha) came to church yesterday! The whole family! And they loved it. It was the first time Renè, the husband came to church, but he was beaming the whole time. He said his work called him during church, but he just ignored their calls haha. We sincerely prayed that they would come to church as a family this week and it was a perfect answer to our prayers. 

Lots of other little miracles are happening as we are becoming more fully engaged in this work. I am coming to know my Savior as I serve him more fully. I read a really great scripture in Mosiah today that you all need to read... Mosiah 5:13. #cometoknowhimbyservinghim

Love you all tons! Know that I am happy, and eating lots of bananas and avocado... and sometimes ice cream... so I would say I`m fairly healthy too :)

also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAILEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOohoo!!! Good job on the first 2 years of your life, now you`re going into the third one. It`s going to be great, lot`s of ups and downs ahead, but stay strong and keep helping grandma make yummy cookies and practice that cannon ball into the pool for me when I get home... Love you lots!

Con un abrazo MUY grande por todos!

Hermana Nelson

Lo Siento!

Hey sorry I didn´t write yesterday! I guess it´s what happens when the
power goes out... and the water... yikes.

This week has been great! I went to Cusco and picked up my new comp!
Hermana McMahon is her name. She is from Indiana, likes to sing, likes
ice cream, is a convert of about 6 years, and is really beautiful! She
has an amazing spirit about her. I know that we are going to work hard
together and learn lots. She showed a lot of patience with me when I
locked us out of our room our first night here... whoops!

I´m sorry I haven´t written much these past few weeks, but I am really
doing well and loving Puerto! It´s hot as ever and I never stop
sweating, but I LOVE IT! I will write more next week I swear!!

I love you all so much!

Con Amor,

Hermana Nelson


Bus ride to CUSCO! hashtag barf hashtag so beautiful

Hermana Condie and my last day together in Puerto. Super sad, but fun
to see all the great lives she influenced while here in Puerto. She
was an amazing companion. I learned so much from her by her humble
example. She truly made me a better person.

My new companion! Hermana McMahon from INDIANA. You can only imagine
how much the peruvians are butchering her name! It even took me a day
to get it right.