El es la Dadiva

He is the gift. 

Just want to share my simple testimony with you all in honor of Christmas this week and in honor of Grandma Peck.

I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. My testimony and faith in Him have grown tremendously this past year. I feel closer to Him because I have come to understand how essencial He is in my life. Because Christ was born, I can overcome my own imperfections and be freed from feelings of sorrow and pain. Because He was born, I know that we will all live again. I know that we will all be resurected and if we prove to be faithful to Him and repent in this life, we will enter into His presence. Because Christ was born, lived, and died for us, I know that I will be reunited with my family after this life. I know that Grandma Peck is at peace and now rejoicing with Grandpa Peck. I know that I will be reunited with her again. She was a true example of enduring to the end... staying firm in her faith in Jesus Christ. I am grateful for her valient and humble example. All these things were made possible because Jesus Christ was born. I can´t think of a greater, more important and wonderful gift than the one our loving Heavenly Father gave to each of us... His son, Jesus Christ. It´s a gift that will never fade away and one we can remember and celebrate everyday. I know that Christ lives and loves us. He invites us to come unto Him... with arms of mercy extended out towards us. Discover the gift. Accept the gift. Share the gift.

Feliz Navidad!

Love,

Hermana Nelson

Come What May And Love It

I decided this is my new theme for every transfer. For anyone that`s served a mission, you know how incredible stressful it is the week before transfers... just anticipating your changes and then opening your email to see what the Lord has in store for you. It`s always a fun experience, I`d say. Well I recieved the news that I`ll be going to Cusco, the Inti Raymi ward ("party of the sun" in Quechwa) to serve as a Sister Training Leader. I`m really grateful for the opportunity to serve in a new calling and learn and grow more! 

Serving in Puerto has been an such a spiritually trying and strengthening experience. I have learned so much about trusting in the Lord and having faith. The Lord has blessed me so much with people to teach here. We found families to teach that are truly prepared to here the gospel. The Lord is changing their hearts. I have seen that in my time here. Here`s just a few of the families I`ve seen be changed through the gospel while I`ve been in Puerto...

Paddy and Emerson. A family that was supposedly "going downhill". Paddy was losing all hope to be happy ever again. Through reading the Book of Mormon with them frequently as a family, I have seen their hearts change. Emerson has changed his perspective of the Preisthood power he posseses and his responsabilities as a return missionaries. Their faith has grown! Paddy now wants to be sealed in the temple with her family. 

Jhasmina and Yersin. Ah so many incredible changes I`ve seen in them. Yersin decided to stop drinking to improve his life and relationship with his family. They were married because "it is a commandment of God" and was baptized. Even in the challenges they`ve had after baptism, I have seen them truly persever, excercise repentance through the atonement and learn for themselves strength that comes from obedience. Yersin is preparing to recieve the higher Preisthood and they are both preparing to be sealed in the temple.

Vianeth and Jonathan. A family we contacted in the park... THEY are prepared. They were ready to accept more fully Jesus Christ in their lives. I have seen the Holy Ghost work in their hearts to help them understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and apply it. Yesterday they came to District conference and were able to meet President Harbertson. It was the first time he came to church in a white shirt and tie! They are going to be married and baptized on December 20th.

Alma 26:12 "Yo sè que nada soy; en cuanto a mi fuerza, soy debil; por tanto, no me jactarè de mì mismo, sino que me gloriarè in mi Dios, porque con su fuerza puedo hacer todas las cosas..." These are not my "successes". These are the successes of these families... they themselves have accepted Jesus Christ in their lives and have found true joy and hope through His Gospel. I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to be a part of their lives and learn from them. My own faith has been strengthened. I love these people and so many of the other people I have worked with here! It will be hard to leave, but I have 100% trust in my companion Hermana McMahon. She is an amazing missionary... super obedient and has true desires to serve. I love her for that. We had way too much fun together... We`re just both really goofy haha. But we also grew a lot and learned a lot together. Now, on to the next chapter! Come what may and love it!

I love you all and am praying for you tons! 

Hermana Nelson

A Loving Heavenly Father

This week was so wonderful. Like I said last week, we had a conference on Tuesday with Elder Evans, the Executive Director of Mission work and a member of the quorum of the 70. Words can`t really describe how the conference went. I received so many strong impressions by the spirit in the conference and learned so much. My life was changed by the things I learned. That`s not just exaggerating... I truly felt the spirit so strongly, that I felt my mind enlightened by the what was taught. It was a very unique conference... not just the usual sitting and listening for hours, but he had us really participate and led us to answering our own questions. I think we all left feeling a little more enlightened about questions we had. I also had the incredible opportunity to have a one on one interview with Elder Evans. I don`t know how or why, but I was one of 6 people in the mission to have an interview with him. So I took it as a very special opportunity. We conversed. I cried a little bit. It was so great. My life will forever be changed by the spirit and impressions I felt in that interview. I am so incredible grateful for the opportunity we had to hear from Elder Evans and most importantly his inspired words that truly brought the spirit to teach us.

I`m loving being a missionary. I hate the thought of this experience ending, however I know that as the conference this week changed my life, the mission truly has changed my life. I am excited to but these things into practice in my life after the mission. But for now, I feel a new excitement and humbled spirit to serve the Lord and bring others to Him. It`s the greatest thing I could ever be doing with my life! I`m so grateful for all that I am learning and experiencing here! I feel so extremely loved and blessed by my Heavenly Father. He truly hears and answers my prayers and questions of my heart. If you have doubts, go ahead, just ask. Try Him and I promise that He will answer your prayers. Be patient, diligent and obedient and your eyes will be opended to His eternal love for you.

Love you so much!

Hermana Nelson

Sincere Desires = Happy Missionaries

This week was really great! We saw a lot of great tender mercies! We have been contacting a lot more families and finding more and more people that are truly prepared. 

Last night we visited a family, Milagros and Pablo with their baby, Pablo Jr. Wow, it`s so fun to teach people that truly have the desires to know the truth. They are catholic and their whole family... parents, grandparents, etc. are catholic, so they`re a little hesitant to change religion, but they are willing to learn about what we are teaching because they want what`s best for their family. They are truly seeking what Heavenly Father wants for them. They are both very intellectual people which can sometimes make teaching hard if they don`t have humble hearts, but Pablo and Milagros are actual really humble and like I said have sincere desires. I can feel the spirit so strongly as we teach them. He said that he can feel the passion that we have for "our religion" as we teach and talk about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, yet I know that it`s really the spirit that he is feeling when we testify that these things are true. They came to church on Sunday and had some questions about that, but really liked it! Pablo said he is going to commit to come to church, and start reading to Book of Mormon and ask God if it is true. I have no doubt that with his open hear and sincere desires, Heavenly Father with show him the truth of what we are teaching. It`s so fun to teach people that can really feel it and have opens hearts to our message. My faith is growing more and more in the miracles I know Heavenly Father can work in people´s lives. If we would but truly trust in HIM and His promises to obedient children, we could see truly great miracles in our own lives! 

I`m learning more about come closer to Jesus Christ. I read a talk about being perfected in Christ today... it was humbling to reflect on the pure love that Heavenly Father has for His children. Although we are all a work in progress, we are the greatest work he has ever made. 

Love you all so much! I probably won`t be writing next Monday because we are going to a conference in Cusco with Elder Evans! Should be pretty amazing! I`ll probably be writing later that week.

Also, shout out to Grandma Peck! Happy 80th Birthday Grandma! I love you so much and hope you have the greatest birthday ever! I look up to you so much and feel like I have come to know you more on my mission through the stories that my mom has been sending me. I love you so much and am praying for you daily! 

Con amor,

Hermana Nelson

Hermana McMahon is the Best Companion of All Time

I asked my companion what my subject for the email should be and that`s what she suggested. I guess it`s pretty fitting and absolutely true. She rocks.

AH this week was so great. We saw great miracles as we more closely followed the counsel of our mission president. 

So I`ve already told you about the two young couples we contacted in the park a few weeks ago... and then Eduardo the recent convert from cusco that also lives with them. After the lesson last week and the many prayers and fasting for them, we saw incredible blessings. We had a great lesson with them, by simply reading the Book of Mormon and talking about baptism. The spirit was strong and the babies were quiet. We invited them to be married and baptized on the December 20th and they accepted! It was so natural and went so smoothly. I know they spirit had softened their hearts. Heavenly Father truly prepared them to hear the gospel. They are progressing so well. Yonathan is on fire in our lessons! You can tell he is truly being taught by the spirit because one person will have a doubt or a question and he will say something like, "I think I understand..." and then explain so perfectly that we just look at him with huge smiles and say, "Yep! That`s exactly right!" We`re excited for them and I`m praying I`ll be here for another transfer to see them start the path to following Jesus Christ. 

 Eduardo is doing awesome too. He  explained to us this week that after not having been to church since he moved to Puerto (about 7 months), he stumbled upon the book "Teachings from President Joseph F. Smith" at the jail he workds at.... and that following day, we came to visit his friends and met him! He took it as an opportunity that Heavenly Father was giving him to put his life back in order and return to church. Well, Eduardo has taken that opportunity seriously and come back full force! That week he came to church, had an interview with the President of the branch, and has attended multiple YSA activities since then. We`re even hoping that their friend Eduardo can baptize the couples since he already has the Priesthood.

It was a great week and a fun Halloween... this year I was a sister missionary. I love you all and praying for you daily as always!

Con mucho love,

Hermana Nelson

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