Hola and Happy New Year!

Hola familia y amigos!!! I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas!!! It was so fun to talk to yall and hear your cute voices! And thank you to Alisa for finally writing me!!!! And to grandma and mom and dad! Unfortunately, Ty, Alena, and Angela did not get the memo…so yall better work on that real fast  K bueno! So I have no time again! Yikes! But ready for what it´s like in Paraguay at Christmas time?! Ha oh Paraguay..first we had to be in our house at 7 because after that it gets a lil crazy and they just celebrate with a MILLION LOUD FIREWORKS..it´s insane and then they turn their music up really loud. Ha it´s awesome. Oh and the other night there was a really bad thunderstorm at like 3 in the morning and I felt like we were going to die. It was like banging out bathroom door shut because there´s a lil window that´s open in there and the thunder and lightning was so so cool! I love thunderstorms. But Paraguayans hate the rain.Literally . They use it as an excuse for everything…like not coming to church. No bueno. Our numbers were really low this week but I´m so excited to get to work this next week and get all our numbers up again because last week was crazy with everything! Oh which reminds me Dec. 24th was my one month anniversary in Paraguay and Hna. Case´s one year! And we celebrated it with a wedding and a baptism! So awesome! What an awesome present! And whoever said baptizing in South America was easy was wrong… that is if you want legit converts. I love teaching these people about the gospel but I want to see the conversion process take place like it did with Emilio, Victor, and Gustavo and his family. I want them to love the gospel and understand what it means! Hna Case and I had a really good conversation about the gospel last night and how powerful and amazing it is. The last days are coming. And we are here in Paraguay in the last days with the calling to teach these people the word of God. Ah it´s such a great calling and what an amazing message we have been called to share. I really feel so so so blessed to be able to serve a mission. How awesome that all I have to do for a year and a half is share the message of eternal families, of the plan of salvation, of the restoration of Christ´s gospel on the earth again. How awesome that my relationship with God is growing stronger and stronger everyday and that I have the Spirit with me all the time! Yeah sometimes it is REALLY hot outside and the food is not my favorite..but I am in Paraguay! What in the world?! Ha it still blows my mind sometimes. What an amazing calling..to be a missionary. I love it. I love the gospel and I know that it´s true and knowing that just motivates me to learn Spanish because I want to be able to communicate with these people and tell them how the gospel has changed my life and has changed me and how infinite the Atonement is and how amazing prayer is…how amazing it is that we can have a PERSONAL relationship with God! Our creator, our Father. Wow..blows my mind! The Book of Mormon is true and it changes lives. I love it! I´m so stoked for 2010 and just a chance to make new goals and start afresh! Just a few funny things… Ok in Paraguay they eat MAYONAISE with EVERYTHING! Ha it is sick! I remember Karina..the girl I worked with from Boys and Girls Club in AF who is from Brazil used to do that..and I was like you are so gross! Ha but they really do use it on everything..yikes. And everyone here thinks it is hilarious that my last name is Nelson. Ha I never thought I would have a problem with my last name…but they think it is so funny and everyone tells me that I have the name of a man. And I´m like oh for the love it´s my apellido (last name) ha and they still look at me funny! Oh and we sing before we teach everyone..so that is a lot of times in one day and the best part is that the people NEVER sing with us, so it´s me and Hna. Case singing a duet…I just thought yall would appreciate that because you know how beautiful my voice is! Ha yeah no. And the bathrooms here..oh dear the bathrooms…first of all about 98% of the people we teach don´t really have bathrooms..they’re just lil outhouses that they have in their backyards…camping?! But all the other bathrooms you don’t flush your toilet paper! Haha yeah…the smells…yikes. Ok and yall are going to all appreciate this…remember how I said I´m gaining wait…I totally BROKE A CHAIR! Haha how embarrassing. We were sitting there waiting for a collectivo and I was on this lil crate thing and I was like oh man this feels like it´s about to break so I go to stand up and I totally fall right through it! Haha and then I go to stand up and it was stuck to my butt! Oh dear!!! Anyways I have no more time! But thank you Alisa and Skyler for your email and ADORABLE pictures! Loved them! And Happy Birthday Kylee!!!! That´s so fun that everyone will be there! Tell them all hi and give them all kisses and take pics and send them in the package  And tell the Bachelor´s, Berry´s, Dave, Keri, Chels (FINALLY), thanks for writing me! I´ll try to write them next week!! And also Becky Goodwin…I loved your email! You are amazing and you better keep them coming..and I want to know the whole story about you are your husband and all the craziness and how yall finally ended up together! I hope everyone has an AMAZING NEW YEARS! Wow 2010. Live it up! Love yall! Love, Hermanita Nelson

Feliz Navidad!!

Hola!!! Ok I have no time to write because we had a Christmas party this morning with our zone and watched Ice Age which would have been so cool if I knew Spanish lol but it was still fun and we had pizza..which was not really pizza. Lol oh man I have so many stories!!! First off, I am really sad because Emilio did not get baptized last week and he is not going to be for awhile because he is leaving for Christmas with his family! His mom said she wanted him to wait because this was such a big decisión. But I know he will get baptized so it is all good. Second off, I almost died this week! Literally died. I have never been so sick in my life! Ha it was hilarious…I don’t even know what I had but apparently I had a really high fever and I was talking to myself and throwing up everything I’ve ever eaten in my life! It was great. But I figure now I should be immune to anything else I eat so I’m all good! Oh and mom I want you to email me a copy of the Christmas letter! So here I am in Paraguay and it’s Christmas time but I feel like it’s the middle of the summer. Ha it’s super hot here right now and I sweat like nobody’s business…hopefully sweating off all the pounds that I eat during the day! There are a couple houses that have Christmas lights up and about half the people have trees..and when I say they have trees I mean they have those lil tiny trees. It’s awesome. And we have a tree too! It’s so cute, we bought it and decorated it and then Hna. Case’s mom sent us one too! And so all the cute lil wrapped presents you gave me are sitting under our cute lil tree! Oh and that’s so awesome that I know Hna. Case’s cousin, Chantelle! And tell her thanks for her dearelder! I remember her telling me that her cousin was in this misión and that her name was Amanda too! But I totally forgot about it until she said something! My comp is so awesome. Seriously I have been so blessed with companions! She is such a hard worker and it’s so awesome because she makes me work hard…like we never take breaks; we just walk and walk and walk which is so good for me because a lot of other companionships take breaks but I so want to be in the habit of just working hard all day! But we still have fun and she’s so cute! I love it! I don’t have any time to describe our cool investigators BUT right now we have 6 BAPTISMS planned for this week!!! What an amazing Christmas present to our Savior! I’m so excited for all of them! And their planned for before Christmas so I’ll be able to tell you about them on Friday. Pray for them!! I don’t think I’ve ever describe what Sunday mornings are like so I’m going to tell you real fast! Ha so first you leave the house way earlier than normal..like 6:30- 6:45ish and you go and find all the people you’ve talked to during the week that you’ve invited to church and if you’re lucky they’ll come with you..the thing is our area is HUGE so I don’t even know how many miles we walk in that hour and half we have before the collectivo comes to pick them up around 8ish! It is absolutely insane and by the time we get to church I am soaking wet in my own sweat. Ha oh the misión! But we only had 6 people yesterday which was sad because we were supposed to have a lot more than that. Next week! Oh and I was thinking since you said our ward has been talking a lot about missionaries lately they probably need to Start sending us PACKAGES! Tyler agrees! And they should probably put really good food in there because Paraguay does not have really good food lol. Just throwing that out there..:) And did Ty find a job at a mexican restaraunt yet? Haha and last thing before I leave…I don’t understand how I have been in Paraguay for a MONTH and have not received a single letter from any of my siblings!!! Just throwing that out there too. And I got Emily’s email and dearelder. Gracias!! And just tell her to just always send me emails because it takes about 2 or 3 weeks to get a dearelder. But I’m writing her a letter back today because I don’t have time toe mail her! Love,Hermanita Nelson

Hola!!

Ok so Emilio get´s baptized this weekend! Ah my heart is so happy! We were at his house a couple days ago and I was asking if he had talked to his mom about being baptized (which he hasn´t, I think he´s kinda scared because all of his family is Catholic) but he was telling us that he´s always tried to put God first in his life and he can´t deny the feelings that he felt and that he was going to get baptized no matter what. And a couple days before that he said his doubt with Joseph Smith just kept coming back and back and I was like, remember when we watched the movie and do you remember what you said after the movie? And he was like yeah, but... ha and I was like yeah, but NOTHING. I was like that was the Holy Ghost bearing witness to you of the truth (he´s shaking his head in agreement) and when God speaks to you, YOU LISTEN! ha hopefully I got the point across. I can´t wait to see him in white and hopefully I´ll be able to go through the temple with him in a year! He is so going places; he has so much potential! Ah the gospel is so true! And that´s the thing...this baptism is just setting the bar for the rest of the baptisms I´m going to have. Because there´s this problem in Paraguay where people just get baptized so they can feel good and to feel like they have religion in their life, but they don´t really understand the importance of baptism. It´s a COVENANT you´re making with God!! And a lot of missionaries were telling me that about a 1/3 or more of their baptisms are inactive now. NOT OK. I don´t want that. There are so many people in our ward who are inactive because they went to church 3 times and got baptized and then never came again. I want people like Emilio. People who really go through the conversion process and develop their own testimony of the church and understand how important baptism and the gospel is! I´m excited! I´m gonna be bold and declare testimony and change lives! How exciting, right?!

And right now we have two studs that we´re teaching and their following the Emilio path, which is so exciting! We have Victor, who is such a goof! I love the kid! I think he´s 17...I don´t know what planet this kid came from. He is always smiling and laughing, I love it! Ha and he always makes fun of my Spanish and how he can´t ever understand me, but he speaks Guarani half the time so I really can´t understand him! But he´s just a good kid who wants to change his life. And that´s the thing, he´s like Emilio..like we can trust him. If he says he´s going to church, then he comes to church. If he doesn´t do his reading, he will tell us honestly that he fell asleep while reading or whatever. Oh and he´s living with his uncle in their car. We came by to get him for the first time last Sunday and he came out of the car (from where he sleeps) and had this corny lil smile on his face and was ready to go. And yesterday he told us that he told his family about the church (and they live pretty far away) and they said they wanted to come. Ha he´s just a stud and he´s ready for the gospel and ready for the changes!

And then we have Christian who is also a stud. We met him a couple weeks ago when we were visiting a ward member and he was just sitting there in the background so I invited him to church and he said yeah he would come. And it was weird because he said yes and I actually believed him too. And then the next day he was there! He´s 16(seems a lot older) he´s been through A LOT in his life. Both his parents are in jail and his younger sister is taking care of all their younger siblings right now-and they live very far away. And right now he´s living with his real dad and their family. His step mom Christina was the one we were visiting with and she is so great! She faithfully comes to church every week and loves the Lord. Her husband (and his dad) is a drunk...even though he was baptized too (that´s what I meant when I said I wanted legit converts). So Christian is one that just is so ready for the truth too. He said he had been invited to church a lot before but he could never come because he always had to work but now he could come. Every time we teach him he just accepts everything and agrees with it and adds his two cents. He´s such a stud. And he wants to be baptized! BUT..remember his drunk dad...yeah his drunk dad freaked out at us the other night and told us that there was no way he was giving his son permission to get baptized and started trash talking the people in the church. So Hna Case was like well sometimes we just have to remember that the church is perfect but the people aren´t. And he was like yeah I know the book of mormon is true but there´s no way I´m letting my son into that church. Yeah apparently he never had a true conversion! Oh and then his dad said he was sending Christian back to where he was from (which is way far away) and so all weekend we were so sad because he wasn´t here anymore. And then yesterday morning we were going to the collectivo (bus) spot and there he was! Ahh and then we felt so bad because we hadn´t even invited him to come to church or anything but HE WAS THERE! All on his own..stud, right?! And last night he was like why do I have to have my dad´s permission to get baptized, I just want to get baptized. So we´re going to try and talk to his dad when he´s not drunk! Oh the mission! Oh and yesterday before church...we have a collectivo that comes by and picks everyone up to go to church for free..but it never showed up! Ha so Hna Case and I had to pay for everyone to go to church..yikes! Oh the experiences! Another reason why you need to come pick me up, so you can ride on collectivos with me!! :)

Oh and we had Zone Conference this week which was amazing! And then we had interviews with President Wade..love the Wade´s! And I asked him what I could to become a better missionary, so that I could be the best missionary I could be and always remember my mission and remember that I did everything I could do to serve the people and to serve God...and he said Be obedient (with exactness...and be obedient to all the little things..even though they seem small, they will make a difference!) , Work hard (give it your all!), and lastly have fun!!! He was like if you´re not having fun, you´re not doing something right! ha I was like ohh I like that. Ahh and Hermana Wade makes the best banana bread! One of my favorite foods in Paraguay along with cokitos (dried bread or something), popcorn!! Ahhh I love popcorn all of a sudden! And lomitos!!! Oh my goodness so good! They´re kinda like burritos but not at all, but like the closest thing they have to mexican food here and you can really only get good ones in Asuncion and we´re here today because Hna Case needed new shoes. And then EMPANADAS! With meat! Yummy! Another reason you need to come :) Oh and Elder Curtis says hi...I saw him at the zone conference and we had a nice lil chat! He´s changed so much! I love it! I just love studs. And Ty´s about to be such a stud missionary! Ah so excited for him!

Oh and I got Keri´s dearelder..gracias gracias! And you can tell people they can email me, it just has to be through you and I can email them back through you too.. I can´t wait to talk to yall again in a couple weeks!! Love yall so much and thanks for everything! And yall better start sending me more emails! ( I haven´t gotten anything from any of my siblings..what is this?!) Have a great week! Remember the gospel is so true and it changes lives!!

Love,
Hermanita Nelson

Hola from Paraguay!

This week has been so amazing! The gospel is so true! So I found out what it´s like to be in a thunderstorm in Paraguay..ha I love it! They have awesome thunder and lightning storms and it rains like crazy!!! But this past week we saw a double rainbow!!! So awesome right! I was like man something good is going to happen…and it did!!! So remember Emilio…ok he´s such a stud; one day yall are going to meet him! But we wanted to watch the Joseph Smith movie with him to help resolve his doubts and so we went on Wed. and his dvd player wouldn´t read it! So we came back the next day and he borrowed his friends and it worked! And we were watching it and it came to the first vision part and of course it´s scratched! We were like you´ve got to be kidding me! So we´re both praying like crazy and then it starts working again (few!) and then a lil while later someone starts clapping outside (ha another one of my favourite things in Paraguay..you don´t knock on doors you clap outside!!! It´s so funny!) so he paused it and then came back in and we watched the rest of the movie with a few more random scratches in the dvd (which is funny because we watched it again yesterday with a family and it worked perfectly! Satan is really working on him!) So after we just sat there and of course I was crying and holy cow, the Spirit was so strong! I literally felt like my chest was going to burst out!!! I couldn´t even breathe (and we know I already have a breathing problem lol) But then Hna Case shared her testimony with him and then it was my turn and I was like how in the world am I going to communicate with him what I want to say in Spanish?!!! And my head was just full of questions and thanks. Wow Joseph Smith suffered so much to bring to pass the restoration of the gospel and it´s thanks to him that we have the Book of Mormon, the most correct book in the world. And I was just overcome with gratitude and a feeling like, wow this is why I´m here. This is why I´m in Paraguay to share this true message with these people. And that´s what I told him with tears in my eyes; I said, ¨¨ Emilio, this is why I´m here, this is why I left my friends and family for a year a half to find people like you. The Lord loves you so much and I know that he wanted us to find you. I know that the gospel is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I am so excited for you because I know how much this will bless your life! And I know it won´t be easy and I know a lot of the times it will be hard, because sometimes people think we´re a little weird lol, but it´s so true so it doesn´t even matter. I´m so excited for you because I know this will bless your future family and your family right now.¨ And I was just praying that he would feel just a portion of the Spirit I was to know that it was true. And then we asked if we could pray. So we all got on our knees and he prayed and about half way through the prayer somebody knocked outside again!!! But he didn’t get up, he kept praying. And yes I was so crying during his prayer! And then after he came back into the room, I asked him how he felt and he said good. And then I asked him how he felt about Joseph Smith and he said, ¨¨I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he restored Christ´s gospel to the earth and that we need a prophet on the earth today.¨ Ha I looked at Hna Case and I was like did he just say what I think he just said?! And she said yes. Oh my, I have never felt like that in my life… I was just sooo happy. So a long story short he is getting baptized Dec 18th!!! Thanks so much for your prayers! This work is so great! And then to make the week even better we finished it off with 9 people at church!!! I was so thankful!!! Last week we had 5 but only 2 were really from us and this week 8 of the 9 were from us! I know the Lord blesses us when we´re obedient. That was our goal last week to bring 8 people to church (because 8 is the minimum goal of people we´re supposed to have set by Pres.) and it happened! I know the Lord helps us and brings us success when we are obedient!!! Ha who would´ve thought I would have ever been excited about being obedient..ha I´m already turning weird! Love it!!! Ok I have no time but a couple other things…the two other things I forgot last week that makes a successful Paraguayan missionary is getting lice and biffing it (biffing it HARD) ha yikes! And a couple other things I love about Paraguay…everyone says a Dios when they see eachother ( meaning ´to God´) ha it´s so cool! And everyone BLARES their music..it´s hilarious. It is SO LOUD! And it´s so funny because most of it is American music!!! They can´t even understand it! And there are butterflies everywhere!! Love it! And now for a couple things I need (ha or want) some kind of energy pills because the sun kills all my energy and so does all the food they make you eat! And then some chocolate candy  And cookie mix ( the Betty Crocker 20 min kind)! Beautiful!! Perfect! K I love yall so much and can´t wait to talk to you this weekend and find out where Ty´s going!!! Woot woot! The gospel is true, live it! Love, Hermanita Nelson