Dec. 27, 2010

WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS, WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR! Wow so Christmas is already over and new years is this week! Que loco! It was my last Christmas in Paraguay! Ha they did so many fireworks!!! And new years eve is just going to be even crazier, I love it. It is so Paraguay. I think one of my favorite parts about Christmas this year is that we made these cute lil gifts baskets with pan de banana (banana bread) and boiled cookies and some Paraguay candy and we put one of those pictures of Christ (that you sent to put on the lil Christmas tree) on every plate. They were so cute, yall´d be proud. And then we went out and Christmas caroled! Ha Christmas caroling in Paraguay is the BEST! Ha they loved it but they had no idea what was going on. We would clap at the door and they would come out and before they got to the front gate we would start singing and they would like try to come up and kiss us (to greet us) or they´d be like, here just come in the shade, you don´t have to stand out there in el sol (in the sun), haha. They didn´t really understand that they were just supposed to just sit there and listen. But it was way fun, and we had to wait for a lot of colectivos, so we would just bust out our hymn books and start singing Christmas songs with our lil santa hats and reindeer ears on. It was actually really cool, I felt the Spirit really strong everytime we would start singing. Ha I almost decided to just take my santa hat off, put it on the ground, stick our colectivo money in it, and just start collecting change, lol but then I decided maybe that´s not so missionary appropiate. Good times. Ok and let´s just talk about Christmas morning...so good! I LOVED all my lil regalos! They were all soo good and exactly what I needed and the 12 days of Christmas thing was soo soo cool (ha even though I did it backwards), I loved it! Thanks soo much! I loved the testimonies and the pictures of yall. So creative! And all those cards, PERFECT! I could go on and on! Yeah and oh...Gregorio, our recent convert- his son just got in a really really bad moto accident and so we got permission to go visit him in the hospital yesterday, yall could pray for him! Man, hospitals in Paraguay are pretty scary, I don´t think I would trust them. That was quite the experience. Aver... yeah but it was SO GOOD to talk to yall and hear yalls voices. Ha that is so fun! And DAD you are a stud!!! I am so glad you figured it out to work so I could talk with Ty too!!! I loved it! Ha just like old times. Yeah I was telling everyone how cool it was that I got to talk to my brother even though he´s on a mission, yeah pretty sure that never happens. That was a huge blessing! Mom, you about killed me when you told me what you did after you hung up. Talk about trunky! Ha jk, I´m fine, It´ll just be a lot of fun to eat cute lil american appetizers and sit down and play dominos! But man can yall believe it is going to be 2011?!! I remember writing last year and saying, holy cow, it´s going to be 2010 and I´m going to be in Paraguay all of 2010, and now OPA 2010! That was fast. Que pucha sheraá. But I love putting metas (goals), new years resolutions, empezar de nuevo and commit yourself to being better, that´s great. Ahhh and it´s Kylee´s birthday this week!!! Cute, 2 years old...really?! Wow that is crazy! Ahhh and it was so cute to hear Nate´s lil voice on the phone, I can´t believe how much he talks, that is adorable!!! I wish I would´ve been able to talk to Kylee and Tyler, yall just have to give them lots of love and tell them it´s from me. But it sounds like yall are going to have a super fun week all together. So fun. Everything is going good here, there is SO MUCH work to do! We are trying to find more people like Gregorio because he was the perfect investigator, really ready and prepared to receive the gospel and to commit to living it. He will be such a great leader. Once again I am just so greatful to have witnessed that miracle! It was the best Christmas present. That is what Christmas is all about. That is the reason for the season. To come unto our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And it was so amazing to see that happen in Gregorio´s life and see the change take place in my life as well. Amazing! I love it. Alright I love yall and otra vez I loved talking to yall and hearing yall, and it was really cool to read all your testimonies because I could just read it and hear yall talking, thanks so much for your love and your support. Talk to ya next year haha. Stay safe.

Love,
Hermanita Nelson

Dec. 13, 2010

M´bae chapa?!!

How is everyone?!! I love yall!! Ok and mom, I got the packages!!!!!!!!!!!! I was SO EXCITED! ANd we set up our cute lil Christmas tree and put all the wrapped presents right underneath, and tomorrow I get to open the first one!! It´s a good thing I got the best mom in the world! So yeah I just got the 2 big ones with all the wrapped stuff! Aver, oh so we did have CAMBIOS!!! Ha Hna Messina and I, are now on our 4th change together! And we are now in a trio! Ha another trio, yikes, but we´re with Hna Tuaóne, and it´ll be good! So we had to rearrange the whole house to fit 3, and everyone loves that there are now 3 elderas! Ohh and at changes this Elder came up to me and handed me a picture, and I was thinking, who are you? I´ve never seen you before lol, but it was a picture of him from the MTC holding up a Paraguay flag with another elder, and then I realized that it was TY!!!! Ha I was so excited!!! I can´t remember his name, but apparently they were together in the MTC in the same zone, and after like 8 months, this is the first time I´ve met him. Ha it totally made my day! Oh and guess what, yesterday it DIDN´T rain!!!! Bueno, it did rain later in the day, but in the morning it didn´t. We didn´t have as many people come with us this week because they were all ¨sick¨or they were taking care of someone who was ¨sick¨. Haha they can´t leave the house if they have a headache or their stomach hurts or anything. But our golden guy, Gregorio came and he just loves it, we haven´t been able to see him because something always happens so that our schedules conflict, but we´re going to try tonight. We also had this cute girl named Jessica come with us, who´s 22 and has a cute lil 4 year old boy. We also finally met with our branch president last night and now we understand a lil better all of the problems that there really are in this branch! But we did have 58 people in church, which is HUGE!!! We were so excited, most of them just piled on in for the last hour (sacrament) but we´re trying to work with them. THey have a lot of excuses for why they don´t come the first 2 hours to the classes...oh excuses! Aver.. yeah so Pres told us that there is over 1,000 people that are members but that the majority were baptized for almison (like welfare), so what do you do with a 1,000 people that don´t even want to have anything to do with the church, but are baptized? Ha I don´t know. So we are trying to do everything we can to help and serve in anyway that we can. So much work to do! No time to waste people. But I love all the people and this area is great, so I´ll probably die here or go back to Luque which I would love! Oh and we might be able to go to Luque this Friday for a baptism, so I´d be able to see some people and that would be so so cool!!! Vamos a ver! I love Paraguay and I love the mission! Ha I can´t remember what life was like not being a missionary and I can´t imagine it not being a missionary, so basically I´m just going to stick with the being a missionary for the rest of my life thing. It´ll be great! I really am so thankful for yalls support and love! It helps so much! Ohh and you know what?!! THe mangos are starting to come out!!! I´m so so excited for that! It´ll be so great to hear yalls voices in 2 weeks! Have a great week! Love yall!

Dec. 6, 2010

DECEMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wait a second, aren´t we still in like August? Ha that is when Hna Messina got here and that seems like yesterday! 3 changes ago, and I have 3 left...que pucha cherrá! and December means it is ALISA´S BDAY!!!! FELIZ CUMPLE!!!! That´s so fun!!! And Happy Bday Rick tambien. Hahaha I loved the story about Nate and his firetruck haha and Kylee and her lil cheer, what cute lil sobrinos I have!!! I´m so proud! Ahh and Ty, holy cow, I love how you so calmly told that story about you almost dying and running into a ditch! But I´m glad you are good! Ok a couple stories... Ok so this morning we put up our cute lil christmas tree and window decorations and my comp made these sweet snowflakes! And yeah mom I want the pics of yalls decorations! Ok haha there is this one lady, menos activo, who we´ve only seen a couple times but the first time we saw her and were saying goodbye, I went up to give her kisses haha and she kissed me and then pulled me into this super tight hug and just clung onto me and said, "ah chulina!" haha and she does that everytime she sees us, it is hilarious. And want to hear an embarrassing story? Ok so yes, I´ve been in Paraguay a year, but ha my spanish is apparently not perfect, we were teaching this family about the plan of salvation (el plan de salvacion) and so I´m starting, and I´m like ok ok, what do yall think el plan de salvacion is? and they were like uhh... and so I repeat it a couple times and phrase it differently... yeah Heavenly Father has un plan for each of us, what do you think that plan is? haha and the guy just keeps giving me the weirdest look and I could tell he was thinking like so hard, and then I said it one more time, el plan de salvacion- and you can just see the light bulb click and he starts laughing and he was like ohh I thought you said, el pan de salvacion- the bread of salvation- haha so the whole time he was trying to figure out what I was talking about and he like thought I was talking about the sacrament or something, good times. que verguenza! ok and yall should all look up la virgen de caacupe, every year on dec 8 they have this HUGE misa and they go and worship the virgen that´s in caacupe, and caacupe just happens to be right past our area, and the thing is the people go WALKING from all over Paraguay to go and worship the virgin, they could just take a colectivo but they walk to show their love and sacrifice for this virgin, and so yesterday we started seeing the people that were starting to walk there a couple days early, but tomorrow it´s going to be crazy and there´s going to be a TON of people!!! ha everyone keeps inviting us to go and walk with them to caacupe to worship the virgin- we´re like here, let me tell you a lil something somethin about the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints lol, gotta love Paraguay! Ok want to hear another good story, so yesterday was Sunday- which means OF COURSE it RAINED again, justamente at 7:30 when we left to go and get our peeps and continued raining all morning- of course it stops raining right at 11:30 when church gets out and doesn´t rain for the rest of the day, ha whatever it´s cool. but we have a MIRACLE story!!! Seriously, straight up miracle from our loving Padre Celestial. We met him on Thursday night at like 8:45 by complete coincidence, we had just randomly decided that we would change our plans a lil bit to come back and work around our house and to stop by for a menos activo family, so we walked up and went and shook their hands and we met a man named Gregorio. We were just going to share with the mom because the dad had his friends over, but one of his friends (Gregorio) came up to us and told us he had met with the missionaries in Argentina when he was living there and that he knew all about Joseph Smith and the first vision and loved it, and so we invited him to share a lil bit with us, and he just talked and told us about how God had been preparing him to receive this message, and how it was such a miracle because he had just been back from Argentina for like 2 weeks and had lost contact with the missionaries because he suddenly had to come back to Paraguay and that he didn´t know there was a mormon church here, but bueno everything he was saying was just an answer to our prayers, we have been praying so so hard to find someone who will just accept the gospel and be excited about it and understand it and have their own desires to learn more and to go to church, etc. well wow, he told us, I know that I am an answer to yalls prayers and that I am the fruit of your labors and that God loves yall and your are angels in His work and that this is true, and he accepted the baptismal fecha without problem and then told us that he wanted to come to church so that he could prepare himself for his baptism and that he was going to try and bring his son and that he was going to help reactivate that family and that God has a work for him to do and he just kept praising us and telling us that all of our hard work would be paid off and we would recieve blessings and that he was just one of those blessings that we were receiving. I think my mouth was just wide open the whole time he was talking. It was incredible. And he came to church and tried to bring his son, but his son didn´t want to because of the rain, but he even got up at the end of church to bear his testimony and told everyone that he knew this was the true church and he knew it without a doubt and that is why God had sent his angels otra vez to bring him the restored gospel. It was amazing! We were so excited! Man, and I just feel so blessed to witness this miracle and to be able to be an instrument in the Lord´s hand in leading Gregorio into the waters of baptism.ahhh it is soo so sso cool!!! Man and it was just such a sweet tender mercy of the Lord to us, that he loves us and is watching over us and that his hand is in all things! And he was all excited about going to church and being there on time and everything, we actually got there a lil late, and it was a lil sad because when we got there, there were only 7 people there, and we had 3 investigators. It was kinda frustrating bc all of the amazing classes we told them they were going to have, there weren´t any because there weren´t any other youth there (we had 2 teenagers with us too) ahhh but by the end of church there were 36 (they all came for the sacrament for the last hour), ahhh there is soo much work here to do! pray for us!!! I love yall so much and am SOOO thankful for your prayers and emails and love! I hope yall have a great week!
Love,
Hermanita Nelson
haha and yeah the people still call us elderas!

Nov. 29, 2010

Ok ok ok!!! Well I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!!!!! I heard that some of you just had a fantastic weekend...aka EMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FELICIDADES!!!! Ok so Emily is engaged!!!! With a fecha and everything!!! Well now that ALL of my best friends are going to be married when I get back...awesome haha. Just kidding! I´m super super excited for you! Ok let´s talk about our Thanksgiving here in Paraguay, well first our lunch apt. called us and canceled haha, nice, so then we decided to go and get some empanadas and do it Paraguayo style. They were pretty dang good, and then we came home that night and ate PECAN PIE with VANILLA ICECREAM!!!!!!!!!! Oh man I´ve either been gone a really long time or that was one really good pecan pie! It totally made me happy! This past week also hit a lot of big dates for me!!! Let´s see Tuesday the 23rd was my 14th month in the mission, and the 24th was my ONE YEAR in PARAGUAY mark!!!!!!!!! Ha that is insane. And then Thursday, Thanksgiving, and Friday I started the DyC countdown. Ha I don´t know if all the missions in the world do this, but you start it when you have 138 days left (bc that´s how many sections there are) and you count down. Ha I still clearly remember when Hna Case started that. Crazy!!! Ok and ready for the really sad news, we only had 21 people at church yesterday. We left way early to go and stop by for everyone and it started raining pretty hard at like 7:15 and we hadn´t brought our umbrellas or anything, so we got soaked! and no one would come with us! it was so sad, ha and then we had to wait for 45min in the rain waiting for the colectivo and ended up being late for church, and we came in soaking wet. We did have 1 person come with us, and then we decided to go and invite people on the street because there was only 2 people in Relief Society-the teacher, and one of the hnas that we convinced to come to church even though it was raining- ha the thing is Paraguayos are scared of the rain, and when we passed by her house she was like no the weather is to feo, to ugly, I can´t come...we were like no no no you are coming with us and we are going to get soaked together lol, but she got her husband to take her in the moto- so bueno, we decided to go look on the street, and after inviting a million people to come and see the church, we convinced this man named Ricardo to come in with us. haha he was funny- apparently everyone in the ward knows him too and says he is crazy, but they were all really impressed with him and his behavior and he absolutely loved all of it. We also gave talks. It was a lot of fun actually. We were just so tiny and there was no microphone or anything, and it was one of those testimony builders. It´s like wow, why do we do all this stuff as missionaries? Go out and get soaked in the rain to pass for people to come to church and all of the other sacrifices, but it´s because it is all SO IMPORTANT! And that´s what I learned as I was giving my talk. God loves us so much! And how can we show our love for Him? It´s simple, we keep His commandments. And man I just know that brings the felicidad! That makes us happy! That makes us spiritually strong! Sacrifice brings us closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I just love this gospel and I just love the mission! Paraguay is great! It is crazy, but that is what makes it so great! I love yall! And I am so thankful for yalls examples and love and sacrifices! That is what makes it all worth it! Haha and other funny story, there is this kid that looks just like Payden!!! And he acts just like him. He´s 11. haha it´s great. Everytime I see him and talk to him, it reminds me of Payden. That actually happens all the time, I mean, we´ll be sharing with someone and it just reminds me of all of yall. There´s a lady that is igualito a Alisa and another one a Angela, and there´s this way cute lil jovencita that reminds me so much of Alena, and all the mother´s I´ve had here in Paraguay have reminded me of mom. And ha I just love showing my fam pics to everyone because they always say the same things-they always love dad and that he is bald and they just think you and dad look so young. And there was this Elder in my last zone that looked just like Ty! And there are always people that remind me of yall. Yall are always in my thoughts and prayers and that´s what keeps me going! love yall!!!

Hermanita Nelson

Nov. 22, 2010

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Bobby and Kimmy!!! FELICIDADES! Also I want to thank Becky Goodwin for writing me again, it was really good to hear from you and your letter made my day! Ok ¿sabe qué? This week I am going to complete ONE YEAR IN PARAGUAY!!!!!! That my friend, is crazy!!!! Oh I just love it here and ha I just keep walking around this area thinking, holy cow I´m in Paraguay! I remember that used to happen to me all the time when I first got here, I was like what in the world, how did I get here? haha but I love it! It´s so great. Ha I have a funny story for grandma and grandpa- the other day we were in a lesson with this less active family and I was showing them pictures of the fam and they saw grandpa an grandma and they were like we know them!! And they were so excited, and they were like who are they? And I was like haha those are mis abuelos, and they just went off about how they knew them because they had been in Paraguay before and had come to their house, and I was like ha I don´t think so, and they were like well if it wasn´t them it was someone who looks exactly like them! This cute lil lady who was so nice and her husband with white hair haha, I was like yeah well that sure does sound like them (by the way...I hope yall feel better, I´ll be praying for yall!) Also it is SO funny because all the people here call us elders because they are so used to having the elders here, so we told them, no we are not elders because those are the muchachos (boys), so then they started calling us las elderas (making that word feminine) ha it´s so funny, and we´re like no no we are hermanas! But there are still so many people who just call us elders, it makes me laugh and then they try to give us hand shakes-that´s weird! We´re like no, we KISS!!! Ha we give besos-oh man it´s going to be weird coming back home and having hand shakes be normal and not kissing people all the time haha. Oh and you know what else?! My shoes BROKE!!! I was not a happy camper, it´s those ones you sent me mom that are supposed to be really nice- and they are because everyone else here has the same exact ones and they still use them, but my strap things came off, like somehow the fish line came undone or something, I don´t even know, but I can´t even wear them anymore. So today we were in Asuncion and so I bought some new shoes that hopefully last me until the end, ha they better because they were expensive!!! Ok and so sad story, we only had 35 people in church yesterday (it rained so everyone used that as their excuse) ha and we only had 3 people in Relief Society-5 including us. Yeah we got a lot of work to do here! Oh and today we had an hna activity! It was fun! And we left last night and stayed in President´s house because we live far away and would´ve had to leave pretty early to get there in time, so that was fun! We got there and we made sandwiches and ate with Pres and Hna Madariaga and Hna Kimball also came, so it was fun. And then this morning we got up way early to make a huge breakfast (it was our activity for thanksgiving haha) and then all the hnas came and we ate and then watched a movie about the nativity. It was great! And mom, ¿sabe qué? we have this lil restaraunt in our area that just happens to sell pies (the only pies I have ever seen in Paraguay) and they just happen to sell pecan pie!!!!! I´m stoked, so we are going to buy a huge pie and some vanilla icecream for ourselves to eat for Thanksgiving! Alright I think that is all the news here! It´s going. We´re working, working, working. It´s so fun to just spread this restored gospel with everyone, even when they don´t understand the significance of everything. My testimony just grows and grows and my love for my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ just keeps expanding. It´s true! That´s so great. I love all the simple truths of the gospel. We have a true and living prophet here on the earth today, Thomas S Monson. The Book of Mormon-wow what a guia! It´s a guide! It has all that we ever need to know to have la felicidad (happiness) in our lives. It was written for us! Wow this work is good. Spread it people! I love yall! And Alisa, I love you and you are in my prayers constantly. I hope everyone has a good week! Love yall!

Nov. 16, 2010

Alrighty so this past week has been ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!!!! And I´m writing today (Tuesday) because yesterday we had this huge conference with Elder Foster from the seventy. Por eso no mas. Ah man, ok where to start?! Let´s just start with Wednesday night at 10:31 p.m. (bed time, right?) The phone rings...what? Presidente Madariaga...WHAT?! uh oh haha. So I answer the phone, and he says hermana I´m sorry for calling so late, but I just needed to tell you something. Ok... You and your companion are having a special change and you will be going to Ypacarai and you need to have all your stuff packed and ready to go on Friday morning........ I´m sorry what? I was like what in the world?! So we spent all the day Thursday going around and saying bye to everyone and showing the Elders our area. Oh and also the familia Zafra took us to lunch to Paulistas!!! I was SO excited! It´s like a Brazilian restaurant that has a ton of meat (like Tucanos) and I´ve wanted to go my whole mission and have never been, and that´s where you go your last night in Paraguay. So that was really nice of them. And we spent the rest of the day packing like crazy! Holy cow I have so much stuff!! Good thing I´m going to leave like everything here! And ok so the crazy part is, is that otra vez we are white washing an area! There were elders there before and they took them both out to put us in. So once again we don´t know anything. Lovely. And it´s crazy because there have NEVER been hermanas here! So we are the first hermanas! And our area is HUGE!!! I guess they had it divided at one time but then put it all together again because they weren´t having success. Every keeps telling us suerte when they hear where we´re at because apparently it is really hard. But whatever. It´s BEAUTIFUL! And I´m so excited. We have a lake in our area and it is so so so pretty! I´m so excited! And it´s just a rama (a branch) we meet for church in an old movie theater, it´s pretty sweet. Apparently the average of church attendance is 40ish but we had 51 on Sunday. And the Pres. told us there is over 1,000 members here. So basically there is 1,000 inactives. Lovely. I guess they all got baptized for almison. So we´ve got a project ahead of us. But it´s all good. Everyone is so nice and it reminds me of Luque! But it´s prettier! And we were given the impression that nobody was really happy that we were coming because they love the elders so much, but let´s be honest they love us. And with time they´ll love us even more :) A lot of people have actually told us they were really excited and that we are like angels, and I guess one of the elders investigators (Juana) had a dream that they were going to come to her house and their first visit together she just cried, but then she just felt like it wasn´t right and that it should be girls. And then we came, and she told us we were the answer to her prayers and a couple other people have said that, so it´s pretty cute. It´s all pretty overwhelming but I actually feel pretty calm. I don´t know how we are going to work this whole area, but it´s ok, we´ll just follow the Lord. And yeah I´ll probably be here til I die. And Pres told us me and my comp would probably be together for a really long time too, so she´ll probably end up killing me. Yikes! Crazy stuff! And the conference we had yesterday was really good too! And we live in a sweet house and we have AC!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am SO excited about that, because last summer I about died. So who knows what will happen this week. But it´ll be fun! Bueno I love yall and I hope things are better this week! Yall are in my prayers!

Hermana Nelson's feelings on the passing of Bro. Rick Ence

Wow, I agree with Ty. I can´t even explain how strongly I feel the love of God right now, for me and for all of yall. I have honestly been so strengthened in testimony as I have read and cried over your sweet words concerning Rick and the Ence family. My heart is with yall during this hard time. I just cried and cried more as I read, but at the same time, I felt the presence of our Father in Heaven so strongly. I admire yall and your strength and tesimonies. It´s incredible. I can´t even imagine how everyone must feel and I am so sorry, but know that yall will be in my prayers. Thank you for your faith and your examples, the Spirit of the Lord has touched me greatly. I really like what mom said about the conversation between Rick and God. I´m sure that Rick was strong enough and had enough will power to live and that´s why he kept coming back to life, but in the end he humbly accepted the will of our Father. We can´t possibly understand why, there are just things that happen in life that leave us questioning. But I know through the gospel of Jesus Christ we receive all the answers that we need, to move on with faith and endure to the end. We know that it was the will of the Lord that Rick passed away, we might not understand why-why him? why now? But we must trust in the Lord and go forward with faith. And how special it must be to know that he (Rick) will also be sharing the gospel message with the rest of our brothers and sisters who have not had the chance to hear it or who are having another opportunity to hear it again. What a marvelous work and a wonder. And to know that he will be working right along with his son Justin and soon to be Blake, and with everyone of us who understand our Heavenly Fathers plan and the importance of sharing it with others. Because that is the point. That is the purpose. And if we can understand and really know and comprehend that we are children of God and that He loves us, that is enough. Because it is His work to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men. Eternal families-that is part of the plan. In fact that it is the center of the plan. What a blessing it is to have the gospel in our lives. Thank you for turning to the Lord and depending on Him. He is the one who can comfort you and bless you in this hard time, and He can help you see and understand the big picture. I love yall with all my heart and I am truly greatful for your strength. Yall will be in my prayers.
Love,
Hermanita Nelson

Nov. 8, 2010

Alrighty!! Ha I loved reading Ty's like past 2 emails, because that is exactly how it is here! So I know how you feel bud. Satan is working hard, but the gospel is true, our sides going to win, but times are getting crazy. And they are doing all these changes in the mission all over the world, and I LOVE IT! It's just showing you how serious this is, we are in the last days people! This message has got to be spread and we are the missionaries that are spreading it! Woot woot! And mom that girl, is the girl that is here, she ended up coming early because her spanish is so good, unless there is another girl that comes with that same exact name. Ok aver- this week my comp and I started our like music class! It is so cute! Ok la verdad is that I don't do anything- I take the pictures, but my comp is teaching people how to play the piano, and I'm learning too, it's great! We only had a couple people come, the idea is to get more investigators, so we'll see what happens! Ok and yesterday our fast and testimony meeting was amazing, I don't really know why, but the Spirit was so so strong! And I just about cried the whole way through it! And then our RS class was really good too! The teacher started the class with 2 questions. 1. What is the Book of Mormon? 2. What does the Book of Mormon mean to you? And the class was just full of testimonies and it was fabulous. It was so neat, because that is what we are teaching every day! So I'll just invite you to answer those questions for yourselves. But I also loved Ty's testimony about the Book of Mormon. It is the clave people! The keystone of our religion! And it was really cool because yesterday there was a kid in sacrament that I had never seen before so I went up and talked to him and turns out he is from a different area and he had been invited to church by a friend and so he came! His name is Diego and he's 20. And he just stuck with us through church and had so many questions and then we met with him at the temple after lunch and shared with him about the restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. It was FABULOUS! He would not live in our area ha, but man it just felt good to teach! And to teach someone that was actually interested and excited! Here in our area we end up just teaching in the door because people don't let us in and if they do let us in they want us out as soon as possible and we haven't had any progressive investigators in a really long time (bueno we were looking at the history of this area over the last year and there have been 7 baptisms and only 1 is active and she goes because she works for a really active family). It's challenging to find people who actually want to listen. And yeah I'm sure that is how the state and europe missions are-tough! But bueno, so we just taught him and it was like the perfect lesson! He asked questions, we asked questions, we bore testimony and the Spirit was there! Gave him the invitation to be baptized-accepted with enthusiasm. Yeah, he is one of those golden people, unfortunately he doesn't live in our area, but it was just cool! He will definitely be a missionary! And it just made me excited and reminded me that YES, there are people out there, that are looking for the truth and that want to know the truth! Ha that is one of the first things he told us. I asked him why he had decided to come to church, and he was like well I'm looking for the true church. Beautiful. Ahhh. good stuff! I LOVE the gospel of Jesus Christ! It is true! In fact, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church in the world! Y porque? Because it has la autoridad de Dios. Buenisimo! Sacerdocio, priesthood! We have a living prophet of God on the earth. Does life get better?! I love it love it love it! The mission is just the best. I love being here. I love all the experiences because you just learn and grow so much! Ha and that is what I need :) Alright I love all of yall! Thanks for all the letters!! Have a great week!


Love,


Hermanita Nelson

Nov. 1, 2010

Ok so this week, was better! Ha remember the story about me falling and my foot hurting? Well turns out I like twisted my ankle-smooth move I know. And so we were home all day Tuesday and Wednesday because I couldn't walk. Ha I looked ridiculous and it HURT so bad!!! I went to district meeting and my zone leaders sent us right back home. And then the family Zafra lent me some crutches to walk around the house- how embarrassing! Ha I looked like a joke. But now I'm fine, it still kinda hurts but it's fine. Oh and I got the package the Wariner's sent and I was so excited! Because they gave it to me at district meeting so it made me so happy despite all the pain I was in! And we've eaten almost all the candy and the pillow case is SO CUTE!! I'm so impressed!! And the St. George shirt is super cool too! And the lotion and stuff I loved! Thanks so much! I also got a lot of letters from my peeps in Luque that day, so it made me happy! Oh and if yall could please tell all the people who are getting married (ridiculous, who gets married? haha jk) to send me announcements! I want to see pics! Ok and that is all the time I have!! Oops! And can someone please tell me where October went? That was SO FAST! We are in November now! I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! People here don't celebrate it- ha they don't know what they are missing out on, but I wore orange and black and ate candy all day, so I was good. And this week we should be having a baptism that we are super excited about (by the way, I always get super nervous to tell yall stuff because it always jinxes things), but hopefully it'll happen, if not this week, next week! Ok I love yall! thanks so much for your emails and support! Make it a great week!


love,


Hermanita Nelson


oh p.s. that one girl came that has family from texas, and hna g is training her in luque! I met her today and she is super cool and I told her that when I go back to Luque she can kill me there (be my last comp) so vamos a ver! love yall!

Oct. 25, 2010

HELLO!!! Ok so cambios- bueno, everyone got changed except for me and my comp! haha my poor comps, I think they have this curse, that si o si they have to be with me for more than 2 changes. Normally people are together, maximum 2 changes. I was with Remache for 4 (6 months) and now this is my 3rd with Messina (4 1/2 months) and we'll see what happens next change. Yikes!! La verdad is that I miss Luque, but I'm trying to stop comparing because that makes things worse. Let's just say that I think we broke the contact record of the mission. We contacted SO MANY PEOPLE this week and got rejected SO MANY TIMES! Ha that's a real good spirit booster. Man yesterday I almost had a break down, because we had been finding all day, because they were like yeah you should find on Sundays because that is when all the family is home and it'll be great, and we have almost 0 progressing investigators right now-- so sad I know (let's not even talk about how many people we passed for yesterday morning to go to church with us and how we got the most ridiculous excuses, ha I just had to keep telling myself- you can't force people, because all I really wanted to do was dragg them by their ears and be like, listen you'll thank me later. It's just sad because this is so IMPORTANT and there are so many BLESSINGS and then to just see how they are just rejecting the blessings...blah yeah) ok so we were out finding yesterday and we were excited because this is like the only part of are area we haven't contacted yet, so were like perfect, this'll be great! So after being rejected for about 2 or 3 hours straight, we got to this home and a young couple came out and they were so cute and looked so nice, and they actually came all the way out to the front gate to listen to us, perfect! So I did our lil shpill and asked if we could come in and share more, and he just looked me straight in the eye and said NO and ha I don't know why that affected me so bad (probably because I was so excited bc I thought that finally someone was going to let us in) and I almost just started crying, and I was like is it ok if we just pass by right here in front and share for a couple minutes, another NO with an explanation of how they were catholic and la di da. Yeah that is pretty much how our week went. Ha and at the end of the day we always do a list of 'gracias' and after one long day, we were just sitting thinking, and Hna Messina pops up and says, "Today was a great day! You know why? Because we talked to a million people and now they all know where the church is." Yep, that's my comp. Ha I started busting out laughing, yep that is exactly right. So we are planting seeds, but that's important too! And maybe, just maybe we'll find a seed that was already planted from other missionaries that is ready to harvest! like dad said, it's all just kinda a mental game. But we are in the greatest work that there is- we are proclaiming the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It doesn't get any better than this! Nobody ever said it would be easy, and I am learning that. But man I am learning so many great things that are going to help me for the rest of my life and hopefully yall are receiving blessings for my service too! And mom I loved the whole part about the baptism stories, but I don't have time right now, so I'll do that next week! Oh and this week I also got a retarted foot. I think I rolled my ankle, I was jumping on a wet surface and totally biffed it and now I just walk like a retard and it kinda hurts but yo tengo la culpa. Alright I hope yall have a great week, oh and a great Halloween!!! fUN FUN! Love yall!! Thanks so much for the emails and prayers and love, I need it! Love yall!

Oct. 18, 2010

Ok so basically this is what I have gathered when Ty was having a hard time, everything was fine here and we were having exito (success) and now that everything is going great with him (which by the way I am SO EXCITED about, that is so AWESOME and I'm always praying for ya bud) everything over here is like falling apart. I hate to say that, but it sure does feel like it! But don't worry we haven't lost any animo, we are just even more determined to go out and find the people that are just waiting for the gospel. We know that they are out there and we know that God will bless us. This week was a lil crazy and we missed almost 2 days of work all because of a stupid accident. Ha it's actually a really funny story. Last Monday for a zone activity we played soccer with the elders and my comp got kicked in the leg, ha apparently the elder was trying to kick the ball and missed and kicked her right in the shin. And that lil tiny bruise that was there the first day just turned HUGE and got worse and worse because she just kept walking on it, so pretty much when hna madariaga found out she dropped me the cane and made us stay home so she could rest it. I tried to tell her she had to rest it lol but she is just a guapa and wanted to keep working, so I tried to call a few people to find out what to do, but then a member made me call hna madariage and yeah. So my poor comp has been so frustrated bc she did not want to stay in the house when she wasn't even sick, but now it should all be better and we'll be fine. So that was kinda sad. And basically this week was just really challenging as well. We had so many rejections and none of the news we found want to progress, so we'll be starting to find more again this week. And all of our investigators that are suppossed to get baptized have been lying to us or just weird things have been happening and they are all falling apart. I'm not trying to make this sound like a really depressing email lol but that is just what has been going on here in Moroni. We had an Hna activity this morning and had an amazing american breakfast! Crepes and like this egg caserole deliciousness! Yeah food makes me happy. And then we had our last zone activity before changes and ate asado. Yummy! This week I've really been greatful for the opportunity to testify, to bear testimony like Ty. One night we found this one family and I was really excited that they let us in because it was like 8:30 and dark! And they had told us that they were catholic, but everyone says that..anyways so apparently his wife and their mother had died not to long ago. And man as we were testifying about the plan of salvation, the Spirit was SO STRONG! I don't know what got into me, but I just started crying and just sharing how beautiful God's plan is for us, His children. We can live with our families forever! Death cannot separate us! We can return to the presence of our Heavenly Father! It is all possible through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It was just so awesome to be able to share that truth with that family, that they would be able to see their wife and mother again and that they have the opportunity to live with her again as well. I loved bearing testimony and it just skyrocketed my testimony as well as I was sharing with them about these eternal truths. Unfortunately they didn't want to accept it (that just blows my mind) and rejected us, or rejected the message mejor dicho which made us share with them even more powerfully, but at the end they said they didn't want to hear more and didn't want us to come over again. Ahhh so sad. But asi es la mision. We are just waiting to find the people that do receive the message and recognize the Spirit and the truth, and that day will be wonderful! Ok I love yall so much! I am so thankful for your love, support and testimonies. This work is so important! We have something that EVERYONE needs, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't be afraid to share it! have a great week! Love yall!

Oct. 11, 2010

Ok WOW!!! I feel so thankful to have family and friends like yall! Sabe que?! Your emails were just exactly what I needed to receive this week! All of them. I loved TODO!! So thank you so much for your testimonies and faith and dedication to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Incredible. Ha so this week just kinda happened. We worked A FULL but didn't see much success, just one of those weeks. And just some of our progressing investigators are falling, oh and ha something else...about that apartment we were suppossed to move into and was absolutely perfect, just didn't work out. Pretty much everything was just a miracle and we were so excited and everyone was so excited that we found somewhere to live and everything, and then President decided he needed to look over the contract and make sure it was good. So apparently he made some changes on it, and when the Elder called to see what the lady was thinking, she told him that she had just decided to rent it to somebody else. Can you believe it?! So then we were in trouble because we didn't have anywhere to live, so we had to call and beg the familia Zafra again and they said it would be fine. So basically all day Wednesday we spent moving into our new place. Ha we barely fit all of our stuff in and a lot of stuff is just still in suitcases because we are still trying to find somewhere to live, ha and we don't really have a kitchen, well we do just minus a stove, which is fine no big deal. But we now have to viajar (travel) an hour into our area and leave at 8 every night so we can be home by 9, and yes we walk those hours haha it's great. Unfortantely colectivos don't pass by very often. So yeah.. oh my gosh and we found out we have cambios a week earlier. So now we'll be finding out on the 21st and switching the 22nd. Crazy! I don't know what's going to happen, I'm guessing we'll probably stay together. Oh and mom! You know that girl you told me that is coming? Well I don't know her, but I saw her picture about 2 months ago and I was like ahh she is so cute, I want to train her! So yeah that would be so awesome, so if anyone has anyway to contact her, just tell her to be so excited to come to Paraguay because it's the best mission in the world and that we are all praying for her and that any of the trainers would be awesome! But yeah that is so cool, and my zone leader right now, a girl from his ward is coming in like March or something. How fun! This really is just the best mission! I LOVE PARAGUAY! It is so great, ha it is crazy, but that is why you love it. I LOVE sharing the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with the people. Yeah it's sad that a veces they don't want to hear or live it, but when they use their agency to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ it is AMAZING! Miracles happen! I love it! Mom I LOVED your letter! All of it! INSPIRATION! And Angela too!!! Wow what an amazing family I have! And I'll just leave yall with a funny story, ok so we went out to the bajos this past week (this is like the poorest area of Paraguay) anyways we have an investigator out there, but he wasn't there so we shared with the daughter- ha and everytime we go over there the kids like hide from us, so we were excited that the daughter would share with us. Ha anyways so we had just got done introducing ourselves and singing and we explained all about prayer and then I started to say the prayer. So there we are sitting all tranquilo as I am praying and all of a sudden I get drenched with water! One of the little kids had come and ran outside and then sprayed water all over me as I was praying. Ha I just started busting out laughing during the prayer, my comp only got a lil wet because she was behind me lol haha who does that? Welcome to the bajos. Haha and now a story that you should probably not put on the blog...so we were at one of our other investigators house and we were sitting there talking and I was going to cross my legs and all of a sudden Matilde just started busting out laughing and said, TIENES SHORTS! (you have shorts on) haha but it was SO FUNNY, the way she said it and the look on her face (apparently she had seen my garments!) but she just couldn't stop laughing, and then her mom who is probably like 60ish was like well that's better because it won't show your underwear line haha. And then Matilde is like but it is SO HOT outside why would you wear shorts, ha I was like oh geez but it was just so funny and then they started calling my comp 'la gorda' (the fatty) ha she was so offended. I was like yeah that's just what they do here. Man it was so funny!. Ahh ok eso no mas. and mom for the christmas list, I don't know!!! That is so far away! I'll give you a couple things that you can get now, but don't send it yet! Ok trail mix, como siempre, those oreos you got me last year! So good! Oh and apparently there are these new pretzel m & m things that are so good! Hna Kimballs daughters brought them and I liked them a lot! And if you could just make me some Cmas cards that I can send out to people that would be AWESOME!!! They don't have to be super fancy or anything like that, just simple and easy to make. Oh and I'm going to need more tampons and contact solution and maybe a pack or two of make up remover wipes. Some lil candy canes, they don't have those here, and just a couple pair of socks, because I'll probably need some to finish the mish. And yeah eso no mas for right now, but i'm trying to think of a couple gifts I could send to my converts (so if you think of anything cute let me know). Ok I love yall! Thanks so much for everything! Have a great week! ANd P.s. Ty is always in my prayers, I promise I'll write you after I get home from the mish, but you know how it is with time here. Love ya!

Oh and also! I got the card from Gpa Dale and Laurie! Thanks so much for remembering me!

Oct. 4, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA BILL!!!!!!! 91!!! Viejito!!! Chulina!!! Gpa I love you! You are the best! And look at you, 91 years old and still going strong! I am so proud and am so excited to see you next summer! I hope you had a great birthday party with all the fam and friends! Love ya! Ok WOW this was one of the best weekends of my life! Thursday we went to the temple and ended up being there for 5 hours! It was SOOO PERFECT! Such a nice opportunity to just be in the House of the Lord and contemplate and commit and just have that spiritual strength to keep going. I loved it! And guess what?! I got to see my first temple wedding! Ha it was soo cute! ANd probably the only time in Spanish that I´ll see one so that was something really special for me and of course I almost cried, the promises and the things that were said were so beautiful. And it´ll be so cute when I finally find that special one and know that I´ll get to be with him and my family FOREVER! And ahhh it was just so cute! and they were so cute and it was just perfect, I´m so greatful that we got to see it. And then of course, CONFERENCE!!! Ha bueno actually the whole conference process was a huge mess! Like all the communication was horrible, so we really never knew what hours they were going to show it here because everyone was telling us different things and the bishop didn´t know and neither did the members and everyone had different hours and we weren´t sure which church we´d be able to watch it in so we could see it in English and all of that. So it was kinda difficult to coordinate with all of our investigators. But my comp made these cute invitations to hand out to everyone and we were just contacting a full and testifying and it was a blast! Turns out, we had to go to the church in Trinidad to watch it which is pretty lejos (far) from our area, but that is where they had it in English but our investigators didn´t want to go clear out to trinidad, so we just organized for them to go to our chapel in Moroni. We passed by for them all Sunday morning to make sure they were going and were excited and it was all great! But we don´t know if they went because they don´t have phone numbers, so we just left them all sheets of paper to take notes! But conference was great and each session I just kept thinking of all of them and thinking how perfect it would be for them to hear it, so I hope and pray they went! Oh man and that´s right... Hna Kimball´s daughters were down here this week. They are so cute! It was a ton of fun (lost some sleep because we were talking to them) but they are way cute and one of them had served in Honduras and she was just telling us all about that and just giving us all this life advice. Ha and then they would stay up playing cards all night long...yeah that´s not trunky at all! Haha I was like ah man this is just like us! But no, I´m good, don´t you fret. Oh and I also sent some stuff home with them (2 hammocks, some old letters and my winter coat) and I am so greatful for that because that would`ve taken up so much weight in my suitcases! So you'll have to send them thank you letters and I´ll send you their addresses. Oh and also today I bought a nativity set and it´s made out of this like famous paraguay wood that has this certain scent (it´s called palo santo) and just a couple other recuerdos. Aver, oh man and also, MILAGRO (MIRACLE!) ¿Sabe qué? Like on wednesday we were going out to work and we were just walking along and we had just randomly gone a different way than we normally go to this one house and like when we were like half way there, I even said that's weird, we never go this way, but we just kept going. And as were walking I look towards the left and I see this like store and above it this huge sign, and then my eye catches a sign right about it...AQUILO, do you know what that means? haha, for rent! which ok whatever, not a big deal, it's probably super expensive because it's right there on the main road (España) and right in front of Pizza Hut and right next to a McDonalds that they are building, but we take the number down and just keep walking. And I call it and she tells me un millon, and the elder only told me we could pay 700, but that was actually the cheapest we've ever found because the other ones are usually like 1,500. So I call the elder and just ask him and he just says oh yeah that's fine. What?! so then we go and check it out and it is so PERFECT! And so to make a long story short, we should be moving in this Wednesday which is so perfect because they are kicking us out of the other apartment at the end of the week! It was such a blessing and so unexpected! So thank yall for your continued prayers! And it is just in the perfect location, a couple blocks from the church and the grocery store! The other hermanas are going to love us! Alrighty I think that is all! I love yall! Have a great week!

Sept. 27, 2010

Oh my land!!! What happened to all the people in St. George?!! Holy Cow!!! Spring started this week in Paraguay, but yall are all in Utah!!! What in the world?! Like everyone is just getting married. Emily, you better just watch yourself lol. Nah, really I’m super excited for everyone on that HUGE long list of people that are going to get married this year! But that is CRAZY! This week was great as usual. We had a mission training and went over all the new things that are going on with the mission and like the 8 ynew lessons and it’s really exciting! My comp is a guapa and she totally has that MTC fire going on, so it’s great! She is just whipping me right into shape, and we are going to tear it up. Ha I feel like I’m in the states because we get rejected all the time here! Nobody lets us in. In Luque it was completely opposite, everyone let us in, you just clap at their door, say permiso and walk in and they love you. Here they have doorbells you have to ring or lil speaker phones in front of their house that they answer. Ha it is so weird. We have fun though. We just play the rejection game. We have gotten some pretty funny rejections. The other day we were passing by this HUGE house, and I was like ahh man, we are so going to contact this house and see what happens. And it had like 4 flights of stairs that went up to the front door, and I was like guaranteed they won’t even come down one flight to talk to us. Ha ok so this lady comes out, probably like 50ish and there we are, 2 cute lil American rubias (blondes) standing at the front of her gate smiling so big, so excited to share about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ (just picture this) so she comes out and says in her most pleasant voice, que dicen? (what do you say) ha and when I say pleasant, I really mean she seemed really annoyed. And so my sweet comp tells her we are representatives of Jesus Christ and that we have a message so special to share with her, ha and she throws her hands up in the air and says , No NO NO!! I am catholic, my family is catholic, my grandparents are catholic, blah blah blah. And so then I jump in and I’m like oh that is so perfect, because we share with everyone and we know that our message can bless your life (now remember she is like 4 flights up so we are like shouting) and she freaks out and just keeps throwing up her hands in the air and waving them no, and we just keep talking and invite her to conference and talk to her about the prophet y el evangelio restaraudo and she just plugs her ears and is telling us she doesn’t want to hear anything we have to say. Ha it was actually pretty funny. So then we leave and are just like laughing and there is this guy parked in a truck on the side of the road, and when we were contacting I had seen him come out and get into his car but I thought he had left, but apparently he had stayed. But he started asking us what the church is all about and that he wanted to learn more too (that he is catholic) but that he wanted to hear more about what we believed. So we gave him a nice lil run down and invited him to conference and he was pretty interested in that and said he wanted to go to a session and we are going to go back and visit him on Wednesday. But at the end, he was like man that lady really didn’t want to hear anything you had to say huh? It was pretty funny. But it was a nice lil milagro (miracle). The Lord really does just put people in your way. Keep praying that we will be able to find people. We found for like 4 hours straight the other day and only got into 1 house. Everyone else rejected us. Yikes! But we are working a full. And this week, I am SO EXCITED!!! On Thursday we go to the temple!!!! POR FIN!!! And then I’ll go once again in April right before conference and then the night before I leave. Oh my goodness that day is coming way to fast. I don’t like it. Do you know what?!!! I hit my year mark last Thursday! Can you believe I have been gone a full year?!! Crazy! Ha I don’t want to hear about any more marriages until I get home, everyone just needs to slow down lol. Ahh and then we have conference!!! I absolutely love conference! And we have just been showing everyone in Paraguay the picture of our prophet, Thomas S Monson and testifying like crazy. It is a blast! I’m hoping that we’ll have some good asistencia for conference. And I’m really hoping we’ll be able to see the Relief Society broadcast, here they have that on Saturday morning. For conference we all just meet at the stake center and usually all the members and latinos are in the sacrament room and all the Americans are in their own lil room watching in English on a lil tv. Haha last year it was a lot of fun! Ahh I’m so excited! And next Monday we move into our new place!! Crazy! Today Sis Kimball’s 3 daughters are coming to stay for about a week and it’ll be a lot of fun to get to know all of them! Alright I better go! Love yall so much! Have a great week!

Love,

Hermanita Nelson

Sept. 20, 2010

Ha CHISTE!!! Ok soo we didn't exactly find a house but we found a place we can stay until we can actually find a house! La familia Zafra (I think I've already told yall about them, we ate lunch at their house a couple weeks ago and the food was so good and they are American and he is here working) right...so they just happen to have this lil maids courters atras su casa, in the back of their house they have this lil place where their maid can stay but turns out she doesn't stay there so they have just been using it as a storage place. Well last Monday we went to their house to do our laundry and our internet and then that night Hna Zafra called me and was like, hey I was talking with my wife and we just wanted to offer yall the lil place behind our house if you can't find anything. So I was like sweet! And we were actually thinking about that like the week before but we didn't really want to ask them cause that's kinda awkward, so it was a real blessing that they offered. And then we told Hna Kimball what they said and she said she had been thinking that exact same thing too the week before and she was planning on asking them this week. So it was really just an answer to all of our prayers and all of yalls prayers (thanks so much!) and so this past week Hna Madariaga went over to check it all out to make sure we can live there and we got the check! So later today we are going over to clean it all out and we'll move in in like 2 weeks. We won't have like a kitchen really, but it will be just enough space for our beds and our desks and that is just perfect until we find another place. We're excited because the familia Zafra is AMAZING but we are really sad to leave Hna Kimball. Ok more good news, last Saturday we had Graciela's baptism!!! Ahh she is just the cutest and was so happy to FINALLY be baptized. She has always wanted to but we just wanted to make sure she was ready. Ah it was so cute and 2 of her kids came which was a really big deal because she wasn't expecting it and neither were we and it was great. Those crazy children were there, so that made things a lil stressful but Hna Messina played the piano again and it was FABULOUS. I love music! I'll have to send some pics (oh by the way, did yall send me another memory card in the package or no?) oh that package is just so great! We made the cake the other night and oh my land! It tasted so AMAZING! It tasted so AMERICAN, ha it was weird. Yummy!!! And all those SNACKS! Ahh who knew I would ever be so happy about getting FOOD for my birthday!! Hehe and we decided we are going to try to make the 7 layer dip...which means mom I need you to send me the exact detailed recipe when you get this and then to email me back right away and I'll check later. Ok? Perfect. Aver... Oh and also this past week Hna G and her 2 hijas (she stayed with them both for this change) they came and lived with us last tuesday until this morning because they got their electricity turned off haha because they hadn't paid their bills in like 3 months. Yikes. Ha so that was fun and crazy and I am still so tired, I have so much sleep to catch up on. Oh AND dun nu nu guess what?!! I found another Emilio, Manu, Alcides type guy!!! We are so excited! And just guess what his name is?! Yep, that is right, another Gustavo. Ridiculous! But he is the right one!!! And we just call him Gustavito. He's 19 and we found him as a contact...bueno we were clapping doors. The problem is he is only available on Saturday and Sundays. Lame. He is in the military so he's all into that and his studies and his work and he is just watching the house that we visit him at over the weekends. But he is a stud. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he's been reading and we invited him to be baptized for the 09 of October and he said yes (oh that was last Sunday and we were with Emilio and Manu) and so their all just good friends. And he came with us to church for the first time yesterday and he loved it of course and he asked where Emilio and Manu were and I told him they are from Luque so they go to a different church (and then I talked to Emilio after church and he asked how Gustavo was doing, ha it was funny) but that they are preparing to go on missions and that he can prepare with them. hehe. And then at church he asked me something about baptism but I didn't hear his question so I told him we'd pass by later and talk to him about it. Oh and apparently him and Graciela know eachother because they used to work together and it was funny because we were with her that morning to pick him up and they were like oh hey! So that's good lol. Anyways ok so we went there and he was like uh yeah so do I have to find white clothes to wear to my baptism or what? Ha I was like what a great question! Well for YOUR baptism... Ha I like how he put himself in that situation. So I'm excited to keep working with him. How cool! Another missionary boy. Love it! Ok oh and Alisa and Angela loved yalls blogs, the pictures are so cute! All the kids are so big!!! I can't believe it. Nate and Tyler are lil boys!! And Kylee oh my land! How did that happen!!! She was like a lil baby when I left and now she is just the most adorable lil girl!! Ahh I can't wait to come home and spoil them! Oh and Nick's email was hilarious! I loved it! thanks for sending that! Oh and question...who wants one of those cool leather scripture cases? I'm sure Skyler and Bobby know what they are if you don't know what I'm talking about. You can get like pictures of temples or Christ engraved on them. But if yall want them just tell me what size your scriptures are and what kind of picture you would want. Ok I think that is everything! I love yall so much! Thanks for the emails! Tell grandma I miss her emails, they need to get back already!! Have a great week!

Sept. 13, 2010

Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me!!! Man, can you believe it?! I am 22!!! HOly cow! And let me just go ahead and throw out a thanks to mamma wariner because she is the only one who told me I was still young, everyone else said they couldn't believe how OLD I was! Haha! wow so my first (and last) birthday in Paraguay!! Ha it was fun! The night before one of our investigators, Jose (who is like 45ish) bought me some alfajors (those are really a big deal here) and some juice and sang me happy birthday and then the next day for my bday we went to church, which was actually a disaster lol because we just had these crazy kids there and sacrament was oh so spiritual haha pero esta bein. Despues we went up stairs in the kitchen of the church and ate lots of cake! And then we went back to the house and Hna Kimball made roast and mashed potatoes for my birthday!!! It was SOO delicious!!! I was so excited, it's a good thing too because I missed out on that yummy chicken enchilada meal ayer! And then Emilio and Manu came out and worked with us all day! It was a blast. And then we came home and Hna Kimball made guacamole and ha I was telling them all about the 7 layer dip that you make! And then you wrote about that haha...next year for sure!! OH MY GOSH!!!! And that PACKAGE!!!! That was AMAZING! Ha I was SO EXCITED! Ha and so was my comp! All the candy is just about gone and ahh Alena I loved the photo colauge (ha yeah I can't figure out how to spell that) and all that FOOD! Yeah that was just the perfect thing...who knew I'd be so excited about getting food...oh and blasted, the cereal got broken, so that was all over the place and stale, but don't worry the rest is just PERFECT!!! I'm serious I could just go on and on about how much I LOVED IT!!!! And THANK YOU Sis Andersen for including that card and the food! Loved it! Oh and also this past week I got letters from Keri, Quickie Dickie, Flora (ha I LOVED the puzzle thing, that was so tyte!!! And yeah that took like 3 months to get here bc it got sent to the south mission- and ok Flora has got to be home now!!! Crazy!! ANd yeah I'll be waiting for another letter because I need your new address!) and the Bachelors (thank you- ha they are so awesome and their lil boy is so cute!) and from President Lyman! Oh and we got CAMBIOS!!!! I think we are going to start getting them on Monday's from now on, but I'm staying with my hija! We're happy! Pretty much everyone stayed together. Oh man and we still DON'T have a house! I don't know what we're going to do! This past week-let's see... well last monday we had an hermana activity and we went to mercado 4, which is kinda a big deal because nobody ever gets permission to go there...ha but I know how to work it hehe. And I bought a couple hammocks that are way sweet! And then Tuesday we went out to lunch with Hna Sherwood (who is another missionary that works in the temple and I guess she always takes the missionaries out to eat on the first Tuesday of every month) and we went to this really nice...like way nice seafood place, who woulda thought there'd be good seafood in Paraguay but I ate clams for the first time, ahh and shrimp is so good too! Oh and then today we went to Pizza Hut and there ended up being a ton of missionaries there, so we had a lil party and it was so fun to see everyone! This past week was actually pretty rough, I had a couple emotional break downs because Satan is just working a full on this area! We had some really AWESOME investigators (a family, who I had just come to love SO MUCH and who are just so perfect for the gospel and we've had family home evenings with them for the last 2 Mondays and they just went fabulous! THe first one we talked all about the family and they just loved it and then last week, we had a family from the ward come with us and we went to the church and just gave them like a tour- because they've never gone before-bueno, the mom has never gone before, so the point was so that she could go and see that it was amazing and feel the spirit and everything, but she ended up not even coming because she was sick...so sad! We wanted her to come so bad! But the kids just loved it! My comp played the piano and we sang and they just loved all of it and then we walked around the temple and everything was just perfect! And they all told us how excited they were to come to church with us) And then we passed by their house like on Wednesday to see how they all were, and their mom came out to talk to us and was super blunt and just said, look- we appreciate all you've done for us, but we are catholic and we aren't going to listen to yall anymore and we are not going to go to church with yall, and my kids are going to a catholic school and that is how we are going to raise our family and we are not going to go to the mormon church that has polygamy and blah blah blah. Basically, I just started crying. Ahh and I did NOT want to, but it just absolutely broke my heart. How is that possible? Ahh I don't understand but maybe one day later on they'll accept it and they will remember us and our love for them. I cleared things up with her misconceptions of the church and just bore my testimony and told them that we loved them. She apologized and she said she really loved us too but that she had told us from day 1 that she was catholic but she accepted us because she needed us in that moment but that now she was fine. Ugh. And then later we had another crazy lesson and I just bawled again. wooo, but now I'm 22 and everything is better! A new cambio! Whoo! Bueno, I love yall and am so greatful for all your letters and the package and the birthday wishes! Oh my gosh and I saw Nate's video!!! I almost cried! That was the CUTEST! Give him such big hugs and kisses for me! I love yall all so much! Have a great week!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERMANITA NELSON!!!!!!!!!

*I just had to post something about Amanda's birthday today. If you happen to be glancing at her blog maybe you can send her feliz cumpleanos greetings!

Sept. 6, 2010

Ok first off...wow TY is such a STUD MUFFIN! wow!!! those pics were great! I was so excited to see him! He looks so good! And yeah he has definetly got that light in his eyes! Chulina! Ha you got that picture of me and my mission parents..I don't really remember what I looked like..yikes! Ahhh I'm turning 22!! Oh man I'm going to be an old maid when I get back...ha jk I don't care. Ahh and I'm so excited you gave me permission to open my package but I think I might just wait til Sunday...ha we'll see how long that lasts. Ok so we had Luis' baptism and it was so beautiful! Ha I actually felt like I was in the states for a second.. members actually came and my wonderful companion played this beautiful piece on the piano and the lil talks were great and after the baptism Luis bore his testimony and it was just so cute and then he wanted me to get up and share mine which made me almost cry. Ahhh I was so excited for him! I just kept looking at him and realizing how much I loved him. He is just this big ole teddy bear, it is so great! And then the next day we went to his house to see how he was doing and he was just so happy. And after his baptism he just kept smiling and it was the cutest thing! And then while we were at his house and he offered the prayer and it was so sweet. He thanked God for being a Mormon. haha he is so excited to be a member of the church! And then he just told us how much he loved us and how greatful he was for the gospel and bringing it to him and helping him out. I'm telling you...times like that make everything else worth it! He told us something but I can't remember exactly how he phrased it...but he said I wish I would've met yall earlier so I could've had this gospel in my life. He has changed so much. He still has a long way to go, as do the rest of us, but that's where that perseverar hasta el fin (endure to the end) comes in. Ahh and I have to tell you about this family we found. Ha so Saturday we put time to find in before lunch. So we were just going around and we were in a really rich part of our area, like everyone has these huge gates in front of their houses so you can't see in and then they have a speaker in front. So you have to ring the speaker and then talk to the people...and let me just tell you what usually happens. You ring it, they say, que dice? you tell them your missionaries and you have a message about Jesus Christ you want to share and they tell you, no sorry we just work here and we aren't allowed to leave the property. LIke all these rich people have these lil servant people and they aren't allowed to open the doors or anything for security purposes. And if the person who actually owns the house answers they tell you they are catholic or are busy or w/e. ok so after being rejected for a good hour or so, I was like alright we have to make it a meta (a goal) to get in one of these big houses contacting through a speaker! So like 30 min of rejections later we got to this house and my comp contacted through the speaker and a man answered. Now that is just weird because they are always women. But she told him who we were and he said well I'm really religios, Catholic Ramonic...i don't even know, some really catholic religion that like every person in Asuncion is a part of...but he said, I have your church's bible and I'll come outside real fast and saludarle (like say hello). Sweet! ha so he comes outside and he's like 35ish and he just starts speaking to us in English. Ha it was great!! He speaks like fluent, I guess he studied in the states, but he was so cool. And he let us come in and we met 2 of his kids and his wife, who just all happen to speak english too! the kids look american and they are so cool and so cute! and their house is so HUGE!!! and so NICE! ha it was so fun! so he wanted us to talk to them in english so they could practice. ha it was so weird! talking no...but teaching was really hard! I kept going in and out of spanish and english...ha I think the lessons sound better in spanish..it just sounded weird in English. But they were a lot of fun and I guess their oldest son (who we didn't meet) went to the same school as the Wade's boys. Anyways we are going to start teaching them and I'm excited. They are pretty in to their religion (he pretty much believes the Bible is EVERYTHING and there isn't anything else) but he told us he is really open to listen and he said if God touches him, then he'll follow that answer. So he is open and he is going to read the Book of Mormon, and this will be their first time meeting with the missionaries. woot woot! and they just so happen to live on the same street as the temple and the church. It's perfect. The gospel is perfect. I'm stoked. Then yesterday we ate lunch with the familia Zafra. They are in our ward and are from the states. Bueno the dad is from Peru and the mom from Mexico but they have lived in the states like all their lives and he works for the embassy. But this weekend was just weird because it felt like I was in the states or something. They cooked us an amazing meal and we had american brownies!!! SOOO GOOD! It was a great week! The time is just flying. Every week we are just finding and finding...searching through the weeds. But it is fun. And this Sunday is my birthday! woot woot! And then next week we have CAMBIOS!!!! That is crazy! Man time flies. I'm pretty sure I'll stay with my hija. She's a guapa and her spanish is AMAZING...lol it is better than mine, so she has made it really easy to train. Another great week! I love the mission! Ha the familia Zafra..well the parents told us to tell their daughter why she should go on a mission. ANd I was like, the mission is the best thing in the world! Ah it really is! Bueno, I needed the mission. It has changed my life. I just keep learning and growing. It is incredible. THings that you wouldn't ever learn in any other way. I am so so so thankful to be a missionary and to have this opportunity to serve my Heavenly Father. Yeah for sure there are hard times, but it is so worth it! Love it! Love yall! Have a great week!

August 30, 2010

WOW!!!! What a week yall had! How exciting! I loved all the emails and all the news. That is so CRAZY that Skyler is going to Ty’s same mission! What a small world! Wouldn’t that be hilarious if Ty trained him? Haha. And Ty thanks for sharing what the member of the 70 had shared with yall, it helped me a lot! So wow quite a week! Alright here in Paraguay we had quite a week too!!! So we had the special changes from Monday night until Saturday morning and it was probably the best week of the mission. Hna G and Hna Henderson (who lived with me my first change and were super tyte) came to stay with me for the week and we just had a BLAST! We had the capacitacion (the conference thing) from 9-3 every day and it was just AMAZING! I just love being a missionary! It was so eye opening and man there are just so many things that I need to be doing better ha but I’m working on it, so it’s all good. We probably only got in like 6 hours of work the whole time they were here because we didn’t end up getting home until like 5 every day… we had a couple interviews with President and then I got super sick on like Thursday and waiting for colectivos and yeah, and then at night we had consejo de barrio (ward council) and a meeting with our mission leader. So the work was kinda limited which really stinks because this week we have to like start over again! Because all of the investigators from the hermanas that left are not progressing!!! I kinda wish we would’ve dropped them earlier because we just found out that they have been working with the other hnas for a really long time and they aren’t keeping their commitments. Ahhh dificil! So this week we are starting over with a new clean slate. We should be having a baptism this Wednesday with a man named Luis (again…stories for after the mish) and I’m really excited for him. He really wants to be baptized but we’ve just been trying to help him prepare better and he just loves us and teases with us all the time. When I first got here I couldn’t understand barely anything he said because he mumbles! But now were good. Ha he kinda reminds me of grandpa Bill, like the way he jokes around and everything, it’s hilarious. Aver… so something happened yesterday that changed my mission for me or maybe better said, changed my life. Bueno… actually this week there have been a couple different things that have happened that just COMPLETELY and TOTALLY changed my perspective about life! 1. There is opposition in ALL things. Something I have truly come to understand and treasure. We can’t ever truly appreciate something until we have truly understood the opposite.. like living here in Paraguay and seeing so much poverty.. Things that have literally broken my heart and I have felt completely hopeless on what I could do to help. And there were times when I asked, Heavenly Father, why them? Why do these precious little children and loving people have to live like this? Why did they get this life? I look at these kids, and yall know how much I love children… and their lives are just so so so sad. Most of them don’t know who their dads are, they live in trash (the other day we were walking over this lil bridge and underneath there was this nasty steam filled with trash and pigs and was just gross, and there was this lil boy, probably like 4 years old, searching for food. I’m sure yall can’t even picture that. But that is just how it is in a lot of parts of Paraguay. And just things like that happen every day. And then these poor moms that have all these children and NO SUPPORT and can’t find jobs and can’t provide for their children. Ah it just kills me. I feel so bad for these poor children that have to live in the mistakes of their parents. I honestly don’t understand how it works. But I know that God loves them just as much as anyone and that His plan is for EVERYONE. It is the ONLY plan that brings happiness. I am so eternally thankful for this knowledge that I have. I’m serious. God loves us. His love is so great for all of us individually.. I hope you pray to understand the greatness of the message of the restoration and then that you go out and share it! I love yall so much! And am so thankful for all your emails and love and support. It means the world to me, to have family and friends that actually care and that are such great testimony builders. That is AMAZING. There are times when I try to explain to our investigators about family prayer and family scripture study and family home evening…things that honestly were not my favorite things to do growing up, but now what a treasure that is to me-and they can’t even comprehend something like that. Now, I understand the difference it makes. That opposition. Ha now I understand how important it is to follow the council of the prophet. He really does know what he’s talking about. I don’t know why sometimes we don’t follow. But I know that if we do follow, we will be happy and we will live with God and our families again. Wow this email is all over the place! Just pray for me. Pray that we will find the people that are ready to accept this message so they can have the FULLNESS of the gospel. And that we can find a house! Ahhh! I love yall! Have a great week

Aug. 23, 2010

Oh my goodness! So turns out today is my 9 month mark in Paraguay and my 11 month mark in the mission and the weeks just keep flying by! I can’t believe it is Monday otra vez! And this week is probably going to go by super fast too… Friday night my zone leaders called me and they were like Hna we’re just calling bc you have a special change. Excuse me?! I was like WHAT?!! And they were like yeah we’re going to do it on Monday night and your daughter is leaving to MarianoRA and you’ll be staying here. And I was like uh elders I don’t understand. And I was like well who will be coming with me? And then they told me Hna G and I was like what?! That doesn’t even make sense… she has hijas too. So here I am like freaking out that I’m going to be separated from my darling hija and then he’s like well it’s just going to be until Friday. Ha and I’m still really confused. And then he tells me that all the trainers and district and zone leaders have like this special conference to learn how to be better missionaries and to use preach my gospel better and all that good stuff. So it’s going to be Tues- Fri in the mornings. I’m actually really excited about it! It’ll be really awesome to learn and be better and then just go out on fire! And that’s exactly what this area needs! Man, yesterday was a tough day! Ha Sundays in the mission are CRAZY! Like I’ve already explained, you always leave about an hour early so you can go and collect all your investigators for church. Well yesterday we left at 6:50 (church starts at 9) to go and stop by for all our peeps. Saturday we committed everyone to go! It was awesome, like we resolved all their doubts, promised them blessings, verified, testified, everything and at the end of the day we were pretty confident that we would have 11 people in church on Sunday and we were pretty stoked about it. So we leave Sunday morning and the weather is just BEAUTIFUL! And to make a long story short we only had 1 person come to church with us. We stopped by for everyone and more people and everyone gave us all these excuses. Ha it’s times like that when I wish I didn’t understand Spanish! It was pretty tough. We were both like near tears because it’s just like we develop so much love for these people and we can truly see how the gospel can bless their lives, how they can change their lives and be happier and have better relationships with their families and everything and we just get so excited when they read in the Book of Mormon or are doing their prayers and keeping their commitments, but then when they don’t, it really just breaks your heart! It’s hard to explain. Ha I don’t think I could ever handle a rebellious child, because you just love them so much and you see what is best for them, but all you can do is love them and teach them but you can’t force them. Ha and sometimes I just want to force these people! I have learned so much about el gran regalo del albedrio. The great gift of our agency. What a gift! Man! It’s hard to watch people use their albedrio to go down a course that isn’t right. Man, it’s all about that iron rod. Hold on to that! It’s so important to just CLING to it and never let go! I loved mom’s email and that talk. We talked about that in sociedad de Socorro tambien. But I never thought about how you explained it. But I love that. As missionaries that’s what we are doing too! Helping these children find their way home. 1. Teaching them to read in the Book of Mormon 2. Bearing testimony and 3. Teaching them to act rather than be acted upon. So thanks so much for that correlation. It makes me excited to work. It’s so true. Ah man I just love the Book of Mormon. It is so true. And all week I’ve been reading all the talks from the last general conference; AMAZING! I just love conference! And in every contact and lesson we have been saying we are missionaries of the church of jesus Christ of latter day saints, representatives of Jesus Christ and we have been called by a prophet of God to share with the people of Paragauy the restored message of the gospel. Ha it’s been great! I love doing that because it helps me remember my purpose as a missionary and it will help those who are prepared recognize us as servants of God. Love it! Love the mission! Bueno, I love yall! I hope your praying that we’ll find a new house in a good location ha because we haven’t yet! And we also want to start working in a different part of our area and we really need to be led by the Spirit to help us decide! I love yall so much and am so so so thankful to have yall in my lives. And I really appreciate your emails! Have a great week! And Happy Bday Hna Case this Saturday! Love yall!

Love,

Hermanita Nelson

Aug. 16, 2010

CRAZY WEEK!!!! Ha but this one went by a lot faster! First, holy shnikies I got my HUGE HUGE HUGE package!!!! And now it is just sitting there in my room staring at me wanting me to open it and I have to wait another month until my birthday lol! But I'm glad it made it! Also ha mom remember when you told me Bro. Nichols knew a girl that was coming out here that plays piano...ha turns out that is my hija! Ha and I found out that her and Hilary Heidiman are really good friends because they did piano together at BYU...small world, I love it! And now here we are walking the good ole streets of Paraguay! Ha to start this week off so well on Tuesday night we were getting ready to leave our area to go to a consejo de barrio in the church (ward council) and we didn't know exactly which collectivo to take so we made sure we finished in time so that we'd be able to figure it out. So we asked like 3 different people which collectivo we would need to go to brazilia y espana and they all told us 23 or 24, so we go out to the routa and a 24 is coming right down, so we sign it and it stops and we get on and we are like so stoked because wow que bendicion that the collectivo came right then when we needed it! and just to make sure I ask the collectivo driver that it passes by brazilia y espana and he says yes. well FAIL!!! ha our first day without hna rodriguez and we get LOST! ha we are going and going and we turn on espana and I'm like perfect we're almost there and then we pass this street called brazil...and i'm like hmmm that's weird I hope that's not what they thought I meant...but I had told them it was by the big church so we should be good. FAIL...all of a sudden we turn again and we end up en los estados unidos..ha that is what the road is called. and I'm like oh shoot this can't be right, ha so we bust out the map...and those roads weren't even on our map lol. so then i'm like freaking out and we stop the collectivo and get off. and so we had been off for less than a minute and we're like ha what should we do and then all of a sudden this guy comes up to us and he's like, can I help you? ha but he is totally talking in english! lol it was fabulous, I guess he had lived in Arizona por algunos anos and so he spoke english! and he helped us figure out which collectivo we needed to take and it was just such a blessing! and we only ended up being like 10 min late to the meeting. Ha so yeah then later we had found out we had gone into the South Mission...which you could get sent home if you go into that mission...lol but it wasn't our fault! Aver... we also had zone conference and it was really good...different than how we used to do them, but I'm excited for all the changes that are going to happen with preach my gospel and everything, and we are just going to become better missionaries but unfortunately it all starts the month before I go home..que triste, which is why I want to work in the MTC so I can still be a part of everything! Have I told yall how great my hija is? She is just so cute. She is a way better daughter than I was. Her spanish is amazing and she isn't afraid to do contacts or talk or anything, it's amazing. I love it! Training is really hard, all of this responsibility with being comp mayor...senior comp and trying to do your best to help the newbie do things right and to be a good example. But we are learning juntas and having a good time. I still get frustrated with my spanish, but I'm working on it! We've been working with all the old investigators from the other hnas but we're trying to transfer to start working in different areas that haven't been worked in a really long time, probably bc the houses are mas chu chi...like way nicer.. but the other hnas have been in the bajos (like the poorest part of Paraguay I have ever seen...it is SO SAD...they pretty much live in the trash down there and their houses are just built from whatever they could find, the people are really great but a lot of them dont want to keep commitments and the church is so far away that they don't want to walk and there isn't a collectivo that passes and it is the farthest point of our area and we're not allowed to go there at night or on sundays because it is to dangerous) entonces we are going to start working in other parts. And we have found some really cool people. First this girl named Liliana whose dad just died about 3 months ago and our first cita with her when we found her was just incredible. The Spirit was SO STRONG and ha I started crying when we sang at the beginning before the prayer or anything because we sang...familias pueden ser eternas..families can be forever...I don't know if that is the translation but you know what I'm talking about...and man the Spirit was just there and by the end of the lesson we were all crying! And at the end she was like it was a coincident that we stopped by because she was alone and she had just been thinking about her dad and that she was just so greatful for our visit. she is so cute, she's 21 or 22 and then the next night we met her family and they are great. We all click just great and we're laughing and everything. But there is something that is holding the mom back, I don't know what it is...but I just know that they are so prepared to receive the gospel, so please pray for them. The mom Porfiria, and then the son Gustavo who is 18 and then there are 2 more kids we haven't met...one that doesn't live there and then another daughter. We want to go back over there tonight though. We also met this lady Alejandra that didn't want to let us in her house at first, but finally we convinved her ha. And she had told us she just had a couple minutes to share..yapoo! we ended up staying there for like a half hour. at the end of the lesson she also told us that it wasn't coincident that we stopped by because just the week before she was going through a big box of books and she found a really old copy of the book of mormon that someone had given her and that she had wanted to start to read it. ha it is such a old book! I had never seen one like it before, but it is just so awesome because the words are just the same. So we came and commited her to read it and to pray about it and next time we are going to share the first vision and story of Joseph Smith. The problem is going to be getting her to come to church because she says she is just not the type of person who goes to church and she only goes for weddings and funerals. But that is just all going to change! She is so prepared too! LOVE IT! The gospel is so true. Man I love the mission. Ha it is such an emotional roller coaster but ha the ride is just soo good! And also if you could pray for us to find a house. We have to move and apparently we are in charge of finding a house to move into lol so if you could please pray for that, that it can be in a good area and for a good price! Bueno, I love yall all so much and am so so so greatful for your prayers and your letters! Have a great week!

Aug. 9, 2010

HOLA!!! Oh my goodness! I think this has been the LONGEST week of the mission! I’m serious! So many CRAZY things happened and I don’t even know where to begin. And I think it has seemed so long because so many things happened every single day and it seems like in a normal person’s life it would be like within a month. Ok so first we will start with CAMBIOS! And yes…there were cambios and they are CRAZY!!! Ok so Monday night one of the hnas called us and was like hey did they tell yall cambios and we hadn’t heard anything todavia and she was like yeah well our elders called and told us our cambios but I’m pretty sure it’s a joke. And we were like well what did they tell you? (And p.s. we had talked to the office elders earlier that day about cambios and they were joking around with us and telling us what they thought would happen and we were like ha NO) And she said that Hna Remache (my old comp) would be going with Hna Garcia- now if you knew the story between them you would know that that cambio would be absolutely insane bc hna Garcia does not like hna remache (yeah just be excited for post mission stories) and so we were like they are so full of it! But hna rem heard too and she was starting to get a lil bit nervous bc that would just be insane and so we were like, no hna it’s just a joke that they are playing. Later- our elders called us and said they had our cambios… and we were like ha we already know it’s a joke but let’s see what you have to say. So he starts with hna remache and tells her she is going with hna Garcia and she just starts bawling! Pobrecita and we were like hna no it’s not true they wouldn’t do that, don’t let it get to you etc. then they told hna g her cambio.. that she would be staying in Luque and that she would be having a baby (she’d be training) and then she started freaking out bc she didn’t feel ready etc.- but that actually seemed legit. So then we were like ok what is my cambio?!!! And they said that I’d be going to Moroni (Asuncion)- seems legit- but then he says that I’ll be having a baby too- which just proves that it’s all a joke because there was an hna already in Asuncion and she would have to stay there bc Hna Leavitt was going home. So we were like elders yall are so full of it!! And they were like no it’s true you better go start packing your bags. Oh and another reason it was all just a joke is because they NEVER call on Monday nights, because we always get our changes on Tuesday during district meeting. So that night we were all freaking out a lil bit and all just so convinced that it was a joke. The next morning Hna Leavitt calls me and she says that she is busy making all these maps and writing down things about the investigators so that I wouldn’t be so lost when I came. And I was like WHAT?! You really think it’s true? And then later we got it all confirmed that it was true. WHAT?!!! So turns out now I’m in Asuncion con mi hijita se llama Hna Messina de Las Vegas and we are white washing the area! Ha yall know how bad I am with directions. Hna Rodriguez has stayed with us until today to kind of show us around the area and where the investigators live and everything. But it has been CRAZY! So last Tuesday we just went to all the people we are really close with to say goodbye bc Hna Remache left too (Hna H came to our area to white wash it and train too, but she has been in Luque before). So basically I just spent all day Tuesday crying and saying goodbye and I didn’t get to say goodbye to Emilio because he was in school and I didn’t know, so that just made me cry harder. And we didn’t get home until almost 10 and then I stayed up until 3 packing and have gone to bed like an hour late every night and I am so exhausted. YIKES!!! And then my daughter and a couple other missionaries flights didn’t come in time, so they ended up coming on Thursday instead of Wednesday. Oh so 3 newbies came, 2 from the states and 1 Latina and everyone thought for sure the latina would be my comp and she was here on Wed. and she came with us to work and we thought for sure we would be together bc it would be good if I had someone with me who spoke and understood Spanish to help me get to know the area and the people and everything…but NO! We guessed who was going to be our daughters and were completely wrong. But my daughter is AMAZING. She speaks really really good! More than I knew in like my 3rd change but she just doesn’t understand very well but she’ll get it. She’s really excited to work and teach and do everything, it’s great! And I’m sure we’ll get lost a ton but it’s all good. Right now we live with Hna Kimball who is a widow that is serving a mission with the temple and with our mission and she’s amazing. She reminds me a TON of grandma! We’re going to move though so we might not live with her again. The house we live in right now is AMAZING! I feel like I’m living in a hotel and she’ll cook lil goodies for us so it’s a lot of fun! And our ward is good it actually functions like a real ward and our bishop is really cool. So everything should be fine. It’s still sad because I’m not in Luque with my Luque family and it’s all really different here but it’ll all be good. I’m here because this is where the Lord wants me and we’re going to work a full and have a blast. Pray for me so that I’ll be able to follow the Spirit! Also it just blows my mind that I’m already half way done with the mish…I don’t like it. It’s crazy that now I’m the senior comp who speaks the language and “knows” Paraguay and now I have my lil hijita who is just new and adorable and I’m training her. CRAZY! Yeah I’m gonna need yalls prayers please! And it was funny because we did a Noche de Hogar the night received cambios and I was sharing a scripture and talking all about faith and trusting in the Lord and then my cambio came and I was like WHAT??? What is He thinking? Ha but He knows what He’s doing. I don’t know what I’m doing lol but I know as long as we’re obedient and diligent everything will be fine and I just decided I’m going to let God be the senior comp and we’re just going to follow the Spirit. Bueno I love yall!!! Have a great week!!!

August 2, 2010

Oh man!!! Where to start?!!!! First, what in the World happened to July?!! How are we already in August? Blows my mind! So first the really sad news… another 350 of my pictures got DELETED!!!! Yeah, not cool…and not my fault. An elder was trying to figure something out on my camera and accidentally deleted all my pictures. Ahhh and I´m so sad, I can’t even think about it because it makes me want to cry! Because this week I was going to send yall some awesome pictures (de la gallina que yo maté!- of the chicken that I killed) but now I don’t have them and they were so AWESOME!. TRISTE. Also, of the us with the chicken befote we killed it, the process, and the cena… Hna Remache cooked it afterwards. Ha it was so awesome. It’s really a great store, but we’ll save that for after the mish too. Let’s just say that was the first and the last chicken I am going to kill. Ha but it was demasiado chistoso. Ok let’s see… oh yeah so this week I went to Ybera with Hna Welch for like 3 days, I was really sad to leave my area but it actually ended up being a lot of fun. She is hilarious and we just laughed a lot and it was really cool to see her teach and meet all the people there. Ha it was so funny because in every cita (appointment) we had she would introduce me and then tell them where I was from, but she would change it everytime. Ha so turns out, I’m from Argentina, Brazil, France, Australia, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, etc. And she would make up these crazy stories and everyone believed us. Ha I was like dude, I can never come back to this area because then they will be like oh I thought you were from…. Cualquier país. And so the people would like ask me to say Words in french or portugues, ha and she volunteered me to say the prayer in french lol…oh man good times. But yeah it was fun, but I was ready to come back home to Luque and I came back to an awesome surprise! We had a baptism on Friday! This girl named Fatima, she’s 22 and we’ve been working with her for like the last couple months and it was so cute. She was so happy and it was so amazing to watch her change her life, and quit smoking and drinking to be baptized. So cool! And then today for p day we had an hermana activity and we got to wear JEANS!!! Ha it was fabulous! And it was a lot of fun to hang out with all the hermanas and divertirnos un poco. Oh and I have to tell Angela to tell Tyler that I totally shared his prayer experience in the Noche de Hogar that we did last week and everyone loved it. We were talking about faith and about how little children often understand things better than nosotros. ANd just tell Tyler everyone loved it and give him a big hug. ANd mom…you told me to read Alma 32 this week and I did and I totally loved it. Such a great chapter. And it’s funny because a week ago I gave it to Belen to read for her tarea and when we went on Saturday she still hadn’t finished reading it so we decided to finish the chapter with her. Oh my gosh, it was SO PERFECT! We taught her and her sister Cynthia and the Spirit was just SO STRONG. Unfortunately, she is to into her other church right now, but I straight up testified along with my companions that la iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Días es la unica iglesia verdadera. I mean the whole lesson was just so awesome because everyone was just bearing testimony and compartiendo y todo! I dunno how it impacted them but the rest of us were all edified and my faith has definitely been strengthened. It seems like, when you’re teaching people who are just being stubborn and are just refusing the truth and who know everything but don’t want to be baptized, your testimony just GROWS! Because wow, it is absolutely incredible how much I love Belen and her sister and their family and it just breaks my heart that they aren’t accepting the message of the restored gospel (another Gustavo…ahhh!!!) and as I testified I just started to cry of course and just said… ya know what… we are representantes de Jesucristo and we are here at your house because God wants you to have this message. We are the second set of missionaries that have taught you and it’s because God wants you to have the FULLNESS. Ha it just blows my mind that people just reject the gospel. The gospel is EVERYTHING to me, now more than ever, and it’s just going to grow. Otra vez it all comes down to if the Book of Mormon is true or its not. Ha we are either all crazy and the book is false, or we are right and the book is true. Ha wow it is so true. I love it! And the evidences are everywhere. I just keep noticing the blessings everyday and just feel so incredibly blessed to have been into a family where I learned the gospel… ha I never understood what that really meant or how good I had it. Ha but now I know. I remember those times when you forced us out of bed to do early morning scripture study or prayer, ha and I hated that and man I was such a complainer about family home evening and everything haha sorry! Now I apréciate it demasiado. Seriously, thanks for all your struggles in raising us. We all turned out pretty good I think lol. And it’s all thanks to you mom and pops! I love yall and I hope yall have a great week. Oh man and we have CAMBIOS this week!!!! We are going to know tomorrow. Yeah, I am freaking out. I feel like I’m leaving and that makes me really sad. I love this area but I’m getting the vibe that I’m outta here…so now I’m just nervous of where I’m going and with who!!! Ahh pray for me so that I can know that it is right and that I’ll be ok. Love yall!! Oh yeah and tell Ty…apparently one of the missionaries here (Hna Stagg) knew him from the MTC and he told her to say hi to me…well she told me she knew you today and I was so excited! I love ya bud and you are always in my prayers! oh and it sounded like yalls california trip was a BLAST!!! thanks for the pics I LOVED them! Yall all look SO GOOD! And the kids are soooo cute!!! Give them hugs and kisses for me. ANd I hope you told gpa bill and Harry and Mary Lou and everyone that I say hi and love them! And that is SO COOL that yall saw Elder Gould in the mall...tender mercy!!! Oh and also Grandma, thanks for the picture! It is about time! Yall look great!!! And I can't believe the boat got stolen for awhile, crazy! But I'm glad everything was fixed and I hope yall have fun fishing! We'll have to do that when I get back too! Oh man also, SIs Andersen, you're awesome! Thanks for your letter! It's so you, I love it! And you are so right, Kids are so smart! It's so fun to watch them learn, and half the time I feel like I learn more from them, then they learn from me. And thanks also to mamma wariner and Emily! Love yall. Ha I love letters! Keep them coming!!!