Finally posting...Sorry for the delay

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. Monday seems to be a jinx day for me and I've been sick for the past couple of Mondays and just didn't get the emails posted. I'm just going to get the one from today posted and will try to get the others posted later:

Hola familia y amigos! First off, wow it sounds like yall had a crazy week! I’m sorry to hear that Gary passed away and I can’t believe nobody called and told you! Luckily you were able to attend his funeral. Oh grandpa…he cracks me up! And I saw Angela’s pictures and I was so shocked when I saw the pictures of the snow. I had literally forgotten that it was so cold there. Time is so weird here! I don’t even know what the dates are..I know it’s January but it sure doesn’t seem like it. Weird! So this week some funny things happened. First, I totally got on the wrong collective. We were standing at the corner waiting to go and then Hna Case was like ok there’s one, so I’m like sweet and then I turn around to get on it and then I see Hna Case walking outside towards the back of the collective (because there’s a door at the back) so I just figured she was going to get on in the back..and then once I got on, I realized she had not gotten on and then started freaking out haha. So I’m like ah wait! And I got off and see her hopping on the collective right behind us. Que verguenza. So then I run to get on the other one and the driver was like, ha did you lose your lil friend? So embarrassing lol. And then later we almost got attacked by a big dog. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you that there are dogs EVERYWHERE! It’s hilarious and sad because they’re all about ready to die because they just eat whatever they can find. Anyways there were these dogs barking at us so we told them to stop and then all of a sudden we hear this dog running up behind us barking its head off and I just grabbed on Hna Case’s arm because I was so scared! But then we got away. Oh Paraguay! And then one day we had planned out our day and we’re going to our citas and everything and we had an appointment for this guy named Antolin for 5:00 but we ended up doing it a lot earlier in the day…anyways we went to pick up Victor because he was going to come and help us and we were waiting at his house for him to get home from work and this kid came in the gate. And we were like who is that? And we figured he was just passing through the backyard because people do that all the time, but then he came back to the front. So we asked him who he was and apparently he’s Justino’s nephew. So we’re like sweet and we were just sitting there, so I was like well we should probably just teach him while we’re waiting. Ha so we started singing and then start the lesson and Hna Case was like look at your schedule. And it was right around 5:00 and turns out that kid’s name was Antolin. Ha crazy! We were like apparently the Lord knew we were supposed to see you today! And then he came to church yesterday too! Oh how the Lord blesses us when we’re following our plans. Awesome. And also we saw this cute lil old lady a couple of weeks ago and I kept feeling like I should talk to her, but I didn’t. Fail, I know. But I just kept thinking about her and then somebody told us she was looking for us and wanted to talk to us. So we ended up finding her house a couple days ago and just stopped by and invited her to church and gave her a pamphlet because we had other citas, and then later we walked by again and it was so cute because she was just sitting out on her lil chair reading it. So we’re gonna see her tomorrow! She’s just the cutest little thing and I’m excited to start teaching her! Ok and I don’t have time to write Angela and Alisa back today, but they can wait  But I LOVED the pictures and I’m almost done reading Angela’s blogs! And I like that it’s going to email them straight to me. Perfect. And Alisa asked me about building up the kingdom of God..and I didn’t have very much time to think about it, but I had a couple ideas. I liked the ideas about the envelopes, but maybe you could even have them start thinking about their testimonies and helping them realized that first we need to build up our own ‘kingdoms’ because we are each daughters of a King, entonces we are all princesses of a loving Heavenly Father. As we begin to realize our own individual worth and understand our relationship with God we will have a greater desire to serve others. And then you could have them write a letter to the Lord. Tell them to write Him what they are willing to do for Him and what kinds of things they will give up to serve Him better. Help them realize that our testimonies of Jesus Christ and the gospel should be the foundation of our lives (Hel. 5:12) and that is the foundation that will help build the Kingdom of God. We can build up his kingdom by serving him, by being an example. We will show the Lord that we love Him through our actions. As people begin to see the love they have for the Lord through their example they will want to know Him(the Lord) because they know them. That probably didn’t make any sense, but it made sense in my head. Lol Ahh I gotta go! I love yall so much! Thanks for all the letters this week. Loved them! Have a great week! Pray for me so I can do the things I need to do to serve these people. Love, Hermanita Nelson

Felicidades!‏

Hola familia y amigos! Happy New Year!!! Ok can you believe that I will not step foot in the United States at all in 2010?! LOCO! Ha that's so crazy and I was thinking about that and then I thought man, I`m going to be talking about the year 2010 for the rest of my life! So I`ve been thinking a lot about what I am going to do to become that missionary I want to be and that God wants me to be. And let`s be honest the mission is hard. I don`t know exactly what I was expecting ha but it`s awesome. And I`ve just been thinking, you just gotta love it. You have to love the work, and love the people and love everything y despues you`ll be successful. ¿Verdad? We had some really cool experiences with finding people this week and teaching them and it was just fun. I love feeling the Spirit so strong and feeling God`s love for these people. A veces it`s hard because the people just straight up lie. But here`s what I decided. I know I`m in Paraguay for a reason. I know God called me here because there are people that I can help. I don`t want to have to pull people by the teeth in order to get them to come to church or baptize people when they don`t really understand what it means. To be baptized is a big deal! They are entering a covenant with God. I want to see these people after this life, I want to meet them at the tree. And I think a lot of it has to do with us as missionaries. Are we teaching them everything they need to know? Are they feeling the Spirit during each lesson and building a relationship with their Heavenly Father? I just know that there are people out there waiting and ready to hear and that just really motivates me to work harder and give it all I can. I love my companion. She is a guapa. And we decided that this week we are going to work harder than we ever have and I´m so excited. Ha sometimes it's hard when it's really hot outside and you`ve just eaten a thanksgiving feast for lunch but I know the Lord can bless me with the energy I need when I show him that I really want to serve Him. This work is awesome. Ha we`re gonna figure this out, and then we`re just going to take off. Watch out! The gospel is so true! And man have I told you how much I LOVE companion study? I think it's so awesome that Ty's studying with his friends because it will help so much. Ha and I should probably apologize because I was never really that big of a fan of family scripture study and always whined about it, but now oh man! I love reading the scriptures and just talking about them and hearing different opinions and how so many people can interpret one scripture so differently. It's so cool! So I can encourage yall to make family scripture study more effective, just become excited about the scriptures and just talk about each verse! Ah love it! Ha man it must be hard to be a parent. Because all you're trying to do is raise your kids in the right ways and hope they catch on. Ha and now I finally figured it out! Ha it only took 21 years. But thanks! Thanks for being the parents that raised us in the gospel and did family scripture study and prayer even when we didn't want to. Wow what a difference the LITTLE THINGS make! President Wade talked to us about that...be obedient to the little things and that makes the difference. It's so true. A couple things that we talked about in comp study that I want to share. We talked about the 'word of God' and that the word of God is found in the scriptures. And Hermana Case compared it to instruction manuals...in most everything you buy it comes with instructions or directions on how to use the product to be successful..even pop tart boxes come with directions. Anyways, we talked about how the scriptures are our instructions on how to receive eternal life. The word of God, the word of the prophets. And then I went through the scriptures and found different descriptions on how they described the word of God. I don`t have the list with me, but it was huge and it was so interesting on all the different descriptions. Do that too! And then I found a scripture that I really liked! 3 Nephi 28:20 ha read the whole chapter it's good and funny actually..it says 'they did smite the earth with the WORD OF GOD' and I was like YEAH.. that sounds good. I like that. That's what I want to do. Smite the earth. Ha love it. So don't even worry about me, I'll just be smiting the earth with the word of God. Aver so man who knew that I loved mangos so much. There are mango trees EVERYWHERE. Ha and can I just tell you that I love that I'm in a mission that when you ask people for directions they say 'you just past the fence and go for a while and it's just right by the big mango tree' ha hilarious. Because they only have street signs in the chu chi areas..which I am not in. So I'm all about picking fruit off of trees and eating it..and off the street for that manner. I've had so many mangos and manzanitas (these lil lil apples) and also coconut...different than I thought it would be...there are coconut trees and they're just in these balls and you crack them open with a rock and then you just eat them..it doesn't taste like coconut, it tastes like walnuts. Ok and so apparently tengo un bigote, look that up because it's embarrassing. haha so they put steroids in the food or something I don't even know and yeah wakala. And remind me to tell you all my experiences with bathrooms after the mission because wow...I think it beats camping. I love this mission. How awesome that I'm here. And a couple cool experiences from this week. So Hermana Case met this lady her first day with Hna Tsosie, so like two or 3 months ago and she met her in a jammed pack collectivo and gave her a pamphlet and told her a lil bit about the church and gave her our number. Well they never saw her or anything and then a couple weeks ago she called like out of the blue and said she saw us with her son and that they wanted us to come by. So we set up a time to see them like 3 or 4 different times and it never worked out. And then it just so happened that we had to go to the store and buy something..a store that we never go to..and then we had to wait for a collective in a spot that we never wait at..and then after about 20 min of waiting we decided to go even further to a spot where we have never waited and were randomly standing in the middle of the intersection trying to decide which collectivo to take and then there's this lady that starts talking to us and asks if we're the missionaries..anyways turns out she was Fatima (the lady) ha what the random, right? Such a miracle...and we saw her the other day ha and she's a guapa. She works all the time and hasn't been able to come to church, but the Lord will bless her and she'll be able to come. Wow the Lord really does help us and apparently we were supposed to teach her because the Lord just kept puting her in our path. Ha ok I have no more time! But thanks for all the emails!!! Alena and Ty it is about time! Keep them coming! I love hearing what's going on! And Ty that's so awesome that you went through the temple, I want to hear all about it! And Alena...omg I legitimately almost peed my pants when I read your 'funny story' I was reading it on a collectivo and everyone was looking at me like I was crazy because I was laughing so hard...ha but let's be honest it sounded legit. And Alena thanks for the pictures...yall are all such hotties! And thank you grandma for always writing...your temple experience must have been really special! Let's work on getting everyone in the family there! The gospel is so true! Have a great week! Enjoy the new year!! Love, Hermanita Nelson