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