July 26, 2010

The gospel is just EVERYTHING. its so true. and it brings such HAPPINESS when we live it. i was listening to a talk the other day and it was talking about the plan of salvation and talking about his favorite phrase to describe the plan of salvation is the plan of HAPPINESS and how it is the only way we can have TRUE happiness. When we dont know of the plan of salvation we cant have the complete happiness.its so true. and tambien he compared it to a 3 act play. How bueno, the first act we are in the preternal life with God and our families and everyone but then the CURTAIN HAS BEEN DRAWN and we forget everything. It was a brilliant act but then all of a sudden we have been thrust into act 2! And act 2 is a lil more difficult, it can be described with the 4 Ts. Tests, Trials, Temptations, and Tragedy and not once in act 2 will we hear the HAPPILY EVER AFTER...thats always saved for the last act. Entonces how are we going to make it throught act 2 when it is full of HARD things? How are we ever going to find happiness, comfort, and joy that is LASTING? Thats when the plan of salvation comes into play. It takes the blinders off...it allows us to see the eternal perspective. It allows us to see the whole plan. We cant have true happiness without the plan of happiness. But when we know of Gods plan during this life we understand that God is in control.That the Happily Ever After is just right around the corner and if we just cumplir con los mandamientios de Dios and do the little things...things that we have been told to do our WHOLE lives (that now on the mission I have FINALLY understood why its so important to repeat things things and to drill them in our heads...because they WORK) read your scriptures...STUDY your scriptures, say your prayers DAILY...rely on the Lord, depend on Him, trust in Him, go to CHURCH ...for all 3 meetings...PARTICIPATE, listen to the prophet...FOLLOW the prophet...OBEY the prophet. The happily ever after is possible! I know it is. I feel it so strongly in my heart right now. We just have to keep pushing along. poco a poco. The light will come. One of the most special and sacred things I have learned on my mission..not just like learned but really learned and now I understand is the importance of the gospel...of living the gospel. Its not just another religion or a nice way to live, but it is the REASON WE LIVE. It is the point of this life. It is the only way that we can make it back to our Heavenly Father. Its hard ha I know that too, but man it is going to be so worth it! And thats why we have eachother too. We are just one huge big family and if we know the truth we have to spread it! We gotta share it! We have to help everyone get back! Bueno, I love yall so much and I am so thankful for your prayers and love...seriously its the best thing yall can do. And the best thing I can do for yall. Yall are always in my prayers and my thoughts. Thanks for being such a great support. Make it a great week. Find someone and share the gospel and then tell me how it went!

Love,

Hermanita Nelson

P.S. So I have had a special change...I think it is just for a couple days or ha I hope and pray it is just for a couple days because I want to go back and finish my change in my area! but turns out one of the hermanas is sick and she has stayed in our house for the last 3 days and we have each rotated and stayed home in the house with her. Rem friday, yo sat, and G sunday. but she is still sick and her comp..hna welch goes home from the mission this next week and obviously she wants to work so she had been with a member working for the past 3 days and now i am going to go work with her until the sick hna gets better. ha she better get better fast lol...pray for her. ha i have so many good stories that i have to tell you about awesome hna drama...but we will save all that for after the mish!

ahhh i almost forgot to tell yall!!!! Ruth, Jessica, Leticia, and Emilio all went to the temple on Saturday!!!! Ahhh I was so excited for them and they all had such great experiences! The temple is the best! haha oh and dad I just have to tell you... yesterday we were at a members house and they were watching church movies from like the old testament and it reminded me how you would ALWAYS bring home videos from the library and want to watch them with us and ha how I never had the deseos to before, but man I am so greatful for you! For your love, your testimony, your worthiness to hold the priesthood and your support. Incredible. I will definitely watch good ole church movies with you after the mish.

mas fotos!

July 19, 2010

Have fun with this letter all! *google translate will help

Ustedes querían una carta en español ¿verdad? SUERTE!!!! JAJAJA JEJEJEJE


ENTRAÑABLES MISERICORDIAS

He visto la mano de Dios en mi vida muchísimo, esta semana, especialmente ayer (domingo). Recuerdos pequeños que Èl me ama y que Èl es en todo aspecto de la vida. El sabado, empezamos un ayuno con el propósito especifico tener asistencia de 8 en la iglesia y también por algunos investigadores y sus necesidades. Y el viernes tuvimos una gran lista de personas que pudieron ir a la capilla el domingo y el sábado pasamos por todos de nuestros investigadores. Trabajamos a full el sábado en el frio y en la lluvia con mucho animo con los deseos a comprometer las personas a asistir la iglesia. En el fin del día, terminamos nuestro ayuno muy contentos con la esperanza que Dios nos bendeciría por nuestra fe y obras. Levantamos muy temprano el domingo para pasar por la gente. El tiempo fue re mal! Hacía mucho frio y estaba lloviendo íte! Pero igual fuimos y nos mojamos para cumplir con nuestro parte. Pero, las personas no estaban o no estaban listos a ir o no pudieron por la lluvia y frio y yo entré en el colectivo un poco desanimada. Luego, entramos la capilla y había poco gente adentro. Vista que los paraguayos tienen miedo de la lluvia y no quieren salir sus casas. En total había 31 personas por las reuniones- muy poquito! Y ningún de nuestros investigadores estaban. Empecé a preguntar mi mismo- ¿Qué pasó? ¿Nuestra fe no es suficiente? ¿Por qué Dios no contesta nuestra oración?- Pero, realmente yo sé no es así. Y no podemos hacer preguntas así porque no es justo. Y bueno, empezamos tomar la Santa Cena y pensé de Jesucristo, de su amor, su sacrificio, TODO! Y yo miré a las personas a mi lado- los niños- Ruth, Jessica, Evelyn, Erico, y Rosie- conversos recientes que esperaron en el frio, en la lluvia (sin paraguas!) por el colectivo y cuando se dieron cuenta que el colectivo de la iglesia que es gratis había pasado, no se fueron a sus casas, sino que pagaron pasaje y se fueron en otro colectivo. ¡Qué ejemplo! ¡Qué fe! ENTRAÑABLES MISERICORDIAS. Y después, Leticia, otro converso reciente recibió su recomendación para entrar en el templo este sábado (y también Ruth y Jessica). Y justamente las dos veces pasadas cuando le visitamos a Leticia hablamos del templo y leímos en el libro- principios del evangelio- acerca del templo y ella tenía muchos deseos por entrar y este sábado va a entrar. ENTRAÑABLES MISERICORDIAS. Y Ruth está trabajando a full para cumplir con su progreso personal; chulina!!! Y ayer, después la iglesia, Emilio (otro converso) nos acompañó todo el día en el frio y en la lluvia y wow! Su testimonio es muy fuerte! Fue muy chulina escucharle testificar a las personas sobre el Libro de Mormón y el evangelio restaurado. ENTRAÑABLES MISERICORDIAS. Ahhh y…Alcides (mi otro converso) nos llamó ayer!! Él está en Brasil trabajando y hace 3 semanas que no escuchamos de él y yo estaba un poco preocupada. ¡Pero, él nos dijo que el domingo de testimonios él compartió su testimonio en portugués!! Y que él está en el grupo- manos que ayudan y que siempre esta compartiendo el evangelio con todos! Y también que está preparando por su misión! ENTRAÑABLES MISERICORDIAS.¡En cada uno de estas situaciones casi lloré! En serio. ¡Dios está en todas las cosas! ¡Su mano y su amor está en TODO! ¡Increíble! Y a veces no entendemos el por qué. Pero, no necesitamos entender. Solamente, necesitamos confiar en Dios. Él sabe lo que está haciendo. Y Él ve todo (the big picture). Realmente esta experiencia me ayudó muchísimo. Dios nos ama. ! Jesucristo vive! El evangelio restaurado es una gran evidencia del amor de Dios. Love it! LES AMO!!!! Que tengan una buena semana! Jejeje

Con mucho amor,

Hermanita Nelson

July 12, 2010

Hello!!!!!!!! Ok i don’t have any time!!! But first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!!!! And that’s about all the time i have! Sorry! This week was a great week! We had our zone conference and it went really well! Our new president is really good! But we found out we’ll Only be having conferences and interviews every 3 months which is kinda sad because before it was every month and a half. We also had a really good conversation with a CRAZY LADY! Haha it was so funny. She was telling us all about these diablitos (lil devils) that are everywhere. She explained exactly what they Looked like and everything. And then she told us she’s been to heaven like 3 times and also to hell just to see what it Looked like. I wish i had more time to give you more details, but times up! The kids are still as cute as ever! Pray for their mom so that we can teach her and she can also accept the wonderful message of the gospel! Love yall all so much! Thanks so much for the letters! Have a great week!!!

Love,
Hermanita Nelson

July 5, 2010

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!! Ha so I’m glad to hear that nobody blew off any fireworks that ended up causing a huge fire and burning down a bunch of bushes and almost a house. Ha love you Bobby. So we celebrated 4th of july a day early (on Saturday) and we all wore red, white, and blue and sang a couple patriotic songs of our beloved country… ok really we just wore red, white, and blue to have Paraguay Spirit because those are their colors too and they played against spain and unfortunately lost L but it was fun to get all decked out with lil paraguayo flags on our faces. Ok so this was just a FABULOUS WEEK! We did have the baptism on Saturday night and it was so perfect.. but I’ll tell you about that in a sec. First, haha I didn’t really I sent home so many pictures of dead animals, but turns out there’s a lot of dead animals lying in the streets of Paraguay. Ha and yall should be looking forward to a fabulous video that I took or someone killing a chicken! Bahaha it was so funny! It’s this menos activo (less active member) named Rufina who we’re really close too and who I’ve been begging to kill a chicken for like the last 2 cambios and finally she decided she wanted to show us. Ha it was hilarious… and next time, I’m going to do it J hehe it’s really crazy because killing chickens or pigs or w/e is just so normal for them. When they want to eat and don’t have anything, what do they do? They go out into their yard, sharpen the knife, grab a chicken by its neck and kill it! Ha that’s the truth. And then we helped pluck off all the feathers and cut the chicken apart and take out the insides. WAKALA (GROSS!). I never realized how much of the chicken they eat…eww! But unfortunately we didn’t get to eat it because there wasn’t enough time! But that was fun. Oh man!!! And also I got the package from the Wariners!!! AMAZING! Ha I was so excited! Fabulous! Oh and I don’t think I told you, but now that we’re in a trio (Yo, Remache y G) we are working in BOTH areas. You just have to understand that the area I had before was HUGE and turns out that their area is HUGE tambien, and now it’s combined. Crazy!!! So we are doing a lot of walking! Ahh and also last week in church we had 14 people in church! And if yall could please be excited about that, because the elders in our zone our lame and did not show very much enthusiasm, but that’s kinda a big deal especially when normally we’re excited if we have like 5 people in church. It was a straight up miracle, but it was AWESOME! Ok now- the BAPTISM. Ahhh I don’t know if I’ve told yall how much I LOVE these kids! They are just the best ever. And the little one (Ariel- I know in English that’s a name of a girl but in Spanish it’s of a boy) he’s like 3 and he LOVES ME. Ah and I love him too, he’s the cutest thing. Whenever we go there or he sees me, he just runs up to me and hugs me! And gives me besos (kisses)- because here everyone gives besos on the cheeks to greet eachother…haha so if I ever try to give yall besos in the states, please try to understand lol. Ha that was really weird for me when I got here, but I’m gonna miss it when I come back. Anyways… so he always is with me (everyone calls him my lil hijo-son) and everytime he sits on my lap he always takes his arms and wraps them around my necks and just hugs me really tight. It is the cutest thing! I’m such a sucker for lil kids. Ahh and I could just go on and on talking about these kids and how amazing they are but we’ll have to save that for after the mission! Ok so President Madariaga and his wife ended up coming to our baptism (he got here on Thursday I think and we found out the night before that he wanted to come to our baptism. YIKES. A lil nerve racking) but everything turned out so fabulous. Our new pres is really nice, ha it’s weird because he’s not pres wade and she’s not sis wade but it’s all good. I know I’ll love them just as much too! And there ended up being a good number of people there for the baptism and all the tortas (cakes) and cookies turned out good too! It was such a great night and then yesterday they received the holy ghost! Oh how I love this gospel!
Seriously, my mission and life changed the day I met them. I have truly come to understand the beauty of the message of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the most important thing in the world and has the power to change lives for the better. It has been such a privilege to see how the gospel has transformed this family and how wonderful it is that their lives will just continue to change and become better; that this is just the beginning for them! As we visited them in their humble home and situation I was always so close to tears. Every time I was just overwhelmed with the love Heavenly Father has for them, His precious children. And cada vez my testimony would grow stronger about how the gospel is one of the greatest gifts of God. Happiness is not found in the riches of the world, but in the tender mercies of the Lord that He offers us everyday. And witnessing their baptism, seeing them all in white, little angels, was such a sweet and special experience for me. I know that the Lord loves us. That He knows who we each are individually. He is so aware of our needs and concerns and I feel so blessed to have been able to be a tool in his hand, to be an angel for this family, to bring them the truth and the happiness of the gospel. I love it!!! Hope yall have a great week!
Love,
Hermanita Nelson
**be sure to check out the photos in the post below!

Pictures!!!!

Here are some of the pictures Hermana Nelson sent back with Tyler Curtis. I will post a few more every week.