June 28, 2010

Hello hello hello!!! Ok first off CAMBIOS (CHANGES). You will NOT even believe what happened!!! So turns out I’m going to complete exactly half of my misión in Luque! This will be my 6th change!! And I am staying with Hna Remache (for our 4th change together- 6 months) and we have another addition to our companionship. We are in a trio with Hna G (Galbraith-my comp from the MTC) INSANE!!! Ha not what I was expecting! I was actually really really sad because I thought for sure I was leaving, and for the Noche de Hogar (family home evening) I just started crying because I didn’t feel like it was time yet. I just kept thinking, no I just need one more change, uno cambio mas! And everyone was like no you’re going to stay, we’ll see you later this week…we just know you are going to stay. But of course I couldn’t believe that because that’s just crazy talk. So the next morning at district meeting they stuck all our name tags in a bag to draw them out and give us our changes. And turns out mine was the very first one picked. That has never happened either! So of course I was like freaking out and didn’t want to know but really did… and so the elder starts asking me questions…so hna Nelson, how many cambios do you have here in Luque? 5. Oh and how many cambios do you have in the misión? 5. Oh wow, so you’ve been in this area your whole misión? Ha yes. And so by now you probably want to leave, right? No, no, I want to stay! I don’t want to leave. Well, that’s lucky because you are going to stay for one more cambio! WHAT?!!! SHUT UP! NO ME DIGA! Yeah I was like in complete shock and so so excited. And then later I found out I was staying with Remache again (holy cow) and Hna G (ha I’m super stoked to learn from her too!) So yeah crazy. I kinda feel like I’m going to leave like half way through this cambio- it’s this weird feeling, I dunno, but I feel so blessed to stay here again! These people are just AMAZING! Ha and all week everyone was like we just knew that you weren’t going to leave yet…we kept saying that it seemed imposible because you’ve already been here for 7 months, but we knew that you were going to stay again. QUE SUERTE! Ok…also, the family. So their mom left to go to Argentina for 5 days (bueno, she left them solo…it’s just the 8 kids that are there and they don’t have anyone watching them) so we’ve stopped by everyday to check on them. They just love us and oh my gosh I am so in love with ALL of them. I just want to take them all home to the states with me. And they just love going to church. They have their baptism fecha (date) this Saturday. I’m so so excited for them. And I just pray that they will continue faithful all their lives. Their mom hasn’t ever gone to church with them but she wants them to be baptized, and we’re going to start working with her specifically when she gets back. Ha so Elder Curtis is back (or I guess he is Tyler now) that’s so awesome. Yeah be excited for the pictures and drill him about Paraguay lol. Oh man, yeah and can you believe I completed HALF of my misión?!!! That just makes me sick. Time has gone by SO FAST! Everything just needs to slow down! But the misión is just great. There are hard times, but I have grown so much and I just keep learning and learning. It’s incredible. I love it. I love yall so much. Thanks for your prayers and support. Really, it means everything to me. Have a great week!

Love,
Hermanita Nelson
**Sweet Tyler Curtis brought us the pictures yesterday. There are a lot...a lot, a lot. I will be going through them and posting them soon. And thank you to Tyler because when he came with the pictures we did indeed drill him about Paraguay and he was so nice to let us and answer all our questions!

June 21, 2010

HOla my wonderful, beautiful family and friends!!! How are yall?!! How is grandpa and Harry and Mary Lou?! I hope you gave them all the love in the world from me! And I hope everyone had a wonderful fathers day ayer! And I hope dad and mom had great birthdays too!!! Man, this week was a good one! So we've still been working with this family and wow my heart just keeps expanding expaNDING and EXPANDING! We went to their house to do a service this week with the help of Divina and Emilio and we spent about 2 1/2 hours washing clothes...ha yeah lets just say I am SO GREATFUL for washers and dryers in the states. Ha funny that I used to hate doing laundry... it's so easy and convenient. Here they hand wash EVERYTHING and it takes days and you use all these buckets of waters and soap and WOW.. it's intense. I got these sweet lil soars on my knuckles from scrubbing the clothes. ANd you know what the sad thing is? We couldn't really get the dirt out of the clothes because it is just STAINED on the clothing and ya know how in the states if our clothes have a lil tiny whole we just automatically throw them out? Yeah it doesn't even fade them here, in fact I don't think they have clothing without wholes. I know this is like a really sad picture I'm painting but it's the truth. And then a couple days later a lady in the ward gave us some clothes to bring to the kids, and it was a sure lot better than what they had but it was really sad because there wasn't anything that would fit the oldest girl, Ruth (15) and I felt so bad. Because bueno, she is like practically the mom of all these kids and does everything and there wasn't anything. So the next day I just brought her like half my clothes and gave each of the older girls skirts they could wear to church. But I just told them, the biggest gift I could ever give you is the message of the gospel. ANd man it just coming back to me over and over, the gospel is the ONLY thing that can change their lives. It is the greatest treasure anyone could ever have. Money doesn't mean anything to me anymore, I know it's not important. WHat's important is LOVE...pure, kind, love. CHARITY! I love that I have this opportunity to be a missionary. It's like I am learning things, really learning and understanding things, that I could ONLY learn being a missionary..ha a missionary in Paraguay. LOVE IT! And then on Saturday, we had this HUGE ward activity and they came too! Alcides works in this balneario (it's like a swim place) and so he hooked the ward up. We didn't swim, we just used all the fields to play soccer and volleyball. It was so fun!!! Ah I just love these people! And holy cow these kids KNOW how to play soccer. THey were just running circles around us, making us look ridiculous. Ha no it was so fun and they did kick our trash..we played boys against girls and we lost everytime. But I did score a goal :) Brother Scott..be proud. And we ate chorizo. Yummy! Oh and also, Belen came to church yesterday! FOr the first time! IT was great! Bueno, her mom is so so stubborn, but I have so much hope for Belen. She's gonna be another missionary. But the problem is she says she doesn't feel anything when she reads the Book of Mormon.. which just blows my mind. So we just testified to her that she just needs to keep reading, keep praying and she WILL receive an answer. That's the beauty of it. I know that if ANYONE reads and prays sincerely about the Book of Mormon, they WILL receive an answer that it's true. THat's just how it works. It's wonderful! ANd also we found this kid named Gustavo a couple weeks ago (yeah, another Gustavo...the name is such bad luck, so we just call him by his full name...Gustavo Gabriel Gonzalez. But he's a stud too. He's 21 and the missionaries visited their family like 10 years ago, so he already had a Book of Mormon and had read it and was really familiar with it. ANd his parents loved their old missionaries so they like us too, and I'm excited for them and their family! But you know what is horrible?!!! We find out changes tonight!!!! And ahhh I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE! lol I know I've had my whole mission here, but this is like my Paraguay home...everything is just going to be SO DIFFERENT if I leave. New comp, new area, new ward, new house (with only me and my comp, whereas I've been living with 4 people since I've gotten here), and new mission president!!! Oh man! ANd I'm just gonna cry! We're going to do a noche de hogar (family home evening) tonight with some of my favorite people, but right now the weather is horrible (rainy and cold) so I don't know if they'll come... but hopefully! So yeah next week yall will all know what happens. Pray for me!!! Ahhh and what in the world happened to Ty and his teeth?!!! Poor guy...stick with football. lol love ya bud. ANd ANgela and Alisa where are your blog posts?!!! I know yall have a lot of stuff to blog about and I'm waiting to see all the pictures!!! Ahh and Emily every MOnday we jam out to WICKED and I always think of you! Trunky. Chiste. Ok bueno, I hope yall have a great week! Yall are always in my prayers!!! Oh and mom that is so crazy about your keys! I can't believe they were in your purse! That is a straight up miracle! THanks for sharing the experience! ANd thanks dad..or should I say ALena for the email lol! ANd wow you don't even know how chu chi panda express sounds to me! ALthough, we did go to Pizza Hut today. It was my first time going here in Paraguay... let's just say everything is better in the states lol but I did eat like 6 pieces of pizza, so I'm a happy camper. Or should I say happy tadpole :) Love yall!

Love,

Hermanita Nelson

June 14, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!! (On Wednesday) and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM (Sunday) and HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!! (To all the dads)! And give Gpa Bill a HUGE HUG when you see him for me and tell him I love him and I hope he is still reading my emails. And whoever else you see from over there, tell them I love them! Oh man and I can’t believe dad is turning 50!!!! FIFTY!!! Holy cow!!! But don’t worry because everyone here in Paraguay things you look like your 35; lol seriously they all see your Picture and they’re like JOVENCITO!!! So you’re doing good!! And it sounded like everything was so fun in Logan with all the girls and the kids! I hope yall took lots of cute pictures so I can see them! And speaking of kids… I am still waiting for some kind of announcement from one of my sisters that they are pregnant! Get on that por favor. Ok so this week we had our last interviews with Pres. Wade! Que triste. Ha and mine was interrupted from a call coming from SALT Lake City UTA lol… one of the elders dad in my zone was calling to talk to pres. wade because apparently his son got robbed at gun point so the dad was freaking out, ha and it was really funny because pres wade was totally tranquilo (chill) and was like yeah that happens all the time. I’m sure in the status it might sem. Like a big deal, but here we just come to expect it. And then alter he hung up…he was like so Hna Nelson have you been robbed yet? YET?! Lol real nice. No not yet. Ha welcome to Paraguay. Don’t worry, I am completely fine and have only felt endangered maybe one time and that wasn’t even a big deal. Ha just continue to keep me in your prayers J Oh and today we got to watch the olymics because Paraguay played against Italia! We were so excited, because we never get permission for things like that, but Paraguay ended up tying…lame. 1 to 1. But it was still fun and kinda made me miss american football. Ok and I have to tell you about this family real quick. We found this one lady named Maria a long time ago (like it’s been 2 months) and we contacted her one day and we’ve gone back probably like 4 times, but she is never there, but her kids are always there (there are 8 of them). Anyways, so we went there on Friday and she was there, so we shared with her and a couple of her kids and it was fine, and we invited them to church but she said she couldn’t go because she had to work, but that her kids could go. So we went by the next day to verificar, but she wasn’t there and the oldest daughter (15 years old) had left too and so it was us with all the rest of the kids (the oldest of them I think has 12 years) and their house is just a disaster…bueno I don’t know about the inside but the outside is just a disaster. There are just these huge piles of dirty, moldy clothes everywhere and random dirty dishes in every corner and the kids are just dirty. LIke honestly, painted with dirt…and I’m sure they go dayS without bathing, because their mom doesn’t do it, so it’s just left up to the kids if they want to bathe themselves or not. ANyways we decided to do a lil servicio and help them out a lil bit and spent a good while washing, SCRUBBING all their dishes because they were just covered in left over food and then we decided we should help bathe the kids to get them ready to go to church the next day. And let me just explain this to you…you know like buckets we use to wash the car or something? That’s what they use to bathe. They fill the bucket with water (cold of course, because there is no hot water) undress the kid, wet them down, put some shampoo and conditioner in their hair, wash it out, wash their bodies with a scrub (ok no, they don’t use scrubs, it’s usually like another piece of clothing and wash them). Can you believe this is real life? So Hna Remache spent a good time washing these kids down, scrubbing all the dirt of their bodies. And then they didn’t have any clothes to put them in, so they just put them back into their dirty clothes that they’ve been using for like the past 3 days. It is so so sad. I almost just started to cry just thinking about their lives and how sad it is that they actually live like that and they just don’t know any different. But the next day we went by to take them to church and all the kids went with us menos one of the lil boys because he went to a friends house to watch the game. And they are actually all really well behaved and are just the cutest things in the World and most of them really liked church. And turns out Hna Rojas (we eat at the familia Rojas house every Sunday for lunch and they are just the coolest, humblest, most loving family in all of Paraguay) is the school teacher of a lot of the kids and so she was so excited they were there and was just welcoming them and loving them. And then she invited all 7 of the lil kids over to eat with us. And we ate chicken and potato salad and I almost just cried otra vez because I’m sure that is the biggest meal they’ve had in a really long time and just thinking of the generosity of Hna Rojas. Wow. I want to be someone like that. Her love just radiates along with everyone else in their family. Ah and just to think that the gospel is the ONLY way to have a better life for them. That is the key to a better life. Ahh I love the gospel and how really it has the power to change people’s lives for the better and to bring happiness and to really understand the love of the Savior. Incredible. I love yall so much! THanks for the emails!!! Have a great week!!!



Love,



Hermanita Nelson

June 7, 2010

Ok so first off!!!! Grandma, I finally got your package!!!!!! And I was SO SO EXCITED! It was perfect. Seriously. Thanks so so much!!! It's already almost gone lol. And ok ready for a funny story. Bueno, so as a missionary in Paraguay you have to have the 5 things to be successful. Well i've got 2 down. One of them is...you have to biff it really hard and another is have lice. Yeah I'm pretty sure I have lice, but that is completely normal here. People will just sit out in their front yards and pick lice out of each others hair..you think I'm joking. I'm not. And then the other day.. bueno they have a lot of like barb wired fences that you have to like crawl through to get to the other side. So we were leaving our lunch cita the other day and we were going throught the backyard through the fence thing. So I'm like bending over to adjust everything (my bag, my skirt, my jacket) and I'm like half way through the other side and I'm starting to stand up but somehow my skirt got stuck on the wire and I completely fell over and flashed everyone around me. AWESOME. And then a couple days later we were in a part of our area that we've never really been before and we were trying to find our way back to the routa and my comp handed me the phone to talk to someone, so I was just following her and talking on the phone. And up comes another barbed wire fence but there was like a door in this one, and so my comp had just passed through the puerta and I'm following her, but then all of a sudden my forehead runs right into the top of the barbed wire fence and I like shoot backward. Ah it hurt so bad!!! Oh and it was the night of the baptism..and so I had this huge red mark right in the middle of my forehead which later turned into a nice blue/green bruise. Real cute. Haha gotta love it. Lol not a big fan of these barbed wire fences. Oh and today I made boiled cookies (no bake cookies) and they turned out soo good! Maybe it's just cause I've been in Paraguay to long, but I thought they were really good! Thanks for the recipe Alena. And then this week has been pretty interesting; we've had a couple different experiences with pastors from different religions. So remember last Sunday night when we were at Belens house and as we started to teach her, her pastor shows up. And how at the end of the lesson he just asked us how much it cost for a Book of Mormon! So we gave him the book and invited him to read and pray about it. That's pastor number 1. Later this week we were contacting and we met this man who told us he was a saint and that he was already saved. And we're like perfect, can we come in and talk about the palabra de Dios and he's like yeah yeah, do you have your Bibles? Oops..no. So instead of course we brought out the Book of Mormon and this guy just went absurd on us and telling us how we couldn't have that kind of book in his house and just went off about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and all this “false doctrine” that we are teaching and told us we should go home and burn our books and then to go around and tell all the people what we had been teaching them was false. This makes me cringe just writing this. But it was unbelievable how strong the Spirit was in me, just burning inside me, testifying how true the gospel really is. And after listening to this guy ramble off for like 30 min on us about how wrong and childish and innocent we are, my testimony was being strengthened! And I just felt so much sorrow and pain for this man who is just so confused! And just hoping that he could open his heart just a little to receive this beautiful and pure message of the gospel. And as we tried to testify (between him and his other pastor friend interrupting us) I just knew once again how true this gospel is! So that's pastor 2 and 3. And then last night we went over to Belen's house otra vez and otra vez her pastor came. I don't know if we need to go at a different time or if we were there at that time for a reason lol. But this time he was different. We started to read from the BOM again and he tried to prove us wrong with quoting scriptures from the Bible, etc. And ahhh I am just PRAYING that something that we said will ring to them. Especially for Belen and her mom, they are looking for the truth! They want to find it and now they have the confusion from their pastor. But once again we bore simple and powerful testimony of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how they could know for themselves too. Isn't that just amazing? Wow the power of prayer. God is the same. He loves us. He will answer the prayer of those who are sincere and are truly seeking for an answer and are commited to follow the answer they receive. And he's the only person with the whole truth. He is the fountain of all righteousness. James 1:5. Ask God if you have a fault of sabiduría (ok I can't think of it in english). But wow please pray for them. And wow I just feel SO BLESSED to be raised in a family with the gospel. Amazing! Love it. And we have our last interviews with Pres. Wade tomorrow! How sad!!! Oh and the zone conference was amazing as always and sad because it was their last one. And we only have 2 more weeks of this cambio! Crazy! Ha I still don't want to leave this area. Ok bueno, I love yall! Thanks for all the letters, keep them coming! Oh and Alisa's dog is so cute!!! And mom and Alena give Tyler and Kylee lots of kisses when yall go see them...and Bobby and Angela tambien. Mom I'll be thinking about the birthday package and let you know. Love yall so much! Ah and send Ty my love! He's such a stud. Have fun!!!

Love,

Hermanita Nelson

Another great week in Paraguay!

Hey Hey!!! Ok another great week in Paraguay! Gotta love it. So sorry I’m writing so late! We went to Arregua again today for a zone activity! It was a lot of fun! We played some serious soccer and now I am so sore! But I scored 2 goals…that’s right…so it’s all good. Ah and tomorrow we have zone conference which I’m really excited about, but I’m really sad because it’s the last one we’ll be having with President and Hermana Wade… but I’m secretly hoping we get the whole mission together and have a huge conference antes they leave!!! Ah and yesterday Emilio got his patriarchal blessing along with Manu and Rafa. Ahh I was so so excited for him. How cool is that?!! And on Saturday we had a baptism!!! We’ve been working with this girl named Leticia who’s 22 (lol but tells everyone she’s 19…ha she is hilarious) for like the last 3+ months…antes Alcides. But she was always really nervous to commit to baptism because she felt like she didn’t know enough and couldn’t go to church every Sunday because she has to work. Her parents are menos activos (inactive) and we went to her house with Hna Case but never met Leticia and her mom, Rufina wasn’t always all that excited to let us come in and usually said “otro dia” but then after awhile she started letting us in..and we just kinda clicked. Ha she is so funny! She has the best facial expressions (which I love of course) and it’s just really fun to joke with her and she actually ended up going to church with Hna Case and I once or twice and before that she hadn’t been for over 7 months and probably more than that. Anyways one day Hna Remache and I went over to visit her on a Sunday night and her daughter, Leticia, was outside cleaning and she talked to us first and was like hey can I come to church with yall….UH YES YOU CAN…and ever since that we have been teaching her. Lol Leticia is hilarious too, I’ve never met anyone like her in my life; she kills me. We had to teach everything really simply with her for her to understand and feel confident in her knowledge of the principles of the gospel, and then all of a sudden she decided she was ready to be baptized and was just so excited about it and of course so were we! And it’s always funny because in church she’s always participating and she just loves it. And I’m really excited because Rufina has been coming back to church with her and I told RUfina the other day that I wanted to see her with her whole family at church before I leave…I gave her 3 weeks. So that’s our goal. It’s exciting! Ah and that other girl we were teaching, Belen… we went over there and she wasn’t home!! But we went again on Sunday and she was sleeping but her mom was there so we decided to teach her. Her mom is legit. I’m actually really excited for this family! They are so looking for the gospel, even if they might not know it yet. But it’s just awesome because their family is united and happy and complete lol…and there aren’t many of those in Paraguay. Falta the gospel no mas. Ok so we started teaching about the Plan of Salvation and our proposito (purpose) in life and it was all going really great until this man pulls up on a moto…and she tells us it’s her pastor from her other religion that always comes over to read the Bible with her. Lovely. Ha so he comes up and we just continue teaching lol. It was actually really awesome for me. I felt the Spirit so strong and like everyone was listening and attentive (which is not normal either…there’s usually distractions or if it’s a pastor, he is usually bashing us with questions and trying to argue about why our religion is wrong or cualquier cosa) and I just started to testify…testify about the restored gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ upon the earth today, and how we have a Prophet, Thomas S. Monson who guides us through revelation, and we have 12 apostles and the same organization of the church as when Jesus Christ came and organized it, and how we have the priesthood authority of God on the earth today…God is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. He loves us and has blessed us with his gospel so that we can return to live with Him and with our families para siempre (forever). And how we have the Book of Mormon to help us find the correct path back to God, our Heavenly Father. Wow the Spirit was just there. And after we both got done testifying we asked if they had questions and the pastor said he just had one… Yikes!! And then he asked how much we were selling the Book of Mormon for. Wow. It’s free, handed it over and invited them both to pray to God about the things we had taught them and about the Book of Mormon and they both said they would. Ha crazy. Gotta love it. Ah I just love this gospel!!! Are yall doing the little things? All the primary answers… reading your scriptures daily, praying, going to all your church meetings, etc. I love the mission because it has opened my eyes! Ha I finally really understand why we’ve been taught that over and over our whole lives. That’s the key! If we’re not doing the lil things we’re not progressing…we’re allowing ourselves to fall. And how would we like to fall short of the kingdom of God because we failed to do the lil things. Yikes. Keep yourselves close to God and on high ground. Stand in holy places. Yall are always in my prayers. Love yall! Have a great week!!!

Love,

Hermanita Nelson