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