Summer Time!!!!

Hi family!!!!

I can`t believe school is out and summer time is there!! haha What a
great way to start out summer by working!! Work is great! Thank you
Mom and Dad for teaching me how to work! After the work is done, the
play is so much better! So this week was not as great as last week but
it was still good! haha Of all of the families we were blessed to
find, only one is progressing.. Sidenote- sorry I didn`t have much
time to give a lot of detail last week. But anyway the Barrera family
came to church Sunday!!! I was so so happy!! And they came on their
own!! We went to pick up Rosario so we couldn`t go get them. Fun, okay
not so fun story about Rosario. We went to pick her up and she said
she had to go to her sisters house so her nephew who she was bringing
to church could change. So we said okay we can go by their house! So
we got to the bus stop above their house and she said you guys go
ahead because my sister doesn`t like religion and all that. So we said
no we will wait here for you to get back! So we waited and waited for
about a half an hour and during the wait my compaion started talking
to a lady sitting next to her who said she was waiting for a friend to
take her to church! So we waited and when Rosario got back she said
sorry but I can`t go with you because I have to take my friend to
church! She has a disability and can`t walk! So she got on the bus
with her and left us stunned! We couldn`t say or do anything because
we were shocked! It made me so sad! I wanted to cry! She has so much
potential but she hasn`t come to church!! That is the most frustrating
thing here. No one comes to church! So I don`t know what is going to
happen with her. maybe it`s not her time right now, I don`t know. But
we are going to keep working and finding!! But the Barrera family is
so great! The husband Juan still has a lot of doubts but with time and
hard work we will get him there!! So keep them in your prayers
please!! So this week we had the conference that was supposed to be
with Elder Scott but got changed to Elder Gonzalez.. It was good but
not what we were expecting. Everyone was dissapointed Elder Scott
couldn`t come. Of course they are all men called of God and what they
all say comes from Him but still.. a little dissapointing. And it was
supposed to be 4 hours, instead it was two hours. The first hour was
us answering questions they asked us and the second was them answering
questions we asked. I learned a lot though. And it was fun to be with
everyone! The whole mission was together! 200 missionaries looks
smaller than I thought it would! haha So my companion only has one
week left! Next Monday she will be gone! I can`t believe the time is
over already! I`m so sad for her to go! We have been through so much
together and now it`s over and I have to start again with a new
companion! But that`s okay I always end up loving them all! Everyone
is telling me I am going to be training! I guess there are 3 new
Americans coming! I don`t know why everone thinks I will be training
when there are tons more here with more time and there are 5 Americans
who came with me who could just as likely train! Not that I am nervous
about that or anything! haha But whatever happens happens and it will
be the Lord`s will! Well family I love you all! Thank you for
everything!! I love being a missionary!!! Have a great week!! xoxoxXo
Love forever and always,
Hermana Nelson

P.S. If you didn`t hear, Kori had her baby!!!!! WOO HOO!!! Take care
of her for me!! Love you!

All Is Well!!!!

Hi family!! I hope you are all doing well! It sounds like life is
staying crazy! haha Things are going well! We are working hard,
contacting everyone and visiting the members to give us references!
There was basically nothing when we got here so we are starting from
ground zero! Woo!! But there is no where to go but up! Literally! This
area is pure hills and they are kicking my bum! haha My calves are
going to be crazy in shape!
So this week we found Rosario Guerra and her 9 year old son Alexander!
They came to the adult session of stake conference on Saturday and she
absolutely loved it! She was taking notes, asking questions, and
almost cried while the choir was singing! Poor Alexander was bored out
of his mind and slept the whole time! haha But I have high hopes for
her! Although we couldn`t find her on Sunday.. But we are calling her
tonight to set and appoinment so we can set a baptism date; hopefully
she accepts this time! So keep her in your prayers please!!
We are also teaching David, a son of a recent convert. He is 17 and
kind of in that reble stage but he listens and pays attention and he
accepted a date for May 28th. He didn`t come to church though and his
mom is going to be out of town June 4th so he won`t be able to be
baptized until the 11th. So keep him in your prayers also!
We found out at district meeting that President is sending this group
home 3 weeks early because they have to be out of their house the
middle of June so he wants to have the last dinner- that sounds weird
in english- before then. So basically we have 3 weeks left together.
So please pray for us to get a little program going before she leaves!
It is so not fun coming to a new area that you don`t know and not
having anyone to visit. I don`t want my new companion to have to do
that! It is a blessing that this area in neatly oraganized into blocks
so it`s not that hard to get to know; because I only have 3 weeks to
get to know this area before I get a new companion! I am trying hard
not to stress about that! haha
This next week is going to be so great! Tomorrow we have another
conference with just the sisters and Wednesday we have zone
conference! And the rest of the week we are going to find, find, find,
and we are going to be blessed with 4 new families because it is our
goal as a zone to always have 4 families in our program! We have the
Guerra Family so now we have to find the other 3 who are waiting for
us! And I know the Lord will help us find them because he wants
families to be together forever so why wouldn`t he help us find them?
So if you could also pray for these families we haven`t found yet..
Thank you so much for all of your love and support! I love you all and
I am so grateful for this time I have to be a missionary! I am amazed
at how fast time is flying by and I don`t want to miss a minute of it!
We were talking this week of how this is the only time we have to make
our own stories. No one else is here to experience this with us. We
are living this alone with just us and the Lord and it is such a
wonderful blessing! It kind of feels like a dream because there is no
one else here to live this with me and for everyone else it will only
be a story! But what a great story it will be! I love you all and I am
so grateful for the gospel in my life! Have a great week! xoxoxXo
Love forever and always,
Hermana Nelson

May Day!!

Hi family!!! Can you believe that it is May already?? I can`t! It`s
crazy how time flys!! This week has been good! We have had so many
blessings this week! First- Jonathan and Lady are a couple we were
teaching a few weeks back but they weren`t very interested but we ran
into them last weekend and they said they wanted us to come and visit
them! So we went and they are super excited and want to learn more!
They have a little boy and they just found out they have another one
on the way and they want to start coming to church! They are from
Colombia and have the most awesome accent ever! I love it! haha And
the miracle is that they are married!! They only couple we are
teaching that is married! Woo! It`s a huge process to get people
divorced and married to the person they are living with so we are so
blessed with them! And being from Colombia it`s next to impossible to
get married here. So please pray for them! Next- a girl in our ward
brought her friend Sasha to church with her and afterwards we went to
teach her and holy cow she is so amazing! Her heart is so prepared for
the Gospel! She is 17 and lives alone but she is just so happy and so
excited to learn!! I`m so excited for her!! Next- I had such a great
little personal revelation in one of our lessons. We were talking
about faith and we read Alma 32:27. I had been memorizing that
scripture earlier in the day but it didn`t hit me until in this lesson
that I had experimented with this scrìpture and I know it`s true! I`m
not exactly sure how it is worded in English.. something like and
exercise a partical of faith, no more than a desire to believe let
that desire work within you. Anyway the past few weeks have been a
rollercoaster dealing with stress and anxiety and butterfly feeling in
my stomach that I do not like at all and made it so so hard to focus
and concetrate. But I would pray everyday for the Lord to give me the
peace and comfort I needed and even though I felt like it would never
end I just trusted in the Lord, that I had something to learn from
this and little by little he healed me. So slowly that I didn`t even
notice it until I woke up one day and realized I was excited for the
day and I didn`t feel nervous at all! And I was so grateful in that
moment to realize the love the Lord has for me and that prayers are
heard. I don`t know if that makes any sense to you but it was such a
great eye opener. Yesterday though started out not so great. Saturday
we went to visit Manuel and Maria because we are teaching his 4
cousins who are also so open to the gospel and are such a blessing to
us! They have a date for the 28th of May but their parents want them
to wait longer so pray for them too! Anyway we went to their house and
Manuel wasn`t home yet so Maria called him and then she passed the
phone to my companion and he said he was still in Quito so he wouldn`t
be home for the lesson. So she hung up and we started talking and all
of a sudden Maria started crying and said Manuel is drinking! So my
companion called him back and asked if he was drinking and he said he
was and she told him to leave now and come home! We couldn`t wait for
him to come home so we told Maria we would come by to pick everyone up
for church. Anyway Sunday morning we were walking to their house and
we found Manuel totally wasted in the street with Maria, his cousin
and his little boy standing around him. He didn`t go home the night
before and he wouldn`t go home with them. So we picked him up and
helped him home, left him in bed and took everyone else to church. It
was the saddest moment ever in my mission. Maria was crying and
crying, one of his cousins didn`t want to go to church and it was jsut
so sad. But the bishop went to see him after church and we went to
visit him last night and he feels so bad and so repentant- if that is
a word- but he doesn`t want to withdraw himself from the church so
that is so so great! So everything turned out good but it was so
heartbreaking to see him like that and to see how sad his family was.
But we have the Atonement that can heal all! Thank you for
everything!! I love you all!!! xoxoxXo
Love forever and always,
Hermana Nelson